Site: romlove From: Cirolybaby Date: Aug 5, 2015 Hello, I am well pleased to contact you after viewing your profile i am interested in having communication with you as a genuine friend,please dear write me back using my e-mail address (desta3babe@hotmail.com) so that i will tell you more about me i am waiting to hear from you soon. yours new friend Miss Desta. (desta3babe@hotmail.com) From: Desta Gondar Date: Sat, 21 Nov 2015 20:55:32 +0000 Subject: WITH LOVE AND TRUST Good day my dearest one, Thank you so much for your mail and for the hand of friendship, i appreciate that you brought out your precious time to write even if you have not seen me, i believe that this friendship will be built on trust and love, I will really like to have a good friendship with you after reading your profile and i have a special reason why i decided to contact you, I decided to contact you because of the urgency of my situation here after reading your profile. My name is Miss. Desta Gondar Aaarabisk, I am single Age 24 ft 5/6 wt 59, an Ex Communication Student, I am a single girl never been married before, my father of blessed memory by name Late Dr. Gondar Aaarabisk who was the Group Executive Director of Finance with CNPC oil company at the Khartoum refinery in Sudan, He was assassinated along side with my beloved mother and my only brother, Our family house was burnt down by the rebels during the last crisis in my country when Janjaweed militants came to our house and this sent me away to other country as i made my escape only by God's special grace and with the help of Catholic missionaries because i was in the boarding house when this incident took place. Actually in search of an honest and reliable person who will help me to relocate to western world for a better life, i have chosen to contact you after my prayers and i believe you will not try to cheat me but rather take me as your own people. Though you may wonder why I am so soon giving in to you without seeing you, well I will say that my instinct still tells that you could be true to me. Briefly, I will like to disclose much to you if you will help me to relocate to your country with the substance that i inherited from my parent. I have a substantial amount of $5.3 Million (Five Million Three Hundred Thousand United States Dollars) which i will like to invest in your country into any lucrative business venture which you are to advise and execute seeing that i have no business experience for now. However, I shall forward you with the necessary documents on confirmation of your acceptance to assist me for the transfer and investment of the fund. As you will help me in an investment, and i will like to complete my studies, as i was in my 1st year in the university, when the crisis started. It is my intention to compensate you with 25% of the total money for your services and the balance shall be my investment capital. This is the reason why I decided to contact you. Please all communications should be through this email address only for confidential purposes. As soon as I receive your positive response showing your interest to help me, I will put things into action immediately, In the light of the above, I shall appreciate an urgent message indicating your ability and willingness to handle this friendship and transaction sincerely, Please,i have not told any one about the fund except you and reverend minister because his is very nice to me since i came to this refugee camp. If you want to call me through reverend father telephone number [221772818747 because here we are not allowed to have anything. please,feel free to call me, when you call,tell reverend father Maximino Tigo who is the reverend minister in charge of the church ( EGLISE CATHOLIQUE ST. JOHN) you want to speak with Miss Desta Gondar, He will send for me to come to his office and receive your call. I am in female hostel room 20 block Q i will come and speak with you. I am hoping to read your mail that you will always be there for me. That you will never betray me. That you will not take advantage of me and will not deceive me. I promise to love you the best i can. My dear , i need your information such as : Your Full Names : ...... Address : ...... Telephone : ...... Your present occupation: ................ To forward it to the bank for the transfer . In my next mail i will tell you more about this money and the leading financial institution which the money was deposited. My dear, i have never told any person about the existence of this money and i will like you to keep it secret because i am afraid of loosing the money and my life. I humbly waiting for your mail with your picture (s). Have a nice day and think about me, Kisses and hugs to you . Thanks and God bless. Take Caress, Yours Desta From: Desta Gondar Date: Mon, 23 Nov 2015 18:44:02 +0000 Subject: Write the bank immediately My dearest i receive your massage and all content where noted, kindly fill the form below and use it to email the bank immediately for them to identify that you where appointed by me as my late father bank in United Kingdom where the total fund was deposited with my full names as the next of the kin advice me to look for a foreign partner i mean a trustee representative who will stand on my behalf due to my refugee statue here in Senegal, therefore fill form and use it to write to the bank for you to know the possibility to transfer the fund into your own account then from there you assist me to secure my traveling documents to enable me live here and join you over there in your country. I will be waiting to read the bank respond from you soon. Take good care of yourself for me and don't forget me anywhere you are now i mean when you are eating when you are drinking okay. Below is the letter you will write to the bank: Name Of Bank: Mainland Bank Plc E-mail Bank: (mainlandbankbaseplc@yahoo.co.uk) Tel.... +447031973494 +447031812639 Swift Code: MLBPLCLUK Information about the deposit code are as follows. Name of depositor: Mr. Gondar Aaarabisk Nationality: SUDAN Next of Kin: Desta Gondar Aaarabisk, Amount deposited: $5.3M (Five Million Three Hundred Thousand US Dollars) Dear Sir, I would like to state that my name is -------------- Address= -----------, Nationality ------------------, phone------------------ I am the foreign beneficiary trustee to Miss Desta Gondar Aaarabisk ,I apply officially as it was directed by Desta in respect to her late father's deposit Late Dr. Gondar Aaarabisk in account Account Number: MLBUK723608902558/QN/72/A in your institution under your management. Being the co-beneficiary to the deposited fund in your bank,May I pleased know what is required of me and from Miss Desta Gondar Aaarabisk, in order that the said deposit will be transferred into my Bank Account Number as desired by Miss Desta. Let me know as soon as possible. Respectfully summit. Yours truly --------------------- Date: Tue, 24 Nov 2015 10:19:15 +0000 (UTC) From: Mainland Bank Scotland Cc: "desta3babe@hotmail.com" Subject: OUR OFFICIAL RESPONSE Mainland Bank Plc 24 Cree Church Las, Scotland Capital Suare EC3A 5JX, UK Scotland Phone: +447031973494 /Phone: +442031812639 E-mail: mainlandbankbaseplc@yahoo.co.uk E-mail: mr.alexrobinsonmainland@live.com APPLICATION FOR FUND TRANSFER REQUIREMENTS IN FAVOR OF MISS DESTA GONDAR AAARABISK. Date: 24/11/2015: Dear Sir/Madam, Mr. , As the director of Financing, investment banking and financial Subsidiaries Division of Mainland Bank of Scotland Plc. I wish to write you in respect to your mail which we have received. Actually, we have been told about you by the young lady Miss Desta Gondar Aaarabisk that she wishes you to be her trustee/representative for the claims of her late father's fund deposited with our bank. Late Dr. Gondar Aaarabisk is our late customer with Account Number: MLBUK723608902558/QN/ 72/A, which contains substantial amount: ($5.3M). Hence you have been appointed as the trustee to represent the next of Kin, this fund will be transferred to your nominated bank account through our bank to bank transfer swift, within 48 banking hours. However Sir, before we can transact any business with you regarding the transfer of this fund, we will like you to send to our bank these following Documents through (courier service) as listed below within 7 days at the receipt of this mail, to prove the legitimacy of the laid claim: (1) Your are required to send a scan copy of your identity card or International Passport including your fax number (if any). (2) Present a copy of late Dr. GONDAR AAARABISK'S certified death certificate. (Original copy) (3) A copy of Deposit Certificate of the account issued to DR. GONDAR AAARABISK by our bank. (Original copy) Note that the above are compulsory, and are needed to protect our interest,yours, the next of kin after the claims. These shall also ensure a smooth, quick and successful transfer of the fund will be make within 48 hours at reception of these documents. Also you have to send your account information which will facilitate this fund as soon as these documents are been provided. Therefore You have to hurry up to present these documents to our bank to enable us wire the fund (US$5,300,000.00) into your account. We hope that you will understand that our request for the above documents and information are part of our security protocols to avoid fraudulent claims or an unwarranted taking advantage of his absence by some individual or some other distant relations who might have had access to his privacy. We promise to give our customers the best of our services. Should you have any question(s), please contact foreign transfer officer Mr. Alex Robinson on phone; +447989172510 or +442031812639 more directives /clarifications. Yours Faithfully, Mr. Alex Robinson MBLINT'L (Foreign Operation/Wire Transfer Dept )... From: Desta Gondar Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2015 16:09:56 +0000 Subject: I plead you to help me to send those documents to the bank head office My dearest am the most happiest person here now in the camp after receive your massage together with a scan copy of your Passport i went to meet Reverend Maximino Tigo to help me as i don't have freedom of my own here he help me to scan your Passport which you send to me as am here with my late father death certificate and deposit certificate of the account the (Original copies) as the bank demand it from us and Reverend father went to courier service office here this afternoon to post the two documents along with your identify to the bank head office in United Kingdom to enable them verify the documents and effect the transfer to your account immediately as soon possible they receive those documents over there in United Kingdom behold the courier service is demanding the sum of (296 Dollars) before they will ship those documents to the bank office in United Kingdom and i don't have any money here with me i plead you to help me with all your heart to send the postage fee with the Reverend father information below so that he pick the money and go back to courier service office today and delivery those documents at the appointed time please consider my condition here and assist me remember that the bank is waiting to receive those documents from us am tired to stay here there is a lots of suffering i want to live here and join you over there in your country where i will have joy and happiness in my life immediately the transfer is done. According Reverend father is say that you should send the money through western union money transfer with the names below OK: USE THIS INFORMATION BELOW TO SEND THE POSTAGE FEE. Receivers names:.. Maximino Tigo Country name:.. Senegal City name:.. Dakar Address:..131 De Ngor Dakar-Senegal Question... Help Answer... Me I want you to understand that any amount you spend to help me by sending the original documents to the bank in United Kingdom you will take it back as soon as the bank effect the transfer into your account and i want you to bear it in mind that you are the one that will invest this fund in any profitable business of your own choice while you will help me to further my education there in your country immediately am there together with you because you are a man of vision,wisdom and understanding and from the deepest of my heart i promise to remain faithful to you all the days of my life immediately am together with you i can't wait to meet you in person and don't forget me anywhere you are now OK. I will be waiting to hear good news from you soon. Take my kiss Yours Desta. From: Desta Gondar Date: Sun, 20 Dec 2015 20:48:36 +0000 Subject: RE: Prove to me that you are not a joker okay. My dearest after reading your massage i become upset and devastated here it seems that you are mocking my present situation here because i share my whole secret to you why? if you are for real and not a joker and you intention is not to hot an orphan like me feel free to call me with the Reverend father telephone number i want to speak with you first before i can send you a scan copy of those documents per your request i hope it is clear to you now. Stay bless and awaiting for your call. From: Desta Gondar Date: Sat, 13 Feb 2016 09:27:55 +0000 Subject: I'm happy to inform you about my success in getting the fund transferred I'm happy to inform you about my success in getting the fund transferred under the cooperation of a new partner from UK I'm in United Kingdom for investment projects with my own share of the total sum. Meanwhile, I didn't forget your past efforts an attempts to assist me in transferring the funds despite that it failed us some how. Now you will need to contact the Life Christian missionary who was helping me in Dakar by name Rev. Maximino Tigo whom use to be a God-father to me when i was in Dakar and his email address is as follows (revmaximinotigo@hotmail.com) Ask him to send you a Master Card Compensation Fund of ($300,000.00 U S Dollars) which I prepared and kept for your past efforts and attempts to assist me in this matter. I appreciated your efforts at that time very much. you can build a small orphanage home and name it after my late father Dr Tarik Dakheel if you like. so feel free and get in touched with Rev. Maximino Tigo and instruct him where to send you the master card. His Telephone number is +221772818747 I am very busy here in the island because of the investment projects which i and the new friend Mr. Kaito Haughton and Mr. George Hutchinston are having at hand. You might not hear from me for some time from now for security reasons God bless you Mrs. Desta. If you received a similar letter, please ignore it. Do not answer it. If you do, you will end up on more of the mailing lists used by the criminals behind this fraud. Read more.... MISSOULA On the final day of the Missoula Food Bank's annual Holiday Food Drive, executive director Aaron Brock the rest of the staff werent sure if they would reach their ambitious goals. We were kind of holding our breath there throughout the last day, he said Saturday. Although they started Thursday just a few hundred pounds shy of the 50,000 pounds in food donations they hoped to bring in, they were still far from their $225,000 mark for financial contributions. Like they have done so many times, this community stepped forward and made sure we hit our goal, Brock said, adding that more than $18,000 was given to the organization on the final day of the drive. That money helped bring the final tally to 50,453 pounds of food and $225,612.16 donated during the 30th annual end-of-the-year drive. In particular, Brock said he wanted to thank Mountain Water Co., which opened the drive by matching $10,000 in donations, and Missoula Fresh Market, which organized its own internal drive to benefit the food bank on top of matching $3,500 in contributions. The Holiday Food Drive closes out a very successful 2015 for the Missoula Food Bank, coming on the heels of winning the Can the Bobcats food drive for the first time in 15 years. The successful fundraising effort leads into a 2016 that will see the organization begin construction on its new building at the corner of Wyoming and Catlin streets. Register for more free articles. Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! Already a Subscriber? Already a Subscriber? Sign in Terms of Service Privacy Policy According to the Dawn, the man who was abducted by four armed men along with two others revealed that the gunmen kept repeating 'You killed Afzal Guru and now we will take revenge' as they slit the man's throat and left him to die. Guru was hanged in New Delhi's Tihar Jail for his role in the 2001 Parliament attack. The men, who were reportedly carrying assault rifles and grenades as well as a GPS navigation system, had a clear idea about the location of the base. (ANI) Afghan news agency Pajhwok Afghan News said in a tweet: "Two attackers were killed in fighting after insurgents attacked Indian consulate in Mazarisharif city." In a series of tweets, the news agency earlier said: "Police confirmed blast in gun fires in PD4 near to #Indian consulate in #Afghanistan's Mazar-i-Sharif city." "Balkh governor spokesman told Pajhwok that attackers entered a house and firing on Indian Consulate in Maza-i-Sharif city." "Police says, no casualties yet reported from attack on #Indian Consulate in Maza-i-Sharif city." "Gun fires resumed after armed people attacked #Indian Consulate in MazairSharif city." BBC also said explosions and gunfire were heard near the Indian consulate. The report said it was not immediately clear whether the consulate was directly targeted, as the area also has a building belonging to a local politician. Indian diplomatic missions in Afghanistan have come under militant attacks earlier too. In 2008 and 2009, the embassy in Kabul was attacked, leaving dozens dead. In May 2014, gunmen attacked the Indian consulate in Herat, while in August 2013, nine civilians died when the consulate in Jalalabad was targeted. --Indo-Asian News Service pm/vd ( 219 Words) 2016-01-03-23:25:36 (IANS) The land was allotted in the heart of the Karimnagar town in order to educate the minorities of North Telangana districts Karimnagar, Nizamabad, Warangal, Khammam and Adilabad, where minority strength was considerably high compared to the other districts of Telangana, except Ranga Reddy and Hyderabad, Telangana MP from Karimnagar, B,Vinod Kumar said ina statement here today. Mr Vinod said the Karimnagar district has issued orders, directing the concerned Tashsildhar to hand-over the land to the university officials. He requested the Chancellor of the University to arrange to take over the land from revenue department.UNI KNR KVV AK 1940 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0415-518328.Xml In a startling revelation, Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari has claimed that Bollywood's veteran actresses Asha Parekh had come to him seeking to be recommended for the Padma Bhushan saying that she was 'entitled' for one. Addressing an event here, Gadkari said the giving out awards was creating a 'headache' these days and that he was being 'chased' for recommendations and that the celebrated actress had done the same. "Film actor Asha Parekh came to me for recommending her name for Padma Bhushan. The lift of my apartment was not functioning properly, so she climbed 12th floors to meet me in person and I really felt bad about it," the Union Minister said. Gadkari added that Parekh said that she was entitled for the Padma Bhushan due to her massive contribution in Indian Film industry. Parekh was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement award in 2014 and in 1992 she was awarded the Padma Shri. (ANI) The event is being held at the University of Mysore from January 3 to 7 and the theme of this edition of the event is 'Science & Technology for Indigenous Development in India'. Prime Minister Modi will also present 28 awards, including six gold medals to Nobel Laureates, ISCA Best Oral Presenter, ISCA Best Poster, ISCA Young Scientists, C V Raman Birth Centenary Award at the event, which is being held at University of Mysore. The Indian Science Congress is being hosted in Karnataka after 13 years and in Mysuru after 34 years. (ANI) CASPER, Wyo. For about 20 days beginning Feb. 8, the states 90 lawmakers will gather in Cheyenne to adopt a two-year state budget in the face of revenues that will be down an estimated $210 million. The budget they pass will pay for government operations from July 1, 2016 through June 2018. It will likely be in the neighborhood of $3.5 billion, smaller than the current two-year budget of $3.7 billion. Prices and production of oil, natural gas and coal have declined. The minerals provide about 70 percent of the states revenues. State programs could face the ax, as some lawmakers have said government is too big. "Everything is on the table, but it doesnt make the discussion any easier," Senate President Phil Nicholas said in October. Officials at the Wyoming Public Employees Association have said they are attending budget meetings and pleading their case to keep wages and benefits at current levels. They plan to fight any cut in jobs. "We do not want the retirement or insurance benefit to decrease in any way," said Betty Jo Beardsley, association executive director in late October. "That will be the fight we probably will take on in the next session, is to make sure they dont lose any ground, but they probably wont gain any ground, either." Lawmakers could always fill the shortfall with new taxes. Nicholas, R-Laramie, has said he has asked the Legislatures nonpartisan staff to draft a bill for lawmakers to consider that would increase taxes to raise money for education. Longtime legislative observers have said that a tax increase is unlikely. Bills that generate revenue must begin in the House, and 60 House seats are up for election in the fall. There is a reason Wyoming has a very low tax base, lobbyist Marian Smith Orr, who has observed 10 budget sessions, said in mid-December. Were really blessed with a good wealth of mineral commodities, but those House members have to go back (home,) selling a budget, explaining why they voted for or didnt vote for a tax. Im sure its going to be an uphill battle. Lawmakers will also have to decide for the fourth time whether to expand Medicaid to some 20,000 low-income Wyoming adults who earn too much to qualify for traditional Medicaid and earn too little to obtain a tax credit on the Obamacare exchange. Lawmakers have rejected Medicaid expansion each year since 2014. But this year, Gov. Matt Mead argued in his Dec. 1 budget recommendations, state money that pays for programs in the Wyoming Department of Health would decrease by $10 million if the Legislature accepted federal money for expansion, since the feds would pick up the tab for the programs. Its a health issue, said Mead, a Republican, in September. But lets get to the nuts and bolts in terms of our revenue picture. Sen. John Hastert supports Medicaid expansion. But he isnt holding his breath that it will pass. The likelihood of Medicaid expansion staying in the budget is slim at best, Hastert, a Democrat from Green River, said in early December. Mead also asked lawmakers to consider paying for some state programs with Wyomings $1.8 billion rainy day fund and repaying it with a portion of mineral severance taxes that currently go into savings. A recent report by the Pew Charitable Trusts found that Wyoming is one of two states without a policy on when to dip into the fund. You have an immense amount of savings in relation to your General Fund expenses, said Brenna Erford, manager of state fiscal health and economic growth for Pew. That said, you have exceptionally high revenue volatility. Some observers, such as Smith Orr, describe the plan to borrow from the rainy day fund as creative. I am picking up that it is in fact raining in Wyoming. Yes, its time to use these funds, she said. And through the diligent efforts of the budget office, not only are we able to use these funds but we are able to pay them back. I think it is an elegant solution to our needs at this point. Others disagree. "Our revenues are going down and I havent seen anything that suggests theyll go back up in the near future," Rep. Kendell Kroeker, R-Casper, said in response to Meads proposal. "Tapping into the rainy day fund all that does is kick the can down the road. It doesn't address the issue of bloated government and too much spending." The Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board (HPSEB) and the Hyderabad-based VNR Vigna Jyothi engineering college have been ordered to pay the ex-gratia. Himachal Pradesh state electricity board has been held responsible for the release of water into the Beas River from its Larji hydro power project dam. The board would bear 60 percent while the college and the state government will pay 30 and 10 percent, respectively of the total compensation. The bench had also directed the college management to refund the tuition fee amount of the deceased students. A division bench comprising Chief Justice, Justice Mansoor Ahmad Mir and Justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan directed that compensation of Twenty Lakh Rupees should be paid in eight weeks from Saturday. The unfortunate incident had occurred in Thalout area of Mandi district in the state on 8th of June 2014. The Court also took suo moto cognizance of this incident on a media report and treated it as PIL. (ANI) Security was also stepped up in the national capital and several states including airports, railway stations, bus stands and other vital installations here. Police patrolling has also been intensified and every vehicle entering in the state from interstate borders is being checked thoroughly. Meanwhile, officials at the New Delhi Railway Station have received a bomb threat in New Delhi- Kanpur route following the trains have been delayed and the area is being combed. The railway board was informed by the Mumbai Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) after the latter received an e-mail regarding the same. Yesterday, five terrorists were neutralised and three security personnel were martyred in the attack on the Air Force Station. The terrorists reportedly - having their allegiance to Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed - were led by one Nazir, who appeared to be the leader of the group as per intercepted radio communication, entered the base through a nullah-gap. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had congratulated the Armed Forces for successfully neutralising all the five terrorists. "I congratulate our armed forces and other security forces on successfully neutralising all the five terrorists in 'Pathankot Operation. Nation is proud of its brave security forces who have always rose to the occasion. I salute our forces on successful operation in Pathankot," Singh tweeted. (ANI) A day after terrorists attacked the Indian Air Force (IAF) frontier base near Pathankot town, search and combing operation continued on Sunday. At least four terrorists, suspected to be from Pakistan, were killed in a gunfight that lasted over 15 hours after they breached a high-security perimeter and entered the IAF base in northern Punjab early on Saturday to carry out a Fidayeen attack. Security agencies including the army, National Security Guards (NSG), Air Force, para-military forces and Punjab Police were involved in the massive search operation inside the IAF base and nearby areas. IAF helicopters could be seen flying over the base and nearby areas through the night and since early morning on Sunday to assist ground forces in the search and combing operations. "The search ops are continuing. Everything is being looked at minutely. The operation will end only after this is completed," a senior Punjab Police official told IANS. Security agencies were particularly investigating the local support that the terrorists got in the area after entering Indian territory from the border belt with Pakistan on December 30-31. The Pakistan border is about 30 kms from here. "The Innova taxi that the terrorists used to travel towards Pathankot from the border areas is suspected to have been booked through a call made from a Pakistani number. This is being investigated," the official said. The taxi driver, Ikgaar Singh, 24, was killed by the terrorists on Friday by slitting his throat. The terrorists had then hijacked the Mahindra XUV car of superintendent of police Salwinder Singh and slit the throat of his friend Rajesh Kumar. Senior officials of the Army, Air Force, para-military forces and the Punjab Police were supervising the search operations since Saturday after the security forces neutralized the terrorists. At least three IAF security personnel, including an IAF Garud commando, were killed and four others were injured in the attack that started around 3.30 a.m. The counter offensive lasted over 15 hours. "We have also lost security personnel in the Pathankot attack. My heartfelt condolences to their families. We can never forget their sacrifice," Home Minister Rajnath Singh tweeted on Saturday. A fierce gunfight between the terrorists, believed to be from Pakistan-based terror outfit Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM), and security forces had continued through Saturday after the terrorists entered the IAF base, located around 250 km from Chandigarh. At the IAF base, MIG-21 Bison fighter jets, MI-35 attack helicopters, missiles and other critical assets were secure and the terrorists were prevented from getting near the technical area where the assets were stationed, IAF sources said. The IAF, in a statement in New Delhi, said the terrorists' plan to destroy "valuable assets" was "foiled" due to "effective preparations" and "coordinated efforts". National Security Guard (NSG) commandos, who had been rushed to Pathankot on Friday following apprehension of an attack, IAF's Garud commandos and army commandos led the counter-attack on Saturday against the terrorists. --Indo-Asian News Service js/py/ ( 501 Words) 2016-01-03-09:23:35 (IANS) According to Northern Railway Chief Public Relations Officer Neeraj Sharma, the train, including its luggage, was searched with the help of the UP Police, the RPF, a dog squad and a bomb disposal squad. After we got a message from the police about the bomb scare, we immediately stopped the train at Ghaziabad railway station as the train departed from the New Delhi railway station on time around 0610 hrs, Mr Sharma said. According to the sources, many trains were halted and delayed at New Delhi railway station too due to the bomb scare. The official sources said the Railway Board was informed by the Mumbai ATS after the latter received an email, threatening of bomb blasts on a Delhi-Kanpur train. Later, the ASI had also written to the Chief Station Manager and requested him to check all the Delhi-Kanpur trains before allowing the trains to leave. UNI SM RSA 1028 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0177-518901.Xml A 55-year-old Right to Information (RTI) activist who had been crusading against illegal mining mafia of Morbi, known for its ceramic industry, was shot dead at point blank range on the outskirts of his village Rangpar. My cousin, Karsan Ala, was shot dead around 2130 hrs last night by four unidentified persons, said Ratna Ala, a 32-year-old blind who too is an RTI activist and deputy sarpanch of Rangpar village. Both Karsan and Ratna had been fighting against illegal mining on common grazing land by local mafia. I and my slain cousin had written several times to the government complaining about the illegal mining but no action has been taken against the mafia, said Ratna, who had received award for the best use of RTI for common cause in 2009 from a national newspaper group. Karsan had objected to illegal mining of ceramic clay on the villages common grazing land a few days before he was shot dead. I suspect the hands of local mining mafia in Karsans murder, said Ratna Ala. UNI ND DS RSA 1039 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0177-518907.Xml The students, who began their rally from Pune to Malkangiri of Odisha, have been identified as Adarsh Patil, Bilash Valake and Shrikrishna Shewale. The Chhattisgarh Police has not confirmed any report of their abduction. The Bijapur Superintendent of Police, however, said that he received information about their abduction from his Gadchiroli counterpart. Based on the information provided by the Gadchiroli Superintendent of Police, the Bijapur Police is investigating the matter and making all attempts to locate the missing students. The Maoists are said to be India's greatest internal security threat. (ANI) Defence Experts on Sunday said there is no doubt that the perpetrators of the attack at Pathankot Air Force base were from Pakistan. "There is no doubt that these terrorists came from Pakistan. The doubt is that whether they have been sent by the Pakistani establishment or they have come on their own. Even if they have come on their own then the establishment might have helped them. Otherwise it is not possible to cross the border undetected carrying such heavy weapons," Lieutenant General (Retd.) Raj Kadyan told ANI. Meanwhile, security and strategic affairs expert Commodore (Retd.) C. Uday Bhaskar said the attack had a pattern similar to last year's attack in Punjab's Gurdaspur district and the 26/11 Mumbai terror strike. "The investigation that has been carried out in the Pathankot attack till now has established the links with Pakistan. These telephone calls placed in the public domain are very instructive because in many ways you see a pattern that you could link to either 2008 Mumbai attack or the Gurdaspur attack. There is communication between the perpetrators and the handlers... The linkage with Pakistan is fairly credible," he told ANI. Commodore (Retd.) Bhaskar also said Pakistan's claim that they would treat all terrorist activities in the same manner is being put to test. "This puts the attack in a very complex context. Pakistan has repeatedly been saying in public that now there are no two standards. So what was said in public after Peshawar, the way Pakistani establishment tried to convey and convince the global community that they will deal with all terror activities in the same manner is on test," he added. The death toll of the martyred in the Pathankot Air Force Base attack has risen to six so far as three more defence personnel succumbed to their injuries. A Garud commando and two Defence Security Corps (DSC) personnel succumbed to their injuries in the hospital last night. So far, eight DSC jawans and a Garud commando have been injured in the terrorist attack on the Air Base. The terrorists who attacked the Base reportedly had their allegiance to Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM). Meanwhile, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has taken over the probe in the attack and has reportedly sought assistance from the Punjab police and the Central Intelligence Bureau. (ANI) The family of a man who served the Pakistani police as clerk for 13 years before fleeing to India after the 1971 Indo-Pak war will get pension from Gujarat government thanks to a Gujarat High Court judgment. A division bench of the High Court comprising Justices S R Brahmbhatt and K J Thaker ordered the state government to pay family pension to the late Ranomal Adepals kin taking into account his service as clerk between 1959 and 1972 with the office of the Superintendent of Police of Tharparkar district of Pakistan. Adepal had left Pakistan in 1972, a year after the Indo-Pak war, and taken refuge in Tharad in Gujarats border district of Banaskantha. He got Indian citizenship in 1978 and a job as a clerk with Home Guards ten years later in 1988 and retired in 1994. Adepals requested the state government to pay him pension taking into account his service in Pakistan but it was turned down. He then moved the Gujarat High Court against state governments decision but died while the case was pending. The High Court finally handed down the judgment to start paying family pension to Adepals kin within the next three months. UNI ND DS RSA 1126 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0177-518959.Xml Maharashtra Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao today expressed grief over the demise of veteran communist leader and former General Secretary of CPI, A B Bardhan in New Delhi. In a condolence message, the Governor said, Comrade A B Bardhan dedicated his entire life for securing rights of the working class, the poor and farmers. A front-ranking trade union leader, Bardhan led organised struggle on various issues, often facing imprisonment. He played an important role at the national level in his capacity as the General Secretary of CPI. He was respected across the political spectrum because of his austerity and straightforwardness. ''Nagpur was his Karmabhumi, and his demise will be particularly felt in that city. On behalf of the people of Maharashtra I pay my respects to the memory of late Com A B Bardhan.''UNI ST RSA RK1155 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0169-518936.Xml Amidst the outrage around the world for Saudi Arabia executing top Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr along with 46 other prisoners, the furious Iranians petrol bombed the Saudi embassy in Tehran during their protest. Nimr was branded a terrorist by Saudi Arabia and convicted of 'terrorism', reports Tolo News. The Iranian Police later arrested several protestors. The cleric's execution has drawn widespread criticism. United Nations Secretary-General General Ban Ki- Moon, who was 'deeply dismayed' by the execution, has asked regional leaders to pull up their socks to avoid the exacerbation of sectarian tensions. (ANI) With this, the death toll in the attack has gone up to seven that include two commandos. Twelve security personnel have injured. A Defence Ministry official confirmed the death of Lt Col Niranjan, who was involved in the search operation. The Ministry had confirmed the casualty figures this morning saying that six security personnel including a Garud commando and 5 DSC jawans were killed and nine injured,including an IAF commando. With three more security personnel succumbing to their injuries in the night, death toll has gone up to six, the Defence Ministry said. UNI MK ADG 1320 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0090-519088.Xml Mr Singh is scheduled to fly to Silchar in southern Assam in the forenoon, from where he will visit the International border in Karimganj. He will fly to Guwahati from Silchar in the afternoon and hold a meeting with civil society members here. Mr Singh is scheduled to visit the international border in Dhubri in western Assam tomorrow and will participate in a programme of the Army. The Union Home Minister will return to New Delhi later tomorrow.Uni SG BM RSA 1336 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0214-519094.Xml Four policemen including officer-in-charge of Triveniganj police station in Supaul district were suspended with immediate effect on charges of dereliction of their duty in connection with custodial death of a criminal. Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Saharsa range Nagendra Singh said here today that a criminal Pramod Sardar wanted in connection with a dacoity case, was arrested from Machaha village under Triveniganj police station area in Supaul district yesterday. "The arrested criminal died while being brought to Triveniganj police station', Mr Singh said, adding that four policemen including officer-in-charge Rajkishore Baitha were placed under suspension with immediate effect as they were found guilty of dereliction of duty. As it is, police had arrested Pramod from Machaha village yesterday as he was wanted in connection with a dacoity case. He died before being brought to Triveniganj police station. Police claimed that Pramod had complained of uneasiness and he was admitted to Sadar hospital in Supaul where doctors declared him brought dead. An inquiry has been ordered to investigate the case.UNI KKS BM RSA NS1355 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0214-519104.Xml Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramiah today saidthat development of Science and Technology requires an enduringcollaboration between the Government, the Industry and the Academiain the country. Speaking at the 103rd Science Congress, inaugurated by PrimeMinister Narendra Modi here, the Chief Minister said that Karnataka has beenstriving to achieve this partnership by engaging Industry and theAcademic World through Vision Groups in various sectors, wherePolicy Makers, Academia and Industry come together to deliberateupon and to suggest policy and programme-level initiatives foraccelerating development. Stating that Karnataka is, perhaps, the only State in the countryto constitute a Vision Group for Science and Technology, he saidthat the Vision Group has been functioning since 2008 under thestewarship of Bharat Ratna Professor C N R Rao, and has been playinga vital role in promoting Centers of Excellence in Science, Medicineand Engineering, supporting basic research and in improving scienceeducation in schools and colleges.Mr Siddaramaiah said that Karnataka is a home to over 3500 InformationTechnology units, with Bengaluru, the Information Technology Capitalof India, as the largest cluster contributing to over One Third ofthe Indian IT exports, estimated at over Rs Two Lakh Crore during2014-15. The State is also a leader in Biotechnology with thepresence of over 300 Bio-Technology Companies contributing to overOne Third of the Bio-Technology exports from the country, he added. The Chief Minister said that the abundant pool of talent and thepresence of reputed research and development institutes have beenkey growth drivers for the pre-eminent position enjoyed by the Statein the fields of Information Technology and Bio-Technology.MORE UNI RS/BSP MSP KVV RSS 1350 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0287-519106.Xml Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Sunday briefed Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the ongoing attack at the Air Force Base in Pathankot where two terrorists are believed to be holed up and a fierce counter-operation is underway to smoke them out. Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi will brief the media on the attack at 5 pm today giving details about the counter operation. Meanwhile, fresh firing began today at the Base after reports emerged of terrorists who were still active inside. So far, seven defence personnel have been martyred including a National Security Guard (NSG) Lt. Colonel who succumbed to his injuries in the combing operations today. A Garud commando and two Defence Security Corps (DSC) personnel succumbed to their injuries in the hospital last night. Eight DSC jawans and a Garud commando have been injured in the attack so far. Amid reports that the national capital has been put on high alert over a possible Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) attack, Delhi Police Commissioner B.S. Bassi has warned the residents of the city to be 'vigilant' and report if anything is 'amiss'. "Citizens' vigil against suspicious persons/objects/activities is vital to counter terrorism. Report anything amiss no. 100 or helpline 1090," Bassi tweeted. Delhi has been put on high alert after intelligence agencies have warned of a possible 'high profile strike' allegedly by Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) in the national capital. The security forces have been asked to maintain extra vigilance at all crowded locations. According to sources, the agencies have warned that two JeM terrorists have sneaked into the national capital with the intention to carry out high profile strikes and a hostage crisis could also be possible. (ANI) Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Hai Binh said the airfield had been 'built illegally' on Fiery Cross Reef in the Spratly archipelago in territory that was 'part of Vietnam's Spratlys', reports the Dawn. The China's Foreign Ministry, however, discarded the complaint and said that it was just a test flight to the newly-built airfield on the reef, which they call Yongshu Jiao. Hanoi's Foreign Ministry informed that Vietnam handed a protest note to China's embassy and asked China not to repeat the action. The United States said that the flight had exacerbated tensions.(ANI) The Defence Minister yesterday held a high level meeting with three service chiefs and top brass of his ministry. Mr Parrikar has been closely monitoring the entire operation at Pathankot airbase where multiple security agencies are in process of sanitising the installation, sources in the ministry said. Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi is likely to brief the press about the operation this evening. UNI MK ADG 1448 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0090-519224.Xml Hundreds of people, mostly youths, took to streets at Hassanabad, a Shia dominated area, and rose slogans today against the execution of the cleric who had allegedly criticized the kingdoms treatment of its Shiite minority. However, when the protestors were marching towards the main chowk, security forces and state police personnel swung into action and stopped them. Security forces resorted to lathicharge when the slogan-shouting demonstrators refused to disperse. But, after it had no impact, security forces burst teargas shells to disperse the demonstrators, who were pelting stones. Meanwhile, a shutdown was observed in central Kashmir district of Budgam to protest the execution of the cleric. Shops and other business establishments remained closed and traffic was off the roads. Work in government offices and banks was also affected due to strike. UNI BAS AE AS1551 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0153-519270.Xml Police said here that unidentified criminals opened fire on two youths at Singhapur village, killing one of them on the spot while other sustained serious injuries. "The injured has been admitted to a local hospital where his condition is stated to be critical," police said adding that the body had been sent for postmortem. Reason behind the killing was stated to be personal enmity, police informed.UNI XC KKS BM AY CS1510 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0214-519139.Xml Karnataka has takeninitiative to set up Special Process Facility and Aerospace andDefence Park in the State, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said today. "We have developed a World Class Hi-tech Aerospace and DefencePark in Devanahalli catering to the needs of this fast growingindustry. We are setting up a Special Process Facility and AerospaceTechnology Centre in partnership with NaTional Aeronautical Agencyand HAL." The Chief Minister was speaking at foundation laying for the Rs 5000 CroreHelicopter Manufacturing Unit of the HAL by Prime Minister NarendraModi here. Mr Siddaramaiah said that Karnataka is the first State in thecountry to introduce the Aerospace Policy, drawn up in consultationwith the industry. "We are also encouraging industry to tie-up with IndustrialTraining Institutes to train manpower. All these initiatives, Ihope, will ensure that small and medium enterprises will prosper andflourish vis--vis build up the eco-system, which would also supportthe HAL Helicopter Manufacturing Plant here in terms of a vibrantsupply chain. This would truly help in realizing the goals of Makein India," he added. The Chief Minister greeted HAL and its staff for the PlatinumJubilee celebrated last month. The inception and growth of HAL andthe growth of Aerospace Industry in India have been complimentary toeach other. This is also closely linked to the contribution andsupport from the Karnataka State. He said that back in the year 1940, at the request of thelegendary industrialist Walchand Hirachand, the then Maharaja ofMysuru Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar, with his foresight and vision,allotted 700 acres of prime land in Bengaluru to this company freeof cost. This Hindustan Aircraft Company heralded the beginning ofaerospace industry not only in Karnataka but also in our country. Over the years, HAL has been the backbone of the Indian AirForce, building engines, rotorcrafts and fighters. "Today, HAL hastransformed itself from an organisation dependent on its foreignpartners to being self-sufficient and completely indigenous. HALranks amongst the best aerospace companies in the World," he added. He said that while HAL has been instrumental in building theaerospace eco-system, Karnataka as a State has supported this allthroughout in terms of land, logistics, excellent vendor-base andtechnical manpower. Amongst the 2,300 suppliers of HAL, 1,600 arebased in Karnataka, representing 70 per cent of the supplier base ofHAL. He said that 610 acres of Government land has been allotted andtransferred at a concessional rate of Rs 1 Lakh per acre for thisUnit. HAL has requested for an adjacent land of 4 acres and thisland also would be transferred, soon. Provisions also have been madefor the approach road to provide connectivity to the NationalHighway. Three High Tension lines that run in some portion of thisallotted land are being shifted, and the cost of shifting andproviding alternative lines, to the tune of Rs 54 Crore, is beingborne by the State Government to facilitate the establishment ofthis unit. Mr Siddaramaiah said that Aerospace is one of our focus sectorsin the Investors' Meet to be held next month and a special sessionis planned. "This is a great platform for companies to participateand showcase their potential and I extend my invitation to all ofyou to the event."UNI MSP KVV RSS 1530 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0287-519216.Xml Schreiner hired Terry Schreiner has been hired as manager at Tires Plus in Bismarck. Schreiner grew up in Huff and attended Bismarck State College and Montana State University He was employed with Walmart for 21 years, most of that time as a manager. Four certified Four Dakota Eye Institute employees have completed accredited training and passed certification examinations. Sara Bitz and Stacey Muth earned the designation of certified ophthalmic assistant and Cindy Dockter and Pam Gutknecht earned ophthalmic coding specialist certification. Mack trains Sarah Mack of Chuppe Clinic recently completed the 180-hour Webster Technique certification program through the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association. Mack, who earned a doctor of chiropractic degree from Northwestern Health Sciences University, joined Chuppe Clinic in 2013. Oster in sales Sondra Oster has joined Fireside Office Solutions as a sales executive working with Kyocera products. She has over 10 years of professional business-to-business relationship experience. Three promoted Katie Chorne, Brittany Peterson and Amanda Miller have been promoted at BlackRidgeBANK Bismarck. Chorne joined the bank in 2009 as a teller and later was a credit administration specialist. She is now a credit administration manager for the bank. Peterson started in 2012 as a teller and became a client services specialist. Her promotion is to consumer loan officer. Miller was hired as a teller in 2014, then became a client services specialist. Her new position is customer service manager. Promoted at BND Kirby Evanger, Al Weisbeck and Jason Johnson have been promoted at the Bank of North Dakota. Evanger, who started as the director of risk management last year, is now chief credit officer. Weisbeck has become the treasurer in accounting/treasury, having previously been the investment manager. Johnson is now controller in accounting/treasury. He started at the bank as the asset liability manager. All three are certified public accountants. Asserting that the newhelicopter factory was no ordinary unit, Prime Minister NarendraModi today announced that the first of the copters would fly in theservice of the country in two years. Speaking after laying the foundation stone for Rs 5000 croreHelicopter Manufacturing unit of the public sector HindustanAeronautics Limited here, Mr Modi said that he had given a clearinstructions to the HAL that the first helicopter should be airbornein 2018 and this unit was certain to emerge as a global cynosure asthe unit would be producing 600 Helicopters in 15 years. In an era where Defence forces required the best and latestequipment to firmly secure the borders of the nation, this villagein Gubbi taluk would be producing the helicopters to be used forproviding medical relief to the soldiers at work in remote areas ofthe country. The Prime Minister said it was Government's intention that the Defence forcesshould not only have best arms and ammunitions aided by quick andrapid transit facilities comparable to the best in the world butthese equipments should be manufactured in the country. This was thereason the government was insisting on making the purchases only ifthe seller will make these equipment in India. India, he said was making defence purchases worth billions ofdollars and it was only fair for the country to expect these crucialand critical equipments were made in India. Many suppliers werewilling to produce in India. Recalling the slogan 'Jai Jawan Jai Kissan' coined by formerPrime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, Mr Modi said the proposed unitwould not only be helpful to the jawans in the defence forces butalso the farmers as well. He said even well to do farmers dreamt of branching off theirwards to industry or some other regular income earning avocations tocushion the family against uncertain returns from agriculture. It was for this reason architect of the Constitution B R Ambedkarfavoured industrialisation as it would provide livelihood to thedepressed sections without a lands of their own. Acknowledging Karnataka Government's cooperation in providing theland for the helicopter unit, Mr Modi said his Government will beinvesting Rs 5000 crore for the unit which in turn will provide 4000direct and indirect jobs. UNI MCN MSP KVV RSS 1532 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0287-519252.Xml Exchange of firing though intermittent continued at the Pathankot Air Force station this morning, sending signals of presence of one or two more suspected Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists, believed to be holed up in the non operational area of the Air Base. Lt Col Niranjan Kumar, a member of the elite National Security Guards Bomb Squad, was killed this morning while defusing a grenade along with four other security personnel at the site of terror attack as a part of the combing operation that continued the whole night. According to information received from military sources, the grenade exploded when the officer and other security men were trying to retrieve an improvised explosive device from the body of a slain terrorist. Three more security personnel, who were the members of the Defence Security Corps (DSC) and were injured during the encounter with the terrorists yesterday, succumbed to injuries at the military hospital late last night taking the death toll to seven. Five terrorists were neutralised by the security forces yesterday. DIG border range Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh told reporters that the joint operation carried out by the Army and Punjab Police was still underway. The combing operation, he said, continued throughout the night. The DIG claimed that the police had apprehensions that the terrorists had been hiding in the area. The National Investigation Agency (NIA), the DIG added, had taken over the probe into the terror attack on Pathankot Air Base. Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, who also holds the Home portfolio, is arriving here to take stock of the situation.UNI XC DB RP1555 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0293-519292.Xml The Congress today demanded a Supreme Court-monitored CBI inquiry into the 'Chit fund' and 'Mining' scams in Odisha in which, it alleged, huge amounts from the state's exchequer had been siphoned off by the Naveen Patnaik government. Addressing mediapersons here, AICC spokesperson Jairam Ramesh accused the BJP government of 'protecting' the Naveen Patnaik regime in Odisha.''There are two-three major scams in Odisha which have surfaced during the Naveen rule, the chit fund scam and the mining scam are among them. Twently lakh families including poor, widows and indigent investors were affected by the chit fund scam which runs into Rs 50,000 crore. These people were duped with fake certificates and awards. The companies swindled their money to fake bank accounts and earned profits. The apex court had ordered probe into 44 such companies. Mining scam is no less bigger. The three lakh crore scam has badly affected the economy of the state.''The MB Shah Commission's report to the government had suggested probe into the 'Chit fund' scam and 'Mining' scam in Odisha but its suggestions fell on deaf ears.''The PM is not letting the CBI probe the charges of corruption against the Naveen Patnaik government in the 'Chit Fund' and 'Mining' scams. BJP and BJD are two sides of the same coin.What Vyapam is to Madhya Pradesh, mining scam is to Odisha,'' Mr Ramesh said.Charging Mr Patnaik with leading a corrupt government in Odisha, Mr Ramesh said,''had the probe into these scandals been conducted earlier, Naveen Patnaik would have been shown the door by now.''Mr Ramesh also alleged that CBI is being misused for political gains by the Modi government.''The freedom of CBI as an 'independent agency' is at stake. We therefore can't depend on the government.Therefore, Congress demands that a strong Lokpal be put in place to curb corruption, CBI be made independent and a transparent body, Mr Patnaik should resign on moral grounds and SC monitored CBI probe be carried out in scams in Odisha, Mr Ramesh said.Mr Ramesh said their charges that the Centre was not allowing the CBI to investigate the Odisha scams properly have been vindicated by Union Minister Jual Oram.''The vindication comes from none other than their own minister in tow Mr Oram saying that, the Central government has let the state dispensation off in many issues including chit fund and mining scams. Had it not been the case, the CBI would have finished them off already. They should thank the Centre for it''.Alleging a secret deal between the ruling BJP and the Biju Janata Dal for passing bills in Parliament, the Congress leader said ,''BJP President Amit Shah visited Bengal and promised support to government in Odisha. On March 11, last year, a closed door meeting was held between CM Naveen and PM Modi. The Odisha CM promised to extend support in Parilament and get 'protection' in turn in 'chit fund' issue. And the allegation has been vindicated because after the meeting the pace of probe slowed down.'' ''This was confirmed by Mr Oram in his recent statement,'' Mr Ramesh said.UNI SY/AR AE RP1657 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0093-519376.Xml In a message here, Mr Jaganmohan described Mr Bardhan as a man embodied with values and virtues and stood an epitome of Left ideology till his last breath. His death is an immense loss to Indian policies,he said. The YSRCP president expressed his condolences and sympathies to the bereaved family. In a condolence meeting held at Makhdoom Bhavan here, Telangana State CPI Secretary Chada Venkat Reddy termed Mr Bardhans death as an irreparable loss to the Leftist movement in the country. Calling Mr Bardhan the leader of many Communist struggles spread over seven-and-a-half-decades, Mr Venkat said he devoted his life for the growth of the Communist party and preservence of democracy. Earlier CPI leaders paid floral tributes to Mr Bardan portrait at party office in the city. UNI KNR KVV 1640 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0415-519227.Xml Bharat Ratna awardee C N R Rao today saidthat it was time the youth of the nation respected science that makethe country among the top nations within a span of 15 years. "Whenever we come across the word Science, there comes the termTechnology along with it. But we have to respect the pure Scienceand its contribution," he added. Delivering the Sir M Vishveshwaraya lecture at the 103rd IndianScience Congress, on 'Doing Science in India' at University ofMysore, Prof Rao said the US and China publish innumerable papers onScience as compared to India. Prof Rao explained his experience in the field of Indian Science,for which he has been working since the past 62 years. "We have tolook at Science differently. The Indian scientists have worked hardduring early days of the Indian freedom, when the country wasstruggling to earn its bread". He said if Indians do not work hard, the country would notprosper in the field of Science. "I am not satisfied with the growth of Science in India. Thebudgetary allocation of the country on Science and the contributionof Science to GDP is not satisfactory to me. Chinese and Japanesework very hard. As a professor I have observed the hard workingnature of students have come down in the past two decades", he regretted. Prof Rao said science was evoking interest among children inrural areas. "I have seen a number of kids enthusiastic aboutScience. What are they going to do in future? There are a lot ofEinsteins and Faradays in India, but how many opportunities areoffered to them is my concern," he added. The JNCAR chief said when C V Raman, Ramanujam were working hardon new possibilities in Science, there was no government to providethem with scholarships. It is my advice not to worry about themoney, but to work with passion for Science. "Simplicity comes inhand with greatness. Michael Faraday was such a man. When power cameto him, he chose his laboratory over the power. How many of ourscientists will do so, how many will work so selflessly?" he asked. He said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, earlier inthe morning, had spoken about the scenario in the country by 2030,the preparation should begin soon and the works should be done. "If we do not understand the value of time, we will never beserious about our works. We should not take time as it is inabundance. We have to work in a hurry. If we do that, we will bein the top of the world in next 10-15 years," he added.UNI RS/BSP MSP KVV 1620 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0287-519299.Xml Indias largest Science Expo-Pride of India(PoI) was inaugurated by Union Minister for Science & Technology Harsha Vardhan today. The event was started by paying respect and homage to formerPresident and Scientist A P J Abdul Kalam at the Hall of Pride(A part of the PoI Expo). Dr Vardhan also lit up the Vigyan Jyot- Flame of Knowledge whichwas conceptualised on the lines of Olympic Torch and inspired by thevision 2020 of our former President Kalam in making India powerful,prosperous nation by reaching the benefits of science and technologyto every Indian and enriching the quality of life. Ashok Kumar Saxena, General President, Indian Science Congress(ISC), V Manjula the IT-BT Secretary Karnataka, Tanushree Deb Barma,Director, Directorate of ITBT along with other delegates werepresent on the occasion. This year, the Hall of Pride was dedicated to one of the bestStatesmen the country has seen-Mr Abdul Kalam. The great visionary,scientist and Mr Kalam had once inaugurated the event to support the cause of Science. Hall ofPride now enters its 12th year, and this year too it will transcendthe expectations of S&T fraternity congregated during 103rd ISC in the city. Hall of Pride depicts life and times of such personalities is spread over 5000 sq ft of expanse in the Pride of India Expo at Indian Science Congress. The Hall is conceived and designed by India's best of creative minds. The vision behind Hall of Pride is to depict role models and inspire young generation to pursue careersin Science and Industry and dedicate their services to our beloved nation. Hall of Pride was first depicted in the 90th Indian Science Congress hosted by Indian Space Research Organization at Bangalore. In the past, it been inaugurated by eminent personalities likeformer Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, Mr Kalam, and visited every year by all the dignitaries and delegates of Science Congress, Nobel Laureates, Chief Ministers of various States, Science and Technology Ministers of India, thousands of Academicians and millions of students. The largest congregation of science and its interdisciplinary the Expo saw a wide participation from the fraternity with the presence of DRDO, Indian Council for Medical Research, Indian Council forAgricultural Research, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Dept. of Science and Technology, Dept of Atomic Energy, ISRO, Karnataka State Higher Education to name a few. "Vigyan Jyot symbolises not only the great ancient scientific wisdom of our country but also the far brighter future of science in India. We are no longer dependent on the West for new technologies, as now all the cutting edge technologies are available in India. Our scientists have the best possible intellectual acumen and capacityto use science to solve the millions of peoples issues and alleviate the sufferings of the common man more importantly that of the downtrodden. This programme is a very good initiator for the ambitious campaigns of Shri Narendra Modi like Make in IndiaDigital India Swach Bharath Smart Cities to name a few," Dr Vardhan added.UNI BSP/RS MSP KVV 1630 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0287-519314.Xml Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid rich tributesto University of Mysore, saying it was a huge honour and privilegeto address the 103rd Science Congress in the centenary year of this varsity. Speaking after inaugurating the five-day conference, Mr Modi saidsome of the tallest leaders of India have passed through the doorsof this respected institution that included second President ofIndia and greatest philosopher S Radhakrishnan and renownedscientist and Bharata Ratna awardee C N R Rao. "The history of the Science Congress and the University of Mysorebegan around the same time. It was the time of a new awakening inIndia. It sought not just freedom, but also human advancement inIndia. It wanted not just an independent India, but an India thatcould stand independently on the strength of its human resources,scientific capabilities and industrial development. This Universityis a testimony to the vision of a great generation of Indians, the Prime Minister added.UNI RS/BSP MSP KVV 1635 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0287-519324.Xml The present BSF strength in the Punjab sector was inadequate, and the Punjab government wants the force strengthened in the state in view of the terror attack on the Indian Air Force base near Pathankot, Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal said on Sunday. "The BSF strength is not adequate. Because this (Punjab) is a peaceful state, the strength is less. We need more strength (of the BSF), especially because this area is close to the border with Jammu and Kashmir. "There have been two major incidents of infiltration in Punjab through the same sector," Badal pointed out. This was the second major terror attack in Punjab in just over five months. On July 27, 2015, terrorists from Pakistan launched a terror attack on Dinanagar town in Gurdaspur district, leaving seven people dead, including a police official. Badal, who is also the state home minister, said Punjab Police will also have a "second line of defence" in the area to counter any terror threat in future. "We will have a new police lines and a commando battalion in Pathankot for quick response. Also a SWAT (special weapons and tactics) quick response team will be stationed here," Badal said. He said the Centre will be requested to make available better technology to prevent infiltration in the area. "We want technology to be used, like lasers. We should use technology to prevent infiltration," Badal said. --Indo-Asian News Service js/pm/ ( 250 Words) 2016-01-03-17:25:36 (IANS) Ahead of the Foreign Secretaries meeting between India and Pakistan scheduled for the middle of the month, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today held wide ranging consultations with veteran diplomats, including those who have served in Islamabad, on the strategy concerning the neighbouring country. The participants included SK Lambah, G Parthasarathy, Shyam Saran, Shiv Shankar Menon, Satyabrata Pal Sharat Sabharwal and Dr T C A Raghavan who has just completed his term as High Commissioner in Islamabad, official sources said. The meeting, between Indian Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar and his Pakistani counterpart Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry, takes place also in the backdrop of the Pathankot attack carried out reportedly by terrorists belonging to the Jaish-e-Mohammad. Such incidents before any India-Pakistan peace initiative are not new in the history of relations between the two countries and they have derailed the dialogue process in the past. Ms Swaraj is learnt to have discussed in detail the circumstances and challenges thatthe about to be resumed dialogue process with Pakistan involved. The decision to resume the comprehensive dialogue has been taken by Prime Minister NarendraModi and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif during their meeting in Paris on the sidelinesof the climate change conference in November last, and the announcement came during the visit ofMs Swaraj to Islamabad last month to take part in the heart of Asia Conference. Later, Mr Modi's surprise and sudden visit to Lahore on the Christmas day, which also happened to be thebirthday of Mr Sharif, added to the confidence and trust in the renewed attempts to normalise bilateralrelations.UNI NAZ AE RP1740 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0352-519458.Xml BGB Battalion of Benapole camp Ubedar Abdul Hamid said BSF personnel arrested 29 Bangladesh nationals from Bongaon in India on last night on charge of intruding into the Indian Territory, The returnees include four children, eight women and 17 men. Later, BGB handed them over to Benapole Port Police Station. A case was filed against them with the police station, said Sub-inspector Ashraf Hossain.UNI XC-BM AY AS1801 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0214-519363.Xml FARGO -- After Katie and Patrick Lamb had their second child a few months ago, the Fargo couple began looking for a birth control option through their health insurance plan. She assumed that with passage of the Affordable Care Act, contraception would be covered by insurance. Lamb says she was shocked to hear that wasn't the case, because their particular Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota employer group benefit plan is "grandfathered," or exempt, from many of the required changes. Under their grandfathered plan, contraceptives aren't covered for birth control purposes; only for certain medical conditions -- extremely painful menstrual periods, for example. "It's really frustrating," Lamb said. "I want to get the word out. I imagine I'm not alone," she added. A grandfathered group plan is one that existed before March 23, 2010, the date President Barack Obama signed the ACA, often referred to as "Obamacare," into law. Under the law, health insurance providers can keep their existing plans as long as they don't make changes that substantially increase costs or cut benefits for plan holders. According to the federal government's healthcare.gov website, grandfathered plans may not offer the same rights and protections that other plans offer. For example, they don't have to cover preventive care for free, guarantee your right to appeal a coverage decision or protect your choice of doctors and access to emergency care. Wimmer's Diamonds in Fargo also has a grandfathered plan through BCBS of ND for its dozen or so full-time employees, and co-owner Brad Wimmer says while most seem satisfied with the plan, the company reviews it with a representative annually. "We kind of have a team meeting to decide if everyone is happy with the situation," Wimmer said. Bob Lunneborg, controller at Wimmer's Diamonds, says the business periodically gets a quote from another insurance company to see if employees want to make a change. "Nobody wants to," Lunneborg said. "They all like what we're doing," Wimmer said. "We make the final decision, but they do have a great deal of input." Plans diminishing The percentage of employees enrolled in grandfathered group health plans has declined steadily since the Affordable Care Act took effect, according to a survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a non-profit organization that tracks and studies health care trends nationwide. In 2011, 56 percent of all firms had grandfathered plans, compared to 25 percent in 2015. Small firms with fewer than 200 workers were more likely than large firms of 200+ workers to have grandfathered plans. Luther Stueland, manager of Group Underwriting and Health Policy at BCBSND, isn't surprised by the decline in grandfathered plans. "We knew it would be a pool that would shrink," Stueland said. Each year, Blue Cross loses about ten percent of its grandfathered business due to employers significantly raising copayments or deductibles and thus losing grandfathered status, or to some buying plans from the Blues' competitors, he said. Grandfathered business now makes up less than 50 percent of BCBSND enrollment. Stueland said Blue Cross has discontinued some of its grandfathered plans on its own. "Once a plan has an enrollment that's very small, it doesn't make sense to continue it," Stueland said. "We have to ask, is this a viable pool to maintain?" Stueland says most large employer groups offer non-grandfathered ACA plans, often referred to in the industry as "metallic" plans because of their bronze, silver, gold and platinum levels. However, if a small employer group plan is being discontinued, that business is eligible to choose a metallic plan. A bronze plan is one where the insurance company pays 60 percent and the employee pays 40 percent of health care costs, while a platinum plan is a 90-10 percent split. Time for reevaluation Katie and Patrick Lamb decided to switch insurance plans about two years ago when he started his surgery residency at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences. The school pays salary and health insurance premiums for its residents, and since the couple would have the benefit of not having to pay out of pocket, she could cut back on her hours as a nurse and be at home more with their children. However, word that they'd have to pay the full cost of her chosen birth control option, about $2,000 for an IUD, didn't sit well with her. "I thought it was something that had to be covered now," Lamb said. "It just doesn't seem fair." She learned she had no grounds to appeal under her plan, and said she's now waiting for the re-enrollment period to come around to re-evaluate their options. At Wimmer's Diamonds, they're also going to take a closer look in 2016. Wimmer said he and wife recently had some preventive care tests done and were surprised to learn they were not covered. He set up a meeting with his insurer for later this month to address that. Stueland says Blue Cross does cover some preventive services, although there is a member copayment. He said adding more of those preventive services will bring higher costs and people haven't asked for them 'en masse' yet. "While we believe there are a lot of benefits for preventive services in the long term, it's (hard to justify them) in the short term," Stueland said. Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Mukul Roy today visited East Midnapore district of West Bengal and asked the party workers to gear up for the 2016 Assembly polls. Relegated to the sidelines following his CBI grilling in the Saradha scam, Mr Roy, who undertook a sudden visit to the district and was greeted by hundreds of party workers indicating his immense popularity, however, he said that his visit is completely personal in nature. I have come here to offer prayers to Tilkigarh Mandir and this visit has nothing to do with party assignment. On the other hand, speculation are that the party high command is judging the public acceptance of Mr Roy as well as of the party workers through this visit. He held discussions with party supremo and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at her Kalighat residence on Friday after a gap of eleven months, signalling his "homecoming' on the eve of the assembly elections. "She led the way in ushering in change in Bengal. The elections are approaching; naturally, I had detailed discussions with her. Trinamool will come back to power in Bengal with more than two-third majority," said Mr Roy. Once considered Trinamool's second-in-command and credited as the architect of its electoral success, Roy was stripped of all party posts including as its national general secretary. Soon after that, the founder general secretary of the Trinamool was removed from the post by Ms Banerjee on February 28. Ever since, Roy was reduced to an ordinary party member and he stayed away from all activities of the AITC.UNI BM AY AE AN1840 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0214-519490.Xml In a condolence message, the Chief Minister said in the death of Johar the state has lost a balanced and an experienced leader, who believed in clean and value based politics. Expressing his heartfelt sympathies with the members of the bereaved family, Mr Badal prayed to the Almighty to grant eternal peace to the departed soul and give strength and courage to them tobear this irreparable loss. Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal has also condoled the death of the veteran Congress leader.UNI DB AY AE PR1737 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0293-519356.Xml Security forces on Sunday nailed two more terrorists who had attacked the Indian Air Force base at Pathankot along with four others. Seven security personnel, including one officer of the National Security Guard, were killed in the counter-offensive against the terrorists, as a final combing operation was in progress till evening. The terrorists, suspected to be from Pakistan and who attacked the IAF base, failed to destroy IAF assets due to timely action by security forces, union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi said in New Delhi on Sunday. "The operation is still continuing. The engagement is still on. Operation will continue till the whole air base has been cleared of any intruders, any terrorist," Air Commodore J.S. Dhamoon, the Air Officer Commanding (AOC) of the Pathankot Air Force Station (AFS), told the media. "Today (Sunday) morning, two (terrorists) were engaged. This operation is at the completion stage," Dhamoon said. Four terrorists were killed on Saturday in a 15-hour gunfight in which the NSG, Indian Army and IAF commandos were involved, assisted by IAF attack helicopters. Smoke could be seen coming out of the IAF air base in Pathankot, 250 km from Chandigarh, on Sunday evening as the gunfight moved to an end. The home secretary said four terrorists were neutralised on Saturday after hours of fighting. At that time, "it was not certain if there were other terrorists or not." But on Sunday morning, it was discovered there were two more terrorists, he said. According to him, the terrorists killed six IAF personnel and injured eight others. An NSG officer was killed on Sunday morning and 12 of his colleagues were injured. "Because of early action, the terrorists were unable to move to their likely intended aim but were contained in an area of heavy growth of trees and shrubs and surrounded," Mehrishi said. He also said the security forces had sounded an alert in the area, including the IAF base, ahead of Saturday's pre-dawn attack. All vital installations and government offices were informed about a likely terror attack and efforts were mounted to track down the terrorists who had earlier killed a taxi driver, he said. "Due to the active intelligence inputs and quick action taken by security forces, especially the IAF, we were able to ensure there was no damage to the assets of the air force. Therefore, the main apparent aim of the terrorists stands defeated." Giving details of the attack, Air Commodore Dhamoon said: "During the search operation late in the night, one group was engaged by the Garuds (IAF commandos). One Garud was martyred and one was injured. "The terrorists, estimated to be four in number, managed to run away from there and headed to other buildings. They kept firing while running." He said the terrorists, while running, fired at the DSC (Defence Service Corps) mess where early morning breakfast was being prepared. "One DSC jawan ran after them, jostled with one of the terrorists who were running. With the terrorist's rifle itself, he killed the terrorist. Thereafter, he was killed by one of the bullets of the terrorists," Dhamoon said. "The terrorists were cordoned off in one area and the operation continued throughout the night (Saturday) and in the morning (Sunday)," he said. Dhamoon said seven security personnel -- one Garud commando, five from the DSC and one officer of the NSG -- were killed. There was confusion on Saturday evening about the number of terrorists killed and whether the operation against them had ended. On Saturday, Home Minister Rajnath Singh tweeted that the operation had ended and that five terrorists were killed. However, the tweet was later withdrawn as it became clear that only four terrorists were killed and more could still be holed up inside the frontier IAF base. The technical area, where the IAF's MIG-21 fighter jets, MI-35 attack helicopters and other critical assets are stationed, remained secure. A thorough search and combing operation by the army, NSG, IAF commandos, paramilitary forces and Punjab Police continued on Sunday at the IAF base and nearby areas. IAF helicopters flew over the base and nearby areas through the night and since early Sunday to assist the ground forces. "Security agencies are engaged in a gunfight with two terrorists," Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal said on Sunday. Gunshots and blasts were heard inside the IAF base again on Sunday morning and afternoon. Badal demanded strengthening of the Border Security Force (BSF) in Punjab in view of two major incidents of infiltration by Pakistani terrorists. "The BSF strength is not adequate. Because this (Punjab) is a peaceful state, the strength is less. We need more strength (of the BSF), especially because this area is close to the border with Jammu and Kashmir," Badal said. Meanwhile, the body of slain NSG officer Lt. Col. Niranjan Kumar will be taken to his hometown near Pallakad in Kerala on Monday for the last rites, a relative said on Sunday. The NSG officer, whose parents hail from Kerela, was settled in Bengaluru. He is survived by his wife and a two-year-old child. --Indo-Asian News Service js/pm/dg ( 858 Words) 2016-01-03-19:25:36 (IANS) A US marines' spokesman said that the noise levels suggested that robot dogs couldn't be used in real-world operations, Cnet.com reported. "The Marines drew the line at the limitations of the robot itself. They took it as it was: A loud robot that's going to give away their position," Kyle Olson, a spokesman for the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab, told Military.com. Known as 'the big dog', the Legged Squad Support System (LS3) was designed in partnership with Boston Dynamics, a robotics company owned by Google. The machines, also referred to as robotic mules, are capable of carrying up to 400 pounds (181kg) of weight and can follow soldiers through varying terrain. (ANI) Appreciating the efforts of Punjab government and security agencies at Pathankot in taking swift action against the terrorists, Union Minister for Food Processing Industry Harsimrat Kaur Badal today said ''the anti-peace forces'' are behind this episode that are perturbed over the Indo-Pak relations getting better. Talking to media persons during the sangat darshan program held in different villages, she congratulated the security forces for successfully ending five terrorists. She also paid tributes to the bravehearts who laid their lives for nation and said that the nation was proud of them. Ms Badal also appreciated the efforts of Punjab government in laying out strategy to further curtail damage the terrorists could have caused at Pathankot airbase and said that earlier at Dinanagar, Gurdaspur, the Punjab police has given a befitting reply to the terrorists. The Union Minister said Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Pakistan recently and Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif accorded him warm welcome giving strong indications of the improved Indo-Pak relations. The people against peace in both countries could not bear the improving equation of two countries and hence took such cowardice action. Answering a media query, she emphasised that the Mukh Mantri Tirath Darshan Yatras only motive was to help people have darshan of their religious places free of cost and there was no political design behind it. She said that this yatra will help strengthen the bonds of brotherhood between people of different sects, which is not wrong on anyway. Rubbishing the claims of Congress regarding this yatra, Ms Badal said when Congress was in power in the state, it failed to do any good for the people and now when SAD-BJP government has taken this initiative, the Congress was devising new tactics to belittle it. Responding to media query on Abohar incident, she said it was a matter of deep sorrow and that the law was taking its course. She said strict action will be taken against those causing atrocities. Earlier, while addressing gathering during the sangat darshan program, she said Punjab was the only state wherein the natural calamity affected farmers have already been distributed compensation. The government was also going to distribute compensation for the farm labourers of cotton belt which is Rs 64 crore, ten per cent of the Rs 640 crore distributed to cotton farmers, very soon whereas other cotton producing states like Haryana, Rajasthan and Maharashtra have still not given compensation to the white fly affected cotton farmers.UNI DB AE AS1928 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0293-519575.Xml Gursewak belonged to the nearby village Garnala. He alongwith other commandos foisted the terrorists attempt to enter the airbase at the cost of their lives. Gursewak, holding the post of corporal, was on security duty and fought with the terrorists and killed them lest they succeeded in their mission to attack the air base. Deputy Commissioner Ashok Sangwan alongwith SDM and other officers from the administration also went to express their sympathies with the aggrieved family. Sucha Singh, father of Gursewak, said his son was serving with the 7 Wing of Air Force as a corporal. He was married on November 18 last year and had joined duty on December 27 after availing of his vacations. His elder brother Hardip Singh is in Army and serving with 59 Engineers Regiments. Sucha Singh said when Gursewak was only six-year-old he expressed his desire of joining the Army. Sucha Singh himself served Army for more than six years. He said although he had lost his son, he was proud of him that he achieved martyrdom while defending the country fighting the terrorists. Gursewaks newly-wed wife who is at her parents house, has not been informed of the death of her husband. The DC took stock of all the arrangements of the cremation with Air Force and Police officials. He said the last rites would be performed with full state honours. UNI XC DB AE AN2003 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0293-519763.Xml Punjab Congress today hit back at Education Minister Daljeet Cheema ridiculing his encyclopaedic ignorance over confusing internet facility with the wifi availability in the schools and other educational institutions. The party asked Dr Cheema to specify one single educational institution where his government has provided wifi facilities as he has claimed. Referring to Dr Cheemas statement, Vimal Sumbly, Media Adviser and Spokesperson for the PCC president, said the Minister had only betrayed his ignorance and lack of knowledge by criticising Capt Amarinder over his announcement about providing free wifi facility to students in educational institutions. Cheema appears to be ignorant about both, technology as well as the facts, he remarked. He pointed out that PCC chief Capt Amarinder Singh has promised free wifi to the students as availability of internet in educational institutions does not necessarily mean free access to the students. Availability of internet services and providing free wifi to the students are two different things which Dr Cheema needs to learn and understand, Sumbly said and added that as on now there is no educational institution in the state that provides free wifi facility to the students. Moreover, he said even the internet services available in the schools, which the minister is claiming, were provided first during Capt Singh's tenure as the Chief Minister and later extended further under the Congress UPA governments Sarv Shikhshiya Abhiyan and the Akalis did not have any contribution worth the name.UNI DB AE AN2013 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0293-519804.Xml The fight to flush out the remaining two suspected Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists holed up in the non-operational area of Pathankot airbase, is still going on. More than 40 hours have passed since the terrorist group stormed the airbase. The security forces, including Army, DFC, and SWAT of Punjab Police, and NSG commandoes, had killed five terrorists, supposed to be holed up in the airbase, but two terrorists were yet to be banished from the area of the Air force station. According to highly-placed police sources, the possibility of the presence of more terrorists in the area of the air force station could not be rued out. DIG Amritsar border range Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh has said earlier in the morning that there could be more terrorists, that is why the combined search and sanitising operation was carried outjointly by the Army, NSG, IAF and DFC (Defense Security Corps) was not discontinued. The sources also suggested that the possibility of infiltration of nearly 10 terrorists from across the border could not be ruled out. The sources had though confirmed that the security forces had liquidated five terrorists but the possibility of presence of two more terrorists, holed up in the area of air force station indicated that the number of terrorists who stormed into the airbase was more than five.MORE UNI XC DB RJ PR2031 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0293-519861.Xml ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS, BISMARCK Monday: Baked chicken nuggets, soy butter and grape jelly sandwich, mashed potatoes, fruit and vegetable bar, milk. Tuesday: Taco in a bag, deli turkey sandwich, whole kernel corn, fruit and vegetable bar, milk. Wednesday: Shredded beef sandwich, soy butter and grape jelly sandwich, raisins, pudding cup, fruit and vegetable bar, milk. Thursday: Chicken ranch wrap, deli chicken sandwich, mixed vegetables, fruit and vegetable bar, milk. Friday: Cheesy breadsticks, strawberry cream cheese bagel stick and string cheese, green beans, rice crispy treat, fruit and vegetable bar, milk. SECONDARY SCHOOLS, BISMARCK Monday: Fajita chicken wrap, meatball sub, green beans, pizza line, sub line, salad bar, milk. Tuesday: Chicken chili crispitos, taco salad, whole kernel corn, Santa Fe rice, pizza line, sub line, salad bar, milk. Wednesday: Hamburger, corn dog, potato wedges, rice crispy treat, pizza line, sub line, salad bar, milk. Thursday: Lasagna with garlic toast, chicken patty sandwich, peas and carrots, pizza line, sub line, salad bar, milk. Friday: Sweet and sour chicken with rice, cheesy breadsticks, steamed broccoli, pizza line, sub line, salad bar, milk. ST. MARYS CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL, BISMARCK Monday: Chicken tenders, mashed potatoes with gravy, asparagus, breadsticks, fruit, milk. Tuesday: Quesadillas, nacho chips and salsa, cold taco salad, fruit, milk. Wednesday: Meatballs and gravy over rice, green beans, baked apples, fruit, milk. Thursday: Chickenburger on a bun, cooked carrots, fresh vegetable sticks, fruit, milk. Friday: French bread pizza, Italian salad, pineapple, yogurt, milk. CATHEDRAL OF THE HOLY SPIRIT SCHOOL, BISMARCK Monday: Hot dog on whole-grain bun, oven fries, vegetables with dip, fruit, salad bar, milk. Tuesday: Potato nachos with taco meat, shredded lettuce, shredded cheese, garlic toast, fruit, salad bar, milk. Wednesday: Chicken strips, baked potato, corn, fruit, salad bar, milk. Thursday: Hot ham and cheese, vegetable soup, vegetables with dip, fruit, salad bar, milk. Friday: Breakfast pizza, hashbrown potatoes, muffin, orange, fruit, salad bar, milk. ST. ANNE SCHOOL, BISMARCK Monday: Rib sandwich, potatoes, ham sandwich, vegetable, fruit, Sunbutter and jelly sandwich, salad bar, milk. Tuesday: Mini corn dogs, baked beans, ham sandwich, vegetable, fruit, Sunbutter and jelly sandwich, salad bar, milk. Wednesday: Ham and cheese hot pocket, potatoes, ham sandwich, vegetable, fruit, Sunbutter and jelly sandwich, salad bar, milk. Thursday: Chicken a la king over biscuit, egg roll, ham sandwich, vegetable, fruit, Sunbutter and jelly sandwich, salad bar, milk. Friday: Pancakes, egg with potatoes, vegetable, fruit, Sunbutter and jelly sandwich, salad bar, milk. SHILOH SCHOOL, BISMARCK Monday: Chicken a la king, soup of the day, salad bar, milk. Tuesday: Sloppy Joes, vegetable, fruit, soup of the day, salad bar, milk. Wednesday: Tacos, vegetable, fruit, soup of the day, salad bar, milk. Thursday: Chicken nuggets, vegetable, fruit, soup of the day, salad bar, milk. Friday: Sub sandwiches, vegetable, fruit, soup of the day, salad bar, milk. MARTIN LUTHER SCHOOL, BISMARCK Monday: Hot dog, mashed potatoes, sauerkraut, fruit, milk. Tuesday: Chicken fajita on softshell, vegetable, fruit, milk. Wednesday: Tater tot hotdish, vegetable, fruit, milk. Thursday: Macaroni and cheese, sausage, vegetable, fruit, milk. Friday: Subs, chips, vegetable, fruit, milk. ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS, MANDAN Monday: Italian dunkers with pretzel, Sunbutter and jelly sandwich, chef salad with breadstick, cheesy broccoli, green pepper strips, fruit, milk. Tuesday: Hamburger, sub sandwich, chef salad with breadstick, cherry tomatoes, baked beans, fruit, milk. Wednesday: Rib-b-que sandwich, turkey wrap, chef salad with breadstick, potato smiles, corn, sherbet, fruit, milk. Thursday: Super nachos, ham and cheese sandwich, chef salad with breadstick, pleasing peas, red pepper strips, fruit, milk. Friday: Lasagna rollup with garlic toast, chicken salad sandwich, chef salad with breadstick, celery sticks, candied carrots, fruit, milk. JUNIOR AND SENIOR HIGH SCHOOLS, MANDAN Monday: Flatbread chicken fajita, traveling taco with Spanish rice, candied carrots, pizza line, deli sub line, salad bar, milk. Tuesday: Asian cuisine with rice, mini corn dogs with fries, steamed broccoli, hamburger with fries, deli sub line, salad bar, milk. Wednesday: Spaghetti with meat sauce and garlic toast, cheesy breadsticks, peas, pizza line, deli sub line, salad bar, milk. Thursday: Chicken strips, chili and crackers, corn, cinnamon roll, hamburger with fries, deli sub line, salad bar, milk. Friday: Quesadilla pizza, barbecue pork sandwich, baked beans, pizza line, deli sub line, salad bar, milk. CHRIST THE KING SCHOOL, MANDAN Monday: French toast with syrup, cheese omelet, tri patty potato, lettuce salad, fruit, milk. Tuesday: Sloppy Joe on whole-wheat bun, sweet corn, lettuce salad, chilled fruit, milk. Wednesday: Chicken fajita salad, black bean and corn salsa, cheese, corn chips, fruit, milk. Thursday: Turkey and cheese sandwich, chicken noodle soup, romaine salad, fruit, milk. Friday: Beef stew, lettuce salad, baby carrots, slice of bread, fruit, milk. Talking to newspersons at his residence here, he said in the past also, Sikhs had taken lead from the Gurus in the hour of crisis and performed ardas at Akal Takht unitedly, keeping aside their differences. He also appealed to all Sikhs to weae saffron dress on that day and express their solidarity. "When I was the Jathedar of Akal Takht, we passed a resolution to frame rules and regulations for the appointments of Jathedars of five religious seats, but nothing had been happened, as a result of which the community is facing crisis now," the former Akal Takht Jathedar said.UNI XC DB RJ PR2100 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0293-519887.Xml The meeting came in the wake of the attack at the Pathankot Air Force Station, where the combing operation for two terrorists is still on. Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi four terrorists had been neutralised last evening, while two more were being engaged by the security forces at the base. "The coordination between all the agencies was very good and pro-active stance helped us in averting a much bigger and a major damage of calamity," said Air Marshal Anil Khosla, Director General, Air Operations, Air Headquarters. "In Pathankot airbase, the combing operation is still going on. During the search operation, a blast was reported from inside in which a Lt. Col. of the Indian Army lost his life and five commandos were injured who are being treated. The total number of martyrs during the operation has reached seven so far," he added. (ANI) Former employees of the Associated Journals Ltd (publishers of the now defunct National Herald, Navjivan and Qaumi Awaz) employees union, Lucknow today decided to stage a dharna at the gate of Herald office in Lucknow from January 18 to 21, against the step-motherly treatment meted out to them by the company's management, which also failed to fulfill its promise made to them. Before dharna, a general body meeting of the employees will be held at the office gate on January 16. This was decided at a meeting of the former officebearers of the union, presided over by its president Kazim Hussain, according to a statement issued by General Secretary of the union, Dilip Sinha here. The Lucknow employees are demanding payment by the same formula that was applied in payment to their counterpart in New Delhi, which was promised by the management at the time of final payment to them in January 1999. Besides, Lucknow being the registered office of the company was closed in 1999, earlier than the branch office in New Delhi, which stopped publication of the paper in 2008. Lucknow employees are also demanding wages of this period, Sinha said. He said the meeting also demanded opening of three newspapers and urged the chairman of the Associated Journals Limited to hold a meeting with the officebearers of the union on their demands before the meeting of shareholders, slated for January 21.UNI MB RJ 2121 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0352-519850.Xml Modi held the meeting soon after his return after his two-day visit to Karnataka. "Immediately on landing in Delhi, PM @narendramodi is chairing a high level meeting with the NSA, Foreign Secretary & other officials," the Prime Minister's Office said in a tweet. Sources said the NSA briefed the prime minister about the operation carried out by security forces, including the National Security Guard, Indian Army and IAF commandos. Security forces on Sunday nailed two more terrorists who had attacked the Indian Air Force base. Four terrorists were killed on Saturday in a 15-hour gunfight. The terrorists are believed to be from Pakistan-based terror outfit Jaish-e-Muhammad. Seven security personnel, including an NSG officer, were also killed in the counter-offensive against the terrorists. The terror attack came almost a week after Modi flew into Lahore, on his way back from Afghanistan, for a surprise meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif. Both leaders had vowed to pursue the derailed bilateral peace process. Foreign secretaries of India and Pakistan are expected to meet on January 15 to draw up a roadmap for bilateral engagement. The Modi government has faced sharp criticism from Congress and some other parties over its policy on Pakistan. The opposition parties have said the Modi government's policy on Pakistan "lacks clarity and consistency". --Indo-Asian News Service ps/pm/ ( 269 Words) 2016-01-03-23:15:37 (IANS) United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was "deeply dismayed" by the execution of a prominent Shi'ite Muslim cleric and 46 other people in Saudi Arabia and called for calm and restraint.Saudi Arabia executed cleric Nimr al-Nimr and dozens of al Qaeda members yesterday, signaling it would not tolerate attacks, whether by Sunni jihadists or minority Shi'ites. The executions stirred sectarian anger across the Middle East."Sheik al-Nimr and a number of the other prisoners executed had been convicted following trials that raised serious concerns over the nature of the charges and the fairness of the process," Ban's spokesman said in a statement yesterday.Ban had raised Nimr's case with Saudi leaders on a number of occasions and urged Saudi Arabia to commute all death sentences that had been imposed, the spokesman said."The Secretary-General also calls for calm and restraint in reaction to the execution of Sheikh Nimr and urges all regional leaders to work to avoid the exacerbation of sectarian tensions," the spokesman said.Iranian protesters stormed the Saudi Embassy in Tehran early today as Shi'ite Muslim Iran reacted with fury to Sunni Saudi Arabia's execution of Nimr.Ban "deplores the violence by demonstrators against the Saudi Embassy in Tehran," his spokesman said. REUTERS DS RK0920 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0177-518852.Xml The judiciary has issued order to identify and arrest others who attacked the embassy, Xinhua quoted Tehran's Prosecutor General Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi as saying. Iranian mobs, protesting the execution of a Shia leader by Saudi Arabia, raided and set fire to the Saudi embassy in Tehran late Saturday. The move came hours after the Saudi interior ministry announced that prominent Shia leader Nimr al-Nimr and 46 other men were executed on terror charges. In an announcement on Saturday, Iran's foreign ministry urged the police to protect the diplomatic compounds of Saudi Arabia in the country. Earlier in the day, Iran's foreign ministry summoned Saudi Arabian charge d'affaires to Tehran and strongly condemned the execution of Nimr al-Nimr. --Indo-Asian News Service py/vt ( 154 Words) 2016-01-03-14:27:35 (IANS) Two of the bombers detonated their vehicle-borne explosives at the gate of Camp Speicher, a former US base outside the Sunni city of Tikrit. Three others detonated their explosives after entering the base, the sources said. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the blasts in a statement distributed by supporters online.REUTERS SA CS1515 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0386-519259.Xml Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has said he backs a criminal investigation into leaders of the pro-Kurdish opposition over comments about Kurdish self-rule, saying those who committed constitutional crimes must pay the price. A Turkish prosecutor opened an investigation into Selahattin Demirtas, co-head of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), last week after a two-day congress of Kurdish groups called for greater self-governance. The probe comes as predominantly Kurdish southeast Turkey experiences some of its worst violence since the 1990s after a two-year ceasefire between Kurdish militants and the state collapsed in July. "The statements of the HDP leaders are constitutional crimes. There are investigations started by prosecutors against them. These should be followed up," Erdogan told reporters in comments published by the Hurriyet newspaper today. "I believe the process that will start with the removal of immunities will have a positive impact on the mood of our country in fighting terrorism," he said. As members of parliament, Demirtas and other HDP leaders would normally enjoy immunity from such cases, although they could be prosecuted and have the sentence suspended until a time when they no longer have immunity. Erdogan urged parliament last July to lift the immunity of politicians with suspected links to militants, after a prosecutor launched an investigation into Demirtas over accusations he "provoked and armed" protesters. The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) first took up arms in 1984 to push for greater autonomy in the southeast, and some 40,000 people have been killed in the violence. It is designated a terrorist group by the United States and European Union. Erdogan said on Thursday there would be no let-up in a military campaign that he said had killed more than 3,000 militants last year. Demirtas has said the campaign is targeting local people who are presented as "terrorists", a charge the government denies. The HDP said today that around 1,000 people were trapped in the Zap district of Silopi province in the southeast, many sheltering in the basements of their houses, as the area came under tank fire. Television footage also showed smoke billowing from buildings under tank fire in the nearby district of Cizre.REUTERS SA AS1753 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0386-519545.Xml German Commissioner Guenther Oettinger will urge the European Union to start a process against Poland over its proposed law on control of state-run media, he told a newspaper today. The Polish parliament passed an amendment to the media law, put forward by the ruling conservative-nationalist Law and Justice party (PiS), in December that gives a minister authority to appoint managers of state-run radio and television stations. It must now be signed by the president to come into force. Critics say the law is part of PiS plans to increase state control over the media. Oettinger said he would raise the issue at the next meeting of the European Commission on January 13. "There is a lot to be said for activating the mechanism on the rule of law and putting Warsaw under supervision," Oettinger, Commissioner for the digital economy, told Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung (FAS). The mechanism was adopted by the EU in 2014 and means it can issue an early warning and enter dialogue with any member state the Commission sees as a threat to the rule of law. If the country does not respond, the Commission can start a process which could ultimately lead to the withdrawal of its voting rights due to a breach of European values. Without citing sources, the FAS said Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker had put the issue on the agenda of the meeting and wanted to use that instrument. The Commission has written to Polish ministers expressing concern over the media law and seeking an explanation of how it would take EU rules on media freedoms into consideration. The Eurosceptic PiS, which ousted the governing centrist party in October's election, has rejected criticism that its policies are undermining democracy. It argues that it has a mandate to push for more independence from Brussels. It has also caused concern within the EU with its amendment to a law on the constitutional court which critics say will erode checks and balances on government powers.REUTERS SA PR1815 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0386-519588.Xml The United States is "deeply disappointed" by Rwandan President Paul Kagame's New Year's announcement that he would seek a third term in 2017, according to the US State Department. Kagame, who has been president since 2000, has effectively been in control since his rebel force marched into Kigali to end the 1994 genocide. He had been limited to two terms, but Rwanda approved constitutional changes last year that would allow him to stay in power until 2034, if he wins elections. "The United States is deeply disappointed that President Paul Kagame has announced his intention to run for a third term in office," John Kirby, a spokesman for the US State Department, said in a statement late yesterday. The United States is a major donor to Rwanda and provides military aid. It has long praised Kagame for transforming the nation since the genocide. It has expressed alarm at the growing list of African leaders seeking to extend their time in office. Neighbouring Burundi, which shares a history of ethnic fighting with Rwanda, was plunged into chaos in April over President Pierre Nkurunziza's announcement he would seek a third term, which the opposition criticized as unconstitutional. "The United States believes constitutional transitions of power are essential for strong democracies and that efforts by incumbents to change rules to stay in power weaken democratic institutions," Kirby's statement said.Rights groups acknowledge Kagame has broad support but accuse the authorities of stifling the media and opposition voices, charges the government denies. The changes allow Kagame to run for another seven-year term in 2017, followed by two five-year terms afterwards. "He has violated democratic principles," the spokesman for Rwanda's tiny opposition Green Party, Jean Deogratias Tuyishime, told Reuters. "This is a failure for Rwanda as a nation." REUTERS MI SA BD1828 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0386-519590.Xml The June storm that knocked down the building where the Bismarck office of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Women, Infants and Children program was located had good timing. The June 19 storm brought winds stronger than 80 mph and caused damage throughout the Bismarck area. After the building housing the WIC office, at 2400 E. Broadway Ave., went down, staff moved to another part of the same building, located at 200 N. 24th St. Shannon Spotts, director of the office, said the storm hit on a Friday, and the staff at the WIC office was able to get everything out of the destroyed office over the weekend. The office closed the following Monday but reopened by Tuesday in the new location. We were fortunate that it happened on a weekend, Spotts said. Some papers were destroyed, and some computers and phones were damaged, and Spotts said a federal grant helped replace the ruined items. The WIC staff spent about five months displaced, with much of the offices work in boxes. It was quite the adjustment, and we had to make it work, Spotts said. Repairs on the 2400 E. Broadway Ave. location were completed in the second week of November, and the office got back to its old location, complete with new paint and new carpet. Spotts said the 24th Street location did not offer the privacy that the regular office did, making the original office a more preferred destination. Were open for business and happy to be back where we are and hoping clients are happy with where we are, she said. France deeply deplores Saudi Arabia's execution of 47 people including a Shi'ite Muslim cleric and called on regional leaders to do everything to avoid exacerbating sectarian tension, the foreign ministry said on today. "France reiterates its constant opposition to the death penalty, in all places and all circumstances," the ministry said in a statement. France had nurtured increasingly closer links with Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Arab region due to its tough stance on Iran and aligned policies on conflicts across the Middle East. REUTERS MI SA PR2015 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0387-519856.Xml German Chancellor Angela Merkel's allies in Bavaria stepped up criticism of her open-door refugee policy today, with their leader demanding a cap of 200,000 migrants a year, about a fifth of last year's level. Merkel faces splits in her conservative bloc and coalition with the Social Democrats (SPD) over her insistence that Germany can cope with the refugee crisis as towns struggle to house migrants, many having fled war in the Middle East and Africa. Horst Seehofer, the combative leader of the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU) in Bavaria, where most migrants arriving via the Balkans enter Germany, told Bild am Sonntag it was possible to integrate up to 200,000 asylum seekers and refugees a year. "Anything more than that, I think is too much," he told the paper. "The central goal for 2016 must be to limit the number of migrants. We are at the moment a long way from this goal." Seehofer hosts Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron at a meeting of his CSU party this week in the remote resort of Wildbad Kreuth and refugees will be a big topic. A magnet for migrants partly due to generous social benefits, Europe's biggest economy is taking in more than any other EU state. It registered 1.09 million migrants last year, a newspaper reported last week. The CSU has long called for a cap and has repeatedly threatened to take action, such as sending refugees back to other countries. So far it has not acted on those threats and towards the end of last year, Seehofer's tone had softened. The CSU chief also warned that Germany's budget goals were at risk if migrants kept arriving at the same rate.Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble aims for a balanced budget this year. "If the refugee numbers stay at 2015 levels, a budget with no new borrowing is hardly do-able," Seehofer said. Merkel, whose popularity has waned due to the refugee crisis before five regional elections this year, has rejected a cap but in a nod to her critics, she told her Christian Democrat (CDU) party last month that the number of migrants would fall. The SPD said Seehofer's remark exposed conservative rifts. "Angela Merkel and Horst Seehofer must reach agreement within the conservative camp. Their row is unsettling people," said SPD General Secretary Katrina Barley. REUTERS PY PR2035 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0387-519875.Xml The United States and its allies conducted 26 strikes against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria yesterday, the coalition leading the operations said in a statement today. In Syria, one strike struck near Manbij, hitting an Islamic State tactical unit and destroying four Islamic State buildings and a vehicle, the Combined Joint Task Force said today. The coalition also struck targets near Deir al Zor, Ayn Isa, and Washiyah. The coalition said it used fighter, attack, bomber, and remotely piloted aircraft against Islamic State targets in the region. In Iraq, near Ramadi, seven strikes struck an Islamic State tactical unit and destroyed three tactical vehicles, two Islamic State vehicles, a vehicle borne improvised explosive device, and three Islamic State buildings, two heavy machine gun positions, an Islamic State fighting position, an Islamic State staging location, suppressed a vehicle borne improvised explosive device, damaged a staging location, and denied Islamic State access to terrain. Other strikes struck near Fallujah, Kirkuk, Kisik, Mosul, Qayyarah, Sinjar, Sultan Abdallah, and Tal Afar, the statement said. REUTERS MI PY AN2118 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0387-519903.Xml Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said today Saudi Arabia's execution of a Shi'ite cleric was a "message of blood", and Riyadh sought to create sectarian strife across the world. The execution yesterday of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a vocal critic of the Saudi government, drew Shi'ite anger across the region, with protesters in regional rival Iran storming the Saudi Embassy and leaders condemning the move. "We are today faced by an appalling event, a huge event that Al Saud took lightly ... but this is an event that cannot be taken lightly," Nasrallah said in a speech broadcast live on the Lebanese Shi'ite group's Al Manar television. "Al Saud wants Sunni-Shi'ite strife. They are the ones who ignited it before, and are doing so in every part of the world." Nimr was executed alongside 46 other people, including 43 Sunni jihadists, some of them al Qaeda leaders and ideologues. He was the most vocal critic of the ruling Al Saud dynasty among the country's Shi'ite minority and had come to be seen as a leader of younger Shi'ite activists, who had tired of the failure of older, more measured leaders to achieve equality with Sunnis. Shi'ite Hezbollah has been fighting on the side of President Bashar al-Assad against Sunni-backed insurgent groups in Syria.REUTERS MI PY AN2121 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0387-519921.Xml A significant start to 2016 will occur Jan. 12 when President Barack Obama gives his last State of the Disunion address to Congress. This time, the Republican side of the chamber will applaud. That will be the significant part. Gov. Ed Schafer will be picking up the reins as interim president of the University of North Dakota this month. He has been preparing for the job by pushing a chain around his garage. That best represents the chain of command in higher education. In North Dakota, organization charts reflect pay scales, not authority. Russian and American astronauts get along famously at the space station. The road to peace is sending more Russians and more Americans into space. Smart astronauts are putting off extended space travel because it becomes more uncertain every day what the country will look like when they return. They may be considered immigrants and refused admission. March 1 is Super Tuesday, when 14 states will choose delegates to party conventions. Donald Trump is being given the edge in the Bible Belt states because they see him as the ideal manifestation of Christian love and humility. One nation under God needs his kind of leadership. The big uncertainty of 2016: Will Donald Trump hand Democrats the same victory given them by Barry Goldwater in 1964? North Dakota criminal justice people are concerned about the dramatic increase in the number of folks filling prison cells at $45,000 a year. Legislators are focused on the cost of jail time but I question the numbers. If there are too many folks in prison, why do we still have a lot of miscreants running around robbing, raping and pillaging? As far as state revenue is concerned, 2015 was a tragic year. Oil prices dropped over 60 percent and state revenue went into the tank with them. To deal with the shortfall, legislators suggest cutting state budgets and saving the reserves for even rainier days. Where is Noah when spenders need him? More of same for 2016. Minnesota was a total disappointment in 2015. When the Minnesota Legislature raised taxes, we thought our ship had come in and put up billboards welcoming Minnesota businesses to our tax haven. None came. Maybe tax havens dont work. The Sons of Norway and Germans from Russia will sponsor a seance this year for German and Norwegian settlers who came to North Dakota in the 1880s. They are expected to come from the past carrying placards: Immigrants Count. In 2016, Fargo will continue working to bring water from the Missouri River across the state to guarantee that the Red River will never go dry. Not only will it guarantee a steady water supply for continued growth, it will encourage the return of steamboat traffic on the Red and launch a new ship-building industry. The Garrison Diversion Project will continue to be a diversion. A band of volunteers from Minnewaukan, armed with shovels, will show up at one end of the 40-mile New Rockford Canal with the goal of draining Devils Lake into the Missouri River. The problem is that the ends got lost in 1985. Only 50 percent of state lottery receipts go to winners while 90 percent of reservation casino money rewards gamblers. In 2016, we shouldnt be surprised to see a march on Bismarck by folks carrying placards declaring that Compulsive Gamblers Matter. It looks like the only certain thing about 2016 will be uncertainty. Thats for sure. (Lloyd Omdahl is a political scientist and former North Dakota lieutenant governor. His column appears Sundays.) In American politics, one narrative one question eclipses all others: Who will become the 45th president? But there are dramas within that drama. Theres also suspense aplenty beyond center stage, and much of it does not involve Donald Trump, a third-party candidacy or the specter of a brokered Republican convention. This column, in the spirit of the holidays, will be a Trump-free zone. Some of the following subplots could greatly influence the outcome of the presidential contest while others have big implications for the sway and the health of the Republican and Democratic parties. Theyre just a glimmer of what 2016 has in store. Barack Obama unbound: Hes zipping down the road with Jerry Seinfeld. Hes unzipping his lip with Steve Inskeep of National Public Radio. Hes intensifying his fight against climate change. As Obama pivots into the final phase of his presidency, he seems to be heading in a new direction, toward greater candor, fewer inhibitions, no apologies. He has felt muzzled and misunderstood for much of his time in the White House. I sense a catharsis coming. And it could complicate the inevitably strained etiquette between him and the Democratic presidential nominee, meaning Hillary Clinton. Shell have to defend many aspects of his legacy and disparage others as she does and doesnt campaign for a third Obama term. Hell react to this as someone whos losing his limited patience with political gamesmanship, whos tired of playing the punching bag and whose aides and associates are sometimes aghast at the Clintons. Side note: Watch for Joe Biden, by design or accident, to blurt out something harmful to her at some point. Bill Clinton on the loose: Until recent weeks, it was almost possible to forget him as presidential-race factor. Then Hillary Clinton, in the last Democratic debate, tagged him as a key economic adviser in any second Clinton administration. Her campaign confirmed that hed be popping up more often on the campaign trail. And references to his Oval Office misdeeds and the Clintons marital psychodrama started to creep back into the news. All of that was a fresh reminder that his proper role in, and impact on, his wifes candidacy is unsettled and unclear. He remains both wildly charismatic and maddeningly undisciplined. He connotes both prosperous times and cynical scheming. Theres no legitimate worry that his presence might eclipse and diminish hers, but the two of them together root her candidacy as much in the past as in the future. So how to deploy and integrate him? Is it controllable? All eyes on New Hampshire: I dont mean the states Republican and Democratic primaries in February. I mean the U.S. Senate election in November. The balance of power in the chamber could hinge on the battle between the Republican incumbent, Kelly Ayotte, and her Democratic challenger, Maggie Hassan, the states governor. It wont look like many other Senate contests. New Hampshires peculiar political realities mean that neither candidate is likely to be especially nasty or ideologically strident; each may well emphasize consensus-building and look for opportunities to flex independence from the party thats paradoxically pumping enormous resources into her race. And their matchup will underscore New Hampshires encouraging record of electing women to prominent public offices, where theyre still frustratingly underrepresented nationwide. A tale of two mayors: The Democratic mayors of two of the nations three most populous cities are under enormous strain, their approval ratings low, their approaches to governing under attack. I speak of Bill de Blasio in New York and Rahm Emanuel in Chicago, each of whom has acknowledged the need for redemption in 2016. But while de Blasios greatest problems are with white voters, Emanuel has lost the trust in particular of minorities, who are justly outraged by the deadly actions of his citys police officers. The methods and success with which these remarkably different men chart their comebacks warrant scrutiny, harboring lessons about the Democratic Partys ability to bridge diverse constituencies and about the most effective style of leadership for fractious, tense times. Religion on the run: Same-sex marriage became the law in 50 states despite the opposition of many prominent church figures. The percentage of Americans who dont subscribe to any organized religion steadily grows. And that means that whoever winds up with the Republican nomination has to figure out how to play down the primarys degree of God talk and moralizing without alienating voters on the so-called religious right, who could cause a distracting scene, impede the partys outreach to moderate and younger voters, and decide to sit out the election. Can the party soften its image, adapt to the times and expand its appeal while satisfying evangelicals? Its success in presidential contests could hinge on that. (Frank Bruni is a syndicated columnist for the New York Times.) Our nation took a new step forward on Dec. 18 when the Senate passed, and the president approved, the lifting of the export ban. When we export, our nation becomes more secure for two reasons. First, by sharing our energy with our allies they can stand up to rogue dictators, and such regimes profit less. Secondly, our energy producers are less affected by downturns and their businesses are more stable. That means producers are better able to invest in good and bad markets, technology advances faster and our nation remains a formidable player in the world market. Sharing our food supply on the world market has given similar benefits. For decades we have sent our food supplies to support allies and to win favor with others. In doing so, America built the most advanced and most productive farm economy in the world. In either industry, a few cents more per bushel or a few dollars more per barrel creates more industry jobs and positively impacts the overall economy. Suppliers and communities benefit from more spending and value-added industries follow whether it be refineries and gas users or food processors. Even consumers and end users reap lower prices by allowing exports. In agriculture, food prices have dropped more than 50 percent since 1960 as a percentage of family income. Exporting oil will have a similar effect. Even in mid-range estimates, when we begin to export oil our oil will fetch a higher price and world oil will decrease, meaning gasoline and diesel prices will go down too. Whether you're a consumer, construction worker, investor or oil producer like me, lifting the ban is going to be a net benefit. We owe a great deal of thanks to Sen. John Hoeven, Sen. Heidi Heitkamp and Rep. Kevin Cramer for their persistence in lifting the ban my sincere gratitude to them. USA Today Provides Rare Look at Anti-Israel Terror | Main | Media Reports Iranian Anger at Saudi Executions But Ignores Iranian Executions January 03, 2016 CNN's Brianna Keilar: Tel Aviv Is Israel's Capital Urging viewers to tune in to her upcoming 2 pm EST "Newsroom" broadcast, CNN's Brianna Keilar reports at the end of "Wolf": Hi there. I'm Brianna Keilar. And we are starting with breaking news of a possible terror attack in Israel. We are following this manhunt for the person who opened fired at a pub in Israel's capital. Two people were killed in the middle of the afternoon in the shooting in Tel Aviv. (Emphasis added.) Unfortunately, in the short time between the end of "Wolf" and the opening of "Newsroom" no one at CNN managed to tip off Keilar, a fellow at Georgetown University's Institute of Politics and Public Service, that Jerusalem, not Tel Aviv, is Israel's capital. Thus, the intrepid anchorwoman gamely carried on, kicking off the "Newsroom" broadcast: Hunt for the person who opened fire at a pub in Israel's capital. Two people were killed in the middle of the afternoon in this shooting in Tel Aviv. It's 9:00 p.m. there now and night has long since fallen, but this killer is still on the loose. CAMERA has contacted CNN to request a correction. Stay tuned for an update. Posted by TS at January 3, 2016 02:50 AM Nothing new here. Just progressives/leftists trying to change the facts to suit their narrative. Posted by: ScienceABC123 at January 3, 2016 09:18 AM Tel Aviv is understood as the capital for most diplomatic purposes. The world attempts to regard Jerusalem as a non-aligned city, regardless of whatever claims various religious fanatics make that the city is "all theirs". Posted by: John Consharvard at January 4, 2016 02:59 PM Ignorance has nothing to do with left or right. If anyone did any research, it's likely he or she found that the US Embassy is in Tel Aviv and concluded that must be the capital. Posted by: ellen at January 4, 2016 10:28 PM But that conclusion would have been dead wrong. Go ahead and cry while insisting that Tel Aviv is really Israel's capital for "most diplomatic purposes" and that Jerusalem is really a non-aligned city because that is what "the world" accepts, But no amount of partisan screaming will change the facts--Jerusalem is not just the historical capital of Israel. It is the de facto capital no matter what some people want to hear, and no amount of screaming "It's not, It's not" will change things. Posted by: Toni at January 7, 2016 02:09 PM Guidelines for posting This is a moderated blog. We will not post comments that include racism, bigotry, threats, or factually inaccurate material. Post a comment DUBAI (Reuters) - Unnamed Americans have contacted Iran for a deal to swap Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, convicted and jailed in Iran on spying charges, for other unspecified detainees, according to a senior Iranian official quoted on Sunday. "Some Americans contact us sometimes, asking us to exchange him with other detainees, but the sentence has not been announced yet," said judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, quoted by Iran's Fars news agency. Ejei did not specify which detainees could be under consideration nor give any other details of what the Americans could have in mind for a swap with Rezaian. But Iranian parliament speaker Ali Larijani has hinted at the possibility that Rezaian could be freed in exchange for Iranian prisoners in the United States. Other Iranian officials have played down the possibility of such a swap. In Washington, a senior White House official, asked for comment, said: "We're not going to comment on every public remark by Iranian officials concerning our detained and missing citizens. We continue to make all efforts to bring our citizens home." Iranian officials have repeatedly said that Rezaian, a California-born Iranian-American, has been convicted but they have declined to announce the sentence. Rezaian was arrested in July 2014 and accused of espionage. The case has been a sensitive issue for Washington and Iran, and Ejei's statement on Sunday did little to resolve it. Iran has accused Rezaian, 39, of collecting confidential information and giving it to hostile governments, writing a letter to U.S. President Barack Obama and acting against national security. The Post has dismissed the charges as absurd. The final hearing in his trial was on Aug. 10. Washington Post foreign editor Douglas Jehl has said the vague nature of an earlier announcement by Iran showed that Rezaian's case was not just about espionage but that the reporter was a bargaining chip in a "larger game." Four other U.S. citizens - Christian pastor Saeed Abedini, Amir Hekmati, a former U.S. Marine Corps sergeant, American-Lebanese IT expert Nizar Zakka and U.S.-Iranian businessman Siamak Namazi - are also believed to be held in Iran. Robert Levinson, a private investigator, disappeared there in 2007. Some of these cases have been raised in subsequent talks, including those between Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry when they met during the U.N. General Assembly in New York last month. No progress was announced. (Reporting by Dubai newsroom,; Additional reporting by Patricia Zengerle in Washington,; Editing by William Maclean and Richard Balmforth) A protest at an Oregon wildlife refuge has escalated into a full-scale takeover of a federal building at the hands of armed right-wing activists angered at the prosecution of two ranchers facing jail time for arson. The occupation began Saturday at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Harney County, where a building operated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 30 miles southeast of Burns, Oregon, was taken over by antigovernment militiamen who have adopted the ranchers cause as their own. Government authorities so far have not intervened, prompting criticism from activists who compared the hands-off treatment of armed white men to the use of military-style tactics against unarmed demonstrators protesting police violence over the past two years. Federal officials told The Oregonian on Sunday that no wildlife employees were in danger from the armed activists. The group is led by Ammon and Ryan Bundy, the sons of Cliven Bundy, a Nevada rancher whose standoff with the government over grazing rights in 2014 become a symbol of antigovernment sentiment. Were planning on staying here for years, absolutely, Ammon Bundy told The Oregonian newspaper on Saturday night. This is not a decision weve made at the last minute. Oregonian reporter Ian Kullgren tweeted Saturday night that he had spoken to Ryan Bundy by phone: "He said they're willing to kill and be killed if necessary." Harney County Sheriff Dave Ward issued a statement telling people to stay away from the building as authorities work to defuse the situation. FBI spokesperson Beth Anne Steele told The Associated Press that agency was aware of the situation at the national wildlife refuge, but made no further comment. The wait-and-see reaction from authorities has led many to scrutinize the different treatment of armed, mostly white protesters in Oregon compared to the swift police crackdown on demonstrators protesters in Ferguson, Missouri, and Baltimore who rallied to protest the killing by police of unarmed black men. Many cited the case of Tamir Rice, the 12-year-old Cleveland boy who was shot and killed by a police offiers two seconds after the officer saw him holding a toy pistol. Story continues On Twitter, news of the event quickly spread under the hashtag #OregonUnderAttack, such as these tweets from civil rights Linda Sarsour and television host Roland Martin, respectively. The protest began Saturday as a peaceful rally of around 300 supporters in Burns, Oregon, in support of Dwight Hammond and his son, Steven Hammond, who were to report to California prison after a federal judge ruled that the sentences they had served for arson in 2012 were not long enough under federal law. By Saturday night, the occupation of the federal building was in full swing, with militia members telling The New York Times that as many as 150 people were at the refuge in a show of protest against federal authority on public land use. In a video posted on his Facebook page, Ammon Bundy is shown asking for militia members to come help him. This is not a time to stand down, its a time to stand up and come to Harney County, Bundy says in the post. Below the video is this statement: ALL PATRIOTS ITS TIME TO STAND UP NOT STAND DOWN!!! WE NEED YOUR HELP!!! COME PREPARED. In an interview with reporters late Saturday night that was posted on Facebook, Ammon Bundy said the group was occupying the building because the people have been abused long enough. I feel we are in a situation where if we do not do something, if we do not take a hard stand, well be in a position where we'll be no longer able to do so, he said. According to CBS News, the Hammonds are planning to peacefully report to prison Monday, as the judge ordered, and have been distancing themselves from the Bundys actions. Neither Ammon Bundy nor anyone within his group/organization speak for the Hammond family, the Hammonds lawyer, W. Alan Schroeder, wrote to Ward, according to CBS. Related stories on TakePart: Outrage and Heartbreak Over Non-Indictment of Police Who Shot Tamir Rice A Year After Ferguson, Heres What No One Can Deny About America Stop Pretending the Ferguson Effect Is Real Original article from TakePart Tikrit (Iraq) (AFP) - Suicide attackers from the Islamic State group killed at least 12 Iraqi forces Sunday in a brazen attack on police training at a military base, officials said. A commando of fighters equipped with rifles and suicide vests snuck into Speicher base, near the city of Tikrit, in the middle of the night. Their target was a large group of police forces from Nineveh, a northern province of which Mosul is the capital, who were undergoing training. "Under the cover of fog, they broke into Speicher," said Mahmud al-Sorchi, spokesman for the paramilitary force being set up to take back IS-held Nineveh. "Nineveh police managed to kill seven attackers but three were able to detonate their suicide vests," he said, adding that three officers were among the 12 policemen killed. He also said 20 policemen were wounded in the attack. Several other security sources in the region confirmed the attack, which was claimed by the Islamic State group. The jihadist organisation said seven suicide attackers managed to enter the huge military base, which lies about 160 kilometres (100 miles) north of Baghdad. In a statement posted online, IS said its commando reached a centre where 1,200 cadets were being trained, sparking clashes that lasted four hours. Speicher is located in Salaheddin province, which was one of the regions conquered by IS when it swept across much of Iraq's Sunni Arab heartland in June 2014. The sprawling military base itself was never fully controlled by the jihadists but at the beginning of their offensive they committed one of the conflict's worst atrocities there. IS fighters assisted by local insurgents rounded up hundreds of cadets from Speicher, marched them to Tikrit and massacred them in several locations. - Ramadi clearing ongoing - Hundreds of bodies were discovered in shallow graves when the Iraqi forces retook Tikrit in April 2015 but other victims were shot and thrown into the Tigris and will likely never be found. Story continues The highest estimates put the number of executed cadets at 1,700. Security officials said Sunday raid was launched from the western side of the base, a desert area where IS remains able to operate despite the increased presence of Iraqi forces. The group has launched a number of attacks since losing control of the city of Ramadi in the western province of Anbar a week ago. After taking the strategic government complex in the centre of the city, elite counter-terrorism forces have been expanding their grip and sweeping each neighbourhood for holdout jihadists and trapped civilians. A number of IS fighters remain in Ramadi but they are not in position to mount a fightback that would challenge the Iraqi forces' control of the city. "Over the last 24 hours, the Iraqi forces have cleared several more hundred square metres of the city," said Colonel Steve Warren, spokesman of the US-led coalition whose trainers and aircraft helped Iraqi forces retake Ramadi. "We don't think the enemy has enough combat power in downtown Ramadi to be able to recapture the city," he said. "We haven't seen anything more than small teams of ISIL (IS) fighters (four to eight individuals) trying to conduct harassing attacks," Warren said. The group has continued to carry out suicide attacks in various locations, including on Friday north of Ramadi and over the weekend near the other main cities of Anbar, Fallujah and Haditha. Warren said at a recent briefing that months of daily strikes against the group, which the Iraqi government has lost half of the territory it took in 2014, are paying off. "The enemy is getting extraordinarily desperate when it comes to manpower," he said. The loss of Ramadi is the latest in a string of setbacks for IS, which analysts say is under increasing pressure. The group has since released a flurry of statements that either claim responsibility for attacks or show scenes of daily life attempting to convey that IS's so-called "caliphate" is still strong. Brussels (AFP) - An ageing Belgian nuclear reactor shut down on Saturday afternoon, just three days after it was restarted, but there was no safety risk, the power utility that operates it said. The Doel 1 reactor in northern Belgium was restarted on December 30, after originally being shut down in February in line with a law that called for the country's gradual exit from nuclear power. "Doel 1 automatically shut down at 6:00 pm," a spokeswoman for power utility Electrabel told AFP, confirming a report published by the Belga news agency. "Everything went according to procedure. There was no impact on safety, and no impact on staff, local residents and the environment." The company said the shutdown was caused by a "normal safety mechanism", in order to restart it safely. Belgium agreed last month to extend the life of Doel 1 and Doel 2, both of which are 40 years old, until 2025 under a deal that ended years of battles that threatened the country with power blackouts. When running, the two reactors can produce 866 megawatts, equivalent to around six percent of Belgium's total electricity capacity. Environmentalists, especially in neighbouring Germany which is phasing out nuclear power, have criticised extending the life of Belgium's reactors which they say are too old to be considered safe. Belgium has suffered a series of nuclear mishaps in recent years, with three of the country's seven reactors closed at one point, in two cases due to the discovery of micro-cracks in the reactor vessels. LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's government has promised more than 40 million pounds to rebuild and improve the country's flood defences that failed to protect thousands of homes over the Christmas holidays. Homes and businesses across northern England, Scotland and northern Ireland were hit by storms and torrential rains in December, leaving many without electricity and some under metres of water after river levels reached all-time highs. Prime Minister David Cameron has been criticised by opposition lawmakers for not doing enough to protect the country from severe weather and the Observer newspaper on Sunday said many of Britain's flood defences were being abandoned or maintained to minimal levels because of government cuts. In a statement, Cameron announced a package of more than 40 million pounds to improve flood defences after Storm Eva brought gales and torrential downpours to Northern Ireland, Wales, England and parts of Scotland in late December. "I have seen at first-hand the devastation caused by flooding. And that's why this work to repair and improve flood defences is so vital," Cameron said in the statement. He said 10 million pounds would be used to improve the Foss barrier protecting the northern English city of York, which was overwhelmed at the height of Storm Eva. The other 30 million would be spent on defences on other rivers in northern England. The government would also support charities helping those caught up in the deluge by matching every pound of the first two million pounds raised, he said. The opposition Labour Party accused the government of complacency and said the funding would not go far enough. "The government has been woefully complacent about the flood risk, ignoring warnings from its own experts," Kerry McCarthy, Labour's Environment, Food and Rural Affairs spokeswoman, said in a statement. "Today's announcement of 40 million pounds won't go very far at all ... a lump sum of 40 million pounds is a short-term, sticking-plaster approach." The Observer quoted a document submitted to ministers late last year that said investment in Britain's flood defences had fallen despite the country seeing "the five wettest years since 2000". On Saturday, Britain's Meteorological Office issued an "amber warning" for potentially heavy rain in eastern Scotland at the weekend and on Monday which could lead to some flooding. (Reporting by Elizabeth Piper; editing by Susan Thomas) President Obama will participate in a town hall on gun control hosted by Anderson Cooper on CNN. The discussion Guns in America will air Jan. 7 on CNN at 8 p.m. ET. The discussion will take place at George Mason University in Virginia in front of a live audience who will represent different sides of the debate. The town hall is taking place after multiple recent shooting attacks including the Paris attacks and the San Bernardino shootings. CNN announced the discussion is taking place "in anticipation of an announcement regarding executive action on background checks." Obama is set to meet with Attorney General Loretta Lynch on Monday to discuss a three-month review of what steps he could take to help reduce gun violence. Read More: San Bernardino Shooting: Two Suspects Dead as Motive Sought By Jaime Hamre HAVANA (Reuters) - Priests offering New Year's prophecies from Cuba's Afro-Cuban religion forecast an explosion in migration and social unrest worldwide in 2016. Many on the Caribbean island eagerly wait for guidance from the Santeria religion's annual forecast. Santeria, with roots in West African tradition brought to Cuba by slaves, is practiced by millions of Cubans. This year, the island's official association of priests, known as babalawos, predicted an "explosion" of migration and "social unrest provoked by desperation." The yearly reading is for Cuba and the world at large, but the babalawos did not state which predictions, if any, apply to Cuba specifically. "The predictions of Ifa (divination system) warn world leaders that if no action is taken, we may lead our people to a massive migration provoked by different things, desperation among them," priest Lazaro Cuesta told a news conference in Havana. The flow of migrants from the Communist-ruled island jumped by about 80 percent last year as the process of detente between Washington and Havana, announced in December 2014, stirred fears that preferential U.S. asylum rights for Cubans may soon end. Cuesta said war, economic hardship, political conflict and terrorism are sparking worldwide migration. He did not give specifics about the priests' social unrest prediction, but offered a metaphor: "When you are in your room and it's really hot, desperation makes you run out of the room. If we give you an air conditioner, you stay put." "I can be living in a hot room and I don't leave running because it's my room," Cuesta said. "I'm living alongside everyone else in Cuba, and I'm not leaving." Based on this year's forecast, the babalawos recommend "establishing favorable accords with respect to migration policy," and "reaching a balance between salaries and the high cost of basic necessities." Earlier this week, Cuban President Raul Castro told the National Assembly, the country's single-chamber parliament, that an economic slowdown is expected in 2016. Food prices have increased more than 50 percent on the island over the last four years, according to official media. The average salary throughout the island is less than $30 a month. "A person who economically considers himself incapable of living in the place where he is is going to look for a better future somewhere else," said Cuesta. The priests also prophesied that 2016 would bring greater foreign investment and accords between nations, but gave no further details. (Editing by Marc Frank and Matthew Lewis) Rosario (Argentina) (AFP) - Poor weather forced the cancellation of Sunday's Dakar Rally opening stage because of safety concerns, a day after 10 people were injured when a car crashed into spectators. Thunderstorms and heavy rain prompted organisers to scrap the scheduled 600-kilometre plus route from Rosario to Villa Carlos Paz, with the conditions grounding safety helicopters and leaving parts of the course flooded. "The Dakar doesn't stop when it rains but when it's not possible to guarantee the normal security presence" for the rally, race director Etienne Lavigne told AFP. "The weather conditions are very bad. The relay plane (which helps with radio communications) was unable to fly. Helicopters can't take off. The situation isn't going to improve in terms of visibility," he added. The first stage was supposed to include a 258km timed special for cars and a 227km section for motorcycles, but the entire field instead travelled to Cordoba under link section conditions. The weather is again expected to have an impact on Monday's stage, with Lavigne admitting it could be shortened by at least 150 kilometres. "It is going to rain for much of the night and then again during the afternoon," he said. "There are several solutions: move the departure point, shorten the special sections so as not to be bothered by the rain. The objective is to maintain security." The 38th edition of the Dakar Rally, which will cover more than 9,300km across Argentina and Bolivia, commenced with Saturday's prologue which was "neutralised" and then immediately suspended after a crash involving the Mini of Chinese driver Guo Meiling left 10 people hurt. A 10-year-old boy and his father were seriously injured and underwent surgery overnight, with Lavigne adding both were in a "stable condition". However, Lavigne said the condition of a third man "deteriorated in the night" with doctors offering a "guarded prognosis". When David Alward looks out of the Canadian consulate in downtown Boston, the former New Brunswick premier sees many opportunities for Canadian companies to gain a valuable foothold in the New England market. "For me and thinking specific to Atlantic Canada, today is everything is global and if you are not here doing business, whether it is Boston, New York or Shanghai, if you are not present and you are not working at it every day, you are not going to succeed," he said in an interview. "You are not going to get to where you could be. It can be hard sometimes for taxpayers to think that their representatives should be in different places, but it is important." As a former premier, Alward said he would travel to Boston a couple times a year to try and drum up trade opportunities for New Brunswick companies. Now that he is stationed permanently in Boston as the consul general to New England, which covers Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont, Alward said he sees the value of keeping a constant presence in the area more clearly. "The reality is the minute that you go out that door, somebody else is going to walk in that door," he said. Alward was appointed to the diplomatic post in April by former prime minister Stephen Harper. He officially bid farewell from the New Brunswick legislature, where he served from 1999 to 2015, including four years as premier, in May. Now Alward is the diplomat, who is charged with promoting Canada to the roughly 14 million people in New England, their politicians and business leaders. The former politician said his new post is not as different from being a cabinet minister or premier. "So much of the work that I am responsible for here is about relationships. The trade that takes place between our two nations is incredible," he said. "People don't realize what goes on every day. There is literally $2 billion of trade that goes on between Canada and U.S. every day. I think both countries probably take it for granted." Story continues Traditional sectors important for trade When it comes to the trading relationship between Canada and the New England states, sectors such as agriculture, aquaculture and fisheries have long been important. New Brunswick is the second largest Canadian exporter to New England, selling $8.4 billion worth of goods, compared to Quebec's 9.2 billion, according to Opportunities New Brunswick. Petroleum products account for $6.4 billion of the exports. In 2014, New Brunswick exported $638 million worth of fish and seafood and $104 million in agrifood products to New England. New Brunswick also sends hundreds of millions of dollars worth of liquefied petroleum, electricity and lumber to the region every year. Those industries are still important, particularly in Atlantic Canada, but the consul general said he believes many other Canadian industries are poised to thrive in the northeast United States. Alward is specifically working on helping Canadian energy businesses expand their base in New England. "The number one priority that I personally have been given here is on the energy file," he said. "The work that we are doing to see hydro electricity from Canada, whether that is Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, be able to light and heat homes and run businesses competitively in the U.S. and provide for better environmental contribution as well." Tech sector important for Canada The Canadian consulate also hosts a technology accelerator in Cambridge, Mass., where companies can come to the area and see if they can grow their business in the area. The diplomat pointed to the deep-pocketed venture capitalists that live in the Boston area "New England and the U.S. is a great place to land softly. Often governments will think about China or Europe, etc., those are important countries and we want to diversify," Alward said. "But for small and medium-sized companies what a great spot to land first in the U.S., where there are common cultures, common time zones, common language, etc. and quite frankly the world's largest market." Importance of digital diplomacy When it comes to making his mark in the region, Alward said it is important to speak with governors, mayors, business leaders and citizens in person. But he said digital diplomacy is growing in importance. The consul general has a Twitter account and is frequently sharing stories about Canadian companies that are excelling in the region. He said his efforts on social media complement his personal discussions. "A big part of the work that I do, or my colleagues do, is one-on-one diplomacy," he said. "That is an important part of the work that goes on, but also very importantly whether it is Twitter whether it is Facebook or Instagram etc. there are a number of different tools and people communicate differently and we need the opportunity to reach out to people and get information to them." In a world of worries over Syrian refugees or the fate of the warming planet, they are hardly the questions with the highest priority. Still, will the cold, buttoned-up Lady Mary ever marry again? And what about her younger sister, poor Lady Edith? Can a woman who has so often been let down by life ever find even a wee bit of happiness? For fans of Downton Abbey, such questions will again be top of mind as the sixth and final season of the British melodrama premieres on North American TV screens tonight on PBS. (It will come to Canadian screens again on Vision TV on June 29.) In wrapping up its run, the lush period piece chronicling the trials and tribulations of the upstairs, aristocratic Crawleys and their downstairs staff will leave its own distinct mark on the international television landscape. "Historical dramas are all the rage, and Downton Abbey put that on the front burner," says Bill Brioux, a longtime television columnist for Toronto newspapers. Brioux puts part of that surge on the world we live in, with its crises here and turmoil there, and the endless electronic connections that surround us. "I think people want to escape today," he says. "They long for a time when there were no cellphones or Facebook or internet, where people just communicated face to face." What's more, television storytellers like the 1910s and 20s Downton's era for those very reasons, he suggests. Add in the fact that today's high-tech special effects make it that much easier to build castles and create armies without actually having to build castles or create armies. "That's why I think shows like Vikings and Game of Thrones are very popular as well," Brioux says. Kinder, gentler Downton, of course, is no Game of Thrones, with its wedding massacres and the like, but the award-winning show's kinder, gentler ways helped it find favour with the kind of international audience its creators and actors never dreamed of. Story continues One of the longer-running, gentler story lines was the courtship of Mr. Carson, the butler who had the eye of the head housekeeper, Mrs. Hughes. "It was the slowest-burning romance of all times," says Jim Carter, the 67-year-old British actor who has put Carson's crustiness on full display. "But the audience seemed to want it to happen as did we." Other story lines weren't so gentle, but also captured the attention of fans who looked to the actors if they ever encountered them out of character for some further insight. "You get recognized everywhere in the world," Brendan Coyle, who plays the valet Bates, said in an interview with CBC News. "I remember once I went to Marrakesh and was walking through the big market there and there were people from Australia, Sweden, Ireland, Iceland, somewhere else and they were chasing me through this market saying, 'Did you kill your wife? Did you kill your wife?' "This was after the third series. It was insane." Some chatter around the show has suggested it somehow tapped into a cultural zeitgeist, particularly because of its anchor in the British class system, and the relationship between those who are better off and those who are less fortunate. "We could say it had something to do with the mortgage bubble in the U.S., and the haves and the have-nots, and the big one per cent thing," says Beverley Shenken, vice-president for TV content at Vision. "But I think it's much deeper." She looks instead to Downton's "great stories and characters and scenes and beautiful set design." Among those characters are Lady Mary and Lady Edith, Crawley sisters whose emotional fortunes take wildly different paths. "They each find meaning for their lives with what they're dealt and how they're treated in their family dynamic," says Shenken, who also notes that Downton's audience skews toward female viewers who may see a bit of themselves on screen. "I think every woman can identify with different characteristics of each of those two quite different characters." What next? Looking ahead, there has been speculation about whether these characters will somehow find their way onto the big screen or into some other kind of spinoff. "It's like when Sex and the City ended because it became a pop culture thing, too," says Shenken. "Everyone said: 'Will there be movies, will there be a Broadway play?' and now the same thing, the same buzz is happening in the press. Will there be a prequel film and will there be a West End play in the U.K.? "No one wants to completely let it go." Still, there will have to be some letting go as Downton ends after six seasons, a modest length of time when compared with some North American television shows. "If this was on Fox or NBC it would run for 30 years," says Brioux. "They would milk it to death. They would drive it into the ground, beat it like a dog, every other cliche." But that's not the way in Britain, where Downton has already wrapped up and where television series often don't last very long or have many episodes per season. Some media speculation in the U.K. has also suggested that 81-year-old Maggie Smith, the Oscar-winning actor behind the worldly-wise Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham, wasn't up for another season. And perhaps for those who settle down on their couches tonight wondering about Lady Mary and Lady Edith, this final season will actually be enough. "You don't want to outstay your welcome when you have something that is that huge," says Shenken. "It's not like a sitcom ... it's not Friends. It requires much more commitment and involvement, and I think for us and the viewership, it had to do with 'OK, that's enough, what else have you got?'" ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has said he backs a criminal investigation into leaders of the pro-Kurdish opposition over comments about Kurdish self-rule, saying those who committed constitutional crimes must pay the price. A Turkish prosecutor opened an investigation into Selahattin Demirtas, co-head of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), last week after a two-day congress of Kurdish groups called for greater self-governance. The probe comes as predominantly Kurdish southeast Turkey experiences some of its worst violence since the 1990s after a two-year ceasefire between Kurdish militants and the state collapsed in July. "The statements of the HDP leaders are constitutional crimes. There are investigations started by prosecutors against them. These should be followed up," Erdogan told reporters in comments published by the Hurriyet newspaper on Saturday. "I believe the process that will start with the removal of immunities will have a positive impact on the mood of our country in fighting terrorism," he said. As members of parliament, Demirtas and other HDP leaders would normally enjoy immunity from such cases, although they could be prosecuted and have the sentence suspended until a time when they no longer have immunity. Erdogan urged parliament last July to lift the immunity of politicians with suspected links to militants, after a prosecutor launched an investigation into Demirtas over accusations he "provoked and armed" protesters. The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) first took up arms in 1984 to push for greater autonomy in the southeast, and some 40,000 people have been killed in the violence. It is designated a terrorist group by the United States and European Union. Erdogan said on Thursday there would be no let-up in a military campaign that he said had killed more than 3,000 militants last year. Demirtas has said the campaign is targeting local people who are presented as "terrorists", a charge the government denies. The HDP said on Saturday that around 1,000 people were trapped in the Zap district of Silopi province in the southeast, many sheltering in the basements of their houses, as the area came under tank fire. Television footage also showed smoke billowing from buildings under tank fire in the nearby district of Cizre. (Reporting by Asli Kandemir, Nick Tattersall and Hamdi Istanbullu; Editing by Andrew Bolton) NextShark Multiple Asian women have reportedly come forward to accuse a Chinese American cosplayer and her boyfriend of luring them into sexual relations through supposed opportunities for collaborative work. Cosplayer and influencer Kat Wong, who describes herself as just an Asian girl making silly content, came under fire on Twitter last week after actor, director and host Gina Darling revealed that multiple women have reached out to her with such allegations. Multiple women in the Asian community have reached out to me about @katkwo4tweets and her BF allegedly trying to trick them into having sexual relations with them under the guise of collaborating on cosplays, OF (OnlyFans) and modeling, Darling tweeted. Grenoble (France) (AFP) - Two Lithuanian mountain climbers were killed in an avalanche in the French Alps on Sunday, the country's paramilitary police said. Police said the victims, a man and a woman, were experienced climbers. A third victim who was also caught in the avalanche escaped unharmed. Emergency responders said the avalanche happened at an altitude of some 3,200 meters (10,500 feet) above Argentiere at around 1200 GMT. French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve released a statement urging "everyone to take the utmost precaution because of a high avalanche risk... in the coming hours". It was the first fatal avalanche in the French Alps this winter. Paris (AFP) - A multi-generational inheritance squabble in one of the world's foremost art-dealing dynasties with a penchant for thoroughbred racehorses will be played out in a Paris court from Monday. In a case worthy of a soap opera, the spotlight will be thrown on the activities of New-York based Wildenstein and Company when several family members go on trial on charges of tax fraud and money-laundering. Franco-American Guy Wildenstein, 70, and his entourage are at the heart of the investigation and could face up to 10 years in jail in a saga which has gripped high-society watchers. The case follows an investigation into years of alleged coordinated attempts by the dynasty to place assets beyond the reach of the taxman. Wildenstein, a silver-haired art dealer who owns and breeds race horses, was in 2009 awarded France's highest award by then-president Nicolas Sarkozy. But a year later, French investigators began looking into his affairs following accusations he concealed much of his inherited fortune from the taxman and from his heirs via a web of opaque trusts and tax havens. - Treasure trove - Sylvia Roth, widow of the gallerist's father, Daniel Wildenstein, filed a criminal complaint against her stepson to that effect in a bitter dispute over the size of the family fortune. Daniel Wildenstein died in 2001, whereupon, the French authorities allege, his heirs began hastily transferring abroad assets of the dynasty from New York. After his death, Guy Wildenstein assumed control of the arts business, while younger sibling Alec concentrated on horse breeding. But Guy also assumed control of the latter when Alec -- who achieved public renown for his messy divorce from Swiss socialite and cosmetic surgery devotee Jocelyne Perisse, nicknamed "Bride of Wildenstein" -- died in 2008. French tax authorities believe the Wildensteins could owe some 550 million euros ($600 million). In 2008, the dynasty valued Daniel's estate at just $61 million after Guy took over as president of the family's gallery empire. Story continues That was despite assets including a host of works by rococo painter Fragonard and post-impressionist Bonnard and a stable of thoroughbred horses including Ascot Gold Cup winner Westerner. It also included a vast real estate portfolio, with the jewel in the crown a luxury Kenyan ranch which provided the backdrop for the film "Out of Africa". Such assets were in the main registered in tax havens in a series of trusts, including one named "Delta" which alone holds paintings worth an estimated billion dollars, according to a source quoting the US tax collection service IRS. Guy and Alec Wildenstein together declared just 40.9 million euros for inheritance tax purposes in 2002. To pay the 17.7 million euro bill, they handed over bas-reliefs sculpted for Marie-Antoinette, the wife of Louis XVI. Guy says there was no legal obligation to report trust-held assets on his father's death. According to the French investigation, the IRS will also pursue unpaid taxes for artworks. - A family affair - Due in court for a month-long trial are Guy, his nephew Alec Junior and Alec's widow Liouba Stoupakova, who is herself at loggerheads with her in-laws. A notary, two lawyers and two trust managers -- the trusts are held in Guernsey and the Bahamas -- will also be in the dock. It is likely the case would never have seen the light of day had it not been for the legal battles fought by female members of the clan -- not least Jocelyne, whose 1998 divorce settlement lifted the veil on the Wildensteins' business dealings. In a rare interview three months ago, Guy Wildenstein said he knew little about tax and declared that "my father never used to talk to me about his business affairs". He said he hoped he would not be made into a "scapegoat". Buenos Aires (AFP) - Argentina's new conservative government affirmed on Sunday that it will continue to press the country's claims to the Falkland Islands, which Britain insists that it owns. Britain and Argentina fought a two-month long war over the archipelago in 1982, in which 649 Argentinian servicemen and 255 British were killed. Decades after the Falklands War, ownership of the rocky outpost remains at the center of diplomatic tensions between the two nations. "Argentina renews its firm commitment to peacefully settling its differences, to international law and multilateralism, the foreign ministry under the country's new president, Mauricio Macri, said in a statement. Buenos Aires "invites the United Kingdom to resume as soon as possible negotiations aimed at settling fairly and definitively, the sovereignty dispute over the Malvinas (Falklands) islands, South Georgia, South Sandwich islands and surrounding territorial seas," the statement said. Argentina maintains that it inherited the remote, windswept Falklands from Spain when it gained independence. Britain says it has historically ruled them and that the islanders should have the right to self-determination. BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon's Shi'ite Hezbollah condemned the execution of a prominent Shi'ite cleric in Saudi Arabia on Saturday, calling it an "assassination" and blaming it on the United States and its allies' support for Riyadh. Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr and three other members of Saudi Arabia's Shi'ite minority were executed on Saturday alongside 43 Sunni jihadists, drawing condemnation by Shi'ites across the Middle East The "real reason" for the execution was "that Sheikh Nimr... demanded the squandered rights of an oppressed people," Hezbollah said in a statement, apparently referring to Saudi Arabia's Shi'ite minority. "The Saudi authorities ... put them (the Shi'ites executed) together with terrorist bands and groups which had committed crimes against civilians. Sheikh Nimr resisted oppression with words," the Hezbollah statement said. It said it held the United States and its allies directly responsible through their support for the Saudi government, and urged the international community and rights groups to condemn the execution. Lebanon's Supreme Islamic Shi'ite Council earlier said Nimr's execution was a "grave mistake... and an execution of reason, moderation and dialogue." Nimr, who had called for pro-democracy demonstrations, was arrested in 2012, spurring protests in which three died. He had long been regarded as the most vocal Shi'ite leader in the eastern district of Qatif, willing to publicly criticise the Al Saud ruling family and call directly for elections. But he was careful to avoid calling for violence, analysts say. Saturday's executions took place in 12 cities in Saudi Arabia, four prisons using firing squads and the others beheading. The simultaneous execution of 47 people - 45 Saudis, one Egytian and a man from Chad - was the biggest mass execution for security offences in Saudi Arabia since the 1980 killing of 63 jihadist rebels who seized Mecca's Grand Mosque in 1979. (Reporting by John Davison; Editing by Catherine Evans, Larry King) BEIRUT (Reuters) - Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Sunday Saudi Arabia's execution of a Shi'ite cleric was a "message of blood", and Riyadh sought to create sectarian strife across the world. The execution on Saturday of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a vocal critic of the Saudi government, drew Shi'ite anger across the region, with protesters in regional rival Iran storming the Saudi Embassy and leaders condemning the move. "We are today faced by an appalling event, a huge event that Al Saud took lightly ... but this is an event that cannot be taken lightly," Nasrallah said in a speech broadcast live on the Lebanese Shi'ite group's Al Manar television. "Al Saud wants Sunni-Shi'ite strife. They are the ones who ignited it before, and are doing so in every part of the world." Nimr was executed alongside 46 other people, including 43 Sunni jihadists, some of them al Qaeda leaders and ideologues. He was the most vocal critic of the ruling Al Saud dynasty among the country's Shi'ite minority and had come to be seen as a leader of younger Shi'ite activists, who had tired of the failure of older, more measured leaders to achieve equality with Sunnis. Shi'ite Hezbollah has been fighting on the side of President Bashar al-Assad against Sunni-backed insurgent groups in Syria. (Reporting by John Davison and Laila Bassam; Editing by Janet Lawrence) Bangui (Central African Republic) (AFP) - Former prime minister Faustin Archange Touadera took a commanding lead in the Central African Republic's presidential race on Sunday, garnering more than 23 percent of the vote with a quarter of the ballots counted, electoral officials said. Touadera, a 58-year-old former maths professor who was prime minister under longtime leader Francois Bozize from 2008 to 2013, was considered an outsider in the field of 30 candidates vying in an election seeking to turn the page on years of unrest. Running as an independent, he has scored more than 120,000 votes, while his closest rival for the top job, Anicet Georges Dologuele, also a former prime minister, has scored just over 68,500 votes, the elections authority's rapporteur Julius Ngouade Baba said. The results confirm early indications of Touadera's lead in the closely watched vote, which took place last Wednesday after repeated delays. A likely second round is set for January 31. Desire Kolingba, son of a former president, was in third place with under 40,000 votes. Fourth-placed Jean-Serge Bokassa, the 43-year-old son of the self-proclaimed emperor Jean-Bedel Bokassa, who ruled CAR from 1966 to 1979, had nearly 34,000. Ex-premier Martin Ziguele, who had been considered a frontrunner and the favourite of former colonial power France, was trailing in fifth place with under 28,000 votes. One of the world's poorest countries, with a history of coups and rebellions, Central African Republic was plunged into fierce sectarian violence in 2013 after Bozize was ousted by a mainly Muslim rebel alliance, bringing Michel Djotodia to power -- the country's first Muslim president. Thousands of people were killed and around one in 10 fled their homes in attacks by rogue rebels on remote villages and brutal reprisals by Christian vigilante groups against Muslim communities. UN and French peacekeepers helped restore a degree of calm in January 2014, when Djotodia quit under international pressure and a transitional government took over, but large parts of the country remain lawless. Story continues Nearly two million people in the country of around five million were eligible to vote in the elections, which also saw more than 1,800 candidates standing for a place in the 105-seat National Assembly. Despite security concerns after a deadly attack on a Muslim district in Bangui during a mid-December constitutional referendum, the elections went off without major incident after initial delays caused by logistical glitches. The head of the UN peacekeeping mission MINUSCA, Parfait Onanga-Anyanga, hailed the polls as a success. The country's three last presidents were barred from standing again: former Bangui mayor Catherine Samba-Panza, who has overseen a political transition, as well as Bozize and Djotodia, who are both in exile and under UN and US sanctions linked to the violence. Washington (AFP) - The deadly assault on an Indian air base near the Pakistan border on Saturday was "a heinous" terrorist attack, the United States said, urging the two rivals to work together to hunt down those responsible. Three security officers were killed in the attack by suspected Islamist militants on Pathankot base in northern Punjab state earlier Saturday. At least four attackers also died in shootouts with security forces. The possible involvement of Pakistan-based militants threatens to derail talks between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan, who have fought three wars since independence in 1947. "The United States is committed to our strong partnership with the Indian government to combat terrorism," State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement, condemning the assault. "We urge all countries in the region to work together to disrupt and dismantle terrorist networks and to bring to justice the perpetrators of this heinous act." Tehran (AFP) - Iran's president Sunday condemned the Saudi execution of a Shiite cleric but also denounced attacks on the Sunni kingdom's embassy and consulate as "totally unjustifiable" after protesters stormed the compounds. "The actions last night by a group of radicals in Tehran and Mashhad leading to damage at the Saudi embassy and consulate are totally unjustifiable, as the buildings should be legally and religiously protected in the Islamic Republic of Iran," Hassan Rouhani said, quoted by the official IRNA news agency. At least 44 people were arrested late Saturday for storming the diplomatic missions in Tehran and Mashhad after Saudi Arabia announced it had executed prominent Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr and 46 other men on "terrorism" charges. In Tehran protesters threw petrol bombs and stormed the embassy. The kingdom's consulate in Mashhad, Iran's second biggest city in the country's northeast, was also set on fire. But Rouhani criticised Saudi Arabia for killing Nimr. "I have no doubt that the Saudi government has damaged its image, more than before, among the countries in the world -- in particular (among) Islamic countries -- by this un-Islamic act," he said in a statement. Yet, the people of Iran "will not allow rogue elements" to use the incident and "carry out illegal actions that damage the dignity of the Islamic republic establishment", he added. "I call on the interior minister to identify the perpetrators of this attack with firm determination and introduce them to the judiciary... so that there will be an end to such appalling actions once and for all." Earlier on Sunday Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said Saudi politicians would face "divine revenge" for their actions. DUBAI (Reuters) - A rise in Iran's crude oil exports once sanctions against it are lifted depends on future global oil demand and should not further weaken oil prices, senior officials were quoted as saying. Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said Iran did not plan to exacerbate an already bearish oil market. "We are not seeking to distort the market but will regain our market share," said Zanganeh, quoted by oil ministry news agency Shana. Oil prices are likely to come under further pressure this year, when international sanctions on Iran are due to be removed under a nuclear deal reached in July. Brent crude settled at $37.28 a barrel on Thursday. Iran has repeatedly said it plans to raise oil output by 500,000 barrels per day post sanctions, and another 500,000 bpd shortly after that, to reclaim its position as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries' second-largest producer. "The decision on the amount of exports highly depends on the future condition of the market. We will raise our market quota steadily," said Mohsen Qamsari, director general for international affairs of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC). "We will adjust our output to the global market's demand," he told Shana on Saturday. "We will exercise great caution to prevent a further decline in international prices and will adopt certain methods and strategies to this end," he added, without elaborating. Oil prices fell as much as 35 percent for 2015 after a race to pump by Middle East crude producers and U.S. shale oil drillers created an unprecedented global glut that may take through 2016 to clear. The sanctions have halved Iran's oil exports to around 1.1 million bpd from a pre-2012 level of 2.5 million bpd, and the loss of oil income has hampered investments. Qamsari said Iran would be looking to export its crude to Asia and Europe giving examples of China and India as potential buyers post sanctions. Another possibility would be buying stakes in refineries abroad, he said. Story continues "One of the methods to ensure the country's oil sale is buying refineries in other countries but this has to be approved by the administration and the parliament," said Qamsari. "This is a method that countries like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, the U.S., China and leading oil giants like Royal Dutch Shell and BP have adopted and we should not stay behind them in this field." (Reporting by Rania El Gamal and Dubai newsroom, editing by William Hardy) Even if Anthony had a year to analyze and dissect each piece...(he couldn't tell if it would)... stand the harsh light of public exposure. WUWT insider Willis Eschenbach tells you all you need to know about Anthony Watts and his blog, WattsUpWithThat (WUWT). As part of his scathing commentary , Wondering Willis accuses Anthony Watts of being clueless about the blog articles he posts. To paraphrase: Click here to read more. Jerusalem (AFP) - Two Israeli soldiers, one a woman, were wounded on Sunday in separate shootings in the flashpoint West Bank city of Hebron, the army said. The young woman was seriously wounded when a gunman opened fire on her, and she was evacuated to Jerusalem's Shaare Tzedek hospital, as army statement said. The shooting happened near a disputed holy site in the heart of Hebron's Old City, which is known to Muslims as the Ibrahimi Mosque and to Jews as the Cave of the Patriarchs. Three hours later, another gunman opened fire on an army patrol in southern Hebron, slightly wounding a soldier, the army said, adding that the unknown assailant fled after the attack. Some 500 Jewish settlers live under tight guard among around 200,000 Palestinians in the southern West Bank city, where several anti-Israel attacks have been carried out in the past weeks. Sunday's shootings come amid a wave of violence since the beginning of October last year that has killed 138 Palestinians and 20 Israelis. Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan) (AFP) - A Briton working at a Canadian-owned gold mine in Kyrgyzstan could face up to five years in jail for comparing a local delicacy to a horse penis, officials said Sunday. Michael Mcfeat, an employee of Toronto-based Centerra Gold, was detained by police after posting a comment on Facebook which caused a temporary strike at the Kumtor mine, an interior ministry spokesman told AFP. In the offending post, Mcfeat said his Kyrgyz colleagues were queueing for their "special delicacy, the horse's penis" during holiday celebrations in reference to a traditional horse sausage known as "chuchuk." His remarks sparked a furious response among the workers, with "more than 120" of them signing a petition calling for his arrest, a ministry statement said Mcfeat, who is currently being held by police, could face racial hatred charges punishable by a jail term of up to five years, it said. A British embassy representative confirmed that officials were in touch with both Centerra and the local authorities over the matter. Following the uproar, the Briton deleted his remarks and posted an apology on Facebook, saying he had not meant to offend anyone. Horse meat including offal is a popular delicacy in both Kyrgyzstan and neighbouring Kazakhstan where nomadic traditions have been revived since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Located some 350 kilometres (210 miles) south east of the capital Bishkek, Kumtor mine is one of Kyrgyzstan's biggest assets and accounts for up to 10 percent of the nation's economic output. A local trade union leader confirmed that work at the mine had resumed on Sunday after a brief strike. In March, local lawmakers in Kyrgyzstan made international headlines by threatening the government with a vote of no confidence unless it got to grips with allegations that donkey meat was being sold as beef and lamb in the cafes of capital Bishkek. And in 2011, MPs ritually slaughtered seven sheep in parliament to exorcise "evil spirits" from the chamber after a wave of bloody ethnic violence and regime change a year earlier. COTONOU (Reuters) - A prominent Benin businessman, Sebestien Ajavon, announced on Sunday he would run for president in an election scheduled for February in the tiny West African state that borders Nigeria. President Thomas Boni Yayi has led the cotton-producing country since 2006. He is barred under the country's constitution from standing for a third term and the election is considered wide open. "I dream of a Benin that smiles and that's why I invite us to turn resolutely toward a clear future," he told a rally at Mathieu Kerekou stadium, which holds 35,000 and was nearly filled to capacity. Ajavon, who made his fortune through a food product company, will run as an independent supported by various political parties. He called for a reduction in youth unemployment, improved access to energy and less corruption. Leaders in Congo Republic, Rwanda and Burundi have all secured the right to run for third terms in the last year through constitutional changes, in moves that opponents have criticized as stifling democracy. Benin's President Yayi has not sought to change the constitution to allow him to run and Prime Minister Lionel Zinsou said in December he would seek election on behalf of the ruling party, though he has not yet officially launched his candidacy. A former investment banker and economist, Zinsou has said his presidency would focus on reducing poverty and getting more workers into the economy's formal sector. He was named to head a government in June that aimed to boost the economy. The International Monetary Fund said Benin's GDP growth will be 5.5 percent this year but has been affected by a slowdown in neighbor and major trading partner Nigeria. (Reporting by Allegresse Sasse; Writing by Makini Brice; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg and Susan Fenton) Your drivers license; the one thing you assume will always allow you to verify who you are. That may be to a bouncer at a bar, a ticket teller at a train station, or to a police officer. But folks in a handful of states may not be able to use their valid state drivers licenses to get on a flighteven a domestic one. According to CNN Money, it all started with the Real ID Act, which was passed by the U.S. government ten years ago. The act instructed states to adopt stricter standards for state-issued IDs so that it would be harder for potential terrorists and criminals to obtain IDs. This called for tougher standards for which documents were needed to get an ID. RELATED: Legendary Bugatti Airplane Makes its First-Ever Flight But fast-forward a decade, and less than half of the states have adopted these standards. In fact only 22 state follow the Real ID protocols, and heres the kicker state that have not complied cannot use those IDs to board a domestic flight. Neither the Department of Homeland Security, nor TSA have been enforcing the standard, but reportedly will start enforcing it in 2016. If you are from one of these non-compliant states, you will be forced to show a passport, military ID, or some other form of identification. So far, 19 states have been granted extensions through October 10, 2016. That leaves five states that are non-compliant, have not been granted extensions, or have extension requests that are still being reviewed, or none at all. RELATED: Watch This Plane Take-off and Land in Just 25 Feet! These states are Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, New Mexico, and Washington state, and their deadline is January 10. Even as of last week, DHS announced that New Mexico will be given an extension if it makes efforts to become compliant by the end of this new year. States are supposed to be given a 120 day notice before it can start to decline IDs. With all of this looming, we can certainly expect DHS and TSA to make some announcements regarding further extensions for these states, thought nothing is certain. Story continues RELATED: Jetpack Riders Fly Alongside Massive Emirates Jumbo-Jet Technically, you do not need a photo ID to take a domestic flight. It is just a real pain, as you have to go through additional screening. With that in mind, if you are in one of the non-compliant states, maybe just make sure your passport is up to date, keeping you safe from whatever bureaucratic madness ensues in the months ahead. See where your state is in terms of ID compliance by clicking on the Department of Homeland Securitys page here. Image Source: National Defense Arrecifes (Argentina) (AFP) - A speeding car careened off the road and smashed into spectators during the prologue of the Dakar Rally on Saturday, leaving at least 10 people injured, five of them seriously. The incident, which involved the Mini of Chinese driver Guo Meiling, saw the prologue -- which takes place before the first stage Sunday -- "neutralised" and immediately suspended in horrific scenes, race organisers said. Guo's car veered off the course at the 6.6-kilometer mark of the 11-kilometer prologue on a stretch of straight country road near Arrecifes, a small town 200 kilometers (120 miles) from the Argentine capital Buenos Aires. Race chiefs immediately deployed four medical helicopters, three medical vehicles belonging to the organisers and eight local ambulances to the scene of the accident. A man and his 14-year-old son were the two most serious cases and had to be rushed to hospital, Carlos Mondino, the health secretary of Arrecifes, told channel Todo Noticias. "In total, we had 10 patients, including four children and one pregnant woman, who is ok," said Daniel Modesto, head of the local hospital. Etienne Lavigne, the race director, said in a statement that a dozen people were hurt, including Guo. The accident left Guo's car battered, its bonnet strewn on the ground, as emergency workers carted the injured off on stretchers. Between 50,000 and 60,000 people were expected along the route of the prologue. In 2015, Polish motorbike rider Michal Hernik died at the end of a stage, but the last accident involving spectators at the Dakar Rally was in 2011, when one person was killed. Nine-time world rally champion Sebastien Loeb had safely negotiated the prologue in his debut on the Dakar Rally. Dutchman Bernhard ten Brinke, driving a Toyota, had claimed victory, taking 6min 08sec to cover the 11 km special, beating Carlos Sainz (Peugeot) and Xavier Pons (Ford Ranger). Loeb is seeking to follow in the footsteps of Ari Vatanen, who won the Dakar in his first attempt in 1987, back when it was raced in Africa. "It was important to clear the prologue and avoid any mistakes on the first day," said Loeb, driving a Peugeot 2008 DKR, having raced almost exclusively for another French manufacturer, Citroen. Sunday's first stage is between Rosario and Villa Carlos Paz. US News Supporters en suite: Militia members protest Oregon wildlife refuge A group of militiamen on Saturday occupied the headquarters of a national wildlife refuge in Oregon in support of an eastern Oregon ranching family who are slated to report to prison on Monday on arson charges. Ammon Bundy, the son of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who was involved in a standoff with the government over grazing rights, told The Oregonian that he and two of his brothers were among a group of dozens of people occupying the headquarters of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. Bundy said he and others are occupying the building because the people have been abused long enough. I feel we are in a situation where if we do not do something, if we do not take a hard stand, well be in a position where well be no longer able to do so. Ammon Bundy The occupation came shortly after a few hundred marchers paraded through Burns, Oregon to protest at the prosecution of father and son Harney County ranchers Dwight Hammond Jr. and Steven Hammond, who were ordered returned to prison by a federal court which ruled their original sentences were insufficient. The Hammonds had served time after being convicted in 2012 of setting fires on public land to protect their property from wildfires. Washington (AFP) - President Barack Obama will take part Thursday in a town hall-style meeting to discuss new efforts to stem what he has called an epidemic of gun violence across America. Obama, who recently singled out gun violence as one of the most urgent pieces of "unfinished business" facing him, will take questions from the audience during the event, to be aired on CNN at 8 p.m. (2300 GMT). The program is to be held at George Mason University in Fairfax, in northern Virginia. The president has frequently expressed frustration at Congress's failure to pass tougher gun-control measures, even after some of the worst mass shootings in the nation's history. Beginning his final year in office, he is set to meet Monday with Attorney General Loretta Lynch to discuss possible new actions he can take. According to CNN and The New York Times, Obama is expected to announce executive action to expand background checks on gun sales before his State of the Union address on January 12. Guns claim more than 30,000 lives in America each year, over half of them suicides. Why Crude Oil Bearish Traders Continue to Celebrate ahead of 2016 (Continued from Prior Part) OPECs meeting We covered OPECs (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) production in the previous part of this series. Now lets explore how OPEC may respond to remain sustainable in the low crude oil market. OPEC held its last meeting on December 4, 2015, in Vienna. The outcome of the meeting was that OPEC abandoned its collective production target of 30 MMbpd (million barrels per day). Interestingly, OPEC produced 32.1 MMbpd of crude oil in November 2015. OPECs strategy OPEC controls 40% of global crude oil production and has around 81% of global crude oil reserves, as of 2014. OPEC also has the lowest break-even costs and production costs. Low operating costs encourage OPEC to produce oil at record levels. Thats why OPEC and Saudi Arabia decided to abandon output quotas for its member nations. This could be a blessing in disguise for US shale operators. OPECs intentions are very clear: it wants to capture long-term market share and put US and Canadian shale operators out of business. Thus, OPEC will continue to produce more in 2016, which will be another year of low oil prices. The exponential fall in oil prices also affects oil producers like Noble Energy (NBL), ExxonMobil (XOM), PetroChina (PTR), Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A), ConocoPhillips (COP), Total (TOT), and Chevron (CVX). They also affect ETFs like the SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF (XOP), the iShares US Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF (IEO), and the PowerShares DWA Energy Momentum Portfolio (PXI). Continue to Next Part Browse this series on Market Realist: Large crowds protested in Hong Kong on Sunday after a pro-Beijing official was appointed to a senior role at the main university, as fears grow over what critics see as political interference in the city's education system. The downtown rally staged by teachers, students and alumni comes in the wake of Arthur Li's selection last month as chairman of HKU's governing council. The appointment taps in to wider concerns that academic freedoms in the city are under threat, particularly in the wake of last year's student-led mass pro-democracy rallies. Demonstrators Sunday marched to the Government House, the residence of unpopular Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying, who appointed Li. The protesters held banners that read "defend the university's autonomy" and "uphold academic freedom". Others shouted "Arthur Li, you will pay." Organisers said 3,000 people took part in the protest, while police estimated the crowd at around 800. Li, a member of Hong Kong's Executive Council, the top advisory body to the government, started his three-year term on January 1. He is widely known to be close to Leung, who is also the chancellor of all the city's universities. "The appointment is not just about HKU, it's not just about universities. This is an issue of governance in all of Hong Kong," Benny Tai, a key figure in last year's pro-democracy movement, told the crowd. "The government just does not listen to public opinion," added Tai, who also teaches at the school. Protester Timothy O'Leary, a humanities professor at HKU, told local broadcaster Cable TV: "I think this is a disappointing appointment. I think this is an indication that the government does not want to move forward in helping." Li's appointment comes after the university's council, criticised as being pro-Beijing, rejected liberal law scholar Johannes Chan as pro-vice chancellor at the university, sparking protests from staff and students. Story continues At a non-binding vote in November by HKU alumni on whether Li should be appointed, 98 percent said no. The Hong Kong government defended the appointment Sunday. "The decisions are based on the merits of individuals, including their ability, expertise, experience, integrity and commitment to public service," a government spokesman said in a statement. Former British colony Hong Kong was handed back to China in 1997 under a deal that guaranteed the retention of its civil liberties and capitalist system for 50 years. Teachers have previously accused officials of politically motivated censorship, including in 2012 when tens of thousands marched against "national education", a government proposal to introduce Beijing-centric patriotic teaching into schools. The plan was later dropped. San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer is currently the great urban hope of the Republican Partythanks to Bob Filners spectacular failure. Filner resigned as San Diegos mayor after less than a year in office and after more than a dozen women had accused him of sexual assault, harassment, or other inappropriate behavior. In the special election that followed, Faulconer, a middle-aged white Republican, soundly defeated his young Latino Democratic opponentlikely in part because Faulconers inoffensive, no-frills manner seemed like the perfect antidote for a city poisoned by a national scandal. But according to Faulconer, his ascension is no historical accident. He believes his campaign strategy could become a roadmap for Republicans in urban areas. First, Faulconer opened his campaign headquarters in an empty storefront in San Diegos historically black neighborhood. Then, when he visited Latino groups, he spoke in Spanish. He promised the citys underserved communities that he cared as much about them as anyone else. I went to neighborhoods that Republicans had traditionally surrendered and Democrats had ignored, Faulconer said. I said: Look my job is to provide opportunity. My job is to ensure were providing equal access to services. And were going to do things differently. Faulconer thinks Republicans can eventually start to win in urban areas if they engage with the poor and with communities of color. Others do, too. The Republican National Committee gave Faulconer a prime speaking slot at its winter meeting after attributing the mayors victory to his outreach efforts. Its easy to understand the attraction. Without Faulconer, none of the countrys 10 largest cities would have a GOP mayor. Recommended: The Eight Causes of Trumpism It isnt just his campaign style that is drawing attention. In the almost two years since his election, Faulconers advisers can tout approval numbers above 50 percent across the board, including from Latinos and voters who described themselves as very liberal. Plus, in a city where Democratic voters outnumber Republicans by 13 percentage points, Faulconer has attracted zero meaningful opposition to his reelection bid next year. Story continues But if Faulconer is ultimately going to succeed in building a movement that can lead the GOP out of the wilderness and into the city, hes going to have to do more than run a savvy campaign and be likeable. And that is where he runs into trouble: Faulconer has yet to propose any big-ticket items targeted toward the communities he says he wants to help. Meanwhile, Republican presidential candidates increasingly inflammatory remarks about people of color, which Faulconer hasnt publicly rebuked, undermine his efforts to connect with those same voters. And Faulconers perhaps biggest challenge is to stop playing it safe. He has never been one to say or do anything particularly controversial; instead, he recites well-rehearsed talking points and signs onto initiatives others started. Its tough to imagine Faulconer becoming a model for GOP mayors if he doesnt raise his voice or deliver on policies that meaningfully improve the lives of those targeted by his political rhetoric. Recommended: The Great Republican Revolt * * * Back in the 1990s, there was nothing special about a big-city Republican mayor. It was the era of Rudy Giuliani in New York and Dick Riordan in Los Angeles, mayors who promised to be tough on crime and streamline bureaucracy. But while New York and Los Angeles eventually fell back into Democratic hands, San Diego never stopped voting for GOP leaders. FilnerSan Diegos first Democratic mayor in two decadeswas supposed to end all that. President Obama won the city by 25 percent on the same ballot as Filners victory, and the citys Republican registration started to shrinkits now just 26 percent of the city. But Filners implosion gave San Diego Republicans another chance. Voters here, theyll go for Obama, said Jerry Sanders, San Diegos Republican mayor from 2005 to 2012. But when they look at how the city runs, they want fiscal conservatism. Faulconer, a city councilman before becoming mayor, has followed a long line of socially liberal and fiscally conservative San Diego leaders. He is pro-choice, pro-marriage equality, pro-comprehensive immigration reform, and pro-gun control. But on the economic side, Faulconer is against tax and minimum-wage hikes and in favor of pension reform and bidding out city services. But Faulconers real novelty lies in his efforts to engage diverse communities. It has to be the right plan of engagement, and it also has to be the right person. It cant be fake. People know when its fake. Just one-sixth of his 29 staff members are white, heterosexual males. He founded a nonprofit called One San Diego that raises money for laptops and after-school programs in underprivileged areas. A booming economy has allowed Faulconer to add community-center hours across the city as well as to break ground on a $13 million new library in a low-income neighborhood. He also makes most of his major announcements in communities of color, paying particular attention to southeastern San Diego, the citys seat of black political power, which has also seen a major influx of Latinos in recent years. At a holiday toy giveaway in the neighborhood recently, Faulconer easily toggled between English and Spanishhe started learning the language in grade schoolwhile speaking to families in the crowd. As a Republican in a blue city, it doesnt hurt that Faulconer is seen as competent and easy to get along with. When he was on the City Council, Faulconer became close with Tony Young, a black Democrat who represented the citys southeastern neighborhoods. After Faulconer won the mayors race, he appointed Young to lead his transition team. Faulconers push to improve communities of color, Young said, is sincere. It has to be the right plan of engagement, and it also has to be the right person, Young said. It cant be fake. People know when its fake. Kevin really wants to do this. Recommended: Why America Is Moving Left * * * But feel-good projects and a commitment to diversity wont be enough if Faulconer wants to move the needle for urban Republicans. Khalid Alexander, a community-college professor and the head of an activist group called Pillars of the Community, told me theres little difference in what Faulconer has done for the black community versus his Republican predecessorsFaulconer just has more black leaders surrounding him. On the campaign trail two years ago, Alexander recalled, Faulconer headed into a black barbershop for a conversation with neighborhood leaders. Faulconer brought along some prominent black supporters. The talk turned to the police departments well-publicized racial-profiling problem, and Faulconer was asked what he would do about it. Faulconer, Alexander said and the barbershop owner affirmed, replied that the answer to racial profiling was to hire more police officersa bit of a non sequitur that troubled the crowd. The black leaders with Faulconer asked him if he was sure that was what he meant. Faulconer said it was. At that point, Alexander said, the air went out of the room. (Faulconer, for his part, recalls saying that racial profiling would not be tolerated and that the city needs more diverse cops.) If people saw him as a Republican doing things for southeast San Diego, I dont think people would have a problem voting for him. Theres a clear disconnect between the way he sees the world and the way the black community and Southeast San Diego sees itself, Alexander said. And Faulconers party, he said, isnt the issue. If people saw him as a Republican doing things for southeast San Diego, I dont think people would have a problem voting for him, Alexander said. But Faulconers agenda is bereft of any major policy ideas that target the communities hes trying to engage with. He has also avoided taking on the big policy issues that conservative urbanists believe are ripe for Republican leadership. Many conservatives think GOP mayors should encourage greater density and development as a way to reduce soaring housing costs and that they should also promote the use of Uber, Airbnb, and other sharing-economy companies. But when a local councilman hosted a tense showdown among residents over plans to beef up development and raise building height limits, the mayor stayed decidedly out of the fray. And when a fierce conversation started about the citys Airbnb regulations, Faulconer backed off and let others lead on the issue. To be sure, Faulconer has had one signature policy victory, though much of its planning began under his predecessor. In December, at Faulconers urging, San Diego became the largest city in the country with a legally binding commitment to get all of its future energy from renewable sources. But that isnt helping him on the ground. Matt David, a Republican political consultant who has worked on national presidential campaigns as well as a San Diego mayoral election in recent years, said its unfortunate Faulconer isnt well known outside of Southern California because Faulconer has succeeded in winning a big city when the party consistently fails at it. But ultimately, David said, for Faulconers project to work, hes going to have to deliver. I think part of this strategy has to be more than reaching out to minority groups, David said. You have to point to concrete policies that have had impact on peoples lives. Whats more, Faulconer has been reluctant to speak out about the Republican Partys rightward tilt nationally, something that David and everyone else I spoke with for this story said is incredibly damaging to Faulconers efforts to engage people of color. Months ago, I asked Faulconer about Donald Trumps idea to put a wall along the U.S. southern border. Even though he disagrees with Trump, Faulconer evaded the question. More recently, I asked him why he punted: I tend to focus on things that I have an effect on locally here in San Diego, he said. Talking about national issues, Faulconer said, is a distraction. Despite making no waves with his words or policies, Faulconer and his allies already have more than $1 million in the bank to support his 2016 reelection campaign, and thats without any real opposition so far. Faulconers political consultant told me nearly all the money the campaign spent in 2015 went toward Spanish-language advertisements. But Faulconer seems to realize hes going to have to do more than just run great campaigns if he wants to be a national figure who can show the GOP how to earn minority votes. He told me he would announce a major new youth-employment program that focuses on underserved neighborhoods in his January State of the City speech. He didnt want to reveal just how many jobs the program would create before the address, but he was uncharacteristically bold in his promise. I cant tell you what the number is, Faulconer said, but its going to be off the charts. Read more from The Atlantic: This article was originally published on The Atlantic. When ISIS was defeated in Ramadi last month, the terror group that directed the Paris attacks and inspired the San Bernardino attack suffered a strategic blow. Ramadi, the capital of Anbar, Iraq's largest province where 1300 American soldiers and Marines were killed since the U.S. led invasion of Iraq in 2003, is the largest city ever recaptured from ISIS. Along with the good news, however, comes bad information based on rumors and hearsaytypical sources in the Middle East, especially regarding ISIS. The stunning confusion between facts and fiction take on a life of their own, making the complex Middle East even harder to comprehend. Heres where we stand in Ramadi as we begin 2016. Related: Iraqi Army Declares First Major Victory Over Islamic State in Ramadi Is the Battle for Ramadi Really Over? After Iraqi counter terrorism forces raised the Iraqi flag on the roof of the partly destroyed provincial government building last month and western media reported that Ramadi had been retaken by the Iraqi government, a state of joy circulated across Iraq. What followed was a renewed faith in the Iraqi army among Iraqis and foreigners alike. Yet, the truth is more complicated. Reliable sources among the Iraqi government and the U.S. military say that while it is true that ISIS has been driven out of the provincial government building, the city still has pockets of ISIS resistance that need to be cleared out. Ramadi has more than forty neighborhoods. The government forces have retaken more than half of them, but there are still about 700 ISIS fighters still in the city, according to the U.S. military. This number might be exaggerated. Last Friday ISIS attacked multiple targets in Ramadi. The attacks were repelled after a fierce fight that left dozens of Iraqi soldiers dead and gave ISIS control--briefly--of the Iraqi armys tenth division headquarters. Who Gets the Credit for Victory? The phrase "Success has a thousand fathers," is appropriate when the battle of Ramadi has been seen as successful for many. Many Iraqis and foreigners praise the Iraqi army for achieving victory. The U.S. forces in Iraq claim that about 600 US led air raids made the victory possible. Iran credits the Shiite militias for the successful retake of the city. Iraqi Sunnis tend to overemphasize the role of about 4300 U.S. trained Sunni tribal fighters in the fight. Story continues Related: Iraqi Troops Close In On Islamic State Redoubt In Ramadi While U.S. forces helped Iraqis choose the path that led to the victory by encircling the ISIS controlled areas in Anbar, including the cities of Ramadi and Fallujah, the true heroes of the battle of Ramadi were Iraqi counter terrorism forces. They were the main groups that pushed into the city and engaged with ISIS's defensive lines. The US led air raids took place over a five-month period, the same time needed to completely cut off ISIS's supply lines from the city. The raids allegedly destroyed 400 ISIS targets, including tactical units, snipers, shock forces and suicide attacking platoons, vehicles, control and command centers, guest houses, car bomb factories, and training camps. The entire campaign took seven months. 5000 US anti tank missiles were provided to the Iraqi government forces have helped Iraq destroy ISIS's armored car bombs before they reached their targets. All the American military support was provided with the condition that Shiite militias be tasked in a secondary role of securing the Iraqi government forces' supply lines from all directions, in part to calm sectarian Sunni - Shiite tensions. The Iraqi army and police would liberate the northern parts of the city while Sunni tribal fighters would secure the areas the counter terrorism forces had already liberated from ISIS bombs and fighters. The counter terrorism forces are the only faction of the Iraqi government forces that have proven reliable in the fight against ISIS in the last two years. They are well trained, equipped, and motivated. They were recently expanded to two divisions. Among the forces best achievements during the battle of Ramadi were the engineering units' ability to assemble bridges to mount attacks on ISIS. The counter terrorism forces also used US armored mine detection vehicles effectively. A specialized battalion in dealing with hostage crises was used to free hundreds of families trapped behind ISIS's lines who were used as human shields by ISIS. Related: Iraq's Abadi Plants Flag in Ramadi to Mark Islamic State Defeat Ironically, the counter terrorism forces were called "the dirty force" when they were working alongside the US special operation forces after the US led invasion in 2003. Today, they are Iraq's best chance to fight ISIS. Nevertheless, Nibras Kazimi, a fellow at Hudson Institute specializing in jihadi groups says these forces have been abused and deployed in many occasions as infantry forces. They are exhausted after two years of non-stop fighting. In Ramadi, no less than a full division of 10,000 Iraqi government forces and their allies fought against a force ten to fifteen times smaller of ISIS fighters. Is This The Turning Point? How Weak Is ISIS After Ramadi? There is no doubt that ISIS's defeat in Ramadi made the terror group weaker. ISIS has lost lately on other fronts as well. In December alone, ISIS lost a dozen senior leaders, including the governors of Kirkuk and Diyala, a top police commander, recruiters in Iraq and Syria, military commanders of Dijla and Kirkuk states, top health officials in Mosul and Anbar, financial and administrative officials in Mosul, and two of its most senior judges in Mosul. Hisham al-Hashimi, the expert on ISIS at the Iraqi national security advisor's office says that hundreds of ISIS fighters were killed in Ramadi alone, including full units of suicide bombers and snipers. The Iraqi intelligence service has also arrested 40 ISIS operatives who are the terror group's main human assets in Baghdad, Diyala and the south provinces. Hashimi adds that one of the reasons for ISISs defeat in Ramadi was its dependence on field commanders who are hated by the locals. Saad al-Obeidi, ISIS military commander in Ramadi, was a former army officer with a history of vengeance with locals. Six other ISIS security officials in the city shared a similar background. Related: Iraqi Forces to Retake Mosul From Islamic State After Ramadi Secured The relentless bombing of ISIS oil properties has taken a toll financially on the terror group. Mosul blogger Maouris Milton says that ISIS decreased its fighters salaries and that ISIS's police in Mosul are enforcing fines as punishment more than before to collect money. ISIS leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's recent speech acknowledged the loss of lands and the difficulties the group is facing. Yet, ISIS is still able to fight and attack on multiple fronts. Friday's attacks in Ramadi were coordinated with an attack on a dam to the west of Samarra, north of Baghdad. ISIS's fallen leaders are steadily replaced along with their foot soldiers. Because ISISs financial resources are diversified, they can absorb a hit to their oil properties. Yet, Ramadi could be a turning point, if it is followed by multiple and coordinated attacks in both Iraq and Syria. Does Iraq Finally Have A Strong Commander In Chief And A National Leader? Many analysts have noted that Ramadi's victory will strengthen the Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi. Iraq's lack of a national leader who can unify the divided country was a major reason for its violent sectarian strife. It is true that Abadis posture is better after Ramadi, but those who expect much of him will be disappointed. Abadi is a U.K. educated engineer with a reputation for indecision. His former colleague at the political bureau of the party Salim al-Hasani says that Abadi was chosen last year by the corrupt Iraqi political class for the premiership because he wouldn't endanger their interests. Last summer, Abadi was urged by tens of thousands of Iraqi demonstrators and by the most senior religious figure in Iraq, grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, to launch a campaign against corruption. Yet, his dithering allowed little to be achieved. Related: Islamic State Suffers Double Blow as Ramadi Falls, Leaders Killed When he is forced to make a decision, Abadi tends to simplify challenges into a numbers game. Examples of this approach are numerous: taking 50,000 ghost soldiers off the Iraqi army payroll, decreasing the government's official body guards from two divisions by 90 percent, firing hundreds of generals, deputy ministers, advisors, ambassadors, ministers, deputy prime ministers and vice presidents. All these steps help in combating corruption, but they don't touch the real cause of the problem. Abadi also is facing a difficult year with increasingly limited resources. Iraq's oil revenues are dropping and the government has received foreign loans to pay salaries of public servants. In a state of near-bankruptcy, the war against ISIS will suffer from lack of funding. There are 3.5 million displaced people due to ISIS who need urgent aid. The liberated cities of Tikrit and Ramadi require reconstruction. The Shiite militias are fighting for funding but neither Iraq nor Iran has any to spare. So, some of them are taking hostages as they did with the group of Qatari hunters in the desert or with hundreds of Sunni men fleeing Ramadi to Baghdad. Is Mosul Next? Al-Abadi has assured Iraqis that the next battle will be the liberation of Mosul, but this battle will be an even heavier lift than Ramadi. In Anbar, the Iraqi government needs to retake the city of Fallujah and several other cities, including Hit and al-Qaim. In the north and in order to liberate Mosul in a similar way to that of Ramadi, the Iraqi government will need to liberate the Talafar to the west of Mosul and al-Shirqat and al-Qayara to the south of Mosul. Al-Hawija to the southeast of Mosul must be dealt with as well. To conduct all these operations, Iraq needs more reliable forces than its elite counter terrorism forces. Some experts estimate the forces needed to liberate Mosul would be no fewer than 25,000. Ramadi could be a turning point that eventually leads to ISISs final defeat. But this process may take many months or even years. Top Reads from The Fiscal Times: A coalition of the willing for Syrian refugees? The United States has resumed its war in Iraq, once again building a "coalition of the willing." Our government has, unfortunate... Last post Sorry about the long hiatus, dear readers. I had intended to take a short break and it seems to have turned into a long one, so I am startin... Why are we still discussing the TPP? Has anybody actually read the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement? I presume the negotiators have. And no doubt a host of corporate la... Hard times at the World Bank Paul Wolfowitz, president of the World Bank, was required to remove his shoes when he visited a mosque in western Turkey recently. Note his ... Mister Trudeau and the impossible dream Oh, if only the economy could grow forever. We could buy more stuff tomorrow and more the day after tomorrow, and in their time our children... 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A long overdue budget break for the CBC Of all the items in the new federal budget, the one that jumped out at me, and caused a whoop of delight, was the $675-million over five ye... putin kerry Russia's pattern of airstrikes in Syria indicate that it is preparing a "plan B" should the regime fail to restore a central Syrian state and be forced to retreat to a fragment of government-held territory along the Mediterranean. "A second option [for Russia] is to fall back to the defensible parts of useful Syria after guaranteeing the safety of the Alawi canton," Joseph Bahout, a visiting scholar in the Middle East Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, wrote of Russia in Carnegie's "Syria in Crisis" blog. "This is perhaps already a consideration, as the majority of Russian airstrikes concentrate on the contours of this area." Since intervening on behalf of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in late September, Russia has used airstrikes to create a buffer zone between rebel-held territory in the southern Idlib province and the traditional homeland of the Assads' Alawite sect in the Latakia governorate. The airstrikes have also targeted rebel-controlled territory just north of Homs that borders this so-called Alawi canton. Russia airstrikes Syria up to Dec 27 "Based on the majority of Russian air strikes and SAA [Syrian Arab Army] fighting, the regime and Moscow are securing an Assadland or Alawistan," Boris Zilberman, a Russia expert at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), told Business Insider on Thursday, referring to a term used by the foundation's Tony Badran to describe the Alawi enclave in Latakia. "The regime is taking land they think they can hold with the assistance of Russian air power. So first and foremost they are securing the regime." A 'new international order' To be sure, Assad's forces, with Russian air cover, are still battling to retain control over the two most symbolically and strategically important cities in Syria. Those are Damascus, the capital which has been long viewed by rebel forces as the key to winning the war and Aleppo, Syria's second-largest city and main urban center in the north. Story continues But even if the regime were to drive the rebels out of Aleppo and Damascus, holding the cities would require a significant commitment of funding and manpower. The SAA was fatigued, overstretched, and nearing the point of collapse before Russian air cover helped the army regain territory. It would likely either need to be completely revamped, or Russia would have to devote ground troops to fortifying the cities against counterattacks that would likely continue as long as Assad is in power. jaysh al islam damascus Solidifying a Russian "protectorate" in western Syria that is already held by the regime and dominated by a sect of Shia Islam loyal to the Assads, however, would give "a tangible reality to Moscows concept of a new international order." That's according to Marc Pierini, a visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe and a former EU ambassador, who wrote in Turkey's English-language newspaper Hurriyet in September. "To its snap annexation of Crimea and dominance of eastern Ukraine, Russia is now adding 'Assadland,'" Pierini wrote. "In doing so, it is showing the rest of the world that it has the capacity to redefine the international order, or at least the guts to act as spoiler in chief." 'An acceptable lesser of many evils' Mark Galeotti, a Russia expert and professor of global affairs at New York University, agreed that while an "Assadland" or "Alawistan" would not be the Kremlin's first choice, it is "an acceptable lesser of many evils" for Russia. "It is not that Moscow would be happy with an Alawite statelet, but it is obviously and inevitably thinking of fallback options should it not get its ideal, which is an outright victory for Damascus," Galeotti told Business Insider on Friday. "Given that the Russians are not so naive as to consider that a done deal, or even a likelihood, they will also have alternatives under consideration." He added: "A defensible, economically viable and politically more homogenous 'Alawistan' would both ensure they retain a client-ally in the region and yet also be a much more manageable unit to have to support and project." assad putin hezbollah It would also be appealing to Assad. A statelet in the west would ensure that the regime retains access to its key partner, Hezbollah, as well as to potential offshore energy in the eastern Mediterranean. Significantly, this "solution" would likely be unacceptable to the predominantly Sunni interior and periphery of Syria that has been fighting to see Assad completely out of power or dead for nearly five years. Moreover, as Zilberman of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies said, an Assad stronghold along the coast would "continue to be a great recruiting tool for jihadis." With negotiations over Syria's future due to begin in late January with Assad at the table, however, the partition of Syria in a way that would protect him and his family and ensure Russia's continued relevance in the region could very well form part of a negotiated long-term "solution" to the conflict. "If you are part of, or back, the Syrian regime, it makes sense right?" Zilberman said. "If you can make it through this and retain some sort of state that the Assads can control in the future, then you've won." NOW WATCH: Russia has bombed more than 600 Syrian targets in the past few days More From Business Insider Riyadh (AFP) - Saudi Arabia broke off diplomatic ties with Iran after protesters ransacked its embassy in Tehran to protest the execution of a Shiite cleric whose killing has sparked fury. Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir made the announcement at a news conference in Riyadh, and said Iranian diplomats had 48 hours to leave the kingdom. The diplomatic fallout come as Iran's supreme leader said Saudi Arabia would face "quick consequences" for executing Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, and as Washington urged regional leaders to soothe escalating sectarian tensions between Sunni and Shiite Muslims. Saudi Arabia "is breaking off diplomatic ties with Iran and requests that all members of the Iranian diplomatic mission leave... within 48 hours," Jubeir said. "Iran's history is full of negative interference and hostility in Arab issues, and it is always accompanied by destruction," he said, accusing Tehran of seeking to "destabilise" the region. The decision to cut ties with Iran will not distract from Riyadh's "big mistake" of executing a top Shiite cleric, a senior Iranian official said Monday. "By deciding to sever (diplomatic) relations, Saudi Arabia cannot make (the world) forget its big mistake of executing a cleric," deputy foreign minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said, according to the IRNA agency. On Saturday, a mob attacked the Saudi embassy in Tehran and a consulate in the second city of Mashhad amid protests at Nimr's execution. Jubeir said Saudi authorities had asked their Iranian counterparts to ensure security at the embassy but they did not cooperate and failed to protect it. Nimr, 56, was a force behind 2011 anti-government protests in oil-rich eastern Saudi Arabia, where Shiites have long complained of marginalisation. He was put to death along with 46 other people, including Shiite activists and convicted Sunni militants who the Saudi interior ministry says were involved in Al-Qaeda attacks that killed dozens in 2003 and 2004. Story continues Some were beheaded and others were shot by firing squad. - 'Instigator of sedition' - Iran has said it arrested 44 people over the embassy attacks, and President Hassan Rouhani said the demonstrators were "radicals" and the assaults "totally unjustifiable". Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, meanwhile, condemned Nimr's execution, saying "God will not forgive" Saudi Arabia for putting him to death. "The unjustly spilt blood of this martyr will have quick consequences," he said, adding "It will haunt the politicians of this regime." Relations between Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia and Shiite-ruled Iran have been strained for decades, with Riyadh frequently accusing Tehran of interfering in Arab affairs. The two countries have also been divided over the nearly five-year war in Syria, where Iran is backing the regime, and the conflict in Yemen where a Saudi-led coalition is battling Shiite rebels. Khamenei was joined in his condemnation of Nimr's execution by Iraq's top Shiite authority, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who called the death sentence "an unjust act of aggression". Their comments, echoed by other regional religious and political leaders, came as protests in Iran on Sunday spread to Bahrain, Pakistan, Indian Kashmir and Lebanon. Saudi Arabia branded Nimr an "instigator of sedition" and arrested him in 2012, after a video on YouTube showed him making a speech celebrating the death of the then-interior minister. Three years earlier he called for the oil-rich Eastern Province's Shiite-populated Qatif and Al-Ihsaa governorates to be separated from Saudi Arabia and united with Bahrain. - 'Gates of hell' - Demonstrations outside the Saudi embassy and at Palestine Square in Tehran attracted around 1,500 people Sunday, with chants of "Death to the House of Saud". "His death will start a revolution which hopefully will lead to the fall of the Saudi family," said Rezvan, a 26-year-old in a traditional black chador who declined to give her last name. On Baghdad's Palestine Street, Iraqi cleric Ahmed al-Shahmani said: "The House of Saud has opened the gates of hell on its own regime." In Bahrain, where authorities defended Saudi Arabia along with other Gulf allies of Riyadh, police used buckshot and tear gas against Shiiite protesters who threw petrol bombs. Arrests were reported. Nimr's execution was widely condemned elsewhere by major Western powers, and the United States on Sunday called on Middle East countries to take "affirmative steps" to calm tensions. Executions have soared in Saudi Arabia since King Salman ascended the throne a year ago with 153 people put to death in 2015, nearly twice as many as in 2014, for crimes ranging from murder to drug trafficking, armed robbery, rape and apostasy. Human Rights Watch said the mass execution was the largest since 1980, when 68 militants who had seized Mecca's Grand Mosque were beheaded, and called it a "shameful start to 2016". Amnesty International said Saudi Arabia was using Nimr's execution "to settle political scores". But on Sunday Jubeir said those executed had received "fair and transparent" trials and were convicted of carrying out "terrorist operations that led to the deaths of innocents". Tehran (AFP) - Iran's supreme leader warned Sunday that Saudi Arabia would face "divine revenge" for executing a Shiite cleric as condemnation also poured in from Iraq and protesters took to the streets. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was joined in his condemnation of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr's death by Iraq's top Shiite authority, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who called the death sentence an unjust act of aggression. Their comments came as protests in Iran on Sunday spread to Bahrain, Pakistan, Indian Kashmir and Lebanon a day after a mob set fire to the Saudi embassy in Tehran and ransacked it before dozens were arrested. On top of the ongoing wars in Syria and Yemen, Nimr's execution set the Middle East's main Shiite countries further apart from their Sunni counterpart in Riyadh. Nimr, a Saudi Shiite who spent more than a decade studying theology at Iran's seminaries, was a force behind anti-government protests in eastern Saudi Arabia in 2011. He was put to death Saturday along with 46 Shiite activists and Sunnis who Saudi Arabia said were involved in Al-Qaeda killings. Some were beheaded, others were shot by firing squad. The 56-year-old's execution also sparked concern in the United Nations, the European Union and the United States and was deplored by Germany and France. Britain, which is careful to protect deep trade and investment links with Saudi Arabia, reiterated its opposition to the death penalty in a statement which avoided mentioning Nimr directly. Saudi Arabia's Gulf partners defended their ally, with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and Yemen calling the executions Riyadh's sovereign right to confront extremism. - 'God will not forgive' - Khamenei said the killing would not go unanswered. "The unjustly spilt blood of this martyr will have quick consequences," he told clerics in Tehran. "God will not forgive... it will haunt the politicians of this regime." Story continues Iraqi religious leaders also reacted with outrage. Grand Ayatollah Sistani called the execution "an injustice and an aggression" while another cleric, Mohammed Taqi al-Mudaressi, said it was a "declaration of war" against Shiites. Iraq's foreign ministry accused Saudi Arabia of using the fight against "terrorism" to silence its opposition. In Lebanon, the head of the Shiite Hezbollah movement allied to Iran, Hassan Nasrallah, accused Riyadh of seeking to spark a "conflict between Sunni and Shiite" Muslims. Saudi Arabia had branded Nimr an "instigator of sedition" and arrested him in 2012, after a video on YouTube showed him making a speech celebrating the death of the then interior minister. Three years earlier he had called for the oil-rich Eastern Province's Shiite-populated Qatif and Al-Ihsaa governorates to be separated from Saudi Arabia and united with Bahrain. Shiites in the neighbouring countries complain of marginalisation. Demonstrations outside the Saudi embassy and at Palestine Square in Tehran attracted around 1,500 people Sunday, with chants of "Death to the House of Saud". "His death will start a revolution which hopefully will lead to the fall of the Saudi family," said Rezvan, a 26-year-old in a traditional black chador who declined to give her last name. Iran's President Hassan Rouhani condemned Nimr's execution but also denounced attacks on the Saudi embassy in Tehran and the consulate in second city Mashhad. - 'The gates of hell' - He branded the demonstrators "radicals" and said the assaults were "totally unjustifiable". Forty-four people were arrested, prosecutors said. Small protests took place in Iraq and in the Lebanese capital. "The House of Saud has opened the gates of hell on its own regime," said one cleric, Ahmed al-Shahmani, on Baghdad's Palestine Street. In Sunni-ruled Bahrain, police used buckshot and tear gas against Shiite protesters who threw petrol bombs. An interior ministry official said several people, including minors, were detained. Concern mounted around the world, with the US warning that Riyadh risked "exacerbating sectarian tensions at a time when they urgently need to be reduced". UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he was "deeply dismayed" by the state-sanctioned killings, while France and Germany voiced concerns about growing tensions in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia's interior ministry said the executed men were convicted of adopting the radical "takfiri" ideology, joining "terrorist organisations" and implementing "criminal plots". They included Sunnis convicted of involvement in Al-Qaeda attacks that killed dozens of Saudis and foreigners in 2003 and 2004. Among them was Fares al-Shuwail, described by Saudi media as Al-Qaeda's top religious leader in the kingdom. Executions have soared in Saudi Arabia since King Salman ascended the throne a year ago with 153 people put to death in 2015, nearly twice as many as in 2014, for crimes ranging from murder to drug trafficking, armed robbery, rape and apostasy. Human Rights Watch said Saturday's "mass execution was the largest since 1980" when 68 militants who had seized Mecca's Grand Mosque were beheaded. "Saudi Arabia had a shameful start to 2016, executing 47 people in a day, after a year with one of the highest execution rates in its recent history, said HRW's Middle East director Sarah Leah Whitson. Amnesty International said Saudi Arabia was using Nimr's execution "to settle political scores". Dubai (AFP) - Police in the Sunni-ruled Gulf state of Bahrain clashed on Sunday with Shiite protesters a day after neighbouring Saudi Arabia executed a leading Shiite cleric. An interior ministry official said that several people, among them minors who took part in protests, had been arrested along with others who "misused social media", state-run BNA news agency reported. Demonstrations erupted in Bahrain after Saturday's execution of Nimr al-Nimr, a driving force of protests in Saudi Arabia's east in 2011 who was among 47 people put to death in the Sunni-ruled kingdom. On Sunday, police using tear gas and buckshot clashed with protesters throwing petrol bombs in several Shiite suburbs of the capital Manama, witnesses said. Some injuries were reported. Protesters carrying pictures of Nimr marched through several suburbs of Manama, among them Jidhafs, Sitra, Duraz and Bilad al-Qadeem. Witnesses said the violence was worst at Sidra west of the city, with some 400 demonstrators clashing with police. The same sources said security forces used tear gas against protesters in Duraz who blocked a road and hurled stones at police. BNA said the "assistant undersecretary of legal affairs" at the interior ministry announced Sunday that "several rioters and vandals have been detained". "A small number of people who misused social media for illegal purposes" were also detained, the official was quoted as saying. It was not clear how many people were arrested or when. The official said "the parents of several minors were also summoned" under legislation which stipulates they could be jailed or fined for "crime or delinquency" committed by their children, BNA said. Bahrain has backed Riyadh over Saturday's executions. Authorities had said that they would take "all necessary legal measures" against any "negative" actions in response to the death sentences, which they would consider as "inciting sedition and threatening civil order". Story continues They also warned of legal measures against anyone who used "social media networks to spread rumours that influence security". Bahrain, home to the US Navy's Fifth Fleet, has been rocked by a Shiite-led uprising since February 2011, with demands ranging from a constitutional monarchy to overthrowing the ruling dynasty altogether. Scores of opponents have been detained, with many facing trial, while others convicted of involvement in violence have been handed heavy sentences, including loss of citizenship and life in prison. By Sam Wilkin DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's execution of a leading cleric from the Shi'ite Muslim minority drew warnings of a backlash against the ruling Al Saud family and threatened to further intensify a wave of sectarian conflict in the region. Lebanon's Supreme Islamic Shi'ite Council called the execution of cleric Nimr al-Nimr a "grave mistake", and the Hezbollah group termed it an assassination. Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, an establishment cleric in largely Shia rival Iran, said repercussions against the Sunni Saudi rulers would "wipe them from the pages of history". Saudi Arabia executed 47 people including Nimr, whom the government accused of inciting violence against the police. His supporters say he is a peaceful dissident who called for greater rights for the kingdom's Shi'ite minority. Scores of Shi'ites in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province marched through Nimr's home district of Qatif shouting "down with the Al Saud", and dozens more gathered in nearby Bahrain, a Sunni-ruled island kingdom allied to Saudi Arabia. In Iran, a Shi'ite theocracy and rival to Saudi Arabia, state media channels carried non-stop coverage of clerics and secular officials eulogising Nimr and predicting the downfall of Saudi Arabia's Sunni ruling family. Shi'ite leaders in Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, and Yemen also warned of reprisals, in a signal that sectarian conflicts across the Middle East could be further inflamed. On a day where a Saudi-led coalition announced the end of a ceasefire in its war with Yemen's Houthi movement, the Houthis said Nimr had been afforded only a "mock trial". TERRORISM CHARGES Three other Shi'ites were executed alongside Nimr, but most of the convicts were jihadists linked to al Qaeda, a radical Sunni group that regards Shi'ites as heretics and has often targeted them in its attacks. Shi'ite groups across the region accused Saudi Arabia of using terrorism as a pretext to execute Nimr, a figurehead for the kingdom's restive Shi'ite population who calls for peaceful protests in sermons broadcast online. The Saudi government says Nimr ordered his followers to attack the police, and was to blame for a series of shooting and petrol bomb attacks that killed several policemen during anti-government protests in Qatif in 2011-13. "The Saudi government supports terrorists and takfiri (radical Sunni) extremists, while executing and suppressing critics inside the country," Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari said. CALLS TO CUT TIES The wave of condemnation could harm Saudi Arabia's efforts to form an Islamic alliance against the jihadist militants of Islamic State. Riyadh announced the coalition last month, but did not include the Shi'ite powers. Lawmakers in Shi'ite-majority Iraq called on the government to sever ties with neighbouring Saudi Arabia, just one day after the kingdom reopened its embassy in Baghdad for the first time since 1990. Former prime minister Nuri al-Maliki said Nimr's execution would "topple the Saudi regime", while one lawmaker said it had helped Islamic State's cause. Iran's foreign ministry had said on Monday it was willing to talk to Saudi Arabia after months of escalating tensions, but any chance of a rapprochement appeared to be derailed on Saturday as officials and clerics lined up to denounce the kingdom. (Additional reporting by Angus McDowall in Riyadh, Stephen Kalin in Baghdad, John Davison in Beirut, and Noah Browning and Sami Aboudi in Dubai; Editing by Ralph Boulton) Thousands of Shiite Muslims protested in Pakistan and Indian Kashmir Sunday to condemn Saudi Arabia's execution of a leading cleric Nimr al-Nimr, as fury over the killing spread. The 56-year-old Shiite cleric was put to death along with 46 Shiite activists and Sunnis who the Saudi interior ministry said were involved in Al-Qaeda killings. Some were beheaded, others were shot by firing squad. Iran and Iraq's top Shiite leaders also condemned the execution, warning ahead of protests that the killing was an injustice that could have serious consequences. Peaceful protests were held across Pakistan, including in the southwestern city Quetta where about 1,000 people called on the government to reconsider its longtime ties with Riyadh and demonstrators held placards bearing anti-Saudi slogans. In the eastern city of Lahore, around 1,500 took to the streets, calling Nimr's execution a gross human rights violation, while in the port city of Karachi about a thousand men, women and children shouted slogans against the royal Saudi family. Similar protests also took place in several districts of the southern Sindh province and the Pakistani capital Islamabad, where about 500 people gathered to call on the UN to intervene to stop Saudi Arabia from targeting Shiite Muslims. Amid the rallies, Saudi foreign minister Adel bin Ahmed al-Jubeir, who was scheduled to arrive in Islamabad Sunday evening, postponed his visit. "The visit was postponed at the request of the authorities of Saudi Arabia," the Pakistani foreign ministry said in a statement, adding the trip would take place on January 7. Meanwhile in Srinagar, the main city of Indian-administered Kashmir, hundreds of angry Shiites clashed with police as they protested the cleric's execution. The demonstrators bearing photos of Nimr chanted "down with al-Saud dynasty," referring to Saudi leaders and called them "stooges of America" as they marched toward the city centre. Some hurled rocks at police, who fired tear gas and wielded batons in return, a senior police officer speaking on condition of anonymity told AFP. Similar protests were also held in smaller towns across the Muslim-majority region, which is divided between India and Pakistan but claimed in its entirety by both the South Asian rivals. Mogadishu (AFP) - Somalia's elegant colonial villas were left in ruins by two decades of street fighting among warlords, and the seaside capital Mogadishu was dubbed the most dangerous city in the world. But now new housing estates are being built amid an economic boom as diaspora Somalis return and newly wealthy businessmen capitalise on the relative peace in the city. Some seven kilometres (four miles) outside Mogadishu in a formerly largely rural area, new homes are springing up, with almost 50 houses now ready on an estate, builders say. Mohamed Abdullahi Ali, from Salaam Somali Bank, said it was a "great honour" to back the estimated $20 million (18 million euro) project. Construction began in early 2015 and the project was touted as offering commercial returns and helping rebuild the nation. "It is a new neighbourhood for all Somalis to buy affordable homes, by leaving the densely populated neighbourhoods of Mogadishu, and to come and stay with families here," Ali said. "According to our plan, we are going to build 500 homes that can cover the residential needs for 500 families in the first stage, and then will construct more houses." - Different vision of Mogadishu - Tens of thousands forced to flee their homes still live in plastic and rag shelters in the capital, sometimes in the ruins of war-shattered buildings, and more than a million people are still in need of emergency aid in a country ravaged by famine in 2011, the United Nations says. Car bombs and assassinations are still common, and a 22,000-strong African Union force fights alongside the army to protect the internationally-backed government from attacks by the Islamist Shebab insurgents. The streets in the new estate offer a very different vision of Mogadishu. Those returning to Somalia -- including investors wanting to start new business in the their homeland -- say the Daru Salaam estate offers them a more secure place to live. Story continues "I came back to this city to buy a new home in Daru Salaam neighbourhood... the houses are well built," said Abdiqadar Jimale Roble, 34, who grew up in Sweden from the age of 12 after Somalia spiralled into civil war in the early 1990s. "I have been out of Somalia for long time but I came back because everybody needs his country -- and the country is making much progress," Roble added. "I had to take part in that progress, and everybody should have a house in his country." For those returning with dollars earned abroad, the estate reflects the possible profits to be made even in a still dangerous country. - 'Humanitarian needs remain vast' - Sadia Sheikh Ahmed, who also grew up in Sweden after fleeing Somalia, said she had helped her relatives abroad snap up property. "Initially we wanted to buy two houses, but now we and our relatives have bought eight homes, scheduled to be completed soon," she said. A two-storey house can cost some $130,000, while a more simple bungalow comes in at around $70,000. Those are hefty sums in one of the poorest countries in the world, with a gross domestic product per capita of just $284, according to the World Bank, against a sub-Saharan Africa average of $1,300. Development indicators are "among the lowest in the world", the World Bank says, noting the Horn of Africa nation is "heavily dependent" on aid and remittances. Over 308,000 children are acutely malnourished, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). "After more than two decades of violence and political instability, Somalia is on a positive trajectory," OCHA said, while warning the "promising trend" takes place amid a "precarious" humanitarian and security situation. "Humanitarian needs remain vast and Somalia's humanitarian crisis remains among the largest and most complex in the world," OCHA added. But the estate is symbolic of the possible changes in Mogadishu. "The security here is very good and there have been no problems," said Fuad Ahmed Warsame, marketing director of Daru Salaam Real Estate, which is building the new neighbourhood -- meaning "house of peace." The company is headquartered in central Mogadishu's famous Bakara Market, the city's commercial heart, once infamous as the 1993 battle when fighters shot down two American Black Hawk helicopters. The bullet scars there have long been covered up with business booming. "Our plan is to build a new neighbourhood with a good environment, new designs," added Warsame. Colombo (AFP) - Up to 100,000 people still living in camps six years after the end of Sri Lanka's brutal ethnic war will be given land to build homes within six months, President Maithripala Sirisena told AFP Sunday. The leader, elected last January, has won praise for starting to hand back land after the end of one of South Asia's longest and bloodiest ethnic wars, which pitted the government against Tamil separatists. But he is also under international pressure to do more to reconcile the ethnically divided nation. "It is an ambitious target, but I will see that all the internally displaced people are given land to build homes," the president said in an interview with AFP. "I am setting up a mechanism to complete this process within six months." Sirisena said he would give land to civilians displaced by war in the embattled northern and eastern provinces, and also the northwestern coastal region of Puttalam, by the middle of this year. The families set to receive the land are currently staying in camps in those areas. During a visit to the northern city of Jaffna last month, where much of the civil war fighting took place, Sirisena said he visited a refugee camp that has been home to about 1,300 families for the past 25 years. "This is an unacceptable situation. I want to end this problem once and for all," he said. "For many people the main issue was lack of land and that is something we will resolve in the next six months." As part of a parallel scheme, he is also planning to free up additional private land occupied by the military, mainly in the former war zones in the northern and eastern provinces, starting in the next two weeks. He said he would return to Jaffna this month to formally hand over about 700 acres (283 hectares) of land as part of the plan, in line with his election promise. Sirisena, 64, came to power with the backing of Sri Lanka's minority Tamils and Muslims, on top of the majority Sinhalese who supported him, on the back of pledges to ensure ethnic reconciliation and end corruption and nepotism that plagued his predecessor's rule. Story continues Soon after his election, Sirisena ordered security forces to return thousand of acres of private land they occupied in the Jaffna peninsula, the de facto capital of Tamil Tiger rebels. The area saw some of the bloodiest fighting during the war that claimed over 100,000 lives between 1972 and 2009. Sirisena said Sunday the new land pledges were in addition to that previously promised, although he has not specified the total area of land to that will be handed out. - War crimes probe - He said the government was also working on a mechanism to investigate allegations of war crimes in the final stages of the conflict, but said it could take time. "We can't rush the accountability process," Sirisena said. "Some people want it to be like instant noodles. We can't do that. We have to be responsible and respect rule of law." Sirisena's predecessor Mahinda Rajapakse's regime faced repeated UN censure over his failure to investigate allegations that at least 40,000 Tamil civilians were killed by troops under his command while crushing Tiger guerrillas in 2009. However, Sirisena said the international community has changed its attitude towards his government, which has already established nine independent commissions to run the police, the elections office, the judiciary and the public service among others. "There is a big change in the way the leading democratic nations of the world view us today. We have tremendous international good will and support," he said. "Their expectation is that we ensure democracy and good governance and that is what are committed to." Sirisena said he will mark his first year in office on January 9 by calling for proposals on constitutional reforms to ensure that Sri Lanka remains peaceful. "We can either have a brand new constitution or amend the one we already have," the president said. "My preference is to abolish the executive presidency and go back to a (parliamentary-style) system we had till 1978" which would see a greater dispersion of power. The docudrama Making a Murderer has been making a media splash since it hit Netflix on Dec. 18. The series was crafted over 10 years, the Daily Beast reported, from more than 700 hours of footage compiled by Moira Demos and Laura Ricciardi, who wrote and directed the documentary. Making a Murderer shines a harsh spotlight on Wisconsin's criminal justice system, particularly in Manitowoc County, where it failed a local man Steven Avery not once but possibly twice in the span of 20 years. The story of Avery's conviction unfolds over 10 episodes, after which Demos and Laura are unable to reach a definitive conclusion on the subject of Avery's innocence. The internet has since erupted in active speculation, but the question remains: What do we know about the man at the center of Making a Murderer? 1. He was something of a troublemaker in his youth. In 1985, he was imprisoned for a sexual assault he didn't commit and spent 18 years in prison before his release in 2003. In Making a Murderer, Demos and Ricciardi attempt to unpack the 2005 murder of Wisconsin photographer Teresa Halbach, for which Avery is serving a life sentence without possibility of parole in the Waupun Correctional Institution. Steven Avery: 5 Things to Know Man at Center of 'Making a Murderer' Steven Avery Source: Jeffrey Phelps/AP In Making a Murderer, Avery's teenage transgressions include breaking into and robbing a local tavern where cheese sandwiches were among the items stolen and cruelty to animals: In the first episode, we learn that Avery once set fire to the family cat. The documentary makes the incident sound like an accident, but according to Hollywood Life, there was a little more to it than that. Avery reportedly poured oil and gasoline on the cat before throwing it over the flames. He was found guilty and served time for both crimes the first committed when he was 18 years old and the second, when he was 20 which landed him on the Manitowoc Sheriff Department's radar. 2. He has an IQ of about 70. Steven Avery: 5 Things to Know Man at Center of 'Making a Murderer' Brendan Dassey, Avery's alleged accomplice in the murder of Teresa Halbach. Source: Dan Powers/AP Story continues Also in episode one, Avery's IQ is established as 70 important to note because, as Vulture reported, someone with an of IQ 70 or lower is considered to have an "intellectual disability." We also learn that his nephew, Brendan Dassey who was convicted as Avery's accomplice in the murder has an IQ between 69 and 73. According to Vulture, Wisconsin's qualifying standards for intellectual disability are less precise than those of other states, but generally, such a disadvantage is taken into account during the trial and sentencing of the accused. Not so much in the Halbach case. 3. Avery has conducted three separate relationships during his time behind bars. When he was imprisoned in 1985 for the sexual assault of a local woman, Penny Beerntsen, he was married to Lori Mathiesen. The couple had four children in the period between their 1982 marriage and Avery's prison sentence three years later, Romper reported, but divorced in 1988. When their relationship ended, Avery began making threats against his ex-wife in letters he wrote to their children, according to the documentary; those letters were later used as evidence of Avery's penchant for abusive treatment of the women in his life. After he was released in 2003, Avery met Jodi Stachowski according to Vulture, their relationship was rockier than the series lets on: Avery was reportedly ordered by a court to stay away from Stachowski for a period of three days following his disorderly conduct during a 2004 spat. Stachowski was in jail on a DUI charge when Avery was arrested, and stayed with him for a time after his 2007 conviction. Ultimately, the increased police scrutiny proved too much for her, according to the documentary, and she broke with Avery. Toward the end of the series, we meet a new love interest: Sandy Greenman began writing the imprisoned Avery in 2007 and their correspondence blossomed into a relationship. In the final episode, Avery announces his intention to eventually marry Greenman. 4. He has spotty luck with DNA evidence. Steven Avery: 5 Things to Know Man at Center of 'Making a Murderer' Avery is sentenced to life in prison in 2007. Source: Dan Powers/AP In 2003, DNA evidence exonerated Avery of the sexual assault charge in 1985. But in the Halbach trial, DNA didn't prove quite as useful. The state said it found small smears of blood in Halbach's car, that it found Halbach's car key covered in Avery's genetic material in Avery's bedroom and that it found a flattened bullet with Halbach's DNA on it in Avery's garage. Yet despite the fact that Halbach was purported to have been killed either in Avery's bedroom or in his garage, none of her blood, hair, sweat or skin was found in either location (except for on the blood-free bullet), according to the documentary. At one point, defense attorney Dean Strang uncovers a leftover tube of Avery's blood in the possession of the sheriff's office, allegedly appearing to have been tampered with, supporting the defense's theory that much of the evidence in the case against Avery was planted. As People reported, the blood found in Halbach's car was tested for EDTA, an anticoagulant that should have shown up in the blood sample, if it had come from the vial. The test came back negative, a result that was according to the series inconclusive. 5. Many people think Avery is innocent. The internet is petitioning to get a presidential pardon for Avery, gathering over 100,000 signatures on Change.org and more than 18,000 on WhiteHouse.gov. Former District Attorney Ken Kratz has been deluged with criticism for his prosecution of the case and Anonymous has committed itself to proving Avery's innocence. The rise and fall of the career, perception, and success of M. Night Shyamalan is one for the history books. In 1999 he unexpectedly exploded onto the big screen with the surprise hit. 'The Sixth Sense' was an anomaly, a horror movie that was able to reel in audiences of all ages and demographics. His next two films were well received, but it all went downhill from there. Over that time, Shyamalan is said to have burned bridges with all the studios with which he worked. Rumor has it that his ego got wildly out-of-control. Even then, he has still been able to find someone to back and finance his movies. Business has been bad. The movies have been bad but that just might be a thing of the past. 'The Visit' isn't perfect and it certainly doesn't stand up against 'The Sixth Sense,' 'Unbreakable' or 'Signs,' but it's a step in the right direction for the once-great director. I, for one, am excited to see where he goes from here. I'm hesitant to use the phrase "found footage" to describe the visit. Because of the negative connotations that come with the style. I can only recall a single found footage movie that I enjoyed - 'Cloverfield.' Nearly all of the others have been pure garbage. So, instead of looking at 'The Visit' as a found footage movie which it's technically not let's call it what it really is: a documentary made by one of its leading fictional characters. Becca (Olivia DeJonge) is a teenager with aspirations of becoming a successful and artsy documentary filmmaker. Every documentarian looks for interesting stories to tell, and hers lie very close to home. When her mother (Katheryn Hahn) was a teenager, she fell in love with a man that her parents didn't like. She was so head-over-heels for this boy that she hastily ran away and left her parents' rural Pennsylvania farm to be with him. From that day on, she never talked to her parents again. Two kids and one divorce later, her parents reach out to her via email, hoping to rekindle the relationship just enough for them to finally be able to meet their grandchildren. Surprisingly, Becca's mom agrees, and this is what she believes will be the perfect subject for her first documentary. Becca has a younger brother, Tyler (Ed Oxenbould), who aspires to be a freestyle rapper. My immediate reaction to Tyler's character was a disdainful eye roll. I didn't think I would like the movie solely because of him. His rapping character trait is undeniably an annoying one, but it actually offers quite a bit of calm comedic relief. It surprisingly feels like what M. Night used to do with his earlier successful films. Although I wasn't initially on-board with him, Tyler certainly grows to be a lot more enjoyable in-person than he is on page. When Becca and Tyler arrive at the train depot to meet their grandparents, they're not surprised by how loving the two elderly folks are. They immediately get along well and look forward to spending a full week getting to know one another. The only thing that they dislike about their first day together is how far out into the countryside their grandparents live. There's not a neighbor in sight. There's no cell phone service. And the patchy wired cable ethernet connection makes life harder. Of course, these things allow us to get away from asking the usual horror movie question, "why don't they just call the police on their cell phones," but it works here. While all initially seems well in the farm house, it doesn't stay that way for long. Grandpa, a.k.a. "Pop Pop" (Peter McRobbie), frequently seems confused and disoriented. On top of that, he has a mystery shack out in the middle of his field where he's seen entering and exiting daily in a very sneaky and suspicious manner. Grandma, a.k.a. Nana (Deanna Dunagan), has a weird nighttime habit that not only terrifies Becca and Tyler into locking their bedroom door each night, but also makes them set the ground rule of not leaving the bedroom past 9:30 P.M. What once seemed like a perfect week-long trip with their grandparents is about to turn into a horrifying and traumatic experience that will scar them for the rest of their lives - assuming they can make it out alive. 'The Visit' isn't perfect. There are a few things that I would've changed. But it's not at all a bad horror movie, especially despite being a PG-13 rated one. It's not M. Night's greatest work, but it's his greatest work in over a decade. It's a step in the right direction, a warmly welcomed return to form. It features a great balancing blend of sometimes-comedic, calm-before-the-storm lightweight fluff leading up to scare-you-out-of-your-pants freakiness. It's a horror movie through and through, so unlike 'The Sixth Sense,' it's not going to pull in mainstream demographics, but it should still very much please those who like a nice intense horror/thrillers. The Blu-ray: Vital Disc Stats Universal has given 'The Visit' a fully-loaded combo pack release that includes BD-50 and DVD discs, as well as a code for the redemption of both Ultraviolet and iTunes HD digital copies. The discs and slip are included in a blue two-disc Elite keepcase with an embossed cardboard slipcover. Upon inserting the disc, a skippable Universal reel plays prior to "fresh" streaming trailers and the static, music-set main menu. Khartoum (AFP) - A senior Sudanese opposition figure said on Sunday her party has been invited to meet government officials this month to discuss a national dialogue aimed at resolving multiple crises. President Omar al-Bashir, who is wanted on war crimes charges, launched the dialogue in October to try to resolve the insurgencies in Sudan's border regions and the country's faltering economy. Most opposition groups refused to join the process, demanding a meeting outside Sudan to agree its terms. But Umma party deputy head Mariam al-Mahdi told AFP her party had been invited by the African Union for a meeting this month in Addis Ababa. "We will definitely take part in that meeting and we are very much grateful for the African Union Higher Implementation Panel," the body planning on mediating the talks, Mahdi said. The Umma party, led by her father Sadiq al-Mahdi, is one of Sudan's oldest political institutions. Sadiq al-Mahdi has lived abroad since August 2014, when he signed an agreement to work together to solve the country's crises with an alliance of rebels from the Darfur, Blue Nile and South Kordofan states. Mariam was detained by Sudanese security forces for a month because of those talks. She said her party received the invitation to the meeting in Addis Ababa last week and that it was due to take place in January. "We hope to get out of a brief time -- two to three days -- the rules and procedures of the national dialogue," Mahdi said. The meeting could pave the way for the Umma to join the dialogue but it is unclear whether Bashir's ruling National Congress Party will attend, as it shunned similar negotiations in March. Mahdi said if the meeting was successful, her father could return to Sudan soon afterwards. It was unclear which other groups had been invited, and the African Union did not immediately comment. Bashir, who ousted Sadiq al-Mahdi in a 1989 military coup, announced the dialogue in January 2014 and it was initially well received by his opponents. Story continues But his insistence on holding national elections last April before the dialogue started won him much criticism, with some saying the talks were intended as a distraction before the vote. Despite poor turnout and international criticism of the ballots, Bashir was re-elected with more than 94 percent of the vote. Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity during the bloody counter-insurgency he unleashed in the western Darfur region, roiled by conflict since 2003. He announced a two-month ceasefire in September, extending it by one month in a speech on new year's eve. Beirut (AFP) - The Islamic State group threatened Britain in an Internet video Sunday showing the killing of five "spies" it said worked with the international coalition fighting IS in Iraq and Syria. The SITE Intelligence Group said the video shows five men from Raqa, capital of the self-declared jihadist "caliphate" straddling Syria and Iraq, confessing to carrying out acts of espionage. The British foreign office issued a terse statement saying only: "We are aware of the video and are examining the content." In the footage, an English-speaking IS fighter mocks British Prime Minister David Cameron for challenging IS, and calls him an "imbecile". The "confessions" of the five do not clearly identify which countries they worked with, but one mentions the international coalition led by the United States battling against IS in Iraq and Syria. The video said they passed videos or photos of the living conditions in Raqa to people in Turkey, or monitored the movements of IS fighters. The five are seen wearing orange jumpsuits and kneeling before five masked fighters, all in military fatigues and armed with pistols. "This is a message to David Cameron," says one of the gunmen, speaking in a British accent. British warplanes, which were already attacking IS positions in Iraq, at the beginning of December began targeting the jihadists in Syria also. The fighter says those who want to continue fighting "under the banner of Cameron" should ask themselves what would happen to them if they were to fall into IS hands. He also says IS will wage jihad against Britain, before the five men are killed with a bullet to the head. IS often releases propaganda videos when it suffers setbacks on the battlefield, experts say. In Iraq last Sunday, federal forces declared victory in the battle for Ramadi, which IS seized in May 2015. And on December 26, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters in northern Syria seized the strategic Tishreen Dam from IS which the jihadist group had held since 2014. donald trump Real-estate mogul Donald Trump opened his Saturday-night rally by blasting the Obama administration's approach to Iran and the Islamic State terrorist group. "I'm pretty good at signals, and I see a lot of things happening," Trump said at a campaign stop in Biloxi, Mississippi. The Republican presidential front-runner pointed to Iranian protesters ransacking the Saudi Embassy in Tehran earlier in the day, after Saudi Arabia executed a prominent Shiite cleric. "One thing I see out there just happened today in Tehran," Trump said. "They're burning down the Saudi Embassy, you see that? Now, what that is is Iran wants to take over Saudi Arabia. They always have. They want the oil, OK? They've always wanted that." In order to tout his predicting ability, Trump cited his past calls for the US to bomb the oil assets of the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS. "I've predicted a lot of things, you have to say, including, 'Get the oil, take the oil, keep the oil.' Right? I've been saying that for three years, and everybody said, 'Oh, I can't do that. I mean, this is a sovereign country.' There is no country!" Trump exclaimed. He then blamed US President Barack Obama and his former secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, for the Islamic State's rise. "They have a bunch of dishonest people," he continued. "They've created ISIS. Hillary Clinton created ISIS with Obama created with Obama. But I love predicting because you know, ultimately, you need somebody with vision." The next morning on "Fox & Friends," Trump repeated his statement that Clinton "created ISIS." "She has a terrible record as secretary of state. I mean, she's literally created ISIS," Trump said. "If you look at her, between her and Obama, they're the ones we have this big ISIS problem they created with their bad policies and their bad thinking." Watch his Saturday comments below: Trump and Clinton, the Democratic front-runner, have fiercely sparred in recent weeks. Trump took particular exception to Clinton saying that his provocative campaign-trail statements had become propaganda for the Islamic State, especially his proposal to bar Muslims from entering the US. Story continues The Republican billionaire demanded that Clinton apologize, but her campaign replied at the time: "Hell no. Hillary Clinton will not be apologizing to Donald Trump for correctly pointing out how his hateful rhetoric only helps ISIS recruit more terrorists." After Clinton said Trump had generally displayed a "penchant for sexism," Trump went after her husband, former US President Bill Clinton. Trump recently proclaimed that the former president has "a terrible record of women abuse," referring to the Monica Lewinsky scandal, among other things. At his Saturday rally, Trump also blasted Hillary Clinton for a report on her husband's paid speeches while she was secretary of state. As he has done frequently before, Trump further asserted that Clinton "shouldn't be allowed to run" because of the private email system she used for her State Department work. "She should be in jail, by the way, for what she did," Trump said. "Everybody knows she should be in jail. What she did with the emails is a disgrace," he added. NOW WATCH: Donald Trump and Jeb Bush viciously attacked one another at the GOP debate More From Business Insider Lod (Israel) (AFP) - A court charged two Israelis on Sunday over a firebombing last year that killed a Palestinian couple and their toddler, in an attack that sparked condemnation globally. The charges are the first step in a legal case whose slow progress rights groups have criticised. They come more than five months after the pre-dawn attack on the Dawabsha family home in the West Bank village of Duma that killed 18-month-old Ali Saad Dawabsha, and fatally wounded his parents. His brother, who was four at the time of the attack on July 31, was the sole survivor from the immediate family. Amiram Ben-Uliel, 21, from the northern settlement of Shilo in the occupied West Bank, was charged with three counts of murder and one of attempted murder, arson and conspiracy to commit a hate crime, said the Israeli court indictment. A 17-year-old, who remained unnamed under a gag order, was charged with being an accessory to committing a racially motivated murder. Ben-Uliel and the minor, who lived in another wildcat settlement near Duma at the time, in July 2015 plotted to avenge a Palestinian shooting dead Malachi Rosenfeld near Shilo one month earlier, a statement from the justice ministry said. - 'He was at home' - The attack drew renewed attention to Jewish extremism and accusations Israel had not done enough to prevent such violence. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu labelled it "terrorism" -- a word usually used by Israelis to refer to violence committed by Palestinians. Israel came under heavy pressure to try those responsible, with rights groups questioning the delay in the case and contrasting it to the swift reaction often following Palestinian attacks. The Shin Bet internal security service held suspects under administrative detention, denied some of them the right to see a lawyer part of the time and used physical force during investigations. Supporters of the suspects -- religious extremists known as "hilltop youth" who oppose the "secular" Israeli state -- denounced those methods as torture. Story continues Shin Bet denies using any illegal methods, and has stressed that the entire investigation was conducted under the supervision of attorney general Yehuda Weinstein. Ben-Uliel's wife Orian on Sunday denounced the charges as she left the court room and said her husband had been "tortured to give information on acts he didn't commit". "I know he was at home that night and that he didn't do anything," he said. The minor was also accused of having taken part in an arson attack on the Dormition Abbey in east Jerusalem. Two other Israelis, including a minor, were charged for implication in "other terrorist acts". These included the arson attacks on the Dormition Abbey in May 2014 and the Church of the Multiplication in June 2015, as well as vandalism of Palestinian property. Christians believe the church on the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee is where Jesus performed the miracle of loaves and fishes. - 'Trial a parody' - The charges follow criticism last month over a video of gun-waving Jewish extremists celebrating the murder the Dawabsha toddler. Netanyahu called the video "shocking" and said it showed "the true face of a group that constitutes a danger to Israeli society and to the security of Israel". Israel arrested four Jewish men suspected of being among them. But his grandparents, whom AFP met at home next to their son's torched house in Duma, said they did not believe in "unfair Israeli justice". "This trial is a parody," Mohammad Dawabsha, 68, said. "If they really wanted to punish them, they would have done it the first day and would have told us from the beginning that it was them who killed our children." In the Duma attack on July 31, masked assailants reportedly hurled Molotov cocktails through the windows of the Dawabsha home, which were left open because of the summer heat. Graffiti left at the site, witness reports and the proximity of Israeli settlements led suspicions to fall immediately on Jewish extremists. The arson attack followed days of tensions over West Bank settlements, with rightwing groups opposing the demolition of two buildings under construction that the Israeli High Court said were illegal. The international community regards all Jewish settlements in the West Bank as illegal but Israel makes a distinction between those it has authorised and those it has not. UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Saturday he was "deeply dismayed" by the execution of a prominent Shi'ite Muslim cleric and 46 other people in Saudi Arabia and called for calm and restraint. Saudi Arabia executed cleric Nimr al-Nimr and dozens of al Qaeda members on Saturday, signaling it would not tolerate attacks, whether by Sunni jihadists or minority Shi'ites. The executions stirred sectarian anger across the Middle East. "Sheik al-Nimr and a number of the other prisoners executed had been convicted following trials that raised serious concerns over the nature of the charges and the fairness of the process," Ban's spokesman said in a statement. Ban had raised Nimr's case with Saudi leaders on a number of occasions and urged Saudi Arabia to commute all death sentences that had been imposed, the spokesman said. "The Secretary-General also calls for calm and restraint in reaction to the execution of Sheikh Nimr and urges all regional leaders to work to avoid the exacerbation of sectarian tensions," the spokesman said. Iranian protesters stormed the Saudi Embassy in Tehran early on Sunday as Shi'ite Muslim Iran reacted with fury to Sunni Saudi Arabia's execution of Nimr. Ban "deplores the violence by demonstrators against the Saudi Embassy in Tehran," his spokesman said. (Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Paul Tait) Washington (AFP) - The United States hit out at Rwandan President Paul Kagame's decision to run for a third term, saying it was "deeply disappointed" and concerned by the move. "With this decision, President Kagame ignores a historic opportunity to reinforce and solidify the democratic institutions the Rwandan people have for more than 20 years labored so hard to establish," State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement. Kagame, once a darling of the West, said Friday he would run again in line with a constitutional amendment which won overwhelming backing in a referendum. The December 18 referendum saw voters massively approve constitutional amendments allowing Kagame, 58, to run for an exceptional third seven-year term in 2017. Washington and the European Union have consistently expressed deep concern at any such move. "The United States believes constitutional transitions of power are essential for strong democracies and that efforts by incumbents to change rules to stay in power weaken democratic institutions," Kirby said in the strongly-worded statement. "We are particularly concerned by changes that favor one individual over the principle of democratic transitions. "As Rwanda moves toward local elections this year, presidential elections next year, and parliamentary elections in 2018, we call upon the government of Rwanda to ensure and respect the rights of its citizens to exercise their freedom of expression, conscience, and peaceful assembly -- the hallmarks of true democracies." Genres : Documentary Director : Joshua Oppenheimer Plot Synopsis The Look of Silence is Joshua Oppenheimer s powerful companion piece to the Oscar-nominated The Act Of Killing. Through Oppenheimer s footage of perpetrators of the 1965 Indonesian genocide, a family of survivors discovers how their son was murdered, as well as the identities of the killers. The documentary focuses on the youngest son, an optometrist named Adi, who decides to break the suffocating spell of submission and terror by doing something unimaginable in a society where the murderers remain in power: he confronts the men who killed his brother and, while testing their eyesight, asks them to accept responsibility for their actions. This unprecedented film initiates and bears witness to the collapse of fifty years of silence. Burns (United States) (AFP) - A band of anti-government militiamen occupying a federal wildlife reserve in rural Oregon dug in for a fourth day Tuesday, despite the ranchers they claimed to be defending denouncing their actions and turning themselves in to the law. The loose-knit band of farmers, ranchers and survivalists began the siege in protest at the jailing of Dwight Hammond, 73, and his son Steven, 46, convicted of arson for setting fire to federal land. They have insisted their action is peaceful, but are armed and warned they will defend themselves if the authorities use force to dislodge them. "I'm not here to die. I'm here to defend my freedoms and my liberties," their leader Ammon Bundy told Fox News. Up to a hundred protesters -- styling themselves "citizens for constitutional freedom" -- are believed to be holed up at the snowy visitor's center for the Malheur Wildlife Refuge, which they took over to protest the Hammonds' imprisonment. So far, the FBI and local police have held off intervening to try remove them, in the hope of resolving the standoff peacefully. The rancher father and son whose case triggered the protest have firmly distanced themselves from the occupation of the reserve. On Monday, they turned themselves in to begin serving their sentences at a federal prison in California, while complaining their five-year terms were "far too long" and announcing they would seek rare clemency from President Barack Obama. It was unclear whether their surrender to authorities would end the siege in neighbouring Oregon. Police demanded that the remaining protestors vacate the reserve. "The Hammonds have turned themselves in. It is time for you to leave our community," Harney County Sheriff David Ward told reporters. "Go home, be with your own families and end this peacefully," he said, denouncing the fact that "a peaceful protest" had become "armed and unlawful." Story continues The protest is led by 40-year-old Bundy, son of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who was at the center of a previous armed standoff with government authorities in 2014, that time over grazing rights on public lands. Bundy told reporters he was fighting for freedom for the Hammonds, claiming they were being harassed for refusing to sell their Oregon ranch to the government. - 'Spark a movement' - Beyond the Hammonds' case, Bundy and his brother Ryan are demanding the federal government relinquish control of the Malheur reserve. Sheriff Ward said the protesters' ultimate goal was "to overthrow the county and federal government in hopes to spark a movement across the United States." The Hammonds have set themselves apart from the armed movement, and from Bundy in particular. The father and son have both already served several months in jail for arson, but a judge in October ordered them back to prison to serve the remainder of their sentences after they lost an appeal. The Hammonds were convicted after starting what they said was a controlled fire on their ranch in Harney County. The fire spread and consumed 139 acres (56 hectares) of federal land. Witnesses at their trial said that Steven Hammond had illegally slaughtered deer on federal property during a hunting expedition and then handed out matches in order to "light up the whole country on fire," according to a Justice Department statement. - #Oregonstandoff - So far, there has been no visible police presence at the reserve, where several armed men in vehicles are guarding the entrance while others kept watch from a lookout tower. Schools in the area have been closed for the week. Online, public opinion was sharply split on what was quickly dubbed the #Oregonstandoff, with many branding the takeover an act of domestic terrorism, while others saw an act of resistance against government oppression. A Gallup poll released last month showed a majority of Americans view "big government" as the biggest threat to the nation in the future, when asked to choose between that, big labor and big business. The theme has been embraced by the Republican party's contenders for the 2016 presidential nomination, who so far have been relatively silent on the siege -- with the notable exception of Ted Cruz, who urged the protesters to stand down peaceably. "Every one of us has a constitutional right to protest, to speak our minds," Cruz told reporters in Iowa. "But we don't have a constitutional right to use force and violence and to threaten force and violence against others." Tegucigalpa (AFP) - The United States has requested the extradition of former Honduran vice president Jaime Rosenthal, one of the country's biggest tycoons, whom it accuses of drug trafficking and money laundering, Tegucigalpa said. The US Treasury Department announced in October that it was targeting the 79-year-old, his son Yani and his nephew Yankel "for their money laundering and drug trafficking activities." "It's not a day of joy for Honduras, it's not even close to a day of joy for the Rosenthal family, we all regret and would prefer that it did not happen, but the extradition request is in," Foreign Minister Arturo Corrales told local media. Corrales said Honduras received the extradition request before December 24, but had been waiting for the document to be translated into Spanish. He added that the elder Rosenthal, who was vice president from 1986 to 1989, suffers from "serious illness" and pointed out that legal action is already pending in Honduras against the influential businessman. According to the public ministry, the tycoon is suspected of "tax fraud and falsifying public documents," accusations which reportedly have to do with meat imports from Brazil being falsely documented as US meat to avoid duties. Yankel Rosenthal was arrested in Miami by US authorities on October 6, one day before the Treasury made its announcement, and has since been transferred to New York, where he faces more charges on the same offences. Yani gave himself up to authorities in New York. Both have been released on bail for the duration of the trial. US authorities have linked the Rosenthals to the notorious Los Cachiros cartel and have imposed an asset freeze on the men and barred US companies from dealing with them, leading to the closure of a Honduras bank and a newspaper, both owned by the family. The Honduran government has expropriated around 50 of the family's businesses and properties. Rosenthal's 50-year-old son was a minister from 2006 to 2009 under ousted president Manuel Zelaya. Yankel, 46, is a former minister under President Juan Orlando Hernandez. Washington (AFP) - The United States on Sunday urged Mideast leaders to take measures to soothe tensions in the region after Saudi Arabia executed a Shiite cleric, provoking outrage from Iran. The execution was followed by an attack on the Saudi embassy in Tehran, prompting Riyadh to sever ties. "We're aware that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has ordered the closure of Iranian diplomatic missions in the kingdom," US State Department spokesman John Kirby said about the diplomatic rift. "We believe that diplomatic engagement and direct conversations remain essential in working through differences and we will continue to urge leaders across the region to take affirmative steps to calm tensions." The diplomatic fallout come as Iran's supreme leader said Saudi Arabia would face "divine revenge" for Saturday's execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, and as Western nations voiced concern about escalating sectarian tensions between Sunnis and Shiite Muslims. Nimr, 56, was a force behind 2011 anti-government protests in oil-rich eastern Saudi Arabia. He was put to death along with 46 other people, Shiite activists and convicted Sunni militants who the Saudi interior ministry says were involved in Al-Qaeda attacks that killed dozens in 2003 and 2004. After his execution, a mob attacked the Saudi embassy in Tehran and a consulate in second city Mashhad. Saudi authorities said they had asked their Iranian officials to ensure security at the embassy, but Tehran failed to protect it. London (AFP) - Leicester City's leading scorer Jamie Vardy is set to have minor groin surgery that will keep him out for up to two weeks, the BBC reported on Sunday. Vardy is therefore set to miss a double-header of games away to Tottenham Hotspur, one in the FA Cup third round and one in the Premier League, while he also risks missing the visit of Aston Villa on January 16. The England striker has scored 15 goals in the Premier League this season to help Leicester to second place in the table. He played in Saturday's 0-0 draw with Bournemouth that saw the Foxes slip two points behind Premier League leaders Arsenal. HANOI (Reuters) - Vietnam formally accused China of violating its sovereignty and a recent confidence-building pact on Saturday by landing a plane on an airstrip Beijing has built on an artificial island in a contested part of the South China Sea. Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Hai Binh said the airfield, had been "built illegally" on Fiery Cross Reef in the Spratly archipelago, in territory that was "part of Vietnam's Spratlys". China's Foreign Ministry rejected the complaint, saying that what was a test flight to the newly built airfield on the reef, which China calls Yongshu Jiao, was a matter "completely within China's sovereignty," the Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported. The United States said it was concerned that the flight had exacerbated tensions. Washington has criticized China's construction of artificial islands in the South China Sea and worries that Beijing plans to use them for military purposes, even though China says it has no hostile intent. Pooja Jhunjhunwala, a spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department, said there was "a pressing need for claimants to publicly commit to a reciprocal halt to further land reclamation, construction of new facilities, and militarization of disputed features." "We encourage all claimants to actively reduce tensions by refraining from unilateral actions that undermine regional stability, and taking steps to create space for meaningful diplomatic solutions to emerge," she said. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said China used a civil aircraft to conduct the flight to test whether the airfield facilities meet civil-aviation standards. "China has indisputable sovereignty over the Nansha Islands and their adjacent waters. China will not accept the unfounded accusation from the Vietnamese side," she said, referring to the Spratly's by their Chinese name. Hua added that China hoped Vietnam could work to achieve "sustainable, healthy and stable" development of bilateral ties. Hanoi's Foreign Ministry said Vietnam handed a protest note to China's embassy and asked China not to repeat the action. It called the flight "a serious infringement of the sovereignty of Vietnam on the Spratly archipelago". China claims almost all the South China Sea, which is believed to have huge deposits of oil and gas, and through which about $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year, and has been building up facilities on the islands it controls. It completed an airfield on Fiery Cross Reef that security experts say could accommodate most Chinese military aircraft late last year. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Taiwan also have rival claims in the South China Sea. (Reporting by Ho Binh Minh; additional reporting by David Brunnstrom on Washington; Editing by Diane Craft; Editing by Kevin Liffey) By Jeff Mason HONOLULU (Reuters) - The White House will decide in the next couple months about a potential trip by President Barack Obama to Cuba and wants both countries to take steps to ensure the thaw in relations is irreversible, U.S. deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said on Saturday. Rhodes, who was a key architect of the shift in U.S. strategy to the island nation, said Washington wanted to see Cuba improve its record on human rights and spur greater economic activity such as allowing private companies to operate in the communist country. Cuba also needed to give its people more access to information and the Internet, he said. "The key test for us is whether the presidents going to Cuba would help advance those priorities, Rhodes told reporters in Hawaii, where Obama is vacationing. "Thats something I think well make a decision about ... in the next couple months." A trip by a U.S. president would be historic and the White House is eager to use that leverage to press Cuba to make reforms. Obama has made clear he is eager to visit the country before he leaves office next year. (Reporting by Jeff Mason, Editing by W Simon) Patricia Highsmith is an author whose work has frequently been adapted to other mediums. 'Strangers on a Train', her debut novel, might be better known as director Alfred Hitchcock's 1951 film of the same name. Her second novel, the lesbian love story 'The Price of Salt', was attributed to an alias because of its subject matter until 1990 and was adapted into 'Carol' in 2015 by director Todd Haynes. Her most notable creation is the character of Tom Ripley, who appeared in five novels between 1955 and 1991. His first appearance, 'The Talented Mr. Ripley,' became 'Purple Noon' (1960) starring Alain Delon as Ripley. Director Wim Wenders joined the ranks of the New German Cinema in 1970. In the supplemental features, he tells of approaching Highsmith with the desire to adapt one of her novels. Unfortunately, he found many had the same idea, as the rights to everything he requested were unavailable. Luckily, he made a good impression on her during their interactions, and she offered him the rights to the unpublished 'Ripley's Game', the third in the series, which he proceeded to make after his 'Road Movie Trilogy' (set to be released by the Criterion Collection in May). Titled 'The American Friend', Dennis Hopper stars as Ripley in the character's second screen appearance. Ripley is working in West Germany as an art dealer, artificially driving up the price of his products. In addition, picture framer Jonathan Zimmermann (Bruno Ganz) thinks Ripley is passing off fake paintings. When they are introduced, the principled Zimmermann refuses to shakes hands, which insults Ripley, a matter he doesnt take lightly. Zimmermann suffers from a blood disease and Ripley decides to use this information, but things spiral out of control. Raoul Minot (Gerard Blain), an associate of Ripley's looking to hire a hitman. Ripley sends Minot to Zimmermann, who initially refuses, but fears of dying and leaving his family nothing change Zimmermann's mind. Wenders creates a marvelous sequence as Zimmerman tracks his victim. Things don't run smoothly for the first-time assassin and the lack of dialogue augments the tension. The story is further complicated when Minot offers Zimmerman a second job. Ripley doesn't want him to do it because of the danger, but the money promised to his family is too good, so he gives into temptation. Although 'The American Friend' is a small film in scope, the talents of those involved make it a standout. Hopper doesn't make Ripley as slick as the character has appeared elsewhere but the amorality is effortless. Ganz' portrayal makes Zimmermann sympathetic even when he behaves in dastardly ways towards bad men. Wenders' script has great plot twists that keep the viewer engaged and on edge because once events are set in motion the outcome is uncertain. Wenders in conjunction with frequent cinematographer Robby Muller have created an impressive neo-noir. The Blu-ray: Vital Disc Stats 'The American Friend' (#793 in The Criterion Collection) comes on a 50GB Region A Blu-ray disc in a clear keepcase. The discs boot up directly to the menu screen without any promotional advertisements. Included is a folded leaflet containing "Little Lies and Big Disasters," an essay by Francine Prose. Genres : Horror, Thriller Starring : Sari Sanchez, Joe Adler, Pierson Fode, Michael Galante and Laura Ashley Samuels Plot Synopsis Kill Game begins as a group of good-looking, shallow high school teens amuse themselves by pulling pranks on less popular classmates and teachers. However the teasing is not so harmless when one night, a prank goes horribly wrong and an innocent boy is killed. Covering their tracks by masking the incident as a drowning accident, the group lives with the horrible secret for years, never realizing that their actions will soon haunt them, with deadly results. Five years later, they are shocked when one of them is murdered by a sinister serial killer donning a frightening mask. Soon, each of the group of friends is hunted down one by one in a manner that eerily mirrors the pranks they once pulled in high school. Whether it's karmic retribution, or the dead teen's spirit out for blood, one thing is certain...no one is laughing now. Genres : Mystery Starring : Emma Stone, Joaquin Phoenix, Parker Posey Director : Woody Allen Plot Synopsis Soon after arriving to teach at a small town college, Abe Lucas (Joaquin Phoenix) gets involved with two women, Rita Richards (Parker Posey), a lonely professor who wants him to rescue her from her unhappy marriage; and Jill Pollard (Emma Stone), his best student, who becomes his closest friend. While Jill loves her boyfriend Roy (Jamie Blackley), she finds Abe's tortured, artistic personality and exotic past irresistible. Pure chance changes everything when Abe and Jill overhear a stranger's conversation and when Abe makes a profound choice, he is able to embrace life to the fullest again. But his decision sets off a chain of events that will affect him, Jill and Rita forever. Forms 1, 2 students get to stay home The secondary schools where only form one and two students will be required to remain at home are Barataria South Secondary; Point Fortin East Secondary; Barataria North Secondary; Mt Hope Secondary; North Eastern College; Rio Claro East Secondary; El Dorado West Secondary; Princes Town West Secondary; Waterloo Secondary; Diego Martin North Secondary; Mucurapo West Secondary; Chaguanas South Secondary; Chaguanas North Secondary and Tranquillity Government Secondary. It is also understood that other schools may not reopen because of incomplete repair work, according to president of the Trinidad and Tobago Unified Teachers Association, Davanand Sinanan. I dont know how many schools will not be re-opening. We havent gotten that feedback as yet. We would only know that when our teachers go out on Monday. We are suspecting some schools will not be reopening because there is repair work that is supposed to be going on in a number of schools. But, in terms of whether they were able to finish the repair works, that I cant say, Sinanan told Sunday Newsday. As for Education Minister Anthony Garcias call for parents to keep their children home if they have the flu, in light of the swine flu outbreak, Sinanan said whatever health protocols are given by the ministry to schools should be observed. New mom out of danger When doctors realised the 19-year-old woman was afflicted with the virus, a Caesarian section was performed to save the baby and the mother was warded at San Fernando General Hospitals (SFGH) Intensive Care Unit. Last week, the young woman, whose name has not been disclosed, was warded at the Sangre Grande District Hospital but had to be transferred to the SFGH after she developed Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome, a complication which arose due to swine flu. SFGHs medical director Dr Anand Chatoorgoon told Sunday Newsday her condition had improved drastically and she was due to be taken back to the Sangre Grande Hospital yesterday. Chatoorgoon said, Up until yesterday, she was off the ventilator and (will) return to the Sangre Grande Hospital where she will be warded at the convalescent ward. He said she had made a full recovery, and the procedure was that once a patient is released from the ICU, they are sent to the convalescent ward for the rest of their recovery period. Chatoorgoon said, She has done very well indeed... She is fully conscious and is off the ventilator. She is breathing well...she has done very well. And therefore, she is fit now to go back to Grande hospital. And shes going back today (yesterday). The woman was the second pregnant mother in the country who had contracted the H1N1 virus on the brink of delivering their babies. In November last year, Stacy Ramkissoon, 28, contracted the virus and had to be warded at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, Mt Hope. Ramkissoon died days after delivering her baby by C-section. The baby died also, but not from swine flu. Four persons, including Ramkissoon, have since died as a result of the H1N1 virus. One of the patients had undergone an organ transplant, while the others were diabetic and hypertensive. Fireworks scare away dogs The TT Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (TTSPCA) Facebook page featured a number of owners seeking help to find their lost dogs and people who found dogs that were frightened by the explosions. The TTSPCA posted that they have lots of lost dogs out there with all the fireworks on Old Years night, December 31, and asked people to share the pictures to get these babies home. One of the missing dogs featured on the page is Mischief from Trincity. Her owner, who asked not to be named, has had Mischief for five years and noted she is a sweet dog, very playful, friendly, answers to her name and wags her tail when she sees the family. She said Mischief typically goes into hiding for an entire day when she hears fireworks. If the family is not around she hides in the yard under things or in the kennel with their other dog. She gets very scared. She cannot take the noise. She hides her head, the owner said. For Old Years night they put her in a room with a dog bed and boxes and she would usually hide behind something; they do not chain her because they believe the chain may strangle the small dog. But when the family returned they could not find her in the room, in the yard or anywhere in the neighbourhood. I do not know where she disappeared to, the owner lamented. I am really just at a loss. I cannot find my dog. I am very attached to her. I know that it is the fireworks that did it. She noted they always make arrangements for the animals but the fireworks this year was the worst of the worst. She stressed that it affected people badly and animals even worse as they hear much better than humans. She explained that she was not against the use of fireworks but they should not be set off in residential areas and regulations need to be made stronger. The owners of another dog, Scarlett, reported she ran away due to the fireworks and they are seeking the publics help in finding her. One man posted a picture of a dog he found in Arima which found herself into my yard after being terrified from all the fireworks. Another dog was found at the Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission office in Curepe with a front leg damaged by fireworks. Yet another dog was picked up by an Animal Welfare Network (AWN) member in Cascade after she was seen bolting down the road after being frightened by fireworks. On their Facebook page AWN posted this message: The result of a night of fireworks can mean lost dogs and cats that never get reunited with their owners.... BAN THEM - DONT BUY THEM! If you have information about these or any other lost dogs please see the TTSPCA Facebook page and call the numbers provided. Belmont residents also complained of the indiscriminate setting off of fireworks on the streets, posing a serious threat to drivers and those who live in the Port-of-Spain community. A video of youths releasing fireworks, in what sounded like a live gun battle, has gone viral. A three-month-old baby was also burnt by a firecracker that landed near her and her mother outside City Gate, South Quay, Port-of-Spain on Thursday night, hours before the dawn of the new year. Minister in the Office of the Attorney General Stuart Young yesterday said he noted the publics worry about the use of fireworks, when responding to questions about the legality of the practice. I note the public concern over the use and prevalence of fireworks over the past few days. I have also received complaints from my constituents and members of the public about the effects of, inter alia, the noise associated with the use of fireworks, Young said in a text message reply to Sunday Newsday. I intend to discuss these matters with my Cabinet colleagues and it may warrant legislative measures. However, any such action would only take place as part of Government policy and after consultation. National Security Minister Edmund Dillon could not be reached for comment while Acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams yesterday said he will address the matter soon. Hidden street children of PoS IN the past two decades there has been a sharp decline in the number of street children visible in the capital city of Port-of- Spain. But this is not good news as these children have jumped from the frying pan of living on the street to the fire of gang life, drugs and even informal prostitution. This was the view expressed by Sister Roberta OFlaherty, executive director of Credo Foundation for Justice, during an interview with Sunday Newsday. She recalled the Foundation, which manages the Credo Centre at Nelson Street for at risk boys and Credo Sophia House for at risk girls at Park Street, began working with street children back in 1997. She said originally the children would go to Credo straight from the street. Most were runaways from home usually due to abuse, neglect or some had no money to go to school. Those not in school would be in Port-of-Spain trying to get money on the streets. She said the children would be very pathetic looking and adults would always want to help. In those days they would quickly gather up some money. They survived because they gave services both sexual and otherwise, he explained. She recalled most of these children had some home to go to in the evening and if it was not their actual home it would be places to sleep like bars or places where there would be unsavoury activities. She noted nice cars would pick up the street children at Independence Square for services. The streets are no place for children to be, she stressed. She said there were mainly boys on the street who ran away from home as the girls would generally end up with a man who would offer a roof over their heads for sexual services. A sort of informal prostitution, she explained. She stressed that though you were not seeing girls on the streets it did not mean that their problem was not as serious or even more serious. For some children on the streets there is the rare occasion where their parents would send them to sell on the streets. She also recalled one boy with a box of sweets whose parents told him not to come home until he sold them all. Asked about a particular case that affected her, OFlaherty responded there are so many. She recalled a ten-year-old boy who knocked at their door once who had been living alone in a box on the Beetham Highway. There were also children who ended up parenting a parent who was a drug addict, children living in cemeteries and one family where the stepmother put the children out on the side of the road. Other children were greatly abused in family situations and were helped by a school social worker. Our children suffer quite a lot. Far too much, she lamented. She said now the children who arrive at Credo Foundation homes are brought by the Childrens Authority because they were living in unacceptable circumstances or were brought by the police. These children are not street children but have a home they are attached to. She noted the children who come to them are not running to the streets but running away from circumstances and are always dying to go back to school. OFlaherty said they do not see as many children on the streets as they did before though they are still there and one child on the streets is too many. You do not see them running around in Port-of-Spain quite as much as ten, 15 years ago. It is not a plus. They are just not visible, she noted. She explained the reason they are less visible is because the street children are being absorbed into criminal activities. As soon as they on the street between gangs and drugs in no time they got themselves in a serious situation, she noted. She explained those in gangs and involved in drugs are kind of hidden and their lack of visibility may also be due to more policing. She said the population of street children has changed tremendously over the years as has the culture of Port-of-Spain with the gang and crime problem 20 years ago not nearly as bad as it is now. She noted the foundation spends a lot of their time doing prevention, keeping children from ending up on the streets. She reported that at the new centre on Nelson Street, opened in 2014, they have a homework programme for children in the area so they can achieve better academically. They can find a safe place for positive activities and to develop friendships. We are helping the community to be healed, come together and be ready to support one another. Form neighbourly bonds and community bonds, she said. Questioned what can be done to address the issue of street children, OFlaherty said it is about strengthening families, helping parents improve their parenting skills and empowering them to improve their ability to generate income. Children should not be on streets, or in a (community) residence like (Credo). They should be with his or her family, she stressed. In the long run when helping a parent you are helping the children. She noted that because of unfortunate circumstances they end up in a community residence and Credo does the best they can but they cannot replace healthy families. She said strengthening families is a big issue and not something that can be done easily over night. At the State level, OFlaherty said there needed to be a lot more support services for children and for those working in community residences. She noted for Credo when children need special care most times there is no place to take them, and if care is provided it takes months. She explained some of these children require special medication as a lot have mental problems but the medication, which is expensive, never seems to be available. Support services for children really can be beefed up. Sometimes you do not know where you can bring a child when you have pressing problems, she added. For the general public she said the neighbourly and community spirit is less than it used to be and people need to look out as neighbours when a child may be in trouble. She advised people to call and make a complaint and report if they suspect a child is being abused, adding that this is one of the things the Childrens Authority has been asking people to do. Children are being slapped and abused in a house nearby and people do nothing about it. The days are past where you say it has nothing to do with me. Too many children are ending up dead. If you do nothing you are part of the problem, she stressed. Minister of Social Development and Family Services Cherrie- Ann Crichlow-Cockburn, speaking during a brief telephone interview, said thus far they had not found evidence of a problem of street children in the country but the issue would be looked into. She also noted the area of children was now under the purview of the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) but her ministry would be working closely with OPM and the Childrens Authority. The head office of the Childrens Authority of Trinidad and Tobago is located at 35A Wrightson Road, Port-of-Spain. They can be reached via telephone at 627-0748, 623-7555 or 625-7151 or via email at info@ ttchildren.org. An honest essay has numerous characteristics: original thinking, a good structure, balanced arguments, and plenty more. But one aspect often overlooked is that an honest essay should be interesting. It should spark the readers curiosity, keep them absorbed, make them want to stay reading and learn more. An uneventful article risks losing the readers attention; whether or not the points you create are excellent, a flat style, or poor handling of a dry subject material can undermine the positive aspects of the essay. The matter is that a lot of students think that essays should be like this: they believe that a flat, dry style is suited to the needs of educational writing and dont even consider that the teacher reading their essay wants to search out the essay interesting. You might want to have online essay editor service to boost your confidence in writing with an error-free output. Academic writing doesnt need to be and shouldnt be bland. The excellent news is that there is much stuff you can do to create your essay more attractive, while youll be able only to do such a lot while remaining within the formal confines of educational writing. Lets study what theyre. Have an interest in what youre writing about Dont go overboard, but youll be able to let your passion for your subject show. If theres one thing bound to inject interest into your writing, its being fascinated by what youre writing about. Passion for a subject matter comes across naturally in your essay, typically making it more lively and fascinating and infusing an infectious enthusiasm into your words within the same way that its easy to talk knowledgeably to someone about something you discover fascinating. Include fascinating details Another factor that may make an essay boring maybe a dry material. Some topic areas are naturally dry, and it falls to you to form the article more interesting through your written style and by trying to seek out fascinating snippets of knowledge to incorporate, which will liven it up a small amount and make the data easier to relate to. A way of doing this with a dry subject is to create what youre talking about that seems relevant to the critical world, as this is often easier for the reader to relate to. Emulate the fashion of writers you discover interesting When you read lots, you subconsciously start emulating the fashion of the writers you have read. Reading benefits you a lot, as this exposes you to a spread of designs, and youll start to require the characteristics of these you discover interesting to read. Borrow some creative writing techniques Theres a limit to the quantity of actual story-telling youll do when youre writing an essay; in the end, essays should be objective, factual and balanced, which doesnt, initially glance, feel considerably like story-telling. However, youll apply a number of the principles of story-telling to create your writing more interesting. consider your own opinion Take the time to figure out what its that you think instead of regurgitating the opinions of others. Cut the waffle Rambling on and on is dull and almost bound to lose the interest of your reader. Youre in danger of waffling if youre not completely clear about what you wish to mention or havent thought carefully about how youre visiting structure your argument. Doing all your research correctly and writing an essay plan before you begin will help prevent this problem. Editing is a vital part of the essay-writing process, so edit the waffle once youve done a primary draft. Read through your essay objectively and eliminate the bits that arent relevant to the argument or labor the purpose. employing a thesaurus isnt always a decent thing Avoid using unfamiliar words in an essay; theres too great a likelihood that youre misusing them. You may think that employing a thesaurus to seek out more complicated words will make your writing more exciting or sound more academic, but using overly high-brow language can have the incorrect effect. Avoid repetitive phrasing Please avoid using the identical phrase structure again and again: its a recipe for dullness! Instead, use a variety of syntax that demonstrates your writing capabilities and makes your writing more interesting. Mix simple, compound, and complicated sentences to avoid your paper becoming predictable. Use some figurative language Using analogies with nature can often make concepts more accessible for readers to know. As weve already seen, its easy to finish up rambling when youre explaining complex concepts mainly after you dont know it yourself. One way of forcing yourself to think about a couple of pictures, present it more simply and engagingly is to form figurative language. This implies explaining something by comparing it with something else, as in an analogy. Employ rhetorical questions Anticipate the questions your reader might ask. One of the ways ancient orators held the eye of their audiences and increased the dramatic effect of their speeches was by using the statement. A decent place to use a statement is at the top of a paragraph, to steer into the following one, or at the start of a replacement section to introduce a brand new area for exploration. Proofread Finally, you may write the top interesting essay an instructor has ever read. Still, youll undermine your good work if its plagued by errors, which distract the reader from the particular content and can probably annoy them. Joseph Friedlander asked David LeBlanc about the starting fissile requirement for Thorium nuclear reactors. David Le Blanc, Physics Dept, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada and Ottawa Valley Research Associates Ltd A 12 page paper by David LeBlanc , Denatured Molten Salt Reactors (DMSR): An Idea Whose Time Has Finally Come? Take 1970s technology, add perhaps $3 billion of R&D over 15 to 20 years for a trillion dollar per year potential energy market. Molten Salt Reactors are one of six next generation designs chosen by the Gen IV program. Traditionally these reactors are thought of as thermal breeder reactors running on the thorium to 233U cycle and the historical competitor to fast breeder reactors. However, simplified versions running as converter reactors without any fuel processing and consuming low enriched uranium are perhaps a more attractive option. Uranium consumption levels are less than 1/6th that of LWR or a 1/4th of CANDU while at the same time offering clear advantages in safety, capital cost and long lived waste production along with increased proliferation resistance. A review of previous work and potential improvements proposed by the author will be presented. David answers are below. Molten salt reactors can come in several forms with the two main factors being (1) whether it is a Single Fluid (one salt for everything) or Two Fluid (one fuel salt for U233, one blanket salt for Thorium). There is also an intermediate called the 1 and 1/2 fluid that has a mixed fuel salt surrounded by a blanket salt. The second factor (2) is how thermal versus fast the neutron spectrum is. This is what really determines how much starting fissile one needs. The French Molten Salt Fast Reactor design with a faster neutron spectrum needs a great deal of starting fissile material (typically 5 to 10 tonnes per GWe) whereas a well moderated (lots of graphite) design is typically 1.5 tonnes and as little as 0.5 tonnes. As well of course, molten salt (liquid fluoride) reactors dont need to be breeders, they can act as very simple and very attractive converter reactors that only need a small fraction the uranium of LWRs. Question apparently there is a need to have Uranium 233 for purposes of the first loading of thorium power reactors? Or will any fissionable do? Answer Molten salt reactors require anywhere from 500 kg to upwards of 5 or more tonnes per GWe plant (whether one runs a more thermal neutron spectrum or a more fast one). 1500 kg is considered typical. Any molten salt reactor can start on bomb grade or reactor grade Plutonium (roughly the same amount needed as U233). Plutonium is expensive to isolate and of finite supply in spent fuel (600 to 1000 tonnes worldwide?) Any MSR can also start on highly enriched uranium U235 (i.e. old weapons supply). HEU (Highly enriched uranium) is also limited and would be very politically unattractive to be shipping around. Potentially the simplest startup fuel would be Low Enriched Uranium (LEU is under 20% U235 and useless for weapons) because we can produce this in great amounts (we already do) but this is where I have to qualify my answer. There are two main classes of molten salt reactors that produce all their own fissile fuel after startup, the better known Single Fluid design has everything in one fluid has a very hard time starting on LEU but Oak Ridge National Labs proposed such a design in the late 1970s (DMSR Breeder). Another way to run is called Two Fluid which has separate salts for the fissile U233 and fertile Thorium (which greatly simplifies the removal of fission products). In this design, favored by many these days, startup on LEU is fairly straightforward. You simply run LEU in the central fuel salt for a few years while building up and saving U233 produced in the thorium blanket salt. Once you have enough U233 saved up, you remove (and sell) any remaining LEU in the fuel salt and replace it with your saved up U233 and from then on run on the pure Thorium to U233 cycle. So the short answer is that startup fissile requirement is not a roadblock to building thousands of GWe of molten salt reactors like it is for something like metal cooled fast breeders that need ten to twenty times as much starting fissile material. Question 2 if we decided to go thorium LFR tomorrow to replace all coal/NG baseline generation we couldnt because we need to have X amount of 233 for the first fuel loadings? I would name this the U233 first loading bootup problem ; if it truly does exist I believe I might have thought of a way around it. But is it really a problem? Answer I believe this was refering to smaller 100 MWe reactors and Robert is one of the many that prefers Two Fluid designs that can start on quite small amounts of fissile material. 100 kg of U235 for 100 MWe is possible but Id probably up that number a bit to be conservative since U235 isnt as good a starting fuel as U233. The price of $50,000 per kg is correct (even a bit on the high side). Question 3 Also, that implies we DONT need the U233 for first bootup? Theoretically *we could use the 1000 tons of HEU military stockpiles of U- 235 to boot 10000 thorium reactors tomorrow? **Are these numbers correct? Answer Yes, as I discussed in Question (1) and again this is smaller 100 MWe reactors. (Question 4)* (Obviously, if the designs and all parts and tools pre-existed speaking only of nuclear materials)* I am also trying to construct a realistic list of fuel loadings needed for various kinds of reactors contrasted for a hypothetical all nuclear world of 15000 1 gwe reactors (or 150000 100 mw reactors) (ie all thorium powered, chemical fuel needs synthesized from CO2 as in the AIM HIGH or Keith Henson plan) http://www.nss.org/settlement/ssp/library/CO2andSpaceResources.ppt In the Aim high example this seems to be about 15000 tons of Th a year plus 1500 tons of initial U-235 to start it off (after that, consumed *235 replaced by generated 233 is my understanding?) Is this correct*?* Answer I think assuming 100% of world energy a little high (lets leave at least some space for hydro, biomass, wind and solar!). But yes, 15,000 GWe would only consume 15,000 tonnes of thorium per year, but you are missing a zero in regards to how much U235, by Robert Hargraves numbers it is 15,000 tonnes, not 1500. Starting on U235 is not quite as efficient as U233 though so to be conservative Id probably double that value to 30,000 tonnes. (Question 5)For fifteen thousand 1 GWe DMSR (Denatured Molten Salt Reactor) reactors what are the initial and yearly loadings? A 12 page paper by David LeBlanc , Denatured Molten Salt Reactors (DMSR): An Idea Whose Time Has Finally Come? Answer The DMSR converter is my other passion as of late. It is a much simplified design that needs a lot less R and D and likely an easier sell to utilities, governments and regulators. It doesnt need to process the salts at all (except an optional single treatment after each salt batch of 10 to 30 years). Oak Ridge National Labs promoted this design in the late 1970s but was subject to little optimization (i.e. done with almost no funding). The 1 GWe design requied 3.5 tonnes of U235 (in LEU) to start and averaged about 150 kg of U235 per year of fissile top ups after that (at 75% capacity factor). Both these values could easily be improved, especially the annual requirement which could be halved. For LWR and CANDUs the starting load is more for LWRs (5 tonnes U235) and a less for CANDU (about 1 tonne U235). The annual needs for LWR and CANDUs are similar at roughly 1000 kg U235 per GWe- year (i.e. about 200 tonnes natural uranium). A newly proposed embodiment of a Pebble Bed DMSR Converter based on a modification of design work from ORNL 4344. Question 6 Regular lwr/bwr/candu typical loading is like 200 tons right? (first two use 3.5% LEU, last natural) So we are discussing perhaps *3 million tons of Uranium* for them not sure that is doable. * (I assume PU239 would work too as initial fissionable loading with some reactor modification* * Yes, no reactor modifications needed really. Question 7 How much Pu 239 needed per 1 ton fuel loading thorium reactor?) How much seed U233 (235 was listed as 100 kg) * (I am trying to get the ratios of 235-233-239 required for initial fissionable loading in a 1 ton Thorium reactor in kg* Answer There isnt a specific answer to this but a rule of thumb might be just slightly more Pu239 than U233 and 1.5 to 2 times as much U235 than U233. Question 8 Is that U235 HEU price correct (I thought the Russians were selling it in the 90s for $5000 a kilo PU239 for 25000 a kilo?*) Apparently it is 10 times that now? Answer The Russians were likely selling it cheap to raise cash. I would say 30,000$ per kg of U235 is typical. For Pu for MOX use, it typically costs about 100,000 per kg to remove it from spent fuel and this is only 60% fissile (239+241). A sodium cooled fast breeder needs about 18 tonnes of reactor grade Pu to start($1.8 billion per GWe!). If we are removing it for molten salt reactors we can likely use methods that are less than half this price per kg and of course we need a lot less kg. Welcome to the new Enlightenment, an era when suppressed science, hidden history and the enlightening nature of reality are all revealed to those with eyes to see and ears to hear. These are the thoughts and ideas of New Illuminati - bold forerunners and pioneers of new awareness all over the globe. Notes on new emerging paradigms from the NEXUS New Times Magazine Founder R. Ayana, who lives in a remote Australian rainforest (and is no longer involved with the magazine) - Catching drops from the deluge in a paper cup since 1984. Follow us via Facebook, Google+, Friend Connect, rss, Networked Blogs, Twitter or join the mailing list below for regular updates. We won't use your address for anything else. Please COMMENT at the end of any entry and see the realtime CHAT ROOM below this column, where you can find plenty of STREAMING VIDEOS. Together we can create the best of all possible worlds! WELCOME Welcome to Nicholas V's Blog on Blogger I have been blogging daily on this platform for several years now. It is surprising that I have persisted as the world is changing and "microblogging" is now the norm. I blog to amuse myself, make comment on current affairs, externalise some of my creativity, keep notes on things that interest me, learn something new and to surprise myself with things that I discover about this wonderful, and sometimes crazy, world we live in. I sometimes get the impression that I am on a soapbox delivering a monologue, so your comments are welcome. Please note that unless otherwise stated, all original material of whatever nature created by Nicholas V. in this weblog is and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No-Derivs 2.5 licence. http:// creativecommons.org Behind the Facades in France: What expats and the mainstream media (French and American alike) fail to notice (or fail to tell you) about French attitudes, principles, values, and official positions It's been quite a year. And I make no predictions about the one to come. I do know that it will -- at least where we are -- start ou... Of what is past, or passing, or to come... Photo: Jason Wilson/Twitter One of the armed militants told a reporter the refuge belonged to we the people. Whats New - Ryan Bundy says that if locals ask the militiamen to leave, they will, according to the Los Angeles Times. - Ammon Bundy told reporters on Tuesday that the militias main goal was occupying the refuge until its land was transferred back to ranchers and other local landowners, per The Oregonian. - The Guardian reports that the Feds might cut off power to the occupied building, in an effort to freeze out the militiamen. - The ranchers whose sentence helped set off this occupation said they plan on asking Obama for clemency. They reported to prison on Monday. - The county sheriff told the militiamen to go home on Monday. A group of armed, anti-government militiamen have taken control of a small federal building outside Burns, Oregon, to protest the federal management of public lands. The latest chapter in the decades-long dispute was sparked by a case involving two local ranchers convicted of arson for setting fires on federal lands in 2001 and 2006. Dwight Hammond, 73, and his son Steven Hammond, 46, are set to report to prison on Monday, and on Saturday night several hundred people gathered to show their support. Following the peaceful rally, a small group of protesters led by Ammon Bundy, the son of infamous Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, began making impromptu speeches and declared that it was time to take up arms. Those who want to go take a hard stand, get in your trucks and follow me! Bundy said, according to attendees. About an hour later the group had seized the headquarters of the the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. Bundy told reporters on Monday that the group now has a name: Citizens for Constitutional Freedom. He did not say where exactly the Constitution said he was allowed to complain about policies he disagrees with by breaking the law and threatening violence. A day later, he added that the militia now had a specific goal: forcing the Feds to transfer all of the land in the Malheur refuge back to ranchers and private landowners, according to The Oregonian. After that happened, he said, we will go home. The Occupation Armed men have been posted at the entrance to the stone cottage, which is operated by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. According to the New York Times, its still unclear how the group gained access to the building, which sits in an extremely remote rural area in southeast Oregon. Spent quite a bit of time at the wildlife refuge today - calm, quiet, no signs of damage. How'd they get in? They found a "stack of keys." Les Zaitz (@LesZaitz) January 3, 2016 Bundy, who has been driving around in a pickup truck with a Bye Bye BLM bumper sticker, according to The Oregonian, says the group is prepared to occupy the building for years. We will be here as long as it takes. We have no intentions of using force upon anyone, [but] if force is used against us, we would defend ourselves, Bundy told CNN. He added, We do have a plan, and that plan is going to take several months to accomplish. Those who have rights on this land, those rights will be acknowledged. There will be an opportunity to claim those rights. We are going to defend you as you use those rights. Although the militiamen see themselves as outsiders helping all Americans frustrated by the government, not everyone in Burns is pleased by the intervention, especially from people they dont even know. Len Vohs, former mayor of Burns, told the Washington Post, The majority of us support the Hammonds, but we dont need outsiders telling us what to do. County commissioner Dan Nichols told the New York Times, This county isnt supportive of whats being done here at all. Once again, its a bunch of those who live without the county telling us what we need to do, how we need to be doing it and the repercussions if we dont. In a phone interview from inside the building, Ammons brother Ryan told the Oregonian that the group is demanding that the Hammonds be released and the federal government give up the lands. The best possible outcome is that the ranchers that have been kicked out of the area, then they will come back and reclaim their land, and the wildlife refuge will be shut down forever and the federal government will relinquish such control, he said. What were doing is not rebellious. What were doing is in accordance with the Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land. He added to the Los Angeles Times, Were not looking for bloodshed. Ammon Bundy, leader of a group of armed anti-government protesters, arrives to speak to the media at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge near Burns, Oregon. Photo: Rob Kerr/AFP/Getty Images Shortly after Ammon Bundy tweeted, As Thomas Paine said, It is the duty of the patriot to protect its country from its government. #CitizensForConstitutionalFreedom on Tuesday, his Twitter account was suspended. The Militia The group claims that more than 100 people are taking part in the occupation, but reporters and visitors say theyve only seen about a dozen people at the site. The Bundys father, Cliven, briefly rose to fame after staging his own armed standoff with federal authorities in 2014 over unpaid grazing fees, but lost his cause-celebre status after making racist comments to a New York Times reporter. According to The Oregonian, the scene can hardly be described as a standoff. The 20 or so militants at the refuge come and go as they please. No police were apparent Sunday anywhere between Burns and the 30-mile drive to the refuge. The elder Bundy is not involved in the Oregon group, but at least two other veterans of the Nevada standoff are, in addition to Bundys sons. One militiaman, Jon Ritzheimer, recorded a tearful, rambling, Constitution-waving video on Thursday in which he says good-bye to his family. (Ritzheimer, a Marine veteran from Arizona, is also a well-known anti-Muslim extremist.) Another man from Utah who took part in the Bundy standoff told Oregon Public Broadcasting that he was miffed by how few protesters showed up. I feel quite betrayed. Its been on Facebook that everyone is going to come. And we show up, and everyone just craps out, he said. You come up here, ready to get killed if we have to and these people are just on Facebook about it. He added, Im not here to shoot anyone, Im here to get shot. The Hammonds The father and son whose prison sentence sparked the incident say they dont know the Bundys well and dont support the militias actions, though Dwight Hammonds wife, Susan, said, We share a lot of sentiments in regards to our government, and the overreach into management of our country. However, Susan added to Oregon Public Broadcasting, with a laugh, that she didnt really get what the militia was doing. I dont even know what occupying the refuge means, she said. I cant judge whats going on out there because I dont know what it is. I hope theyve got some warm clothes. I dont really know the purpose of the guys who are out there. The charges against the Hammonds relate to fires, which federal prosecutors say they illegally set on public lands, endangering firefighters. Prosecutors said they were attempting to destroy evidence that they had been hunting deer illegally on federal grounds. The Hammonds maintain that they started the fires on their own property to reduce the growth of invasive plants and prevent the spread of a wildfire. The men already served time for the arson, but earlier this year a federal-appeals court ordered them back to prison, saying their initial sentences were too short. They were charged under a federal-terrorism statute that carries a five-year mandatory minimum sentence, which particularly angered their supporters and drew attention to their case. Lawyers for the Hammonds have tried to distance their clients from the militia, and say they still intend to report to prison on Monday. Neither Ammon Bundy nor anyone within his group/organization speak for the Hammond Family, their lawyer told the local sheriff. Instead it seems that the group at the refuge is mostly made up of outsider agitators who are using the Hammonds case to draw attention to a broader series of complaints. Several news reports indicate that other local supporters of the Hammonds do not welcome the militiamens actions either. On Monday, the familys lawyers said the pair planned on asking the president for clemency. We hope that President Obama will agree with us and with the veteran judge who presided over the trial that the mandatory five-year minimum sentence is far too long for these ranchers, they said, per The Oregonian. President Obama has been briefed on the situation at the refuge, White House spokesperson Josh Earnest said on Monday. Obviously were aware of the situation and concerned about it, he said adding that this ultimately is a local law enforcement matter. The Government Response The FBI is monitoring the situation, and local authorities appear to be blocking access to the facility. They are reportedly preparing to establish a law-enforcement command post. The agency released a statement on Sunday saying it hoped to bring a peaceful resolution to the situation. Ammon Bundy said at one point that the federal government would be putting lives at risk if it tried to retake the refuge from the peaceful protesters. Bundy said more on this subject on the Today show on Monday morning. The only violence that, if it comes our way, will be because [the] government is wanting their building back, he said. Law enforcement has said it wont be forthcoming on details about its plan for countering the militia because of safety considerations for both those inside the refuge as well as the law enforcement officers involved. Senator Ron Wyden told the Los Angeles Times that based on comments from what weve heard in the community and whats been reported, we may be in just the early stages of this. As Jamelle Bouie at Slate wrote on Tuesday, theres a reason that the FBI has been slow to react. Law enforcement has been willing to use lethal violence against armed white protesters and the results were catastrophic, he writes, citing the standoffs at Waco and Ruby Ridge. Its no surprise federal agents are cautious; they walk with the hard-learned lessons of the 1990s. Even if the Bundys are paper tigers, no one wants to relive the past. On Sunday, Harney County sheriff David Ward warned residents to avoid the site. These men came to Harney County claiming to be part of militia groups supporting local ranchers, when in reality these men had alternative motives, to attempt to overthrow the county and federal government in hopes to spark a movement across the United States, he said. On Monday, he added, Go home. Ryan Bundy says that the militia is willing to leave the refuge but only if local residents ask them directly, according to the Los Angeles Times. If they dont want to retrieve their rights, he said, and if the county people tell us to leave, well leave. A day later, The Guardian reported that federal authorities might shut off the government buildings power to try and freeze out the occupiers. As one government official explained to a reporter, Its in the middle of nowhere. And its flat-ass cold up there. He added, After they shut off the power, theyll kill the phone service. Then theyll block all the roads so that all those guys have a long, lonely winter to think about what theyve done. Its supposed to get very cold and snowy in the region this week. The Guardian also looked at the militias food stash. It didnt seem like they had enough food to last very long, even though they have vowed to wait years if necessary. Local government officials have warned people to stay away from the refuge, and several local schools will stay closed this week. The U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Bureau of Land Management will close their offices in the region, too. And What Do the Potential Presidents Think? A few 2016ers have commented on the situation. Re: Oregon, Cruz says no one should use or threaten force to protest gov't. Wants situation resolved "peaceably" pic.twitter.com/MGXeLsdGmO Jason Noble (@jasonnobleDMR) January 4, 2016 Senator Marco Rubio told an Iowa radio station, You cant be lawless. We live in a republic. There are ways to change the laws of this country and the policies. If we get frustrated with it, thats why we have elections. Thats why we have people we can hold accountable. Im sympathetic to the idea that the large collection of federal lands ought to be turned back to the states and the people, but I think the best way to bring about change is through politics, Senator Rand Paul added to the Washington Post. Thats why I entered the electoral arena. I dont support any violence or suggestion of violence toward changing policy. This post has been updated throughout. Without naming names, John McCain frets about top of GOP ticket in 2016 Senator John McCain- R-AZ, is clearly opposed to a "not to be named" billionnaire Republican "in name only" as a presidential candidate Sen. John McCain didn't go after Donald Trump explicitly, but he warned Wednesday that a weak Republican nominee could jeopardize the GOP's control of the US Senate. Every week in 2015 (and the first few weeks of 2016), OnMilwaukee and local design company Too Much Metal join forces to introduce the latest member of the Milwaukee All-Stars a team of unfamiliar winners living in the city who consistently and diligently make it shine. Each week, a new member will join the team based on your recommendations and at the end of the year all will come together in a Rally of the Raddest Milwaukeeans. We're not sure what that means quite yet, so for now, meet Howard Goldstein OnMilwaukee / Too Much Metal: How long have you worked at your job? Howard Goldstein: This requires a two-part answer: I work as a teller for the UW Credit Union, specifically the branch in the Student Union at UWM. I have worked there for almost 22 years. UWCU is a terrific organization. Employees are treated exceptionally well and it puts its values into practice and truly acts in the best interests of its members. Also, being on campus, I have the privilege of interacting with people from all walks of life, and from all over the world. The second part of my answer has to do with my avocation, that of playwright and actor. I have worked mostly for the smaller theater companies in town, especially the Boulevard Ensemble and Windfall Theatre. Both have been very supportive of my work as both an actor and a playwright. I am like the majority of theater artists in town: We don't do theater for the money which is good, because we make very little money doing it but because we relish the opportunity for creative expression. OnMilwaukee / Too Much Metal: What time of year / season is your favorite? Goldstein: Although its duration is somewhere between short and non-existent, I'm a big fan of spring. We finally begin to experience some warmth after the endless deep-freeze of winter. I love the spring flowers even though I can't smell them (see below). There's more daylight and the prospect of a long, glorious summer lies before us. Spring is full of promise and hope. OnMilwaukee / Too Much Metal: Whats your favorite or least favorite smell in Milwaukee? Goldstein: Unfortunately, as the years have passed, my sense of smell has almost disappeared. I can stick my nose right into a lilac flower and, forget it, nothing. One smell that still registers undiminished is cigarette smoke. Cheap perfume and cologne also come through pretty strong. That acrid and noxious odor, representing so much misery, loss of health and life, not to mention money . Yes, I would definitely say that cigarette smoke is my least favorite smell in Milwaukee or anywhere else. OnMilwaukee / Too Much Metal: Whats your hope for Milwaukee? Goldstein: My hope for Milwaukee is to see a great reduction in poverty. This is a stain on the soul of our city. I believe that so many other problems crime, schools, even segregation would be greatly eased if we could alleviate poverty. I can only imagine what it's like to live that spirit-crushing grind of an existence: to work two jobs and still be barely able to make ends meet, let alone get ahead; to be one medical emergency away from having one's life completely unravel; to be one of the "working poor," a shameful phrase that reflects a reality that shouldn't even exist. To see this hideous beast tamed is my hope for Milwaukee. OnMilwaukee / Too Much Metal: When / how did you fall in love with Milwaukee? Goldstein: For a long time I didn't realize that I was in love with Milwaukee. It sort of snuck up on me gradually. I mean, it's just ... Milwaukee, right? Yet there's something that keeps people here. I mean, yes, we have the lake. And there's some really cool architecture and some great neighborhoods. But ultimately, I think it's a deep appreciation of family and friends. People have roots here and they go deep. The arts community is a great example. It's easy to point to wonderful musicians who probably could have more material success elsewhere, but they stay here and they in turn contribute to the vital heart of the city. That's love, baby! OnMilwaukee / Too Much Metal: Why do you do what you do? Goldstein: Now there's a question that could send a person into an existential tailspin. I try to live each moment in a way that answers the question, "What kind of world do you want to live in?" Naturally, I fail at this regularly, but it's something to strive for. OnMilwaukee / Too Much Metal: Whats your one guilty pleasure? Goldstein: Cowboy music. OnMilwaukee / Too Much Metal: Name a Milwaukeean you would like to high five. Goldstein: Im going to cheat a little and name a category of people, rather than an individual. The Milwaukeeans I would like to high five would be everyone who works in the non-profit sector. This includes the often underpaid staff, as well as the many, many people who volunteer their time to make this city a better place. There are so many ways that people give of their time and energy whether it's working with at-risk youth, volunteering to improve our parks or libraries, providing services for veterans, helping out at a food pantry. Its really heartening. And I would be remiss if I didn't mention the performing arts, where often the whole enterprise is created by volunteers, including the performers. OnMilwaukee / Too Much Metal: What neighborhood do you live in ? Goldstein: The Lower East Side, an area with a great vitality, a great diversity of people and a Great Lake where I can be seen running a couple times a week. The Lower East Side feels like it's at the center of the action. From where else in town can you leave your house 20 minutes before the July 3rd fireworks begin, and just walk down and watch them, as a friend and I do every year? Gotta love the East Side! Do you know a Milwaukee All-Star? OnMilwaukee.com and Too Much Metal are looking for true-hearted folks living in the city of Milwaukee who love what they do and do it with zest and style. Email fred@toomuchmetal.com or molly@onmilwaukee.com with recommendations. Kabana Grill, 869 W. Layton Ave., closed quietly this past week. However, its not the end of the road for the restaurant, which has served up delicious Indian and Pakistani food since December 2013. In fact, beginning Dec. 30 the owners simply relocated their business to 1828 N. Farwell Ave., the home of sister restaurant, K2 Grill. K2 Grill, which opened in January 2015, is owned and operated by Uzma Nadeem along with her sister-in-law and business partner, Tina Akbar, the owner of Kabana Grill. The new restaurant, which combines both businesses, may be renamed in the coming weeks. According to Akbar, the restaurant is currently operating with the K2 Grill menu; however there are plans for a new menu to be released by the end of January. The new offerings, Akbar notes, may include a daily lunch buffet as well as a Sunday brunch offering (something that was a regular offering at Kabana Grill). Akbar says that a grand opening celebration is being planned for launch in the next couple of weeks. In the meantime, diners can continue to enjoy the regular dinner menu, weekend buffet and Pronto lunch menu, which includes combination plates starting at $9.99. Hours for the new restaurant are 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday, with a lunch buffet available on Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Both takeout and delivery are available. Watch OnMilwaukee.com for additional details as they develop. Reflections on My So-Called Life as a Senior Citizen. As they say, growing old is not for the faint-hearted, but its perks and quirks should provide interesting fodder for a blog....or maybe not. At least now, I will have a venue to publish all those essays that have been taking up precious space in my brain. I hope somebody out there, besides me, will get something out of it. Advice to the Reader: "Dismiss whatever insults your soul." --Walt Whitman Problem Reaction Solution Afghanistan Libya Syria Terror, coupled with the illegal trade in narcotics, particularly heroin, is enabling the orchestration, and funding, of illegal warfare which serves the interests of an international oligarch class as it destroys humanity.The barbarity of the military operations conducted by the West is beyond the imagination of most domestic audiences, even when details are publicized Broadly speaking, we can decode the 9/11 terror wars using a simple formula:NATO imperialists engineer or exploit problems to create reactions, with a view to creating previously planned solutions. Typically, problems (i.e 9/11 crimes) serve to engineer public consent (reaction) for illegal invasions (solution).The end-game also contradicts publically stated goals. Evidence demonstrates that the invasions of Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and Syria, as well as the war in Ukraine, were launched and prosecuted with a view to destroy each country through invasion, occupation, plunder, and to establish military footholds. The popular notion that the wars are being prosecuted for humanitarian purposes is absolutely ridiculous.In Afghanistan, for example, drug-trafficking warlords such as Gulbuddin Hekmatyar were used to create extremist jihadist armies (mujahideen) to destroy the Soviet-protected socialist republic. The long-standing CIA-terror group alliance, which pre-dates Afghanistan, continues to be empowered by profits from illegal drug trafficking: According to U.S sources, the production of opium (which is eventually processed into heroin) has increased 40-fold since the initial invasion of Afghanistan.So, the invasion destroyed a secular, socialist government and filled the vacuum with extremist drug-trafficking terrorist warlords. But imperialists gained a military foothold in the country.We all know now that the fraudulent Weapons Of Mass Destruction pretext was used for the criminal invasion of Iraq. The engineered problem was followed by mixed reactions from a less gullible public, but the invasion (solution), was launched (on the heels of genocidal sanctions) anyways. Joe Quinn reports that in this invasion, US Death Squads manufactured a civil war to divert attention from the real culprits: the occupiers. A 10,000 strong Shia militia under US command is used to terrorize the population and to destroy Iraqi grass-roots resistance. Often, the terrorists bomb civilian targets and falsely blame innocent groups false flag tactics which in turn create engineered friction and retaliation. Black propaganda operations are a CIA specialty. Consequently, Iraq is now an unstable terrorist quagmire, whereas before the invasion it was a modern, well-developed country free of any identifiable terror groups.The NATO invasion of Libya, previously the wealthiest country in Africa, was also a product of repeated Western lies , and now, it too, is a hotbed of terrorism, vice, and drug trafficking. Erin Banco reports in Drug And Human Trafficking In Lawless Libya Is Funding ISIS that the Wests lack of foresight has enabled different groups of fighters to traffic a continuous supply of arms, drugs and people across Libyas borders, helping to bankroll some of the worlds most violent terrorists.The invasion of Syria is following predictable patterns as well. A constellation of extremist, mercenary terror groups, including ISIS all supported by the West are trying to destroy Syria. Drug trafficking , stolen oil and artifacts are being used to finance the mass murder, and death squads, often under the cover of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) are being used to create a civil war, and to destroy President Assads government. The terror and mass murder are primarily orchestrated externally with a view to making Syria safe for Wahhabism, barbarity, and a NATO military presence. A Wikileaks cable indicates that since 2011, more than 230,000 people have died and a million have been injured. But despite the so- far- successful alliance of Syria, Iran, and Russia in destroying the mercenary terrorists and in saving Syria, the West can take some consolation: the US already has a military foothold in the country. Only time will tell if the West succeeds in creating and sustaining yet another unstable, terrorist-infested vassal state.Despite what naysayers might think, the NATO-perpetrated holocaust is in many respects a neo-con success story: a succession of previously independent countries has been destroyed, and a NATO presence has been installed. In fact, the wars for Terror and Drugs are winning, despite ostensible set-backs.The whole process of death and destruction is not rational or moral, and the degeneracy is beyond evil. Commentators call it imperialism.Source: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article43838.htm From Texas to Libya, via Turkey and Syria: terrorism has never been more 'homegrown' No kidding: This is the actual fleet of cars that rolled off a cargo ship into Sirte port when Libya was (re)invaded by ISIS terrorists in early 2015. It's believed that about 70% of the Islamic State militants in Libya are foreigners, with the bulk coming from Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Sudan and Tunisia. In recent months there have been consistent reports that Islamic State has been transferring "administrators" and "military commanders" to Libya to take direct control of its militants there. Moreover, Islamic State websites in Libya have been prominently featuring the slogan that "Sirte will be no less than Raqqa," suggesting that if Raqqa falls, Sirte may become the new capital of Islamic State. [...] Islamic State is not being contained. It has now expanded to 35 international affiliates. It is zeroing in on North Africa in general, and on Libya in particular, in an attempt to create, on a far vaster scale, an even bigger Islamic State on the very edge of Europe's doorstep. "We are taking about kamikaze pilots who can take off in [one of the aircraft stolen from the Libyan military and various local airports] and crash themselves into the Vatican, for instance. It only takes an hour and a half across the Mediterranean Sea from Libya to Rome.'' Big Bad Baghdadi, Mossad asset? The nightmare is not over for Libya. In fact, it may only have just begun. Sirte, Muammar Gadaffi's birthplace and the last major city to fall to the 'rebels' in 2011, is once again occupied by terrorists. In recent communication with the leadership of Libya's Tribes' Council , US contacts James and Joanne Moriarty were told that the leadership of ISIS (Islamic State), Boko Harim ('ISIS in Nigeria'), Ansar al-Sharia ('ISIS in Libya'), and possibly others, all gathered in Sirte, Libya, for meetings that took place around the 9th and 10th of December 2015.In their discussion with myself and Joe Quinn on our Behind the Headlines radio show on Sunday December 13th , the Moriartys relayed how Sirte, once a thriving city on Libya's Mediterranean coast, but now a stronghold of cut-throats and bandits, was placed on full lock-down for the mid-December terrorist coven.Much of Sirte's population of 300,000 either succumbed to genocide or fled during and after the violent 2011 coup and NATO bombardment in Libya ( told fully in horrific detail for the first time here ). By mid-2012, about 70% of the population had returned to Sirte, then spent three years attempting to rebuild until, in February 2015, 'ISIS' terrorists appeared out of nowhere - in a fleet of brand, spanking new Toyota pick-ups - and commenced a siege of the city.In August 2015, ISIS brutally quelled a rebellion by citizens who took up arms to try to push the terrorists away from their city. Desperate, the Council of Deputies (one of Libya's two 'legitimate' governments - three if you include ISIS) formally requested support from the Arab League in the form of airstrikes against the terrorists.The international community's response? Nothing, nada, zilch. The Saudi-led alliance of rich Gulf states was too busy targeting civilians in the uprising against Western-backed dictatorship in Yemen, while the US and friends just watched from their aircraft carriers, warships, jets, satellites, and regional military bases as ISIS rapidly took control of about half of Libya over the course of last year.By late November 2015 , Sirte was under the complete control of ISIS. With the Russian airstrike campaign against ISIS targets in Syria by then two months old, a UN report in early December warned that up to 5,000 ISIS terrorists were in Libya, with half of them concentrated in Sirte, and that the terrorist organization "sees the country as a retreat zone and strategic hub for recruits unable to reach its Syrian heartland."US military propagandist Joseph V. Micallef lays out the 'retreat' , which is really a vast expansion:'Retired' Israeli spook Jacques Neriah was kind enough to round out the nightmare scenario for Europeans On the heels of the UN report, Iranian news agency FARS reported that ISIS leader. The story goes that Baghdadi was treated in Turkey for injuries sustained in an Iraqi airstrike against his convoy , presumably based on intelligence provided to Baghdad by the Russians, in October. With the Russians carrying out actual airstrikes against ISIS in Syria, Baghdadi's handlers decided he couldn't return to Raqqa,And so, while there were media reports about al-Baghdadi's retreat to Sirte, observers on the ground have provided a far more detailed account of what's going on there to James and Joanne Moriarty. According to their sources in the Libyan Tribes' Council,. The Moriartys even know the exact address at which Baghdadi and friends were gathering.One would think, given Western leaders' commitment to defeating 'world enemy number 1', the Islamic State terror group, that their media arms would have reported this 24/7, and that their intelligence and security services would have either tracked the world's most wanted arriving in Libya, or capitalized on the Libyan tribal leaders' intelligence to launch an airstrike and take out al-Baghdadi and his cohorts all at once. But then, to believe that, one would have to believe that the 'war on terror' really is a 'clash of civilizations', and not a charade managed by Western intelligence to justify imperial control of the Middle East and beyond...Source and video: http://www.sott.net/article/309627-Western-media-AWOL-as-Islamic-State-regroups-in-Libya-Interview-with-James-Joanne-Moriarty Law-enforcement agencies to continue their action against banned organisations: Shahbaz Sharif LAHORE: Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has directed provincial law-enforcement agencies to continue their action against banned organisations. Presiding over a meeting on law and order under the National Action Plan here on Saturday, the chief minister said indiscriminate action should be taken against those involved in spreading hatred and other sectarian activities. To win the war against terror, there is a need to end a particular mindset, he added. He said there was no room for terrorism, extremism and sectarianism in the Pakistan of Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and the whole nation was united for complete elimination of terrorism from the country. The chief minister said the law of banning use of loudspeaker and wall chalking should be implemented strictly. Provocative speeches were intolerable and indiscriminate action should be taken against the violators. He said there was a need for promoting brotherhood, peace, love and tolerance in society. Agreement signed with Turkish body for building low-cost houses He directed search operations should be accelerated in an effective manner throughout Punjab and modern technology fully benefited from. Meanwhile, an agreement was signed between the Punjab government and a renowned Turkish housing sector institution. Under the agreement, the Housing Development Administration Turkey (TOKI) will provide technical assistance for construction of 50,000 low-cost houses in Punjab. The Turk institution will also provide technical assistance to the Punjab government for construction of 25,000 houses in 2016 and further 25,000 in 2017. Shahbaz, TOKI President Mehmet Ergun Turan and Turk Ambassador in Pakistan S Babur Girgin were also present on the occasion. Talking to reporters, the chief minister said under the leadership of Turk President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, houses were given to hundreds and thousands of Turk people belonging to the lower stratum. He lauded TOKI, saying it had constructed over 800,000 houses during the last 15 years in its country and intended to construct 500,000 more during the next five years. Pakistan offer India cooperation against terrorism ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office renewed on Saturday its offer to India to cooperate against terrorism. Pakistan remains committed to partner with India as well as other countries in the region to completely eradicate the menace of terrorism afflicting our region, said an FO statement condemning the terrorist attack on an airbase in the Indian town of Pathankot. Even as the attack was under way, fingers started pointing towards Pakistan. Indian junior home minister Kiren Rijiju said: We have credible information that this attack was sponsored by some elements across the border. Indians claim the attack was carried out by a Pakistan-based banned militant group Jaish-i-Mohammad. In contrast to some of his ministers and senior officials, Prime Minister Narendra Modis reaction was a measured one as he termed the attack a handiwork of enemies of humanity who cant see India progress. Foreign secretaries of Pakistan and India are to meet in about two weeks for discussing the modalities and timing of the dialogue process that the two countries agreed to resume last month. Islamabad and Delhi had committed to discuss terrorism concerns at the level of National Security Advisers (NSAs) under the process that is being resumed with a new name Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue. Pakistans FO has been brainstorming on the format and modalities that it would suggest at the secretaries meeting. According to an insider, the Pakistani side has been considering to propose lowering the level of dialogue on terrorism concerns to interior/home secretaries level instead of the agreed NSAs level. This might become difficult now. Immediate indications from India after the Pathankot incident suggested that the foreign secretaries talks would go ahead despite the setback, but the incident would impact the atmospherics. India expects to complete initial probe into the incident before the meeting and its position at the talks would depend a lot on what comes out of the investigation. The FO said it hoped to build on the goodwill generated by recent high-level contacts. Condemning the incident, it said: Pakistan condemns the terrorist incident in Pathankot, India, today, in which precious lives have been lost. We extend heartfelt condolences to the government and people of India and the bereaved families and wish the wounded speedy and full recovery, it added. Pathankot base attack a revenge for the execution of Afzal Guru NEW DELHI: The gunmen who attacked an Indian Air Force (IAF) base in Pathankot on Saturday planned it as revenge for the execution of Afzal Guru in February 2013. The surrendered Kashmiri militant was controversially hanged in Delhis Tihar jail by the Congress government amid questions about his role in the parliament attack case of December 2001. The Hindustan Times quoted Rajesh Verma, who it said was abducted by four heavily armed men along with two others near Punjabs Pathankot early on Friday, as describing the reason they allegedly gave for the assault plan. The abductors slit his throat and left him for dead. You killed Afzal Guru and now we will take revenge, they kept on saying as they continued beating us with rifles butts, Verma told the newspaper in Gurdaspur. As it was New Year eve, my friend SP Salwinder Singh suggested that I come along and pay obeisance at the mazaar of a saint in village Kolian in Narot Jaimal Singh block close to the border. As we were coming back, four men in army uniform signalled our car to stop. As we stopped, the four overpowered us and barged into the vehicle and tied all of us with ropes and clothes, Verma said. Speaking from his hospital bed, he said that soon after they were abducted the men told them that they were going to attack the air force base to avenge the hanging of their colleague Afzal Guru. The Urdu-speaking men were carrying assault rifles and grenades as well as a GPS navigation system and had a clear idea about the location of the base. Guru was secretly hanged and buried in the Tihar jail after his mercy petition was rejected by President Pranab Mukherjee. As the car drove for around 30km, they dropped off the SP and the old cook but took me along. When we reached near village Tajpur, where they had intended to enter the IAF base, they slit my throat and left me for dead in the SUV, he said. However, I managed to survive by controlling the blood with a cloth and I ran towards a gurdwara from where I managed a phone (call) and informed my relative who rushed me to the hospital, Verma said. The terrorists, Verma said, were unaware that they had kidnapped a Punjab police officer because they launched a search for the SP when the hooter of the car accidentally went off. Population census in March 2016 ISLAMABAD: With a gap of over 17 years, the government on Saturday gave final touches to arrangements for carrying out population and housing census in March this year. Preliminary results will be compiled within three months. The governing council of the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), headed by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, approved a revised timeline for the census. The preliminary results will have to be completed by June this year, while other aspects, including district-wise data reports, will have to be completed by Dec 2017. An official source privy to the meeting told reporters that although compilation of population reports after census normally took around three years, the government wanted it to be completed before the next general elections, due in 2018. The compilation of all reports by Dec 2017 will give enough time to political parties and the Election Commission to use data for electioneering purposes. At the moment, there are a number of bills pending before both houses of parliament seeking increase in the number of seats for minorities as well as representation of provinces, especially Balochistan, in the National Assembly. While taking up those bills, the committees of the two houses had already decided to defer consideration of the bill until the finalisation of census data. The population census will yield statistics about internal migration, urbanisation, as well as rural and urban population across the country. The population data will be used for delimitation of the constituencies of the national and provincial assemblies, a requirement under the constitution. According to the source, the exact dates have not yet been finalised. However, it has been decided to hold census at the end of March. The budget approved for the census is Rs14.5 billion, which will be shared by the provinces. The population census will be conducted in one go; the first three days for a house-listing operation and the following 15 days for the main count, which include filing of census forms on house-to-house level and a day for homeless people. The PBS says that the census will be held with the full support of armed forces, at a man-to-man level, as was done in 1998. An official statement issued after the meeting by the finance ministry said that Finance Minister Ishaq Dar at the outset welcomed the newly appointed PBS members and mentioned that they had joined the organisation at a crucial time, just a couple of months before the sixth Population & Housing Census. They would have to shoulder the responsibility of making the census successful, he said. Chief Statistician Asif Bajwa informed the meeting that, as per the decision of the governing council, PBS has adjusted the target dates for preparation of census reports by December, 2017. He said that the PBS had initiated all preparations and held meetings with provincial authorities to brief them about their responsibility in making the census successful and transparent. Mr Dar said it was the prime responsibility of PBS to conduct credible census. He said that utmost care should be taken to complete the task in a transparent manner for a credible data. Such data, he said, could then form the basis for the future planning. During the meeting it was agreed that qualified and highly reputed statisticians would be co-opted as members of the technical committee to benefit from their expertise. Mr Dar directed that frequent meetings of the technical committee be held until the census was held and suggestions of experts be brought to the governing council for consideration. Saudi Arabia executed prominent Shia Muslim cleric RIYADH: Saudi Arabia executed a prominent Shia Muslim cleric alongside dozens of Al Qaeda members on Saturday. Most of the 47 executed were convicted of Al Qaeda attacks in Saudi Arabia a decade ago, but four, including prominent cleric Nimr al-Nimr, were Shia Muslims accused of shooting policemen during anti-government protests in recent years. The executions took place in 12 cities in Saudi Arabia, four prisons using firing squads and the others beheading. The bodies were then hanged from gibbets in the most severe form of punishment available in the kingdoms Sharia law. Riyadhs main regional rival Iran immediately reacted with vigorous condemnation of the execution of Nimr, and Saudi police raised security in a province where the Shias are a majority in case of protests, residents said. The executions seemed mostly aimed at discouraging Saudis from extremism after bombings and shootings by Sunnis in Saudi Arabia over the past year killed dozens and the Islamic State (IS) group called on followers in the kingdom to stage attacks. The simultaneous execution of 47 people on security grounds was the biggest mass execution for such offences in Saudi Arabia since the 1980 killing of 63 extremist rebels who seized the Grand Mosque in 1979. The 43 Sunni extremists executed included several prominent Al Qaeda figures, including those convicted of responsibility for attacks on Western compounds, government buildings and diplomatic missions that killed hundreds from 2003-06. However, the execution of four Shias, including Nimr, who were convicted of shooting and petrol bomb attacks that killed several policemen during anti-government protests in Qatif district from 2011-13, provoked an immediate response abroad. A top Iranian cleric warned the kingdoms Al Saud ruling family would be wiped from the pages of history, Yemens Houthi group described Nimr as a holy warrior and Lebanese militia Hezbollah said Riyadh had made a grave mistake. Saudi police increased security in Qatif district of Eastern Province, residents said, a Shia majority area and site of the protests from 2011-13 in which several police were shot dead as well as over 20 local demonstrators. Bahrain police fired tear gas at several dozen people protesting against the execution of Nimr, a witness said. Activists in the Shia district of Qatif have warned of possible protests in response to the executions. However, Nimrs brother, Mohammed al-Nimr, said he hoped any response would be peaceful. My mobile is getting non-stop messages from friends, all shocked and angry. We know four of the names on the list. The fear is for the children among those detained, an activist in Qatif said. 30 F. high temperature at KMSP Friday. 24 F. average high on January 1. 30 F. high on January 1, 2015. January 2, 1941 Monday next Friday Total Precipitable Water Graphic credit Photo credit " Jeff Roberson/AP. CNN has more details on the potentially historic flooding around St. Louis has more details on the potentially historic flooding around St. Louis here Image credit Lightning illuminates a violent tornado as it roars across the landscape between Garland and Rowlett, Texas, on Dec. 26." (Nathan Moore/ Stormviewlive With Taps on the Wrist, Apple Watch Points to the Future. Just another gadget, or something more profound? This tech writer at . Just another gadget, or something more profound? This tech writer at The New York Times is pretty sold; here's an excerpt: "...And yet, after almost eight months, the Apple Watch feels like the future to me. More than anything else, the watch has changed the way I communicate via email and text messages. Using Apples VIP feature, I direct all of the most important messages to my watch, which alerts me with a subtle tap on my wrist or a soft ding. I ignore most after a quick glance. (Sorry, Mom.) Many get a quick O.K. or Sounds good. I pull out my phone only for the ones I need to respond to at length. The same is true for phone calls, which appear on my watch while my phone remains tucked away in my pocket, or still at my desk on the other side of the office. Its like Caller ID for my wrist..." Photo credit One Times Square under construction in 1903." (Photo: Public Domain/WikiCommons ). TODAY : Partly sunny, milder. Winds: W 10-15. High: near 30 SATURDAY NIGHT: Partly cloudy. Low: 15 SUNDAY : Blue sky, seasonably chilly. Winds: NW 8-13. High: 25 MONDAY : Cold start, bright sunshine. Wake-up: 9. High: 24 TUESDAY : Partly sunny, turning windy. Wake-up: 11. High: 29 WEDNESDAY : More clouds, trending milder. Wake-up: 18. High: 31 THURSDAY : Cloudy, few flurries possible. Wake-up: 27. High: 30 FRIDAY : Period of light snow. Wake-up: 28. High: 32 Climate Chaos, Across the Map. Justin Gillis at Justin Gillis at The New York Times tries to connect the dots between weather volatility, ENSO (El Nino) and larger planetary trends. As always, trying to prove cause and effect with the atmosphere is problematic, but are we inadvertently loading the dice in favor of more extremes, especially with rainfall and heat? Here's an excerpt: "...In both the Atlantic and Pacific, the unusually warm ocean surface is throwing extra moisture into the air, said Kevin Trenberth, a climate scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. Storms over land can draw moisture from as far as 2,000 miles away, he said, so the warm ocean is likely influencing such events as the heavy rain in the Southeast, as well as the record number of strong hurricanes and typhoons that occurred this year in the Pacific basin, with devastating consequences for island nations like Vanuatu. The warmth means there is more fuel for these weather systems to feed upon, Dr. Trenberth said. This is the sort of thing we will see more as we go decades into the future. Photo montage credit : Grand Portage gets over 4.5 inches of precipitation in 24 hours. That's roughly how much normally falls there during the 'winter' months from November to February.Much of the unusual warmth showing up over North America can be tied to the strongest El Nino since 1998; the equivalent of baking garlic into your apple pie. It flavors everything.Record heat and El Nino-strengthened winds triggered the deadliest December for tornadoes in U.S. history; a warmer, wetter atmosphere spawning flooding on the Mississippi River not seen since 1993.Another factor meteorologists track is the AO, the Arctic Oscillation, a measure of the intensity and configuration of the polar vortex swirling above the arctic. Unusually low pressure has kept bitter air bottled up at northern latitudes, but the pattern is shifting; warmer high pressure over the North Pole is about to shove this cold dome southward.ECMWF guidance pulls a shot of subzero air into Minnesota one week from; the first real Siberian jolt of the winter season. A little snow may fallbut no forbidding storms are brewing. We nudge 30F today, maybe 3 or 4 days near freezing next week before the freezer door swings wide open.It wouldn't be winter without a subzero smack!* 250 mb jet stream winds valid 03z, January 8, courtesy of Climate Reanalyzer The Arctic Oscillation has been positive much of autumn 2015, meaning a tight polar vortex with few southern intrusions of bitter air, but NOAA models suggest a shift to a negative phase is underway, which means a good chance of a few (polar) outbreaks within 1-2 weeks. That said, the volume, intensity and duration of polar air this winter probably won't be as severe as recent winters as a warm El Nino signal continues to overwhelm the pattern across North America.. We'll see a couple of (real) cold frontal passages in mid-January, but truly frigid air is in short supply across the Northern Hemisphere for the next few weeks. We're closing in on the point where "average" feels like a cold front. It's the rough equivalent of opening up the cold water spigot and only a trickle comes out.. European model guidance shows temperatures averaging about 10F. above average, nighttime lows some 15-20F warmer than normal into Saturday of next week, followed by a sharp cold frontal passage a week from tomorrow. A little snow or a light mix is possible Thursday and Friday.. Although no sustained polar air is brewing, at least not yet, the forecast for January 15 at 500 mb (GFS model) suggests colder than average weather for the northern tier states with a few nights below zero mid-month. Hardly surprising or unusual, considering the coldest weather of the entire year usually takes place in mid-January.Here is NOAA's CFS climate model guidance for the month of February, showing temperatures 3-5F warmer than average across Minnesota next month, even warmer across much of Canada. Source: WeatherBell.Additional warmth is loading the dice, spiking the punch in favor of more extreme events. They would have happened anyway, but a warmer climate is "juicing" the atmosphere, making droughts and floods deeper, longer and stronger. Here's an excerpt from TIME : "...In recent years, a weak Arctic Oscillation has allowed cold air to escape the Arctic, leading to a chilly winter in the Northeast U.S. But the Oscillation appears to be holding strong, according to NOAA data, lessening the chance of a chilly winter. Climate phenomena like El Nino are not new occurrences, but scientists say that global warming has contributed to making them larger and more damaging. NOAAs Deke Ardnt likens climate change to a flight of stairs. Over time you get higher and higher, Ardnt told The Guardian . El Nino is like standing on your tippy toes when youre on one of those stairs. Both of those together work to create the warmest temperature on record...animation above courtesy of NOAA NESDIS . Here's an excerpt from Dr. Mark Seeley's latest installment of Minnesota WeatherTalk : "For the 4th consecutive month Minnesota recorded warmer than normal temperatures. Observers reported mean monthly temperatures for December that were from 8 to 12 degrees F above normal, marking the warmest December in history on a statewide basis, surpassing the previous record from December 1939. Extremes for the month ranged from 53F at Marshall on the 9th to -11F at Thief River Falls on the 28th. On a statewide basis December of 2015 was the 2nd wettest in history, with an average value of nearly 1.90 inches. Some observers reported their wettest December in history, including: 4.09" at Two Harbors; 4.90" at Caledonia; 5.38" at La Crescent; 4.28" at Preston; and 4.00 inches at Spring Grove..." Climate Central takes a look at historic warmth in December: "...The month is likely to be the hottest December on record for most, if not all, states to the east of the Mississippi, capping off a year that is virtually a lock to be the worlds hottest on record . As the first chart, from the Weather Channel, shows, there were about 10,000 combined daily record highs and record warm lows compared to just around 500 record cold highs and lows this month a ratio of about 21-1. The higher ratio of record highs to lows is a hallmark of global warming, which skews the odds in favor of the former. Without warming, the ratio would be about 1-to-1, at least on the scale of years or decades. But over the past two decades, those figures have tilted 2-to-1 in favor of record heat...". Every El Nino is different, it turns out, and this one already rivals 1997-98. Here's an excerpt from The Guardian : "...The last great El Nino, in 1997-98, helped make 1998 the then warmest year on record that too was accompanied by a series of devastating events around the world, among them ice storms in North America, floods on the west coasts of the Americas and forest fires in Borneo. It also delayed the monsoon rains in India, warmed tropical waters so severely that coral reefs started to bleach and die, and signalled a record-breaking season of typhoons and tropical cyclones in the eastern Pacific. Although researchers are fairly sure that climate change as a consequence of the combustion of fossil fuels, and the release of greenhouse gases, could make El Nino more frequent, or more devastating, or both, it remains a natural, cyclic event..."above: "False-color images provided by Nasa compare Pacific Ocean water temperatures from the El Nino in 1997 (right) and the current El Nino." Photograph: AP.It was the warmest December ever recorded for Washington D.C., Philadelphia, New York City and Boston, according to AccuWeather . Here's an excerpt of a timely explainer from Capital Weather Gang that delves into some of the reasons (beyond El Nino), including the AO and NAO: "...A combination of the strongest El Nino on record (by some measures) and a few other factors drove the super-warm pattern over eastern North America. The prevailing jet stream featured an incredible, warm ridge of high pressure over the entire eastern half of the continent a complete reversal from last years winter pattern.All of these large-scale patterns worked together to create impressive warmth in the Eastern United States.Positive Western Pacific Oscillation (warm Eastern U.S. signal)Positive Eastern Pacific Oscillation (warm Eastern U.S. signal)Negative Pacific-North American (warm Eastern U.S. signal)Positive Arctic Oscillation (normally a warm Eastern U.S. signal)Positive North Atlantic Oscillation (normally a warm Eastern U.S. signal)The resulting surface temperature anomaly was astonishing...". The Mississippi River is out of it's banks, in some cases exceeding levels last reached in 1993. Here's an excerpt from The Portland Press Herald : "The worst of the dangerous, deadly winter flood is over in the St. Louis area, leaving residents of several water-logged communities to spend the first day of 2016 assessing damage, cleaning up and figuring out how to bounce back or in some cases, where to live. Farther south, things were getting worse: Record and near-record crest predictions of the Mississippi River and levee breaks threatened homes in rural southern Missouri and Illinois. Two more levees succumbed Friday, bringing to at least 11 the number of levee failures..." (Latest flood crest forecast available from NOAA ). CSMonitor.com has an update on Mississippi River flooding now rivaling 1993's epic flood. Here's an excerpt: "With the Mississippi River and four other major US rivers building toward historic crests for a winter flood, some 1,000 US flood fighters have spread out across America's mighty river valleys to once again test the wherewithal of the world's grandest plumbing works: the Mississippi River and Tributaries project. El Nino conditions in the Pacific have created an unusually wet and warm mess across the nation's midsection and into the Deep South. The gauge at St. Louis is clawing up toward 42 feet, its third-highest in recorded history. Parts of St. Louis are already underwater as the confluence of the Missouri River and the Mississippi roil the city's shipping front and close the St. Louis harbor. The waters are expected to crest in Missouri on New Years Day..."above: "Homes are surrounded by floodwater in Pacific, Mo., Wednesday. A rare winter flood threatened nearly two dozen federal levees in Missouri and Illinois on Wednesday as rivers rose, prompting evacuations in several places.. Check out the precipitation anomaly map for December 1-29, showing 4 times more rain than average across a huge swath of territory from Wisconsin into central Iowa and eastern Nebraska; another soggy bulls-eye from Tulsa to St. Louis. It's unusual to see such a large area over the USA east of the Rockies so wet in December; a function of El Nino and a warmer atmosphere able to hold more water vapor. Source: PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University.. The firehose of moisture from El Nino has been trained on the Pacific Northwest, but there are signs the storm track will shift southward in the coming weeks, putting California in the potential cross-hairs of flooding rains and mudslides. December precipitation (rain and snow) was higher than average across most of the state, still in the grips of extreme drought.. Typical for April, a bit unusual for late December, according to The Capital Weather Gang : "... The storms left 11 people dead, and incredible destruction in their wake. It was the second day of destructive tornadoes in less than a week, following an outbreak on Dec. 23 that killed 10 people. Just like that, in the span of four days, 2015 went from having a record low number of tornado fatalities to tripling the annual count. In fact, between the two tornado events, the month brought more tornado deaths than all the other months of the year combined, making it the deadliest December on record..."above: " KLTV in Tyler Texas has a link to some remarkable footage taken as a massive tornado tore through the east suburbs of Dallas; here's an excerpt: "A series of heartbreaking videos from a man who recorded a tornado in the Dallas-area is gaining shares on Facebook. The videos were posted by Randy Pritchard. Recording from what appears to be a cellphone, Pritchard captured video of the tornado as it made its way across a lake and toward the neighborhood. He was standing outside with friends when the storm struck and caught images of lightning strikes and the massive funnel cloud. The group rushes to the neighbors house as the storm nears and gathers in his shelter..." (Rated PG for rough language). Atlas Obscura has an interesting story about the origins of the tradition; here's the intro: "On New Years Eve in 1903, there was no countdown to midnight, no ball drop, and no partygoers wearing silly hats in Times Square. In fact, there was no Times Square. But all that changed the following year, when the newspaper publisher Adolph Ochs moved the headquarters of the New York Times from Park Row to West 42nd Street and celebrated with a bash that launched an iconic New Year tradition..."above: " Grist has the article; here's the intro: "At one point midway through the first episode, the camera pans past the skyline of New York. Its both familiar and uncanny: Theres One World Trade Center, standing in a thicket of shinier, spindlier towers that announce we are now in The Future. And standing sentinel outside the city is the Statue of Liberty except now she is ringed by a reinforced seawall, set in ten feet of angry surf. Thats it. Thats all the reference to climate change we get in the 45 minute-long pilot of The Expanse, SyFys new space drama. In fact, only a handful of those minutes are spent on Earth at all..."...What is most unfortunate, said Farrell, the Yale sociologist, is that polarization around climate change was manufactured by those whose financial and political interests were most threatened. Even today, he added, that polarization has crippled any hopes for bipartisan policy solutions.... "- from the latest installment of an ongoing series at The Los Angeles Times , left to right: Missouri flooding: AP Photo/Jeff Roberson; Dallas area tornado: G.J. McCarthy/The Dallas Morning News via AP; Scotland flooding: Danny Lawson/PA via AP.. Because a little organized, manufactured misinformation can be good for the bottom line, at least in the short-term. But truth usually catches up with you, and now the question is what the fossil fuel industry knew, when they knew it, and how they communicated inherent climate risk to the general public vs. internal, strategic purposes. The Los Angeles Times continues their reporting; here's a snippet of the most recent article: "A few weeks before seminal climate change talks in Kyoto back in 1997, Mobil Oil took out a bluntly worded advertisement in the New York Times and Washington Post. Lets face it: The science of climate change is too uncertain to mandate a plan of action that could plunge economies into turmoil, the ad said. Scientists cannot predict with certainty if temperatures will increase, by how much and where changes will occur. One year earlier, though, engineers at Mobil Oil were concerned enough about climate change to design and build a collection of exploration and production facilities along the Nova Scotia coast that made structural allowances for rising temperatures and sea levels...". Here's an excerpt of an Op-Ed at The Detroit News : "...Meantime, unless Republicans find a way to talk about climate change that doesnt make them sound out of touch, GOP presidential candidates will continue to struggle to relate to the average voter on this issue. Almost every poll shows younger voters believe some degree of climate change is taking place, and that human activity significantly contributes to its severity. A majority of all Americans believe that as well. That means its an issue the Republican Party must get a handle on, particularly if it wants to be the party of the future. Conservative candidates dont lead the conversation on climate change, largely because they dont believe theres anything to discuss. Instead, progressives and their Democratic candidates control the conversation and make everyone else out to sound medieval..." Jillian Kestler-D'Amours More than 70 percent of the guests had their visa applications denied [Marc Braibant/AFP] T... Two hunters attend a wolf hunt on January 2, 2010 near Kristinehamn, Sweden Hunters in central Sweden killed a wolf on Saturday as they began an authorized cull of the predators that has been clouded by legal uncertainty. "Our staff will inspect it, weigh and take samples. The body will then be sent to the National Veterinary Institute," Jonas Bergman, a conservationist at the county administrative board told the newspaper Sodre Dalarnes Tidning. The animal was shot and killed near the town of Ludvika in Dalarna County. Under a temporary ruling, 14 animals can be killed until the hunting season ends on February 15 unless the Supreme Administrative Court issues a final decision ahead of that date. Sweden's Environmental Protection Agency estimates that the wolf population stands at just over 400 and recommends it be kept at that level through regulated hunting. Hunters claim wolves have been decimating stocks of other game and threatening hunting dogs in rural areas. They also say that many of the wolves they killed had been in good health, which shows that the speciesconsidered extinct in the 1970shas made a good recovery in Sweden. A back-and-forth battle between hunters and conservationists saw Sweden resume the cull in 2010 and 2011, leading to a protest by the European Commission, which oversees European Union laws on protecting wolves and other endangered species. For Sweden's 2016 season, three parallel proceedings were launched, with various rulings from different courts. A temporary ruling last week allows for the killing of 14 wolves in two regions, less than a third of the 46 animals in five regions that was originally planned. EU members can carry out a cull of wolves provided the measure is justified on very specific grounds and meets conservation criteria. But in its 2011 complaint, the EU executive said Sweden had failed to meet the conditions for an exemption. Sweden was also faulted for failing to devise a habitat strategy to help a wolf population that the Commission said was "small, threatened by both geographic isolation and inbreeding." France, another country where wolves have returned, also sets a quota of animals that can be killed in order to protect alpine flocks. For 2015, it set a limit of 36 wolves, but as of late November, only 26 had been killed. Explore further Sweden allows limited wolf hunt in temporary ruling 2016 AFP A teenage girl who fled her native Austria to join the Islamic State group was used as a sex slave for militant trainees before she was beaten to death, a former prisoner of the Islamist group reported. Soon after 17-year-old Samra Kesinovic and her 15-year-old friend Sabina Selimovic arrived in Syria from Vienna in April 2014, the two became poster girls for the radical Islamic group, the Daily Mail reported. The teens appeared on Islamic State websites holding AK-47s and surrounded by armed men. But by October of that year, Kesinovic, sickened by the groups brutal murders, had had enough and was done. Speculation regarding the fate of the two girls spread when a United Nations official confirmed earlier this year that a girl of Bosnian origin from Austria had died in Syria, the Sun reported. Both were recruited by Islamic State. One was killed in the fighting in Syria, the other has disappeared, U.N. Security Council official David Scharia said. It has since been confirmed that Kesinovic was killed by Islamic State members while trying to flee their stronghold in Raqqa. Before her death, the teen served as a sex slave for the militants, a Tunisian former prisoner who claims to have lived with the two girls told the Austrian newspaper, Kronen Zeitung The Tunisian woman said Kesinovic and Selimovic lived together in the same house and were viewed as a sexual present for new fighters. The two teens were both children of refugees who fled war-torn Bosnia to live in Austria in the 1990s. According to the Daily Mail, before the two departed for Syria, they left a note for their families that read, Dont look for us. We will serve Allah and we will die for him. It is believed that after arriving in Syria via Turkey in April 2014, both girls married jihadists. The Daily Mail reported that Mirsad O., an Islamic preacher from Bosnia living in Vienna, known by the Islamic name of Ebu Tejma, was allegedly responsible for radicalizing Kesinovic and Selimovic, though he has denied the claims. He was arrested for his role in an Austrian-based terrorist funding network in November 2015. Shortly after arriving in Syria, Selimovic communicated to a French magazine via SMS messages that she was content with her life in the war-torn region and that she had married a soldier. Here I can really be free. I can practice my religion, she reportedly said. I couldnt do that in Vienna. Austrian Interior Ministry spokesman Alexander Marakovits acknowledged that the draw of the Islamic State for young people was a growing problem for the authorities. If we can catch them before they leave, we have the chance to work with their parents and other institutions to bring the youngsters out of the sphere of influence that prompted them to act in this way the first place, he said. Once they have left the country, even if they then changed their minds, it is then almost impossible to get them back. Welcome Welcome to Conservative Musings. The purpose of this blog is to discuss with everyone (conservatives, moderates, independents and progressives) the issues of the day in an intelligent discussion. We believe that discussion can lead to agreement or an agreement to disagree but it must be held in a mutually respectful environment. We learn nothing from name calling or argument for argument's sake therefore we will not allow that to happen here. We will post our point of view and want a spirited discussion of the issues. Please express your opinions, hopefully we all can learn. This blog will focus on political images I have found all around the Internet, though I will intersperse some commentary and quotes that I find interesting. Douglas V. Gibbs is a proud member of the American Authors Association Douglas V. Gibbs is a proud member of the Military Writers Society of America. For full functionality of this site it is necessary to enable JavaScript. Here are the instructions how to enable JavaScript in your web browser GLENS FALLS Dont offer a tip at the Davidson Brothers brewpub. They went tip-free on New Years Day, and now add a surcharge to every check instead. Co-owner Rick Davidson said the surcharge was deliberately set at much less than last years average tip, so that customers wouldnt pay more than they have paid in the past. As reported by his servers and bartenders, the average tip was 22 percent. The surcharge is 18 percent, he said. His goal is to make sure servers make about as much as they made with tips, while not charging customers more. The impetus was the new minimum wage for tipped workers, which began Jan. 1. The wage went from $5 an hour to $7.50 an hour. But Davidson contends that figure creates an unrealistic image of a impoverished worker, eking out a living on a few dollar bills added to a meager wage. The truth is that servers make a great living on tips, he said. Its no secret. A server could easily make $25 to $30 an hour, he said, adding that hes averaging a full weeks work including the hours in which the business is closed and his servers are cleaning bathrooms and handling other tasks that dont come with a tip. Its very good money, he said. The average is well in excess of $20 an hour. By collecting the tips as a surcharge instead, he will be able to pay the increase in minimum wage without increasing menu prices, he said. That means the servers wont see a raise. But he argued they dont need one and that the surcharge is better for them. This way, he can pay them for their work, judged by how much they sell rather than most of their pay being determined by customers. Take the decision-making out of the customers hands, he said. This is the only industry in this country where the consumer comes in and can basically dictate most of the income. In other restaurants, giving up tipping could protect servers, he added. A lot of people, particularly women, feel the need to tolerate harassment for the tip, he said. Not at Davidsons this doesnt happen here. The surcharge is also better for Glens Falls, he said. Thats because customers must pay sales tax on the surcharge. Tips are not included in sales tax calculations. Davidson Brothers is not the first local business to ban tips. The Rare Earth Wine Bar, which closed at the end of the year, also did not collect tips. The business only lasted two years. The owner attributed the closing to a lack of customers to support the downtown restaurants. But Rare Earth also used tablets, on which customers entered their own orders. Thats something Davidson wants to avoid. He has spent the past few months selling the tip ban to his employees, but some of them are not thrilled. Hes lost one bartender, who left to work for a restaurant that still allows cash tips, he said. But he warned that as minimum wage rises, every business will give up tips or give up servers, replacing them with tablets. $15 an hour plus tips I dont care what anyone says about atmosphere, you cannot afford to eat here, he said. Mark my words. Within my lifetime there will be no tipping. As for higher wages, he said the goal of having all workers earn $15 an hour is probably laudable. But raising wages for servers is not necessary, he said. They all make a decent living, he said. Hes more concerned about kitchen workers, who are not legally allowed to share the servers tips. He pays them above minimum wage which also rose on Jan. 1, to $9 an hour. Future menu increases or surcharge increases could be used to increase the kitchen wages, he said. The company will celebrate its 20th anniversary on Columbus Day. Editors note: Every life has a story. In this column, we pay tribute to people who have died recently. Matt Dow will always remember the day he forgot to make sure the water to the toilets of the Lake George Steamboat Companys Lac Du Saint Sacrement was turned on before a lunch cruise full of senior citizens set out. What he remembers most vividly is the response of Capt. Tom Conerty. I forgot to make sure the water was on to the toilets, and the pilot really let me have it about that. He yelled at me, then yelled at me again, said Dow, a first mate at the time. Then I saw Tom come over, and I figured I was going to get it again from the captain. Instead, Conerty approached quietly and asked Dow if the water had been turned on. I said, Yes, sir, and he said, You probably wont ever make that mistake again, and that was it, said Dow, who remains involved with the company owned by his parents, Bill (corrected) and Patricia Dow. Those are the two styles of leadership right there, and thats the way Tom always was. Conerty died Dec. 24 at age 71 after a long struggle with cancer. He had been with the steamboat company since 1963, had become its senior captain and was looking forward to his 53rd season as recently as a month ago. I saw him right before I came to New Orleans, right after Thanksgiving, and he said he was feeling better and really looking forward to next season, said Dow, who works on the familys Steamboat Natchez during the winter. He felt badly he couldnt finish (the 2015) season because he got sick. He was really looking forward to coming back. Conerty died at home the day before Christmas. His family was appreciative of High Peaks Hospice and the C.R. Wood Cancer Center at Glens Falls Hospital for their help. A life on the lake Conerty, a lifelong resident of Bolton Landing, spent summers while he was growing up making deliveries by boat to the islands for his fathers camping equipment business. In a 2002 interview, he remembered how he got started with the steamboat company by accident. A friend of the family was a captain of the Mohican, Conerty said at the time. He said they were looking for people, so I applied. That was in 1963, and he started out as a deck hand for a few years, eventually earning his apprentice license and his masters license. Conerty was mainly aboard the Mohican for nearly 30 years until the Lac du Saint Sacrement was built in 1989. In the 2002 interview, Conerty recalled seeing overly daring college boys jumping ship mid-cruise and delivering a heart-attack victim to an ambulance at the nearest pier. He was synonymous with the Lac Du Saint Sacrement known as The Saint which is one of the most recognizable boats on the lake. Conerty was one of the captains of the $4.25 million ship right from the beginning. Matt Dow said Conerty was masterful with the 1,350-horsepower ship that could travel 17 mph. He perfected the art of handling the Saint, Dow said. He understood her, and she understood him. He made it look flawless. He could steer her like he wanted to. It was a joy to watch. More than a captain Conerty, a 1962 graduate of Bolton Central School and a 1966 graduate of St. Michaels College in Winooski, Vermont, taught biology, chemistry and physics at Bolton Central School beginning in 1966 and worked summers at the steamboat company during college and while teaching. He only taught for 14 years, but we still had so many former students at the funeral. He had a real impact on them, said Kathy Conerty, Toms wife of 49 years. Dow said Conertys teaching style carried over into his work as a captain. He had been a teacher, and he was used to working with teens and young adults, Dow said. You could have fun with the job, but you also had to work. Tom allowed you to do that. In 1980, Conerty left teaching to become a full-time captain. He also made time for community service and to be a steward of the lake, a cause to which he was dedicated. He served on the Bolton Town Board and as a volunteer firefighter. He also served on the Bolton Free Library board, the Bolton Planning Board, the Zoning Board of Appeals and the Board of Assessment Review and was chairman of the Bolton Stormwater Committee. In 1999, he was appointed to the Lake George Park Commission, serving from 2005 to 2014 as vice chairman. Tom Conerty was a very giving individual and loved the town of Bolton and Lake George, said Susan Wilson, a member of the Bolton Town Board. Tom was the kind of man every mother wants her son to grow up to be like, and the kind of man every father wants his daughter to grow up to marry. I know that sounds a bit old-fashioned, but Im sure it is true. It is a sad time for us here in Bolton, she added. We have lost one of, if not the finest. Patricia Dow, vice president of the steamboat company, said Conerty will always hold a special place in the hearts of everyone who worked with him. Our other captains were trained by him and under him, Patricia Dow said. He will be honestly missed. In the 2002 interview, Conerty talked about his love for the lake. A lot of people ask me if I get bored doing the same thing for so long, he said. And the answer is, No. It felt incredible when I first started, Conerty said of the experience of being at the boats mammoth wheel. And it still feels that way. It never wears thin. A hometown boy He just enjoyed where he lived, Kathy Conerty said of her husband. It never got better than it did here at home in Bolton Landing. His hearts desire was to stay in Bolton Landing. That set the pattern for our life. In fact, Conerty had a chance to attend the U.S. Naval Academy but decided to remain a teacher, which led to his work as a steamship captain. He never regretted that decision, his wife said. He knew what was important from early on. That decision led to a life of fishing on the lake, hunting from a camp about five miles from home, trapping, picking blackberries during the summer, working on the lake and working to protect it. We were not far from all the things we enjoyed, Kathy Conerty said. All of those things he did were manifested through his community and to support the love of his life Lake George. Besides his wife, Conerty is survived by his daughters, Sarah Conerty Jordan and Rebecca Conerty Cooper, as well as four grandchildren and many other relatives. Donations in his name may be made to Bolton Scholarship Association, P.O. Box 951, Bolton Landing, NY 12814; or Bolton Free Library, P.O. Box 389, 4922 Lakeshore Drive, Bolton Landing, NY 12814. HAMPTON Friends and family are trying to help a local man recover and rebuild after an electrical fire destroyed his mobile home and killed one of two dogs in the residence. No one was injured in the fire, which was reported at 2:24 p.m. Saturday at 48 Wicked Hollow Way, about a half-mile down a narrow road, said Hampton Volunteer Fire Company Chief Joe Mead. According to homeowner Peter Spauldings daughter, Spaulding was on the hill above, cutting some wood, when he heard a noise and saw that his home was engulfed in flames. He was up on a knoll above the house, and he heard a pop and then looked down, and the place was pretty well engulfed, Heather Spaulding-Gale said. He had to drive to a neighbors to call the fire department because his cellphone was in the shed next to the house, and that was also on fire. There were two Siberian huskies inside, according to Spaulding-Gale, who said her father was able to rescue a dog named Bear, but the other, Titan, died in the fire. Spaulding-Gale said Washington County fire investigators told her the fire was electrical in origin and was liked caused by wires that had been eaten through by rodents under the house. He has a wood stove in the house and another in the shed, and we are glad that was not the cause, said Spaulding-Gale, whose house is also heated by a wood stove. We live in the woods, so we are used to having rodents around. Friends and family helped clean up the site Saturday and Sunday. Cleanup has begun and pretty much ended. It is truly amazing at what people have done for us, Spaulding-Gale said. I will tell you my dad knows that people care, and the amount of support is overwhelming. There is a long road ahead, healing. The biggest thing is getting my dad through this. Spaulding-Gale said she is appreciative of the many friends who helped clean up the site. Also, more than $1,000 has been donated to a Giveforward campaign at tinyurl.com/wickedpete. The home was not insured, so all rebuilding costs will be out of pocket, Spaulding-Gale said. Those who wish to help can also send donations to Peter Spaulding, 42 Wicked Hollow Way, Hampton, NY 12837. Hampton residents can contact Dave OBrien to make donations or drop off items.Firefighters from Hampton, Middle Granville and Poultney, Vermont, responded to the blaze. Mead said firefighters had to run hoses from truck to truck because they couldnt get a tanker truck down the road. No firefighters were hurt. Granville firefighters were stationed at the Hampton firehouse, ready to provide backup. Since Gerald Solomon and John Sweeney served multiple terms each as our congressman, weve seen a parade of congressional representatives. It has been difficult to get to know any of them. We watched Kirsten Gillibrand as a neophyte candidate grow into a polished member of the U.S. Senate, and we suspect Chris Gibson will be a formidable foe for Andrew Cuomo when he announces his run for governor later this year, while Scott Murphy vanished from the political scene almost as quickly as he appeared. We inherited Bill Owens after redistricting, but never felt he had much interest in our region. Which brings us to our current representative, Elise Stefanik, who proved timing is everything by challenging Owens before the congressman announced he was stepping to the sidelines. She used her youth and enthusiasm as a rallying cry for change in Washington. But as we all know, governing is a lot different than campaigning, and change is Washington has been slow. Rep. Stefanik sat down with our editorial board just before Christmas to recap her first year in office. We spent almost an hour listening, chatting and asking pointed questions on issues at which we are at odds. Our first impression was that Rep. Stefanik has already grown in her job. Her presentation is more polished and she obviously has a command of a wide variety of issues. What we hoped to ascertain from our meeting, and what has confounded us over the past year, is who Elise Stefanik is and what she actually stands for. When we checked govtrack.us, a nonpartisan transparency website that tracks the voting records of members of Congress, we were surprised to see she had one of the most moderate voting records among Republicans in the House or Representatives. While moderate has become a bad word for many Republicans, we were pleased to see her voting record skewing to the middle. We believe the only way our country can move forward and Washington can get untracked is through a bipartisan give and take. Rep. Stefanik promised that on the campaign trail, and in some ways, she has delivered. She joined 10 other freshman Republicans in writing a letter saying they opposed a government shutdown. She joined with Chris Gibson in a resolution in which she acknowledged that climate change is real and needs to be addressed. She also voted to allow the president to negotiate trade agreements in a vote that split the Republicans. She also voted against her party when it voted to reject a measure that would have provided training to American workers displaced by foreign trade agreements. But at other times, Rep. Stefanik has toed the party line, especially in symbolic votes to repeal Obamacare or to implement any type of new taxes or move forward with the Iran nuclear deal. Its as if there are two Stefaniks at war with each other. What we grapple with are her motivations. Is she trying to do the right thing or trying to do the right political thing? We were especially interested in how she could acknowledge climate change in one stand, yet vote to delay implementation of the Clean Power Plan (new standards for coal-burning power plants), especially while representing a region that was devastated by acid rain from those plants in the Midwest. She said her vote was to protect jobs and keep down the escalating cost of electricity for small businesses. We still believe her vote is a contradiction. While she hailed the recently passed transportation bill as a great step toward repairing the countrys roads and bridges, and we agree, we also pointed out that the federal gas tax was not raised, and it has not been raised since 1993, meaning the bills funding is suspect and continues to be a problem. We also questioned why she was opposed to the death tax or estate tax when it only affects estates valued at more than $5.4 million for individuals and $10.8 million for couples. Rep. Stefanik said this was one of the biggest concerns of farmers in her district. We asked how many farms in her district were affected by the tax. She said she knew of one, but there may be others. In both cases, we felt the congresswoman had taken a political position. Since she is a member of the House Armed Services Committee, we were especially interested in her stand on Afghanistan, the Middle East and sexual assaults in the military. She stood by the current strategy in Afghanistan and said she would follow the lead of military commanders in strategy and force sizes. One member of our board described helping Syrian refugees as a moral imperative and said the U.S. should show leadership because this is a moral issue, not a political one. Rep. Stefanik disagreed, saying she was opposed to allowing in more refugees because of the threat of terrorism. She also said she backed the military chain of command in addressing the sexual assault epidemic. We asked pointedly how she could stand by the military chain of command when commanders repeatedly were covering up sexual assaults. Rep. Stefanik cited her conversations with Fort Drum commanders and female soldiers who said that the military conviction rate for these types of crimes was higher than in civilian courts, yet the Military Times reported in May that only 317 service members were court-martialed and sentenced to confinement out of 6,131 reported sexual assaults. Our board was most stunned Rep. Stefanik could stand by those statistics, especially since she serves on the House Armed Services Committee. Finally, one member of our board asked her about joining her Republican colleagues in votes to repeal Obamacare. She explained that Speaker Paul Ryan would be unveiling a plan to replace the Affordable Health Care Act in the coming year that would be an improvement, because current deductibles are too high. Our editorial board member explained he has insurance through the Affordable Health Care Act and doesnt want to lose his insurance. He felt her response was unacceptable, because it did not address what happens to those who have insurance now. At the end of our hour, our board still had concerns about what Elise Stefanik stands for and what she does not. Local editorials represent the opinion of The Post-Stars editorial board, which consists of Publisher Terry Coomes, Editor Ken Tingley, Projects Editor Will Doolittle, Controller/Operations Director Brian Corcoran and citizen representative George Nelson. Not Found The requested URL was not found on this server. Apache Server Port 80 Martin Kobler visited Shahat, a town close to the temporary headquarters of Libya's exiled legislature, and met with senior officials, including parliament head Aguila Saleh, the LANA news agency said. It was expected the agreement would put an end to the civil war in the country. The UN envoy for Libya arrived Thursday in the east of the restive country in a bid to persuade the internationally recognised administration to join a national unity government, state media reported. Libya has been in chaos since the 2011 ouster of longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi and now has two governments and parliaments. Around 80 of 188 lawmakers from Libya's internationally recognized parliament and 50 of 136 members of the rival Tripoli-based General National Congress signed the deal. Mr. Kobler said the global community will continue to support efforts towards creating a unity Government, as outlined in a peace deal signed last month. It calls for a 17-member government, headed by businessman Fayez el-Sarraj as premier, based in Tripoli. Abu Sahmain added that "to establish any political agreement, all parties must be included in any talks". Firstly, "the Libyan political agreement is the basis of all discussions". Secondly, "there should be no parallel initiatives". The process must be "inclusive", and also be guided by the principle of "the peaceful transfer of power from the old institutions to the new institutions", he said. "It must be a Libyan agreement and the Libyans must steer the process". The United Nations' special delegate to Libya Martin Kobler was "humiliated" by the Tripoli authorities today Saturday, when his press conference was interrupted and told he needed permission to hold it at Tripoli's Mitiga airport. M WAQAR..... "A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary.Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death." --Albert Einstein !!! NEWS,ARTICLES,EDITORIALS,MUSIC... Ze chi pe mayeen yum da agha pukhtunistan de.....(Liberal,Progressive,Secular World.)''Secularism is not against religion; it is the message of humanity.'' However, according to the MP, Ghana's timber industry has a unique challenge different from those that exist in other member states, adding the decision to impose taxes on imported timber will further hurt the local industry. In an interview with Kasapafmonline.com to shed light on the challenges facing the timber industry, Mr. Bio said: I have decided that we stop it now and look at certain sections (Section 1) of the Bill because the heading is to deal with wood and wood articles. Under schedule 44.02 to 44.044 we have tariffs for the importation of solid wood in terms of round logs and wood that can be used for raw materials for our timber industry. Over here, we have 10% for import duty and 15% for VAT. When you add them together, you will get 25%. We in Ghana, currently we are all aware of the collapse of the timber industry. The timber industry, especially, the sawmill aspect of it is virtually collapsing and it is collapsing not through the doing of the managers of the firms but rather due to the fact that the raw materials currently are not available. Even if they are available, what is there is not enough, he noted. But his plea was ignored with the House going ahead to pass the Bill. Mr. Owusu-Bio's attempt to block the bill proved futile. House leader Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, commenting on the matter told Members that the issues raised by Mr. Owusu-Bio could not be addressed by the House since ECOWAS as a sub-regional bloc had already agreed in principle to impose the taxes on imported timber. Moments after the passage of the Bill into an Act, he appealed to the government to stop the imposition of tariff on the importation of timber into the country. "What is wrong with asking the government to go back to the ECOWAS Community and have a discussion with them if there are issues with the treaty? As we speak, most of the countries in the ECOWAS region do not have problems with the treaty because if you talk about Liberia, they never cut their wood like we did so they still have the wood. He said because of lack raw materials (timber), most of the sawmill firms, especially, in Kumasi and other parts of the country, are folding up. He believes that once they stop the tariffs on the importation of timber into the country, wood products will be cheaper and industry will open up and employ more of the teeming youth who are unemployed. He said a major issue that militates against the effective quality healthcare delivery has been the refusal of most medical doctors to accept postings to the Upper West Region to render services. Naa Pelpuo was addressing the chiefs and people of the Wa Traditional Council at a durbar to climax the end of this years Dumba Festival in Wa. He said very soon the Council would make known the incentive packages. He urged traditional rulers to encourage people in their communities to complement the efforts of the district assemblies to keep the environment clean. He expressed dissatisfaction about the wanton felling of trees for charcoal production and tasked traditional rulers to help enforce bushfire laws to replenish the environment. Naa Pelpuo asked chiefs to endeavour to give equal attention to all political parties and handle contestants in the 2016 general election with tact and impartiality. Dr Henry Siedu Daanaa Minister of Chieftaincy and Traditional Affairs, who was the special guest of honour, appealed to traditional rulers to assist in keeping law and order in the communities. He said Ghana has not developed to the level that it could provide police stations in every corner of the country, hence the need for shared responsibility to maintain law and order to enhance development. Dr Daanaa advised traditional rulers and their counsellors to adopt the alternative dispute resolution mechanism to settle disputes brought before them to help sustain peace in the communities. GBCs Emmanuel Mensah-Abludo says the first point of call of the Member of the Council of State, was the Sunyani Female Prison where she donated some items.Nana Saa Gyamfuah also presented a cheque for three thousand Ghana Cedis to the Deputy Brong-Ahafo Regional Commander of the Prisons Service, Chief Superintendent, Raphael Tuekpe for the male section of the prison for medical care. The items donated to the female prison, included sanitary pads, toiletries, mosquito spray, mineral water and detergents.Nana Saa Gyamfuah also dined with the female prisoners and told them that the package which was from her and her family, was to support governments efforts as well as serve as a reminder to the inmates that they have not been forgotten by the larger society.The Queen advised the prisoners to make personal commitments not to repeat what resulted in their incarceration when released after the completion of sentence(s) or through amnesty.The Officer in Charge of the Sunyani Female Prison, Superintendent, Mrs Vera Bridget Sankah, was very appreciative of Nana Saa Gyamfuahs kindness.Superintendent, Mrs Sankah appealed for sewing machines to help the inmates learn a trade as well as a vehicle to transport the prisoners to hospital when the need arises.The Prison officers wish list also included drugs for managing hypertension which she said is not covered under the National Health Insurance (NHIS).The Pastor in charge of the Bechem Christian Faith and Grace Ministry, Pastor Emmanuel Amankwah Afrifa who preached during the presentation, admonished the inmates not to be despaired but to put their trust in the Lord.He charged the prison officers to equally play their expected roles to reform the prisoners for the good of society. A statement issued by the Office of the former President said the attention of the former President Rawlings had been drawn to inaccuracies in a statement issued by the Flagstaff House Communications Bureau, indicating that he and his wife; Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, were members of the Presidents delegation that travelled to Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso for the inauguration ceremony. It said the Office finds the misrepresentation unfortunate. Outgoing President Michel Kafando invited his Excellency Jerry Rawlings by a letter dated December 18, 2015. The former President and his wife travelled with a delegation including Betty Akuffo-Amoabeng, Kobina Andoh Amoakwa and Joseph Dawson-Otoo, it stated. The statement said former President Rawlings and the delegation travelled on a military transport aircraft. It is important to note that upon arrival in Burkina Faso, the former President and his entourage were met by Burkinabe State Protocol and the Ghana Embassy and driven to their hotel and subsequently to the venue for the ceremony, it said.It said President Mahama arrived later with the Presidential aircraft and a delegation that included Foreign Minister Hannah Tetteh, Dr Edmund Dele and others. Criminals usually step up their activities and attack members of the public during the yuletide. But, Director of Public Affairs at the Ghana Police Service, Superintendent Cephas Arthur has told Pulse.com.gh that in their assessment of crime so far, the Christmas has largely been peaceful. "So far so good. Ghanaians have been able to give us a peaceful Christmas this year", adding that the level of crime was "much much better" as compared to last year. He however indicated that the police is still recording every incident during the festivities in order to come out with specific details in relation to the gravity of crime during, before and after christmas. The Ghana Police Service introduced its campaign dubbed Operation Father Christmas ahead of the festivities to fight crime. In an interview with Accra-based Citi FM after filing her nomination, the former Jomoro Member of Parliament (MP) said the CPP is ready to wrestle power from the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC). Its a good sign for us that we are ready and now I can devote the next two weeks to touching base with our constituencies ahead of our congress to elect our 2016 flag bearer, she said. Ms Nkrumah added that the CPP is ready and we are looking forward to a very vigorous and active campaign where Im confident that were are going to convince the people of Ghana that its time for a revolution at the ballots. The two-party system has failed and I believe we offer the best alternative for a new way of managing our economy. We are the only party that is clearly saying that the conditions of the IMF are unsustainable, she added. The party opened nominations in December 2015, for aspiring presidential and parliamentary candidates. According to the CPP national chairman, Professor Edmund N. Delle, the alternation of power under the fourth Republic between the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has failed to dramatically transform the fortunes of the country in spite of the huge resources under their disposal. Elections 2016 therefore, offers Ghanaians a new opportunity to shift from voting for any of these two parties and vote for both Presidential and Parliamentary candidates of the third force CPP to transform the country, he added. The CPP chairman stated that Ghanaians should acknowledge that they have a role to play in shaping the destiny of the nation and so we must build on positive structures and break down old unproductive systems and mechanism which are inimical to national development. The CPP calls on Ghanaians to exhibit high sense of patriotism, and work hard across the national divide in the best interest of the country, he said. Prof Delle tasked the security agencies, public servants, media practitioners, politicians, private sector, traditional and religious leaders, as well as civil society activists to join a national campaign to ensure a peaceful, free, fair and transparent election. We all have a role to play in the democratic dispensation, no one should sit on the fence, we must join hands together irrespective of our political affiliations, ethnic background, religious inclinations and social-political status. Prof Delle noted that as we head into an election year, I want to assure you all that a CPP Government will grow the economy, create more jobs, strengthen all class of citizens in the country, curb corruption to its maximum limit and give proper accountability to the people of Ghana. On CPP internal political activities, Prof Delle said the party has set in motion electoral machinery to revamp its structures and make it more visible and appealing to the teaming youth. The party is going through internal transformation to ensure that we offer Ghanaians dynamic, transformational and bold leadership. He called on the rank and file of the party to begin the process of mobilisation to building the party structures at the ward, constituency, regional and national levels. Prof Delle also appealed to aspiring Presidential Candidates of the party to conduct their campaign within the spirit of comradeship, respect for each other, and focus on the bigger picture of winning Elections 2016. Today, as Ghanaians, especially my comrades across the country and in the Diaspora gather with family and friends, I want to wish everyone a happy and a healthy New Year. This is always a hopeful time, as we celebrate the end of one year and the beginning of another, he said. He observed that while 2015 was difficult for many Ghanaians, we must also look back on this year with the knowledge that brighter days are ahead of us that although our challenges are great, each of us has the courage and determination to rise up and meet them. Isaac Eshun, who works with GTP told the newspaper counterfeiting is the bane of the once thriving textile industry. I have worked here for 25 years and our product is very fine and people can see the difference when they buy it, but the counterfeiting is a problem, Mr Eshun says. It is killing us and it is killing the industry. The productivity of local companies is fast declining because of pirated textiles that come into the country, says Charles Asante-Bempong, a director at the Ghana Employers Association (GEA). They are cheaper... [but] their designs are stolen and replicated with a lower quality and it is killing their businesses. Mr. Asante-Bempong further blamed Ghana's porous borders with Togo and Ivory Coast for the thriving illegal garments arriving into the country. We have very porous borders and only a few of them are manned by security people and it is very easy for these counterfeiters to pass through, Mr Asante-Bempong says. They are coming in huge quantities, truck fulls sometimes with some coming beneath cars and buses. On his part, the managing director of GTP, Kofi Boateng said the impact of the pirated textile has been huge. According to him, the market is not only flooded with cheap garments from the far east, but their designs, trademark and logo and label are copied too. "We started to see that there was a lot of smuggled goods coming from the Far East copying our designs and being smuggled into the country, he explains. They dont only copy our designs they copy the trademark and logo and label. Almost every design we make has been copied." A task force launched early last year to combat counterfeit goods in the country seems to be yielding dividends, John Okwan, of the Textile, Garment and Leather Employees Union, told the newspaper. We have seized more than 7,000 pieces since we started the task-force. When the traders hear the task-force coming they will run away and leave their wares because they know what they are doing is wrong, Mr Okwan says. We are not saying they should not bring in cloth and they have the right to do their own designs but the problem is with the pirated ones. Government cancelled a contract with Printex to supply public schools with uniforms, awarding it to a Chinese firm. Mr.Okwan believes the action is a sign of government's low commitment to the industry. Baartman was a South Africa slave who died at the age of 25 after being sold to a Scottish doctor in 1800s. The doctor was responsible for placing her on a London show because of the shape of her body. Her stage name was Hottenot Venus. She went to court after it was argued that she had been made to perform against her will by her master, but eventually claimed she performed on her own free will. Meanwhile, The Sun reported that Beyonce who still feels her breakthrough role in the Hollywood movie industry is yet to come, will star in the film. A Hollywood source told The Sun: Beyonce is desperate to be taken seriously as an actress. Even though she's had a string of well-received movies, she still feels her breakthrough is yet to come. According to an insider the HKN pop star sang his heart out in Gambia as he performed at his father's end of the year party thrilling guest to a wonderful performance and also what looked like a special family bonding. Read More: Davidos supportive billionaire father joined him on stage while he performed, it was a moment of complete joy for the singer who was photographed smiling brightly while he hugged his dad. Meanwhile, NAPTIP are after the pop star over the abduction of his daughter Imade Adeleke by the star himself. In a recent report the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), have announced that they have officially begun investigations into the alleged child abduction by Davido. The pop star was denied by officers of the Immigration service at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos from taking his daughter Imade Adeleke abroad without the consent of her mother. Read More: Celebrity baby daddies, when boys become fathers Sophie had petitioned the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, NAPTIP, over what she termed child abduction. Confirming the petition filed to the NAPTIP the Lagos State Zonal Commander, Mr. Joseph Famakin said The case was reported to us on Wednesday and we have already commenced investigations. That is the only thing I can say for now. We are known for doing a diligent job irrespective of who is involved, Famakin said in an interview with Punch. For now, I cannot say anything about the case because we have just sent out invitations to the parties involved. I have neither seen nor interviewed any of them so for now I cannot really say much. All I can say is that we have commenced a full scale investigation into the matter after we received the petition on Wednesday evening. It is when we listen to all parties involved that we would establish if there was a case of human trafficking or not. There have been no facts presented to me other than the petition I received. The people who presented the petition would make a statement, likewise the other party involved then we would be able to come to an objective conclusion. We cannot presuppose. I cannot assume what would happen if they refuse to honour our invitation but when we get to the bridge, we would cross it. When we start the investigation, you would be informed but at this stage, we have just received the petition and we just commenced, he said. Read More:Mavin boss reacts to Davido custody battle According PUNCH the incident happened on New Year's Day around Konwea Plaza in Asaba, a broiler buyer was allegedly poked in the eyes after he attempted to tie its legs before taking it away. Mama Ekene who was the seller was left in complete shock after witnessing the strange attack which left her customer in immediate coma. I am shocked by the incident I was surprised that it pecked man in his right eye as he attempted to tie it. He fell down immediately and I had to raise the alarm for help. The buyer identified as Sunday Ibie was rushed to the hospital where the doctors are still trying to bring him back to life after the fowl attack. The victim is receiving treatment at the FMC Asaba and he is still in coma. The bird removed part of the flesh in the buyers eye and inflicted a deep cut in that part. Welcome to the Pulse Community! We will now be sending you a daily newsletter on news, entertainment and more. Also join us across all of our other channels - we love to be connected! The glint of the gun, plus his experience working as an Army staff sergeant made the Pastor recognize the weapon was real. Still, he was worried the man had one round in the gun. "I'm the first person to see him and when I saw him, I thought it was a dummy gun, but then I saw the bullet clip in his hand and the bullets were shining," he said. As reported, Wright said he walked up to the man and said, "Can I help you?" Interestingly, the man asked to be prayed for by the man of God. Wright took the rifle and handed it to a deacon. One by one, the deacon and three others hugged the man to make him feel loved. "And then I began to minister to him and pray to him and talk with him," Wright said. It was only some few minutes before midnight and the Pastor had to finish his New Year Eve message, so he asked the man to sit in the front row and remain there. "I finished the message, I did the altar call and he stood right up, came up to the altar, and gave his life to Christ," Wright said. "I came down and prayed with him and we embraced. It was like a father embracing a son." Wright whispered in the man's ear that police were waiting in the vestibule because he had scared a lot of people. Then the man asked to speak to the 60 or so churchgoers. He apologized to them, telling them when he set out that evening he intended to do something terrible that night. But the Lord spoke to him, he said. Wright described the gunman as emotionally distraught even though his life seemed to be on the upswing. He told the pastor he had just gotten out of prison, had a new job and a new bride. The man looked to be in his late 20s or early 30s, Wright said. Sylvester Loving, a 67-year-old deacon, told the Fayetteville newspaper that the church was talking about gun violence when the man entered. "I think that night the spirit of God was definitely in the place," Loving told the Observer. Wright said he was talking about "senseless deaths" in the community. People had seen the man pacing in the parking lot before the Watch Night service, which started at 10 p.m. "It's so hard to describe, to explain the excitement and love of God in the room. This man came in to do harm and he has given his life to Christ," Wright said. Wright has been a pastor at Heal the Land for 16 years and is a second-term city councilman. He has lived in Fayetteville since 1976. Brianna was happy, laughing and jumping around with her older brother and two sisters opening presents at her grandparents' home On Christmas day. On Saturday she was fine,it was a perfect Christmas." her maternal grandfather, Kent Vice said. Her parents, Brian and Stephanie Florer, who live in rural Delaware County, called the Jay ambulance, which met them at a convenience store to check Brianna's condition. She threw up again and It was a massive amount of blood, they rushed her to the Grove hospital. The Grove physicians quickly diagnosed Brianna's problem, and she was taken by ambulance to St. Francis Hospital in Tulsa, where she was rushed into surgery. An X-ray of her tiny body showed the "killer" was a shiny, silver button battery. Her grandfather, Vice, further narrated: "Bad weather had grounded all medical transportation by helicopter. They operated on her for 2 hours, but they couldn't stop the bleeding. They believed the battery ate through to her carotid artery by way of her esophagus. One minute she is perfect, and the next minute she is dead. We had no idea when she swallowed it (the battery). The family learned Brianna probably swallowed the battery within six days of her death. Vice said he wants to do something about button batteries. I want to keep these things out of houses, he said. They are dangerous. A Go Fund Me account has been set up to help the family with funeral expenses. Eddie Johnson with the state medical examiner's office said the child's autopsy is pending, and it would be two to four months before an official cause and manner of death is known. There were 53 reported cases in Oklahoma of children and adults swallowing a button or disk battery yearly, said Randy Badillo, Oklahoma Poison Control Center senior specialist. No fatalities have been reported to us, normally the battery passes through the digestive system, he said. But, if the battery lodges in the esophagus or digestive tract, it can open and release an alkaline substance that can cause corrosive or burning injuries. " From 2005 to 2014, there were 11,940 battery-swallowing incidents involving children under the age of 6 nationally, according to the National Capitol Poison Center in Washington, D.C. Of those cases, 15 children died, and another 101 suffered major medical problems. These devastating outcomes occur in small children when batteries get stuck in the esophagus, when a lithium button battery lodges in a child's esophagus, it causes an electrical current to go through the tissue." said Dr. Toby Litovitz, center physician. The electrical current is causing more damage because it is splitting the water surrounding the button battery and forming hydroxide, which is an ingredient in lye. Imagine dropping little tiny drops of lye in one place in the esophagus. The lye substance perforates the esophagus and goes into whatever tissue is nearby it can be the aorta or the trachea. Serious complications also have been seen when small batteries are placed in the nose or ear another situation where urgent removal is critical. The important thing to remember is, these batteries are everywhere. Dr. Litovitz warned. Vice was close to his granddaughter. He handled caretaking duties for Brianna when she was an infant for three weeks after her parents returned to work. Fifty-eight new mayors assumed office without incident in Oaxaca this week, but not so in Temixco, Morelos, where Gisela Mota Ocampo, 33, was assassinated yesterday, a day within being sworn in. The attackers entered her house Saturday morning while her family was present and killed her in the doorway, said Alberto Capella, Morelos state security commissioner, at a press briefing. Police pursued and exchanged gunfire with the armed men, killing two of them, he said. Two adults and a juvenile were arrested and will be prosecuted, said Javier Perez Duron, Morelos attorney general. The Morelos state government issued a statement praising Mota Ocampo as "an honest and committed public servant" and calling the attack "a challenge that organized crime launched against the constitutional and democratic order." "The government of the State of Morelos states categorically that we will not compromise or give a single step back in building a secure entity, in peace and harmony," the statement said. Mota, a federal deputy of the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) from 2012-2015, was murdered at her home in Pueblo Viejo. She had won election for mayor last June. Morelos Governor Graco Ramirez tweeted after the occurrence that her killing was a challenge by organized crime and declared, We shall not give in. National president of the Partido Revolucionario Democratico, (Democratic Revolutionary Party) Agustin Basave condemned the killing and observed that Mota, 33, was a strong and courageous woman who had declared on taking office that her fight against crime would be head-on and direct. Government Secretary Carlos Santiago Carrasco said the handover which took place the previous day had gone quite peacefully and without incident. A police operation bolstered by the deployment of the National Gendarmerie helped ensure a peaceful process, he said. Adebule made the call at a New Year get together she organised for the party leaders and people of her constituency in Badagry Division of the All Progressives Congress (APC). The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the event was held on Sunday in Lagos. ``This is an opportunity to thank God for another year and to appreciate the people in my constituency for their support and vote of confidence. ``It is also to show them that their elected leaders have not abandoned them having being given the mandate to serve and represent them in government. ``This government is their government as no government can be successful without the support of people. ``I urge our people to adhere to the laws of the state and key into government policies, so that we can experience the desired positive change and development, she said. Adebule also advised the youth to empower themselves by utilising the skills and vocational centres established by the government. Also speaking, Mr Oluwatoyin Suarau, Lagos State Commissioner for Agriculture, who is also from Badagry constituency, said the state government was committed to reducing unemployment through the ministry. Suarau said that the ministry would in February commence an empowerment programme and training in the areas of aquaculture, poultry and rice farming. He urged the youth to utilise the opportunity by sending their applications to the ministry. Mr Rabiu Oluwa, Chairman, APC Badagry division, also urged the people to be patient with the new government. Oluwa said that nine months was not enough to settle down and make proper plans for the good of the country going by the rot inherited from the last administration. Gov. Kashim Shettima gave this indication on Saturday when he visited some villages to assess damage done to the communities by insurgents. The governor assured the communities that proactive steps would be taken to safeguard their lives and property. ``We will construct trenches around the entry points to prevent the terrorists from carrying out attacks. ``We will also fortify the areas by providing more security personnel to watch over the areas,'' Shettima said. The governor expressed optimism that the problem of insecurity would soon be a thing of the past. ``We are on the right path and God is with us. God willing; we will defeat them (insurgents),'' Shettima said. Speaking earlier, the District Head of Ari Dawari, one of the communities attacked by insurgents, Mallam Bulama Dawari, had told the governor that his people were planning to flee the town. ``Our village is just 3km from Maiduguri, the state capital, but we are not safe. ``The insurgents carry out their attacks on our community at will; my people are already packing their belongings to leave. ``Our community is made up of farmers who depend solely on subsistent agriculture. ``But without adequate security, we will have to leave because our lives are no longer safe, Dawari said. Accordingly to Justice Mahmud Muhammad, justice must be conveyed with certainty. "As the guardians of the law, we must not only be just but also convey certainty in our justness." "My Lords, it bears reminding that the overriding objective of every legal system in the world is to do justice. However, this cannot be achieved where there is confusion as to the state of the law as pronounced by the court." The Chief Justice, having noted the complaints by the members of the public on this issue of conflicting judgments by the Court of Appeal, stated that the situation is capable of reducing public confidence in the Judicial arm of Government. Quoting the Chief Justice of Nigeria further, "As your lordships will agree, where an aggrieved person perceives, whether rightly or wrongly, that they will not receive justice, such a situation can indeed bode ill for the community in which he lives and can lead to acrimony and anarchy." "We must not ignore the negative perception that is occasioned by conflicting judgments delivered at various divisions of the Court of Appeal. Such judicial contradictions only result in untold hardships to litigants in their quest for justice. They further cast your lordships in an unfavourable light and leave the judiciary at the mercy of inuendos, crass publications and editorials." Furthermore, on the issue of conflicting decisions of the Court, Justice Muhammed suggested that the Court of Appeal should have an "internal law report" for easily accessible to the Justices, which can either be in print, or made available electronically. He also recommended to the Justices, the suggestion of a former justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, Justice Niki Tobi, that immediately a decision is given in one division, it should be sent to the other divisions without delay. Notwithstanding, Justice Mahmud Muhammad commended the justices of the Court of Appeal for their attempts improve the status of the Nigerian Judiciary. In his words, I must similarly commend your lordships for being instrumental in propelling the judiciary towards an improved system of administration of justice in Nigeria. With one justice of appeal to 1.8 million Nigerians, I dare say that your efforts at dispensing justice, despite frightening caseload, can best be described as extraordinary. The Chief Justice specifically praised the President of the Nigerian Court of Appeal, Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa, for the manner in which she handled election petitions tribunals notwithstanding the paucity of funds. Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu said this at his residence in Uburu, Ebonyi State while addressing members of the the All Progressives Congress (APC). He warned the public to beware of those who impersonate him on social media in order to swindle unsuspecting individuals. So many people called me on phone that they were the ones charting with me on face book and I stand here to say I dont operate Facebook account, I dont. If anybody creates Facebook account with my name and pictures and said he is charting with me, the person is a criminal. Ignore such person. Some persons have been using my name and pictures to do all manner of businesses. I want to warn them to desist from this, the minister said. Making the presentation in Gombi town, Shalhoma said the gesture was aimed at identifying with the IDPs and give them a sense of belonging during the yuletide. Shalhoma, who hails from Garha village, said she was also a victim of Boko Haram insurgency, adding that she lost some of her relations and properties to attacks by the insurgents. She said: ``It is regrettable and sad that human begins are experiencing this kind of situation caused by other human beings. ``It is unfortunate that the most defenceless people are the victims of this dastardly act. ``Our people are known for their hospitality and peaceful nature and will not be deterred by this sad experience to change from showing love to one another. ``We will continue to show love even to the wicked ones because love is our symbol. ``I will continue to visit you and keep encouraging you; this is just my first visit, I will continue to come and see you. `` In life, whenever you fall, you rise again; we know there is a lot of psychological trauma, but we shall surely overcome it." The acting executive secretary urged the people to be vigilant and conscious of their environment, adding that security of lives and property should not be left to security personnel alone. This is contained in a statement signed by Mr Yomi Layinka, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Communication and Strategy and released to newsmen. The governor pledged that his administration would also embark on infrastructural revolution in the state. The statement queried the rationale behind the sale of government lands and quarters by some of his predecessors, who, he alleged, sold such properties to their cronies at "ridiculous prices. The statement quotes the governor as saying: ``This edifice is one of the legacy projects of this administration. ``It is the actualisation of our dream for the physical infrastructural development of Oyo State. This state must continue to be developed. ``We are committed to actualising the overall development of this state. A good leader must not only have dreams, but must ensure that the dreams are actualised. The statement disclosed that the parcel of land initially had four buildings which were designated as Governors Guest Houses before they were pulled down to accommodate the project. "Instead of selling off choice government property at giveaway prices to satisfy alleged narrow and parochial interests, the concerned governors should have considered the corporate interest of the state. ``This is very unfortunate. Even the large expanse of land used for the construction of this estate, had only four houses designated as Governors Guest Houses. ``How many guests are governors expected to have that will occupy four houses? ``So, instead of selling four quarters for N20 million each, we then said why dont we look for a firm with quality that would convert them into a modern estate that would generate huge revenue for government? ``Hence, our resolve to engage a partner in our housing revolution drive. ``Let me use this opportunity to invite more investors to embark on housing projects in other areas already identified across the state to take care of our current housing deficit, the statement said. The statement said the governor was prepared to provide the enabling environment for other investors on its housing revolution and other projects that would be of socio-economic benefit to the citizens of the state. The statement said the Managing Director of the said partner (UAC), Mr Akeem Oguniran, commended Ajimobi for his passion for the development of the state. Oguniran disclosed that most of the duplexes in the estate had been bought added that some of the buyers had indicated their intention to occupy the new buildings in the first month of the new year. Maku, a gubernatorial candidate of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in Nasarawa state in 2015, made this call while fielding questions from newsmen in Wakama, Akun Development Area of the state. He specifically advocated for the removal of the clause that protects the president, governors and local government council chairmen from facing prosecution in breach of office. He said that the immunity clause had created an umbrella for some state governors to tamper with their state resources, thereby leading to underdevelopment at the grassroots. The former minister also advised Nigerians to pray for better things in the New Year as well as pray for permanent peace to reign in the country. "Let us also pray for the peace of the country and give President the needed support and cooperation to enable him tackle the challenges facing the country. In a statement issued by his media adviser, Mr Doifie Buokoribo, Sylva stated that the New Year was the beginning of a new dawn for the people of Bayelsa State and Nigeria at large. He also appealed to Bayelsans to shun violence and embrace peaceful coexistence in the New Year. As we welcome the New Year this Friday, we should embrace new hopes, new opportunities and new vistas it has for us as Bayelsans and Nigerians to stand out and fulfil our personal and collective destinies. Let us sincerely rededicate ourselves to the hopes and expectations of our founding fathers and steadfastly endeavour to uplift the welfare, peace and security of our people. We have a perfect opportunity to reboot and rebuild. We have come a long way as a state and as a country; we have crossed the bridges over many rivers and it has pleased mother nature to keep us together, despite our fault lines. So, it behoves on us to focus on issues that will sustain and strengthen our togetherness, rather than those that will destroy it. I wish our state and country great success and prosperity. May the peace of the Almighty God reign in our land throughout 2016 and beyond. The political party had claimed that the governor collected N1.4bn from Sambo Dasuki to fund his election campaign. The APC made this allegation through its publicity secretary, Taiwo Olatunbosun, alleging that Ayodele Fayosewas also a recipient from the diverted funds for the procurement of arms. The party accused Fayose of using the money to bribe INEC officials and military men to rig the election to his favour. The APC also said that the Ekiti State governor used part of the money to buy houses in Abuja. We are aware that Fayose at that time acquired a N750 million building in a choice area of Abuja from the proceeds of this fund. We are equally aware that Fayose submitted a bill of N30 billion to the then President Goodluck Jonathan as the amount he would require to unseat the then Governor Kayode Fayemi. A certain amount was approved for the project out of which the soldiers, who were used to rig the election, were paid as well as officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) who released the soft copies of sensitive materials to Fayose to enable him have advantage over other candidates. It is curious that when a newspaper reported that N1.4billion was traced to a former minister to prosecute Ekiti and Osun elections, it was the same time the said minister sneaked out of the country to pursue further education while his accomplice, Governor Fayose, also travelled out about the same time. We are demanding that Fayose should come out and tell Ekiti people how much he received from the armsgate money and the property he acquired with the fund while we also call on the EFCC to beam its searchlight on Fayose to know how much is traceable to him and a governor in a neighbouring state who coordinated the disbursements of the funds with which the Ekiti election was rigged with the connivance of the military," he said. The petition was pursuant to Buhari's maiden presidential media chat, where the President admitted that the former National Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd) and the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mr. Nnamdi Kanu were being held against court orders in order for them not to escape. This according to her, is not in accordance with the principle of separation of powers and may lead to unchecked dictatorship. The petition by Ajie, stated how power was handed over to President Buhari with particular emphasis on the part that he was a former Military Dictator, it reads as follows: On May 29th 2015, a former Military Dictator, Muhammadu Buhari, sequel to a contested election in March 2015 against a sitting President in Nigeria, the first time in Africa, an incumbent handed power peaceably, smoothly, heroically to a political rival. Whereupon Mr Buhari then took the Oath of Allegiance to protect the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 and the Presidents Oath of office to discharge his duties faithfully, in accordance with the Constitution and the Laws of Nigeria." Ajie in petition, stated that President Muhammad Buhari has overtime disrespected court orders and contravened the provisions of the Immigration Act, Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), and the grundnorm which is the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended). Quoting the petition by Carol Ajie, Within President Buharis first year in office, too soon after he took the revered Oaths, he and state agents acting under his supervision, now demonstrate total lack of respect for Court Orders and at his maiden media chat on Wednesday 30th Dec., instant, Mr President made puerile attempts to justify these breaches, he said inter alia that some persons his regime locked up in cells dehumanized against court orders, Nnamdi Kanu had travelled without his passports. But under the Immigration Act, the President or the Minister may deport anyone who travels without a valid travel document or detain for a period not exceeding 7 days. In holding Mr. Kanu beyond the required period they have infracted on the Immigration Act, the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 and subsisting court orders. Making reference to the Radio Biafra boss, Nnamdi Kanu, she stated that he has been consciously degraded by the Buhari's administration. With regard to issues of self determination, the crux of Nnamdi Kanus campaign of the Independent People of Biafra, IPOB, having communicated IPOBs intent to all and the United Nations as required by UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ratified by Nigeria, that people of any community or group may wish to exercise the right of self-determination with a view to pursuing their economic, social and cultural development; aware that their dignity as human persons had deteriorated and been consciously degraded under the present dispensation, sadly appearing power inebriate. In a statement released by APCs national chairman, John Odigie-Oyegun on Saturday evening, the APC claimed that the PDP did not have respect for the president and the members of his cabinet. Even though there is no true democracy without opposition, Oyegun said that being in the opposition party does not give PDP the right to insult the president. The APC is worried by PDPs inciting statements. Respect for the office of the president or heads of government in any clime is not a matter of choice but a civic obligation sanctioned by laws. Being an opposition party or critic is no license to issue abusive, intemperate and slanderous statements on government officials; most especially the president of the country. The PDP has proven that it is not a party to be trusted or taken seriously. Only recently, the PDP said in a December 24, 2015 statement: we urge that Nigerians should not recourse to hauling insults on the President." Speaking about the claim that the anti-corruption war was selective and vengeful, Oyegun told the PDP to prove the innocence of its members in court. For the umpteenth time, the APC urges Nigerians who see merit in the war that the President Buhari-led administration is waging against corruption, not to be distracted by the PDP and their agents of corruption to discredit the war. For the records, the ongoing war against corruption is not selective. Anybody guilty of corrupt practices will face the law. If the PDP has any proof of corruption against any APC member or minister as alleged, we advise that they approach any of the anti-graft agencies constitutionally mandated to handle such cases. PDPs rant suggesting a selective anti-corruption fight by the present administration should be seen as a plot meant to distract the citizenry from the successful ongoing war against graft. In his words, "it is appalling that the APC and its leaders, who gleefully and unjustifiably poured invectives on former President Goodluck Jonathan in the guise of playing the role of an opposition party, would now not want to condone criticisms. "We sympathised with the President and the APC over their inability to accept, with equanimity, constructive criticisms of their administration. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) spokesman also stated that Buhari's anti-corruption campaign is nothing but a war between the APC and the PDP. Quoting Olisa Metuh, Besides, it is sad and embarrassing that President Buharis anti-corruption crusade has now been reduced to a war between the APC and the PDP as declared by the Office of his spokespersons. Since they have confirmed that this is what the anti-corruption crusade is all about, the APC is obviously seeking to destroy the PDP so that it can push through Buharis second tenure in 2019 without opposition from the PDP. This has also confirmed our concern that this is the reason the Federal Government is persecuting, and not prosecuting, Col. Sambo Dasuki. The APC and its leaders fear that Dasuki, given his vast political and security network, may be harbouring a presidential ambition, more so that the PDP has zoned its presidential ticket to the north. The PDP is conversant with the sinister plan by the APC-led Federal Government to completely decimate our party by raking up all manner of allegations of corruption against the administration and leaders of the PDP with a view to taking them to court on orchestrated charges. Furthermore, Metuh maintained that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) remains what he termed the most decent and mature opposition, he made reference to the former President Goodluck Jonathan's regime, where Mallam Nadir El-Rufai described President Jonathan as lazy, docile, incompetent, clueless, hopeless and useless leader. But what gives us joy is that President Buhari is not God and we will not worship him. Unlike the APC that denigrated the office and person of former President Jonathan by wrongly depicting him as clueless and incompetent, the PDP remains the most decent, mature and constructive opposition party in our democracy and we have evidenced great respect for the person and exalted office of President Muhammadu Buhari. During the Goodluck Jonathan presidency, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, while in the saddle as interim Deputy National Secretary of the APC, in a post on his twitter page, described President Jonathan as lazy, docile, incompetent, clueless, hopeless and useless leader. Other APC leaders made raining abuses on Jonathan a past time. Mr. Onaiyekan reportedly made the statement at the SS Peter and Paul Catholic Church, Nyanya, Abuja, as part of his new year message to the nation, requesting pardon for all money laundering done, if they are willing to return all their stolen funds. According to Premium Times, whose reporter attended the service, and interviewed the bishop after the Service revealed that Mr. Onaiyekan had said the ongoing anti-corruption campaign of the federal government has shown that corruption can only be eradicated over time, not suddenly. Mr Onaiyekan is also reported to have said that the fight against fraudulent acts must be handled with caution. The Bishop, during his interview, said: It is okay to expose people and disgrace them, but that will not solve the problem. If we want our money back, we have to strategize so that the countries that are keeping our money can feel challenged to return them. The time has come such that once we have those facts we can call those nations thieves that they are, and say bring back our money. Mr. Onaiyekan revealed that the best way to ensure that the stolen funds would be returned was to reach an agreement with corrupt officials involved in money laundering that would make them return the stolen funds. But the easiest way to get the money back is if you can convince the people to go and bring the money back themselves, then it will be easy. One way to convince people to go and bring back such money is to convince them that you will not disgrace them, after they have done that. Mr. Onaiyekan went on to advise that a special kind of amnesty might be needed, adding that his idea of amnesty would not include plea bargains, which usually only leads to the return of part of the stolen funds. This is different from the popular plea bargaining where you tell a person who has stolen hundred billion to return fifty billion and be forgiven; that for me is not the right thing. If you have stolen hundred million and you are ready to bring back all, then we will leave you and not send you to jail, Nigeria can do that, said Mr. Onaiyekan. Mr Onaiyekan added that corruption had long been embedded in the Nigerian system and now required a methodical change for the situation to be reversed. It was built into the system, so the system must change, so that corruption can be fully dealt with, Mr. Onaiyekan said. Kagame, who has been president since 2000, has effectively been in control since his rebel force marched into Kigali to end the 1994 genocide. He had been limited to two terms, but Rwanda approved constitutional changes last year that would allow him to stay in power until 2034, if he wins elections. "The United States is deeply disappointed that President Paul Kagame has announced his intention to run for a third term in office," John Kirby, a spokesman for the U.S. State Department, said in a statement late on Saturday. It has expressed alarm at the growing list of African leaders seeking to extend their time in office. Neighbouring Burundi, which shares a history of ethnic fighting with Rwanda, was plunged into chaos in April over President Pierre Nkurunziza's announcement he would seek a third term, which the opposition criticized as unconstitutional. "The United States believes constitutional transitions of power are essential for strong democracies and that efforts by incumbents to change rules to stay in power weaken democratic institutions," Kirby's statement said.Rights groups acknowledge Kagame has broad support but accuse the authorities of stifling the media and opposition voices, charges the government denies. The changes allow Kagame to run for another seven-year term in 2017, followed by two five-year terms afterwards. TONOPAH This year brought many impactful news reports to the Nye County seat of Tonopah. They include in no particular order: County budget issues impacting many programs such as senior nutrition, the jail and animal control; The Clines continued investment in Tonopah with the opening of Tonopah Brewing Company; The departure of Tonopah Town Manager James Eason; A recall petition began circulating against Tonopah Town Board Chairman Horace Carlyle; The passing of Bill Roberts, longtime reporter, columnist and former owner of the Tonopah Times-Bonanza & Goldfield News newspaper. While the list is not meant to be fully inclusive or ranked in order of importance, one story clearly stands out as being the most impactful, not only in Tonopah but the central Nevada region in general. The closing of the Nye Regional Medical Center on Aug. 21 left the town without an acute care facility for nearly 100 miles. The surprise announcement by Center CEO Wayne Allen, said that the closing was necessitated by increasing debt after earlier efforts to save the hospital by arranging partnerships with other health care organizations proved unsuccessful due to the hospitals small size and remote location. The hospital operations cannot be sustained any longer with expenses greater than revenues, said Allen when announcing the closing on Aug. 19. The year had started out promising for the hospital, at least publicly, with the 12-bed facility and clinic beginning to emerge from bankruptcy. In December 2014, the county approved a bankruptcy settlement agreement, a new 20-year lease agreement with a restructured Prime Care Nevada and a distancing from the facilitys former director, Dr. Vincent Scoccia. This puts the hospital in a very good position to emerge from bankruptcy and to have a sustainable future, said Talitha Gray Kozlowski, a Las Vegas-based attorney hired by the county to work on the bankruptcy. On Jan. 15, the new hospital administration held its first health needs assessment community input meeting. In February, Allen, a hospital administration veteran with more than 40 years in the health care industry, was hired to oversee the hospital. But the optimism was short-lived as the financial cracks were starting to resurface. In April, the county was proposing the establishment of a hospital tax district to bring an influx of cash to what was being openly referred to as a financially struggling medical facility. The county had loaned the facility nearly $2.5 million by that time, leveraged against the hospitals assets. On April 7, Tonopah Town Manager James Eason told the Nye County Commission the medical center was struggling to make payroll. It was estimated at that time the hospitals operators were already $1 million in debt, some of it coming from the inability to collect unpaid medical bills. The county forged ahead with the plan for a tax district it said would bring an estimated $750,000 in tax revenue annually. Allen publicly pushed forward, holding a community meeting in late May to discuss a community health assessment and talk about the centers future. But the future was to be short-lived, despite the county authorizing another $500,000 loan in late July. In that loan request from Prime Care was the caveat to assure continued provision of services by physicians, suppliers and employees through August. By Aug. 21 the hospital closed, and the accompanying clinic closed Sept. 4, leaving Tonopah, Goldfield and the region without an emergency department, inpatient care, laboratory, radiology, respiratory and outpatient therapies. This is a tragic loss for the population served by our hospital, Allen said. This is a decision that will ultimately jeopardize the health and well-being of our community and surrounding areas. We are hopeful that another health care entity will see this lack of access to health care as an opportunity. Four months later the building remains closed. However, there is a glimmer of hope on the horizon. On Tuesday, Nye County commissioners will discuss a possible professional service agreement between the hospital district and Reno-based nonprofit medical services provider Renown Medical Group to provide professional primary and urgent care services. Contact Editor Arnold M. Knightly at aknightly@pvtimes.com. On Twitter: @KnightlyGrind Editor's note: This is the second in a series of stories following the restoration of the Lambrite-Iles -Petersen house at 510 W. 6th St., Davenport. The 1856 house was purchased in February from the city of Davenport by Dick and Linda Stone of Muscatine who have undertaken a three-year, roughly $350,000 project to restore the historically and architecturally significant home in the city's Gold Coast neighborhood. Judging from the front, one might think not much has changed at the old house in the past six months. But the weathered clapboard and boarded windows are deceiving. The rotted rear of the house has been built anew. There is a new poured concrete foundation and new floor joists and framing on the first and second floors. Scaffolding on the west side allows workers from Olde Town Roofing, Moline, to install new soffits (the horizontal underside of a eave), facia (the horizontal board perpendicular to the rafters) and trim boards to the roof. "It's starting to get squared up," owner Dick Stone said. "Slow but sure." A new concrete floor has been poured in the basement, leveling out what previously was an uneven combination of stone, brick and dirt. And sitting proudly in the middle of one of the basement rooms is a new boiler connected to a new gas line and with accompanying ductwork, ready to provide heat to the house for the first time in years. New sewer and water lines also have been installed and "we've got a good share of the plumbing done," Stone said. "It's at a point where a lot of stuff you do doesn't show much." In an open area east of the house, the lower "walkout" level of a garage has been built. This lower area will be Stone's workshop and the upper level, once framed, roofed and sided, will be the two-car garage. And helping to guide the restoration work once all the mechanical systems and framework are in place is a 30-page set of architectural drawings, recently finished by Downing Architects, Bettendorf, with structural consultant work by Missman Inc., Quad-Cities. The Stones also have been working on their applications for state historic tax credits to help with the financing of the project. This is crucial, and it's been slow going. Because of the warm winter so far, contractors have been able to work even though there is no heat in the house. The Stones haven't decided what to do if temperatures turn more seasonal and it gets too cold to work. Because the house isn't well sealed, turning on the boiler would mean a lot of escaped energy. "I don't know if I can afford to heat the great outdoors," Stone said. "But if we don't (heat the house), it will really cut down on what we can do." Watch this space. An early-morning fire at a Davenport apartment complex has displaced 10 people, authorities said. Davenport Fire Department District Chief Joe Smith said the fire was reported shortly after 3 a.m. Saturday at the Woodlands apartment complex, 1935 W. 40th St. Smith said MidAmerican Energy crews were called to the complex for an electrical issue and reported there was smoke coming from the attic. The fire was contained to the attic above one apartment, although three apartments were affected, Smith said. The American Red Cross of the Quad-Cities Area is assisting eight adults and two children with emergency shelter. No one was injured, he said. Smith said the cause of the fire is some type of electrical problem and it remains under investigation. Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson has scheduled a campaign event this week in Bettendorf. Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, will hold a town hall meeting from 6:30-8 p.m. Thursday at Precision Signz, 6125 Valley Drive, Bettendorf, according to a release from the Scott County Republican Party. Doors will open at 5 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. No RSVPs are needed, and for more information, contact Emma Nemecek at 319-361-9338. Carson held the lead in the Republican race in some polling in 2015. The latest average of Iowa and national polls show him in fourth place in the field, behind Ted Cruz, Donald Trump and Marco Rubio, according to realclearpolitics.com. Also this week, Frank Fiorina, the husband of candidate Carly Fiorina, will hold a meet-and-greet in Davenport. The event is scheduled for 8-9 a.m. Tuesday at the Scott County GOP office, Paul Revere Square, 2322 E. Kimberly Road. It is free and open to the public. Fiorina experienced a surge in polls last year but now is in the low single digits, according to the realclearpolitics.com averages. She is eighth in the national average and ninth in the Iowa average. More than 190 nations came together in December in Paris and agreed to fight climate change and expand clean energy. For the first time in history, the international community has united against the climate threat. Countries, states, cities and companies have taken up our shared responsibility to protect communities from unchecked global warming. This joint effort isnt just about preserving the environment. Its also about strengthening our national security and our economic prosperity. We saw this first-hand together in Paris during the COP 21 climate talks, and we know this as veterans and as businesspeople. Troy was a U.S. Navy SEAL and worked in elite security details in the Middle East, Asia and Africa. Dave served as an F-16 pilot and commander for Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas. We have seen firsthand how fossil fuel dependence puts American troops in harms way and how extreme weather intensifies conflicts in volatile regions. The Pentagons 2014 Quadrennial Defense Review identified climate change as a threat multiplier because it exacerbates disputes over water, land, food and economic resources. Climate change, in other words, makes a bad situation worse. We see it in Nigeria, where prolonged drought contributed to the instability that bred terrorist group Boko Haram. And we see it in Syria, where the worst drought in the countrys history hit just before the civil war, sending more than 1.5 million people into cities, weakening communities and fueling unrest. People who know national security know we must address climate change. As a bipartisan group of former Department of Defense and State Department secretaries recently said, climate action is a national security imperative. Climate change isnt the only risk our country faces. Clearly we must confront ISIS, homegrown terrorists and other challenges. But to ignore the implications of climate change today would be disastrous. Former Secretary of State George Shultz, who served under President Ronald Reagan, says that when it comes to climate change, We have to be a leader. The good news is that leading on climate action generates enormous opportunities for our country. Some of the best weapons against climate change are wind and solar power, energy efficiency and other clean energy technologies that slash carbon pollution. These solutions have also unleashed economic growth and job creation in all 50 states in the nation. Companies invested more than $70 billion in clean energy sectors in the third quarter of 2015 alone. In several regions, wind power is the cheapest form of electricity, bar none. And more than 250,000 clean energy and clean transportation jobs were announced in the U.S. in the past three years alone according to the national nonpartisan business group we belong to, Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2). The Paris climate agreement will spur even more economic growth. It sends a powerful market signal that international demand for clean energy will continue to grow at a steadily increasing pace, that the global market for U.S. products will expand, and that climate action is good for the bottom line. Both of us attended the Paris climate talks, and we were struck by the groundswell of support among the business community. General Motors, Nike, GE, Walmart, Unilever and hundreds of other companies committed to reducing carbon pollution. And more than 500 financial institutions representing $3.4 trillion in assets agreed to divest from fossil fuels. Captains of industry like Bill Gates attended the talks, and ahead of the conference he said solving climate change is about American innovation, American jobs, American leadership. And yet some lawmakers are complaining about the Paris agreement and trying to block the Clean Power Plan our countrys main tool for cutting carbon pollution from power plants. They may want to take the country backward, but the push for clean energy and climate action is too strong. Our nation has so much to gain by moving forward. When we left the armed services, both of us decided to transition into the private sector, and the clean energy industry specifically, because we wanted to help reduce climate-fueled conflict abroad and build strong communities here at home. By helping expand our clean energy economy, the Paris agreement will help countless more Americans do the same. A strange thing happened the other day in Washington, D.C.: Marco Rubio actually showed up for work. Without needing MapQuest he found his way to the Senate floor. He even remembered where his seat was. These days a Rubio sighting in the Capitol is rare, the birdwatcher's equivalent of spotting a blue-footed booby. Like all senators who've run for president, Marco's been away a lot. The reason for his recent detour to Washington was to cast a very important vote affecting the security of this country, and of all the Floridians he's supposed to represent. The Senate was considering a law to prevent persons on the FBI's terror watch list from buying explosives or guns. To most Americans, that's a no-brainer. Rubio showed up to vote against the bill. Went out of his way to vote against it. This was only one day after the mass shootings in San Bernardino. The measure was defeated by the Republican majority, slaves as always to the NRA, which opposed the law. (Rubio isn't the only GOP senator running for president who's terrified of the gun lobby -- Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham voted against the watch list ban, too.) In his prime-time speech from the Oval Office, President Obama asked: "What could possibly be the argument for allowing a terrorist suspect to buy a semiautomatic weapon?" Political cowards can always find an argument. Rubio and others, including Jeb Bush, say they're concerned about the accuracy of the government's no-fly list, which is a part of the FBI's consolidated watch list. The no-fly database was initiated after 9/11 to stop terrorists from boarding commercial airline flights. In its early years the list included some improbable names, including Sen. Ted Kennedy, the deceased 9/11 hijackers and hundreds of others that shouldn't have been there. We don't know exactly who's on the no-fly list now, because it's secret. Rubio says banning gun sales to everybody that the FBI considers a possible threat would penalize innocent citizens who are mistakenly put on the list. He got this script straight from the NRA. The real bad guys on the watch list must be laughing their butts off. We won't let them get on an airplane, but they can stroll into any gun shop and buy an AR-15. What a country! According to the General Accounting Office, more than 2,000 persons on the U.S. terror watch list were able to legally purchase firearms between 2004 and 2014. If that doesn't scare you, nothing will. It's a small comfort that the FBI can track who among its terror suspects is buying guns. The fact that even one of them can legally obtain assault weapons is outrageous. Nobody is naive enough to believe that any law can stop aspiring terrorists from arming themselves. The San Bernardino killers weren't on the watch list, and they obtained their legally purchased assault rifles through a friend. But why make it easier for murderous zealots like these? Under current laws, even if the radicalized San Bernardino couple had been on the watch list, the FBI could not have legally stopped them from buying guns, ammo or explosive materials as long as they gave their real names. Most Americans, including plenty of Republicans, think that's nuts. The very minimum we should do to protect the homeland is prevent these maniacs from buying high-powered weapons over the counter. What other modern nation under threat allows such reckless nonsense? Since 2007, the government has pushed Congress to prohibit the sale of weapons and explosives to those on the terror watch list. As president, even George W. Bush supported such a ban. Over and over it gets defeated, led by NRA stooges like Rubio. (He also voted against a bill to have gun-show dealers and online firearms sellers use background checks to identify convicted felons and mentally ill persons). U.S. intelligence gathering is far from flawless, as we know from 9/11. But what's the point of making lists of potentially dangerous individuals if law enforcement can't act on that information to avert future bloodbaths? It's likely that some of those 2,000-plus persons on the watch list who have bought weapons pose no harm to the public. It's also likely that some have violence in mind, and these plots can simmer for years. If the day ever comes when one of those watch-list suspects uses that legally purchased weapon for mass murder, part of the blame will fall on those in Washington who made it so easy. Just try to find Marco then. Four decades ago, Gary Velder and some like-minded Roman Catholics would gather in motel rooms to experience Mass their preferred way: in Latin. Until the 1960s, all Roman Catholic Masses were in the traditional Latin language. But as the church modernized in that decade of change, the Vatican allowed the Mass to be celebrated in the vernacular, or language of the local people. Most U.S. churches switched to English, which is why the Latin traditionalists had to resort to finding other places to worship. But these days, Velder and his wife, Linda, two Sundays a month travel from their home in Newell to St. Joseph Catholic Church in Spearfish to attend the service, which is celebrated in the traditional Latin. Since the early 2000s, there has been an increase in Latin Mass services across the nation. St. Joseph's Latin Mass, celebrated by Father Christopher Hathaway at 2 p.m. on the first and third Sundays of the month, is one that the Velders greatly enjoy. Its the traditional way all the way from the Lord, Gary Velder said. Hathaway is the priest at Rapid City's Immaculate Conception Church, at 922 Fifth St., which has been holding Latin Mass for nine years. He said he has been celebrating the Latin Mass in Spearfish for about five years. After the Vatican's ruling in the 1960s, many priests adopted and worshipers adapted to the celebration of Mass in English, which Hathaway refers to as the new rite. The old rite was never banned, Hathaway said, but many priests simply didnt offer Latin Mass. Although the new rite mostly overlapped the old Mass traditions, there were faithful followers who continued to prefer the Latin rite. Gary Velder was one. In the mid-1970s, he and others would gather in motel rooms or other various locations to hold a Latin Mass. With the recent spread of the Latin rite, he said, "Its encouraging the Mass will continue. Immaculate Conception Church is the only Catholic church that offers Latin Mass in Rapid City. The Mass is at 10 a.m. on Sundays. The history of the Latin Mass in Rapid City hasn't been without controversy. In March of 2002, then-Bishop Blase Cupich barred a group of Latin-rite Catholics from having Good Friday and Easter vigil services in Latin in the church. Cupich, who is now archbishop of Chicago, said in a 2002 Journal interview he did it for the sake of unity. "We're just looking for an opportunity on an annual basis for us all to worship together, for one moment of unity as a Catholic Church," he said. But the Latin-rite adherents vowed to have their Good Friday services in Latin on the sidewalk in front of the church. Since then, it seems, emotions have cooled, and the Latin Mass has thrived locally, if only in limited ways. Hathaway said both the Rapid City and Spearfish churches began offering Latin Mass at the request of the worshipers. Mauri Sobotka, 25, of Whitewood, said she enjoys the Latin Mass more than the new rite. There is more focus on God and not the people, Sobotka said. I can praise God mentally and quietly. Its not as showy. Its just a different way of presenting the service. Its something thats timeless. Hathaway added the more quiet service is a big draw for worshipers. Prior to Mass at St. Joseph's on Dec. 20, worshipers were kneeling and praying, rather than catching up on the weeks events. The reverence is more evident, Hathaway said. More silence, more time to absorb whats happening. In the new rite, the priest usually faces the congregation, but in a Latin Mass, the priest faces the tabernacle and altar. The practice, Hathaway said, is to reinforce that the worshiper must get to know God. This more deeply allows you to enter that mystery of knowing God," he said. "Youre reminded all the time. Another tradition honored at the Latin Mass is the wearing of chapel veils by women. The veils reflect a womans special relationship with God, and that she is sacred. Veils are available at St. Joseph Catholic Church for women to wear during Latin Mass. Like his parishioners, Hathaway enjoys Latin Mass, and he said he is not surprised that people have the desire to worship through traditional Mass. It reaches into history. The old rite of course is 1,500 years old. The new rite is over 50. We only have the new rite because it comes from the old rite, Hathaway said. Its like having a tree without the roots. If you dont have the roots, itd die. Its important to have that historical connection. Hathaway grew up attending Mass following the new rite. It wasnt until he was in the seminary in the mid-1990s that he began studying the traditions of the Latin Mass. Since the Latin Mass has been offered in Rapid City and Spearfish, Hathaway said, attendance has remained steady, but he expects to see the interest and population grow as worshipers desire to return to their roots. I enjoy knowing with much certainty that Im doing Gods will in the way I want it done, Hathaway said. It really comes down to that. BISMARCK Officials think education could increase interest in a new type of crop insurance that also may give farmers who diversify a boost. Whole farm crop insurance became available in North Dakota this past growing season. No policies were sold, but those in the state Department of Agriculture think more producers might find it useful as they learn more about it. I think this is a wonderful tool, said Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring, adding that producers may not have had time to look at the program as they have been scrutinizing the new Farm Bill and trying to understand Agriculture Risk Coverage and Price Loss Coverage, along with changes in multi-peril coverage. Everybody had their plate full to learn all that, he said. Now, whole farm crop insurance will be offered nationwide for the 2016 growing season and officials, including those at the agriculture department, are hosting training sessions for insurance agents. This insurance is different in that it offers revenue protection for the whole farm to producers who are raising at least three commodities, including livestock. U.S. Department of Agriculture Risk Management Agency said the purpose of the insurance is to encourage diversification. Premiums are discounted the more diversified a producer is. There are 50 commodities produced in North Dakota, 40 of which are plant based, which makes the state a prime candidate for the insurance coverage. In many cases, when it comes to specialty crops or organic crops, there is little to no insurance protection, Goehring said. Those with livestock and specialty crops, like dry beans, peas and lentils, can loop those commodities in with coverage for standard crops, such as corn and soybeans. The whole farm insurance works by insuring revenue rather than yield. Before, we were always insuring units or bushels, Goehring said, though whole farm can be used in conjunction with multi-peril coverage at a discounted premium. Wade Haselen, an agent with Cottingham Insurance in Washburn, said it is more about risk. In my area, I think were too diverse in the crops we grow, he said. It will never be popular in my area. No one wants to take that risk. Though RMA says whole farm insurance is for diversified producers, Haselen said there gets to be a problem when considering late and early season crops. If a farmers early season crops do better than their late season ones, they are paid nothing on their late season loss. Most insure crop by crop, instead. With prices down, many of his clients are choosing to stay with what they have been doing, according to Haselen. As markets continue to slip, affecting the bottom line, or if expenses go up unexpectedly, whole farm coverage kicks in. Goehring said some things, such as depreciation, also may not work against farmers with this product because it is based on five-year average revenue reported on the Schedule F tax form. Farm size doesnt matter, and a producer using whole farm may have smaller operations, such as 40 acres of specialty crops. Theres also a market readiness feature, covering the cost for those who process their crops to be sold at farmers markets, according to Goehring. It isnt going to be for every farmer, but it will work for quite a few if they choose to use it, he said. North Dakotas neighbors to the west have been buying into the program. Montana had 58 policies in 2015, Washington had 571, Idaho had 132 and Oregon had 98. The policy was particularly popular with apple growers and other orchards, and education was driven by insurance companies who saw the benefit it could offer their clients. DEADWOOD | A quarter-century after this Northern Hills tourist town turned to legalized gaming for its fiscal salvation, it has embarked on a second modern-day renaissance featuring the spending of millions of dollars on improvements. Bolstered by 2015's 11.7 percent increase in sales tax revenues, a 2.7 percent increase in hotel occupancy, and a 3.6 percent increase in gambling activity, Deadwood has used its financial prowess to pay down debt, saving nearly $1 million in future interest charges, according to Mayor Chuck Turbiville. That rosy financial picture has city officials thinking big. Some projects still have hurdles to clear, including two potential event-attracting spaces modeled on Rapid City's Main Street Square. Other projects, such as the reconstruction of the highway on which nearly half of the towns guests arrive, are well on their way to completion. And on Monday, a project that symbolizes the city's commitment to progress gets underway, as crews with Ainsworth-Benning Construction will break ground on a $6.3 million welcome center in the Lower Main Street parking lot along Whitewood Creek. The center, paid for by the city and expected to be completed in May of 2017, will include offices for the local chamber of commerce, enhanced trails and new interpretive signage. Over the years, a lot of folks have told me that when they got to Deadwood, they just kept going, Turbiville said on the final day of 2015. Our current chamber building is hidden, and people cant find it." Turbiville added, "With this new facility, well see people parking their cars and spending more time here. It might just capture them for a day and a night, instead of an hour. Roadways, parks and the rodeo grounds After waiting more than two decades for funding from the state Department of Transportation, Deadwood in 2015 witnessed the first half of a two-year $14 million comprehensive reconstruction of Highway 85 from its junction with Highway 385 2.2 miles north to Cemetery Street. While the state was funding the new roadway, the city injected nearly $2 million into associated projects, including period lighting, trolley stops, burying overhead utilities and the $400,000 purchase of two properties to allow water and sewer lines to be moved. In addition, the city received three state grants to help with projects: The DOT contributed $85,000 toward the new $750,000 South Gateway Park to beautify the southerly entrance to the city, a project slated for this spring. A $40,000 state grant helped pay for a $214,000 elevated boardwalk for the new Powderhouse Park across Whitewood Creek near the northern terminus of the Mickelson Trail. A $50,000 state Game, Fish & Parks grant helped pay for the complete redesign of Martha Bullock Park. To expand use of the Days of 76 Rodeo Grounds, the city in 2015 invested $1.3 million, adding a new concession area, a large viewing screen, Wi-Fi and a $30,000 commercial kitchen, Turbiville said. It has been renamed the Deadwood Event Complex, to reflect the city's hope that it will evolve into an event venue for the community, he said. In 2016, the rodeo grounds will be further enhanced by the widening and realignment of 76 Drive leading into the venue and Ferguson Field, as well as the elimination of overhead power and communication lines, according to City Planner Bob Nelson Jr. Wayfinding In 2013, Deadwood began planning for a comprehensive wayfinding system to provide consistent directional signage and make it easier for visitors to navigate the historic community and find available parking, the latter always at a premium. Some of the signs were installed in 2015, and more will be added in 2016, according to Nelson. In 2015-16, Deadwood budgeted $197,708 for wayfinding projects, and expects to spend an additional $80,000 to $100,000 in 2017, Nelson said. Another highly visible project planned for early this year is a $70,000 archway on the lower end of Main Street near the Hampton Inn/Tin Lizzie Gaming Resort. The idea behind the archway is to give the visitor traveling from the north to the south a clearly defined entrance to Deadwoods Main Street, Nelson explained. With Deadwood having a state/federal highway running through the community, it acts as a bypass around the business district, and the concept of an archway will identify the entrance to downtown. Outlaw Square About the same time the wayfinding project got underway, city government, business and civic leaders formed a Deadwood Revitalization Committee to determine what could be done to increase flat-lined retail and gaming revenues and transform the town into a year-round attraction. The effort was intended to increase public awareness of the plight of Main Street and the need to regenerate and revitalize, to provide a more inviting look, more efficient pedestrian and vehicular traffic movement, and a more welcoming community, Revitalization Committee Chairman Ron Russo said. Among the committees many recommendations was one plan described by some as a game-changer for Deadwood. The plan includes removal of at least two nonhistoric buildings, the Franklin Motor Lodge on Deadwood Street across from the Franklin Hotel, and the CenturyLink building at 644 Main Street. The former would be replaced by the Deadwood Commons, a community gathering place complete with fountains and streams. The latter would be replaced by Outlaw Square, not unlike Main Street Square in Rapid City, designed to host historical re-enactments as well as concerts, farmers markets and other activities. Major components of the master plan unveiled in August carried an architects estimated construction cost of $8.8 million, although that did not include costs of acquisition and demolition of privately owned buildings needed to complete the two squares. Russo said last week that ongoing discussions with CenturyLink officials were encouraging, but that Deadwood representatives were still trying to put a dollar amount on acquisition and demolition of the companys Main Street structure. It always comes down to money, said Russo, who added that CenturyLink had proposed a $36,000 study to determine the feasibility of relocating its equipment and donating the building. I think CenturyLink realizes how sincere we are and the impact this could have on a small community. Theyve basically acquiesced to the fact that essentially the building is ours, he said. But there is an unknown number right now on how much it is going to cost to move equipment, who is going to pay for it, and how its going to get done. Because of the uncertainty of the cost, Turbiville hasn't completely bought into the Outlaw Square plan. I support the concept, and I always have, he said. But until it is determined if the building is available, what the costs will be, and where the money will come from, I cannot formally indicate approval or disapproval. But the concept is interesting, and its something the committee will continue working on. An alert, compassionate employee at a local company spotted a need in the community, and his actions have paid off not only for people who lacked winter clothing, but also for people seeking help at the Cornerstone Rescue Mission. Dallas English is assistant branch manager at Labor Ready, a company that helps people find jobs both temporary and permanent, matching them with employers looking to hire. After seeing some people come in to Labor Ready not wearing appropriate winter clothing, English, who started working for Labor Ready in September, launched a coat drive. It started small, as English went to Facebook and asked friends to donate. But the project grew quickly, and since late November he has given to those in need about $6,000 to $7,000 worth of coats, boots and warm weather accessories. Then he reached for more. A lot of the people Labor Ready helps find work stay at Cornerstone or depend on the missions resources. English applied for a grant to help Cornerstone through the Community Involvement Program at TrueBlue, Labor Readys parent company. The grant money, English decided, would be donated to Cornerstone to buy warm footwear and anything else the rescue mission might need. The $500 grant was approved, and the company matched the funds, meaning English was able last week to hand over a $1,000 check to Lysa Allison, executive director of the Cornerstone Rescue Mission. Allison said she was thrilled to hear about the donation and the coat drive. While demand for shelter at Cornerstone is always high in the winter, its higher than usual this year, according to Allison. Last week the mission was filled to capacity and had an overflow of about 70 people sleeping on the floor, Allison said. Some of the money will go toward winter apparel, and some will go to bedding to lift people off the floor. English, she said, "just really put action into his thought and made it happen. Weve been so blessed to receive so much from him and other people in the community that were also very generous too. The mission is a ministry that feeds the hungry through a soup kitchen, shelters the homeless, and connects people to different social service agencies in the community based on their needs, often referring people to Labor Ready to help them find a job. The people staying at Cornerstone thought it was wonderful that someone was looking out for them, Allison said. She has witnessed a lot of generosity from the Rapid City community this holiday season, with people bringing in bedding and extra food or volunteering their time or donating money to Cornerstone. We live in a very generous community, Allison said. English's devotion is proof of that. The coat drive will continue until March 1, and anyone wishing to donate can visit Labor Ready, at 107 New York St. Further, anyone in need of a coat is welcome to stop by and pick up one. With the whole coat drive and everything," English said, "its nice being able to know that somebodys not out there freezing tonight because we gave them a coat and a stocking hat and gloves." PIERRE | The Chief did it again the other day. David Gilbertson announced Tuesday the women and men who comprise his new task force on community justice and mental illness early intervention. Gilbertson, the chief justice of the South Dakota Supreme Court, is the task forces chairman. Jim Seward, legal counsel for Gov. Dennis Daugaard, is vice chairman. The names of Gilbertson and Seward together signal two things. This topic is important and there will be results. Four years ago, Seward chaired the governors work group on prison population. The last thing the governor wanted was building more cells. The effort brought together court officials, prosecutors, defense lawyers and others involved at the every-day level dealing out justice. Their product was Senate Bill 70 in the 2013 legislative session. The measure, known as the Public Safety Improvement Act, turned South Dakotas corrections and courts system onto a different path. SB 70 emphasized community services, shorter sentences initially and the full brunt of the system for those who blew their opportunities. The Legislatures two Republican majority leaders at the time were Sen. Russ Olson of Wentworth and Rep. David Lust of Rapid City. The 33 pages of reforms won approval in the Senate 31-2 and in the House of Representatives 63-7. One feature of the 2013 legislation required an oversight council to keep the reforms on track and to measure results. Seward chairs the oversight panel, whose members recently issued their report on the first full year of the changes. In 2014 the governor and the chief justice decided to proceed on a similar project regarding juvenile justice. Sending a teen-ager to a state, local or private facility runs nearly $60,000 per year on average in South Dakota. But in many of the 66 counties, there werent community services to help those youths. Again, the direction turned. The governor recommended spending more money up front on services and hoping in the long run to pay for the changes by sending fewer youths to out-of-home facilities. The Legislature adopted the 33 pages of juvenile justice reforms in SB 73 without a change last winter, 35-0 in the Senate and 63-7 in the House. It too has an oversight council, chaired by the courts top administrator, Greg Sattizahn, with Seward as vice chairman. Meanwhile the chief justice used his annual State of the Judiciary speech to the Legislature last January to call, again, for a study of elder abuse in South Dakota. This time, legislators agreed and became more agreeable when the chief justice offered $15,000 from the budget of the states Unified Judicial System. The elder abuse task forces report will be considered in the 2016 legislative session that starts Jan. 12. Last autumn, news reports surfaced about jails housing mentally ill people. The chief justice established the task force that will make recommendations for the 2017 session. It might take 10 or 20 years to know whats worked. But we know, clearly, all three branches of our state government want South Dakotas justice system to work better, and at a price taxpayers can better afford. A new drug and alcohol addiction counseling agency in Rapid City has brought on a convicted sex offender to manage its spiritual programs, the Journal has learned. Promotional materials for "A New Day Recovery Services" list William Good Voice Elk Jr. as the spiritual program manager who would provide talking circles, spiritual mentoring and sweat lodge experiences for people with substance abuse problems as part of their treatment. The flyers from A New Day also include a reference to future counseling services for adolescents. Good Voice Elk, 45, a registered sex offender with two sex-related convictions on his record, served prison time on 1996 charges that he had sex with an under-aged girl. He was also convicted in 2008 for having sex with a 26-year-old woman who was incapacitated, federal records show. A New Day, with offices listed at 2040 West Main St., is a service provider for the Oglala Lakota tribe, and provides addiction counseling services free of cost for Native Americans. The agency has just opened and it is unclear if clients have been treated yet. Cindy Fleming, founder of A New Day, told the Journal in a phone call this week that Good Voice Elk is a volunteer. Fleming said she was aware of his convictions and added that: "I'm the clinical person here, he doesn't see my clients." On the same call, Fleming then handed the phone to Good Voice Elk, who became angry. "So, now you're trying to play judge, prosecutor and God, huh?" Good Voice Elk said. He later defended his ability to be a spiritual counselor. "Spirituality has nothing to do with being a registered offender," he said. When informed by the Journal of Good Voice Elk's status as a registered sex offender, a representative of the Oglala Lakota tribe said she was not aware of his status or involvement with A New Day. Leslie Mesteth, project director for the Oglala Lakota Tribe's Access to Recovery program, said that Good Voice Elk's name does not appear in A New Day's application paperwork. "(Fleming) said in an email that she had a spiritual adviser coming on board, and they needed help getting a drum" for a pow wow, Mesteth said. But, "I'm not even familiar with his name." She said that the tribe would not fund any spiritual programs run by Good Voice Elk. "I can't have convicted sex offenders providing services, no," Mesteth said. Mesteth confirmed that the tribe has not funded any spiritual services that may have been provided so far by Good Voice Elk, though it has reimbursed A New Day for clinical services not related to him. To be considered a service provider for the tribe, applicants must disclose whether they've been convicted of a felony, according to Mesteth. Having a felony conviction that involves the harm of another person would disqualify an applicant, she said. Mesteth said the tribe received an application only from Fleming. Fleming "needs to put measures in place" to check the backgrounds of those she works with, Mesteth said. Federal prosecutors indicted Good Voice Elk in 1998 for rape and incest after he allegedly sexually assaulted his niece. Good Voice Elk pleaded guilty to one charge of sexual abuse and was sentenced in June 1999 to just under six years in prison. He was released in February 2004, according to federal prison records. In July 2008, Good Voice Elk was arrested again and charged with, among other things, two counts of rape. He pleaded guilty to sexual contact with someone incapable of consent and served a little more than two years in prison on a sentence of five years, with another five years suspended. A representative of the state Department of Corrections confirmed that Good Voice Elk is still under parole supervision. Calls and emails made late Wednesday afternoon to Fleming after the Journal informed the tribe of Good Voice Elk's status were not returned. Fleming is a certified counselor in good standing with the state Certification Board for Alcohol and Drug Professionals. BELLE FOURCHE | Mildred Lucille Heinbaugh Millie, 87, passed away peacefully on Dec. 23, 2015 with her family by her side. Millie was born Dec. 18, 1928 in Red Oak, Iowa to Harold Harry and Flora (Wilds) Booton. She grew up in the Macedonia area where she attended grade school and graduated high school in 1945. Much of her life after high school was spent in California near her brother (Junior) and three sisters (Dorothy, Pearl, Eva). She met and married Frank Don Heinbaugh in Redondo Beach, Calif., on Feb. 26, 1955. Together they raised four children, Larry (VaLinda) of Rapid City, SD; Ron (Sharon) of Grand Junction, CO; Jerri (Mike) of Spearfish, SD; and Suzy (Greg) of Bullhead City, Ariz. The family moved to South Dakota in 1960 to be near Dons family. Through the years, they resided in Belle Fourche, Buffalo, Bison, Custer, Hot Springs and finally settled in Spearfish. Millies work career in South Dakota began with IMC in Custer. She then moved to the State Hospital in Custer and eventually moved into a position with the VA Hospital where she spent 25 years in charge of the Purchasing department. She retired for a few years but the need to serve called to her and she went back to work for Banner Health/Rapid Regional. She spent 17 more years in the Purchasing department there. She retired from full time employment in 2013 but continued part time responsibilities for Clark Printing until the time of her death. Millies desire to work was always a driving force for her. She did it so she could give to her kids and to help others. Her hobbies included making crafts of all kinds. She enjoyed crocheting, sewing and knitting. In her free time she made blankets and baby hats for the newborns in Spearfish. She created her own greeting cards on her computer, loved going fishing and boating with her kids, and knitted Christmas stockings for her friends and family. One of her favorite activities was the occasional trip to Deadwood or catching the flight to Laughlin, Nev., for a weekend gambling trip and visit with her kids. Millie always had an abundance of energy. Wherever she went, she made many friends and always took the time to remember peoples names. She is survived by her sister Dorothy Felix of Lawndale, Cali., as well as her children; Larry (VaLinda) Heinbaugh of Rapid City; Ron (Sharon) Heinbaugh of Grand Junction, Colorado; Jerri (Mike) Kiefer of Spearfish; Suzy (Greg) Bryant of Bullhead City, Arizona; Donna (Tom) Chase of Lincoln, Neb.; Dianne (Bill) Hoffman of Pamona, Mo. There are also 10 grandchildren, Tina Heinbaugh, Jessica Dial, Joe Heinbaugh, Heather Heinbaugh, Heidi Stevens, Lindsay Kline, Danelle Schmidt, Deanna Peters, Michael Padorke, Julie Padorke and 19 great-grandchildren. She was also loved and admired by many nieces and nephews who will remember her fondly. She was preceded in death by her husband Frank Don Heinbaugh, parents Harold Harry and Flora Booton, brothers Wes Booton, Charlie Booton, Harry L. Booton Jr. and an infant boy; sisters Eva Dalton, Pearl Laughlin and an infant girl, as well as her daughter-in-law Michelle Heinbaugh. A viewing and visitation was held at Kline Funeral Chapel in Belle Fourche on Tuesday, Dec. 29, at 11 a.m. A Celebration of Millies life will follow at the Moose Lodge in Belle Fourche at 1 p.m. Burial will be held at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 30 at Black Hills National Cemetery near Sturgis. A Memorial has been established in Millies name. An online guest book is available at klinefuneralchapel.com. Hamilton resident Kathleen Sheard is a nationally recognized wildlife artist who draws, paints and sculpts glass. Her work is on display across the U.S. in corporate headquarters, private residences, and glass and wildlife galleries. Sheard is a graphic designer who has 38 years of experience as a glass artist. I have had a fascination with the properties of glass and a love of all animals including wildlife for as long as I can remember, Sheard said. I have brought these two passions together in my wildlife glass art. Sheard begins her projects with photographs and research. She draws the animal and then builds the glass sculpture. I give the animal a soul and life, even as it is in its inanimate art form, Sheard said. I hope the art will speak to the viewer, tell a story, and invite the viewer to reach out and touch the art, and in the process become curious to know more. Commissioned works, a sea turtle glass sculpture, a cycle-of-life art education project and a coral reef project are all underway in her studio in Hamilton. Sheard said she always wanted to do a life-size glass animal and decided it would be of a turtle. The 2010 BP oil spill had a profound effect on her work. She is bringing together six artists from across the U.S. to create the sea turtle glass sculpture. The display will be 21 inches high and cover a large table. The glass creation will depict any beach on any continent with a turtle nest, mother turtle and hatchlings racing to the ocean. As an educational piece, it tells a darker story of pollution destroying wildlife habitat. It is called a pipped turtle when a hatchling is starting to come out of the egg those will be glass, Sheard said. We were going to make glass to represent the plastic water bottles and plastic six-pack rings, but the bigger impact is just to put the plastic on the piece. We have one of the hatchlings going through the six-pack because they can get stuck on that, and they grow and it goes into the shell and shuts down on their lungs and kills the turtles. Fishing line is a real predator. Sheard said the information will be about oil spills, picking up litter and the hazards of plastic on the beach. This will probably go to one museum as a show and then it would be great if the Corning Museum of Glass bought it. But it is an educational piece to teach children about the oil spill and about plastic everything that is killing marine life not only sea turtles, Sheard said. So, I hope maybe National Geographic or Monterey Bay Aquarium would buy it. Sheard is a member of the Society of Animal Artists, Artists for Conservation, Artists Along the Bitterroot and Montana Professional Artists Association. She volunteers for sea turtle patrols, and donates a percentage of her art sales to support wildlife conservation. In October, Sheard was the recipient of the Art for Conservation award by Artist for Conservation, one of the top wildlife art organizations in the world. The award blew me away because it was for my work on the sea turtles, and it is a very high honor that I was chosen Sheard said. The award stated it was given ... for the combination of her artistic excellence and an outstanding contribution to the conservation cause. Sheard uses many techniques when building her glass works, often inventing new methods. Everything is one-of-a-kind built one grain or thread of colored glass at a time. Sheard is working on a commission of a coral reef near Kona, Hawaii. The finished piece will be 25.5 square feet, divided among five panels and depicting 63 sea creatures. She became a certified sea diver to see the reef in person. She has been working on the project for a year and estimates three more years of work before it is completed. Sheard donates to Living Art of Montana, an organization that uses the arts and nature to support healing. It offers art and writing workshops for people dealing with illness and loss. Sheards subject matter features wildlife of Africa, the Rocky Mountains and marine wildlife. Her website serves as an online gallery. Her art includes wall pieces, discs, spiritual reliquaries, rondelles, artist studies, kiln cast sculpture, ornaments, limited-edition prints and original drawings. She holds workshops, shows and events. In my artwork and in my life, I rely on my passion to continually persevere to explore new lands and press my artwork to new limits, Sheard said. I learn. I hone my artistic skills. And I pass along the stories of the wilderness and the wildlife that populates it. My hope is to inspire the viewer to learn more about my subjects, and understand the necessity of working together to protect this land of wilderness we call home. The gallery of Kathleen Sheards work can be seen at www.kathleensheard.com. Contact her at 406-375-9028. An unexpected problem has developed in the world of bear-resistant food storage testing: The grizzly bears responsible for tearing containers to shreds are getting bored or depressed. "With some of these containers, the bears are no longer interested in testing," U.S. Forest Service national carnivore program leader Scott Jackson told the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee meeting in Missoula on Tuesday. "For the metal cases that are bolted to the ground that they can't tip over and knock around, that's becoming more and more of a problem. They just lick the bait off the outside and leave them alone. The manufacturers are kind of left in limbo." In a way, that's a good problem to have. Bear-resistant food storage rules apply to more and more places in the woods as both grizzlies and black bears add human food to their foraging plans. Next summer, floaters who win a coveted permit to spend a week on Montana's Smith River must pack their steaks and beer in bear-resistant containers. Randy Gravatt manages the testing program at the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center in West Yellowstone. His captive grizzlies, including the infamous Kobuk the Destroyer, have brutalized 425 containers in the past 10 years. Roughly three out of five survive an hour with Kobuk and his cohorts the success standard for an officially sanctioned container. "I'm impressed with the innovation and ingenuity of the developers," Gravatt said. "But a lot of manufacturers underestimate the power of the bears." That's especially true for containers designed for backpackers. While many systems have passed the Discovery Center test, Gravatt said manufacturers now try to make their products lighter, easier to use or less expensive to build. "They're trying to find the line (between convenience and survivability)," Gravatt said. "So they'll bring in six, eight, 10 versions of the same product." On the other hand, Brian and Jane Robertson of Cody, Wyoming, have seen bears ignore their Robertson Enterprises front-country containers at the testing center. That proof of concept has helped spur a steady increase in demand for containers in campgrounds, recreation areas and picnic grounds. "The last two years have been great," Brian Robertson said. "Ever since the Greater Yellowstone Coalition partnered with the Forest Service down here, it's made more funds available for guys like me." Jackson said the nonprofit GYC has agreed to match up to $125,000 one-to-one with the Forest Service to install new bear-resistant containers on lands surrounding Yellowstone National Park. The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem holds an estimated 714 grizzly bears and a considerably larger number of black bears. Jackson said because the captive grizzlies have given up on those heavy-duty, permanent containers, the IGBC testing system has moved to a more lab-style testing standard in which welds and latches must survive mechanical stress tests equal to the force biologists know bears can exert. But those containers won't work everywhere bears are. Grizzly bears can only dream of the power packed by a Smith River winter ice jam. A high floe in 2014 overran 11 campsites and scraped toilets and fire rings off their concrete bases. That seasonal obstacle convinced the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks that installation of permanent food boxes was unaffordable on the Smith. While that problem searches for a solution, Colleen Matt at the Wildlife Management Institute debuted another tool at the IGBC meeting. She's been working on an interactive map that outdoor visitors can check to learn local bear-food requirements. "By April, the map should be ready to show the food-storage rules for all public lands," Matt said. "It's the coming thing. Food storage orders are going to be the way we learn to live with grizzly bears, by keeping them out of our stuff. And we've really got to start with black bears. Think of the angler who puts his backpack on the bank and walks downriver, only to come back and find a bear has gotten into it." As the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee moves toward a possible removal of its namesake animal from federal protection next year, the way it counts those bears gets intense scrutiny. Just less than 2,000 bears roam the continental United States, according to the latest research done by the IGBCs study teams. Thats far from the estimated 100,000 that used to be found south of Canada before hunting and habitat loss put the grizzly under U.S. Endangered Species Act protection in 1975. But its also at or beyond what some researchers think is how many grizzly bears the Rocky Mountains can hold. In particular, the IGBC is focused on the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, which this year contains 717 bears, according to the statistical models used by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. That number could be 75 bears low or high. Its high enough that the committee proposed delisting grizzlies in that area in 2013. The move was blocked by a court order, and now IGBC officials expect to have a new delisting plan ready for debate in early 2016. Yellowstone National Park encompasses about 4,000 square miles, mostly in Wyoming. But the suitable grizzly habitat in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem totals more than 22,500 square miles, drawing in the Beartooth and Wind River mountain ranges, along with swaths of southwestern Montana and eastern Idaho. Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team ecologist Frank Van Manan said the more important point was that the rate of growth was slowing down. Thats because the ecosystem appears to be filling up, and young grizzlies are having a harder time competing for space with older, more established bears. Some have referred to this as voodoo science, Van Manan said Tuesday. Lets not confuse policy with science. Were not just making this stuff up. As a population reaches carrying capacity, you see a drop in the survival of young and suppression of reproduction. *** However, a number of critics of the IGBC maintain its numbers are unreliable and its targets unrealistic. As the committee was meeting in Missoula this week, members of the Center for Biological Diversity, Western Watersheds Project and others argued for slowing down or stopping the delisting process. They also objected to proposed population targets now being discussed between FWS and the wildlife management agencies of Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. Its simply far too soon to remove protections for these grizzly bears, CBD attorney Andrea Santarsiere wrote in an email. The Endangered Species Act has done a great job of helping to recover grizzly bears in Greater Yellowstone, but isolation, declining food sources and an increase in human-caused mortality have caused the population to decrease from 757 to 714 bears just this year. (The CBD number is different because Van Manan adjusted the 2015 total after new data was received just before the conference started this week.) Recovery isnt a math equation, its a geography question, added Josh Osher, Montana Director for Western Watersheds Project. The states tentative agreement with the Service fails to ensure connectivity throughout the species range and fails to address the livestock operations that are the root cause of lethal conflict for the grizzly bear. Louisa Willcox, who publishes critiques of grizzly bear management in her newsletter, Grizzly Times, said the GYE needed a population of at least 2,000 bears to be viable in isolation. She argued that declines in critical food sources in the Yellowstone area made it unlikely the bears could survive without continued federal protection. Matt Hogan, deputy regional director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Denver office, said the current counting system actually addresses the criticisms leveled at the delisting effort. Improvements in the techniques have made it harder to show increases in bear numbers. I think were doing the opposite, Hogan said. Were relying on the more conservative estimator, that underestimates the population by 30 (percent) to 40 percent. I could see the criticism if we were using a method that went the other way around with higher estimates than we thought were there. *** Van Manan said one unusual statistic was the number of bears captured each year that had never been handled by humans before. That figure has stayed around 60 percent for several years. If this was a population on the verge of decline, this would not be possible, Van Manan said. You couldnt get that many new animals in the system. A less happy data point was the continued absence of any sign that grizzlies outside the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem had entered or bred with local bears. That shows grizzlies still havent found a comfortable way to travel between the Yellowstone area and the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem, which holds at least 1,000 bears in the Rocky Mountains between Missoula and Glacier National Park. However, a new research tool developed by the Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center appears to show the Yellowstone grizzlies isolation is far from troublesome levels. U.S. Geological Survey geneticist Pauline Kamath said a long-term look at grizzly DNA shows that in 2007, there was an effective population of at least 450 bears. The effective population only counts those bears of breeding age excluding cubs and immature youngsters. The analysis more important result highlighted how much genetic interchange was taking place in the population. A fear for isolated populations is how soon they get so small that inbreeding starts causing health dangers. The larger the effective population, the slower the loss of genetic diversity over time, Kamath said. That allows the population to respond to unforeseen environmental or habitat changes. The DNA study shows the Yellowstone grizzly population to be losing genetic diversity at such a low rate, its undetectable. Van Manan added that between 1982 and 2007, the effective population size in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem grew by a factor of four. That kind of surprised us, he said. The data also showed an increase in breeding adults over the same period. Bitterroot College Director Victoria Clark sees the difference new digs can make for students every time she takes a moment to walk the halls of the colleges new facility. During the week of finals, it was pretty interesting to walk through the halls, Clark said. In every single classroom there were students focused on their work and making a difference in their own lives. The Bitterroot College just finished the first semester at its new location in the old Westview School in Hamilton. The move more than tripled the space available to the school. The college has come a long way since it first began offering classes in a garage in 2009. After outgrowing that small space in short order, the college moved to Ravalli Entrepreneurship Center, where it started with 800 feet of space and eventually outgrew 4,200 square feet available there. The move to the 1960s-era building this fall allowed the college to spread out over 17,000 square feet. Clark is excited about the possibilities now that the college can offer its students an actual campus. We were waiting for us to get settled into our new building to really make a push on growing enrollment, she said. We are going to work hard now to get the message out that were here and were open for business. This fall, the college had 200 students enrolled in classes. That number increased by only two from the year before. Clark hopes that number will grow by 50 next fall. Now we have a real campus with a real identity, Clark said. Its a place where people can go to college with a real college atmosphere. We have classrooms dedicated to art and science. It may not be Harvard, but we are on the path to continue to expand our abilities to serve the community. Changes in the makeup of the schools student body suggest there is a growing awareness in the community that Bitterroot College is for real and here to stay. Over the last couple of years, the school has seen the number of traditional students increase steadily. Two years ago, non-traditional students made up about 71 percent of the student body. This year, that number slipped to 65 percent. What that means is high school students and their parents are beginning to see the Hamilton-based school as a viable alternative to begin college-based courses. It provides younger students with a chance to test the waters in a place thats closer to home, said Roch Turner, the colleges workforce programs coordinator. Ravalli County high school students considering a four-year degree can attend the Bitterroot College for the first two years and have those credits transfer seamlessly to other schools in the Montana University System. Those students can save up to 60 percent in tuition costs, while saving even more by living at home rather than college dorms. A three-credit class costs $419 at the Bitterroot College. A student can enroll in four of those classes for less than $2,000. The same 12 credits at the University of Montana will cost $6,000 for in-state tuition and fees. Thats doesnt include room and board for the freshmen who are required to live on campus. For students looking for something different than a four-year degree, the Bitterroot College has a number of certificate and one-year programs in health care, welding, CDL and others. Students and their parents are seeing the value in what the Bitterroot College has to offer, Turner said. We are in the process of developing new courses to meet the needs of students in Ravalli County. Bitterroot College AmeriCorps volunteer Kate Johnson is helping the college develop its marketing plan. We are working to get the word out about whats happening here, Johnson said. Theres still a lot of people in the valley who dont know a lot about the college. We want to change that. A recruitment team will take a hard look at the demographics in Ravalli County and the training that would be required in the local jobs market. Clark said the college has a number of course offerings it plans to roll out in the next 18 months. We have a number of irons in the fire with new programs, she said. We are really excited about all the possibilities that will eventually become realities. Clark said the college hasnt done a great job of marketing in the past, but thats now going to change. During the first week of January, the Bitterroot College will sent out 22,000 pieces of mail to local residents that it hopes will open the doors for new students. We are going to try a lot of different avenues to reach out to people, Clark said. There may be people out there who know we exist, but dont know what we offer. Hopefully, well hear from some of those. The college will write a new strategic plan this spring. Before that document is written, Clark said college officials plan to reach out to the community to learn more about the specific educational needs in the valley. There will be an online survey for people to fill out and focus groups for others to participate in. We dont want the community to be shy about telling us what they think, Clark said. If people dont hear from us, I hope they will let us know what we can do better. Experience suggests that Washington often says one thing and does another, using beautiful concepts as their brand of bullying and forcefully reshaping the meaning of those concepts. For example, Washington often talks about "rules," but the world has seen the US consistently commit the most brutal violations of the rules on which the United Nations system is based. The rules they talk about are actually a framework for protecting the interests of the US and its major allies. They are also a behavioral norm to force other countries to maximize those interests. Welcome to my blog. Here you will find information that is both interesting and useless. You can even see how Steve, my camera, sees the world through my eyes, or get your hands on my latest novel, Jihad Joe at: Thanks for visiting. Hope you enjoyed the coffee and cake. Sorry we ran out of donuts. I have a passion for all things good in life- be it travel, food, watching plays& films, photography, drinking champagne or just getting pampered in a Spa. Luckily being a Hotel Management graduate, an ex-chef, nutritionist and a journalist, I am eminently qualified to do my job of writing and sharing experiences. My blog is my world and my posts are my straightforward thoughts...come along with me on my culinary voyage! Qahir-I rocket targets Strategic Storage Management in Abha SANAA, Jan. 02 (Saba) The army and popular committees launched on Friday night a ballistic missile of Qahir-I type on the Saudi strategic storage management in Abha region. A military official confirmed to Saba that the missile hit its target with high accuracy. On December 30, Qahir-I missile was fired by the army and popular committees and targeted Jizan port. On December 13, the army and popular committees bombarded the Saudi Khalid Bin Abdul-Aziz Air Base in Khamis Mushait using Qahir-I rocket. On December 14, the missile force of the army and popular committees fired a Tochka missile at the enemy operations center in Bab al-Mandab in Taiz province, killing hundreds of the enemy soldiers. Nearly 146 bodies mostly charred were transferred to Aden city and Amran camp, and a medical ship belonging to the aggression coalition reached near the coast of Aden in an attempt to help the evacuation and treatment of the injured, said the official spokesman of the armed forces Sharaf Luqman. The initial toll of the targeting of the enemy command in Bab al-Mandab among the Blackwater company forces is 42 dead and 12 military and armored vehicles of the company were damaged, as well as the destruction of the coalition command buildings, two Patriot systems, three Apaches, and 40 military vehicles, he added. On December 20, a Qahir-I rocket targeted Saudi hirelings at al-Tewal border crossing in Jizan, killing at least 90 of invasion troops and wounding 100 others. On December 21, the missile forces fired a ballistic missile of Qahir-I type at Jizan Regional Airport. On December 27, the army and popular committees launched a ballistic missile of Qahir-I type at the Saudi National Guard camp in Al-Arisah area in Najran. Qahir-I rocket is a Russian rocket (Sam 2) which was improved locally to become surface-to-air rocket. The military official added the rocket, Qahir-I, works in two stages; sold fuel and liquid fuel, and its length is 11 m and weighs 2 tons while it can fly over 250 km after introducing improvements to it. BA Saba Facebook Facebook Twitter Twitter Whatsapp Whatsapp Telegram Telegram Email Email Print Print [02/January/2016] Saudi war jets launch airstrikes on Sana'a districts SANA'A, Jan. 02 (Saba) - The Saudi-led coalition waged on Saturday a series of sorties on a number of districts in Sana'a province, a local official said. The official added the Saudi aggression launched five air raids on al-Manar area in Haimah al-Kharejeyah, causing serious damage to the telecommunication network there and the nearby residential neighborhoods. The aggression also targeted al-Watada area in Khawlan district with two raids and al-Nabi Shu'aib Mount in Bani Matar district with three raids, he said, affirming that no fatalities were reported, however the raids caused damage to agricultural land sheep pastures. HA/AF Saba Facebook Facebook Twitter Twitter Whatsapp Whatsapp Telegram Telegram Email Email Print Print [02/January/2016] The Guardian - 18 December 2015 In Bangladesh, women whose actions fall foul of religious conventions have long been subject to punishment by fatwa. Sara Hossain hopes her trailblazing work can tip the balance back in favour of the secular legal system by Lipika Pelham Hena Akhter was 14 when she was whipped to death for allegedly having an affair with a married man. There was uproar in local and international media at the time of her death in 2011, followed by a fervent call to outlaw so-called fatwa violence in Bangladesh. The high court ruled that Henaas body should be exhumed to determine the extent of the violence to which the young girl was subjected. A second post-mortem examination found that she died of septicaemia due to severe internal injuries. The court ordered an investigation, which led to several arrests, including that of the Muslim cleric who issued the fatwa. That outcome was only made possible by the pioneering work of Sara Hossain, a prominent barrister in the supreme court of Bangladesh. Her campaign to challenge punishments handed out by village shalish courts under fatwas a religious orders inspired by sharia law a has led to groundbreaking rulings based on secular rather than Muslim values. aWhen a fatwa is issued, such as in Henaas case, the victimsa families are not even aware that such practices are illegal under Bangladeshi constitution,a said Hossain, who was in London recently to attend the Trust Women conference. aFundamentalists come to court and say that they have the right to use the religious decree, thereby following one part of the constitution which is Islam, but not the other part, which is secularism.a Fatwa violence is largely used against women who are accused of defying religious assumptions on sexuality. Punishments can include public lashing, forced veiling, shaving heads, or forcing the accused to walk through the village wearing a garland of shoes around the neck. Advertisement The Bangladesh constitution is a peculiar one, with Islam and secularism standing side by side. The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, made a 15th amendment to the constitution in 2011, introducing a separate provision under which Islam was afforded special status as a astate religiona . Paradoxically, this was done even as an older article prohibiting agranting by the state of political status in favour of any religiona was reinstated. The judicial system has repeatedly found itself challenged by Islamist elements. However, the secular courts have consistently maintained that adultery or pre-marital sex is not illegal in Bangladesh. aFatwa is an opinion, not a decision a it cannot be used to criminalise acts that are not criminal under the existing law,a said Hossain. Through her work with Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (Blast), of which she is the honorary executive director, Hossain has also questioned the lingering British colonial practice of subjecting rape victims to degrading physical examinations, and discriminatory personal family laws. One of her cases involved a school headteacher who was cautioned by an education officer for not being veiled. The court eventually held the officer responsible for unlawful intimidation, ruling that aattempts to coerce or impose a dress code on women clearly amount to a form of sexual harassmenta . Hossain has also challenged the atwo-finger testa , another British colonial law still practised in the Indian sub-continent. The test entails examining athe laxity of the vaginaa of a girl or woman who has been raped, without seeking her consent, to establish if she was having sex. If the test proved she was, the court could rule that she was not raped. These tests have been performed on girls as young as nine. Advertisement Following Hossainas intervention, the high court asked the health ministry to review case studies presented to the court by Blast to evaluate legal approaches that call into question the character or integrity of women in rape cases. A ruling is expected soon. aBecause most people are not going to know about these court rulings, they must be incorporated into school textbooks,a said Hossain. Sharia law punishment was outlawed by the high court in 2010. Blast now aims to raise nationwide awareness that fatwas lack legal authority. aIt is the duty of the legal bodies to challenge even isolated cases and reinstitute secularism, an integral part of Bangladeshas constitution,a said Hossain. Blastas projects aim to establish a national legal framework on areas including disability rights, the elimination of child marriage, the recognition of womenas rights to consent and choice, and an increased female presence in the justice system. Blast and supreme court bar members campaigning at a rally against sexual violence in Bangladesh. Photograph: Blast Hossainas work has also brought some important breakthroughs in personal family law for Hindus, Muslims and Christians. Codified during colonial rule, these laws often leave women in dire poverty in the event of divorce or separation. About 80% of Blastas cases deal with family law. Thereas a long way to go before a unified family law is legislated, but Blast has been running legal clinics where women can seek advice. Some of these are run alongside medical clinics offering free contraceptives. Hossain said the clinics are often more crowded than those providing legal services. aOur main objectives are to work behind the scenes on issues of rights violation, which include public interest litigation. We would like to establish a daily presence, not just lend our name to high-profile cases,a said Hossain. Hossainas work may be lauded as revolutionary by some, but she says she is essentially working within the constitution. Only through the rule of law could exemplary womenas rights precedents be created, she said. Jacobin Magazine - 30 December 2015 When Indiaas Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept to power in last yearas elections, there was an abundance of media hype about the partyas purportedly huge mandate. Yet its 31 percent vote share was the lowest ever for a winning party in Indian elections. The true significance of the victory instead lies in the trajectory of its leader, nowaprime minister Narendra Modi. In 2002, Modi was presiding over Gujarat when anti-Muslim riots in the western state claimed over a thousand lives and hundreds of places of worship. Twelve years later, he emerged as the prime minister of the worldas largest democracy. This speaks to the ways in which Indian politics has evolved under the pressure of groups like the Hindu nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a self-styled cultural organization that controls much of the BJP and a host of affiliates, and the violent communal mobilizations to which they contribute. This type of religious-nationalist violence and political outlook has come to be known in the country as acommunalism.a Two of its most formidable opponents are journalists Teesta Setalvad and Javed Anand, who started Communalism Combat in 1993 after witnessing a decade of violence. In the years since, Combat has become a major platform for the struggle against communalism in all forms. Working with Citizens for Justice and Peace, Combat did more to expose the scale and horror of the Gujarat violence than any mainstream publication. Their vigilance has made them many powerful enemies, including Modi himself. In the following interview, conducted by Jairus Banaji and Geeta Seshu, Anand discusses the principles behind the magazine, the violence that communalism has produced, and the significance of the Zakia Jafri case, which could result in criminal charges against Modi for the killing of Jafrias late husband in the 2002 riots. How did Communalism Combat get started? Teesta and I had been working with the mainstream media since the 1980s. Starting in 1983 we found ourselves confronted by one communal riot after another. There was also the Shah Bano case judgement, where Muslims went on a warpath demanding a separate family law for Muslims. Then the mobilization of the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), a right-wing Hindu nationalist organization, around the demand for a Ram temple at Ayodhya brought things to a boil from 1986 to 1992. That led to the demolition of the Babri Mosque on December 6, 1992. It was Bombay that saw the worst of the violence in the aftermath, with pogroms against Muslims. Throughout that period we found ourselves covering much of the communal violence that was happening, and by way of response we formed a group called Journalists Against Communalism. When was that? This would be sometime around 1988a89. A whole lot of people were asking,aWhat should be done?a We decided that maybe we should use our professional skills as journalists. So we left our jobs and started Communalism Combat in 1993. Many of our friends both within journalism and outside said, aYouare crazy! Youare working in the mainstream media, which means you have a much wider reach. Youare going to give that up to start a magazine which will sell a few thousand copies.a We said, aItas not just a magazine a itas also a platform which gives us the opportunity to intervene in ways which we canat otherwise.a The Srikrishna Commission, which was set up to examine the Bombay riots, in which around nine hundred people died, had actually named people from the Hindu nationalist party Shiv Sena who were complicit in the 1992 violence and named police officers guilty of dereliction of duty, so our demand was that the Maharashtra government act on the findings and recommendations of the commission. There was an attempt to not release the report. The Shiv Sena/BJP government came to power in 1995. The Srikrishna Commission needed an extension of term because their work hadnat finished. But the government announced they were scrapping the commission. Atul Setalvad went to the Supreme Court and the extension had to be granted. When the report came out, they didnat want it to be too widely publicized, so they made just enough copies for the members of the state legislative assembly. So we, virtually overnight, published the Srikrishna Commission report ourselves. We organized public meetings and dharnas calling for ajustice for all and punishment for the guilty.a We couldnat have done any of that had we remained in the mainstream media. More importantly, between 1998 and 2002, we did five cover stories that were like alarm bells that said, aLook where Gujarat is headed!a The mainstream media, even at its secular best, is basically limited to a kind of episodic journalism. What mattered for us was the focus on the problem of communalism, which we see as the greatest threat to Indian democracy, the outer face of fascism in India. Since the mediaas own freedom is contingent on the health of Indian democracy, this business of aobjectivea journalism doesnat really address the issue of secularism at all. When the genocidal targeting of Muslims in 2002 actually happened Teesta spent two to three weeks, from the first days onwards, going into remote areas where the media had still not reached. We brought out the Gujarat Genocide 2002 report. That was flashed around both the houses of parliament and MPs said,aIs this true whatas written here?a The home minster, Advani, promised, aWeall inquire, investigate, etc., etc.a So we were a watchdog, even though we were always limited in circulation. We were able to do this because we werenat just preaching to the converted. In the early 1980s, India regressed from the era of communal riots to one of state-condoned, at times even state-sponsored communal pogroms. You now had full-blown, state-sponsored, state-condoned pogroms. People still talk of riots, but 1984 was not a riot, 1992a93 in Bombay was not a riot, nor was Gujarat 2002. At the heart of the new era was a pattern where the state watched while Hindutva mobs unleashed a reign of terror. It was mob terror plain and simple, though it was still called a acommunal riot.a In Bombay in 1992a93 we had the pogroms directed against Muslims, led by the Shiv Sena, and three months later we had the serial bomb blasts targeting the stock exchange and various iconic buildings in the city, and in those Muslims were involved. It began to look to us like, if a majority community uses the logic of numbers and the state watches as it engages in mob terror, then some elements within the community thatas being pushed to the wall, however tiny a percentage, might start thinking of retaliating. In fact, you may remember a Dr Jalees Ansari from Bombay, whoas now serving time for his role in a series of bomb blasts in trains. In his investigation he told the investigators that awe wanted to send a message to the Indian parliament that if you will not protect Muslims as per the constitution, we will find ways of protecting ourselves.a So a response to mob terror that was equally dangerous and seriously problematic for the country also began to surface at that time. And then in the 2000s you had the Nanded blasts, the Malegaon blasts, and an investigation by impartial police officers from the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) unearthed the rise of Hindu terrorist groups. The media wouldnat touch this subject, neither the print media nor the electronic media. Teesta got hold of the ATS charge sheet in the Nanded blast case, where they clearly talk about a whole aweba (thatas the exact word used) of Hindu extremists forming a network, creating bomb blasts in Parbhani, in Nanded, and elsewhere. The culprits were Bajrang Dal and VHP guys dressed up as Muslims to make it look as if Muslims were on a rampage all over the place. Justice Sawant, Teesta and others traveled to Delhi to publicize these findings, and they held a press conference attended by some sixty to eighty persons from the media. When was this? This was in 2009. It was very well-attended by the electronic media. We said, aThis isnat a Communalism Combat opinion a this is the charge sheet of the ATS. Please look at this new phenomenon of Hindu terror groups.a No reportage the next day except in The Hindu! So that was the role that Communalism Combat played at the time. Secondly, from the beginning we were quite clear that while it is true that majority communalism is what poses the real danger to democracy and democratic institutions, minority communalism and majority communalism feed off each other. Therefore you canat be gentle in your dealings with the issue of minority communalism because then youare supporting this mutually reinforcing relation. So we were as sharply critical of minority communalism. On the issue of Muslim personal law, we argued that all personal laws are grossly unjust to women and that this needs to be reformed, so we pitted ourselves against the Muslim orthodoxy and Muslim fundamentalists. Similarly on the issue of caste. We saw caste, communalism, and the issue of gender injustice as a kind of tripod at the very base of Communalism Combat. And we also felt that communalism is not just an Indian issue but an issue concerning the subcontinent. What happens to Hindus and Christians and Ahmadiyyas in Pakistan has serious implications for the Muslim minority in India and vice versa. We were the first magazine in India to do a cover story on the Taliban when the Americans still saw them as allies. Our stand has been that we arenat fighting religion as such, we are fighting the manipulation of religion for political ends. And we are not questioning faith, but we do maintain that all faiths and beliefs and practices are subject to universally accepted fundamental rights and freedoms. The last issue of Combat came out in November 2012 because we ran out of funds, but Iam happy to say that we have just relaunched an online edition. And we believe the need for it today is even greater than when we first started it. Could you say something about the attack youare facing from the state? What has prompted that? They have never liked Communalism Combat. Did you face any kind of censorship? We used to get abusive calls, threatening calls. Within the RSS network and their propaganda machine, we were dubbed aanti-Hindu.a If we had simply stuck to Combat, then perhaps we would have been bracketed with everyone else. What really got their goat and enraged them against us (and by athema I mean not just the Sangh Parivar a the whole family of Hindu nationalist organizations a but Narendra Modi in particular) is that in response to the Gujarat carnage we started this organization Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP). Since 1993 we had done advocacy and media. What we hadnat done until 2002 was to take the legal route, to go knocking on the doors of the courts and ask, aWhereas the constitution? Whereas the rule of law?a CJP decided to focus on that. As in cases of genocidal targeting across the world perhaps, at one level thereas a silent rejoicing at having taught some group of people a lesson, but simultaneously thereas a public denial of it. So on the one hand, Narendra Modi became the aemperor of Hindu heartsa in 2002, yet at the same time there was denial: aMy government did all it could possibly doa and so on. Itas a long story, but basically India is known, unfortunately, for judicial delays. Mr Narendra Modi thought of an alternative course altogether a to fast-track the justice process. And how did he go about doing that? The police was already part of his set-up, he had his compliant officers. Not all of them were compliant, there were some outstanding people there, but he had enough compliant police officers who were willing to act as his private army. Those who were appointed as the public prosecutors were VHP, RSS, Bajrang Dal people a some of them even office-bearers of those organizations. So the public prosecutor acted as defense counsel in these cases. Cases of murder and mass murder got bail without any objection from the prosecutor. When the trial happened, for example, in the Best Bakery case, the first major carnage case to go to trial, the court was packed with these virulent Hindutva guys. They created such an atmosphere of terror for the witnesses that they could not speak the truth there. And the case was tried, and all the accused were acquitted for lack of evidence, etc. As it happened, a week later the star witnesses, especially one young girl, Zahira Sheikh a who was from the family that owned the bakery that was burned down, killing some fourteen people a approached CJP. We provided her a platform before the national and international media, and she publicly said that it was an atmosphere in which, for fear of their lives, they had to lie. So we took her to CJP, and then she went to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), where she made the same statement. The NHRC filed a special leave petition in the Supreme Court, and we filed a second petition on behalf of Zahira Sheikh, as well as one on behalf of CJP, asking for a retrial of this case once it was transferred out of the state on the grounds that the conditions simply do not prevail for justice and a fair trial to happen in Gujarat. The Supreme Court upheld our case, so the same people who had been acquitted, most of them were convicted here, to life imprisonment, etc. So first, we not only exposed what had happened and Modias role in that through Communalism Combat, but second, when CJP was started its first action was to form a citizensa tribunal headed by three retired judges, two of them from the Supreme Court of India. Their three-volume report was titled Crime Against Humanity. The gist of those three volumes was that the killings in Gujarat in 2002 were genocidal in nature and the author and architect of that was none other than the chief minister of Gujarat. CJP then followed up. A culture of impunity is the norm in India. Those who murder a single person will be convicted and get life sentences, but mass murderers are never touched. It is unprecedented that 120-odd people are serving life sentences now a those who were responsible for perpetrating violence in Gujarat, including a minister in Mr Modias cabinet and the Bajrang Dal chief of Gujarat. So how would you describe CJPas role? It has successfully challenged the culture of impunity that has prevailed in India. And this is what makes Modi and the Sangh Parivar very unhappy with us. On top of everything, Narendra Modi himself, who had become the aemperor of Hindu heartsa a the only case in which he has been named is a case filed by Zakia Jafri. Zakia Jafri is the widow of Ehsan Jafri, the former member of parliament who was killed in a brutal, barbaric fashion a he and sixty-four others from the Gulbarg Society (a Muslim neighborhood) a in 2002. Zakia Jafri was a witness to that and is a survivor of the pogrom. In 2006, with the help of CJP, she wanted to file an FIR (First Information Report) with the Gujarat police, saying that with the kind of evidence that even serving police officers have now placed on record before the Nanavati Commission, it is clear that these were not isolated incidents that happened in various localities a there was a conspiracy for mass crimes and the following are implicated. She had a list of sixty-two people, accused number one being Narendra Modi himself, then several ministers, the chief secretary, the director general of police, the police commissioner, etc., etc., which of course the local police refused to accept. She went with CJPas help right up to the DGP (Director General of Police). He refused to register an FIR. They went to the sessions court in Gujarat; the sessions court turned down their appeal for directions to the police. They went to the high court in Gujarat, nothing happened. And then finally they went to the Supreme Court. And the Supreme Court first issued a notice to the Gujarat state and police seeking a reply, asking, if a citizen has credible prima facie evidence of a crime and if the police refuse to register that crime, where should that citizen go? The Supreme Court, which, in the context of the petition filed by CJP, had directed reinvestigation by an independent investigating agency from outside Gujarat into the eight to nine major carnage cases of 2002, then asked the same special investigation team to probe the role of Modi in the context of Zakia Jafrias petition. To make a long story short, though the Special Investigation Team (SIT) gave a aclean chita to Modi, the amicus curiae appointed by the Supreme Court, Raju Ramachandran, has taken a different view a that there is prosecutable evidence against him and two senior police officers of the Ahmedabad police. Because the SIT filed a closure report before the sessions court in Gujarat, Zakia Jafri, with the help of CJP, challenged that closure report. The sessions court did not side with her, so she has appealed in the high court, where the matter is pending. I think this should give you the context for the attack on us, for why they donat like us one little bit and why they need to go after us. Even before the current round of attacks on us started in January 2014, Teesta had had three to four criminal offenses lodged against us a e.g., for allegedly tutoring witnesses, faking evidence, which two separate trial courts have rejected in Gujarat itself. The Gujarat government seems to have instigated a former employee of CJP to concoct charges of embezzlement against Sabrang Trust. The investigation has been going on for a year. Theyare asking for all kinds of documents. To date we have submitted well over twenty thousand documents in hard copy and soft copy, answering every allegation theyave made a theyave not been able to find anything. The FIR against us has several objectives: to mount a media trial against us, throw mud at us in the hope that some of it will stick, to frighten donors from supporting CJP or Sabrang Trust (therefore to financially cripple us), to send a message to their own constituency to say, aThis is what we do to those who go after us,a and to make an example of us to send a message to all groups and individuals like us that aif you speak out, weall put the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) on you, the police on to you.a Are your accounts still frozen? Yes, theyave been frozen since January 2014. Is there a chance the CBI will take you into custody? Our case for anticipatory bail is very strong a the Bombay high court has granted that. Finally, how do you see events like the attack on Charlie Hebdo and the Paris attacks? One point of some consolation in the face of heinous crimes like that is that at least a significant section of the Muslim community is finally breaking out of its denial mode. When 9/11 happened, the story spreading across the Muslim world was that it was a false flag operation launched by Mossad to implicate Muslims; Osama bin Laden wasnat behind it. In India it was said no Muslim could have done that because Islam is against terrorism. Since 2008 weave been seeing the Jamiat Ulema-e-hind, which is an offshoot of the Deoband school, declaring public opposition to terror. In February 2008 the Darul Uloom (a well-known madrassa for Islamic teaching based in Deoband) held a meeting of several hundred prominent clerics where they passed a resolution condemning terrorist activities. In 2003, I along with a few other Muslims in Mumbai formed an organization called Muslims for Secular Democracy, basically because we felt that extremism in the name of Islam, intolerance in the name of Islam, gender oppression in the name of Islam, the terrorism that was beginning to swamp Pakistan in a big way, the issue of apostasy, of freedom of expression, in short a whole range of issues was something that the Muslim community was not addressing. We felt that the community as a whole still doesnat feel at home with the modern world. And that these issues were not being raised through secular forums within India, which is part of the reason why we sometimes find ourselves on the defensive, we lose credibility. We started something we called a ajihad against terrorism.a The point is, are we simply against Hindu communalism, or are we against communalism as such? Obviously, the danger to Indiaas democracy will be from the Hindu majority, as it will be from the Muslim majority in Pakistan. But we canat make compromises. Across the globe many on the Left are being asked this question, and they need to reflect on where they stand. In the afight against imperialism,a to see all kinds of Muslims who have a gun or a bomb in their hand as potential allies on the principle that the enemy of my enemy is my friend is not going to get us anywhere. Maulana Mahmood Madani, whoas the de facto head of one of the two factions in the Jamiat Ulema, was very receptive when I contacted him, and there was a huge rally at Ramlila Maidan in Delhi in February 2008. They got a fatwa endorsed by three muftis from Deoband, one of them being the head of their fatwa department. It said nothing can ever justify terrorism, whatever the cause and wherever it happens. So it was very sharply formulated. Nothing fuels Islamophobia more than terrorism. If the media were to project this opposition properly, it would help a lot to clarify this, at least in India. So the denial that was widespread in 2001 and earlier is much less evident today. I give my consent to Sakshi Post to be in touch with me via email for the purpose of event marketing and corporate communications. Privacy Policy On September 3, 1974, I boarded a bus on a trip that would take me through Europe, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan on our way to India. After droppi... Copyright notice Shirley Contreras lives in Orcutt and writes for the Santa Maria Valley Historical Society. She can be contacted at 623-8193 or at shirleycontreras2@yahoo.com. Her book, The Good Years, a selection of stories shes written for the Santa Maria Times since 1991, is on sale at the Santa Maria Valley Historical Society, 616 S. Broadway. Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. This is a blog of my book reviews. Expressed views and opinions are my own unless it is quoted verbatim. No copyrighted material is listed in this site. Comments are welcome. Popular Science, History, International politics and simple Finance are the main topics which are covered. Reviews may appear harsh sometimes, but they are the fearless expressions which come only from an amateur. Click On Our Advertisers Ads Most of our ads have links to take you directly to their Websites. Just click on an ad and away you go. Yes, you can transfer your domain to any registrar or hosting company once you have purchased it. Since domain transfers are a manual process, it can take up to 5 days to transfer the domain. Domains purchased with payment plans are not eligible to transfer until all payments have been made. Please remember that our 30-day money back guarantee is void once a domain has been transferred. For transfer instructions to GoDaddy, please click here. If you are currently a print subscriber but don't have an online account, select this option. You will need to use your 7 digit subscriber account number (with leading zeros) and your last name (in UPPERCASE). "Throwaway Children: The Tragic Consequences of a False Narrative" | Main | "Taking Another Look at Second-Look Sentencing" As reported in this local AP piece, headlined "Casper prosecutor says Wyoming needs to reconsider death penalty," a district attorney in the Equality State is complaining that his state legislature seems unwilling to back the state's capital laws with sufficient capital. Here is the story: A prosecutor who secured a death sentence against Dale Wayne Eaton for the murder of a woman nearly 30 years ago says the lingering appeal in the case shows the Wyoming Legislature must decide if it's willing to provide the resources necessary to handle capital punishment. The call came from Natrona County District Attorney Mike Blonigen, who prosecuted Eaton in 2004 for the 1988 killing of Lisa Kimmell of Billings, Montana. For years, Eaton was the only man on death row in Wyoming. His death sentence was overturned in November 2014. "You keep going, and you tell yourself that this is about what the man actually did," Blonigen said. "But it seems the further we get removed from what he actually did, and out from his trial, the less and less that seems to matter," Blonigen said of Eaton. "Instead, we're tied up in all this other stuff that has nothing to do with the truth or untruth of any of the allegations made, but have everything to do with the procedure." Kimmell disappeared while driving across Wyoming and fishermen later found her body in the North Platte River. In 2002, DNA evidence linked Eaton to the case while he was in prison on unrelated charges. The Wyoming Supreme Court upheld Eaton's death sentence, but U.S. District Judge Alan B. Johnson of Cheyenne overturned it last year, ruling that ruled that Eaton hadn't received an adequate defense. Johnson said the Wyoming Public Defender's Office had tried to scrimp on expenses and failed to follow American Bar Association staffing recommendations on providing qualified lawyers, an investigator and a mitigation expert. Johnson gave the state the choice of allowing Eaton to serve life in prison or seeking the death penalty against him at a new sentencing hearing with the requirement that the state appoint lawyers for him not associated with the Wyoming Public Defender's Office. Blonigen began pressing in state court to hold a new death penalty hearing for Eaton. But Johnson ruled this summer that the state had failed to follow his order by not appointing new lawyers for Eaton fast enough. In his order last week, Johnson prohibited the state from holding a new death penalty hearing while Eaton appeals aspects of the order Johnson issued last year. Eaton's current legal team is asking a federal appeals court in Denver to rule that too much time has passed for Eaton to get a fair death penalty hearing. Gov. Matt Mead's budget recommendations, released before Johnson's order, called for the Legislature to appropriate over $1 million for the coming two-year state funding cycle to pay for Eaton's defense in state court. Mead also is calling for $25,000 to study whether prosecutors and the Public Defender's Office are receiving adequate funding. Wyoming last carried out the death penalty in 1992, when it executed convicted murderer Mark Hopkinson. Several other death sentences have been overturned on appeal since then on the grounds of ineffective legal representation from the Public Defender's Office.... Blonigen said Eaton's case underscores the need for the state to provide adequate support if it wants to keep the death penalty on the books. "You've got to have the resources and have the commitment to it to carry through with it," Blonigen said. "I think the Legislature has to decide do we really want this or not. If we really want it, then we have to change some things." The Grand Rapids Serra Newsletter is a monthly publication showing the calendar of upcoming events and other items of interest pertaining to priestly and religious vocations. This well-established Blog is worth visiting on a regular basis for a wealth of information of interest to Armenian nationals and to the Armenian Diaspora world-wide. Although it has a particular role in promoting international recognition of the Genocide, the Blog encompasses much more and includes many articles of general appeal to all those concerned with Armenian affairs. Much of the content is difficult or impossible to find elsewhere and the long list of links provided gives easy access to a plethora of material on social, political, religious, educational and cultural matters, and many news items from around the world. Anti-government protestors armed with guns have taken over a federal building in an Oregon wildlife refuge, because they say federal officials have unfairly punished ranchers. The Oregonian reports an estimated 300 people marched through the town of Burns, Oregon to protest the impending imprisonment of two area ranchers, Dwight and Steven Hammond. According to the L.A. Times, the Hammonds (a father and son pair) were convicted of arson for fires they set in 2001 and 2006, which they said were to reduce the growth of invasive plants and protect their land from wildfires. But the protestors, including Ammon Bundy (the son of Cliven Bundy, the Nevada rancher who staged an armed standoff against the Bureau of Land Management in 2014) say that the ranchers land rights are being stomped on by #biggovernment. Following Saturday's march, a smaller group headed to the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters about 60 miles away, which they then took over. Militia members claimed there were about 100 of them occupying the refuge. Ammon Bundy, the group's outspoken whackjob unofficial fearless leader told CNN that the wildlife refuge, which is managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, "has been destructive to the people of the county and to the people of the area." "The facility has been the tool to do all the tyranny that has been placed upon the Hammonds," Bundy told the Oregonian. "We're planning on staying here for years, absolutely. This is not a decision we've made at the last minute." Bundy had a lot of choice words, which you can watch for yourself in this video he posted to his Facebook page: BREAKING! SHARE! Standing for the rights of Men & Women. Calling all freedom loving people to come to Harney County... Posted by Bundy Ranch on Saturday, January 2, 2016 A statement from the Harney County Sheriff Dave Ward warned people to stay away from the refuge: After the peaceful rally was completed today, a group of outside militants drove to the Malheur Wildlife Refuge, where they seized and occupied the refuge headquarters. A collective effort from multiple agencies is currently working on a solution. For the time being please stay away from that area. More information will be provided as it becomes available. Please maintain a peaceful and united front and allow us to work through this situation. "We're not used to this kind of thing here," Burns resident Kainan Jordan told KTVZ. "It's sort of frightening when there are people making threats and people toting guns." And here's a couple tweets chronicling domestic terrorism in action what's been hashtagged on Twitter as the "#BundyMilitia": "I didn't come here to shoot I came here to die."#bundymilitia, (will ID only as "Capt. Moroni") pic.twitter.com/sh83SfWTll Amanda Peacher (@amandapeacher) January 3, 2016 #BundyMilitia have blocked the entrance to the refuge. pic.twitter.com/4StnviCqSx Amanda Peacher (@amandapeacher) January 3, 2016 Please go to my new website Forgotten Galica to read this post. Click here. I've already published two posts about the vocabulary of the third-wave Ukrainian diaspora (found here and here ), but now I've combined both lists, added new words, fixed some mistakes, and as a result I have a comprehensive list with over 500 words: CLICK HERE FOR FULL LIST , which I made on Google Spreadsheets. For many words, I've also included the Polish and Russian translations, as well as a comment on the meaning or usage. Before I get into the specifics of the list, I wanted to write a few words about the goal of this list and my usage of the words "archaic" and "diaspora." Above all, this list is a way for me to document the way my family in the United States spoke and speaks. Living in Ukraine, I've picked up the local language and am beginning to forget some of the words that I heard and used growing up. Thus I've made this as a resource for myself. However, as the language my family speaks is similar to the way many other families in the diaspora speak, the broader goal is also to preserve the western Ukrainian dialect, which is still spoken in North America (but which is slowly being lost). Therefore, I am making the list public because I think other people may find it of some interest. This of course is not the first project to make a list or dictionary of words from various Ukrainian dialects. There have been many lists of Lviv or Galician words published online, such as this one , as well as books, such as Gvara, which I wrote about before, and a recently published comprehensive 800+-page dictionary called . The latter (pictured) has many of the words in my list, but not all. Thus I feel there is still a lack of a similar project for the diaspora language. 'Archaic' I named my previous posts "The Archaic Language of the Ukrainian Diaspora." I'd like to reiterate why I chose the word "archaic" and show that I don't mean it in a negative way. I call it "archaic" because in Ukraine only the older (and often rural) generation speaks this way, so it sounds "old-fashioned" to the average Ukrainian in western Ukraine. To hear a young person speaking that way sounds a bit strange to locals. The diaspora has preserved a dialect that was spoken in Galicia before WWII while in Ukraine the Ukrainian language has evolved and undergone Russification. While some of the words in the list are in fact archaisms, most I'd say are just dialectisms. But nevertheless, from the perspective of Ukraine, i.e., where this language/dialect originated, I think it's not entirely incorrect to call it "archaic." 'Diaspora' Regarding my prior posts, I received some comments about my usage of "Ukrainian diaspora." When I use the word "diaspora" I mean specifically the community that descended from the third wave of immigration (1940s-1950s), many of which came from western Ukraine, in particular Galicia. Galicia was never part of the Russian Empire, Ukrainians had fewer restrictions on their language, and Galicians lived in close proximity to Polish (many intermarriages, the dominant language was Polish, etc.), thus it is not strange that the Galician dialect has many similarities to the Polish language. Nonetheless, I think it's pretty safe to say that this is the largest/most dominant Ukrainian diaspora in North America. But by no means am I saying this the only dialect spoken in the diaspora nor that it is the authentic Ukrainian language. I grew up in the Ukrainian community in Chicago, where many of the Ukrainian organizations such as Ridna Shkola, Plast and SUM, used a language/dialect similar to the way my family spoke. Thus even if someone had ancestors from central or eastern Ukraine, they were likely exposed to the Galician language if they were involved in the community. In fact, my paternal grandmother was from central Ukrainian, and came from a Russian-speaking family, but her husband was from the Boyko region of the Carpathians and so for the most part she picked up the western Ukrainian dialect. Some of the "diaspora" words can be heard today in western Ukraine, but generally only in rural areas and from the older generations. There are, however, a handful of these words that used widely among all generations in Lviv (for example, " "). Other words are finding their way back to the current Lviv language as there is a heightened interest in the old Lviv, the old language, and for example many new restaurants and cafes have chosen to use exactly these old Lviv/Galician words in their menus. Comparison to Polish and Russian For many of the words I've added the Polish and Russian translations. Using this comparison, one can notice that a majority of the "diaspora" words are similar to Polish, and many of the "standard Ukrainian" words similar to Russian. That said, by no means are all such cases Polonisms or Russisms, but one must keep in mind that Polish had a large influence on the language spoken in western Ukraine, and that the Ukrainian language did undergo heavy Russification, which after WWII affected the language spoken in western Ukraine (and so there are a lot Russisms.) In fact, it's interesting to see cases where the opposite is true - where the "diaspora" word is closer to both Polish and Russian than it is to standard Ukrainian (for example, ), or closer to Russian than to Polish or standard Ukrainian. This may be explained by the fact that it is just an older Slavic word, as Andrew Sorokowski wrote in a comment under one of my previous posts: "some Old Galician words strike modern Ukrainians as russified, such as 'vozdukh' for 'air'; there, however, are Old Church Slavonicisms, disseminated by the Greek-Catholic clergy in the 19th century." It's also interesting to see when a word in one language has a completely different meaning in another (for example, ""). Thus, except for a few obvious cases, I cannot say when a word is a Russism, Polonism, or just an older Slavic word. In any case, I don't want to prove any dialect or word is better or more authentic, but rather want to have a visual comparison of the languages. The book Contested Tongues: Langauge Politics and Cultural Correction in Ukraine by Laada Bilaniuk covers some specifics about the Russification of Ukrainian. A few examples can be found in this table: Common Types of Changes Some trends that I found between the "diaspora" language and "standard Ukrainian": - Masculinization of feminine words - to e - to a - to - to , , The table to the right (from Iryna Farion's ) outlines precisely some of these changes and when they were introduced to the official Ukrainain orthography, bringing it closer to Russian. The 1929 orthography, also known as Skrypnykivka, was continued to be used by Ukrainians in Galicia and the diaspora after the 1933 orthographic reforms, but since Galicia fell under the Soviet Union after WWII, it too had to conform to the official orthographies. I already wrote a on the accent and pronunciation, but I want to expand more on the letter "" (f): The history of the usage of the letter "" in Ukrainian is quite interesting and quite complicated as well. According to Wikipedia, in Slavic languages the letter is used primarily in words of foreign origin (Greek, Latin, Germanic). "The linguistic interventions included grammatical, morphological, and orthographic rules that were to make Ukrainian more similar to Russian and thus more "politically correct."... The transliteration of words with Greek roots was changed to match the transliteration applied in Russian: for example, the transliteration of Greek theta was changed from " " /t/ to " " /f/, as in the words (anatema) which became (anafema) 'anathema', and (myt) which was changed to (mif) 'myth,'" (from Contested Tongues). This made me wonder why if changing certain sounds to "f" was a way to Russify the langauge, then why was the "f" so widely used in Galicia before WWII, before Russification. I think this is explained by Polish and German influence on the language, as "f" is widely used in both these langauges. (In Polish, it is probably due to German influence.) Thus I am assuming originally in Ukrainian you have: "" not " " (from Greek via Latin " "/"phaseolus") "" not " " (from German "Flasche") "" not " " (from Austrian German " Schubfach") Though who knows, maybe when these things were introduced to western Ukraine, they immediately took the "f" variation. I also once heard that the word " " (the name of the island of the Zaporizhian Cossacks) roots from the Latin word fortis (strong) or rather maybe a variation of "fortress" or "fortification," but the sound "kh" was used instead of "f" as it was more natural for Ukrainian. I also want to add a few other observations on the differences between "diaspora" language and "standard Ukrainian," which not noted in the list: - in diaspora, more usage of - rather than - in masculine dative declension - in diaspora, more often decline foreign words, like names of cities "," "" - in diaspora, less often use the instrumental case in certain contexts The Full List The FULL LIST is in a Google Spreadsheet - it can be sorted by category, part of speech, type of change, etc., which can used to find trends. The "Diaspora" column is for the most part the way my family speaks. In most cases the words are common among the "diaspora," but there may be some cases where specific words that are only used by/known to my family. In the "Standard Ukrainian" column I tried to add the most accepted/standard word currently used in Ukraine, but sometimes I added a word that I hear the most, even if it may not technically be the most correct. In addition to different words, I've also included words or phrases that are declined differently as well as differences in some common phrases and sayings. There are of course cases where the "standard Ukrainain" word is known and used in the diaspora as well. There may be some mistakes in the Polish and Russian columns, as I am not fluent in either. I had some help from friends, but also some help from Google translate. In general, I welcome any corrections or comments on anything, as all of the above are just my observations. I will continue to add to the list and make corrections. Screenshot of part of the list BOSTON | Campus activists who often fight in parallel with one another for their respective causes are now starting to form alliances as they turn up the pressure on some U.S. colleges to financially divest from industries that run counter to their beliefs. Student groups that have long called on colleges to stop investing in fossil fuels have begun working alongside students demanding divestment from the prison industry, a movement that has gained momentum recently with support from black student organizations. Coalitions created in 2015 at Wesleyan University in Connecticut and the University of Pennsylvania have pressured their institutions to drop investments in fossil fuels and prisons and in companies that have ties to Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories, demands that students previously pursued separately. At Tufts University near Boston, divestment groups against fossil fuels and Israel banded together with a coalition opposing investments in private prison companies. "There's a consciousness with the younger generations that these are not single issues," said Zakaria Kronemer, a national organizer for the Responsible Endowments Coalition, a New York nonprofit group that helps students campaign around what they see as crucial social-justice issues. "It doesn't make sense for us to be working in silos anymore." Beyond the call for divestments, students have thrown other causes into the mix. After fighting to get Columbia University to divest from fossil fuels, a student group organized a coalition with five other campus groups that tackle issues such as racism, sexual assault and workers' rights. Together, as the Barnard Columbia Solidarity Network, they issued merged demands to campus administrators. "I don't think they've dealt with anything like this," said Daniela Lapidous, a senior and a group member. "Only by building these coalitions will we win any of our demands." The collaborations have had some success. After students staged a joint sit-in in 2015, the president of Wesleyan agreed to endorse divestment from the prison industry. Advocacy groups that help students organize say they expect to see more crossover coalitions at colleges. Already, students from several universities are trying to establish a national umbrella group that would unite students across schools and causes. National environmental groups have offered online training to students on the perks of solidarity. "Increasingly, the climate movement has seen how deeply intertwined the climate crisis is with issues of racial and economic injustice," said Jenny Marienau, a divestment campaign manager for the environmental group 350.org. "I don't think it's just a numbers game, though. I really do think there's deeper alignment." Students against fossil fuel investments, for example, point to a recent report from Columbia predicting that rising temperatures will pose a health risk at prisons. But some critics say it's a reach to draw connections between fossil fuel divestment and other movements. Bradford Cornell, a professor of financial economics at the California Institute of Technology, said the debate over fossil fuels is straightforward, focusing on the costs and benefits of using those fuels. Cornell is also the author of a 2015 report finding that divesting from fossil fuels can hurt universities' investment returns. Even with the help of newly formed coalitions, though, students have struggled to get colleges to disclose their investments. The Wesleyan group, named the Coalition for Divestment and Transparency, criticized the school because students have no way of knowing if Wesleyan invests in contentious industries. Of the 30 public universities with the largest endowments, only nine released any of their investment holdings in response to a recent Associated Press records request. None of the 20 private colleges with the top endowments the smallest of which tops $3 billion provided any records. Colleges guard their investments closely, contending that disclosure would tip their hand to competitors. Some students and faculty say colleges should invest only in socially responsible ways, but colleges and financial experts counter that endowments are meant primarily to generate revenue. Often, administrators can't even trace all their institution's investments. Most big universities now invest in hedge funds, said Jessica Matthews, head of the mission-related investing practice at Cambridge Associates, which advises colleges on investments. While those types of funds pose a challenge to divestment, she added, there are some fossil-free hedge funds available to schools. Research has been mixed on whether divesting from fossil fuels would hurt a university's endowment. Some colleges counter that it's better to work with companies on changes rather than cut ties with them. Still, Matthews said she sees some evidence that universities are heeding the calls of campus activists. Over the past two years, more than 70 colleges have sent inquiries about divestment, a surge over previous years. Most have been focused on fossil fuels, she said, but there has been growing interest in prison divestment. 125 years ago BOARD ACTIONS: The Woodbury County Board of Supervisors took action on the following: instructed the auditor to appoint a surveyor to re-survey a road in Woodbury township knows as Lakeport road. ...Authorized payment of $80 to W. H. Edgar as full payment for the loss of a horse on account of a defective bridge. BUSINESS NEWS: The Security National Bank is planning the erection of a seven-story office building at the corner of Fourth and Nebraska streets, where the Davidson dry goods store now stands. ...The Great Northern flour mill at Leeds is turning out a large order of flour for an Indian agency. PARTY TIME: A pleasant reception was given Hon. John A. Moan and wife at South Sioux City upon their return from Chicago. The reception was given in Smith's opera house. ...The Shawondasee Dancing club gave a hop at Dineen hall, Fourth and Water streets. 100 years ago BOOTLEGGER NABBED: The first person to be arrested on a bootlegging charge in Sioux City since Iowa went dry on Jan. 1 was Tom Keck. Police arrested him at his home, 423 Water street, and seized three quarts of beer and five quarts of whiskey. Two cases of empty beer bottles were discovered, along with whiskey found in a locked coal box outside. DANGEROUS SHOES: French heels worn by many of the Sioux City high school girls were declared a "menace" by city Building Inspector Henoch. He said that in case of a fire at the "castle on the hill," these heels might cause death of many pupils trying to use the fire escapes. The heels easily will slip through the iron bars, trapping the wearer and holding back the crowds. BOWLING TOURNEY: The Northwest Bowling Tournament, which for the last two years has been held in Le Mars, Iowa, will be staged in Sioux City this year. More than 50 teams will take part from Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska and South Dakota, with more than 300 bowlers expected to compete. 50 years ago EXPLOSION: Minilus Galland, 82, 2323 Geneva street, suffered serious injuries during an explosion that ripped through the boiler room at the Cusack-Baumann Laundry-Dry Cleaners, 505 Pearl street, early Tuesday. Mr. Galland, a stationery engineer, was listed in fair condition at Lutheran Hospital. IN THE NEWS: Hayne A. Thompson, 55, senior resident agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation based in Sioux City, retired Dec. 31 after a 31-year career. ...Mrs. M. J. Yanney has been elected president of the Benevolent Society at St. Thomas Orthodox Church. ...Former Congressman Ralph Beermann of Dakota City was appointed finance chairman of the Republican Central Committee of Dakota County. APARTMENTS SOLD: Valley Park Apartments, Sioux City's largest apartment complex, has been purchased by Yield Investments, Inc., of Minneapolis, Minn. Valley Park was built in 1951 at a cost of $1.5 million. The 150 units are housed in 30 separate buildings. The purchase price was not announced. 25 years ago TO THE GULF: Sixth District Rep. Fred Grandy, R-Iowa, will be part of a 20-member congressional delegation that leaves Sunday for the Persian Gulf. The bi-partisan group is scheduled to visit U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia and meet with leaders from Egypt, Israel and Saudi Arabia. BIG FIRE: BRONSON, Iowa -- Fire destroyed the Bronson Senior Center early Thursday morning. Volunteer fire departments from Bronson, Sergeant Bluff and Lawton battled the blaze in sub-zero temperatures. Assistant Fire Chief Gene Kollbaum said the cause of the fire is not yet determined. The two-story building originally was used in processing honey from beehive combs. MAKING NEWS: Larry Wentz, managing editor of WBAY-TV in Green Bay, Wis., will succeed Dave Nixon as main anchor for KTIV-TV in Sioux City. Wentz will begin his duties Jan. 21. He also is a former news anchor and producer for WHO-TV in Des Moines. Nixon will cap a 30-year career in broadcasting to become a teacher at Iowa Lakes Community College in Estherville. These items were published in The Journal Jan. 3-9, 1891, 1916, 1966 and 1991. SIOUX CITY | Sioux City financial counselor Thomas M. Borchert has been re-elected to the board of the National Association of Estate Planners and Councils. The NAEPC held its annual Advanced Estate Planning Strategies Conference for attorneys, CPAs, trust officers, and insurance and financial planners Nov. 17-20 on Amelia Island, Florida. Throughout 2015 Borchert was one of two moderators of the 11 webinars produced by NAEPC for advanced estate planners nationwide. At the conference, Borchert was elected to a new three-year board term after having served for seven of the past eight years. He was also appointed to chair the Webinar Committee. The conference provided ideas, techniques and tactics to help advisers learn more about the programs offered by the third-party money managers available through Securities America and expand their investment advisory services to clients. The Managed Money Conference is an annual event Securities America offers exclusively to its advisers by invitation only. SIOUX CITY | David Elder, assistant professor of writing and rhetoric at Morningside College, recently presented at the Conference on Community Writing in Boulder, Colorado. His presentation, College Writing Centers Helping Local High Schools, discussed the collaboration between the Morningside College Writing Center and Sioux Citys three public high schools. This provided an example for other centers on how to engage their communities. The arrangement involves college writing center staff working face to face with individual high school students on both the college campus and in the high schools. Elder has been teaching at Morningside since 2010. He is the director of the Morningside College Writing Center. A new report released this week questions whether Nebraska's public power utilities can keep electric rates affordable in the face of federal legislation aimed at cutting greenhouse gases. The report, commissioned by Omaha-based Platte Institute, looks at how Nebraskas electric rates compare with others in the region and how public utilities measure up to for-profit companies in their ability to adapt to a changing regulatory environment. Nebraska has historically benefited from public power. But recent trends are not good in terms of electricity generation, distribution and transmission, said Creighton University economist Ernie Goss, who wrote the study with research economists Jeffrey Milewski and Scott Strain. Goss made the comment during a news conference Tuesday at the state Capitol in Lincoln. There are elements of Nebraskas power structure that could be privatized," he said. "We call it in our study a hybrid model. Representatives of Nebraska Public Power District and Lincoln Electric System, as well as environmental advocates, blasted the report as inaccurate, flawed and misleading. We have some major concerns about some of the things that are in the report, NPPD economist Kenneth Lemke said. Nebraska is the only state to get all of its electricity from public utilities. The state's 169 public power districts, municipal electric systems, including South Sioux City's, and rural cooperatives traditionally have relied heavily on cheap coal from the Wyoming Powder River Basin to keep rates low. While Nebraskas average price for electricity is third-lowest in the region, its rates grew much faster than rates in neighboring states between 2007 and 2013, the report found. Nebraskas reliance on coal could mean expensive changes if federal authorities continue to push regulations in the Clean Power Plan that require states to reduce carbon emissions, a greenhouse gas linked to climate change. The plan calls for reducing carbon dioxide emissions 32 percent nationwide by 2030. Each state gets its own 15-year goal. For Nebraska, that's a 40 percent reduction using 2005 emissions as a baseline. Nebraska is one of about two dozen states suing to stop implementation of the plan. The Platte Institute report argues that for-profit power companies are better positioned to take advantage of federal tax incentives for renewable power generation. Goss also said private companies tend to be bigger than Nebraska public utilities and are better able to spread out costs. But public power officials said calculations Goss used to show the benefits of privatization dont add up. In a written response to the report, Lemke called the calculations flawed and meaningless. We dont feel the models he used support those numbers, Lemke said during the news conference. Lemke said calculating the financial impact of privatizing all or part of Nebraska's electric system would be complex and take more research to be accurate. If Nebraska utilities did nothing in response to the Clean Power Plan, Lemke said, it might cost customers. But I assure you, we are looking at what we need to do to get ready for these kinds of changes. Our planning horizon is 30 to 40 years down the road. LES Vice President Shelley Sahling-Zart said public utilities can take advantage of tax incentives for renewable energy by buying electricity from private development companies. LES is buying electricity from Prairie Breeze II, a 73-megawatt wind farm in Antelope and Boone counties; from the Buckeye Wind Farm near Hays, Kansas; and the Arbuckle Mountain Wind Farm in Oklahoma. Lemke said the decision about privatization comes down to whether Nebraskans are happy with locally elected representatives making decisions about the future of their electricity or whether they want a private company with a board of investors calling the shots. The Platte Institute was founded by Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts. VERMILLION, S.D. | A key component in any city's economic development efforts is the spec building, a structure that's already built, ready for companies to move into. Vermillion now has a high-tech spec building, outfitted with fiber optic lines, ready for technology companies. Economic development officials just didn't plan on having one. The $4.2 million building was built for Eagle Creek Software Services, a Minnesota company that provides web and app development and technical support to other firms. But when the building was finished in 2014, Eagle Creek didn't come, and Vermillion was left with a 32,000 square foot building and no one to occupy it. Rather than feel sorry for themselves, members of the Vermillion Area Chamber & Development Co. chose to look on the bright side. "We've always talked about having a spec building. The building was intended and built for economic development purposes," said Nate Welch, VCDC executive director. The VCDC has since moved into one wing of the Vermillion Technology Center, located on the city's north side near South Dakota Highway 50 and the University of South Dakota campus. Multiple prospects have visited the site, Welch said, and the VCDC is speaking with a couple businesses now, but he couldn't disclose any information about the prospective tenants. Welch said he hoped that by the end of 2016, the building will be filled, and the VCDC will be packing, searching for a new home. "Our hope and intent when we moved in was that we would hopefully have to move out," Welch said. The building should be attractive to any company that relies on technology. It contains two wings, along with a commons and reception area. The main attraction is fiber optics wiring throughout that will provide tenants with speedy Internet service. "The facility is a state-of-the-art professional building that is attractive to a variety of prospects," said Pat Costello, commissioner of the Governor's Office of Economic Development, which worked with Vermillion to attract Eagle Creek and is now helping the city find someone to locate to Vermillion and occupy the building. The Vermillion Technology Center was built after a 2013 announcement that Eagle Creek, based in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, would be expanding into the city, creating 200 jobs and partnering with USD to help train potential employees. VCDC gave Eagle Creek notice in May 2014 that the building was substantially completed and issued a certificate of occupancy. Eagle Creek paid rent for August 2014, but has not made any other payments. VCDC sued Eagle Creek in Clay County Circuit Court for breach of contract and fraud. The case has been moved to federal court in Sioux Falls, but VCDC is seeking to have the case returned to state court. Eagle Creek denied the claims and countersued, claiming that economic development authorities did not intend to follow through on all the economic incentives the company had been promised. Eagle Creek officials declined to comment for this story. Because of the ongoing litigation, Welch said he couldn't comment on specifics of why Eagle Creek did not locate in Vermillion. "It's unfortunate, and we were disappointed with that," he said of the situation. Vermillion leaders hope they have learned from what happened as they continue their efforts to recruit companies to locate here. "The thing we are really certain of, the city of Vermillion has been spectacular in dealing with adverse situations," Welch said. "Our real and sincere hope is by the end of 2016 have a tenant or two in here." NORTH SIOUX CITY | Some books have the power to tug at your heart while others force you to question your personal belief. However, when Deb Matthys read William R. Forstchen's post-apocalyptic novel "One Second After," the North Sioux City Community Library director immediately began checking out prices for a portable water infiltration system. That is, until her husband intervened. "(Forstchen's book) revolved around an unexpected electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack that took away all phone lines and electricity in a small town," Matthys said. "When my husband saw that I started to horde medicine, he reminded me 'One Second After' was simply a work of fiction." To be honest, Forstchen's best-selling 2009 novel was an odd choice for Matthys, who usually prefers historical fiction over science fiction. "I had read some positive magazine reviews about 'One Year After' (Forstchen's long-awaited 2015 sequel) and noticed that our library actually had 'One Second After' on our shelves," she said. "I thought I'd give the original a try." "One Second After" tells the story of John Matherson, a college professor who struggles to save his family and a North Carolina town after America loses a war ... literally in one second. The war -- based upon an EMP attack -- has the capabilities of sending America back into the Dark Ages. And it may already be in the hands of our enemies. "Even before the book was published, 'One Second After' was cited on the floor of the U.S. Congress as a book all Americans should read," Matthys said. "It demonstrates how a powerful weapon in the wrong hands can literally destroy America as we know it." The book, she said, offered a dire warning of what might be in our future. In "One Second After," people are left without radio, television, the Internet or anyway to communicate with one another. It's terrifying how "plugged-in" our culture has become, isn't it? "Absolutely. Without our 20th and 21st century inventions, we could be thrown back into the conditions of the 19th century. But some people need technology to survive. For instance, (Matherson's) daughter has Type 1 diabetes. Without a constant supply of insulin, which requires refrigeration, she will die." The EMP also strands motorists whose cars and trucks come to a sudden halt. That means no food and no supplies, right? "That's correct. People begin reading books on canning and the drying of meat in order to survive." People actually having to read a book in order to survive is probably a comforting thought for a librarian, I imagine. "It would be if librarians didn't rely on technology as much as other people." How many books do you read? "I can go through as many as three to four books a week." That's amazing. Given the theme of "One Second After," do you read books the old-fashioned way or do you use an electronic device? "Actually, I read novels in book form as well as using an electronic device." SIOUX CITY | Patients who arrive in Mercy Medical Center's emergency department are often unconscious and unable to speak. Anna Speiser, one of the hospital's chaplains, thumbs through contact lists stored in their mobile phones in search of loved ones. Emergency physicians rely on chaplains to perform this task while they tend to patients. "I often look at their most recent call log to see who's been called a lot recently," she said. "It has happened that I've called someone and they've been pretty surprised." Noticing several calls to a particular number, Speiser once dialed a member of a patient's bowling league. In such a situation, she's careful not to give away any medical information. She simply asks if the person on the other end knows the patient and requests a more appropriate contact. Speiser encourages everyone to label phone numbers with "wife," "brother, "daughter" etc. instead of names or to enter the abbreviation "ICE" (in case of emergency) before the contact name. She said more people are locking their cellphones and don't have an "in case of emergency" contact accessible on their lock screens. This can be problematic even when the patient is conscious. "Sometimes people come in and they are very much awake and they know who they'd like contacted, but because phones have become so common, I think people don't tend to have numbers memorized as much as they once did," she said. If you own an iPhone, you can create a Medical ID which can be accessed from the emergency dialer without unlocking your phone. The Medical ID feature allows you to enter medical information that could be important in an emergency situation such as allergies and medical conditions. You can add an emergency contact to your Android phone's lock screen under your phone's settings. Speiser also recommends taking a screenshot of medical information and emergency contacts and making that the background of your smartphone's home screen. If you don't have a cellphone, write phone numbers of emergency contacts on a slip of paper and put them in your purse or wallet. Emergency contacts can also be added to medical ID bracelets or charms. Family and friends can provide important information about a patient such as allergies, recent surgeries and prescription drugs they are currently taking. Joseph Liewer, an emergency physician at Mercy, said doctors are able to complete an initial evaluation without a patient's medical information. They can also establish an airway or resuscitate the patient with medications and IV fluids. "We're used to making decisions with pretty limited information," he said. "Obviously, shortly after that initial assessment and care, we do rely on history from family or whoever has information available in terms of what medications the patient might be taking or problems they've had or the circumstances that brought them to the hospital." When there's a delay in obtaining medical information, Liewer said it's more difficult to take care of patients. "We may have to do more testing perhaps than may be necessary," he said. "There's no doubt that having information available is helpful for us and safer for the patient." SIOUX CITY | In a creepy old locker room, Tori Connot strategically places a meat cleaver next to a pool of a blood. Is this a crime scene? Well, the sign on the door clearly marks this as a room belonging to Lizzie Borden and Connot is clearly keen on bringing out the creepy. "I love Halloween because I've always liked scaring people," she said with a laugh that's slightly maniacal. Connot is decorating for the third annual Dark Corners Insane Asylum, a haunted house inside the Midtown Family Community Center at 525 14th St. A fundraiser for the organization, the haunted house will be open from 6-9 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Oct. 26. Connot came up with the idea of creating an "asylum" for famous fiends when she worked as an Americorps worker at the Community Center. "I always got a kick out of scary things and thought a creepy old building would be the perfect setting for a haunted house," Connot, now a Western Iowa Tech Community college student studying to become a correctional officer, explained. Connot is assisted in "creepy-fying" the ordinarily family-friendly facilities by Janet Reynolds, the Community Center's board president. "I'm really not a Halloween person and had never been inside a haunted house until this one," Reynolds admitted. Still, Reynolds has gotten into the spirit of things by decorating rooms dedicated to "Friday the 13th"'s Jason Voorhees, "Nightmare on Elm Street"'s Freddy Krueger and "Child's Play"'s Chuckie. "Chuckie was actually sort of cute," she said, nonchalantly. "That is, until he got chopped up and everything." Connot said the haunted house has become a labor of love for her and nearly 15 volunteers. "Halloween has a way of bringing out the kid in you," she said. More importantly, Dark Corners Insane Asylum will bring needed funds to the Midtown Family Community Center's after-school program. The facility offers homework tutoring, games, sporting activities and dinner for elementary and middle school-aged children. "With so many working parents, kids often have no place to go after school," Connot said. "The Community Center offers that safe haven." Perhaps, but the Dark Corners Insane Asylum won't skimp on the spooky. "The Community Center may look safe in the daylight," Reynolds said, "but it's terrifying at nighttime." Especially when inhabited by actors portraying seminal characters as "Silence of the Lambs"'s Hannibal Lecter and "Psycho"'s Norman Bates. "I'm still debating what character I'll be playing," Connot said. "Last year, I played Bloody Mary and it's hard to top her." Glancing at the sickly red blood gathered on the linoleum, she smiles a terrifying smile. "Nothing is more frightening than having Bloody Mary jumping at you when you least expect it," Connot said. SIOUX CITY | A Sioux City businessman is asking Iowa legislators to raise the state's hourly minimum wage when they return to Des Moines in January, saying higher wages in neighboring states put Iowa at a hiring disadvantage. In Nebraska, the minimum wage rose to $9 an hour for non-tipped workers Friday, up from $8 an hour in 2015 and $7.25 before that. It's the final phase of a two-step increase approved by voters in 2014 following a successful petition drive. That same year, South Dakota voters approved a referendum that raised the minimum wage in the Rushmore State to $8.55 an hour. Iowa's minimum wage remains at the federally mandated $7.25 an hour, unchanged since 2009. Kelly Conolly, a vice president for J & L Staffing and Recruiting, in Sioux City, said the pay gap with the two border states is making it hard for him to hire people through his employment agency. "People will come in and say, 'I am not taking less than $9 per hour,'" Conolly said, adding $7.25 is not a living wage. "I know it is supposed to be an entry-level wage, but it is not working," he said. Iowa legislators remain mixed on whether an increase is warranted, including critics who say raising the minimum wage passes more costs onto businesses. Iowa House Speaker Kraig Paulsen, R-Hiawatha, last year said the bill would not move in that chamber, saying it would hurt some low-wage workers who would lose their jobs. The last time the Iowa Legislature agreed to raise the minimum wage was in 2007, when then-Democratic Gov. Chet Culver signed a bill that bumped the rate from $5.15 an hour to $6.20 on April 1, 2007 and to $7.25 on Jan. 1, 2008. Conolly believes Iowa is shooting itself in the foot with a stagnant minimum wage. In a December letter to state lawmakers, including three from Sioux City, Republican Sen. Rick Bertrand and Democratic Reps. Chris Hall and Dave Dawson, Conolly pointed out that he generally holds conservative values. "However, we have to address the issue of being competitive with our neighboring states," Conolly said in the letter. Legilsative Democrats have sought for at least the past two years to raise the minimum wage to $8.75 an hour. The Democratic-controlled Senate passed a bill setting the higher rate, but the Republican-led House did not take it up. Hall said he hopes House Republicans come to recognize the poll results showing Iowans support a higher minimum wage. A Public Policy Polling survey in October 2014 found that 53 percent of Iowans favored increasing the minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 per hour. "When neighboring states raise their minimum wage, it does put Iowa at a competitive disadvantage," Hall said. Bertrand was the sole Republican senator who voted for the minimum wage increase in 2015, when it advanced 27-22 with 26 Democratic votes. Bertrand last week said he voted for the measure because it included his goal of exempting high-school-age Iowans and some seasonal workers from getting the higher wage. Bertrand, a businessman whose holdings have included bars and restaurants, said he still supports the minimum wage increase to address the tri-state region's wage disparity that businesses have described to him. He said the increase is needed for "border equity" and that $8.75 is defensible because it would be between the Nebraska and South Dakota minimum rates. Conolly said Iowa would benefit from a higher minimum wage in two ways: It would increase state income tax collections and reduce the amount the state pays in public-assistance benefits to low-income residents. Plus, it just makes good business sense, especially in an area such as Sioux City, which is experiencing a hiring crunch, he said. "I don't believe that a lower minimum wage is good for business when it reduces the capability to attract entry level workers in comparison to neighboring states with higher minimum wages. The wage pressure is already in place for semi-skilled and skilled positions in our area," Conolly said. SIOUX CITY | Alvin E. Michaelsen, 87, of Sioux City passed away Thursday, Dec. 31, 2015, at his home in Sioux City. Services will be 11 a.m. Wednesday at Waterbury Funeral Service of Sioux City, 4125 Orleans Ave. Burial will be in Memorial Park Cemetery. Alvin was born July 29, 1928, in Pierson, Iowa, the son of August and Ella (Nissen) Michaelsen. He grew up in the Pierson area, attending the Pierson Consolidated School. Obtaining his GED while in the service, he then served his country for 21 years in the U.S. Army, which took him to many countries throughout the world. After returning from the Army, Alvin was employed with the Woodbury County Sheriff's Department as a Watch Commander and Criminal Investigator. He was caregiver to his wife until her passing. Alvin was a devoted family man. He loved his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Alvin is survived by his children, Evamaria (Kenneth) Secoske and Mark (Barb) Michaelsen, both of Sioux City; his son-in-law, James Huisenga of Virginia; his sister-in-law, Harriet Michaelsen of Holstein, Iowa; eight grandchildren; and 18 great-grandchildren. He is proceded in death by his parents; wife, Gertrude; daughter, Sylvia Huisenga; grandson, James Michael Huisenga; four brothers, Wilbert, Lester, Howard and Merlin; and one sister, Evelyn (Michaelsen) Hansen. CHICAGO | His task was to solve a cruel mystery decades after a serial killer's death. Sgt. Jason Moran's work began in a graveyard, his first stop in his quest to identify the eight unknown victims of John Wayne Gacy. More than 30 years had passed since Gacy had murdered 33 young men and boys. Investigators now had more sophisticated crime-solving tools, notably DNA, so the Cook County sheriff's detective was assigned to find out who was buried in eight anonymous graves. Moran quickly helped a family confirm Gacy killed their brother. Since then, though, his search has led him down a totally unexpected path: He's cleared 11 unrelated cold cases across America. After eliminating these young men as Gacy victims, he's pored over DNA results, medical and Social Security records; enlisted anthropologists, lab technicians and police in Utah, Colorado, New Jersey and other states and cracked missing-person cases that had been dormant for decades. Most recently, Moran identified a 16-year-old murder victim in San Francisco who'd been buried 36 years ago. He's brought comfort to some by proving, through science and dogged research, that their missing loved ones are dead. He's brought joy to others, finding long-lost brothers and sons still alive. Marveling at this remarkable detour from the ghastly Gacy trail, Moran says he recently told his boss: "Is it possible that an evil serial killer has done some good?" PRIORITIZING TIPS Moran's work began four years ago after Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart publicly urged anyone who thought a relative was an unidentified Gacy victim to submit to a DNA test. Moran prioritized about 170 tips from more than 20 states, representing some 80 missing young men. He focused on those similar in age (14 to 24) and background to Gacy's victims: Many had troubled families or substance abuse problems. Some were gay. Others had worked construction for Gacy, a building contractor. He was executed in 1994. Authorities had long ago removed the jaw bones and teeth of the eight unknown victims, hoping for eventual identification. Decades later, they were buried, only to be exhumed in 2011. Moran took them to the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification, where lab workers developed solid DNA profiles for four victims. For the other four, the entire remains had to be exhumed. Within weeks, Moran cracked one case. William Bundy's mother had suspected Gacy killed her son, but the case was stymied because his dentist had destroyed his patients' records after retiring. Three decades later, Bundy's mother was dead, but his sister and brother provided DNA, resulting in a match to the unknown victim. It wasn't enough for a firm identification. Moran then studied the man's dental records, noticing empty spaces where his upper canine teeth had been removed. Bundy had those same teeth removed, saved them and his sister kept them all those years. Case cleared. Bundy is the only Gacy victim Moran has identified. But he's helped other families who feared their loved ones died at Gacy's hands. In every case involving DNA, Moran told families the results would be entered in CODIS, the federal Combined DNA Index System. If a genetic link emerged, he'd call. A TATTOO It took almost four years for Willa Wertheimer to get that life-changing call. In 2011, she'd told Moran about her hal -brother, Andre Drath. Their mother died when both were very young. When the grief-stricken little boy began getting into trouble, his stepfather turned him over to the state. Drath was abused in foster homes. Then one day he disappeared. "I used to fantasize about finding him," Wertheimer says. "I just wanted to hold him and tell him I love him and say I'm sorry about everything that had happened." Her DNA eliminated any link to Gacy victims, but last fall, a Texas lab worker notified Moran it was associated with an unidentified body found in San Francisco in 1979. That DNA hadn't been submitted to CODIS until late 2014. Moran reviewed the San Francisco police and medical examiner's reports, which showed the man had been shot multiple times. It also disclosed an all-important detail: A tattoo Andy on his right shoulder. Moran found more evidence in files from the Illinois agency that supervised Drath as a state ward including dental records matching those of the teen buried in Ocean Beach. It was bittersweet news for Wertheimer. "I was relieved that he wasn't hurting," she says, "but knowing how he died ... I felt awful." San Francisco police have reactivated their investigation. Moran hopes to soon have Drath's remains exhumed from a California cemetery. "I brought her to this point," he says, "now I'd like to help bring him home." A SURGICAL SCREW Jason Moran cradled an urn as he arrived at the North Side home. It had been 36 years since Edward Beaudion left that house, a 22-year-old heading to a wedding. Now, the detective was delivering his cremated remains to his sister, Ruth Rodriguez, and elderly father, Louis. DNA and old-fashioned police work brought this mystery to a frustrating end. The case had a suspect: A petty criminal named Jerry Jackson told police in 1978 that he'd fought with Beaudion in downtown Chicago, dragged his body into a car, then dumped him in a suburban forest preserve, according to Moran. Jackson was arrested in Caruthersville, Missouri, with the car Beaudion had been driving. It belonged to his sister; she found a bullet inside. A search of the woods, though, failed to turn up a body. Jackson was convicted only of stealing the car and items inside. Decades later, Moran started investigating. "I really felt the sadness and desperation in their voices," he says. Last year, their DNA was linked to skeletal remains that had recently arrived at the Texas lab. Some kids had spotted a leg bone in the woods where Jackson said he'd dumped Beaudion's body. That discovery was in 2008. Unfortunately, the remains sat in the Cook County medical examiner's office for five years before being sent to be tested. Studying the autopsy report, Moran noticed the leg bone contained a surgical screw in one knee. Beaudion had one, too. That was enough to confirm his identity yet that five-year delay thwarted Moran's bigger plan: While preparing to go to Missouri to arrest Jackson in Beaudion's death, he discovered Jackson had recently died. Still, Moran sensed the family was relieved. "His father told me when he dies, he'll have Edward's ashes in his casket and said, 'All of three of us will be together in perpetuity.'" 'EVERYBODY DESERVES A NAME' Thousands of miles away, a 75-year-old Army vet had his own lingering questions. Ron Soden contacted Moran about his younger half brother, Steven, who'd vanished in 1972. He'd run away during a camping trip organized by the New Jersey orphanage where he lived with his sister, April. Their mother had placed them there. Steven's father lived in Chicago. Could he have traveled there looking for him? Moran thought it possible and teamed with New Jersey State Police to work the case. April's DNA was ultimately linked with skeletal remains found at New Jersey's Bass River State Forest, about a mile from where Steven was last seen. That discovery was in 2000, but it wasn't until 2013 and more DNA tests from another half brother that Steven was identified. Hypothermia is suspected as the cause of death. "We always held out that hope ... then all of sudden you find out and it's not there anymore," says Ron Soden, who lives in Tacoma, Washington. "To realize he probably died at 17 ... it's just a shame his life had to be that way through no fault of his own." These poignant stories, Moran says, motivate him. "You've got these young kids who struggle through their short lives," he says. "Now they're anonymous. They don't have a headstone saying they were ever on this earth. I want them to have some dignity and respect so the world knows they once lived. "I mean, everybody deserves a name." HAPPY ENDINGS, TOO There are happy endings in Moran's work. Amazingly, he's located five living men who'd vanished in the 1970s. "I scold them and say, 'Why would you do this to a loving family?'" In 2013, Moran reunited Edyth and Robert Hutton after 41 years. Edyth had made numerous attempts to find her brother, including mailing about 300 postcards to various Robert, Rob, Bob and Bobby Huttons nationwide. A relative who is a private investigator thought he'd located Hutton in Colorado. But when Edyth and her father wrote letters to that address, they were returned as undeliverable. In a last-ditch effort she searched NamUs, a website featuring missing and unidentified people, narrowing her list to seven. She contacted the respective law enforcement agencies. One person replied: Jason Moran. Using Hutton's vital statistics, Moran thought he'd tracked him to Colorado but when police arrived, the man was gone. Moran waited several months and when the sheriff's analysts checked updated databases they found a match in Montana. "Your brother is alive," Moran told Hutton's sister. The siblings reconnected the next day. "I felt like a hole in my heart had been filled," she says. Her brother, she says, told her he'd gotten involved with drugs, straightened out and returned to the family's hometown in California but everyone had moved. He declined to be interviewed for this story. Robert Hutton recently moved to Nevada to live near his sister. "We see each other almost daily," she says, "and we love it." WASHINGTON -- Ethan Couch, meet Donald Trump, fellow Affluenza sufferer. Couch is the Texas teenager who killed four people and injured nine others when he lost control of his -- or, should I say, his mommy and daddy's -- speeding pickup. Couch was 16. Three hours after the grisly crash, his blood alcohol level was three times the legal limit for an adult. His lawyer and his expert witness psychologist -- or, should I say, the lawyer and the expert witness psychologist hired by his mommy and daddy -- argued that Couch should be spared imprisonment because his overprivileged upbringing had failed to teach him the difference between right and wrong. Mommy and Daddy had never set limits or imposed consequences on young Ethan. Couch's infuriating defense -- it's not fair to punish me because I've never been punished before -- succeeded in winning him probation instead of the 20 years sought by prosecutors. Of course, Couch is back in the news because complying with the no-alcohol terms of probation was apparently too much for him; Mommy fled with him to Mexico rather than allow him to face punishment. "He never learned that sometimes you don't get your way," testified the psychologist, G. Dick Miller. "The teen never learned to say that you're sorry if you hurt someone," Miller observed. "If you hurt someone you sent him money." From his parents, "Ethan learned you should be able to do what you want to do when you want to do it," prompted his lawyer. "I think that was the message," Miller agreed. Ethan, he said, was taught, "We have the gold, we make the rules." In one telling interchange in a videotaped deposition in a civil lawsuit, Ethan's father Fred was asked about his own stop for drunk driving: "Did you tell the arresting officer, 'I make more in a day than you make in a year?'" Fred Couch, smirking: "Probably." When the head of Ethan's private school confronted Fred Couch about allowing the boy to drive himself to school at the age of 13, he laughed her off and said he would buy the place. "He was adamant that Ethan was going to drive to school," LeVonna Anderson told "D" Magazine. "He believed his son was better. His son was more talented. He was the golden boy." Hmmm. Sound familiar? If Couch is the Affluenza Teen, Trump is the Affluenza Candidate. The symptoms he exhibits are multiple, and florid: The overweening sense of entitlement. The conflation of money and intelligence, and the belief that wealth is a virtue in itself. The obsessive flaunting thereof. These qualities are not incidental to Trump's presidential campaign. They are integral to it. The campaign is predicated on the notion that with great wealth comes great entitlement. His trumpeted billions constitute the primary evidence of his qualification for the presidency. "I'm really rich," Trump said in announcing his campaign. "I'm proud of my net worth. I've done an amazing job." American politics has featured its share of rich candidates, but never before, and certainly not to this degree, has a candidate's fortune been his raison d'etre. After all, the tradition is much the opposite -- to emphasize humble, log-cabin beginnings. Candidates burdened with wealthy parents endeavor to display the semblance of ordinariness. Not Trump. He doesn't downplay. He flaunts the Trump name for all to see. His consumption could not be more conspicuous. Mitt Romney was dinged for building car elevators and having his wife drive "a couple of Cadillacs." Trump invites reporters aboard his private jet, complete with its 24-carat gold-plated seatbelts. The candidate's wealth is both evidence of his merit and a benefit in itself, proof that Trump is immune to the pressures faced by less-affluent politicians. "I don't need anybody's money," Trump proclaimed in his announcement speech. "It's nice." The flip side of this attitude, for those afflicted with Affluenza, is that the ordinary rules of personal conduct and human decency do not apply to the sufferer. Trump calls people names. He says things that are untrue. He never backs down. Being Trump means never having to say you're sorry. In the case of Ethan Couch, his parents were the enablers of this conduct. In the case of Trump, at least so far, it's the voters. At least according to the polls that are at the center of Trump's universe, his offensiveness reaps no consequences. Voters seem to reward his outrageousness; they impose no limits on his bad behavior. A candidate with Affluenza is bad enough. Imagine a president with this malady. Editor's note: "Gone Cold: Exploring Iowa's unsolved murders" is a weekly feature highlighting some of Iowas unsolved homicides in the hope that it will lead to new tips and potentially help solve cases. The project is a partnership between The Journal and other members of the Iowa Newspaper Association. JACQUELINE JACKIE SHIREMAN | AGE: 21 | DIED: JAN. 4, 1975 Hometown: Dubuque Jackie Shireman was found lying in a pool of blood in the walk-in cooler at Dubuques Marinos Meal on a Bun around 7:45 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 4, 1975. She had been stabbed approximately 30 times with a pair of scissors. A witness told police she saw two men -- one about 20 years old and one about 35 years old -- leaving the restaurant minutes after the estimated time of the homicide. A little more than $100 was missing from the cash register. Steven Moore, 21, was indicted and tried for the murder. At the time of his indictment, two years after the murder, Moore was in the Iowa State Penitentiary on a burglary charge. Witnesses who had originally implicated Moore refused to testify during the trial. The lack of witness testimony combined with no footprints, fingerprints or palm prints matching Moore's being found in the restaurant, led to Moore being found not guilty. There were few other promising leads in the case. IAnyone with information about Shiremans unsolved murder is asked to contact the Dubuque Police Department at 563-589-4410 or the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation at 515-725-6010 or email dciinfo@dps.state.ia.us. DAVENPORT, Iowa | In a year when its been all about the so-called outsider candidates Ted Cruz, Ben Carson and, of course, Donald Trump one of the most intriguing questions in the 2016 Republican presidential race right now is this: Who will be the establishment candidate? That's not a question that usually gets asked in Iowa, where the speculation is customarily about whether the party's evangelical Christians will vote. Welcome to the last month before the Iowa caucuses, where a year's worth of scrambling is narrowing to a smaller but still sizable field of candidates and some key questions still must be answered by the voters. With the Christmas and New Year's holidays now behind us, candidates are ramping up their schedules, organizational efforts and energy levels all with their calendars aimed at one date: Feb. 1. So, what to expect in the final 29 days? Well, candidates. Lots of them. TV ads, yes. But likely not as much reliance on them as in the past, given how social media and free campaign coverage has shaped the 2016 race. And, focus. The last 30 days is when you sharpen your message so people know what youll do as president, said Steve Grubbs, the Davenport consultant who is advising Rand Paul. And organization. Thats another thing to expect in the last month of campaigning: lots of phone calls, door knocking and personal pleas for support. There still are a dozen Republicans campaigning for president, even with the number who have dropped out. And many of them have at least some presence in Iowa. Then, theres the race for the Democratic Partys presidential nomination. Most experts figure that Hillary Clinton is the favorite, and in Iowa, she has been leading by roughly 10 to 20 points, depending on what poll you believe. But Bernie Sanders still is drawing large crowds 1,850 in Davenport just last week and he said he plans a full court press of phone calls, volunteers and advertising in the last days. Were going to be running all over the state, the Vermont senator said last week. Clinton will put on her track shoes, too. She will kick off a two-day, six-stop tour Monday in Davenport. Her presence will be augmented soon by Bill and Chelsea Clinton and other high-wattage surrogates. And the campaign plans to fire up the organizational effort that it put on the ground months ago. In other words, the basic block and tackling thats required for a caucus state. Their plan has been slow and steady wins the race, and theyre executing on that, said Jeff Link, a Democratic strategist in the state. Then, there's former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley. He's focused heavily on the state, and while polls haven't rewarded him so far, he's still working hard, even campaigning last Monday in the midst of a snowstorm when others had canceled events. Still, most of the questions are on the Republican side of the ledger. Will the big crowds of nontraditional voters at Donald Trump's rallies actually show up to vote? Can Ben Carson, whose campaign saw two top aides resign last week amid talk of a staff shakeup, reverse his slide in the polls? Will Ted Cruz, who analysts say has appealed to people in each of the factions of the state's Republican electorate, be able to withstand questions about his social conservative credentials and opposition to government policies supporting ethanol? Then, of course, there are the votes of mainstream Republicans. In 2012, nearly six in 10 Republican caucusgoers identified themselves as evangelical Christians. But that still leaves a big chunk of people who don't identify with that label who haven't yet aligned with someone. "I think the candidates understand that part of the Iowa electorate is up for grabs," said Matt Strawn, former chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa. "That really does seem to be the greatest unknown going into the final month of the caucus campaign." For some weeks, Marco Rubio has been the Republican who has trailed Cruz and Trump in most polling, and he's been seen as the front-runner for those voters. But last week, a Super PAC backing Jeb Bush aired an ad critical of Rubio's voting record in the Senate, while Chris Christie attacked the Florida senator on the same issue. So, it appears there is a battle shaping up for those voters, as candidates who haven't placed as much emphasis on Iowa try to get a bump going into New Hampshire. With most of the political spotlight focused on Iowa these next 29 days, there will be an all-out sprint to the finish. And while much of the attention will be focused on those at the top of the polls, Grubbs thinks theres room for optimism for other candidates, as long as they convince the electorate that theyre viable. The nice thing for all the campaigns is that history has shown that people move many places in the last 30 days, he said. DES MOINES | In 2015, Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad shifted management of the states Medicaid program to private health-care companies. In 2016, state lawmakers have an opportunity to get involved, if they choose. The merits of the states shift to privately managed Medicaid have been debated vociferously: Supporters say private companies will run the program more efficiently and offer better services, while critics worry those for-profit companies will save money by reducing services. The transition itself has been rife with delays and legal challenges. Implementation is set for March 1, pending federal approval. State legislators will get their opportunity to weigh in on the transition when the Iowa Legislature convenes for the 2016 session on Jan. 11. One in five Iowans receives health-care services from Medicaid, and one in five state dollars is spent on the $5 billion government-run health care program, according to the states nonpartisan fiscal estimating agency. With that much at stake, Democratic state legislators said they think an extra layer of oversight is appropriate. I think what were asking here is, this is a new program, and ($5 billion annually) thats a chunk of change here, said Sen. Amanda Ragan, D-Mason City, who is co-chair of legislative committees on health care policy and spending. I think when you have that big a change, theres certainly some reason to have people looking out for folks. The Senate in 2015 unanimously approved legislation that created stronger oversight of the shift to managed Medicaid, including a commission of state legislators. But the bill was not considered in the Republican-controlled House. Then-House Majority Leader Linda Upmeyer, R-Clear Lake, said at the time that the Legislatures natural oversight powers were sufficient to monitor the managed Medicaid shift. Upmeyer, who will take over as House speaker for the coming session, reiterated that in recent interviews. As a Legislature, we always have the oversight role, Upmeyer said. Thats one of the things were going to be watching, to see how this works. If there are adjustments or tweaks needed, we certainly have the capability of doing that. I think the oversight role is an absolutely legitimate one, but we need to let this happen. Democratic leaders said they think the Legislatures natural oversight is insufficient to oversee what they called a dramatic program shift. The bill that passed in the Senate (in 2015) provided far more authority than the usual committee process, said Senate President Pam Jochum, D-Dubuque, whose adult daughter has intellectual disabilities and receives Medicaid services. I hope the House will realize this time that regardless of what party has the governors office that the legislative branch needs to have an active role whenever this kind of monumental change is occurring in state government. Upmeyer and Senate Minority Leader Bill Dix, R-Shell Rock, accused Democrats of politicizing the issue. Democrats say they are acting on behalf of their constituents, who have flooded state phone lines with concerns over the Medicaid management shift. I cant imagine other (legislators) arent hearing from providers and consumers and Medicaid beneficiaries in their families that there are some issues out there, Ragan said. We still have to deal with it. Maybe all of us, together, can come to some reasonable solution. VERMILLION, S.D. | Two hundred information technology consulting positions are coming to Vermillion as part of a Minnesota-based company's strategy to keeping the jobs from being sent overseas. Eagle Creek Software Services, which provide Web and app development and technical support to Fortune 1500 firms, will create 200 jobs in a $10 million technology center in Vermillion, where the company also will partner with the University of South Dakota to help train potential hirees. Eagle Creek's tech center, planned for a three-acre site in Vermillion's Riverbend Business Park, along the Highway 50 bypass, is expected to open this spring. Construction has begun on the new center, and 40 to 50 people are already working for Eagle Creek out of temporary space at the university, said Simon Boardman of Minneapolis, vice president-marketing for Eagle Creek. Well be taking delivery in May or June, he said, noting that the grand opening will be held later, possibly in July Gov. Dennis Daugaard joined Eagle Creek CEO Ken Behrendt in announcing the project on March 13, 2013. While state incentive packages often include training money, Daugaard said directing the training money to a university in the form of tuition and fees for students who want to take the classes is a new approach. "We're not only helping Eagle Creek, but we're using those economic development dollars to help USD and the students who come here," Daugaard said during a news conference in Vermillion. The project is an expansion of Eagle Creek's "Dakota" model of doing business in the lower-cost states of South Dakota and North Dakota as an alternative to businesses outsourcing IT to India or other overseas sites. What were seeing, Boardman said, is that demand is swinging back somewhat to the U.S. in terms of being able to provide the technical and consulting expertise that has been associated more with offshore locations. So were able to be more competitive by how we partnered with all the investors like the state and communities and be an example in the community of Vermillion and the university and the university system. They provided us with a skilled workforce that is able to provide the consulting and technical expertise. Behrendt said there are numerous hidden costs associated with sending development jobs overseas. Besides avoiding language, cultural and time-zone issues that arise with overseas support teams, U.S.-based project centers work better when a company needs continuous interaction with its consultants or wants techs to speak to their customers. "Actually, it's cheaper to do work in South Dakota than it is in Chennai, India, when you really get down to it," Behrendt said at the new conference. "That's what the business and corporate world is realizing." As part of its expansion, Eagle Creek will add 150 and 100 jobs at its centers in Pierre, S.D., and Valley City, N.D. Additional positions will be added in other South Dakota cities over the next three to five years, he said. The Pierre center, which opened in 2008, started Eagle Creek's relationship with the state of South Dakota that led to development of the USD and Vermillion project. The Governor's Office of Economic Development, the state Board of Regents, USD and Vermillion Area Chamber of Commerce all collaborated on it. The newly formed IT Consultant Academy at USD will offer eligible students scholarships and a path to full-time employment with Eagle Creek. Beginning this fall, the academy will offer a four-course certificate program for undergraduates and a two- and three-year master's degree. Lauire Becva, the university's senior associate provost, said prospective students should have a background in computer science, business or science and engineering and a high technical aptitude. "It's a strategy to grow professional and competitive jobs in South Dakota and to grow our own work force," Becvar said. "It's a great example of a university customizing higher eduction to meet the needs of business and industry." Graduates of the certificate program will be eligible for free tuition and fees, three-month paid internship and a job interview. The IT consultant positions pay between $40,000 and $45,000 annually. Graduates of the master's program could command salaries between $50,000 and $60,000. For the new Vermillion jobs, Behrendt said, Eagle Creek will recruit graduates from colleges from around the country. New hires must complete the company's own training, which lasts four to six months. In Pierre, he said, about 80 percent of the company's workforce was recruited from outside the region, Behrendt said he expects that percentage to be somewhat lower. Steve Howe, executive director of the Vermillion Area Chamber and Development Co., said the project will bring multiple benefits to the city of about 10,700. Among others, it has the potential to redefine the local economy, creating more white-collar job opportunities for USD undergraduates. "Being able to maintain those students in the community after they graduate is what we really need," Howe said. Journal Business Editor Dave Dreeszen and The Associated Press contributed to this story. VERMILLION, S.D. | Two hundred information technology consulting positions are coming to Vermillion as part of a Minnesota-based company's strategy to keeping the jobs from begin sent overseas. Eagle Creek Software Services, which provide Web and app development and technical support to Fortune 1500 firms, will create 200 jobs in a $10 million technology center in Vermillion, where the company also will partner with the University of South Dakota to help train potential hirees. Gov. Dennis Daugaard joined Eagle Creek CEO Ken Behrendt in announcing the project on March 13. While state incentive packages often include training money, Daugaard said directing the raining money to a university in the form of tuition and fees for students who want to take the classes is a new approach. "We're not only helping Eagle Creek, but we're using those economic development dollars to help the USD and the students who come here," Daugaard said during a news conference in Vermillion. The project is an expansion of Eagle Creek's "Dakota" model of doing business in the lower cost states of South and North Dakota as an alternative to businesses outsourcing IT to India or other overseas sites. Behrendt said there are numerous hidden costs with sending development jobs overseas. Besides avoiding language, cultural and time-zone issues that arise with overseas support teams, U.S.-based project centers work better when a company needs continuous interaction with their consultants or want techs to speak to their customers. "Actually, it's cheaper to do work in South Dakota than it is in Chennai, India, when you really get down to it," Behrendt said at the new conference. "That's what the business and corporate world is realizing." As part of its expansion, Eagle Creek will add 150 and 100 jobs at its centers in Pierre, S.D. and Valley City, N.D. Additional positions will be added in other South Dakota cities over the next three to five years, he said. The Pierre center, which opened in 2008, started Eagle Creek's relationship with the state of South Dakota that led to development of the USD and Vermillion project. The Governor's Office of Economic Development, the state Board of Regents, USD and Vermillion Area Chamber of Commerce all collaborated on it. The newly-formed IT Consultant Academy at USD will offer eligible students scholarships and a path to full-time employment with Eagle Creek. Beginning this fall, the academy will offer a four-course certificate program for undergraduates and a two- and three-year master's degree. In April, the Board of Regents is expected to approve the certificate program, which will include two software engineering courses, project management and data management. Lauire Becva, the university's senior associate provost, said prospective students should have a background in computer science, business or science and engineering and a high technical aptitude. The "It's a strategy to grow professional and competitive jobs in South Dakota and to grow our own workfore," Becvar said. "It's a great example of a university customizing higher eduction to meet the needs of business and industry." Graduates of the certificate program will be eligible for free tuition and fees paid, three-month paid internship and a job interview. The IT consultant positions pay between $40,000 and $45,000 annually. Graduates of the master's degree could command salaries between $50,000 and $60,000. For the new Vermillion jobs, Behrendt said, Eagle Creek will recruit graduates from colleges from around the country. New hires must complete the company's own training, which lasts four to six months. In Pierre, he said, about 80 percent of the company's workforce was recruited from outside the region, Behrendt said he expects that percentage to be somewhat lower. Eagle Creek's tech center, planned for a three-acre site in Vermillion's Riverbend Business Park, along the Highway 50 bypass, is expected to open in 2014. Later this year, the company will begin operating in a temporary facility in town later this year, and begin hiring its first class of about 20 students, Behrendt said. Steve Howe, executive director of the Vermillion Area Chamber and Development Co., said the project will bring multiple benefits to the city of about 10,700. Among others, it has the potential to redefine the local economy, creating more white-collar job opportunities for USD undergraduates. "Being able to maintain those students in the community after they graduate is what we really need," Howe said. Eagle Creek, which specializes in tech services related to Oracle Corp.'s customer relationship management software, serves large clients in the health care, financial services, insurance and life sciences sectors. A more consistent supply of trained workers will help Eagle Creek better prepare for growth if a customer suddenly needs to ramp up, Behrendt said. "If we're at a major health care organization and they ask us, 'Can you scale up 50 or 100 or 200 people?' that becomes the issue," he said. "What you need are trained individuals." Since the recession of 2007-2009, firms are investing more in technology and are looking to get closer to their customers, whether through mobile apps or social media. All of those efforts are underpinned with technology, so companies want their contract IT consultants to better understand their businesses, said Behrendt, who has a 25-year background in offshore services. That's difficult with faraway consultants, so a growing number of companies that are expanding are now demanding U.S.-based help. "The pendulum is swinging back, and it's creating a supply and demand issue in the United States," he said. "Our approach to it is South Dakota is as good as any place in the United States to provide these jobs." The Associated Press contributed to this story. Herschel's Dictum. There arent too many human interaction problems that cant be fixed with a .45 ACP 230-grain fat-boy. -- Herschel Smith. Always remember: "A communist is an impatient socialist." - Anonymous contributor to this blog. The Nyberg Flag of the Three Percent Edmund Burke reconsidered in the light of 20th Century funeral pyres. "Remember: Evil exists because good men don't kill the government officials committing it." -- Kurt Hofmann. Collected video links of my speeches on liberty and armed civil disobedience. From 2013 to date. Absolved Chapter Links Click HERE. And, as things begin to spin out of control, remember this: "All politics in this country now is just dress rehearsal for civil war." -- Billy Beck, August 2009. From MamaLiberty over at War on Guns: "Here's an idea...If nobody wants a 'civil disturbance,' why in heck don't they quit disturbing us?" Indeed. "When Democracy Becomes Tyranny "Progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress." I believe that liberty is the only genuinely valuable thing that men have invented, at least in the field of government, in a thousand years. I believe that it is better to be free than to be not free, even when the former is dangerous and the latter safe. I believe that the finest qualities of man can flourish only in free air that progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress, and of no permanent value. I believe that any man who takes the liberty of another into his keeping is bound to become a tyrant, and that any man who yields up his liberty, in however slight the measure, is bound to become a slave. -- H.L. Mencken On the efficacy of passive resistance in the face of the collectivist beast. . . Had the Japanese got as far as India, Gandhi's theories of "passive resistance" would have floated down the Ganges River with his bayoneted, beheaded carcass. -- Mike Vanderboegh. In the future . . . When the histories are written, National Rifle Association will be cross-referenced with Judenrat. -- Mike Vanderboegh to Sebastian at "Snowflakes in Hell" "Smash the bloody mirror." If you find yourself through the looking glass, where the verities of the world you knew and loved no longer apply, there is only one thing to do. Knock the Red Queen on her ass, turn around, and smash the bloody mirror. -- Mike Vanderboegh From Kurt Hoffman over at Armed and Safe. "I believe that being despised by the despicable is as good as being admired by the admirable." From long experience myself, I can only say, "You betcha." "Only cowards dare cringe." The fears of man are many. He fears the shadow of death and the closed doors of the future. He is afraid for his friends and for his sons and of the specter of tomorrow. All his life's journey he walks in the lonely corridors of his controlled fears, if he is a man. For only fools will strut, and only cowards dare cringe. -- James Warner Bellah, "Spanish Man's Grave" in Reveille , Curtis Publishing, 1947. "We fight an enemy that never sleeps." "As our enemies work bit by bit to deconstruct, we must work bit by bit to REconstruct. Be mindful where we should be. Set goals. We fight an enemy that never sleeps. We must learn to sleep less." -- Mike H. at What McAuliffe Said "The Fate of Unborn Millions. . ." "The time is now near at hand which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen, or Slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their Houses, and Farms, are to be pillaged and destroyed, and they consigned to a State of Wretchedness from which no human efforts will probably deliver them. The fate of unborn Millions will now depend, under God, on the Courage and Conduct of this army-Our cruel and unrelenting Enemy leaves us no choice but a brave resistance, or the most abject submission; that is all we can expect-We have therefore to resolve to conquer or die." -- George Washington to his troops before the Battle of Long Island. "We will not go gently . . ." This is no small thing, to restore a republic after it has fallen into corruption. I have studied history for years and I cannot recall it ever happening. It may be that our task is impossible. Yet, if we do not try then how will we know it can't be done? And if we do not try, it most certainly won't be done. The Founders' Republic, and the larger war for western civilization, will be lost. But I tell you this: We will not go gently into that bloody collectivist good night. Indeed, we will make with our defiance such a sound as ALL history from that day forward will be forced to note, even if they despise us in the writing of it. And when we are gone, the scattered, free survivors hiding in the ruins of our once-great republic will sing of our deeds in forbidden songs, tending the flickering flame of individual liberty until it bursts forth again, as it must, generations later. We will live forever, like the Spartans at Thermopylae, in sacred memory. -- Mike Vanderboegh, The Lessons of Mumbai:Death Cults, the "Socialism of Imbeciles" and Refusing to Submit, 1 December 2008 "A common language of resistance . . ." "Colonial rebellions throughout the modern world have been acts of shared political imagination. Unless unhappy people develop the capacity to trust other unhappy people, protest remains a local affair easily silenced by traditional authority. Usually, however, a moment arrives when large numbers of men and women realize for the first time that they enjoy the support of strangers, ordinary people much like themselves who happen to live in distant places and whom under normal circumstances they would never meet. It is an intoxicating discovery. A common language of resistance suddenly opens to those who are most vulnerable to painful retribution the possibility of creating a new community. As the conviction of solidarity grows, parochial issues and aspirations merge imperceptibly with a compelling national agenda which only a short time before may have been the dream of only a few. For many Americans colonists this moment occurred late in the spring of 1774." -- T.H. Breen, The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence, Oxford University Press, 2004, p.1. Its well documented that accepting credit cards is good for business, but there is one snag to accepting credit cards that every retailer knows and fears: fraud. Credit card fraud can come in different forms, but they are avoidable if you know what to look for. These 12 tips will help you fight credit card fraud. 1) Educate Your Employees About Fraud You need to be aware of fraud to avoid it, but so do your employees. You both make up the first line of defense. Train your employees well to know the signs of potential fraud and remind them periodically to always stay alert. 2) Compare Signatures and Ask for Identification Very few retailers take the time to glance at the signatures anymore, but its simple and quick. Check for misspellings and make sure the name on the card matches the signature. Address the customer using the name on the credit card. If he or she doesnt respond, ask for a photo ID and compare those signatures. 3) Ask to See the Card Look for the cards security features, such as a clear hologram with a moving picture and the Bank Identification Number above or below the first four digits of the account number. Check the numbers themselves for signs of alteration and look for signs of tampering on the signature strip. 4) Be Wary of Customers Who Keep the Credit Card Separate From Their Wallet Most legitimate customers will keep their credit cards in their wallet along with some form of ID. Fraudsters are more likely to keep the fraudulent credit card separate from their wallet, so they do not have any means of ID with them. 5) Watch Out for Customers Who Are Distracting They may either be very talkative or very angry. Or they may wait until the last second before closing time to make a big purchase. Either way, they could be a potential fraudster trying to rush the clerk and keep their attention off the card authorization process. 6) Think Twice Before Manually Entering Damaged or Worn Cards Fraudulent cards are often damaged on purpose so the magnetic strip cannot be swiped. Instead, the customer may insist the clerk manually key in the card number, which bypasses the antifraud features of the magnetic strip. Always swipe the card, no matter how damaged. If the card cant be read, ask for another form of payment. 7) Do Not Accept Letters of Authorization Some fraudsters will present a letter from the cardholder that authorizes the use of their credit card. This should never be accepted as a form of verification. No one is allowed to borrow another persons card, regardless of relationship. Only the cardholder is authorized to use their credit card. 8) Take Note of What the Customer is Purchasing Have they purchased more than one of the same expensive item? Did they make their selections quickly, without thought to size or color or price? Or maybe they want a costly rush delivery to a different address, or they want to carry their purchase out of the store when its something normally delivered (such as large appliances or furniture). All these could be signs of a potential fraudster looking to leave your store quickly with their hot card and goods. 9) Use the Address Verification System (AVS) Address Verification is most common with card-not-present situations (like online purchases), but it can also be used when the card is present at the POS. In addition to the usual checkout process, the terminal asks for the customers billing ZIP code. The transaction will reject if the ZIP code entered doesnt match the one on file. 10) Know Your POS System and Equipment Sophisticated criminals can access information on the magnetic strip of a credit card when it is swiped at checkout. This process is called skimming, and it requires an actual attachment to the terminal that reads the card. To combat this, make sure you know what your payment processing equipment looks like and how it should work. If you see an extra device or notice malfunctioning software, you know to investigate further before continuing to accept credit cards from customers. 11) Keep Accurate Records of Credit Card Transactions Some fraud situations result from legitimate cardholders who make authorized purchases, only to fraudulently dispute the charges later. You can fight this kind of fraud if you are armed with the right information. Your acquiring bank can assist you with the process, but at minimum you will need the customer signature and evidence that you swiped the card and received an authorized approval. 12) When in Doubt, Call If you feel something is not quite right, do not hesitate to call the card issuer for authorization. Keep the card with you and move away from the customer to make the call. You may feel youre risking a sale by making the customer wait, but even if they are legitimate cardholders, its for their protection as much as yours. Avoiding fraud is critical in ensuring safe transactions at your business. For more information, you can check out Community Merchants USAs resources on fighting fraud. There are many fitness goals out there that we desire. Some of us want to be leaner and others wish to put on muscle mass. The thing is, for you to achieve your fitness goals, you need to "If you think youre pretty knowledgeable about the history of space exploration, then this blog will make you think again. It will also send you down one of those Internet 'rabbit holes' that spits you out, several hours later, with a newfound appreciation for a subject and a disquieting sense of disbelief about what time it is. (You have been warned.) The person responsible for this particular rabbit hole is the science writer and space aficionado David S. F. Portree, a veteran of the science blogosphere. . ." MOSCOW (Sputnik) On October 21, two overloaded wooden boats carrying 114 refugees, including 28 children, were transferred to a temporary reception area in the UK sovereign Akrotiri base on the southern coast of Cyprus before being moved to another sovereign base area (SBA), Dhekelia. "It is shameful that asylum seekers fleeing persecution arriving on UK territory have not been treated in accordance with the refugee convention," Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI) charity legal director Chai Patel told The Guardian. "Instead they have been left in awful limbo while being unlawfully threatened with deportation back to the persecution they fled." Patel argued officials were "coercing" refugees to move to Cyprus, which he claimed was "paid by the UK to temporarily house them and process their claims." The author further elaborates that much of the winds of change howling through the streets of Europe can be connected to the failure of US foreign policy, and the repercussions that has had on the European status quo. Bridge then provides other examples of the failed promises that President Obama so easily gave away to Europe back in 2009 and the gloomy reality: Guantanamo Bay detention facility is still open for business, Libya is in dire straits, while the US military is operating in Syria, albeit with little or no effect on Islamic State, its proclaimed target. Instead of being relieved from the warmongering insanity of the Bush era, the world is still embroiled knee-deep in crisis and in new places (Libya, Syria and Pakistan) that exploded on Obamas watch, as well as in Russia, where the Kremlin wised up fast to the fairy tale known as reset. The author, however, notes that the crises now enveloping the world are not limited to those of a military nature: Ever since the 2008 Financial Crisis, the worst economic setback since the Great Depression, Europe has been mired in dismal economic growth and high unemployment, compounded by an insane influx of millions of refugees that are only serving to erode Europes financial prospects, to say nothing about demographics. This academic investigation concludes that the massacre was a false flag operation, which was rationally planned and carried out with a goal of the overthrow of the government and seizure of power, wrote Katchanovski in his study, called The Snipers Massacre on the Maidan in Ukraine. It found various evidence of the involvement of an alliance of the far right organizations, specifically the Right Sector and Svoboda, and oligarchic parties, such as Fatherland. Concealed shooters and spotters were located in at least 20 Maidan-controlled buildings or areas. The deaths of 49 protesters on February 20 have been attributed by Kievs current government to the Berkut special police force, loyal to then Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovychs government. Investigations of the massacre by Ukraines Prosecutor Generals Office and other government agencies blame Berkut for shooting the protesters on Yanukovychs orders. The prosecutors report falsely concluded that Berkut snipers killed 39 of the protesters who died that day, reports Katchanovski. My #apsa2015 paper was the first to conclude that #Svoboda leadership was involved in the #Maidan snipers' massacre http://t.co/GPUHYZh1it Ivan Katchanovski (@I_Katchanovski) October 12, 2015 The killings took place as the Yanukovych government was negotiating with opposition groups to find a political solution to the crisis, and was soon followed on February 22 by an armed coup that gave Ukraines Verkhovnaya Rada the power to change the constitution and overthrow the president. The Maidan-led government used the Maidan massacre as a source of its legitimacy and widely commemorated this mass killing and its victims among the protesters. The killed protesters were posthumously awarded Hero of Ukraine titles by President Petro Poroshenko, and the government established February 20 as a day in their honor, Katchanovski explains. The post-Yanukovych governments version of the events of that tragic day has been largely unchallenged by the Western governments and media, who have represented the massacre and the Maidan protests as a part of the narrative presenting Euromaidan as a democratic, peaceful mass protest movement and a revolution led by pro-Western parties, says the academic. A report of the International Advisory Panel, set up by the Council of Europe, presented evidence in 2015 that the investigation of the snipers' massacre on the Maidan has been stalled, in particular by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Prosecutor General office. The report revealed that contrary to the public statements, the official investigation had evidence of shooters killing at least three protesters from the Maidan-controlled Hotel Ukraina or the Music Conservatory and that at least other 10 protesters were killed by unidentified snipers from rooftops. Reprieve, an international human rights advocacy group, said the UK "must not turn a blind eye to such atrocities and must urgently appeal to the kingdom to change course." Leading human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell said, in an interview to Sky News, that the UK Government's stance on Saudi Arabia was "completely immoral." The International community has strongly criticized the kingdom for the executions of 47 alleged terrorists, including a prominent Shia cleric. The killings have increased tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Reprieve representative Maya Foa stated, "The Saudi government is continuing to target those who have called for domestic reform in the kingdom, executing at least four of them today. There are now real concerns that those protesters sentenced to death as children could be next in line to face the swordsman's blade." BAGHDAD (Sputnik)Parts of the Iraqi city of Ramadi, remaining under the control of the Daesh, also known as ISIL/The Islamic State militant group, should be fully liberated in four to five days, Lt. Gen. Abdul-Ghani Asadi, commander of Iraq's anti-terrorism contingent, told Sputnik Sunday. "Few areas of Ramadi are still controlled by Daesh, they will soon be liberated. We will establish full control over Ramadi in four to five days," Asadi said. According to the commander, after Ramadi is freed from Daesh militants, the Iraqi army will start liberating the city of Fallujah in the Anbar province. The Iraqi army will also need to receive the corresponding order from Supreme Commander Haider Abadi, the countrys prime minister, to proceed with the operation in Fallujah, Asadi added. In Syria, Iran has offered the secular government of Bashar al-Assad, embattled by over five years of war, political, economic and military assistance against a coalition of Saudi, Turkish and Qatari-funded jihadist groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood, the al-Nusra Front and Daesh (ISIL/ISIS). Furthermore, in Yemen, Saudi Arabia has formed a military coalition to try to crush the Shia tribesmen known as the Houthis, who overthrew the government of Saudi-backed president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi last year. Accusing the coreligionists of being a proxy for Iran (claims which both the Houthis and Tehran have denied), Riyadh launched a military campaign, including a naval blockade, prompting criticism that the intervention has caused a 'humanitarian catastrophe'. At the same time that it has struggled with real and imaginary Iranian threats abroad, the Saudi dynasty has also grown fearful of Shiites living in Saudi Arabia itself. Commenting on the escalating conflict for Russia's Gazeta.ru, Vladimir Ahmedov, a senior researcher at the Institute of Asian Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, called the emerging situation "somewhat frightening." According to the academic, the conflict in the Middle East threatens to gain a new, religious dimension, openly becoming a war between Sunnis and Shiites. "Living in the 21st century, we have been thrown back into the Middle Ages, when the main factor of wars was religion," rather than geopolitical considerations and the capture of territory. "This," Ahmedov warned, "reduces the possibility of coming to an agreement in the most acute conflicts in the region." The harsh reality, the expert noted, "is that if Ukraine allowed even one opposition television channel to exist, the government would collapse. Authorities know this, and therefore work to remove any dissent on television with all the means at their disposal." As for the Ukrainian president's commentary that broadcasting should be restored in the Donbass, and whether this will be able to influence local residents' worldview, Kornilov emphasized that "in free competition with Russian channels, the Ukrainian ones stand no chance. Therefore, Poroshenko's goal will be not only to restore the broadcast of Ukrainian channels, but to ban the Russian ones." "In the place of the Donetsk People's Republic's leaders, I would suggest an experiment: to allow the broadcast of Russian channels into the regions which border the Donbass Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhia, and in return allow for the broadcast of Ukrainian television in Donbass. I can assure you Kiev would angrily reject such an idea, because it understands what the consequences would be." Asked whether the new Ukraine Tomorrow project will be able to successfully compete with its Russian foreigner broadcaster counterparts, the analyst noted that "one cannot build a 'tomorrow', while ignoring today. In Ukraine this is something which is always overlooked. They have already forgotten that the foreign broadcaster Ukraine Today was founded last August. And what did it achieve in half a year? Zilch. So, instead of attempting to put the already existing project in order, Ukraine has started a new song and dance. And in a year and a half's time they will be creating the channel 'Ukraine After Tomorrow'." "At that time, the discussion was about a voluntary resignation of Gaddafi (providing him with another position, such as in the African Union) and the transfer of the country's governance to his eldest son, Saif al-Islam. The agreement could not be finalized largely because it was broken off by the Libyan opposition, along with its Middle Eastern sponsors." In Syria's case, Mirzayan noted, "the opposition's voice is significantly weaker, especially against the background of the roar of Russian aircraft, and the fact that the opposition's own sponsors have openly discredited themselves by financing Daesh." Ultimately, the analyst emphasizes, Russia is not "clinging to Assad," so much as "insisting that any agreed-upon vision of his departure is legitimate. And this is not only about the proverbial desire 'not to hand over Assad', but about Moscow's categorical rejection of setting a precedent for regime change under pressure. Iran, too, does not want this. Both Moscow and Tehran wish to prevent Syria from being a 'test case' for Washington's ambitions to engineer regime change against the leaders of other countries." Therefore, Mirzayan says, there are two interesting interpretations to Bloomberg's claims about what Putin allegedly told Kerry. "According to the first, the agreement between the West and Russia was not a compromise." Under this scenario, "over the past several months, Putin sold Europe and the West into giving up on the Syrian issue and agreeing to the preservation of Assad's government. From this perspective, all the statements by EU and US leaders to the effect that 'Assad does not have to leave now' were just the first steps to a follow-up that reads 'Assad does not have to leave'." Unfortunately, the analyst argues, "the hope that the West has finally realized the sensibleness of preserving Assad's government is extremely low. Yes, it would restrain the Islamists and provide comparative safety to Jordan and Israel. However, the EU and the US, who have staked their reputations in Syria, need a victory. A victory can only be achieved by overthrowing the Syrian 'regime', or, as a last resort, via his voluntary departure." Russia's Aerospace Forces will continue to launch satellites in 2016 for its missile attack early warning system, Rambler News Service reported on Sunday. The Russian military is believed to have launched the first early warning satellite for its new United Space System sometime in late 2015. Information about launches from the Plesetsk Comodrome is classified, although the military confirmed that the launch would be its second for the early warning system. "In 2015, specialists from the Aerospace Forces Space Forces launched 21 spacecraft, used for a variety of purposes, from the Plesetsk and Baikonur cosmodromes," the ministry stated. By implanting a microchip into a rats brain, Russian scientists seek to create a cyborg operative capable of infiltrating the most impregnable facilities and sniffing out drugs or explosives , France Inter reports. Rats actually possess an extremely keen sense of smell which far surpasses that of canines, and the implanted microchip would decode information flowing into the creatures brain, allowing the handler to detect even the smallest traces of substances that the rat wouldve otherwise ignored. The real know-how of this new technique is the microchip itself as rat sappers are already been employed by security agencies in Colombia, Israel and the Netherlands, France Inter points out. The GOP has systematically cultivated this anger for decades and has correctly recognized that it is a powerful force in mobilizing donors and voters. The magazine however warns that the party leaders might be wrong in assuming that they could control the passions they stoked. Accountability The magazine notes that being a billionaire presidential candidate with significant personal popularity, Trump is almost wholly unaccountable. He does not need to fear losing a governorship, a Senate seat, or another political post because of what he says. He does not need to fear being fired by his current employer or making himself unemployable. As a result, Trump is able to exploit the anger the GOP has cultivated more fully than any other candidate and to thwart the partys partially successful efforts to channel it. Reputation Kiev's determination to continue to spoil ties with Moscow may have a "disastrous impact" on Ukraine in the end, Radio France International (RFI) reported. RFI recalled that 2016 began with another deterioration in relations between Kiev and Moscow, with Ukraine deciding to withdraw from the CIS, a free trade zone which was established among the former Soviet countries following the break up of the USSR 24 years ago. The opening of a free trade zone between Ukraine and the European Union has become a "logical continuation of a hybrid war between two frenemies," RFI said, referring to Moscow and Kiev. The battle for Syria and Lebanon saw fighting in the same places we see ISIL (Daesh), Al-Qaeda, the so-called moderate jihadists and other proxy fighters killing one another today. The ancient city of Palmyra and many parts of Iraq were bloodstained until the Armistice of Saint Jean dAcre basically turned Syria and Lebanon over to Britain, says the political scientist. Syria and these other nations declared war on Nazi Germany afterwards, but there never was a cessation document officially signed in between Germany and these states. The signing of this particular document, the author says, might be the very key to a peaceful end game in Syria. A treaty now, in between Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, and other nations whove not officially signed such declarations accomplishes three very important functions. First and foremost, for instance, a Bashar Hafez al-Assad brokered truce in between these nations forwards the concept of Arabian independence T. E. Lawrence advocated. Assad as the catalyst would indemnify many Islamic tenants, and refute for millions the potential of a new Ottoman Empire, which some profess is in the works. Secondly, a treaty in between Germany and Syria in particular, would vehemently realign the western alliance strategy. Or in other words, dash any neocon or bankster play to destroy and fragment the Middle East further. Coming into the $25,000 Open Handicap Pace on Saturday night at The Meadowlands, Bushwackers Meadowlands resume was short and select. He sported just seven starts at the East Rutherford, New Jersey oval, with five of the seven races coming in stakes events. While Bushwacker had never won at The Meadowlands, he is stakes-placed in races like The Graduate and New Jersey Classic. On Saturday night, he found The Big M winners circle. Getting plenty of support at the betting windows, Bushwacker, the 8-5 favourite at post time, led at the first point of call, a :26.1 quarter, before yielding to the pocket behind the brushing Kingofthejungle. Bushwacker sat the pocket past the half-mile in :53.3 and three-quarters in 1:22.3 as Kingofthejungle blazed the way. In the stretch, Bushwacker found a seam up the pylons and powered through to the lead. Doctor Butch, off a three month layoff, rallied boldly down the center of the track, but Bushwacker was long gone and he would score in 1:50.1. Ontario Success was even off cover, finishing third. Winning driver Corey Callahan said in a pre-race interview that Bushwacker, hits a knee at Dover and should like the bigger track. He was right, as Bushwacker won for the 13th time in his career, lifting his earnings to $367,612. Bushwacker is trained by Chris Ryder for Henderson Farms. Bettorthanyou, who is January Mixed Sale-bound on the 18th of the month, scored in the $17,500 upper-level condition pacing event. Released as the 7-2 second-choice in the wagering, Bettorthanyou assumed command early in the mile and was well-rated throughout, putting up fractions of :28.1, :56.3 and 1:24.2 before sprinting home in 27 seconds to score the victory for Yannick Gingras. Sunfire Blue Chip, 3-2 choice, was locked in the pocket for much of the stretch as Gingras made sure to keep his gelding glued to the pylons and didnt have clear sailing until the shadow of the wire. Mr Franklin, who went a tough first over trip, held on gamely to finish third. Bettorthanyou is HIP #200 in the January Mixed Sale, presented by Tattersalls at The Meadowlands Racetrack on Monday, January 18. He is owned by Burke Racing Stable LLC and Weaver Bruscemi LLC. The win was the 13th in the career of Bettorthanyou, whose lifetime earnings went past $350,000. John Campbell closed out his 2015 season with a five-win night at The Meadowlands, the last of which pushed Campbell past $5 million (U.S.) on the year. He opened his 2016 season in similar fashion, winning four races on the Saturday program, including a 27-1 upset with Mudslide. Campbell has now won nine of his last 27 races at The Meadowlands. If you had wagered $2 on Campbell in each of those races, your total investment of $54 would have realized a return of $260.80, an Return On Investment of just shy of $10 for every $2 wagered. On the heels of the most successful season of his young career, Joe Bongiorno began 2016 much like he ended 2015, winning races at The Meadowlands. He scored a driving triple on the card, including the 14-horse race at 1-1/8 miles. The 2015 season saw Bongiorno win 192 races for earnings of $1,973,758. Both career highs for the 22-year-old reinsman. His Meadowlands numbers included 46 wins and earnings of $659,784, the highlight of which was the dead-heat victory in the Valley Victory Final with Make Or Miss. The 15-race Saturday card at The Meadowlands produced a total handle of $3,775,943, an increase of $1,178,455 over the 13-race card on this same night in 2015, or 45 percent. The per-race handle of $251,729 was a 26 percent increase over the $199,806 per-race handle on this night in 2015. In addition, on-track handle nearly doubled, increasing 95 percent from $209,066 to $407,897, and the per-race on-track handle increased 69 percent as well. The total handle of $3,775,943 was the third highest-handling program since the Breeders Crown of 2014, trailing only Meadowlands Pace and Hambletonian Day of 2015. Friday racing returns on January 8, with post time returning to 7 p.m. The Meadowlands racing schedule returns to each Friday and Saturday through Hambletonian Day, Saturday, August 6. (With files from Meadowlands Racetrack) William 'Bill' Perretti, 36, close nephew of Standardbred Breeders & Owners Association of New Jersey Board Director Anthony Perretti, passed away on December 26, 2015. Mr. Perretti was a passionate surfer, skateboarder and sport bike rider. He was survived by his parents, William and Joan Perretti Jr., and his younger brother Ben. He is also the grandson of William Perretti Sr. Visitation for Mr. Perretti will be on Sunday, January 3, 2016, between 1-2 p.m. at the Lohman Funeral Home Ormond, 733 W. Granada Blvd. Ormond, Beach FL 32174. Funeral service to immediately follow at 2 p.m. Please join Standardbred Canada in offering condolences to the family and friends of Bill Perretti. (With files from SBOANJ) Ecological Meltdown And Nuclear Conflict: The Relevance Of Gandhi In The Modern World A few months ago, entrepreneur Charles Devenish contacted me to tell me about his plans to develop various mining enterprises across India. He spoke about the massive amounts of untapped mineral resources lying beneath India that is just lying there and has been for a long time. What he thought I might find appealing were his plans for how small-scale mining could dovetail with a model of agriculture aimed at restoring Indian soils, which have been seriously degraded by decades of green revolution chemical poisoning, and a rolling back of the increasing and harmful corporate control of farming. Devenish wants to set up co-operative mining enterprises in rural areas that would involve local farmers, who would then have a say and a stake in these local mines (see this report ). The farmers would also benefit from the profits that would supplement their farming income and also be funnelled into investment in research and knowledge, which would enable them to restore their soils and move towards organic agriculture that would be in harmony with the local ecology. Taken at face value, the plan sounds reasonable, especially given the current push to make farming financially non-viable, displace farmers from their lands and then implement a petro-chemical intensive system of agriculture based on the industrialised model of farming that the West has adopted. This model has led to de-nutrified food, degraded soils, contaminated water, serious health issues and various other problems. Although there are calls to help farmers by, for example, providing them with a proper living income and stopping wrongful land acquisition, waiting for policy makers in central government to address the plight of farmers could be a very long wait indeed, particularly as much of officialdom is facilitating the corporate takeover of farming But what caught my attention was Charles Devenishs commitment to a Gandhian model of rural development. The model of mining he is proposing seems a long way from those stories we hear about people being driven from their lands as big corporations move in to destroy the landscape and ecology courtesy of corrupt back-room deals done with officials. The aim is to keep farmers on their lands and provide them with additional sources of income, not least from mining. Devenishs Gandhian model of development appears to have nothing to do with Gates-Zuckerberg models of philanthro-capitalism that we currently hear about. What Gates is attempting to do with agriculture in Africa is very much tied to a corporate model as envisaged by Monsanto. And what Zuckerberg seems to want is to roll out a free and basic version of the internet which is again tied to corporate interests But mention Gandhi in certain circles and the response is one of cynicism: many would say his ideas are outdated and irrelevant in todays world. Such a response could not be further from the truth. Gandhi could see the future impact of large-scale industrialisation in terms of the devastation of the environment, the destruction of ecology and the unsustainable plunder of natural resources. Gandhi was ahead of his time. Although he might not have used todays terms, ideas pertaining to environmentalism, agroecology, sustainable living, fair trade, local self-sufficiency, food sovereignty and so on were all present in his writings. He was committed to inflicting minimal damage on the environment and was concerned that humans should use only those resources they require and not amass wealth beyond their requirements. People have the right to attain certain comforts but a perceived right to unbridled luxuries would result in damaging the environment and impinge on the species that we share the planet with. His own lifestyle was a highly sustainable one, focusing on simplicity, austerity and need rather than want. For Gandhi, indigenous capability and local self-reliance (swadeshi) were key to producing a model of sustainable development. This is in stark contrast to what is currently taking place. For example, Chennai (Madras) has just experienced its worst flooding in over 100 years. This article in the Hindustan Times outlines how uncontrolled urban sprawl and planning across India has ignored watershed management and proper environmental planning and has placed cities at the peril of major flooding. In Delhi, the authorities are building on flood plains. Across India, cities are sitting ducks for all sorts of natural disasters. Another example is agriculture, whereby the green revolution brushed aside indigenous agriculture and replaced it with water- and chemical-intensive farming that relies on external inputs from corporations and results in massive external costs, including huge damn construction projects, soil degradation, ecological devastation, population displacement and a poisoned environment. It has also exposed farmers to the vagaries of rigged global trade and markets, commodity speculation and the geopolitics of food. They are also often encouraged to grow cash crops for export rather than supply local people. The result for many of them has been debt, suicide and financial crisis. Farmer and campaigner Bhaskar Save outlines what the green revolution did for India here Rather than a push towards urbanisation, Gandhi felt that the village economy should be central to development and India should not follow the West by aping an urban-industrial system. He noted that it took Britain half the resources of the planet to achieve its prosperity and asked how many planets would a country like India require? Gandhi added that the economic imperialism of a tiny island kingdom was keeping the world in chains, and if an entire nation of 300 million (Indias population at the time) took to similar economic exploitation, it would strip the world bare like locusts. India is now 1.2 billion plus and China, 1.3 billion. The US with 300 million has already stripped much of the planet. US citizens as a whole constitute 5 percent of the worlds population but consume 24 percent of the worlds energy. On average, one American consumes as much energy as two Japanese, six Mexicans, 13 Chinese, 31 Indians, 128 Bangladeshis, 307 Tanzanians and 370 Ethiopians Gandhi argued that the type of industrialised development adopted by Britain was based on a mind-set that encourages humans to regard man as conqueror and owner of the Earth. Apart from uncontrolled urban sprawl that tramples over the environment, this arrogance also manifests itself in geo-engineering, genetic engineering and the appropriation of all facets of life from water and land to forests, seeds and food by powerful corporations. The view of development envisaged by Gandhi was fundamentally different. Although there was a role for industrialisation that was not resource- or energy-intensive and which involved for example shipbuilding, iron works and machine making, this would exist alongside village handicrafts. This type of industrialisation would not make villages and village crafts subservient to it: nothing would be produced by the cities that could be equally well produced by the villages and the function of cities would be to serve as clearing houses for village products. He argued that with new technology even energy could be produced in villages by using sunlight and local materials. And, of course, people would live within the limits imposed by the environment and work in harmony with the natural ecology rather than by forcing it to bend to the will of profiteering industries. In his book Mahatma Gandhi: An Apostle of Applied Human Ecology , the late environmental scientist T N Khoshoo writes: Gandhiji called the so-called modern society a nine-day wonder. Poverty has been aggravated due to cumulative environmental degradation on account of resource depletion, increasing disparities, rural migration to urban areas resulting in deforestation, soil erosion, loss of soil fertility, desertification, biological impoverishment, pollution of air, water and land on account of lack of sanitation, chemical fertilizers, pesticides and their biomagnification, and a whole range of other problems. Consider that prior to the British, India was among the richest countries in the world and had controlled a third of global wealth until the 17th century. It was an exporter of spices, food grains, handicrafts, handloom products, wootz steel, musk, camphor, sandalwood and ivory items, among other things. The village was the centre of a rural economy, which was the centre of entrepreneurship. The British dismantled much of this system by introducing mono crop activities and mill-made products, and post independent India failed to repair the economic fabric. As a result, successive administrations have ended up preparing relief packages from time to time and rural India is thus too often depicted a basket case. Officials now seem to be preoccupied with a fetish for GDP growth and an unsustainable model of development. Part of this process involves destroying the environment and moving hundreds of millions from the land and into what are already overburdened mega-cities. Depriving people of their livelihoods in rural India (and deliberately running down agriculture) means mass migration to cities that are failing to produce anywhere near the volumeof jobs required to soak up new arrivals. If a forest can be chopped down and the land and timber sold, this increases GDP and thus constitutes growth. The wildlife has gone and the forest which had been managed for centuries by local people who had used its resources sustainably for their needs has disappeared. And the people who lived on the land migrate to cities to live in slums and search for work that does not exist. This is regarded as development. It is, according to Vandana Shiva , a model of development underpinned by a certain ideology: People are perceived as poor if they eat food they have grown rather than commercially distributed junk foods sold by global agri-business. They are seen as poor if they live in self-built housing made from ecologically well-adapted materials like bamboo and mud rather than in cinder block or cement houses. They are seen as poor if they wear garments manufactured from handmade natural fibres rather than synthetics. And the result of this mind set is that the poor must therefore be helped out of their awful backwardness by the West and its powerful corporations. What some might regard as backward stems from an ethnocentric ideology, which is used to legitimize the destruction of communities and economies under the banner of globalisation (ie neoliberalism and imperialism) that were once locally based and self- sufficient. Reflecting Gandhis views, Sudhansu R Das argues that reweaving the Indian village economy lies in the ability of the leadership to revert the change in societal behaviour that lets villagers prefer unnecessary consumer items to real economic assets. Das argues that the young generation in villages today prefers fast food to homemade nutritious food. Similarly, many biodegradable, handcrafted, daily use items have given way to plastic and synthetic products. People give up many climate friendly traditional dresses, footwear and a wide range of homemade eatables for no convincing reason but for the influence of the market and advertising. People are persuaded to borrow and live beyond their means. The mad craze for status symbol has indebted millions of people. Das calls for reinvigorating entrepreneurship in villages. However, government after government aggravates the problems by creating an impression that the villagers are a backward, inefficient and unproductive lot who can survive only on relief. With proper investment and appropriate policies, Indias rural economy could once again thrive. T N Khoshoo argued that Gandhis advocacy of an non-interventionist lifestyle provides the answer to the present day problems. The phrase health of the environment is not just a literary coinage, he argues. It makes real biological sense because, as Gandhi argued, our planet is like a living organism. Without the innumerable and varied forms of life that the earth inhabits, without respecting the species we share this place with, our world will become lifeless. Alternatively, before that happens, humans will become extinct and the planet will shake us off like a bad case of fleas. But, in the meantime, how much damage will have done by then and how much suffering will we have caused by a system that thrives on turning people into slaves to their desires and allowing imperialism to reign free? Gandhi was an apostle of applied human ecology, according to T N Khoshoo. He offered a vision for a world without meaningless consumption which depleted its finite resources and destroyed habitats and the environment. Given the problems facing humanity, his ideas should serve as an inspiration to us all, whether we live in India or elsewhere. Unfortunately, his message seems to have been lost on many of todays leaders who have capitulated to an out-of-control capitalism that is driving the world towards resource-driven conflicts with the ultimate spectre of nuclear war hanging over humanitys head. In memory of Fatty Arbuckle, a good and innocent man whose movie career as a comedian was ruined by an opportunistic prosecution. The woman he was accused of murdering almost certainly died of natural causes. He was eventually cleared but the damage was done. A thought I love the Mae West story where some judge wearing a robe during the middle of the day, and seated in a high chair peered down and asked her, 'Are you showing contempt for my court?' To which she replied, 'Im doing my best not to show it, your honor.' Maybe we need to give up trying to not show it." The Chosen Elite The Chosen Elite. This my expression for TPTB, "them" "they" the NWO, the international bankers, the Illuminati :- whatever you may know them as. The Chosen Elite. I prefer this expression, and will describe them as such from now on. The Chosen Elite. Do CounterPunch, 29 de dezembro, 2015 Por ROBERT HUNZIKER Throughout the world, the name Fukushima has become synonymous with nuclear disaster and running for the hills. Yet, Fukushima may be one of the least understood disasters in modern times, as nobody knows how to fix neither the problem nor the true dimension of the damage. Thus, Fukushima is in uncharted territory, a total nuclear meltdown that dances to its own rhythm. Similar to an overly concerned parent, TEPCO merely monitors but makes big mistakes along the way. Over time, bits and pieces of information about Fukushima Prefecture come to surface. For example, Arkadiusz Podniesinski, the noted documentary photographer of Chernobyl, recently visited Fukushima. His photos and commentary depict a scenario of ruination and anxiety, a sense of hopelessness for the future. Ominously, the broken down Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant looms in the background of everybodys life, like the seemingly indestructible iconic image of destruction itself, Godzilla with its signature atomic breath. Podniesinskis commentary clearly identifies the blame for the nuclear accident, namely: It is not earthquakes or tsunami that are to blame for the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station, but humans. The report produced by the Japanese parliamentary committee investigating the disaster leaves no doubt about this. The disaster could have been foreseen and prevented. As in the Chernobyl case, it was a human, not technology, that was mainly responsible for the disaster, Photographer and Filmmaker Arkadiusz Podniesinski Visits Fukushima, Axis of Logic, Dec. 27, 2015. Four years after the fact, more than 120,000 residents are not able to return home. Radiation zones have been established with the color red demarcating the highest levels of radioactive contamination, the Red Zone, meaning > 50 mSv/y. There is no decontamination work in Red Zones. It is unlikely that residents will ever return, although the Abe government claims otherwise. Radiation is accumulative. As a general rule, a person can only survive for one hour with exposure of 1 Sv/hour or 1,000 mSv/hour. The recommended lifetime human dosage of radiation should be less than 500 mSv. A chest x-ray produces 0.10 mSv. The standard limit for nuclear workers worldwide is 20 mSv/year (Source: Radiation Survival Cheat Sheet). However, Fukushima, because of the emergency, allows workers to receive up to 100-mSv exposure before they must leave the site Within Fukushima, Orange Zones are designated as less contaminated but still uninhabitable because radiation levels run 20-50 mSv/y, but decontamination work is underway. Residents are allowed to visit homes for short duration only during the daytime. However, as it happens, very few people are seen. Most of the former residents do not want to go back and the wooden houses in many of the towns and villages are severely dilapidated. The lowest radiation areas are designated the Green Zone (< 20 mSv/y), where decontamination work is complete and evacuation orders are to be lifted. Enormous black sealed bags filled with radioactive soil and all kinds of sizzling waste are stacked across the countryside, as approximately 20,000 workers thoroughly cleanse soil, rooftops, streets, and gutters. House-by-house, workers scrub rooftops and walls by hand. The radioactive-contained black bags are trucked outside of towns to the far outskirts where thousands upon thousands upon thousands of big black bags are stacked. An aerial view of these temporary storage sites appears like gigantic quilts of rectangular shapes neatly, geometrically spread across the landscape for as far as the eye can see. The government claims the radioactive-contained black bags will be gone from the countryside within 30 years, but where to? The formidable decontamination process is not without potential drawbacks. The primary areas of decontamination surround homes, farmland, and 10-metre strips along roads. As such, forests, mountains and other terrain are left untouched, which may, in turn, eventually wash radioactive isotopes back onto the decontaminated areas because of heavy rainfall or forest fires carrying radioactive isotopes. According to Podniesinski, that happened twice in Chernobyl within the past year alone. In order to visit towns within the No-Go zone or the Red Zone, a separate permit is required for each town. Applicants must have a legitimate reason to obtain a permit and streets are heavily guarded. Podniesinski spent two weeks in Fukushima getting to know the right people to make contacts to get a permit. Because of his extensive background and numerous visits to Chernobyl, he was finally granted a permit. Podniesinski, wearing a whitish translucent gown as protective clothing, blue over-boots, a mask, and dosimeter, was allowed to visit the town of Futaba in the No-Go Zone. Futaba, former population 6,113, borders the Fukushima power station and is one of the towns with too much radiation to consider decontamination at the present time, and maybe forever. The town was a commercial fishing and agricultural center known for its carnations, an important agricultural business for the region. On the morning of March 12th, 2011 the town was suddenly evacuated en masse. Interestingly, according to photos, the Futaba town hall is a modern 4-story red brick structure with wide windows and sharp black trimming that would appear natural in any mid-sized American city but yet out of character for in an older Japanese town, which served as the center of ancient Futaba District during the Edo period, 1603-1868. A banner hanging over the main street reads: Nuclear Energy is the Energy of a Bright Future. Podniesinski was invited to tour Futaba with Mitsuru and Kikuyo Tani, aged 74 and 71. They took him to their former home which they visit once a month for a couple of hours to see if the roof is leaking and whether windows are damaged in order to make minor repairs. Their monthly trip is purely sentimental. Futaba is their home of origin, but in their hearts, they know it is nothing but a memory of a past that lingers forever, never to return. Futaba is where time stood still all of a sudden. Nothing has changed since that fateful day. Photos show buildings slowly deteriorating and automobiles covered with shrubbery and vines. Its like a scene from the hit TV series The Walking Dead, where zombies rather than radiation terrorize the town, leaving an empty imprint of lifelessness, a dreary vacuous town that eerily haunts within the impress on a still photo, as if the world stopped spinning altogether. Podniesinskis photo of Kikuyo Tani dressed in a surgical-type white gown rolled up around blue over-boots, skin-tight gloves, hair net and face mask seated at the entrance to her home captures an expression of deep resignation, as she drearily and blankly stares out into space, a forlornness that only still photography can convey. Her forehead and piercing eyes are the only real life from within an otherwise haunting photo that emerges as lifeless. In another riveting photo in the town, a life-sized three-dimensional Colonel Sanders dressed in his trademark all-white suit proudly stands next to a KFC in an empty mall where the photo seizes the moment, an eerie stillness, an abandoned shopping cart and liter covering the floor, evidence that people dropped whatever they were doing and ran, and ran with groceries left for the ages. The herculean cleanup of Fukushima Prefecture involves 105 cities, towns, and villages. Unlike Chernobyl where authorities declared a 1,000 square mile no-habitation zone and resettlement of 350,000 people, thus allowing radiation to dissipate over decades-to-centuries, Japan is attempting to remake Fukushima back into its old self. But, radioactive material collected in millions of black bags is a vexing problem for the ages. In that regard, Japanese authorities have commissioned construction of a massive landfill just outside of the Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant, expected to contain 16-to-22 million bags of debris, enough to fill 15 baseball stadiums. Unfortunately, bags filled with radioactivity are more than a mere headache; they are more like a severe migraine. A truck can carry 6-8 of the huge bags at a time, and with so many, it could take decades to move the material. Adding to the lingering problem of transporting and storing radioactive waste, over time, the bags will likely deteriorate and need to be replaced with fresh bags. It is an endless cycle. Handling radioactive waste in Japan may become generational employment, similar to how second and third generation workers eventually completed the grand cathedrals of Europe, like Notre Dame de Paris with a cornerstone laid in 1163 resulting in major construction completed circa 1250. 32 Million Japanese Affected by Fukushima According to 2015 Fukushima Report released March 11, 2015 by Green Cross/Geneva founded by former Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev, thirty-two million people in Japan are negatively affected by the nuclear disaster. The Green Cross criteria is based upon direct exposure to radiation as well as people influenced by stress factors due to the disaster, all of whom are at risk of long-term and short-term consequences, including neuropsychological and/or cancer disorders. According to estimates, 80 percent of the released radiation was deposited in the ocean and the other 20 percent was mostly dispersed within a 50 km radius to the northwest of the power plant in the Fukushima Prefecture. While the expected cancer risks to humans caused by the radiation released over the Pacific Ocean are small, trace amounts of radiation have already reached the North American continent and, in particular, parts of the northern West Coast of the United States. The risk of cancer overall will increase, especially for those individuals who were still children at the time of the accident. Their health will be at risk over their entire lifetime as a result of the radiation released by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, (Green Cross Switzerland, Media Release, Zurich, March 11, 2015). The 2015 Fukushima Report was prepared under the direction of Prof. Jonathan M. Samet, Director of the Institute for Global Health at the University of Southern California (USC), at the initiative of Green Cross Switzerland. Yet, proponents of nuclear power, including several distinguished climate scientists, promote more nuclear to solve the worlds greenhouse gas problems, claiming nuclear accidents are so rare as to be low risk. But, that logic misses an important point. When nuclear disaster does strike, it lasts a lifetime, affecting millions upon millions. It only takes one disaster like a Chernobyl or a Fukushima to be equivalent to untold thousands of disasters by renewable energy sources like wind and solar. As for a lifetime of radiation misery, one only need visit one of a couple hundred homes for Chernobyl children hidden in the back woods of Belarus. They all have physical if not mental defects or both. Because of one nuclear accident, 6,000 children are born every year in Ukraine with genetic heart defects; the country experiences a 250% increase in congenital birth deformities; 85% of Belarusian children carry genetic markers that could affect health at any time; UNICEF found childrens disease rates off the map, for example, a 63% increase in disorders of the bone, muscle and connective tissue; more than one million children still live in contaminated zones. Belarusian doctors have seen a dramatic increase in cancers, including a 200% increase in breast cancer, a 100% increase in leukemia, and a 2,400% increase in incidence of thyroid cancer. All from only one nuclear disaster! (Source: Chernobyl Children International) Meanwhile, China plans on building 400 nuclear power plants along waterways and coastlines where water is plentiful, thus cooling radioactive power. Imagine the fateful range of possibilities! History and Culture about the Liberian People and their Country. SEATTLE For Sarah Littlefield, theres decorating gold in that there junk. Picking. Its not the most glamorous way to describe your livelihood, the skill you have been developing for years, the thing you do when you walk into a room stuffed with belongings and know theres something special waiting to be found. But thats what Sarah Littlefield does for Seattle restaurants, retail stores and people who have the money but not the time to search for a Certain Something for themselves or someone else. All of them call on Seattle Junk Love to find what they didnt even know they were looking for, but what Littlefield is skilled at spotting: Pendleton blankets, leather cowboy hats and old signage. And, quite often, the perfect Christmas gift. I buy things knowing this person is going to want it, Littlefield said recently. I have a roster of people that I shop for. If Im lucky, the piece is sold by the time I get to my car. These are especially busy days for Littlefield, whose Etsy shop and Instagram feed carry regular posts of what shes picked from the piles at estate sales and flea markets from Seattle to Mexico, as well as places like New York and her native North Dakota. A Filson Mackinaw coat. A constellation of belt buckles. A battered Thonet chair oozing with restoration potential. Its that thing when you know youll never see anything like it again, Littlefield said of her picking technique. I know what people are on the lookout for. Littlefield, 47, grew up in Fargo, N.D., the daughter of an educator mother and a university professor father who was super curious about architecture and history, and who could hold forth on obscure subjects like wheat production during the Civil War. At Oklahoma State University, Littlefields instinct was to become a history major, but instead she got into recreation administration and started hitting estate sales in her free time. It was her way to stay connected with things past and to learn in the process. Half the fun is the research, the backstory, Littlefield said of her finds. The beauty is in a things utility, or history, or the fact that its site-specific. Littlefield moved to Seattle with a girlfriend in 2001 and worked for a remodeling firm until 2008, when the housing crisis cost her her job. She did staging for a realtor, which helped her polish her design skills. She saw where one vintage item could anchor, or enhance a room. All the while, she kept at the estate sales, picking up things she found interesting. When Jody Hall was starting Cupcake Royale in 2005, Littlefield helped find furniture, lighting and casework for the stores. I used the newspaper, Craigslist, drove around with a map, she said, shaking her head and cradling her iPhone like a bar of gold. It was the dark ages, for sure. What Hall didnt want, Littlefield sold to other restaurants and shops, who asked her to look for more. So did set designers on films and at the Microsoft Studios, as well as private people looking to put some pop, or history, in their homes. Littlefield also took over a corner of the Georgetown shop called District, where Macklemore spotted and bought one of her hats. Recently, she helped Filson with the design of its new store. And she has picked up clients, who ask her to search for things such as barware and paintings of saints. In addition to Cupcake Royale, Littlefield has helped with the design of the Salt & Straw ice cream shops in Portland, Linda Derschangs Bait Shop and the Urban Animal veterinary clinic on Capitol Hill. That last job led to her being asked to help design a veterinary clinic in Toronto. It is located in what was once the oldest continuous funeral home in Ontario. Theres a lot of that going on here; the old being gutted and repurposed. But that doesnt mean theres a wave of stuff to pick through in Seattle. Its rough, Littlefield said. The competition is rough. So rough that she will spend the night in her van outside an estate sale in order to get in first. Theres always a line of shop owners and collectors looking for vintage clothing, tools, records and electronics. I go in and I look, she said. It sounds stupid. There should be some science to it. But I cant explain it. More, the trick is to know where to go regionally, based on the age of the cities and the towns. You used to be able to go to an estate sale in Wallingford, but not anymore. Things have turned over. Maybe you can find some good picking in the old warehouses in Georgetown or South Seattle. But for the most part, its architectural salvage, and thats another persons gig, she said. The place to go junking are rural areas, smaller cities. The Midwest. (My homeland, Littlefield cracked). At the home she shares with her wife, Larisa, Littlefield stores her finds and keeps her own collections of chalk animals, photos of same-sex couples and paint-by-numbers of outdoor scenes. Some things have been impossible to part with: the 1920s-era Calumet Baking Powder clock that once hung in the kitchen of her fathers farm. The Trapper Nelson backpack (started by local Lloyd T. Nelson in 1924) on which the owner had sketched his journeys. I mean, shut up! Littlefield said, pulling the photo up on her phone. One recent find: A 3-foot by 6-foot framed drawing of the old Fisher Flour Mill on Harbor Island. It includes a Norwegian ship docked out front, complete with wicker deck chairs; a man driving a delivery truck and another man walking in the front door. Littlefield keeps it on the mantle. It will likely stay there. Id sell it to the Fisher family, she said, but thats about it. In that sense, Littlefield is not so much a picker, as the one who finds the things that people didnt even know they wanted, or needed, or couldnt do without. Sounds about right, she said. I know it when I see it. Hanging out with Mary Jane costs a lot less than it did two years ago, and prices could continue to shift in 2016 as local pot retailers brace for another year of changes. Retailers have slashed prices in half since legal marijuana entered the market in July 2014. Then the average statewide price per a gram was $25 to $30. Now its just under $10.34, according to the Washington Liquor and Cannabis Board. Prices are plummeting because new retailers are flooding the market and tax changes are lowering wholesale prices. To prop up profits, local retailers say they are trying to boost sales volume and expand their clientele. In the beginning, we were fighting to keep our shelves stocked, said Andy Dhalai, owner of 420 Holiday at 2028 10th Avenue in Longview. Since then, supply chain kinks have been ironed out, more recreational retailers entered the market and Oregon recreational marijuana came on board in October 2015. Sometimes it feels like a race to the bottom, Dhalai said, referring to the competitive pricing. Retailers say profits took a slight hit last summer when the state revised marijuana taxes. There used to be a 25 percent tax charged for producers, processors and retailers alike. A law passed over the summer eliminated the three-tier tax structure. It was replaced with a single 37 percent tax at the point of sale. Rather than increasing pricing to account for the difference, Dhalai said he simply ate the cost to maintain lower prices. Hollie Hillman, a manager at Freedom Market on 14th Avenue in Longview, said she and co-workers monitor their competitors prices online daily and sometimes feel compelled to drop a price one or two dollars per gram. Hillman doesnt expect prices to drop significantly more because some strains of licensed recreational marijuana have hit illegal street market prices as low as $7 gram. I dont think it can get much lower than that, she said. Even if it does, Hillman said Freedom Market sells enough volume to survive through fluctuating prices. Established retailers are bracing for the addition of 222 marijuana licenses that will be added statewide this year. This includes three new licenses in Cowlitz County, three in Lewis County and one in Pacific County. Its definitely something were trying to keep an eye on, said Ryan Drost, owner of Localamster, at 1006 California Way in Longview. This week the state Liquor and Cannabis Board will announce new emergency rules surrounding the additional pot licenses statewide. The new licenses are being added to accommodate medical marijuana users once a law goes into effect in July that will integrate the medical and recreational marijuana markets into one. Eventually, existing medical dispensaries will have to close or seek a new recreational license. Recreational retailers can also be endorsed to sell medical marijuana, and most Longview/Kelso retailers have done so. The exact laws surrounding that transition have yet to be announced. We look at it as an opportunity to help medical patients, Drost said. Ultimately, the integration of the two markets could be a boon for recreational retailers. A recent analysis pegged the value of the medical marijuana market in Washington at $480 million annually. Thats a 37 percent share of the overall marijuana market in the state, compared to legal recreational marijuana (35 percent, or $460 million) and the illegal street market ($390 million, or 28 percent of the market), according to Liquor and Cannabis Board. In Southwest Washington, retailers also have to keep an eye on changing marijuana laws in Oregon. Rainier previously had a medical marijuana moratorium that Dahali said had sent would-be Rainier customers to Longview for weed. The city passed an ordinance allowing for the dispensaries in late October though. That same month, Oregon state started allowing medical dispensaries to sell recreational pot to people over the age of 21. Dhalai said he did see some business drop off when those new regulations went into effect. We had a lot of Oregon customers come across the border, and theyre not here anymore. You still get very little, but not like what it was, Dhalai said. For the first three months since those Oregon dispensaries started selling recreational pot, shoppers havent had to pay a sales tax. Yet the honeymoon of tax-free marijuana in Oregon will come to end Monday, when the state slaps on a 25 percent sales tax to recreational marijuana for the first time. (The sales tax will drop to 17 percent once Oregon recreational shops go online in late 2016.) The new sales tax could take some of the competitive edge off the Oregon market, said Breanna Alleman, administrator at the Freedom Market. In Longview, local retailers are hoping that lower prices and quality will help them capture customers that normally would buy on the black market. At first people were scared to come into the shops because it was still federally illegal, but now people are a little bit more relaxed, Dhalai said. I feel (the business) is still viable and theres a lot more customers now. One of the arguments for the Iran nuclear deal was that it would encourage greater openness and investment from the West. But Iranian hard-liners have been working in recent months to sabotage the proponents of economic globalization and change. The clearest example is the case of an Iranian-American businessman named Siamak Namazi, 44, who was arrested around Oct. 14. Iran hasnt announced any formal charges, but he has been accused in the Iranian press of being a tool of such institutions as the World Economic Forum, the National Endowment for Democracy, the Woodrow Wilson Center and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. According to Iranian press accounts, Namazi is being held by the intelligence service of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps in a special section of Evin Prison. News organizations close to the IRGC have published conspiracy stories that appear to be drawn from his interrogation and from information on his laptop computer. The allegations center, bizarrely, on Namazis status as a Young Global Leader under a program organized by the World Economic Forum. A story posted on the hard-line website Raja News describes the WEF and its youth fellowships as part of a Zionist network that uses investment and trade as tools of political subversion. Another story, posted by Jahan News, links Namazi to the other think tanks and foundations that it claims are part of a Western influence network. The real target of the hard-liners may be President Hassan Rouhani, whose government has been a proponent of greater openness and economic integration with the West. Rouhanis government had blessed a planned visit to Iran last June by 20 members of the Young Global Leaders, arranged through Sorena Sattari, Irans vice president for science and technology. But the trip was canceled after it was criticized by hard-liners. The Namazi incident is a reality check for those who hoped that the nuclear agreement would be the prelude to a broader opening. Since the agreement was reached in July, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has repeatedly said that Iran wont allow economic infiltration by an America he described several months ago as a deceitful, crafty, skillful, fraudulent and devilish enemy. The imprisonment of Namazi in October came days after an Iranian court convicted Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, also an Iranian-American, on charges of espionage. Marty Baron, the Posts executive editor, called the verdict an outrageous injustice. Their message is that they are going to scare and intimidate Iranians abroad who want to return to Iran, argued Bijan Khajehpour, an Iranian who hired Namazi in 1997 at Atieh Bahar Consulting, a Tehran firm that advised Western companies investing in Iran. Namazi left Atieh Bahar in 2007, and Khajehpour left the country in 2011 under pressure from the regime. He now operates a similar consulting firm in Vienna. There may be a class warfare aspect to these political attacks. Like many Iranians who have prospered in the diaspora, Namazi is from a family that was prominent during the Shahs time. His father was governor of Khuzestan Province and left Iran after the revolution. Namazi graduated from Tufts University and then studied management at London Business School and urban planning at Rutgers. The message from the hard-liners, whose IRGC-linked businesses have prospered since the revolution, is that they wont give up economic or political power to the old elite, as sanctions are lifted and foreign investment grows in Iran. Just as the IRGC evidently hopes, the Namazi case has chilled some Iranian-American business leaders who had considered investing in Iran. An example is a group called iBridges, which includes some wealthy Iranian-Americans, such as Hamid Biglari, who was a senior executive at Citigroup. The technology group gathered Iranian entrepreneurs for a first iBridges meeting in 2014 in Berkeley, California; they held a second, larger meeting with nearly 2,000 participants in June in Berlin. But iBridges has been attacked in the Iranian press, and some of its members who were enthusiastic just a few months ago about funding new startups in Iran are said to be reconsidering. Says one Iranian-American who has pulled back from planned investments: All this is a warning shot across the bow to the entire diaspora: Dont even think about coming back to rebuild relations with the West. Rouhani and other pragmatists argue that foreign investment will strengthen Iran and boost its national security. But hard-liners insist that Western money is a tool of the Great Satan that will undermine the revolution. This battle over foreign influence will be one of Irans fault lines in the year ahead. Editors note: Todays editorial appeared originally in The Columbian. Editorial content from other publications is provided to give readers a sampling of regional and national opinion and does not necessarily reflect positions endorsed by the Editorial Board of The Daily News. Corrections Secretary Dan Pacholke says hes sorry. Gov. Jay Inslee says theres been a horrible wrong. But the fact is a Bellevue woman died Nov. 11 while riding in a car with her boyfriend, who by all rights should have still been in prison. The death of 35-year-old Lindsay Hill is just one of the consequences of a recently discovered error that resulted in the inappropriately early release of as many as 3,200 Washington convicts. The error, apparently undiscovered for 10 years, illustrates the limits of technology and challenges us to do better. Heres what happened: In 2002, the state Supreme Court ordered the Department of Corrections to apply good-behavior credits earned in county jail to state prison sentences. To do that, the state changed its computer software. However, the programming fix ended up giving prisoners with sentencing enhancements too much good-behavior credit, according to The Associated Press. Sentencing enhancements include additional time given for certain crimes, such as those committed using a firearm or near a school. The error wasnt discovered until December 2012, when a victims family learned of a prisoners imminent release, did its own calculation, and realized he was being credited with too much good time. But then and heres the most troubling part of the problem corrections officials repeatedly delayed fixing the faulty software. Ultimately, it was never done. It should be noted that this isnt directly the fault of corrections Secretary Pacholke or Gov. Inslee, neither of whom were in their current jobs when the error was made or discovered. Its to their credit that rather than being covered up, the error was publicly announced this month. By then, however, an estimated 3,200 convicts had benefited from an undeserved early release. Most of the errors were 100 days or less. So only a few dozen will need to return to prison, given a different Supreme Court ruling that credits time out of prison to the sentences of those released early. Five are already back in custody. Inslee has appointed two retired federal prosecutors to independently investigate the affair. They will be asked to determine both why the error occurred and also why it went unfixed for more than 13 years. Meanwhile, the public will have to deal with the potential fallout of additional crimes committed by those who havent fully paid their debts to society. Lindsay Hills death is the most prominent example thus far. Hill was riding in a car with her boyfriend, Robert Terrance Jackson, 38, who had been mistakenly released from prison on Aug. 10 after being convicted of robbery, with a sentencing enhancement for using a deadly weapon. His true release date would have been Dec. 6. Instead, he now sits in a King County jail in lieu of $2 million bail, facing new charges of vehicular homicide and felony hit-and-run. Corrections officials said Monday they also are looking for another improperly released prisoner who has allegedly committed new crimes, but they did not release details. Meanwhile there are apologies being made to Hills family, including her two young sons. There is nothing that can right this horrible wrong, Inslee said in a written statement. We must make sure nothing like this happens again. Well be eagerly awaiting the independent report and the news that the sentencing software has been fixed. tech2 News Staff E-commerce website Flipkart has announced that this year has been big in the affordable 4G smartphone segment and Lenovo, has emerged as the favourite smartphone brand of the year. The popularity of 4G smartphones this year clearly shows how digital customers are making a shift to the 4G segment, along with the desire to opt for affordable smartphones. According to #FlipTrends, a year ender report by Flipkart, Lenovo A6000 Plus and Lenovo K3 Note were the top two most sought after smartphones in 2015. Motorola closely followed with two smartphones, Moto G 3rd Gen and Moto E 2nd Gen featuring at the third and sixth position respectively. Xiaomi Mi 4i and Redmi Note 4G took fourth and fifth spots followed by Samsung Galaxy On7, Samsung Galaxy J7, Micromax Canvas Xpress 2 and Asus Zenfone 5 respectively. Lenovo, also the owner of Motorola, is also among the top five smartphone brands in India. In the bid to climb the ladder further, the company aims to double local production as well. According to a report by The Economic Times, Lenovo aims to take the second spot in India and is looking to almost double the local production to 10 million units annually by this year. The report also adds that Lenovo plans to export from its Chennai facility and will make more models in India. tech2 News Staff Facebook said some users were still facing issues while accessing its messaging service. "We appear to be having issues again," a WhatsApp spokesman told Reuters. The company had earlier said it had completely restored the service. WhatsApp, however, did not provide any details on what led to the outage, which began shortly after 4.30 p.m. UK time on New Year's Eve. WhatsApp had said it was working to fully restore service, but the company hadn't revealed the reason of the outage. There is no word on how and when it started. Whatsapp, owned by Facebook has about 900 million global users. Last year at roughly the same time, WhatsApp users sent out a total of 54 billion messages on New Year's day as seen from the tweet below. https://twitter.com/WhatsApp/status/420373902980689920 The outage was known only once people started complaining on Twitter and Facebook. It was later confirmed by sites such as Down Detector. However, all users weren't affected. Now, New Years Eve isn't a good time to face such an outage. With inputs from Reuters Dedicated to the Restoration of Progressive Democracy Volleyball results from Thursday Friday, Oct. 7, 2022, 8:34 a.m. -- LAPEER COUNTY -- The Almont varsity volleyball team beat Madison Heights Lamphere and New Lothrop in a triple header at Almont Thursday. Dryden beat Bay City All Saints... Golf and tennis regional results Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022, 5:41 p.m. -- LAPEER COUNTY -- Boys' high school tennis regionals and girls' golf regionals took place yesterday. Lapeer girls' golf placed 11th at the Div. 1 regional hosted by Oxford... Friday night football scores Friday, September 30, 2022 10:15 p.m. LAPEER COUNTY Lapeer beat Grand Blanc 39-17 at Lapeer to remain undefeated at 6-0. Almont upset Croswell-Lexington 37-26 North Branch routed Richmond 62-10 Imlay City/Dryden fell to Yale... Summer sports camps/clinics Wednesday, June 15, 2022, 4:40 p.m. -- LAPEER COUNTY -- Below is a list of the summer sports camps and clinics that will take place through early Aug. The regular sports update posting of high... Mexico mayor slain a day after taking office Gisela Mota waves during her swearing in ceremony as mayor of Temixco, Morelos State, Mexico. AP, Mexico City : The mayor of a city south of Mexico's capital was shot to death on Saturday, less than a day after taking office, officials said. Gunmen opened fire on Mayor Gisela Mota at her house in the city of Temixco, said the government of Morelos state, where Temixco is located. Two presumed assailants were killed and three others detained following a pursuit, said Morelos security commissioner Jesus Alberto Capella. He said the suspects fired on federal police and soldiers from a vehicle. On his Twitter account, Morelos Gov. Graco Ramirez attributed Mota's killing to organized crime, without citing a particular drug cartel or gang. Cartels seeking to control communities and towns have often targeted local officials and mayors in Mexico. Mota's leftist Democratic Revolution Party released a statement describing her as "a strong and brave woman who on taking office as mayor, declared that her fight against crime would be frontal and direct." Temixco is a city of about 100,000 people neighboring Cuernavaca, a resort and industrial city which has been suffering kidnappings and extortion linked to organized crime groups. Though Cuernavaca is the capital of Morelos, Temixco is the seat of several state institutions including the Public Security Commission, which coordinates state and local police forces. Morelos also neighbors drug cartel-plagued Guerrero state. Mota, who had been a federal congresswoman, was sworn into office on New Year's Day. She was killed the following day. Morelos Gov. Ramirez vowed there "would be no impunity" in her killing and promised that state officials would not cede to what he described as a "challenge from criminals." Federal and state forces are deployed in Cuernavaca and municipalities near the Guerrero state border in what is called operation "Delta." Capella did not provide more details about the attack on Mota, but said that when the suspects were detained, authorities found a 9-millimeter gun, an Uzi, ski masks and an SUV with Mexico State license plates. Morelos Attorney General Javier Perez Duron said the detained suspects have been tied to other crimes, but declined to provide more details. Nipuns new venture Sheikh Arif Bulbon : As a film actress, she is familiar to all. Besides this identity, the two times National Film Award winning actress Nipun is coming with a new identity. By launching own venture Tulip Nails and Spa Ltd Nipun will start her new journey as its Managing Director from today in the citys Banani area. Nipuns younger brother Hasan Mahmud Imtaz is her business partner in this regard. Nipuns fathers friend Sheikh Selim MP will inaugurate her parlour today at 12:30pm in Bananis Kemal Ataturk Avenue. While talking about her new venture Nasrin Akter Nipun, popularly known as Nipun told this correspondent, These days people are fashionable and beauty-conscious, but they are not getting proper services from traditional parlours. I hope the beauty-conscious people will be able to bank on my parlour for better services. I along with my brother Imtaz will coordinate the parlour. Five beauty experts from Thailand will work in my parlour. Nipun also mentioned that from this month she will take part in shooting of Delwar Jahan Jhontus movie 52 Thekey 71. Ferdous will perform with her in the movie. Nipun started her film career in 2006. She is also successful in TV plays and commercials. On completion of her HSC examinations, Nipun went to Russia in 1999 for higher studies. She completed her graduation in Computer Science from Moscow University. Then, she moved to Los Angeles, USA. After being successful in Dhaka film industry, Nipun has also acted in Bangla film of Kolkata and soon she will be seen in a Tollywood film. Actors Ferdous and Proshenjit acted with her in movie Porichoi, she said. Nipun got the National Film Award for movie Sajghor and afterwards in 2009 she received next time for acting in Chander Moto Bou. Nipuns acted last released movies were - Dr Arup Ratan Chowdhurys Swargo Thekey Norok and Manik Manobiks Shovon-er Swadhinata. Death toll rises to 11 on Saturday's attack near Pak border Times Of Malta : Indian security forces are trying to secure a major air force base near the border with Pakistan where an attack by suspected militants left at least 11 people dead, amid reports of fresh gunfire at the compound. The attack on the Pathankot air force base, which started before dawn, left seven Indian troops and four gunmen dead, and is seen as an attempt to undo recent improvements in the relationship between India and Pakistan. Combing operations were continuing at the base, air force spokeswoman Rochelle D'Silva said. At least one grenade blast was heard from inside the compound this morning and several television channels reported that there was fresh gunfire later in the day. At least seven trucks with soldiers and several armoured vehicles were seen entering the base, but officials declined to comment. Since Saturday morning, the base has been swarming with air force commandos, troops from India's elite National Security Guard and local police. The number of troops killed in the attack rose to seven after four soldiers succumbed to their injuries overnight and another died after being wounded in an explosion, officials said. Ms D'Silva gave no details about the death of an elite commando except to say that he was seriously wounded in a blast. News reports said the commando was killed while defusing explosives. The attack at one of India's major air force bases started a few hours before dawn when a group of militants entered the area of the base where the living quarters are located, the Defence Ministry said. The gunbattle - which lasted about 14 hours - came just a week after Indian PM Narendra Modi made a surprise visit to archrival Pakistan and met with his Pakistani counterpart, Nawaz Sharif. It was the first visit to Pakistan in 12 years by an Indian prime minister and marked a significant thaw in the mostly tense relations between the nuclear-armed neighbours. The two leaders also held an unscheduled meeting at the Paris climate change talks last month. The sprawling Pathankot air force base is spread over several miles, including some forested sections. It houses a fleet of India's Russian-origin MiG-21 fighters and Mi-25 and Mi-35 attack helicopters, along with other military hardware. The Defence Ministry said no aircraft or military equipment was damaged in the fighting. The base is on the highway that connects India's insurgency-plagued Jammu and Kashmir state with the rest of the country. It is also very close to India's border with Pakistan. The Himalayan region of Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan, but is claimed in its entirety by both. Rebels in India's portion of Kashmir have been fighting since 1989 for independence or merger with Pakistan. India accuses Pakistan of arming and training the insurgents, a charge Islamabad denies, and the attack at the base was seen as a possible attempt to unravel recent progress in the relationship between the two nations. Parents of Willes Little School protest rise in students fees Parents and students of Willes Little Flower School and College blocked the Kakrail Road on Sunday protesting rise in monthly tuition fees, creating huge traffic jam in the area of the city. bdnews24.com : Parents occupied Kakrail road in front of Willes Little Flower School and College to protest a raise in the monthly fees of students of the school section. "The parents blocked the street for around 30 minutes in the morning. Later, police brought the situation under control," said Mojibur Rahman, ASI of Ramna Police Station. The blockade from 10:30am to 11am on Sunday halted traffic through Kakrail Road, Minto Road and Paltan, according to locals. Parents accused the school authorities of raising school fees without prior notice. They learned about the newly set fees while going through the formalities of seeing their children go into their new classes. Shafikul Islam, parent of a Bangla medium grade 3 student of the school, told bdnews24.com that the authorities had raised the fees from Tk 1,300 to Tk 2,200 per month. ASM Masud, acting principal of the English medium section of the school, claimed that a notice relating to a raise in fees had been sent to parents and guardians. The guardians were notified after the Governing Body of the school had taken the decision, Masud said. Masud pointed out that Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister Rashed Khan Menon is the chairman of the governing bodies of a few schools in the neighbourhood, including Willes Little Flower. ASI Rahman said police moved the parents into the school compound after calming them down. A dialogue between parents' representatives and the school authorities had also been initiated, he pointed out. Missing intern doctor found after 30 hrs Staff Reporter : An intern doctor of Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College and Hospital (SSMCH) has been found after 30 hours of his 'missing'. Shamim Khan Topu was found in an unconscious state in front of the Detective Branch (DB) office on the Minto Road on Saturday night, claimed Wahidul Islam, Deputy Commissioner (Tejgaon Division), Dhaka Metropolitan Police. No one from Topu's family could be reached for his whereabouts after rescue. The DC of Police, however, said that police would interrogate him to ascertain whether it was a case of kidnapping or missing? Dr. Topu, originally from Tangail, started his internship in the hospital about a month ago after completing his MBBS last year. According to witnesses, his cell phone was recharged with Tk 200 around 11:00am on Friday. Sometimes after, an unknown person phoned him and said that an amount of Tk 200 had been sent mistakenly. The doctor was also requested to go to a nearby top-up vendor to return the amount. Dr. Topu along with a friend went to the vendor, but could not pay back the amount. He then went back to his dormitory. Around 2:00pm, when he standing in front of the hospital's outdoor section on his way to Dhanmondi, three men in civil dress pushed him into a white microbus and drove it. 'Criminal' killed in city shootout with RAB UNB, Dhaka : A suspected criminal was killed in a 'shootout' with Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) in the Eastern Housing area of Rupnagar in the city early Sunday. The deceased was identified as Al Amin alias Kala Jony alias Jony Sarker, 32. Sources at the Rab headquarters said Jony was accused in 15 cases, including for murder, rape and robbery, filed with different police stations in the capital. One foreign made pistol along with two bullets was recovered from the spot. The incident took place around 3:00am when a patrol team of RAB-4 challenged some young men, including Jony, out of suspicion in Easter Housing area around 3:00 am. Sensing danger, the young men reportedly encountered with the elite force. Members of the RAB-4 also reiterated with bullets that seriously wounded Al Amin. He was rushed to Dhaka Medical College Hospital where on-duty doctor pronounced him dead. Muggers snatch Tk 28 lakh shooting trader in Savar UNB, Savar :Muggers snatched Tk 28 lakh after shooting a businessman at Savar Bazar Raod, on the outskirts of the capital, on Sunday.Quoting victim's father Madhu Sudan Chakraborty, police said Mithun, a local businessman, along with his brother Shubha Chakraborty withdrew Tk 28 lakh from Savar branch Dutch-Bangla Bank on business purpose in the afternoon. When they were going to their factory in Dakkhin Para area a group of muggers riding on three motorcycles intercepted the rickshaw carrying them and tried to snatch the bag containing the money from Mithun. Being resisted, the muggers shot Mithun in his neck and stabbed him indiscriminately, leaving him critically injured. Later, the muggers fled the scene hurriedly with the bag. The injured were rushed to Savar Enam Medical College Hospital. On information, police and Rab visited the spot. Assad forces build up troops in Golan Heights Al Jazeera News :Fierce fighting between Syrian government forces and armed opposition groups has continued in the Quneitra province of the country's southwest as locals report a massive build-up of troops and pro-government militias in several towns. Opposition groups retook Quneitra after the Syrian army briefly controlled it on Saturday, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The escalation of clashes comes just days after the Syrian government launched a major offensive in the Quneitra province, situated on the border of the roughly 70 percent of the Golan Heights under Israeli occupation since 1967. Modar Shanwan, a spokesman for the Revolutionary Command Council in Quneitra and the Golan, a coalition of armed opposition groups, said that government forces "breached [the Quneitra province] down the middle" and were "supported by militias" and artillery bombardments. "But the revolutionaries recovered control of the Samdaniah village" over the weekend, he told Al Jazeera, referring to a village that the Syrian government had taken over on Thursday. "Assad's militias [later] tried to sneak back in [and] dozens of them were killed." The spokesman also said that government forces had dropped barrel bombs on the area in recent days. In mid-2015, Quneitra-based opposition groups launched an offensive aimed at expelling all government forces from the province. Rebels have expanded their control throughout most of the region. Yet, the Syrian government has maintained control of two key towns in Quneitra's countryside, al-Baath and Khan Arnabah, despite rebel groups' repeated attempts to overrun them. Abu Omar al-Jolani, a Quneitra-based media activist, said that the Golan's hilly, rugged terrain "helps the regime" and makes it difficult for opposition groups to advance in Khan Arnabah and al-Baath. Saudis face 'divine revenge' : Iran Saudi Arabia will face "divine revenge" for its execution of a prominent Shia cleric, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has warned. Ayatollah Khamenei described Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr as a "martyr" who acted peacefully. Protesters stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran late on Saturday, setting fire to the building before being driven back by police. Sheikh Nimr was one of 47 people executed for terrorism offences. But Ayatollah Khamenei said the cleric had been executed for his opposition to Saudi Arabia's Sunni rulers. "This oppressed scholar had neither invited people to armed movement, nor was involved in covert plots," the ayatollah tweeted. "The only act of #SheikhNimr was outspoken criticism," he added, saying the "unfairly-spilled blood of oppressed martyr #SheikhNimr will affect rapidly & Divine revenge will seize Saudi politicians". Sheikh Nimr had been a figurehead in the anti-government protests that erupted in the wake of the Arab Spring up to his arrest in 2012. Iran - Saudi Arabia's main regional rival - has led condemnation among Shia communities over the execution. The foreign ministry in Tehran said the Sunni kingdom would pay a high price for its action, and it summoned the Saudi charge d'affaires in Tehran in protest. Some of the protesters at the Saudi embassy in Tehran hurled petrol bombs and rocks. Forty people have been arrested, officials said. There have also been demonstrations in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, where Shia Muslims complain of marginalisation, as well as in Iraq, Bahrain and several other countries. The top Shia cleric in Iraq, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani described the execution as an "unjust aggression". For its part, Saudi Arabia complained to the Iranian envoy in Riyadh about what it called "blatant interference" in its internal affairs. The execution has worsened long-running tensions between the two Middle Eastern nations, which support opposite sides in the Syrian and Yemen conflicts. The US and UN have both called for restraint. In a statement after the executions, US state spokesman John Kirby appealed to Saudi Arabia's government to respect and protect human rights, and to ensure fair and transparent judicial proceedings. Mr Kirby also urged the Saudi government to permit peaceful expression of dissent and, along with other leaders in the region, to redouble efforts to reduce regional tensions. Most of the 47 executed by Saudi Arabia were Sunnis convicted of involvement in al-Qaeda-linked terror attacks last decade. Saudi Arabia carried out more than 150 executions last year, the highest figure recorded by human rights groups for 20 years. Ban Ki Moon 'deeply dismayed' over Saudi executions itvNews : UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon has said he is "deeply dismayed" about the executions of 47 people, including cleric Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr, carried out by Saudi Arabia. In a statement, his spokesman said: Sheik al-Nimr and a number of the other prisoners executed had been convicted following trials that raised serious concerns over the nature of the charges and the fairness of the process. The Secretary-General had raised the case of Sheikh al-Nimr with the leadership of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on a number of occasions. The Secretary-General reiterates his strong stance against the death penalty. He points to the growing movement in the international community for the abolition of capital punishment and urges Saudi Arabia to commute all death sentences imposed in the Kingdom. Ban Ki Moon also urged calm and restraint in reaction to the execution of Sheikh Nimr after demonstrators attacked the Saudi Embassy in Tehran. Higher education in Bangladesh : Impact of globalization and privatization Professor Amirul Islam Chowdhury President, Asiatic Society of Bangladesh : This lecture highlights the current situation in Bangladesh Universities. It also tries to investigate into the impact of Globalization both in the world at large and also in Bangladesh. It tries to assess the impact of privatization of higher education in Bangladesh. This lecture draws mainly from published sources both within Bangladesh, and other countries mainly from India, UK (Cambridge and Oxford) and USA. 1 have drawn freely from four articles that I wrote on Private university education. I have tried to add my experience in North South University as a teacher and also as faculty administrator. I am currently teaching in United International University. I have also taught several semesters in BRACU. Besides these, I have been teaching and doing research since 1964. I have taught in Jahangirnagar University since its inception in 1970. Experience that. I gathered are the main inputs for this lecture that I am going to deliver to day. The lecture is broadly divided into six broad sections. First section includes popular misconceptions about higher education; An Age old Concern about higher education Quality; Quality Assurance Explained; Higher education is central to all types of Development; Actors in Higher Education; Youth, University and Democracy; The Section II, deals with Globalization, Fast Growth of Higher Education; Sources of funds; Higher education as business; Should higher education as big business?; sources of funds. The Section III, discusses areas such as research, new techniques of teaching and its impact; Management of Education and Markets. The Section IV, This section tries to highlights some current problems of leading in higher education with regard to medium of instruction--poor English and weak knowledge in mathematics; Teaching the History of Bangladesh, Accreditation Council Act and Conclusion. Popular misconceptions about Higher Education: Professor Bligh's neighbor told him about his idea (misconception) of University: Professor Bligh calls 'Misconceptions. These run as below: University teacher enjoy long holiday, one job not two (second one is research), higher education is like school, students are irresponsible libertines, it is all theory, not practical, higher education sponges on the taxpayer, only students and their parents benefit from higher education (Bligh, D 1990). The author has also expressed his satisfaction that his neighbor who narrated these misconceptions; never asked him "what's higher education really like?" An age old concern about higher education quality: I begin my lecture with Robert F Goheen's remark, (from Princeton university which he made this remark as early as 1969) "Universities are increasingly in the news today not only because of student unrest and enlarging campus population, but also because of the role of universities as centers of teaching and research has been getting more pervasive and more critical in myriad aspects of our national life (not particularly of Bangladesh). " This type of concerns about higher education was also voiced by Aristotle, Socrates and even by Plato. Tilak, a well known educationist from India, opened his address in an International University Seminar, Brasila, Brazil, "Higher education systems in many developing as well as developed countries are characterized with a crisis, rather a continuing crisis, with overcrowding, inadequate staffing, deteriorating standards and quality, poor physical facilities, insufficient equipment and declining public budgets. Moreover, importantly, higher education is subject to neglect and even discrimination in public policy" (Tilak, Jandhyala B G, 2003). The latest Annual Report of Bangladesh University Grants Commission (BGUC) also expressed its dissatisfaction about the quality of education in the Universities (See annual Reports, 2013 and 2014, UGC, Dhaka). Quality Assurance Explained: The notion of quality is hard to define precisely, "especially in the context of tertiary education where institutions have broad autonomy to decide on their own visions and missions" (WB, 2007). The same publication remarks that terms used in quality assurance are employed in a variety of ways and have different meanings in different parts of the world. The same report provides example from US and UK. In the US, the term "accreditation" refers to a process of review and assessment of quality that result in a decision about whether or not to certify the academic standard of an institution. In the UK "accreditation" refers to a code of practice by which an institution without its own degree-awarding powers is given authority by a university or other awarding institution to offer its degrees to students meeting the requirements. In order to avoid ambiguity, the key terms used in this study are defined below in short: Quality refers to "fitness for purpose meeting or conforming to generally accepted standard as defined by an institution; Quality assurance is a planned and systematic review process of an institution or programs to determine whether or not acceptable standards of education, scholarship, and infrastructure are being met, maintained and enhanced; Accreditation is a process of self-study and external quality review used in higher education to scrutinize an institution and/or its programs for quality standards and need for quality improvement. Audit is a process of review of an institution or progress to determine if its curriculum, staff, and infrastructure meet its stated aims and objectives; An academic review is a diagnostic self-assessment and evaluation of teaching, learning, research, service, and outcomes based on a detailed examination of the curricula, structure, and effectiveness of a program as well as the quality and activities of its faculty. Licensing is a process for granting a new institution or program permission to launch its activities. Higher education institutions (HEI) are tertiary institutions whose legal mandates allow them to award degrees. The findings essentially represent models for quality assurance towards which the international community appears to be converging. This is also an impact of fast globalization. Higher education is central to all types of Development: Higher education is central to economic, political, social, and development of institutions and at the core to competitiveness in an increasingly globalizing knowledge society. In the case of Bangladesh, tertiary education plays a critical capacity building for sustaining the economic growth and poverty reduction that she has gained so far. It is mentioned in one of World Bank research findings (WB 2007) indicate that expanding tertiary education may promote future technological catching up and improve a country's ability to maximize the economic output. "A new range of competence, such as adaptability, team work, communication skills, and the motivation for continual learning, have become critical" and has put higher education a challenge to adjust their program structures, curricula, teaching and learning methods to adapt to these new demands. In recognition of this challenge, greater attention is being focused on quality assurance as a critical factor to ensuring educational relevance" WB (Peter Materu, 2007). Actors in Higher Education: Unless we see Higher education as a system, with other stakeholder such as firms, research institutions, earlier stages of education (SSC and HSC in case of Bangladesh), other skill providers, there will always be a disconnect (WB 2012). The same report tells us that the interactions between all these stakeholders/ actors lead to a better employment situation. Youth, University and Democracy: Youths of every society in the past and also during the present time are being challenged and are interested to learn in freedom. This is a historic fact and we have seen how university faculty, students and civil society protected the freedom against popes, kings, and popular demagogues, and protect their libertarian mission in modern democracies. It is strongly believed and a historical fact that only free universities can serve truth and only advancement toward the truth can satisfy the perennial quest of a traditionally confused, sad, and brave youth for clarity and bring about the kind of public good that youthful idealism has always longed for. World has always been a place for youth. They are the trend setters. In 1968, Youths of Western World, from USA, UK, Germany and France came down on the street and protested against the then societal situation. Though the protest was staged in different big cities of the Western World. Youths of these cities had their own agendas, different in different cities. This wave of protest reached to Latin America and also to Mexico. Herbert Merceese Studied this wave of protest from anthropological point of view. Even, Bangladesh was no exception. Dhaka University student leaders gave the leadership against the exploitation of West Pakistan Military Junta. Which is known as 'mass uprising' (MY AfyIvb). Messers Tofail Ahmed, Sajahan Seraj, Nur-e-Alam Siddiqui and Abur Razzak were in the front. Some of these youth leaders to-day are front line leaders in national politics. University is a Republic of youth, teacher and civil society, where knowledge is equally shared and participate to create new knowledge. Everyone is equal partner in this effort. Learning is not only for the students. It is also a private activity and carries a social obligation and a social responsibility and needs to be accountable to the society. The best time of life is spent in the university. Every member of this republic should make best and sincere effort to spend this time, so that it brings benefit to the individual student and also pride for the family and of course at the end for the country. Youth have always enjoyed university campus mixing with other students and learning from fellow students of different disciplines rather than from class room lectures. One such student a Nobel Laureate said that he learnt more from his fellow students rather than from class lectures. This is very much common rather than unusual. (To be continued) Arrests by plain clothes officials are helpful for miscreants and must be stopped INTERNS at Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital (SSMCH) on Saturday blocked the Mirpur Road in front of the hospital in the capital for about an hour demanding the return of a fellow physician allegedly abducted from the hospital premises on Friday. Some people reportedly picked him up in a microbus and drove way. As the story unveiled, it was reminiscent of the barbaric abduction and killing of freedom fighters and intellectuals by Pakistani occupation forces and their local agents - Razakars and al-Badrs. We fought against such brutalities. We are now an independent nation free from occupation forces and yet such abductions and forced disappearances are often taking place ending life of the victims in unknown circumstances and buried in unmarked graves. Reports said in most cases of forced disappearances plain clothes people claiming as members of law enforcing agencies have their involvement, in addition to other groups operating under political cover, but the government is not clearing the charges adding credence to people's doubts. Only a few week ago a student of Rajshahi University; who also happens to be a functionary of Bangladesh Chhatra League - the student front of ruling party Awami League; was abducted by plain clothes people introducing them as members of Detective Police. We must say the victims in both cases are lucky; the young physician has been freed on Sunday morning in the capital while the victims of Rajshahi abduction case was rescued from the Port city Chittagong. Indications suggest the wealthy family secured his freedom at a high cost. But all such victims of disappearance are not as lucky. As per year-end reports on human rights situation in Bangladesh released by Ain O Salish Kendra (ASK), at least 55 persons were victims of abduction or forced disappearance in 2015 and their whereabouts are still unknown. These are reported cases, the actual number could be higher. Killings in crossfire; which looks like summary execution of victims by RAB personnel without trial, were also hefty last year and the years before. Custodial deaths in police torture were also a matter of grave concern for the rule of law in the country. Absence of law is destroying peace and spreading violence in the country. Abduction and secret killing is easier for miscreants without government action to stop it. Please stop the tactics of arrest by plain clothes men and secret killings similar to those of Pakistan army used against our people for keeping us under their occupation. Development is not judged by indicators: It must be real The recently adopted resolution by the UN General Assembly emphasised on easy access to justice as an essential indicator of development. Our people in power talk endlessly about the need of quick disposal of cases by the court and not easy availability of justice. And for development they mean economic development as produced by indicators and not justice. So nothing matters about the freedom of police cases clogging in thousands in the judiciary. If the political opponents are to be kept in jail the government has the power of using the preventive detention law. This way the number of court cases will come down to half at least and the judge will be saved from political pressure visible and not so visible. Under this deception of development only those few who are sure of no cases for their corruption have flourished beyond their wildest dream. Knowing this will not last long because they have built second homes in rich countries to live like kings. Some of them also transferred easy money to make investments abroad. There is also no answer if the country's development is so "unstoppable". Why our own investors are then running away without investing their money in their own country. The much needed foreign investment in the country is not coming. Chinese economy would not have been so strong without welcoming inflow of investment from the West bringing enviable prosperity among Chinese people at large. The economic indicators that the government supporters publicise as development but that the people cannot see and enjoy. The lives of the general public is palpable with economic hardship and abuse of power rendering people to helplessly suffer at many levels because the government do not count the people as voters to remain in power. Arrest by plain clothes persons should be regarded as a dangerous development. No government can be held accountable for any kind of personal security or development. Where security in public life is most uncertain and the police alert is seen at high level against terrorism, nobody in his senses can say that the situation is conducive for economic activities. No investment means no development, it should be too simple even for non-experts to understand. Heavy police presence at Dhaka Airport itself speaks enough about safety for the economic activities in the country. In a country of unstoppable development no government has to fear honest elections to know the true public opinion about the bureaucracy inspired figures of development. The government lacked courage to allow recently held Municipal election to be free. ISIS kind or not, the hard fact is that terrorism or violence in public life is increasing. The government is happy permitting police power to be used arbitrarily for securing peace and order in the country. In other words no political approach is considered necessary for peace, progress and good governance. To depend on bureaucrats is not politics or political leadership for making the country safe and peaceful for progress. A government depends on the power of the people or the power of the gun. There is nothing in between. The argument of no popular election for saving democracy and the country was used by dictators like Ayub Khan while relying on the power of the gun and destroyed the country at the end. We must hate their ways for creating Bangladesh of our dream. A country in turmoil and its people disempowered cannot be the country organised for development. The vacuum in political leadership is so total that and grips of bureaucracy on the government is so complete that we need to start the political process a new for political leadership to emerge through the system. The country has to be run politically through peaceful change of leaders and strong democratic institutions. . NEWS AND VIEWS THAT IMPACT LIMITED CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT "There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty." - - - - John Adams Monet rahapelien ystavat ovat viime vuosina loytaneet netticasinot ja olleet ihmeissaan. Verrattuna kotimaisen Veikkauksen kivijalkarahapeleihin puhutaan aivan eri tason palautusprosenteista ja lisaksi pelaaminen on aarimmaisen helppoa ja turvallista. Netticasinoiden maara on tana paivana todella suuri ja niita loytyy jokaiseen lahtoon, suurin ongelma aloittelevalla pelaajalla onkin tehda valinta siita, minka netticasinon valitsee. Kaikkien netticasinoiden mainospuheet naet lupaavat kauniita asioita ja niiden lapinakeminen on tietysti tarkeaa. Nyrkkisaantona voidaan kuitenkin jo kattelyssa todeta, etta jos valitsemasi netticasino on lisensoitu ETA-alueella, sen kanssa ei tule olemaan ongelmia, ellei niita itse jarjesta. Kay tutustumassa parhaisiin netticasinoihin osoitteessa www.ilmaiskierroksia.info! Ensimmainen nyrkkisaanto on siis varmistaa, etta valitsemallasi netticasinolla on ETA-alueen lisenssi. Suurimmassa osassa tapauksista se on Maltan eli MGA:n lisenssi. Myos Viron, Englannin ja Gibraltarin lisensseja nakyy ja naissa valvonta on jopa Maltaa tiukempaa. Lopputulema on kuitenkin se, etta ETA-alueen lisenssi takaa suomalaisille verovapaat voitot seka sen, etta niita valvotaan kontrolloidusti. Maailmalla on iso nippu Curacaon lisenssilla toimivia netticasinoita ja niistakin suurin osa on laadukkaita. Ne eivat kuitenkaan ole suomalaisille asiakkaille verovapaita, joten emme suosittele niita. Tana paivana markkinoille on ilmaantunut paljon ETA-alueella toimiva netticasinoita ilman rekisteroitymista. Jos tarkoitus on vain pelata yksittaisia pelikertoja, on varsin helppo suositella naita. Netticasinot ilman rekisteroitymista tarjoavat palvelun tunnistautumisen verkkopankin avainlukulistan avulla ja saman palvelun kautta tapahtuvat talletukset ja mahdolliset voittojen nostot silmanrapayksessa. Normaaleihin netticasinoihin pitaa asiakkaan rekisteroitya, tehda talletukset ja tunnistautua dokumenttien avulla. Tama on lisenssiehtojen mukainen kaytanto, eika kovinkaan monimutkainen, mutta silti monet asiakkaat haluavat yksinkertaista ja nopeaa palvelua. Toki normaalit netticasinot tarjoavat usein asiakkailleen laadukkaita talletusbonuksia ja erilaisia kampanjoita, joten kannattaa tarkkaan punnita, kumman ratkaisun valitsee. Kannattaa myos muistaa, etta tunnistautuminen tehdaan vain kerran, joten mikaan jatkuva riippakivi se ei ole. Suomalaiset asiakkaat ovat netticasinoille tarkeita, joten kaikilla vahankin laadukkailla netticasinoilla on suomenkieliset sivut seka suomenkielinen asiakaspalvelu suomenkielisyys kannattaakin ottaa netticasinoa valittaessa nyrkkisaannoksi. Vaikka tana paivana englanninkielisyys on harvoille ongelma, on suomenkielisten netticasinoiden maara niin valtava, etta suosittelemme niiden kayttoa. Rahansiirrot ovat tana paivana niin hyvassa mallissa, etta niiden kanssa tuskin tulee mitaan ongelmia. Kolme tarkeinta segmenttia: Suomalaiset verkkopankit, luottokortit (Visa, Mastercard) seka nettilompakot (Skrill, Neteller) loytyvat jokaisesta laadukkaasta netticasinosta. Viime vuosien trendiksi noussut verkkokauppa on kehittanyt rahansiirrot niin laadukkaiksi ja nopeiksi, etta niiden suhteen ei ole enaa vuosiin ollut ongelmia. Luonnollisesti netticasinot kayttavat naita samoja palveluita ja hyotyvat kehityksesta. Naiden isojen linjojen jalkeen netticasinon valintaan vaikuttavat luonnollisesti tarjottavat tervetuliaisbonukset uudet asiakkaat saavat tana paivana kovan kilpailun myota merkittavia etuja netticasinoilta ja niita kannattaa luonnollisesti vertailla. Erilaiset talletusbonukset, ilmaiskierrokset seka ilmaiset pelirahat tuovat suuriakin rahanarvoisia etuja ja niiden vertailu on ehdottomasti kannattavaa. Myoskaan useampien tilien avaaminen ja tervetuliaistarjousten kayttaminen ei missaan nimessa ole huono idea. Kun edella mainitut asiat ovat mieleisia ja vaihtoehtoja on vielakin jaljella, mennaan jo nyansseihin. Toki pelivalikoima on yksi kriteeri, mutta taman paivan netticasinoissa tamakin asia on paasaantoisesti varsin samanlainen. Toki useamman samantasoisen netticasinon vertailussa kannattaa yleensa valita se, jossa on eniten peleja tarjolla. Vaikka omat suosikit loytyisivatkin useammasta, voi tulevaisuudessa mielenkiinto nousta joihinkin muihin peleihin ja silloin on tietysti mukavampaa, etta ne loytyvat valikoimista. Viimeisena voidaan nostaa esiin kaytettavyys joidenkin netticasinoiden sivut ovat vilkkuvia, valkkyvia ja epakaytannollisia. Omaan silmaan ja kaytettavyyteen sopiva sivusto on luonnollisesti aina se paras valinta. Tarjonta netticasinoissa on tana paivana valtava ja jokaiselle loytyy varmasti se oma netticasino onnea matkaan! By AM Sunday, January 3, 2016 Share Tweet Share Share Email The tragedies of the past have left a deep and profoundly regrettable legacy of suffering. We must never forget those who have died or been injured, and their families. The Northern Ireland Peace Process and Terroristic Narratives, Terrorism and Political Violence Conversations with Jacqueline Rose Trauma Associated With Civil Conflict and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Evidence From the Northern Ireland Study of Health and Stress, Journal of Trauma and Stress Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry Therapy Culture: Cultivating Vulnerability in an Uncertain Age, Cosmopolites de Tous les Pays, Encore un Effort!, Allegories of Reading Allegories of Reading: Figural Language in Rousseau, Nietzsche, Rilke and Proust The impact of the rewriting of the Bloody Sunday story by the modern British state has been twofold: first, it has helped to dehistoricise that day; and second, it has helped turn it into a vehicle for therapeutic intervention into the lives of people in Northern Ireland, who apparently require a new army of British-funded experts to help them come to terms with their tragic pasts . Indeed, so thorough has been the lawyerly makeover of Bloody Sunday that the British state, the author of the atrocity, can now assume its moral authority in Ireland through taking an apologetic approach to such tragic historic events. In scolding some of its soldiers and offering apologies to their victims, the British state has extricated itself from the history and politics of Bloody Sunday, taking the elevated position of a dispassionate fixer of past wrongs. Today, one of the key ways Britain justifies its continuing presence in Ireland is as a moral manager of the past, a facilitator of reconciliation between hurting communities - and its moral hijacking of Bloody Sunday has been a key plank in this rehabilitation of its rule in a neighbouring nation ... Bloody Sunday was not a freak incident in which paras lost control - it was part of a war by the British state to maintain control over its colony of Northern Ireland. And now, 40 years on, that same tragic event is used by the same British state to reassert, in therapeutic terms, its governance of Northern Ireland." ( Brendan ONeill, "The moral hijacking of Bloody Sunday", Spiked online, 30 January 2012) The end result is a shallow debate about the past, where questions about who was fundamentally responsible for the conflict are evaded, and an uncritical approach in the present, where the authority of the British state in Northern Ireland is judged by the gestures it makes to the hurting communities rather than by its policies or vision or, indeed, its legitimacy." (Brendan ONeill, "Pat Finucane wasnt the only victim of collusion", Spiked online, 13 December 2012) "They suggest that we start the exploration of the past on the understanding that the laws of the State decide who was in the right and who in the wrong through a conflict over the very legitimacy of that State." (Malachi O'Doherty, "No shortcuts to an agreed past," Belfast Telegraph, 4 July 2014) Everyone in the UK has heard of Jean McConville. She was a mother of ten, abducted and murdered by the Provisional IRA in 1972 (accused of being an informer). It is a case used to highlight the inhumanity of the IRA. But who is Joan Connolly? She was a mother of eight shot by the Parachute Regiment in the unprovoked killing of 11 civilians in Ballymurphy in West Belfast in 1971. The secretary of state for Northern Ireland has refused an enquiry into these murders. Justice for these two mothers is not equal. (John Brewer (2015), In Northern Ireland Not Every Murder is Treated the Same. In order to rebuild a society torn by conflict a more ambitious and active vision is needed, one which looks to the future and what people can do to bring about this future. argues that the current victim, therapy and inquiry cultures in Northern Ireland indicate a weakened sense of agency, diminishing expectations and a new way for the British state to re-assert its authority in the six counties.The peace process has put significant emphasis on the ''victims' of the conflict. The 1998 Belfast Agreement stated:From Kenneth Bloomfield's report published shortly after on 29 April 1998 to the Eames-Bradley proposals made public on 28 January 2009 and the recent 'Fresh Start' agreement, 'victims' have been at the centre of Northern Ireland's political discourse.A search made in 2013 in the archives section of the online version of the Belfast Telegraph brought up more than 9000 articles on the 'victims' of the conflict from the 1990s onwards. According to the Northern Ireland Commission for Victims and Survivors, from 1998 to 2010 over 80 million has been invested in developing the Northern Ireland victims sector. By 2014 there were almost 50 dedicated victim and survivor groups in operation in Northern Ireland, rising to 90 when 'parallel providers' (who do not work only with conflict related victims) are included. Indeed obviously sympathetic commentators, such as Sir Kenneth Bloomfield (himself the victim of an IRA bomb), have bemoaned the development of a victims industry in Northern Ireland. (Kieran McEvoy & Peter Shirlow (2013), 25:2, 164)This 'victims industry' is closely connected to a 'victim culture'. People are fighting to be recognised as being 'more' of a victim or a more 'deserving' victim than others. There is no agreed definition of what a 'victim' of the conflict is or who can fit into that category. But as the psychoanalyst Jacqueline Rose noted: "Victimhood is an event. It is something that happens to you. The moment it becomes an identity, psychological or political, then I think you're finished." (, London : Seagull Books, 2010, 93) From active subject, people define themselves as victim instead. The central importance given to this 'victim' discourse is symptomatic not only of the crisis of republicanism and unionism, but of a general weakened sense of agency.The problem of 'victims' raises that of 'therapy culture'. Most studies in the existing literature stress that the population of the six counties has been heavily traumatised by the conflict there. A study providing epidemiological estimates of trauma, posttraumatic stress disorder, and associated mental disorders in Northern Ireland with a focus on the impact of the conflict using data from the NI Study of Health and Stress (NISHS) as well as a representative epidemiological survey of adults in the region estimated that 60.6% of people there had a lifetime traumatic event, and 39.0% experienced a presumed conflict-related event. (B.P.Bunting, F.R. Ferry, S.D. Murphy, S.M.O'Neill, and D. Bolton (2013),, 26:1, 134141) Another report on the trans-generational impact of the conflict also found that more than 213,000 people in Northern Ireland are experiencing significant mental health problems as a result of the conflict. (C. Downes, E. Harrison, D. Curran, M. Kavanagh (2013), The trauma still goes on... : the multigenerational legacy of Northern Ireland's conflict,, 18:4, 583-603) The existence of such 'trauma' brings the issue of 'healing' and how people affected can move forward.The problem with current approaches is that they understand 'trauma' as essentially a medical and mental health issue and medicalise 'healing' They reduce what is a political problem to a therapeutic one. This introspective, individualised and depoliticised approach promotes a view of the human subject as inherently vulnerable and in need of professional support (a perspective similar to 'victim culture'), what Frank Furedi has called 'therapy culture'. Furedi interestingly points to evidence for this new therapeutic sensibility in the increase in citations of the words stress, syndrome, counselling and trauma (the latter increased tenfold from less than 500 mentions to over 5,000) in British newspapers between 1994 and 2000. The start date is significant as 1994 is the year of the ceasefires that marked the public phase of the peace process. (Frank Furedi (2003),London: Routledge, 4-7)However one should bear in mind that 'healing' is only one means of dealing with the legacy of violent conflict, and one that is not necessarily favoured by those who have been affected by the Troubles. The Report of the Victims Commissioner, for example, noted that groups representing those who had been killed directly by state forces, or killed in instances allegedly involving state collusion between the state and Loyalist death squads, expressed a firm view that revelation of the full truth of these controversial events was far more important for the victims they represented than any other consideration.The relatives who are searching for 'truth frame the issue of dealing with the past in terms of justice rather than in terms of healing. Healing, if it is considered at all, is viewed as a secondary issue and one that will be an outcome of achieving justice. When we talk about 'healing' war-torn societies we should recognise that healing is not a discrete process that only takes place in a therapeutic setting; it is tied up with wider questions of social justice and normative concerns about what type of society we all want to inhabit. Ultimately, these wider issues can only be addressed in the political domain. (Chris Gilligan (2006) "Traumatised by peace? A critique of five assumptions in the theory and practice of conflict-related trauma policy in Northern Ireland", Policy & Politics, 34:2, 335 and 339-340)But a major obstacle to those wider issues being properly addressed in the political domain is that some of the approaches with dealing with the past tend to reduce history to psychodrama. The best example of this was the Facing The Truth programmes broadcast by BBC in March 2006 in which Desmond Tutu brought people who had lost relatives in the conflict with the person responsible for their loss in the hope of encouraging them to make gestures of forgiveness and reconciliation in front of the cameras. This became in effect a denial of a political approach to dealing with a past that looked beyond interpersonal encounters to the structural causes of conflict and violence. (Bill Rolston (2007) "Facing Reality: The media, the past and conflict transformation in Northern Ireland", Crime Media Culture, 3:3, 359)In his essay 'On Cosmopolitanism and Forgiveness', Jacques Derrida shows the difficulties associated with the concepts of 'forgiveness' and 'reconciliation' and the tensions that can arise between the two. Using the South African Truth Commission of Desmond Tutu as an example, Derrida argues that the concept of 'forgiveness' is misplaced when used in relation to a national trauma. There are tensions between individual 'forgiveness' and national 'reconciliation', and the state could avoid being held accountable if everything was simply a matter of individual 'forgiveness'. 'Forgiveness' and 'reconciliation' are therefore not synonymous and can fall short of 'justice'. (Jacques Derrida (1997),Paris : Galilee, 38ff)This last point is particularly relevant if one looks at official 'apologies' given by the British state for some of its actions during the conflict in the north. A recent study critically examining the nature, role and function of official apologies with respect to conflict-related deaths in Northern Ireland concludes by suggesting that a pattern of official apologies without accountability and acceptance of responsibility is emerging in Northern Ireland; that official apologies can function as a way to shield state institutions, deflect further scrutiny, deny culpability, avoid effective redress and placate and silence victims.In this context historical injustice may be intensified rather than rectified, causing more harm than good, at best glossing over past wrongs and at worst facilitating impunity and re-traumatising victims. (Patricia Lundy & Bill Rolston (2016), "Redress for past harms? Official apologies in Northern Ireland," International Journal of Human Rights, 20:1, 104-122) The paradox is that the very need to apologise for some of its actions during the conflict represents an attempt to justify them which can only increase the guilt of the British state. What Paul de Man wrote in a famous passage ofis directly relevant to the British state's apologies:Excuses not only accuse but they carry out the verdict implicit in their accusation... Excuses generate the very guilt they exonerate, though always in excess or by default...No excuse can ever hope to catch up with such a proliferation of guilt." (Paul de Man (1979),, New Haven, Yale University Press, 293 and 299)The issue of official 'apologies' rose in the context of the many official enquiries that have taken place since 1998: more than 500 million has been spent by the British government (and to a lesser extent by Leinster House) for inquiries into some controversial incidents of the conflict. (Mike Tomlinson (2012), "From counter-terrorism to criminal justice: transformation or business as usual?" Howard Journal, 51:5, 449)The most important of those inquiries has been the Saville Inquiry. On 29 January 1998 British Prime Minister Tony Blair promised an official inquiry into Bloody Sunday, and on 15 June 2010 the Saville Inquiry made its conclusions public. The Saville Inquiry into Bloody Sunday lasted 12 years and cost 195 million, making it the longest and most expensive public inquiry in UK history. In comparison the official inquiry into the 9/11 attack in the USA in which 2,995 people lost their lives lasted for 20 months, interviewed more than 1,200 witnesses in 10 countries, reviewed more than 2.5million pages of documentation and cost $15 million. The Saville Inquiry shows how 'inquiry culture' connects with both therapy and victim culture and provide new means for the British state to reassert its authority in the six counties. As Brendan O'Neill put it:The Stormont House Agreement of 23 December 2014 promised another 150 million to be spent over the next five years to deal with the 'past' about which there is no consensus. From the previous inquiries it is possible to have an idea about how the debate about the past is going to be framed:The fact that it is the British state which determines the parameters on how to deal with the past has the following implication:The result of this is that in Northern Ireland not every murder is treated the same:How to deal with the 'past' is made on terms ultimately dictated by the British state and is not built on justice or truth.This article has argued that the current victim, therapy and inquiry cultures enables the British state to reassert, in therapeutic terms, its governance of Northern Ireland. But it also stresses the alarming extent to which since 1998 in Northern Ireland therapeutic politics have usurped politics proper. As Chris Gilligan concluded in his study of conflict-related trauma policy in Northern Ireland:NoteIt is worth comparing the BBC programme mentioned above and contemporary victims and therapy culture to Marcel Ophuls' 1972 film A Sense of Loss which was made in a very different context. Filmed in Belfast in the winter of 1971-1972 this documentary film is thematically organised around the idea of human loss. Ophuls interviews Mr. and Mrs Nichol, young Protestant parents who still listen for the cries of their baby burned to death in a bomb attack on Balmoral Furnishing Company on 11 December 1971. Mrs Lavery describes her husband who has killed by a bomb which exploded as he attempted to carry it out of his bar on the Lisburn Road on 21 December 1971. A grandmother Ophuls interviews sees the spirit of her son, IRA volunteer Gerard McDade killed in Ardoyne also on 21 December 1971, in her newborn grandson. The film ends with the story of a teenage girl who was accidentally killed by a British Army armoured car on her way home from a dance. Her mother states that the Army never contacted her about her daughter's death. Instead of placing the ideas presented in the film within a historical context, Ophuls stated that he structured the film around the experience of death, with each episode highlighting the death of a particular person. The film was more an 'inner view' rather than an overview of the situation in Northern Ireland. While Ophuls' technique worked in his highly acclaimed, 1969 documentary, Le Chagrin et la Pitie (The Sorrow and the Pity), because the issues of the Nazi Occupation were already clear to the audience of the 1970s, the New York Times review criticized that Ophuls was "almost frivolous" to make A Sense of Loss without explaining the historical, economic and political antecedents of Ireland's problems. The film is interesting in the context of this article as it shows how people dealt with loss and trauma in 1971 was framed differently than today. The sextoy market is growing quite rapidly in India right now. Although it is not a big trend, it is a hot topic on the internet as it is secretly expanding its market. In this article, we will focus on sextoy and introduce recommended sextoy for Indian beginners of sextoy by gender. India, the birthplace of the Kama Sutra, is very strict about sex. Also, premarital sex is basically not allowed. Therefore, there are many people who are sexually restricted. But what happens when you continue to be sexually restricted? Frustration may build up and you may end up taking your sexual stress out on your partner. If you are able to adopt sextoy in a timely manner, you can get rid of those problems. I want to have more exciting sex than Im having now. I want more variation in masturbation I want to get even stronger pleasure than I do on my own. If you have any of these problems, please stay with me until the end. What is sex toys for Indian? Sextoy, as the name implies, is a toy used during sex and masturbation. It is a generic term for vibrators, Egg-vibrators, Electric massagers, dildo, handcuffs and condoms. They are used to make regular sex more exciting or to make masturbation more pleasurable. Because sextoy is very stimulating, it can help you to get rid of the problems and frustrations of being in a rut of sex with your partner for a long time, or if you are unhappy with the lack of pleasure in sex with your partner. The ability to satisfy your desires with movement, texture, and size, which cannot be done by a normal human being, can help you to be satisfied with sex and, as a result, improve your relationship with your partner. It is also said to help improve sexual dysfunction (inability to get an erection or ejaculate) and difficulty in feeling during sex (insensitivity), which is attracting more attention than in the past. In recent years, the demand for sextoy has increased due to the spread of smartphones and the Internet and the increasing number of people using online shopping. Even those who are concerned about the appearance of sextoy (and find it difficult to purchase) can now easily obtain it by using mail order. In the case of online shopping, most of the stores have taken steps to ensure that the contents of the products delivered to you are not revealed, so you can purchase them without your family members knowing. Until a while ago, you had to go to the store where the adult goods were sold to buy them, so it was quite a hurdle to overcome. Also, many people may have an image that sextoy is somehow embarrassing to own. But nowadays, some of them are so stylish and cute that you cant believe they are sextoy at a glance. More and more people are using them for travel and outdoor use because they are not too bulky and are suitable for carrying around. Sextoy situation in India Before introducing the recommended sextoy for Indians, lets talk about one of the sextoy situations in India in recent years. In India, due to the high concentration of population, the following six cities have particularly high sales of sextoy in India. Mumbai Kolkata Bangalore Delhi Chennai Hyderabad These cities account for roughly 70 percent of sextoy sales in India. In the future, the percentage of sextoy use will gradually increase in other cities in India as well. If you never talk about sextoy publicly, that girl in your neighborhood might be a sextoy user too. If you are interested in sextoy, you dont have to suppress your desire for it. What are Sextoys for beginner? Among all sextoys, sextoy for beginners are vibrators, dildo, masturbators, Sex Lubricants, and condoms. Sex Lubricants and condoms, which are familiar to people who have had sex, are also a great beginners sextoy. I will explain the details of each toy later, but there are many sextoy products that are painful to use and can only be used after some anal expansion. I assume that the Indian readers of this article are people who have not had much experience with sextoy. If such people use professional sextoy suddenly, they are at risk of injury or trauma. Therefore, to introduce sextoy, you need to start with a beginners version and gradually become familiar with it. Advantages of using sextoy for Indians There are three advantages of using sextoy for Indians You can masturbate in a wide variety of ways. Can have stimulating sex Can develop new sexual zones If you try to masturbate with your own fingers or hands, it tends to be a pattern. However, with sextoy, you can easily masturbate in a variety of ways. You will definitely be fascinated by the attraction of new stimulation. Also, your daily sex life will be more exciting than ever. There are many things in sextoy that are visually stimulating and give you a strong and intense feeling of pleasure. This allows you to see your partners promiscuity in a way that you wouldnt normally see it. When you are in a relationship, sex with your partner may become a pattern, but it can also eliminate these problems. It can also lead to the development of new sexual zones (which is the training of sexual stimulation to allow you to feel orgasms). For more information on the development of new sexual zones, see the following articles [Women's Erogenous Zone]How to find and develop, 7 hidden sexual zones !![In India] In this issue, we will dissect the female erogenous zone! ..." Many of you may be like that. Men, in particular, shou... Thus, the use of sextoy can only be a good thing for the men and women of India. Sextoy for beginner men in India So, lets continue with the recommended goods for Indian sextoy beginners. For ease of understanding, we will introduce them by gender. Lets start with the men! The following five goods are recommended for novice Indian sextoy men Masturbator Cock rings Love Doll Sex Lubricants Toys for the prostate Lets check each one in detail. Masturbator The masturbator is a sextoy for men that elaborately reproduces a womans vagina, mouth, and anus, and is one of the most popular sextoy products. It is used by men to masturbate, and it is popular because it provides stronger stimulation and pleasure more easily than using hands. Most are made of good quality silicone, and their softness is something that cannot be achieved with ones own hands. They can provide stronger pleasure than a real womans vagina, so be careful not to overuse them. (You wont be able to have an orgasm in a womans vagina anymore.) Again Male masturbators are a wonderful toy. I do not need any favourite timing, bothersome bargaining. You do not have to worry too much. Revolutionize your masturbation time! ! ! Made in Japan is a wonderful kinky toy.#sextoysindia #SexToyIndia #Japanhttps://t.co/4k70QGzoTP pic.twitter.com/tRVdxTKPpa SEXToys India PR (@SextoysIndia) November 12, 2018 Some of them are disposable, while others can be washed and used over and over again, so its fun to buy a few to use depending on your mood. If you want to know more about masturbator, please click here Really pleasant male masturbation and how to do it Are you in a rut with your daily masturbation routine? I'm going to show you five ways men masturbate that you might ... [For Beginners] How to choose and use a male masturbator without fail Gentlemen.Have you ever used a masturbator? The person who sees this article is probably the one who has not experien... Cock Ring A cock ring is literally a ring-shaped sextoy that is worn on a mans penis. It maintains an erection by binding the penis with a ring of rubber and blocking blood flow. It is sometimes used as an accessory to be worn on the penis, and may be made of metal or plastic as well as rubber. In some cases, cock rings have parts or vibrators attached to them that stimulate the vagina, so they kill two birds with one stone, giving a woman pleasure while maintaining an erection. Cock rings are also sometimes used to treat erectile dysfunction. It can help with erectile dysfunction, where the penis doesnt get hard when you get an erection or doesnt last long when you try to insert it. Men who are prone to breakage or who are unsure of the hardness and size of their erections can use a cock ring to increase the size of their penis and maintain an erection for a longer period of time. Cock rings vary in price from around RS700 to over RS2000 with a vibrator function. Some of them do not fit your penis, so you should check the size of the cock ring before you buy. You should know the size of your partners or your own penis when it is erect. [Penis enlargement] What is a cock ring? Types and usage Cock rings can make your penis bigger and harder. It also makes sex with women more fulfilling and increases your sat... Love Doll Love dolls, also known as Dutchwives, are dolls with the appearance of a woman who can experience simulated sex. There are dolls that look like a woman, but they have no face and only have their breasts and lower torso cut off, and some dolls are so realistic that they can actually be mistaken for real women. Some expensive dolls can cost more than 1 million yen, and the quality of the doll is easily influenced by the price. The higher the price, the higher the quality of the doll will be, the closer it will be to the real woman, and the cheaper the doll will be, the less elaborate it will be, making it look like a real doll! Something is wrong! That is also true. You cant go wrong if you choose a balance between price and taste. There are stores that allow you to make custom-made love dolls, so you can create a girl of your choice. You can make a girl of your choice. You can start with inexpensive love dolls at first, and once you get used to it, you can try custom-made love dolls. If you want to know more about Love doll, please click here Thorough explanation of the charm of sex dolls! Have you ever heard of sex dolls that are used primarily for pseudo-sex purposes? It is a doll that is quite close to... Sex lubricants Sex lubricants are used as a substitute for lubricating fluid during sex or as a lubricant for men to use masturbator rules. It is not uncommon for women to have difficulty getting wet, depending on their physical condition, or to have difficulty getting wet due to their constitution. Forcing the penis into the vagina at such times can cause painful intercourse. There are various types of Sex Lubricants, some with a warming effect, some with a cooling effect, and some with a scent. Changing the Sex Lubricant used during play is recommended as a good sex accent. If you want to learn more about Sex Lubricants, click here. What is sex lubricant?Explain the difference and usage of each ingredient The word "sex toy" may seem like a hurdle to overcome, but lotion is actually one of the most familiar sex toys. Many... Toys for the Prostate Another sextoy for men is prostate toys. The most famous prostate toys include Enemagra, which was originally a prostate massager developed by an American urologist to treat an enlarged prostate line. Modern prostate toys are imitations of Enemagra that have spread as sextoy for men. Many people think of prostate toys as being used by gay men, but in fact they are often used by straight men. What is the prostate? The prostate is an organ found only in men. It is a walnut-sized organ located deep in the pelvis, just below the bladder, and its primary role is to protect and nourish sperm. You cannot touch the prostate gland from outside the body, but you can touch it by inserting a finger or sextoy through the anus. By inserting a finger or sextoy through the anus and touching the prostate and developing it, you can feel intense orgasms. Orgasms felt in the prostate are mainly dry orgasms, which are orgasms that do not involve ejaculation. (You can also feel orgasms with ejaculation through prostate stimulation.) The prostate is called the male G-spot, and dry orgasms can be much more intense than ejaculation. Therefore, men who are able to develop a prostate can become addicted to the pleasure. sextoy for beinner women in India The following are the recommended goods for Indian women who are new to sextoy. The following three are recommended for use by women who are new to sextoy. Vibrator. Dildo Electric Masserger Lets check out what each one is in detail. If you want to check out womens toys, click here. [BEST25]Sex Toys for Women in IndiaThat Can Help You Have an Orgasm There are many women who pretend to feel orgasm during sex. But don't worry, you don't have to pretend to feel orgasm... Vibrators A vibrator is a sextoy that vibrates with an Egg-Vibrator to provide stimulation and is often referred to simply as a vibrator. Some vibrate as well as rotate, and there are many variations of sextoy. It is quite a popular sextoy, and is well recognized by people who do not know much about sextoy. Its usage is similar to that of a massager, but it is more compact and easier to carry than a massager, and many of them look as cute as a lipstick or a macaroon, so they are popular among women. For a while, a famous influencer on twitter said, This is good! You may have heard of the topic of this article by introducing the recommended vibrators. Vibrators are great for women to use on their own, but they are also recommended for men who have difficulty satisfying women with sex. Since it is powered by electricity, it is far less tiring than moving your hands by yourself. This makes it easier to satisfy a woman with sex because you can caress her for longer than usual. Vibrators are mainly used on the female side, but they can also be used on men. When used on men, they are used to attack the nipples and glans, and in both cases it is recommended to wear a condom for hygiene reasons. Introducing how to use the vibrator, its purpose, and how to choose it! Vibrator uses the vibrations caused by the rotation of the motor to provide stimulation. It is one or two of the most... Dildo A dildo is a model sextoy made to mimic a male penis. It can be made of silicone, elastomer (think of it as a material similar to PVC), metal or glass. A dildo can be used by a man for his female partner during sex, or by a woman for masturbation to get pleasure from it. They are mainly inserted into women, but some can be used in the male anus as well. It is sometimes used synonymously with vibrators, but the vibrator is not the same thing as a vibrating device. A model of a penis that does not vibrate is a dildo. Some of them have suction cups that can be attached to the floor or wall so that you can enjoy realistic masturbation without using your hands. For fun, there is a dildo made in the shape of your partners penis. This one is also popular as a gift, and if youve been together for a long time and are having trouble finding a gift for your partner, you might want to pick one. To learn more about dildo, please click here. What is Dildo: Orgasms with Dildos for Men and Women A dildo is a model of a male organ that is used by women for masturbation and by men to stimulate the prostate gland. Th... Electric Masserger A Electric Masserger is a hand-held electric massager, also known as a handheld massager, and can usually be purchased at electronics stores. It was originally designed to relieve stiff shoulders and back pain, so the hurdle of buying one in a physical store is quite low. Many people may have seen or used it in some form or another, as it is often installed in leisure hotels. Such a massager is highly recommended for beginners because it is easy for women to get pleasure from it when they use it during masturbation. It is larger than Egg-Vibrator and vibrations are stronger than those of Egg-Vibrators and vibrators, so even just hitting the clitoris can give you a great deal of pleasure. For those women who have never had an orgasm during sex with their man, the massager may be a good way to get a feel for what it feels like to have an orgasm. It looks and feels like an electric massager, so you wont have to feel awkward if your roommate finds out. If you are in a rut of having sex with your partner, if you want to feel an orgasm through masturbation, or if you are thinking of using a sextoy, why dont you try it from a simple massager? To learn more about Electric Masserger, click here. What is a massager? Introducing types, selection methods, and usage Originally, the Magic-wand vibrator and the massage machine were sold as a home massage machine used for the back and th... How to choose a sextoy for Indian Now that weve covered the different types of sextoy, heres how to choose one. Especially if you are trying sextoy for the first time, pay attention to the following three points: Does the size fit you (the partner)? Does the size fit you (your partner)? Is the environment able to produce sound without problems? Price range First of all, the choice of size is quite important. Most sextoy are used against or inserted into the genitals, but the genitals are very delicate organs for both men and women. For this reason, using an inappropriate size may cause damage. Secondly, the environment should be able to produce sound without problems. Some sextoys not only wear, but also rotate and vibrate. Its easier to get pleasure from something that moves than something that doesnt, but the fact that it moves means that the internal rotors make some noise. If you live in a house with thin walls or if you have roommates, you may not be able to concentrate because of the noise, so it is best to choose one that is silent or has a low noise level. Especially in India, where many people live with their families, it is very important that you dont have to worry about sound when you use it. Finally, there is the price range. The price range of sextoy ranges widely, from around RS500 at the cheapest to RS10,000 or more at the highest. Its good to consider how much money you can afford and how much you want to buy. Do you want your family to not find out about sextoy? I live with my family and want to use sextoy without them finding out! If you are a man, you should buy a camouflage sextoy that does not look like a sextoy at first glance. For men, there are many masturbators that do not look like a sextoy, and for women, there are vibrators that only look like cosmetics. If you choose such a type, youll be safe in case your family members find out. How to buy sextoys in India The best way to purchase sextoy is through online shopping. For more information on how to purchase sextoy, please see the article below. Sextoy is one of them. Therefore, you can easily get sextoy in India by using online shopping. SexToysINDIA is a long established and stable sextoy store and you can have sextoy delivered to any place in India. They also offer cash on delivery, so those who are worried about shopping with a credit card do not have to worry. Of course, the latest security is in place, so your information will not be taken out when you use your credit card. To begin with, many people may be concerned about whether they are legally allowed to purchase sextoy. ikmAs it turns out, its not illegal. Right now, it is not open to the public because the Indian adult market is still in the development stage, but it will gradually spread from now on. Take advantage of sextoy and open the door to new pleasures and culture. Cautions for Indians using sextoy When using sextoy, keep the following three things in mind Keep sex toys clean Watch out for electrical leakage Beware of the heat generated by the body while using a sex toy As I mentioned earlier, many sextoy products are used for the delicate zone. Therefore, it is most important to keep the sextoy itself clean. It is very important to keep the sextoy itself clean, because if a slight scratch is created by friction, bacteria can enter and breed there. It is safe to wear a condom when using the masturbator, just in case. In addition, many sextoy devices are powered by a power source, so if they are not waterproof, there is a possibility of electric shock or malfunction due to wetness. Some may even develop heat during continuous use. If the fever becomes too much, you may get burned, so be careful. If you get a fever during use, stop driving the sextoy immediately and refrain from using it. You will enjoy sex more if you keep it safe and use it correctly. Summary What did you think? In this article, we have introduced the recommended sextoy for the beginners of sextoy in India. The sextoy market is growing rapidly in India and it will continue to grow steadily in the future. As India is a rather closed-minded country, it can be difficult to be open about ones sexual habits and values. However, being faithful to ones desires by properly dissolving ones sexual desire is very effective for ones physical and mental health. If this is your first time to learn about sextoy, or if you are interested in using sextoy, why not give it a try? Indian Sextoys for ur best! will introduce you to sextoy and other trivia about sextoy, sexuality, and sexuality for men and women. I want to read more! If you think its a great idea, please bookmark it. High rivers and continued rains in Southern Illinois have water damage restoration companies running all throughout the region and with little time to rest as voluntary evacuations were ordered in Jackson and Union Counties this past week. We have been called out since Friday (Dec. 25) through Wednesday. My crew probably hasnt slept more than three or four hours a day since then, said Dave Johnson, owner of Dynamic Restoration Solutions in De Soto. Eric Speakman, co-owner of Leading Edge Restoration in West Frankfort, said just because the rains have stopped, it doesnt mean business will slow down. I think it is just the beginning, he said. People are starting to get down in their basements and see what kind of damage they have. Speakman said when a customer calls, he wants to know right away what kind of flooring is in the damaged area, where the water is coming from and if the homeowner has a working sump pump. He said some preventative measures homeowners can take to minimize the amount of damage to personal items are putting furniture on blocks. Also, anything that is important, -- emotionally or monetarily get it out of the affected area as soon as possible. Even if it doesnt get wet itself, there is the potential for damage due to the amount of humidity in the basement, Speakman said. Johnson said he is seeing a lot of people not taking care of their sump pumps and their basement drains. He advises to keep debris out of the pump and drains to help when there is water coming in. When these large amounts of water are coming in, there is nowhere for it to go, he said. There is nothing they can do about it at that point. Johnson said one of the worse things a homeowner can do is wait to call a professional and attempt to fix the problem themselves. The chances of a homeowner having the equipment they need to fix the situation is very slim, he said. He said if the water is pumped out improperly, it can cause mold and structural problems, as well as long-term health problems. Speakman said his company would pump out as much as the water as it could and then extract any remaining standing water. Then his crew would set fans and dehumidifiers. Next, he said he would tear out the affected materials that will not dry such as flooring, carpeting or related materials. If it is a groundwater flooding, that is considered a Category 3 water loss and his crew would treat that the same as if sewage backed up in the home. The heavy metals and pesticides found in ground water can be detrimental to your health so they have to be treated as such, Speakman said. Johnson said his company also places air movers and dehumidifiers to attempt to dry out the structure. He also uses an antimicrobial solution to try and prevent mold growth by keeping the humidity down. Johnson said he has been finding that people have been gone on vacation and their basement floods, so they come home to water sitting there for multiple days. He said if waters sits more than 48 to 72 hours, it stagnates and becomes extremely dangerous. It can breed disease and more likely to cause mold in the long run, he said. The destruction that we have to do to remediate the situation is much larger. Speakman advises homeowners not to walk into standing water on a ground floor or basement. You dont have any idea how it has affected the electrical system in the house, he said. The past year in Southern Illinois has shown plenty of growth in the business sector in all parts of the region. Marion and Carbondale brought in some big name companies, while towns like Murphysboro brought in a few local businesses to boost its tax base. Harrisburg made some big announcements as well with developments opening in 2016. The beginning of the year started up and down for the business community in Carbondale with two well-known franchises, Pizza Hut and Cato closing its doors in January. However, the community was able to strike back with the opening of another pizza franchise in Dominos and the fried chicken chain Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen. The retail store 5 Below also opened in January in the University Place Shopping Plaza. In May, Marion significantly added to the employment base and gave shoppers a different option for sporting goods with the opening of Gander Mountain on The Hill. The store was expected to hire about 75 employees upon opening. Later that summer, Carbondale opened the long-awaited doughnut and coffee shop, Dunkin Donuts. Shortly afterward, Marion also jumped in the doughnut and coffee game with Krispy Kreme. Also, in the summer, Carbondale residents learned that the development project on Illinois 13 expected to be home to the Heartland Womens Center's newest OB/GYN clinic will also house a brunch-style restaurant, Sunny Street Cafe. In December, the restaurant announced it will have a soft opening near the end of January. This past summer saw business owners hurting in Carterville with a road construction project happening on Illinois 13, but fortunately for those owners, construction has wrapped and Mayor Brad Robinson is optimistic about the future of his community. However, with each upswing, there were a couple of businesses leaving the area. Picks Liquors near University Village shut its doors, The Apple Tree Inn was purchased and is set to be demolished sometime this year and Pony Cabaret and Steakhouse was denied a liquor license by the Carbondale City Council and hasnt opened its doors since July. Gillenbergs Furniture in Murphysboro closed its doors after 61 years at the end of 2015. Toward the end of the year, medical marijuana finally got the green light to begin sales and the Harbory Dispensary in Marion was among the first in the state to begin selling product. The first day product was allowed, a line formed around the building, just next to the airport. Also, in Williamson County, Marion Mayor Bob Butler announced in December, that Aisin Electronics has leased part of the former Circuit City building, which has been empty for multiple years. Butler said he hopes now that a tenant has started to do something with the building, more will follow. Closing out the year, the city of Carbondale created a new liquor license allowing movie theaters to sell alcohol. The city was approached by AMC to sell the alcohol as part of a multi-million dollar renovation proposed to take place in the first part of 2016. Carbondale also agreed on a Tax Increment Financing agreement with Sidetracks in Carbondale to move down the street to the former Gatsbys building. General Manager Brian Woodruff said the bar is working in the building to get it ready for a summer soft opening. Both bars will continue to operate until 2017, when the city will tear down the current Sidetracks building for a parking project. Carbondale Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Les ODell said in December that many places in the region are thriving and several shopping centers are filled. It is encouraging, ODell said. All signs point to continued growth in 2016. Mayor Butler said there are several things under consideration in Marion but cant reveal anything just yet. But, regardless, he said the city will continue to grow. Thats the name of our game, Butler said. We wouldnt have it otherwise. Seventy years ago, Owen Lee Webb was a teen-aged farm boy from Johnson County serving his country in Hawaii after the attack on Pearl Harbor. When he left there, after two years in the U.S. Navy, he was eager to return home to Johnson County and never leave. That changed, though, and he recently returned to Pearl Harbor with his two daughters, Debbie Goddard and Kathy Anderson, both of Johnson County. Webb said he watched the Pearl Harbor memorial ceremonies and the parade every year on television, and, a few years ago, mentioned to his family that maybe they could go sometime. His family took him seriously. At his 89th birthday celebration, which had an Hawaiian theme, his daughters, two sons and grandchildren gave him cash gifts to pay for the trip. Debbie did the travel planning, but the three of them agreed on an agenda for each day in Hawaii. While there, they attended a luau, saw the sites where movies had been filmed and took a tour of the big island. Webb wanted to visit a volcano up close, which they were able to do. They said that when he heard a deep rumble, Webb was ready to depart. He also visited the Dole Pineapple Co., where they chose from pineapple desserts; Webbs choice was pineapple ice cream. The trio watched the Dec. 7 memorial service online, but they actually watched the parade from their hotel windows. When they visited the Pearl Harbor site, Webb met one of the survivors of the attack, a 98-year-old who called Webb a youngster. Herb Weatherwax is one of only seven remaining survivors of the 1941 attack on the island by the Japanese. Weatherwax wrote a book, "Counting My Blessings," an autographed copy of which Webb purchased. The daughters said they were so impressed with the respect their dad received while in Hawaii. "People crossed the street to shake his hand and thank him for serving," Kathy said. Webb said he also was impressed by the many nice people they met, from so many different countries, on the tours. Webb spent most of his military time on board an aircraft carrier, the Sitkoh Bay CBE86, along with a crew of nearly 900 men. Webb kept a detailed log of the ship's tours, which he proudly displays, along with an album filled with photos of the days of World War II. Another book he has is filled with pertinent data and photos of the ship and its crew. According to his records, he spent 84,757 miles on sea trips. But his trip this time was different. Webb said he saw absolutely nothing that looked familiar on his return. When he was there the first time, from 1945-46, there was only one hotel on Waikiki Beach, of which he has a photo. "Now, there must be 2000," he said. Webb said the guns of the U.S.S. Arizona were above the water when he left in 1946; now, only the oily waters are an indication of the sunken ship. Webb was aboard his aircraft carrier nearby the USS Missouri, while the peace treaty with Japan was being signed. From his ship, he was able to watch the event. "Six months later, I went home," he said. Webb said that after the peace accord, his ship was used to transport a load of American cars to Honolulu. The sailors actually drag-raced on the aircraft carrier, which was then devoid of planes. The 510-foot-long airstrip served as a race track between a Chevy and a Buick. The Buick, driven by Webb, placed first. While showing his wartime photo album, Webb pointed out his sweetheart, his late wife, Mary Wilma, and some of the letters she sent him. At that time, they were very good friends, but they became serious on his return and were married for more than 50 years. Webb also showed a recent photo of him and the daughters, sporting a new Hawaiian shirt purchased on the trip. And, although the trip was a near-perfect adventure, all three said they were glad to arrive back in Johnson County and eager to share their memory-filled trek. As the state teeters on a fiscal ledge, farm leaders see little hope in sight of normalcy. The government is deep in debt, and few see a light at the end of the tunnel. The bigger picture is definitely going to be the budget and how that is going to shake out, said Kevin Semlow, director of state legislation with Illinois Farm Bureau. We know that there are going to be tight times for all the ag programs and for agricultures operating budget. That may be putting it lightly. State Sen. Dave Luechtefeld, R-Okawville, had little hopeful news after meeting with Director of Agriculture Raymond Poe. There is going to be suffering; I dont think theres any question about that, said Luechtefeld, who serves on the Agriculture Committee. It cant be avoided. Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, in his first year, and Democratic Speaker of the House Michael Madigan, who has reigned for decades, have locked horns in a budget battle that has seen little movement. The states pension fund is short an estimated $100 billion and the general fund has run a deficit for years. The 2016 budget year began July 1, but 2015 ended without a budget in place. This debt has grown over the past 10 years where were at the point now where its near bankruptcy, Luechtefeld said. The only budget theyre going to come up with is maybe a one-year balance. But that doesnt pay your debts. So you face the same problem the following year. Theres no easy fix to this anymore. Agriculture has already taken a big hit, both directly and indirectly. Among other things, the University of Illinois has been forced to trim the Extension program because of cuts. Semlow said the biggest losers are likely to be Extension, county fairs and conservation districts. The latter will likely have zero money because the workers are not state employees, he added. Former Gov. Pat Quinn ushered in a 60 percent income tax increase with a sunset clause, and it was not renewed after Rauner defeated him in the gubernatorial election last fall. But tax hikes will likely be part of the creep toward a solution, Luechtefeld said. I think there will definitely be some sort of tax increase, he said. Hopefully, the governor can get Madigan to agree to some change in the system. But so far, Madigan has not agreed to anything. Farm Bureau executives have some legislative priorities but arent holding their breath to see them come to fruition. One is continuation of a property tax exemption for development of buffer strips. Its hard right now to walk in and say what we want, because there are no parameters, Semlow said. Until we see a plan unfold, we cant just walk in and say what we want. CARBONDALE Allan Seymour knows something about tenacity. The 63-year-old former construction explosives engineer opted to go to college and then pursue a law degree while in his mid-50s. He now is planning to return to the SIU School of Law in January -- less than three months after classmates rescued him from a heart attack and stroke suffered while in class. Seymour continues to fill in the gaps of what happened shortly before noon on Nov. 2. He was stricken while in the law school courtroom with classmates in a simulated negotiation session. Seymour said he understands he was dead for nine minutes during the episode, and that his heart later stopped three times during quadruple bypass surgery. This is all about God, said Seymour, a third-year law student from Trumbull, Conn. He used the hands of others -- whether it be my classmates, the surgeon, nurses, or whomever. He directed all that. Peter Murphy II, 24, a third-year law school student from Springfield, was with Seymour in the courtroom when Seymour was stricken. Seymour slumped in his chair and was having difficulty breathing, said Murphy, who ran outside the courtroom, called 911, and then returned to assist other students. Students John Hanson, Scott Walker and Trish Estes were also among those whose actions helped revive Seymour, though none of them was with Seymour in the courtroom at the time he was first stricken. Hanson was in an adjacent lounge area and retrieved the automated external defibrillator (AED) learning that Seymour was in cardiac arrest. Meanwhile, Walker, who was participating in a simulated project for class, and Estes, who was also nearby, went to the courtroom to offer assistance. After students positioned Seymour onto the floor from his chair, Walker said he could not feel a pulse and that Seymour was not breathing; Estes noticed that Seymour was cyanotic and appeared to have been in distress for some time. Hanson applied the AED machine while Walker gave Seymour mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and Estes and Murphy began chest compressions. Their work continued as SIU Department of Public Safety officers and paramedics arrived. Walker, Hanson and Estes all spoke of the AEDs importance. Murphy also stressed the importance of knowing CPR. Without it, I dont know if our efforts would have been enough, Walker said of the AED. Estes, a 42-year-old mother of three from Paducah, is a second-year student. She recalls thinking of Seymours family while applying chest compressions and of Seymours birthday a few days earlier. He was literally unresponsive and I wanted so desperately for him to just take a breath but his color was getting worse and he was really struggling, Estes said. Walker, 48, of Marion, is a former U.S. Marine and Illinois National Guard veteran with EMT experience. Estes and Hanson also have CPR training in their backgrounds. Estes estimates it was about 25 minutes from the time Seymour was stricken to when he left by ambulance. Their response time was great, Walker said. It felt like an eternity to us because we were working. They were very thorough and very quick. They knew what they were doing. They got the IV started and got him on the board and knew they had to get him out. Hanson, 29, of Edwardsville, has been a pilot since high school. That focus helped in this situation, he said, because of the need to follow procedures. It was an automatic reaction; something was seriously wrong, he said. It was the mindset to react to such incidents. Walker also recalls going into default mode, with a narrow vision that we had one thing to do and hopefully somebody gets there quickly who can do more than we can. You werent going to leave on my watch, Walker told Seymour during a recent visit to his home. Estes, who joked that she is referred to as the law school mom, echoed others sentiments that the 356 students, along with law school faculty and staff, are a family. I am extremely proud of how the law school community rallied to do what was necessary to save Allan's life, Dean Cynthia L. Fountaine said. It was a moving example of what can be accomplished when everyone works together. I am grateful to everyone who helped in any way, including those who held doors, who alerted others, who called 911, and who helped direct medical responders. One of the things that makes SIU Law a very special law school is the fact that we really are a family -- a close-knit community of people who care about each other. Allan is a member of our law school family, and we are looking forward to his return to school. Seymour said he also had a stroke in 2014 at the end of his first year in law school, but opted not to say anything at the time. His wife, Maryjane, who lives in Connecticut, and his five children, all of whom live in various parts of the country, rushed to Southern Illinois to see their husband and father after he was stricken. Besides his time at law school, Seymour lived in Carbondale for three years as a child while his father, Harry Seymour, Jr., earned a doctorate in elementary education from the university in 1960. I feel great. I feel like a new man, Seymour said. Obviously my plumbing has been cleaned out pretty good. I dont have a new heart, but I have new plumbing there. Seymour spent two weeks at Memorial Hospital of Carbondale and two weeks in rehabilitation at Herrin Hospital. His goal is to resume class when the spring 2016 semester begins Jan. 19, and said the law school has given him a year to complete his coursework. Laid off in 2009 from his construction-related job due to the economy Seymour said he began to think about what he could pursue. Although it was 40 years since he quit high school, Seymour gained his General Educational Development (GED), degree, attended Housatonic Community College in Bridgeport, Conn., and earned a bachelors degree in liberal studies from Southern Connecticut State University. He then looked toward attending law school in hopes of becoming a prosecutor. Seymour did not think about his age when deciding whether to attend law school, but was optimistic about his future and ambition to become an attorney. He was, he said, on a mission, so to speak. I was always interested in the law and thought I could make an impact, he said. OLIVE BRANCH Gov. Bruce Rauner on Saturday repeated a common plea made throughout last week from emergency personnel to evacuate homes threatened by flooding. Hundreds of families have been requested to evacuate, Rauner said after a closed briefing with county and state authorities at an Alexander County command center in Olive Branch. Unfortunately, the majority of families that we have contacted so far have said they dont want to evacuate, they want to stay with their homes, he said. Floods destroy homes, farms in Alexander County as levees overtopped OLIVE BRANCH The fast-rising waters of the Mississippi River broke records Friday in Alexa Rauner was in Olive Branch as part of a tour of flood damage in central and Southern Illinois that began Friday. Stops also included Chester, Grand Tower and Cairo. He was joined in Olive Branch by U.S. Rep. Mike Bost, R-Murphysboro; state Sen. Gary Forby, D-Benton, and state Rep. Brandon Phelps, D-Harrisburg. Also with him was Illinois Emergency Management Agency Director James K. Joseph. Near or below freezing temperatures overnight have made the flooding that much more dangerous because of the potential for hypothermia, the governor said. Please, if you are requested to evacuate, please honor the request and evacuate, Rauner said. Since the deluge of last weeks rain began flowing over roadways and some levees, at least nine people and possibly a tenth have died in Illinois in connection with flooding. Rauner said the missing person, a teenager in Christian County, has yet to be located. As Mississippi River predictions decrease, officials eye Big Muddy MURPHYSBORO -- Emergency-response officials in Jackson County have turned their eyes to the So far, Rauner has declared 12 counties as disaster areas; Alexander, the worst affected area, among them, he said. Jackson County has also been declared a disaster area. Other counties are Calhoun, Christian, Clinton, Douglas, Jersey, Madison, Monroe, Morgan, Randolph and St. Clair. The impact is pretty significant, Rauner said, stating that hundreds of homes and dozens of businesses have been flooded. A state disaster declaration makes a wide variety of state resources available that can help communities respond and recover from flooding. Such resources include sandbag, sand, pumps, trucks and other heavy equipment and other assistance, according to state information. Rauner has also activated the Illinois National Guard for assistance. The state is preparing to secure federal disaster relief funds to assist property owners as well as what economic development funds the state might have available, Rauner said. With Friday evenings breach of the Len Small Levee in Miller City of Alexander County, flooding has occurred in a number of communities, including Olive Branch, Miller City, Willard and the Horseshoe Lake area, Dale Schultz, a member of the board of the Alexander County Emergency Management Agency, said. Residents in East Cape Girardeau and McClure have also been encouraged to evacuate. There have also been four instances of water overtopping levees near Len Small, he added. In no way mitigating the floods damage, Schultz said the breach is likely to lower crest projections and may present relief for towns further south such as Cairo, which has seen some field flooding but little to no structural damage. Everything has pretty well stabilized at the moment, Schultz said. The Mississippi River was at 46.84 feet Saturday afternoon, about 14 feet above flood stage. It is projected to crest at 47 feet Sunday morning shortly after midnight. According to Illinois State Police, the American Red Cross has opened shelters at the Osage Centre, 1625 North Kingshighway in Cape Girardeau and at Shawnee Community College, 8364 Shawnee College Road in Ullin. Information for other shelter relief is available at http://www.illinois.gov/ready/Pages/default.aspx. Despite the pleas to evacuate Ricky Brown and his family have stood their ground against flooding at his grandparents home in Olive Branch. Located off Illinois 3, either side of it more like a lake than the farmland usually seen, the home is protected by pumps, hundreds of sandbags and a small built up levee the family began working on after the Great Flood of 1993. It has, for the most part, stayed dry, unlike neighbors homes and businesses along the brief stretch of state highway, much of it evacuated. Weve been bagging out here since the day after Christmas, Brown said, a U.S. Army soldier on Christmas leave until Monday. Being an unincorporated town with not a lot of attention, its family and friends that do this. Meanwhile, to the north along Illinois 3 in Grand Tower, another of Rauners stops, Mayor Michael Ellet said his community is breathing a sigh of relief with no property damage despite record-breaking flood levels. A longstanding pillar of the Orangeburg community marked a major milestone in 2015, celebrating her 100th birthday. Mary Ruth Quattlebaum Harper was born on Aug. 20, 1915 to Wesley and Lillie May Quattlebaum. She graduated from the Old Field Public School. At that time, school only went through the ninth grade and lasted from October to December. Students did not attend school during the farming season. She met the love of her life, Tommie Harper, at a church in Orangeburg, and on May 23, 1936, they were married. The couple settled in Orangeburg and from their marriage of 69 years, two children were born, Lillie Bell and John Mickey Wesley. Harper has 12 grandchildren (three of whom are deceased), 12 great-grandchildren and two great-great grands, along with other children she raised as her own, such as Mary Louise Prince. Harper was business savvy. In 1959, she, her husband and her son-in-law (Jacob Irick) opened the Edisto Cafe. This was a one-stop cafe, where patrons could not only get the best soul food in town, but also the finest haircut. One of Harper's most rewarding professions was being a midwife, she said. She obtained her certification as a midwife from the Midwife Institution in Beaufort and went on to deliver more than 275 babies, including two sets of twins -- never losing a baby. She also enjoyed quilting and attended a quilt-making school in Cope, where she learned to design and make beautiful quilts. The quilts were often delivered to families who were in need of bed covering during the winter months. In addition, Harper worked as a beautician for six years. She obtained her training from a renowned beauty school in Orangeburg, then worked under several well-known beauticians in South Carolina. Harper said she loves serving the Lord as a faithful member of Edisto Fork United Methodist Church, under the leadership of the Rev. Ellis White Jr. In the early years, she was a Sunday school teacher and choir member. She is a member of the United Methodist Women (Christian Society). Being able to cast her vote for Americas first black president, Barack Obama, was a monumental moment in her life, Harper said. Though she gets around a little slower these days, she still tries to run circles around them, family members say. While she has retired from cooking, she can still be found sitting on the porch shelling beans and cracking pecans. The centenarian is known throughout the community as a loving, kind, graceful and giving person. Her acts of kindness and her work ethic are touted by those who know her. During Harper's years of employment she was fundamental in helping others acquire jobs. She says her motto is: If I can help somebody as I pass along, then my living shall not be in vain. What began as a normal trip to church resulted in an Orangeburg County woman rescuing a four-legged stranger and eventually making him the main character in her book, "Just George." As Ellen Freeman was driving to church, she saw a dog who was hurt and limping. I stopped and looked at him, and realized that he was also starving, and picked him up and took him home. He was so tiny and just looked so helpless, she said. The dog, who was later named George, had heart worms and was infested with fleas and ticks. He also had a severe scrape at the base of his tail. Freeman said she suspects George may have had a fractured pelvis because he limped for quite a while. Today, George, who is about 3 years old, is in overall great condition, constantly wagging his tail to express his excitement. Although Freeman had no intentions of keeping him, she has been taking care of George for almost two years. In fact, she went on to write a book about him titled, "Just George." The book, which describes Freeman's first year with the dog and the challenges she faced while trying to find a home for him, has been published by Outskirts Publishers. As the journey began, I said, I cant have another dog. I cant afford it. I put him on Facebook. Several people wanted him, but it just didnt work out, Freeman said. Freeman will sign copies of "Just George" from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 9, at the North United Methodist Church Social Hall in North. The book is available at almost all major online book stores, such as Barnes & Noble and Amazon. Ten percent of the books profits will go to the Hampton County Animal Shelter in Varnville to help with the care of homeless animals. Freeman said her daughter gave George his name. She wanted him. I said, If you want him, you have to name him. She said, George. Thats when I said, Just George? Thats where the name of the book came from, she said. It took Freeman approximately two to three months to write the book. Ive always loved to write, she said. A retired South Carolina public school teacher, Freeman resides outside of North. She says she has always had compassion for animals. Freeman refers to George as a "Heinz 59" breed. Hes too many parts to be a Heinz 57, she says, laughing. Hes extremely intelligent, and loves everybody. I have yet to see anybody that he didnt go up to and greet. He also loves other dogs. He adores little children, she said. Every other Wednesday, Freeman takes George to The Oaks, a retirement facility in Orangeburg. We entertain the people. I play the piano and sing with the patients. They love George. They all know his name. They all adore him, she said. George didnt always have the energetic and gregarious personality he has today. He was scared of everything to begin with," Freeman said. "He was afraid of human hands. He still is, a little. If you reach down to pet him, hell duck his head." She said it took George two or three months to realize he was not going to be abused. It took him almost a year to learn to bark again. He was afraid to bark, Freeman added. Freeman has another dog, Duke, who keeps George company when she's away. She said she has plans to release another book titled, "Duke Plus 1," which will tell Dukes story of adjusting to George after being the only dog for 10 years. Freeman said when she asked her husband to read "Just George," he said, It made me laugh. It made me cry and it made tears in my eyes." Its just a really beautiful story of a little animals conquest and his struggle to find his place in the world, she said. No animal will ever love you more than one that you rescue, Freeman said. "Before you buy an expensive pet, go to the pound and save a life. * This story has been corrected. A traumatic year in Holly Hill got even more traumatic in the final week of 2015. Todays T&D countdown of the top stories of the year concludes with no surprise atop the list: Octobers historic flooding. While the water impacted many in The T&D Region and around the state, nowhere was harder hit than Holly Hill. National Weather Service reporting stations showed 20.28 inches of rain a half-mile north of Holly Hill and 16.61 inches in the town. The result was a flooded downtown and streets, and some of the most iconic photographs from the storm that also led to evacuations. The rain fell hard in the early hours of Oct. 4 and did not let up. It came less than three months after another devastating morning. On July 15, the bodies of a man, woman and two children were found in a house just outside the eastern Orangeburg County town. They four had been shot to death. The killings had the entire area on edge as law enforcement sought to determine just what happened and whether other people were at risk from the killer/killers. To date, arrests have been made peripheral to the case, but no one has been charged with killing Jerome Butler, 50; Krystal Hutto, 28; Tamara Alexia Perry, 14, and Shamekia Sanders, 17 at Huttos 7050 Old State Road home. Most recently, the Holly Hill community was shaken again when the body of 38-year-old Loretta Bunch, who had not been seen since Christmas Day, was discovered near a bridge that crosses a swamp near the community of Boyer. The former manager of the Hardees restaurant in town is another victim of violence. Orangeburg County Sheriffs Office investigators, who followed leads to locate Bunchs body, have charged Harold Ray Pratt, 45, with murder and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime. Just why Bunch was killed remains to be determined but answers are likely as the case against Pratt is carried forward. Answers to what happened to the Holly Hill Four, as the task force devoted to solving the quadruple murders has been named, are high on the list of priorities as the calendar turns to 2016. Orangeburg County Sheriff Leroy Ravenell has pledged to the people of Holly Hill and surroundings that an arrest/arrests will be made. This case is moving and it wont quit and it wont stop, he has said. We must and we will get justice. After a traumatic year in and around Holly Hill, there could be no better start to the new year. A picture is worth a thousand words, or so goes the old saying. If that's true, an award-winning Orangeburg photographer's body of work over several decades speaks volumes about the history he has chronicled with his cameras. Cecil Williams has captured once-in-a-lifetime moments dating back to the Civil Rights Movement. He is also an "inventor," with his most recent creation being a tool called the FilmToaster, which preserves negatives. Williams, who has worked for JET Magazine and owns a photography studio, Cecil Williams Photography LLC, created the tool that enables users to put their film in digital format. Digital offers (film) a new lease on life, Williams said. Williams began taking photos in 1947 at the age of 9. Since then, he has accumulated approximately a half-million to a million negatives. He recently recognized that about 2,000 of his negatives were in peril. They had begun to crack, coil and become damaged. I was alarmed at the rate of the decline. This happens just like cancer. It spreads, Williams said. Each of the damaged negatives has to be discarded because they've dried out and can catch fire easily. As they become inflammable -- if I didnt weed these out where all my other negatives are stored, it could be dangerous, Williams said. Our heritage, our history, our legacy, our culture lies in someone taking the responsibility to save archives like my collection, he said. Williams was driven to find a solution to the problem in order to save his negatives. He began to experiment to find a less time-consuming tool than the flatbed scanner most photographers use. I got to thinking about it. I said, Well, with todays digital cameras, why not take a picture of (the negatives)?' " he said. The FilmToaster takes a photo of the negatives in less than 5 or 6 seconds, preserving and converting the negative into digital format, which takes less time than the flatbed scanner. My product does it faster and with higher resolution. At the most, I dont care how expensive you go with a flatbed -- its still limited to do about 10 or 8 or 6 megabytes. Wherein, if I take a 24- or 36-megabyte camera, Ive then got a 24- or 36-megabyte copy of my negative. The more resolution, the higher the quality of it," Williams said. His invention has "slots" that enable its users to put different sizes of film inside. Its probably the only one in the world that does that. I can use 35 millimeter; I can use slide film; I can use medium format; I can even use 4x5, Williams said. A replaceable light source is used at the bottom of the FilmToaster. This whole unit is completely passive. It has no electricity within itself or any electronic components. Therefore, it wont go out, neither will it become obsolete, Williams said. Users can always add new cameras by way of the filters, and they can always add a new light if the light should burn out, he noted. Williams compares his invention to "a horse, a saddle and a rider." The FilmToaster is the saddle because the camera can 'ride' on this device that Ive created in this cozy environment in order to get a closeup picture and duplicate your negative," he said. Once your negative is digital, then you can put it on the computer. You can add metadata to it. You can use digital asset management software to further identify when it was or who it was in the picture. Williams debuted the FilmToaster at the New York Photo Expo in October. About 35,000 photographers attend the expo each year. The FilmToaster is currently being sold online on Amazon, eBay and on Williams website at www.filmtoaster.photography for $2,399. Within a five-month period, he has sold 63 FilmToasters. He uses Google Analytics to monitor the locations of his potential buyers. Currently, the machine and its components (four film carriers) are made in Nova Scotia. Frequently, my customers have questions. I give support also, along with selling of the merchandise, Williams said. You have to know something about macro photography to be versatile with this. Creating the FilmToaster was about a six-year task for Williams. He is awaiting a provisional patent. Williams also has created two other inventions during his career, but he did not patent them or follow through on them. He markets the FilmToaster through his own developing list of potential buyers, such as museums, archiving places and photographers. The FilmToaster has been mentioned in USA Today and has been described as the "Object of Desire" by PDN Magazine, an award-winning publication for the professional photography industry. Williams has been appointed the director of Historic Preservation at Claflin University. We will have work-study students who will be working with the FilmToaster. Theyll be helping me scan my vast collection of negatives -- at the same time, gaining practical experiences," he said. Williams was recently selected to receive the Herbert A. DeCosta Jr. Trailblazer Award for extraordinary accomplishments in his profession by the South Carolina African American Heritage Commission. The award recognizes exceptional achievement by South Carolinians in the arts, science, government, economics and academics. Congressman James "Jim" Clyburn is also a recipient of the Trailblazer Award. Williams, 78, says it has become extremely difficult to stay ahead in the photo and digital technology world because "everyone thinks theyre a photographer." However, I would call myself a real photographer. I go beyond what a lot of the instant picture-taking does today through cellphones and digital cameras, he said. I think I stay ahead by doing things other people cannot do ... " Williams calls himself the "Energizer Bunny," saying he doesnt stop when it comes to his craft. I am passionate about history, technology, photography and art," he said. "I feel that in order to be good at something, you have to go beyond the ordinary amount of time that you devote to it to learn about it, become an expert in it and overcome the challenges that may come about. We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking Accept, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. Les *anomalies d'impression* sur la *Prets-a-Poster* sont peu communes du fait de l'impression sous-traitee et soumises a des controles qualite lors de... Il y a 5 heures Traditional Swiss watch manufacturer Carl F. Bucherer has furthered its expansion into the Middle East region, with the official inauguration of its boutique at The Dubai Mall, Dubai, UAE. The official ribbon cutting ceremony was attended by Sascha Moeri, CEO of Carl F. Bucherer; Ramesh Prabhakar, CEO, and Abraham Koshy, COO of Watch Division, Rivoli Group; and Yumy Pham, head of communications, Carl F. Bucherer. The occasion gave selected guests and watch aficionados the opportunity to explore the Carl F. Bucherer universe with its exquisite creations. The boutique sees contemporary design and aesthetic furnishing that illustrates the extensive attention to detail of the Carl F. Bucherer watch collections. "The restyled boutique is a unique space in the worlds largest shopping mall reflecting the passion that epitomises the Swiss watch brand. The ambience delivers on a luxurious feel with warm toned bronze-nuance high tech marble, refined silver pearl wall cladding fabrics, champagne pure metal surfaces and Douglas stained wood," a statement said. The winding course of the stores architectural design will further encourage the customers to easily navigate through a variety of watches at display, it said. The Middle East is moving forward with Dubai being the key entrance into the market. Therefore Carl F. Bucherer is proud to celebrate the opening of this fine presence with our long-lasting partner Rivoli. We look forward to welcoming watch enthusiasts from the Middle East and around the world in the new premises, seeking timepieces that reflect ones individuality and exquisite taste, said Moeri. Koshy added: Carl F. Bucherer offers the finest watchmaking craftsmanship along with cutting-edge features that are both refined and practical. Rivoli Group looks forward to complementing the Carl F. Bucherer experience with our long-standing reputation of premium customer service. - TradeArabia News Service Egypt's outstanding arrears to foreign oil companies rose to $3 billion at the end of December 2015 from $2.7 billion at the end of October, Petroleum Minister Tarek El Molla told Reuters on Sunday. "The arrears owed to foreign oil companies by Egypt reached around $3 billion at the end of December," El Molla said. The ministry had said in September that Egypt aimed to reduce the arrears owed to foreign oil companies to $2.5 billion by the end of 2015 and to pay them off completely by the end of 2016. - Reuters + JMJ Archbishop LEFEBVRE and the VATICAN Interview of Archbishop Lefebvre Given to Fideliter Magazine Bishop Bernard Tissier de Mallerais ordained seven priests at Econe, Switzerland, on September 25, 1988, and Bishop Bernard Fellay, another of the four bishops consecrated by Archbishop Lefebvre, ordained three at Zaitzkofen, Germany, on October 1, 1988. These constitute the most important actions after the consecrations. After the ordinations, His Excellency Archbishop Lefebvre granted an interview to Fideliter. Interviewer: After these ordinations, what are your feelings? Archbishop Lefebvre: I can feel nothing but joy. It was, indeed, this desire to insure the continuity of the transmission of the Catholic priesthood that led me to consecrate four bishops. This was my wishto see the work continue. It was a feeling that I had already experienced when I passed on the charge of Superior General of the Society to Fr. Schmidberger. I acknowledge that I will be happy if the Good Lord grants me a few more years to live and see the continuation of the Society. Now there are signs that it will last, that it will endure, and that it will be strengthened. I am happy to see that my episcopacy shall not be the last one faithful to Tradition, and that Tradition will continue even should I die now. The fact of having bishops is of paramount importance. It was certainly a decision not easily made. On Jan. 2, 1988, I wrote to Fr. Aulagnier, Behold, a new year is beginning; it will be a year for great decisions, whether the proposals from Rome are good or not. I am almost certain that they will be inadmissible, and that we shall have to continue the work of the Church without the support of the Vatican. It shall be the year of the bishops of the Society, God willingLet us hope that it shall be a source of blessings. He who says blessings, says trials too... It is with that spirit that I went to the negotiations which I feared would not succeed. Interviewer: At the end of July, in the conference to the Chilean bishops, Cardinal Ratzinger had severe words regarding the disastrous effects of Vatican II, without identifying their causes. Archbishop Lefebvre: Yes, indeed. He called for an examination of conscience for the post-schism. He proposed three areas of reflection. 1) The question of the liturgy too much desacralized; 2) Whether it was an error to present Vatican II as a super-dogma, blotting out the whole of the Tradition of the Church; 3) That the documents of the Council do not all have the same importance. The Cardinal said that many see, in Archbishop Lefebvre, a guide and a useful master....One must take into account the positive elements which do not find a vital place in the Church today. He expressed the opinion that if the areas are corrected the schism of Archbishop Lefebvre will not last long. What can be the deep feelings of the Cardinal? One is forced to acknowledge that, for the Cardinal, one must return to the Council. We indeed had a little hope that something had changed in the Vatican; especially after the Visit of Cardinal Gagnon and Msgr. Perl and their declarations, I had hoped that things would develop in Rome. But, then, when we found out their deeper intentions in the meetings, the discussions on the Protocol, and the Protocol itself, I realized that nothing had changed. We were faced with a brick wall. They had hoped to put an end to Tradition. This is, indeed, the position of Rome, of the Pope, of Cardinal Ratzinger, of Cardinal Mayer, of Cardinal Casaroli....All these people hold desperately to the Council, to this new Pentecost, to the reform of the Church. They do not want to depart from it. Cardinal Ratzinger said it openly in an interview to the great Frankfurt newspaper, Die Welt, about the consecrations: It is inadmissible, one cannot accept that there be in the Church groups of Catholics who do not follow the general way of thinking of the bishops in the world. Here you have it; it is clear! For a while I thought something had changed in him, but I have to acknowledge that all he did was with the intention to suppress the group that we were forming and to bring us back to the Council. It would be a mistake to impute only to Cardinal Decourtray and to the French Bishops this will; it is the position of Rome. The only difference is that the Vatican has more facilities to grant things to attract the traditionalists and, then later, destroy them and bring them back to the Council. It is just a question of Roman diplomacy. The French, German and Swiss bishops are not happy with the groups to which Rome has now granted some privileges. So they have said to the Vatican, Dont give us such groups. We dont know what to do with them! They are going to cause trouble. We had condemned them; we had rejected them, and now you say they have the right to do what they want. It cannot go like that. Some have already started. Recently, in the name of the Swiss bishops, Msgr. Henri Schwery made a violent declaration against Rome, saying that it was inadmissible to have given such admissions to the traditionalists without consulting them. They have not been consulted and Rome has caused disorder in their dioceses.141 I would not be surprised that there be confrontations between the bishops and Rome.Some have already started.Recently, in the name of the Swiss bishops, Msgr. Henri Schwery made a violent declaration against Rome, saying that it was inadmissible to have given such admissions to the traditionalists without consulting them.They have not been consulted and Rome has caused disorder in their dioceses. I will, therefore, not be surprised if during the next bishops meeting of France, Germany and Switzerland there be violent reactions against Rome. The Vatican shall be brought to say to those who have left us, You must accept the Council; you must accept the New Mass. You must not be so intransigent. The Vatican will get them! Its impossible that it should be otherwise. Interviewer: Cardinal Oddi recently declared, Im convinced that the division shall not last long, and that Archbishop Lefebvre shall soon be back in the Church of Rome. Others say that the Pope and Cardinal Ratzinger feel that the Lefebvre affair is not closed. In your last letter to the Holy Father142 you declared that you were waiting for a more propitious time for the return of Rome to Tradition. What do you think of a possible re-opening of the dialogue with Rome? Cardinal Oddi recently declared, Im convinced that the division shall not last long, and that Archbishop Lefebvre shall soon be back in the Church of Rome.Others say that the Pope and Cardinal Ratzinger feel that the Lefebvre affair is not closed.In your last letter to the Holy Fatheryou declared that you were waiting for a more propitious time for the return of Rome to Tradition.What do you think of a possible re-opening of the dialogue with Rome? Archbishop Lefebvre: We do not have the same outlook on a reconciliation. Cardinal Ratzinger sees it as reducing us, bringing us back to Vatican II. We see it as a return of Rome to Tradition. We dont agree; it is a dialogue of death. I cant speak much of the future, mine is behind me, but if I live a little while, supposing that Rome calls for a renewed dialogue, then, I will put conditions. I shall not accept being in the position where I was put during the dialogue. No more. I will place the discussion at the doctrinal level: Do you agree with the great encyclicals of all the popes who preceded you? Do you agree with Quanta Cura of Pius IX, Immortale Dei and Libertas of Leo XIII, Pascendi Gregis of Pius X, Quas Primas of Pius XI, Humani Generis of Pius XII? Are you in full communion with these Popes and their teachings? Do you still accept the entire Anti-Modernist Oath? Are you in favor of the social reign of Our Lord Jesus Christ? If you do not accept the doctrine of your predecessors, it is useless to talk! As long as you do not accept the correction of the Council, in consideration of the doctrine of these Popes, your predecessors, no dialogue is possible. It is useless. Thus, the positions will be clear. The stakes are not small. We are not content when they say to us, You may say the traditional Mass, but you must accept the Council. What opposes us is doctrine; it is clear. This is what Dom Gerard did not see, and what confused him. Dom Gerard has always seen the liturgy and the monastic life, but he does not clearly see the theological problems of the Council, especially Religious Liberty. He does not see the malice of these errors. He was never too much worried about this. What touched him was the liturgical reform and the reform of the Benedictine monasteries. He left Tournay, saying, I cannot accept this. Then, he founded a community of monks with the liturgy and with a Benedictine spirit. Very well, wonderful. But he did not appreciate enough that these reforms which led him to leave his monastery were the consequences of errors in the Council itself. As long as they grant him what he wantedthis monastic spirit and the traditional liturgyhe has what he wants and is indifferent to the rest. But he has fallen into a snare: the others have given up nothing of their false principles. It is sad because there are around sixty monks, twenty priests, and thirty nuns. There are nearly one hundred youth there, bewildered, whose families are worried or even divided. It is a disaster. Interviewer: The nuns of the monastery Notre Dame de lAnnonciation remain very much attached to you. Archbishop Lefebvre: Yes, indeed. They came to manifest their affections....However, I do not seek this affection, but rather that they remain attached to Tradition. Are they willing to submit to a modernist authority? Here, indeed, is the question. If needed they must separate themselves from Dom Gerard to keep the Faith and Tradition. At least the monastery in Brazil [Dom Tomas Aquinos Monastery of Santa Cruz] refused to follow Dom Gerard and that is an important point. I believe that what has contributed to the loss of Dom Gerard was his desire to open to those who are not with us and who would profit from following Tradition. This was the theme of what he wrote in his letter to the Friends of the Monastery two years after his arrival at Le Barroux. He was saying, We will strive not to have this critical, sterile, negative attitude. We will strive to open our doors to all those who, though they might not have our ideas, would love the liturgy, so that they too may benefit from the monastic life. From that period, I was worried, considering this as a dangerous operation. It was the opening of the Church to the world, and one must acknowledge that it was the world that converted the Church. Dom Gerard let himself be contaminated by the milieu which he welcomed in his monastery. Rome may be proud to have won a big battle and to have hit in the right place. It is sad.... Interviewer: Do you believe in the future of the Society of St. Peter? Archbishop Lefebvre: It is a phantom society. They have copied our statutes and all that we have done. Interviewer: Even Cardinal Oddi was skeptical of its future, referring himself to the previous attempts of Rome to rehabilitate seminarians from the Society of Saint Pius X. Archbishop Lefebvre:....In one year, one and a half, they may be asked to return to their dioceses....They will have to choose priests from the dioceses to take care of their seminarians. They will have to wait for a year and to undergo an examination before being accredited. How can they see that they are being played with? They came to Rome to deliver themselves into their hands with the hope of keeping Tradition and they are already rejected. You are not allowed to teach in your seminary. You must pass an exam first, because we do not trust you. It is unbelievable. It manifests that there is, in Rome, the will to put an end to Tradition. This is also the reason that they did not want to give us bishops. Rome did not want traditional bishops. This is why the consecrations annoyed them and caused such a terrible shock. It is like the stone which hit Goliath. To excommunicate us after having lifted all other excommunications, is the end of their ecumenism. How can they imagine that those with whom they wish to shake hands trust them when they excommunicate those who uphold Tradition? The most recent issue of Fideliter was entitled, Rome Is Perplexed. This is true; they dont know what to do: attacking us they attack the Church of all times and the Good Lord cannot allow that. 141. 142. Msgr. Henri Schwery, President of the Swiss Episcopal Conference, has publicly lamented the lack of openness of the Vatican regarding the re integration of some traditionalist communities. According to Schwery, open relations and negotiations do not exist between the Holy See and the local bishops, and in his view the Commission should continue to operate only on the condition that the bishop of the place concerned be informed and consulted (30 Days, No.6, Oct. 1988).June 2, 1988. I am putting together a linked timeline for the Rome / SSPX interactions as a reference.P^3 Like a holiday reveler headed for the gym after a season of feasting, the energy industry enters 2016 on the heavy side. Surpluses of coal, oil and natural gas continue to weigh down prices and threaten companies' balance sheets. Each sector needs to work off the excess fat. Their success in doing so will go a long way in determining whether energy markets remain in a slump or begin to rebound in 2016. But in each case involuntary supply cutbacks -- read bankruptcies -- may be required to bring coal, oil and natural gas inventories back into balance with demand. Coal faces perhaps the toughest road. The industry continues to face difficult market conditions, and that is before taking into account the regulatory challenges confronting the sector. Utilities have continued to build up coal inventories, even as they shift toward natural-gas-fired generation. The result is lower coal demand at a time when utilities already have more of the fuel than they need. Analysts typically judge coal stockpiles by the number of days it would take a power plant to burn off its reserves. By that standard, burn rates are near a five-year high. American utilities using the type of subbituminous coal mined in Wyoming's Powder River Basin had, on average, 80 days worth of reserves in October, the last month for which data is available, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. But working off those reserves will be more difficult when utilities have a growing taste for cheap natural gas, which ended 2015 near 16-year lows. Jim Thompson, a coal analyst at the consulting firm IHS Energy, reckons miners need to cut 100 million tons to 200 million tons of production in 2016 to bring supply back in line with demand. "Nothing looks good for 2016," he said. "Whats it's going to take is time. Thats the big problem for coal producers. Time is not their friend." Arch Coal, the country's second-largest coal miner by volume, is a case in point. The St. Louis-based company invoked a 30-day grace period on a $90 million interest payment in December in a bid to stave off bankruptcy. Arch's creditors have thus far been reluctant to agree to a deal that would relieve some of the miner's financial stress. If there is to be positive news for the coal sector in 2016, it is likely to come from the Powder River Basin. Production cutbacks are most likely in Appalachia, where companies are closing and idling mines, and to a lesser extent in the Illinois Basin. Low production costs make Wyoming mines unlikely candidates for closure, and they may even rebound slightly with a modest increase in natural gas prices. But whether natural gas prices begin to strengthen in 2016 remains an open question. Some analysts have pointed to the wave of coal plant retirements and increasing natural gas burn as evidence of growing demand for the fuel. Yet American natural gas production and inventories are near record highs, despite consistently low prices throughout much of 2015. U.S. production was nearing 80 billion cubic feet per day in September. Inventories, meanwhile, are near all-time highs. The 3.8 billion cubic feet of gas in storage the week of Dec. 11 was 9 percent above the five-year average, according to EIA figures. While prices edged up this week as temperatures in the east dropped, it will take a colder than normal winter to work-off the excess supply, said James Williams, president of WTRG Economics. Oil, meanwhile, finds itself in a similar predicament. U.S. crude output was almost 9.2 million barrels a day for the week of Dec. 18. That was nearly identical to production levels recorded during the same period last year, and came despite a 64 percent year-over-year drop in the U.S. rig count. High U.S. crude production owes itself in large part to the efficiency measures of American oil companies, who have slashed production costs in response to low prices. Effectively U.S. firms pumped more oil at a lower cost in 2015. The result is a global surplus of crude that averaged 1.7 million barrels per day in 2015. And while U.S. production cutbacks are likely in 2016, international output is likely to remain high. Saudi Arabia reaffirmed this week that it has no intention of curtailing its production. Iran is expected to bring 500,000 barrels per day of additional crude onto the market once economic sanctions are lifted. And countries like Russia, Brazil and Norway, all larger producers outside the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, have shown little sign of pumping less. Analysts, meanwhile, are more skeptical of U.S. supply cutbacks after a year that saw few wells shut-in. The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas estimates a surplus of 600,000 barrels per day will linger throughout much of 2016. "Almost by default people are looking to demand instead to mop up the surplus barrels," said Geoffrey Craig, who covers the industry at Platts, a trade publication. Many observers will be watching China, he noted, which powered much of the recent growth in crude demand, but saw its economy falter in 2015. Analysts are increasingly predicting a new era in China's economic growth, one where the country grows at slower rates and relies less on commodity-heavy industries like manufacturing, Craig said. But with much uncertainty surrounding the prospects for global economic growth in 2016, a good deal of focus remains on American producers. U.S. producers were reluctant to curtail production in 2015 for fear of damaging their cash flow. A period of $20 crude would prompt a wave of bankruptcies and force production cutbacks, helping to right the market, said Williams, the WTRG president. "No one is going to cut voluntarily," he said. "No one is going to stop a producing well, and thats your problem." In that respect, the energy industry is very much like the average holiday reveler. They know they need to go the gym, but they just can't force themselves to do it. Wyoming and West Virginia have much in common when it comes to coal. As the country's first- and second-largest producers, coal is central to their economies. Their governors are outspoken supporters of the industry. And both have been forced to grapple with the prospect that coal companies, under increasing financial stress, may no longer have the money to pay for the reclamation they once promised to complete. But on the last point, that is where the similarities end. America's leading coal-producing states have pursued different strategies to address the emerging challenge raised by the bankruptcy of Alpha Natural Resources. The Virginia-based firm, one of America's largest coal companies, has unsecured reclamation obligations totaling $655 million in the two states. West Virginian regulators struck a deal with Alpha aimed at gradually transitioning the Virginia-based coal company away from a form of reclamation insurance known as self-bonding, where firms use their own finances as collateral on future cleanup costs. Mountain State officials notably reserved the right to object to any restructuring plan that does not replace Alpha's self-bonds with a secured form of credit, like cash or a surety bond. The agreement also called on Alpha to immediately reduce its self-bonding obligation by $10 million and to begin reclamation work at one of its mines. Their Wyoming counterparts say they too want to move Alpha away from self-bonds, but the Cowboy State agreement with the company contains few of the provisions called for in the West Virginia deal. Such provisions are unnecessary, they say, arguing Wyoming's reclamation regulations will prevent Alpha from securing self-bonds in the future if the company emerges from bankruptcy. Environmentalists are skeptical, however. They believe Wyoming's deal with Alpha represents a giveaway to the coal company. Of Alpha's $411 million in reclamation costs, the state secured a $61 million "super-priority" claim that can be applied toward the company's cleanup bill during bankruptcy proceedings. West Virginia struck a similar deal, securing a $39 million priority on Alpha's self-bonding obligations of $244 million. West Virginia's deal probably does not achieve everything the state wanted, but "it gives them a path forward," said Shannon Anderson, an attorney at the Powder River Basin Resource Council, a landowners group in Sheridan. "In Wyoming the path forward is uncertain." Under federal law, coal companies are required to be fully insured for their reclamation costs. Many firms have favored self-bonding. Wyoming alone holds some $2.2 billion in self-bonds from coal companies. However, the practice has attracted growing scrutiny as mining firms continue to struggle amid a fierce downturn, raising concerns that taxpayers could be left to pay for cleanup of shuttered mines. Arch Coal, which has self-bonding obligations of $458 million in Wyoming, has been subject to considerable bankruptcy speculation. Industry groups have sought to allay concerns over the practice. Alpha, they note, has continued reclamation operations at its mines even as it navigates bankruptcy proceedings. Federal regulators, meanwhile, have signaled they are monitoring the situation and could step in if they judge the efforts of state regulators to be insufficient. West Virginia officials declined comment on the matter, but in a recent statement said the deal provided additional financial assurance Alpha would meet its cleanup obligations. Wyoming regulators, for their part, dispute the argument West Virginia has been more aggressive in addressing the problem. Alpha operates some 500 coal mines in West Virginia while in Wyoming the company operates only two, they note. "Their agreement is tailored to their rules and regulations. Wyomings agreement is tailored to address Wyomings rules and regulations," said Kyle Wendtland, who oversees the Department of Environmental Quality's Land Quality Division. And they contend state regulations offer enough protections to ensure taxpayers won't be responsible for Alpha's cleanup bill. The company has hired a consulting firm to help improve the efficiency of the dirt-moving operations central to its reclamation work. Less costly dirt works could help lower Alpha's overall reclamation liability, they say. Wyoming regulators are conducting monthly inspections to ensure Alpha meets the terms of its reclamation plans with the state. And state regulations prohibit companies with less than five years of operating experience in the state from obtaining self-bonds, they note. "When Alpha comes out of restructuring, they wont meet that five-year test," said DEQ spokesman Keith Guille. "That in itself means you would have to find a different type of bonding reclamation." But that assertion could well be tested. Alpha, which has continued to operated through bankruptcy, has argued repeatedly in court filings that full payment of its reclamation obligations would be detrimental to its restructuring efforts. Greg Conrad, executive director of the Interstate Mining Compact Commission, which represents 27 state environmental protection agencies, reckons regulators in West Virginia and Wyoming are doing their best to confront the issue. Nevertheless, no company has ever had unsecured reclamation obligations to the extent Alpha has, he noted. "I think we keep adding to the list of questions," he said. "With each new iteration that this plays out, and with each new potential approach for resolving this dilemma, these types of questions are going to come up." For about 20 days beginning Feb. 8, the states 90 lawmakers will gather in Cheyenne to adopt a two-year state budget in the face of revenues that will be down an estimated $210 million. The budget they pass will pay for government operations from July 1, 2016 through June 2018. It will likely be in the neighborhood of $3.5 billion, smaller than the current two-year budget of $3.7 billion. Prices and production of oil, natural gas and coal have declined. The minerals provide about 70 percent of the states revenues. State programs could face the ax, as some lawmakers have said government is too big. "Everything is on the table, but it doesnt make the discussion any easier," Senate President Phil Nicholas said in October. Officials at the Wyoming Public Employees Association have said they are attending budget meetings and pleading their case to keep wages and benefits at current levels. They plan to fight any cut in jobs. "We do not want the retirement or insurance benefit to decrease in any way," said Betty Jo Beardsley, association executive director in late October. "That will be the fight we probably will take on in the next session, is to make sure they dont lose any ground, but they probably wont gain any ground, either." Lawmakers could always fill the shortfall with new taxes. Nicholas, R-Laramie, has said he has asked the Legislatures nonpartisan staff to draft a bill for lawmakers to consider that would increase taxes to raise money for education. Longtime legislative observers have said that a tax increase is unlikely. Bills that generate revenue must begin in the House, and 60 House seats are up for election in the fall. There is a reason Wyoming has a very low tax base, lobbyist Marian Smith Orr, who has observed 10 budget sessions, said in mid-December. Were really blessed with a good wealth of mineral commodities, but those House members have to go back (home,) selling a budget, explaining why they voted for or didnt vote for a tax. Im sure its going to be an uphill battle. Lawmakers will also have to decide for the fourth time whether to expand Medicaid to some 20,000 low-income Wyoming adults who earn too much to qualify for traditional Medicaid and earn too little to obtain a tax credit on the Obamacare exchange. Lawmakers have rejcted Medicaid expansion each year since 2013. But this year, Gov. Matt Mead argued in his Dec. 1 budget recommendations, state money that pays for programs in the Wyoming Department of Health would decrease by $10 million if the Legislature accepted federal money for expansion, since the feds would pick up the tab for the programs. Its a health issue, said Mead, a Republican, in September. But lets get to the nuts and bolts in terms of our revenue picture. Sen. John Hastert supports Medicaid expansion. But he isnt holding his breath that it will pass. The likelihood of Medicaid expansion staying in the budget is slim at best, Hastert, a Democrat from Green River, said in early December. Mead also asked lawmakers to consider paying for some state programs with Wyomings $1.8 billion rainy day fund and repaying it with a portion of mineral severance taxes that currently go into savings. A recent report by the Pew Charitable Trusts found that Wyoming is one of two states without a policy on when to dip into the fund. You have an immense amount of savings in relation to your General Fund expenses, said Brenna Erford, manager of state fiscal health and economic growth for Pew. That said, you have exceptionally high revenue volatility. Some observers, such as Smith Orr, describe the plan to borrow from the rainy day fund as creative. I am picking up that it is in fact raining in Wyoming. Yes, its time to use these funds, she said. And through the diligent efforts of the budget office, not only are we able to use these funds but we are able to pay them back. I think it is an elegant solution to our needs at this point. Others disagree. "Our revenues are going down and I havent seen anything that suggests theyll go back up in the near future," Rep. Kendell Kroeker, R-Casper, said in response to Meads proposal. "Tapping into the rainy day fund -- all that does is kick the can down the road. It doesn't address the issue of bloated government and too much spending." What should Wyoming lawmakers New Years resolutions be? I have a suggestion: Break down barriers to opportunity for the least fortunate. Elected officials in Casper city hall and the state government in Cheyenne should start by rolling back burdensome occupational licensing regulations, which stand in the way of low-income job-seekers and budding entrepreneurs. Most people have never heard of occupational licenses, yet they are a growing hindrance to economic mobility both in Wyoming and across the country. Before you can work in many professions, you are forced to seek permission from your state or local government in the form of an occupational license. To make matters more difficult, you often have to pay a significant sum of money or spend months and sometimes years in training before beginning your career. That wasnt a huge deal when occupational licenses only applied to lawyers, doctors and airline pilots. But other businesses quickly found they could handicap competitors and innovative start-ups if they licensed their own industries. In July, the White House released a report detailing how occupational licensing laws have proliferated: (M)ore than one-quarter of U.S. workers now require a license to do their jobs. At the state level, the share of workers licensed has risen five-fold since the 1950s. One recent academic estimate even puts the number of licensed jobs at nearly one in three. Today, after years of lobbying campaigns by special interests, occupational licenses apply to hundreds of different entry-level and mid-level professions. Wyoming is no exception. According to the Institute for Justice, no fewer than 24 of the 100 most common low- and moderate-income jobs in the state require licenses. Barber. Travel guide. Makeup artist. On the whole, the average Wyoming license costs $173 and requires 196 days in education or training. Many basic jobs require more training than an Emergency Medical Technician! And those are just some of the state occupational licenses. There are even more passed by cities like Casper, which only restrict further an individuals attempt to earn a living. The list of local licenses includes pawnshops, door-to-door salesmen, taxi drivers and more. Making matters worse, these laws vary and conflict from city to city and state to state, making it that much harder for Wyoming residents to find work and make a living. Were starting to learn just how much harm occupational licenses have caused. The White House again put it best, saying that licensing can raise the price of goods and services and restrict employment opportunities for those who need them most. In fact, a 2011 academic study found that occupational licenses have prevented the creation of nearly 3 million jobs. They also cost consumers a whopping $203 billion in higher costs every year. Occupational licenses also turn away potential entrepreneurs, especially in low-income communities. A 2015 study by an Arizona State University researcher found that heavier licensing correlates with an 11 percent lower entrepreneurship rate for people at the bottom of the income scale. These licenses also harm those who have run afoul of the criminal justice system. Once nonviolent ex-offenders pay their debt to society, they should be encouraged to rejoin it by finding a job or starting a business. Sadly, their own government bars them from pursuing a career that requires a license. Knocking down these barriers is both morally praiseworthy and economically beneficial. Lawmakers in Casper and the state government in Cheyenne should at the very least prevent the creation of new occupational licenses. Better yet, they should roll back those that already exist. If lawmakers do this, theyll help countless low- and middle-income Wyoming residents improve their lives and climb the ladder of opportunity. Surely thats a New Years resolution worth making and keeping. The above post was written by our monthly correspondent, Lee Liberman. The history of Polish army herois a separate endeavor from the tension-filled thrillernow streaming on Netflix and starring. Polish writer/director) chose to deliver on suspense rather than biography or history.That's not bad, as the suspense is as entertaining as Hitchcock and there's plenty back story elsewhere to fill in the blanks. While Polish audiences know the history and context of, for us the film does not impress upon us enough how much this man mattered to American and world stability. However, a vivid thriller may be just the right medium to help along the process of righting Kuklinski's still-abused reputation in his home country by plunging Polish viewers into the drama of what he did for them and the price he paid. (The Kuklinski family, as seen in the film, is shown below.)Reading subtitles in English while watching a taut plot unfold somewhat degrades comprehension -- hence some background. Post WWII, the Soviets have their thumb on Poland and other members of the Cold War bloc; an arms race is beginning with the West.Turn up the ominous music. The tale opens with the execution of Polish spy Oleg Penskovsky who fed information to the U.S in the 1960's and met an unceremonious end heaved by thugs into the furnace of a steel mill.Change scene to a darkened interrogation room where a now older Kuklinski is telling his story, we know not to whom or to what end. From here his life as a spy unfolds in flashbacks. Like his father, Kuklinski was a proud Polish military lifer. His prodigious output led to his swift rise in the ranks, praise from Soviet and Polish superiors, and involvement in top secret military planning. It is safe to assume Kuklinski resented Poland's subjugation by the Soviets. But the escalation of Soviet Cold War activity that could put Poland at the center of a future conflict, began to worry him. One spectacular project he was assigned in 1968 was to develop a set of complex military exercises to be staged in East Germany to distract attention from Soviet skirmishes with China.His output (above, his presentation to Soviet generals) coincidentally replicated secret Soviet plans already formulated for war against NATO. The Soviets thought he was a genius, but Kuklinski now knew that Poland was the intended battering ram against the West. Poland was to be the Soviet invasion route, and Soviet aggression could turn his nation into a nuclear wasteland when the West hit back.Kuklinski's tipping point coincided with world-wide student and worker protests against the Vietnam war and in favor of civil and worker rights. In 1970 Gdansk, 3000 Solidarity shipyard workers were fired upon by virtually the entire Polish army. Kuklinski's comrade admitted he cried but he fired -- they all fired on their own Polish workers. "We aren't Poles now, our souls have ugly Soviet faces." Around then, Kuklinski contacted the American Embassy in Bonn, offering to pass Soviet planning documents to the West.Taking no money, he left messages for a US embassy diplomat hidden in a rock wall and progressed to texting on a CIA prototype of a cell device, reducing the danger of cruder contact methods. Still, from 1972 to 1981 his daily life was furtive and fraught until the KGB finally closed in on him after knowing for years they had a leak in their top ranks.Many Russian and Polish players in Kuklinski's world are reminiscent of the jowly, Trumpish, table-pounding blowhards from the Soviet era, although for relief, American CIA handler, David Forden, is played by the always competent and attractive(below, left). For those of us who were alive during the Cold War, this film is a sharp memory jolt.Kulkinski's home life was as stressful as work -- family conflict resulted from his silence and his mental and physical absence. His wife (played by(see her in second picture from top and below) suspected him of having an affair and one rebellious son was furious with his father's presumed Communist loyalties.The years post-1981 are only touched on. For the whole story, a more traditional bio-pic is warranted for this hero. We know from the record that even now some Poles think Kuklinski was a traitor not a patriot. He was sentenced to death in absentia by old regime carry-overs -- understandable -- but even freely-elected labor leader Lech Walesa refused a full pardon. It took President Bill Clinton to make Kuklinski's pardon a condition of Poland's admission to NATO. The bio-pic maker of Kuklinski's life-in-full will have plenty of subject matter on the thankless plight of a moral man who becomes a spy (the ID card of the real Kuklinski, below).Many accounts of Rhszard Kuklinski's life exist on line. Some describe advocacy for him by several presidents including President Jimmy Carter and his National Security Advisor, Zbignew Brzezinski (shown below, right, together with the man who plays him,). It was Brzezinski who coined the phrase 'the first Polish officer in NATO' which became a rallying cry for Kuklinski's exoneration at home. We owe Klukinski as much admiration here as any of our own war heroes, yet he's virtually unknown.Note One: Zbigniew Brzezinski, in his late 80's today, is one figure still active in foreign policy today who factored greatly in the Jack Strong case. He is a professor at John's Hopkins, a scholar at the Center for Strategy and International Studies, on various boards and councils, and a regular commentator on news programs, including 'Morning Joe' on MSNBC anchored by his daughter Mika Brzezinski.Note Two: Clickfor article from a Wesleyan University magazine about CIA Agent David Forden (Wesleyan '52) and his adventure with Kuklinski. It amplifies the movie plot and answers questions on a number of points. CHEYENNE, Wyo. The Army Corps of Engineers is going ahead with plans to treat contaminated groundwater at a former nuclear missile site east of Cheyenne despite concerns from several residents and elected officials about safety. Members of the Laramie County Commission and a former Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality regulator also are calling for the Corps of Engineers to form a citizen advisory panel to review the proposal. The 1960s-era site is one of several local former F.E. Warren AFB launch sites where investigators have found trichloroethylene, a cancer-causing chemical, in the groundwater. The chemicals were used to clean missile launchers. Officials say there is no immediate health threat, but there are concerns that the contamination could spread to residential and agricultural wells. The Army Corps of Engineers wants to inject microorganisms into the water to break down the TCE over a 200-year period as part of a $26 million project to treat the contaminated groundwater, the Cheyenne Tribune Eagle reported (http://tinyurl.com/j3rq5d8). Jane Francis, a recently retired Department of Environmental Quality supervisor who worked on the missile cleanup projects, sent Gov. Matt Mead and other elected officials a letter calling the "misguided." "These technologies are the cheapest ones they could come up with," she said. "However, it should be noted that if they don't work, they are a waste of money." Opponents want a citizen-led advisory panel. The Army Corps of Engineers responded in a Dec. 15 letter that only seven community members applied to be board members, which the agency said is not enough to form a committee. Drew Reckmeyer, a section chief with the Corps' Environmental Remediation Branch, said the agency commissioned its own independent reviews for all of its formerly used defense sites. He said the remediation plan relies on established scientific methods. 87, passed away peacefully December 11, 2015. He graduated from the UofA with honors in 1955 with a degree in Electrical Engineering. He worked for Hughes Aircraft and Raytheon from 1953 to his retirement in 1987. Part of that time was spent in Sweden, assisting in the development of their air-to-air missile program. While in Sweden, he married the love of his life, Betty Jean Snipes (of Tucson) in 1962, who has preceded him in death. He is survived by his sister, Betty Rayes of Globe and his niece, Andrea Nicole Williams of Tucson, SFC Chris Williams, and grandnieces and nephews. A private memorial was held December 28, 2015 with family, friends and good food, three things Ben loved. Arrangements by ADAIR FUNERAL HOMES, Dodge Chapel. Tucson pro tip: The infamous glowing doughnut outside Tucsons city hall changes color when you touch it, and coming soon to downtown a new piece of public art by the same company takes that interactivity one step further. Joe O'Connell's newest Tucson project with his company, Creative Machines Inc., is a giant bicycle wheel that will spray water at people walking or biking through it. The whole idea is to get people wet, OConnell said in an email. Don't worry, there will be an alternative path for those who want to stay dry. The water will only spray during the warm parts of the day, otherwise lights will flash when someone walks or bikes through. The wheel is 16-feet in diameter and made of recycled tires donated from shops around Tucson. It will be installed along Downtown Links, north of downtown. Downtown Links is a plan to improve roads, sidewalks and bike paths by making them more accessible to pedestrians. Some projects being worked on include: creating four vehicle lanes (with turn lanes and medians), drainage improvements and on-street bike lanes with separate multi-use paths. The Wet Wheel was selected as one of four Downtown Links public art projects at the beginning of the first phase of construction. One percent of city project construction budgets are used for public art, according to project manager Tom Fisher. OConnell is being commissioned for $100,000 to build the Wet Wheel. That commission comes out of the public art budget from the city. Mary Ellen Wooten, the public art program manager of Tucson Pima Arts Council, said the public art is important because it adds value and interest in our community. Arts and culture are elements of an economy that help with health and vibrancy, Wooten said. Its good to be competitive with other up-and-coming communities that are looking for young talent. The selection of art pieces is made by the Public Art Panel made up of residents and local artists. Wooten facilitates the meetings. People thought it was a fun and whimsical idea, Wooten said. People get a spritz of water on a hot day. They felt it was a fun and contemporary reference in sculpture form. OConnell founded Creative Machines Inc. in 1995. It specializes in exhibition design and sculptures all over the world. In Malaysia, they constructed a walk-on piano for a music exhibit. The white keys light up and play the note when stepped on, much like the toy store scene in the movie Big. There are seven sculptures by Creative Machines Inc. around Tucson, including the glowing donut (officially named the Desert O). The Bike Church, located on Granada Avenue, is exactly what it sounds like, a structure made from bicycle parts that borrows from different faiths. Not far from the Bike Church is Wandering Stars at Granada Avenue and Cushing Street. Next to the streetcar stop are triangular lights that interact by blending into a wave of new colors. Cocoon, located along Houghton Road, is a large sculpture along a bike path. By day it looks like a metal cocoon, but by night lights reflect on the stainless steel making it look luminous. In a park on 25th Street and 9th Avenue is a small light-up drum. Public Drums plays music and lights up when touched and was encouraged by members of the neighborhood through the TPAC. OConnell visited the park many times and made the interactive drum to inspire positive and fun communication between children and adults in part. Outside the Wheeler Taft Abbett Sr. Library in Marana, Wondrous is a standing fixture made of words from the librarys collection. At night, six lights cast through the sculpture, making the words overlap in different colors. Toby the Griffin, the red mythical creature its named after, sits on Scott Avenue behind the Childrens Museum. Tucson was a great city to get started in because it was possible to start without an existing portfolio and the sculptures were close so I could try some new things, said OConnell who is originally from New Jersey. With a group of 15 full-time employees, the company is working on new ways to visualize learning experiences in museum exhibits. They do this by making interactive exhibits to showcase how things work. For example, the Air Rockets exhibit installed in multiple locations shows how much pressure is needed for a rocket to take off. Someone can press a button to fill the rocket with a certain amount of pressure and then hit another button to launch it. OConnell said that the companys employees watch how people interact with spaces and thats how they can build interactive exhibits and sculptures. OConnell describes themselves as anthropologists, saying that his employees watch how people interact with spaces as individuals or as small groups. [The sculptures are] catalysts for human interaction more than they are objects themselves, OConnell said. So the real measure is how do they create interesting human experiences. The Wet Wheel will be installed at the end of Phase 3 of Downtown Links scheduled to begin in early 2016. The Tucson Police Department wants its helicopters and aircraft back in flight by the end of the week, despite grounding them 12 days ago after an outside audit found their operation to be a high safety risk. The auditors found in November that disagreements between the pilots and mechanics over perceived maintenance safety issues had escalated to a level of hostility and toxic operational culture. As a result, in one of his final acts before retiring, Tucson Police Chief Roberto Villasenor took the three helicopters and one fixed-wing aircraft temporarily out of service on Dec. 23. He emailed a memo on Christmas Eve to police, employees, a city attorney and City Manager Michael Ortega announcing the grounding. Villasenor did not, however, let Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos know that his department would need to provide air support during any emergencies in the interim. Assistant Police Chief Mark Timpf says the issues with the TPD air support unit are about policy language, not operational safety. Nothing was being operated in an unsafe manner. We have an impeccable safety record. But because of the risk that the audit found, we elected to pause things, Timpf said Thursday. We have 30 days from the grounding to get the unit operational again, and were running ahead of schedule, Timpf said. Im cautiously optimistic that itll all be done by the end of (this) week. City Councilman Steve Kozachik has serious concerns about the audit, as well as Villasenors decision to ground all air support. This is an extremely important unit to the safety of the public and the officers on the ground, Kozachik said. If its just a deficiency in policy language, it shouldnt take three weeks to update and it shouldnt have resulted in the grounding of the unit. I dont buy that its just a matter of fixing policy language, he added. 58 percent compliance Earlier in 2015, complaints from air support employees about the units operation and policies were brought to the police chiefs attention, leading the department to ask for an external audit by the Airborne Law Enforcement Association, Villasenor wrote in the email. The result of this audit determined that there were numerous policy and practice issues that needed to be addressed, Villasenor wrote. The audit, which was obtained Thursday by the Star after a public-records request, determined that TPDs air support unit was at high risk, logging only 58 percent compliance with the Airborne Law Enforcement Associations safety standards. The audit addressed five areas: administration, operational, safety, training and maintenance. Consistent with the complaints made to Villasenor, the audit revealed serious problems with communication in the Tucson police unit. Sworn unit members are often at odds with each other and have formed what was described to me during interviews as a clique among themselves, the auditor wrote. More recently, differences between some of the pilots and the maintenance staff over perceived maintenance safety issues have escalated to a level of hostility as reported by several unit members during interviews. The auditor concluded that the police department needed to take any necessary steps to neutralize what is perceived by an outsider as a toxic operational culture within the unit that goes beyond simple personality conflicts between individuals. The report added that the current culture seems to center around a few pilots within the unit who are attempting to draw a line in the sand based on whos right rather than whats right. The auditor said that resolving the differences between the aircrews and mechanics could require police to use an independent mediator, to allow each group to air concerns and attempt to reach a middle ground. The situation that currently exists between parties constitutes what could be considered a hostile work environment for both sides, the report said. The audit also found that the six pilots assigned to the unit each flew an average of 23 hours a month, which is a relatively low number of flying hours compared to other units of similar size. Perhaps aircrews could find more productive use of their duty time during day shift, the auditor wrote, suggesting that management consider staffing a proactive day patrol, as opposed to emergency response-only. Most of the other areas where TPDs air support unit was faulted dealt with language in the policy manual that wasnt consistent with the language used in the Airborne Law Enforcement Associations. The majority of our compliance issues werent with practical issues; in fact, we met or exceeded most of those, said Timpf. A total of 27 national and international law enforcement agencies have been assessed over the past four years, with an average compliance of 80 percent, putting TPDs unit with its score of 58 percent in the lower quadrant, the audit said. Nine of the agencies scored between 90 and 100 percent. JOB ONE FOR NEW CHIEF In his email, Villasenor said that while the unit was grounded, the Pima County Sheriffs Department would provide air coverage during high-risk situations. However, Sheriff Nanos wasnt made aware of the grounding, or that his department would be providing coverage, prior to the memos release. Nanos didnt receive the memo; he learned about the decision when a member of his department asked him if theyd be covering TPDs regular patrols, or only in emergencies. A week after the memo went out, Villasenor called Nanos to apologize for not talking to him. He thought I already knew when he sent it, Nanos said. He never intended for us to do their patrols, just respond to emergencies. Kozachik expressed serious concerns that the Sheriffs Department wasnt informed of the grounding or its responsibility to provide aerial coverage. If the policy issues dont represent a safety risk, as the department says, grounding the unit certainly does, Kozachik said. This has to be job number one for Chief Magnus. Fewer parents of U.S. citizen children are being deported, both in Arizona and nationwide. Removals of parents with U.S.-born children in fiscal 2014 fell by nearly half compared to 2013, according to data from Immigration and Customs Enforcement obtained through a public-records request. Arizona saw nearly 2,300 removals in 2014 compared to 4,413 in 2013. Nationwide, there were 39,300 removals in 2014 and more than 72,000 in 2013. Over the last several years, the federal government has narrowed its priorities for immigration enforcement, which has resulted in fewer deportations overall, but particularly of those who claim to have children born here. The government has said it wants to focus its limited resources on convicted criminals and those who pose a threat to national security. During the same period, deportations declined 19 percent in Arizona and 14 percent nationally, ICE data show. In 2014, the Obama administration announced the Deferred Action for Parental Accountability, or DAPA, program, which would grant work permits and deferral of deportation to about 3.7 million parents of U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents. The program remains in legal limbo as more than two dozen states, including Arizona, sued the federal government over it. Obama also discontinued the controversial Secure Communities program, which identified people in state and local jails who could be deported and in some instances held them for immigration authorities. That has been replaced with the Priority Enforcement Program, which also relies on local law enforcement agencies sending fingerprints to ICE, but now the agency is instructed to take custody only of those who pose a threat to national security or have been convicted of certain crimes and meet the agencys priorities. Humanitarian releases The declining numbers are not surprising, said Wendy Cervantes, vice president for Immigration and Child Rights at First Focus, a bipartisan childrens advocacy organization. All of those different policies should be decreasing the extent in which parents are removed, she said. In August 2014, ICE also issued a directive that provides some protections for parents in the agencys custody, particularly when the child welfare system is involved. ICE uses prosecutorial discretion to release individuals in ICE custody for humanitarian reasons, such as being the sole caregiver of minors, and when we are aware that the detention of a non-criminal alien would result in any child (U.S. citizen or not) being left without an appropriate parental caregiver, ICE officials have said. The mere fact that a person has a U.S. citizen child should not determine whether they are deported, said Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington think tank that favors immigration restrictions. They are deportable because they are here illegally, she said. Just because they were here long enough to start a family, it shouldnt exempt them from deportation. As many as half a million parents may have been deported from 2009 to 2013, the Migration Policy Institute and the Urban Institute said in a 2015 report. ICE began tracking comprehensive data on the deportation of parents with U.S. citizen children in 2010. Newcomers a priority Over the past few years, migrants apprehended at the border and those referred to ICE by state and local law enforcement agencies have made up the bulk of ICEs detentions and deportations. Recent border crossers and anyone with a criminal history are still a priority for detention, regardless of whether they have U.S.-born children. Nationwide, about 70 percent of ICEs removals are of people caught by Customs and Border Enforcement at or near the border. In fiscal 2013, nearly 80 percent of the removals in Arizona were of recent border crossers. Current data on the share of deportations of parents of U.S. citizen children who were caught at the border in Arizona and nationwide was not readily available, but in 2013 it was 36 percent nationally, less than the 64 percent for overall removals that year. Parents of U.S. citizen children caught at the border are often subjected to summary deportation proceedings and often dont get to fight their case before an immigration judge, CBP data obtained by the Arizona Daily Star show and Human Rights Watch has reported. They can also be charged criminally for illegally re-entering the country and barred from coming back for years. One of the biggest problems with prioritizing border removals is that its not just newcomers, said Wendy Feliz, spokeswoman for the American Immigration Council, a Washington-based think thank. The Arizona Daily Stars Sportsmens Fund Send a Kid to Camp program raises money so children from low-income households and military families can attend overnight YMCA, Boy Scout and Girl Scout camps for little or no cost to their families. We will officially kick off our 2016 camp drive on Thursday, Feb. 25. We have increased our commitment to the three camps by $5,000 each and have a goal of $180,000 to send 670 kids to summer camp. Donations are welcome throughout the year. In 2015, we received 1,515 donations totaling $175,162 including $6,555 donated in the last month and spent $166,457 to send 621 local boys and girls to overnight camp. Since 1947, the Arizona Daily Star Sportsmens Fund has helped pay for 36,900 children to go to camp. It is one of the oldest 501c(3) charities in Arizona. Your contribution qualifies for the Arizona tax credit of up to $400 for donations to qualifying charitable organizations. Recent donations include: Thomas and Claire Brown, $100. Theresa Dellheim, $50. Joanne Garver, $400. James Harrison, $200. Michael Hyatt, $50. Norma Kelly, $50. M.J. Kenigsverg, $400. Anne and Howard Leibow, $100. Jane Leonard, $100. Donald Lewis, $400. Jeffrey Lewis, $400. Ken and Jan Mahan, $200. Judy Mercer, $25. Lawrence Morgan, $100. Jeff Preble, $100. William Prickett, $200. Emilie Sikora, $50. Lawrence Tagg, in memory of Donna Tagg, $100. John Thomas, $200. One anonymous donation of $100. When Alex Brinckerhoff shows up in costume for Living History Days at Presidio San Agustin del Tucson, he imagines he is a Dutch pirate captured by the Spanish military. For several years, Alex has donned the costume of a drummer boy one Saturday each month, traveling back in time to the 18th century. Alex, 15, is the youngest re-enactor and part of the Garrison soldiers. He joined the soldados, or soldiers, after a presentation on medical practices from the era captivated his attention at an Arizona centennial celebration. He was 12 at the time. They found documents of soldiers as young as 9 taken into the Spanish military, and they wouldnt give them guns, Alex says. They would give them a sword and a drum. It fit my age ... so it would have been period-accurate. When he turns 16, he can get a musket, he says. The very first day Alex joined the soldiers in his cotton shirt, wool jacket and felt hat, he marched with a flag in a St. Patricks Day parade, surrounded by the other marchers. If he lost control of the flag, he risked hitting someone. It was a breezy day, says Bill Brinckerhoff, Alexs father, a fellow re-enactor and board member of the Tucson Presidio Trust for Historic Preservation. Hes the smallest member of the Presidio carrying this flag. He earned his stripes that day. Alexs grandfather, Sidney Brinckerhoff, is also a re-enactor and is on the advisory board. When he visits his family each winter from his home in Seattle, he plays the part of a visiting colonel. Alex attributes some of his passion for history to his grandfather, who was the executive director of the Arizona Historical Society for years. During his career, Sidney worked to preserve the original Presidio and provide insight about military and architectural details for the museum. I was there during the urban renewal, and we were desperately trying to save buildings so there would be physical integrity, Sidney says. Im doubly thrilled to see how Tucson has matured, in my view, as a cultural community, and Im proud to have a small part of it. And to see your grandson out there doing it, too, I get goosebumps. But Alex didnt join the the soldiers just because of his grandfathers involvement. It didnt start off as a family thing, says Alex, a sophomore at Salpointe Catholic High School. I had an interest in it and wanted to do it, so I did. His father started volunteering after he did. When I see kids who are younger than I am, and the smiles on their faces when they find it interesting, I do it for that ... . Alex says. On Living History Days, Alex joins the other volunteers to re-create life as it would have been during the days of the original Presidio. He marches with the other soldiers once or twice, and mans a table with props that Spanish soldiers might have used. The information Alex shares he learned from other volunteers or through personal study. For a school paper, he spent hours researching online and reading his grandfathers books about Spanish colonial history. That wasnt a requirement to volunteer. He did it because he wants to learn and educate. I want to teach people about their past, he says. And I want them to see that people from all walks of life can learn the same exact thing and leave with an equal knowledge about that place. I think thats a really cool thing. From his research, Alex has learned about the diverse nationalities of the early soldiers in Tucson the inspiration for his Dutch pirate character as a play on the origins of his last name. To see my blood in Tucson contributing this way is probably one of the nicest things that has ever happened to me, Sidney says, admiring his grandsons consistent dedication. And its not like Alex has time to spare. Volunteering at the Presidio gets him up early on weekends even though the rest of his week is packed. He is part of Salpointes drama program, and either acts or does tech for plays and musicals. In January 2015, he learned to play the trombone so he could join the schools jazz and symphonic bands. He also sings in the school choir and is involved in his youth group at St. Albans Episcopal Church. Beyond playing the drum and fife for the Presidio, Alex also plays guitar and hopes to do something musical someday. But history will always be a passion. Its too important to let go. History teaches us not to make mistakes for our future ... , he says. People need to know how Tucson got here. Alex believes that people should understand the history of the place where they live. Tucsons history is so rich, he says. There is so much behind it. There is so much more than, It was a fort. Its like a science museum on wheels a fun, funky space where kids can tinker and learn. Tucson had one somewhat like it years back, when friends Erik Herman, Bruce Bayly and Kip Perkins started the Physics Factory and turned a couple of old buses into physics roadshows. The buses went to schools and public events, including one that was attended by more than 2,600 people, Perkins said. Since those early days more than a decade ago, one of the buses has become Baylys mathematics roadshow, and the other painted green and fueled by vegetable oil stopped running about three years ago. It was Herman who now works at Cornell University, and created his own Ithaca Physics Bus there who helped spark plans for a new one here. Physics Bus West is currently parked in Perkins backyard, a purchase courtesy of Tucson Electric Power. But more funding is needed to re-create the insides, Perkins said, so an Indiegogo campaign has been started to get things rolling. For the time being, the Ithaca Physics Bus is paying Tucson a visit, since cold New York state temps make its usage tricky in wintertime. The exhibits on the bus are made out of used appliances that sit along 15-foot countertops, and the same is planned for Tucsons version. The idea is to get kids excited about science and physics, and for them to see that its available to them, Perkins said. Perkins said Xraise, Cornell Universitys Synchrotron outreach program, is providing him with Hermans time and expertise, as well as a $10,000 stipend for 500 hours of work using the new bus to expand science outreach. Medicare is penalizing three Tucson hospitals for their rates of patient injuries and infections. Banner-University Medical Center Tucson, Carondelet St. Josephs Hospital and Tucson Medical Center were in the worst-performing 25 percent of hospitals nationwide on a matrix of hospital-acquired conditions, data from the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) shows. The penalties are part of an effort to improve hospital quality and reduce medical costs created under the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Its the second year in a row the government has issued the penalties. Both Tucson Medical Center and Banner-University Medical Center Tucson were penalized last year, too. Sixteen Arizona hospitals will be penalized compared with 13 last year. The penalty program has attracted criticism across the country from some hospital officials who say the system of scoring hospitals is flawed, uses old data, and disproportionately penalizes larger hospitals with complex patient populations. Others say that no matter how much everyone improves, one quarter of hospitals will always get penalized. It is basically for budget reasons for the federal government. We could improve 100 percent and wed still find 25 percent of the hospitals in the country getting a penalty, said Greg Vigdor, president and CEO of the Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association. While I am never one to question efforts to improve patient safety, this isnt necessarily the litmus test. But supporters say the penalties are an important step toward much-needed patient safety transparency and that theres still more work to do in providing the public with information about potential harm in their local hospitals. I think the hospital-acquired condition data is really important, said Helen Haskell, a national patient safety activist who founded Mothers Against Medical Error. You want a hospital that has a low infection rate, low complication rates. If there is no public reporting then the goal can easily just become the bottom line. A lot of people who talk about patient safety dont really understand it. So few medical people see the patient from beginning to end. They dont necessarily understand what might happen to that person. Payments reduced 1% The three Tucson-area hospitals affected are among 758 hospitals in the U.S. that will have a 1 percent payment reduction applied to all Medicare discharges for the current federal fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. Hospitals in Maryland were not scored because of that states unique payer arrangement with the government. Also excluded were childrens hospitals, veterans hospitals and hospitals deemed critical access rural facilities that are often the only hospitals in their area. Nationwide, 3,308 hospitals received scores. The 758 facilities penalized can expect to lose a combined $364 million in federal reimbursements, officials with the CMS say. The scores are based on data collected from July 1, 2012 to Dec. 31, 2014. The hospital-acquired-condition penalty was calculated by a score that tabulated four sets of data: Central Line-Associated Bloodstream Infections (CLABSI); Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections (CAUTI); Surgical Site Infections (SSI); and a composite score based on a mean of eight patient safety indicators from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, including postoperative sepsis, accidental punctures and lacerations, and pressure ulcers. Last years scores were based on three sets of data. This year, the Surgical Site Infections category, based on measures of infections for colon surgeries and abdominal hysterectomies, was added. Docking reimbursements for hospital-acquired conditions is among a series of incentives under the Affordable Care Act intended to improve hospital quality. Other incentives include penalties for hospitals with high readmission rates. Banner-University Medical Center Tucson officials estimate theyll lose $600,000 to $900,000. Dr. Andreas Theodorou, who is the hospitals chief medical officer, says the Medicare program has helped hospitals across the country to do better. If you look at the statistics, the bar has been raised, he said. Indeed, a recent report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality found a 17 percent decline in hospital-acquired conditions from 2010 to 2014. The report says that translates to 87,000 lives saved. The federal Department of Health and Human Services attributed the decline to concerted attention by hospitals throughout the country to reduce adverse events through Medicare quality incentive programs, among other factors. Absolutely safe Theodorou noted that the data is all from 2014 and earlier prior to February 2015, when Banner Health acquired the hospital and its umbrella University of Arizona Health Network. Banner has a robust system of quality measures, he said. Among other things, the hospital has improved its rate of catheter-associated urinary tract infections and central line-associated bloodstream infections, he said. It is absolutely a safe place, for patients, he added. We dont use this data for ongoing improvement. We use more real-time data, said Theodorou, who is also regional chief medical officer for Banner Healths academic division. We are always doing things to be better. Part of the good news is that everyone is getting better. Haskell, the patient safety activist, wonders why the data cant be more up to date when its released. The hospitals complain about this being too out of date. I think they have a point. They dont need to be out of date. We can get data in real time and could do it immediately, Haskell said. Its an artificial problem. It should be a priority to make it up to date. A paper on the penalty program published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in July raised questions about the scoring system. The researchers, led by physicians from Northwestern University, found hospitals that were penalized had more quality accreditations, offered advanced services, were major teaching institutions, and had better performance on other process and outcome measures. These paradoxical findings suggest that the approach for assessing hospital penalties in the Hospital Acquired Condition Reduction Program merits reconsideration to ensure it is achieving the intended goals, the paper concludes. Officials with Tucson Medical Center, which is Tucsons largest hospital, say that while there is debate about the detail of the program and the penalties, the goal is absolutely in line with what we should be working to achieve. The hospital also says it supports a growing trend of hospital data transparency. While CMS data is over 12 months old, our current data shows that we are making improvements in virtually all areas that roll up into the HAC (hospital acquired condition) scores, Tucson Medical Center spokeswoman Julia Strange said. We have made progress towards reducing our hospital-acquired infections and we will continue to do so. Based on its internal data, Tucson Medical Center is on track to avoid penalties for hospital-acquired conditions when the updated data is processed by next year, Strange said. She would not disclose the estimated dollar amount that the hospital will be penalized by Medicare this year, nor would officials at Carondelet St. Josephs Hospital. St. Josephs CEO Mark Benz did not respond to the specific questions the Star submitted about the penalty but instead offered a statement At Carondelet St. Josephs Hospital, our goal is to provide the highest in patient safety, quality of care, and service excellence. We work tirelessly to review our quality metrics and benchmarks on a daily basis, the statement says. Vigdor said there has been progress statewide in numerous patient safety measures, most notably catheter-associated urinary tract infections. But he acknowledges that for the public, getting such information can be problematic. With an increasing number of reports, scoring and rankings of hospitals, there has to be more clarity in order to build a more consumer friendly system, he said. Help India! By DPA Washington : One of the largest-ever opinion polls conducted in the Islamic world found that seven percent of Muslims condoned the Sep 11, 2001, attacks on the US, but none of them gave religious justification for their beliefs, according to the figures released Tuesday. Support TwoCircles The Gallup organisations poll of some 50,000 people in over 35 predominantly Muslim countries found that what motivated those considered politically radicalised was their fear of occupation by the West and the US, though most even admired and hoped for democratic principles. Politics, not piety, differentiate moderates from radicals in the Islamic world, said Dalia Mogahed, executive director of the Gallup Center for Muslim studies. Terrorism sympathisers dont hate our freedom, they want our freedom. The overwhelming majority of Muslims 93 percent condemned the Sep 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, and most said the biggest obstacle to better relations with the West was the latters lack of respect for Islam. Substantial majorities in all Muslim countries said they supported bringing democratic principles to their own countries and admired the US primarily for its technological innovation and liberal democracy, but less than 50 percent believed the US was serious about bringing that democracy to the Islamic world. The Gallup poll found that Muslims were most bothered by a perceived moral decay in the US and the West, but that their explanations and views were similar to concerns expressed by those in the West itself. Among the seven percent who viewed the Sep 11 attacks as completely justified, Mogahed said that not one gave religious justification for their views, instead expressing their fear of US plans for occupation and domination of the Muslim world. What we have here is the ability to get beyond the battle of the experts and let the data lead the discourse on beliefs in the Muslim world, said John L. Esposito, a professor of international affairs and Islamic studies at Georgetown University. Mogahed and Esposito co-authored a book, Who Speaks for Islam, that explains the Gallup figures. France decrees new rooftops must be covered in plants or solar panels All new buildings in commercial zones across the country must comply with new environmental legislation Solar panels in Crucey-Villages, central France, part of the building site of a photovoltaic park built by French Energy Giant EDF. New legislations forces all new commercial zone buildings to have panels or plants on top. Photograph: Alain Jocard/AFP/Getty Images Rooftops on new buildings built in commercial zones in France must either be partially covered in plants or solar panels, under a law approved on Thursday. Green roofs have an isolating effect, helping reduce the amount of energy needed to heat a building in winter and cool it in summer. The argument for divesting from fossil fuels is becoming an overwhelming one | Alan Rusbridger They also retain rainwater, thus helping reduce problems with runoff, while favouring biodiversity and giving birds a place to nest in the urban jungle, ecologists say. The law approved by parliament was more limited in scope than initial calls by French environmental activists to make green roofs that cover the entire surface mandatory on all new buildings. The Socialist government convinced activists to limit the scope of the law to commercial buildings. The law was also made less onerous for businesses by requiring only part of the roof to be covered with plants, and giving them the choice of installing solar panels to generate electricity instead. Green roofs are popular in Germany and Australia, and Canada's city of Toronto adopted a by-law in 2009 mandating them in industrial and residential buildings. The 2015 Africa Wealth Report shows that South Africa has the highest number of High Net Worth Individuals (HNWI) on the continent of Africa. Following in a close second, is Egypt, with exciting forecasts for Mozambique and Zambia. African HNWI has increased by 145% over the past fourteen years. In South Africa, the Black Economic Empowerment Program has accounted for a number of the newly wealthy. The BEE was launched in South Africa as a way to address the inequality between black individuals and the wealthy whites in post apartheid South Africa. The combined wealth of the African HNWIs is estimated to be in excess of US$660 billion. The Sunday Times reported in May this year, that there are vast discrepancies in South Africa. The super wealthy have a net worth of around $184 billion. There are about forty-six thousand millionaires in the country and they are living the high life. Professor Dilip Garach told the Sunday Times that most of the newly rich have acquired their fortunes since the beginning of the Rainbow Nation in 1994. The divide between the wealthy whites and the wealthy blacks is becoming blurred. At grass roots levels, however, the greater population of the country is struggling with rising costs of basic foodstuffs, loss of employment and downturn in the economy. Race is no longer a guarantee of wealth in South Africa. Many middle-income earners are facing hard times. More and more whites are working at laboring or minimal income jobs. Equality in poverty, one must suppose is, at least, better than no equality. The Mozambique wealthy are projected to increase over the next ten years, and according to the World Bank, recent discoveries of oil and gas in Mozambique will pave the way for investment and wealth generation if the natural resources are correctly managed. Zambia has long been defined as a country stricken by poverty. Fifty-eight percent of the rural community lives in extreme poverty. The disparity of wealth in the country is huge but the economic outlook is encouraging. Zambia has been performing well in recent years and the economy is expected to grow by a further six percent in 2016. Zambian super-wealthy individuals are projected to emerge from the tourism, business and mining sectors over the next ten years Fresh from reprising his iconic Han Solo role in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Harrison Ford also looks set to return as Indiana Jones in the near future. The veteran actor shows little sign of calling it a day on a sparkling acting career and Disney have made it clear that they want him to don his trademark fedora once more as Dr Jones on the silver screen. Critically acclaimed Star Wars comeback Ford received plenty of plaudits for his acting in his latest Star Wars outing, with the UK critics being particularly keen to praise the 73-year-old American. After a career spanning six decades in the movie business, his name has featured in some of Hollywoods biggest blockbusters. Many fans also still fondly recollect his part as Rick Deckard in the dystopian science-fiction movie Blade Runner in the early 80s. Injuries battled back from Despite serious health setbacks in the past he continues to bounce back. During filming for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom in 1983 he herniated a disc in his back. However, after a successful operation back in America he returned to the set just six weeks later. He even damaged his ankle on the set of The Force Awakens in 2014, with doctors fearing that he may have broken it. Yet the tenacious Ford returned to complete filming after treatment. Aviation incidents In his private life he has also flirted with danger, with his love of aviation putting him in peril on several occasions. In 1999 he was believed to have been piloting a helicopter which crashed in California, although both he and his instructor walked away from the incident without injury. Perhaps of more concern was a serious plane crash last year involving the actor, which resulted in a number of major injuries including a broken pelvis and a broken ankle. You cant keep a good man down for long though and he now seems to be back to decent health and looking ahead to future projects. Financial success from last Indy Film He starred in the previous outing for Indy in 2008 in The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which wasnt universally well-received by critics and audiences despite the film casting Ford alongside Karen Allen once again. However, with John Hurt, Ray Winstone and Cate Blanchett adding to the star-studded line-up, financially it grossed $786 million worldwide to indicate the enduring appeal of the franchise. Disney want Ford to return Disney bosses certainly seem to have few doubts about the future, with the next instalment already in development. Franchise producer Frank Marshall confirmed that unlike the approach for the long-running James Bond film series, were not going to call somebody else Indiana Jones. It had been rumoured in some circles that Shia LaBeouf may have been lined up to step up and take over, but clearly Fords presence remains integral to the role. For now at least, it appears that Indys son will have to bide his time a little longer. A JOURNEY THROUGH 2015 And so the end is near, or so the song runs, but the days are slipping past as 2015 wanders off to leave the stage for 2016 to arrive Sadly, we started in Paris with the January 2015 attack and the murder of nine journalists by Islamic fanatics at the offices of Charlie Hebdo ( a French weekly satirical magazine). In total 12 people lost their lives. The loss of the journalists made France the second most dangerous in the world for reporters in 2015. Only Syria, where 13 lost their lives in the last 12 months, outscored France. Across the world 69 journalists were lost doing their work, an increase on the 61 who lost their lives in 2014. By February a ceasefire had been brokered in Ukraine with leaders from Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany agreeing to a ceasefire. Called the Minsk agreement it was signed on February 11, 2015, but the Ukraine and Pro-Russian militias were soon fighting each other again. In March Islamic State pushed on through Iraq destroying ancient sites at Nimrud and Hatra. In April another Islamic militia called Al-Shabaab killed 148 at Garrisa University College in Kenya. As summer arrived the Republic of Ireland became the first country in the world to democratically vote for legalized same sex marriage. This good news was followed in June by the resignation of the world's top snake oil salesman Sepp Blatter as FIFA was swamped by an FBI -led probe into its activities, some allegedly corrupt. By the end of June Islamic State were in Kobani, Syria where 220 were massacred as the group detonated three car bombs and opened fire on civilians. For the wrong reasons July 1 2015 went down in history as the first time a nation had missed a debt repayment to the International Monetary Fund in its 71 year history. Greece, of course, were the culprits strangled by debt repayments and austerity the country floundered on the rocks of late capitalism. Wreckage found on Reunion Island in August was confirmed as coming from the downed Malaysian flight 370, missing since March 2014. Meanwhile, German car giant Volkswagon ate humble pie in September after being caught fixing diesel emission tests covering over 10 million cars worldwide. Another air disaster hit the headlines at the end of October when an Airbus A321 en route to Saint Petersburg, Russia from Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt crashed killing 217 passengers and 7 crew. The year, however, was destined to end in outrage when terrorists once again struck at Paris, killing 130. On December 12, and once again in Paris,a climate change pact was agreed at the COP21 summit where, for the first time, all countries agreed to reduce carbon emissions. So we trek into 2016 with the horrors of 2015 still very much alive in the memory but with the hope that, at last, a real and ordered effort will be made to halt the disastrous consequences of climate change. No one, of course, can tell what 2016 might bring, and if Paris was the main focal point for the history of 2015,I, for one, would like to think economicchange, politicalhope and MilitaryPeace will be the touchstones of 2016 Part five. Hosted on Facebook Page:Liberty Place Battle 1874. In July 2015, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu asked the City Council to begin a process to remove three monuments to US Veterans of the Mexican-American and Civil Wars and a monument to eleven police officers who died in 1874 defendingthe Louisiana Governor's Administration which consisted of C.C. Antoine, an African-American Lt. Governor. In December,Mayor Landrieuannounced he did not know where removal process would end. New Orleans has over 250 monuments. One group,"Take "em Down NOLA," is requesting numerous other monuments be removed. Numerous surveys have shown the majority of those responding do not agree with the Mayor's and City Councilto remove the four monuments. Three monuments are to West Point Engineering Graduateswho were instrumental in Reconstruction of the South, proposed desegregation of schoolsand were involved in developing the Rail Lines of America's Transportation System, among other achievements. During Public comments, citizens representing various Landmark and Historical Non-Profits spoke in favor of apopular vote on the issues or posting more detailed plaques describing the individuals. Their plans were not reviewed. Council Member Stacey Head's motions to calling for a town wide vote or plaques, failed for lack ofseconds. In a survey done by WDSU-TV,the following week after the Council Vote, 97% did not agree with the Majority Vote of the Council. Reasons stated in public comments as to the opposition to the Council Vote include: 1. No plan to return the monuments to public view. 2. No funds to return the monumentsto public view. 3. No place to return the monuments to public view. 3. The selection process. The Council is leaving some monuments standing, which should be evaluated for racism, such as one to veterans who fought in the American Indian Wars in the late 1800s. ThoseWars took land from American Indians. 4. Refusing to discuss placing more descriptive content on themonuments toeducate on the positive achievements of the entire lives of the initial three Veterans, whichMayor Landrieu seeks to remove. 5. Removing what is likely millions of dollars of Art and an integral part of the tourism industry of New Orleans. 6. Inconsistencies in logic for removal, as not all are wearing uniforms and the details of their past positions. PGT Beauregard served in the US Army from 1834-1861 and the Louisiana National Guard from 1879-1988. Those arguing for removal ofhis 100 year old monumentcite to the fact he is depicted in a Confederate Uniformas opposed to US Army or Louisiana National Guard uniform. In 1873 he became the spokesperson for the Unification Movement and desegregation of schools and transportation. Robert E. Lee served in the US Army from 1829-1861 and as President of Washington University from 1865-1870. Lee's name was added to the University following his death. Lee wrote to his wife inan 1856 letter, "... In this enlightened age, there are few I believe, but what will acknowledge, that slavery as an institution, is a moral & political evil in any Country." Lee's monument is in a Confederate Uniform. Jefferson Davis' Monument depicts Davis in suit. Davis was a US Senator from 1857-1861, US Secretary of War from 1853-1857, and served in the US Army from 1825-1835 and 1846-1847. Jefferson Davis and his brother educated and allowed captive Africansto retain money earned commercially. Theyfinanced the acquisition of their plantation to partnership of former slaves lead by Benjamin Montgomery, who they had applied for an irrigation patent with in 1858. A lawsuit with twelve causes of action has been filed by four non-profits. Council Members have 30 days after a vote to announce a desire to re-considera vote. Mogadishu, Somalia - The Somali parliament has passed a controversial Media Bill onTuesday, 29thDecember 2015,which aims to regulate Media in Somalia for the first time in twenty-five years since 1991 civil war. The Media bill is described by National Union of Somali Journalist (NUSOJ) as damaging to freedom and "is unconstitutional as it fails to ensure that media is free from government, commercial or political control and interference. These provisions must not be allowed to be put into practice. Already endangered Media freedom in Somalia will be seriously damaged if these provisions are not reviewed. Their review must meet progressive global practices to ensure the best possible protection for the right to freedom of expression," said Omar Faruk Osman, NUSOJ Secretary General. The government introduced this bill so that they can hold Journalist and media houses accountable under the law. However within the 42 Article Bill, many articles are worded vaguely and carry out huge penalties for those who break the new law. Such as Article 18 which states any Journalist or Media Owners that are found guilty would be fined between $500 up to $10,000 USD. This was original $500 up to $1,500 on the final drafted submitted to the council of Minsters back in August 2014, the amount initially reflected an affordable amount based on Somalia's GDP of $600 USD. The Somali Government does acknowledge that a written warning would be first issued to the Journalist or Media Owners. So, what can journalist and media owners be imprisoned or fined for? Article 12, states that Somalia Media should avoid broadcasting and sharing materials that jeopardize the Islamic religion, Somali tradition, the unity of Somali people and sovereignty the Somali republic. Here is what they should really avoid if they don't want a huge fine or imprisonment: 1) Broadcasting or dissemination of false and unfounded information or data2) Broadcasting or dissemination of information that endangers the stability of the nation.3) Broadcasting or dissemination of publications, articles contrary to the religious confession and the Islamic doctrine.4) Dissemination and publication of pornographic pictures whether actual or artificial unless it is intended for research and experimental knowledge.5) The newspapers should avoid displaying tortured human body, carnal violence and other pictures that can spread shock within the community.6) Broadcasting or dissemination of information on national secrets. Media law also requires the revealing of confidential sources in Article 15, "We must do everything in our power to protect confidential sources and courts must not be allowed to force journalists to reveal confidential sources. If this continues to happen, it will be clear that authorities will rush to court to get a court order to force a journalist to reveal the confidential source," added Osman. Somali media Owners and Unions on Sunday (September 14th) submitted formal complaints to President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, about a controversial media law approved by the cabinet two weeks earlier, Radio Bar-Kulan reported. This bill was still not rectified by President Mohamud his current Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Sharmarke. There has been mixed reactions by journalist and media house owners in Somalia, some hoping that this Media bill will bring better journalistic practices and others fearing the worst. Somalia remains one of the most dangerous countries for a journalist to operate, with 18 journalists killed last year and death toll is on the rise for 2015. The Somali Government is yet to fully publish the 42 article Media Bill to the public. Found this article interesting, read this too: Holdem with Holloway, Vol. 54: Dealers Arent Always Right January 03 2016 Chad Holloway Poker dealers are the true captains of the table. Players and tournament staff alike trust them to facilitate a successful game, one characterized by speed and accuracy. Most of the time they do a great job, but over the course of tens of thousands of hands, mistakes are bound to happen. After all, theyre only human. Some people come down on dealers when they make a mistake (theyre an easy target when someone is tilting or generally just an a**hole). Meanwhile others reward them for either a big hand or good run of cards (tipping isnt a city in China). I never advocate mistreating a dealer, but I do encourage you to reevaluate the reliance you place upon them. Case in point, a hand from the recently completed $1,100 buy-in Mid-States Poker Tour Golden Gates Casino Main Event in Black Hawk, Colorado. It happened during one of the starting flights late in the night. They had reached Level 8 where the blinds were 300/600 with a 75 ante, and the hand began with Travis Northrope opening for 2,125 and Lou Mortellaro calling from middle position. A short-stacked David McLaughlin then moved all in for 3,850 from the cutoff, and action folded back to Northrope. Can I raise? he asked the dealer, who indicated that he could not. Northrope made a comment that he didnt think that was correct, but he nonetheless made the call, as did Mortellaro. Travis Northrope Both players then proceeded to check it down as the board ran out . McLaughlin showed for a flopped two pair, but he seemed to know that after being counterfeited on the river his hand probably wasnt best. Sure enough, Mortellaro rolled over for aces and tens. Northrope then showed and again wondered aloud whether or not he should have been able to raise before the flop. As it was, his raise was 1,525 over the initial 600 big blind, meaning if McLaughlins reraise was equal to or more than that, he should have been allowed to four-bet. Indeed, McLaughlins all-in three-bet was for 1,725 more, meaning it would have reopened the action. Unfortunately for Northrope, he denied his initial instinct and it was too late to do anything about it. The dealer error stood. Im not mad, I just know I could have raised, Northrope said with a hint of regret after the hand. This was a great example of placing too much reliance on dealers. Yes, they are the table captains and its their job, but mistakes are bound to happen. In this case, the dealer made a mistake, but Northrope made one as well by not halting the action either to do the math or to call a floor over. As such, Mortellaro was able to capitalize, albeit it unintentionally. That said, poker is all about capitalizing off your opponents mistakes. In this hand, it was the dealer who made one, but left uncorrected, it had a trickle-down effect. Northrope went on to bust later in the night, while Mortellaro bagged a big stack and ultimately finished 44th in the tournament for $2,226. Meanwhile, Phanora Prom topped the 510-entry field to capture the $123,180 first-place prize. Share any dealer error stories you might have either in the comments section below or on Twitter @ChadAHolloway. Get all the latest PokerNews updates on your social media outlets. Follow us on Twitter and find us on both Facebook and Google+! Sharelines Chad Holloway discusses a hand from MSPT Golden Gates to show why dealers aren't always right. NZCPR.com - register for the free weekly NZCPR newsletter Breaking Views brings you expert commentary on topical political and policy issues. The views expressed are those of the author alone. The blog is administered by the New Zealand Centre for Political Research, an independent public policy think tank at Nine-dash Line The nine-dash line (highlighted in green) as formerly claimed by the PRC The nine-dash line (Chinese: ; pinyin: nanhai jiuduan xian; literally: "nine-segment line of the South China Sea"; Vietnamese: uong luoi bo; literally: "cow's tongue line"), and at various times also referred to as the "10-dash line" and the "11-dash line", refers to the demarcation line used initially by the government of the Republic of China (ROC / Taiwan), and subsequently also by the government of the People's Republic of China (PRC), for their claims of the major part of the South China Sea. The contested area in the South China Sea includes the Paracel Islands, the Spratly Islands, and various other areas including the Pratas Islands, the Macclesfield Bank and the Scarborough Shoal. The claim encompasses the area of Chinese land reclamation known as the "great wall of sand". An early map showing a U-shaped eleven-dash line was published in the then Republic of China on 1 December 1947. Two of the dashes in the Gulf of Tonkin were later removed at the behest of Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai, reducing the total to nine. Subsequent editions added a dash to the other end of the line, extending it into the East China Sea. Despite having made the vague claim public in 1947, China has not (as of 2015) filed a formal and specifically defined claim to the area within the dashes. The People's Republic of China added a tenth-dash line to the east of Taiwan island in 2013 as a part of its official sovereignty claim to the disputed territories in the South China Sea. read more The Nine-Dash Line The first map showing the nine-dash line had 11 dashes There are many competing claims to territory in the South China Sea, but only China and Taiwan claim to own it all. Beijings claim - not only to the Spratly Islands, but also the Scarborough Shoal and the Paracel Islands - is marked out on its own maps by the infamous nine-dash line, which encompasses a huge tongue-shaped expanse stretching right up to the coasts of the Philippines and Vietnam and even Borneo. The Philippines and Vietnam also claim large areas of the South China Sea. Both say most of the Spratly Islands belong to them. For decades China has done little to enforce its vague and sweeping claim. Now that is changing. read more Why China and Taiwan agree on the South China Sea If theres anything China and Taiwan can agree on, its that the contested scattered islands in the South China Sea are Chinese territory. But while China flexes its muscles to assert authority over the islands, making the maritime region into a geo-strategic hotspot, Taiwan has no such ambitions. When the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled in July 2016 in favor of the Philippines against Chinas claims, the Office of Taiwans president rejected the verdict in terms similar to Beijing. The court found that China has no historical right based on its so-called nine-dash line map that encompasses nearly 90% of the South China Sea, including most of the maritime regions islands. China responded by saying it would not abide by the ruling, which it hasnt judging by its recent moves to militarize the various features it claims in the area. Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), like the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) on the mainland, lays claim to the same islands, which are also in whole or part claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei. read more China's "Underwater Great Wall" Chinese "optical-fiber hydrophone shore-based array" for submarine detection (CCTV / video still) The news that China has deployed bombers and cruise missiles to contested reefs and islands in the South China Sea has caused significant concern. The move allows Beijing to target ships in disputed waters with a missile capable of maneuvering around defence systems at Mach 3. It has also placed northern Australia within reach of Chinese warplanes. The deployment has certainly changed the regional strategic picture. Yet modern conflict, as practiced by revisionist states like China and Russia, doesnt often pit conventional capabilities head-to-head. Instead, those nations change facts on the ground (or sea) and influence opponents decision-making while keeping their actions plausibly deniable, or short of a reaction threshold that might bring superior Western militaries into open conflict. Beijing, for example, has used fishermen, armed paramilitary vessels, media, and psychological and legal tactics to the same effect as missiles and planes. Its also advancing in another domain that is comparatively less discussedunderwater. read more US scheming to deny Chinas nine-dashed line of South China Sea The nine-dashed line was first discovered and owned by China. It is a maritime boundary line formed after Chinas long-term jurisdiction and development of the South China Sea islands. China holds sovereignty and jurisdiction rights within the nine-dashed line. Other countries ships have the right to freedom of navigation and their aircraft enjoy rights to fly over the territory. There had been no problem with the nine-dashed line before the 1970s, but with Vietnam, the Philippines and other countries pushing further territorial claims, more governments are beginning to deny legitimacy of the nine-dashed line. related: South China Sea Is Indisputable Part of China read more China's Island Factory In 1823, US President James Monroe outlined what was later to become known as the Monroe Doctrine. It identified the Western hemisphere as Americas backyard, and nowhere more so than the Caribbean Sea. Old European colonial powers were told to keep out. Today China is doing something very similar in the East and South China seas. read more Monroe Doctrine The Monroe Doctrine was a U.S. foreign policy regarding domination of the American continent in 1823. It stated that further efforts by European nations to colonize land or interfere with states in North or South America would be viewed as acts of aggression, requiring U.S. intervention. At the same time, the doctrine noted that the United States would neither interfere with existing European colonies nor meddle in the internal concerns of European countries. The Doctrine was issued in 1823 at a time when nearly all Latin American colonies of Spain and Portugal had achieved or were at the point of gaining independence from the Portuguese and Spanish Empires. The United States, working in agreement with Great Britain, wanted to guarantee that no European power would move in. President James Monroe first stated the doctrine during his seventh annual State of the Union Address to Congress. The term "Monroe Doctrine" itself was coined in 1850. By the end of the nineteenth century, Monroe's declaration was seen as a defining moment in the foreign policy of the United States and one of its longest-standing tenets. It would be invoked by many U.S. statesmen and several U.S. presidents, including Ulysses S. Grant, Theodore Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and many others. The intent and impact of the Monroe Doctrine persisted with only minor variations for more than a century. Its alleged objective was to free the newly independent colonies of Latin America from European intervention and avoid situations which could make the New World a battleground for the Old World powers, so that the United States could exert its own influence undisturbed. The doctrine asserted that the New World and the Old World were to remain distinctly separate spheres of influence, for they were composed of entirely separate and independent nations. read more Monroe Doctrine At the time of the creation of the Monroe Doctrine, the United States was a young nation determined to keep the Western hemisphere free of foreign influence. This was mainly targeting Europe, specifically Spain. Spain had many colonies in Latin America. However, these former colonies were now independent nations. To stop other European powers from colonizing, the Monroe Doctrine was formed to restrict the spheres of influence formed in the areas which were so close to the U.S. The doctrine also emphasized the traditional isolationist policies modeled after Washingtons Farewell Address. This document was created as a policy of isolationism. The U.S. prohibited any European involvement in Latin American affairs, including the establishment of new colonies. In turn, the United States agreed to not get occupied in European dealings. President James Monroe (1817-1825) enacted this doctrine on December 2, 1823, after the former Spanish colonies in Latin America gained their independence from Spain. There was definitely some controversy regarding the Monroe Doctrine. The nations of Europe did not feel this doctrine was appropriate since it limited their spheres of influence which, in the age of imperialism, stopped their newly expanding, wealthy empires. However, due to the United States amateur navy, the doctrine was disregarded at first. read more Beijing details historic claim to South China Sea Source: China Daily. Inset right, the engraved Fuchang map dating from 1136AD which shows Chinas borders ending at Hainan island The China Daily timeline infographic, republished by Chinese news service Xinhuanet, reaches back as far as the 21st century BC, claiming pearls, shells and turtles from the South China Sea had been presented as tribute to the rulers of the Zhou Dynasty. Han Dynasty pottery shards dating from 206BC were found on Taiping Island (in the Spratley chain), the graphic claims, while documents dating from as early as 280AD refer to a sea known as Zhanghai being mapped and patrolled. The collection of nine panels goes on to list a series of obscure modern international publications as recognising Chinas claims, as well as a selection of 1960s and 70s Vietnamese reference books using Chinese names for some islands and uninhabited reefs and shoals between the two nations. read more The South China Sea: Contested Waters Territorial Claims Maps Historical Fiction: Chinas South China Sea Claims The Spratly Islandsnot so long ago known primarily as a rich fishing groundhave turned into an international flashpoint as Chinese leaders insist with increasing truculence that the islands, rocks, and reefs have been, in the words of Premier Wen Jiabao, Chinas historical territory since ancient times. Normally, the overlapping territorial claims to sovereignty and maritime boundaries ought to be resolved through a combination of customary international law, adjudication before the International Court of Justice or the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, or arbitration under Annex VII of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). While China has ratified UNCLOS, the treaty by and large rejects historically based claims, which are precisely the type Beijing periodically asserts. On September 4, 2012, Chinas foreign minister, Yang Jiechi, told US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that there is plenty of historical and jurisprudence evidence to show that China has sovereignty over the islands in the South China Sea and the adjacent waters. As far as the jurisprudence evidence is concerned, the vast majority of international legal experts have concluded that Chinas claim to historic title over the South China Sea, implying full sovereign authority and consent for other states to transit, is invalid. The historical evidence, if anything, is even less persuasive. There are several contradictions in Chinas use of history to justify its claims to islands and reefs in the South China Sea, not least of which is its polemical assertion of parallels with imperialist expansion by the United States and European powers in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Justifying Chinas attempts to expand its maritime frontiers by claiming islands and reefs far from its shores, Jia Qingguo, professor at Beijing Universitys School of International Studies, argues that China is merely following the example set by the West. The United States has Guam in Asia which is very far away from the US and the French have islands in the South Pacific, so it is nothing new, Jia told AFP recently. Chinas claim to the Spratlys on the basis of history runs aground on the fact that the regions past empires did not exercise sovereignty. In pre-modern Asia, empires were characterized by undefined, unprotected, and often changing frontiers. The notion of suzerainty prevailed. Unlike a nation-state, the frontiers of Chinese empires were neither carefully drawn nor policed but were more like circles or zones, tapering off from the center of civilization to the undefined periphery of alien barbarians. More importantly, in its territorial disputes with neighboring India, Burma, and Vietnam, Beijing always took the position that its land boundaries were never defined, demarcated, and delimited. But now, when it comes to islands, shoals, and reefs in the South China Sea, Beijing claims otherwise. In other words, Chinas claim that its land boundaries were historically never defined and delimited stands in sharp contrast with the stance that Chinas maritime boundaries were always clearly defined and delimited. Herein lies a basic contradiction in the Chinese stand on land and maritime boundaries which is untenable. Actually, it is the mid-twentieth-century attempts to convert the undefined frontiers of ancient civilizations and kingdoms enjoying suzerainty into clearly defined, delimited, and demarcated boundaries of modern nation-states exercising sovereignty that lie at the center of Chinas territorial and maritime disputes with neighboring countries. Put simply, sovereignty is a post-imperial notion ascribed to nation-states, not ancient empires. read more The South China Sea: Drawing the Nine Dash Line As President Xi Jinping tours the western world advocating Chinese businesses, the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) continues incrementally asserting dominance over territory in the South China Sea. Territorial claims in the South China Sea have been contentious for centuries, but recent land reclamation attempts by China have made it a global security issue. The U.S. Navy is now reportedly preparing to patrol within the 12 mile zone that surrounds the Chinese man-made islands, an act that Beijing sees as one intended to provoke a response from the PLA. Six countries- China, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and Taiwanall lay claim to islands in the South China Sea. These countries base their claims on history as well as the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). UNCLOS gives nations Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) authority extending out to 200 nautical miles off their coastline. The country has sole exploitation rights over natural resources in that EEZ. China, however, also lays claim to an area within a nine-dash line, which incorporates about 80 percent of the South China Sea and extends far beyond what would be considered a Chinese EEZ. The United States serves as the regional security guarantor for many of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members. With this role, the U.S. maintains a presence in the South China Sea to maintain the balance of power as well as to ensure the protection of freedom of navigation and trade. The U.S. flies weekly on the edge of the Chinese territory. The American policy towards the South China Sea ensures that the U.S. will, sail, fly and operate anywhere that international law allows. read more Behind the Mystery Of the '9-Dash Line' When the Manchus ruled China, it was given the name South Sea - a maritime domain dotted with islets, atolls and lagoons that provided storm shelter for fishermen. What today's atlases call the South China Sea received its English-language appellation, and its coordinates, under a 1953 document titled Limits of Oceans and Seas published by the Monaco-based International Hydrographic Organization. read more The U.S. and Chinas Nine-Dash Line: Ending the Ambiguity For the first time, the United States government has come out publicly with an explicit statement that the so-called nine-dash line, which the People's Republic of China (PRC) and Taiwan assert delineates their claims in the South China Sea, is contrary to international law. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Danny Russel, in testimony before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs on February 5, said, Under international law, maritime claims in the South China Sea must be derived from land features. Any use of the 'nine-dash line' by China to claim maritime rights not based on claimed land features would be inconsistent with international law. The international community would welcome China to clarify or adjust its nine-dash line claim to bring it in accordance with the international law of the sea." The South China Sea encompasses several hundred small islands, reefs, and atolls, almost all uninhabited and uninhabitable, within a 1.4 million square mile area. The PRC inherited from the former Kuomintang government of China the nine-dash line, which draws a line around all of these islands, asserts sovereignty over all of them, and makes ambiguous claims about rights to waters within the line. Under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), negotiated in the 1970s and 1980s, countries can claim exclusive rights to the fish and mineral resources within Exclusive Economic Zones, which can extend 200 nautical miles from a continental shore line or around islands that can support habitation. There is no provision in the convention granting rights to waters, such as in the South China Sea, without regard to land-based sovereign rights. So it has long been implicit in the U.S. interpretation of UNCLOS that claims to the mineral and fish resources of the South China Sea, unless they are linked to specific inhabitable islands, are invalid. Assistant Secretary Russels statement has made that position explicit. U.S. attention to the South China Sea has increased visibly under the Obama administration. The first manifestation of that attention was a highly publicized statement by Secretary of State Clinton at an international gathering in Hanoi in 2010, in which she laid out principles governing U.S. policy in the South China Sea: respect for freedom of navigation, peaceful resolution of disputes, freedom of commerce, negotiation of a Code of Conduct for dispute resolution and, most relevant here, the view that claims to water could only be based on legitimate land-based claims. Clintons statement took a hitherto obscure, below the radar issue and made the South China Sea the subject of accelerated regional diplomacy, numerous analyses by commentators and national security specialists and in some cases sharpened rhetoric by the various claimants. It was welcomed by all of the Southeast Asian claimants (i.e., Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei), though resented by China. Chinas Nine-dash Line Claim: US Misunderstands CHINAS CONTROVERSIAL nine-dash line claim in the South China Sea has triggered long-running misunderstanding in the United States government due to its perennial anxiety and repeated cross-examinations. This misunderstanding basically originates from the different thoughts over territorial and maritime legal matters between China and the West. This has been reflected in the recent US DoS Paper on Chinas Maritime Claims in the South China Sea, put out by the Department of State, which focuses on the coordinates of the dashes, and on the terminologies regarding the maritime laws and Notes Verbales of China, and comes to confusing conclusions. However, the US government ignored the inconvenient truth that the dash-line should not be seen as stricto sensu that is, in the strict sense a frontier in the Chinese context of the 1940s. That means it would be pointless to interpret the implications of the line from the perspective of modern international law. Therefore, any research, in the first place, should be confined to the localisation context of China; and the direction of end-point should go down the path of globalisation. These are two inseparable dimensions to understand Chinas dash-line claim. Will China's Nine Dashes Ever Turn Into One Line? Why does Beijing keep its dashed-line claim to the South China Sea? As Diplomat readers might be aware, China released a new official map of its territory. As far as Beijings provocative moves go, this one was actually not too bad compared to Chinas relatively recent decisions to impose an air defense identification zone (ADIZ) over the East China Sea or move oil rigs into Vietnams exclusive economic zone (EEZ). All Beijing did was publish a new map. This map has caused concerns among Chinas neighbors in the South China Sea and even India (but nothing profoundly new in either case). Here on Flashpoints, Harry Kazianis called Chinas approach mapfare. There is certainly truth in this description. By publishing these maps, Beijing continues to push its version of the facts on the ground, which it then enforces with declarations like the ADIZ, brazen resource exploration, and coast guard patrols (the Philippines became all too aware of this in 2012 in the Scarborough Shoal). One major curiosity with Chinas official maps continues to be its audacious nine-dash line claim (now officially ten dashes for those of you keeping count). Why wont Beijing just convert its dashes into a continuous maritime border? First, what are the benefits to Beijing of maintaining nine (or ten) dashes instead of a continuous line? Well, in order for there to be any benefit at all, maps would have to matter in the first place. I would argue that they certainly do in the Asia-Pacific. Each of the maritime claimants in the South China Sea comes to the table with their own map of the region. Chinas claim to Asias cauldron (as Robert Kaplan puts it) is by far the most capacious and substantiated with ten dashes dating back to maps used by the Kuomintang government of the Republic of China in 1947. As others have noted, the primary advantage of these dashes is a degree of calculated ambiguity. According to Beijing, the dashes do not represent an inviolable sovereign claim to the entirety of the area demarcated by the dashes but in reality represent the maximum extent of Chinese control over the region. This is a subtlety that often goes unappreciated in contemporary debates on Chinas claim to the South China Sea. By maintaining its dashes, Beijing actually sees its position on its maritime claims as conciliatory and open somewhat to negotiation with other South China Sea states. One account of a Track II exchange between Western and Chinese scholars in 2009, recounted by Carl Thayer, states that if nations which made claims for extended continental shelves withdrew such claims, there would be several areas within the dotted line might be amenable to joint development, according to Chinese scholars. read more The nine-dash line tag The "eleven-dash line" China's 1947 map depicting the "eleven-dash line" Following the defeat of Japan at the end of World War II, the Republic of China re-claimed the entirety of the Paracels, Pratas and Spratly Islands after accepting the Japanese surrender of the islands based on the Cairo and Potsdam Declarations. In November 1946, the Republic of China sent naval ships to take control of these islands after the surrender of Japan. The nine-dash line was originally an eleven-dash line first shown on a map published by the government of the then Republic of China (191249) in December 1947 to justify its claims in the South China Sea. The 1947 map, titled Map of South China Sea Islands, originated from an earlier one titled Map of Chinese Islands in the South China Sea (Zhongguo nanhai daoyu tu) published by the Republic of Chinas Land and Water Maps Inspection Committee in 1935. After the Communist Party of China took over mainland China and formed the People's Republic of China in 1949, the line was adopted and revised to nine as endorsed by Zhou Enlai. After evacuating to Taiwan, the Republic of China has continued its claims, and the nine-dash line remains as the rationale for Taiwan's claims to the Spratly and Paracel Islands. The nine-dash line has been used by China to show the maximum extent of its claim without indicating how the dashes would be joined if it was continuous and how that would affect the extent of the area claimed by China. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia have all officially protested over the use of such a line. Immediately after China submitted a map to the UN including the nine-dash lines territorial claim in the South China Sea on 7 May 2009, the Philippines lodged a diplomatic protest against China for claiming the whole of South China Sea illegally. Vietnam and Malaysia filed their joint protest a day after China submitted its nine-dash line map to the UN. Indonesia also registered its protest, even though it did not have a claim on the South China Sea. In 2013 the PRC extended their claims with a new ten-dash map. The "new" dash, however, is to the east of Taiwan and not in the South China Sea. 3 maps explain Chinas real goal in the South China Sea Theres been a lot of media hype over Chinas ongoing military buildup in the South China Sea. But as always, the truth lies beyond the headlines Chinese action has so far been largely contained to two island groups: the Spratly Islands and the Paracel Islands. Its true that China has indeed been building largely on these island groupsconstructing harbors, runways, helipads, and radar facilities, and installing missile defense systems. However, these facilities are defensive in nature. They are meant to extend Chinas reach further past its coastline. read more South China Sea disputes Tensions in the South China Sea because of disputes with other claimants like the Philippines and Vietnam are leading to alarming headlines about possible conflict China insists it is simply doing what all its neighbours are trying to do - but it is doing it at dizzying pace. The US Department of Defense assesses that as of June 2015, China had reclaimed 17 times more land in 20 months in the South China Sea than all the other claimants combined over the past 40 years. China's exact intentions remain unclear, but the overall assessment is that Beijing wants to slowly push the US out of the area without causing a conflict. read more Sea spats splitting Asia into pro-US, pro-China camps U.S. President Barack Obama walks away after a group photo shoot at the East Asia Summit in Kuala Lumpur on Nov. 22. Reuters TOKYO -- Even as East Asian economies become increasingly integrated, fault lines are spreading throughout the region over competing sovereignty claims in the South China Sea. The potential for lasting divisions is mounting as countries are forced to side with either the U.S. or China over the maritime disputes. Politicians and government officials who have attended meetings with U.S. President Barack Obama mostly say he assesses human relationships as if they were something that could be measured on a balance sheet and prioritizes business over friendship. In other words, they say he is a pragmatist through and through. related: read more Why the US is reluctant to take on China China wants to use resources like these landing craft, pictured here parading through Beijing on Sept. 3. AP TOKYO -- Talks over China's island-building projects in the South China Sea at Sunday's East Asia Summit in Malaysia yielded no surprises. The U.S. and Japan expressed concerns about the new islands, and China defended their legitimacy. Japan, the Philippines and Australia expect the U.S. to maintain a presence in the area and use its naval vessels and other military assets to counterbalance China's claims that its territorial waters extend throughout much of the South China Sea. The U.S., however, is caught in a dilemma. While it wants to quell China's unilateral attempt to change international order, it is reluctant to engage in an all-out battle with China. There are three reasons: The U.S. military is overstretched. It is engaged in the fight against the Islamic State group in the Middle East. It is also trying to prevent terrorist attacks at home and abroad. And the row with Russia over Ukraine continues. U.S. military forces are weary. Many U.S. troops are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of their tours of duty in Afghanistan and Iraq. The mental condition brings back vivid memories of combat, makes sleeping difficult and changes how sufferers react to those around them and to the outside world. It is incurable. This is apparently holding back U.S. President Barack Obama from sending ground troops to Syria. Finances. The federal government is being forced to spread its dollars thin, and the defense budget is getting squeezed. related: China says has shown 'great restraint' in South China Sea Chinese dredging vessels are purportedly seen in the waters around Mischief Reef in the disputed Spratly Islands in this still image from video taken by a P-8A Poseidon surveillance aircraft provided by the United States Navy May 21, 2015. REUTERS/U.S. NAVY/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS China has shown "great restraint" in the South China Sea by not seizing islands occupied by other countries even though it could have, a senior Chinese diplomat said on Tuesday ahead of two regional summits where the disputed waterway is likely to be a hot topic. Beijing has overlapping claims with Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei in the South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. Reclamation work and the building of three airfields and other facilities on some of China's artificial islands in the Spratly archipelago have alarmed the region and raised concern in Washington that China is extending its military reach deep into maritime Southeast Asia. But China was the real victim as it had "dozens" of its islands and reefs in the Spratlys illegally occupied by three of the claimants, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin told a news conference in Beijing. China calls for direct negotiations on South China Sea disputes Chinas premier has called on South-east Asian nations to set aside their differences as tensions rise over the disputed South China Sea islands, state news agency Xinhua reported late yesterday (Nov 21) At a meeting with the Association of Southeast Nations (ASEAN) in Kuala Lumpur yesterday, US President Barack Obama called on countries to stop building artificial islands and militarising their claims in the South China Sea. The United States has sent military ships and war planes by Chinas artificial islands in recent weeks to assert its freedom of navigation in the sea. Premier Li said some countries outside the region are conducting a high-profile intervention. That is in nobodys interest, Mr Li said. Only by expanding our common interests and seeking common ground can we narrow our differences, Mr Li added. South China Sea issue should be resolved peacefully, says China's Xi Jinping China has always insisted that the dispute in the South China Sea be resolved peacefully through talks, said Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday (Nov 7). Freedom of passage in the South China Sea has never been a problem and will never be a problem, he added at the Singapore Lecture. But he reasserted China's territorial claims in the South China Sea: "The South China Sea islands have been Chinese territory since ancient times. It is our duty to uphold sovereignty." China says U.S. has gone beyond freedom of navigation to 'test' Beijing China said on Sunday that the United States is making political provocations with its patrols in the South China Sea, as tensions around the waterways mount. Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin made the remarks at a briefing during a meeting of Asia-Pacific leaders in Kuala Lumpur. He said the U.S. has gone beyond freedom of navigation to "test" China. Earlier this month, U.S. B-52 bombers flew near Chinese artificial islands in the area, signalling Washington's determination to challenge Beijing over the disputed sea. The USS Ronald Reagan arrived at the U.S. naval base in Yokosuka, Japan, on Thursday, becoming the only forward-deployed aircraft carrier in the U.S. Navy YOKOSUKA -- The USS Ronald Reagan arrived in Yokosuka, Japan, Thursday, replacing the USS George Washington. With a crew of 5,000 and up to 90 aircraft on board, the largest vessel in the U.S. Navy will be able to reach hot spots such as the South China Sea or North Korea weeks earlier than if it were based on the U.S. west coast. The move makes the Ronald Reagan the Navy's only forward-deployed aircraft carrier. It will be the fifth carrier to be based in Japan, following the USS Midway, USS Independence, USS Kitty Hawk and George Washington. "We have had a carrier here continuously for 42 years. The critical importance of the carrier being here, both the substance and the symbolism, cannot be overstated," said Ray Mabus, the U.S. secretary of the Navy, who attended the arrival ceremony. The carrier will be accompanied in Yokosuka by the flagship of the 7th Fleet, USS Blue Ridge, as well as 10 other escort ships equipped with the AEGIS radar system. The Navy plans to forward deploy another two escort ships by 2017, bringing the total presence in Yokosuka to 14 vessels. related: China Maintains Its Shown 'Great Restraint' in South China Sea Dispute As Washington and its allies criticize Beijing for what they perceive to be aggressive actions in the South China Sea, the Chinese government has pointed out that it has demonstrated "great restraint," even as the Pentagon patrols its territorial waters. The Obama administration has repeatedly criticized Beijings land reclamation efforts in the region, calling them a breach of international law. But on Tuesday, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin reiterated Beijings claim to the Spratly archipelago. He also added that Beijing has shown "great restraint" in allowing other countries to illegally occupy its territorial reefs in the region. "The Chinese government has the right and the ability to recover the islands and reefs illegally occupied by neighboring countries," Liu said during a news conference, according to Reuters. "But we havent done this. We have maintained great restraint with the aim to preserve peace and stability in the South China Sea." Beijing has shown great restraint in South China Sea, says Chinese envoy China has shown great restraint in the South China Sea by not seizing islands occupied by other countries even though it could have, a senior Chinese diplomat said yesterday ahead of two regional summits where the disputed waterway is likely to be a hot topic. Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin told a news conference in Beijing that China was the real victim as it had had dozens of its islands and reefs in the Spratlys illegally occupied by three of the claimants. He did not name the countries, but all claimants (Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Taiwan) except Brunei have military fortifications in the Spratlys. The Chinese government has the right and the ability to recover the islands and reefs illegally occupied by neighbouring countries, Mr Liu said. But we havent done this. We have maintained great restraint with the aim to preserve peace and stability in the South China Sea. U.S. Clears Weapons Sale to Taiwan In September, Taiwan held military exercises in Hsinchu. Beijing said this week it opposes U.S. $1.83 billion arms sales to Taiwan as an interference in Chinas internal affairs. Photo: Wally Santana/Associated Press The U.S. on Wednesday approved its first major sale of weapons to Taiwan in four years and shrugged off criticism that it had held up the proposed $1.83 billion deal to limit expected criticism from China. The State Department notified Congress of the long-discussed sale, which comes a month ahead of Taiwans presidential and legislative elections and includes two decommissioned Navy frigates, air and ground missiles, amphibious vehicles and communications systems. The Obama administration has come under fire from some U.S. lawmakers over the length of time it has taken to clear the deals after legislation was passed to approve the sale of the frigates a year ago. read more Japan's far-flung island defense plan seeks to turn tables on China Japan is fortifying its far-flung island chain in the East China Sea under an evolving strategy that aims to turn the tables on Chinas navy and keep it from ever dominating the Western Pacific Ocean, Japanese military and government sources said. The United States, believing its Asian allies - and Japan in particular - must help contain growing Chinese military power, has pushed Japan to abandon its decades-old bare-bones home island defense in favor of exerting its military power in Asia. Tokyo is responding by stringing a line of anti-ship, anti-aircraft missile batteries along 200 islands in the East China Sea stretching 1,400 km from the countrys mainland towards Taiwan. read more U.S. Bomber Flies Over Waters Claimed by China An American B-52 bomber on a routine mission over the South China Sea unintentionally flew within two nautical miles of an artificial island built by China, senior defense officials said, exacerbating a hotly divisive issue for Washington and Beijing. Pentagon officials told The Wall Street Journal they are investigating why one of two B-52s on the mission last week flew closer than planned to Cuarteron Reef in the Spratly Islands, an area where China and its neighbors have competing territorial claims. A senior U.S. defense official said that bad weather had contributed to the pilot flying off course and into the area claimed by China. Beijing filed a formal diplomatic complaint with the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, which prompted the Pentagon to look into the matter. read more US says bombers didn't intend to fly over China-held island The United States said its two B-52 bombers had no intention of flying over a Chinese-controlled man-made island in the South China Sea, after Beijing accused Washington of "a serious military provocation" in the strategic waters with overlapping claims. China's Defense Ministry on Saturday accused the U.S. of deliberately raising tensions in the region, where China has been aggressively asserting its claims to virtually all islands, reefs and their surrounding seas. It reiterated that it would do whatever is necessary to protect China's sovereignty. Pentagon spokesman Mark Wright said that the Dec. 10 mission was not a "freedom of navigation" operation and that there was "no intention of flying within 12 nautical miles of any feature," indicating the mission may have strayed off course. In this May 16, 2007 file photo, a B-52 passes overhead at the National Security Forum air demonstration at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama. AP The United States said its two B-52 bombers had no intention of flying over a Chinese-controlled man-made island in the South China Sea, after Beijing accused Washington of a serious military provocation in the strategic waters with overlapping claims. Chinas Defense Ministry accused the U.S. of deliberately raising tensions in the region, where China has been aggressively asserting its claims to virtually all islands, reefs and their surrounding seas. It reiterated that it would do whatever is necessary to protect Chinas sovereignty. Pentagon spokesman Mark Wright said that the Dec. 10 mission was not a freedom of navigation operation and that there was no intention of flying within 12 nautical miles of any feature, indicating the mission may have strayed off course. read more Full Coverage: US presence in Asia-Pacific is essential for regional stability Singapores Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen has urged the US to show what he calls clear and consistent signals that it intends to remain fully engaged in the Asia-Pacific region. Dr Ng was speaking at the end of his visit to Washington, where he signed an enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement with US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter. Dr Ngs day began on Capitol Hill, where he held meetings with members of the Congressional Singapore Caucus. related: Dr Ng: Continued US Presence in the Asia-Pacific is Vital for Regional Stability Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen giving a speech at an event organised by the Center for a New American Security at The Willard InterContinental Hotel Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen delivered a speech at an event organised by the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) earlier today (Singapore time). Speaking at the event facilitated by co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of the CNAS Michele Flournoy, Dr Ng highlighted that amidst a changing regional landscape, the US' continued presence in the Asia-Pacific was essential in ensuring continued peace and progress in the region. He explained, "Singapore has consistently believed that the US, whose presence in the Asia-Pacific is a force for regional peace and stability, plays a critical role in the security architecture of the region", and it is because of this belief that "following the closure of Clark Air Base and Subic Bay in the Philippines, Singapore signed the 1990 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the US, which facilitated the US' access to our air bases and naval bases." Dr Ng also highlighted that greater strategic trust among stakeholders in the Asia-Pacific was vital in ensuring the region's continued peace and stability and underscored the need to promote greater dialogue and practical cooperation. He noted, "As critical as the US' continued presence in the Asia-Pacific is, the US alone cannot ensure continued peace and stability. To do so, we need to build greater strategic trust among all stakeholders in the Asia-Pacific Over the past two decades, regional stakeholders have institutionalised new platforms such as the ADMM-Plus, the East Asia Summit and the ASEAN Regional ForumOur defence establishments are coming together to deal with non-traditional security threats." Dr Ng cited the Malacca Straits Patrols, Singapore's Information Fusion Centre, and the upcoming ADMM-Plus Maritime Security and Counter-Terrorism exercise as good examples of regional practical cooperation. U.S. atlas published in 1994 shows South China Sea islands part of Chinese territory The 1994 revised edition of the Illustrated Atlas of The World, published by the Chicago-based Rand McNally, clearly shows that Huangyan Dao, Nansha Islands and Xisha Islands fall under China's jurisdiction, according to Chia-Chi Tsui, a retired Chinese-American professor, July 8, 2016. (Xinhua/Huang Hexun) An atlas published in 1994 by a renowned U.S. map publisher clearly illustrated that Huangyan Dao and other key islands involved in the South China Sea dispute are part of China's territory. The 1994 revised edition of the Illustrated Atlas of The World, published by the Chicago-based Rand McNally, clearly shows that Huangyan Dao, Nansha Islands and Xisha Islands fall under China's jurisdiction, Chia-Chi Tsui, a retired Chinese-American professor, told Xinhua on Friday. The Illustrated Atlas of The World is published by one of the most recognized names in American map publishing. The atlas shows clearly that Huangyan Dao is out of the Philippine borderline as the island, which the Philippines calls Scarborough Shoal, is located to the west of the 118 degrees east longitude -- the western limit of Philippine territory, said Tsui, owner of the atlas. Territorial Disputes: Malignant and Benign Some things are worth fighting for. What about a few desert islands occupied mainly by birds, goats and moles? China and Japan seem to think so, the rest of the world is alarmed and a look at other territorial disputes around the globe shows that stranger things have happened. There are about 60 such conflicts simmering worldwide. Most will bubble along, unresolved but harmless, 400 years after the Peace of Westphalia established the notion of national sovereignty. Others are more dangerous. The Situation - China claims more than 80 percent of the South China Sea, where it has constructed artificial islands and built up its military presence. Five others Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan claim parts of the same maritime area, a thriving fishing zone through which more than $5 trillion of trade passes each year. In a case brought by the Philippines, an international tribunal in The Hague ruled against China in July, saying it had no historic rights to the resources within a dashed line drawn on a 1940s map that had formed the basis of its claims. While the court said the ruling was binding, China said the tribunal has no jurisdiction. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte called for restraint and in October held talks with China on contested territory. The U.S., the longtime guarantor of freedom of navigation in the waters, has stepped up support for Southeast Asian maritime law enforcement agencies and Indonesia has accused Chinese fishing boats of increasingly encroaching into its waters. One thousand miles to the northeast, in the East China Sea, China is in dispute with Japan over century-old claims to a separate set of islands called Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese that have been administered by Japan since 1972. U.S. President Barack Obama in 2014 said a U.S.-Japan security treaty applies to the islands, meaning the U.S. military could act if Japanese waters were violated. Meantime, Donald Trump's election as U.S. president adds a new element of uncertainty. Trump has accused the Chinese of building a military fortress in the South China Sea and of doing so at will because they have no respect for our president and they have no respect for our country. China is also locked in a disagreement with India over the two countries land border. Full Coverage: Uprooted Palestinians are at the heart of the conflict in the M.E Palestinians uprooted by force of arms. Yet faced immense difficulties have survived, kept alive their history and culture, passed keys of family homes in occupied Palestine from one generation to the next. Test flight to South China Sea reef 'within sovereignty': FM Updated: 2016-01-03 06:59 (Xinhua) This satellite image shows the Yongshu Jiao of China's Nansha Islands. [Photo/Xinhua] BEIJING - A test flight to a newly-built airfield on a South China Sea reef was a matter "completely within China's sovereignty," a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said late Saturday evening. Spokeswoman Hua Chunying said China has finished building an airfield on Yongshu Jiao of China's Nansha Islands. The Chinese government used a civil aircraft to conduct the flight in order to test whether the airfield facilities meet civil aviation standards, she said, in response to reported objections of Vietnam's foreign ministry. "China has indisputable sovereignty over the Nansha Islands and their adjacent waters. China will not accept the unfounded accusation from the Vietnamese side," Hua said. At present, the relations between China and Vietnam maintain a momentum of development. China hopes Vietnam can work accordingly to achieve "sustainable, healthy and stable" development of bilateral ties, Hua said. BECOMING (SHEMOT) But Moshe said to God Who am I to go to Pharaoh? And God said I will be with you I am becoming who I am becoming it is time for you to do the same everyone else walked right by but you saw the miracle burning Pick up your staff now and make yourself ready The journey ahead is long and generations will comb their stories to learn how you tied your shoes and how to lead the people with compassion and with vision as you are about to do. For the ALEPH musmachim, 15 Tevet / 11 January 2009 In this week's portion, Shemot, we read about Moshe at the bush which burned but was not consumed. God introduces God's-self to Moshe as Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh, a construction which means something like "I will be Who I will be" or "I am becoming who I am becoming." And then God gives Moshe instructions: go forth to Pharaoh, and free the Israelites from Mitzrayim, from the narrow place in which they are living. This afternoon, ten of my dear friends and colleagues will receive smicha from ALEPH. (I wrote about the first ALEPH smicha ceremony I witnessed three years ago this month.) This week's Torah poem is a commentary on the portion; it is also meant as a benediction for them as they fully embrace their calling. Knowing them is a real gift for me, and I wish them endless blessings on their continuing journey. Moshe's journey won't be easy. We've read this story before; we know what lies ahead, the ups and the downs. But in this week's portion, in this moment, let us pause to savor this most astonishing experience. Who knows how many others walked past the embodied miracle of that bush, never taking the time to notice the incursion of the miraculous into ordinary consciousness? May we all be more like Moshe: humble, and alert, and ready to take up the work which so needs doing. Amen. [becoming.mp3] Technorati tags: religion, Judaism, Torah, Shemot. Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik draws a distinction between two kinds of slavery: being bound to an individual master, and being bound to a totalitarian state. When Joseph worked for Potiphar, he was a slave, but there was a relationship there. Potiphar knew him by name. Some empathy between them was possible. But when the children of Israel were forced to build the cities of Pithom and Rameses, they served an impassive and oppressive regime. Pharaoh's claim that the Israelites are " / rav ve-atzum mimenu," greater and mightier than we are, is absurd; they are but a small minority in a vast Egyptian empire. But Pharaoh's words are not chosen to report verifiable statistics; they aim for an emotional, fear-inducing impact. Through his exaggerated claim, Pharaoh taps into and amplifies the anxieties of his people who feel as though they are being rapidly outnumbered by the prolific strangers. "A new Pharaoh arose who did not know Joseph." Our sages debate whether this is literally true. How could the leader of Egypt not know the story of the Israelite who saved the empire from famine? Rashi teaches, it is as though he did not know Joseph. He may have known the Joseph story, but he chose to ignore it. Intriguingly, it's this Pharaoh, the one who perhaps chooses to conveniently forget that an Israelite was once useful to him, who invents the term "Israelite nation." His language subtly portrays the children of Israel as a fifth column living among the Egyptians. "The Israelites were fruitful and they swarmed." The root // / sh-r-tz connotes the unsettling scuttling of insects. Once the Israelites began to multiply in the land of Egypt, something shifted. Torah seems to be hinting that the people -- or at least their Pharaoh -- thought of the Hebrews as nameless, faceless swarming creatures. This is the d'var Torah I offered yesterday at CBI. ( Cross-posted to my From the Rabbi blog .) Ordinary people, swayed by Pharaoh's racist rhetoric, came to see the Israelites not as human beings but as swarming things, like cockroaches or rodents. And once it became normal to dehumanize these foreigners, it became possible to enslave them and to afflict them with hard labor, with mortar and with brick. Portraying outsiders as swarming creatures is a nasty tactic which didn't end with Pharaoh. In Nazi Germany, propaganda films interspersed shots of swarming rodents with shots of the expanding Jewish population. And one needn't look far on the contemporary internet to find horrifying instances of people talking about immigrants who "breed like roaches." Notably the book of Exodus omits all mention of God from this story of dehumanization. (That's another insight from Judy Klitsner.) When we turn others into nameless, faceless animals, we make God absent. We remove God from the story. Salvation enters via an unlikely source: l'meyaldot ha-ivriyot / , the Israelite midwives Shifrah and Puah. Biblical women often don't get names, but these two do -- which I think is relevant in this, the book of Shemot, the Biblical book whose name means "Names." Pharaoh tells them to kill all of the Israelite boys, but they have awe of God, so they disobey. It's not clear from the text whether these "Israelite midwives" are Hebrew women who act as midwives, or Egyptian women who act as midwives to the Hebrews. The word Ivri, "Hebrew," can also mean boundary-crosser. Perhaps these women are midwives who transgress, who cross boundaries of lawful behavior in order to save the lives of others. Humanity is still prone -- we ourselves are still prone -- to parroting Pharaoh's ugly way of thinking and speaking about people who are unlike us. But we are equally capable of playing the roles of Shifrah and Puah -- of cultivating awe of God, and in so doing, opening up new possibilities. Shifrah and Puah's awe of God gave them strength to disobey Pharaoh and to spare the lives of the baby boys. That act of human decency is what makes possible the birth of Moshe, who will lead the Isralite people from slavery into freedom and into covenant with God. Each of us has a choice: to be an ordinary Egyptian who succumbs to other people's dehumanizing rhetoric, or to be a brave boundary-crosser who recognizes the essential humanity of every person on this planet. On this Shabbat Shemot, I bless you: that you should resist the temptation to be part of the nameless masses, or to see anyone else in that way. Instead, may you be blessed to live up to your name, your uniqueness. May you be an Ivri, someone who crosses boundaries in order to work for justice and for human rights. And in so doing, may you make God's presence manifest in our world. (And we say together: Amen.) Please turn JavaScript on and reload the page. Loading... Checking your browser before accessing the website. 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I wish to carry on blogging, my iPad and Blogger do not seem so keen on contributing to that, I was unable to upload my photos, you did want to see the ... 2 years ago Blog Archive October (5) September (19) August (23) July (16) June (8) May (17) April (8) March (14) February (18) January (11) December (22) November (24) October (14) September (9) August (21) July (18) June (11) May (18) April (10) March (13) February (17) January (19) December (17) November (14) October (14) September (15) August (20) July (16) June (13) May (17) April (20) March (17) February (5) January (28) December (16) November (20) October (25) September (40) August (22) July (43) June (44) May (44) April (51) March (34) February (25) January (37) December (28) November (32) October (32) September (25) August (36) July (26) June (22) May (32) April (41) March (28) February (24) January (27) December (26) November (28) October (37) September (39) August (34) July (33) June (34) May (28) April (28) March (16) February (11) January (33) December (10) November (13) October (5) September (12) August (10) July (21) June (14) May (9) April (11) March (20) February (8) January (22) December (31) November (9) October (4) September (8) August (8) July (18) June (14) May (11) April (14) March (11) February (11) January (14) December (9) November (6) October (6) September (3) August (3) July (14) June (3) May (2) April (9) March (8) February (6) January (15) December (6) November (5) October (6) September (4) August (13) July (5) June (10) May (10) April (4) March (8) February (3) January (3) December (8) November (1) October (3) September (2) August (3) May (4) April (1) March (1) February (6) Tata International, the global trading and distribution arm of diversified Tata Group, will expand its footprint in Africa by entering Angola and Ethiopia, taking its presence to 14 nations in the continent. "We are already present in 12 nations such as South Africa, Kenya, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Uganda, among others. Our presence is more in the Eastern region as it is politically more stable. In 2016 we will be entering Angola in the West and Ethiopia in the Eastern side. "We will have agri trading, both imports and exports, to begin with, in these markets," Ajay Mehra, executive director at Tata Africa Holdings (Tanzania) and head of non-auto distribution at Tata International, told PTI here. Set up way back in 1962, Tata International (TIL)'s key business verticals are sale of leather & leather products, trading in metals & minerals, distribution of auto and allied products, agri-trading (both imports and exports), trading and distribution of industrial chemicals, distribution of drugs & medical devices and IT services along with group company TCS. TIL also sells footwear and apparel brands, trailer manufacturing, and manufacturing precision metals and plastic parts for the engineering, wireless control and automobile sectors through international alliances. Recently it entered into a strategic alliance to manufacture and distribute the US-based Aerosoles brand of footwear here. TIL reported a $2.2 billion turnover in 2014-15, up from $1.7 billion in 2013-14 and expects a growth of around 15% this fiscal year, Mehra said, and attributed primarily the lower growth in turnover to the steep fall in the prices of metals in the year. He said almost 80% of the $2.2-billion income came in from auto sales, which includes Tata Motors' JLR as well as John Deere brand of tractors apart from Tata-Hitachi brand of construction equipment, earthmovers etc. When asked about the revenue contribution of Africa to TIL's total income, he said in 2014-15 it stood at around $400 million, again led by the auto business. Kenya is the largest market for the company in Africa, followed by Tanzania and South Africa. It employs 1,800 people in the continent, out of which only 100 are Indians, Mehra said. Globally TIL employs close to 10,000 people. Tata Motors has an assembly line in South Africa and sells mostly commercial vehicles and small pick-ups like the Xenon while its passenger vehicle business is very negligible. Tata Motors will soon be setting up an assembly line in Nigeria as that country has made it mandatory to have local manufacturing. But Mehra was quick to add that low volumes and the massive number of used vehicle sales (almost 80% of African auto market is second hand cars) makes no sense to have a local assembly. Globally TIL operates through its network of offices and subsidiaries across 40 countries, spanning Africa, Europe, West Asia, Latin America and Asia. Its largest market is the US and Europe, primarily because of metals trading, Mehra said, adding over the years, it has formed strong strategic alliances and partnerships. The Indian consulate in Mazar-i-Sharif, a northern Afghan city, came under attack on Sunday, with an unknown number of gunmen attempting to enter the compound after twin explosions. Reuters quoted Muneer Ahmad Farhad, a spokesman for the Balkh province governor, as saying that insurgents had hidden in a house near the consulate and struck after darkness fell. The attackers had tried to enter the consulate but had so far not been able to, Farhad added. Right now our security forces are fighting them. No details on casualties or damage were immediately available. However, according to a Reuters report quoting an Indian official, there had been no reports of Indian casualties and it was not certain that the consulate itself was the target of the attack. Details are very sketchy. The Mazar-i-Sharif incident took place even as Indian security forces were trying to suppress an attack on an air base in Pathankot, near the Pakistan border, that has killed at least seven military personnel and wounded 20 others. Incidentally, the attacks in Pathankot and Mazar-i-Sharif have come at a time when India and Pakistan have renewed efforts to reduce tensions and restart peace talks, with Afghanistan and Taliban as part of a broader drive to improve stability in the region. JM Financial Credit Solutions Ltd, the commercial real estate financing arm of JM group, plans to raise about Rs 1,000 crore through a mix of debentures and loans for funding business growth. Rating agency ICRA has assigned AA stable rating for non-convertible debentures and long-term bank facilities, enhanced from Rs 1,000 crore to Rs 1,500 crore. The non-banking company is a joint venture between JM Financial group and INH Mauritius 1 (The Fund), a global fund led by former Citibank chief executive Vikram Pandit and associates. The company started its operations in the second half of 2014-15 after JM and Pandit-led fund infused Rs 900 crore capital in the company. The JM group brought in Rs 360 crore, while the Fund infused Rs 540 crore. The lending book of NBFC rose to Rs 2,877 crore as in September 2015 from Rs 1,844 crore as on March 15 with about 96 per cent of the exposures being to the commercial real estate segment. This entity is expected to become one of the largest in terms of revenue and asset base for the group with focus on commercial real estate lending which is a key segment for the group, ICRA said. JM Financial Credit Solutions Limited is a subsidiary of JM Financial Limited, which at present has 99.9997 per cent stake in the company. However, post the conversion of the preferential shares, the stake is expected to decline to 50.01 per cent. The stake of the fund INH Mautitius 1 would move to cap of 49.99 per cent. The JM group would retain management control and at no point of time in the future is it envisaged that INH Maurititus 1 will take over management control or control of the BoD of JMFCSL. The company reported a net profit of Rs 88 crore in H1FY16 on a total income of Rs 224 crore as compared to a net profit of Rs 49 crore in FY15 on a total income of Rs 104 crore. As on September 15, the companys net worth was Rs 1,027 crore. Iran's supreme leader said today that Saudi Arabia will face 'divine revenge' for executing a top Shiite cleric whose death sparked protests in which the kingdom's embassy in Tehran was firebombed. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's remarks underlined the fury felt in Iran and other regional countries over the killing yesterday of Nimr al-Nimr, who spent more than a decade studying theology in the Islamic republic. Top officials in Iraq, Lebanon and Syria condemned the execution of Nimr, a force behind anti-government protests in Saudi Arabia in 2011 in the east of the country. The 56-year-old cleric was put to death along with 46 Shiite activists and Sunnis who the Saudi interior ministry said had been involved in Al-Qaeda killings. Some were beheaded, and were shot by firing squad, said the ministry. While Shiite leaders hit out at the executions, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain defended their Sunni ally, saying they were necessary to confront extremism. Saudi Arabia in turn accused Iran of sponsoring terror and undermining regional stability. Khamenei called the killing of Nimr "a political mistake by the Saudi government" which would "haunt its politicians". His comments came ahead of protests planned to start in Tehran at 3:00 pm (1730 IST). "The unjustly spilt blood of this martyr will have quick consequences," Khamenei told clerics in the Iranian capital. "God will not forgive." "This scholar neither encouraged people into armed action nor secretly conspired for plots but the only thing he did was utter public criticism rising from his religious zeal," he said of Nimr. The executions prompted protests in at least one city in Saudi Arabia's oil-rich Eastern Province, where Shiites complain of marginalisation, as well as in Iraq and Bahrain. In Tehran, the Saudi embassy was ransacked after protesters threw petrol bombs and stormed the building. The kingdom's consulate in Mashhad, Iran's second biggest city, was also set on fire. Saudi foreign ministry spokesman Mansur al-Turki called Iran's reaction "irresponsible", and summoned Tehran's envoy in protest. The embassy demonstrators were cleared out by police and 40 arrests have been made, Tehran's prosecutor told the ISNA news agency, adding that more detentions could follow. "The fire has destroyed the interior of the embassy," an eyewitness told AFP. Websites had carried pictures of protesters clutching the Saudi flag, which had been pulled down and members of the crowd were able to climb onto the roof of the embassy before they were made to leave. Terrorist group praises Australias Israel position The Albanese Governments decision to no longer recognise West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel has been welcomed by listed terrorist organisation Hamas. Major announcement on Marinus Link Anthony Albanese was with Jeremy Rockliff in Tasmania on Wednesday to make a major announcement on new under-sea transmission cables to connect the Apple Isle with Victoria. Loud bang: Earthquake rattles town in Victorias north An earthquake has shaken a small Victorian town and is the latest blow for residents facing the threat of further flash flooding in the state's north. Coatsworth slams AMAs response to Medicare scandal Former Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Nick Coatsworth says the survival of Medicare depends on "us cleaning up our own act" following allegations of the public system wasting billions of dollars. Critics are quick to note the similarities between today and the Nixon-Ford-Carter 1970s. Now, we can add one more parallel. The U.S. once again is an oil exporting country. Somewhere in the bowels of of the monstrous $1.1 trillion spending bill Congress rammed through Dec. 18 can be found approval for the U.S. to flip the on switch to the oil spigot for global customers. The first shipments likely are on the water now, or they will be soon. What it means to consumers, who have had little to cling to in a stubbornly moribund economy, is unclear. The U.S. Energy Information Administration did a study how exporting U.S. oil might affect U.S. motorists, who have grown accustomed, once again, to paying $2 or less per gallon to fuel their cars and trucks. The EIA study predicted little or no change in the price of gas for U.S. consumers. Of course, the report had the usual caveats that delved into markets, production and other unpredictable scenarios. In other words, their guess is as good as ours. And, since its the government, lets assume its not as good. We do know the energy industry has been sagging. The fracking boom of recent years brought prices down and pushed the U.S. into potential position of world dominance in terms of oil and gas production, creating a real possibility of the ever-elusive energy independence. Analysts noted, however, that it came with a cost. This new production pushed prices below profit level, and created excess supplies with nowhere to go. Indeed, over the past 12 months, the U.S. energy sector lost 122,000 jobs --14.2 percent, according to Creighton economist Ernie Goss. Phil Flynn, energy analyst with Chicago-based Price Futures Group, thinks Goss might be underestimating. I think its even higher than that; its horrible, Flynn said last week. Its the little-discussed dark side of the lower cost of oil. In short, cheap oil crude was selling at $36 a barrel last week, compared to around $145 in 2008 has led to lower returns for oil companies that had taken advantage of the fracking boom of just a couple of years ago. The thing is, fracking has helped create a boom in domestic oil and gas production a boom that returned the U.S. to a position of potential global dominance, with the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries in apparent disarray. OPEC couldnt agree to accelerate production when it met at the end of 2014, so Saudi Arabia went rogue and decided to meet the competition on its own terms. Oil supplies increased, and prices came down to the delight of motorists everywhere. A boom in domestic oil production had created demand for lower-skilled workers to fill jobs that paid six figures, Flynn pointed out. You had kids coming out of engineering schools getting signing bonuses for hundreds of thousands of dollars, he said. That came crashing down in 2015. Now, a lot of those high-paying jobs are going away, Flynn said. Exporting U.S. oil and gas creates an outlet that could reverse the sectors downturn, said Flynn, who supports the idea. It is a positive for the economy, he said. One of the things that has hampered energy industry is our inability to compete with OPEC on a global scale. However, analysts, including Flynn, already are predicting the price of oil to go up in 2016 -- maybe even by July, Flynn noted. That cant be good for motorists. Its tough to know how this will play out. Its certainly a victory for the oil companies, who now have the world at their disposal. Dont bet on them filling any of those job vacancies anytime soon. And, dont bet on cheap gas for the long-term. Weve learned too much about the caprices of the oil market to wager so carelessly. History can be a cruel teacher. CEDAR FALLS | Most years, when a Volkswagen Touareg TDI arrives at Witham Auto Center lot in Cedar Falls, it doesn't sit there long. A Toureg with a turbo diesel injection engine gets up to about 25 mpg of fuel in town and 35 mpg on the highway. "That kind of fuel economy with a vehicle that heavy is amazing," said Shane Williams, sales manager at Witham Auto Centers, a VW-affiliated dealership. This year, three days after Witham received their first 2016 Touareg TDI, Volkswagen put a stop sale order on the model. It, and four other VW TDI models were found to have software that causes the car to drive differently under diesel emission testing. Audi and Porsche diesel models were also identified as having the software. In test mode, the cars comply with federal emissions levels for nitrogen oxide the exhaust exhaust gas the diesel engines produce. However, when driving normally, the vehicles switch to a separate mode that generates higher emissions. The emissions are often above federal standards but it gives the vehicles higher gas mileage and more power. Until Volkswagen corrects the problem, no new or certified pre-owned VW TDI models cited by the EPA for emissions violations can be sold. These models take up valuable space on the Witham lot. "It hurts," Williams said. "We'd like to be able to fill those spaces with gas cars or be able to sell those TDIs." The emissions problem was first announced by Volkswagen in September. Not all TDI models were on the initial list. When Witham ordered the Touareg, that model wasn't yet on the list of effected models. Normally the Touareg, which according to Motor Authority has a starting price of approximately $42,750, would be gone in about 30 days, Williams said. "And that's probably on the long end," he said. Volkswagen initially stemmed some of the lost sales in October by offering current Volkswagen owners $2,000 in credit for a new vehicle. Some people who weren't TDI drivers took advantage of that. Other buyers who considered becoming a first-time TDI owner likely found another fuel efficient model to buy, Williams said. "A lot of it is being able to counsel driving habits," Williams said. "Some folks come in here looking for a TDI but find a gas model better meets their needs." Witham didn't see current TDI owners take advantage of the $2,000 credit, Williams said. Those who would normally trade in their TDI are instead waiting, he added. "It seems like those folks are extremely patient," he said. However, TDI owners are taking advantage of a Volkswagen compensation package that offered drivers of the effected models a $500 Visa debit card and $500 in dealership credit. Williams said he processed about seven to 10 of those per day through most of December. Those trends mean that as new TDI models can't leave the lot, used ones aren't coming in either. When the stop-sale was announced in September, Witham had four used VW TDIs the dealership was able to sell. Later, another one was traded in to the dealership by a owner who bought a hybrid. Of those five vehicles, one remains a red 2012 VW Jetta TDI. "Owners aren't going to get rid of (TDIs) without getting something similar," Williams said. "Once someone gets one, they don't want to go back to gas." The diesel engines are known for their longevity as much as their fuel efficiency. The surrounding smaller communities in the Cedar Valley are likely a reason why the models are popular at Witham, Williams said. Yolanda Geer, of Plainfield, said her family got their 2003 TDI Passat because her husband, Shawn Geer drove a diesel Volkswagen in high school and liked the efficiency and longevity of that vehicle. Her family owns five Volkswagens she said. "Volkswagens last," she said, adding the Passat has more than 200,000 miles so far. Jim Hauser, who lives in Waverly, has two VW TDI models a 2003 with more than 230,000 miles and a 2013 Jetta. He is considering selling the 2003, because he has the newer vehicle. "It's a good little car," he said. However, Hauser said he wouldn't get rid of both. He makes trips to Minnesota and said he gets good fuel economy about 43 miles per gallon from the TDIs. "That's why I've kept it," he said. "I'm all about economy." Jettas going back to the 2009 model have been cited by the EPA as violating federal emission standards. If Volkswagen issues a recall to fix effected models, some states could prevent owners from renewing their vehicle registration if they dont complete the fix. Hauser said he doubts he voluntarily fix his 2013 Jetta since Iowa doesn't have state-enforced emission standards. "Not until I find out what they're going to do," he said. "It drives great; it's got so much torque out of the hole and I wouldn't want to lose that." Williams said TDIs are still cleaner than most gas vehicles and much cleaner than commercial diesel vehicles. Whatever Volkswagen does to meet federal standards will only make them better in a category in which they already excel, he said. Once that happens, Williams said he expects TDI sales to pick back up and the Volkswagen brand to eventually recover. That's due in part to the type of customers the company has attracted, Williams said. "Volkswagen customers are typically very loyal," he said. "They know they get what they pay for in terms of longevity and quality." WATERLOO | Fran Fuller hopes for the day when everyone has a home and those in need can turn to their neighbors for a place to stay. Until then, though, she works as one of four full-time volunteers at the Catholic Worker House that takes in men, women and families who are in need of a place to stay. And rather than see the need decrease, Fuller says they find themselves in need of more space. Thats why the organization, founded in Waterloo 34 years ago, has launched the need more room at the inn project to raise funds to be able to buy a house near its other two locations in order to serve a growing population of homeless. To meet that need, theyre hoping to raise $45,000 as soon as possible to be able to purchase the home. So far, about one-third has been raised through a fundraising letter distributed to the about 600 people who are on the not-for-profit, nondenominational Catholic Worker House mailing list. Because of the cold weather, I wish we had it today, Fuller said of the fundraising total, so it is an urgent need, we feel, due to the weather. As Fuller has so often found, as soon as the Catholic Worker House finds itself with a need, someone or something pops up to fill the gaps. This time the nearby house is up for sale after years of being a rental property. Though the organization had considered purchasing it years earlier when it last went up for sale, the timing wasnt right. Now, though, Fuller said, We thought maybe the time is just right to try again. Were concerned. Theres cold. Suddenly, theres less beds than there were before, and were having more men need our space than we did before, Fuller said. The housing needs in the Cedar Valley are many. The Institute of Community Alliances that looks at homelessness in Iowa shows 931 people were homeless in Black Hawk County in 2014, which makes it the fifth highest rate in the state. But 2,134 people got housing services, which put Black Hawk behind just Polk and Linn counties, the two most populous in the state. A report by the Waterloo Community Development Board on housing says the Waterloo Housing Authority provides more than 1,000 housing vouchers to people to prevent homelessness and is at maximum capacity. But there is a five-year wait to get into the program. A point-in-time survey showed about the same number of unsheltered people as there was one year earlier, so the programs are helping but the need is not decreasing. A Cedar Valley United Way report shows about 25.6 percent of Black Hawk Countys homeless population is employed. Statewide, the use of emergency shelters is up about 1,000 from where it was in 2006, but it is below a spike in 2011, according to the Institute of Community Alliances report. In all, 11,638 Iowans were homeless. Several organizations in the Cedar Valley work with individuals in need of shelter. They include the Catholic Worker House, House of Hope, Peoples Clinic, Community Housing Initiatives, Cedar Valley Hospitality House and Salvation Army. Though there had been some concern the Salvation Army reduced beds during the winter season, it remains at 16 beds for its men's facility. Grace Kole, development director at the local Salvation Army, said there had been a reduction to 10 while it introduced a new program designed to curb the revolving door of homelessness. But the beds are currently at 16 due to the cold weather. Regardless of the need, Fuller said the Catholic Worker House has seen a noticeable uptick in the need, particularly for men. The mens house has five beds and three couches, and staff have noticed theyre regularly full. Its just more people coming to the door, Fuller said. The hope is the new house also will be able to provide somewhere between seven and 10 beds for men. The womens or family house has four beds, so it can take four adults and their children if theyre willing to share beds. Because of the unique way the Catholic Worker houses operate -- its workers are unpaid and it doesnt accept federal money so its not tied to particular regulations for helping -- Fuller said the houses often operate at a fraction of the cost of other services and can help anyone in need. There are around 200 other Catholic Worker houses throughout the world that share the philosophy of opening houses to provide for the needs in a community. During the past year, for example, the local group received $25,000 in donations, which covered utilities, property taxes, property maintenance for the two houses and provided 10 days of shelter for about 300 men, women and children. It also works with churches to provide three community meals a week. Some people are comfortable coming here and helping and some people are more comfortable sending a check and helping from a distance, you know, and praying, and theres somehow all those different levels that people are willing to get involved with, Fuller said. I dont know that one is more important than the other. They all have their role. NASHUA | A 56-year-old man was found dead of a gunshot wound in a Nashua home Saturday. Authorities do not believe the public is in any danger. The unidentified man was found dead at 4:30 p.m. Saturday at 110 St. Lawrence St., according to the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation. It was unclear if the man or another individual fired the fatal shot, according to DCI. However, DCI said in a press release "the subject who fired the weapon has been identified." No charges have yet been filed in the death, and DCI said in the release the public was not in danger. The State Medical Examiner's Office will conduct an autopsy on the man, according to DCI. Public records show the deed holder at 110 St. Lawrence St. is Karl P. White. White's mailing address is the same address as well. CEDAR FALLS | It was a dirty job but someone had to do it. And Lyle Krueger has done it for the city of Cedar Falls for 45 years. Krueger, the city's water reclamation manager at the wastewater treatment plant, is retiring this week. He's the third longtime city leadership employee to do so, joining Mayor Jon Crews and City Administrator Dick McAlister. Unlike Crews and McAlister however, many citizens may be more familiar with Krueger's voice than his face. He is the unofficial "voice" of City Hall. He records items of city news residents may hear on the city's phone system when they call city offices. Krueger's career with the city began June 3, 1970, over a difference of 50 cents an hour. "I was fresh out of high school looking for a summer job and couldve had a job flipping fast food burgers for $1.75 an hour or taking a job with the citys Sanitation Division for $2.25 an hour. Math won," Krueger said. "What I hadnt realized was for that extra 50 cents an hour I was giving up working in an air conditioned building for lifting 10 tons of garbage into the back of a garbage truck in the blazing summer sun every day. I was hired as a full-time employee in November of 1974 and transferred to the Water Reclamation Division in May 1978. It's hardly been a climate-controlled career. Two of his worst days on the job were separated by 132 degrees. "One day in January 1977 a section of pressurized sewer pipe under the street in the 2700 block of Cedar Heights Drive broke and was leaking sewage out onto the street. It was a record-breaking minus-27 degrees. Didnt have much in the way of big equipment and it took a while to break through the eight inches of concrete. But took even longer air-hammering through frost that was much thicker. Those of us on the crew took turns -- 20 minutes on the air hammer, 20 minutes in the truck warming up. I sat under layers of blankets at home that night trying to warm back up. "Within a year of that was a really long hot day north of the (Cedar) river," Krueger said. " The North Cedar area had just been annexed into the city. All the residential streets were gravel. It was 95 degrees with high humidity on the back of a garbage truck. The trucks exhaust was under the middle of the truck and the garbage pickup crew stood on the back of the truck. So, every time the truck accelerated from one house to the next it buried us in a cloud of dust that stuck to our sweat drenched skin and clothing. We coughed and sneezed dust and dirt for days after." One day, 30 years later, was worse -- a time anyone working for or living in Cedar Falls at the time will never forget. "Along came 2008, which totally redefined the worst day at work," he said -- during the June 2008 flood. "The day of the Cedars highest crest in history I was called into work at 2:30 a.m. by one of my crew saying we were about to lose the sewage lift station at (East) 15th & Bluff" streets. "This was a critical piece of the citys sewer infrastructure that handled 60 percent of the citys wastewater flow. Floodwaters got into the building through an air vent and caused extensive damage to the electrical equipment. It took six days to get it going again, during which time all residents south of 16th Street had a non-functioning sewer system and all wastewater was finding its way into Dry Run Creek. "I remember sitting down to my first meal of the day, breakfast, at 6:30 p.m., took a long nap and came back to work at midnight," Krueger said. "Other employees worked even longer." But on that worst day, Krueger said, he saw citizens at their best. "The flood of 2008 was amazing in how it brought the community together," he said. "At one point the forecast was for the river to crest above the top of the levee" downtown, extending down river to the wastewater treatment plant. "The call went out for volunteers to help sandbag to protect the most expensive piece of property the city owns --the treatment plant -- and within hours, nearly 3,000 people showed up and within a day built a wall of sandbags on top of the levee almost a mile long," just barely saving the levee from being overtopped." He credits his longevity to one person he worked closely with for decades. "My advancement through the ranks from part-time employee to division manager was not of my own doing. Credit must be paid to former Public Works Director Bruce Sorensen," who retired last year, and was previously water reclamation division superintendent. "It was he who recognized the potential within me that Id not fully realized and was responsible for my promotions through the years," Krueger said of Sorensen. "He and I combined our differing strengths to work well together for many decades. "Retirement holds a lot of possibilities," Krueger said, "My wife and I have been to 49 states and plan to hit the 50th, Hawaii, sometime in 2016. Our two sons have given us six grandchildren. Two of them are here in Cedar Falls and there are four grandsons in the Chicago area we hope to see more often." He also has a second career, explaining his golden-throated tones on the City Hall phone system. Im hoping to continue doing some part-time radio work," he said. "Ive been on the part-time staff of Life 101.9 (Waterloo radio station KNWS, a longtime Christian-format radio station) for 45 years also," Krueger said. He is an on-air personality. "Radio has been a welcome relief and contrast to working with dirty water everyday," he said. "Think of me as Life 101.9s seventh inning relief pitcher," he writes on the station website. "I come in on the seventh day of the week to give the Monday through Friday crew a break, and Ive been doing it for about 2,000 Saturdays." "People ask. 'Why do you work Saturdays too?' " he added on the website. "The secret is that getting up at 4:30 a.m. on your day off to chat with listening friends and enjoy uplifting music together isnt work!" So, on the seventh day, Krueger doesn't rest. Now he has six other days to do that. WATERLOO | A number of folks wrapped up 2015 as heroes, at least in the eyes of LifeServe Blood Center. The agency set up a blood drive during the day on New Year's Eve at Crossroads Mall, and a handful of people lined up before the event even officially got going at 10 a.m. "I wanted to make sure I was the first one here," said Sfc. Nicholas Cook of Elk Run Heights. He manages the Army Career Center at the mall, and though not working Thursday, Cook and his 6-year-old son, Tristan, were at Crossroads anyway. Cook credits a high school teacher for instilling the importance of giving blood, and he has been a regular donor since he was 16. Cook is now 34. "I'll take a little prick of a needle and 20, 30 minutes of my time. It's worth it," he said. Supplies do typically dwindle at this time of year, according to Nicole Hanger, the public relations and marketing manager for LifeServe. People who may be regular blood donors get busy. Weather can also be a factor, as conditions Monday proved. The dip in donations coincides with a period when demand for blood might increase. Snow- and ice-covered roads can contribute to crashes that send people to emergency rooms. A person with trauma might require up to 50 units of blood, according to LifeServe. "Winter weather can happen at any time. We have to be prepared. We have to have the blood on the shelf," Hanger added. Karen Averhoff, 76, of Waterloo, understands the need. She is a retired operating room nurse and saw cases where donated blood made the difference. "There were several of them because I've been in the OR since 1974," Averhoff said. She describes herself as a "regular donor," which turns out is a modest understatement. "Karen Averoff has given 102 units. That's over 12 gallons," Hanger said. Generally, a person can donate whole blood up to six times annually. Most folks, though, do not or cannot, according to LifeServe. Only 38 percent of the U.S. population is eligible to give blood but less than 10 percent actually do each year. A unit of blood is about a pint. No substitutes exist, though blood can be separated into its components: red cells, plasma and platelets. "Remember: One unit of blood can help more than one person," Averhoff said. According to LifeServe, about one in seven people going to a hospital need blood, sometimes in generous amounts. Some cancer patients, for instance, get up to eight units per month. A person with a bone marrow transplant may use two units per day. A liver transplant may require up to 100 units. LifeServe is a relatively new organization. The agency formed in April 2010 when the former Blood Center of Iowa and Siouxland Community Blood Bank merged. Both were based in Iowa and both were nonprofit. LifeServe annually collects about 156,000 units of blood, which is then distributed to more than 100 hospitals in Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota. Many are in northeast Iowa. "We appreciate that they take the time to come out, not only during a holiday, but all throughout the year," Hanger said. LifeServe joined forces with NRG Media to promote Thursday's blood drive at Crossroads. The company is based in Cedar Rapids and owns nearly four dozen radio stations, including five in Waterloo. Marena Thurmond is a donor specialist and has worked for LifeServe about two years. Thursday, she was registering arrivals willing to roll up their sleeves. "It's good knowing you're working and saving lives," Thurmond said. "Blood can save a life. You have to think like that," she added. What should Iowa lawmakers New Years resolutions be? I have a suggestion: Break down barriers to opportunity for the least fortunate. Elected officials in Waterloo and Cedar Fall city halls and the state government in Des Moines should start by rolling back burdensome occupational licensing regulations that stand in the way of low-income job-seekers and budding entrepreneurs. Most people have never heard of occupational licenses, yet they are a growing hindrance to economic mobility both in Iowa and across the country. Before you can work in many professions, you are forced to seek permission from your state or local government. To make matters more difficult, you often have to pay a significant sum of money or spend months and sometimes years in training before beginning your career. That wasnt a huge deal when occupational licenses only applied to lawyers, doctors and airline pilots. But other businesses quickly found they could handicap competitors and innovative startups if they licensed their own industries. In July, the White House released a report detailing how occupational licensing laws have proliferated: (M)ore than one-quarter of U.S. workers now require a license to do their jobs. At the state level, the share of workers licensed has risen five-fold since the 1950s. One recent academic estimate even puts the number of licensed jobs at nearly one in three. Today, after years of lobbying campaigns by special interests, occupational licenses apply to hundreds of entry-level and mid-level professions. Iowa is no exception. Its the eighth-most heavily licensed state in America. According to the Institute for Justice, 54 of the 100-most common low- and moderate-income jobs in the state require licenses. Barber. Travel agent. Makeup artist. On the whole, the average Iowa license costs $141 and requires 181 days in education or training. Many basic jobs require more training than an emergency medical technician. Those are just some of the state occupational licenses. There are even more passed by cities like Waterloo and Cedar Falls, which only restrict further an individuals attempt to earn a living. This includes things like dance halls, pawnbrokers, tree trimmers, bowling alleys and more. Making matters worse, these laws vary and conflict from city to city and state to state, making it that much harder to find work and make a living. Were starting to learn just how much harm occupational licenses have caused. The White House again put it best, saying licensing can raise the price of goods and services and restrict employment opportunities for those who need them most. In fact, a 2011 academic study found occupational licenses have prevented the creation of nearly 3 million jobs. They also cost consumers a whopping $203 billion in higher costs every year. Occupational licenses also turn away potential entrepreneurs, especially in low-income communities. A 2015 study by an Arizona State University researcher found heavier licensing correlates with an 11 percent lower entrepreneurship rate for people at the bottom of the income scale. These licenses also harm those who have run afoul of the criminal justice system. Once nonviolent ex-offenders pay their debt to society, they should be encouraged to rejoin it by finding a job or starting a business. Sadly, their own government bars them from pursuing a career that requires a license. Knocking down these barriers is both morally praiseworthy and economically beneficial. Lawmakers in Waterloo, Cedar Falls and the state government in Des Moines should at the very least prevent the creation of new occupational licenses. Better yet, they should roll back those that already exist. If lawmakers do this, theyll help countless low- and middle-income Iowans improve their lives and climb the ladder of opportunity. Surely thats a New Years resolution worth making and keeping. Since 1925, credit unions have been a valued alternative for Iowans in the financial services marketplace. As credit union leaders, we feel fortunate our employees will never have to worry about a conflict between serving our members and meeting the needs of our owners. They are the same people. Unlike banks that return profits to a select group of shareholders, credit unions are not-for-profit financial cooperatives, returning earnings to members in the form of better rates on loans and lower fees. This cooperative structure remains intact regardless of credit union size, and it helped more than 1 million Iowa credit union members save approximately $100 million last year compared to what they would have paid for similar services at a for-profit bank. Each member-owner also has one vote in board elections, giving them the opportunity to elect the volunteers who establish the future direction for their credit union. Iowa credit unions have a direct, positive impact in their local communities, and the Cedar Valley is no exception. Our credit unions, headquartered in Waterloo and Cedar Falls respectively, support the Cedar Valley through funding and partnerships with organizations like the Cedar Valley United Way, Northeast Iowa Community Foundation, Main Street Waterloo, Cedar Falls Main Street and Iowa Habitat for Humanity. Cedar Falls Community Credit Union also supports Northeast Iowa Food Bank, Boys and Girls Clubs, the Salvation Army Toy Drive and the Childrens Miracle Network along with a variety of other sponsorships. Veridian also hosts community events such as the Mike and Leona Adams Thanksgiving Dinner and Iowa Irish Fest. This is just a snapshot of the support credit unions provide communities all over Iowa. Credit unions also support a strong economy throughout Iowa, as seen in an economic report from Iowa State University. In 2014, Iowa credit unions contributed $1.1 billion in economic productivity to the states economy. For every $1 spent by Iowas credit unions, another $0.77 of value was added to the economy; every job at an Iowa credit union created an additional 1.28 jobs elsewhere in the state economy. When the direct and indirect jobs created by Iowa credit unions are combined, they produce 7,402 jobs paying $349 million in wages to the Iowa economy. During the 2016 state legislative session, credit union advocates will be asking policymakers to support the cooperative tax structure of our not-for-profit financial institutions. This allows credit unions to put the interest of members ahead of motivation for profits. True to their people helping people mission, credit unions will be advocating for increased funding for valuable financial literacy programs, like the Iowa Credit Union Foundations statewide Individual Development Account program, a matched savings program that helps Iowans save for an asset that will help them improve their lives. It is our hope credit unions can continue to provide these benefits to current and future members as well as our communities. State legislators can help their constituents by supporting Iowas credit unions. In case you missed it in amongst all the crazy triple-A happenings of 2015, Metal Gear Solid-creator Hideo Kojima has now left Konami and shacked up with Sony. He'll be creating a bevy of exclusive games and other smaller projects in the years to come, which is honestly pretty great considering Konami's terrible treatment of him when it came to accepting awards for MGS V: The Phantom Pain. However, and here's where it gets weird, Konami are pressing forward with Metal Gear anyway. They're in the process of hiring people for a new instalment in the canon, and alongside developing pachinko machines for the gambling section of their company, appear to be serious about continuing where Kojima left off. Is that possible? Will the 'Kojima-ness' of Metal Gear's identity be impossible to replicate or innovate on? We're now in a world where someone other than George Lucas is at the helm of Star Wars, and although nobody wants to see a Metal Gear without its biggest creative influence, there are a handful of ways this could actually turn out for the best. 10. Tell Solid Snake's Story Between MGS 2 & 4 MGS V wasn't the first Metal Gear to have considerable chunks of content removed - we just didn't necessarily care or notice as much, as all eyes weren't on the behind the scenes rumblings of MGS 2's development back in 2001. To that end, the culmination of Sons of Liberty sees Raiden and Solidus doing battle in the middle of New York City, as Solid Snake disappears off to track down Liquid Snake/Ocelot and retrieve Metal Gear Ray. He promptly shows up at the close of the Raiden battle to deliver one hell of a monologue on memories and passing on your genes, but the Liquid thread is left completely open. By the time we resume Solid Snake's tale in MGS 4, it's five years later and the world has entirely changed, with digital ID-tagged soldiers going to war for large conglomerate companies. We never actually see what Snake goes through in the period between these two games, and it's one of the biggest dangling plot threads simply left behind because Kojima wasn't planning on continuing the series back then anyway. Oh, and best of all if this came true? The return of David Hayter. Narcissism Disguised as Fact Juan City on the Hill, State of Denial (not just river in Egypt), Luxembourg 5'7", 95 lbs. (weakling). Presenting the wan and sickly appearance of a shut-in. Habitual procrastinator. Less-than-stellar student. Terrible dancer. View my complete profile Nicht Ihr Computer? Dann konnen Sie fur die Anmeldung ein Fenster zum privaten Surfen offnen. Weitere Informationen Crisis Phone Numberspecial noticeIf you are a veteran in emotional crisis and need help RIGHT NOW, call this toll-free number 1-800-273-8255, available 24/7, and tell them you are a veteran. All calls are confidential.1-888-899-9377A Crisis Intervention Hotline has been established by the VA Heartland Network to assist veterans who may be dealing with a mental health crisis or difficult issue in their lives. The hotline will also aid family members or friends of veterans who need help in assisting a veteran in crisis. A traditional furniture conservator, restorer and maker discusses his life experiences and his philosophy of work. If you love marquetry this is the place to discuss it. All work is done with hand tools and organic traditional materials and methods. Youve got a decent hand. Youre sure of it, but you dont want to bet everything on it because you know the game and know that youll lose. What do you do? That depends in part upon how strong your hand is (or isnt). For example, if you have an ace low flush, you might be tempted to fold, knowing you probably wont make money betting with it. On the other hand, if you hold a pocket pair, you may have enough confidence in the strength of your hand to bet all-in, hoping for a full house or better. In order to get the most from your hand, you need to understand what the odds are against each possible outcome. Heres how you can figure out whether or not you should push your luck with a particular hand. The decision of the player to do the okbet login will provide him good return in the future. This is the platform that is considered as the reliable option. It provides the players with the high stake of the winning. Even a representative is there who will work to serve the people. The Value of A Pair Lets assume weve just dealt two cards and one player has three suited cards and another has four. If the first player bets, then hes going to win about half the time (assuming everyone else folds), so his expected return is 50 percent. The second player has a much tougher time. Hell have a good chance of winning only when he gets three of a kind, which happens 1/4th of the time. So he has a 25 percent chance of winning. When he makes the call, the third player has a 55 percent chance of winning. His expected return is 45 percent. Of course, if the first player loses, then the chances of the third player winning go way up about 80 percent. All of these percentages are based on the assumption that all players will fold. The value of the hand is calculated by taking the probability of winning times the amount you would win if you did win. This gives us a number between zero and 100. Well use $5 as our basic unit for calculating the value of the hands. If you had 10 chips and could choose any five, what would you pick? Well, wed obviously take the top hand, which is worth $50. The second best hand is a little bit worse $45 since youre giving up some equity for the opportunity to win more. So now lets calculate the value of the remaining hands. If the second player chooses a third card, his expected gain is $25, which represents the difference between the two hands. A fourth card increases the expectation to $30, while adding a fifth card drops it back down to $20. Since there are no sixth cards, the value of the hand is equal to the average of the five cards, which is $24.60. The value of a suit We can also figure out the value of a suit by looking at the value of each individual card within that suit. Lets say were dealing a standard deck of 52 cards. One person holds a KQ; the next person has a 7D; and the third has a 2S. Each person has a 20% chance of winning. What is the expected return of having this group of cards? Well, the KQ has a 5% chance of winning, the 7D has a 4% chance, and the 2S has a 3% chance. So the total expected return is 25%. The same logic applies to the other suits, where the probability of winning goes up as the value of the card decreases. For instance, the Aces have a 9% chance of winning, Kings have 8%, Queens have 7%, Jacks have 6%, and Tens have 5%. So the expected returns add up to 36%. Now lets add all of these numbers together to get an estimate of the value of a hand. Assuming that each hand was equally likely to come up, our total would be 60 percent. But we know thats wrong! Not every hand is created equal. It turns out that a royal flush beats the rest of the pack pretty consistently. So were going to adjust our calculations to reflect this fact. Royal Flushes So far, weve assumed that all of the cards were equally likely to come up. Actually, most poker players believe that Royal Flushes are extremely unlikely. In fact, many experts estimate their frequency at less than 0.1 percent. To account for this, lets increase the probability of winning for each card in a Royal Flush by 10 percent. Now when we calculate the value of a Royal Flush, well find that its actually worth 62.5 percent of what it used to be. The value of the cards in each rank will still add up to 100, but theyre now weighted differently. So what does this mean for you? Well, if you hold a Royal Flush, youre probably going to win about 75 percent of the time. And if you hold a hand like QJT, youll win about 75 percent of the time too. And if you hold a straight, youll win nearly 70 percent of the time. In short, the bigger your hand, the more likely you are to win. Of course, even though youre getting a higher hit rate, youll also tend to lose more often. So if you hold a straight, youre almost guaranteed to lose. But if you hold a Royal Flush, youre going to win about one-quarter of the time, and youll win about twice as much money. So youre almost certain to profit from such a hand, but youll also take a lot of losses. Now, I mentioned that youll lose money on any hand. In fact, youll lose money roughly half the time. So if you hold a straight, youll lose about 25 percent of the time. If you hold a flush, youll lose about 40 percent of the time. And if you hold a pair, youll lose 35 percent of the time. In addition, if you hold a set one of the two highest ranks youll lose 35 percent of the time. Finally, if you hold a high card in the lowest rank, youll lose 30 percent of the time. But the interesting thing is that youll lose less money on those losing hands than you do on winning hands. Why is that? Well, suppose you hold a straight. Theres a 65 percent chance youll win. But suppose you hold a pair instead. Theres a 65 percent chance youll win. But you lost on your last hand. So theres now a 75 percent chance that youll lose again. On the other hand, if you hold a straight and lose, theres still a 65 percent chance youll win again. So youre only losing about 15 percent of the time. This means that you can minimize your losses by playing only hands that are reasonably likely to win. So if you hold a straight, youll probably lose around 25 percent of the time. But if you hold a flush, youll probably lose around 40 percent of the time. And if you hold a pair, youll probably lose around 35 percent of the time. And if you hold a set, youll probably lose around 35 percent of the time. But if you hold a high card in the lowest rank, youll probably lose around 30 percent of the time. In summary, the higher the probability that youll win, the lower your loss percentage will be. And the lower the probability youll win, the higher your loss percentage will be. So the optimal strategy is to play only hands whose probability of winning exceeds your expected return. If you hold a straight, theres a 65 percent chance of winning, so youll lose around 25 percent of the time. If you hold a flush, theres a 65 percent chance of winning, so youll lose around 40 percent of the time. And if you hold a pair, theres a 65 percent chance of winning, so youll lose around 35 percent of the time. But if you hold a set, theres a 65 percent chance of winning, so youll lose around 35 percent of the time. And if you hold a high card in the lowest rank, theres a 65 percent chance of winning, so youll lose around 30 percent of the time. Of course, you shouldnt ignore your opponents actions entirely. You should always give them credit for being smart, making decisions, and doing whatever it takes to beat you. But just remember that youre being punished for having a decent hand. Pankaj Mishra in The Guardian: In one of his last interviews, the historian Tony Judt lamented his catastrophic Anglo-American generation, whose cossetted members included George W Bush and Tony Blair. Having grown up after the defining wars and hatreds of the wests 20th century, in a world of no hard choices, neither economic nor political, these historically weightless elites believed that no matter what choice they made, there would be no disastrous consequences. A member of the Bush administration brashly affirmed its arrogance of power in 2004 after what then seemed a successful invasion of Iraq: When we act, he boasted, we create our own reality. A pretty crappy generation, Judt concluded, when you come to think of it. One cannot but think of the reality it made as mayhem in Asia and Africa reaches European and North American cities. But those of us from countries where many Anglo-American institutions were once admirable models have their own melancholy reasons to reflect on their swift decay. As another annus horribilis lurched to a close, the evidence of moral and intellectual sloth seemed unavoidable. In the Christmas issue of the Spectator,Rod Liddle described Calais as a jungle of largely Muslim asylum seekers aching to get into Britain presumably to be hugged by the liberals. More here. Aberdeen banjoist featured by radio station while busking in Chicago A musician from Aberdeen, Isaac Seaton, was spotted by radio station WMMB he was busking in Chicago. The station did a small story on Seaton. Hong Kong pro-democracy lawmakers said today that they will press the government for answers after a fifth employee of a publisher specializing in books critical of mainland Chinas leadership went missing. Lawmaker Albert Ho said the city was shocked and appalled by the disappearance of Lee Bo. Like the four others who have disappeared in recent months, Lee is associated with publisher Mighty Current. While theres been no official confirmation on the status of the five missing people, Ho told reporters that it appears their disappearances are linked to the publishers books. From the available information surrounding the disappearance of Mr. Lee Bo and his partners earlier, we have strong reason to believe that Mr Lee Bo was probably kidnapped and then smuggled back to the mainland for political investigation, Ho said. Its not uncommon in mainland China for company executives and dissidents to be detained for lengthy periods by the authorities or vanish without anyone claiming responsibility, but the disappearances are unprecedented in Hong Kong and have shocked the citys publishing industry. A few dozen protesters marched to Beijings Liaison Office today to demand information about Lee, Mighty Currents chief editor. Lee, 65, is also one of the companys major shareholders, the South China Morning Post reported. The companys co-owner, Gui Minhai, is also among those missing, as are three other staff members. A 16-year-old girl from Mumbai got a new lease of life after the heart of a 20-year-old brain dead woman was successfully transported to a private hospital in Thane within two hours after it reached Indore airport via green corridors in less than 10 minutes. Earlier in the day, the heart and liver harvested from Sonia Chouhan, admitted to a private hospital at Choithram crossing, were rushed in about eight minutes via green corridors, created twice with the help of district administration and traffic police, to the city airport. While Chouhans heart was flown to Mumbai, her liver was charted out to Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences, Delhi. In Mumbai, another green corridor was created from the domestic airport there to Fortis Hospital in suburban Mulund for speedy transportation of the vital organ. Retrieved by Dr. Anvay Mulay, head of cardiac transplant team, Fortis Hospital, Mulund, from the donor at Choitaram Hospital, the donor heart was transported to the hospital at Mumbai in 1 hour 58 minutes covering 546 kms, Fortis Hospital stated in a release in Thane. It said the team of doctors conducted a successful heart transplant surgery on the 16-year-old female recipient, a resident of suburban Vikhroli, who was suffering from dilated cardiomyopathy, a condition in which hearts ability to pump blood is decreased. Chouhan was declared brain dead after she suffered a severe head injury from a fall at her home yesterday. The donor was moved to Choitaram Hospital, Indore, for evaluation and assessment. Her heart reached Indore airport at 7.24 AM and shifted to a flight which landed at Mumbais domestic airport at 8.49 AM. An ambulance, which was kept on a standby for swift transfer of the donor heart, left the airport at 8.51 AM and reached Fortis Hospital, Mulund at 9.07 AM, through a green corridor from the domestic airport to Fortis Hospital. The organ was moved straight to operation theatre at 9.08 AM, the release added. The recipient, whose name was not stated in the release, is stable and will be kept under observation for the next 48-72 hours. Meanwhile, in Delhi, Doctors at Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences (ILBS) said the liver arrived in Delhi at 9:55 am and was transported via a green corridor from Indira Gandhi International Airport Terminal-3 to ILBS in 11 minutes with dedicated traffic police support. The liver was transplanted into 48-year-old man from economically-weaker section who was suffering from a liver disease known as cryptogenic cirrhosis. The doctors said that this was the 20th case of cadaveric liver transplant at ILBS and the first deceased donation liver transplant in 2016. Dr. Shiv Sarin, Director ILBS, said the liver transplant procedure was carried out without any cost to the patient and stressed on the importance of organ donation by saying there was long list of patients waiting for their lives to be saved. Also stressing on the need for greater organ donation, Fortis Hospital zonal director Dr S. Narayani said, Yet another inter-state transplant has saved a life, this time of a young one, the first patient in the PeadCard category. Dr. Vijay Agarwal, head of paediatric cardiac surgery, Fortis Hospital, said, This inter-state transplant is indeed a breakthrough; with the channel opening up for PaedCard heart transplant surgeries, these little angels see a ray of hope. This success story will help young patients suffering from end-stage organ failure. Congress leaders Gurudas Kamat, Kripashankar Singh and Arif Naseem Khan have joined hands to demand the ouster of Sanjay Nirupam. Congress leaders are unhappy with the MRCC president Sanjay Nirupam over the goof up of the article published in the party mouthpiece Congress Darshan criticising Sonia Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. They have demanded the ouster of Nirupam for his anti-party activities. Party workers had chanted slogans against Nirupam in the special meet to felicitate re-elected MLC Ashok (Bhai) Jagtap. Party cadres from across the city had gathered in large numbers at the MRCC headquarters. A leader from the Gurudas Kamat camp said that the programme had to be cancelled due to terror attack at Pathankot. The party workers had planned to intensify their protest against Nirupam but it was averted as the programme was called off. Had the programme not been cancelled, Nirupam would have faced a tough time, a Kamat supporter said. Since Sanjay Nirupam is a former Shiv Sena MP his thinking has not changed despite quitting the party. He is following the ideology of Sena said a Congress party member on the condition of anonymity. Congress leaders Gurudas Kamat, Kripashankar Singh and Arif Naseem Khan have joined hands to demand the ouster of Nirupam. Mumbai Congress unit leaders will meet Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi after his arrival from overseas to press for their demand for the removal of Nirupam. Arif Naseem Khan said, Nirupam is not above the party and there should be action against him. Sanjay Nirupam has already tendered an apology for the article and he also held the content editor Sudhir Joshi responsible for this mistake. Joshi has been sacked for the error. On the other hand, party members are blaming Nirupam for this act. Mumbai Congress strongly condemns the terror attacks and pays homage to the martyred soldiers. We appeal to the government to take strongest steps to view the issue seriously and ensure security in the country, Mumbai Congress president Sanjay Nirupam said after the programme was cancelled. On its 131st foundation Day, the Congress party and its Mumbai unit were stumped and left highly embarrassed after a unflattering article appeared in the Mumbai Congress partys Hindi publication Congress Darshan. In the article, which was meant to be a tribute to Sardar Vallabhai Patels death anniversary on November 15, blames Nehru for a number of problems facing the country today. Nehru then was looking after the foreign affairs and had kept the Kashmir issue with him claiming it was an international issue. The problem that India is facing in Kashmir today would not have happened if Patels views would have been considered then. says the article. An NSG commando has been killed in mopping up operations against terrorists at an IAF base in Pathankot in Punjab, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said on Sunday. An IED exploded during the combing operation at the Air Force base here even as three security personnel injured in the terror attack by Pakistani terrorists succumbed to injuries. These incidents take the death toll of security men killed in the attack to seven. While all the four attackers were killed in the day-long gunbattle yesterday, three security men were also killed in the operation. Three more Defence Security Corps personnel succumbed to injuries in hospital at night, Defence Ministry sources said today. Nine other security personnel including a Garud Commando are recuperating in hospital. An Improvised Explosive Device planted by the terrorists exploded during the combing operations that continued through the night after heavily-armed Pakistani terrorists attempted to storm the Air Force base yesterday. A team of NIA took over the probe into the terror attack. The operation is going on at Air Force Station, SHO Sukhjinder Singh told reporters. The NIA has taken over the probe into the terror attack. Some senior officials of Punjab Police led by DGP Suresh Arora were also present at the base. Entire area has been cordoned off and top officers of several agencies are camping in the station premises to oversee the operation which is jointly being conducted by several security wings including NIA, NSG and Garud. A Punjab Police official said the operation will end only after a thorough search and combing operation is completed. IAF helicopters were also seen flying over the base and nearby areas to assist ground forces in the operations. In the heavy exchange of fire yesterday, a commando and two other personnel of the IAF were killed along with four attackers. At least, six security men were also injured. (Agency inputs) Over the years, International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has done a laudable job by promoting safety at sea and addressing environmental concerns. The spiritual development of the seafarer has not been given much prominence even when it is realized that the loneliness in a seafarers life needs spiritual balm. Prior to ISPS era, the priests visited the ship and gave us soothing talk and even helped us by taking us out to town and bringing back, saving our money and providing security in transit. Father used to come with the van at Vancouver and Portland and took us out and brought us back on board after some hours ashore. At Durban, the van started to shuttle by taking people to club at 6 pm and dropping them back to ships at 9 pm. Richards Bay has a very big club and bus used to shuttle from ship to club and back. Recently, I had noticed that everybody must do a course for designated security duties. Its a two day course and fees varies widely from college to college (at least in Mumbai) and I cant say how people will become more proficient. Masters and Chief Officers on board could have easily provided such kind of training and it would have been more realistic. I still recollect, we were put through training session on Dangerous goods code ship by our Croatian chief mate. He amicably taught us about classification, segregation and precautions to be taken in regard to these, which I dont think any one of us has forgotten. A small test was conducted and we even got certificate signed by him and the master. The material was also put as CBT in Ships office computer so that you can make amendments whenever you like. On a car carrier, there was a similar computer based course on safety and good practices where you even get your scores and it was popular because everybody wanted to perform better (something like karaoke). Do you think any amount of certification would have improved the behaviour of Costa Concordia Master? Let us pitch for allowing priests a visit on board. In one of the Japanese ports an old husband- wife team used to come to mess room by carrying useful items. The husband was blind, and every crew member bought some thing from them and the cook even fed them. This depicted the kind nature of seamen. Seamen are generous persons and they love to interact. Let us provide such an opportunity to them. While crossing Magellan strait, two priests always visited us and interacted with us and provided reading material. On board visit of holy persons and on board training should now become the agenda of the IMO. Underworld Don Ashwin Naik who spent ten years of his life in prison facing charges in 16 cases across the country, was freed in 2009. His lawyer Bharat Mane then gave a statement that his client will now lead a normal life with his children whom he missed all these years. From now on, life will be different for Ashwin, who has decided to give up the world of crime and return to mainstream. An electronic engineer by qualification, Naik took over the gang run by his brother Amar Naik, who was gunned down by police in an encounter in the 1990s. While in jail, Naik was accused of plotting to kill his wife Neeta, who was then a corporator, whom he suspected of having an extra marital affair with her police bodyguard Laxman Ziman. Naik, however, suffered a paralytic attack during his prison stint and is now on wheelchair since then. He had 16 cases of murder, extortion and criminal assault registered against him. During his early days as a criminal, Naik remained underground till he was first arrested by the West Bengal police on the Indo-Bangladesh border on August 1, 1999. Over a period of ten years, the former gangster was acquitted in all the cases, including the murder of his wife. Although police suspected he had plotted to kill his wife, he was acquitted due to lack of evidence but three persons known to be his loyalists were convicted for Neetas murder in 2003.The gangsters trial was separated from the rest of the accused persons as a Delhi court trying him in a narcotics case did not grant the Mumbai police his custody. Finally, he was brought in Mumbai from Tihar jail in 2005 to stand trial for wifes murder but the MCOCA court acquitted him after some years. There is saying, once a criminal always a criminal. His gang members were arrested by the Dadar police on December 21, on the charges of kidnapping and extorting money from a city builder. The Mumbai police arrested Ashwin Naik also in an extortion case after he was caught red-handed accepting extortion money. According to the police, on December 9, Naiks aides approached a Dadar-based builder, who is constructing a building in a central suburb. They kidnapped him at gunpoint and took him to Naiks office in Subhash Nagar on NM Joshi Marg. They threatened him and demanded Rs. 50 lakh as well as a 6,000 sq ft flat in the building. The developer sought some time and then registered an FIR at the Dadar Police Station. The police laid a trap to nab Naik, who arrived on Shankar Road with his aides in two cars to collect the money. Naik, who is paralysed waist down, was sitting in one of the cars. When he accepted the bag containing Rs. 50 lakh, the police team swooped down on the gang. Along with Naik, the police arrested his accomplices Pramod Keluskar, Janardan Sakpal, Prathamesh Parab and Rajesh Tambe on the spot. The five have been booked under section 364 (a) (abduction), 384 (punishment for extortion), 387 (putting person in fear of death or of grievous injury, in order to commit extortion), 34 (common intention) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code. In addition, sections 3 (licence for acquisition and possession of firearms and ammunition) and 25 (pertaining to punishment for possession of ammunition) of the Arms Act were also invoked. The police said that a few days ago, Naik had demanded Rs. 25 lakh from the builders partner. Rajan Mahadev Nair popularly known in the Mumbai underworld by his moniker Bada Rajan (literally Elder Rajan) was also an underworld don from Mumbai, who operated from his base in the Tilak Nagar neighbourhood of Chembur like Chhota Rajan. From black marketing movie tickets, the duo branched out into petty crime and acquired a feared reputation. Like the other gangs headed by Arun Gawli, Amar Naik and his brother Ashwin Naik, the Rajan gang operated protection money rackets and also settled financial and land disputes. When the powerful Tamilian don of Matunga, Varadarajan Mudaliar shifted his base to Madras, Bada Rajan and his chief lieutenant, Chhota Rajan, expanded into and took control of his rackets over most of Chembur. The remaining part was taken over by Sadhu Shetty, a protege of Mudaliar. Mudaliar controlled the smuggling operations in Mumbai, along with two of the most powerful dons of the Mumbai underworld, Haji Mastan and Karim Lala. He sought assistance from Bada Rajan to protect his territories and neutralise threats from rivals like Karim Lala and Haji Mastan. Gradually, they extended their area of influence from Chembur to Ghatkopar east in northeastern Mumbai. The Rajan gang also developed close ties with D-Company don, Dawood Ibrahim. When he was deserted by his former Pathan allies of the Karim Lala gang, Dawood Ibrahim forged a strong alliance with Bada Rajan. In fact, Dawood Ibrahim hired Bada Rajan to kill members of the gang, led by Amirzada Nawab Khan and Lalas nephew, Samad Khan, who had also murdered Dawood Ibrahims elder brother, Shabir Ibrahim Kaskar. The task to assassinate Amirzada was assigned to David Pardesi, an unemployed resident of Tilak Nagar by Bada Rajan. Pardesi successfully killed Amirzada in a daring operation. The operation became an instant legend, immediately changing the underworld equation in Mumbai and became an integral event to Dawoods ascend as a Don. By early 1982, Bada Rajan and Chhota Rajan had firmly entrenched themselves in the racket of selling black market movie tickets near Sahakar Theatre in Tilaknagar. The racket of black market tickets near Odeon Theatre was firmly under the control of Chandu, who managed the racket with the help of his aides, Ratna and Antu from Kirol Village in Vidya Vihar. He maintained his control through the use of enforcers Babya Khopde and Lal Singh Chauhan. Since most of the shows were full for at least the first three days, the entire racket was a gold mine for the operators. There are more interesting stories of underworld that I will put in second and concluding part tomorrow. Inputs from Various sources Saudi Arabia will face divine revenge over its execution of a top Shiite cleric, Irans supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Sunday hours after protesters attacked the kingdoms embassy in Tehran. The unjustly spilt blood of this martyr will have quick consequences, Khamenei told clerics in the capital, referring to Nimr al-Nimr who was executed along with 46 other men on Saturday. This scholar neither encouraged people into armed action nor secretly conspired for plots but the only thing he did was utter public criticism rising from his religious zeal. We received with deep sadness and regret the news of the martyrdom of a group of our brothers in the region, Iraqs top Shiite authority Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani said. The spilling of their pure blood including of the late cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, may his soul rest in peace is an injustice and an aggression, Grand Ayatollah Sistani said. Angry crowds protesting at Saudi Arabias execution of a top Shiite cleric set fire to the kingdoms embassy in Tehran and stormed the building before being cleared out by police, reports said. In Mashhad, Irans second biggest city, demonstrators yesterday meanwhile set fire to the Saudi consulate, according to ISNA news agency, carrying pictures of the alleged assault. The incidents came hours after the announcement of the death of 56-year-old cleric Nimr al-Nimr, a key figure in anti-government protests in the kingdom since 2011. The execution prompted strong condemnation from Shiite-majority Iran and Iraq. There are flames inside the embassy demonstrators were able to get inside but have since been cleared out, the news agency said. The fire has destroyed the interior of the embassy, an eyewitness said. The police are everywhere and have dispersed the demonstrators, some of whom have been arrested. Protesters had been able to climb up onto the roof of the embassy before they were made to leave, it added. Websites carried pictures of demonstrators apparently clutching the Saudi flag, which had been pulled down. Iranian media quoted foreign ministry spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari as asking police to protect Saudi Arabias diplomatic missions in Tehran and Mashhad and prevent any demonstrations in front of these sites. Nimr, who spent more than a decade studying theology in Iran, was among a group of 47 Shiites and Sunnis executed on Saturday on charges of terrorism. Predominantly-Shiite Iran, the Wahhabi ideology kingdoms longtime rival, said in reaction to Nimrs execution that the Saudi government supports terrorist movements and extremists, but confronts domestic critics with oppression and execution. It will pay a high price for following these policies, Jaber Ansari had warned before the attacks took place. Three Maharashtrian students, who were on a on a cycle tour in order to spread message of peace in the Naxal-hit areas, have been abducted by the Maoists in Chhattisgarhs Bijapur district. The students, who began their rally from Pune to Malkangiri of Odisha, have been identified as Adarsh Patil, Bilash Valake and Shrikrishna Shewale. The Chhattisgarh Police has not confirmed any report of their abduction. The Bijapur Superintendent of Police, however, said that he received information about their abduction from his Gadchiroli counterpart. Based on the information provided by the Gadchiroli Superintendent of Police, the Bijapur Police is investigating the matter and making all attempts to locate the missing students. The Maoists are said to be Indias greatest internal security threat. As far as politics goes, there is one and only one issue that will dominate 2016who will be elected the next President of the United States on November 8. After the primaries and caucuses, and come the general election in the fall, all eyes will turn to swing states the ones that determine the actual winner and even key counties within these states. And when they do, the nominees will discover what we already know: many swing states and counties are rural where the farm vote matters. So far, agriculture as a campaign issue has been trumped (literally) by high-profile controversies over immigration, national security, terrorism and personalities. (For more on how Iowa farmers rate important issues in the presidential campaigns, click here. ) These are the issues poised to dominate the early battle for party nominations: the Iowa caucuses on February 1; the New Hampshire primary on February 9; the South Carolina primary on February 23 and then super Tuesday, with fifteen states hosting primary elections on March 1. Right now, even in Iowa , agriculture issues are not at the top of the list, said Mack Shelley, a political scientist at Iowa State University . But after the Republican National Convention in Cleveland on July 18-21, and the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia on July 25-28, things will change. With nominees chosen, the logic of math and geography the need to assemble 270 Electoral Votes -- will put agriculture and rural issues front and center for candidates to address. Rural voters will want to know where the nominees stand on crop insurance, the Renewable Fuel Standard, the use of biotechnology, agriculture research, trade and farm credit, among other issues. Some candidates have already touched on these issues; others have not. The Rs On the Republican side, Jeb Bush the former Governor of Florida, an important agriculture state, has told the Iowa Farm Bureau I support crop insurance and farm programs that help farmers and ranchers manage unpredictable and sometimes catastrophic risks, such as natural disasters. These programs must also be fair to taxpayers, and we should always be looking at them to ensure they meet the needs of today. Another Governor in the race, John Kasich of Ohio, voted yes on the 1997 Farm Bill while serving in the House and, in a 2012 speech, described agriculture as "the strongest industry in Ohio," Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey signed legislation in 2015 allowing 16 year-olds in his state to obtain special agriculture drivers licenses allowing them to operate farm equipment and, after Hurricane Sandy in 2013, he declared fourteen New Jersey counties as disaster areas making them eligible for USDA relief. In 2011, he signed legislation providing $90 million to a variety of state-level farmland preservation programs. In contrast, Senator Ted Cruz was named the anti-farmer candidate by the American Sugar Alliance after voting against the 2014 Farm Bill and calling for elimination of the Renewal Fuel Standard for ethanol, the sugar program, and crop insurance. On the Highway Bill, Senator Cruz voted against restoring the $3 billion crop insurance cut, then reversed his vote against restoring the cut, then voted against the bill on final passage. Senators Marco Rubio and Rand Paul voted to protect crop insurance as a part of the Highway Bill but joined Cruz in opposing final passage. They also joined Cruz in opposing the 2014 Farm Bill. Donald Trump, who has not had to go on record by casting votes in the House or Senate, announced his support of ethanol during a recent tour of an ethanol plant in Iowa, saying What youre doing here is a fantastic thing, and we stay away from the Middle East, we take care of ourselves right here.thats the way we want to keep it. Trump did not, however, take any position on the key Renewable Fuel Standard. Upping the ante, Trump has now starting attacking Cruz for his ethanol views, saying, "With the ethanol, really, he's got to come a long way, 'cause right now he's for the oil," Trump said "But I understand it, oil pays him a lot of money. He's got to be for oil, right? Trump then continued, "But I'm with you. I'm self-funding. I have no oil company. I have no special interest." Trumps aggressive stance against illegal immigration has also raised concerns over its potential impact on the availability of farm labor. Like Trump, Ben Carson does not have a record on agriculture. He had suggested ending oil subsidies and using that money to build new ethanol blending pumps, but he reversed this view at the third Republican primary debate on October 28, 2015, where he said: "I was wrong about taking the oil subsidy. I have studied that issue in great detail and what Ive concluded, the best policy is to get rid of all government subsidies and get the government out of our lives and let people rise and fall based on how good they are. The Ds On the Democratic side, Senator Hillary Clinton released a comprehensive rural plan on August 26, 2015, saying A strong agriculture economy remains a critical cornerstone of a vibrant rural economy. https://www.hillaryclinton.com/briefing/factsheets/2015/08/26/vibrant-rural-america Clinton s record on agriculture can be traced to her days as Senator from New York and Secretary of State. She has linked hunger to global security, calling for a sustained and comprehensive approach to food production. She has endorsed improved seeds to increase agriculture productivity. As Senator, she voted yes on the 2002 Farm Bill and endorsed the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). In a recent Op Ed she elaborated on the RFS: We have to get the RFS back on track in a way that provides investors with the certainty they need. I believe the United States can and must be the clean energy super power for the 21st century. Senator Bernie Sanders supported the 2014 Farm Bill as well as the Renewable Fuel Standard. In a December 2, 2015, Iowa Public Radio interview, he commented on the new RFS level for 2016, which reduces the minimum amount of ethanol to be blended with gasoline, saying I happen to believe that climate change is the great environmental crisis that we face. And what that means is that we have got to do everything we can to break our dependence on fossil fuel, move to energy efficiency and move to sustainable energy. Sanders had also been highly supportive of dairy a particular Vermont interest. So, there you have it at this point in time. Secretary Clinton has produced the most detailed and comprehensive agriculture program in the run-up to the primaries and caucuses; other candidates have taken supportive positions on different aspects of agriculture. The Fall Campaign After the nominees are chosen in July, and the candidates (including possibly Independents) focus on the magic 270 electoral votes needed to win the prize, candidates can be expected to spend more time on agriculture. Many of those swing states we will be watching on the high-tech electoral maps this fall have significant agriculture and rural constituencies. The rural vote is larger than the farm vote but agriculture issues still impact the rural economy and the rural vote. Lets also remember that in several swing states with heavy urban populations there are farm counties that can make a major difference.think Pennsylvania , Michigan , Florida , North Carolina , Arizona and Colorado for starters. Politically, agriculture is a victim of its own success and efficiency. But it is a major risk for candidates to ignore agriculture and only focus on national security, immigration and the other issues the have preoccupied the primaries. Lets expect to see more detailed rural and agriculture plans in the fall, including forestry, with agriculture advisory committees being rolled out when the time is right. Marshall Matz specializes in agriculture at OFW Law in Washington, DC and served as Counsel to the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry. Iran Regime Plans to Forcibly Turn Tehran Assyrian Church Grounds Into Mosque Authorities in Tehran are planning to transform illegally-confiscated church grounds into an 'Islamic prayer center.' The land belonging to the Iranian Assyrian community's Chaldean Catholic Church in Tehran's Patrice Lumumba Street (in Western Tehran) was illegally confiscated two years ago under the pretext of constructing an Islamic prayer hall and the authorities have refused to hand it back, a member of the regime's Majlis (Parliament) was quoted as saying by the state-run newspaper Sharq on Wednesday, December 30. Repeated complaints about the illegal confiscation of the church grounds have fallen on deaf ears despite repeated pleas by the representatives of the Christian minority, said Jonathan Bet-Kelia, a member of the regime's Majlis. Bet-Kelia told Sharq that he had approached Ali Younesi, special assistant to the regime's President Hassan Rouhani on ethnic minorities affairs, on this matter but was told that nothing could be done about it. Younesi is a former Minister of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) and is personally responsible for ordering numerous arrests and assassinations of dissidents. Commenting on the regime's admission that it had usurped church grounds to build its own prayer hall, Ali Safavi of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) said: "The brazen admission displays first and foremost the discriminatory and sectarian policies of the regime vis- Saudia Arabias Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir announced in a press conference in Riyadh on Sunday that his country will sever all diplomatic ties with Iran. He said Iranian diplomatic personnel had 48 hours to leave his country, and that all Saudi diplomatic personnel in Iran had been recalled home. The announcement comes as tensions rise between the two countries following Saudi Arabia's execution of prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, which prompted Iranian protesters early Sunday to storm the Saudi embassy in Tehran. The news also illustrates Saudi Arabia's new aggressiveness under King Salman. During his reign, the country has led a coalition fighting Shia rebels in Yemen and staunchly opposed regional Shia power Iran, even as Tehran struck a nuclear deal with world powers. Friction between the two countries rose sharply on Saturday after Saudi Arabia announced the execution of al-Nimr along with 46 other prisoners, including three other Shia dissidents and dozens of Sunni Al-Qaeda fighters. It was the largest mass execution carried out by the kingdom in three and a half decades. Al-Nimr was a central figure in protests by Saudi Arabia's Shia minority until his arrest in 2012, and his execution drew condemnation from Shias across the Middle East. Prior to the Saudi announcement on cutting diplomatic ties, Iran's top leader had warned Saudi Arabia of "divine revenge" over the cleric's execution. Riyadh meanwhile accused Tehran of supporting "terrorism." The Iranian Foreign Ministry had summoned the Saudi envoy in Tehran to protest, while the Saudi Foreign Ministry summoned Iran's envoy to the kingdom to protest that country's criticism of the execution, saying it represented "blatant interference" in its internal affairs. By early Sunday morning in Tehran, a crowd had gathered outside the Saudi Embassy and chanted anti-Saudi slogans. Some protesters threw stones and Molotov cocktails at the embassy, setting off a fire in part of the building, said the country's top police official, Gen. Hossein Sajedinia, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency. He later said police had removed the protesters from the building and arrested some of them, adding that the situation had been "defused." A Tehran prosecutor said 40 people were arrested on suspicion of taking part in the embassy attack and investigators were pursuing other suspects, according to the semi-official ISNA news agency. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, while condemning Saudi Arabia's execution of al-Nimr, also branded those who attacked the Saudi Embassy as "extremists." "It is unjustifiable," he said in a statement. Saudi Arabia's Foreign Ministry said that by condemning the execution, Iran had "revealed its true face represented in support for terrorism." The statement, carried by the official Saudi Press Agency, accused Tehran of "blind sectarianism" and said that "by its defense of terrorist acts" Iran is a "partner in their crimes in the entire region." Al-Nimr was convicted of terrorism charges but denied ever advocating violence. Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shia Iran are locked in a bitter rivalry, and support opposite sides in the wars in Syria and Yemen. Iran accuses Saudi Arabia of supporting "terrorism" in part because it backs Syrian rebel groups, while Riyadh points to Iran's support for the Lebanese Hezbollah and other Shia fighters in the region. The cleric's execution could also complicate Saudi Arabia's relationship with the Shia-led government in Iraq. The Saudi Embassy in Baghdad is preparing to formally reopen for the first time in nearly 25 years. Already on Saturday there were public calls for Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to shut the embassy down again. Al-Nimr's supporters protested in his hometown of al-Qatif in eastern Saudi Arabia, in neighboring Bahrain where police fired tear gas and birdshot, in Lebanon and as far away as northern India. The last time Saudi Arabia carried out a mass execution on this scale was in 1980, when the kingdom executed 63 people convicted over the 1979 seizure of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Islam's holiest city. Extremists held the mosque, home to the cube-shaped Kaaba toward which Muslims around the world pray, for two weeks as they demanded the royal family abdicate the throne. Also Sunday, the BBC reported that one of the 47 executed in Saudi Arabia, Adel al-Dhubaiti, was convicted over a 2004 attack on its journalists in Riyadh. That attack by a gang outside of the home of a suspected Al-Qaeda fighter killed 36-year-old Irish cameraman Simon Cumbers. British reporter Frank Gardner, now the BBC's security correspondent, was seriously wounded in the attack and paralyzed, but survived. The Associated Press December 31, 2015 ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates He seemed calm and confident, responding quickly to the questions without any hesitation. His tone was often diplomatic. This was how Fatah leader Mohammed Dahlan appeared during his interview with Al-Monitor, which took place at his residence in the capital of the United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi. He has been living there since the Fatah Central Committee of which he used to be a member decided to dismiss him and take legal action against him in 2011, due to his disagreements with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Dahlan was clear about the need for reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas, despite the rift between the two. He also appeared optimistic about a potential reconciliation with Abbas, as a way out of the political stagnation the Palestinian cause is currently going through. Although Hamas and Fatah had already signed a reconciliation agreement in April 2014 and decided to form a unity government, neither of them truly wishes to reach a Palestinian national reconciliation, Dahlan said. Dahlan added that the United States failed to make any political breakthrough between Palestinians and Israelis, saying that the United States has sought to manage the crisis instead of solve it. He also indicated that the chances of reaching a two-state solution are meager in the meantime. He called for abandoning the transitional period stipulated by the Oslo Accord, signed between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel in the 1990s, and demanded the suspension of the security coordination between Palestinian and Israeli authorities as such coordination helps out Israel with Palestinians getting nothing in return. As for the recent events in Jerusalem and the West Bank that started in early September, Dahlan considered them a new phase resulting from Palestinians frustration with the current situation. When asked about his support for military action against Israel, he stressed the necessity for agreeing on the form and content of the resistance, after achieving internal Palestinian unity. The Fatah leader did not dismiss the possibility of running for president should the elections be held, though he described the presidential post as mission impossible. Asked about jailed Fatah leader Marwan Barghoutis candidacy, Dahlan said any candidate who campaigns on the basis of "national unity and political partnership" will be welcome. I will back a program and not slogans, Dahlan said. He said that Arab efforts, especially by Egypt, to achieve a rapprochement between him and Abbas are still ongoing, and expressed his wishes for their success. He also said that he offered support and counseling to Abdel Fattah al-Sisi (then Egypt's military leader, and now the country's president) as to how to end the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood when President Mohammed Morsi was in power. The transcript of the interview, lightly edited for clarity, follows: Al-Monitor: First of all, how do you describe the current Palestinian political situation? Dahlan: When Abu Ammar [Yasser Arafat] was in power, the situation was purely political, with confrontation limited to negotiations. But during Abu Mazens [Abbas] rule, the US sought to manage the crisis instead of solve it. In the past few years, the focus has shifted away from the peace process, and it became a matter of managing the current situation instead of the political crisis. The Obama administration hasnt invested any tangible effort in reaching peace or even sponsoring the peace process. During this period, all parties have tried to preserve the status quo in order to serve three goals: an Israeli one in the first place, an American goal if compared with other crises in the region and finally, Abu Mazens goal to present himself as the only one available now. I cant see now any opportunity to achieve political progress, nor does the two-state solution seem viable, and I have my reasons to believe so. First, the US administration is not showing any serious involvement nor is it working to that end. Second, [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu is not interested in that, and is mainly concerned with appealing to settlers, promoting settlement, Judaizing Jerusalem, Hebraize the West Bank and imposing a blockade on Gaza. As a result he doesnt feel like he owes anything, believing that the Palestinian people were subdued. As for Abu Mazen, he hasnt been willing to take any significant political risks, even at his age. Subsequently, the Palestinian Authority is not so different than the previous civil administration run by the occupation. I believe that nothing substantial is foreseeable in the near future, not until Obamas term ends and a new US president is elected. Al-Monitor: What did you mean when you said Abu Mazen was not willing to take any political risks? Dahlan: A leaders role in any given community throughout history is crucial. Look at historical leaders such as Charles de Gaulle in France, the [leaders of the] Algerian revolution, Gamal Abdel Nasser in Egypt, Malaysia and the enlightenment it gave birth to. I dont only mean historical leaders here, but also politicians like Abu Mazen. These results are the outcome of the efforts he made in the past 10 years, so its not about holding him personally responsible, although he is mainly accountable because whether a leader succeeded or failed, it is going to go down in history. This is why if Abu Mazen were to choose, it would be between two important issues at the end of his term, whether naturally or legally meaning that his legal term had come to an end. This is not to criticize but to assess, and he is faced with two options: to continue this fake game called negotiations he started 10 years ago, and which has only caused him problems and left us with crises as Palestinian people, or he could choose to rebuild the internal front as it is and with all the resulting pain. Al-Monitor: However, whether we take into consideration the relationship with Israel or the rift or relationship with Hamas, in both cases, it is an accumulation and not the doing of Abu Mazen alone, right? Dahlan: It is an accumulation. But the leaders role involves turning these accumulations and failures into accomplishments, in managing the operations in a factory or successful company, in turning a failed society into a successful one. Also a leader must endeavor to transform his citizens into a game-changing force, and despair into hope, while achieving victory with limited resources. If its not for that, then the leader is just a normal employee. However, for a new statesman in a successful nation to maintain the same level of performance is only natural, for he is no more than an employee, like in the United Kingdom or France. These two countries are characterized by their stable institutions and clear economy. But in the Arab world, especially in Palestine, one is constantly urged to achieve victory and realize economic accomplishments with limited resources. This is the difference between a leader and anyone else. Al-Monitor: What can Palestinians do amid the current political situation? What options do they have? Dahlan: Among the available options is to first assess the political process, as it does not require a thorough assessment. It is a failed process, thwarted by Netanyahu and the international communitys siding with Israel, and the latters soft-soaping of it. At the same time, theres the Palestinian incapacity and accumulated mistakes, and we cant just name the party or the enemy and its over. We have also been unable in the past few years to build a productive society and an authority with political partnership. This is why I am led to believe that the only way out is through avoiding further political adventures and abandoning the transitional period, which is no longer relevant and was dismissed by Netanyahu. Therefore, it is impossible to implement the security part in the Oslo Accord amid Israels expansion of settlement and destruction of what is remaining of the Oslo process. Second, there is the option of addressing the internal situation, shaping a national unity based on partnership, as well as rebuilding the Palestinian Liberation Organization through political partnership, since it is not fair for a member in the [PLOs] Executive Committee to hold his post for 45 years. Third, the youth must be involved in politics, for it is unacceptable for the Palestinian society to remain passive. This will help rebuild the PLO and the PA and lead to legislative elections. Al-Monitor: What is your opinion on the ongoing escalation in the West Bank and Jerusalem? Can we call it an intifada? Dahlan: Unlike the [Palestinian] factions, I am not enamored with the idea of intifada and starting one every now and then. We want national independence. Call it an intifada, a popular uprising, a rebellion or frustration with the status quo. A set name or verb is yet to be coined as happened with the past two intifadas. However, no one can deny that the era before the recent events in Jerusalem is different than the one after them. Even if this popular uprising stopped or waned, a new phase has already begun. Whoever denies it knows nothing about the Palestinian people, whether in the Palestinian or Israeli leadership. Al-Monitor: What do you mean by a new phase? On what level exactly? Dahlan: On all levels actually. The Palestinian people want an end to the occupation. Thats a short and clear message. As well, Palestinians refuse the mechanism of negotiations agreed on and adopted by the PA. Al-Monitor: In the meantime, there are no negotiations between the PLO and Israel? Dahlan: No, one cannot say so. Yet there is no alternative movement, although the leadership has enough political alternatives to change the reality, such as suspending security coordination. Why are we bent on security coordination? I am one of those who took part in the security coordination during Arafats term, upon political orders and through agreements. But this coordination was in turn part of a political process. The Oslo Accord and the interim phase [stipulated in Oslo I, Article V] were based on three pillars: the first one is an effective economic agreement, the second consists of a series of withdrawals along with a political program that translates into an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank. As for the third pillar, it focused on security relations and coordination. Israel basically destroyed the economy and canceled that agreement, which was fragile and stupid in the first place, and it was signed by Abu Alaa [Ahmed Qurei]. As for the peace process, it is over now, and only security remained, meaning that we are working without anything in return so is the PA, and unfortunately it is not alone in this. Hamas claims of a suspension of security coordination, while also declaring the same in the West Bank, show a sort of tragedy in understanding Palestinian security. The West Bank coordinates with Israel on the security level, and Gaza indirectly does so. The evidence is that no military action on the borders has been reported, which indicates that someone in the West Bank is coordinating, and someone else in the Gaza Strip is cooperating with Israel. There is no difference between the two, and in both cases, theres nothing in return. Security efforts must not be in vain. I am not against taking control and implementing security engagements, but they should be on a political basis not voluntarily. Al-Monitor: Where do you stand on military action against Israel? Dahlan: The international community was wrong to criminalize Palestinians for their right to resistance, including peaceful demonstrations and expressing opinions that are considered as incitement. Israel convinced the international community namely the United States and Europe to criminalize any Palestinian national action. This in turn led the youth to more violence, despite the fact that international law allows it and gave us the right to resistance. We have the right to any form of resistance. Personally, I prefer what best suits our situation in Palestine, with minimal losses, as well as what goes for Israeli citizens however few they might be who still believe in the peace process. This allows us an opportunity to gain support from the international community that sympathizes with the Palestinian cause: Europeans and Americans indeed sympathize with our cause, meaning they can be our partners in this, so we cannot claim that everyone is against us. I expect Palestinian factions to agree on a resistance plan, which brings us back to what I was saying about rebuilding authority on the basis of partnership, national unity, agreement on a political program and on the form and content of resistance. The right to resistance is guaranteed for Palestinians, but how? When? And where? A consensus is needed. It is not acceptable that one Palestinian party enters negotiations while the other rigs vehicles [with explosives]. Al-Monitor: The reality shows that Fatah believes in a political solution, while Hamas and other factions opt for military action to end the struggle. Dahlan: Constant military action all the time reflected badly on us. We have to assess our situation calmly, and if military action is beneficial, then let it, but one must study its results. The United States can occupy the world, but [we must consider] why they dont do it? Emotions should be left aside in politics, which requires wisdom and accuracy. The situation in Palestine is fragile, volatile and difficult, while our allies are becoming fewer each day. Nevertheless, Palestinians can be creative and successful, even under the occupation. Palestinians also have what it takes to survive, for in the past 70 years, Israel couldnt change our situation much compared with other people who were occupied throughout history. Our people are capable of survival in the face of occupation, and this was proven by Israeli Defense Minister [Moshe Yaalon] when he asked, Do you want us to go around and confiscate all the kitchen knives in East Jerusalem? Israel must choose between expanding its occupation and preserving its state. The way Netanyahu is running his country will not preserve it, and anyone who thinks otherwise is wrong. If he believes that he can subdue the Palestinian people, he is making a mistake, for he can do that to a government but not a people. Al-Monitor: For years, you were at odds with Hamas, but this doesnt seem to be the case anymore. How is your relationship with Hamas today? Dahlan: Theres a true bloodbath between us, but anyone whose patriotic conscience is still alive cannot leave the Gaza Strip for the unknown or for further calamities. Forty percent of Palestinians suffer from psychological illness, let alone poverty. Water resources are to be exhausted by 2020, health care is a huge mess, infrastructure is absent and 90% of Gaza residents have never traveled outside it, with the Rafah crossing only opening on occasion. As a Palestinian, and not as a Gazan only, I cannot live comfortably while my people in the Gaza Strip live like this. I am not only talking about Gaza, for the situation in Jerusalem is no better. This dictates that we help Palestinians in Gaza, thus creating a common ground between Hamas and us to deliver humanitarian aid only. As for a political solution, it should be the outcome of an agreement between Hamas and Abu Mazen. I am out of the equation. Many countries have gone through civil wars that lasted for years, such as Algeria, the United States, France, the United Kingdom and Portugal. We have had our own share of problems, and I believe that Hamas made a huge mistake by staging a coup in Gaza, thus implicating itself, the PA and the Palestinian people with zero results in the end. There is nothing wrong with reassessing the situation. I would like to point out that any potential solution should be the outcome of an agreement between Palestinian factions, such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah, as well as the Palestinian community not only factions. The factions' approach is outdated, and we cant fix anything without a politically based agreement, rather than something just stipulated by those in power. An agreement should be political so no party can eliminate the other, and this also cannot be achieved while one party is negotiating and the other fighting. It is essential to discuss political partnership, a political program, a resistance plan, a future form of government, civil or religious. I want it to be civil because I dont want to live in a country like Iran after 70 years of fighting with Israel and the occupation. Al-Monitor: Is it possible to say that the rift with Abu Mazen brought you and Hamas closer? Dahlan: No, Hamas had illusions, while Abu Mazen had his fears. I have been sending aid through the UAE to the Palestinian people in Jerusalem, Gaza and the West Bank, especially Gaza. By the way, I dont receive this aid personally, as I only propose projects and ideas, and [the donors] deal directly with the people, while I make sure this aid has positive effects. The UAE [established] a military field hospital when Gaza was being bombed, and 50 officials, officers and physicians entered Gaza during the bombing, and this is because Emiratis were set on helping the Palestinian people directly. Therefore, for two years, Hamas and I failed to achieve any progress on any political initiative, because this is not my concern. However, we were successful at the social level, and that left a positive effect. Al-Monitor: Some political analysts suggest that President Abbas is not interested in an internal Palestinian reconciliation, simply because Hamas and Dahlan are competitors in Gaza. What do you think? Dahlan: Let me just explain the results seven years after the coup. Hamas lost in Gaza just as Fatah lost in the West Bank, meaning that both have lost the areas they rule. Isnt it a lesson for statesmen to avoid past mistakes and instead accumulate benefits for the future? It is a lesson for me. No one can rule the Palestinian people alone, or deal with all the issues without partnership or goodwill. We can be of help to the people, and this was my view all along. Forgive the past but dont forget it. If one was to resort to vengeance and getting even, one can never create or accomplish anything in the future. This is not to say that past mistakes are forgotten, and what Hamas did to Fatah in Gaza will go down in history. But to build for the future, we must find common ground. Fortunately, Hamas admitted its failure to rule in Gaza, and that is a positive sign. Knowledge cannot be monopolized that is, Hamas calls for resistance. They neither can prove that their rockets are the solution nor that Fatah is conspiring with Israel. I can fairly say that there isnt any true political will or serious nationalism between Hamas and Abu Mazen. While Hamas seeks a national unity that suits it, I guess that Abu Mazen does not even want unity in the first place. Al-Monitor: There has been a rift between you and President Abbas for the past four years as you were dismissed from the [Fatah] Central Committee and accused of corruption. Is there any chance for reconciliation between you two? Dahlan: This is related to Abu Mazen. I raised a political issue and an internal one. I consider myself to be courageous, and it is my duty to be courageous when raising a certain issue, whether secretly or in public. Abu Mazen did not like that, and he did what he did. I still call for the unity of Fatah because this will reflect positively on the rest of the Palestinian factions. However, the destruction of Fatah is of no good to anybody, including Hamas, and this is why I was vocal about my rights, but I made many compromises in that respect. Abu Mazen invaded my house, but I disregarded it for the sake of Fatahs unity. And I am ready for that, and I would be willing to forget all the wrongdoings I was victim to if all illegal and immoral measures against me were dropped. I am ready to support a Fatah reconciliation on the basis of reform, and I still insist that I do not have any personal demands within Fatah. I am still a member regardless of what anyone might think, because I entered it as a volunteer, not as an employee. In addition, I was never convicted in any lawsuit Abu Mazen filed against me. The [Palestinian] Legislative Council already conducted an investigation back in 1995. Again, I was never convicted at the Legislative Council, or before the court or any national committee. I have a clear stance toward Hamas and the PAs performance, and that is an honor because it is proving how logical I am. After this experience, an attempt to dismiss me failed because I was never an employee, believing that power belongs to the Palestinian people. When the verdict was pronounced at the Legislative Council, I was successful, and when Fatah pronounced its verdict against me, I was also successful. Al-Monitor: Several media reports suggest that Egyptian President Sisi with whom you have a good relationship is working to achieve a breakthrough and reconcile between you and President Abbas. Is that true? Dahlan: Yes, there are efforts to that end. I repeat: It is not a personal matter for me. My legal and moral rights have been violated, and I would only forgive the perpetrators if things went back to their previous state before the rift. I was subject to illegal, unconstitutional and immoral measures, but I was acquitted. I do not have any conditions except that everything goes back to normal before those arbitrary measures, and that we agree on a program not just a reconciliation. I look forward to the unity of Fatah, a national one, a transitional government and finally elections. Al-Monitor: How likely would these efforts come into fruition? Dahlan: I neither get too excited nor frustrated. I prefer dealing with the situation as a politician, hoping for positive results. I am committed to this, and I will never stand in the way of any internal reconciliation as I am not looking for a post. I have no conditions, as I said before, I am not humble but forgiving. Al-Monitor: On earlier occasions, you were critical of former President Mohammed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood in general. Did you help President Sisi end the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt? Dahlan: I played an active role as a Palestinian in backing the Egyptian people. It is a simple and limited role, but I assumed it because Egypt has interests in helping the Palestinian people. The Muslim Brotherhood, throughout their experience which started in 1928 and until today have never built a school or a state. Where is their great example so we can follow suit? Did they build Malaysia, Singapore or Taiwan so we can brag about them? Al-Monitor: You have been living abroad for years now; what is the source of your current power and popularity? Dahlan: I really dont know. I did not land with a parachute on the Palestinian people. I was 19 years old when I used to work in refugee camps in the West Bank and Gaza. I grew up within Fatah, paid the price in prison, and then I was dismissed. After that, I was assigned critical missions, which means that I did not work at the Ministry of Information, but rather within security apparatuses. I would like to say that my accomplishments outweigh my shortcomings. I took part in the negotiations and I was committed throughout them, as even my rivals admit that. I think that my loyalty to the people kept me there. Moreover, I was a hard worker, and work for me isnt about prestige. People work to accomplish. I was in charge of the Preventive Security Force, and I believe I have established a good apparatus. But I was also part of the negotiations during that time, and was able to build a strong position based on a comprehensive idea of the two-state solution, without ever complaining, compromising or bias. I was also in charge of the withdrawal from Gaza. I made sure to engage all the factions and the Palestinian society in it. It was a successful process. The Rafah crossing which they brag about today I am the one who forged ahead to open it, while the crossing, along with the borders, had not even crossed [Ariel] Sharons mind upon the withdrawal. With the help of Egypt and the United States, we were able to add the crossing and the borders to Sharons plan. I am not saying what I did was perfect. I have made some mistakes. Al-Monitor: Although you do not hold any official post within the PA, you have your own regional relations. How do you explain that? Dahlan: Had the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas waged a war against someone else for 20 years, it would have been the end of him. Let alone what Abu Mazen had in store for me using power, the judiciary, security bodies and media to distort my image. But I am still here, the reason being my loyalty to the people and the positive mark I have left. I am a hard worker. Al-Monitor: Many reports and analysis discussed your desire to become president, if you had the chance. Will you run for president? Dahlan: It is not an easy job. Whoever expects to become the president of the Palestinian people must be in a tough situation. But through collective partnership and leadership, we can become part of it. I am not aspiring to become president because it is an impossible mission, but because it is each Palestinians right. Therefore, we must first save ourselves from the current situation, and then we think about this. Should the elections be held after that, they will require special arrangements within Fatah and its relationship with other factions. No one should ever lead Palestinians alone. If the leadership was not collective and based on a clear political program a program about resistance it means we are only dealing with past mistakes. Al-Monitor: Will you back Barghouti if he runs for president? Dahlan: I will back a program and welcome anybody with one. Those who only have slogans, off with them and their slogans. We are tired of slogans and speeches. Anyone with a program based on national unity and political partnership, education and health care, eradicating poverty, creating jobs and supporting artists is welcome. But I will never back mere slogans. Experience and knowledge mean coming up with a viable program and real partnership in power. I am very particular about this. Al-Monitor: What do you think is the best way out of the crisis Palestinians are going through today? Dahlan: Let us start with our internal Palestinian home, shift the focus back to our cause despite all the bloody events in the Arab world. Two days of demonstrations in Jerusalem changed the headlines. Therefore, it is us who give value and importance to the cause, not the West, Arab countries or Israel. I remember before the first intifada [1987-93], when Yitzhak Rabin used to consider that [when it came to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict] the subject was closed. Suddenly, the intifada caught the attention of the whole world for seven years, and it was translated into a limited political accomplishment. I do not want to comment on the second intifada because it has its own specificities. The establishment of the PA was an unsuccessful project with nothing to be proud of. We cannot omit some achievements, though, but focusing on the Palestinian cause again is a purely Palestinian affair. Let me assure you that it is only related to Abu Mazen and Hamas they are the condemned but the creators at the same time. We applaud them if they achieve a national unity; if not, they bear a historical responsibility. The Palestinian cause is basically related to no one, not the United States, Europe, Israel, Arabs or even the international community. We have the advantage of the first move, then come the next steps. No one can abandon the Palestinian people for a simple reason: Israelis are our neighbors. Support on your own terms, accept on your own terms, for no one can impose on you 100% of the terms. Al-Monitor: In light of the current events, how do you perceive the future? Dahlan: I hope Abu Mazen surprises us with drastic moves related to internal national unity and the rebuilding of the authority on solid grounds, as well as restoring unity to Fatah. I am not neglecting other issues, despite their political importance, but the starting point for me is the inside, not the outside. I hope that Abu Mazen concludes his career with a personal achievement, because he is not allowed to abandon the Palestinians. Fatah was defeated and the West Bank and Gaza were divided during his mandate. I hope he achieves something to his credit. He may not be able to reach a political solution, but he can reach an internal one. December 29, 2015 On Dec. 31, thousands of families in Israel who immigrated from the former Soviet Union celebrated Novy God (Russian for New Years) a secular, civic Russian holiday that marks the start of the new year. The first toast of the night includes a traditional Russian blessing that is followed by the main event, a festive dinner that includes zakuska, an offering of caviar, seafood, various Eastern European sausages and charcuterie. After dinner people watch the Russian presidents traditional message to the nation (some really do not enjoy hearing President Vladimir Putin speak, but tradition is tradition), followed by a second toast that includes the New Year's blessing. Subsequently, people watch old films, play special children's games and, of course, exchange presents that are placed under the yolka, a festively decorated fir tree. The children are told that Ded Moroz (Russian for Grandfather Frost) brought the presents together with his granddaughter Snegurochka (the snow maiden in Russian folktales). For 25 years, since the large wave of Russian immigration in the 1990s, immigrants from the former Soviet Union to Israel have celebrated Novy God, perceived in Israel as the Russian version of Christmas. While it is quite common in Israel to celebrate the civic new year with a big party, a decorated fir tree and the Russian version of Santa Claus who brings presents have caused this holiday to be vilified in Israel. Several Soviet-born Israelis decided to change this situation and created a website called Israeli Novy God. Besides detailed explanations of the various holiday traditions, the site helps connect families of Russian descent who wish to host guests on Novy God to Israelis who wish to take part in the celebrations. Their goal is to familiarize Israelis with the holiday and address any preconceived notions. After 25 years, they claim, Israelis of Russian descent are secure in their identity, feel a part of Israel and no longer feel the need to hide aspects of their culture that might deter native-born Israelis. After she learned of the initiative, Moscow-born Knesset member Ksenia Svetlova of the Zionist Camp picked up the gauntlet and launched a campaign to turn the holiday into an Israeli tradition. Not everyone supports it, however. Masha Averbuch wrote in an angry post on Facebook, Its not a festival of glitter and disco balls hung on a tree and unbridled gorging of beets with salted herring between shots of vodka, but a night when downtrodden people dare to hope that the next year will be better, or at least not worse than the one that just ended. For her part, Ilana Rotenberg, wrote, Let us celebrate in peace. I didnt want it to be an Israeli Novy God. I dont want to invite Israelis to the one holiday in the world that brings me back to my family, and I dont want to mount a publicity campaign. That being said, on the Kipa website, where rabbis answer questions of Jewish law, Rabbi Gilad Strauss recently wrote that Jews are forbidden to celebrate the holiday: The Russian holidays are very influenced by Christian tradition. A fir tree belongs to Christian tradition, and so it is forbidden for a Jew. One should adopt the traditional Jewish holidays, and give up foreign [non-Jewish] holidays. Svetlova told Al-Monitor, Certain rabbis even attack the beautiful and festive markets where trees and decorations are sold. They say that Israel is a country for Jews and whoever has a fir tree isnt Jewish and doesnt belong here. Teachers at certain schools purposely schedule tests for the morning of Jan. 1. Until now immigrants have not talked about it, because the holiday is only one day a year and they thought its best to be quiet, keep their heads down and let it go, but after 25 years its time these attacks are stopped. Svetlova has had to deal with unpleasant attacks on her Facebook page. One person wrote, You make a fatal mistake a fir tree is taken from Christianity. Its idolatry! Someone else wrote, Sadly we are starting to lose our Judaism in our country, and even demanded that Svetlova Hebraize her name, saying, unless you happen to be Christian. Svetlova said, "It stems from the same root of hatred and intolerance for the other that has spread in Israel. Its another face of the internal Israeli incitement that weve seen here recently. Katya Weiner, a mother of three from Arad who came to Israel from Ukraine in 1994, told Al-Monitor, "I don't think they understand how much we're attached to the holiday." Weiner and Svetlova said that as children they didnt know the terms Sylvester (a name for New Years Eve used in Israel, after a pope who died on Dec. 31) or Christmas. They explained that Novy God is one of the most beloved holidays in the former Soviet states, because it is the only civic holiday that is not connected to the Communist Party and contains no elements of propaganda, besides the presidential message. "It was the only holiday not connected to Communist ideology," Weiner recalled. You didnt have to march in the street and declare all sorts of things you didn't believe in, like how good it is to live in the Soviet Union or to praise the party. It was the only holiday where you could just be happy. We would start preparing for it months in advance because we lacked basic [festive] things like champagne, caviar and mayonnaise. My mom would keep foods just for Novy God. When we came to Israel we left many things behind, but we insisted on bringing a silver-colored plastic fir tree and a small box of decorations, and we continue celebrating every year. Weiner continues to celebrate the holiday, and her children love it. My children write letters with requests for gifts, she said. They send the letter with a stamp to the North Pole. My 13-year-old son is already old enough to understand that we put the presents there and not Grandfather Frost, but when we took out the tree and decorations [last] week, he said, 'I love the holiday and the runup to [Novy God]. Weiner added, "At one time Israelis didn't know about Novy God at all, but today there's a little more awareness of the holiday." In 2012, the Knesset approved that Jan. 1 would be officially included in the list of choice days for time off work (as May 1, for instance). While the Israeli Novy God initiative will familiarize a few more Israelis to get to know this Russian holiday, it looks like there is still very little chance that it will become a real holiday in Israel anytime soon. December 31, 2015 RAMALLAH, West Bank The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) observed its 48th anniversary Dec. 11. During the ceremony, the PFLP confirmed its support for the current intifada, the resistance and liberation. It stressed the need to put an end to all agreements with Israel and accomplish Palestinian national unity. These positions are based on a message sent by detained PFLP Secretary-General Ahmad Saadat from inside an Israeli jail on the same day. The group emerged from the Arab Nationalist Movement after Israel defeated Arab countries including Egypt, Syria and Jordan in the Six-Day War in June 1967. Today, the PFLP the most powerful faction of the Palestinian left-wing parties at the military and popular level and the second-largest PLO faction after Fatah faces many challenges. In a Dec. 11 interview with Kayed al-Ghul, a member of the PFLPs political bureau, Al-Monitor learned about the groups plans and obstacles, the Palestinian left wings position and the current situation of the Palestinian cause. The text of the interview follows. Al-Monitor: On the PFLPs anniversary, how do you assess the movements present and future, especially since its last general conference in 2013, where members of the PFLPs political bureau and the Central Council were elected, in addition to the deputy secretary-general? Ghul: The PFLPs present and future depend on its existence as a main Palestinian power for the liberation of Palestine and for the mobilization of the Palestinian people as part of a long struggle. These also depend on the issues the PFLP raises and the goals it seeks to achieve. Thus, it was necessary to launch a democratic process within the PFLP through the general conference in 2013 to form its leading bodies through elections which earned the respect of all its members and resulted in the election of cadres capable of leading the PFLP both at this stage and in the future. Al-Monitor: Why has the PFLPs popularity declined today compared with when it was launched? Ghul: Circumstances on both the internal level within the PFLP and at the Palestinian national level have led to this. The conditions that prevailed when the PFLP was first launched allowed it to form regional and international alliances, as well as build its own force in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. This is how it became a pioneer of the armed struggle. The PFLP carried out military operations on several occasions that showed it was the most powerful force among Palestinian factions. However, the conditions changed the Palestinian national equation and established a new reality after the Palestinian Authority [PA] was formed, as per the Oslo Accord [of] 1993. In addition, the internal division on June 7, 2007 which created two forces polarizing the Palestinian street, Fatah and Hamas affected the power balance. Meanwhile, internal factors contributed to the decline of the PFLPs popularity, such as its inability to excel in armed action as it did before and the weakness of its financial and economic capabilities. Al-Monitor: What is the PFLPs role in light of the ongoing division and polarization between Hamas and Fatah? Ghul: The PFLP never hesitated to take the initiative to end the division, whether on the personal level or in consultation with other powers. It believes there is a need for efforts greater than the ones being made. This is why we have put forward ideas and initiatives to gather all the democrats and progressives in the Palestinian arena in a national democratic progressive current that could break the Palestinian tension. Also, the PFLP played a role in providing initiatives to end the division, unify the Palestinian arena and activate the PLO according to a political vision with a spirit of liberal struggle. Al-Monitor: In light of the PLOs exclusivity in decision-making within the organization, some accuse you of only criticizing without escalating your protest. How do you respond to that? Ghul: Objection does not necessarily mean retreating from the PLO or suspending our membership. We have played this role before in the meetings of the PLOs Palestinian National Council, the PLOs Executive Committee and the Palestinian Central Council in protest of some decisions and policies. But it is important to know that the PFLP is working within the PLO for radical reform. We were the first to put forward the need for the PLO to develop and regain respect for its role through inclusive elections to form the organizations institutions, to reconsider all the PAs functions as per the Oslo Accords and to adopt a comprehensive political and national program. Al-Monitor: Why is the Palestinian left wing still scattered? Ghul: The Palestinian left-wing parties are scattered due to the lack of a unified position from some left-wing forces that criticize exclusivity and call for partnership, but at the same time insist on being indisputable. The absence of a unified position among these left-wing parties contributes to the persistence of exclusivity. The left-wings current dispersion is due to the fragmentation of positions as certain individuals instantaneous and unequivocal calculations are weakening the position of some of these parties and preventing a unified position. Al-Monitor: How does the PFLP evaluate the Palestinian armed resistance? Ghul: The armed resistance is a major form of resistance for the Palestinian people. It must be expanded and put to good use while linking it to a general, agreed-upon national strategic vision. Any military action should be based on an agreed-upon national strategy. This is why we call for forming a unified national resistance front that would operate according to a military strategy to face the occupation through resistance in many positions based on our convictions in this line of struggle. Al-Monitor: What hinders the formation of the national resistance front? Ghul: Categorical thinking impedes this, as do those who are trying to have exclusivity even in armed actions. There were talks among the armed resistance factions, and everyone expressed their readiness for military cooperation. We continue to demand this cooperation and we always will. Al-Monitor: What is the PFLPs position regarding the truce with Israel? Ghul: The PFLPs position is fixed and stems from the belief that any truce must be in the context of a tactical step that serves the resistance. We have declared our position, rejecting the idea of a truce that had been around since the PA was first formed. We believe a truce with the occupation which works day and night to complete its project in Palestine through settlement and Judaization is wrong in the political sense, as a truce would avert the Palestinian people from resisting the occupation. We reject any attempts to deprive the Palestinian people of the resistance weapon or to subdue the resistance by controlling it and pressuring it not to engage in further confrontations with Israel. December 30, 2015 The prevailing outlook within the international community for many years has been that a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian issue is the key to stabilizing the Middle East. This policy concept has become another victim of Islamic State (IS) terror. The international community, including the United States and the European Union, view the military and political battle against IS as the focal point to reaching regional stability. They can now create an anti-fundamentalist coalition with pragmatic Sunni countries, such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, without the need to resolve the Palestinian statehood issue. The Palestinian leadership is very frustrated over this development and strongly disagrees with the perceived irrelevance of their cause to regional stability. A senior Palestinian Authority official, who spoke to Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, said that the Palestinians are in no way part of IS or al-Qaeda threats, and that not a single Palestinian has been detected in IS or al-Qaeda forces. We, Fatah, represent Arab pragmatism, not fundamentalism. Reaching Palestinian statehood on the basis of 1967 lines, living in peace and security with Israel, being encouraged by the international community all that would be a victory for Arab moderation. Avoiding the issue of the Palestinian cause because of the Islamic State, al-Qaeda or Hamas terror gives fundamentalism a victory, he said. The source made a long case as to why the Arab masses empathize with their Palestinian brethren under occupation, which leads, in turn, to strong Arab anti-Western sentiments. Indeed, there is a case to be made for the relevance of an Israeli-Palestinian two-state solution to regional stability. Such a realistic prospect would have important regional repercussions on several levels. First, while Arab governments see the Palestinian cause today with lesser urgency and at best pay only lip service to the statehood quest, Arab public opinion, as reflected in virtually all Arab media, sees the Palestinians as victims of Israel and the West. It is an outlook that fuels support for fundamentalist ideologies. A two-state solution would strengthen pragmatic Arab public opinion. Another angle is East Jerusalem, which has become a symbol for most Arab countries. The view that Israel is attempting to conquer Al-Aqsa Mosque is prevalent in most Arab countries. A two-state solution with a shared capital in Jerusalem would have a moderating effect on the Arab street. The Arab Peace Initiative of 2002 is an opportunity for Israel to normalize relations with most Arab countries together with a two-state solution based on 1967 lines. Such a regional breakthrough would enhance security cooperation with Israel against fundamentalist extremism as a common enemy. Indeed, during the Oslo peace process in the 1990s, Israel established diplomatic relations with eight Arab countries, which contributed to regional stability. In addition, within the Palestinian equation, the lack of a viable peace process is strengthening Hamas at the expense of Fatah. According to a Dec. 14 Palestinian Policy and Survey Research poll, two-thirds of the Palestinian public support the resignation of President Mahmoud Abbas. In such a case, according to the survey, senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh would win a national election. The radicalization of Palestinian public opinion is reflected in most Arab media, and it is also a prescription for the outbreak of a full-fledged violent intifada. In that respect, a violent intifada would provoke passive/active involvement in the conflict of the whole region, in support of the Palestinians. It is quite likely that some of the fundamentalist terror groups would join the battle in some form. Besides Hamas leading the intifada, Israel could be confronted also with Hezbollah and IS (attacking from the Gaza Strip or the Golan Heights). This ensemble of regional repercussions demonstrates quite clearly that a viable diplomatic peace process should be part of any regional anti-terrorist strategy. A high-ranking EU Brussels source, close to EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini, emphasized this premise to Al-Monitor. The official said on condition of anonymity that there is no doubt in the main European capitals, especially in Paris, that a two-state solution process should be on the international anti-fundamentalist agenda. According to the source, the US administration in its dialogue with Brussels has expressed a similar view. The EU official added, The Palestinian issue is still an important part of Western regional security policies. The problem is that no one in the West believes that given the settlement policies of the current Israeli government, a two-state solution process is at all a practical proposition. December 31, 2015 DAMASCUS, Syria The residents of Madaya are dying victims of starvation, land mines, opportunists and a broken truce. Those who are still alive exist in what resembles a prison. In July, the Syrian regime sieged the town in the western countryside of Damascus to pressure opposition fighters in nearby Zabadani. In the months since, the situation has grown dire. To die quickly and suddenly by the shelling of the Syrian army is more merciful than the slow death that we terribly face every day, Manal al-Abdullah, a civil rights activist from Madaya, told Al-Monitor via Skype. We are dying in this big prison called Madaya. We reached a dead end following the failure of the truce agreement. They did not allow us to leave or bring in food. There is no solution in sight to the hunger crisis we are living. We ask the regime and the opposition to settle their political disputes away from civilians. We can no longer endure this situation. Abdullah said most Madaya households live on one "meal" a day. They were anxiously awaiting flour and aid that were supposed to be delivered Dec. 29 by Red Crescent teams that entered the town Dec. 28 to evacuate the wounded. Under UN auspices, about 135 wounded militants and their families were evacuated from Zabadani, and 336 wounded militants and their families were taken to Lebanon. Still, the aid didn't come. As of this writing, Abdullah was still feeding her children edible grasses and salted water. Mohammed al-Debes, who heads relief campaigns for Madayas local council, told Al-Monitor the situation is catastrophic. We are facing a famine in Madaya. This is a shame on all international, organizational and governmental entities claiming that they advocate human rights, he said. The situation is compounded by fraudulent traders who are gouging residents for the food that is left or smuggled in. Madaya is currently registering the highest prices in the world due to the siege and the traders monopolization of what is left of foodstuff, which they sell at ridiculously high prices while hundreds of families are now living on one meal every other day or every day at best. They spend the rest of their day eating spices cooked in salted water," Debes added. Some traders in Madaya had been hiding foodstuffs for a long time. When the siege intensified, they started selling them in markets at high prices. Whoever managed to leave the city despite the land mines came back with some supplies. According to a price list posted Dec. 17 on a Facebook page dedicated to the town of Madaya and run by some of the towns activists, the cost of 1 pound of sugar or rice reached roughly $34, 1 pound of flour cost almost $47 and 1 pound of powdered milk was going for as much as $52. The hunger crisis pushed some residents to make desperate and dangerous attempts to escape from the western side of the town toward Zabadani. That area is laced with land mines planted by the Syrian army and Lebanese Hezbollah. The mines have killed and seriously wounded victims. There are no hospitals in the town and virtually no health care services. We have recorded so far 15 death cases caused by malnutrition, including children and elderly. While trying to leave the town, 30 civilians from among the residents died by the explosion of regime-implanted land mines or were killed by sniper operations, Faeq Burhan, a medical volunteer in Madaya, told Al-Monitor. "The fate of many of the residents is unknown, especially the elderly, children and people with chronic diseases, due to the shortage of milk and necessary medicines. The suffering of the 40,000 residents of Madaya continued despite a truce agreement reached in late September 2015 between an Iranian delegation and representatives of the Ahrar al-Sham movement in Turkey. The agreement was to lift the regime's siege on Madaya and Zabadani in exchange for lifting the siege imposed by Jabhat al-Nusra on the villages of al-Fuah and Kefraya, in Idlibs countryside. The cease-fire lasted less than a week. Activists in Madaya on Dec. 7 launched a Facebook campaign called #Respond, calling for the sieges to be lifted in the area. The campaign includes photos and video footage of children and civilians inside Madaya appealing to the international community. The campaign also called on the towns residents to stage a protest Dec. 23. We were about 1,200 people, and we took to the streets at 10 a.m., though most of us were exhausted and hungry," Momina Abu Mesto, who participated in the protest, told Al-Monitor via Skype. When the marchers got within 100 yards of a Syrian checkpoint, "One of the soldiers prevented us from continuing our protest and threatened to shoot. Abu Mesto continued, Three people from among the protesters, including myself, were allowed to talk with the officer in charge of the checkpoint, who promised us that flour will be brought in the town in the next few days. December 31, 2015 In Turkey, when you say wine, people think of France, and when you say vodka, it is Russia that comes to mind. In Russia, it is Turkey that comes to mind when they think of the lemon the indispensable mixer. Moreover, the lemon is the natural home cure for the flu, colds and runny noses. After Turkey shot down the Russian plane, Russia stopped all fresh vegetable and fruit imports from Turkey. However, they did not include lemons and nuts on the list of banned commodities. Apparently, the Vladimir Putin administration was reluctant to tamper with his peoples vodka pleasure. Bulent Aymen, president of Turkeys Mediterranean Exporters Union, said, Putin did not touch lemon because of vodka. Aymen said lemon prices in Russia had skyrocketed to $10 per kilogram from $3 because of the drought. Russians use lemon heavily with vodka in winter. That is why it was excluded from the Russian embargo, he added. According to Aymen, Russia bought 62% of its lemons from Turkey in 2013. Last year, Turkey exported $78 million worth of lemons to Russia, which was 68% of Russias lemon imports. Aymen said that by the end of October 2015, Turkey had sold $65 million in lemons to Russia. Aymen explained why the lemon was not on Russias list of banned commodities from Turkey: Russia consumes much lemon. There is no other source they can get it from now. Mind you, we are selling plenty of lemons, but there is a 38% decline in our overall exports to Russia. The Russian embargo on fruits and vegetables is not a professional attitude. In developed countries, political developments are not linked to economic affairs. The biggest losers have been our producers and exporters. The Russians say that Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, the founder of the Soviet Union, started the countrys affinity toward Turkish lemons. Faruk Akkan, director general of Cihan News Agency who had served in Moscow for many years, told Al-Monitor about Lenins special interest in the Turkish lemon: In his last years, Lenin used Turkish lemons to keep healthy. That is why the Turkish lemon is considered a health cure. They wont drink tea without lemon. With fish, lemon is a must. Their lemon consumption is way ahead of ours. According to the list approved by Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev as of Jan. 1, 2016, there will be no more purchases of tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, cabbage, oranges, tangerines, nectar, apples, pears, peaches, plums, grapes, strawberries, apricots, poultry, salt and clove from Turkey. In addition to lemons, nuts were also excluded from the list. In 2013, Russia had bought $60 million of these favorite drink accompaniments. With the Russian ban on fresh fruits and vegetables from Turkey, their prices began to decline in Turkeys local markets, but because of Russian demand, the price of nuts is going up, as it always does in the holiday season. New Years Eve also meant a hike in demand for nuts in the local market. Some newspapers reported that nut prices were competing with gold prices. The power of Turkish lemons and nuts to penetrate the Russian embargo found extensive space in social media with hundreds of tweets. Here are a select few: Is it because of vodka Russia left lemon out of its ban list? Definitely it all about vodka lemon. May they choke on it. We can retaliate to their embargo by stopping our exports of lemon, hazelnuts, meat, milk and dairy products. Lets not send them lemon and teach them all about flu. Thanks to lemons we are going to make Russia kneel. Good for us. Vodka-lemon is a world renowned cocktail that was even the subject of a movie. The film Vodka Lemon won a prize at the 2003 Venice Film Festival. It tells the story of a group of villagers fighting for survival in a remote Armenian village after the collapse of communism in the USSR. Many Turks are hoping, perhaps, that the much appreciated concoction will help soothe Turkey-Russia tensions. January 3, 2016 CAIRO Humanitarian organizations around the world have long criticized Egypts regulation of nongovernmental organizations. But now a bill is headed for parliament that, depending on who is asked, could either improve the current situation or make it even more restrictive. The Social Solidarity Ministry issued the bill. Khaled Sultan, chief of the ministrys Central Administration of NGOs, told Al-Monitor the bill was drafted after discussions with 566 human rights organizations. The legislation includes proposals from those groups, but reserves the governments right to supervise and control the work of civil society organizations and follow up on their funding sources and methods of spending, he said. Many NGOs oppose the bill, said Mohammad Zare, head of the Arab Organization for Penal Reform. He told Al-Monitor that while the government has a right to monitor NGO programs, activities and funding within Egypt and hold them to certain standards, the bill goes too far. "We refuse state control on external financing, he said. How can the state prevent civil society organizations from obtaining funding from well-known foreign institutions with international reputations? Zare added, The current bill authorizes the administrative authority to suspend the activities of a civil society organization if it sponsors activities that would threaten national unity or that are contrary to the public order or morality. On the surface that might sound reasonable, but the proposal is too vague and allows the government wide latitude in its interpretation and application of the restrictions, according to Zare. This provision is elastic, loose and unacceptable, he said. It also allows the suspension of a civil society organizations activities if it exercises any political activity despite the fact that some organizations carry out political action to raise awareness through campaigns and seminars. We will not accept such articles in the new bill. Zare added, We need a bill that allows citizens to freely carry out service-related and research activities without the state interfering. For example, if an organization wanted to do a survey on childrens rights, it would not be reasonable to wait for state approval on such a survey. However, Sultan told Al-Monitor the bill addresses many of those concerns. For example, a court order is required before any administrative authority can dissolve an NGO or refuse to allow one to be formed. The bill also states that civil society organizations are established by virtue of a mere notification, he said, adding that those provisions were drafted to comply with Article 75 of the Egyptian Constitution of 2014 and the recommendations of the National Council for Human Rights in Cairo. In addition, the bill proposes establishing a coordination committee to help NGOs and issue their required permits. The committee would be made up of representatives of four ministries: Foreign Affairs, Solidarity, International Cooperation and Interior. On the subject of funding, however, Sultan said, The state is entitled to control every Egyptian pound that enters or leaves the country. This is applied to all of the countries of the world. He added, The committee may refuse or approve any foreign grant and shall inform the civil society organization of its decision within 60 days. If the organization objects to the committees decision, it may challenge it before the courts. Addressing the provision that Zare called loose, Sultan said, Is it possible to establish a civil society organization for homosexuals, for example? This is inappropriate and violates public morals. This must be specifically provided for in the new bill to prevent any violations. Sultan said, The state believes in freedom of civil action, but according to controls and in conformity with the law. Parliament will be entitled to ratify the new bill or delete or add articles at its discretion. Mohamed Zaree, director of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, criticized the Social Solidarity Ministry and the state, noting the bill has not been presented for public comment. There is a clear blackout policy on the new bill, he said. Zaree objected to the coordination committee entrusted to follow up on the work of NGOs. He questioned why the Ministry of the Interior and security authorities should be involved with the work of civil society organizations. Are civil society organizations a threat to the national security of the country? he asked. Zaree added, The state does not recognize the role of civil society in Egypt. It is seeking to pass a law that gives itself larger powers and allows it to impose restrictions on civil society organizations, to turn them from nongovernmental organizations into quasi-government entities subject to the security and administrative authorities, and to subject them to the actual administration of the government. January 3, 2016 Kingdom of Saudi Arabia may be forced to shift priorities This week, Bruce Riedel laid out the daunting challenges facing Saudi Arabia in 2016, including a seemingly endless and costly war in Yemen and the largest budget deficit ever, as oil prices continue to slide. Riedel wrote that Riyadh hopes that the new Islamic Coalition will silence criticism that the Saudis and their allies are doing too little against IS [Islamic State] in Syria and Iraq because of their commitment in Yemen. While the Saudi effort may have the potential to serve as a platform for more effective countermeasures in the ideological battle by mobilizing Islamic clerics, the coalitions sectarian bent is hard to conceal. The kingdom considers Iran, which is not a member of the coalition, as a lead sponsor of terrorism in Syria and Yemen. While the kingdom has until now considered the battle against Iran a higher priority than the fight against al-Qaeda and IS, circumstances in the coming year may force a change in priorities. IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi on Dec. 26 mocked the coalition and called on the kingdoms citizens to rise up against the apostate tyrants, and avenge your people in Syria, Iraq and Yemen. The United States and its allies expect Saudi Arabia to step up in battling IS and al-Qaeda, and in the end, that is how the alliance will be judged, at least in Washington and European capitals. The threat from IS to the kingdom is likely to grow. Saudi security forces broke up a cell linked to IS in 2014, and the terrorist group claimed credit for two bombings in 2015 that killed 36 people. IS continues to hold ground in Iraq and Syria, maintains a cell network in Europe and is expanding its presence in Afghanistan, Yemen and North Africa. The kingdom is, of course, not a fragile state like Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Libya or Afghanistan, but neither is France or Belgium. Unlike Syria and Iraq, which have ethnically and religiously diverse populations, Saudi Arabias population is 85-90% Sunni Muslim. And if IS continues to lose ground in Syria and Iraq, as it did in Ramadi last week, it may seek other nearby targets to rally its followers. As this column reported in December, the kingdoms hosting of the Syrian opposition conference last month may eventually serve to turn IS and al-Qaeda on the Saudi and Western-backed armed groups, which have been mostly preoccupied with fighting the Syrian government until now. In other words, IS may be taking the fight to Saudi Arabia, even if the kingdom would prefer to keep its prime focus on Bashar al-Assad and Iran. Recep Tayyip Erdogans incoherent foreign policy Semih Idiz this week painted a bleak picture of the prospects for Turkish foreign policy in 2016. Reflecting on the disastrous decision to send a more expansive military force to a Turkish training facility in Iraq, Idiz wrote, This development weakened Ankaras hand in the region further, thus prompting new questions about the AKPs [Justice and Development Party] ability to pursue a coherent foreign policy. Many wondered how Turkey could have assumed that deploying troops in Iraq without informing Baghdad would not have consequences. The AKPs policies have left Turkey facing the United States in Iraq where Ankara also faces Russia and Iran and facing Russia and Iran in Syria, where it is not completely on the same page with the United States, either. Idiz added, None of this suggests that Ankaras influence in the region will improve. Turkeys ties with Europe in 2016 will be determined by the fight against Islamic terrorism and the refugee crisis emanating from Syria. The EU-Turkey summit in November resulted in a joyful declaration by [Prime Minister Ahmet] Davutoglu that a new chapter had been opened in Turkeys ties with Europe. European leaders also promised to help energize Ankaras bid for EU membership. But Turkeys ties with Europe will be predicated on issues that have little to do with Ankaras EU bid. While more cooperation is expected on the issues of Islamic terrorism and refugees, the European Union remains concerned about the AKPs Islamist/Sunni leanings and its less-than-democratic policies at home, which are not expected to change in 2016. The fact that Ankara went beyond its capacity in that way, while making its Sunni leanings apparent, also shows there will be no role for Turkey as a mediator or facilitator in any dispute in the region in 2016, especially ones fueled by sectarian divisions. Despite the ruling AKPs win in the November 2015 general elections, one might wonder about the threshold for discontent within the AKP and the military given Erdogans record of foreign policy failures. The Turkish president will continue to fend off domestic challenges by playing the security card at home. He believes he has a winner in a brutal campaign against increasingly radicalized and localized Kurdish armed groups in southeastern Turkey. Metin Gurcan does not rule out that the violence may soon spread to Ankara and Istanbul. He writes, As long as the government keeps stepping up its pressure on Cizre and Silopi, Ankara and Istanbul could become targets of sensational operations directly targeting civilians and designed to paralyze the cities. The PKK's [Kurdistan Workers Party] ability to use proxies in its battles is expanding; it is perfectly capable of organizing attacks and then denying involvement or even condemning the acts. Neither Ankara nor the PKK appear willing to acknowledge the social and economic costs of increasingly urbanized clashes and the use of proxies. In the end, innocent civilians are paying the price. A gunman shot a 16-year-old Atlanta girl in the back while trying to steal her hoverboard. Family members told WSB-TV the girl was shot in the lower back in the attempted robbery of her Christmas present. The bullet exited out of her side. Police say it appears the gunman followed the girl home from a nearby store. The victim's brother, Doryan Sanford, said the gunman approached him and his sister as they were entering their apartment. "He just said, 'Give it up,' and I said, 'What?' He pulled out the gun and put it to my face," Sanford said told the new station. "I pushed him back; that's when I tried to close the door and that's when the bullet came through and hit my sister." "I just got a towel and tried to stop the bleeding," he added. The victim's condition wasn't released. Police continue to look for the gunman. Authorities are searching for a gunman who fatally shot a University of North Texas student following a New Year's Eve party. Denton police say Sara Mutschlechner, 20, exchanged words with the occupants of an SUV while stopped at a red light early Friday morning, ABC News reported. Two or three rounds were fired into the woman's car. Mutschlechner was shot in the head causing her to lose control of her vehicle and crash it into an electrical pole, the Denton Record-Chronicle reported. Mutschlechner, who was her friends' designated driver, died Friday evening at a hospital. The gunman was in a black Lexus SUV occupied by five or six men, and at least two of the men were attending a different New Year's Eve party. "We're sure that a lot of people at the party would've recognized who was in that vehicle and maybe be able to tell us who they were," Denton police officer Shane Kizer told ABC News. "We've got a lot of people that we're wanting to talk with at this time." One of the passengers in the vehicle's car suffered minor injuries. Mutschlechner was a member of the Zeta Tau Alpha sorority. The group held a candlelight vigil. On the run from a death threat, Ahmed Mohammed won't look back. And why would he? The 39-year-old Iraqi refugee and his family - Sunni Muslims - have found a home in Mobile, Alabama, after they spent four years without a country. Before they fled, Mohammed worked as a safety inspector for an American contractor that was hired to rebuild Iraq after the U.S. invasion. But the ensuing threat on his life and the violent deaths of his wife's father and her brother-in-law spurred their exodus. They crossed the northwest border to Syria in 2005, left for Yemen two years later, and were granted refugee status in 2009. Three years later, after a stint in Fargo, North Dakota, Mohammed and his family relocated to South Alabama with help from Catholic Social Services in Mobile, a city unique in Alabama for providing a home for Iraqi refugees. Mohammed now has a mortgage on a ranch-style home in a leafy subdivision of West Mobile, runs an international retail store where he puts in 12-hour days and makes enough money to send two of his three children to a local mosque for school. He talks warmly and effusively about the American dream, the ease of buying a car with credit, of working hard and making something of himself with self-determination and grit. "To build yourself in Iraq, even if you work hard and save your money, it impossible," Mohammed said. '"Here, it's easy to build your life. If you work hard and work right, you don't cheat the bank and you don't cheat the government, you can build yourself very quick." Mohammed is among a growing Iraqi community. A total of 493 Iraqi refugees or Iraqis with special immigrant visas have arrived in Alabama since 2007, according to the U.S. State Department. And separate data from the Department of Homeland Security shows nearly all new Alabama residents from Iraq are in one spot. They live in Mobile. Most are refugees who depend on local organizations and government assistance to help them integrate into the culture. Last year, the federal government spent $1.1 billion to resettle about 70,000 refugees or about $15,714 per person. The Iraqi diaspora has had a ripple effect nationwide, as more than 139,955 Iraqi refugees and Iraqis with special visas arrived in U.S. since the 2003 Iraq War, which displaced more than 2 million people. Michigan alone has welcomed 19,630 Iraqi refugees or 198 Iraqis for every 100,000 people since 2007. That's by far the highest per capita rate in the nation, followed by Arizona and then North Dakota. Alabama, thanks to Mobile, saw ten Iraqi refugees for every 100,000 residents since 2007. These figures might come as a surprise to critics who have opposed President Barack Obama's plan to allow up to 10,000 Syrian refugees into the U.S. Thirty governors and numerous other Congress lawmakers have called for a halt to the refugee program, with U.S. Rep. Bradley Byrne (R-Fairhope) sponsoring a bill that would effectively defund the Syrian refugee program. In an interview with AL.com, Byrne made a distinction between the Iraqi and Syrian refugees. "We have a lot more assets on the ground in Iraq than we do in Syria," Byrne said. "There are ways to make sure we know a lot more about people who are coming from Iraq." Leading the charge against accepting the Syrian refugees was Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley, who said that he would "not stand complicit to a policy that places the citizens of Alabama in harm's way." Last week, he commended Alabama's two senators for voting against an omnibus bill because it does not block Obama's plan to resettle Syrian refugees. But so far that's not happening anyway. According to federal data, just one refugee from Syria settled in Alabama from 2012-2014. "The example of Jesus Christ" If Syrian refugees were to come to Alabama, their link to the new world would be Catholic Social Services in Mobile. The church group has worked with refugees since 1975, when they assisted with Alabama's then state coordinator to help resettle refugees from Vietnam and other countries, according to Rev. Monsignor Michael Farmer, Mobile archdiocese vicar general. Alabama has discontinued its program and now the Archdiocese of Mobile works directly with the federal government, which vets and selects the refugees. Families from countries such as Bosnia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, and the former country of Yugoslavia have relocated into Mobile in recent years. The Catholic Social Services eight-person staff, not including volunteers, can help up to 135 refugees a year. For the first six to nine months of their arrival, the Refugee Resettlement Program assists refugees with job searches, public education enrollment, English as a Second Language programs and other assistance. "The whole idea we would even be involved in anything like this comes from our whole understanding of basic Christian charity," Farmer said. "From our faith perspective, it's practicing the example of Jesus Christ." Challenges Mohammed said that he and his family have had a hard time making friends because they're somewhat isolated in West Mobile. They live on a block with no other children. His wife Shimaa, who said she has an English-Arabic translation degree from an Iraqi college, can't find a job. Another Iraqi, 18-year-old Mustafa Khamees, was diagnosed with diabetes in December after he lost more than 40 pounds in two months. When a medical professional told him how to manage the disease, the Murphy High School junior explained it to his father in Arabic. His father questioned whether the family's insurance would pay for insulin treatment. If and when Syrian refugees start arriving in the Port City, they'll have their own struggles, too. So far, the federal government has not presented the Mobile Archdiocese with any Syrian refugees cases. But U.S. President Barack Obama has pledged to accept 10,000 Syrian refugees in the wake of the Syrian Civil War which has displaced more than 9 million people. For comparison's sake, Germany, which has a fraction of the U.S.'s land mass and economic power, has agreed to take 750,000 refugees this year. France, which experienced a deadly terror attack in Paris that left 130 people dead, has agreed to take 30,000 people. And Canada may double its intake of refugees by the end of next year to 50,000. "All refugees are being put into one basket," Farmer said. "Unfortunately, the majority of those refugees from Syria are not bad people. There is that fear and we've seen that played out in our own history over and over again." Meanwhile, a separate Mobile charity, Dwell Mobile, recently began offering a once-a-week 10-week course to pick up where Catholic Services leaves off. The course teaches the refugees cultural norms. "If you could imagine going to Iraq and trying to live there after six to 12 months of help," said Jeri Stroade, the executive director of the organization. "There's still a lot of needs at the end of that time is what I'm seeing and what I've heard from them. Most of them have experienced some sort of trauma from how they had to leave and what they've experienced on the way." Needs and culture Immigration patterns in Mobile are far different than in the rest of the state. Birmingham and Huntsville see most new green cards issued to residents of Mexico, India or China. Montgomery sees a large number of new arrivals from South Korea, but that's also followed by India and China. Statewide, Iraq does not crack the top 10 most common nationalities for new arrivals. But it's number one in Mobile. According to Department of Homeland Security data from 2009 to 2013, Mobile saw 205 green cards issued to former residents of Iraq. Vietnam was second. Ahmed Hameed, sitting on a couch his modest home just west of Mobile Regional Airport, sips on a cup of tea and offers a reporter a bite of flakey Iraqi-style Baklava. With a sense of pride, the 48-year-old Baghdad native notes that he bought the pastries from an Iraqi distributor from Michigan. One day, Hameed said he returned to his small retail store in Baghdad and found a letter that read, "we're going to kill you if you come back." He fled Iraq, with his wife, two sons, and two daughters in June 2006. They left the family business in the care of a relative and spent two years in Syria before qualifying as refugees and arriving on June 12, 2008. Ninety-eight Iraqi refugees arrived in Alabama that year. In the United States, the expansion of the Iraqi refugee program was made possible by a law signed by President George W. Bush seven years ago. Initially set for five years, Iraqi refugee program was pushed back due to massive processing delays. An Arabic speaker with little familiarity with the English language, Hameed was at a disadvantage when he arrived stateside. So he took grammar classes and a job as a women's shoe salesman at Dillard's in Mobile. There, he is required to speak English to interact with customers. Two years ago, he, his wife, and their eldest daughter passed the civics test and became American citizens. Hameed's youngest children became citizens by default. Their entire family has gone to Washington D.C. for vacation. Asked about the situation in Syria, Hameed says that the U.S. should accept more Syrian refugees because there are "people over there dying every day." "I go to Syria," Hameed said. "It's happened to me. It's happened to me and I came to the safe area. I feel them." As Trey Thomas left the Wynnsong 16 in west Mobile on Christmas Night, he veered out into the parking lot and spotted a group of teenagers holding cell phones and taking pictures of the surrounding melee. "We knew something bad was going to happen," said Thomas, a Kansas City resident in Mobile visiting family during the holiday who had just left the multiplex cinema after watching a showing of "Creed." "None of these people were even there to see the movies." According to police, up to 400 teenagers assembled on the theater's parking lot and that social media could have been the chief communication culprit. After several hours of brewing tensions, four teenagers were shot outside the theater. The injuries were not life threatening. The incident occurred one day before as many as 2,000 people, mostly juveniles, created multiple disturbances and fights at a mall near Louisville, Ky. Authorities believed the Dec. 26 disturbances kept increasing because of social media use. And social media played a role in August when a large group of revelers quickly gathered for a street party outside Studio 5'4 in downtown Mobile. The result was a shooting with multiple injuries and a business shutting down. Whether it's text messaging or Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or another outlet, the instantaneous nature of social media fueling the fast assembly of large crowds for parties or other gatherings is causing law enforcement officials to reconsider how to combat the new-age problem. "Kids can plan a party at the spur of a moment with a push of the button they can invite 100-plus people to a location that will be determined five minutes before and everyone shows up," Mobile County District Attorney Ashley Rich said. "Before social media was prevalent, you had to invite everyone in advance and it was a lot easier to find out about ahead of time." While the Wynnsong incident remains under investigation, Mobile Police Chief James Barber confirmed Wednesday that police are subpoenaing for historic data through social media to examine how hundreds of youths were able to assemble in such a fast time frame. "We do have incidences where large groups of juveniles will gather and events will be disorderly," Barber said. "That's been going on as long as juveniles have been around. What's making it more likely nowadays is the ease of social media to bring people to one location by the push of a button." 'A thoughtful conversation' Dr. Megan Moreno, an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington who studies social media and adolescent health, said the quick-spread of communication via social media isn't always bad. One example, she said, occurred in Madison, Wis., where a few years ago several local high schools had students organize walks through Facebook in support of their striking teachers. "I think social media has the power to augment and expedite communication so both positive and negative messages can travel quickly across time and populations," she said. "Even if police find out about a gathering, social media can make things move so fast and furious that they can outpace a local organization quickly." But are law enforcement and community watchdog groups able to prevent negative gatherings from escalating on social media? It's a difficult situation, admits Virginia Guy with the Drug Education Council based in Mobile. "I'm not sure what the answer is, but the entire community really needs a thoughtful conversation about this," she said. "It didn't happen overnight and it's not going to be solved overnight. But if we all work together, we can at least let teenagers know how dangerous it is to send messages out to draw big crowds." Travis Poellenitz, whose business came under criticism for assembling block parties through social media in downtown Mobile - including the one where the shooting occurred outside Studio 5'4 - said "there is only so much one person can do" to tame a situation that gets unruly. He argues that the biggest problems with the crowd on Aug. 30 occurred away from where the block party originated, and that the situation was easier to control closer to where he was located. For law enforcement agencies, the growth in organizing through social media - along with a litany of other problems, such as terrorism and sex crimes - has prompted a rise in having personnel specialized in cyber intelligence. In Baldwin County, Sheriff Huey "Hoss" Mack said two officers are trained in digital forensics - a specialized field that has ramped up in popularity among U.S. investigation units for the past decade or so. Mobile police have "several" officers specialized in the same field as part of their Cyber Intelligence Unit, according to a spokesman. "My experience has been that law enforcement is often ahead of many other professions in their use of social media," Moreno said. In Huntsville, police do not have someone trained to monitor social media as a way to ward off teenage misbehavior. School resource officers, according to a spokesman, are the best bet for prevention. "We don't necessarily train our officers on how to use it as an investigative tool," Huntsville Police Lt. Stacy Bates said. "A lot of them are pretty tech savvy anyway." Richard Landolt, executive director of public safety with the city of Mobile, said that law enforcement is utilizing tools that are also used by national security agencies. The city first touted in August 2014 its use of Nextdoor.com, a social media application utilized by 168 neighborhoods in Mobile. The site connects neighbors with one another and for police to provide real-time news and updates on road closures, crime-related issues, etc. It's also been compared to a virtual neighborhood watch program. Another new program utilized by Mobile police is "Project Shield," which is a partnership between the private sector and police that allows authorities access to live security camera feeds. While some businesses participate, Wynnsong does not. Landolt, who called the Wynnsong disturbance a "clear example of young people with easy access to guns making poor decisions," also heralded the city's outreach programs. He said a level of trust is developing between law enforcement and the community that has helped identify suspects including 17-year-old Johnny Vail who is labeled as a "person of interest" in the Christmas night shooting. 'Dinner table discussions' Meanwhile, authorities are also looking to crack down on adults who are aiding teenagers with orchestrating large gatherings and parties. In Baldwin County, Cathy B. Roberts faces a misdemeanor charge of hosting a party in Daphne and allowing teens to drink alcohol. The result: A 16-year-old unconscious girl claimed she was raped by Spanish Fort High School student and athlete Cameron Harrison, who has since been charged with rape. Mack recently urged lawmakers to consider increasing penalties against adults who host open house parties for teenagers from a misdemeanor to a felony. But sometimes the parents are unaware of what's going on, Rich said. "There was a situation recently where someone had a party, the parents weren't home and the child invited a few friends over. Within an hour, over 100 people came." She said notifications were sent over Instagram, text messages and instant messenger. "You don't have to pre-plan parties in advance anymore and that's what kids are doing. We are hearing about situations where the kids do not purposely disclose the location of the event because they do not want parents to know about it until minutes before the event is supposed to happen." Adults can be held criminally liable and Mack and Rich both say that parents need to be talking about these potentially dangerous gatherings assembled through social media. "Parents got to begin the discussion around the dinner table with their kids about how something, in the beginning, was an innocent get-together got completely out of hand because a few kids came over and they invited their friends and there was a home to gather at," Rich said. Added Mack: "The main issue is you have no control over which all gets the message (or invitation). Once the designated recipient gets it, they can paste or forward the message to anyone. So you really don't know how many or just who is coming over." A 12-year-old girl from Pell City was killed in a Saturday evening three-vehicle crash on Interstate 65 near Prattville. Adashia Moss, 12, was killed when the 2012 Chevrolet Camaro she was riding in was struck by a 2011 Ford Fusion, according to Alabama state troopers. The Chevrolet then struck a 2008 Jeep Wrangler. Moss was pronounced dead on the scene. The driver of the Camaro was injured, along with a passenger. The driver of the Ford was also injured. The crash occurred at around 6:05 p.m. on Interstate 65 at the 176.1 mile marker, three miles south of Prattville. Troopers continue to investigate. A Wetumpka man was killed Saturday afternoon in a two-vehicle collision on Alabama 170. Daryl Brad Kendrick, 46, was killed when the 1998 Toyota pickup he was driving collided with a 2005 Chevrolet Tahoe, according to Alabama state troopers. Kendrick wasn't wearing a seat belt and was pronounced dead at the scene. The driver of the Tahoe was injured. The crash occurred at around 4:34 p.m. on Alabama 170 in the area of Williams Road, two miles north of Wetumpka. Troopers continue to investigate. Kyoto, Japan The orange gates, known as torii, of the Fushimi Inari-Taisha shrine are one of Japans most iconic landmarks. Overlooking the former capital city of Kyoto from Inari Mountain, they dot the landscape, attracting thousands of visitors of all faiths each day. Not to be confused with often similarly-styled Buddhist temples, Fushimi Inari-Taisha belongs to Shinto, the ethnic religion of the people of Japan practiced by over 70 percent of the population. In Shinto, shrines are devoted to the worship of multiple gods called kami. Kami are believed to possess a deep connection with nature and may have positive or negative characteristics, depending on the kami. Inari, the kami that Fushimi Inari-Taisha is dedicated to, is a popular figure in Shinto practice and is the Japanese deity of foxes, rice, fertility, agriculture, industry, and general prosperity. Closely associated with industry and economic success, Inari is a popular kami for Japanese business owners, who have donated thousands of gates to Fushimi Inari-Taisha hoping to increase their fortunes. Shinto shrines in Japan are organised into cross-country networks of small and large shrines according to which kami they are dedicated to. Shrines devoted to Inaris worship make up the largest shrine network in Japan, with an estimated 32,000 sub-shrines located throughout the country. Fushimi Inari-Taisha, the largest of the Inari shrines, is the head shrine of the Inari network. Follow Ziad Ramley on Instagram: @ZiadRamley Pakistan could use its influence on Afghan Taliban groups to protect the new TAPI gas pipeline. When or if completed, a new natural gas pipeline would carry 33 billion cubic metres of gas from Turkmenistan through three South Asian countries. Pakistan and India would each purchase 42 percent of the gas; the remaining 16 percent would go to Afghanistan. Afghanistan would receive about $400 million per year in transit fees, equal to about 25 percent of the states total domestic revenue in 2015. The project, known as The Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India natural gas pipeline, or TAPI, would provide energy, and employment. Even more important, it will provide an incentive for Pakistan to cooperate with India and Afghanistan in stabilising Afghanistan. Helmand security That was the key question the desperate deputy governor of Helmand, one of the provinces through which TAPI is supposed to run, took to Facebook in a desperate attempt to get President Ashraf Ghanis attention. Excellency, wrote Mohammad Jan Rasulyar, Helmand is standing on the brink, and there is a serious need for you to come. ALSO READ: TAPI pipeline: A new silk route or a pipe dream? He posted the appeal to the president to focus on the immediate threat while Ghani was in Kabul after trips to Pakistan and Turkmenistan and before trips to Azerbaijan and Turkey, all of which focused on Afghanistans long-term needs for energy and trade. The Taliban were advancing on the district centre of Sangin, from where they could stage an assault on the vulnerable provincial capital of Lashkargah. Without the belated intervention of US air power, the province might have fallen. TAPI would run through some of the most contested areas of Afghanistan. by There are many doubts about TAPI: will TurkmenGas be able to provide the promised 51 percent of financing for the ten billion dollar project? Who will finance the 34 percent that remains uncovered after commitments by Turkmenistan and the other three parties? But serious as these concerns are, security has raised the most questions. Taliban want its share TAPI would run through some of the most contested areas of Afghanistan. The Taliban have never opposed TAPI when they were in power they sent a delegation to the US to investigate the deal but they want a share of the transit fees. If there is no political solution in the next few years, they could find ways to hold up transmission unless they are paid. The biggest security concern may actually be in Pakistan. Most of the pipelines path there traverses the province of Balochistan, the site of a persistent revolt uprising by Baloch nationalists, who regard the distribution of gains from national resources, including natural gas, as one of their central grievances. Today, however, the rapid growth of the Chinese and Indian economies have created a counter-balance. Indian officials claim that Pakistan orchestrated attacks on workers building the Afghan portion of a road linking the Iranian port of Chabahar to Afghanistans highway network through the border town of Milak. Six Indian officials and over a hundred Afghan workers were killed in such attacks between 2005 and 2009. Pakistan regarded that project, based on Indo-Afghan-Iranian cooperation, as a threat to the strategic leverage it has exercised over Afghanistan through control of the countrys only transit route to the sea, via Karachi. TAPI is different: it commits India and Pakistan to mutually beneficial cooperation in Afghanistan. If Pakistan could use its influence or control of Afghan Taliban groups to try to sabotage the Indo-Iranian corridor, it could equally use its influence to protect TAPI. Pakistans Defense Minister Khwaja Mohammad Asif told BBC Urdu as much, saying that Pakistan would use its influence on the Taliban for the security of TAPI. ALSO READ: Turkmenistan launches $10bn gas pipeline to South Asia The Afghan government denounced this statement as irresponsible interference in Afghanistans internal affairs and insists that gaining Talibans support for TAPI must form part of a political settlement led by the Afghan government rather than a deal between Pakistan and the Taliban. Nonetheless, this dispute shows that in a changed regional environment Afghanistan and Pakistan may have common interests in reducing security threats to TAPI. Pakistan Army and Balochaistan Balochistan may pose a more difficult challenge. The Pakistan army has for several years conducted harsh operations to suppress the revolt, leading the hundreds of disappearances of suspected militants or nationalist sympathisers. On December 30, however, in Zhob, Balochistan, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif inaugurated the western route of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which Baloch had charged would marginalise their province. In his speech at the event, Sharif said, We believe that Balochistan has the first right over all resources which have been explored in the province. While this statement contained no specifics, it constituted in principle a major outreach to the Baloch nationalists. Some analysts have rushed to anticipate TAPIs failure by extrapolating the past into the future. No one ever damaged his or her reputation by being pessimistic about Afghanistan. But it is also possible that a transformation is underway. Forty years ago, Southeast Asia was devastated by war and genocide, but international cooperation, plus the economic dynamism of East Asia, transformed it. TAPI is one of many steps aimed at putting Southwest Asia on a comparable path. Barnett Rubin is a leading expert on Afghanistan and South Asia. The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy. The rights of the worlds most vulnerable and the most desolate girls must be championed and made real. When it is a proven fact that girls matter more to the health of families than boys, why do we persist in helping them less? When women are recognised to be the lynchpins of successful communities, why do we continue to tolerate the sex discrimination and exploitation that has left 500 million in abject poverty and another one billion on the edge of it? And when Girl Power has been such a massive driver of change in western societies, why have the past 50 years seen global movements to liberate women, and men, from colonialism, apartheid, black discrimination and prejudice against gays, but no civil rights struggle to liberate girls from oppression? 2016 must be the year of girl empowerment globally the beginnings of a worldwide civil rights movement that focuses on freeing girls from the worst persecution in some of the poorest, most remote and most dangerous places in the world? Child labourers As we enter 2016, more than 68 million girls under the age of 14 are child labourers working in slave conditions, in domestic service, unsafe factories and even down mines. This year, 15 million girls will be married off before the age of 18 one child bride every two seconds. These numbers are rising even faster in conflict zones. One example is that of Syrian girls in Jordan where the rate of child marriage has doubled. ALSO READ: Portraits of child labourers Today an astonishing 17 million girls each year become mothers before they are legally able to be married. More than 720 million women alive today were married or entered into a union before their 18th birthday. The rights of girls to a childhood are so routinely trampled upon that in the next few decades it is expected that child brides will not fall in number but rise to a staggering one billion. The rights of girls to a childhood are so routinely trampled upon that in the next few decades it is expected that child brides will not fall in number but rise... by And because so many children are caught up in conflict, the trafficking of girls is on the increase with an estimated half a million sent into slavery this year. And as report after report on Iraq, Syria, Libya, Afghanistan and Myanamar has revealed, thousands more are subjected to rape, molestation and conscription into child militias all in breach of the Rome Statutes of the International Criminal Court that define such practises as crimes against humanity and a reason for indictment and prosecution. Girls form the majority of children who are out of school and denied the opportunity to plan their own future. More than 30 million girls never enjoy a first day at school or drop out before they finish primary education. One estimate suggests that as many as 500 million girls worldwide will never complete their schooling despite the Millennium Development goal promise of universal primary education by 2015. Century is too long It will take until 2086 before every girl goes to primary school. And while the world recently approved sustainable development goals to achieve universal secondary education by 2030, the best estimate is that it will take until 2111 before every girl completes lower secondary school 70 years behind the richest boys who are projected to achieve that milestone in 2041. We know children born today will live longer than generations past, but a century is too long for an infant today to wait for her basic right to be upheld. In Africa and the Indian subcontinent, girls chances of reaching university are so slender that it is estimated that while in 2050, 80 percent of Taiwanese, Singaporean and Japanese girls will be university graduates, the figure will be three, four or at most five per cent for girls in the worlds poorest countries. We spend an average of $400 on an African girls education but more than $100,000 on that of a Western child aged three to 16. The truth is that, in the delivery of opportunity, many countries are 100 years behind their richer neighbours, and as rich countries continue to expand higher education for girls, we cannot comfort ourselves in the knowledge that the gap between rich and poor is narrowing. It continues to widen. I once heard Nelson Mandela say that promises made to children are so sacred that they should never be broken, but as the author JK Rowling has reminded us: No one is easier to silence than a child. Fortunately the silent majorty will remain silent no more. ALSO READ: Child brides: How old is too young to marry? From my vantage point as chairman of the Global Citizenship Commission reviewing the first 70 years of the universal declaration of human rights the most eagerly-anticipated and exciting development in 2016 will be the growth of civil rights activism among girls themselves. The wedding busters Starting in 22 communities of Bangladesh, brave girls have formed child marriage-free zones. Nicknamed by some the wedding busters, they come together as one defying their fathers if necessary to prevent any one of their schoolmates being married off as children. Supported by Plan International, their success has inspired child marriage-free zones in Pakistan, India and parts of Africa. Under the banner of the Global March against Child Labour, led by Nobel prize winner Kailash Satyarthi, child labourers are literally on the march to demand their freedom. And inspired not just by fellow Nobel prize winner Malala Yousafzai but also by the Bring Back Our Girls campaign to free the 200 Chibok girls abducted a year ago by Boko Haram in Nigeria, there are now 1,000 global youth ambassadors and they are to be found on Facebook and Twitter under the banner of A World At School. This year many established charities will shift their priorities to make girls rights even more central to their campaigns and this year in support of UNICEFs State of the Worlds Children report, THEIRWORLD charity will work with others to set out a clear agenda. This autumn the report of the Commission on Global Educational Opportunity to Bank Ki Moon UN Secretary General will set out a plan for how in one generation over the next 40 years the education attainments of girls in poorer countries can converge with that of girls and boys in rich countries. Urgent need for action But there is an urgent need for action to support 15 million displaced girls now in conflict zones by establishing what I call HOPE the Humanitarian Operation for the Provision of Education in Emergencies to get them into education. In 2005, Security Council Resolution 1612 established a monitoring mechanism to expose grave violations of childrens rights during armed conflict. But as the new head of the International Criminal Court has said, girls will see things change only when there are well publicised prosecutions and indictments. And while there is a legal right, in theory, to take cases of child abuse to the UN Human Rights Committee under the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, only 14 countries have signed the Protocol with, sadly, those most likely to infringe it least likely to sign. So we also need a new political mechanism to force countries to act on the abuse of girls rights. I suggest that each year the Security Council should meet at least once as a Childrens Rights Council to speak up for the half of humanity who represent our future. The long-term goal is simple: girl power is not just for the comfortable West and leaning in is not just for the comfortably off. Girl power will achieve its goals only when the rights of the worlds most vulnerable and the most desolate girls are championed and made real. Gordon Brown is the UN Secretary-Generals Special Envoy for Global Education and the former Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom. The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy. For Iraqis the year 2016 has been ushered in with their militarys capture of ISILs headquarters in Ramadi, capital of the nations Anbar province. In terms of what 2016 holds for the future, the military dynamics that led to the fall of Ramadi will serve as long-term harbinger of ISILs ability to endure in Iraq. Upon first glance, the fall of Ramadi appears to mean little for the long term campaign against ISIL. The recent victory brings Iraq back to the status quo as of May 2015, when Iraqi forces took retook Tikrit from ISIL towards the end of April, but then lost Ramadi right after. It took the Iraqi forces several months to return to this status quo. Over all, the victory would appear as a loss, as the Iraqi state won back Ramadi, but utterly devastated the city in the process. However, in the long term perspective, the fall of Ramadi is a victory in terms of the lessons applied on the strategic-political level and the evolution of Iraqi military tactics, which signals a significant setback for ISIL. The long battle for Ramadi In terms of battlefield tactics, the battle for Ramadi took longer than other battles for cities such a Tikrit, which took more than a month to capture. In Ramadi, as October 2015, the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF), the official military of the Iraqi state, had reached the Albu Farraj area in the north of the city. In the following month, ISIL was weakened after a coalition of Syrian and Iraqi Kurdish militias retook Sinjar in the north, which severed ISILs transportation artery from its capital in al-Raqqa, in Syria to Mosul, in Iraq. ALSO READ: If ISIL is defeated in Ramadi From October to December, three months transpired before a final assault commenced to penetrate the center of Ramadi, starting on December 22, and ISILs HQ fell on December 28, five days later. The slow pace was most likely due to preparing the Iraqi forces, first, for the final push, and second, doing so with minimal civilian casualties. This was not so much a battle for a city, but a battle by the Iraqi state to project that it still has a national army, and is willing to work with the Sunni tribes. by Whereas the battle for Tikrit primarily featured irregular Shia militias, the battle for Ramadi involved the (ISF), along with irregular tribal Sunni levies. This was not so much a battle for a city, but a battle by the Iraqi state to project that it still has a national army, and is willing to work with the Sunni tribes. For the first time F-16 fighter jets flown by Iraqi pilots in the Iraqi Air Force had carried out strikes on ISIL positions. Their participation might have been token in comparison to US-piloted airstrikes, but nonetheless the fact that there is an Iraqi Air Force to speak of is significant. Prior to the ISIL campaign into Iraq in 2014, the Iraqi Air Force consisted of a mere fleet of Cesna propeller planes outfitted with Hellfire missiles to target ground targets. Furthermore, the composition of the Iraqi military forces, according to the Institute of War, included the Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS), formations from the 8th Iraqi Army Division, local police, and tribal fighters from the Anbar province. The use of Sunni tribal fighters was most likely for political buy-in, since Ramadi is a predominantly Arab Sunni city, an attempt to downplay sectarian tensions when primarily Shia fighters took the majority Sunni town of Tikrit. Rebuilding Iraqs national institution On another level, the role played by national Iraqi forces in the fall of Ramadi also has implications for the creation of an inclusive sense of Iraqiness. A debate has ensued since the summer of 2014 as to whether one can claim that the Iraqi nation still exists. Iraqi nationalism persists if one were to watch the Iraqi-state sponsored Al-Iraqiyya TV station, which features almost continuous coverage of the war front, along with images of the Iraqi military in action with nationalist songs playing in the background. Watching this channel requires a suspension of disbelief. It is one of the Iraqi states few institutions that can claim the Iraqi nation survives. With the fall of Ramadi, the Iraqi military, which is featured prominently on this channel, can now also claim that it represents the national aspirations of Iraq. Again any Iraqi will know that the nation is divided among Kurdish Peshmerga and Shia militias. For the legitimacy of Prime Minister Haider al-Abbadi, the Iraqi militarys victory in Ramadi is a testament of his ability to preside at the helm of what remains of the Iraqi state and nation. ALSO READ: Iraqi army declares Ramadi liberated from ISIL What remains to be seen after the fall of Ramadi is the ability of the Iraqi military to develop a doctrine, or a series of lessons learned in the fighting that can be carried forward in the battle for Mosul. A BBC article revealed that the Iraqi military has benefitted from a learning curve during the months-long campaign to remove ISIL from Ramadi. The Iraqi insurgency that erupted from 2003 primarily used hit-and-run tactics against US and Iraqi forces, tactics typical of a guerilla war meant to wear down the resolve of the enemy. As a result, the US training mission had focused on ensuring Iraqs new military could deal with this type of combat. ISIL is different type of insurgent group, holding cities and territory, which required retraining the Iraqi military forces in sustained urban combat, fighting street-by-street, house-by-house. This transformation of training the Iraqi military from counter-insurgency to urban combat explains why it took so long to be deployed on the front lines, creating a security vacuum which the Kurdish Peshmerga and the Iraqi Shia militias filled. ISILs hold over territory since 2014 in both Iraq and Syria has been due to the numerous state and sub-state actors combating ISIL and their failure to come together to take on this group. For example several nations are involved in conducting air strikes against ISIL in both Iraq and Syria, ranging from the US, UK, France, Russia, and Iran, and most recently the Iraqi Air Force in Ramadi. But up until the fall of Ramadi, it had been sub-state actors, such as Syrian Kurdish militias and Iraqi Shia militias on the ground that deprived ISIL of territory. The Iraqi military has essentially just joined a decentralised military coalition along with Kurdish Peshmerga and Iraqi Shia militias on the ground, combined with foreign nations providing most of the air cover. Whether the ISF can play a central role in this campaign to deprive ISIL of territory remains to be seen in 2016. Ibrahim al-Marashi is an assistant professor at the Department of History, California State University, San Marcos. He is the co-author of Iraqs Armed Forces: An Analytical History. The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy. Five years since the Tunisian fruit vendor died after setting himself on fire, his family still hopes for change. Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia Around noon on December 17, 2010, Ali Bouazizis phone rang. It was his uncle Salah. Grab your camera and come film, Salah told him. Someone has set himself on fire in front of the provincial government building. At the time, Ali, now 43, was active in the opposition against former Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Through our newspaper and website, we seized every opportunity to expose the government, he told Al Jazeera in an interview five years after the uprising. When his uncle called, Ali had no idea that the person who had set himself on fire was Mohamed Bouazizi, his 26-year-old cousin and friend. Even in his wildest imagination, Ali could never have predicted that a revolution would begin in the small, dusty provincial town of Sidi Bouzid nor that within a month, Tunisias dictator would be ousted, felling the first domino in the line that triggered the Arab Spring. The last time I saw my friend was a week before, said Ali, who runs a small supermarket called al-Jasmin. He had asked Mohamed to bring some fruit over for him. We had chatted a little about work. As so often in the last weeks, he complained that he was tired because he had to work day and night to earn enough for his family. He used to joke around a lot, but not much of late. It came as a huge shock to hear that Mohamed was the one who had set himself on fire. I had been like his older brother, and I felt tremendous guilt that I hadnt been able to do anything to change his mind, Ali admitted. Perhaps he thought that he might be better off dead than living under such conditions. The police had confiscated Mohameds scales because he refused to pay a bribe. A policewoman allegedly slapped him and insulted his deceased father. When he went to the provincial government to complain, he was not allowed inside the building. Suicide is forbidden in Islam. What he did was not right, his cousin said, but I understand why he did it. READ MORE: How Tunisias revolution began Ali, who is married with three young children, originally intended to be a lawyer, and graduated from university with a law degree. But because of his activities in the opposition as part of the secular Progressive Democratic Party, he was unable to get a job in his field. Instead, he earns a living from his olive trees, some business in real estate and his supermarket. When Ali arrived at the government building on December 17, 2010, his cousin was just being rushed to the hospital with third-degree burns. Protests broke out across the city the same day, and Ali filmed the events. On the evening of December 17, he posted a video to Facebook called The Intifada of the People of Sidi Bouzid. I was convinced that the only way things would change was to get the international media involved, he said. The Tunisian media was completely controlled by the government. Of course I was hesitant, as I was taking a huge risk. But it wasnt the first time. In June of that year, he and 30 members of his family, including Mohamed and Salah, protested against the government policy of confiscating land if people were unable to repay their loans. Two years before that, Ali participated in a demonstration for the release of political prisoners, and as a result spent four days in prison himself. On December 28, 2010, Ben Ali gave a televised speech, laying the blame for the unrest on foreign TV broadcasters who had paid people to tell fabricated stories, and declaring that the troublemakers would be found and severely dealt with. I knew he was also talking about me, Ali said. Soon afterwards, the police turned up at his supermarket to arrest him, but he managed to escape. Just days later, on January 4, 2011, Mohamed died in hospital. Ali Bouazizi filmed the funeral, and the protests started up again. Ali was finally arrested on January 10. In prison, they blamed me for everything that had happened, he said. They beat my head, my hands and my back until I passed out. Four days later, Ben Ali fled the country, after having held power for 23 years. READ MORE: Extinguishing the flames of the Arab Spring Today, the road in Sidi Bouzid that had been called Rue 7 Novembre 1987 after the date Ben Ali seized power has been renamed Mohamed Bouazizi Avenue. On this same road stands the provincial government building in front of which the fruit vendor set himself aflame. To commemorate his deed, a monument of a stone cart has been erected next to the building, along with a huge image of Mohamed. Although some observers regard Tunisia as the only success story of the Arab Spring, many Tunisians have been deeply disappointed by what they say is a lack of change. Ali Bouazizi is one of them even though he is still proud that the Arab Spring began in Tunisia, and in his city at that. I wish that Mohamed was still alive, but I dont think his death was in vain, he said. If he hadnt done what he did, we might still be living under Ben Ali. However, Abdessalam Bouazizi, 31, another cousin of Mohamed who used to sell fruit with him, regrets that he participated in the demonstrations. It was better under Ben Ali, he interjected from behind his fruit and vegetable stall in Sidi Bouzid. People have less money now, so we sell less. Many residents complain about how prices have risen sharply in recent years. Meanwhile, Tunisias unemployment rate remains high, at 15 percent. This rate is significantly higher for young people (38 percent) and is especially steep for highly educated young people (62 percent), according to an OECD study. There are simply not enough jobs, especially for university graduates. Historically, Sidi Bouzid and Tunisias interior have been ignored in favour of Tunis and the countrys coastal regions. Although a university and dairy factory have been built in Sidi Bouzid, and the citys first swimming pool is under construction, it still has fewer jobs and a lower quality of education and healthcare compared to elsewhere in the country. Thirty-five-year-old Lotfi Bouazizi, another cousin of Mohamed, has been unemployed for years. During the revolution, he stayed with his brother in Italy while looking in vain for work there. After Ben Ali was ousted, he returned home full of hope. Nothing has improved, he said, while standing by the grave of his cousin in a small cemetery outside Sidi Bouzid. Being a relative of Mohamed Bouazizi is not easy. Many say they regularly receive angry reactions from Tunisians unhappy with the fallout from his self-immolation. Mohameds mother and sister were severely harassed by other residents of Sidi Bouzid, partly because people were jealous that they allegedly received large sums of money from the government and foreign organisations, although the details of these alleged payments were unclear. In the end, they moved first to an upscale Tunis suburb and then to Montreal, where, according to a Tunisian website, they will open a restaurant in January called Jasmine. Before, only Ben Ali and his family stole and cheated. Now everyone does. by Ali Bouazizi, cousin of Mohamed Bouazizi In addition to high unemployment, widespread corruption was another major grievance of the Tunisian protesters five years ago. But this has only become worse, Ali Bouazizi said Before, only Ben Ali and his family stole and cheated, Ali said. Now everyone does. He and other residents have told stories of people paying 10,000 Tunisian dinars ($4,900) to land a government job: The ones who do this are ashamed, but they say that they dont have any other choice. Even the type of corruption that Mohamed Bouazizi experienced does not appear to have ebbed. Some police officers still often demand bribes from street vendors or seize some of their produce as tax. Abdessalam Bouazizi had his scales confiscated late last year, and his colleague in the stall next to him lamented that the police took five boxes of bananas. Complaining at the police station doesnt do any good, he said. We only risk being arrested. Selling goods is only permitted in the covered market, but there is not nearly enough space for everyone. The European Union is funding the construction of a new covered market, but it is still unlikely that there will be sufficient room for the large number of street vendors. READ MORE: The plights and perils of Tunisian street vendors Ali Bouazizi is no longer active in politics, and did not even vote in the parliamentary and presidential elections last year. I have been too disappointed in all the politicians broken promises in the last five years, he explained. He views the current ruling party, Nidaa Tounes, as an extension of the old regime. Ben Ali is in Saudi Arabia, but his people are still here. The system hasnt changed. He added: I wish that the politicians would work together more to solve our countrys problems, instead of only working towards their own interests. Most Tunisians agree that the only thing that has improved since the revolution is freedom of speech at least at first. These days, you have to once again watch what you say when sitting in a cafe or when posting something on Facebook, especially about subjects such as the army, the police, jihad and Syria, Ali said. After several terrorist attacks in Tunisia this year, an anti-terrorism law was introduced, causing concern among human rights activists. The current state of emergency allows people to be held for longer periods without trial. The government wants us to believe that security trumps freedom, but I cannot agree with that, Ali said. Although Ali is no longer active in politics, he is trying to contribute to his citys development through his organisation Association Al Wafa de Developpement, which he founded shortly after the revolution. The NGO supports local unemployed people in setting up their own businesses, by providing assistance from international organisations. For instance, someone recently started a small car repair garage, while another launched a business selling rabbit meat. Ali has also been involved in organising the annual December 17 festival in Sidi Bouzid to commemorate the events of 2010. Hundreds of people attended again this year. People waved Tunisian flags and sang the national anthem, and representatives of the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet, which won the Nobel Peace Prize in October for contributing to the building of a democracy in the country, made a short appearance as well. A protest march also took place, with people carrying signs with the words Work, freedom, social justice written large just as they had five years ago. These days, more and more people in Sidi Bouzid are talking about the need for a second revolution. As for Ali Bouazizi, he hopes this change will take place peacefully. Follow Thessa Lageman on Twitter: @thessalageman Protest held over disappearance of five employees of company specialising in books banned by Chinese government. Pro-democracy protesters have marched in front of Chinas liaison office in Hong Kong to demand information about a missing book editor and four of his colleagues, who worked for a company specialising in books critical of Chinas government. The few dozen protesters marched in Hong Kong on Sunday as they denounced Chinas government and the Hong Kong governments response on the disappearance of Lee Bo, who was last seen on Wednesday. Hong Kong, a former British colony, is an autonomous region of China. John Lee, Hong Kong, acting secretary for security, said police were actively investigating the case and would widen the scope of their probe. The most scary thing is theres no news and no proof of what happened to those five publishers, Avery Ng, of the League of Social Democrats, told Al Jazeera. At the time of his disappearance, Lee was the chief editor of Mighty Current, which sells books banned in the mainland. READ MORE: Chinas meddling with the media in Hong Kong Lee, 65, is also one of the companys major shareholders, according to the Hong Kong daily South China Morning Post. Lee reportedly called and told his wife Sophie Choi that he was assisting with an investigation, and then told her not to make a scene about his disappearance. The number indicated the call came from Shenzhen, the mainland Chinese city next door to Hong Kong, according to reports. She is also quoted as saying Lee left behind his paperwork that he would have needed to get across the border, leading many to believe he was smuggled there by mainland Chinese security officials. Aside from Lee, the companys co-owner, Gui Minhai, is also among those missing, as are three staff members. Mighty Current and its Causeway Bay Bookstore are known for gossipy titles about Chinese political scandals and other sensitive issues popular with visiting tourists from the mainland. Albert Ho, a senior Hong Kong legislator, said on Sunday that the city was shocked and appalled by the disappearance of Lee and four of his colleagues. He said that one possible explanation for the disappearances was that the publishing company was being pressured to scrap plans for an upcoming book rumoured to be about an old girlfriend or mistress of Chinese President Xi Jinping. It is not uncommon in mainland China for company executives and dissidents to be detained for lengthy periods by the authorities, or vanish without anyone claiming responsibility. However, the disappearances are unprecedented in Hong Kong and have shocked the citys publishing industry. Demonstrators on Sunday said the disappearance is part of Chinas gradual process of grinding down freedom and autonomy in the city. The Chinese authorities certainly believe that the stability of the party regime is more important, containment of subversive information is more important, Joseph Cheng, professor at Hong Kongs City University, told Al Jazeera. Syrian government forces and opposition groups battle for control of towns in strategic Quneitra province. Fierce fighting between Syrian government forces and armed opposition groups has continued in the Quneitra province of the countrys southwest as locals report a massive build-up of troops and pro-government militias in several towns. Opposition groups retook Quneitra after the Syrian army briefly controlled it on Saturday, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The escalation of clashes comes just days after the Syrian government launched a major offensive in the Quneitra province, situated on the border of the roughly 70 percent of the Golan Heights under Israeli occupation since 1967. Hezbollah fighters push towards Golan Heights Modar Shanwan, a spokesman for the Revolutionary Command Council in Quneitra and the Golan, a coalition of armed opposition groups, said that government forces breached [the Quneitra province] down the middle and were supported by militias and artillery bombardments. But the revolutionaries recovered control of the Samdaniah village over the weekend, he told Al Jazeera, referring to a village that the Syrian government had taken over on Thursday. Assads militias [later] tried to sneak back in [and] dozens of them were killed. The spokesman also said that government forces had dropped barrel bombs on the area in recent days. READ MORE: Golan Heights New flashpoint in Syria war? In mid-2015, Quneitra-based opposition groups launched an offensive aimed at expelling all government forces from the province. Rebels have expanded their control throughout most of the region. Yet, the Syrian government has maintained control of two key towns in Quneitras countryside, al-Baath and Khan Arnabah, despite rebel groups repeated attempts to overrun them. Abu Omar al-Jolani, a Quneitra-based media activist, said that the Golans hilly, rugged terrain helps the regime and makes it difficult for opposition groups to advance in Khan Arnabah and al-Baath. Controlling this area is important for the regime because it provides a strong line of defence and there is a straight route to the capital, Damascus, he told Al Jazeera. On Saturday, the Syrian army and pro-government fighters, including the Lebanese Hezbollah organisation, pounded the Golan-area town of Mashara with shells and rockets as heavy snowfall hit southwest Syria, according to pro-opposition media. Residents and opposition groups said that government forces are attempting to take over Hamdanieh, a strategic town that rebels have controlled for the last two years. READ MORE: Medicine in Aleppo, the worlds most dangerous city The part of the Golan Heights still under Syrian control has been the target of repeated Israeli air strikes against the government and Hezbollah positions since the conflict started nearly five years ago. Fawaz Gerges, a Lebanese academic and analyst, explained that the region is a very important strategic theatre in the ongoing fighting. The loss of Quneitra would be a painful blow to the Syrian government, he told Al Jazeera. Since the time of Hafez al-Assad [the former president], the government has made the liberation of the Israeli-occupation Golan a main priority. Gerges said that the Golan is part of the Syrian government strategy of promoting itself as part of the resistance [against Israel] and throughout the last year has given Hezbollah and other factions a green light to set up operational bases there. Syrian rebels resist government offensive The ongoing Syrian conflict started as a largely unarmed uprising against President Bashar al-Assad in March 2011, but morphed into a full-blown civil war that has killed more than 250,000 people and turned more than 4.3 million others into refugees, according to statistics by the United Nations. The Syrian Observatory also reported on Friday that at least 4,600 people, including 1,329 civilians, were killed in Syrias violence in December. The monitor estimated that more than 55,000 people were killed in Syrias conflict in 2015. The battlefield is still very much in flux across the country, Gerges said. We dont have a well delineated map of who controls what, or of where the rebel forces exercise control. It changes every day. The Syrian government has really fought tooth and nail to maintain a presence in the area, but the rebels have made a major breakthrough by controlling a major chunk of the Golan. Follow Patrick Strickland on Twitter: @P_Strickland_ Government forces clash with fighters refusing to hand over facility as Arab coalition defends fresh air strikes. Government forces have clashed with fighters for control over the strategic southern port of Aden, Yemeni officials in the southern city say. The officials said on Sunday that fighters believed to be close to al-Qaeda have refused to hand over the port to the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. At least one armed group is reportedly using the port to run lucrative smuggling operations. On Thursday, a drive-by shooting in Aden killed Ahmed al-Idrisi, a senior leader of a pro-government group, just hours after he reluctantly agreed to hand over control of the port to government troops. Security officials said Idrisi publicly backed the government, but maintained secret deals with armed groups and anti-government forces. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to reporters. A loose alliance of Yemeni loyalists, backed by a coalition of mostly Arab countries assembled by Saudi Arabia, reclaimed control of Aden in July. The Arab coalition launched an offensive against Yemens Iran-allied Shia Houthi forces and their allies in March, when Hadi first fled Aden to the Saudi capital, Riyadh. Although the war began with air strikes, the coalition went on to provide ground forces in the war. Pro-government forces have set up a blockade of the capital, Sanaa, as Arab coalition forces continue to launch strikes against the Houthis and their allies. Speaking to Al Jazeera from Riyadh on Sunday, Brigadier-General Ahmed Asiri, spokesman for the coalition, defended the resumption of air strikes. He took issue with a UN report in December saying that more than 100 tonnes of aid was delivered to Taiz. The humanitarian organisation belonging to the UN signed an agreement and they took the money and sent the shipment, he said. But they did not get on the ground to distribute the aid, so it got to the Houthis and they used it to humiliate the people. So why did the UN not condemn this action which prevented people from obtaining food and medicine? At least two attackers remain inside Pathankot base in Punjab state after day-long siege declared over, officials say. An Indian airbase in the northwestern state of Punjab has been rocked by fresh gunfire and blasts, hours after authorities announced that a day-long gun battle was over. A senior federal police official confirmed two gunmen were still holed up in Pathankot airbase on Sunday, after pre-dawn raid on Saturday led to intense fighting in which four attackers and seven Indian military personnel were killed. Saturdays attack, 50km from the border with Pakistan, came just a week after Narendra Modi, Indias prime minister, made an unannounced Pakistan visit to meet his counterpart in a bid to revive bilateral talks that had previously been derailed by armed attacks. Outside the base, rumours had circulated on Sunday morning that more gunmen were still active after Home Minister Rajnath Singh had announced on Saturday that five terrorists had been neutralised. The official body count was only four, however. There was no immediate claim of responsibility but Indias junior home minister hinted at involvement of armed groups based in Pakistan. We have credible information that this attack was sponsored by some elements across the border, Kiren Rijiju, the minister, said in New Delhi on Saturday. Pakistan, however, condemned the attack and said it wanted to build on the goodwill created by the recent high-level contacts. Pakistan remains committed to partner with India as well as other countries in the region to completely eradicate the menace of terrorism, Qazi Khalilullah, foreign ministry spokesman, said in a series of tweets. The defence ministry said on Saturday there had been intelligence reports about a possible attack on military installations in Pathankot, and that the air force had been prepared to thwart any attackers. Due to the effective preparation and coordinated efforts by all the security agencies a group of terrorists were detected by the aerial surveillance platforms as soon as they entered the air force station at Pathankot, the ministry said in a statement. Meanwhile, Indias Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj met a group of diplomats on Sunday for for what was described by the ministry as diplomatic consultations on Pakistan strategy. Indian media reported that the future of a dialogue between India and Pakistan will be decided in the next few days. Explosions and shots heard as local official says gunmen try to enter consulate in city of Mazar-i-Sharif. Gunfights have raged as Afghan forces battle to flush out fighters holed up near the Indian consulate in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, hours after they tried to storm the diplomatic mission. No group has so far claimed responsibility for the raid, as the fighting continued into Monday in the latest in a series of assaults on Indian installations in the country. Up to six assailants mounted the attack from a building close to the consulate in relatively tranquil Balkh province, prompting Afghan forces to cordon off the area. Two loud explosions and gunshots were heard as the gunmen launched the attack, Muneer Ahmad Farhad, a spokesman for the Balkh province governor, said. Al Jazeeras Qais Azimy, reporting from Kabul, quoted police officials as saying that several fully armed men had tried to enter the consulate. They faced resistance from the guards and, instead, entered a house about 100 metres from the consulate and opened fire from there, he said. The house has been surrounded by the Afghan special forces. He said that some casualties had been reported but initial details were scarce. All Indian consular staff were safe, the consul-general confirmed. Security forces are carrying out door-to-door searches in the area and have not ruled out the presence of more attackers. The area is completely blocked by our forces, said Shir Jan Durrani, a police spokesman. We are cautiously conducting our clearance operation to avoid any civilian casualties. Sundays attack came as Indian security forces were still trying to suppress an assault on an airbase near the border with Pakistan that has killed at least seven military personnel and wounded 20 others. A war of words has broken out between Iran and Saudi Arabia after Riyadh announced that Shia religious figure Nimr al-Nimr was among 47 men it had executed on terrorism charges. The Saudi interior ministry announced the executions on Saturday, listing the names of the 47 killed, all of whom had been convicted on charges of terrorism. The government said those convicted had plotted or participated in attacks against residential compounds and government buildings. Nimr, who led anti-government protests in Saudi Arabias east, was previously convicted of sedition, disobedience and bearing arms. Nimr did not deny the political charges against him, but said he never carried weapons or called for violence. Irans Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Sunday that Saudi Arabia faced divine revenge over Nimrs execution, saying the religious leader neither invited people to take up arms nor hatched covert plots. The only thing he did was public criticism. The Iranian foreign ministry had earlier condemned Nimrs execution, calling it the depth of imprudence and irresponsibility on the part of the Saudi government. The Saudi government will pay a heavy price for adopting such policies, said Hossein Jaber Ansari, Irans foreign ministry spokesman. In response, Saudi Arabia summoned the Iranian ambassador to protest against the Tehrans reaction to the execution. The Saudi foreign ministry said in a statement that by condemning the execution, Iran had revealed its true face represented in support for terrorism. The statement, carried by the official Saudi Press Agency, accused Tehran of blind sectarianism and said that by its defence of terrorist acts Iran is a partner in their crimes in the entire region. Saudi Arabian Ministry of Justice spokesman Mansour al-Qufari defended the executions. The judiciary is objective and we deal objectively with the cases on merit, Qufari said. There is no difference between what a person does regardless of his ethnic origin or affiliation, or what he believes. We deal with facts and criminal intent. Hussain al-Shobokshi, a prominent Saudi columnist, told Al Jazeera that Saudi authorities did not differentiate between Shia source of terror and Sunni source of terror. [Saudi Arabia] made sure it saw no difference between any form of terror, as long as it was threatening its people and its economy, he said. Many of the other men whose executions were announced on Saturday had been linked to attacks in the kingdom between 2003 and 2006, blamed on al-Qaeda. Faris al-Zahrani, described by Saudi media as al-Qaedas top religious leader in the kingdom, was one of those executed. An Egyptian citizen and a Chadian citizen were also among the executed, the ministry said. The rest were all Saudis. Following the announcement of the executions, a number of protesters gathered at the Saudi embassy in Irans capital Tehran, to protest Nimrs death. Several of the protesters gained access to the embassy building and started fires, before eventually being removed from the compound by police late on Saturday night. Forty people were arrested over the embassy attack, Iranian authorities said. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called the attack on the Saudi embassy unjustifiable, but also condemned the execution of Nimr, who spent more than a decade studying theology in Iran. Nimr had called for Eastern Province, an oil-rich region where about two million Shia live, to be separated from the rest of Saudi Arabia. He also criticised the government for what he said was the marginalisation of the Shia minority in the country. Gunmen open fire on leftist Gisela Mota of the Democratic Revolution Party at her house in Temixco. The mayor of a city south of Mexicos capital was shot dead less than a day after taking office, officials said. Gunmen opened fire on Mayor Gisela Mota on Saturday at her house in the city of Temixco, said the government of Morelos state, where Temixco is located. Two presumed assailants were killed and three others, including a minor, were arrested after a pursuit, said Morelos security commissioner Jesus Alberto Capella. He said the suspects fired on federal police and soldiers from a vehicle. On his Twitter account, Morelos Governor Graco Ramirez attributed Motas killing to organised crime, without citing a particular drug cartel or gang. Cartels seeking to control communities and towns have often targeted local officials and mayors in Mexico. Motas leftist Democratic Revolution Party released a statement describing her as a strong and brave woman who on taking office as mayor, declared that her fight against crime would be frontal and direct. No impunity Temixco is a city of about 100,000 people neighboring Cuernavaca, a resort and industrial city which has been suffering kidnappings and extortion linked to organised crime groups. Though Cuernavaca is the capital of Morelos, Temixco is the seat of several state institutions including the Public Security Commission, which coordinates state and local police forces. Morelos also neighbours drug cartel-plagued Guerrero state. Mota, who had been a federal congresswoman in her early thirties, was sworn into office on New Years Day. She was killed the following day. Morelos Governor Ramirez vowed there would be no impunity in her killing and promised that state officials would not cede to what he described as a challenge from criminals. Federal and state forces are deployed in Cuernavaca and municipalities near the Guerrero state border in what is called operation Delta. Capella did not provide more details about the attack on Mota, but said that when the suspects were detained, authorities found a 9mm gun, an Uzi, ski masks and an SUV with Mexico State licence plates. Javier Perez Duron, Morelos attorney general, said that the arrested suspects had been tied to other crimes, but declined to provide more details. State of emergency declared as record-breaking floods keep rising over parts of the United States heartland. Floodwaters have continued to rise across central parts of the United States, from the Southern Plains to the Midwest. At least 31 people have lost their lives so far in a series of violent storms that started to sweep across the region prior to Christmas. Missouri and Illinois have been hit particularly hard by the record-breaking and relentless rains. Many river levels across the area are at an all-time high. The rising waters stretch from Missouri and southern Illinois down to eastern Oklahoma, Arkansas and Texas. Many rivers continue to swell and that includes the Mississippi. Twelve Illinois counties have already been declared disaster areas. The mighty river is expected to crest at Thebes, in the south of the state, on Sunday at around 14m. That will be betwen 30cm to 45cm above the 1995 record high. The flooding has been bad enough for President Barack Obama to declare a state of emergency in Missouri. This allows federal aid and enables the Federal Emergency Agency to coordinate disaster relief efforts. Thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes for nearly two weeks. In many areas, the flooding began two or three days before Christmas, and is still ongoing. Levees in Louisiana are being checked daily and oil production has been affected in the region. The Mississippi looks likely to reach flood stage in parts of Memphis, Tennessee by the end of the weekend. Warnings remain in effect across much of the south. The heaviest rain is expected to drift southeastwards over Alabama and the Florida panhandle. Monday promises to be a fine, dry, crisp and sunny day. The waters will take some time to subside, but at least residents will be able to start assessing the damage to their homes. Arab politicians and rights groups decry Netanyahus strive to increase security in Palestinian communities in Israel. Arab political leaders and rights groups have decried Israeli Prime Ministers vow to dramatically increase the police presence in Palestinian communities in Israel following a fatal shooting in Tel Aviv. Two Israelis were killed and several others injured when an assailant opened fire in a bar in central Tel Aviv. Police believe that 29-year-old Neshaat Milhem, a Palestinian citizen of Israel from the Arara village, carried out the attack and is still on the run. We will dramatically increase law enforcement services in the Arab sector, Benjamin Netanyahu told the press on Sunday at the site of the shooting. We will open new police stations, recruit more police officers, go into all the towns and demand of everyone loyalty to the laws of the state. Talk to Al Jazeera Israel-Palestine: Beyond bullets, bombs and bloodshed An estimated 1.7 million Palestinians hold Israeli citizenship and live in cities, towns and villages across the country. Among them Muslims, Christians and Druze, they suffer from dozens of discriminatory laws that stifle their political expression and limit their access to state resources, according to the Adalah Legal Centre for Arab Minority Rights. Jafar Farah, director of the Haifa-based Moussawa rights group, said that increasing law enforcement in Palestinian towns and villages is to ignore the root causes of violent incidents. Netanyahu is using the opportunity to attack the whole community, as he has done for years, he told Al Jazeera. READ MORE: Palestinian lives dont count here More law enforcement is not the solution, Farah said. The solution is to deal with core issues from occupation to systematic discrimination. Farah said that half of Palestinian children in Israel live under the poverty line, while enduring discrimination in the job market, welfare services and access to education. Netanyahu also accused the Palestinian minority of incitement and being gripped by radical Islam, calling on Arab members of Israels parliament, the Knesset, to clearly and unequivocally denounce the deadly shooting in Tel Aviv. I will not accept two nations within Israel: a lawful nation for all its citizens and a [separate] nation within a nation for some of its citizens, in pockets of lawlessness, he said. The attack came after months of escalated violence in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.Protests were sparked as right-wing Israeli settlers carried out frequent incursions into the al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site for Muslims. Unrest has since spread throughout the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Palestinian communities in Israel. Since October 1, Israeli soldiers or settlers have killed at least 143 Palestinians, among them unarmed protesters, bystanders and alleged attackers. Meanwhile, Palestinian assailants have killed 23 Israelis, including soldiers and civilians. Yousef Jabareen, a Palestinian legislator in the Knesset, accused Netanyahu of continuing his campaign of de-legitimisation of the Palestinian minority. This speech was full of incitement against the Arab community, Jabareen, who is in the Joint List electoral coalition of Arab-majority parties, told Al Jazeera. Jabareen argued that the government has ignored gun violence within Palestinian communities for years. The government does nothing about killings in [Arab villages], but now that the same weapons are used against Jews they all of the sudden declare harsh measures. READ MORE: Arabs in Israel decry racial discrmination Nadim Nashif, director of the Haifa-based Baladna youth advocacy group, said increasing the number of police officers in Palestinian areas is yet another step in the wrong direction. The police presence is already there, he told Al Jazeera, explaining that more than 50 Palestinian citizens of Israel have been killed by police since October 2000, when 13 unarmed demonstrators were fatally shot. According to a September 2014 Adalah report, the Israeli government continues to provide wide immunity to the police from being held to account, and protects them from disciplinary measures for their brutal acts of violence and repression. From the 11,282 complaints of police misconduct submitted between 2011 and 2013, Adalah found that only 3.3 percent led to disciplinary action against police officers and a mere 2.7 percent resulted in prosecution. Increasing law enforcement numbers is a kind of green light for police to be more violent, Nashif said, accusing the government of double standards. Obviously no one demolishes the homes of [Jewish] terrorists or threatens their citizenship, and there arent even anymore police when they kill people. Follow Patrick Strickland on Twitter: @P_Strickland_ Shia leader Nimr al-Nimr, who led anti-government protests, and al-Qaeda figure Faris al-Zahrani among those executed. Iranian protesters have broken into the Saudi Arabian embassy in Tehran after Riyadh announced the execution of Shia religious leader Nimr al-Nimr, one of 47 men killed on terrorism charges. The Saudi interior ministry announced the executions on Saturday, listing the names of the 47 killed, all of whom had been convicted on charges of terrorism. The government said those convicted had plotted or participated in attacks against residential compounds and government buildings. Nimr, who led anti-government protests in the countrys east, was previously convicted of sedition, disobedience and bearing arms. Nimr did not deny the political charges against him, but said he never carried weapons or called for violence. Many of the other men executed had been linked to attacks in the kingdom between 2003 and 2006, blamed on al-Qaeda. Faris al-Zahrani, described by Saudi media as al-Qaedas top religious leader in the kingdom, was one of those executed. An Egyptian citizen and a Chadian citizen were also among the executed, the ministry said. The rest were all Saudis. Despite calls for calm from Nimrs brother following the announcement of the executions, a number of protesters gathered at the Saudi embassy in Irans capital Tehran, to protest the religious leaders death. Several of the protesters gained access to the embassy building and started fires, before eventually being removed from the compound by police late on Saturday night. Forty people were arrested over the embassy attack, authorities said. Irans foreign ministry called for calm following the incident, after earlier condemning Nimrs execution, calling it the depth of imprudence and irresponsibility on the part of the Saudi government. The Saudi government will pay a heavy price for adopting such policies, Hossein Jaber Ansari, Irans foreign ministry spokesman, was quoted as saying by the semi-official Fars news agency. Irans Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned on Sunday that divine vengeance will befall Saudi politicians over Nimrs execution. The Saudi government summoned the Iranian ambassador to protest against Irans reaction to the execution, saying Iran had revealed its true face represented in support for terrorism. Elsewhere, dozens of people marched through Bahrains capital to protest the executions, while in London, people gathered outside the Saudi embassy, voicing their support for Nimr. Other protests were held in Pakistan and Yemen. There were also protests within Saudi Arabia, with people taking to the streets in the eastern town of Al-Awamiya. The US state department said Nimrs execution risked exacerbating sectarian tensions at a time when they urgently need to be reduced, while UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was deeply dismayed by the executions. Saudi Arabian authorities, however, defended the executions. Ministry of Justice spokesman Mansour al-Qufari said: The judiciary is objective and we deal objectively with the cases on merit. There is no difference between what a person does regardless of his ethnic origin or affiliation, or what he believes. We deal with facts and criminal intent. Hussain al-Shobokshi, a prominent Saudi columnist, told Al Jazeera that Saudi authorities did not differentiate between Shia source of terror and Sunni source of terror. [Saudi Arabia] made sure it saw no difference between any form of terror, as long as it was threatening its people and its economy, he said. Nimr spent more than a decade studying theology in predominantly Shia Iran. He had called for Eastern Province, an oil-rich region where about two million Shia live, to be separated from the rest of Saudi Arabia. He also criticised the government for what he said was the marginalisation of the Shia minority in the country. Iranian diplomatic mission asked to leave the kingdom within 48 hours as Saudis evacuate embassy staff from Tehran. Saudi Arabia has announced it is severing diplomatic ties with Iran following Saturdays attack on its embassy in Tehran during protests against executions in the kingdom. Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi foreign minister, made the announcement on Sunday while the foreign ministry said it was asking Iranian diplomatic mission to leave the kingdom within 48 hours. The Saudi foreign ministry also announced that the staff of its diplomatic mission had been evacuated and were on their way back to the kingdom. Later reports said the flight carrying the Saudi embassy staff had landed in Dubai in the UAE. Saudi Arabias interior ministry announced on Saturday the execution of 47 people on terrorism charges, including a convicted al-Qaeda leader and a Shia religious leader. Many of the men executed had been linked to attacks in Saudi Arabia between 2003 and 2006, blamed on al-Qaeda. READ MORE: The oil price, Iran and Saudis economy Four of those executed were said to be Shia. Nimr al-Nimr, the Shia leader, was accused of inciting violence and leading anti-government protests in the countrys east in 2011. He was convicted of sedition, disobedience and bearing arms. He did not deny the political charges against him, but said he never carried weapons or called for violence. Nimr spent more than a decade studying theology in predominantly Shia Iran. His execution prompted demonstrations in a number of countries, with protesters breaking into the Saudi embassy in Tehran late on Saturday night and starting fires. At Sundays press conference in Riyadh, Jubeir said the Saudi diplomatic representative had sought help from the Iranian foreign ministry when the building was stormed, but the requests were ignored three times. He accused the Iranian authorities of being complicit in the attack, saying that documents and computers were taken from the embassy building. Calling the incident an act of aggression, he said Iran had a history of violating diplomatic missions, citing the attacks on the US embassy in Tehran in 1979 and the British embassy in 2011. These ongoing aggressions against diplomatic missions are a violation of all agreements and international conventions, he said, calling them part of an effort by Iran to destabilise the region. Speaking to Al Jazeera from Beirut, Lebanon, Joseph Kechichian, a Middle East analyst, said the Saudi decision was quite a surprise. This is an escalation that will create havoc in the region, he said, referring to the latest developments. Iranian action Earlier on Sunday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani ordered the arrest and prosecution of individuals involved in the embassy attack, while also condemning the execution of Nimr. Asked at the press conference what other steps the Saudis would take against Iran, Jubeir said we will cross each bridge when we will get to it. We are determined not to allow Iran to undermine our security, he said. Ellie Geranmayeh, an Iran expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said the Saudi decision was likely to have repercussions for the region, particularly concerning the Syrian negotiations. Western powers must increase efforts to safeguard this process and encourage the Saudis and Iran to continue their participation [in the Syria peace talks], she told Al Jazeera from London. These events further set back the urgently needed rapprochement between Tehran and Riyadh, and spell further trouble for an already fragile region. ISIL bombers blamed for attacks on military base near Tikrit and in Haditha as battle for control of Ramadi continues. Two suicide attacks blamed on the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group have killed dozens of government troops in Iraq. At least 13 Iraqi soldiers died in Sundays attack on police training at the Spiecher military base near the city of Tikrit, while an attack in Haditha killed 18 people. Another 22 were wounded in the attacks by suicide bombers on the base, a former US military facility north of Baghdad, where a large group of police forces from Nineveh, a northern province, were undergoing training. Two bombers detonated their vehicle-borne explosives at the western gate while three others blew themselves up after entering the section of the base where Iraqi police are being trained, according to police and military sources in the Salahuddin operations command. Under the cover of fog, they broke into Speicher, said Mahmud al-Sorchi, spokesperson for the paramilitary force being set up to take back ISIL-held Nineveh. Nineveh police managed to kill seven attackers but three were able to detonate their suicide vests. ISIL claimed responsibility for the blasts in a statement distributed by supporters online, adding that trainers from the rejectionist army were targeted. Speicher is located in Salahuddin, which was one of the provinces conquered by ISIL when it swept across much of Iraqs Sunni Arab heartland in June 2014. ISIL fighters have launched a number of attacks since losing control of the city of Ramadi in the western province of Anbar a week ago. INTERACTIVE: Enemy of Enemies The Rise of ISIL After taking the strategic government complex in the centre of Ramadi, elite counterterrorism forces have been expanding their control and searching each neighbourhood for ISIL fighters and trapped civilians. Over the last 24 hours, Iraqi forces have cleared several more hundred square metres of the city, said Colonel Steve Warren, spokesperson of the US-led coalition whose trainers and aircraft helped Iraqi forces retake Ramadi. We dont think the enemy has enough combat power in downtown Ramadi to be able to recapture the city. We havent seen anything more than small teams of ISIL fighters [four to eight individuals] trying to conduct harassing attacks. Reversal of open-door policy follows acute accommodation shortage, with 160,000 people seeking asylum in one year. Sweden has begun ID controls as part of the governments efforts to limit the number of refugees entering the country. Everyone entering Sweden from midnight on Sunday by bus, train or ferry from Denmark will be checked and those lacking valid ID documents will be turned back. Sweden, which until recently was known as one of the most welcoming countries in the world for people fleeing wars, has said it can no longer cope as the influx of refugees and migrants reaches record numbers. With more than 160,000 asylum-seekers arriving to the country of 9.5 million in 2015, mainly from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, accommodation for new arrivals is running out. READ MORE: Sweden doubling the number of refugees as centres burn We must get the number of asylum seekers down. ID controls are one way to achieve this, Morgan Johansson, justice and migration minister, said in December. Of those seeking asylum in Sweden in 2015, about 80 percent lacked passports or equivalent IDs at the time of filing their applications, according to the Swedish Migration Agency. The controls follow the reintroduction of border checks in Germany, Austria, France, Belgium and several other European countries. The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, has said refugees will face increasingly slim chances of asylum in Europe should more countries follow Sweden and impose stricter entry requirements. Mattias Axelsson, UNHCR spokesman in northern Europe, said governments must understand that refugees are under tremendous strain and that those fleeing do not always have the possibility to bring ID documents. You cant expect that those who have the right to asylum also have the right documents with them from the beginning, that is simply impossible, he told Swedish news agency TT. We follow this with growing concern. Besides refugees, ID controls will have a big effect on passengers travelling from Denmark, as about 70,000 people many of them commuters cross the Oresund bridge each day. The plans have been heavily criticised by operators and commuters on both sides of the strait, as the controls are expected to add at least half an hour to a journey that normally takes 35 minutes. Rights groups have also been critical, saying that the ID controls are part of measures that limit refugees possibilities to seek asylum. Sweden has seen a decrease in the number of people seeking asylum in recent weeks, following news of tighter border checks and stricter rules for residency permits. In November, the Migration Agency said Sweden was no longer able to provide shelter for all asylum seekers, saying families with children would be given priority. Child dies and 39 people are rescued after rubber dinghy which set off from Turkey hits rocks off Greek islands. A two-year-old boy has become the first known refugee in 2016 to drown trying to reach Europe after the dinghy he was travelling on crashed into rocks, Greek coastguard says. The other 39 passengers on board were rescued on Sunday after fishermen alerted coastguard, but at least 10 were taken to hospital to be treated for hypothermia after the boat got into trouble near the island of Agathonisi. The rubber vessel set off from Turkey in the early morning in windy weather, AFP news agency reported. The charity Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS), which helps save people at sea, deployed its fast-rescue Responder boat to help bring the stranded passengers to safety in a joint operation with the Hellenic coastguard. The toddlers body was pulled out of the water by fishermen, according to the coastguard. The DPA news agency said the boys name was Khalid. There was no information about the nationalities of those rescued. In another refugee-related development, the Turkish coastguard rescued 57 people who were stranded on a tiny island in the Aegean Sea after attempting to reach Greece. The state-run Anadolu news agency says helicopters evacuated 12 people including three sick children from the islet near the Turkish coastal town of Dikili in Izmir province, the Associated Press news agency said on Sunday. No casualties were reported after the incident. The flow of refugees into Europe has continued into 2016 despite the tightening of borders by Balkan and eastern European states between Greece and northern Europe. Many refugees make the sea journey between Turkey and Greece on overcrowded boats and rubber vessels, often left to their fate by people traffickers. More than 3,800 refugees died trying to get into Europe in 2015. Head of committee investigating abuses by UK soldiers is confident of legal action, but rights groups criticise delays. The head of a special team investigating alleged abuses by British soldiers in Iraq has said hes confident there will be sufficient evidence for prosecutions. Mark Warwick, the head of the UKs Iraq Historic Allegations Team (IHAT) says his investigators are obtaining significant evidence, which includes serious allegations of murder and unlawful killing. I feel there is significant evidence to be obtained to put a strong case before the Service Prosecuting Authority to prosecute and charge, Warwick said. It now has a caseload of more than 1,500 alleged victims, including 280 said to have been unlawfully killed by British forces. But human rights lawyers are deeply concerned about how long the investigations are taking, and whether Warwicks confidence is justified. They point out that since IHAT was set up in 2010, there have been no actual prosecutions as a result of its investigations. China says flight to artificial island in contested part of South China Sea was completely within its sovereignty. Vietnam has accused China of violating its sovereignty by landing a plane on an airstrip on an artificial island in a contested part of the South China Sea. Le Hai Binh, foreign ministry spokesperson, said on Saturday the airfield had been built illegally on Fiery Cross Reef in the Spratly archipelago, in territory that was part of Vietnams Spratlys. Chinas foreign ministry rejected the complaint, arguing that the flight was a matter completely within Chinas sovereignty, the state news agency Xinhua reported. Hua Chunying, the ministrys spokesperson, said the country used a civil aircraft to conduct the flight to test whether the airfield facilities meet civil-aviation standards. The US said it was concerned that the flight had exacerbated tensions. The US has criticised Chinas construction of artificial islands in the South China Sea and worries that China plans to use them for military purposes, even though China says it has no hostile intent. Hanois foreign ministry said Vietnam handed a protest note to Chinas embassy and asked China not to repeat the action. It called the flight a serious infringement of the sovereignty of Vietnam on the Spratly archipelago. China claims almost all the South China Sea, which is believed to have huge deposits of oil and gas, and through which about $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year, and has been building up facilities on the islands it controls. It completed an airfield on Fiery Cross Reef that security experts say could accommodate most Chinese military aircraft late last year. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Taiwan also have rival claims in the South China Sea. Civilians in towns along the Syria-Lebanon border are struggling to survive. Fighting from within, bombed from above, and now starvation. Syrias struggling population continues to dwindle as lives are lost to war and hunger. More than half of all Syrians are in need of humanitarian assistance. The UN says it is unable to help around two million children because theyre blocked by fighting or siege. In some areas, the price of food has skyrocketed so that a kilogramme of rice now costs $100. While civilians are starving in Syrian towns, the international community is stalled on a political solution. Opposition groups are meeting in the Saudi capital of Riyadh this week. They are trying to determine who will be included in negotiations scheduled for later this month talks aimed at preventing Syrias civil war from going into a sixth year. Inside Story takes a look at the besieged towns of Zabadani and Madaya, once popular resorts which are now in ruins, and asks who will ease the suffering of civilians still trapped in Syria? Presenter: Sami Zeidan Guests: Fadi Al-Qadi Human rights advocate and commentator Wael Aleji Spokesperson for the Syrian Network for Human Rights Mouin Rabbani Middle East analyst and former Head of Political Affairs for the UN special envoy for Syria Scientists are studying the worlds deadliest viruses to find treatments and vaccines for new infectious diseases. In todays hyper connected world, viruses can spread faster than ever, but thanks to science some of the worst infectious, microscopic agents like smallpox have been eradicated. Some, like the measles, continue to plague us, and then there are newer ones like Avian bird flu, SARS and Ebola. Emerging viruses cause about two thirds of the newly-recognised diseases in the world, says Ronald Corley, the director of the National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories (NEIDL) where a select group of scientists study the deadliest pathogens on the planet to understand their evolution. So who are these virus hunters, and what makes them tick? TechKnows Lindsay Moran, a former CIA operative and analyst, joins the virus hunters in Boston to head into a biosafety level four lab before it becomes operational. She learns from them why Ebola is not their biggest concern and that the next deadly disease could very well be something we already know about. The kind of pathogens NEIDL is interested in are those which are considered exotic and cause very high levels of mortality for which we have no thereuptics or vaccines, says Corley. To study these agents and to find out how they infiltrate humans, the scientists need to contain them. We take an in-depth tour of the facility to see how NEIDL is gearing up to contain and study these deadly viruses. The building has one-foot concrete walls and is earthquake resistant. Scientists have to wear special suits and go through comprehensive security background checks. To even get the facility up and running, the outside community requested an exhaustive risk assessment. Corley believes that the next outbreak is likely to come from animals, from what are known as spillover viruses. We speak to Paul Duprex, the director of cell and tissue imaging, to learn how viruses jump species, from animals to humans. Duprex also studies measles, which he explains is the most infectious human pathogen on the planet it beats Ebola, it beats flu. TechKnow presenter Shini Somara also heads to Texas Tech Universitys National Wind Institute to see how researchers have recreated a tornado so that scientists can better understand how tornados work and how they can make buildings safer. Even allowing for journalistic hyperbole, the phrase "reinventing the jazz piano trio" was a doozy. It all seemed a bit "Emperor's new clothes" or, as my late mother used to put it, "new coat and no knickers." For a time in the noughties, British critics variously applied the phrase toand even. One wondered what these writers knew ofor of, our subject here.Riley made a series of albums in the late sixties and early seventies that took thetemplate and added to it the new sensibilities made possible by free jazz. What is more he did it on a small island thousands of miles from New York, Chicago, Philadelphia or LA. Bassistwas a constant through these recordings, which began with Discussions in 1968 withon drums, beforetook over for Angle (1969) and The Day Will Come (1970). Whenreplaced Jackson for Flight (1971) and Synopsis (1973), he and Guy added electronics to the trio's already formidable sonic palette. As the Bible notes, "and there is no new thing under the sun." (Ecclesiastes 1:9)These three releases offer an opportunity to hear how Riley's art developed from its very confident beginnings in 1960, aged seventeen, to its early maturity. Riley himself sees his development as an evolutionary process, where change is a constant but where part of any discovery can be retained or, if discarded, be recovered later. Arguably, it's a process that better describes jazz than one characterized primarily by periodic revolutions or reinventions.The Dusk Fire reissue of Discussions improves on the previous Jazzprint release in several respects. Piano and bass have gained greatly from remastering, though this has also increased the prominence of the drums in the mix, not always to best effect. However, remastering has made evident how far Riley and his colleagues were extending the harmonic potential of the piano trio. One senses here, as with Evans/LaFaro/Motian, a trio of equals rather than just piano and rhythm and a music in a state of constant evolution. The other valuable addition with this reissue is the inclusion of two tracks recorded by a Riley trio in 1960 in a bar Sheffield, when he was still too young to order a pint at the bar of Huddersfield's Grenier Blanc, where these numbers were recorded!Even allowing for a youngster's tendency to overplay his hand, the versions here of "Just One of Those Things" and "September in the Rain" are extraordinarily precocious and reveal some serious listening to. The rhythm section of Malcolm Kaye on bass and Ray Binns on drums is none too shabby either. As Riley puts it, "If you heard me in Huddersfield in 1960, I was playing changes. If you heard me in London in the late 60s and early 70s, you'd have heard me playing free music because that was the logical thing after playing changes and set forms...Some things you just exhaust and, then when you get older, it becomes a case of pulling it together and hopefully that's where I'm at now." Asnoted, jazz is a "how" and not a "what." What Evans,anddid between 1959-1961 was create a situation for the jazz piano trio where each player was an equal and where responsibility time, rhythm and even melody lay with each musician. Discussions shows how far Riley, Guy and Hiseman have taken that lesson on board.The most obvious comparison lies with a number Evans would return to time and again,' "Nardis." Evans recorded "Nardis" with LaFaro and Motian on Explorations in 1959, arguably before the legendary Village Vanguard sessions so completely opened up the possibilities for dialogue within his trio. Like Evans, the Riley version here leads early on into a bass solo, which was itself a break with convention. However, the Evan's take on the piece is slower, more reflective and less dynamicnot much by way of "dancing in the chequered shade," as critic Brian Morton once wrote about Evans. The mood is stately and poised and Motian's role is largely restricted to keeping time, albeit beautifully, on brushes.Riley's take is immediately brighter, the feeling much more con brio. The musicians are freed up more behind the soloist and Hiseman, in particular, is given freer rein than just keeping time. If the impression of that first great Evans' trio remains throughout Discussions it is as an acknowledged reference point, revealing at the same time how far and, in terms of Evans' later work, how presciently Riley et al were moving beyond the template.Discussions featured three covers"Nardis," "Sweet and Lovely" and "What's New." It is, however, the Riley originals which show how far the Riley trio were pushing the piano trio format. "Romance" reminded me of a Jacques Brel tune, "Les Bonbons." It is a ballad, beautifully weighted and largely a feature for Barry Guy. "Sunflower" is a brief essay in mood with arco bass from Guy. The music has an intensity that surprises even more when one realizes that it is built largely upon a simple melodic figure that is repeated with variation. "Children at Play" simultaneously suggests the frantic excitement of childhood but also the darker, potentially risky and disturbing aspects of play. It prefigures in some ways the music the Riley group would make on the next album, Angle. It is angular, spiky with just a hint of the Gothic. Hiseman's drums skitter around the fringes of an, at times, claustrophobic dialogue between Riley and Guy, again on bowed bass. Then positions and sparring partners shift, as in play, echoing perhaps the easy distractions of childhood. It lasts just five minutes and, yet, is more a little drama unfolding than just the glimpse indicated by its title, made all the more surprising by the fact that it is largely structured around two short, recurring motifs. Each musician plays beautifully but Hiseman is quite astonishing here."Spring is Here" could almost qualify as a "Desert Island Disc." One could call it an 'almost ballad.' It is quite open harmonically and played largely rubato by the trio but with a remarkable feeling of ebb and flow. This is exceptional group playing by any standards. The version of "What's New" that follows is a long walk from the Peggy Lee take of disappointment and self-protection. It also shifts along at a hell of a lick! Riley's solo is powerful and driving and, once more, the level of group interplay and communication is quite palpable. After its familiar opening statement, it becomes an entirely new composition and the return of theme at the end actually comes as a surprising reminder of where it began. One suspects that the title of "Folk Theme No. 1" was intentionally ironic, though bizarrely it does suggest a country hoedown, albeit in a parallel universe inhabited by hobgoblins or the like. It is quite delightful and another example of Riley's playful love of more Gothic elements in music.Discussions is one of the rarest of jazz releases. Only ninety-nine copies were pressed, staying just below the Purchase Tax threshold. A mint copy can sell to a Japanese collector or Russian oligarch for as much as 1200/$1800. Rather makes the Dusk Fire release at 9/$14 a snip at twice the price.I bought Angle in a remainder sale a year or so after its release. Though I never entirely understood its oblique, abstract and, I have to say it, 'angular' qualities at the time, I kept it. It has grown slowly in my affections but there is something about the sound on this Hux Records' issue that finely allows its fragile beauty full expression. Released here as a pair with the remarkable The Day Will Come, one of the finest jazz piano trio records ever made, Angle may perhaps finds its rightful place and be recognized for music that was, in its quiet way, several decades ahead of its time.A certain dark atmosphere pervades several tracks on Angle, a sense heightened by the fact that the second track references Mervin Peake's Gothic masterpiece, "Gormenghast." At times, the music and its interior dialogues and trialogues seem so intense that they might combust. I think it is this that made it hard for me all those years ago to penetrate this multi-layered music. Both the opener "Exit" and "Gormenghast" are cases in point. The former begins with a scale, ascending and descending, before establishing its eight-bar theme as the basis for improvisation. The sound balance between the three instruments is very clear and precise, proof that this was a recording for a major label. Listen to how Guy solos as Riley punctuates his playing first with single notes, one per bar, then with a series of quaver triplets and then with rising and stabbing chords. It's a bravura moment, indeed."Gormenghast" is, arguably, the great Gothic fantasy novel and Riley focuses more on its humour perhaps than on its brooding melancholia. The track is taken at a fast tempo with Riley soloing against the rhythm section at times. Alan Jackson is one of the finest and most versatile drummers but his playing on Angle and The Day Will Come fits Riley's aesthetic to perfection. Jackson has great time but also an openness and freeness and an instinctive grasp of how and when only the unexpected will suffice. He makes the music breathe. Riley's need to feed a sometimes demanding and exacting muse is evident on the brief "S & S." Listen and imagine a miniature painting by George Grosz, if you will. And yet "Fragment," the ballad that follows reveals Riley's romantic side. Surprisingly, I have never heard anyone else do this number and yet it has the makings of a jazz standard. Perhaps the fact that much of it is in free time might put players off but there are many saxophonists I can think of who could steal this one and make it their own. Riley's own playing is lush and his chording at one point is wonderfully rich and expansive. Much of the piece is built around a dialogue between Riley and Guy but, again, the degree of empathy is quite astonishing. It is worth hearing just for the superior pianism of Riley's touch at the keyboard, different from that of Bill Evans but in its own way just as marvellous.The title track switches tempo so frequently, it is hard to identify its underlying pulse. At times it seems like 4/4, then more like 12/8. Its title should probably be taken more as a description of the way the musicians relate to each other than as a description of the music itself. Its pace and dynamic must have been a challenge even for guys this talented. By this point references to other pianists or styles are superfluous. Riley is his own creation, as is Barry Guy. His arco solo here is a bravura performance but then Riley's own solo has a sense of flow and a lyricism all of its own. As for Jackson, one can imagine many a young player listening open-mouthed and praying inside for the imagination and sheer creativity that makes his contribution both so right and so highly personal. At one point, he adds these clipped martial fills behind Guy that at first surprise but which are simply perfect. His cymbal work is also second to none."Aftermath" calms things down and is really a feature for Jackson, who solos moving freely around the theme played by Riley and Guy. Perhaps the oddity here is the three movement piece "Three Fragments For Flute and Piano." Entirely through-composed, it features Riley and that exceptionally gifted woodwind player. The feel here is very much that of the European, post-Darmstadt art music of the time, though it also reminded me of a record of Alan Rawsthorne's chamber music that I have. I happen to like it and it offers a relief, if needed, from the intensity of that which has gone before. It also prefigures the direction that Riley's music would take in the late seventies and eighties.The final track, "Gill" is best heard as a three-way group improvisationor group therapy?led first by Riley, then by Guy. Built from the slightest of materials, the immediate impression is of music emerging in the moment from the minds and hands of its makers. My slight reservation is of its placing at the end of this record. Its fragmentary and once again 'angular' qualities would sit better towards the centre of the record, allowing perhaps "Aftermath" to function as a kind of coda to the album. That said, it is an exceptional piece of group improvisation by three men still in their twenties and in Guy's case just twenty-two years old.If Discussions was a calling card and Angle an announcement, then their successor was a declaration. With The Day Will Come, one hears a new lyricism in Riley's own playing as well as a gloriously, almost classical pianistic touch. One of the reasons the music works so well lies in its use of contrast. Certainly some tracks, for example the opener "Sphere" and "Winter" echo the intense introspection of Angle, but now their expressive potential is fully realized. There is something in these three players' abilities to lend just the right amount of emotional weight to each note or beat that grips the attention. Just four descending notes from Riley's left hand underpin "Winter" and, yet, you have that same feeling that you get when you have just read a really good short story. You have to go back, read it again and ask, "Did that really just happen?"Writing duties on The Day Will Come are shared with Barry Guy. Again, the contrast between their writing styles further extends the palette used on Angle. Guy's "Dawn Vision," "Games" and "Playtime" are cases in point. Guy seems to bring out the more expansive, lighter (though no less substantial) side to Riley's playing. "Dawn Vision" and "Games" are marked by their epic sense of poise and grandeur. On the former, Riley really attacks the theme and his use of its melody line in his solo is quite uplifting. "Playtime" is well worth comparing with Riley's "Children at Play" from Discussions. The mood is subtly different. Simply, Guy's tune is playful and spirited, where Riley's hints at an underlying darkness. And there is a classical, richly romantic aspect to the opening ninety seconds of "Games" that I don't think would have come from Riley's pen. At the same time, all of these twelve tunes are realized in performance not on the page. They become what they are, realize their characters through interaction. Change one element, you change it all."Games" is one of the finest pieces on the record, which is given a bravura reading here. I suspect that every time one plays this album something fresh will strike the listener. Re-listening for this review, I heard Guy's "High" in a new light for its almost filmic qualities. The sheer unadulterated tenderness of Riley's playing on "Deeper" is immediately striking, a sense only heightened by the drama of "Games" which follows. The title track nags away at the memory but the record's finest moment comes with Riley's long "Funeral Song," which builds from its quiet, stuttering beginnings into something of sad, elegiac beauty. It may well be the most beautiful thing Riley ever recorded.Jackson, a phenomenally active drummer in that period, left after The Day Will Come with Tony Oxley coming in his place. In 1971, Peter Eden's short-lived Turtle imprint brought out Flight and the trio later made Synopsis (1973)for Incus (later reissued by EMANEM), whilst a further unissued analogue recording, Overground was released on CD in 2001 (EMANEM). Sadly, though there has been so much else to treasure, the only other piano trio albums Riley has made are Wishing on the Moon (FMR 1995) with the very fine drummerand equally impressive bassistand Organic from 1979 (Jazzprint) with Guy andon drums and cornet. All of these are highly recommended and obtainable.Riley wrote his own sleevenotes for the original release of Angle and his words speak even more loudly and relevantly now. They serve also as a statement of an artistic life richly lived:"The contributing musician of today, whether composer and/or performer, is singularly fortunate in that he or she is dealing directly with emotion and intellect, a re-affirmation of expressive virtues which is very necessary in a society controlled by mass media. The success or otherwise of this venture can never be judged in terms of level of acceptance in such a society. The music business and music are two very different things which can only meet under special and rarely encountered conditions."I wish I'd written that. The recent flap at Wheaton College, an Evangelical college near Chicago, caused by Dr. Larcyia Hawkins donning a Muslim hijab to stand in religious solidarity with Muslims because Christians and Muslims believe in the same God, touched off a spate of opinion pieces on whether or not Hawkins is correct. Some supported her contention and some did not. Reader comments after most of these essays were split as well, but the majority clearly supported the no we dont worship the same God position. The opinions offered in the no we dont essays, are based on the theology that Christians worship a loving, merciful but just triune God of reason -- God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, while Muslims pray to a demanding and unreasonable God who condones murdering nonbelievers, honor killing, polygamy, and keeping women subservient and uneducated, etc. The Muslim God is clearly not the same God that is worshipped by Christians. If the doctrine of monotheism is correct, the yes we do arguments goes, then there is only one true God. As such, all monotheistic religions are worshipping this same God, even though each religion may have a different name for God and a different understanding of the nature of God. Additionally, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all worship the God of Abraham initially revealed in the Old Testament. They part company when it comes to discerning the nature of God and exactly what He expects of us. Both sides in this argument have valid points. Assuming the God of Abraham is the one true God and Christians, Jews, and Muslims all worship the God of Abraham, they all do worship the same God. But since Muslims have a vastly different understanding of the nature of God, as revealed by Muhammed, they are, in effect, worshiping a different God. It is also quite possible that question itself is moot, much like the question, is the glass half full or half empty. I once wondered what God thinks of all this arguing and debating about Him and what He expects from us but then I quickly realized that Hes known all along that we would be arguing and debating about his nature and what He expects from us. And He also knows how its all going to turn out in the end. In the meantime the debate will continue because, like some sage once said, nothing sparks more argument and disagreement than religion or politics. Even amongst Christians the nature of God, how we should worship Him, and what He expects of us is still debated. While Protestant Christians and Catholic Christians both believe in the same triune God, they interpret Jesus teachings in the New Testament differently, so they have different doctrines regarding how people should live and worship, and on what is required in order to attain salvation. And lets not forget that there are liberal and conservative/traditional Protestant and Catholic Christians who also have opinions on the matter. Liberal Christians believe that the God they pray to approves of (all or some combination of) homosexuality, gay marriage, transgenderism or transsexuality, contraception, divorce, artificial insemination, abortion, and euthanasia. Conservative/traditional Christians believe the God they pray to does not condone any of these sinful acts. Clearly both sides cannot be right in their understanding of what God condones, so the Muslim God vs. the Christian God argument kind of fits this situation as well: Even though they both believe in the same triune God, it sounds like Liberal Christians and conservative Christians must really believe in different Gods. But theres another way to look at the question of whether or not Muslims, Christians, Jews and others worship the same God. To wit, five good, kind, prayerful God-fearing adults a Protestant, a Catholic, a Jew, a Muslim and a Mormon survive a shipwreck and each ends up on his or her own life raft floating in the ocean. They all pray to God asking Him to save them. Will God listen to only the prayer of one of these individuals because the others dont have their theology correct? In all likelihood, God will hear all of their prayers because we are all His children regardless of what name we give Him, or what the doctrine that we follow says about His nature. But the doctrine we each decide to follow will make a big difference in how we live our lives and probably in how we will be judged by Him when we die. The sad thing is that even though we are now living in the 21st century and think of ourselves as fairly advanced, intelligent human beings, too many people throughout the world are content to live out their lives in ignorance, preferring to be led around by the nose, believing whatever drivel they are told because it takes too much effort, or too much courage, to seek the truth. In closed cultures, like that of many of the Islamic countries in the Mideast, people are discouraged and even prohibited from investigating the doctrines of other religions on pain of death. A good education is simply not a readily available commodity in some parts of the Mideast, and in some areas what education there is may consist solely of radical Imams using the Koran for a textbook and making their students memorize selected passages. Out of such a tightly focused, limited education, come radical Islamic extremists. But even in the U.S. some people blindly accept what they are told because some self-ordained preacher has convinced his flock that he is correctly interpreting Gods Word. The folks at the Westboro Baptist Church come immediately to mind. But just as disturbing as ignorance due to a poor education, is ignorance born of hubris. The newest craze is a rising segment of the population who say they are spiritual but not religious. Belonging to an organized religion is just not their cup of tea, so instead they belong to the Church of me where they get to decide all by themselves how they should worship God, how they should live their lives, what God expects of them, what is true and what is false, what is moral and what is not, and so on. No question about it its a lot easier to make up your own rules as you go along and just follow your own conscience. But In a court of law ignorance of the law, no matter the cause, is not allowed as a defense, and making up your own laws is frowned upon as well. Chances are when we stand before our maker awaiting judgement He wont accept ignorance as a valid defense either, especially since the truth really is out there and is readily available to all who seek it. As a Catholic who questioned Catholic teaching for a while as a young man, and then spent a great deal of time learning about what all the other religions teach and why, I came to the conclusion that Jesus Christ is, as He said, the way and the truth and the light, and that Catholic doctrine correctly interprets His teachings. Probably because of my own questioning I have compassion for other Christians and members of other religions who have not come to this same conclusion. So I encourage people to thoroughly explore the doctrines of their own and other religions, including examining the pros and cons on the various doctrinal differences (the apologetics offered by theologians of each religion), before settling on a system of beliefs. The beginning of each new year sees many people making New Years Resolutions and setting new goals. While goals and resolutions are good, most of us usually think in terms of worldly goals that center on a career or money or fame. But when all is said and done, we should have one overriding goal: Get to Heaven. This is not an easy thing to do especially because, to paraphrase John 17:14, far too many of us are of the world instead of being not of the world. Reverend John Piper recently wrote an essay advocating Christian pacifism in the face of mortal threats to life and limb. The following is a detailed rebuttal. "As chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary, I want to send a different message to our students, and to the readers of Desiring God, than Jerry Falwell, Jr. sent to the students of Liberty University in a campus chapel service on December 4... The apostle Paul called Christians not to avenge ourselves, but to leave it to the wrath of God, and instead to return good for evil." (All quotes from Reverend John Piper) It is not possible, nor does it depend on us, to live peaceably with Sharia-loving totalitarian Muslim jihadists, or with totalitarian Marxists or Fascists, because totalitarian control of the great mass of people by a small self-serving oligarchy, religious or secular, requires destruction of the people's God-given unalienable rights to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. It is not evil to oppose, resist, and destroy evil, and will not be confused with repaying evil for evil in the minds of right-minded American Christians. Reverend Jerry Falwell, Jr. has not called for Christians to arm themselves in order to enact vengeance against Muslim jihadists, or other murderers, rather he has expressed the intuitive, natural, God-given human instinct for self-defense and survival. Reverend John Piper has thus constructed a nonexistent straw man, named it Jerry Falwell, Jr., and then attempted to rhetorically take him down. "And then he [the Apostle Paul] said that God gave the sword (the gun) into the hand of governmental rulers to express that wrath in the pursuit of justice in this world..." Unlike the tyrannies of ancient times, and unlike modern Fascist or Marxist Dictatorships or Islamo-Fascist dictatorships, as stated in our Declaration of Independence, the United States was founded on the God-given rights of His created people. The Apostle Paul correctly tells us to obey good government, but it is self-evident from both ancient and modern history that many governments become tyrannical and evil as they destroy the people's human rights, and thus their God-given human dignity and value. Evil tyrannical governments are a terror to good conduct, are not instituted by God -- as with Pharaoh of Exodus -- and become God's enemy, not God's servant. Resistance to evil tyrannical government will not incur God's judgment, rather the opposite, evil tyrannical government will incur God's judgment. "Any claim that in a democracy the citizens are the government, and therefore may assume the role of the sword-bearing ruler in Romans 13, is elevating political extrapolation over biblical revelation. When Paul says, '[The ruler] does not bear the sword in vain' (Romans 13:4), he does not mean that Christians citizens should all carry swords so the enemy doesnt get any bright ideas." The American Republic, properly administered, does in fact deliver power to the people who, through their amendable Constitution, are the government. Therefore, We the People do assume the role of sword-bearing ruler as in Romans 13, thus bringing just political power into compliance with Biblical revelation. It is irrational, and I would add immoral, to assert that our American Government has an obligation to wield the sword in defense of its people, but not the people themselves. "The apostle Peter teaches us that Christians will often find themselves in societies where we should expect and accept unjust mistreatment without retaliation... Peters aim for Christians as sojourners and exiles on the earth is not that we put our hope in the self-protecting rights of the second amendment, but in the revelation of Jesus Christ in glory (1 Peter 1:7, 13; 4:13; 5:1). His aim is that we suffer well and show that our treasure is in heaven, not in self-preservation." Yes, of course, if we suffer injustice and sorrow because of our Christian faith, we will be rewarded in Heaven, but that is not the same as passively allowing others, particularly those people comprising an evil government, to physically maim or kill us our families or our neighbors without exercising self-defense for self-preservation. We should rejoice if we must suffer or die as Christians, but we are not commanded by the Apostle Peter that we must suffer and die, or to passively allow the suffering and death of our children or neighbors at the hands of evil people such as murderers, Islamic Jihadists, other terrorists or evil government. Peter's aim is not that we should suffer well, but that we should suffer well if there is no way out -- as always occurs under tyrannical governments devoid of a Second Amendment. The cure for suffering unjustly, whenever possible, is the overthrow of injustice and the establishment of justice, as occurred in our American Revolution. "Jesus promised that violent hostility will come; and the whole tenor of his counsel was how to handle it with suffering and testimony, not with armed defense... If we teach our students that they should carry guns, and then challenge them, 'Lets teach them a lesson if they ever show up here,' do we really think that when the opportunity to lay down their lives comes, they will do what Jim Elliott and his friends did in Ecuador, and refuse to fire their pistols at their killers, while the spears plunged through their chests? Jesus was warning the twelve Apostles in Luke 21 that they would be persecuted and that some would be put to death for speaking His gospel, and that they should make the best of their opportunities to speak, and be prepared for the worst, but Jesus' last word on the subject follows in Luke 22 where he instructed the Apostles to buy swords for self-defense. Reverend Piper expects the Christian students at Liberty University to lay down their lives when the time comes, i.e.: when a Muslim Jihadist or other terrorist starts shooting, stabbing, or bombing, rather than exercise self-defense, and he has perverted the Word of God in so doing. "When Jesus told the apostles to buy a sword, he was not telling them to use it to escape the very thing he promised they should endure to the death... I do not think that Jesus meant in verse 36 that his disciples were to henceforth be an armed band of preachers ready to use violence to defend themselves from persecution." Jesus knew that after his time on earth was done the Apostles and other followers would be placed in harm's way, and Jesus did not want them to die at the hands of their enemies prior to an effective spreading of His Gospel. Luke 22, 35-36 is the Christian 2nd Amendment. Jesus expected His Apostles to carry swords in self-defense so they could carry out their God-ordained mission. I believe likewise that Jesus does not want us to die at the hands of the enemies of our life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness today prior to our own God-ordained mission to live and love, and to speak the Gospel of Christ in our own day. Jesus was Himself a pacifist, but, despite the assertions of Reverend Piper, Jesus did not order us to be pacifists. Jesus did not admonish Peter to get rid of his sword after cutting off the ear of a solder sent to arrest Jesus. He told Peter to resheath his sword, which means Jesus told Peter to keep his sword for its proper use of self-defense. Peter's mistake was to use the sword in an act of aggression when Jesus was arrested by the legal authorities. Peter was not using it in self-defense while someone was trying to murder him or Jesus. The legal officers who arrested Jesus carried swords too, but they did not strike Peter or Jesus with their swords, so it was Peter who used the sword in a wrong way, and Jesus called him on it, but Jesus did not tell Peter to get rid of his sword. "I think I can say with complete confidence that the identification of Christian security with concealed weapons will cause no one to ask a reason for the hope that is in us. They will know perfectly well where our hope is. Its in our pocket." As Christians we have hope in eternal life thanks to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, but that is no reason to abandon hope for life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness in this world. Our hope for the former is in Jesus, and for the latter in our love of life, family, and neighbors, and in our creative labor, and in our God-given ability and responsibility to defend these precious gifts from God. Jesus warned Peter against using his sword in aggression rather than in self-defense. Those who live by the sword through aggression often die violently, and justly so, but those who use the sword only in self-defense are known as our courageous heroes. "Christians are freed to rejoice in persecution because our hearts have been so changed that we are more satisfied in the hope of heaven than in the hope of self-defense. This is the root of turning the other cheek and loving the enemy... A natural instinct is to boil this issue down to the question, Can I shoot my wifes assailant?... This instinct is understandable. But it seems to me that the New Testament resists this kind of ethical reduction, and does not satisfy our demand for a yes or no on that question." When Jesus instructed us to not resist an evil person and turn the other cheek, it is clear from the text that He was referencing social conflict, not life-threatening mortal conflict. Some Christians may be called to self-sacrificing pacifism -- okay by me for them -- but the vast majority of us are called to physically defend our own lives, and the lives of our families and neighbors. As Christians, we are obliged to love our enemy, yet at the same time we are obliged to hate and if necessary destroy evil as it confronts us. It is one thing for a Christian clergyman to advocate self-sacrificing pacifism for himself in the face of mortal danger, but quite another to advocate or force pacifism on others against their natural God-given will to live. No one on Earth has the authority to tolerate, through pacifism, maiming injury or death to their own family or neighbor at the hands of murderers, terrorists, Muslim jihadists or tyrannical government; that is not only cowardly and un-Christian, it is evil. As Christians we are under Divine obligation to provide, not only food and shelter for our families, without which physical harm would ensue, but also to provide safety from violent physical harm. Both the New and Old Testaments provide us with a resounding "yes" to the question posed by Reverend Piper: "Can I shoot my wifes assailant?" As Christians we are obliged by God to physically and courageously defend our families and thereby eschew the cowardice of un-Godly pacifism. Do not allow the Christian church to be perverted into the pacifist suicide cult advocated by Reverend Piper. "The early church, as we see her in Acts, expected and endured persecution without armed resistance, but rather with joyful suffering, prayer, and the word of God... In all the dangers Paul faced in the book of Acts, there is not a hint that he ever planned to carry or use a weapon for his defense against his adversaries. He was willing to appeal to the authorities in Philippi (Acts 16:37) and Jerusalem (Acts 22:25). But he never used a weapon to defend himself against persecution." There is more than a hint that the Apostle Paul carried a sword for self-defense since Jesus, setting a precedent, commanded the other twelve Apostles to do so the night before His crucifixion. Unlike Peter, we have no indication that Paul, after his conversion, used his sword unjustly outside of self-defense. Early Christians were mostly helpless and disarmed subjects of a totalitarian Roman emperor, not free men and women living in a Constitutional Republic dedicated to securing the people's life, liberty, and creative pursuit of happiness, so we should not use the example of early Christian martyrs as a blueprint for present-day America. The early Christians were defenseless serfs born with Roman saddles on their backs, but we are not. The injustice, persecution and tyranny of old Rome, and of Medieval kings, has been overthrown by our Founding Fathers, and we now have the protection of our Declaration, Constitution and Bill of Rights by the grace of God. "This article is about the people whom the Bible calls refugees and exiles on earth; namely, Christians. Its about the fact that our weapons are not material, but spiritual... It is an argument that the overwhelming focus and thrust of the New Testament is that Christians are sent into the world... as lambs in the midst of wolves... And that exhorting the lambs to carry concealed weapons with which to shoot the wolves does not advance the counter-cultural, self-sacrificing, soul-saving cause of Christ." Reverend Piper's article is about un-Godly Christian pacifism where the soul-saving words of Jesus Christ have been perverted into suicidal agitprop which enables the triumph of evil. This week he made clear that if Hillary was going to charge him with being part of the war on women (the successor, I take it, to her historic vast right wing conspiracy), he was going to attack her as an enabler and defender of a serial sexual predator -- her husband. You must concede this about Donald Trump: He does keep his enemies and opponents rocking back on their heels. He does it, as the Wall street Journals sage James Taranto, observes, by following the very Saul Alinsky tactics that so impressed Hillary as a Wellesley undergrad. Now, he is accusing Mr. Clintons defender in chief of being a moralistic hypocrite, applying to her rivals (including Trump) standards from which she excuses her husband. The current kerfuffle is only incidentally about Mr. Clinton at all. Its a textbook example of Saul Alinskys fourth tactical rule: Make the enemy live up to their own book of rules. You can kill them with this, for they can no more obey their own rules than the Christian church can live up to Christianity. (That is as true of feminism as of Christianity.) And Trump is perfectly situated to level this attack, for precisely the reasons some Chozicks imagine otherwise. He himself is a voluptuary, not a moralist, which immunizes him through pure logic against any accusation of hypocrisy. As a practical matter, his tabloid lifestyle inoculates him against inquisitions into his private life of the sort that snared Newt Gingrich and Bob Livingston during the Clinton impeachment. It all reminds us of a now-quaint anecdote in Alinskys Rules for Radicals: During a conflict with a major corporation I was confronted with a threat of public exposure of a photograph of a motel Mr. & Mrs. registration and photographs of my girl and myself. I said, Go ahead and give it to the press. I think shes beautiful and I have never claimed to be celibate. Go ahead! That ended the threat. Others, knowing that the public memory is short and millennial voters deficient in history have reminded readers of how sordid and extensive Bill Clintons known abuse of women has been. Taranto is right as he so often is: The Trump charge is an effective one. Even the notoriously leftwing writer, the Washington Posts Ruth Marcus, agrees the charge is warranted: "Trump has smeared women because of their looks. Clinton has preyed on them, and in a workplace setting where he was by far the superior. That is uncomfortable for Clinton supporters but it is unavoidably true." Don Surber observes that Hillary, too, slandered women and adds, Bill Clinton's return to the center stage reminds people that for a quarter-century, the media has covered up for this lecher, which further makes the case for Trump's attacks on the media. At Breitbart, John Nolte twisted the knife: Hillary Clinton and the DC Media were sure they had found the secret weapon to waltz the Lying Benghazi Bungler directly into the Oval Office: a replay of the phony War on Women issue. It didnt matter who won the nomination in 2016. Mitt Romney was no sexist, so the DC Media fabricated a Todd Akin to beat him to death with. Then Donald Trump came along, a candidate who not only understands that the rules set by the DC Media are rigged to elect Democrats, but someone competent enough to serially-beat them at their own game. On this day, Bill Cosby is finally facing justice for the longstanding allegations against him, and thanks only to Trump, so are Bill and Hillary Clinton after 20 years of being shielded by the corrupt media. When CNNs Savannah Guthrie tried downplaying Bills abuse by calling the Lewinsky scandal alleged, Trump made her retract that description -- after all, both parties did admit to the misconduct under oath. It was not just alleged -- the sexual relationship in the Oval Office with a young subordinate is fact. The media arent dealing with the usual Republican patsies any more. In salty language, my online friend Ignatz Ratzkywatzky characterized the state of play. Memorandum has the headline "Donald Trump doesn't understand what sexism is" from some dumb cluck at CNN. I don't have to even read it to know that real sexism is saying certain trigger words like "HIStory". And it's refusing to admit women are paid 1% of what men are, though every reputable study that controls for factors like education, pregnancy, time in the work force etc demonstrates women make slightly more than men. And most importantly, it's not supporting a woman's right to choose to kill her baby even though ~half of those dead babies are little women. And of course he goes on to explain that sexism is not arranging trysts with sad, lonely subordinate girls in your employ. Nor is it raping women or pouncing on them after their husband has committed suicide. Nor is it shaming and embarrassing your wife by screwing hundreds of women while married to her. And it's not even shaming and embarrassing the women who have the courage to speak out against your serial adulterer and abuser husband. Guys like this assbite aren't afraid Trump doesn't know what real sexism is. They're afraid he and we all know what it is and for once are willing to talk about it, rather than their stupid fables. How bad is it starting to look for Hillary? Even the New York Times concedes, that next to West Virginia, Trumps strongest support may be in New York State. He fares best in a broad swath of the country stretching from the Gulf Coast, up the spine of the Appalachian Mountains, to upstate New York. Mr. Trumps best state is West Virginia, followed by New York. Eight of Mr. Trumps 10 best congressional districts are in New York, including several on Long Island. North Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Louisiana and South Carolina follow. If Trump is the nominee and the Republicans win New York, the electoral college vote tally for Hillary looks exceedingly difficult. As Michael Walsh reports, if Trump takes New York, he can easily win. Perhaps it wasnt such a great idea for Hillary to try to reprise the tired, ridiculous War on Women campaign theme or for her party to dump on the blue collar white base that they rode to victory so many times. Since the Gulf War, no one would ever accuse the beltway gang of being astute strategic thinkers. While the Democrats have not cornered the market in this regard, theres no doubt the leftist DC establishment have become experts at developing policies that result in abject failures. These misadventures go down the memory hole in the offices of the NYT and the WaPo, except if a Republican is President. But not so with foreign news outlets. France 24 has highlighted Bill Clintons arrogance and ignorance in one of historys classic leftist military interventions. In the early 90s, US media crews showed us every detail of the Bosnian battlefields, burning farmhouses, and battered marketplaces, in order to paint a picture of a complex ethnic war that was tearing the country apart. CNN and its go-to-war promoter, Christiane Amanpour, were particularly effective at laying a guilt trip on the American public and politicians in urging intervention. In reality, the ethnic and religious angle was emphasized because the Clinton administration just could not bring itself to declare that the war was largely a fight of national identity to gain freedom from tyrannical, socialist dictators by the name of Slobodan Milosevic and his Bosnian Serb ally, Radovan Karadzic. It was not advisable to openly go against ideological soul mates of the communist persuasion. The Dayton Accords were ironed out in 1995 to stop the war and promote the peace, but there there was a major flaw in the plan crafted by US Secretary of State Warren Christopher and chief negotiator Richard Holbrooke. The agreement presupposed that the final battle lines and unit boundaries were indicative of the pre-war ethnic population distribution in the country. Of course, US and NATO soldiers now had to figure out how to step in amongst three sets of belligerents composed of Bosnian Croat Roman Catholics, Bosnian Serb Orthodox Christians, and Bosniak Muslims. One Herculean task was to assist the return of refugees to their traditional homes, which, in many cases were behind enemy lines. It was forecast at the time that it would take until, well, about now, to safely return displaced people to their original lands. So, how did this work out after 20 years? According to France 24, it hasnt worked at all. In their push to get a deal any deal to stop the war (sound familiar?), Clinton and his advisers had failed to differentiate military occupation of land due to combat operations and the origin and movement of ethnic refugees. In other words, the accords forced ethnic segregation where previously there had been ethnic integration. France 24 notes that where ethnic groups had settled after the cease-fire, had resulted in de facto ethnic home territories. These entailed arbitrary boundaries stipulated by the accords and over a generation had promoted segregation rather than a return of refugees and ultimately a return to a pre-war status quo. To expect a multi-national force composed of US and Western European forces, combined with Turks and US paid Russian units, to follow the script was the height of folly. On another front, the Clinton administration agreed to an arms embargo, but then tacitly allowed weapons to be smuggled in from the Middle East to help the Bosniak Muslims. Clinton then went along with regional isolation protocols to prevent outside help from reaching all the belligerents. Mysteriously, he turned a blind eye to the infiltration of about 200 Mujahadeen fighters into Bosnia. Either deliberately or unwittingly, former President Clinton had sown the seeds for a new Islamo-fascist threat; this time in Southeastern Europe. At the time, even European media criticized the decision while the US military command downplayed the significance of this infiltration. Twenty years later, France 24 confirms the disastrous consequences of this ploy. The Muslims in Bosnia were considered to be very secular with a soft adherence to the tenets of Islam. This has been replaced by the hardline Salafist approach such that Bosniak Muslims provide the majority of European recruits to the Islamic State. France 24 reports that, Around 300 Bosnians are fighting alongside jihadists in Syria today. Many of them are believed to have been radicalised when Salafist preachers emerged in Bosnia during the 1992-1995 war. Today the tiny Balkan nation is facing an increasingly alarming security situation as the jihadists threaten to return home, calling for terror strikes in Bosnia, and elsewhere in Europe. Hillary Clintons presidential run has already been plagued by scandals from when she was Secretary of State, yet the MSM still shields her from scrutiny. While dodging sniper fire in Bosnia, she apparently didnt realize that her husbands military expedition, much like Obamas precipitous withdrawal from Iraq, had formed a country that can now function as a safe haven for Islamic jihadists. It is likely this failure will not penetrate the MSM wall around Hillary, nor will it likely impress the hacks of the GOPe machine. This perhaps leaves only Trump or Cruz to bring this forgotten national security disaster to the fore. Lets hope they do so. John Smith is the pen name of a former American intelligence officer. An angry mob stormed the Saudi Arabian embassy in Tehran following the execution of a popular shia cleric, ransacking and burning parts of the facility. The Hill: Nimr al-Nimr was one of 47 people executed by the Saudi government Saturday. He was an outspoken critic of the Saudi royal family and a key figure in the anti-government protests that broke out in 2011. The Iranian government, Saudi Arabias rival in the region, had earlier slammed the execution. The execution of a personality such as Sheikh Nimr who had no means other than speech to pursue his political and religious objectives only shows the depth of imprudence and irresponsibility," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaberi Ansari was quoted as saying in state-run Press TV. The U.S. State Department also weighed in on the executions Saturday afternoon. We reaffirm our calls on the government of Saudi Arabia to respect and protect human rights, and to ensure fair and transparent judicial proceedings in all cases, State spokesman John Kirby said in a written statement. The United States also urges the government of Saudi Arabia to permit peaceful expression of dissent and to work together with all community leaders to defuse tensions in the wake of these executions. We are particularly concerned that the execution of prominent Shia cleric and political activist Nimr al-Nimr risks exacerbating sectarian tensions at a time when they urgently need to be reduced, he added. In this context, we reiterate the need for leaders throughout the region to redouble efforts aimed at de-escalating regional tensions. The government had accused Sheikh Nimr of "seeking 'foreign meddling' in Saudi Arabia, 'disobeying' its rulers and taking up arms against the security forces." That "foreign meddling" refers to Iran, where Sheikh Nimr studied for many years. Was he an agent of the Iranian government? It's hard to believe otherwise. But be became a liberal cause celebre, as several petitions from western NGO's were sent to the Saudi government pleading for a stay. Despite claims from his western supporters, Sheikh Nimr was no democrat, nor was he liberal. He was a typical Muslim cleric who thought the country should be governed by sharia law. At one point, he even advocated that the majority Shiite region of eastern Saudi Arabia secede from Riyadh. Needless to say, this did not endear him to Saudi authorities. With both Iran and Saudi Arabia engaged militarily elsewhere in the region, war is not likely. But shias are a large minority in several countries in the region and protests can be expected for the near future. A collection of interesting and noteworthy articles that you may have missed, pulled out from Amusing Planets nearly 8-year old archives. Love-love is a perpetually sinking boat created by French artist Julien Berthier. The boat appears to be sinking but never actually does, thanks to its clever design. Read more These beautiful but depleted, centuries old wooden churches were captured through the lenses by Richard Davies. Richard was inspired by the works of Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin (1876 - 1942) a well known artist, stage designer and illustrator of Russian Folk Tales, who drew attention to the condition of the wooden churches through a series of photographs published in a 1904 article in the World of Art Magazine. Read more Alexa Meade, a 23-year-old artist from the Washington DC area, has developed a painting technique that makes three-dimensional spaces look like flat, two-dimensional paintings. Instead of painting on canvas, she paints portraits directly on the subjects themselves. Read more Istvan Orosz specializes in mirror anamorphosis, where a conical or cylindrical mirror is placed on the drawing to transform a flat distorted image into a three dimensional picture that can be viewed from many angles. His best creation is probably the one called Mysterious Island. Its a sketch of a seashore with a sail pushed along by the wind, and two men trekking. But if a cylindrical mirror is placed over the circular sun, a portrait of Jules Verne emerges. Read more About 45 km north of Farafra, the White Desert begins. Its truly a white desert in clear contrast with the yellow desert elsewhere, something which you will not believe before seeing with your own eyes. At night, and many of the organized trips out here include overnight stay out in the desert. The white desert is best viewed at sunrise or sunset, in the light of a full moon, which gives the landscape an eerie Arctic appearance. Read more CES kicks off in less than 24 hours for press with official event happenings beginning on Tuesday, January 5th, and while Samsung was first rumored to potentially be showing off the Galaxy S7 at the event, it now looks like they are prepared to unveil the device at a little bit of a later date, during their recently announced Unpacked event set to happen at the end of February. According to recent details the announcement may not be far off. Its only a few days into 2016 and more leaks have popped up surrounding Samsungs upcoming flagship device for the year to succeed the Galaxy S6 range, with a leaked screenshot that displays the new phone will come with a 12.2MP rear-facing camera. Whats more is that it also shows the device sporting a 5.7-inch display, which would put it around the same size as the Galaxy S6 Edge Plus and the Galaxy Note 5 rather than the Galaxy S6. Having said that, its entirely possible that this could be another variant of the Galaxy S7 as rumors have been stating Samsung will be offering the Galaxy S7 in two different sizes, one potentially being a model at 5.5-inches, although it may be more likely to see the Galaxy S7 standard at 5.1-inches while the one allegedly shown in this leaked image could be the Galaxy S7 Edge. Advertisement The picture also alleges the Galaxy S7 will come with 3712MB of memory, which equates to 4GB of RAM, and that it will carry a 5MP front-facing camera for selfies and video chat. Among the already listed specifications, according to the image this model of the phone will also feature a Quad-HD display which is something Samsung is already implementing on their devices, so theres nothing new there, and the listed GPU is the Adreno 530 which will come paired with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 CPU. Consumers can expect the Galaxy S7 to also feature a fingerprint reader to be used for security unlock and mobile payments using Samsung Pay, and its also rumored that Samsung may integrate an iris scanner into this years devices. A handful of Chinese phone brands are already using this technology, so its possible Samsung could be looking into it for their next flagship, although nothing is certain at this point. Transfer balls: Aubameyang wants to play for Arsenal (or Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United) Transfer balls: Arsenal are all set to offer 42m for Borussia Dortmund striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, says the Sun. Aubameyang has scored 24 goals in 23 appearances this season. He has told friends he wants to leave Germany and play in the Premier League. The paper says an Arsenal rep is in Germany talking with Dortmund. A source then pops up to tell us: An intermediary has made contact with Dortmund about Pierre-Emerick making a move to Arsenal. Wenger knows the fee is very high yet this is a striker who can make a massive difference for him and help win the title for the first time in 12 years. But there is a lot of interest in him. So says the source, who sounds a helluva lot like a PR rep. The Sun then notes: Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool have also been linked with making a move for the Gabon ace, 26. They have? Arsenal have the cash to meet Dortmunds valuation this month and are in a strong bargaining position. They are? In July, the player singed a new contract at Dortmund. The Mail wrote: Aubameyang, who wore a bow tie and sharp grey blazer as he put pen to paper, had been linked with a possible switch to the Premier League, but the new deal which ties the 26-year-old to Dortmund until July 2020 ends any such speculation surrounding his future. Or not. Anorak Posted: 3rd, January 2016 | In: Arsenal, Back pages, Sports Comment | TrackBack | Permalink remaining of Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading. Villa Melnik is not just a winery that makes good Bulgarian wines. It is not just another wine bottle that you open, pour in a glass and enjoy. It has something unique that makes every single drop special because behind that bottle is It is not just another wine bottle that you open, pour in a glass and enjoy.because behind that bottle is sheer dedication by the winemakers Nikola Zikatanov, his wife Lyubka and daughter Militza in making that wine an excellent expression of the Bulgarian terroir, in the Struma River Valley (Southwest Bulgaria). Villa Melnik Winery is located in the village of Harsovo, a stone's throw away from the town of Melnik, the smallest town of Bulgaria known for tourism and wine production. Its 30 hectares of vineyards is divided into two separate plots of land in Mindalo, about 4 kilometers from Melnik that is on the hills and along the bank of Melnishka River and Beli Breg, a controlled appellation of origin. Its 30 hectares of vineyards is divided into two separate plots of land in Mindalo, about 4 kilometers from Melnik that is on the hills and along the bank of Melnishka River and Beli Breg, a controlled appellation of origin. Beginning at 2004, Villa Melnik planted a few international and local varieties like Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah, Early Melnik (Melnik 55) and Mavrud then a few more in 2007 like Rouen, Pinot Noir, Sangiovese, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Viognier. In 2007, they came out with their first vintage aged in Bulgarian oak and carried by the wine label Bergule. like Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah, Early Melnik (Melnik 55) and Mavrud then a few more in 2007 like Rouen, Pinot Noir, Sangiovese, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Viognier. Upon our Press Group's arrival, we were greeted with crates of newly-harvested Broad-Leafed Melnik (Shiroka Melnishka) that were going through the process of manual sorting before going to the destemmer. These grapes are indigenous to Bulgaria and they especially grown in the southwestern part of the country, just a few kilometers to the border of Greece. Being cultivated in the Struma River Valley wine region, the Mediterranean climate makes it ideal for harvesting them until late October. This grape variety has an affinity with oak and it produces hints of tobacco and leather. After touring the newly-constructed modern winery and the tunnels for aging the wines, Villa Melnik's oenologist, Stoilova Rumyana opened a door of discovery for us. Eight different kinds of wines from two lines of their wine labels, Bergule and Aplauz, were opened for tasting. Villa Melnik produces 4 lines of wine labels. AplauZ is the top line of Villa Melnik and it has a variety of white, rose and red wines. They come from selected grapes, dense and flavorful. They are aged for 9 months in oak barrels. Bergule is a prestigious line of matured red, rose and white wines that have distinct body. The whites are barrel fermented while the reds have matured for at least 3 months in oak barrels. They are characterized with fresh aromas and delicate hints of berries and vanilla. Family Tradition is a line of high quality wines with a variety of white, rose and red wines. They are aged in oak barrels and they have fresh and pleasant aromas of red and black berries. MELENIK is the fourth and most affordable line of the winery. It has red wines of blends and mono-varietal white wines. The wines we tried were: AplauZ Viognier 2014, aged in Bulgarian oak barrel with a golden color, fresh and hints of white flowers and grapefruit. Bergule Rose 2014, a raspberry-colored fresh and fruity blend of 33% Syrah, 34% Melnik 55 and 33% Bload-Leafed Melnik, had skin contact of 24 hour and fermented in stainless steel vessels for 4 months. Garnet-colored Bergule Ruen 2013 was fermented in stainless steel vessels and is the first vintage of this wine. It has a medium body with notes of mulberry and spices. Bergule Melnik 2013 was fermented in stainless steel vessels then aged in old Bulgarian oak barrels for 12 months. It has a medium body with complex notes of herbs, cherries and oak. Bergule Melnik & Pinot Noir 2013, a blend of 52% Broad-Leafed Melnik and 48% Pinot Noir, aged 12 months in Bulgarian oak barrels, ruby-colored with hints of berries. AplauZ Mavrud 2013 was made from carefully hand-selected grapes and aged in Bulgarian oak barrels for 15 months. It has an intense ruby color with notes of spices, pepper and plums. AplauZ Syrah 2013, fermented in stainless steel vessels and aged in Bulgarian oak barrels for 18 months. It has ruby color and medium body. AplauZ Melnik 55 2013 was made with carefully hand-selected grapes and aged in Bulgarian oak barrels for 15 months. Coming from a long trip from a 5-hour drive from Chateau Copsa in the Rose Valley, we arrived in the beautiful town of Melnik which is just a few kilometers from the border of Greece. The latter part of the drive was scenic and arriving at the town of Melnik was a pleasant surprise as we maneuvered our way through the small cobble-stoned road. which is just a few kilometers from the border of Greece. The latter part of the drive was scenic and arriving at the town of Melnik was a pleasant surprise as we maneuvered our way through the small cobble-stoned road. Lunch was in Alexova Kushta Restaurant where we had an incredible Bulgarian spread of vegetables, meat and wine. One thing I absolutely love about Bulgarian food is how tasty the food is with very little spices (some are not spiced at all) used to complement the natural flavors of the ingredients. This is one of best places to have classic Bulgarian dishes so if you are in town, I totally recommend this place. The food is absolutely delicious. One thing I absolutely love about Bulgarian food is how tasty the food is with very little spices (some are not spiced at all) used to complement the natural flavors of the ingredients. This is one of best places to have classic Bulgarian dishes so if you are in town, I totally recommend this place. The food is absolutely delicious. After lunch, a walk along around Melnik gave us a view of the stores, local products for sale, hotels and other restaurants in the area. It is the smallest town in Bulgaria with a population of only 385. It is an architectural reserve with 96 of its buildings considered as cultural monuments. It is a popular tourist destination especially among the Greeks because of its proximity to the border. The town is also famous for its production of wine since 1346. The Broad-Leafed Melnik variety is grown locally and reportedly, the wine produced from this vine is one of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill's favorite, ordering 500 liters a year. It is a charming little town with so much history and culture. Its first settlers were the Thracian tribe Medi. Afterwards, it had been conquered by other settlers like the ancient Romans. The Roman presence left an ancient bridge over the Melnishka River which is still preserved. One of the highlights of the town is the Kordopulov House, a Bulgarian National Revival house that was built in 1754 mainly for wine production. It was the largest of its kind during its period. The wine cellar tunnel that was dug into the rock is in the lower ground. The house was renovated in the 1970s and is currently a private museum. Melnik is reachable by bus daily from Sofia (182 km.) and Sandanski (12 km.) and back. Another option would be to rent a car or book a trip with a local tour agent to go there. It can be seen in relaxed time in one weekend and to make it more interesting, book wine tastings & tours to the nearby wineries like Another option would be to rent a car or book a trip with a local tour agent to go there. It can be seen in relaxed time in one weekend and to make it more interesting, book wine tastings & tours to the nearby wineries like Villa Melnik Winery and Orbelus Winery (which I will write about in my next article). Villa Melnik is a young modern winery with full potential in being one of Bulgaria's best wine producers. Having just produced its first vintages in 2007, it has already won a lot of awards for a number of its wines. One of them is my favorite, the Silver Medal winner AplauZ Melnik 55 2013 Reserve which is pictured above and a bottle that I took home to enjoy. It is made with 100% Having just produced its first vintages in 2007, it has already won a lot of awards for a number of its wines.It is made with 100% Melnik 55 , a natural hybrid of Broad-Leafed Melnik vine and Valdiguie. Full of flavors, it is a full-bodied wine that was aged in Bulgarian oak barrels for 15 months. Villa Melnik Winery - the new beginning to a century-old tradition. It will enable us to further increase the quality of the wines we offer, and to make it possible for us to welcome visitors on site and to demonstrate the agricultural and technological processes that bring together the grapes and the wine. Okay, I'm going to try and make this as brief as possible but I would just really appreciate some help from someone who as gone through the kerfuffle of applying for partner visas.... When I was 18 I headed to Australia on a working holiday visa, met an amazing guy who I went out with for a few months. Anyway, I had to head home for university. We continued to chat and I met him in Germany when he was over the following year, and we then went travelling around Central America together the year after (summer 2015). I am Scottish, and he is German, 8 years older, and was granted his Australian PR 6 months ago. I would really like to go back to Australia for two reasons - one because it's bloody awesome, and two because I want to be with him. I never thought when this happened in Australia I'd still be in touch, but I'd always regret not trying to go back. There's obviously no way I can apply for any form of partner visa now because we couldn't prove we've been in a long distance relationship. It's very casual, and we never lived together when I was over there initially. My question is would this scenario I am about to explain work... I would go back to Australia this July and start my Masters (a 12 months course). After a couple of months we would move in together and then either just live together or get married at a registery office, the idea being we would have joint bank accounts, rent etc. And then in about this time in a year (January 2017) if we're both still up for it, apply for some form of partner visa or spousal visa. I get the impression that being spouses convinces immigration you are more committed than just applying for a partner visa. Or will immigration completely see through this? Is it that we won't have been together long enough for them to consider this a genuine marriage and at our wedding it would have just been us two? Obviously there's no way we would get married this soon if we were both living in the same country with no visa complications, but I do very much love him. I obviously don't want to end up with the student debt from a Masters if there is no long term way of remaining in Australia. He has always wanted to come to the UK, so there is hope for us there, but obviously I'd rather be in Australia and he already has a good career over there, whilst I am a graduate starting fresh. Thanks in advanced for your help, Suzy A British woman completed a 20-day flight from England to Australia in a Stearman on New Years Day, commemorating a flight made by Amy Johnson in 1930. Tracey Curtis-Taylor, 53, landed at Darwin to complete the 8,000-mile trip, which began Oct. 1. Im feeling just a bit windblown, sunburnt and a bit punch drunk, Curtis-Taylor told media after she touched down. This is where Amy Johnson touched down in 1930, so Darwin was the big moment for her. She was a 20th-century icon in terms of what she achieved. My flight is very much a tribute to her. It is celebrating what the pioneers achieved and what women achieve now in aviation. Curtis-Taylor flew through 23 countries on her way to Australia, loosely retracing the route of Johnson. Although she used GPS on the trip, the Stearman was equipped pretty much as it was when it rolled off Boeings assembly line in 1942. Johnson flew a Gipsy Moth on her flight. She flew numerous other record-breaking flights during the 1930s until the Second World War interrupted. Johnson became a ferry pilot and was killed in 1941 after her plane went down in the Thames on a ferry flight. There were some reports that she was shot down by the British after she failed to give the correct radio contact codes. Bakersfield, CA (93308) Today Mainly sunny. High 89F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Partly cloudy in the evening with more clouds for later at night. Low near 65F. Winds light and variable. Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in your country. We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to your market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism. News Story not available This story has been published on: 2022-10-19. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. This story is no longer available on our site. Israel on Sunday indicted a Jewish settler and a minor in a July arson attack on a Palestinian home that killed a toddler and his parents a case that has been unsolved for months and helped fuel the current wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence. The long-awaited indictment follows months of investigations into a web of Jewish settlers operating in the West Bank. The indictment named Amiram Ben-Uliel, a 21-year-old West Bank settler, as the main suspect in the attack. The minor was charged as an accessory. In addition, Yinon Reuveni, 20, and another minor were charged for other violence against Palestinians. All four were charged with belonging to a terrorist organization. The arson attack in the West Bank village of Duma immediately killed 18-month-old Ali Dawabsheh; his mother, Riham Dawabsheh, and father, Saad Dawabsheh, later died of their injuries. Ali's 4-year-old brother, Ahmad, survived. The firebombing, carried out at night while the family slept, sparked soul-searching among Israelis. It was condemned across the Israeli political spectrum, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged "zero tolerance" in the fight to bring the assailants to justice. Israel has authorized a series of steps, including holding several suspects without charge a tactic typically used against Palestinians to crack the case. But critics have said that similar, albeit not deadly, attacks have taken place for years with little action by the government. And for months, Palestinians watched angrily as the case remained unsolved, intensifying a feeling of skewed justice in the occupied territory, where suspected Palestinian fighters are prosecuted under a separate system of military law that gives them few rights. The also touched on Palestinian fears of Jewish settlers, some of whom have attacked Palestinian property with impunity. Palestinians cite the Duma incident as a factor in a three-month wave of attacks and clashes roiling the region, saying they are frustrated by years of unchecked settler violence. The Palestinian Authority's Ministry of Health stated on Friday that Israeli soldiers or settlers in 2015 shot and killed 179 Palestinians, including unarmed protesters, bystanders and alleged attackers. Of that total, 143 have been killed since Oct. 1, when tensions escalated sharply. Since Oct. 1, Palestinian assailants have killed 23 Israelis, including soldiers and civilians. Israel says the violence is being fanned by a Palestinian campaign of incitement. The Palestinians say it is rooted in frustrations stemming from nearly five decades of Israeli occupation. The violence continued Sunday as a female Israeli soldier was shot in the West Bank city of Hebron, the military said. She was moderately wounded, and troops were searching for the shooter. Israel's Shin Bet security service said Sunday that the suspects admitted to carrying out the Duma attack, saying it was in retaliation for the killing of an Israeli settler by Palestinians a month earlier. It said all the suspects were part of a group that carried out a series of attacks over the years in a religiously inspired campaign to undermine the government and sow fear among non-Jews. The indictment said Ben-Uliel admitted to spraying graffiti on the Dawabshehs' home and then tossing a firebomb through a bedroom window before fleeing the scene. His parents said they believe in his innocence and that he was tortured during interrogation. Nasser Dawabsheh, Saad Dawabsheh's brother, said the indictments were not enough. "It's clear the Israeli institutions are not serious," he said. "It's clear there was an organization behind this crime. Even the media know that. And the government was not serious in preventing it and is not serious in pursuing the killers." Jewish right-wing settlers have for years vandalized or set fire to Palestinian property, as well as mosques, churches, the offices of dovish Israeli groups and even Israeli military bases. The so-called price tag attacks seek to exact a cost for Israeli steps seen as favoring the Palestinians. The attackers are part of a movement known as the hilltop youth, a leaderless group of young people who set up unauthorized outposts, usually clusters of trailers, on West Bank hilltops land the Palestinians claim for their hoped-for state. A lawyer for one of the suspects says his client gave a forced confession after interrogators deprived him of sleep and tied him upside down by his feet. The Yesha Council, an umbrella group of West Bank settlements, commended the indictment and said the suspects do not represent it. "It is now clear that these acts were perpetrated by a fringe group of anarchists bent on destroying the state of Israel and the freedom and justice that it represents," it said in a statement. The Associated Press Pasco County detectives are seeking the public's help in locating a person of interest in the shooting death of a man in Dade City on Saturday. Just before 3 p.m., deputies responded to an abandoned house on the 37400 block of Tait Avenue. Behind the home, they found the body of Jose Leonardo Romero-Sule, 26, who had been shot multiple times. Detectives are looking for a heavy-set white male seen leaving the scene who was wearing a white motorcycle helmet and driving a red-and-white racing-type motorcycle. Anyone with information about this shooting is asked to call the Pasco Sheriff's Office at 727-847-8102 or 1-800-706-2488. Crime Stoppers of Tampa Bay is also offering a reward of up to $3,000 for information that leads to the identification and arrest of the unidentified suspect in this case. Contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-873-TIPS (8477). To continue following the latest news and information for Bedfordshire and surrounding areas, simply enter your full postcode below A treasure trove of tapes stashed away by Thin Lizzy frontman Phil Lynott will be released as a boxed set later this year. Twenty six years after the Dublin rocker's death at the age of 36, more of his lost music will be heard by the public for the first time in June. Shortly before he passed away in 1986, Mr Lynott gave 150 tapes to a third party for safekeeping. The cache of up to 700 songs has finally been released to record company Universal Music. "This is an absolutely stunning find," Steve Hammonds, project manager behind the new Thin Lizzy box set, told the Irish Independent. "In every group there's a member who lovingly collects their recordings and in Thin Lizzy that was Phil Lynott, because Lizzy was his baby and his band." It will be the second boxed set in recent times to feature archive work by the band, following last year's 'Live At The BBC' release. But the newly unearthed recordings stretch from Thin Lizzy's years with Decca Records, beginning in 1971, to their 'Renegade' album in 1981. "There are out-takes, unheard versions of Thin Lizzy hits and, most exciting of all, material which was recorded but never released at the time," said Mr Hammonds. "Phil Lynott was such a prolific songwriter. He recorded 12 Thin Lizzy albums, two solo albums, along with his Grand Slam post-Lizzy project, and now we find he had even more songs in his drawer." However, Thin Lizzy members Scott Gorham and Brian Downey will have the "final say" over which songs are released. "The members of Thin Lizzy are fully involved with this project. We have been sending them tapes of what we've found and respecting their wishes as regards the material being issued and the art work," added Mr Hammonds. Label bosses have declined to give more details on why the material is only surfacing now, 30 years after Thin Lizzy split. "Phil Lynott passed the material on to a third party for safekeeping. They held on to it for decades because they were waiting for the right people to come along. "They really didn't trust anyone enough to release it properly. The catalyst was a boxed set of Thin Lizzy BBC sessions we issued earlier this year, which made them believe we were the right people. No money has changed hands, this person is a Thin Lizzy fan." Meanwhile, RTE will mark the anniversary of Mr Lynott's death on January 4 with a new documentary 'The Philip Lynott Archive' to be broadcast tonight and which will feature the first screening of a fully restored version of the 1982 'Old Town' video. And the annual 'Vibe for Philo' gig in Mr Lynott's memory takes place at Dublin's Button Factory on Wednesday. Dozens of families in Ireland were evacuated over the weekend More than 200 homes across Ireland are still battling to keep water from their doors as hundreds more count the cost of the floods clean up, it has been revealed. The State's national emergency taskforce said 260 households who lost the fight against the elements have been swamped in the aftermath of Storm Frank. Dozens of families in Clonmel, Co Tipperary, and Athlone, Co Westmeath, were evacuated over the weekend. A further 130 houses have been "marooned" by flooded roads and fields, according to Keith Leonard, chairman of the National Emergency Co-Ordination Group. Another 230 homes have been designated as "under threat" and face imminent flood damage as weather forecasters predict more rain over the coming week. Virtually every county in Ireland has been hit at this stage by flooding, impacting on roads, businesses, homes and farmland. Met Eireann chief forecaster Ger Fleming said there would be some easing off on the deluge over the coming days, but warned of the potential for significant rainfall by midweek. Water levels in rivers and lakes have exceeded record 2009 levels in some parts of the country. Because of this, even "normal" weather could break flood defences, it is feared. Authorities are monitoring closely the Shannon, the Erne, the Barrow, the Suir, the Blackwater in Cork and the Bandon. The Defence Forces deployed 110 soldiers around Cork, Kilkenny, Tipperary, Limerick and Galway to help with sandbags and water pumping. President Michael D Higgins is to visit flood-stricken families in Galway and Wexford tomorrow. Commuters have been warned about the possibility of transport disruption as much of the country returns to work this week. Motorists have been urged to exercise caution on flooded roads and look out for fallen trees, while public transport users have been advised to check if their usual services are affected. The Electricity Supply Board (ESB) said it was maintaining the water flow through the Shannon's Parteen Weir at 470 cubic metres per second but that it will be review the flow tomorrow. "The levels in Lough Derg may reach 2009 levels in the coming days and, as a result, the flow through Parteen Weir may increase to those levels," a spokesman said. "This level of water flow will have increased associated flooding to land and property in the vicinity of the Shannon downstream of Parteen Weir including the areas of Springfield, Montpelier, Castleconnell, Mountshannon (Annacotty) and the University of Limerick." The ESB said other areas between the Parteen Weir and Limerick may also be vulnerable to flooding due to local issues. David Cameron should not be forced to resign if Britain votes to leave the European Union but he should offer his ministers a free vote in the upcoming in/out referendum, a Tory backbencher has said. James Cleverly said there was a "big pragmatic argument" for ministers to be allowed to campaign for either the In or Out camps ahead of the referendum which could be called as early as this summer, and definitely before the end of 2017. But he dismissed suggestions that the Prime Minister would have to resign in the event of a vote to leave because he has staked his future on renegotiating Britain's membership of the EU. Mr Cameron's renegotiation is entering a crucial phase ahead of a key EU summit in February where a deal could be reached. Mr Cleverly spoke after the Sunday Times reported that six Cabinet ministers think Mr Cameron would have to stand down if the UK voted to leave. According to the newspaper, that figure would rise if the PM failed to offer Eurosceptic ministers a free vote on the issue despite Government policy favouring Britain remaining in the EU. Tory backbenchers could force a vote of no confidence in Mr Cameron even if he wins the referendum if the party is split after the poll, while Chancellor George Osborne could also be under threat, the report also suggests. Meanwhile, the Mail on Sunday claimed Boris Johnson could be offered a Cabinet post in a New Year reshuffle in an effort to stave off the threat of Eurosceptic ministers such as Chris Grayling and Theresa Villiers walking out of the Government over the PM's support for remaining in the EU. But Mr Cleverly insisted that there would be no need for resignations from either Mr Cameron or his ministers if a free vote is granted and the campaign is conducted in a friendly and professional manner. Asked if the PM should stand down if Britain votes to leave, Mr Cleverly told Pienaar's Politics on BBC Radio Five Live: "I don't see that that has to be the case at all. "I think that the biggest thing for us, looking internally just for a moment, I think the biggest thing for the Conservative Party is that there will be Conservatives on both sides of the argument." Asked if ministers should be allowed to campaign for leaving the EU, Mr Cleverly said: "I think there's a big pragmatic argument for that for no other reason than the parliamentary maths. "There are only 300 or so MPs from which the Prime Minister can draw a government and almost 100 seats in government to fill. "I think that will be the pragmatic option. "I suspect he will (allow that) but I don't have any great insights into that any more than any other backbencher would do. "But if we conduct the campaign in a friendly, professional, tough but gallant way, I don't see any reason why anyone at the head of either side of the argument will need to stand down irrespective of what the result will be." First Minister Nicola Sturgeon will lead a New Year debate at Holyrood on Tuesday Nicola Sturgeon has hit back at accusations that SNP supporters are "brainwashed" as parties kick-started campaigning for this year's Scottish Parliament election. Scotland's First Minister said the suggestion was "profoundly insulting" in an opinion piece setting out her priorities in the run up to the vote on May 5. The SNP leader also pledged to "lead a renewed debate" about independence, despite calls from Labour to move on from constitutional wrangling in the wake of 2014's referendum. Ms Sturgeon will lead a New Year debate at Holyrood on Tuesday pledging to "earn the right" to an unprecedented third term in government. She has promised a raft of new policies on health, education, social security and the economy in the run up to polling day. Opinion polls indicate the SNP is currently on course to increase its majority in the Scottish Parliament. Ms Sturgeon said: "My response to polls is always to remind my party that we must never take a single vote for granted - a point I will make again today. "But i ncreasingly in Scotland we see, from opposition parties and certain commentators, another response - one that cites the scale of SNP support as evidence that the country has abandoned its critical faculties in favour of blind loyalty. "I can understand why the opposition parties find that notion comforting - it's easier than having to face up to their own shortcomings. But as an analysis, it is profoundly insulting to the Scottish people. "Those who support the SNP have not been brainwashed, they are not blind to our imperfections - instead, they are weighing them against our strengths and achievements, and against the other parties, and deciding that the SNP is the party they most closely identify with, the people they trust most to stand up for Scotland." She added: " I've said already that a second referendum should only happen if there is a material change of circumstances or when we have evidence of a significant change of opinion from that expressed in September 2014. "It is our job now to lead a renewed debate about how the enduring principle of the independence case - that decisions about Scotland are best taken by people who live here - is relevant to, indeed demanded by, the circumstances of the world we live in today. "It is by making the case, positively and powerfully - and in a realistic and relevant way - that we will persuade those we didn't persuade in 2014 and, over the next few years, turn 45% into a majority." Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale is due to unveil her party's first election pledge on housing in a speech to activists in Edinburgh on Tuesday. Ms Dugdale will say that new powers over tax, borrowing and welfare coming to Holyrood offer a "once-in-a-generation" opportunity to change Scottish politics. "Let me say this to Nicola Sturgeon - on the constitution I will take her at her word," she will say. "She has asked Scotland to trust her and Scotland will expect her to keep her promise. "This matters because the opportunities for the future that our new powers open up are too great to be buried under the arguments of the past." Meanwhile the Scottish Conservatives will focus on education, setting out ideas to support school leadership and improve literacy and numeracy in a new paper. The party will also signal its backing for a Save the Children campaign aimed at ensuring all children are reading well by the age of 11. Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie said: "Nicola Sturgeon's opinion poll cockiness is no substitute for a proper debate on her years in government. "People I meet want to hear about a positive alternative to the SNPs mismanagement of the police, NHS, schools and colleges. "Liberal Democrats will approach this election with a positive, bright manifesto. We will focus on opportunity for everyone and reform to spread power. The SNP talk a good game but on their watch constitutional wrangles have been put ahead of the needs of people. It is time for a change." Originally from Enniscorthy, Colm Toibin now divides his time between Dublin, London and the United States Author Colm Toibin has revealed how stories from his childhood find their way into his work. The three-time Man Booker nominee, whose novel Brooklyn is tipped for Oscar success, also described how his father Michael's death when he was 12 continues to influence his writing. Toibin spoke of his pride when Ireland became the first country in the world to bring in gay marriage last year by way of popular vote. "It was not a rejection of anything, it was embrace of things. We did not emerge as an angry group demanding rights, we came as somebody's grandson, somebody's brother and somebody's lover," he said. Originally from Enniscorthy, Toibin now divides his time between Dublin, London and the United States, but insists he can write anywhere so long as he has a "blank wall, no view and an uncomfortable chair". And talking about his life and loves on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, the award-winning author also offered some sage advice for aspiring writers - don't do lunch and don't worry about other people's feelings, just write the story and tell them. Although he has been unsuccessful three times in the prestigious Man Booker award Toibin described how he felt surprised after missing out for his acclaimed work The Master but felt the experiences proved to be " enabling" and left him feeling free to bounce back. "Probably if I had won I would have had a big head - actually I would have enjoyed winning and I would have been able to handle it perfectly," he said. Selecting music from mainly Irish artists Toibin described the machinations of writing. "I'm trying to get it written, I'm not trying to amuse myself. Swimming for example is fun, writing is not," he said. "I do take an enormous pleasure from things but being in a corner writing is not one of them." Many of his childhood experiences resonate in his work today, with Toibin recalling a striking sense of abandonment when his father became ill, developing a stammer and being sent with his brother to be cared for by nuns. "I think it affected both us very deeply. I find with the novels that a novel is going along great and suddenly I'll have the character being abandoned by somebody and I'll find that, oh no, not again, here it comes," he said. "Every time there is someone abandoned and it comes up in short stories it really interests me because the emotion remains raw with me." Toibin described the emotions and experiences as a form of DNA and that no matter what he tries to write it won't work unless he gives in. He put pen to paper almost every day from the age of 12 as a form of relief, beginning with poetry published in a magazine which took work from teenagers. An uncle discovered his name in print two years later and informed his mother, who Toibin said was "puzzled and proud". "Suddenly the guy who couldn't do anything could do this," he said. Gradually Toibin honed his skill into recalling stories from a bank of memories he built listening to his mother, sisters and aunts talk as a child. Toibin did not discuss his homosexuality with his family, rather they just came to know, he said. "My mother asked my sister an interesting question at one point, 'is he happy?' which is very sweet, but she did not ask me that. We did not talk about it." But she was deeply interested in his writing and was alive for his first few major publications. "She had an interesting way of handling it. She would write me quite serious letters about the style. She'd become interested in fiction herself as she grew older and she was reading Saul Bellow," he said. "She thought my novels were too slow. "And she did not really want to say that to me, but she would say 'isn't Saul Bellow marvellous, how smart he is', meaning 'is there any chance your novels could become a bit smarter, a bit snappier'. But she was proud and she made that clear." Fatherhood has made the Duke of Cambridge more emotional, he said in a TV interview The Duke of Cambridge has confessed that fatherhood has made him more "emotional" and prone to welling up, during a documentary about his father's Prince's Trust. William is the proud father of two small children - Prince George and Princess Charlotte - and has discovered that becoming a parent has made him more aware of how "precious life is". Speaking to Ant and Dec with his brother, Prince Harry, beside him, William said of the changes fatherhood had brought: "I'm a lot more emotional than I used to be, weirdly. I never used to get too wound up or worried about things. "But now the smallest little things, you well up a little more, you get affected by the sort of things that happen around the world or whatever a lot more, I think, as a father. "Just because you realise how precious life is and it puts it all in perspective. The idea of not being around to see your children grow up and stuff like that." The Duchess of Cornwall has also given what is believed to be her first televised interview for the 90-minute programme presented by Ant and Dec - Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly - who are Trust ambassadors. Camilla praised the Prince of Wales during the documentary for setting up his Prince's Trust 40 years ago and said he was still "passionate" about helping young people. The Trust grew out of Charles's concern that too many young people were being excluded from society through a lack of opportunity. In 1976, when he left the Royal Navy, he used the 7,400 he received in severance pay to fund a number of community schemes. These early initiatives were the founding projects of his charity. Around the country, 21 pilot projects were set up - from a grant given to a 19-year-old woman to run a social centre for the Haggerston Housing Estate in east London, to funds used to hire swimming baths in Cornwall to train young lifeguards. During the past 40 years it has grown to become Britain's leading youth charity and has reached more than 825,000 young people in total, with three in four achieving a positive outcome - moving into education, employment or training. Camilla said: "I think I'm really proud to be married to somebody who, 40 years ago, aged 27, had the vision to put it together - I mean it was an incredible idea then. "For somebody - he was very young then - to think of it and to think of these very disadvantaged young people who had literally been to hell and back and to find a way to give them a second chance in life." Asked how Charles still maintains his energy and enthusiasm, she replied: "I don't know, he just has that energy. You know if you're passionate about something you can do it, he cares so much about these young people." William and Harry also praised their father's charitable achievements with Charles's eldest son saying the Prince had an "insurmountable amount of duty in him". The Duke added: "The Prince's Trust evolved over time into what it is now, which is this incredible charity, that has really bust every possible limit it was ever set - it's really done well. A nd I think he's incredibly chuffed at how it's gone." The royal brothers also joked about how their father would make them cringe when they were growing up - by laughing at inappropriate moments during school plays. William told a story of how his father convulsed with giggles when a pyrotechnic explosion went off at the wrong moment as he was playing the role of narrator in a Christmas play. The Duke said about his father: "He couldn't stop laughing the whole way through the production." He added: "S everal times I'd stop ... I'd cast an eye across, like you know, a big death stare, and then I'd try and get back to my lines, it was terrible." :: When Ant And Dec Met The Prince: 40 Years Of The Prince's Trust, will be screened on ITV on Monday at 9pm. Hundreds were evacuated in Penge, south-east London, while gas engineers investigated the leak Emergency vehicles at the scene of the gas leak (Sgt Lance Chenery/@MPSBigginHill/PA) Hundreds of people were evacuated from their homes as police warned of a "huge" gas leak. Four reception centres were set up for residents to shelter from the cold as gas engineers worked to fix the problem. Around 500 were told to leave, according to the BBC. Police, firefighters and ambulance crews were sent to Queen Adelaide Road in Penge, south-east London, shortly before 11pm on Saturday. Sergeant Lance Chenery from the Bromley neighbourhood policing team described the evacuation as "large". He said on Twitter: "On scene with MPSBromley dealing with a serious gas leak in Penge SE20 large evacuation of residents." A Metropolitan Police spokesman said road closures were put in place as a cordon was set up around the site, but residents had been allowed back into their homes at around 5am. Shortly after the alert Bromley MPS tweeted: "Huge Gas Leak Penge Lane/Queen Adelaide Road. Houses being evacuated. Please avoid this area. "Road closures remain in place in Penge ... 4 reception centres housing evacuees. Community spirit pulling through." Once the incident had been cleared up, the police account tweeted: "Delighted but cold residents start returning to their homes in Penge ... Christmas slippers coming in useful!" Labour backbenchers have warned Jeremy Corbyn not to carry out a shake-up of his top team Jeremy Corbyn has been warned against carrying out a "punishment" purge of critics from his shadow cabinet amid speculation high-profile figures could be ousted from his top team. The Labour leader is expected to attempt to bolster his position by moving or sacking key members of the shadow cabinet, but veteran frontbencher Pat McFadden said Mr Corbyn risked looking "petty and divisive" if he carried out his so-called revenge reshuffle. Shadow cabinet minister Michael Dugher, whose own place is reported to be in jeopardy, warned the leader would end up with a "politburo of seven" at the top of the party if he attempted to surround himself with allies from the Labour left. Shadow Europe minister Mr McFadden defended his boss, shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn, whose support for bombing Islamic State (IS) in Syria put him at odds with Mr Corbyn. Other senior Labour figures thought to be under threat include shadow defence secretary Maria Eagle, who has clashed with the leader over the retention of the Trident nuclear deterrent. Mr McFadden said: "One thing I would say about ... Hilary Benn and Maria Eagle is there is no question about their competence to be shadow ministers." He pointed out that the Syria decision was a free vote among Labour MPs and Mr Benn should not pay the price for his views - particularly as Mr Corbyn had a long history of disagreement with Labour leaders. Mr McFadden told BBC Radio 4's Westminster Hour: "If it's about political disagreement, I think you have to pause here - especially if it's about the Syria vote that took place last month because this was on a one-line whip, it was not on a three-line whip. "Also if you look at Jeremy Corbyn's own record, his whole career is based on disagreeing with party leaders so I think there is a danger for him in this, in carrying out a reshuffle as a punishment for shadow minister who disagree with him. "He has talked of an open, pluralist kind of politics but a reshuffle for that reason could end looking more petty and divisive than open and pluralist politics. I think that is a risk for him if he proceeds for that reason." Mr Dugher, whose job as shadow culture secretary is also viewed as unsafe, also highlighted Mr Corbyn's declarations of support for different points of view to be heard within the party. The shadow cabinet minister insisted Labour is a "broad church not a religious cult" and warned Mr Corbyn that a big reshuffle would be inconsistent with his calls for open debate in the party. While a shadow cabinet reshuffle would reduce the risk of the leader and his frontbenchers speaking from opposing positions, it could trigger a wave of resignations. Sacking Mr Dugher, who also voted for bombing in Syria, could anger his senior allies such as deputy leader Tom Watson and shadow home secretary Andy Burnham. Mr Dugher told Pienaar's Politics on BBC Radio Five Live: "Reshuffles are a matter for the leadership. "In my experience having worked closely with previous leaders, there's a reason why they tend to be a bit reluctant to go down the path of big reshuffles and that's because they do try and hold the party together, they do recognise that the Labour Party is a broad church not a religious cult, that you need people of different backgrounds and try and get the best possible talents. "Ultimately that will be a decision for Jeremy." Mr Dugher added: "In truth, I don't see it happening and the reason why I don't see it happening is because I think it would be inconsistent with what Jeremy has talked about since he got the leadership, which is about room for a little dissent, about having debates." Meanwhile, Labour former minister Kim Howells described Mr Corbyn and his team as "superannuated Trotskyite oppositionists" who have brought the party to its knees. Asked about the state of the party on Pienaar's Politics, he said: "It keeps me awake at night. "I've never seen the party in such a deplorable state. "It isn't an opposition - in a democracy you've got to have an opposition and we haven't got one at the moment. "These are superannuated Trotskyite oppositionists, they are not real politicians and I'm afraid it's a disaster as far as I'm concerned." Simon Danczuk says he feels awful about explicit texts he sent to a teenage girl Simon Danczuk claimed a "drink problem" led him to send sexually explicit messages to a teenage girl as he faced further lurid revelations about his private life. The 49-year-old MP added he felt "awful" about lewd texts he sent to Sophena Houlihan when she was 17. He has been suspended from the Labour Party while an investigation takes place into his conduct, for which he has apologised "unreservedly". The Rochdale MP also threatened legal action against his first wife, Sonia Rossington, after she made a series of claims about his conduct, calling him a "sexual predator who made my life hell" and revealing details of his drink and drug consumption. The text messages to Ms Houlihan followed the collapse of his marriage to second wife Karen, who was dubbed the selfie queen after posting numerous photographs of herself in low-cut tops. The MP for Rochdale told the Sun he felt "lonely" and was "drunk" while on holiday in Spain when he sent the texts. He said: "I have a drink problem, and that is a major contributory reason why I sent the messages. "I've seen a psychiatrist about it and he's told me to stop drinking for six months. "I feel awful about what happened. I don't know what came over me. I'm so embarrassed that I've been such an idiot. I'm sorry for letting my family down and I'm already dreading my young sons finding out when they are older. The father of five added that "younger women are my Achilles heel" but said he knew sending the messages was "wrong" and his behaviour had "played on his mind". Miss Houlihan, who is now 18, said Mr Danczuk sent her numerous messages, including one asking if she wanted a "spanking" after she contacted him about a job. The pair exchanged messages for nearly a month before he asked how old she was, according to the newspaper. He said, at first, he considered it a "professional conversation". Mr Danczuk's tangled love life has repeatedly made the headlines over the past year, including the ending of a relationship with a Labour councillor, Claire Hamilton, who tweeted after Christmas that she had "dumped" him. His first wife, Ms Rossington, used a Mail on Sunday interview to claim Mr Danczuk drank a bottle of whisky a night and got "very angry" if there was not a cannabis joint rolled for him when he got home from work. In a statement Mr Danczuk said Ms Rossington was "obsessed with trying to ruin my political career" and accused her of pursuing a "vendetta" against him. He said: " These untrue allegations are of a criminal nature and she has chosen not to take them to police but to sell them to a national newspaper. "The media should be aware that our marriage ended long before our official divorce in 2010. Despite it being nearly 10-years since we've had any kind of relationship, she has not moved on and remains embittered to the point where she has prevented me from seeing or having a close relationship with my children." He said he had instructed solicitors to act on the contents of the interview. Costs for the "immoral and obscene" replacement for the Trident nuclear missile submarines have already reached almost 5 billion before Parliament has voted to give the project the final go-ahead, the SNP said. Funding for the concept and assessment phases of the scheme to replace the ageing Vanguard class boats which carry the deterrent stands at 4.8 billion. At the time of the strategic defence and security review in November it emerged the overall cost of Trident renewal could reach 40 billion. The Ministry of Defence estimates that acquiring four new submarines to carry the Trident deterrent will cost 31 billion over the course of the 20-year procurement programme - compared to a previous estimate of 25 billion. And a further 10 billion "contingency" has been set aside to meet additional unexpected cost increases, reflecting the complexity of the project, with the first submarine due to enter service in the early 2030s. The SNP highlighted that part of the cost increase was an extra 600 million for the design phase, taking the total cost for that element to 3.9 billion, on top of the 905 million concept phase. SNP defence spokesman Brendan O'Hara said: "People will be rightly shocked that before the Government has even bothered to put this to a vote in the House of Commons - they are just pushing ahead, spending billions and billions of taxpayers money on preparing for these obscene and redundant weapons. "A billion here - a billion there - all based on the arrogant assumption that Parliament will do what the Tories want and at a time when austerity cuts are deep and unending. "We know that Labour have bottled it on Trident - with Labour and its Scottish branch office at loggerheads, so once again the SNP are the only effective opposition at Westminster. "This cost would be indefensible under any circumstances - but at a time of deep austerity and swingeing cuts - it is completely unacceptable. Trident is the UK's ultimate virility symbol - it allows David Cameron to wield what remains of imaginary influence - proving beyond any doubt it is not a military asset - it is a political one." Mr Cameron has assured MPs that they will get the chance to vote on the renewal programme "at the appropriate moment". Mr O'Hara stressed the SNP's decision to oppose the project at every turn. He said: "Trident is an immoral obscene and redundant weapons system - the deadliest nuclear arsenal in history. It is also one that is already costing us a fortune - and that is before a decision has been made. The SNP will vote against Trident at every opportunity - whenever the Tories get round to it.'' An Ministry of Defence spokeswoman said: "The UK's independent nuclear deterrent is the ultimate guarantee of our nation's safety which is why the Government is committed to maintaining it. "We estimate costs will amount to around 0.2% per year of government spending - a small price to pay to ensure the security of British citizens." Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson believes an outsider could foil George Osborne and Boris Johnson's plans to lead the party Boris Johnson and George Osborne could be thwarted in their bids to become Tory leader by a surprise challenger, a senior Conservative has predicted. The next prime minister will not be one of the established front runners but instead an "outsider", as David Cameron was when he ran for the leadership, Ruth Davidson suggested. The leader of the Scottish Tories said she expected one of the younger generation of MPs first elected in 2010 to "come through the middle" and take the top job when Mr Cameron stands down. She told the Sunday Telegraph the job would go to a candidate who could show "warmth as well as intelligence" as she made her prediction. She added that she would back Welsh Secretary Stephen Crabb if he entered the race, according to the paper. London mayor Mr Johnson and Chancellor Mr Osborne, along with Home Secretary Theresa May, are viewed as the established figures most likely to contest for the leadership. But Ms Davidson said: "The party is quite good at picking people that aren't necessarily the obvious choice." She pointed out that Mr Cameron was "by far the youngest" candidate when he stood for the leadership in 2005 and "he was the outsider". She continued: "The party can pick winners and doesn't always pick the obvious choice. I have a sneaking suspicion ... it'll be someone who comes through the middle from the 2010 intake. "I think there's a few really, really competent and impressive people who demonstrate warmth as well as intelligence, and I think that's quite important in politics." Email pressure could be negatively impacting our productivity and wellbeing, the report authors said Constant email updates are a source of stress that people should consider doing without, according to a report by psychologists. A key recommendation is not having the email app running at all times - something many users would regard as heresy. The report from the London-based Future Work Centre, which conducts psychological research on people's workplace experiences, said emails were a "double-edged sword" that provided a useful means of communication but could also be a source of stress. Urging users to seize control of their email instead of being ruled by it, the authors said: "You may want to consider launching your email application when you want to use email and closing it down for periods when you don't wish to be interrupted by incoming emails. "In other words, use email when you intend to, not just because it's always running in the background." The team surveyed almost 2,000 working people across a range of industries and occupations in the UK about the pros and cons of using email. They found that two of the most stressful habits were leaving email on all day and checking emails early in the morning and late at night. There was a "strong relationship" between use of the "push" feature that automatically updates emails on devices as soon as they arrive and perceived email pressure. Higher email pressure was associated with more examples of work having a negative effect on home life, and home life having a negative impact on performance at work. Lead author Dr Richard MacKinnon said: "Our research shows that email is a double-edged sword. Whilst it can be a valuable communication tool, it's clear that it's a source of stress of frustration for many of us. "The people who reported it being most useful to them also reported the highest levels of email pressure. But the habits we develop, the emotional reactions we have to messages and the unwritten organisational etiquette around email, combine into a toxic source of stress which could be negatively impacting our productivity and wellbeing." Email pressure was highest among younger people and steadily decreased with age, according to the findings presented at the British Psychological Society's Division of Occupational Psychology annual meeting in Nottingham. Those working in IT, marketing, public relations, the internet and media were most affected by email stress. More than 30% of this group received more than 50 emails a day and more than 65% allowed their devices to update emails round the clock. In 2014, an estimated 196.3 billion emails were sent around the world, according to the report. The average adult spent more than an hour a day consulting emails. Gillian Anderson, who appears in the new series War And Peace, says she is not worried about being single Gillian Anderson says she is "content" and does not "sit on bar stools, pining" over being single. The actress, who has three children and has been married twice, said she had not been in a relationship for a "couple of years". In an interview with The Observer Magazine, she said: "I'm not anxious about it, nor am I interested in starting to see someone who doesn't fit. People go: 'Oh, he's so cute.' The trouble is, I'm not interested in looks at all." Anderson, 47, explained: " I am content. I don't feel anything is lacking in my life. I certainly don't sit on bar stools, pining. But the fact is I just haven't met anyone, and I don't know where people do meet people. "The thing is that there are needs and there are wants. I have a list of needs and I will not compromise about those." The actress, who stars in the BBC's new series War And Peace as socialite Anna Pavlovna Scherer, has a 25-year-old daughter, Piper Maru, with her first husband, Clyde Klotz, and nine-year-old Oscar and seven-year-old Felix with her ex-boyfriend Mark Griffiths. She said: "I don't meet anybody! It's not like I meet people, and they ask me out, and I say no. It's not even like I meet people and I don't give them enough attention. I just don't meet them at all. I'm either on a plane, or on set, or with my children. "There have been people in my life who've tried to set me up, and if a friend said: 'I know someone amazing', I would show up. But here's the thing: I've got three children. It's a big ask." Some critics have slammed her crime drama series, The Fall, accusing it of glamorising violence against women - but Anderson, who plays DSI Stella Gibson, dismisses the idea. She said: "It's unfounded. It's not gratuitous in any way. Rather, it points to the fact that there is still so much violence against women in the world. "There are so many other series that are drastically more violent and gratuitous than ours, but they get less attention for it because it's in the context of, say, vampirism. "Ours is so real, and its characters so recognisable, that it gets under the skin." :: War And Peace starts tonight at 9pm on BBC One. The X-Files returns to Channel 5 soon. The UK has committed to take 20,000 Syrian refugees over the next five years David Cameron's response to the migrant crisis has been condemned as "clearly inadequate" by leading charities and aid agencies who called for the UK to take a "fair and proportionate" share of refugees. The group of 27 charities, including Oxfam, the International Rescue Committee and Amnesty International, said the Prime Minister's commitment to resettle 20,000 Syrian refugees over five years was a welcome first step but failed to meet the UK's responsibilities for dealing with the "crisis on Europe's doorstep". In an open letter, co-ordinated by the British Refugee Council, the organisations said the UK's offer to rehome refugees was "too slow, too low and too narrow". Urging the Prime Minister to show a "new resolve" to deal with the problem, they said: "Last year saw 3,770 people drown and hundreds of thousands more endure a desperate march of misery across the continent." The letter added: " Last year's announcement that the UK will resettle 20,000 Syrian refugees over five years was a welcome first step, but given the numbers of people searching for safety across the globe, this response is clearly inadequate: it is too slow, too low and too narrow. "The UK can and should be doing much more to ensure that refugees are not compelled to take life-threatening journeys or forced into smugglers' hands." The organisations demanded that the country should take its share of refugees, including from those already within the EU and establish safe and legal routes to the UK. Refugee Council chief executive Maurice Wren said: "There are no easy answers to a humanitarian crisis of this magnitude. However, the solution must not be to spend another year impassively watching on while desperate people drown or are forced to endure a march of misery across the continent as they try to find a safe haven or to be reunited with their loved ones. "This year the Prime Minister must open his heart and show true statesmanship by welcoming far more refugees to the UK, enabling them to travel here safely and legally to live lives free from violence, tyranny and oppression." Penny Lawrence, Oxfam's deputy chief executive, said: "Last year over a million desperate people made the hazardous journey into Europe seeking sanctuary. "The numbers are huge but each one is a person: a brother, a mother, a daughter, a loved one. The Government's response to this crisis in Europe has been lacklustre at best, mean spirited at worse. In the face of such levels of human need the Government needs to do more to provide a safe haven." Amnesty International UK's director Kate Allen said: "While David Cameron has grimly clung on to the idea that the UK government's approach to the refugee crisis is the right one, thousands have drowned in the Mediterranean and Aegean. "The Prime Minister must now urgently change tack and support the creation of safe and legal routes which so many desperate refugees need to get to Europe, including to the UK. Without these, thousands more will perish. Let's not see a repeat in 2016 of the terrible scenes of death that were so common last year on Europe's beaches and in its seas." A Government spokeswoman said: "The United Kingdom has a long and proud history of offering sanctuary to those who genuinely need our protection, with each claim for asylum judged on its individual merits. "The terrible images we have seen in the last year have moved us all, strengthening our resolve to help prevent more people suffering such a fate. "That is why we are resettling people directly from the countries neighbouring Syria, to which so many refugees have fled, and we have already met our target of welcoming 1,000 of the most vulnerable before Christmas. "The UK is also playing a leading role providing life-saving aid to those most in need, both in the Syrian region, where we have pledged over 1.1 billion in humanitarian aid, and in Europe. It is essential that we focus our support where we can make the biggest impact. "At the same time, we are working closely with other European countries to ensure systems are in place which properly address unfounded claims for asylum, so we can all respond more effectively to those genuinely in need of our protection." Bill Cosby has been charged with drugging and sexually assaulting a woman at his home 12 years ago Bill Cosby's wife will be forced to testify in a defamation lawsuit filed by seven women who accuse the comedian of sexually assaulting them decades ago. A federal judge on Thursday denied a motion by Camille Cosby to throw out a subpoena requiring her to give a deposition in the lawsuit. She is scheduled to be deposed by lawyers for the women on Wednesday. US Judge Magistrate David Hennessey in Springfield, Massachusetts, said Camille Cosby failed to prove that she and her husband were protected by the state's marital disqualification law. He also rejected claims that the value of the testimony would be outweighed by the "undue burden" the deposition would cause. The arguments "do not outweigh the potential significance of Mrs Cosby's testimony, nor has Mrs Cosby provided any authority that they do," Hennessey wrote in a 12-page ruling. The couple have been married for more than 50 years and Camille Cosby is her husband's business partner. She is not a defendant in the lawsuit against Bill Cosby. A lawyer for the women, Joseph Cammarata, argued last month that he should be able to question Camille Cosby because he believed she had "information that's relevant to the litigation in this matter". In a motion filed on December 18 to quash the subpoena, Bill Cosby's lawyers said his wife does not have any information about the accuracy of the women's allegations, and argued that subjecting his wife to a deposition was "nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt to pressure defendant in the face of subjecting his wife to the shame and embarrassment of responding to questions about his alleged infidelities and sexual misconduct". The women claim Cosby allowed representatives to portray them as liars after they went public with their allegations against the entertainer. Cosby has filed a countersuit, accusing the women of making false allegations for financial gain. Camille Cosby had also sought a protective order to limit the scope of the subpoena as an alternative to quashing it altogether, but the judge also rejected that approach. Cosby was charged last week in Pennsylvania with drugging and sexually assaulting a woman in 2004 inside his home near Philadelphia, the first criminal case brought against him out of a torrent of allegations. His lawyers called the charges unjustified and said they expected Cosby to be exonerated. Palestinians have been angered by the failure to solve the case (AP) Israel has charged four Jewish extremists suspected over a July arson attack on a Palestinian home that killed a toddler and his parents. The case has been unsolved for months and helped fuel the current wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence. The long-awaited indictment follows months of investigations into a web of Jewish extremists operating in the West Bank. The indictment named Amiram Ben-Uliel, 21, as the main suspect in the attack. A minor was charged as an accessory. Yinon Reuveni, 20, and another minor were charged for other violence against Palestinians. The arson attack in the West Bank village of Duma killed 18-month-old Ali Dawabsheh, while his mother, Riham, and father, Saad, later died of their wounds. Ali's four-year-old brother Ahmad survived. The firebombing, carried out under cover of darkness while the family slept, sparked soul-searching among Israelis rattled by the horrific attack. It was condemned across the Israeli political spectrum and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged "zero tolerance" in the fight to bring the assailants to justice. Israel has authorised a series of steps, including administrative detention, to try and crack the case. But for months, Palestinians watched angrily as the case remained unsolved, intensifying a feeling of skewed justice in the occupied territory, where suspected Palestinian militants are prosecuted under a separate system of military law that gives them few rights. The arson also touched on Palestinian fears of extremist Jewish settlers, who have attacked Palestinian property with impunity. Palestinians cite the Duma incident as a factor in the three-month wave of attacks and clashes affectling the region, saying they are frustrated by years of unchecked settler violence. Israel's Shin Bet security service says the suspects admitted to carrying out the attack, saying it was in retaliation for the killing of an Israeli a month earlier. It said all the suspects were part of a group of extremists that had carried out a series of attacks over the years and whose goal was to undermine the state. Jewish extremists have for years vandalised or set fire to Palestinian property, as well as mosques, churches, the offices of dovish Israeli groups and even Israeli military bases. The so-called "price tag" attacks seek to exact a cost for Israeli steps seen as favouring the Palestinians. The extremists are part of the so-called "hilltop youth," a leaderless group of young people who set up unauthorised outposts, usually clusters of trailers, on West Bank hilltops - land the Palestinians claim for their hoped-for state. A lawyer for one of the suspects says his client gave a forced confession after interrogators deprived him of sleep and tied him upside down by his feet. The indictment said Ben-Uliel admitted to spraying graffiti on the Dawabsheh family home and then tossing a firebomb through a bedroom window before fleeing the scene. Ben-Uliel's parents said they believe in his innocence and that he was tortured during interrogation. Nasser Dawabsheh, Saad's brother, said the indictments were not enough. "It's clear the Israeli institutions are not serious," he said. "It's clear there was an organisation behind this crime, even the media knows that. And the government was not serious in preventing it and is not serious in pursuing the killers." Police in New Orleans are hunting a hit-and-run driver who dragged a body for six miles A driver in New Orleans apparently hit a pedestrian in the city's French Quarter and then drove on, dragging the body for more than six miles. Police said the driver drove across a Mississippi River bridge before the body was dislodged. Another driver found the disfigured body of a man in the early hours of Friday in the road leading from the bridge. In a Facebook posting, police said investigators believe the body is that of an unidentified pedestrian hit in the French Quarter. It said witnesses told investigators a black car with tinted windows struck the man and drove off. Officer Garry Flot, a police spokesman, said do not have further leads to the car or driver. Police posted surveillance video photographs of the car on Facebook, seeking the public's help in the case. Iranian police and security forces stand guard to protect Saudi Arabia's embassy in Tehran as demonstrators protested against the execution of a Shiite cleric (AP) Saudi Arabia has announced it is severing diplomatic ties with Iran amid mounting tensions over the execution of a prominent Saudi Shiite cleric. Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said that Iranian diplomatic personnel had 48 hours to leave the country and all Saudi diplomatic personnel in Iran were being recalled home. Iranian officials harshly condemned the execution, with Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei saying that Saudi Arabia would face "divine retribution". Protesters set fire to the kingdom's embassy in Tehran and demonstrators took to the streets from Bahrain to Pakistan after the mass execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr and 46 others. It was the largest execution carried out by Saudi Arabia in three and a half decades and illustrates the kingdom's new aggressiveness under King Salman. Under his reign, Saudi Arabia has led a coalition fighting Shiite rebels in Yemen and staunchly opposed regional Shiite power Iran, even as Tehran struck a nuclear deal with world powers. Riyadh has accused Tehran of supporting terrorism in a war of words that threatened to escalate even as the US and the European Union sought to calm the region. Sheikh al-Nimr was a central figure in Arab Spring-inspired protests by Saudi Arabia's Shiite minority until his arrest in 2012. He was convicted of terrorism charges but denied advocating violence. On Saturday, Saudi Arabia put Sheikh al-Nimr and three other Shiite dissidents to death, along with a number of al Qaida militants. Sheikh al-Nimr's execution drew protests from Shiites across the world, who backed his call for reform and wider political freedom for their sect. While the split between Sunnis and Shiites dates back to the early days of Islam and disagreements over the successor to Prophet Mohammed, those divisions have only grown as they intertwine with regional politics today, with both Iran and Saudi Arabia vying to be the Middle East's top power. Iran accuses Saudi Arabia of supporting terrorism in part because it backs Syrian rebel groups fighting to oust its embattled ally, President Bashar Assad. Riyadh points to Iran's backing of the Lebanese Hezbollah and other Shiite militant groups in the region as a sign of its support for terrorism. Iran also has backed Shiite rebels in Yemen known as Houthis. Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, condemned Sheikh al-Nimr's execution, saying on Sunday the cleric "neither invited people to take up arms nor hatched covert plots. The only thing he did was public criticism." Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard said Saudi Arabia's "medieval act of savagery" would lead to the "downfall" of the country's monarchy. Saudi Arabia's Foreign Ministry said that by condemning the execution, Iran had "revealed its true face represented in support for terrorism". Iranian president Hassan Rouhani condemned Saudi Arabia's execution of Sheikh al-Nimr, but also branded those who attacked the Saudi Embassy as "extremists". "It is unjustifiable," he said in a statement. Hundreds of protesters later demonstrated in front of the embassy and in a central Tehran square. Street signs near the embassy were replaced with ones bearing the slain sheikh's name. Protesters also took to the streets across the region. In Bahrain, police used water cannons and fired birdshot at demonstrators on Sitra Island, south of the capital, Manama, wounding some. In al-Daih, west of the capital, Shiite protesters chanted against Saudi Arabia's ruling Al Saud family, as well as against Bahrain's ruling Al Khalifa family. In Beirut, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah called Sheikh al-Nimr "the martyr, the holy warrior", while demonstrators marched in Turkey, India and Pakistan. Western powers sought to calm the tensions. In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said the US condemned the embassy attack and called on all sides "to avoid any actions that would further heighten tensions in the region". European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini spoke to Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif by phone and urged Tehran to "defuse the tensions and protect the Saudi diplomats", according to a statement. The cleric's execution has threatened to complicate Saudi Arabia's relationship with the Shiite-led government in Iraq, where the Saudi Embassy is preparing to formally reopen for the first time in nearly 25 years. On Saturday there were calls for the embassy to be shut down again. Iran and Saudi Arabia summoned each other's envoys for consultations, and Saudi allies Egypt and the United Arab Emirates summoned Iranian officials in their capitals over the Tehran embassy assault. Meanwhile, Sheikh al-Nimr's family prepared for three days of mourning at a mosque in al Awamiya in the kingdom's al Qatif region in predominantly Shiite eastern Saudi Arabia. The sheikh's brother, Mohammed al-Nimr, said that Saudi officials informed his family that the cleric had been buried in an undisclosed cemetery, a development that could lead to further protests. A person familiar with the Saudi government's thinking in Washington said the kingdom severed relations with Iran because "enough was enough", adding that Riyadh was less concerned with how its decision affected diplomatic efforts led by the United States, including the Syrian peace talks or the Iran nuclear deal. The source said the Saudi government was tired of what it saw as Tehran "thumbing its nose at the West", including the recent launch of ballistic missiles, while no one did anything about it. "Every time Iran does something, the United States backs off," the person said. In a daring terrorist strike in the northern Indian state of Punjab that could pose a challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modis recent diplomacy with Pakistan, three security men were killed when militants attacked an Indian Air Force (IAF) base near the border on Saturday. Five terrorists, who are suspected members of terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), were killed in the gun battle that lasted more than 15 hours in the town of Pathankot, some 40 km (25 miles) from the Pakistani border. Defense sources told BenarNews that an unknown number of terrorists armed with hand grenades and AK-47 assault rifles launched an attack on the Pathankot IAF base at 3:30 a.m. Saturday. The hunt for more militants will resume Sunday, sources said, adding that combat forces including Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) and aerial surveillance teams had sealed all exit points. Combing is still on. We cannot say at the moment for how long it would continue. But we are on the job, Ravinder Kumar Bakshi, Pathankots senior superintendent of police, told BenarNews. The militants are suspected of crossing into India from the Bahawalpur area of Pakistan on Dec. 31, passing through a thickly forested canal linked to the Beas River that cuts across the fencing on the border. The IAF said in a statement the militants were detected by its aerial surveillance teams just as they entered the Pathankot air base. The militants hurled grenades and opened fire, killing three air force personnel, including a commando. Intelligence reports Intelligence inputs had been available of a likely attempt by terrorists to infiltrate into the military installation in Pathankot area. In response, preparatory actions had been taken by the IAF to thwart any such attempt, the statement said. The infiltrators were immediately engaged and contained within a limited area, thus preventing them from entering the technical zone where high value assets are parked. An official at the Pathankot Air Force Station told BenarNews the intruders wanted to set fire to the fuel for MiG21 fighters and Mi-35 attack helicopters housed at the base. That attempt was foiled. Intelligence sources told BenarNews that the suspected JeM operatives robbed a police superintendant, Salwinder Singh, of his mobile phone after assaulting him on Friday and made four calls between 12:35 a.m. and 1:40 a.m. (Saturday) to Pakistan from the officers phone. Militants called handlers, family Three of those calls were made to their handlers, while one of them was to one of their family members, the official said. In one of the intercepted conversations, one of the militants reportedly told his mother, I am on a suicide mission, to which his mother replied, Eat something before you die, the official said. The other three calls, the official said, were made to Abdul Rauf Asghar, Ashfaq Ahmad and Qasim Khan, who are suspected of being the masterminds of the attack. Maulana Masood Azhar, JeMs chief, was released from an Indian prison in exchange for passengers of the hijacked Indian Airlines flight IC814 in December 1999. The group later associated with the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), which together perpetrated a daring attack in 2001 on the Indian Parliament house in which militants drove into the complex in an official vehicle and opened fire. Afzal Guru, a native of Jammu and Kashmir, was executed by India in 2013 for his role in the attack. Rajesh Verma, a resident of Gurdaspur, who was with police superintendant Singh when the Pathankot attackers assaulted the duo, said the men kept saying they had come to avenge Afzal Gurus death as they continued hitting them with rifle butts. The attack comes just days after Modi met Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Lahore on Dec. 25 in a surprise visit on his way back to India from Afghanistan. Despite criticism over Modis gesture toward his Pakistani counterpart, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said India wanted peace with its neighbors but would not tolerate any aggression or terror attack. We received (terror) inputs and our security forces and police adopted care and resisted the attack with success. I must congratulate them. Had the intelligence not been there, the magnitude of attack could have been unimaginable, Singh said. The Jaish-e-Mohammad hand (in the latest attack) cannot be ruled out, he said, adding that India had the might to counter any kind of terrorism, whatsoever. Modi tweeted, Enemies of humanity who cant see India progress, such elements attacked in Pathankot but our security forces did not let them succeed. Even as the attack raises questions over confidence in the Indian government toward peace with Pakistan, security experts said the incident needed to be investigated from specific angles, including any local support. These kind of Fidayeen (suicide) attacks pose several questions. We must seriously look into the possibility of local support in such attacks, A.S. Dulat, former chief of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), Indias external intelligence agency, told BenarNews. He added that the latest attack must not derail recently improving ties with Pakistan. The National Security Adviser-level and Foreign Secretary-level talks are a great step and the dialogue process must continue, he said. The Pakistani government has denied any involvement in the Pathankot attack. While condemning the attack, the Pakistan foreign office said in a statement: Building on the goodwill created during the recent high-level contacts between the two countries, Pakistan remains committed to partner with India to completely eradicate the menace of terrorism afflicting South Asian region. We attempted to send a notification to your email address but we were unable to verify that you provided a valid email address. Please click here to update your email address if you wish to receive notifications. Otherwise, you may click here to disable notifications and hide this message. Jem's Birding & Ringing Exploits in the Eastern Province and elsewhere in Saudi Arabia We dont know what questions will be asked, but we have to search for the answers on our own within the given time. We were told to search [for the answers] in the books. If we have not read the books, we wont be able to answer anything within the given time as we wont know which book we should search in. Mother Su [Daw Aung San Suu Kyi]s medicine is effective. Now we have gotten back our reading habit. Now, all the rooms are quiet and everyone is reading, said Daw Thant Wai Kyaw, Sagaing Regional Parliaments MP from Kalay Township, in a post made on social media prior to the end of the course. The teachers have told us that this exam is not for releasing the results but for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, so she can decide what kind of duties she will give she explained in the post. The subjects included a constitution course taught by U Ko Ni and another course titled Party Principle, Rules and Regulations, Consecutive Organizations, and the Election Declaration. This course is very effective for us. We got to learn how to ask synchronized questions and submit proposals in parliament. We also learned how to speak to the public, explained Upper House MP U Myo Htike from Chin State's Paletwa Township. All recently elected MPs from the NLD have attended the three-day course held at Shwe Eain San Hotel in Nay Pyi Taw. The attendees of the training course believe the course will give useful skills. The first batch of the training course was held for MPs from Kachin State, Shan State, the Mandalay Region from December 16 to 18. The course is being financially supported by controversial Burmese business tycoon Tay Za. Just prior to the 2014 election, Kansas Governor Sam Brownback promised that his magic tax cuts would begin working if the people of Kansas simply gave them more time. Brownback was reeleected, but now that its clear that his tax cuts are never going to work, he no longer wants to claim them as his own. During a speech at the Greater Topeka Chamber of Commerce on Friday, Governor Brownback deflected blame for the current state of the economy onto the state legislature. He appeared to put ground between himself and tax cuts he signed, however, when commenting on the states projected budget deficit of $280 million this fiscal year and $436 million in the next fiscal year. I proposed a flat tax with a small budget accelerator. What I got from the Legislature was a naked tax cut with none of the pay-fors, he said. I took it because it was the best we were going to get. Brownbacks personal protest is a misnomer because eliminating income taxes in favor of a flat tax is a naked tax cut, but its a tax cut and a tax hike for the wrong people. Eliminating income taxes is a massive giveaway to the wealthy while instituting a flat tax is a significant tax hike on the poor and even the middle class. Poor individuals and middle class families who were mildly burdened, or not burdened at all, by income taxes will pay significantly more money on everyday purchases under a flat tax system while wealthy individuals and families pocket significantly more money each year at the expense of the state. Theres no denying that Brownback has spearheaded the effort to eliminate income taxes. Theres also no denying that he wants to embrace an even worse tax system. And how is Kansas doing under the current system(s)? Not good. After a district court ruled that state spending on education was inadequate under the state constitution, the governors staff said his office would work with the state legislature to develop an entirely new system for funding education. The governor released his plan last week and the new system his staff spoke of is a block grant system. The governors plan, released Friday, is to roll four major categories of spending into block grants to school districts. The block grants will include the money now spent in general state aid, supplemental state aid, capital outlay aid and the school district finance fund. This years budget for those categories is almost $3.14 billion. The block grants proposed by the governor would total slightly more than $3 billion. The actual amount of the cut proposed is $127,399,537, according to the Education Department figures. With cities and school districts struggling to find funding under a black grant system that other districts share, it seems entirely plausible that a rash of municipal bankruptcies will hit Kansas in the not too distant future. At the very least, the quality of education in Kansas is set to plummet. Brownback and the state legislature are well on their way toward implementing congressman Paul Ryans vision and producing for us a real-time example of what Ryans Path to Poverty looks like in practice. Im well aware that some believe the people of Kansas asked for this by reelecting Brownback, but I will continue following the situation for posterity. On more than one occasion, I have had people stop me in the grocery store or at the airport to ask me for help in Spanish. I politely answer in my broken Spanish, Lo siento, no hablo espanol. My family is from Egypt, and I grew up in Cleveland. But some may confuse me for Hispanic or another ethnic minority group. The U.S. Census Bureau defines a person having origins in the Middle East and North Africa as white. In fact, white is the only available box I can tick on most government documents. In most cases, I dont check any box, unless there is an other category on the form. A checkbox on a demographic form may seem like a trivial issue. However, Americans of Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) descent are often asked, Where are you from? This and similar experiences of othering demonstrate that most Americans dont see us as white. The absence of a racial or ethnic category that accurately identifies people of MENA descent symbolizes their marginalization and lack of recognition in the United States. Arab Americans and other ethnic groups from the Middle East and North Africa are strangely both hypervisible and invisible at the same time. But there may be change on the horizon. The Census Bureau is testing a MENA category for possible inclusion on the 2020 decennial census. It is not yet clear if MENA will be an ethnic category similar to the Hispanic classification or a racial category such as black, Asian and white. The Arab American Institute estimates there are 3.5 million Arab Americans, and that estimate does not include non-Arab ethnic groups from MENA. Yet the census lumps all of them together with white Europeans. Allowing people to choose a MENA racial or ethnic category would lead to a more accurate census. The data can help in gaining a better understanding of the communitys experiences and in allocating government resources and priorities. Regardless of how the question might be worded, we need national statistics on groups from MENA to assess existing economic, educational and health disparities and provide solutions. Koh Lipe conceals a getaway beach that seems everyone is searching upon. It is facing Koh Adang and situated at the northeastern part of the island. Going here requires some amount of energy, ascending to the hill and descending via Mountain resort before youll earn Karma. The boomerang shape sandbar, waving palm trees, white sand and aquamarine seawater are known labels of this shore. Now, it actually earns a moniker as Maldives of Thailand. But honestly, its incomparable. It has a unique charm and identity. Want a proof? Let me share the ten photos to prove this Karma is a beach. Say Hello to Koh Adang, the opposite hill Rocks and shallow water Long tail boat Getting along with nature top view of boomerang sandbar Hugging is fun here Life by a beach This is your KARMA that sandbar We just claimed Karma, now who wants to swim? Beach Bum, Gardai in Cork are searching for a missing 31-year-old man. Colin Ronayne was last seen on College Road in Cork City at 6am on New Year's Day. He is of medium build with short dark hair and when last seen Colin was wearing a black "V" neck jumper, black tracksuit bottoms and grey shoes. Colin Ronayne missing since 6am Frid Jan 1st, UCC area of Cork city. Pls share. Details to gardai @irishexaminer pic.twitter.com/b2zw7o0nqQ Clyda Rovers GAA (@clydaroversgaa) January 3, 2016 Anyone with information is asked to contact Bridewell Garda Station on 021-4943331. UPDATE (3pm): Sinn Fein Leader Gerry Adams TD has accused the Labour Party for devaluing marriage equality after a picture of a Labour election poster "drafted but not actually commissioned" emerged today. As a dad raising teenage boys to challenge homophobic remarks this puerile politicking is unacceptable. pic.twitter.com/nUpik8RJsl I can only assume that the strategists who gave us Labours infamous Tesco Ad in 2011 have presented this latest juvenile offering, said Deputy Adams. It shows how bereft of genuine policy and constructive ideas the Labour Party now is. "It is clear that Joan Burton's party is getting increasingly desperate as a General Election approaches and the verdict of the electorate on their disastrous performance in Government beckons. UPDATE (12.20am): An image portraying Gerry Adams and Micheal Martin as a gay couple in what appears to be a Labour Party advert was "drafted but not actually commissioned", a Labour Party spokesman has said. "As one element of our campaign, we considered some draft adverts to make a serious point in a light-hearted way," the spokesman said. This version makes the point that at the next election, voters will have a choice between the stable, balanced government offered by Labour and Fine Gael - or a marriage of convenience between Fianna Fail and Sinn Fein that would destroy Ireland's hard-won progress over the last five years. Fianna Fail caused the bust in the first place and Sinn Fein would return us to bust with their policies. The ad was drafted but not actually commissioned." UPDATE (12.20am): An image portraying Gerry Adams and Micheal Martin as a gay couple is not an official campaign poster, a spokesman has said. The draft poster was not approved by any unit of the Labour Party, according to Labour Cllr Dermot Lacey. Earlier: The photoshopped picture of the party leaders will carries the tag line This is one marriage we should vote NO to this year. The poster also includes images of Opposition TDs Richard Boyd Barrett, Paul Murphy, Mick Wallace and Clare Daly. Former senior political adviser, Gerard Howlin, said it could draw criticism for negative campaigning. Its dangerous politics in the sense that people feel very entitled to be quite cutting about their politicians they dont necessarily thank political parties for attacking, and being cutting, and being negative, he said. And some politicians who are very acerbic, who can land punch after punch after punch, can often be extremely poor at bringing people with them. A womans body has been discovered at the scene of a blaze, the Police Service of Northern Ireland said. Her remains were found at a house in the Archdale Drive area of the Belvoir Estate in south Belfast on Sunday afternoon. Bill Cosbys wife will be forced to testify in a defamation lawsuit filed by seven women who accuse the comedian of sexually assaulting them decades ago. A federal judge on Thursday denied a motion by Camille Cosby to throw out a subpoena requiring her to give a deposition in the lawsuit. She is scheduled to be deposed by lawyers for the women on Wednesday. Saudi Arabia has announced it is severing diplomatic ties with Iran amid mounting tensions over the execution of a prominent Saudi Shiite cleric. Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said that Iranian diplomatic personnel had 48 hours to leave the country and all Saudi diplomatic personnel in Iran were being recalled home. Iranian officials harshly condemned the execution, with Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei saying that Saudi Arabia would face divine retribution. Protesters set fire to the kingdoms embassy in Tehran and demonstrators took to the streets from Bahrain to Pakistan after the mass execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr and 46 others. It was the largest execution carried out by Saudi Arabia in three and a half decades and illustrates the kingdoms new aggressiveness under King Salman. Under his reign, Saudi Arabia has led a coalition fighting Shiite rebels in Yemen and staunchly opposed regional Shiite power Iran, even as Tehran struck a nuclear deal with world powers. Riyadh has accused Tehran of supporting terrorism in a war of words that threatened to escalate even as the US and the European Union sought to calm the region. Sheikh al-Nimr was a central figure in Arab Spring-inspired protests by Saudi Arabias Shiite minority until his arrest in 2012. He was convicted of terrorism charges but denied advocating violence. On Saturday, Saudi Arabia put Sheikh al-Nimr and three other Shiite dissidents to death, along with a number of al Qaida militants. Sheikh al-Nimrs execution drew protests from Shiites across the world, who backed his call for reform and wider political freedom for their sect. While the split between Sunnis and Shiites dates back to the early days of Islam and disagreements over the successor to Prophet Mohammed, those divisions have only grown as they intertwine with regional politics today, with both Iran and Saudi Arabia vying to be the Middle Easts top power. Iran accuses Saudi Arabia of supporting terrorism in part because it backs Syrian rebel groups fighting to oust its embattled ally, President Bashar Assad. Riyadh points to Irans backing of the Lebanese Hezbollah and other Shiite militant groups in the region as a sign of its support for terrorism. Iran also has backed Shiite rebels in Yemen known as Houthis. Irans supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, condemned Sheikh al-Nimrs execution, saying on Sunday the cleric neither invited people to take up arms nor hatched covert plots. The only thing he did was public criticism. Irans powerful Revolutionary Guard said Saudi Arabias medieval act of savagery would lead to the downfall of the countrys monarchy. Saudi Arabias Foreign Ministry said that by condemning the execution, Iran had revealed its true face represented in support for terrorism. Iranian president Hassan Rouhani condemned Saudi Arabia's execution of Sheikh al-Nimr, but also branded those who attacked the Saudi Embassy as ``extremists''. It is unjustifiable, he said in a statement. Hundreds of protesters later demonstrated in front of the embassy and in a central Tehran square. Street signs near the embassy were replaced with ones bearing the slain sheikhs name. Protesters also took to the streets across the region. In Bahrain, police used water cannons and fired birdshot at demonstrators on Sitra Island, south of the capital, Manama, wounding some. In al-Daih, west of the capital, Shiite protesters chanted against Saudi Arabias ruling Al Saud family, as well as against Bahrains ruling Al Khalifa family. In Beirut, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah called Sheikh al-Nimr the martyr, the holy warrior, while demonstrators marched in Turkey, India and Pakistan. Western powers sought to calm the tensions. In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said the US condemned the embassy attack and called on all sides to avoid any actions that would further heighten tensions in the region. European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini spoke to Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif by phone and urged Tehran to defuse the tensions and protect the Saudi diplomats, according to a statement. The clerics execution has threatened to complicate Saudi Arabias relationship with the Shiite-led government in Iraq, where the Saudi Embassy is preparing to formally reopen for the first time in nearly 25 years. On Saturday there were calls for the embassy to be shut down again. Iran and Saudi Arabia summoned each others envoys for consultations, and Saudi allies Egypt and the United Arab Emirates summoned Iranian officials in their capitals over the Tehran embassy assault. Meanwhile, Sheikh al-Nimrs family prepared for three days of mourning at a mosque in al Awamiya in the kingdoms al Qatif region in predominantly Shiite eastern Saudi Arabia. The sheikhs brother, Mohammed al-Nimr, said that Saudi officials informed his family that the cleric had been buried in an undisclosed cemetery, a development that could lead to further protests. LONDON: Eight out of 10 people in Britain now disapprove of the government, a YouGov poll showed on Tuesday, as the... MOSCOW: The Russian Belgorod region bordering Ukraine was hit by strikes on Sunday, leaving at least four people... TEHRAN: Iran has once again rejected allegations that it has supplied Russia with weapons "to be used in the war in... Naomi Halpern, a victim of bad financial advice who was caught up in the collapse of forestry investment scheme Timbercorp, will take the fight up to financial sector and the corporate watchdog at the next Federal Election. Ms Halpern has been named as the lead Victorian Senate candidate for Nick Xenophon's new political party set up by the Independent South Australian Senator who has been a vocal campaigner for cleaning up the financial advice sector. In her first interview since being pre-selected for The Xenophon Team, Ms Halpern took a swipe at the Australian Securities and Investment Commission handling of financial collapses and white collar crime. "There needs to be an appropriate organisation to investigate complaints of white collar crime," Ms Halpern said. "ASIC has really failed. They've dropped the ball on this." Ms Halpern, a trained social worker who specialises in consulting and training mental health professionals, invested in forestry and other agricultural schemes set up by Timbercorp in the years before its 2009 collapse. She thought Timbercorp was a safe investment after it was recommended by her then financial adviser Peter Holt. Mr Holt was involved in running an accounting and financial advice outfit Holt Norman Ashman Baker and one of the biggest promoters of Timbercorp products. By 2012, Mr Holt was bankrupt. That same year he was banned as a financial advisor after an ASIC investigation found he had given inappropriate advice to his clients. Mr Holt's ASIC ban ended in 2015 and his bankruptcy was discharged. However, investigations into his conduct, by ASIC and liquidators, including his allegedly "fake" bankruptcy continue. Mr Holt did not return calls. As head of the Holt Norman Baker Ashman Action Group, Ms Halpern has testified at Senate hearings into the collapse of forestry managed investment schemes and into the scrutiny of financial advice. Ms Halpern said she supported calls for a Royal Commission into misconduct in the financial services sector. "What's happened to so many people should not have happened," she said. Ms Halpern said often schemes where serious misconduct is thought to have occurred are very complicated and created serious issues for ASIC which is famously starved of resources. "It's like ASIC has thrown it [complex financial collapses] into the too hard basket because they're either not willing, not interested or perhaps just not adequately resourced to do the investigations." She said ASIC often received information about dodgy financial advisors years ahead of doing a full investigation. "There needs to be some kind of a body, organisation or commission that should have the power to really thoroughly investigate these cases and do it quickly. We're seven years down the track with Timbercorp." "This body also needs to have powers to reward not only restitution but compensation as well." Ms Halpern also welcomed the Turnbull government's innovation package but said reforms to laws surrounding insolvency and bankruptcy but said the government needed to safeguard victims of financial misconduct from people manipulating the new laws to their own advantage. ASIC said it was unable to comment on operational matters, including when it received complaints. Responding to questions from Fairfax Media about whether ASIC lacked the will to pursue allegedly rogue advisers, a spokeswoman for ASIC said: "We have been very active in pursuing financial advisers engaging in misconduct and have banned 24 advisers in the six months to the end of December 2015." Pathankot: A gold medal-winning Indian shooter was among 10 people killed in an audacious predawn assault on an air force base, officials said on Sunday, as troops worked to clear the compound near India's border with Pakistan after a 15-hour gunbattle. Six Indian security personnel were killed and the bodies of four militants had been recovered after the assault on the heavily fortified Pathankot air base in the north-western state of Punjab. Officials said the gunmen, wearing army fatigues, managed to enter the base before dawn on Saturday. Once inside, they opened fire. Arrival lounge Actor Leo McKern returned to Australia last night to prepare for his new season of Boswell for the Defence. McKern is a notoriously reluctant flyer "and his suspicion of aircraft obviously hasn't been cured. This time he insisted his wife, Jane, travel on a separate flight, reasoning that this would reduce the chances of the McKern children being instantly orphaned in case the unthinkable happened". Leo McKern in Boswell For The Defence. Credit:Publicity Spicy elephant dung Soul Bros' Spanish International Circus says it can top the offer of cheap horse manure (Column 8, Tuesday). They have an elephant which "produces more manure than the keeper knows what to do with". Available for free (BYO shovel), it is "spiced with monkey, lion, camel and horse manure". "According to the circus the very same beast was once hired to perform at elephant-buff John Elliott's birthday party." So attention turns to the situation in Australia, where the two key portfolios of international policy are occupied for the first time in our history by women: Foreign Affairs (Julie Bishop) and Defence (Marise Payne). They stand out in the new, nimble ascendancy in Canberra. This is especially the case in what might be called war-making roles. Men have traditionally been the nation's warriors and women have been among the spoils of victory. The more difficult question is whether it would make any difference if more women were in positions of power and influence. The systems and structures that support the top jobs are strong and resilient. The impact of women as reformers who have reached the top is negligible. Many women are keen on getting more of their gender into positions of power and influence. The argument from history and demography is persuasive. Because men have always controlled these positions, tradition and culture record it as their entitlement. Yet it is self-evident that half of the population must contain talent that is being ignored. Powerful women: Julie Bishop and Marise Payne. Credit:Ben Rushton Payne has a traditional Liberal political background in NSW, but is a republican, was sworn in as Minister for Defence without the assistance of a Bible, and, like Bishop, is unmarried. She has been a busy senator since 1997, especially as chairwoman of the joint standing committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade. Bishop has been a competent and careful rather than innovative minister, but she showed an independent spirit when, against critics in her party and fierce opposition from the US, she worked with Labor to campaign for the International Criminal Court. She later wrote the forward to the final report of Parliament's treaties committee: "The 20th century will be remembered for its unprecedented social and economic progress and astounding advances in science and technology. It was also a century marred by armed conflicts so unprecedented in their scale and intensity that it may well be remembered as the most violent and bloody in recorded history. At the beginning of the 21st century, the international community is prepared to take a significant step forward in pursuit of international peace and security." Australia has been in the footnotes, not the text, of history. Our settlement under the protection of Britain and the US during a period of Western supremacy made us both beneficiary and victim of an uneventful history. Our mentors discovered who they were by going to war. The British fought among themselves and with neighbours for centuries. The Americans sorted themselves out by having a war with the British for independence and then a civil war. We made much of our martial mettle (Gallipoli) and revolutionary spirit (the Eureka Stockade) but the fact is we got nationhood by a stroke of the pen. Our easy ride to sovereignty enabled us to resist change. Aligned with the top dogs of the world, we avoided tackling issues of national identity and resilience. We satisfied our egalitarian needs with gestures, such as riding in the front with taxi drivers, not tipping waiters and calling each other "mate". The gloss went off our New Year's celebrations when the smallest member of the household went into his shell. He stopped eating, which is remarkable for a young cat who spends a large amount of time cadging for food. The gloss has gone off his coat. He is subdued. When a rain squall arrived on Sunday he preferred to stay out under the bushes rather than come inside. Another bad sign. This is an inconsequential concern, taken in isolation, but millions of Australians will know that if something serious happens to our cat, it will be a very, very bad start to our year. A bitter blow. Because two-thirds of Australian households contain at least one dog, or cat, or other animal, or bird. Most are part of the family. Their collective contribution to our culture is enormous. Illustration: Michael Mucci Thus I don't see it as a healthy cultural marker that the long-term trend in dog and cat ownership in Australia is down. Twenty years ago, when the population was 18 million, there were four million companion or working dogs in Australia, and three million domestic cats. THEATRE THE ILLUSIONISTS 1903 Arts Centre Melbourne, until January 10 The Illusionists 1903 is the third incarnation of a big glossy Vegas-style magic show that started life at the Sydney Opera House and has since conquered Broadway and the West End. The Illusionists 1903 is showing at Arts Centre Melbourne. Credit:James Boddington A slick mix of grand illusion, sleight of hand, mentalism, circus and puppetry, the show's genius lies as much in the quirky characters it creates a la the band-of-magicians heist movie Now You See Me as the wonder of the stage magic itself. This time it reaches back to the Edwardian era "the golden age of magic" for inspiration, and the antique theme allows some of the most famous illusions in history to take centre stage. The Illusionists 1903 offers a gamut of grand illusion, sleight of hand and mentalism, with colourful characters underpinning the production. The escapologist Krendl recreates Houdini's Chinese Water Torture Cell routine from 1911, for instance, while Mark Kalin and Jinger Leigh return to the source of the "sawing a woman in half" act, first performed by British magician PT Selbit in 1921. Highlights abound, including Dana Daniels' charismatic hilarity as The Charlatan a bogus showman whose crapulous tricks and deflationary comedy work towards a surprising climax, using adult and child volunteers from the audience and The Grand Carlini, a charming marionette magician (manipulated by puppeteer Justo Thaus) who performs illusions within an illusion. Charlie Frye as The Eccentric shows admirable versatility card tricks, physical buffoonery, impressive juggling displays assisted by a bored, disdainful wife. And Thommy Ten and Amelie van Tass as European clairvoyants perform feats of mentalism with old world charm. There are some pretty suspect sexual politics: one illusion invokes Adam and Eve and woman being formed from man's rib, with a male magician "getting the rib back" by having a lovely assistant vanish into his body; another makes a wife look incompetent in front of her husband. (I suppose we should be glad the show eschews historical realism, or there might have been no women in it at all.) Heavy rain, flash flooding and traffic queues have caused havoc on the roads into and around Sydney after the new year's break. Some of the city's major arterial roads were under water in the mid-afternoon, as 10mm fell in some parts of the city within 10 minutes on Sunday afternoon. A loan surfer negotiates a stream of storm water flowing into Maroubra Bay following rain. Credit:James Alcock The M1 Pacific Motorway on the Central Coast faced significant delays early in the afternoon after several cars crashed near the Tuggerah interchange. Aubrey Lavis has a new lady in his life and the relationship has proven transformative for the elderly man. Until recently, he would spend his days sitting alone in his room in a Casino nursing home where staff became concerned he was suffering from depression. A new lease on life: Aubrey Lavis with Priscilla the chook. That all changed when Priscilla entered his world. She is part of a program called HenPower which is being trialled in a small number of nursing homes in regional NSW. "Mr Lavis was quite isolated and suffering from depression," said Karn Nelson executive general manager of strategy and research with aged care provider the Whiddon Group, which is running the trial. A group of residents of the tiny Darling Downs hamlet of Oman Ama has banded together in a bid to prevent Australia's first permanent nuclear waste disposal facility from being built near their town. Oman Ama was one of six sites shortlisted by the Federal Government and announced in November as a possible location for the facility. The federal government has shortlisted six potential sites for a low to medium-level nuclear waste facility, including Oman Ama in Queensland. Credit:Glenn Campbell The group has written to federal Resources Minister Josh Frydenberg 'emphatically' rejecting the proposed nuclear waste dump. The proposed site is roughly 90 kilometres from Warwick on Bennets Gully. Two men have been charged over an assault in Fortitude Valley on Sunday morning that left an 18-year-old man fighting for his life in hospital. A Queensland Police spokeswoman confirmed the men, both aged 21, had been charged with one count each of causing grievous bodily harm. The men, one from Coombabah and one from Tanah Merah, are expected to face Brisbane Magistrate's Court on Monday morning. Earlier on Sunday a team of detectives was scouring CCTV footage in a bid to identify up to four men they believed to be responsible for the attack. New York: Senator Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign raised more than $US33 million ($45.2 million) in the final three months of 2015, as his wide base of small-amount donors enabled him to come within $US4 million of the amount raised by Hillary Clinton, his rival for the Democratic nomination, his campaign said on Saturday. Senator Sanders, from Vermont, has now raised $US73 million for his nomination fight, his aides said in a news release. Bernie Sanders with Lorena Lopez, editor of Iowa-based Spanish-language newspaper La Prensa. Credit:Carroll Daily Times Herald via AP The campaign said more than a million individual donors had made more than 2.5 million contributions, passing US President Barack Obama's record for the amount of individual donations, which was set at the end of 2011. "This people-powered campaign is revolutionising American politics," Jeff Weaver, Senator Sanders' campaign manager, said in a news release accompanying the release of the figures. Saudi Arabia is also concerned about Iran's growing influence after last year's nuclear accord with world powers. The cleric was one of 47 executed across Saudi Arabia on Saturday for terrorism-related offences. The men were convicted of crimes including bombings that targeted the traffic department and interior ministry in Riyadh, plots to attack military airports, and other strikes on security forces. "This sends a message of resolve and firmness in Saudi Arabia's policy of confrontation with its two enemies, mainly al-Qaeda and Iran," Ibrahim Fraihat, senior foreign policy fellow at the Brookings Doha Centrte, said in an interview. "It will also increase tensions inside Saudi Arabia because it gives the Shiite community new grievances and symbols to rally around within the country." Some of the attacks happened between 2003 and 2006. The executed were described as promoters of a "deviant" version of Islam, a phrase used by Saudi Arabia for al-Qaeda, Islamic State and other militant groups. Most of those executed were Sunnis. Mansour al-Turki, a spokesman for Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry, said the kingdom "doesn't pay attention to external threats or comments made by officials in other countries about judicial measures and procedures in Saudi Arabia". Al-Nimr was arrested in 2012 and sentenced to death in 2014. In 2009, he threatened to lead Saudi Arabia's Shiite Muslims to secession, provoking a government crackdown in the minority's eastern heartland, the centre of the kingdom's oil reserves. Shiites make up 10 to 15 per cent of Saudi Arabia's population, according to the CIA World Factbook. His family, in a statement posted on Twitter, called upon Shiites "to have self-control" and to continue "to demand their rights peacefully". While Saudi Arabia largely escaped the unrest that spread across the Arab world in 2011, the country's minority Shiites, who say they suffer discrimination, have occasionally protested and fought with security forces. Islamic State militants have exploited this fault line, striking Shiite mosques last year. "We are particularly concerned that the execution of prominent Shia cleric and political activist Nimr al-Nimr risks exacerbating sectarian tensions at a time when they urgently need to be reduced," US State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement. "We have previously expressed our concerns about the legal process in Saudi Arabia and have frequently raised these concerns at high levels of the Saudi government." Iran has summoned Ahmed Maloud, Saudi Arabia's charge d'affaires in Tehran, to protest at the execution, according to its state-run Fars news agency. Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group backed by Iran, said that the US was directly responsible for al-Nimr's execution because it supports the Saudi Arabian government. The punishments were carried out in 10 provinces, Saudi Arabia's interior ministry said in a statement published on Saturday by the official Saudi Press Agency. While most of the convicted men were Saudi citizens, an Egyptian and a Chadian national were among those executed. Some of the men were shot by a firing squad and some were beheaded, a ministry spokesman said on Al-Arabiya TV. Iraq's top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani on Sunday condemned the execution of Al-Nimr, calling it an "unjust agression". "We have received with much sorrow and regret the news of the martyrdom of a number of our brother believers in the region whose pure blood was shed in an unjust aggression," the cleric said in a letter addressed to the population of the eastern Saudi region of Qatif where al-Nimr used to preach. An armed militia has taken over a federal building in the US state of Oregon, vowing to occupy the outpost for years to protest at the federal government's treatment of a pair of ranchers facing prison time. The occupation of a portion of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge nearly 50 kilometres south-east of Burns, Oregon, followed a peaceful march for ranchers Dwight Hammond, 73, and Steven Hammond, 46, who are scheduled to report to federal prison in San Pedro, California, on Monday after being convicted of arson, the Oregonian reported. Prosecutors said the father and son set the fire, which burned more than 50 hectares of leased federal land in 2001, to conceal poaching, according to CNN. The Hammonds argued they were attempting to reduce the growth of invasive plant species and ward off potential wildfires. The Hammonds were sentenced to five years in prison. Owner-occupied housing finance has recorded its strongest monthly growth in six years while finance for investment housing has continued to head south. According to the latest data released by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), owner-occupied lending grew by 0.8% in November, doubling the 0.4% growth in investment housing credit. The growth in investment lending remained steady with its October growth, however the 0.4% growth result is the slowest monthly growth for investment lending in two-and-a-half years. Total housing finance commitments increased by 0.6% over November. Over the 12 months to November, growth in owner-occupied housing finance increased by 0.3% to 6.5% - its strongest annual growth in almost five years. Growth in lending to housing investors dropped 0.6% over the year, recording an annual growth of 9.1%. According to an analysis of the RBA data by CommSec, lending to housing investors from banks in November was up by 3.3% over the year, a marked decline from the 17.3% annual growth to June. Over the past six months, many banks announced much tighter investment lending credit policies in an effort to cool annual growth in investment lending below APRAs guideline of 10%. Total housing finance grew 7.5% over the 12 months to November, remaining steady at the same annual growth it has recorded since August and equalling the strongest annual growth since October 2010. However, while the total growth in housing finance commitments remains strong, the RBAs quarterly housing ratio data revealed that the ratio of interest payments on housing debt to household disposable income remained at 6.7% in the September quarter, equalling the lowest ratio in 12 years. Phillies win NLCS opener behind Schwarber's monster homer: 'Just wow' Zack Wheeler tossed seven scoreless innings and allowed one hit in the Phillies' 2-0 win over the Padres in Game 1 of the NLCS. Godrej Properties, the real estate arm of the Godrej Group, hopes to become the number one property developer in the country, in terms of total booking value, said a top executive of the company. Normally, real estate record the bookings done by customers as sales in their books after 25 per cent of the construction cost of the project is incurred. Godrej Properties, set up in 1990, has already overtaken DLF, the largest developer by sales, in terms of amount booked in the first half of the current financial year. Godrej has seen a booking value of Rs 3,208 crore in H1 of FY 2016, against Rs 1,610 crore booked by DLF. In H1 FY 2016, Godrej Properties, led by the 34-year-old Godrej family scion Pirojsha Godrej, has already crossed the amount booked by it in the whole of FY15. It booked value of Rs 2,681 crore in FY 2015. DLF's total booking value was Rs 3,850 core in the last financial year. The company's booking value has grown by 28 per cent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in the last decade, the company said in its last investor presentation. "We have been able to get great bookings due to excellent brand, good products offered at right value and strong delivery record across markets. We have already seen the highest bookings in the first half of the current financial year," said Mohit Malhotra, executive director at Godrej Properties. Though area sold by it, in terms of square feet, has gone down by 10 per cent year-on-year in Q2 of FY16, the booking value went up 122 per cent, according to the latest presentation of the company. When asked about the company becoming number one in terms of sales, Malhotra said, "Bookings to reflect in revenues may take some time because there is a lag effect of two to three years between bookings and revenue being reflected." Malhotra said the company was also getting enquiries from overseas. It has offices in West Asia and Singapore. "We are also getting enquiries through overseas offices of Godrej Consumer Products," he said. The company is hopeful of maintaining the booking momentum in the second half of the current financial year. Recently, it sold over 300 apartments worth about Rs 800 crore in its flagship project 'The Trees' in Vikhroli area of Mumbai. Analysts also endorse the business strategy of Godrej Properties. "They are making the best use of Godrej brand. After 2013, the way they are doing business has improved a lot," said Samar Sarda, an analyst with Kotak Securities. The speeding demand for utility vehicles (UVs) has hit a bumpy road in the month of December, partly due to the impact of the registration ban on diesel passenger vehicles of 2,000 cc and above in the National Capital Region (NCR). The ban, imposed by the Supreme Court on December 16 to address deteriorating air quality, is in place till March 31. Almost three out of every four UVs sold is estimated to be diesel-driven and those with the specified engine capacity banned by the apex court have stopped selling in major markets like Delhi and Gurgaon. Helped by new launches such as the Hyundai Creta, Maruti S-Cross and the Mahindra TUV300 in the second half of last calendar year, the growth in the UV segment had picked up. Compared to a decline in the May-September period, the UV segment registered high double-digit growth in both October and November. In October, the growth stood at 21 per cent and in November, it was almost 20 per cent. In November, growth rate in UVs also overtook the growth rate in passenger cars. This has reversed in December. While the exact data is yet to be compiled by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, experts pointed out that the UV segment is estimated to have declined by around two per cent in December, after two high-growth months. "Sales of most Mahindra vehicles such as Scorpio, Xylo, XUV500 and Bolero have halted in NCR. So is the case with Toyota as sales of Innova and Fortuner have been nil in these markets," said an executive. While registration of diesel cars and UVs of 2,000 cc and above are banned by the apex court, dealers in NCR point out that buyers are showing reluctance in buying diesel vehicles below 2,000 cc as well. Many apprehend some restrictions on the usage of diesel vehicles in the future. Another reason behind the decline, officials said, could be the Chennai floods which impacted production and dispatches of UVs at like Hyundai (Creta), Ford (EcoSport) and Nissan (Terrano), etc. In the last financial year, the growth seen in UVs and passenger vehicles was identical at about five per cent. For the April-November period of the current year, however, growth in sales of passenger cars is much higher at about 11 per cent against a three per cent in UVs. UVs account for one-fifth of the passenger vehicle market in India. UVs, passenger cars and vans are three segments of the passenger vehicle market. Vikrant Singh, along with his batchmate from IIT-Bombay, set up an online luxury fashion store. They had everything going for them - immense market opportunity, backing from top investors, a solution to the logistics conundrum. However, the proverbial spanner in the works was managing payments. Most customers complained of being unable to complete the payment process. This was becoming a serious problem for the start-up, as they were losing customers. "Online reviews of payment gateways weren't positive; people weren't happy with the choices they had. With a big market opportunity and many sectors going online, we wanted to do something in this space," says Shashank Kumar, founder of Razorpay, an online payments gateway. Razorpay hopes to dominate the online payments market by focusing on merchants and business to business (B2B) entities, as compared to digital wallets, which are more consumer-focused. "Our focus is on transaction success rates on both web and mobile. We offer five-10 per cent higher transaction success rates as compared to others," claims Kumar. Although available both on the web and mobile, the start-up wants to focus its services more on the latter. Kumar says the conversion rates - that is, of successful transactions - on mobiles are 50 per cent, while that on the web is 70 per cent. This occurs because of inadequate infrastructure and Razorpay hopes to plug the gap. The start-up's easy on-boarding process ensures it receives many takers. "When you sign up, we will not ask for a single physical document. Usually, activation takes two-three months. We want to bring it down to five minutes," says Kumar. Razorpay recently raised $9 million (Rs 58 crore) led by Tiger Global, with participation from Matrix Partners. "One good thing about having Tiger Global and Matrix on board is that people now don't see us as a small start-up," says Kumar. Not only a hobby project What helped Razorpay move from being only a "hobby project" to something investors and clients could consider a serious business was the mentoring it received from Jaipur-based incubation centre Start-up Oasis. Kumar says Start-up Oasis provided them a co-working space, and most importantly, a running internet connection, difficult to come by in places like Jaipur. Besides, Razorpay became the second Indian start-up to have been selected by California-based seed-accelerator Y Combinator for a three-month programme. The selection also meant Razorpay received funding of $120,000. Principally, the programme helped the founders avoid making early start-up mistakes. "Y Combinator told us we should initially focus on building the business and not talk to investors," Kumar recalls. IIT-Roorkee alumni Shashank Kumar and Harshil Mathur quit their jobs at Microsoft and Schlumberger, respectively, to work on a crowdfunding portal. The project required them to accept international payments in India. Though their experience was harrowing, it was an eye-opener to the immense potential the online payments sector presented, particularly to businesses and the B2B segment. Getting started was a Herculean feat for the founders. Kumar says the biggest challenge they had to overcome when starting out was licences - a bank licence, financial certification, security certification. "We are PCI DSS certified. It's an evolved certification and can't be done in one or two days. We received it after three to four months and the financial certification took another three-four months," says Kumar. The transaction success rate on most online payment gateways is still low. This is one of the biggest pain points faced by established merchants. For newer players, their challenge lies in setting up their payment gateway as quickly as possible. Rajat Agarwal, from Matrix Partners and an investor in Razorpay, says, "Razorpay is an ideal solution for both types of merchants. They are able to bring new merchants on board very fast, through a combination of simple developer tools and round the clock support. In addition, through their proprietary technology, they are able to deliver substantially higher transaction success rates, especially on mobile." Beside these sector-related issues, Razorpay also faces difficulty in hiring the right employees. "Not just for us; for any company and for founders who haven't done start-ups before, it's very difficult to get good talent," Kumar says. What the cards foretell Thanks to the recent funding from Tiger Global and Matrix Partners, Kumar says Mathur and he can focus on building their product and scaling operations and their team without worrying about fund raising. "The e-commerce market (in India) is anywhere from $10 billion to $12 billion and will go to at least $50 billion in the next four to five years," says Agarwal. This is a harbinger of things to come as many newer merchants will come online over time and existing players will look for more sophisticated payment partners. "I see a very exciting road ahead, because of the fantastic market opportunity, great team and a great product," he adds. FACT BOX Inception: January 2013 Founders: Shashank Kumar and Harshil Mathur Area of business: Online payments Funds raised: Received $9 mn in series-A and $2.5 million in seed funding Investors: Matrix Partners, Tiger Global and Y Combinator India's Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval will visit China next week, to hold informal talks with his Chinese counterpart to discuss the border dispute and other strategic issues. Doval, who is also the special representative for Sino-India border talks, will also hold informal dialogue with his Chinese counterpart and state councillor Yang Jiechi on Tuesday, during which both officials would review the progress made on the border issue. During his visit to Beijing, Doval will also call on Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Wednesday. India and China have, so far, held 18 round of talks to resolve the dispute along the 3,488-km long border. Besides the annual dialogue on the border, the special representatives will also meet informally to review the progress and discuss a host of strategic issues concerning bilateral relations, including issues related to the neighbourhood. The developments come as China seeks to deepen its engagement with countries in South Asia, which in turn has raised concerns in India. For its part, China says the border dispute is concerned only to the eastern sector especially Arunachal Pradesh, which it claims to be part of southern Tibet, while India asserts that the dispute includes the western sector, especially the area occupied by China in the 1962 war. The Indian consulate in Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif was attacked on Sunday night by unidentified gunmen when they tried to storm the building. An Indian official said all consulate personnel at the are safe, as explosions and gunfire rang out at the compound. Everybody is safe, B Sarkar, Consul General at the consulate, said. The mission in the northern Afghan city is manned by three Indian personnel. Sarkar said the shooting lasted for 20 minutes. They shot from some adjacent building but nobody could enter the consulate. An unidentified Indian consulate official was quoted by AFP as saying, We are being attacked. Fighting is going on. There was no immediate comment from the Ministry of External Affairs in Delhi, which said further details are awaited. Sundays strike is yet another attack over Indian assets in war-torn Afghanistan. The attack took place even as the encounter by the security forces with Pakistani terrorists who attacked IAF base in Pathankot in Punjab on Saturday continued for the second day. No group claimed responsibility for the attack which came just days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in Afghan capital of Kabul on a brief visit on December 25 during which he inaugurated the new building for Afghan Parliament built by India at a cost of $90 million. In his address to Parliament, Modi made a veiled attack against Pakistan, saying that Afghanistan will succeed only when terrorism no longer flows across the border and when nurseries and sanctuaries of terrorism are shut. In his address, Modi also made a veiled reference to Pakistan's reservations about Indian involvement in Afghanistan, saying," there are some who do not want us to be here. There are some who did not want us to be here. There were those who saw sinister designs in our presence here. There are others who were uneasy at the strength of our partnership. Some even tried to discourage us," he said. Pathankot: Security forces personnel stand guard at road near the Indian Air Force base that was attacked by militants in Pathankot, Punjab on Saturday. PTI Photo As operations against two remaining terrorists at Pathankot air base continued for the second consecutive day, the Union government today said it was unsure if more militants were still holed up. The comments by Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi came a day after Home Minister Rajnath Singh tweeted saying the operation had been completed with the killing of five terrorists. Singh later deleted his tweet. "We are sure that still there are at least two more terrorists as firing have come from two different places. But we are not sure whether there are some more. We will come to know the number of terrorists only after the completion of the operation and body count," Mehrishi told a press conference. He said four terrorists were killed in the gun-fight yesterday while firing resumed this afternoon at two places in the air base. Asked about the Home Minister's tweet, Mehrishi said he was giving authentic information and "don't not know what others are saying". He said a Superintendent of Police of Punjab, who was kidnapped along with two others on Friday and was left off later, had said that there were only four terrorists. Asked whether there is any lapse while dealing with the terrorists as seven security personnel were killed so far despite having prior information about terrorists, Mehrishi denied there was any lapse. "There was no lapse. Some casualties are obvious when there is an operation in this scale," he said. Mehrishi said so far there were seven casualties -- six Indian Air Force personnel (including five Defence Security Corps(DSC) personnel and one Garuda commando), and one NSG officer, Lt. Colonel Niranjan. Eight IAF personnel and 12 NSG commandos were also injured so far. The NSG officer was killed while trying to defuse a grenade attached with the body of a terrorist. Five NSG commandos were also injured in the incident. Seven other NSG commandos were also injured in separate incidents in mopping up operation. Asked when the operation against the terrorist would be over, Director General (Air Operations) of the IAF Air Marshal Anil Khosla said they were not sure about that as the action against the militants was still on. "No way I can predict. But we are hopeful that it will come to an end this evening," he said. Pathankot: Security forces personnel stand guard at road near the Indian Air Force base that was attacked by militants in Pathankot, Punjab on Saturday. PTI Photo Security forces on Sunday nailed two more terrorists who had attacked the Indian Air Force base at Pathankot along with four others. Seven security personnel, including one officer of the Security Guard, were killed in the counter-offensive against the terrorists, as a final combing operation was in progress till evening. The terrorists, suspected to be from Pakistan and who attacked the IAF base, failed to destroy IAF assets due to timely action by security forces, union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi said in New Delhi on Sunday. "The operation is still continuing. The engagement is still on. Operation will continue till the whole air base has been cleared of any intruders, any terrorist," Air Commodore J.S. Dhamoon, the Air Officer Commanding (AOC) of the Pathankot Air Force Station (AFS), told the media. "Today (Sunday) morning, two (terrorists) were engaged. This operation is at the completion stage," Dhamoon said. Four terrorists were killed on Saturday in a 15-hour gunfight in which the NSG, Indian Army and IAF commandos were involved, assisted by IAF attack helicopters. Smoke could be seen coming out of the IAF air base in Pathankot, 250 km from Chandigarh, on Sunday evening as the gunfight moved to an end. The home secretary said four terrorists were neutralised on Saturday after hours of fighting. At that time, "it was not certain if there were other terrorists or not." But on Sunday morning, it was discovered there were two more terrorists, he said. According to him, the terrorists killed six IAF personnel and injured eight others. An NSG officer was killed on Sunday morning and 12 of his colleagues were injured. "Because of early action, the terrorists were unable to move to their likely intended aim but were contained in an area of heavy growth of trees and shrubs and surrounded," Mehrishi said. He also said the security forces had sounded an alert in the area, including the IAF base, ahead of Saturday's pre-dawn attack. All vital installations and government offices were informed about a likely terror attack and efforts were mounted to track down the terrorists who had earlier killed a taxi driver, he said. "Due to the active intelligence inputs and quick action taken by security forces, especially the IAF, we were able to ensure there was no damage to the assets of the air force. Therefore, the main apparent aim of the terrorists stands defeated." Giving details of the attack, Air Commodore Dhamoon said: "During the search operation late in the night, one group was engaged by the Garuds (IAF commandos). One Garud was martyred and one was injured. "The terrorists, estimated to be four in number, managed to run away from there and headed to other buildings. They kept firing while running." He said the terrorists, while running, fired at the DSC (Defence Service Corps) mess where early morning breakfast was being prepared. "One DSC jawan ran after them, jostled with one of the terrorists who were running. With the terrorist's rifle itself, he killed the terrorist. Thereafter, he was killed by one of the bullets of the terrorists," Dhamoon said. "The terrorists were cordoned off in one area and the operation continued throughout the night (Saturday) and in the morning (Sunday)," he said. Dhamoon said seven security personnel -- one Garud commando, five from the DSC and one officer of the NSG -- were killed. There was confusion on Saturday evening about the number of terrorists killed and whether the operation against them had ended. On Saturday, Home Minister Rajnath Singh tweeted that the operation had ended and that five terrorists were killed. However, the tweet was later withdrawn as it became clear that only four terrorists were killed and more could still be holed up inside the frontier IAF base. The technical area, where the IAF's MIG-21 fighter jets, MI-35 attack helicopters and other critical assets are stationed, remained secure. A thorough search and combing operation by the army, NSG, IAF commandos, paramilitary forces and Punjab Police continued on Sunday at the IAF base and nearby areas. IAF helicopters flew over the base and nearby areas through the night and since early Sunday to assist the ground forces. "Security agencies are engaged in a gunfight with two terrorists," Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal said on Sunday. Gunshots and blasts were heard inside the IAF base again on Sunday morning and afternoon. Badal demanded strengthening of the Border Security Force (BSF) in Punjab in view of two major incidents of infiltration by Pakistani terrorists. "The BSF strength is not adequate. Because this (Punjab) is a peaceful state, the strength is less. We need more strength (of the BSF), especially because this area is close to the border with Jammu and Kashmir," Badal said. Meanwhile, the body of slain NSG officer Lt. Col. Niranjan Kumar will be taken to his hometown near Pallakad in Kerala on Monday for the last rites, a relative said on Sunday. The NSG officer, whose parents hail from Kerela, was settled in Bengaluru. He is survived by his wife and a two-year-old child. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday night held a meeting with top officials to discuss the terror attack at the Pathankot Indian Air Force (IAF) base. Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar were part of the meeting held by Modi soon after returning from a two-day visit to Karnataka. On Sunday, India lost an officer of the Security Guard (NSG) in a grenade blast, taking the total casualties to seven. The IAF said it had shot down four infiltrators, but two more militants were feared to be holed up inside the IAF base. "The area cannot be declared fully sanitised," Air Marshal Anil Khosla said at a news briefing in New Delhi on Sunday. Home secretary Rajiv Mehrishi told reporters that four gunmen had been killed and the two militants who were still at large were expected to be 'neutralised' soon. Without recovering their bodies, they could not be confirmed dead. Earlier in the day, a senior Army official had said, "A fresh contact has been established and there was brief firing." The Army has deployed five companies comprising nearly 500 personnel for the operation. On Sunday, the Centre also discussed a strategy on Pakistan with former foreign secretaries and ex-envoys to Pakistan. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj held consultations, which were also attended by S K Lambah, G Parthasarathy, Shyam Saran, Shivshankar Menon, Satyabrata Paul, Sharad Sabharwal and T C A Raghavan. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), however, did not give details of this meeting. Mehrishi said the capture of a car belonging to a superintendent of police of Punjab Police that was used by the militants alerted all security establishments in Pathankot, but there was no intelligence inputs about the precise target of the militants. Hence, the Security Guard (NSG) could not be posted at the base in time. Notably, this is at variance with the statements made by officials of the IAF who said they had information that an attack was imminent. Also, there seemed to be no clarity about the exact number of militants who were part of the team that mounted the attack. Although the home minister had said on Saturday that thermal imaging technology was being used to track the militants, there was no indication if all militants had been taken out and the operation was over. Security experts agreed the presence of the grenade that killed Lt Col Niranjan Kumar of the NSG, while he was trying to defuse it, suggests a degree of training of the militants that could not have come from walk-up volunteers in an organisation such as the Jaish-e Mohammad. This has deepened suspicions that the attack was not the work of jihadi volunteers and the involvement of the Pakistani state could not be ruled out. Sunday's events and the public outrage against Pakistan could put pressure on the government's resolve to continue talks. This was reflected in the fact that no official reaction was available from the Bharatiya Janata Party, which had on Saturday deputed one of its senior-most ministers to brief reporters. The Prime Minister who was in Karnataka also made no statement on the subject. Minister of state in the MEA, V K Singh, said the PM and India were trying to strengthen Pakistan's civilian government led by Nawaz Sharif. But, as Pakistan was not a homogenous state, it was possible that one arm of the state - the Army and the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) - was working to undermine another. That India had little credible information about the attack is gradually strengthening those who believe talks with Pakistan is a zero-sum game destined to end in betrayal by Islamabad. The Pakistani media suggested the Pakistan Foreign Office was cautiously offering more consultation on terrorism - maybe lowering the level of dialogue on terrorism concerns to interior/home secretaries' level instead of the agreed NSAs' level. But, India's next demand is likely to be that Pakistan conduct a probe into the circumstances of this attack and share a credible report with it. The foreign secretary level talks on January 15 are likely to be contingent on Pakistan agreeing to this. The Vijnana Bharati or Vibha, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-affiliated organisation, on Sunday lashed out at the Prime Ministers Office for the last minute denial of award to it at the Indian Science Congress (ISC) by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Furious at the denial, Vibha sought the Prime Ministers personal intervention into the matter and called upon him to constitute Scientific Advisory Committee to PM on an urgent basis. The Vibha had become the first Indian organisation to receive Guinness Book of World Records for conducting the largest practical science lesson on December 7, 2015 at IIT-Delhi with the support of the ministry of science & technology and earth sciences. Even though the department of science and technology and other concerned committees had already ratified and confirmed the award to Vibha, the PMO rejected the recognition at the last minute without citing any logical reason, said A Jayakumar, secretary-general, Vijnana Bharati. I find serious fault with PMO in the denial of the award to a Guinness Book World Records holder from India. This matter again highlights the urgent need to constitute a Scientific Advisory Committee to PM, which is pending even 18 months after the new government coming into force, he added. SWAT team conducts a combing operation after an encounter between the security forces and terrorists at the Indian Air Force base in Pathankot on Saturday. Photo: PTI Smoke could be seen coming out of the Indian Air Force (IAF) air base near here on Sunday evening as the gunfight between security forces and terrorists moved to an end. Police sources said two more terrorists holed up inside one portion of the frontline air base had been killed after a prolonged gun battle. With this, the security forces have eliminated six terrorists, the sources said. "The smoke can be seen coming from a building which was blown up by security forces to eliminate the last terrorist," a police officer said. Uttar Pradesh created a record of sorts a few days ago by electing nearly 44 per cent women heads of panchayats. It is a marked improvement from the situation only a decade ago. What is noteworthy is that nearly 39 per cent of the women elected are young, in the age group of 21-35, which is better than the commensurate figure for men. The state had 39 per cent women elected members in village panchayats in 2006. The representation of women in panchayats was at a dismal level in Bihar till 2001. In fact, the state did not hold panchayat elections from 1978 to 2001. It was in 2006 that the Bihar government decided to reserve 50 per cent seats for women in local bodies, a first in the country. Nearly 55 per cent women got elected the same year. This was precisely the period, from 2001 onwards, when demographic indices of these two states started showing signs of considerable improvement. Experts say empowerment of women in rural areas, which is what is happening through increased representation in the three-tier panchayat structure, may have played a big role in this change. Empowerment has been a continuous process helped largely by the growing willingness to send girls to schools even in states where female literacy was quite low, says Sudha Pai, professor of political science and rector of Jawaharlal Nehru University. Empowerment of women results in, among others, greater adoption of contraceptives, age at marriage going up and higher incidence of institutional delivery reducing the risk of infant and maternal mortality considerably, argue experts. Data do indicate an improvement on most of these parametres in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. "The impact of women's empowerment on social indices is undeniable. Uttar Pradesh has shown all-round improvement on these parametres in the past few years. The culture of 'women cannot speak out' too is changing and their rising representation in panchayats is an evidence of that," observes Lucknow-based political scientist Sudhir Panwar. He has tracked panchayat elections closely. A word of caution, though, from him is that the "rising influence of money power in panchayat elections is a cause for concern." Data suggest that contraceptive prevalence rate has inched up significantly in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh in recent years. In the former, it has gone up from 34 to 37.6 per cent during 2005-06 to 2010-11. And in the case of Uttar Pradesh, the change was from 43.6 per cent to 49.9 per cent in the same period. The two states have registered much sharper improvement on the infant mortality rate (IMR). In case of Bihar, the fall has been from 64 in 2000 to 43 in 2012, an improvement of nearly 33 per cent. During the same period, the IMR fell from 84 to 53 in Uttar Pradesh. Demographers argue that lower IMR tends to induce people to have smaller families. A paper co-authored by K James and K Srinivasan of the International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai, shows that in the decade gone by, the mean age at marriage in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh rose faster than the average and they are now almost at par with states like Kerala and Tamil Nadu. In fact, the rise in mean age at marriage in Bihar from 2001 to 2011 was almost equal to the rise in the preceding 40 years. Uttar Pradesh has shown a similar improvement. "The age at marriage does have some impact on the total fertility rate. But other factors like use of contraceptives play a much bigger role. The rise in mean age at marriage in states like Bihar and UP is therefore a positive development. But for fertility rate to fall substantially, you need other contributory factors," K S James, a demographer at Bengaluru-based Institute for Social and Economic Change, had told this reporter. These factors did play a role in fall in decadal growth rate of population, for the first time, in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. While the former registered a decline of 3.55 percentage points, population in the latter declined by a whopping six percentage points. On the basis of these positive changes, demographers have begun to argue that erstwhile laggard states may achieve demographic transition faster than anticipated. The trend of women occupying more elected positions in village panchayats is not confined to Bihar and Uttar Pradesh alone. In fact, 15 states have reserved 50 per cent seats for women in local bodies and in many of them the proportion of women representatives in local bodies is much higher. Even for the country as a whole, the representation of women in panchayats has been going up consistently in the past 15 years. From a low of nearly 27 per cent in 2001, the proportion of women in panchayat institutions reached the 37-per cent mark in 2007-08. It now stands at 44 per cent. The Centre's ambitious plan to implement the BS-V and BS-VI norms for four-wheelers seems to be stuck because of an inter-ministerial tangle, and the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam). While the road transport and highways ministry is keen to implement both norms in consecutive runs, within a fixed timeline, the petroleum & natural gas ministry is in favour of switching over directly to BS-VI from BS-IV, given the substantial investment required for a technological shift . Siam, on the other hand, wants a gradual shift and has demanded more time to switch over to vehicles compliant with BS-VI norms. According to the road map laid down earlier in the auto fuel policy, BS-V norms are to be implemented from April 1, 2022, and BS-VI norms from April 1, 2024. However, in November last year, the road transport ministry issued a draft notification for implementation of BS-V and BS-VI norms for the automobile sector, covering the four-wheeler category. In the notification, the ministry advanced the date for implementation of the higher emission standards to reduce climate change and harmful effects on environment. Accordingly, the ministry decided to implement the BS-V norms for new vehicle models from April 1, 2019, and those for existing vehicles April 1, 2020. Further, there was a proposal to implement BS-VI norms for new vehicle models from April 1, 2021, and for existing vehicle models April 1, 2022. The norms are aimed at substantially reducing vehicular pollution. During a recent inter-ministerial meeting to resolve issues and fix a timeline for rollout of the BS-V and BS-VI emission norms, a consensus could not be reached between the ministries. A road transport ministry official said: The ministry is keen to implement the BS-V and BS-VI norms according to the deadline announced earlier. But, since a consensus could not be reached, it would follow a couple of round of consultation meetings before the final call is taken. We are working on an idea to extend the date by a year, making it 2020 instead of 2019 for BS-V, and 2022 instead of 2021 for BS-VI. According to sources, the petroleum ministry wants to leapfrog from BS-IV to BS-VI directly, but Siam wants a gradual shift, with an increased deadline for BS-VI. On implementation of the BS-V and -VI norms, Minister of State for Petroleum & Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan said: "The BS-IV norms will cover a large part of the country by April 2016, and the remaining areas by April 2017. Technically, there is no difference between BS-V and BS-VI norms. Therefore, as a representative of the refining sector, we are in favour of switching over directly to BS-VI from BS-IV. Since there is hardly any difference between BS-V and BS-VI, why should the refineries be asked to invest in making the transition to BS-V and a second one to BS-VI? There is no BS-V in our dictionary. We will move to BS-VI norms by 2020. This is our commitment as refiners." The shift of technology from BS-IV to BS-VI will cost Rs 25,000-Rs 30,000 to petroleum companies. WHEN EMISSIONS FUEL DEBATE While the ministry of road, transport and highways is keen to implement both the norms in consecutive runs within a fixed timeline, the ministry of petroleum & natural gas is in favour of switching over directly to BS-VI from BS-IV Siam wants gradual shift in norms and has demanded more time to switch over to BS-VI compliant vehicles According to the road map earlier laid down by the auto fuel policy, BSV norms would be implemented from April 1, 2022 and BS-VI from April 1, 2024 However, in November last year, the road transport ministry issued a draft notification for implementation of BS-V and BS-VI norms for the automobile sector, covering the four-wheeler category The shift in technology from BS-IV to BS-VI will cost Rs 25,000-30,000 crore to the oil companies The shift in technology from BS-IV to BS-VI will cost petroleum firms Rs 25,000-30,000 crore. According to Siam, while BS-V and BS-VI fuels are basically the same, the vehicular technologies are vastly different and have to be sequentially developed, tested and validated with each stage taking around four years. Siam has stated that in order to switch over to BS-V norms, oil companies will have to introduce the BS-V fuel by 2019 across India before new-technology vehicles are introduced. In case of unavailability of the requisite fuel, the use of BS-IV fuel might damage the engine. Siam has also proposed that the BS-VI norms be advanced to 2023. Vehicle manufacturers have expressed their inability to provide fully validated BS-VI solutions for all types and models of four-wheelers before 2023. They said introducing technologies without proper validation and testing on Indian roads would raise questions on several safety issues like car fires which can endanger human lives, and the significant risk should be avoided at all costs. India signs Financing Agreement with World Bank for US$50 Million for Nai Manzil Education and Skills Training for Minorities . . A Financing Agreement for IDA credit of US$ 50 million (equivalent) for the Nai Manzil- Education and Skills Training for Minorities" was signed here with the World Bank. The Financing Agreement was signed by Mr. Raj Kumar, Joint Secretary, Department of Economic Affair (DEA) on behalf of the Government of India and by Mr. Michael Haney, World Banks Operations Adviser in India on behalf of the World Bank. Representative(s) from the Ministry of Minority Affairs and officials from the World Bank were also present. . . The total project size is USD 100 million, out of which USD 50 million will be available as IDA credit, and the balance funding from the Union Budget. The project takes an integrated and holistic approach towards education and skill development of the minority youth, to address the high dropout and unemployment rate among them. Minority BPL (below poverty line) youth in the age group of 17-35 years will be the main beneficiaries of the project. Improvement in the education attainment of the minority youth in the project area and improvement in their employability skills are among the expected outcomes of the project. The project will follow result based financing modality, and project funds will be disbursed on achievement of specific results such as number of student enrolled, number of students successfully completing education and skill components etc. The closing date of the project is 31st October, 2021. . . PM inaugurates International Conference on Frontiers in Yoga Research and its Applications, at Jigani, Bengaluru . The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, today inaugurated the International Conference on Frontiers in Yoga Research and its applications, at Jigani, Bengaluru. . . He unveiled the Foundation Stone for a hospital of integrative medicine. . . Following is the text of the Prime Ministers inaugural address: . . Governor of Karnataka Shri Vajubhai Vala, . . Chief Minister of Karnataka Shri Siddaramaiah, . . My valued colleagues in the Council of Ministers, . . Dr. Nagendra, . . Dignitaries on the dais, esteemed guests from all over the world and Yoga enthusiasts, . . It is a great pleasure and privilege to participate in the 21st International Conference on frontiers in yoga research and its applications. . . Iam deeply grateful to Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhan Sansthan for organizing this conference. . . Vivekanandas vision was a synthesis of a deep reading of the Indian and Western thought, and drew its spirit from our ancient philosophy and knowledge. . . He not only made a unique contribution to the spiritual revival of India, he also placed our timeless wisdom before the world. . . He had a deep understanding of the beauty of human diversity and spoke passionately for unity in our world. . . This is a particularly special year for the science of yoga. . . On June 21, more than a million people in 192 countries came together to celebrate the first International Day of Yoga. . . The overwhelming global support is a mark of Yoga's growing international popularity. . . It is also a symbol of the universal aspiration for health and well being. . . It reflects the shared global desire for balance between human and Mother Nature; and, peace and harmony between people and nations. . . Above all, it demonstrated once again the capacity of people from different cultures to reach beyond the familiar boundaries of their lives and unite in pursuit of a larger good. . . It is this spirit of unity that demonstrates the timeless science of yoga. . . And, it is this belief in the power of yoga and faith in humanity that I proposed this initiative in my inaugural address to the United Nations General Assembly in September 2014. . . When it comes to a sustainable future for our world, a healthy habit and happier people, a change in our way of life that influences the choices we make as individuals, nations and global community is important. . . This is a recognition that is dawning on the world. And, across cultures and geography, people are increasingly taking to yoga to redefine their lives - to find oneness between their inner self and outer world; between their existence and their environment. . . The WHO fact sheet on the global burden of disease says that non-communicable diseases are the leading causes of death worldwide. In 2008, 80 percent of deaths due to these diseases were in developing countries, up from 40 percent in 1990. . . By 2030, low-income countries will have eight times more deaths attributed to NCDs than high-income countries. . . In India, cardiovascular diseases, cancers, chronic respiratory diseases, diabetes, and other Non Communicable Diseases are estimated to account for 60% of all deaths. These diseases account for about 40% of all hospital stays and roughly 35% of all recorded outpatient visits. . . We face the tragedy of productive lives cut short and families that must deal with untimely loss; the huge toll on the economy; and, the excessive burden on the over-stretched health system. . . Some studies have estimated that India stands to lose about 4.58 trillion dollars before 2030 due to non communicable diseases and mental health conditions. . . So, we must address the question of psychological state of our existence as much as we try to advance our physical and material life. . . This is where the role of Yoga is paramount. Across the world, there are moving stories of transformed lives and rekindled hopes due to Yoga. . . The prediction of Shri Aurobindo that Indian Yoga ... is potentially one of these dynamic elements of the future life of humanity" is coming true. . . This discipline was not originally considered or conceived as system of medicine. But, because Yoga is about aholistic lifestyle and the physical, mental, intellectual, emotional, moral and spiritual harmony, it has profound health benefits. . . It fits well with the change in the way that world increasingly defines health. We are no longer satisfied with just preventing and managing diseases. People now demand promotion of wellness, which is a healthy balance of the mind, body and spirit. . . We now increasingly hear voices calling for holistic treatment, which means dealing not just with the immediate ailment, but with the complete person, physically, psychologically, socially, and spiritually. . . Traditional Indian systems are rooted in looking at human beings in totality. They see the link between Adhi or problems at the mind level and Vyadhi or problems at the physical level. . . They probe deeper causes, not just look at symptoms. They treat the person, not just cure the disease. They may at times take longer to take effect, but they tend to have deeper and longer impact. And, they are without side effects. . . As I argued at the Science Congress this morning, like traditional knowledge, science has also evolved through human experiences and exploration of Nature. So, we must recognize that science, as we see it, does not constitute the only form of empirical knowledge about the world. . . And, we must remember that the western system of thought, from Hippocrates to Percival to Edison have expressed views on health that are not fundamentally different from the philosophy of the Indian System. . . So, along with the accumulated wisdom and experience gathered over the ages, we must also apply the techniques and methods of modern science to test and validate results, assure quality and explain benefits. . . And, this is why we are placing emphasis on our efforts to increase awareness, acceptance and adoption of AYUSH System of Medicine. . . And, in doing so, we will create better wellness among people, rely more on local resources and reduce healthcare costs. . . We will also reduce the social and economic costs to our society and promote a more environment friendly healthcare system. . . I am not here to advocate the supremacy of one system over another. I believe that humanity is wealthier for its diversity. Civilisations, cultures and countries have enriched each other by sharing their knowledge and wisdom. And, we can progress more by learning from each other. . . It is in this spirit that Swami Vivekananda called for combining the best from the East and the West. . . So, it must be in the area of healthcare. My vision for healthcare is an integrated system that understands and builds on the best and most effective of different traditions. . . This is why I deeply appreciate your effort to integrate Yoga, Ayurveda, Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, Homeopathy and Modern Medicine by bringing prominent researchers and doctors on one platform.Your focus on four major non-communicable diseases - Diabetes, Cancer, Psychiatric disorders, Hypertension and Cardiovascular diseases is appreciable. . . It addresses issues that are very close to my heart. . . Modern systems of medicine have transformed healthcare; screening, detection and diagnosis of diseases. Use of technology has reduced barriers to accessing health care, and improved our understanding of disease patterns. Breakthroughs in medicines and vaccines have helped conquer and contain many diseases. . . But, as our understanding of its limitation and its side effects have grown, as we have experienced the growing costs of modern medicine systems, we have begun to look beyond to traditional systems, not just in India, but in other countries as well. . . Their popularity is growing. Yoga is now a global heritage. And, the world is embracing traditional Indian medicine with great enthusiasm. . . So, we look to you at this conference to define the path forward in the service of humanity. . . I hope that health professionals, policymakers, government organizations and Industry will bridge the distance between the various forms of medical systems. . . I hope that you will to integrate yoga and traditional Indian medicine more closely into our healthcare system and make wellness a part of life for all in India and rest of the world. . . You will contribute not only to healthier and happier life for people, but also to a more prosperous and peaceful world, and a more sustainable future for our planet. Thank you. . . President of India condoles the passing away of Shri A.B. Bardhan . The President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee has condoled the passing away of veteran CPI leader Shri A.B. Bardhan. . . In his condolence message to his son, Shri Ashok Bardhan, the President has said, I am deeply saddened to know about the demise of your father, Shri A.B. Bardhan. . . Shri Bardhan was a personal friend and colleague of long years. Widely respected for his wisdom and commitment to the poor, Shri Bardhans influence extended across the political spectrum. As a veteran leader of the CPI, Shri Bardhan made immense contribution towards advancing the cause of the working class. In his passing away, the nation has lost an outstanding public figure and a dedicated trade union leader who was always in touch with the grassroots of society. . . Please accept my heartfelt condolences and convey them to all other members of your family. May God give you and your family the strength and courage to bear this irreparable loss". . . Iranian protesters ransacked and set fire to the Saudi Embassy in Tehran on Saturday after Saudi Arabia executed an outspoken Shia cleric who had criticised the kingdom's treatment of its Shia minority. The cleric, Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, was among 47 men executed in Saudi Arabia on terrorism-related charges, drawing condemnation from Iran and its allies in the region, and sparking fears that sectarian tensions could rise across the region. The executions coincided with increased attacks in Saudi Arabia by the jihadists of the Islamic State and an escalating rivalry between the Sunni monarchy and Shia Iran that is playing out in conflicts in Syria, Yemen and elsewhere. Sheikh Nimr was an outspoken critic of the Saudi monarchy and was adopted as a symbolic leader by Shia protesters in several Persian Gulf countries during the Arab Spring uprisings. Saudi officials said the mass execution, one of the largest in the kingdom in decades, was aimed at deterring violence against the state. But analysts said that the grouping of Sheikh Nimr with hardened jihadists was a warning to domestic dissidents that could ripple across the region. The execution of Sheikh Nimr is widely seen as part of the growing rivalry, and Shia leaders in different countries - in Iran, in particular - condemned it. "It is clear that this barren and irresponsible policy will have consequences for those endorsing it, and the Saudi government will have to pay for pursuing this policy," said Hossein Jaberi-Ansari, a spokesman for Iran's Foreign Ministry. The state-run Saudi Press Agency reported late Saturday that the Saudi Foreign Ministry had summoned the Iranian ambassador to Riyadh to give him "a statement of protest in severe language" because of the "aggressive" statements made by Iran about the executions. The ministry called them "blatant interference in the kingdom's affairs." The ministry also said it held Iran responsible for protecting the Saudi Embassy in Tehran, the Saudi Consulate in the city of Mashhad and their employees, the news agency reported, citing an unnamed Foreign Ministry official. Protesters tore down a flag from the Saudi Consulate in Mashhad on Saturday. In Tehran, protesters broke furniture and smashed windows in an annex to the embassy, a witness who was reached by telephone said. The protesters also set fire to the room, said the witness, who would provide only his first name, Abolfazl, because he had been involved in the protest. The protest turned violent after participants began throwing fire bombs at the embassy and then broke into the compound. The police arrived and cleared the embassy grounds of protesters and extinguished the fire, he said. The semi-official Iranian Students' News Agency said the crowd had been chanting "Death to the Al Saud family," which rules Saudi Arabia, before some protesters entered the embassy and threw papers from the roof. It did not mention the fire or destruction of embassy property. Pictures of a ransacked office and flames inside the building that matched the description of the scene by Abolfazl were widely circulated on social media. The Iranian Students' News Agency said that the protesters had been removed from the embassy, but that a large number remained outside amid a heavy security presence. The executions in Saudi Arabia were the first of 2016 and followed a year in which at least 157 people were put to death, the Muslim kingdom's highest yearly total in two decades. In addition to Iran, criticism of Sheikh Nimr's execution also came from Shia politicians and clerics in Iraq, the Houthi rebel movement in Yemen and the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah. In Iraq, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi wrote on Twitter that he was "shocked" and "saddened" by his death. "Peaceful opposition is a fundamental right," he wrote. "Repression does not last." Hundreds of Shiites took to the streets to protest in eastern Saudi Arabia and in Bahrain, witnesses said. Saudi officials denied that sectarianism had played any role in the executions. "This means that Saudi Arabia will not hesitate to punish all terrorists," said Anwar Eshki, a retired major general in the Saudi Army who is the chairman of a research center in Jidda. When asked about Sheikh Nimr, General Eshki replied, "In Saudi Arabia, there is no difference between the criminals." Most of those executed on Saturday had been convicted in connection with deadly attacks by Al Qaeda in the kingdom about a decade ago. Four, including Sheikh Nimr, were Shiites accused of violence against the police during protests. In recent weeks, the Saudi government appeared to be preparing the public for the executions. Reports that they were imminent had appeared on Saudi news websites, and Al Arabiya, a Saudi-owned satellite channel, recently aired a multipart documentary that dramatized the kingdom's fight against Al Qaeda. On Saturday, some Saudis, including journalists at a government news conference, thanked officials for carrying out the death sentences. The top cleric, Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Al Sheikh, called them a "mercy to the prisoners" because the executions would save them from committing more evil acts. But some Western analysts said that executing Sheikh Nimr along with Qaeda militants conflated his outspoken activism with a grave national threat. "This is indicative of the hard-line tilt the regime has taken," said Frederic Wehrey, an analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for Peace who has traveled in Shia parts of Saudi Arabia. Sheikh Nimr, said to be in his mid-50s, was from Awamiyah, a poor town surrounded by palm groves in eastern Saudi Arabia and known for opposition to the monarchy. He studied in Iran and Syria, but rose to prominence for fiery sermons after his return in which he criticized the ruling family and called for Shia empowerment, even suggesting that Shiites could secede from the kingdom. This gained him a following mostly among young Shiites who felt discriminated against by Persian Gulf governments. When these young people joined Arab Spring protests in Bahrain and eastern Saudi Arabia in 2011, Sheikh Nimr became a leading figure. During a sermon in 2012, Sheikh Nimr mocked Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz, who had been the Saudi interior minister and had recently died. "He will be eaten by worms and suffer the torments of hell in the grave," Sheikh Nimr said. "The man who made us live in fear and terror; shouldn't we rejoice at his death?" Prince Nayef's son, Mohammed bin Nayef, is now the crown prince and runs the Interior Ministry, which carries out death sentences. The Saudi authorities arrested Sheikh Nimr in July 2012, while the kingdom was leading a regional push to end the pro-democratic activism of the Arab Spring. These efforts included sending tanks to prop up the Sunni monarchy in Bahrain, which faced protests led by the country's Shia majority. Shiites also protested in Saudi Arabia's oil-rich Eastern Province, where many Shiites live and complain of discrimination. Hundreds of people demonstrated in the province after video footage emerged of Sheikh Nimr's arrest that showed him bleeding while in custody. The government said he had been wounded in a shootout. Sheikh Nimr faced charges including sedition and was sentenced to death in October 2014. Despite his fiery tone, his supporters and who followed his career said he had not called for violence. "To lump this guy with terrorists is a stretch," Mr. Wehrey said. "To my knowledge, he never called for armed insurrection." The executions came as Saudi Arabia sought to battle comparisons between its application of Shariah law and that of the Islamic State, the Sunni extremist group. Most of the executions on Saturday were by beheading; they were not public, unlike most Saudi executions. On Saturday, an image was posted on the website of the supreme leader in Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, depicting what appeared to be an Islamic State fighter about to kill a hostage and a Saudi executioner with a sword, with the question "Any differences?" Saudi officials say their government puts to death only people who have been convicted of grave crimes, unlike the Islamic State, which kills hostages and releases grisly videos. But human rights groups have criticized the Saudi justice system for denying the accused access to legal counsel during interrogation and indicting suspects on vague charges like adopting extremist ideology or undermining state stability. John Kirby, a State Department spokesman, said the United States government was concerned that Sheikh Nimr's execution "risks exacerbating sectarian tensions at a time when they urgently need to be reduced." "We reiterate the need for leaders throughout the region to redouble efforts aimed at de-escalating regional tensions," he said in a statement. The last mass execution of similar scale in Saudi Arabia was in 1980, when 63 jihadists were put to death after they seized the Grand Mosque in Mecca. The executions of at least 157 people in 2015, a year that began with the inauguration of a new monarch, King Salman, were a sharp increase from the 90 people put to death in 2014. Saudi officials have said that the increase reflects a backlog of death sentences that had built up in the final years of the previous monarch, King Abdullah. 2016 The New York Times News Service A new appraisal names the United States as one of the threats to Russia's national security for the first time, a sign of how relations with the West have deteriorated in recent years. The document, About the Strategy of National Security of Russian Federation, was signed by President Vladimir Putin on New Year's Eve. It replaces a 2009 version, endorsed by then-President Dmitry Medvedev, the current prime minister, which mentioned neither the United States nor Nato. It says Russia has managed to heighten its role in solving global problems and conflicts. That heightened role has caused a reaction by the West, it says. "The strengthening of Russia happens against the background of new threats to the national security, which has complex and interrelated nature," the document says. Conducting an independent policy, "both and domestic" has caused "counteraction from the USA and its allies, which are striving to retain their dominance in global affairs." That, in turn, is likely to lead to "political, economical, military and informational pressure" on Russia, the document says." Relations between Russia and the West reached a low after Russian forces annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in March 2014, after protests in Ukraine forced its pro-Moscow president to flee to Russia. Since then, the West has accused Russia of aiding insurgents in eastern Ukraine. Moscow denies actively assisting the rebels. The United States and the European Union have since imposed wide-ranging sanctions against Russian individuals and companies. Moscow has reacted by restricting food and other goods from the EU. The document says that the United States and the EU have supported an "anti-constitutional coup d'etat in Ukraine", which led to a deep divide in Ukrainian society and a military conflict. It also names the expansion of Nato as a threat to Russia's national security and said that the United States has expanded its network of military-biological laboratories in neighbouring to Russia countries. The document, which serves as a basis for planning strategy related to national security by different state bodies, does not mention Syria. On Sept. 30, Russia began air strikes against anti-government rebels opposed to the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a Russian ally. Shire is in advanced talks to acquire Baxalta for $32 billion in cash and stock, excluding debt, according to people familiar with the matter. The two drugmakers may announce a deal as soon as this week, the people said, asking not to be identified as the matter isn't public. The price being discussed is $46.50 to $48 a share, two of the people said. Final details of the transaction are still being negotiated and the timing and structure of any offer may change, they said. Representatives for Baxalta didn't immediately respond to requests for comment outside of regular business ... There were no correct entries to quiz No 441. The winner for the quiz is based on the first correct entry received. According to The Economist, there are 144 unicorns worldwide with a total valuation of $505 billion. For those who have come in late, a unicorn is a start-up which has achieved a valuation of more than $1 billion. During the course of 2015 the term, start-up, became a brand in itself, bestowing automatic glory to companies that label themselves thus. In India, we have eight unicorns, the valuations being topped off at $15 billion. None seem to be in sight of any operating margins yet. Undeterred, every start-up's dream is to become a unicorn. Many years ago, when Vodafone bought out Hutchison Telecom in India for the king's ransom of $19 billion, the entire market had gasped. Several commentators and analysts had asked us then, whether this inexplicable number could be due to the brand value of Hutchinson. But Vodafone had no intention of even retaining the Hutch brand. Was it then the value of the customer base? At the time of the sale, the valuation implied a value per SIM card of $900. Think of this: even if the band of loyal and committed iPhone customers were to buy 10 devices in their lifetime, it would be difficult for Apple to recover a discounted post-tax earning of 900 bucks. By the way the company has since then been subject to two massive impairment write-downs Cut to the present: the current flavour of the month is e-commerce. It was retail before this, preceded by telecom. Retail and telecom are investment pariahs now. Among the e-commerce giants, Flipkart figures among the mightiest. It is valued at over $15 billion currently even thought its GMVs are less than a third of that number. Revenues, which they never disclose, will be a fraction of that. This is the poster boy of Indian e-commerce. Another e-comm icon, Myntra, announced last week that they are moving away from discounts in 2016. It seems that the piranhas are turning vegetarian too! Given the seemingly ad hoc nature of start-up operations, I am often asked whether the dizzy spiral of valuations that these e-commerce companies are riding on, reflects the strength of the brands that they are building. To that let me reply with an anecdote. A young gentleman armed with the best professional education that money could buy, joined a coveted MNC. He moved along an established career path quite smoothly. When he turned 40, he looked for a change as he believed he was destined for greater things and sure enough, he soon became a general partner with a reputed PE firm. His 70-year old father didn't quite get the idea. "Dad" he explained, "this is the new world of capital. Instead of going to the markets or banks, a hard working entrepreneur approaches us. We put in money and own a significant chunk of his business. We earn 2 per cent on every dollar we invest and 20 per cent of any gains he makes on the value of his business." His dad thought about it and said, "Son, this is great. But please forthwith remove my name from any joint signatures we have on any legal document. I have heard of 420 businesses, but this is the first 220 business I have come across." Stirred, but not shaken, the gent continues to this day in the world of private equity. The question is whether these valuations in e-commerce are any more real than the mythical beasts we saw in telecom and retail five and ten years ago. Or the ones we will see soon in healthcare and maybe climate change. And given the huge splurge in and branding expenses, are these companies crunching the time it takes to gestate a brand and thereby devaluing it? There's one way to look at this. Those of us who recall the insane real estate boom in Dubai before the crash will remember the time when one out of every six building cranes in the world were deployed in Dubai. People took mortgages with the next market appreciation in mind. Not with any sense of intrinsic value. When the market crashed, the distress sales couldn't even repay the mortgages. There are 7,000 plus companies listed on the BSE today. Most of them are not e-commerce players. Some are doing brilliantly and some are doing badly. Neither end is defined by an e-commerce presence. The problem with the exuberant marketplace that we see in the e-commerce space is that operating rationale is the first variable to go out the window. And then the herd trading logic takes over. And while the fun fair is under way, everyone is on the merry go round. But at some point of time, like ring a ring a roses, we all fall down. There is a bright spot in all of this though. Like one analyst put it, in an exuberant market, the stocks to buy are the vendors to these overvalued businesses. Currently he is putting a lot of money into logistics firms. And Christmas came early for him and the delivery boys. Both are laughing all the way to the bank. Ramesh Jude Thomas is president & chief knowledge officer, EQUITOR Value Advisory In the fifth edition of its annual trend report, Ericsson has identified 10 hot consumer trends for 2016. As per the report, consumers believe artificial intelligence (AI) will soon enable interaction with objects without the need for a smartphone screen. Also, the report claims that as the adoption of networked technologies is moving faster than ever, mass-market use is becoming the norm. As a result, the time period when early adopters influence others is now becoming shorter than before. The top three trends listed in the report include The Lifestyle Network Effect - Four out of five people now experience an effect where the benefits gained from online services increases as more people use them. Globally, one in three consumers already participates in various forms of the sharing economy. Streaming Natives - Teenagers watch more YouTube video content daily than other age groups. Forty-six per cent of 16-19 year-olds spend an hour or more on YouTube every day. AI Ends The Screen Age - One in two smartphone users think smartphones will be a thing of the past within the next five years. The Himachal Pradesh High Court has ordered an ex-gratia compensation of 20 lakh rupees each to the families of 24 students of Hyderabad based College who were washed away in Beas River. The Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board (HPSEB) and the Hyderabad-based VNR Vigna Jyothi engineering college have been ordered to pay the ex-gratia. Himachal Pradesh state electricity board has been held responsible for the release of water into the Beas River from its Larji hydro power project dam. The board would bear 60 percent while the college and the state government will pay 30 and 10 percent, respectively of the total compensation. The bench had also directed the college management to refund the tuition fee amount of the deceased students. A division bench comprising Chief Justice, Justice Mansoor Ahmad Mir and Justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan directed that compensation of Twenty Lakh Rupees should be paid in eight weeks from Saturday. The unfortunate incident had occurred in Thalout area of Mandi district in the state on 8th of June 2014. The Court also took suo moto cognizance of this incident on a media report and treated it as PIL. In the same week that comedian Bill Cosby has been arrested on sexual assault charges, his wife Camille Cosby has learnt that she must testify in a civil case against the 78-year-old entertainer filed by seven women who said he defamed them. A federal magistrate judge in Massachusetts has rejected arguments by Mrs. Cosby, who not only has been married to the entertainer for almost 52 years but has also been his business manager, the Guardian reported. The deposition is scheduled for January 6 and will be the first time she has answered questions under oath since scores of women came forward with sexual abuse allegations against her husband. Cosby is currently free on 1 million US dollars bail, and his lawyer has said that the entertainer is not guilty and will not consider a plea bargain. Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Sunday said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would contest the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls on its own. Naqvi said the BJP has now emerged as a strong political force in Uttar Pradesh. "The people have seen the governance of BSP, they are now seeing the SP's governance where there is only corruption and misrule. The people of Uttar Pradesh want relief from all this. The BJP will contest the elections on its own and even form the government," Naqvi told ANI here. In the civic body polls held in November, the BJP had lost in many constituencies. The party had reportedly lost 50 seats out of 58 in Varanasi, which is Prime Minister Narendra Modi's constituency. The BJP could only win four of the 28 seats in Home Minister Rajnath Singh's Lucknow constituency, while it lost 49 out of the 56 seats in Union Minister Kalraj Mishra's Deora constituency. Defence Experts on Sunday said there is no doubt that the perpetrators of the attack at Pathankot Air Force base were from Pakistan. "There is no doubt that these terrorists came from Pakistan. The doubt is that whether they have been sent by the Pakistani establishment or they have come on their own. Even if they have come on their own then the establishment might have helped them. Otherwise it is not possible to cross the border undetected carrying such heavy weapons," Lieutenant General (Retd.) Raj Kadyan told ANI. Meanwhile, security and strategic affairs expert Commodore (Retd.) C. Uday Bhaskar said the attack had a pattern similar to last year's attack in Punjab's Gurdaspur district and the 26/11 Mumbai terror strike. "The investigation that has been carried out in the Pathankot attack till now has established the links with Pakistan. These telephone calls placed in the public domain are very instructive because in many ways you see a pattern that you could link to either 2008 Mumbai attack or the Gurdaspur attack. There is communication between the perpetrators and the handlers. The linkage with Pakistan is fairly credible," he told ANI. Commodore (Retd.) Bhaskar also said Pakistan's claim that they would treat all terrorist activities in the same manner is being put to test. "This puts the attack in a very complex context. Pakistan has repeatedly been saying in public that now there are no two standards. So what was said in public after Peshawar, the way Pakistani establishment tried to convey and convince the global community that they will deal with all terror activities in the same manner is on test," he added. The death toll of the martyred in the Pathankot Air Force Base attack has risen to six so far as three more defence personnel succumbed to their injuries. A Garud commando and two Defence Security Corps (DSC) personnel succumbed to their injuries in the hospital last night. So far, eight DSC jawans and a Garud commando have been injured in the terrorist attack on the Air Base. The terrorists who attacked the Base reportedly had their allegiance to Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM). Meanwhile, the Investigation Agency (NIA) has taken over the probe in the attack and has reportedly sought assistance from the Punjab police and the Central Intelligence Bureau. The death toll of the martyred in the Pathankot Air Force Base attack has risen to six so far as three more defence personnel succumbed to their injuries. A Garud commando and two Defence Security Corps (DSC) personnel succumbed to their injuries in the hospital last night. So far, eight DSC jawans and a Garud commando have been injured in the terrorist attack on the Air Base. The terrorists who attacked the Base reportedly had their allegiance to Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM). Earlier today a defence personnel was injured in the combing operations that resumed this morning. The accidental explosion occurred when the site was being searched and the personnel accidentally set of a discarded explosive which was reportedly hidden in bushes. Meanwhile, the Investigation Agency (NIA) has taken over the probe in the attack and has reportedly sought assistance from the Punjab police and the Central Intelligence Bureau. The United States has strongly condemned the 'heinous' terrorist attack on the Indian Air Force Base in Pathankot, Punjab on Saturday where three defence personnel were martyred and five terrorists were neutralised and called for a united front to bring the 'perpetrators to justice'. "The United States strongly condemns the terrorist attack on an air force base in the Indian state of Punjab on January 2. We extend our condolences to the victims and their families," US Spokesperson, Bureau of Public Affairs John Kirby said in a statement. He asserted that the United States is committed to their 'strong partnership' with the Indian government to combat terrorism and reiterated America's stand for a global front against terrorist networks. "We urge all countries in the region to work together to disrupt and dismantle terrorist networks and to bring to justice the perpetrators of this heinous act," Kirby said. Earlier, Pakistan also condemned the attack on the Air Force and said that it was committed to eradicate terrorism. "We extend heartfelt condolences to the Government and people of India, and the bereaved families, and wish the wounded speedy and full recovery," a MoFA statement said. "Building on the goodwill created during the recent high level contacts between the two countries, Pakistan remains committed to partner with India as well as other countries in the region to completely eradicate the menace of terrorism afflicting our region," the statement further said. Meanwhile, security remained tight at the Air Base a day after the attack and defence personnel were seen heavily patrolling the area. Punjab Director General of Police Suresh Arora reached the site to assess the current situation and a team of the Security guard arrived as combing operations resumed today. Amidst the outrage around the for Saudi Arabia executing top Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr along with 46 other prisoners, the furious Iranians petrol bombed the Saudi embassy in Tehran during their protest. Nimr was branded a terrorist by Saudi Arabia and convicted of 'terrorism', reports Tolo News. The Iranian Police later arrested several protestors. The cleric's execution has drawn widespread criticism. United Nations Secretary-General General Ban Ki- Moon, who was 'deeply dismayed' by the execution, has asked regional leaders to pull up their socks to avoid the exacerbation of sectarian tensions. Three Maharashtrian students, who were on a on a cycle tour in order to spread message of peace in the Naxal-hit areas, have been abducted by the Maoists in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district. The students, who began their rally from Pune to Malkangiri of Odisha, have been identified as Adarsh Patil, Bilash Valake and Shrikrishna Shewale. The Chhattisgarh Police has not confirmed any report of their abduction. The Bijapur Superintendent of Police, however, said that he received information about their abduction from his Gadchiroli counterpart. Based on the information provided by the Gadchiroli Superintendent of Police, the Bijapur Police is investigating the matter and making all attempts to locate the missing students. The Maoists are said to be India's greatest internal security threat. At least 13 police recruits were killed and 15 injured when three suicide bombers attacked a police training centre in Iraq's Salahudin province, Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday. The attack occurred on Saturday night when the three entered the major military airbase where the centre is located and detonated their explosive belts, Xinhua said. The centre houses trainees from Iraq's Nineveh province who are preparing to recapture Islamic State-held areas. At least 21 Taliban militants were killed in the past 24 hours during series of military operations in Afghanistan, the country's interior ministry said on Sunday. At least 11 militants were injured during the operations which covered parts of Faryab, Sar-e-Pul, Jowzjan, Kandahar, Oruzgan, Ghazni, Paktika, Paktiya, Herat and Helmand provinces, Xinhua cited the official statement as saying. The statement did not say if there were casualties amonng security personnel. The Taliban militant group was yet to comment. When I was a kid, everything uncool or different was gay. Your shirt or shoes could be gay. So could English class or a movie. Having friends who were girls was gay, as was not having seen American Pie. Each day was a new obstacle course in gay stuff you werent supposed to say or do or like. Gay wasnt just a substitute for bad; it automatically put anything beyond blue for boys pink for girls in the category. Of all the gay things that existed 15 years ago, the gayest were performance art and interpretive dance. None of us 12-year-olds really knew what those were, but they were weird and confusing and definitely not for regular boys. In movies such as Shes All That (1999) and The Big Lebowski (1998), performance art was associated with insufficiently feminine women and the presumably queer men who hung around them. Women directing men dancing around in tights stood for everything that was culturally transgressive in a bad way. A decade and a half later, interpretive dance and performance art seem to have shed their bad rep. The decidedly mainstream Justin Bieber recently released Purpose, a visual album that is full of the kind of art that I never would have been caught dead with in middle school, and in the video for the song Life Is Worth Living, dancers Emma Portner and Patrick Cook choreographed and performed a tortured modern dance routine that translates young heartbreak into flexibility and tan leotards. In another video, Love Yourself, the real-life couple Keone and Mari Madrid narrate a breakup through interpretive dance in a domestic scene. Theres a notable lack of anxiety in their form of expression; no one in the Bieber fame machine seems too worried about kids thinking his videos are gay. The need to protect heterosexuality no longer defines American pop media; Miley Cyrus has renounced her gender identity in favor of a more fluid, flexible definition. Meanwhile, attitudes about queer people in America have evolved significantly over the past decade. A 2013 Pew survey of LGBT adults found 92 percent of respondents said society is more accepting than 10 years ago. Eighty-seven percent of Americans now report personally knowing a gay or lesbian person, up 26 points since 1993. The media usually frame LGBT Americans as the main beneficiaries of this liberalization, but we shouldnt skip over how the erosion of strict heterosexuality has improved national culture for everyone. In retrospect, homophobia seems like a if not the central structuring principle of Y2K straight boy culture. In the 1999 film Fight Club, straights reclaim cruising from the gays by having strange men find each other, gather in secret, take off their shirts and punch each other in the face. Pop-punk bands such as Blink-182 and Sum 41 sold the idea that every other kind of guy athletes, the Backstreet Boys, whoever were all gay. Its virtually impossible to go back and watch a teen movie from the late 1990s or early 2000s without running into extraneous homophobia. Media studies professor Tijana Mamula compiled nearly an hour of gay jokes from Friends. Iran police have arrested 40 protesters who raided and torched the Saudi embassy in Tehran, a senior official said on Sunday. The judiciary has issued order to identify and arrest others who attacked the embassy, Xinhua quoted Tehran's Prosecutor General Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi as saying. Iranian mobs, protesting the execution of a Shia leader by Saudi Arabia, raided and set fire to the Saudi embassy in Tehran late Saturday. The move came hours after the Saudi interior ministry announced that prominent Shia leader Nimr al-Nimr and 46 other men were executed on terror charges. In an announcement on Saturday, Iran's foreign ministry urged the police to protect the diplomatic compounds of Saudi Arabia in the country. Earlier in the day, Iran's foreign ministry summoned Saudi Arabian charge d'affaires to Tehran and strongly condemned the execution of Nimr al-Nimr. The agitating Madhesi Morcha, an alliance of four regional parties of southern Nepal demanding amendment to the country's statute, has split with a major constituent, the Sadbhawana Party, on Sunday announcing a separate protest in the Terai region. For more than four months, the plains of the Nepal Terai have been simmering with Morcha-led protests against the country's new Constitution that was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on September 20. The Morcha has expressed dissatisfaction over the content of the new Constitution, including demarcation of the federal units, and called for an inclusive Constitution and citizenship. Over 55 people, including agitators and police personnel, have been killed during the four months. The Sadbhawana Party, one of the four constituents of the Samyukta Loktantrik Madhesi Morcha, was against withdrawing border-centric protests until a few days ago and its Chairman Rajendra Mahto had been leading demonstrations at border points. Uprendra Yadav, chairman of the Sanghiya Samajbadi Forum, criticized Sadbhawana's decision. "Sadbhawana should not declare protest unilaterally, it is a mistake." Mahto is currently undergoing treatment at Medanta Hospital in Gurgaon, near Delhi, for injuries received in a clash with the police at Biratnagar on December 26. In a series of protest programmes announced unilaterally by the Sadbhawana Party on Sunday, the party has said it will focus on non-violent activities like mass prayers in memory of deceased protestors, fasting, signature campaign and campaigns to internationalise Madhesi issues through social media. The Morcha is scheduled to hold a meeting on Monday to effect changes in its mode of protest and was likely to lift protests and blockades at key Nepal-India border entry points, sources said. The latest development has raised serious questions over the political acumen of the agitating parties and a blame game has already begun. Following the Sadbhawana Party's decision, political experts aver that the development may weaken the over four-month-long protest in the Terai. There is a massive pressure on the Madhesi Morcha to lift the blockade at the Nepal-India border as landlocked Nepal reels under a massive shortage of essentials including food, fuel and medicines. Morcha leaders and party insiders said Sadbhawana Party's "unexpected decision" to lift the border-blockade means that Mahto is trying to convey the impression that his party alone was not objecting to lifting the blockade. During a recent meeting of the Morcha, top leaders of other constituent parties were learnt to have criticised Mahto's unsuccessful attempt to disrupt the Biratnagar border entry-point. Mahto, on his part, has been accusing other Morcha leaders of staying in Kathmandu rather than leading the protests on the ground. Industry chamber Assocham urged the government on Sunday to raise tax-exempted savings limit to Rs.2.5 lakh, from the current Rs.1.5 lakh, and re-introduce standard deductions for salaried employees to boost the domestic demand. "Assocham has recommended to the government to increase the deduction for long term savings to Rs.2.5 lakh and re-introduce the concept of standard deductions for salaried employees who can then give a boost to consumption demand and boost economic growth," the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry said in a statement here. "In order to benefit the salaried employees, the standard deductions should be reintroduced as one-third of salary or Rs.200,000 whichever is less." In its pre-Budget memorandum to the finance ministry, the Assocham has suggested revision of the deduction of interest on housing loans to at least Rs.3 lakh from the existing Rs.2 lakh and a similar limit be set for principal loan repayment from the current Rs.1 lakh. To benefit salaried employees, the chamber recommended that the leave encashment exemption limit for tax calculation should be raised to Rs.10 lakh. "The current limit of Rs.3 lakh was notified by the Central Board of Direct Taxes way back in 1998 and needs to be raised substantially," Assocham president Sunil Kanoria said. The organisation has also sought re-fixing of the monetary limits under house rent (HRA) and transport allowance, as well as children's education. For salaried employees, transport allowance up to Rs.800 is at present exempt from tax per month, which limit should be raised to Rs.3,000 per month, it said. Besides, it suggested that a provision may be made in the law that any expenditure incurred by an employee for education of under-privileged children by making payment directly to a recognised school should be allowed as deduction from salary income up to Rs.1,000 per month for maximum of two children. Assocham also suggested a depreciation allowance for salaried tax-payers in line with professionals, saying the deduction of depreciation is allowed under the head Business and Profession. No tax benefit is accrued to the salaried employees when they add assets, even though the assets get depreciated when owned by an employee. The security has been intensified at two railway stations here after the Delhi-Lucknow Shatabdi Express was evacuated at Ghaziabad on Sunday morning after reports of a bomb scare. We received information of a bomb threat from Delhi Police around 6.30 a.m. Nothing could be discovered when the train was checked at Ghaziabad railway station, Neeraj Sharma, senior railway official told IANS. The security has been intensified at Nizammudin and New Delhi railway station in Delhi, a police official said. "We have deployed bomb disposal squad and intensified the general checking," Dumbere Millind Mahadeo, DCP Railways, told IANS. However, the official said there was no need to panic. Delhi was put on high alert after Saturday's terror attack at an Indian Air Force frontier base near Pathankot town in Punjab. A museum in Canada's British Columbia province has introduced a programme in an attempt to encourage people to write letters by hand, the media reported on Sunday. In doing so, the Royal BC Museum in Victoria, the provincial capital, reminds people of the archival material they are forgetting in an age of emailing and texting, Xinhua news agency reported. The museum has set up letter writing stations as part of its Community Days event until January 9. Lamenting the fact that only a few write letters nowadays, Angel Williams, the museum's chief operating officer, said that unless people "start writing letters again, we won't have that sort of material in the archives". Williams said letters make history, "whether it's soldiers writing home during World War I or public figures expressing their views." "So it's one of those things that we're trying to encourage people to sit down, slow down a bit and handwrite a letter to somebody," she added. Union Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram on Sunday said the Congress was trying to score political mileage over his statement on the CBI probe into the chit fund and mining scam in Odisha, by distorting its meaning. "The Congress leaders seem not to have carefully examined what I have said and also what I later clarified. My contention was that the BJD should have thanked BJP because it did not use CBI the way Congress was using it for political gain," said Oram in a statement. He said that had the Bharatiya Janata Party misused the Central Bureau of Investigation the way Congress-led United Progressive Alliance had done in the past, there is no doubt the CBI would have finished the Biju Janata Dal government in Odisha. The minister's statement came after senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh and Odisha Congress president Prasad Harichandan launched a scathing attack at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for having a tacit deal with Odisha government to slow the CBI investigation on the chit fund scam. "I also said even though a section of people are under impression that the probe into these scams by the CBI is slow, the NDA government has never interfered into the activities of the CBI," said Oram. He said the statement made by Jairam Ramesh and Prasad Harichandan is false, politically motivated and based on distorted facts. Earlier in the day, Ramesh at a press conference in Delhi said Modi is blatantly misusing the CBI to protect Naveen Patnaik government, rather than letting it investigate and prosecute the guilty. He demanded Supreme Court monitored probe into the chit fund and mining scams in Odisha. Airing anguish over callousness of the state that led to the drowning of 24 budding engineers of a Hyderabad college, the Himachal Pradesh High Court has also shown the humanitarian side of law by sharing the plight of the parents. It has virtually slammed the government in each and every hearing over the past 18 months of the accident about its cause and the steps it has initiated to prevent such incidents in the future. Describing the death of the students shocking and shattering for everyone, the high court in its 111-page judgment delivered on Saturday observed that awarding of Rs.20 lakh compensation each to the families of 24 students may not redress their grievances but may be a solace. The 24 students of the V.N.R. Vignana Jyothi Institute of Engineering and Technology in Hyderabad and a tour operator were swept away June 8, 2014, near Mandi town after water from a nearby state-run 126-MW Larji hydropower project dam was released without a warning. The students were on excursion to Manali. "Unfortunately, their (the students') bright future stands snatched away, rather cut short, and the parents stand deprived of the said source/income, hope and help in old age," a division bench of Chief Justice Mansoor Ahmad Mir and Justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan observed. The students, who were standing on boulders in Beas river for a picture-postcard shoot, were caught unawares by the strong current which washed them away. Blaming the state for the callousness in preventing the accident, the court said it was also the duty of the state to monitor the functioning of the projects. "They (government functionaries) had not taken due care and precaution, not to speak of their negligence and recklessness." The place of accident was unknown to the students, who were on tour, said the judges. "Had the authorities put boards, hoardings, sirens, signals and taken precautions at the relevant time, while discharging the water from the barrage, the incident would have been avoided and the precious lives would have been saved." In his inquiry report, divisional commissioner Onkar Sharma had informed the court that there was a systemic failure in releasing water into the river by the project authorities - and the warning system itself was inadequate. "Snatching the young engineering students from their parents and their earning capacity are to be kept in mind while assessing the just compensation," said the division bench. The students, the court observed, after obtaining engineering degree would have got better placements. It is known to everyone that an engineer would have been earning not less than about Rs.10 lakh per annum. Blaming the engineering college too for its lapses, the judges said the unfortunate students were on excursion and the role of the college authorities was also important. "They should have ascertained all facts, including the circumstances and other factors prevailing in the area, where they were planning to visit." At the same time, it was the duty of the state to see whether the boards and other authorities working under it were functioning and discharging duties properly. "It has failed to do so. Thus the state is also, prima facie, liable," observed the bench, which treated a media report into the accident as a public interest litigation. The court directed the Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board Ltd., the college and the Himachal state to share the compensation in the ratio of 60:30:10 respectively. It directed them to make the payment within eight weeks. It earlier awarded an interim relief of Rs.500,000, which would be adjusted against the total compensation. Taking the first step towards redesigning the entire road network in Hyderabad, the Telangana government on Sunday laid the foundation stone for multi-level flyovers at three places in the city. State Information Technology Minister K. Tarakarama Rao laid the foundation stone for the multi-level flyovers under the Strategic Road Development Plan (SRDP) at K.B.R. Park in Banjara Hills and at Mindspace and Rajiv Park in Hitec City. Union Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya, Telangana Deputy Chief Minister Mahmood Ali and other state ministers attended the foundation stone laying ceremony. Tarakarama Rao, the son of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, said multi-level flyovers and skywalks like those in cities across the world would be built in Hyderabad in three years at a cost of over Rs.20,000 crore. "We will go ahead with the major plan for road improvement with or without anybody's help," he said in an oblique reference to the central government. He said the SRDP was prepared to meet the growing requirements of the city, which has a population of over one crore. Under the plan, multi-level flyovers, skywalks and signal-less junctions will be developed at 54 places in the city. Under the first phase, 50 flyovers will be built at 18 junctions at a cost of Rs.1,096.71 crore At three places where foundation stone was laid on Sunday, 26 flyovers will be developed at 10 junctions at a cost of Rs.886 crore. Around the sprawling K.B.R. Park, which connects the posh Banjara Hills and Jubliee Hills to the Hitec City, multi-level flyovers will be constructed at six junctions at an estimated cost of Rs.510 crore. The TRS government laid the foundation stone for the mega project with an eye on the elections to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), likely to be held this month. On the occasion, Dattatreya -- who is the Lok Sabha member from Secunderabad -- said Hyderabad would become the No.1 state capital in the country. The Congress has alleged that an air force base is surreptitiously being planned at a village in South Goa which is to host the Defence Expo in 2016, a project that has faced opposition from local politicians. The Indian Air Force (IAF) base is being planned at the Naqueri, Quitol plateau, near Betul village, the party has alleged. Quoting an excerpt from the Defence Expo India 2016 official website, Congress's Goa state unit secretary Durgadas Kamat alleged that while Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and Goa's Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar had said six lakh sq. metres of land at Betul was only being temporarily allotted to host the Defence Expo, the official website stated to the contrary. "Are the defence ministry and the Goa government colluding to grab more land in Goa? Why has the air force base issue never been made public until now when the land has already been allotted for the Expo?" Kamat said, talking to IANS. "However, video/aerial photography over Indian aerospace or photography in the operational area of the Air Force Station Quitol, without permission of the Ministry of Defence, Government of India, shall not be permitted," says the official website of the Expo. Traditionally held in the national capital, the Defence Expo is being shifted to Goa because a new convention centre is being built at the Pragati Maidan in New Delhi. The Defence Expo 2016 is the ninth in the series of biennial Land, Naval and Internal Homeland Security Systems Exhibition organised by the defence ministry. The land hogging by the armed forces and central government agencies has been a prickly issue since 1961, when Goa was liberated from the Portuguese rule, thanks to India's clinical military action. Critical installations and land tracts captured by the Indian army from the Portuguese forces during the action were then taken over by the defence ministry after the brief spell of military administration of the state. Successive state governments have maintained that the Indian Navy has been illegally occupying 1,840 acres of land on which the Dabolim airport is located. Parrikar, when he was Goa's chief minister in 2012, had during a debate in the state legislative assembly summed up the angst of the state administration vis a vis the tendency of the Indian armed forces to not relinquish land tracts. "It is easier to get the army to vacate from Lahore, but not from even an inch of land in Panaji..." Parrikar had said then, while criticising the Indian Army for its failure to vacate a prime piece of land in the heart of the state capital despite being allotted an alternate land tract on the outskirts of Panaji. Congress's Rajya Sabha member from Goa Shantaram Naik also opposed the Defence Expo's relocation to Betul. "The BJP government in Goa has put Goa on sale. It is unfortunate that Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar is the official broker of the Goa government..." Naik told IANS on Friday. Parrikar, however, has defended the relocation of the Defence Expo to Goa, claiming it would provide employment opportunities to locals. He assured that no land would be acquired for the project. "There will be no land acquisition to host Defence Expo. It will be held in a temporary structure where the defence equipment will be displayed," Parrikar said on Friday, claiming that the opposition was misleading people on the issue. Parsekar has also insisted that no land was being acquired by the defence ministry for the event and that it was only a temporary arrangement for now. "As regards permanent destination (for Defence Expo) is concerned, we have not taken a decision yet. We will take it separately. We will first see how the Expo benefits Goa when it is held in March 2016," Parsekar said. A group of armed men late Sunday attacked the Indian consulate in Mazar-e-Sharif, the capital of northern Balkh province, the provincial governor spokesperson told media. Officials said attackers have taken up positions inside a residential home located in front of the Indian mission and are firing on the consulate. "The number of attackers were 4, two of them killed but not confirmed by police yet," Afghan news agency Pajhwok Afghan News said in a tweet. "Two attackers were killed in fighting after insurgents attacked Indian consulate in Mazarisharif city," it said in an earlier tweet. Sources told Xinhua news agency that there were no casualties on the Indian side. "Two of the four militants, who targeted the three-member consulate, have been gunned down by Afghan special forces," the sources said. In a series of tweets, Pajhwok Afghan News earlier said: "Police confirmed blast in gun fires in PD4 near to #Indian consulate in #Afghanistan's Mazar-i-Sharif city." "Balkh governor spokesman told Pajhwok that attackers entered a house and firing on Indian Consulate in Maza-i-Sharif city." "Police says, no casualties were reported yet from attack on #Indian Consulate in Maza-i-Sharif city." "Gun fires resumed after armed people attacked #Indian Consulate in MazairSharif city." BBC also said explosions and gunfire were heard near the Indian consulate. The report said it was not immediately clear whether the consulate was directly targeted, as the area also has a building belonging to a local politician. Indian diplomatic missions in Afghanistan have come under militant attacks earlier too. In 2008 and 2009, the embassy in Kabul was attacked, leaving dozens dead. In May 2014, gunmen attacked the Indian consulate in Herat, while in August 2013, nine civilians died when the consulate in Jalalabad was targeted. Despite Russia's readiness to meet Iran's needs for new passenger planes, Iran's airlines are not interested in buying Russian planes, Press TV reported on Saturday quoting an Iranian aviation official as saying. No Iranian airliner has submitted any request to Iran's Civil Aviation Organisation (CAO) over purchasing planes from Russia, deputy director of CAO Mohammad Khodakarami told reporters, replying to the question of the possibility of purchasing planes from Russian Sukhoi and Tupolev by Iranian airliners. Khodakarami's remarks followed those of Sergei Dementiev, the General Director of the Russian commercial and transport aircraft manufacturer Aviastar-SP, that his company is interested in signing deals with Iran to provide the country with advanced Tu-204CM aircraft. Earlier, Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin also said that Moscow was ready to deliver a large batch of SSJ 100 Sukhoi planes, as the country's most modern commercial jets, to Iran before 2020. The average age of Iran's aviation fleet stands at 22 years, and Iran needs to purchase new planes, Khodakarami said, reiterating that however, there is no interest in Iran for the Russian planes. It was announced here in November that Iran continued talks with the leading French Airbus company to buy passenger planes and Tehran would order Airbus aircraft during President Hassan Rouhani' s upcoming state visit to Paris. The deal with the Airbus will be possibly signed thanks to the July nuclear agreement between Iran and the world powers to settle Tehran's controversial nuclear issue, which will also lead to the removal of major Western sanctions against the country. Iran has seen several air disasters involving both civil and military aircraft in recent years. Experts said the US-imposed sanctions against Iran, which prevented its allies from selling aircraft or aircraft parts to the country, have undermined safety standards within Iran's civil and military aviation fleet with the likelihood of further air disasters. The sexual innuendo-laden trailer of Bollywood sex comedy "Kya Kool Hain Hum 3" has surpassed over 13 million views in less than three weeks of its release. The first trailer of the movie was launched on video-sharing platform YouTube on December 15. Starring Tusshar Kapoor, Aftab Shivdasani and Mandana Karimi, the film is touted to be a 'porn-com'. "13+ million views to the trailer and still going strong, #KyaaKoolHainHum3 22nd Jan, 2016," the actors posted on Twitter. Set to release on January 22, the movie is directed by Umesh Ghagde, and has been produced by Balaji Motion Pictures. -*- Delhi's odd-even scheme praised by celebs Filmmaker Shoojit Sircar and actress Sandhya Mridul have praised the outcome of the odd-even car traffic reegulation scheme in Delhi. "Heard from friends that Dilli breathed better last 2 days (sic)," Sircar, the director of "Piku", posted on Twitter. Agreeing to the comment, Sandhya, who was last seen on the screen in "Angry Indian Goddesses", posted: "Yes. Can vouch for it. I can breathe, a bit." The scheme has been put on trial basis in Delhi to curb the city's alarming levels of pollution. The 15-day trial began on Friday. -*- 'Airlift' looking damn good: Hrithik Actor Hrithik Roshan is impressed by the trailer of Akshay Kumar-starrer "Airlift", and he's sure the movie will rock. "Akshay, this is looking dam good my friend! Will love to see it. Tell me when. Promises to rock," Hrithik posted on his Facebook page. Directed by Raja Krishna Menon, "Airlift" is about the 1990 incident when Iraq invaded Kuwait and lakhs of Indians had to be evacuated. An earthquake measuring 2.6 on the Richter scale were felt in parts of Pakistan on Sunday, the country's meteorological department said. Mild tremors were felt in Shangla, Malakand, Swat and Mansehra, Dawn online quoted Pakistan Meteorological Department as saying. This is the second quake in the country since the New Year's Day of 2016. Pakistan's northern parts were still reeling from a devastating 7.5 magnitude quake that struck Pakistan, Afghanistan and India in October 2015, killing over 300 people in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday chaired a high-level meeting with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar in the wake of terror strike at the Indian Air Force base near Pathankot in Punjab. Modi held the meeting soon after his return after his two-day visit to Karnataka. "Immediately on landing in Delhi, PM @narendramodi is chairing a high level meeting with the NSA, Foreign Secretary & other officials," the Prime Minister's Office said in a tweet. Security forces on Sunday nailed two more terrorists who had attacked the Indian Air Force base at Pathankot taking the number of terrorists killed in the operation to six. Four terrorists were killed on Saturday in a 15-hour gunfight in which the NSG, Indian Army and IAF commandos were involved, assisted by IAF attack helicopters. Seven security personnel, including an officer of the National Security Guard, were also killed in the counter-offensive against the terrorists. The terror attack came almost a week after ModiA flew into Lahore, on his way back from Afghanistan, for a surprise meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif. Both Modi and Sharif had vowed to pursue the derailed bilateral peace process. The Congress on Sunday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of "not letting the CBI investigate charges of corruption" against the Naveen Patnaik government in Odisha. It demanded a Supreme Court-monitored probe by a Special Investigation Team. Congress leader Jairam Ramesh and the party's Odisha unit chief Prasad Harichandan said the party has steadfastly maintained that Patnaik was "leading a massively corrupt regime involved in loot of precious resources" of the state. "We now stand vindicated with shocking revelations, which prove that the prime minister is not letting the CBI investigate into the charges of corruption against the Naveen Patnaik government in the chit fund scam and the mining scam," the two Congress leaders said in a joint statement. They accused the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Biju Janata Dal "of being in cahoots in looting the resources and people of Odisha". The statement said Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram has commented that the central government has let off the Odisha government on many issues, including the "chit fund and mining scams". It said Oram had also stated that "the investigation has actually slowed down" and was not going "at the accepted speed" but the union minister had refused to go into reasons for "slowing down" of probe in front of camera. The Congress leaders also accused Modi of "blatantly misusing the CBI" to protect the Naveen Patnaik government rather than letting the agency investigate and prosecute the guilty. The Congress leaders also accused the BJP-led central government of delaying the appointment of a Lokpal. "With a Lokpal in place, the CBI would come under its jurisdiction. Consequently manipulation galore to suit prime minister's political agenda of helping friends and prosecuting opponents by political vendetta will then not be served by CBI," they said. An ailing Sadbhawana Party president Rajendra Mahto on Sunday stoutly denied that the Madhesi Morcha, an alliance of four parties of Nepal's Terai region demanding amendment to the country's statute, has split. Mahto's assertion came in the wake of media reports from Kathmandu that the Samyukta Loktantrik Madhesi Morcha, spearheading the over four-month-old protest, had split with Mahto opting for continuing the agitation separately. Speaking to IANS from his hospital bed in Medanta, in Gurgaon, near New Delhi, where he is recovering from injuries received in a clash with the police at Biratnagar on December 26, Mahto said: "The Madhesi Morcha remains united and shall continue the struggle which it has been waging for the past more than four months." "Our struggle is historic and we shall achieve our goal... We are prepared to carry on our agitation for as long as it takes to secure our genuine demands...." Mahto reiterated the resolve that the planned agitation programme would be carried forward and denied that there was any change advised by him therein as reported in the Nepali media. According to media reports from Kathmandu, the Sadbhawana Party was reported to have announced that it will focus on non-violent activities like mass prayers in memory of deceased protestors, fasting, signature campaign and campaigns to internationalise the Madhesi issue through social media. Mahto said these activities were proposed by him to Madhesi protestors from his hospital bed in the B.P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences at Dharan where he had been admitted for treatment of his injuries following the December 26 incident. "This was meant as an activity aimed at lending a peaceful touch to our agitation..." For more than four months, the plains of the Nepal Terai have been simmering with Morcha-led protests against the country's new Constitution that was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on September 20. The Morcha has expressed dissatisfaction over the content of the new Constitution, including demarcation of the federal units, and called for an inclusive Constitution and citizenship. Along with Mahto's Sadbhawana Party, the other constituents of the Madhesi Morcha are: the Terai Madhes Loktantrik Party with Mahanta Thakur as president; the Federal Socialist Forum-Nepal headed by Upendra Yadav; and the Terai Madhes Loktantrik Party-Nepal headed by Mahendra Yadav. Over 55 people, including agitators and police personnel, have been killed during the four months of the Madhesi agitation. Nepal's Terai region stretches from the Mechi river in the east to the Mahakali river in the west and comprises Madhes in its eastern part and the tribal-dominated Tharuhat in the western region. It has traditionally suffered immense discrimination from the Kathmandu-centric ruling elite that predominantly comprises the Brahmins (Bahuns) and Chhetris of the Nepal hills. The major agitation demand is for the formation of two provinces in the Nepali Terai -- the Madhes extending from the Mechi river in the east to the Narayani river in mid-western Nepal and Tharuhat pradesh from the Narayani to the Mahakali river in the west. The Madhesi protestors are demanding, among others, a redrawing of the boundaries of the provinces in the Himalayan nation as proposed in the new Constitution; and restoration of rights granted to Madhesis in the interim constitution of 2007 which the new charter has snatched away. They also want representation in Parliament on the basis of population -- the Nepal Terai has almost 51 percent of the country's population yet gets only one-third of seats in Parliament -- and proportional representation in government jobs. The once-bitten-twice-shy scientific community has decided to stick to the basic or applied science, keeping out mythology from their annual jamboree this time. "Only pure science is our real business this time. Last year, we had certain issues when mythology overshadowed science. We are away from it and concentrating on only science," Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA) general secretary Arun Kumar told IANS at the 103rd annual event here, about 140 km from state capital Bengaluru. The 102nd session in Mumbai last year was marred by controversies as two scientists on January 4, 2015 jointly presented a paper, claiming that aircraft was invented in India during the Vedic age, dating back to 1500-500 BC. "We are totally avoiding those (mythology) type of things though they were allowed last time, maybe, due to some pressure from ministers and maybe from our own fraternity who wanted a session in the plenary on mythology," Kumar recalled. Two noted speakers -- Anand Bodas from Kerala and Ameya Jadhav from Mumbai -- demonstrated that aviation in the Vedic age was more advanced than in the modern versions through a paper on "Ancient Sciences through Sanskrit". In the absence of records or archives and lack of supporting evidence, the duo asserted that the ancient aircraft were huge and could even fly to other planets. Bodas, a principal at a pilot training school in Kerala, and Jadhav, a lecturer at the Swami Vivekananda International School and Junior College in Mumbai, lamented that owing to passage of time spanning hundreds of years, foreign rulers who looted the country and stole artefacts had denied benefit of doubt for its believers. "As per the theme, chosen carefully this time with the consent of all stake-holders, including the science and technology ministry and the Prime Minister's Office, we are focusing primarily on Make in India, Clean India and Digital India campaigns..." Kumar said. As last year's event took place seven months after the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA government took office and amid concerns over attempts to revive mythology at a mega science meet, the Kolkata-based association had not given a chance to its members to present any paper that is objectionable and stirs up a controversy. "It is not just a show, as right from Nobel laureates to a young scientist (they) have a certain tasks to share their achievements and experiences with everyone," said Kumar, who heads the Earth sciences department in the Manipur University. He said the theme of the present session "on indigenous development" was selected keeping in view the government's priorities. The association's various bodies comprising advisories, councils and executive committees have also resolved to stick to core issues pertaining to core sciences. "Nothing controversial or objectionable will come out this time. Efforts are on to ensure the event is relevant and have solutions that will benefit all," Kumar added. (Fakir Balaji can be contacted at fakir.b@ians.in) The Congress on Sunday slammed the Jharkhand government for withdrawing criminal cases against ruling Bharatiya Janata Party legislator Dullu Mahto. The state government has given its approval to withdraw criminal cases against Mahto. He is accused of freeing an accused from police lock-up on May 12, 2013, according to a first information report filed with police. The legislator had to surrender and he stayed in jail for more than six months. He has been freed on bail now. The opposition party has reacted sharply to the state government's move. "The BJP government led by Raghubar Das is adopting two sets of rule. For their own legislators the state government is withdrawing the criminal cases, while Crime Control Act (CCA) was imposed on former minister and our leader Yogendra Sao," said Alok Dubey, general secretary of the Jharkhand unit of the Congress. The terror attack at the Pathankot air base may have raised questions on the about-to-be-resumed official dialogue between India and Pakistan, but experts say the best response to such incidents would be to continue the peace process that has just begun. India has long maintained terror originating from across the border should stop for the peace talks to deliver. However, the recently resumed dialogue process, and the surprise visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Pakistan on his counterpart, Nawaz Sharif's birthday, appeared to write new chapters in the annals of bilateral diplomacy. The attack at the frontline Indian Air Force (IAF) base in northern Punjab, around 30 km from the international border, coming within days of Modi's maiden visit to Pakistan, might have made a dent, but the balanced response from both the countries have raised hopes. The five terrorists who staged the attack were killed in a gunbattle that lasted for 15 hours. Three Indian security personnel were also killed. Pakistan immediately condemned the attack and expressed its commitment to partner with India to eradicate terrorism. Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh, while stating that terror will be given a "befitting reply", added that India wants peace. Former Indian Army chief, General V.P. Malik, described the attack as "minor" and said it was unlikely to disrupt the dialogue process. He also said that following Prime Minister Modi's visit to Lahore, the stakes are high as the blame or credit will go completely to him. "We must look at the prime minister's visit as a strategic engagement; with one engagement everything cannot fall in place," General Malik said, adding: "The second thing is that this particular event is a minor one; so its impact on the dialogue process will not be much." The former army chief also said that the attack could not have been planned following Modi's Pakistan visit. "Such attacks are planned months in advance..." he said. Stressing on the requirement of the dialogue process, General Malik said: "At the moment what has happened is that the prime minister's personal involvement is at stake... Earlier we could blame the foreign policy, but now fingers will only be pointed at him." Happymon Jacob, Associate Professor of Disarmament Studies in Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), said that the talks should be continued not only along the formal lines but also through back channels to counter the menace of terrorism. "Every time a dialogue process is started between India and Pakistan something happens, and this time is no exception. It shows militant organisations on that side are not happy with the dialogue," Jacob told IANS. "India should respond to this attack by enhancing surveillance and defence capabilities and at the same time not calling off the talks," Jacob said. Stressing on the need for back channel talks, he said: "There should be back channel talks with the Pakistan Army and ISI as well... Now that they have taken up this ambitious dialogue, it should be concluded." From the other side of the border, Yaqoob Khan Bangash, a history professor at Lahore's Information Technology University, spoke on similar lines, adding that India accepts that the Pakistani state is not behind terror attacks. "I don't think the Indian side is going to withdraw from the dialogue process. The Indian side has accepted Pakistan's argument that all terrorist attacks are not from the Pakistani state. If India had not recognised this argument, they would not have gone forward with the talks," Bangash told IANS on the phone from Lahore. Bangash said the Pakistan Army is largely on board the peace talks, adding that continuing the dialogue will be the best reply to the terrorists. "There is a constituency in Pakistan that does not want India-Pakistan peace, but the two governments should not bow down to these entities. If we stop talking, it will encourage them". "The government of India should strengthen the hand of Pakistan in fighting terror. The Indian government knows the political government is in support of peace with India," Bangash said, addding that the two countries should share intelligence. Bangash also said that Modi's Pakistan visit had a huge positive impact. That will be one of the factors pushing forward the talks. "Modi's visit to Lahore changed the scenario quite a bit. He has shown he is a statesman," Bangash added. (Anjlai Ojha can be contacted at anjali.o@ians.in) External Affairs Affairs Sushma Swaraj here on Sunday met two former foreign secretaries and five former envoys to Pakistan as the government sought wider consultation over its policy towards Pakistan in the wake of the terror attack on the Indian Air Force base in Pathankot that claimed 13 lives, including those of seven Indian security personnel. Sushma Swaraj met Shiv Shankar Menon, former foreign secretary and national security adviser; Shyam Saran, former foreign secretary; Satinder Lambah, former envoy to Pakistan and former special envoy to the prime minister who conducted back channel talks with Pakistan; and four former envoys to Pakistan, T.C.A. Raghavan, Sharad Sabharwal, Satyabrata Pal and G. Parthasarathy. Raghavan, who retired as India's high commissioner to Pakistan on December 31, was present when Prime Minister Narendra Modi made his surprise stopover in Lahore to greet Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on his birthday. Ministry officials refrained from giving details of Sunday's meeting. Modi's surprise visit to Lahore had signalled a thaw in India-Pakistan relations but Saturday's Pathankot terror attack is seen as an attempt by forces across the border to derail the proposed foreign secretary-level talks in Islamabad in the middle of this month. Modi's visit was the culmination of a series of diplomatic engagements between the two South Asian neighbours starting from November 30 last year when he had a seemingly impromptu meeting with Sharif at the Paris climate summit. Following this, on December 6, Indian National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and his Pakistani counterpart Naseer Khan Janjua held a meeting in Bangkok which was also attended by Foreign Secretaries S. Jaishankar and Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry. Two days later, Sushma Swaraj landed in Islamabad to attend the Heart of Asia conference which engages "heart of Asia" countries for a peaceful and stable Afghanistan. On December 9, she told the media there that Modi would visit Islamabad next year to attend the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) summit. Then, after a courtesy call on Sharif, she held a bilateral with his advisor on foreign affairs, Sartaj Aziz. The two then came out with a joint statement in which Pakistan assured India that all steps were being taken to expedite the early conclusion of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack trial. "Both sides, accordingly, agreed to a comprehensive bilateral dialogue and directed the the foreign secretaries to work out the modalities and schedule of the meetings under the dialogue, including peace and security, CBMs (confidence buildins measures), Jammu and Kashmir, Siachen, Sir Creek, Wullar Barrage/Tulbul Navigation Project, economic and commercial cooperation, counter-terrorism, narcotics control, humanitarian issues, people-to-people exchanges and religious tourism," the statement said. Even as the stage was being set for the foreign secretary-level meeting between the two sides came the Pathankot attack that is being deemed as an attack on the softening of ties between New Delhi and Islamabad. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Sunday met here with two former foreign secretaries and four former envoys to Pakistan as the government sought wider consultation over its policy towards Pakistan in the wake of the terror attack on the Indian Air Force base in Pathankot that claimed 13 lives, including those of seven Indian security personnel. Sushma Swaraj met with Shiv Shankar Menon, former foreign secretary and national security adviser; Shyam Saran, former foreign secretary; Satinder Lambah, former envoy to Pakistan and former special envoy to the prime minister who conducted back channel talks with Pakistan; and three former envoys to Pakistan, T.C.A. Raghavan, Sharad Sabharwal and Satyabrata Pal. Raghavan, who retired as India's high commissioner to Pakistan on December 31, was present when Prime Minister Narendra Modi made his surprise stopover in Lahore to greet Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on his birthday. Ministry officials refrained from giving details of Sunday's meeting. Modi's surprise visit to Lahore had signalled a thaw in India-Pakistan relations but Saturday's Pathankot terror attack is seen as an attempt by forces across the border to derail the proposed foreign secretary-level talks in Islamabad in the middle of this month. Modi's visit was the culmination of a series of diplomatic engagements between the two South Asian neighbours starting from November 30 last year when he had a seemingly impromptu meeting with Sharif at the Paris climate summit. Following this, on December 6, Indian National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and his Pakistani counterpart Naseer Khan Janjua held a meeting in Bangkok which was also attended by Foreign Secretaries S. Jaishankar and Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry. Two days later, Sushma Swaraj landed in Islamabad to attend the Heart of Asia conference which engages "heart of Asia" countries for a peaceful and stable Afghanistan. On December 9, she told the media there that Modi would visit Islamabad next year to attend the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) summit. Then, after a courtesy call on Sharif, she held a bilateral with his advisor on foreign affairs, Sartaj Aziz. The two then came out with a joint statement in which Pakistan assured India that all steps were being taken to expedite the early conclusion of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack trial. "Both sides, accordingly, agreed to a comprehensive bilateral dialogue and directed the the foreign secretaries to work out the modalities and schedule of the meetings under the dialogue, including peace and security, CBMs (confidence buildins measures), Jammu and Kashmir, Siachen, Sir Creek, Wullar Barrage/Tulbul Navigation Project, economic and commercial cooperation, counter-terrorism, narcotics control, humanitarian issues, people-to-people exchanges and religious tourism," the statement said. Even as the stage was being set for the foreign secretary-level meeting between the two sides came the Pathankot attack that is being deemed as an attack on the softening of ties between New Delhi and Islamabad. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Sunday held a meeting here with six former envoys to Pakistan in wake of the terror attack on the Indian Air Force base in Pathankot in which at least seven Indian security personnel were killed. Those participating in the meet were T.C.A Raghavan, who retired as India's high commissioner to Pakistan last month, along with his predecessors Shyam Saran, Satindra Lambah, S.S. Menon, Satyadutt Pal, and Sharad Sabharwal, external affairs ministry sources told IANS. The meeting was held to discuss India's strategy vis-a-vis Pakistan following Prime Minister Narendra Modi's dramatic stopover in Lahore from Kabul to New Delhi on December 25 last year to meet his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif, it is learnt. The sources, however, refrained from giving details of Sunday's meeting. Saturday's Pathankot terror attack came barely days before the proposed foreign secretary-level talks in Islamabad in the middle of this month. Modi's visit was the culmination of a series of diplomatic engagements between the two South Asian neighbours starting from November 30 last year when he had a seemingly impromptu meeting with Sharif at the Paris climate summit. On December 6, Indian National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and his Pakistani counterpart Naseer Khan Janjua held a meeting in Bangkok which was also attended by the respective Foreign Secretaries S. Jaishankar and Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry. Two days later, Sushma Swaraj landed in Islamabad to attend the Heart of Asia conference which engages "heart of Asia" countries for a peaceful and stable Afghanistan. On December 9, she told media persons there that Modi would visit Islamabad next year to attend the summit meeting of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation. Following a courtesy call on Sharif, she held talks with his advisor on foreign affairs, Sartaj Aziz, during which it was agreed to begin a "comprehensive bilateral dialogue". The body of an NSG officer, killed in the operation at the Indian Air Force base in Punjab's Pathankot town, will be brought back to his hometown near here on Monday for the last rites, a relative said on Sunday. Lt. Col. Niranjan Kumar of the National Security Guard was killed in "mopping up operations" in Pathankot, union Home Minister Rajnath Singh announced earlier on Sunday. Niranjan Kumar, whose parents hail from here, was settled in Bengaluru. He is survived by his wife and a two-year-old child. His uncle told the media on Sunday that the martyred officer's last rites would be performed here on Monday. "The body will be brought by road from Bengaluru tomorrow (Monday). It would be placed at a school near here for the public to pay their homage," said Niranjan Kumar's uncle. The officer's father has left from Bengaluru for Delhi to receive his son's mortal remains, which will then be brought to Bengaluru on Sunday night. Locals recalled that the officer was a popular personality of the area and had a jovial nature. Chief Minister Oommen Chandy will also be in Palakkad to pay his last respects to the departed officer. The present BSF strength in the Punjab sector was inadequate, and the Punjab government wants the force strengthened in the state in view of the terror attack on the Indian Air Force base near Pathankot, Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal said on Sunday. "The BSF strength is not adequate. Because this (Punjab) is a peaceful state, the strength is less. We need more strength (of the BSF), especially because this area is close to the border with Jammu and Kashmir. "There have been two major incidents of infiltration in Punjab through the same sector," Badal pointed out. This was the second major terror attack in Punjab in just over five months. On July 27, 2015, terrorists from Pakistan launched a terror attack on Dinanagar town in Gurdaspur district, leaving seven people dead, including a police official. Badal, who is also the state home minister, said Punjab Police will also have a "second line of defence" in the area to counter any terror threat in future. "We will have a new police lines and a commando battalion in Pathankot for quick response. Also a SWAT (special weapons and tactics) quick response team will be stationed here," Badal said. He said the Centre will be requested to make available better technology to prevent infiltration in the area. "We want technology to be used, like lasers. We should use technology to prevent infiltration," Badal said. The Punjab government wants the Border Security Force (BSF) strengthed in Punjab in view of the terror attack on the Indian Air Force base near Pathankot. Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal said on Sunday that the present BSF strength in the Punjab sector was inadequate. "The BSF strength is not adequate. Because this (Punjab) is a peaceful state, the strength is less. We need more strength (of BSF), especially because this area is close to the border with Jammu and Kashmir. "There have been two major incidents of infiltration in Punjab through the same sector," Badal pointed out. This is the second major terror attack in Punjab in just over five months. Terrorists from Pakistan launched a terror attack on Dinanagar town in Gurdaspur district on July 27, 2015, leaving seven people dead, including a senior police official. Social networking website Twitter and Politwoops have struck a deal that would allow people to access the controversial tweets that politicians posted and later deleted after public outcry. Politwoops will relaunch in the "coming months" and it provides services in countries including India, the US, France and Canada, CNET.com reported on Saturday. Run by the US-based Sunlight Foundation and managed by a Netherlands-based transparency group Open State Foundation, the Politwoops is a website that archives controversial tweets that politicians make and then delete these after public outcry. The "website of erased Twitter gaffes" was disrupted last year as Twitter stopped giving it access to code that made preservation of the tweets possible, claiming that the archive broke its rules and hurt privacy. Twitter had previously said that "it supported increasing transparency in politics and using civic tech and open data to hold government accountable to constituents but saving and publishing deleted tweets broke its rules and violated its users' privacy". However, the Politwoops argued that "a citizen's right to information outweighs a political figure's right to retroactively edit a statement". In a statement, the Open State Foundation said the deal was the result of several meetings with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. "We have a responsibility to continue to empower organisations that bring more transparency to public dialogue, such as Politwoops," Dorsey said. Meanwhile, it is not clear when Politwoops would again start posting deleted tweets. The Open State Foundation said that "in the 'coming months' it will relaunch Politwoops in the more than 30 countries in which it had been available and that it will look to add more countries to the list". Saudi Arabia's foreign minister announced on Saturday to cut diplomatic ties with Iran and asked all Iranian diplomats to leave within 48 hours, local media reported. Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said he informed the UN Security Council of the attack on the Saudi diplomatic mission in Iran late Saturday, adding that those Saudi diplomats reached Dubai, the UAE, safely. He accused the Iranian authorities of not taking any measure to prevent the attacks against the embassy in Tehran and the consulate in the Iranian city of Mashhad. On Saturday, angry Iranian protesters stormed the Saudi diplomat mission against the Saudi execution of 47 individuals over terrorism charges, including a Saudi Shia cleric, Namir Al Namir, a member of Saudi Shia community. The attacks were a violation to the international agreements, the minister said, also referring to the Iranians' previous attacks on the US and British embassies. He also accused Iran of providing protection for Al-Qaeda through weapon trafficking. Saudi Foreign Minister Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir's visit to Islamabad on Sunday has been postponed, the foreign office said. This was done at Saudi Arabia's request, Dawn online reported. Jubeir was to arrive here on Sunday to take the Pakistani leadership into confidence over the Middle East situation and the 34-nation military alliance recently formed by the kingdom. According to officials here, the purpose of the visit was to consult Pakistan's leadership over joining the anti-terrorism alliance. In December, the kingdom announced the formation of a 34-state Islamic military coalition to combat terrorism, naming Pakistan as one of its members without apparently first getting its consent. Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry said he was surprised to read the news that Saudi Arabia had named Pakistan as part of the group but the foreign office confirmed participation in the coalition. The discovery, made by scientists at the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) and the University of Southampton in Britain, explains the long observed disconnect between the theoretical rate at which the Earth's crust is cooling at seafloor spreading ridge flanks and actual observations. This new class of hydrothermal venting was discovered at the Von Damm Vent Field in the Caribbean during an expedition on board the NOC-maintained Royal Research Ship James Cook. "This will really improve our understanding of how the Earth's interior cools," said Bramley Murton who co-supervised this research. The team used sonar on the autonomous-submarine to map the vent field before sending down a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) to collect samples of hydrothermal fluids and minerals. The investigation revealed that minerals and chemistry at the Von Damm Vent site are very different to those from any other known vents. What makes this new system different is that the source of heat driving them comes from hot rock pushed towards the seabed by low angle faults called tectonic spreading centres rather than volcanic heat from magma chambers. "We expect this new type of vent system can be found in tectonic seafloor spreading sites across the globe," Murton added. However, since they are almost invisible to the traditional ways of searching for hydrothermal vents, they remained unaccounted for in scientific models of how heat and chemistry is transferred from inside the Earth's crust. "This research also means that ocean models of magnesium and calcium budgets will need to be updated and could lead to more accurate insights into the Earth's past climate," the authors concluded in a paper published in the journal Nature Communications. A day after terrorists attacked the Indian Air Force (IAF) frontier base near Pathankot town, search and combing operation continued on Sunday. At least four terrorists, suspected to be from Pakistan, were killed in a gunfight that lasted over 15 hours after they breached a high-security perimeter and entered the IAF base in northern Punjab early on Saturday to carry out a Fidayeen attack. Security agencies including the army, National Security Guards (NSG), Air Force, para-military forces and Punjab Police were involved in the massive search operation inside the IAF base and nearby areas. IAF helicopters could be seen flying over the base and nearby areas through the night and since early morning on Sunday to assist ground forces in the search and combing operations. "The search ops are continuing. Everything is being looked at minutely. The operation will end only after this is completed," a senior Punjab Police official told IANS. Security agencies were particularly investigating the local support that the terrorists got in the area after entering Indian territory from the border belt with Pakistan on December 30-31. The Pakistan border is about 30 kms from here. "The Innova taxi that the terrorists used to travel towards Pathankot from the border areas is suspected to have been booked through a call made from a Pakistani number. This is being investigated," the official said. The taxi driver, Ikgaar Singh, 24, was killed by the terrorists on Friday by slitting his throat. The terrorists had then hijacked the Mahindra XUV car of superintendent of police Salwinder Singh and slit the throat of his friend Rajesh Kumar. Senior officials of the Army, Air Force, para-military forces and the Punjab Police were supervising the search operations since Saturday after the security forces neutralized the terrorists. At least three IAF security personnel, including an IAF Garud commando, were killed and four others were injured in the attack that started around 3.30 a.m. The counter offensive lasted over 15 hours. "We have also lost security personnel in the Pathankot attack. My heartfelt condolences to their families. We can never forget their sacrifice," Home Minister Rajnath Singh tweeted on Saturday. A fierce gunfight between the terrorists, believed to be from Pakistan-based terror outfit Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM), and security forces had continued through Saturday after the terrorists entered the IAF base, located around 250 km from Chandigarh. At the IAF base, MIG-21 Bison fighter jets, MI-35 attack helicopters, missiles and other critical assets were secure and the terrorists were prevented from getting near the technical area where the assets were stationed, IAF sources said. The IAF, in a statement in New Delhi, said the terrorists' plan to destroy "valuable assets" was "foiled" due to "effective preparations" and "coordinated efforts". National Security Guard (NSG) commandos, who had been rushed to Pathankot on Friday following apprehension of an attack, IAF's Garud commandos and army commandos led the counter-attack on Saturday against the terrorists. At least six people were killed and 16 injured when a passenger bus skidded off a highway in Nepal's Rupandehi district bordering India, police said. The bus bound for Nepalgunj from Narayangarh when the accident took place along the East-West Highway on Saturday, Xinhua news agency quoted police as saying. The injured were warded in a hospital. Four of them were said to be in critical condition. A team of poets and writers from the central European nation of Slovenia will indulge in discussions and debates with their Bengali counterparts over a range of issues at the inaugural Sampark Literary Evenings (SLE) festival here. From January 6 to January 9, four Slovene poets and writers will be the special guests at the festival that is intended to act as a "forum for literature, ideas and arts of writers and artists from India and the world". Contemporary poets Iztok Osojnik, Barbara Korun, Alenka Jovanovski, Tone Scrjancc will elaborate on Slovene literature, ecology and poetry while a clutch of Bengali poets such as Yashodhara Roy Chowdhury and Chaitali Chattopadhyay will share the stage for a session of poetic dialogues. Launched by Alliance Francaise, Kolkata, in collaboration with Sampark and Freed, SLE will travel to Allahabad (January 11) and culminate in New Delhi (January 13-14). Guatemala City, Jan 3 (IANS/EFE) Three Bangladeshis along with 10 Ecuadorians were rescued from kidnappers in the Guatemalan town of Huehuetenango, authorities said. The kidnappers had demanded that the hostages' families in the US pay a ransom of $24,000 to set them free, the Attorney General's Office said in a statement. After the rescue operation, police arrested three men involved in the kidnapping. The arrests were made after a family member of one of the Bangladeshis reported to New York authorities that his relative had been abducted. That person provided the GPS coordinates of the building in Huehuetenango from which the kidnappers were calling to demand the ransom money. --IANS/EFE ksk/mr In a setback to Naga insurgent group NSCN-K, security forces on Sunday arrested the outfit's self-styled finance secretary and two other cadres. Police said 'finance secretary' Max Asukomi was apprehended in an operation in Nagaland's commercial hub Dimapur. The two other cadres -- Asheto Rochelle and Isato Aye -- were nabbed in a separate operation also in Dimapur. "All the three arrested militants are residents of Zunheboto district but were presently staying in Dimapur to carry out extortion activities on behalf of the Naga militant faction opposing talks," a police official said. The National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Khaplang, led by its chief S.S. Khaplang, had last year abrogated from the ceasefire agreement with the Indian government and stepped up operations against security forces in Nagaland, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh. Three women were arrested on Sunday for smuggling over 300 turtles from Bihar's Rohtas district, police said. "We have seized over 300 turtles and arrested three women who were part of a gang smuggling rare turtles in a train at Sasaram railway station," said Government Railway Police official Vinod Kumar Singh. The three women, who hail from Uttar Pradesh, told police that seven sacks full of turtles were brought from Allahabad and they were to hand them over to a man in Asansol in West Bengal. The rare species of turtles had distinct star marks on their shells. India banned the trade of turtles under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. Top scientist and Bharat Ratna C.N.R. Rao on Sunday urged India Inc to share 30-40 percent investment in scientific research and development (R&D). "The Indian industry is yet to contribute substantially to R&D as in advanced countries. India Inc should bear at least one-third cost of the scientific work," Rao said at the 103rd Indian Science Congress being held in the 700-acre University of Mysore campus, about 140 km from Bengaluru. Delivering the Bharat Ratna Sir M. Vishveshwaraya lecture on "Doing Science in India", the 83-year-old scientist said the country could emerge on top in the next 10-15 years if the academia, industry and the government work hard and in tandem with the scientific community. Based on his experience, Rao recalled that though he worked for 65 years in research, with 57 years in the country as a professor, he did not get even Rs.10 from the industry. "Ironically, industry in the overseas funded his research in Britain and the US. Industry should take interest in science and education than we all blaming the government for lack sufficient funds," he said. Rao is an alumni of the 100-year-old University of Mysore as was the country's second president Sarvepalli Radhakrishna. "There is no country of our size and challenges we face in feeding the poor, reducing inequality and competing with other countries. If we can get our act together, we can still do it, develop new technologies and innovate new products and solutions," Rao told about 5,000 delegates at the five-day event's first plenary session. Admitting that the quantum of scientific research was stagnant despite having more institutions across the country, the chemistry professor said that in contrast, China would surpass the US soon on publishing scientific papers even as South Korea was catching up. "Though the number of scientific papers from our country is also increasing, their quality is much to be desired," Rao observed. Regretting that investment on education was a mere 2 percent of the GDP (gross domestic product), the former scientific advisor to the prime minister said only a fraction of it (0.4 percent) was spent on higher education. "Unless we all invest in education and improve science and technology institutions, how can we promote start-ups and innovate products and solutions," Rao asked the stakeholders. Observing that Indian science was not doing as well as in the past, Rao said citations of the research produced in the country were not up to global benchmarks. "We have to look at science differently and in areas where we can make name with our research contribution to the world," he said. Noting that budgets for atomic energy and space science was more, Rao appealed to the prime minister and the finance minister to allocate more funds to than on basic or applied science. "I have nothing against big science (atomic or space) but needs of small science (basic and applied) cannot be overlooked in terms of budgetary allocations though these are policy issues," he said. Following years of hype, 2016 looks to be the year that Virtual Reality (VR) actually becomes real as firms like HTC, Sony and Samsung propose to launch equipment this year to make this possible. The HTC Vive, Sony's PlayStation VR, Facebook's Oculus "Rift" and Samsung's "Rink" headset will be seen in the market in the next few months, BBC reported on Saturday. Virtual reality is a computer-simulated reality (in a device) that replicates, via photos, an environment that simulates a physical presence in places in the real world or an imagined world, allowing the user to interact in that world. Virtual reality artificially creates sensory experiences which can include sight, hearing, touch and smell. For example, with a VR device you can climb Mount Everest making your way gingerly across a shaky bridge while trying not to look down into an icy chasm -- all while sitting on a couch in your house. The devices may be showcased at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) that will be held from January 6 to 9 in Las Vegas. The HTC Vive is seen as the device providing the best VR experience. Its launch, slated for last year, was delayed for some further tweaking. Sony's PlayStation VR and Facebook's Oculus "Rift" headsets can be seen in the markets in the next few months while Samsung has big plans to unveil its "Rink" at the CES. Apart from gaming, Virtual Reality technology may prove to be a ground-breaking technology in many areas of life, the report said. Two psychologists from London, Ashley Conway and Vanessa Ruspoli, developed a system that uses Oculus' Rift headset to treat patients with phobias. Their company Virtual Exposure Therapy aims to give patients exposure in a virtual world to the thing they fear. "It is not the real world but a very visceral experience. You get a physiological reaction. It is a really good bridge between not being able to do something and doing it in the real world," Conway explained. But we will have to wait a little longer for the launch, price and feedback details of the respective devices. Filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali, whose film "Devdas" was India's entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars in 2003, believes that the Indian film industry shouldn't worry too much about the coveted US award. "Why should we be so worried about the Oscars and why do we want an acknowledgment from foreign (film industry)? Why is that? Do they ever say that they need a National Award," Bhansali asked. Bhansali, who is enjoying the success of his latest film "Bajirao Mastani", said he has "no idea" about his next project. "I have no idea and that's the fun of it. I want to go into the New Year discovering new ideas. At the moment I am enjoying the success of 'Bajirao Mastani'," the celebrated filmmaker-director said. India's first experiment with a road rationing system began on January 1, with the Delhi government ruling that private vehicles with odd and even registration numbers will be allowed to drive on roads on alternate days. The new system has many exemptions, and as of now will be effective for only a fortnight. Pollution levels in Delhi have reportedly come down in the first two days of the experiment, though the scheme's effectiveness and enforceability will only really be tested today - the start of a new week after the year-end holiday break ended on Sunday. Nevertheless, the Delhi government deserves to be complimented for having made a sincere effort in curbing vehicular pollution that, among other things, has made the country's capital one of the most polluted cities in the world. The battle against vehicular pollution, however, cannot be won just by ordering a road rationing system. Equal emphasis is needed on expanding and upgrading public transportation networks in India's cities, and greater encouragement for battery-operated two-wheelers and four-wheelers that can significantly reduce vehicular emissions. Remember that over a third of Delhi's pollution is caused by emissions from two-wheelers. Just as more car-pooling and improved public transportation networks would help, creating incentives for more people to use e-scooters will make an equally big difference. The role of industry and the government - at both central and state levels - in expediting such a transformation is crucial. It would be unfortunate if the fortnight-long experiment with the road rationing system ended without having shifted governments' focus to creating greater capacity for better public transportation networks that people can use with comfort in preference to their private vehicles. An area that brings to light the indifference of governments and industry to the need for sustainable reduction in vehicular pollution is the regulation that governs vehicular fuel standards across Indian cities. As a report in this newspaper has noted, the deadline for introducing the Bharat Stage V or BS-V norms for four-wheeler vehicles may have to be postponed by a year to 2020. The advantages of switching over to BS-V norms are huge, as their enforcement can reduce pollution from four-wheelers by 80-90 per cent in terms of PM2.5 or fine particulate matter. More importantly, BS-V norms can reduce the emission of mono-nitrogen oxides by 60-64 per cent. While the ministry for road, transport and highways is keen on introducing BS-V norms by 2019 and BS-VI norms by 2021, the ministry of petroleum and natural gas is of the view that there is not much of a difference between BS-V and BS-VI. Therefore, the oil refineries would prefer a direct switch-over from BS-IV to BS-VI norms by 2020. The cost of making the fuel compliant with BS-VI norms is estimated at a capital investment of over Rs 25,000 crore. Hence, the refineries would prefer to incur the cost to upgrade the fuel to meet BS- VI norms. Representatives of the automobile industry, however, are opposed to upgrading to vehicles that comply with BS-VI norms as that switch would be difficult to achieve. Given that India has as many as 13 of the 20 most polluted cities in the world, it is unfortunate that the current debate is not about advancing the deadline for introducing BS-VI and exploring what steps need to be taken by the refiners and the automobile industry to meet those deadlines. Battling pollution needs greater coordination between governments and industry, and even greater commitment from all. Given that the odd-even formula for private vehicles in Delhi is the first such step by any state in the country to curb pollution, the Aam Aadmi Party government went the extra mile to garner publicity. The media was informed in advance about the mode of transport Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and members of his cabinet would opt for. So details such as "Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia will leave his residence at 8 am on his bicycle, go for an appointment and then cycle to the Delhi Secretariat" or "(Transport and Rural Development Minister) Gopal Rai will leave his residence in his even-numbered car for work and then take a bus tour from the Secretariat" circulated in the media. With such detailed itineraries of the cabinet available to the media, no wonder television crews were tracking the ministers closely. Hong Kong's blend of London-style disclosure requirements with Chinese frontier capitalism is a formula for corporate craziness. The end of 2015 yielded an eyebrow-raising crop including a missing truck with precious cargo, a bunch of gangsters and a mystery share sale. The slowdown in the People's Republic, where many Hong Kong-listed companies are based, is likely to bring more strangeness to the surface. From China Animal Healthcare came a story of missing documents. The group, backed by US pharmaceuticals company Eli Lilly, revealed a serious setback to a forensic investigation of its accounts on December 28: a truck carrying years of financial data vanished while the driver was taking a lunch break. The shares have been suspended since March. So, now, are any hopes of the company's problems being resolved soon. China Shanshui Cement also misplaced papers in curious circumstances. Its new directors, installed after a power struggle, called police after finding records, data and company stamps missing from a Hong Kong office recently vacated by their ousted predecessors. They also claim a former official at Shandong Shanshui, "together with a group of gangsters", smashed up that mainland subsidiary's headquarters and assaulted staff. The mystery around solar firm Hanergy Thin Film Power Group, whose shares haven't traded since halving in minutes in May, also deepened. Founder Li Hejun, once briefly reckoned to be China's richest man, now plans to sell a stake at less than one-twentieth of the last traded price. A clarification from the parent company that this was no "selloff" but a "debt financing arrangement" didn't quite clear things up. Investors presumably want to see less of this in 2016. That wish is unlikely to be granted. China's woes will shine an unforgiving light on weak businesses and make it hard to raise fresh capital, in turn sparking more accounting questions, fights for control, and oddball disclosures. Investor Warren Buffett famously said that it's only clear who is swimming naked when the tide goes out. In the Fragrant Harbour that is certainly true. The next big move in the price of oil will be up. For now, Opec producers are flooding the market with cheap crude. But low-cost Opec producers will win the hydrocarbon price war because they can fight harder for longer. And when they win, the price of oil will rise. Brent crude has fallen about 40 per cent over the last year to less than $40 a barrel as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has sought to defend its market share by pumping record volumes of oil and driving profit out of higher-cost production. Shale oil drillers in America and offshore operators in areas such as the UK's North Sea are among the most vulnerable. Improving wellhead efficiency has softened the blows thus far. But these gains will be harder to repeat in 2016. The International Energy Agency (IEA) expects shale oil production in the United States to shrink by more than 600,000 barrels per day next year if current low oil prices persist. At that rate, daily US shale production would soon fall below five million barrels per day. Lower prices will accelerate shutdowns in areas like the North Sea too. Energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie reckons that over a third of the area's 330 fields could be threatened by early closure if prices remain below $85 per barrel for an extended period. Like shale, the North Sea was once seen as a serious rival to Opec's cheap oil but now it looks like its first victim. Wood Mackenzie reckons that at least 1.5 million barrels of daily global production are uneconomic at $40. Those volumes make up no more than a couple of per cent of supply. But the global oil market is finely balanced. Small changes can lead to big shifts. As more high-cost production is either shut down or slowed down, Opec's pricing power will come to the fore. The IEA says oil prices will swill around the bottom of the barrel until 2018. If demand for oil rises with a global economic growth spurt - fuelled perhaps by the low cost of energy - the oil prices will move up sooner than that. The precise price to be seen at any moment in 2016 is unpredictable. But elemental oil market forces suggest that a barrel of black stuff will revert back towards its 10-year mean above $80. The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has said it would support the Khan Market Traders' Association in New Delhi if it sues actor Salman Khan for naming his online shopping portal Khanmarketonline.com. In a statement, CAIT asked how anyone could use the name of one of the world's most prestigious markets for personal gain. If the actor were allowed to go ahead, there was a possibility that websites with names such as "Indiagateonline.com" or "Rashtrapatibhawanonline.com" might come up. The introduction of a goods and services tax (GST) in India will be far more than a mere reform of the Indian indirect tax system; it will also be very significant economic reform. In a well-designed GST regime, only the expenditure on final private consumption should be taxed. Registered businesses should charge GST on taxable goods and services they provide, and claim credits for GST they pay on their purchases, including capital purchases. A well-designed GST regime will significantly reduce Indian businesses' cost base from that in the current system, as GST will not become a cost to the registered businesses. Indian businesses will become more competitive internationally as a result. The OECD recognises that a key feature of a well-designed GST is a system that is efficient and effective. That is, compliance costs for business and administration costs for government should be kept to a necessary minimum. Here, we focus on one aspect of the compliance burden being considered under the proposed Indian GST and check out whether this is the best international practice. Under the proposed GST regime, all GST registered businesses are required to uplift all supply information through the goods and services tax network (GSTN) portal by the 10th day following the close of a month. In order to claim an input tax credit, the purchaser must upload all purchase information by the 15th day following the close of that month. A credit will only be available where the purchaser's invoice matches the sales invoice uploaded by the supplier and the GST has been paid. The GSTN will notify the purchaser of a mismatch. Under this approach, it will be almost impossible for a business to claim its credit entitlement on a timely basis. The delay in claiming credits and the costs associated with managing this system alone will unnecessarily increase the working capital of businesses, eroding one of the benefits of moving to a GST. Another feature of the proposed credit system is that all information regarding credit notes must be uplifted through the GSTN by the September 30, following the year of income. Unless disputes are resolved by that date, no GST credit will be available to the supplier if the invoice value is reduced. The purchaser on the other hand will almost certainly be entitled to a credit for the reduced amount. The consequence would be an increase in costs/cash outflow where details are unable to be reconciled, leading to a GST cost or repayment of credits incorrectly claimed with interest payable to the government. We note that no other developed country with a value added tax or a GST system has such a credit matching system. If the Indian authorities are concerned about fraudulent or even the incorrect claiming of refunds or credits, there are better and more sophisticated ways of managing those risks, including sophisticated approaches to gathering intelligence and enforcement. The proposed credit matching system will almost certainly cost Indian businesses significantly in unclaimed credits and additional compliance costs. Further, the cost for administering this system to government will be significant. In our view, it is likely the revenue at risk from fraud or credit claims made in error is significantly less than the combined business and administration costs associated with the proposed system. It is also inconsistent with a key OECD feature of a well-designed GST system; that the system be efficient, effective, flexible and fair. Denis McCarthy, Executive director, PwC India Anita Rastogi, Partner (indirect tax), PwC India Whenever the GST comes, certain preparations are needed for introducing it. Also, along with the Budget, other taxes need to be reformed and procedures spruced up to accommodate such changes. Regarding the GST, as the rate will be revenue neutral, as far as possible, at the current level of tax, what needs to be done is simplifying the substantive procedures to make it workable. The most important among them is the Cenvat rules. At present, this suffers from concepts of differentiating between raw materials, capital goods, etc. This has to be changed and one rule for all must be made. All goods are both raw materials and capital goods conceptually. Further, the input credit should be made absolutely smooth without conditions. So, conditional exemptions must be withdrawn. Another important reform is to do away with the present law in excise and service tax that allows refund only if it is proved that the incidence of higher tax has not been passed on to the consumers. This law of barring unjust enrichment, if retained, will ruin the smooth flow of input credit essential for an all-India market that the GST is trying to bring about. Customs will not be included in GST but it will be necessary to reform Customs tariff at the same time to improve the tax structure. The Customs tariff is now highly complicated with nearly 19 rates of duty and some specific rates . Then there are hundreds of exemptions with nearly 50 lists covering another nearly 2,000 items and more than 100 conditions that apply, though not all at a time. Tariff also requires certificates from any or more of 30 departments. I suggest that for improving the tariff we should have the system of "one chapter one rate" in as many chapters as possible. It may not be possible in chapters like 22, 27, 84, 85 , 87 and 90, which have variegated items but it's possible in other chapters. Even in these chapters many exemptions can be withdrawn. The 19 rates can be reduced to 100, 50, 30, 10, 7.5 and nil. If one single decision is taken that no exemption will be given for allowing the benefit of just five per cent or 2.5 per cent, a huge number of exemptions will go. If self-declaration is accepted in place of certificates from other department, many exemptions will be removed. In Customs also, the law of unjust enrichment should be abolished as it will not be there in the GST. In the procedural and administrative field, there is a vast scope for improvement which is necessary to achieve a common market and a smooth tax system. That is in the field of litigation. The biggest problem for some years has been that the officers have been passing orders merely to earn more revenue without any concern for the merit of the cases. So the pending litigations have become so huge in number at all stages like tribunal, high court and Supreme Court that issues are pending for too long and even where the decisions are given, further appeals are filed in higher courts. So refunds have become practically impossible. Earlier, one could pay higher duty and clear goods in case of urgency. Now it is such that once the duty is paid, even if the appeal is allowed, the department goes to high court and Supreme Court. The Central Board of Excise and Customs should start with a new mindset and get on with withdrawing cases from the appellate authority by reviewing the cases where the Revenue has no proper ground for fighting. For that two things are necessary. First the issues that are pending should be grouped and the board should issue a circular. If the circular says higher duty is not chargeable, then the cases should be withdrawn. Second, the departmental representatives should be given power to concede the points raised by the tax payers. A tax payer-friendly atmosphere must be created to make "make in India" possible. The year 2015 has come to an end. It was full of events that are interconnected and foretell our future in a way that should enormously worry us. And, hopefully, get us all to rise to the challenge. In December, the Paris climate change talks ended with an agreement far from ambitious and very far from being equitable. It has left the world even more vulnerable and the poor even more deprived of basic human development. Then there was the Chennai anomaly. Usually dry and desperately water-scarce, the city sank under water. What a way for citizens of this and every other megacity to realise what an increasingly climate-risky world we are all living in. What a way to understand that. If we keep up such mismanagement, extreme weather events are going to make us all go under. Then my city of Delhi choked and spluttered, running out of clean air to breathe. It has learnt the really hard way that it must find leapfrog options, combining both technology and lifestyle choices of mobility patterns, if it wants to live on something as basic as breathable air. Clearly, 2015 has brought home tough messages. One, environmental issues cannot be ignored if we want to secure life and health. Two, development has to take a different path, for we must - starting now - mitigate its visibly adverse impacts. Three, since we live in a planet where warming is now unleashed and unbridled, what we do must be done at an extraordinary speed. Indeed, 2015 has done all of us a huge favour: it has been a tea-leaf reading of our future. Dire warnings we must heed. But are we? Let's take the Paris Agreement as a symptom. The world today is hurtling towards two catastrophes, one caused by our need for economic growth, and the other by unparalleled and gluttonous consumption that impels emissions into the atmosphere. These greenhouse gas emissions, primarily emitted because we need energy, contain portends of a future being placed at extreme risk. We already see how weather variation - whether linked to climate change or not - has jeopardised the livelihoods of millions of farmers in India in 2015. Farmers are now driven to ultimate desperation - suicide. These failures, a combination of poor policies, are now exacerbated by untimely, weird weather, and have caused so much human pain. In this manner, the development dividend, which is so hard to secure in the first place, is being lost. And there is much more to come. Paris, with its weak and unambitious text, has failed us abjectly. The already-rich and the becoming-rich have signalled they don't want to compromise on their growth, or consumption, in the interests of the rest. Another catastrophe awaits us - living in a more inequitable, insecure, and intolerant world. Let's be clear. The Paris Agreement tells us, more than ever, that the rich world has bubble-wrapped itself, and believes that nobody can prick it or burst through. To be secure in the bubble, conversation is restricted to only what is more convenient. In this age of internet-enabled information, ironically, the world is actually reading and being sensitive to less, not more. The circles of information have shrunk to what is most agreeable to listen to. It is no surprise, then, that in climate change negotiations - as in trade talks or international relations - there is one dominant discourse. The most powerful nations would like to believe that there is nobody on the other side. As I wrote from Paris, there was no longer another side. So, there is no respect for another's position. It is believed the other side is either a terrorist, a communist or is just corrupt and incompetent. There is a fatal refusal to fathom, or approach, opinions or realities that are different. In all this, there is growing inequality in the world. No amount of growth and economic prosperity is enough any more, because aspiration is the new God. This means anybody who is poor is marginalised simply because they have just not made the grade. There is no longer space for such "failure" in our brave, newer, world. It is about the survival of the fittest, in a way that would have made Darwin insane. It is no surprise that we, in India, are mirroring this grave, new world. In the last year, the very real plight of the poor, distressed, flooded, drought-stricken and famished was banished from our television screens and newspaper articles. Our world is being cleansed. If we do not know they exist, we do not need to worry about their present or future. We can think about a way of life that benefits us and us solely. This is the true emerging face of intolerance in an intolerably unequal world. This does not make for a secure future. No. It makes for a bloody war. But that is what we have to change, now and forever. I haven't lost hope. Please don't as well. Happy 2016. The writer is at the Centre for Science and Environment sunita@cseindia.org Twitter: @sunitanar There are instances when an insured attempts to capitalise on a genuine loss by fraudulently inflating the claim to dupe the company. This can lead to costly consequences. Surya Electronics, a partnership firm in Raipur, had obtained a shopkeeper's policy from United India . The policy, valid from August 29, 2006, to August 28, 2007, covered the shop as well as goods in stock. The insurance was extended later to cover burglary, house-breaking, etc., up to Rs 54 lakh. In September 2006, a burglary took place at the shop and goods worth about Rs 34.34 lakh were stolen. The police was informed and the insurance company was also intimated. A surveyor was appointed who assessed the loss and submitted a report in which he concluded that only 142 mobile sets worth around Rs 5.73 lakh has been stolen, and there was no substantiation for the remaining claim. Since the difference was substantial, a clarification was sought from the surveyor. The supplementary survey report revealed the supplier from whom Surya Electronics had supposedly made all its purchases denied having sold anything except 142 mobile sets. The supplier had also filed an affidavit of declaration about this sale before the commercial tax officer. Since Surya Electronics had lodged a claim of about Rs 34.34 lakh, the insurance company repudiated the claim. It refused to even pay the loss quantified by the surveyor. Feeling aggrieved, Surya Electronics, through its partner Arjun Vaswani, filed a complaint before Chandigarh's State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission. The insurance company contested the claim. The state commission upheld the insurance company's contention and dismissed the complaint. Surya Electronics challenged the order in an appeal. The only argument put forth in the appeal was that the claim in respect of the loss of 142 mobile sets worth Rs 5.73 lakh was an accepted, proved and undisputed fact. So, regardless of the total claim lodged, the amount ought to be granted. The insurance company countered this by relying on the terms of the policy which provide that the insurance company would not be liable to pay any claim if fraudulent means or device are used either by the insured or by any one acting on behalf of the insured to obtain any benefit under the policy. Invoking this provision, the insurance company said the claim had been rightly repudiated. Reliance was placed on a judgment of the national commission in Best Food International vs National Insurance Co Ltd & Anr, where it had been held that it is a well settled principle that the contract of insurance is that of utmost good faith, and is vitiated by any fraudulent act. An insured cannot take the benefit of the insurance cover on false grounds by suppression of material facts, false contentions and fraudulent documents and cannot except remedy or redressal under the Consumer Protection Act. Accordingly, the national commission dismissed the appeal. The author is a consumer activist My car was stolen from a paid parking lot near the railway station. Can I claim for it? Yes, you can claim under as the motor policy is an all-risk cover. Please ensure that you file a First Information Report immediately and lodge a claim with the insurer at the earliest. I am a non-resident Indian working in United Arab Emirates (UAE). If I get treated in India during my holiday, can I use my medical insurance issued by my employer? Generally, the health insurance plans allow the insured to take treatment only within a defined domestic geography. You will have to check with your UAE insurer whether they provide reimbursement of expenses incurred outside UAE. I had a health insurance claim and I was not happy with the service. If I want to switch my insurance company, will it be possible? Will my claim be held against me? Yes, you can switch your health insurer under the portability guidelines. This would require you to approach the new insurer at least 45 days prior to the expiry date of your policy and applying for portability. If portability is granted by the new insurer then you would get credit for the number of continuous years you had been covered under the incumbent insurer policy also with your new insurer, as far as waiting period for pre-existing disease is concerned. Like health insurance policies, do personal accident covers also have a waiting period? Generally, personal accident policies do not have a waiting period and the cover commences from the policy period's start date and time. , chief executive officer of Reliance General Insurance, answers your questionsThe views expressed are expert's own. Send your queries to yourmoney@bsmail.in Explosions and firing continued intermittently tonight as security forces killed one of the at least two terrorists holed up at Pathankot air base on the second day of the attack in which military casualties including a Lieutenant Colonel of the NSG mounted to seven. Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a meeting tonight with top officials including National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar in Delhi even as questions were raised by defence experts over the way the encounter with heavily-armed Pakistani terrorists was handled by security agencies. Defence sources in Delhi said tonight that one terrorist was killed today while another was injured in the encounter that was on for nearly 43 hours, a day after four terrorists were eliminated after they struck yesterday. "The operation is still continuing and engagement with the terrorists is still going on, Air Commodore JS Dhamoon," Air Officer Commanding, Air Force Station Pathankot told a late evening conference. "The operation will continue till the whole of air base is cleared of intruders and any terrorists," he said. Dhamoon said four terrorists have been killed and seven security men--one Garud commando, one NSG officer and five personnel of Defence Security Corps(DSC) have been martyred in the operation. Seventeen security personnel were also injured. Throughout the day, attack helicopters kept flying over the air force station to provide aerial support to the ground troops battling the terrorists who fired intermittently with the last round of exchanges erupting at around 9.30pm. According to reports, the holed up militants were discovered in the forested area on the backside of the air base from where they are reported to have entered. Lt Col Niranjan, a member of the NSG's Bomb Disposal Squad and a Kerala resident, died after he succumbed to injuries which he sustained while he was trying to retrieve a live grenade from the body of a dead terrorist at the scene of the terror attack as part of the combing operations that continued through last night. Four other security men were also injured in this explosion. Three Defence Security Corps (DSC) personnel also succumbed to injuries at the hospital here during the intervening night of January 2 and 3. A Garud commando and two members of the DSC were killed in the gunbattle yesterday at the air base, located barely 35 km from the Indo-Pak border. "We are sure that still there are at least two more terrorists as firing have come from two different places. But we are not sure whether there are some more. We will come to know the number of terrorists only after the completion of the operation and body count," Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi told a press conference in Delhi. The comments by Mehrishi came a day after Home Minister Rajnath Singh tweeted saying the operation had been completed with the killing of five terrorists. Singh later deleted his tweet. During the day, five companies of army along with JCB bulldozers were sent to the area to speed up the operation against the terrorists. Former Western Air Command Chief Air Marshal P S Ahulwalia said casualties could have been kept at minimum through "effective coordination" adding the time taken to neutralise the attackers is way "too long". A 23-year-old woman was severely injured after she was allegedly attacked by an unidentified man at a prominent shopping mall in east Delhi on the New year eve, police said today. The incident took place on the evening of December 31 when the woman came out of the mall's washroom and the unidentified man allegedly pushed her and attacked with a blunt object, police said. Victim Deepika has been admitted to a hospital with injuries on her head while the man still remains on the run. Police said the suspect was captured by a CCTV camera installed in the mall but he was yet to be identified as no one known to the woman could identify him. The woman, who works for a private firm in Lajpat Nagar, lives with her family in East Delhi's Chander Nagar. On the evening of December 31, she had got a call from her family asking her to join them at V3S Mall in Preet Vihar. Police said the woman arrived at the mall by metro from her work place and joined her family for the outing. When she came out of a washroom in the mall, she was suddenly attacked. She told the police that an unidentified man pushed her inside the washroom and attacked her with a blunt object on her head. The woman screamed out in pain after which the assailant fled the spot, leaving her bleeding profusely. She was rushed to a nearly hospital and police was informed later. Police has registered a case of attempt to commit culpable homicide against the man based on the woman's statement. She told police that she was unaware of her enmity with anyone. Twenty-six militants were killed today as Egyptian army raided their hidehouts in some cities in the restive North Sinai as part of the military's campaign against terrorists. The army also arrested 25 suspected terrorists, army spokesperson Brigadier General Mohamed Samir said. Samir also added that five unlicensed vehicles and motorcycles were destroyed during the offensive. The raids are part of the army's campaign against militants in the major cities of Rafah, Sheikh Zwayed and Al-Arish. Egypt's North Sinai has witnessed many violent attacks by militants since the January, 2011 revolution that toppled ex-president Hosni Mubarak. The attacks targeting police and military increased after the ouster of Islamist ex-president Mohamed Morsi in 2013 by military following massive protests against his rule. Over 600 security personnel have been reported killed since then. The military has launched security campaigns in the area, arrested suspects and demolished houses that belong to terrorists, including those facilitating tunnels leading to the Gaza Strip. China's Supreme People's Court (SPC) said today that 270 court officials have been punished for violating the ruling Communist Party's code of conduct in the past three years. Among those punished, 42 were party chiefs and court presidents, while eight were discipline inspection officials accredited to the courts, the SPC said in a statement. They were either critiqued by the authorities or given sanctions, such as a demerit mark on their records, or dismissed, it said, state-run Xinhua agency reported. The Communist Party of China (CPC) refers to probes on corruption and abuse of power as disciplinary proceedings. The SPC has made public cases involving 13 court presidents who were held accountable since the 18th National Congress of the CPC in late 2012, the statement said. Thousands of officials were punished in the anti-graft campaign launched by President Xi Jinping since he took power in 2013. Punjab, which faced two terror attacks in six months, today announced deployment of a commando battalion and a special SWAT team in Pathankot as a "second line of defence" and also sought deployment of more BSF troops along the state's border with Pakistan. Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal while making the announcement, a day after the terror attack on the IAF base in Pathankot, said the state government was writing to Government of India that BSF deployment should be increased on par with the neighbouring state of Jammu and Kashmir. "We have to act as second line of defence. Immediately, we will have new police lines established in Pathankot, one commando batallion will also be set up here so that there is quick response (in the wake of major attacks). "A special SWAT team will be stationed in Pathankot district so that there is quick response if any eventuality happens in the future so that we can take quick action," Badal told reporters. "The BSF deployment should be increased at least in this area (Gurdaspur and Pathankot) because this is second or third time such an incident has occurred," Badal said. He said the state police will come out with a "master plan" for second line of defence. Badal, who held a review meeting with senior police officials after the Pathankot attack, also said that he has directed the police authorities to get "mapping done of all vulnerable points along the border". "If some terrorists manage to sneak from the border into our territory, so we should look at how we can act as a second line of defence. "I want technology to be used. We will see how we will act as second line of defence, we will have to use CCTVs, laser technology, ground detection system which are internationally-used across borders, specially this area, Gurdaspur and Pathankot... It needs to be done," he said. Badal said that he will ask Punjab Police DGP to get in touch with all the experts. Asked if there was any security lapse and how the terrorists managed to sneak in, he said "investigations have not yet started as operation is still going on". "We have our own views, we were convinced on certain views. Question is not Punjab border or Jammu and Kashmir border (from where terrorists sneak in). Five people of family, including two toddlers, were killed today and four others injured after a car in which they were travelling crashed into a road divider, police said. The incident occurred when the family members were travelling to Shivpuri town from Jhansi. The car's tyre busted following which it crashed into a divider, 17 kms from here, Survaya police station inspector Vikas Yadav said. The deceased have been identified as Niraj Jain (34), Ajay Jain (25), Nidhi Jain (30), Ruhi Jain (2) and Yana Jain (3). The injured were rushed to Gwalior for treatment where condition of one of them was said to be critical, police added. At least six persons were killed and 16 others injured after their speeding bus lost control and overturned in a forest along a highway in Nepal's southern Rupandehi district bordering India, media reported today. Four persons died on the spot and two others succumbed to injuries while receiving treatment, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Mahendra Khadka of Area Police Office, Butwal, was quoted as saying by My Republica. The bus en route to Nepalgunj from Narayanghat lost control and overturned in Ghodaha forest of Devdaha along the East-West Highway in Rupandehi district last night, the report said. Of the 16 injured, condition of four is critical. They have been sent to Bharatpur for further treatment. After an audio recording revealed that he was purportedly involved in fixing an Assembly by-election in Chhattisgarh, senior Congress leader Ajit Jogi today said he had sought permission of the party high command to file a defamation suit against the state Congress chief Bhupesh Baghel. "In a letter to AICC president (Sonia Gandhi), I have sought her permission to file a defamation suit under both civil and criminal laws against Baghel," Jogi said here. "Baghel's remark regarding the audio tape, which is doctored and fake, has tarnished my image. He publicly made inappropriate comments against me which is a violation of the party constitution," Jogi said at a press conference. Baghel declared the audio tape to be authentic without any scrutiny, Jogi said, asking how he came to the conclusion. The telephone conversations in the tape, purportedly between the Chief Minister Raman Singh's son-in-law Puneet Gupta, Ajit Jogi, his son Amit, Jogi 'loyalists'Firoz Siddiqui and Ameen Memon, revolved around rigging of the bypoll to Antagarh Assembly seat in 2014. Congress candidate Manturam Pawar, considered to be close to Jogi, withdrew from the fray just a day before the last date for withdrawal. Pawar was later expelled from the party. The tape suggests that the money changed hands in the affair, facilitating BJP candidate's victory. Baghel had claimed that the party was aware of Jogi's role in Pawar's withdrawal. Jogi said that in another letter to the high command, he also revealed who hatched the conspiracy to tarnish his image. "I have informed them about the conspiracy against me in which party leaders from the state and Delhi are involved," he said. Jogi further claimed that someone tried to blackmail his son Amit Jogi. "Before the tape row started, Amit had received text messages demanding 'books' from some 'BB'. The messages threatened if certain demands were not fulfilled, some audio CD would be disclosed. Amit, however, lodged a complaint with the additional director general of police." To a question, Jogi said he had told Pawar (before he got the ticket) not to contest as Pawar had lost in the general election from that seat, and in the by-poll the ruling party would put in all its strength to win. "After he was given the ticket I congratulatedhim but said I will not be available for campaigning. After that I was not in touch with him," said Jogi. Everyone at the Indian consulate in Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif, which came under attack by unidentified gunmen tonight, is safe and security forces are clearing the area, India's Ambassador to Afghanistan said. "All well at consulate. Security forces clearing area around," Ambassador Amar Sinha tweeted. B Sarkar, Consul General at the consulate said the shooting lasted for 20 minutes. "They shot from some adjacent building but nobody could enter the consulate. There was no immediate comment from the Ministry of External Affairs in Delhi, which said further details are awaited. Today's strike is yet another attack over Indian assets in war-torn Afghanistan. The attack took place even as the encounter by the security forces with Pakistani terrorists who attacked IAF base in Pathankot in Punjab yesterday continued for the second day. Angry crowds protesting at Saudi Arabia's execution of a top Shiite cleric set fire to the kingdom's embassy in Tehran and stormed the building before being cleared out by police, reports said. In Mashhad, Iran's second biggest city, demonstrators yesterday meanwhile set fire to the Saudi consulate, according to ISNA agency, carrying pictures of the alleged assault. The incidents came hours after the announcement of the death of 56-year-old cleric Nimr al-Nimr, a key figure in anti-government protests in the kingdom since 2011. The execution prompted strong condemnation from Shiite- majority Iran and Iraq. "There are flames inside the embassy... Demonstrators were able to get inside but have since been cleared out," the agency said. "The fire has destroyed the interior of the embassy," an eyewitness told AFP. "The police are everywhere and have dispersed the demonstrators, some of whom have been arrested." Protesters had been able to climb up onto the roof of the embassy before they were made to leave, it added. Websites carried pictures of demonstrators apparently clutching the Saudi flag, which had been pulled down. Iranian media quoted foreign ministry spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari as asking police to "protect Saudi Arabia's diplomatic missions in Tehran and Mashhad... And prevent any demonstrations in front of these sites." Nimr, who spent more than a decade studying theology in Iran, was among a group of 47 Shiites and Sunnis executed yesterday on charges of terrorism. Predominantly-Shiite Iran, the Sunni kingdom's longtime rival, said in reaction to Nimr's execution that "the Saudi government supports terrorist movements and extremists, but confronts domestic critics with oppression and execution." It will "pay a high price for following these policies," Jaber Ansari had warned before the attacks took place. In response, Saudi Arabia's foreign ministry said it had summoned Iran's envoy to protest at the "aggressive Iranian statements on the legal sentences carried out today". The Saudi interior ministry said the men had been convicted of adopting the radical "takfiri" ideology, joining "terrorist organisations" and implementing various "criminal plots". An official list published included Sunnis convicted of involvement in Al-Qaeda attacks that killed Saudis and foreigners in 2003 and 2004. Nearly 50 young Filipinos returned today from a remote Philippine-held island in the South China Sea where they had staged a week-long protest against Beijing's claims in the disputed waterway. The group arrived at Pag-asa island on December 26 as part of an effort to stir up popular opposition to China's claim to most of the contested sea, including Pag-asa, also known as Thitu. The 47 youths have now returned to Palawan island in the Philippines, Joy Ban-eg, a coordinator of the group, confirmed. Pag-asa island is part of the Spratlys chain in the South China Sea. China claims most of the sea but the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and Taiwan have conflicting claims. The end of the trip by the 47 Filipino youths coincided with a fresh flare-up between China and claimant Vietnam over the contested sea, as Hanoi accused the Asian giant of landing a plane on a disputed reef. Beijing insisted the operation took place within Chinese territory. The Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs has said it will also file a protest over the incident. The youth group, organised by a former navy officer, is called Kalayaan Atin Ito, which translates as "Kalayaan, This Is Ours". "Kalayaan" is the name of a township established by the Philippines in the Spratlys to assert its territorial claim and is also the Filipino word for freedom. The Philippine government had previously praised the group's "patriotism" but had urged them not to proceed with the trip, while the youth group had accused the Philippine government of not doing enough to stand up to China. Photographs of the group, posted on their Facebook page, showed the youths camping on the island and posing with patriotic banners. Reacting to the trip, the Chinese foreign ministry had previously said it was "strongly dissatisfied with the actions and words of the Philippine side." Despite having one of the weakest militaries in the region, the Philippines has been vocal in challenging China's claims to the South China Sea, a vital sealane and rich fishing ground which is also believed to hold vast mineral resources. Arab and Kurdish forces have killed at least 16 fighters from the Islamic State group during fierce clashes north of the jihadists' stronghold of Raqa, a monitor said today. The jihadists launched an offensive last Wednesday against areas held by the Syrian Democratic Forces coalition near to Ain Issa, a town held by the SDF some 50 kilometres (30 miles) from Raqa, killing 21 Kurdish fighters. Late yesterday, "16 jihadists were killed and 19 wounded" in clashes with the SDF near Ain Issa, said Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The SDF also recaptured an area seized by IS a few days earlier, he said. The alliance, made up of units from the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) and Arab fighters, has carried out several major operations against IS. On December 26, it seized the Tishreen Dam from IS along with several villages on the Euphrates' eastern bank. The dam, held by IS since 2014, helps generate electricity for large parts of the northern Aleppo province, the Observatory said. It was the alliance's second major operation, after clearing IS from some 200 villages in the northeastern province of Hasakeh. On the Euphrates' western bank, IS still controls swathes of territory stretching from Raqa to Jarablus, on the border with Turkey. More than 260,000 people have been killed in Syria since March 2011. The conflict started as anti-government protests, but spiralled into a complicated multi-sided conflict. Financial services firm ASK Group plans to step up its equity investment in Indian real estate market to upto Rs 1,500 crore during this year as it sees good demand in mid-segment housing projects. The firm had invested a little over Rs 600 crore during last year through three equity deals in real estate projects. "In 2016, we will deploy Rs 1,000-1,500 crore as equity investment in Indian real estate," ASK Property Investment Advisors CEO and MD Amit Bhagat told PTI. In its largest investment so far, ASK Group had last month invested Rs 365 crore in a housing project of Rajesh Lifespaces at Vikhroli in Mumbai. Before that, the company had invested Rs 125 crore with ATS Group in Noida project and Rs 112 crore in Purvankara's Bengaluru project. It also exited from three investments while garnering an impressive multiple. "We focus on equity investment in mid-income housing projects with ticket price of apartments in Rs 50-75 lakh bracket. We expect the market to remain buoyant in this segment," Bhagat said. ASK Group has invested about Rs 2,500 crore in Indian real estate during last five years. The company's strategy is to invest in mid-income housing projects in five cities - NCR, Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru and Chennai. Bhagat said the company is in the process to raise about Rs 1,500 crore from domestic and offshore investors. The fund raising exercise would be completed in next one month. Asked about investment scenario in Indian real estate, Bhagat said a lot of deep-pocket institutional investors and large funds would start looking at Indian real estate because of counter cyclical opportunity. ASK Group, through its real estate business, manages funds up to Rs 3,300 crore and has committed over Rs 2,000 crore in 19 projects. ASK Property Investment Advisors is a venture of the ASK Group, set up to manage and advise real estate dedicated funds. At least two more terrorists were discovered at Pathankot air base here as security forces continued their operations for the second day with military casualties mounting to seven including a Lieutenant Colonel of the NSG who died today. Lt Col Niranjan, a member of the NSG's Bomb Disposal Squad and a Kerala resident, died after he succumbed to injuries which he sustained while he was trying to retrieve a live grenade from the body of a dead terrorist at the scene of the terror attack yesterday as part of the combing operations that continued through the night. Four other security men were also injured in the explosion. Three Defence Security Corps (DSC) personnel also succumbed to injuries in the hospital here during the intervening Dec 2/3 night. A Garud commando and two members of the DSC were killed in the gunbattle yesterday in which four Pakistan-based terrorists had also been eliminated during the gunbattle at the airbase, located barely 35 km from the Indo-Pak border. "We are sure that still there are at least two more terrorists as firing have come from two different places. But we are not sure whether there are some more. We will come to know the number of terrorists only after the completion of the operation and body count," Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi told a press conference in Delhi. The comments by Mehrishi came a day after Home Minister Rajnath Singh tweeted saying the operation had been completed with the killing of five terrorists. Singh later deleted his tweet. Mehrishi said four terrorists were killed in the gun-fight yesterday while firing resumed this afternoon at two places in the air base. He said all the assets of the IAF were safe. "A fresh contact has been established and there was brief firing," a senior Army official said in Pathankot. Air Commodore JS Dhamoon, Air Officer Commanding, Air Force Station Pathankot, said "The operations are at a mature stage. Operations will continue till the air base is cleared off any intruder or terrorist." "The operations are at a mature stage. Operations will continue till the air base is cleared off any intruder or terrorist," he told reporters. "The operations are continuing". There was heavy but brief exchange of fire at the area of operation where additional reinforcements rushed as five companies, comprising nearly 500 personnel, were deployed by the army. The firing was still continuing, police officials said. Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar briefed Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the latest situation at the Pathankot air base. Both were present at a HAL function in Tumakuru in Karnataka. The fresh exchange of fire in the afternoon and the grenade blast occured as the joint combing operation by the armed forces, police and security personnel was still underway and the NIA had taken over the probe into the terror attack. Pakistani media outlets today said the brazen attack by militants at a key Indian Air Force base will pose a "challenge to attempts to resurrect" the dialogue process between the two neighbours despite the goodwill generated by recent high-level meetings between their leaders. On its front page lead 'Gunmen mount brazen attack on Indian air force base', the Express Tribune said the attack was over but it posed a "challenge to attempts to resurrect a moribund dialogue process between the two neighbours". The International reported that the assault by gunmen came a week after Prime Minister Narendra Modi made an unscheduled visit to his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif in an effort to revive bilateral talks. "Previous attempts at dialogue between the nuclear-armed neighbours have been derailed by similar incidents but, as Pakistani authorities condemned the raid, experts suggested the latest negotiations would prove more durable," it opined. Dawn said that immediate indications from India after the Pathankot incident suggested that the foreign secretaries' talks would go ahead despite the setback, but the incident would impact the atmospherics. "India expects to complete initial probe into the incident before the meeting and its position at the talks would depend a lot on what comes out of the investigation," the paper said. "The Foreign Office said it hoped to build on the goodwill generated by recent high-level contacts," it added. As print media mostly focused on the attack and its likely impact on the peace process, the electronic media was busy in a matching response to Indian TV channels trying to find Pakistan link to the attack. Urdu language newspapers also gave wide coverage to the incident, while mostly focusing on the details of the attack and response by the Indian security forces. They also criticised accusation against Pakistan without investigations. Influential Jang newspaper reported that Indian officials in a typical kneejerk reaction blamed Pakistan for the attack. Heavily-armed Pakistani terrorists yesterday attempted to storm the Air Force base in Pathankot, triggering a day-long gunbattle in which three security men and all the five infiltrators were killed. Three other security men succumbed to injuries in a hospital later and one NSG member was killed while defusing the grenade at the scene of the terror attack, taking the toll of Indian security personnel to seven. The attackers were believed to have infiltrated from Pakistan and there was speculation that they may belong to Jaish-e-Mohammad headed by Maulana Masood Azhar of the Kandahar hijack episode. The attack on the Indian consulate in Mazar-i-Sharif by undentified gunmen tonight was yet another strike at Indian diplomatic missions in strife-torn Afghanistan over the past few years. The worst strike was a suicide bomb terror attack on the Indian embassy in capital Kabul on July 7, 2008, killing 58 people and injuring 141. The suicide car bombing took place near the gates of the embassy during morning hours when officials enter the mission building. On August 3, 2013, the Indian embassy in Jalalabad was attacked by three suicide bombers. The attack caused the deaths of nine Afghans with the majority of those killed being children. The Indian consulate in Herat, Afghanistan was attacked on May 23, 2014 by four heavily-armed militants. All the attackers were killed during a lengthy gun battle, one by the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and three by the Afghan security forces. The Afghan National Directorate of Security recently said troops arrested a suicide bomber, thwarting his plans to attack the Indian consulate in Jalalabad, the capital of eastern Nangarhar province, ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Kabul on December 25. Condemning the terror attack on the IAF base in Pathankot, senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad today accused Pakistan of "abetting" the attack and also questioned the "consistently inconsistent" Pakistan policy being pursued by NDA government. "It's a cowardly act of enemies of peace and humanity which are aided and abetted from the soil of Pakistan, and our security forces are capable enough to respond adequately and appropriately," Azad, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, said in a statement. He further said though the time is not opportune to comment on the flip-flops and weak-kneed Pakistan policy of the NDA government,as our security forces are battling the terrorist assault at Pathankot airbase launched by anti-India forces from across the border, there remains a dire need to revisit the "wishy washy" and "consistently inconsistent" Pakistan policy being pursued by NDA government. Azad called the attack dastardly and gruesome and said the act has been carried out by Pakistan-backed terrorists at the Pathankot air base in Punjab. Coming down heavily onPakistan and its "terror sponsoring" network, Azad said such "dastardly acts" are not going to "cow us down or shake our resolve as a nation to combat and counter the evil designs of terror spreading networks." Expressing condolence to the families of the martyred soldiers, Azad said,"As the nation mourns the martyrdom of the brave soldiers, I stand in solidarity with the bereaved families in their hour of grief. India is the traditional motherland of Hindu community, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said today as he pitched for societal unity where character is valued. "Even though the languages are different, regions are different, creeds are different, culture of all is same. Entire world recognizes it as Hindu culture. And therefore, our community is recognised as Hindu community. This is the traditional mother land of Hindu community," he said addressing an RSS rally near Pune. He stressed on the need for unity in the society which would strengthen India as a nation. "Dr (B R) Ambedkar had said that through the Constitution we managed to ensure political equality, but this political unity can not be sustainable until we achieve economic and societal unity. "History of our country has been such that none of our rivals won here on his own, but due to differences amongst us. Hence, if we don't forget our differences, then the Constitution won't be able to safeguard us. Therefore, he stressed on creating a society which is rich in character and affectionate towards its people," he said addressing the 'Shiv Shakti Samagam', considered one of the largest RSS congregations. India, he said, needed to make itself stronger for its voice to be heard in the world. "Shiva and Shakti (strength) should come together. Our society recognizes Shiva, but world recognises strength. Without strength, truth does not hold value it seems. We see wrongdoings of powerful nations are not objected to and the good things done by weaker nations are not valued. Indian culture is being talked about across the world. It was there earlier too. But it was not valued then," he said. The Delhi-Lucknow Shatabdi was today halted for searches at Ghaziabad and movement of several other trains disrupted after Northern Railways was alerted about a possible bomb threat to trains plying between Delhi and Kanpur. The bomb scare came a day after the Pathankot terror attack that left four infiltrators and three security personnel dead. Delhi Police had communicated to Northern Railways at 6:23 AM that there was a bomb threat to the Lucknow Shatabadi. However, by that time the train had already departed from the station at its scheduled time of 6:10 AM. The Shatabdi was subsequently halted at Ghaziabad and thoroughly checked. It was allowed to leave the station at 7:52 AM as nothing unusual was found, railway officials said. "We received an input from GRP-Delhi Police at 6:23 AM that there is a possibility of a security threat between Delhi and Kanpur. According to the input, there could be bombs in major trains like Shatabdi, Duronto, Rajdhani, Vaishali Express and Nilanchal Express," Delhi Divisional Railway Manager Arun Arora said. The Nilanchal Express and the Lucknow Shatabdi were among the trains delayed. Railway have strengthened security measures at all major railway stations, including New Delhi, Nizamuddin, Old Delhi and Anand Vihar in Delhi division after the bomb threat. DCP (Railways) Dumbere Milind Mahadeo said, "We received a call from the railway control room in the morning in which they said that they had received information about a potential bomb threat on a train plying between Delhi and Kanpur". Officials were pressed into service immediately and a search operation was launched across all railway stations in the city in connection with all trains on the said route. A police official said, trains were stopped at Ghaziabad station too and hundreds of officials have been deployed in the operation. The trains which were to leave in the morning were sanitised for the purpose. According to the official, the potential threat was conveyed by the Mumbai ATS and the Special Cell of Delhi Police has also been kept in the loop. Delhi was put on high alert yesterday, following the attack at the IAF base in Pathankot, and security was heightened across the city. Three youths from Pune, who were on a bicycle rally to spread the message of peace, were allegedly abducted by Naxals from the insurgency-hit Bijapur district of Chhattisgarh, police said today. "The youths were reported missing from forested pocket of Basaguda region of Bijapur bordering Maharashtra. Kutru is said to be the last place where they were seen by locals a few days back," Inspector General of Police, Bastar Range, SRP Kalluri, told PTI. As per preliminary information, the victims were identified as Aadrash Patil, Vilas Valake and Shrikirhna Shevale, he said. The youths had launched a cycle rally under their "Bharat Jodo" (Link India) campaign to propagate the message of peace in Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Odisha, the states worst affected by Naxalism over the past three decades, he said. They had started their journey from Pune on December 20, and passing through several places of Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh, they were going to conclude it at Balamela in Odisha on January 10, he said. "Though we are yet to receive any concrete or specific information about their abduction, we have mobilised security forces in the region to trace their location," he said. Local intelligence is in constant touch with the relatives of the youths to get any clue about them, the IG added. However, no claims though pamphlets or posters have so far been made by Maoists regarding the abduction, he said. Two alleged cattle smugglers were nabbed and a country-made pistol with a live cartridge and a knife were seized from their possession after a brief encounter, police said today. The incident occurred yesterday evening when Modi Nagar police, on a specific tip-off, intercepted a truck carrying 14 bulls and two oxen near Kadrabad check post on Delhi-Meerut road, they said. Following a brief encounter, two persons hailing from Meerut, Nasir and Shahnawaj were arrested, and a .315 bore country-made pistol, a live cartridge and a knife were seized, SHO Modinagar Brijesh Sharma said. Both the accused have been booked under section 307 IPC, section 25 of Arms Act and various sections of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act and have been sent to jail, he said, adding that the truck used for ferrying animals has been impounded. Congress today accused the Modi government of subverting investigations against Naveen Patnaik government in chit fund and mining scams in Odisha to get BJD's support in Parliament and sought Supreme Court-monitored probes. The party latched onto Union Minister Jual Oram's purported comments about Odisha government being "let off" in "scams", but he termed the Congress' charge as "false, politically motivated and based on distorted facts" and asserted that BJP led NDA government has never interfered in CBI's functioning or "misused" it as Congress did for political gains. Former Union Minister Jairam Ramesh alleged that a deal was struck between the BJD supremo and Prime Minister Narendra Modi at their "secret meeting" after which CBI slowed down its probe in the chitfund scam. He demanded that the apex court monitor the CBI investigations in chit-fund and mining scams in the state, claiming that Oram's "honest admission" in an interview makes it clear that the Centra has virtually subverted the CBI probe into the chitfund scam. CBI had "reached the door steps" of Chief Minister Patnaik in the chit fund scam, Congress claimed. Flanked by Odisha Congress president Prasad Harichandan at a press conference, Ramesh played a recent media interview of Oram in which he purportedly said, "The central government has let the state government off in many issues including chit fund and mining scams. Had it not been the case, the CBI would have finished them off already. They should thank the Centre for it." Oram today said he was surprised that the Congress leaders were attempting to extract political mileage by "distorting" his statement made two days ago. "My contention was that the BJD should have thanked BJP because it did not use CBI the way Congress was using it for political gain. "Had BJP misused the CBI the way Congress led UPA had done in the past, there is no doubt the CBI would have finished the BJD government already," the Union Minister said. Ramesh said the remarks of Oram, a BJP MP from the state, made it clear that the CBI, which is probing chit-fund case and not the alleged mining scam, was working as per Modi's wishes and "no more evidence was needed" in this regard. The Modi government had not taken any decision on the M B Shah's commission report, which recommended a CBI probe into the mining scam, due to this, he claimed. "CBI's independence has been finished and it has become a political tool. We cannot rely on the government and the Supreme Court should take note of this. BJP is getting the support of BJD in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha through blackmail. BJP and BJD have become two sides of the same coin," he said. To a query whether the party will move the apex court, he said it will take a call on this. Dubbing CBI as "captive bureau of investigation", he said Congress demands that the Centre constitute a Lokpal at the earliest and bring the agency under it. Oram, however, hit out at the Congress leaders, saying the entire country knew the corruption was synonymous with the Congress party, whether in power or otherwise. "The Congress Party should know that our government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has zero tolerance against corruption and the government has already initiated several steps in this regard," Oram said. China has for the first time landed a plane on an artificial island it has built in a contested part of the strategic South China Sea, prompting Vietnam to accuse Beijing of "serious infringement" of its sovereignty. Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said China conducted a "test flight" to check whether the airfield facilities met the standards for civil aviation. Hua said the test flight was civilian in nature, adding that the "relevant activity falls completely within China's sovereignty". "China has indisputable sovereignty over the Nansha Islands and their adjacent waters. China will not accept the unfounded accusation from the Vietnamese side," she said, referring to the Spratly Islands by their Chinese name. China said it has complete sovereignty over Fiery Cross Reef and had used a civilian plane to test the airstrip. The South China Sea is rich in natural resources. It is also a major shipping lane. Over half of the world's commercial shipping passes through the Indo-Pacific waterways - including one-third of the world's liquefied natural gas. China claims almost the whole of the South China Sea, resulting in overlapping claims with several other Asian nations like Vietnam and the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei. They accuse China of illegally reclaiming land in contested areas to create artificial islands with facilities that could potentially be for military use. The Vietnamese foreign ministry said the airfield was built illegally on a part of the Spratly archipelago that lies within its territory. In Hanoi, the foreign ministry said it has handed a protest note to China's embassy and asked Beijing not to repeat the action. It described the flight "a serious infringement of the sovereignty of Vietnam on the Spratly archipelago". Meanwhile, the United States has said it was concerned that Saturday's flight had exacerbated tensions. Pooja Jhunjhunwala, a spokeswoman for the US State Department, said there was "a pressing need for claimants to publicly commit to a reciprocal halt to further land reclamation, construction of new facilities, and militarisation of disputed features". "We encourage all claimants to actively reduce tensions from unilateral actions that undermine regional stability, and taking steps to create space for meaningful diplomatic solutions to emerge," she was quoted as saying by the BBC. Satellite images published by IHS Jane's Defence Weekly in April showed China building the airstrip on reclaimed land on Fiery Cross Reef in the Spratly Islands. The landmass could accommodate a runway about 3,000m long, the report said. It also showed dredging to the south of the reef, in apparent work to improve the reef's port facilities. China says its work is legal and needed to safeguard its sovereignty. The Chinese and Pakistani navies today concluded their two-day naval exercises in the East China Sea in which two ships each from both sides took part. This is the first time navies of both the countries conducted exercises in the East China Sea which separates China and Japan, official media here reported. Two missile ships from each of their fleets took part in the exercises, state-run CCTV reported. The exercises included anti-submarine drills, air defence, anti missile and mock confrontations. Commanders of China and Pakistan gave instructions in rotation. The Pakistani naval ships Shamsheer and Nasr arrived in Shanghai on December 28 to take part in joint naval exercises in a bid to boost defence cooperation with their Chinese counterpart. "It is a very significant exercise which will enhance the interoperability and cohesion between the two navies," Bilal Abdul Nasir, Commander ofPakistan's 25th Destroyer Squadron told state-run Global Times. A total of 591 officers and soldiers are on board in the two Pakistani vessels. More than 100 countries and international organisation gave their support for OBOR project and over 40 countries and international organisations signed agreements or letters of intent to join it, Lu said. Officials say besides Trump, China was also keen on the participation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. But the Sino-Indian relations were bogged down by China blocking India's move to ban JeM leader Masood Azhar as a global terrorist by the UN like Saeed. China also blocked India's bid for membership in the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). Over Azhar's issue, China also faced allegations from India of double standards in fighting terrorism. Officials say it is to be seen how much of these issues would figure in China-Pakistan counter terror talks. Also China is investing vast sums of money into the USD 46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) which is part of the OBOR over which India has raised objections as it passed through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). China was also concerned about stepped up terror attack in its Muslim Uyghur majority Xinjiang province which is also the starting point for OBOR. Chinese and Pakistani border guards have been holding joint patrols to curb infiltration. Afghan government too has raised strong pitch against Pakistan's reluctance to crackdown on the Haqqani network which is creating havoc in Afghanistan, scuttling all moves to restore peace in the war torn country. Union Minster Bandaru Dattatreya today accused Congress of "politicising" the Pathankot terror attack after the opposition party questioned Modi government's handling of Pakistan affairs. "Pathankot incident...Army and security personnel bravely faced and gave fitting reply to terrorists. Entire country and international community are hailing the security forces. But the Congress party is speaking in different tone," Dattatreya, Union Minister of State for Labour and Employment, told reporters here. "In the national interest, everybody is for giving a fitting reply to terrorists. But, Congress party is unnecessarily giving political angle to this (Pathankot terror attack)," he alleged "Congress party is always politicising the things. Even in developmental works, the Congress is not co-operating and now in (matters of) national interest and terror related issues also they are giving political angle," he said. According to the BJP leader, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's intention is (to have) peace in Asia and (maintaining peaceful relations) particularly in neighbouring countries. "His (Modi's) aim of going to Pakistan was for (maintaining) peaceful relations," the Minister added. Dattatreya further said that the NDA government is taking stringent action against terrorists, but "the Congress party never believes in any actions." At least two more terrorists were discovered today at Pathankot air base in Punjab as security forces continued their operations for the second day with military casualties mounting to seven including a Lieutenant Colonel of the NSG who died. India's first urban yacht marina project, along with a residential area, will come up in Howrah on the banks of the Hooghly river. A marina is a sheltered harbor area where private yachts and boats can be parked on the water with fuel lines, fresh water supplies and shore power for the boats. "Marina Grand is an urban yacht marina project on the banks of Hooghly river on Howrah side, very close to the main city centre of Kolkata. It will also have residential area connected to the Marina. Such integrated project is the first so far," Marina Infra Projects managing director Samir Prasad told PTI. The project report is being finalised and the project will be launched in mid-2016. The company has already procured land for it, he said. The project is in two parts -- the marina and a 6 lakh sq ft of residential development along with a highly privileged yacht club. Prasad said the marina project, including the real estate development, will cost around Rs 250 crore. There will be berthing capability of upto 50 yachts and some inventory may cost about Rs 100 crore. Asked whether the project can run into hurdles after the one at Goa got into rough weather, Prasad said, "This project, being on Hooghly river, does not fall under Coastal Regulation Zone, so it is not proper to compare it with the Goa project." He said there have been presentations before both the state government and the Centre (Shipping Ministry) and they have shown keen interest. At least two other marina projects are proposed on government land in Mumbai -- on Victoria docks of JNPT and at Alibag. Tender for Alibag marina has been floated but bidders have complained about the location being considered, Prasad said. Marina Infra is one of the bidders for the project. A court charged two Israelis today over a firebombing last year that killed a Palestinian couple and their toddler, in an attack that sparked condemnation globally. The pre-dawn attack on the Dawabsha family home in the West Bank village of Duma on July 31 killed 18-month-old Ali Saad Dawabsha, and fatally wounded his parents. His brother, who was four at the time, was the sole survivor from the immediate family. Amiram Ben-Uliel, 21, from the northern settlement of Shilo in the occupied West Bank, was charged with three counts of murder and one of attempted murder, arson and conspiracy to commit a hate crime, said the Israeli court indictment. A 17-year-old, who remained unnamed under a gag order, was charged with being an accessory to committing a racially motivated murder. Israel has been under heavy pressure to try those responsible for the attack, with rights groups questioning the delay in the case and contrasting it to the swift reaction often following Palestinian attacks. Ben-Uliel and the minor, who lived in different wildcat settlements near Duma at the time, in July 2015 plotted to avenge a Palestinian shooting dead Malachi Rosenfeld near Shilo one month earlier, a statement from the justice ministry said. The minor was also accused of having taken part in an arson attack on the Dormition Abbey in east Jerusalem. Two other Israelis, including a minor, were charged for implication in "other terrorist acts". These included the arson attacks on the Dormition Abbey in May 2014 and the Church of the Multiplication in June 2015, as well as acts of vandalism on Palestinian property. Christians believe the church on the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee is where Jesus performed the miracle of loaves and fishes. In the Duma attack, masked assailants reportedly hurled Molotov cocktails through the windows of the Dawabsha home, which were left open because of the summer heat. Graffiti left at the site, witness reports and the proximity of Israeli settlements led suspicions to fall immediately on Jewish extremists. The arson attack followed days of tensions over West Bank settlements, with rightwing groups opposing the demolition of two buildings under construction that the Israeli High Court said were illegal. The international community regards all Jewish settlements in the West Bank as illegal but the Israeli government makes a distinction between those it has authorised and those it has not. The CPI Jharkhand unit today expressed sorrow at the demise of its veteran leader A B Bardhan. "He was a towering figure not only for the Communist Party of India but also for other Left parties. We all will miss his guidance," CPI state unit secretary C P Mehta said. "He used to come to Jharkhand as he was attached to the state. His last visit to Ranchi was in the early part of 2015. Our real homage to this great leader will be to keep following the path he charted out for us," Mehta said. Another senior CPI leader Khagendra Thakur said Bardhan's seniority was not by his age, but by having immense knowledge that profited the Left Front. "His absence will be felt," added Thakur. Bardhan passed away at a hospital in Delhi yesterday. Actress Dakota Johnson says she changed a lot as a person during the making and promoting of "Fifty Shades of Grey" and became blank post it. The 26-year-old actress, who portrayed Anastasia Steele in the first installment of the film, feels like she has been "five different people" since it release, reported Female First. "It feels like a lifetime ago. I feel like I've been five different people since then. "What did I do afterwards? I was working - I kept going. The night I hosted 'Saturday Night Live' was the end of promoting the movie and then...I think I blacked it out. I went into an emotional void," Dakota said. Daughter of two Hollywood stars Melanie Griffith and actor Don Johnson, the actress says she has always enjoyed being on film set. "My childhood I spent outdoors riding horses. It's the most comfortable place for me. I grew up travelling. I grew up on sets. I grew up going to new places. And I like it all," she said. The Akhil Bharatiya Mali Mahasangh (ABMM) today demanded here that the first school for the girls founded by the social reformer couple Mahatma Phule and his wife Savitribai Phule in Pune in 1848 be declared as a national monument. Today is the birth anniversary of Savitribai Phule (3 January 1831 - 10 March 1897), who is considered a pioneer in women's education and emancipation movement. A delegation led by the state president of ABMM Shankarrao Linge met the district collector Sachindra Pratap Singh here and submitted a memorandum of demand, to be forwarded to the Union Government. Advocate Rajendra Mahadole, who was a part of the delegation, told reporters that the Phule couple started the first school for girls in Pune on January 1, 1848 at Bhidewada in Budhwar Peth area. The school building is now in a dilapidated condition and it should be restored and declared as a national monument, he said. Defence experts have questioned the way the audacious terror attack on IAF base in Pathankot was handled, with some even saying it was the result of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "high-risk" mission to Lahore where he met his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif. While Home Secretary Rajiv Mehreshi today claimed at a press conference that there was no security lapse, Defence experts, however, felt that the operation could have been handled in a better way as there was advance intelligence about infiltration by terrorists and that the IAF base could be potential target. Former RAW Chief A S Dulat raised questions about failure of security agencies in thwarting the attack. "Generally intelligence agencies get the flak but here is a case when you had a pinpointed intelligence and still you could not make it. Why?" he said. Dulat said the Pathankot operation had raised many questions including those about the role of security forces who could not neutralise the terrorists fast. "How can the terrorists enter so easily without getting noticed and that too with such a huge quantity of ammunition? Are the terrorist also paying their way through like the drug cartels? These questions need an early answer," he said. Former Western Air Command Chief Air Marshall P S Ahulwalia, who has commanded the Pathankot Air base during his service, said coordination between various security agencies "could have been better" to minimise causalities of the security forces. "The success or otherwise of any operation could be judged by the following -- whether the terrorists were able to achieve their objective, minimal causality to our own forces, no collateral damage and attackers being neutralised in optimal time frame. "The terrorist were not able to achieve their objective and they could not reach their target. However, we have lost more men and this could have been prevented by effective coordination. And also that the time taken to neutralise the attackers is way too long," he said. Some defence experts also felt that the Pathankot attack was only aimed at stalling the Indo-Pak talks, with some of them favouring to call off the dialogue process, saying it was a response from the Pakistani army to the recent meeting between Prime Ministers of the two countries. Commodore (retd) G J Singh said the Pathankot attack was a clear message from Pakistan Army Chief and the ISI "that we are in charge of Pakistan and we are ruling the roost and Nawaz Sharif is not incharge. "He (Sharif) is only an ornamental Prime Minister of Pakistan and this is also the message to him that look you can do anything but we will run this country at our whims and fancies," he said. Maj Gen (retd) Ashok Mehta favoured a meeting between the National Security Advisors of India and Pakistan. "In fact, the NSAs should be talking to each other and discuss whether we will continue the talks. We need clarifications and these clarifications can only come through engagement," he said. Retired Maj Gen Gagandeep Bakshi said in a Facebook post that he feared such an incident after the Prime Ministers of the two countries met last month. "Just a week after PM Modi's impulsive and high-risk mission to Pakistan to try to desperately seek peace, the Pakistani backstab has come even sooner than we expected in the form of the attack on the Pathankot air base. "We did not give a massive mandate to the BJP to go back on its words and fare worse than the UPA in dealing with Pakistan," he said. Defence Expert Uday Bhaskar said this attack from Pakistan comes at a time when two nations are moving closer. "We have seen this in the past during the tenure of Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Whenever we move closer, such attacks take place and dialogue process goes on a back burner," he said. Another Defence Expert P M Hoon said Pakistan was not "trustworthy", while Kamar Agha said the attack was aimed at derailing the talks between Foreign Secretaries of the two countries scheduled later this month. "The efforts of Prime Minister Modi had raised hopes for dialogue process to get going and this attack is only meant to derail it," Agha said. A drowned two-year-old boy has become the first known migrant casualty of the year after the crowded dinghy he was travelling in slammed into rocks off Greece's Agathonisi island, the coastguard said. The other 39 passengers, including a woman who had fallen overboard, were rescued after local fishermen raised the alarm. Ten of the survivors were taken to hospital to be treated for hypothermia yesterday. The rubber vessel had set off from Turkey in the early morning in windy weather. The charity Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS), which helps save migrants and refugees at sea, deployed its fast-rescue Responder boat to help bring the stranded passengers to safety in a joint operation with the Hellenic coastguard. The toddler's body was pulled out of the water by fishermen, according to the coastguard. The migrants, including the child's mother, were taken to the port of Pythagorio on Samos, the nearest island, which is 50 kilometres away. There was no immediate information about their nationalities. "Nothing can prepare you for the horrific reality of what is going on. Today we came face to face with one of the youngest victims of this ongoing refugee crisis. It is a tragic reminder of the thousands of people who have died trying to reach safety in miserable conditions," said MOAS founder and US entrepreneur Christopher Catrambone in a statement. Despite the recent cold and choppy waters, large numbers of migrants and refugees are still setting sail from Turkey to make the hazardous journey across the Aegean in the hope of reaching Greece. Overall, nearly one million migrants or asylum-seekers landed in Europe in 2015 in search of a better life after setting off in boats from either Turkey or North Africa. Most were refugees fleeing war and violence in Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq. More than 3,600 people have died attempting to make the crossing. Three-year-old Syrian toddler Aylan Kurdi, whose limp body was photographed washed up on a Turkish beach in September, became a heartbreaking symbol of the refugee crisis. Dutch prosecutors have said they would "seriously study" claims by citizen journalists to have identified Russian soldiers implicated in the crash of flight MH17, shot down over eastern Ukraine in July 2014. The claims are made by a British-based group of "citizen investigative journalists" called Bellingcat, which specialises in trawling through data on social media and other open sources. "We received the report just after Christmas," Wim de Bruin, a spokesman for the Dutch prosecutor's office, said yesterday. "We will seriously study it and determine whether it can be used for the criminal inquiry," de Bruin said. Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was downed over war-torn eastern Ukraine on July 17 2014 by a BUK surface-to-air missile, killing all 298 onboard, air crash investigators said last October. Western nations and Ukraine say the missile was fired from pro-Russian separatist-held territory, but Moscow denies the claim, pointing the finger instead at the Ukrainian military. The Netherlands have launched a criminal probe into those responsible for the shooting, but many experts doubt whether it will succeed. In 2014, Bellingcat reported that a BUK mobile launcher, spotted on July 17 in an area controlled by pro-Russian rebels, came from a military convoy from Russia's 53rd anti- aircraft brigade - a unit based in Kursk but sent on manoeuvres near the Ukrainian border. The launcher was later filmed again, but at least one of its missiles was missing. In an interview with the Dutch TV channel NOS yesterday, Bellingcat founder Eliot Higgins said his organisation had now identified 20 soldiers in this brigade. This is "probably" the group that either knows who fired or has that individual among its number, Higgins said. The sources for this include photos posted on the Internet and army data about personnel deployment that was available online, NOS said. It added that a redacted version of the report should be published "shortly." De Bruin said Dutch prosecutors had "already been in contact" with Bellingcat in the past. The European Commission said today it would debate the rule of law in Poland this month in the first stage of a potentially-punitive procedure after Warsaw seized control of public broadcasters. Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker "has placed a first debate on the rule of law in Poland on the agenda of the commission's meeting on January 13," a statement said in reference to the controversial media law which went into force on Wednesday. The legislation, which gives Poland's conservative government the power to directly appoint the heads of public broadcasters, was rushed through parliament, despite EU concern and condemnation from rights watchdogs. Ahead of the debate, Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans sent two letters to the Polish government "asking for information about the changes to the law". The statement was issued after EU Commissioner Gunther Oettinger threatened to put Poland on notice for infringing common European values in an interview with Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) newspaper. "Many reasons exist for us to activate the 'Rule of Law mechanism' and for us to place Warsaw under monitoring," he said. The Rule of Law mechanism was set up in March 2014 to tackle "systemic threats to the rule of law". The upcoming Commission debate constitutes the first stage of the three-step procedure. During the initial phase, the Commission will collect information and assess whether there are clear indications of a systemic threat to the rule of law. If the threat is confirmed, it will initiate dialogue with the state which will be given a chance to respond. The Commission said it was "too early to speculate about the possible next stages" in the procedure. "We are engaged in intensive dialogue with our Polish partners," the statement said. Scores of Shia community members in Kashmir today held protests against the execution of prominent cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr in Saudi Arabia. Protests were held at Rainawari area of Srinagar, where scores of community members raised pro-Islam and pro-Nimr slogans, officials said. They said the protesters tried to march towards the city centre here but were stopped by police at Rainawari Chowk, triggering clashes. Police resorted to tear gas shelling to disperse the protesters, the officials said, adding no one was injured in the clashes. Peaceful protests and sloganeering also took place near Press Colony and Zadibal area of the city and in Budgam district. A Saudi national, al-Nimr, had participated in the Arab Spring protests in 2011. The execution of al-Nimr along with 46 other men, including Shia activists and Sunnis accused of involvement in deadly Al-Qaeda attacks, was announced by the Saudi interior ministry. The family members of Garud Commando Gursewak Singh were in a state of shock on receiving the about his martyrdom in the Pathankot terror attack, just over a month after his marriage, even as his father expressed pride that he laid down his life for the country. Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar condoled the death of the commando and announced a financial assistance of Rs 20 lakh to the next of kin of Gursewak. The family, which resides in Garnala village near Ambala city, is yet to receive the body for the last rites. According to official information, the martyr's body would be airlifted to Ambala airbase later today. Gursewak had joined Indian Air Force about six years ago after completing his graduation. He had got married just 45 days ago. His father, Sucha Singh who is a farmer, said that he received information about Gursewak's martyrdom from his elder son who is an officer in the Army and asserted that he was proud that his son had laid down his life for the country. Gursewak, who was described as an intelligent and bright youth, by his father, had cleared the Air Force exam in the first attempt. "My boy had gone to serve the nation. I am proud of him. He has done his duty. We are sad too. Our elder son is also in the Army serving the nation. My younger son gave his life for the country. He was always good in studies and always wanted to join the Air Force," Sucha said. "Legendary freedom fighter Bhagat Singh was his icon," he added. Gursewak's cousin Harikrishan Singh said, "He did his engineering in Bengaluru... We have lost one warrior." Haryana's Heath Minister Anil Vij visited Gursewak's residence this afternoon to console the family. Meanwhile, Deputy Commissioner Ashok Sangwan said that the body of the martyr would be cremated with full state honours. (REOPENS DES61) Another martyred soldier Lt Col E K Niranjan, head of the elite bomb squad of the NSG and an "explosives expert", was today killed while defusing an IED at the Pathankot IAF base. Officials said he was undertaking a mopping up and render safe procedure on the encounter spot when a blast occurred and splinters and sharpnels hit the officer fatally. "Lt Col E K Niranjan was an expert on explosives and head of the bomb disposal squad. He was a brave soldier. "His professionalism and dedication to serve the nation will inspire everyone in NSG for many many years to come. I salute to the brave soul," National Security Guard Director General R C Tayal told Britain's Prince William has said that fatherhood has made him "weirdly" more emotional and appreciative of how precious life is. In a documentary for ITV to mark the 40th anniversary of his father Prince Charles' charity - the Prince's Trust,the third in line to Britain's throne for the first time has spoken about his fears over not seeing his children grow up. He admits that since becoming a father to Prince George and Princess Charlotte, he has found "the smallest thing" brings him close to tears. "It puts it all in perspective - the idea of not being around to see your children grow up," the 33-year-old said in the documentary. "I'm a lot more emotional than I used to be. Weirdly. I never used to really get too wound up or worried about things, but now the smallest little things - I can feel - you well up a little bit more. "And you get affected by things that happen around the world a lot more, I think, as a father. Just because you realise how precious life is," he says in the 90-minute feature shot over a year titled 'When Ant and Dec Met The Prince: 40 Years of the Prince's Trust'. Prince Charles told the show that he hoped his sons, William and Harry, would take over the trust one day. "I hope one of them might take an interest in it because I am probably getting past my sell-by date now," the 67-year-old said. His sons also paid tribute to their father's charity work, saying he had an "insurmountable amount of duty in him". William and Harry, who were interviewed together, also joked about the long letters their father sends them, apparently reluctant to pick up the phone to his sons and having failed to master texting. Speaking in the same documentary, Prince Charles' wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, said she was "really proud" to be married to somebody who "had the vision" to launch the Prince's Trust when aged 27. The Prince od Wales also paid tribute during the programme to his 68-years-old "darling wife", when asked how the duchess supports him: "In every way. Just by being there and being wonderfully encouraging and supportive." The Prince's Trust was set up in 1976 after the Prince of Wales left the Royal Naval. Concerned that too many people were being excluded from society, Charles used his severance pay of 7,400 pounds to fund community projects which later led to formation of the charity. Underlining that there is "visible improvement" in Indo-Pak ties, Pakistan has said the foreign secretaries of the two countries will meet on January 15 to draw up a roadmap for the next six months to carry forward the bilateral engagement. The Pakistan government will focus on the revival of peace process in Afghanistan and the consolidation of the process of improvement of relations with India, Prime Minister's Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz told Radio Pakistan. He said the Foreign Secretaries of the two countries will meet here on January 15 to draw up a roadmap for the Bilateral Comprehensive Dialogue for the next six months. The dialogue will cover all issues, including Kashmir, Siachen and water, Aziz said yesterday. Talking about the policy of a peaceful neighbourhood, he said it ultimately paid back as there is "visible improvement" in relations with India and Afghanistan. Aziz asserted that economic revival, peaceful neighbourhood and non-interference in affairs of other countries is the cornerstone of Pakistan's foreign policy. Aziz' remarks came as Pakistani militants attacked an Air Force base in Pathankot yesterday. In a pre-dawn attack, a group of heavily-armed Pakistani terrorists, suspected to be belonging to Jaish-e-Mohammed outfit, struck at the Air Force base in Punjab, leading to a fierce gun-battle. Pakistan has condemned the Pathankot terror strike and asserted that building on the goodwill created during the recent high level contacts, it remained committed to partner India in tackling terrorism. The attack came just a week after Prime Minister Narendra Modi made an unscheduled visit to Pakistan and met Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif with an aim of improving ties. The process of resumption of talks was set in motion after a meeting between Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan in Paris on November 30 on the sidelines of Climate Change Conference. The meet was followed by the security advisers' meeting in Bangkok a week later following which External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj visited Pakistan to attend the Heart of Asia Conference. Congress leader and former Speaker of Punjab Assembly Harnam Dass Johar today passed away here due to old-age related ailments. 83-year-old Johar was admitted to a local hospital three days ago for some infection. However, he was discharged last evening. Later, Johar was cremated with state honours at Model Town area here this evening. A large number of people including Ludhiana MP Ravneet Singh Bittu, MLAs Surinder Dawar, Rakesh Pandey and Bharat Bhushan were present on the occasion. Wreaths were laid on his mortal remains on behalf of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, and by senior BJP leader and former minister Sat Pal Gosain on behalf of the BJP. Vimal Sumbly, media advisor of PPCC President Amarinder Singh paid tributes to the departed Congress leader on behalf of his party's state president. Meanwhile, expressing grief over the demise of the former Punjab minister, Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal in his condolence message said Johar always conducted proceedings of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha with impartiality and performed his duties as minister with absolute ability. Badal said that during his tenure as minister for higher education, Johar strove to ensure that the benefits of higher education reached all sections of the society. France today condemned Saudi Arabia's execution of 47 prisoners including a Shiite cleric and called on regional leaders to "do everything to avoid exacerbating sectarian and religious tensions" after riots in Shiite-dominated Iran. France "deeply deplores Saudi Arabia's execution yesterday of 47 people, including a Shiite religious leader," the foreign ministry said in a statement, reiterating Paris' opposition to the death penalty "in all places and circumstances. A fresh anti-Pakistan protest broke out in Pathankot town today with the locals burning an effigy ofthe neighbouring nation following the terror attack on Air Force base here. A number of local residents raised anti-Pakistan slogans close to the air force station where the attack took place. They set Pakistan's effigy on fire, holding the country responsible for continued attacks in Punjab, even as they demanded that stern action be taken against it. As the combing and search operation continued today, residents continued to live in panic. ALSO READ: Fresh firing at Pathankot Air Base "We continue to live in fear as the situation is still not clear. The government or concerned authorities should throw light so that we can get on with our daily lives," Jarnail Singh, a local resident, said. Another local resident, Rani, claimed that her children were still panic-stricken. "Normally, during winter vacations when their school remains closed, I do not see my two children, aged 11 and 7 for entire day as they are busy playing. But now they are scared to come out of the house after the terror attack," she said. A fresh exchange of fire between two suspected terrorists and security men broke out at the air force base here today, hours after a grenade blast claimed the life of an NSG commando who was trying to defuse a grenade as part of a night-long combing operation at the scene of yesterday's terror attack. Fresh firing began at the Air Force base here where two more militants are suspected to be holed up. "A fresh contact has been established and there was brief firing," a senior Army official said. There was heavy but brief exchange of fire at the area of operation where additional reinforcements rushed as five companies, comprising nearly 500 personnel, were deployed by the army. The firing was still continuing, police officials said. Lt Col Niranjan, a member of the NSG's Bomb Disposal Squad and a Kerala resident, was killed while he was trying to retrieve a live grenade from the body of a dead terrorist at the scene of the terror attack as part of the combing operations that continued through the night. Four other security men were also injured in the blast. While a Garud commando and three members of the Defence Security Corps (DSC) were killed in the gunbattle yesterday, three DSC men succumbed to injuries in the hospital here during the night. Four Pakistan-based terrorists had also been killed during yeserday's gunbattle at the airbase, located barely 35 kms from the Indo-Pak border. Among those battling for their lives in the hospital are 8 DSC personneland a Garud commando. Meanwhile, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar briefed Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the latest situation at the Pathankot air base. Both were present at a HAL function in Tumakuru in Karnataka. The fresh exchange of fire today and the grenade blast occured as the joint combing operation by the armed forces, police and security personnel was still underway and the NIA had taken over the probe into the terror incident. A 35-year-old realtor was shot dead by three of his friends following an altercation over financial transaction, in Neeti Khand here, police said today. The incident took place last night when the deceased identified as Virender Gurjar of Pratap Vihar was returning to Indirapuram in a car with his friends, they said. Deputy Superintendent of Police Atul Yadav said Virender's friends Anshul, Amit Jaat and Sunil alias Bali, said to be in their early thirties, took him in their car on the pretext of celebrating new year party. Virender was also accompanied by his brother Lalit and a another friend, Gaurav in the car. When the car approached Shiv Mandir in Neeti Khand area Virender, asked his friend to stop the vehicle to answer nature's call. As Virender stepped out of the car, his friends Anshul, Amit and Sunil also got down from the vehicle and began firing indiscriminately at him. However, Lalit and Gaurav managed to escape. After committing the crime, the accused left the spot. On receiving information, Indirapuram police arrived at the spot and rushed Virender to a nearby hospital, where he was declared brought dead. Based on mobile surveillance, the Indirapuram police arrested Anshul's friends Anam from Vaishali and Rikki of Vijay Nagar area for hatching murder conspiracy. The trio are still at large and will be nabbed soon, the official added. Calling upon automakers to develop homegrown technologies to build environment-friendly car engines under the Make in India drive, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Sunday said encouraging such endeavours will help them save on huge royalty costs. Even today despite more than 90 per cent indigenisation some of our car manufactures have been paying royalties for technology of over Rs 4,000 crore every year. They will not be required to do so if they develop indigenous technologies, Road Transport and Highways Minister Gadkari told PTI. The automakers should encourage indigenous technologies under Make in India drive, the minister said while stressing that nation is battling with the problem of pollution and this could be their contribution to check it. Citing example of Brazil, he said, Flex fuel is available for all major brands, whether Volkswagen, Ford, Toyota, Honda or Hyundai. Flex engine is there. In the same tank you can use petrol and ethanol. "Why can't the automobile manufacturers here get indigenous technologies?" he wondered, asserting that such an initiative would not only reduce pollution but would help in diversification of agriculture. "Agriculture economy is facing lots of problems...thousands of our farmers are committing suicide. We will definitely encourage diversification of agriculture towards energy, power and bio-plastics which in turn would strengthen the hands of poor farmers," he said. He said ethanol could be manufactured from a wide variety of crop yields right from sugarcane to wheat and rice. Promotion to biofuel could cut on huge crude import bills which is to the tune of Rs 8 lakh crore per annum, he said and added this would not only boost the economy but also curb pollution. Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing a public rally at Noida on December 31 had also appealed farmers of Uttar Pradesh to switch to ethanol production in case of surplus sugar production so that they not only earn profit but also contribute to minimise vehicular pollution. Gadkari said if such biofuel friendly vehicles would be available, it would help farmers. At the same time he said the government focus was also on electric vehicles and ISRO scientists have already developed indigenous lithium ion battery at a mere Rs 5 lakh in comparison to imported Rs 55 lakh to power buses. "We plan to convert 1.5 lakh state transport corporation buses into electric buses... We have already gifted one such bus to Parliament. Many Indian companies have shown interest in developing the retrofit solutions under Make in India drive for diesel to electric conversion," he said. He added one such bus will save the environment from 48,000 kg of CO2 on annual basis. The much-debated issue of GM mustard will be discussed tomorrow at a meeting of the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC), the apex body for the regulation of such food products. The Environment Ministry has received a proposal for commercial cultivation of a genetically modified (GM) hybrid variety of the mustard plant, developed by the Delhi University's Centre for Genetic Manipulation of Crop Plants (CGMCP). "The GEAC meeting is scheduled for January 4. Deepak Pental, developer of the GM mustard seed at the Delhi University, will make a presentation on the subject," a senior government official told PTI. This is the first meeting of GEAC on GM mustard. Several meetings will be held before taking a final call on the issue, the official added. Already, there is stiff opposition by NGOs against GM mustard, which is seen to jeopardise traditional varieties and leave farmers dependent solely on private companies for such seeds. Former Union health minister Anbumani Ramadoss and several farmer groups such as Bhartiya Kisan Union, Bhartiya Kisan Sangh and the Right to Food Campaign have made representation to the government opposing GM mustard. Accusing green activists of indulging in "baseless" opposition to GM mustard, biotechnology industry body ABLE-AG has said the regulator, GEAC, should at least be allowed to do a scientific review of the technology before firming up its mind. According to ABLE-AG, GM mustard -- which has the potential of increasing yield by 25 per cent -- is required in India as the country is still dependent on edible oil imports. India's rapeseed-mustard seed production was 63.09 lakh tonnes in 2014-15 crop year (July-June). This is the first proposal that has come up before the NDA government after the previous government had put a moratorium on commercial cultivation of Bt Brinjal in 2010. Currently, Bt cotton is the only GM crop allowed for commercial cultivation. A 20-year-old girl went missing from her house under suspicious circumstances in the district here, police said today. Father of the missing girl, resident of Ballebhgarh area, filed a complaint saying that the victim went missing from their house yesterday. The family tried to find her but failed. They believe that the girl was taken away forcefully by someone, police said. In a similar incident, Rampal, a resident of Nacholi village of the district has complained that his 28-year-old son went missing from his house yesterday. Despite family's attempts to find him, he could not be traced, said the complaint. Police have registered cases in both the matters and investigations are underway. Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar today announced financial assistance of Rs 20 lakh to the next of kin of Gursevak Singh, a resident of village Garnala in Ambala who was killed in the Pathankot terror attck. "The Chief Minister has announced a sum of Rs 20 lakh to the next of kin of martyr Gursevak. Gursevak was a Garud commando. The CM has also extended his condolences to the bereaved family," an official spokesman said here. He said Health Minister Anil Vij had also visited the martyr's village to console the family and express his condolence. (REOPENS DES51) The Haryana chief minister strongly condemned the Pathankot terror attack and expressed his deepest condolences to the families of those who laid down their lives while fighting the terrorists. Describing the attack as a "heinous act", Khattar said that the country's soldiers have bravely fought to foil the evil designs of terrorists. Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah today slammed the "criminal and terrorist" government of Saudi Arabia after it executed a prominent Shiite cleric. The head of Lebanon's powerful Shiite movement also accused Saudi Arabia's ruling Al-Saud family of seeking to spark "a conflict between Sunni and Shiite" Muslims. "The execution (yesterday) of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr reveals to the world the real criminal, takfiri and terrorist face of Saudi Arabia," Nasrallah said in a speech broadcast on Hezbollah's Al-Manar television. "This is not something we can ignore," Nasrallah said. Nimr, 56, was a force behind anti-government protests in Saudi Arabia in 2011 in the east of the country. He was executed along with 46 other men - Shiite activists and Sunnis who the Saudi interior ministry said were involved in Al-Qaeda killings. Some were beheaded and others were shot by firing squad. Hong Kong pro-democracy lawmakers today said that they will press the government for answers after a fifth employee of a publisher specialising in books critical of mainland China's leadership went missing. Lawmaker Albert Ho said the city was "shocked and appalled" by the disappearance of Lee Bo. Like the four others who have disappeared in recent months, Lee is associated with publisher Mighty Current. While there's been no official word on what happened to the five missing people, Ho told reporters that it appears their disappearances are linked to the publisher's books. "From the available information surrounding the disappearance of Mr Lee Bo and his partners earlier, we have strong reason to believe that Mr Lee Bo was probably kidnapped and then smuggled back to the mainland for political investigation," Ho said. It's not uncommon in mainland China for company executives and dissidents to be detained for lengthy periods by the authorities or vanish without anyone claiming responsibility, but the disappearances are unprecedented in Hong Kong and have shocked the city's publishing industry. A few dozen protesters marched to Beijing's Liaison Office today to demand information about Lee, Mighty Current's chief editor. Lee, 65, is also one of the company's major shareholders, the South China Morning Post reported. The company's co-owner, Gui Minhai, is also among those missing, as are three staff members. Mighty Current and its Causeway Bay Bookstore are known for gossipy titles about Chinese political scandals and other sensitive issues popular with visiting tourists from the mainland. Books by Mighty Current are banned on the mainland but are available in Hong Kong, which enjoys freedom of the press and other civil liberties unseen on the mainland because of its status as a specially administered region of China. However, the disappearances highlight growing concern that Beijing is moving to tighten its grip on the former British colony as President Xi Jinping moves to clamp down on dissent. Hong Kong Acting Secretary for Security John Lee told reporters that police were "actively" investigating the case and would widen the scope of their probe. The Hong Kong-Macau Affairs Office, which is under China's State Council, could not be reached today for comment. Lee went missing on Wednesday evening and was last seen leaving his company's warehouse, according to local media reports. His wife told the Cable TV channel in a report broadcast Saturday that she received a phone call from him the night he disappeared. She said he told her then that he was "assisting an investigation" and alluded to the earlier disappearances, but was not more specific. The number indicated the call came from Shenzhen, the mainland Chinese city next door to Hong Kong, the report said. UK-based banking giant HSBC has ended its links with Britain's biggest government-funded Muslim charity allegedly over fears of terror funding. The bank had taken the decision to cut ties with Islamic Relief a year ago amid concerns that cash for aid could end up with terrorist groups abroad, 'The Sunday Times' reported today. The decision, which has not been made public before, has upset the charity, that receives millions of pounds from the UK's Department for Development (DfID). Islamic Relief says HSBC's stance led to delays in buying tents for survivors of the Nepal earthquake last year. HSBC has halted services for other Muslim groups in the past, but Islamic Relief - which operates in more than 40 countries - is the most high-profile to be affected. Imran Madden, Islamic Relief's UK director, said discussions took place with HSBC in 2014 in which "the bank felt it difficult to continue its relationship with us due to the nature of our work". Madden told the newspaper: "They invited us to end the relationship - which we did at the end of the year. We were and remain extremely surprised by HSBC's stance. "Islamic Relief's mission is to alleviate poverty and suffering where most needed and that means we are committed to operating in complex conflicts where proscribed organisations are sometimes active. "It appears that this is deemed a risk too far by HSBC, but we continue to be trusted to deliver aid in such places by governments and by other financial institutions." The charity was set up in 1984, and from 2012-14 received about 4 million pounds from DfID's aid budget including funds to educate children affected by the Syrian war. DfID said funding was subject to "rigorous checks". A source close to the charity told the 'Times', its problems with HSBC stem from its work in the Middle East, including projects in Gaza and Syria. The Israeli government had banned Islamic Relief from the West Bank in 2014, accusing it of funnelling money to Hamas, which Israel, the US and EU regard as a terrorist group. The charity denies the claim and said an independent audit found no evidence to support it - a view shared by the DEC and DfID. The charity, which spent more than 70 million pounds in 2014, still banks with other major British banks Barclays and NatWest, according to its accounts. HSBC said: "Whenever we review a customer relationship, we gather information from a wide range of sources and take a number of factors into consideration. "For a business customer these factors would typically include the type of activities the business is involved in, the jurisdictions in which it operates and the products and services it uses. "Although we can't always be specific about why we decide to close an account, a decision of this kind is never taken lightly and is never due to the customer's race or religion. We claim no credit for any images and or articles featured on this blog unless otherwise noted. All content is copyright to it's respectful owners. If you own rights to any of the images and or articles, and do not wish them to appear on this blog, please contact us via e-mail and they will be promptly removed. We are not responsible for content on any external website, and a link to such site does not signify endorsement. Information on this blog may contain errors or inaccuracies; the site's proprietors do not make warranty as to the correctness or reliability of the blog's content.email: dennisjeweetwel@live.nl The state government that proves friendliest in granting permissions to moviemakers will bag a National Film award with the Information and Broadcasting Ministry creating this new category to boost the film sector. The ministry has also decided to alter the country's Film Festival calendar to avoid a clash of dates between two of its prestigious events - the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) and the International Children's Film Festival. Speaking to PTI, a senior I&B official said the ministry wants to encourage a friendlier regime for filmmakers and also promote India as a global shooting destination. To achieve these ends, the I&B ministry has "in principle" decided to create a special category award for state governments which follow best practices in giving shooting permissions, the official added. "The special National Award will be given to the best performing state government at the National Film Awards, which are conferred in May every year," the official said. It is learnt that many eminent filmmakers have conveyed to the government the film industry's concerns and experiences relating to the process of shooting permissions. The ministry also decided that there would be no clash of dates between IFFI and the International Children's Film Festival and the latter would conclude by November 14, officials said. IFFI 2015 began in Goa on November 20 but that was also the day when the children's film festival ended in Hyderabad. As Punjab faced second terror strike within six months, its Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal today sought deployment of more BSF troops along the border with Pakistan and said the state police will set up a "second line of defence" to prevent such attacks in future. "We are writing to Government of India that BSF deployment should be increased on par with that of J&K. "The BSF deployment should be increased at least in this area (Gurdaspur and Pathankot) because this is second or third time such an incident has occurred," Badal told reporters here. He said the state police will come out with a "master plan" for second line of defence. Badal, who held a review meeting with senior police officials in the wake of the terror attack in Pathankot, also said that he has directed the police authorities to get "mapping done of all vulnerable points along the border". "If some terrorists manage to sneak from the border into our territory, so we should look at how we can act as a second line of defence. "I want technology to be used. We will see how we will act as second line of defence, we will have to use CCTVs, laser technology, ground detection system which are internationally-used across borders, specially this area, Gurdaspur and Pathankot... It needs to be done," he said. Badal said that he will ask Punjab Police DGP to get in touch with all the experts. "We have to act as second line of defence. Immediately, we will have new police lines established in Pathankot, one commando batallion will also be set up here so that there is quick response (in the wake of major attacks). "A special SWAT team will be stationed in Pathankot district so that there is quick response if any eventuality happens in the future so that we can take quick action," the Deputy CM said. Asked if there was any security lapse and how the terrorists managed to sneak in, he said "investigations have not yet started as operation is still going on". "We have our own views, we were convinced on certain views. Question is not Punjab border or Jammu and Kashmir border (from where terrorists sneak in). (REOPENS DEL 49) Replying to questions, Sukhbir Badal said,"deployment of BSF in the Punjab section of border is not that much...They (Centre) should consider this area also sensitive now. "Since this incident has happened, this area (Pathankot) touches J&K." "What I am saying is our police will come out with a master plan for a second line of defence, because first line of defence is going to be the BSF. "Since this incident has happened in our territory, so we will take our own initiative to come up with a second line of defence," he continued. Asked about the counter operation against terrorists, Badal said, "I cannot give you details of operation as it is still going on. It is not right for me to disclose anything. "Once it is over, complete briefing will take place." Asked about the kidnapping of a SP by terrorists, Badal said the SP, who was under transfer, had gone to Narot Jaimal block to pay obeisance. "Had they not caught the SP, may be the situation would have been worse," he said. Asked about the delay in acting on intelligence about presence of Pakistani militants, Sukhbir Badal said, "Immediately, we informed the Government of India, the local police immediately informed GOI. "We immediately launched operation also at our end." He further said, "I want to ask one thing, our police knows what it is doing. We don't need to feed police how they have to do their job because certain things cannot be disclosed, we cannot tell you what operation we did and how we did. "It is not for the media to know. What we are saying is that because we were able to inform the GOI immediately the NSG was called. Within 7-8 hours, we requistioned number of forces to tackle them." To another question, Badal said, "We are fighting a war against terrorism, we should all unite. This terrorism has to be stopped. "As Home Minister of my state, I have decided to create second line of defence so that my citizens are protected. Ties between India and China are set for a "very active" year with likely visits of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping to each other's country even as the relationship remains complex due to the unresolved boundary dispute, the Indian envoy here has said. India's outgoing envoy Ashok K Kantha, who will be retiring on January 6, said 2016 will be marked by high level visits as Modi is expected to visit China to take part in G-20 summit to be held in east China's Hangzhou city while Xi may visit India to participate in the BRICS summit. "2016 will be a very active year with two big visits at the highest level. China is hosting G20 summit at Hangzhou and India will host the BRICS leaders' meeting. Top leaders are expected to attend the summits," Kantha, who will be succeeded by Indian Ambassador to Germany Vijay Keshav Gokhale, told the Indian media here. The expected high-level trips come in the backdrop of highly successful visits of Xi to India in 2014 and Modi to Beijing last year, reflecting the buoyant state of ties which have seen all round development of cooperation in the last few years including in security and defence areas besides trade and investment, Kantha said. Last year was also marked by high levels visits. Besides Modi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj visited China while Finance Minister Arun Jaitley visited Hong Kong. Also, Politburo-level officials of the ruling Communist Party of China visited India, Kantha said. This year's interactions will begin with the visit National Security Advisor Ajit Doval who is expected to be in Beijing on a two-day visit starting on January 5. He is due to meet his counterpart and China's top diplomat Yang Jiechi and Premier Li Keqiang. Doval's visit is part of the "architecture for strategic communication" set up by both countries, Kantha said. He also clarified that Doval's visit is not to take part in Special Representative talks on the border issue. "He is coming for strategic consultations," Kantha said declining to provide details. Yang and Doval are designated Special Representatives for border talks. So far the two sides have held 18 rounds of border talks. But despite the all round progress, it still remains an uneasy relationship due to the unresolved boundary issue, Kantha said. "It is a complex relationship. There are issues like the boundary question," he said without elaborating. "For us the good is we have been successful in maintaining peace and tranquillity without a bullet fired in three decades and no major standoffs took place at the border last year unlike like 2013 and 2014," he said. The two sides witnessed a major standoff ahead of Premier Li's first visit to India in 2013 soon after he took over office followed by another one during during Xi's visit last year raising tensions at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Ladakh region. The issues were resolved after prolonged negotiations followed by setting up of special mechanism to address the issues relating to the patrolling of the disputed areas of the LAC. Kantha said defence and security sectors have witnessed major improvement. High level visits of military personnel took place this year, including the India trip of Fan Changlong, Vice Chairman of the China's highest military body Central Military Commission, and the Beijing visit of Northern Commander of the Indian Army Lt Gen D S Hooda. The two sides succeeded in setting up a mechanism for interactions at various border points along the 3488km-long LAC besides at the highest level to address issues like the incursions which are working well, he said. On security issues, India and China have decided to step up cooperation on counter terrorism during the recent visit of Home Minister Singh. Both sides also decided to set up a high level ministerial mechanism. A draft agreement on the mechanism is ready and it was expected to be signed when the Chinese delegation comprising of high level interior ministry officials visits India later this year. The mechanism will address each other's concerns on terrorism, he said. Asked whether China has agreed to address India's concerns relating to terrorist groups in the North East region, Kantha declined to go into details, saying that the two countries have agreed to step up cooperation including on intelligence. "When it comes to China, our dialogue is mature enough to include matters of concerns to us," he said. On cross border terrorism emanating from Pakistan, Kantha said China too has similar concerns specially in dealing with militancy in Xinjiang, home of Uyghur Muslims. "We do not have to agree on everything," he said. Explosions and gunfire rang out today as militants attempted to storm the Indian diplomatic mission in the Afghan city of Mazar- i-Sharif, a day after a deadly raid on an Indian air base near the Pakistan border. The attacks threaten to derail Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's bold diplomatic outreach to arch-rival Pakistan following his first official visit to Afghanistan. No group has so far claimed responsibility for the raid on the consulate in the northern Afghan city, the latest assault on an Indian installation in the country. "We are being attacked," an Indian consulate official told AFP by telephone from inside the heavily-guarded compound. "Fighting is still going on." The official, who was hunkered down in a secure area within the complex, said all consulate employees were safe and accounted for. Assailants holed up in a building close to the consulate traded heavy fire with Afghan forces who cordoned off the street following a series of explosions, officials said. "The area is completely blocked by our forces," said Shir Jan Durrani, a police spokesman in Mazar-i-Sharif, the capital of the relatively tranquil province of Balkh. "We are cautiously conducting our clearance operation to avoid any civilian casualties." Vikas Swarup, an Indian foreign ministry spokesman, said that no Indian casualties had been reported so far. The attack comes just a day after suspected Islamic insurgents mounted a deadly assault on an Indian air force base near the Pakistan border. Seven soldiers and six attackers were confirmed killed in the assault on the Pathankot base in the northern state of Punjab, which triggered a 14-hour gun battle Saturday. Security officials suspect the gunmen belong to the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed, the group that staged the 2001 attack on the Indian parliament which brought the two countries to the brink of war. The attack -- a rare targeting of an Indian military installation outside disputed Kashmir -- threatens to undermine improving relations with Pakistan. The assaults come a week after Modi paid a surprise visit to Pakistan, the first by an Indian premier in 11 years. The visit immediately followed a whirlwind tour of Kabul, where Modi inaugurated an Indian-built parliament complex and gifted three Russian-made helicopters to the Afghan government. India has been a key supporter of Kabul's post-Taliban government, and analysts have often pointed to the threat of a "proxy war" in Afghanistan between India and Pakistan. Pakistan -- the historic backers of the Taliban -- has often been accused of assisting the insurgents, especially with attacks on Indian targets in Afghanistan. The latest attacks come amid a renewed international push to revive peace talks with the resurgent militant movement. Explosions and gunfire rang out today as militants tried to storm the Indian diplomatic mission in a northern Afghan city, officials said, in the latest assault on an Indian installation. The attack on the consulate in Mazar-i-Sharif comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's much-hyped diplomatic outreach to arch-rival Pakistan following his first visit to Afghanistan. "We are being attacked," an Indian consulate official told AFP by telephone from inside the heavily-guarded compound. "Fighting is still going on." The official, who was hunkered down in a secure area within the complex, said all consulate employees were safe and accounted for. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, which comes just a day after a deadly assault by suspected Islamist militants on an Indian air base near the Pakistan border. A local police spokesman in Mazar-i-Sharif, a city in the relatively tranquil province of Balkh, said security officials had cordoned off the area where sporadic gunshots were ringing out after a series of explosions. Another official told AFP that government forces had launched an operation to gun down the assailants, but it was not clear if they had managed to breach the consulate. Vikas Swarup, a spokesman for India's ministry of external affairs, said that no Indian casualties had been reported so far. The consulate assault is the latest in a series of attacks on Indian targets in Afghanistan. Nine civilians, including seven children, were killed in August 2013 when suicide bombers targeted the Indian consulate in the main eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad, detonating an explosives-packed car. The assault comes a week after Modi paid a surprise visit to Pakistan, the first by an Indian premier in 11 years. The surprise visit immediately followed a whirlwind tour of Kabul, where Modi inaugurated a smart Indian-built parliament complex built at an estimated cost of $90 million, and gifted three Russian-made attack helicopters to the Afghan government. A day after his visit, Pakistan's powerful army chief General Raheel Sharif travelled to Kabul in a bid to prepare the ground for fresh peace talks with the resurgent Taliban. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Thursday said both sides agreed to hold a first round of dialogue between Afghanistan, Pakistan, US and China on January 11 to lay out a comprehensive roadmap for peace. Pakistan -- the Taliban's historic backers -- hosted a milestone first round of talks in July but the negotiations stalled when the insurgents belatedly confirmed the death of longtime leader Mullah Omar. Officials said the consulate came under attack when at least two militants tried to "storm" it last night at around 2115 hours and ITBP guards deployed on the sentry post foiled their attempt by raining heavy fire on them. They said at least seven Rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) rounds have been fired in the direction of the cosulate but all missed it by a whisker. "There has been a heavy exchange of fire between the two sides and soon after the Indo-Tibetan Border Police troops fired, the Afghan police forces took charge of the situation. The firing of rockets and bullets is still on," they said. Officials added that while there has been no damage to the five-storeyed and pink-coloured Consulate building, the adjacent green-coloured building, from where the terrorists are firing, has been hit badly by the fire and ammunition of the Afghan forces who have cordoned off the entire area. "The ITBP is on full alert and on standby. The charge is led by Afghan forces and there has been no damage to the staff of the consulate and the diplomats," they said. ITBP Director General Krishna Chaudhary in Delhi said the force has "secured" the mission area effectively and they were looking forward to get a final word from the Afghan security authorities after they neutralise all the attackers. "I can assure you that my men are in a state of very very high morale. I first talked to them when the attack started yesterday night and I am in constant touch with them," he said without going into further details about the incident. Officials privy to the operations said the security forces and the ITBP men had seen two bodies been dragged away last night and it is expected that the attack is the handiwork of at least 5-6 terrorists. "The Afghan forces are clearing the building where the terrorists are holed up floor by floor. They are now on the last floor," they said. The floor, sources said, is understood to have had an office of an American NGO or organisation till sometime back. A strong contingent of over four-dozen ITBP commandos has been securing this facility from 2008 apart from three other missions in the country and the main Embassy in the capital, Kabul. The security of these sensitive facilities were recently heightened after the ITBP deployed over 35 commandos at Indian missions in Kabul, Jalalabad, Herat, Kandhar and Mazar-i-Sharif. An incident report in this regard has been submitted by the ITBP to the Union Home Ministry in Delhi. A 16-year-old girl from Mumbai got a new lease of life today after the heart of a 20-year-old brain dead woman was successfully transported to a private hospital in Thane within two hours after it reached Indore airport via 'green corridors' in less than 10 minutes. Earlier in the day, the heart and liver harvested from Sonia Chouhan, admitted to a private hospital at Choithram crossing here, were rushed in about eight minutes via 'green corridors', created twice with the help of district administration and traffic police, to the city airport. While Chouhan's heart was flown to Mumbai, her liver was charted out to Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences, Delhi. In Mumbai, another 'green corridor' was created from the domestic airport there to Fortis Hospital in suburban Mulund for speedy transportation of the vital organ. "Retrieved by Dr Anvay Mulay, head of cardiac transplant team, Fortis Hospital, Mulund, from the donor at Choitaram Hospital, the donor heart was transported to the hospital at Mumbai in 1 hour 58 minutes covering 546 kms," Fortis Hospital stated in a release in Thane. It said the team of doctors conducted a successful heart transplant surgery on the 16-year-old female recipient, a resident of suburban Vikhroli, who was suffering from dilated cardiomyopathy, a condition in which heart's ability to pump blood is decreased. Chouhan was declared brain dead after she suffered a severe head injury from a fall at her home yesterday. "The donor was moved to Choitaram Hospital, Indore, for evaluation and assessment. Her heart reached Indore airport at 7.24 AM and shifted to a flight which landed at Mumbai's domestic airport at 8.49 AM. "An ambulance, which was kept on a standby for swift transfer of the donor heart, left the airport at 8.51 AM and reached Fortis Hospital, Mulund at 9.07 AM, through a 'green corridor' from the domestic airport to Fortis Hospital. The organ was moved straight to operation theatre at 9.08 AM," the release added. The recipient, whose name was not stated in the release, is stable and will be kept under observation for the next 48-72 hours. Meanwhile, in Delhi, Doctors at Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences (ILBS) said the liver arrived in Delhi at 9:55 am and was transported via a 'green corridor' from Indira Gandhi International Airport Terminal-3 to ILBS in 11 minutes with dedicated traffic police support. The liver was transplanted into 48-year-old man from economically-weaker section who was suffering from a liver disease known as cryptogenic cirrhosis. The doctors said that this was the 20th case of cadaveric liver transplant at ILBS and the first deceased donation liver transplant in 2016. Dr Shiv Sarin, Director ILBS, said the liver transplant procedure was carried out without any cost to the patient and stressed on the importance of organ donation by saying there was long list of patients waiting for their lives to be saved. Also stressing on the need for greater organ donation, Fortis Hospital zonal director Dr S. Narayani said, "Yet another inter-state transplant has saved a life, this time of a young one, the first patient in the PeadCard category". Dr Vijay Agarwal, head of paediatric cardiac surgery, Fortis Hospital, said, "This inter-state transplant is indeed a breakthrough; with the channel opening up for PaedCard heart transplant surgeries, these little angels see a ray of hope. This success story will help young patients suffering from end-stage organ failure". Noting that the industry was yet to contribute a significant amount on research in the country, eminent scientist and Bharat Ratna awardee C N R Rao today said at least 30-40 per cent of the share of scientific work must be borne by the industry. Addressing the 103rd Indian Science Congress, Rao said with the right investment from both industry and government, dedicated hard work of the scientific community and a society with scientific temper, nothing can prevent India from being on top of the world in about 10-15 years. Noting that all the money for science and technology comes from government, he said "our industry is yet to contribute a significant amount on research." "We cannot go on blaming the government asking them for more money or land... At least 30-40 per cent of the share of scientific work in India must be borne by industry," he added. Delivering Bharat Ratna Sir M Vishveshwarya lecture on 'Doing Science in India' at the event after the inauguration by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said no democratic country of the size of India has ever faced the challenges of India, but we can still do it. "In spite of a large number of institutions, India is not doing as well in terms of the amount of scientific research that comes out of the country," he said as he expressed worry about its quality. Rao said India will have to first invest in education to improve the quality of research in the country."Our investment in education is just 2 per cent of the GDP of which hardly 0.4 per cent is for higher education...," he said. "Unless we improve our science and technology institutions how can we ever come up with startup companies, innovations. All those have to come from these institutions." Stating that he represented "small science", Rao complained that most of the money for science in the country goes to "big science", referring to atomic energy and space science. "...I appeal to our Prime Minister, appeal to our Finance Minister, unless you support small science in India, I don't see how India will prosper...," he said. He said, "...15 to 20 years if we don't progress and get on to the top of the world we will lose, because world will change. So we have to do it soon. The nuclear establishment is working hard to ensure that the unit-2 of the 1,000 MW nuclear reactor at Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu becomes operational. The really big event for the year could be turning on of the 500 MW Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) at Kalpakkam in Tamil Nadu. This would mark the coming of age of the second stage of India's ambitious atomic energy program. The PFBR, a novel Indian design, has been in the making for more than a decade and runs mostly on plutonium fuel but interestingly it breeds more fuel than it consumes. A technological marvel, this reactor uses liquid sodium as a coolant, which makes the technology inherently risky. But having run a Fast Breeder Test Reactor for the last three decades the nuclear engineers are gearing up to shake the world by commissioning this mega machine in the middle of the year. Only Russia has a similar reactor operating in the world. Made at a cost of about Rs 6,000 crore, some say it will produce very expensive electricity but the Department of Atomic Energy says if it succeeds, similar reactors could provide clean carbon free sustainable power to India for the next 200-300 years. On the military side, the Indian atomic program could see the induction of India's maiden nuclear powered submarine, the INS Arihant, into the Indian Navy. Capable of carrying nuclear weapons this unique under water platform gives India the all-important second strike capability in case of a nuclear attack by an adversary. To overcome the chronic shortage of edible oils, Indian scientists have developed a genetically modified (GM) variety of mustard. The development is stuck in the long-winded regulatory mechanism for GM products. Indian scientists are hoping that with the launch of the new 'National Biotechnology Development Strategy 2015-2020' a green flag could be given for the introduction of genetically modified mustard which could then become the first GM food crop to be embraced by the country. High in the cold desert of Ladakh, India has been slowly constructing a giant telescope called Major Atmospheric Cerenkov Experiment Telescope (MACE), this specialised eye will view the universe using Gamma Rays and will be the second largest of its kind in the world but ideally placed in the world's highest observatory at Hanle perched at 4500 m above sea level. The Electronic Corporation of India Limited is building this 24-m diameter telescope. The year is also likely to witness the launch of the now famous 'SAARC Satellite' the launch date for which has already been almost fixed for December 8, 2016, the anniversary of the setting up of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). Using the Global Positioning System (GPS) the exact location of the person who is in distress can be automatically pin pointed. The battery-powered device sends up a signal, which can then be automatically tracked at ground stations in Lucknow and Bengaluru. If only Lance Naik Hanumanthappa were carrying this device his rescue could have been greatly speeded up. A similar but slightly larger device has been made by VSSC for use by fishermen. This can be fitted on the fishing boats and can be triggered manually or when it encounters salt water it gets triggered. This device transmits a pulsed signal in the 406 MHz band and can help in locating ships lost at sea. The batteries are robust enough to transmit a signal for at least 65 hours at a stretch. ISRO has helped save the lives of many trekkers in the Himalayas and is eager to help the Indian Armed Forces in case they seek to use the device at the remote locations in times of emergency. Ensuring uninterrupted maintenance-free power supply at remote locations is a nightmare for technologists, now the scientists at VSSC have made a portable fuel cell system that can produce electricity directly from fuel through an electrochemical process where the only inputs needed are hydrogen gas and air. Based on the 'proton exchange membrane' technology the gadget made at VSSC can generate up to about 100 watts of power. This is like lighting a single bulb but then there are several small devices that need only a small amount of power for it to work round the clock. An all-weather automatic weather station powered using this indigenously made fuel cell is currently being tested at Dehradun. Another digital GPS device has been deployed at the Gangotri Glacier to see how this hydrogen powered device works at high altitudes. There are also plans to use the sophisticated G-SAT-6 satellite's multimedia communication capability to deploy surveillance systems in remote locations from where Pakistani infiltrators creep into Indian territory and make devastating terrorist attacks on India. Such automatic remotely operated cameras could be powered using the maintenance free 'fuel cells' and then they could beam pictures up to the Indian satellites through which soldiers could maintain a 24x7 vigil from far away, this would be akin to having closed circuit television cameras (CCTV) but in places where there is neither power supply nor continuous human presence. Sivan says suitable industrial partners are being actively identified and the technologies will transferred so that so called 'rocket science' no longer remains rocket science. More importantly he says 'desi technology' can be used to power the 'Make in India' effort and help save lives. A US-based Indian who claims to have received invitation by Uttar Pradesh government for its NRI conclave has alleged apathy on part of UP officials due to which he will not be able to attend the event. Satnam Singh Chahal, officiating director of North American Punjabi Association, said he was invited to the three-day UP NRI conclave, that begins tomorrow in Agra, by UP government. "I came at my own expenses from the US to India and also spent USD 100 in registration for the NRI conclave," he told reporters here. "Following this, I tried contacting officials of Uttar Pradesh government and wrote several mails to them asking the details of the three-day event but did not get any response," he added. Chahal, who has now gone to his home town Jalandhar in Punjab, told reporters that it was only this afternoon that he received a call from a UP official. He claimed "This afternoon I got a call from state NRI department director, R B Sharma, who asked me to reach Agra, which is not possible for me now." Lashing out at the state government, Singh demanded that Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav look into the matter. The NRI conclave to be inaugurated by the Chief Minister tomorrow is expecting participation of non-resident Indians from over 150 countries like the US, Canada, Singapore and Fiji. (REOPNES NRG27) Meanwhile, UP government said it has only invited NRIs from the state and there may have been some confusion. "Uttar Pradesh government has invited only the NRIs from UP. If anybody comes on their own, the state government is not responsible for that," a senior official said in Lucknow. The state government did not extend any invitation to any non-UP NRI, the official said adding "the incident may have occurred due to some misunderstanding". Iran's top leader today warned Saudi Arabia of "divine revenge" over the execution of an opposition Shiite cleric while Riyadh accused Tehran of supporting terrorism, escalating a war of words hours after protesters stormed the Saudi Embassy in Tehran. Saudi Arabia announced the execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr yesterday along with 46 others, including three other Shiite dissidents and a number of al-Qaida militants. Al-Nimr was a central figure in protests by Saudi Arabia's Shiite minority until his arrest in 2012, and his execution drew condemnation from Shiites across the region. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei condemned the execution today in a statement on his website, saying al-Nimr "neither invited people to take up arms nor hatched covert plots. The only thing he did was public criticism." Saudi Arabia's Foreign Ministry said that by condemning the execution, Iran had "revealed its true face represented in support for terrorism." The statement, carried by the official Saudi Press Agency, accused Tehran of "blind sectarianism" and said that "by its defence of terrorist acts" Iran is a "partner in their crimes in the entire region." Al-Nimr was convicted of terrorism charges but denied ever advocating violence. Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran are locked in a bitter rivalry, and support opposite sides in the wars in Syria and Yemen. Iran accuses Saudi Arabia of supporting "terrorism" in part because it backs Syrian rebel groups, while Riyadh points to Iran's support for the Lebanese Hezbollah and other Shiite militant groups in the region. The Iranian Foreign Ministry has summoned the Saudi envoy in Tehran to protest, while the Saudi Foreign Ministry later said it had summoned Iran's envoy to the kingdom to protest the critical Iranian reaction to the sheikh's execution, saying it represented "blatant interference" in its internal affairs. In Tehran, the crowd gathered outside the Saudi embassy early today and chanted anti-Saudi slogans. Some protesters threw stones and Molotov cocktails at the embassy, setting off a fire in part of the building, said the country's top police official, Gen Hossein Sajedinia, according to the semiofficial Tasnim agency. He later said police had removed the protesters from the building and arrested some of them, saying the situation had been "defused." The cleric's execution could also complicate Saudi Arabia's relationship with the Shiite-led government in Iraq. The Saudi embassy in Baghdad reopened for the first time in nearly 25 years on Friday. Already yesterday there were public calls for Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to shut the embassy down again. Iran's top leader today warned Saudi Arabia of "divine revenge" over the execution of an opposition Shiite cleric while Riyadh accused Tehran of supporting terrorism, escalating a war of words hours after protesters stormed the Saudi Embassy in Tehran. Saudi Arabia announced the execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr yesterday along with 46 others, including three other Shiite dissidents and a number of al-Qaeda militants. It was largest mass execution carried out by the kingdom in three and a half decades. Al-Nimr was a central figure in protests by Saudi Arabia's Shiite minority until his arrest in 2012, and his execution drew condemnation from Shiites across the region. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei condemned the execution today in a statement on his website, saying al-Nimr "neither invited people to take up arms nor hatched covert plots. The only thing he did was public criticism." Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard said Saudi Arabia's "medieval act of savagery" in executing the cleric would lead to the "downfall" of the country's monarchy. Saudi Arabia's Foreign Ministry said that by condemning the execution, Iran had "revealed its true face represented in support for terrorism." The statement, carried by the official Saudi Press Agency, accused Tehran of "blind sectarianism" and said that "by its defence of terrorist acts" Iran is a "partner in their crimes in the entire region." Al-Nimr was convicted of terrorism charges but denied ever advocating violence. Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran are locked in a bitter rivalry, and support opposite sides in the wars in Syria and Yemen. Iran accuses Saudi Arabia of supporting "terrorism" in part because it backs Syrian rebel groups, while Riyadh points to Iran's support for the Lebanese Hezbollah and other Shiite militant groups in the region. The Iranian Foreign Ministry has summoned the Saudi envoy in Tehran to protest, while the Saudi Foreign Ministry later said it had summoned Iran's envoy to the kingdom to protest Iran's criticism of the execution, saying it represented "blatant interference" in its internal affairs. In Tehran, the crowd gathered outside the Saudi Embassy early today and chanted anti-Saudi slogans. Some protesters threw stones and Molotov cocktails at the embassy, setting off a fire in part of the building, said the country's top police official, General Hossein Sajedinia, according to the semiofficial Tasnim agency. He later said police had removed the protesters from the building and arrested some of them, adding that the situation had been "defused. Hours later, Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi said 40 people had been arrested on suspicion of taking part in the embassy attack and investigators were pursuing other suspects, according to the semi-official ISNA agency. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, while condemning Saudi Arabia's execution of al-Nimr, also branded those who attacked the Saudi Embassy as "extremists." "It is unjustifiable," he said in a statement. By 4 pm (local time), some 400 protesters had gathered in front of the embassy despite a call by the government for them to protest at a square in central Tehran. Later, hundreds also gathered at the central square. Street signs on the street where the Saudi Embassy is located in Tehran also were replaced with ones bearing the slain sheikh's name. Tehran authorities could not be immediately reached to discuss the new name. Protests also took place in Beirut, as Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah called al-Nimr "the martyr, the holy warrior." Meanwhile, Al-Nimr's supporters in eastern Saudi Arabia prepared for three days of mourning at a mosque in al-Awamiya, some 390 kilometres northeast from the capital, Riyadh, in the kingdom's al-Qatif region. However, the sheikh's brother, Mohammed al-Nimr, told The Associated Press that Saudi officials told his family that the cleric was already buried in an undisclosed cemetery. The cleric's execution could also complicate Saudi Arabia's relationship with the Shiite-led government in Iraq. The Saudi Embassy in Baghdad is preparing to formally reopen for the first time in nearly 25 years. Already yesterday there were public calls for Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to shut the embassy down again. Al-Abadi tweeted last night that he was "shocked and saddened" by al-Nimr's execution, adding that "peaceful opposition is a fundamental right. Repression does not last." Today, Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, called al-Nimr a martyr and said his blood and that of other Shiite protesters "was unjustly and aggressively shed." Hundreds of al-Nimr's supporters also protested in his hometown of al-Qatif in eastern Saudi Arabia, in neighbouring Bahrain where police fired tear gas and bird shot, and as far away as northern India. Also today, the BBC reported that one of the 47 executed in Saudi Arabia, Adel al-Dhubaiti, was convicted over a 2004 attack on its journalists in Riyadh. That attack by a gang outside of the home of a suspected al-Qaeda militant killed 36-year-old Irish cameraman Simon Cumbers. Suicide attackers from the Islamic State group killed at least 12 Iraqi forces today in a brazen attack on police training at a military base, officials said. A commando of fighters equipped with rifles and suicide vests snuck into Speicher base, near the city of Tikrit, in the middle of the night. Their target was a large group of police forces from Nineveh, a northern province of which Mosul is the capital, who were undergoing training. "Under the cover of fog, they broke into Speicher," said Mahmud al-Sorchi, spokesman for the paramilitary force being set up to take back IS-held Nineveh. "Nineveh police managed to kill seven attackers but three were able to detonate their suicide vests," he said, adding that three officers were among the 12 policemen killed. He also said 20 policemen were wounded in the attack. Several other security sources in the region confirmed the attack, which was claimed by the Islamic State group. The jihadist organisation said seven suicide attackers managed to enter the huge military base, which lies about 160 kilometres north of Baghdad. In a statement posted online, IS said its commando reached a centre where 1,200 cadets were being trained, sparking clashes that lasted four hours. Speicher is located in Salaheddin province, which was one of the regions conquered by IS when it swept across much of Iraq's Sunni Arab heartland in June 2014. The sprawling military base itself was never fully controlled by the jihadists but at the beginning of their offensive they committed one of the conflict's worst atrocities there. IS fighters assisted by local insurgents rounded up hundreds of cadets from Speicher, marched them to Tikrit and massacred them in several locations. Hundreds of bodies were discovered in shallow graves when the Iraqi forces retook Tikrit in April 2015 but other victims were shot and thrown into the Tigris and will likely never be found. The highest estimates put the number of executed cadets at 1,700. Security officials said today's raid was launched from the western side of the base, a desert area where IS remains able to operate despite the increased presence of Iraqi forces. The group has launched a number of attacks since losing control of the city of Ramadi in the western province of Anbar a week ago. After taking the strategic government complex in the centre of the city, elite counter-terrorism forces have been expanding their grip and sweeping each neighbourhood for holdout jihadists and trapped civilians. Israel today charged two Jewish extremists in an arson attack that killed a Palestinian toddler and his parents last July culminating a drawn-out investigation into a case that has helped fuel months of Israeli-Palestinian violence. The indictments came as Israel said it had broken up a ring of Jewish extremists wanted in a series of attacks on Palestinian and Christian targets. While Israel's prime minister trumpeted the arrests as a victory for law and order, the charges drew criticism from Palestinians, who said they were too little and too late, and from the suspects' relatives, who claimed their loved ones had been tortured by Israeli interrogators. While Israel has been dealing with a wave of vigilante-style attacks by suspected Jewish extremists in recent years, the deadly July 31 firebombing in the West Bank village of Duma sparked soul-searching across the nation. The attack killed 18-month-old Ali Dawabsheh, while his mother, Riham, and father, Saad, later died of their wounds. Ali's 4-year-old brother Ahmad survived and remains in an Israeli hospital. The attack was condemned across the Israeli political spectrum, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged "zero tolerance" in the fight to bring the assailants to justice. Investigators placed several suspects under "administrative detention," a draconian measure typically reserved for Palestinian militants that allows authorities to hold suspects for months without charge. "Enforcing the law is the life's breath of democracy, of the rule of law. We are not restricting it to one sector and we are not focusing on only one sector," Netanyahu told his Cabinet today. But critics have noted that lesser non-deadly attacks, such as firebombings that damaged mosques and churches, had gone unpunished for years. And as the investigation into the Duma attack dragged on, Palestinians complained of a double-standard, where suspected Palestinian militants are quickly rounded up and prosecuted under a military legal system that gives them few rights while Jewish Israelis are protected by the country's criminal laws. Israel has indicted Jewish extremists suspected in a July arson attack on a Palestinian home that killed a toddler and his parents. Today's long-awaited indictment follows months of investigations that had failed to produce concrete results. The unsolved nature of the case helped fuel the current wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence. Court officials confirmed there had been indictments but did not provide further details. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the hearing had not yet concluded and there was a gag order in place. The arson attack in the West Bank village of Duma killed 18-month-old Ali Dawabsheh. His mother, Riham, and father, Saad, later died of their wounds. Ali's 4-year-old brother Ahmad survived. The firebombing was condemned across the Israeli political spectrum. Italy's health minister has ordered a series of investigations after five women died in childbirth in seven days, shocking a nation with one of the lowest maternal mortality rates in the world. The deaths occurred across the country between December 25 and 31. While all appear to have explicable causes, their concentration over the holiday period has raised questions over whether hospital staffing may have been a factor and also over whether older mothers-to-be are being sufficiently monitored for warning signs of potentially fatal conditions. In the latest case, Giovanna Lazzari, 29, already a mother of two who was eight months pregnant, died on New Year's Eve in Brescia, northern Italy, a day after coming to the clinic's emergency unit with a high fever and symptoms of gastroenteritis, according to her partner Roberto Coppini. As her condition deteriorated, doctors attempted an emergency Cesarean but were unable to save either the mother or the foetus. "In a few hours, I lost a baby and a unique mamma. Someone has to tell me what happened," Coppini told reporters. "Giovanna sent me a text message during the night in which she told me she had very strong pains but that the doctors were not paying any attention to her. "She would have been 30 on January 1. She was young and healthy." Health minister Beatrice Lorenzin has dispatched a team of experts to try and establish what happened in the Brescia clinic and three of the other four fatal cases. "We have to understand if the recommended procedures were followed or if there were organisational deficiencies," Lorenzin said. "The priority is identifying any errors and preventing other tragedies." According to media reports, the tragedy in Brescia was triggered by a detachment of the placenta from the wall of the patient's uterus. In two of the other cases, both of which resulted in still births, the mothers, aged 35 and 39, suffered cardiac arrest during labour, according to reports. Anna Massignan, a 34-year-old doctor from Lonigo, near Vicenza who died on Christmas Day, succumbed after an emergency Cesarean eight months into her pregnancy, reportedly following a fall at home. Her son was delivered alive but died several hours later. The one case not being investigated concerned a 23-year-old from Foggia in southern Italy who was approaching her due date and died suddenly at home. Doctors were able to perform a post-mortem Cesarean and save her daughter. Senior leader of the ruling PDP in Jammu and Kashmir Tariq Hamid Karra today said the special status of the state and its flag was unquestionable and beyond adjudication by the judiciary as it has been guaranteed by the Constitution of India and ratified by Parliament. "J&K's special status, including the status of the state flag, is unquestionable and beyond the adjudication of the judiciary as the same has been guaranteed by the Constitution of India and ratified by Parliament and the state's Constituent Assembly," Karra said in a statement here. Commenting on the controversy about the hoisting of the state flag alongside the national flag, the PDP leader called for utmost judicial restraint on sensitive matters saying the judges should, "instead of unnecessarily meddling in sensitive issues, uphold the established precedent handed down by the Constitution and the legislature on such issues". Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa today expressed grief over the death of 23 police officers over the last six months on various occasions and announced a compensation of Rs three lakh to be disbursed to each bereaved family. "While 18 police personnel died due to illness, five lost their lives in road accidents. I express my deep sympathies to the bereaved family members," Jayalalithaa said in an official release. "I have issued orders to grant a sum of Rs three lakh each be given to victim's families from the Chief Minister's Relief Fund," she said. Elderly residents of Jangpura area in south Delhi may get a dedicated community centre, as the area's ward councillor is working on setting up a facility for old-age people at a park here. Jangpura and Jangpura Extension areas fall in Kasturba Nagar ward of the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) under its Central Zone. "Several elderly residents stay in Jangpura area, and therefore I am trying to get a senior citizens' centre set up in one of the parks here. We have also identified the park and earmarked the place. Very soon we would put up the proposal in the standing committee as well," Kasturba Nagar ward councillor Ravi Kalsi told PTI. The senior Congress party member, in his 70s, said he has been "toying with this idea for long, and now wishes to see it turn into a reality". There are several parks like Birbal Park, Harkishan Rai Park, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Park among other green spaces in the posh Jangpura locality. Lajpat Nagar in south Delhi already has a 'Senior Citizen Forum' built in the portion of a park in Lajpat Nagar-III area, where old-age residents come to socialise. Among other issues, Kalsi said he is also trying to get fixed, issues of public nuisance associated with a municipal community park in P-Block area in Jangpura Extension. Residents there have alleged that "undisposed garbage" and noise pollution from events and "late night DJ parties" held at it are causing "public nuisance regularly". "It has become a worry factor for people, and we are contemplating finding an alternative open community venue near the Defence Colony flyover, away from residential areas," Kalsi said. As per municipal norms, parks can be booked for functions online, and clients have to deposit a security fee of Rs 500. "As a ward councillor, we seek to provide people-friendly facilities and amenities," he added. Ahead of his politically significant 'Kerala Jana Raksha Yatra', KPCC chief V M Sudheeran today sharpened his attack againt Vellappally Natesan, saying the new political party formed by the SNDP Yogam general secretary "is part of RSS agenda". Accusing Natesan of "spitting communal venom", Sudheeran said, "Bharat Dharma Janasena, the political party announced by Natesan, at the end of his RSS sponsored 'Samathwa Munnetta Yatra' will not flourish in secular soil of politically conscious state like Kerala." "His political party is part of RSS agenda," Sudheeran said in an article sent to media ahead of his yatra. In his article, he recalled Natesan's speech during the yatra in which he had accused the Oommen Chandy government of communal bias in extending financial assistance to the family of one Noushad, an autorickshaw driver who died while trying to save two migrant workers trapped in a manhole at Kozhikode. "His aim was to inflame communal passion in the state," the Congress chief, who had engaged in a war of words with Natesan during his state-wide yatra last month, said. The attack against Natesan ahead of his yatra is significant in view of the efforts by the leadership of state BJP and Natesan to reach out to various Hindu organisations ahead of Assembly polls due early this year. Chief Minister Oommen Chandy will inaugurate Sudheeran's over a month-long yatra at Kumbala in Kasargod district tomorrow to give a push and rejuvenate Congress cadres and also the partners of the party-led UDF before the polls. "Secular Kerala" is one of the main highlights of the yatra which would also see the propagation of works undertaken by the Congress-led UDF government on various issues, including new liquor policy. Besides these, the yatra would also highlight the "politics of violence" allegedly instigated by CPI(M), particularly in north Kerala. In his article, Sudheeran alleged that the CPI(M) has not quit the poltics of violence in the state. Larry Gordon, who revolutionised surfing when he created foam boards at his California company, has died. He was 76. Gordon's wife, Gayle Gordon, told The Associated Press yesterday he died peacefully on New Year's Day at his San Diego home after a lengthy illness. An iconic figure in California's surfing and skateboarding scenes, Gordon was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease 10 years ago. Gordon studied chemistry at San Diego State University and it was then that he started experimenting with foam materials at his father's plastics factory. In the late 1950s, Gordon and fellow surfer and friend Floyd Smith used Polyurethane foam to build their own cutting edge boards. The demand for their foam surfboards forced the pair to move from Smith's garage and start their first legitimate surf shop, Gordon & Smith Surfboards & Skateboards. A 3-month-old leopard cub died after getting trapped in a sugarcane field, which had been set on fire by farm labourers to clear and prepare the ground for the next crop, in the neighbouring Bharuch district, forest officials said today. The incident took place on January 1 at Gundiya village, about 110 kms from here, after farm labourers had set afire the field, a routine practice to prepare it for the next crop, N V Vasava, Range Forest Officer told PTI. Three leopard cubs were spotted at the field, while two of them managed to escape, the third one came on to the road limping after sustaining burn injuries, he said. Their mother also ran away from the spot. Forest officials rushed to the spot and found its carcass. The cub was cremated on that day itself after conducting post-mortem, he added. Officials said efforts are on to trace the mother leopard and the other two cubs. Wildlife experts say that due to increasing sugarcane fields in the region, natural habitats for leopards are getting destroyed and hence they are giving birth to new ones in fields. A protester, who was injured in police firing during Madhesis' protest in Nepal over the controversial new Constitution, today succumbed to his injuries. 50-year-old Shekh Mairudin, who had received bullet injuries during a clash with police on October 14 in Gaur, the district headquarters of Rautahat, died while undergoing treatment at Birgunj-based Narayani Sub regional Hospital, police said. Mairudin was discharged from a hospital in Kathmandu one and a half months ago after his health gradually improved. However, when he complained of pain after a few days, he was again admitted to the hospital in Bigunj. With this, the number of deaths in Madhesis' protest in Gaur has reached three. Nearly 50 people, including a dozen policemen, were killed in Madhesis' agitation against the new Consttitution since August. Madhesis, who share strong cultural and family bonds with Indians, have imposed a general strike in much of southern Nepal, causing a shortage of fuel and other essential goods. Madhesi leaders have submitted an 11-point demand to the Nepal government to end their protests over "discriminatory" nature of the Constitution. Their demands included re-demarcation of the provinces, fixing of electoral constituencies on the basis of population and proportional representation. Police today booked nine members of Jaat Panchayat Samiti of Kashi Kapadi community from Pune on charges of illegally confining a woman and practicing black magic after her husband's death. The complaint in this regard was lodged at Yeola police station by Komal Varde whose father died in Pune on December 24, an official attached to the police station said. "The community members forced Komal's mother to have a bath by applying 'ghee' on her head in front of the dead body of her husband, withdraw her ornaments on 10th day after her husband's death and also locked her in a dark room for day-long," the official said. A case under Indian Penal Code section 342 (wrongful confinement) and section 3(2) of Anti-Superstition and Black Magic Act was registered against the members of the Samiti, police said. They added that Komal, a resident of Padmavati Nagar in Pune, had initially lodged a complaint via email at Faraskhana police station on December 31 but no action was taken. Though born in Sylhet (now in Bangladesh), the 'karmabhumi' of veteran CPI leader Ardhendu Bhushan Bardhan was Maharashtra for much of his life, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Union Minister Nitin Gadkari recalled in their condolence messages today. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis described Bardhan as a leader with an honest mind who fought for the cause of the common man irrespective of the political differences. Fadnavis, who hails from Nagpur, noted that Bardhan won Assembly election in 1957 from the Nagpur West, the same constituency where the CM won his first Assembly election much later. "I shared good relations with Bardhan as he hailed from Nagpur," Fadnavis said in his message, adding that the veteran communist leader played an important role in creation of Coffee House Karmchari Sangh in Nagpur. "Bardhan was a guide for many and I have also lost a guide in his demise," the Chief Minister added. Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, who also hails from Nagpur, said after his election as BJP president he had met Bardhan at latter's Delhi residence and sought his blessings. "He would be remembered as an upright union leader who fought for the cause of workers starting from Nagpur and Vidarbha," Gadkari said. Other leaders from Vidarbha, including former MPs Banwarilal Purohit (BJP) and Vilas Muttemwar (Congress), former minister Madhukar Kimmatkar, advocate Neeraj Khandewal and MSEB Workers Federation president Mohan Sharma, a longtime associate of Bardhan's, also condoled the demise of the leader. Bardhan was a leading figure of the trade union movement and Left politics in Maharashtra and was a former member of the Assembly too. He later rose to become the General Secretary and then the President of the All India Trade Union Congress. From his days as a young trade union activist and fiery orator in Nagpur to being a key player in the Delhi political scene, Bardhan was one of Left's significant leaders. He was among the Communist luminaries from Maharashtra, including S A Dange, B T Ranadive and Ahilya Rangnekar. Bardhan was a part of the freedom struggle as a leader in the All India Students Federation. He then associated himself with unions in Nagpur. He was elected as an independent candidate from Nagpur in the Assembly elections in 1957 (before the formation of Maharashtra state). After losing subsequent elections, he moved to Delhi in the 1990s. Nepal's Sadbhawana Party, a major ally of the Madhesi Front agitating over re-demarcation of the seven-province federal model in the new Constitution, today announced a separate protest programme in southern Nepal but dismissed reports that it has split from the alliance. The party also distanced itself from crucial talks this evening with the government over the mistreatment to its president Rajendra Mahato, who was seriously injured during baton-charing by the police in Biratnagar-Jogbani border point where he was leading a group of cadres for a sit-in. Sadbhawana Party vice-chairman Laxman Lal Karna told PTI his party would not sit for talks unless the government apologises for the incident. Surprising its allies, the Sadbhawana Party announced new forms of protests in the Terai, scene of the ongoing protests by Madhesis who are largely Indian-origin and have led a blockade of key border trade points with India. In a series of protest programmes announced unilaterally by the Sadbhawana Party, the party said it will focus on non- violent activities like mass prayers in memory of deceased protestors, fasting, signature campaign and campaigns to internationalise Madhesi issues through social media, local media reported. Speculation was rife that the agitating Madhesi Front, an alliance of four Madhes-based parties demanding re-demarcation of the seven- province federal model in the new Constitution, has virtually split due to Sadbhawana Party's planned separate protest programme. However, Sadbhawana Party vice-chairman Laxman Lal Karna denies the report that there has been split in the Front. "The report about the split in the Front is totally false," he said. Mahato, who sustained injuries in his head and leg, is currently undergoing treatment in Delhi as his condition could not improve during treatment at B P Koirala Institute of Health Sciences in Dharan of eastern Nepal. Now after a couple of days of treatment, his condition has improved from today, Karna said, adding that the government should ask for apology for the incident. Uprendra Yadav, chairman of the Federal Democratic Front, has criticised Sadbhawana Party's decision. "Sadbhawana Party should not announce its separate protest programmes, which was a blunder," Yadav said. The three other Madhesi parties, which have been launching protest under the banner of UDMF (United Democratic Madhesi Front), are holding a crucial meeting with the government representatives at Prime Ministers' Office at Baluwatar along with main opposition Nepali Congress this evening in the latest attempt to resolve the ongoing crisis. For more than four months, life in the southern Nepal plains have been seriously affected, with the Front-led protests against the country's new Constitution that was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on September 20. So far, over 50 people have died during the Madhesi- Tharu agitation launched by the marginalised groups of the country. The Front is scheduled to hold a meeting tomorrow to effect changes in its mode of protest and that blockades at key Nepal-India border entry points would be lifted to ease supply of essentials to Kathmandu and other major cities. There has been growing pressure on the Madhesi Front to lift the blockade at the Nepal-India border as landlocked Nepal is facing acute shortage of fuel, cooking gas and medicines among other essentials due to the blockade. Meanwhile, UCPN-Maoist chief Prachanda today met India's Ambassador to Nepal Ranjit Rae and held discussions on the current political situation in the country including the ongoing blockade in southern border of the country and agitation launched by the Madhesi Front. A Hong Kong lawmaker said today he believes Chinese security officers kidnapped five publishing company employees who have gone missing in the city, possibly because of a planned book about the former love life of President Xi Jinping. "Hong Kong people are very shocked and appalled," Democratic legislator Albert Ho told a press conference. The five work for a publishing house known for producing books critical of the Chinese government. The disappearances add to growing unease that freedoms in the semi-autonomous Chinese city are being eroded. Under Hong Kong's mini-constitution, it enjoys freedom of speech and Chinese law enforcers have no right to operate in the city. It is unclear where the men are or how they went missing. Small groups of protesters marched through central Hong Kong today, while activists expressed shock at the case that saw employee Lee Bo disappear last week. Four of his colleagues from the Mighty Current publishing house went missing in October. Ho said it was "outrageous" for Lee to have disappeared in the city. "We have a reason to believe he was politically abducted and illegally transferred to the mainland," he said. Ho, a customer at the publishing firm's bookshop in Causeway Bay, said he had heard from other store regulars that the company was about to launch a book about Xi's former girlfriend. "To my knowledge... The book concerns the story about the girlfriend...(from) some years ago," he said. "There were warnings given to the owners not to publish this book. This book has not yet gone to print, but probably it has something to do with this book," Ho added. Pro-Beijing lawmaker and former Hong Kong security chief Regina Ip urged the city's government to "seriously handle the matter" as mainland officials were not entitled to carry out official duties in Hong Kong. Lee's wife said yesterday her husband told her he was "assisting in an investigation" in a phone call after he failed to return home for dinner Wedesday. She reported him missing to police Friday and said the call he made to her was from a number in the neighbouring Chinese city of Shenzhen. "He said he wouldn't be back so soon and he was assisting in an investigation," she said. Lee was last seen at a Hong Kong book warehouse, another source told AFP. Hong Kong police are investigating the disappearance of Lee and of three co-workers who are believed to have gone missing in Shenzhen. The fifth, a Swedish national, was reported to have disappeared in Thailand. Mizoram government would not hold negotiations with Manipur-based Hmar People's Convention (Democrats) militants despite the outfit having expressed its willingness, Home Minister R. Lalzirliana said today. Lalzirliana told PTI that the HPC(D) faction led by its 'Chairman' H. Zosangbera approached the state government with peace overtures which were turned down last year. "We do not have any intention to hold negotiations during 2016 unless the militants fulfill our conditions," he said. Lalzirliana reiterated that parleys with the Hmar outfit would not take place until the militants returned all the arms taken by them. The outfit had ambushed the Assembly committee on government assurances team early last year. Three policemen were killed when HPC(D) militants ambushed the Assembly committee team on March 28 last year near Mizoram-Manipur border Zokhawthiang hamlet. mjunction services, an online procurement and sales platform floated jointly by SAIL and Tata Steel, is now eyeing new verticals to boost revenue. "We are now looking at various other verticals like tea, power, construction, automobiles and logistics to help increase our revenue," mjunction MD and CEO Viresh Oberoi told PTI. Oberoi said mjunction had facilitated the West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company to buy power online to meet its shortfall. "So far, the discom was purchasing power offline. Now after online purchase, the company has been able to save a lot," Oberoi said. He said that this model was also being extended to tea companies. "We are discussing with the tea companies regarding their purchase of tea from small Bought Leaf factories," he said. Oberoi said that mjunction had helped Tata Tea buy 10 per cent of their annual procurement of tea from Bought Leaf factories from Dooars and Assam regions. This would be extended to South India also, he said. "We are now looking at construction, logistics and automobiles," Oberoi said. He said that every year, there has been a 15 per cent to 20 per cent rise in revenue by new services. For getting into more such areas, he said the company had set up an incubation cell to develop ideas. Among financial services, mjunction would also enter online bill discounting business for which it had got RBI's approval. About financials, he said the company had been making profits and the value of transactions done was Rs 45,000 crore in the last fiscal. "We are now looking at a topline growth of 30 per cent year-on-year, out of which 20 per cent will be from new businesses and 10 per cent from old ones", he said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi engaged in an exceptionally busy and a highly personalised style of diplomacy in 2015 with an aim to recalibrate India's external engagements that saw boosting of ties with major powers like the US, China, France and Japan, and a thaw in relations with Pakistan after prolonged bitterness. From Pakistan to the US, from African continent to the G20, the government tried to adopt an innovative approach to diplomacy in sync with India's interests in trade, defence as well as to address its terror-related concerns though the basic contours of foreign policy remained the same as during the previous UPA government. The government's handling of ties with Nepal following internal turmoil in that country, after promulgation of Constitution there, drew strong criticism with questions being asked over effectiveness of its "neighbourhood first" approach which it asserted was at the core of its foreign policy. At the fag end of the year, Modi sprang a surprise with a 150-minute visit to Lahore on way back home from Kabul, during which he visited ancestral home of his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif and had talks to open ways for peace. However, an attack on Pathankot air base by Pakistani terrorists has brought back the focus on whether "talk and terror" can go together. Earlier in December, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj visited Islamabad for a multilateral meet, during which both sides announced revival of dialogue process after a long spell of tension and acrimonious exchanges. It was announced by both sides that they have decided to engage in a "comprehensive" dialogue that will include peace and security and Jammu and Kashmir besides addressing all issues connected to terrorism. The year gone by witnessed government's initiatives to shore up India's profile at the global stage -- be it launching of a solar initiative at the Paris Climate meet or getting the United Nations to declare June 21 as International Yoga Day. At the international fora, Modi has also been pushing for India's old initiative, the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism, to effectively deal with terror networks. "There is no doubt that India's international profile has been significantly enhanced in the last 18 months," says Swaraj, who also visited a number of capital cities worldwide to project India's resurgent image and government's vision. A regular feature of Modi's foreign trips has been his address to Indian diaspora and showcasing them as India's soft power. His criticism of previous governments in foreign soil drew sharp reactions from opposition parties back home. Boosting India's ties with its strategic ally - the US - came across as one of the high points with Modi and US President Barack Obama, who visited here in January as the chief guest at the Republic Day celebrations, managing to resolve the nuclear liability issue. Pushing for stronger measures to counter terrorism and extremism was a salient feature of India's diplomatic endeavors besides advancing India's economic growth and defence requirement with a broader focus on geopolitics. Among the countries Modi visited include the US, China, France, Malaysia, Singapore, Britain, Turkey, Ireland, United Arab Emirates, Russia and a number of Central Asian Nations. He also undertook visits to Bangladesh, Mongolia, South Korea, Germany and Canada during which scores of bilateral agreements were signed covering a wide-range of areas of cooperation. In its engagement with the Asian region, India's major focus was enhancing connectivity and ensuing maritime security while well-being of Indian diaspora was central to its ties with the Gulf region. India also reached out to Africa to expand its footprint in the resource-rich continent as it held a summit meeting in October here which was attended by over 40 heads of state and government from Africa. In April, Modi had visited Paris which saw a breakthrough in the protracted talks on the French Rafale jet deal as he announced that India will purchase 36 of these fighter planes that are ready to fly. During his visit to Canada in the same month, it was announced that country will supply uranium to energy-starved India over a period of five years, a decision which was termed as a launch of a new era of bilateral cooperation and mutual trust by Modi. In June, Modi's visit to Bangladesh saw both countries opening a new chapter in bilateral ties as they settled the 41-year-old boundary dispute. As part of the settlement, 111 border enclaves were being transferred to Bangladesh in exchange for 51 that become part of India. During Modi's visit to China in May, both countries vowed to address the boundary issue at the earliest as they decided to seek a "political" solution to the vexed dispute. The Prime Minister strongly pushed for UN Security Council reforms when he addressed the UN General Assembly in September, saying it is essential to maintain its credibility and legitimacy in the current world realities. India has been pitching for permanent seat in the expanded five-member world body and the issue figured in almost all major dialogue with various countries. Inking of a pact for civil nuclear cooperation with Japan last month was an icing on the cake for India's diplomacy as the country signed the agreement, notwithstanding domestic resistance there as New Delhi is not a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The rate of participation of women in the country's labour force has declined with more number of females entering into the education system, a senior Congress leader said here today. "There is a big debate now in India on the so-called declining labour force participation rates of women. This has made many people argue that labour markets in India are not gender sensitive, that women face discrimination in the workplace. "I have a slightly contrary viewpoint to this and I don't want to create controversy over this. Declining labour force participation rates for women actually reflect more women going into education stream and not necessarily being employed," former Union Minister Jairam Ramesh said. The leader made the remark while addressing a gathering during launch of an online platform for working women -- www.Wowonet.Org -- here. The event was also attended by Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chairperson Swati Maliwal. Ramesh also pointed towards political and economical empowerment of women over the past 25 years as he mentioned about 73rd and 74th amendments, which he said, were Constitutional empowerment of Panchayats and Nagar Palikas ensuring adequate representation of females in local bodies. "And secondly, you have phenomenal expansion of self help groups. Today you have almost three million self help groups. Every self help group has an average of 10 women as members. So you are talking about 30 million women who are part of self help groups, who are linked with banks," he said of the economic empowerment. Maliwal though expressed serious concerns over women safety in Delhi and listed poor conviction rate in cases involving crime against women and poor filing of charge sheets by police in the matters. She said the DCW will strive to increase conviction rate in such cases. "The DCW will work for increasing conviction rate in cases of crime against women along with the Centre and the Delhi Government. There should be no politics involved as far safety of women is concerned," she said. The event was also attended by members attached to the online platform. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu today asked district collectors to meet targets on construction of farm ponds by March end. The Andhra Pradesh government has decided to construct 10 lakh farm ponds and at-least one lakh in each district in agricultural lands at a cost of Rs one lakh each to save the rain water which would be utilised at the time of deficit rains, an official release said. Interacting with the collectors via video-conference, Naidu asked them to meet targets on construction of farm ponds by March end. He also asked the collectors to concentrate more on development programmes than welfare schemes. In the ongoing 'Janma Bhoomi - Mavooru" (My native and My village) programmes, the Chief Minister asked the collectors to explain importance of 'Janma Bhoomi - Mavooru" concept to the public in all gramsabha (village-council) meetings. Naidu also directed them to check loopholes in the allocation of houses for poor, distribution of ration cards and other schemes, it added. The state government on January 2 launched 'Janma Bhoomi - Mavooru', an intensified campaign to focus on welfare schemes across the state. He asked officials to update him regularly on the progress of this campaign. The NALCO today announced the list of awardees for Nalco Smiles Award, Nalco Kharavela Awards and Nalco Kalidas Awards for 2016. This is for the first time that the aluminium major has instituted such awards. Besides cash awards, the winners will be honoured with citations and scrolls of honour. Nalco Smiles Award will be conferred on Dr Sruti Mohapatra, Founder of Swabhiman, for her outstanding contributions towards the rehabilitation of differently-abled children. She will receive a cash prize of Rs one lakh. Dr Ileana Citaristi has been chosen for the Nalco Kharavela Award for promoting Odissi dance and Guru par excellence. The award also carries a purse of Rs one lakh. Nalco Kharavela Award for significant achievements in Odissi Dance, both in India and abroad, also goes for Saswat Ranjan Joshi. He will receive a cash prize of Rs 50,000. These three awards will be given away during the 36th Foundation Day Celebrations of Nalco on January 7, a NALCO release said. Besides, two more awards will be given away on the preceding day. Prof Harekrishna Satapathy, Vice-Chancellor, Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeetha, Tirupati and Prof Gangadhar Panda, VC, Shri Jagannath Sanskrit Vishvavidyalaya, Puri have been selected for Nalco Kalidas Awards, for their significant contributions in the field of teaching and propagating Sanskrit. The awards carry a sum of Rs 50,000 for each recipient. A51-year-old man was killedby Maoists on suspicion of being a police informer in Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh, police said today. Motiram Bhogami was found lying in a pool of blood on the outskirts of his native place Midkulnar village under Faraspal police station limits this morning, Dantewada SP Kamlochan Kashyap told PTI. The victim was abducted by some armednaxalsfrom his house in Midkulnar last night and his blood-stained body was found lying outside the village, located around 450 kms away from the state capital, following which police were informed, he said. Bhogami wasbeatenwith sticks and killed using sharp-edged weapons, the SP said. It seems that the naxals killed him as they suspected him of being a police informer, he said. A case has been registered in this connection, the official said. Nepal's three major political parties and Madhesi front today decided to form a task force to find a common ground on demands put forth by the agitating group in a bid to end the ongoing political crisis in the country over the new Constitution. Nepal's ruling coalition -- CPN-UML and CPN-Maoist, the main opposition Nepali Congress and the agitating United Democratic Madhesi Front (UDMF) held talks at prime minister's official residence here. The meeting ended with a positive note, sources said. "They decided to form a task force to find common ground regarding the 11-point demands submitted by the agitating Madhesi parties," according to Nepali Congress general secretary Prakash Man Singh, who was also present during the meeting. The task force representing all three sides, the government, main opposition and the Madhesi Front will try to find common ground in issues relating to provincial boundary demarcation, citizenship certificate issue, proportionate representatives and allotment of parliament seat on the basis of population. They have also agreed to continue their meeting to resolve the issue at the earliest. On behalf of the three major parties, Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli, Nepali Congress president Sushil Koirala and nd UCPN-Maoist chairman Prachanda participated in the meeting. Mahanta Thakur, president of Terai Madhes Democratic Party, Upendra Yadav, president of Madhesi Peoples Rights Forum Nepal and Mahendra Raya, president of Terai Madhes Sadbhawana Party were also present at the meeting. Today's meeting took place after Indian Ambassador to Nepal Ranjit Rae called on UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Prachanda at latter's residence this afternoon. Prachanda urged the envoy to end blockade as soon as possible. He said that the border blockade imposed by India for the past few months would hamper the friendly relations between the two countries, Kathmandu Post reported. In return, Ambassador Rae said India is for early solution of crisis Nepal is currently facing. Life in the southern Nepal plains have been seriously affected by the protests against the country's new Constitution that was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on September 20. So far, over 50 people have died during the Madhesi-Tharu agitation launched by the marginalised groups of the country. However, Sadbhawana Party, one of the members of the four party alliance, did not take part in today's meeting. Sadbhawana Party president Rajendra Mahato, who was injured during baton charging by police in Biratnagar last week, is currently undergoing treatment in New Dehli. The top leaders of Nepal's three major political parties, including Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli, today met with agitating Madhesi front in a bid to end the current political crisis in the country over the new Constitution. Ruling coalition - CPN-UML and UCPN-Maoist -- the main opposition Nepali Congress and the agitating United Democratic Madhesi Front (UDMF) held talks at Prime Minister's official residence here. They discussed issues relating to agitation by Madhesis --- largely of Indian-origin, border blockade and Constitution amendment bill tabled in Parliament. The meeting is expected to find a way out of the current political stalemate in the country, sources said. On behalf of the three major parties, Prime Minister Oli, Nepali Congress president Sushil Koirala and UCPN-Maoist chairman Prachanda participated in the meeting. Mahanta Thakur, president of Terai Madhes Democratic Party, Upendra Yadav, president of Madhesi Peoples Rights Forum Nepal and Mahendra Raya, president of Terai Madhes Sadbhawana Party were also present at the meeting. They represent the United Democratic Madhesi Front that has been launching agitation in the southern Nepal districts for the past four months protesting against the new constitution that divides the country into seven federal provinces. Life in the southern Nepal plains have been seriously affected by the protests against the country's new Constitution that was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on September 20. So far, over 50 people have died during the Madhesi- Tharu agitation launched by the marginalised groups of the country. However, Sadbhawana Party, one of the members of the four party allianes, did not take part in the meeting. Sadbhawana Party president Rajendrra Mahato, who was injured during baton charging by police in Biratnagar last week, is currently undergoing treatment in New Dehli. A new metamaterial that refracts light in an unusual way could be used to speed up computers, and even create invisibility cloaks in future, scientists say. Scientists from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and the Russian Academy of Sciences have proposed a two-dimensional metamaterial composed of silver elements. In the future, these structures may be used to develop compact optical devices, as well as to create an 'invisibility cloak.' Computer simulations showed that it would be a high performance material for light with a wavelength from 400-500 nanometres (violet, blue and light blue), researchers said. A metamaterial has properties which are created by an artificial periodic structure. When light is incident on the surface of such a material, the refracted light is on the same side of the normal to the surface as the incident light. The unusual optical effects do not necessarily imply the use of the 3D metamaterials. Light can also be manipulated with the help of two-dimensional structures metasurfaces, researchers said. In fact, it is a thin film composed of individual elements. The principle of operation of the metasurface is based on the phenomenon of diffraction. Any flat periodic array can be viewed as a diffraction lattice, which splits the incident light into a few rays. The number and direction of the rays depends on geometrical parameters - the angle of incidence, wavelength and the period of the lattice. The structure of the unit cell determines how the energy of the incident light is distributed between the rays. For a negative refractive index it is necessary that all but one of the diffraction rays are suppressed, then all of the incident light will be directed in the required direction. The unit cell of the proposed lattice is composed of a pair of closely spaced silver cylinders with a radius of the order of 100 nanometres. Researchers were able to adjust the parameters of the cell so that the resulting optical lattice response is consistent with abnormal refraction of the incident wave. The results achieved can be applied to control optical signals in ultra-compact devices, optical transmission and information processing technologies, which will help expedite computer processing in the future. The conventional electrical interconnects used in modern chips are operating at the limit of their carrying capacities and inhibit further growth in computing performance. To replace the electrical interconnects by optical we need to be able to effectively control optical signals at nanoscale, researchers said. In order to solve this problem scientists are focused on creating structures capable of 'turning' the light in the desired direction. The research was published in the journal Optical Material Express. Scientists have developed new ion-exchange synthetic membranes that could be used to make cleaner and more efficient fuel cells. Fuel cells use a reducing agent (usually hydrogen, methanol or methane) and an oxidising agent, oxygen, to convert energy of chemical reactions into electrical current. They consist of a cathode and an anode, separated by an ion-exchange membrane. Choosing the correct membrane plays an important role in improving fuel cells. The material that the membrane is made from must be as inexpensive as possible, chemically stable, technologically advanced, and its pores must provide adequate selectivity. The pore size is directly related to the efficiency of the fuel cell. These pores determine how efficiently ions are screened and energy is converted in a fuel cell. Scientists, including those from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and Moscow State University, were able to form pores from certain molecules for membranes of a fuel cell so that the opening is exactly the diameter required for the optimum functioning of the cell. The molecules called A-Na and Azo-Na are classified as benzenesulfonates, the researchers said. They are wedge-shaped and can independently assemble themselves into supramolecular structures - complex organised groups of multiple molecules. Depending on the conditions set by the scientists, the molecules form discs which in turn form columns with ion channels inside. This self-assembly of complex structures of individual molecules is possible due to their electrical properties. At one end of these molecules is a polar chemical group, ie a group with an electric charge, and in a solution it naturally turns towards charged water molecules. At the other end of these molecules there are non-polar hydrocarbon "tails" that again due to their electrical properties try to stay as far away from water molecules as possible. Scientists were able to predict the formation of these discs with pores and cylinders based on information on the structure, geometry, physical and chemical properties of the benzenesulfonates being studied. Using this information, the scientists first made a mathematical model based on the properties of complex supramolecular structures formed by A-Na and Azo-Na. During experiments, they obtained various different forms of ion channels maintaining the substances at a certain humidity and temperature, and then irradiating them with UV light for polymerisation. The polymers created with this method were tested for selective permeability of ions and this enabled the scientists to identify which conditions of the synthesis of polymer membranes are best suited for making potential fuel cells. The study was published in the journal Physical Chemistry, Chemical Physics. The Central American nation of El Salvador is off to a bloody start to the new year after a shockingly violent 2015. Officials say at least 29 people were slain on the first day of 2016. Prosecutors say the worst attack came when armed men in military-type uniforms raided an evening party of suspected gang members and killed six in the town of El Zapote, 130 kilometers southeast of the capital. It followed a pre-dawn slaying of five people in Los Cerritos, 160 kilometers east of the capital. Police also say they killed five presumed gang members in another clash. Officials haven't released homicide figures for 2015, but local media estimate the number of killings at well above 6,000. The National Investigation Agency (NIA), mandated to probe terror cases, will register a case tomorrow to probe the conspiracy of Pakistan-based terrorist group, believed to be Jaish-e-Mohammed, behind the strike at the IAF base in Pathankot in Punjab. A team of NIA was at the spot yesterday as per the standard operating procedure and today the Government decided to hand over the case to the NIA after taking concurrence from the Punjab government, official sources said. The mandate of the NIA probe will include entry of the militants into India, killing of a taxi driver Ikagar Singh, kidnapping of Superintendent of Police-rank officer of Punjab Police, who was later released and entry into the IAF campus, the sources said. They said the investigators will also try and ascertain the conspiracy that was hatched on the Pakistani soil by the terrorists and if possible find out the state and non-state actors in that country. As per the standard operating procedure, an NIA team is rushed to the site of terror strike so that they can share their expertise as well as have first-hand information about the case, the sources said. The NIA may also question or seek custodial interrogation of a sacked IAF personnel Ranjith KK, a Leading Air Craftman (LAC) with IAF posted at Bhatinda, who was arrested by Delhi Police for allegedly supplying information to ISI, the sources said. The Pathankot IAF facility, located near the border with Pakistan, is the base of MiG-21 fighter planes and MI-25 attack helicopters of Air Force. India recently gifted four such choppers to Afghanistan last month. US President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's policies "created ISIS", leading Republican presidential aspirant Donald Trump has alleged. Trump, while speaking at a campaign stop in Biloxi, Mississippi, offered no evidence for his claim in which he also said that escalating tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia were signs that the Islamic Republic wanted to take over the longtime US ally in the Middle East. "They've created ISIS. Hillary Clinton created ISIS with Obama," Trump said yesterday. He couched his remark in a brief discussion of the Iranian protests outside the Saudi embassy in Tehran, which erupted after Saudi Arabia executed 47 people, including a dissident Shiite cleric. "In Tehran, they're burning down the Saudi embassy, you see that?" Trump was quoted as saying by CNN. "Now, what that is...Iran wants to take over Saudi Arabia. They always have. They want the oil, OK? They've always wanted that." Trump has blamed both Democrats and former President George W Bush when talking about unrest in the Middle East, particularly citing Bush's decision to invade Iraq in 2003. In the recent weeks, he has been particularly aggressive in going after Clinton, the Democratic presidential front-runner, and her record leading the State Department. Two of Trump's 2016 competitors, Carly Fiorina and Rick Santorum, said in November that Clinton and Obama were to blame for the rise of Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Trump and Clinton have been involved in a war of words in recent weeks. Clinton had slammed Trump's recent comments about banning Muslim immigrants, saying the Republican front-runner was "becoming ISIS's best recruiter". "He is becoming ISIS's best recruiter. They are going to people showing videos of Trump insulting Islam and Muslims in order to recruit more radical jihadists," she had said. Trump dismissed Clinton's assertion that the Islamic State was using his videos as a recruitment tool saying she is "a liar" and "made up" the claim. Over 80 lakh pilgrims paid their obeisance at the two holy cave shrine of Amarnath in South Kashmir and the Mata Vaishno Devi in Katra in the year 2015. "While 3.52 lakh pilgrims paid obeisance at the cave shrine of Amarnath in South Kashmir, 78 lakh pilgrims visited the Mata Vaishno Devi Shine in 2015", Jammu and Kashmir Governor, who is also the chairman of the board of the two shines, N N Vohra said today. Vohra said that various agencies of the state government and the two Shrine Boards have been actively engaged to provide adequate facilities for the pilgrims, which include arrangements for accommodation, transportation, medical care, sanitation and other necessary services. He said that if adequate infrastructure facilities were developed a large number of the pilgrims could be attracted encouraged to visit other places of tourist interest in the state. The Governor stressed that the safety and security of the pilgrims continues to remain the prime concern of the Shrine Boards. "The tracks to the Holy Cave pass through a very difficult terrain in the high mountains, experiencing hostile and unpredictable climatic conditions and these aspects have to be kept in view while planning the Yatra", he said. He said that the Shrine Board, with assistance of the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has been making continuing efforts to disseminate all relevant information to the intending pilgrims from all over India. The Governor lauded the cooperation extended by the Yatri Niyas and the state administration to the Amarnath Shrine Board for the smooth conduct of Yatra 2015 and urged all the stake holders to strengthen the Shrine Board's efforts in publicising and disseminating various aspects and advisories related to this Yatra. Vohra also said that the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board has always welcomed suggestions from the various stakeholders for further improvement in the facilities provided to the Yatris. Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar today said that a committee has been constituted under the chairmanship of Agriculture Minister O P Dhankar to take a call on the issue of creation of new sub-divisions, tehsils and blocks in the state. He was replying to questions of mediapersons on whether the state government would accord sub-division status to Gharaunda. Inaugurating a railway under-bridge at Gharaunda, Khattar said it fulfilled a long-pending demand of the people of the area. Speaking on his upcoming foreign visits, the chief minister said he would lead a delegation to China and Japan from January 17 to 25. "The main aim of the visit is to invite the entrepreneurs to invest in Haryana and also apprise them of the entrepreneur friendly atmosphere prevailing in the state," he said. On the statement made by an opposition leader that "fake" no objection certificates (NOCs) and certificates of educational qualification were being produced by those wanting to contest the upcoming panchayat elections, the chief minister said that no such complaint had come to the notice of the government so far. "If any such complaint is received, stern action would be taken. Such statements reflect the frustration of the opposition because the decision to fix minimum education qualification for those contesting the election to PRIs has been appreciated by all," he said. Khattar also praised Subhash Barala, who was re-elected as Haryana BJP chief, calling him an "active" leader who has worked hard to maintain coordination between the party and the government. "I am sure, in his second tenure also he would work to further strengthen the party by taking welfare policies and programmes of the government to the people right up to the grass-root level," Khattar said. The CM also directed the administrative secretaries to interact with the field officers of their respective department to enhance their efficiency. Assuring that there is no dearth of funds with the state government for development works, Khattar directed the administrative secretaries to review the progress of "CM announcements" with their concerned head of the department every week. He said the state would soon prepare a transparent system of recruitment for Group-D category of post in various government departments. He made it clear that "pick and choose policy will not be tolerated at any cost and only eligible youth will get government jobs on the basis of merit". He said the state government had adopted a transparent process in recruitment of junior engineers, lecturers, Haryana civil service and in other government jobs and this has reflected a good message at the grass-roots level. The government today asserted the high casualties suffered by the security forces despite advance intelligence about an impending terror attack in Pathankot was "not a lapse" even as defence experts questioned the way the brazen assault was handled. "I don't consider it a lapse at all. In such situations where weapons are there, some injuries and some deaths will happen on this side also," Home Secretary Rajiv Mehreshi told reporters here in the first official press conference, 36 hours after the attack on Indian Air Force base in Pathankot began. While four terrorists were killed yesterday and operation was on to neutralise other two holed up at the base, seven soldiers including a commando each from the IAF and the NSG were killed while 20 others were left injured. The high casualty among security forces despite prior intelligence warning and deployment of over 250 additional security personnel including special forces, has raised several questions. Former Western Air Command Chief Air Marshall P S Ahulwalia, who had commanded the Pathankot Air base during his service, said coordination between various security agencies "could have been better" to minimise causalities among security forces. "The success or otherwise of any operation could be judged by the following -- whether the terrorists were able to achieve their objective, minimal causality to our own forces, no collateral damage and attackers being neutralised in optimal time frame. "The terrorist were not able to achieve their objective and they could not reach their target. However, we have lost more men and this could have been prevented by effective coordination. And also that the time taken to neutralise the attackers is way too long," he said. Many also questioned why the government did not divulge full details of casualty figures last night itself. Though unconfirmed reports had said there were six casualties among the security forces, the defence ministry had only confirmed 3 martyrs. It was only this morning that they revised the figure to six claiming that only three had died last night. However, it later transpired that the six had died yesterday itself. Asked why the details of those killed were not made available yesterday, an IAF spokesperson said," There are procedures to be followed and first the next of kin of the deceased are to be informed." Former RAW Chief A S Dulat raised questions about failure of security agencies in thwarting the attack. "Generally intelligence agencies get the flak but here is a case when you had a pinpointed intelligence and still you could not make it. Why?" he said. Dulat said the Pathankot operation had raised many questions including those about the role of security forces who could not neutralise the terrorists fast. "How can the terrorists enter so easily without getting noticed and that too with such a huge quantity of ammunition? Are the terrorist also paying their way through like the drug cartels? These questions need an early answer," he said. Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (Retd) said it was "obvious" that there were lapses. However, he refrained from speaking further on the operation, saying more details should come out first. However, he said that the attack showed that Pakistani army and the ISI were not on board with the civilian government when it comes to peace with India. Kanwal said India should have a two-pronged strategy under which they should continue to talk to the civilian government there and also hit back hard at the LoC whenever there is conclusive evidence of Pakistani role in terror attacks in the country. Nitin Pai, Director of The Takshashila Institution, tweeted saying, "Just don't know what to say about the response to #PathankotAttack. Numb." Air Vice Marshall (Retd) Manmohan Bahadur questioned the delay in tracking down the terrorists after they had kidnapped Gurdaspur Superintendent of Police Salwinder Singh. Prime Minister Narendra Modi today pitched for integrating Yoga and traditional Indian medicine more closely into the health care system and make wellness a part of life for all in India and rest of the world. Inaugurating an "International Conference on Frontiers in Yoga Research and its Applications" at Jigani, about 30 km from Bengaluru, he asked health professionals, policy makers, government organisations and industry to bridge the distance between the various forms of medicine systems. "I hope that you will integrate yoga and traditional Indian medicine more closely into our health care system...," Modi told the gathering at the Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana, a deemed university. "My vision for health care is an integrated system that understands and builds on the best and most effective of different traditions," the Prime Minister said. Modern systems of medicine have transformed health care, screening, detection and diagnosis of diseases and use of technology has reduced barriers to accessing health care, and improved our understanding of disease patterns, Modi said. Breakthroughs in medicines and vaccines have also helped conquer and contain many diseases. "But, as our understanding of its limitation and its side effects have grown, as we have experienced the growing costs of modern medicine systems, we have begun to look beyond to traditional systems, not just in India, but in other countries as well," Modi said. "Their popularity is growing. Yoga is now a global heritage. And, the world is embracing traditional Indian medicine with great enthusiasm," he said. Modi said across cultures and geography, people are increasingly taking to yoga to redefine their lives - to find oneness between their inner self and outer world; between their existence and their environment. Prime Minister Narendra Modi tonight reviewed the situation arising out of the terror attack at Pathankot air force base and is believed to have discussed with top officials its ramifications on ties with Pakistan. Soon after his return from Karnataka where he was on a two-day visit, Modi chaired a meeting of top officials including National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar. The meeting lasted for over two hours, the sources said. "Immediately on landing in Delhi, PM Narendra Modi is chairing a high-level meeting with the NSA, Foreign Secretary and other officials," the PMO tweeted as the meeting began. During the meeting, Doval is understood to have given a detailed account of the attack which has been going on since the wee hours of yesterday. At the meeting, the implications of the attack on relations with Pakistan are also believed to have been deliberated upon. The attack took place merely a week after Modi made a surprise visit to Lahore to greet Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on his birthday with an aim of improving bilateral ties between the two countries. Sharif was in Lahore for the wedding of his granddaughter. Earlier during the day, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar briefed Prime Minister Modi on the latest situation at the Pathankot air base. Both were present at a HAL function in Tumakuru in Karnataka. Pathankot air base is under terror attack since yesterday. The security forces have already killed four terrorists and two more are believed to be still holed-up inside the base, and an operation is underway to flush them out. Fresh exchange of fire was reported at the attack site between the security forces and terrorists. A joint combing operation by the armed forces, police and security personnel was still underway and the NIA has taken over the probe. Prime Minister Narendra Modi tonight held a meeting with top officials to discuss the Pathankot terror attack. Soon after returning from his two-day visit to Karnataka, Modi chaired a meeting of top officials including National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar. "Immediately on landing in Delhi, PM Narendra Modi is chairing a high-level meeting with the NSA, Foreign Secretary and other officials," the PMO said. Earlier during the day, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar briefed Prime Minister Modi on the latest situation at the Pathankot air base. Both were present at a HAL function in Tumakuru in Karnataka. Pathankot air base is under terror attack since yesterday. The security forces have already killed four terrorists and two more are believed to be still holed-up inside the base, and an operation is underway to flush them out. Fresh exchange of fire was reported at the attack site between the security forces and terrorists holed-up inside the air force base. A joint combing operation by the armed forces, police and security personnel was still underway and the NIA has taken over the probe into the terror attack. Large crowds protested in Hong Kong today after a pro-Beijing official was appointed to a senior role at the main university, as fears grow over what critics see as political interference in the city's education system. The downtown rally staged by teachers, students and alumni comes in the wake of Arthur Li's selection last month as chairman of HKU's governing council. The appointment taps in to wider concerns that academic freedoms in the city are under threat, particularly in the wake of last year's student-led mass pro-democracy rallies. Demonstrators Sunday marched to the Government House, the residence of unpopular Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying, who appointed Li. The protesters held banners that read "defend the university's autonomy" and "uphold academic freedom". Others shouted "Arthur Li, you will pay." Organisers said 3,000 people took part in the protest, while police estimated the crowd at around 800. Li, a member of Hong Kong's Executive Council, the top advisory body to the government, started his three-year term on January 1. He is widely known to be close to Leung, who is also the chancellor of all the city's universities. "The appointment is not just about HKU, it's not just about universities. This is an issue of governance in all of Hong Kong," Benny Tai, a key figure in last year's pro-democracy movement, told the crowd. "The government just does not listen to public opinion," added Tai, who also teaches at the school. Protester Timothy O'Leary, a humanities professor at HKU, told local broadcaster Cable TV: "I think this is a disappointing appointment. I think this is an indication that the government does not want to move forward in helping." Li's appointment comes after the university's council, criticised as being pro-Beijing, rejected liberal law scholar Johannes Chan as pro-vice chancellor at the university, sparking protests from staff and students. At a non-binding vote in November by HKU alumni on whether Li should be appointed, 98 percent said no. The Hong Kong government defended the appointment Sunday. "The decisions are based on the merits of individuals, including their ability, expertise, experience, integrity and commitment to public service," a government spokesman said in a statement. Former British colony Hong Kong was handed back to China in 1997 under a deal that guaranteed the retention of its civil liberties and capitalist system for 50 years. Teachers have previously accused officials of politically motivated censorship, including in 2012 when tens of thousands marched against "national education", a government proposal to introduce Beijing-centric patriotic teaching into schools. The plan was later dropped. Quick thinking by a trader and the brave alertness shown by his 12-year-old son led to the arrest of an alleged member of a gang of kidnappers here and the foiling of their plan to abduct the former's family, police said. According to police, the incident took place in the wee hours yesterday as an alleged gang of kidnappers intercepted the vehicle in which the trader from Bareli was travelling along with his family. "Taufiq, a resident of Hathia village under Barsana police station, was nabbed but his associates -- Ikram, Sahun and Taleem, also from Hathia -- managed to give police the slip under the cover of darkness," said SP (City) Shailesh Pandey. Giving details of the case, he said that Deepak Gupta, a trader from Bareli, was returning to his hometown along with his wife and two children following a trip to the Mehandipur Bala Ji (Rajasthan) shrine in Rajasthan when their car was intercepted by the gang near Saiyad on the Mathura Aligharh road in the Jamuna Paar police station area. The kidnappers forced Gupta family's car to brake and they thereupon pulled the driver out of the vehicle. "While the driver was forced to board the kidnappers' car, one of the kidnappers sat in the driver's seat in the trader's car while two other kidnappers pulled a mask over Gupta's face. Both cars thenproceeded towards Hathia village," said Pandey. It was when Gupta, who was sitting in the front seat, saw a police patrol near Krishnapuri in the Sadar Bazar police station area that he suddenly switched off the car. Just then his son, Varun, who was in the back seat with his mother opened the door and rushed towards the police personnel, Pandey said. This made the kidnappers panic and set them scrambling but not before Taufiq was nabbed by police. The kidnappers had, meanwhile, snatched Rs 40,000 in cash, four rings, four mobile phones, ATM cards, etc., from the family. "We were saved owing to my son Varun and the police posted at Krishnapuri crossing," said Gupta. : TMC leader G K Vasan today suggested that the Railways run special long distance trains for the benefit of devotees attending the Mahamaham festival here in February 2016. This was necessary as several devotees from all over the country would arrive here to participate in it, he said. Alleging that ongoing works in connection with the festival were proceeding at a slow pace, he said he would submit a memorandum to the Union Railway Minister tomorrow in Delhi with a request to speed them up. Speaking to reporters here after attending a private function, he reiterated that any decision on joining People's Welfare Front, which had invited him to join the combine,would be taken only after consulting party leaders and workers. On Jan 1, People's Welfare Front leaders, including MDMK leader Vaiko had called on Vasan and urged him to be part of the PWF. Besides Vaiko, those who had met Vasan were state secretaries of CPI(M) and CPI G Ramakrishnan and R Mutharasan and Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi chief Thol Thirumavalavan. On holding Jallikattu (bull taming sport) in Tamil Nadu, Vasan said people felt its conduct would be blocked owing to differences of opinion between BJP and Congress. "The Centre without delay should announce conduct of the festival with all safety measures.The state government should take steps in this regard. TMC will stand for it," he said. On Dec 30,Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan had hit out at Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi for criticising the Centre on the 'jallikattu' issue and charged Congress with trying to "destroy" Tamil Nadu's cultural event. The chorus for holding jallikattu, banned by the Supreme Court, has been increasing with various political parties in the state, including Congress upping the ante on the issue. Chief Minister Jayalalithaa had recently requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to introduce a bill to amend laws to conduct the sport or promulgate an ordinance for the same. Vasan said the state government should properly earmark boundaries of rivers, lakes and channels, desilt them and remove encroachments. He suggested that the kerosene subsidy given by the Centre be withdrawn as the people felt it would be difficult for them to avail of the amount credited to their accounts. Vasan said he would attend the funeral of CPI leader A B Bardhan at Delhi tomorrow. He said he would also meet Foreign Ministry officials and urge for speedy steps to secure the release of fishermen arrested by Sri Lankan naval personnel and for release of their boats before Pongal festival. At least two soldiers were injured today when a roadside bomb hit their military vehicle near Peshawar in northwest Pakistan, officials said. The military vehicle carrying around a dozen security personnel was targeted close to Islamabad-Peshawar Motorway's toll plaza near Peshawar city, a security official said. "As the army convoy of vehicles was passing by it, the bomb was denoted through a remote control device. It damaged one of the vehicles and slightly injured two soldiers," he said. Army spokesman confirmed the attack as security forces launched search operation in the adjacent areas to apprehend the militants. The blast was claimed by the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). The motorway has been sealed and aerial surveillance of the area was conducted. Initial probe by the Bomb Disposal Squad found the IED comprised 4 kilogrammes of explosive material. The attack came days after a suicide bomber hit a registration office in Mardan city of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province and killed at least 23 killed people. A route often used by drug smugglers was apparently followed by terrorists to infiltrate into the border state of Punjab and unleash the deadly attack on an IAF base in Pathankot. As the initial inputs suggest, the terrorists, who carried out the pre-dawn attack yesterday, had infiltrated through tributaries of river Beas in Pathankot in Bamiyal village, located close to the International Border. They are believed to have infiltrated into India during the intervening night of December 30-31. The terrorists, according to official sources, crossed over near Shakargarh in Pakistan to Bamiyal village and later changed into Army fatigues before seizing a private taxi. The taxi driver, according to information, was changing his tyres when the terrorists kidnapped him and took his vehicle for a distance before they killed him after his car again broke down. They later kidnapped Salwinder Singh, a Superintendent of Police-rank officer, who was shunted out from Gurdaspur to take charge as Assistant Commandant of 75th battalion of Punjab Armed Police, at Kolian village. There were three occupants in the vehicle when it was hijacked by five militants which included Singh's jeweller friend Rajesh Verma and the driver. While the terrorists slit the throat of other two, the police officer, who is facing charges of alleged breach of discipline, was released later and the vehicle was abandoned at Tajpur village, a place which is 2 km from the IAF's Pathankot air base. The area from where the terrorists crossed over has a thick foliage of elephant grass which provides an automatic cover for them, they said. A tributary of river Beas enters into Pakistan from this village and this route is popular with drug smugglers to enter India. Jammu and Kashmir's Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh today said that funds to the tune of Rs 9,000 crore have been sanctioned for the Zojila tunnel to ensure round the year connectivity of Ladakh with rest of the state. "Connectivity of the area would go a long way to boost the tourism and economic activities of the region," he said. "Ladakh is the pride of India, funds to the tune of Rs 9,000 crore have been sanctioned for the prestigious Zojilla tunnel which would ensure all-year connectivity of the region with the rest of the state," Singh said at a function organised by the students from Ladakh. The deputy Chief Minister said that connectivity of the area would go a long way to boost the tourism and economic activities of the region. Singh said the government was committed to accelerate the development of Ladakh and a special package under the Prime Minister's Reconstruction Plan would be provided to the region under different sectors like Tourism, Power, Housing, Education so that the people of this region also get benefitted. While responding to the demands of the Ladakhi students, the Deputy Chief Minister said the provision of teaching more subjects in the satellite campus of Kashmir University at Leh would be taken up with the concerned authorities. He said that the Government would also provide land for construction of hostel for Ladakhi students studying in Jammu. Saudi Arabia says that by condemning the execution of an opposition Shiite cleric, Iran has "revealed its true face represented in support for terrorism." A Foreign Ministry statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency accuses Tehran of "blind sectarianism" and says that "by its defense of terrorist acts" Iran is a "partner in their crimes in the entire region." Shiite-majority Iran expressed outrage over the execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, who was put to death along with 46 others convicted of terrorism charges, including three other Shiite dissidents and a number of al-Qaida militants. Al-Nimr was a central figure in protests by Saudi Arabia's Shiite minority until his arrest in 2012. He was critical of the Saudi government and but denied ever advocating violence. Saudi Arabia accused "shameless" Iran of sponsoring terror and undermining regional stability, as a diplomatic spat between both countries escalated over the kingdom's execution of a prominent Shiite cleric. "The Iranian regime is the last regime in the world that could accuse others of supporting terrorism, considering that (Iran) is a state that sponsors terror, and is condemned by the United Nations and many countries," said a foreign ministry spokesman in a statement on the official SPA agency yesterday. "Iran's regime has no shame as it rants on human rights matters, even after it executed hundreds of Iranians last year without a clear legal basis," said the statement. Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir has announced that Saudi Arabia was severing diplomatic ties with Iran after demonstrators stormed its Tehran embassy to protest against Riyadh's execution of a Shiite cleric. Jubeir also said that all Iranian diplomats must leave Saudi Arabia within 48 hours. Saudi Arabia "is breaking off diplomatic ties with Iran and requests that all members of the Iranian diplomatic mission leave... Within 48 hours," he told a news conference yesterday. On Saturday, a mob attacked the Saudi embassy in Tehran and a consulate in the city of Mashhad amid protests over the execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr in Saudi Arabia. ALSO READ: Iranian protesters ransack Saudi embassy after execution of Shia cleric The 56-year-old, a force behind 2011 anti-government protests in eastern Saudi Arabia, was among 47 convicted men put to death on Saturday in the kingdom. The were Shiite activists and Sunnis who the Saudi interior ministry said were involved in Al-Qaeda attacks, with some beheaded and shot by firing squad. Iran arrested 44 people over the embassy assault, which President Hassan Rouhani described as "totally unjustifiable". But the Islamic republic's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei condemned Nimr's execution, saying "God will not forgive" Saudi Arabia for putting him to death. Jubeir responded yesterday by saying: "Iran's history is full of negative interference and hostility in Arab issues, and it is always accompanied by destruction."Relations between Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia and Shiite-ruled Iran have been strained for decades, with Riyadh frequently accusing Tehran of interfering in Arab affairs. Both countries are also divided over a raft of issues, namely the nearly five-year war in Syria, where Iran is allied with the regime of embattled President Bashar al-Assad, and Yemen where a Saudi-led coalition is battling Iran-backed rebels. Iran's president today condemned the Saudi execution of a Shiite cleric but also denounced attacks on the Sunni kingdom's embassy and consulate as "totally unjustifiable" after protesters stormed the compounds. "The actions last night by a group of radicals in Tehran and Mashhad leading to damage at the Saudi embassy and consulate are totally unjustifiable, as the buildings should be legally and religiously protected in the Islamic Republic of Iran," Hassan Rouhani said, quoted by the official IRNA agency. At least 44 people were arrested late yesterday for storming the diplomatic missions in Tehran and Mashhad after Saudi Arabia announced it had executed prominent Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr and 46 other men on "terrorism" charges. In Tehran protesters threw petrol bombs and stormed the embassy. The kingdom's consulate in Mashhad, Iran's second biggest city in the country's northeast, was also set on fire. But Rouhani criticised Saudi Arabia for killing Nimr. "I have no doubt that the Saudi government has damaged its image, more than before, among the countries in the world -- in particular (among) Islamic countries -- by this un-Islamic act," he said in a statement. Yet, the people of Iran "will not allow rogue elements" to use the incident and "carry out illegal actions that damage the dignity of the Islamic republic establishment", he added. "I call on the interior minister to identify the perpetrators of this attack with firm determination and introduce them to the judiciary... So that there will be an end to such appalling actions once and for all." Earlier today Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said Saudi politicians would face "divine revenge" for their actions. Angry crowds protesting at Saudi Arabia's execution of a top Shiite cleric hurled petrol bombs and stormed the kingdom's embassy in Tehran before being cleared out by police, reports said. In Mashhad, Iran's second biggest city, demonstrators yesterday meanwhile set fire to the Saudi consulate, according to ISNA agency, carrying pictures of the alleged assault. The incidents came hours after the announcement of the death of 56-year-old cleric Nimr al-Nimr, a key figure in anti-government protests in the kingdom since 2011. The execution prompted strong condemnation from Shiite- majority Iran and Iraq. "There are flames inside the embassy... Demonstrators were able to get inside but have since been cleared out," ISNA said. Protesters had been able to climb up onto the roof of the embassy before they were made to leave, it added. Websites carried pictures of demonstrators apparently clutching the Saudi flag, which had been pulled down. Iranian media quoted foreign ministry spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari as asking police to "protect Saudi Arabia's diplomatic missions in Tehan and Mashhad... And prevent any demonstrations in front of these sites." Nimr, who spent more than a decade studying theology in Iran, was among a group of 47 Shiites and Sunnis executed yesterday on charges of terrorism. Predominantly-Shiite Iran, the Sunni kingdom's longtime rival, said in reaction to Nimr's execution that "the Saudi government supports terrorist movements and extremists, but confronts domestic critics with oppression and execution." It will "pay a high price for following these policies," Jaber Ansari had warned before the attacks took place. In response, Saudi Arabia's foreign ministry said it had summoned Iran's envoy to protest at the "aggressive Iranian statements on the legal sentences carried out today". The Saudi interior ministry said the men had been convicted of adopting the radical "takfiri" ideology, joining "terrorist organisations" and implementing various "criminal plots". An official list published included Sunnis convicted of involvement in Al-Qaeda attacks that killed Saudis and foreigners in 2003 and 2004. Saudi Foreign Minister Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir today postponed his visit here during which he was expected to consult Pakistani leadership over the country joining the kingdom's Islamic military coalition to combat terrorism. The visit, which was scheduled for today, was postponed on Saudi Arabia's request, official sources said, without citing any reason. The postponement of the Saudi Foreign Minister's visit came a day after Saudi Arabia announced the execution of a prominent Shiite cleric, Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, along with 46 others, garnering condemnation from Shiites across the region. Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that Saudi Arabia will face "divine revenge" for executing the top Shiite cleric whose death sparked protests in which the kingdom's embassy in Tehran was firebombed. The Foreign Minister was expected to meet Pakistani leadership to take them into confidence over the situation in Middle East and the 34-nation military alliance recently formed by the kingdom to fight terrorism, Radio Pakistan reported today. The Saudi Foreign Minister was scheduled to meet Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz. Earlier in December, Riyadh announced the formation of the 34-state Islamic military coalition to combat terrorism, naming Pakistan among the coalition members without first getting its consent. Initial reports had suggested that Islamabad had been unaware of its inclusion in the coalition as Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry said that he was surprised to read the that Saudi Arabia had named Pakistan as part of the group. However, the Foreign Office later in a statement said that Pakistan welcomed the formation of the 34-nation alliance to counter terrorism and was awaiting further details to decide the extent of its participation in different activities of the alliance. Police in the Sunni-ruled Gulf state of Bahrain clashed today with Shiite protesters a day after neighbouring Saudi Arabia executed a leading Shiite cleric, witnesses said. They said violence erupted in several Shiite suburbs of the capital Manama, with police using tear gas and buckshot against protesters throwing petrol bombs. Yesterday, police in Shiite-majority Bahrain again used tear gas against protesters demonstrating after the execution of Nimr al-Nimr, a driving force of protests in Saudi Arabia's east in 2011, who was among 47 people executed in the Sunni-ruled kingdom earlier in the day. Consolidation and customer experience are expected to be the buzzwords for startups this year as entrepreneurs focus on bringing in innovation across sectors like education, healthcare and financial inclusion. Consolidation is a natural progression, but one can expect more big scale consolidation in 2016, according to industry players. Shopclues founder Sandeep Aggarwal said e-commerce and food technology will see noticeable consolidation. "Consolidation activities will be the next big trend in the landscape and will help the startup ecosystem to strengthen itself, building strong foundation for growth and leveraging strengths of each other," added Rajat Tandon Vice President of NASSCOM 10,000 startups. Tandon said startups with a strong and intensive planning and execution strategy will survive and lead to bring in structured growth. The year 2015 saw two big bang M&A deals with Snapdeal acquiring online recharge platform FreeCharge (estimated to be about $400 million) and Ola buying TaxiForSure in a $200-million deal. Rajnish Wahi, Snapdeal's SVP Corporate Affairs and Communications said both multi-million dollar and smaller investments would continue as look to efficiently use funds to create value for their investors. Padmaja Ruparel, President of Indian Angel Network said there will be a lot more seed or early stage investing happening this year though growth stage monies could get a little harder to raise and this could impede . However, there are challenges ahead for the industry as well, be it concerns around correction in valuations or bubble around e-commerce bursting. Prateek Srivastava CEO of Basil Advisors said investors want to invest in businesses that will drive the next level of innovation in consumer life behaviour. Some of the existing business are focussing on reworking their growth model to make themselves break even at operation- level, he said. "Monetisation will also undergo innovation as using discounting and offers (while burning cash) were able to bring consumers to adopt to the product, the products which have been able to drive change for a consumer will get monetised and will help them grow towards an evolved financial independence," Srivastava added. While 2015 saw intrinsic use of new technologies like digital payments, Internet of Things (IoT) and smart data storage, this is poised to pick up pace as other technologies in renewable energy, advanced robotics and autonomous vehicles catches the fancy of clean-tech, ed-tech and fin-tech companies. "Niche categories such as Agri-tech, Clean-tech & Health-tech will see a lot of entrants as well as focus from the investors," Tandon said. Year 2016 will be year of "customer experience" rather than discounts as well as a year of 'asset light, hyper-local business models', Manav Sethi, Group CMO and Head Digital Strategy at Askme.Com said. He added that focus has already moved to more impact areas: personalisation, recommendation, last mile delivery, returns and refunds. Peppertap CEO Navneet Singh agreed saying the focus will be on customer experience rather than just customer acquisition. The Indian startup industry bloomed in 2015 with rapid adoption of smartphones and increased usage of Internet driving the trend. Companies like Ola, Snapdeal, Quikr, Zomato and Paytm crossed $1 billion in valuation and joined the elite Unicorn club. The year 2015 also saw e-commerce major Snapdeal and cab aggregator Ola together lapping up over a billion dollars from investors like Alibaba, Foxconn, SoftBank Group and others, while others also received millions of dollars in funding. According to data compiled by domestic technology and startup blog trak.In, as many as 936 deals worth over $8.4 billion have been inked this year -- up from 304 deals worth $5 billion that took place in 2014. With deteriorating air quality becoming an area of concern, Sweden said it is keen to provide clean technology solutions to the country. "Sweden has many years of experience in the field of clean technology. The much debated air quality, for example, could benefit from Swedish solutions," Consul General of Sweden Fredrika Ornbrant told PTI here. Sustainable transport, an important part of the 'Smart City' concept, is another area where Swedish companies are strong, she said. The Scandinavian country also has experience in decreasing emissions from coal-based thermal power plants, she added. She said the disease profile is changing in India and many other countries, as they grow richer. "Swedish companies have good technologies and know-how to meet the changing demand in health care," she said. However, hurdles like import regulations, restrictions and customs duty impact companies negatively, especially in the life sciences, health care, automotive and heavy vehicles sectors, she said. "A survey conducted by the Swedish Chamber of Commerce India found that 60 per cent of the respondent companies consider cost structure to be a competitive disadvantage, as regulations, inverted duty structure and trade barriers contribute to additional cost of operations," she said. Exports and imports of goods between India and Sweden amounted to slightly over USD 2 billion in 2014. Ornbrant said the trade between the two countries gained momentum last year after two years of decline. In fact, Indian exports to Sweden has picked up more than vice-versa, as there was an increase of 11 per cent in Indian exports of goods to Sweden between January to September in 2015, while the increase of Swedish exports to India during the same period was 6 per cent, she said. "However, services are not included in this figure. Indian export of services like information technology to Sweden is strong. We have around 20 Indian IT companies in our country," she said. Swedish industry body Business Sweden estimates that around 10,000 people in India are supporting Swedish companies with IT services, the Consul General said. On the other hand, Sweden exports engineering products, automotive and telecom equipment, pulp and paper and chemicals to India. "Swedish high voltage equipment, for example, is contributing in electrifying India. The main Indian exports of goods are apparel and garments, machineries, vehicle parts, metal works and pharmaceuticals," she added. As security forces battled terrorists in Pathankot, Home Minister Rajnath Singh today said terror strikes would have been more severe if there were no intelligence reports. "If not for intelligence reports, the attacks would have been more severe," he told reporters. He was replying to a question on the attack by suspected Pakistani terrorists at the Air Force base in Pathankot. Three youths from Pune, who were allegedly abducted by Naxals while they were on a bicycle rally to spread the message of peace, have been released by the rebels in Chhattisgarh's Sukma district, police said. "The youths have been released and they safely reached Chintalnar camp of police," Inspector General of Police, Bastar Range, S R P Kalluri, told PTI. The three youths - identified as Aadarsh Patil, Vilas Valake and Shrikirhna Shevale - were abducted from Basaguda area of the neighbouring Bijapur district and kept at Timmapuram village forests near Chinger in Jagargunda police station limits under the custody of Maoist commander Papa Rao, Kalluri said. Soon after getting of the abduction, police had suspended all anti-Naxal operations in south Bastar, he said. Later, the police were able to locate the whereabouts of the three youths following which talks were held with the abductors through various means to secure their safe release, he said The IG, however, did not reveal details about the negotiations with the abductors. The youths had on December 20 launched a cycle rally from Pune under their "Bharat Jodo" (Link India) campaign to propagate the message of peace in Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Odisha, the states worst affected by Naxalism over past three decades, he said. They were passing through several places of Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh when they were allegedly abducted by the ultras in Bijapur a few days back. The three youths were going to conclude their rally at Balamela in Odisha on January 10, he said. Railway police today arrested three women at the railway station here for allegedly smuggling several tortoises to West Bengal. During a search in the Sealdah Express, RPF personnel recovered the tortoises contained in seven bags and arrested the accused women, an official of the Railway Protection Force said. The women, hailing from Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, were carrying the tortoises for delivery to a client at Asansol in West Bengal, the official said. The tortoises would be handed over to the forest department, the official added. Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Nabam Tuki has congratulated Lhakpa Tsering for winning the 17th Raid-de-Himalaya, a rare feat achieved by any individual from the state. Commending the achievement, the chief minister said that Tsering has set an example for the youths to emulate, an official communique informed. Tsering who had finished second in the "17th Raid-de-Himalaya" in October this year, was declared winner of the event in place of Raj Singh Rathore. Tsering was declared winner after Rathore's entry into the event was declared 'null and void' due to technical discrepancies in his paper works, according to Vijay Parmar, the Head of the event organizer, the communique added. Turkish coastguards rescued 57 migrants seeking to reach EU member Greece by sea after they were stranded on a rocky islet in the Aegean Sea, official media said today. The migrants were trying to reach the Greek island of Lesbos but their boat hit trouble after leaving the resort of Dikili in Izmir province on Turkey's Aegean coast, the Anatolia agency reported. They were stranded on a rocky islet off Dikili, with pictures showing the migrants, who included women and several children, looking for help from the tiny islet. Twelve of the most vulnerable, including three children, were winched to safety by coastguard helicopters while the other 45 were picked up by fishing boats as the larger coastguard vessels could not approach the rocky islet. They were then taken to Dikili port, it added. Turkey, which is home to some 2.2 million refugees from Syria's civil war, has become a hub for migrants seeking to move to Europe, many of whom pay people smugglers thousands of dollars for the risky crossing. The UN refugee agency and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) have said more than one million migrants and refugees reached Europe in 2015, most of them by sea. The vast majority of people -- over 800,000 -- landed in Greece, according to the figures. The onset of winter and rougher sea conditions do not appear to have deterred the migrants, with boats still arriving on the Greek islands daily. To commemorate the centenary of World War I, an exhibition was organised by Kochi Biennale Foundation (KBF) in association with Goethe Institute at Pepper House in Fort Kochi. Syed Ibrahim, director of Goethe Zentrum, Thiruvananthapuram inaugurated the two-day event 'digging deep, crossing far' at Pepper House yesterday. The exhibition is open for public today and tomorrow. The art works essay the details of the 1914-18 war and India's role in it, courtesy works by four noted artists: Ayisha Abraham, Gilles Aubry, Sarnath Banerjee and Surekha, a KBF release said. Photographs, sound installation, 'scene portrays' and image installations narrate the history on World War I and will comment on the role of Indians in it. Internationally acclaimed German artists Elke Falat and Julia Tieke curate the event. According to the curators, though WW-I was fought mainly between European nations, the involvement of the British, French and other empires meant that soldiers and people of the colonies were actively involved in the war. "Over 10 lakh Indian members of the colonial army were employed during the war, with recorded fatalities of over 60,000," they said. In a breakthrough in the murder case of engineer Ankit Kumar Jha in Bihar's Vaishali district last week, two accused persons were today arrested, a senior police official said. On the basis of surveillance of mobile phones, a police team arrested one accused Prabhat Kumar from Dumka district in Jharkhand, while another Ramji Patel was nabbed from Hajipur town in Vaishali district, Superintendent of Police (SP) Rakesh Kumar said. Both accused persons were said to be close to Jha, an engineer of Reliance IT , whose body was recovered from a village under Barati police outpost area in Vaishali district on December 29 last, he said. The two accused had business and financial dealings with the slain engineer, the SP said. The 42 year-old engineer's murder, coming close on the heels of a similar incident in Darbhanga district in which two engineers of a private road construction company were killed, had raised serious question about law and order situation in Bihar. Under attack from the opposition for deteriorating law and order situation, the Chief Minister had chided the police brass and asked them to take whatever action was required to improve the situation on law and order front. Two Israeli soldiers, one a woman, were wounded today in separate shootings in the flashpoint West Bank city of Hebron, the army said. The young woman was seriously wounded when a gunman opened fire on her, and she was evacuated to Jerusalem's Shaare Tzedek hospital, as army statement said. The shooting happened near a disputed holy site in the heart of Hebron's Old City, which is known to Muslims as the Ibrahimi Mosque and to Jews as the Cave of the Patriarchs. Three hours later, another gunman opened fire on an army patrol in southern Hebron, slightly wounding a soldier, the army said, adding that the unknown assailant fled after the attack. Some 500 Jewish settlers live under tight guard among around 200,000 Palestinians in the southern West Bank city, where several anti-Israel attacks have been carried out in the past weeks. Today's shootings come amid a wave of violence since the beginning of October last year that has killed 138 Palestinians and 20 Israelis. A UK delegation including an imam from London has visited Sudan in an attempt to stem the flow of British doctors studying in the country joining the Islamic State (ISIS) in strife-torn Syria. The terrorist group has been seeking out foreign medics to help at its hospitals in Syria and at least 17 British doctors are believed to have joined the group's so-called "health ministry" in 2015 alone. According to a report in the 'Observer', the UK Foreign Office is coordinating efforts to prevent more Britons travelling to join ISIS from Khartoum's University of Medical Sciences and Technology (UMST), the main source of these medics in Syria. The newspaper reported that a second group of UK doctors who left Sudan for Syria have joined up with members of an earlier group who travelled to join ISIS in March last year. According to family sources, the second group of five Britons, including two brothers from Leicester, are understood to have joined up with 20-year-old Rowan Kamal Zine El Abidine, a prominent member of the nine-member British medical staff who journeyed from Khartoum earlier. Concerns that more sleeper cells of British doctors in Khartoum are planning to go to Syria have prompted some parents to reportedly withdraw their children from UMST and has triggered considerable unease among UK diplomats and the Sudanese intelligence services, the newspaper claims. A UK Foreign Office spokesperson said: "Since the cases of British nationals travelling from Sudan to Syria, the British embassy in Khartoum remains in contact with the University of Medical Sciences and Technology to address these concerns. "We continue to support the university in its efforts to promote dialogue around these issues. Deploring the mass execution of 47 people by Saudi Arabia including a well-known Shia cleric who had not committed any crime viewed as "most serious" under international humanitarian law, the UN rights chief has called on the kingdom to impose a moratorium on all executions. "Under international human rights law, the death penalty may only be imposed, in countries that still have this form of punishment, if a strict set of substantive and procedural requirements are met," UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said. "The category of 'most serious crimes' for which the death penalty is still permissible, has been consistently interpreted by human rights mechanisms as being restricted to murder and other forms of intentional killing," he added. "Convictions cannot be based on confessions obtained under torture and ill-treatment, or trial proceedings that fall short of international standards," the High Commissioner said. The UN rights chief also said that convictions for applying the death penalty that fall short of international standards are "unconscionable" because "any miscarriage of justice as a result of capital punishment cannot be undone". Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia announced yesterday that it has executed 47 people in a single day on terrorism-related charges, including the Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr who was a vocal critic of the government and the Saudi monarchy. The execution has provoked a huge backlash among the Shia community across the world and threatens to deepen the serious sectarian conflict in the Middle East. Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr was a symbolic leader of Shia protesters during the Arab Spring uprisings in many parts of the Persian Gulf. Iranian protesters have ransacked and set fire to the Saudi embassy in Tehran in protest. Shia-dominated Iran has said that rival Saudi Arabia is going to pay a "high price" for the executions. There has been a huge upsurge in executions in Saudi Arabia in 2015 with at least 157 people put to death as compared to 90 people who were executed in 2014. "Now we see almost one-third of the 2015 total executed in a single day," Zeid said. "That is a very disturbing development indeed, particularly as some of those sentenced to death were accused of non-violent crimes," he added. He urged the government of Saudi Arabia to impose a moratorium on all executions and "to work with the UN and other partners on alternative strategies to combat terrorism". The UN General Assembly has repeatedly passed a number of resolutions calling on member states who retain the death penalty to establish a moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty altogether. Strongly condemning the "heinous" terror attack on a key Indian Air Force base by Pakistani terrorists, the US today asked all countries in the region to work together to disrupt and dismantle terrorist network. "The United States strongly condemns the terrorist attack on an air force base in the Indian state of Punjab on January 2.We extend our condolences to the victims and their families," State Department spokesman John Kirby said. The US is committed to its strong partnership with the Indian government to combat terrorism, he said in a statement. "We urge all countries in the region to work together to disrupt and dismantle terrorist networks and to bring to justice the perpetrators of this heinous act," Kirby said. Heavily-armed Pakistani terrorists yesterday attempted to storm the Air Force base in Pathankot, triggering a day-long gunbattle in which three security men and all the five infiltrators were killed. Three other security men succumbed to injuries in a hospital later and one NSG member was killed while defusing the grenade at the scene of the terror attack, taking the toll of Indian security personnel to seven. The attackers were believed to have infiltrated from Pakistan and there was speculation that they may belong to Jaish-e-Mohammad headed by Maulana Masood Azhar of the Kandahar hijack episode. The US today condemned the terror attack on an Indian Air Force base by Pakistani terrorists and urged all countries in the region to work together to disrupt and dismantle terrorist network. "The United States strongly condemns the terrorist attack on an air force base in the Indian state of Punjab on January 2. We extend our condolences to the victims and their families," State Department spokesman John Kirby said. The US is committed to its strong partnership with the Indian government to combat terrorism, he said in a statement. "We urge all countries in the region to work together to disrupt and dismantle terrorist networks and to bring to justice the perpetrators of this heinous act," Kirby said. Heavily-armed Pakistani terrorists yesterday attempted to storm the Air Force base in Pathankot, triggering a day-long gunbattle in which three security men and all the five infiltrators were killed. The attackers were believed to have infiltrated from Pakistan and there was speculation that they may belong to Jaish-e-Mohammad headed by Maulana Masood Azhar of the Kandahar hijack episode. An US firefighter in California has been arrested and placed on paid administrative leave for allegedly killing his five-month-old pet German shepherd. Nicholas Joseph Luiz, 32, with the Santa Clara Fire Department is off the job following his arrest last week after he reportedly admitted to killing his pet dog at his Napa home. Police allege he had been abusing the animal for its entire five-month life, authorities said. Luiz was arrested on Wednesday and booked on suspicion of felony animal cruelty, according to a release from the Napa Police Department. He is not in jail. Santa Clara Fire Chief Bill Kelly said Luiz has been placed on paid administrative leave and that the department has launched an internal investigation, Mercury reported. "It was disturbing when I heard this news," Kelly said. "We are taking this very seriously." Officers were called on Tuesday night to Luiz's home on Massa Drive after receiving multiple complaints that he had been abusing his dog "for the last several months" and that he may have killed the animal. The officers knocked on the door but got no answer and returned Wednesday morning with a search warrant. While serving the warrant, police said they found the dog dead at the home, and that Luiz admitted to killing the animal. Napa police Captain Jeff Troendly said investigators believe the dog was repeatedly slammed to the ground in the backyard. Honduras' government says it has received a request from the United States for the extradition of former vice president and businessman Jaime Rosenthal, who is accused of money laundering. Foreign Minister Arturo Corrales says the request should be sent to Honduras' Supreme Court by Tuesday. Addressing a conference yesterday, Corrales called the US extradition request for Rosenthal "bad for the country." On October 7, the US Treasury Department announced that Rosenthal, his son Yani Rosenthal and nephew Yankel Rosenthal along with the varied businesses of the Grupo Continental had been designated under the Kingpin Act. US prosecutors accuse them of laundering money for Central American drug traffickers. The Rosenthals have denied the allegations. Yankel Rosenthal was arrested in Miami. Doug Walker, an early US high- tech pioneer and an avid outdoor enthusiast has been killed in an apparent avalanche. Walker, 64, disappeared while hiking with a group of friends at the Granite Mountain Trail, about 72 km southeast of Seattle, California. The King County Sheriff's Office found his body during a search on Friday along a route that he had apparently traversed many times. The American Alpine Club, for which Walker served as president, confirmed Walker's death. Sheriff's Sergeant Cindi West said that "he was found in ... A debris field, which would be consistent with an avalanche having occurred, so that's one possible scenario of what happened." Walker, originally from South Carolina, moved to Seattle to attend graduate school at the University of Washington. In 1981, he co-founded Walker, Richter and Quinn (WRQ), a software firm that helped companies connect desktops with large mainframe computers. Walker retired after WRQ Inc. Was sold in 2004 for an undisclosed amount. Published reports at the time said the company -- which was one of the biggest privately held software companies in the United States -- recorded USD 100 million revenue the previous year, CNN reported. Walker was founding president of the Seattle Parks Foundation and a member of other local and national outdoor organisations. Walker was also remembered by US Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, who said in the Seattle Times that "our nation lost an amazing entrepreneur and true champion for access to the great outdoors for all people, especially youth." Jewell and Walker had both served on the board of the outdoor equipment retailer REI. The estimated Rs 5,000-crore joint venture between steel giant ArcelorMittal and state-run SAIL is most likely to be finalised this year with the Steel Ministry working towards formalising the project. "We have signed an MoU with ArcelorMottal for a steel plant. We want to finalise the project this year. Work on it is progressing," Steel and Mines Minister Narendra Singh Tomar told PTI. In May last year, NRI billionaire Lakshmi Mittal-led ArcelorMittal and domestic steel giant SAIL inked a memorandum of understanding to look at the possibility of setting up an automotive steel plant in the country. The proposed JV will construct a cold rolling mill and other downstream finishing facilities in India, touted as one of the fastest-growing automotive markets in the world with production expected to double between 2014 and 2020, from 3.6 million units to 7.3 million units. A senior government official said that if the project is operationalised it will be a double win for India. "One it will give a major boost to the 'Make in India' programme. Second, it will help us in further improving our world production ranking and inch closer to the number two spot," the official added. In August 2015, ArcelorMittal's head of global automotive and commercial coordination Brian Aranha said: "It's early days, and it could take between 18 months and two years for the MoU to become a formal joint venture, but we've certainly signaled our intent." He added that the potential automotive-focused steel joint venture in India represents a "natural next-step" in the firm's global growth plans. In an investor presentation given in June, ArcelorMittal had said that the proposed steel plant will come up at a major auto cluster in India. India has four major auto clusters -- Pune-Chakan belt in Maharashtra, in the outskirts of Chennai in Tamil Nadu, Sanad in Gujarat and the Gurgaon-Neemrana belt spread across Haryana and Rajasthan. The world's largest steel maker expects India to grow as a hub for automobile export manufacturing facilities to cater to the international market and establishing an automotive focused production presence in India is a natural progression in executing its global automotive strategy. The move is considered to be a big one for ArcelorMittal, which is trying to enter India after failing for a decade to set up plants at Odisha and Jharkhand. Its work on the $6.5 billion Karnataka plant is yet to take off. A UK-based website set up to chart the last days of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose has released documents relating to the day before his plane crashed in August, 1945. The latest documents on www.Bosefiles.Info, launched by UK-based independent journalist and Boses grandnephew Ashis Ray, trace his movements on the day before his plane crashed in Taiwan on August 18, 1945. The website citing documents said that on August 17, 1945, Bose departed Bangkok and arrived in Saigon before midday. Several Indian and Japanese witnesses testified this to the 1956 Netaji Inquiry Committee headed by Major General Shah Nawaz Khan, among them S A Ayer and Debnath Das of the Provisional Government of Free India (PGFI) and Colonel Habib ur Rahman of the Indian National Army (INA) - both headed by Bose. Maj Gen Bhonsle, INA's chief of staff, who was later interrogated by British military intelligence, concurred that Bose left Bangkok for Saigon on the morning of August 17, 1945. In Saigon, though, in the immediate aftermath of Japan's surrender in World War II a couple of days earlier - when this country's military headquarters were in a state of confusion - no plane was straightaway available to carry Bose to North-East Asia, as was the plan. Ultimately, General Isoda of Hikari Kikan, the liaison body between Japanese authorities and the PGFI and INA, conveyed to Bose that only two seats would be available on a plane heading for Tokyo. This meant a majority of his advisers and officers would not be able to accompany him. According to the deposition of Colonel Pritam Singh of the INA to the Inquiry Committee, Bose was advised to accept the offer. He selected his ADC Col Rahman to go with him. Before the flight took off, there was an issue of the aircraft being overloaded. The Committee recorded that Bose "discarded a part of his baggage containing books, clothes, etc." Among the Japanese passengers on board was Lt Gen Shidei, a distinguished officer who was on his way to Manchuria in China near the Soviet border to take command of the Japanese forces there. "General Shidei was supposed to be an expert on Russian affairs in the Japanese Army and was considered to be a key man for negotiations with Russia. It was suggested that Netaji should accompany him to Manchuria," Negishi, a Japanese interpreter attached to Bose's headquarters, told the Shah Nawaz Committee. Therefore, it appears to have been agreed that Bose would go to Dairen, in Manchuria, with Gen Shidei. Lt Col Shiro Nonogaki, an Air Staff Officer of the Japanese Army, who was also one of the passengers, independently corroborated to the Committee: "The plane was scheduled to carry General Shidei to Manchuria. Netaji agreed to go with him to Dairen in Manchuria. The plane was a 97-2 (Sally) twin-engined heavy bomber belonging to the Japanese Air Force. The route charted for it was: Saigon-Heito-Taipei-Dairen-Tokyo. But because of the delay in departure from Saigon, the pilot decided on an unscheduled halt for the night at Tourane on the Indo-China coast instead of going as previously planned all the way to Taiwan. There were an estimated 13-14 persons on board -- Bose and Rahman and the rest of them Japanese. Rahman described to the Committee: "Immediately behind the pilot was sitting Netaji, and nobody opposite to him, as the space was restricted by the petrol tanks. I was sitting immediately behind Netaji. The co-pilot's seat occupied by Lt Gen Shidei was offered to Netaji, but he did not accept, as it was too small for him." When taking off at Saigon, the plane needed almost the entire length of the runway to get airborne. This suggested it was still overloaded. Therefore, on arrival in Tourane, the crew and other Japanese officers off-loaded "no fewer than 12 anti-aircraft machine-guns" and ammunition as well as other baggage, the Inquiry Committee noted, which reportedly reduced the weight by 600 kilos. In Tourane, Bose spent the night at a hotel, probably Hotel Morin, the website said citing documents. The remaining future revelations on the site aim to lay the facts behind the plane crash the next day that is believed to have killed Netaji, the website said. CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury today slammed the NDA government over the terror attack at Punjab's Pathankot air base questioning the role of the "56-inch government". "Till today morning it was announced that all the terrorists were killed and our jawans have lost lives. We were told that the attack was over and today we heard that the attack is still going on. What is this happening? Why are attacks taking place in the country?" Yechury said at a programme here. "What is happening to the condition of the 56-inch government," he said referring to a speech made by Narendra Modi during the campaign for the Lok Sabha election last year. "After his Pakistan visit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that peace is returning and talks are going on. If all that is true then what is this happening. We want to know the reality. Who is responsible for this?" he questioned. If peace returns between the two nations then the 'dhandha' (business) of some people on both sides will be stopped, Yechury said. The CPI(M) leader also criticised the government on the hike in excise duty, asking how could they do it before the budget. "The money (due to decrease in crude oil prices) which should have gone to the people is now going to the government as a result of this increase in duty," he said. Alleging that RSS is acting as the spokesperson of the BJP, he said they are trying to replace history with Hindu mythology, philosophy and theology. "They are also saying about 'Akhand Bharat' which is between Afghanistan to Bangladesh. What does this mean?," he questioned. He also questioned the role of the media claiming that the fourth estate is working at the behest of those in power. "It is being used to manufacture consent. The control of media is already happening. Every media house is being controlled by the ruling party," he said, adding that what is printed in papers and shown in TV is what the ruling party wants. On political violence in West Bengal, he alleged that the Trinamool Congress government is trying to kill the CPI(M) Bengali mouthpiece newspaper 'Ganashakti'. "It doesn't get advertisements and its hawkers are also attacked," Yechury said. Government plans to shut down terminally sick Hindustan Cables by offering an "attractive VRS" to its 1,500 employees, a final decision on which is expected in 2-3 months. "We will close down Hindustan Cables after offering an attractive VRS package. We have sent the proposal to Cabinet. A decision is expected in 2-3 months," Union Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Minister Anant Geete told PTI. The Cabinet had earlier approved closure of seven terminally sick public sector units, including Hindustan Cables, which have incurred a total loss of around Rs 3,139 crore over a period of time. The ministry was tasked with firming up individual proposals entailing VRS related to the central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) falling under it, including Hindustan Cables. However, reports of revival of the company had surfaced after the Defence Ministry approved its takeover by Ordnance Factory Board. The Board for Reconstruction of Public Sector Enterprises was supposed to take a call on it after taking into account views of all the ministries concerned. Hindustan Cables, set up in 1952 at Rupnarayanpur (West Bengal), has units in different states. However, the company's units in West Bengal and Hyderabad producing Polythene Insulated Jelly Filled (PIJF) cables had not been in production since January 2003, as there is no requirement of these cables in BSNL/MTNL. Similarly, the unit at Naini, Allahabad producing optical fibre cable had also become obsolete due to change in the product specification. The PSUs where closure had earlier been approved are HMT Bearings, Tungabhadra Steel Products, Hindustan Photo Films Manufacturing Co., HMT Watches, HMT Chinar Watches, Hindustan Cables and Spices Trading Corporation Ltd. Last month, the government decided to shut Tungabhadra Steel after the Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs (CCEA) gave the nod to its individual closure proposal. "Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked us to dispose of the assets and settle liabilities of Tungabhadra Steel within three months time," Geete said. In a drive against practice of liquor distribution during elections, women in a Haryana hamlet have resolved not to elect a village-head who is involved in the practice. Stating that consumption of alcohol "is a disease that results in social evils", women in Baraadkheda village of Jind said they will reject any contender for the panchayat poll who backs on this usual practice. Raising awareness among viallgefolks about the harms caused by alcohol, they also wondered how can one, who wins by intoxicating others, be able to usher in development and progress for the village. "Besides, money, liquor deteriorates the body and anybody contesting village panchayat polls found indulged in supplying alcohol to buy votes will not be spared. They will be given a befitting response by not voting in their favour," a woman in the village said. Even before Finance Minister Arun Jaitley begins consulting businesses, and the North Block shuts its doors to keep the Union documents a secret, the finance ministry has already received more than 1,600 inputs from citizens, reflecting in many ways what the common man wants from the Union . PEOPLES VOICE . Read our full coverage on Union Budget Top 10 expectations from 2016 Raise I-T exemption limit to Rs 5 lakh Reduce fuel price and bring achchhe din Give tax breaks to start-ups Boost manufacturing in steel sector VIPs must travel in India-made cars Remove tax on point-of-sale transactions through plastic money Impose additional tax on HNIs, give sops to disciplined taxpayers Impose pollution cess on use of diesel cars Do away with HRA clause for tax exemption Encourage use of drones in agriculture From steps to eliminate black money to a rise in income-tax ceiling; from views that very important persons (VIPs) should travel only in India-made vehicles to the need for a separate ministry for 'achchhe din'; from tips for an agricultural turnaround to levy of a cess on high-networth individuals (HNIs) and a fund to retain talent in India - the mygov.in portal has drawn both mundane and transformative ideas on what the public wants from Budget 2016-17. If the government wants to take public opinion seriously, says an official, the Budget-making team will have to regularly go through the thousands of inputs piling up on the mygov.in portal, the government's online platform for interaction with the public on various projects and issues. A citizen who claims to be a long-time supporter of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) seeks Prime Minister Narendra Modi's intervention in delivering the promised income-tax reduction to the middle class. "Don't reduce corporation tax but provide relief to the middle class, which voted en masse." Also pointing out that service tax is "killing", he wants a drastic cut in this, "otherwise, BJP can forget our votes in 2019," he threatens. A raise in the income-tax exemption limit has been sought by many. While some say it should go up to Rs 4 lakh from the present Rs 2.5 lakh, others want the exemption to be at least Rs 5 lakh. If the basic income tax exemption limit is raised from Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 5 lakh, it would mean an additional cost of at least Rs 15,000 crore to the exchequer, according to estimates. Around 89 per cent of the 35 million taxpayers have taxable income of up to Rs 5 lakh, but people in this band pay just a little over 10 per cent of the total income tax collections. Another citizen demands a pay commission for the private sector, so that salaries of private employees can also go up along with those in government jobs. "Common people will get 'achchhe din' only if their cost of living is reduced. One of the basic factors determining cost of living in our country is fuel price," writes a citizen. "Request (you) to kindly reduce the fuel price and provide achchhe din to us." Another citizen goes on to demand an 'achchhe din' ministry to drive the various government initiatives. While the government is giving the final touches to its start-up policy, public is already on it. "Give start-ups an initial relaxation from taxes for one year. This will boost the confidence and make these lucrative." While the government has made 'Make in India' its signature campaign, citizens are also talking about how to improve the manufacturing industry. "The reason why our manufacturing industry is not growing is the steel price, which is 20 per cent higher than the Chinese steel price. You need to either do something in the steel sector so that the prices come on a par with Chinese prices, or reduce the duties on steel so that the industry can import the metal at a cheaper rate from China and sell finished goods in the world market." That will increase growth in the manufacturing industry and also create jobs, he says. In sync with the government's 'Make in India' theme, a citizen suggests that all government officials and VIPs use the vehicles of Indian brands alone - that is, they do not use vehicles of high-end international brands like Mercedes, Audi, Porsche, etc. The suggestion is for the PM, President, ministers, chief ministers, judiciary and defence. "It will result in huge growth in GDP. Kindly implement this idea without any propaganda." To promote use of plastic money, there is a suggestion that the tax imposed on point-of-sale transactions be lifted. In a related matter, a citizen demands that the use of a currency be limited to a maximum period of three years. That is, in 2016, only the currency printed after January 1, 2013, should be considered valid. "If people need to use older currency, they should get it exchanged from banks. It will stop people from accumulating cash." Yet another input is that a cess to the tune of 0.05 per cent (in addition to education cess) be levied on the taxable income of all people earning more than Rs 30 lakh a year. Funds coming from this can be utilised for research & development schemes. The same person advises the finance ministry to offer tax sops to people willing to install residential rooftop solar systems. Perhaps inspired by the Delhi government's odd- even formula, a citizen recommends that a pollution cess be imposed on users of diesel vehicles. Others suggest higher price of diesel and diesel cars. Removal of house rent payment clause 10(13) A is a view expressed by several people on the portal. The reason cited is that people tend to misuse the clause by showing fake receipts/agreements to claim deductions. Instead, this exemption can be evenly distributed across other sections. For employment generation, a citizen suggests a voluntary retirement system for people in government jobs who are aged over 50 years. Instead, he suggests, the wards of people availing of VRS, be given jobs in the same organisation. Extra privilege for those paying income tax on time is another common suggestion. This could be in the form of exemption from other taxes like service tax, value-added tax, home registration charges, road tax, etc. To arrest brain drain, a student has asked for creation of a special fund of Rs 5,000 crore. It is, however, not clear how this fund will help retain Indian talent. Surcharge or additional tax for purchase from malls and online buying is another radical idea. People with two or three houses - even those with some registered in the name of their spouses - should be charged additional tax, the same person suggests. Besides, experts are not the only people saying this Budget should focus on agriculture. One of the inputs on mygov.in is that drones should be used extensively in agriculture. Since up to 80 per cent losses in agriculture are due to pests and diseases, innovative drones can quickly take samples from air and detect incoming disease, says a citizen in his suggestion. "This can help alert farmers." Another request is for a "separate budget for agriculture" as that is the most important aspect of the . Giving the key points for the Budget, a citizen suggests that cities be allowed to issue municipal bonds for raising funds; government controls over corporate downsizing be relaxed; Air India be privatised; the Bibek Debroy committee's report be accepted and implemented; social-impact assessment (SIA) in infrastructure projects be ensured; retrospective taxation on cross-border investments be removed; and kerosene and fertiliser pricing be deregulated. "I request the government to invest more in education and health care facilities this year. It will be better if the government can create a site where particulars of tax coming from the Swachh Bharat cess are provided," writes another. One of the out-of-the-box suggestions comes for a system where people are given points for every good deed, so that they can redeem those points against special benefits from the government, such as tax discounts. Another such proposal is that all citizens should have a single fixed lifetime bank account linked to PAN, Aadhaar and voter identity, with the provision to change the banker for better service. Sea planes, helicopters and amphibious vehicles would soon be available to boost tourism in Goa even as the state is expected to attract 7.5 million visitors this year. "The sea plane project will start on January 6. We have already signed a contract with Mumbai-based MEHAIR company, which will run the sea planes connecting Dabolim airport to different rivers across the state," said Goa Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar. While the sea planes and helicopters will be flying across the state from the Vasco-based Dabolim airport, plans are afoot to start amphibious vehicle services for tourists which will take them from cities to inland water routes, he added. He said that sea planes would land in the Mandovi and Chapora river during the first phase and the tourists will be directly flown from the airport to the heart of the coastal state. The trial run for sea plane was successfully held on May 23 last year. The state tourism department will also, from January 15 onwards, launch private helicopter services connecting Dabolim airport to various helipads. "Semi-government organisation Pawan Hans has already entered into an agreement with us wherein they will fly tourists from the airport to various helipads in places like Aguada, Old Goa and Canacona," added Parulekar. The tourism department is also ready with four amphibious buses which would be launched in the state after proper approval is obtained from the Union shipping ministry. "We held discussions with shipping minister Nitin Gadkari during his recent Goa visit. We will launch these buses soon once we get the approvals," Parulekar said. According to the minister, after recording 6.5 million tourists last year, this calendar year, the state government expects 7.5 million tourists to arrive in Goa. "The tourism scene looks bright. The number of chartered flights will also go up. The introduction of e-visa facility has seen tourists from places like America visiting Goa. Travellers from Germany and the UK are also benefiting from the e-visa facility," he added. Linking the Cyprus issue to the Kurdish issue of Turkey is the only effective way to [a] uncover Turkish hypocrisy on her approach to majority-minority community relations [b] bring about a fair and permanent settlement to Cyprus' Turkish problem and [c] help bring community status recognition for the close to 20 million Kurds of Turkey. A win-win-win for the Kurdish, Turkish and Cypriot peoples. It may also bring about the first ever truly democratic constitution in Turkey's history! SHARE WEDNESDAY Orientation for small businesses A small business orientation is from 4-6 p.m. at the Economic Development Center, 3209 S. Staples St., CED 146. The seminar will provide new business owners information to start a business. Topics include: small business loans and financing requirements, business plan, licensing, contracting and permit information and resources. Free. Information: www.seminarscc.com Friday CPA luncheon set for January Corpus Christi Chapter of the Texas Society of CPAs will host a luncheon featuring an overview of fringe benefits presentation at 11:30 a.m. at the Congressman Solomon P. Ortiz International Center. Cost: $35 and $40 after Jan. 1. Information: 800-428-0272, ext. 279. Later YWCA to host justice forum The YWCA will host a Racial Justice Forum with a panel of local spiritual leaders from 9:30-11:00 a.m. Jan. 18 at the YWCA, 4601 Corona Drive. Information: ywcacc@ywcacc.org and register at www.ywca.org/corpuschristi. Compiled by Natalia Contreras When is hurricane season? Here's what you need to know in South Texas GABE HERNANDEZ/CALLER-TIMES Operations Manager Steven Schmidt of NuStar Energy takes a photo of the Theo T ship as the company prepares to export a shipment of crude in the wake of the federal government lifting the 40-year ban on crude exports Thursday, Dec. 31, 2015, at the NuStar Energy Dock 16 in Corpus Christi. SHARE GABE HERNANDEZ/CALLER-TIMES Pipes funnel crude into the Theo T ship as crews prepare it to sail to Europe in the wake of the federal government lifting the 40-year ban on crude exports Thursday, Dec. 31, 2015, at the NuStar Energy Dock 16 in Corpus Christi. GABE HERNANDEZ/CALLER-TIMES A docksman walks around pipes as crude is loaded in the Theo T ship. It is the nations first export of crude oil in the wake of the federal government lifting the 40-year ban on the exports Thursday, Dec. 31, 2015, at the NuStar Energy Dock 16 in Corpus Christi. GABE HERNANDEZ/CALLER-TIMES A docksman looks at gauges as crude is placed in the Theo T ship for export in the wake of the federal government lifting the 40-year ban on the exports Thursday, Dec. 31, 2015, at the NuStar Energy Dock 16 in Corpus Christi. GABE HERNANDEZ/CALLER-TIMES The Theo T ship is loaded with crude as NuStar Energy and ConocoPhilips prepares to export a shipment of crude in the wake of the federal government lifting the 40-year ban on the exports Thursday, Dec. 31, 2015, at the NuStar Energy Dock 16 in Corpus Christi. By Chris Ramirez of the Caller-Times The ban is lifted. Finally. That can mean only one thing: The crude oil export race has officially started. And the Coastal Bend's largest port says it's ready to handle a blizzard of new outbound cargo ship traffic. Work crews for NuStar Energy and ConocoPhillips, both companies with deep energy footprints in South Texas, spent much of Thursday loading the "Theo T," a tanker based in the Bahamas, with light crude oil that had been sold to Vitol, an international trading company based in The Netherlands. Internet-based vessel trackers show the 745-foot vessel set sail for Italy, leaving NuStar's North Beach Terminal in Port of Corpus Christi around 4:20 p.m. Thursday. The time and day of the ship's departure and where it's headed are important; the shipment is believed to be the nation's first export cargo of U.S.-produced light crude oil since the 40-year-old ban was lifted. The companies' outbound cargo leapfrogged them ahead of Enterprise Products Partners LP, which announced a week ago it would load the first cargo of American export crude in Houston during the first week of January. President Barack Obama last month signed a 2016 spending bill that included a provision allowing the export of U.S. crude for the first time since the 1970s. Back then, Arab members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries imposed an embargo against the United States. John LaRue, executive director for the port, said port officials anticipate such activity to continue as companies adjust to the restriction's end. In April, the port authority issued $115 million in revenue bonds to help finance a variety of projects over the next decade in anticipation of greater vessel traffic, as well as the ban's repeal. Such bonds are paid for with revenue the port generates, not from a tax increase. LaRue said the port's investments in its terminal operations, as well as its deep water, added dock space and abundant storage, have helped position it to become a leading exporter of U.S. crude oil. "Infrastructure improvements at (the port) have placed our port in a unique position as a critical component in the export of U.S. crude and condensate," LaRue said. Future capital improvements, including a long-pursued plan to deepen the ship channel to 52 feet from its current depth of 45 feet, remain a priority, LaRue said. Private industry also has done its part to improve the port. NuStar has invested more than $10 million in the last 10 years to expand its South Texas Crude Oil Pipeline System to move crude oil to Corpus Christi. A major component of the system is the North Beach Terminal, which has storage capacity of 1.6 million barrels. "Based on our investments in Corpus Christi and our South Texas pipeline system, NuStar was well-positioned, equipped and staffed to immediately begin loading cargoes for export," NuStar President and CEO Brad Barron said. A total of 6,993 vessels sailed through the port from January to November, compared with 8,528 vessels during all of last year, according to port financial records. Port officials say although the volume of vessels this year appears to be off the pace, the weight of port cargo steadily climbed during the same period. In all, 91.4 million tons of cargo moved through the port between January and November, compared with 100.5 million during the same months a year earlier. Twitter: @Caller_ChrisRam SHIP AND BARGE ACTIVITY Year No. of vessels 2015* 6,993 2014 8,528 2013 6,870 2012 6,082 2011 5,413 2010 5,768 2009 5,160 2008 6,032 2007 6,744 2006 6,633 2005 7,335 2004 7,237 TONNAGE OF COMMODITIES 2015* 91,421,794 2014 100,588,014 2013 88,891,604 2012 78,806,189 2011 80,310,217 2010 82,194,297 2009 76,519,648 2008 85,859,440 2007 89,319,693 2006 86,982,833 2005 86,785,950 *From January to November Source: Port of Corpus Christi GABE HERNANDEZ/CALLER-TIMES Nell Rampley smiles as she celebrates her 100th birthday with friends and family Saturday, Jan. 2, 2016, at Trinity Towers in Corpus Christi. SHARE GABE HERNANDEZ/CALLER-TIMES Nell Rampley (left) greets her friend Katherine Ethridge as she celebrates her 100th birthday with friends and family Saturday, Jan. 2, 2016, at Trinity Towers in Corpus Christi. GABE HERNANDEZ/CALLER-TIMES Nell Rampley (from right) plays with her great-grandchildren Langley Smith and Nelwin Smith as she celebrates her 100th birthday with friends and family Saturday, Jan. 2, 2016, at Trinity Towers in Corpus Christi. GABE HERNANDEZ/CALLER-TIMES Nell Rampley (left) greets Anne Hoss as she celebrates her 100th birthday Saturday, Jan. 2, 2016, at Trinity Towers in Corpus Christi. GABE HERNANDEZ/CALLER-TIMES Nell Rampley (back) keeps a framed photo of her first husband, Hamilton Williams, in her apartment at Trinity Towers. She celebrated her 100th birthday with family and friends Saturday, Jan. 2, 2016. By Esther Hackleman Nell Kyle Rampley sat under the domed hair dryer that whirred over her delicate white curls in the hair salon of Trinity Towers on Saturday morning. Every weekend, colorful rollers cling to Rampley's white locks as she sits in the row of humming hair dryers at her weekly hair appointment, but this week her ritual became ceremonial. Later Saturday, Rampley stood surrounded by loved ones in front of her birthday cake with a sparkling 100 on it, celebrating the new year with a new century. "I didn't expect (to live this long)," Rampley said, laughing. "I've been blessed." Rampley credits her health to clean living, resting on Sunday and exercising the rest of the week in 30-minute classes that target strength building and range of motion. With another year to look forward to, Rampley said the secret to living well lies in the old saying that she has cherished as advice and acted on throughout her life: "Love many, trust few and paddle your own canoe." Rampley, the youngest of eight children from the Kyle family, was born Jan. 2, 1916, in Grapeland before the family moved to the West Texas town of O'Donnell, where she graduated from high school in 1934. As she grew up, the world grew with her. Born eight years after the first Ford Motor Company Model T was built, Rampley remembers crossing a paved road for the first time when she was 8 years old on a visit to Oklahoma City. "I was born before women could vote, but I was 4 years old when it became law," said the woman whose blue eyes have seen the effects of the Great Depression, World War II, integration and the Great Recession. "The world has changed, and it's much better than it used to be." Rampley moved to Portales, New Mexico, after graduating, where she attended Eastern New Mexico University before falling in love and marrying her first husband, Hamilton Williams. He served as an Army infantryman during World War II for 28 months after the birth of their first child. When her husband returned, the small family moved to Refugio, where Rampley would give birth to two daughters and where she would work as a librarian at the Refugio County Library for more than 20 years. Her membership to the Daughters of the American Revolution, Daughters of the Republic of Texas, Daughters of the Confederacy and the Order of the Eastern Star permanently links her love of history and its preservation. "It's inspiring to think that you can live that long, to be alert and healthy," her daughter Linda Jordan said. "She's probably in better health than I am." In her 100 years, Rampley outlived two husbands, her only son and the relatives with whom she grew, but on Saturday the Potpourri Room at Trinity Towers was filled with more than 75 family members and friends, including her great-grandchildren and new friends she made in Corpus Christi after relocating from Refugio. "It's pretty special to have a big family. I have outlived all of my brothers and sisters and all of my nieces and nephews of the first generation," Rampley said. "I've had a few rocks in the road, but I just kicked them aside." Twitter:@Caller_Esther SHARE Congratulations to new Police Chief Mike Markle and to City Manager Ron Olson for having completed the difficult process of filling arguably the most important position he has the authority to fill. We find no fault with whom Olson chose. And that says a lot, considering that Markle already had been the interim chief for six months, since the tragic death of his predecessor, Floyd Simpson, in a motorcycle crash. Markle's time at the helm appears to have been administratively uneventful. Now he is free to innovate. One expectation should be that he will make a priority of reducing domestic violence, the city's leading cause of homicide. If he turns out to be an extension of the Simpson administration, that wouldn't be a bad thing at all. Simpson raised the profile of the position of police chief, making it more friendly, inclusive, constructive and community-spirited. Simpson was known for his broken-windows approach a philosophy that seemingly small things amiss, such as a broken window, could lead to bigger problems if not corrected. He would target behaviors that mostly law-abiding citizens are guilty of and are likely to correct if called out, such as speeding and parking vehicles on the street facing the wrong way. As small as those issues seemed when Simpson pointed them out, cutting out that kind of nonsense makes an entire community better because it has higher expectations of itself. Our advice to Markle is that he follow Simpson's lead while being a leader rather than a follower. One lead worth following would be to get out of the office and into the community and make himself known to its various civic groups and neighborhoods. Olson didn't give Markle the job until after a nationwide search that attracted more than 50 applicants narrowed to six finalists. They included four white guys and two black guys, all but one from Texas, two from Corpus Christi. We'd have liked to have seen more diversity. In fairness, women still are heavily outnumbered in law enforcement and qualified, available female applicants for chief may be hard to find. But this department has spent the past several years digging its way out of a gender disparity problem under federal scrutiny, and that should have been a motivator to find at least one female finalist. The absence of Hispanic finalists for a chief's job in a Hispanic-majority city seems much more curious. Perhaps the finalists reflected the overall applicant pool. The trouble is, we don't know. Only the finalists were disclosed. On the upside, Olson gave all six finalists public exposure at a meeting. But the swiftness of his decision after the meeting it was on a Friday evening and he announced Markle the following Monday left us to wonder if the meeting with the public had much influence on Olson's decision. Some residents probably more than a few wondered aloud why the city bothered to spend the time and money on a national search if all Olson was going to do was promote from within. The answer is that he didn't just promote from within. Markle didn't inherit the job. He won it in a competition with a talent pool sought nationally. (By the way, congratulations to assistant chief Mark Schauer for also having made finalist. It signals that the internal applicant pool was strong. And that reflects positively on the department.) Olson looked for the best chief available not the most available. That was in the city's best interest. And Markle's. SHARE Jim Van Gilder, Rockport No end to what we can tax Maybe we should take President Obama seriously when he claims climate change is more dangerous than ISIL. And Bernie Sanders answered one of the questions I had regarding where in the world we are going to get enough cash flow to cover just the existing sovereign debt? The answer is more taxes on everything. A meat tax is perfect! But for every opinion, there is an opposing one. In the scientific analysis of environmental problems, it has been reported that photosynthetic organisms contribute around 100 thousand million metric tons of carbon to our biomass each year. Converting that into common avoirdupois numbers, a metric ton is 2,200 pounds. There must be some way to tax stuff like trees in our yards since they produce carbon dioxide after dark. Apparently they have yet to discover carbon emissions caused by beans. Beans should either be taxed or prohibited. And when they run out of things to tax, they can always go to value added taxes, like Europe. Sanders has warned us several times that he is a strong socialist. Were he to be elected, we will discover what he meant by going "far enough" when it comes to taxes. The National Gallery of Australia, Questacon and the National Museum of Australia are on the list of things to do for the Melbourne family, who are visiting relatives in the ACT over Christmas and the New Year. "He would contact me and say 'I want to see my kids' but he would also call me or harass me or send me 20 messages a day saying, 'Can I see the kids'," she said. "Some of my friends and neighbours in their 80s, who retired before computers replaced typewriters on desks, are less familiar with the use of computers and high-tech devices, but even they have smartphones. 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Care2 Stands With: humanitarians, animal lovers, feminists, rabble-rousers, nature-buffs, creatives, the naturally curious, and people who really love to do the right thing. You are our people. You Care. We Care2. Welcome to SwanseaOnline - your home for the best news, sports and what's on coverage of the city. Never miss a Swansea story with our daily newsletter Sign up to comment on our stories here Follow us on Facebook and Twitter | Swansea City news | Ospreys news | InYourArea Christmas celebrations ended earlier this year for Steve Goldfield after his Ferrari was involved in an incident. The actor and producers 458 Speciale was parked in the Hollywood area of downtown Los Angeles when a woman, who was allegedly high on cocaine, lost control of her car and crashed into it. She then tried to flee the scene, but was restrained from doing so by bystanders until the police arrived. She was charged for multiple offenses, including the use of a controlled substance. The Italian exotic was apparently hit from behind and, besides the marks left on its rear, on the side and on the front right quarter. Theres no word whether the natually aspirated V8 suffered some kind of damage, too, as fluids leaked on the pavement. Goldfields ride will have to be repaired and the insurance claim will be huge. If its deemed a write-off, then its replacement could be another Ferrari like the F12 Berlinetta, since he has stated that he loves the F12tdf. All 799 units are sold out, but surely he can afford to pay a premium for a used one Via thesupercarblog.com and gtboard PHOTO GALLERY Photo: Contributed - Google Street View UPDATE JAN. 4, 2016 The Kelowna RCMP says it is saddened to report that the 78-year-old man struck last week in Kelowna has succumbed to his injuries overnight. The man was struck by an eastbound Suzuki Swift on December 31, 2015, near the intersection of Springfield Road and Dayton Street as he was crossing Springfield, heading toward Chances Gaming. At the time of the incident police said the man was wearing dark clothing and did not appear to be in a marked crosswalk when he was hit. The driver of the vehicle, a 21-year-old Lake Country man, remained at the scene and has been co-operating with police. The Kelowna RCMP Municipal Traffic Section will continue to assist the BC Coroner's Service in the investigation. ORIGINAL JAN. 1, 2016 An elderly Kelowna man is in serious condition in hospital after he was struck by a vehicle crossing Springfield Road. The incident occurred shortly after 5 p.m. Thursday. RCMP Const. Jesse O'Donaghey said the man was crossing Springfield heading toward Chances Gaming when he was struck by an eastbound Suzuki Swift. Police say the 78-year-old pedestrian was wearing dark clothing at the time and did not appear to be in a marked crosswalk when he was hit. He was taken to hospital by ambulance and suffers what police describe as serious, potentially life-threatening injuries. The driver of the vehicle, a 21-year-old Lake Country man remained at the scene and has been co-operating with police. Alcohol has been ruled out as a contributing factor and police do not believe speed was a factor either. Police are continuing to investigate. If you witnessed this crash and have not yet spoken to police please contact Const. Carson of the Kelowna RCMP Municipal Traffic Section at 250-980-5353. Several hundred people took to Okanagan Lake in less than ideal conditions for the time-honoured Canadian new year's tradition - the Polar Bear Dip. Air temperatures in the -7 C range and frigid water temperatures didn't deter people in Summerland, Peachland and Kelowna from taking the New Year's Day plunge. Here are some pictures to commemorate the occasion. Reptile fossils offer clues about elevation history of Andes Mountains The fossil shell from an extinct tortoise of the genus Chelonoidis, found near Quebrada Honda, Bolivia, is among the fossils suggesting the Altiplano was less than a kilometer in altitude 13 million years ago [Credit: Darin Croft] TANN you might also like On an arid plateau in the Andes Mountains of southern Bolivia, a Case Western Reserve University researcher flagged what turned out to be the fossil remains of a tortoise nearly five feet long -- a find indicating this highland was likely less than a kilometer above sea level 13 million years ago.Fossilized shell pieces of a much smaller, aquatic turtle found nearby support the altitude estimate and also indicate the climate was much wetter than today.The remains are the first records of fossil turtles from the Miocene epoch in Bolivia, and their presence challenges a recent isotope-based study that estimated the massive plateau, called the Altiplano, near what is now the town of Quebrada Honda, was 2 to 3.2 kilometers high at that time.In addition, the fossils provide a glimpse into climate change caused by rising mountains, which may help scientists understand climate change underway now."We're trying to understand how tectonic plate activity and changing climate affected species diversity in the past," said Darin Croft, an anatomy professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and a paleomammalogist. "One way all this diversity we see in the South American tropics today was generated was through elevation. Mountains create many different climates and ecosystems in a small area, which promotes speciation."Croft found the tortoise remains in an embankment after he missed a turn on a path near Quebrada Honda and was working his way back toward his regular research site. Croft and Federico Anaya, a member of the geological engineering faculty at Universidad Autonoma Tomas Frias in Posoti, later identified other, more fragmentary tortoise remains from other sites in the area.After returning to the United States, Croft sent photographs and three-dimensional computer-generated images of the remains to Edwin Cadena, a turtle expert now at Yachay Tech University in Ecuador.Cadena identified the tortoise as a member of the same genus as the Galapagos tortoise, Chelonoidis. He identified the extinct freshwater turtle as belonging to the genus Acanthochelys, whose surviving members occur throughout much of tropical South America.The animals are ectotherms, commonly called cold-blooded. Their reliance on the outside air to control their body temperature can be used as a proxy for the temperature where they lived and, therefore, elevation.The ancient tortoise and aquatic turtle most likely would have had physiological requirements much like their modern relatives, which generally live at altitudes of up to about 500 meters and can't thrive or reproduce at much higher elevations because of the cooler temperatures, Croft said.Miocene fossilized leaf remains are scant in Bolivia, but those that have been found tend to support the findings of warmer temperatures, lower altitude, and greater precipitation than today.The Andes were formed by subduction -- a process in which one tectonic plate is shoved under another. How quickly the mountains rose to their current elevation is not fully answered.As the highest geological feature in South America, the mountain chain affects global air circulation patterns and plays a major role in global climate."With current global climate change, we'd like to have a better idea of what to expect under different scenarios -- how 1-degree warming or 2-degree warming will affect sea levels and animals," Croft continued. "If we want to model the future, we need to understand and model the past."Looking back, if the Andes Mountains were less than 1 kilometer high during the late Miocene, they would have had a much smaller effect on global circulation than if they were two or three times as high, close to their modern elevation near Quebrada Honda.The researchers believe they have more evidence from extinct animals that this part of the Altiplano was less than a kilometer above sea level 13 million years ago. They found fossil remains of a large snake in the same rock layer as the turtles. Those bones are currently under study by Croft and colleagues.The research is published in the Journal of South American Earth Sciences A man was stabbed multiple times after giving a man a ride early Sunday morning from the Kentucky Fried Chicken on Highway 58. Chattanooga Police responded at 2:53 a.m. to the 5000 block of Hancock Road on an unknown trouble call. Once on scene police located a single victim suffering multiple stab wounds. The victim gave the suspect a ride home, then the man demanded money from the victim once they reached their destination on Hancock Road. A struggle ensued when the victim did not give the suspect money. The victim, 53-year-old Nathan Pearson, was stabbed multiple times in the face, neck, and chest. He got out of his vehicle, fled the area, then called police. The suspect left the area in the victim's vehicle. The victim was treated on the scene by Hamilton County EMS and then transported to a local hospital for further treatment. Warrants have been issued for Ferris Witcher, 24, for attempted first-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated robbery, theft and felony reckless endangerment. Police are still looking for the suspect who left the area driving a 2006 Chevrolet pickup truck. TN# F29-02X. Chattanooga Police ask anyone with information regarding this crime to call 423-698-2525. George Seibel, director of Morton Colleges Institute for Cold Case Solution, is helping the family try to get to the bottom of Jenna Crandalls 2014 death in Warrenville. Authorities ruled out foul play, but I felt like Jenna needed a break, in terms of the truth being found, Seibel said. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune) A retired Chicago police homicide detective who runs a cold case unit at Morton College is investigating the unsolved death of a woman found in a DuPage County Forest Preserve in September 2014. George Seibel, who established the college's Institute for Cold Case Solution in 2004, has met with relatives of the victim, spoken with DuPage County's chief deputy coroner and interviewed an acquaintance of the dead woman, Jenna Crandall. Now Seibel is reviewing a list of the woman's acquaintances and searching for anyone who might have seen Crandall in her final days. Advertisement "I felt like Jenna needed a break, in terms of the truth being found," Seibel said. He became aware of the case from a Chicago Tribune article, published Nov. 27, and sent a letter to Crandall's mother, Donna Gerhartz, offering to help. In early December, Seibel met Gerhartz, her husband and Sally Messenger, a neighbor who has helped the Gerhartzes track down information in the case. Advertisement "I'm just so grateful for the help," Gerhartz said. "I felt so isolated and alone with the goings on." Messenger called Seibel's involvement, "some kind of divine intervention." A man walking his dog in the St. James Farm preserve in Warrenville on Sept. 22, 2014, found Crandall's body. After an investigation and autopsy, DuPage County authorities were unable to determine a cause of death, although Crandall had a number of medications and illegal drugs in her system. Authorities ruled out foul play. The coroner and DuPage County Forest Preserve police closed their investigations. This past summer, Gerhartz and Messenger embarked on an effort to find answers. They obtained more than 100 pages of documents, spoke with authorities, got a forensic pathologist's analysis and opened Crandall's social media accounts. Getting access to Crandall's Facebook account yielded what Gerhartz, Messenger and Seibel say might be an important clue. On Sept. 10, 2014, Crandall and an acquaintance discussed in a Facebook exchange the woman selling her medications to the acquaintance. A day later, Gerhartz said, her daughter walked from their home, purportedly to go to the local library. She never returned. Gerhartz stopped short of saying her daughter was murdered. But based on photos of the death scene, she and Messenger have said that they believe foul play was involved in Crandall's death. Advertisement The photos show Crandall was unclothed from the waist up and her yoga pants had been pulled to the middle of her thighs. Clothes believed to be hers were scattered nearby and there were scrapes and a bruise on her body factors that Gerhartz, Messenger and Seibel said could indicate Crandall was dragged to the spot where she was found. Seibel suspects that Crandall may have been taking drugs with her Facebook acquaintance and someone else and then passed out. Gerhartz confirmed that Crandall had a history of drug use. The acquaintances could have taken her to the forest preserve, near the spot where she and a boyfriend were staying in a tent, and removed her clothes to make the death resemble a sex crime, Seibel said. The former Chicago police officer also noted that the Facebook acquaintance, whom Seibel calls "Friend A," returned a makeup bag to Crandall's family after her death, saying he hadn't seen Crandall for months. The makeup bag had been purchased about nine days before Crandall left her Warrenville home. DuPage County authorities maintain that the marks on Crandall's body are too superficial to indicate she had been dragged. Investigators also said dragging her body would have left an impression in the grass and other plants. DuPage County Forest District police Lt. Howard Oller said he was "wary" of Seibel's involvement but was interested in reviewing the Facebook exchange between Crandall and her acquaintance. Messenger said she delivered printouts of the conversation to forest preserve police headquarters Dec. 24. A spokesman for DuPage County State's Attorney Robert Berlin said the office does not investigate cases until charges are imminent, but it does offer legal advice to law enforcement agencies. Advertisement Seibel said he spoke briefly face-to-face with "Friend A," who became agitated before abruptly ending the conversation. "What I've done so far ... seems to have lit a certain fire and interest that I think is going to promote a lot of people talking about what happened," Seibel said. A Chicago police officer from 1969 until 1980, Seibel has been an instructor at Morton since the early 1980s. His Morton College unit, which consists of about 15 students, investigates eight to 10 cases a year, Seibel said. One of the more prominent cases the unit helped solve was the 1983 murder of Janet Benoit, an Illinois woman who'd was killed in Santa Fe, N.M., while traveling to a new job in Phoenix. Seibel pointed authorities to a Texas inmate who confessed to the crime in 2003. "I think the truth will come out here," Seibel said of Crandall's death. "There are a whole lot of people who know what the truth is." tgregory@tribpub Advertisement Twitter @tgregoryreports Marcie Barnett, who works as a security officer at O'Hare International Airport, is photographer Nov. 8, 2015, at her South Shore apartment in Chicago's South Shore neighborhood. Barnett, 61, depends on a Chicago housing choice voucher to help pay her rent. (Michael Tercha / Chicago Tribune) Four days a week, Marcie Barnett rises at 3 a.m. and then travels by bus and train about 90 minutes from her South Shore apartment to her job as a security officer at O'Hare International Airport. She's on her feet for eight-plus hours patrolling the airport corridors, guarding doors to make sure people don't improperly enter or exit and watching over the baggage claim area. Advertisement But with her $12.20 an hour wage, Barnett doesn't earn enough to pay rent on her three-bedroom apartment, cover utilities and buy groceries for her daughter and granddaughter, who live with her. So she relies on a Chicago housing choice voucher to subsidize more than half of the rent. "I have expenses that are going up and some bills just don't get paid," said Barnett, who has learned not to panic over her state of constant financial crisis. "I've been living like this for so long, I don't even think about it. It's become second nature." Advertisement Barnett, 61, is one of thousands of Cook County residents who go to work, put in the hours, but still receive some form of public aid. At a time the country is engaged in a fierce debate over the minimum wage, Barnett's struggle helps to give it a face. "There is a hard pocketbook cost to keeping workers in poverty in Cook County," said Liz Ryan Murray, the policy director for the National People's Action, a collection of grass-roots groups that support a higher minimum wage. "It affects everyone from people who have businesses, to the workers, to law enforcement, to educators, to everyone who (wants) a healthy economy. "Poverty isn't free," she added. "It's not just low-paid workers that suffer. It's all of us." National People's Action released a study recently in an attempt to broaden the conversation on low-wage workers to look at how taxpayers end up paying to help support those earners. The report comes as activists are pushing for the adoption of a Responsible Business Act in Cook County that would force companies with more than 750 employees to either pay a higher salary to their workers or pay a penalty. Opponents of raising wages argue that the move would force businesses to eliminate jobs, move elsewhere or even close. They say that an increased minimum wage would increase the cost of goods, which would then lower demand and lead to more unemployment. "Higher wages are generally a good thing when they are driven by labor market conditions and increased worker productivity," said James Sherk, a research fellow with The Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. "What's harmful is when the government comes in and tries to make businesses raise wages more than the market demands. Then policies intended to help low-income workers with higher wages can result in them having less take-home pay," because of fewer worked hours, he said. Just as the NPA's study shows the taxpayers' burden for low-income workers, other studies suggest that raising wages could help some workers, but result in higher unemployment overall therefore not reducing government spending on welfare programs, according to Sherk. Authors of the NPA report point out that while paying lower salaries benefits corporations, it penalizes taxpayers who have to offset the cost of living for workers. Typically, the authors say, those low-paid employees must turn to public assistance in the form of housing vouchers, food stamps, discounted day care or child care programs. Advertisement According to the NPA study, 60 percent of the cost of public assistance in Illinois goes to families headed by someone who works. In addition, nearly 1 million people in Cook County live in poverty and either collect public assistance or qualify for it, the report shows. County taxpayers end up covering the cost of nearly $150 million in health care for the working poor. They pay millions more for child care and other expenses, Murray said. The local study was influenced by a similar national report that looked at major corporations such as McDonald's and Wal-Mart and how their wages eventually cost the public. For more than a decade, Ken Jacobs, chair of the Labor Center at the University of California at Berkeley, has been examining the number of fast-food workers dependent on food stamps, free day care programs and other subsidies. His report, released earlier this year, estimated that state and federal governments spend more than $150 billion a year on four anti-poverty programs mainly used by working people. When workers don't earn enough to support themselves or their families, the effects spill over to other parts of their lives, Jacobs said. Low-wage workers tend to suffer from more short-term and long-term health problems and rely on subsidized health care. Their children perform poorly in school, which sometimes steers them to a life of low-wage work. "Low wages have an impact ... well beyond just the direct workers that are affected," he said. If more workers were paid a living wage, public assistance would target the people who need it the most, Jacobs said. Advertisement Take Mary Hood, 29, a Bronzeville mother who works for $10.50 an hour at McDonald's. When she started working at the fast-food chain, she was a cashier, but she worked hard and got a management position. Still, her hourly pay remained the same. "My paychecks vary because I work depending on business," she said. "So my pay is not consistent. I have one daughter and I have rent, lights, gas, life insurance and school fees. I just stretch it out paying what I can throughout the month." As a result, Hood collects $360 a month in food stamp benefits and relies on Medicaid for health care. Without the public aid, she wouldn't be able to make it. "I feel like, why should I have to depend on government assistance when I get up and go to work every day?" she said. "I'm not the type of woman or mother to depend on the state. These programs are supposed to assist you until you don't need it. I have a job and can't let go (of the benefits) because my job doesn't provide all I need." When Diana Bueno, 28, decided to get a job and go to work full time, she thought that if she could just put in the hours, she'd earn enough to start providing a better life for herself and her three small children. But after three months of working as a passenger service assistant at O'Hare Airport transporting elderly, sick and disabled travelers through the terminals in wheelchairs, she feels defeated. Advertisement "I feel like I'm working the most I can and not getting anywhere for it," she said. "I like what I do. I'm just not making enough to make a difference. Once I get a paycheck, it's all gone. I'm behind in so many bills, I think, 'What's the point?'" Bueno's salary equation is complicated. Technically, she earns about $6.75 an hour and is expected to bring in at least $26 a day in tips. That would make her hourly wage around $10 an hour. But often her checks are less than $200 a week, she said. She doesn't earn what she needs in tips. And the money she earns doesn't go far. When she first started working, Bueno said she worked a day schedule and paid a baby sitter to care for her children. But she quickly learned that was eating up all her pay. So now she endures a chaotic schedule so that she can swap free child care duties with her sister. "I push wheelchairs from 3 a.m. until 11:30 a.m.," she said. Then she rushes to pick up her niece. She spends part of the afternoon cleaning her South Lawndale house and cooking before she has to pick up her three children and her sister's two other children from school. By the time she helps all the children with homework, feeds them dinner and puts all six of them to bed by 8, she's exhausted, she said. Then the children are awakened at midnight, when her sister gets in from work, so they can go to her house for the rest of the night. Advertisement At 1 a.m. Bueno is up, getting dressed so she can catch her two buses and a CTA train to the airport for her shift. "I just try not to think about it," she said. "Sometimes I sleep a little on the Blue Line. I get some sleep on the bus." With all of that, Bueno still needs to collect about $400 in food stamps. Barnett lived for years sharing a one-bedroom apartment with her family of three because that was all she could afford. Her daughter and granddaughter shared a bed in the bedroom. She slept on an air mattress in the living room. Daywatch Weekdays Start each day with Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox. > She thought she'd never be able to afford to move, until she was awarded the housing voucher. "It's a struggle, but I have to make it work," she said. Advertisement At her job, Barnett is given only 32 hours a week, she said. That way, if it's necessary that she work overtime, she's never over the 40-hour mark to earn higher hourly pay. Even with her subsidized rent, making ends meet is a struggle. "I have a ring I put back and forth into the pawnshop," she said. "Sometimes that helps if I'm in a pinch." lbowean@tribpub.com Twitter @lollybowean In this July 31, 2015 file photo, a Palestinian inspects a house after it was torched in a suspected attack by Jewish settlers, killing an 18-month-old Palestinian child and his parents, at Duma village near the West Bank city of Nablus. (Majdi Mohammed / AP) JERUSALEM Israel on Sunday charged two Jewish extremists in an arson attack that killed a Palestinian toddler and his parents last July culminating a drawn-out investigation into a case that has helped fuel months of Israeli-Palestinian violence. The indictments came as Israel said it had broken up a ring of Jewish extremists wanted in a series of attacks on Palestinian and Christian targets. While Israel's prime minister trumpeted the arrests as a victory for law and order, the charges drew criticism from Palestinians, who said they were too little and too late, and from the suspects' relatives, who claimed their loved ones had been tortured by Israeli interrogators. Advertisement While Israel has been dealing with a wave of vigilante-style attacks by suspected Jewish extremists in recent years, the deadly July 31 firebombing in the West Bank village of Duma sparked soul-searching across the nation. The attack killed 18-month-old Ali Dawabsheh, while his mother, Riham, and father, Saad, later died of their wounds. Ali's 4-year-old brother Ahmad survived and remains in an Israeli hospital. The attack was condemned across the Israeli political spectrum, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged "zero tolerance" in the fight to bring the assailants to justice. Investigators placed several suspects under "administrative detention," a draconian measure typically reserved for Palestinian militants that allows authorities to hold suspects for months without charge. Advertisement "Enforcing the law is the life's breath of democracy, of the rule of law. We are not restricting it to one sector and we are not focusing on only one sector," Netanyahu told his Cabinet on Sunday. But critics have noted that lesser non-deadly attacks, such as firebombings that damaged mosques and churches, had gone unpunished for years. And as the investigation into the Duma attack dragged on, Palestinians complained of a double-standard, where suspected Palestinian militants are quickly rounded up and prosecuted under a military legal system that gives them few rights while Jewish Israelis are protected by the country's criminal laws. At one point, Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said there were difficulties in prosecuting because of lack of evidence. When a wave of Palestinian attacks erupted last fall, many Palestinians pointed to the unsolved Duma attack as one of the main sources of frustration motivating attackers. In Sunday's indictment, Amiram Ben-Uliel, a 21-year-old West Bank settler, was charged with murder. The Shin Bet internal security service said Ben-Uliel had confessed to planning and carrying out the attack, and said a minor was charged as an accessory. It said the arson was in retaliation for the killing of an Israeli by Palestinians a month earlier. Yinon Reuveni, 20, and another minor were charged for other violence against Palestinians, including setting fires to two of the Holy Land's most famous churches the Dormition Abbey, a Benedictine monastery located just outside Jerusalem's Old City, and the Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fish on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. All four were charged with belonging to a terrorist organization. Another 23 were implicated in attacks, it said. In a statement, the Shin Bet said it had thwarted a "Jewish terror organization" that dreamed of overthrowing the government and establishing a religious theocracy that would be headed by a king, rebuild the biblical Jewish Temple and expel non-Jews. It quoted what it said was a document confiscated from an activist that said killing non-Jews who refuse to leave the land, including women and children, is permissible. "If you want to strike a blow to the damned," it said, setting a house on fire "on top of those inside" is an effective tactic. Advertisement The statement was not clear whether the other suspects had yet been officially charged. One of the men named in the statement, Meir Ettinger, a grandson of the late ultranationalist Rabbi Meir Kahane, has been held in administrative detention since August. Members of the Dawabshe family praised the indictments but said Israel must do more. "You say that this a democratic state and I want justice. Catch the rest of them," said Hussein Dawabshe, the toddler's grandfather. "It is very good that they caught (the two). It's a lead. They now need to follow the lead all the way through." Relatives of the suspects, meanwhile, accused the Shin Bet of torture. "The confession ... was extracted with force and beatings using methods that remind of the inquisition," said Itamar Ben-Gvir, a lawyer representing the two arson suspects. The Shin Bet has said that its tactics are all within the scope of the law, and the nation's leaders have backed the agency against the charges. The extremists are part of a movement known as the "hilltop youth," a leaderless group of young people who set up unauthorized outposts, usually clusters of trailers, on West Bank hilltops land the Palestinians claim for their hoped-for state. Advertisement Dvir Kariv, a recently retired Shin Bet official who tracked Jewish extremists for over two decades, described the hilltop youths as a small but extremely dangerous group because of their anti-democratic views. "They group believes that through violence they will succeed in turning this country into a theocracy," he said. He said these activists reject even the country's most hard-line politicians as being too soft, and that even the most radical West Bank rabbis wield no control over them. He estimated the "violent hardcore" at about 100 activists, and a "second circle" of a few hundred others. He said prosecuting the Duma activists would send a powerful message and weaken the extremists. "It definitely has an important influence," he said. Last month Israeli police made arrests after a video emerged of extremists at a wedding at which guests can be seen celebrating the Duma attack. The Yesha council, an umbrella group of West Bank settlements, commended Sunday's indictment and said the suspects do not represent it. "It is now clear that these acts were perpetrated by a fringe group of anarchists bent on destroying the state of Israel and the freedom and justice that it represents," it said in a statement. Advertisement In the past three months of violence, Palestinian attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers have killed 21 Israelis, mostly in stabbings, shootings and car-ramming attacks. That figure does not include two Israelis killed Friday, in a shooting attack on a Tel Aviv restaurant. An Arab man who remains on the loose is the primary suspect, though a motive hasn't officially been determined yet. During that time, at least 131 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire, 90 of them identified by Israel as assailants. The rest died in clashes with security forces. Israel says the violence is being fanned by a Palestinian campaign of incitement. The Palestinians say it is rooted in frustrations stemming from nearly five decades of Israeli occupation. The violence continued Sunday as a female Israeli soldier was shot in the West Bank city of Hebron, the military said. She was moderately wounded and troops were searching for the shooter. A few hours later, also in Hebron, the military said another soldier was shot and wounded. Associated Press Saudi Arabia severed diplomatic relations with Iran on Sunday, escalating the regional crisis that erupted after the execution of a Shiite cleric triggered outrage among Shiites across the Middle East and beyond. Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told reporters in Riyadh that the Iranian ambassador to Saudi Arabia had been given 48 hours to leave the country, citing concerns that Tehran's Shiite government was undermining the security of the mostly Sunni kingdom. Saudi diplomats had already departed Iran after angry mobs trashed and burned the Saudi Embassy in Tehran overnight Saturday, in retaliation for the execution of Sheik Nimr Baqr al-Nimr earlier in the day. The rift sets the region's two biggest powerhouses on a collision course at a critical time for U.S. diplomacy aimed at bringing peace to the Middle East, and it raised the specter of worsening violence in countries where they back rival factions, such as Yemen and Syria. Despite their countless international feuds, it was the first time since a two-year rupture in 1988-1990 that diplomatic relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia had formally been severed, according to Abdullah al-Shamri, a Saudi analyst and former diplomat. Nimr was among 47 people put to death on the biggest single day of executions in Saudi Arabia since 1980. He was one of only four Shiite Muslims in the group and was by far the best known. Most of the others were Sunnis accused of carrying out a spate of attacks linked to the Sunni al-Qaeda organization over a decade ago. The cleric's role as a leader in the anti-government protests that swept the Shiite eastern regions of Saudi Arabia nearly five years ago ensured that his death sentence would be carried out and that there would be an enraged response from Shiites across the region. In tough comments Sunday, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, predicted "divine retribution" for Nimr's executioners, saying that the execution "will cause serious troubles for the politicians of this [Saudi] regime in a very short time." "The hands of divine vengeance will surely snatch - by their necks - those cruel individuals who took his life," he said in comments posted on his website. A photo montage alongside the statement showed a split image of an Islamic State fighter preparing to carry out a beheading and a Saudi executioner, asking the question "Any difference?" Saudi Arabia responded with an angry statement pointing out that Iran is often accused by the international community of supporting terrorism and of executing large numbers of people. Iran "is the last regime in the world that could accuse others of supporting terrorism," said a Foreign Ministry statement reported by the official Saudi news agency. Iran carried out 694 executions in the first half of last year, according to an Amnesty International statement in July. Saudi Arabia, whose population is about a third the size of Iran's, carried out 157 in all of 2015, according to Amnesty and media reports. Beyond the invocations of divine justice, however, Iran made no specific threats of retaliation, and Iranian leaders ordered a halt to attacks on Saudi diplomatic facilities after the assaults on the Saudi Embassy in Tehran and the Saudi Consulate in Mashhad late Saturday. Police officers were deployed to protect the charred remains of the Saudi Embassy, which had been ransacked and set ablaze by an angry crowd. Protesters who tried to gather nearby were dispersed by water cannons, according to photos posted on social media. The Iranian government announced that it had arrested 40 people in connection with the attack on the embassy. "In no way is this justifiable," President Hassan Rouhani said on his Twitter account. "All Iranian officials are fully committed to confront these illegal acts." In Lebanon, Hasan Nasrallah, leader of the Shiite Hezbollah movement, which is closely aligned with Iran, urged his followers not to rise to the bait of what he cast as sectarian provocation on the part of Saudi Arabia. "The House of Saud wants to stir Sunni-Shiite sectarian strife everywhere, and our people must be aware of this and must not turn the issue into a Sunni-Shiite conflict," he said. To do so would be "an act of betrayal of the blood of Sheik al-Nimr, and it serves the purpose of his killers." But the furor went deeper than the execution of a single cleric, striking at the heart of the Saudi-Iranian rivalry that has fueled, though not caused, much of the conflict engulfing the region. Encouraged by Washington and by the regional realignment underway in the wake of the deal over Iran's nuclear program, the two rivals had been tentatively exploring closer ties, and it is unclear whether Saudi Arabia intended such a rupture when it carried out the death penalty against Nimr. The execution is in keeping with the newly aggressive stance adopted by King Salman, who has worn the crown for a little less than a year since the death of his half-brother, Abdullah, and it sent a powerful message that Saudi Arabia is intent on standing up to its regional rival, said Theodore Karasik of Gulf State Analytics, a consulting group. "The Saudis hope to demonstrate that they are on the offensive in terms of the Sunni-Shiite divide, and they have just upped the ante on that significantly," he said. Saudi analysts question, however, whether the authorities in Riyadh intended or even foresaw the uproar that would ensue. The different branches of Saudi Arabia's government do not always coordinate, and it is unclear whether the Foreign Ministry, which has been taking steps to mend relations with Iran, would have been informed, said al-Shamri, the Saudi analyst. A new Saudi ambassador to Iraq, whose Shiite-led government has also responded with outrage to the execution, was dispatched only days before the execution. Riyadh had been preparing to send a new ambassador to Tehran, after the previous envoy was withdrawn amid criticisms of a kiss, widely broadcast on social media, that he shared with Iranian politician Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. "That tells me there was no timing. It was not planned," al-Shamri said, pointing out that Nimr had been sentenced in 2014 and that the government had announced the plan for the mass execution in November. "Bureaucracy in Saudi Arabia is very slow." The Saudi government may simply have been seeking to strike a sectarian balance in carrying out the death penalty against so many people, said Toby Matthiesen, an expert on Saudi Arabia at Britain's Oxford University. Some prominent figures were included in the group of 43 Sunnis put to death, and Saudi Arabia has to tread as carefully with its majority Sunni constituency as it does with the minority Shiites. Maybe, he said, "they threw in a few Shia amongst the Sunni militants that were executed to say, 'We are evenhanded, we execute both Sunni and Shia.'" BEIJING - China's recent moves to defend its sovereign territories in the South China Sea make sense, a US scholar has noted. China has described the issue in the Nansha Islands as a "core interest" because it involves sovereign territory, and it "is only a statement of the obvious," said Greg Austin, a professorial fellow with the EastWest Institute in New York. "Any assumption that China has somehow expanded its maritime claims because it now feels more powerful is not borne out by the facts," Austin said in an article published recently on the website of The National Interest, an American bi-monthly international affairs magazine. "One of many things that have changed about the disputes is China's willingness to act robustly, as most states would, to defend pre-existing sovereignty claims that have been in place ...," said Austin, who is also a visiting professor at the University of New South Wales Canberra. "China's primary motivation in recent South China Sea military activities, then, is to defend what it sees as its island territories which neighboring countries have attempted to usurp," the scholar said in the article entitled "Why Beijing's South China Sea Moves Make Sense Now." Smog shrouds the China Central Television building in Beijing on Monday, when severe air quality prompted the capital to order polluting industries to suspend production. [Photo/Agencies] BEIJING - China's weather observatory upgraded its fog alert from yellow to orange, second most serious level, for Saturday evening to Sunday morning. Fog will be thickest in Hebei, Shandong and Henan with visibility less than 200 meters, according to the National Meteorological Center. Visibility will be less than 500 meters in Beijing, Tianjin, Jiangsu, Anhui, Hubei and Hunan. Snow will disperse smog on Monday and Tuesday, while rain will sweep some parts in southern China. The public has been warned to take protective measures when engaging in outdoor activities, and those who suffer from respiratory diseases are advised to stay indoors. A bunch of Chinese cities have issued warnings for haze A new series of smog alerts have been issued in parts of northern China. Here in Beijing, a yellow-alert is now in effect, with visibility down to 500-meters. In Xi'an and Tianjin, orange-alerts are now in-place. PM2.5 readings in Tianjin have hit 482 this Sunday. The province of Shaanxi is coping with readings averaging around 200. Provincial Meteorological chief Liu Yong says the topography of Shaanxi isn't helping. "The temperature is relatively low in the autumn and winter. The winds are also weaker, making it more difficult for the haze to blow off. The Guanzhong plain is also a basin, which is hemmed in by mountain ranges on three sides. This makes it even tougher for the winds to blow in." The National Meteorological Center is forecasting snow should help weaken or clear the smog in parts of north China on Monday and Tuesday. Coal-fired power generation in northern China is being blamed for much of the adverse conditions which have been gripping northern China for the past few weeks. Beijing has been through two separate red-alerts for smog, as have a number of cities in neighboring Hebei. China Telecom chairman Chang Xiaobing under investigation Chang Xiaobing, Chairman of China Telecommunications Corp. [Photo/IC] BEIJING - Thirty-seven provincial and ministerial level officials were put under investigation in a year of "zero tolerance" for corruption, said China's top graft buster on Saturday. According to the website of the Communist Party of China's (CPC) Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), authorities looked into the conduct of new provincial and ministerial level officials every month of 2015, with 7 investigation cases begun in November, the most. The 37, including 10 from central government and 9 from centrally-administered state-owned enterprises, came from 31 provinces, municipalities and regions, said the CCDI. Of those probed, 13 of them, including a minister, were the most senior member of their departments, 35 percent of the total. In 2014, the number investigated was 38. Since late 2012, the CPC has been waging an intense war against corruption. A photo shows the training of China's first aircraft carrier. [Photo: t.people.com.cn] Military observers in China are suggesting the new Chinese aircraft carrier currently under construction is going to be quite different from the country's first vessel. Chinese officials, in confirming the construction of the new aircraft carrier, say its going to be based fully on Chinese needs and designs. The new aircraft carrier is going to be run on a conventional power plant, and will be designed to accomodate the domestically-developed J-15 fighter jets. China's Ministry of Defense says the design of the country's second aircraft carrier has been made from the lessons and experience gleaned from the testing done on the "Liaoning." The "Liaoning" is China's first aircraft carrier. It is former Soviet-designed carrier purchased from Ukraine in 2012. Cao Weidong with the Chinese Navy's Academic Research Institute says virtually everything on the new Chinese-designed aircraft carrier is going to be different from the "Liaoning." "It's going to have a brand new propulsion system, as well as an independently-designed hull that will be built with Chinese-developed special steel. There is no doubt that its interior structure will be totally different from the Liaoning's." Cao Weidong says the new aircraft carrier is the latest step in China's establishment of a 'blue water' navy. "China's naval strategy has seen a significant change from inshore a defense strategy to escort missions on the high seas. The deployment of the new aircraft carrier will make the PLA navy more capable of conducting escort missions and and protecting waterways along the 21st maritime Silk Road." The Chinese military observer also says the new aircraft carrier is going to be well armed. "Weapon systems, such as China's latest phased array radar, short-range anti-aircraft missiles and quick-firing cannons will be installed on the new ship. It's likely the new carrier is also going to have an upgraded communication system." Cao Weidong says the launch of the new aircraft carrier will also give the Chinese Navy an upper hand when it comes to maritime disputes. It's expected the carrier will still employ a so-called "ski-jump" ramp to allow the J-15 fighter jets to take off. US-produced carriers employ a catapult system to launch their fighter jets. At this point, there is still no timetable for the new ship's entry into service. BEIJING - A Chinese musical named "With Love, William Shakespeare" is being staged in Beijing to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare. The musical, presented in Beijing's Star Theater from Dec. 31, 2015 to Jan. 31, reinterprets the classics of Shakespeare, including Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night, The Taming of the Shrew and A Midsummer Night's Dream, in the context of modern China. It tells of four young people who turn to Shakespeare's works for answers whenever their relationships are in trouble, only to end up in failure and disappointment. The British Council has sponsored a global celebration of Shakespeare for the anniversary. One hundred and forty countries and regions will be involved in its Shakespeare Lives program this year. A satellite view of Yongshu Jiao in China's Nansha Islands. [Photo/Xinhua] China has dismissed a protest by Vietnam after a Chinese civilian aircraft landed on one of the Nansha Islands, saying that the operation was carried out within Chinese sovereignty. China carried out a test flight to a newly built airfield on the island of Yongshu Jiao to see whether the facility met civil aviation standards, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Saturday. Hua made the remarks in response to objections voiced by Vietnam's Foreign Ministry. China has "indisputable sovereignty" over the Nansha Islands, and will not accept Vietnam's "unfounded accusations", Hua said. Relations between the two countries are "maintaining development momentum" and China hopes Vietnam can work to achieve "sustainable, healthy and stable" development of bilateral ties, Hua said. In 2014, Yongshu Jiao became the largest of the Nansha Islands, with an area of almost 1 square kilometer following reclamation work by China on a coral reef, according to Chinese media reports. China established a maritime observatory on Yongshu Jiao in the 1980s to collect hydrological and meteorological data in the region that had been commissioned by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Ruan Zongze, vice-president of the China Institute of International Studies, said, "The airfield on the island will help China to collect more data for such research and to perform better in rescue missions." Ruan added that countries, including Vietnam, have been "illegally occupying" China's islands and reefs in the Nansha Islands and carrying out construction work on them. Han Feng, deputy head of the National Institute of International Strategy under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said China had refrained from carrying out major construction work on the islands. This was because of Beijing's "consistent stance of maintaining regional security". As a result, China lags behind in such construction work compared with other claimants to the South China Sea. Zhou Fangyin, an expert of China's foreign policies at the Guangdong Institute for International Strategies, said China doesn't aim to militarize the islands. But "repeated provocations" by the United States, such as sending vessels to the South China Sea, have forced China to ensure it has installations to protect people and facilities on the islands. The two-episode English version of a documentary about Confucius made its debut during Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to the UK. [Photo/China.com.cn] A documentary film on Confucius, made jointly by Chinese and British companies, will launch its six-episode Chinese version at the end of 2016. It is the only Sino-foreign project on Confucius as well as the most expensive Chinese documentary film. The large-scale documentary was co-produced by China Central Television, the British Lion Corporation, China International Television Corporation and Dazhong News Group of Shandong province. In October 22, during Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to the UK, the two-episode English version made its debut in London. The Chinese version is still undergoing post-production and will be launched at the end of next year. It is listed as one of the most major projects of 2016. With an investment of 30 million yuan ($5 million), the documentary took more than two years of research, filming, interviewing and producing. The crew traveled throughout the United States, Britain and China's Shandong, Beijing, Hebei, Sichuan, Guangdong, Hunan, Hubei, Guizhou and Xinjiang. It introduced Confucius' life history, ideology and its far-reaching impact on future generations. Staff members from China and the UK kept the idea of "harmonious but different", which was one of Confucius' well-known sayings, and finished the shooting and production of the English version through continuous communication, argument and cooperation. Drone maker spreads its wings Updated: 2015-12-24 07:51 By Zhou Mo in Shenzhen(HK Edition) A man flies a DJI drone for aerial photography in Central. Drone manufacturer DJI Technology Co is developing thermal-imaging technology for aerial applications with a US company to enable unmanned aerial vehicles to perform tasks more accurately and precisely in various fields like firefighting, agriculture and inspection. Roy Liu / China Daily Shenzhen-based drone manufacturer DJI Technology Co is navigating into other industries after having secured the bulk of the global consumer drone market. It inked a cooperative pact with US-based FLIR Systems earlier this month to develop thermal-imaging technology for aerial applications with a new product called Zenmuse XT, which is due to be launched next year. Installing a thermal-imaging camera in drones will enable unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to perform tasks more accurately and precisely in various fields like firefighting, agriculture and inspection. "Adding thermal imaging as an additional sensor option for aerial platforms will open up new and innovative uses for consumers, whether it's gaining a strategic insight into how their crops are growing or understanding the spread of fires more efficiently," said Frank Wang, founder and chief executive officer of DJI. Last month, DJI stepped into the agriculture sector with a product used specifically in pesticide spraying. The agricultural drone is 40 times more efficient than humans. Drones are also being widely used in disaster zones or emergencies, seeing action in the massive landslide that hit three industrial parks in Shenzhen's Guangming New District last Sunday. DJI, which was founded in 2006, currently commands about 70 percent of the world's consumer drone market. According to a Forbes report, DJI's sales reached 400,000 units in 2014, with total revenue of $500 million. Most of the company's sales came from overseas markets, but it's putting extra focus on boosting its presence on the Chinese mainland. By late last year, DJI's domestic sales accounted for just 10 percent of the total, but have since risen to 20 percent. "Most of our drones are sold online, but we're encouraging more people to make offline transactions," said DJI's public relations director Wang Fan. The company opened its first international retail store in Shenzhen last Sunday. Supervision has been a major concern in the development of drones. The US Federal Aviation Administration issued a regulation on Dec 15, stating that drones weighing more than 0.55 pounds (0.25 kilograms) and less than 55 pounds, including payloads such as on-board cameras, must be registered. Earlier this year, a DJI drone crashed on the yard of the White House, sparking concern over the safety of UAVs. Last month, a video online showed that a DJI drone and a suspected jet fighter nearly collided with each other. "UAVs must be regulated," said Wu Qian, a spokesman for the Ministry of National Defense. According to existing regulations, all UAVs should get approval before being used. "As a prominent company in the new field, DJI is placing safety as its top priority," Wang said. "We hope (the government) could encourage innovation and support the emerging industry rather than impeding its growth by imposing regulations." sally@chinadailyhk.com (HK Edition 12/24/2015 page8) Guo Meiling of China jumps her Mini into the road during the 38th Dakar Rally in Arrecifes, Argentina, January 2, 2016. [Photo/Agencies] BUENOS AIRES - 13 spectators were injured, including five children, on Saturday after being hit by the car of Chinese driver Guo Meiling, during the first stage of Rally Dakar 2016 near the Argentinean city of Arrecifes. The chief of the voluntary firemen corps of Arrecifes, Miguel Sanchez, told Xinhua that "13 people were transferred to the Santa Francisca Romana hospital" in the city, "including five children." Furthermore, certain of the injured "presented multiple traumatic injuries and severe wounds, such as fractures," explained Sanchez. Guo and her co-pilot came out of the accident unharmed but were in shock. One witness of the accident, identified only as Pablo, told Argentinean TV station C5N that Guo's Mini Cooper "overturned and rolled several times" into the crowd. He added that the site of the accident "was not on a curve, it was on a straight part where the people were well located." Flames rise from Saudi Arabia's embassy during a demonstration in Tehran January 2, 2016. [Photo/Agencies] TEHRAN - Angry Iranian protesters against the execution of a Shiite leader by Saudi Arabia raided and set fire to the Saudi Embassy in Tehran late Saturday. The move came hours after the Saudi Interior Ministry announced that prominent Shiite leader Nimr al-Nimr and 46 other men were executed on terror charges. The police were trying to drive some of the protesters out of the embassy after they broke into the compound, semi-official ISNA news agency reported. Tehran Police Chief, Sardar Sajedinia, said that the police have arrested some of those angry mobs who had "illegally" ransacked the embassy, according to Tasnim news agency. "Unfortunately, some (who gathered before the embassy) throw stones and Molotov cocktails at the embassy which caused fire to the building," Sajedinia was quoted as saying. Meanwhile, another group of protesters set parts of the Saudi consulate on fire in Iran's northeastern religious city of Mashhad on Saturday evening, Tabnak news website reported. The protesters gathered in front of the Saudi consulate and chanted slogans against the Arab state's authorities, according to the report. They pulled down the flag of Saudi Arabia from the building of the consulate and threw handmade crackers which caused fire in part of the building, it said. In an announcement, Iran's Foreign Ministry urged the police to protect the diplomatic compounds of Saudi Arabia in the country. Earlier in the day, Iran's Foreign Ministry summoned Saudi Arabian charge d'affaires to Tehran and strongly condemned the execution of Nimr al-Nimr. Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Amir-Abdollahian conveyed the strong protest of the Islamic republic to the Saudi envoy, Ahmed al-Muwallid, over what he called the "irresponsible behavior" of the Saudi officials in this regard, the state TV reported. COLOMBO - Sri Lanka is seeking to further cement its relations with China in the year ahead, a senior government minister told Xinhua here recently. A high-level delegation led by Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe is expected to visit China this year amid efforts to strengthen ties, said the minister, who asked not to be named. Wickremesinghe's visit will come at a time when Sri Lanka resumes all its development projects which were suspended by his government earlier last year. The projects include a multi-billion-dollar port city project funded by China in the capital city and other leisure facilities. "During the visit, several key areas are expected to be discussed by both sides including the resumption of the suspended projects. China is a key partner for Sri Lanka and this government is committed to further boosting ties," the minister said. President Maithripala Sirisena, who defeated former strongman Mahinda Rajapaksa in a presidential election in January last year, himself visited China in March -- his second official visit since winning the presidency. Although there were immediate reports that relations between the two countries soured with the suspension of the Chinese-backed projects, Sirisena has expressed his will to seek further improved ties between the two countries. With suspended projects and Sri Lanka's economy not performing as expected due to political instability with the parliamentary election in August 2015, Sri Lanka is hoping that more cooperation with China would give its economy a much-needed boost in the year ahead. The country's tourism industry which suffered a severe blow following decades of conflict, became the number one foreign exchange earner, largely due to the increase in Chinese and Indian tourists. By the end of last year, China became the number one market for the most number of tourist arrivals, with the government vowing to do more in 2016 to attract a larger crowd. "We want more Chinese tourists coming. In 2016, we want to double the number of tourists coming here," said senior advisor to the tourism minister, Felix Srimal Rodrigo. With an influx of Chinese tourists, the Sri Lankan government is presently negotiating with the Chinese government to expand air links between the two countries. The Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration has also announced that it would resume all suspended projects in Sri Lanka by early this year. In December, Sri Lanka's Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake said that the government was happy with the environmental impact assessment (EIA) report for the Colombo Port City project and therefore had cleared the deck for the project to continue. The absence of a proper EIA was cited as a major reason for pulling the 1.4 billion US dollars project on hold. Late last year, the government also announced that it wanted to attract more Chinese investment and expressed willingness to create a special hub in the south of the island nation for this purpose. According to statistics from the Central Bank, so far, China is Sri Lanka's biggest contributor of foreign direct investments. With many challenges lying ahead for Sirisena, who will complete one year in power this month, Sri Lanka is looking to strong ties with China and fresh projects to achieving the government's vision of developing the nation in the coming years. RIYADH -- Saudi Arabia's foreign minister announced on Saturday to cut diplomatic ties with Iran and asked all Iranian diplomats to leave within 48 hours, local media reported. Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said he had informed the UN Security Council of the attack on the Saudi diplomatic mission in Iran late Saturday, adding that those Saudi diplomats had reached Dubai, the UAE, safely. He accused the Iranian authorities of not taking any measure to prevent the attacks against the embassy in Tehran and the consulate in the Iranian city of Mashhad. On late Saturday, angry Iranian protesters stormed the Saudi diplomat mission against the Saudi execution of 47 individuals over terrorism charges, including a Saudi Shiite cleric, Namir Al Namir, a member of Saudi Shiite community. The attacks were a violation to the international agreements, the minister said, also referring to the Iranians' previous attacks on U.S and British embassies. He also accused Iran of providing protection for Al-Qaeda through weapon trafficking. News / Africa by Staff Reporter The police in Bloemhof in South Africa arrested a 29-year-old suspect for the alleged murder of his girlfriend's five-year-old child, North West police spokesman Sergeant Kelebogile Moleko said.e4NCA reported that police received a report of unnatural death on Wednesday, and went to the scene at Boitumelong Location, Bloemhof, where the victim's mother told them that her boyfriend had assaulted her daughter with a belt.Moleko said it is alleged that the suspect tied the minor up with electrical cable and assaulted her several times with a belt.The girl was allegedly also thrown ton the floor.Emergency Medical Rescue Services personnel later certified that the minor was dead.The suspect is expected to appear in Bloemhof Magistrates' Court on Monday, 4 January 2016, Moleko said. (Photo : Getty Images) This television is limited to the Chinese markets for the meantime, but many are hoping that the company will also release it in India. Advertisement Chinese company Xiaomi has released the Mi TV 3, following the widely popular Mi TV 2 from 2015. The company also released a 60-inch Mi TV 3 a couple of months ago, which makes this the second offering in the Mi TV 3 lineup. Mi TV 3 has a massive 70-inch display panel with a resolution of 3840 x 2160 (Ultra-HD or 4K). It costs about 9,999 CNY. It is an excellent deal even at this price as most Smart TVs are two or three times more expensive. Like Us on Facebook Advertisement This Smart TV has a 1.4 GHz quad-core MStar 6A928 processor paired with Cortex-A17 Architecture and Mali-760 MP4 GPU. It features a built-in internal storage of 8GB for native content, and is powered by 2GB RAM with DDR3 triple-channel RAM. The Smart TV also comes with a micro USB port, an ethernet port, a full sized USB 3.0 port, and three HDMI ports with WiFi and Bluetooth 4.1 LE connectivity. The TV features Xiaomi's customized MIUI TV that runs on Android 5.1. The Smart TV also comes with 2.5-inch stereo speakers featuring Dolby DTS Virtual Surround Sound and Bass Boost. To achieve this, Xiaomi separates some components from the display, so an aluminum-built soundbar is included featuring 6 speakers with two dome tweeters and four 2.5-inch woofers. The soundbar also integrates the motherboard and all the ports as well, it is connected to the display using a single Mi Cable. The TV comes with a premium nature appearance featuring a metal frame as well as a metal back panel. Mi TV 3 is about 12.9 mm thin and 38.6 mm at its thickest. The framing of the TV is made up from aluminum alloy. This television is limited to the Chinese markets for the meantime, but many are hoping that the company will also release it in India. Advertisement Tagsxiaomi Mi TV 3, Mi TV 3, xiaomi TV, Xiaomi Smart TV (Photo : Getty Images) Microsoft has finally purchased cross platform developer tool Xamarin. Advertisement After exposing the allegedly widespread hacking activities of Chinese authorities, tech giant Microsoft Corporation has come to terms with the fact that it has to alter its existing policy. The company will now inform or send notification to concerned email customers if they are being subjected to state-sponsored cyber attacks. Like Us on Facebook Advertisement A few years ago, analysts of Microsoft Corp suggested that Chinese authorities had been intruding into thousands of Hotmail email accounts to target international leaders particularly Tibetans and Uighurs. However, the company preferred to keep quiet about the attack, thus permitting the phishers to continue with their scheme, said a previous Microsoft employees. On Wednesday, Microsoft finally released a statement telling Reuters that the company will modify its existing terms and would now inform concerned customers if they are targets of state-sponsored attacks. In addition, Microsoft spokesperson Fran Shaw clarified that the company was never sure of the alleged hackers of the Hotmail accounts and admitted that they indeed did not notify the customers involved. But when asked what made them changed their minds, he refused to make any comments. The first public signals of attacks were manifested since May 2011. However, there was no direct confirmation from Microsoft that the attacks were carried out by Chinese hackers. Trend Micro Inc, a security firm, revealed that it discovered an email from Taiwan, which has a miniature computer program, and counted over a thousand victims of this email hacking program. Microsoft was able to cover the issue even before the security firm had the chance to disclose it to the public. This detected computer program has the ability to discreetly dispatch or forward copies of the Hotmail users' incoming emails into an account used by the hacker. Several attacks reportedly came from a Chinese network called AS4808. Although Microsoft did not argue that the attacks were from China, it pointed out that some also came from other places. "As the threat landscape has evolved our approach has too, and we'll now go beyond notification and guidance to specify if we reasonably believe the attacker is 'state-sponsored," Microsoft said following the announcement of its new policy. In response to the allegations, the Chinese government has reiterated its stand as "a resolute defender of cyber security and strongly opposes any forms of cyberattacks," Lu Kang, Chinese Foreign Ministry, said. "I must say that if the relevant party has some real and conclusive evidence, then it can carry out mutually beneficial cooperation with China in a constructive way in accordance with the existing channels." Advertisement Tagsmicrosoft corporation, Chinese hackers, hacking attacks, Reuters, state-sponsored attacks (Photo : Reuters) Vietnam accused Beijing of violating it's territorial sovereignty after a Chinese plane landed on an airstrip Beijing has built on the Fiery Cross reef, which Vietnam said, was part of its Spratlys territory in the South China Sea. Advertisement China's Foreign Ministry has dismissed Hanoi's protest over the landing of a plane on a newly-built airstrip on a disputed reef in the South China Sea reef that is being occupied by China on Saturday, saying was a matter 'completely within China's sovereignty.' Vietnam's Foreign Ministry reportedly handed a protest letter to the Chinese Embassy accusing the former of violating its sovereignty by the country's recent act in the disputed South China Sea Like Us on Facebook Advertisement Vietnam accused Beijing of violating it's territorial sovereignty after a Chinese plane landed on an airstrip Beijing has built on the Fiery Cross reef, which Vietnam said, was part of its Spratlys territory in the South China Sea. Le Hai Binh, Hanoi's spokesman, said the structures on the Fiery Cross Reef were built by China ' illegally,' in a territory that is being claimed by Vietnam. In the protest note, Hanoi described the Chinese test flight on the disputed reef as a 'serious infringement of our sovereignty on the Spratly archipelago' and asked the Chinese government to not repeat the action again. In response, Chinese spokeswoman Hua Chunying has said China finished building an airfield on Yongshu Jiao of China's Nansha Islands (the Chinese name of the Spratly archipelago) and the test flight was conducted as a standard procedure. Hua said the government used a civil aircraft in testing the new airfield to determine if it meets civil-aviation standards. "China has indisputable sovereignty over the Nansha Islands and their adjacent waters. China will not accept the unfounded accusation from the Vietnamese side," she said. "China-Vietnam relations, on the whole, are riding a momentum of development. It is hoped that the Vietnamese side can work with China towards the same direction and make concrete efforts to sustain the sound and stable growth of bilateral ties." Meanwhile, the United States has expressed concern over China's test flight in the Spratlys saying this could exacerbate the already heated tensions among claimant countries in the South China Sea. Washington has since criticized China for its land reclaimation activities in the region as well as the building structures and facilities on the artificial islands, which US security officials say may be used by China for military purposes. The White House has issued a statement calling on all claimant-countries to commit to halt the building of new facilities, reclamation activities, and all actions tantamount to militarization of the region. China is claiming 95 percent of all islands, islets, and reefs in the South China Sea believed to have huge deposits of gas and oil and through which $5 trillion worth of maritime trade passes through each year. The Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Taiwan have overlapping claims in the South China Sea. Advertisement TagsVietnam Foreign Ministry, China Foreign Ministry, Le Hai Binh Sculptures are displayed at a book store in Nanjing of Jiangsu Province, China. The Chinese government is to tighten supervision to ensure a 'clean' publications market. Pornography and illegal and pirated publications should be confiscated and street vendors, distributors or unlicensed business operators should be shut down, according to reports. (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images) Advertisement Chinese authorities continue with the government's intensified campaign against online pornography, with the Zhejiang Province shutting down at least 881 websites for lewd content, the Xinhua news agency has reported. From January to October of this year, the anti-pornography authority of Zhejiang province took down from the Internet 16,500 items that were considered as lewd or pornographic. Like Us on Facebook Advertisement Zhejiang's anti-pornography and anti-illegal publications office director Huang Baiqing told the official Xinhua news agency that the office had also blocked more than 1 million items that had lewd content. During the 10-month operation, authorities were able to block 1,021 websites that operate outside China due to pornographic content. It was, however, not clear what the punishments were for sites that had pornographic content aside from shutting them off the web. The Chinese government has intensified its campaign against online pornography to protect the Chinese Internet users, which is estimated to be about 650 million 2015. Aside from going after small, little-known websites, China's anti-pornography authorities have also suspended operations of major websites when investigators found a number of content that were considered lewd. So far this year, the National Office Against Pornographic and Illegal Publications has already taken down or confiscated 435,000 illegal websites and books that were deemed pornographic. In an official statement, the national office said all of the websites that were taken down carried pornographic content. It, however, did not provide details on the confiscation of books that allegedly contained materials that were not fit for children. Early this year, authorities in Gansu Province suspended the deputy head of local transport bureau after he was caught watching pornographic movies while at work. The report was based on an undercover investigation conducted by reporters. The investigation also discovered more than 200 porn movies on the official's computer hard disk. Advertisement TagsChina Pornography, China Online Pornography, China Sex Onlne Finches living in the Galapagos Islands, which helped naturalists Charles Darwin prove his theory of evolution, are currently facing the threat of extinction due to parasitic flies. According to scientists' prediction, these birds could get wiped out in 50 years if proper steps are not taken, Huffington Post reported. Based on studies carried out by researchers on the Galapagos, over 500,000 birds belonging to 18 species of finches are dealing with a parasitic problem caused by flies. They explained that these flies lay the eggs of their larvae in the nests of the finches. Specifically, these eggs are laid inside the nostrils of the young birds. Soon after hatching, the larvae will then feed on the birds. "They are maggots basically, is what they are," lead researcher Pror. Dale Clayton of the University of Utah said according to BBC. "Some of the eggs are laid in the nostrils of the nestlings so those eggs hatch and the larvae begin feeding immediately in the nostrils so you see perforations through the bill especially in bad cases," he added. Another member of the research team, named Jennifer Koop, even likened the flies to vampires. According to the professor, these insects feed on the young finches by chewing through their skin and sucking out their blood and other fluids, the Telegraph has learned. Through computer models, the researchers predicted that if the infestations of the flies continue, then the finches native to the Galapagos Islands could disappear 50 years from now. But, they noted that this could be prevented through man-made actions. One of the solutions they proposed is introducing wasps in the regions. These insects could lay their own eggs in the fly's larvae which could then eat and destroy them. Another option the researchers are considering is distributing cotton balls soaked in pesticides in the islands. The birds will then use these as lining for the nests which could end up killing the parasitic flies. The researchers noted that these solutions may not completely wipe out the problem. But, bringing down the number of infected nests by 40 percent could prevent the extinction of the finches. Aside from protecting the region's biodiversity, saving the finches in the Galapagos Islands is a vital effort due to their role in scientific development. By observing the varying sizes of their beaks and bodies, Darwin was able to draft his theory of evolution by natural selection. This concept changed the world's conventional thinking by introducing the idea the evolution is driven by how living organisms adapt to their environment in order to survive. Atheists, backed by Muslims, push for removal of huge cross at Bladensburg war memorial in Maryland A group of atheists is appealing a Maryland court ruling last Nov. 30 that declared the 90-year-old 40-foot cross at the Bladensburg World War I Veterans Memorial is constitutional and does not violate the Establishment Clause under the First Amendment. The American Humanist Association (AHA), which filed the case against Maryland National Park and Planning Commission in February 2014, filed a notice of appeal with the court on Dec. 28, stating that it would file an appeal with the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn the ruling. In its lawsuit, the AHA claimed that the cross represents an endorsement of religion. "The Bladensburg Cross is an enormous Christian symbol on government property and has the clear effect of endorsing religion," said Monica Miller, senior counsel for the Appignani Humanist Legal Center. "We will continue defending the First Amendment rights of our clients as well as all non-Christian service members who are excluded from the government's Latin cross monument." WND reported that the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) joined the AHA in challenging the cross. The memorial was established in 1925 in Bladensburg in Prince George, Maryland by the American Legion to honour the 49 men in the county who gave up their lives during World War I. "This veterans memorial has stood in honor of the fallen for almost 100 years and should be allowed to stand for 100 years more," said Noel Francisco, lead counsel for the American Legion. "We stand ready to defend the memorial and the men it honors against this meritless attack." Kelly Shackelford, president and CEO of Liberty Institute, which represented the legion, said "the humanist group is facing an uphill battle on this appeal." "After a thorough analysis of the facts and the law, the court was clear that the memorial is completely lawful. We are confident the Fourth Circuit will agree and uphold the constitutionality of this historic veterans memorial," she said. In her ruling, Judge Deborah Chasanow said the location of the cross has a secular purpose and it does not endorse any religion. She said other courts also "have recognised that displaying a cross to honour fallen soldiers is a legitimately secular purpose." "Entanglement between church and state becomes constitutionally excessive only when it has the effect of advancing or inhibiting religion," she ruled. Many U.S. abortion clinic workers quitting industry and becoming pro-life advocates, group says A significant number of abortion clinic workers have left the industry, with some becoming pro-life advocates, thanks to the efforts of one pro-life group, according to a former Planned Parenthood clinic director in Texas. Abby Johnson, who is now a pro-life advocate and head of the And Then There Were None (ATTWN) group, said nearly 200 employees have resigned their jobs in abortion clinics across the U.S.one in 16 abortion clinic employeesin less than four years through her group's efforts, LifeSiteNews reported. Johnson said about two years ago, Planned Parenthood provided free marketing for ATTWN. "We are a small organisation with no paid staff and certainly no advertising budget. But God has worked that out for us. Planned Parenthood has sent out multiple 'all staff' emails 'warning' their staff about our ministry and encouraging them not to contact us," she revealed. She said the tactic "backfired on them." "We have received dozens of calls from workers who were desperately looking to get out of the industry, but didn't think they could do it alone," she said. Today, she said, majority of workers go to their pro-life group when they heard about the ministry. "We owe much of our success to those who go to the clinics to spread a message of hope to all who enter the facility," Johnson said. Johnson added, "We have found that most of the workers contact us because there has been a moment of clarity for them in regards to the humanity of the unborn. It may be something in their own personal lives, like the birth of a baby or a miscarriage. More often, it involves a child who was killed by abortion." She said there are about 3,200 people who work in abortion facilities and they have assisted more than 6 percent in their conversion from pro-abortion to pro-life. Johnson said they aim to accomplish what gay rights advocates have done. "Just look at the homosexual lobby. Only three percent of the population identifies as homosexual. However, we can see how much they have accomplished in a short time. We have double that percentage! Each worker who converts is a ripple in the paradigm shift towards a culture of life. It will take the conversion of one heart and one mind to make abortion unthinkable in our society," she said. She said of the 197 workers who have left the industry, six of them were abortionists who permanently put down their life-destroying instruments to become pro-life advocates. "We firmly believe that our vision is a key component in ending the culture of death. If we can make the abortion industry so unattractive to healthcare providers, they will be forced to close because of limited or no staff. We have already seen that happen in multiple locations because of the workers who have come through ATTWN," she said. Muslims-turned-Christians disrupt church Masses, hold street protest in Las Vegas urging Catholics to 'repent' A group of Muslims-turned-Christians disrupted Masses in Las Vegas churches during the Christmas season last month. The members of the "Koosha Las Vegas" group walked into churches during Masses and shouted at Catholics to repent. They then posted the videos on YouTube, according to the Catholic News Agency. On New Year's Eve, the group held a protest on the street in Las Vegas where they held signs that read "Jesus Saves From Hell," "Repent, Trust Jesus" and "Repent or Perish." "Catholic and Islam is Satanic religions," the group commented on its YouTube page. The group consists of street preachers and self-proclaimed "soldiers" for Jesus, CNA added. In one video, four men wearing "Trust Jesus" t-shirts walked up the aisle during a Mass, handing out pamphlets and telling Catholics that they have "sinned against (God) and broken all laws." "Guys, repent! And turn to Jesus Christ! Pope is a Satan! Mary statue is a Satan!" the man behind the camera shouted. In another video, the same man shouted, "Stop worshipping to the idols! Idols not going to save you! You need Jesus Christ! You need the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit," at a Catholic Mass at Our Lady of Las Vegas Catholic Church on Dec. 5. The group also held a protest in December outside the Bishop Gorman Catholic School in Las Vegas. The video showed a man telling students who were passing by, "If you look at the Catechism of the Catholic Church and you look at Scripture, you know why God hates this religious system." According to the Catholic Diocese of Las Vegas, there were "multiple disturbances at several of their properties." The report said the group's emphasis on their Muslim background in the videos has unsettled Catholics in the area in light of the Paris and San Bernardino attacks. Several Catholics fear for their lives because of the group's aggressive protests, according to KTNV Channel 13 News. Police said the incidents do not appear to be connected with any terrorist threats and no arrests have been made since no crimes have technically been committed by the group. Crime and safety expert Randy Sutton said he does not agree with the police that no crime has been committed. According to a Nevada statute, disturbance of a religious meeting is a misdemeanor. "Every person who shall willfully disturb, interrupt or disquiet any assemblage or congregation of people met for religious worship: 1. by noisy, rude or indecent behaviour, profane discourse, either within the place where such meeting is held, or so near it as to disturb the order and solemnity of the meeting ... shall be guilty of a misdemeanor," the statute reads. Sutton said, "This is really unusual behavior. This isn't something that happens all the time. So the fact that it even happened would be enough to cause alarm, and legitimately so." Saudi Arabia enjoys U.S., U.K. support at U.N. rights body despite its execution of 47 people in one day Despite the global outrage triggered by Riyadh's announcement on Saturday that it executed 47 prisoners, including an influential Shiite cleric, Saudi Arabia is unlikely to face rebuke from the United Nations Human Rights Council, the world's top human rights body. The Saudi executions triggered protests in Muslim countries with Shiite population, including Saudi Arabia itself, Lebanon, Iraq and Iran, the Huffington Post reported. Shiite leaders from these countries issued fierce warnings that the execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, who supported regional anti-government protests and was arrested in 2012, would lead to the collapse of the Saudi monarchy. European officials also denounced the mass executions, warning that Nimr's death could worsen sectarian tensions in the region. Saudi Arabia's interior ministry defended the mass execution, saying those who received the punishment were convicted terrorists. Besides Nimr, they included at least three other Shiite political detainees and alleged al Qaeda militants. Death sentences in Saudi Arabia are usually carried out by beheading with a sword. "Regardless of the crimes allegedly committed, executing prisoners in mass only further stains Saudi Arabia's troubling human rights record," said Sarah Leah Whitson, the Middle East director for Human Rights Watch. The 47 convicts executed recently were among 158 people who were meted capital punishment in Saudi Arabia in 2015the highest number since 1995. Despite the condemnations, Saudi Arabia is not expected to soften its policy on the form of punishment it gives to people found guilty of high crimes like terrorism. The criticism is also not expected to weaken Saudi Arabia's influence on the U.N. Human Rights Council where it enjoys the support of world powers, including the U.S. and U.K., the Huffington Post said. The council's 47 members are divided between five geographic regions and elected in a secret ballot of the U.N. General Assembly for a three-year term. Saudi Arabia was elected as one of the members from Asia in November 2013. The Gulf nation was even selected to chair the five-member "consultative group" in the Council that helps select the experts who are assigned to examine human rights issues worldwide. In late September, Saudi Arabia showed its clout on the Council when it succeeded in scrapping a draft Human Rights Council resolution by the Netherlands to establish an international inquiry into human rights violations in Yemen's war. Saudi Arabia is currently leading a coalition of Gulf states conducting airstrikes and providing group support to Yemeni troops and militias fighting Houthi rebels in the country. Human rights groups have verified the use of child soldiers, banned cluster munitions and high civilian casualties throughout the nine-month war. However, the Council settled on a vague resolution that does not include a call for an international inquiry after the Saudis resisted. News / Education by Staff reporter Civil servants in the education sector received their eagerly anticipated December salaries by the end of December but were, however, raised dismay at the alleged unilateral decision by government to effect pension deductions.Long queues at most banking halls were evident across the capital as civil servants in the education sector lined up to withdraw the delayed December salaries.The development has brought glimmer of hope and ensured a sigh of relief for the disgruntled educators.Zimbabwe Teachers' Association (ZIMTA) chief executive officer Sifiso Ndlovu confirmed teachers had received their salaries while expressing disappointment on the employer's unilateral decision to effect pension deductions.According to treasury, salary payment date for the rest of the civil servants has been moved from December 29 to January 5.Government has also assured the civil servants that they will get all their bonuses. Syria: Islamic State suicide bombers target Christian restaurants Islamic State terrorists have bombed Christian-owned restaurants in the Syrian city of Qamishli. Residents of the city in Syria's north-eastern province of Hasakah were preparing to celebrate the New Year when the attackers struck on Wednesday at three restaurants, killing 16 people and wounding more than 45 others. At least two of the attacks were described as suicide bombing by a spokesman for the the Kurdish YPG militia, which controls the town and which is fighting Islamic State. The churches cancelled New Year celebrations after the attacks. A joint statement by the Assyrian-Syriac Churches of Hasakah province said: "We dedicate this evening to prayers for the victims of those attacks. We pray for our region and country amid the bloody war that claims lives of civilians every day." Speaking to ARA News in Qamishli, Father Touni Hannah condemned the attacks and appealed to people to avoid gathering in public places "to avoid the loss of any more innocents". "People were making their preparations to celebrate this Eve, but they were shocked with the brutal attacks that killed and wounded dozens of civilians," Hannah said. "We hope the year 2016 would bring peace to Syria and the region after years of bloodshed." In a separate statement the secretary general of the US-based Assyrian Universal Alliance also condemned the attacks and called for the assault on Christians in Iraq and Syria to be recognised as genocide. Yonathan BetKolia said: "These cowardly attacks are directed at uprooting Assyrians from their ancestral lands. The utter failure of the non-Christian forces in control of the area to avert such inhumane attacks on innocent people is not only unacceptable but unpardonable. "Time and time again we have witnessed the utter failure of regional armed forces to provide the necessary security and safety for the Christians in the region. The Assyrians demand that they immediately be trained and equipped to take control over their own safety, security and destiny in the region." Turkey's President cites Germany under Hitler as example of effective government To most people, the words "Adolf Hitler" and "Nazi" have become taboo due to the controversies that come with them. Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, however, thinks otherwise. In a recent press conference, Erdogan used Germany under the leadership of the murderous dictator as an example to push for a presidential system of government while maintaining the unitary structure of the state. "Yes. There is nothing to say that you can't have a presidential system in a unitary state," Erdogan said, as quoted by The Independent. The Turkish leader was responding to a question on whether it is possible for Turkey to change its parliamentary form of government into a presidency without splitting the country's seat of power in two. "There are already some examples in the world today, and also some from the past. You see it when you look at Hitler's Germany. Later you see the example again in various other countries," he added, shocking even his staunchest critics. Unsurprisingly, President Erdogan's statement was quickly met with criticisms. Some pointed out that his words indicated that he is becoming more and more dictatorial. Eliot Higgins, who analysed the use of weapons in the Syrian civil war, for instance pointed out that Erdogan became the first world leader to have followed "Godwin's Law," an Internet joke wherein if anyone who compares someone else to Hitler in an online argument has lost. Erdogan's office, meanwhile, immediately clarified his statements on Hitler, saying the Turkish leader does not condone anti-Semitism and crimes against humanity. "Whether it is parliamentary system or a presidential system, bad rules that end in disasters can emerge if the system is misused, as it was by Hitler's Germany," the statement from Erdogan's office stated. "It is unacceptable to reflect the president's statement as a positive reference to Hitler's Germany," it added. Vatican accord with Palestine has come into effect An agreement signed last year making the Vatican's de facto recognition of Palestine in 2012 official has come into effect, the Holy See said on Saturday. The Vatican signed its first treaty with the "State of Palestine" last June when it called for moves to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and backed a two-state solution. "The Holy See and the State of Palestine have notified each other that the procedural requirements for [the accord's] entry into force have been fulfilled, the Vatican said in a statement on Saturday. The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution in 2012 recognising Palestine as an observer non-member state. This was welcomed at the time by the Vatican, which has the same observer non-member status at the United Nations. In October 2014, Sweden acknowledged Palestine, a decision that drew condemnation from Israel and led to tense relations between the two. Israel has previously called the Vatican accord a hasty move that could damage prospects for advancing a peace agreement and impact its future diplomatic relations with the Vatican. But the Holy See under Pope Francis is eager to have a greater diplomatic role in the Middle East, from where many Christians have fled because of conflicts in Syria, Iraq and other countries. "The Agreement...regards essential aspects of the life and activity of the Church in Palestine, while at the same time reaffirming the support for a negotiated and peaceful solution to the conflict in the region," the Vatican said. News / Health by Staff reporter Most health personnel countrywide continued with their duties reporting for shifts on time since Friday, allaying fears of an industrial action as they wait to receive their December salaries, which Government says will be paid from tomorrow.Last week, doctors and nurses had threatened to down tools on Friday over late payment of their salaries, but continued working after Government asked health institutions to provide transport allowances.A snap survey by The Sunday Mail at various Hospitals such as Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals, Harare Central Hospital and Chitungwiza General Hospital showed that operations were going smoothly.Patients and visitors who spoke to this publication testified that the situation was normal.Mrs Gillian Masevenza who is one of the mothers who delivered a baby on New Year's Day at Harare Central Hospital said, at the maternity ward, the situation was normal and they did not encounter any challenges."Here (maternity ward) we didn't see any problems. We were well attended to and we are happy with the service because I delivered my baby without any problems. I am not sure what is happening elsewhere, but here everything is okay," she said.Harare Central Hospital acting Chief Executive Officer Mr Talkmore Matindife said there had been some confusion at the institution as some nurses did not turn up for duty on Friday, but the situation was under control. "The turnout is good, more nurses turned up for work today (yesterday) as compared to Friday when some personnel who were supposed to be on duty did not report for work," he said."However I am happy to say the situation is improving and for those that are reporting for duty we are giving them transport fares as Government directed."At Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals, nurses and doctors could be seen doing their rounds in the wards and casualty department.At Chitungwiza Hospital, the situation was reported to be normal with the chief executive officer Obadiah Moyo saying buses ferried staff to work."All staff is at work. Transport is being provided to ferry staff to and from work," he said.Zimbabwe Nurses Association Secretary Mr Enock Dongo said it is business as usual at all hospitals in the country."We are attending our duties as usual, it's our obligation to ensure that all patients are attended to and receive necessary treatment at all hospitals," he said."We are grateful that the Government has intervened and is providing the transport fares depending on where one lives because a nurse from Ruwa who works lets say Harare Hospital cannot be given the same bus fare as the one who lives in Belvedere. Yes, we urgently need our salaries but we are suggesting that transport fares should have gone to buy some medicines for the patients since we don't want to wait for drugs and other hospital pharmaceuticals."There were fears last week that employees in the health sector would resort to striking after treasury shifted their pay dates from December 29, 2015 to tomorrow. The doubts, however, died down after Government ordered all hospitals to provide workers with transport or bus fares between January 1 and 5.In an interview, secretary for Health and Childcare Ministry Dr Gerald Gwinji said the situation at most hospitals was normal"The situation in all hospitals throughout the country is normal, people have turned up for work," he said."There were slight disturbances at Harare Hospital yesterday (Friday) but the situation is normal now. As for bus fares, we never gave a fixed fee because we instructed the institutions to come up with a figure which suits different individuals, depending with where they live. We also hope that they will receive their salaries on Monday (tomorrow) as promised by treasury." Treasury has been battling to raise enough money to meet its obligation due to low revenue inflows as a result of reduced economic activities. News / Local by Staff Reporter FORMER Deputy Speaker of the Senate and Zanu-PF Central Committee member Naison Khutshwekhaya Ndlovu has confirmed that he is gravely ill.The ill-health has kept him away from the public eye and has not been attending any Zanu-PF meetings including the Annual Peoples Conference in Victoria Falls."I started getting ill just after the New Year's holiday (in January 2015) and I have not been well since then but I am ill just like everyone else gets ill, and I am praying that as we enter the new year I will get better," he said.However, although he has been behind the scenes on the political front due to illness, he warned Zanu PF to guard against relaxing in Bulawayo.Last year, Zanu PF clinched six parliamentary seats in the city."Zanu-PF needs to strategise and maintain power since the party has made big strides so far as they have won the by-elections. You do not relax in times like these but have to ensure that the enemy does not get a chance to penetrate. Elections are around the corner so we have to be focused on winning," said Ndlovu. Police are searching for a South Houston woman who they say kidnapped her 3-year-old son. On Saturday evening, police issued an Amber Alert for Isaiah Benitez, 3, who was last seen Saturday in South Houston around 1 p.m.. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Customer killed in restaurant robbery Two men in ski masks burst into a crowded restaurant Friday night in an apparent robbery and then shot and killed a customer in front of his family when he tried to resist, according to the Houston Police Department. The name of the slain man, believed to be the first homicide of 2016, was not immediately released, police said. The two suspects remained at large Saturday morning. The frightening scene unfolded just after 8:45 p.m. Friday when about 30 customers were dining at a popular Vietnamese restaurant, Huong Giang Hue, at 12345 Bellaire Blvd. The two unidentified gunmen grabbed an unknown amount of cash from the register and then rounded up both employees and patrons, forcing them to lay on the floor, police said. The suspects had just begun taking items from the customers when one man stood up, possibly to confront them. He was shot and died at the scene in front of his family, including a 5- or 6-year-old son, police said. During the struggle the victim reportedly was able to pull the ski mask off one of the assailants and police said they were hopeful surveillance video from the restaurant could help identify the suspects. The suspects fled in an unknown type of car. A police spokesman said on Saturday the investigation was continuing. Single-car accident kills driver, 28 A single-car accident around noon Saturday claimed the life of a 28-year-old man who lost control of his car in the 14200 block of West Lake Houston Parkway, the Houston Police Department reported. The victim's name was not immediately released. The man was driving west on the parkway near Summerwood Lakes Drive when he crossed out of his lane, hit a curb and jumped the median, said police spokesman Victor Senties. As the black Nissan 300Z began to flip on its side, the roof of the car hit a tree and the driver was crushed, police said. The driver, who police said was alone in the car, died at the scene. The accident remains under investigation. There was no immediate sign as to why the driver suddenly swerved out of his lane, said Senties. Pre-inauguration party for Turner set for downtown The City of Houston has scheduled a public celebration with live music, food trucks and fireworks on Sunday afternoon, a day before Mayor-Elect Sylvester Turner's public inauguration. The pre-inaugural event, scheduled for 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Sunday, will be free and open to the public at Historic Market Square in downtown at 301 Milam. Turner and City Controller Chris Brown were quietly sworn in early Saturday during a private ceremony at Houston City Hall. The public inauguration is planned for 9:30 a.m. Monday, downtown at the Jesse H. Jones Hall for the Performing Arts. Officials opted for the private ceremony Saturday to avoid overtime costs that come with calling in police and other city employees on a holiday weekend. Houston's City Charter requires new officials take their oaths by Jan. 2. "We always have to be mindful of the bottom line," Turner said in a written statement. From staff reports For Houston, 2015 was a year of notable loss as leaders in medicine, religion, education, law and law enforcement left the living and entered history's pages. Included in the year's rollcall of the departed were Houston lawyer Joe Jamail, so-called "King of Torts," who best was known for his $10.5 billion win in a high-stakes corporate takeover case; Dr. James "Red" Duke Jr., a cowboy in scrubs who dispensed homespun medical advice on television and founded Life Flight, the city's air ambulance service; and Audrey Lawson, a social worker who, as wife to the Rev. William Lawson, assisted in creation of Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church, breathed life into the city's black theater world and tirelessly advocated on behalf of children's health and education. The past year, too, brought the heart-rending deaths of Dwayne and Valerie Jackson and their six young children, allegedly murdered by the eldest child's father. In July, Illinois native and Texas Prairie View A&M University graduate Sandra Bland was found dead in a Waller County jail cell, launching protests and litigation as her name was added to others who, nationally, were alleged to have died through questionable police actions. In December, Qirat Chapra, a terminally ill teen who battled to have her Pakistani parents admitted to the United States for a final visit and hug, died with her wish unfulfilled. Jamail, who died Dec. 23 at age 90, was both profane and erudite, observers said, and had a way with juries that brought his clients billions in verdict payouts. While he took more than 500 cases to trial in his half-century career, the lawyer best was known for his 1985 representation of Pennzoil against Texaco. The $10.5 billion verdict forced Texaco to seek bankruptcy protection and brought the scrappy Jamail national acclaim. "You will never find a better lawyer," said James A. Baker III, a lawyer and former U.S. secretary of state. "If you had Joe on your side, you were going to win." Career-wise, Jamail had false starts - aborted medical and history studies - before settling on law. Once decided, he just showed up at the University of Texas law school and began taking classes. He passed the Texas bar exam eight months before graduation. In return, Jamail provided his alma mater gifts totaling more than more than $21 million. A year before his death, Jamail's personal wealth was tagged at $1.7 billion. 'John Wayne in scrubs' Ira Strickstein/HP staff With a bushy mustache, chewing tobacco and trenchant observations - "It ain't the fall that's so bad, it's the sudden stop that hurts" - James Duke Jr. was a physician made for the media. By the time he died at age 86 on Aug. 25, Duke had reached millions via televised health programs. He was inspiration for the 1987 Dennis Weaver, starring "Buck James," television series about a country doctor at a Houston academic hospital. As with Jamail, Duke seemed destined for a career far from his eventual calling. He had obtained a divinity degree from Southwestern Theological Seminary before turning to medicine. He joined the University of Texas's fledgling Houston medical school as one of three surgery professors in 1972. Before his career ended, he was credited with building a program that culminated in Memorial Hermann Hospital's trauma center, one of the city's two Level 1 emergency facilities, and founding the hospital's Life Flight helicopter ambulance service, considered one of the nation's finest. U.S. Rep. Ted Poe, in a 2012 tribute, called Duke a "John Wayne in scrubs." "Dr. Duke has the personality of an old-fashioned country doctor that makes house calls but knows people and medicine like no one I have ever met," he wrote. "People are drawn to him because he has the rare ability to put a complicated subject into simple terms everyone can understand. But don't let him fool you. He is a world-class surgeon trapped in a Texan's body." 'Because of her' Amanda White Unlike Duke, Audrey Lawson likely never simply burst into a Willie Nelson tune, but her impact on people inside and outside Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church was formidable. A St. Louis native, she enrolled in a Tennessee college just as her future husband enrolled in a Kansas City seminary. What followed was a protracted courtship-by-letter, which led to a marriage of 61 years and now is archived at the Houston Public Library. Wheeler Avenue Baptist began with small gatherings in the Lawson home. As the church grew, Lawson's role was pronounced. In the 1970s, she started an infant school at the church; later, she helped found two Lawson Middle schools, one for girls, the other for boys. When the Ensemble Theater founder George Hawkins made a death-bed request that Lawson help save his theater, the church woman responded with a trouper's verve. "It exists today because of her," said her daughter, Cheryl Lawson. "She helped find the money to rebuild an auto repair shop, and now it may be the only black-owned theater on Main Street in the southwest." Added the Rev. Marcus Cosby, Wheeler Baptist's senior pastor: "She was candid, a straight-forward thinker and speaker, and said exactly what was on her mind." Lawson died on Dec. 12 at age 83. Execution-style ending Some of 2015's endings were particularly tragic. Thirty-four bullet casings were found at the northwest Harris County home where the bodies of two adults and six children were found on Aug. 8. Killed in the execution-style shootings were Dwayne Jackson, 50; his wife, Valerie Jackson, 40; children, Jonah, 6, Trinity, 7, Caleb, 9, Dwayne Jr., 10, Honesty, 11, and Nathaniel Conley, 11. Authorities have charged Conley's father, David Conley, 49, with multiple counts of capital murder. Police believe the killings grew out of bad feeling surrounding a 15-year, three-way romantic relationship centering on the children's mother. Conley previously had been sentenced to prison for attacking Valerie Jackson with fists and a knife. In a post-arrest interview, Conley described Dwayne Jackson as a "demon." "He was a bad person," Conley said. "He never brought the kids nothing." On four occasions, complaints that the children were neglected and abused brought child welfare workers to the Jackson home. In 2013, the Texas Department of Family Protective Services took custody of the children, an intervention that ended three weeks later when a judge ordered the children returned. Bland's case HONS Texas Prairie View A&M University graduate Sandra Bland was days away from assuming a new job at her alma mater when she was stopped by Texas Department of Public Safety Trooper Brian Encinia for a minor traffic violation on July 10. What ensued was a battle of wills as Encinia ordered the 28-year-old woman to stop smoking, then to exit her vehicle. When Bland refused to comply, a dashboard video of the encounter revealed, Encinia attempted to pull her from her car and threatened the woman with his Taser. According to the DPS, Bland was arrested after kicking the officer. Unable to post $5,000 bail, she was incarcerated in the Waller County Jail. Three days later she was found dead, hanging from a plastic garbage bag fashioned into a noose. An autopsy performed by a Harris County medical examiner led to a ruling of suicide. Conflicting accounts of events leading to Bland's arrest, some of which occurred off-camera, and questions concerning circumstances of her jailing led to heated protests that garnered national attention. DPS authorities placed Encinia on administrative duty for not adhering to proper traffic stop procedures. In December, a Waller County grand jury issued no indictments on the case, although a special prosecutor said the jury will revisit the case in January. Members of Bland's family have filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit, seeking damages from DPS, Encinia, Waller County and two jailers involved in the case. 'Dying wish' unfulfilled Courtesy photo Suffering from combined B- and T-cell immunodeficiency, a condition that triggered lung disease and T-cell lymphoma, Qirat Chapra knew she was dying. Her last wish was to see her Pakistani parents. For weeks the hospitalized 18-year-old battled to gain entry into the United States for her parents. "I've been able to survive without them," she said, "but I feel like I need my parents more than ever now. That's the only thing I could ask for. Really, that's my only wish. I need to see them." Until her visa expired in 2005, Chapra's mother routinely visited her daughter, who lived with relatives in Houston. Her father never had been to the United States. Finally, in late November, the U.S. State Department granted visas to Chapra's parents. The couple spoke with their daughter by telephone as they awaited their flight to Houston at a Pakistani airport. "This is our daughter's dying wish - to see us, to hug us," her father said. "It is our wish, too." Hours before the couple arrived in Houston on Nov. 28, doctors were forced to sedate the young woman. She never regained consciousness before her death on Dec. 5. Still, family members said they believed she somehow was aware of their presence. "Her family saw tears rolling Qirat's eyes even when she was unconscious," said her cousin, Hira Jethwa. Turn on, tune in, drop out . Today. The music I offer here is for promotion only. Please look for records or cassettes yourself and support the artist. Always. None of the music posted here can be found elsewhere on the internet as far as I know. Moreover the music is out of print for a long time. I share the music because I want you to hear it and because it deserves to be saved. However, if you're an artist and you are not pleased with your music being published here please comment or send a mail and I'll remove the post instantly! _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Mediation meditation: The views and/or approaches to the music that I present here are primarily of a subjective nature open to endless different perspectives. They are a mix of interpretations: at times aiming at exploring the socio-cultural context surrounding the music, at times an endeavour to present some of the musical facts or to highlight the creative greatness. However this blog does not in any way claim all of this material in the light of self-proclaimed truth, nor tries to find a true form of its representation and not in the least tries to put its material in service of personal gain. This blog hopes to save obscure material, share this content with others and mostly hopes to inspire creative and urgent musical and artistic tendencies and their practices in the present. It also hopes to invoke the unveiling of additional context, knowledge or narrative by anyone that is able to provide new information about the presented material. All rips are done by myself. !Attention! I decided to move the d/l links to Mediafire since that seems to work better. Lots of links in the archive are dead or still on Zippyshare. Will try to update one day. Til then just request the re-up of something in the comments. Music donations welcome: if you have something great and/or weird which has never seen the light of day and that you would like to see posted on the blog, feel free to contact me News / Local by Staff reporter MATABELELAND provinces are staring a crippling food shortage amid indications that maize supplies for commercial milling stand at one week supply, the Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe (GMAZ) Matabeleland Provinces Chapter has said.Due to the dire food situation in the provinces, chairman of the GMAZ Matabeleland Provinces Chapter, Mr Thembinkosi Ndlovu is pleading with Agriculture Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Minister Dr Joseph Made to swiftly issue importation permits to maize traders to arrest the situation. In a letter dated December 24, 2015 and copied to top Government officials including the Acting President Phelekezela Mphoko, Mr Ndlovu threatened to drag Dr Made to court to compel him to issue the importation licences.It was widely expected that the High Court application to pressurize Dr Made into allowing maize traders to import maize from South Africa and South America was going to be filed last Thursday.Reads the letter in part: ". . . we write to advise that the maize situation in Matabeleland provinces is now dire and degenerating into a security matter. I regret to advise you that maize supplies for commercial milling in Bulawayo currently stand at one week supply and the situation will deteriorate to no supply very soon."Our chapter is deeply disappointed by your ministry's decision to decline application of maize from South Africa and South America for the milling of maize meal and livestock feeds."Food is a constitutional right and we are entitled to demand, as we hereby do, for your office to start, forthwith, to issue permits to all grain traders which are mentioned in the maize importation action plan submitted to you by our national office."However, if we fail to get your cooperation in this regard we will have no option but to seek the intervention of courts to compel your office to do the same."The request by GMAZ comes at a time when the government of Zambia has advised the Food Reserve Agency that it "reserves the right on who to sell maize to".Harare had planned to import 400 000 tonnes of maize from the northern neighbour which had harvested more than most Southern African countries last cropping season. It is understood that about 280 000 tonnes of maize had been imported from Zambia before the export ban was effected.Poor logistics and tight border controls were throttling maize imports.Efforts to obtain a comment from Dr Made were fruitless as his mobile phone was not reachable.The looming shortage of maize meal in Matabeleland provinces has also impacted on businesses that were recording brisk business from the sale of the commodity. Zimbabwe produced about 900 000 tonnes of grain last season against an annual demand of 1,8 million tonnes, hence the food shortages. News / Local by Staff reporter Bulawayo Thermal Power Station is set to undergo a major retooling exercise from the first quarter of the year following the financial closure of a US$87 million loan secured from India at the end of 2015.The massive boost comes at a time when Zimbabwe and many Sadc countries are facing serious electricity shortages because of a growing demand which is triggered by expanding industries in the region.Three weeks ago, Parliament approved two international loan agreements worth US$107 from the Export-Import Bank of India in terms of section 327 (3) of the Constitution.These include the US$87 million for the Bulawayo Thermal Power Station project and US$20 million for the construction of about 20 schools in farms where people were resettled since 2000.Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (Zesa) spokesperson, Mr Fullard Gwasira told The Sunday Mail last week that the latest development in Parliament had marked the beginning of 'real work' at the power station."The Parliamentary approval signifies the end of the financial closure and we are going to tender soon and work is expected to start," he said.Mr Gwasira said the actual retooling of the plant was expected to commence during the first half of this year."Apart from additional electricity, the plant is also expected to create employment for the Bulawayo community," Mr Gwasira said.The upgrading of the power station is expected to be conducted over a three-year period and will breathe life into the facility that was built in 1947 with a 120 mega watt (MW) capacity but had reduced electricity generation to a maximum 30MW owing to obsolete equipment.At least 70MW are expected to be added to the current capacity at the end of the exercise.According to the Consumer Energy Center, one megawatt is enough to power 1 000 homes at any given time with all their basic electrical appliances switched on.The upgrading of the power station is part of Government's commitment to improve infrastructure and utilities in the country.The loan facilities will provide a boost in the implementation of the country's economic blueprint Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (Zim-Asset)'s Infrastructure and Utilities cluster.According to the cluster, all systems in the country should promote a robust establishment and rehabilitation of existing infrastructure that plays a fundamental role in the socio-economic development of Zimbabwe such as energy and power, water and sanitation, public amenities, transport and ICT.Revamping the Bulawayo Power Station will improve the obtaining electricity situation and industrial productivity.Industry, which has been affected by over a decade of inactivity, says its efforts to return to productivity have been hampered by inadequate electricity. The country generates an average 1 000MW against an installed capacity of 2245MW and a demand of 2200MW.Major power stations such as Hwange are generating an average 440MW with Kariba producing 460MW while Harare is producing about 30MW and Munyati 17MW.The electricity situation has been worsened by decreased water levels in Kariba and the constant breakdown at Hwange Power Station.Commenting on the latest $20 million facility for schools, Primary and Secondary Education Minister Dr Lazarus Dokora said the construction of the schools will improve the learning environment for pupils in resettled areas."This is also expected to have huge downstream benefits such as employment creation and direct injection of foreign currency into the national economy thereby improving liquidity," he said.Dr Dokora said the construction of schools will see pupils walking shorter distances to school.India joins countries such as China that have provided funds over US$1 billion in concessionary and preferential loans to fund Zimbabwe's developmental activities.In the last few years, Indian Exim Bank has provided loans worth several millions of dollars to Zimbabwe.The Indians extended a $49,9 million loan facility for the purchase of vehicles for the Ministry of Hospitality and Tourism; $13 million to Hwange Colliery Company for the procurement of mining equipment and $28 million for the improvement of Deka pumping station to maintain the cooling of Hwange Thermal Power Station. Tonara Partners with Alfred Music Publishing for Wolfie Piano App Tonara Startup exhibit at Day 1 of TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2011 held at the San Francisco Design Center Concourse on September 12, 2011 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Araya Diaz/Getty Images for TechCrunch) On December 21st, two unlikely music companies announced a partnership that blends the old and the new into what is now the iPad app markets most substantive music learning tool. Tonara Ltd., an Israeli music software company, has teamed up with Alfred Music, a veteran music publishing company (once based in New York, now based in L.A.), in order to supply its successful Wolfie Piano App with what Tonara's press release called the "world's largest educational digital sheet music library." Thanks to the versatility of the tablet app market, Tonara partners with Alfred Music Publishing at a time when digital sheet music has become not only a viable, but game-changing option, one which is readily being considered by teachers and students alike. As the old Carnegie Hall maxim suggests, at the heart of all musical success is practice practice practice, a maxim well understood by conscientious music publishers, and -- in the 21st Century -- by innovative software engineers at forward-thinking companies. One such company, the Israeli software firm Tonara, has evidently been dwelling on this maxim since 2008. Initially known for their eponymous app that launched them into the public "ear", Tonaras latest and most successful app for iPad, the Wolfie piano app, is a great step forward in aiding piano study. Capable of acoustic polyphonic score following, the Wolfie piano app is now stocked with a bountiful supply of digital sheet music (at all reading levels) thanks to its mutually beneficial partnership with Alfred Music Publishing. A family-owned business founded in 1922, which has survived and thrived despite a rapidly changing market, Alfred Music has now ensured its continued relevancy by offering its expertise, its collections, and its coursework to Tonara's database. Tonara partners with Alfred Music Publishing not only to expand its digital sheet music archive but also to enhance its product's learning capabilities. Addressing the many distractions facing music students (especially in a digital world), Tonaras website defends its product by explaining, "with Wolfie we are bringing kids back to the piano with the very same technology that is pulling them away from it -- the iPad." Interactive scores on the Wolfie piano app, which allow students to play along in real-time, include rigorous study material such as Alfred's Premiere Course and Alfred's Basic Piano Library alongside countless popular and classical works, from Bach to Pink Floyd. Although the Wolfie piano app has been marketed as a wonderful aid to teacher/student lesson building, the software -- equipped with playback validation and helpful hints along the way -- can bring out an active engagement with the music during times when students need it the most: solitary practice. Note by note, the app highlights students' progress and, regardless of an instructor's presence, encourages practice and persistence. In light of Tonara's partnership with Alfred Music, PR Newswire -- reporting on the proud sentiments from either side of arrangement -- quoted Tonara's CEO Guy Bauman: "Together, we are bringing the music-learning experience into the modern age with contemporary technology that speaks to younger musicians. We're excited to work alongside Alfred Music to offer young pianists the best educational tools and content from Sony, EMI, Warner, Schott and others, for practicing and learning how to play." Likewise, Alfred Music's Senior Vice President E.L. Lancaster said, "We share Tonara's passion for bringing music to more people around the world. This partnership represents our shared commitment to harness the creative potential of technology to democratize the joy of learning music." 2016 The Classical Art, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. TagsAlfred Music, sheet music, App, iPad, Tonara Tim McGinty Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty will meet with Cleveland area pastors in Oakwood Tuesday to discuss a grand jury's decision not to indict two police officers in the death of Tamir Rice. (Cory Shaffer, cleveland.com) CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A group of prominent Cleveland-area clergymen have invited Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty to talk with them privately about a grand jury's recent decision not to indict two Cleveland police officers in the fatal shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice. The meeting is scheduled for 9:45 a.m Tuesday at the Mt. Zion Church on Mt. Zion Circle in Oakwood. Cuyahoga County prosecutors recommended that grand jurors not indict Timothy Loehmann, the officer who shot Tamir, or his partner, Frank Garmback. Loehmann shot Tamir within seconds after arriving at the Cudell Recreation Center to investiate a report of a guy with a gun on Nov. 22, 2014. Tamir had a realistic looking pellet gun at the time, and McGinty said that "indisputable" evidence showed that the boy was reaching into the waistband of his pants as the officers approached him. A caller told a dispatcher that the gun was "probably fake," but that information was not relayed to Loehmann and Garmback. Following the grand jury decision, McGinty said that Tamir's death was the result of a "perfect storm of human error." Demonstrators have taken to the streets of Cleveland every day for the past six days, at times blocking traffic at major intersections, to protest the grand jury decision and demand McGinty's ouster. An earlier version of this story incorrectly referred to this meeting as a "community forum." Guest columnist Rep. Mike Dovilla, a Berea Republican, is the majority whip in the Ohio House of Representatives, a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy Reserve, and an adjunct professor of political science at Baldwin Wallace University. The most important responsibility of the federal government is to provide for our nation's defense. Without a well-trained and equipped military, thoughtful foreign policy, and secure borders, the United States risks losing its status as the world's beacon of freedom. State legislatures, an integral part of our federal system of government, have a role to play in national issues, including encouraging officials in Washington to take actions that will "provide for the common defense," as outlined in the preamble to the Constitution. To this end, we in the Ohio House of Representatives, recently adopted House Concurrent Resolution 31, urging President Obama to halt the settlement of Syrian refugees in Ohio and the U.S. This measure, which reflects similar actions taken by 31 governors across the country, represents a common sense approach to refugee resettlement in these dangerous times. The need for this policy is based on three imperatives: national security, economic stability, and cultural integrity. First, the United States must engage in a comprehensive review of its security procedures before accepting additional Syrian refugees. As an Iraq war veteran with more than 13 years of service in Naval intelligence and one of only two Ohio state legislators continuing to serve in the Armed Forces, it is my assessment that the vetting system currently in place is insufficient. Whether or not this president wants to call a spade a spade, terrorist attacks are occurring with increasing frequency both inside and outside our borders. Paris and San Bernardino are among the most recent examples, but we ought not forget 9/11, Madrid, London, Fort Hood, Boston, Charlie Hebdo, or Chattanooga, among scores of less widely reported incidents. ISIS and other militant Islamic extremists are not on the run, but on the move. Simply put, U.S. national security must come first. Second, contrary to facile assertions about this being a matter of compassion toward the many innocent refugees fleeing a dictatorial regime, we must acknowledge certain economic realities. With our country continuing to recover from the worst recession since the Great Depression, it is fair to ask whether our economy and workforce can sustain a large influx of refugees looking for jobs, housing, healthcare, education, and other resources? Finally, America's strength derives in part from the integration of diverse peoples from around the globe, who continue to come to our shores in search of freedom and opportunity - with most carrying a desire not to change our nation but to assimilate while making their own contributions. For example, my family came from Italy, Germany, and Ireland, with some of my ancestors not speaking a word of English. Today, their great-grandson, a first-generation college graduate, is humbled to serve in the Legislature. At a time when many of our cultural pillars are under attack, we must express to all who seek to live here that we will not allow the undermining of sacred principles - among them liberty, equality, and justice - that sustain America as a unique experiment in self-government in all of human history. The Ohio House has fulfilled its obligation in calling upon our president to carry out his most important duty. It is my hope he will do so. Readers are invited to submit Opinion page essays on topics of regional or general interest. Send your 500-word essay for consideration to Linda Kinsey at lkinsey@cleveland.com. Essays must also include a brief bio and headshot of the writer. Essays rebutting today's topics are also welcome. Guest columnist Zohaib Zafar, a Brecksville resident, is a student at Davidson College in North Carolina, where he is a member of the Muslim Student Association. I was deeply saddened by the recent Paris terror attacks, and shootings in San Bernardino. Since then I have been praying that America is able to stop ISIS and defeat terrorism motivated by a perversion of Islamic teachings. In the face of these terror attacks, we have a responsibility as Americans to think over how and why such terrorist attacks happen. In public health it is taught that prevention is the best form of treatment; I believe this is also the case when it comes to terrorism. Security measures by the Department of Homeland Security and military measures that ensure our safety are important and necessary. Despite these measures, there is always the possibility of breaches as we have witnessed time and again. They become the reasons for terrorist attacks. To prevent these attacks it is fundamental to address the initial brainwashing of the terrorist and teach them the true Islamic teachings. This is exactly what the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is doing in over 200 countries by actively promoting true and peaceful Islamic teachings. Ironically, most of these terrorists who are "dying for Islam" do not know the true Islam. They are brainwashed to such an extent that they do not comprehend the simplest of Islamic teachings. For example, it is written in the Quran that "Whosoever killed a person... It shall be as if he killed all mankind"(5:33). I firmly believe that every American should be aware of the true teachings of Islam. We should not alienate Muslims, such as we often tend to do by immediately assuming that a lunatic with a Muslim name is inspired by the teachings of Islam. This will only advance ISIS's agenda. We should educate ourselves and not fall prey to the fear-mongering of the recent presidential candidates Donald Trump and Ben Carson, but remember the words of George Bush six days after 9/11, "Islam is peace." Americans should support peaceful Muslim communities such as the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, so the internal change that is critically needed within extremist Muslims may occur. These past few months, I studied in London where His Holiness, Mirza Masroor Ahmad, the Khalifa of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community resides. I have witnessed up close how determined he is to establish peace. He continuously travels to advocate peace. He came to Ohio a few years ago, and in the few months I was in London, he went to the Dutch parliament and to Japan. The American media's focus on perversions of Islamic teachings is a detriment to the education of Americans. The media should highlight the peaceful initiatives taken by billions of Muslims. The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community has tens of millions of followers who live by the community's motto, "Love for All, Hatred for None." I am an American Muslim. I find no contradiction between these two parts of my identity. On the contrary I feel they support each other. I firmly believe that terrorism will be defeated, and American values like peace and freedom will prevail and true Islamic teachings will flourish. Let us not alienate any loyal American and always remember Abraham Lincoln's words, "A house divided against itself cannot stand." Readers are invited to submit Opinion page essays on topics of regional or general interest. Send your 500-word essay for consideration to Linda Kinsey at lkinsey@cleveland.com. Essays must also include a brief bio and headshot of the writer. Essays rebutting today's topics are also welcome. ford.jpg The return of truck work from Mexico to Ford's Ohio Assembly plant in Avon Lake west of Cleveland was a piece of good news for Cleveland-area wage earners last year. But Thomas Suddes writes that dissatisfaction with incomes crosses party lines in Ohio. (David Richard, Associated Press, File, 2015) Republican (for now) Donald Trump wouldn't be in the running for president if he weren't a mouthy billionaire, which is his main claim to fame. And millionaire Hillary Clinton is the leading Democratic contender, though Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, package themselves as the couple next door in Broadview Heights, or Westerville, or Kettering - if a couple next door could charge $250,000 for giving a talk to, say, the PTA. There's a fair chance Hillary Clinton - repeat: fair chance, not slam-dunk - may become president. If so, three things will have helped: her resume; her sex; her packaging - that "just folks" act. But the just-folks thing is a reach. Clinton promises she wouldn't raise taxes on households earning less than $250,000. That appears to be Clinton's idea of the line between "middle class" and "rich." The 5.3 million state income tax returns Ohioans filed in 2013 (for 2012) say otherwise. About 59 percent reported income of $45,000 or less. (Reporting income of $1 million or more were 19,499 returns - less than four-tenths of 1 percent.) Besides tax data, census numbers also suggest the color of the sky in Clinton's world must be unusual. Ohio per-capita personal income was $41,049 in 2013. Nationwide, it was $44,765. Ohio's lagging. True, per-capita income in 2013 in Cuyahoga County, Ohio's biggest Democratic cache, was $47,294, or 106 percent of the national $44,765 per-capita. But Cuyahoga's 1970 per-capita was 115 percent of the nation's. Stats are even more daunting in other Democratic counties that also lost unionized industrial jobs but lack Cuyahoga's Finance, Insurance, Real Estate (FIRE) and medical payrolls. Example: Per-capita personal income in Montgomery County (Dayton) was 112 percent of the nation's in 1970; by 2013, post-NCR, post-MeadWestvaco, Montgomery's per-capita income was 90 percent of the nation's. And in Mahoning County (Youngstown), personal income per-capita, 91 percent of the nation's in 1970, was 87 percent in 2013, thanks partly to the 1977 Sheet and Tube steel shutdown, which that great humanitarian, Jimmy Carter, shrugged off. Cuyahoga and Mahoning last voted for a Republican for president in 1972 (when George McGovern challenged the GOP's Richard M. Nixon); Montgomery last did in 1988 (Republican George H.W. Bush vs. Democratic Michael Dukakis). But even with Barack Obama in the White House, Ohio Democrats aren't singing "Happy Days Are Here Again." Neither (and this is a clue to Trump's poll numbers) is Ohio's GOP bedrock. Look, for example, at Clinton County (Wilmington), northeast of Cincinnati, coincidentally the home of Ohio House Speaker Clifford A. Rosenberger, a Clarksville Republican. Beginning in 1856, when the GOP fielded its first presidential candidate (John C. Fremont), Clinton has voted for a Republican for president every time, except in 1964 (Barry Goldwater vs. Lyndon Johnson). Clinton's per-capita personal income was 90 percent of the nation's in 1970. But in 2013, Clinton's per-capita personal income had fallen to 77 percent of the nation's. Big reason: Clinton lost 8,000 jobs in 2008-09 when German air-freight firm DHL shut down its Wilmington hub. In 2016, as in every presidential campaign, in Ohio's Youngstowns and Wilmingtons, the wine-and-cheese candidates that both parties run promise meat-and-potato voters better times. But better times never seem to arrive. And that's a reason for the Trump phenomenon. Voters, understandably, have come to believe most presidential candidates don't mean what they say. Trump's crudeness can pass for candor. So Trump, like a junior-high boy making vulgar noises when teacher's back is turned, gets the class's attention - which, with power, is exactly what Trump wants. Thomas Suddes, a member of the editorial board, writes from Athens. To reach Thomas Suddes: tsuddes@gmail.com, 216-999-4689 solon police car.jpg A woman who committed a traffic violation was also found to be in possession of stolen steaks from Giant Eagle and drug paraphernalia, in this week's police blotter. (File photo) SOLON, Ohio -- Shoplifting, Kruse Dr: About 10:45 a.m. Dec. 24, police were dispatched to the Old Navy store on Kruse Drive after the store's loss prevention team said a woman wearing a bright green jacket, black and white tiger-striped pants and a brown purse stole items from the store and ran toward Panera Bread. Police found the brown purse in the bushes near Panera Bread with nearly $200 in stolen merchandise still inside. The woman was found walking on Aurora Road and was taken into custody. She was also identified as the same person who had shoplifted from a Bath & Body Works store earlier in the month. She was charged with misdemeanor theft for both incidents. Drug possession, US 422: About 10:50 p.m. Dec. 27, a patrol officer conducted a traffic stop on US 422 east after observing a vehicle trailing another very closely. As the officer approached the vehicle, he observed the driver attempt to place something behind his seat. The 20-year-old driver admitted to hiding hashish oil behind the seat, and the officer found other drug paraphernalia and beer in the car. The driver was arrested. Theft, Aurora Rd: About 3 a.m. Dec. 29, a patrol officer observed a car commit a traffic violation and initiated a traffic stop. While investigating, a second officer noticed an empty wine bottle near the car's passenger's feet. Police searched for additional contraband when they found two Giant Eagle-brand steaks without receipts. After going back and looking at surveillance video from the store, officers saw that the car's driver had stolen the steaks by concealing them in her coat. Police additionally found a crack pipe with residue and other drug paraphernalia in the vehicle. The 53-year-old driver was cited for theft and drug paraphernalia possession, and the passenger was cited for open container in a motor vehicle. watch now Saudi Arabia on Sunday cut ties with Iran, responding to the storming of its embassy in Tehran in an escalating row between the rival Middle East powers over Riyadh's execution of a Shi'ite Muslim cleric. On Monday, Bahrain and Sudan also cut diplomatic relations with Iran, and the UAE said it will reduce the number of Iranian diplomats it permits to be in its country. Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told a news conference in Riyadh that the envoy of Shi'ite Iran had been asked to quit Saudi Arabia within 48 hours. The kingdom, he said, would not allow the Islamic republic to undermine its security. Iranian protesters stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran early on Sunday and Shi'ite Iran's top leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, predicted "divine vengeance" for the execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, an outspoken opponent of the ruling Al Saudi family. Read MoreCould oil's drop spell doom for this currency peg? Iranian protesters gather outside the Saudi Embassy in Tehran during a demonstration against the execution of prominent Shiite Muslim cleric Nimr al-Nimr by Saudi authorities. Atta Kenare | AFP | Getty Images Jubeir said the attack in Tehran was in line with what he said were earlier Iranian assaults on foreign embassies there and with Iranian policies of destabilizing the region by creating "terrorist cells" in Saudi Arabia. "The kingdom, in light of these realities, announces the cutting of diplomatic relations with Iran and requests the departure of delegates of diplomatic missions of the embassy and consulate and offices related to it within 48 hours. The ambassador has been summoned to notify them," he said. Speaking on Iranian state television, Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said in Tehran's first response that by cutting diplomatic ties, Riyadh could not cover up "its major mistake of executing Sheikh Nimr". The United States, Saudi Arabia's biggest backer in the West, responded by encouraging diplomatic engagement and calling for leaders in the region to take "affirmative steps" to reduce tensions. "We believe that diplomatic engagement and direct conversations remain essential in working through differences and we will continue to urge leaders across the region to take affirmative steps to calm tensions," an official of President Barack Obama's administration said. Tensions between revolutionary, mainly Shi'ite Iran and Saudi Arabia's conservative Sunni monarchy have run high for years as they backed opposing forces in wars and political conflicts across the Middle East, usually along sectarian lines. However, Saturday's execution of a cleric whose death Iran had warned would "cost Saudi Arabia dearly", and the storming of the kingdom's Tehran embassy, raised the pitch of the rivalry. Strong rhetoric from Tehran was matched by Iran's Shi'ite allies across the region, with Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Lebanese militia Hezbollah, describing the execution as "a message of blood". Moqtada al-Sadr, an Iraqi Shi'ite cleric, called for angry protests. Demonstrators protesting against the execution of the cleric, Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, broke into the embassy building, smashed furniture and started fires before being ejected by police. News / Local by Staff Reporter Victoria Falls residents are living in fear as a troop of baboons have caused havoc by continuously raiding their homes for food.The troops of baboons are also said to have been causing problems for pupils during break time, especially at Baobab Primary School where they grab food from pupils in the play grounds.Bulawayo based Sunday News said authorities at the school have had to enlist the services of a guard to keep the baboons away.The baboons have reportedly become a menace to the extent that calls are getting loud for authorities to act on the problem before they maim residents.The publication said baboon raids are more pronounced in the low density areas where they jump into houses through open windows despite the presence of people in the homes.So grave is the situation that residents are scared to carry groceries in the open."It's now dangerous to carry groceries from the shops to our homes. They now lay an ambush for children and women carrying goods from town. We now fear their aggressive behaviour as they could soon injure people if they are not controlled," the paper quoted an unnamed female source.Victoria Falls residents' association chairman Mr Morgan Gaza Dube blamed the issue on residents and tourists who feed the baboons."Victoria Falls is situated between two national parks Chamabondo and Zambezi and as such we live side by side with these wild animals. If you feed these baboons they behave like pets, next time they will come back to you to be fed."We have tourists around who when they see them feed them and that's when the problem starts," said Mr Dube."Once they do that if they see anyone carrying groceries they expect to be fed and they get that food at any cost."The same happens when they raid houses as they would have seen people getting in there with the groceries. In Vic Falls we can't kill them but we have to co-exist with them unless if they become very aggressive. We will always protect our people from aggressive animals," he said. News / Local by Staff reporter THE Bulawayo City Council has secured over $32 million from the African Development Bank for the rehabilitation of its water and sewer infrastructure, it has been learnt.Spelling out the local authority's immediate priorities for 2016 in an interview with Sunday News, Bulawayo mayor Councillor Martin Moyo said one of the major challenges the city had faced in 2015 was that of the dilapidated water and sewer infrastructure.He, however, noted that they were fortunate that through their partners and lobbying they had managed to get the $32 million which he said will be channeled to Bulawayo's Water and Sewerage Services Improvement Project meant to improve its municipal water and sewer infrastructure."That fund will start being disbursed this month and it is our hope that it will go a long way in addressing our water and sewer infrastructure which has given us unbearable headaches over the past few years."As you might know, we have been in trouble with the authorities like the Environmental Management Agency over our sewer disposal hence with this funding I am confident that this will now be a thing of the past as it will mean the end to all our sewer problems as all the sewage will be directed to our treatment works," said Clr Moyo.He noted that it was unfortunate that while they had been granted borrowing powers by Government as far back as 2014 to the tune of $13,5 million, they were still struggling to reach an agreement with the bank."We really don't know what was causing the delay of that loan because honestly if it was released earlier it could have gone a long way in addressing our problems in terms of sewer infrastructure," said Clr Moyo.Meanwhile, the mayor revealed that they had since approached their parent ministry the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing to engage the Ministry of Environment, Water and Climate on their behalf over the Epping Forest Borehole Project which is expected to ease the city's water woes."As a council we have managed to raise over $2 million for that project but as you might know, that is a Zimbabwe National Water Authority project hence we have to work with them to see to it that something happens there. So for now the project is being discussed on a ministry to ministry level but noting that the project requires between $4 million to $6 million we feel we have raised a significant figure to get the project off the ground," said Clr Moyo.He said there is a need for all relevant stakeholders to realise that the city is already being faced with another year where water quantities will dwindle to possible critical levels due to the low rainfall patterns, hence the need for a more dedicated approach in terms of implementing key council water projects as a matter of urgency."Residents on the other hand must realise that they also have a role to play in terms of conserving the little water that we have. They should adhere to the laws that have been put in place to conserve water, which include the use of hose pipes and even the limits of water that can be used."People make the mistake of assuming that we as council our sole responsibility is to make water and give them as and when they want but if they honestly don't play their part we risk creating a serious crisis for ourselves," said Clr Moyo. Rested Missouri sets out to bounce back against Vandy Missouri football returns to action on Saturday against Vanderbilt. Here's what Eli Drinkwitz had to say about the upcoming game. News / National by Stephen Jakes A health practitioner Doctor Brighton Chireka has penned an article accusing the government of Zimbabwe for betraying the health practitioners whom he said work under difficult conditions yet the governmen5t ignored to pay them in time.In his article he said the medical professionals currently working in Zimbabwe are working under difficult conditions and their wages cannot sustain them and to make matters worse the Zimbabwean government has now failed to even pay these hardworking health professionals their December salary on time."This is unacceptable and there is no excuse for this to happen. We are critical of our health professionals when they down their tools but we treat them as if we can do without them. It is an open secret that health professionals are well sort after world over and each and every country is doing its best to retain its professionals but not our government," her wrote."We need to act sooner rather than later as we will lose these professionals. I am sadly one of them that left and I am offering my services to people of Kent in UK. I am still Zimbabwean and have my heart there but I have been away for the last 16 years meaning that I may be slowly becoming a lost generation. I do not want that to happen but the news coming from home is not pleasing to hear."He said he was really disappointed at the way the way health professionals who have sacrificed their lives and careers to be in Zimbabwe are treated."They could have been in UK like me but chose to put up with the harsh conditions in our country. We cannot make the conditions more harsh by failing to pay our doctors on time. This is disaster to say the least and the leadership that is presiding over this chaos must ask themselves serious questions about their leadership," he said. "How can you invest millions of dollars into training medical professionals that you are not going to look after? Why become a training ground for other countries? Why are you failing these doctors that have stood by you through thick and thin?""A lot of people will ask why am l involving myself with Zimbabwe. I am Zimbabwean even if I may not be local I have a moral duty to be involved," he added. I am disappointed in the ongoing friction being stirred up over the state's Achievement School District and Shelby County Schools. I am disappointed because this is the wrong battle taking place on the wrong battlefield. Both districts are waging a difficult fight to remedy decades of our public schools' failure to adequately educate children, especially children attending schools in impoverished inner-city neighborhoods. I am not a big fan of all the testing that is taking place in public schools, but the tests have been invaluable in documenting this failure. So, instead of finding ways to work in a more collaborative manner to fix this, the issue has devolved into a battle over control and money, buttressed by a fight over which district is doing a better job of helping students in failing schools become proficient in core subjects. ASD opponents are saying that because SCS iZone schools have yielded better results than the ASD in efforts to turn around low-performing schools, there needs to be a moratorium on the ASD taking over more schools here. State Rep. Antonio Parkinson, D-Memphis, a strong ASD opponent, called the district a failed reform effort in which a lot of state money has been "dumped." SCS has called for a stop to the state's takeover of struggling local schools, and legislative Democratic Caucus leaders expressed support for a moratorium, although the caucus hasn't taken a formal stance. Parkinson said the ASD is no longer about education, but rather dollars. I think he is dead wrong about that, because ASD leaders have clearly demonstrated they are about making sure children are achieving academically. And, if this is purely about money, as Parkinson claims, then he also has to point out that it is about money for SCS0 Superintendent Dorsey Hopson and school board members, who have made no secret about having to deal with critical budget issues, exacerbated by the $8,500-per-pupil in state education funding the district is losing to ASD takeovers. That funding is being lost while the district's operations overhead remains basically the same. I understand why some parents are concerned about losing local control of their schools. There is a feeling that because the SCS is familiar with the schools, it can do a better job of helping students perform academically. But why weren't these parents, Parkinson and Democratic Caucus leaders raising heck when these kids were being moved from grade to grade without being able to master core subjects? In truth, the academic proficiency gains by both districts, while encouraging, still show that total victory on the student achievement front is a long way off for both districts. There is no one way to fight this battle. That is why the ASD and the SCS should be collaborating, not battling each other. And, let us not forget that there would be no iZone Schools, if there had been no ASD. If the critics and opponents of both districts want to fight someone, go after the legislature, which has refused to fully fund the state's Basic Education Plan, which SCS officials say would produce $103 million more in funding per year for the district. A former colleague at the newspaper teaches both English Comp I and II at Southwest Tennessee Community College. He told me recently that many students from SCS schools are in his classes. Some of them have no idea what subjects and predicates are, which means they don't know where to start when it comes to recognizing common grammatical errors. They can read, but have little comprehension about what they are reading. What really is important is fixing that problem, not who is in control. State Sen. Lee Harris told me last week he is seriously considering challenging incumbent U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen in the August Democratic Ninth Congressional District primary election. Harris, a Memphis Democrat, is a former Memphis City Council member who defeated longtime incumbent Ophelia Ford for the District 29 state Senate seat. He took office last January. He is the Senate minority leader and a law professor at the University of Memphis. Cohen has represented the Ninth District since to 2007. He has gone on to defeat a number of anticipated strong challengers in Democratic primary elections, and has steamrolled Republican opposition in the general election. He has held public office since 1978, when he was elected to Shelby County Commission. He was a state senator from 1982 until his election to Congress. Harris said "there are a lot of people looking for change," and he will spend the next several weeks pondering a challenge to Cohen in the primary. More on this next week, but if Harris does decide to oppose Cohen, it could be one of the more interesting primary races this summer. SHARE By Dr. Scott Morris Did you ever wonder why the new year begins in the middle of winter, when the days are short and the nights are long? This is no time to start anything new! It hasn't always been this way. Not even close. As far back as the ancient Babylonians, the new year began in late March, with the spring equinox. In the early Roman world, the calendar had only ten months. Though two months were added later, the number of days in a year did not match the time it takes the earth to rotate around the sun, so seasons fell more out of sync every year. Julius Caesar, in 46 BC, tried to make the necessary mathematical corrections and establish January 1 as the beginning of a new year. By the early Middle Ages, though, widespread Christianity still regarded late March as the start of the new year. In the fourth and fifth centuries, the church stamped Christian claim on the calendar by assigning March 25 as the feast day of the Annunciation, when the angel told Mary she would have a baby. Nine months later is December 25, when we celebrate the birth of Jesus. While the Julian calendar was an improvement, the math was still not quite right and the church still sought dominance. In the 16th century, Pope Gregory XIII fixed the calendar math again, returned the start of the new year to January 1, and gave us the Gregorian calendar we use today. Now any date could be more scientifically fixed. What Gregory is less known for is his use of Saint Sylvester Day on December 31. In the fourth century, Pope Sylvester had done his best to keep Jews out of Jerusalem. On multiple occasions, Gregory used Saint Sylvester's day to threaten, tax, forcibly convert, or kill Jews. The calendar change meant that now Saint Sylvester's day fell on New Year's Eve. While in some places celebrations have rolled Sylvester's day and New Year's into one secular holiday, Jewish communities remember both Sylvester's actions against them and how Gregory XIII used the day for his anti-Semitic agenda. But by 1582, the Protestant Reformation had occurred and the Gregorian calendar was seen as a Catholic intrusion, so the British Empire continued observing New Year's in late March until 1752. When England finally adopted the Gregorian calendar, so did the Colonies. This required skipping 11 days to catch up, which made Benjamin Franklin quip, "It is pleasant for an old man to be able to go to bed on September 2, and not have to get up until September 14." Because of all this calendar confusion, dates of historical events may be off by as much as a year, depending whether the calendar used is Julian or Gregorian. Still, some cultures other than Christians continued to see the spring as a more reasonable time to begin a new year. Thailand, parts of India, and Malaysia start in the spring. Other groups use calculations related to culture or religion. The Islamic calendar remains lunar, rather than solar. Jews around the world claim the beginning of a new year in September during Rosh Hoshanah. Chinese New Year falls somewhere between late January to mid-February. Isn't it amazing how we have forgotten all of this? How complicated our history is, yet how short are our memories. Whenever our new years begin, we will experience thousands of events in our lives, but few will be truly memorable. I charge you this year to make five memories five things that next January you will hold up as valuable events in your life. Ultimately, memories with positive value allow us to look back on our lives with satisfaction. Changing the date the year begins will have little bearing on such important moments, and if you do not set out to create these memories you will default to the actions of external forces. Catastrophes and disasters will define who you are. Isn't it better to create your memories with intention? I hope you will keep count, and when you get to five there is no need to stop. Dr. Scott Morris is the founder and CEO of the Church Health Center, whose ministries provide health care for the working uninsured and promote healthy bodies and spirits for all. Dr. Morris is also the associate minister at St. John's United Methodist Church. For more information about the Church Health Center, call 901-272-7170 or visit churchhealthcenter.org. SHARE Mark Gwyn, director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation State Rep. G.A. Hardaway (D-Memphis) By Marc Perrusquia of The Commercial Appeal The nationwide focus on police shootings is gradually forcing state and local authorities to confront another public concern that lingered for years in the margins of news pages: police secrecy. While the files of the FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies have been subject to public disclosure for more than 40 years, a number of states allow police to keep criminal investigation files confidential years after defendants go to prison, after leads dry up or a case otherwise is no longer active. Journalists in Tennessee have long grumbled over a state law that allows the records of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to remain sealed even after cases are closed. Unlike the closed case files of the FBI, which are subject to release under the Freedom of Information Act, TBI's records essentially can only be released by court order or subpoena or by legislative action, a rare and potentially costly proposition for most citizens. Yet, an examination by The Commercial Appeal found Tennessee is far from alone. At least one other state Oklahoma directs its state bureau of investigation to keep its files sealed, while several others including Virginia, Iowa, North Carolina, New Jersey and Kansas allow local police agencies to seal closed case files, the newspaper found. But just as the fatal police shooting of black Memphis teenager Darrius Stewart prompted a judge's order last month to release records, renewing discussion on possibly opening some TBI files through a proposed amendment to state law, questions about police conduct are forcing authorities in several states to wrestle with public demands for greater access. "The attention that is being given to the officer-involved shootings or the use of Tasers by law enforcement or the beatings, these are bringing to the surface the questions about whether some of the public access laws are written as well as they could be,'' said Randy Evans, an open government advocate in Iowa, where the fatal shooting of a 34-year-old woman last January led the state's Public Information Board to vote last month to pursue legal action that attempts to force police in Burlington, Iowa, to release a video withheld under the state's police investigation exemption. "Without those cases I don't think there would be much likelihood of getting legislatures to revise the statutes to bring more openness to the laws,'' said Evans, executive director of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council, a nonprofit that advocates for open government. The push to open records in Tennessee is led by state Rep. G.A. Hardaway (D-Memphis), who is weighing a possible bill requiring the TBI to investigate officer-involved shootings statewide. Under an agreement reached in October, the TBI currently investigates officer involved deaths shootings as well as suspicious deaths of citizens in custody involving the Memphis Police Department and the Shelby County Sheriff's Office. It also investigates deadly force incidents in the state's rural counties. Hardaway wants to expand TBI's jurisdiction as a way to independently investigate all police use of deadly force in the state and avoid incestuous "blue family'' inquiries in which police agencies investigate their own officers. As part of his plan, Hardaway envisions making TBI files on deadly force open to public inspection once an investigation is closed. "There's no reason for these records not to be open,'' he said. "We don't want to take the chance of someone protecting special interests.'' The District 93 legislator says he's told the law sealing TBI records "goes back to trying to protect government officials and moonshiners.'' Records held by the Tennessee State Library and Archives show the law passed in 1970 as the Legislature expanded the then-Tennessee Bureau of Criminal Identification's duties, giving it power to investigate organized crime "gambling, prostitution, loan sharking, narcotics, labor racketeering and other unlawful activities.'' Previously, local authorities primarily investigated those crimes. A related bill pushed by then-Gov. Buford Ellington also passed that session, closing the bureau's investigative files. The measure met stiff resistance from then-state Sen. Ray Baird, D-Rockwood, a newspaper publisher and vocal open records advocate. "The first thing that ever happened in totalitarian countries (run by) Mussolini and Hitler and other countries like that has been the closing off of all records and the public's right to know,'' Baird says on a tape recording of a Jan. 29, 1970 Senate debate. " ... I think we're making a bad mistake. A very bad mistake.'' The measure that passed that day says the bureau's investigative records "shall be treated as confidential and shall not be open to inspection.'' It's been used since to keep TBI's files open or closed from public view, even as the agency's responsibilities grew. The TBI helps investigate a wide range of matters from traditional criminal investigations involving murder and rape to homeland security concerns and public corruption. Yet, tapes of the debate indicate the bill's key co-sponsor, Sen. William Bruce, D-Memphis, didn't envision such an absolute closing of the records. Characterizing the measure as "a privilege to the bureau,'' Bruce told colleagues "an individual could be refused access to information'' under the new law, but "not necessarily would be refused.'' It depends, he said, if the information had a "detrimental'' effect. Bruce also seems to indicate on the tape that the closing of investigative records would be temporary: "This is just simply giving the law enforcement people a right to retain the facts which they turn up until the disclosure, the proper timing for it, appears and the case is made out, so that we don't give the organized crime or whatever is being investigated the chance to perhaps conceal additional facts which ought to be disclosed.'' Later, Bruce says, "I think we owe it to the people that we give the responsibility to make these investigations to at least let them keep the records confidential until the investigation is complete, until it is time to make disclosure.'' The statements appear to reflect the spirit of laws like that of Florida, which allows police agencies to withhold only files of active investigations involving "a reasonable, good faith anticipation of securing an arrest or prosecution in the foreseeable future,'' or Georgia, which requires its Georgia Bureau of Investigation and other police agencies to release closed investigative files, including those involving cases "when all direct litigation involving said investigation and prosecution has become final or otherwise terminated.'' Reached by phone this month at his home in southern Georgia, Bruce, 80, said he no memory of the bill. "I'm a little surprised I would be a prime sponsor of a bill like that,'' he said. "I was not on the side of non-transparency.'' Baird, the bill's chief opponent, is deceased. TBI Director Mark Gwyn has been quoted as saying he would support "a mechanism'' to open TBI files involving police shootings, but agency spokesman Josh DeVine clarified in an email that no bill has been filed yet, thus the TBI has no "official" position. "At this time, the Director and the agency will defer to the will of the state legislature on the open records aspect of this issue,'' DeVine said in the email. "We have concerns, however, about any potential bill requiring the investigation of all officer-involved shootings and in-custody deaths without the allocation of additional personnel and resources to accommodate the anticipated increase in casework.'' Hardaway, the legislator, said ultimately he'd like to see all of TBI's closed files opened to public inspection, but said he doubts he and his colleagues have enough political capital to open anything more than police shooting files at this point and even that will be a challenge. "That's not to say we shouldn't come back and work at it,'' he said. Dec. 18, 2015 I spend a lot of time reading the Bible, says Robert Jackson, Psalms is my favorite. Jackson has had breathing issues all his life. In 2005, he was diagnosed with a form of Sarcoidosis. Currently he is on a waiting list for a full set of lungs. (Stan Carroll/The Commercial Appeal) SHARE Dec. 18, 2015 Ondra Harris was the recipient of a heart transplant in September 2015. (Nikki Boertman/The Commercial Appeal) Dec. 18, 2015 Robert Jackson decorates his Christmas tree in his South Memphis home. Jackson suffers from Sarcoidosis, an inflammatory disease that has affected his lungs. He is on a transplant list for a new set of lungs. I will live, Jackson said. I have to be there for my son and God has a lot of work for me. (Stan Carroll/The Commercial Appeal) Dec. 18, 2015 Robert Jackson was diagnosed with Sarcoidosis in 2005. He takes therapy locally while waiting for the call for his lung transplant. Once he receives the call, he has four hours to arrive in Nashville for the surgery. God has a hold on me and I wont give up, says Jackson. At times, I just sit, being still and knowing that He is God. I will live. (Stan Carroll/The Commercial Appeal) By Kayleigh Skinner of The Commercial Appeal Robert Jackson has had trouble breathing his whole life, and 10 years ago doctors figured out why. In 2005, Jackson, 39, was diagnosed with pulmonary sarcoidosis, a disease that causes small lumps to develop on organs. In Jackson's case, the granulomas affected his lungs. When they fail to heal, they scar and inflame the tissue. Today, he uses an oxygen tank to breathe. The Memphis-based National Foundation for Transplants helps Jackson and thousands of others across the country "fundraise for things not covered by insurance," said Emily Joyner, NFT spokeswoman. Jackson needs a double lung transplant, a surgery that costs roughly $800,000, according to NFT. While most of the cost of the surgery may be covered by insurance, he also needs to secure enough money to pay for the many costs associated with it. He will be on anti-rejection medication for the rest of his life and needs funds to pay for food, lodging and transportation after the operation. Before a patient begins working with NFT, a fundraising consultant verifies they are a transplant candidate and contacts the transplant center with a letter verifying their need, Joyner said. Together, the consultant and patient figure out how to raise money, whether it be through word-of-mouth, bake sales or mailing out appeal letters to friends, family or local businesses. "It's their (the consultant's) job to come up with ideas and try to remind them that they're not quite as alone as they think they are," Joyner said. Ondra Harris, 46, is working with NFT to raise money to pay for the costs she's incurred after her recent heart transplant. Four years ago, Harris was diagnosed with viral cardiomyopathy, a disease that weakens the heart. Over time, she became bedridden and unable to care for her two sons, Christopher, 12, and Aden, 9. Her heart function dropped to about 10 percent, she said. Doctors told her she would need a new heart. Within months of being placed on a transplant list in July, her prayers came true. She received a new heart on Sept. 11. "I just think it's the biggest blessing in the world everything just lined up perfectly," she said. "I was able to get mine a little quicker because I was healthy, besides the heart." Harris is working with NFT to raise money to help pay off roughly $8,000, her share of the medication bills before the surgery. They're also helping her raise money for post-transplant fees. It has become more common for hospitals and transplant centers to require a deposit just to be placed on the waiting list, Joyner said. "The reason they have to do that is because there is such a severe shortage of organ donors," Joyner said. "They want to be able to make the best possible match with people who can afford the long-term care." Jackson raised $5,000 to be put on a waiting list at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He hopes to raise $20,000 eventually to offset the costs of traveling to Nashville and staying there post operation for three months. He said his situation is sometimes overwhelming, but the support of his fiancee, Balanea Webb, and his 5-year-old son, Robert, keep him optimistic. "Sometimes I get depressed because I can't do the things I used to do, but I'm a fighter," Jackson said. "I have to be there for my son; he needs me." Like Jackson, Harold Woodson was also diagnosed with pulmonary sarcoidosis in 1988. Woodson moved from Bartlett to Houston last month, where he is waiting to be put on the list for a transplant at Houston Methodist Hospital. Some of the moving costs were offset by the more than $3,000 he raised with the help of NFT, he said. Woodson said he was told once he's on the list, the wait could be anywhere from six to 24 months. When he does receive his new lungs, he said he wants to take his wife back to Hawaii where they vacationed 19 years ago. He couldn't fully enjoy the visit because of his difficulty breathing. "I feel like I owe her a trip back there where I won't be tied down to oxygen and we can laugh, talk," Woodson said. "I look forward to the little, small things people take for granted." Woodson and Jackson both echoed the thoughts of 54-year-old Pamela Williams, a Memphian who also needs a double-lung transplant. "It would mean the world," she said. "A second chance in life." Those interested in donating to patients' fundraising accounts can visit transplants.org. FILE In this July 6, 2015, photograph, a small group of Mississippi and Confederate flag-waving citizens participate in a rally sponsored by the Magnolia State Heritage Campaign seeking publicity and support to help keep the Confederate battle emblem in the Mississippi flag on the steps of the Capitol in Jackson, Mississippi. House Speaker Philip Gunn said his own faith causes him to see the Mississippi flag as a point of offense that needs to be removed. Several cities and counties, and two universities, stopped flying the state flag. Republican Gov. Phil Bryant says he respects results of a 2001 election, when voters chose to keep the Confederate emblem on the flag. However, he also said if the issue is going to be revisited, it should happen during the November 2016 election. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File) SHARE By Emily Wagster Pettus JACKSON, Miss. Mississippi lawmakers begin their four-year term, and their four-month 2016 session, on Tuesday with a wide range of issues to consider: EDUCATION Legislators could try to revise the Mississippi Adequate Education Program, a complex formula designed to give schools enough money to meet midlevel academic standards. The formula has been fully funded only two years since it was put into law in 1997, and legislators are tired of being criticized for falling short of the mark. Mississippi ranks schools A through F, like a report card, and the formula is based on per-pupil spending for a district with a C ranking. Republican Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves has suggested the formula should be based on per-pupil spending at school districts ranked A or B. While this could reduce the amount needed to achieve full funding, lawmakers say they're seeking the most efficient use of tax dollars. They could also consider expanding charter schools and finding ways to expand the use of tax dollars to send some children to private schools. They could revive the long-standing debate over appointing all superintendents and electing all school boards. They could attempt to consolidate some school districts. And, they could create a state-run district to take over academically troubled districts. STATE FLAG Lawmakers could consider removing the Confederate battle emblem from the Mississippi flag. The public display of Confederate symbols came under debate after the massacre of nine black worshippers in June at a church in Charleston, South Carolina. Mississippi is the last state with a flag that features the Confederate emblem. Some say the symbol is reminiscent of slavery and segregation, while others see it as a symbol of heritage. Several cities and counties and some universities have stopped flying the flag. This session could mark the first time in 15 years for the flag to get serious debate. The Confederate emblem has been on the Mississippi flag since 1894, but the state Supreme Court ruled in 2000 that the flag had lacked official status since 1906 when state laws were updated and sections dealing with the flag were not carried forward. During the 2001 session, lawmakers didn't want to make a decision about the flag, so they sent the issue to a statewide election and voters chose to keep the emblem. After Charleston, Mississippi House Speaker Philip Gunn said his Christian faith caused him to see the flag as a divisive symbol that needs to be changed. Republican Gov. Phil Bryant says he respects the result of the 2001 election, but he has also said that if the flag design is revisited, it should be done in November 2016 because voter turnout is typically highest during presidential election years. If legislators are going to change the flag themselves, they would need to muster a two-thirds majority to overcome a veto. That's unlikely to happen. HIGHWAYS Mississippi Economic Council, the state's Chamber of Commerce, released a report in December saying that Mississippi needs to invest $375 million in highways and bridges, but the big question is how to find the money. The report suggests lawmakers consider higher fuel taxes, license plate fees, rental car taxes or general sales taxes. Bryant says any tax increase would need to be offset by decreasing taxes somewhere else, but he has not offered specifics. The report says $375 million would replace 562 deficient bridges, including every state bridge with timber underpinnings and 138 where deterioration means the department has posted a weight limit lower than the design capacity. They also say it would be enough to repave many roads. TAX CUTS Reeves says he wants to reduce the franchise tax to help businesses. The change is estimated to cost at least $240 million. Critics, including many Democratic lawmakers, have said cutting the franchise tax would do little to help working people. During the election-year session of 2015, Gunn proposed phasing out the state income tax over several years, with reductions happening only if the economy grew at a relatively healthy pace. It's unclear whether Gunn will revive that proposal now that the economic growth has slowed to a crawl. GUNS Rep. Andy Gipson, R-Braxton, says he will file a bill that would allow congregations to designate people who could carry guns inside or around churches or other houses of worship. Gipson who is an attorney and pastor of a small, rural Baptist church said one state law seems to generally prohibit carrying guns in churches, but another allows people with enhanced concealed-carry permits to carry guns there. The enhanced concealed-carry permit requires a person to take gun safety classes. Gipson said his proposal would be designed to eliminate the conflict in the two laws. Gipson said many congregations, such as his, can't afford to hire security guards, and his bill is designed to help them. He said the proposal was prompted by the church massacre in Charleston, South Carolina. "Most of our churches are just wide open," said Gipson, whose congregation at Gum Springs Baptist Church has about 100 members. He said if somebody like the Charleston shooter walked in, "most people wouldn't be prepared." Iraqi protesters try to set alight to defaced posters of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef a protest in Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, Jan. 3, 2016. Al-Nimr was a central figure in protests by Saudi Arabias Shiite minority until his arrest in 2012, and his execution drew condemnation from Shiites across the region. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim) SHARE By Liz Sly, Washington Post BEIRUT Saudi Arabia severed relations with Iran on Sunday amid the furor that erupted over the execution by the Saudi authorities of a prominent Shiite cleric. Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubair told reporters in Riyadh that the Iranian ambassador in Tehran had been given 48 hours to leave the country, citing concerns that Tehran's Shiite government was undermining the security of the Sunni kingdom. Saudi Arabian diplomats had already departed Iran after angry mobs trashed and burned the Saudi embassy in Tehran overnight Saturday, in response to the execution of Sheikh Nimr Baqr al-Nimr earlier in the day. Iran's supreme leader warned Sunday that there would be divine retribution for Saudi Arabia's rulers after the execution of a renowned Shiite cleric, sustaining the soaring regional tensions that erupted in the wake of the killing. The warning came hours after crowds of protesters stormed and torched the Saudi embassy in Tehran to vent their anger at the execution of Nimr Baqr al-Nimr, who was among 47 people put to death in the kingdom on Saturday. In a posting on his website, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned that the execution "will cause serious troubles for the politicians of this [Saudi] regime in a very short time.The hands of divine vengeance will surely snatch by their necks those cruel individuals who took his life." The execution of Nimr, an outspoken critic of the Saudi royal family, has ignited sectarian tensions across the already inflamed region and jeopardized U.S. diplomacy aimed at tamping down conflicts in the Middle East. Most of the 47 executed Saturday were Sunnis accused of participating in al-Qaida attacks. According to Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry, some were beheaded, and others were shot by firing squad in 12 different locations around the kingdom. Nimr, however, was one of four Shiites put to death for political activism and the leading figure in the anti-government demonstrations that swept the mostly Shiite east of the country in 2011, inspired by the Arab Spring protests elsewhere in the region. A photo montage also posted on Khamenei's website showed a split image of an Islamic State fighter preparing to carry out a beheading and a Saudi executioner. The caption asks the question "Any difference?" The photograph echoed numerous Iranian accusations that Saudi Arabia supports the Islamic State. In response, Saudi Arabia issued an angry statement pointing out that Iran is often accused by many countries of supporting terrorism. Iran "is the last regime in the world that could accuse others of supporting terrorism, considering that [Iran] is a state that sponsors terror, and is condemned by the United Nations and many countries," said a Foreign Ministry statement carried by the official Saudi news agency. The Saudi statement also pointed out that Iran also is frequently criticized by the international community for carrying out large numbers of executions. Iran carried out 694 executions in the first half of last year, according to an Amnesty International statement in July. Saudi Arabia, with a population nearly a third smaller than Iran's, carried out 157 in 2015, according to Amnesty and media reports. The authorities in Tehran announced that they had made a number of arrests in connection with the rampage at the Saudi embassy in Tehran, and the Foreign Ministry pledged to secure Saudi Arabian diplomatic facilities against further attack. "The diplomatic police are responsible for confronting any aggression against the diplomatic sites of Saudi Arabia and will act according to its duties to maintain public order and restore security to such places," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari said. The Saudi consulate in the Iranian city of Mashad was also set on fire during the protests that erupted after Nimr's execution was announced. The death sentence was carried out despite international appeals for clemency and repeated warnings from the kingdom's archenemy in the region, Iran, that there would be consequences if the popular cleric were killed. The State Department, which had refrained from publicly joining the appeals for Nimr's life, said it had raised concerns at the highest levels of the Saudi government about the judicial process. In a statement, it called on Saudi Arabia "to respect and protect human rights" and to permit "peaceful expression of dissent." "We are particularly concerned that the execution of prominent Shia cleric and political activist Nimr al-Nimr risks exacerbating sectarian tensions at a time when they urgently need to be reduced," the State Department said in a statement. "In this context, we reiterate the need for leaders throughout the region to redouble efforts aimed at de-escalating regional tensions." Shiites around the world expressed outrage, potentially complicating a surge of U.S. diplomacy aimed at bringing peace to the region, according to Toby Matthiesen, an expert on Saudi Arabia at the University of Oxford. Saudi Arabia and Iran are backing rival sides in Syria's war, and their enmity risks derailing a diplomatic effort led by the United States and Russia to convene peace talks between the factions in Geneva this month. The two feuding powers also support opposing sides in the war in Yemen and more broadly find themselves in opposition in the deeply divided politics of the mixed Sunni-Shiite nations of Iraq and Lebanon. Vegetables are shown on sale at the farmers market in Berkeley, Calif., Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2008. The cost of eating slow food can add up fast. But advocates of the movement, which means eating mostly fresh, unprocessed foods grown locally and in an environmentally responsible way, say going slow doesnt have to put a bite on your budget. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg) SHARE By Megan Kimble We are a nervous dozen, hovering around an expanse of stainless-steel counter at Tucson's Mercado San Agustin commercial kitchen. The session begins early; evidently those who sign up for a canning class at 9 a.m. on a warm Sunday are also a punctual bunch. Our instructor, Loraine, leads with this: "People don't can food anymore because they're worried they're going to kill someone," she says. We smile, relieved by this acknowledgment of botulism, and she promises to teach us how to do it safely. I'm here because of tomatoes. Six months earlier, I committed to a year of unprocessed eating, one in which I'd explore how we process food locally and industrially, individually and collectively. I'd prepared my own flour, sugar, wine, salt, milk and meat. And now, in the heat of Tucson's tomato season, I wanted to learn how to preserve food for the coming winter without the help of cold storage. I wanted to stop eating processed food for a lot of reasons. There was the environment: I'd come of age in an era of climate change, when natural resources were becoming scarce and our food system increasingly dependent on fossil fuels. There were political reasons, as I considered the enormous influence food companies wield in our national politics. And there were economic reasons: I wanted to spend what little money I earned endorsing my local food system, one that I hoped was visible, accountable and scalable. I was also tired of reading about what I should do. I wanted to explore what I could do. As it turned out, it would take me most of the year to figure out what makes food processed. With a few exceptions say, a raw, foraged mushroom all food has undergone some processing, by way of harvest, packaging or heat, before landing on our plates. Often, that's a good thing. But increasingly, it is not. I began with the belief that a food was unprocessed if I could theoretically make it in my home kitchen. I could, and did, grind wheat berries into flour, though I couldn't take that flour and sift out its endosperm and bleach it into fluffy whiteness. I could gather honey and grind nuts into butter, but I wouldn't refine sugar, stock up on chemicals or mix emulsifiers. I ate fried local eggs, with their bright, gooey yolks, and slid them atop jumbles of fresh vegetables, provisioned almost entirely by my Tucson Community Supported Agriculture share. I simmered beans in my Crock-Pot and whole grains on my stove. I baked bread, cultured yogurt and made chocolate. Basically, I ate things that were obviously and intuitively food that is, food without chemical additions or processed subtractions. As my year progressed, so did my definitions. At first, I focused on how processing changes food and how our bodies react to that change. Think, for example, of the difference between eating an orange and drinking orange juice. Although they both contain the same kind of sugar, the whole fruit binds it with fiber and cellulose, like sticky duct tape that the body takes time and effort to unwind and rip open. A cup of orange juice from a carton, on the other hand, provides an immediate dose of sugar; too much sugar consumed too quickly overloads the liver. As I learned about how specific foods are grown, harvested and transported, I started to wonder if the production of a food might make it processed, even if it's a food we might otherwise think of as whole. Consider the watermelon. In winter, 60 percent of the produce in U.S. supermarkets comes from Mexico, and most of it is funneled through Nogales, Arizona, the nation's third-largest port of entry. Warehouses at the border hold hundreds of thousands of pounds of produce in a time-halting 43-degree chill. I talked to one produce broker who moves 150,000 melons every day during the high season. The survival of the watermelon that winds its way through this system depends on pesticides, artificial refrigeration and semi trucks not to mention cheap migrant labor on both sides of the border. Compare that odyssey to the journey a watermelon takes from the Tucson CSA's Crooked Sky Farms to my kitchen. That melon grows on a diversified field, next to rows of squash and eggplant and tomatoes. It's harvested by two women earning a living wage, and it spends a day in transit before it lands in my kitchen. It is grown organically, so it's not covered in pesticide residue. As with all foods, what makes one piece of produce more processed than another is how much is required to get it from field to table. On average, 91 cents of every dollar American consumers spend on food goes to middlemen: suppliers, marketers, retailers. That means that the people who grow the food we eat even the corn in cheddar-flavor Chex Mix begins as a plant grown by someone receive only 9 cents of every dollar we spend. According to a study by Civic Economics, if a community the size of Tucson (population: 526,000) shifted 10 percent of its spending to local businesses a 10 percent shift, not an increase within one year, we would create almost $140 million in new revenue for the city. What that also means, I realized, is that we would withhold millions from the balance sheets of large food and agribusiness corporations that use our money to grow, process and sell foods that aren't good for us or the environment. If we stop buying from companies that sell cheap, processed foods, those companies will stop selling processed foods. (Indeed, many people have; major packaged-food companies lost $4 billion in market share in 2014 as shoppers sought less-processed options.) For me, the hardest part was cost. Americans spend a smaller fraction of their disposable income on food consumed at home than eaters in any other country 5.6 percent in 2013, compared with the 10 to 15 percent common in other developed countries. That's because processed food, on a cost-per-calorie basis, is quite cheap. When I started my unprocessed year, I was a graduate student earning just under $17,000, and now I was proposing to spend more on food. I saved every receipt for every food item I purchased, and at the end of my year, I tallied it all up. The grand total? For a year's worth of unprocessed food, I spent about $4,900 roughly $4.50 per meal, or 27 percent of my income. In the last week of my unprocessed year, I took the SNAP Challenge, a gauntlet thrown by community food banks across the country to eat on $30 for a week, the amount 46 million people in the U.S. receive from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. It shakes out to $1.40 a meal, not nearly enough to shop at the farmers market or the food cooperative where I bought most of my unprocessed wares. It's enough to buy some fresh produce, potatoes, dried beans and rice at a big-box supermarket like Wal-Mart, but just barely. I am lucky I can choose to spend $20 every week at my local farmers market, but ultimately, the best way to make fresh, local, organic foods more accessible is to rewrite the farm bill, the legislation that supported industrial growers of corn, cotton, wheat, rice and soybeans to the tune of 70 percent of total subsidies between 1995 and 2010. The reason organic broccoli costs more than processed corn is because, for the most part, our government doesn't subsidize organic broccoli growers. Still, that doesn't mean consumers don't have responsibility. The money we spend on food has the power to change the way the system works or perpetuate the status quo. Megan Kimble is the author of "Unprocessed: My City-Dwelling Year of Reclaiming Real Food" and the managing editor of Edible Baja Arizona, a magazine serving Tucson, Arizona, and the borderlands. Toby Talbot/Associated Press Files Many Americans side with food and beverage companies in opposing junk-food taxes, with the strongest opposition often seen in low-income and minority communities, even though they bear the largest health burdens as a result of their sale and consumption. SHARE Antonis Liokouras/Fotolia In Greece, Denmark and Belgium, food ads aimed at children are restricted. Sweden and Norway simply ban them. Regulating food ads is harder in the U.S. because our courts treat such ads as commercial speech protected under the First Amendment. In many European nations, where consumers pay a higher tax on sugary foods and beverages, the obesity rate is less than half that of the United States. By Robert Paarlberg The most recent official data on obesity were a shock. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, roughly 38 percent of American adults are technically obese (a body mass index over 30), up from 35 percent in 2011-2012 and 32 percent in 2003-2004. Why can't we get this crisis under control? It sometimes seems as though we've tried everything: steps by food producers and restaurant chains to reformulate their offerings, self-restraint by companies regarding junk food and soda ads, calorie counts on menus, more nutritious lunches at schools and a high-profile advocacy campaign led by a popular first lady, Michelle Obama. But, in fact, we haven't tried everything. We consistently stop short of using our most powerful policy instruments: taxes and regulations. In Europe these measures are widely used, and obesity rates are often less than half as high as ours. Hungary imposed a tax on manufactured foods with high sugar contents, and Finland has ratcheted up its tax on soft drinks. Sugar and chocolate are taxed in Norway. In 2010, Denmark increased by 25 percent its excise tax on chocolate, ice cream, sugary drinks and confectionery products, and two years later France imposed a tax on drinks with added sugars. Regulations in Britain now restrict both the content and timing of ads for foods high in fat, salt or sugar. Greece, Denmark and Belgium also restrict food ads aimed at children. Sweden and Norway simply ban such ads. Using such taxes or regulations to fight obesity has been harder for the U.S. Many Americans side with food and beverage companies in opposing junk-food taxes, with the strongest opposition often coming from low-income and minority communities, even though these communities bear the largest health burdens as a result of their sale and consumption. One survey found that fewer than one in four Americans favored soda taxes, which helps to explain why a Democratic Congress never seriously considered imposing such taxes to help pay for Obamacare in 2009. Political leaders quickly learn that if they support such taxes, they will be accused of placing a regressive tax on the poor or disrespecting the minority communities that are heavy consumers of the products that would be taxed. In 2012, when New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg tried to restrict the sale of soda in containers larger than 16 ounces, strong objections arose from the City Council's Black, Latino and Asian Caucus. Regulating food ads is also more difficult in the United States because our courts treat such ads as "commercial speech" constitutionally protected under the First Amendment. Because of these unique barriers to a strong obesity-prevention policy, the U.S. has drifted toward a second-best policy of acceptance and treatment. Rather than imposing the taxes or regulations needed to discourage excess calorie consumption, we try to live with that excess by providing physical accommodations and ramping up spending on medical treatments for the health risks associated with obesity. Relying on costly treatments (including prescription drugs and surgeries) rather than prevention is a typically U.S. approach to health care. By some calculations, 70 percent of illnesses being treated in the U.S. are preventable. The result of this approach, however, is higher costs and increased inequality. Providing treatment is now this nation's primary policy response to the increase in obesity. Between 1990 and 2010, when the number of U.S. diabetes cases more than tripled, our response was to develop and deliver improved medical interventions to control blood sugar, blood pressure and cholesterol. As a result, diabetes treatments in the U.S. now cost $176 billion a year. This can sometimes seem like a winning strategy, because the treatments when delivered get gratifying results. Thanks to new interventions, plus a decline in smoking, the percentage of people with diabetes who will eventually die of the disease has declined from about 41 percent to 17 percent. Yet responding with treatment alone fails badly on equity grounds. The groups in the U.S. most likely to become obese are racial minorities, those without any education beyond high school and members of single-parent households; these are also the Americans least able to access quality medical care. Obesity rates are twice as high among children whose parents lack a high-school diploma, and such children are frequently off the medical grid. Treatment can be a good second-best option for upper-income and college-educated Americans, since most have ready access to medical insurance and services. But an approach that emphasizes treatment over prevention will work far less well for Americans with fewer resources. If the United States settles for a second-best policy of adaptation and treatment, then a social as well as a financial price will be paid. We will have become, in yet another arena, a nation of haves and have-nots. Robert Paarlberg is an adjunct professor of public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and author of "The United States of Excess: Gluttony and the Dark Side of American Exceptionalism." SHARE With swearing-in ceremonies over, new Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland and the Memphis City Council will really get down to business Monday. The council, with six new members, will have its first meeting Tuesday minus Bill Boyd, Harold Collins, Alan Crone, Wanda Halbert, Myron Lowery (the longest-serving African-American on the council) and Strickland. Boyd and Lowery did not seek re-election. Collins and Strickland challenged former mayor A C Wharton in a race won by Strickland. Halbert made an unsuccessful bid for City Court clerk. Crone, who was selected by the council to fill the unexpired term of Shea Flinn, who left to take a job with the Greater Memphis Chamber, did not seek a full term (he has taken a part-time post in the Strickland administration). They are being replaced by Frank Colvett Jr., Martavius Jones, Worth Morgan, Patrice Robinson, Philip Spinosa and Jamita Swearengen. They will join incumbents Berlin Boyd, Joe Brown, Kemp Conrad, Edmund Ford, Janis Fullilove, Reid Hedgepeth and Bill Morrison. The last time there was this much turnover on the council was Jan. 1 , 2008, when nine new members took the oath of office. That group really flexed its muscle that year by voting 10-3 to withhold the $66.2 million subsidy from the old Memphis City Schools district. Newcomers Ford, Morrison, Halbert, Boyd, Collins, Flinn, Fullilove and Hedgepeth teamed with veterans Lowery and Scott McCormick to end the subsidy. Newcomer Strickland and longtime council members Brown and Barbara Swearengen Ware voted no. The council then voted to reduce the property tax rate, despite warnings that if MCS sued, which it did, the city could lose the case, which it did. The funding mess was eventually settled last year, but not before the city made a bad refinancing deal in 2010 to repay the money it owed the school district. It will be interesting to see how this council decides to make its mark. One thing to watch is whether the council makes a move to have a bigger voice in tax breaks the Economic Development Growth Engine (EDGE) of Memphis and Shelby County grants to economic develop projects, and whether Strickland will support such a move. The tax breaks have been a bone of contention among some council members, who complain EDGE has not done enough to promote economic development projects in distressed neighborhoods. It is fair to say, though, that all eyes will be on Strickland and his new leadership team. Will he be a cut-everything, limited-initiative gatekeeper, as some people fear? Or, will he be able, in his own way, to continue the course set by Wharton to get the city on better financial footing, while championing new initiatives that will move the city forward? Strickland has stressed maintaining core services without raising taxes. The 800-pound gorilla in the room is the state mandate for the city to bring its pension fund into solvency by 2020. To do that, the city has to begin making yearly payments of $73 million to $75 million this year, which means Strickland and the council, which approves the city budget, will have to find an extra $30 million this year. Wharton was able to increase the amount of money paid into the pension fund by convincing the council to make painful changes in the city's health insurance plan, including increased premiums and cutting the city subsidy for retirees. The benefit reductions have resulted in an exodus of public safety employees, especially police officers. Since public safety was a big campaign issue for Strickland, it will be interesting to see what actions he takes to stop the flow. Raises for public safety workers, for example? If so, where will the money come from? News / National by Staff Reporter Pole dancer Beverley Sibanda's manager Hapaguti Mapimhidze has been accused of "intimidation and extortionist tendencies" by some female dancers.According to the Standard Style, a group of female dancers said they were forced to pay subscription fees that he abused to "oil" his own projects."We are bitter with Harpers, he is abusing us and if one does not pay up subscriptions, he threatens them with unspecified action and we are tired of his actions."We no longer want him to represent us and he should do the honourable thing of resigning," said one of the dancers who dances with a prominent dance group.Mapimhidze is accused of organised an award ceremony to honour himself and his friend Sibanda'."We are saying our money should not be used to organise cosmetic awards. We wanted our livelihoods to be improved. We work for drunken people and we get abused everyday but DAZ is doing nothing, all they want is subscriptions from us."Mapimhidze is Dancers Association of Zimbabwe (DAZ) president. SHARE Leslie Luebbers Memphis I facilitate rescue of dogs from Memphis Animal Services for out-of-town rescue groups. Some weeks I am there several times gathering photos and information, meeting with dogs, completing paperwork for pulling them and starting them on the path to new lives. Each step of this requires help from MAS staff. In the past, this could be a frustrating and emotionally exhausting experience, because of MAS seemingly chaotic internal culture and fortress mentality. This has changed. Now, communication is swift and courteous, and emphasis is on individual customer service and cooperation with other animal welfare groups. Every day this past week, staff members were in the lobby to assist potential adopters. The atmosphere is calm, positive and friendly. The live release rate has steadily improved; it now is 50 percent and edging up, which is good for a municipal shelter. Meanwhile, I greatly appreciate and applaud James Rogers for his leadership. I hope the new director continues along his path. On December 28th Adobe released a new version of their Flash Player with 19 bug fixes. It seems they left one out. On New Years Day, Flash for Windows was updated yet again. I stumbled across this, interestingly enough, on a Chromebook. The arrow appeared in the bottom right corner of the Chromebook indicating that a reboot was available to update the system. After rebooting, I went to the Adobe Flash Tester site to insure the system had picked up the Flash update from four days ago, version 20.0.0.267. It had not. The Chromebook was running Flash version 20.0.0.228 which was released back on December 8th. The latest version for Chrome OS is 20.0.0.267 released on December 28th. Thinking this might be a browser cache issue, I double checked the installed version of Flash by entering chrome://flash in the address bar. This too, reported version 20.0.0.228. As with the Windows version of Chrome, a Chromebook will report that it is up to date ( chrome://help in the address bar) despite a missing Flash update. As Yoda might say: act together Google needs. For the record, Chrome OS was version 47.0.2526.106 and another Chromebook had the exact same results. While checking out the Chromebooks, I noticed that the Adobe page reported a new version Internet Explorer on Windows (below). Interestingly, the update does not apply to Internet Explorer on Windows 8.x and 10. The latest versions of Flash for Windows as of Jan. 2, 2016 The Adobe Security Bulletin from December 28th has not been updated with any mention of version 20.0.0.270. But, an online search turned up an Adobe forum post from today (January 2nd) by Chris Campbell of Adobe that says The next version of Flash Player is available for immediate download. In today's release we've updated Flash Player ActiveX for Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 with a critical functional bug fix. The forum post links to Release notes for Flash Player version 20 which were updated on New Years Day to say In today's release, we've updated Flash Player ActiveX for Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7. This release addresses a problem with Flash Player improperly loading in applications that have it embedded. We are working with Microsoft to provide this update to Windows 8 and Windows 10 users as soon as possible ... Customers using Google Chrome or Windows 8.x/10 Internet Explorer or Microsoft Edge will receive the update through the Google and Microsoft update mechanisms. No mention of Firefox, curiously. The Flash Player download page offers confirmation of the update. Visiting it on Windows 7 with Internet Explorer, it currently offers to install version 20.0.0.270. On Windows 8, things can only be described as weird. As you can see below, from Internet Explorer, Adobe reports that Flash version 20.0.0.267 is both the latest and, at the same time, out of date. Clicking the yellow Update Now button does not update anything. Flash for Internet Explorer on Windows 8 appears to be in flux Windows 8 users should thus avoid Internet Explorer. Of course, this has been true for years. Since this is a "functional bug fix" Adobe may not issue a Security Bulletin. There is no security problem if one plus one equals three. Just a problem. - - - - - - - - - - Update: January 4, 2016. It seems that Windows 7, Vista and XP users are the lucky ones - they got the patch first. Flash 20.0.0.267 appears to be causing more than its share of grief on Windows 10. For more, see Win10 Flash patch KB 3132372 breaks Skype, HP Solutions Center, Incredimail, games by Woody Leonhard, written today. As for Defensive Computing with Flash, it deserves the treatment previously suggested for Java. Have it disabled or not-installed in the web browser you regularly use. Have it available in a secondary browser used only on the sites that require Flash. And, for further protection, configure that secondary browser for click-to-play so that Flash does not run automatically when a web page loads. - - - - - - Update: January 6, 2016 9AM PT. The Adobe forum posting was updated yesterday, the 5th, to say that Microsoft would update Flash on Windows 10 on the 5th. As of now, the Adobe Flash Tester page shows no available update for Windows 10. And, there has been no change on Windows 8, where Flash 20.0.0.267 is still both the latest version and out of date. - - - - - - - - Update: January 7, 2016 8AM PT. Microsoft and Adobe disagree about Flash on Windows 10. The Adobe Tester page says that the latest version is still 20.0.0.267. However, on January 5th, Microsoft released Update for Adobe Flash Player in Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge that brings it up to 20.0.0.272. This latest Flash update from Microsoft applies to Windows 10 Version 1511. - - - - - - - - Update: January 8, 2016 3PM PT. My Chromebook has finally been updated to the latest Flash for Chrome OS, version 20.0.0.267. - - - - - - - - Update: January 9, 2016 7AM PT. No change on Windows 8, where things remain weird - the latest Flash version is out of date. At this point, I can only conclude that neither company cares. DO YOU have a Boulevard Aristide-Briand near you? Or do you send your child to school in a Jules-Ferry or a lycee Emile Combes? If so, you are already familiar with key names in the construction of the French Republic. Between them, these three politicians were responsible for free state schooling, obligatory education for girls and the rock of state neutrality towards religion on which la Republique is built: the principle of laicite. The term is very much in the news, with a new laicite charter being introduced into schools this autumn alongside classes in morale laique. Presenting the charter, Minister for Education Vincent Peillon explained: Everyone is free to have his own opinions but no one has the right to contest teaching content or miss a class in the name of religious precepts. Public debate over the Muslim community in France pops up in the news regularly and is nearly always related in one way or another to perceived challenges to this element of the Constitution. Peillons remarks refer also to repeated evangelist pressure to alter class content, in particular regarding the theory of evolution. A recent example was the proposal to swap two Christian holidays with Jewish and Muslim ones: confusing whether France was secular or multi-religious. Left and Right politicians often unite to initiate laws to protect laicite. Once the source of conflict with the Catholic Right over private education funding, the principle, an important element in the integration process, regularly generates ill feeling these days among extremist sectors of the Muslim community. That is why, a century after the original 1905 law, several new laws have been passed to protect it. First, a few explanations. Laicite does not translate well. Secularity is close but confusing. Laicite is not easy to define either. It has evolved over two centuries and is evolving still. The concept was born of the Revolution, which guaranteed freedom of conscience to all and first separated State and Church. Napoleon backtracked, signing a concordat with the Vatican in 1801 that was to poison Church-State relations during the 19th century and put laicite on the back burner for much of it. (For historical reasons, this concordat still applies in Alsace and Moselle.) Having been suppressed by the Vichy regime (along with liberte, egalite, fraternite without which laicite could not function), the principle was cast in the constitution of the Fourth Republic in 1946 the State is indivisible, laic, democratic and social and remains firmly in that of todays Fifth. To understand the concept is to go a long way towards understanding the French. Maybe it could be defined as their permanent search for a delicate balance between sharing what they all hold in common, the Republic, and catering for diversity. It is the principle that protects both personal and collective liberty and, as such, is the responsibility of both State and citizen. The indivisibility of the State is the States refusal to recognise any religious or ethnic community. France is one. There are two major dates in the history of laicite: 1881 and 1905. In 1881-82, Minister of Education Jules Ferry decreed school to be publique, gratuite et laique state-run, free and non-clerical. Teaching in French to a national programme provided children, whatever their linguistic background or beliefs, with the theoretical possibility of equal opportunity. It created a framework in which adults could bring no pressure to bear on pupils to adhere to any philosophy, religion or political idea. That remains the basis of the French educational system today. The 1905 law, engineered by Emile Combes and Aristide Briand, enforced the neutrality of the State and State institutions through the separation of the Churches and the State. Since that date, the State recognises no religion and therefore cannot directly fund any either. If the same law grants the individual total liberty and privacy regarding beliefs, there is one condition: they must not disturb public order. Given the repeated trauma that religion has caused in Frances recent history from the Wars of Religion to the expulsion of the Huguenots and the Dreyfus affair this means no proselytising and nothing that could be remotely interpreted as such. It also explains why, in France, religious belief is far more than a private matter. Things spiritual belong to the realm of intimacy. It is extremely unusual to see anyone wearing any conspicuous religious symbol in public. To do so is perceived as a deliberate act, a message to others. It is unthinkable to ask someone what their religion is and most people will be frankly embarrassed by anyone saying what theirs is. When Nicolas Sarkozy publicly announced he had appointed Frances first Muslim prefect, he sent shockwaves throughout the land. Knowing this helps in understanding intense French reaction to young girls wearing veils. It is seen not only as an unacceptable way of bringing religion into the public sphere, but also a form of peer pressure on other girls to do the same. Which takes us back to Jules Ferry and neutrality in the classroom. This insistence on the privacy of beliefs was of course also reinforced after World War II by the fate of Frances Jews under the Vichy regime, and the obligation to publicly show their religion by wearing the yellow star. As a result of the trauma of State responsibility in their deportation and extermination, no statistics may be made regarding peoples religious beliefs, ethnic origin or colour. All citizens are not only equal, but remain neutral in the eyes of the State. The mosque debate The 1905 law was finally well accepted by both Catholic and Protestant churches in France, who benefited financially when the State handed existing buildings and their costly maintenance over to local authorities. But the State cannot fund new religious buildings. Hence the mosque-building debate and recent legislation allowing local authorities to contribute. For with generous donations from Saudi Arabia and Muslim foundations abroad pouring in, the inherent risk of encouraging fundamentalist movements to develop in France is obvious. Under the Nicolas Sarkozy government, the training of imams in France to Republican principles was considered. But the State cannot finance religious education either. The impasse has been paradoxically circumvented by the Catholic University offering courses, and Algerian imams due to work in France being trained in French and laicite at the government-funded Institut Francais in Algiers. Conspicuous symbols and full-face veils After a number of potentially inflammatory cases in which some schools were confronted with Muslim girls wearing Islamic headscarves, legislation was passed in 2004 banning the wearing of any conspicuous religious symbol or sign in state schools. Never specifically aimed at the Muslim community (kippas, large crosses and Sikh turbans fall under the same category), the new law, despite fears it would be perceived as discriminatory and arouse further reaction, had the almost immediate effect of calming the situation, though some veiled Muslim girls and turbaned Sikhs found their way to private schools. But this legislated solely for public schools, not privately run establishments. In March of this year, Fatima Afif, an employee dismissed in 2008 from the privately run Baby Loup creche in the Yvelines for refusing to remove her headscarf, won on appeal for wrongful dismissal on the grounds of religious discrimination. New legislation is now under consideration to cover pre-school structures and religious symbols in the workplace, none of which are currently covered by law. When, in late July, a police officer in the town of Trappes stopped a fully veiled young women for an ID check in the middle of Ramadan, he did not know he was unleashing days of rioting. But Cassandra, 22, was not infringing any law on laicite. This time it was the one against dissimulating the face in the public sphere, put into effect by the Sarkozy government in 2011. Introduced ostensibly as anti-terrorism legislation, many felt its real purpose was more anti-veil. In fact, the number of women in France wearing the niqab is extremely small, and the number of women fined likewise. Laicite with an adjective The latest solution of Frances politicians to calm the debate has been to add adjectives. Sarkozy invented laicite positive, in which the government took into account the existence of religious groups in France. He created a representative Muslim council, through which to address the Muslim community in France. Representative of only a portion of Frances Muslims, many of whom are non-practising, it has created more problems than it has solved. The Hollande government has coined laicite apaisee, a low-profile approach in which negotiation would replace legislation as the best way of winning over those who regard the principle with suspicion. True laicistes believe the principle cannot survive any moderating tags. It must exist alone. Universities oppose campus headscarf ban proposal In early August, Le Monde published a report signed by members of the Haut Comite de lIntegration (HCI), a body no longer briefed to deal with laicite since the creation of a separate mission last April. It called for a Muslim headscarf ban in universities. Government replies were swift but hardly in unison. Minister of the Interior Manuel Valls stated evasively that the subject needed to be considered, while Genevieve Fioraso, Minister for Higher Education, warned that we should avoid problems where there are none. For Gerard Blanchard, president of La Rochelle University, and vice-president of the national CPU, Conference des Presidents dUniversite, laicite is not an issue on his campus or anywhere in France. We have 14% foreign students in La Rochelle, mostly from South East Asia, and we only ask women students to take off their veils in science laboratories, for safety reasons. That has never posed a problem. The University Presidents Conference has issued a public statement against any specific university ban. For Blanchard, the over-mediatised debate that burst upon us mid-summer is without foundation. He is adamant that he has never had a complaint from a teacher. An environmentalist, he is far more concerned by pressure that could be brought on teachers to introduce non-scientific versions of the origins of the universe into the syllabus. No university teacher should ever have to submit to any pressure on the content of his teaching. Jean-Loup Salzmann, president of the CPU, and president of Paris XIII, in the heart of Seine- Saint-Denis, one of the most multi-cultural universities in France, firmly believes in laicite, but sees no need for new laws on the campus. His main concern is elsewhere. He is angered by the incongruity of the State promoting laicite on the one hand, while financing the Catholic universities on the other. Expressing a personal opinion, he said: The main issue for these young Muslim women, who have enough problems coping with family pressure, is to achieve independence and emancipation through their studies, whether they wear a veil or not. An anti-veil law would achieve the opposite of what we want. Many of these women would then not have access to university at all. How the principle of laicite is applied today NICOLAS Cadene, chairman of the Observatoire de la Laicite, a watchdog committee created last April by President Francois Hollande to report on how the principle of laicite is applied in France today, spoke to Connexion. Can you define this difficult concept for our readers? Laicite is a principle which allows us all to live together. It is not a ban on religion or religious practices. On the contrary, it guarantees believers and non-believers alike the freedom to express themselves, to practise or not to practise a religion as they choose, on condition that public order is not disturbed. The State adopts an attitude of total impartiality towards citizens, who are all equal in the eyes of the State. Do the current religious bank holidays not favour one religious group? Christian festivals have, for the majority, become traditional holidays with little religious significance. Still, the State does not want to be seen as favouring one religion over another. In 1905, there was no Muslim population. But I dont think this poses a real problem. Employees can use their RTT (recuperation of unpaid overtime in the form of days off) as they wish. The Stasi Commission (set up by President Jacques Chirac in 2003) went a long way towards identifying issues in the workplace. We shall build on that. The conspicuous religious symbols ban was seen as directed only at women. Is that not a form of discrimination? If people set out to present themselves in a way which is obviously a proselytising or a provocative attitude, that is not acceptable. It is not so much what people wear or their physical appearance, as the reason behind the choice. This is one of the subjects we shall be working on. Islam has no clerical hierarchy. Isnt the laicite legislation trying to apply to individuals a law aimed at an institution? Doesnt the 1905 law need to be adapted? Not at all. The principle enables us all to live together. But, of course, we must avoid situations in which one group feels stigmatised by the law. That is one of our major subjects of reflexion. But there is no question of adapting the principle to new circumstances. It is one of bringing people to understand that laicite is not a ban on religious practice but a system of personal freedom and helping them to adapt to the principle. There has been talk in the press over banning the Islamic headscarf at university. [The full-face veil is already banned anywhere in public]. The State has a duty to protect minors from any form of ideological persuasion, hence the headscarf ban in schools. University is a world of adults. But the Republic has a duty to protect its citizens against the dangers of extremism. Some people attribute to laicite powers it simply does not have. There is an urgent need for strong political action, at state and local level, in order to resolve the many problems the threat of extremism has brought to certain sectors of society. The Observatoire has published its first report, a history and background to the concept. What else has it achieved? We helped draw up two important documents: the laicite charter and the syllabus for non-religious morality for schools. Both take effect this year. In addition, our report has pinpointed situations needing close attention in public administrations and local authorities (non-Metropolitan France included), as well as in the private sector. How do you see your work developing? We need a better definition of laicite that reiterates the States position of neutrality and is more clearly understood by all, in France and at an international level. We are drawing up guidelines for the application of laicite and religious practice in the workplace, and in the wake of the Baby Loup issue [see main article], for pre-school structures. We must show people how to react to situations. Overreaction is one of the major problems we face, when so much could be achieved by negotiation and taking things calmly. Oliver Letwin is back in the Guardians dock this time over a few sentences in a 15-year old book which compared drugged adolescents to medieval serfs, and described the former as members of an underclass. Todays Observer story is a half-hearted follow-up to last weeks Guardian report of his opposition, while an adviser to Margaret Thatcher in 1986, to proposals by David Young to fund black entrepreneurs. Letwin co-wrote in a memo that so long as bad moral attitudes remain, all efforts to improve the inner cities will founder. [Lord] Youngs new entrepreneurs will set up in the disco and drug trade. The case for the prosecution is that the third most powerful Minister in the Government is a racist and reactionary. The case for the defence, put by Letwin himself, is that one of my greatest concerns ever since entering parliament in 1997 has been to find ways of enabling all our citizens and in particular the most vulnerable and those caught in cycles of addiction and breakdown to achieve equality of opportunity and a better life through full participation in the benefits of our society and civilisation. A fuller reading of that 1986 memo suggests that his efforts have born fruit. It proposed to reinforce the family through the law and tax, to set up old-fashioned independent religious schools and to change attitudes to personal responsibility, honesty, and the police from an early age including a new moral youth corps . For tax measures to help families, read David Camerons marriage tax allowance. For independent schools, read Michael Goves free schools, faith-based and non-faith based. For a youth corps, read National Citizen Service another initiative with the Prime Ministers own stamp on it. These are Thatcher-era proposals dressed in modern Cameroon garb. To say so is not to portray this Government, as some on the Left try to so, as so simply furthering Thatcherism by other means. There are differences as well as similarities between the Conservative politics of the late part of the twentieth century and the early part of the twenty-first: consider, for example, Theresa Mays curbs on stop and search, or her measures to reduce deaths in police custody, or indeed her claim that Britains police forces are too white. These are signs of deeper cultural change. Letwins memo was part of a debate within government about responses to the Broadwater Farm disturbances. As Trevor Phillips points out in the same paper that carries todays story, attitudes to black people in 1985 were different on the Left as well as the Right, and some Labour members used language far more biting than Letwins in the riots aftermath. The Daily Mirror put responsibility for the Broadwater Farm disturbances squarely at the door of the black community . A Labour Councillor in Haringey described Bernie Grant, then his councils own leader, as being like the leader of a black tribe . But the Letwin rumpus shows more than how papers hunt for victims, policies change and attitudes develop. What it perhaps highlights most is the capacity of conservatism to reinvent itself as a governing force. Letwin himself might almost have been produced in laboratory conditions to help prove the point. The former special adviser to Thatcher is essentially a special adviser to Cameron now an immensely more glorified one, certainly, but one whose function has scarcely changed in over 30 years: to help develop and implement policy. At some point post-1997, he clearly concluded that to win and hold office, the Conservative Party would need to present itself anew to a fresh generation of voters. The young MP who supported John Redwood for leader in 1997 duly became one of David Camerons earliest backers in 2005 having previously immersed himself in Iain Duncan Smiths Renewing One Nation project. Some of the policies he oversees today are new and so is much of the language, including his own. But he is less a symbol of reinvention than evidence of continuity of the deep instinct for office that has helped to make the Conservatives the longest-lasting party in the world. Close In New York, 16 hotels are planning to be part of the environmental initiative called "the Carbon Challenge," announced New York Mayor Bill de Blasio. It will help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050. The NYC Carbon Challenge Program is struggling to bring down greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent or more in the coming decade, said CNN. "Whether we're talking about universities, hospitals, and offices, or large apartment buildings and hotels, all of New York City has a stake in our fight against climate change," said Mayor de Blasio. "If some of New York's most iconic hotels can significantly reduce their carbon footprint, anyone can. NYC Carbon Challenge participants are joining the city government in leading by example through the green retrofits all buildings should make - and that's no small feat." The participants will be able to bring down emissions by 32,000 metric tons of carbon and save about $25 million in energy costs. Other participants in the plan include hospitals, universities and businesses, such as Google and Goldman Sachs. This list of 16 hotels includes: Hotel Brooklyn Bridge (opening 2016), 1 Hotel Central Park, Crowne Plaza Times Square, Dream Downtown, Grand Hyatt New York, Hotel Pennsylvania, Hudson Hotel, Loews Regency Hotel, Lotte New York Palace, The Pierre-A Taj Hotel, The Peninsula New York, InterContinental New York Barclay, InterContinental New York Times Square, Roger Smith Hotel, Waldorf Astoria New York and the Westin New York at Times Square, reports Real Estate Weekly. The hotels take up 10 million square feet and more than 11,000 rooms. The total number of current participants take up more than 255 million square feet of New York real estate. They are thus accountable for seven percent of New York's building-based emissions, according to Real Estate Weekly. See Now: What Republicans Don't Want You To Know About Obamacare Close An increasing number of US births happen at home or in birthing centers rather than in hospitals. However, a recently published study that appeared in The New England Journal of Medicine reexamines the health risks associated with home births. The study reignites the debate on home birth as the research suggests that giving birth at home heightens the risk of newborn complications. The research involved a careful examination of nearly 8, 000 Oregon pregnancies. According to a report by Los Angeles Times, births that occur at home or in residential-style birthing centers result to 3.9 perinatal deaths for every 1, 000 live births. Infant mortality rate in hospitals tend to be lower at 1.8 for every 1, 000 deliveries. Other harms linked to home births include higher probability of neonatal seizures, increased risks for infants needing ventilators, and chances of mothers needing blood transfusions as mentioned by New York Times. On the other hand, the study also reports that the likelihood of cesarean sections is lower at 5.3% in residential-style births compared with 24.7% in hospitals. "There is a small risk of serious complications that are best dealt with in hospital. They're rare but the risk is not zero. The tradeoff is, in the hospital, you lose control over your birth experience," remarked study co-author Dr. Aaron Caughey of Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine as quoted saying by NWI Times. While the pros and cons of birthing at home are highly debated for health reasons, the decision ultimately falls on the mother's willingness to take the risks. In another note, data from the National Center for Health Statistics revealed that Oregon ranks among the top six US states with incredibly high out-of-hospital birth rates. In a 2012 statistical data by health authorities, Oregon ranked third at 3.8% with Alaska in the first place at 6% as stated by Modern Healthcare. See Now: What Republicans Don't Want You To Know About Obamacare Close The food crisis which engulfs the embattled burrito chain fueled a series of speculations and varying opinions by research analysts and financial pundits over Chipotle's future stock earnings and valuations. As news of food-borne disease outbreaks continue to plague the headlines, Chipotle's growth prospects have become increasingly uncertain causing some investors to move their investments elsewhere. As 2015 moves to an inevitable close, what does the future hold for Chipotle Mexican Grill? Objectively speaking, in the light of the existing circumstances, the pre-E.Coli growth era is largely not possible next year. But if you heed legendary investor Warren Buffet's advice on long-term investments, you'll probably see a quite different picture. So far, many published analyses paint dim prospects for the company that's worth $24 billion. However, some argue that the company will definitely see light at the end of the tunnel. "We still think the business ultimately will rebound and believe patient investors can be rewarded in owning CMG, but the lack of visibility related to the timing/trajectory of the recovery prevents us from taking a more constructive near-term stance on the stock at this stage," observed David Tarantino of Baird Equity Research as quoted in article by WND. The problem with forecasting about Chipotle's future is that the figures available to the public do not exactly provide an exact future growth trajectory for the company. There are a number of influencing factors which make stock value assessment in the present quite difficult if not impossible. "The estimates are all over the board all over the street. And everybody could be totally wrong," said Peter Saleh of BTIG as mentioned by CNBC. Overall, Chipotle stocks remain largely bullish in the market with 15 buy recommendations, 17 holds, and one 'sell' note in a Thomson Reuters update as stated by Market Watch. See Now: What Republicans Don't Want You To Know About Obamacare Close A family court judge in Nevada gave a green light to a Reno-based hospital to perform brain wave tests on twenty year-old Aden Hailu who is only kept alive by life-support machines after being declared brain dead since May. Despite strong objections from the patient's family, Washoe County Judge Frances Doherty permitted St. Mary's Regional Medical Center to conduct two electroencephalograms (ECG) on the brain dead patient but reserved ruling on whether further tests such as CT scan and clinical exams shall be included. The young patient, a student at the University of Nevada, was admitted to the hospital for abdominal pain. After undergoing exploratory surgery, doctors determined that she suffered severe low blood pressure and lack of oxygen supply to the brain causing her to be in a comatose state since May this year as mentioned by ABC News. The family accused the hospital for attempting to bring down the cost of life-support at the expense of Aden's chance of surviving from a coma hence their vehement objection to the latter's court request for ECGs. "There is no reason to do another EEG test because they already declared her brain dead. There is a determination of death, and St. Mary's wants to pull the plug," argued David O'Mara, the lawyer for Fanuel Gebreyes, the patient's father and guardian as quoted saying by Review Journal. The hospital, on the other hand, felt disheartened and insulted over Gebreyes and O'Mara's accusation. "What they want is to do nothing. They want the hospital to contradict the medical opinions of our doctors, which we cannot and should not do," said William Peterson, the lawyer representing the hospital as stated in an article by Times Union. The hearing will resume on January 22 next year in which the court will decide whether the hospital's brain dead procedures meet the state's legal requirements. See Now: What Republicans Don't Want You To Know About Obamacare News / National by Stephen Jakes A political analyst Tafadzwa Chinheya have said the holding of elections in Zimbabwe was a waste of time as only Zanu PF made sure that it won the polls even it was clear that it was beaten."Many general elections have been held in Zimbabwe for a number of times.Some of the opposition parties like Zimbabwe United Movement (ZUM) led by Edgar Tekere were just bogus," said Chinheya."MDC came contested and won in 2000 but surprisingly declared lost. Five years down the line,an election was held and it took 4 weeks to announce the winner which was the MDC -T still declared losers."He said the regime does not allow the referee who is the United Nations to monitor the elections for reason of obviously rigging."Sadc which has useless leaders is the only region that has leaders who are invited to monitor these useless elections because they also are thieves Now that we know a container with NIKUV vote rigging material directed to the registrar general seized for close to 6 months at a Durban port,do you see 2018 bringing legitimate elections?" he said. "Perhaps they might transfer it to Angola where they are friends with Museveni.This time we are blessed to have many parties I don't think they will be stupid enough to have an election if we are to compromise hunger till 2018 without UN." Close Russia is all set to modify its space program, said the National Space Agency after a news published in the national paper that reported how the country is planning to cut corners worth billions of dollars that also includes the moon exploration programs. For the revision of the space program, many government ministries got involved to complete the revision by 2025, said Roscosmos in a statement to Reuters. Even though not many details were provided in the statement, but a report in Izvestia newspaper said that the county's space program may also be suffering due to the government's cutbacks that were brought on due to tough economic times. Falling rouble followed by Western sanctions and plummeting oil prices, the Russian government is revisiting its spending plans from health sector to welfare. The Izvestia Newspaper provided the information about the proposed draft sent by Roscosmos to the government that revealed the spending cuts that are likely to be imposed by the Moon exploration program. According to NBC News, Dmitry Rogozin. Russia's Deputy Prime Minister, an announcement was made last year that Moscow is planning to build a huge base on the moon, which he said, will be used for many upcoming scientific developments. As reported by National newspaper Izvestia, Roscosmos was suggesting spending cuts of approximately $1.22 billion of the manned flight lunar exploration segment. However, he also added that the funding required to build the spaceship for the moon will not suffer greatly. Roscosmos did not provide any further clarification on the figures and said that the revised program was very broad. "The revised project of the federal space programme for 2016-25 envisages the study of the Moon by automated orbiters, as well as by building up scientific and technical potential for further studies, including by manned missions," it said. See Now: What Republicans Don't Want You To Know About Obamacare Close The experts at the Microsoft Corp revealed that the Chinese authorities succeeded into hacking thousands of Hotmail email accounts that specifically targeted international leaders of Uighur and Tibetan minorities. However, the victims were not informed about the hack that allowed the unlawful activity to continue, said the company's former employees. After Reuters requested several times for a comment, the company said that they will alter the policy about informing the email customers when it suspects that there has been a hacking attempt by a government. Frank Shaw, company's spokesman said that they were not sure where the Hotmail attacks originated from, reported Reuters The company also admitted that they did not inform their Hotmail users through any means that their emails are being snooped into or their data has been collected. The company did not provide additional information regarding the role played by the Hotmail campaign in modifying its policies, The Asian Age reports. The first signs of an attack came in May 2011, even though the attacks could not be linked to the Chinese authorities immediately. This is when Trend Micro Inc., a security firm, announced that there has been an email that was sent to Taiwan containing a small computer program. This program exploited the flaw of Microsoft's webpages that allowed the attacker to direct copies of all the emails from the Hotmail account of the user to another account controlled by the hacker. According to Trend Micro, there were more than a thousand users who fell victim to this campaign. After Microsoft launched its own investigation of the matter, it was revealed that the interception started in 2009 and the email accounts of Tibetan and Uighur leaders in various countries were compromised in the process, reports Hong Kong Free Press See Now: What Republicans Don't Want You To Know About Obamacare Computer technology is a wonderful thing when it works. Nothing is more amazing to me than the GPS navigation program that most smart phones contain. Simply type in where you're going, and the device does the rest, complete with a voice that provides turn by turn directions to your destination. Unfortunately, there are plenty of stories out there about these devices spitting out confusing or outright inaccurate directions. Some degree of anger or frustration is usually all the error produces. Unfortunately, the directions can be so confusing or inaccurate, they can have horrible consequences. I have two examples. A few years ago, an Illinois Department of Corrections officer had been assigned the task of transporting an inmate from an area prison to the Wayne County courthouse in Fairfield, Ill. for a court appearance. The officer typed in the address of the courthouse and off he went. Things were going well, until the device told the driver to get off of Interstate 64 at Grayville, and take what I call the "Burnt Prairie Blacktop" through the country to Fairfield. Normally, this wouldn't have been a big deal, especially if you don't mind winding country roads. However, on this particular day, the river was up, taking the Corrections Department van straight into the backwaters of the Little Wabash. Fortunately, no one was hurt, and both driver and inmate were safely rescued. This story ended with little more than an embarrassed driver and a waterlogged van. My second GPS story happened barely a week ago and sadly ended in tragedy. The Schutt family; Adam and Erin and their children, Robbyn, Chad and Logan were traveling from their home in Elkton, Kentucky to a small town in Minnesota to visit Erin's family for the holidays. Investigators believe their GPS device routed them onto Interstate 57 in Southern Illinois as they made their way north. Somewhere in Marion County, Illinois, the family decided to exit the Interstate to get a bite to eat. It was already dark, and that's where the GPS provided either confusing or downright inaccurate directions as they tried to get back onto I-57. Somehow, the Schutt family wound up out in the country on Farthing Road, east of the small Marion County town of Patoka, Ill. Erin Schutt was driving the family's Dodge Caliber as it topped a steep hill. Before she could stop, the car plunged into the floodwaters of the East Fork of the Kaskaskia River. "The water was running so fast, it washed their car up against a bridge," said Adam's brother, Wade Schutt."Those first responders did everything they could. Their car went under so fast."It took rescue divers several hours to find the Schutt's car. It was a little before midnight last Saturday when Marion County Coroner Troy Cannon retrieved their bodies and pronounced all five dead. "They were a great bunch of kids," said Adam's brother, Wade. "We've lost a piece of the Schutt clan, but we're a strong bunch of folks. We'll get through this awful time." Adam, 31, Erin, 37, Robbyn, 13, Chad, 10 and Logan, 13 were laid to rest Saturday at the Stokes Chapel Cemetery near Elkton, Ky. There are still questions about how the Schutt family got turned around and drove so far off of Interstate 57. "From what the coroner and the rescuers told me, their GPS apparently gave them wrong directions, sending them down that country road," said Wade Schutt. Would the Schutt family be alive today had they not trusted their GPS? We will probably never know. You know a gas station road map in the glove box might not be a bad backup system for your GPS navigation system. Resolve is something we all seek to start a new year. We all want to better ourselves, the lives of our loved ones, the world around us or all of the above. Most of those resolutions fail at least mine do. So after taking a little inspiration from an article by Lisa Densmore Ballard in "Outdoor America," the magazine of the Izaak Walton League of America, I decided to try a new approach. Ballard's story, "How Much Are We Really Outdoors," was basically a how-to about ways to draw people outside, something I've been trying to do in this space for almost 40 years. I've taken newbies hunting and fishing. I've taught people with no interest in either of those pursuits how to look for and spot wildlife on a simple drive down the interstate. I've tried to inform and entertain. And, along with dozens of sponsors and volunteers, I've helped introduce hundreds of kids to fishing through 26 years of the July 4 Fishing Derby For Kids. As always, we'll do that again in 2016. But I'm not going to use this space as Ballard might suggest to beg anyone to step outside. Instead, I'm going to tell them to stay the heck away. Stay inside. Stare into your phone. Message in code with your thumbs. You've got the world by the tail. Think about it. How often do our kids, or grand kids for that matter, do what we suggest? Why would any of them want to go for a ride down Indiana 69 toward its southern terminus at Hovey Lake State Fish and Wildlife Area in hopes of seeing a bald eagle or migratory waterfowl when they can look at a bird imoji on their phone. Or, better yet, they can send it to a friend so they can go to their imojipedia (there is such a thing, I looked it up) and see what the bird imoji means. Sounds exciting, doesn't it? That's especially so when you might actually have to look up from your phone to take in the real thing with your own eyes. And don't even think about fishing. It would be impossible for cell phone addicts because you cannot fish and text at the same time, not that I've tried. You see I'm such a dinosaur I actually leave my phone in the truck when fishing unless I want to send a friend a fish pic to make them jealous. I don't want to be bothered on the water because I know whatever is about to happen next is unique to anything that's happened before. Doesn't staring into your phone and typing in the same lame messages sound better? OMG! Maybe a hike through Wesselman Woods would be better so you can take your phone along, get an in-town signal and miss everything going on around you. Or maybe you might look up long enough to notice you walked up on a young doe that freezes in the hope you'll walk by without spotting her or the magnificent pileated woodpecker on the side of its nest tree. You might even get a picture. Then, when you look back at that pic you might realize how fleeting that moment was and how easy it would've been to miss it if you'd been looking down. I understand it's nice to stay in touch with friends, but I'd argue it's better for your heart and soul to stay in touch with nature. So I leave you all with this advice. Don't ever look up and take in the world around you. You'll hate it. SHARE Talks & readings Wednesday Classic Book Discussion: "The Call of the Wild" by Jack London, 1 p.m. in the Cafe at Central Library, 200 SE MLK Blvd. Call 812-428-8246. Thursday Mock Caldecott Award Program: Select the best illustrated books of 2015, 8 a.m. in the Browning Events Room at Central Library, 200 SE MLK Blvd. Call 812-428-8225. Extras Tuesday Personal e-reader and Tablet Assistance: 5:30 p.m. at Red Bank Branch Library, 120 S. Red Bank Road. To register, call 812-428-8205. Wednesday Pinterest Playdate: Create a word pendant, 10 a.m. at Stringtown Branch Library, 2100 Stringtown Road. To register, call 812-428-8233. e-reader Workshop: Get set up to read e-books from your device, 5 p.m. at Oaklyn Branch Library, 3001 Oaklyn Drive. All device types (Nook, Kindle, Apple or Android products) are welcome. Call 812-428-8234. Coloring for Adults: 6 p.m. at Red Bank Branch Library, 120 S. Red Bank Road. Call 812-428-8205. Thursday EVPL eMedia: Learn about EVPL's streaming and downloadable content, 3 p.m. in the Large Group Room at Central Library, 200 SE MLK Blvd. To register, call 812-428-8200, ext. 1515. Coloring for Adults: 3:30 p.m. at McCollough Branch Library, 5115 Washington Ave. Call 812-428-8236. Saturday Meet Your Legislators: 9:15 a.m. in the Browning Events Room at Central Library, 200 SE MLK Blvd. Doors open at 9 a.m. Call 812-428-8200. Intro to iPad: Learn the basics, like linking email, using the calendar and customized settings, 9:15 a.m. at North Park Branch Library, 960 Koehler Drive. To register, call 812-428-8238. Family Saturday Weekend Wigglers: Stories, dancing, music and more! 2 p.m. in the READ Center at Central Library, 200 SE MLK Blvd. Call 812-428-8225. Galleries, Museums Sunday Evansville Museum: 411 SE Riverside Drive, "Nineteen Stars: Quilts of Indiana's Present and Past," through Jan. 10. Open 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday (admission to the museum is $7 for adults and $5 for ages 4-17. The museum is open until 8 p.m. Thursdays; free Fridays are the first Friday of each month. Call 812-425-2406 or visit emuseum.org. Central Library: 200 SE MLK Blvd., second floor, "Skylar Black: Photography," through Jan. 31. Oaklyn Branch Library: 3001 Oaklyn Drive, "Lydia Fulp: Embroidery," through Jan. 31. North Park Branch Library: 960 Koehler Drive, "John Stratton: Nature Photography," through Jan. 31. Scholle House: New Harmony, "Painter of the Indiana Dunes: The Art of Frank V. Dudley," through December 2016. Call 812-682-3702. News / Press Release by Dr Fortune Nyamande and Mr E Dongo As the nationwide campaign for bus fare and basic allowances intensifies the ZHDA and ZINA leaderships has called for the government to act to avoid the continued loss of life and suffering by ordinary patients. It has been noted that by end of day yesterday more than 90 percent of nurses and 80 percent of doctors have heed the call by ZHDA and ZINA. It has also been noted that the cases of martenal and neonatal mortality have also been on the increase since the first of January. The government has embarked on a shameless propaganda campaign to deliberately misinform the public that normalcy has prevailed at the country's health institutions. The Sunday mail of 3 January 2016 in an act of desperation and violation of media ethics published a false article claiming that Mr Dongo the ZINA secretary general advising his members to go to work. The ZHDA and ZINA leaderships condemn this action by the Sunday mail and wholy dismiss the article as trivial, frivolous and vexatious. The state must instead solve the root causes of the problem than to deliberately misinform the public.As we write this statement there are cases of nurses who have been evicted from their houses as a result of non payment of rentals. Some doctors have also been arrested for defaulting to pay maintenance as they have not been paid. The ZHDA has also received reports of a doctor who almost committed suicide this morning due to financial challenges and is currently recuperating at a local private hospital.The ZHDA and ZINA executive committees continue to call their members not to report for duty until they receive their salaries. We maintain that doctors and nurses deserve to leave in dignity and will not be swayed by the shameless propaganda being distributed by the Sunday mail. Should there be no action by the government the ZHDA and ZINA leaderships call upon the few remaining health workers who had remained in the hospital to down tools from Monday 4 January 2016. We maintain that there is nowhere in the world where health workers work for free. Every Zimbabwean has the right to be paid for the services they will have rendered and any attempts to coerce health workers to work for free is tantamount to reintroducing slavery and this shall be ostensibly rejected.No money , no free health workers.Dr Fortune Nyamande( ZHDA president) and Mr E Dongo ( ZINA secretary general) SHARE By Shannon Hall of the Courier and Press State law requires government entities to discuss their budgets in open meetings, but the Newburgh Town Council talks about its budget behind closed doors, according to the clerk treasurer. The town's attorney disagrees. The Courier & Press obtained a January 2015 email where Newburgh Clerk Treasurer Jon Lybarger says he thinks the budget would be a "good topic" in a closed door meeting. Lybarger said Thursday as part of his job, he mentions the status of the town's budget during executive sessions. "That was basically the extent of my discussing it in closed door. I would make them aware of the fact that this financing would be cut or reduced, which we did have to do a couple times in the past couple of years," Lybarger said. "Just to make them aware of stuff like that." Newburgh Town Attorney Chris Wischer said he doesn't recall ever discussing the budget during executive session. If the budget does come up during an executive session, Wischer said he's quick to put a stop to it. "I'm sure 20 years ago, they (a town council) discussed everything on the budget," Wischer said. In the email Lybarger sent, it states a report sent by the Indiana Department of Local and Government Finance needs Newburgh to make cuts $652,402 for the "Civil Town" budget. "What else can be said?! It's time to tighten the belt. Departments are going to have to review budgets and determine what can be reduced or cut. ... This will be a good topic for discussion at our closed door session on Wednesday," the email reads. The email is dated a day before a town council meeting. Before the town council meeting, there's almost always an executive session to discuss pending litigation as well as personnel issues. The email was sent to the town council, town attorney and the former town manager. The Jan. 14, 2015 regular public town council meeting showed that Lybarger mentioned that a report from Department of Local Government Finance was returned with cutbacks. He said the report would be revised and sent back. The Courier & Press also requested a memorandum for the executive session Jan. 14, but one wasn't available for any of the executive sessions. Memorandas are required for public meetings as well as executive sessions. Memoranda for executive sessions are part of record keeping and must include information such as date, time, location, members who were in attendance or absent, "The governing body must certify by a statement in the memoranda that no subject, matter was discussed in the executive session other than the subject matter specified in the public notice," according an advisory opinion from the Indiana Public Access Counselor. Lybarger said they put the time, date and location for executive sessions at the top of town council agendas. But a memoranda isn't produced after the executive session. Ron Kramer (from bottom) and his wife Teresa from Newburgh take part in a Gentle Yoga Class at Bliss Yoga in Evansville along with Tiffany Floyd, Gwen Hamer and Mary Supplee Wednesday. Bliss Yoga will offer a four-week yoga class for those suffering from back pain on Wednesdays, from March 11 to April 1. JASON CLARK/COURIER & PRESS SHARE JASON CLARK / COURIER & PRESS Ean Salminen (left) leads a Gentle Yoga Class as participants utilize the butterfly pose at Bliss Yoga in Evansville Wednesday. Bliss Yoga will offer a four-week yoga class for those suffering from back pain on Wednesdays, March 11 to April 1. By Abbey Doyle of the Courier and Press Bliss Yoga is hosting an open house Monday to introduce people to their instructors and class offerings, owner Zoe Sipes said. The free 40 minute classes will run from 4 to 8 p.m. at the yoga studio at 600 N. Weinbach. Classes include introductory yoga, gentle yoga, yoga and medication, fitness-oriented Vinyasa and restorative yoga which focuses on relaxing the mind and body. All classes are free and there will be door prizes given away in each of the 10 sessions, Sipes said. Please RSVP for the classes as there's only a limited number of spots in each one by calling 812-250-9641 or emailing zoey@blissyogaevansville.com. No equipment is needed for the classes and discounts will be offered for those signing up for future classes during the open house. "We wanted to give people an opportunity to try yoga," Sipes said. "This isn't something we offer on a regular basis. But we wanted to open up the studio to invite everyone to try some classes, see what it is like, meet the teachers and see where they might fit." This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate When the clock struck midnight on Friday, we welcomed in a new year and a number of new laws for Connecticut. Heres a list of what to expect. Wages Increases Connecticut's minimum wage to $9.60 per hour, up 45 cents from last year. Law enforcement Deadly force. Requires the Chief States Attorney to investigate deaths involving state and local police when an officer uses any type of physical force and death results. Body cams. Requires state Department of Public Safety to issue regulations for the use of body cameras and authorizes the Office of Policy and Management to start distributing grants to local police departments to buy the equipment. Also requires those agencies to evaluate and approve the minimal technical specifications for body cameras for police officers and digital storage devices or services for law enforcement agencies to use to retain cameras' recorded data. State Police will be required to wear body cameras on July 1. Minority officers. Requires law enforcement units to develop and implement guidelines to recruit, retain, and promote minority police officers. It requires each unit's guidelines to promote the goal of achieving racial, gender, and ethnic diversity. The law requires units serving communities with a relatively high concentration of minority residents to make efforts to recruit, retain, and promote minority officers so that the unit's racial and ethnic diversity is representative of the community. Discharge of firearms. Requires law enforcement units to create and maintain a record about any incident in which a police officer discharges a firearm except in training or when dispatching an animal. It requires a written record on cases of physical force including the use of a club, baton, an open or closed hand; kicking another; or using pepper spray or an electroshock weapon. Health care and hospitals. Requires all licensed health care providers, before any scheduled nonemergency admission, procedure, or service, to determine whether the patient is insured. If the patient is uninsured or the provider is out-of-network, the provider must notify the patient in writing, electronically or by mail of the charges for the admission, procedure, or service; and that the patient may be charged for unforeseen services that may arise, and is responsible for these charges. If the provider is out-of-network, the admission, service, or procedure will likely be deemed out-of-network and applicable out-of-network rates may apply. Requires drugs sold only as generics to include the manufacturers name and the website and toll-free telephone number of MedWatch, the U.S. Food and Drug Administrations drug safety and reporting program. The information may be placed on the prescription container label, packaging, or receipt. Registrar of voters Registrars of voters and deputy registrars must be certified by participating in an annual eight-hour training course developed by a six-member committee. Previously, certification was voluntary. Lobbyists Increases threshold of funds from $2,000 to $3,000, a person must receive from a client in order to be considered a lobbyist. Probate judge vacancies Allows, rather than requires, the governor to call a special election to fill a probate court vacancy or impending vacancy. Requires the probate court administrator to choose another probate judge to temporarily fill the vacancy under existing law's procedures. Commercial fishing Numerous changes in the commercial fishing statutes including license fees, penalties and decreases, from $120 to $60, the fee for a personal-use lobster fishing license. Decontaminated medical devices Requires central-service technicians who decontaminate medical instruments and devices to be certified. Veterans affairs Requires the Judicial Branch to collect data on the number of armed forces members, veterans, and non-veterans who apply for, and are admitted or denied, entry into the accelerated rehabilitation program; pretrial supervised-diversionary program for individuals with psychiatric disabilities and veterans; or pretrial drug-education and community-service programs. The data must be based on information applicants provide when they apply. https://www.cga.ct.gov/asp/aearchives/20160101ActsEffective.asp News / Regional by Staff Reporter Home Affairs Deputy Minister Obedinga Mguni was reportedly blocked by Beitbridge Border Post officials from accessing key information.He was left incensed over lax security during his recent visit to Beitbridge Border Post, The Sunday Mail reported.Mguni confirmed to The Sunday Mail of "an incident" that took place during his tour of the border.The publication said Mguni refused to disclose full details of what transpired, saying it was a "sensitive security issue" which he has since forwarded to the Joint Operations Command."The visit by the Deputy Minister opened a can of worms because he was concerned by lack of security at the border and he disagreed with some of the officials on how they were conducting operations," said a source."The officials also appeared to be attempting to block him from accessing some information and he was not amused."Mguni visited the border two weeks ago to get an appreciation of the security situation and an appraisal of operations at the port of entry, which is one of the busiest in the region. Double murder trial day 4: A star witness for the prosecution backed out in the courtroom The prosecution case in chief has to change its line up of witnesses when one decides not to take the stand when called to do so Tuesday morning. Opinion / Columnist LAST week, Comrade Shadreck Musari Gatula, born 16 February 1940 narrated his early days as a youth in the National Democratic Party, moving to Zapu and eventually to Zanu in the early 1960s. He narrated how the famous Crocodile Gang was born in Ndola, Zambia and how it was deployed into Rhodesia.This week Gatula continues his story with our team comprising Munyaradzi Huni and Tendai Manzvanzvike where he narrates how the name Crocodile Gang came about and why the gang had a very short life in Rhodesia.Gatula, who says he was a "hot head," during the early 1960s, also tells an interesting story, for the first time, about how Zanu got its first guns from the forests in Congo.We pick up his narration from the time he had been arrested in Birchenough Bridge and was now under interrogation at Rhodesia Central Charge Office. Read on ***SM: Let's go back a bit to put things into perspective. Comrade can you narrate how your interrogation started and how things went from there?Gatula: Like I said, the interrogation continued in Harare. Ipapo ndipo pandakazo rohwa zvekubhendesa chess yemusana. It was really, really bad.After the intense interrogation I was put in a dark cell. While in the cell kwakauya detective sergeant Ross. He knew me from my several arrests in Harare. So when he came into the cell, he switched on his torch and said "Gatula you are here again. Now you gonna tell me all the truth."I remained silent. He walked to me and clapped me heavily. I stood up leaning against the wall. He said "I am gonna make you right today."I replied him saying, "if you do it again, I will retaliate." He said, "what?"Just as he was about to clap me again, I got hold of his neck tie and started pulling it. I could hear he was chocking. Takarwisana for a few seconds in the darkness then he started calling for help from other officers.He was kicking and hitting me trying to free himself but I kept on pulling the tie. He was pulling me towards the door and I was resisting. When we got to the door, ndakaramba ndakadhonza tie as he tried to pull me out of the dark cell. Takadhonzana while he kicked and shouted.About five police officers arrived and boy oh boy, I was beaten thoroughly. They chained me and took turns to beat me up. Ndakadzvurwa kwete mbichana. You can see here (showing a big lump at his back) Zibundu irori rakaita that day and up to this day richiripo and rinombondirwadza. Vakandirova till I passed out.I was later taken to Harare Hospital where I spent about three weeks. While in hospital, I was chained to the bed and under police guard. I was later released and taken back to Central Charge office.I don't even know how long I was there. Ipapo ndakarohwa nenzara kwete zvekutamba. They would appear like they had forgotten I was there. No food, no nothing.One day, the police just came and took me to court. Seated in court, I started asking myself why I had been brought to court in prison uniform? I then came up with a plan. Remember I had been arrested several times before.As the magistrate started talking, I raised my hand saying I wanted to say something. I then asked why I had been brought to court putting on prison uniform as if I had already been convicted. I knew that police was supposed to take me to court putting on hembe dzandakasungwa nadzo.The magistrate asked detective sergeant Ross why I was in prison uniform and he could not provide a good answer. The magistrate went ahead asking whether there enough evidence to prove that I was part of Ndangana's group that had killed a white man in Melsetter and again detective Ross didn't provide a good answer. I think they took me to court unprepared and so the magistrate said I should be released.Of course I was never freed. They took me to my brother's house in Mbare. After taking a bath and changing my clothes, the police took me to Mbare police station saying I was supposed to sign documents showing that I had been released. The officers left me there and in no time I found myself under detention again.The next Monday, the officers came and took me to court again. The same magistrate was there. So I told him that I was never released. Once again, the magistrate told them to release me. The police then put me under restriction saying I was not supposed to leave Highfield. UDI was declared while I was still under restriction. The restriction was later revoked by Winston Field.SM: Now, comrade let's talk a bit more about the Crocodile Gang before you continue with your story. How many people were in this gang?Gatula: It was the name that people called us as we entered into Rhodesia. The 12 of us, we were called the Crocodile Gang. It was not only Ndangana's group. It was the whole group of 12.SM: Really, so where did name come from?Gatula: The story is that William Ndangana when we were in Lusaka, aigara with a long knife that he would put in his jacket. It was like a sword. Those ones used in karate. So whenever people asked him about this knife he would say "its a crocodile tail." This knife was for his self defence and he carried it wherever he went.SM: So who exactly gave you the name Crocodile Gang?Gatula: There is no one who stood there and said you are now called the Crocodile Gang. This name rakaita mukurumbira when we were now in Rhodesia. Wherever we went, we would drop flyers written Crocodile and it was Ndangana's idea for us to do this. This was meant to show that we were around to instil fear into whites.When we left Lusaka, we didn't have that name. Very few people knew kuti vakomana 12 ava vavakuenda and kuti tiri kuenda kupi.You see when we were in Zambia, Ndangana and Felix Rice Santana vaigara vachinetsana. So Ndangana would show him the knife saying ukada kuita anything topedzerana. He would brag about the knife saying usatambe nemutswe wegarwe.These two comrades vaiva nehasha so they would clash many times. We used to enjoy their fights.Coming back to your question, like I said, no one sat down and said you 12 comrades are now called Crocodile Gang.Tobias Chizengeni (with hat) and Hezvo Mpunga during the unveiling of Felix Rice Santana's tombstone about two weeks ago. Chizengeni was one of Santana's best friends while Hezvo Mpunga is one of Santana's children. Insert: Felix Hokoyo Santana Mpunga popularly known as Felix Rice Santana. Pictures courtesy of Simba Chizengeni son to Tobias Chizengeni.When we left Ndola tiri 11 and then we were joined by Ndangana in Lusaka to make us 12, we spent a few days in Lusaka then we crossed into Rhodesia. The name just came from the way we would talk about Ndangana's knife which he called Crocodile tail. In fact as we left Ndola, most of the comrades in the group had left Rhodesia years back, so I was the one who knew exactly where we were going.SM: So how did the Rhodesians and the media start calling you the Crocodile Gang?Gatula: Ooohh, I see. Like I told you Ndangana whenever he did something when he got into Rhodesia, he would leave flyers written "Crocodile." We also started dropping the same flyers as a way of instilling fear into the Rhodesians. The flyers made it appear like we were a grouped of trained soldiers and they made us look organised. Taiziva kuti the Rhodesians vaiva magwara. We dropped these flyers in Gweru after the blackout I told you about. We didn't have machinery to print many flyers but the few flyers we left behind caused serious panic in Rhodesia. That was the strategy at that time.We had to improvise. Remember none of us by this time had received any military training. Some of the flyers taitonyora in our own handwriting, but we also got assistance from some people who were working in some offices. These people would print the flyers but they couldn't print many. It was very, very risky. Some of the comrades who assisted us a lot were Stanley Parerewa, Matute and others I can't remember their names.SM: Besides the incident where Ndangana's group killed this white man and your group disrupted electricity supply in Gweru, what other sabotage activities did you carry out as the Crocodile Gang?Gatula: Kunyepa kwakabuda mufashion. Crocodile gang only managed to carry out those two major sabotage activities. In some instances we would just drop flyers to scare the Rhodesians. One of the main challenges was transport. Our movements were very restricted and the Rhodesians had very tight security. Their Special Branch was just something because they used blacks to spy on other blacks. When Ndangana's group killed the white man in Melsetter, the situation in the country was just too tense. Killing a white man? That was unheard of and the Rhodesians wanted to make sure that would not be repeated. When Ndangana escaped back to Zambia with Dlamini and Mlambo having been arrested and I was also later arrested, the other comrades just dispersed. Some returned to their home areas. They gave up because of the situation.SM: Don't you think the party rushed to send you back to Rhodesia without any training and it seems there was poor planning?Gatula: Everything has got a beginning. And hapana chinhu chinotanga chichibva chanaka, especially in politics. When we started these activities in the early 1960s, we thought gore hariperi tisati tawana rusununguko. People were afraid of the Rhodesians but they were eager to fight in the war.With Zapu preaching their slogan, "just by the corner," many thought in no time, the Rhodesians would give in. The impression from Zapu was that they would talk the Rhodesians into giving us independence. They thought it was going to be easy just as what had happened in Zambia and Malawi, but this was not to be.SM: What do you think were some of the mistakes you made during this time?Gatula: I wouldn't want to call them mistakes. The biggest problem was that we didn't have the material to carry out the intended activities. We were not able to smuggle in the material due to a number of reasons. Maybe let me take this opportunity to tell you an interesting story about how Zanu got its first guns.You see, during this time, kwakanga kwaita hondo kuCongo. In September 1961, the then UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold was flying to Rhodesia to negotiate peace talks between the government of Congo and Moise Tshombe when his plane crashed, killing him. There was suspicion that his plane had been shot down.Anyway, the point is, there was war in Congo. After long deliberations and when the situation was slowly becoming calm in Congo, Tobias Chizengeni (not Zengeni as reported last week), Felix Rice Santana and Stanley Parerewa went to Congo because there were reports that due to the war there, vanhu vaikwanisa kunhonga pfuti musango.These comrades led by Felix Rice Santana were given a car and they drove to Congo. Indeed vakanhonga dzimwe pfuti musango then they bought some of the guns pamukambo. They brought the guns to Zambia. These were the first guns to be owned by Zanu.On their second trip, if I am not mistaken, they got to the boarder and all the guns and the car were taken by soldiers from Congo. These comrades were arrested. Washington Malianga called the British embassy in Congo saying those comrades were from Zimbabwe and they had bought the guns in order to start their war in Rhodesia. He asked for the comrades to be released. Following several negotiations, these comrades were released, but the vehicle and the guns were confiscated.SM: Comrade, are you telling us that one could pick up guns just like that musango in Congo?Gatula: You can ask those who came later and used the guns. This is exactly what happened. Remember Zanu had just been formed and we were relying on well-wishers. We had to come up with ways to survive.When these guns were confiscated, Felix Rice Santana had smuggled some of the guns using other means. The first guns that Zanu owned zvimapepesha, it was Felix Rice Santana, Tobias Chizengeni and Stanley Parerewa who brought them from Congo.Now when the guns were confiscated and with the situation with the Zambian government, we couldn't smuggle guns into Rhodesia. The Zambian government was against Zanu because it supported Zapu.SM: But even if you have managed to smuggle the guns, you had not yet received military training?Gatula: If there was a means to smuggle the guns, I think the party would have made arrangements to quickly train us. That wasn't done because the party must have discovered that smuggling the guns was a non-starter at this time.SM: Comrade, we want to take you back a bit. You gave us very few names of the comrades you are saying comprised the Crocodile Gang. You said as you left Ndola you were sort of like the leader then you met Ndangana in Lusaka. How come you only remember these few comrades?Gatula: Yes, I still remember Victor Mlambo, Dhlamini, Ndangana and myself. The other comrades, eight comrades I can't remember their names.SM: How come?Gatula: Comrade it has been long. Look I am getting old. I can't remember some of the names. But now that I have spoken, if any of the comrades is still alive he will come and testify that this is indeed true.We met in Ndola at the hall where we were asked kuti who are the volunteers to go on this mission. The 11 of us came from Ndola and Ndangana joined us in Lusaka. We came into Rhodesia via Chirundu until we got kumba kwaShamuyarira.I may have forgotten the names, but I can't forget mafambiro atakaita. If any of these comrades is still alive they may have forgotten my name but like me they can't forget mafambiro atakaita. As we came from Ndola, I was assigned as the leader because most of the comrades were not well-versed with Rhodesia since they had been staying in Zambia for too long.Also, the activities by the Crocodile Gang was short-lived that's why remembering some of the comrades is very difficult. Takakurumidza kusungwa vamwe vachibva vangodzokera kumusha.Can you imagine all I was telling you did not take more than six weeks? Takaparadzana in Harare with Ndangana's group and within a few days, we got into action. In no time, some of us had been arrested while Ndangana escaped back to Zambia. The Crocodile Gang did not survive for long and like I said, besides kuuraya murungu by Ndangana's group and disrupting magetsi in Gweru, this gang didn't do anything else that was major.Kusungwa nekutiza zvakauya panguva imwechete. After this the gang rakabva rafa. This is what I know.SM: After your court case, you never thought of returning to Zambia or re-joining politics?Gatula: The government made me sign some document saying I was never again supposed to get involved in politics. Of course, I didn't go back to Zambia but I continued politics underground.Like I said I couldn't go for military training because chess (back bone) yakanga yabhenda. I couldn't even walk straight. Mapurisa akandiita kafira mberi. Ndakanga ndava murwere chaiye.SM: Comrade, you were saying due to the fact that your involvement in politics and your sabotage activities took place way back in the early 1960s, you feel the role that you and your fellow comrades played is not recognised?Gatula: Yes. Zanu did not just wake up with trained soldiers. Zanu did not wake up with guns and everything. Before all this, there are comrades who had to improvise to keep the party going. We had to find means of keeping the party alive and sending a message to the Rhodesians that Zanu meant business. Maybe because we didn't have guns, that's why we are not recognised. But we played our crucial role.Can you imagine during vetting of the war veterans, most of those who were given that responsibility didn't know about us. I had to get assistance from people like Clarkson Mutema, Sam Manjengwa, Shadreck Chipanga and Shirihuru. I even got assistance from VP Mnangagwa informing those who were vetting of the role that I played. Unfortunately, after getting all this assistance, nothing really materialised for me.However, I am very grateful of this opportunity to just narrate my story. It brings relief and zvinopodza moyo. You guys are doing a great job for Zimbabwe and its future. Five takeaways from Senate debate between Marco Rubio and Val Demings Marco Rubio and Val Demings faced off in their only debate for Florida's U.S. Senate seat, discussing abortion, gun rights and voting. YEREVAN, JANUARY 1, ARMENPRESS: Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan addressed New Year congratulatory message. The address runs as follows: Dear Compatriots, In a few moments, we will bid farewell to year 2015. The passing year has been in fact full of evens and impressions. We commemorated the memory of the victims of the Great Eghern. Events dedicated to the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide had pan-Armenian and world-wide coverage. I believe that year 2015 will remain in the Armenian history first of all as the year of beatification of our innocent victims. This year we all witnessed manifestations of the exceptional unity of the entire Armenian nation. Through our joint efforts and dignified stance, we have conveyed our message to the world. I am confident that next year too, all Armenian structures, individuals and entire Spyurk will continue to work side by side for the benefit of Armenia, for the benefit of Artsakh, for the benefit of all parts of the Armenian nation. Today, the entire world is going through a difficult and intense period. Regrettably, year 2015 not only failed to decrease tension and freeze the existing wars, but in some cases intensified the existing tensions and flared up hotbeds of aggression. Inhumane acts of terror, which claimed lives of innocent people in different parts of the world, did not decrease in number. Against this backdrop and in this context, Armenia has lived another peaceful and stable year. We have preserved our rating as one of the safest countries in the world. We have carried on with the advancement of our country; we have built roads, housing, schools, and hospitals - always dreaming of doing more. The passing year has been significant with yet another important state and political event. We have introduced changes to the Main Law of the land - Constitution. I have no doubt that together we have opened a door for the new opportunities for our political and economic development. We have opened a door towards becoming a more secure, more liberal, and more harmonious country. On this festive night, we traditionally raise our glasses for our military. We live behind their infallible shield. We entrusted them things that are most precious to us all; and they are the most precious thing to us. The enemy is perfidious, nothing new here. But the Armed Forces of Armenia are strong always. Today, the combat readiness and technical capabilities of the Armenian Army are exceptionally high, as never before. Let us wish our servicemen a safe term of duty. Let us wish peace to our country and the entire world. Very soon, we will step into year 2016. In 2016, we will celebrate the 25th anniversary of Independence of the Republic of Armenia. Its been a quarter of a century that we live as a free and independent country. Its hard to recall when our country had a period of twenty-five years of independence. It means that we have a new and bright generation of those who are twenty or twenty-five years old, who have no idea what it means not to have an independent state, who are free and uninhibited both psychologically and politically. This is a new and young Armenia, which is open to the world, which is ready to accept new ideas, to accept a new culture of work and lifestyle, which will live and advance in step with the contemporary world. We are entering the New Year with a new political structure, with new vigor and new dreams, convinced that we are building our own home and we build it on a right foundation. Armenia, which is 25 years old, is not yet the Armenia of our dreams, but it is an essential and forceful milestone on that road. Dear Compatriots, I wish you happiness and all the best in year 2016! Happy New Year and Holly Christmas! As countless people clamour for a recipe they think might bag them a mate, others are starting to wonder: do we need to worry if our partner leaves the house with cookware? by Samantha Selinger-Morris The word Dunkirk rings like a great bell in the minds of several generations of British men and women. It was the moment this country knew that, while it was beaten, it was not broken. Now, it may be starting to mean something else, shorthand for the vast camps of migrants seeking to share the freedom and prosperity of our way of life, while not necessarily accepting the laws, beliefs and customs which sustain it. And in those camps, street theatres subsidised by our French neighbours encourage would-be British citizens to mock our monarchy and history, and to seek dishonest and unfair ways of bypassing our borders. Clown Joannna Robinson-Holden, pictured, performs for migrants at the Grande Synthe camp in Dukirk Those who spread this smug and foolish propaganda think themselves morally superior to those who wish to see migration controlled. They are dangerously wrong. For frontiers and freedom go together. Borders announce that, within these markers, people live in a certain way, observe certain laws, speak a certain language and choose their own form of government. Somehow it has become fashionable in recent years to despise such arrangements and seek a borderless Utopia. Street theatres subsidised by the French encourage the camp's residents to mock British history This has not worked. Even among the prosperous and stable nations of Western Europe, the Schengen Agreement has created as many problems as it has solved. The Dunkirk evacuation symbolised the lasting determination of Britain to preserve freedom for herself and others. The new Dunkirk, with its dismal squalor and its pathetic, anti-British propaganda street-theatre, stands for the discredited idea that all can live everywhere, that borders are oppressive or do not matter. It is easy to decide which of these ideas is really noble, and which is really not. BBC hits a new low The problem with dramatised documentaries is that they contain too much drama and too few documents. This matters because many people accept them as truth, so causing dangerous myths to take root in the public mind. Nobody would mind if the new melodrama about the late Queen Mothers undoubtedly chilly relationship with the late Duchess of Windsor had been acted by unknowns and launched on the world by some unscrupulous straight-to-DVD Hollywood chancer. The stars of the BBC's Royal Wives at War, including Gina McKee, right, as Wallis Simpson Its sexed-up version of the conflict and its eccentric claim that the Queen Mother secretly harboured a passion for Edward VIII belong in the world of soap opera and conspiracy theory. But Royal Wives At War bears the proud name of the BBC, claims to have been advised by serious historians and features Gina McKee, a first-rate actress. The Corporation needs to make up its mind whether it wants to take the subsidised high road or the commercial low road. One or the other. Not both. When floods are high and politicians are wearing rubber boots, offers of cash and compensation are loud and generous. When the rivers recede, and the politicians are gone, the promises drain away too. Failure to fulfil a pledge to provide affordable flood insurance is just the latest example of this nasty truth. Oh, Mr Johnson, why cant you make a New Year resolution to be serious? The London Mayor is one of the very few Tories who inspires anyone at all. He could be Prime Minister if he really wanted to. But he has won his fame through clowning, and perhaps he fears what may happen if he stops. His big test is coming soon. Giggly Mr Letwin, known among Tories for years as Oliver Leftwing, long ago embraced the equality and diversity political correctness that now screams and howls at the slightest whisper of dissent Oliver Letwin doesnt want to be defended by me. Thats why Im doing it. How funny it is that he, of all people, should have been the target of the Leftist Thought Police last week for his 30-year-old memo about the Broadwater Farm disorders. Giggly Mr Letwin, known among Tories for years as Oliver Leftwing, long ago embraced the equality and diversity political correctness that now screams and howls at the slightest whisper of dissent. He would have been quite capable of attacking his past self as a disgraceful racist, if he had been allowed to do so. Alas, he has an almost magical power to mess up anything he says or does in public, so Government spin doctors hurried him into hiding till the squall was over. In fact, quite a lot of what he said in the memo was perfectly sensible, if it hadnt been for the juvenile remarks about discos and drug dealers. One part of his reviled memo has a lot of truth in it. Riots, criminality and social disintegration are caused solely by individual characters and attitudes. So long as bad moral attitudes remain, all efforts to improve the inner cities will founder. This statement is not racially bigoted. In fact, it is the opposite. It judges people by their characters, not their skins, as Martin Luther King urged us to do. Mr Letwins 1985 remarks came at a time when there had been several outbreaks of disorder in areas where West Indians were concentrated. But they were not mass political uprisings. They were outbreaks of individual crime. The great majority of West Indian migrants to this country were, are, and always have been respectable, hard-working, law-abiding and Christian in a way that sometimes shames the rest of us. But liberal reformers, who wanted to change Britain profoundly anyway, saw these disorders as an opportunity. They ignored the truth that the trouble came from a lawless minority in such districts, some of them white, who were disliked and feared by the majority. And, in a deeply racialist policy, they sought to treat all West Indians as if they could not be expected to behave well without special measures. Those who wanted to live peaceful, honest lives and desired proper deterrence of crime would be abandoned. From then on proper, old-fashioned policing (there and everywhere else) would be classified as racist and oppressive. The first big step towards this stupid policy was Lord Scarmans 1981 report into the Brixton riots of April that year. The actual evidence, which few have read, suggests strongly that the conflagration was deliberately started by troublemakers who whipped up a mob against police who were trying to get an injured man to hospital. They did this by spreading false rumours of a death that hadnt happened. How funny it is that he, of all people, should have been the target of the Leftist Thought Police last week for his 30-year-old memo about the Broadwater Farm (pictured) disorders It also suggests that the disorder was not random but directed by leaders, that the supposed rioters (several of them white) rapidly took to robbery, and that petrol bombs were being systematically made, stacked and distributed. Scarman admitted that the hooligans were enjoying themselves, which anyone who has ever seen a riot will know, but which people like me get into trouble for mentioning. Scarman, a liberal of the woolliest sort, recorded but ignored these facts. He even said that street crime in Brixton was a grave matter, upon which the silent law-abiding majority of residents felt very strongly. Yet he was against actions which had been intended to stand up for that majority. He did at least have more sense than to swallow the ludicrous claim that the police were institutionally racist. That had to wait for Lord Macphersons even more liberal report into the terrible murder of Stephen Lawrence. Lord Macpherson also called quite astonishingly for the police to treat different ethnic groups differently. Colour-blind policing must be outlawed, he said. Yet I dont remember anyone accusing his report of being racist. Its odd what causes a fuss, and what doesnt. In Blairite Britain, the old Soviet rules apply to anyone with an independent mind: Dont think it. If you must think it, dont say it. If you must say it, dont write it down. If you must write it down, dont sign it. If you must sign it, dont be surprised. There are no simple answers to this misery York is one of my favourite places in the world. I used to attend Bolshevik meetings beneath a set of buffalo horns in an upstairs room in The Lowther, the solid old pub that features in almost every picture of floods pouring through the heart of the ancient walled city. I knew when I heard the names of streets affected by the latest inundation that something had gone extraordinarily wrong. Such places did not get flooded. The temptation to fall in with the crowd and say It must be global warming was strong. But I also know enough about York and its rivers to be sure that this isnt so. Im still talking to the Environment Agency about exactly what went wrong with the barrier that failed. But it wasnt global warming. There are so many reasons for whats happening the El Nino effect, the deforestation of much of England, which makes the earth much less absorbent, the straightening and canalising of rivers, speeding up the flow, the silting up of side channels that used to take the pressure off big rivers. Not to mention building houses on flood plains. And then theres just the slow decay of skills and structures which our forebears handed on to us. When a bridge collapses, after standing for centuries, isnt it at least partly our fault for not having maintained it properly? Beware of single-cause merchants. Every crisis has many fathers, though theyre not always keen to admit it. Ugly secret of our 'private schools' Solid proof that there are now two kinds of privileged private education comes from Tatler, a magazine I bet Jeremy Corbyn doesnt read. If he did, hed find from its guide to the top state schools that quite a lot of his beloved comprehensives are now besieged by wealthy and influential parents. They quickly learn the complex admission rules, which religion to pretend to have got, or which tiny expensive catchment area to move into. It wont be long before such schools like the Grey Coat Hospital in Westminster, chosen by two Tory Cabinet Ministers are as socially selective as Eton and Harrow, and sending their smooth products out into the world on gap yahs. Pity about the people who cant afford the local house prices. But thats how egalitarianism works. Its always nice to see my opponents tying themselves up in knots of their own devising. Those who claim absurdly that dyslexia is a disease rather than the result of bad teaching have now been caught by their own propaganda. A major sperm bank has been turning away donations from alleged dyslexics and from supposed sufferers of that other invented complaint, ADHD, the result of bad parenting or boring schools. The simple way forward is to point out that these arent real diseases. They cant say that, because then a whole industry would collapse. But I can. Will Dave stay the course at No 10 or find his neighbour George trying his spare key in the lock? Will Labour moderates man up and knife Red Jez? Can anyone stop the Sturgeon surge of Nicolas Scot Nats? And just what is the point of tiny Tim Farrons tiddly Lib Dems? All will be revealed as we gaze into our political crystal ball and brace ourselves for a year of big votes, big fights and even bigger egos CAMERONS LONG GOODBYE David Camerons New Year message about a turnaround decade shows hes not rushing out of No 10. But the EU referendum will sound the starting gun for succession battles. George Osborne, Boris Johnson, Sajid Javid and Theresa May will chorus: Youre doing great. When are you off? dropping ads for World Bank jobs on the PMs desk by November. You may recall, Dave will purr, a bloke called Gordon elbowing an Election-winning leader out in the mid-term. His lot havent sniffed power since. Must dash! New US Prez is on the line. David Camerons New Year message about a turnaround decade shows hes not rushing out of No 10. He is pictured eating a hot dog with Barack Obama THE BREXIT NAILBITER May and Javid are, with Iain Duncan Smith, potential EU referendum refuseniks within the Cabinet. No amount of champagne at a Christmas bash could persuade May to look keen on Daves EU deal not even when he was just feet away. It depends on the outcome, snapped May. I predict Javid will back the Prime Minister. IDS and May wont. Even before he steps down as Mayor in May, Boris will be offered the party chairmanship or another Cabinet role in exchange for backing an In vote. Oh, um, cripes, Boris will stutter. Absit invidi, sed pacta sunt servanda (No hard feelings, mate, but be sure you honour the deal), i.e. Make me Foreign Secretary. Or else. Elsewhere, Liam Fox, the Tories turbo-charged Euro-fighter, will host his annual New Year party at the Carlton Club. The ex-Defence Sec will lead the Eurosceptic charge at the head of a group of Tories from the South-West, including Neil Parish and George Eustice, who relish differentiating themselves from Cams London chums. Whips fret about ex-Army captain Johnny Mercer, filed by one as unpredictable and full of himself. Mercer starred naked in a TV soap ad. Were presuming Eric Pickles was unavailable. GEORGE AND THE GIANT BUDGET The March Budget is Osbornes audition to move next door. He wants an impactful, old-style budget, featuring big tax reform. I predict hell put Labour on the spot by raising the basic income tax threshold, extending Tory appeal to moderate earners. Pasties, tax credits, Bacardi Breezers and flights to Magaluf will be spared, the Chancellor will say. I hear ordinary people enjoy such things. Innit tho. The March Budget is Osbornes audition to move next door. He wants an impactful, old-style budget, featuring big tax reform ITS (ALMOST) A DATE, DAVE Two options are pencilled in for the EU vote: June 16-17 or September 16-17. The PM now has a deal-in-waiting on reduced welfare entitlements for new claimants from the EU. In the dying days of 2015, Frances Francois Hollande, grateful for Cameron backing intervention in Syria after the Paris bombings, gave a lifeline to Daves floundering negotiations. Immigration, both into the EU and within it, is likely to rise through the year a risk for the Inners. I predict France, Germany and the Netherlands will help push through a compromise package, with a shorter qualifying period for UK benefits than the PM wanted. If thats nailed down by March, Cameron will make June the referendum date. Good, Sam Cam will respond with relief. Now we can go to Ibiza in July and chill. THE CORBYN CLIFFHANGER Jeremy Corbyn is down his MPs were free to back bombing Syria and wont be getting rid of Trident anytime soon but not out. So I predict he will make his move against dissenters. Hilary Benn will be eased out of the Shadow Foreign Secretary job (in revenge for that Churchillian speech in favour of air strikes). Those whove remained loyal, such as Lilian Greenwood and Andy Burnham, will be promoted. Tom Watson, Corbyns pugnacious deputy, will eye up a leadership bid. Rosie Winterton, Chief Whip and former protege of Gordon Brown, will face a plot to unseat her. Labour spent 2015 being anti-Blair. In 2016, it will go for the Brownites such as Maria Eagle and her twin Angela. That will finally unite Tony and Gordon in anger about the same thing. Advertisement ROOM AT THE TOP While the A-team concern themselves with Britains EU fate, next-in-liners are anxious to enhance their prospects. I foresee jostling between the Chancellors favourites. Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt is a former Charterhouse chap whose dad was an Admiral; Sajid Javids immigrant father was a bus driver. In 2016, Cameron wants to up his game on social mobility, so being born with a plastic spoon in the mouth is a boon. Dont despair, Jeremy: courses on the glottal stop will be offered by comp-educated Communities Secretary Greg Clark. Flexing his muscles on behalf of the younger Tories, BroJo, Boriss less flamboyant sibling and Universities Minister, will go to war with colleges over the poor value some offer students. STURGEON SURGE Super Thursday arrives on May 5, with Scottish parliament and Welsh Assembly elections as well as local authorities and mayoralties up for grabs. I predict Labours defeat by the SNP, as Nicola Sturgeon continues her surge. Jezza will tell the New Statesman that his approach is not just about winning. No kidding, his despairing MPs will reply, looking for anyone rash enough to challenge him for the poisoned chalice. YES WE KHAN Private polling gives Labours Sadiq Khan a solid single-figure lead against Zac Goldsmith for London Mayor. Zac has star strategist Lynton Crosby on his team, but will need to spend more time wooing the outer boroughs. I predict a Yes we Khan win if wily Sadiq distances himself from old pal Corbyn. Zac will breathe a sigh of relief that its the last hell see of Hainault or Hillingdon. THE FOOT-IN-MOUTH AWARD For a Girl About Town like me, going to bed before 3am on any day of the week is not an option, let alone on New Year's Eve, which I usually spend running between two or three parties thanks to my crippling FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out syndrome). But this year, after a wild month on the Christmas party circuit, I was seriously in danger of falling at the final hurdle by giving into the temptation of staying in to rest for the first time in 2015. Drastic action was needed! A new craze has led to dozens of specialist hangover clinics opening in the UK, offering intravenous drips, booster shots and vitamin infusions which promise to make penitent partygoers as good as new. Experiment: Charlotte Griffiths gets a vitamin infusion from Gary Sanderson at Reviv, Knightsbridge And if 'drip and chill clinics' are good enough for party-mad celebrities such as Rihanna, Kate Moss, Cara Delevingne and Nick Grimshaw, then why not me? So I grabbed my party dress and visited Reviv, a discreet Knightsbridge clinic known for taking years off clients such as Natalie Imbruglia. After perusing the menu card, I ordered the Royal Flush, a 340 detox cocktail of B-12 vitamins, anti-nausea medication and an anti-inflammatory mixed with a saline solution, which they promised would hit my blood system faster than a dry Martini at London's Chiltern Firehouse. The only stumbling block was the prospect of having a needle plunged into my arm. In my desperation I volunteered to just drink the murky yellow solution of vitamins, anti-ageing Glutathione and an energy boosting medication, after all I've swallowed Tequila shots which have tasted worse in my time. But I was told that to eradicate the inevitable hangover I was expecting on New Year's Day, the only way was 'direct delivery' of the liquid into my veins, a process which, they claim, rehydrates 45 per cent more efficiently. Celebrity craze: Nick Grimshaw having a Reviv drip. Other celebrities like Rihanna, Kate Moss, Cara Delevingne have also enjoyed similar treatments I was reassured that I was in safe hands by resident nurse Gary Sanderson who has considerable experience with needles after 30 years of service as an ambulance paramedic. He found a vein on my right arm easily and I didn't feel the needle go in thanks to an anesthetising spray. But I really squirmed when he turned on a little plastic tap at the base of the drip and I could feel the pressure of two-and-a-half litres of cold liquid pouring rapidly into my veins. My body temperature dropped and I began to shiver, apparently a common symptom. But I also began yawning and could easily have fallen asleep on the futuristic hospital bed, particularly when Gary wrapped me up in a cosy blanket. I was again beginning to feel the lure of a night in on the sofa, so I forced myself to take a little walk around the clinic to perk up. Ready for the parties: Charlotte Griffiths anticipated hopping between several parties on New Years Eve I held the saline solution in my left hand and began tottering around in circles in my six-inch party heels. By the end of the 47-minute treatment I was beginning to feel much more bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. But was I imagining it? Author and nutritionist Ian Marber has warned: 'There's no evidence IV drips are beneficial for the general population. It's marketing the false idea you can take a short cut to health.' And The Mail on Sunday's resident GP, Dr Ellie Cannon, believes that vitamin drips for a hangover as a supposed detox after a night out are nothing more than an expensive fad. She says: 'The body, especially the liver, does need to recover after a lot of alcohol but there is no proof a shot of intravenous vitamins is going to aid that recovery. 'It sounds like a good idea, which has fuelled its popularity, but the scientific proof is just not there. Pricey: Charlotte Griffiths ordered the Royal Flush, a 340 detox cocktail of B-12 vitamins, anti-nausea medication and an anti-inflammatory mixed with a saline solution 'Rehydration can be as easily achieved safely and cheaply with plenty of water or sugary drinks. 'And the best chance you can give your liver to recover is have plenty of alcohol-free days between nights out.' Despite the warnings, I have to say that by the time I bundled myself into a taxi to go out into the night I was really beginning to get my mojo back. Suddenly the dangerous prospect of that first glass of fizz began to become rather appealing... But the real test was on New Year's Day. As I'd been promised that the treatment could override my hangover, I had drank more than usual into the early hours. So when Friday morning came I was surprised to have no trace of a headache and I sprang out of bed quite easily, feeling energised after just a few hours of sleep. TV adventurer Levison Wood has revealed how after plunging 150m down a cliff in a car in Nepal, he waited, badly injured, for three days for a helicopter to rescue him. The terrifying experience is just one of the many challenges the rugged Staffordshire-born explorer, 33, faced as he trekked the entire length of the Himalayas last year. But brushes with danger are just another day in the office for the former Para who graced TV screens walking the length of the River Nile last year - and earned himself a passionate female following in the process. Levison Wood posing during his latest grueling mission to trek the length of the Himalayas Last year Levison Wood walked the length of the Nile on a dangerous trek that took him through Africa from Uganda to the Mediterranean sea But in an interview with the Times' Saturday Magazine, the dark-haired adventurer who has explored Baghdad, Afghanistan, Syria, Pakistan, North and South Sudan, most of Sub-Saharan Africa, India, Nepal and Burma, says that he can't take his heartthrob status too seriously. He said: 'I'm just bewildered, really.' And when asked if he could be 'close' to getting married his reply is to the point: 'Er, I don't think so. Not yet'. When his first TV series aired a year ago, Wood - whose book Walking The Himalayas is published on January 7 - was described as 'ten times more sexy than Bear Grylls', but he insists he doesn't even watch is rival TV adventurer on TV. 'I'm not into survival for the sake of it. People do want to see it and I don't think it's going to die off any time soon [but] I'm more interested in the people. 'It's the people and the cultures and the interactions that I find fascinating. I just don't want to spend my time digging grubs out of holes and trying to show off how hard I am.' Levison Wood became a heart throb after his TV series Walking the Nile last year The 33-year old looks disheveled during his nine-month expedition to walk the length of the Nile. His latest adventures to walk the length of the Himalayas will be screened on Channel 4 soon For his latest TV series, the former platoon commander travelled through some of the most remote, beautiful and perilous places on earth. I knew right then that we were about to go off the edge. I knew I was about to die He teamed up with local guides, soldiers, monks and nomadic tribes to complete the challenge, well trained in surviving hostile environments after his years as an Officer in the British Parachute Regiment, where he served in Afghanistan fighting against Taliban insurgents in Helmand, Kandahar and Zabul in 2008. He battled altitudes above 5,000m, suffering from a debilitating lack of oxygen and entered some of the most dangerous areas of the world such as Afghanistan and crossing the so-called Line of Control between Pakistan and India. Wood revealed some of the most dramatic moments on his expedition in an interview with magazine. Talking about a car crash where he nearly lost his arm, he said he thought this was the end. He said: 'It felt like it was all in slow motion - just like in a movie ... I knew right then ...that we were about to go off the edge. I knew I was about to die.' Wood had to be flown back to London for medical treatment and nearly aborted his mission. Levison Wood looking better groomed on his return from trekking the Nile in 2014 Wood says he isn't interested in 'survival for the sake of it' but instead is fueled by an interest in people and different cultures The explorer faced tragedy during his latest expedition after an American journalist who accompanied Wood for part of his journey, died of heat stroke after moving through 45C heat. Matthew Power, from New York, a writer from Men's Journal, was on his third day of the expedition when Wood spotted the signs of heatstroke. 'We stopped. We took cover. We got shade. We covered him with water, made him drink and tried to get a helicopter, and we were told the Ugandans couldn't provide one.' Doctors will be able to prescribe e-cigarettes on the NHS for the first time later this year (file photo) Smokers looking to kick their habit will be able to get a prescription of e-cigarettes on the NHS with the world's biggest firm lined up as a supplier. E-voke, produced by British American Tobacco, has been granted a licence by Britain's medicines regulator - the Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). The company has also got the go-ahead by the Department of Health and it is believed the move will reportedly cost the NHS in the region of 20 per kit and 10 a week for each patient's cartridges. Making e-cigarettes available on the NHS is expected to bring long-term health budget savings. At least 2.6 million people are believed to use e-cigarettes, assessed as 95 per cent safer than tobacco, and almost half are ex-smokers. However, research by the University of California suggests that use of E-cigarettes can lead to cancer. Experts from the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) are also concerned that there will be an overwhelming call for the devices from the public which the NHS will find hard to deal with. As e-cigarettes will be a medical product they will only be prescribed after an assessment and outgoings could mount up, considering GP consultations cost the NHS 50 each time. Dr Tim Ballard, the vice chairman of the RCGP, said: 'We welcome e-cigarettes as a safer alternative to cigarettes, but it would be unreasonable for the NHS to be asked to actually fund lifestyle choices for people. 'Potentially, there may be a place for the prescription of e-Voke as part of a smoking cessation programme, but GPs would be very wary of prescribing them until there was clear evidence of their safety and of their efficacy in helping people to quit.' A spokesman for the Royal Pharmaceutical Society said the group believed e-cigarettes could help people give up, but more research was needed. He said:'More high quality peer-reviewed studies on safety and efficacy should be completed in order to provide health professionals with evidence-based assurance, particularly if they are to be included in the publicly funded smoking cessation programmes.' In August it was revealed that pilot schemes in North East England and Leicester had already started recommending e-cigarettes to patients through council smoking cessation services. The move will reportedly cost the NHS in the region of 20 per kit and 10 a week for each patient's cartridges. This graphic shows how an e-cigarette works, with a cartridge containing 'pharmaceutical grade nicotine' But up until now GPs have been unable to recommend them because they were not properly licensed, unlike other nicotine replacement therapies such as gum, lozenges and patches. The Department of Health said: 'The medicines regulator the MHRA is responsible for licensing products for medicinal use. Once there is a licensed product available, it could be prescribed alongside other nicotine replacement therapies. 'Public Health England reported last year that e-cigarettes are 95% safer than smoking tobacco. However, the best thing a smoker can do for their health is to quit smoking. We keep all the latest evidence under review.' The NHS lists e-cigarettes on its website among stop-smoking treatments. It says: 'Over recent years, e-cigarettes have become a very popular stop smoking aid in the UK. Evidence is still developing on how effective they are, but many people have found them helpful for quitting.' A spokeswoman for British American Tobacco said: 'Nicovations Limited, part of British American Tobacco's Next Generation Products division, has been granted a licence by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency for its rechargeable electronic cigarette, e-Voke. 'E-Voke uses cartridges containing pharmaceutical grade nicotine. We are now reviewing the commercialisation of e-Voke.' A seven-year-old rape victim from South Delhi Tigri area was left unattended for more than three hours in the countrys premier medical institute All India Institute for Medical Science (AIIMS) on December 11. Bleeding profusely, the girl was not given even basic first aid for over three hours. The incident has once again raised serious questions over how the countrys top medical institute functions. Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chief Swati Maliwal had met the 7-year-old rape victim. DCW has served a notice to All India Institute for Medical Science (AIIMS) over alleged negligence Taking strong action after the alleged negligence, the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) had served a notice to the premier medical institute on December 14 while asking AIIMS to explain the reason of negligence. According to the notice served by the DCW, the investigation officer and counsellor informed that the victim was brought to the hospital in a very serious condition on December 11 at 8.35pm and was bleeding profusely. DCW chairperson Swati Maliwal who met the rape victim had quoted the version of the investigating police officer and the counsellor of DCWs Rape Crisis Cell, saying that she was not provided medical treatment for three-and-a-half hours at AIIMS. However, the girl was left unattended while being denied even first aid for more than 3.5 hours until around 12pm. The Investigation Officer and RCC Counsellor had also made a written complaint to the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) regarding the same. According to the sources, the senior resident doctor on duty delayed administering medical treatment to the victim as he was in the operation theatre conducting an emergency surgery at that time. The minor girl was allegedly sexually assaulted while she was playing outside her home by a teenager from the same neighbourhood in South Delhis Tigri area, following which the police registered a case and apprehended the accused. The girl was left unattended while being denied even first aid for more than 3.5 hours until around 12pm at the countrys premier medical institute All India Institute for Medical Science (AIIMS) on December 11 Taking cognisance of the DCW notice, AIIMS has initiated a departmental inquiry and issued a show-cause notice to a senior resident doctor on duty for alleged negligence in providing timely medical treatment to a seven-year-old rape victim last month, it said in a report to DCW. Preliminary investigations have revealed that the senior resident on duty, who was to examine the child, was in the operation theatre conduc ting an emergency surgery resulting in the delay in examination, AIIMS said in its response. This, of course cannot be accepted as a valid reason for the delay, it said. The head of department has issued a show-cause notice to the resident. Further, a departmental enquiry has also been initiated, it added. There are many stories of old parents being cruelly treated and abandoned by their kids, but one man has decided to fight for his dignity and right to life. 87-year-old Jaswat Singh, a resident of West Patel Nagar, has moved the Delhi High Court through advocate VK Anand claiming that he was subjected to cruelty in the hands of his own sons and all this just so as they can grab his property. He alleged that his own blood did not spare a day to insult him and cause him mental stress and added that his trauma was aggravated when the police refused to help him and asked him to seek legal advice instead. With no roof on the head and with bare minimum resources Jaswant Singh had to seek shelter at the Sis Ganj Sahib Gurdwara in Chandni Chowk Singh in his petition has alleged that he was deprived of food and care and was also denied financial help for his medical expenditures. He told the court that his family is harassing him with a sole motive of grabbing his property without his consent. My family has not hesitated to use cuss words to insult me and hurt me emotionally. "At times I even thought of taking extreme steps but then I realised that I should fight for my dignity, says Singh. Narrating his plight to the court, Singh mentioned in his petition that his sons locked up his room and did not let him in. With no roof on the head and with bare minimum resources he had to seek shelter at the Sis Ganj Sahib Gurdwara in Chandni Chowk. My health has further deteriorated in the winters without proper care, says Singh. Singh has also mentioned that his family members had warned him of dire consequences if he was seen near their house. The petition said, Life of the petitioner is in danger as Singhs sons are advancing threats of dire consequences in case he is seen in the West Patel locality or tries to enter in his own house. Troubled with the daily emotional and mental harassment, Singh approached the officials of Patel Nagar police station but returned empty handed. "When contacted, one of the Singhs sons told Mail Today, Our plan of action would be based on the summoning orders from the court. It is unfortunate that an 87-year-old father has been compelled to seek legal remedy against his own sons because of their harassment in which the local police contributed. "Despite complaining to the highly placed police officials, nobody came to his rescue, said VK Anand, Singhs counsel. A police official from Patel Nagar police station said that an attempt was made to resolve the problem but it did not help. The court has also asked the police to file a status report. Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh. blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work as well as a big vote to follow our good friend Kay Wilson on Twitter. . ..Our World/JPost..28 December '15..Today Israel's bilateral relations with Brazil are moving toward a full-blown crisis. If the government doesnt address the causes of the crisis, going forward it will find itself unable to competently advance Israels interests in the international community.Brazil has the ninth largest economy in the world and is a rapidly growing market for Israeli exports.Israels bilateral trade with Brazil expanded nearly 60 percent between 2009 and 2013. Israeli exports comprise two-thirds of the overall trade.Economics isnt the only reason that Brazil and Israel have important joint interests. According to Alberto Nisman, the slain Argentinean prosecutor who investigated the Iranian bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires in 1994, Brazil serves as a major hub for Iranian and Hezbollah activities in Latin America.Given Brazils importance as a market and as a defense partner, Israel needs a serious ambassador posted to Brasilia capable of advancing relations. In Dani Dayan, Israel has such a representative.Dayan is a native of Argentina. He knows Latin America better than career diplomats.Dayan was an early hi-tech entrepreneur. He led his company, Elad Systems for 23 years, building it from a small information technology firm into a 500-employee company with an annual revenue stream of NIS100 million. Given his business background, Dayans ability to promote Israeli-Brazilian trade is self-evident.Dayan is a political pragmatist. When he served as the leader of the Council of Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, he made it his goal to demonstrate to the wider public that the communities are an integral part of Israel. As the councils representative to the international community, Dayan worked tirelessly to combat the delegitimization of Israel as a whole and of the Israeli communities in the areas. In a sphere where Israel has precious little to show for its efforts, Dayans public diplomacy efforts stood out.In light of this, when Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu appointed Dayan to serve as Israels ambassador to Brazil in August, the appointment was not seen as controversial. Rather it was widely viewed as a sign that Netanyahu is keen to expand Israels bilateral ties with Brazil and more generally, that Israel is interested in seriously advancing its ties to Latin America.This apparently was bad news for the EU- and US-financed radical Left. For many years radical leftists have made no effort to hide their interest in maintaining and expanding Israels international and economic weakness. As they see it, the stronger Israel is, the less vulnerable it will be to foreign pressure to make further concessions to the PLO.And so, after the government approved Dayans appointment, fringe leftists associated with EU- and US-funded political NGOs set out to scuttle the appointment.In September, three former ambassadors associated with the EU- and US-funded radical Left lobbied the Brazilian government through the Brazilian embassy in Tel Aviv, asking it to reject Dayans appointment.Alon Liel is the former director-general of the Foreign Ministry. Today he serves on the board of three political NGOs Sikkuy, Ir Amim and BTselem that are all funded by European governments.Sikkuy and BTselem are also funded by the US government.Eli Barnavi, who is a member of the post-Zionist Meretz party and Peace Now, was one of the founders of the European Jewish pro-Palestinian lobby JCall. He is the former director of the European Museum in Brussels, and a member of the scientific committee of the museum. Barnavi served as ambassador to Paris during the Barak government.Ilan Baruch, long the most outspoken radical leftist in the foreign ministry, served in various positions in the peace talks with the PLO and went on to serve as ambassador to the Philippines and South Africa. Baruch left the Foreign Ministry under a cloud of controversy in 2011 when he denounced the government and said that he could not represent it.Baruch serves as foreign policy adviser to Zehava Galon, the head of the post-Zionist Meretz Party.He hosts a radio show on the Swedish and Norwegian government-funded All for Peace radio station, which is run through Ramallah. Baruch is also associated with the EU-supported think tank Mitviim.In September, Liel, Barnavi and Baruch met with the Brazilian ambassador and urged his government to refuse to accept Dayans appointment. As they saw it, accepting his posting to Brasilia would be tantamount to supporting Israels control over Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem.Their action transformed Dayans appointment from an Israeli statement of commitment to expanding bilateral ties with Brazil into a political hot potato in Brazils domestic politics. Ever since the men intervened, the Brazilian government has refused to accept Dayans appointment. As a result, Israels bilateral relations with the largest country in Latin America are now on the verge of a full-blown crisis.For three months the government tried to use quiet diplomacy to convince Brazil to accept Dayans appointment. But last week the government concluded that a public clash is unavoidable. As Dayan noted in a media interview Saturday night, the issue at hand is far greater than whether he will get to move into the ambassadors residence in Brasilia or not.If the move initiated by Liel, Baruch and Barnavi succeeds, then that will mean that there is an effective diplomatic boycott of all non-leftist Israelis. Any Israeli considering a diplomatic career or posting from now on will need to avoid making any statement in support of Israeli power beyond the 1949 armistice lines that is, any statement in support of the policies of the elected government of Israel lest they find themselves in Dayans shoes, with the host government unwilling to approve their postings.The success of these three otherwise marginal actors who all work with EU-funded organizations in undermining Israels ability to carry out diplomacy shows just how critical it is for the Knesset to pass Justice Minister Ayelet Shakeds new NGO bill, and if possible expand its scope when it is discussed in the Knesset Law Committee.Shakeds bill requires political NGOs that receive more than half of their funding from foreign governments to identify themselves as foreign agents. This is important because, as the Dayan appointment shows clearly, in their work these groups and their members seek to weaken Israeli democracy by subverting the policies of the elected government.But Dayans still unaccepted appointment to Brazil also shows that Shakeds bill is not sufficiently strong.Not only should the Knessets Law Committee expand its scope by including the bills restrictions on all political NGOs that receive foreign governmental funding.It should also deny non-profit status from all foreign government-funded political groups.At the same time, the government itself must get serious about public diplomacy. A recent report produced by the Knesset Information Center for Law Committee Chairman MK Nissim Slomiansky from the Bayit Yehudi Party showed that Israels public diplomacy efforts are in a state of chaos. While the government budgeted some 500 million shekels to fight the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, almost none has been used. The Prime Ministers Office has used only 28 percent of its public diplomacy budget.The Foreign Ministry has earmarked no special funds to fighting BDS. Responsibility for Israels public diplomacy efforts are dispersed among a half-dozen ministries with competing interests.Due in large part to this stunning governmental failure to competently defend the country, aside from the heroic work of a few privately funded Zionist NGOs forced to punch above their weight, the ground is clear for agents of subversion to undermine the government.As the stalled Dayan appointment shows, these groups exploit governmental weaknesses and incompetence to launch effective boycotts not only against Israeli products, but against Israeli citizens.Dani Dayans appointment is a test case. Shakeds bill is also a test case. If the government stands its ground on Dayans stationing to Brasilia, and if the Knesset passes Shakeds bill as written or a stronger version of it, then Israel will have taken its first steps towards ensuring that it will not be undermined by fringe elements of its society funded by hostile foreign governments. If the government fails in either of these undertakings, then it can expect acts of diplomatic, political and legal subversion to proliferate and will see its ability to advance the policies it was elected to implement disappear. Barely a few days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif were locked in a jhappi (tight embrace), the painstaking efforts of the two leaders in bringing peace process back on track faced its first litmus test on Saturday when terrorists stormed the Indian Air Force (IAF) base in Pathankot. It is clear that while the high value assets at the base were the physical targets for the terrorists, the larger objective was to send a message to the political leadership in India and Pakistan that it is too early to sing peace songs. If the peace constituency on either side of the border was celebrating the bold initiatives of the two prime ministers, the overpowering hardline faculty made its voice heard loud and clear through the gun shots fired by the suicide attackers. Indian Army personnel patrol near the Air Force Base in Pathankot on 2 January during an ongoing attack on the base by suspected militants By accepting Sharifs invitation to visit Lahore on the way to New Delhi from Kabul, Modi had in one swipe smoothened out wrinkles in the ties held hostage to terrorism since 26/11. But the question that has reared its ugly head is that big if about Sharifs ability to close the terror tap. Sharifs vulnerability was displayed in 1999 as well when the Pakistan army answered Vajpayees bus diplomacy with Kargil. In 2016, the India-specific groups of Lashkar-e-Tayyeba and Jaish-e-Mohammad are still beyond the control of Islamabad as the Pathankot attack has clearly shown. When Modi visited Lahore, it was presumed that the powerful Pakistan army had given a tacit approval to Sharifs peace overtures. New Delhi does not regard terror groups like Jaish-e- Mohammad and Lashkar as non-state actors as Islamabad would like the world to believe. The linkages of these groups to Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) are as firmly established as their existence. The attack in Pathankot might not have jeopardised the resumption of bilateral talks, but it has put the BJP government in a tight spot. It will have a tough time explaining its Pakistan policy, which has already seen several flip flops, to the political opponents. Theres need for more tolerance this new year BY ADILA MATRA On January 1, we celebrated New Year. We made resolutions, stuck to odd-even car rule in Delhi and reminisced about the past few years and the lessons learnt. But very few remembered that it was also the death anniversary of political activist Safdar Hashmi who was brutally attacked and killed by an onlooker during a street play in Ghaziabad. Very few remembered the lessons this incident taught us about the frivolity of free speech and cultural resistance. Little did Hashmi know that the fire he had started then would be kept bright and burning. He did not know that the country would keep producing martyrs more than two decades after he started it all. Narendra Dabholkar, MM Kalburgi, Govind Pansare, the list of martyrs has just grown. On the 27th death anniversary of Hashmi, it is important to ask if we have moved ahead. Because, many who yelled Halla Bol and followed Hashmi had to meet a brutal fate. We live in an era where citizens who talk about intolerance are asked to leave the country. We are advised to be diplomatic and discreet, lest we fall into the traitor category. Our food habits, reading habits and even movies and theatre are forced to fall under the safe norm. The FTII issue, the march against Award Wapsi and the Dadri lynching are all examples of consequences of not being a safe citizen. The year 2015 (or the year of bans and intolerance) has come to an end. But what are we doing to put an end to such unfortunate incidents? How much of an activist are we? Former Indian Air Force officer Ranjith KK, who was arrested earlier for allegedly sharing classified information with Pakistans intelligence agent, ISI, will be interrogated in connection with the Pathankot attack, crime branch officials told a city court. The court extended the ex-IAF officers police custody till January 4. Ranjith was a leading aircraftman with the IAF and was posted at Bhatinda before he was dismissed and arrested following a joint operation by the Delhi Polices crime branch, military intelligence and the Air Force Liasoning Unit. Former Indian Air Force officer Ranjith KK was arrested for allegedly sharing classified information with Pakistans intelligence agent, ISI Ranjiths police custody was extended by metropolitan magistrate Dheeraj Mittal, who accepted the submissions of the police that they wanted to interrogate him further. In view of the allegation and the reasons thereof, the application is allowed. Police remand of the accused is extended till January 4, the magistrate said. The former IAF officer, who has been booked under the stringent Official Secrets Act, had allegedly shared secret information with intelligence operatives suspected to be backed by the ISI. Ranjith was honey-trapped into the espionage racket. A Crime Branch official informed court that revelations made by the accused need to be ascertained and he needed to be interrogated in connection with the Pathankot attack. The investigators submissions came after the magistrate asked the police whether any disclosures and recoveries have been made during the earlier four-day remand. IO SS Sandhu said some revelations were made by Ranjith and police suspect that there could be a connection with the Pathankot attack. Police had earlier said in this case, Ranjith was deceived by a cyber entity named Damini McNaught, who pretended to be an executive of a UK-based media firm and claimed that she required air force-related information for an article in a news magazine from Ranjith in exchange for pecuniary benefits. Metropolitan Magistrate Punit Pahwa, on December 29, sent Ranjith, to police custody after the Delhi Police submitted that he was required to be taken outside the national Capital for interrogation. Seeking five days custody of the former IAF officer, the police said they had to take him to Jaisalmer and Gwalior. Honeytrapped into espionage Damini McNaught, a fake profile created by ISI agents, told Ranjith KK that she required Air Force-related information for an article she was writing for a news magazine in exchange for pecuniary benefits. Ranjith shared Air Force-related information, mostly pertaining to deployment, recent exercises, movements and status of aircraft. He was being used to identify each building inside the Bathinda air force camp. "After seeing the Google map, she asked him about the building. "He helped them identify the air traffic controller building, the parking area for jet planes, connecting runway and bunker for the aircraft, an officer investigating the case told Mail Today, adding that Ranjith was unintentionally passing on information to Pakistan. The Bathinda air base and Pathankot air base are five hours apart. Ranjith was posted in Bathinda and was monitored by the Air Force for 3-4 months. The attack on the Indian Air Forces (IAF) Pathankot base by a gang of armed Pakistani terrorists was not entirely unexpected. After all every time efforts are made to push for normalisation, there is a push-back by forces opposed to it. In that sense, this is an old story in the India-Pakistan relations. Five attackers hijacked the car of the Gurdaspur Superintendent of Police (SP), Salwinder Singh, near Dinanagar, and used it to reach the gate of the IAF base, where they were eventually contained and eliminated. Army personnel stand guard at the Indian Air Forces (IAF) base in Pathankot following an attack by a gang of armed Pakistani terrorists There are three problems here. First, why did they let the SP off, considering he was a senior police officer. Second, this is the area near Gurdaspur, which was attacked on July 27, 2015, and which was itself unusual because it is in Punjab, not Jammu & Kashmir where most of the attacks take place. And the third is why was the police not able to locate the militants even though they knew about the SPs abduction, 24 hours before the Pathankot attack. Modus operandi This is the fifth attack since September 2013, which follows a near identical pattern. A small group of militants, dressed in army fatigues, crosses the international border in Jammu & Kashmir which runs roughly parallel to the NH1A in a south-easterly direction from Jammu to Kathua and then loops south at the Ravi river to Pathankot and Gurdaspur. After crossing the border they hike to the highway which is some 10-15 kms away and hijack a passing vehicle and head for a target, usually a police station or an army camp. This is heavily serrated riverine terrain which facilitates small groups penetrating the border cordon which is maintained by the BSF in this area. September 26, 2013: A couple of days ahead of the Manmohan Singh-Nawaz Sharif meeting in New York, militants dressed in army fatigues struck a police station at Hiranagar near Kathua killing several policemen, later they attacked an army camp before being gunned down. A total of 12 persons, including an army officer were killed. November 27, 2014: Just as Prime Minister Narendra Modi was meeting his Pakistani counterpart at Dhulikhel, Nepal, four gunmen who had come across the border, ran into an army patrol in the Arnia sector of Jammu. They were killed in the ensuing encounter which left three army men and five civilians dead. March 28, 2014: Two days after a Modi election rally near Jammu, three militants in army uniform hijacked a vehicle killing a civilian and injuring another and then attacked an army camp at Janglore and killed a jawan, before being shot. July 27, 2015: Three gunmen dressed in army fatigues fired on a bus at Dinanagar, near Gurdaspur. They had hijacked a car to reach the local police station - the target of the attack. Three civilians and four policemen were killed along with the three militants. There were two points about the attacks that are not easy to explain. First, the attackers seem to have come from the Jammu side and then made their way into Punjab, when they could have hit many targets in Jammu. Second, they planted five bombs in a railway track near Dinanagar, which were found and defused. In other words the aim was to create mass civilian casualties. Patterns August 5, 2015: Two militants launched an attack on a BSF convoy near Udhampur, killing two BSF personnel. One of the militants was killed, while the other, Usman Khan, was captured. Unusually, the two came through northern Kashmir, crossed the valley and targeted the convoy. The attack was also unusual in that it was the first in the Udhampur district, in over a decade. The common pattern in these Army personnel stand guard at the IAF base in Pathankot attacks is that they typically do not really target civilians. Many of the civilian casualties are collateral damage. The main targets of the attackers are police, paramilitary and army camps or posts. Of course, the bombs on the railway tracks in Dinanagar, do not fit into the pattern. Strategy There appears to be a carefully thought through strategy in the attacks on military or police camps, because these events do create headlines when they occur, but they are quickly forgotten. Mass civilian casualties generate huge negative attention. In this case, it appears that the attacks are aimed at keeping the Jammu & Kashmir pot simmering, but not allowing it to boil over. In that sense, you can be sure that there is ISI connivance, if not control, in the attacks. This means that the Pakistan army is keeping its options open, despite the efforts being made by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi to normalise relations between the two countries. In a desperate bid to avoid police arrest, two highway robbers jumped off a flyover to their death in Haryanas industrial town Dharuhera in Rewari district late on Friday night. Rattan Lal, the SHO of Dharuhera police station told Mail Today that there were five highway robbers who apprehended a truck driver in a bid to snatch his vehicle around 11.30pm on Friday night. Traffic personnel patrolling the Jaipur to Delhi side of National Highway 8 (NH8), suspected something fishy when they heard screams from a truck stationed on the other side of the flyover. Two of the robbers, Azhar and Tahir, jumped off the flyover on the Delhi-Jaipur NH, hoping to escape. But it was too dark for the robbers to gauge where they would land "When they crossed the road to check, they found three armed robbers trying to overpower the truck drivers, Lal said. He added that two other accomplices were waiting in a Maruti Ritz car and as soon as cops reached the truck, they sped away. The three robbers struggling with the truck drivers panicked when they saw the cops and tried to run away. Two of them, Azhar and Tahir, jumped off the flyover, hoping to escape. But it was too dark for the robbers to gauge where they would land. Azhar fell in an open drain, fracturing his neck and injuring his head, and Tahir too suffered similar injuries. They both died on the spot on the spot. The third robber, Mubarik, also attempted to jump off the flyover and had almost crossed the railing, but cops managed to him catch on time. Son, please have some food before you lay down your life. This was one of the chilling exchanges between one of the five terrorists and his mother before he was gunned down by Indian security forces in Pathankot on Saturday. The agencies traced three calls made by the attackers to their handlers in Pakistan, establishing that the brazen terror raid was being guided from across the border. A policeman in action against attackers at the Indian Air Force (IAF) base in Pathankot. All five terrorists who stormed the base were gunned down by the security forces in a 15-hour-long gun battle This came little over a week after Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a dramatic stopover in Lahore to meet his counterpart Nawaz Sharif to speed up resumption of the bilateral dialogue process. Sources said the Jaish-e-Mohammed and the Lashkar-e-Taiba could have joined hands to execute the attack. One of the terrorists spoke to his mother in Pakistans Punjab about his suicide mission and sought her blessings. She is heard telling him to have some food before laying down his life. The phone call was intercepted by Indian agencies. All five terrorists who stormed the Indian Air Force base in Punjabs border town Pathankot were gunned down by the security forces in a 15-hour-long gun battle that started in the wee hours of Saturday. People gather as a security personnel guards near the IAF base. Unlike previous terror attacks in the vulnerable Jammu-Pathankot belt, the agencies had prior information about this strike An IAF commando and two Defence Service Corps (DSC) personnel, who man military establishments, were killed in the encounter. Unlike previous terror attacks in the vulnerable Jammu-Pathankot belt, the agencies had prior information about this strike. When the terrorists entered the IAF base, the security forces were prepared, the Ministry of Defence claimed in a statement. A group of terrorists was detected by the aerial surveillance platforms as soon as they entered the air force station Pathankot, the defence ministry said, adding the infiltrators were immediately engaged and contained within a limited area and prevented from entering the technical zone where the planes are parked. The group of suicide attackers could not make deep inroads into the air base as they remained confined to the outer periphery. Army jawans stand alert near the Air Force Base in Pathankot on Saturday. The government claimed that the terrorist attack was foiled through prompt action coordinated by various agencies The terrorists are believed to have crossed the border near Gurdaspur on December 30. Their target was destruction of IAF fighter jets and other high value assets. The Pathankot airbase is home to Mig-21 fighter jets and Mi-25 attack helicopters. The government claimed that the terrorist attack was foiled through prompt action coordinated by various agencies. The IAF base already had army columns, and its own commando force Garud and the National Security Guard (NSG). Intelligence sources believe that the heavily armed terrorists belonged to Bahawalpur in Pakistan and received training in the last six months. Their handlers have been identified as Maulana Ashfaq Ahmed and Haji Abdul Shakur and it is believed that they were trained in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in the first week of December just when New Delhi and Islamabad explored possibilities of resuming the peace process. Sources said the terrorists, wearing army uniform, were highly trained and were heavily armed. They drove into the base in a hijacked vehicle. Security personnel stand guard outside the Indian Air Force base at Pathankot in Punjab on Saturday After the base was sanitised, the first statement from the government came when Prime Minister Narendra Modi lauded the security forces for foiling the attack While four terrorists were killed in the early morning push, the fifth one engaged the security forces till Saturday evening. The IAF used helicopter gunships to locate the fifth terrorist. As the operation was on, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar who rushed back from Goa to New Delhi. Parrikar later went into a huddle with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and the three service chiefs to monitor the operation directly from New Delhi. After the base was sanitised, the first statement from the government came when Prime Minister Narendra Modi lauded the security forces for foiling the attack. Sources said prior information about attack helped in containing the damage and the security forces were able to avoid a possible hostage situation. Clues rang out of abducted SPs mobile Senior Punjab Salwinder Singh was abducted on Friday The slain suspected Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists, who struck the Pathankot air force station in the wee hours of Saturday and were later neutralised in an operation launched by the security forces, wanted to launch a bigger terror strike. That is the reason why they neither killed abducted senior Punjab cop Salwinder Singh and his companions nor took them hostage. Experts have termed the attack as an immature act. The slain terrorists made three major mistakes which proves the attack was poorly planned. First, the suicide bombers beat up a cop and his companions before releasing them. Moreover, they even used the senior cops phone to call their handlers in Pakistan, a move which helped security agencies foil the terror bid. They snatched the cops phone before pushing him off his vehicle near Pathankot in the wee hours of Friday. Though the militants had knowledge about the air base, but did not know the location of parked aircraft like MiG-21 and Mi fighter choppers. They may be successful in entering the airbase but entered the kitchen area. However, they succeeded in transporting enough arms and ammunition to engage security forces for nearly 13 hours. Highly-placed sources told Mail Today that the terrorists made three calls from the cops phone to speak to their handlers in Pakistan. The phone, according to Punjab police sources, was immediately put on surveillance after Singh reported the matter to the police. The police intercepted the calls which were made on Friday night. The fourth call was made by one of the slain terrorists to his mother. His car abandoned by terrorists. Experts have termed the attack as an immature act. The slain terrorists made three major mistakes which proves the attack was poorly planned Sources said he informed his mother that he was on a fidayeen mission and she asked him to eat food before launching the attack. The police have not shared intercepts of the telephone conversations due to security reasons. Sources said the terrorists and their handles communicated in Punjabi dialect. The handlers also rebuked the militants for releasing the senior cop unharmed. Sources said National Security Advisor Ajit Doval held a meeting with security officials soon after the calls were intercepted. A warning was issued and Indian Army and National Security Guard teams were asked to move to Pathankot by air. The teams were deployed at important places to thwart the terror attack. Despite the alert and security arrangement, the terrorists managed to enter the air force station using the escape routes. While some sources say the terrorists scaled the 12ft high boundary wall which protects the air force station, some said the terrorists dug up a fence and entered the station. Unanswered questions 1 Why did the terrorists release kidnapped Punjab cop and his companions? 2 Why the police did not check abducted cops vehicle at Kathlor barricade near Pathankot when the cop and his friends were being taken in the vehicle? 3 How many terrorists actually carried out the attack at the air base. Four or five? 4 Who is behind the terror attack? Jaish-e- Mohammeds name figured after the calls were intercepted. 5 How did the terrorists enter India and who were their handlers. Have their local sympathisers been identified? 6 Did the ISI spies active in districts located on Indo-Pak border help the terrorists? 7 What action did the security agencies and police take when they got the information that heavily-armed militants sneaked in to Pathankot. Is this an intelligence failure? Intelligence reports emerging in the aftermath of the pre-dawn terror attack on the Pathankot Air Force Base suggest that planning of the strike was done in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) in the first week of December 2015. In more shocking revelations, intelligence sources confirmed that the meet was attended by not just Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) masterminds, but also by terrorists belonging to several other organisations such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, Hijbul Mujahideen apart from others. Reports said Pakistans intelligence agency, the ISI, had called for cooperation between all terror groups to carry out attacks in India during this meeting. Security forces patrol the air force base in Pathankot on Saturday after terrorists launched an attack on it in the early hours Reports suggest that the terrorists belonged to Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and all the five terrorists, who attacked the airbase, had entered India from Gurdaspur border for the pre-dawn attack. They are believed to have infiltrated into India during the intervening night of December 30-31 from a spot near Bamiyal village in Pathankot, close to the International Border. The terrorists, official sources said, crossed over near Shakargarh in Pakistan to Bamiyal village and later changed into army fatigues before kidnapping Superintendent of Police Salwinder Singh. Sources also confirmed that the five terrorists were suicide bombers and were armed to teeth. They were laced with heavy explosives and global positioning systems (GPS) and other latest communication equipment. Security forces recovered AK-47s, hand grenades apart from a large cache of ammunition from the killed militants. Also, intelligence sources confirmed that the attack had already been planned when Prime Minister Narendra Modi made his surprise visit to Lahore a week ago. In what could be a major embarrassment to Pakistan, the terrorists are residents of Bahawalpur in Pakistan. Reports also said they had received training for this attack in last six months. The purpose of the terrorists was to destroy the fighter aircraft stationed in the technical area. Due to effective preparation and coordinated efforts by all the security agencies, the group of terrorists was detected by aerial surveillance platforms as soon as they entered the air force station at Pathankot. On January 1, National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval had alerted the Indian Air Force, National Security Guard and the Punjab Police about the possibility of terror attacks. Following the alert, Western Air Command chief Air Marshal SB Deo reached Pathankot Air Base on Friday night itself to take stock of security preparations. The terrorists, who carried out the attack in Pathankot, were in regular touch with their Pakistani handlers. Sources said the handlers had been identified as Maulana Ashfaq Ahmed and Haji Abdul Shakur. They were associated with Al-Rahman trust. Maulana Mohammad Masood Azhar Alvi (Azhar) founded JeM in 2000 and is the head of Al Rahman Trust. He is also a former leader of the terrorist group Harakat-ul-Mujahideen, aka Harakat ul-Ansar; most of these groups members subsequently joined JeM. This is the second big terror attack in Punjab in less than a year. Last year, three militants had stormed a police station in Dinanagar. Modi rallies behind security forces Condeming the attack on Pathankot Air Base, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Indian security forces were capable of withstanding aggression and defending the country from any kind of enemy. I am proud of our security forces. I pay my respects to the soldiers, who laid down their lives while effectively dealing with these terrorists, Modi said in Mysuru, while addressing thousands of people, who had gathered for the centenary celebrations of Sri Shivaratri Rajendra Swami, the 23rd pontiff of the renowned Suttur Mutt in Mysuru. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said security forces were capable of withstanding aggression defending the nation from any enemy He pointed out that enemies of humanity were unable to digest Indias progress on all fronts. Today, such elements launched an attack on us. But our brave soldiers did not let these elements to succeed in their mission. I commend the efforts of the security forces, Modi added. Modi is on a two-day visit to Karnataka and will inaugurate the annual Indian Science Congress here on Sunday as part of his engagements that also include laying the foundation stone for a helicopter manufacturing facility of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited in Tumkuru district. Capital sounds high alter after air base strike In the wake of the terrorist attack on the Pathankot air base, security in Delhi and other neighbouring areas was stepped up on Saturday. Heavy police was deployed at places of high-footfall like markets, malls, airport, metro stations and bus terminals. Vigil was also heightened in several areas, including popular market places, in South Delhi, Central Delhi and the VIP movement zone in Lutyens Delhi. Security forces stand guard at India Gate in New Delhi on Saturday following the terrorist attack on the Pathankot air base Officiers of the Delhi Police said they were in constant touch with central intelligence agencies. PCR, patrolling force and police stations have been alerted and ordered to be extra vigilant. Senior police officers took stock of the situation and said they are fully prepared to provide foolproof security to avert any such incidents. Officials of the Crime Branch and Special Cell of Delhi Police have also been roped in and the security unit has been asked to form a strategy in connection with potential threats to VIPs in the national Capital, the official said. Local police have been asked to remain extra vigilant and SWAT and quick response teams have also been deployed in several parts of the city for quick response in emergency situations, the senior official added. Security was beefed up by the police forces of neighbouring Noida and Gurgaon. Anti-Terror Squad of Noida police also conducted a surprise check with dog and bomb squad at important locations. In the meantime, Punjab has been put on maximum alert, while security was also tightened in neighbouring Haryana and Chandigarh. Attack plan made before PM's Pakistan trip By AS DULAT The attack in Pathankot is extremely unfortunate in so far as whenever things look good between India and Pakistan something goes wrong. But I am also quite confident that just because of this the peace process between the two nations will not get derailed. Though the incident is condemnable, it should not necessarily be linked to Prime Minister Narendra Modis surprise visit to Nawaz Sharif in Lahore. Security forces hold a combing operation after six terrorists attacked the Pathankot Air Force base It is quite possible that this attack in Pathankot had been planned before the Prime Ministers Lahore visit. It could be so that the attacks have happened to derail the peace process as there obviously are spoilers, but what might suggest that it was planned before the visit is the fact that the terror strike has happened very quickly, within seven days. The second reason is that in the past such attacks which were perpetrated with the intent to mar relations between the two neighbours took place when visits were planned, but this time it was not planned. The great thing about Modis Lahore visit was that it took everybody by surprise and at that a pleasant one. At the same time, I think what is of more consequence to us and what we need to look into is that why it is happening in that corridor, first Gurdaspur and now Pathankot. Why Punjab because earlier it was happening along the Jammu border. Is it a continuation of the same or something new and fishy? It is the same corridor where it happened last time as Gurdaspur and Pathankot are close by. Why is Punjab looking bad? Punjab always worries me. There are various things in Punjab which have not looked so good. AS DULAT: Cooperation is necessary and is more fruitful as was shown in 2003-04 There is so much talk about smuggling and drugs and criminal activities. When Gurdaspur happened, there was a rumour that there was domestic support to the terrorists. Even if it was a rumour, it is a disturbing rumour. Last May, an incident happened in Gurdaspur in which some Shiv Sainiks were playing some game, an attack took place there and slogans for Khalistan were raised. All these things interconnected or is it just coincidence? Also, the attack has proved a trend in such attacks as for the past two-three years, terrorists have shifted to targeting military and police establishments. If one looks at Jammu and Kashmir, where there are two kinds of terrorism: one in Valley north of Pir Panjal and one in South in Jammu area. In South Pakistani people are less, but in the Valley more local boys are there and that is a matter of worry. Some Kashmiris have told me that they are training not in Pakistan, but in the Valley. On the other hand, we should not lend our ears to voices that say stop talking to Pakistan. India should take up the matter with Pakistan and the NSAs should talk about it when they meet. Here the problem is blame game of Pakistan where they would claim that the terrorists did not come from their soil which needs to stop. Cooperation is necessary and is more fruitful as was shown in 2003-04. India has a legitimate query and we must ask them: why are these terrorists coming to India. We also need to ask our security establishment as how could the terrorists sneak inside and how the lapse happened. While some quarters may indulge in mud-slinging and argue for stopping the peace process from both sides of the border, I got a call from Pakistan today from someone I cannot name, but who apologised for what happened today. So voices are strong for peace to take centre-stage and not get upstaged by terror. The battery of commandos and security personnel deployed to neutralise the terrorists who struck Pathankot Air Force station in the wee hours of Saturday failed to kill them all, even after a 48 hour combing and search operation. The Air Force and other security officers continued the operation throughout Saturday night. Locals said they were scared by the attack helicopters which continuously hovered over the Air Force Station, and flashed floodlights on it at midnight. Army trucks carrying military equipment arrive at the Pathankot air force base on January 3 The search and combing operation gained momentum after sunrise. A grenade blast was heard at 9am when the bomb disposal squad was busy diffusing the arms. One IED went off when the commandos were handling the body of a slain terrorist. A senior army officer was killed and four others were Injured in the blast. Four terrorists have been killed during the operation which is still on and will continue till we are sure that there are no more intruders at the Air Force station. Seven people have been martyred, one Garud, five DSC jawans and one NSG, AOC Pathankot JS Dhamoon said. Sources said the Army launched a final assault to neutralise two terrorists who were still alive and were engaging the security forces by firing shots. Heavy fire was exchanged between the terrorists and the forces till evening. The commandos even blew up a portion of the Army canteen where the terrorists took up position and attacked the security personnel. The terrorists continued to exchange fire even after the canteen was blown up. A thick black smoke cloud appeared from the centre of the station. The National Investigation Agency (NIA), mandated to probe terror cases, will register a case on Monday to probe the conspiracy of the Pakistan-based terrorist group, believed to be Jaish-e- Mohammed, behind the strike at the IAF base in Pathankot in Punjab. A team of NIA was at the spot on Saturday as per the standard operating procedure and on Sunday the Government decided to hand over the case to the NIA after taking concurrence from the Punjab government, official sources said. The mandate of the NIA probe will include entry of the militants into India, the killing of a taxi driver Ikagar Singh, the kidnapping of a Superintendent of Police-ranked officer of the Punjab Police, and entry into the IAF campus, the sources said. They said the investigators will also try and ascertain the conspiracy that was hatched on the Pakistani soil by the terrorists and if possible find out the state and non-state actors in that country. Advertisement The Pathankot terror attack has been blamed on the lackadaisical attitude of the Punjab police authorities, after they handled the credible information given by the Gurdaspur SP Salwinder Singh casually and failed to act in a timely manner. Two major security lapses and poor handling of the case left the road clear for the attackers and paved the way for the attack. The delay on the part of Punjab police and other agencies let the terrorists mastermind and execute the attack fearlessly and decisively. First, the police officials did not stop the abducted senior policemans vehicle at Kathlor police barrier located near Pathankot. Had the police stopped the vehicle the kidnappers might not have moved further. The second serious security lapse is the police vehicle, which the terrorists had abandoned near the Air Force Station. The vehicle was left without sanitising as no dog squad was called. Mistake "This was a grave mistake as sniffer dogs may have revealed their track and place of hiding. By doing so it was possible to neutralise the terrorists without the collateral damage," a senior Army officer said, requesting anonymity. Though the intercepted phone calls had alerted the security agencies and security was beefed up in and around the important Army installations, terrorists nonetheless managed to strike the Air Force Station. The security agencies failed to trace the whereabouts of terrorists for almost 15 hours when they were hiding somewhere in Pathankot before they attacked the Air Force Station. The agencies though intercepted their phone calls but failed to find out from where the calls were made. Location Tracing the location of the mobile phone was easy as the cellular operator can immediately tell the location of the tower from where the calls were made. Moreover the calls were made by using the policemans phone which was snatched when he was abducted, a source said. Sources even said that the terrorists were spotted during the air surveillance but were not neutralised immediately. As the security agencies probed the sequence of events that led to the unsuccessful attack aimed at fighters and helicopters, it has emerged that the terrorists had comfortably housed themselves within the IAF campus during the day, sources privy to the probe said on Sunday. The same cell tower was used for all the calls made by the terrorists from the mobile phone of Verma, a jeweller and friend of the police officer whose vehicle was hijacked in the afternoon of January 1, the sources said. The calls made from Verma's phone were routed through the same mobile phone tower throughout January 1 and the intervening night before the attack was launched, the sources said. The terrorists, after breaching the security of the IAF base, apparently hid themselves in the thick forest area of the campus, which has an area of around 1800 to 2000 acres. Officials termed it as a serious security breach which will be investigated only after the operation inside the campus is over and an all-clear signal was received from the IAF authorities. The IAF authorities have been asked to preserve the register of sentry duties of January one and a through questioning is expected once the operation is over, the sources said. Activists raise the Indian flag and hold anti-terrorism placards in protest over the terrorist attack at Pathankot Air Force base in Amritsar More forces Meanwhile, Punjabs Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal on Sunday told reporters that the state government was writing to the Government of India that BSF deployment should be increased on par with the neighbouring state of Jammu and Kashmir. We have to act as second line of defence. Immediately, we will have new police lines established in Pathankot, one commando batallion will also be set up here so that there is quick response (in the wake of major attacks). A special SWAT team will be stationed in Pathankot district so that there is quick response if any eventuality happens in the future so that we can take quick action, Badal said. In what could be a blow to Bollywood actor Salman Khan, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) on Sunday asked the actor to drop the name Khan Market from his shopping portal. Khan Market is an upscale market in the national Capital and was set up in 1951. It is considered to be among one of the most expensive retail locations in the country. CAIT shot up a communication to Salman urging him to withdraw the name of Khan Market from his web portal khanmarketonline.com, which he had announced on his birthday on December 27, 2015, the traders' body said a press release. Salmans khanmarketonline.com was unveiled on December 27, but has drawn criticism for its name The name of the actors portal may not only be construed as deceptive and misleading for traders but also affect consumers, it said, demanding that the name be changed to assuage the rights and feelings of the traders of Khan Market who have worked to earn goodwill for generations. Stating that Khan Market is in itself a brand, the CAIT said: A name by custom/practice/usage over a long period of time by a group of persons becomes an intellectual property right of that group of persons is an integral part of principle of natural justice. Accordingly, the first lien of using the name Khan Market lies with traders of Khan Market only. Following recent attacks by under-trial inmates, the Delhi Police now want all dreaded criminals to be handcuffed while they are taken to court. Moreover, after such criminals are arrested, the Delhi Police want investigating officers to handcuff them to secure their custody. A letter has been issued by the police commissioners office to all officers in this regard. The call to handcuff under-trials in transit comes after a constable was killed in a court shoot-out recently The move comes in the wake of a shooting in Karkardooma court last month in which a constable was killed and two others were injured. The IOs have been given the responsibility of informing the jail authorities and DCP battalion about the criminals past conduct, use of violence, propensity to escape, and the importance of under-trial prisoners to law and order. This is so that a secured transportation of the under-trial inmates is made by the third battalion of Delhi Armed Police, which is entrusted with transportation of prisoners between prisons and courts. After a Delhi Police constable was martyred recently in an incident, it has been decided that cops will explore every possibility to use handcuffs while transporting dangerous criminals. Also, if the IO feels that handcuffs should be used as precautionary measure, they should be used after following the prescribed procedure. However, no official is allowed to misuse it, an official of the rank of joint commissioner told Mail Today. According to sources, the police constable who died last week after being hit by three bullets in a shoot-out at the Karkardooma Court complex could have been saved if Chanu Pehelwan was handcuffed. The accused allegedly pulled the cop close to him to save himself while armed assailants fired at him. The Delhi Police has also clarified the standing orders prescribing the procedure to use handcuffs while escorting an under-trial inmate. With Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping set to exchange visits this year, the two nations are looking to upgrade their relationship and build a more robust architecture to manage ties which still remain complex, Indias outgoing envoy to China has said. Ambassador Ashok Kantha, who will complete his assignment in Beijing and retire on January 7, said 2016 would be very active. Xi will be in India for the BRICS Summit - his second visit in three years, unusual for a Chinese President - and Modi will visit China for the G20 meet in September, little over a year after his first visit. Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The pair are set to exchange visits this year. Kantha said both the countries will step up engagement, having recognised the need for dialogue of strategic character thats informal and fairly open. Ambassador Ashok Kantha will complete his assignment in Beijing and retire on January 7 National Security Adviser Ajit Doval will visit Beijing on January 5 and 6 for informal strategic consultations, and will hold meetings with Chinese State Councillor Yang Jiechi, who is also his counterpart as Special Representative on the boundary question, as well as Premier Li Keqiang. Kantha, who will be succeeded by another Mandarin-speaking career diplomat - Vijay Gokhale, Ambassador to Germany - said both sides had in the past couple of years, under new governments, stabilised relations, and upgraded our strategic template for engagement. This was underscored in two key understandings reached during Xis visit to India in September 2014 and Modis May 2015 visit to China, when the two nations agreed to take forward a closer developmental partnership, including a bigger role for Chinese investment in India, and to manage their simultaneous re-emergence in a mutually supportive manner keeping in mind each others interests and concerns. At the same time, the relationship was still complex, Kantha said. NC leader Omar Abdullah tweeted his best wishes after visiting the J&K CM NC leader Omar Abdullah was in Delhi and made it a point to visit AIIMS, where he enquired about J&K CM Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, who was hospitalised 10 days ago. Visited AIIMS to enquire about Mufti Sahibs health. Prayers for his speedy and complete recovery, Omar tweeted. Seventy-nine-year-old Sayeed, who was airlifted from Srinagar on December 24 and admitted to AIIMS, continues to be in the Intensive Care Unit of the hospital. Doctors attending to him said there was no change in his condition from Saturday. OROP correction A delegation of ex-servicemen met Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and submitted a memorandum seeking corrections in the One Rank One Pension (OROP) notification as their protest on the issue entered its 203rd day. A five-member delegation met the FM and told him that the actual OROP has not been implemented. The notification issued has serious flaws and we requested him for corrections and granting of the actual scheme as per the approved definitions, retired General Satbir Singh said. Political risks Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal said his government went ahead with the odd-even plan despite apprehensions that the move may have an adverse impact on the party's vote bank. Around one-and-a-half months ago when the odd-even plan was being deliberated upon, apprehensions were raised about the rolling out of the scheme, Delhis public will be so disappointed with us that we will lose the 2017 MCD election but the scheme was important as there was an urgent need to address the traffic and pollution problems, Kejriwal said. Congress smells a rat The Congress has accused the Modi government of subverting investigations against the Naveen Patnaik government in chit-fund and mining scams in Odisha to get the BJDs support in Parliament, and sought Supreme Court-monitored probes into the cases. Former Union minister Jairam Ramesh alleged that a deal was struck between the BJD supremo and Prime Minister Narendra Modi at their secret meeting after which CBI slowed down its probe in the chit-fund scam. Shaky Pakistan policy Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad said it was not the time to attack the government over its handling of the Pathankot terror attacks, and added that there was a need to question the governments inconsistent Pakistan policy. If you werent shivering from bone-chilling cold this Christmas in Delhi, theres a good reason. The Capital experienced its warmest December in four years in 2015. It was also the driest, with not even one chill-inducing rainy day. December saw the least number of dense foggy days in at least five years, leading to fewer flight and train disruptions. January is expected to follow in the hot-weather pattern, say Indian Meteorological Department officials. Notably, this is in sync with the global El Nino phenomenon, which has caused Montreal in Canada to see a record 16 Celsius-warm Christmas this time. This made the winter wonderland comparable with Kuwait in the Gulf at 13 Celsius. The lack of rain in the Capital has also contributed to the rising temperatures The North Pole, for the first time in human history, saw temperatures above zero that caused puddles in its ice-sheets. Meanwhile London has spring-time daffodils in bloom already, leaving the English worried. El Nino, in weather parlance, refers to the Pacific Ocean warming up, spiking the mercury in the USA and Canada. It is believed to be so strong this time that it is affecting the entire globe. The crown of India, which is traditionally bejeweled with shining snow at this time, is also relatively muggy. In Shimla, the temperature is up by one degree Celsius on average. Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir and Uttarakhand have seen no snowfall yet, leaving tourists upset. In Delhi, weather experts blamed the balmy winter on both world, regional and local reasons. BP Yadav, director, the India Meteorological Department (IMD), told Mail Today: We have been analysing our daily data and have already established that September, October and November 2015 were the warmest in India till date. We will be ready with December figures in the next three to four days. We suspect it may be one of the warmest in known history. Among the regional causes is a missing Western Disturbance (WD). WD is the extra-tropical storm which develops over the Mediterranean Sea and brings moisture-laden winds to northwest India. It leads to snowfall in the Himalayas and rainfall in Delhi. Rains play a key role in intensifying winters, he explained. Skymet Weather Services Pvt Ltd attributes it to an anti-cyclonic circulation over Rajasthan which is bringing dry winds from the desert area. Delhi normally witnesses 9.4 mm of rain during December. But it has only seen traces so far. In contrast with the 18 dense fog days the Capital in December 2014, the past month has seen only one - December 12. Last year the stock market recorded its worst annual performance for four years and few market watchers are under the illusion that 2016 will be an easy ride. The FTSE 100 index of Britains biggest quoted companies is likely to remain under pressure, at least in the first few months, as so many large stocks are in the beleaguered commodity and oil sectors. The more domestically oriented FTSE 250 index may fare better, but there is still a lot of uncertainty about economic prospects in the UK and on the Continent, while prolonged debate about EU membership could well unsettle market sentiment. Against this backdrop, Midas has chosen three tips for 2016. Allied Minds is working with top American universities such as Harvard and Yale 1. ALLIED MINDS Allied Minds acquires great ideas from US government departments, such as the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security, and top universities, such as Harvard and Yale. The group then turns these ideas into early-stage commercial companies. American colleges and the US government spend about $150billion (101billion) a year on research and churn out several thousand new technologies. Having spent more than a decade developing relationships with the military and leading universities in America, Allied Minds has first sight of many of these technologies and every year chooses a select few with the potential to become profitable firms. The group, which has a market value of 862million, has 23 companies in its portfolio, several of which could be worth hundreds of millions of pounds in their own right. Allied Minds shares are 407p and should gain ground this year as its most advanced businesses show their mettle. These include Optio Labs, which uses cyber security technology developed for the US government and adapts it for mobile phones and laptops. To date, concerns about internet security have focused on computers, but mobiles are highly susceptible to hacking too. Optio Labs technology protects phones from hackers. It also uses facial recognition techniques to protect laptops from prying eyes, automatically obscuring the computer screen as soon as the user walks away from it. The company is already generating revenue and is expected to float in two or three years time at a significant valuation. Then there is Federated Wireless, which takes spare 5G capacity from the US Department of Defense and uses it to make mobile phones work better in buildings and crowded cities. Mobile spectrum is in short supply in parts of the US as it is in the UK but the military has its own stock, which can be effectively rented out to the private sector when the government does not need it. Federated is working with partners such as Google, phone giant Verizon and chip maker AMD to create mobiles that have this technology embedded into them and should be launching these devices at the end of this year. Allied has two more businesses that could soon become substantial money-spinners: Spin Transfer Technologies and SciFluor. Spin Transfer has developed a way for computers and mobiles to store data more efficiently so they use less power. SciFluor is adapting research from Harvard University to fluorinate drugs, making them safer and more effective. The company is developing an eye-drop treatment for age-related macular degeneration, a retinal disease that gradually turns people blind. This is a 4billion market, so SciFluor could become a very big company indeed. Midas verdict: Allied Minds floated in June 2014 at 190p and soared to more than 700p within a couple of months. The shares drifted back subsequently, but were hit hard last September when a US hedge fund published a damning report on the business.Reassuringly, major investors, including fund manager Neil Woodford, remain enthusiastic about the company. At 400p, the shares have considerable potential. Buy. 2. ELEGANT HOTELS Summer dream: Profits have soared at Elegant Hotels Sunny outlook for spruced-up resorts Elegant Hotels owns five fashionable hotels and Daphnes, a chic beachfront eatery frequented by the famous, all on the island of Barbados. The company floated on AIM last May at 100p, since when the shares have risen to 115p. But chief executive Sunil Chatrani is determined to expand the business and the stock should rise as he achieves his ambitions. Elegants hotels had suffered from underinvestment and so were rundown. The group undertook a thorough refurbishment programme, increasing the estates appeal to holidaymakers. The strategy worked well and profits have soared since Chatrani, chairman of the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association, joined in 2010. Now he aims to generate more revenues by promoting Barbados as a summer destination as well as a winter one. At the same time, the group is looking for acquisitions. Chatrani aims to double the size of Elegant in the next three years and deliver decent dividends along the way. Midas verdict: Chatrani has made huge strides and should be able to do more as the firm expands. The summer market also offers potential. Buy. 3. TELFORD HOMES Demand: Telfords Vibe development in Dalston, East London High-rise profits are on the cards for housebuilder with 1.5bn land bank Telford Homes is a London property developer with a difference. Rather than focusing on sites in Central London and the City, it focuses on Inner London areas just outside the prime locations, where costs are lower and demand is immense. The shares are 391p and should increase materially over the next few years. Telford builds 600 to 700 homes a year, usually flats, but chief executive Jon Di-Stefano hopes to double that by 2020, taking advantage of a chronic shortage of affordable homes. Such is Di-Stefanos confidence that the company raised 50million in October via a 360p-a-share equity placing to help fund future growth. Di-Stefano, an auditor by training, joined as finance director in 2002 and was promoted to the top in 2011. Over the years, his team has developed relationships across the capital, helping them to penetrate complex planning laws and gain permission to build. The groups land bank is valued at 1.5billion, most of which has planning consent, and the rest is expected to obtain consent soon. To mitigate the risks associated with holding large swathes of land, Telford forward sells properties whenever it can, and has done so with homes worth 700million. Last month, the group revealed a more than doubling of pre-tax profits to 21million for the six months to the end of September and a 27 per cent increase in the interim dividend to 6.5p. Brokers expect full-year profits to rise by 27 per cent to 30.9million with a total dividend of 13.6p. Beleaguered British steel makers fear the Governments support for Chinas attempt to be granted market economy status by the European Union will render them defenceless within weeks. Steel makers, who are against such a move, fear the European Commission will grant China limited market economy status but offer protection for some industries against it using its economic weight unfairly. We could be offered protection which turns out not to be worth a great deal in the long term, said Gareth Stace, director of UK Steel, which represents steel makers. Closures: British steel makers have faced a year of devastation If China is successful it would mean that the EU accepts that the government in Beijing no longer plays a role in the countrys industry. As a result the EU would no longer be able to impose tariffs on goods from China if it was found that they had been dumped at below market prices. The European Commission, which is expected to make a decision as early as next month, is regarded as being increasingly sympathetic towards China. The UK is a strong supporter of the Chinese move although other countries including Italy are not. The granting of market economy status would make it more difficult for the US to impose tariffs on Chinese products and its government has warned that approval of the application would mean the EU would be unilaterally disarming its trade defences. British steel makers have faced a year of devastation following the closure of SSI UKs plant in Redcar with the loss of thousands of jobs. In addition, employees were lost at Tata Steel and the workforce at Caparo was also slashed. Steel companies and unions are united in blaming Chinese firms for dumping cheap steel on their markets. The Government and the EU have come under fire for not reacting quickly enough to the threat. The UK steel industry which fears the Governments support for China will see the EU bow to its demands to be recognised as a market economy has forged an alliance with steel giants across Europe in an attempt to block the move. Companies and unions have criticised China for providing state support to its steel makers which sharply increased their exports to Britain and the EU last year. The most recent figures show that the UK imported 687,000 tons of steel from China in 2014 compared with 303,000 tons the year before. Vigilantes: MailOnline has spoken to a network of former military personnel, known as the Walter Mitty Hunters, who operate through Facebook to expose those who falsely claim to be in the Armed Forces Operating anonymously, contacting each other only through Facebook, a secret network of former military personnel is at work. Their mission is simple: expose those who fraudulently claim to have fought for their country. Deceptions range from a fantasist SAS hero who boasted of working as Princess Diana's bodyguard to a supposed Falklands veteran and even those who falsely claim to be dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Known as the Walter Mitty Hunters Club, the small group of experts bring extensive experience from across the Armed Forces. And with a growing following of more than 45,000 people on Facebook, awareness of their work is on the rise. Even NHS boob scrounger Josie Cunningham has been outed by the vigilantes. She claimed she enlisted in the Royal Navy at the age of 16 and was touted as a future warfare specialist, before falling pregnant and leaving a year later. The 'hunters' have evidence which suggests otherwise. The group's name comes from the fictional fantasist character at the heart of James Thurbers 1941 short story. A daydreamer who longed to escape from his mundane existence, timid middle-aged accountant Walter Mitty would picture himself as a brilliant surgeon, wartime pilot and brave soldier. But what he could scarcely have imagined was that one day he would become an everyday metaphor for those of a similar character and later adopted into British military slang. In an interview with MailOnline, one anonymous 'Walter Mitty hunter said the group now gets between 20 and 30 Walt tip-offs each weekend. Some are love rats who have deceived women with their alleged service history. Others do it for financial gain, boasting of their fictitious past to promote a business. But perhaps the hardest pill to swallow for many genuine veterans is the number of Walts who are conning charities by pretending to be PTSD sufferers. Aim: The group's mission is simple - to expose those who fraudulently claim to have fought for their country Named and shamed: One man caught out by the 'hunters' was Beau Plantard (left). He claimed he was an SAS hero so he could lure women into bed. The group also creates 'wanted' posters for those it exposes (right) Fraud: Plantard even had a tattoo of Parachute Regiment-style wings emblazoned across his shoulder blade When asked about such cases, the anonymous hunter told MailOnline: We've come across quite a few who claim to have PTSD from serving in war zones by recounting stories they've heard or read about in books or from listening to real vets. Then you have the worst kind. Once caught they claim PTSD, which is becoming more common, attempting to use it as an excuse and for sympathy. They are not only compounding the deceit, but stigmatising a symptom that real vets find hard to admit to themselves, let alone the public. LOVE RAT 'WAR HERO' WAS AN ELECTRICIAN WHO LIVED WITH MUM Love rat Brian Dall was exposed by the 'hunters' Brian Dall is just one example of a fantasist caught falsely saying he had served his country. He claimed he was a Parachute Regiment sergeant who had saved lives in Iraq and Afghanistan. Actually, he was an unemployed electrician who lived with his mother. Dall, of Ludgershall, Wiltshire, was found to have seduced up to 50 women by posing as a war hero Para. He met women in internet chatrooms and dressed in full combat uniform when he arrived for dates with them. Advertisement Among the Walts exposed are a conman who pretended to raise money for a dying girl and a fantasist who claimed he was an SAS hero who worked as Princess Dianas bodyguard. The latter, Beau Plantard, 49, who also goes by the name John Pugh, used a web of lies to lure women into bed. He pretended he was a veteran paratrooper who had once been asked to assist with the rescue of the schoolgirls kidnapped in Nigeria by Boko Haram. Meanwhile, Martin Heaver was jailed for six months when it came to light he had been asking people to sponsor a series of skydives to raise money for a fictitious desperately ill five-year-old girl. The then 46-year-old posed as a war hero and even bought a paratrooper T-shirt and beret from eBay in order to give his lies more credibility. He claimed he wanted to raise enough cash to make the girl's dying wish to meet Mickey Mouse at Walt Disney World in Florida come true. But the girl never existed and Heaver pocketed between 900 and 1,000 from around 100 unwitting members of the public. Speaking about why Walt behaviour is infuriating, the hunter replied: It's an insult to all those who have worked hard, felt the pain and, in some cases, lost people close to them the people actually doing the things the Walter Mittys like to boast about. When asked why people do it, the hunter replied: Mostly it amounts to attention seeking, wanting the glory and kudos they could not attain themselves - enjoying the attention and admiration from an unknowing public and in most cases the free pints bought for them from grateful people for the job they are allowing them to think they do. Some do it for financial gain conning people into signing up to fitness boot camps and survival weekends with claims of having passed the notoriously hard P Company, or using so-called experience as a Royal Marine. One conned the Hollywood film industry with claims of serving in the British secretive undercover unit known as The Det. Then there are those who attempt to con service charities for free hand-outs. This in turn drains precious resources from those charities as they now have to go through quite stringent checks to make sure money is going to genuine ex-servicemen and women. Deceived: Mark Izzard's doting wife Tracey (pictured together) died of cancer believing her 'veteran' husband was a war hero. In reality, her children later discovered he was nothing more than a fantasist lorry driver Fiction: To perpetuate the lie he posed for 'official' photographs in a fancy dress beret while gripping a BB gun and even claimed this was a photograph of him 'looking fed up in Kuwait' when he posted it on Facebook Lies: The phony continued his lie online, posting photographs of troops that he pretended were him - including one of a Para named Lee Crichton jumping from a plane - with the caption: 'Me flying on first HALO jump' 'ROYAL BODYGUARD' WOMANISER Love rat: An ex-girlfriend of Beau Plantard broke up with him after rumbling his SAS hero charade Beau Plantard, 49, who also goes by the name John Pugh, claimed he was an SAS hero who worked as Princess Diana's bodyguard so he could lure women into bed. He pretended he was a veteran paratrooper who had once been asked to assist with the rescue of the schoolgirls kidnapped in Nigeria by Boko Haram. Plantard would play friends videos which apparently showed him jumping out of planes and even had a tattoo of Parachute Regiment-style wings emblazoned across his shoulder blade, with the word 'airborne' inked above. But the Walter Mitty-style character, from Blockley, Gloucestershire, had actually served as a private in the Royal Artillery. In August, one of his ex-girlfriends also claimed he was a serial love rat, who began dating her while he was still in a relationship with his partner of 17 years. Second World War historian Amy Jelfs, 36, who dated Plantard for five months, said she broke up with the ex-serviceman after rumbling his charade, branding him 'disrespectful'. Advertisement NHS BOOB SCROUNGER'S NAVY FIB Extension of the truth: Josie Cunningham said the Royal Navy wanted her to be a warfare specialist Wannabe glamour model Josie Cunningham, who sparked outrage by boasting that she had her breasts increased from a 32A to 36DD courtesy of the NHS, was exposed by the Walter Mitty Hunters Group after claiming to have worked as a warfare specialist in the Royal Navy. She listed it as a former occupation and said she only left after falling pregnant at the age of 17, a year after joining. The group said there was no record of her, to which she reportedly told them it was classified under the Official Secrets Act. More recently Cunningham told The Sun she had applied to the Navy and that she impressed her bosses so much they wanted her to be in charge of weapons. She said: I did so well the Navy wanted me to be a warfare specialist, which would have involved being in charge of the big weapons on the front of the ship and the coordinates. I also passed the fitness test with flying colours. It had been my dream to join the Navy. I wanted to sail round the world, see amazing places and be on a beautiful ship. Advertisement Then there are those who attempt to con service charities for free hand-outs. This in turn drains precious resources from those charities as they now have to go through quite stringent checks to make sure money is going to genuine ex-servicemen and women. But all have one thing in common, he adds. They have lied and deceived people, sometimes the very people close to them wives, girlfriends, sons and daughters. After a receiving a tip-off, the group gets to work. When it comes to exposing someone there are two types of Walter Mittys: Bloaters and Cumpers. The former is a term for those who have served but go on to fabricate their service history to make it sound more interesting, while the latter was named after the first ever Walter Mitty of the Year, Tony Cumper. BUILDING A BUSINESS OFF HIS LIES Empty boasts: Richard Lee was never in Marines Richard Lee, then 31, was exposed last year after it emerged he was never in the military despite having launched a worldwide endurance race on his reputation as a former Royal Marine. He had boasted of serving with the Royal Marines mountain troop as he built the Spartan Race series into a multi-million international business. But the former 26,000-a-year Kings School Ely pupil later resigned from his job as UK director of the company when it emerged he never wore the green beret. Advertisement TV SAS MAN WHO NEVER TRIED OUT TV fraud: Bob Spour built his career off SAS claims Bob Spour, a TV regular, radio presenter and magazine columnist from the Birmingham area, built up a business empire bragging about his service in the SAS. But he was later exposed as a fake who never even attempted Special Forces selection. Spour claimed to have seen action in the Falklands War, Northern Ireland and South America while serving with G Squadron between 1977 and 1984. He actually spent two years as a regular infantry trooper. Advertisement A Cumper is someone who has never fought for their country, the hunter explains, but will make all sorts of claims based on books they have read or stories they have heard. We ask for several pieces of evidence before we fully commit to an investigation, the anonymous member goes on to say when asked about what happens following a tip-off. Normally screenshots of pictures from the suspects page along with their claims under the picture. The admin team, which comprises a broad spectrum of all three of the Armed Forces, convene a conference on a closed group in order to weed out the less serious cases and those deemed with any obvious mental health issues. Caught out: Beau Plantard, who also goes by John Pugh, issued an apology after being exposed online Once an investigation starts we screenshot everything and search pages they [the suspected Walts] like for comments made, particularly on pages dedicated to the Armed Forces. We then search the WWW or Osint "Open-Source Intelligence. For an example, when we investigated Antony Church the Oxford town crier we only needed to search the London Gazette as he had claimed he was awarded the BEM and MBE. Had he been awarded them then these would have been listed in the Gazette. He also claimed to be a veteran of the Falklands War and so awarded the South Atlantic Medal. A check via our contacts at SAMA 82 showed, like the London Gazette, his name was nowhere to be found. We then use several means to cross-reference everything via contacts still in the Armed Forces to make sure we're 100 per cent accurate. As the hunter has explained, many of the cases brought to the groups attention feature those who have deceived wives and girlfriends. If the suspect is a serial love rat who's taken women for a ride and conned money out of them by using the forces as a backdrop to their story to gain sympathy, then we will set up a honey trap, he says. Once we have profiled the sort of girl the suspect goes for the honey trap will join the page the suspect likes and start up a conversion. Nine times out of ten it goes to a private conversation. THE CANCER LIE PARA FUNDRAISER 'Despicable': Jailed father-of-four Martin Heaver Father-of-four Martin Heaver, from Grantham, Lincolnshire, was jailed for six months in March 2013 after pretending to raise money for a dying five-year-old girl who did not exist. Sentencing him, Judge Sean Morris described Heaver's acts as despicable'. He said: 'You conned people into believing you were raising money for a little girl to send her to Florida to see Mickey Mouse, presumably, before she passed away. 'I can't think of anything as low as that. During the period of his deceit Heaver pocketed between 900 and 1,000 from around 100 unwitting members of the public. Advertisement BOGUS SAS GOVERNMENT ADVISER Dreamer: Bogus SAS veteran James Shortt James Shortt was exposed as a bogus SAS veteran who was used to advise on Cabinet Office security. In his 50s when he was outed, Shortt had boasted about having served with elite military units across the world. But despite being pictured wearing berets of the SAS and the Paras he belonged to neither. In fact, he was a medic in the Territorial Army who left within months. Shortts exposure in 2009 created a storm when it emerged he was allowed access to the highly sensitive government building to advise on Cabinet Office security. Advertisement The chat normally starts off with "I cant tell you about what I do as its secret" then ten minutes into the conversation they go on to tell how they were the second man on the balcony of the Iranian embassy or have killed over 200 men after free falling from 58,000ft into the sea. We have heard some right whoopers! It is at this point a suspect is confronted by the group. The hunter adds: Once we have everything and are satisfied, we contact the individual and ask them why they have lied about serving. Some become quite aggressive claiming we have breached the Data Protection Act and Official Secrets Act. Only problem with that defence is they have no official data in those units or the Armed Forces in general, so nothing is breached! Those who claim to be ex-SAS normally inform us we wont find anything on them as their records are classified and are either held in a secret vault or were destroyed on the orders of the Queen, which is just pure fantasy. Some will use bits of paper they have printed off their computer or certificates they have bought off eBay to convince us we have got it wrong. ARMY FANTASIST'S PHONY CAREER Exposed: Military historian John Jack Livesey To friends and colleagues, John Jack Livesey was a military man who had served his country with distinction in the Paras and had been awarded a medal for gallantry. But despite the then 57-year-old claiming in 2011 to have served with the Parachute Regiment, seen action in the Falklands War and undertaken six tours of Northern Ireland, a investigation revealed his Army career amounted to a short stint in the Catering Corps. Livesey, of Purley-on-Thames, near Reading in Berkshire, later admitted inventing a fantasy world. He was investigated by police after producing false references following a conviction for benefit fraud in 2004. Livesey was subsequently jailed for three years for perverting the course of justice. Advertisement FAKE FALKLANDS PARATROOPER Liar: Jim McAuley quit his military job in disgrace Jim McAuley boasted of being part of the SAS team that stormed the Iranian Embassy in 1980 and a paratrooper at the bloody battle of Goose Green in the Falklands War. He had also served in Iraq and Afghanistan and claimed to have killed more than 100 men, he said. And just to convince doubters, he posed for a photograph wearing the paras' famous maroon beret and wings. In truth, the closest McAuley had come to frontline troops was preparing their meals as an Army cook. His lies were exposed when he was caught in a honeytrap by a veteran posing as a female research student. McAuley subsequently resigned in disgrace from his most recent military post - as a cadet instructor at Fulwood Barracks in Preston - and issued a grovelling apology to all the real heroes he may have upset. Advertisement Only problem is that with over 45,000 club members made up of mostly serving and ex-serving members of the Armed Forces its easy to establish fact from fiction. When caught out, a Walt has 24 hours to acknowledge their deceit and issue an apology. If they fail to do so, the dossier compiled against them is published on the Walter Mitty Hunters Group Facebook page. Such methods of public exposure - and the way the hunters go about gathering evidence - have been criticised as excessive by some, but the group maintains it is hard but fair. The anonymous member said: As far as taking it too far, we do nothing more than any normal tabloid does. Someone lies, we investigate and get all the facts. We then present these facts to the individual. Only difference is, we give them a chance to avoid the full exposure. He added: The only people who ever complain are mainly those exposed or relatives of those who find it hard to believe. They unusually cry bully or witch hunt on us. 'WOUNDED PARA' WHO DECEIVED ROYAL BRITISH LEGION MEMBERS Misled: David Reeve (right) fooled RBL veterans David Reeve convinced his wife and veterans from the Royal British Legion, who invited him to sell poppies with them and march alongside them at a Remembrance Sunday parade, that he was a wounded ex-Para. In reality, although Mr Reeve signed up for the Parachute Regiment in 1997, he served just eight months before being discharged due to ill health with stress fractures in his legs. He then continued to claim he was a former Para and trained sniper who had served on top secret missions. Mr Reeve, from Hyde, Greater Manchester, was applauded as he hobbled on crutches alongside Royal British Legion members at his local Remembrance Day march. He apologised for his actions but was branded heartless by members of the towns RBL branch. Advertisement LORRY DRIVER WHO LET CANCER-STRICKEN WIFE DIE BELIEVING LIES Mark Izzard lied to his partner Tracey for 15 years that he was a British war hero. She died believing it In November it emerged a doting wife had gone to her grave believing her 'veteran' husband Mark Izzard was a British war hero. In reality, her children later discovered he was nothing more than a fantasist lorry driver. Izzard lied to partner Tracey for 15 years that he'd fought for his country in Iraq and had his knee obliterated in battle. To perpetuate the lie he posed for 'official' photographs in a fancy dress beret while gripping a BB gun - and even sent himself letters through the post confirming his discharge from the SAS, which he asked his wife to open, as he manufactured an entirely fictional past for almost two decades. She fell for every word he said, and died of cancer three years ago content she'd spent the best years of her life married to a decorated military hero. Advertisement One was happy to pull the wool over ex-servicemen and march with them during a Remembrance Day parade along with rank, SAS wings and medals he had not earned, gaining lots of praise and attention. Yet once exposed he was not happy with the attention. When asked about the reactions of the Walts when theyre exposed, the hunter said: Some know of our reputation due to watching the page like a hawk and are quick to apologise, knowing we only expose when we have all the facts. We give them 24 hours to think about what they have been doing. This action prevents a full exposure. Some are in complete denial to the facts due to doing it for years, even when the evidence is overwhelming. Others tried to ride it out [by] making empty legal threats to the club, hoping we would back down. A Utah teenagers fight for survival can be heard in newly released 911 calls after he spent 28 hours outside in four-degree weather. Brayden Neilson, 14, went missing after separating from his friend on a hunting trip last Saturday. He accidentally walked further into the wilderness instead of towards the car and spent the night in the marshes of Ogden Bay. According to ABC News, in one of the newly released 911 calls, the Bluffdale native can be heard saying: 'I don't feel good. I feel like I'm gonna pass out.' As the teen tried to guide rescue crews to his location with the help of the 911 dispatcher, the desperation can be heard in his voice. Scroll down for video Brayden Neilson (pictured in hospital), 14, of Bluffdale, Utah was missing last Saturday and spent the night in four-degree weather before he was found on Sunday morning, officials said Brayden had gotten separated from his family friend who he had been hunting with in the area before he got lost (search teams shown above) The last photo the teen took on his phone before he went missing was a selfie on the app Snapchat (pictured) that showed the temperature at the time was 19 degrees The dispatcher can be heard asking him if he was still by a barn during another 911 call. 'It's not a barn, it's hard to explain,' Neilson answered. 'I see snow branches lights cars.' Roughly nine hours after his initial 911 call, he was finally found around 6am Sunday. At the time of his rescue, he was found with signs of hypothermia and was also possibly hallucinating from exhaustion, ABC News reported. 'I really thought I should have been dead,' Neilson later told ABC News. 'I saw two pairs of headlights. I started walking to them. 'I think God led me that whole way through, all the way through there and I think he found me some help.' Throughout the night, Brayden had apparently walked from the area where they had been hunting, Ogden Bay Bird Refuge, to the Antelope Island causeway in Syracuse, about 11 miles from where he had gone missing, officials said. Brayden told ABC News that the experience taught him the importance of carrying survival gear while going out His mother, Shannon Neilson, said after her son was found that she was in disbelief because 'literally they were five minutes away from turning into a body recovery mission.' Brayden, who is now home after recovering from hypothermia and frostbite, had been hunting with a family friend in the marshes of Ogden Bay since about 2am last Saturday, Weber County Sheriff's Office Search and Rescue said. Shortly before 9pm, deputies were called by the 21-year-old friend who said the pair had become separated and that Brayden could not find his way back to their truck. 'Sounds like they were making their way back to the vehicle, and they had gotten separated,' Lieutenant Lane Findlay told FOX 13. The last photo the teen took on his phone before he went missing was a selfie on the app Snapchat that showed the temperature at the time was 19 degrees, according to ABC 7. The photo was captioned with 'Waiting for Dom tk (sic) pick me up'. Police said Brayden made a couple of 911 calls as emergency crews arrived at the scene. Based on the information he was providing, authorities said the missing boy appeared to possibly be disoriented. Deputies also said that given the extremely cold conditions that there was also concern that he could be suffering from hypothermia. Authorities began searching the area before a sleigh with some supplies belonging to Brayden were located several hours into the search, according to deputies. However, the boy was still not located. Brayden had apparently walked from the area where they had been hunting, Ogden Bay Bird Refuge, to the Antelope Island causeway in Syracuse, about 11 miles from where he had gone missing, officials said Around 1am on Sunday, Brayden called his grandfather, Don Nielsen, from his cellphone saying that he would be home in five minutes. However, the teen was not aware that he was actually almost 50 miles from his Bluffdale home, according to FOX 13. Following that call, Brayden had attempted to place a call to one of his grandmothers but the call was disconnected when she answered the phone, the family told ABC News. Search teams attempted to ping his phone to get Brayden's location but his exact location could not be determined, which was likely the result of his phone battery going dead, authorities said. Authorities began searching the area before a sleigh with some supplies belonging to Brayden were located several hours into the search, according to deputies His mother said following the ordeal that if anyone could have survived the incident, it would be Brayden According to his brother, Eric Neilson, Brayden had taken his gloves off and his hands were blue, ABC 7 reported. 'We were in the single-digits out here, so it was pretty cold, and probably colder out by the lake,' Sgt. Josh Gard told ABC News. His mother said following the ordeal that if anyone could have survived the incident, it would be Brayden. 'My son, to know him, he is a strong-willed, strong-headed young man. If anybody could survive it, it would have probably been him,' she told ABC News. 'My other kids probably would not have survived it.' Weber County Sheriff's Office thanked everyone who was involved in the search. A casino croupier has been arrested after stealing thousands of pounds worth of gaming chips by hiding them in his socks. The scam, which had been going on for several months, involved the croupier dropping the chips into a false pocket in his trousers, which was connected to his socks via a tube. The croupier, a Romanian, then passed the chips to a female accomplice described as a beautiful Eastern European on a fire escape during his cigarette break. As the poker game takes place the thief manages to conceal some of the in-play chips in his hand It is thought another friend visited the casino a few days later posing as a customer to cash in the chips. Although it is unclear exactly how much the man stole from the Cromwell Mint casino in South Kensington, West London, police are believed to have found 12,000 cash when they searched his flat. The casino is owned by Genting, a Malaysian corporation that also runs Britains oldest private gaming club, Crockfords, founded in 1828, in nearby Mayfair. Bosses at the Cromwell Mint began to suspect the croupier was stealing while he was working at a gaming table and monitored his behaviour. One evening last month they arranged for him to be searched by security staff before he had the opportunity to hand over the chips to his accomplice. A casino source said: The chips literally fell out of him as he stood outside in the street. He even had some secreted in his socks. A graphic reveals how the stolen chips were dropped into the sock via a secret tube, pictured, Police were called and cautioned the man who is understood to have earned about 30,000 a year, plus tips but no charges were made, according to the source. The casino source added: He was sacked on the spot, but was extremely lucky to get away without being charged. Because of the number of cameras trained on casino staff, it is rare for croupiers to attempt to steal chips. The last recorded case in Britain was six years ago, when Wayne Wagner was caught stuffing chips into his sock while working at the Grosvenor Victoria Casino in Central London. Wagner, who maintained the ruse for six years, was found to have been pocketing up to 1,000 a month before he was caught. He was jailed for 15 months after he admitting stealing 69,000. In 2006, casino boss Paul Kennedy was jailed for 20 months for stealing 1,000 in gambling chips every day for four years. It is unclear exactly how much was stolen from the Cromwell Mint Casino in West London, pictured Kennedy, then 41, was caught after a croupier saw him slipping a 25 chip into his back pocket at the Stanley Casino in Portsmouth. Police found he had been hiding them in a toilet cubicle for his accomplice, David Ho, 51, to collect. Last month, three British gamblers were jailed in Monaco for a lucrative scam in which they made 2.69 million in just a year. The trios method was to cash in fake 1,000 chips mixed alongside real ones at the Monte Carlo casino. However, the fraud was eventually spotted on CCTV and the police were called in. Last night, Genting declined to comment on the theft from the Cromwell Mint. Church leaders from Africa and Asia are threatening to walk out of a crucial meeting chaired by the Archbishop of Canterbury unless American bishops drop their support for gay marriage. Archbishop Justin Welby last year invited the leaders of the worldwide Anglican Church to the summit in Canterbury next week in a make or break effort to avert a permanent split over homosexuality. The row has torn the Church apart for a decade with conservatives accusing liberals of abandoning the word of God by backing openly gay bishops and marriages for gay couples and the Archbishop wants to broker a deal to allow both sides to co-exist peacefully. Archbishop Justin Welby last year invited the leaders of the worldwide Anglican Church to the summit in Canterbury next week in a make or break effort to avert a permanent split over homosexuality But insiders said a hardcore of eight to 12 conservative archbishops from Africa and Asia are preparing to quit the meeting on the first morning unless the liberal Americans repent or the Archbishop throws them out. In what would be a massive challenge to Archbishop Welbys authority, the conservatives, who represent some of the biggest of the 38 individual Churches in the worldwide Communion, are then likely move to their own headquarters nearby for the rest of the meeting. While they are unlikely immediately to break their historic ties with the Archbishop of Canterbury the nominal head of the Communion they would boycott future official meetings and set up a parallel church, drawing away traditionalists from the Church of England. The Mail on Sunday has learned that feelings are running so high that the three most powerful leaders, the Archbishops of Nigeria, Kenya and Uganda, were last week on the brink of snubbing the meeting altogether, but were persuaded to attend by colleagues still hoping to force concessions from Welby. Sources said they have lost patience with the Archbishops refusal to discipline the liberals for ignoring official policy urging them to refrain from creating gay bishops or approving gay marriage without widespread agreement. Insiders said a hardcore of eight to 12 conservative archbishops from Africa and Asia are preparing to quit the meeting on the first morning unless the liberal Americans repent or the Archbishop throws them out But liberal leaders have said Archbishop Welby has assured them that no one will be expelled from the meeting. The Archbishop will instead propose that the Communion becomes a more loosely linked federation to keep everyone in the family which aides have compared to moving into separate bedrooms rather than full-scale divorce. The bitter divisions led Archbishop Welby to postpone last years Lambeth Conference, the regular gathering of all Anglican bishops from around the world that has been held nearly every decade, except during the two world wars, since the 1860s. The last, in 2008, was boycotted by key conservatives furious with the liberal American Church for consecrating an openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson, in 2003. The Americans accuse conservatives of fostering homophobic attitudes. A New York City woman has spoken out about the moment she was was saved by a 25-year-old man who was crushed to death on New Year's Eve moments after he pushed the woman out of a broken elevator. Stephen Hewett-Brown, 25, shoved Erude Sanchez to safety and reportedly wished her a 'Happy New Year' after he saw the elevator had stalled and was about to fall down the shaft of the 26-story building on Manhattan's Lower East Side. 'The elevator was going up when it came to a halt on the third floor,' Sanchez, 43, told NY1 through a translator. 'At that moment, the elevator started to move and the man held the door so I was able to go out from there.' 'He asked a guy who was there for help and that guy tried to take him out,' she added. Erude Sanchez, 43, has spoken out to tell the story of the moment her life was saved from a stalled elevator in New York City Sanchez (left), ten-year-old Enyel Peguero (center) and 23-year-old Manuel Coronado were in the elevator with Stephen Hewett-Brown when the structure stalled Hewett-Brown, 25, shoved Sanchez to safety and reportedly wished her a 'Happy New Year' after he saw the elevator had stalled and was about to fall down the shaft The elevator (pictured above) then fell down the shaft of the 26-story building on Manhattan's Lower East Side Police examine the mechanics of the malfunctioning elevator that stalled just before midnight on New Years Eve But moments later Hewett-Brown, who was thought to be attending a party in the building, was killed as he got stuck between the stalled lift and a door around 11.30pm. It is thought the lift started moving as he tried to make his own escape. Manuel Coronado, who was visiting his grandmother who lives in the building, told the New York Daily News the victim was shouting 'I can't breathe' as the elevator crushed him. He said: 'I tried to help the guy but he was between the elevator and the building door. 'He was saying "I can't breathe". I tried to pull him up but he said "leave me here".' He added that the man pushed Sanchez to safety after she tried to enter the lift. Moments after shoving Sanchez from elevator, Hewett-Brown, who was thought to be attending a party in the building, was killed as he got stuck between the stalled lift and a door around 11.30pm Coronado, who was visiting his grandmother who lives in the building, said that Hewett-Brown was shouting 'I can't breathe' as the elevator crushed him. He was taken to the hospital but later died 'She started going in, but the elevator started going down and he pushed her out,' Coronado said, translating for the Spanish-speaking woman. 'He said 'Happy New Year' and pushed her out.' Hewett-Brown's mother told the New York Daily News: ''I'm grieving my son'. The New York Police Department said the victim was unconscious, suffering from severe body trauma, when officers arrived shortly after midnight. He later died at the hospital. A police spokesman said he had no information on the exact circumstances of Hewett-Brown's death, but the department says no criminality is suspected. Hewett-Brown is not believed to have lived at 131 Broome Street in Manhattan. The city Buildings Department was investigating the accident. It came after a string of complaints and violation notices over the years about the Broome Street high-rise's three elevators, Buildings Department records show. The building on Broome Street in Manhattan's Lower East Side where Hewett-Brown died on New Year's Eve has 26 storys Public records show that there had been seven complaints about malfunctioning elevators in the building in 2015. There were three active violations in 2014. Pictured above, Peguero and Sanchez describe the horrifying ordeal Coronado (left) tried to save Hewett-Brownm but he was unsuccessful. Peguero (right) appeared distressed after the elevator accident They indicate it was inspected as recently as September and that a violation notice concerning the up-and-down lights was unresolved as of Thursday. 'The elevators were a problem and needed to be fixed,' former Tenants Association President Dashia Imperiale told WABC-TV, saying the lifts sometimes lurch up and down. But another resident, Zin Halcomb, told the station he felt the building was well-maintained. Messages left for the property manager weren't immediately returned Friday. Meanwhile, a friend of the victim's, Ejiro Omenih, was absorbing the news of his death and the accounts of his life-saving actions. 'I feel that that alone shows his character,' Omenih told WABC-TV. He said Hewlett-Brown was an aspiring musician who played piano and performed hip-hop and soul. Brown's mother told the Daily News the family declined to comment. Police officers stand in the lobby of the Broome Street apartment while investigating the scene in which Hewett-Brown died Morgan Trowland (right) and Marcus Carambola (left) caused two days of traffic chaos after climbing up the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge which links the M25 between Essex and Kent. The pair of Just Stop Oil supporters, who suspended themselves 275ft above one of the busiest roads in the country on Monday morning, were brought down yesterday afternoon after a 'super cherry picker' arrived to pluck them from the girders (inset). They came down after agreeing to co-operate with officers and descended as the 'specialised raised platform' arrived on the bridge. They were then arrested, much to the joy of motorists, on suspicion of conspiracy to commit public nuisance and the road over the bridge has now reopened. It has now been revealed that both the men responsible for the traffic misery heaped on thousands of motorists hail from New Zealand and are veterans of climate and environmental protests in the UK. Carambola, who lives in London, last year spent more than 50 days living in a 120-year-old tree in a bid to stop it being cut down by the local council in Haringay, north London. The 33-year-old, who works as a musician and teacher, filmed himself singing redemption song before he was arrested yesterday and has previously said he is 'privileged' that his job allows him 'some flexibility' to take part in protests. Meanwhile, Trowland, who describes himself as a civil engineer, has been in court multiple times for law-breaking at climate demonstrations in the past and has bragged about his contributions to protests held by groups such as Extinction Rebellion (XR). The 39-year-old, who also lives in the capital, said he was 'not willing to sit back and watch everything I love burn for the rest of my life' in a selfie video from on top of the bridge. The mayor of a city south of Mexico's capital was shot to death on Saturday, less than a day after taking office, officials said. Four gunmen burst into the house of Mayor Gisela Mota, 33, in the city of Temixco - which is in disputed drug territory about 60 miles south of Mexico City - and killed her, said the government of Morelos state, where Temixco is located. Local police later arrested two alleged attackers, while killing two others, according to a statement issued by the Morelos attorney general's office. The alleged attackers have not been named. Several mayors were killed last year in Mexico, where armed gangs financed by the drugs trade control many local communities. Scroll down for video Mayor Gisela Mota, 33, was murdered by four gunmen in her home in the city of Temixco, Morelos, on Saturday Mota was killed just a day after being sworn in as mayor of Temixco in the Mexican state of Morelos, which is a disputed drug-cartel territory Two of Mota's alleged attackers, who have not been named but are pictured above, were captured by police. The other two alleged gunmen were killed by police Temixco is in disputed drug territory that more than one cartel has activity in, but its state of Morelos shares a border with drug cartel-plagued Guerrero state. Officials attributed her killing to organized crime. There was a police presence at Mota's home for several hours after the 7am killing occurred, according to Diario de Morelos. Temixco is a city of about 100,000 people neighboring Cuernavaca, a resort and industrial city which has been suffering kidnappings and extortion linked to organized crime groups. Though Cuernavaca is the state capital of Morelos, Temixco is the seat of several state institutions including the Public Security Commission, which coordinates state and local police forces. Mota's leftist Democratic Revolution Party released a statement describing her as 'a strong and brave woman who on taking office as mayor, declared that her fight against crime would be frontal and direct'. Mota, who had been a federal congresswoman, was sworn into office on New Year's Day. She was killed the following day. Mota is not the first mayor and government workers to be killed allegedly by organized crime. Residents of Mota's neighborhood react and look on after hearing news of the newly elected mayor's murder Moto's neighbors embrace after hearing the news of Mota's death as they walk past the crime scene where the shooting occurred Police officers (right) and a forensic technician (left) stand outside Mota's home as they investigate the murder In March, the body of mayoral candidate AideNava Gonzalez was found on the outskirts of Oxtotitlan, the town she was hoping to represent. Her head was decapitated and 'narcomanta' was written on a sheet covering her body, which was a drug gang message, according to the New York Daily News. Her husband - a former mayor - had been murdered and her son abducted by criminal gangs, according to The Telegraph. Her son, who was abducted in 2014, was never found. Jerecuaro's mayor-elect was killed in the state of Guanajuato in June of last year. Morelos Gov Graco Ramirez vowed there 'would be no impunity' in her killing and promised that state officials would not cede to the challenge presented by organized crime. He called Mota a 'young and beloved companion' and said he would not be intimidated by her death. Federal and state forces are deployed in Cuernavaca and municipalities near the Guerrero state border in what is called 'Operation Delta'. Forensic investigators inspect a car outside the home where Mota was killed, just hours after she was elected mayor A month ago climbing guide Stuart Jason Halloway was giving advice to inexperienced mountain climbers on social media, eerily warning them that 'there are no style points for being dead'. On New Years Day his body was found alongside his wife Dale Amanda Thistlethwaite after the safety conscious couple fell a 'considerable distance' to their deaths, landing at the bottom of a steep face on Mt Silberhorn, west of Christchurch, on New Zealand's South Island. The pair, from Melbourne, were found roped together but did not appear to be attached to the mountain, a mistake Mr Halloway said accounted for around 85 deaths in the area. 'Falls of parties that are roped together but not connected to the mountain, which is a really bad idea on anything but lowering into glaciers are common and have accounted for more than 85 deaths in the park,' he warned. Scroll down for video Stuart Jason Halloway(right) was found alongside his wife Dale Amanda Thistlethwaite(left) after the couple fell a 'considerable distance' to their deaths, landing at the bottom of a steep face on Mt Silberhorn The couple, who ran a climbing company called Vertical World Mountain Guiding, uploaded 24 videos to their Vimeo account in the last three years, some of the happy couple skiing atop mountains, others where Mr Halloway discussed important safety tips. 'Don't join the people who fell just after they commented on the steepness,' he said. 'There are no style points for being dead so instead of fancy flat-footing, face in and run down the slope,' he added in one of his most recent videos. Mid-South Canterbury area Commander Inspector Dave Gaskin said the pair fell very close to where they were camping, with an ice axe was lodged in the mountain face around 700 metres above where they were found, the New Zealand Herald reported. Mr Halloway (left), 42, and Ms Thistlethwaite (right), 35, from Melbourne, were climbing near the top of a mountain in New Zealand when they fell The couple ran a climbing company called Vertical World Mountain Guiding They uploaded 24 videos to their Vimeo account in the last three years, some of the happy couple skiing atop mountains, others where Mr Halloway discussed important safety tips The couple who had been married for seven years were found roped together but did not appear to be attached to the mountain Mr Halloway said this mistake accounted for around 85 deaths in the area and had described as 'a really bad idea' unless lowering into glaciers 'They're both roped together so one may have fallen and then pulled the other or they may both have fallen together. We can't figure that out at this stage,' Gaskin said. He said it took rescuers more than two hours to recover their bodies after they waited for melting ice to settle on the 3,300 metre high mountain, which is the country's seventh highest peak. Their deaths have been referred to the coroner. The couple had not been heard from since December 28 and had been travelling and climbing around New Zealand since the beginning of December. Mr Halloway, 42, and Ms Thistlethwaite, 35, were two of the most experienced mountain climbers in Australia and remained active in the Melbourne University Mountaineering Club, with Mr Halloway specialising in ice-climbing. In a statement released by the Melbourne University Mountaineering Club the couple were described as 'two great friends and mentors'. It took rescuers more than two hours to recover their bodies after they waited for melting ice to settle on the 3,300 metre high mountain, which is the country's seventh highest peak The couple had not been heard from since December 28 and had been travelling and climbing around New Zealand since the beginning of December 'They're both roped together so one may have fallen and then pulled the other or they may both have fallen together,' Inspector Dave Gaskin said (Picture of unknown climber from Mr Halloway's safety video) Mr Halloway and Ms Thistlethwaite were two of the most experienced mountain climbers in Australia (Picture of unknown climber from Mr Halloway's safety video) They remained active in the Melbourne University Mountaineering Club, with Mr Halloway specialising in ice-climbing (Picture of unknown climber from Mr Halloway's safety video) 'Dale and Stu we will sorely miss you,' it added. Others paid tribute to the Melbourne couple, with former mountain guide Marty Beare describing them as 'tremendous people', the Sydney Morning Herald reported. Mr Beare said that Mr Halloway had been 'full of life, full of joy and generally the energiser bunny in the group.' 'He was very keen to share his knowledge with other people. 'If you want to be a good mountain guide, you have to be like a sheep dog, you have to look out for other people, and that's what Stu was, he was always caring about other people,' he added. Just a few days before Mr Halloway and Ms Thistlethwaite's death, a 29-year-old Melbourne woman fell 300m in the same national park while climbing near the peak of Footstool Mountain. A helicopter rushed Nicola Anne Andrews to a hospital but she died from her injuries. In a statement released by the Melbourne University Mountaineering Club the couple were described as 'two great friends and mentors' (Picture of unknown climber from Mr Halloway's safety video) Donald Trump has launched his first Twitter tirade of the New Year by hitting out at political rivals Jeb Bush and Hillary and Bill Clinton. Trump picked up where he left off with his attacks on Bush by branding him 'a low energy 'stiff' and saying he is 'a total embarrassment to both himself and his family.' The current Republican frontrunner leveled the same criticism against likely Democrat nominee Clinton, saying she 'doesn't have the strength or stamina to be president'. Scroll down for video Donald Trump has launched his first Twitter attack of 2016, picking up where he left off last year by blasting Jeb Bush as 'low energy' and saying Hillary Clinton doesn't have the 'strength or stamina' to be President Trump savaged Bush to his 5.5million Twitter followers earlier today after the fellow Republican presidential candidate announced more money for attack ads against Trump Turning on Hillary's husband, Trump added: 'I hope Bill Clinton starts talking about women's issues so that voters can see what a hypocrite he is and how Hillary abused those women!' The tweets attacking Bill come as the former President prepares to appear on the campaign trail for Hillary for the first time on Monday at an event in New Hampshire. The billionaire businessman also took the opportunity to remind followers that he is self-funding his campaign, bragging that his is not beholden to vested interests like his rivals. The flurry of tweets from Trump, coming in two or three-message bursts across ten hours this afternoon, is typical of the campaign strategy that served him so well last year. The former reality-TV star currently has a little over 5.5million followers, more than ten times the amount that follow Bush on 410,000, and half a million more than Hillary. Throughout last year, Trump used that following to great effect, dispatching political rivals, singing his own praises, and attacking news organisations that ran damaging stories on him. While Trump spent more time attacking his fellow Republicans in 2015, that could be set to change this year, as he turns his sights on likely Democractic nominee Hillary Taking aim at both Hillary and husband Bill, Trump attacked the former President over allegations of sexual abuse that have dogged him over the years, and accused Hillary of being complicit in them While Bill stayed away from Hillary's campaign events last year, he is expected to take a more prominent role in 2016 and is scheduled to appear at an event in New Hampshire on Monday Megyn Kelly, an enemy of Trump since the first Republican debate after she challenged him over his past comments on women, was the target of his ire 66 times in 2015. According to analysis from Politico, Kelly was more of a target for Trump than Hillary, who was only mentioned in 65 of the business mogul's 3,249 tweets and retweets in the last 12 months. Jeb tops the list of Trump's targets, being mentioned a grand total of 97 times, not including the messages that were sent out today, which bring that number into triple-figures. While Jeb ceased to threaten Trump's campaign in the polls a long time ago, currently polling at 6 per cent compared to Trump's 39 per cent, according to Ipsos/Reuters, Trump has kept up his assault on Bush. That could be because Bush has tried to position himself as the common-sense alternative to Trump, branding him a 'chaos candidate' in the last debate, and mocking him as 'not serious'. In his tweets today, Trump referenced Bush's spending on attack ads against him, giving an indication on why he is keeping his own verbal assaults going. Since savaging Hillary, Bill and Jeb, Trump has continued to tweet about his campaign event in Mississippi tonight, referencing the 'massive' and 'overflowing' crowd waiting for him. Trump used his Twitter account to devastating effect last year, attacking Bush a total of 97 times, far more than Hillary whose name only featured in his messages 65 times This afternoon Trump also used his feed to remind followers of the fact that he is self-funding his campaign, further promoting his political-outsider image More than criticisms of political rivals or news outlets, one of Trump's favorite topics in 2015 was his own rallies and the number of people attending. Combined, Trump sent 125 messages to his followers talking up the number of people attending his rallies and his high TV ratings. Curiously absent from Trump's Twitter feed is any reference to the video released by Al-Shabaab yesterday, in which the terror group use footage from one of his rallies as recruiting material. In the film, aimed at recruiting disillusioned black youths to radical Islam, deceased terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki can be seen in old footage predicting that the West will turn on its Muslim population. In the middle of his speech, the Somali group's media arm al-Kataib has inserted a clip of Trump 'calling for a complete and total shutdown of Muslims coming into the United States'. Sir Ian Kennedy, chairman of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, pictured, has warned there could be further cuts to MPs expenses, particularly around second homes MPs could be forced to live in student-style halls of residence under new plans to crack down on their second-home expenses. They face the humiliation of having to surrender their rented flats and slum it in special accommodation blocks. The plans come amid concerns that some MPs get an unfair personal benefit from having their rent paid for the whole year even though the Commons sits only for around 230 days a year. MPs with constituencies outside London received more than 6.6 million in 2014-15 for flat rental, hotels and associated costs. But the idea of special serviced blocks, now being considered by watchdog the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA), has sparked fury from MPs who claim the expenses system cannot be cut back any further. Following the 2009 expenses scandal, MPs who need a second home in London are banned from being able to make mortgage claims on the properties. They are now restricted to claiming for rent at up to 20,600 a year or staying in hotels at a maximum rate of 150 a night. But now IPSA has launched a review of the arrangements amid concerns that the taxman thinks MPs could be getting too much out of the deal. It comes after chairman Sir Ian Kennedy and the rest of the watchdogs board were warned there are a number of examples of spending which are still considered by the public and in some cases by HMRC as constituting a personal benefit to the MP. According to the minutes of an IPSA board meeting, the main area of expenses still viewed equivocally was the funding of accommodation costs for MPs whose constituencies were outside the London area but who needed a base in the capital. It continued: This is particularly the case given that many MPs rent a property in London, retaining it throughout the year when Parliament only sits for circa 230 days of the year. The expenses body, which is loathed by many MPs, acknowledged the accommodation issue was a high risk and sensitive area of the parliamentarians allowances. And it listed among the options the idea of MPs being housed in special serviced accommodation dubbed halls of residence by critics. One MP said last night: What they really mean is forcing us to slum it in university-style blocks which would be completely unacceptable. 'What are they going to do? Segregate us into different blocks according to party colours: Camerons lot in Tory Towers and Corbyns camp at Labour Lubyanka? Separately, senior Tory Charles Walker dismissed the idea of special residential blocks for MPs as unworkable and a security risk. Tory MP Charles Walker, pictured, branded the 'special block' plan 'a security risk' and 'unworkable' Mr Walker, who sits on the Speakers panel on IPSA, added: The suggestion that MPs are somehow deriving a personal benefit from being separated from their families for 200 days a year is ridiculous. He claimed there was no further scope for paring back accommodation arrangements for MPs. Other options raised by IPSA include retaining the current arrangements but cutting the overall budget or even folding the accommodation allowance into MPs 74,000 annual salaries. Last night, the watchdog stressed it first had to work out whether any of the options would result in substantial savings for the taxpayer. A spokesman said: IPSA wants MPs to be able to stay in London and their constituencies, to do their jobs in two locations, and to deliver good value for money for taxpayers. Protest: Hospitals are bracing themselves for a series of strikes by junior doctors after Government sources said industrial action is now certain following the breakdown of talks. Above, a junior doctor at a demo over pay and conditions last year Hospitals across England are bracing themselves for a series of paralysing strikes by junior doctors after Government sources said industrial action is now certain following the breakdown of talks over pay and working hours. Some 45,000 junior doctors medics below consultant grade are set to stage their first day of industrial action in just ten days. More strikes are highly likely to follow. Neither the British Medical Association nor the Government has yet made a formal announcement, as officially talks between the two sides are still continuing. They will resume behind the closed doors of arbitration service ACAS tomorrow. But a well-placed Government source said after three weeks of negotiations in the run-up to Christmas, the talks were effectively over. The dispute centres on junior doctors pay. Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt wants to raise their basic salaries by 11 per cent on average but also cut extra payments for working weekday evenings and Saturdays, dubbed unsocial hours. Doctors fear the changes will result in an overall cut to their take-home pay. Mr Hunt also wants to stop them getting automatic pay rises every year, instead only boosting a medics pay packet when he or she takes on more responsibility. The BMA says this will unfairly penalise women who take time out to have children. Just before Christmas junior doctors leader Dr Johann Malawana wrote to BMA members indicating talks were grinding to a halt. While significant ground had been made, he said there were still a couple of absolute areas of disagreement. He added: Should we not be able to reach an acceptable outcome by 4pm on January 4, the BMA will need to commence serving notice as per its mandate, to the NHS, for industrial action the following week. The letter annoyed Government officials, who saw it as an unhelpful running commentary on negotiations. Unless major concessions are made at a crunch meeting tomorrow which appears highly unlikely the BMA will issue its statement outlining strike action. The source said: We now fully expect the dispute to go to strikes. Row: Some 45,000 junior doctors medics below consultant grade are set to stage their first day of industrial action in just ten days. Above, three medics march in October over Government plans to introduce a new contract Before Christmas, hopes had been raised that strikes could be averted, when the BMA agreed to last-minute talks with negotiators from the Department of Health and NHS Employers. It led to three strike days in December being called off. The first day of industrial action on Wednesday, January 13 is likely to see junior doctors providing patients with only emergency care. However, if the BMAs December plans are to be repeated, there will be two subsequent strike days when junior doctors refuse to work at all. A Department of Health spokeswoman said: We are prepared to talk about anything within the pay envelope as long as we improve patient safety by moving towards a seven-day NHS. Nurses are being flown from Belfast hospitals at vast public expense to cover staff shortages at weekends in hospitals across England. They are paid up to triple their normal hourly rate to work at hospitals desperate to hit NHS targets, The Mail on Sunday has learned. The nurses are picked up by taxi from the airport when they arrive, put up in luxury hotels and given a generous allowance for meals all paid for by the taxpayer. A source said each nurse is paid up to 600 for two shifts but the extra costs take the total charge to well over 1,000. High cost: Nurses are being flown from Belfast hospitals to cover weekend shifts during staff shortages, at a cost of around 1,000 each for every two shifts (file image) All of the nurses are recruited by a private agency that is making millions from the NHS by finding specialist staff to help meet waiting-time targets. All the nurses are full-time NHS employees at Belfast hospitals. After a full weeks work, they catch a Friday evening flight to London, Birmingham or Tyneside, where they work on Saturdays and Sundays. Last night, the TaxPayers Alliance said the public would be staggered at the sums spent flying nurses around the UK, while the Royal College of Nursing raised safety concerns about excessive hours. One of the most popular working weekends involves a 360-mile round trip from Northern Ireland to Sunderland. The source said: Roughly ten to 12 nurses take up the offer of extra work every week and have been doing so for some time. They are all staff nurses, some of them specialists, from the Belfast Royal Victoria and the Belfast City Hospital. In recent months, they have been working mainly at Sunderland Royal Hospital, where many provide cover in the endoscopy unit. Standard endoscopy nurses, who are in short supply across England, earn between 22,286 and 28,180 a year, equal to between 11.37 and 14.41 an hour. But they get about 40 an hour for their weekend work. Taxpayers will be staggered at the amount being spent on jetting these nurses around the UK every week. Jonathan Isaby, chief executive of the TaxPayers Alliance The source said the nurses were paid up to 600 to work two weekend shifts and also receive a generous meals allowance that some pocket, rather than buy expensive dinners. They are put up at the four-star Sunderland Marriott hotel, where rooms cost 84 to 169 a night. Return flights with easyJet are typically 70 to 80. All costs are met by recruitment agency Medinet, a Wales-based business that describes itself as the leading company working alongside the NHS to guarantee that waiting time targets are achieved. It is understood to have several seven-figure contracts to supply specialist nurses and consultant doctors to work in hospitals across the UK. The contract with City Hospitals Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust is thought to be worth more than 1.5 million a year. NHS Lothian in Scotland paid it more than 10 million between 2010 and 2014. Medinet, with revenues of about 17 million, has benefited from growing pressure to hit NHS waiting-time targets for tests and operations, and from the drive to improve cancer survival rates one reason why endoscopy nurses, who check for throat, stomach and some types of bowel cancer, are in high demand. Expensive: A source said the nurses were paid up to 600 to work two weekend shifts and also receive a generous meals allowance that some pocket, rather than buy expensive dinners (file image) Jonathan Isaby, chief executive of the TaxPayers Alliance, said: Taxpayers will be staggered at the amount being spent on jetting these nurses around the UK every week. Expensive agency staff should only be used by NHS trusts when absolutely necessary, not as a matter of course. This represents a wasteful allocation of resources. The Royal College of Nursing said it was important that nobody is working excessive hours, adding: The only long-term solution to short staffing is to train and develop enough nurses. NHS working hours are limited to 48 a week under the European Working Time Directive, but individuals can sign away that right. City Hospitals Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust said it needed outside help to meet waiting times and ensure patients are seen quickly. Belfast Health and Social Care Trust said it was aware a number of its employees choose to work for private-sector health-care providers and that the nurses must ensure this work does not impact on their core contract. Medinet operations manager James Warnock said: Medinet was awarded the contract to support endoscopy services at Sunderland Royal Hospital following a competitive tender process. A special campaign to clean up Britain in time for the Queens 90th birthday is to name and shame the 12 filthiest places in the country. The Clean For The Queen campaign is hoping to mobilise more than a million volunteers to tidy up towns and villages throughout the UK before Her Majesty celebrates her special day on April 21. And as part of that process, Britons are today asked to identify 12 grot spots in need of an overhaul, with an announcement of the nominees from across the UK to be made in the next few weeks. A special campaign to clean up Britain in time for the Queens 90th birthday is to name and shame the 12 filthiest places in the country. Above, a bin overflows in London The campaigns director, Adrian Evans, who was Pageant Master for the Queens Diamond Jubilee in 2012, said: If we manage to achieve our aim, it will be without doubt the biggest litter campaign the world has ever seen. And the campaign will pledge to clean up the dirty dozen in time for Her Majestys 90th birthday. What better present could we all give her than a clean country? Yesterday it emerged that the Government is to support the drive for a cleaner Britain with proposals to double the fines for litter louts to 150. Mr Evans said: We want to hear from anyone who is disgusted by a spot in their city, town, village, road sides or countryside. The Clean For The Queen campaign is hoping to mobilise more than a million volunteers to tidy up towns and villages throughout the UK before Her Majesty celebrates her special day on April 21 T-shirts encourage Britons to join the 'world's biggest litter pick' and to clean up for Her Majesty Vacuum your villages, spruce up your cities, de-litter your landscape. We want to hear from you. Television presenter Kirstie Allsopp, best known for Channel 4 property show Location, Location, Location, is also backing the campaign to find the dozen dirtiest areas. ENGINEERS 'SECOND ONLY TO GOD' SAYS PRINCE PHILIP Prince Philip yesterday slammed the curious absence of a Nobel Prize for engineers, saying they will play a key role in determining the future of the world. The 94-year-old Prince told Radio 4s Today programme that everything that wasnt invented by God was invented by an engineer. He said they would decide how a booming global population could be accommodated while protecting the natural environment. He said a skint Britain relied on its technological ability to rebuild after the Second World War. In the interview with the programmes guest editor, former BP boss Lord Browne, he said his passion for engineering began when he was a naval officer surrounded by engineering on warships. After the war, he said, we were completely skint, seriously badly damaged, and the only way we were going to recover a sort of viability was through engineering. In 1976, Prince Philip helped create the Fellowship of Engineering, now the Royal Academy of Engineering, which promotes excellence in the field. JONATHAN PETRE Advertisement She said: I know all too well from my travels around the country that there are places that could do with some TLC. I would urge everyone to get involved with Clean For The Queen and, if there is a grot spot that you think needs tidying up, nominate it for clean-up. The campaign has been backed by the Government and national organisations including Keep Britain Tidy, Keep Scotland Beautiful, Keep Wales Tidy and Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful. It is also supported by the RSPB, the Womens Institute and Clean Up Britain. Yesterday Environment Minister Rory Stewart said: Her Majesty the Queen is an inspiration to all of us. Everyone has a responsibility to keep their community tidy and this campaign provides us with a great chance to protect our wildlife and improve the quality of our streets and public spaces. I hope it will help lead to a lasting legacy of a cleaner, tidier Britain. Melissa Murdoch, trustee of the Garfield Weston Foundation, which is also giving its backing to the campaign, said: Picking up litter feels good. And doing it for the Queen feels even better. The great clean-up is planned for the first weekend in March. To nominate your grot spot and register your support for Clean For The Queen, go to cleanforthequeen.co.uk, which also has advice and tips. Wildlife conservationists linked to Oxford University are staging a raffle with the chance to kill a lion as first prize. The extraordinary offer has been condemned by campaigners as sickening and appalling. But the professional hunter who will lead the winner on safari insists that the prize is open to non-hunters and that the winner can opt against shooting the lion. Extraordinary: Wildlife conservationists linked to Oxford University are staging a raffle with the chance to kill a lion as first prize (file photo) Alternative: Martin Nel, who will lead the winner on safari, insists that the prize is open to non-hunters and that the winner can opt against shooting the lion (file photo) The Bubye Valley Conservancy in Zimbabwe, whose owners include Charles Davy, father of Prince Harry's former girlfriend Chelsy, is offering the chance to 'win a lion' on its website, selling 100 raffle tickets at $1,500 (1,015) each. It even provides links to a taxidermist who can arrange shipping of the dead animal. The winner will be drawn next month at the Safari Club International Convention in Las Vegas, which bills itself as the 'ultimate hunters' market'. The raffle follows outrage last year at the killing of Cecil the lion in Zimbabwe. And the conservationists offering the prize work closely with Oxford University academics who have tracked Cecil's pride for seven years. Oxford's Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU) received donations of 785,000 after Cecil's death called a 'scurrilous killing' by its chief Professor David Macdonald. Hunter: Walter Palmer (left), who killed Cecil the lion, is an avid big game hunter who has killed dozens of animals. Here he is pictured posing with a different slain lion Emerging from hiding: Dentist who killed Cecil the Lion finally returned to work after six weeks of protests and death threats following the revelation The Bubye Valley Conservancy team is led by two of Prof Macdonald's proteges Dr Byron du Preez and PhD student Paul Trethowan. They were attacked by campaigners last night. Dr Pieter Kat, of charity LionAid, said: 'We are shocked and appalled by this lion trophy raffle from WildCRU's close associates. 'The generosity of public donations was given to WildCRU to protect lions like Cecil and I hope Oxford University will use monies given in good faith to protect lions from future trophy hunting, which has no benefit to the conservation of a species in catastrophic decline.' And Conservative MP David Jones, who has lobbied against lion trophy imports, said: 'This is shocking and Oxford University should be distancing itself from this immediately. Events such as this are sickening.' Prized: Cecil the lion (pictured) rests in Hwange National Park, in Hwange, Zimbabwe. His death last year was met with international outrage Last night, Prof Macdonald said: 'This initiative is nothing to do with me and I have heard nothing about it until now. 'I would not personally accept funds to my unit based on raffling a lion hunt, but what the Bubye Valley Conservancy decides to do is completely up to them.' He said he will continue to use data obtained from the 850,000-acre reserve, where lions had disappeared by 1999 but now number 400. Neither Dr Du Preez nor Mr Trethowan was available for comment last night. But Martin Nel, who is due to lead the hunt, said the raffle was open to everyone whether or not they wanted to kill the lion. Donald Trump has defended his call to ban all Muslims from emigrating to the United States after a clip of him announcing the policy was used in a terrorist recruiting video. In an interview with CBS's Face The Nation Trump refused to back down from his comments, telling Jon Dickerson: 'I have to say what I have to say.' Yesterday Somali terror group Al-Shabaab published a video in which the deceased Anwar al-Awlaki can be seen in old footage warning that the West will turn on its Muslim citizens. Donald Trump has continued to defend his call to ban Muslims from the United States despite a clip of him announcing the policy being used in a terrorist recruitment video Speaking to Jon Dickerson on Face The Nation, Trump insisted that 'other people' have agreed with his view, without giving any more details, before adding: 'I have to say what I have to say' In the middle of the footage, the terror group's media arm al-Kataib has spliced footage of Trump at a South Carolina announcing 'a complete and total shutdown of Muslims coming to the U.S.' The film cuts back to Awlaki, who says: 'My advice to you is this. You have two choices, either hejira or jihad, you either leave or fight. 'You leave and live among Muslims or you stay behind and follow the example of Nidal Hassan and others who fulfilled their duty of fighting for Allah's cause.' Nidal Malik Hasan, a member of the U.S. Army, killed 13 people and injured 30 others in a mass shooting at the Fort Hood military base just days before he was due to deploy to Afghanistan. In the footage, released yesterday, deceased terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki (pictured) can be seen warning that the West will eventually turn on its Muslim population, before Trump is heard calling for the ban Further defending his comments, Trump said: 'Look, there is a problem, I bring it up. 'Other people have called me and they say you have got guts to bring it up because frankly it is true but nobody wants to get involved and now people are getting involved. PROFILE: AL-SHABAAB Area of operations: Based in Somalia, but has carried out attacks in Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia Ideology: Born out of Taliban training camps in Afghanistan, the group aims to topple the Somali government and establish an emirate enforcing strict Sharia laws Tactics: Using a mixture of IEDs, gunmen and suicide bombers, the group has attacked government workers, journalists, peace activists, and the general public to cause instability in the region Strength: Between 7,000 and 9,000 fighters Major attacks: In September 2013, gunmen from the group attacked the Westgate mall in Nairobi, Kenya, going floor to floor and executing shoppers where they found them. In total, 68 people died and 175 were wounded In April this year, more gunmen attacked Garissa University College, a military school in Kenya, asking students their religion before shooting non-Muslims dead. They killed 147 children before armed forces stopped them Source: Stanford University Advertisement 'People who are on a different persuasion than me are saying maybe Trump is right, we want to examine it.' Trump also suggested that jihadist recruiters have used other political figures in their recruitment videos, though did not provide specific examples. The current Republican frontrunner has claimed several times that other people including his 'Muslim friends' agree with his policy, though has again failed to provide specific examples. In the wake of Trump's policy announcement, which came in early December, Hillary Clinton and others warned that his divisive rhetoric was playing into the hands of terror groups such as Al-Shabaab, its affiliate Al Qaeda, and others like ISIS. Clinton even went as far as to brand trump 'ISIS' best recruiter', adding: 'They [terrorists] are going to people showing them videos of Donald Trump insulting Islam and Muslims in order to recruit more radical jihadists.' In other parts of the video, Al Shabaab shows images of black teenagers shot by police officers such as Michael Brown and Walter Scott. Presenting Islam as a 'colorblind' religion, recruiters appeal to the black community to join radical Islam and carry out attacks on the West. Included are clips from prominent black rights campaigners such as Malcom X, who preached a philosophy of armed rebellion against what he saw as systemic racism in America in the Sixties and Seventies. The video also features images of American teenagers who have left the United States to join Al-Shabaab in its fight against the government in Somalia. At a rally in South Carolina in December, Trump announced his plan for 'a complete and total shutdown of Muslims coming to the United States until our representatives can figure out what the hell is going on' Al Shabaab has been particularly effective in recruiting from the black community, especially in Minnesota, luring teens such as Mohamed Abdullahi Hassan to fight for them. Hassan left the Minneapolis area for Somalia back in 2008, and now acts as a recruiter, contacting disillusioned youngsters from back home and encouraging them to join him. In December, ten youths from Minneapolis were charged with conspiracy to provide material to support a foreign terrorist organization after encouraging people to go and fight overseas. With help from Hassan, the men are accused of providing support to those from their community who wanted to go and fight for ISIS in Syria and Al-Shabaab in Somalia. Before we started, had you asked any of us nine judges if the 2016 Chevrolet Camaro had a snowballs chance in Hyundais desert provi... A Mississippi lawmakers has told people to throw bricks, rocks and bottles at police officers who chase petty criminals. Kenneth Stokes, a councilman in Jackson, said high speed chases by cops straying into the city from neighboring jurisdictions were putting children's lives at risk. 'What I suggest is that we get the black leadership together and that as these jurisdictions come into Jackson we throw rocks and bricks and bottles at them. That will send a message that we don't want you in here,' he said. Kenneth Stokes, a councilman in Jackson, Mississippi, said people should 'throw bricks, rocks and bottles' at police officers from neighboring jurisdictions who chase petty criminals through the city He later told The Clarion-Ledger: 'When you have these police officers coming from other jurisdictions and they will not respect human life, then I said we should use rocks, bricks or bottles to try to get the message over: stop endangering our children.' 'We have to draw a line between officers who put human beings safety in jeopardy versus using common sense. I dont consider these police officers. I consider them thugs.' Speaking about a high-speed pursuit of a thief on Christmas Eve, Stokes said: 'These kind of chases put children in danger. They said parents were trying to get their children out of harms way. 'Now, it is our position that if it is a misdemeanor, you shouldnt be putting children and the elderly in danger. Now, if you are talking about a murderer or a bank robbery, then this is person who may be a little more dangerous to the community, but not a misdemeanor.' Some people have suggested Stokes should be arrested for inciting violence towards police officers and Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant blasted his 'reprehensible' comments. The governor added that he would ask the Attorney General to investigate his remarks. Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant blasted his 'reprehensible' comments and said he would ask the Attorney General to investigate Randy Tucker, the sheriff of the neighboring force in Madison County, said police would not be intimidated 'Mr Stokes remarks are reprehensible, particularly with the attacks we have seen against our men and women in law enforcement,' Gov Bryant said. 'I condemn any such remarks in the strongest possible manner. This is nothing short of an outright assault upon all who wear the badge. I will be asking Attorney General Jim Hood to investigate whether Mr Stokes remarks represent criminal threats against law enforcement officers.' Randy Tucker, the sheriff of the neighboring force in Madison County, said police would not be intimidated by Stokes. 'Any Madison county law enforcement that is attacked because of your ignorant statements, I will hold you responsible,' he said. 'I fully intend to contact the Ms Attorney General and inquire if your statements constitute assaults on officers by threat.' Jackson Mayor Tony Yarber said officers should respect county boundaries but added he does not condone violence against cops. and passing in and out of The parents of an 18-year-old man who consumed 15 standard drinks in only two hours said he looked like a 'corpse' when they collected him from the floor of a police cell on New Years Eve. Ryan, from Portland, south-west of Melbourne, said doctors warned him that he could have gone into total organ failure after smashing a six pack of beer and half a bottle of straight whiskey as he ushered in the New Year with friends at a carnival in Portland's CBD on Thursday night. I started having sips of Jack Daniels which wasnt the smartest idea because I was already pretty smashed from the six pack, he told Daily Mail Australia. By 10:30pm I was black out drunk and I could not remember anything from around then until I woke up in bed the next morning. Scroll down for video Ryan, from Portland, south-west of Melbourne, said doctors warned him that he could have gone into total organ failure after smashing a six pack of beer and half a bottle of straight whiskey The 18-year-old was picked up by police after a member of the public became concerned with his welfare when he lost his friends and started to 'stumble around' amongst the crowds. His parents received a call from police at around 12:30am informing them that their son was passed out on the floor of a cell where he had been 'spewing his guts up. 'I was as white as a sheet of paper and I was frothing at the mouth,' he said. 'They told me I looked like a corpse, more like a dead man than a live one.' His parents rushed to the police station with his grandfather, who after seeing Ryan's condition insisted he be taken to the Portland District Hospital. I started having sips of Jack Daniels which wasnt the smartest idea because I was already pretty smashed from the six pack, Ryan said He had been celebrating at a carnival with friends at Portland's Bentinck Street Foreshore Lawns Ryan lost his friends amongst the crowds of revellers and began to 'stumble around' His parents received a call from police at around 12:30am informing them that their son was passed out on the floor of a cell where he was 'spewing his guts up Ryan said his blood pressure was too low and his heart was beating at double the normal rate. Doctors said he was close to total organ failure. His stomach had to be pumped and he was helped to breathe for two hours before he was released into his parent's care. They calculated that I had 15 standard drinks in two hours, so basically I compressed eight hours of drinking into two,' he told Daily Mail Australia. 'Their main concern was my airways because if I threw up I would have choked on my own vomit. It was lucky that didn't happen in the cell.' His mother sat by his bedside for hours, waking him up to ensure nothing had gone wrong as he slept. 'I woke up at about 10 or 11am with the biggest headache of my life and Mum gave me a very graphic description of what she had to do to keep me alive for those few hours.' Ryan said he had only ever drank beer before and had no idea the affects drinking straight spirits could have on his body. After seeing Ryan's condition his grandfather insisted he be taken to the Portland District Hospital The 18-year-old was picked up by police after a member of the public became concerned with Ryan welfare when he was seen alone and heavily intoxicated in the streets It was the first time I had straight spirits so I didnt know how much I could take and I think I over estimated myself a little there.' 'I am just so lucky I didn't pass out on the side of a beach somewhere alone.' The 18-year-old said he got wrapped up in the New Year celebrations and forgot how important it is to drink responsibly and in moderation. 'I still have half a bottle of that Jack Daniels in my room but I am not going to be drinking that any time soon,' he said. While there has been a focus on the dangers of illicit substances following a spate of drug-related deaths at recent festivals, Ryan's story is a stark reminder that alcohol can also be lethal. Professor Michael Farrell, Director of the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre at UNSW Australia, said alcohol poisoning is sill one of the most common reasons for young Australian teens to present at hospitals, with admissions from alcohol related illnesses far outstripping that of illicit drugs. 'If you look at any emergency department on New Years Eve or even a Friday or Saturday night you will see that the biggest problem is alcohol and not other substances, it is quite important to remind ourselves of that,' he told Daily Mail Australia. He said Ryan experienced acute alcohol poisoning, which is 'quite common' among young people who are not used to consuming significant amounts of alcohol. Professor Michael Farrell said alcohol poisoning is sill one of the most common reasons for young Australian teens to present at hospitals, with admissions from alcohol related illnesses far outstripping that of illicit drugs 'The biggest problem is alcohol and not other substances, it is quite important to remind ourselves of that,' he said If inexperienced teens go out on a heavy drinking binge it can be very dangerous, they can literally poison themselves to death which is not a rare complication,' Professor Farrell said 'If inexperienced teens go out on a heavy drinking binge it can be very dangerous, they can literally poison themselves to death which is not a rare complication.' He said acute alcohol poisoning can cause heavy drinkers to fall into a coma, get sick and drown on their vomit as well as cause a range of 'accidents, fights and falls' that can come with their own complications. 'Our culture is blind to a lot of the harm caused by different substances. Next to tobacco, alcohol is the most harmful drug in our society from the point of view of deaths and related injuries.' Professor Farrell said research has indicated that allowing young teens to drink at home can cause them to be more likely to drink outside the home and recommends parents wait to let their kids try an alcoholic drink. He said acute alcohol poisoning can cause heavy drinkers to fall into a coma, get sick and drown on their vomit Alcohol can also cause a range of 'accidents, fights and falls' that can come with their own complications 'It is a complicated issue, obviously parents want to teach their children how to drink in a sensible way but we are beginning to think there needs to be a clear message about waiting until they reach the legal drinking age to do that.' Ryan posted his story on Reddit on Saturday, attracting thousands comments from users concerned with his welfare and those who wanted to remind him to 'understand his limits' before drinking again. 'I did something similar when I was young. You don't realise how much you've drunk til [sic] is too late when it comes to spirits. Cops should have taken you to hospital!' one man wrote. 'If you can't control yourself on your own you should definitely stop drinking alcohol,' wrote another. A grieving husband shot his late wife's sister and brother-in-law dead as they arrived to visit her grave the day before the anniversary of her death - before turning the gun on himself. Karapet Karajan, 71, went to Bellevue Memorial Park in Ontario on Saturday and was waiting to ambush family members who were going there to visit a grave, police said. Ontario police Sgt. Jeff Higbee said he approached three relatives as they got out of their car. Scroll down for video Authorities are investigating a murder-suicide at a Southern California cemetery that has left three people dead. The victims were named as Misak and his wife Hripsime Minasyan (pictured) Authorities are investigating a murder-suicide at Bellevue Memorial Park (pictured) in Ontario, California He then shot a man and a woman, Misak Minasyan, 60, and his wife Hripsime Minasyan, 59, both from North Hollywood, before turning the gun on himself. An elderly woman who was with the victims was not harmed. According to NBC Los Angeles, Kalajan's wife was buried at the Bellevue Cemetery after her death on January 3, 2011. The victims were Karajan's late wife's sister and brother-in-law. Police said Karajan had been struggling to cope with the death of his wife and had become estranged from the family, according to the station. Witnesses at the cemetery described chaotic scenes as the gunman came out from where he was hiding and suddenly opened fire. The gunman, Karapet Karajan, 71, was struggling to cope with the death of his wife, who was Hripsime Minasyan's (pictured with her husband) sister Clarence Martinez, who lives near the cemetery, told the Ontario Daily Bulletin that he heard 20 shots before police arrived at the scene shortly after 3pm. You couldn't tell where the shots were coming from, said another witness, who did not want to be named. She told KTLA: Everybody was running in different directions. By the time you know it, we got in the the car and we left. An investigation into the murder-suicide is ongoing. Anyone with information is urged to call Detective Josh Burks at 909-395-2912. Down on his luck and with nowhere no turn, 16-year-old John Willis made a phone call that would transform his life. With his father long gone and his mother dead, he was taking steroids to beef himself up and convince the owner of a club in Boston that he was 18 and therefore old enough to be a bouncer. After helping a young Asian man called Woping Joe out of a fight at the club, he was handed a card with a phone number and told to ring it if he ever needed help. Days later, with just 76 cents to his name and nowhere to sleep, he found himself dialing the number for a lift. Just minutes afterwards he was picked up by two BMWs car packed with young, Chinese men. At the time he was just looking for a warm meal and a roof over his head, but a decade later he would be the Chinese mafia's number two, known as Bac Guai John - or White Devil. John Willis joined the Chinese mafia in Boston aged 16, picking up the language and proving his worth as he rose through the ranks The FBI say he is the only man to reach anywhere near the top of the Chinese mafia, which usually keeps itself to itself and rarely mixes with crime syndicates of other ethnicities. But the Ping On gang took to bright-eyed Willis, who quickly picked up Chinese in two different dialects - Cantonese and Toisanese - as well as Vietnamese, after a family took him in. He realized he had to learn the language quickly, not only because a lot of the people he dealt with on a day-to-day basis did not speak English but also because he needed to have a grasp of Chinese to pick up women. After listening in on conversations, as well as watching Chinese films and listening to Chinese music, he soon had a convincing accent, Vice reported. He started out as a small time loan collector, ensuring those higher up in the gang were never left out of pocket by their clients. But his loyalty and diligence soon saw him rise through the ranks until he was the chief bodyguard to Bai Ming, who was high up the chain of command in Boston's Chinese mafia. Willis became known as White Devil and is the only white man to have risen to the top of the Chinese mob Willis met Anh Nguyen (left) in 2005 and his life became more stable, up until his arrest for drug trafficking According to Bob Halloran, who interviewed the gangster - who is currently in prison - for his book White Devil, Willis' role would see him check Ming's car for bombs and collect money from underground gambling dens. He would do whatever it took to finish a job and his success saw him become Ming's right-hand man. Ming was only sixth or seventh in command at the time, but after a few arrests here and some gangland killings there, he suddenly found himself at the helm of the mafia - with the White Devil as his number two. Willis did time in prison in the 90s and came out with connections in the marijuana trade. He was warned away from drugs by other members of the mafia - who largely made their money from gambling, massage parlors and prostitution - but carried on selling narcotics because of the vast profits he made. Soon, however, he was dealing cocaine and eventually moved into dealing oxycodone, trafficking it from Florida to Boston and also selling it in Cape Cod. He is thought to have shifted 260,000 pills in a racket worth $4million, but he told investigators it was worth at least 10 times that. Willis - who was branded in court as 'the kingpin, organizer and leader of a vast conspiracy' - was eventually caught by the police and, in 2013, was jailed for 20 years. Halloran says Willis' greatest regret is not the lives he damaged as part of the mob or through trafficking drugs, but is the fact he can no longer see his Vietnamese-American girlfriend and her daughter. Willis' greatest regret about going to prison is not being able to see Nguyen and her young daughter According to Rolling Stone, Willis was with his lover Anh Nguyen on her daughter's ninth birthday when his crimes finally caught up with him. They had met in 2005, when he approached and told her in English that she was 'drop-dead gorgeous'. She thought he was just 'a white kid with an Asian fetish', but fell for him after hearing him break up a fight in Chinese. For a member of the mob, Willis' life was relatively stable, but as he lay in bed with Nguyen in March 2011, his empire of fast cars, speedboats and beachside homes in Florida was about to come crashing down. He had kept his life of organized crime separate from his family life - only admitting to his girlfriend that he was a gangster after she questioned cuts on his hands - but even she had to accept a plea of tampering with a witness when Willis, who is now 44, faced trial. While it is unheard of for a white teenager to rise to the top of the Chinese mafia, it is not surprising that a troubled child growing up in Dorchester, a suburb of Boston, in the 1970s wound up in the wrong company. Notorious Boston gangster Whitey Bulger also grew up in Dorchester. He infiltrated the Boston office of the FBI and bought off agents who protected him. Some feared he would never be caught and he was soon placed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List - at one point he was only second to Osama Bin Laden. Bulger fled Boston in 1994 and remained a fugitive until he was captured in Santa Monica, California, in 2011. He was convicted of participating in 11 murders while running Boston's Winter Hill Gang for two decades and is now serving two life sentences. A family of five was killed in Alabama after their home caught on fire Friday night. The victims have been identified by Jackson County Sheriff Chuck Phillips as: Carolyn Quarles, 63, Kimberly Alexander, 34, Tony Alexander 42, Breanna Alexander, 8, and Emily Alexander, 6. WALB reported that the fire began around 11.30pm Friday and that neighbors said the glow from the flames could be spotted past treetops. Firefighters believe the blaze might have started near an oil heater that the family was using near the center of the home, the television station reported. Tragic: A family of five was killed in an Alabama house fire Friday night. Police have identified two of the victims as Breanna Alexander (left), 8, and Emily Alexander (right), 6 The girl's parents, Kimberly Alexander (left), 34, Tony Alexander (right), 42, were also killed in the fire Kimberly Alexander's mother, Carolyn Quarles (above), 63, lived in the home with the family and also died Tri-community Fire Chief Jay White told the television station that this was the worst fire he had seen in more than 30 years. He explained that the home, where the couple lived with the woman's mother for 12 years, did not have a working smoke detector. Once firefighters arrived to the scene, the intense flames made it too difficult to get to the family. The home was completely destroyed. The state fire marshal is working with the Jackson County Sheriff's Office to determine the exact cause of the fire. Saturday family members and neighbors sifted through the ashes to see if pictures or documents were recoverable. Tri-community Fire Chief Jay White told the television station that this was the worst fire he had seen in more than 30 years He explained that the home, where the couple lived with the woman's mother for 12 years, did not have a working smoke detector 'They were just very sweet loving people,' Marlena Mcclure, a relative, told WRCB. 'I love them. They were perfect. They were really funny together. 'They did really well with their girls. They were raising wonderful girls.' WALB reported that Quarles' mother died just days before Christmas. A GoFundMe page has been established by family members to assist with funeral expenses. More than $4,000 of the $20,000 goal has been raised in 13 hours. Marlena Mcclure, a relative, said: 'They were just very sweet loving people.' Above Breanna Alexander (right), 8, and Emily Alexander (left), 6, are pictured A group of militiamen on Saturday occupied the headquarters of a national wildlife refuge in Oregon in support of two brothers who are slated to report to prison on Monday on arson charges - and the protesters don't plan on leaving any time soon, saying it's 'kill or be killed' time. Militia members claimed to have as many as 150 supporters with them at the Malheur National Wildlife refuge building in Princeton, which is federal property managed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service that was closed for the holiday weekend. They later rescinded the number and said they would not disclose how many people were in the building, because of 'operational security'. Local reporters have said that there only appears to be a dozen cars outside of the building. 'We're planning on staying here for years, absolutely,' Ammon Bundy, one of the occupiers, told the Oregonian via telephone. This is not a decision we've made at the last minute.' Ammon Bundy and his brother Ryan, who is another occupier, are the sons of of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who was involved in a 2014 standoff with the government over grazing rights. The occupation came shortly after 300 marchers paraded through Burns, Oregon, about 50 miles away, to protest at the prosecution of father and son Harney County ranchers Dwight Hammond Jr and Steven Hammond, who were ordered returned to prison by a federal court which ruled their original sentences were insufficient. The group is demanding that the Hammonds be released and that the federal government give up control of the Malheur National Forest. Scroll down for video Protesters march on Court Avenue in support of an Oregon ranching family facing jail time for arson in Burns, Oregon, on Saturday. Soon after, they occupied Malheur National Wildlife refuge building in Princeton, Oregon Ammon Bundy chats with a protester on Saturday during a march on behalf of the Hammond family in Harney County, Oregon The protesters said they plan on staying at the Malheur National Wildlife refuge building in Princeton, Oregon for as long as possible Dwight Hammond, 73, and Steven Hammond, 46, said they lit the fires in 2001 and 2006 to reduce the growth of invasive plants and protect their property from wildfires. The two were convicted of the arsons three years ago and served time the father three months, the son one year. But a judge ruled their terms were too short under federal law and ordered them back to prison for about four years each. Ammon Bundy, an Idaho militia leader, said that while the occupiers were not looking to hurt anyone, they would not rule out violence if police tried to remove them, the Oregonian reported. Bundy's brother Ryan Bundy, who is also an occupier, told the Oregonian that they're 'willing to kill and be killed' if necessary, adding that the federal officials' actions have been 'in violation of the constitution'. 'The best possible outcome is that the ranchers that have been kicked out of the area, then they will come back and reclaim their land, and the wildlife refuge will be shut down forever and the federal government will relinquish such control,' Ryan Bundy told the Oregonian. He added: 'What we're doing is not rebellious. What we're doing is in accordance with the Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land.' The brothers said, however, that their real goal is to simply start a movement. It is unknown what types of weapons are now at the refuge building, but there are no hostages in the area. 'The facility has been the tool to do all the tyranny that has been placed upon the Hammonds,' told the Oregonian. Ammon Bundy posted a video on his Facebook page asking for people to come help him. Below the video is this statement: "(asterisk)(asterisk)ALL PATRIOTS ITS TIME TO STAND UP NOT STAND DOWN!!! WE NEED YOUR HELP!!! COME PREPARED." Ammon Bundy said the group planned to stay at the refuge indefinitely. 'The facility has been the tool to do all the tyranny that has been placed upon the Hammonds,' the Oregonian quoted Ammon Bundy as saying. Ryan Payne, an Army veteran from Montana, participates in a community meeting in Burns, Oregon. He is among key militiamen who seized control of the refuge on Saturday 'This is not a decision we've made at the last minute,' he added, calling on other militiamen to join them. The Bundys are the sons of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy. The Bundy family ranch in Bunkerville, Nevada, some 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas, was the site of an armed protest against the US Bureau of Land Management in April 2014. MILITIAMEN'S CALLS TO ARMS In a video posted to Facebook by Sarah Dee Spurlock, two men - one donning camouflage gear - explain why they are taking the measures they are. FIRST MILITIAMAN: 'This will become a base place for patriots from all over the country to come to be housed and live here. 'We're planning on staying here for several years.And While we're here, what we're going to be doing is we're going to be freeing these lands up, getting the ranchers back to ranching, getting the miners back to mining, getting the loggers back to logging, where they can do it under the protection of the people. 'And not be afraid of this tyranny that's upon them. And what'll happen is Harney County will begin to thrive again. 'One time they were the wealthiest county, now they're the poorest, and we will reverse that in just a few years by freeing up their land and resources. 'And we're doing this for the people. We're doing this so the people can have their land and their resources back where they belong. 'We're calling people out here to come and stand. We need you to bring your arms and we need you to come to the Malheur National Wildlife refuge.' SECOND MILITIAMAN: 'Until that line is drawn to say "We've had enough of this tyranny, you are going to leave us alone, it will not change". 'This is the power of America right here. People got together for this and it doesn't have to stop here. 'This could be a hope that spreads through the whole country. Everybody's looking for this hope because the government has beat us, oppressed us and took everything from us. They will not stop until we tell them no.' Advertisement The stand-off gained nationwide attention as the agency sought to seize cattle because the elder Bundy refused to pay grazing fees. The federal agents ultimately backed down, citing safety concerns, and gave back hundreds of Bundy cattle which they had rounded up. In a video posted to Facebook by Sarah Dee Spurlock, two men - one donning camouflage gear - explain why they are taking the measures they are. 'This will become a base place for patriots from all over the country to come to be housed and live here. We're planning on staying here for several years, the first man said. He added: 'One time [Harney County] were the wealthiest county, now they're the poorest, and we will reverse that in just a few years by freeing up their land and resources. 'And we're doing this for the people. We're doing this so the people can have their land and their resources back where they belong.' He appealed to the public for people to join the group in Oregon. 'We're calling people out here to come and stand. We need you to bring your arms and we need you to come to the Malheur National Wildlife refuge,' he said. The second man, dressed in camouflage gear, said the group is challenging the government. 'Until that line is drawn to say "We've had enough of this tyranny, you are going to leave us alone", it will not change,' he said. 'This is the power of America right here. 'People got together for this and it doesn't have to stop here. This could be a hope that spreads through the whole country. 'Everybody's looking for this hope because the government has beat us, oppressed us and took everything from us. They will not stop until we tell them no.' In another video, Jon Ritzheimer, a Phoenix-based anti-Islam activist and militiaman, says goodbye to his family, suggesting he plans to occupy the federal lands as well. 'The oppression and the tyranny that's taken place in Oregon - we know it's taken place all across the US - the Bundy Ranch was prime example. And we the people need to take a stand,' he said in the 13-minute video. He goes on a lengthy rant about the legal system and how it treated the Hammond family. A sign tacked outside a Burns. Oregon, home reflects growing community sentiment that outsider militia aren't welcome, in mid-December 2015. The prosecution of Dwight and Steven Hammond for burning public lands has brought fresh focus to the debate over how federal land is managed Militia members claimed on Saturday to have as many as 150 supporters, like the one pictured above, at the national wildlife refuge in Oregon A private sign welcomes visitors to the Diamond Valley, part of the Harney Basin in southeast Oregon, in mid-December 2015. The valley is home to large cattle ranches that rely on both private and public land for grazing. 'They are not terrorists....This oppressive, tyrannical government who really has no jurisdiction here - this is Hardy County's land,' he said. He added: 'The Hammonds were not tried by a jury of their peers. There's an indictment with no signatures on it. 'This is a cruel and unusual punishment. But this federal government comes in here and says no, that's not enough, they need to do a minimum of five years.' Ritzenheimer then makes a call to arms. He said: 'It's real simple, Dwight. Do you want to die in prison labeled a terrorist by these oppressors or do you want to die out here with us as a free man? I want to die a free man.' 'If you do not spearhead this and take a stand, it's going to set a new precedent across the US. 'They get stronger and think they can continue to go around and bully we, the people. But when we unite and you take that stand there's no stopping us.' Beth Anne Steele, an FBI spokeswoman in Portland, told The Associated Press that the agency was aware of Saturdays situation at the national wildlife refuge. She made no further comment. Harney County Sheriff Dave Ward released a statement late on Saturday night. Ward said: 'After the peaceful rally was completed today, a group of outside militants drove to the Malheur Wildlife Refuge, where they seized and occupied the refuge headquarters. 'A collective effort from multiple agencies is currently working on a solution. For the time being please stay away from that area. In one YouTube video, Jon Ritzheimer, a Phoenix-based anti-Islam activist and militiaman, suggests he is going to join the occupied federal lands and says goodbye to his family Ritzheimer wipes tears from his eyes he speaks about his wife before going on a lengthy rant about the legal system 'More information will be provided as it becomes available. Please maintain a peaceful and united front and allow us to work through this situation.' Some local residents feared the Saturday rally would involve more than speeches, flags and marching. But the only real additions to that list seemed to be songs, flowers and pennies. As marchers reached the courthouse, they tossed hundreds of pennies at the locked door. Their message: civilians were buying back their government. After the march passed, two girls swooped in to scavenge the pennies. A few blocks away, Hammond and his wife Susan greeted marchers, who planted flower bouquets in the snow. They sang some songs, Hammond said a few words, and the protesters marched back to their cars. Dwight Hammond has said he and his son plan to peacefully report to prison January 4 as ordered by the judge. The decision to extend the Hammonds prison terms has generated controversy in a remote part of the state. In particular, the Hammonds' new sentences touched a nerve with far right groups who repudiate federal authority. Ammon Bundy and a handful of militiamen from other states arrived last month in Burns, some 60 miles from the Hammond ranch. In an email to supporters, Ammon Bundy criticized the US government for a failed legal process. Two of the main occupiers, Ammon and Ryan Bundy are the sons of Rancher Cliven Bundy (pictured here in 2014), who was locked in a decades-long dispute with the Bureau of Land Management over grazing rights Protesters gather at the Bureau of Land Management's base camp, where cattle that were seized from rancher Cliven Bundy are being held, near Bunkerville, Nevada, in 2012 Saudi Arabia has broken off diplomatic ties with Iran following an attack on the Kingdom's embassy in Tehran, inspired by Saudi's decision to execute 47 men including Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr. Saudi Arabia's foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir announced the decision to expel Iran's diplomats following the evacuation of its own diplomatic staff from Iran. Iran's diplomats have been given 48 hours to leave Saudi Arabia after the Kingdom's foreign ministry accused Iran of failing in its duty to protect its embassy in Tehran. A large mob attacked the Saudi embassy in Tehran last night, setting the building on fire with petrol bombs and ransacking items from the Saudi diplomatic offices. The escalating war of words comes after a night of violence in Iran's capital, Tehran, where a furious mob petrol bombed the Saudi embassy (pictured) in protest to al-Nimr's killing A controversial meme posted on a website thought to belong to Iran's Supreme Leader suggested the only difference between Saudi rulers and ISIS executioners was the clothes they wore Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameni (pictured, a tweet from his official account) vowed 'divine revenge' against the Saudis the morning after they executed 47 prisoners accused of 'terrorism' Iran's Supreme Leader had vowed 'divined revenge' on Saudi Arabia after it executed 47 prisoners, including a prominent Shiite cleric, yesterday. Its elite paramilitary unit, the Revolutionary Guard, compared the Sunni-ruled country to terror group ISIS and warned the 'medieval act of savagery' would lead to the monarchy's downfall. A controversial meme posted on an Iranian website, thought to belong to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameni, suggested the only difference between Saudi rulers and ISIS executioners was the clothes they wore. Saudi Arabia claimed Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr and the other executed prisoners, which include three other Shiite dissidents and a number of al-Qaeda supporters, were all convicted 'terrorists'. It said Iran had 'revealed its true face as a supporter of terrorists' by condemning al-Nimr's death. The UK Government expressed its 'disappointment' at the mass executions carried out by Saudi Arabia which have triggered unrest in the region and led to a breakdown in diplomatic relations between Riyadh and Tehran. Foreign Office Minister Tobias Ellwood said: 'I am deeply disturbed by the escalation in tensions in the last 24 hours in the Middle East. 'The UK is firmly opposed to the death penalty. We have stressed this to the Saudi authorities and also expressed our disappointment at the mass executions.' The minister said he expected the kingdom's government not to carry out the death sentence imposed on the cleric's nephew Ali al-Nimr, who was just 17 when he was told he faced crucifixion over his role in the Arab Spring protests in 2012. Mr Ellwood said: 'We have discussed with the authorities in Riyadh, and expect that Ali Al-Nimr and others who were convicted as juveniles will not be executed. The UK will continue to raise these cases with the Saudi authorities. 'We are deeply concerned to hear of the attack yesterday on the Saudi Embassy in Tehran. It is essential that diplomatic missions are properly protected and respected. 'There are those who will wish to exploit the situation and raise sectarian tensions higher. This would be against the wishes of the vast majority of those in the region. I urge all parties in the region to show restraint and responsibility.' The Saudi Arabian embassy was set alight by members of the crowd, who threw petrol bombs into the building Flames burn inside the offices of the embassy, where staff had already evacuated from inside the building The violent mob was protesting the killing of Sheikh Nimr Al-Nimr (pictured), the most vocal critic of the Saudi dynasty, who was the driving force behind the protests that broke out in the east of the country in 2011 Protesters set about damaging and stealing property from inside the Saudi embassy in the Iranian capital city of Tehran Tehran's police chief said that an unspecified number of 'unruly elements' had been arrested for attacking the embassy with petrol bombs and rocks Iranian security stand guard to protect Saudi Arabia's embassy in Tehran, Iran, while a group of demonstrators gathered to protest execution of al-Nimr The escalating war of words came after a night of violence in the Iranian capital of Tehran, where a furious mob petrol bombed the Saudi embassy to protest al-Nimr's killing. At least 40 were arrested on suspicion of attacking and setting fire to the embassy. Iraq's former Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki warned the executions would 'topple the Saudi regime', US and European said they risked 'exacerbating sectarian tensions', and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was 'deeply dismayed'. Al-Nimr, the most vocal critic of the Saudi dynasty, was the driving force behind the protests which broke out in the east of the country in 2011, where the Shiite minority claims they are fiercely persecuted. Khamenei condemned Saudi Arabia for the second straight day over his execution, saying: 'The unjustly spilled blood of this oppressed martyr [al-Nimr] will no doubt soon show its effect and divine vengeance will befall Saudi politicians.' The Revolutionary Guard yesterday promised 'harsh revenge' against Saudi Arabia's royal dynasty, but its foreign ministry called for calm after protesters tried to burn down its embassy in Tehran. None of the Saudi embassy staff were inside the building when demonstrators broke in and trashed the offices. They forced their way inside where they ransacked rooms, destroyed furniture and started fires before they were ejected by police. Tehran's police chief said an unspecified number of 'unruly elements' were arrested for attacking the embassy with petrol bombs and rocks overnight. Iranian protesters set fire to pictures of the Saudi royal family in front of the Saudi Arabian embassy in Tehran A BRIEF HISTORY OF IRAN AND SAUDI ARABIA'S HISTORICALLY TENSE RELATIONSHIP They are both Muslim countries, both have a vast supply of oil and they share no borders, and yet Iran and Saudi Arabia's relationship has been plagued with aggression and confrontation. Saudi Arabia is a predominantly Sunni nation, a sect which believes the prophet Muhammad was succeeded by his father-in-law Abu Bakr. Most Iranians are Shiites, who claim Muhammad's son-in-law and cousin, Ali Ibn Abi Talib, was his first 'caliph'. Historically, they have clashed over their differing interpretations of Islam, aspirations to lead the Islamic world, their oil export policy and relations with the United States. More recently, the relationship soured over Iran's nuclear programme, the 1979 Islamic revolution and an alleged plot to assassinate Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States. After the rebellion, in which revolutionaries called on monarchies like Saudi Arabia's to be overthrown and replaced with Islamic Republics, Iran accused the Saudis of being an 'agent of the US'. Saudi Arabia (right, its King Salman) and Iran (left, its Supreme Leader Ayatolah Khamenei) have clashed over their differing interpretations of Islam, aspirations to lead the Islamic world, their oil export policy and relations with the United States Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khameni, who started the revolution, was opposed to monarchies because he believed them to be un-Islamic. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia was concerned that Iran was obsessed with exporting its revolution to expand its influence in the Persian Gulf region. Relations hit rock bottom in 2011, when US officials alleged a plot to assassinate Saudi ambassador Adel al-Jubeir was tied to the Iranian government. They claimed Iranian nationals Manssor Arbabsiar and Gholam Shakuri planned to kill al-Jubeir at a restaurant with a bomb and then detonate an explosive at the Saudi embassy in Washington. They have also clashed over oil and gas export policies. Saudi Arabia, with its large oil reserves, is said to favour moderate prices over a long term period. Meanwhile Iran, which has been crippled with sanctions following its decades old war with Iraq, has been forced to sell oil at high prices for short term profits. Advertisement Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who condemned al-Nimr's execution, said the attacks on the embassy were 'unjustifiable'. He ordered his Interior Ministry to arrest the attackers, who he described as 'extremists', and punish them for 'such ugly acts'. There have been reports of other revenge attacks against Saudi Arabia across the Middle East. Footage from Iraq claimed to show Saudi Arabia's newly reopened embassy in Baghdad engulfed in smoke after a rocket was reported to have been fired at it. Helicopters circled high above the embassy in central Baghdad, which was targeted after the news of al-Nimr's execution spread to Iraq, Russia Today reported. Unconfirmed reports have claimed the rocket, which struck just metres away from the embassy, was fired by Iraqi Shiite militia group Harakat al-Nujaba. The Saudi embassy reopened its doors on Friday after being closed for 25 - following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait - to help strengthen an alliance against ISIS. Violent demonstrations have also erupted across the Middle Eastern and Gulf countries, including Lebanon, Pakistan and Bahrain, while Muslims in the West have held peaceful marches. Footage from Iraq claimed to show Saudi Arabia's newly reopened embassy in Baghdad (pictured) engulfed in smoke after a rocket was reported to have been fired at it Helicopters circled high above the embassy in central Baghdad, which was targeted after the news of al-Nimr's execution spread to Iraq Shiite protesters clashed with Indian police in the disputed Kashmir region today. They threw rocks at policemen, who retaliated with tear gas and rubber bullets. Demonstrators in Bahrain were also met with tear gas as they fought with security forces, while hundreds also protested in Iraq's Shiite holy city of Karbala. Violent demonstrations have since erupted across the Middle Eastern and Gulf countries, including Lebanon, Pakistan and Bahrain, while Muslims in the West have held peaceful marches. Sheik al-Nimr and a number of the other prisoners executed had been convicted following trials that raised serious concerns over the nature of the charges and the fairness of the process UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Thousands have also gathered in Lebanon's capital, Beirut, ahead of a speech by the leader of the Lebanese Shiite militia group Hezbollah. It issued a statement condemning al-Nimr's execution, with Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem calling it 'a sign of shame and weakness' for Saudi Arabia Meanwhile, hundreds of Shiite Muslims marched through the Qatif district of Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, closely watched by security services. The US State Department said Saudi Arabia risked 'exacerbating sectarian tensions' and Ban Ki-moon said he was 'deeply dismayed' by the execution of al-Nimr. 'Sheik al-Nimr and a number of the other prisoners executed had been convicted following trials that raised serious concerns over the nature of the charges and the fairness of the process,' Ban's spokesman said. 'The Secretary-General also calls for calm and restraint in reaction to the execution of Sheikh Nimr and urges all regional leaders to work to avoid the exacerbation of sectarian tensions.' Amnesty International spokesman Shane Enright said the death penalty was 'unacceptable in all circumstances' and it was particularly concerning that a number of 'peaceful dissidents' including al-Nimr had been killed. Kashmiri Shiite protesters shout slogans during a demonstration in Srinagar following the execution of prominent Shiite Muslim cleric Nimr al-Nimr The Shiite protesters (pictured) in Kashmir threw rocks at the police who retaliated with tear gas and rubber bullets As well as the protests in Kashmir (pictured), demonstrators in Bahrain were also met with tear gas as they fought with security forces, Thousands gathered in the disputed Kashmir region to clash with riot police, who pelted them with tear gas An armed riot policeman walks towards the crowd of hundreds who gathered to protest the execution of Sheikh al-Nimr UK TREASURY MINISTER DEFENDS UK'S CLOSE RELATIONSHIP WITH SAUDIS Treasury minister David Gauke (pictured) defended UK's relationship with Saudi Arabia A Government minister has defended the UK's close relationship with Saudi Arabia amid an international outcry over the execution of 47 prisoners. Treasury minister David Gauke said capital punishment was 'wrong', but the close ties between the UK and Riyadh meant 'we can tell them what we think'. Treasury Financial Secretary Mr Gauke told Sky News: 'Clearly it is a very worrying development and we oppose capital punishment in this way, we think that that is wrong.' But he added: 'When it comes to protecting British people, the Prime Minister has made it clear that intelligence from Saudi Arabia has helped save lives and protect people in the UK. 'We have a relationship with Saudi Arabia where we are able to speak candidly to them, where these issues are raised on a regular basis by the Foreign Secretary and the Prime Minister and our representatives in Riyadh. 'We are able to have that relationship where we can tell them what we think and clearly it is a worrying development, what we have heard from Saudi Arabia in the last few days.' Meanwhile shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn described the execution as 'profoundly wrong' and Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron urged David Cameron to speak out against the Saudi regime's actions. Advertisement Speaking at the scene of the demonstration, he said a recent Amnesty report concluded that the trial against him was 'deeply flawed'. He added: 'We also came to the conclusion that he was jailed solely for expressing his peaceful points of view, protesting peacefully against the regimes. 'This is an absolute, fundamental, breach of basic human rights.' Al-Nimr's family said they planned to hold three days of mourning but they have yet to claim his body. We also came to the conclusion that he [al-Nimr] was jailed solely for expressing his peaceful points of view, protesting peacefully against the regimes. This is an absolute, fundamental, breach of basic human rights Shane Enright, Amnesty International His brother Mohammed al-Nimr said Saudi officials told his family that he had already been buried in an undisclosed cemetery. Despite supporting the capital punishment, Saudi Arabia is a member of the UN Human Rights Council. Secret diplomatic cables exposed in September last year appeared to show that the UK helped the kingdom join in a vote-trading deal. Al-Nimr's execution has sparked fierce criticism from Shiite communities in Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen and Indian-controlled Kashmir. One of the 47 men executed in Saudi Arabia was Adel al-Dhubaiti, the al-Qaeda gunman convicted for the attempted assassination of BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner and the murder of his cameraman Simon Cumbers. Mr Gardner was shot six times and left paralysed whilst he was filming a report with Simon Cumbers in June 2004. He was offered the chance to meet al-Dhubaiti when he was sentenced in 2014 but declined. Iran's Shia leadership said the execution of Nimr 'would cost dearly' and an Iranian-backed Shiite militia in Iraq called the execution a 'new crime' carried out by the Saudi royal family. Demonstrators burn tires during a protest, against the execution of prominent Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr by Saudi authorities, in Manama, Bahrain Enraged Bahraini demonstrators pulled up a palm tree trunk to make a blockade in the street against security forces at a demonstration Pakistani Shiite Muslims rally to protest against the execution Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr in Lahore, Pakistan Saudi Arabia came under blistering criticism from the Middle East's Shiites (pictured, protests in Pakistan) shortly after it executed a top Shiite cleric known for his activism against the Sunni government One Kashmiri Shiite holds a Hezbollah flag shout slogans against the execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr during a protest in Srinagar Concerns remain that Saudi Arabia's decision to execute 47 prisoners may lead to further sectarian tension in the region Protesters holding a banner saying 'Death is normal to us and our dignity from God is martyrdom' in Manama, Bahrain Protests: Saudi Arabia's execution of Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr has outraged Shia leaders and communities in Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen and Indian-controlled Kashmir (pictured) Protests and large gatherings were held in remembrance for the prominent Shi'a cleric, who was killed alongside 46 other people Kashmiri Shiite men and children sit united in front of a candle light vigil in honour of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, who was executed in Saudi Saudi Arabia has said that Iran is responsible for protecting the Kingdom's embassy as the violence grows at the demonstrations. One Shiite militia in Iraq called on Baghdad to 'reconsider the benefit of having a Saudi embassy in Iraq, with a suspicious ambassador and goals.' Former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki warned in a statement that the execution of the Shiite cleric 'will topple the Saudi regime'. But most of the 47 executed in the kingdom's biggest mass execution for decades were Sunnis convicted of al Qaeda attacks in Saudi Arabia a decade ago. Four, including Nimr, were Shi'ites accused of shooting policemen. The executions took place in 12 cities in Saudi Arabia, with four prisons using firing squads and the others beheading. The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, members of a Saudi-led coalition battling Iran-backed Shiite rebels in Yemen, praised their ally. UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan called the executions a 'clear message against terrorism and those who call for and incite sedition and unrest to tear apart the society's unity and threaten social peace in the kingdom'. The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, members of a Saudi-led coalition battling Iran-backed Shiite rebels in Yemen, praised their ally, but protests broke out in Bahrain's suburbs Bahrain has faced unrest from its Shiite majority population, and backed Riyadh in 'all deterrent and needed measures it takes to confront violence and extremism' Protesters clashed with security forces in a number of villages in Bahrain, where the government has sided with their ally Saudi Arabia Saudi women hold up posters depicting Shiite Muslim cleric Nimr al-Nimr at a protest in the eastern coastal city of Qatif Many of the protesters in London gathered in support for Nimr al-Nimr, calling for the action against the Saudi regime Demonstrators protest outside the Saudi Embassy in London, following Saudi Arabia's execution of 47 prisoners in one day WHO WAS SHEIKH NIMR AL-NIMR AND WHY WAS HE EXECUTED BY SAUDI ARABIA? Sheikh Nimr Al-Nimr (pictured) was arrested in July 2012 and charged with instigating unrest Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr rose to prominence during the 2011 pro-democracy protests in his hometown of Qatif, eastern Saudi Arabia. His leadership elevated him to hero-like status among the protesting Shiite youth. He also became an icon in the broader 'Shia versus Sunni' narrative, which is played out across the Middle East - most acutely in the Yemeni and Syrian civil wars and in Iraq. His peaceful, but outspoken opposition to the Saudi Royal family, and his very public speeches against the monarchy demanding equality for Shias in Saudi Arabia also increased his profile. Nimr was arrested in July 2012 and charged with instigating unrest, 'disobeying the ruler' and 'encouraging, leading and participating in demonstrations'. The charges were dismissed by human rights advocacy group Amnesty International as violating freedom of speech. His arrest caused days of rioting in Saudi Arabia, in which three people were killed. He was sentenced to death on October 25 after his appeal was denied, no date was set for his execution, although Saudi Arabian King Salman could have pardoned the cleric at any time. Amnesty International UK's Shane Enright said a recent Amnesty report concluded that the trial against Nimr was 'deeply flawed', adding: 'We also came to the conclusion that he was jailed solely for expressing his peaceful points of view, protesting peacefully against the regimes. 'This is an absolute, fundamental, breach of basic human rights,' he said. The Sheikh's nephew Ali al-Nimr, who was 17 at the time of his arrest following the protests, was not included in the list of those executed although concerns are growing for his fate. He has been sentenced to death by beheading and crucifixion. Advertisement Bahrain, which has itself faced unrest from its Shiite majority population, also backed Riyadh in 'all deterrent and needed measures it takes to confront violence and extremism'. In the suburbs of the Bahraini capital Manama however, dozens of Shiite youth gathered for small demonstrations to condemn the executions. Clashes quickly escalated between demonstrators and security forces, who released tear gas to disperse the gathering. Sheikh Nimr was an icon for Islamic resistance... His words were his weapon. They couldn't defeat his words so they detained him, tortured him and today executed him in front the world's eyes, like a challenge to global conscience Cleric from Bahrain during protests A cleric from Bahrain who was at the protest in Iraq's Karbala, said the world should react to Nimr's execution. 'Sheikh Nimr was an icon for Islamic resistance,' said Sheikh Habib al-Jamri. 'His words were his weapon. They couldn't defeat his words so they detained him, tortured him and today executed him in front the world's eyes, like a challenge to global conscience.' Bahrain was one of the countries caught in the centre of the Arab Spring in 2011, with the country's Shiite majority population heavily suppressed during protests against the monarchy. Bahrain has remained a close ally of Saudi, who have been careful to safeguard the country during the Arab Spring. Shiite protesters in Bahrain in 2011 called for the constitutional reform of the monarchy before security forces heavy handedly clamped down on demonstrations leading to calls for the end of the monarchy. The protests in Bahrain yesterday come after opponents have repeatedly been detained and stripped of their citizenship for speaking out against the Bahraini government and the actions of their ally Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia has executed 47 people convicted of 'terrorism' yesterday, including a prominent Shiite cleric behind anti-government protests Executed: The ministry statement, carried by the official SPA news agency, said the 47 had been convicted of adopting the radical 'takfiri' ideology, joining 'terrorist organisations' and implementing various 'criminal plots'. Above, Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr was one of the 47 people executed yesterday Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) threatened to retaliate against Saudi Arabia for any execution of its members in December. The list also included Fares al-Shuwail who has been described by Saudi media outlets as the top religious leader of Al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia. He was arrested in August 2004. The ministry statement said the 47 had been convicted of adopting the radical 'takfiri' ideology, joining 'terrorist organisations' and implementing various 'criminal plots'. The list also includes Sunnis convicted of involvement in Al-Qaeda attacks that killed Saudis and foreigners in the kingdom in 2003 and 2004. International rights group Reprieve, who works to abolish the death penalty has condemned Saudi Arabia's execution of 47 people, saying two were teenagers when they were detained. Reprieve says the 47 people whose execution was announced Saturday include four Shiite dissidents. It says one of the dissidents, Ali al-Ribh, was 18 when he was arrested in 2012, and another, Mohammed al-Shuyokh, was 19. Both were convicted on charges related to anti-government protests in eastern Saudi Arabia, where the Shiite minority is centered. Repercussions: Iran's Shia leadership said the execution of Nimr 'would cost dearly' and an Iranian-backed Shiite militia in Iraq called the execution, a 'new crime' carried out by the Saudi royal family Soon after the announcement was made, the country's top cleric Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Al Sheikh said that the executions were in line with Islamic law and required to safeguard the kingdom's security. Above, Shia protests in Indian-controlled Kashmir Mourning: Shiite Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr was a persistent critic of Saudi Arabia's Sunni royal family and a driving force of the protests that broke out in 2011 in the Sunni-ruled kingdom's east, where the Shiite minority complains of marginalisation. Above, men protest his execution in Indian-controlled Kashmir SHEIKH AL-NIMR, THREE SHIITE CLERICS AND AL-QAEDA MILITANTS: THE 47 MEN EXECUTED BY SAUDI ARABIA 1. Ameen Mohammed Abdullah Al Aqala - Saudi national. 2. Anwar Abdulrahman Khalil Al-Najjar - Saudi national. 3. Badr bin Mohammed bin Abdullah Al-Badr- Saudi national. 4. Bandar Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Ghaith - Saudi nationality. 5. Hassan Hadi bin Shuja'a Al-Masareer - Saudi nationality. 6. Hamad bin Abdullah bin Ibrahim Al-Humaidi- Saudi nationality 7. Khalid Mohammed Ibrahim Al-Jarallah - Saudi nationality 8. Ridha Abdulrahman Khalil Al-Najjar- Saudi nationality 9. Saad Salamah Hameer - Saudi nationality 10. Salah bin Saeed bin Abdulraheem Al-Najjar - Saudi nationality 11. Salah bin Abdulrahman bin Mohammed Al Hussain -Saudi nationality 12. Saleh bin Abdulrahman bin Ibrahim Al-Shamsan - Saudi nationality 13. Saleh bin Ali bin Saleh Al-Juma'ah - Saudi nationality 14. Adel bin Saad bin Jaza' Al-Dhubaiti - Saudi nationality 15. Adel Mohammed Salem Abdullah Yamani - Saudi nationality 16. Abduljabbar bin Homood bin Abdulaziz Al-Tuwaijri - Saudi nationality 17. Abdulrahman Dhakheel Faleh Al-Faleh - Saudi nationality 18. Abdullah Sayer Moawadh Massad Al-Mohammadi - Saudi nationality 19. Abdullah bin Saad bin Mozher Shareef - Saudi nationality 20. Abdullah Saleh Abdulaziz Al-Ansari - Saudi nationality 21. Abdullah Abdulaziz Ahmed Al-Muqrin - Saudi nationality 22. Abdullah Musalem Hameed Al-Raheef - Saudi nationality 23. Abdullah bin Mua'ala bin A'li - Saudi nationality 24. Abdulaziz Rasheed bin Hamdan Al-Toaili'e - Saudi nationality 25. Abdulmohsen Hamad bin Abdullah Al-Yahya - Saudi nationality 26. Isam Khalaf Mohammed Al-Mothri'e - Saudi nationality 27. Ali Saeed Abdullah Al Ribeh - Saudi nationality 28. Ghazi Mohaisen Rashed - Saudi nationality 29. Faris Ahmed Jama'an Al Showail - Saudi nationality 30. Fikri Ali bin Yahya Faqih - Saudi nationality 31. Fahd bin Ahmed bin Hanash Al Zamel - Saudi nationality 32. Fahd Abdulrahman Ahmed Al-Buraidi - Saudi nationality 33. Fahd Ali Ayedh Al Jubran - Saudi nationality 34. Majed Ibrahim Ali Al-Mughainem - Saudi nationality 35. Majed Moeedh Rashed - Saudi nationality 36. Mishaal bin Homood bin Juwair Al-Farraj - Saudi nationality 37. Mohammed Abdulaziz Mohammed Al-Muharib - Saudi nationality 38. Mohammed Ali Abdulkarim Suwaymil - Saudi nationality 39. Mohammed Fathi Abula'ti Al-Sayed - Egyptian nationality 40. Mohammed bin Faisal bin Mohammed Al-Shioukh - Saudi nationality 41. Mostafa Mohammed Altaher Abkar - Chadian nationality 42. Moaidh Mufreh Ali Al Shokr- Saudi nationality 43. Nasser Ali Ayedh Al Jubran - Saudi nationality 44. Naif Saad Abdullah Al-Buraidi - Saudi nationality 45. Najeeb bin abdulaziz bin Abdullah Al-Bohaiji - Saudi nationality 46. Nimr Baqer Ameen Al-Nimr- Saudi nationality 47. Nimr Sehaj Zeid Al-Kraizi - Saudi nationality Advertisement Ahead of the announcement their mothers wrote a letter of thanks, published in The Independent today, along with the mothers of other youths sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia. Reprieve said in a statement that the Saudi government 'is continuing to target those who have called for domestic reform in the kingdom.' The recompense of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and do mischief in the land is only that they shall be killed or crucified or their hands and their feet be cut off from opposite side Saudi Arabian Interior Ministry statement Quoting the Koran, the Saudi Arabian Interior Ministry statement said: 'The recompense of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and do mischief in the land is only that they shall be killed or crucified or their hands and their feet be cut off from opposite sides, or be exiled from the land.' While the list does not include Nimr's nephew, Ali al-Nimr, who was 17 when he was arrested following the protests, concerns are growing for his fate. His sentencing to death by beheading and crucifixion sparked an international outcry. Official charges against Nimr include attending a protest, using his phone to encourage further support for the demonstrations and possessing a gun, an accusation which the family strongly denies. British shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn told the Press Association: 'With the carrying out of this large number of executions there will now be huge international concern about what will happen to Ali Mohammed al-Nimr who is Sheikh al-Nimr's nephew. 'The Foreign Secretary has told Parliament that he does not expect Ali Mohammed al-Nimr to be executed but he now needs to seek fresh assurances that he will be reprieved.' Protest: Scores of Shi'ite Muslims marched through the Qatif district of Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province in protest at the execution of cleric Nimr al-Nimra (file photo) Dozens of protesters gathered outside the Saudi embassy in London to express their anger about the executions Amnesty International UK's Shane Enright was at the protest outside the Saudi Embassy in London (pictured). He said a recent Amnesty report concluded that the trial against Nimr was 'deeply flawed' Death toll: Executions have increased in the kingdom since King Salman acceded to the throne in January 2015 following the death of king Abdullah (file photo) The Sheikh's brother Mohammed al-Nimr said that the executions came as a 'big shock' because 'we thought the authorities could adopt a political approach to settle matters without bloodshed.' 'There will be reactions,' he said, but urged people to 'adopt peaceful means when expressing their anger.' A 40cm rod and three pins now hold together his broken femur He credited his crew's work to aid him during the rough conditions Seeing his shoe 'facing the wrong way' was what told sailor Peter Harburg there was something seriously wrong with his leg following a painful fall aboard his yacht, Black Jack. He had just been knocked down by rough Bass Strait seas while competing in the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, and now had a badly broken femur, 12 hours from the port where he was eventually taken to shore. His effort to deal with the pain during that time earned him the title 'one tough b*****' from Black Jack's skipper Mark Bradford. With a 40cm rod and three pins now holding together his broken bone, he has talked about his ordeal during the challenging race,The Daily Telegraph reported. Scroll down for video Peter Harburg (left) had his leg badly broken during a fall aboard his yacht, Black Jack, during the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race An x-ray shows the extent of the break in Harburg's femur after a fall on his yacht while it was racing in the Bass Strait Bowmen work onboard Black Jack during the 2015 Sydney to Hobart on December 26 'I tried to get up and my shoe was facing the wrong way,' he said. 'The bones were at different angles.' He had been slammed against the hull of his supermaxi yacht, which had been named as a contender for the win before the race began on December 26. Harburg told The Daily Telegraph the actions of his on-board medics were an example of 'one of the top crews in Australian sailing'. A wave sprays crew members of supermaxi Black Jack during rough conditions Bowmen aboard the Black Jack during the first day of the 2015 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race The rough conditions experienced by yachts in the 2015 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race caused a third of the field to pull out They made a splint for his leg from carbon fibre sail batons and in an effort to keep him as still as possible, tied him into a bunk 'like a sail' - even using sail ties, he said. Meanwhile, his crew were planning the fastest, and calmest, way to get him to shore for medical attention. 'They were so calm and confident. I was absolutely helpless. It must have been awful hearing me screaming,' he told The Daily Telegraph. He had to wait 12 hours before reaching the shore in Jervis Bay, New South Wales, and another 24 hours before he underwent surgery in the Prince of Wales hospital in Sydney, following ambulance transfers. After a 12 week long recovery, he planned return to sailing at another race, but had yet to decide if he would compete in the next Sydney to Hobart event. The appalling conditions which plagued the race forced a third of the field to pull out before he finished. Supermaxi Comanche took out the bruising 71st edition of the race in two days, nine hours, 58 minutes and 30 seconds. In comparison, Victorian yacht Myuna III finished last, completing the race on the morning of New Year's eve. Black Jack eventually dropped owner Peter Hamburg ashore in Jervis Bay, NSW (pictured) before he was taken to hospital (stock image) The latest suspect be investigated for the killing of the British businessman Saad al-Hilli and his family has been named as 53-year-old Belgian Michel Hecht - a man jailed in 2008 for trying to kill his own family. Named and pictured by Belgian news site La Meuse, Hecht is being questioned by police in connection to the 2012 massacre in the French Alps after being identified by a French private detective. Hecht was jailed in 2008, was convicted of shooting at his brother Yves, his sister-in-law Isabelle Mathieu, 33, and his nephew Evan, 11 after he fired at them through the wooden walls of their chalet in Florenville, near Arlon in Belgium in 2005. Scroll down for video Suspect: Michel Hecht, 53, has been named as the latest suspect in the killing of British businessman Saad al-Hilli and his family He was also a potential suspect in the killings of British cyclists Lorraine Glasby, 28, and Paul Bellion, 29, who were found shot dead in a maize field in Brittany in 1986. Retired police captain turned private detective Pascale Huche said the close range shooting of Saad al-Hilli, 50, his wife Iqbal and mother-in-law Suhaila in their car bears remarkable similarities to a murder he investigated 30 years ago. Hecht was never charged and the case collapsed due to lack of evidence. Hecht was released on remand ten months after he was convicted of shooting his family. The murders of Britons Lorraine Glasby and Paul Bellion (pictured left and right) in Brittany in 1986 bears remarkable parallels to the 2012 killing of Mr al-Hilli and his family, a retired French detective has claimed BRITISH CYCLISTS KILLED 30 YEARS AGO British cyclists Lorraine Glasby, 28, and Paul Bellion, 29, were found dead in a maize field in Brittany in 1986. The case was never solved, but was worked on by now former police detective Pascal Huche. He says the case bears 'remarkable similarities' to the shooting of the al-Hilli family and French cyclist Sylvian Mollier. Both murders were committed in isolated locations and at close range. Advertisement 'There are similarities between these killings. Weapons were used at close range and both took place in isolated areas,' he told the newspaper. According to Huche, Hecht has been questioned over 'several investigations'. Speaking to The Sun, Lorraine Glasby's mother Rosemary said, 'The moment I heard about the family (al-Hillis) I thought the cases might be linked. There are so many similarities. The former captain. who worked on the murders in Brittany, tipped off French police about his suspicions. Hecht is now living in Vosges, France, two hours from Annency, and cannot return to Belgium under the terms of his police, according to a report in The Sun. Dad-of-two Saad, 50, pictured, and wife Iqbal, 47, were shot dead alongside her mother Suhaila al-Allaf, 74, while they holidayed in Annecy on September 5 CONVICTED FOR SHOOTING HIS FAMILY Michel Huche was sent to prison for ten months for shooting at his brother, sister-in-law and their infant son while they were staying in a wooden chalet in Florenville, Belgium in 2005. His sister-in-law Isabelle Mathieu, 33, was shot in the leg, and her infant son Evan, now aged 11, narrowly escaped death. Isabelle reportedly told The Sun, 'What person shoots at a defenceless family? One bullet went through Evan's cot. I'm not surprised Hecht is a suspect. I've never liked him.' Advertisement Hecht's sister-in-law Isabelle who was seriously injured in the attack, said her infant son narrowly escaped death as a bullet struck his cot. 'Michel is very dangerous and capable of anything,' Isabelle said. 'What person shoots at a defenceless family? One bullet went through Evan's cot. I'm not surprised Hecht is a suspect. I've never liked him.' 'Michel is very dangerous and capable of anything,' she told The Sun. His two young daughters survived, while cyclist Sylvain Mollier, 45, was also found dead nearby, prompting speculation the rider had been killed after stumbling across the execution-style killings. Businessman Saad al-Hilli and his family were gunned down in their car in Annecy, the French Alps, in 2012 Annecy prosecutor Eric Maillaud (pictured) said authorities remain confident they will one day find Mr al-Hilli's killer, or killers Adults will be able to choose their own legal gender under proposals to be considered by ministers. A report from a committee of MPs is expected to recommend that over-18s should be able to change their gender simply by filling out an application form making it far easier to do. Currently those who wish to change their legal gender have to go through a laborious process to prove they fit a range of criteria, including providing psychiatric evidence and swathes of paperwork, which is then assessed by a panel led by a judge. Scroll down for video Transgender men and women are set to be given the right to choose their legal gender. Pictured, Eddie Redmayne in The Danish Girl, with Alicia Vikander In Ireland, adults can already change their legal gender by filling out a form following a change to the law last year. The rights of transgender people were thrust into the limelight after former Olympian and reality star Caitlyn Jenner, (pictured) formerly known as Bruce Jenner announced to the world that she was transgender Ministers here are hailing that move as a model that could just be copied out. Almost 35,000 people have so far signed a petition urging Parliament to follow Irelands lead. Malta, Argentina and Denmark also allow people to declare gender. The Commons women and equalities committee has been looking into discrimination against transgender people and how well existing laws operate. Under their proposals, to be published this month, somebody wanting to change their legal gender would no longer have to prove they have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria. The plans would also scrap the current requirement to prove with photographs, utility bills and other paperwork that they have been living as the opposite gender for two years. Adults will also no longer feel pressure to have drastic surgery to reassign their gender in order to gain a gender recognition certificate, the document that confirms their new gender has been legally accepted and allows them to get a new birth certificate. Conservative MP Maria Miller, who chairs the committee, said the old definitions of gender should be scrapped and that male and female tick-boxes on job applications should be removed unless essential. She said: As a society and a government we should be looking at ways of trying to strip back talking about gender, and only do that when its absolutely necessary. We need to understand that gender stereotyping can be as damaging for men as it can be for women. For individuals who have decided to transition but havent necessarily got the right documentation, it can cause problems. TRANSGENDER WOMAN DESCRIBES HELL OF BEING SENT TO MALE PRISON Jessica Hughes, of Gwynedd, North Wales, revealed the torment of being treated as a man and being sent to a male prison when she identified as female. The 23-year-old transgender woman spent six months inside a men's prison after biting a woman in a drunken brawl. She has lifted the lid on her experience and claims she was on the receiving end of lewd sexual comments and one man even grabbed her by the neck and shoved her against a wall in her cell at Altcourse prison in Liverpool. Jessica was sentenced in December last year for biting a woman during a drunken brawl and believes transgender inmates should be better managed after several deaths in in prison She thought she was going to be raped during her sentence - and claims the abuse only stopped when she started flirting with the inmates. Jessica, who also revealed how her fellow inmates would shout 'get your t***s out' at her, said transgender inmates should be better managed after several deaths in prison. Jessica, who was born a boy, was diagnosed with gender dysphoria aged 13 and diagnosed as bi-polar aged 17. Advertisement Why do we need gender on our driving licence? Why do we have to have it on our passport if it doesnt really add identification? Its not relevant. Australia has decided to degender their passports. A review of the jailing of transgender people in the UK was triggered last year after a transgender woman, Vicky Thompson, was found dead in an all-male jail after she failed to get a certificate recognising her as female. Children who want to switch their birth gender can be given hormones to stop them developing sexual characteristics. However, they cannot legally change their gender until they are 18. In episode suffragettes brutally attack men who have hurt or Sherlock fans have blasted the festive Victorian special of the drama after it showed suffragettes in 'Ku Klux Klan' hoods. Disappointed viewers vented their fury on Twitter after watching the show, with some claiming it was misogynistic and sexist. Despite clocking up viewing figures of almost nine million, more than EastEnders and Downton Abbey, it was a controversial return for the eagerly anticipated episode, The Abominable Bride. Scroll down for video Controversial return: Festive episode Sherlock: The Abominable Bride left fans furiously tweeting Pictured, Sherlock walks through a meeting of the suffragettes while they wear their 'Ku Klux Klan' hoods Mansplaining: Sherlock was accused by fans of being patronising when he spoke about suffrage in the episode Female viewers have accused the show's writers of insulting women's campaigners and others have critcised its historical accuracy. The episode was set in 1895 but the first women's suffrage group, the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies, was not set up until two years later. The show's basic narrative structure also left many scratching their heads with a complicated time-travel plot, which flitted confusingly between the late 19th Century and the present day, turning out to be a drug-induced dream. In one scene Sherlock stands in front of the bizarrely dressed suffragettes in a church and discusses the importance of women's suffrage to his right hand, Dr Watson. Referring to women, he says: 'The invisible army hovering at our elbow, tending to our homes, raising our children, ignored, patronised, disregarded, not allowed so much as a vote. 'But an army nonetheless, ready to rise up in the best of causes, to put right an injustice as old as humanity itself.' Despite the speech showing Sherlock's obvious sympathy for the suffrage cause viewers took it to be patronising and expressed frustration at the sleuth 'mansplaining' feminism to a group of suffragettes. @katbeth88 posted: 'Best part of tonight's Victorian #Sherlock special was when a man explained feminism to a room full of suffragettes.' Fury: Viewers took to Twitter to vent frustration at what they deemed as slights against feminism in Sherlock Mary Fox said: 'Main gripe with the episode: the way it represented feminism was TERRIBLE, even for Victorian England. Like come on. #Sherlock.' At the end of the Abominable Bride Sherlock reveals that the suffragettes had taken it in turns to dress up as a ghost and carry out brutal attacks on men who had hurt or deceived them in the past. It was this twist that many took as a further slight to feminism. Kate Maltby posted: 'This is a man's nightmare of women, isn't it? We dress up in hoods, hold Masonic ceremonies & kill our men in the name of feminism #Sherlock' Jen Salisbury Jones said 'How did the KKK feel both horribly preachy, patronising, and massively sexist all at once?' Fans were taken back in time to the Victorian era as an 1800s Sherlock conducted his murder investigation Confused: A plot aspect that miffed viewers was when the story jumped between the modern day and the past Alex Bellotti posted: 'Not quite sure feminism will appreciate #Sherlock re-imagining the women's rights movement as some sort of murderous KKK-style wive's cult.' However, not all viewers were up in arms - some even praised the episode for having a feminist angle. A poster named Madelyn, tweeted: 'Love that that episode was completely about feminism tho [sic] the writers are amazing #Sherlock.' One woman called Jude, said: 'As a feminist, I still don't feel patronised by #Sherlock. It wasn't mansplaining feminism's roots, it wasn't a documentary. #perspective.' Pakistani police say they know of 200 camps brainwashing children US State Department officials have said boys were sold for $7,000 The same source told Daily Star Sunday boys are now traded for 30,000 16-year-old boy from Lahore was kidnapped but managed to escape Jihadis are kidnapping young boys and selling them as ready-made suicide bombers for 30,000 in Pakistan, according to a leading figure at a south London mosque. The chilling claim was made by an unnamed source in Daily Star Sunday, who related the story of a boy from a wealthy Pakistani family, who had been kidnapped but had made a remarkable escape from a 'camp ringed with barbed wire, with guards with AK47s.' Pakistani police have also reportedly identified 200 camps holding up to 200 children and teenagers. Brainwashed: Jihadis are kidnapping young boys and selling them as ready-made suicide bombers for 30,000 in Pakistan, according to a leading figure at a south London mosque The source, a 'leading figure at a south London mosque' who was not named for fear of reprisals, recounted the ordeal of the 16-year-old victim and said he had been told that children are now being sold for 30,000 by two independent sources, according the newspaper. Earlier reports have said that children were being sold for $7,000, quoting both US state department and Pakistani police officials. 'It is a very concerning development that has only emerged very recently,' the source said. 'To some of those taking and holding them it's not even got much to do with extremist beliefs, it has just become a money-making enterprise. Targeted: Taliban insurgents made Neaz, (left) try on a suicide vest packed with bullets and grenades before trying to convince him to blow himself up at a checkpoint and Spozhmai, 10, (right) was detained by Afghan police after she was forced to wear a suicide belt by the Taliban in 2014 'I have been told by two sources that you can buy a suicide bomber in Pakistan now for 30,000. 'And if the person hasn't been brainwashed into carrying out a suicide bombing, they are told their minders know where their family are and that they will kill them if they don't follow through with a bombing.' The teenager from Lahore was reportedly snatched after an old woman asked him to put something in the back of a van when men shut the doors. The next thing he remembered was waking up in a car with four adults speaking Pashto in the middle of nowhere. He stayed at the camp for a week and was told his family had abandoned him. His captors also tried to brainwash him and the other boys with stories of 'heroes' who had died as suicide bombers. The victim managed to escape during the change of guard and dug underneath the barbed wire. Hours later he found a road and was picked up by a taxi driver who helped him call his family. 'When the boy's parents spoke to the police officers said they were aware of more than 200 of these makeshift camps which are often moved around. The Taliban is renowned for recruiting children in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. Spozhmai, 10, was about to be used by the Taliban as a suicide bomber, when she was spotted and detained by police in Helmand province in January, 2014. Afghan authorities said that they had detained a 10-year-old girl for attempting to carry out a suicide attack wearing a vest packed with explosives. Other children said they were told they would survive the attack. Indoctirnated: Boys and teenagers in Syria have been brainwashed and recruited by ISIS to carry out sickening executions The recruitment and brainwashing of children into jihadi ranks has been documented in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria - with ISIS creating special camps for their 'cubs'. While the use of children as soldiers is not a new phenomenon, terrorist jihadis are better known for indoctrinating or blackmailing them rather than kidnapping and selling them for a fee. Children are radicalised through a number of methods including 'religious education', separating them from their family and friends, threatening their lives and that of their families and through tales of heroism and glory. Young 'recruits' are also easier to manipulate and they are less likely to be checked when they approach checkpoints. The gunman started to weep, prayed in the pews then asked for salvation Wright, a retired Army major, confronted the man and took the gun off him The stranger told the congregation he planned to 'do something terrible' A pastor may have stopped a shooting after he confronted a gunman who walked into his church during his sermon on senseless violence, and persuaded him to hand over his weapon. Larry Wright, a city councilman in Fayetteville, North Carolina, was talking to his congregation about senseless killings on New Year's Eve when a man walked in with a semi-automatic rifle and an ammo magazine. The retired Army sergeant first class, who runs Heal the Land Outreach Ministries, quickly realized the gun was real and walked over to him. The man, who appeared to be in his 20s, told the small congregation he had set out to do something terrible, but he had been urged to go to church. Larry Wright, a city councilman in Fayetteville, North Carolina, was talking to his congregation about senseless killings on New Year's Eve when a man walked in with a semi-automatic rifle and an ammo magazine The terrifying incident unfolded seven months after Dylan Roof, 21, walked into a church 200 miles away in Charleston and shot nine people dead. Wright, who is 57, 6ft 2in and 240 pounds, said to him: 'Can I help you?' Wright told the Fayetteville Observer he was ready to tackle the man to the floor, but the stranger appeared to be calm. The pastor then took the weapon from him, calmly patted him down then asked four deacons to comfort him. Wright then started praying for the man who had fallen to his knees and started crying. The unidentified man, who told Wright he had just been released from prison, was then asked to sit in the front pew. Wright carried on his service. The retired Army sergeant first class, who runs Heal the Land Outreach Ministries, quickly realized the gun was real and walked over to him. He calmed the stranger and persuaded him to hand over the gun At the end, the would-be gunman came forward and asked for salvation. Police Department spokesman Lt. David McLaurin said the incident was noted as a 'Call for Service.' The man was taken to Cape Fear Valley Medical Center at his request as a voluntary commitment, the Observer reported. Wright hopes to contact him again. He said: 'I want to follow up with him and see that he's getting the help and resources he needs.' Army reservists whistleblowers have said their ranks are filled with 'paper soldiers' who are unfit for duty. A number of military sources, including from 77 Brigade or Royal Yeomanry, said over half of their units only exist in the books to pad out numbers in a bid to help the government reach their targets of recruiting 30,000 army reservists by 2020. In a shocking report by the Sunday Express, a senior source and a 'loyal' reservist revealed some recruits can barely assemble a rifle as they miss so many drills. 'Paper soldiers': Army reservists whistleblowers have said their ranks are filled with 'paper soldiers' who are unfit for duty 'We have what we call paper soldiers that are officially accounted for but never attend,' the senior source said describing his reservist unit in the south of England 'We have more than 100 soldiers on our books, but of that number, on a typical drill night, we probably only have 12-15 that regularly attend. 'On a weekend exercise in the field we are lucky if we have half a dozen, including instructors assigned to play the enemy. I have been informed by other units this is not uncommon,' he added. Recruitment: The MOD is attempting to recruit 30,000 army reservists by 2020 to boost falling military numbers after the force reduction One unit - the 77 Brigade, which includes specialist team of experts in civil affairs, intelligence and psychological specialists - only has a total number of 670 despite it supposed to have recruited 4,500 by Christmas the newspaper reported. Most of those counted are instructors or in command positions. In addition, a reservist source said approximately 65 per cent of the reservists failed their medical tests or were being kept on the books despite quitting. An MoD spokesperson told the Express: 'We will look at concerns about attendance but reserve recruiting figures are very encouraging, we have turned a corner with 8,500 recruited in the past year.' And in July, Defense Secretary Michael Fallon admitted recruitment for the Territorial Army - now known as the 'Army Reserve' - had been challenging. He added: 'The programme is now back on schedule, although of course the target becomes more challenging in the next two years, but I am confident that we can still reach those targets with the changes we have introduced.' 'We need to work harder at recruitment and we need to look at reserve retention. ... We need to keep working away on that,' he said. David Cameron has announced a 40 million package to bolster defences in the areas affected by the recent floods Tower, home to the 21st laird since 1972, remains under threat as heavy rain continues to sweep across the country Sits next to the River Dee which was turned into raging torrent in the wake of Storm Frank, which battered Scotland Advertisement The Queen's neighbour in Balmoral has had to leave his historic 450-year-old castle as it is threatened by rising flood waters. John Seton Howard Gordon, whose 11,687-acre Abergeldie estate is enclosed by Balmoral on three sides, had to flee the castle as it was 'teetering on the brink'. It sits alongside the River Dee which was turned into a raging torrent after Storm Frank battered Scotland. As the river burst its banks, it left the castle just feet away from the water's edge. The historic castle, which is enclosed by Balmoral on three side, sits alongside the River Dee which burst its banks after Storm Frank Abergeldie Castle is just one of the homes at risk after the River Dee swept away land, leaving the historic building feet from disaster After the River Dee burst its banks, flood water rose to only a few feet from the castle, meaning baron John Gordon had to flee Baron Abergeldie, 76-year-old John Gordon, left his 16th century tower house near Balmoral as it was threatened by rising flood waters The tower, home to the 21st laird since 1972, remains under threat as heavy rain continues to sweep across the country. The baron - who hit the headlines when he broke a leg after being attacked by his cows in 2009 - took refuge in the home of neighbour George Fraser, then moved into another house on the estate. Mr Fraser said: 'He left the castle when the river was at its height. It swept the embankment away. 'It moved a 60ft lump of ground and took a lot of big mature trees as well.' Another neighbour commented: 'When the waters came up he had to get out quickly. The castle is teetering on the brink. God knows what will happen if the Dee rises any further. 'The castle is in imminent danger and John is at his wits' end. It's not only a home. It's a category A listed building so losing it would be a national tragedy. Nothing can be done while the river is like it is. It's just thundering down. The river is right at the back door.' The baron, 76, was to upset to comment on his ordeal, but last week told friends: 'In all my time here I've never seen anything like it.' The Gordon family have long enjoyed a close relationship with the Royals and part of the estate is rented out to them for shooting and fishing. The tower (pictured when it was a safer distance from the water), home to the 21st laird since 1972, remains under threat as heavy rain continues to sweep across the country After flood waters neared the castle, the baron took refuge in the home of a neighbour then moved into another house on the estate A neighbour said 'the castle is in imminent danger and John is at his wits' end' after River Dee burst its banks in the wake of Storm Frank Part of the Gordon familys 11,700-acre estate is rented out to the Royal Family for shooting and fishing A bridge over the River Muick, in Aberdeenshire, which leads to the Birkhall estate which is owned by Prince Charles, was also devastated by flood waters. Last week Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall offered their condolences and support to the residents of Ballater in Aberdeenshire as they started a massive clean-up operation in the wake of the River Dee bursting its banks. The couple, who are known as the Duke and Duchess of Rothesay in Scotland, visited a soup kitchen and Victoria Barracks, where more than 100 people spent the night after being evacuated from their homes. Elsewhere today, the wreck of a ship which ran aground almost 130 years ago was exposed in the wake of the recent storms. The Jeune Hortense, a French brigantine, was swept onto the beach at Long Rock in Cornwall in 1888, but every few years the sand is washed away and her hull is exposed. A lifeboat rescued the four crew members on the ship that was carrying 450 cattle, most of which were saved, but it proved impossible to re-float it. The hull of the Jeune Hortense, a French brigantine, at Long Rock beach is exposed every few years in extreme weather conditions The storms have uncovered the hull of a 130-year-old French ship on the Cornish coast It comes as the government defended its funding of flood defences after it emerged ministers were told spending cuts could leave 240,000 extra households facing a 'significant risk' of flood damage within 20 years. A document presented to ministers in November last year - just days before Cumbria was inundated - warned of the risks posed by extreme weather events becoming more frequent. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said the document was outdated because the flood defence budget had been increased in the Autumn Statement. Details of the paper drawn up by the Association of Drainage Authorities (ADA) were reported in the Observer as more heavy rain hit the UK and David Cameron announced a 40 million package to bolster defences in the areas affected. The ADA, which represents a range of organisations responsible for managing water levels, said in the document: 'We have had the five wettest years since 2000. The Environment Agency's funding for maintaining flood assets has fallen by 14 per cent. Downward adjustments have also been made to intended revenue spending commitments.' It warned that 'failure of assets and networks is more likely as extreme weather events become more frequent and unpredictable' and recommended a change in approach to a more long-term strategy. Referring to the potential impact of spending cuts, the document said: 'Annual flood and storm damage costs are approximately 1.1 billion, according to the Association of British Insurers, and those households at significant risk (of flood damage) through a reduction in our capacity to manage water levels could increase from 330,000 today to 570,000 in 2035.' The document said cuts to local authority budgets had left them with little option but to reduce funding to drainage boards and other organisations and landowners who manage river levels, the Observer reported. More heavy rain is set to lash parts of Britain over the coming days, which could hit parts of south west England (pictured here is Devon) Swans in flooded water after prolonged rain flooded a park near Tewkesbury Abbey in Gloucestershire Persistent heavy rain completely submerged this playground in Gloucestershire in rain water - yet more rain fall is expected A road is impassable adjacent to the River Severn near Bishop's Norton, after prolonged rain caused flooding in Gloucestershire Huge waves smashed into the Seaham Lighthouse in Durham today, as more heavy rain is set to lash parts of Britain over the coming days Persistent rainfall and high winds wreaked havoc across the country in the last few weeks - here waves crash into the Seaham lighthouse Waves crash into the harbour wall in Stonehaven, in Aberdeenshire, and further rainfall is set to batter the country over the next few days Persistent rainfall and high winds wreaked havoc across the country, claiming the lives of two people in Scotland and causing severe flooding in the Dumfries and Aberdeenshire areas A bridge over the River Muick, which has been devastated by the flood waters - it leads to the Birkhall estate owned by Prince Charles The A93 North of Braemar is closed after the Invercauld Bridge became unsafe, as more flooding is expected with a new Met Office amber 'be prepared' warning for heavy rain in force for the Grampian, Central, Tayside and Fife areas of Scotland until Monday night David Cameron, pictured in York last week, has announced a 40 million package to bolster defences in the areas affected The residents of Glenridding in Cumbria had to dredge the beck that flooded the village three times again on New Year's Eve to prevent further flooding after heavy rain fall Next week, the Prime Minister and Oliver Letwin, who was embroiled in a race row last week, will face Commons questioning over the cabinet committee on flooding set up in February 2014. It was established in the wake of the 2013-2014 winter storms but met just three times before being disbanded, The Times revealed. Mr Letwin was supposed to publish a report on flood resilience, but 22 months later nothing has been done, prompting accusations it was nothing more than a publicity stunt. A Cabinet office spokesman said the committee had played a 'valuable role' in its response to the 2014 floods. To try and get a grip on the crisis, the Prime Minister - who was seen sporting 12.99 wellies as he visited flood-affected areas last week - revealed 40million would be spent on fixing and improving flood defences. He said: 'I have seen at first-hand the devastation caused by flooding. And that's why this work to repair and improve flood defences is so vital.' More heavy rain is set to lash parts of Britain over the coming days, particularly in eastern parts of Scotland. More rain is also expected today in south-west and north-east England and this will bring a risk of flooding along parts of some rivers in Devon and Cornwall and the North East. The River Ouse is set to remain high in York for several days and the River Severn will stay high in places, bringing a risk of flooding over the weekend and into next week in Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire. Former Lib Dem MP Lembit Opik has revealed he is to undergo cosmetic surgery on his 'wonky' face - and he hopes he will look like Hollywood A-lister George Clooney following the procedure. Ex-politician Mr Opik, 50, who represented Montgomeryshire until he lost his seat in 2010, suffered extensive facial injuries in a paragliding accident in 1998 which saw him fall 80ft. The fall also caused him to break his back in 12 places along with his ribs, jaw and sternum. Ex-Lib Dem MP for Lembit Opik, 50, who represented Montgomeryshire until 2010, suffered extensive facial injuries in a paragliding accident. He wants to look like George Clooney (right) after his cosmetic surgery This month Mr Opik, who has enjoyed high-profile romances with one half of the Cheeky Girls and weather girl Sian Lloyd, will finally undergo a six-hour operation on the NHS after waiting more than four years. He told the Sunday People: 'Basically, they're going to break my face and reconstruct it. For a while I'll look like I've been in a major fist fight, then I've been told that when the bandages come off and I look in the mirror I'll see a stranger for the rest of my life. 'I've been looking at the bent-up version of my face for 17 years, and soon I'm going to have to get used to seeing a new person. 'They haven't shown me what I'll look like. I'd like to think I'll look like George Clooney!' Former Liberal Democrat MP Lembit Opik pictured left making his debut as a stand-up comic in 2010 and right in a publicity still from his time on ITV's I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here Doctors have warned Mr Opik he will be 'unrecognisable' following the invasive operation, and they have even offered him counselling to help him come to terms with his new face. Mr Opik said he is undergoing the operation because his teeth are disintegrating - which is preventing him from being able to eat. He added he will stay in hospital for a week after the operation and will remain out of action for several weeks afterwards. The politician has made a number of television appearances on shows like Have I Got news For You He added: 'I am frightened and worried because any operation, especially on the head, is a risk and can go wrong.' The politician has made a number of television appearances on shows like Have I Got news For You, I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here , Loose Women and Come Dine With Me. In recent years he has also appeared in a pantomime, done stand up comedy and even took part in a professional wrestling promotion. He is now the director of communications for the Motorcycle Action Group and is a keen motorcyclist. Mr Opik also appeared on Celebrity Come Dine With Me with Debbie McGee, Iain Lee and Jodie Marsh Simon Danczuk 'cried like a baby' when he was dumped by his local councillor girlfriend, she has revealed. Claire Hamilton described the 49-year-old Rochdale MP as a 'real Jekyll and Hyde character' as she described their three-month relationship. The 32-year-old Labour councillor spoke out after Mr Danczuk claimed a 'drink problem' led him to send sexually explicit messages to a teenage girl amid a string of lurid revelations about his private life. Miss Hamilton (centre), who split with the controversial MP last week, said Mr Danczuk (left) had manipulated her in a bid for publicity having invited her on a night out with his estranged second wife Karen (right) Miss Hamilton, who split with the controversial MP last week, said Mr Danczuk had manipulated her in a bid for publicity having invited her on a night out with his estranged second wife Karen. She claims she and Mrs Danczuk kissed 'for about an hour' on the night out while the MP took photos. Speaking of her romance with Mr Danczuk, Miss Hamilton told Grace Macaskill at the Sunday Mirror: 'He's a real Jeykll and Hyde character. You get the public Simon who claims to care passionately about things, then the Simon who drinks too much and doesn't care who he hurts to get his own way. 'He follows loads of random young women on Twitter so who knows who else he has been texting and sending messages to. He's finally pressed the self-destruct button.' Councillor Claire Hamilton dated Mr Danczuk after meeting him at the party conference in September months. The couple are pictured eating Christmas dinner Break-up: Miss Hamilton announced the split on Twitter, hours after tweeting photos of them enjoying a curry as families in Mr Danczuk's constituency were ravaged by floods. He was later pictured visiting Rochdale (right) The councillor met Mr Danczuk at the party conference in September and she says he told her he loved her within a week. She described the first month of their relationship as 'fantastic' and that they enjoyed 'cosy nights in'. But the pair reportedly had a series of rows before Miss Hamilton tweeted after Christmas that she had 'dumped' him. One row erupted after Mr Danczuk admitted kissing a 25-year-old activist - something she denies ever happened. Miss Hamilton told the Sunday Mirror that they had another bust up after he admitted to sending texts to 17-year-old Sophena Houlihan. It was later revealed that he asked the teenager whether she 'wanted a spank' in one of the messages. Ill-advised: Cllr Hamilton tweeted: 'Having a fun evening at @ViceroyLeyland with @SimonDanczuk & flat cap' End of the road: Hours later Miss Hamilton posted that she had 'Dumped Danczuk', adding: 'He had it coming' Response: Miss Hamilton today said that friends are pleased her relationship with Mr Danczuk is over Statement: Karen Danczuk said that it was 'not fair' she was being 'dragged' into her estranged husband's break-up but did not comment on kissing Miss Hamilton Miss Hamilton said her lover was 'crying like a baby' as she threw him out and how she now feels 'physically sick' having seen the contents of the MP's texts to Miss Houlihan. She said that during their brief romance, Mr Danczuk had invited her on a night out with his estranged wife Karen and that they posed for pictures that later appeared in newspapers. At one point she and Karen kissed while Mr Danczuk took pictures, Miss Hamilton added. After the night out, Karen Danczuk did not comment on the kissing claims - but said she wanted to be 'left out of it'. Speaking to the Mirror, Mr Danczuk said of Claire: 'She is consumed by bitterness, is susceptible to drinking too much and is telling lies.' Last night, the MP claimed a 'drink problem' led him to send sexually explicit messages to Miss Houlihan and that he felt 'awful' about the lewd texts. He has been suspended from the Labour Party while an investigation takes place into his conduct, for which he has apologised 'unreservedly'. The MP for Rochdale admitted he 'had a drink problem' and revealed a psychiatrist had told him to stop drinking for six months. He is pictured out jogging in London on New Year's Day Mr Danczuk, an anti child abuse campaigner who helped expose MP Sir Cyril Smith as a paedophile, spoke of how he became attracted to Miss Houlihan after seeing pictures of her online Claire Hamilton described the 49-year-old Rochdale MP (pictured) as a 'real Jekyll and Hyde character' as she described their three-month relationship The Labour MP said he was downing three bottles of wine a night when he began sending sexually explicit text messages to Sophena Houlihan The Rochdale MP also threatened legal action against his first wife, Sonia Rossington, after she made a series of claims about his conduct, calling him a 'sexual predator who made my life hell' and revealing details of his drink and drug consumption. The text messages to Ms Houlihan followed the collapse of his marriage to second wife Karen, who was dubbed the selfie queen after posting numerous photographs of herself in low-cut tops. The MP for Rochdale told the Sun he felt 'lonely' and was 'drunk' while on holiday in Spain when he sent the texts. He said: 'I have a drink problem, and that is a major contributory reason why I sent the messages. 'I've seen a psychiatrist about it and he's told me to stop drinking for six months. 'I feel awful about what happened. I don't know what came over me. I'm so embarrassed that I've been such an idiot. I'm sorry for letting my family down and I'm already dreading my young sons finding out when they are older.' The father of five added that 'younger women are my Achilles heel' but said he knew sending the messages was 'wrong' and his behaviour had 'played on his mind'. Miss Houlihan, who is now 18, said Mr Danczuk sent her numerous messages, including one asking if she wanted a 'spanking' after she contacted him about a job. Donald Trump blamed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for causing 'tremendous death' in the Middle East, while saying that she and President Barack Obama 'created ISIS.' Trump appeared on Sunday's Face the Nation and suggested that Clinton had ruined the world. 'I mean, the entire world has been upset,' Trump said. 'She's done a horrible job, she's caused so many of the problems. And, let me tell you something, she has caused death. She has caused tremendous death with incompetent decisions.' Scroll down for video On Sunday's Face the Nation Donald Trump slammed Hillary Clinton for upsetting the entire world with 'incompetent decisions' in the Middle East Donald Trump said President Barack Obama created ISIS with his former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Asking Trump to articulate, the billionaire businessman pointed to the fact that he was against the Iraq war, while Clinton voted for it. He also looked to Libya. 'That was her baby,' Trump said, highlighting the destabilized country where Benghazi is located. 'Look, I mean, I'm not even talking about the ambassador and the people with the ambassador. Young, wonderful people.' 'I'm not talking about that,' the Republican frontrunner continued. 'I'm talking about all the death that's been caused and not only our side.' Dickerson interjected, asking the businessman if he thought American action in the Middle East had perhaps saved lives. 'There was nothing saved,' Trump replied. 'If we would have never done anything in the Middle East, we would have a much safer world right now.' Trump is blaming the Obama administrations policies when his Democratic rival Clinton was Secretary of State on the rise of the terror organization. Pictured, Obama and Clinton in 2008 Trump argued that getting rid of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein led to the rise of ISIS. 'And she for the most part was in charge of it along with Obama,' Trump charged, again circling back to Clinton, who's considered to be his main general election threat, if the current frontrunners survive their parties primaries. A day before, Trump sang a similar tune. At a rally at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum in Biloxi on Saturday, Trump prodded Clinton and Obama. 'They've created ISIS,' the told the crowd, though did not elaborate further on his claim. The real estate moguls controversial run for the White House has seen him call for a ban on Muslims entering the United States in the wake of terror attacks in San Bernardino, California, and Paris. In December, the billionaire proposed a total and complete shutdown on Muslims entering the United States until the government was able to determine and understand this problem. Trump made the remarks during a campaign stop in Biloxi, Mississippi, on Saturday (pictured) His remarks sparked a wave of outrage and were rebuked by both Democratic and Republican candidates for their parties' nomination. It also led to Clinton branding Trump ISISs best recruiter during a Democratic debate in December. Clinton claimed his remarks were playing into the hands of the terror group and that extremists were going to people showing videos of Donald Trump insulting Island and Muslims in order to recruit more radical jihadists. Supporters wave campaign signs as Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at the rally Trump has hit back and accused Clinton of lying, although her spokeswoman insisted that his remarks were used by ISIS as propaganda to help with their recruitment. Although no evidence was found of her initial claim, in recent days, Somalias Al-Shabab militant group has released a recruitment video that includes a clip of Trump calling for a ban on Muslims entering the United States. The 51-minute video, by Al-Qaedas east African affiliate, includes a clip of Trump making his infamous proposal using it to present the US as a country of institutionalized racism against blacks that now also persecutes Muslims. Using footage from recent racial conflicts in the U.S. as well as historic quotes from Malcolm X, the video lays out the argument that blacks and Muslims will always face discrimination in the country. A 20-year-old sorority sister was fatally shot in the head in a road rage dispute on New Year's Eve in Denton, Texas. Sara Mutschlechner, a junior at the University of North Texas and philanthropy chair of her sisterhood, was driving friends home from a party at 2am when a black SUV pulled up beside them and they got into an argument and then started to drive off. Police said that as both vehicles began to drive through the intersection at West University Drive, someone in the SUV fired several rounds at Mutschlechner's Sedan, striking Mutschlechner in the head. The car then crashed into an electrical pole. Responding officers found the TV and film studies major lying on the ground. Scroll down for video Sara Mutschlechner, a 20-year-old junior at the University of North Texas and philanthropy chair of her sisterhood, was shot dead during an apparent road rage argument in the early hours of New Year's Day The Sedan Mutschlechner was driving crashed into an electrical pole after she was shot in the road rage incident Mutschlechner (pictured) was driving friends home from a party at 2am when a black SUV pulled up beside them and they got into an argument. Within minutes rounds were fired, she was shot, and the car crashed She was taken to hospital to be placed on life support, and was pronounced dead hours later on January 1. Suspects have not been identified. Witnesses told police there were 'five or six African American males' in the SUV, and that at least two had been at the same party as Mutschlechner. Around 60 people were at the house party. Paying tribute to Mutschlechner on Saturday, her sorority - Zeta Tau Alpha - posted on Facebook: 'Our thoughts are with the sisters, family and friends of Gamma Phi Chapter (University of North Texas) member Sara Mutschlechner, who passed away in a tragic accident this weekend.' The post quoted chapter president Jordan Roberts, who said: 'Each and every one of our lives at the Gamma Phi Chapter of ZTA has been touched by the spunky, selfless attitude of our beloved sister, Sara. According to her LinkedIn page, Mutschlechner had volunteered at the American Cancer Society A candlelit vigil was held at the school on Saturday night to remember the popular student Mutschlechner According to her LinkedIn page, Mutschlechner had done some volunteer work for the American Cancer Society. Pictured above people light candles at the vigil 'She is by far one of the most spirited, honest and fun-loving people I ever had the privilege to know. She will truly be missed.' According to her LinkedIn page, Mutschlechner had done some volunteer work for the American Cancer Society. She had also worked as a waitress and made a short horror film as she explored film-making. UNT spokesman Margarita Venegas told ABC: 'The university is saddened by the loss of one of our community members. Our thoughts are with Sara's family and friends.' A candlelit vigil was held at the school on Saturday night. 'It goes to show that she was who she was and she wasn't afraid to be herself,' NBC quoted Jordan Roberts, Sara's sorority sister as saying. Flight was met with fire crews at London airport after technical issues Soon after an American Airlines plane to Miami announced an emergency Pilots declared an emergency after someone suffered a medical problem Delta Air flight to Minneapolis was forced to return to Two American-bound planes have been forced to land after declaring an onboard emergency today. Pilots on a Delta Air Lines flight DL163 from Amsterdam to Minneapolis were forced to return to Airport Schiphol after a medical emergency. Soon after, a second flight, from Paris to Miami declared an unspecified state of emergency and announced they would be landing at London. American Airlines Flight AA63 turned around over Ireland and has now landed at Heathrow airport (pictured) in the UK where it was met with fire crews The American Airlines Flight AA63 turned around over Ireland and has now landed at Heathrow airport in the UK where it was met with fire crews. No injuries have yet been reported. Flightradar24 have since confirmed the plane, which is only the second this year to report an onboard emergency after the Delta flight, had been diverted over a 'maintenance issue.' It had taken off at 10.50am (local time) and was due to arrive in Miami at 9.15pm before the emergency was declared. Pilots on a Delta Air Lines flight DL163 from Amsterdam to Minneapolis were forced to return to the European Airport Schiphol after a medical emergency The aircraft had taken off at shortly after 12.30pm (local time) and was scheduled to arrive in the Unites States at 9.15pm Delta's plane has since landed safely at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol where an ambulance which was waiting to rush the patient to a nearby hospital. The aircraft had taken off at shortly after 12.30pm (local time) and was scheduled to arrive in the Unites States at 9.15pm. But the airline declared the first onboard emergency of the new year and turned back from its schedules route over the North Sea. Peter Dutton has called a female journalist a mad f***ing witch in a text meant for a colleague, but which he accidentally sent to the journalist herself. The Minister for Immigration and Border Protection quickly apologised to journalist Samantha Maiden for the text he sent on Sunday, and said it had been meant for someone else. It had been intended for Jamie Briggs, Daily Telegraph reports, who just last week resigned from Malcolm Turnbulls ministry to the backbench following sexual harassment allegations. The Australian newspaper reported that Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull had privately described the message as 'completely inappropriate'. Scroll down for video Peter Dutton has called a female journalist a mad f***ing witch in a text meant for a colleague, but which he accidentally sent to the journalist herself Mr Dutton had sent the text to Ms Maiden after her coverage of the scandal. 'Sam and I have exchanged some robust language over the years so we had a laugh after this and I apologised to her straight away which she took in good faith. I'm expecting a tough time in her next column,' a spokesperson from the minister's office told Daily Mail Australia. Ms Maiden didn't appear to be offended by the text. She laughed that some MPs appear to be having trouble with their phones and 'might want to just put them down', she told Channel Nines Today. Ms Maiden laughed that some MPs appear to be having trouble with their phones and 'might want to just put them down' Ms Maiden, a National Political Editor at News Corp papers, has since added totally mad witch to her bio on Twitter Ms Maiden, a National Political Editor at News Corp papers, has since added totally mad witch to her bio on Twitter. Following the revelation, Mr Duttons name has quickly begun trending on Twitter, with the social media page overrun with tweets mocking the senior ministers incompetence. Most have posted satirical tweets poking fun at the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection. 'Peter Dutton pressing the wrong button on a Coles self-service checkout and being forced to wait 15 minutes for a staff member,' joked @jrhennessy. Others on Twitter have called for Mr Dutton's resignation, following Mr Turnbull's recent declarations against misogyny. The blunder follows a tough week for the Prime Minister following the resignation of Mr Briggs and of Mal Brough, who stood down from the front-bench pending police inquiries into the leaking of Mr Slippers diary. Following the revelation, Mr Duttons name has quickly begun trending on Twitter, with the social media page overrun with tweets mocking the senior ministers incompetence It had been intended for Jamie Briggs who just last week resigned from Malcolm Turnbulls ministry after backbench following sexual harassment allegations In September, Mr Dutton had been caught joking about rising sea levels in Papua New Guinea to then-Prime Minister Tony Abbott and then-Social Services Minister Scott Morrison. Mr Dutton was talking with Mr Abbott, who had just returned from talks with Pacific Island leaders in Port Moresby, about meetings running late. Mr Dutton said, not realising a microphone was hanging overhead: Time doesnt mean anything when youre about to have water lapping at your door. Mr Abbott was heard laughing at the comment until Mr Morrison responded: Theres a boom [microphone] up there. Daily Mail Australia has contacted Peter Duttons office for comment. Mr Dutton was talking with Mr Abbott, who had just returned from talks with Pacific Island leaders in Port Moresby, about meetings running late Mr Dutton said, not realising a microphone was hanging overhead: Time doesnt mean anything when youre about to have water lapping at your door' Tony Blair has been banned from staying in British embassies abroad for free when he is on private business. The former prime minister - who has amassed a 60million fortune - stayed rent-free in British embassies in France and the US at the taxpayers' expense on several occasions. He was put up at the British ambassador's official residence in Manila, on a visit to the Philippines, during which he pocketed almost 400,000 for two speeches. He also stayed at the UK embassy in Tripoli when meeting Muammar Gaddafi, the then Libyan dictator, on private business. But new Foreign Office guidelines will clamp down on ministers staying for free at British embassies and using diplomats to carry out their private commercial work. Tony Blair and former ministers have been banned from staying for free at British embassies Ex-ministers will now only be able to use embassies and staff if they are working on official business, the Sunday Telegraph revealed. The disclosures were uncovered by Conservative MP for North West Leicestershire, Andrew Bridgen, via a Freedom of Information request. He had concerns Mr Blair was 'continuing to enjoy UK government hospitality at the taxpayers' expense while partaking in activities which were of a personal rather than a governmental nature.' He found Mr Blair had stayed twice at the UK ambassador to the US in 2010. The former Labour leader also allegedly lodged at the UK ambassador's residence in Paris between 2008 and 2011. On each trip, the 62-year-old perma-tanned ex PM was joined by up to six people, not counting his security team, and his group was not charged. Although the FoI request had sought details for all countries Blair visited, the government only supplied information for 20 countries. The Daily Telegraph previously revealed how Mr Blair had been put up at the British ambassador's official residence in Manila and had also stayed at the UK embassy in Tripoli. Neither of these trips were included in the requests. Mr Blair stayed at the UK embassy in Tripoli when meeting Muammar Gaddafi, the then Libyan dictator, on private business in 2007 (pictured) Mr Blair had also stayed overnight at the British ambassador's residence in Tripoli in 2009 during one of several trips to the country to see Gaddafi Jack Straw, who was foreign secretary under Mr Blair, also asked the British ambassador in Ukraine in 2011 to set up a number of meetings with senior government figures there on behalf of a private client that pays him around 60,000 a year. The ex-MP for Blackburn, was visiting with representatives of his client, ED&F Man, a commodities firm which was seeking changes to laws surrounding sugar production, the Telegraph reported. A Whitehall source said: 'It isn't right that taxpayers should foot the bill for former prime ministers staying in ambassadors' residences when they are visiting on private business.' According to the FoI answer, the new Foreign and Commonwealth guidance states: 'Former prime ministers and former ministers who seek logistical support as representatives of UK business must now submit requests through official UK Trade & Investment channels to ensure equal support is provided to UK companies.' Responding to the allegations, a spokesman for the former prime minister, said: 'Of the 20 countries for which information was requested between 2008-15, the FCO records show that Mr Blair stayed at the Embassies in the US and France, the last occasions being in 2010 and 2011 respectively. 'As with other former Prime Ministers, Mr Blair has been invited to stay at Embassies, though for the majority of visits he would stay in a hotel. He was usually accompanied by one or two members of staff although when on visits related to his role as Quartet Representative, and where appropriate, FCO secondees to the OQR would be invited. 'Tony Blair has been treated no differently from any other former PM and the notion that he has used these invitations for business reasons is absurd. He stays only at the express invitation of the Ambassador. In the case of both Paris and Washington DC he will have had political meetings as it is useful both for him and the Embassy to compare notes.' A spokesman for Mr Straw added: 'ED&F Man had been in touch with this embassy for some time, well before I became a consultant in April 2011.' Father Paul Rowan (pictured) has been sacked from a university amid allegations of a relationship with a student, it is claimed A Catholic priest has been sacked from a London university amid allegations he had a relationship with a 33-year-old student, it has been claimed Father Paul Rowan was reportedly dismissed from his job as senior lecturer and programme director of theology and religious studies at St Mary's University, in Twickenham. It came amid claims he had become close to undergraduate Charmaine Garton - a mother-of two - about two years ago. According to the Sun on Sunday, Father Rowan is understood to be appealing against the decision, which was made in November. But the 47-year-old is also due to face a church probe, it is claimed. A church source told the Sun: 'There are employment proceedings taking place regarding his dismissal from the university. Once they are concluded his future will be determined by the church. It is a matter which will be taken very seriously.' Father Rowan, from Warrington, Cheshire, is popular among students at the south west London university, according to the Sun. One student is quoted as saying: 'He was easily the best lecturer I had at the university. He was very engaging and made the subject really great.' Father, who was ordained 21 years ago in the Archdiocese of Liverpool, became chaplain at University Hospital Aintree in 2001. Father Paul Rowan was reportedly dismissed from his job as senior lecturer and programme director of theology and religious studies at St Mary's University (pictured), in Twickenham The Liverpool fan, who once boxed for England under 19s, joined St Mary's University around eight years ago. Father Rowan did not respond to the Sun's request for a comment while Ms Garton said she could not comment. Anti-paedophile crusading MP Simon Danczuk faces being kicked out of the Labour party forever, it has been claimed. It is understood that the Rochdale MP will be accused of breaching his duty of care to a potential employee after he admitted sending sexts to a 17-year-old who was last night revealed to be a dominatrix. It comes as pictures emerged of 49-year-old Mr Danczuk getting some exercise in a London park. Anti-paedophile crusading MP Simon Danczuk (pictured running in London) faces being kicked out of the Labour party forever, it has been claimed Mr Danczuk, 49, has admitted telling Miss Houlihan he wanted to spank her and says he now dreads his young sons finding out about the 'sexting' shame It is understood that the Rochdale MP will be accused of breaching his duty of care to a potential employee after he admitted sending sexts to a 17-year-old The MP said a 'drink problem' led him to send sexts to Sophena Houlihan when she was 17 and that he felt 'awful' about the lewd messages. Miss Houlihan, who is now 18, said Mr Danczuk sent her numerous messages, including one asking if she wanted a 'spanking' after she contacted him about a job. He has been suspended from the Labour Party while an investigation takes place into his conduct, for which he has apologised 'unreservedly'. Now it has been claimed that senior Labour party figures believe a case against Mr Danczuk - that he abused his position - 'looks proven', the Sunday Times reports. The paper quotes a source familiar with Labour's inquiry as saying: 'She'd applied for a job and the suspension is linked to the fact that this is the role of an employer. That's a very serious role. 'An MP shouldn't be taking advantage of someone coming for a job because they've got a position of power.' The Sunday Times reports that Mr Danczuk has since been backed by allies who fear he is the victim of a 'kangaroo court'. Mr Danczuk has been suspended from the Labour Party while an investigation takes place into his conduct, for which he has apologised 'unreservedly' Mr Danczuk, 49, has admitted telling Miss Houlihan he wanted to spank her and says he now dreads his young sons finding out about the 'sexting' shame The Labour MP said he was downing three bottles of wine a night when he began sending sexually explicit text messages to Sophena Houlihan MailOnline has made attempts to contact the Labour party for comment this morning. The MP for Rochdale told the Sun he felt 'lonely' and was 'drunk' while on holiday in Spain when he sent the texts. The pair exchanged messages for nearly a month before he asked how old she was. He said, at first, he considered it a 'professional conversation'. The father of five added 'younger women are my Achilles heel' but said he knew sending the messages was 'wrong' and his behaviour had 'played on his mind'. This morning the 17-year-old he was texting was revealed as a dominatrix who sold toenail clippings online for 10 a time. The teenager, who originally got in contact with Mr Danczuk to ask for a job in his constituency office, called herself a financial dominatrix on the website using the name Goddess Rosalie Von Morelli, according to the Sunday People. Simon Danczuk (right) has confessed that 'younger women are my Achilles heel' as the 17-year-old he sexted (left) was revealed as a dominatrix who sold toenail clippings online for 10 a time The teenager is said to have called herself a financial dominatrix on the website using the name Goddess Rosalie Von Morell Mr Danczuk, 49, has admitted telling Miss Houlihan he wanted to spank her and says he now dreads his young sons finding out about the 'sexting' shame that has his political career hanging by a thread. He told Ben Griffiths of The Sun on Sunday: 'Younger women are my Achilles heel. My first wife was ten years younger than me, my second wife was 17 years younger, my last girlfriend is 17 years younger.' He added: 'I feel awful about what happened. I don't even know what came over me. I'm so embarrassed that I've been such an idiot. I'm sorry for letting my family down.' At one point Miss Houlihan tried to discuss work when the father-of-five had been drinking heavily. He replied: 'Let's get back to the sex', to which he now says: 'That's really quite bad, isn't it? 'I can't recall that. I'd had too much to drink.' Mr Danczuk, an anti child abuse campaigner who helped expose MP Sir Cyril Smith as a paedophile, spoke of how he became attracted to Miss Houlihan after seeing pictures of her online. 'Sexting': Mr Danczuk began exchanging messages with Miss Houlihan (pictured) last year after she asked to work in his office. It has now emerged that the teenager was a dominatrix selling toenail clippings for 10 Target: Teenager Sophena Houlihan (pictured) was bombarded with sex messages by MP Simon Danczuk She had told him she was 17 just weeks earlier. Pictures from her web page have now emerged showing her lying on a bed wearing a purple wig and studded choker. The People quotes her as saying: 'Its online domination, quite a lot of things, financial domination, cissy fixation, men dressing up, giving them female mannerisms. Domination, thats what they want.' She is said to have welcomed visitors to her site by saying 'Hello Piggy Losers' and inviting clients to be her 'money slaves' and 'pay pigs'. She would charge clients up to 250 to speak to her for half an hour on Skype. Speaking last year, she reportedly revealed that clients would find her through social media after spotting pictures she posted online. Men would then pay her to become members of the 'financial domination group', before giving them tasks such as walking to the shops dressed as women. The revelations are bound to increase pressure on the Rochdale MP, who could now face deselection. Shamed: Simon Danczuks first wife Sonia Rossington (left) claims he drove her into therapy with drug and alcohol-fuelled bullying and obsessive demands for sex. She called the Labour MP (right) a 'sexual predator' He was suspended from the Labour party last week after the 'sexting' scandal came to light and now faces being banished for good. Meanwhile, the shamed MP had strong words for his first wife, Sonia Rossington, accusing her of reveling in his misery. In an interview with the Mail on Sunday, she claimed Mr Danczuk had sex with her while she pretended to be asleep and 'demanded that she have a cannabis joint ready-rolled when he came home from work'. She went on to say that he: Pestered her for sex relentlessly; Tried to get her interested in spanking, caning and sado-masochism; Drank vast quantities of alcohol, up to a bottle of whisky a day; Used amyl nitrite poppers and pornography to make sex more exciting; Persistently intimidated and belittled her in front of others; Was so mean he refused to contribute to his sons housing costs at university. In response, Mr Danczuk threatened legal action and accused his first wife of trying to destroy his political career by making false sexual allegations 'of a criminal nature'. He also claimed the woman from whom he was divorced in 2010 had pursued a vendetta against him. Miss Hamilton (centre), who split with the controversial MP last week, said Mr Danczuk (left) had manipulated her in a bid for publicity having invited her on a night out with his estranged second wife Karen (right) Bizarre relationship: Miss Hamilton, 32, claims that on one occasion she kissed Mr Danczuk's estranged wife Karen (pictured) as the 49-year-old MP for Rochdale took pictures of the two of them in a restaurant The Rochdale MP told Tim Shipman at the Sunday Times: 'She has not moved on and remains embittered to the point where she has prevented me from seeing or having a close relationship with my children.' Meanwhile, Mr Danczuk's 'selfie queen' ex Karen attacked his first wife Ms Rossington, writing on Twitter that she should not judge him because she was not 'whiter than white'. Claims made by Karen Danczuk on Twitter were strenuously denied by Ms Rossington. It was also said last night that Mr Danczuk cried like a baby when he was dumped by his local councillor girlfriend. Claire Hamilton, 32, told Grace Macaskill at the Sunday Mirror : 'Hes a real Jekyll and Hyde character. You get the public Simon who claims to care passionately about things, then the Simon who drinks too much and doesnt care who he hurts to get his own way. New Hampshire has played a special role in both Bill and Hillary Clinton's political careers. For Bill Clinton, it's the state that got his 1992 presidential run back on track, as the Arkansas governor came in a surprise second place to Paul Tsongas. He gave himself the nickname, 'the comeback kid,' and went on to win the Democratic primary and then the White House. Sixteen years later, after Sen. Barack Obama routed Hillary Clinton in the Iowa caucuses, the state gave the former first lady and U.S. senator her own comeback for a bit. Clinton famously teared up at the Cafe Espresso on the eve of the New Hampshire when asked by a voter how she does it. As the story goes, this signaled to voters that Clinton was human and helped Hillary win the state, even though her presidential run ultimately ended in defeat. Now with Bernie Sanders regularly polling ahead of Clinton in New Hampshire, Bill Clinton is being dispatched to the Granite State tomorrow to ensure that his wife doesn't need a political comeback. Scroll down for video Hillary Clinton's campaign is using her most well-known surrogate, husband Bill Clinton, very carefully. He'll be dispatched to New Hampshire for solo rallies for the first time this week A little-known Arkansas governor named Bill Clinton won second place in New Hampshire in 1992, where he dubbed himself 'the comeback kid' and went on to win the White House Hillary Clinton campaigned alongside her husband in New Hampshire in 1992, helping him secure second place in the vital primary state But bringing out Bill, is always a gamble. 'Is it controllable?' mused New York Times Columnist Frank Bruni in a piece this week, reminding readers that the gregarious former president is a bit of a live wire too. 'He remains both wildly charismatic and maddeningly undisciplined,' Bruni wrote. In 2008, when Hillary Clinton lost to Obama, fingers were pointed at Bill Clinton for some off-the-cuff remarks he made in South Carolina, like Iowa, another early primary state that his wife didn't win. The former president belittled Obama's victory in the Southern state by noting how another African-American politician, Jesse Jackson, had won it too. This did not go over well, with some black leaders labeling it racism. 'I've heard it from the press and I will not comment on it,' Clinton said of being blamed for his wife's defeat during an interview with Good Morning America in August 2008, after the Clintons and Obamas had seemingly made nice. Cut to 2008 and Hillary Clinton's emotional response at the Cafe Expresso in Portsmouth, New Hamsphire, allowed her to win the state, directly after Barack Obama won the Iowa caucuses On New Hampshire primary election night in 2008, Bill Clinton squeezed Hillary Clinton, as the state allowed her to have her own 'comeback kid' moment 'There are things I wished I said,' Clinton continued. 'Thing I wished I hadn't said, but I am not a racist. I never made a racist comment and I didn't attack him personally,' Clinton said of Obama. Either way, the former president has made it up to Obama since then, including his 2012 speech at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he gave a full-throated endorsement of the Obama agenda, backing up his Democratic successor's record. Cut to this cycle and Bill Clinton has been used by his wife's campaign very, very carefully. He hasn't attended any of the debates, instead watching them from a hotel room in each of the cities. He's only attended a handful of campaign events, including one with pop star Katy Perry. Bill Clinton also popped up at an event in Ames, Iowa, with his wife a day after the squared off against her Democratic opponents during the second Democratic debate in Des Moines, Iowa. The couple did a little cutesy back-and-forth before Bill Clinton sat back and let Hillary Clinton talk to the crowd. This cycle, Bill Clinton has been deployed carefully. Here he stands with Hillary Clinton after she spoke at a fall barbeque in Ames, Iowa. Bill Clinton hung around afterward, squeezing hands and taking pictures for the crowd Bill Clinton also appeared alongside Hillary Clinton at an Iowa rally in October, which was also attended by pop star Katy Perry 'I've watched all of Hillary's debates and I think I'm going to vote for her,' the former president said before plopping down to sit on the only chair onstage, behind his wife's left shoulder. 'Well, that is a big relief,' Hillary Clinton replied, receiving a positive response from the Iowans gathered there. But it wasn't this exchange that ultimately tickled attendees, it was the 20 minutes or so that Bill Clinton spent hand-holding and taking selfies after the speech, as his own security team urged him to get a move on, that wowed the crowd. That's Bill Clinton on his best behavior. But rivals are hoping that he's on his worst, with Donald Trump leading the charge. In recent days, Trump has been dredging up Bill Clinton's sex scandals of the '90s. Now it could be Bill Clinton's turn to hit back. The former president will make stops tomorrow in Nashua and Exeter, New Hampshire. Marin County Sheriff are investigating but Schlief denies all the claims Picture of a bike on his Facebook also matches one used to do wheelies A notorious dirt bike gang which has been tearing through the streets of San Francisco may be led by a cop, a news report claims. Marin County Sheriff's Office is carrying out an internal investigation after video emerged which purported to show one of its officers riding around with the infamous Bay Area Supermoto, or BASM, according to CBS SF. The gang are renowned for speeding and pulling dangerous stunts around the city, say the San Francisco's police department. Scroll down for video A Marin County Sheriff's Office deputy is alleged to be the head of a notorious dirt bike gang Claims have emerged from a former member that one of the bikers pulling dangerous stunts with the gang is deputy Zack Schlief (pictured) Videos posted online show riders performing wheelies, riding along the sidewalk and down stairs. 'It puts everyone in danger,' warned San Francisco police officer officer Carlos Manfredi. 'They are riding without any regard for public safety.' Now claims have emerged from a former member that one of the bikers pulling those stunts is deputy Zack Schlief. Marin County Sheriff's Office have confirmed that Schlief (pictured on Facebook posing with a police car) is a deputy Undercover video also captured the cop giving a talk to new members of the group where he is heard to tell them he will be 'leading' the gang with another member in that day's ride A rider - believed to have been Schlief - was seen travelling with the rest of the gang on footage The same dirt biker was seen tapping his head in an alleged signal to other gang members Undercover video captured the cop giving a talk to new members of the group where he is heard to tell them he will be 'leading' the gang with another member in that day's ride. 'Everyone new welcome,' he said addressing the group. 'If you have never been on big rides before, it's a lot of fun. When you are the one that is leading the ride, like me and him, it's like f***ing herding cats,' A CBS SF/ KPIX investigation also found that a picture of a white J Star dirt bike, posted on Schlief's Facebook page, appeared to match the one used by a rider to do a wheelie along the Golden Gate Bridge. The same biker was seen riding along with the gang and tapping his head in an alleged signal to other gang members. The former gang members, who would not be named for fear of reprisals, told CBS the officer thought he was above the law. 'He would make comments like he is not too worried about the police because he is one,' they said. A picture of a white J Star on Schief's Facebook page (pictured) appeared to match one used for stunt rides Schlief strongly denied any wrongdoing when confronted, telling the news channel he never participated in the stunts and 'definitely (was) not the leader of it' Schlief strongly denied any wrongdoing when confronted. While he admitted he rides with the group, he told the news channel he never participated in the stunts and 'definitely (was) not the leader of it.' Schlief even denied being with law enforcement before fleeing on his dirt bike. The NHS faces a ticking timebomb of dementia, brain damage and liver disease due to the heavy drinking of the baby boomer generation. The number of elderly people admitted to hospital each year for disorders relating to alcohol abuse is rising, with 11,373 admitted for behavioral problems and 9,980 for liver disease. A shocking statistic also shows the number of people aged 60-74 treated for mental problems, including alcohol withdrawal, has doubled in the past 10 years. Big problem: The NHS is facing a timebomb of health issues due to heavy drinking in the elderly (file photo) A leading doctor has now called for the NHS to re-think how it detects drinking problems in the elderly. Dr Tony Rao said: 'The number of older people drinking unsafely and unhealthily is rising at an alarming rate, putting their health at risk and further strain on NHS services.' Dr Rao, a consultant psychiatrist at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, has said that often the issues can be wrongly diagnosed as dementia. He said: 'Alcohol-related memory problems are grossly under-reported and mistaken for Alzheimer's disease. 'Ten years ago I would have been treating no more than three people at any one time for alcohol-related brain damage. Now there are at least 10 patients with that in the service I work in.' A lot of people over 60 also experience a brain damage linked to alcohol called Korsakoff's syndrome, which has similar attributes to dementia. The condition, caused by long periods of heavy drinking, cannot be reversed and severely effects the victim's memory. Experts have also found that older drinkers are more likely to drink every day and often at home. Tom Smith, head of policy at the charity Alcohol Concern, said: 'Alcohol consumption among older people is frequently overlooked and under-addressed. 'As a consequence, we are seeing alcohol-related harm rocket among this age group, not only physical, but mental and behavioural. 'As people live longer there is a growing need for targeted strategies and interventions to tackle excessive drinking in older age.' Doctors from the Royal College of Psychiatrists are worried about the drinking culture in the elderly and they have warned that continued consumption could lead to mental health problems, including depression, anxiety, self-harm and in extreme cases, suicide. Bad habits: Experts have found that elderly drinkers are more likely to drink every day (file photo) A spokesperson said: 'Although the damage caused by alcohol to the brain may be less well-documented than alcohol-related liver disease, bowel disease or circulatory problems, alcohol-related brain damage nevertheless devastates lives and older people are particularly at risk.' A spokesman for NHS England said the government needs to do more to ensure people are aware of the dangers of excessive drinking. He said: 'The effects of alcohol put a huge strain on all parts of the health system. 'These figures show a real need to step up action from the government and industry to encourage more responsible drinking, and of course for people to be more conscious of their own consumption.' It is believed that alcohol contributes to the 'geriatric giants', the four main health issues that affect older people, the loss of cognitive function, immobility, instability and incontinence. A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said that the help is there for people if they need it. She said: 'Drinking too much alcohol at any age can be hazardous for our health. Blundering British Gas officials demanded thousands of pounds from an elderly couple over their former flat even though it was demolished three years ago after widespread flooding. Patrick Kelly, 76, and his wife Marion, 83, received the 3,000 bill for their former home in Spencer Court, Newburn, Newcastle, with orders to pay almost immediately. The bill was for power supposedly used after the couple were forced from the property when parts of the building collapsed into a culvert. Patrick Kelly, 76, and his wife Marion, 83, received a 3,000 bill (pictured above) for their former home in Spencer Court, Newburn, Newcastle, despite the fact it was demolished after collapsing in severe floods Following the severe flooding, the couple were banned from entering the flat because it was too dangerous but British Gas still charged for power they supposedly used while the flat was empty. Their home was later demolished because the block of flats it was situated in was not safe to rebuild, while other residents were evacuated and forced to live elsewhere for up to two years. Mr and Mrs Kelly have now hit out at British Gas for issuing the unnecessary 2,972 bill, claiming it brought back 'horrible memories' of the worst day of their lives. Mr Kelly said: 'I could not believe it when the bill came through the letterbox. 'It was sent to our new address but was for gas which we were supposed to have used at Spencer Court from June 9, 2012 until October 18 this year. 'I don't have that sort of money and I don't owe it anyway. 'Our home there does not exist anymore. It's in the water. 'This is the second time British Gas have done this to us after sending a wrong bill two years ago.' Following the floods, the pair were banned from entering the flat because it was too dangerous but British Gas still charged for power they supposedly used while the property was empty. The home was later demolished Mr and Mrs Kelly have now hit out at British Gas for issuing the unnecessary 2,972 bill, claiming it brought back 'horrible memories' of the worst day of their lives. Pictured: The couple's home being fully demolished His wife said it brought back memories of the day they returned from holiday to find they had lost everything except what they had in their suitcases. She said: 'It brought back some horrible memories, it all came back again.' Her husband added: 'What annoyed me was when they pulled the flats down. 'I went to see my belongings going away on the back of a lorry and it was upsetting to see it all go. 'We had moved into our new house and were getting on with your lives when getting this bill reminded us of what we had lost.' British Gas admitted there had been a mistake and apologised, before blaming contractors for not updating meter details. Officials said an independent company which removed the meters from the flats but did not update a computer system known in the industry as Xoserve which is a national energy database. British Gas admitted there had been a mistake and apologised, before blaming contractors for not updating meter details. Pictured: Severe floods hit the couple's property in 2013 and they were left without a home The firm added that Mr Kelly had previously complained in 2013 and said it should have been put right at the time. Leonie White, of British Gas, said: 'When Mr Kelly first contacted us about a bill sent to him in error, we should have put things right immediately. 'We're really sorry this didn't happen. We've now corrected the record, deleted the bill and apologised for the distress caused.' Mr Kelly's son, who is also called Patrick, said: 'I spoke to two people in the British Gas call centre and I would have been better talking to a brick wall. Police have launched a country-wide man hunt for a young boy who was pictured in Cambodia holding hands with a British man suspected of child abuse. Roy Sheppard, 76, from Leeds, is accused of luring young boys to his rented flat in Cambodia to have sex with them. He became the oldest Briton ever arrested in Cambodia for suspected child sex, after he was seized in a dramatic police raid after a stake-out. But police fear for the safety of a young boy who was pictured with the suspected paedophile before his arrest, being led along a suburban road in the city of Siem Reap. Investigation: Police in Cambodia are hunting for the little boy pictured in an orange T-shirt, after this photograph showed him and another child being led down a suburban street by suspected British paedophile Roy Sheppard (left) A chilling photograph shows Sheppard with the little boy, wearing an orange T-shirt and gazing up at the Briton, and another boy. Police believe the ex-air traffic controller used cash and gifts to tempt the young boys into going with him to his flat. Once there, it is thought the father-of-two paid the children around 7 to have sex with him, and gave four children bicycles. He is also believed to have photographed the children in the bath, as reported by The Mirror. The trio was photographed by investigators from child protection group Action Pour Les Enfants (APLE), which alerted police to Sheppards alleged behaviour. Countries should do more to bring back their convicted citizens and monitor them, said APLEs deputy director of field operations Khoem Vando. Sheppard was charged with indecent acts on three boys aged between 12 and 15, and sent to Siem Reap provincial jail. He was released on bail due to his age and poor health, and his trial is expected to start in the coming months. Sex tourist: Notorious paedophile Gary Glitter fled to Cambodia after being caught in the UK in 1997 with 4,000 graphic images of children on his computer Cambodia is a magnet for so-called sex tourists from across Europe, due to the countrys high level of poverty and poor child protection laws. Notorious paedophile Gary Glitter, 71, fled to Cambodia after being caught in the UK in 1997 with 4,000 graphic images of children on his computer. David Fletcher, from Norwich, was also convicted of twice raping a 17-year-old girl in Cambodia. Sheppards British passport expired three months ago, and he is believed to have been in Cambodia for a year. Artist Penelope Walford used a 6ft-tall mannequin and a curtain to make the controversial angel (above) which was dressed in a burqa, as part of the St Helens Village of Angels event on the Isle of Wight A controversial Muslim 'angel' installed as part of a community event had to be pulled down after it was vandalised following threats the burqa-clad statue was not in keeping with Christmas. Artist Penelope Walford used a 6ft-tall mannequin and a curtain to make the controversial angel, which was dressed in a burqa, as part of the St Helens Village of Angels event on the Isle of Wight. She was inspired by her fear of rising Islamophobia after the Paris terror attacks and the UK's decision for airstrikes against ISIS. However, just a few days after displaying her work as part of the community event, the burqa was ripped off the statue and the artwork was taken down. Miss Walford, of Bembridge, Isle of Wight, said: 'I decided to make her after the Paris terror attacks and the decision for us to bomb ISIS. 'I felt there was a lot of Islamophobia about and people generally know little about Muslims other than those kind of stories. 'I wanted to create her to show that not all Muslims are bad, some are angels too. 'I did not expect this level of controversy.' The Village of Angels is an event which runs on the isle throughout December. Homemade 'angels' created using recycled materials - are erected around the village, including in public spaces, outside homes and in front of restaurants and shops. As many as 100 'angels' are put up for the event, and residents and holidaymakers are able to take part in an 'Angel Walk' to tour all of them. Ms Walford said she was delighted to take part in the 'wonderful' event but said she was disappointed to notice her creation had been taken down because it wasn't 'in the spirit of Christmas'. She said: 'She had been up a few days when I had a call saying she should be taken down because people had been talking about the 'burqa-clad angel'. 'They said it was not in the spirit of Christmas and there was no place for a Muslim angel in a Christian event. 'One chap was threatening to behead it and another said he was going to rip her burqa off. Ms Walford (left) said she was inspired by her fear of rising Islamophobia in Britain after the Paris terror attacks and the UK's decision for airstrikes against ISIS. Pictured right: The controversial 'Muslim' angel Ms Walford wrote a note (pictured) and placed it on the 'angel' after it received negative comments. She later decided to take it down after the burqa was ripped off the statue and it was left looking like a 'naked mannequin' 'Because of all that I put up a notice explaining my intentions.' In her note,Ms Walford wrote: There has been some strong reaction to this angel. The intention was not to upset people. I made her because in the wake of the Paris terror attacks and British air strikes in Syria I felt the point needed making that not all Muslims are bad. She said that just days after putting the notice up, the burqa from the statue was ripped off. She added: 'It was just a naked mannequin and I couldn't leave it like that so I took it down. This is the blog of China defense, where professional analysts and serious defense enthusiasts share findings on a rising military power. A British man working at a foreign-owned gold mine in Kyrgyzstan has been detained and faces up to five years in jail for comparing a local delicacy to a horse penis. Michael Mcfeat, an employee of Toronto-based Centerra Gold, was detained by police after posting the comment on Facebook, which caused a temporary strike at the mine. Mcfeat wrote that his Kyrgyz colleagues were queuing for their 'special delicacy, the horse's penis' during holiday celebrations, referring to a traditional horse sausage known as 'chuchuk.' Michael Mcfeat (pictured), a British national working at a Toronto-owned gold mine in Kyrgyzstan, was detained by police after posting a comment on Facebook in which he compared a special local delicacy to horse penis Mcfeat wrote on Facebook (post pictured) that his Kyrgyz colleagues were queuing for their 'special delicacy, the horse's penis' during holiday celebrations, referring to a traditional horse sausage known as 'chuchuk' Mcfeat now faces racial hatred charges, which can entail between three to five years in prison under Kyrgyz law. A local trade union leader confirmed that work at the mine, which accounts for up to 10 percent of ex-Soviet Kyrgyzstan's economic output, resumed on Sunday after a short strike. Mcfeat later deleted the post and issued an apology on his Facebook page, saying he had not meant to offend anyone. Horse meat including offal is a popular delicacy in both Kyrgyzstan and neighbouring Kazakhstan where nomadic traditions have been revived since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Mcfeat faces racial hatred charges, which can entail between three to five years in prison under Kyrgyz law Horse meat including offal and chuchuk (pictured above) is a popular delicacy in both Kyrgyzstan and neighbouring Kazakhstan where nomadic traditions have been revived since the collapse of the Soviet Union His wife Amanda, a 40-year-old book keeper who lives with their two young children in Abernethy, Perthshire, said she had phoned the Kyrgyz embassy in London and the Foreign Office. 'It was just a Hogmanay feast he put up a picture of his colleagues, praised the chef and said the Kyrgyz were queuing out of the door for their special delicacy, the horse's penis. 'The next thing, he had put up an apology, and said that nobody else in the picture had anything to do with the comment. 'I spoke to the embassy in London [they] said they couldn't tell me anything until his apology had been accepted.' Mr McFeat works at the Kumtor gold mine in the east of the country as a welder for the Toronto-based Centerra Gold, who were unavailable for comment. He arrived in Kyrgyzstan in March. A vendor sells sausages prepared from horse meat at Bishkek's Osh Bazaar in Kyrgyzstan (file picture) His father John, who also lives in Perthshire, said his son had meant 'nothing bad'. 'He said it was a lovely meal with the local delicacy but he put 'horse penis',' the 63-year-old said. 'All we know is that he was detained, but we don't know if he is still detained. It's a very worrying time all we can do is wait. 'The Foreign Office will hopefully explain that there was no malice in what he put, there was nothing derogatory meant by his post.' He added that it was 'unbelievable'. 'It's so unreal,' he said. 'He loved his job and he was friendly with all the Kyrgyz workers and interpreters. It's been a terrible start to the year.' Mr McFeat's mother Marilyn, 62, added that the first they knew of their son's predicament was when reports about it appeared on the internet. A Foreign Office spokesman said: 'We are in contact with the local authorities after a British national was detained in Kyrgyzstan and are ready to provide consular assistance.' The Kyrgyz government is currently in an ownership standoff with Centerra, which wholly owns the Kumtor Gold mine and operates it through a subsidiary. Kyrgyzstan holds a 32.7 percent stake in Centerra, and until last month had been trying to swap that for a 50 percent stake in the Kumtor mine. Carly Fiorina is now calling a tweet she sent out in support of the Iowa Hawkeyes, as they battled her alma mater Stanford in the New Year's Day Rose Bowl, 'tongue-in-cheek.' 'Can't a girl ever have a little bit of fun?' the Republican hopeful said to CNN's Dana Bash this morning. Fiorina's tweet had inspired a hashtag, #CarlyCurse, because after the former Hewlett-Packard CEO fired it off, Iowa got crushed by Stanford 45 to 16. Scroll down for video Carly Fiorina told Dana Bash, 'can't a girl ever have a little bit of fun?' rolling her eyes at the internet outcry over a tweet she sent out supporting Iowa's college football team over her alma mater of Stanford Carly Fiorina said she was supporting the Iowa Hawkeyes over her alma mater of Stanford during Friday's Rose Bowl college football game The hashtag #CarlyCurse took off, as Twitter users pointed out her pandering and suggested she ruined Iowa's chances against the California school Twitter user WaldoWilbur's tweet came true when, today, Carly Fiorina said her tweet in support of Iowa was meant to be 'tongue-in-cheek' and not serious 'Love my alma mater, but rooting for a Hawkeyes win today. #RoseBowl,' the tweet read. Bash asked the candidate about it just as she was criticizing rival Ted Cruz for saying one thing to donors in New York, while saying another thing to supporters in Iowa. 'He says whatever he needs to say to get elected, and then he's going to do as he pleases,' Fiorina said of Cruz. 'I think the American people are tired of the political class that promises much and delivers much of the same,' Fiorina added. Bash then asked if Fiorina was doing the same kind of pandering by rooting for Iowa, instead of a school the candidate actually attended, to attract the caucus-goers she needs. 'You just gave me an unfortunate segue to my next question,' Bash stated. 'Talking about the political class and saying one thing and meaning another when you get elected.' Fiorina gave an eye-roller of a response. Dana Bash called the conversation about the tweet an 'unfortunate segue' because, just minutes before, Carly Fiorina had slammed Ted Cruz for pandering to voters in Iowa and donors in New York Several Twitter users asked Carly Fiorina to cheer for teams that they didn't like, using the hashtag #CarlyCurse, after iowa was trounced by Stanford 'Oh, for heaven's sakes,' she told the CNN correspondent. 'That was a tongue-in-cheek tweet, which the people of Iowa understand, because I was asked over and over again in Iowa, having attended a Hawkeye tailgate, I was asked,' Fiorina continued. 'They knew that my heart was torn.' Fiorina suggested that the news media was making a big deal about the tweet because 'it was a slow news day.' 'You would think, based on this reaction, that I had some said something really controversial, like, you know, ISIS is a J.V. team, or this demonstration was a result of a video,' Fiorina said, pointing to politically unfortunate statements President Obama, and then Hillary Clinton, had said. 'Let's just say, if the biggest mistake I make is a tongue-in-cheek tweet about a Rose Bowl, the American people will sleep safely when I'm president of the United States,' Fiorina continued. Bash asked again if the tweet was a 'joke,' which would mean that Fiorina, in reality, was rooting for Stanford. 'Yes, it was tongue-in-cheek,' Fiorina responded. 'For heaven's sake, a girl needs to have a little fun sometimes.' And with that, one of the #CarlyCurse tweets, became true. 'I never said I was cheering for Iowa,' wrote Twitter user WaldoWilbur, attributing that quote to 'Carly Fiorina in 2 hours.' Hollywood is engulfed in nervous whispers that this year's Oscars ceremony could once again feature an all-white line-up. The Academy was slammed in 2015 after failing to nominate any ethnic minorities in any of the 20 categories - despite a number of possible candidates such as David Oyelowo in Selma. This year, Idris Elba, Will Smith and Samuel L Jackson are the only black stars slated to be in the running for a Best Actor or Best Supporting Actor nod. Some movie critics aren't even sure they'll make the cut. Scroll down for video This year, Idris Elba (pictured in Beasts Of No Nation), Will Smith and Samuel L Jackson are the only black stars slated to be in the running for a Best Actor or Best Supporting Actor nod As the industry awaits the imminent announcement, fears of another all-white Oscars - and resurfacing of the Twitter trend #OscarsSoWhite - have sparked debate. USC professor and Hollywood historian Steve Ross told the LA Times: 'If it's all-white again, nobody's going to be happy and there might be a growing perception that the academy is out of touch. 'It has to be a good performance, but, for some, if they're deciding between Will Smith and somebody else, they might just go for Will Smith because of what happened last year.' However, Straight Outta Compton director F Gary Gray, who is African American and one of the many industry figures who gets to vote for the nominees and winners, dismissed the concerns as needless politics. 'I'm not going to allow politics to influence my judgment because then that defeats the purpose. 'That's not how I make movies and it's not how I'll vote. If something moves me and touches me, that's probably the direction I'll go.' It is now 14 years since the so-called 'breakthrough' Oscar Awards when Halle Berry and Denzel Washington won the Best Actress and Best Actor categories - the first time a white actor didn't take home one or both of the awards. More than a decade later, however, the industry appears to remain white-dominated. Last year, host Neil Patrick Harris incorporated the issue into his opening skit. 'Tonight we honor Hollywood's best and whitest. Sorry, brightest,' he quipped. Selma director Ava DuVernay and star David Oyelowo were among those overlooked in the 2015 nominations Last year, host Neil Patrick Harris (pictured at the 2015 Oscar Awards) incorporated the issue into his opening skit. 'Tonight we honor Hollywood's best and whitest. Sorry, brightest,' he quipped Saudi Arabia has broken off diplomatic ties with Iran following an attack on the Kingdom's embassy in Tehran, inspired by Saudi's decision to execute 47 men including Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr. Saudi Arabia's foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir announced the decision to expel Iran's diplomats following the evacuation of its own diplomatic staff from Iran. Iran's diplomats have been given 48 hours to leave Saudi Arabia after the Kingdom's foreign ministry accused Iran of failing in its duty to protect its embassy in Tehran. A large mob attacked the Saudi embassy in Tehran last night, setting the building on fire with petrol bombs and ransacking items from the Saudi diplomatic offices. Scroll down for video: The escalating war of words comes after a night of violence in Iran's capital, Tehran, where a furious mob petrol bombed the Saudi embassy (pictured) in protest to al-Nimr's killing Saudi Arabia claimed Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr and the other executed prisoners, which include three other Shiite dissidents and a number of al-Qaeda supporters, were all convicted 'terrorists'. It said Iran had 'revealed its true face as a supporter of terrorists' by condemning al-Nimr's death. The escalating war of words came after a night of violence in the Iranian capital of Tehran, where a furious mob petrol bombed the Saudi embassy to protest al-Nimr's killing. At least 40 were arrested on suspicion of attacking and setting fire to the embassy. Iraq's former Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki warned the executions would 'topple the Saudi regime', US and European said they risked 'exacerbating sectarian tensions', and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was 'deeply dismayed'. The Saudi Arabian embassy was set alight by members of the crowd, who threw petrol bombs into the building Flames burn inside the offices of the embassy, where staff had already evacuated from inside the building The violent mob was protesting the killing of Sheikh Nimr Al-Nimr (pictured), the most vocal critic of the Saudi dynasty, who was the driving force behind the protests that broke out in the east of the country in 2011 Protesters set about damaging and stealing property from inside the Saudi embassy in the Iranian capital city of Tehran Tehran's police chief said that an unspecified number of 'unruly elements' had been arrested for attacking the embassy with petrol bombs and rocks Iranian security stand guard to protect Saudi Arabia's embassy in Tehran, Iran, while a group of demonstrators gathered to protest execution of al-Nimr Iranian protesters set fire to pictures of the Saudi royal family in front of the Saudi Arabian embassy in Tehran A BRIEF HISTORY OF IRAN AND SAUDI ARABIA'S HISTORICALLY TENSE RELATIONSHIP They are both Muslim countries, both have a vast supply of oil and they share no borders, and yet Iran and Saudi Arabia's relationship has been plagued with aggression and confrontation. Saudi Arabia is a predominantly Sunni nation, a sect which believes the prophet Muhammad was succeeded by his father-in-law Abu Bakr. Most Iranians are Shiites, who claim Muhammad's son-in-law and cousin, Ali Ibn Abi Talib, was his first 'caliph'. Historically, they have clashed over their differing interpretations of Islam, aspirations to lead the Islamic world, their oil export policy and relations with the United States. More recently, the relationship soured over Iran's nuclear programme, the 1979 Islamic revolution and an alleged plot to assassinate Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States. After the rebellion, in which revolutionaries called on monarchies like Saudi Arabia's to be overthrown and replaced with Islamic Republics, Iran accused the Saudis of being an 'agent of the US'. Saudi Arabia (right, its King Salman) and Iran (left, its Supreme Leader Ayatolah Khamenei) have clashed over their differing interpretations of Islam, aspirations to lead the Islamic world, their oil export policy and relations with the United States Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khameni, who started the revolution, was opposed to monarchies because he believed them to be un-Islamic. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia was concerned that Iran was obsessed with exporting its revolution to expand its influence in the Persian Gulf region. Relations hit rock bottom in 2011, when US officials alleged a plot to assassinate Saudi ambassador Adel al-Jubeir was tied to the Iranian government. They claimed Iranian nationals Manssor Arbabsiar and Gholam Shakuri planned to kill al-Jubeir at a restaurant with a bomb and then detonate an explosive at the Saudi embassy in Washington. They have also clashed over oil and gas export policies. Saudi Arabia, with its large oil reserves, is said to favour moderate prices over a long term period. Meanwhile Iran, which has been crippled with sanctions following its decades old war with Iraq, has been forced to sell oil at high prices for short term profits. Advertisement Al-Nimr, the most vocal critic of the Saudi dynasty, was the driving force behind the protests which broke out in the east of the country in 2011, where the Shiite minority claims they are fiercely persecuted. None of the Saudi embassy staff were inside the building when demonstrators broke in and trashed the offices. They forced their way inside where they ransacked rooms, destroyed furniture and started fires before they were ejected by police. Tehran's police chief said an unspecified number of 'unruly elements' were arrested for attacking the embassy with petrol bombs and rocks overnight. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who condemned al-Nimr's execution, said the attacks on the embassy were 'unjustifiable'. He ordered his Interior Ministry to arrest the attackers, who he described as 'extremists', and punish them for 'such ugly acts'. Violent demonstrations have also erupted across the Middle Eastern and Gulf countries, including Lebanon, Pakistan and Bahrain, while Muslims in the West have held peaceful marches. Footage from Iraq claimed to show Saudi Arabia's newly reopened embassy in Baghdad (pictured) engulfed in smoke after a rocket was reported to have been fired at it Helicopters circled high above the embassy in central Baghdad, which was targeted after the news of al-Nimr's execution spread to Iraq Shiite protesters clashed with Indian police in the disputed Kashmir region today. They threw rocks at policemen, who retaliated with tear gas and rubber bullets. Demonstrators in Bahrain were also met with tear gas as they fought with security forces, while hundreds also protested in Iraq's Shiite holy city of Karbala. UK URGED TO COME CLEAN ON 6M DEAL Ministers faced calls to publish details of a controversial deal with Saudi Arabia yesterday. Britain cancelled a 6million contract to provide training advice for Saudi prison staff in October. But Labour said the Government continued 'discussions on wider judicial cooperation' through the embassy in capital Riyadh. In 2014, then-justice secretary Chris Grayling signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Saudi Arabia to 'act as a mechanism for dialogue on human rights issues and an exchange of expertise on justice and legal matters'. But requests to publish details of the memorandum have been refused. Labour's human rights spokesman Andy Slaughter said the Government should disclose 'the full nature of British support and advice'. Advertisement Violent demonstrations have since erupted across the Middle Eastern and Gulf countries, including Lebanon, Pakistan and Bahrain, while Muslims in the West have held peaceful marches. Thousands have also gathered in Lebanon's capital, Beirut, ahead of a speech by the leader of the Lebanese Shiite militia group Hezbollah. It issued a statement condemning al-Nimr's execution, with Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem calling it 'a sign of shame and weakness' for Saudi Arabia Meanwhile, hundreds of Shiite Muslims marched through the Qatif district of Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, closely watched by security services. The US State Department said Saudi Arabia risked 'exacerbating sectarian tensions' and Ban Ki-moon said he was 'deeply dismayed' by the execution of al-Nimr. 'Sheik al-Nimr and a number of the other prisoners executed had been convicted following trials that raised serious concerns over the nature of the charges and the fairness of the process,' Ban's spokesman said. 'The Secretary-General also calls for calm and restraint in reaction to the execution of Sheikh Nimr and urges all regional leaders to work to avoid the exacerbation of sectarian tensions.' Amnesty International spokesman Shane Enright said the death penalty was 'unacceptable in all circumstances' and it was particularly concerning that a number of 'peaceful dissidents' including al-Nimr had been killed. Kashmiri Shiite protesters shout slogans during a demonstration in Srinagar following the execution of prominent Shiite Muslim cleric Nimr al-Nimr The Shiite protesters (pictured) in Kashmir threw rocks at the police who retaliated with tear gas and rubber bullets As well as the protests in Kashmir (pictured), demonstrators in Bahrain were also met with tear gas as they fought with security forces, Thousands gathered in the disputed Kashmir region to clash with riot police, who pelted them with tear gas An armed riot policeman walks towards the crowd of hundreds who gathered to protest the execution of Sheikh al-Nimr UK TREASURY MINISTER DEFENDS UK'S CLOSE RELATIONSHIP WITH SAUDIS Treasury minister David Gauke (pictured) defended UK's relationship with Saudi Arabia A Government minister has defended the UK's close relationship with Saudi Arabia amid an international outcry over the execution of 47 prisoners. Treasury minister David Gauke said capital punishment was 'wrong', but the close ties between the UK and Riyadh meant 'we can tell them what we think'. Treasury Financial Secretary Mr Gauke told Sky News: 'Clearly it is a very worrying development and we oppose capital punishment in this way, we think that that is wrong.' But he added: 'When it comes to protecting British people, the Prime Minister has made it clear that intelligence from Saudi Arabia has helped save lives and protect people in the UK. 'We have a relationship with Saudi Arabia where we are able to speak candidly to them, where these issues are raised on a regular basis by the Foreign Secretary and the Prime Minister and our representatives in Riyadh. 'We are able to have that relationship where we can tell them what we think and clearly it is a worrying development, what we have heard from Saudi Arabia in the last few days.' Meanwhile shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn described the execution as 'profoundly wrong' and Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron urged David Cameron to speak out against the Saudi regime's actions. Advertisement Speaking at the scene of the demonstration, he said a recent Amnesty report concluded that the trial against him was 'deeply flawed'. He added: 'We also came to the conclusion that he was jailed solely for expressing his peaceful points of view, protesting peacefully against the regimes. 'This is an absolute, fundamental, breach of basic human rights.' Al-Nimr's family said they planned to hold three days of mourning but they have yet to claim his body. We also came to the conclusion that he [al-Nimr] was jailed solely for expressing his peaceful points of view, protesting peacefully against the regimes. This is an absolute, fundamental, breach of basic human rights Shane Enright, Amnesty International His brother Mohammed al-Nimr said Saudi officials told his family that he had already been buried in an undisclosed cemetery. Despite supporting the capital punishment, Saudi Arabia is a member of the UN Human Rights Council. Secret diplomatic cables exposed in September last year appeared to show that the UK helped the kingdom join in a vote-trading deal. Al-Nimr's execution has sparked fierce criticism from Shiite communities in Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen and Indian-controlled Kashmir. One of the 47 men executed in Saudi Arabia was Adel al-Dhubaiti, the al-Qaeda gunman convicted for the attempted assassination of BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner and the murder of his cameraman Simon Cumbers. Mr Gardner was shot six times and left paralysed whilst he was filming a report with Simon Cumbers in June 2004. He was offered the chance to meet al-Dhubaiti when he was sentenced in 2014 but declined. Iran's Shia leadership said the execution of Nimr 'would cost dearly' and an Iranian-backed Shiite militia in Iraq called the execution a 'new crime' carried out by the Saudi royal family. Demonstrators burn tires during a protest, against the execution of prominent Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr by Saudi authorities, in Manama, Bahrain Enraged Bahraini demonstrators pulled up a palm tree trunk to make a blockade in the street against security forces at a demonstration Pakistani Shiite Muslims rally to protest against the execution Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr in Lahore, Pakistan Saudi Arabia came under blistering criticism from the Middle East's Shiites (pictured, protests in Pakistan) shortly after it executed a top Shiite cleric known for his activism against the Sunni government One Kashmiri Shiite holds a Hezbollah flag shout slogans against the execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr during a protest in Srinagar Concerns remain that Saudi Arabia's decision to execute 47 prisoners may lead to further sectarian tension in the region Protesters holding a banner saying 'Death is normal to us and our dignity from God is martyrdom' in Manama, Bahrain Protests: Saudi Arabia's execution of Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr has outraged Shia leaders and communities in Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen and Indian-controlled Kashmir (pictured) Protests and large gatherings were held in remembrance for the prominent Shi'a cleric, who was killed alongside 46 other people Kashmiri Shiite men and children sit united in front of a candle light vigil in honour of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, who was executed in Saudi Saudi Arabia has said that Iran is responsible for protecting the Kingdom's embassy as the violence grows at the demonstrations. One Shiite militia in Iraq called on Baghdad to 'reconsider the benefit of having a Saudi embassy in Iraq, with a suspicious ambassador and goals.' Former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki warned in a statement that the execution of the Shiite cleric 'will topple the Saudi regime'. But most of the 47 executed in the kingdom's biggest mass execution for decades were Sunnis convicted of al Qaeda attacks in Saudi Arabia a decade ago. Four, including Nimr, were Shi'ites accused of shooting policemen. The executions took place in 12 cities in Saudi Arabia, with four prisons using firing squads and the others beheading. The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, members of a Saudi-led coalition battling Iran-backed Shiite rebels in Yemen, praised their ally. UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan called the executions a 'clear message against terrorism and those who call for and incite sedition and unrest to tear apart the society's unity and threaten social peace in the kingdom'. The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, members of a Saudi-led coalition battling Iran-backed Shiite rebels in Yemen, praised their ally, but protests broke out in Bahrain's suburbs Bahrain has faced unrest from its Shiite majority population, and backed Riyadh in 'all deterrent and needed measures it takes to confront violence and extremism' Protesters clashed with security forces in a number of villages in Bahrain, where the government has sided with their ally Saudi Arabia Saudi women hold up posters depicting Shiite Muslim cleric Nimr al-Nimr at a protest in the eastern coastal city of Qatif Many of the protesters in London gathered in support for Nimr al-Nimr, calling for the action against the Saudi regime Demonstrators protest outside the Saudi Embassy in London, following Saudi Arabia's execution of 47 prisoners in one day WHO WAS SHEIKH NIMR AL-NIMR AND WHY WAS HE EXECUTED BY SAUDI ARABIA? Sheikh Nimr Al-Nimr (pictured) was arrested in July 2012 and charged with instigating unrest Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr rose to prominence during the 2011 pro-democracy protests in his hometown of Qatif, eastern Saudi Arabia. His leadership elevated him to hero-like status among the protesting Shiite youth. He also became an icon in the broader 'Shia versus Sunni' narrative, which is played out across the Middle East - most acutely in the Yemeni and Syrian civil wars and in Iraq. His peaceful, but outspoken opposition to the Saudi Royal family, and his very public speeches against the monarchy demanding equality for Shias in Saudi Arabia also increased his profile. Nimr was arrested in July 2012 and charged with instigating unrest, 'disobeying the ruler' and 'encouraging, leading and participating in demonstrations'. The charges were dismissed by human rights advocacy group Amnesty International as violating freedom of speech. His arrest caused days of rioting in Saudi Arabia, in which three people were killed. He was sentenced to death on October 25 after his appeal was denied, no date was set for his execution, although Saudi Arabian King Salman could have pardoned the cleric at any time. Amnesty International UK's Shane Enright said a recent Amnesty report concluded that the trial against Nimr was 'deeply flawed', adding: 'We also came to the conclusion that he was jailed solely for expressing his peaceful points of view, protesting peacefully against the regimes. 'This is an absolute, fundamental, breach of basic human rights,' he said. The Sheikh's nephew Ali al-Nimr, who was 17 at the time of his arrest following the protests, was not included in the list of those executed although concerns are growing for his fate. He has been sentenced to death by beheading and crucifixion. Advertisement Bahrain, which has itself faced unrest from its Shiite majority population, also backed Riyadh in 'all deterrent and needed measures it takes to confront violence and extremism'. In the suburbs of the Bahraini capital Manama however, dozens of Shiite youth gathered for small demonstrations to condemn the executions. Clashes quickly escalated between demonstrators and security forces, who released tear gas to disperse the gathering. Sheikh Nimr was an icon for Islamic resistance... His words were his weapon. They couldn't defeat his words so they detained him, tortured him and today executed him in front the world's eyes, like a challenge to global conscience Cleric from Bahrain during protests A cleric from Bahrain who was at the protest in Iraq's Karbala, said the world should react to Nimr's execution. 'Sheikh Nimr was an icon for Islamic resistance,' said Sheikh Habib al-Jamri. 'His words were his weapon. They couldn't defeat his words so they detained him, tortured him and today executed him in front the world's eyes, like a challenge to global conscience.' Bahrain was one of the countries caught in the centre of the Arab Spring in 2011, with the country's Shiite majority population heavily suppressed during protests against the monarchy. Bahrain has remained a close ally of Saudi, who have been careful to safeguard the country during the Arab Spring. Shiite protesters in Bahrain in 2011 called for the constitutional reform of the monarchy before security forces heavy handedly clamped down on demonstrations leading to calls for the end of the monarchy. The protests in Bahrain yesterday come after opponents have repeatedly been detained and stripped of their citizenship for speaking out against the Bahraini government and the actions of their ally Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia has executed 47 people convicted of 'terrorism' yesterday, including a prominent Shiite cleric behind anti-government protests Executed: The ministry statement, carried by the official SPA news agency, said the 47 had been convicted of adopting the radical 'takfiri' ideology, joining 'terrorist organisations' and implementing various 'criminal plots'. Above, Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr was one of the 47 people executed yesterday Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) threatened to retaliate against Saudi Arabia for any execution of its members in December. The list also included Fares al-Shuwail who has been described by Saudi media outlets as the top religious leader of Al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia. He was arrested in August 2004. The ministry statement said the 47 had been convicted of adopting the radical 'takfiri' ideology, joining 'terrorist organisations' and implementing various 'criminal plots'. The list also includes Sunnis convicted of involvement in Al-Qaeda attacks that killed Saudis and foreigners in the kingdom in 2003 and 2004. International rights group Reprieve, who works to abolish the death penalty has condemned Saudi Arabia's execution of 47 people, saying two were teenagers when they were detained. Reprieve says the 47 people whose execution was announced Saturday include four Shiite dissidents. It says one of the dissidents, Ali al-Ribh, was 18 when he was arrested in 2012, and another, Mohammed al-Shuyokh, was 19. Both were convicted on charges related to anti-government protests in eastern Saudi Arabia, where the Shiite minority is centered. Repercussions: Iran's Shia leadership said the execution of Nimr 'would cost dearly' and an Iranian-backed Shiite militia in Iraq called the execution, a 'new crime' carried out by the Saudi royal family Soon after the announcement was made, the country's top cleric Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Al Sheikh said that the executions were in line with Islamic law and required to safeguard the kingdom's security. Above, Shia protests in Indian-controlled Kashmir Mourning: Shiite Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr was a persistent critic of Saudi Arabia's Sunni royal family and a driving force of the protests that broke out in 2011 in the Sunni-ruled kingdom's east, where the Shiite minority complains of marginalisation. Above, men protest his execution in Indian-controlled Kashmir SHEIKH AL-NIMR, THREE SHIITE CLERICS AND AL-QAEDA MILITANTS: THE 47 MEN EXECUTED BY SAUDI ARABIA 1. Ameen Mohammed Abdullah Al Aqala - Saudi national. 2. Anwar Abdulrahman Khalil Al-Najjar - Saudi national. 3. Badr bin Mohammed bin Abdullah Al-Badr- Saudi national. 4. Bandar Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Ghaith - Saudi nationality. 5. Hassan Hadi bin Shuja'a Al-Masareer - Saudi nationality. 6. Hamad bin Abdullah bin Ibrahim Al-Humaidi- Saudi nationality 7. Khalid Mohammed Ibrahim Al-Jarallah - Saudi nationality 8. Ridha Abdulrahman Khalil Al-Najjar- Saudi nationality 9. Saad Salamah Hameer - Saudi nationality 10. Salah bin Saeed bin Abdulraheem Al-Najjar - Saudi nationality 11. Salah bin Abdulrahman bin Mohammed Al Hussain -Saudi nationality 12. Saleh bin Abdulrahman bin Ibrahim Al-Shamsan - Saudi nationality 13. Saleh bin Ali bin Saleh Al-Juma'ah - Saudi nationality 14. Adel bin Saad bin Jaza' Al-Dhubaiti - Saudi nationality 15. Adel Mohammed Salem Abdullah Yamani - Saudi nationality 16. Abduljabbar bin Homood bin Abdulaziz Al-Tuwaijri - Saudi nationality 17. Abdulrahman Dhakheel Faleh Al-Faleh - Saudi nationality 18. Abdullah Sayer Moawadh Massad Al-Mohammadi - Saudi nationality 19. Abdullah bin Saad bin Mozher Shareef - Saudi nationality 20. Abdullah Saleh Abdulaziz Al-Ansari - Saudi nationality 21. Abdullah Abdulaziz Ahmed Al-Muqrin - Saudi nationality 22. Abdullah Musalem Hameed Al-Raheef - Saudi nationality 23. Abdullah bin Mua'ala bin A'li - Saudi nationality 24. Abdulaziz Rasheed bin Hamdan Al-Toaili'e - Saudi nationality 25. Abdulmohsen Hamad bin Abdullah Al-Yahya - Saudi nationality 26. Isam Khalaf Mohammed Al-Mothri'e - Saudi nationality 27. Ali Saeed Abdullah Al Ribeh - Saudi nationality 28. Ghazi Mohaisen Rashed - Saudi nationality 29. Faris Ahmed Jama'an Al Showail - Saudi nationality 30. Fikri Ali bin Yahya Faqih - Saudi nationality 31. Fahd bin Ahmed bin Hanash Al Zamel - Saudi nationality 32. Fahd Abdulrahman Ahmed Al-Buraidi - Saudi nationality 33. Fahd Ali Ayedh Al Jubran - Saudi nationality 34. Majed Ibrahim Ali Al-Mughainem - Saudi nationality 35. Majed Moeedh Rashed - Saudi nationality 36. Mishaal bin Homood bin Juwair Al-Farraj - Saudi nationality 37. Mohammed Abdulaziz Mohammed Al-Muharib - Saudi nationality 38. Mohammed Ali Abdulkarim Suwaymil - Saudi nationality 39. Mohammed Fathi Abula'ti Al-Sayed - Egyptian nationality 40. Mohammed bin Faisal bin Mohammed Al-Shioukh - Saudi nationality 41. Mostafa Mohammed Altaher Abkar - Chadian nationality 42. Moaidh Mufreh Ali Al Shokr- Saudi nationality 43. Nasser Ali Ayedh Al Jubran - Saudi nationality 44. Naif Saad Abdullah Al-Buraidi - Saudi nationality 45. Najeeb bin abdulaziz bin Abdullah Al-Bohaiji - Saudi nationality 46. Nimr Baqer Ameen Al-Nimr- Saudi nationality 47. Nimr Sehaj Zeid Al-Kraizi - Saudi nationality Advertisement Ahead of the announcement their mothers wrote a letter of thanks, published in The Independent today, along with the mothers of other youths sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia. Reprieve said in a statement that the Saudi government 'is continuing to target those who have called for domestic reform in the kingdom.' The recompense of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and do mischief in the land is only that they shall be killed or crucified or their hands and their feet be cut off from opposite side Saudi Arabian Interior Ministry statement Quoting the Koran, the Saudi Arabian Interior Ministry statement said: 'The recompense of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and do mischief in the land is only that they shall be killed or crucified or their hands and their feet be cut off from opposite sides, or be exiled from the land.' While the list does not include Nimr's nephew, Ali al-Nimr, who was 17 when he was arrested following the protests, concerns are growing for his fate. His sentencing to death by beheading and crucifixion sparked an international outcry. Official charges against Nimr include attending a protest, using his phone to encourage further support for the demonstrations and possessing a gun, an accusation which the family strongly denies. British shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn told the Press Association: 'With the carrying out of this large number of executions there will now be huge international concern about what will happen to Ali Mohammed al-Nimr who is Sheikh al-Nimr's nephew. 'The Foreign Secretary has told Parliament that he does not expect Ali Mohammed al-Nimr to be executed but he now needs to seek fresh assurances that he will be reprieved.' Protest: Scores of Shi'ite Muslims marched through the Qatif district of Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province in protest at the execution of cleric Nimr al-Nimra (file photo) Dozens of protesters gathered outside the Saudi embassy in London to express their anger about the executions Amnesty International UK's Shane Enright was at the protest outside the Saudi Embassy in London (pictured). He said a recent Amnesty report concluded that the trial against Nimr was 'deeply flawed' Death toll: Executions have increased in the kingdom since King Salman acceded to the throne in January 2015 following the death of king Abdullah (file photo) The Sheikh's brother Mohammed al-Nimr said that the executions came as a 'big shock' because 'we thought the authorities could adopt a political approach to settle matters without bloodshed.' 'There will be reactions,' he said, but urged people to 'adopt peaceful means when expressing their anger.' Bernie Sanders didn't want to hear about Hillary Clinton's 'damn emails,' so he certainly doesn't want to hear about Bill Clinton's sex life. Sanders was asked during both of his Sunday show appearances today whether Donald Trump bringing up Bill Clinton's sexual indiscretions of the past was fair game. 'No,' Sanders stated to CNN's Dana Bash. 'I think we have got more important things to worry about in this country than Bill Clinton's sex life.' Scroll down for video Bernie Sanders appeared this morning on CNN and, again, defended the Clintons from a controversy bubbling up, this time saying that he didn't want to hear about Bill Clinton's past sexcapades CNN's Dana Bash laughed when Bernie Sanders blasted Donald Trump for talking about Bill Clinton's sex life and then segued onto the topic of global warming As Hillary Clinton has stepped up her criticism of Donald Trump, the billionaire businessman has hit back by trying to remind voters of the '90s. 'If Hillary thinks she can unleash her husband, with his terrible record of women abuse, while playing the women's card on me, she's wrong!' Trump tweeted last week, later bringing up the names Monica Lewinsky and Paula Jones. Sanders wasn't interested in labeling Bill Clinton as a sex pest, even though it might be a politically advantageous move, as the Vermont senator hopes to overtake Hillary Clinton in Iowa, the state that holds the first caucus. 'I think that Donald Trump might want to concern himself with the fact that he's dead wrong when he says we should not raise the minimum wage, he's dead wrong when he says that wages in America are too high,' Sanders began. 'He's dead wrong when he thinks we should give huge tax breaks to billionaires like himself, and he's dead wrong when he thinks that climate change is a hoax, when the entire virtually the entire scientific community thinks it's the great environmental crisis that we face,' Sanders continued. 'Maybe Trump should worry about those issues, rather than Bill Clinton's sex life,' the Vermont senator concluded. Bash said she was impressed. 'Only Bernie Sanders can segue from Bill Clinton's sex life to climate change,' the CNN host said. Heading over to ABC's This Week to talk to Martha Raddatz, Sanders encountered the same line of questioning. Bernie Sanders faced a similar line of questioning when talking to Martha Raddatz on ABC's This Week, telling the TV host that, no, he didn't believe Bill Clinton's sexual past was fair game 'No, I don't,' Sanders replied when Raddatz asked if Bill Clinton's sexual history was fair game. 'I think, you know, we have enormous problems facing this country and I think we got more things to worry about than Bill Clinton's sexual life,' Sanders said. 'I think interestingly enough, maybe Donald Trump might want to focus attention on climate change, understand that climate change is not a hoax, as he believes it is.' Going down the same rhetorical road, Sanders again mentioned The Donald's stance on the minimum wage and tax breaks for the wealthy. Raddatz noted that Sanders, who pledged to run a clean campaign, had said some pretty harsh things about the Republican frontrunner, including calling Trump a pathological liar. Sanders said it was justified. 'Yes. The truth is I do not get engaged in personal attacks, but Trump really is over the edge,' Sanders said. Sanders pointed to the claims Trump made about thousands of New Jersey Muslims celebrating the fall of the Twin Towers on 9/11 something that couldn't be corroborated with news reports from 2001. A female Israeli soldier was among two injured in separate shootings on Sunday in the West Bank city of Hebron, according to the Israeli army. The shootings come as the nation mourns the deaths of two people, who were killed when a gunman opened fire on a bar in Tel Aviv on Friday night. Israeli police continue to hunt for the gunman, who also wounded several people, and who is believed to be a man named Nashat Milhem from the Arab village of Arara, in northern Israel. Loss: Family and friends gather at the funeral of 26-year-old Alon Bekel, who was killed by a gunman who opened fire on a bar in Tel Aviv on Friday night Violence: Bekel, who was the manager of the bar that was attacked, was one of two killed and several wounded in the shooting One of the victims was named as 26-year-old Alon Bekel, who was the manager of the bar that was attacked. His funeral was held at the Israeli Karmiel Celemtery, in northern Israel. The second victim was Shimon Rawimi, 30, from the southern town of Ofakim. Friends and family gathered to mourn his death at the cemetery in his home town. The weekend's shootings follow more than three months of violence, which has left 138 Palestinians and 21 Israelis dead. The female soldier was seriously wounded in the West Bank shooting and was evacuated to Jerusalem's Shaare Tzedek hospital, according to an army statement. It happened near a disputed holy site in the heart of Hebron's Old City, which is known to Muslims as the Ibrahimi Mosque and to Jews as the Cave of the Patriarchs. Mourning: Israeli police continue to hunt for the gunman, who also wounded several people. Pictured, friends and relatives comfort each other at the 26-year-old's funeral Tears: Friday night's gunman is believed to be a man named Nashat Milhem from the Arab village of Arara, in northern Israel. Pictured, two women at Bekel's funeral on Sunday in northern Israel Tragedy: David Bekel, the father of Alon, mourns over the coffin of his son, during his funeral in Karmiel, northern Israel Three hours later, another gunman opened fire on an army patrol in southern Hebron, slightly wounding a soldier, the army said, adding that the unknown assailant fled after the attack. Some 500 Jewish settlers live under tight guard among around 200,000 Palestinians in the southern West Bank city, where several anti-Israel attacks have been carried out in the past weeks. Meanwhile, two Jewish extremists were indicted on Sunday, suspected in a July arson attack on a Palestinian home that killed a toddler and his parents. Only a four-year-old boy survived the firebombing, which was carried out at night as the family slept. The case had remained unsolved for months, and helped fuel the current wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence. It follows months of investigations into a web of Jewish extremists operating in the West Bank, and named a 21-year-old West Bank settler, Amiram Ben-Uliel, as the main suspect. A minor was also charged as an accessory. Sorrow: The second victim was Shimon Rawimi, 30, from the southern town of Ofakim. Friends and family gathered to mourn his death at the cemetery in his home town (pictured) Violence: Two women shed tears at the funeral of 30-year-old Rawimi, who was one of two people who died in the Tel Aviv shooting on Friday night Grief: Israeli women react during the funeral of Shimon Ruimi, who was killed in Friday's deadly shooting attack Killings: The weekend's shootings follow more than three months of violence, which has left 138 Palestinians and 21 Israelis dead Yinon Reuveni, 20, and another minor were also charged for other violence against Palestinians. All four were charged with belonging to a terrorist organisation. The firebombing, while it remained unsolved, intensified the Palestinian feeling of skewed justice in the occupied territory, where suspected Palestinian militants are prosecuted under a separate system of military law that gives them few rights. Palestinians say they are frustrated by years of unchecked settler violence, after nearly five decades of Israeli occupation. Jewish extremists have for years vandalised or set fire to Palestinian property, as well as mosques, churches, the offices of dovish Israeli groups and even Israeli military bases. Funeral: Muddy shovels and wreaths of flowers and a single memorial candle at the grave of Shimon Ruimi, age 30, at his funeral in the southern Israeli town of Ofakim Respect: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (right) visits the scene of a shooting attack at the entrance of the cafe in Tel Aviv, Israel Memory: A woman lights a candle at a memorial in the entrance of the cafe in Tel Aviv, Israel, as the nation mourns for those killed and wounded in the attack The so-called 'price tag' attacks seek to exact a cost for Israeli steps seen as favouring the Palestinians. The extremists are part of a movement known as the 'hilltop youth', a leaderless group of young people who set up unauthorised outposts, usually clusters of trailers, on West Bank hilltops - land the Palestinians claim for their hoped-for state. Most of the 21 Israelis who have died since October were killed by Palestinians in stabbings, shootings and car-ramming attacks. Photographs show parents trying to hold their children out of the freezing water while also wading to the beach A second group was helped to shore by volunteers in Lesbos, but many were forced to swim after falling overboard Turkish coastguards airlifted several of the stranded group to safety, after they were left trapped on a rocky islet Advertisement Parents were forced to hold their children above freezing January waves as they struggled to reach shore on the Greek island of Lesbos on Sunday. The group of migrants and refugees were helped to disembark by volunteers, although several were forced to wade to the beach after falling overboard. Photographs show one father struggling to reach shore as he tried to hold his tiny, terrified daughter above the waves. Another image shows a group gathered around a woman in tears, while in another photograph, a little girl cries as she sits wrapped in a giant, silver thermal blanket after the harrowing crossing from Turkey. Scroll down for video Struggle: A man carries a child as they try to reach shore after falling into the sea while disembarking from a dinghy, on which they crossed a part of the Aegean Sea from Turkey to Lesbos. It comes as Turkish coastguards rescued 57 migrants and refugees from an islet Ashore: A group of asylum-seekers disembark at the Greek island of Lesbos, after being helped ashore by volunteers. A different group had to be rescued by Turkish coastguards after they were left stranded on a rocky islet in the Aegean Sea Once on shore, the group were handed thermal blankets stamped with the logo of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) as they sat on the beach near the town of Mytilene. It comes the day after charity workers created a giant peace sign out of thousands of life-jackets on the hills of the Greek island, in honour of those who have died while making the perilous crossing in the hope of reaching Europe. The onset of winter and rougher sea conditions do not appear to have deterred the asylum-seekers, with boats still arriving on the Greek islands daily. Elsewhere, Turkish coastguards rescued a group of 57 migrants and refugees, including children, after they were left stranded on a rocky islet in the Aegean Sea. The group was trying to reach Greece by making the perilous journey across the sea, but they hit trouble after leaving the Turkish resort of Dikili, in Izmir province. Tears: A little girl cries as she sits wrapped in a thermal blanket while sitting on a beach near the town of Mytilene, on Lesbos, shortly after crossing the Aegean Sea Safety: A man carries a child as they try to reach a shore after falling into the sea while disembarking from a dinghy on which they crossed a part of the Aegean Sea Panic: A group surrounds a woman who is in floods of tears after the crossing, which has proved fatal for so many migrants and refugees Warm: A woman holds a child on a beach near the town of Mytilene, after crossing a part of the Aegean Sea on a dinghy with other refugees and migrants. The pair are wrapped in blankets stamped with the logo of the UNHCR Family: A Syrian man holds his child in a tight embrace on a beach near the town of Mytilene, after crossing the Aegean Sea in a dinghy Twelve of the most vulnerable, including three children, were airlifted to safety by coastguard helicopters, according to Turkey's Anatolia news agency. Meanwhile, the other 45 were picked up by fishing boats as the larger coastguard vessels couldn't get near to the rocky islet. The group was then taken to Dikili port, to recover following the dramatic rescue. Turkey, which is home to some 2.2million refugees from Syria's civil war, has become a hub for migrants seeking to move to Europe, many of whom pay people smugglers thousands of pounds for the risky crossing. The UN refugee agency and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) have said more than one million migrants and refugees reached Europe in 2015, most of them by sea. The vast majority of people - over 800,000 - landed in Greece, according to the figures. Dangerous crossing: The UN refugee agency and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) have said more than one million migrants and refugees reached Europe in 2015, most of them by sea Perilous: Refugees and migrants onboard a dinghy approach the Greek island of Lesbos, after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey on Saturday, January 2 Welcoming: Volunteers assist refugees and migrants to arrive on a beach after crossing a part of the Aegean sea from Turkey to the Greek island of Lesbos Chick-fil-A's only branch in New York has closed after food hygiene inspectors found 59 violations, including soiled cloths, food kept at the wrong temperature and an infestation of flies. Huge queues have formed outside the fast food restaurant nearly every day since it opened in October, but the branch unexpectedly closed on December 30. A sign on the door said it had closed for 'restaurant maintenance', but it has now emerged that it closed after a damning Christmas Eve inspection from New York's Department of Health. Chick-fil-A's only branch (seen at its opening in October) in New York has closed after food hygiene inspectors found 59 violations, including soiled cloths, food kept at the wrong temperature and an infestation of flies The official inspection also said the restaurant was not 'vermin proof' and could attract pests such as rats A total of 59 violations were found inside the chicken sandwich store, including cold food kept at too high temperatures, flies in food preparation areas and wiping cloths not kept clean. The official inspection also said the restaurant was not 'vermin proof' and could attract pests such as rats. Chick-fil-A has not directly addressed the inspection, which took place on Christmas Eve - just days after an earlier inspection found 39 problems. A sign on the store's door says: 'To ensure we continue to provide our guests with the best possible service and experience, we are closing for a few days beginning Dec 30 for restaurant maintenance and facility upgrades.' Placed next to a sanitary 'grade pending' poster, the sign adds the restaurant will re-open for breakfast on Monday at 6.30am. Daily Mail Online has contacted Chick-fil-A for further comment. A sign on the door said it had closed for 'restaurant maintenance' but it has now emerged that it closed after a damning Christmas Eve inspection from New York's Department of Health Placed next to a sanitary 'grade pending' poster, the sign adds the restaurant will re-open for breakfast on Monday at 6.30am Chick-fil-A's Manhattan store opened to great fanfare in October, offering free food to its first customers as it launched an attempt to rival the likes of McDonald's in the city. The Atlanta-based chain has more than 1,900 stores in 42 states, although its heaviest presence is in the South. It outraged customers across America last week after announcing it was replacing its much-loved coleslaw with healthier kale. Chick-fil-A said after making a 'difficult decision', it would be removing coleslaw from its menu on January 18. New Yorkers may soon have a lot less to worry about if they a child, parent, or other family member gets sick and needs care. Governor Cuomo is considering giving New York employees twelve weeks paid family leave in 2016. Cuomo's aides met with paid leave advocates on December 29 to talk about giving paid leave to those with a new baby, or an ill family member or those affected by military service of family members. According to the New York Family Leave Coalition, currently only eight percent of workers nationwide have access to paid family leave. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's aides met with paid sick leave advocates in Manhattan, and a new law could be put into effect in 2016 In January, city workers will receive up to 12 weeks paid parental leave, something that a source told The New York Post made the governor feel 'a lot more pressure' to push through a state law. Currently, under New York State Labor Law, payment for time not actually worked is not required unless the employer has established a policy to grant such pay, and then that employer is free to impose their own restrictions and qualifications, according to the New York Department of Labor. Gov. Andrew Cuomo (left) is feeling under more pressure to create a state-wide sick leave law for 2016 thanks to NYC's sick leave and parental leave laws implemented in 2014 Paid sick leave for employees was only made a law in New York City in 2014. Employees can earn up to 40 hours of sick leave a year if he or she works over 80 hours a year. The employer must have five or more employees. The rate is one hour of sick leave for every 30 hours worked. Sick leave can be used for a mental or health condition, care of a family member who has an illness or needs preventative care, or care of a child whose school or child care closed because of an emergency. New Yorkers are already covered by federal law that gives employees the right to take up to 12 weeks off for health reasons for themselves or a family member, but that is unpaid. The Republican lawmaker wanted to ask the Democratic frontrunner about her husband's past sexual Hillary Clinton encountered her first heckler of 2016 an elected official who wanted to talk about Bill Clinton's sexual past. Today in Derry, New Hampshire, GOP state Rep. Katherine Prudhomme O'Brien hollered from the crowd at Clinton. 'You are very rude and I'm not going to ever call on you,' candidate Clinton replied NBC News later identified the audience member as O'Brien, who told the news organization that she was trying to ask a question about 'past accusations of sexual impropriety' related to the former president. Scroll down for video Hillary Clinton handled a heckler today in New Hampshire by shouting back, 'you are very rude,' and refusing to call on the woman, who was later identified as a GOP lawmaker Hillary Clinton refused to call on GOP state Rep. Katherine Prudhomme O'Brien, who tried shouting the Democratic frontrunner down twice to ask her questions about Bill Clinton's sex life Hillary Clinton spent time in New Hampshire today, while her husband Bill Clinton will make two Granite State stops tomorrow, marking the first time he's stumped solo for her this campaign cycle O'Brien tried twice to shout Clinton into answering her question, but was rebuffed both times, with the candidate punctuating her dismissal with a 'thanks.' Pro-Hillary supporters around O'Brien booed. Speaking to CNN afterward, O'Brien articulated the question that she demanded answered. 'I asked her how in the world she can say that Juanita Broaddrick and Kathleen Wiley are lying when she has no idea who Juanita Broaddrick is,' O'Brien said. 'She told me this summer she doesn't know who she is and doesn't want to know who she is. How can she [assess] that they are lying, which she told someone last month?' O'Brien was referring to two women who accused President Clinton of rape and sexual assault, respectively. O'Brien told CNN that she thought Hillary Clinton was being a hypocrite because the former secretary of state released a plan to combat sexual assault in 2015. 'She says that rape victims should be believed,' O'Brien pointed out. 'I agree with her, that is true, they should be believed and we should assess what they are saying, she doesn't even [want] to access it.' Clinton has had to face questions like this on the campaign trail before, including when she talked to a woman last month about Broaddrick, Willey and Paula Jones, a third accuser. 'I would say that everyone should be believed at first until they are disbelieved based on evidence,' Clinton said then. Today's response was more forceful, with Clinton quickly shutting O'Brien down. Hillary Clinton refused to answer a question of GOP state Rep. Katherine Prudhomme O'Brien's because it pertained to her husband's past sexual indiscretions Hillary Clinton shut GOP state Rep. Katherine Prudhomme O'Brien down at a New Hampshire rally today. In the past, she's been more diplomatic when asked about Bill Clinton's sex scandals of the '90s Bill Clinton was also brought up, in part, because he's hitting the campaign trail for his wife tomorrow in the Granite State, making two stops, which will mark the first time he has stumped for her solo. As the former president is being rolled out, Donald Trump has been trying to get voters to remember the '90s too, naming-dropping women Clinton's name was attached to: Monica Lewinsky and Jones. 'If Hillary thinks she can unleash her husband, with his terrible record of women abuse, while playing the women's card on me, she's wrong!' Trump tweeted last week. Today, rival Bernie Sanders jumped to the Clintons defense. 'I think we have got more important things to worry about in this country than Bill Clinton's sex life,' Sanders told CNN's Dana Bash, making a statement reminiscent of the one he made during the first Democratic debate, when he hollered that the country was sick and tired of hearing about Hillary Clinton's 'damn emails.' As for Bill Clinton's trek tomorrow, he'll be in the clear in one regard. The show features some 40 recent winners of The Most Beautiful Swiss Books and The Most Beautiful Books from All Over the World competitions. An exhibition of award-winning Swiss book designs and posters is happening at The Mix Place on Hengshan Road through Jan. 8 in Shanghai. Specifically, the show features some 40 recent winners of The Most Beautiful Swiss Books and The Most Beautiful Books from All Over the World competitions. According to Lu Jingren, a respected Chinese artist and book designer who also wrote a preface to the show, the exhibition reflects the enduring beauty and influence of modern Swiss design, beginning with the start of the New Typography Movement in Zurich back 1916. Inspired by this movement, designers in subsequent decades sought to enrich the "visual vocabulary" of their graphic designs, which in turn gave rise to the highly respected contemporary Swiss Style school, Lu added. "Swiss Style is highlighted by its use of grids in mathematical structures, sanserif typography and asymmetry layouts," he explained to Shanghai Daily after delivering a speech on book design. Among the defining hallmarks of this style is the Helvicta typeface, one of the most widely used typefaces of the 20th century. Lu named "Worte nicht in giftige Buchstaben einwickeln," published by Switzerland's Scheidegger & Spiess, as one of the books at the show that impressed him the most. A biography of Swiss artist Meret Oppenheim, the book contains a number of correspondences between the artist and her friends, some of which were published for the first time. With a bold yet simple portrait of Oppenheim on the cover, the book is interspersed with texts and photographs of the artist's letters. Many of the original letters feature doodles and sketches by the artist, while printed reproductions of the texts are presented in a variety of styles, sizes and fonts. "The typographies perfectly accord with each correspondence. The structure is simple, yet the detail of the design is impressive," Lu explained. "It introduces a sense of time and space. Readers can feel the passage of time." The book was awarded the Golden Letter, the highest award at The Most Beautiful Books from All Over the World competition, in Leipzig in 2014. Another stand-out for Lu is "New New Testament," a monumental work packed with more than 1,000 paintings by New York-based artist Paul Chan. On the book's right-hand pages are paintings from Chan made using old book covers. These images are accompanied on each left-hand page by cryptic combinations of symbols and words. Co-published by Swiss imprint Schaulager, the book is bound in leather and could easily be mistaken for a Bible. "The book becomes an experiment in the significance of words by introducing modern digital signs into the text. The contrast between text and image presents a poetic sense of beauty," Lu said. "New New Testament" is one of 17 titles named among The Most Beautiful Swiss Books in 2014. First initiated by the Swiss Publishers Association in 2014 and then taken over by the Swiss Federal Office of Culture, The Most Beautiful Swiss Books is an annual competition that honors achievements in book design, layout and typography. The exhibition at The Mix Place is organized by Business of Culture in partnership with Pro Helvetia Shanghai and Fangsuo Commune. The Most Beautiful Swiss Books & Swiss Posters Date: Through Jan. 8, 10am-7pm Address: 2/3F, Red Couture, 3/F, My Black Attitude, The Mix Place, 890 Hengshan Rd Follow China.org.cn on Twitter and Facebook to join the conversation. Scrap the coffee at breakfast; a shot of blueberry liquor was being pushed my way by a gaggle of giggly locals. In a bid to escape the London bustle Id headed to the Slovenian countryside for a couple of days and already I was liking the vacation vibe. While most of my friends had hit the country for skiing, I was making a trip with no snow in sight to sample the wines of the Northern hills. The world's oldest vine tree can be found in the city of Maribor (pictured) on the banks of Drava river, Slovenia Lush green vineyards: Sadie tours the wineries of the Northern hills before sampling the grapes Sadie (third right) and her friends headed to north Slovenia to sample some of the local wines Unbeknownst to many, the country - just a two-hour jaunt from the Big Smoke - is plentiful in wines, from crisp pinot noirs to bold black cherry cabernets. And several hours into my trip I also learnt that Slovenia boasts the oldest grape vine in the world, which still produces big velvety bunches of grapes to this day. Nestled in the characterful city of Maribor the gnarled tree - held up with makeshift wooden scaffolding - apparently dates back at least 375 years. At one point it was on deaths door after homeless people used its bark for firewood but thanks to some TLC from tree experts, it was brought back to life in the Sixties. A Guinness Book of World Records certificate inside a building the Old Vine grows up notes that the plant could even be more than 400 years old - but the debate continues to rumble. A guide, who showed me and fellow wine-drinkers around the Old Vine building explained that around 100 bottles of wine are produced from the ancient plant every year. Unbeknownst to many, the country - just a two-hour jaunt from the Big Smoke - is plentiful in wines, from crisp pinot noirs to bold black cherry cabernets And several hours into her trip, Sadie also learnt that Slovenia boasts the oldest grape vine in the world (above), which still produces big velvety bunches of grapes to this day Rare tipple: Around 100 bottles of wine are produced from the ancient plant every year (seen above) Usually the tipple is only reserved for the elite - from the Pope to the British Queen to Brad Pitt - but for the first time ever, one bottle from the worlds oldest vine will be offered to the public at auction this year. Apparently a 275ml bottle of red wine from the old vine will go on sale to coincide with the Slovenian grape harvest festival in autumn. This is when the grapes are cut from the wizened tree, whisked away and pulverized. Connoisseurs expect the Old Vine wine will fetch more than 10,000 (7,000) when it goes on sale. So what does wine from an ancient vine taste like? Our guide admits he has never tried it, although he hears on the grapevine - wink, wink - that its a little punchy. The wince on his face implies that this reported punchiness may not be a good thing. With Old Vine off the menu for us, we were treated to a sampling of other Slovenian specialties. A rose - not so appetisingly named Pee.Not - proved to be a top hit, as did a sweet yellow muscat dessert wine. At one point, the Old Vine was on deaths door after homeless people used its bark for firewood but thanks to some TLC from tree experts, it was brought back to life in the Sixties Cause for celebration: Apparently a 275ml bottle of red wine from the old vine will go on sale to coincide with the Slovenian grape harvest festival this year A Guinness Book of World Records certificate inside a building the Old Vine grows up notes that the plant could even be more than 400 years old - but the debate continues to rumble Continuing on the wine tour, we headed to a nearby wine house in more of a Tuscany-esque setting. Sat in a patchwork of fields, the Dveri Pax cellar boasts an exquisite tasting room and dining area under brick vaulted ceilings. Our guide, Robert Gorjak, was extremely knowledgeable and he delighted in educating us on his native tipples. 'I love my job - it's the best,' he laughed as he proceeded us to show us around. He explained that hed become the export manager of the Dveri-Pax Winery after writing numerous books about wine and enjoyed being on the other side of the fence. Sat in the vast cellars with a selection of cheeses, marinated walnuts and breads, we steadily made our way through eight different wines. While we were given buckets to spit into, some of the samples seemed too good to waste. Robert pointed out that one of the wines we were trying - the 1139 Pinot Riesling - was available at Marks & Spencer for 'under a tenner' while others were available to order in the UK via The Wine Society. But why isnt Slovenian wine better known? Like many other locals, Roberts explains that the country is not set up for mass production and its quality not quantity that they specialise in. Sat in a patchwork of fields, the Dveri Pax wine cellar (building seen above) boasts an exquisite tasting room and dining area under brick vaulted ceilings In need of an afternoon nap, I headed back to my hotel before dinner. I was staying at the Hotel Bellevue - which as the name suggests, boasts awesome views of the lush green countryside. But for those looking for more of an authentic Slovenian experience, farm stays might be a better bet. In terms of eating, there are lots of choices and Maribor has offerings to suit all tastes. Along with wine, another speciality from the region is mushrooms so you will find a mix of morels in most dishes. Eating at The Three Ponds restaurant close to Maribor city centre I plumped for a delicious mushroom soup, bacon-wrapped pork and a sponge cake for dessert (that bizarrely came wheeled in on a papier mache swan). The sweet - which looks similar to a Swiss roll- is apparently a traditional Slovenian creation. Instead of wine, it went great with the blueberry liquor I'd started the day on. Sadie said the wine guide, Robert Gorjak, was extremely knowledgeable and he delighted in educating the visitors on his native tipples Slovenian speciality: Along with wine, another speciality from the region is mushrooms so you will find a mix of morels in most dishes - above mushrooms were sprinkled on a meat and vegetable platter On the second day of 'wining it up' I visited the charming town of Ptuj. Although it's considerably smaller than Maribor it encapsulates buckets more charm with winding cobbled streets, Roman art and an impressive castle fort. After meandering down a windy road we were greeted by Ana Nimac from the Ptuj Winery, the producer of Pullus Wines. With a large iron key in her hand, she lead us through several doors into the bowels of the cellar. A sweet sherry-like fragrance punctuated the air, along with the mustyness of times gone by - the cellar, dates back to the early 1200s. We made our way through the labyrinth of narrow corridors with oak barrels three times as high as me looming each side. Ana explained that the cellar could hold around four million litres of wine. With that in mind, we headed back upstairs to have a quick swig of some of the produce. Again the dessert wine proved to be a favourite as did the Riesling. We decided to continue the theme over lunch, with a couple of bottles of the Pullus Reisling on the banks of the river Drava. The Ribic restaurant made for an ideal setting in the 28-degree heat. From there, it was a quick car ride and back to the airport. Back to London and it felt like Id been away for a week but it had only been a couple days. Maybe it was because Id managed to pack so much in or maybe the wine had disrupted my sense of timing. Slovenia definitely left a sweet taste in my mouth. An excuse to return and sample more. Los Angeles, California. It's the home of Hollywood, Beverley Hills, sprawling beaches and Sunset Boulevard. It's the home of A-List celebrities and the infamous In'N'Out burger chain. Indeed, this was our first stop off after our 10 hour Air New Zealand flight. Not that we really needed any thing else to eat after the incredible food onboard but it provided an entertaining stop off on the hour long drive to our first destination as we tried out the two very different lifestyles California has to offer; laid back surfing and sparkling city nights. Call of the surf: Taking morning trip to the beach in Southern California is a local pastime All day appeal: A lifeguard stands on the beach at sunset, in Huntington Beach, California Huntington Beach the home of surfers, sun and sea Driving down the Pacific Coast Highway to reach Huntington Beach (HB) you'd be forgiven for thinking you'd stepped straight onto the set of noughties TV favourite The O.C. Palm trees line the promenade as tanned and toned beach bums languish on the sand from morning to night. The pace of life in HB is decidedly laid back, with surfing being the most popular pastime for both tourists and locals alike. Head down to the shore on any given day and you'll see groups of wetsuit clad men and women catching the morning waves from as early as 5.30am. And if you want to take in everything Huntington has to offer the Regency Hyatt is the perfect place to stay for families, friends and couples alike one of the best things about this beach front property is that even at full capacity you would barely know it. T The 500 plus rooms are spread out across a huge grounds, there are several restaurants including The Water Table and the Tower 15 Pizzeria, a spa and even their Surf City Grocers within the hotel complex. Guest can soak up the Californian sun by the pool at Huntington Beach Hyatt Regency Resort and Spa SURF AND SPA Pacific Waters Spa www.huntingtonbeach.hyatt.com/hyatt/pure/spas Yoga On The Beach www.toesonthenose.com Paddle Boarding With Rocky McKinnon www.mckinnonsurfboards.com Price per person $100 per hour Advertisement Despite being totally zonked after our flight we woke up early on day one to try out ocean front yoga with Jordan Batha from Toes On The Nose. Towels and mats are provided and she'll take you through a series of moves achievable for even the most inflexible of yogis all directed to the soundtrack of the crashing waves. It was the perfect way to work up an appetite for breakfast at the Water Table at the Hyatt; the Crab Hash and Zesty Lemon and Blueberry Pancakes are a must try. We then changed into our swimsuits for a paddle boarding session with pro surfer Rocky McKinnon. Rocky is about as American as they come and will quickly get you enthused about the popular watersport, careful though, if don't follow his instructions properly and he'll make sure you know. During an hour long lesson you'll spend 20 minutes learning how to control the board from the safety of dry land before you're sent out onto the water. At night lights illuminate the pool framed by palm trees at Huntington Beach Hyatt Regency Resort and Spa Head down to the shore on any given day and you'll see groups of wetsuit clad men and women catching the morning waves from as early as 5.30am WHERE TO EAT IN HUNTINGTON BEACH Enjoy breakfast and dinner at Water Table www.watertablehb.com Dine At Dukes on the Pacific Coast Hwy: www.dukeshuntington.com Have Ice Cream at The Ice Cream Way www.theicecreamway.com Have Some S'Mores http://www.waterfrontresort.com/wa Stop Of At The Red Table www.redtablerestaurants.com Advertisement Balance is key for this sport which is a favourite of Cameron Diaz and Kendall Jenner but be careful not to grip the board with your toes or you might end up with some pretty serious cramp. After a morning of exercise we took a trip to ocean front restaurant Dukes, named after the 'Father of International Surfing' Duke Paoa Kahanamoku. The Mia Tais come recommended by the locals and pack a pretty strong punch; remember that spirits are not measured in the States! And if you've still got room for dessert after sampling the menu the Poke Tacos are fiendishly fresh and garnished with the creamiest of guacamoles then pop over to The Ice Cream Way. This store tucked a couple of streets back off the main promenade is one of a kind as the ice cream is frozen in front of you using jets of liquid nitrogen. By night the beach comes alive as groups of friends gather around one of the 500 firepits which line the top of the sand. Using one of the State owned pits is free but you have to get down early to reserve your space so instead we checked out the services of the Waterfront Resort. They not only provide a cast iron pit but all the wood you can burn as well as the ingredients to make s'mores a traditional American treat made by toasting marshmallows before crushing them between a gram cracker with a square of chocolate. The next morning saw a trip to the Pacific Waters Spa. There you can kick back in the salt water Jacuzzi, head to the steam room or even book yourself in for a treatment. Try a Pacific Waters facial and you'll come out looking glowing without even so much of a touch of redness however, beware of the 'extractions.' The practice, which is no often done in UK spas, involves the beautician squeezing the excess oil out of your skin and can prove pretty painful! Iconic: No road trip through California would be complete without a cruise down Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills HOLLYWOOD NIGHTLIFE HOTSPOTS Dine And Drink With The Stars At E.P And L.P: www.eplosangeles.com Party The Night Away At The Blind Dragon www.blinddragonla.com Vote Vegan At Gracias Madre: www.graciasmadreweho.com Eat Out At The Eveleigh www.theeveleigh.com/ Have A Night if It At The Abbey http://sbe.com/nightlife/brands/theabbeyfoodandbar/ Chill Out At Cecconis http://cecconiswesthollywood.com/ Advertisement Going Wild In WeHo After two days in Huntington it was time to head over to West Hollywood, but not without a quick stop off at The Red Table for more fish tacos and a healthy sized American's don't do small portions, remember serving of Braised Beef Short Rib. The Mondrian hotel would be our next stop. Situated just minutes away from Beverley Hills this infamous local has played host to Leonardo Dicaprio, Rod Stewart and Courtney Love over the years. The stunning Sky Bar which boasts views out over the city a great hideaway for those looking to escape the madness of the surrounding areas. Indeed, if you want to fit in you better be on your best Hollywood behavior as the staff here are uber cool, if a little cold, and used to dealing with an A-list crowd. But this will soon be forgotten once you're inside the rooms. Giant white linen clad beds and a mirror which magically transforms into a TV make it feel like you've walked straight onto a film set. And after putting on your best bikini the sun beds around the pool are the perfect place to do some people watching; from perfectly bronzed couples slathered in tanning oil to fidgety groups of woman sipping cocktails and updating their Instagram feeds. But take a dip at your peril, this is a pool to be seen in, not to caught swimming in not least because it's only about 12 ft long. Beautiful people and celebrities flock to The Mondrian's pool to unwind and drink cocktails After a quick shower you'll find two to choose from in your room it's out to experience Hollywood's electric nightlife scene. And we soon found ourselves rubbing shoulders with the stars or at least sitting in close proximity to them. A trip to E.P & L.P bought sightings of Gerard Butler and Orange Is The Black star Ruby Rose. Taster menus at E.P come in at $60-$100 and you'll be bought dishes to share amongst your table. The abalone to start is delicate and delicious whilst the table will be fighting over the scallop and clam curry. After dinner, slip upstairs to the roof top terrace, L.P, for more celebrity spotting and lethal cocktails all with a view over the twinkling city below. Later head to The Red Dragon, this underground club is easy to miss as it's accessible only through a car park but once inside it has all the opulence of a Mayfair club but without the crowds. By day WeHo is calmer and easily walkable although most locals take cars or taxis and a trip to Gracias Madre for lunch is the perfect while a way a couple of hours. Although the menu claims 'crab' and 'chorizo' this is actually an entirely vegan restaurant which dispels any notion that vegan food is boring and bland trying the Cauliflower Cheese (made with cashews) and be sure to order several portions of the guacamole for the table. A-lister hotspot: The Mondrian hotel in LA regularly welcomes star guests such as Leonardo DiCaprio Celebrity pampering: Kinara spa above is a favourite of Halle Berry's and essential to get your Hollywood glow Next stop is Kinara the spa is a favourite of Halle Berry's and it's easy to see why. Service is slick and the rooms feel private, if you're feeling daring have a Red Carpet facial a light form of chemical peel which the A-Listers swear by. Downtime is only two hours which means you can have the treatment and still go out in the same day. In the evening we walked the short distance to The Eveleigh, where sea urchins are the order of the day. Not for the squeamish these underwater creatures are served with a wedge of lemon which, when poured over the animal, cause it's spikes to move despite the fact that it is very much dead. If you'd rather not watch your food move though we'd suggest the Burrata and Peaches and the Fries With Truffle Aioli both of which are as delicate as they are delicious. FLYING FIRST CLASS TO HOLLYWOOD If you've always wanted to fly First Class but you don't have the budget of a Hollywood A-Lister you'd be amiss not to check out Air New Zealand's Premier Economy Space Seats which offer you ample room to relax during the 10 hour flight. If you're in a couple try and book into the 'cuddle class' spaces down the middle of the aisles which come complete with instructions of how to snuggle up to your loved one during your journey. Staff are brilliantly attentive taking the time to memorise your name as an extra personal touch. You'll also be greeted with an adorable gift bag complete with beauty products, toothpaste, a toothbrush a mask and earplugs. You can call for refreshments at any time during the flight and will be served an option of three delicious meals, complete with starter and a dessert. Bump It Up To Business Sipping Champagne in a more than spacious 6ft 7.5 inch bed surrounded by celebrities it is safe to say that when it comes to Business class flying Air New Zealand have got it very, very right. The service is second to none and food, we tried prawns and chorizo with cod and couscous for the main, comes served alongside award winning wines a glass of the Chardonnay was a perfect compliment to the fish. After dinner the staff will help you make up your bed and are on hand for your every need during the night. Live It Up In The Star Alliance Lounge Passengers relax in the lounge and bar on the roof terrace, which is decorated with a water wall and fire pits As soon as you enter the The Star Alliance Lounge it's easy to see why it was crowned the best business class lounge in the world. It spans a whooping 18,000 square ft and has everything from a cool yet inviting seating area to a stunning open air terrace. There you can relax with views of the north runway out onto the Hollywood hills with a chilled glass of champagne in hand. Usually open from 9.15am to 12.30am there are even showers complete with complimentary products so you can freshen up before your flight. Flight prices: Business starts from 2,667 return, Premium Economy from 1,104, Economy from 443 http://www.airnewzealand.co.uk/ Advertisement After a night of partying ensued in true West Hollywood style. A short taxi ride dropped us off at Pump the bar is owned by Lisa Vanderpump star of the Real Housewives of Beverley Hills and there is even a TV series about the staff. The outside bar is tranquil in comparison to most of WeHo's hotspots and so it is the perfect place to begin you're night. Plus it is just a short skip around the corner to The Abbey. A totally raucous affair this infamous gay bar has previously played host to the likes of Lindsay Lohan and Joan Collins, in fact, just two days after our visit Caitlyn Jenner was seen hosting a table of her friends there. Go-go dancers in barely there underwear keep guests entertained but as the hostest reminded us, 'Remember to tip before you click,' any photos! The next morning, before heading over to Tom Bradley Airport and the stunning Air New Zealand lounge, and in desperate need of a pick me up after The Abbey, Cecconis was the only place to go. The green eggs were a dream and several of our group indulged in Bloody Marys. It's part of the Soho house group so expect a cool yet understated crowd, service was a little slow but they more than make up for it with their killer brunch. The perfect way to say goodbye to LA. A 42-year-old woman could face criminal charges and a lifetime ban by leisure airline Jet2 after a flight packed with British holidaymakers was forced to divert to Ireland due to her increasingly aggressive behaviour' towards cabin crew. The plane was flying from Tenerife to Newcastle when the woman, who was allegedly intoxicated, became so disruptive the flight crew decided to make an unscheduled landing so she could be removed by police. It led to a frustrating delay for passengers, who were about four hours late when they finally arrived at Newcastle Airport. The flight crew decided to make an unscheduled landing so the disruptive passenger could be arrested The Boeing 737-800 was carrying 161 passengers and six crew when it diverted to Shannon Airport on New Years Day, BreakingNews.ie reported. The crew made the decision as Flight LS518 was flying over the Atlantic Ocean, north-west of Spain, about two hours into its journey back to Britain. Gardai and airport police met the plane when it landed shortly after 10pm and escorted the woman off the plane. After being questioned the woman was released without charge, although a police file is being sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions, BreakingNews.ie reported. A Jet2 spokesperson said in a statement: 'Flight LS518 from Tenerife to Newcastle diverted to Shannon Airport, Ireland, on Friday night to offload a passenger who was reportedly showing increasingly aggressive behaviour towards our cabin crew. The female was handed over to the local police and we will be working closely with the relevant authorities to pursue any necessary action. Leisure airline Jet2 has launched a zero-tolerance campaign to protect its passengers and crew (file photo) As part of our Onboard Together initiative we have empowered our crew to take whatever action necessary to protect both passengers and themselves from offensive and anti-social behaviour. The safety and welfare of our customers and staff is always our number one priority. Last year, Jet2 handed lifetime bans to about 50 travellers who were abusive or disruptive towards staff and fellow passengers, and stopped nearly 500 people from travelling. The zero-tolerance campaign was launched after the airline suffered a number of diversions or delays due to unruly passengers. Tyga despite his lukewarm record as a rapper portrayed himself living large in an Instagram snap on Thursday with a leopard and piles of $100 bills. The 26-year-old boyfriend of reality star Kylie Jenner appeared to be on an airplane with the big cat and the stacks of cash. Tyga didn't provide a caption of the gaudy photo for his more than eight million followers on Instagram. He's roaring: Tyga shared an Instagram snap on Thursday of himself with a leopard and loads of cash The rapper, whose real name is Michael Ray Stevenson, accessorised in the photo with several rings, necklaces and a gold watch. Tyga, whose Instagram name is King Gold Chains, also wore a black cap with KINGIN printed on the crown. The rapper has been bragging about his luxurious lifestyle since his hit December 2011 song Rack City from his major label debut album Careless World: Rise Of The Last King. See more of the latest news and pictures from Kylie Jenner and boyfriend Tyga On the stage: The rapper is shown performing earlier this month with Justine Skye at The Roxy Theatre in West Hollywood, California Tyga roared in August when he presented Kylie with a brand new $320,000 Ferrari for her 18th birthday. Kylie also flaunted a huge diamond ring on Christmas Day that was a gift from Tyga. Tyga's latest studio work The Gold Album: 18th Dynasty flopped upon its release in June. Birthday present: Tyga seemed more than happy to splash the cash for Kylie when he presented her with the Ferrari at her 18th birthday party It was met with mixed to negative reviews and failed to reach the Billboard 200. Tyga's single Hookah featuring rapper Young Thug was released in support of the album and it peaked at number 85 on the Billboard Hot 100 in September 2014. His biggest hit to date remains Rack City, which reached number seven on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in January 2012. The rapper has a three-year-old son King Cairo Stevenson from his former relationship with Blac Chyna. Has singer Tom Cohen been getting up close and personal with another sister of his late wife Peaches Geldof? Late last year, Tom was pictured cuddling with Tigerlily Geldof, 19, in the sea while holidaying in the South of France. Now, he is holidaying with a group that includes Pixie Geldof, 25, and embarrassingly for Tom, this intriguing picture has appeared on social media complete with an unidentified derriere. Scroll down for video Tom Cohen is holidaying with a group that includes Pixie Geldof, 25, and embarrassingly, this intriguing picture has appeared on social media complete with an unidentified derriere In another shot, Tom is photographed having a New Years kiss, but the other persons face is cropped out, perhaps at Toms request It was taken in Toms room at the exclusive celebrity haunt Soho Beach House in Miami and posted by his chum Jack Guinness, who joined Tom, 25, Pixie and others there for a New Years Eve party. Whats not clear, however, is whether thats Pixies bottom in the foreground. In another shot, Tom is photographed having a New Years kiss, but the other persons face is cropped out, perhaps at Toms request. Why so shy? His trip with his late wife's sister and her showbiz pals comes just months after he raised eyebrows by embracing Peaches and Pixie's younger half-sibling Tiger Lily in the surf on holiday in the South of France. Any suggestion of anything more platonic occurring between the pair was shrugged by a close pal of the Geldofs, who insisted they were like brother and sister and had found comfort in their friendship. Tom was seen out for a walk on the beach in Miami earlier today while Pixie was spotted in a tiny bikini top and high-waisted bottoms on the beach on Friday Showbiz circle: Tom has been on holiday with his late wife's pals including Alexa Chung and Nick Grimshaw (above) Tiger Lily had also taken her boyfriend, British student Charlie Creseatian, on the trip. A source told the Daily Mirror: 'Tiger Lily and Tom have become great mates and both keep an eye out for each other, as do the rest of Peaches' family. 'They're a very tactile family and emotions have been running high as Bob has got remarried, which has been such a wonderful and poignant occasion.' Peaches daughter of Miss Yates and Sir Bob died of heroin overdose at her home in Wrotham, Kent, in April last year. Her young son Phaedra was with her. Tragic: Peaches died of heroin overdose at her home in Wrotham, Kent, in April last year Welcomed: Tom is said to have grown much closer to Sir Bob and his immediate family following the death of his wife in 2014 The TV presenter had struggled with drug abuse earlier in her life but had been clean for some years before relapsing in February 2013. Thomas and his sons moved in with his parents, who live in east London, and is understood to be very close to the Geldofs. Cohen has been welcomed into the family as they have grown closer amid ongoing tragedy. Sir Bobs former wife and Peaches and Tiger Lilys mother Paula Yates died of a heroin overdose in 2000. He married much younger Gabi Grecko in a dubious register office in Melbourne in June which appeared to toll the death knell for their romance. And now, eight months after being separated, it seems businessman Geoffrey Edelsten, 72, is counting down to a total 12 months before he files for divorce from estranged wife Gabi Grecko, 26. A source told Daily Mail Australia: 'They have been separated for a total eight months, that's a month before they married, and he [Geoffrey] is waiting until April to draw a line under his third marriage.' The insider added: 'There was no prenup, he's the first to say he's a hopeful romantic and a fool. Scroll down for video The way it was: Geoffrey Edelsten, 72, is set to file for divorce from estranged wife Gabi Grecko, 26, in April amid claims he is wooing 'a beautiful young lady' It seems three failed marriages have not prevented the former medic from searching for love again. Friends say he is smitten with 'a very beautiful young lady' living outside New York and is preparing to fly her to Melbourne to meet his elderly mother Esther, 92. When Daily Mail contacted Mr Edelsten, he refused to comment on the relationship and when asked is they met on dating site sugardaddy.com, he replied: 'I don't wish to go into my private life.' Close: Geoffrey's mother Esther (R) smiles for the camera at her son's wedding to Brynne Gordon (L) at the Crown Palladium, Melbourne, in November 2009. He is hoping to introduce his new lady friend to her Maxim model Gabi and Geoffrey appeared to split in September with the Miami-born socialite jetting off to NYC claiming she could not handle the details of his autobiography which detailed a threesome and the moment he lost his virginity. But the insider insists that despite putting on a united front when they starred in reality show Celebrity Apprentice in September, they infact split a month before they tied the knot in June. The Melbourne-based entrepreneur claims Gabi fled stateside with his DVDs, including The Firm, Lawrence of Arabia, The Client and Chariots Of Fire, $5,500 he loaned her to pay the rent stateside, a gold chain he says is worth $8,000, a second $5,500 wedding ring he gave her in New York. He has since ordered the 26-year-old model to hand back the 100 DVDs totalling $800 he claims she carted off to New York where she now lives. Gabi won't contest: In America, the law states you must be separated for two years before being eligible to file for divorce Following Gabi's return to the United States, she began posting cryptic messages to social media about the end of her relationship with her much older husband. She said she has had enough of him and previously accused Geoffrey of being 'in love with' his P.A, Kaye Whittaker, who has worked with the businessman for 12 years. Mrs Whittaker told Daily Mail Australia it was a 'gross overreaction' to presume she and Geoffrey were romantically involved. First wife: : The former medic was married to nurse Leanne Nesbitt, now 51 Speaking out, the grandmother emphatically insisted she and Geoffrey were not romantically linked, adding she has her own 'loving' family. 'I have been his PA for 12 years - the relationship has always been totally professional,' she has said. 'I am over 60 with a loving family and grandchildren, nobody in their right mind would consider Geoffrey displaying a romantic interest towards me,' Ms Whittaker added. 'I would suggest that Gabi's comments were a gross overreaction.' Multi millionaire Geoffrey split from his wife of four years, Brynne, 31 in January 2014 and months afterwards began dating Gabi. Colourful couple: Gabi and Geoffrey were pictured weeks before going separate ways in September She made her first public appearance with Edelsten at AFL legend Tommy Hafeys funeral in May, wearing a very busty and figure-hugging dress which was slammed as insensitive and inappropriate. Grecko, who goes by the name DJ Gigi Vamp and has starred in reality TV series Club Kids of New York, has been lapping up the attention beside Geoffrey. The daughter of a Miami hairstylist, she has previously said of her new squeeze: 'Hes probably one of the sweetest people Ive ever met, so Im so glad Ive met him. And age difference and how far away he is it doesnt matter.' Before Gabi, Geoffrey was wed to nurse Leanne Nesbitt, now 51, whom he married in 1984 for four years. The Hateful Eight started off the awards season with four big wins at the Capri Hollywood Film festival in Italy on Saturday. The Quentin Tarantino film picked up Best Movie while stars Samuel L. Jackson and Jennifer Jason Leigh were also honored for their work - Jackson as Best Actor and Leigh as Best Supporting Actress. The award marks a comeback for Leigh, 53, who has struggled during the past decade to recreate the success of her early career with hits such as Backdraft, Dolores Claiborne, Georgia and Single White Female. Scroll down for video Winners: Jennifer Jason Leigh won Best Supporting Actress at the Capri Hollywood Film Festival on Saturday. She's pictured with Belgian actor Matthias Schoenaerts who won a newcomer award for The Danish Girl 'The experience of being in one of Quentins films and a part of this phenomenal cast was rewarding in and of itself, but to be honored by such an incredible institution as the Capri-Hollywood Film Festival makes it all the more meaningful,' the actress said afterwards. 'I am flattered beyond words to be recognized by them this year,' she added. Italian composer Ennio Morricone won Best Musical Score for the Western-themed revenge flick. Comeback: The actress, 53, who starred in the hit 1990s movies Backdraft, Dolores Claiborne and Single White Female, is garnering plenty of buzz for her performance in Tarantino's film Honored: Samuel L. Jackson was given the festival's Best Actor Award for his performance in The Hateful Eight Sharing the spotlight: The actress posed with the very tall Samuel L. Jackson at the Variety Studio: Actors on Actors event on November 14, 2015 Top prize: Quentin Tarantino's western-themed revenge movie won Best Picture. He's seen at the film's London premiere on December 10 The international festival held on the island in the Bay of Naples also honored Brie Larson as Best Actress for her powerful performance in Room. Idris Elba also picked up a trophy as Best Supporting Actor for the Netflix feature Beasts Of No Nation, while helmer Cary Fukunaga was named Best Director for the film. The original Screenplay Award went to David O. Russell for Joy while Best Adapted Screenplay was given to Phyllis Nagy for the lesbian drama Carol. Irish director Jim Sheridan received a Legend Award. Rising star: Brie Larson, 26, was named Best Actress for Room at the Capri Hollywood closing night gala.. She is pictured in LA last month Winning acclaim: : Larson has also been nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance and is a favorite for an Oscars nomination, too Recognized; Idris Elba was honored with Best Supporting Actor for his role in the Netflix feature Beasts Of No Nation The Hateful Eight opened on Christmas Day in North America in a special limited release in which the film was screened in Panavision 70mm. It went into wide release on Friday and has grossed $30.5 million to date at the domestic box office. It opens in the UK on January 8. The movie has also been nominated for three Golden Globes including Best Supporting Actress for Leigh, Best Screenplay for Tarantino and Best Original Score for Morricone. They called it quits back in 2013 after being together for five years and were even poised to wed. But Liam Hemsworth and Miley Cyrus may have rekindled their romance, amid reports the pair were spotted together at the Falls Festival in Australia's Byron Bay. According to The Daily Telegraph, 25-year-old Liam and 23-year-old Miley were seen 'cuddling and kissing' on Saturday night at the popular music festival held in the New South Wales coastal town. Scroll down for video Back together? Actor Liam Hemsworth and singer Miley Cyrus may have rekindled their romance, after reports the pair were spotted together at the Falls Festival in Australia's Byron Bay The publication also reports the pair arrived at the festival late in the evening and were spotted walking backstage towards the VIP area with Liam's brothers Chris and Luke and their wives, Elsa Pataky and Samantha. The Hemsworth brothers have been sharing some fun snaps from their celebrations Down Under, though Miley hasn't appeared in any of them to date. Taking to Instagram on Sunday morning, Liam shared a snap of him and 32-year-old Chris and 35-year-old Luke, presumably from the previous night. See more of the latest on Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth's reported rekindled romance Brothers in Byron Bay: Taking to Instagram on Sunday morning, Liam shared a snap of him and 32-year-old Chris and 35-year-old Luke, presumably from the previous night 'Best brothers. Best mates. Best night!!! Happy new year everyone! @fallsfestival @disclosure,' the Hunger Games star captioned the black and white filtered snap in which the boys smiled for the camera. A few nights earlier fans had questioned where Liam was, when he didn't appear alongside brothers Chris and Luke in a New Year's Eve photo posted by Chris' wife Elsa. But a new social media snap suggests Liam may very well have still been at the event, as this image shows a female resembling Miley, dressed up in a cowgirl ensemble aligned with the Wild Wild West dress code on the night. New Year's Eve bash: A few nights earlier fans had questioned where Liam was, when he didn't appear alongside brothers Chris and Luke in a New Year's Eve photo posted by Chris' wife Elsa Reports of Miley and Liam being together in Byron Bay come after the Hollywood hunk opened up about his feelings towards his former fiancee in October last year. He doesn't regret falling in love with the starlet, telling the November issue of Men's Fitness magazine: 'You fall in love with who you fall in love with; you can never choose. I guess some people just come with a little more baggage.' The actor explained: 'I mean, look - we were together five years, so I don't think those feelings will ever change.' Former couple: The Australian actor and the 22-year-old pop star met on the set of their film, The Last Song, and started dating in June 2009 - pictured in February 2012 'And that's good because that proves to me that it was real. It wasn't just a fling. It really was an important part of my life and always will be.' The Australian actor and the 22-year-old pop star met on the set of their film, The Last Song, and started dating in June 2009. The former couple, who had an on-again, off-again relationship, became engaged in June 2012. By September 2013, the two had called off their engagement. It's Emma Watson's face that has always been associated with Harry Potter's female lead since the well-loved books were made into films. But the 25-year-old actress, who played the original Hermione Granger, has taken to Twitter to say she can't wait to see newly-cast Noma Dumezweni reinvigorate the role. Fans of the beloved franchise previously expressed concern that the 45-year-old, who will portray an adult Hermione in the London production, does not bare a resemblance to the Noah actress. Scroll down for video Supportive: Emma Watson (left) showed her support for the actress, Noma Dumezweni (right), taking on her original Harry Potter role, Hermione Granger, when the show is transformed for the stage in 2016's Harry Potter And The Cursed Child Emma wrote on Saturday: 'Can't wait to see Noma Dumezweni as Hermione on stage this year. #harrypotterandthecursedchild #2016' beside a string of red love hearts. The star silenced critics after several social media users expressed confusion at the divergence between the two women, with some even making openly racist comments, stating that Hermione's skin colour had in fact never been specified in the books. The actress played Hermione for 10 years, having first adopted the role at the tender age of 11, beside titular actor Daniel Radcliffe and Ron Weasley star Rupert Grint. Backing: Emma endorsed the 45-year-old actress, saying she looked forward to seeing the show in 2016 Back in time: Emma (left) joined the cast aged 11 with Daniel Radcliffe (centr, as Harry Potter) and Rupert Grint (right, as Ron Weasley) and played the role for 10 years When the book character was turned into a film role in 2011, she characterised the unruly curls, bossy and superior nature as well as Hermione's brown eyes. Emma's recent sentiment, which indicated that she'd be one the first to see the play when it opens in May, echoed that of the books' author J.K. Rowling late last year. The Scottish writer hit back at criticism, similarly voicing her support for Swaziland-born actress Noma with a Twitter retort. Casting controversy: Noma Dumezweni (centre) will star alongside Paul Thornley (right, as Harry) and Jamie Parker (left, as Ron Weasley) when the production hits the London stage in May JK posted, 'Canon: brown eyes, frizzy hair and very clever. White skin was never specified. Rowling loves black Hermione', adding a kissing emoji at the end of her message Matthew Lewis, who plays Harry's hapless pal Neville Longbottom in the film franchise, also took to Twitter to express his disgust at some of the reactions from social media users. 'And Neville Longbottom was blonde. I really don't care. Good luck to her', he said, referring to his own physical differences from the character in the book. Creator: Rowling, who devised the show with the help of playwright Jack Thorne and John Tiffany, is also set to direct the cast of 30 Issue: The stage show casting raises the question of Hermione's ethnicity, with several scholars arguing that there is no textual evidence in the book to indicate that she is white - and JK agreeing. Pictured, Emma Watson (L) who played Hermione in the films Rowling never made a point of Hermiones ethnicity, and theres no textual evidence to indicate that she is, necessarily, white. Hermione is described as having unruly brown bushy hair, which she hates. In fact there are screeds of essays and scholarly works arguing that Hermione could be black. One piece observed that she was born to Muggle, non-wizard, parents and was considered an outsider at Hogwarts and coded as a racial minority in the wizarding world. At Hogwarts, Hermione was often taunted as a Mudblood, an insult thrown at Muggle-born wizards. Firing back: Rowling silenced critics once and for all by revealing that she never specified brainy witch Hermione was white Show of support: Playwright Jake Thorne also cracked a joke about fans complaining that Jamie Parker, who is set to play Ron Weasley, doesn't have red hair Voicing his opinion: Matthew Lewis, who plays Neville Longbottom in the blockbusters, also expressed his annoyance at some of the fan reactions Director Tiffany said he had simply cast the best possible actors, noting that they will be an incredible and estimable triumvirate. Other users also took umbrage to the fact Jamie isn't a redhead, a defining characteristic of the Weasley family, leading Cursed Child writer Jack Thorne to respond. He wrote: 'Noma, Jamie & Paul will be the most brilliant three. We're very lucky to have them. And to assure all doubters - Paul is ginger in his soul.' Proving popular: Harry Potter And The Cursed Child sold just 175,000 seats were sold in just 24 hours, a West End record Harry will be played by 36-year-old Jamie, an original member of Alan Bennetts History Boys cast at the National Theatre, while Paul Thornley has been cast as Ron. Harry Potter And The Cursed Child, which doesn't begin performances at Londons Palace Theatre until late May, has already sold more than a quarter of a million tickets. Some 175,000 seats were sold in just 24 hours, a West End record. The show was devised by Harry Potter author JK Rowling, playwright Jack Thorne and John Tiffany, who will also direct the cast of 30. Thorne turned the piece into a magical drama that will play in two parts. Audiences can see both on the same day at a matinee and evening performance or on two consecutive evenings each week. The play is expected to be the biggest theatrical event in London next year. Tiffany worked with Dumezweni and Thornley while he and producers Sonia Friedman and Colin Callender were developing the piece. They acted out scenes for the director to see how they would look. In the eight films Harry, Hermione and Ron were played by Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint, ending with The Deathly Hallows Part 2 in 2011. Dumezweni, who lives with her young daughter in London, took over the title role in the play Linda, now running at the Royal Court, with only four days notice after Sex And The City star Kim Cattrall dropped out. Her performance received rave reviews. She won an Olivier award in 2006 for her role in the play A Raisin In The Sun, is an associate of the Royal Shakespeare Company and has appeared in Doctor Who. Magical: The highly-anticipated play, which doesn't open until late May, looks set to be the biggest theatrical event of 2016 Best in show: Director Tiffany said he had simply cast the best possible actors, noting that they will be an incredible and estimable triumvirate. Pictured, Daniel Radcliffe, left, and, right, as Harry Potter Thornley, who is married to and has two children with Casualty star Chloe Howman, has made countless appearances on such staple fare as Holby City, Doctors, Poirot and Life Begins. And he played opposite Olivia Colman in the film London Road. It is likely that once the project gets under way his hair will be dyed ginger like Rons. Parker, who is expected to don Harrys famous glasses, has had a stellar career, having struck gold as Scripps in The History Boys. He has played Henry V on stage and Hamlet on the radio. He is presently playing Sky Masterson in Guys & Dolls at the Savoy Theatre. Producer Friedman said the casting was a collective decision involving Rowling, Tiffany, Thorne, Callender and herself. We were all involved with all the key casting decisions, she told the Daily Mail. The play follows on from the epilogue featured in both the novel and film of The Deathly Hallows. Harry is now head of the Auror division at the Ministry of Magic, where Ron also works. Hermione works as a lawyer in the department of Magical Law Enforcement. Official previews for The Cursed Child begin on June 7, though there will be some in late May that will be available to the public. The official opening is July 30. Friedman said the show will not be a high-tech production, although special effects experts have been hired along with an illusionist. There will be magic, she said. Performance: The play follows on from the epilogue featured in both the novel and film of The Deathly Hallows. Harry is now head of the Auror division at the Ministry of Magic, where Ron also works. Hermione works as a lawyer in the department of Magical Law Enforcement. Pictured, Ralph Fiennes as Voldemort in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 (2010) She's one of the most recognised faces on Australian TV as the co-host of morning breakfast programme Sunrise. And now, it seems, Samantha Armytage, 38, has her sights set on Hollywood fame. The blonde is currently holidaying in the US and shared various snaps with her 120,000 Instagram followers, including a selfie with the famous sign looming down in the background. Scroll down for video Loving her trip: It seems Samantha Armytage, 38, jokes that he has her sights set on Hollywood, taking a selfie with the Hollywood sign and writing that she was 'waiting to be discovered' In the caption that accompanied the snap, Samantha joked that she was 'waiting to be discovered' and added a laughing with tears emoticon to the post. In the image, she cuts out most of her face as she smiles widely, wears sunglasses and her hair tied back. She also visited places including The Grove in LA, which is a popular retail and entertainment precinct. Playing tourist: She also visited places including The Grove in LA, which is a popular retail and entertainment precinct Samantha also played tourist by heading to the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and shared a picture of her 'favourite' celebrity's star, Julia Louis-Dreyfus. She also recently visited the popular beachfront city of Santa Monica. Wearing a Santa Monica viser, she took another selfie with palm trees in the background and again cut out most of her face. She wrote underneath: 'Missing a Santa, Cali & one eye... in order to fit the palms in.' On Wednesday, Samantha was spotted with family in Sydney's Bondi enjoying lunch before flying stateside. Before going to Bondi, she enjoyed spending Christmas with her family, including her sister Georgina, and her niece and nephew. Sightseeing: She also recently visited the popular beachfront city of Santa Monica Jetsetter: On Wednesday, Samantha was spotted out and about with family in Sydney's Bondi having lunch Warm current [By Zhai Haijun/China.org.cn] The Chinese government needs to address three fundamental issues in the economy and governance in 2016. First, the inimical match between its strategic deployment and tactics design is obvious. China needs to restructure its economy, and has innovatively put forward the "Belt and Road" initiative and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, which both have far-reaching potential in finance, economy, politics and national defense, and have a direct influence on many aspects of China's economy, governance, society and industry. Yet, having a top-level design is only the beginning, and China still lacks the corresponding detailed and practical tactics to implement these strategies. The tactics should be flexible so that they can be adjusted in a timely manner according to changing circumstances to carry out the strategic goals. Nevertheless, many relevant parties, such as industrial enterprises, financial firms, and governments at various levels, hold a wait-and-see attitude while talking about the "Belt and Road" initiative. There have been so many documents, meetings, seminars, forums and research reports about the initiative, but they have yielded few valuable action plans. Second, short-term policies will not generate real innovative enterprises. Although China has not yet shown signs of a systematic economic crisis, it still faces a progressive decrease of the marginal effects of its monetary and fiscal policies, co-existence of external and internal economic pressures, and a continuously declining real economy. That the government calls for the people to found new businesses and encourages them to pursue innovation, and make good use of the Internet, is conducive to stimulating market vitality. However, the fact that it is easy to register a new venture does not mean it is also easy to make it a success. Follow China.org.cn on Twitter and Facebook to join the conversation. The Vampire Diaries star Nina Dobrev went from the snowy slopes of Utah to the sun-kissed islands of Hawaii so she could literally 'jump into 2016.' The actress, 26, posted a photo and video on Saturday on Instagram of her and boyfriend Austin Stowell strapped together and leaping out of a small plane. And then she followed up that amazing feat by demonstrating a handstand pose on the beach during a photo shoot. Scroll down for video Ringing out the old: Nina Dobrev marked the start of 2016 by skydiving in Hawaii on New Year's Day Nina got into the full swing of 2016 by throwing herself literally into the air on a skydiving trip. 'Sending love and positivity from the top of the world,' she wrote alongside a picture of her making a heart sign with her hands as she fell through the sky. Nina and Bridge Of Spies actor Austin, 31, started dating in July and they're clearly ready to take their relationship to new heights. Wish you were here? Nina and her fellow bikini clad lovlies were also having a great time on the beach Remarkable skill and tone: The Vampire Diaries star - rocking a $225 Olaya Beach 'Saturn' bikini top - traded the skies for the beach as she demonstrated her handstand pose After spending Christmas with family in Utah where they hit the slopes, the couple headed for Hawaii and their next adventure. It's not clear if Nina has been skydiving before or if this was her first time. At the point where she actually jumps out of the plane, the video shows how her smile briefly turns to a flash of terror on her face. But soon she's mugging again for the camera and blowing kisses. Keeping her word: The Vampire Diaries star, 26, shared her experience by posting photos and a video on her Instagram account No going back: The actress appeared to experience a small moment of terror as she and her skydiving partner jumped out of the airplane Here we go: The pair fell backwards towards earth Heading for earth: They tumbled through the sky over the island coastline Phew! But once the parachute opened, Nina was all smiles again On New Year's Day, she shared a photo of herself with a group of friends all wearing sky diving harnesses and jumping. Alongside she said: 'Jumping into the new year. Jumping out of Air Planes. Jumping from cold to hot weather. Jumping from one @Airbnb to another... Can't wait for all the adventures to come in 2016! HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!' Bend it like Nina: Ms. Dobrev was assisted in her tricky handstand pose by her pal Balance act: The actress had the strength to pull off the move It looks so easy: Nina flashed a smile as her friend perfected the pose in the behind-the-scenes video posted on Dubrev's Instagram account Later on Saturday, Nina posted a behind-the-scenes video that showed her upside down and wearing a $225 Olaya Beach 'Saturn' bikini top as she prepared for a handstand. It was all part of a pose for a beach photo shoot. Nina displayed remarkable skill and tone as she held the pose, her dark hair falling across her cheeks. Fun-filled holidays: Nina had plenty of company in her New Year activities as she vowed to have plenty of adventures in 2016 Keeping company: She also shared pics of herself with her friends who are with her on her sunny vacation Loved up: Nina and boyfriend, actor Austin Stowell, 31, spent the Christmas holiday skiing in Utah. The couple have been dating since July Nina starred for six seasons on The Vampire Dramas before levaing the show to focus on a big screen career. She recently wrapped filming for the rom-com Crash Pad in Vancouver with Christina Applegate and Domhnall Gleeson. She's next set to film the drama Arrivals with Game Of Thrones actress Maisie Williams in 2016. Meanwhile, her beau has been filming the sc-fi actioner Colossal opposite Anne Hathaway and Jason Sudeikis. It seems like Kim Kardashian doesn't need to worry about a sibling rivalry between her two children. The 35-year-old reality star took to her website KimKardashianWest.com on Saturday to share an adorable snap of her son Saint holding onto the index finger of his older sister North. In the post titled 'BFF' the two-year-old's hand could be seen as the newborn son gripped onto it. Scroll down for video No sibling rivalry here: Kim Kardashian shared this picture of newborn son Saint West holding onto the finger of his older sister North West on Saturday Kim added a description to the loyal subscribers to her website of what young North said as she wrote: 'She said, "He's my best friend."' The Keeping Up With The Kardashians star gave birth to son Saint last month on Saturday, December 5 as he weighed in at 8 pounds and 1 ounce. As much was made about the bouncing baby boys name, it was revealed Saint was chosen because Kim and husband Kanye West felt this child is truly 'a blessing' in their lives 'because she had such a difficult pregnancy,' a source told E! News at the time. See more of the latest pictures of Kim Kardashian and new baby boy Saint West Happy family: The 35-year-old reality star shared the sweet snap featuring the hand of two-year-old daughter North, as they are pictured together here with husband and father Kanye West during Kris Jenner's Christmas Eve celebration last week As the brunette beauty is known for her social media presence, she made sure to keep fans updated on her last hours of 2015 with a series of selfies. The reality star shared yet more snaps from her sedate New Year's Eve bash on Saturday, showing her pouting for the camera. A snap with Caitlyn Jenner, and one of her on her own, joined earlier pics of the mother-of-two celebrating with sister Kourtney and friends. 'To 2015!' Kim shared yet more selfies on Instagram after spending NYE playing board games with Caitlyn Jenner and Kourtney Parent trip: Kim's former stepfather Caitlyn Jenner was also invited to the low-key festivity The group donned sparkly metallic crowns and blew paper trumpets as they played board games at a family friendly bash to welcome 2016. Kim wore braided hair and a full face of make-up, but kept her outfit casual in a black shirt as she joined her sister and a select group of friends including Carla Dibello and Tracy Nguyen. Kanye West could also be glimpsed in one picture. Playing games including Taboo and, naturally, sipping champagne, it was far from a wild night. The life of a parent! The Keeping Up With The Kardashians star partied sedately at home with Kourtney as they donned 2016 crowns to welcome in the new year in these Instagram pictures Party time: Kim was joined by a select group of friends as they celebrated the new year With Kourtney's ex Scott living it up in Las Vegas surrounded with scantily clad dancers, she joined Kim's low key celebrations. Having tucked up her children Mason, six, Penelope four, and one-year-old Reign in bed - no doubt enjoying a sleepover with Kim's daughter North, two, and newborn son Saint - Kourtney was free to relax. The 36-year-old's night in came as Scott made an appearance at 1OAK, which is said to have caused friction between the two but Kourtney looked happy enough as she sipped champagne with Kim and their friends. She made the heartbreaking decision to give away her daughter Carly so she could have a better life. And Teen Mom's Catelynn Lowell said reuniting her eldest child with her one-year-old sister Novalee helped her get over the sever postpartum depression that had been been plaguing her in the run-up to her marriage to her long-term boyfriend Tyler Baltierra. The 23-year-old reality television personality said she was 'a wreck' in the weeks leading up to their nuptials in August, but a happy day at the seaside two days before the ceremony with her children made calmed her nerves and made her post-baby blues disappear like magic. Scroll down for video Just like magic: Teen Mom's Catelynn Lowell said reuniting her eldest child Carly with her one-year-old sister Novalee (pictured) blew away her post-baby blues The Michigan resident, who appeared in the show's original series, told People: 'We went to the beach so we were feeding ducks with bread. 'Carly just wanted to hold Nova immediately and be like, "Can I feed her? Can I hold her?"' Catelyn also said her oldest daughter 'kept showing Nova to everybody and saying, "This is my birth sister." It was so cute!' 'After that day, I felt perfectly fine again.' Oh we do like to be beside the seaside: She said feeding ducks with Carly (pictured) cured her depression While there had been tension in the past between the couple and six-year-old Carly's adoptive parents, who reside in North Carolina, Catelynn also said they now have a good relationship. She said: 'As long as I get to see her face and hear her voice, hey I'm sad that I can't share everything, but our story's still out there. And people are still learning about adoption, and you guys get some time to see her, and I get to see her, so it kind of works for both of us.' She also said the families shared a special moment together on her wedding day, in which she finally tied the knot with her partner of 10 years. Catelynn said: 'I was sitting in the room (before the ceremony) and Teresa (Carly's adoptive mother) came in there, just by herself, and she said a few things to me. 'I was a wreck': She was also a bag of nerves as she got ready to finally marry her partner Tyler Bliterra She also said Carly and her parents 'got to see me before anybody else, so that was definitely a special moment.' In fact she said they have grown closer than ever since Novalee was born last January, an effect that has spread to her whole family. This includes to Tyler's father Butch, who is trying to go straight after four years in jail. She said: 'Everybody just adores her, and we all want to do great things for her.' A new series of Teen Mom OG kicks of on Monday at 10 pm on MTV. She vowed to slim down on New Year's Day, packing boxes of 'skinny clothes' to be put away until she has reached her goal of weighing 68kg. And radio DJ Mel Greig stuck to her health kick as she dined out for breakfast on Sunday, opting for a healthy plate of vegetables for her first meal of the day. Posting a snap of her seemingly unpalatable dish on Instagram, the 33-year-old seemed eager to share her choice with fans before tucking in. Health kick: Radio DJ Mel Greig started the new year by attending a bikram yoga class, sharing snaps afterwards as she enjoyed some coconut water Captioning the photograph, she told followers: 'Now this is my kind of brekkie this year, full of colours and healthy goodness (sic).' She went on to describe the dish of pickled carrots, cabbage, avocado and eggs, adding the hashtags 'greens' and 'delicious.' On Saturday Mel gave herself some added motivation to lose weight, storing away her 'skinny clothes' to be kept out of sight until she has reached her goal weight again. Sharing a photograph of the cardboard box on Instagram, it was labelled: 'Skinny clothes. Only open when you are back down to 68 kilos.' Off to a good start: The 33-year-old shared a snap of her healthy meal on Sunday, gushing to fans over the dish On a mission: Mel Greig (seen above last week on Today) told of her plan to lose weight as she prepared for the new year, boxing up old clothes to be put away until she reaches her goal Captioning the image, 33-year-old Mel told followers: 'Keeping myself motivated whilst packing.' Mel's weight-loss efforts come as she prepares for her new role at Illawarra radio station, Wave FM. Gushing over the appointment, she recently told Daily Mail Australia: 'After three years, a long and hard battle, I am finally back in radio. Dedicated: The 33-year-old posted this photograph of a box labelled 'skinny clothes' for herself to keep away Up and down: Mel has made no secret of her weight loss struggles in the past. She is seen in 2014 (left) and while filming Celebrity Apprentice last year (right) 'I'm moving to Woolongong next, Wave FM and it's going to be great to be back on air!' she gushed. The DJ has struggled to find work since 2012 when she and her then 2DayFM co-host Mike Christian prank called the hospital where The Duchess of Cambridge was receiving treatment during her first pregnancy. The pair impersonated The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh while speaking with nurse Jacintha Saldanha at the hospital, questioning her over the Duchess's condition. Mrs Saldanha, a mother-of-two, later committed suicide once the conversation was aired. Mel, who recently appeared on Celebrity Apprentice, has often told of her remorse. Devoted: The 33-year-old embarked on a weight loss mission last year and shared photographs from the gym (above) He may not have any grandchildren. But Michael Keaton certainly rocked a 'granddad chic' look on his latest outing. The 64-year-old actor wore a brown patterned cardigan sweater while out and about in the Brentwood neighbourhood of Los Angeles recently. 'Granddad chic': Michael Keaton was spotted out and about in the Brentwood neighbourhood of Los Angeles on Wednesday It seemed like a busy day for the Oscar-nominated actor as he fuelled up on caffeine with a cup of coffee on Wednesday. He was then spotted chatting away on his mobile while heading to his vehicle in a car park. The stylish piece of outerwear featured an Aztec-influenced design on it as he wore it over a plain white shirt. Showing his style: The 64-year-old actor wore an aztec-patterned brown cardigan sweater Busy day: He chatted away on his mobile while making his way to his car Michael also sported a pair of light blue bootcut jeans along with brown leather cowboy boots as he finished off the look with aviator shades. No doubt he is enjoying some downtime before the 2016 awards season goes into full swing. In the based-on-a-true-story flick he stars as Walter 'Robby' Robinson who is the Boston Globe's Editor At Large, and has been with the publication as a reporter and editor since 1972. Caffeinated: He was spotted enjoying a cup of coffee earlier in the day The film is centred around how the East Coast newspaper uncovered a massive child molestation scandal and cover-up within the Catholic Archdiocese, which left the entire religious institution all shook up. It is already considered the top contender for the Best Picture category in this year's Oscar race and has racked up plenty of nominations and wins already. Michael is part of the cast that has been nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. Going for the gold: He stars on based-on-a-true-story flick, Spotlight, which is creating a lot of Oscar buzz The gong is the most prestigious of the night for the event which will be held on January 30 but the Batman actor was snubbed individually in the Oustanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role category. His co-star Rachel McAdams did manage to score a nod in the female version of the same category. No doubt many are wondering if he will make the cut of nominations in this year's Oscars. Last year he got his first nod in the Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role category for his role in Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance). Australian supermodel Nicole Trunfio has walked the runway for some of the most renowned design houses in the world including Chanel, Dolce & Gabbana, Christian Dior, Gucci and Fendi. And on Sunday the 29-year-old decided to make the most of her model assets - taking to a picturesque beach to reveal the latest jewellery designs from her very own collection,Trunfio Universe. The mother-of-one was pictured flaunting her flawless body as she lied seductively in the wet sand in a nearly there bikini bottom. Scroll down for video Self promoter: Model Nicole Trunfio took to the beach to promote her jewellery designs from her collection, Trunfio Universe The model has placed her her left hand which decoratively clad with bangles above her head. Her right hand is strategically placed to cover one of her breasts as she arched her back and kicked her legs for the camera. The Western Australian native used minimal make-up for the shoot and left her brunette tresses out to soak up the salt water. Sydney stop: Nicole and Zion visit the Queen Victoria Building ahead of her fiances, Gary Clark Jr. show on Monday night at the Sydney Opera House Flawless figure: Nicole flaunts and trim and tonned body at the Elle Style Awards in October Later that day, the slender beauty took to Instagram to share a sneak peek from her tropical shoot to her more than 133,000 followers. Nicole, who launched her luxury jewellery brand in October, revealed in an interview that she wanted to create a zodiac sign jellewery brand that was true luxury. Speaking to the Huffington Post, she explained: 'Ive worked with so many luxury brands throughout my career and because of that I didn't want to compromise on quality. 'I really wanted to make a brand that represents who I am and the kind of lifestyle I have. 'I feel as though the brand is valuable, really high quality and will stand the test of time to be passed down through generations within families.' 'All we need is love': Nicole plants a kiss on her musician fiance Gary Clark Jr. lips while she piggybacks her 11-month-old son, Zion Rain Nicole travelled to Western Australia with her fiance Gary Clark Jnr and their 11-month-old son Zion Rain just before Christmas before heading to Melbourne then Sydney. The LA based family are in Australia for business and pleasure. Gary has a show at Sydney Opera House on Monday and a second show in Melbourne on Thursday at the Forum Melbourne. Elsewhere Nicole and Zion will lead Target's advertising campaign, for the exclusive Jean Paul Gaultier for Target collection which is set to drop in store early 2016. The mother and son will feature in an advertising campaign together showcasing the collection which includes womens, mens, kids and infant clothing as well as homewares. Headphone baby: Nicole's mother instincts have kicked in as she places a pair of headphones onto Zion Rain's head while at a gig In a statement released by the chain store, Nicole said was excited to be working alongside her son in one of their first advertising shoots together. 'Since becoming a mum, my personal style has evolved and Im constantly looking for fashion thats stylish yet easy to wear. 'Ive been really impressed with Targets pact to make fashion more affordable and accessible for shoppers and Im thrilled to be working with Target on the Jean Paul Gaultier collaboration,' she said. Happy couple: Nicole revealed in 2014 that she was engaged to her rocker beau, as well as pregnant This isn't the first time the mother and son have modelled together. On the June edition of Elle, the WA based model was pictured breastfeeding her young son. In an interview with the West Australian, Nicole said she didn't anticipate to shoot a magazine front cover which showed her breastfeeding her young son. 'We were on set and Zion was shooting with us and I had to breastfeed him and I was doing it in between shots and I had on this really beautiful outfit and the stylist just moved me on set and she was like, Oh, lets just shoot this,' she said. She told the publication it was great to make more people aware around the world and more comfortable with it. 'We see all these provocative images and advertising on big billboards and stuff and something that is so beautiful and is a life-giving act to feed your child,' she said. 'And to breastfeed your child, some people cant. It is like a proud thing for a mother and a child, it is a beautiful thing.' Has singer Tom Cohen been getting up close and personal with another sister of his late wife Peaches Geldof? Late last year, Tom was pictured cuddling with Tiger Lily Geldof, 19, in the sea while holidaying in the South of France. Now, he is holidaying with a group that includes Pixie Geldof, 25, and embarrassingly for Tom, this intriguing picture has appeared on social media complete with an unidentified derriere. Scroll down for video Suggestive selfie: Tom Cohen is holidaying with a group that includes Pixie Geldof, 25, and embarrassingly, this intriguing picture has appeared on social media complete with an unidentified derriere Mystery: In another shot, Tom is photographed having a New Years kiss, but the other persons face is cropped out, perhaps at Toms request It was taken in Toms room at the exclusive celebrity haunt Soho Beach House in Miami and posted by his chum Jack Guinness, who joined Tom, 25, Pixie and others there for a New Years Eve party. Whats not clear, however, is whether thats Pixies bottom in the foreground. In another shot, Tom is photographed having a New Years kiss, but the other persons face is cropped out, perhaps at Toms request. His trip with his late wife's sister and her showbiz pals comes just months after he raised eyebrows by embracing Peaches and Pixie's younger half-sibling Tiger Lily in the surf on holiday in the South of France. Any suggestion of anything more platonic occurring between the pair was shrugged by a close pal of the Geldofs, who insisted they were like brother and sister and had found comfort in their friendship. Tom was seen out for a walk on the beach in Miami earlier today while Pixie was spotted in a tiny bikini top and high-waisted bottoms on the beach on Friday Showbiz circle: Tom has been on holiday with his late wife's pals including Alexa Chung and Nick Grimshaw (above) Tiger Lily had also taken her boyfriend, British student Charlie Creseatian, on the trip. A source told the Daily Mirror: 'Tiger Lily and Tom have become great mates and both keep an eye out for each other, as do the rest of Peaches' family. 'They're a very tactile family and emotions have been running high as Bob has got remarried, which has been such a wonderful and poignant occasion.' Tragic: Peaches died of heroin overdose at her home in Wrotham, Kent, in April last year Welcomed: Tom is said to have grown much closer to Sir Bob and his immediate family following the death of his wife in 2014 Peaches daughter of Miss Yates and Sir Bob died of heroin overdose at her home in Wrotham, Kent, in April last year. Her young son Phaedra was with her. The TV presenter had struggled with drug abuse earlier in her life but had been clean for some years before relapsing in February 2013. Thomas and his sons moved in with his parents, who live in east London, and is understood to be very close to the Geldofs. Cohen has been welcomed into the family as they have grown closer amid ongoing tragedy. Sir Bobs former wife and Peaches and Tiger Lilys mother Paula Yates died of a heroin overdose in 2000. She recently became a single woman after splitting with her husband of three-years late last year. And on Sunday, Jodi Anasta, 30, ushered in the new year on a positive note by taking to Instagram with a decidedly cheery photo of herself looking toward the oceanic backdrop and throwing her arms in the air with happiness. While Jodi's bikini-clad snap appears to be candidly care-free on the surface, eagle-eyed fans may notice that the photo is nearly identical to the most recent photo posed on her ex-husband's account. Scroll down for video Deja vu? Jodi Anasta, 30, ushered in the new year on Sunday with a photo of herself that looked almost identical to one her former husband Braith posted on Saturday 'This sums up the start of 2016.... Sunshine, Happiness and amazing friends. #Life', wrote the Myer ambassador in the caption. Meanwhile, Braith has also been adamant to start the new year on a high note. Taking to Instagram on Saturday, the 33-year-old former NRL star shared a shirtless snap along with a positive message for his fans. Peace out: Taking to Instagram on Saturday, former NRL star Braith Anasta shared a hot shirtless snap, along with a positive message for his fans 'He wrote: 'PEACE EVERYONE! I hope everyone had an amazing New Years Eve and day. More importantly we are all fresh! Have a great day people! #hangovers #suck #freshasadaisy #not'. With his back to the camera, the dark-haired stud showed off his toned and tanned body. He lifted his arms to reveal his bulging biceps, while making peace gestures with his hands. The father-of-one was seen admiring a picturesque ocean-side view as he stood on a balcony, while his social media followers were treated to quite a view themselves. Braith revealed a hint of his black and white Calvin Klein underwear worn beneath a pair of light shorts. Split: The social media snap came after Braith and wife Jodi announced in early December that they had agreed to a 'temporary separation' A day earlier he shared a snap of him and his little girl, captioning it: 'HAPPY NEW YEARS EVERYONE! From my princess and I, we hope that 2016 is an amazing year for you all. #cheekygirl #love'. Meanwhile Jodi, whom Braith shares one-year-old daughter Aleeia with, has also been making a fresh start in the new year. The 30-year-old took to Instagram on Friday to share a snap of herself soaking up the sun and the water during a luxury boat ride with close friends. On December 10, Jodi and Braith announced they had agreed to a 'temporary separation'. New year's Day: A day earlier he shared a snap of him and his one-year-old daughter Aleeia, whom he shares with Jodi Socialising: Meanwhile Jodi has also been making a fresh start in the new year, pictured with pals on a boat on Friday The couple, who were pictured in a heated argument at a Coogee park prior to the split, told Daily Mail Australia in a joint statement that they had decided to part ways after facing challenges 'like all married couples.' 'We are going to continue to support each other and remain best of friends, we only want the best for each other and more importantly our amazing daughter Aleeia,' they said. 'They would really appreciate it if the media can afford them some privacy during this time.' A spokesman for the pair added: 'They have had challenges like all married couples and despite best efforts to make things work they have agreed that a trial separation is best for them and their precious daughter.' Jodi and Braith tied the knot in October 2012. He raised eyebrows on social media after posting somewhat suggestive snaps as he parties with his late wife Peaches' sister Pixie in Miami. But the mystery of the cheeky girl in Tom Cohen's intriguing pictures has been revealed. A source tells MailOnline that model Daisy Lowe - daughter of rockers Pearl Lowe and Gavin Rossdale - is in fact the girl flashing her shapely behind in snaps on her and Tom's mutual pal Jack Guinness' Instagram account. Scroll down for video Who's that girl? Tom Cohen caused a stir after posing for this suggestive snap alongside a cheeky mystery woman while holiday with late wife Peaches' sister Pixie and their showbiz pals Lowe and beyold: A source tells MailOnline that the model - daughter of rockers Pearl Lowe and Gavin Rossdale - is in fact the girl flashing her shapely behind in snaps on her and Tom's mutual pal Jack Guinness' Instagram account The trio are obviously very comfortable in each other's company as it was taken in Toms room at the exclusive celebrity haunt Soho Beach House in Miami as he joined his sister-in-law Pixie for a New Years Eve party. The mystery was heightened as in another shot, Tom is photographed having a New Years kiss, but the other persons face is cropped out. Meanwhile Daisy is forgetting her troubled personal life back in London on the vacation following her recent split from boyfriend Tyrone Wood. The beauty reportedly split with Ronnie Wood's art curator son in November. Tom's trip with his late wife's sister and her showbiz pals comes just months after he caused a stir by embracing Peaches and Pixie's younger half-sibling Tiger Lily in the surf on holiday in the South of France. Any suggestion of anything more platonic occurring between the pair was shrugged by a close pal of the Geldofs, who insisted they were like brother and sister and had found comfort in their friendship. Kiss me quick: Tom continued to cause confusion after he posed for a New Year's kiss - and cut out the recipient of his smooch Welcome break: Tom was seen out for a walk on the beach in Miami earlier today while Pixie was spotted in a tiny bikini top and high-waisted bottoms on the beach on Friday Showbiz circle: Tom has been on holiday with his late wife's pals including Alexa Chung and Nick Grimshaw (above) Close knit: Tom's trip with his late wife's sister and her showbiz pals comes just months after he caused a stir by embracing Peaches and Pixie's younger half-sibling Tiger Lily in the surf on holiday in the South of France Tiger Lily had also taken her boyfriend, British student Charlie Creseatian, on the trip. A source told the Daily Mirror: 'Tiger Lily and Tom have become great mates and both keep an eye out for each other, as do the rest of Peaches' family. 'They're a very tactile family and emotions have been running high as Bob has got remarried, which has been such a wonderful and poignant occasion.' Peaches daughter of Miss Yates and Sir Bob died of heroin overdose at her home in Wrotham, Kent, in April last year. Her young son Phaedra was with her. Tragic: Peaches, picture above with Tom in 2012, died of heroin overdose at her home in Wrotham, Kent, in April 2014 Welcomed: Tom is said to have grown much closer to Sir Bob and his immediate family following the death of his wife in 2014 The TV presenter had struggled with drug abuse earlier in her life but had been clean for some years before relapsing in February 2013. Thomas and his sons moved in with his parents, who live in east London, and is understood to be very close to the Geldofs. Cohen has been welcomed into the family as they have grown closer amid ongoing tragedy. Sir Bobs former wife and Peaches and Tiger Lilys mother Paula Yates died of a heroin overdose in 2000. Lily Aldridge knew exactly who she wanted to smooch. The 30-year-old planted a kiss on the cheek of her husband, Caleb Followill, 33, to ring in the New Year on Thursday. The model, who welcomed 2016 in Nashville, Tennessee, captioned the photo: 'Happy new year!!!! So thankful for all of my blessings!! Wishing everyone health and happiness in the new year! All my love,' adding a heart emoji. Pucker up: Lily Aldridge planted a kiss on the cheek of her husband, Caleb Followill, 33, to ring in the New Year on Thursday The Victoria's Secret model shared the close up photo of her and her hubby of 4-and-a-half years to her 3.4 million followers on Instagram. Caleb, the lead singer of Kings of Leon, didn't seem to mind the kiss, smiling with one eye open in the sweet snap. The scruffy faced rocker and his band performed at a live stream concert on New Year's Eve in Nashville. The cover girl wore a black long-sleeved lace-up number, adding large gold hoop earrings to complete the look. Showstopper: The 30-year-old model wore a black long-sleeved lace-up number, adding large gold hoop earrings to complete the look The brunette beauty rocked winged eyeliner with her dark locks loose around her with a slight wave. The California-born beauty added matte pink lips, rosy blush and defined brows for her New Year's Eve look. The runway model spent the first day of 2016 with her family at the luxury resort, Blackberry Farm, in Walland, Tennessee. She donned a long cream colored skirt by Theory, an oversized white turtleneck and tan suede boots. Lily, who is a close friend of Taylor Swift, pulled her brown hair back into french braid pigtails, adding her large metallic hoop earrings for a sparkling touch. Stylish: The runway model donned a long cream colored skirt from Theory, an oversized white turtleneck and tan suede boots on Saturday Lily and Caleb are parents to three-year-old Dixie Pearl Followill. The beauty shared a photo of her and her daughter on Christmas day, writing: 'Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas @tn_rooster.' The Sports Illustrated model donned a red and black knitted dress with nylons and boots, adding a cream purse and gold dangling earrings. Dixie looked cute in her white jacket and dress, paired with red nylons and gold slippers. Mom life: The beauty shared a photo of her and her daughter, Dixie Pearl Followill, on Christmas day, writing: 'Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas @tn_rooster' Lily got her hubby a 1949 Martin guitar for Christmas, playfully captioning a grinning photo of him with his gift: 'He hated his present.' The couple met in 2007 at Coachella Festival, and became engaged in September 2010. They married in Montecito, California at the San Ysidro Ranch on May 12, 2011. Happiness: Lily got her hubby a 1949 Martin guitar for Christmas, playfully captioning a grinning photo of him with his gift: 'He hated his present' Flash Refugee kids attend a gathering at a park in Edirne, western border city of Turkey, on Sept. 22, 2015. [Xinhua] As the clock ticked into the new year, the United Nations faces new opportunities to promote peace and development in the world -- to bring an early end to the Syria conflict, to kick off the implementation of a blueprint for global sustainable development, and to select a new UN chief. Seemingly unrelated, the three major efforts can jointly make the United Nations more relevant and powerful as today's globe is confronting armed conflicts, environmental degradation, inequality, poverty, terrorism and other challenges, experts say. As a famous saying goes, tomorrow is just another day. In a sense, it is also true to the world body: in the new year it has to move forward on the basis of what has been achieved by its 193 members in the past year, which marked the 70th birthday of the United Nations and the 70th anniversary of the victory of the World's Anti-Fascist War. Every day the United Nations maintains peace in troubled places, feeds the hungry, shelters refugees, vaccinates children against polio and other deadly diseases and promotes international cooperation for development. SYRIA CONFLICT The Syrian civil war, now in its fifth year, has made the Middle East country the world's single-largest source of refugees and displaced people, according to UN figures. The Syrian crisis led to a massive movement of refugees, part of at least 59.5 million people who have fled their homes -- more refugees and displaced persons than at any time since the end of the Second World War. To defuse this long-standing crisis in Syria, the UN Security Council on Dec. 18 unanimously adopted a resolution to endorse an international roadmap for a Syrian-led political transition in the country, where more than 250,000 people reportedly have been killed since March 2011. The latest UN document envisions the formation of a unity government and urged the launch of the Syria peace talks in early January, stressing that "the Syrian people will decide the future of Syria." The new resolution gives the world body an enhanced role in shepherding the opposing sides in Syria to talks for a political transition, with a timetable for a ceasefire, a new constitution and elections, all under UN auspices. As part of the efforts to carry out the resolution, Staffan de Mistura, the UN special envoy for Syria, set Jan. 25 as "the target date" to begin talks in Geneva between the parties aimed at ending the Syria conflict. The resolution is not easy to come by, and it is not easy to bring the warring parties in Syria to the negotiating table only about a month after the 15-nation UN Security Council approved the resolution. The current challenge is how to define negotiation partners and terrorist groups in so many Syrian appositions. Geneva has been the venue for two previous rounds of the UN-mediated Syria peace talks between representatives of the Syrian government and opposition, but the talks have failed to yield any significant results. SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS This year also marks the beginning of the global efforts to carry out the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon hailed as a universal, integrated and transformative vision for a better world. An ambitious plan covering all UN member states, rich or poor, the SDGs are composed of 17 goals and 169 targets to wipe out poverty, fight inequality and tackle climate change over the next 15 years. They also aim to build on the work of the historic Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a set of eight anti-poverty targets to be reached by the end of 2015. With the approval of SDGs by world leaders in September, the UN chief voiced his hope to see extreme poverty to be removed across the world for the first time in the history of human beings. "The Millennium Development Goals made poverty history for hundreds of millions of people," Ban said in his address at the opening of the 70th session of the UN General Assembly in September. "Now we are poised to continue the job while reaching higher, broader and deeper." The non-binding goals succeed the MDGs adopted by world leaders 15 years ago. Only one of those has been achieved: halving the number of people living in extreme poverty, due primarily to economic growth in China. The new goals include ensuring "healthy lives" and quality education for all, clean water, sanitation and reliable modern energy, as well as making cities safe, reducing inequality within and among countries, and promoting economic growth and good governance. SELECTION OF A NEW UN CHIEF This year will also witness the selection of a new secretary-general for the world body to replace the incumbent chief Ban Ki-moon, whose term will end at the end of 2016. Although the possible candidates are not expected to fully emerge until July, the selection process kicked off here in mid-December, with a new try for change -- the first step toward removing secrecy around the selection process. The 193 member states of the United Nations will for the first time be included "totally" in the selection of the next UN secretary-general, the president of the General Assembly, Mogens Lykketoft, said on Dec. 15, pledging to make the process as transparent and inclusive as possible. Speaking to reporters at UN Headquarters in New York, Lykketoft highlighted a joint letter with the President of the Security Council that was sent out to all UN Member States earlier in the day and which, he said, officially "starts" the process of soliciting candidates leading to the selection and appointment of the next UN chief. Countries or groups of countries can submit candidates for the post and Lykketoft said a country's candidate doesn't have to be one of its citizens. According to the UN Charter, the secretary-general is appointed by the General Assembly following the recommendation of the Security Council. The next secretary-general will assume the post in January 2017 and will serve a five-year term, which can be renewed by member states for an additional five years. A citizen of any of the five permanent members of the Security Council, Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, would not be eligible. "Until (today), the selection process of the secretary-general has been very secretive and involving mostly -- or only -- the permanent five members of the Security Council," he said. The move was taken in response to many countries' demands that the successor to Ban be chosen with some measure of transparency. The selection of the UN secretary-general has essentially been determined by the five permanent Security Council members behind closed doors. In this year, countries will have the chance to openly interview candidates and the list of candidates will be shared regularly with all 193 UN member states. However, the new reform drive does not affect the heart of the selection process, where the 15-nation Security Council meets in private and then submits its candidate for General Assembly approval. Inside the council, the five veto-wielding permanent members have the most say. Although the 193-member General Assembly can reject the council's candidate, it has never done so. Moreover, some countries call for a female to be at the helm of the world body starting in 2017. The General Assembly president said that so far he has received two formal nominations for the next UN secretary-general: Srgjan Kerim of Macedonia, a former General Assembly president, and Croatia's foreign minister, Vesna Pusic, a woman. With demands growing from peacekeeping to humanitarian assistance to health, the United Nations today is being called upon to do more than ever before, even as the resources to do these jobs grow proportionately more scarce. These are challenges for the global organization. However, challenges co-exist with new opportunities. With good chances before the world, it is incumbent for the international community to take action now, with the United Nations playing the central role in all these global efforts. They were said to have spent New Year together and were even spotted 'cuddling and kissing' at a music festival. And now pictures have surfaced of Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth together after seeing in the beginning of 2016 at The Falls Festival in Byron Bay, Australia. Fans posted shots of the duo on Instagram on Sunday - one picture showed them together in what appeared to be a car park. Scroll down for video An item? Miley Cyrus were spotted enjoying The Falls Music Festival together in Australia's Byron Bay on Sunday - pictures surfaced on the pair on Instagram Miley, 23, was walking ahead of the strapping Hunger Games actor, as he walked with a protective air behind her. The Wrecking Ball singer had her head down and sunglasses on. Liam, 25, was dressed in a casual ensemble of a dark green hooded jacket and black jeans. See the latest on Miley Cyrus and her romance rumors with Liam Hemsworth Close? In another shot Miley and Liam appeared cosy together as the pair spent time together at a cafe Together again? After reports they were seen 'cuddling and kissing' at the music event, it is now looking like Liam and Miley may have rekindled their romance - they are seen here at the Vanity Fair Oscars party in 2012 The duo were also seen in another group snap, which also featured the actor's brother - Chris. They were all seen pulling funny faces - Liam at one end of the shot and Miley peering over the shoulders of someone at the other. The pair split back in 2013 after being together for five years and were even poised to wed. Giiddy up cowboy! Miley is seen wearing a cowboy hat, thought to be celebrating New Year's Eve with Liam However it appears they may have rekindled their romance, as along with the photos of the pair together, there have been reports they were seen getting up close and personal over the New Year while at the music festival. According to The Daily Telegraph, Liam and Miley were seen 'cuddling and kissing' on Saturday night at the event held in the New South Wales coastal town. The publication also reported the pair arrived at the festival late in the evening and were spotted walking backstage towards the VIP area with Liam's brothers Chris and Luke and their wives, Elsa Pataky and Samantha. See more of the latest on Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth's reported rekindled romance Party on: The Hunger Games actor (left next to brother Chris Hemsworth) and Miley (far right) were in a large group of friends who decided to attend the event Brothers in Byron Bay: Taking to Instagram on Sunday morning, Liam shared a snap of him and 32-year-old Chris and 35-year-old Luke, presumably from the previous night The Hemsworth brothers were not shy to share some fun snaps from their celebrations Down Under, though Miley didn't appear in any of them Taking to Instagram on Sunday morning, Liam shared a snap of him and 32-year-old Chris and 35-year-old Luke, presumably from the previous night. 'Best brothers. Best mates. Best night!!! Happy new year everyone! @fallsfestival @disclosure,' the Hunger Games star captioned the black and white filtered snap in which the boys smiled for the camera. A few nights earlier fans had questioned where Liam was, when he didn't appear alongside brothers Chris and Luke in a New Year's Eve photo posted by Chris' wife Elsa. New Year's Eve bash: A few nights earlier fans had questioned where Liam was, when he didn't appear alongside brothers Chris and Luke in a New Year's Eve photo posted by Chris' wife Elsa Reports of Miley and Liam being together in Byron Bay have come after the Hollywood hunk opened up about his feelings towards his former fiancee in October last year. He said he didn't regret falling in love with the starlet, telling the November issue of Men's Fitness magazine: 'You fall in love with who you fall in love with; you can never choose. I guess some people just come with a little more baggage.' The actor explained: 'I mean, look - we were together five years, so I don't think those feelings will ever change.' Former couple: The Australian actor and Wrecking Ball singer met on the set of their film, The Last Song, and started dating in June 2009 - they are pictured in February 2012 at Elton John's AIDS Foundation Viewing party 'And that's good because that proves to me that it was real. It wasn't just a fling. It really was an important part of my life and always will be.' The Australian actor and the 22-year-old pop star met on the set of their film, The Last Song, and started dating in June 2009. The former couple, who had an on-again, off-again relationship, became engaged in June 2012. By September 2013, the two had called off their engagement. The Force Awakens director JJ Abrams may be having second thoughts about turning down the chance to direct the next Star Wars film. The director has read the script for Episode VIII, and said it is 'so good' he wishes he'd written it himself, actor Greg Grunberg told The Washington Post. 'He read it and said something he never, ever says,' said The Force Awakens actor, who also worked with Abrams on Lost and Felicity. Scroll down for video Second thoughts? The Force Awakens director JJ Abrams at the film's Shanghai premiere on December 27 'He said, "It's so good, I wish I were making it." 'He may have said something one time on Lost with Damon [Lindelof, the show's co-creator], but I never hear him express regret like that.' Grunberg plays pilot 'Snap' Wexley in The Force Awakens, and is also a longtime friend of Abrams. See the latest Star Wars updates as J.J. Abrams comments on the Episode 8 script Regrets? Actor Greg Grunberg, seen at the Hollywood premiere on December 14, said Abrams was blown away by the next Star Wars script The next Star Wars movie is being written and directed by Rian Johnson, who is best known for Looper and Brick. The two directors have collaborated on the movies, with Abrams showing Johnson early The Force Awakens footage to help Johnson craft next installment in the blockbuster franchise, due out on May 26, 2017. The Force Awakens star Daisy Ridley is also a big fan of the Episode VIII script, telling Variety: 'It's very good, very good.' Big fan: Daisy Ridley has also read the screenplay for Episode VIII and said it was 'very good' Abrams, who initially turned down the Star Wars gig until his wife warned him he'd always regret it, has also denied rumors that he will be directing Episode IX after taking a break. 'No, I'm not going to direct Episode IX,' he told Entertainment Weekly, adding that he was 'deeply envious of anyone who gets to work with this group of people on the future movies.' Jurassic World director Colin Trevorrow is set to direct Episode IX, which will be released in 2019. Next up: Looper director Rian Johnson, seen in London in July, penned the script for Episode VIII, which he will also direct. The movie is set for release in May, 2017 Abrams praised Johnson as 'an incredibly accomplished filmmaker and an incredibly strong writer,' in a Wired interview. 'So the story he told took what we were doing and went in the direction that he felt was best but that is very much in line with what we were thinking as well,' he said of Episode VIII. 'That will be his movie - hes going to do it in the way he sees fit. Hes neither asking for nor does he need me to oversee the process.' Dashing: Oscar Isaac as pilot Poe Dameron with BB-8 in The Force Awakens Dark side: Adam Driver stars as Kylo Ren in The Force Awakens Meanwhile, longtime Star Wars screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan told The LA Times that Episode VIII will be 'weird.' 'These movies will all be so different,' said The Force Awakens writer, who is also penning a spin-off about Han Solo, due out in 2018. That film is set to be helmed by The Lego Movie co-directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller. 'Rian Johnson is a friend of mine - he's going to make some weird thing,' Kasdan said. 'If you've seen Rian's work, you know it's not going be like anything that's ever been in Star Wars.' Getting weird: Legendary Star Wars writer Lawrence Kasdan, seen with wife Meg at the London premiere of The Force Awakens on December 16, said the next film will be unlike anything fans have seen before They have been married for almost a year. But Johnny Depp is obviously grateful that Amber Heard is still with him. The 52-year-old name checked the 29-year-old beauty in his acceptance speech at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, where he picked up the Desert Palm Achievement Award on Saturday, according to E! Online. Scroll down for video Happy couple: Johnny Depp and his wife of almost a year, Amber Heard, positively glowed as they arrived at the Palm Springs International Film Festival gala on Saturday evening 'I have to thank my wife Amber for putting up with me, for living with all these characters, which can't be easy. It's hard for me - it's got to be hard for her,' he quipped. The star was referring to the many roles he has played, from gangland killer White Bulger in Black Mass to Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirates Of The Caribbean franchise. Johnny first scared the celebrity audience by bringing out a sheet of paper, and joking: 'Im going to thank all these people, my speech is going to take 45 minutes.' Devoted husband: The 52-year-old was there to pick up the Desert Palm Achievement Award and he thanked his beautiful wife, who is 29, for 'putting up with me' in his acceptance speech Suited up: The star looked sharp in a black tuxedo while the actress showed off her slender body in a beautiful semi-sheer lace gown But then he put away his notes and added: 'Let's wing it, shall we?' The couple glowed as they took to the red carpet at the gala. Johnny suited up but his wife stole the limelight in a black lace dress that revealed her long legs. Back in November Johnny supported Amber at the L.A. premiere of her film The Danish Girl and he told E! then: 'We connect on a lot of levels. Striking a pose: The couple were momentarily serious on the red carpet 'But the first thing that really got me was she's an aficionado of the blues. I would play a song, some old obscure blues song, and she knew what it was. 'She's very, very literate. She's a voracious reader as I have been, so we connected on that as well and she's kind of brilliant and beautiful. I'm a lucky man.'. During his Palm Springs speech, Johnny also thanked the Warner Bros. executives who backed him and didn't complain about the prosthetics he used to morph into Whitey Bulger. He said other studios had been 'very frightened' of the way he transformed himself for various roles. So cute: The actress, who appeared in The Danish Girl, smiled as she followed Johnny 'Is Michael Eisner here?' Johnny joked, according to E!. In November he revealed that he was almost fired from the first Pirates Of The Caribbean movie back in 2003 because of the eccentric way he played Captain Jack Sparrow. 'It trickled back to me that [former Disney CEO] Michael Eisner went on some sort of bent about how "Goddammit, Johnny Depp's ruining the film! What is that thing? It is drunk, is it gay?" ' he said at the AFI Film Festival in Hollywood. E! News will have more on the 11-day Palm Springs Film Festival on its shows this week. Last month, it was revealed that Daniel Craig nabbed a cameo in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. And while his role as a stormtrooper was widely-discussed, few realised the James Bond actor features in a prominent moment, in which he speaks four lines of dialogue in the seventh film in the sci-fi franchise. According to The Sun, the 47-year-old Brit plays a defender of the Galactic Empire, with the hilarious name Stormtrooper JB - 007, in a nod to his role as super-sleuth Bond. Scroll down for video Star Wars soldier: Last month, it was revealed that Daniel Craig nabbed a cameo in Star Wars: The Force Awakens Can you spy him? James Bond actor Daniel Craig is confirmed to have had a cameo in the new Star Wars movie Daniel is said to appear in a short scene opposite Daisy Ridley's character Rey, who mind controls Stormtrooper JB - 007 before they become involved in a hilarious exchange. A source tells the publication: 'It was just going to be a blink and youll miss it cameo but in the end hes in a very memorable scene. 'The Star Wars cast and crew want to keep the mystery up though and dont want to confirm on record that it is him in the mind control scene. 'Maybe its so Stormtrooper JB-007 can pop back for the sequels?' See the latest Star Wars updates as it's confirmed that Daniel Craig had a cameo role Superstar role: According to The Sun , the 47-year-old Brit plays a defender of the Galactic Empire, with the hilarious name Stormtrooper JB - 007, in a nod to his role as super-sleuth Bond In the summer, rumours began circulating claiming Daniel had a tiny part in the blockbuster picture, but he shot them down. Despite his denials, a spokesperson associated with Disney, the studio that astutely purchased George Lucas's Lucasfilm company, told the Daily Mail's Baz Bamigboye: 'You're close to the truth. Nothing can be said on the record, because it will be denied.' The spokesperson said Craig was filming Spectre at Pinewood studios when he got talking to Star Wars director J.J. Abrams, who also shot some of his film at the complex in Buckinghamshire. 'They concocted the cameo together. I don't know which scene it is but yes, it does involve Daniel playing a stormtrooper, because they wear helmets and for the most part they're anonymous.' The source suggested that the scene might be at the beginning of the film, where white-clad troopers (above) storm a village. In a separate confirmation, an executive working on the Star Wars picture told a group of film-makers that Craig shot the star cameo moment. Kim Kardashian tweeted her support to her close friend and confidante Jonathan Cheban ahead of his stint on UK show, Celebrity Big Brother. The 35-year-old took to the social networking site on Sunday to say how much she was looking forward to seeing Jonathan's turn on the show. She wrote: 'OMGGGG I can't believe @JonathanCheban is doing celeb Big Brother UK. I'm dying to see this! He's going to be hysterical!!!!' Scroll down for video Proud of him: Kim Kardashian tweeted her support to her close friend and confidante Jonathan Cheban on Sunday, ahead of his stint on UK show, Celebrity Big Brother Can't wait! The 35-year-old took to the social networking site on Sunday to say how much she was looking forward to seeing Jonathan's turn on the show The post comes after it was claimed the reality star slapped the 41-year-old with a gagging order ahead of his appearance on the show which kicks off on Tuesday. The reality star was pictured touching down inLondon's Heathrow airport on New Year's Eve. He found fame starring on Keeping Up With The Kardashians and was sporting a T-shirt with Kris' face emblazoned across the front ahead of his entry in the fly-on-the-wall Channel 5 show. See more updates on Kim Kardashian as BFF Jonathan Cheban goes into CBB Plenty to smile about: Jonathan was pictured arriving at the ITV studios in central London for an early morning appearance on Monday ahead of entering the Celebrity Big Brother house on Tuesday night Showtime! Kim Kardashian has reportedly slapped her best pal Jonathan Cheban with a gagging order ahead of his appearance on Celebrity Big Brother Stepping out in style: Jonathan displayed his funky sense of style in a velvet blazer, ripped skinny jeans and Chelsea boots as he headed inside the ITV studios on Monday morning Jonathan, who was jetting in from Tel Aviv, Israel, paid homage to the Kardashian matriarch as he rocked a comedy T-shirt which showed Kris mocked up as a member of legendary rock group Kiss. Kris' face is covered in the classic Kiss make-up and the words 'The Momager Tour' are emblazoned beneath - a nod to her job as manager to the majority of her six children. He topped off the look with a pair of distressed khaki jeans and his favoured Yeezy Duck Boot - designed by Kim's rapper husband Kanye West, while he rocked a long-line black blazer and sporting futuristic visor-style sunglasses. Inside knowledge: The reality star appeared to be ensuring the matriarch of the first family of reality TV, Kris Jenner is with him as he touched down in London's Heathrow airport on New Year's Eve News of the gagging order comes after a source told Daily Star that Kim does not want her husband, daughter North, one-month-old son Saint or her former step-father Caitlyn Jenner mentioned while he is in the house. A subject he is permitted to discuss is Kim's ex-husband Kris Humphries, who the stunning star was married to for just 72 days in 2011. The insider revealed: 'Kim has made him sign a gagging order saying what he can and can't talk about. Kanye, North West, Saint West and Caitlyn Jenner and strictly off bounds. 'However, Kim's ex Kris Humphries is fair game. Cheban has got plenty of gossip and he is bound to be TV gold.' Jonathan was joined in his arrival by his stunning girlfriend Anat Popovsky and his glamorous mother Galina. He'll be in good company in the house as the mixture of personalities and egos has ensured the show is must-watch car crash TV twice a year. But this year, TV viewers have a special treat in store as a trio of fiery blondes are set to clash on Celebrity Big Brother, according to the Daily Star Sunday. TOWIE's Gemma Collins, Strictly's siren Kristina Rihanoff and troubled EastEnders regular Danniella Westbrook are believed to lead this year's line-up. Gemma's last stint on a different reality show from The Only Way Is Essex memorably ended in disaster as she dropped out of I'm A Celebrity after just three days in the jungle. It's a jungle in there: Gemma Collins is hoping to fare better than in I'm A Celebrity as she leads the stars who are set to appear in 2016's Celebrity Big Brother Battle of the blondes: Controversial soap star Danniella Westbrook - who was dropped from the show last year before it aired - will also appear, alongside Strictly's siren Kristina Rihanoff Mamma mia! Italian sociliate Nancy Dell'Olio - who dated ex-England boss Sven Goran Eriksson - is bound to have some good stories to tell her housemates Glamour girls: The line-up has had a serious injection of glamour from Ex On The Beach star Megan McKenna and former Hollyoaks actress Stephanie Davis, who was sacked from the soap last year Kristina is keen to get the public back on her side after her controversial romance with fellow contestant Ben Cohen, who announced he was dating the Russian blonde after splitting from the mother of his two children, Abby. Meanwhile, Daniella - who played Sam Mitchell on the hit BBC soap for two decades - has a well-documented troubled past, including cocaine addition. The actress was reported to have signed up to appear on CBB last year, but didn't make it through the vigorous psychiatric evaluations. Joining the trio are bad boy actor Darren Day, Sven-Goran Eriksson's ex-WAG Nancy Dell'Olio, Former X Factor finalist Christopher Maloney, David Bowie's ex-wife Angie, music producer David Gest, Megan McKenna, who starred in US reality show Ex On The Beach. Bad boy returns: Nineties' actor Darren Day - famed for his love rat ways - will also appear on the Channel 5 hit Reality hits: Former X Factor star Christopher Maloney (left) has signed up alongside Kim Kardashian's BFF Jonathan Cheban Music to our ears: David Bowie's fiery ex-wife Angie is bound to lift the lid on her dealings with the music industry Here come the hunks: Geordie Shore's muscle-bound star Scotty T will have a battle on his hands for the female housemates' attention - and the mirror - as he's set to live alongside former Mr Ireland Jeremy McConnell Also set to make the CBB house their home are sacked Hollyoaks actress Stephanie Davis, Actor John Partridge, famous for playing Christian Clarke in EastEnders, Geordie Shore star Scotty T, Jeremy McConnell, a former Mr Ireland, Kim Kardashian's BFF Jonathan Cheban, US reality TV star Tiffany Pollard and Winston McKenzie, a former Ukip spokesman. And despite being locked away for weeks without contact with the outside world, the contestants will at least be living in plush surroundings. The Hertfordshire-based surveillance house has undergone as dramatic make-over in anticipation of the forthcoming series, which airs from 5 January. Who? US reality star Tiffany Pollard is a relative unknown in the UK but is bound to stir up some drama in the house Soap star to soap box: EastEnders actor John Partridge, famous for playing Christian Clarke in EastEnders is also set to enter the house, alongside outspoken Winston McKenzie, a former Ukip spokesman Reality show regular: Producer David Gest - the former husband of Liza Minelli - will make his latest TV appearance after stints on I'm A Celebrity, Soapstar Superstar and Come Dine With Me Facelift: The CBB house has undergone as dramatic make-over in anticipation of the forthcoming series, which airs from 5 January The famous house has undergone a major costume change, and Housemates will be transported to a striking and theatrical setting which echoes the vaudeville theatres of a bygone era. As they take their cue to enter the House, the celebrities will descend down a majestic staircase, leading to glamorous rooms made up of rich opulent textures and packed with intriguing curiosities. But is it too good to be true? Big Brother may have set the scene of a decadent, antiquated world, but there is also the suggestion of a grittier underworld. Jonathan touched down in the UK after finding time between reality shows to enjoy a final getaway with his stunning girlfriend Anat and his mother to Tel Aviv. Jonathan's pre-Big Brother trip was laden with culture as he has visited the sites of the Israeli city. He sported a Kippah as he visited the The Western Wall located in the Old City of Jerusalem, which is deemed the holiest point one is permitted to pray. Anger, protests spread after Saudi cleric's execution Iran's supreme leader warned Sunday that Saudi Arabia would face "divine revenge" for executing a Shiite cleric as condemnation also poured in from Iraq and protesters took to the streets. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was joined in his condemnation of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr's death by Iraq's top Shiite authority, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who called the death sentence an unjust act of aggression. Their comments came as protests in Iran on Sunday spread to Bahrain, Pakistan, Indian Kashmir and Lebanon a day after a mob set fire to the Saudi embassy in Tehran and ransacked it before dozens were arrested. An Iraqi man on January 3, 2016 in Baghdad holds a portrait of Shiite Muslim cleric Nimr al-Nimr during a demonstration against his execution by Saudi authorities Ahmad Al-Rubaye (AFP) On top of the ongoing wars in Syria and Yemen, Nimr's execution set the Middle East's main Shiite countries further apart from their Sunni counterpart in Riyadh. Nimr, a Saudi Shiite who spent more than a decade studying theology at Iran's seminaries, was a force behind anti-government protests in eastern Saudi Arabia in 2011. He was put to death Saturday along with 46 Shiite activists and Sunnis who Saudi Arabia said were involved in Al-Qaeda killings. Some were beheaded, others were shot by firing squad. The 56-year-old's execution also sparked concern in the United Nations, the European Union and the United States and was deplored by Germany and France. Britain, which is careful to protect deep trade and investment links with Saudi Arabia, reiterated its opposition to the death penalty in a statement which avoided mentioning Nimr directly. Saudi Arabia's Gulf partners defended their ally, with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and Yemen calling the executions Riyadh's sovereign right to confront extremism. - 'God will not forgive' - Khamenei said the killing would not go unanswered. "The unjustly spilt blood of this martyr will have quick consequences," he told clerics in Tehran. "God will not forgive... it will haunt the politicians of this regime." Iraqi religious leaders also reacted with outrage. Grand Ayatollah Sistani called the execution "an injustice and an aggression" while another cleric, Mohammed Taqi al-Mudaressi, said it was a "declaration of war" against Shiites. Iraq's foreign ministry accused Saudi Arabia of using the fight against "terrorism" to silence its opposition. In Lebanon, the head of the Shiite Hezbollah movement allied to Iran, Hassan Nasrallah, accused Riyadh of seeking to spark a "conflict between Sunni and Shiite" Muslims. Saudi Arabia had branded Nimr an "instigator of sedition" and arrested him in 2012, after a video on YouTube showed him making a speech celebrating the death of the then interior minister. Three years earlier he had called for the oil-rich Eastern Province's Shiite-populated Qatif and Al-Ihsaa governorates to be separated from Saudi Arabia and united with Bahrain. Shiites in the neighbouring countries complain of marginalisation. Demonstrations outside the Saudi embassy and at Palestine Square in Tehran attracted around 1,500 people Sunday, with chants of "Death to the House of Saud". "His death will start a revolution which hopefully will lead to the fall of the Saudi family," said Rezvan, a 26-year-old in a traditional black chador who declined to give her last name. Iran's President Hassan Rouhani condemned Nimr's execution but also denounced attacks on the Saudi embassy in Tehran and the consulate in second city Mashhad. - 'The gates of hell' - He branded the demonstrators "radicals" and said the assaults were "totally unjustifiable". Forty-four people were arrested, prosecutors said. Small protests took place in Iraq and in the Lebanese capital. "The House of Saud has opened the gates of hell on its own regime," said one cleric, Ahmed al-Shahmani, on Baghdad's Palestine Street. In Sunni-ruled Bahrain, police used buckshot and tear gas against Shiite protesters who threw petrol bombs. An interior ministry official said several people, including minors, were detained. Concern mounted around the world, with the US warning that Riyadh risked "exacerbating sectarian tensions at a time when they urgently need to be reduced". UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he was "deeply dismayed" by the state-sanctioned killings, while France and Germany voiced concerns about growing tensions in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia's interior ministry said the executed men were convicted of adopting the radical "takfiri" ideology, joining "terrorist organisations" and implementing "criminal plots". They included Sunnis convicted of involvement in Al-Qaeda attacks that killed dozens of Saudis and foreigners in 2003 and 2004. Among them was Fares al-Shuwail, described by Saudi media as Al-Qaeda's top religious leader in the kingdom. Executions have soared in Saudi Arabia since King Salman ascended the throne a year ago with 153 people put to death in 2015, nearly twice as many as in 2014, for crimes ranging from murder to drug trafficking, armed robbery, rape and apostasy. Human Rights Watch said Saturday's "mass execution was the largest since 1980" when 68 militants who had seized Mecca's Grand Mosque were beheaded. "Saudi Arabia had a shameful start to 2016, executing 47 people in a day, after a year with one of the highest execution rates in its recent history, said HRW's Middle East director Sarah Leah Whitson. Amnesty International said Saudi Arabia was using Nimr's execution "to settle political scores". An Iranian woman holds a portrait of Nimr al-Nimr during a demonstration against his execution by Saudi authorities, on January 3, 2016, outside the Saudi embassy in Tehran Atta Kenare (AFP) Pakistani Shiite Muslim women shout slogans during a protest in Lahore on January 3, 2016, against the execution of Nimr al-Nimr by Saudi authorities Arif Ali (AFP) Iranian protesters on January 2, 2016 set fire to the Saudi Embassy in Tehran during a demonstration against the execution of Nimr al-Nimr by Saudi authorities Mohammadreza Nadimi (ISNA/AFP/File) An Iraqi policeman holds a portrait of prominent Shiite Muslim cleric Nimr al-Nimr during a demonstration against his execution by Saudi authorities, on January 3, 2016, in the capital Baghdad Ahmad al-Rubaye (AFP) Iranian and Turkish demonstrators hold pictures of Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr as they protest outside the Saudi Embassy in Ankara, on January 3, 2016 Adem Altan (AFP) Israelis charged over deadly arson attack on Palestinian family A court charged two Israelis on Sunday over a firebombing last year that killed a Palestinian couple and their toddler, in an attack that sparked condemnation globally. The charges are the first step in a legal case whose slow progress rights groups have criticised. They come more than five months after the pre-dawn attack on the Dawabsha family home in the West Bank village of Duma that killed 18-month-old Ali Saad Dawabsha, and fatally wounded his parents. A Palestinian stands outside the entrance to the Dawabsha family home in the West Bank village of Duma, which was firebombed in July 2015 Jaafar Ashtiyeh (AFP/File) His brother, who was four at the time of the attack on July 31, was the sole survivor from the immediate family. Amiram Ben-Uliel, 21, from the northern settlement of Shilo in the occupied West Bank, was charged with three counts of murder and one of attempted murder, arson and conspiracy to commit a hate crime, said the Israeli court indictment. A 17-year-old, who remained unnamed under a gag order, was charged with being an accessory to committing a racially motivated murder. Ben-Uliel and the minor, who lived in another wildcat settlement near Duma at the time, in July 2015 plotted to avenge a Palestinian shooting dead Malachi Rosenfeld near Shilo one month earlier, a statement from the justice ministry said. - 'He was at home' - The attack drew renewed attention to Jewish extremism and accusations Israel had not done enough to prevent such violence. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu labelled it "terrorism" -- a word usually used by Israelis to refer to violence committed by Palestinians. Israel came under heavy pressure to try those responsible, with rights groups questioning the delay in the case and contrasting it to the swift reaction often following Palestinian attacks. The Shin Bet internal security service held suspects under administrative detention, denied some of them the right to see a lawyer part of the time and used physical force during investigations. Supporters of the suspects -- religious extremists known as "hilltop youth" who oppose the "secular" Israeli state -- denounced those methods as torture. Shin Bet denies using any illegal methods, and has stressed that the entire investigation was conducted under the supervision of attorney general Yehuda Weinstein. Ben-Uliel's wife Orian on Sunday denounced the charges as she left the court room and said her husband had been "tortured to give information on acts he didn't commit". "I know he was at home that night and that he didn't do anything," he said. The minor was also accused of having taken part in an arson attack on the Dormition Abbey in east Jerusalem. Two other Israelis, including a minor, were charged for implication in "other terrorist acts". These included the arson attacks on the Dormition Abbey in May 2014 and the Church of the Multiplication in June 2015, as well as vandalism of Palestinian property. Christians believe the church on the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee is where Jesus performed the miracle of loaves and fishes. - 'Trial a parody' - The charges follow criticism last month over a video of gun-waving Jewish extremists celebrating the murder the Dawabsha toddler. Netanyahu called the video "shocking" and said it showed "the true face of a group that constitutes a danger to Israeli society and to the security of Israel". Israel arrested four Jewish men suspected of being among them. But his grandparents, whom AFP met at home next to their son's torched house in Duma, said they did not believe in "unfair Israeli justice". "This trial is a parody," Mohammad Dawabsha, 68, said. "If they really wanted to punish them, they would have done it the first day and would have told us from the beginning that it was them who killed our children." In the Duma attack on July 31, masked assailants reportedly hurled Molotov cocktails through the windows of the Dawabsha home, which were left open because of the summer heat. Graffiti left at the site, witness reports and the proximity of Israeli settlements led suspicions to fall immediately on Jewish extremists. The arson attack followed days of tensions over West Bank settlements, with rightwing groups opposing the demolition of two buildings under construction that the Israeli High Court said were illegal. The international community regards all Jewish settlements in the West Bank as illegal but Israel makes a distinction between those it has authorised and those it has not. The mother of Saad Dawabsha, who was killed alongside his toddler and wife when their house was firebombed by Jewish extremists on July 31, 2015 in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Jaafar Ashtiyeh (AFP/File) Israeli right-wing activists protest outside the Lod District Court in the central Israeli city of Lod, on January 3, 2016 Gil Cohen Magen (AFP) Urian (L) wife of Amiram Ben Oliel, one of two Israeli men charged for taking part in a firebomb attack last year that led to the deaths of a Palestinian couple and their toddler, at the Lod District Court on January 3, 2016 Gil Cohen Magen (AFP) Shiite protesters, police clash in Bahrain after executions Police in the Sunni-ruled Gulf state of Bahrain clashed on Sunday with Shiite protesters a day after neighbouring Saudi Arabia executed a leading Shiite cleric. An interior ministry official said that several people, among them minors who took part in protests, had been arrested along with others who "misused social media", state-run BNA news agency reported. Demonstrations erupted in Bahrain after Saturday's execution of Nimr al-Nimr, a driving force of protests in Saudi Arabia's east in 2011 who was among 47 people put to death in the Sunni-ruled kingdom. A Bahraini woman holds a poster of prominent Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr during a protest in Jidhafs on January 3, against his execution by Saudi authorities Mohammed Al-Shaikh (AFP) On Sunday, police using tear gas and buckshot clashed with protesters throwing petrol bombs in several Shiite suburbs of the capital Manama, witnesses said. Some injuries were reported. Protesters carrying pictures of Nimr marched through several suburbs of Manama, among them Jidhafs, Sitra, Duraz and Bilad al-Qadeem. Witnesses said the violence was worst at Sidra west of the city, with some 400 demonstrators clashing with police. The same sources said security forces used tear gas against protesters in Duraz who blocked a road and hurled stones at police. BNA said the "assistant undersecretary of legal affairs" at the interior ministry announced Sunday that "several rioters and vandals have been detained". "A small number of people who misused social media for illegal purposes" were also detained, the official was quoted as saying. It was not clear how many people were arrested or when. The official said "the parents of several minors were also summoned" under legislation which stipulates they could be jailed or fined for "crime or delinquency" committed by their children, BNA said. Bahrain has backed Riyadh over Saturday's executions. Authorities had said that they would take "all necessary legal measures" against any "negative" actions in response to the death sentences, which they would consider as "inciting sedition and threatening civil order". They also warned of legal measures against anyone who used "social media networks to spread rumours that influence security". Bahrain, home to the US Navy's Fifth Fleet, has been rocked by a Shiite-led uprising since February 2011, with demands ranging from a constitutional monarchy to overthrowing the ruling dynasty altogether. Scores of opponents have been detained, with many facing trial, while others convicted of involvement in violence have been handed heavy sentences, including loss of citizenship and life in prison. Shiites protest in Pakistan, Indian Kashmir over cleric execution Thousands of Shiite Muslims protested in Pakistan and Indian Kashmir Sunday to condemn Saudi Arabia's execution of a leading cleric Nimr al-Nimr, as fury over the killing spread. The 56-year-old Shiite cleric was put to death along with 46 Shiite activists and Sunnis who the Saudi interior ministry said were involved in Al-Qaeda killings. Some were beheaded, others were shot by firing squad. Iran and Iraq's top Shiite leaders also condemned the execution, warning ahead of protests that the killing was an injustice that could have serious consequences. Pakistani women hold placards featuring executed Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr during an anti-Saudi protest in Quetta, on January 3, 2016 Banaras Khan (AFP) Peaceful protests were held across Pakistan, including in the southwestern city Quetta where about 1,000 people called on the government to reconsider its longtime ties with Riyadh and demonstrators held placards bearing anti-Saudi slogans. In the eastern city of Lahore, around 1,500 took to the streets, calling Nimr's execution a gross human rights violation, while in the port city of Karachi about a thousand men, women and children shouted slogans against the royal Saudi family. Similar protests also took place in several districts of the southern Sindh province and the Pakistani capital Islamabad, where about 500 people gathered to call on the UN to intervene to stop Saudi Arabia from targeting Shiite Muslims. Amid the rallies, Saudi foreign minister Adel bin Ahmed al-Jubeir, who was scheduled to arrive in Islamabad Sunday evening, postponed his visit. "The visit was postponed at the request of the authorities of Saudi Arabia," the Pakistani foreign ministry said in a statement, adding the trip would take place on January 7. Meanwhile in Srinagar, the main city of Indian-administered Kashmir, hundreds of angry Shiites clashed with police as they protested the cleric's execution. The demonstrators bearing photos of Nimr chanted "down with al-Saud dynasty," referring to Saudi leaders and called them "stooges of America" as they marched toward the city centre. Some hurled rocks at police, who fired tear gas and wielded batons in return, a senior police officer speaking on condition of anonymity told AFP. Similar protests were also held in smaller towns across the Muslim-majority region, which is divided between India and Pakistan but claimed in its entirety by both the South Asian rivals. Kashmiri Shiite protesters shout slogans during a demonstration in Srinagar on January 3, against the execution of prominent Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr by Saudi authorities Tauseef Mustafa (AFP) Two Israeli soldiers wounded in West Bank shootings Two Israeli soldiers, one a woman, were wounded on Sunday in separate shootings in the flashpoint West Bank city of Hebron, the army said. The young woman was seriously wounded when a gunman opened fire on her, and she was evacuated to Jerusalem's Shaare Tzedek hospital, as army statement said. The shooting happened near a disputed holy site in the heart of Hebron's Old City, which is known to Muslims as the Ibrahimi Mosque and to Jews as the Cave of the Patriarchs. Israeli soldiers gather to help a female soldier who was shot and wounded in the West Bank city of Hebron, on January 3, 2016 Hazem Bader (AFP) Three hours later, another gunman opened fire on an army patrol in southern Hebron, slightly wounding a soldier, the army said, adding that the unknown assailant fled after the attack. Some 500 Jewish settlers live under tight guard among around 200,000 Palestinians in the southern West Bank city, where several anti-Israel attacks have been carried out in the past weeks. Flash Angry Iranian protesters against the execution of a Shiite leader by Saudi Arabia raided and set fire to the Saudi Embassy in Tehran late Saturday. The move came hours after the Saudi Interior Ministry announced that prominent Shiite leader Nimr al-Nimr and 46 other men were executed on terror charges. The police were trying to drive some of the protesters out of the embassy after they broke into the compound, semi-official ISNA news agency reported. Tehran Police Chief, Sardar Sajedinia, said that the police have arrested some of those angry mobs who had "illegally" ransacked the embassy, according to Tasnim news agency. "Unfortunately, some (who gathered before the embassy) throw stones and Molotov cocktails at the embassy which caused fire to the building," Sajedinia was quoted as saying. Meanwhile, another group of protesters set parts of the Saudi consulate on fire in Iran's northeastern religious city of Mashhad on Saturday evening, Tabnak news website reported. The protesters gathered in front of the Saudi consulate and chanted slogans against the Arab state's authorities, according to the report. They pulled down the flag of Saudi Arabia from the building of the consulate and threw handmade crackers which caused fire in part of the building, it said. In an announcement, Iran's Foreign Ministry urged the police to protect the diplomatic compounds of Saudi Arabia in the country. Earlier in the day, Iran's Foreign Ministry summoned Saudi Arabian charge d'affaires to Tehran and strongly condemned the execution of Nimr al-Nimr. Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Amir-Abdollahian conveyed the strong protest of the Islamic republic to the Saudi envoy, Ahmed al-Muwallid, over what he called the "irresponsible behavior" of the Saudi officials in this regard, the state TV reported. Gun battle near India's Afghan consulate after air base attack Troops battled Monday to end a 24-hour gun and bomb siege near the Indian consulate in Afghanistan's Mazar-i-Sharif city, after a bloody weekend assault on an air base in India near the Pakistan border. Separately Monday a Taliban truck bomb struck a compound for foreign contractors near Kabul airport, killing at least one civilian just hours after a suicide bomber blew himself up around the same area. The lethal assaults on Indian installations threaten to derail Prime Minister Narendra Modi's bold diplomatic outreach to arch-rival Pakistan following his first official visit to Afghanistan last month. An Afghan Quick Reaction Force soldier fires a rocket-propelled grenade launcher during an operation near the Indian consulate in Mazar-i-Sharif, on January 4, 2016 Farshad Usyan (AFP) No group has so far claimed responsibility for the raid on the diplomatic mission in northern Afghanistan, the latest in a series of assaults on Indian installations in the country. Gunfights and grenade explosions echoed as commandos shimmied down a rope from a helicopter onto the roof of a building near the consulate where the assailants are holed up. "The attackers are enemies of Afghanistan who do not want peace," said powerful provincial governor Atta Mohammad Noor, overseeing the clearance operation. "We will suppress them as soon as possible." But 24 hours after the siege began, security officials said they were proceeding cautiously in the residential area to limit civilian casualties. An Indian official, who was hunkered down in a secure area within the diplomatic enclave, told AFP by telephone Sunday that all consulate employees were safe. Local police officials said some consulate workers had been evacuated. But the fighting left one Afghan policeman dead and 10 others wounded, government spokesman Munir Farhad told AFP. The attack followed a raid over the weekend by Islamist insurgents on an air force base in the northern Indian state of Punjab. Seven soldiers were confirmed killed in the raid on the Pathankot base, which triggered a 14-hour gun battle Saturday and fresh rounds of firing Sunday. Indian troops backed by helicopters searched the base Monday, with an official saying that the fifth attacker had been gunned down. "We are moving step by step to sanitise the area and it's too early to say when the operation will be over," said a military official who asked not to be named. The United Jihad Council, a conglomerate of Pakistani proxy Islamist groups fighting in Indian-controlled Kashmir, has claimed responsibility for the attack. The brazen assault -- a rare targeting of an Indian military installation outside Kashmir -- threatens to undermine the fragile peace process between the nuclear-armed rivals. - 'Proxy war' - The spike in violence came about a week after Modi paid a surprise visit to Pakistan, the first by an Indian premier in 11 years. The visit immediately followed a whirlwind tour of Kabul, where Modi inaugurated an Indian-built parliament complex and gave three Russian-made helicopters to the Afghan government. India has been a key supporter of Kabul's post-Taliban government, and analysts have often pointed to the threat of a "proxy war" in Afghanistan between India and Pakistan. Pakistan -- the historic backer of the Taliban -- has long been accused of assisting the insurgents, especially with attacks on Indian targets in Afghanistan. The Taliban have also stepped up attacks on government and foreign targets in Afghanistan, underscoring a worsening security situation. A Taliban truck bomber Monday struck the outer wall of Camp Baron, a heavily-guarded residential compound for foreign contractors, killing one Afghan civilian and wounding 13 others, the interior ministry said. A bombing occurred close to where a suicide bomber struck earlier in the day, with no casualties reported. The latest unrest coincides with a renewed international push to revive peace talks with the resurgent militant movement. On January 11 Afghanistan and Pakistan are set to hold a first round of dialogue also involving the US and China to try to lay out a comprehensive roadmap for peace. Pakistan, which wields considerable influence over the Afghan Taliban, hosted a milestone first round of talks in July. But the negotiations stalled when the insurgents belatedly confirmed the death of longtime leader Mullah Omar. The attack on the consulate in Mazar-i-Sharif was the latest on high-profile Indian targets in Afghanistan. In 2008 a car bomb at the Indian embassy in Kabul killed 60 people and the facility was again hit by a suicide strike in 2009. Afghan forces battle to flush out militants holed up near the Indian consulate in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif An aerial view of Mazar-i-Sharif in Afghanistan's Balkh province Noorullah Shirzada (AFP/File) Saudi severs ties with Iran after embassy attacked Saudi Arabia broke off diplomatic ties with Iran after protesters ransacked its embassy in Tehran to protest the execution of a Shiite cleric whose killing has sparked fury. Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir made the announcement at a news conference in Riyadh, and said Iranian diplomats had 48 hours to leave the kingdom. The diplomatic fallout come as Iran's supreme leader said Saudi Arabia would face "quick consequences" for executing Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, and as Washington urged regional leaders to soothe escalating sectarian tensions between Sunni and Shiite Muslims. Iranian riot police block a street leading to the Saudi embassy as protesters hold portraits of prominent Shiite Muslim cleric Nimr al-Nimr during a demonstration against his execution by Saudi authorities, on January 3, 2016, in Tehran Atta Kenare (AFP) Saudi Arabia "is breaking off diplomatic ties with Iran and requests that all members of the Iranian diplomatic mission leave... within 48 hours," Jubeir said. "Iran's history is full of negative interference and hostility in Arab issues, and it is always accompanied by destruction," he said, accusing Tehran of seeking to "destabilise" the region. The decision to cut ties with Iran will not distract from Riyadh's "big mistake" of executing a top Shiite cleric, a senior Iranian official said Monday. "By deciding to sever (diplomatic) relations, Saudi Arabia cannot make (the world) forget its big mistake of executing a cleric," deputy foreign minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said, according to the IRNA agency. On Saturday, a mob attacked the Saudi embassy in Tehran and a consulate in the second city of Mashhad amid protests at Nimr's execution. Jubeir said Saudi authorities had asked their Iranian counterparts to ensure security at the embassy but they did not cooperate and failed to protect it. Nimr, 56, was a force behind 2011 anti-government protests in oil-rich eastern Saudi Arabia, where Shiites have long complained of marginalisation. He was put to death along with 46 other people, including Shiite activists and convicted Sunni militants who the Saudi interior ministry says were involved in Al-Qaeda attacks that killed dozens in 2003 and 2004. Some were beheaded and others were shot by firing squad. - 'Instigator of sedition' - Iran has said it arrested 44 people over the embassy attacks, and President Hassan Rouhani said the demonstrators were "radicals" and the assaults "totally unjustifiable". Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, meanwhile, condemned Nimr's execution, saying "God will not forgive" Saudi Arabia for putting him to death. "The unjustly spilt blood of this martyr will have quick consequences," he said, adding "It will haunt the politicians of this regime." Relations between Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia and Shiite-ruled Iran have been strained for decades, with Riyadh frequently accusing Tehran of interfering in Arab affairs. The two countries have also been divided over the nearly five-year war in Syria, where Iran is backing the regime, and the conflict in Yemen where a Saudi-led coalition is battling Shiite rebels. Khamenei was joined in his condemnation of Nimr's execution by Iraq's top Shiite authority, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who called the death sentence "an unjust act of aggression". Their comments, echoed by other regional religious and political leaders, came as protests in Iran on Sunday spread to Bahrain, Pakistan, Indian Kashmir and Lebanon. Saudi Arabia branded Nimr an "instigator of sedition" and arrested him in 2012, after a video on YouTube showed him making a speech celebrating the death of the then-interior minister. Three years earlier he called for the oil-rich Eastern Province's Shiite-populated Qatif and Al-Ihsaa governorates to be separated from Saudi Arabia and united with Bahrain. - 'Gates of hell' - Demonstrations outside the Saudi embassy and at Palestine Square in Tehran attracted around 1,500 people Sunday, with chants of "Death to the House of Saud". "His death will start a revolution which hopefully will lead to the fall of the Saudi family," said Rezvan, a 26-year-old in a traditional black chador who declined to give her last name. On Baghdad's Palestine Street, Iraqi cleric Ahmed al-Shahmani said: "The House of Saud has opened the gates of hell on its own regime." In Bahrain, where authorities defended Saudi Arabia along with other Gulf allies of Riyadh, police used buckshot and tear gas against Shiiite protesters who threw petrol bombs. Arrests were reported. Nimr's execution was widely condemned elsewhere by major Western powers, and the United States on Sunday called on Middle East countries to take "affirmative steps" to calm tensions. Executions have soared in Saudi Arabia since King Salman ascended the throne a year ago with 153 people put to death in 2015, nearly twice as many as in 2014, for crimes ranging from murder to drug trafficking, armed robbery, rape and apostasy. Human Rights Watch said the mass execution was the largest since 1980, when 68 militants who had seized Mecca's Grand Mosque were beheaded, and called it a "shameful start to 2016". Amnesty International said Saudi Arabia was using Nimr's execution "to settle political scores". But on Sunday Jubeir said those executed had received "fair and transparent" trials and were convicted of carrying out "terrorist operations that led to the deaths of innocents". Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir says Saudi authorities had asked their Iranian counterparts to ensure security at the embassy but they did not cooperate and failed to protect it Ahmed Farwan (AFP) Pakistani Shiite Muslim women shout slogans during a protest in Lahore on January 3, 2016, against the execution of Nimr al-Nimr by Saudi authorities Arif Ali (AFP) Iranian protesters on January 2, 2016 set fire to the Saudi Embassy in Tehran during a demonstration against the execution of Nimr al-Nimr by Saudi authorities Mohammadreza Nadimi (ISNA/AFP/File) Iraq's top Shiite authority, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, called the death sentence for Shiite Muslim cleric Nimr al-Nimr "an unjust act of aggression" Ahmad al-Rubaye (AFP) Dutch investigators to study citizen journalism probe into MH17 Dutch prosecutors said they would "seriously study" claims by citizen journalists to have identified Russian soldiers implicated in the crash of flight MH17, shot down over eastern Ukraine in July 2014. The claims are made by a British-based group of "citizen investigative journalists" called Bellingcat, which specialises in trawling through data on social media and other open sources. "We received the report just after Christmas," Wim de Bruin, a spokesman for the Dutch prosecutor's office, told AFP. A photo taken on September 9, 2014 shows part of the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 at the crash site in the village of Hrabove (Grabovo), some 80km east of Donetsk Alexander Khudoteply (AFP/File) "We will seriously study it and determine whether it can be used for the criminal inquiry," de Bruin said. Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was downed over war-torn eastern Ukraine on July 17 2014 by a BUK surface-to-air missile, killing all 298 onboard, air crash investigators said last October. Western nations and Ukraine say the missile was fired from pro-Russian separatist-held territory, but Moscow denies the claim, pointing the finger instead at the Ukrainian military. The Netherlands have launched a criminal probe into those responsible for the shooting, but many experts doubt whether it will succeed. In 2014, Bellingcat reported that a BUK mobile launcher, spotted on July 17 in an area controlled by pro-Russian rebels, came from a military convoy from Russia's 53rd anti-aircraft brigade -- a unit based in Kursk but sent on manoeuvres near the Ukrainian border. The launcher was later filmed again, but at least one of its missiles was missing. In an interview with the Dutch TV channel NOS on Sunday, Bellingcat founder Eliot Higgins said his organisation had now identified 20 soldiers in this brigade. This is "probably" the group that either knows who fired or has that individual among its number, Higgins said. The sources for this include photos posted on the Internet and army data about personnel deployment that was available online, NOS said. It added that a redacted version of the report should be published "shortly." De Bruin said Dutch prosecutors had "already been in contact" with Bellingcat in the past. How MH17 was shot down Adrian Leung/John Saeki (AFP) Tamir Rice protesters want Cleveland prosecutor to step down CLEVELAND (AP) Protesters upset by a decision not to indict two white police officers in the shooting death of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old black boy who had a pellet gun, marched to the home of the prosecutor Friday and repeated calls for him to resign. More than 100 people stood outside the home of Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty during the peaceful protest, which also included demands for a federal investigation into the shooting. A march leader told protesters not to vandalize McGinty's home, which is in a neighborhood on the west side of Cleveland. Police officers accompanied the marchers and stood in McGinty's driveway but did not intervene. People protest a grand jury's decision not to indict two white Cleveland police officers in the fatal shooting of Tamir Rice, a black 12-year-old boy who was playing with a pellet gun, Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2015, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak) The protesters chanted, "New year, no more!" and "McGinty has got to go!" Through a spokesman, McGinty declined to comment. Protesters have called for McGinty's resignation since he announced Monday that the officers would not face criminal charges in Tamir's death. But criticism of him dates back months as frustration grew over the length of time it took to reach a decision concerning the November 2014 shooting. Joseph Frolik, director of communications and public policy at the prosecutor's office, called Tamir's death "clearly a monumental tragedy caused by a series of mistakes by the Cleveland Police Department." "But we would hope that people will also respect the decision made (by) another group of citizens the members of the grand jury," Frolik said in a statement. "They personally see, hear and question witnesses, and they reach a decision based on their oath. If you don't trust the grand jury, you don't trust your neighbors." Dozens of marchers lay down on the sidewalk running past McGinty's house for four minutes, the time they say it took medical responders to reach Tamir after he was shot outside a recreation center. In announcing that charges would not be brought, McGinty said it was "indisputable" that Tamir was drawing the pistol from his waistband when he was gunned down. The prosecutor said Tamir was trying to either hand the pellet gun over to police or show them it was not real, but the officer who shot him, Timothy Loehmann, and his partner, Frank Garmback, had no way of knowing that. Tamir was shot by Loehmann within two seconds of the officers' police cruiser skidding to a stop near the boy. McGinty said police radio personnel contributed to the tragedy by failing to pass along the "all-important fact" that a 911 caller said the gunman was probably a juvenile and the gun probably was not real. On Thursday, Mayor Frank Jackson and Police Chief Calvin Williams said that as protests continue, they plan to balance public safety with protesters' First Amendment rights. A man yells at authorities during a protest of a grand jury's decision not to indict two white Cleveland police officers in the fatal shooting of Tamir Rice, a black 12-year-old boy who was playing with a pellet gun, Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2015, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak) A person holds a sign during a protest of a grand jury's decision not to indict two white Cleveland police officers in the fatal shooting of Tamir Rice, a black 12-year-old boy who was playing with a pellet gun, Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2015, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak) In this photo provided by cleveland.com, a march leader with a megaphone talks to protesters near the home of Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty in Cleveland on Friday, Jan. 1, 2016. Protesters upset by a decision not to indict two white police officers in the shooting death of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old black boy who had a pellet gun, marched to the home of the Cleveland prosecutor on Friday and repeated calls for him to resign. (Jane Morice/cleveland.com via AP) ROSARIO, Argentina (AP) Several spectators were injured during the Dakar Rally on Saturday after a Mini Cooper plowed into the crowd before the start of the race in Argentina. The accident occurred at kilometer 6.6 of the prologue to the Dakar 2016, which starts between Buenos Aires and Rosario. Organizers suspended Saturday's special stage. A Dakar statement said four spectators were injured and taken to local hospitals. However, it did not provide details on their injuries. China's Guo Meiling, driver of the X-Raid Team, sits in the drivers seat of her car after an accident in which at least 8 spectators were injured, during the Buenos Aires-Rosario prologue stage of the Dakar Rally 2016, in Arrecifes, Argentina, Saturday, Jan. 2, 2016. Guo Meiling is the first Chinese female driver to participate in the rally. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz) Daniel Modesto, a doctor at the Santa Francisca de Arrecifes hospital, told Argentine station TN that 10 people were treated for injuries, including a pregnant woman and four children. He said one child and one adult man were seriously injured. The child was airlifted to a larger hospital, while the man was transferred in an ambulance, he said. The vehicle that veered off the road was No. 360, which belongs to Guo Meiling. Guo is the first Chinese woman to compete in Dakar. It was unclear she or other drivers were injured. Competitors were participating in a special stage to determine Sunday's opening day order. An injured man is taken away by emergency personnel after Chinese driver Guo Meiling of the X-Raid Team drove her Mini off the road and hit several spectators, during the Buenos Aires-Rosario prologue stage of the Dakar Rally 2016, in Arrecifes, Argentina, Saturday, Jan. 2, 2016. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz) China's Guo Meiling's, X-Raid Team's damaged Mini, is seen after an accident in which at least 8 spectators were injured, during the Buenos Aires-Rosario prologue stage of the Dakar Rally 2016, in Arrecifes, Argentina, Saturday, Jan. 2, 2016. Guo Meiling is the first Chinese female driver to participate in the rally. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz) An injured man is taken away by emergency personnel after Chinese driver Guo Meiling of the X-Raid Team drove her Mini off the road and hit several spectators, during the Buenos Aires-Rosario prologue stage of the Dakar Rally 2016, in Arrecifes, Argentina, Saturday, Jan. 2, 2016. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz) India says search for attackers at air base still not over PATHANKOT, India (AP) After saying all the gunmen who attacked an Indian air base near the Pakistan border were dead, Indian officials said at least two attackers remained and vowed to kill them Monday to end a more than 48-hour siege. At least seven troops and four gunmen have been killed in the fighting so far. On Sunday, Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi told reporters that the last two gunmen had been cornered and would be "neutralized" soon. Indian army trucks carrying military equipments arrive at the Pathankot air force base in Pathankot, India, Sunday, Jan. 3, 2016. Combing operations to secure the Indian air force base where a group of militants started an attack before dawn on Saturday were continuing Sunday afternoon. (AP Photo/Channi Anand) The attack on the Pathankot air force base started before dawn Saturday and is seen as an attempt to undo recent improvements in the relationship between archrivals India and Pakistan. It comes a week after Narendra Modi became the first Indian prime minister in 12 years to visit Pakistan. Mehrishi said Indian authorities were alerted about a potential attack in Pathankot, and that aerial surveillance at the base spotted the suspected militants as they entered the compound. He said they were engaged by Indian troops and were kept away from the base's aircraft and military equipment. Since Saturday morning, the base has been swarming with air force commandos, troops from India's elite National Security Guard and local police. A senior air force officer, Air Marshal Anil Khosla, told reporters in New Delhi that the base will not be declared fully secured until the entire area is checked by troops. The sprawling Pathankot air force base is spread over several kilometers (miles), including some forested sections. It houses a fleet of India's Russian-origin MiG-21 fighter jets and Mi-25 and Mi-35 attack helicopters, along with other military hardware. The Defense Ministry said no aircraft or military equipment had been damaged in the fighting. The base is on the highway that connects India's insurgency-plagued Jammu and Kashmir state with the rest of the country. It is also very close to India's border with Pakistan. The Himalayan region of Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan, but is claimed in its entirety by both. Rebels in India's portion of Kashmir have been fighting since 1989 for independence or merger with Pakistan. India accuses Pakistan of arming and training the insurgents, a charge Islamabad denies, and the attack is being viewed as a possible attempt to unravel recent progress in the relationship between the two nations. Police they do not know if the gunmen came from the Indian portion of Kashmir, where rebels routinely stage attacks, or from Pakistan. The violence follows Indian Prime Minister Modi's surprise Dec. 25 visit to Pakistan, where he met with his Pakistani counterpart, Nawaz Sharif a trip that marked a significant thaw in the mostly tense relations between the nuclear-armed neighbors. The two also held an unscheduled meeting at the Paris climate change talks last month. Ahead of Modi's visit to Pakistan, the national security advisers of both countries met in Thailand. The foreign secretaries of both nations are to meet in Islamabad later this month. The responses to the weekend attack from both countries have been muted so far, with neither New Delhi nor Islamabad giving any indication that the planned talks are under any threat. In Pakistan, Sharif's foreign affairs adviser, Sartaj Aziz, said in a radio interview Saturday, as the attack was unfolding, that Pakistan wants to consolidate its improved relations with India. Pakistan's foreign ministry condemned the attack. The reaction in India has also been quiet so far. While all political parties condemned the attack, there were no demands that the government call off talks with Pakistan. In the past, when it was in opposition, Modi's own right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party was a vocal critic of engagement with Pakistan. __ Associated Press writer Muneeza Naqvi in New Delhi contributed to this report. Indian army soldiers conduct a search operation in a forest area outside the Pathankot air force base in Pathankot, India, Sunday, Jan. 3, 2016. Combing operations to secure the Indian air force base where a group of militants started an attack before dawn on Saturday were continuing late Sunday morning. (AP Photo/Channi Anand) India's Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi, right, and Director General Air Operations Air Marshal Anil Khosla, listen to a question during a press conference in New Delhi, on the attack on the Pathankot air force base, India, Sunday, Jan. 3, 2016. Indian troops are still battling at least two gunmen Sunday evening at an air force base near the country's border with Pakistan, more than 36-hours after the compound came under attack, Mehrishi said. (Vijay Verma/Press Trust of India via AP) INDIA OUT Indian security men guard near the India Gate War memorial as part of enhanced security measures following the attack on an air force base near the country's border with Pakistan, New Delhi, India, Sunday, Jan. 3, 2016. A top government official says Indian troops are still battling at least two gunmen at the Pathankot air force base more than 36 hours after the compound came under attack. (AP Photo /Tsering Topgyal) Indian security men patrol outside the Pathankot air force base in Pathankot, India, Sunday, Jan. 3, 2016. Combing operations to secure the Indian air force base where a group of militants started an attack before dawn on Saturday were continuing Sunday afternoon. (AP Photo/Channi Anand) An Indian army soldier is seen during a search operation in a forest area outside the Pathankot air force base in Pathankot, India, Sunday, Jan. 3, 2016. Combing operations to secure the Indian air force base where a group of militants started an attack before dawn on Saturday were continuing late Sunday morning. (AP Photo/Channi Anand) An Indian army soldier is seen during a search operation in a forest area outside the Pathankot air force base in Pathankot, India, Sunday, Jan. 3, 2016. Combing operations to secure the Indian air force base where a group of militants started an attack before dawn on Saturday were continuing late Sunday morning. (AP Photo/Channi Anand) Indian army soldiers patrol outside the Pathankot air force base in Pathankot, India, Sunday, Jan. 3, 2016. Combing operations to secure the Indian air force base where a group of militants started an attack before dawn on Saturday were continuing late Sunday morning. (AP Photo/Channi Anand) An Indian army soldier is seen during a search operation in a forest area outside the Pathankot air force base in Pathankot, India, Sunday, Jan. 3, 2016. Combing operations to secure the Indian air force base where a group of militants started an attack before dawn on Saturday were continuing late Sunday morning. (AP Photo/Channi Anand) An Indian army soldier takes position outside the Pathankot air force base in Pathankot, India, Sunday, Jan. 3, 2016. Combing operations to secure the Indian air force base where a group of militants started an attack before dawn on Saturday were continuing late Sunday morning. (AP Photo/Channi Anand) Indian security men stop a commuter outside the Pathankot air force base in Pathankot, India, Sunday, Jan. 3, 2016. Combing operations to secure the Indian air force base where a group of militants started an attack before dawn on Saturday were continuing late Sunday morning. (AP Photo/Channi Anand) Saudis cut ties with Iran following Shiite cleric execution TEHRAN, Iran (AP) Saudi Arabia announced Sunday it was severing diplomatic relations with Shiite powerhouse Iran amid escalating tensions over the Sunni kingdom's execution of a prominent Shiite cleric. The move came hours after protesters stormed and set fire to the Saudi Embassy in Tehran and followed harsh criticism by Iran's top leader of the Saudis' execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr. Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said Iranian diplomatic personnel had 48 hours to leave his country and all Saudi diplomatic personnel in Iran had been called home. Smoke rises as Iranian protesters set fire to the Saudi embassy in Tehran, Sunday, Jan. 3, 2016. Protesters upset over the execution of a Shiite cleric in Saudi Arabia set fires to the Saudi embassy in Tehran. (Mohammadreza Nadimi/ISNA via AP) The mass execution of al-Nimr and 46 others the largest carried out by Saudi Arabia in three and a half decades laid bare the sectarian divisions gripping the region as demonstrators took to the streets from Bahrain to Pakistan in protest. It also illustrated the kingdom's new aggressiveness under King Salman. During his reign, Saudi Arabia has led a coalition fighting Shiite rebels in Yemen and staunchly opposed regional Shiite power Iran, even as Tehran struck a nuclear deal with world powers. Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned Saudi Arabia on Sunday of "divine revenge" over al-Nimr's death, while Riyadh accused Tehran of supporting "terrorism" in a war of words that threatened to escalate even as the U.S. and the European Union sought to calm the region. Al-Jubeir told a news conference in Riyadh that the Iranian regime has "a long record of violations of foreign diplomatic missions," dating back to the occupation of the U.S. Embassy in 1979, and such incidents constitute "a flagrant violation of all international agreements," according to the official Saudi Press Agency. He said Iran's "hostile policy" was aimed "at destabilizing the region's security," accusing Tehran of smuggling weapons and explosives and planting terrorist cells in the kingdom and other countries in the region. He vowed that Saudi Arabia will not allow Iran "to undermine our security." "The history of Iran is full of negative and hostile interference in Arab countries, always accompanied with subversion, demolition and killing of innocent souls," al-Jubeir said, just before announcing the severing of diplomatic relations. Al-Nimr was a central figure in Arab Spring-inspired protests by Saudi Arabia's Shiite minority until his arrest in 2012. He was convicted of terrorism charges but denied advocating violence. On Saturday, Saudi Arabia put al-Nimr and three other Shiite dissidents to death, along with a number of al-Qaida militants. Al-Nimr's execution drew protests from Shiites around the world, who backed his call for reform and wider political freedom for their sect. While the split between Sunnis and Shiites dates back to the early days of Islam and disagreements over the successor to Prophet Muhammad, those divisions have only grown as they intertwine with regional politics, with both Iran and Saudi Arabia vying to be the Mideast's top power. Iran accuses Saudi Arabia of supporting terrorism in part because it backs Syrian rebel groups fighting to oust its embattled ally, President Bashar Assad. Riyadh points to Iran's backing of the Lebanese Hezbollah and other Shiite militant groups in the region as a sign of its support for terrorism. Iran also has backed Shiite rebels in Yemen known as Houthis. Khamenei, the Iranian supreme leader, condemned al-Nimr's execution, saying Sunday the cleric "neither invited people to take up arms nor hatched covert plots. The only thing he did was public criticism." Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard said Saudi Arabia's "medieval act of savagery" would lead to the "downfall" of the country's monarchy. Saudi Arabia's Foreign Ministry said that by condemning the execution, Iran had "revealed its true face represented in support for terrorism." In Tehran, a protest outside the Saudi Embassy early Sunday quickly grew violent as protesters threw stones and gasoline bombs at the embassy, setting part of the building ablaze, according to Gen. Hossein Sajedinia, the country's top police official, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported. Forty people were arrested and investigators were pursuing other suspects, Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi said, according to the semi-official ISNA news agency. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani condemned Saudi Arabia's execution of al-Nimr, but also branded those who attacked the Saudi Embassy as "extremists." "It is unjustifiable," he said in a statement. Hundreds of protesters later demonstrated in front of the embassy and in a central Tehran square, where street signs near the embassy were replaced with ones bearing the slain sheikh's name. Western powers sought to calm the tensions. In Washington, State Department spokesman John Kirby said the Obama administration was aware of the Saudis' severing of ties with Tehran. "We believe that diplomatic engagement and direct conversations remain essential in working through differences and we will continue to urge leaders across the region to take affirmative steps to calm tensions," Kirby said. Earlier, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini spoke to Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif by phone and urged Tehran to "defuse the tensions and protect the Saudi diplomats," according to a statement. The disruption in relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran may have implications for peace efforts in Syria. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and others spent significant time trying to bring the countries to the negotiating table and they both sat together at talks aimed at finding a diplomatic solution to the civil war. Last month, Saudi Arabia convened a meeting of Syrian opposition figures that was designed to create a delegation to attend peace talks with the Syrian government that are supposed to begin in mid-January. Across the region, demonstrators took to the streets Sunday in protest over the execution of al-Nimr. In Bahrain, police fired tear gas and birdshot at demonstrators on Sitra Island, south of the capital, Manama, wounding some. In al-Daih, west of the capital, Shiite protesters chanted against Saudi Arabia's ruling Al Saud family, as well as against Bahrain's ruling Al Khalifa family. In Beirut, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah called al-Nimr "the martyr, the holy warrior," while protests erupted from Turkey to India to Pakistan. The cleric's execution has also threatened to complicate Saudi Arabia's relationship with the Shiite-led government in Iraq, where the Saudi Embassy is preparing to formally reopen for the first time in nearly 25 years. On Saturday there were calls for the embassy to be shut down again. Meanwhile, al-Nimr's family prepared for three days of mourning at a mosque in al-Awamiya in the kingdom's al-Qatif region in predominantly Shiite eastern Saudi Arabia. The sheikh's brother, Mohammed al-Nimr, told The Associated Press that Saudi officials informed his family that the cleric had been buried in an undisclosed cemetery, a development that could lead to further protests. ___ Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writers Joseph Krauss and Maamoun Youssef in Cairo, Sinan Salaheddin in Baghdad, Reem Khalifa in Manama, Bahrain, Brian Rohan in Beirut, and Tom Strong and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report. ___ Follow Jon Gambrell on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jongambrellap A Kashmiri Shiite Muslim shouts slogans as police stop them during a protest against Saudi Arabia in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Sunday, Jan. 3, 2016. Indian police used tear smoke and rubber bullets to disperse Shiite Muslims who were protesting after Saudi Arabia announced the execution of Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr on Saturday along with 46 others, including three other Shiite dissidents and a number of al-Qaida militants. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan) Iraqi Shiites attend a symbolic funeral for Sheik Nimr al-Nimr, seen in background photo, a prominent opposition Shiite cleric convicted of terrorism charges and executed by Saudi Arabia, in Basra, 340 miles (550 kilometers) southeast of Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, Jan. 3, 2016. Al-Nimr was a central figure in protests by Saudi Arabias Shiite minority until his arrest in 2012, and his execution drew condemnation from Shiites across the region. (AP Photo/Nabil al-Jurani) Kashmiri Shiite Muslim protestors take cover as a tear smoke shell explodes during a protest against Saudi Arabia in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Sunday, Jan. 3, 2016. Indian police used tear smoke and rubber bullets to disperse Shiite Muslims who were protesting after Saudi Arabia announced the execution of Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr on Saturday along with 46 others, including three other Shiite dissidents and a number of al-Qaida militants. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan) Shiite Muslims take part in a rally to condemn the execution of Saudi Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, Sunday, Jan. 3, 2016 in Lahore, Pakistan. Saudi Arabia announced Saturday it had executed 47 prisoners convicted of terrorism charges, including al-Qaida detainees and al-Nimr, who rallied protests against the Saudi government. The placard on left reads "we for Hussein's way and martyrdom is a pride." (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary) Israel charges 2 Jewish extremists in deadly arson JERUSALEM (AP) Israel on Sunday charged two Jewish extremists in an arson attack that killed a Palestinian toddler and his parents last July culminating a drawn-out investigation into a case that has helped fuel months of Israeli-Palestinian violence. The indictments came as Israel said it had broken up a ring of Jewish extremists wanted in a series of attacks on Palestinian and Christian targets. While Israel's prime minister trumpeted the arrests as a victory for law and order, the charges drew criticism from Palestinians, who said they were too little and too late, and from the suspects' relatives, who claimed their loved ones had been tortured by Israeli interrogators. While Israel has been dealing with a wave of vigilante-style attacks by suspected Jewish extremists in recent years, the deadly July 31 firebombing in the West Bank village of Duma sparked soul-searching across the nation. The attack killed 18-month-old Ali Dawabsheh, while his mother, Riham, and father, Saad, later died of their wounds. Ali's 4-year-old brother Ahmad survived and remains in an Israeli hospital. FILE - In this July 31, 2015 file photo, a Palestinian inspects a house after it was torched in a suspected attack by Jewish settlers, killing an 18-month-old Palestinian child and his parents, at Duma village near the West Bank city of Nablus. Israel on Sunday indicted two Jewish extremists suspected in the attack, a case that has been unsolved for months and helped fuel the current wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed, File) The attack was condemned across the Israeli political spectrum, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged "zero tolerance" in the fight to bring the assailants to justice. Investigators placed several suspects under "administrative detention," a draconian measure typically reserved for Palestinian militants that allows authorities to hold suspects for months without charge. "Enforcing the law is the life's breath of democracy, of the rule of law. We are not restricting it to one sector and we are not focusing on only one sector," Netanyahu told his Cabinet on Sunday. But critics have noted that lesser non-deadly attacks, such as firebombings that damaged mosques and churches, had gone unpunished for years. And as the investigation into the Duma attack dragged on, Palestinians complained of a double-standard, where suspected Palestinian militants are quickly rounded up and prosecuted under a military legal system that gives them few rights while Jewish Israelis are protected by the country's criminal laws. At one point, Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said there were difficulties in prosecuting because of lack of evidence. When a wave of Palestinian attacks erupted last fall, many Palestinians pointed to the unsolved Duma attack as one of the main sources of frustration motivating attackers. In Sunday's indictment, Amiram Ben-Uliel, a 21-year-old West Bank settler, was charged with murder. The Shin Bet internal security service said Ben-Uliel had confessed to planning and carrying out the attack, and said a minor was charged as an accessory. It said the arson was in retaliation for the killing of an Israeli by Palestinians a month earlier. Yinon Reuveni, 20, and another minor were charged for other violence against Palestinians, including setting fires to two of the Holy Land's most famous churches the Dormition Abbey, a Benedictine monastery located just outside Jerusalem's Old City, and the Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fish on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. All four were charged with belonging to a terrorist organization. Another 23 were implicated in attacks, it said. In a statement, the Shin Bet said it had thwarted a "Jewish terror organization" that dreamed of overthrowing the government and establishing a religious theocracy that would be headed by a king, rebuild the biblical Jewish Temple and expel non-Jews. It quoted what it said was a document confiscated from an activist that said killing non-Jews who refuse to leave the land, including women and children, is permissible. "If you want to strike a blow to the damned," it said, setting a house on fire "on top of those inside" is an effective tactic. The statement was not clear whether the other suspects had yet been officially charged. One of the men named in the statement, Meir Ettinger, a grandson of the late ultranationalist Rabbi Meir Kahane, has been held in administrative detention since August. Members of the Dawabshe family praised the indictments but said Israel must do more. "You say that this a democratic state and I want justice. Catch the rest of them," said Hussein Dawabshe, the toddler's grandfather. "It is very good that they caught (the two). It's a lead. They now need to follow the lead all the way through." Relatives of the suspects, meanwhile, accused the Shin Bet of torture. "The confession ... was extracted with force and beatings using methods that remind of the inquisition," said Itamar Ben-Gvir, a lawyer representing the two arson suspects. The Shin Bet has said that its tactics are all within the scope of the law, and the nation's leaders have backed the agency against the charges. The extremists are part of a movement known as the "hilltop youth," a leaderless group of young people who set up unauthorized outposts, usually clusters of trailers, on West Bank hilltops land the Palestinians claim for their hoped-for state. Dvir Kariv, a recently retired Shin Bet official who tracked Jewish extremists for over two decades, described the hilltop youths as a small but extremely dangerous group because of their anti-democratic views. "They group believes that through violence they will succeed in turning this country into a theocracy," he said. He said these activists reject even the country's most hard-line politicians as being too soft, and that even the most radical West Bank rabbis wield no control over them. He estimated the "violent hardcore" at about 100 activists, and a "second circle" of a few hundred others. He said prosecuting the Duma activists would send a powerful message and weaken the extremists. "It definitely has an important influence," he said. Last month Israeli police made arrests after a video emerged of extremists at a wedding at which guests can be seen celebrating the Duma attack. The Yesha council, an umbrella group of West Bank settlements, commended Sunday's indictment and said the suspects do not represent it. "It is now clear that these acts were perpetrated by a fringe group of anarchists bent on destroying the state of Israel and the freedom and justice that it represents," it said in a statement. In the past three months of violence, Palestinian attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers have killed 21 Israelis, mostly in stabbings, shootings and car-ramming attacks. That figure does not include two Israelis killed Friday, in a shooting attack on a Tel Aviv restaurant. An Arab man who remains on the loose is the primary suspect, though a motive hasn't officially been determined yet. During that time, at least 131 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire, 90 of them identified by Israel as assailants. The rest died in clashes with security forces. Israel says the violence is being fanned by a Palestinian campaign of incitement. The Palestinians say it is rooted in frustrations stemming from nearly five decades of Israeli occupation. The violence continued Sunday as a female Israeli soldier was shot in the West Bank city of Hebron, the military said. She was moderately wounded and troops were searching for the shooter. A few hours later, also in Hebron, the military said another soldier was shot and wounded. ___ Associated Press writer Ian Deitch contributed to this report. Israeli paramedics bring a wounded soldier into a hospital in Jerusalem, Sunday, Jan. 3, 2016. The female Israeli soldier was shot in the West Bank city of Hebron, the military said. She was moderately wounded and troops were searching for the shooter. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean) German police: Young girl shot dead was 'random victim' BERLIN (AP) German police say an 11-year-old girl who was killed on New Year's Day appears to have been a random shooting victim. The unidentified girl was struck in the head Friday by a bullet while she was out on the street with adults and other children in the town Oberaurach, north of Nuremberg. While fireworks are commonly used in Germany during New Year's celebrations, live bullets aren't usually fired. A spokeswoman for police in the Lower Franconia region says the bullet was fired from a small-caliber firearm that would have required a permit. Police are appealing for information to help find the weapon and identify the shooter. People to watch in the monthlong sprint to Iowa's caucuses WASHINGTON (AP) Beginning in February, voters will finally get the chance to pare down an unwieldy field of Republican presidential candidates and a smaller group of Democratic hopefuls, led by Hillary Clinton. But it's not just the candidates who matter in the early contests. They have aides and stand-ins, and a collection of others without bold-faced names but who are difference-makers in the 2016 contests. A look at a few worth watching in four-week sprint to the Iowa caucuses, set for Feb. 1. FILE - In this May 4, 2015, file photo, Las Vegas Sands Corp. Chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson speaks in Las Vegas. Adelson, the Republicans biggest donor of the 2012 cycle, has yet to make up his mind about who to support for president in 2016, his political adviser said in December. Adelson appears in no hurry to put his money behind a candidate. (AP Photo/John Locher, File) ___ TRUMP'S VOTERS New York billionaire Donald Trump has attracted thousands of people to his rallies and drawn millions of viewers to the Republican debates, where he has stung rivals with one-liners and baffled the professional political class with his staying power. But telling a pollster you're for Trump is one thing. Showing up to caucus for him is something else. Winning in Iowa demands an extensive organization spanning dozens of rural communities. Trump loves talking about his lead in polls, but a loss in Iowa could affect that support. If Trump falters against Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who has built an advantage in Iowa, will those won over in 2015 by Trump's celebrity and unvarnished approach back him in New Hampshire? Will they shift to someone else? Pass up voting all together? ___ CHUCK LAUDNER AND PETE D'ALLESANDRO Getting those Trump voters to caucus night is the job of Laudner, who has been guiding Trump's Iowa organization. A former executive director of the Republican Party of Iowa and a confidante of Iowa Rep. Steve King, one of the state's leading conservatives, he steered Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum to a surprise victory in the caucuses in 2012. D'Allesandro is a veteran Democratic strategist who is directing Bernie Sanders' Iowa team, hoping to upset front-runner Clinton. D'Allesandro, a former campaign aide to ex-Iowa Gov. Chet Culver, has worked for Sanders for months, trying to harness the Vermont senator's strength in college towns and liberal enclaves into a caucus victory. ___ BILL CLINTON The former president plans to hold his first solo campaign events in New Hampshire on Monday, returning to the state that nurtured his first White House race in 1992. He's long been the party's go-to surrogate and will be again as he tries to help his wife become the first women elected to the White House. Trump is trying to spark a conflict with Bill Clinton, having spent the end of 2015 rehashing Clinton's affair with a White House intern and his impeachment past. "And she wants to accuse me of things," Trump said last week of Hillary Clinton. "And the husband's one of the great abusers of the world." ___ SHELDON ADELSON The Republicans' biggest donor of the 2012 cycle has yet to make up his mind about 2016, his political adviser said in December. Adelson appears in no hurry to put his money behind a candidate. But the casino magnate, along with other uncommitted donors, could play a major factor in the race by delivering millions of dollars to a super political action committee in support of a candidate; most of that money would end up paying for television spots. One thing that might be giving Adelson pause? The candidate who has spent the least on TV is Trump, while the candidate with the best-funded super PAC is Jeb Bush. The former Florida governor is mired in single digits in preference polls, despite his Right to Rise group having spent tens of millions on ads to back his campaign. ___ TREY GOWDY The South Carolina congressman is supporting Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. But Gowdy also has a role in the Democratic race. Gowdy is a tea party validator for Rubio in South Carolina, which follows Iowa and New Hampshire on the Republican calendar and could be a place of reckoning for Rubio if he doesn't win in Iowa or New Hampshire. Rubio's campaign manager, Terry Sullivan, is a South Carolina native and Gowdy expects to be at the top of the senator's organization in the state. Gowdy also is chairman of the House committee investigating the deadly 2012 attacks on a U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya, while Hillary Clinton was secretary of state. Clinton testified before the panel in October, and while she appears to have moved past the issue, it's one the GOP has no plans to drop in 2016. ___ MATT PAUL AND MICHAEL HALLE Hillary Clinton has made Iowa a focal point as she tries to avoid a repeat of her surprising 2008 loss in the state. Paul and Halle are at the forefront of that effort. Paul, Clinton's Iowa director, is a longtime aide to former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, now President Barack Obama's agriculture secretary, and has maintained ties throughout the state Democratic party. Those connections helped Clinton land early endorsements of several prominent Iowa Democrats, including retired Sen. Tom Harkin and two statewide officeholders who backed Obama in 2008: Attorney General Tom Miller and state Treasurer Michael Fitzgerald. Halle is Clinton's caucus director and a veteran of Obama's first Iowa caucus campaign and campaigns in Missouri, North Carolina and Virginia. He has worked closely with Robby Mook, Clinton's campaign manager, and both helped elect Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe in 2013. ___ ELIZABETH WARREN The populist senator from Massachusetts told The Boston Globe in September that she would likely endorse a candidate during the primaries, but has since remained coy. Some of Warren's liberal followers migrated to Sanders, but many Democrats noticed when she praised Clinton in December, writing on Facebook that Clinton's proposals would "fight back against Republicans trying to sneak Wall Street giveaways" into a spending bill. A Warren endorsement would be a coup for Clinton if it came before contests in Iowa or New Hampshire, across the border from Massachusetts. But if Warren backed Sanders before Iowa's caucuses, it might give him the boost needed to pull off the upset. ___ Colvin reported from Newark, New Jersey. ___ Follow Ken Thomas and Jill Colvin on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/kthomasdc and http://twitter.com/colvinj FILE - In this Nov. 15, 2015 file photo, former President Bill Clinton listens to his wife, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, speak in Ames, Iowa. The White House hopefuls have been slogging through Iowa, New Hampshire and airports in between for months. Beginning in February, voters will finally get the chance to pare down an unwieldy field of Republicans and a smaller group of Democrats dominated by Hillary Clinton. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File) In this photo taken Dec. 30, 2015, Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C. stands in front of a large Iowa state flag as Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., speaks in Newton, Iowa. The White House hopefuls have been slogging through Iowa, New Hampshire and airports in between for months. Beginning in February, voters will finally get the chance to pare down an unwieldy field of Republicans and a smaller group of Democrats dominated by Hillary Clinton. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) Flash The death toll of Indian security forces personnel in Saturday's terror attack on a key Indian Air Force base in the northern state of Punjab has touched seven. Three security forces personnel were killed on the spot while 12 others injured Saturday while neutralizing four suspected Pakistani militants who had launched the terror attack on the airbase in Pathankot. "Among those injured, three security forces personnel succumbed to their injuries in a hospital late last night, while a senior Indian Army official died Sunday morning," a police official said. "The death toll on our side now stands at seven. A senior Indian Army official of the rank of Lietanant Colonel, succumbed to his injuries this morning," he said, on condition of anonymity. Eight other injured security forces personnel are still undergoing treatment in a hospital where the condition of some are said to be serious, the official said. All four suspected Pakistani terrorists, who had launched the deadly attack on the airbase in Pathankot, were killed Saturday after a five-hour gun battle. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has lauded the security forces for successfully wrapping up the anti-terror operation that was anticipated. "Enemies of humanity who can't see India progress, such elements attacked in Pathankot but our security forces did not let them succeed," Modi said. The airbase in Pathankot is a key military facility, where a number of Russian-made MiG-21 combat jets and Mi-35 attack helicopters are stationed. The attack on the airbase, intended to destroy India's air assets, happened barely a week after Modi made a spontaneous visit to Lahore and met his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif. Many feel that the militant attack was an attempt to derail the Lahore peace process, a gesture aimed at taking forward the stalled peace talks between India and Pakistan. After 1 million migrants, Europe's borders are back STOCKHOLM (AP) Since it opened in 2000, the Oresund bridge between Sweden and Denmark has been a towering symbol of European integration and hassle-free travel across borders that people didn't even notice were there. On Monday new travel restrictions imposed by Sweden to stem a record flow of migrants are transforming the bridge into a striking example of how national boundaries are re-emerging. A year of clampdowns on migration and terrorism has all but killed the idea of a borderless Europe where you could drive or train-hop from Spain in the south to Norway in the north without ever having to show your passport. "We're turning back the clock," said Andreas Onnerfors, who lives in Lund, on the Swedish side of the bridge. An associate professor in intellectual history, he said he's benefited from the free flow of people and ideas across the bridge he's studied on both sides and taught students from both Sweden and Denmark. FILE - This Thursday Nov. 12, 2015 file photo shows the Oresund Bridge spanning the Oresund strait pictured from Lernacken, Sweden. On upcoming Monday Jan. 4, 2016, new travel restrictions are set to be imposed by Sweden to stem a record flow of migrants, transforming the Oresund bridge between Sweden and Denmark into a striking example of how national boundaries are re-emerging.(Erland Vinberg /TT via AP, File) SWEDEN OUT "We're going back to a time when the bridge didn't exist," he said, referring to the ID checkpoints being set up Monday on the Danish side for train passengers wishing to cross over to Sweden. The move is meant to stop undocumented migrants from reaching Sweden, which abruptly reversed its open-door policy after receiving more than 160,000 asylum-seekers last year, mainly from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. It follows the reintroduction of border checks in Germany, Austria, France, Belgium and other countries in what's supposed to be a passport-free travel zone spanning 26 nations. The moves are supposedly temporary, but are likely to be extended if Europe's migrant crisis continues in 2016. "It's basically every country for itself now," said Mark Rhinard, an expert on the European Union at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs. Citing exceptional national circumstances related to security, terrorism and public order, several European countries have suspended EU rules that required them to keep their borders open to each other. It's a significant development that strikes at the very heart of the EU project the free movement of goods and people across borders. The Bruegel think tank in Brussels says that in 2014 there were almost 1.7 million cross-border commuters in the passport-free zone known as the Schengen Area, after the Luxembourg town where it was created in 1985. Abolishing it would affect their daily lives, but the consequences for Europe would go deeper, given the "visible and powerful symbol of European integration that Schengen represents," Bruegel researchers Nuria Boot and Guntram Wolff wrote in December. Whether the temporary reintroduction of borders also means rebuilding mental boundaries between EU citizens remains to be seen. But the migrant crisis is becoming an even bigger challenge to European unity than the cracks emerging in recent years over the bloc's common currency, the euro. EU nations demonstrated starkly different views on how to deal with the 1 million migrants that crossed the Mediterranean in 2015. Germany and Sweden, until recently, said refugees were welcome, while Hungary built a fence to keep them out. The Danish government took a series of measures to discourage migrants from going there, including a proposal to seize their jewelry to cover their expenses in Denmark. Common rules requiring refugees to seek shelter in the first EU country they enter collapsed, as Greece and Italy were overwhelmed by sea arrivals and countries further north just waved the migrants through to their intended destination, often Germany or the Scandinavian countries. Meanwhile the EU's efforts to spread refugees more evenly across the bloc met stiff resistance from member states. By November only about 150 of 160,000 refugees had been relocated from Greece and Italy under an EU plan. The crisis underlines structural flaws in the EU, showing how it has implemented common rules that it just can't enforce once the external pressures become too great, said Karl Lallerstedt, co-founder of Black Market Watch, a Switzerland-based non-profit group focusing on cross-border smuggling. "It's not a strong federal state that can overrule its members," he said. "At the same time individual states have obligations to the EU. So you're in this sort of half-way house." Any hope of a quick return to a borderless Europe was crushed by the deadly Paris attacks in November, after which France declared a state of emergency and beefed up border controls with neighboring countries. However, if bottlenecks build up at the borders, EU citizens and companies moving goods in trucks will eventually get fed up, said Rhinard, of the Swedish Institute of International Affairs. "As soon as it starts to bite economically, people are going to start to ask: 'Is this the right solution to the problem?'" Rhinard said. That question is already being asked by companies and commuters opposed to new ID checks at the 8-kilometer (5-mile) Oresund bridge-and-tunnel, known to European TV viewers as the focal point of the Swedish-Danish crime series "The Bridge." Train networks on either side have been integrated to allow thousands of commuters to cross the bridge daily, essentially incorporating the southern Swedish cities of Malmo and Lund into suburban Copenhagen. But the new ID checks mean there will be no more direct railway service from Copenhagen's main station to Sweden. Travelers heading to Malmo will have to switch trains at Copenhagen Airport after going through the checkpoints there, adding an estimated half an hour to the 40-minute commute. To avoid the hassle, Sweden's national railway company SJ cancelled service to Denmark altogether, leaving only Danish and regional Swedish operators with service across the bridge. "This is what happens when national states put down their foot down and say security is most important," said Onnerfors. "It collides with the freedom (of movement) they've been talking about for 20 years, which was the reason we joined the EU to begin with." ___ Associated Press writers Raf Casert in Brussels, Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin, Ciaran Giles in Madrid, Barry Hatton in Lisbon, George Jahn in Vienna and Collen Barry in Milan contributed to this report. FILE - In this Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2015, file photo, a temporary fence is erected between tracks at the train station to prevent illegal migrants entering Sweden at Copenhagen International Airport in Kastrup. The station is the last stop before crossing the Oresund Bridge into Sweden. On upcoming Monday Jan. 4, 2016, new travel restrictions are set to be imposed by Sweden to stem a record flow of migrants, transforming the Oresund bridge between Sweden and Denmark into a striking example of how national boundaries are re-emerging. (Jens Dresling/Polfoto via AP, File) DENMARK OUT FILE - In this Thursday Nov 12, 2015 file photo, Swedish police officers perform identity control among the passengers aboard the train from Copenhagen at the Swedish end of the bridge between Sweden and Denmark in Malmo, Sweden. On upcoming Monday Jan. 4, 2016, new travel restrictions are set to be imposed by Sweden to stem a record flow of migrants, transforming the Oresund bridge between Sweden and Denmark into a striking example of how national boundaries are re-emerging. (Stig Ake Jonsson/TT via AP, FILE) SWEDEN OUT FILE - In this Thursday Nov 12, 2015, file photo, Swedish police officers perform identity control checks among the passengers aboard the train from Copenhagen at the Swedish end of the bridge between Sweden and Denmark in Malmo, Sweden. On upcoming Monday Jan. 4, 2016, new travel restrictions are set to be imposed by Sweden to stem a record flow of migrants, transforming the Oresund bridge between Sweden and Denmark into a striking example of how national boundaries are re-emerging. (Stig Ake Jonsson/TT via AP, File) SWEDEN OUT US repeals meat labeling law after trade rulings against it WASHINGTON (AP) It's now harder to find out where your beef or pork was born, raised and slaughtered. After more than a decade of wrangling, Congress repealed a labeling law last month that required retailers to include the animal's country of origin on packages of red meat. It's a major victory for the meat industry, which had fought the law in Congress and the courts since the early 2000s. Lawmakers said they had no choice but to get rid of the labels after the World Trade Organization repeatedly ruled against them. The WTO recently authorized Canada and Mexico, which had challenged the law, to begin more than $1 billion in economic retaliation against the United States. In this photo taken May 19, 2015, meat labels are seen at a grocery store in Washington. It's now harder to find out where your meat was born, raised and slaughtered. After more than a decade of wrangling, Congress repealed a meat labeling law last month that required retailers to include the animals country of origin on packages of pork and beef. It's a major victory for the meat industry, which has fought the law in Congress and the courts since the early 2000s. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) "U.S. exporters can now breathe a sigh of relief," said Republican Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas, chairman of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee. The longtime opponent of the labels helped add the repeal to a massive year-end spending bill. After the law was passed, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the government immediately would stop requiring the labels. Consumer groups say the repeal is a disappointment just as consumers are asking for more information on their food packages. Advocates say the labels help people make more informed buying decisions and encourage purchases of American meat. Before repeal, the labels told shoppers that a particular cut of meat was "born in Canada, raised and slaughtered in the United States" or "born, raised and slaughtered in the United States." Congress first required the labels in 2002 amid fears of mad cow disease from imported cattle. The labels weren't on most packages until 2009, though, due to delays pushed by the meat industry. Repeal became inevitable once the United States lost all its WTO appeals and the retaliation became a possibility. But the consumer groups criticized Congress for repealing the law for ground meat and pork in addition to the fresh cuts of meat that were the subject of WTO concerns. The bill was "a holiday gift to the meatpacking industry from Congress," complained the advocacy group Food and Water Watch. Meatpackers who buy Mexican cattle were some of the law's most aggressive opponents. The repeal also was a big defeat for lawmakers from northern border states where U.S. ranchers directly compete with Canadian ranchers. Those lawmakers insisted on including the labeling in the 2002 and 2008 farm bills and this year fought to replace it with a voluntary program once the WTO rulings came down. But after years of success, this time they were not able to find enough support. Roger Johnson of the National Farmers Union, which has heavy membership in those states, said the group was "furious" about the repeal. "Packers will be able to once again deliberately deceive consumers," Johnson said. Still, there was some good news for food labeling advocates in the spending bill. Despite an aggressive push by the food industry, lawmakers decided not to add language that would have blocked mandatory labeling of genetically modified ingredients. Also, a provision by Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, would require labeling of genetically modified salmon recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The issue is expected to come up again in 2016, with Vermont set to require labeling on genetically modified food this summer. The day the spending bill passed, Vilsack said he would try to help Congress come up with a middle ground on labeling of engineered foods "in a way that doesn't create significant market disruption, while at the same time recognizing consumers' need to know and right to know basic information." ___ Key things to know about the militia standoff in Oregon BURNS, Ore. (AP) Armed protesters are occupying a building at a national wildlife refuge in Oregon and asking militia members around the country to join them. The protesters went to Malheur National Wildlife Refuge on Saturday following a peaceful rally in support of two Oregon ranchers facing additional prison time for arson. ___ HOW DID THIS SITUATION BEGIN? Ammon Bundy chats with a protester Saturday, Jan. 2, 2016, during a march on behalf of a Harney County ranching family in Burns, Ore. Bundy, the son of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who was involved in a standoff with the government over grazing rights, told The Oregonian that he and two of his brothers were among a group of dozens of people occupying the headquarters of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. (Les Zaitz/The Oregonian via AP) MAGS OUT; TV OUT; NO LOCAL INTERNET; THE MERCURY OUT; WILLAMETTE WEEK OUT; PAMPLIN MEDIA GROUP OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT Tension has been building for weeks in the Burns, Oregon, area over the case of Dwight and Steven Hammond. Dwight Hammond, 73, and Steven Hammond, 46, said they lit fires on federal land in 2001 and 2006 to reduce the growth of invasive plants and protect their property from wildfires. The two were convicted three years ago and served time the father three months, the son one year. But in October, a federal judge in Oregon ruled their terms were too short under U.S. law and ordered them back to prison for about four years each. ___ WHO IS LEADING THE PROTESTERS? The Hammonds have received support from local residents, but the most vocal groups are from outside the area. Ammon Bundy, the son of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who was involved in a standoff with the government over grazing rights, is among those organizing the opposition at the wildlife refuge. Ammon Bundy and militiamen from other states arrived last month in Burns, some 60 miles from the Hammond ranch. Ammon Bundy has criticized the U.S. government for what he called a failed legal process. ___ WHERE IS THE WILDLIFE REFUGE? The Malheur National Wildlife Refuge is about 30 miles south of Burns in in the high desert of eastern Oregon. The area is very remote, about 280 miles southeast of Portland. ___ OUTSIDERS NOT WELCOMED BY SOME IN OREGON Many locals have told the outside groups to stay away, concerned their presence could lead to violence. The Hammonds, as well, have rebuffed the Bundy's support for their cause. "Neither Ammon Bundy nor anyone within his group/organization speak for the Hammond Family," the Hammonds' lawyer W. Alan Schroeder wrote to Sheriff David Ward. Dwight Hammond has said he and his son plan to peacefully report to prison Monday as ordered by the judge. "We gave our word that's what we would do, and we intend to act on it," he told The Associated Press last week. ___ WHAT ARE AUTHORITIES DOING? Harney County Sheriff Dave Ward has told people to stay away from the area as authorities work to defuse the situation. Beth Anne Steele, an FBI spokeswoman in Portland, told AP the agency was aware of the situation at the national wildlife refuge but made no further comment. Protesters march on Court Avenue in support of an Oregon ranching family facing jail time for arson in Burns, Ore., Saturday, Jan. 2, 2016. Family members were convicted of the arsons three years ago and served time. But a judge ruled their terms were too short under federal law and ordered them back to prison for about four years each. (Les Zaitz/The Oregonian via AP) MAGS OUT; TV OUT; NO LOCAL INTERNET; THE MERCURY OUT; WILLAMETTE WEEK OUT; PAMPLIN MEDIA GROUP OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT Oregon standoff latest in dispute over Western lands BURNS, Ore. (AP) The remote high desert of eastern Oregon became the latest flashpoint for anti-government sentiment as armed protesters occupied a national wildlife refuge to object to a prison sentence for local ranchers for burning federal land. Ammon Bundy the son of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who was involved in a 2014 standoff with the government over grazing rights is among the people at the headquarters of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. It was unclear exactly how many people were taking part in the protests. Ammon Bundy posted a video on his Facebook page asking for militia members to come help him. He said "this is not a time to stand down. It's a time to stand up and come to Harney County," where Burns is located. Protesters march on Court Avenue in support of an Oregon ranching family facing jail time for arson in Burns, Ore., Saturday, Jan. 2, 2016. Family members were convicted of the arsons three years ago and served time. But a judge ruled their terms were too short under federal law and ordered them back to prison for about four years each. (Les Zaitz/The Oregonian via AP) MAGS OUT; TV OUT; NO LOCAL INTERNET; THE MERCURY OUT; WILLAMETTE WEEK OUT; PAMPLIN MEDIA GROUP OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT Bundy and other militia members came to Burns last month, a small town about 280 miles southeast of Portland, Oregon. They were upset over the looming prison sentences for local ranchers Dwight and Steven Hammond. They went to the wildlife refuge Saturday evening following a peaceful rally in Burns to support the ranchers. On Sunday, militia members decked out in camouflage and warm winter gear and holding guns and walkie talkies guarded the entrance. They allowed some news reporters through for interviews with members of the Bundy family. Pickup trucks blocked the entrance and were pulled out of the way to let select cars through. Dwight Hammond, 73, and Steven Hammond, 46, said they lit the fires on federal land in 2001 and 2006 to reduce the growth of invasive plants and protect their property from wildfires. The two were convicted of the arsons three years ago and served time the father three months, the son one year. But a federal judge ruled in October that their terms were too short under U.S. minimum sentencing law and ordered them back to prison for about four years each. The decision generated controversy and is part of a decades-long dispute between some Westerners and the federal government over the use of public lands. The issue traces back to the 1970s and the "Sagebrush Rebellion," a move by Western states like Nevada to increase local control over federal land. Critics of the push for more local control have said the federal government should administer the public lands for the widest possible uses, including environmental and recreation. In an interview with The Associated Press at the wildlife refuge Sunday, Ryan Bundy, Ammon Bundy's brother, said the protesters' ultimate goal is to turn the land over to local authorities so people can use it free of federal oversight. They want to "restore the rights to people so they can use the land and resources" for ranching, logging, mining and recreation. Ryan Bundy says the federal government has been "tromping on people's rights and privileges and properties and livelihoods." "I understand the land needs to be used wisely, but that's what we as stewards need to do. A rancher is going to take care of his own ranch," Ryan Bundy said. Supplies were seen Sunday being delivered to the refuge area, which is remote even by rural Oregon standards. The wildlife refuge sits in a wide snow-covered valley rimmed by distant mountains. A high lookout tower sits over the refuge headquarters buildings, which has several stone buildings and garages. Dwight Hammond has said he and his son plan to peacefully report to prison Monday as ordered by the judge. Harney County Sheriff Dave Ward said the group of armed protesters came to town under false pretenses. "These men came to Harney County claiming to be part of militia groups supporting local ranchers, when in reality these men had alternative motives to attempt to over throw the county and federal government in hopes to spark a movement across the United States," Ward said in a statement on Sunday afternoon. The sheriff says he is working with local and federal authorities to keep the citizens in his county safe and to resolve the situation as quickly and peacefully as possible. He is asking people to stay away from the wildlife refuge for their own safety. He said he does not think any other parts of the county are in immediate danger. Beth Anne Steele, an FBI spokeswoman in Portland, said Saturday that the agency was aware of the situation at the national wildlife refuge. She made no further comment. U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, who had been briefed by the FBI agent in charge in Portland, Oregon, said most local residents do not support the protesters. "The overwhelming majority of people there very much want to get on with their lives without this disruption and are not in sympathy with a bunch of outsiders," Wyden told AP. Local residents have expressed fear of potential of violence. A peaceful rally Saturday in support of the Hammonds featured speeches, flags and marching. As marchers reached the courthouse, they tossed hundreds of pennies at the locked door. Their message: Civilians were buying back their government. After the march passed, two girls swooped in to scavenge the pennies. A few blocks away, Hammond and his wife, Susan, greeted marchers, who planted flower bouquets in the snow. ADDS DETAILS OF SOME VEHICLES SEEN AT THE ENTRANCE - An sign of the National Wildlife Refuge System is seen at an entry of the wildlife refuge, where some vehicles are seen used to block access to the inside of the refuge, about 30 miles southeast of Burns, Ore., Sunday, Jan. 3, 2016. Armed protesters are occupying a building at the national wildlife refuge and asking militia members around the country to join them. The protesters went to Malheur National Wildlife Refuge on Saturday following a peaceful rally in support of two Oregon ranchers facing additional prison time for arson. (Les Zaitz/The Oregonian via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT Ammon Bundy chats with a protester Saturday, Jan. 2, 2016, during a march on behalf of a Harney County ranching family in Burns, Ore. Bundy, the son of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who was involved in a standoff with the government over grazing rights, told The Oregonian that he and two of his brothers were among a group of dozens of people occupying the headquarters of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. (Les Zaitz/The Oregonian via AP) MAGS OUT; TV OUT; NO LOCAL INTERNET; THE MERCURY OUT; WILLAMETTE WEEK OUT; PAMPLIN MEDIA GROUP OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT Briton held over 'bomb threat' at Schiphol Airport Passengers were evacuated from a Dutch airport terminal when a British man was arrested after reportedly shouting bomb threats at a check-in queue. The line of people at Terminal 3 of Amsterdam's Schiphol airport was evacuated for around 30 minutes as the 29-year-old man was detained by police. Reports say that the man shouted out that he was carrying a bomb, and pictures on social media show a man lying on the floor as officers point rifles at him. The man was arrested at the queue for check-in at Schiphol Muhammad Syafiee (@OperationSyaf) tweeted shortly after the incident at 8am on Friday: "Schiphol Airport on lockdown after some scare or alleged gunshots were heard. We actually ran for our lives." A spokeswoman at the airport said: "The 29-year-old British man was arrested at around 8am. "It was only the one check-in line that had to be evacuated for maximum half an hour - if that. Security control remained open as it is located further away. "He was taken away by the police." Dutch Military Police spokesman Eric Vermeulen told the Guardian: "The man was walking through Departure Hall 3 when passengers heard him shout out several times that he had a bomb. They were concerned enough to inform the police, who subdued him and searched him with explosives search dogs. "We have established that this was a false alarm and the man is the only suspect. We now want to find out why he decided to cause a false alarm." The spokesman said the incident lasted around 20 to 30 minutes and confirmed the arrested man was travelling on a British passport. Holyrood announces 75,000 grant for refugees arriving on Lesbos A grant of 75,000 to help refugees arriving on the Greek island of Lesbos has been announced by the Scottish Government. The funding, which builds on a previous donation of 140,000, will support the British Red Cross medical response on the island. Last year Europe and International Development Minister Humza Yousaf travelled to Lesbos, where thousands of refugees arrive daily on their journey to Europe. A dinghy with refugees and migrants on board arrives at the Greek island of Lesbos (AP) He said: "I saw first-hand the scale of the need and I know these supplies will make an enormous difference. "Volunteers and staff of international aid organisations like the Red Cross are working day in day out to provide humanitarian assistance to those arriving in Europe, having made the perilous journey across the sea. "We are absolutely committed to helping the most vulnerable people in their hour of need. We know that we must do more to help those men, women and children coming to Europe seeking protection and refuge. "Today's announcement of a further 75,000 will go some way towards that." David Miller, i nterim UK director for the British Red Cross, said: "People are arriving in Europe with very little - some with only a family photo and the clothes they left in. Millions of people are being forced to risk their lives in a desperate search for safety as conflicts rage around the world. "Red Cross teams have been working around the clock to provide urgently needed supplies such as food, water, nappies and hygiene kits as well as emergency medical treatment. Nicola Sturgeon rejects claims over 'brainwashed' SNP supporters Nicola Sturgeon has hit back at accusations that SNP supporters are "brainwashed" as parties kick-started campaigning for this year's Scottish Parliament election. Scotland's First Minister said the suggestion was "profoundly insulting" in an opinion piece setting out her priorities in the run up to the vote on May 5. The SNP leader also pledged to "lead a renewed debate" about independence, despite calls from Labour to move on from constitutional wrangling in the wake of 2014's referendum. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon will lead a New Year debate at Holyrood on Tuesday Ms Sturgeon will lead a New Year debate at Holyrood on Tuesday pledging to "earn the right" to an unprecedented third term in government. She has promised a raft of new policies on health, education, social security and the economy in the run up to polling day. Opinion polls indicate the SNP is currently on course to increase its majority in the Scottish Parliament. Ms Sturgeon said: "My response to polls is always to remind my party that we must never take a single vote for granted - a point I will make again today. "But i ncreasingly in Scotland we see, from opposition parties and certain commentators, another response - one that cites the scale of SNP support as evidence that the country has abandoned its critical faculties in favour of blind loyalty. "I can understand why the opposition parties find that notion comforting - it's easier than having to face up to their own shortcomings. But as an analysis, it is profoundly insulting to the Scottish people. "Those who support the SNP have not been brainwashed, they are not blind to our imperfections - instead, they are weighing them against our strengths and achievements, and against the other parties, and deciding that the SNP is the party they most closely identify with, the people they trust most to stand up for Scotland." She added: " I've said already that a second referendum should only happen if there is a material change of circumstances or when we have evidence of a significant change of opinion from that expressed in September 2014. "It is our job now to lead a renewed debate about how the enduring principle of the independence case - that decisions about Scotland are best taken by people who live here - is relevant to, indeed demanded by, the circumstances of the world we live in today. "It is by making the case, positively and powerfully - and in a realistic and relevant way - that we will persuade those we didn't persuade in 2014 and, over the next few years, turn 45% into a majority." Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale is due to unveil her party's first election pledge on housing in a speech to activists in Edinburgh on Tuesday. Ms Dugdale will say that new powers over tax, borrowing and welfare coming to Holyrood offer a "once-in-a-generation" opportunity to change Scottish politics. "Let me say this to Nicola Sturgeon - on the constitution I will take her at her word," she will say. "She has asked Scotland to trust her and Scotland will expect her to keep her promise. "This matters because the opportunities for the future that our new powers open up are too great to be buried under the arguments of the past." Meanwhile the Scottish Conservatives will focus on education, setting out ideas to support school leadership and improve literacy and numeracy in a new paper. The party will also signal its backing for a Save the Children campaign aimed at ensuring all children are reading well by the age of 11. Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie said: "Nicola Sturgeon's opinion poll cockiness is no substitute for a proper debate on her years in government. "People I meet want to hear about a positive alternative to the SNPs mismanagement of the police, NHS, schools and colleges. Fatherhood has made me more emotional, William tells Ant and Dec The Duke of Cambridge has confessed that fatherhood has made him more "emotional" and prone to welling up, during a documentary about his father's Prince's Trust. William is the proud father of two small children - Prince George and Princess Charlotte - and has discovered that becoming a parent has made him more aware of how "precious life is". Speaking to Ant and Dec with his brother, Prince Harry, beside him, William said of the changes fatherhood had brought: "I'm a lot more emotional than I used to be, weirdly. I never used to get too wound up or worried about things. Fatherhood has made the Duke of Cambridge more emotional, he said in a TV interview "But now the smallest little things, you well up a little more, you get affected by the sort of things that happen around the world or whatever a lot more, I think, as a father. "Just because you realise how precious life is and it puts it all in perspective. The idea of not being around to see your children grow up and stuff like that." The Duchess of Cornwall has also given what is believed to be her first televised interview for the 90-minute programme presented by Ant and Dec - Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly - who are Trust ambassadors. Camilla praised the Prince of Wales during the documentary for setting up his Prince's Trust 40 years ago and said he was still "passionate" about helping young people. The Trust grew out of Charles's concern that too many young people were being excluded from society through a lack of opportunity. In 1976, when he left the Royal Navy, he used the 7,400 he received in severance pay to fund a number of community schemes. These early initiatives were the founding projects of his charity. Around the country, 21 pilot projects were set up - from a grant given to a 19-year-old woman to run a social centre for the Haggerston Housing Estate in east London, to funds used to hire swimming baths in Cornwall to train young lifeguards. During the past 40 years it has grown to become Britain's leading youth charity and has reached more than 825,000 young people in total, with three in four achieving a positive outcome - moving into education, employment or training. Camilla said: "I think I'm really proud to be married to somebody who, 40 years ago, aged 27, had the vision to put it together - I mean it was an incredible idea then. "For somebody - he was very young then - to think of it and to think of these very disadvantaged young people who had literally been to hell and back and to find a way to give them a second chance in life." Asked how Charles still maintains his energy and enthusiasm, she replied: "I don't know, he just has that energy. You know if you're passionate about something you can do it, he cares so much about these young people." William and Harry also praised their father's charitable achievements with Charles's eldest son saying the Prince had an "insurmountable amount of duty in him". The Duke added: "The Prince's Trust evolved over time into what it is now, which is this incredible charity, that has really bust every possible limit it was ever set - it's really done well. A nd I think he's incredibly chuffed at how it's gone." The royal brothers also joked about how their father would make them cringe when they were growing up - by laughing at inappropriate moments during school plays. William told a story of how his father convulsed with giggles when a pyrotechnic explosion went off at the wrong moment as he was playing the role of narrator in a Christmas play. The Duke said about his father: "He couldn't stop laughing the whole way through the production." He added: "S everal times I'd stop ... I'd cast an eye across, like you know, a big death stare, and then I'd try and get back to my lines, it was terrible." Batting masterclass from Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow puts England on top Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow provided England's first great sporting moment of 2016 with a sensational 399-run stand on day two of the second Test against South Africa. Stokes lit up Cape Town with one of the most dominant batting performances in living memory, mercilessly flogging the home attack on his way to 258 in 198 balls, including the second-fastest double century in Test history. Bairstow followed his lead with 150 not out, a maiden Test hundred, before the declaration came at 629 for six. Ben Stokes smashed 258 runs at Newlands A shell-shocked South Africa looked as though they might fold when Stiaan van Zyl ran himself out for four but finished a manic day in relative calm as AB de Villiers and Hashim Amla (64 not out) saw their side to 141 for two. Stokes, inevitably, took the second wicket to complete what was one of the greatest days by an English cricketer on a foreign field. Earlier he and Bairstow laid waste to the record books - and a bedraggled, bewildered bowling attack - chalking up a slew of new landmarks with their muscular free-hitting. This was not a day to define numerically, with stroke play too visceral, joyous and sustained to reduce to lines on a spreadsheet, but a few of the key landmarks warrant a mention. As well as Stokes moving second behind Nathan Astle's 153-ball marvel in the list of the fastest 200s of all time, he also recorded the top score by a Test number six and broke the English record for sixes in an innings with 11. The partnership was the best ever between a sixth-wicket pair, England's second-highest ever for any wicket and also the fastest 300 stand in history. South Africa were without the injured trio of Dale Steyn, Kyle Abbott and Vernon Philander, but England, and Stokes in particular, treated the bowling attack like rank imposters. Morne Morkel, a veteran of 68 Tests and a taker of 232 wickets, finished with one for 114 and somehow ended as the most economical of four front-line bowlers. Yet this was still the world's number one side on a Newlands pitch they regard as a fortress; it was still staggering viewing. In the first session England splurged with 196 runs in 25 overs - another England record, this time for runs in a single session - and after the break piled on another 116 in 13.5 overs. It was a thrilling, bravura show from Stokes, who also hit 30 fours, and at times verged on the cruel as South Africa visibly fell to pieces in the field. There were memorable moments everywhere, probably enough to fill an end-of-year highlights reel, starting when Stokes moved from 74no to 100 from his first 12 balls of the day. He celebrated with gusto, little knowing he would be raising his bat three more times in the next couple of hours. South Africa were guilty of dropping too short too often, Stokes pulling lustily almost every time, but when they went fuller he punched four through mid-on or lofted over mid-off. When Dane Piedt's off-spin arrived Stokes appeared almost offended, warming up with a reverse-swept four then unloading five mighty sixes in four overs. He reached 150 with a six and 200 with a four, having taken just 58 balls over his second century, with Bairstow reaching lunch on 95. When the latter passed three figures, in front of his watching mother and sister, it was an emotional moment. The 26-year-old looked twice to the skies as he soaked up the moment, perhaps sparing a thought for his late father David, who played four Tests between 1979 and 1981. Bairstow opened his shoulders thereafter, racing from 100 to 150 in 30 balls and being hopelessly dropped by Morkel on 138. Stokes' dismissal also came after a dreadful drop, by De Villiers, who spared his own blushes by throwing down the stumps as Stokes ball-watched. After almost 10 hours in the field, Van Zyl lasted a mere 12 balls before being run out looking to poach a single, leaving the tea score at 24 for one. Stokes' golden day continued when he drew a thick edge from Dean Elgar midway through the evening session but key men De Villiers and Amla dug in for the close. Results will ease Manchester United pressure, says Louis van Gaal Louis van Gaal believes the pressure is easing on Manchester United after they recorded their first win in nine matches. Wayne Rooney secured a welcome 2-1 victory over Swansea on Saturday with a clever backheel in the 77th minute. The United boss said his players had been left "angry" by their failure to win their previous eight matches - the club's worst run in 26 years. Louis van Gaal has been encouraged after taking four points from the last two games Now Van Gaal hopes his squad will be able to play with more freedom after ending their rotten run. "I shall think that now the pressure is lowering, the performance shall be better every week," the United manager said. "But that it also dependent on whether or not we score goals. And when we score goals and we create always chances." Something of a siege mentality developed at Old Trafford during their slump. United's players flatly denied they were not playing for their manager, who walked out of a press conference in a huff 11 days ago following reports he was about to be replaced by Jose Mourinho. And the playing staff were also angered by their own performances on the pitch, Van Gaal revealed. "They are very angry that we have lost so many games in a row," he said. "They are not used to that, I'm not used to that, losing four matches in a row. Never, and I have been in this profession for 25 years. So it's unusual and they are angry also and want to change the situation." It would be wrong to suggest everything is rosy at Old Trafford, of course. Despite a change in formation, United were woefully dull for most of the first half against Swansea. The hosts did not register a shot on target until the 33rd minute and only two more weak efforts followed before the break. United have now failed to score in the first half of their last nine home matches. In a worrying statement for Van Gaal's doubters, the Dutchman insisted his team played better in the first half than the second, when they found the net twice. And despite scoring 12 goals in 10 home league matches, Van Gaal claimed his players are going on the attack more at Old Trafford. "Always at home we are playing in a more attacking way, to please the fans also, because that is also the culture of Manchester United," he said. "But you cannot always do that." The game also helped ease the pressure on Rooney. The 30-year-old's deft flick past Lukasz Fabianski meant he ended his two-and-a-half month goal drought and moved him past Denis Law into second in the club's scoring charts. "He has played two fantastic games in a row," said Van Gaal of Rooney, who was dropped for the Boxing Day defeat at Stoke. "He does everything we expect from him as a captain but also as a player and in what position he plays. "I hope that it can give a boost to him, because the goal was fantastic. "I am very happy for him and I hope it shall give him the boost he needs to continue." Saturday's game was the first time Anthony Martial had been on the same scoresheet as Rooney in the league. The Frenchman headed home Ashley Young's cross to put United ahead before Gylfi Sigurdsson equalised with a looping header. The 36million forward then set up Rooney for the winner and Van Gaal wants the two to start scoring more often. "I hope (that is the case)," Van Gaal said. "Now Martial is playing on the left side again, and we have tried that before also, and Wayne in the striker's position, but today we played also in another shape, so there are so many other aspects. Sadio Mane hoping to avoid further Saints punishment over tardiness Southampton forward Sadio Mane will hope to avoid further punishment for turning up late for the team meeting which led to him being dropped at Norwich. Mane was withdrawn from the starting line-up to face the Canaries on Saturday just a couple of hours before kick-off after arriving late for the gathering, as is club protocol under Saints boss Ronald Koeman. Koeman publicly blamed the 23-year-old winger and his team-mate Victor Wanyama after their indiscipline helped condemn Southampton to a 1-0 defeat at Carrow Road. Sadio Mane could be in hot water with Southampton Wanyama's 74th-minute red card for a needless challenge which led to his sending off was swiftly followed by Norwich's winning goal, although the midfielder has since apologised for his "reckless and irresponsible" actions on social media. Wanyama is likely to escape any further internal sanction but Mane's misdemeanor may not be forgiven so easily, with Koeman revealing in his post-match interviews that it is the second time the Senegal international has broken that particular club rule. Mane, whom the Sunday newspapers have once again reported is of interest to Manchester United following the player's latest fall out with his manager, did come on as an 80th-minute substitute against Norwich. However, with the players having Sunday off, it remains to be seen whether his demotion to the bench is seen as punishment enough by Koeman. Meanwhile, Wanyama, whose future at Southampton has also been the subject of speculation, has taken to Instagram to say sorry for his red card. He said: "I would just like to apologise to the manager, fans and everyone at the club for my red card yesterday. "It was reckless and irresponsible and I should have used my experience to have not let it happen, especially when I was on a yellow card. "I now just want to focus on getting back on the pitch and helping the team as much as I can." Southampton had the lion's share of control and chances at Carrow Road until being reduced to 10 men, but now find themselves just a point ahead of the newly-promoted Canaries after a sixth defeat from their last eight Barclays Premier League fixtures. James Ward-Prowse put Wanyama's red card down to his fellow midfielder's enthusiasm but felt the other Saints players battled well for the remainder of the match. "Victor is an aggressive player and he likes to get around the pitch. It was unfortunate for him that he got sent off," Ward-Prowse told the club's official website, saintsfc.co.uk. "It's always difficult, but we coped well after the goal. It was just one of those moments and to be fair, the guy took the goal very well. "It was a real test of character out there and we can learn a lot from that. "We have to learn from it - it's a new year and a new start, but it wasn't the ideal start. It's a test of character to come through the bad times." Alex Tettey scored the goal against Southampton which saw Norwich earn successive wins for the first time this season, following Monday's 2-0 home victory over Aston Villa. And the significance of another three points was not lost on the midfielder, who told the club's official website, canaries.co.uk: "It's massive because we knew we had to try and get back-to-back wins. "That's happened, which means we're very pleased. It's something we hadn't yet done this season so we're really happy. "We have two clean sheets in a row now, and that's pleasing as a team. It's been a good month for us despite some difficult fixtures. Hong Kong bookseller's disappearance sparks protests at Beijing office HONG KONG, Jan 3 (Reuters) - Hong Kong opposition lawmakers protested on Sunday outside Beijing's representative office in the Chinese-ruled city over the disappearance of a bookseller who specialises in publications critical of the Communist Party government. Lee Bo, 65, a major shareholder of Causeway Bay Books, "vanished" on Wednesday after he went to fetch books from his warehouse in the city, Lee's wife told Hong Kong media. She said her husband had called her from a mainland Chinese number to tell her he was safe but would not reveal his location, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported on Sunday. She said Lee spoke to her in Mandarin even though the pair usually communicated in Cantonese. Lee is the fifth person linked to the bookstore to have gone missing in the past two months. Others include Gui Minhai, owner of Mighty Current, the publishing house that owns the bookstore, the SCMP reported. Missing person reports were filed for three others, it said. The disappearances have stoked fears of mainland Chinese authorities using shadowy tactics that erode the one country, two systems formula under which Hong Kong has been governed since its return to Chinese rule from Britain in 1997. The city's constitution guarantees wide-ranging personal freedoms and independent law enforcement. Beijing's Liaison Office and the Hong Kong Immigration Department could not be reached for comment. The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, an agency of China's State Council, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. About 60 people marched to the Liaison Office in the financial hub, while pro-democracy lawmakers held a media conference to express concern over the disappearance. "We have strong reason to believe Mr Lee was kidnapped and smuggled back to the mainland for political investigation," said Democratic Party lawmaker Albert Ho. He did not elaborate on the reason, but the group called on the Hong Kong government to say whether there was an official immigration departure record for Lee. Secretary for Security, John Lee, said the police would be expanding the scope of its investigation into Lee's disappearance, although it was not possible to give details about every line of inquiry, broadcaster RTHK reported on Sunday. The Causeway Bay Bookstore sells paperbacks highly critical of the Chinese leadership in Beijing and often containing details of the private lives of senior leaders and their families. While the books are banned in mainland China, local media said they are popular with Chinese tourists in Hong Kong. Hong Kong's second highest-ranking official, Chief Secretary Carrie Lam, expressed concern about the case on Saturday. Poland wants Britain's help over NATO troops in Brexit talks By Wiktor Szary and Justyna Pawlak WARSAW, Jan 3 (Reuters) - Poland could be open to compromise over British demands to limit the rights of European Union migrants if London helps it bolster the NATO presence in central Europe, Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski told Reuters. With hundreds of thousands of Poles living in Britain, Warsaw is one of the EU's staunchest critics of Prime Minister David Cameron's proposal to cut benefits for migrants as part of his planned overhaul of Britain's EU membership terms. Cameron has set a deadline of the end of 2017 for an in-out referendum on Britain's membership of the EU, but recently gave his strongest suggestion yet that he hopes to hold it in 2016. Cameron left Warsaw empty-handed last month after a visit to discuss his push, with Poland's Prime Minister Beata Szydlo saying further talks were needed. Szydlo's new conservative government, however, is keen to score a diplomatic victory at a summit of the NATO military alliance due to be held in Warsaw in July. Waszczykowski said the issues were being discussed in tandem. Asked whether Britain could offer Poland something to soften its opposition to Cameron's proposal, Waszczykowski said: "Of course. Britain could offer something to Poland in terms of international security. "We still consider ourselves a second-class NATO member-state, because in central Europe ... there aren't, aside from a token presence, any significant allied forces or defence installations, which gives the Russians an excuse to play this region," he said. In 2014, Poland's then foreign minister said he wanted the alliance to station two NATO heavy brigades - typically between 3,000 and 5,000 troops - on Polish soil in response to Russia's intervention in Ukraine, where Moscow denies it is actively assisting pro-Russian rebels. The alliance is reluctant to permanently station troops in central Europe, with some states wary of violating a 1997 NATO-Russia agreement on the size of forces the alliance can have in former Warsaw Pact countries, of which Poland is one. Moscow would almost certainly regard the establishment of a standing NATO presence on its borders as a hostile act. Some western European allies have also been sceptical about basing large numbers of troops and equipment in Poland at a time when defence budgets are tight and question the military logic of tying down large numbers of troops in one place. "Britain could support our expectations related to an allied military presence on Polish territory," Waszczykowski said. ELABORATE COMPROMISE Waszczykowski said Poland wanted to offset the impact of any benefit cuts for its citizens living in Britain by planning to offer a monthly cash payment to families with children, in the hope Polish workers will stay in Poland instead of emigrating. He said Warsaw opposed any cuts in benefits in Britain that singled out potential recipients based on their origin. "We're aware that the British welfare system is very elaborate and that it may not be able to bear it. We are therefore addressing this by increasing our benefits, and we also want to raise salaries in Poland," he said. EU heads of state are due to discuss British proposals at a summit in February. NATO defence ministers are scheduled to meet next month in preparation for the NATO summit. "It would be very difficult for us to accept any discrimination," Waszczykowski said, referring to the migrant talks with London. "Unless Britain helped us really effectively with regard to the Polish defence ambitions at the summit in Warsaw." After Russia's annexation of the Crimean peninsula, NATO suspended practical cooperation with Moscow. But after Russia's involvement in Syria, some alliance members, notably Germany, have called for talks with Moscow to be reopened to avoid incidents like the downing of a Russian jet by NATO-member Turkey. The attack on the Indian Air Force's (IAF) Pathankot base by a gang of armed Pakistani terrorists was not entirely unexpected. After all every time efforts are made to push for normalisation, there is a push-back by forces opposed to it. In that sense, this is an old story in the India-Pakistan relations. Five attackers hijacked the car of the Gurdaspur superintendent of police (SP), Salwinder Singh, near Dinanagar, and used it to reach the gate of the IAF base, where they were eventually contained and eliminated. There are three problems here. First, why did they let the SP off, considering he was a senior police officer. Second, this is the area near Gurdaspur, which was attacked on July 27, 2015, and which was itself unusual because it is in Punjab, not Jammu & Kashmir where most of the attacks take place. And the third is why was the police not able to locate the militants even though they knew about the SP's abduction, 24 hours before the Pathankot attack. Modus operandi This is the fifth attack since September 2013, which follows a near identical pattern. A small group of militants, dressed in army fatigues, crosses the international border in Jammu & Kashmir which runs roughly parallel to the NH1A in a south-easterly direction from Jammu to Kathua and then loops south at the Ravi river to Pathankot and Gurdaspur. After crossing the border they hike to the highway which is some 10-15km away and hijack a passing vehicle and head for a target, usually a police station or an army camp. This is heavily serrated riverine terrain which facilitates small groups penetrating the border cordon which is maintained by the BSF in this area. September 26, 2013: A couple of days ahead of the Manmohan Singh-Nawaz Sharif meeting in New York, militants dressed in army fatigues struck a police station at Hiranagar near Kathua killing several policemen, later they attacked an army camp before being gunned down. A total of 12 persons, including an army officer were killed. November 27, 2014: Just as Prime Minister Narendra Modi was meeting his Pakistani counterpart at Dhulikhel, Nepal, four gunmen who had come across the border, ran into an army patrol in the Arnia sector of Jammu. They were killed in the ensuing encounter which left three army men and five civilians dead. March 28, 2014: Two days after a Modi election rally near Jammu, three militants in army uniform hijacked a vehicle killing a civilian and injuring another and then attacked an army camp at Janglore and killed a jawan, before being shot. July 27, 2015: Three gunmen dressed in army fatigues fired on a bus at Dinanagar, near Gurdaspur. They had hijacked a car to reach the local police station - the target of the attack. Three civilians and four policemen were killed along with the three militants. There were two points about the attacks that are not easy to explain. First, the attackers seem to have come from the Jammu side and then made their way into Punjab, when they could have hit many targets in Jammu. Second, they planted five bombs in a railway track near Dinanagar, which were found and defused. In other words - the aim was to create mass civilian casualties. Patterns August 5, 2015: Two militants launched an attack on a BSF convoy near Udhampur, killing two BSF personnel. One of the militants was killed, while the other, Usman Khan, was captured. Unusually, the two came through northern Kashmir, crossed the Valley and targeted the convoy. The attack was also unusual in that it was the first in the Udhampur district, in over a decade. The common pattern in these Army personnel stand guard at the IAF base in Pathankot attack is that they typically do not really target civilians. Many of the civilian casualties are collateral damage. The main targets of the attackers are police, paramilitary and army camps or posts. Of course, the bombs on the railway tracks in Dinanagar, do not fit into the pattern. Strategy There appears to be a carefully thought through strategy in the attacks on military or police camps, because these events do create headlines when they occur, but they are quickly forgotten. Mass civilian casualties generate huge negative attention. In this case, it appears that the attacks are aimed at keeping the Jammu & Kashmir pot simmering, but not allowing it to boil over. In that sense, you can be sure that there is ISI connivance, if not control, in the attacks. This means that the Pakistan army is keeping its options open, despite the efforts being made by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi to normalise relations between the two countries. The future of the historic Cobban Bridge, which spans the Chippewa River between Jim Falls and Cornell, has been in jeopardy for more than two decades. The bridge originally constructed in 1908 was closed for a time in the early 1990s, and only a rehabilitation project in 1995 has kept the single-lane structure open since then, complete with width, height and speed restrictions. However, those repairs made 20 years ago were only intended to last 10 years, Chippewa County Highway Commissioner Bruce Stelzner has said. Action on what to do with the County TT bridge has picked up in recent years, particularly since 2011, with a feasibility study and public informational hearings in 2014. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, the state Department of Transportation and the U.S. Corps of Engineers have all gotten involved. Input from all of those sources on more than a half-dozen bridge alternatives has led to a preferred plan, Stelzner said Friday. That plan and two others will be on display this week at a couple more public informational sessions one in Cornell and the other in Chippewa Falls designed to share information and gather input from area residents about the aging bridge. The middle school/high school commons area in Cornell is hosting the initial meeting from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. The second meeting is from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Chippewa County Highway Department building in Chippewa Falls. The meetings will detail the options and some preliminary cost estimates, and will be conducted by Chippewa County and the state DOT. Alternatives emerge The location study in 2014 conducted by AECOM, an international design firm with offices in Stevens Point, came up with three primary alternatives: do nothing or tear down the existing bridge; rehabilitate it; or build a new bridge. It didnt take long for the rehabilitation option to be discarded. This past summer, Stelzner informed the County Board that pack rust was impacting some of the hundreds of pins that hold the structure together. If any one of those pins failed, it could work like a zipper and the rest of the pins fail at the same time, he said. I really cant see any way we can rehabilitate the bridge. County Board Chairman Paul Michels also said a new structure makes the most sense, and called saving the bridge impractical due to its condition. The material it is made out of is deteriorating, and there will come a point where it will collapse under its own weight. That bridge is self-destructing, he said, adding that spending taxpayers money on an antiquated bridge would not be a wise investment. The Chippewa County Historical Society had endorsed saving a bridge that is the oldest of its kind in Wisconsin. Michels said he understands how citizens could become emotionally attached to the current bridge. But we need to be practical, he said. To have a structure that is a hazard to the citizens goes against one of our primary functions as a County Board, to watch out for the safety of the citizens. Preferred option But while the Cobban Bridges days appear numbered, it appears as if support has developed for a new bridge. The main question: Where? Discussions among the DOT, DNR, Corps of Engineers and Highway Department staff have produced a favored option. It would be located a quarter mile south of the current bridge, connecting County TT on the east side of the Chippewa River with 180th Street on the west side, and correcting an alignment issue. The two other alternatives: building a new bridge at the same location as the current one; and connecting County R to County K two miles to the north of the Cobban Bridge. The last option would require a section of road to be built, and looks to be the most expensive option. However, the costs attached to each plan are strictly estimates at this point, Stelzner cautioned. They are based on current prices, and fully engineered costs have yet to be determined at this stage in the process. The cost of tearing down and removing the Cobban Bridge looks to be between $1 million and $2 million, Stelzner said. At last months Highway Committee meeting, he said were it to come in at $1.5 million it would be roughly the same as the countys tab for building a new bridge and tearing down the old one. That is because a federal bridge funding program will pay for 80 percent of the costs of a new structure and removal of the old one. Road ahead Both Michels and Stelzner stressed the importance of area residents attending these two sessions this week, looking at the plans and making their wishes known. All of that input will be gathered and presented to the County Board within the next few months, and that is where the next course of action will be decided. Should the board approve building a new bridge, it is still several years away. The bridge itself will take about two years to design, said Stelzner, who estimated it could be three or four years before a new bridge could open. Until then, vehicles are still using the Cobban Bridge to traverse the Chippewa River between Jim Falls and Cornell. How long will that be the case? Thats something I really dont have an answer to, Stelzner said. We do our inspections every six months. We just did one, and right now it looks good for another six months. I really cant see any way we can rehabilitate the bridge. Bruce Stelzner, Chippewa County Highway commissioner BRUSSELS - Belgium - It's second time lucky for Nigel Farage as he survives an assassination attempt on his life on a motorway in the continent. Nigel Farage fears he has been the victim of an assassination attempt after his car was sabotaged, causing a terrifying motorway crash. The Ukip leader careered off a French road after a wheel on his Volvo came loose while he was driving from Brussels back to his home in Kent. When the police arrived at the scene, they told him that the nuts on all of the wheels had been deliberately unscrewed. The outspoken leader of the anti-EU Ukip party was shaken but not stirred, as he has been in a crash before and survived. I dont know who is doing all this, but I will resolutely fight Britains corner during the referendum for independence from the EU with whatever it takes, Farage was quoted as saying whilst waving his fist in the air defiantly. $39-$92 January 19-24, 2016 at The Schuster - Winner of eight 2012 Tony Awards including Best Musical, ONCE is a truly original Broadway experience. REVIEW OF "ONCE" BY MIKE WOODY Lets be honest, full disclosure, to the unknown ONCE sounds pretty boring. Two foreigners who fall in love while writing music together doesnt exactly create much excitement. It is based on an Academy award winning movie, but who really watches independent foreign films? Not me. My expectations for ONCE were pretty low, but I was totally wrong. Im married so its no surprise that I was wrong, it happens all the time, but theres not even any defense in this case as I was way off. ONCE is a theatrical masterpiece to cherish forever. The expression, Less is more, is proven true through ONCE. There are no luxurious set pieces, stunning costumes, or high dollar special effects, just a touching love story told by the skills of a tremendously talented cast. The stage is filled with everything needed by the casts gifted voices and musical genius. There is much excitement for Cinderella which comes to the Schuster Center next month, and its sure to be a bigger production but the true magic of theater can be seen in ONCE. There is no glass slipper, just total soul giving performances that creates a heart-warming love story. Part of the magic of ONCE is how it pulls the audience in and makes you part of the story, without realizing it. There is no curtain that rises, and those that arrive early can even go up on stage and have a drink at the Irish tavern thats set up and one by one, some people arrive with instruments and start to sing. Eventually the ticket holders take their seat and the music continues as a couple more songs are played. I started to wonder, is this the show? Ummmm, there were no announcements. Nobody is going to know to turn their cell phones off or who the sponsors are. There has to be an official introduction. Then she appears and things begin to be set in motion, I say she because no name is given to her, but she is played brilliantly by Mackenzie Lesser-Roy. She meetsHim, played by Sam Cieri who has a voice with the power to split the sea, or at least a heart. He is ready to give up on music, but she is determined to not let him give up. The first song they sing together, Falling Slowly, is one of the most magical theater moments you will ever witness and again the only tools used were their musical talents. Not only is Cieri vocally perfect for the role, but hes also right in tune with the reserved and heartbroken demeanor of the character. We feel his emotions and connect to the pain from which his music comes. Furthermore, Lesser-Roy is an artist on the piano but is also a maestro with the strings of our heart by using all her resources to create a response that resonates deep within us. They are an amazing duo that makes their music blessed with enrichment. I dont know if Ive ever seen an entire cast that is so in-synch with their roles and acts as such a cohesive group. Each of their movements served a purpose, which were clearly defined, and they were in perfect rhythm with one another. Each individual plays a vital role in the final product and takes their part with the utmost seriousness. They are all on for every single second of the show, even when sitting in the shadows, their expressions speak and they provide a backdrop, often through music. There are many impressive things about ONCE, near the top of the list is the various instruments that each cast member plays. There is no orchestra as every chord of music played comes from on stage, which adds to the authenticity and helps the audience to feel part of the action. A further credit to the cast, there is no time wasted. The transitions from scene to scene are done with their fluid movements a only tables and chairs are used to change the setting to various locationsremember, sometimes less is more. Though the ensemble cast is a solid team, there is also some individuality between them, which became clearer as the show went on. A few of them are the Hawaiian shirt wearing, self- professed Karate master, Billy (John Hays), the Banker, who has a funny solo and maybe some lesbian tendencies (Jenn Chandler), the wearer of warm-up pants with Wright State colors (its all I could think of when I first saw them) who also plays the drums and drinks lots of coffee (Liam Fennecken), and the jezebel with a very short mini-skirt on (I quickly forgot the Wright State pants) played by Marlene Ginader. Its a real credit to the rest of the cast that they are even noticed when on stage with Ginader in that skirt. That is how talented they are. A word of advice to potential audience members, dont overlook ONCE simply because its not glitzy and well known. Its musical theatre at its best, in its purest form. If its a fairytale romance you are seeking, look no further as your heart will be filled by ONCE. Its better than you could ever dream of. ONCE continues through January 24 at the Schuster Center. Sometime back, Janardan Das, a Musahar (the lowest strata among the dalit community) was installed as a priest of the 300-year-old Ram Janaki temple at Paliganj, some 70 km from Patna. Das was arguably the first Musahar (also called mahadalit) in the country who was coronated as a priest in place of a Brahmin. And this happened much before Bihar saw its first mahadalit Chief Minister in Jitan Ram Manjhi. The process of social empowerment of weaker sections in Bihar has been part of the silent revolution which has largely gone unnoticed over the years. Das coronation coincided with Kabir Jayanti (on June 30) and heralded a new chapter in social engineering, as the Musahars belong to the lowest strata in society, which traditionally, has been engaged in carrying night-soil. The installation ceremony of Das, who originally was known as Janardan Manjhi, was followed by sangat (community prayer) and pangat (community dining), where around 10,000 people belonging to different sections of society dined together. With this, Ram Janaki temple became the fourth holy place in Bihar to have a dalit/mahadalit priest, with three others being the Mahavir Mandir (Patna), Vishal Nath Mandir (Hajipur) and Shiv Mandir (Bihta). The man behind this social churning is Kishore Kunal, a retired IPS officer who is also the chairman of the Bihar State Board of Religious Trust (BSBRT). Kunal, who belongs to the upper caste Bhumihar, has played a pivotal role in social empowerment of weaker sections. When he was posted in Prime Ministers office (PMO) in early 90s and was looking after Ayodhya Cell, he came in contact with Phalhari Suryavanshi Das, a dalit scholar, from Ravi Das temple in Ayodhya. Kunal, in his capacity as the Secretary of Mahavir Mandir Trust in Patna, later appointed Das as a priest in Mahavir Mandir. This was just the beginning. For, a silent social revolution was underway in this caste-ridden state where people from the oppressed class had started performing pujas, without any murmur or protest. In the coming years, more Dalits replaced Brahmins as the chief priests of several prominent temples here. But the first sign of this transformation was witnessed in May 2006 when Chandeshwar Paswan, a Sanskrit scholar, was appointed Bihars first dalit priest of the famous Vishwanath Mahadev Mandir at Hajipur, an hours drive from Patna. The coronnation took place on the auspicious day of Shivaratri, when a sizeable chunk of devotees had thronged the temple to offer their prayers to Lord Shiva. Emboldened byr this change, the BSBRT appointed another dalit, Jamuna Das, as a priest in Shiva temple at Bihta on January 14, the Makarsankranti Day. Such steps would certainly go a long way in eliminating caste discrimination and add a new chapter of social harmony, Kunal told Deccan Herald. But the Bihar temples have been in the news for wrong reasons too. Before Kunal took over the BSBRT, some of the priests were anything but saint. Take for instance the case of the mahant of renowned Ajgaibinath Mandir at Sultanganj in Bhagalpur, Prem Shankar Bharti. He was caught red-handed with a woman a few years back. After a public uproar, the management of the temple was handed over to the DM of Bhagalpur. Funds embezzled In another instance, the secretary of Pataleshwar Mandir at Hajipur, SK Soni, was found to have embezzled temple fund worth lakhs of rupees. When the Income Tax Department sleuths swooped down on Soni recently, unaccounted money worth Rs 50 lakh was recovered from his possession. Similarly, well-known Sun Temple in Aurangabad (Bihar) management committee secretary Rajendra Gupta was sent to jail for his alleged involvement in a scam. After he was set free, Gupta was asked by the BSRTB to resign from the temple committee. Besides, there are hundreds of such cases in the 20,000 temples in Bihar, which have made news for the wrong reasons. But the refurbished BSRTB has taken it upon itself to stem the rot prevailing in these places of worship. When Kunal took over, out of 20,000 temples, only 2,800 mandirs were registered. Kunal, known for his integrity, rued that the authorities of most of the temples were swindling money. As per the rules, the registered temples were supposed to pay five per cent of their annual income to the Board. But barring a few, none of them was abiding by the law. In order to get a first hand account of the fishy things going on, Kunal one day sent a Board team to assess the daily earnings of Sheetla Mata Mandir at Agamkuan. The mandir, which showed its annual income as Rs 8,000, had actually been earning around Rs 9,000 per day. It was then that Kunal took it upon himself to clean the Augean Stables. And in doing so he has also heralded a silent revolution by replacing Brahmins with dalit priests, a move widely appreciated. A fresh grenade blast ripped through the air force base here this morning claiming the life of an NSG commando, as three other security men succumbed to injuries in a hospital after yesterday's terror attack taking the toll of Indian security personnel to seven. Lt Col Niranjan, a member of the NSG's Bomb Disposal Squad, was killed while he was defusing the grenade at the scene of the terror attack as part of the combing operations that continued through the night. Four other security men were also injured in the blast. Defence sources said Niranjan, a resident of Kerala, was killed while trying to retrieve the grenade from the body of a dead terrorist. Three members of the Defence Security Corps (DSC) succumbed to injuries in the hospital here during the night. Four attackers, a Garud commando and three DSC were killed yesterday when heavily-armed Pakistani terrorists had attempted to storm the base, triggering a day-long gunbattle at the airbase, barely 35 kms from the Indo-Pak border. Among those battling for their lives in the hospital are 8 DSC personnel and a Garud commando. Meanwhile, the joint combing operation was still underway, a police official said, adding that the NIA had taken over the probe into the terror incident. Some senior officials of the Punjab Police led by DGP Suresh Arora are also present here. Doing scientific research would be made easier and science administration, too, will be improved in the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told scientists while stressing that their work should be focused on the 'five-Es' of economy, environment, energy, empathy and equity. In his inaugural address at the Indian Science Congress here, he also said that with the spirit of cooperative federalism that is shaping Centre-state relations in every area, he is also for greater scientific collaboration between central and state-level institutions and agencies. Modi asked scientists from India and overseas at the five- day mega science event to bridge the gap between traditional knowledge and modern science so that localised and more sustainable solutions to the challenges could be found. He said the impact of science would be the most when scientists and technologists keep the principles of what he called "Five Es" at the centre of their enquiry and engineering. 'Economy' related to finding cost-effective and efficient solutions; 'Environment' to keeping the carbon footprint at the lightest and the impact on the ecology the least possible. "'Energy' -- when our prosperity relies less on energy and the energy we use keeps our skies blue and our Earth green. 'Empathy' -- when our efforts are in tune with our culture, circumstances and social challenges. 'Equity' -- when science advances inclusive development and improves the welfare of the weakest," he said. Modi said good governance was not just about policy and decision making, transparency and accountability but also about integrating science and technology into the choices to be made and the strategies to be pursued. He said he has asked for a framework of scientific audit for scientific departments and institutions in the government. "We will also try to increase the level of resources for science and deploy them in accordance with our strategic priorities," he said at the 103rd session of ISC at 'Manasa Gangotri' campus of the University of Mysore that is also celebrating its centenary. "We will make it easier to do science and research in India, improve science administration and expand and improve the quality of science education and research in India," he said. Some 500 eminent scientists and experts are attending the Congress with the focal theme, 'Science and Technology for Indigenous Development in India' in tune with Modi's big push for 'Make in India' programme. As Punjab faced second terror strike within six months, its Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal today sought deployment of more BSF troops along the border with Pakistan and said the state police will set up a "second line of defence" to prevent such attacks in future. "We are writing to Government of India that BSF deployment should be increased on par with that of J&K. "The BSF deployment should be increased at least in this area (Gurdaspur and Pathankot) because this is second or third time such an incident has occurred," Badal told reporters here. He said the state police will come out with a "master plan" for second line of defence. Badal, who held a review meeting with senior police officials in the wake of the terror attack in Pathankot, also said that he has directed the police authorities to get "mapping done of all vulnerable points along the border". "If some terrorists manage to sneak from the border into our territory, so we should look at how we can act as a second line of defence. "I want technology to be used. We will see how we will act as second line of defence, we will have to use CCTVs, laser technology, ground detection system which are internationally-used across borders, specially this area, Gurdaspur and Pathankot... it needs to be done," he said. Badal said that he will ask Punjab Police DGP to get in touch with all the experts."We have to act as second line of defence. Immediately, we will have new police lines established in Pathankot, one commando batallion will also be set up here so that there is quick response (in the wake of major attacks). A special SWAT team will be stationed in Pathankot district so that there is quick response if any eventuality happens in the future so that we can take quick action," the Deputy CM said. Asked if there was any security lapse and how the terrorists managed to sneak in, he said "investigations have not yet started as operation is still going on". "We have our own views, we were convinced on certain views. Question is not Punjab border or Jammu and Kashmir border (from where terrorists sneak in). Replying to questions, Sukhbir Badal said,"deployment of BSF in the Punjab section of border is not that much...they (Centre) should consider this area also sensitive now. "Since this incident has happened, this area (Pathankot) touches J&K." "What I am saying is our police will come out with a master plan for a second line of defence, because first line of defence is going to be the BSF. "Since this incident has happened in our territory, so we will take our own initiative to come up with a second line of defence," he continued. Asked about the counter operation against terrorists, Badal said, "I cannot give you details of operation as it is still going on. It is not right for me to disclose anything. "Once it is over, complete briefing will take place." Asked about the kidnapping of a SP by terrorists, Badal said the SP, who was under transfer, had gone to Narot Jaimal block to pay obeisance. "Had they not caught the SP, may be the situation would have been worse," he said. Asked about the delay in acting on intelligence about presence of Pakistani militants, Sukhbir Badal said, "Immediately, we informed the Government of India, the local police immediately informed GOI. "We immediately launched operation also at our end." He further said, "I want to ask one thing, our police knows what it is doing. We don't need to feed police how they have to do their job because certain things cannot be disclosed, we cannot tell you what operation we did and how we did. "It is not for the media to know. What we are saying is that because we were able to inform the GOI immediately the NSG was called. Within 7-8 hours, we requistioned number of forces to tackle them." To another question, Badal said, "We are fighting a war against terrorism, we should all unite. This terrorism has to be stopped. "As Home Minister of my state, I have decided to create second line of defence so that my citizens are protected." Explosions and firing continued intermittently tonight as security forces killed one of the at least two terrorists holed up at Pathankot air base on the second day of the attack in which military casualties including a Lieutenant Colonel of the NSG mounted to seven. Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a meeting tonight with top officials including National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar in Delhi even as questions were raised by defence experts over the way the encounter with heavily-armed Pakistani terrorists was handled by security agencies. Defence sources in Delhi said tonight that one terrorist was killed today while another was injured in the encounter that was on for nearly 43 hours, a day after four terrorists were eliminated after they struck yesterday. "The operation is still continuing and engagement with the terrorists is still going on, Air Commodore JS Dhamoon," Air Officer Commanding, Air Force Station Pathankot told a late evening news conference. "The operation will continue till the whole of air base is cleared of intruders and any terrorists," he said. Dhamoon said four terrorists have been killed and seven security men--one Garud commando, one NSG officer and five personnel of Defence Security Corps(DSC) have been martyred in the operation. Seventeen security personnel were also injured. Throughout the day, attack helicopters kept flying over the air force station to provide aerial support to the ground troops battling the terrorists who fired intermittently with the last round of exchanges erupting at around 9.30pm. According to reports, the holed up militants were discovered in the forested area on the backside of the air base from where they are reported to have entered. Lt Col Niranjan, a member of the NSG's Bomb Disposal Squad and a Kerala resident, died after he succumbed to injuries which he sustained while he was trying to retrieve a live grenade from the body of a dead terrorist at the scene of the terror attack as part of the combing operations that continued through last night. Four other security men were also injured in this explosion. Three Defence Security Corps (DSC) personnel also succumbed to injuries at the hospital here during the intervening night of January 2 and 3. A Garud commando and two members of the DSC were killed in the gunbattle yesterday at the air base, located barely 35 km from the Indo-Pak border. "We are sure that still there are at least two more terrorists as firing have come from two different places. But we are not sure whether there are some more. We will come to know the number of terrorists only after the completion of the operation and body count," Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi told a press conference in Delhi. The comments by Mehrishi came a day after Home Minister Rajnath Singh tweeted saying the operation had been completed with the killing of five terrorists. Singh later deleted his tweet. During the day, five companies of army along with JCB bulldozers were sent to the area to speed up the operation against the terrorists. Former Western Air Command Chief Air Marshal P S Ahulwalia said casualties could have been kept at minimum through "effective coordination" adding the time taken to neutralise the attackers is way "too long". Prime Minister Narendra Modi tonight held a meeting with top officials to discuss the Pathankot terror attack. Soon after returning from his two-day visit to Karnataka, Modi chaired a meeting of top officials including National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar. "Immediately on landing in Delhi, PM Narendra Modi is chairing a high-level meeting with the NSA, Foreign Secretary and other officials," the PMO said. Earlier during the day, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar briefed Prime Minister Modi on the latest situation at the Pathankot air base. Both were present at a HAL function in Tumakuru in Karnataka. Pathankot air base is under terror attack since yesterday. The security forces have already killed four terrorists and two more are believed to be still holed-up inside the base, and an operation is underway to flush them out. fresh exchange of fire was reported at the attack site between the security forces and terrorists holed-up inside the air force base. A joint combing operation by the armed forces, police and security personnel was still underway and the NIA has taken over the probe into the terror attack. CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury today slammed the NDA government over the terror attack at Punjab's Pathankot air base questioning the role of the "56-inch government". "Till today morning it was announced that all the terrorists were killed and our jawans have lost lives. We were told that the attack was over and today we heard that the attack is still going on. What is this happening? Why are attacks taking place in the country?" Yechury said at a programme here. "What is happening to the condition of the 56-inch government," he said referring to a speech made by Narendra Modi during the campaign for the Lok Sabha election last year. "After his Pakistan visit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that peace is returning and talks are going on. If all that is true then what is this happening. We want to know the reality. Who is responsible for this?" he questioned. If peace returns between the two nations then the 'dhandha' (business) of some people on both sides will be stopped, Yechury said. The CPI(M) leader also criticised the government on the hike in excise duty, asking how could they do it before the budget. "The money (due to decrease in crude oil prices) which should have gone to the people is now going to the government as a result of this increase in duty," he said. Alleging that RSS is acting as the spokesperson of the BJP, he said they are trying to replace history with Hindu mythology, philosophy and theology. "They are also saying about 'Akhand Bharat' which is between Afghanistan to Bangladesh. What does this mean?," he questioned. He also questioned the role of the media claiming that the fourth estate is working at the behest of those in power. "It is being used to manufacture consent. The control of media is already happening. Every media house is being controlled by the ruling party," he said, adding that what is printed in papers and shown in TV is what the ruling party wants. On political violence in West Bengal, he alleged that the Trinamool Congress government is trying to kill the CPI(M) Bengali mouthpiece newspaper 'Ganashakti'. "It doesn't get advertisements and its hawkers are also attacked," Yechury said. An engineer by qualification, Prasad Bhat was on a job hunt for quite sometime. However, he finally decided to give up on this extensive hunt and began to dream the dream of being an entrepreneur. And yes, he was successful in this mission and this sums up the story of how Graphicurry was started. A one-stop design firm for all graphic needs, Graphicurry was initially a design studio that was limited to creating posters, website designs and logos. But Prasads affair with art continued and he explored his endless creative side. As a school boy who sketched caricatures of his teachers behind notebooks, he continued this by sketching satirical images of his friends and uploading them on Facebook. The interest that was pure passion took a business route after he gave the artworks a professional touch. I received an overwhelming response to my caricatures that I uploaded on Facebook. After this, I started making them in a more professional way and I made caricatures of noted personalities in the field of music, movies and sports, Prasad says. His work connected many art lovers and die-hard fans instantly to Graphicurry and its popularity grew by leaps and bounds. What is unique about Prasads caricatures is that they break away from the conventional style, as he explains, Normally, Photoshop is the preferred software to create caricatures as it has user-friendly tools that are easy to work around. But I use Illustrator and it becomes tougher to play around the tools to get the desired output. However, the result is outstanding and this is why my caricatures are unique. They are vector art that do not use any gradient. Also, he experiments with different styles and uses a lot of geometry including polygons, octagons and triangles. I use only straight lines and avoid the curves, he explains. It is this unique style that has attracted even the bigwigs towards his works and there are instances when Bollywood stars have approached him to seal a business deal. While he says he takes two to four days, depending on the intricate style, to make caricatures, he adds, I have started making customised caricatures as well. But it is tough to come up with these caricatures due to the limited availability of data. Everyone looks good on their Facebook pictures. So, I make sure to collect a lot of raw images before making customised images. The demand for his quirky artwork is increasing, and he opines, These artworks are more of a want than need. It is a luxury product and has a niche audience. However, his client circle is spread across various cities in the country and he also gets orders from Dubai, Australia and Malaysia. For details, you can visit his Facebook page Graphicurry. There was never any doubt that I would buy an Apple Watch on the day it was released. Im a White House correspondent for The New York Times, but Im also that early-adopter guy. Buying the watch has led to the inevitable questions from friends and family: What do you think? Should I get one of those? My search for an answer reminds me of a similar period nearly a decade ago, in the months after I stood in line for several hours at an Apple Store in Arlington, Virginia, to be among the first to spend $599 (Rs 39,674) on the original iPhone. The Apple employees cheered as I emerged with the phone. But back then, it was hard to recommend to anyone that they ditch their BlackBerrys. The iPhones on-screen keyboard made typing a clunky business. The phone couldnt connect with most workplace email systems. Cell service (limited to AT&T) was slow and flaky at best. Battery life was short. There was no App Store. The iPhone didnt even have a cut and paste feature. There was just a sense largely unrealised at the time that somehow this device was the future, while using my thumb to scroll through a black-and-white list of emails on my BlackBerry was the past. Surfing the web, reading email, listening to music, checking the weather and stocks all on one device. It was revolutionary. When colleagues asked, I was honest about the limitations even as I gushed about the technological potential. Most of my friends listened politely, tried to type on the screen with their thumbs, and then stuck with the BlackBerry. The watch feels as if it is at a similar place. For the same $599 (Rs 39,674), which gets you a model with a 42-millimeter stainless-steel case, the Apple Watch is a slave to a users iPhone, relying on the larger device for processing and communications. It has no GPS or cellular capability. It can run apps, but slowly. And without any keyboard, it requires voice dictation, which is still far from perfect. In most cases, opening an app on the iPhone is still a far better experience. Like the original iPhone, the watch also feels like a physical compromise. The case is bigger and bulkier than the ideal device you would want to strap to your wrist. And while battery life is amazing for a device this small routinely almost 24 hours on a single charge it still requires that I remember to pop the watch onto a charger every night. And yet, after almost eight months, the Apple Watch feels like the future to me. More than anything else, the watch has changed the way I communicate via email and text messages. Using Apples VIP feature, I direct all of the most important messages to my watch, which alerts me with a subtle tap on my wrist or a soft ding. I ignore most after a quick glance. (Sorry, Mom.) Many get a quick OK or Sounds good. I pull out my phone only for the ones I need to respond to at length. The same is true for phone calls, which appear on my watch while my phone remains tucked away in my pocket, or still at my desk on the other side of the office. Its like Caller ID for my wrist. The watch has also become my first stop for personal scheduling. I use it to check the weather (the current temperature is right there on the watch face) and to see at a glance what my next appointment is. My OpenTable app taps my wrist when a restaurant reservation is coming up. The eBay app lets me know when Ive won, or lost, an auction no phone required. Tracking deliveries is effortless. By far, the most futuristic achievement on the watch is Apple Pay, which works flawlessly. Buy something, double-click the button on the watch and wave it next to the cash register. Ding. Its like magic where it is accepted. But because thats a very limited universe of retail stores and restaurants, I still have to carry around my wallet, full of credit cards. A few apps have become second nature now. I regularly use the watchs timer when I cook: Siri, set a timer for 45 minutes. My boarding passes are now on my watch, which means I dont have to fumble for my phone in the airport security line. When I record the White House press secretary during an Air Force One gaggle, I dont have to hold my iPhone close to his mouth. I just hold up my wrist. (It looks kind of funny, but works well.) Changing the temperature of my Nest thermostats at home is easier on my watch than on my phone. So whats the answer? Should you buy an Apple Watch now? Im tempted to say no for most people. Most of what it does, your phone already does better. And the Apple Watch, even with recent sales, is pricier than competing smartwatches that do similar things. By that logic, you should wait until next year, when Apples relentless drive to innovate will have improved the watchs hardware and software. Or wait until 2019, when the fifth generation of the device has unimagined new features. But after eight months, Im convinced that people will eventually view a smartwatch as an essential purchase. And waiting endlessly for the next great thing means missing out on all the small ways that the watch already can improve your life. So unless you want to be one of those people who hang on to their BlackBerrys forever, go ahead and get one. You wont regret it. California and New York want what weve got, said Shawn Muehler, a 30-year-old Fargo resident, gazing at a horizon of empty fields, silos, windbreak trees and hardly any people.A winged craft traces the air, mapping a field with pinpoint accuracy for his start-up, a drone software company called Botlink. They like drones, but theyve got a steep learning curve ahead. For years, entrepreneurs have come here to farm and to drill for oil and natural gas. Now a new, tech-savvy generation is grabbing a piece of the growing market for drone technology and officials want to help them do it here, where there is plenty of open space and unlike in other sparsely populated states lots of expertise already in place. Silicon Valley has the big money and know-how, Muehler and others say, but North Dakota can take unmanned aerial vehicles, as the officials prefer to call drones, from a fast-growing hobby to an industry. And just as Silicon Valley got its start with a combination of military contracts, entrepreneurs and cooperative universities, they believe they can do the same with drones. The potential up here is tremendous, said Jack Dalrymple, the states governor. Its not about supporting a company or two; its creating the leading edge of an industry. North Dakota has spent about $34 million fostering the states unmanned aerial vehicle business, most notably with a civilian industrial park for drones near Grand Forks Air Force Base. The base, a former Cold War installation, now flies nothing but robot aircraft for the US military and Customs and Border Protection. Right now, private sector drones are where personal computers were in the 1970s: a hobbyist technology waiting to become mainstream. The technology research firm Gartner says that, barring regulatory hurdles, the United States drone business could be worth $7 billion in a decade. Companies are moving fast. Last month, Amazon released a video showing its planned delivery drone, and companies like Google and Facebook are working on big drone projects. DJI, a Chinese company that is the worlds largest maker of small drones, was funded last spring at a valuation of $10 billion. Small drones may bedevil cities with privacy concerns, even landing on the White House lawn, but rural states with farming, oil and rail lines see many practical reasons to put robots in the sky. Infrared imaging can judge crop health. Cameras can spot leaks and cracks in pipelines. Smaller copters can inspect windmill blades. Livestock can be located easily. Judging from Muehlers proving grounds, if the occasional experimental craft crashes, it is unlikely to hit much beyond dirt. And with money, expertise, and need here, people will keep trying. Grand Forks Air Force Base, 80 miles north of Fargo, has been an all-drone base since 2013. Big Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles, made by Northrop Grumman, fly reconnaissance missions from the Yukon to Venezuela from there. In a smaller brick building in Fargo, Muehler was once part of a North Dakota Air National Guard unit that flies missions over the Mideast and Afghanistan. Customs and Border Protection uses the Grand Forks field to patrol from Seattle to the Great Lakes with slightly smaller Predator drones. Sometimes those pilots take over from their Customs counterparts in Texas, patrolling the Rio Grande from screens 80 miles south of the Canadian border. Where B-52 bombers stood ready with nuclear bombs in the Cold War, the countrys first commercial unmanned aerial vehicle industrial park is under construction. Northrop Grumman and General Atomics, the Predator maker, are taking space to train pilots for international sales of the craft. Other businessmen are looking at modifying their craft for things like high-altitude surveillance of railroad tracks and pipelines. Involta, an Iowa-based operator of data centers that has already created a windmill inspection business in Grand Forks, is looking at building facilities specialized in collecting aerial information. Nearby, the University of North Dakota, which already trains many of the nations commercial pilots and the air traffic controllers of some 18 countries, has 200 students learning to fly drones in a four-year program that started in 2009; 61 students have graduated from it. North Dakota State University, in Fargo, has also started teaching drone courses. Besides military contracts and educational talent, North Dakota also has high-tech talent. In 2001, Microsoft paid $1.1 billion for Great Plains Software of Fargo, and it now has an office there. The area has thousands of software engineers and not a few millionaires itching to get into the next big thing. Every top engineer in all of Fargo works for Botlink, Muehler boasted. We have the top 10 engineers in town. Muehler, who was educated as a pilot at North Dakota State, started on what became Botlink while flying missions from the brick building in Fargo. Dalrymple, the governor, refers to the military site as once a well-kept-secret facility, since its purpose has become common knowledge in the city of about 115,000 people. One night in early 2014, Muehler saw a report on Fox News about a hobbyist drone that flew into the airspace at La Guardia Airport in New York. Thats when he hit upon the idea for his business. I figured there has to be some kind of software that can give awareness, let a drone know about things like boundaries and weather, he said. Alex Kube, a high school friend who was working at the same facility, started making the software. Seven months later, he spoke at a meeting of local entrepreneurs and collected $500,000 in angel funding from local investors. Botlink was formed several months later when Muehler met Terri Zimmerman, a former chief financial officer at Great Plains who grew up on a farm near the Canadian border. We want to be the Microsoft of the industry, said Zimmerman, who is now Botlinks chief executive, and runs another company, Packet Digital, involved in low-power semiconductors used for, among other things, military drones. So far, the company has raised $3 million more from private investors. Thats like $14 million in Silicon Valley, Zimmerman said. RAMA MWENESI Founder, E-MAGINE The work of tech giants will make internet globally available, but not necessarily accessible or affordable. Will their projects involve local communities and benefit them? E-magine began in 2009/10 and is working locally to increase internet access in underserved areas. We have eight projects in four countries Zambia, Kenya, Sierra Leone and Brazil and are seeing great results that help to understand how people are adopting technology. MIKE CASSIDY VP, Project Loon, Google Two-thirds of the worlds population does not have internet. For those in rural or hard-to-reach areas, getting it is challenging. Project Loon is a network of balloons which float in the stratosphere, twice as high as aeroplanes. By partnering with telecom companies we can reach much further out into rural and remote areas of a country in a cost-effective way. Our balloons can last over 100 days and travel over 17m km collectively. From one balloon we can now provide coverage to an area approximately the size of Rhode Island (4,000 sq km) thats four times larger than our previous coverage area. By taking to the air, we can get rid of connectivity problems and provide internet to billions of people who dont have it. MARIA ZEHLEVA Assistant professor, Computer Science department, University at Albany, New York I hope that internet connection will become worldwide. However, I am not sure if we will ever reach the point where everyone has the same online experience. Rural residents are quick to realise how mobile phones, SMS and internet can benefit them. They no longer need to take unnecessary trips to the town, they can check what is a fair price to sell their crops, buy used cars from Japan and they can stay in touch through, say, Facebook. Rural residents use the internet much like those who live in cities. Connectivity depends on infrastructure, which is concentrated in cities. So there is a need for alternative solutions. Academia and industry are making good progress in creating infrastructure-less cellular and areal networks, and using unused broadcasting frequencies (TV white space, also known as TVWS). Technological progress, however, is not the only factor for improved rural connectivity. Understanding of peoples needs along with favourable policy is crucial to achieving universal connectivity. AMY ODONNELL ICT in programme lead, Oxfam The internet is a catalyst for the way people communicate, access information and gain opportunities. It is a concern that the digital divide pervades giving voice to those who already have it, while disproportionately excluding the marginalised. Promisingly, many providers are seeing the opportunity to reach those who still do not have internet connectivity. But focus needs to shift from accessibility to the meaningful use of the internet. Are local communities involved in generating content to make it useful for them? Are services suitable for the needs of specific groups such as women and do they tackle barriers such as illiteracy? Oxfam is trying to use the internet to increase peoples access to meaningful information that can improve their opportunities and livelihoods. Internet Now! is running in 100 communities in Uganda. These are small computer centres that employ young people affected by conflict from the Lords Resistance Army, while giving them access to an agricultural commodity platform information which is very valuable to their community. Somdev Devvarman joined compatriot Ramkumar Ramanathan in the singles main draw of the ATP Chennai Open with a come-from-behind victory over Briton James Ward in the final qualifying round, here on Sunday. Somdev, who struggled to go deep in the main draws on the ATP tour in 2015, got the better of Ward 2-6, 7-5, 6-4 in a two hours and three-minute battle. Ranked 177th, Somdev clawed his way back in the match after losing the first set, gathering strength and changing the tactics. They were neck-and-neck in the second set before Somdev capitalised on a break of serve and never looked back. He raced to a 4-1 lead in the deciding third set and closed the match in his favour comfortably. N Sriram Balaji made a stupendous effort and fight in his final qualifying round but that was not enough as he lost 6-7 (2), 6-7(0) to Ante Pavic. Later in the day, Saketh Myneni was also ousted from the qualifying event, losing his second round match 4-6, 2-6 to fifth seed Thomas Fabbiano. Despite now having two platers im singles main draw, Indias best hopes are in doubles with experienced Leander Paes, Rohan Bopanna and Mahesh Bhupathi, who is returning to Tour after a break, in the mix. In bottom half of the draw, Ramkumar has a tough task to go past Spanish journeyman Daniel Gimeno-Traver (ranked 98) and if he manages to cross the first hurdle he will be up against second seed and world number 12 Kevin Anderson. He created a stir in the last season where he downed his compatriot Somdev Devvarman in straight sets but Ramkumar needs a miracle of sorts to make progress. Bhupathi is partnering Gilles Muller of Luxembourg and they open their campaign against the top seeded pair of Raven Klaasen of South Africa and Rajeev Ram of the United States. Meanwhile, second seeds Paes and Marcel Granollers of Spain would be tested by former Olympic gold medallist Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland and his Spanish partner Guillermo Garcia-Lopez. One Air Force Garuda commando who fell to enemy bullets at the Pathankot air base terror strike on Saturday was Gursewak Singh who got married just two months ago in November. He was requisitioned to the air base to beef up the security. His wife has been rendered a widow just two months after she married the brave-heart soldier. Gursewak is a resident of village Garnala in Ambala in Haryana. Haryana Health Minister Anil Vij visited his house on Sunday. The government on Sunday announced a compensation of Rs 20 lakh for the next of kin. The minister consoled the bereaved family members and offered them heartfelt condolences. Sources said, his newly married wife learnt about the death of her husband through a Facebook post. Gursewaks elder brother, Hardeep Singh, who is in the Army and posted in Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh, had called home in the morning of January 2 to inform the family that Gursewak had laid down his life while fighting terrorists in Pathankot. Gursewaks father, Succha Singh, who was also in the Army, said that it was a matter of pride that his son sacrificed his life for the nation and did not allow the terrorists to succeed. He added that he would encourage his grandson to join the Army. Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal also expressed grief over the demise of Gursewak Singh. Such brave men sacrificing their lives for their country remain immortal and their sacrifice always inspires fellow countrymen, the chief minister said. The Congress on Sunday questioned Narendra Modi governments strategy for putting a curb on terror attacks, saying the party stood by the security personnel who were engaged in a fierce gunbattle to neutralise the terrorists holed up at the IAF base in Pathankot, Punjab. The party, however, pointed out that it was not the time to play politics, suggesting that Delhi must not hold any dialogue with Islamabad, unless and until Pakistan changes its policy towards India and stops sponsoring of terror against India from its soil. They (Modi government) have no strategy at all. They (Modi government) have no clear cut road to deal with state sponsored terror from Pakistan. After forming a coalition government at the centre, the BJP has taken a complete U-turn from its stand in past, All India Congress Committee general secretary and in-charge of Punjab Shakeel Ahmed said. He described the terror attack as unfortunate and noted that this was second such incident in Punjab within six moths, demanding that the Modi government must do every thing at its command to stop recurrence of such incidents. We do not want to indulge in any politics at this moment of crisis. Our brave security personnel are engaged in a battle with terrorists to protect our country at the cost of their life. Nothing should be said at this moment to demoralise their efforts and sacrifice. Party stands behind these brave-hearts. Prime minister must do everything to stop recurrence of such incidents, he added. Ahmed said he was scheduled to visit Punjab on Tuesday to take stock of the situation. I will hold a meeting with our Punjab Congress Committee chief Amrinder Singh and discuss the prevailing situation. And, I will also visit the spot in (Pathankot) if permission is granted by the authorities. I heard that civilians are not being allowed to enter the affected area at present, he told Deccan Herald. In a bizarre accident, a driver of a speeding vehicle hit an old man crossing the highway and in an effort to escape chasing vehicles, drove almost 20 kilometers at breakneck speed with the limp body of the victim on the top of the car. The incident occurred on Hyderabad-Vijayawada expressway near Kamineni Hospital Y-Junction in Narkatpalli, of Kattangur mandal of Nalgonda district in Telangana, 82 km from here on Saturday. According eyewitnesses 73-year old Komirelli Venkat Reddy was returning home for lunch after completing work in agricultural farm. The car, a Maruti Ritz car driven by one Rahim Khan, coming from Hyderabad towards Suryapet hit Venkat Reddy while he was crossing the road. The frail body of the farmer was tossed into the air and fell on the roof of the car with his leg wedged into the cars spoiler. Even as few bystanders shouted at the driver to stop and take the old man to the nearby Kamineni hospital, the driver fearing arrest tried to escape by speeding. Several young men tried to chase the car and also informed the Narkatpalli police. The police informed the next police station who along with locals laid a trap and caught the fleeing car and its two riders. According to local sub inspector Motiram, all the two have been arrested. It is unfortunate that the driver had scanty respect for the life of fellow human being. When we stopped him at Kattangur he was still lying that he is taking the sick old man to a nearby hospital on the roof of his car, Motiram said. He said that the the body has been shifted to Nalgonda General Hospital. Union Minister for Science and Technology Harsh Vardhan, on Sunday claimed indigenous vaccines against dengue and malaria are in an advanced stage of development. Addressing the 103rd session of the Indian Science Congress in Mysuru, the minister said that Indian scientists were close to developing both vaccines that would be made available to the public once they are ready. The minister pointed out that rota virus vaccine against diarrhoeal diseases was developed in India at a fraction of the cost, compared to the vaccines available in the international market. He said a cheaper medicine for diabetics - BGR-34 was launched through technology transfer by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. The Science ministry would establish five technology research centres for taking up translational research. Recalling a previous call given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for inter-ministerial collaboration, Vardhan said his ministry was collaborating with the ministries of Railways, Human Resource Development and industries, among others. For Railways, we want to see solar trains in the future, besides fuel efficiency, emission control norms, fog control and other plans, whereas for the HRD ministry - to efficiently implement its Avishkar scheme, he said. He said India didn't need to look at the western nations as there were outstanding Indian scientists. We have cutting edge technology that is exploited for the benefits of the common man, as is evident from the recent examples in weather forecasts, cyclonic and tsunami warnings and disseminating these information to farmers and fishermen, he said. Dwelling further on how the cost of technology comes down with time, he cited the example of gene sequencing, which used to cost $ 1 billion ten years ago, but now is available in India at a cost of about $ 1000. India should deliver the benefits of yoga to the world by producing its good teachers, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said here on Sunday. Most of the foreign dignitaries who visit India want to know the benefits of yoga and institutions that teach while some even want to know where they can learn. The world has accepted and recognised yoga. People now want to connect with it, he said in his inaugural address at the 21st International Conference on Frontiers in Yoga Research and its Applications organised by the Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana (VYASA) at Prashanti Kutiram near Jigani on the outskirts of Bengaluru. It is here that our responsibility goes up. We cannot just roam around patting our backs that yoga is our contribution to the world, evolved by rishi munis and is a rich heritage and culture. We can sustain global interest in yoga by preparing best (yoga) teachers. The interest developed across the world for yoga should be converted into their well-being... Today yoga is not just Indian, it is a global heritage. It belongs to every society, he said, pointing to growing global recognition for yoga. He said that people were increasingly taking to yoga to redefine their lives to find oneness between their inner self and outer world; between their existence and their environment. People now demand promotion of wellness, which is a healthy balance of the mind, body and spirit and not just curing the disease, he said, stressing the need for an integrated approach by taking the best of East and the West. Yoga is about a holistic lifestyle and the physical, mental, intellectual, emotional, moral and spiritual harmony. It has profound health benefits. Citing a World Health Organisation (WHO) fact sheet on the global burden of diseases, the prime minister said the number of deaths caused by non-communicable diseases (NCDs) had increased from 40 per cent in 1999 to 80 per cent in 2008. NCDs are also the major cause of deaths in India. In India, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases, diabetes and other NCDs are estimated to account for 60 per cent of all deaths. These diseases account for about 40 per cent of all hospital stays and roughly 35 per cent of all recorded outpatient visits, he said, underlining the importance of yoga in curing them. He stopped Prime Minister Narendra Modis convoy at Kautilya Circle near Crawford Hall here for 20 seconds on Saturday. The 19-year-old Vinay, a diploma student, did so to draw the attention of Modi towards his Green India concept. Son of Kishore, an electrician, and Sunitha, residents of Varakodu on Mysuru-T Narsipur Road, Vinay had readied 25-page draft on his pet project Green India. He wanted to sell his idea to the prime minister. Vinay came down to the city from Kushalnagar, where he is pursuing his diploma course, a couple of days back after he learned that Modi is visiting the city. On Saturday, he wanted to submit the draft to the prime minister at the ground opposite the Maharajas College, where the latter was attending the Centenary celebration of the late pontiff of Suttur Mutt Shivaratri Rajendra Swami. However, he could not breach the foolproof security. Vinay was in no mood to let such an opportunity go waste. He went to Kautilya Circle nearby and made his way to headlines, of course, for all the wrong reasons. According to eyewitnesses, at 7:35 pm, he (Vinay) came in front of the prime ministers convoy, stopping it for 20 seconds. The Special Protection Group (SPG), sent the boy aside and cleared the way. No criminal past DCP (Law and Order) Dr H T Shekar told Deccan Herald, Vinay has a clean past with no criminal antecedent. He just took a chance to meet the prime minister. However, he is still being interrogated, as a precautionary measure. The Consulate General of India at Mazar-e-Sharif in northern Afghanistan came under a terror attack late in the evening on Sunday. None of the Indians working at and living within the Consulate General of India were injured in the attack, which went on for about 20 minutes. The personnel of Afghan National Security Force repelled the attack, which was carried out by at least four terrorists. Two of the terrorists were gunned down by the security personnel, according to the latest report. The attack on the Consulate General of India in northern Afghanistan came close on the heels of the terror strike on IAF base at Pathankot in Punjab. Consul General of India, Brajabashi Sarkar, told a TV channel over phone from Mazar-e-Sharif that the terrorists opened fire at the consulate apparently from a nearby building and the firing continued for nearly 20 minutes. Though the identity of the terrorists is yet to be ascertained, officials in New Delhi suspect that state or non-state actors of Pakistan might have a role in orchestrating the attack. Pakistan-based Haqqani Network and Lashkar-e-Toiba earlier carried out attacks on Indian missions in Afghanistan, including the Indias embassy in Kabul, its consulates in Jalalabad and Herat. The US had in 2011 publicly blamed the Haqqani Network for attacks on the Indian embassy in Kabul and stated that the terror group had acted as a veritable arm of the ISI of Pakistan. At least 14 people, including four Indians, were killed, when the terrorists attacked the Park Palace guesthouse in Kabul on May 13 last year. Three days after the nursery admissions began in the capital, confusion still prevails among those applying in the EWS category, which has been made online for the first time. Just days before January 1, when the nursery admissions were to start, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government had announced that the admissions under the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) will be online for schools recognised under Delhi School Education Act and Rules (DSEAR), 1973 and offline for schools recognised under the Right to Education (RTE) Act 2009. There are around 418 schools under the latter and parents are unaware about the difference between both the categories as there is no list in this regard. Moreover, many are encountering problems with the admission software developed by the Directorate of Education (DoE). However, sources at the DoE said that the government is working to fix the issues in the software and something in this connection will soon be announced. With this, the experts have suggested that the parents should wait for few more days and should not act in haste in filling the forms as there is time till January 15. There is no need to panic. If the government is working on something, then the parents should wait for at least two-three days, said education activist Sumit Vohra, who has set up a help desk at P P International School in Pitampura for the parents of wards in EWS category. Online process for the EWS was a good step and we should support it, but since it has encountered problems, the parents should not act in haste and fill forms wrongly, he said. Most parents are not aware whether the school they are applying to is offering online or offline form. I was searching for a particular school in my vicinity but it was not showing online. I later realised that it was among those in the offline category. There is no list to clarify which school is in category, said a parent. Another common complaint with the software is that it hangs during the process and that most of the times it the OTP is not generated due to which the registration remains incomplete. The government had earlier said that the parents belonging to the weaker sections of society will be helped by NGOs or representatives of the government in filling up the forms as they may not be tech savvy. However, there is no such help desk and parents claim that the cyber cafes are charging them more than usual. Meanwhile, even after the starting of the admission process, around 30 schools have yet not submtted their criteria to the DoE. By Mike Gaworecki 30 December 2015 (mongabay.com) As 2015 comes to a close, Mongabay is looking back at the year that was. This year saw President Obama reject the Keystone pipeline as historic droughts and a vicious wildfire season wracked the western US and Canada. The world committed to climate action in Paris as Southeast Asia was choking on the worst Indonesian haze in years, Shell aborted its plans to drill in the Arctic for the foreseeable future, and ExxonMobil is being investigated for lying to the public about climate risks. Here, in no certain order, are the top 15 environmental stories of 2015. 1. The world committed to climate action in Paris in what will almost definitely be the hottest year on record. In what was surely the biggest news of the year, negotiators representing nearly 200 countries reached a historic agreement to address climate change in Paris this December. The Paris Agreement commits countries to curbing greenhouse gas emissions with a goal of limiting global temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius (about 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) relative to pre-industrial levels. All signatories are required to take action toward meeting that goal by some combination of becoming more energy efficient, reducing deforestation and forest degradation, and burning less fossil fuels. That includes rich, industrialized nations like the United States and China as well as small, poor countries that are already struggling with the impacts of rising sea levels and temperatures. Some elements of the agreement are legally binding, but most language related to emissions reductions is voluntary, an approach insisted on by U.S. negotiators because Republicans in Congress would never ratify a binding treaty [] 8. Environmental activists killed for standing up for the planet. According to a report by London-based NGO Global Witness released earlier this year, Each week at least two people are being killed for taking a stand against environmental destruction. The report found that 116 environmental activists were murdered in 2014. Nearly half of them were Indigenous activists, and they were mostly killed for opposing hydroelectric dam projects and mining and agribusiness operations on their lands. This year, sadly, saw much more of the same. Though not all of these cases have been proven to have been related to the victims activism, here are a few of the people who dedicated their lives to standing up for the planet that we lost this year. Today we have instant communication worldwide, with many different ways of communicating. You can use your cell phone to call, text, take pictures and use the Internet. Lets go back a few years and see how it was then. Phone service came to Genoa in 1901. In those days, many families didnt have a phone. Back then, much of the communication was done by letters or postcards. After the depression in the 1930s, many families couldnt afford a phone and gave them up. Food on the table and a place to sleep were more important. Telephone poles were eventually erected throughout the rural areas. We got our first phone in 1950. All country phones were party lines, with several neighbors per party line. Every family had a combination of long and short rings so the family getting the call knew it was for them. Anytime a call came in, there were neighbors listening in (rubbering) to get in on the news and gossip. It was really quite entertaining. Im sure most people listened in on their neighbors some; some, all of the time. If you needed to make a call and clicked the receiver, some would hang up. Others would tell you where to go! To get the operator, you gave two or three cranks on the large box wall phone and the operator in the central phone office would ask, Number please? and connect you to your party. Long distance took some time. Later, smaller rotary phones were put on the wall, but you still had to dial the operator. We still use two of these old phones to receive calls. When Nellie Matson called she would speak Swedish. This made the eavesdroppers hang up. If my family had something confidential to talk about we would speak in Polish. You could hear clicks and sometimes a slam. A friend of mine on another line said he would have to wait until Polish hour was over before he could make his calls. The joke at the time was: The fastest way to communicate was to telephone, telegraph or tell a woman. In 1930, when two bandits were robbing the old Genoa Bank (now the museum), the telephone office was upstairs across the street. The operator, seeing the robbery, called the fire department. Roadblocks were set up, but the robbers escaped into Wyoming, where they chartered a plane and flew to Reno, Nevada. The heist was $6,639.85. When the authorities arrested the robbers in a casino in Reno, they recovered all the cash except $2,000 in silver, which was believed to have been gambled away. In the 1970s I found a baby raccoon, and my neighbor decided to keep it for a pet. As the raccoon got bigger, it was a pest. When my neighbor went to work, it would knock the phone off the hook, and everyone on the party line would lose service. After Bob Badura, our phone man, made several trips to put the phone back on the hook, the raccoon was released and the phones were back in service. After fiber-optic cables were buried underground, we all had private lines and could dial our party directly. The phone company took down the old poles, cross braces and green insulators, and let the farmers have the poles and wires for their own use. They threw the insulators into the holes left from the poles. As new technology keeps emerging, landlines are quickly becoming obsolete. They will soon be memories, like the crank phone and party lines. We can only imagine what will be used to communicate in another 70 or 80 years. Emil Drozd of Genoa writes historical articles for area newspapers. His columns appear regularly in The Columbus Telegram. He can be reached at etdrozd@frontiernet.net. If your happiness depends on money, you will never be happy with yourself. Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the world belongs to you." Lao Tzu Did you know that some foreigners from North America move to Ecuador to live in luxury? What does that mean? Well, in a nutshell it means that peoples retirement money doesnt go as far as it used to, or they dont know how to make it go further, and because of that they have had to give up certain standards of living theyre used to having. Then they hear that Cuenca Ecuador is cheap and they think they can come here and (with their retirement money/pension) live in luxury. But that is not altogether correct any more than the idea that moving to Ecuador will allow you to live in the middle class again. We have toured some of the nicest apartment complexes (just built) in Cuenca and what is viewed as luxury here is actually just standard construction, perhaps in the middle-end of North America but it certainly is not luxurious. So not to burst anyones luxury bubble; its not what you think. However, you will pay up for what is termed luxury. See the article at the end of this post. Sometime ago there was an article posted in the Cuenca chatter; the article was talking about how some of the gringo buyers of the in construction phase condominium units were demanding certain finishes to be made to their high rise apartments to U.S building standards. To make a long story short, the gringos demands were not met and some of them became very ugly and sue happy when the developers did not provide them with their demands of U.S standard finishes. We dont really know how it ends because the article doesnt really state, but interestingly enough, today in Cuenca there are about seven condo buildings located throughout the city that will not sell to gringos because they complain too much, are too picky, and want to sue when things do not go their way; this from the developers, not us. We tell you all this because these are the same type of high rise buildings that are built all over town that are for rent and for sale and they are not luxurious; they are just nice, some of the units are nicer than others, but nothing more. So if you are in the luxurious crowd moving to Cuenca or are moving here to find your middle class, dont have too high of expectations. Some gringos may find that paying $750 to $1250 for a condo termed luxury is not up to the standards they are accustomed to back home in North America and they might be disappointed. The middle class in most developing countries is not the majority and the middle class in Cuenca is not the same as what we are used to in North America. Finding a middle class in Latin America is just another glamorized statement used by the travel abroad magazines to get people excited about moving wherever they happen to be pumping that month. . Source: We need to understand that middle class is partly an attitude of the mind and partly learning how to spend the money we have. If we dont have either of these things then we will feel as if we have lost something we once had. Perhaps we become discouraged and think that going somewhere else will make us feel better. They know that North America is decaying politically and morally and becoming more expensive for pensioners to make ends meet, and is why they love to tout some of these developing countries as having a high middle class, but it is not what they make it out to be; it is not what you think it is. Ecuador is a developing country with a GDP per Capita of $11,000 annually. Compare that to the USA of $54,000 GDPSource: List of Countries by GDP (PPP) Per Capita. We need to understand that middle class is partly an attitude of the mind and partly learning how to spend the money we have. If we dont have either of these things then we will feel as if we have lost something we once had. Perhaps we become discouraged and think that going somewhere else will make us feel better. "Happiness is not having what you want. It is appreciating what you have." Unknown Moving abroad to another place labeled as cheap is not the total solution; it can be part of it but if you dont like it where you move to because everything is different or if you arent living on the money you have, wisely, where does middle class get you? What are other people that are considered middle class in North America doing? Did you know that most millionaires that had to work for their money got that way because they were frugal and didnt spend everything they earned. We could list hundreds of wealthy folks that live frugal but comfortable lives; were just saying middle class is an attitude of the mind. In all truth, moving to a developing, foreign land based on the need to feel better about ones life is a really poor reason to move abroad. And sadly, it is exactly this type of people that move to a touted, hyped up, temporarily cheap city abroad and end up leaving because they are basing their move on a feeling. They wont make it here. "Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude." Denis Waitley We have to change our way of thinking to feel good about our life and living standards. Feelings cannot be met simply by moving to a South American country. In fact, if anyone is having financial problems now or if you feel like you arent living the standard of life you think you should where you are living now, then you should FIRST take care of that concern within yourself BEFORE uprooting your discontented life to a foreign environment. Bringing discontent with you to a totally different environment, totally different middle class, totally different culture can only compound problems within you. Happiness comes from within not from without. No place in the world is going to change that. No one is in control of your happiness but you; therefore, you have the power to change anything about yourself or your life that you want to change. Barbara DeAngelis Until we write again Related Articles COLUMBUS The grocery deliverys here. Thats an increasing refrain Hy-Vee customers have been hearing at home since the Columbus store launched a new online service in early July. If youre a senior and dont want to brave nasty weather or a new mom busy at home caring for a newborn or young family always on the go, Hy-Vees got just the customer-friendly service for stocking the grocery shelves at home. Hy-Vee has seen steady growth in customers taking advantage of Hy-Vee Aisles Online, which allows customers to shop for their groceries online, pay electronically and have them delivered when its convenient for them. The number of online customers and grocery orders has climbed every month since the store unveiled the website six months ago, said Shellie Rhoads, Hy-Vees coordinator of the service that allows shoppers to create a shopping list while browsing store aisles for their favorite food items. Weve got the perfect mix of online customers, young and old, busy working professionals and stay-at-home moms, who cant get to the grocery store, said Rhoads, who was busy getting orders ready for home delivery this week. Adult children who live out-of-state place grocery orders for delivery to their elderly parents who live in Columbus, Rhoads said, adding that growth in the online service has come with very little marketing or promotion. Weve got a few signs up in the store, Rhoads said, but the growth has been pretty much word-of-mouth. Hy-Vee has taken local grocery orders over the phone for a number of years. Its all about customer service, said Rhoads, adding that the service fills a definite need in the community. I absolutely believe this will be growing (in the future). Super Saver and Wal-Mart dont offer online home delivery services in Columbus. The grocery industry has looked at online home delivery for a number of years, Super Saver Store Manager Matt Kroeger said this week. Some people think the service is more efficient in urban settings than rural areas, he said. The rollout of Hy-Vee's online program began in select stores in the Des Moines, Iowa, metropolitan area in April and was gradually launched across other markets throughout the summer. It became fully launched in all 240 Hy-Vee stores this fall. Customers who choose delivery can have their groceries on their doorstep from 9 a.m.-8 p.m. seven days a week. Shoppers can pick up an order at the store from 8 a.m.-9 p.m. seven days a week, with a four-hour window between placing an order and picking it up. Once a customer places an order, an Aisles Online personal shopper hand-selects the products, which ensures the orders are fresh and accurate. The groceries are kept in climate-controlled totes until they are unloaded into the customers vehicle or delivered to their home. Store pickup and home delivery are both free with an order of at least $100; orders under $100 have a $2.95 fee for pickup and $4.95 fee for delivery. Surgeon general urges better mental health care during Columbus visit The U.S. Surgeon General visited Nationwide Children's Hospital, Otterbein and Ohio State Tuesday in a push for improved youth mental health care. Edward W. Baker, 75, a resident of Midland City passed away Thursday, December 31, 2015 at his residence. Memorial services will be at 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday, January 6, 2016 at the Sunset Funeral Home Chapel with Rev. Ralph Sigler and Rev. Roy Rogers officiating. Military honors will follow in Sunset Memorial Park with Robert Byrd directing. The family will receive friends from 1-2:00 p.m. prior to the service at the funeral home. Robert Byrd of Sunset Memorial Park Funeral Home 334-983-6604 www.SunsetMemorialPark.com. Sign the guest book at www.dothaneagle.com. LINCOLN Gov. Pete Ricketts says Nebraskans should expect a push for tax reform "every single session" the Legislature meets during his tenure. Lawmakers enter 2016 with a projected $110 million shortfall in the state budget, prison needs expected to stretch into the millions of dollars and errors at the Department of Health and Human Services that could cost the state $12 million in reimbursements to the federal government. Ricketts and others at the Capitol say there's still room for tax reform this year but the bleak budget picture could diminish those plans somewhat. "We've got to work within the confines of the budget," the governor said in a recent interview. The outlook could change in February, the next time the state updates its revenue forecast. But assuming no major changes, here's a look at tax-related measures Nebraskans could see this year. Property taxes "The only thing that I've talked to the governor about has been property tax," said state Sen. Mike Gloor of Grand Island, chairman of the Legislature's Revenue Committee. "After that, everything is tier two." Education Committee Chairwoman Kate Sullivan of Cedar Rapids and Speaker Galen Hadley of Kearney are also communicating with Ricketts and his staff about property tax proposals, but Gloor said there is no "nice, neat, little package" ready for the 2016 session. Because property taxes are levied at the local level, Gloor and the governor have expressed interest in placing stricter budget limits on schools, cities and counties. Sen. Mike Groene of North Platte says he'll introduce legislation to change the way county assessors value properties across the state for tax purposes, using a five-year average value instead of a three-year average and omitting the highest 20 percent of comparable sales. Groene's plan would freeze valuations for a year to give schools and local governments time to adjust. The wider average would "take the hump out" of property tax valuations that have soared in recent years, Groene said, particularly for farms and ranches, where land prices are more volatile. Residential valuations statewide could drop by more than 6 percent under the plan, according to an analysis by the state Department of Revenue. Education groups and local government leaders would almost certainly oppose efforts to force down property tax revenue, particularly if that lost money isn't offset with state income or sales taxes. "The first question we have to answer is: Are we spending too much on education for our K-12 kids?" said Sen. Burke Harr of Omaha, a member of the Revenue Committee. Income taxes A group of some two dozen business leaders and others led by former gubernatorial candidate Bryan Sloan met regularly for about six weeks in the fall to craft an income tax plan they hoped Ricketts would back during the 2016 session. And in October, Ricketts told guests at a Lincoln Chamber of Commerce luncheon he would propose legislation this year that combines property tax reduction with state income tax cuts, calling both necessary to build a consensus. While the governor hasn't abandoned his vision, he said recently he wasn't prepared to discuss any specific plans for income tax reform. "Income taxes are also important," Ricketts said. "I'm not going to forget about income taxes, regardless of what happens this session." Business and conservative groups will continue to press the issue. "I want to do more than just talk about it this session," said Sen. Jim Smith of Papillion, a Revenue Committee member. "We need to do something about it." Smith proposed income tax cuts last year. His bill stalled in the Revenue Committee, but the push for "broad-based income tax reform" will continue in 2016, said Jim Vokal, CEO of the Omaha-based Platte Institute for Economic Research. Also, Vokal said, "I think that there still are two or three different smaller wins that are out there." Lawmakers could expand exemptions for military and social security retirement, as well as personal property taxes, Vokal said. Dr. Cecil James Milner, 88, a long-time resident of Dothan and husband of Ruth E. LaPointe Milner (Abington, Massachusetts), passed away peacefully on Sunday, December 27, 2015 surrounded by his family. Dr. Cecil Milner was born April 5, 1927 in Dallas, Texas, where he lived until he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. As a proud Marine, he served his country during both World War II and the Korean War. Among his military duties, he escorted fallen Marines for final honors and burials. He was honorably discharged with a rank of Second Lieutenant. Between his active military services, he began his educational career at Colorado A&M, now Colorado State University. He later received his Bachelor of Science and Masters of Education Degrees from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. Dr. Milner continued his educational journey, earning his Doctorate of Education from The University of Alabama in 1994 at the age of 67. Dr. Milner held the position of Vice President of Sales and Distribution at Johnson and Johnson, where he was employed for twenty-three years. He and his wife, Ruth, relocated from the Chicago area to Dothan in 1977. He was the Executive Vice President and General Manager of Ansell until 1992. He continued working as a consultant in the industry until his retirement eight years ago. Aside from Dr. Milner's military and professional endeavors, he was also a long-time humanitarian, philanthropist, and lover of music. Dr. Milner always found the best in people and strived to help them reach their full potential. He was a devout member of St. Columba's Catholic Church and served as a Eucharistic Minister. In honor of his beloved wife Ruth, Dr. Milner initiated two scholarships at Troy State University. He was also a strong advocate for the rights of Americans with disabilities and was very active on various boards of directors in the Dothan community, including the Personnel Board for the City of Dothan. Dr. Milner was a long-time and much respected member of the Dothan Rotary Club. Dr. Milner was preceded in death by his son-in-law Conrad Chevez and grandson Matthew James Milner. He is remembered with love by his wife of 66 years Ruth Milner; his daughter, Patty Chevez of Roseville, California; his sons, Michael Milner of Dothan, William (Linda) Milner of Greenville, Rhode Island, Timothy (Carol) Milner of Boulder, Colorado, and Jonathan Milner; his brother, George Milner; and numerous nieces and nephews across the country. He will always be cherished as Granddaddy by his fourteen grandchildren and thirteen great-grandchildren. A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Monday, January 4, 2016 at St. Columba Catholic Church. Burial with military honors will follow in Sunset Memorial Park. The family will welcome friends at the funeral home Sunday evening from 5:00-7:00 p.m. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Matthew J. Milner Memorial Scholarship Fund, c/o Freedom National Bank, P.O. Box 275, Greenville, RI, 02828. Robert Byrd of Sunset Memorial Park Funeral Home 334-983-6604 www.SunsetMemorialPark.com. Sign the guest book at www.dothaneagle.com. 1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war. 2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war. 3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament of the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength. 4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war. 5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites. 6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination. 7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N. 8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N. 9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress. 10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N. 11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.) 12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party. 13. Do away with all loyalty oaths. 14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office. 15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States. 16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights. 17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks. 18. Gain control of all student newspapers. 19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack. 20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions. 21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures. 22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms." 23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art." 24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press. 25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV. 26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy." 27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch." 28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state." 29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis. 30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man." 31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over. 32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc. 33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus. 34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities. 35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI. 36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions. 37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business. 38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand. 39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals. 40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce. 41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents. 42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use united force to solve economic, political or social problems. 43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government. 44. Internationalize the Panama Canal. 45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction over nations and individuals alike. Is Daisy feeling settled in her relationship with Daniel now or does she still struggle with the ghost of Sinead? I think she is feeling set... 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Due to the long wait, numerous rumors and speculations become rampant. "Attack on Titan" is based on the manga series "Shingeki no Kyojin" by Hajime Isayama. In its first season, the anime series covered 34 chapters of its source material, which translates to about four story arcs. According to the editor of Isayama, as reported by Design & Trend, the upcoming season is already 60 percent completed. Since the manga series was only two story arcs ahead of the anime version, more time was needed to build more story lines. Season 2 of "Attack on Titan" may also be the last given that there are only about 27 more volumes left in the manga series. While no storylines have been officially confirmed, it is believed that season 2 of "Attack on Titan" will take place after Titans have penetrated the Wall Rose. Captain Erwin Smith will not only fight off the Titans but will also lead an uprising set to overthrow their corrupt king. However, Erwin and the 104th Trainees Squad will realize that the king was not actually the one in power; rather, it is the Reiss family that holds power and influence. Members of the Reiss family are said to have special abilities that allow them to transform into Titans. The upcoming season may also delve into the true identities of Colossal Titan and Armored Titan. Their identities are linked closely to Eren Jaeger's past. Finally, season 2 of "Attack on Titan" will also explore the identities of Ymir and Krista Lenz. Lenz is said to be the daughter of Rod Reiss. With the rebellion being the focus of the upcoming season, it is likely that there will be several deaths. The most tragic loss may be Levi Ackerman, whose death is being speculated. His death may come after protecting the rest of the squad. It is also rumored that Captain Erwin Smith may lose an arm in battle and will eventually leave the squad. "Attack on Titan" season 2 will be released in Japan sometime in 2016. Via The News International: Anti-polio drive to start from 11th. The full report indicates the scope of the problems the health authorities are facing: Karachi's first anti-polio drive this year will be held from January 11 to 15 and to ensure the effectiveness of the campaign, the authorities have taken some strict decisions including sealing the homes of parents, with children aged five or less, not present there for two months or more so that vaccination could be carried out on their return. The Karachi task force for polio eradication said on Saturday that unavailability of children during vaccination drives had emerged as the biggest issue for the health authorities. Instead of refusing to have their children vaccinated, parents left their homes during anti-polio drives and returned after they had finished. The task force made the decision at a recent meeting presided over by Karachi Commissioner Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqui. Seven cases of polio were reported in Karachi last year of the total 15 in the entire province. Polio eradication officials blamed the poor quality of campaigns during the last half of the year because of the unavailability of adequate security for vaccinators during the drives. Karachi police, Rangers and representatives of other security agencies also attended the meeting and decided that as per an earlier decision, the vaccination drive in Karachi would be carried out in all six districts of the city at once and no child under the age of five years of age would be missed. Polio eradication officials discussed various strategies to make the vaccination drive successful with special emphasis on lowering and eliminating the chance of refusals by the parents and decided to seek local influential people, clerics and community representatives to make the drive successful. Does Prince Harry have a crush on a major Hollywood star? That's what the new rumor seems to be as apparently Prince William's younger brother has the hots for actress Emma Stone, who recently broke up with another British bloke - actor Andrew Garfield. Kate Middleton News 2015: The Duchess Is Being Criticized For Shielding Her Children According to OK! Magazine on Saturday, Prince Harry is so obsessed with the actress that he is looking to meet her as soon as possible as sources close to the young royal say that he might possibly be madly in love with her. A source close to Prince Harry told the publication, "Harry's completely smitten with Emma and thinks she's the hottest woman in Hollywood." Kate Middleton Pregnancy News 2015: Is The Duchess Expecting Her Third Child Already? The insider added, "He thinks she's the perfect woman - talented, classy and incredibly witty - and he's obsessed with her green eyes." What's more, Prince Harry has supposedly waited patiently to make his move, as the actress has been on-again, off-again with her ex-boyfriend Garfield. Still, a tipster insists that the Prince "would never steal her away from another guy but now that she and Andrew Garfield are off again, he's really keen to arrange a meeting." So far, Buckingham Palace has not made any comments about the rumors although Prince Harry himself has insisted that he's been single for several months now. Keep up with Enstars for all the latest news on all of your favorite British royal celebrities right here. Now that Sofia Vergara and Joe Manganiello are a happily married couple, it looks like he is putting his foot down when it comes to some of the actresses' cosmetic obsessions. In fact, there's a new report that says the hunky big screen star is none too happy over the fact that his wife is obsessed with Botox and he wants her to stop getting her procedures done as soon as possible. Sofia Vergara, Joe Manganiello: Report Says The Couple Is Madly In Love As They Countdown To Their Wedding According to OK! Magazine on Saturday, the issue has already caused some strife in the couple's marriage, only one month after they tied the knot back in November. Vergara is allegedly obsessed with keeping up her appearance while Manganiello thinks she looks beautiful just the way she is. A source close to the genetically-blessed couple said, "This has been a point of contention between them for a while, but now he's got that ring on her finger, Joe's putting his foot down." Sofia Vergara News 2015: 'Modern Family' Star Opens Up About Her Wedding Dress But it looks like Vergara isn't going to stop anytime soon. In fact, the Modern Family star shared her thoughts on cosmetic procedures, insisting that there's nothing wrong with a little nip and tuck here and there. She said, "If it makes you happier and more confident, then why not? But I also think you need to do your research, so you know what to expect - that you'll look fresher but not necessarily younger. I don't want to age, but hey, what can you do? It's a natural process. I'm trying to do it gracefully." So far, neither Vergara nor Manganiello have made any comments about the report. Keep up with Enstars for all the latest news on Sofia Vergara, Joe Manganiello and all of your favorite celebrity couples right here. The Suigo Fireworks Festival historical display festival in Kuwana, riverside district town located in Mie Prefecture, Japan and has been displayed annually since 1934. The fireworks display is held every year in July. These Japanese-style fireworks is just unbelievable. The lines are elegant; shapes so varied; colors subtle; composition of the "canvas" is perfection, and the overall look is spectacular. What's most impressive to me is how they use the black of the sky as a component of the fireworks. It's not a painting on top of the sky; the sky itself is part of the painting, drawing forms in negative space. These shells are usually about 12 inches in diameter (or even more!) and are hand crafted by expert pyrotechnicians who keep their chemistry and techniques a very closely guarded secret. In Japan each shell is a work of art and they rarely shoot more than one of these at the same time so that you can focus on the moment and the detail in it. Sometimes they will fire pairs or triples but all the same shell and builder. The skill involved in creating one of these shells is almost a life's work. The knowledge has taken years to accumulate. The result is extraordinary. Animal rights, properly understood, is an ideology that insists the capacity to feel pain is the basis for possessing rights. Hence, several years ago, PETA claimed that eating meat is an evil equivalent to Auschwitz. Now, with some studies showing that fish may feel pain, we are told over at the Huffington Post to stop eating fish. The writer is Marc Bekoff, a professor (of course) of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. From Science Shows Fish Feel Pain, So Lets Get Over It and Do Something to Help These Sentient Beings: We need to do something about this now because billions of fish are killed globally for food as if they dont care about what happens to them. As Robert Jones of the Department of Philosophy at California State University, Chico, notes in his essay called Fish sentience and the precautionary principle, If fish are sentient (and there is good evidence that they are), then the number of sentient beings in the form of fish that are slaughtered for food annually equals at least twelve times that of the current human population (Mood & Brooke 2010). If the idea of such a moral atrocity werent enough, current world fishing trends point to a global eradication of all taxa currently fished, causing a total collapse of the fishing industry by the year 2048 (Worm et al. 2006). Surely, by any moral calculus, applying the precautionary principle regarding fish welfare is reasonable and prudential, if not obligatory. In other words, Dont eat that salmon and leave the halibut alone! So, lets recap. We cant eat meat. We cant eat fish. We may not be able to eat insects, because they are sentient beings, too. Indeed, PETA has accused honey farmers of using rape racks to inseminate queens. That leaves some plants. Why only some? Well, another professor has told us that peas are persons too, and so we cant eat annuals such as tomatoes. This is what happens when human exceptionalism is rejected: We go out of our ever lovin minds! Image credit: ???? ?? Etan Tal (Own work) [CC BY 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons. Cross-posted at The Corner. The British Pound to US Dollar exchange rate slumped to a fresh eight-month low last week as Brexit concerns weigh on Sterling demand Credit Agricole analysts forecast that both the British Pound (GBP) and the US Dollar (USD) exchange rate units could peak during 2016. This notion is supported by the comparatively positive domestic fundamentals in the US and the UK. The British pound to US dollar exchange rate has the potential to depreciate with mounting uncertainty regarding the forthcoming referendum on the UKs membership in the European Union. Here are some reference forex rates before we continue: On Wednesday the Pound to British Pound exchange rate (GBP/GBP) converts at 1 Today finds the pound to pound spot exchange rate priced at 1. The GBP to EUR exchange rate converts at 1.148 today. FX markets see the pound vs australian dollar exchange rate converting at 1.788. Please note: the FX rates above, updated 19th Oct 2022, will have a commission applied by your typical high street bank. Currency brokers specialise in these type of foreign currency transactions and can save you up to 5% on international payments compared to the banks. Dollar Exchange Rate Projections: Policy Divergence and Currency Wars Predicted to Drive G-10 Price Action in 2016 Although the Bank of England (BoE) is not expected to increase the overnight cash rate until well into 2016 and possibly even 2017, policy divergence remains given that the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is unlikely to loosen policy. The Federal Reserve is predicted to hike the benchmark interest rate at least twice in 2016 by most analysts which will further widen the divergent outlook when compared to central banks such as the Swiss National Bank or the European Central Bank. In accordance with Credit Agricole: The tug of war between central bank policy divergence and global currency wars should continue to drive price action in G10 FX markets next year. The relatively strong domestic fundamentals in the US and the UK should allow the Fed, and to a degree the BoE, to tolerate further currency appreciation against low-yielding funding currencies like EUR, CHF and JPY. US Dollar to Pound Exchange Rate Predicted to Strengthen in H2 2016 on EU Referendum Whilst both the British Pound and the US Dollar are expected to outperform the other major currencies in 2016, Credit Agricole also predict that the GBP/USD will soften. This is due to uncertainty regarding the UKs referendum on its membership with the European Union. With many positives in the price, we expect both USD and GBP to peak next year. In the case of USD nominal effective exchange rate (NEER) the peak should come towards the end of 2016 once the Fed tightening cycle is well underway. GBP should fare less well and we expect renewed weakness in H216 ahead of the EU referendum, stated Credit Agricole. Many investors are concerned that if British citizens vote to sever ties with Europe, foreign investment will decrease significantly and London-based global businesses will move headquarters. US Dollar (USD) Exchange Rate Forecast Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts see further upside risk to the dollar exchange rate in the near to long term outlook: "The U.S. dollar has become more fully valued but it is not done rising: there are still enough domestic and external forces in its favor even as it pauses to digest the strong appreciation it experienced over the last year." "Though not the only driver, monetary policy/major central bank balance sheet dynamics should remain a major force behind likely further dollar appreciation against both major and emerging market currencies." January We started the year with @ventureforthphoto doing a takeover for us at the annual Bishwa Itjema religious festival, "which draws millions of attendees to the northern Dhaka suburb of Tongi, many of them arriving and departing on heavily loaded trains, which are truly an astounding sight". A good six months before the US and Cuba restored diplomatic relations, @signorilefabio decided to see Havana before it all changed. "Havana appears suspended in the 1950s you see all these iconic vintage American cars cruising along the Malecon." February The Jaisalmer Desert Festival takes place in Rajasthan every February. @drusillita posted shots from the event, which celebrates the culture and heritage of the region in camel races, music, art and dance. Venice carnival was also in full flow in February quite literally this year as there was widespread flooding. Local Instagrammer @neumarc posted photos of the costumes and masks. March By March, we were desperate for some sun, and local photographer @katwesterman took us on a tour of the southern California beach scene, including "Muscle Beach" an outdoor weightlifting area legendary among body builders. This year marked the 50th annversary of Singapore's independence. Photographer @aikbengchia offered to show us around his city, and at 2.15am on the first day, he met Mr Hamid, one of the many cyclists in Singapore who transform their bicycles into a kaleidoscope of colour with a multitude of LED lights and stickers. More than 120,000 photgraphs have so far been shared with us by adding #guardiantravelsnaps and this one was sent in by @joideverve, a Sydney-based photographer who was touring Japan by train. April One of our featured Instagrammers of the week in April was American photographer @kdkuiper, who travelled all over Egypt, starting in Cairo where he took a ride out to the pyramids: "A trip of a lifetime, and despite all the negative stories that you hear about Egypt, I never once felt unsafe." May In May, we headed to China with @alessors an Italian photographer documenting how fast the country is changing. "This cigar seller set up his stand in the Kuantan-Zhai pedestrianised area of Chengdu in Sichaun province, with renovated Qiang dynasty hutongs alleys lined with houses built around courtyards." June We celebrated the start of summer with this shot by @nashker at Plage de Saint-Malo, taken when he travelled 23,000 miles from Asia to the US without using a plane. North Korea was constantly in the headlines this year, and in June announced that it was blocking access to Instagram. Singapore-based photographer Mindy Tan posted photographs from her recent visit on @mindyshoots and blog.mindytan.com. This shot shows a traffic cop on her way to work in Pyongyang. Also in June, Californian pro-climber @chris_sharma took his passion for climbing trees to dizzying new heights, scaling a huge redwood tree for a project called Red Bull's Giant Ascent. He climbed the 77-metre tree in Eureka, northern California, without ropes, getting 50 metres up the bark before reaching the first branches. Photograph by @ladzinski. Five years after the earthquake of 2010 devastated Haiti, Guardian travel correspondent @kevinrushby visited the island to see how it was recovering. July July was all about Greece. With all the economic uncertainty following the debt crisis and the "no" vote in the austerity referendum, we wanted to encourage people to continue to holiday there. This shot by @21_pp shows a little girl playing along with the soldiers in Athens. August "Bright days" lie ahead for Iran's tourism industry following the nuclear agreement struck in Vienna in July. This shot by @mansoreh.motamedi shows an Iranian Muslim family using a selfie stick to take a group photograph on a beach by the Caspian sea, northern Iran @matteocartaphoto, a teacher, traveller and photographer based in China, shared a rare insight into the Naadam festival in Mongolia, a major holiday featuring the three sporting passions of Mongolians: horse racing, wrestling and archery. September In September, Melbourne-based photojournalist @francescovicenzi was in Pokhra, Nepal to witness new constitution celebrations. "The newly signed constitution was seven years in the making and follows months of political unrest. While celebrated in major towns, it has left some minority groups unhappy." October October is all about the beer in Bavaria. @katia_mi_ shared this shot from Oktoberfest: the largest beer festival and funfair in the world, held in Munich since 1810. November November saw Myanmar's first national vote since a nominally civilian government was introduced in 2011, ending nearly 50 years of military rule. @paulratje, an American photojournalist based in Taiwan, captured the historic events. "This shot was taken in Mandalay and shows a group of nuns crammed aboard a bus, seemingly joking around. Nuns in Myanmar are usually quite solemn as they do their alms rounds, but this scene offers a glimpse of their character." December In December, we travelled to the coldest populated region in the world Yakutia, the heart of Siberia, in north-east Russia with @maxavdeev, a freelance photojournalist from Moscow. "This shot shows a woman in Gagarin Park just after finishing the 10km run in the park. The extreme cold doesn't deter joggers, even though in temperatures below -30C, any sweat and moisture immediately turn to ice." We rounded the year off in Berlin at the Gendarmenmarkt with @katia_mi_. "This is one of the most popular Christmas markets in Berlin during the festive season. Framed by the Franzosischer Dom, the Konzerthaus and the Deutscher Dom, a small tent city with more than 1,000 strings of light appears like magic each year in this centrally-located square."Source: Guardian Travel's year in Instagram: 2015 Via The New York Times, a report by Taras Grescoe: The Dirty Truth About Clean Diesel. Taras is something of an expert on transit issues and is the author of a good book on the subject, Straphanger. I'm proud to say I sold a couple of articles to his mother when she was a magazine editor here in BC. Excerpt: The diesel engine is inherently efficient: Even a heavy sedan can get as much as 50 miles per gallon, while producing fewer carbon dioxide emissions per mile. The relatively light carbon footprint of Diesels invention meant that in the late 1990s, policy makers in Europe, eager to meet Kyoto Protocol goals, initiated a dash for diesel. Consumers got a push from sharply reduced taxes on diesel fuel. In Europe, where tens of millions of cars run on diesel, 55 percent of all new vehicle registrations are now for diesel cars. Thanks also to a glut of cheap diesel from Russian refineries, which last year ramped up production to half a million barrels a day, diesel is now a cheap option at many gas stations. Industry soon took the hint: Diesel could be marketed as green. The Diesel Technology Forums website proclaims that Todays ultralow sulfur diesel, advanced engines and effective emissions control combine to achieve near zero emissions. In the United States, which has some of the worlds toughest air pollution laws, automakers worked hard to convince consumers that a new generation of clean diesel cars were far less polluting. Volkswagen heavily promoted its TDI (turbocharged direct injection) technology. We know better now. As anybody who has seen the black smoke spewing out of the pipes of a big rig as it changes gears can testify, diesel has a fatal flaw. It tends to burn dirty, particularly at low speeds and temperatures. In cities, where so much driving is stop and start, incomplete diesel combustion produces pollution that is devastating for human health. Fortunately, Volkswagen sold under half a million of its clean diesel cars to the American public before the emissions scandal broke. Today, fewer than 1 percent of the passenger vehicles sold in the United States run on diesel fuel. So Americans have a head start on Europe, where policy makers are belatedly coming to view diesel as a devils bargain. In a bid to make quick gains in the fight to slow global warming, they abetted a dramatic and quickly apparent decline in urban air quality. It turns out opting for diesel may even have failed to limit climate change: Researchers at Stanford found in 2002 that the warming because of soot from diesel emissions may more than offset the cooling because of reduced carbon dioxide emissions over the long term. Europe is now scrambling to undo the damage. In London, Mayor Boris Johnson last year called for a national program to pay some drivers to scrap their diesel vehicles. In Paris, Mayor Anne Hidalgo has gained broad support for a proposed ban on diesel cars. City leaders have a ways to go. On half a dozen visits to Europe in the last five years, Ive marveled at the way traffic-limiting policies, along with better transit and bicycle infrastructure, have made life there more pleasant. While I envy such smart advances in urbanism and transportation, Ive also noticed a paradoxical decline in air quality. Elsewhere around the world, such forward-thinking leaders as Enrique Penalosa, the recently re-elected mayor of Bogota, Columbia, are betting on public transit, rather than private cars, to keep their cities moving. Battling its own smog problem, Bogota now has a pilot project to replace its rapid transit systems diesel-powered buses with Chinese-made electric vehicles. Officials in Madrid have gone further, with plans to make its city center car-free by 2020. Bogota and Madrid aren't the only ones. Helsinki, Finland's sublimely civilized capital, plans to make car ownership pointless by 2024. And the AQI on Mannerheimintie, downtown Helsinki's main drag, is currently a big fat 1. Hello everyone! I was offered a job in Australia and when I accepted it, the MA told me that the whole process would take 3 months. 3 months since I sent him all my documentation will be on February the 3rd, and when I did it, I booked the flights right away. I had no idea that it could take more time. The thing is... I already have the flights booked for February 3, the SBS was approved on December 22, date that the MA sent the nomination application. I think I still need to wait for the nomination to be approved, and only then he'll submit the visa application. Correct? I already have a tourist visa granted, I applied for it a while ago but never traveled to australia. My question is... If by February 3 my 457 visa is not granted yet, would it be ok if I travel to Australia on a tourist visa and wait for it inside the country? I don't have a return flight, booked just a one way flight. I was told that the immigration asks for a return flight and I may have problems if I don't have one. Also, would they know that I have a 457 being processed? Would I need to book a return flight to show the immigration? Did anybody done this recently? What would you recommend? Thanks! Hi guy, i have a few quick questions. I am a dutch national living in the UK, i have been resident in UK for 12 years. My status is working full time permanent. I invited my wife over with a EEA family permit visa, she has applied for residence card but still waiting, but now i want to invite their mum and 2 sisters. 1: I would like to invite my wifes family from Iran to the UK even on a visit visa if possible? 2: Is there any way i can invite them over they hold a afghan passport. Please let me know thank you Hi my name is Cas, live in Barcelona but originally from The Netherlands. (sorry for my English) During my digital search to a Land Rover Series II, I found several examples on Portuguese car website for very attractive prices. Also many Defenders were offered for low prices. But further on those sites, the prices of the same type of cars (most by garages) are much higher. The offered (cheap) cars are through whole Portugal and offered by private sellers, and the ads dont look like scam ads, as we have here sometimes. After some Google search, I found out that the used car prices in Portugal are the highest in Europe, so this dont compare with my search results. Do I miss something, and are all those cheap ads scam? If so, what is the profit for the scammers, I think nobody will pay a car in advance?? If this is scam, is it a common problem (I looked only by Land Rover ads) on Portuguese car websites? I have looked at the websites mentioned below: motores24h. automoveis. carros.grandemercado. ooyyo. auto.mitula. Thanks Cas Beef and sheep farmers wanting to test a new approach to the management of their stock and business are being urged to apply for up to 5,000 under the Farm Innovation Grant (FIG) scheme. Farmer Innovation Grants, are awarded through a competitive bidding process, to groups of English beef and sheep farmers who are interested to test or assess an element of best practice on-farm, or implement a piece of new technology which will help improve returns for their livestock enterprise. The aim of these awards is to facilitate projects which will result in valuable learnings, which AHDB can share with the wider beef and sheep industry. Application Process: How FIG works? AHDB Beef and Lamb is offering funding to support groups of farmers wanting to adopt and evaluate an element of best practice on their farms or try out a new piece of technology. The funding is made over a one year period and will generally have a ceiling of 5,000. The funding allows groups of farmers to get technical help to set up their project and cover some of the costs associated, for example data collection and analysis, or advice on the best approach to address an issue on their range of farm circumstances. A budget for expected expenditure is required with an application. Funding for novel equipment is limited to 1000 per project and at the discretion of AHDB Beef and Lamb. Farmer groups will be expected to contribute some of their own money and time to the project which should be shown in the proposal as a farmer contribution. One of the conditions of the funding is that a report will be provided to AHDB to allow the lessons learnt to be communicated to other levy payers. A farm walk or event may also be requested to demonstrate the outcomes to other farmers. Applications for 2016 funding now open. Applications for 2016 funding show open The third year of FIG grant applications is open to all English beef or sheep farmers, there should be at least three farmers in a group. Groups may be supported by a supply chain, veterinary practice, consultant or breed society. The funding is available to support groups of innovative farmers (minimum of 3) wanting to adopt and evaluate an element of best practice on their farms or try out a new piece of technology. The funding is made over a one-year period and will have a ceiling of 5,000. The funding allows groups of farmers to get technical help to set up their project and cover some of the costs associated. This could include example data collection and analysis, or advice on the best approach to address an issue on their farms. A budget for expected expenditure is required with an application. Funding for novel equipment is limited to 1,000 per project and at the discretion of AHDB Beef & Lamb. Farmer groups will be expected to contribute some of their own money and time to the project, which should be shown in the proposal as a farmer contribution. One of the conditions of the funding is that an interim progress and a final report will be provided to AHDB Beef & Lamb to allow the lessons learnt to be communicated to other levy payers. A farm walk or event may also be requested to demonstrate the outcomes to other farmers. Please complete and return the FIG application form to ku.gro.bdha@prb by 7 February 2016 or call 024 7647 8834 with any questions. Via The Diego Union-Tribune, a December 31 report: Dengue, yellow fever mosquitoes spread across California. Excerpt: Two types of non-native mosquitoes that can transmit potentially fatal diseases have spread throughout the state, including San Diego County, and could see a population explosion come spring. The blood-suckers expanded their territory during summer and fall to more than a dozen cities and unincorporated areas of San Diego and Imperial counties, including San Diego, Oceanside, Escondido, Chula Vista, El Cajon, Imperial Beach, El Centro and Calexico. The growth was largely attributed to abnormally warm weather conditions this year. It was quicker and more widespread than any of us could have anticipated, said Chris Conlan, an ecologist with the San Diego County Vector Control Program. The yellow fever mosquito (Aedes aegypti) and Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus) can carry diseases linked to birth defects, painful illness and tens of thousands of deaths around the globe every year. They can be identified by their black-and-white striped bodies and aggressive behavior toward people, often following them indoors. Smaller than average mosquitoes, these pests distinguish themselves as daytime feeders. Theyre tough to eradicate, needing as little as a thimble of water to reproduce. After months of tracking the growing population of yellow fever mosquitoes, local vector-control officials cringed in September when they found the Asian tiger mosquito as well. Both species of the insect were first located near San Diegos shipyards, although its unclear how they first came into this county. In many cases, when the technicians go out ... to respond to complaints [about the mosquitoes], theyre even swatting them out of their face, Conlan said. In a couple of places, it has reached very troubling numbers San Ysidro and some areas around Barrio Logan to Logan Heights. Its pretty widespread down there. So far, California has seen no locally acquired cases of disease spread by these mosquitoes, which include dengue fever, yellow fever and Chikungunya. A mosquito must bite an infected person to then pass along a malady. This year, travelers returning to California have reported 99 cases of dengue and 178 cases of Chikungunya. There have been no reported cases of yellow fever. West Nile virus remains a more immediate threat among mosquito-related illnesses, but that could change, said Marco Metzger, senior public health biologist in the vector-borne-disease section at the California Department of Public Health. What were dealing with is an emerging concern, he said. If these [mosquitoes] become widely successful in California, we have the potential for disease transmission. We dont have any mosquitoes that live so closely associated with humans, he added. These mosquitoes are notorious in so many parts of the world because they live with us. Public-health officials are urging residents who see these invasive pests on their properties to take action before temperatures heat up. Mosquito season usually starts in March and peaks between August and November. With a limited flight distance, the mosquitoes likely breed near where theyre spotted. The saucers of potted plants, plastic toys that fill with water and clogged rain gutters offer fertile breeding opportunities. The mosquitoes eggs can survive without water for months, requiring infested sites to be scrubbed down thoroughly. Battling alcohol and opioid addictions: Can Vivitrol help? Vivitrol, an injectable version of the drug naltrexone, completely blocks euphoria from drug consumption, according to Vivitrol's website. Steve Guttenburg wants to star in a Shakespeare play in London. Steve Guttenberg The American comic star - most famous for his roles the 'Police Academy' movies, 'Cocoon' and 'Three Men and a Baby' - says his dream is to tread the boards on the West End in one of the Bard's classics. He exclusively told BANG Showbiz: "I really would love to come over to London to do Shakespeare, I've done 'Henry IV Part 1' in New York, I played the Earl of Northumberland, Henry Percy, and I had a great time doing it. "I occasionally get offers for shows on your side of the pond and I would love to come over and do a play especially a classic Shakespeare in London. I would love it. I dream of starring on the West End and I would love the chance to do it." Steve previously revealed former US President Bill Clinton loves to cheer himself up when he's having a bad day by watching the 'Police Academy' movies. He said: "Every time I've seen President Clinton he says when he's in a bad mood he turns on 'Police Academy'." The Hollywood star is regularly stopped in public by fans who want to speak to him about their favourite films of his and he feels honoured his work over the past five decades has had such a long-lasting impact. He said: "I'm lucky because I've been able to be part of some wonderful films; a plethora of well known films and really enjoyable films. People come up to me all the time, some people want to ask me about 'The Boys from Brazil'; then there are people who really enjoyed 'Diner' who say that it changed their lives. A lot of the gay crowd love 'Can't Stop the Music', or kids will come up to me and say they loved 'It Takes Two'." Has your favourite book bee adapted for the big screen this year? We have seen so many book adaptation movies released over the last twelve months and it really has been a very strong genre of film. Brooklyn Of course, some may not have quite lived up to our expectations or left us a little disappointed, but there are some that have been wonderful film versions of some great novels. We take a look back over the last twelve months and pick out some of the best book adaptation movies of 2015. - Brooklyn Ever since Brooklyn premiered at the Sundance Film Festival at the beginning of the year, it has been one of the most talked about and acclaimed movies. Brooklyn is based on the novel of the same name by Colm Toibin, has been adapted for the big screen by Nick Hornby, and marks the return of John Crowley to the director's chair. This is the first feature for Crowley since Closed Circuit and sees him team up with Saoirse Ronan for their first film project together. Ronan takes on the central role of Eilis, a young Irish immigrant in New York, who must choose between her new life and the life and people that she left behind. Crowley really has delivered a gem of a movie that mix drama, humour and emotion, while having a big heart and packed with bucket loads of charm. He has captured the 1950s beautifully and wonderfully contrasts Ireland with the glitz and glamour of New York. There's something crisp, clean and incredibly classic about the look of the film - it really is a beautiful looking movie. Ronan has also been winning rave reviews for her central performance; she has won the Best Actress Awards and the British Independent Film Awards and is tipped to be in the Oscar race when the nominations are announced later this year. She really does give a very powerful performance as a young woman who is just trying to find her place in the world. Ronan is no stranger to the big screen and we have always known that she is an actress of immense talent, but her work in Brooklyn will send her star rocketing even higher and the next couple of years are going to be very exciting for her. - Carol Another movie that has been drowning in acclaim and Oscar buzz this year is Carol, which sees Oscar winner Cate Blanchett reunite with filmmaker Todd Haynes for the first time since I'm Not There. Carol is based on the novel The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith and has been adapted for the big screen by Phyllis Nagy. It really is one of the best romance movies of the year and it is not hard to see why critics and audiences are falling hard and fast for this film. Set in the 1950s, Carol follows the blossoming relationship between department-store clerk, Therese and Carol, an older married woman. There has been a whole host of movies that have been released this year that have been female driven and Carol is a fine example of that. Blanchett is just wonderful in the title role and she could get her hands on her second Best Actress Oscar for her performance. Rooney Mara is also terrific and I love the chemistry between the two actresses. Carol is a touching, powerful, devastating, and intelligent love story that is very reminiscent of movies such as Brief Encounter; it really is a truly wonderful watch. Carol has been met with acclaim by the critics and was named Best Film by the New York Film Critics Circle. The film, Blanchett, and Mara have been picking up nominations left, right, and centre and Carol looks set to be a major play as he heads into the awards season. Don't be surprised if it is a major frontrunner come the Oscars. - Me and Earl and the Dying Girl Me and Earl and the Dying Girl was another film that whipped up a storm when it played at the Sundance Film Festival at the beginning of the year and it was one of the unmissable September movies that did not disappoint. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is based on the book of the same name by Jesse Andrews and was adapted into a screenplay by the author himself. The movie saw Alfonso Gomez-Rejon back in the director's chair for only the second feature film of his career to date. The movie follows high schooler Greg, who spends most of his time making parodies of classic movies with his co-worker Earl. However, his outlook forever altered after befriending a classmate who has just been diagnosed with cancer. What I love about Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is that this is not your typical and average teen/high school movie. Director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon has delivered a movie that has something to say about loss and, at times, that message is incredibly powerful and poignant. It is this main theme of loss and that of unconventional friendship that really does set it apart from any other movie in this genre so far this year. However, this is not a movie that is all doom and gloom - far from it - Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is a movie that is charming and funny and there's something about it that is just so full of life. Thomas Mann, R.J. Cyler, and Olivia Cooke take on the central roles of Greg, Earl, and Rachel and they really do deliver a trio of excellent performances. they are touching, witty, and emotional turns that will send all three star rocketing - I really cannot wait to see what they all do next. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl won the U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic and the Audience Award for U.S. Drama at Sundance is one of the best and most profound coming of age movies that I have seen this year. - Far From The Madding Crowd Carey Mulligan is a big favourite here at FemaleFirst and she has had a very busy and successful 2015. Back in May, the actress took on the role of literary heroine Bathsheba Everdene as a new adaptation of Far From The Madding Crowd hit the big screen. The movie is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Thomas Hardy; the screenplay was penned by David Nicholls. The movie saw Thomas Vinterberg back in the director's chair as he teamed up with Mulligan for the first time. There is a strength and a vulnerability to Bathsheba and Mulligan captures this two conflicting personality traits beautifully. She wants to be taken seriously after taking over her father's farm but loses her heart quickly to Sergeant Frank Troy - something that she comes to regret. This may be a movie that is based on 1874 novel, but there is something fresh and modern about the way Mulligan has portrayed the central character - I just loved her performance and thought she was the perfect choice for this role. Vinterberg has brought together a terrific supporting cast as Matthias Schoenaerts, Michael Sheen, Tom Sturridge, and Juno Temple all star. However, it is Schoenaerts who shines as Gabriel Oak and his chemistry with Mulligan is just wonderful. The backdrop to the film is also stunning as Vinterberg has captured the beauty and the harshness of the world and environment that they are living in. This is the fourth time that Far from The Madding Crowd has been adapted and Vinterberg's interpretation is one of the best. - Beasts of No Nation Beasts of No Nation is another movie that has whipped up a storm this year as it was the first time that Netflix has developed their own film project. The movie is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Uzodinma Iweala and saw Cary Fukunaga return to the director's chair for his first feature film since the fantastic Jane Eyre back in 2011. Beasts of No Nation follows Agu, a child soldier fighting a civil war in an unnamed African country. The movie introduced us to the acting talents of Abraham Attah - who took on the role of Agu - and his performance is a terrific and utterly heartbreaking one. Beasts of No Nation is a powerful and unflinching movie that explores the war, children who fight wars, and the human cost that comes as a result. It really is a brutal watch, but it is a compelling one none the less. Idris Elba is also on board. We are no used to seeing him take on a villainous role and he truly is terrifying as the commandant; who abuses the boys and sends them out to fight. Elba has picked up a Best Supporting Oscar nomination at the Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild Awards for his performance. We could see him in the Oscar mix when the nominations are announced later this month. Beasts of No Nation is one of the most hard-hitting movies of the year, but it is filmmaking at its most powerful. If Netflix is going to continue to churn out this type of quality movie, I can't wait to see what they do next. Other great book adaptations include The Martian, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2, Z For Zachariah, The Scorch Trials, and Still Alice. by Helen Earnshaw for www.femalefirst.co.uk find me on and follow me on WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The Spokesman for the U.N. Secretary-General said that Mr. Ban Ki-moon is deeply dismayed over the recent execution by Saudi Arabia of 47 people, including the cleric Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr, as announced on 2 January by the country's Interior Ministry. Sheik al-Nimr and a number of the other prisoners executed had been convicted following trials that raised serious concerns over the nature of the charges and the fairness of the process. The Secretary-General had raised the case of Sheikh al-Nimr with the leadership of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on a number of occasions. The Secretary-General reiterates his strong stance against the death penalty. He points to the growing movement in the international community for the abolition of capital punishment and urges Saudi Arabia to commute all death sentences imposed in the Kingdom. The Secretary-General also calls for calm and restraint in reaction to the execution of Sheikh Nimr and urges all regional leaders to work to avoid the exacerbation of sectarian tensions. He deplores the violence by demonstrators against the Saudi Embassy in Tehran. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de New Delhi: Buoyed by the passage of the Juvenile Justice Bill which had been stuck in Parliament for one-and-a-half years, the Women and Child Development Ministry now plans to push for amendments to the NCW Act to add more teeth to the body like powers to order arrest and penalise. The proposal for amendments to the National Commission for Women (NCW) Act, 1990, seeks to give the body powers of a civil court including the authority to order police to arrest an accused in cases of crime against women, investigate, summon and penalise, in order to enhance it to the level of the National Human Rights Commission. However, the proposal has been in limbo for the past more than one year as it was forwarded to an inter-ministerial committee headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitely, which dropped some of the key proposed amendments. Among those disapproved by the committee includes the power to impose a penalty of up to Rs 5,000 if a person fails to turn up after being summoned, the clause to empower it to arrest a person and authorisation to search and seize any documents related to a case being investigated by it. "The Commission gets thousands of complaints in a month but they only manage to look into one or two because they cannot do anything except sending them to the state concerned, which further sends them to districts," a senior ministry official said. The Commission is considered a toothless body with only advisory powers due to which it is not taken seriously, the official said. "It cannot even penalise those summoned fail to turn up to attend the commission's hearings. If they have the power they will be feared the same way as SC/ST Commissions are feared," he said. For the authorities like search and seizure, the Commission will need to have a judicial magistrate-level official as its member. "NCW cannot be given search and seizure powers as it is only given to commissions headed by judicial officers. So it may not be valid for NCW in certain cases," he said. The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Bill, which provides for lowering the age for trial from 18 years in cases of heinous crime, was passed by Rajya Sabha in December amid a debate triggered by the release of the juvenile (now adult) convict in the 16 December gang-rape. PTI I'm hoping for some real updates on Zika tomorrow, when everyone goes back to work, and until then the news will be sparse. But here's an item from today's Folha de Sao Paulo: From 'sterilizing' to apps, meet the new weapons against Aedes aegypti. Edited excerpts from the Google translation: Bacteria that exterminate larvae and "sterilize" mosquitoes, genetically modified species, ink repellent and applications that map critical areas. At least six new strategies are being researched to combat the Aedes aegypti mosquito that has caused epidemics of dengue, chikungunya and Zika. One is a bacterium that kills the larvae but is harmless to other species, including humans. According to virologist Paolo Zanotto, University of Sao Paulo, BTI microorganism (Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis) produces toxic protein crystals. By ingesting them, the larvae eventually die. A pilot project will be done in Sao Carlos (Sao Paulo state), and the goal is to extend the initiative to other regions, with the help of aircraft "spraying" the bacteria over Aedes breeding sites. Other research involves inoculating Wolbachia bacteria into mosquitos to disable its ability to transmit diseases. Conducted by Fiocruz, under the Ministry of Health and Monash University in Australia, the study is part of a global project to combat dengue. According to Scott O'Neil, global coordinator of the project, the strategy also works for other mosquito-related diseases. The tests are being done in Tubiacanga, Rio state. According to researchers, more than half the mosquito population now has Wolbachia. Studies that demonstrate the impact of bacteria in dengue cases should take up to five years to complete. Another project of the University of Sao Paulo in Sao Carlos, with support from Google, is to create a sensor that detects the presence of the insect through the sound it emits. The advantage is to know in real time which places have the highest density of mosquitos, speeding up combat efforts. In Bahia, the government is developing an application to map Aedes breeding sites and cases of mosquito-transmitted diseases in the state. In the area of nanotechnology, another promising development is a mosquito-repellent ink that promise to protect homes and public buildings for up to four years. "The ink has an insecticide," said Roberto Badaro, Undersecretary of Health. The product, made by a Portuguese company, will be tested in 2016 in some districts of Salvador. Raipur: After an audio recording revealed that he was purportedly involved in fixing an Assembly by-election in Chhattisgarh, senior Congress leader Ajit Jogi on Sunday said he had sought permission of the party high command to file a defamation suit against the state Congress chief Bhupesh Baghel. "In a letter to AICC president (Sonia Gandhi), I have sought her permission to file a defamation suit under both civil and criminal laws against Baghel," Jogi said. "Baghel's remark regarding the audio tape, which is doctored and fake, has tarnished my image. He publicly made inappropriate comments against me which is a violation of the party constitution," Jogi said at a press conference. Baghel declared the audio tape to be authentic without any scrutiny, Jogi said, asking how he came to the conclusion. The telephone conversations in the tape, purportedly between the Chief Minister Raman Singh's son-in-law Puneet Gupta, Ajit Jogi, his son Amit, Jogi 'loyalists' Firoz Siddiqui and Ameen Memon, revolved around rigging of the bypoll to Antagarh Assembly seat in 2014. Congress candidate Manturam Pawar, considered to be close to Jogi, withdrew from the fray just a day before the last date for withdrawal. Pawar was later expelled from the party. The tape suggests that the money changed hands in the affair, facilitating BJP candidate's victory. Baghel had claimed that the party was aware of Jogi's role in Pawar's withdrawal. Jogi said that in another letter to the high command, he also revealed who hatched the conspiracy to tarnish his image. PTI New Delhi: Any dissent note to a recommendation of the collegium to appoint or elevate a judge should be mandatorily shared with the Executive. This is one of the points government is likely to put when it finalises the draft Memorandum of Procedure (MoP) to guide the appointment of judges to the Supreme Court and the high court, amid calls to make the system of appointment of members to the higher judiciary more transparent. The Chief Justice of India and members of the collegium will take a final call on the draft MoP. The government will hand over the final draft of the MoP to the CJI in the coming days. "If one of the members of the collegium gives a dissent, it should be attached along with the recommendation of the collegium so that the President, who appoints judges, is aware of it," a senior government functionary explained. The collegium recommendation is sent by the Chief Justice of India to the Law Minister who in turn sends it to the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister then sends it to the President for final approval. As per constitutional provisions, President works on the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers. As of now, there are two MOPs one dealing with appointment of Chief Justice of India and other judges of the Supreme Court and the other dealing with appointment of chief justices and other judges of high courts. The MoP is a roadmap of procedure on how a judge will be appointed. A similar provision exists in the present MoP for appointment of the Chief Justice of India and other judges of the Supreme Court but the term "dissent" is absent. Point 3.2 of the existing MoP states that the "opinion of members of the collegium in respect of each of the recommendations as well as the senior-most judge in the Supreme Court from the high court, from which a prospective candidate comes, would be made in writing and the Chief Justice of India, in all cases, must transmit his opinion as also the opinion of all concerned to the government of India as part of record." The draft MoP for appointment of members to the higher judiciary is being prepared after the Supreme Court struck down the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Act on appointment of judges to the apex court and high courts. While deciding on ways to improve the collegium system, the Supreme Court had recently left it to the law ministry to draft the MoP in consultation with CMs and chief justices of the 24 high courts. The four issues highlighted by the draft MoP are transparency in the appointment process, eligibility criteria, a permanent secretariat for the collegium and a process to evaluate and deal with complaints against candidates. While the MoP for Supreme Court judges is being finalised, the Law Ministry is also planning to draft another MoP for appointing Chief Justice and judges of the 24 high courts after getting inputs from chief ministers and chief justices of high courts. Law Minister DV Sadananda Gowda had recently written to them seeking their inputs within 15 days. PTI New Delhi: The Delhi-Lucknow Shatabdi was on Sunday halted for searches at Ghaziabad and movement of several other trains disrupted after Northern Railways was alerted about a possible bomb threat to trains plying between Delhi and Kanpur. The bomb scare came a day after the Pathankot terror attack that left four infiltrators and three security personnel dead. Delhi Police had communicated to Northern Railways at 6:23 am that there was a bomb threat to the Lucknow Shatabadi. However, by that time the train had already departed from the station at its scheduled time of 6:10 am. The Shatabadi was subsequently halted at Ghaziabad and thoroughly checked. It was allowed to leave the station at 7:52 am as nothing unusual was found, railway officials said. "We received an input from GRP-Delhi Police at 6:23 am that there is a possibility of a security threat between Delhi and Kanpur. According to the input, there could be bombs in major trains like Shatabdi, Duronto, Rajdhani, Vaishali Express and Nilanchal Express," Delhi Divisional Railway Manager Arun Arora said. The Nilanchal Express and the Lucknow Shatabdi were among the trains delayed. Railway have strengthened security measures at all major railway stations, including New Delhi, Nizamuddin, Old Delhi and Anand Vihar in Delhi division after the bomb threat. DCP (Railways) Dumbere Milind Mahadeo said, "We received a call from the railway control room in the morning in which they said that they had received information about a potential bomb threat on a train plying between Delhi and Kanpur." Officials were pressed into service immediately and a search operation was launched across all railway stations in the city in connection with all trains on the said route. A police official said, trains were stopped at Ghaziabad station too and hundreds of officials have been deployed in the operation. The trains which were to leave in the morning were sanitised for the purpose. According to the official, the potential threat was conveyed by the Mumbai ATS and the Special Cell of Delhi Police has also been kept in the loop. Delhi was put on high alert on Saturday, following the attack at the IAF base in Pathankot, and security was heightened across the city. PTI Raipur: Three youths from Pune, who were on a bicycle rally to spread the message of peace, were allegedly abducted by Naxals from the insurgency-hit Bijapur district of Chhattisgarh, police said on Sunday. "The youths were reported missing from forested pocket of Basaguda region of Bijapur bordering Maharashtra. Kutru is said to be the last place where they were seen by locals a few days back," Inspector General of Police, Bastar Range, SRP Kalluri, told PTI. As per preliminary information, the victims were identified as Aadrash Patil, Vilas Valake and Shrikirhna Shevale, he said. The youths had launched a cycle rally under their "Bharat Jodo" (Link India) campaign to propagate the message of peace in Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Odisha, the states worst affected by Naxalism over the past three decades, he said. They had started their journey from Pune on 20 December, and passing through several places of Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh, they were going to conclude it at Balamela in Odisha on 10 January, he said. "Though we are yet to receive any concrete or specific information about their abduction, we have mobilised security forces in the region to trace their location," he said. Local intelligence is in constant touch with the relatives of the youths to get any clue about them, the IG added. However, no claims though pamphlets or posters have so far been made by Maoists regarding the abduction, he said. PTI Mysuru: Conducting scientific research would be made easier and science administration, too, will be improved in the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told scientists while stressing that their work should be focused on the 'five-Es' of economy, environment, energy, empathy and equity. In his inaugural address at the Indian Science Congress, he also said that with the spirit of cooperative federalism that is shaping Centre-state relations in every area, he is also for greater scientific collaboration between central and state-level institutions and agencies. Modi asked scientists from India and overseas at the five-day mega science event to bridge the gap between traditional knowledge and modern science so that localised and more sustainable solutions to the challenges could be found. He said the impact of science would be the most when scientists and technologists keep the principles of what he called "Five Es" at the centre of their enquiry and engineering. "'Economy' related to finding cost-effective and efficient solutions; 'Environment' to keeping the carbon footprint at the lightest and the impact on the ecology the least possible. 'Energy' -- when our prosperity relies less on energy and the energy we use keeps our skies blue and our Earth green. 'Empathy' -- when our efforts are in tune with our culture, circumstances and social challenges. 'Equity' -- when science advances inclusive development and improves the welfare of the weakest," he said. Modi said good governance was not just about policy and decision making, transparency and accountability but also about integrating science and technology into the choices to be made and the strategies to be pursued. He said he has asked for a framework of scientific audit for scientific departments and institutions in the government. "We will also try to increase the level of resources for science and deploy them in accordance with our strategic priorities," he said at the 103rd session of ISC at 'Manasa Gangotri' campus of the University of Mysore that is also celebrating its centenary. "We will make it easier to do science and research in India, improve science administration and expand and improve the quality of science education and research in India," he said. Some 500 eminent scientists and experts are attending the Congress with the focal theme, 'Science and Technology for Indigenous Development in India' in tune with Modi's big push for 'Make in India' programme. PTI New Delhi: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Sunday held a meeting with six former envoys to Pakistan in wake of the terror attack on the Indian Air Force base in Pathankot in which at least seven Indian security personnel were killed. Those participating in the meet were T.C.A Raghavan, who retired as India's high commissioner to Pakistan last month, along with his predecessors Shyam Saran, Satindra Lambah, S.S. Menon, Satyadutt Pal, and Sharad Sabharwal, external affairs ministry sources said. The meeting was held to discuss India's strategy vis-a-vis Pakistan following Prime Minister Narendra Modi's dramatic stopover in Lahore from Kabul to New Delhi on 25 December last year to meet his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif, it is learnt. The sources, however, refrained from giving details of Sunday's meeting. Saturday's Pathankot terror attack came barely days before the proposed foreign secretary-level talks in Islamabad in the middle of this month. Modi's visit was the culmination of a series of diplomatic engagements between the two South Asian neighbours starting from 30 November last year when he had a seemingly impromptu meeting with Sharif at the Paris climate summit. On 6 December, Indian National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and his Pakistani counterpart Naseer Khan Janjua held a meeting in Bangkok which was also attended by the respective Foreign Secretaries S. Jaishankar and Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry. Two days later, Sushma Swaraj landed in Islamabad to attend the Heart of Asia conference which engages "heart of Asia" countries for a peaceful and stable Afghanistan. On 9 December, she told media persons there that Modi would visit Islamabad next year to attend the summit meeting of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation. Following a courtesy call on Sharif, she held talks with his advisor on foreign affairs, Sartaj Aziz, during which it was agreed to begin a "comprehensive bilateral dialogue". IANS Amethi: Reviewing the party's debacle in the recently concluded assembly elections in UP, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi today set the agenda for party workers to concentrate on the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Arriving here for the first time since his party suffered reverses even in the areas considered as the strongholds of Congress (Amethi and Rae Bareli), Gandhi asked workers to start working for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls while promising them to do whatever possible for further strengthening the organisation. Holding a closed door meeting to review the performance in Tiloi vidhan sabha segment with workers in Samrauta area for over three hours, he also sought to keep the workers in good spirits saying that all their problems would be resolved and they would get due respect. The workers who attended the meeting said on condition of anonymity that they have been asked to move out to villages and apprise the common people about the welfare schemes of the central government. Gandhi also asked them to continue the struggle for strengthening the party. When the workers drew his attention to the problems related to water and power, he said that they are state subjects and he had worked hard for having a Congress government in the state for addressing them but that could not happen. On their part the workers told their leader that their applications were being thrown into the dustbin and that 'dalals' (brokers) were ruling the roost in the party and workers were not being heard. According to the workers, unlike earlier occasions the Congress general secretary appeared to be in a serious mood and there is likelihood of some sweeping changes at the organisational level. He would continue with the review meeting in Salon area later in the day. Tomorrow Gandhi is scheduled to meet Amethi constituency workers at Munshiganj guest house and workers of Gauriganj at Rajiv Gandhi Science College. On the last day of his visit on 2 May, he would review the party's performance with Jagdishpur constituency workers. PTI The ordinary Mumbai citizen dreams of owning a home in the city, even if it is in the distant the suburbs, but the nexus between politicians, property tycoons and the powerful builder lobby ensures that no property is priced at affordable levels. And this despite 80,000 flats worth over Rs 1 lakh crore remaining unsold in Mumbai. A Knight Frank report points out that five of the biggest developers in Mumbai are sitting on debt of Rs 6,200 crore, while they are holding on to a total unsold inventory of Rs 14,300 crore - 14 percent of the total MMR ( Mumbai Metropolitan Region) market. So why aren't they selling even at discounts to reduce their interest costs? Economic logic dictates this, but when supplies of land are artificially restricted, the laws of economics kick in favour of the realty tycoons. Mumbai's problem is that land is in short supply, thanks to regulator-imposed artificial bottlenecks that have resulted in delays in new launches, says Samanthak Das, national advisory head at Knight Frank. This is what has helped hold prices up by keeping fresh supplies low. Before the new Development Control Regulations were put in place in January this year, most developers were exploiting floor space index (FSI) and selling non-salable FSI as extra floor space to consumers by commanding a higher price. "Earlier DCR norms permitted areas like staircases, passage, lifts, AC plant rooms, etc, to be counted as free of FSI, and developers calculated their profits based on the extra areas they could exploit in the building by selling them to buyers," says Pankaj Kapoor, Managing Director at Liasas Foras, a property research and consulting firm. But with the new proposal to restrict this additional construction - flowerbeds, pocket terraces, decks, voids, etc - to just25 percent of the total built-up area and charge builders a 100 percent premium for had upended construction plans. This is because the builders can no longer pocket the extra space as profit, or dupe consumers by selling them additional space. The move not only resulted in stalled projects but a major drop in launches too. Some 55,000 units were launched in FY 2012, down almost 40 percent from the 92,000 units launched during FY 2011. In fact, most of the real estate developers in Mumbai like Indiabulls and Lodha are all in a catch-22 situation because they sold flats in the pre-launch phase even before obtaining regulatory approvals. The net result: Projects are on hold, and prices cannot be brought down because private equity (PE) money has already been invested in these properties. New flats cannot be sold without untangling the DCR mess. But here too it is not the developer that suffers, but the consumer. "The developer encashed his stock by selling flats in the pre-launch phase, an investor will inevitably make his money, but the consumer is in the hibernation phase of old properties and exceptionally high rates," said Kapoor. If developers have created an artificial spike in prices, government policies should be blamed for it. In Delhi, it is the difference between circle rates and actual market rates that is causing heartburn; in Mumbai it is additional floor space index to developers for creating public parking. First, the Maharashtra Town Planning Act 1966 was manipulated to ensure that developers could grab the lands of closed mills, then the Supreme Court upheld the sale of nearly 285 acres of mill land for commercial development and the redevelopment of old colonies in prime locations in South Mumbai again led to under-the table dealing. Take the Hiranandani case, where of the government-sanctioned built-up area for the development of Powai land. Hiranandani utilised only a part of it, while the rest was converted into luxury apartments and sold at a premium. With a net FSI of about 3 crore sq ft and the going rate of Rs 15,000 per sq ft, this misuse of land meant for the poor is estimated to be valued at more than Rs 45,000 crore. Another example of how flouting FSI rules led to a rise in property prices is Mumbai's most sought-after areas of Bandra and Khar where prices have risen around 300 percent in the last six years and command a rate of Rs 42,000-45,000 a square foot. Why? Because of the land mafia and a new breed of builders linked to politicians and the underworld who built luxury skyscrapers in narrow lanes and sold certain areas of the building illegally. "The old FSI (floor space index) is the root cause of the problem as builders artificially jacked up prices by illegally selling areas like flower beds, voids, common lobbies, and terraces at market rates to flat buyers, although these areas were not part of the building's floor space index," Pankaj Kapoor told Firstpost. The builders made a killing by manipulating concessions granted to them by successive municipal commissioners and by bribing municipal corporation officials. However, the new Development Control Regulations in Mumbai will help maintain transparency in deals and benefit customers. But what will work in the long-term has ended up creating a short-term supply bottleneck. But the real problem is more deep rooted in Mumbai's political and bureaucratic system where our own netas and babus play a big role in making property valuable. How? By creating a man-made shortage of land for construction. "In Mumbai, state ministers use their discretionary powers to lease out land or buy land at a fraction of the original value of its cost," a Chembur-based broker told Firstpost on condition of anonymity. For example, last month, the Mumbai police busted a illegal construction racket in which over 1,500 residential buildings were developed on land strictly earmarked for agricultural purposes by bribing the sarpanches of 40 villages located in Dombivli and Thane to achieve this end. The villagers were promised that they would be allowed to enjoy profits from 40 percent of the flats sold, but the builders, of course, retained the lion's share of profits. "Investigations related to the shocking case have revealed that the project was financed by elements from the underworld with direct links to dons Chhota Rajan and Ravi Pujari. Abetting these dubious deals were two incumbent MLAs," a Mid-Day report said. Most politicians and bureaucrats in Mumbai grab valuable real estate in Mumbai, forcing the middle class to hunt for properties on the outskirts like Virar, Belapur and Dombivli. The Adarsh Society scandal too reflected how Mumbai's resources are looted and exploited to only fill political coffers . No matter which party is in power, it is the builders' lobby that is all powerful. But how does the black money enter the market? A builder will meet a politician and arrive at, say, Rs 50 crore as the entire cost of the project, which includes clearance and land acquisition. The politician's money is then routed to the builder from front companies floated in Dubai and Mauritius, which is then pumped into such real estate firms in the form of foreign direct investment, a Delhi-based builder told Firstpost. The builder already books his profit during the under-construction period by selling flats as tradeable commodities and then has the capacity to hold on to flats at the high prices and make even more profit. On the base agreement with the politician, the builder will repay some amount of the politician's money and the balance with an additional profit of say Rs 20 -30 crore is returned after five years by way of other PE investments . Another reason why builders insist on 60 percent of the transaction being in black is because of the innumerable payouts they have to make to politicians, officials in the revenue department, etc, to fast-track the project. " The builder is under pressure to pay a certain percentage of the land deal to the builder either in the form of cash or in the form of a flat in a posh location", said another industry expert. In fact, projects are stuck midway for six to seven years because the developer has been unable to meet the promises he had made these government officials. So unless there's a transparency revolution or strong government action to end this nexus, the mess in India's real estate is not going to get cleaned up and genuine buyers will keep waiting for the prices to fall. As an editorial in the Economic and Political weekly says, "In 'India Shining', regulatory capture of different kinds (changing regulations, bending rules, discretionary allotments, etc) in infrastructure meets the needs of all sections of the powerful: it oils the machinery of the political parties, it lines the pockets of senior politicians and bureaucrats and, of course, it benefits those corporates who at a price are able to get the rules changed in their favour." New Delhi: The terror attack on the air base at Pathankot on Saturday has again delivered the message loud and clear to the civilian political leadership of India and Pakistan: engage howsoever deep you may, you cannot leave out other players from the frame. It has been an old strategy of forces either backed by or close to the Pakistani military establishment to unleash attacks in India ahead or after bilateral talks or peace initiatives. Coming a few days after Prime Minister Narendra Modis surprise visit to Pakistan, the latest attack only follows the familiar script. Counter-terrorism analyst Anil Kamboj said, Pakistan military and its intelligence agency ISI that openly backs the terrorist groups to unleash attacks on Indian soil want to tell Nawaz Sharif that they are the final authority and not the PM. The Pak army doesnt want any civilian peace talk or initiative to take place. They want an aggressive posture towards India and disrupt talks. On the next day of PM Modis visit to Pakistan, Jama'at-ud-Da'wah chief Hafiz Saeed spewed venom against India. Recap of a few peace initiatives and attacks: February 1999: Former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee visited Pakistan and signed Lahore Treaty. Result: Kargil war in May-July 1999. May 2014: Narendra Modi sworn-in as prime minister, which was attended by Nawaz Sharif. Result: Firing at India-Pakistan border in October 2014 that killed more than 30 people and a huge loss of property. July 2015: A day ahead of Modi-Sharif talks in Russia, a BSF jawan got killed in North Kashmir due to Pak firing. September 2015: BSF and Pakistan Rangers talk. Ahead of it, Gurdaspur terror attack occurred in July and a BSF bus was attacked at Udhampur in August that killed two personnel. 25 December, 2015: Modi met Sharif in Pakistan. The Pathankot attack follows. Defence Analyst Maj Gen (retd) Dhruv Katoch remarked: Whatll be Pakistan armys existence if there is a long enduring peace between Indian and Pakistan? So they will never let any peace process fructify and the terror attacks to thwart dialogues are a proof of it. They also want to create an awkward position for the Indian government. The Pathankot terror incidence has raised a few questions on the area of operation of the militants, target and objective of attack, modus operandi and the future. Here are five points to think about: 1. Why Punjab again? There has been a shift in terror activities from Jammu & Kashmir to Punjab, which has become a new target area. The Valley is reasonably under control. Faced with pressure from the security agencies there, the militants are moving towards Punjab. Its also easy for the militants from across the border to get into Punjab through J&K due to adjoining state borders. Another possible reason of targeting Punjab is to revive militancy in the state, the signs of which have already been found, said Kamboj. 2. How did they infiltrate? According to security experts, the militants could have sneaked into the Indian soil through the nullahs at India-Pakistan border which dont have wired fencing. Despite having electronic surveillance, infiltration could have taken place from any particular porous point along the long border. Intelligence sources said the militants entered on 30 December but the real picture would emerge only after further investigation. 3. The Pakistan hand Phone call intercepts of one of the militants have established a Pakistani connection. Its beyond doubt that without the support of the guards at the posts and naakaas on Pakistan side, the militants couldnt have crossed over. And that is possible only when theres an order from the top to a flanking post to allow them to cross. I refuse to believe that Pakistan Army and Rangers were not on board in this attack, said Katoch. 4. Modus operandi Pathankot attack has a striking similarity with Gurdaspur terror attack where terrorists resorted to indiscriminate firing using AK-47. It caught security forces unawares. There could be a possible connection with the IAF spy nabbed recently or any one from the past. Its not possible for outside terrorists to know the exactness of a location or target without prior input. The terrorists made entry through rear part of the IAF base, which was vulnerable, said Kamboj, former senior fellow, Institute for Defence Studies & Analysis (IDSA). 5. Why attack an air-base? Its like destroying a jeep vis-a-vis a MiG aircraft. The aim is to cause maximum damage or garner maximum attention. An air-base has more value in terms of assets due to the presence of IAF fighter aircraft and choppers. As per the intelligence sources, the other defence establishments and research centres, particularly Tier-II cities, are on terrorists radar. Though the five Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) militants were trained ones, the Indian security forces after a day-long gunfight neutralised them, with three casualties on the Indian side. All the five militants have been killed. Out of three soldiers who were martyred during the combing operations at the IAF base, one Subedar Fateh Singh was a Commonwealth Gold and Silver medallist in shooting. The attack looks like the militants were in desperation quite similar to Gurdaspur attack. Despite the fact that militants were heavily armed with automatic weapons, our Indian forces fought brilliantly and prevented a large-scale tragedy. The government needs to adopt a doctrinal approach that any terrorist coming to India should be treated as an act of war, because these non-state actors, whether JeM or LeT, receive tremendous support from ISI, added Katoch, former director, Centre for Land Warfare Studies (CLAWS). What do the intelligence sources say? As per reports, these militants came to take revenge of the hanging of Afzal Guru of 2001 Parliament attack. Intelligence Bureau had alerted on possible terror attacks across several cities including Delhi during December end and New Year. Alerts were issued again after the IAF spy was arrested. This operation cant be possible without local support. It can be in the form of a mole or sleeper cells or may be any local module of terror outfit. Investigation and post-attack analysis will reveal the exact picture. There are strong possibilities that close to 26 January, terrorists may attempt similar attacks. The states have been alerted, an IB source added. What does the Ministry of Defence says? Defence Minister Manohar Parikkar called for an emergency meeting of the three services chiefs besides National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval. According to the ministry, The Intelligence inputs had been available of a likely attempt by terrorists to infiltrate into the military installation in Pathankot area. In response, preparatory actions had been taken by the Indian Air Force (IAF) to thwart any such attempt. Due to the effective preparation and coordinated efforts by all the security agencies a group of terrorists were detected by the aerial surveillance platforms as soon as they entered the Air Force Station at Pathankot. The infiltrators were immediately engaged and contained within a limited area, thus preventing them from entering the Technical zone where high value assets are parked, a ministry release said. VALENCE, France French investigators found jihadist propaganda material on Saturday in the computer of a man who drove his car into troops guarding a mosque in southern France on New Year's Day but said it did not prove he had links with any terrorist groups. "The inspection of his computer led to the discovery of jihadi propaganda images," local prosecutor Alex Perrin told Reuters. "These are downloadable images that are a few weeks old. Not the worst type of images, but rather bellicose slogans," he said. "It shows he had an appreciation of that but it does not prove he had links with terrorist organisations." The 29-year old Frenchman of Tunisian descent rammed his car into a group of four soldiers in a car park outside a large mosque in a suburb of Valence on Friday afternoon, the prosecutor told reporters earlier on Saturday. He said earlier there was no evidence of him belonging to any terrorist group and it seemed he had acted alone. "He reportedly shouted 'Allah is great', which suggests some sort of religious element." "When he was apprehended, he mentioned the fact that he wanted to kill troops because troops killed people," the prosecutor added. "He said he wanted to be killed by troops." There was also no indication that the man was suffering from mental illness, the prosecutor said. He had been unemployed for several years and was not known to police or intelligence services, the prosecutor added. The practising Muslim lived in a suburb of Lyon, 100 km (60 miles) north of the town of Valence where the incident took place. "He had come to Valence, where his family-in-law lives, for the end of year holiday," the prosecutor said. He was shot in the legs and arm by the troops and was still in hospital on Saturday. A soldier and a Muslim man were also slightly injured in the incident. French television showed an amateur video of the soldiers surrounding the red Peugeot estate car and shouting "get out" before shooting, with the vehicle ending up in a ditch. France has been on high alert since Islamic State militants killed 130 people in Paris on Nov. 13. Soldiers are protecting sensitive places across the country, including official buildings and religious sites. A string of similar but unrelated "lone wolf" attacks took place at the end of 2014. French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, speaking during a trip to Jordan, praised the troops' restraint in the incident "They were totally up to the task," he said. (Additional reporting by Marine Pennetier in Amman, writing by Michel Rose; editing by Susan Thomas and David Evans) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. 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On its front page lead 'Gunmen mount brazen attack on Indian air force base', the Express Tribune said the attack was over but it posed a "challenge to attempts to resurrect a moribund dialogue process between the two neighbours". The News International reported that the assault by gunmen came a week after Prime Minister Narendra Modi made an unscheduled visit to his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif in an effort to revive bilateral talks. "Previous attempts at dialogue between the nuclear-armed neighbours have been derailed by similar incidents but, as Pakistani authorities condemned the raid, experts suggested the latest negotiations would prove more durable," it opined. Dawn said that immediate indications from India after the Pathankot incident suggested that the foreign secretaries' talks would go ahead despite the setback, but the incident would impact the atmospherics. "India expects to complete initial probe into the incident before the meeting and its position at the talks would depend a lot on what comes out of the investigation," the paper said. "The Foreign Office said it hoped to build on the goodwill generated by recent high-level contacts," it added. As print media mostly focused on the attack and its likely impact on the peace process, the electronic media was busy in a matching response to Indian TV channels trying to find Pakistan link to the attack. Urdu language newspapers also gave wide coverage to the incident, while mostly focusing on the details of the attack and response by the Indian security forces. They also criticised accusation against Pakistan without investigations. Influential Jang newspaper reported that Indian officials in a typical kneejerk reaction blamed Pakistan for the attack. Heavily-armed Pakistani terrorists yesterday attempted to storm the Air Force base in Pathankot, triggering a day-long gunbattle in which three security men and all the five infiltrators were killed. Three other security men succumbed to injuries in a hospital later and one NSG member was killed while defusing the grenade at the scene of the terror attack, taking the toll of Indian security personnel to seven. The attackers were believed to have infiltrated from Pakistan and there was speculation that they may belong to Jaish-e-Mohammad headed by Maulana Masood Azhar of the Kandahar hijack episode. PTI Kathmandu: The agitating Madhesi Morcha, an alliance of four regional parties of southern Nepal demanding amendment to the country's statute, has split with a major constituent, the Sadbhawana Party, on Sunday announcing a separate protest in the Terai region. For more than four months, the plains of the Nepal Terai have been simmering with Morcha-led protests against the country's new Constitution that was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on 20 September. The Morcha has expressed dissatisfaction over the content of the new Constitution, including demarcation of the federal units, and called for an inclusive Constitution and citizenship. Over 55 people, including agitators and police personnel, have been killed during the four months. The Sadbhawana Party, one of the four constituents of the Samyukta Loktantrik Madhesi Morcha, was against withdrawing border-centric protests until a few days ago and its Chairman Rajendra Mahto had been leading demonstrations at border points. Uprendra Yadav, chairman of the Sanghiya Samajbadi Forum, criticized Sadbhawana's decision. "Sadbhawana should not declare protest unilaterally, it is a mistake." Mahto is currently undergoing treatment at Medanta Hospital in Gurgaon, near Delhi, for injuries received in a clash with the police at Biratnagar on 26 December. In a series of protest programmes announced unilaterally by the Sadbhawana Party on Sunday, the party has said it will focus on non-violent activities like mass prayers in memory of deceased protestors, fasting, signature campaign and campaigns to internationalise Madhesi issues through social media. The Morcha is scheduled to hold a meeting on Monday to effect changes in its mode of protest and was likely to lift protests and blockades at key Nepal-India border entry points, sources said. The latest development has raised serious questions over the political acumen of the agitating parties and a blame game has already begun. Following the Sadbhawana Party's decision, political experts aver that the development may weaken the over four-month-long protest in the Terai. There is a massive pressure on the Madhesi Morcha to lift the blockade at the Nepal-India border as landlocked Nepal reels under a massive shortage of essentials including food, fuel and medicines. Morcha leaders and party insiders said Sadbhawana Party's "unexpected decision" to lift the border-blockade means that Mahto is trying to convey the impression that his party alone was not objecting to lifting the blockade. During a recent meeting of the Morcha, top leaders of other constituent parties were learnt to have criticised Mahto's unsuccessful attempt to disrupt the Biratnagar border entry-point. Mahto, on his part, has been accusing other Morcha leaders of staying in Kathmandu rather than leading the protests on the ground. IANS Geneva: Deploring the mass execution of 47 people by Saudi Arabia including a well-known Shia cleric who had not committed any crime viewed as "most serious" under international humanitarian law, the UN rights chief has called on the kingdom to impose a moratorium on all executions. "Under international human rights law, the death penalty may only be imposed, in countries that still have this form of punishment, if a strict set of substantive and procedural requirements are met," UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said. "The category of 'most serious crimes' for which the death penalty is still permissible, has been consistently interpreted by human rights mechanisms as being restricted to murder and other forms of intentional killing," he added. "Convictions cannot be based on confessions obtained under torture and ill-treatment, or trial proceedings that fall short of international standards," the High Commissioner said. The UN rights chief also said that convictions for applying the death penalty that fall short of international standards are "unconscionable" because "any miscarriage of justice as a result of capital punishment cannot be undone". Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia announced on Saturday that it has executed 47 people in a single day on terrorism-related charges, including the Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr who was a vocal critic of the government and the Saudi monarchy. The execution has provoked a huge backlash among the Shia community across the world and threatens to deepen the serious sectarian conflict in the Middle East. Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr was a symbolic leader of Shia protesters during the Arab Spring uprisings in many parts of the Persian Gulf. Iranian protesters have ransacked and set fire to the Saudi embassy in Tehran in protest. Shia-dominated Iran has said that rival Saudi Arabia is going to pay a "high price" for the executions. There has been a huge upsurge in executions in Saudi Arabia in 2015 with at least 157 people put to death as compared to 90 people who were executed in 2014. "Now we see almost one-third of the 2015 total executed in a single day," Zeid said. "That is a very disturbing development indeed, particularly as some of those sentenced to death were accused of non-violent crimes," he added. He urged the government of Saudi Arabia to impose a moratorium on all executions and "to work with the UN and other partners on alternative strategies to combat terrorism". The UN General Assembly has repeatedly passed a number of resolutions calling on member states who retain the death penalty to establish a moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty altogether. PTI Washington: The US on Sunday condemned the terror attack on an Indian Air Force base by Pakistani terrorists and urged all countries in the region to work together to disrupt and dismantle terrorist network. "The United States strongly condemns the terrorist attack on an air force base in the Indian state of Punjab on January 2. We extend our condolences to the victims and their families," State Department spokesman John Kirby said. The US is committed to its strong partnership with the Indian government to combat terrorism, he said in a statement. "We urge all countries in the region to work together to disrupt and dismantle terrorist networks and to bring to justice the perpetrators of this heinous act," Kirby said. Heavily-armed Pakistani terrorists yesterday attempted to storm the Air Force base in Pathankot, triggering a day-long gunbattle in which three security men and all the five infiltrators were killed. The attackers were believed to have infiltrated from Pakistan and there was speculation that they may belong to Jaish-e-Mohammad headed by Maulana Masood Azhar of the Kandahar hijack episode. PTI Washington: A former boyfriend of Indian-American billionaire investor Vinod Khosla's daughter has been charged with threatening to publish her naked photos as part of an extortion plot. FBI agents last week arrested Douglas Tarlow, 27, a Stanford University graduate, who dated Khosla's daughter Nina for about two years, in connection with the alleged extortion plot, according to The Smoking Gun, an investigative news site. Tarlow was subsequently released from custody and is scheduled for a US District Court preliminary hearing Friday. Khosla, the 59-year-old venture capitalist who co-founded Sun Microsystems, is worth $1.5 billion, according to a recent Forbes magazine estimate. According to the Smoking Gun, Tarlow allegedly threatened to distribute the naked images online, warning in one e-mail that, "Everything is going to reddit. From there, it will be impossible to remove from the internet forever." In a text message to Nina Khosla's mother Neeru, who was sent the nude photos, Tarlow stated, "it seems you're going to be the mother of the next Paris Hilton," investigators allege. The FBI's investigation of Tarlow is detailed in a court affidavit sworn by Agent Glenn Solomon-Hill, who is assigned to the bureau's San Francisco's office. While the FBI affidavit does not name Tarlow's alleged targets, The Smoking Gun said it has confirmed that the Khoslas are the victims referred to in the document. Nina Khosla, 26, declined to answer questions from the news site about the case. "I'd prefer that you didn't write about that," Khosla was quoted as saying. She added that her family contacted law enforcement authorities soon after receiving threatening communications. Tarlow and Nina Khosla, who met in 2007, dated for about two years before breaking up in late-2010. The couple, who studied in Stanford's Product Design programme, started Lokho, a design firm for which Khosla registered a web site in mid-2009. During their relationship, Khosla "voluntarily took nude photos and video," which she shared with Tarlow, according to Agent Solomon-Hill as cited by the Smoking Gun. In September 2012, Nina and Neeru Khosla each received a series of texts from Tarlow's phone number. The messages included several naked photos of Nina Khosla taken during the period she dated Tarlow. In subsequent communications, Tarlow allegedly sought $72,000, which he claimed the Khosla foundation owed him. In the final e-mail cited by investigators, Tarlow allegedly wrote to Neeru Khosla on December 14. He attached "a different nude picture" of her daughter, and asked, "Do you still want to buy these?' The Smoking Gun said Tarlow did not respond to an e-mail sent to his Gmail account, nor to voicemail messages left on several phone numbers he has used. IANS 2000 - 2022 24 .- . focus-news.net, () . 24 . 24 . . 24 . We run various sites in defense of human rights and need support in paying for servers. Thank you. Did I say that ULA is out of the space race? Well, let me check myself, before Congress wrecks my prediction. Congress, you see, recently banned use of Russian RD-180 rocket engines to send U.S. military satellites into space. Problem is, United Launch Alliance -- ULA, the satellite-launching joint venture between Boeing (BA 0.92%) and Lockheed Martin (LMT 8.69%) -- needs these Russian engines to power its Atlas V launch vehicle. And when ULA asked the Pentagon to let them use these engines on a recent Air Force contract, the Pentagon said no. Result: No rocket engines, no rockets. No rockets -- no rocket launches. Stymied by Congress, ULA announced in October that it will not bid on a new contract to send U.S. Air Force GPS satellites into orbit. This left the Air Force with only one bidder on its contracts, and effectively gave ULA rival SpaceX a monopoly on the business -- just months after the Air Force had certified SpaceX to begin bidding on such space launches. Unintended consequences This was not what Congress had hoped would happen. And so -- months too late to ensure competition on the GPS contract -- Congress has finally moved to fix the problem. Congress inserted a provision onto its recently passed $1.1 trillion government spending bill that permits using the RD-180 on U.S. government space launches "regardless of the country of origin ... in order to ensure robust competition and continued assured access to space." ULA wasted no time taking advantage of the exemption. Last week, the Boeing-Lockheed joint venture announced it has ordered 20 new RD-180 rocket engines from Russian producer NPO Energomash. (And if that name sounds familiar, it should. Energomash is also supplying new RD-181 rocket engines to power Orbital ATK's (OA) upgraded Antares rockets -- replacing an older Russian engine that showed a disturbing tendency to explode in flight.) Meanwhile, back at the ranch... Orbital ATK seems fine with continuing to stick Russian engines in its American rockets. ULA, on the other hand, remains committed to kicking the habit. ULA says it's proceeding with plans to develop and buy a new class of engines from American producer Blue Origin, or perhaps Aerojet Rocketdyne (AJRD 2.61%). And as for its decision to buy a batch of Russian rocket engines -- that's just a gap-bridging measure that will permit it to keep bidding on contracts, and shooting rockets into space, "until a new American-made engine can be developed and certified," according to ULA's press release. How long will it take? When will that "American-made engine" arrive? ULA was vague in its latest announcement. While the company promised that the latest batch of RD-180 engines "will allow ULA to provide the reliable, affordable launch services our civil and commercial customers depend on from us while the new, American engine is being developed," timeline-wise, the company only said that development of the new engine will take "years to complete." Previously, however, ULA has expressed hopes to get a new American-made engine "qualified" by 2017, and to run its first test flight by 2019. That's if Blue Origin's BE-4 engine fits the bill. If it doesn't, ULA will need to go to its fallback option, Aerojet Rocketdyne's AR1 engine, which won't be ready before 2020. What does this mean for investors? The good news for investors in Boeing and Lockheed Martin is that, whether it takes four years or five years for ULA to fire up an American-made engine, the company can continue doing business as usual while it waits. With plenty of RD-180s in stock, ULA can once again challenge SpaceX for lucrative government satellite launches -- expected to produce $70 billion in revenue for the winners over the next 15 years. Who wins the work will boil down to a battle between price and quality. On one hand, SpaceX will promise to send satellites into orbit for just a fraction of what ULA has been charging the U.S. taxpayer. On the other hand, ULA can boast a record of launching nearly 100 rockets in a row without a single mishap, versus SpaceX, which... can't. Which factor weighs heaviest in the U.S. Air Force's evaluation process should determine who gets the loot. And what does this mean for the space industry? Longer term, ULA's one-time buy of a batch of RD-180s probably won't change the trends in the U.S. space industry. Boeing and Lockheed have committed to eventually switching to U.S. suppliers for their rocket engines, and that's not going to change. This is clearly bad news for Energomash, and for Russia's space industry in general (Energomash is majority-owned by the Russian state). ULA's RD-180 purchase will probably be its last, as the company says 20 engines will be more than enough to fulfill its Atlas V launch commitments through 2020 Energomash can still count on $1 billion in foreign revenues from Orbital ATK in payment for the 60 RD-181 engines it has on order, of course. But ultimately, this source of capital -- crucial to supporting Russia's space program -- will dry up as well, because Orbital is also developing new engines, in house, for use by the U.S. Air Force. Long story short, while Energomash can still count Orbital ATK as a customer, Orbital will probably kick the Russian habit eventually, too. And once Orbital joins Boeing and Lockheed in choosing to "buy American," Russia will be left out in the cold. As the ideal retirement lifestyle becomes more difficult to attain, increasing numbers of Americans are deciding to retire abroad. In many countries, retirees can enjoy a high standard of living for a fraction of the cost of a similar lifestyle in the U.S. That, along with the change in scenery, has made retiring abroad an appealing option There are many countries where retirees can live large on a small budget, but five nations have been especially popular among American retirees for financial reasons: Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica, Portugal, and Malaysia. For perspective, here's a quick glimpse of the cost of renting in each of these countries compared to the U.S.: Let's take a closer look at why American retirees should consider making these countries their permanent (or at least seasonal) home. Ecuador This South American country has been attracting so many American retirees that American expat communities have begun to pop up in cities like Cuenca, Quito, Vilcabamba, and Loja. Many Americans have been happy with the standard of living Ecuador offers, considering the day-to-day living costs are significantly lower than what we see in the U.S. For instance, the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Ecuador is $350 per month compared to $1,123 in the U.S. Meanwhile, in Ecuador you can eat out for $3 to $5 -- or you can drop $10 per person if you want to splurge on a three-course meal. On top of these everyday savings, Ecuadorian property taxes are predominantly much lower, and just for being age 65 and older, retirees may qualify for discounts on property taxes. There's no currency conversion necessary, as Ecuador uses the U.S. dollar. As an expat, you can also participate Ecuador's national healthcare plan, which has a reputation for delivering high-quality care at a reasonable cost relative to the rest of the world. Average monthly premiums for health insurance fall around $70. Panama Panama has long been known as an inexpensive destination for U.S. tourists and retirees. While luxury purchases such as big-name brands and club memberships might cost more in Panama than in the United States, basic living expenses such as meals, public transportation, and utilities will come significantly cheaper. For example, the average monthly fee for a fitness club membership is roughly $40 in the United States but $65 in Panama. On the flip side, a meal at an inexpensive restaurant costs an average of just $6 -- just half the average in the United States. The healthcare in Panama is up to the standards we see in most developed Western countries. However, the cost and quality of care can vary depending on the region of the country you are in. For instance, the Punta Pacifica of Panama City, which is affiliated with the Johns Hopkins University, offers the sort of quality facilities you would find in the U.S. In more rural areas of the country, like Ngobe Bugle or Kuna Yala, the administration of general health services is of a lower quality. The average monthly healthcare premium for an individual living in the United States is in the ballpark of $235; in Panama it averages roughly $55 (and you have the option of purchasing better, more expensive healthcare as well). On top of that, Panama's Pensionado retirement program allows U.S. pensioners and Social Security recipients with a minimum income of $1,000/month to receive discounts on various products and services in order to encourage them to relocate there. Discounts can apply to airline tickets, public transportation, hotel bills, utility bills, movies, concerts, some hospital bills, and more. Note that there is no maximum income limit to participate in the Pensionado program. Although this program may not be a deal-maker, it's worth considering. And just like Ecuador, Panama uses the U.S. dollar as its official currency. Costa Rica With its political and economic stability and its low property taxes, Costa Rica has drawn a large American expat community -- large enough that some casually refer to Costa Rica as a U.S. colony. The country is known for having one of the best healthcare systems in Latin America, and as in other Central American countries, healthcare-related costs are generally much lower compared to American costs. Average monthly premiums paid for health insurance coverage in Costa Rica fall between $60 and $130 a month. Because of the influx of American expats, Costa Rica has become one of the more expensive countries in Central America to live in. Nevertheless, the overall cost of living is much lower than that which most Americans are used to. For instance, our $12 meal in the U.S. would cost roughly $7 in Costa Rica. The monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Costa Rica would set you back roughly $450, whereas the same apartment would cost you $1,123 a month in the U.S. If you were looking to purchase an apartment, the price per square foot in Costa Rica would come to about $130 versus $213 in the U.S. Malaysia This Southeast Asian country's real-estate market offers quality housing at a reduced cost due to a lack of demand from within the country. The cost per square foot for an apartment averages out to $174 per square foot compared to $213 per square foot in the U.S. Further, the Malaysian healthcare system is internationally recognized for care administered, and insurance premiums average about $50 a month. The Malaysian government makes it easier than most Asian countries for foreigners to obtain residency. The Malaysia My Second Home Program (MM2H) is a residency program that offers certain tax advantages for expats. Under MM2H status, all foreign-sourced income is exempt from Malaysian taxes, so your pensions and Social Security would not have any Malaysian taxes levied against them. However, there is a minimum income requirement of $3,200 per month for retirees to qualify for the MM2H resident status. Malaysia's official currency is the Ringgit, so you'll have to convert your dollars. However, on the upside, most Malay citizens speak English, which obviously makes it easier for Americans to acclimate to the culture. Portugal Portugal's economy took a big hit during the European debt crisis that started in 2008. However, the country has maintained its quality infrastructure despite its financial woes. The World Economic Forum ranked Portugal No. 12 in the world for quality of infrastructure for 2010-2011 and No. 11 in the world for 2012-2013 -- ahead of the U.S. in both periods. A strong infrastructure has been shown to have a positive effect on both economic development and quality of life, something every retiree wants in their retirement location. When it comes to basic expenses, our $12 meal in the U.S. would cost $7.65 in Portgual. Basic utilities for a 915-square-foot apartment in Lisbon cost an average of $100 per month versus $150 in the U.S. A relatively low cost of living, reasonable housing costs, and high-quality healthcare make living in Portugal look like a bargain to many American expats. Keep your options open When you're deciding where to live out your golden years, remember that Florida and Arizona aren't your only options. Expand your search to the entire globe, and you might find your dream home where you least expected to. A Nevada sheriff has said that rancher Cliven Bundy must bear responsibility for actions that led to a standoff between federal agents and militia members earlier this year, but added that the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) must reconsider some of its methods used prior to the confrontation. Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie told the Las Vegas Review-Journal editorial board Thursday that he had warned Bundy prior to the April standoff that any protests over the BLM's attempt to round up more than 500 of the rancher's cattle must be peaceful. The BLM says that Bundy owes over $1 million in fees and penalties for trespassing on federal property without a permit over 20 years. Bundy, whose ancestors settled in the area in the late 1800s, refuses to acknowledge federal authority on public lands. A federal judge in Las Vegas first ordered Bundy in 1998 to remove "trespass cattle" from land the bureau declared a refuge for the endangered desert tortoise. Bureau officials obtained court orders last year allowing the roundup. Milita members descended upon the ranch after a video showing one of Bundy's sons being stunned by a Taser was circulated widely. Gillespie said that Bundy crossed the line by allowing his supporters onto his property to aim guns at law enforcement. "If you step over that line, there are consequences to those actions," Gillespie said. "And I believe they stepped over that line. No doubt about it. They need to be held accountable for it." Gillespie blamed the BLM for escalating the conflict and ignoring his advice to delay the roundup after he had a confrontational meeting with Bundy's children a few weeks before it began. "I came back from that saying, `This is not the time to do this,' " the sheriff told the Review-Journal. "They said, `We do this all the time. We know what we're doing. We hear what you're saying, but we're moving forward."' Gillespie also claimed that the BLM lied to him by saying that they had a place to move Bundy's cattle after the roundup. The sheriff said he later discovered that was not the case. The bureau backed down during the showdown with Bundy and his armed supporters, citing safety concerns, and released some 380 Bundy cattle collected during a weeklong operation from a vast arid range half the size of the state of Delaware. A statement made to the Associated Press by the BLM Saturday said the agency continues to pursue the matter "aggressively through the legal system." BLM spokeswoman Celia Boddington also criticized Gillespie for claiming that the agency mishandled the operation and claimed that the bureau acted in "full coordination" with the sheriff's office. "It is unfortunate that the sheriff is now attempting to rewrite the details of what occurred, including his claims that the BLM did not share accurate information," she said. "The sheriff encouraged the operation and promised to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with us as we enforced two recent federal court orders." "Sadly, he backed out of his commitment shortly before the operation - and after months of joint planning - leaving the BLM and the National Park Service to handle the crowd control that the sheriff previously committed to handling," she added. Click for more from the Las Vegas Review-Journal The Associated Press contributed to this report. Within hours of reconvening Tuesday, the GOP-led Congress will finally act to fulfill a 2010 promise to repeal and replace ObamaCare. The effort is set to begin Tuesday afternoon when the House Rules Committee meets on the repeal measure, with a full debate and vote as early as Tuesday. With the Republican-led Senate having already passed its version, GOP congressional leaders will send the measure to President Obama, daring him to veto it. Obama will undoubtedly veto the measure to undo his signature health care law, and Congress has nowhere near the votes to override a presidential veto. But Republicans hope the entire exercise might start to change the circumstance on Capitol Hill regarding the years-old argument about ObamaCare and its repeal. House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., is promising to unveil a bill to, in fact, replace ObamaCare. For all of the GOPs Sturm und Drang about ObamaCare, neither the House nor the Senate has ever debated a bill that attempts to succeed the law. The reason is that nobody has crafted a plan that would pass in either chamber. In 2010, House Republicans concocted the Pledge to America. It was a political compact created to help the GOP seize control of the House from Democrats and tell voters what they would do if in control. One of the promises was to repeal and replace ObamaCare. After Republicans earned the House majority, the first major vote of 2011 was to repeal the health care law. The House and Senate have voted more than 60 times to either fully or partially repeal the Affordable Care Act, as it is more formally know. Yet theyve never held a vote to replace ObamaCare. But with Ryan now at the helm in the House and the GOP controlling the Senate, this may be one of the few chances the party has to come together around a bill which would replace the six-year-old law. Ryan is, nevertheless, tempering expectations. In a recent meeting with reporters, he indicated that the House was practically obligated to pass a replacement bill. And though Ryan was confident about the House doing so this year, he underscored the unlikelihood that Obama would sign the legislation into law. Still, the effort is part of Ryans attempt to contrast Republicans with the agenda of Obama and the left. Democrats have long hectored Republicans for failing to cough up a bill to succeed ObamaCare. Such a measure is a unicorn. If there were the votes to approve that elusive bill, Republicans would have done it. But if they finally at least draft a bill and better yet pass it, then the sides can argue about policy and not just exchange hypothetical catcalls. Still, if Ryan is correct, the House GOP will write an ObamaCare alternative seven years after a triumvirate of House committees prepped the initial iterations of the ACA in the summer of 2009. The House approved the first version of ObamaCare in November 2009. The Senate did so on Christmas Eve of 2009. Both bodies ushered the final health care packages to passage in March, 2010. This enterprise wont be easy for Republicans. Some GOP aides defended not having a replacement bill at the ready. They suggested the promise in the Pledge to America was to repeal and replace the ACA. Certainly there were votes to repeal the law (at least in the House). But the law was never repealed. Therefore, they argued, it wasnt yet incumbent upon Republicans to make good on the second contingency and replace the statute. Ryan wont be able to implement the replacement package either with Obama still in the White House in 2016 -- if it does, in fact, get that far. But if Ryans successful, hell have come a lot further than anyone else has before. Which brings us back to what the House is up to next week. Though the House has approved dozens of repeal bills over the years, the Senate has not until a few weeks ago taken a direct, up-or-down vote on eliminating ObamaCare. Democrats controlled the Senate until January 2015. That meant they could block any Republican effort to deposit a repeal bill on the floor. However, the story changed when the GOP won the majority. Still, Senate rules often favor the minority party. Republicans would have to vault two anticipated Democratic-filibusters just to bring up a repeal bill for debate. Overcoming those filibusters would require two roll call votes of 60 yeas. That wasnt happening. The GOP nevertheless had one option at its disposal -- something called budget reconciliation. Budget reconciliation is a unique, once-a-shot piece of legislation that operates under special rules. Its inoculated from pesky Senate filibusters. And if you can jam something into a budget reconciliation measure, you can usually get it through the Senate because it just requires a simple majority for passage. The House recently started this process and knocked out a dual reconciliation bill that simultaneously repealed ObamaCare and defunded Planned Parenthood. It then shipped the measure to the Senate. But because of special Senate rules governing budget reconciliation, the upper chamber had to tweak the plan to pass it. That meant that the House and Senate had approved slightly different bills. So the Senate then bounced its updated version back to the House. This is where things stand: The House is expected to debate and vote on the final, Senate-amended version of the reconciliation plan. If approved, the House and Senate are in alignment and the bill goes to Obama to sign or veto -- though this is a fait accompli. House Republicans initially planned to take up the reworked Senate bill right before Christmas. But at the last minute, they decided to delay that gambit. They had a new tactic. Wait until after the holiday to maximize exposure of the House debate and vote -- as well as the Presidents planned veto. Plus, it might help tee up Republican plans on health care in the new year. The GOP hopes it can artfully message its plans to design and approve a replacement bill for ObamaCare -- with something with a lot more policy teeth than the other parliamentary gymnastics of just voting to repeal parts or all of the legislation over and over again. Republicans also are hoping the public embraces these policy ideas as a contrast to those propounded by Obama and Democrats with health care topping the list. House Minority Leader Steny Hoyer chided the Obama administration for its decision to delay new Iran sanctions Saturday, in light of a recent alleged violation. "I am disappointed that the Administration has delayed punitive action in response to Iran's recent ballistic missile tests," Hoyer, a Maryland Democratic Congressman said in a statement. Hoyer's criticism made him one of the most senior Democrats to fault Obama administration on the move and represents an unsual break with the White House. "The recent missile tests, along with the firing in proximity to a U.S. aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf, raise serious concerns about whether Iran will adhere to the remainder of its commitments [under the Iran deal]," Hoyer said. Read more on WashingtonExaminer.com Russia has named the U.S. as one of the threats to its national security in a new assessment signed by President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, according to a published report. Reuters reported the document, About the Strategy of National Security of Russian Federation, replaces the 2009 version endorsed by former President Dmitry Medvedev, which didnt mention the U.S. or NATO. Russia continues to increase its role in solving global conflicts, which has caused some negative reaction from the West, according to the document. It is the first time Russia has officially named the U.S. a national security threat, according to Reuters. Russia claims its heightened global influence has caused counteraction from the USA and its allies, which are striving to retain their dominance in global affairs. The document claims that Western pressures will likely lead to increased political, economical, military and informational pressure on Russia. Relations between Moscow and the West became to deteriorate stemming from Russias annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. Western nations have repeatedly accused Russia of funding insurgents in Ukraine despite Moscows denials. Russias security document accuses the U.S. and EU of supporting an anti-constitutional coup detat in Ukraine, which has deepened the rift between Moscow and the West. The U.S. and European Union have imposed sanctions against Russian companies and businessmen. Russia, in turn, clamped down on food imported from EU countries. The expansion of NATO also concerns Russia. The document also said the U.S. has expanded its military biological labs in neighboring countries. According to Reuters, the document fails to mention anything on Russias ongoing airstrikes in Syria, which has aided the Bashar al-Assad regime in the embattled nation. Assad, a Russian ally, has received military support from Russia in its civil war against U.S.-backed rebels and the Islamic State. Click for more from Reuters. Facebook hoaxes going around Q. I keep seeing posts on Facebook about Mark Zuckerberg giving away money. Is this true? A. Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, announced after the birth of their daughter that they would be giving away 99 percent of their Facebook shares. But they said nothing as to when, or how, these shares would be handed out. This opened the door for online hoaxes, and there have been several going around. Like this one that claims you could get $10 million just for sharing or liking, and this one that has people posting a magical unicorn. If you see them, it's best not to click, like or share. You know what they say "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is." Neighborhood safety Q. My family is relocating to a new city. I'm unfamiliar with the area, and am concerned about crime. How can I see my new neighborhood? A. The website My Local Crime is a great resource for anyone who is thinking of moving into a new neighborhood. It allows you to enter an address and see what crimes have recently been committed in the area. You can also listen to police scanners anywhere in the nation using free software called Police Radio Scanner. Keep in mind, every city will have its fair share of crime, but research will at least give you some insights into what's going on. Windows 10 privacy settings Q. I've heard rumors that Microsoft collects information about what I do online. Is that true, and what can I do about it? A. If you use Windows 10, then the answer is probably yes. Many consumers are worried about some of the details in the Windows 10 privacy policy, which allows Microsoft to collect a lot of information about you and your online activity. Microsoft claims this information is used only to make improvements to its products' functionality, but this tactic still doesn't sit well with many. What's worse is that the steps to update your privacy settings are confusing and tedious. But you can use this little trick I know to take back control of the information Microsoft can collect. Using Twitter for a small business Q. I run a small business, and everyone says I need to set up a Twitter account. Is that really necessary? A. Social media has truly transformed the way customers interact with companies, and it can be a valuable marketing tool for any business. Most companies benefit from having well-managed Facebook and Twitter accounts, but you need to know how to use them. Posting too much or too little can hurt you. The best tip is to use each platform for a specific purpose that benefits your business. For example, use Facebook to share events, photos and customer testimonials, then use Twitter to share coupon codes, news and special discounts. If you're unfamiliar with Twitter, here are some additional tips to help you tweet like a pro. And follow me at Twitter.com/KimKomando. Computer security Q. I received a new laptop for Christmas. What should I do to make sure my browsing is secure? A. One of the first things every new computer should have is a good anti-virus. But, beyond that, there is one critical computer setting that can really keep your computer more secure. It has to do with Adobe Flash. Since Flash is so widely used, it's also a prime target for hackers who are looking to hide malware. If Flash can run ads and videos automatically, you may pick up a virus without intending to. Learn more about adjusting your computer settings to take control of your Flash player. Slow Internet Q. I've noticed that sometimes my Internet seems slower than other times. What causes this? A. It could just be your Internet connection acting up. Or it could be someone is stealing your line, sucking up valuable bandwidth. Luckily, you can check to see what devices are connected to your network. And, if you do find unauthorized devices, there are steps you can take to ensure they won't return. Here's a helpful resource where you can learn the steps to identifying possible threats and securing your personal network. On the Kim Komando Show, the nation's largest weekend radio talk show, Kim takes calls and dispenses advice on today's digital lifestyle, from smartphones and tablets to online privacy and data hacks. For her daily tips, free newsletters and more, visit her website at Komando.com. Kim also posts breaking tech news 24/7 at News.Komando.com. The nine leading Republican candidates for president are meeting for their first debate in more than a month in the shadow of terrorist attacks that refocused the race on keeping the country safe. Donald Trump remains the front-runner just seven weeks before the first votes are cast in Iowa, but much has changed. Islamic militants or those inspired by them are believed to have been behind the killings of scores of people in Paris; San Bernardino, California; and Mali, raising the prominence of national security expertise in a race that had made stars of outsider candidates. Expect Trump's proposal to ban Muslims from entering the U.S. to take center stage with him. And look for a new top challenger to vie for attention. Ted Cruz, the Texas senator who has for months refused to criticize the former reality show star or his supporters, is posing a stiff challenge to Trump in Iowa on a similar anti-establishment platform. Another likely change: volume. Listen for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, returning to the prime time debate stage after being banished to the "undercard" debate last time, to try to shore up his place in the top tier. For everyone else, the debate is a chance to stay in the conversation. Here's what to watch for in CNN's prime time GOP presidential debate in Las Vegas: ___ TRUMP ON DEFENSE Trump remains the leader in the GOP nomination race, still getting the buzz with his proposal to ban Muslims from entering the U.S. temporarily and with exceptions, he says. Look for him to continue his pattern of not attacking unless he's attacked first and springing like a trap if he is. He can expect to be called upon to defend his plan for Muslims, if nothing else. __ CRUZ ON HOT SEAT Cruz enters the debate with the most momentum as he challenges Trump for the lead in Iowa, while not attacking the billionaire or his supporters. Look for Cruz to be asked about a recording leaked to The New York Times in which Cruz tells his supporters in a private meeting that people are looking for a candidate who can handle national security crises, saying, "Now that's a question of strength but it is also a question of judgment. And I think that is a question that is a challenging question for both" Trump and Ben Carson, whose standing has plummeted, to Cruz's benefit. "In the course of a presidential election, the voters are going to make a decision about every candidate," Cruz said last week at the Heritage Foundation. "And ultimately the decision is, who has the right judgment experience and judgment to serve as commander in chief?" Cruz has not said whether the closed-door comments were a swipe at his two rivals, though Trump certainly took it that way. He called Cruz a "little bit of a maniac" in return. __ RUBIO vs. CRUZ Watch for Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Cruz to wrestle over policy-heavy questions on immigration and national security as Rubio tries to elbow into the pool of potential heirs to Trump and Carson's support bases. Trump wants to deport 11.5 million immigrants in the country illegally. Both Rubio and Cruz have done about-faces on previous immigration stances. Rubio has disavowed the massive 2013 bill he authored that passed the Senate. Cruz opposed that bill but now says his own amendments to it, to increase legal immigration, are not a good idea after all. __ CHRISTIE Look for Christie to capitalize on his new momentum in New Hampshire and secure his standing as a member of the field's top tier. Christie has been successful in previous debates seizing on key moments to create newsworthy conflicts or rising above the fray by speaking directly to the camera and viewers at home. In an interview with The Associated Press on Friday, Christie sounded poised to focus on national security and his background as U.S. attorney after the Sept. 11 attacks. Look for him to try to cast some of the other candidates as less experienced on the subject and, in Rubio's case, not ready to be president. ____ Associated Press writers Jill Colvin in Washington and Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, contributed to this report. ___ Follow Laurie Kellman on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/APLaurieKellman The armed protesters who triggered a standoff when they stormed a wildlife refuge in Oregon listed their demands at a news conference Monday, while giving their group a name: Citizens for Constitutional Freedom. Ammon Bundy, a son of Cliven Bundy, who was involved in a standoff of his own against the federal government in 2014, spoke on behalf of the protesters. He said they asked Harney County Sheriff Dave Ward and federal agencies to put an end to what he called "abuses" against local ranchers Dwight and Steven Hammond. The Hammonds were convicted of arson three years ago for fires that burned on federal land in 2001 and 2006. Though they served their original sentences for the conviction -- Dwight serving three months, Steven serving one year -- an appellate judge ruled in October that the terms were too short under federal minimum sentencing laws. The Hammonds were ordered back to prison for four years each. They arrived at the Terminal Island Federal Correctional Institution Monday afternoon. "Dwight and Steven Hammond respect the rule of law. They have litigated this matter within the federal courts for over five years and, in every instance, have followed the order of the court without incident or violation," the Hammonds' attorneys said. Ammon Bundy accused federal officials of launching an "attack" on the Hammonds for refusing to sell their land. The protesters took over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge south of Burns on Saturday after participating in a peaceful rally. Sheriff Ward said the protesters were no patriots. "These men came to Harney County claiming to be part of militia groups supporting local ranchers, when in reality these men had alternative motives to attempt to overthrow the county and federal government in hopes to spark a movement across the United States," Ward said in a statement. "We are currently working jointly with several organizations to make sure the citizens of Harney County are safe and this issue is resolved as quickly and peaceful as possible." FBI officials tried to calm the anger by calling for a "peaceful resolution" to the standoff. Still, the bureau did not give any specifics about its response in a statement Sunday, citing "safety considerations for both those inside the refuge as well as the law enforcement officers involved." Ammon Bundy's brother, Ryan, said they planned on staying at the refuge as long as it takes. If the situation turns violent, he contends it will be because of the federal government's actions. "I mean, we're here to restore order, we're here to restore rights and that can go peacefully and easily." Dwight Hammond Jr., 73, and his 46-year-old son, Steven, have claimed that they lit the fires in 2001 and 2006 to reduce the growth of invasive plants and protect their property from wildfires. However, prosecutors said the fires were set to cover up poaching. The decision generated controversy and is part of a decades-long dispute between some Westerners and the federal government over the use of public lands. The issue traces back to the 1970s and the "Sagebrush Rebellion," a move by Western states like Nevada to increase local control over federal land. Critics of the push for more local control have said the federal government should administer the public lands for the widest possible uses, including environmental and recreation. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Colorado police are searching for anyone information connected to the murder of a woman who was viciously killed in her mobile home in October. Amalia Lopez De Mansilla, 33, of Broomfield, was stabbed eight times in the chest and torso and also suffered blunt trauma to the neck, the Adams County coroner determined on Wednesday. The Broomfield Enterprise reported that coroner Monica Broncucia-Jordan originally ruled that Lopez De Mansillas death was a homicide, though Broomfield police have not officially revealed how she was killed. Lopez De Mansilla also went by the name Karolina Amalia Lopez-Leon, according to KCNC-TV. Nearly three months later, no arrests have been made in the case and police have not identified any potential suspects. Police have urged the public to come forward with any information regarding the womans death and as of Wednesday, they were still searching for clues. Sgt. Brendan Sullivan told The Broomfield Enterprise the department didnt have any new information regarding the Lopez De Mansilla case. Lopez De Mansillas body was found on Oct. 18 in her mobile home in Broomfield, according to the Enterprise. Officers were called to the home for a welfare check when they found the body inside the home. The autopsy revealed that Lopez De Mansillas lungs, heart, live and stomach were punctured in the attack. The eight stab wounds ranged from 1 to 7 inches deep. The Broomfield Enterprise reported that she also had cuts and bruises to her scalp, an incision to her left palm and several bruises on her neck. Police believe Lopez De Mansilla was out at a local restaurant the night before her death. A neighbor, who asked to remain anonymous, told KCNC-TV in October she saw a man walk out of the mobile home on the same day Lopez De Mansillas body was found. A guy came down the street with a dolly and a big black thing. At first I thought it was a refrigerator. Then I looked again and said, Its not a refrigerator. It was a gun safe. He was tall and thin, the woman added. Neighbors said at the time the woman had recently separated from her husband and lived with two children. Authorities also believe whoever killed Lopez De Mansilla, knew her. "We are seeking information about acquaintances, places that she may have frequented, or the circumstances surrounding her death," police said in an Oct. 28 news release. Days before she died, Lopez De Mansilla called police to report a burglary in her home. She told officers on Oct. 10 that a large gun and a safe had been tampered with, according to the paper. Eight days later, authorities discovered the safe was no longer at the home. Anyone with information about the killing or the safe is urged to call the Broomfield Police Crime Tip Line at 720-887-5298 or email umpolicetipsline@broomfield.org. Click for more from The Broomfield Enterprise. Las Vegas police have identified two officers who shot and killed a man holding a cellphone that was mistaken for a gun. Police on Saturday say 37-year-old Sgt. Robert Bohanon and 27-year-old Officer Blake Walford are currently on routine administrative leave. The officers were assisting U.S. marshals in arresting 23-year-old Keith Childress Jr., who was convicted last month of multiple crimes in Arizona including armed robbery and aggravated assault. Police confronted him Thursday and ordered him to drop what they thought was a gun in his right hand. They say Childress disregarded their commands and advanced toward them. The two officers then opened fire, fatally striking Childress. Bohanon has been with Las Vegas police for 18 years and Walford for more than a year. next Image 1 of 3 prev next Image 2 of 3 prev Image 3 of 3 Flooding caused by abnormally heavy rains cut roads, knocked out electricity and threatened several communities in the usually bone-dry Atacama desert region early Thursday. Local media quoted police as saying two people had been killed in the coastal town of Chanaral. At least 24 people were listed as missing in three communities hit by flooding, Deputy Interior Minister Mahmud Aleuy said. Chile's government declared a state of emergency in the region Wednesday, putting the region under military control. President Michelle Bachelet flew to the area Wednesday evening to observe the problems first hand. Thunderstorms with torrential rains moved in Tuesday, causing the Copiapo River to overflow its banks and forcing evacuations because of fears of mudslides. TV images showed brown, muddy waters flooding the streets and reaching a hospital in Copiapo city. Some people living along the river had to be rescued by helicopter because roads were blocked by water and mud, but some residents refused to leave their homes. Chile's state-run copper giant Codelco said it was temporarily suspending mining operations in the area due to blocked roads, but added that flooding had not affected its sites, including the world's largest open-pit copper mine. Interior Minister Rodrigo Penailillo said the state of emergency was issued to expedite getting all resources possible to rescue those affected. ___ Luis Andres Henao on Twitter: https://twitter.com/LuisAndresHenao A British government review has found that some members of the Muslim Brotherhood have supported violence, but concluded the organization shouldn't be banned. Last year, Prime Minister David Cameron ordered Britain's intelligence agencies to investigate the philosophy and activities of the Islamist group. The Brotherhood says it is a peaceful charitable and political organization, but it is considered a terrorist organization by Saudi Arabia and by Egypt, where Brotherhood leader Mohammed Morsi was ousted as president in 2013. The British review concluded Thursday that "a minority of Muslim Brotherhood supporters in Egypt have engaged alongside other Islamists in violent acts." It said that that membership in the group was "a possible indicator of extremism," but found its views and activities didn't meet the legal tests for a ban. The mayor of a city south of Mexico's capital has been shot to death less than a day after taking office. The Morelos state Public Security Commission says attackers invaded the house of Gisela Mota on Saturday morning in the city of Temixco and killed her. Gov. Graco Ramirez says on his Twitter account that two other people died and two others have been detained. Details of the incident and the motive remain unclear. Temixco is a city of about 100,000 people neighboring Cuernavaca, and resort and industrial city which has been suffering kidnappings and extortion linked to organized crime groups. Mota was sworn into office on New Year's Day. She was a member of the leftist Democratic Revolution Party and had been a federal congresswoman. China said it had landed a test flight on a newly completed airfield in the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, a sign of its growing military capabilities in the region. The flight drew a quick protest from Vietnam, which said China had seriously violated its sovereignty. According to a statement released late Saturday by the Chinese foreign ministry, Beijing has completed construction of an airfield on Fiery Cross Reef, and recently used a civil aircraft to conduct a flight testing whether the facilities were up to civil-aviation standards. Vietnam said Saturday that it had lodged an official protest with the Chinese Embassy in Hanoi over the action. The Spratly Islands are the subject of overlapping claims by several neighbors, including the Philippines, a U.S. ally. The test flight came after a visit to Hanoi by Chinese President Xi Jinping in November, which analysts say was partly designed to address the souring relationship between the two countries over territorial disputes. In the statement posted on the Vietnamese foreign ministrys website Saturday, ministry spokesman Le Hai Binh said Chinas action went against the common conception of the high-ranking leaders of the two countries, and against an agreement on basic principles for solving maritime issues between Vietnam and China. With Beijings latest acknowledgment, China has now completed two airfields in the South China Sea, said Andrew Erickson, an associate professor at the U.S. Naval War College. Apart from the Spratly Islands airfield, Beijing also has an operational airfield on Woody Island, which is located southeast of Chinas Hainan Island and is a part of the Paracel island chain, also claimed by Vietnam. With a length of around three kilometers, the completed airfield is a sign of Chinas ability to flex its military power in the region, he said. While this was a civil test, this airport is clearly very militarily capable, and China could presumably start to use it in some capacity at any time, said Mr. Erickson. Click for more from The Wall Street Journal. The push by France's Socialist government to revoke the citizenship of convicted terrorists with dual nationality after the Paris attacks has turned into a harsh political dispute, with the far right applauding the move while some on the left express indignation at what they call a divisive measure. French President Francois Hollande submitted the proposal three days after the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris that left 130 dead, in a shift toward a hard line on security. The idea appears to have strong support in French public opinion. Several polls over the past week suggest that 80 to 90 percent of the French are in favor of the measure. Under current French law, citizenship revocation can only be applied to people who have been naturalized, not if they are French-born, and the procedure is rarely implemented. The new rules would extend it to all dual nationals, but cannot be applied to people who are only French citizens, as France's obligations under international law prevent it from leaving a person stateless. Opponents of the measure consider it would create two classes of citizens dual nationals who could lose their citizenship and others who cannot in opposition to the principle of equality set out in France's constitution. French authorities have not said how many of those arrested over the Paris attacks are dual nationals. Prominent Socialist Party figures, including former Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, have publicly expressed their disapproval, but Hollande has stuck to his guns. "France must take the good decisions beyond traditional party divisions," the president said in his New Year's Eve speech. While the left is divided, Hollande is getting unusual support from the right. The far-right National Front has claimed it is at the origin of the idea. "Terrorists don't deserve French citizenship, because French citizenship is an honor", vice president of the party Florian Philippot told France Info radio. Members of the conservative opposition, including former President Nicolas Sarkozy, have also largely supported the proposal while also calling for more security measures. The government says the new measure would apply to a very small number of people. The issue remains highly sensitive in France as some have compared it to the revocation of citizenship of Jews and members of the French Resistance during World War II, when the government led by Philippe Petain collaborated with German authorities. The Vichy regime revoked the citizenship of more than 15,000 naturalized and 500 French-born people including General Charles de Gaulle. "It's dangerous because you start wanting to revoke the citizenship of some people, then take a step further," said Socialist senator Samia Ghali. French Prime Minister Manuel Valls defended the action this week. "This is a strong symbolic act that punishes those who excluded themselves from the national community. Nothing less, nothing more," he said in a written statement. France first adopted the revocation of citizenship in 1848 for those who refused to accept the abolition of slavery, Valls recalled. The constitutional change, to be debated in Parliament in February, requires a three-fifths majority vote from lawmakers. About 50 human rights and anti-racist organizations and unions have launched a petition to reject the measure. Some human rights defenders consider the proposal implicitly targets France's Muslim community, the largest in Western Europe including many French-born with Moroccan, Tunisian or Algerian origins who have both citizenships. The Paris attacks, which left 130 dead and hundreds wounded, were carried out in the name of the Islamic State group largely by French and Belgian extremists. Some of them were of Moroccan descent. The possibility of revoking the citizenship of all dual nationals not only the naturalized ones already exists in Britain, Canada and the Netherlands. In the U.S., a person can have his naturalization revoked for being a member of the Communist party, another totalitarian party or a terrorist organization within five years of his or her naturalization. The measure does not apply to natural-born U.S. citizens. Since it opened in 2000, the Oresund bridge between Sweden and Denmark has been a towering symbol of European integration and hassle-free travel across borders that people didn't even notice were there. On Monday new travel restrictions imposed by Sweden to stem a record flow of migrants are transforming the bridge into a striking example of how national boundaries are re-emerging. A year of clampdowns on migration and terrorism has all but killed the idea of a borderless Europe where you could drive or train-hop from Spain in the south to Norway in the north without ever having to show your passport. "We're turning back the clock," said Andreas Onnerfors, who lives in Lund, on the Swedish side of the bridge. An associate professor in intellectual history, he said he's benefited from the free flow of people and ideas across the bridge he's studied on both sides and taught students from both Sweden and Denmark. "We're going back to a time when the bridge didn't exist," he said, referring to the ID checkpoints being set up Monday on the Danish side for train passengers wishing to cross over to Sweden. The move is meant to stop undocumented migrants from reaching Sweden, which abruptly reversed its open-door policy after receiving more than 160,000 asylum-seekers last year, mainly from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. It follows the reintroduction of border checks in Germany, Austria, France, Belgium and other countries in what's supposed to be a passport-free travel zone spanning 26 nations. The moves are supposedly temporary, but are likely to be extended if Europe's migrant crisis continues in 2016. "It's basically every country for itself now," said Mark Rhinard, an expert on the European Union at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs. Citing exceptional national circumstances related to security, terrorism and public order, several European countries have suspended EU rules that required them to keep their borders open to each other. It's a significant development that strikes at the very heart of the EU project the free movement of goods and people across borders. The Bruegel think tank in Brussels says that in 2014 there were almost 1.7 million cross-border commuters in the passport-free zone known as the Schengen Area, after the Luxembourg town where it was created in 1985. Abolishing it would affect their daily lives, but the consequences for Europe would go deeper, given the "visible and powerful symbol of European integration that Schengen represents," Bruegel researchers Nuria Boot and Guntram Wolff wrote in December. Whether the temporary reintroduction of borders also means rebuilding mental boundaries between EU citizens remains to be seen. But the migrant crisis is becoming an even bigger challenge to European unity than the cracks emerging in recent years over the bloc's common currency, the euro. EU nations demonstrated starkly different views on how to deal with the 1 million migrants that crossed the Mediterranean in 2015. Germany and Sweden, until recently, said refugees were welcome, while Hungary built a fence to keep them out. The Danish government took a series of measures to discourage migrants from going there, including a proposal to seize their jewelry to cover their expenses in Denmark. Common rules requiring refugees to seek shelter in the first EU country they enter collapsed, as Greece and Italy were overwhelmed by sea arrivals and countries further north just waved the migrants through to their intended destination, often Germany or the Scandinavian countries. Meanwhile the EU's efforts to spread refugees more evenly across the bloc met stiff resistance from member states. By November only about 150 of 160,000 refugees had been relocated from Greece and Italy under an EU plan. The crisis underlines structural flaws in the EU, showing how it has implemented common rules that it just can't enforce once the external pressures become too great, said Karl Lallerstedt, co-founder of Black Market Watch, a Switzerland-based non-profit group focusing on cross-border smuggling. "It's not a strong federal state that can overrule its members," he said. "At the same time individual states have obligations to the EU. So you're in this sort of half-way house." Any hope of a quick return to a borderless Europe was crushed by the deadly Paris attacks in November, after which France declared a state of emergency and beefed up border controls with neighboring countries. However, if bottlenecks build up at the borders, EU citizens and companies moving goods in trucks will eventually get fed up, said Rhinard, of the Swedish Institute of International Affairs. "As soon as it starts to bite economically, people are going to start to ask: 'Is this the right solution to the problem?'" Rhinard said. That question is already being asked by companies and commuters opposed to new ID checks at the 8-kilometer (5-mile) Oresund bridge-and-tunnel, known to European TV viewers as the focal point of the Swedish-Danish crime series "The Bridge." Train networks on either side have been integrated to allow thousands of commuters to cross the bridge daily, essentially incorporating the southern Swedish cities of Malmo and Lund into suburban Copenhagen. But the new ID checks mean there will be no more direct railway service from Copenhagen's main station to Sweden. Travelers heading to Malmo will have to switch trains at Copenhagen Airport after going through the checkpoints there, adding an estimated half an hour to the 40-minute commute. To avoid the hassle, Sweden's national railway company SJ cancelled service to Denmark altogether, leaving only Danish and regional Swedish operators with service across the bridge. "This is what happens when national states put down their foot down and say security is most important," said Onnerfors. "It collides with the freedom (of movement) they've been talking about for 20 years, which was the reason we joined the EU to begin with." ___ Associated Press writers Raf Casert in Brussels, Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin, Ciaran Giles in Madrid, Barry Hatton in Lisbon, George Jahn in Vienna and Collen Barry in Milan contributed to this report. Irans supreme leader warned Saudi Arabia of divine revenge Sunday following the execution of a prominent Shiite cleric while Riyadh accused Tehran of supporting terrorism, escalating a war of words after protesters stormed the Saudi Embassy in Tehran. Sheikh Nimir al-Nimir was executed Saturday along with 46 others, including three other Shiite dissidents and a number of Al Qaeda militants. Al-Namir was a key leader in the Arab Spring protests in Saudi Arabia before his arrest in 2012. His execution drew condemnation from Shiites across the region as well as several countries outside Iran. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei condemned the execution Sunday in a statement on his website, saying al-Nimr "neither invited people to take up arms nor hatched covert plots. The only thing he did was public criticism." Irans Revolutionary Guard also lashed out at Saudi Arabia Sunday. They compared the executions to attacks carried out by the Islamic State. The Guard said in a statement that Saudi Arabias medieval act of savagery in putting al-Nimir death will lead to the downfall of the monarchy. The Guard promised harsh revenge against the Saudi royals for the execution, according to Reuters. Al-Nimr was convicted of terrorism charges but denied ever advocating violence. Meanwhile, crowds gathered outside the Saudi Embassy early Sunday and chanted anti-Saudi slogans. Protesters threw stones and Molotov cocktails at the embassy, igniting a fire in one part of the building, said the countrys top police official, Gen. Hossein Sajedina. At least 40 people were arrested on suspicion of taking part in the violent protests, according to Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi. The semi-official ISNA news agency said investigators were searching for several other suspects. Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran are locked in a bitter rivalry, and support opposite sides in the wars in Syria and Yemen. Iran accuses Saudi Arabia of supporting "terrorism" in part because it backs Syrian rebel groups, while Riyadh points to Iran's support for the Lebanese Hezbollah and other Shiite militant groups in the region. The Iranian Foreign Ministry has summoned the Saudi envoy in Tehran to protest, while the Saudi Foreign Ministry later said it had summoned Iran's envoy to the kingdom to protest the critical Iranian reaction to the sheikh's execution, saying it represented "blatant interference" in its internal affairs. The cleric's execution could also complicate Saudi Arabia's relationship with the Shiite-led government in Iraq. The Saudi Embassy in Baghdad reopened for the first time in nearly 25 years on Friday. Already on Saturday there were public calls for Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to shut the embassy down again. Al-Abadi tweeted Saturday night that he was "shocked and saddened" by al-Nimr's execution, adding that "peaceful opposition is a fundamental right. Repression does not last." Hundreds of al-Nimr's supporters also protested in his hometown of al-Qatif in eastern Saudi Arabia, in neighboring Bahrain where police fired tear gas and bird shot, and as far away as northern India. The Associated Press contributed to this report. VIVA CUENCA! My mission in publishing this blog is first to provide a living history of my settlement and life in Cuenca, and to provide myself and the reader with a journal account delineating my reasons for why I have chosen to settle in Cuenca. Second, the posts are my way of staying in contact with family and friends back in the states, and to provide them with an understanding of a country and culture that most North Americans have little knowledge and awareness. Third, the blog is open to one and all who wish to compare and contrast the experiences of expat bloggers living in Cuenca, so that you can determine whether or not from your perspective Cuenca is an appropriate move for you. Fourth, my blog provides another example of how expats view and interpret life in Cuenca. Ecuadorians and Cuencanos who may read this blog are especially invited to post comments that may enhance all expats understanding and appreciation of Cuneca and its people, or to correct any misinterpretations in my assumptions and perceptions of Cuencano culture. Finally, I hope I can convey the feeling of love and appreciation that grows within me each passing day for this heavenly city nestled in the Andes and its very special people. Poland has defended its new media law as fair, voicing surprise at the European Union's negative reaction to the legislation. Last week, Polish lawmakers approved legislation that ends the terms of the current heads of state-run radio and television, and gives the government authority to make new appointments. The president is expected to sign it into law soon. European Commissioner Guenther Oettinger said in remarks published Sunday that he was concerned about media independence in Poland and would like the EU member to be put under a monitoring mechanism. Marek Magierowski, the spokesman for Polish President Andrzej Duda, said the changes were necessary, because for years under the previous government, state broadcasters were "one-party media" with no pluralism, a fact that was ignored by the EU. Israel on Sunday indicted two Jewish extremists suspected in a July arson attack on a Palestinian home that killed a toddler and his parents a case that has been unsolved for months and helped fuel the current wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence. The long-awaited indictment follows months of investigations into a web of Jewish extremists operating in the West Bank. The indictment named Amiram Ben-Uliel, a 21-year-old West Bank settler, as the main suspect in the attack. A minor was charged as an accessory. Yinon Reuveni, 20, and another minor were charged for other violence against Palestinians. All four were charged with belonging to a terrorist organization. The arson attack in the West Bank village of Duma killed 18-month-old Ali Dawabsheh, while his mother, Riham, and father, Saad, later died of their wounds. Ali's 4-year-old brother Ahmad survived. The firebombing, carried out at night while the family slept, sparked soul-searching among Israelis. It was condemned across the Israeli political spectrum and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged "zero tolerance" in the fight to bring the assailants to justice. Israel has authorized a series of steps, including holding several suspects without charge a tactic typically used against Palestinian militants to crack the case. But critics have said that similar, albeit not deadly, attacks have festered for years with little action by the government. And for months, Palestinians watched angrily as the case remained unsolved, intensifying a feeling of skewed justice in the occupied territory, where suspected Palestinian militants are prosecuted under a separate system of military law that gives them few rights. The arson also touched on Palestinian fears of extremist Jewish settlers, who have attacked Palestinian property with impunity. Palestinians cite the Duma incident as a factor in a three-month wave of attacks and clashes roiling the region, saying they are frustrated by years of unchecked settler violence. Palestinian attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers over the past three and a half months have killed 21 Israelis, mostly in stabbings, shootings and car-ramming attacks. That figure does not include the two Israelis killed Friday by an Arab man in a shooting attack on a Tel Aviv restaurant, as the motive for the attack hasn't officially been determined yet. During that time, at least 131 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire, 90 of them identified by Israel as assailants. The rest died in clashes with security forces. Israel says the violence is being fanned by a Palestinian campaign of incitement. The Palestinians say it is rooted in frustrations stemming from nearly five decades of Israeli occupation Israel's Shin Bet security service said Sunday that the suspects admitted to carrying out the Duma attack, saying it was in retaliation for the killing of an Israeli settler by Palestinians a month earlier. It said all the suspects were part of a group of extremists that had carried out a series of attacks over the years in a religiously inspired campaign to undermine the government and sow fear among non-Jews. The indictment said Ben-Uliel admitted to spraying graffiti on the Dawabsheh family home and then tossing a firebomb through a bedroom window before fleeing the scene. Ben-Uliel's parents said they believe in his innocence and that he was tortured during interrogation. Nasser Dawabsheh, Saad's brother, said the indictments were not enough. "It's clear the Israeli institutions are not serious," he said. "It's clear there was an organization behind this crime, even the media knows that. And the government was not serious in preventing it and is not serious in pursuing the killers." Jewish extremists have for years vandalized or set fire to Palestinian property, as well as mosques, churches, the offices of dovish Israeli groups and even Israeli military bases. The so-called "price tag" attacks seek to exact a cost for Israeli steps seen as favoring the Palestinians. The extremists are part of a movement known as the "hilltop youth," a leaderless group of young people who set up unauthorized outposts, usually clusters of trailers, on West Bank hilltops land the Palestinians claim for their hoped-for state. A lawyer for one of the suspects says his client gave a forced confession after interrogators deprived him of sleep and tied him upside down by his feet. More young people are involved in distracted driving crashes than any other age group, according to the Virginia DMV, and DRIVE SMART Virginia, a nonprofit that receives funding from the DMV, is charged with raising awareness among youth about the dangers of distracted driving. MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICOA picturesque cemetery of green wreaths with red ribbons set the scene for Wreaths Across America at Quantico National Cemetery on Dec. 12. The holiday wreath-laying ceremony gave more than 300 members from the community an opportunity to gather in remembrance of fallen heroes. Many youth groups participated to teach children about American heroes and veterans to whom we owe our freedom, said Richard Leonard, the ceremonys guest speaker, who retired in 2000 after 25 years in the Air Force. Youth from the Civil Air Patrol Squadron of Fredericksburg, CHCORI JROTC Battalion, Spotsylvania Career and Technical Center, in addition to Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, participated in the ceremony. A lot of folks that show up are either veterans, family members of veterans or friends of folks buried here, Leonard continued. This is a special place for me because my parents are buried here, as well as colleagues from the police department where I worked. Buses, cars and motorcycles lined the streets of the cemetery, as community groups came together to lay about 5,000 wreaths on headstones during the program. This crowd has grown more than two-thirds larger than last year, said CWO 5 Vince Pope, Weapons Training Battalion, Marksmanship Program director, who commented on the large crowds that gathered at the cemetery. Pope laid one of seven wreaths during the ceremony in remembrance of those who served and are still serving in the military. It is an honor, because all Marines know that there are those who never come back from a deployment, he said. Pope has participated in the ceremony for the past three years as a way to represent the Marine Corps during community services. Popes father served in the Navy, his father-in-law retired from the Army and he has completed seven successful deployments. This event shows how patriotic our community really is, even in the midst of turmoil. People come together for these types of things, because its important to remember these veterans, he said. Two unique wreaths decorated with gingerbread men and candy-shaped ornaments were created for the children of Gold Star Mothers in the Blue Star Mothers of Fredericksburg program. The group of Blue Star Mothers have children who serve or have served in the military. Since 2008, the group has expanded its membership in Northern Virginia. Seventy-eight Blue Star Mothers raised $1,600 to donate 320 holiday wreaths to be laid during the ceremony. Members include mothers from Fredericksburg, Stafford, King George, Spotsylvania and Orange. Our participation is very important because our sons and daughters are out there, said Teri Reece, the groups president. We are proud to support these mothers. We know one of these gravestones could be our own child and so we support each other through this network. Members of the community can support the wreath cleanup Feb. 6. As the Mississippi River and its tributaries retreated Saturday from historic winter levels that flooded towns, forced evacuations and killed two dozen people, residents in the St. Louis area were facing a massive cleanup and recovery effort that will likely last weeks. The healing process, the restoration process has begun, Chris Greenhagen, pastor of the Central Baptist Church in Eureka, Missouri, one of the communities hit by flooding along the Meramec River last week, said in a telephone interview. The flood, fueled by more than 10 inches of rain over a three-day period that began last weekend, is blamed for 24 deaths in Illinois and Missouri. Water from the Mississippi, Meramec and Missouri rivers largely began receding Friday in the St. Louis area. Two major highwaysInterstate 44 and Interstate 55reopened south of St. Louis on Friday and some evacuees were also allowed then to return home. On Saturday, while residents took stock of the ruin, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon said he has asked for a federal emergency declaration to help speed cleanup of the flood debris in the St. Louis area. If the declaration is approved, the Missouri National Guard would manage the debris cleanup program at the state level and coordinate with federal and local governments. Nixon and Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner also toured flood-ravaged areas as near-record crest predictions of the Mississippi River and levee breaks threatened more homes. In Missouri, Noelle Pace said she packed up electronics, some furniture and her 4-year-old sons clothing and toys and left Pacific on Dec. 28, the day after she received a request to evacuate. She felt lucky to find the damage isolated to her crawl space when she returned for the first time Thursday. Everybody around us had catastrophic damage, Pace said. She said she might not be able to move back for weeks while her landlord replaces soaked insulation. It doesnt feel real yet, she said. Illinois Emergency Management Agency spokeswoman Patti Thompson said the states flooding death toll increased to nine. Fifteen have died in Missouri. Rauner encouraged people to respect requests to evacuate. This is life threatening, he told reporters at Carlyle Lake in Clinton County in southern Illinois. Its not just the water; its the temperature. Hypothermia is a big risk to peoples lives. The main culprit in the St. Louis region was the Meramec River, a relatively small Mississippi tributary that bombarded communities in the far southwestern reaches of the St. Louis suburbs during the week. Two wastewater treatment plants were so damaged by the floodwaters that raw sewage spewed into the river. Hundreds of people were evacuated in the Missouri communities of Pacific, Eureka, Valley Park and Arnold, where many homes took in water. William Reynolds said he moved at least $50,000 worth of inventory from his Valley Park store to the second story of his nearby home when the evacuation was ordered. He was still unpacking Saturday after the evacuation was lifted. Jay Newman, chef at Fredericks Pub and Grill in Fenton, Missouri, said he was mostly stuck in his Arnold home for two days because of the flooding, which closed most of the area roads. It was bad from every direction, Newman said. While the worst of the dangerous, deadly winter flood was over in the St. Louis area, the water was slowly make its way south. In southeast Missouri, the Mississippi crested overnight Friday but not before damaging about two-dozen homes in Cape Girardeau, a community of 40,000 residents mostly protected by a flood wall. What wed like people to know is that in Cape Girardeau there have been so many precautions in place that even given the magnitude of this event, its really gone remarkably well for us, Molly Hood, Cape Girardeaus deputy city manager, said Saturday. Elsewhere, the Illinois River continued to rise Saturday and could near historic crests Tuesday or Wednesday. Each day, as I sit in traffic on U.S. 17 waiting for my chance to get on Interstate 95, I wonder about the folks who make decisions about things like easing traffic. I wonder why they cannot see that a good solution for routing local traffic around this mess is to simply build a bridge across the Rappahannock River to connect Celebrate Virginia North with Celebrate South. Celebrate North has a beautiful parkway that now connects U.S. 17 with what used to be the Cannon Ridge golf course (closed for lack of business). If a bridge was built connecting the two Celebrates, local traffic would never have to use I95, the practically undeveloped Celebrate North would boom with new commercial development that shoppers in Fredericksburg and Stafford could easily access, traffic on U.S. 17 would stabilize and flow as it should . . . I could go on. Instead, we play squeeze the snake with U.S. 17, widening the part closest to I95. Seems like this is a BandAid approach that will just move the problem down the road toward Hartwood. I know, say build a bridge, and people ask, what will it do to the environment? Well, what does all this traffic do to the environment? How about it, lets look at building a bridge at the end of Celebrate Parkway. Frank Lambert Stafford A man is behind bars after police said he committed a series of burglaries between April and December in 2015. Carlisle Police arrested Terrence Dwight Jones Dec. 30 after he had been identified as a suspect in the burglary case. Police said Jones committed six burglaries at retail establishments in the Carlisle area and attempted a seventh during the nine-month period. During the burglaries, police said Jones broke out glass windows and doors to gain entry to convenience stores/cigarette outlets. Once inside, police said Jones would steal numerous cartons and loose packs of cigarettes. Prior to the arrest, police gained a search warrant for Jones house. During the search, officers located cigarettes that had been stolen from Smokers Express as well as an SKS rifle. Jones was charged with burglary, criminal trespass, theft, criminal mischief and former felons not to possess firearms. Jones was committed to Cumberland County Prison and is currently awaiting a preliminary hearing. Coalition Strikes ISIL in Syria, Iraq From a Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve News Release SOUTHWEST ASIA, January 2, 2016 U.S. and coalition military forces have continued to attack Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorists in Syria and Iraq, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today. Officials reported details of the latest strikes, noting that assessments of results are based on initial reports. Strikes in Syria Attack, fighter and remotely piloted aircraft conducted six strikes in Syria: -- Near Abu Kamal, one strike struck an ISIL-used bridge. -- Near Ar Raqqah, three strikes struck three ISIL gas and oil separation plants. -- Near Ayn Isa, two strikes destroyed five ISIL buildings. Strikes in Iraq Attack, bomber, fighter, remotely piloted aircraft and rocket artillery conducted 25 strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of Iraq's government: -- Near Al Baghdadi, one strike destroyed three ISIL weapons caches. -- Near Albu Hayat, one strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL vehicle-borne bomb and an ISIL vehicle. -- Near Kisik, nine strikes suppressed an ISIL fighting position and denied ISIL access to terrain. -- Near Mosul, three strikes destroyed 17 ISIL fighting positions and an ISIL vehicle bomb facility. -- Near Ramadi, five strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed seven ISIL fighting positions, six ISIL heavy machine gun positions, three ISIL buildings, an ISIL vehicle, cratered two ISIL-used roads, and denied ISIL access to terrain. -- Near Sinjar, two strikes destroyed seven ISIL assembly areas, three ISIL weapons caches, and an ISIL command and control node. -- Near Tal Afar, four strikes struck destroyed six ISIL bunkers and denied ISIL access to terrain. Task force officials define a strike as one or more kinetic events that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single, sometimes cumulative, effect. Therefore, officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIL vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against buildings, vehicles and weapon systems in a compound, for example, having the cumulative effect of making those targets harder or impossible for ISIL to use. Accordingly, officials said, they do not report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual munition impact points against a target. Part of Operation Inherent Resolve The strikes were conducted as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the operation to eliminate the ISIL terrorist group and the threat they pose to Iraq, Syria, the region, and the wider international community. The destruction of ISIL targets in Syria and Iraq further limits the terrorist group's ability to project terror and conduct operations, officials said. Coalition nations that have conducted strikes in Iraq include the United States, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Jordan, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Coalition nations that have conducted strikes in Syria include the United States, Australia, Bahrain, Canada, France, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Saudi regime officially declares end of Yemen truce Iran Press TV Sat Jan 2, 2016 1:20PM The Saudi regime has officially declared the end of a shaky truce brokered by the United Nations that was meant to end the war on Yemen. The truce was declared void at 14:00 local time (1100 GMT) on Saturday, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported. The announcement is a major setback to attempts for peace. Agreement on the ceasefire came on December 15 in Switzerland's northern village of Magglingen. The SPA said Riyadh is still "keen to create the right conditions to find a peaceful solution." More than 7,500 people have been killed in Saudi airstrikes on Yemen since Riyadh launched its campaign on March 26, 2015. Since the ceasefire took effect, it was violated almost on a daily basis, with Yemenis blaming Saudi Arabia for the breaches. The incidents of breaching the truce have also worried the UN. Ismail Ould Sheikh Ahmad, the UN special envoy for Yemen, who personally mediated the peace talks in Switzerland, has voiced deep concern at "numerous reports of violations of the cessation of hostilities." From the beginning of the Yemen peace talks in the Swiss village, Saudi warplanes continued combat sorties targeting positions of Houthis in the northern and western parts of Yemen. Representatives of the Houthis in the talks warned the UN over the issue. Militants loyal to the regime in Riyadh, who also support Yemen's fugitive former President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, also took advantage of the ceasefire to advance against the Houthis and seized control of two major cities north of the country during the negotiations. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Inter-Jihadi Harmony: Afghan Taliban Factions Agree to Ceasefire Sputnik News 11:38 02.01.2016(updated 11:53 02.01.2016) Two rival factions of the Taliban in Afghanistan have reportedly agreed to put an end to fierce internal infighting. On New Year's Day, two rival factions of the Taliban in Afghan agreed to a ceasefire, which means that they can put a stop to deadly infighting, according to Reuters. The struggle inside the Taliban began in July 2015, when reports confirmed the death of the hardline Islamist insurgency's founder Mullah Mohammad Omar. Tensions persisted as some Taliban field commanders refused to recognize the new leader, Mullah Akhtar Mansour, who succumbed to his injuries in December 2015, according to unconfirmed reports. The Friday deal was reportedly clinched by representatives of a splinter group headed by Mullah Mohammad Rasool Akhund, calling itself the ulema, and the exiled insurgency leadership headed by Mansour. 'We agreed on ceasefire and prisoners' swap, but the ulema were not given access to Mansour,' Mullah Abdul Manan Niazi, Rasool's deputy was quoted by Reuters as saying. The Taliban is waging an armed struggle with the Afghan authorities to regain control of the country while also fighting militants from Daesh (ISIL/ISIS), which has managed to boost its clout in Afghanistan over the past few months. This jihadist group is banned in Russia and some other countries. In December, UN officials said that the Taliban can only obtain official recognition if it becomes part of an internationally recognized process of peaceful settlement. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Egyptian Army Kills Over 40 Extremists in Northern Sinai Sputnik News 22:40 02.01.2016(updated 22:56 02.01.2016) Egypt's Air Force aircraft killed on Saturday more than 40 terrorists affiliated with Daesh extremist group in the north of Sinai Peninsula. CAIRO (Sputnik) Egypt's Air Force aircraft attacked on Saturday a group of militants affiliated with Islamic State (ISIL, or Daesh in the Arab world) extremist group in the north of Sinai Peninsula, killing more than 40 terrorists, local media reported, citing sources in the country's army. Moreover, 15 extremists from the Wilayat Sinai (Sinai Province) militant group got injuries, the Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper said. Attack helicopters, warplanes and ground forces took part in the large scale military operation, according to the daily. Egypt is fighting a jihadist insurgency in Sinai since the army, led by President Abdel Fattah Sisi, overthrew the then Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013. Formerly known as Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, Wilayat Sinai changed the name and pledged its allegiance to Daesh, outlawed in a number of countries, including Russia, in November 2014. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Turkish Military Kills Hundreds of Kurdish Rebels in Raids Sputnik News 16:15 02.01.2016 Turkish armed forces killed almost 300 Kurdish militants in military operation held in three districts across the Sirnak and Diyarbakir provinces in southeastern Turkey, according to the Turkish General Staff. MOSCOW (Sputnik) Almost 300 militants from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) were killed in Turkey during a series of military raids, the Turkish General Staff said Saturday. The military operation spanned three districts across the Sirnak and Diyarbakir provinces in southeastern Turkey. The majority of the provinces' population is Kurdish. The Turkish military said they had defused dozens of improvised explosive devices, removed roadblocks erected by PKK fighters in the Cizre and Silope districts, and destroyed a school that was allegedly used by militants for training. The PKK group, outlawed in Turkey, has been struggling for independence of Kurdish-dominated regions in the southeast. Kurdish rebels seek to create a sovereign state in territories belonging to Turkey, Iraq and Syria. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Taliban Claims Large Swath of Afghan Territory During 2015 by Ayaz Gul January 02, 2016 The Taliban claims it gained control of about 10 percent of Afghanistan during the past year, and says it still holds most of the captured territory. A senior Afghan defense official did not discuss the Taliban claims, but said Saturday that Afghan counter-terrorist squads raided a Taliban-controlled prison and freed scores of inmates in Helmand province, an area that both the Taliban and the Kabul government have struggled to control. The Afghan official said government security forces carried out the operation at the prison without ground support from NATO units, and only limited intelligence and planning support by the U.S. military. The Taliban said its temporary capture of the key northern city of Kunduz in September was the most significant action in 2015. The group's 'review of jihadi progress in 2015,' sent to reporters Saturday, claimed the past 12 months were 'one of the most successful and inspiring' periods for its fighters in the past 15 years since before American forces and other coalition troops arrived in Afghanistan to oust a Taliban administration in 2001. The past year 'was fraught with numerous significant and sometimes unanticipated achievements,' the Taliban review contended. The Taliban claims to control 34 of nearly 400 districts across Afghanistan, in more half of the country's provinces. Afghan and Western security officials quoted this week in The Washington Post estimated the Taliban's influence was even greater; they said the insurgents either control or have a significant presence in roughly 30 percent of the districts. The Taliban 'progress review' said insurgents have been active in a long list of Afghan provinces Farah, Badghis, Ghor, Panjshir, Badakhshan, Baghlan, Helmand, Herat, Kunduz, Nuristan, Sar-e Pul, Paktika, Takhar, Logar, Jowzjan, Faryab, Kandahar and Ghazni. At the beginning of 2016, the Taliban said, battlefield advances have put its fighters closer to several provincial centers, and claimed Taliban fighters are only 'a stone's throw away' from the capitals of Baghlan, Helmand and Faryab provinces. With support from U.S. and other NATO military units, Afghan security forces struggled for weeks to retake control of Helmand, the southern province where most of Afghanistan's poppy crop is grown. The Taliban claims it either controls or threatens to control 10 of Helmand's 14 districts. The government's deputy defense spokesman, Dawlat Waziri, declined to discuss the Taliban claims in detail when he met with reporters Saturday in Kabul. "We should all accept that there is a war going on in Afghanistan. Our security forces, including army, police and intelligence personnel, are getting killed every day while undertaking heroic acts of defending their country," Waziri said, urging critics to respect these sacrifices. Waziri confirmed that Afghan army commandos freed about 60 people overnight from a Taliban prison in Helmand, which borders Pakistan. Those released included security personnel who had been held hostage by the insurgents. NATO confirmed that Afghanistan's national counterterrorism unit, the 1st Ktah Klas (KKA), carried out the raid Friday night and early Saturday in northeastern Helmand. A NATO statement said the Afghan Air Force's Special Mission Wing conducted a helicopter assault to free the prisoners in the Nahr-e-Saraj district without suffering any casualties. 'U.S. forces provided only limited intelligence and planning support to this operation,' a coalition spokesman said. 'No U.S. forces were on the ground during the operation.' During more than a decade of combat in Afghanistan, NATO forces have worked to drive Taliban fighters from their traditional heartland in Helmand province. Overall, however, a recent United Nations assessment showed the Taliban expanded its influence in parts of Afghanistan last year that had not seen any insurgent activity since 2001. Through November, about 7,000 members of the Afghan security forces were killed during 2015, and 12,000 wounded a 26 percent increase in the total number of dead and wounded in all of 2014, The Washington Post reported, quoting a Western official with access to recent NATO statistics. A spokesman for NATO's Resolute Support mission said approximately 6,500 civilians were killed or wounded by insurgent attacks in 2015. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Congo Republic Opposition Groups to Mull Election Date by VOA News January 02, 2016 Opposition political parties plan to meet next week to decide whether to participate in the Congo Republic's presidential election now scheduled for March 20. This, following the recent approval of a new constitution that removed term limits to allow long-term President Denis Sassou Nguesso to seek another term. Last October's referendum, approved by more than 92 percent of voters, removes a two-term limit and an age limit of 70 for presidential candidates. But the opposition dismissed the referendum as illegal, which led to the change in the constitution. Perfect Kolelas, leader of the opposition Congolese Movement for Democracy and Integral Development party, says all the opposition political groups are sharply against the referendum that led to the removal of term limits in the new constitution. He says the groups will soon decide their next line of action about the March presidential vote. He says the opposition parties are displeased with the decision of President Nguesso to remove term limits and seek re-election. "We still think the referendum was still illegal and is still illegal. And if we decide to go to the election, it means we are going to win the election. And if we win the election, we are going to cancel the referendum and this constitution. We are going to cancel it." Kolelas says Nguesso's administration has no right to determine the date of the election. This after the Communications Minister announced the formation of a new national electoral committee and the adoption of draft electoral law. "Our political movements are still working on that. On the 7th and 8th of this month we are going to have a big meeting in order to decide [what] to do in order to go to the election," said Kolelas. "We will be happy if everything is good. We are looking for the transparency of the process, we are working on that. If we can get the minimum of transparency of the election, we will [decide] on that. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Uganda Electoral Commission Issues New Directive for Candidates by Peter Clottey January 02, 2016 Uganda's electoral commission has issued a new directive banning all presidential candidates from campaigning in specific areas, including places of worship, markets and health institutions. This, after calling on the inspector general of police, Gen. Kale Kayihura to enforce the directive. In a press statement issued to all political parties and their presidential candidates, Badru Kiggundu, chairman of the electoral commission says the new directive forms part of the electoral body's measure to ensure an equal playing field ahead of the February vote. "The EC has noted with concern some presidential candidates who have made it a habit of going to various hospitals and conducting campaigns amidst patients. The Commission would like to guide that hospitals are not campaign venues just like markets and schools are not," said Kiggundu. But opposition groups rejected the new directive as yet another attempt by the electoral commission to undermine their campaigns for presidential, parliamentary and local elections. They argue that the banning of campaigns in specific areas comes just days after a senior government health official banned all politicians from visiting health institutions in the run up to the elections. The official also petitioned the chairman of the electoral commission seeking to enforce the ban. Jotham Taremwa, spokesman for the electoral commission, says the new directive was necessary to ensure a peaceful process ahead of the polls. "The electoral commission has communicated and guided the candidates in the presidential race to ensure that while they are on their campaign trail they don't use markets because, that is where people are selling their produce. They don't use schools because the children have to study, they don't use hospitals because there are patients getting treatment, and there is need for privacy," said Taremwa. "We guided them to try and use the open field, which can host their large crowds, we have guided [them] on that. And the ministry of health has also come out to put out a statement and ensure that the candidates know that the hospitals and other health facilities are out of bounds for them." For years, politicians, including main opposition leader Dr. Kizza Besigye of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), campaigned at markets to explain their policies. Besigye recently went to visit a health facility where an official there got into trouble for talking to the opposition leader about the challenges they face at the center. The opposition groups say the latest ban is to stifle their campaigns aimed at preventing the public from knowing the true nature of the state of affairs. Taremwa disagreed. "Even when you visit hospitals, it has hours to visit, even with permission, when you get in you don't shout,' he said. 'How do you campaign by keeping silent and observing the privacy of the sick people? You don't use cameras to photograph every other sick patient or area. So really, the opposition is being unfair to the electoral commission, and we are not doing any bidding for the NRM (ruling National Resistance Movement). Because we have not banned others and allowed the NRM to use those health facilities as the campaign venue.' Supporters of the opposition parties have also expressed concern about the directive, saying it undermines the freedom of expression and association as stipulated in the constitution. Some are considering seeking legal redress about the directive. Taremwa denied the electoral body is contravening the constitution with its latest directive, saying the accusations are farfetched. "We have not stopped anybody from talking to anyone. We are saying, 'please, if it is a market, people are selling their [wares], are you going to stand in the middle of the market and start inviting people to listen to you?' There are some wrong elements and they are going to come and pick people's produce and run away with them ... Nobody has denied them any freedom to speak. They can speak on top of their lungs as long as they are not in the hospital wards." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address New al-Shabab Video Highlights Trump Statement, US Police Brutality by Dan Joseph January 01, 2016 The Somali militant group al-Shabab has released a new recruiting video that highlights U.S. police shootings and the call by presidential candidate Donald Trump to ban Muslims from entering the United States. The video released Friday may be the first instance of a U.S.-designated terrorist group using Trump's call or other current issues in the U.S. to attract followers online. Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said last month that the Islamic State militant group was 'showing videos of Donald Trump insulting Islam and Muslims in order to recruit more radical jihadists.' That claim has yet to be proven. But now al-Shabab is using Trump. Its new video shows a clip of the Republican candidate reading out his demand for a ban on Muslim visitors. Following the clip, an unidentified al-Shabab spokesman, speaking in English, asserts that Muslims in the U.S. must choose between leaving the country or taking up the cause of holy war. The new video also shows instances of American police beating or shooting black males. The police footage, some of it originally captured on police cameras, has prompted a fierce debate in the United States over appropriate limits on the use of violence by police. The violence has given rise to the 'Black Lives Matter' movement, which has organized protests in several cities. The al-Shabab video is used to argue that the United States is a deeply racist society where blacks are thrown in jail as a means of oppression. It suggests that American blacks can find solace in Islam. From Minnesota to Mogadishu A large portion of the al-Shabab video highlights Somali-Americans from the state of Minnesota who went to Somalia to fight for the group between 2007 and 2009. One man profiled is Farah Mohamed Beledi, a former Minneapolis resident who was killed while trying to carry out a suicide bombing against African Union peacekeepers in Mogadishu in 2011. In an interview Friday with VOA's Somali service, Jibril Afyare, president of the Somali-American Citizens League in Minneapolis, characterized the video as a 'desperate move' by al-Shabab. 'They are trying to link [to] what's going on the U.S., whether it's Islamophobia, whether it be killing of African-Americans, whether it be young men in Minnesota,' he said. 'They're trying to link and have a buy-in from the community and therefore get more recruitments for their ideology.' Afyare said his organization is already conducting grass-roots education efforts aimed at dissuading Somali-Americans from supporting al-Shabab, but may need to produce videos or launch social media campaigns to counter the militant group's message. Al-Shabab has been fighting to install a strict Islamic state in Somalia since 2006. The group is known for its harsh punishments, such as chopping off the hands of accused thieves and executing alleged adulterers or spies. Al-Shabab once controlled most of southern and central Somalia but has been pushed out of the country's main cities and towns by African Union troops and the Somali government. It remains a potent threat, as evidenced by recent deadly attacks on AU bases in Somalia or its assault on a college in eastern Kenya last April that killed 148 people. The United States is offering multimillion-dollar rewards for several al-Shabab leaders, including its top leader, Abu Ubaidah. His predecessor, Ahmed Abdi Godane, was killed by a U.S. drone strike in September 2014. VOA's Harun Maruf contributed to this report. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Travel alert for China's Shanghai, Jiangxi raised after new H7N9 cases ROC Central News Agency 2016/01/02 14:56:25 Taipei, Jan. 2 (CNA) Taiwan has raised a travel advisory for China's Shanghai City and Jiangxi Province by one level after two H7N9 avian flu cases were reported there, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said Saturday. The CDC issued a level-two alert after a 59-year-old man and a 46-year-old man were confirmed to have contracted H7N9 avian flu in Shanghai and Jiangxi, respectively, it said. The 59-year-old was still receiving emergency care, while the vitals of the 46-year-old patient have remained stable, said CDC Deputy Director-General Chou Jih-haw (). The history of the patients' contacts with birds was not yet clear, he added. The CDC said travelers to Shanghai and Jiangxi should take precautions. Since autumn, China has reported a total of nine new H7N9 cases, including five in Zhejiang Province and two in Guangdong, Chou said. Most of the patients are over 50 years old and have been exposed to birds, he said. In addition to the new H7N9 cases, there has been a new confirmed H5N6 case reported in Guangdong. The patient is a 40-year-old woman. The CDC has so far issued a level-two alert over avian flu for China's Zhejiang, Guangdong, Anhui, Hunan and Jiangxi provinces and Shanghai City. Other cities and provinces in China are still on its level-one watch. People who plan to travel to China should avoid contact with live or dead birds, pay attention to personal hygiene and seek medical attention immediately if they develop symptoms such as fever or coughing, the CDC said. The agency uses a three-tier warning system, with level three being the most severe, in which case people are advised against traveling to the destination. (By Lung Pei-ning and Elaine Hou) ENDITEM/cs NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address New conditions require stronger Chinese military People's Daily Online (Global Times) 11:19, January 02, 2016 On the very first day of 2016, China's Central Military Commission (CMC) released a guideline on deepening national defense and military reform. A day before that, the CMC announced the establishment of the General Command of Army, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Rocket Force and the PLA Strategic Support Force. The PLA is now standing at a new historical crossroads. As Chinese people enjoy their New Year holiday, few of them think of gunshots or war. Ordinary people can now rest easy thanks to China's strong defense, which is as precious as air. This requires the continuous development of national defense. China's national interests and current international situation are constantly changing, so is the task of the Chinese army. Hence, the PLA and relevant mechanisms have to be adjusted accordingly to keep up with the pace of China's rise. The task that confronts China's armed forces is arduous and more than just safeguarding the nation's maritime and land territories. As China's international cooperation grows, more Chinese enterprises go global and the country embraces greater responsibility to maintain regional and world peace, a strong Chinese army is needed. China must have a strong military. In possession of nuclear weapons, China doesn't need to worry about military aggression. But there is more about national security. The Chinese army's special mission to safeguard China's national path has long been under pressure due to differences from Western practices. During China's rise, friction with the US has gone beyond broad geopolitics. If China has a big gap with the US in terms of military prowess, this will affect its international position and other countries' attitude toward China. With a strong army, China can be more politically appealing, influential and persuasive, and will make it easier to network. As we gain more trust from other countries, many of them will no longer be dependent on the US for security and on China for economic benefits. A comprehensive and thorough military reform therefore comes into place at the right time. It is highly anticipated and encouraging. It will entail specific measures, but there are certain standards. First, our military equipment will be improved. Besides, the army will be more capable of using the equipment and soldiers' morale will be boosted. Moreover, our military strength has to be demonstrated to the world. The army needs to be able to fight battles and provide real deterrence. The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting. As the latest military reform sets a lofty target and involves a wide range of aspects, it will meet many challenges and difficulties in the process. But the target will be reached with the consensus, direction and determination that have been made. When the reform succeeds, it will benefit not only China but the whole world. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address China releases guideline on military reform People's Daily Online (Xinhua) 09:59, January 02, 2016 BEIJING - The Central Military Commission (CMC) has released a guideline on deepening national defense and military reform, about a month after CMC Chairman Xi Jinping called on a military administration and command system overhaul at a key meeting. According to the guideline, a new structure will be established in which the CMC takes charge of the overall administration of the People's Liberation Army, the Chinese People's Armed Police and the militia and reserve forces, battle zone commands focus on combat preparedness, and various military services pursue development. The overall goal is to achieve progress and concrete results before 2020 in military administration and joint operational command, optimizing military structure, enhancing policy systems and civilian-military integration, and building a modern military with Chinese characteristics that can win information age wars. While 2015 was mainly devoted to the implementation of leadership management and joint operational command reform, the guideline said 2016 will see military cuts, improved combatant personnel and reform of military academies and armed police forces. The reform will include cutting troops from 2.3 million to 2 million, phasing out outdated armaments, developing new weapons systems and reducing the size of the militia. The move to deepen defense and military reform is aimed at breaking down systematic, structural and policy barriers, modernizing the organization of the military, and unleashing the combat capacity of the military. It is also aimed at building a firm defense and strong military commensurate with China's international standing and interests in security and development. The reform will maintain 'a correct political direction,' the guideline said, adding that the 'CPC's absolute leadership of the armed forces' must be consolidated and perfected. The 'CMC chairman responsibility system' must be fully implemented to ensure the top leadership of the armed forces is centralized in the hands of the CPC Central Committee and the CMC. The guideline also said that the only fundamental standard for military reform is whether the changes can improve fighting capacity. Describing the defense and military reform as a systematic and revolutionary transformation, the guideline said the reform is unprecedented in its scope and for the interests it touches upon. 'Thus, [the reform] must be under the central leadership of the CPC Central Committee, the CMC and CMC Chairman Xi,' it said. The guideline urged CMC organs established in the reform to fulfill their responsibilities as soon as possible, and transitional work must also be done well. During the transitional period, measures must be taken to 'make sure personnel do not lose control and assets do not lose value, while all matters are handed over seamlessly.' The management of military land and housing should be strengthened, it said. The guideline also asked the military to enforce strict disciplines during the reform process. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address China restructures army aimed at efficiency Iran Press TV Sat Jan 2, 2016 11:24AM Chin has introduced major changes to the structure of its military as part of efforts to reinforce its armed forces and maximize their efficiency vis-a-vis potential threats. President Xi Jinping said three new units were created "to realize the Chinese dream of a strong military, and a strategic step to establish a modern military system with Chinese characteristics." He said the Chinese army needs to optimize its structure and composition, expedite its transformation from a regional defense force to an international combat one. China plans to optimize its military structure by 2020. As part of that effort, the number of its troops will be cut from 2.3 million to 2 million, outdated armaments phased out, and new defense systems developed. On Wednesday, officials said China was building its second aircraft carrier as it expands its naval capabilities in the East and South China Seas. "This aircraft carrier is being developed according to entirely domestic designs," Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Yang Yujun said. The vessel is under construction in the northeastern port city of Dalian. China's first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, was commissioned in 2012 after extensive refits. "The design and construction of the second aircraft absorbed the useful experience of research and training from the Liaoning. This led to many areas of improvements and enhancements," Yang said. China's second aircraft carrier will reportedly have a displacement of 50,000 tons and use "conventional power" rather than nuclear power. It will also carry indigenous Shenyang J-15 carrier-based fighter jets and other military aircraft. China is uneasy with the US military buildup in Asia and and regular military exercises between American forces and their allies in the region. Washington is assertively siding with China's rivals in a dispute over a group of islands in the South China Sea. Beijing is accusing Washington of meddling in regional issues and deliberately stirring up tensions in the South China Sea on which the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have overlapping claims. On December 21, China called on the United States to respect the East Asian country's principal "interests" and concerns, and refrain from what it terms as "shows of force" close to its islands in the South China Sea. In a telephone conversation with his US counterpart John Kerry on Monday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Washington needed to stop selling munitions to Taiwan and also put an end to its military patrols near the Spratly Islands, known as the Nansha Islands in Chinese. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address To Strengthen Fighting Force, China Creates 3 New Military Units by VOA News January 02, 2016 China has created three new military units as it seeks to build a stronger, more efficient fighting force -- and at a time when it seeks to strengthen its position on maritime territory disputes. Chinese state media announced late Friday that China will set up a new army unit to oversee its strategic missiles. It also plans an army general command to oversee its land forces and a support unit to assist combat troops. President Xi Jinping said the new units are being created 'to realize the Chinese dream of a strong military.' The announcement came a day after Beijing said it is building its second aircraft carrier, in the latest sign of Beijing's rapid modernization of its naval forces. Aircraft carrier It is expected to be about the same size as China's only other aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, and will employ conventional power, rather than nuclear. The 50,000-ton carrier will carry China's J-15 fighter jets and other aircraft. The launch date for the vessel has not been confirmed. China is engaged in tense territorial disputes with many Asian countries, particularly in the vast South China Sea, which Beijing claims almost in its entirety. Beijing has stressed that the expansion of its navy is no threat to its neighbors. It has said the Liaoning will be used mainly for scientific research and training missions. The Liaoning is not yet fully functional. But it has already conducted South China Sea training missions that suggest Beijing will continue to take an assertive stance on the maritime disputes. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Punjab airbase operation over, 7 killed, including two India soldiers Iran Press TV Sat Jan 2, 2016 4:8PM India says its security forces have repelled an attack by gunmen on an airbase in the northern state of Punjab, ending an operation that led to the death of seven people. Gunmen suspected to be from the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed Takfiri militant group, and wearing army uniforms, infiltrated the Pathankot airbase in Punjab at about 3:30 a.m. local time (2200 GMT) on Saturday. The security forces engaged afterward. Seven people, including five attackers and two Indian soldiers, were killed. "The operation is just over," said Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh, the deputy inspector general of police for Pathankot region. Lieutenant General Satish Dua of the Indian army also said, "They are from Jaish, Jaish has claimed responsibility." The Pakistani Foreign Ministry condemned the attack. "Pakistan remains committed to partner with India as well as other countries in the region to completely eradicate the menace of terrorism," Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Qazi Khalilullah said in a message posted on Twitter. The Jaish-e-Mohammad Takfiri group is one of more than a dozen similar groups operating in Kashmir for either independence from India or a union with Pakistan. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Seven Dead After Gunmen Attack Indian Air Force Base by Anjana Pasricha January 02, 2016 Seven people were killed at an air force base in India's northern Punjab state in a terror attack that is being seen as an effort to derail recent peace efforts between India and Pakistan. Officials said five gunmen and two security personnel were killed when gunmen dressed in army uniforms mounted an attack early Saturday at the air base in Pathankot town, about 50 kilometers from India's border with Pakistan and about 430 kilometers north of New Delhi. Gunbattle Indian forces backed by tanks and helicopters regained control of the compound after a 15-hour battle. The attackers used an Indian police officer's car, which was apparently hijacked the previous evening, to infiltrate the air force facility. Additional forces were rushed in, elite commandos searched the base, and helicopters made a reconnaissance of the town amid concern that some of the attackers may have escaped. Sporadic gunfire could be heard through the afternoon. Security has been stepped up at defense bases and other areas in the country. Officials said they are still trying to identify the attackers. However, some Indian security officials say they believe the attackers are members of Jaish-e-Mohammed (The Army of Mohammed), a militant group based in Pakistan that wants independence for Indian-ruled Kashmir. Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh said in carefully worded televised remarks: 'Pakistan is our neighbor and we want peace, not just with Pakistan but with all our neighboring nations. We also want peace, but if terrorists carry out attacks on Indian soil we will give them a befitting reply.' "Whoever is finally identified, it will be the same Pakistan-based terror formations and these have long experience of attacking military and police establishments,' said Ajay Sahni, the head of the Institute for Conflict Management in New Delhi. Last year, at least seven people, including police officers, were killed in an attack on a border town in Punjab. India said the gunmen involved in that incident were militants who had infiltrated from Pakistan. Modi, Sharif meet The latest attack comes just a week after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a historic, unannounced visit to Pakistan to meet Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif -- the first such visit by an Indian prime minister in more than a decade. The visit was seen as an effort to revive a flagging peace process. India accuses Pakistan of arming and training insurgents fighting for Kashmir's independence from India and its merger with Pakistan. Islamabad denies the charge. Analysts and officials say peace moves by the political leadership of the two countries in the past have often been followed by an escalation in terror strikes. Nalin Kohli, a spokesman for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, suggested India will persevere with peace efforts. "Every time there is a movement toward normalization of relationship with Pakistan, these things automatically happen, because these are forces that don't want peace between India and Pakistan and also in the region,' Kohli said. 'However, as far as India is concerned, we are constantly going to do our best to deal with that situation and ensure that these forces are defeated." It is the second terror strike in Punjab in the past six months in July, gunmen stormed a police station close to the border town of Gurdaspur, killing at least seven people, including police officers. India blamed that attack on militants who had infiltrated from Pakistan. Punjab, along with the disputed region of Kashmir, shares a border with Pakistan. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Baeedinejad: Iran accepts IAEA supervision on nuclear program IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Tehran, Jan 2, IRNA -- Foreign Ministry Director General for political and security affairs Hamid Baeedinejad said on Saturday that supervision of International Atomic Energy Agency on Iran's nuclear program had been envisaged by the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. He said that IAEA supervision is in conformity with the Safeguards Agreement of the UN nuclear agency and the additional protocol to Non-Proliferation Treaty. He made the remarks on the sidelines of unveiling his new book titled; 'Step by step with JCPOA'. Concerning remarks made by IAEA Director-General Yukiya Amano that there is no confidence in Iran, Baeeidinejad said that his statement has been quoted mistakenly, because he had said that the agency work is not based on confidence in the member states. He said that the agency is to verify activities of the member countries and about Iran is also to verify its work and report its outcome to Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and Mr. Yukiya Amano said that duty of the agency is verification of activities and it does not act upon report of countries. Concerning recent approval of the US Congress, the Iranian senior diplomat said that there are differences between breaching JCPOA or hostile policies of the US against Iran. If Iran reach conclusion that the US acts are breach of the JCPOA will do reciprocal acts. He rebuked the US Congress for including Iran in the visa waiver program and said that Iranian government protested to the US Administration and Mr. Kerry promised to act in accordance with JCPOA. About beginning date of JCPOA implementation, the diplomat said that there is no rush for implementation of the JCPOA and that there are primary steps, which should be taken by Iran and the other side also has measures to do to reach the implementation day. He said that implementation of JCPOA will begin sometimes late January. 1391**1416 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iran to continue developing missile program: Legislator Iran Press TV Sat Jan 2, 2016 11:47AM Iran's Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani says the Islamic Republic is resolute to continue developing its indigenous missile program. "In the field of missile technologies, Iran will definitely continue its path and will expand it, too, either through [provisions in the national] budget... or separate legislations," Larijani told reporters in the southern port city of Bushehr on Saturday. The remarks came in the wake of a report by The Wall Street Journal that Washington is preparing sanctions against firms and individuals in Iran, Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates over alleged links to Iran's missile program. The planned new sanctions come as the US is obligated under a recent nuclear deal between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), to lift the sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program. The lifting of the bans is expected to come in January. In response to the US plans for new sanctions against Iran, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on December 31, 2015 issued an order calling on the country's Defense Ministry to expedite efforts for boosting the country's missile power. Rouhani, in a decree to Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan, ordered an acceleration of Iran's program for the production of "various types of missiles" needed to improve the country's defense capabilities. Earlier in the day, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hossein Jaberi Ansari warned the US against imposing any fresh sanctions on Iran over the country's missile program, saying Tehran will respond to such acts of meddling. "The Islamic Republic will respond to any act of meddling against its defense program by strengthening its defense might," Jaberi Ansari said, adding, "No measure can deny the Islamic Republic of Iran its legitimate and legal rights to boost its defense might and national security." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iranian Officials Defiant In Ramping Up Missile Program January 02, 2016 by RFE/RL Iranian officials are vowing to increase Iran's missile capabilities amid reports from Washington of new sanctions against Tehran for its testing of a ballistic missile in October. 'As long as the United States supports Israel we will expand our missile capabilities,' said the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps' deputy chief, Brigadier General Hossein Salami, Fars news agency reported. Speaking during Friday Prayers on January 1, Salami added that Iran does not have enough space to store its missiles. 'All our depots and underground facilities are full,' he said. Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan said the same day that Iran had never agreed to allow restrictions put on its ballistic missile program. 'Iran's missile capabilities have never been the subject of negotiations with the Americans and never will be,' he said on Iranian station Press TV. Meanwhile, the White House is reportedly delaying the imposition of any new sanctions on Iran over the recent tests within its ballistic missile program, the Wall Street Journal reported December 31. The move to hold the planned sanctions, which at one point the Journal said were to be announced on December 30, reportedly came after Tehran had seemingly retaliated against the U.S. decision by speeding up the program that Washington says violates existing UN sanctions. Iranian President Hassan Rohani had ordered Dehghan to speed up the country's missile program in response to reports of the new U.S. sanctions. 'As the U.S. government is apparently planning a continuation of its hostile policies and illegal meddling to add a number of companies and individuals to the list of its previous unjust sanctions...the armed forces need to quickly and with more seriousness pursue their missile-development program,' Rohani said in a letter to Dehghan published by Iranian news agencies. Rohani's letter responded to a Journal report December 30 that the U.S. administration was preparing new sanctions on companies and individuals connected with Iran's ballistic-missile program. U.S. officials have said the Treasury Department retains a right under July's nuclear agreement between Iran and six world powers to blacklist entities suspected of involvement in Iran's missile development. Iranian officials have insisted that their ballistic missile program does not violate UN sanctions and the country's supreme leader would view any new sanctions as violating the nuclear accord. "The government of the Islamic republic announced during the nuclear talks that it has never negotiated with anyone over its legitimate defense power, including its missile program, and while emphasizing on its legitimate right, it won't accept any restrictions in this area," Rohani wrote in the December 31 letter to Dehghan. He said Iran's missiles have not been designed to carry nuclear warheads and that they're merely used as "an important and standard tool' for defense purposes. Rohani said that Iran's defense capabilities are not a threat against others. The Iranian president also said that if the U.S. repeats its 'wrong and interventionist policies' then the Iranian Defense Ministry would have to plan to expand the country's missible capabilities. UN sanctions monitors said on December 15 that a medium-range Emad rocket that Iran tested on October 10 was a ballistic missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead, making it a violation of a UN Security Council resolution. The United States and its allies have pushed for new UN sanctions over the missile test. But while it is possible for the UN sanctions committee to blacklist additional Iranian entities over the missile launch, UN diplomats say Russia and China have opposed the sanctions on Iran's missile program and might block any new action. The Obama administration is under strong pressure from the Republican-led Congress to act on the missile-test violation documented by the UN. Republican leaders contend that if current UN sanctions aren't enforced, no one can be confident that the curbs on Iran's nuclear activities under the nuclear deal will be enforced. The White House has warned that the United States might move on its own if the UN fails to act. The Wall Street Journal said the planned U.S. Treasury Department sanctions cover two networks linked to Iran that are developing the country's missile program and include many of the people in those networks. The Treasury Department is also preparing to sanction five Iranian defense officials for work on the ballistic-missile program, the newspaper said. The Treasury will justify the new sanctions in part by citing ties between Iran and North Korea on missile development, it said. With reporting by The Wall Street Journal, IRNA, Reuters, and Fars Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/iranian-officials-defiant- in-ramping-up-missile-program/27462453.html Copyright (c) 2016. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iraq cleansing northern Ramadi of Daesh terrorists Iran Press TV Sat Jan 2, 2016 6:41PM Iraq's military is engaged in a clean-up operation in northern Ramadi, Anbar Province, to rid the city of the remaining terrorists of the Daesh Takfiri group. Ahmad Abdel Madjid, an Iraqi army officer, said Saturday that militants trapped in the area "are afraid of clashes with the security forces" because they now have learned of their experience with previous battles with Iraqi forces. Ramadi became a flash point after the Iraqi military started the campaign to liberate the strategic city a few months ago. In the opinion of another Iraqi soldier, the army is making good progress against Daesh and the Iraqi forces morale is high. The Iraqi army announced they were in full control of Ramadi on December 28. Portions of the city, however, remain to be cleansed of terrorists. Iraqi Defense Ministry officials have said it will take more time for the clean-up to be accomplished. The city is located about 90 kilometers (55 miles) from the capital, Baghdad. Several Iraqi families, including groups of men, women and children, some of them disabled or elderly, who were being used as human shields by the terrorists, have been evacuated by the Iraqi military. "Currently, the forces of the anti-terrorism unit are inside a secured complex in the center of the city of Ramadi. We've freed more than 52 families who were used as human shields by the gangs of Daesh and we gave them first aid and food," said Major Salam Hussein, an official from the Iraqi counter-terrorism unit. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi toured Ramadi following its liberation. He said the recapture of the strategic city would pave the way for Iraq's long-anticipated offensive into the main city of Mosul, the capital of Nineveh Province in the north, which has been under the control of Daesh since the summer of 2014. Abadi said 2016 would be the last year for Daesh in Iraq. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Two Kurdish Peshmerga Brigades to Be Armed and Trained by US in January Sputnik News 01:53 03.01.2016(updated 02:32 03.01.2016) Iraqi Kurdistan military officials have announced that two brigades of Kurdish armed forces, known as Pesmerga, will undergo reorganization and armament by the US in mid-January. On the eve of recapturing Mosul from Daesh, the US military will fully arm and train two brigades of Kurdish fighters, Peshmerga Forces' Chief of Staff Jamal Emniki revealed, according to the Iraqi Kurdistan media outlet BasNews. The reorganization of the two existing brigades is scheduled to start in mid-January, Emniki stated. The United States will provide all necessary equipment, armament and ammunition, as promised by US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter during his visit to the Iraqi Kurdistan Autonomous Region in December 2015. In addition, the US will train two brigades, BasNews reported on Saturday. A number of US allies, including Germany, Italy, UK, are contributing to the training and arming of the Kurds. The ultimate goal is to have a reliable ground force to battle Daesh, aided by aerial support from the international coalition. Peshmerga emerged as a loosely-organized Kurdish volunteer militia and is now reforming to become a well-trained and sufficiently-equipped military force. Three brigades were selected for reorganization, Al-Monitor reported in July. The US will provide whole brigade sets for these units. "The sets will include individual soldier equipment, including helmets, body armor, first aid kits, rifles and machine guns. Also included are vehicles to move troops, supplies and equipment," Joseph Pennington, US consul general to Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan's capital city, told Al-Monitor earlier. Additionally, the United States will provide the Kurds with heavy weaponry, a step long-awaited by Peshmerga, to fight Jihadists on multiple fronts. "The US has given its approval to deliver heavy equipment to us," Jabar Yawar, spokesman of the Peshmerga Ministry told local TV Rudaw in December. "There are now long-range artillery and gunships in Kuwait waiting to be delivered to the Kurdistan region in [January]". In another interview with Rudaw, Yawar also talked about "armored vehicles, Humvees and Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected [vehicles ] (MRAPs)". Annual costs of the US military aid to Peshmerga are reportedly estimated to exceed some $200 million. "The goal obviously is not Kurdish independence, and we make that clear in the legislation," Ed Royce, a US Republican Senator said to Washington Examiner in June, commenting on the approval of heavy weapon deliveries to Peshmerga by the US House Foreign Affairs Committee. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Saudi Arabia executed 157 in 2015, sets record since 1995 Iran Press TV Sat Jan 2, 2016 12:9AM Saudi Arabia has carried out 157 executions in 2015, most of which were beheading by sword. This is a record of the most capital punishments conducted in a single year since 1995. The figure is second only to that of the year 1995 when the government in Riyadh executed 192 people. The Associated Press cited the latest reports by the Amnesty International as its source. In more recent years, between 79 and 90 people lost their lives annually for "nonlethal offenses, such as drug-related ones." According to a November report released by Amnesty, about 40 percent of the total number of executions in 2015 at least 63, including 45 foreign nationals -- were for drug-related crimes. The figure was less than four percent in 2010. 'Foreign nationals, mostly migrant workers from developing countries, are particularly vulnerable as they typically lack knowledge of Arabic and are denied adequate translation during their trials," said the rights group. According to an August report, over 2,000 people were executed by Saudi Arabia between 1985 and 2013, half of whom were foreigners. "Trials in capital cases are often held in secret and defendants rarely have access to lawyers. People may be convicted solely on the basis of 'confessions' obtained under torture, other ill-treatment or deception," added the London-based rights group. Saudi authorities do not spare people with mental disabilities from the death penalty. Moreover, most executions are performed in public places and in some cases decapitated bodies are left hanging in public squares as a "deterrent," the report further said. Riyadh has been under fire for having one of the world's highest execution rates. Under the Saudi law, apostasy, armed robbery, drug trafficking, rape, and murder all carry the death penalty. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Saudi Arabia executes Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Tehran, Jan 2, IRNA -- Saudi Arabia on Saturday executed Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a Shia Muslim cleric known for his sermons criticizing the kingdom's government and for his support of political protests in the country's oil-rich Eastern Province. According to the al-Arabiya News Agency, the Saudi Interior Ministry on Saturday said 47 people convicted of what the ministry called terrorism have been executed. Prominent Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr was among those executed, the Interior Ministry said in the statement. Also, the majority of those executed were of Saudi nationality. The 47 men were from 12 regions in the kingdom, Saudi ministry added. Saudi authorities didn't immediately disclose the crimes for which Shahid (martyr) Nimr al-Nimr was convicted and sentenced in Riyadh's Specialized Criminal Court. Shahid al-Nimr's family said they were shocked by what they described as the court's "totally political sentence". Protesters in Shia region of Saudi Arabia have called for political overhauls, a constitutional monarchy and an end to discrimination against the country's minority Shias. More than 20 people have died in violent clashes between security forces and Shia protesters in the Qatif region since 2011. The Saudi action could heighten tensions in Shahid al-Nimr's hometown of Awwamiya, a town in the Qatif region where he was arrested in July 2012 after a car chase near his family's farm. Shahid al-Nimr gained prominence in Saudi Arabia's Shia community for his vocal support to protests. 9191**1771 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iran 'strongly' condemns Saudi execution of Sheikh al-Nimr IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Tehran, Jan 2, IRNA -- Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari 'strongly' condemned the execution of the senior Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr by Saudi Arabia. He said Saudi Arabia backs terrorists, but executes people who criticise the regime. He said while extremist and Takfiri terrorists were threatening the regional and global security and even the very existence of some regional governments, the execution of a man like Sheikh al-Nimr who had no tool but preaching his ideas to promote his political and religious objectives, proves nothing but the depth of irrationality and irresponsibility of the Saudi officials. The spokesman said the Saudi Arabian government is using language of execution and suppression against its opponents, while offering support to terrorist and extremist groups at the same time. He said the outcome of such irresponsible and non-productive policies will affect the schemers. Ansari said the Saudi government is certainly going to pay dearly for following such policies. Saudi Arabia on Saturday executed Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a Shia Muslim cleric known for his sermons criticizing the kingdom's government and for his support of political protests in the country's oil-rich Eastern Province. According to the al-Arabiya News Agency, the Saudi Interior Ministry on Saturday said 47 people convicted of what the ministry called terrorism have been executed. Prominent Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr was among those executed, the Interior Ministry said in the statement. Also, the majority of those executed were of Saudi nationality. The 47 men were from 12 regions in the kingdom, Saudi ministry added. Saudi authorities didn't immediately disclose the crimes for which Shahid (martyr) Nimr al-Nimr was convicted and sentenced in Riyadh's Specialized Criminal Court. Shahid al-Nimr's family said they were shocked by what they described as the court's "totally political sentence". Protesters in Shia region of Saudi Arabia have called for political overhauls, a constitutional monarchy and an end to discrimination against the country's minority Shias. More than 20 people have died in violent clashes between security forces and Shia protesters in the Qatif region since 2011. The Saudi action could heighten tensions in Shahid al-Nimr's hometown of Awwamiya, a town in the Qatif region where he was arrested in July 2012 after a car chase near his family's farm. Shahid al-Nimr gained prominence in Saudi Arabia's Shia community for his vocal support to protests. 1424**1771 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Islamic Guidance Minister condoles martyrdom of Sheikh Nimr IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Tehran, Jan 2, IRNA -- Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Ali Jannati on Saturday condoled martyrdom of prominent Shia Leader Sheikh Nimr Baqer al-Nimr in Saudi Arabia. In a message, Jannati said that martyrdom of a prominent Shia leader of the Muslim World by Saudi Arabian government is a clear evidence of catastrophic behavior in a land, which was once a center for blessing of religion of prophet Mohammad (PBUH). The horrible martyrdom of such constructive character, which was expanding divine virtue, will force Saudi rulers to react before world public opinion and will have a bitter consequence for them. He expressed his deep sorrow and sympathy for martyrdom of the religious leader and expressed his hatred for such inhuman behavior. Sheikh Nimr Baqer al-Nimr was born in 1968 in east of Saudi Arabia city of al-Awamiyeh in a family with religious background, which had several religious leaders. He was executed by Saudi government on Saturday with 46 other Saudi citizens. 1391**1416 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iran blasts execution of Saudi prominent Shiite cleric ISNA - Iranian Students' News Agency Sat 2 Jan 2016 - 13:49 TEHRAN (ISNA)- Iran categorically slammed execution of prominent Saudi Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr. "While extremist and Takfiri terrorists are threatening certain regional states, execution of a figure such as Sheikh al-Nimr who had no tool but speech to pursue his political and religious goals shows the deep imprudence and irresponsibility," said Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hassan Jaber-Ansari. He said that Saudi Arabia is supporting Takfiri terrorist and extremists but speaks with its internal critics with the language of execution and suppression. The Iranian official warned that those behind the execution will be affected by the irresponsible policy, and Saudi Arabia would pay a heavy price for keeping the policies. End Item NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Lebanon's Hezbollah slams Nimr execution as 'assassination' Iran Press TV Sat Jan 2, 2016 12:51PM Lebanon's resistance movement Hezbollah has condemned as an "assassination" Saudi Arabia's execution of prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr. In a statement carried by its website al-Manar on Saturday, Hezbollah condemned the execution of Sheikh Nimr as a "heinous crime," saying the move was based on "false pretexts" and "empty allegations." Hezbollah said the reason behind the execution of Nimr was that the respected cleric always spoke for the oppressed against the regime in Saudi Arabia. The Lebanese resistance movement also condemned the Saudi authorities' designation of Nimr and other anti-regime Shia activists as terrorist elements, saying Riyadh tried to divert attention from its terror-seeking policies by killing Nimr and others over their alleged role in acts of terror. Hezbollah described the late Sheikh Nimr as a spiritual scholar who always sought dialogue and resisted injustice. His martyrdom will pave the way for the final abolishment of the Saudi kingdom, the Lebanese resistance movement said. It said Nimr's execution was a beginning in the New Year for a string of new crimes by the Saudi regime. Hezbollah called on rights groups across the world to condemn the execution of Sheikh Nimr as a crime. The Lebanese group also said it also holds the United States responsible for the execution of Nimr as Washington has always provided direct support for the Saudi regime and covered up Riyadh's continued violation of the rights of its people and the people of other countries in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia on Saturday executed Sheikh Nimr along with 46 others in defiance of international calls for the release of the prominent Shia cleric and other jailed political activists in the kingdom. Reactions continued to pour in over the execution, with Nuri al-Maliki, Iraq's former prime minister, saying that the move will mark the end of Saudi Arabia's government. "We strongly condemn these detestable sectarian practices and affirm that the crime of executing Sheikh Nimr will topple the Saudi regime as the crime of executing the martyr (Mohammed Baqir) al-Sadr did to Saddam (Hussein)," said Maliki, referring to another prominent Shia cleric killed in 1980. In condemnation of the execution of Sheikh Nimr, Iran's Foreign Ministry also said, "The execution of a personality such as Sheikh Nimr who had no means other than speech to pursue his political and religious objectives only shows the depth of imprudence and irresponsibility." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iranian clerics condemn Sheikh Nimr execution by Riyadh Iran Press TV Sat Jan 2, 2016 11:45AM Senior Iranian clerics have condemned Saudi Arabia's execution of prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr Baqr al-Nimr despite international calls on Riyadh to revoke the religious figure's death verdict. Tehran's interim Friday Prayers leader Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami said on Saturday the execution is in line with a litany of crimes committed by the Al Saud regime from the onset of its creation. Khatami, who also serves a member of the Assembly of Experts, highlighted other examples of Riyadh's criminal acts, including its military campaign against Yemen, which he described as an "eternal stain of shame" in the history of the Al Saud dynasty. The Saudi campaign against Yemen began on March 26. More than 7,500 people have died in the airstrikes ever since. "I have no doubt that this pure blood will stain the collar of the House of Saud and wipe them from the pages of history," the cleric added, calling on the Muslim world to take a stand against the killing of Sheikh Nimr. Meanwhile, Ayatollah Abbas Ka'abi, another member of the Assembly of Experts, denounced the execution, saying the killing shows the Al Saud regime is desperate and no the verge of downfall. "By executing this revolutionary Sheikh, Al Saud committed a great crime and folly," he said. Nimr, a cleric highly respected by the Saudi Shias, was attacked and arrested in the Qatif region of Eastern Province back in 2012 on charges of undermining the kingdom's security, making anti-government speeches, and defending political prisoners. Nimr has denied the accusations. In October 2014, a Saudi court sentenced Sheikh Nimr to death, provoking huge condemnations and criticism in the Middle East and the world. The death penalty was upheld by the Saudi court of appeals a year later. The Shia figure's execution has drawn angry reactions worldwide. Widespread protest rallies are expected to be held around the word to condemn Riyadh, which is already beefing up security in the Shia-dominated Qatif region of Eastern Province, according to reports. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Nimr execution indicates Saudi monarchy nearing demise: Senior Iran MP Iran Press TV Sat Jan 2, 2016 11:36AM A senior Iranian legislator has condemned the execution of prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr in Saudi Arabia, saying the move is a sign that the rule of Al Saud monarchy is reaching the end of the road. "The execution of Sheikh Nimr and scores of others by the Al Saud government once again showed that there is nothing called freedom and respect for scholars and thinkers in Saudi Arabia, and there is essentially absolute dictatorship in the country," said MP Alaeddin Boroujerdi on Saturday. The lawmaker said the US, which offers total support to Saudi Arabia, shares responsibility for the killing of Sheikh Nimr. Boroujerdi, who is the chairman of the Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, said Nimr's execution would mark the start of a new wave of protests in Saudi Arabia. 'History has shown that those who confront religious scholars will see defeat and annihilation brought upon them.' Spokesman for the Iranian Parliament's presiding board Abdolreza Mesri said Iranian lawmakers will not remain silent in the face of the Saudi regime's "inhumane and un-Islamic" move. He called on international rights organizations and world bodies to react to Al Saud's atrocities. Separately, Tehran's Friday Prayers leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ahmad Khatami said the Shia Muslim community in Saudi Arabia will make the ruling Al Saud regime rue Nimr's execution, calling on the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to adopt a stance against the crime. Iranian university students are scheduled to stage a demonstration outside the Saudi Embassy in Tehran at 3 p.m. (1030 GMT) on Sunday to denounce the execution. On Saturday, Saudi Arabia executed Sheikh Nimr along with 47 others in defiance of international calls for the release of the prominent Shia cleric and other jailed political dissidents in the country. Sheikh Nimr, a critic of the Riyadh regime, was shot and arrested by Saudi police in 2012 in the Qatif region of Saudi-Arabia's Shia-majority Eastern Province, which was the scene of peaceful anti-regime demonstrations at the time. He was charged with instigating unrest and undermining the kingdom's security. He had denied the charges as baseless. In 2014, a Saudi court sentenced Sheikh Nimr to death, provoking widespread global condemnations. The sentence was upheld last March by the appeals court of Saudi Arabia. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Saudi armored vehicles heading to Qatif: Report Iran Press TV Sat Jan 2, 2016 9:52AM Saudi armored vehicles are headed to the restive city of Qatif in Eastern Province after the execution of prominent cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a report says. Hundreds of anti-riot personnel carriers set off for the city on Saturday to quell any potential protest on the part of its Shia population against the execution, according to Lebanon's Al Ahd news website. Security forces have also been alerted in other Shia-populated cities across Saudi Arabia. The state-run Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported Nimr's execution, who was put to death alongside 46 others, earlier in the day, citing the kingdom's Interior Ministry. The ministry said those executed had been found guilty of involvement in "terrorism." Following the implementation of the cleric's death sentence, all security outposts were evacuated across the country and all police stations shut down amid fears of Shia outrage. An outspoken critic of Riyadh's policies, Nimr was shot and arrested by the Saudi police in the Qatif region of the kingdom's Shia-dominated Eastern Province in 2012. He was charged with instigating unrest and undermining the kingdom's security, making anti-government speeches, and defending political prisoners. He had rejected all the charges as baseless. In 2014, a Saudi court sentenced the clergyman to death, provoking widespread global condemnations. The sentence was upheld last March by the appeal court of Saudi Arabia. Back at the time, UK-based rights body Amnesty International called the sentence "appalling," saying the verdict should be quashed since it was politically motivated. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iran strongly condemns Nimr execution Iran Press TV Sat Jan 2, 2016 9:41AM Iran has strongly condemned Saudi Arabia's execution of prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr Baqr al-Nimr, denouncing it as deeply irresponsible. "The execution of a personality such as Sheikh Nimr who had no means other than speech to pursue his political and religious objectives only shows the depth of imprudence and irresponsibility," Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hossein Jaberi Ansari said Saturday. "The Saudi government supports terrorists and Takfiri extremists, while talking to its critics at home with the language of execution and suppression," he said. Sheikh Nimr's execution comes while "Takfiri terrorists and extremists have taken away peace and security from regional nations and the world and are threatening the existence of some governments in the region," said the Iranian official. "It is clear that the consequences of this abortive and irresponsible policy will befall those behind it and the Saudi government will pay a heavy price for following such policies," Jaberi Ansari added. On Saturday, the Saudi Interior Ministry announced that Sheikh Nimr along with 47 others, who were convicted of being involved "terrorism" and adopting a "Takfiri" ideology, had been put to death. The Shia figure's execution has drawn angry reactions worldwide. Widespread protest rallies are expected to be held around the word to condemn Riyadh, which is already beefing up security in the Shia-dominated Qatif region of Eastern Province, according to reports. Sheikh Nimr, a critic of the Riyadh regime, was shot by Saudi police and arrested in 2012 in the Qatif region of Shia-dominated Eastern Province, which was the scene of peaceful anti-regime demonstrations at the time. He was charged with instigating unrest and undermining the kingdom's security, making anti-government speeches and defending political prisoners. He had rejected all the charges as baseless. In 2014, a Saudi court sentenced Sheikh Nimr to death, provoking widespread global condemnations. The sentence was upheld last March by the appeal court of Saudi Arabia. The new announcement comes a day after a tally by The Associated Press, which was based on reports by Amnesty International, showed Saudi Arabia had carried out 157 executions in 2015, most of which were beheading by sword. This is a record of the most capital punishments conducted in a single year since 1995. The Saudi kingdom has long been under fire at the international level for its grim human rights record. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Saudi executes 47 people, including Sheikh Nimr Iran Press TV Sat Jan 2, 2016 7:16AM Saudi Arabia has executed Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr along with 47 others in defiance of international calls for the release of the prominent Shia cleric and other jailed political dissidents in the kingdom. The state-run Saudi Press Agency (SPA) and state television reported the executions Saturday, citing the kingdom's Interior Ministry. According to the Saudi ministry, those executed had been found guilty of being in "terrorism" and adopting a "Takfiri" ideology. All on the list of those killed are Saudi nationals except an Egyptian and a Chadian. The Saudi Interior Ministry did not elaborate on the method to execute the convicts, but said they were executed Saturday in 12 cities across the country. Sheikh Nimr, a critic of the Riyadh regime, was shot by Saudi police and arrested in 2012 in the Qatif region of Shia-dominated Eastern Province, which was the scene of peaceful anti-regime demonstrations at the time. He was charged with instigating unrest and undermining the kingdom's security, making anti-government speeches and defending political prisoners. He had rejected all the charges as baseless In 2014, a Saudi court sentenced Sheikh Nimr to death, provoking widespread global condemnations. The sentence was upheld last March by the appeal court of Saudi Arabia. Amnesty International also criticized the process of Sheikh Nimr's trial and said it views the charges against the cleric as his right to free speech. The death ruling sparked angry reactions from international rights bodies as well as many Muslim nations, including Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan and India, where people staged large protest rallies and called for the release of Sheikh Nimr as well as all political detainees in the kingdom. Last October, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also urged Saudi rulers to revoke the cleric's death verdict. Human rights organizations have lashed out at Saudi Arabia for failing to address the rights situation in the kingdom. They say Saudi Arabia has persistently implemented repressive policies that stifle freedom of expression, association and assembly. The new announcement comes a day after a tally by The Associated Press, which was based on reports by Amnesty International, showed Saudi Arabia had carried out 157 executions in 2015, most of which were beheading by sword. This is a record of the most capital punishments conducted in a single year since 1995. Sheikh Nimr's family 'shocked' Shocked by the news of his brother's execution, Sheikh Nimr's brother, Mohammad, slammed Riyadh's decision, which he said, was a negative response to the Shia cleric's pro-democracy demands, Arabic-language media reported him as saying. He further expressed hope that the expected reactions to Sheikh Nimr's death would be peaceful. "Sheikh Nimr enjoyed high esteem in his community and within Muslim society in general and no doubt there will be reaction," Mohammed al-Nimr told Reuters, adding, "We hope that any reactions would be confined to a peaceful frameworkEnough bloodshed." The list of those executed on Saturday does not, however, include Ali Mohammed Baqir al-Nimr, the cleric's nephew, who has also been sentenced to death over his alleged role in anti-regime protests in 2012, when he was 17 years old. Many countries and human rights bodies have called for Ali Mohammed's execution to be stopped. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iran Accuses Saudi Arabia Of Supporting Terrorism After Shi'ite Cleric's Execution January 02, 2016 by RFE/RL Iran has accused regional rival Saudi Arabia of supporting terrorism after the kingdom said it had executed a top Shi'ite cleric on terrorism charges. Nimr al-Nimr, 56, was among 47 people executed in Saudi Arabia on January 2, the kingdom's Interior Ministry said. 'The Saudi government supports terrorists and [radical Sunni] extremists, while executing and suppressing critics inside the country,' Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari was quoted as saying by Iranian state media. Ansari warned Saudi Arabia 'will pay a high price for following these policies.' The Foreign Ministry also summoned Saudi Arabia's charge d'affaires in Tehran to protest al-Nimr's execution, Iranian state television said. The 47 were convicted of involvement in terrorist acts and inciting violence, the ministry said in a statement. Al-Nimr was a central figure in Shi'ite protests that erupted in 2011 as part of the Arab Spring in the Sunni-ruled kingdom's east, where the Shi'ite minority complains of marginalization. Iran previously warned that executing the cleric would 'cost Saudi Arabia dearly.' Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, a member of the Assembly of Experts and a Friday prayer leader, denounced the execution as a 'crime' by Saudi Arabia's 'infamous regime.' 'Thisblood will stain the collar of the House of Saud and wipe them from the pages of history,' Khatami was quoted as saying on January 2. Iran's powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) said in a statement that the Saudi government will pay for "this shameful act," which it said was a sign of decay of Saudi rulers. The Twitter account of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei paid tribute to al-Nimr calling him a "martyr." 'Awakening is not suppressible,' read the tweet on Khamenei's English-language Twitter account, next to a photograph of Nimr. A small group of seminary students protested the cleric's execution in front of the Saudi embassy in Tehran on January 2, Iranian domestic media reported. 'Foreign Meddling' The cleric's execution also prompted angry reactions in other countries in the region, including in Shi'ite majority Iraq and in Bahrain. Iraqi lawmaker Mohammed al-Sayhud warned that Nimr's execution was intended to fuel sectarian strife in the region. 'This measure taken by the ruling family [of Saudi Arabia] aims at reigniting the region, provoking sectarian fighting between Sunnis and Shi'ites,' he told Al-Sumaria TV. Prominent Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called for demonstrations in Persian Gulf countries and in Iraq to protest the execution of al-Nimr. 'I ask that the Shi'ites of Saudi Arabia...show courage in responding even through peaceful demonstrations, and the same for the Shi'ites in the Gulf, so as to deter injustice and government terrorism in the future,' al-Sadr said on his website. In Bahrain, police used teargas against several dozen people protesting al-Nimr's execution while carrying his pictures. Meanwhile, Nimr's brother said the family was shocked by news of the execution but hoped that any reaction would be peaceful. 'We hope that any reactions would be confined to a peaceful framework. No one should have any reaction outside this peaceful framework. Enough bloodshed,' Mohammed al-Nimr told Reuters. He said the cleric was found guilty of seeking 'foreign meddling' in the kingdom, 'disobeying' the country's rulers, and taking up arms against the security forces. Hundreds of members of its Shi'ite minority were arrested after the protests during which several policemen were killed in shooting and petrol bomb attacks. The kingdom also detained thousands of militant Islamists after a series of Al-Qaeda attacks from 2003-06 that killed hundreds, and has convicted hundreds of them. The ministry said the executions were carried out on January 2 in 12 different areas of the kingdom. The executions are Saudi Arabia's first in 2016. At least 157 people were put to death last year, a big increase from the 90 people killed in 2014. With reporting by Reuters, dpa, AFP, AP, and the BBC Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/article/27463625.html Copyright (c) 2016. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iranian Ayatollah Condemns Execution of Shiite Cleric in Saudi Arabia Sputnik News 13:42 02.01.2016(updated 13:54 02.01.2016) Saudi Arabia committed a crime by executing Shiite preacher Nimr al-Nimr, senior Iranian Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami said Saturday. MOSCOW (Sputnik) Earlier in the day, Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry announced that it had executed 47 people convicted of terrorism, including al-Nimr. According to Khatami, the execution of al-Nimr will remain 'a deep wound on the body of the Islamic world,' the Iranian Fars news agency reported. According to the ayatollah, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) should respond to the situation. He also reportedly called on Iran's diplomatic structures to take a decisive stance on the matter. 'I hope that the Islamic world reacts in a way that will make the criminal regime regret its crimes,' Khatami, who is also a member of the Assembly of Experts in charge of electing the supreme leader of Iran, said, as quoted by the agency. Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari, in response to al-Nimr's execution, reportedly accused Saudi Arabia of supporting terrorism and executing its opponents. Earlier in the day, Yemen's Houthi movement mourned al-Nimr as a 'holy warrior,' describing his execution as a 'flagrant violation of human rights,' according to media reports. Lebanon's Supreme Islamic Shiite Council is also said to have condemned the prominent cleric's execution, saying it was a 'grave mistake.' Al-Nimr was arrested by the Saudi authorities in 2012 during protests in the east of the country. In 2014, he was sentenced to death on charges of inciting hatred, disobedience to the king and the establishment of a terrorist cell with the aim to attack law enforcement personnel. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Saudi Arabia Executes 47, Including Prominent Shi'ite Cleric by Edward Yeranian January 02, 2016 Saudi Arabia has carried out its largest mass execution in more than three decades, putting to death 47 people convicted of terrorism, including a prominent Shi'ite cleric. Most of those put to death were alleged Sunni militants, and some had ties to al-Qaida, according to media outlets. All but two were Saudi; one was Chadian and the other Egyptian. The cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr was a key figure in Shi'ite protests that erupted during the 2011 Arab Spring. He had also criticized the government's treatment of Saudi Arabia's Shi'ite minority. Nimr's brother tweeted that the cleric's execution would not stop the push for equality. 'You are wrong, uncertain and mistaken if you think that killing will stop demands for rights,' he wrote. 'We remain peacefully demanding reform and change in our country.' Nimr's execution triggered condemnation from many in the Shi'ite world and stoked tensions with regional rival Iran. Saudi government spokesman Mansour Ben Turki, however, insisted that the executions were justified. He said 43 of the men executed had blood on their hands, and that they were put to death in the presence of witnesses, including a doctor. Saudi Justice Ministry spokesman Mansour Kafari blasted critics of the executions, arguing that their condemnations were unacceptable. 'Any meddling in the Saudi justice system is unacceptable, because justice is a matter of sovereignty and it is the right of a state to enforce its laws,' he was quoted as saying in a television news report. Outside parties 'are free to express their views, but ... not to question the fairness of our justice system.' The Lebanese-based terrorist group Hezbollah called Nimr's execution an 'assassination,' according to Hezbollah's Manar television. A top Shi'ite cleric in Lebanon warned there would be a backlash because of Nimr's execution. Sheikh Abdul-Amir Kabalan, deputy head of the influential Supreme Shi'ite Islamic Council, the main religious body for Lebanon's 1.2 million Shi'ites, said, 'This is a crime at a human level and will have repercussions in the coming days.' In Iran, Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, one of the most senior clerics in Shi'ite-ruled Iran, said in an interview with the Mehr news agency that Nimr's execution reflected the 'criminal' nature of the Saudi ruling family. 'The crime of executing Sheikh Nimr is part of a criminal pattern by this treacherous family,' he said. 'The Islamic world is expected to cry out and denounce this infamous regime as much as it can.' Hossein Jaber Ansari, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman, said Saudi Arabia would pay a 'high price' for executing Nimr. In undated video footage of Nimr, he is seen saying that he is over 50 years old and that he never once felt safe or secure in the Saudi kingdom, claiming that Sunni leaders have a sectarian mentality. Iran's Arabic-language al-Alam TV claimed that Saudi security forces have deployed in the Shi'ite region of Qatif, where supporters of Nimr have called for civil disobedience. The TV channel also showed video of an alleged protest in a Shi'ite district in the Gulf state of Bahrain Dubai-based analyst Theodore Karasik told VOA that the execution of Nimr is likely to have major implications, "especially in Bahrain, Kuwait and the [mostly Shi'ite] Saudi Eastern province." He added that Iraqi Shi'ites were "likely to be upset" and that things could "get out of control in Yemen with the Houthis firing missiles," or an Iranian reaction in the Gulf. Khattar Abou Diab, who teaches political science at the University of Paris, argued that Saudi leaders were sending a strong message to Iran, which they believe is fomenting trouble among Shi'ites in the Gulf, while Iran believes that the Saudis are making trouble with Iranian Sunnis. Diab said Nimr's execution was likely to inflame sectarian tensions all across the region and that attempts to calm the situation were "doomed to failure." Saudi execution facts Saturday's executions were carried out in 12 cities across the country, with an Interior Ministry spokesman saying the beheadings were done inside prisons and not in public. Human rights groups say executions in Saudi Arabia are usually public beheadings. They say the decapitated bodies are occasionally left on display. Amnesty International says Saudi Arabia is 'one of the most prolific executioners in the world,' surpassed only by China and Iran. The executions were Saudi Arabia's first in 2016. Rights groups said Saudi Arabia executed at least 157 people in 2015, compared with 90 in 2014. Amnesty International said the 2015 total was the largest number of executions since 1995, when 192 were recorded. Saturday's simultaneous execution of 47 people on terrorism charges was the largest number in a single day since the 1980 killings of 63 jihadist rebels who seized Mecca's Grand Mosque in 1979. Some information for this report came from Reuters, AP and AFP. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Shi'ite Muslims Outraged by Saudi Execution of Cleric by Smita Nordwall January 02, 2016 The execution of a prominent Shi'ite critic of Saudi Arabia's ruling royal family has caused international outrage and a serious escalation of diplomatic tensions in the region, with unrest predicted in Shia-majority areas. Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, who was among 47 people executed Saturday in Saudi Arabia, was a widely revered Shi'ite Muslim cleric who was convicted in 2014 of sedition and other charges and sentenced to death. He was an outspoken critic of the kingdom's ruling al-Saud family and a key leader of Shi'ite protests in Saudi Arabia in 2011. The U.S. warned that Nimr's death would only add to strife between religious sects in the region. 'We are particularly concerned that the execution of prominent Shia cleric and political activist Nimr al-Nimr risks exacerbating sectarian tensions at a time when they urgently need to be reduced,' U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby said Saturday in a statement. Shia-majority Iran, which made frequent requests to the Saudis to pardon Nimr, had some of the strongest reaction to the news, saying Saudi Arabia would pay a high price for the execution. Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hossein Jaber Ansari, strongly attacked Saudi Arabia for ramping up sectarian tensions in the region. The speaker of the Iranian parliament said Saudi Arabia, which is founded upon an ultraconservative Sunni ideology known as Wahhabism, would face a 'maelstrom'' from which it would not escape. A top Shi'ite cleric in Lebanon warned there would be a backlash because of Nimr's execution. Sheikh Abdul-Amir Kabalan, said, 'This is a crime at a human level and will have repercussions in the coming days.' Iran and Saudi Arabia have been vying for leadership in the Muslim world since Iran's 1979 revolution, which elevated hard-line Shi'ite clerics to power. The U.S. war in Iraq further enflamed religious and ethnic tensions by leading to a Shi'ite-led government in Baghdad and a crucial shift in the sectarian balance of power in the region. After Arab Spring protests erupted in 2011, Saudi Arabia and Iran entered into a fierce proxy war in Syria, where they support opposite sides of the conflict, and in Yemen, where Saudi Arabia has been bombing Iranian-allied rebels since March. They also support opposing political groups in Lebanon, Iraq and Bahrain. Protests over the Nimr execution were held in Bahrain, where police used tear gas on the crowds, as well as in India and outside the Saudi Embassy in London. More demonstrations were being planned for Sunday in Lebanon and Tehran, where the majority of outrage is expected to be focused. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Syria army inflicts heavy losses on Nusra Front in Dara'a Province Iran Press TV Sat Jan 2, 2016 3:32PM Syria's army has conducted an operation against the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front terrorists and other militants, inflicting heavy losses on the Takfiris in the southern part of the country. The operation was carried out in the province of Dara'a, with the armed forces destroying militant hideouts in several areas leaving a number of terrorists dead, the official SANA news agency quoted a military source as saying on Saturday. A vehicle belonging to the militants was also destroyed in the offensive in the al-Abbasiya neighborhood in Dara'a al-Balad. All the militants onboard were killed. The gains came a day after Syrian army units killed and injured members of a terrorist group in the northern countryside of Dara'a. Army units backed by fighters from allied popular defense groups managed to gain grounds against Takfiri militants in the provinces of Hama, Aleppo, Homs as well as Dara'a on December 31. In the recent past, Syrian forces have been making rapid advances against terrorists, who are committing heinous crimes against all religious groups, across the crisis-hit country. The advances of the Syrian government forces against the Daesh Takfiri terror group and other terrorists have been expedited by the air cover provided by Russia, which began on September 30 at the request of the Damascus government. The crisis in Syria, which flared in March 2011, has so far claimed the lives of over 250,000 people and displaced nearly half of the country's population within or out of the borders. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Syrian Army Welcomes in New Year by Driving Out Terrorists in Key Provinces Sputnik News 08:49 02.01.2016(updated 09:19 02.01.2016) The Syrian army, supported by the Russian and Syrian air strikes, has reportedly destroyed militants' positions in a whole array of provinces in the past 24 hours. The past 24 hours have seen the Syrian Army and the National Defense Forces (NDF) obliterate terrorists' positions in the provinces of Aleppo, Damascus, Deir Ezzur, Daraa, Quneitra, Hama and Homs, according to the Iranian news agency FARS. Dozens of terrorists were killed and many more wounded after the Syrian forces launched military operations on militants groups across Syria on Thursday, FARS reported. In the province of Aleppo, Syrian warplanes destroyed Daesh positions in villages and towns including Afash, Deir Qaq, Aisheh, al-Hader and al-Bab in the province's eastern areas. Additionally, the Syrian troops obliterated the positions of al-Nusra Front and other terrorist groups in the neighborhoods of Karm al-Tarab, al-Sheikh Lutfi, Salah Eddin, al-Rashidin 4 and Bani Zaid in the city of Aleppo. The army also took on Daesh militants in Damascus province, where scores of terrorists were killed and injured in armed clashes 'in the vicinity of al-Marj area in Eastern Ghouta,' according to sources. 'The Syrian Army and the NDF stormed the militant positions and drove them back from several farms in Eastern Ghouta and a chunk of the road connecting the village of Marj al-Sultan and the town of al-Nashabiyah,' the sources said. In the eastern countryside of Hama, the army managed to regain control of the villages and towns of Zorsarhin, al-Maktot, Jenan, al-Saromia, Ra'boun, al-Makhraz and al-Mouradia. In another development, Syrian troops reportedly advanced on Daesh terrorists in the key town of Quaryatayn in the central province of Homs, leaving scores of militants dead and wounded. Also, the Syrian forces staged an array of offensives on militant groups in the provinces of Daraa, Quneitra and Deir Ezzur, where the army regained control of several strategic villages and destroyed militants' strongholds. Adding to the Syrian Army's anti-Daesh effort is the Russian air campaign, which was launched on September 30, 2015, when more than fifty Russian warplanes, including Su-24M, Su-25 and Su-34 jets, commenced precision airstrikes on Islamic State targets in Syria at the behest of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Late in December, Russian Defense Ministry officials said that Russian fighter jets had completed a total of 5,240 sorties since the start of the air operation against Daesh militants in Syria. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Turkey needs Israel, Erdogan says Iran Press TV Sat Jan 2, 2016 5:20PM Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says Turkey and Israel must improve their relations, stressing that his country needs the Tel Aviv regime. 'Israel is in need of a country like Turkey in the region. And we too must accept that we need Israel. This is a reality in the region,' the Turkish president said on Saturday. Erdogan added that normalization of ties between Turkey and Israel would take place "if mutual steps are implemented based on sincerity." The Turkish president made the remarks as he was speaking to reporters during his flight back from Saudi Arabia, where he met with Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud. Relations between the two sides took a nose dive in May 2010 after Israeli forces stormed the Turkish aid ship Mavi Marmara, as it was on its way to deliver aid to Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip, killing several activists. Following the incident, ambassadors were withdrawn and Erdogan said Israel had to formally apologize over the killings, pay compensation for the victims, and lift the Gaza blockade in order for ties to be normalized. Israel has apologized for the incident and negotiations are still under way for compensation but the blockade on Gaza remains in place. On December 26, the Turkish daily, Today's Zaman, citing unnamed sources, said Ankara was looking forward to purchasing military hardware such as advanced unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and reconnaissance and surveillance systems from Tel Aviv, hinting at the possible resumption of military ties between the two sides. Israel and Turkey recently reached a preliminary agreement to normalize ties following the 2010 incident, unnamed officials from Tel Aviv and Ankara said last month. The deal was reached during a secret meeting in Switzerland between Yossi Cohen, the incoming head of Israel's spy agency, Mossad, Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu's point-man for Turkish reconciliation Joseph Ciechanover and Turkish Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioglu. Under the deal, Israel should compensate the victims of the raid. Ankara and Tel Aviv would also exchange envoys and hold talks on the restart of gas exports to Turkey. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Erdogan's Hitler comments create uproar in Turkey Iran Press TV Sat Jan 2, 2016 9:32AM Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has come under criticism at home for citing Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler as an example for his controversial push for greater powers, although he has rejected the comments as misinterpreted. Turkey's Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) criticized Erdogan's remarks and said citing Hitler's fascist Germany as an example for a presidential system shows that the president does not have an understanding of democracy. The reference to "Hitler's Germany shows us what kind of regime Erdogan has planned," said Oktay Vural of the MHP, describing the statement as "an insult to Turkey's democracy." Speaking at a press conference on Thursday evening, Erdogan was asked whether a presidential system can be adopted while keeping the country's unitary structure. "When we look [at other countries], we see that it is possible. You can see this when you look at Hitler's Germany and other countries," he answered. However, in a statement released on Friday, Turkey's presidential office said the "'Hitler's Germany metaphor' has been distorted by media outlets and has been used in the opposite sense." The statement also said Erdogan had used the example to show that an executive presidency does not depend on a federal system of government. Gursel Tekin, the secretary-general of Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), said time would tell if Erdogan's statement was really a slip of the tongue or a manifestation of his subconscious. Erdogan's push for sweeping powers Turkey's governing Justice and Development Party (AKP), which won a majority in a November parliamentary election, has put a new constitution at the heart of its agenda. To change the Constitution, AKP, which was founded by Erdogan, needs support from opposition parties. The governing AKP reached an agreement with the CHP on Wednesday to revive efforts to forge a new constitution. Opposition parties agree on the need to change the constitution, drawn up after a 1980 coup, but do not support the presidential system envisaged by Erdogan, fearing he is pushing Turkey to the brink of authoritarianism. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address More Crimean Power Shortages Likely With End Of Ukraine Supplies January 02, 2016 by RFE/RL Residents of Crimea face several more months of power shortages as Russia appears to have ended a contract with Ukraine to deliver electricity to the peninsula it annexed in 2014. A Kremlin spokesman said January 1 that Russian President Vladimir Putin will not renew the contract, which expired on New Year's day, as long as Kyiv keeps insisting on stipulating in the contract that the peninsula belongs to Ukraine. 'It can be assumed with a great degree of probability that the president will opt not to sign a contract on such terms,' which would amount to an abnegation of Russia's annexation, Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said. After a month of on-and-off electricity supplies from Ukraine due to sabotage of the high-voltage transmission lines feeding the peninsula, power to Crimea was officially cut off at midnight December 31 when the contract expired, Russian media reported. If Kyiv agrees to drop its demand for a clause designating Crimea as part of Ukraine, Peskov said, then Russia would be more inclined to renew the contract. To support the Kremlin's apparent decision not to renew the contract, Putin commissioned an opinion poll to determine whether Crimean residents want to be a part of Ukraine to continue getting power supplies from the Ukrainian company Ukrenegro. Russian news agencies reported on January 1 that over 90 percent of Crimeans said in the poll they would be against renewing the contract under those circumstances, even if it meant experiencing more minor disruptions in supply. The Kremlin said Putin will be guided by the results of the poll, which was conducted by a state-owned polling organization, in making a decision about the now-lapsed power supply contract with Ukraine. Without power from Ukraine, officials have warned that Crimeans will continue to experience at least minor electricity shortages and rolling blackouts for three or four months until Moscow can complete the construction of undersea cables transmitting more power from Russia. Russian Energy Minister Aleksander Novak has said the power shortages will be particularly acute at peak times of usage, when shortfalls of up to 10 percent are possible. With reporting by the Daily Telegraph, Interfax, and TASS Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/more-crimean-power-shortages- likely-with-end-of-ukraine-supplies-kremlin/27462455.html Copyright (c) 2016. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif., Jan. 03, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Dr. Fahed Hattar and the associates at Dr. Hattar Dental and Orthodontic are making the life-changing benefits of dental implants much more accessible to those who need it. The residents of Rancho Cucamonga, Victorville and the surrounding California areas are reaping the benefits of a professional, experienced dentist who is offering implant dentistry at some of the most affordable prices in the state. Dr. Hattar Dental and Orthodontic specializes in dental implants, including the mini implant, single tooth implants and dentures, for patients in the Rancho Cucamonga and Victorville areas. One of the highlights of the practice includes the availability of a single tooth implant for only $899 (this excludes the crown or prosthetic.) Dental implants effectively function as a very comfortable replacement for a persons natural tooth root. The implant can then act as an anchor for a dental prosthetic or a dental crown. The result is an extremely lifelike and comfortable effect. After patients discuss their available options with Dr. Hattar, many clients decide that a tooth implant is the best route to solving their dental issue. Dental implants in Rancho Cucamonga can help to resolve a variety of oral issues, and Dr. Hattar is an expert in this area. Patients receive comprehensive care from the time of diagnosis all the way through the completion of the chosen course of treatment. The staff at Dr. Hattar Dental and Orthodontic also places an emphasis on treating each client with care and compassion, as if they were their only patient. Dr. Hattar explains, Implants come very close to emulating the tooths natural root within the mouth. Many patients say that getting dental implants is the best dental decision they have ever made. When fitted with a crown or prosthetic, they become like permanent teeth, restoring the smile as well as the patients comfort levels throughout the day. Dr. Hattar continues, I believe that everyone should have access to this high level of oral health and dental comfort. Thats why we are offering dental implants at just $899 per tooth. Dr. Hattar and the entire dental team at Dr. Hattar Dental and Orthodontic bring their educational credentials, friendly chair-side demeanor, focus on compassion and passion for orthodontic dentistry to every patient they see. Their goal is personalized dental care to ensure total patient comfort and satisfaction, from routine examinations to dental implants. Dr. Hattar Dental and Orthodontic has two locations; one office is located in Suite F at 15366 11th St. in Victorville, Calif. The two clinic locations serve the Rancho Cucamonga, Victorville and surrounding areas with personalized, comfortable and compassionate care along with a full range of dental services. For more information, the public can call 760-243-3595 or visit the Dr. Hattar Dental and Orthodontic website. Looking backwards is almost always easier than looking forward. We should have done this, we could have done that and wouldnt it have been easier if we had done it this way? At the beginning of a new year, its a good time to stop and reflect over where we have been and where want to go. The past, with careful study, can be understood and we can learn from it. The future is, and will always be, much harder to know. So what do we know? We know our history. We know that Danville exists where it is because of the river and Wynnes Falls. In the 19th century, the economic force that grew this community and surrounding rural areas was tobacco. Tobacco was Americas first great export. It built great wealth in this community and it is the reason slavery started in Virginia. Hogsheads of tobacco, raised by sharecroppers and slaves, went down the Dan in small boats to be loaded on ships headed for Europe. The Civil War left Danville and our surrounding areas largely physically untouched. The tobacco wealth attracted new businesses and entrepreneurs, even as the sharecropper system kept many white and black farmers just above the poverty level. The wealth of the 19th century supported the development of the economic engine of the 20th textiles. Riverside Cotton Mills, later known as Dan River Mills, was a locally grown endeavor that again started with the river for hydropower. At its peak employment in the 1940s, Dan River Mills employed approximately 14,000 people, out of Danvilles total population of around 33,000. Thousands of people were recruited from surrounding rural areas, often the offspring of sharecropper families seeking a better life. This workforce was almost entirely white until the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act made racial discrimination in employment illegal. The dominance of textiles declined through the late 20th century until the last Dan River employees were laid off in 2006. And with that, the dominant economies of tobacco and textiles are gone. Yes, we still grow and process some tobacco and small textile operations are still in the area, but they are no longer the basis of our regions economic vitality. We rode the waves of good fortune that tobacco and textiles brought us for many years but their fall also made us enter the Great Recession sooner than others, and exit even later. This history lesson leads to our present problem: What does the 21st century economy look like for this area? What are our competitive advantages? How do we make investments that insure increased prosperity for everybody in this community? Two years ago, the Grant Trust sponsored a presentation at the Institute for Advanced Learning & Research by Herman Schwartz, professor in the Department of Politics at University of Virginia. Schwartz argued that 30 percent of Americans will have long-term employment, based on high levels of training, and will enjoy economic prosperity. On the other hand, 70 percent of Americans, will engage in temporary work, struggle to make ends meet and live paycheck to paycheck. To put this simply, the middle class is disappearing right before our eyes. Not just here, but all over America. The Dan River Regions future hinges on building our middle class and pathways out of poverty. I believe there are five things we must do better and do differently to make real progress: We must work with our existing pre-K through 12 public education systems to make sure all children have the opportunity to graduate from high school with the skills to go to work or go on for more education whichever they choose. We must continue to build opportunities for skills training and certificates that lead to world-class employment. We must continue to recruit and support a full range of entrepreneurs. We must recruit strong companies and as just important, we must help grow the ones that are here. and lastly, we must make this region stickier for everyone so we can increase our population. Specifically we need to target millennials and active retirees, including those with roots here and those that choose to live here for our opportunities and a lower cost of living. Some of what has happened in the past 10 years have shown us that change can be for the better and I believe that by having a shared vision that understands our history while looking toward the future, we can make great strides again. But we must focus and invest for the long-term. Over the next several months, I will address each of these five opportunities in more detail looking back at arguments made in past opinion pieces, using real data from our region and talking with those working in the trenches day in and day out to have them share their thoughts and ideas with you. In the interim, please let me know what you think we should address and how we should be chase them. Whats next for DRF and whats next for the Dan River Region? I can be reached at kstauber@drfonline.org and I look forward to hearing from you. Even though 2015 didnt yield many large job creation and investment announcements, the business community still saw some significant action. Heres a look back at the years biggest business stories. Danville Regional Foundation invested $10 million in Watershed Ventures LLC, a real estate development firm. The partners behind the LLC are Raleigh, North Carolina, developers who have seen consistent and sustained success in the region. The firm will buy River District property in bulk to stabilize the structures and then sell them. The sales will be done as part of a well-orchestrated plan to create the most effective and creatively diverse use of space. The Gene Haas Center for Integrated Machining at the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research opened in May with a multi-million dollar precision machining educational space and workflow cell training lab. The Gene Haas Foundation endowed the center with $1 million and about $650,000 worth of Haas Automation equipment. Danville Regional Foundation also provided $1.9 million. The center had multiple industry backers, including Master Gage & Tool Company of Danville, Mitsubishi EDM, Mitutoyo, National Institute for Metalworking Skills, Sandvik Coromant and Skills USA. The state-of-the-art facility has been heralded as a magnet for economic development and is expected to help grow the wages and numbers of local employees. Piedmont Access to Health Services Danville headquarters celebrated its building and services expansion this spring. The Main Street building added 10,000 square feet to bring the building to a total of 25,233 square feet. The project cost nearly $3 million to complete and most of it was funded through a federal grant. After years of delays and issues with tax credits, the long-awaited River District Tower project finally started the construction work to rehabilitate the former Dan River Inc. Research Building. The building will become the new home for the Danville Orthopedic Clinic along with offices for other medical services. Fifty exam and treatment rooms and a physical therapy area will be housed there. The second floor will become medical offices for Danville Regional Medical Center. A conference room and other offices will be opened, as well. The main floor of the buildings facing Main and Bridge Streets will be leased out to other tenants and the museum. A smaller building that faces the Dan River will be used as restaurant space featuring outdoor patios and balconies. The River District underwent the greatest change this year. In May, the River District unveiled a new River District branding with the featured tagline Danville River District: Reimagine That. The new brand platform has components that symbolize the historic tobacco warehouse architecture of downtown and the flowing waters of the Dan River. The brand and its accompanying narrative took about two years of research and professional consultation. The River District under its new brand welcomed some new residents this year, too. More apartments were added with the completion of the Continental Lofts. Stores, including Lizzy Lou Boutique, River District Artisans and A La Carte Home Decor as well as three new restaurants Brewed Awakening, 616 Farm to Table restaurant and Mes Burgers and Brews. This year Danville Nestle workers voted in a 2-1 margin to join a union. The international United Steelworkers union will represent the production, maintenance and other job titles at Nestle. The final count in the controversial vote was 296 votes for the union and 147 votes against the union. Out of the total 560 employees, about 115 chose to not vote. Telvista, a call center located in the Cane Creek Industrial Park, renewed its lease this year as well as announced it was adding another 600 jobs. The announcement came after the company won three new contracts, including a data security company. Centra broke ground on its construction site in April this year. The $14.2 million project will bring the hospitals Danville services under one roof. There will be no new hires, but the construction plans leave room for expansion of services within the new building. The project is expected to be finished by August 2016. Danville Regional Medical Center welcomed Alan Larson as its newest CEO. His time in office as both South Central Virginia market president and DRMC CEO started on Aug. 1. He replaced Eric Deaton, who held the position for approximately four years. Deaton joined the hospital at a tumultuous period as it transitioned into new ownership. SHARE By Tim Grant Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Tns) PITTSBURGH Almost two years after two sisters who had just moved to Pittsburgh were found shot to death in the basement of their home, the two-story, 2,200-square-foot house on Chislett Street stands vacant, padlocked and under the control of a bank that has foreclosed on it. No one has lived in it since the double homicide occurred there in February 2014 and neighbors still are wary of discussing how memories of the tragic event have affected the neighborhood. "Everybody is still bothered, but it's not as terrifying as it once was," said one neighbor who asked not to be identified. "How do you ever completely get over something like that?" When a murder or even a natural death occurs inside a home, it can traumatize a neighborhood. Beyond that, it can create a significant and understandable challenge when it comes time to sell. The effect is exacerbated when the death is a highly publicized event. Not only is the home itself affected but, according to personal finance comparison website Finder.com, homes within a four-block radius can lose tens of thousands of dollars in value up to a year after the homicide takes place. It's a delicate issue for both home buyers and sellers. Finder.com estimates the U.S. housing market lost $2.3 billion in value in 2014 due to homicides. "There is a psychological factor," said Fred Schebesta, CEO of the Santa Monica, Calif.-based website. "The psychological distress of a homicide in a home or an area tends to affect its desirability." Some high-profile examples Finder.com used to illustrate the point included Nicole Brown Simpson's California condo selling for $200,000 less than its market value due to publicity it received during the O.J. Simpson trial; and the Boulder, Colo., house where JonBenet Ramsey died selling for nearly $1 million less than comparable homes in the area after languishing on the market for two years. Another example of a murder destroying the value of a home includes the Pittsburgh property where three city police officers were ambushed and killed after responding to a domestic violence call in April 2009. The house where the killings took place had gone into foreclosure and was demolished a year and a half later, to the relief of neighbors who saw the boarded-up house as a constant reminder of that horrible day. Schebesta said his company conducted the study because he felt, given the decrease in property value for homes stigmatized by homicide, they could be an investment opportunity for those willing to take the risks. "Smart investors will be attracted to those properties," he said. "They are able to pay less than what they should, and eventually people will forget about the murder and the neighborhood will clean up." Pittsburgh real estate agent Mike Netzel said there also tends to be a stigma attached to homes in which someone has died, even if that person passed away peacefully. "I have worked with people before who have specifically asked that they not buy a home where someone has passed away," said Netzel, an agent with Keller Williams Realty. "The challenge is that we have a lot of older housing stock. We can ask the current owner if someone has passed away in the home, but there is no way of knowing if that is the case for previous ownership. "Some people will look at a cemetery adjacent to a house as a peaceful setting," Netzel said. "Some people will look at a cemetery adjacent to a house as a 'no way' setting. Personally, it doesn't bother me, but it's a completely personal decision where I have not found anyone ambivalent. It either is a non-factor or an absolute deal breaker." According to Pennsylvania law, real estate agents and sellers are not required to inform potential buyers if a homicide has occurred in a house, but if they are specifically asked, they must provide a truthful answer. Hank Lerner, an attorney for the Pennsylvania Association of Realtors in Harrisburg, said a 2012 case decided by the state Supreme Court, a case known as Milliken v. Jacono, determined that only material defects such as roofing or plumbing problems must be disclosed, and a psychological defect is not a material defect of real estate. The Milliken v. Jacono case involved a murder-suicide at a suburban Philadelphia house in 2006. A buyer who moved from California with her two children paid $610,000 for it and learned of the event from a neighbor a few weeks later. She filed a complaint against the sellers and the real estate agent for not disclosing the tragedy. She claimed she would never had bought the house had she known. The court's rationale in deciding against her was that the varieties of traumatizing events that could occur at a house were endless and that efforts to define those warranting mandatory disclosure would be a "Sisyphean task." Death by poisoning or overdose and violent crimes such as rape, assault, home invasion, child abuse and even satanic rituals were all examples considered by the court. In the case of the home on Chislett Street, the house is under the control of the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., a government lender in McLean, Va., according to the Allegheny County real estate website. A recent visit found the lawn overgrown and a sign on the window saying the house had been winterized and warning not to attempt to use any water. Although the house was featured in many news reports, news organizations often avoid giving an exact address of homes where homicides and other serious crimes have occurred. In situations like that one, potential buyers might have to do some research on their own to learn the home's history. "What we find in the market today is many buyers will Google the address to find out about a house or an area," said Lerner. "A Google search will usually pop a red flag. An agent may not be at liberty to discuss an incident. But they cannot lie. And there are other ways for a buyer to find out. "We often talk about risk management techniques," he said. "Many sellers may decide to disclose a psychological defect to avoid litigation down the road." Joe Calloway, owner of Allentown-based RE360, was the largest buyer of investment property in the city of Pittsburgh in 2013. He said in his experience he has found that safety and superstition are both factors that come into play with homes where any type of death violent or non-violent has occurred. "Death is an eerie subject," Calloway said. "People fear death and don't want to be near it. The same goes for cemeteries. Houses located near or within view of a cemetery will often have lower value than neighboring houses that do not." A few weeks ago 190 countries met in Paris to discuss ideas they believe will prevent global temperature from increasing no more than 2 degrees Celsius, or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit. It is reminiscent of the age-old story of man trying to manipulate weather. At the conference, the countries agreed to prepare and maintain plans they supposedly will implement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Each country's plan, called the Nationally Determined Contributions, will be reviewed every five years starting in 2023. The plans are not legally enforceable, and the report casts serious doubt that this plan is sufficient to prevent temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees C. Richer countries must provide at least $100 billion annually after 2020 to help developing countries reduce emissions. Even though President Barack Obama supports the agreement, the U.S. Senate must ratify it and that probably is not going to happen for a variety of reasons. The president cannot unilaterally commit the U.S. to binding emission-reducing targets. Any emission targets and timetables must be ratified by the Senate. Obviously, this agreement is aimed at restricting the use of fossil fuels in the future. The plan suggests that oil and gas consumption should be limited. The International Energy Agency projects worldwide oil demand will grow from 90.6 million barrels per day in 2014 to 95.9 million barrels per day in 2020 and then start to decline to 74.1 million barrels per day in 2040. IEA estimates that natural gas demand will increase from 3.5 trillion cubic meter in 2013 to 4.1 tcm per year after 2030. Clearly, the plan places even more uncertainty on the oil and gas industry, which currently faces a collapse in crude oil and natural gas prices. Much will depend upon the seriousness of developed countries to finance not only restrictive policies in their own countries but also help finance programs in undeveloped countries. Most nations already have spending deficits. The resolve of politicians and the citizens of each developing country will be tested. For oil and gas companies, a shadow has been cast over future, long-term projects. Major, integrated oil companies and large producing countries develop large projects with the assumption they will be profitable for decades to come. These projects such as refineries, long-distance pipelines, and liquefied natural gas plants have high upfront costs. They require substantial product and capital expenditures. The reality is that the Paris agreement is not enforceable. Violations carry no consequences. Funding of programs in non-developed countries will not happen. Alex Mills is president of the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers. George Julius Beck rides one of his prized quarter horses. SHARE By Jerry Lackey Founded: In 1898 by John Louis Firmin Beck Last owners: Cheryl Lynn Beck Wells, Cynthia Ann Beck Maedgen and Hal Zane Beck Location: Seven miles southwest of Valera in Coleman County Livestock: Sheep, cattle and quarter horses Henry and Melanie Etiene Beck were married in 1845 in France, but soon left to make their home in Black Walnut, Mo. The couple had twin daughters who died in infancy and three other children: Mary, Henry Charles and John Louis Firmin. Firmin and his wife, Malinda Elizabeth Pauley Beck, had eight children: Mary Louella, John Charles, Oscar Eugene, Margaret Malanamus, Louis Firmin, Joseph Edgar, George Julius and William Curtis. In 1924, their son George Julius Beck acquired 1,280 acres of the original ranch. He married Maude Sue Mitchell and they raised their two sons, Hal Mitchell and Rex Harrison, on the ranch. Hal Mitchell Beck and Norma Dorrice Hedgpeth were married Aug. 3, 1946. They had three children: Cheryl "Cherry" Lynn Beck Wells, Cynthia "Cindy" Ann Beck Maedgen and Hal Zane Beck. The first sheep to graze the grassy hillsides of Coleman County were herded in from Missouri by John Louis Firmin Beck and his brother, Henry Charles Beck, in 1877. The brothers' father, Henry Beck, had raised sheep in Alsace-Lorraine, a French province, before migrating to the United States in the mid-1800s. Constant battling for Beck's homeland by France and Germany led him and his wife, Melanie Etiene, to journey to Black Walnut, Mo., where they continued to raise sheep. A letter from Richard Overall, Beck's friends in Texas, described good grassland suitable for sheep and encouraged him to send his two sons ahead with 1,500 sheep. They herded the sheep, grazing them on open range, and finally arrived at the ranch owned by Overall in west central Coleman County near Valera, a community named by Santa Fe Railroad officials in 1886. Valera was prosperous in the days of the railroad and by 1946 had a population of 500 people, a school, 17 businesses including a bank, and several churches. It is about 60 miles northeast of San Angelo. After sending his sons on the sheep drive to Texas, the elder Henry Beck had planned to go by train and purchase land before they arrived with the sheep. Instead, he became ill and died. Richard Overall's brother, Ezra Overall, made the trip to Texas with the news of the elder Beck's death. He also was the administrator of the Beck will and helped the sons purchase land. Although cattlemen threatened the Becks, they vowed to stay on and protect their property. The Beck Ranch was established in 1898 about 7 miles southwest of Valera. In 1904, Firmin Beck purchased the St. Louis World's Fair Delaine-Merino grand champion ram "Old Premier" for $1,000 and paid the same amount for "Sensation," the following year's winner. "Some of those rams' offspring sold for $200 each, a large sum of money in those days," said Cindy Beck Maedgen of San Angelo, great-granddaughter of the founder. "Also, during the first years on the ranch, wool had to be hauled to Fort Worth by wagons." "My great-grandfather, Firmin Beck, purchased 640 acres on Home Creek, a tributary of the Colorado River on March 1, 1898," she said. Over the years, it grew to total 10,888 acres. A wooden barn with a corrugated tin roof, the rock garage and another rock building once used as a chicken house are more than 100 years old and still stand. "My great-grandfather started with the sheep, and they continued to be a part of the ranch livestock through the generations. My grandfather, George Julius Beck, added Hereford cattle and quarter horses to the mix," Maedgen said. "At one time, they had 200 registered horses on the ranch." Some of the lineage of Beck-owned horses are linked to bloodlines of famous champion sires including Joe Hancock, Scooter's Question, King, Man of War, Top Deck and Three Bars. Hal Beck and his brother, Rex Beck, were both skilled horsemen and ropers, participating regularly in events in the area and later joining the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association. Except for the years in college and the Army, Hal lived all of his 80 years on the ranch. After his death in 2002, Dorrice moved to San Angelo. Their children restored the ranch house where Hal and Dorrice lived for 56 years of their married life. The Beck Ranch was recognized with the Family Land Heritage plaque by the Texas Department of Agriculture in Austin in June 2007. SHARE By George Avalos San Jose Mercury News (Tns) SAN JOSE, Calif. The sudden burst of red lights in the rear view mirror jolts just about every motorist, especially if the result is a traffic ticket. But now, drivers can use some online tools to avoid a trip to the courthouse and produce a more pleasant resolution to the citation. "We're offering Legal Zoom for traffic tickets," said Geoff Mousseau, president and co-founder of CA-Ticket.com and EasiestTicketSolution.com, two sites that help drivers respond to traffic tickets. The sites enable drivers to contest moving violations without having to physically go to court or hire attorneys. Instead, motorists can undertake "trial by mail" and use the sites to automate that process. Paying $89 to conduct a trial by mail looks like an attractive alternative to the potential sting of the ticket. To be sure, the base cost for a traffic ticket in California, for example, is modest: $25 for faulty equipment, $35 for a moving violation and $100 for being 25 miles per hour over the speed limit, according to figures from the state Judicial Council. The big expenses come when state and county penalty assessments, court fees and state surcharges are added to the base cost. That means the total cost to the motorist who doesn't contest a ticket is $197 for faulty equipment, $238 for a moving violation, and $490 for driving at 25 mph above the speed limit. Firms such as Traffic Snipers that help motorists combat traffic tickets claim a success rate of up to 80 percent for getting tickets dismissed. "Most people are not prepared to fight a ticket in court," Mousseau said. "The police are the professionals in this process. They do this all the time. They are paid to do this." Even worse, from the driver's point of view, the court officers and traffic judges might be hunting for errors or unfortunate admissions by the driver defendant. "The court officers are looking for reasons to uphold the ticket," Mousseau said. "Maybe the cop says you apologized during the traffic stop. Or you might have said something that suggests guilt." Instead, the CA-Ticket and EasiestTicketSolutions sites give drivers a way to put the onus on law enforcement officers to follow procedures strictly, or risk having the ticket thrown out in court. The key to all this is a segment of the process known as trial by written declaration. Both the driver and the law officer must prepare a written declaration, which essentially is a statement of facts in the case by the driver and the officer. Drivers can use a drop-down menu to provide the websites with all the information needed to produce their written declaration. After the sites collect the evidence, they email the written declaration to the driver with instructions on how to sign it. Then the driver mails the declaration to the court, which obliges the police officer to respond, also by mail in this scenario. "It just walked me through the process, and it really takes no time," said Kevin Flood, a Los Angeles resident who used the EasiestTicketSolution site for his speeding ticket. Flood believed that he was given a speeding ticket when he was driving on a freeway in the flow of surrounding traffic. He believed he wasn't traveling any faster than the bulk of vehicles in the vicinity so targeting him was unfair. "I was the weak one that the cop separated from the herd," Flood said. Before preparing his declaration via the website, Flood paid the $235 traffic ticket, as required before contesting it. About 14 weeks after submitting his written declaration, which laid out his case about being unfairly targeted, Flood was notified that his case was dismissed. Two weeks later, he received his $235 refund. "If you are not trying to game the system, if you legitimately believe you are innocent, this is for you," Flood said. "It took about 10 minutes of my time." As is the case with many bureaucratic procedures, traffic infractions lend themselves to the automation enabled by the Internet. "Loan forms, medical forms, court forms, any time you have a form that is required, somebody is likely to create an app that will allow you to automate this process," said Rob Enderle, an Oregon-based analyst who tracks the technology sector. The sites charge $89 to prepare the written declarations. Of course, submitting evidence by mail, even when produced in a form acceptable to the court, doesn't guarantee victory. The motorist might still wind up stuck paying the fine but it's a pretty good gamble. "Up until now, fighting traffic tickets has been mainly in the realm of wealthy people," Mousseau said. "Until now, the average citizen was not aware of this. Now they have an inexpensive path to fighting a ticket." Krysten Ritter starred in "Marvel's Jessica Jones," about an alcoholic ex-superhero suffering from serious PTSD. (Myles Aronowitz/Netflix) SHARE Paul Rudd starred in "Marvel's Ant-Man." (Film Frame/Marvel 2015) Mavel's "Secret Wars" was considerably more successful than DC's similar "Convergence." (Marvel Entertainment Inc.) By Andrew A. Smith Tribune News Service (Tns) If you're The Walt Disney Co. looking back on 2015, you have to be happy about your Marvel subsidiary. From comics to TV to films, it was a Marvel-ous year. MOVIES (Movie trailer voice) "Imagine a world where an 'Ant-Man' movie succeeds, and a 'Fantastic Four' movie doesn't." (/Movie trailer voice) "Fantastic Four" the comic book was the foundation of the Marvel Universe. It was such a success when launched in 1961 that it effectively created Marvel Comics. Encouraged by "Fantastic Four," Marvel architects Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko continued with an entire pantheon of superheroes, including Avengers, Captain America, Daredevil, Dr. Strange, Hawkeye, Hulk, Iron Man, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, Spider-Man, Thor and X-Men. Oh, yeah, there was also Ant-Man, the one notable sales failure. But not on film. "Ant-Man" made $180 million in theaters, with an 88 percent audience approval on Rotten Tomatoes. "Fantastic Four," by contrast, made $56 million in theaters, with only 20 percent approval. "Ant-Man" already has a sequel scheduled ("Ant-Man and Wasp" in 2018), whereas the future of the FF is in doubt. To comics fans, that's just mind-boggling. But to movie fans, it makes perfect sense. "Ant-Man" was made by Marvel Films, a production company that understands the appeal of the Marvel characters and has yet to make a bomb. "Fantastic Four," by contrast, was made by Twentieth Century Fox, isolated from both the Marvel creators and the broader Marvel Universe of characters. And it was staggeringly awful. To avoid this mistake, Sony Pictures which owns the movie rights to Spider-Man has cut a deal with Marvel Films for the cinematic future of the wall-crawler. Fox, which also has the X-Men franchise, has yet to show that wisdom. Meanwhile, archrival DC Comics home of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman had no movies in 2015. None. It had a few direct-to-video animated films, sure, but nothing in the theaters. TELEVISION Given its dysfunction on the big screen, it's lucky for DC that it dominates the small one. From The CW to ABC, DC has five popular shows, namely "Arrow," "Flash," "Gotham," "iZombie" and "Supergirl." The one disappointment so far is the canceled "Constantine." But the lead character on that show has already appeared on "Arrow" and is rumored to have a major role in the second season of "Legends of Tomorrow," which debuts in 2016. That's pretty impressive. But here again the big story belongs to Marvel, which premiered two successful series on Netflix. While ratings don't exist yet for streaming services, both "Daredevil" and "Jessica Jones" received white-hot word of mouth and critical acclaim. "Jessica Jones" enjoyed a 93 percent rating from critics and 90 percent from viewers on Rotten Tomatoes, while "Daredevil" scored a nearly perfect 98 percent from critics and 96 percent from viewers. Even more important, the two shows expanded the envelope on what a superhero story could be, by paradoxically reducing the scope. While The Avengers may battle alien invasions on Fifth Avenue, Daredevil and Jessica Jones ply their trades in the grit and shadows of Hell's Kitchen. Neither is entirely a hero, and their stories are small, human ones. That's compelling television. COMICS There are a lot of interesting stories to come out of the comics market in 2015 which don't involve Marvel and DC. The No. 3 publisher, Image Comics, debuted more than 40 new ongoing titles almost none of which involved superheroes. The Disney ducks and mice launched successfully at IDW, while at that same publisher the new "Star Trek" crew met Green Lantern, while the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles teamed up with Batman. Archie comics successfully relaunched its namesake character (and friends) for the first time since the redhead's debut in 1940, while also revamping its much-revamped superhero line into something interesting for the first time. But once again, the Marvel vs. DC storyline is the biggest and most compelling. And once again, DC lost decidedly this time in a head-to-head, apples-to-apples contest. It started when DC decided to move its comic book operation closer to parent Warner Bros. on the West Coast. The two-month move necessitated two months of fill-ins of some kind. Making a virtue of necessity, DC decided to create a two-month "event" called Convergence, where previous versions of their characters would all appear on a mysterious world and battle each other for survival in a series of two-issue miniseries. After the two months, any characters or fill-in titles that sold well would continue into the current DC superhero universe, a few new, non-Convergence titles would be created and the rest of the line would continue as if it had never been interrupted. It probably sounded like a good plan, but reader reception was tepid. The "Convergence" titles had mediocre sales, the new launches mostly met with indifferent response, while the titles that returned to their regular numbering also returned to their regular sales. (TLDR: "Batman" and "Justice League" good, everything else mediocre.) Meanwhile, Marvel did almost exactly the same thing. Marvel had always touted the fact that unlike DC it had never rebooted its line. But it announced an event called "Secret Wars" that sure sounded like a reboot, which Marvel denied. But here's how it went: Marvel ended its multiverse with a classic literary maneuver: It killed everybody. Seriously. It wiped out its whole multiverse, and everyone in it. Somehow we don't actually know the details yet various versions of their characters were mooshed together on a single planet, the only planet in the universe, called Battleworld. As the name implied, there would be a lot of fighting for survival. Sound familiar? But there's the thing: Where DC's event didn't work, Marvel's did. The central title "Secret Wars" No. 1 outsold DC's central title "Convergence" No. 1 four to one, and later issues never dropped to worse than two to one. The temporary Secret Wars titles mostly did better than the temporary Convergence titles. And here's the kicker: Instead of returning to the old numbering of its titles at the end of the event, Marvel re-launched its entire line, with all new first issues. Suddenly, Marvel was blowing DC out of the water. Here's the bottom line: In November of this year the latest figures available Marvel's share of the market was 47 percent to DC's 27 percent. This compared to November 2014, when the split was 34/27. I can't say if "Secret Wars" was a reboot. In some ways yes, in some ways no. But one thing's for sure: It was a success, giving Marvel almost half of the North American comic book market as 2015 goes into the history books. Somewhere, Mickey Mouse is smiling. Contact Captain Comics at capncomics@aol.com. For more comics news, reviews and commentary, visit his website: comicsroundtable.com NASHVILLE, TN - SEPTEMBER 16: (L-R) Conrad Lozano, Louie Perez and David Hidalgo of Los Lobos perform at The Cannery on September 16, 2015 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Erika Goldring/Getty Images for Americana Music) SHARE By George Varga The San Diego Union-Tribune (Tns) My sincere apologies, Los Lobos. You had my vote this year, but it wasn't enough to get you into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. As a voting member of the hall for the past two decades, I have always let my conscience be my guide. I cast my ballot for the nominees whose qualitative excellence transcends time and trends, not for the most famous, popular or best-selling. (In some cases, of course, a transcendent performer also happens to the most famous, popular and best-selling on the ballot, but not nearly often enough.) Consequently, I find myself frequently voting for eminently deserving artists whose chances of winning are slim to none. That, sadly, was the case this year with Los Lobos, the trend-free East Los Angeles band. Since its formation in 1973, Los Lobos has scored just two Top 40 hits. Both were in 1987. The first, a spirited remake of Ritchie Valens' "Come On, Let's Go," made it to No. 21 on the national Billboard charts. The second, "La Bamba," the title track from the Valens biopic of the same name, rose to No. 1. Los Lobos didn't seek Top 40 stardom (however short-lived); it found them. Regardless, for casual listeners, "La Bamba" may be the only Los Lobos recording with which they are familiar. Devoted followers embrace the band for other reasons. Among them are the series of outstanding albums Los Lobos has made, 22 to date, including this year's aptly titled "Gates of Gold." Each of them displays the band's no-nonsense songwriting and rock-solid vocal and instrumental skills. Equally notable are the group's wonderfully earthy, glitz-free concerts, which put the focus firmly on the music at hand, and its dizzying command of various American and Latin styles. Rock, blues, soul, county, folk, rockabilly, cumbia, ranchera, conjunto, son jarocho and more Los Lobos utilizes an unusually diverse palette, without a hint of flash or "Aren't we clever?" smugness. In a typical concert, the distinctions between genres don't blur, so much as they become meaningless. And, in a typical concert, Los Lobos will perform a selection of songs different from the night before and the night to follow. Whether singing in English or Spanish, the band's members put their heart into each word. They also have a penchant for paying tribute to some of their creative inspirations onstage, from Jimi Hendrix, Neil Young and Traffic to Fernando Maldonado, The Temptations and the Grateful Dead. Bob Dylan is such a big fan of Los Lobos guitarist and accordionist David Hidalgo that Dylan has featured Hidalgo on his last several albums. That Los Lobos has endured for five decades is, ultimately, a tribute to the fact that making good music has always been their aim, not big bucks. Or, as Steve Berlin, the band's saxophonist and keyboardist since 1984, told me in a 2014 Union-Tribune interview: "Nobody thought it would go this long and, certainly, I did not. But here we are, and I'm as shocked as anybody could be. Nobody thought about the future in 1984. We were just happy to get to the next gig or party." Director Martin Scorsese arrives to a public press event at the French Cinematheque on Oct. 15, 2015 to promote the Martin Scorcese Retrospective in Paris, France. (Lionel Guericolas/Visual/Zuma Press/TNS) SHARE By David Ng Los Angeles Times (Tns) PARIS With its picturesque boulevards and scenic views of the Seine River, this city's 12th arrondissement feels like a universe away from the grungy mean streets of New York where Travis Bickle, Jake LaMotta and Henry Hill waged their earthly and spiritual battles. But it's here at the Cinematheque Francaise where the films of Martin Scorsese have taken up residence in an unprecedented scholarly exhibition of the director's work. Occupying an entire floor of the Cinematheque's Frank Gehry-designed headquarters, the exhibition simply titled "Scorsese" is a curated cornucopia designed to satisfy the director's die-hard admirers and casual fans alike. The exhibition has been hard to miss in Paris, where heavy promotion throughout the city has included gargantuan ads in certain subway and train stations. Rather than taking a chronological approach, the show unfolds through a series of broadly themed chapters such as Italian American family life, brotherhood and New York. The exhibition mixes the personal and professional, creating a space where Scorsese's filmography and biography merge into one. A sampling of personal effects includes the dining table from the Scorsese family's apartment in Little Italy; storyboards for the climactic blood bath in "Taxi Driver"; intimate snapshots showing the filmmaker with his daughters on the sets of movies; and a silver automaton from "Hugo." But capturing the restless, confrontational energy of Scorsese's movies required more than just assembling static items from the filmmaker's archives. "It's difficult to do an exhibition on Martin Scorsese," said Serge Toubiana, the Cinematheque 's director, in his office overlooking the city. That's because the essence of his films resides in his compositions and kinetic editing style, he explained. "In order to understand these personal items, you first have to have the jolt of cinema. He's a truly visual artist." The Cinematheque 's exhibition is populated with screens of varying sizes, each rolling clips that range from the iconic (Bickle's "You talkin to me?") to the more obscure (the ethereal climax to "Kundun"). One screen explores the way Scorsese depicts women in a masculine world. A vicious, F-word-laden fight between Sharon Stone and Robert De Niro in "Casino" is contrasted with a clandestine kiss between Daniel Day-Lewis and Michelle Pfeiffer in "The Age of Innocence." An area near the end of the exhibition delves into Scorsese's innovative use of pop music, with clips spotlighting his long association with the Rolling Stones. "The Departed" Scorsese's sole Academy Award win gets prominent placement in a section devoted to his collaboration with longtime editor Thelma Schoonmaker. The installation alternates the Chinatown pursuit between Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon with the punishing fight in "Raging Bull" between De Niro's LaMotta and Johnny Barnes' Sugar Ray Robinson. "The editing is in his mind before he shoots," said Matthieu Orlean, an artistic collaborator at the Cinematheque, who helped to organize the show. He said Scorsese's body of work is marked by "the reoccurrence of different themes." The Cinematheque devotes an entire section to the image of crucifixions in Scorsese's movies. (The director was raised a Catholic and once aspired to the priesthood.) "The Last Temptation of Christ," his controversial adaptation of the Nikos Kazantzakis novel, culminates with Jesus on the cross, but there is also crucifixion imagery in "Boxcar Bertha," "Cape Fear" and "Gangs of New York." The retrospective originated in a different format at the Deutsche Kinemathek in Berlin, where it debuted in 2013 before traveling to Turin, Italy, and Ghent, Belgium, before coming to Paris. Organizers in Berlin initially approached Scorsese about doing an exhibition devoted to storyboards and later widened their request to other items in his personal collection. "That took him a while to come to a decision," recalled Kristina Jaspers, a curator at the Deutsche Kinemathek, who created the exhibition along with Nils Warnecke. After he agreed, the director became involved in choosing items for the show, through his assistant Marianne Bower. He would ask if "we could put this storyboard into that chapter of the show or if this photo would fit on that wall," said Jaspers via email. The Paris version features a substantially different layout, with an emphasis on low lighting and neon signs to evoke the urban world of the director's most notable movies. Scorsese, who wasn't available for comment, attended the Paris opening of the exhibition in October, a glitzy event that drew French President Francois Hollande. The show's organizers in Paris and Berlin said the U.S. debut will take place in New York at the Museum of the Moving Image, located in the borough of Queens, where Scorsese was born in 1942. They said the opening is set for December 2016, although a spokeswoman for the museum said she could not confirm details at this time. Attendance for "Scorsese" in Paris has been strong, organizers said, but the exhibition suffered a setback following the Nov. 13 terrorist attacks. Like virtually all of the cultural institutions in Paris, the Cinematheque closed for a few days. It said attendance still hasn't returned to pre-Nov. 13 levels. The Cinematheque said it hopes to see close to 100,000 admissions for the Scorsese show, which ends in mid-February. Its record holder is the Tim Burton exhibition from New York's Museum of Modern Art that drew about 350,000 visitors during a five-month run in 2012. For fans, the Scorsese exhibition can be a trove of unexpected revelations, especially when it comes to his short films. His early short "The Big Shave," in which a man's morning ritual devolves into a bloody mess, is on view, as is his more recent "The Key to Reserva," a commercial that takes the form of a multilayered homage to Alfred Hitchcock. Many items are easy to overlook: the Palme d'Or that Scorsese won for "Taxi Driver" at the Cannes Film Festival; a letter from a Baptist clergyman praising "The Last Temptation of Christ"; and a fan letter from filmmaker Alain Resnais extolling "Kundun." The retrospective also provides a peek ahead: Spread throughout the exhibition are a few photos from the set of "Silence," his long-planned adaptation of the Shusaku Endo novel about Catholic priests facing persecution in 17th century Japan. "Silence," starring Andrew Garfield and Liam Neeson, is in post-production and is expected to be released next year. SHARE By Glenn Whipp Los Angeles Times (Tns) Coming so close to the Oscars, the Golden Globes movie races draw most of the attention, but it's the TV winners who have to walk a good country mile just to get to the stage who often give the night its most genuine, surprising moments. (Remember Gina Rodriguez's emotional speech this year?) Thinking ahead, we believe viewers are going to be typing "Mr. Robot" into search engines. That prediction and others follow MOTION PICTURE DRAMA The nominees: "Carol," "Mad Max: Fury Road," "The Revenant," "Room," "Spotlight" And the winner is: The Hollywood Foreign Press Association has been going with the bread-and-butter critics' favorites lately, so look for "Spotlight" to win. Unless: This group didn't reward "Birdman" last year, so unless HFPA voters really want to make it right with filmmaker Alejandro G. Inarritu and go with "The Revenant," then maybe "Mad Max" could pull off an upset. LEAD ACTOR, MOTION PICTURE DRAMA The nominees: Bryan Cranston, "Trumbo"; Leonardo DiCaprio, "The Revenant"; Michael Fassbender, "Steve Jobs"; Eddie Redmayne, "The Danish Girl"; Will Smith, "Concussion" And the winner is: You've probably heard DiCaprio has never won an Oscar. He does own a couple Globes, though. This time, he'll take home one of each. Unless: Those special edition "Steve Jobs" iPhones that HFPA members have been expecting suddenly arrive in the mail. LEAD ACTRESS, MOTION PICTURE DRAMA The nominees: Cate Blanchett, "Carol"; Brie Larson, "Room"; Rooney Mara, "Carol"; Saoirse Ronan, "Brooklyn"; Alicia Vikander, "The Danish Girl" And the winner is: The "Carol" actresses split the vote and Larson wins for her heart-rending turn in "Room." Unless: Globes favorite Blanchett, a nine-time nominee and three-time winner, adds another trophy to her case. MOTION PICTURE MUSICAL OR COMEDY The nominees: "The Big Short," "Joy," "The Martian," "Spy," "Trainwreck" And the winner is: Many Globes voters aren't thrilled with "The Martian" being placed here. That creates an opening for "The Big Short," which mixes comedy and tragedy, the type of combo the group has been drawn to over the years. Unless: Enough members love "The Martian," no matter its genre, and want to reward it here. LEAD ACTOR, MOTION PICTURE MUSICAL OR COMEDY The nominees: Christian Bale, "The Big Short"; Steve Carell, "The Big Short"; Matt Damon, "The Martian"; Al Pacino, "Danny Collins"; Mark Ruffalo, "Infinitely Polar Bear" And the winner is: Pacino and Ruffalo star in movies nobody's seen. Bale and Carell figure to siphon each other's support. That leaves Damon, who carries "The Martian" for long, solo stretches. Unless: Carell takes his second Globe on a big night for "The Big Short." LEAD ACTRESS, MOTION PICTURE MUSICAL OR COMEDY The nominees: Jennifer Lawrence, "Joy"; Melissa McCarthy, "Spy"; Amy Schumer, "Trainwreck"; Maggie Smith, "The Lady in the Van"; Lily Tomlin, "Grandma" And the winner is: The HFPA loves Lawrence, but the group seems so-so on "Joy," giving it only two nominations. We'll go with Schumer, both for her work and the suspicion that the Globes would like to get in her good graces so she'll agree to host next year. Unless: A third Golden Globe for Lawrence! (Yay?) TV DRAMA SERIES The nominees: "Empire," "Game of Thrones," "Mr. Robot," "Narcos," "Outlander" And the winner is: Coming nine months before the Emmys, the HFPA loves to plant the flag for new shows, going so far as to give this prize to Showtime's soapy "The Affair" this year. We like USA's unsettling cyberworld drama "Mr. Robot" to be next year's newbie darling. Unless: Voters want to reward "Empire," which premiered too late to be considered last time. LEAD ACTOR IN A TV DRAMA SERIES The nominees: Jon Hamm, "Mad Men"; Rami Malek, "Mr. Robot"; Wagner Moura, "Narcos"; Bob Odenkirk, "Better Call Saul"; Liev Schreiber, "Ray Donovan" And the winner is: Malek. Yes, we're going all in on "Mr. Robot" and Malek for making a paranoid, morphine-addicted hacker into a hoodie-wearing hero for our troubled times. Unless: The HFPA decides to send Hamm, who, best as we can recall, never wore a hoodie on "Mad Men," out in style. LEAD ACTRESS IN A TV DRAMA SERIES The nominees: Caitriona Balfe, "Outlander"; Viola Davis, "How to Get Away With Murder"; Eva Green, "Penny Dreadful"; Taraji P. Henson, "Empire"; Robin Wright, "House of Cards" And the winner is: Tough call between Balfe, Emmy winner Davis and Henson. Let's lean toward Irish actress Balfe, "Outlander's" time-traveling nurse, as voters go global. Unless: The HFPA wants to honor "Empire" somewhere, and there's no better spot than this. COMEDY SERIES The nominees: "Casual," "Mozart in the Jungle," "Orange Is the New Black," "Silicon Valley," "Transparent," "Veep" And the winner is: The HFPA hasn't repeated itself in this category since the heyday of "Glee," but "Transparent" remains the buzziest nominee of the group. Unless: Voters shop Amazon for another winner and go with the charming "Mozart." LEAD ACTOR IN A TV COMEDY SERIES The nominees: Aziz Ansari, "Master of None"; Gael Garcia Bernal, "Mozart in the Jungle"; Rob Lowe, "The Grinder"; Patrick Stewart, "Blunt Talk"; Jeffrey Tambor, "Transparent" And the winner is: Again, this isn't the Emmys. The Globes like to spread the wealth year to year. That discounts the chances of reigning champ Tambor, giving the edge to Bernal, "Mozart's" impulsive, kooky conductor. Unless: You could make a case for any of the other nominees, though, unlike Bernal, their shows weren't nominated. That probably sets up Tambor as a possible back-to-back victor. LEAD ACTRESS IN A TV COMEDY SERIES The nominees: Rachel Bloom, "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend"; Jamie Lee Curtis, "Scream Queens"; Julia Louis-Dreyfus, "Veep"; Gina Rodriguez, "Jane the Virgin"; Lily Tomlin, "Grace and Frankie" And the winner is: You want to know something weird? Louis-Dreyfus, a veritable viking at the Emmys, has never won a Golden Globe for "Veep." Of the group, she's the only one from a nominated series. That gives her an edge, I suppose, though I wouldn't be surprised to see the popular Tomlin take the stage instead. Unless: It is indeed Tomlin. You know she'd give a great speech. LOOKING TOWARD THE FUTURE It wasn't until the 1970's, when Supreme Court decisions recognized birth fathers, that they earned the right to have a say in the adoption process. (Fotolia) SHARE By Leslie Mann Chicago Tribune (Tns) You don't venture far into the world of adoption before you hear the word "triad." Picture a triangle with the adoptee at one corner, adoptive parents at another and the biological, or birth, mother at the third. But, wait someone's missing The birth father. Too often, the birth father dangles from the birth mother's corner. Sometimes he doesn't even know she's pregnant. Adoption has evolved from the pre-WWI "taking in" of the orphan next door, to closed adoptions, to open, which became the norm in the early 1980s. "Open" ranges from exchanging annual letters to co-parenting. (We're talking domestic adoptions here; international adoptions are usually closed.) All along, though, the biological father has been second fiddle to the birth mom. "Until the 1970s, unmarried birth dads were not necessarily parents, legally, and their names were often left off of birth certificates or labeled 'unknown,'" said Susan Appleton, a law professor at Washington University Law School in St. Louis. "The birth mom made the adoption decisions." Several Supreme Court decisions in the '70s recognized birth dads. Since then, state laws have elevated their status further. Research says "open" is healthier for everyone in the triad, but a major study, the long-term, ongoing Minnesota/Texas Adoption Research Project doesn't even mention birth dads in its "key findings." Fiction and films continuously portray them as an afterthought, too. (You may recall the birth mom, her parents and the adoptive parents in the movie "Juno." But, do you remember the birth dad?) More often, today's birth dad can parent the child or participate in the adoption decision, but the burden is still on him to prove paternity. And, the calendar works against him, said Adam Pertman, president of the National Center on Adoption & Permanency. "The court takes so long to adjudicate the decision, the child is no longer an infant when a birth dad wins custody or visitation," Pertman said. "Removing him at an older age is heart-rending, as we see in cases like Baby Richard." (He refers to the highly publicized custody battle over Danny Kirchner, a young child whose adoption was revoked when his biological father, Otakar Kirchner, won custody in a case decided in 1995 by the Illinois Supreme Court. His adoptive parents had named him Richard.) Complicating the matter is the advent of states' putative (alleged) father registries, which vary widely. They appear pro-birth parent, giving the birth father a chance to register his paternity and contest adoption. In fact, their tight deadlines squeeze him out, say experts. And, because few people know the registries exist, the registration rate is low. "Men say, 'What am I supposed to do, register every time I have sex?'" said Kris Faasse, vice president of Bethany Christian Services, an adoption agency with offices in 36 states. "I say, 'Ideally, yes.' But that won't happen." Now, several trends are working in the favor of biological fathers. Ninety-five percent of adoptions are open now, according to the 2012 "Openness in Adoption" report from the Donaldson Adoption Institute, based in New York. Closed-adoption triad members can find each other when the adoptee is an adult, thanks to social media, DNA-linking websites and "open records laws" that allow access to birth certificates. One baby step at a time, the birth dad's fate improves. Agencies such as Bethany have male social workers to talk to the dads. Advocacy groups ask school administrators to include birth father responsibilities in their sex-ed classes. Watchdog groups push for pro-birth dad laws. "Finally, the birth dad is evolving from an obstacle (in an adoption) to a partner," Faasse said. "More often, we see him involved in the child's life. In the end, we all want the same thing what's best for the child." ADVICE FOR ALL INVOLVED "Get a lawyer," echoed adoption experts. Visit the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys to find one who knows adoption law. In addition, follow these tips from the trenches: FOR THE BIRTH DAD Young birth dads need to tell their parents about the pregnancy. "We regret hiding it," said Darrick Rizzo, 37, a birth dad living in Pennsylvania and author of "The Open Adoption: A Birth Father's Journey," speaking of his own experience. "We should have had their guidance." "Avoid conflict (put three exclamation marks here) with the birth mom," advised Joseph Cordell, a Creve Coeur, Mo.-based family law attorney. "She can make this difficult for you by saying you're not the father. When there's a conflict, the birth mom wins." If the birth mom is married to another man, many courts consider him the father. Yes, DNA tests can prove paternity. No, results are not immediate like on TV. "Join birth parent groups for help and support," said Jon Klaren, 45, of San Diego, a birth dad and member of Concerned United Birthparents. If you lose contact with the child, join the father registries in your state and in nearby states, and on the one maintained by the ALMA Society (Adoptees' Liberty Movement Association). You have the right to know about the birth of the child, but not necessarily the right to be part of his or her upbringing. If the pregnancy is the result of rape, or if you have a history of abuse or violence, the courts can exclude you from the child's life. The laws vary from state to state, but judges rule on the basis of what's best for the child. FOR THE BIRTH MOM "Don't shut out the birth dad," Faasse said. "The child has a right to have a relationship with him." Before you decide to parent the child yourself, be realistic about your capabilities. Can you provide your child with food, shelter, love and guidance? Don't use the child to hurt the birth dad you no longer like. FOR THE ADOPTIVE PARENTS Beware of a birth mom who is unwilling to name the birth dad. It may be because he wants paternity rights or visitation. "Sometimes the birth mother says the pregnancy resulted from rape to cover her indiscretions," said Marie Anderson, an ALMA coordinator. Enlist an experienced social worker, who can talk to the birth mom; if it is discovered that the birth mom was not raped, he or she also can help convince her to come clean so the word "rape" is not on your child's paperwork forever. "Don't buy into the myth that birth parents want to snatch your baby," Faasse said. "They made an adoption plan because they cannot parent the child." "Don't promise the birth parents what you can't deliver," Rizzo said. "You want that baby, so you say 'yes' to their requests. But if you don't want them at your holiday dinner, say so." FOR ADULT ADOPTEES Recognize the possibility that your birth dad may not want to be found because he hasn't told his wife or other kids about you. To find your birth parents' families, register your DNA with 23andme.com, ancestry.com and/or familytreedna.com . "I found my birth dad's family on ancestry.com, although he had died," said Pam Kroskie, 47, a Bloomington, Ind., adoptee and president of Hoosiers for Equal Access to Records (HEAR). "As I met them, everything fell into place. I felt like I was filling in the blanks in my life." Don't expect your birth dad search to have a fairy tale ending. "If everything were hunky-dory with birth mom and dad, there wouldn't have been an adoption," Pertman said. Leslie Mann is a freelance reporter. SHARE Mueller By Jennifer Rios A Colorado district attorney decided not to pursue a third murder trial against San Angelo businessman Frederick Mueller, who was accused of killing his wife. Dan Hotsenpiller, with the Seventh Judicial District Attorney's Office, filed to dismiss the murder case against Mueller on Tuesday, saying a unanimous verdict appeared unlikely. Mueller, who was reached by phone Tuesday afternoon, said he was overwhelmed by the news. "I'm relieved that it's all over," Mueller said. "I'm looking forward to going on with my life and closing this sad chapter in our family's life." Mueller was represented in his second trial by Denver defense attorney Pamela Mackey, who could not be reached for comment Tuesday. This month a Colorado district judge denied Mackey's motion to dismiss Mueller's case under the double jeopardy clause. A third trial for the San Angelo businessman had been expected to begin Jan. 6. Gunnison District Judge Steven Patrick dismissed a first-degree murder charge brought against Mueller after his first trial ended in a hung jury in February. Mueller underwent a second trial on a second-degree murder charge in October, which also ended in a hung jury. The first jury voted 11-1 in favor of acquittal; the second voted 8-4 in favor of conviction. Mueller was accused of killing his first wife, Leslie, on May 3, 2008, while the two were vacationing in Lake City, Colo. Mueller said his wife was posing for a photo when her dog was startled by a blue jay, causing her to lose balance and fall off a 20-foot ledge into Cottonwood Creek. Her body was found about 135 feet downstream with no apparent injuries, her head wedged under a log. Colorado Attorney General John Suthers said in the news release it was "regrettable that a resolution through trial by jury is unlikely." Hotsenpiller said prosecutors considered the consequences of further proceedings, including using public resources, the burden to future jurors, witnesses and the impact on the victim's family. "In this case, extensive public resources have already been expended," he said. "The parents and children of Dr. Leslie Mueller had no involvement in the death of their daughter and mother. They do not wish to endure a third trial." It was unclear how much money was spent on Mueller's trials. "As prosecutors, we accept the highest burden of proof and the responsibility to be ministers of justice," Hotsenpiller said in the release. "The people do not have additional evidence to present at this time, and in consideration of all factors affecting the interests of justice, will not proceed to retry Frederick Mueller." It's unclear if Mueller could be retried in the future. Hinsdale County Sheriff Ron Bruce said he still believes firmly in law enforcement's case. He said he thinks people in potential jury pools are "tainted by misconceptions" created by television. Bruce believed people may have "unrealistic expectations" about what investigators can do and may fail to make connections once evidence is presented to them. "Based on what we were handed, we're not likely to see a different outcome," Bruce said of the case, "and I think we have to walk away from it." Leslie Mueller's photo will remain on the credenza in his Lake City office, where it has been the past five years, he said. "I can tell you it will haunt me for a long time." SHARE By Federico Martinez More than 2,000 people attended Saturday's Gun & Blade Show at San Angelo's Foster Communications Coliseum, but the mood was subdued as many gun dealers wondered if this weekend's two-day event might be their last. President Barack Obama recently announced that he is considering taking executive action that would require anyone who sells firearms to conduct background checks on buyers. Currently, the law only requires licensed gun dealers to conduct background checks, but not people who are selling guns from their own private collection. At least 50 percent of people selling guns at the San Angelo show were not licensed dealers, organizers estimated. "The president's action would end gun shows," said Richard Kitchen, a licensed gun dealer who has been selling firearms and accessories at the San Angelo show for 13 years. "A lot of the people who sell guns here are retirees who are trying to make a couple of extra bucks by selling off some of their prized possessions." Many gun dealers and proponents such as Kitchen say although they are concerned, they also believe such a law would not be enforceable. The government would have to monitor every gun show, flea market and personal sale, they said. "It would be impossible to enforce," Kitchen said. "All it would accomplish is create a black market." Saturday's show featured dozens of booths featuring the latest firearms, while others showcased antique guns that were used during the Civil War. The Sons of Confederate Veterans, General Tom Green Camp 1613, used several long tables to display their antique firearms. Organization members, who stood in front of large, hanging Confederate flags, greeted visitors to their booth and explained why they believe Confederate soldiers should be remembered as heros and American patriots. Other vendors sold food and non-alcoholic beverages, books, handmade jewelry, wood and metal art and various firearm accessories. Organizations such as the San Angelo Gun Club and Texas Law Shield were also on hand to encourage people to join their groups and answer people's questions about gun laws, such as Texas's new open carry law that took effect Friday. Bill Collins, a sales representative for Texas Law Shield, said the new law is "very ambiguous" and will take people time to sort out. Sunday's show hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Associated Press Indian army soldiers take positions outside the Indian air base in Pathankot on Saturday. At least four gunmen entered an Indian air force base near the border with Pakistan on Saturday morning and exchanged fire with security forces, leaving three soldiers dead, officials said. SHARE By Shashank Bengali MUMBAI, India Militants wearing army uniforms stormed an Indian air force base near the Pakistani border early Saturday, setting off a daylong battle in which five assailants and three Indian soldiers died, according to officials and media reports. Four attackers were killed by security forces in the early hours, while a fifth remained holed up inside the base until he was shot to death more than 12 hours after the attack began around 3:30 a.m. local time in Pathankot, about 260 miles north of New Delhi. Officials said they had "credible information" that the attack was carried out by militants from Pakistan, casting further doubt on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's efforts to engage his rival neighbor in peace talks. Modi made a surprise visit to Pakistan on Dec. 25 to build momentum for a planned meeting this month between the two countries' top diplomats. Previous steps toward talks have also been met with violence, leading Indian officials to argue that elements inside Pakistan's powerful military and intelligence agencies are empowering militant groups in a bid to scuttle dialogue. Pakistan denied any role in the violence. This was the second attack in seven months in the border state of Punjab that Indian authorities have blamed on Pakistan-based extremists. The previous one, in which four policemen and three civilians were killed, came after a meeting between Modi and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on the sidelines of a summit in Ufa, Russia, that helped pave the way for a resumption of long-delayed comprehensive peace talks. SHARE By Jennifer Rios GUNNISON, Colo. ? Leslie Mueller's autopsy photographs and details about how she died were brought before jurors Tuesday during testimony from the forensic pathologist who performed her autopsy. While photos were displayed on a large screen, Frederick Mueller kept his head down. Others seated behind the defense table shielded their eyes or wiped away tears. Frederick Mueller is on trial in the death of his first wife, Leslie Mueller, who died in 2008 near their vacation home in Lake City, about 55 miles south of Gunnison. Deemed an accident at the time, her death was subsequently investigated by local law enforcement authorities who did not believe the account of events given by Frederick Mueller. He said his wife had fallen off a cliffside trail to her death. Mueller was arrested in San Angelo last February and has remained in Gunnison County Jail since his extradition. He is expected to remain in custody throughout the trial. State witness Dr. Michael Benziger told jurors Leslie Mueller's lungs were congested, heavy and had areas of bleeding ? all indicators of drowning. He said the details about May 3, 2008, he was given ? that Leslie had fallen off a cliff and onto a rock, then was carried upstream ? were inconsistent with his findings. Benziger said people instinctively try to break a fall with hands or shoulders. People he has examined after falls may have bruising or lacerations to their hands or fractures to the wrist, forearms or clavicle. "Does height of a fall does factor into types of injuries?" District Attorney Dan Hotsenpiller asked. "Certainly," Benziger said. "The greater distance someone falls, the more severe the injuries." The defense said their forensic pathologist agreed that Leslie died of drowning. "You can't tell when in this case when Dr. Mueller succumbed to drowning?" Hotsenpiller said. "Correct," Benziger said. "Or where along the Cottonwood Creek she succumbed to drowning?" "That's correct," he said. Upon cross examination, Benziger told defense attorneys he did not find skin underneath Leslie's fingernails, which were painted red. The polish also was not chipped. Earlier testimony revealed that Leslie Mueller had gloves on when she was found in the creek with her head submerged under a log. Three other witnesses took the stand Tuesday ? EMT responder Marcia Connell, Mueller's neighbor Jennifer Sparks and Hinsdale County Coroner Jerry Gray. Several witnesses have commented that Mueller acted "flat" and "unemotional" the day of his wife's death. Sparks said Mueller came up to her Lake City house speaking in "fragmented sentences" about what happened to his wife. Her husband called 911 once to relay Leslie's age and clothing. She said she called a second time to relay that Mueller had a head injury and might need medical attention, saying he was soaked from the waist down. When her husband left with Mueller, she said she told him, "Something's not right. Be careful." "Why?" prosecutor Matt Durkin asked. Mueller "wasn't exhibiting emotions I would expect someone to exhibit who was in a situation like that," she said. "And I always tell my husband to be careful." Sparks testified that when she called the 911 operator she used the word "chase" when describing how Mueller went after Leslie. "Fred just said to me, 'I went in after her. I couldn't find her,' " she said. "See how information's passed on sometimes? How words change?" Houston defense attorney Mike DeGeurin said. Prosecutor Keith Mandelski also questioned Sparks about meeting Mueller in summer 2007. An accident with a horse and its female rider prompted the Sparkses to go help. Justin Sparks has a large horse that was called in to help the other horse, which had fallen about 30 feet down a cliff. Sparks said she didn't know if either the horse or woman were seriously injured. Gray, emergency services director and Hinsdale County Coroner, said investigators were careful not to make fresh footprints around the area they were inspecting. He said he examined the granite rock Leslie allegedly fell on and found no "hair, skin or human matter." He told jurors about the nubs on her gloves ? that they extended from the palms to fingertips but that some were missing. During cross examination it was noted that Gray did not take photographs that evening and resorted to writing on his hand ? notes he later transferred to his report. He testified that he did just a brief exam of Leslie's body after pronouncing her dead because he would be at the autopsy ? held May 5, 2008, at the Montrose Memorial Hospital. He also drove the body there that night. During his testimony, Benziger said hypothermia can slow down death. He also made a general statement that it could take five or six minutes to die from drowning, but it could happen sooner if the person swallows water ? if they were floating down a stream, for example. He also described injuries Leslie had when she arrived at his lab ? bumps over both of her eyes and minor injuries to her cheek and bridge of her nose. He determined that most of the blood found on her came from rescue efforts ? a cut on her throat to clear her airways and broken teeth from resuscitation efforts. Benziger, who has performed autopsies on drowning victims in the past, said clothes typically are damaged, ripped off or moved on the body when that person is carried in a fast-moving stream. He said he found Leslie's clothes undamaged, except for a missing shoe. Earlier testimony indicated the shoe was never recovered.Other items brought up during testimony Tuesday included the fact that investigators found the Muellers' digital camera, minus the memory card, partway down the cliff where Leslie allegedly fell. Undersheriff Robert Burden had testified that it wasn't damaged ? something he could expect if it fell onto rocky terrain. Another first responder, Marcia Connell, testified about responding to the scene, meeting Mueller and being led down an embankment to reach the creek where she met other first responders. She described Mueller's reactions to the events as "unemotional." "Did you have an opportunity to witness family members who weren't injured reacting to family members who were injured?" Mandelski said. "Yes," Connell said. "Is that experience what you were relying on when you made your assessment of Mr. Mueller?" "Yes," she said. "In prior instances like at a car accident or whatever, where somebody was injured badly or possibly dead, it's almost palpable. You can tell sadness or grief or shock." MARK HOFFMAN/MHOFFMAN@JOURNALSENTINEL.COM Kevin Stark was a coffee roaster in San Francisco for a couple years. He was diagnosed with asthma. Three physicians familiar with diacetyl-exposure disease say his lung tests raise red flags that could be early indication of bronchiolitis obliterans. He is shown on December 17 in Chicago, Ill. SHARE Chris ONeal, a former roaster at Alterra, drinks coffee at a shop near his home Wednesday, December 23, 2015 in Milwaukee, Wis. He has unusual respiratory symptoms that experts say could be early signs of bronchiolitis obliterans. MARK HOFFMAN/MHOFFMAN@JOURNALSENTINEL.COM Emanuel Diaz de Leon worked at Distant Lands coffee flavoring plant in Tyler, Texas, until he developed such a hard time breathing that he had to take disability. Some chemical flavorings used in the food industry have been shown to cause destruction to the lungs. December 9, 2014. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel files Casey Blanche undergoes lung function testing in June. Blanche has roasted coffee for more than 11 years, most recently at Just Coffee Cooperative in Madison before moving to Singapore in July. Blanche, 36, had no symptoms but doctors say results of one of the tests indicate possible early airways obstruction. They suggest he be closely monitored. Photo by Raquel Rutledge Norma Bowers died at the Maxwell House plant in 1981. FAMILY PHOTO Workplace surveillance systems fail to detect illnesses related to specific jobs By Raquel Rutledge In 1981, a worker at the Maxwell House coffee factory in Houston died from what was reported at the time to be "bronchial asthma." She was 46, a mother of three. In 1982, another worker at the plant died from the same thing. The deaths were not recorded in a national database of occupational illnesses that could have alerted public health specialists to a potential problem. Nobody linked the sicknesses to the workplace. Several years later, in 1990, workers at the same plant wondered if they were being exposed to something hazardous in the air. Coffee dust? The chemical used to decaffeinate coffee? A lot of workers had chronic coughs. Quite a few, it seemed, were getting cancer while churning out Maxwell House coffee, known by its popular slogan, "Good to the Last Drop." When scientists from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention came to investigate, they found the workers were right. Researchers pulled the death certificates of 67 employees who had died during the previous dozen years and discovered elevated cancer rates among a segment of workers at the plant. Especially prevalent: lung cancer. The federal agency could not pinpoint an exact cause but recommended Maxwell House put some engineering controls in place to "control hazards to the extent feasible." Officials also suggested the company monitor workers' health and inform them of the dangers of coffee dust. The file was closed. No alarms were sounded. Workers at another Houston roasting and processing plant had also worried about their health and asked the CDC in the 1980s to examine their concerns, according to an investigation by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Complaints were similar some workers coughed excessively; others were short of breath; eye, nose and throat irritation was common. And workers from at least two additional coffee plants in other states would eventually seek help from the CDC. What could be causing severe and sometimes fatal lung and respiratory diseases? How widespread were the problems? Nearly 35 years later, as the coffee industry booms with boutique roasters and more workers than ever are at risk most of them unknowingly the questions remain unanswered. "We don't have a system in place in the United States for connecting the dots," said Robert Harrison, a physician and occupational medicine specialist at the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center. A system that tracked patients by occupation could have helped doctors spot and prevent decades ago what the Journal Sentinel has now uncovered: Workers from multiple coffee plants with signs of respiratory illness that medical experts suspect could be linked to their jobs roasting and grinding coffee. The discovery is part of an ongoing investigation, Gasping for Action, that has exposed how diacetyl a chemical known for destroying lungs of microwave popcorn workers in the early 2000s also poses risks to coffee workers and e-cigarette users across the country. Although more than a dozen epidemiological and animal studies over the last 15 years have concluded that diacetyl devastates the lungs and experts deem it one of the most toxic chemicals they have ever seen government regulators and coffee companies have done little to protect workers from it. Despite huge advances in medicine and data collection and analysis in recent decades, the nation's workplace-illness surveillance system remains incapable of detecting clusters of medical conditions related to specific jobs, the Journal Sentinel has found. The CDC's National Occupational Mortality Surveillance database lumps coffee roasters with meat, fish and tobacco workers. The coffee industry as a whole is coded with seafood and other miscellaneous food operations. Federal agencies don't require states to include occupational information on death certificates. States can volunteer to collect the information and share it with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health known as NIOSH the CDC's research arm. Only 17 states do. As a result, deaths are not traced by specific job or even industry. Nor are illnesses. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, also tasked with tracking workplace injuries and illnesses, relies on data supplied by employers. Studies show that chronic illnesses, especially, are underreported. And that system, too, uses the same broad coding categories for jobs and industries. Public health experts have mounted an effort in recent years to have occupation and industry included in electronic medical records, a move the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has not adopted. Meanwhile, a handful of fairly simple solutions exist to protect coffee workers. Air sampling, improved ventilation and medical monitoring could significantly reduce risks to the more than 600,000 people in the United States who work around coffee every day. "We're floundering around with these chemicals in the workplace as if it was the 1830s," said Allen Parmet, an occupational medicine specialist credited with helping identify the lung disease in the popcorn workers. "Unless the patient comes in and says, 'I'm a coffee worker, I'm exposed to diacetyl, I potentially have bronchiolitis obliterans and here's the paperwork' unless that happens nobody gets it. They'll just treat him for asthma or smoker's cough. Diacetyl forms naturally during coffee roasting and is released in high concentrations when beans are ground and storage bins are opened. It is also made synthetically and added to foods and beverages including some flavored coffees to add a buttery taste. Five coffee roasters from cafes to mid-sized facilities agreed to share their medical tests with the Journal Sentinel and have the results reviewed by three doctors with experience in diacetyl-related illnesses. Of the five workers, four had lung tests or symptoms consistent with hazardous exposure to the chemical, according to the doctors. Further testing would be required for a diagnosis. As with the earlier cases from Maxwell House and other plants, the connection between coffee roasting, diacetyl and the workers' lung issues had not been recognized by their doctors, employers or public health officials. Test results from a 30-year-old roaster, Kevin Stark of Chicago, worried all three doctors. Stark worked in a mid-size roasting facility in the San Francisco Bay Area for about two years, roasting between 1,000 and 2,000 pounds a day. Part of the beauty of the job, he said, was using his sense of smell to create unique roasts. He had his nose in a lot of coffee every day. Each doctor concluded that Stark has airway obstruction consistent with the early stages of bronchiolitis obliterans the same disease that sickened and even killed microwave popcorn workers. Stark's tests could also point to asthma, which is what his doctor diagnosed a couple of months after Stark was hired at the roastery. Over the years, Stark thought he might have allergies, but they seemed to worsen soon after he started working around coffee. He never suspected he had asthma. And he had never heard of bronchiolitis obliterans. The difference is critical. Bronchiolitis obliterans is a little-known and rarely diagnosed disease marked by a buildup of scar tissue in the lungs that restricts airflow. Diacetyl is known to attack, inflame and virtually obliterate the bronchioles, the lung's tiniest airways, causing scarring. Damage is irreversible. Diacetyl also can cause a range of less deadly lung diseases and injuries that experts say are often misdiagnosed as asthma. The doctors recommended that Stark seek further testing. "This could be the harbinger of major problems and he should be followed closely," said James Stocks, a doctor in Tyler, Texas, who in 2012 detected bronchiolitis obliterans in five workers at a coffee plant there. With bronchiolitis obliterans, he said, "what is lost is gone forever." Medical experts familiar with diacetyl-related disease reviewed Bowers' autopsy for the Journal Sentinel. The newspaper obtained the report from the Harris County, Texas, archives. With the limited information included in the decades' old file, the experts could not definitively say whether diacetyl played a part in Bowers' death. They suspected it might have, but without pictures and additional medical history, they couldn't say for sure. Clues have been cropping up for decades, signaling something toxic is assaulting coffee workers' lungs. Nearly three dozen studies on coffee workers and respiratory illness date to at least 1958, a review by the Journal Sentinel found. Some focus on the green beans, others the dust. One study, done at an Ohio plant in 2001, mentions "volatile organic compounds" from the flavoring liquid added to some of the coffee. Researchers from The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health found potential respiratory hazards such as ethanol, propylene glycol, benzaldehyde and furfural alcohol in the air at Euclid Coffee Co. in Cleveland. The report makes no mention of diacetyl, also a volatile organic compound. It wasn't on their radar; there is no indication that they tested for it. The government agency recommended the company increase ventilation around the flavoring area. In doing so, the "risk of respiratory irritation could be greatly reduced," they wrote. Once again, the file was closed. No alarms sounded. To know whether elements such as diacetyl might be threatening workers, employers need to have air samples taken from areas around the workers and in their breathing zones and have them tested. Historically, that's seldom done in the coffee industry. In September, after a Journal Sentinel investigation discovered high levels of diacetyl in two Wisconsin roasteries that do not use added flavors, the CDC posted a national warning to employers and workers about the potential dangers of diacetyl in coffee plants. The CDC outlined various ways workers could be protected. The National Coffee Association which had initially denied that naturally occurring diacetyl could be a problem vowed to alert its members and encourage them to monitor their workplaces. Coffee factories have little incentive to test the air, since the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration does not have any regulations limiting workplace exposure to diacetyl or 2,3-pentanedione, another lung-damaging compound released in coffee processing. OSHA has known of the seriousness since at least 2006, when clusters of microwave popcorn workers became ill, but has failed to implement regulations. NIOSH, meanwhile, has a draft proposal for a recommended safety level, but it has not moved forward. The agency has been saying for close to a year that the proposal is in the final review stage. Adequate ventilation is a key factor in reducing occupational exposure to chemicals such as diacetyl. Other engineering controls that can mitigate risk are enclosing the roasting and grinding processes, increasing air exchange and wearing respirators, according to NIOSH. It's unclear what systems Maxwell House has in place today to ensure worker safety. Company executives would not answer questions regarding workplace safety, air monitoring or Bowers' death. Both the Teamsters and the United Food and Commercial Workers unions, which together represent workers from about a dozen coffee processing companies, have tried to get a handle on the scope of the problem with little success. "At this time there has been no exposure monitoring for diacetyl as there are no flavorings and/or additives in the processing of our coffee used," the human resources director from Atlantic Coffee Solutions responded to union officials in an Oct. 23 email. "There is no known diacetyl (or similar chemical) at ACS and thus no medical surveillance of employees is being conducted." Workers have not been complaining of respiratory illness, the director added. Atlantic Coffee Solutions now operates at the same site where Norma Bowers worked. Maxwell House sold the plant in 2006. Studies of workers with severe lung disease tied to diacetyl showed about a quarter of the employees never noticed symptoms before learning of their irreversible illnesses. Representatives from Farmer Bros. had a similar response and denied the union's request for any information regarding workers' exposure to diacetyl. That response was sent about a week before the CDC warning was issued. A spokesman for the company declined to comment to the Journal Sentinel. Starbucks did not respond to repeated emails and phone calls from the Journal Sentinel. Veteran occupational medicine specialists say they're not surprised that alarms didn't sound sooner regarding the coffee industry. They say the nation's system for detection is inadequate and are pushing for fixes. One improvement in particular, they say, could help tremendously: including a person's occupation in their electronic medical records. The CDC sends alerts to health departments in every state when outbreaks of the flu, norovirus or E. coli surface, for example. Not so for occupational illnesses. It can take months, years or longer for word of workplace diseases to spread. "We have made the argument that if we could have more tracking of industry and occupation in health and mortality records, certainly that could help us, versus having to wait for huge groups to be ill, " said Christina Spring, a spokeswoman for NIOSH. "We are not there yet." Even if such a provision were required, without more specific coding it would suffer from the same pitfalls as the other data tracking systems. Chris Potenza, a New-York-based lawyer who specializes in asbestos cases, said the health dangers and consequences proved far larger than most anyone at the time imagined. "It's now 2015 and there are as many cases as there were 25 years ago," Potenza said. Organizations such as the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine and the Association of Occupational and Environmental Clinics have been pushing for years to have occupation and industry included in electronic health records in hopes of preventing another asbestos-type epidemic. Terri Schnorr, director of NIOSH's division of surveillance, hazard evaluations and field studies, called coffee roasting and processing "clearly an emerging issue that we are recognizing." "We want to track it down and see what's really going on to determine causes and eliminate them," said Schnorr, a 33-year veteran of the department. Read the investigation To read the Milwaukee Journal Sentinels Gasping for Action investigation into the dangers of the chemical diacetyl in coffee production and e-cigarettes, go to jsonline.com/gaspingforaction. ABOUT THIS PROJECT Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Raquel Rutledge investigated the hazards of diacetyl and other chemicals found in coffee and e-cigarettes during a nine-month OBrien Fellowship in Public Service Journalism through the Diederich College of Communication at Marquette University. This is part of an ongoing series of articles. Rutledge was assisted by Marquette student researchers Alyssa Voboril, Sarah Hauer, Robyn St. John, Shiyao Li and Kelly Meyerhofer. SHARE Robert Dillon, San Angelo New strategy to fight ISIS Our strategy for fighting Islamic extremism is a failure. Anwar Sadat, who ruled Egypt from 1970 until his assassination in 1981, threw Moscow out of the Middle East in the mid-1970s. President Barack Obama, with no consideration of the outcome, almost welcomed the Russians to move back in 40 years later. Egypt and our Mideast allies were dumbfounded. This president will do the least overseas that he can feasibly get away with politically. He devoutly believes that the world and the United States will be better off because of his forbearance. Sen. John McCain in the past four years called for the president to take a stand in Iraq and Syria. Today a resolution should call for the creation of a safe haven in Syria. First establish a no-fly zone, then declare that we will work to establish a region of Sunni autonomy within Iraq, just as we did with Iraq's Kurds in the early 1900s. This will give the Sunnis an alternative to ISIS against the depredations of the Shiite Muslims that mushroomed after Obama yanked out our troops in 2011. The Kurds, when given sufficient weaponry and assistance such as air power, will routinely rout these psychopaths. Along with the help of Europeans and our Mideast allies, along with America's ground troops, the fight against ISIS would take little time in stopping ISIS' growing threat in the Middle East. When George W. Bush was president, most Europeans held to the conceit that this was the United States' and not theirs. Paris has changed that in Europe. San Bernardino should open someone's eyes here in America. Home Motorcycles & Bikes Top 10 Best Motorcycle GPS Trackers Of 2022 Reviews & Buying Guide Motorcycles & Bikes Top 10 Best Motorcycle GPS Trackers Of 2022 Reviews & Buying Guide This article may contain affiliate links. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Motorcycles are excellent vehicles for travel and adventure both on and off-road. It is an investment you need to keep safe from those who would love to take that treasure off your hands. Wheel-locking systems may not be enough for those with enough mechanical ability to hot-wire it, and in some cases, one or two people could simply load it onto a truck without unlocking anything. You dont want to wait months for the police to try to get it back. You want to know where it is right now. A GPS tracking system is the perfect security investment for your motorcycle, and we have reviews of the best motorcycle GPS trackers here for you. Top 10 Best Motorcycle GPS Trackers You Should Buy Of 2022 Reviews 1 AMERICALOC GL300W Mini Portable Real-Time GPS Tracker. XW Series Leta start with this Americaloc mini portable GPS tracker. This is a mid-range GPS tracker both regarding cost and ability. It comes in about the size of a heavy keychain, so if you are looking for something tiny, this is not it. It is detectable by someone who knew what they were looking for but depending on where you attached it to your motorcycle, it may take them a bit of time to identify it. There are diverse opinions in the reviews about its battery life. It appears that it will last at least 3-4 days, but there are sometimes problems when recharging it. Make sure to follow the instruction guide that comes with this tracker. You also need to recognize that this service is run by a tech that is not as widespread as most cellphone GPS trackers. While is advertises real-time the reality is that it updates once per minute, thirty, or ten seconds depending on your setting. This setting will affect battery life, and depending on where it is, the updates may not be entirely accurate. It is not a bad tracker, but you need to have realistic expectations for it. Pros GPS Tracker for vehicles, people, assets GPS Tracker for vehicles, people, assets This GPS tracker has the longest battery life version with extended multicarrier coverage. Battery life is measured in weeks. This GPS tracker has the longest battery life version with extended multicarrier coverage. Battery life is measured in weeks. Alerts: movement, parked, speeding, device on/off, low battery, entering or leaving zones Alerts: movement, parked, speeding, device on/off, low battery, entering or leaving zones Real-Time Tracking and 1 year of tracking history. Track from any computer, tablet or phone or just download our Android and iPhone APP. Real-Time Tracking and 1 year of tracking history. Track from any computer, tablet or phone or just download our Android and iPhone APP. Works in the US, Canada, Europe and in almost every country in the world Works in the US, Canada, Europe and in almost every country in the world 1-minute location updates while moving. Can be configured for location updates every 60, 30 or 10 seconds with no additional cost. Cons Slightly bigger than something described as mini. Slightly bigger than something described as mini. Sometimes faces battery charging issues Sometimes faces battery charging issues Behind cellphone GPS technology and occasionally is off a block or so in tracking Behind cellphone GPS technology and occasionally is off a block or so in tracking No mobile app and website can be buggy 2 Spy Tec STI GL300 Mini Portable Real-Time Personal and Vehicle GPS Tracker Spy Tecs GL300 GPS is about the same size as the Americaloc, but about half the price. As with most GPS devices, there is a monthly subscription fee that can quickly add up over time. In practice, this GPS seems to function a little more smoothly than others, with many short-term satisfied customers. For this GPS to work well for you, you need three things. First, you need to be using it in an area covered by T-mobile, or else you may have accuracy problems. Second, you need to be able to recharge it every few days. Finally, this is a short-term solution. The charging cable seems to break down over months, not years, and the customer and tech service can be a pain to deal with. If you are looking for a long-term GPS, you may want to take a pass on Spy Tec. Pros Perfect for tracking vehicles, people, or assets Perfect for tracking vehicles, people, or assets Compact size can go anywhere Compact size can go anywhere Tracks with Google Maps in real-time over the Internet Tracks with Google Maps in real-time over the Internet Get text or email when a person leaves an area (geo-fencing) Cons Inconsistent customer service Inconsistent customer service Works primarily in T-mobile coverage areas Works primarily in T-mobile coverage areas Problems with charging cable Problems with charging cable Short life span 3 Amcrest AM-GL300 V3 Portable Mini Real-Time GPS Tracker for Vehicles Here is another low-end GPS tracker for your motorcycle. What makes this one of the best motorcycle GPS trackers is that it works with mobile apps from Google and Apple, so you can track your motorcycle from your phone and not just your computer or a webpage. It comes with lots of tracking options as well. You can create zones and be alerted if your motorcycle moves outside of it. You can set speed alerts or other proximity alerts, which will be pushed to your phone via text and email. The Amcrest is a solid package for taking care of your needs, and there is no contract required to use it. How you use it will determine the battery strength, and, like other devices in this low-cost range, the batteries are a weak point, particularly if not re-charged correctly. Also, it relies on 2G coverage and does not connect with all carriers. To get your moneys worth out of this motorcycle GPS tracker, make sure to inquire about coverage in your area and this tracker, and be sure to read the instructions about recharging your GPS. Pros Works with apps from Google and Apple store Works with apps from Google and Apple store This GPS device allows you to create zones that you specifically want to monitor, such as your home to you know when your loved one leaves or returns. Set maximum speed alerts and proximity alerts for your vehicles to suit your needs. This GPS device allows you to create zones that you specifically want to monitor, such as your home to you know when your loved one leaves or returns. Set maximum speed alerts and proximity alerts for your vehicles to suit your needs. Receive text, push and email notifications straight to your personal device. Receive text, push and email notifications straight to your personal device. Long-lasting Stay connected with a longer battery life of 10-14 days on a full charge. Long-lasting Stay connected with a longer battery life of 10-14 days on a full charge. Access the reports from your GPS device from your PC, Mac or smartphone. Access the reports from your GPS device from your PC, Mac or smartphone. No contract required Cons GPS Tracker is limited to 2G and will only work in areas where there is 2G coverage. GPS Tracker is limited to 2G and will only work in areas where there is 2G coverage. Batteries can be faulty leading to short lifespan of the device 4 GPS Tracker Optimus 2.0 This low-end tracker has a better performance record than some of the others, making it one of the best motorcycle GPS trackers on the market. This GPS has a monthly subscription fee but no contract required and it comes with apps you can use to track your motorcycle from your phone. There is no limit to how much data you can save on the secure databases, and so will update you every 30 seconds while your motorcycle is moving, or you can upgrade it to update you every 10 seconds. Fortunately, there are only two reported issues from the reviews of this GPS tracker. It is slightly larger than some of the other models, making it a bit more challenging to hide securely. It also sends out false reports occasionally if the cell service is interrupted. Pros No Contract No Contract Adjustable position report frequency from 30 Seconds while moving. Adjustable position report frequency from 30 Seconds while moving. iPhone and Android App iPhone and Android App Email and Text Message notifications for Movement, Speeding, Leaving or Entering Areas, etc. Email and Text Message notifications for Movement, Speeding, Leaving or Entering Areas, etc. Unlimited Tracking Data Saved During Service Unlimited Tracking Data Saved During Service SIM Card and Data Plan all Included SIM Card and Data Plan all Included Easy to install and use Cons Will occasionally send out false reports if it loses cell service Will occasionally send out false reports if it loses cell service Slightly larger than other models Which of the best motorcycle GPS trackers have the best batteries? 5 Trackmate Mini 3G H GPS Tracker for Vehicles Unlike the previous models of the best motorcycle GPS trackers, the Trackmate does not rely on a rechargeable lithium battery. Instead, it is hardwired directly into the motorcycle battery itself. This has the benefit of preventing the GPS from turning off when the battery dies at inopportune times. The downside of this setup is that installation is more difficult, and while the device is easily concealable, it also has wires running between it and the battery. This connection can cause your motorcycle battery to run down if you do not monitor it closely, causing both the device and motorcycle to fail to operate. This is a 3G tracker and has better accuracy than the previous 2G GPS trackers, making this one of the best motorcycle GPS trackers on the market. Pros On/Off Detection, Speed Indicator, and Live Map Tracking. On/Off Detection, Speed Indicator, and Live Map Tracking. Numerous alerts such as low-battery, tampering and towing. Historical location reports available. Numerous alerts such as low-battery, tampering and towing. Historical location reports available. All-Weather Resistant and Waterproof. All-Weather Resistant and Waterproof. STAY IN TUNE: Unique system Tracks via AT&T and T-Mobile networks, simultaneously. STAY IN TUNE: Unique system Tracks via AT&T and T-Mobile networks, simultaneously. EASILY CONCEALABLE: 3.4 X 1.75 X 0.50 , 2oz. No visible external light. Cons Can drain the motorcycle battery Can drain the motorcycle battery Challenging to install since it is hardwired to the motorcycle battery 6 MotoSafety Mwaas1P1 Wired 3G GPS Car Tracker The MotoSafety Mwaas1P1 is another hardwired GPS tracker that you can use on your motorcycle. It also uses 3G service and, as long as you are in the United States, typically does an excellent job of tracking through mobile apps. It sends detailed reports, particularly useful for tracking teen drivers, such as speeding, hard braking, and curfew notices. You must subscribe to a monthly fee, but there are no contracts. Overall, this is one of the best motorcycle GPS trackers. There are about 10% of customers though who encounter significant issues trying to get this GPS to function properly. Many of these are being used in cars, rather than motorcycles. However, since this GPS is hardwired into the vehicle system, the fault seems to be a compatibility issue, between the GPS and the vehicle. There are no reports of which vehicles are incompatible or why. You take a small risk with this GPS that it may not be compatible with your motorcycle. Otherwise, this is one of the best motorcycle GPS trackers. Pros Monitor driving activity using Google Maps. Monitor driving activity using Google Maps. Use GPS to review driving routes, set geofences around key locations and know when the vehicle is in use after curfew. Use GPS to review driving routes, set geofences around key locations and know when the vehicle is in use after curfew. No contracts or cancellation fees. No contracts or cancellation fees. Track anywhere with free GPS tracking mobile apps with real-time email & text message alerts. Cons Has some issues updating consistently Has some issues updating consistently Only works in the United States 7 ATian Vehicle Car personal GPS/GSM/GPRS/SMS Tracker The ATian GPS Tracker is one of the less expensive of the best motorcycle GPS trackers available. It comes with both a Lithium-ion battery and power supply to be installed to the motorcycle battery. Be warned though, that it will drain both rather quickly if you use it continuously. The lithium-ion battery, for example, is only rated up to 29 hours of continuous use, meaning you have to recharge it daily. This GPS is not waterproof so some kind of external cover may be necessary to keep it working correctly. It comes with a remote control though, to turn it on and off without getting on the motorcycle yourself. The biggest challenge with this GPS is that they do not provide a SIM card in it. Being foreign made, they have adapted to the global cellular service challenge by forcing you to get your own SIM card for it. This means that, although there is only a minimal service fee for using this GPS, you have to pay a cell service company to use it. With the frequent false alerts reported in the reviews on this GPS, that cell service bill can cost you a pretty penny. Pros Single Locating Single Locating Auto track continuously Auto track continuously Track with limited times upon time interval, Smart track upon time and distance interval Track with limited times upon time interval, Smart track upon time and distance interval The tracker will update the positions automatically to web server once the vehicle changing driving direction over preset angle value to form a smooth trajectory consistent with the actual road, this function works only in GPRS /GSM mode Cons Drains motorcycle battery Drains motorcycle battery May often send false alerts May often send false alerts Requires a SIM card and the additional cost of that cellular service. Looking for a higher end GPS for your motorcycle? 8 AES RGT90 GPS Tracker The difference (besides the price) between the AES RGT90 and some of the other best motorcycle GPS trackers that operate with a lithium-ion battery, is that the folks over at AES implemented a sleep mode into their device. That saves you hours and hours of battery use wasted when your motorcycle is simply sitting in your garage. That is how they are able to get 90 days worth of use out of their battery. The other reason that this GPS tracker costs so much is that it has the broadest range of the best motorcycle GPS trackers extending all through North America and over 100 other countries as well. By comparison, most other trackers have difficulty even covering the USA alone. Pros Works Anywhere in the USA, Canada, and Mexico, plus over 100 other countries Works Anywhere in the USA, Canada, and Mexico, plus over 100 other countries Internal battery Operates GPS tracker up to 90 days on a single charge. Recharges by Micro USB for better convenience. Charge using any USB Charger. Internal battery Operates GPS tracker up to 90 days on a single charge. Recharges by Micro USB for better convenience. Charge using any USB Charger. Covert, Discrete, Waterproof Magnetic Case Covert, Discrete, Waterproof Magnetic Case Goes to sleep when the vehicle is parked for 5 minutes or more. Displays the last location before going into Sleep Mode. Access anytime via text. Goes to sleep when the vehicle is parked for 5 minutes or more. Displays the last location before going into Sleep Mode. Access anytime via text. Track on your phone or on the website. You can also receive GPS coordinates via SMS Text. Cons Phone app is not the easiest to use Phone app is not the easiest to use Relies on magnetic attachment What is the best reviewed of the best motorcycle GPS trackers? 9 Goome 3G/WCDMA/GSM/GPS GM36W The Goome has the least amount of negative reviews of the best motorcycle GPS trackers on the market. It also has the fewest reviews in total, so take that with a grain of salt. Many of the reviews commented that they got more value than they expected from this GPS. It is easy to install and very accurate, and the company offers global service. The only problem the reviews have reported is that the app associated with this tracker is in Chinese and can be difficult to navigate. Even so, most customers were able to use this GPS quite well directly through SMS communication between their phones and devices. Pros Support 3G/WCDMA/GSM/ Network Support 3G/WCDMA/GSM/ Network Waterproof features, level IP67 will prevent water damage the inter electric components. Waterproof features, level IP67 will prevent water damage the inter electric components. Geo-fencing, playback history tracks, speeding alarm, low power &battery alerts, etc. Geo-fencing, playback history tracks, speeding alarm, low power &battery alerts, etc. OTA Upgrade Program, Anti-theft OTA Upgrade Program, Anti-theft One year free trial for North America customers Cons App is Chinese and hard to navigate App is Chinese and hard to navigate Can be difficult to find to purchase What is the least expensive best motorcycle GPS tracker on the market? 10 MOTOsafety OBD GPS Tracker Device Here is the least expensive of the best motorcycle GPS trackers you can find. This GPS, like several of the others reviewed, was made with teen drivers in mind. It gives comprehensive reports on driving stats, but it is not meant to be long-lasting. If you are looking for a short-term GPS tracker, and you are living in the US, this is an inexpensive option for you. If you are looking for a GPS for security reasons, you may want to see another option. Pros Monitor driving activity using Google Maps. Monitor driving activity using Google Maps. Get a complete driving report cards that score safe driving habits such as speeding, harsh braking, and rapid acceleration to improve driving habits. Get a complete driving report cards that score safe driving habits such as speeding, harsh braking, and rapid acceleration to improve driving habits. 3G vehicle tracking coverage that updates every minute in the US, Canada, and Mexico 3G vehicle tracking coverage that updates every minute in the US, Canada, and Mexico Track anywhere with the free GPS tracking mobile apps and real-time email & text message alerts. Track anywhere with the free GPS tracking mobile apps and real-time email & text message alerts. Use the GPS tracking to review reports such as driving routes, set geofences around key locations (school, home, or friends house) and know when the vehicle is in use after curfew. Cons Inconsistent updating Inconsistent updating Only works in the US So, how do these reviews line up? Best Motorcycle GPS Trackers Buying Guide Best Value The MOTOSafety OBD GPS Tracker is the least expensive option if you are looking for a short-term tracker for your motorcycle. It is made for tracking the driving habits of teenage drivers. The Trackmate is a more expensive device, but it has a lower monthly subscription cost and is hardwired into your motorcycle, so you dont have to worry about recharging the battery. The ATian GPS tracker is inexpensive as well, but you may end up paying more for your SIM card (not included) usage. Accuracy The AES is the most expensive of the best motorcycle GPS trackers but can provide you with some of the best accuracy across the greatest number of countries. The ATian is one of the least expensive devices but can offer service in any country you can get a SIM card to use in it. The Goome GPS also provides excellent service if you can navigate the Chinese app or use SMS to connect to the device. Durability How long do the best motorcycle GPS trackers last? The most durable of these trackers are the ones that are hardwired into your motorcycle battery. The lithium-ion battery is one of the earliest failing points on these devices, and if it doesnt have one, it lasts that much longer. You also want one that is waterproof, to prevent moisture from damaging the electronics. The Trackmate is a great hardwired GPS that is recommended for motorcycles and is waterproof. It is one of the more durable of the best motorcycle GPS trackers. There is one exception to the battery rule, and that is the AES RGT90 GPS tracker. This tracker, because of its sleep mode, causes less wear on the battery and ends up lasting much longer than any other GPS with a lithium-ion battery. Conclusion You can get inexpensive GPS trackers if you are only interested in short-term use. If you want something to last longer, you need to spend a little more money. You also need to be able to install it to your motorcycle battery. It is also important to watch for the subscription costs. The device may be inexpensive, but most subscriptions are around $20 each month. Some may require cell phone contracts (although most do not). Also, the more expensive GPS trackers have better service (3G instead of 2G) and a much wider area of coverage. If youre looking for the best motorcycle GPS trackers, the reviews suggest checking out the AES RGT90 and the Trackmate Mini 3G H GPS Tracker. Telugu NRI Wins Prestigious Research Award College Station, Texas: Dr. Samba Reddy, a Telugu NRI Scientist working in Texas, has been awarded the 2015 Texas A&M Medicine Research Excellence Award, the TAMUs most prestigious and competitive research award consisting of a plaque and $4100 cash prize given to a Faculty Member with exceptional research career. Congratulations to this popular Telugu tejam for this well-serving recognition. Dr. Samba Reddy joined Texas A&M University in 2008 and is currently a full Professor and Principal Investigator at the College of Medicine. His research is in the area of epilepsy and brain disorders. He has established himself as a truly national and international leader in this area. He has already been recognized globally as one of the outstanding pharmacologists. His current federal funding is in excess of $1 million per year, which is very remarkable. He has published over 40 papers in last 5 years and has been widely sought as an invited speaker and grant reviewer. Dr. Samba Reddy has made seminal contributions to neuropharmacology and is one of most outstanding researchers in the state of Texas and in the United States. Reddy has an incredible list of awards and honors. Recently, he was appointed as a Fellow of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world's largest scientific society and publisher of the journal Science. Welcome the New Year with a chill pill New Delhi: "Everyone keeps piling work on me." "The traffic light has turned green, why isn't the car in front of me moving?" If your blood boils with anger at such minor happenings of everyday life, try leaving behind your frustrations for a healthy you in the coming year, say experts. Anger is typically a reaction to any factor, often a secondary emotion than can arise as a reaction to other emotions such as insecurity, jealousy and fear, says Dr. Samir Parikh, director, mental health and behavioural sciences, Fortis Healthcare Limited. "It is a natural response by our body, which triggers the 'fight or flight' response in perception of potential threat, attack, injustice or disappointment," Parikh told IANS. Though anger is an emotion which is experienced by every person at some point of time, it seems like more and more people, including children, are increasingly losing their cool easily. The fast-paced life is to be blamed for the same, says Dr. Sanju Ghambir, senior consultant psychotherapy and counselling, Primus Super Specialty Hospital. "We are getting a lot of patients now. They have a lot of anger in them because they don't have patience. We are living in a time where everything is instant. All we have to do is go online. When we don't get results fast, that's when people start getting angry. "Children as young as three show anger. Be it sibling rivalry or not getting toy of their choice, anything can be the reason. Sometimes, even watching cartoons leads to anger because there is a lot of violence in that," Ghambir added. Earlier, there were more cases of men losing temper, but now with the demand for equality, women are no longer hiding their emotions, she pointed out. "Now even women are expressing anger. More women are becoming aware of their own role. With that in mind, women also feel why they should keep quiet. So that role of keeping quiet to control the situation is going out now because a woman has her own ego to satisfy," she said. It might seem like people become calmer as they grow older. But Ghambir says age has nothing to do with it. "A person who is able to adjust, learns to control himself better, whereas a person who is always looking at the things that he lacks, that person will always be dissatisfied and angry. If they have stress related to money and relationship, then the anger might just go up," she said. Anger could have both physical and psychological manifestations. "The common physical signs of anger include sweating, headaches and restlessness. It arouses the nervous system, leading to an increase in heart rate, blood pressure, blood sugar levels, and other regulatory functions of the body. "Frequent anger is likely to lead to adverse impacts on the person's physical health, increasing the risk for illnesses like hypertension or cardiovascular diseases, sleep disturbance, skin problem, in addition to interference in occupational, social, and interpersonal functioning," Parikh added. There are long-term effects of anger too. "It could lead to an adverse impact on one's psychological well-being, leading to difficulty in attention and concentration, difficulty in decision making, increased anxiety and depression," said Parikh. Anger is also a common cause for stomach ulcer. "A lot of acid secretion in stomach takes place that damages our body from within. Anger is a very common cause for stomach ulcer," said Ghambir. Going by the health problems, it's best to manage anger. Atul Verma, senior psychologist from SCI International Hospital, suggests how. "Expression is the act of conveying your anger. Expression ranges from a reasonable, rational discussion to a violent outburst. Suppression is an attempt to hold in your anger and possibly convert it into more constructive behaviour. "Calming down is when you control your outward behaviour and your internal responses by calming yourself and letting your feelings subside like counting numbers backward, taking a deep breath at the time when you feel angry," he said. Parikh suggests physical exercise too. "When a person is angry, the individual experiences a surge of energy, which typically is externalised in the form of shouting, or aggression. Instead, the person should be encouraged to have regular physical activity, be it in the form of a sport, workout, dance or even walking or jogging," he said. (Natalia Ningthoujam can be contacted at [email protected]) 18 more Telugu students sent back from US Hyderabad: Eighteen more students from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh returned Hyderabad on Saturday after being deported by the American authorities. The students, who had gone to the US to join various universities, were sent back from New York airport after cancelling their visas. They returned to Hyderabad airport by three different airlines. They complained of interrogation and ill-treatment by the officials of US Customs and Border Protection at John F. Kennedy Airport International Airport, though all their documents were valid. The students said they were detained for several hours without drinking water and food. One of the students said though it was freezing temperature, the officials did not heed to their request to switch off the fans. He said the officers carrying guns subjected them to interrogation. They said the officials threatened to bar their entry into US for five years, if they fail to withdraw and return home. The students claimed that no reason was given for not sending them back, though they gave satisfactory reply to all the questions asked and despite possessing all valid documents. "One officer said he was doing this on the boss' order," said a student, who did not wish to be named. Another student who had gone to join Northwestern Polytechnic University, California said the officers told him that there is a problem with his visa. "They asked me if I bought the visa," he said. The student was told that if he wanted he could apply again for admission into another university and come back. Students, who had taken admissions in other universities, were also sent back. The officials were not convinced when students pointed out that the institutions were not blacklisted by the US authorities. This is the latest in a series of incidents in recent months in which students from the two Telugu states were sent back either after landing in the US or from destinations enroute like Abu Dhabi and Dubai. About 90 students, who had left after completing all formalities including admission letters from the universities, were sent back during last three to four months. As many as 14 students, who had taken admission at two California universities, were sent back from San Francisco on December 19. The next day Air India stopped another batch of 15 students from boarding the San Francisco flight at Hyderabad airport. With their dreams of getting higher education in US shattered and their parents suffering huge financial loss, they have urged the government of India to intervene and save their future. India Should Recognize Ground Realities When Atal Bihari Vajpayee made the famous bus trip to Lahore, India was rewarded with Kargil. And today, when Modi made a surprise goodwill visit to Pakistan, we have been rewarded with the attacks on the Pathankot Air base claiming many Indian lives. And guess what? Nawaz Sharif happens to be the Prime Minister on both occasions. The attacks are a reminder of the fact that the government of Pakistan has absolutely no control over the jihadi elements in that country. In fact, the attacks are probably a signal to Nawaz Sharif that he cannot dictate terms to them especially in matters concerning India. It is about time that India also realizes this and while making efforts to engage the civilian government in Pakistan, be prepared for a military emergency on all occasions. The ground reality is that there are four corridors of power in Pakistan: the elected government, the ISI, the army and finally the Mullahs. And they all believe that they are a law unto themselves. Merely holding talks with the government of Pakistan or posing for selfies with its PM might earn us some brownie points among the international community, but when a crisis like Pathankot happens, no country will come forward to assist us. KCR To Visit Amaravati Again To Meet Babu! Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao is planning to visit AP new capital Amaravati again soon to meet AP Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu. This time no invitation has been extended by AP government to KCR to visit Amaravati but KCR himself iis planning to visit on his own. The reason, KCR wants to meet Naidu to resolve water sharing disputes between Telangana and AP. Both the states have locked in a battle over sharing of Krishna and Godavari river waters since United AP was bifurcated in June 2014. KCR is likely to meet Naidu after the ongoing Janmabhoomi programme concludes next week. The AP government has launched Janmabhoomi programme on January 2, which will go on till January 10. KCR is planning to meet Naidu before Sankranthi. However, the timing of KCR's visit has become a subject of debate as it was planned just days ahead of GHMC elections. TTDP leaders suspect KCR to utilise his AP visit to attract Seemandhra voters in Hyderabad in GHMC polls. TTDP leaders want to meet Naidu before KCR to urge him to avoid meeting KCR at this juncture till GHMC elections are over. TTDP leaders say the 'bonhomie' between both the CMs since October last year already damaged TDP in Telangana significantly and if it continues further they would not be in a position to fight against TRS in GHMC polls. Naidu Never Learns Lessons From Setbacks! Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu does not seem to have learnt any lessons from his previous experience during his earlier stint between 1995 and 2004. Especially during his second tenure as the Chief Minister of united Andhra Pradesh, he acted harshly with the government employees and emphasised too much on privatization, outsourcing of employees and indiscriminate transfer of employees. As a result, the government employees voted him out of power in 2004 elections. Now, Naidu is back to his old ways of harassing government employees. On Saturday, the Chief Minister warned of serious action against employees who go on frequent leaves. He said no officer would be spared if he or she failed to work. He warned that government doctors who go on long leave would be sent permanently to their houses. To register presence in government hospital, thumb impression system would be introduced. At the same time, Naidu announced his policy of privatizing and outsourcing employees in government hospitals. As part of reforms in the health sector, maintenance of government hospitals, Primary Health Centres and Community Health Centres would soon be outsourced. He said reforms were the need of the hour to upgrade government hospitals on a par with the private medical facilities. Nobody can repair you, Mr Naidu! Satire: Great News For AP! On the eve of the New Year, the AP government reportedly received permission from the Union Civil Aviation Ministry for an airport at Bhogapuram. There is nothing remarkable in the permission being accorded as the Union Civil Aviation Minister is none other than TDP man Ashok Gajapathi Raju. But the government will now set about acquiring nearly 5500 acres of land for the airport of which only around 1400 acres is government land. So what? Getting the airport is the real thing here! Millions of air travellers in AP can now heave a sigh of relief. People in the state had been complaining that there was no airport at Bhogapuram because of which the MNCs were not coming to AP. Lufthansa, Jet Airways etc had also requested for an airport at Bhogapuram owing to the frequency of air travellers from that region. And all it entails is the destruction of only another 4000 acres of fertile agricultural lands. Are we not the great Andhras who are willing to destroy 35000 acres for a new capital? Why crib about a few acres more for an airport? Food security? Nonsense! We can import vegetables and rice from Singapore. Danger to the ecosystem? Sorry, no danger to my community! I was born in this community and I will die in this community! All other emotions of fellow-Andhraites, fellow Indians etc are only convenient add-ons. A criminal court in Qatar this week has sentenced 5 men in absentia to death by firing squad for murdering their boss. According to court documents, the incident took place in January 2014. 4 of the men who were convicted are from Bangladesh: Rebon Khan, Din Islam Aziz al-Rahman, Muhammad Rashid Muhammad and Muhammad Ruseil. A 5th, Sahtaj Sheikh, is from Nepal. They had been charged with 1st degree, premeditated murder, theft and forgery. The men were not in Qatar when the verdict was read on Dec. 31, 2015. What happened According to court testimony, the victim and several of his employees had gone to an under-construction home at 6am on Jan. 9. At some point, the 5 defendants threatened the rest of the workers and shut them into a bathroom, closing the door. The defendants could be observed holding hammers. Some of the men trapped in the bathroom testified that while inside, they heard loud voices and screams from the victim, but added that they were too scared to call the police. The victim's body was found the next day by his brother, who had gone to the construction site searching for him after his wife reported him missing. A forensics report stated that the victim was struck several times on the head with hammers, resulting in his death. After the employer was killed, the defendants stole the victim's smart card, the court heard. They then used an electronic device to issue exit permits for themselves by entering the victim's data and making it look like as if he had agreed to the issuing of the permits. The court documents did not include the name and nationality of the victim. Kafala debate The case comes less than a year after a Doha court sentenced 4 other expats in absentia to jail time for abducting 1 of their Qatari sponsors. Those defendants were acquitted of an attempted murder charge, but had been found guilty of beating and robbing the sponsor. They had also forced him to sign their exit permits before they left Qatar. The verdict prompted a flurry of debate about Qatar's restrictive kafala sponsorship system, with critics saying freedom of movement should be a universal right, and the defendants may have had no choice but to resort to extreme measures. Others, however, countered that torturing a person is always unjustified and breaking the law is not the answer. Source: Doha News, January 3, 2016 NEW YORK In the grand domain of splendid characters at Downton Abbey, Mr. Carson is perhaps the first among equals. Among the superb cast of "Downton Abbey," a similarly towering figure is Jim Carter, who plays him. After all, this is the saga of a noble estate and those who populate it during Britain's post-Edwardian era, and Mr. Carson, as its butler, is the one who makes that house run. He bridges the gap between the upstairs elite and the servants bustling downstairs. His word, putting forward the policies and whims of the aristocratic Crawley clan, is law for those in his charge. Bringing him to life is an actor who makes Carson's crustiness heroic, his unwavering sense of duty lovable to the viewer. With "Downton" returning for its sixth and final season (Sunday at 9 p.m. EST on PBS), Mr. Carson's humanness will be exposed more than ever as his torturously arm's-length courtship of head housekeeper Mrs. Hughes (played by Phyllis Logan) finally blossoms. "It was the slowest-burning romance of all times," says Carter with a laugh. "But the audience seemed to want it to happen as did we." What happens, including an unlikely interlude in this first episode "which hopefully will melt hearts across the country," is only one among many resolutions as the series comes in for a landing in the mid-1920s. What will be the fate of the financially distressed Downton Abbey estate, presided over by Lord and Lady Crawley (Hugh Bonneville and Elizabeth McGovern) with a less and less sure hand? Will their daughter, headstrong Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery), deign to say yes to her latest suitor? Will the sad-sack valet Mr. Bates (Brendan Coyle) and his wife, lady's maid Anna (Joanne Froggatt), see their dream of parenthood cruelly denied? Viewers have awaited these and other answers from a costume drama that, since its U.S. debut five years ago, has reigned as a lavish and literate phenomenon. For the British-born Carter, 67, the road to "Downton" began long ago when he dropped out of law studies at the University of Sussex and joined a fringe theater troupe he equates with "a door to the promised land." Stage, film and TV jobs followed in a career that has kept him busy and happy, enjoying the process of playing each role free from worry over how the finished product might fare with critics or the public. "I have no ambitions in the acting world," he explains. "I just need to get out of the house and work and be with people." After auditioning for Mr. Carson, he thought that piece of acting work would be nice to land, "and I came away thinking, 'I should be very cross if I don't get it.'" One thing he particularly liked was how Carson's starchiness and pomp had a humorous edge. Julian Fellowes, who created "Downton Abbey" and wrote every episode, "knows it's funny," notes Carter, "when my character says things like, 'A MAID in the DINING ROOM with a DUKE?! Over my dead body!' And I relish playing those moments." But even just opening the door to the dining room and intoning, "Dinner is served, my lady," Carter (like the actor who plays him) cuts an imposing figure. Here is a big man with a broad, expressive face and, maybe most pronounced of all, That Voice: rolling, stentorian, a treat for anyone who's in earshot. "I can't sing, can't carry a tune," Carter says when asked about his golden throat, but allows, "my voice is strong." And as soothing as it is authoritative: "Friends used to hand me their crying baby to hold, and I'd just hum. The vibration through my chest would put it to sleep." His presence, and the voice that issues forth when he speaks, has made Carter recognized by "Downton" fans around the world. He somehow had escaped notice on a brief stroll from his mid-Manhattan hotel down to Herald Square. "But in Boston the other day, 30 times I was approached," he reports. "Nashville, Tenn.. Cambodia. Ghana. After 45 years of acting, 'Downton' is an unsought bonus, because I've never worked for money or celebrity." This "gypsy caravan" approach to his career saved him from dwelling on his imminent departure from "Downton," even while shooting a final scene with a swell of co-stars in the downstairs hall where servants take their meals. "When we wrapped, the other actors were getting weepy, and I thought, 'C'mon!' But then the producers came out and thanked them, and I thought, 'We've got to thank the crew, too, because they've been with us every inch of the way.' So I said, 'Guys, all your hard work, your artistry ' And suddenly I couldn't speak. I began to weep along with the other actors and all these big tattooed guys on the crew with tears pouring down their faces." "I genuinely hadn't anticipated that," Carter marvels thoughtfully. But before this final season is done, "Downton" fans should expect a few tears, too. ALLENTOWN, Pa. Police are calling it "a tragic accident" after the body of a 5-year-old boy with autism was found in a canal about a quarter mile from a residence in eastern Pennsylvania where he wandered away from a New Year's Eve party. Lehigh County Coroner Scott Grim says an autopsy Monday will help determine when Jayliel Vega Batista entered the water at Canal Park in Allentown. He had been missing since Thursday night. Police say he was playing with a tablet computer when he reportedly wandered away barefoot and without a coat. Search dogs tracked the boy's scent to the canal, where the tablet was found early Saturday afternoon. That prompted police to call in divers who found the boy's body about 8 feet from shore, in 6 feet of water. HONOLULU Hawaiian vacation over, President Barack Obama says he is energized for his final year in office and ready to tackle unfinished business, turning immediate attention to the issue of gun violence. Obama scheduled a meeting Monday with Attorney General Loretta Lynch to discuss a three-month review of what steps he could take to help reduce gun violence. The president is expected to use executive action to strengthen background checks required for gun purchases. Republicans strongly oppose any moves Obama may make, and legal fights seem likely over what critics would view as infringing on their Second Amendment rights. But Obama is committed to an aggressive agenda in 2016 even as public attention shifts to the presidential election. Obama spent much of his winter vacation out of the public eye, playing golf with friends and dining out on the Hawaiian island of Oahu with his family before heading back to Washington late Saturday night. "I am fired up for the year that stretches out before us. That's because of what we've accomplished together over the past seven," Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address. While in Hawaii, he also worked on his final State of the Union address, scheduled for Jan. 12. The prime-time speech will give the president another chance to try to reassure the public about his national security stewardship after the attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, California. Congressional Republicans have outlined a competing agenda for January, saying they will spend the first days of 2016 taking another crack at eliminating keys parts of the president's health insurance law and ending federal funding for Planned Parenthood. The legislation is unlikely to become law, but it is popular with the GOP base in an election year. The debate about what Obama may do on gun violence already has spilled over into the presidential campaign. Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton has called for more aggressive executive actions on guns, and rival Bernie Sanders said he would support Obama's expected move. The Vermont senator told ABC's "This Week" that he believes "there is a wide consensus" that "we should expand and strengthen the instant background check." He added: "I think that's what the president is trying to do and I think that will be the right thing to do." Republican candidates largely oppose efforts to expand background checks or take other steps that curb access to guns. "This president wants to act as if he is a king, as if he is a dictator," unable to persuade Congress and forcing an "illegal executive action" on the country, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie told "Fox News Sunday." Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, also on Fox, said Obama's "first impulse is always to take rights away from law-abiding citizens, and it's wrong." In the radio address, Obama said tens of thousands of people have died from gun violence since background check legislation stalled three years ago. "Each time, we're told that commonsense reforms like background checks might not have stopped the last massacre, or the one before that, so we shouldn't do anything," Obama said. "We know that we can't stop every act of violence. But what if we tried to stop even one?" Federally licensed gun sellers are required by law to seek criminal background checks before completing a sale. But gun control advocacy groups say some of the people who sell firearms at gun shows are not federally licensed, increasing the chance of sales to customers prohibited by law from purchasing guns. Obama plans to participate in a town hall Thursday night at George Mason University in Virginia on reducing gun violence. The president will take questions from the audience at the event moderated by CNN's Anderson Cooper. Despite his deep differences with Republicans, Obama has cited two agenda items for 2016 that have bipartisan support: a free trade agreement with 11 other nations called the Trans-Pacific Partnership and changes in the criminal justice system that would reduce incarceration rates for nonviolent offenders. He often points out that the U.S. accounts for 5 percent of the world's population and 25 percent of its inmates. The world has recently witnessed the degrading treatment of refugees trying to enter European countries. These desperate people risk a dangerous trip across the Mediterranean Sea or a long trek by land. Although the refugees are fleeing hopeless conditions, their numbers include more than Syrians. Also trying to settle in Europe are people who see no safety in Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Sudan and a host of other countries in Asia and Africa. Since the United States and Canada are far away from their homes and not easily accessible, the refugees are spending their meager resources to pay smugglers to help them reach anywhere in Europe. Knowing that countries like Hungary, Serbia and Greece are not affluent, the migrants are trying everything possible to reach Germany, Britain and Scandinavian countries. Fences have been put up and train service suspended in several countries to stem the flow. These helpless people have navigated dangerous waters, endured brutality by border guards and risked land mines in Croatia. Europes dismal inability to come up with even the semblance of a unified solution has exasperated migrants sympathizers across the globe and exacerbated the problem. Recent reports indicate that several affluent European countries, faced with the inexorable influx, have decided to accept a relatively small number of refugees for settlement in their countries. Some 500,000 migrants have crossed the Mediterranean this year, and the total number exceeds 1 million if one adds the number of migrants who have entered by land. This represents the most alarming humanitarian crisis since World War II. More than 4 million Syrians have fled their country to escape violence; a sizable majority has so far settled in refugee camps in Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon and Iraq, where conditions are less than satisfactory. These camps have overwhelmed the region and drained economies. Pope Francis has expressed his frustration with what he calls the lack of compassion in countries with resources and has asked Catholic parishes in Europe and America to take in refugees. Many people understandably fear that, along with the general immigrant population, some militants might enter Europe, the U.S. and Canada, leading to reluctance on the part of these countries to admit larger numbers. The tragic events in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif., have intensified this thinking. Modest responses from Germany, Britain, France and several Scandinavian countries represent a balancing act that these governments have to resort to in the face of strident opposition from right-wing, anti-immigration political parties that have gained significant momentum with fear mongering. Thousands of people from the Third World have been allowed to settle in these countries over a decade, and there exists a feeling in the minds of some that the new arrivals have contributed to an increase in crime and unemployment. Even in France, an affluent country by global standards, more than 10 percent of the people are unemployed, and mayors throughout the country are implacably opposed to taking in the new wave of migrants. Additionally, countries such as the United States have their own seemingly interminable problems with illegal immigration from Central and South America and Mexico. With the overwhelming number of refugees and the millions more expected in coming years, it is a no-brainer to appreciate the reality that pressure on countries in Europe and North America to accept all or even a significant number of refugees will not yield practical solutions. Many countries in Europe Greece, Spain, Italy and Portugal among them are grappling with their own anemic economies and are in no position to assume additional burdens. In an ideal world, we would address the root conditions that force people to abandon their countries in the face of persecution or violence. However, we have a huge problem right now that defies easy answers. I would like to propose a possible solution. A World Fund, under the auspices of the United Nations with active cooperation from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, should be established. The fund would be supported by contributions from a large number of countries, and each donor nation would contribute according to its gross domestic product or per capita income. The fund would pay for the construction of camps and short-term housing in areas close to regions of conflict in the hope that most refugees would return to their respective countries once conditions become safe and stable. The fund also would provide incentives to countries to accommodate refugees from war-torn areas. The European Union already has decided to provide $3 billion to Turkey for refugee settlement, but a more organized approach with greater participation is needed. Many reasonable people will disagree with the viability of this proposal. However, it is easier to agree that it is wishful thinking that affluent countries of the world would be willing to accommodate millions of refugees. For that reason alone, it is imperative that we seek alternative solutions to address one of the most intractable problems of our time. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate With a few taps on the controls by the pilot, the aircraft sitting in the grass at Pemberwick Park on Wednesday afternoon awakened with the buzz of its spinning propellers. After hovering for a moment, it shot straight up and dashed across the sky toward the other side of the field. Seconds later, it shrank to a speck, only its red and blue lights still visible. The pilot, Anthony Altamirano, never left the ground. He deftly guided the flying device, which cost nearly $80, the entire time with a handheld controller. The Pemberwick native and architectural stonework specialist has already racked up considerable flight time since he received the drone as a Christmas present from his girlfriend. It came right out of the box with the controller, and it was ready to go, Altamirano said. This is my escape. I love flying. Flying small aircraft is nothing new for the 35-year-old Altamirano and many other aviation enthusiasts. His Christmas present, however, is more technologically advanced than the model airplanes of previous generations. Unmanned aircraft, commonly known as drones, are fast gaining popularity. The debate in Greenwich and elsewhere centers on how to sensibly use and regulate the drones, which are expected to become even more prevalent in the near future. New federal rules attempt to clarify how the aircraft should be used by spelling out the expectations for drone operators. But drawing up plans for the skyways is not straightforward when officials and aerial hobbyists differ on basic questions such as whether an object weighing a few ounces should be allowed to buzz around a park. More Information Drone rules Owners of unmanned aircraft that weigh more than 0.55 pounds must register them with the Federal Aviation Administration. Registration costs $5, but it is free if done by Jan. 20. Those who have used their unmanned aircraft exclusively as model aircraft before Dec. 21 must register no later than Feb. 19. Owners of aircraft purchased after Dec. 21 must register before their first outdoor flight. Registrants need to provide their name, home address and email address. They must be at least 13 years old. Owners can register at www.faa.gov/uas/registration. Watch: Western Middle School specialist Aaron Johnson filmed an aerial video of the 2015 Greenwich High School homecoming parade with his drone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNfOufta2Yk&feature=youtu.be&app=desktop See More Collapse Taking flight Drones have caught on in recent years as they have become cheaper and easier to use. Often outfitted with cameras, they are used for recreation and for surveillance in the military, agriculture and real estate. With the recent surge in popularity Federal Aviation Administration officials estimate that hundreds of thousands of unmanned aircraft were bought nationwide during this holiday season the FAA has decided that more regulation is now necessary. As part of a new regulation that started Dec. 21, drones that weigh more than 0.55 pounds now have to be registered with the federal government. Registration gives us the opportunity to educate these new airspace users before they fly so they know the airspace rules and understand they are accountable to the public for flying responsibly, FAA Administrator Michael Huerta said in a statement. Western Middle School media specialist Aaron Johnson was among the first in Fairfield County to register his Phantom 3 drone, which cost about $1,250 and weighs a few pounds. I think that it is necessary and proper, and ultimately it holds people accountable, Johnson said of the registration. Essentially, all I had to provide was my name and address. I didnt have to submit my GPS (flight) logs to the government or anything like that. The penalties for not registering with the FAA include fines up to $250,000 and imprisonment up to three years. But local users are unlikely to face draconian action. Greenwich police will not be going around town checking to see whether drone owners have registered, said police Lt. Kraig Gray. If somebody does something offensive thats a violation of the law, that breaches somebody elses peace, then somebody will call us and well investigate, Gray said. For us, they (the drones) are probably more of a nuisance than a safety hazard. Gray said that he was not aware of any residents complaining to the department about drones being disruptive or encroaching on privacy. Altamirano did not have to register the drone he got for Christmas because it weighs less than half a pound. He said that he would have no qualms about registering larger drones, but he questions why Greenwichs town code does not allow visitors to fly any aircraft in the towns parks, at its beaches or on other town properties. If its under a half pound, where it can cause no severe bodily damage to anybody, why shouldnt it be used? Altamirano said. The towns rules for small aircraft have not changed since 1983, which coincided with a period when model airplanes became popular. Keeping visitors safe is the primary reason for banning aircraft from parks and beaches, said Joe Siciliano, the towns Parks and Recreation director. Were trying to educate people that one of these (drones) could crash on someone and could hurt someone, Siciliano said. Were not trying to prevent you from having fun, but you have to find a place to fly that is not populated and not on town property. Parks and Recreation does not track the number of people who try to fly aircraft on town property, but Siciliano said that enforcement is manageable. If town employees were to find someone using a drone, they would probably ask that person to put it away or take it home, he said. If found in noncompliance of the rules, drone users can face $100 fines for first-time offenses on town property, Gray said. Altamirano said that his only reprimand was being asked once in a town park not to fly one of his models. Samantha Schmaling, Altamiranos girlfriend, suggested a compromise between town officials and hobbyists. When we were growing up, you couldnt ride a skateboard anywhere you wanted, so they made a skate park, Schmaling said. If people are getting these things, instead of telling us we cant use them, make us a space where we can use them. Gray said police are also aware of the towns proximity to the Westchester County Airport, adjacent to Greenwichs western border. FAA regulations do not allow model aircraft within 5 miles of an airport without permission from airport officials, but the enforcement protocol is still taking shape. Those regulations up and around the airport are for the safety of the skyways, Gray said. We dont normally enforce skyway regulations. Were going to have to seek guidance from them on how we can keep the area safe. Here to stay Perhaps no local industry has embraced drones more than real estate. In the past couple of years, an increasing number of Greenwich real estate agents have hired professional photographers who use the devices to get panoramic footage of homes on the market. Drones generally work best on properties with at least 1 acre, where they have room to fly around without veering onto neighboring lots, said Joann Erb, president of the Greenwich Association of Realtors and executive director of Halstead Property. Realtors see them as an important tool for marketing properties, because videos shot from drones not only show a houses appearance but also its proximity to neighboring homes and waterways such as Long Island Sound. As the drone flies around the house, you truly get a feel of the property with a video, more so than you would with a still shot, Erb said. Drones provide a great perspective. Buyers can either eliminate a house because it doesnt have the features theyre looking for or they can see whether its something that captivates them. The new technology is also popular with many town youngsters. Administrators in the school district were not available to talk this week about how or whether drones could be incorporated into the curriculum, but Johnson said that he lets Western Middle students help him with editing drone video footage. He does not allow them to fly his aircraft. The rules say you have to be 13 to register, but I would recommend waiting until youre 16 to fly one, Johnson said. Theres plenty of time to learn. pschott@scni.com; 203-625-4439; twitter: @paulschott The Saudi Embassy in Tehran on Dec 2, 2015 after Iranian protesters entered the building. Iranian protesters ransacked and set fire to the Saudi Embassy in Tehran on Saturday after Saudi Arabia executed an outspoken Shiite cleric who had criticized the kingdoms treatment of its Shiite minority. The cleric, Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, was among 47 men executed in Saudi Arabia on terrorism-related charges, drawing condemnation from Iran and its allies in the region, and sparking fears that sectarian tensions could rise across the Middle East. The executions coincided with increased attacks in Saudi Arabia by the jihadists of the Islamic State and an escalating rivalry between the Sunni monarchy and Shiite Iran that is playing out in conflicts in Syria, Yemen and elsewhere. Sheikh Nimr was an outspoken critic of the Saudi monarchy and was adopted as a symbolic leader by Shiite protesters in several Persian Gulf countries during the Arab Spring uprisings. Saudi officials said the mass execution, one of the largest in the kingdom in decades, was aimed at deterring violence against the state. But analysts said that the grouping of Sheikh Nimr with hardened jihadists was a warning to domestic dissidents that could ripple across the region. The execution of Sheikh Nimr is widely seen as part of that rivalry, and Shiite leaders in different countries in Iran, in particular condemned it. The state-run Saudi Press Agency reported late Saturday that the Saudi Foreign Ministry had summoned the Iranian ambassador to Riyadh to give him a statement of protest in severe language because of the aggressive statements made by Iran about the executions. The ministry called them blatant interference in the kingdoms affairs. The ministry also said it held Iran responsible for protecting the Saudi Embassy in Tehran, the Saudi Consulate in the city of Mashhad and their employees, the news agency reported, citing an unnamed Foreign Ministry official. Protesters tore down a flag from the Saudi Consulate in Mashhad on Saturday. In Tehran, protesters broke furniture and smashed windows in an annex to the embassy, a witness who was reached by telephone said. The protesters also set fire to the room, said the witness, who would provide only his first name, Abolfazl, because he had been involved in the protest. The police arrived and cleared the embassy grounds of protesters and extinguished the fire, he said. The protest turned violent after participants began throwing Molotov cocktails at the embassy and then broke into the compound. The semiofficial Iranian Students News Agency said the crowd had been chanting Death to the Al-Saud family, which rules Saudi Arabia, before some protesters entered the embassy and threw papers from the roof. Source: The New York Times, Ben Hubbard, January 2, 2015 Blog Hinangai While there is much discussion in Guam about the economic benefits of increasing the islands military presence, the damages/dangers that they represent are rarely mentioned. This blog, a supplement to the Peace and Justice for Guam Petition, is meant to counter that by providing information about the US military in Guam, with the hopes of steering policy away from a dangerous unilateralist course to more sustainable notions of regional development and a strengthening international solidarity. Haiti - Politic : Commemoration of the Day of Ancestors Saturday, January 2, 2016, the President Michel Martelly, accompanied by the Prime Minister, Evans Paul, attended the ceremony commemorating the Day of the Ancestors, at the Haitian National Pantheon Museum (MUPANAH). This floral offering ceremony and of reflection, was held in the presence of members of the Cabinet of Ministers, executives of public administration, of Director General and members of the high command of the National Police of Haiti (PNH). "This January 2, Day of the Ancestors, offers me the opportunity to pay tribute to our ancestors who, at the price of blood, have left us this Nation," declared the Head of State, which reiterated the necessity for every Haitian, to always remember the brave acts of these heroes through which we enjoy today of this Haiti free and sovereign. The ceremony commemorating the Day of the Ancestors, ended with a parade of different units of the National Police of Haiti in the Champ de Mars area. HL/ HaitiLibre Haiti - Politic : Bicentenary of the encounter between Simon Bolivar and Alexandre Petion Saturday, on the occasion of bicentenary of the first encounter between Simon Bolivar and President of the first Republic of the Americas, General Alexandre Petion (2 January 1816) Nicolas Maduro the President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, in a note of Ministry of Popular Power of Foreign Affairs, greeted the Republic of Haiti, its government and its heroic people. "In those days, our Liberator Simon Bolivar, the man of difficulties, came to Haiti defeated, without money, nor army, but with the firm conviction that was possible the renaissance and the realization of their independence, the liberation and revolutionary ideology in Venezuela, immersed in the colonial restoration after the fall of the Second Republic. Today we can proudly say that the vision of Petion has significantly influenced the social concept of the War of Independence. His stay in Haiti, has certainly changed for ever the course of subsequent events, with the help of the people he made an army, now more aware that the revolution was the only way to meet their spiritual and material demands. The Bolivarian Government of Venezuela wishes to take this opportunity to honor the historical debt of gratitude and solidarity that unites us with Haiti and these great struggles of resistance. A 200 year struggle for independence and equality, the battle continues. Vive Haiti and Venezuela ! Vive the Revolution in Latin America and the Caribbean ! Vive Petion ! Vive Bolivar !" HL/ HaitiLibre Published on 2016/01/03 | Source A sizable near-building boom has produced a forest of tall nondescript business hotels in northern Seoul that target mostly Chinese visitors. This year saw three new hotels opening in downtown Seoul, while at least another five plan to open next year. Advertisement Lotte Hotel will open its seventh business hotel in the shopping district of Myeong-dong in January while adding another brand to its business hotel lineup catering specifically to women. Hotel Shilla has launched a business spinoff in 2013, opening the first one in Mapo. Over the past two years, it has grown to seven and will increase further next year. Now the chain's newest venture, the Westin Chosun Hotel, also plans a more upmarket business hotel near Shinsegae Department Store in downtown Seoul in 2017. Hana Tour, the No. 1 travel agency here, plans the nation's largest business hotel with nearly 600 rooms near Myeong-dong in May. Data from the Seoul Metropolitan Government on Tuesday shows that business hotels in the capital mushroomed from 95 last year to 117 as of November this year, with rooms multiplying 28 percent to over 10,000. A city official said building permits have been granted to 149 hotels to be built from next year onwards, with the lion's share being business hotels. The surge is due to influx of Chinese visitors. "Chinese tourists don't spend as much money on accommodation as Japanese, who prefer luxury hotels", said an official with the Korea Tourism Organization. "As numbers of Japanese visitors are dwindling, growing numbers of tourists from China are boosting demand for business hotels". "Business hotels are more profitable than luxury hotels as they are cheaper to build with fewer facilities and shorter construction times", said an industry insider. "The high prices at luxury hotels in the capital are driving some Chinese visitors as far as the suburbs of Gyeonggi Province in search of budget accommodation. The number mid-priced hotels will likely continue to increase for the foreseeable future", another KTO official said. This is an example of our failed president, Barrack Hussain Obama. Attempting to mend our relationship with Iran has embodied them. What does Saudi Arabia executing people have anything to do with Obama. First of all, we are executing people every day with our drone attacks. We are indiscriminately killing ISIS members and innocent men, women and children. Now, with Hillary Clinton complaining about Saudi Arabia, perhaps she should look in the mirror. And Iran of all nations to be concerned for human rights... All nations are guilty. However,... Iran would not have stormed the Saudi Arabian embassy if they had not been able to get the sanctions lifted. They are feeling the success and recognition of being a valid nation and will continue to seek it. Our president, instead of focused on the status quo between these nations, has altered the balance by favoring Iran. The major powers (USA, Russia, China) that continue to influence the Middle East Geopolitics for their own benefit are now having to adjust to what Iran is doing. This is only going to get worse. Published on 2016/01/03 | Source Foreign Vice Minister Cho Tae-yul bows to victims of Japan's wartime sexual enslavement at their shelter in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province on Tuesday. The government is trying to seek understanding from the victims of Japan's wartime sex slavery over a statement signed between the two countries on the way to settling the long-smouldering issue. Advertisement Many people besides the victims have complained that the statement is deliberately mealy-mouthed and dodges important issues. The victims are reportedly upset because they were not consulted ahead of the deal despite campaigning intrepidly for decades. Vice Foreign Ministers Lim Sung-nam and Cho Tae-yul on Tuesday visited the shelters for the elderly victims in Seoul and Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, which are run by the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan. The officials told victims they quite understand that they may be disappointed by the deal, "but the government tried its best to restore your honor and dignity". "What's important is that the Japanese government admitted responsibility, apologized and promised to take follow up on the deal", they said. These three points are definite signs of progress. But some victims remained unconvinced, saying the government struck a backroom deal with Japan and deliberately kept them in the dark. Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn will also go and visit the victims soon, a government source said. The Foreign Ministry and Ministry of Gender Equality and Family will set up a foundation that will support the victims from the additional money Japan pledged under the deal. By William Schwartz | Published on 2016/01/02 Ever since university Yun Gi-jin and his wife Hwang Sun have worked toward the reunification of North and South Korea. Their chosen method of approach is by trying to talk to like-minded Koreans from the other side of the border. While such behavior is illegal under South Korean law, under the Sunshine Policy these laws were not generally enforced. That changed with the election of Lee Myeong-bak. Yun Gu-jin quickly became a prosecutorial priority, and for the crime of talking to North Koreans was imprisoned and separated from Hwang Sun and their two daughters pending appeal. Advertisement "The Anxious Day Out" is the story of what life is like for Yun Gi-jin coming back to see his wife and daughters for the first time in five years, having missed out on so much of their lives. On the literal level "The Anxious Day Out" is exactly what it sounds like- tender and sad. Yun Gu-jin is still under threat of reincarceration, so he just tries to enjoy whatever time is available as much as possible. On the subtextual level the argument behind "The Anxious Day Out" is equally transparent- this is a documentary that documents injustice by demonstrating how absurd the situation is. Yun Gi-jin is rather obviously not a threat to anyone. He's not violent. The man doesn't even act all that bitter about having had to spend so much time in jail. It's hard to blame him. Yun Gi-jin really just wants to see his daughters, whether it be at the house or out of it, and be a part of their lives. At the same time, Yun Gi-jin is a man of principles and the prosecution against him is rather obviously politically motivated. If you don't believe me just watch the epilogue and find out what happened a few months after the documentary premiered at Busan. What makes the situation especially absurd is that, supposedly, the reason why North Korea is such a terrible place is because they don't have any knowledge of the outside world. Yet for trying to start a dialogue and mutually increase awareness, Yun Gi-jin was imprisoned. Director Kim Cheol-min doesn't really focus on the political angle, though, and that's for the better. Whatever your opinion on North Korea, Yun Gi-jin is first and foremost easy to identify with as a person. He misses his kids and is happy to see them again. It's hard to imagine what purpose putting him in jail was supposed to serve. "The Anxious Day Out" portrays injustice effectively mainly by making the process seem so banal and petty. That's a lot of subtext for a documentary that is, for all practical intents and purposes, just an extended well-edited home video of Yun Gi-jin and Hwang Sun together at home with their daughters. There's no pathos, no anger, no indignation, just...life. Having grown up in the so-called free world, I was always under the impression that being able to live a decent humble life was an inherent right that made us superior to other political systems. Evidently, in South Korea at least, that much isn't a right but a revokable privilege for those with wrong opinions. Review by William Schwartz "The Anxious Day Out" is directed by Kim Cheol-min and features Yun Gi-jin and Hwang Sun. By William Schwartz | Published on 2016/01/02 The time is May 18th, 1980. Following frustration over Chun Doo-hwan seizing control of South Korea in a military coup, a student protest in Gwangju quickly escalates into a full-scale uprising. Not just students but common citizens too ask themselves whether they should just accept the junta as a fact of life and keep their heads down, or find weapons and fight back. "The Battle of Gwangju" is a dramatization of a group of people who decide to fight back, eventually pushed back into a single critical building which they will inevitably lose. Advertisement In terms of structure "The Battle of Gwangju" bears more similarity to a stage play than a film. We don't observe characters so much as we observe concepts, and for good reason. By making the decision to resist against the South Korean Army, the characters give up their own identities. They know that failure means death, but are optimistic in the heat of the moment. Unfortunately, in real life determination doesn't equal victory- not against superior hardware and tactics. Another major structural element is the obvious influence from experimental films. There are no guns. There's bloodspatter and gunshot, and plenty of miming for when such and such soldier is obviously brutalizing someone with the blunt end of his weapon. The question being asked of all this is, does the absence of guns make the experience any more sanitized and palatable? And the answer to that is, well, no, no it doesn't. A more cynical question to ask might be- could the lack of guns actually be a statement on the lack of a significant operating budget? It's a derisive question but a fair one, and I can't really dispute the snide insinuation of the tone. If you watch movies to see grand events play out on a larger than life scale you're not getting that with "The Battle of Gwangju". There's no glorification and romanticization of courage here, or hand-wringing over evil. Just acted-out death. Which is probably just as well. For most people the Gwangju Uprising is a footnote in a history textbook. Everybody acknowledges that Chun Doo-hwan was a very bad man, and the Gwangju Uprising is the most obvious explicit case of that. But what writer/director Lee Ji-sang is going for in "The Battle of Gwangju" is to paint the Gwangju Uprising as a serious pitched battle of brutality and limited colors where all of the actual participants were, in fact, just normal folks like you and me. I would say he succeeded on that count. "Peppermint Candy" might have the big dramatic moment where the main character accidentally kills an innocent bystander, but "The Battle of Gwangju" more accurately notes that the Gwangju Uprising went on for a very long time, and that the brutality of the event was frightening precisely because it was so easily justified. Because let's just face it. If people are so desperate and angry that they're willing to pick a fight with the army, something is very rotten in the state of wherever. Review by William Schwartz "The Battle of Gwangju" is directed by Lee Ji-sang and features Yi Ahnn, Hyeon Su, Yang Woong, Choi Jin-gyoo and Ryu Wang-joo Korean Movie | 2015 Drama Directed by Lee Ji-sang () Written by Lee Ji-sang () 121min | Release date in South Korea: Not yet Released Synopsis On May 18, 1980. The Gwangju Democratization Movement began. In its first days, a crackdown on student demonstrators by paratroopers results in the loss of numerous lives. Incited by the violence, residents of the city of Gwangju rise up, engaging the influx of troops descending upon their city. The denizens are able to defend their home and their freedom for a short time but are eventually pushed back. The troops, now with reinforcements, re-launch their attack. On May 27 the remaining civilians still fighting gather in the Jeonil Building for their final stand. Shoeshiners, factory workers, teahouse waitresses-people who have been ill-treated by society-put their lives at risk trying to defend their ideals and the city. While other notable films such as "A Petal" by Jang Sun-woo and "May 18" by Kim Ji-hoon have tackled the plight of Gwangju, Yi, best known for "Yellow Flower" (2002), recreates the atmosphere of that terrible day in a wonderfully experimental way. With the gun being the ultimate symbol of violence, he has insisted that no guns appear in the film. Instead, the actors only behave as if they were holding guns. Gunshots are heard and blood is seen-but the guns themselves are non-existent. (NAM Dong-chul) Festival 20th Busan International Film Festival (2015) Vision Section Source Published on 2016/01/03 | Source Starting March next year, passengers will be able to enjoy a ride in a "luxury express bus", which is equipped with seats similar to first class airline seats, private tables and video monitors. Luxury express buses will operate on a trial basis, before up to 10 buses are put into service on two routes daily in the second half of next year. Advertisement The Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry said a bill entailing partial revision to guidelines on fare adjustment for transportation businesses was approved by a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday. The luxury express bus will be manufactured as a vehicle with up to 21 seats, which is at least eight seats fewer than the current deluxe express bus (29 seats). Individual seats will be separated with partitions, and come with private table and a monitor, enabling passengers to enjoy comfortable travel experience. The fare for the luxury express bus will be set at a level up to 30 percent higher than that of the current deluxe express bus. The ministry has also decided to allow operation of inter-city buses that only operate to and from industrial parks outside major cities during morning and evening rush hours beginning next year. The measure is being taken to add convenience for employees working at industrial complexes, and such bus routes can be put into service once the agreement is made. Published on 2016/01/03 | Source Cheap Chinese smartphones are selling like hot cakes in Korea. LG Uplus on Friday said accumulated sales of Huawei's Y6 dual smartphone, released on Dec. 16, had already surpassed 5,000 units a week later. Advertisement The Y6 costs W154,000, making it the cheapest smartphone in Korea (US$1=W1,171). LG Uplus, which has an exclusive deal for the phone, practically gives the phone away free, discounting it even for customers who sign up for its lowest flat rate of W29,900 a month. Only 300 Y6 phones were sold on the first day, but that soon climbed to 800 a day. It has become the sixth bestselling smartphone at LG Uplus, overtaking Samsung's lower-end Galaxy A5. Huawei originally targeted sales of 10,000 Y6s in Korea, but at this rate the target will be reached in five or six months. If the Y6 does well here, other low-end Chinese smartphone makers like Xiaomi and Lenovo are also likely to move in, meaning even stiffer competition for Samsung and LG on their home turf. An official from the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning tried to douse concerns by saying the Y6 may yet turn out to be a fluke, but the omens point in the opposite direction. A cheap smartphone developed by Korea's TG & Co. and made by China's Foxconn has also been a hit, with sales reaching 150,000 units since its release in September. The LUNA is sold through SK Telecom and boasts the specs of a premium phone but for W449,000 or half the price. Published on 2016/01/03 | Source Paris Baguette, a top Korean bakery franchise, has opened its 200th overseas branch after 11 years since it first entered the global market. Advertisement The SPC Group said on Monday that a launching event was held at its 200th Paris Baguette store in Shanghai, China. The bakery chain opened its first store outside of Korea in Gubei, Shanghai, back in 2004. It now runs 139 shops across China, followed by 45 stores in the U.S., eight in Vietnam, and six in Singapore. The SPC Group plans to accelerate its foreign business by expanding franchising rather than directly managing the stores. Currently, only 23 stores in China are operated by individual owners. The group expects to franchise out 100 stores in America and China within next year. An executive at SPC said that their goal is to have more than 2,000 Paris Baguette branches in the U.S. and China by 2030. The number of the bakery is around 3,300 in Korea. Published on 2016/01/03 | Source President Park Geun-hye greets Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida at Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul on Monday. /Yonhap Advertisement Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se and his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida on Monday produced a statement that to some extent concedes Japanese responsibility for drafting women as sex slaves for soldiers during World War II. The statement, which also contains words of regret from Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, follows talks on the question of compensating the former sex slaves, who were mostly Korean, and marks a small but significant step in settling the issue. For 24 years since victim Kim Hak-soon first went public with her ordeal in an interview with Japan's Asahi Shimbun, the issue has bedeviled Korea-Japan relations at every turn and is unlikely to be settled in a day. Monday's statement sticks to the Japanese line that, even if the Imperial Army bore direct responsibility for rounding up the women, any claims they may have had were "finally and irreversibly" settled under a 1965 treaty, despite its failure to clarify Japan's "legal responsibility". Japanese rightwingers variously claim the women were voluntary prostitutes or that the Imperial Army was supplied with the victims by private operators, so Tokyo would be in the clear either way. In fact, documentary evidence points persuasively to the orders coming from the top. Kishida told reporters his government "is painfully aware of responsibilities... Prime Minister Abe expresses anew his most sincere apologies and remorse..." In a telephone conversation with President Park Geun-hye, Abe repeated the gist of his apology. By diplomatic sleight of hand the apology was not issued public by Abe in person but funneled through the foreign minister. Still, it was the Abe administration's most complete admission so far of some sort of responsibility for the atrocity, even though it left plenty of wriggle room in terms of which entity or persons are to blame. Japan also agreed to cough up 1 billion yen (about W10 billion) from its coffers to support the sex slavery victims, whatever the 1965 treaty may say. But Kishida was quick to deny to the Japanese press that the extra payment amounts to "legal compensation", which would risk setting a precedent. A Korean government official put a positive spin on the development, saying "Japan admitted legal responsibility in fact", if not in finer points of the law. But victims and the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan denounced the agreement as a double blow from both governments, and a case of "diplomatic collusion that dampens people's hopes". While we were compiling our various lists of the biggest state and local news stories from 2015, I was frequently reminded of that old curse, May you live in interesting times. There is no evidence, by the way, that the phrase may you live in interesting times actually dates back to ancient China, as you may have heard. The best reference I could find dates it back to 1936, and suggests that its life began when a British diplomat in China misheard something he had been told. Regardless of the origin of the phrase, however, there is no doubt that 2015 qualified as an interesting time. Our top state stories involved the resignation of Gov. John Kitzhaber and a mass shooting at Umpqua Community College. The news menu in 2015 also included statewide drought and a destructive wave of wildfires. On that list, the long-running story about how the state should regulate recreational marijuana almost qualifies as the comic relief. Locally, the news included an arson-caused fire that leveled a building at South Albany High School and bruising battles over homelessness and a countywide measure to ban genetically modified organisms. Interesting times indeed. Readers like these Top 10 year-end lists because, on some level, were all suckers for lists. (Successful magazines and websites have been built on that love of lists.) Newspaper reporters and scoundrel editors are fond of these year-end lists because they fill space in the papers during the stretch at the end of the year when the flow of news typically slows to a trickle. But as we worked to compile our year-end lists, I couldnt help but think that it would be nice if 2016 turned out to be a shade less interesting than its predecessor. And then I remembered: This is an election year. So, maybe 2017? Meet Phoebe On another matter entirely, Im pleased to announce the addition of a new comic strip to our pages beginning Monday. Phoebe and Her Unicorn, by Washington state native Dana Simpson, started life as an Internet comic called Heavenly Nostrils in 2012 and quickly gained an avid following. It launched in newspapers in mid-2015, when it was renamed Phoebe and Her Unicorn. Born in Pullman, Simpson grew up in the Seattle area, where she still lives. While attending The Evergreen State College, she was a finalist for the Scripps-Howard Charles M. Schulz College Cartoonist Award. Her first comic, Ozy and Millie, which she drew for 10 years, developed a cult following. In 2009, she won the Amazon/Universal Uclick Comic Strip Superstar Contest, which allowed her to start Heavenly Nostrils. As you might have gathered from the title, the strip focuses on a 9-year-old girl named Phoebe who comes across a magical unicorn named Marigold Heavenly Nostrils, enraptured by her reflection in a pond. Phoebe accidentally hits Marigold with a rock, breaking the spell. Marigold grants Phoebe one wish, and Phoebe asks for Marigold to become her best friend. The first two weeks of the strip will set up the storyline and its characters. The obvious point of comparison is to Calvin and Hobbes, and some of that would be valid but its also unfair to saddle Phoebe, still in its first year of syndication, with the burden of being compared to such a classic. With that said, though, Phoebe struck me as fresh and funny, and I liked the idea of having a strip with a girl as its protagonist. Check it out when it starts on Monday. ("Phoebe" will run in the location where we used to place a promotional ad, which means Phoebe isnt replacing any of our other strips. All of our other strips will remain in place for the time being, including Peanuts.) Divinebunbun lives in a log cabin on 100 acres in the rocky Ozark foothills. Her porch is a box seat on nature and the seasons. This is her journal of chores and mysteries, natural history photos, and observations. My family - a future troupe of travelers? Touring a true-blue coffee farm sounded excellent to me! Joey and Avy having a chat with our guide. Unripe coffee beans on the bush A coffee field with a view. Ripe coffee beans, picked fresh from the bush. A coffee bean with its sticky, sweet mucilage still intact Evidence of coffee plant blight Harvesting yuca. The methane gas is stored and used to power aspects of the farm. Dried beans ready to be roasted. Who knew they came in such a variety? Brewing coffee the Costa Rican way The coffee lab is part of the collective, where all local farmers have their beans roasted and packaged. Our enthusiastic and knowledgeable roast master. An unroasted vs a roasted bean - the roasted beans expand to twice their original size. The roasting equipment at Monteverde Coffee Lab The inviting interior of Monteverde Coffee Lab Our 'cupping' session - tasting one delicious coffee after another. Well, this post was a long time coming. Life is beginning to settle (a little) with my two kidlets. Avy is almost two and Parker is almost seven months old - I can hardly believe how fast they are growing! I am hoping that 2016 will see a return to our travels as the kids are now accustomed to each other, and both are quite good travelers, other than the fact that Avy gets car sick every now and then. I would relish any advice on car sickness in children, because I'd like to do a road trip this summer with them down into the United States to check out some parks.My husband would really like to spend some time in Costa Rica again this year, and since we've been chatting about it, I realized that I still haven't written about our amazing coffee farm tour from 2014! So here we go...We visited Costa Rica in November of 2014 with our daughter when she was 10 months old. She was a fabulous traveler and we were so pleased. I was, on the other hand, not such a great traveler as I was suffering from extreme morning sickness, being pregnant with our son at the time. But that's another story. Despite the multiple stops we had to make on our drive to the cloud forest , we did eventually make it to Monteverde and spent one day touring Selvatura Adventure Park I had also booked another day trip to explore a real-life coffee farm, Life Monteverde Coffee Farm. It was a 'green' farm, so I was really interested in how they produced and maintained their product in such an environmentally sound fashion.A company van picked us up at our hotel and drove us out of town to the farm, which was located at the top of a relatively steep hill that provided a stunning view of the Monteverde valleys and slopes. My husband, daughter and I were the only participants that morning, and it was nice having a 'private' tour of the establishment. Apparently we were there between busy times, as the company offers work experience semesters for local and foreign agriculture and environmental studies students. Our guide was a former environmental studies student who liked the 'green' aspect of the farm and signed on to help increase its effectiveness.Our tour started in a mess hall-type building, where we sat for a short slide show depicting a brief history of farming and agriculture in the Monteverde region, naturally focusing on the coffee trade. I won't go into detail here, but it was interesting to hear how coffee plantations developed in the region. We didn't stay long here, as our daughter was getting squirmy, and since no one else was there to object, our guide decided to just give us a casual walking tour of the farm and threw the formal tour guidelines to the wind.We wandered through the coffee fields, which featured a variety of older, more established plants growing among younger, smaller coffee plants. Every now and then, a lime or orange tree would tower above the coffee bushes.There were several distinct, separate fields, but my favorite was the one planted right on the steep hillside with a fantastic view of the valley.Our guide showed us the various stages of coffee bean maturation on the plant. Green beans were still immature and not ready for picking. Red or brown beans were ripe and ready to be harvested. We pulled a few red beans from the plants and our guide showed us how to skin them to find the coffee bean used for brewing inside.He explained that different coffee flavors come not only from roasting times, but also from how the bean is peeled. Some prefer an unpeeled bean, some prefer coffee beans with the sticky, sweet middle membrane intact (called a 'mucilage'), and some prefer a bean completely peeled and washed of the sweet membrane. He showed us how to scrape the bean of its outer layer to find the mucilage, and encouraged us to taste it. It was surprisingly sweet, and I was curious how this layer would affect the flavor of coffee. Naturally, I was due to find out during the course of the tour.One special field was being used to test a particular blight that affected coffee plants. The coffee farm does not use pesticides or herbicides, but tries to employ natural resistances to plant disease, and they were using this specific field as a testing ground. You could see which plants were infected, as they had shriveled, yellowed leaves with pock marks on them. Their beans were smaller and seemed dried out.The employees of the farm were open, friendly, welcoming, and very informative. The man harvesting the yuca was using the moon as his guide, harvesting during the waning moon, as the plants' water content is affected by the pull of the moon's gravity. If harvesting during the waning moon, the root lasts longer in storage, and the stems have more water present so it is easier to grow a new plant from the unharvested portion.The farm also produces other plants, such as yuca, and sustained a small number of animals, such as pigs and chickens. They used the animals for food, and collected their waste for fertilizer. It was an extremely efficient and economical business, where nothing was wasted and everything had a purpose. Even the pigs' waste was useful - it was stored in a giant methane bag. From there, the methane gas was piped into the kitchen and used as gas for cooking.Avy was not a fan of the chickens - one of them squawked and lunged at her and she cried for about fifteen minutes afterwards!After learning about the farm and its environs, we were led to a building which stored the picked coffee beans and layed them out to dry. The building also acted as a greenhouse for coffee tree seedlings. There, the guide showed us several trays which demonstrated just how versatile one coffee bean can be. One tray held unpeeled beans, dried in the sun and ready to roast. Another tray held beans that had been peeled down to the sweet mucilage. One tray had dried beans that had been completely peeled. They all had distinctive appearances, and I knew that they would also inevitably have very different tastes.Finally, the farm portion of the tour ended back at the mess hall, and this time, our friendly yuca harvester was waiting for us. He had plates piled with fried plantains for us to snack on - Avy was a huge fan! (It was here I realized that cooking with methane made from pigs' waste was probably not meant for my home.)The yuca harvester demonstrated how to brew coffee in a traditional Costa Rican brewer, made from wood (like the one at the farm) or dried yuca stalks (which is what we bought) and a cloth filtration bag. It was a very slow, methodical brew process, but the coffee it made was thick and rich and delicious! I can't remember what type of bean he ground for us, but it had a strong flavor that was perfectly complimented by the sweet plantains.Once we'd had our fill, the two men (our guide and the yuca harvester) decided that instead of taking the giant tour van to the coffee mill, we'd all pile in their rickety farm truck so they could deliver some beans and kill two birds with one stone. We were super casual about the tour and didn't care at all - in fact, it was quite fun to be treated as a local instead of a formal guest, just piling into this dusty ol' truck! The two men loaded the truck bed while Joey, Avy and I climbed into the backseat. The two men hopped into the front seats, and we were off to the mill.The ride was extremely bumpy, and I think it was Avy's favorite part! She giggled the entire ride while I just tried to keep from getting jostled right off the seat.The mill, Monteverde Coffee Lab, is not part of the Life Monteverde Coffee Farm. We learned that it is a separate, independently-owned business that services all of the coffee farms in the area. Its main job is coffee quality control, and coffee farming education, but it also works with the smaller coffee farms to act as their roaster. When we arrived, however, we were once again the only ones there and got special, personalized treatment. It was fantastic.The roast man was amazing. He was young, but so passionate about what he was doing it was infectious. He knew his stuff! He didn't speak English, but the speed and vehemence at which he spoke translated well enough. Our guide tried to translate everything, but we knew we were missing information because the roast master was going a mile a minute, he was so excited to share his knowledge.We learned the difference between roasting a light roast, a medium roast and a dark roast. The light and medium roasts are the most difficult to make, because they require diligent attention on part of the roast master. He has to listen to the sounds of the beans as they roast, and take them out after the first few 'pops' before they get too dark. He had the system down, and roasted two batches of perfectly light roasted coffee while we watched all without referring to his charts (but he charted every batch anyway). Of the dark roasts, he said dismissively, "Anyone can burn coffee beans." A true artist!It was quite fun watching the beans roast in the big metal vat. It was a like a giant popcorn machine, and indeed, the beans sound like popcorn as they heat. Chaff gets puffed up into a vent by the heat and air flow inside the roaster, and what is left after the process are pure and delicious smelling beans.I enjoyed the open bags of beans in the back room of the coffee lab. I liked to sink my hand deep inside the beans and feel their silkiness as I wiggled my fingers. There was something very alluring about working in that coffee lab, surrounded by the wonderful smell of roasted coffee beans, the cozy heat from the roasting vat, and the possibility to relax and sip delicious fresh coffee between customers. Oh yeah, and you live in Costa Rica. I seriously began to question my life's career choices.After the last batch was roasted, the roast master took us to the front room and introduced us to the idea of 'cupping', or coffee tasting. The roast master took five different beans, and had us first stir the coffee and smell the aroma, then taste the coffee to try and determine which roast and type of harvested bean the coffee was made from. I got three out of five.My favorite coffee turned out to be the medium roast of the bean harvested with the mucilage membrane still attached. This roast is called "honey roast" and for good reason: it is sweetened by the membrane but not so much that it tastes like someone just added a packet of sugar to the brew. It left a delightful aftertaste as well. The most surprising coffee was made from the unpeeled, or natural, bean. Because the coffee bean's casing is left intact, the coffee actually tastes much more plant-like, and has a blackberry aftertaste.Our coffee tasting session ended a little early, because Avy, tempted by the mesmerizing liquids in the steaming hot cups, shoved her little hand inside of one. Luckily, it had been after quite a long period of coffee tasting, and the brews had cooled a little. She wasn't burned, but she was quite upset at the nasty surprise.We left the tour laden with bags of coffee: Joey bought a medium roast fully-peeled bag of beans, and I chose to get some of the honey roast I liked so much. We also bought a bag of the natural roast because we knew no one would believe us that we had drank coffee that tasted like blackberries, without anything added to it to make it taste that way.I highly recommend attending this coffee tour if you are in the Monteverde area. It is loaded with information about the region's history, biology, agriculture, and economics. You will learn about self-sustaining farm practices, harvesting rituals, and planting processes. You will get a first-hand look at how coffee is roasted and might even get to help. And of course, you get to drink delicious fresh coffee made locally and roasted before your own eyes. You can book with them here Behind Indiana's RV boom: Punishing pace, safety issues, broken bodies A look at the grueling conditions RV workers endured as companies saw record sales and profits during the RV boom of the pandemic. Like a good book, good music stays and resonates in the soul long after the last strains have been sung or played. Like the eclectic medley that united to compose The Sacred Pushkar. Held in the last few days of the annual Pushkar Mela, the first edition of the three-day The Sacred began on November 22 and brought together the best of local, national and international talent to create an unforgettable experience. It included walks through the old town of Pushkar and was celebrated as a festival of yoga, meditation and music, but it was the latter that took precedence for most of those who attended. And with reason. Among those performing were Nathulal Solanki on the nagaras, Shubha Mudgal, Yom and Wang Li from France and China respectively on bass clarinet and Jewish harp, Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt on his mohan veena, Kailash Kher, vocalist Vidya Shah, Azim Ahmed Alvi on the sitar, qawwal Sarfaraz Raza and La Grande Chapelle ensemble with their rendition of early sacred music from Spain. Following a mesmerising maha aarti on Raj Bohra Ghat, reminiscent of the better known Ganga aarti in Varanasi, Solanki drummed up a beat that was as poignant and soul-stirring as it was bold. Sunil Kant Gupta on the flute and Shubha Mudgal with classical songs such as Nand ka kumar and Raam rat lagi followed. The breeze from the lake, fireworks in the sky and Mudgals mellifluous voice combined to create a refreshingly spiritual moment, far removed from the humdrum of everyday life. If day one had a predominantly classical edge, day two flirted with the experimental and popular. The mood was set by the young voices of Jaisalmer Boys, with a strong rustic flavour as they belted out hits like Aayo re aayo, Allah hu and Jhoole lal. With members ranging in age from 7 to 15, they sang, danced and won hearts in perfect harmony. Presenting a fusion flavour, Yom and Wang Lis music was all about echoes and vibrations that sought to offer a peek into the natural world. When I play, I tell a story, but there are no words. In the West, words became so important that they overcome the reality. It is important to give images about a reality in a way that doesnt need words, said Yom. Day three began with Vidya Shah, who combined classical strains with better-known songs like Mast kalandar and Vaishnav jan to. The mood set by Vidya was kept alive by the qawwal Sarfaraz Raza and La Grande Chapelle in the evening. In their first performance in India, the Spanish group presented the compositions of Juan Hidalgo. Although he is almost exclusively remembered as the creator, in collaboration with Calderon de la Barca, of zarzuela and the Spanish Opera, the vocal chamber music of Juan Hidalgo (1614-1685) principally secular and sacred airs had undeniable success in its day. For this programme, we chose music that went beyond its capacity to delight, and will fill a gap in our knowledge of the Spanish baroque, explained director Albert Recansens. What added to the experience at The Sacred was the choice of venue. If the stage for the evening of aarti and classical music was set at one of the ghats of Pushkars scared lake, for the second evening of experimental tunes, it shifted to the open sands. On the third day, the old Akbar Fort in Ajmer created the perfect backdrop for the qawwali, Azim Ahmed Alvis sitar rendition and La Grande Chapelles early sacred music. Like a prop in a stage act, these backdrops became an important element of the experience. (The writer was hosted by the organisers.) SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The Ola Cab driver, who allegedly raped a woman inside the vehicle on December 29 evening in Bhopal, has been arrested. The woman had lodged a complaint at Koh-e-Fiza police station on January 1 and the accused was arrested on Saturday evening. The Ola Cabs have, however, distanced itself from the driver, and said the accused was not logged on to the platform at the time of the incident. We have terminated the driver from the platform with immediate effect, the companys senior director (marketing communications) Anand Subramanian said. We have requested the police to expedite the case further with the respective parties and we will offer all support in providing whatever information (is) required by them to investigate this complicated case, a press statement issued by the company said. The Ola Cab driver, Deepak Baman, allegedly raped the 28-year-old woman passenger when she took the app-based taxi service to go to the market on December 29. In her complaint, the woman said Baman took her to a deserted place near Panchwati and raped her. He also threatened to kill the mother of two if she told anyone about it. The woman told police that she knew the driver for the past two-and-a-half years and used to call him directly whenever she wanted to go outside. Baman had been working with Ola for the last few months. On December 5, 2014, a woman working for a finance firm in Gurgaon was raped by an Uber cab driver. The accused had also threatened to insert a saria (rod) inside her if she raised an alarm. Following the incident, the Delhi government banned the company from operating in the city. There was also a nationwide outrage against app-based cab services. Vidya Balan was recently admitted to a hospital in Mumbai after she experienced a shooting pain in her back. While the actor had to cancel her travel plans with husband Sidharth Roy Kapur (producer), she is glad that she got to ring in the New Year as well as her birthday (January 1) at home. Im feeling better now. Even though the doctors and the staff at the hospital were wonderful, I guess I began to feel better the moment I realised that I was returning home for my birthday and New Year, she says. Read: Vidya Balan discharged from hospital, thanks fans for wishes Vidya is proud that she is leading her life on her own terms. She has been part of the film industry for over a decade now. Talking about B-Town, she says, I was never intimidated by stories of it (Bollywood) being a big, bad world. I always knew that I would lead life on my own terms. I remember my mother being worried about my safety, but over a period of time, even she realised that it really is what you make of it. Thats what I tell people, You can do what you want to do, with respect to everything. The only thing that matters is what you bring to the table in terms of your capability or talent. Vidya Balan, Siddharth Roy Kapur, Aditya Roy Kapur and Kunaal Roy Kapur in Mumbai. (Photo: Yogen Shah) The actor, who just had one release, Hamari Adhuri Kahani (2015), last year, will have a busy 2016 workwise. I took a break for a few months, and now I am raring to go. After so many years of working, I dont think Ive had more than a months break in between two projects. This time, it was a bit longer. I was itching to get back on the sets, says Vidya. Read: There is no career strategy that I have, says Vidya Despite expecting a busy year ahead, Vidya will try to take time out for herself. Apart from films, there are a couple of other commitments that will keep me busy. This might be a busy year for me, but I will space it out. I cant jump from one film to the other. Im trying my best to work it out in a manner where I get some me time in between, she says. Internet is going crazy ever since an image of Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif was leaked online on Saturday. The picture is from Jagga Jasoos, a movie which is being helmed by Anurag Basu who earlier directed Ranbir in Barfi. In the leaked image, bespectacled Ranbir and Katrina are staring at the camera with a confused look on their face. The rumoured couple has been shooting for the film in Thailand, Sri Lanka and several other locations for past few months. Both of them will play teenage detectives in Jagga Jasoos and Ranbirs character is searching for his father. Read: Jagga Jasoos cant bank upon Ranbir-Katrinas offscreen chemistry, says Sidharth Roy Kapur Ranbir is co-producing the film under the banner of RK Films, alongwith Anurag and Disney Motion Pictures. Earlier, speaking about his role in the movie, Ranbir had said, When I do Jagga Jasoos, I play a Class 12 boy from school. Im playing a 17-year-old boy. So I had to undergo a lot of physical change there. Jagga Jasoos will be Katrinas second release for 2016 after Fitoor. It is scheduled for release in next June. Sunny Sen On September 27, 2015, in San Jose in California at the India-US Startup Konnect, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said, The mega corporations of today were start-ups of yesterday. This was briefly one-and-half months after he challenged the start-up community, at a Nasscom event, to build new-generation companies like Facebook and Google out of India. To boost entrepreneurship and make it easy for individuals to start companies, Modi will announce on January 16 a detailed blueprint of Startup India, Stand up India. Read: A conversation between Modi and Zuckerberg He has all the reasons to do so. Over the past two years, India has emerged as the third largest startup ecosystem after the US and the UK, displacing Israel (on which the book Start-up Nation (Dan Senor, 2011) was written and China (which has an e-commerce giant like Alibaba competing with Amazon). India too has its fair share of successful startups, like Flipkart, Snapdeal and InMobi, valued at more than a billion dollars. But this ecosystem has got little help from the previous governments. Modi has a long tail of problems to solve starting with fund raising, better regulations and skill development that will lead to innovations that help change society and lifestyle. The start-up community in India is hoping that the initiative solves some of these problems. Funding is the fuel for start-ups, and has been a big roadblock for Indian start-ups. In 2015, however, Rs 29,400 crore was raised, but was done so mostly by established companies such as Flipkart, Snapdeal, Ola Cabs and Paytm. Funds are growing, but not so much than that in the international markets. The number of accelerators, domestic angels and incubators are very low, says Rajat Tandon, head of the Es 10,000 Startups initiative at Nasscom. Angels are the ones who fund early stage start-ups. Read: Invest in India, PM sends message from Facebook HQ The government has announced funds like the Bharat Fund, but the corpus is just Rs 900 crore. Then there is the India Aspiration Fund of Rs 2,000 crore. An average angel or first round of funding required for any start-up is Rs 16-18 crore. There are other funds that the government has set up for small and medium business like the MUDRA fund. But theres nothing for startups specifically. Modi said at the India-US Startup Konnect, Start-ups defy the natural rates of growth. An idea can become a global name within a year. Customers can multiply at the rate of millions; employ thousands and valuation are in billions. However, entrepreneurs feel that the current ecosystem in India does not allow growth. Thanks to the policies and clearances required, it takes an average of 29 days to start a business in India, versus six days in US and three days in Singapore. If international investment needs to be attracted, new rules have to be brought in. Investors need scale businesses and they need an exit Indias capital market is significantly restricted, says Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder of Paytm, valued at Rs 21,000 crore. The government has left very little options for start-ups that might not make it. If they make losses, they cannot list on the stock exchanges in India. Nor do banks provide them with any debt money. Not being listed also means that it cant issue convertible bonds (which can be converted into shares in the issuing company), as Uber did in the US to raise funds. Most of the successful start-ups internationally have been running losses for many years to build businesses of scale, but have still been able to raise money from the open market. Sharma explains that as in the case of Singapore and the US, the government should also match the funds put in by a private investor. You need Rs 300-500 crore to build large companies of scale. But today, that money is coming only from the private sectors We dont see that changing anytime soon, Greg Moran, co-founder and CEO of ZoomCar, which is in the self-drive car business. Read | Big layoffs at Indias online startups: Is the bubble bursting? Others like Saurabh Srivastava, chairman of India Angel Network, which helps funding and incubating start-ups think otherwise. Until the dotcom bubble happened in 2000, start-ups had not seen venture capital (VC) money flowing in. There were no VCs, no angel investors, and banks were not lending to startups. But after a few successful models, people started investing, he says. Some of the notable start-ups of the Dotcom days are EnfoEdge that runs Naukri.com, and MakeMyTrip. A decade later, we have billion dollar unicorns like Flipkart, Snapdeal, InMobi and Paytm. Apart from a few IT and BPO start-ups that became big in the 1990s and 2000s, the lack of Internet penetration held back growth for the rest of the entrepreneurs. In 2010, when the Internet started picking up and smartphones became mass-market, companies such as Flipkart, Snapdeal and Google India became big, and are now investing in newer start-ups. The other problem is taxation India is the only country where if a start-up raises money more than its fair value (which is in most cases negative because startups dont have robust balance sheets and are mostly in loses for the first few years), it has to pay taxes against the money raised. Start-ups cant give employee stock options, because they are taxable for the employees even before the company turns profitable. India will require more than 10 million jobs in the coming years, and only start-ups can provide that. In the US, in the past 31 years, all new jobs were created by start-ups. Currently, technology start-ups make over 90 per cent of the ecosystem. Those in the field of agriculture, retail, biotech and pharma are still to come up. Despite the governments push to the manufacturing sector, there are none in that sector either. Companies like Foxconn are still setting up factories; other big companies such as Micromax, Lava, Karbonn are also building manufacturing units in the country. For manufacturing start-ups to really take-off in the country, the focus has to be on small and medium businesses that are involved in the cottage industry. The newly launched Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY) has given them a fresh lease of life with `50,000 crore worth of loans to 80,000 small entrepreneurs. A majority of these comprise of businessmen from the backward classes, in tune with PM Modis recent statement where he estimates that the number of Dalit entrepreneurs will double in the next couple of years. Read: Modi makes strong pitch for Start Up India The government will also have to build linkages between schools, colleges, the IITs and the IIMs, to develop innovative ideas, on which any start-up ecosystem thrives, says Nasscoms Tandon. This would require the government to focus on skill development in areas beyond technology, which hasnt happened so far. With the talent pool that India has, this is just the beginning. Until six years ago, Srivastava says one or two angel investments happened in a year. Now there are 4,000 start-ups and one investment happens every ten days, he says. Looking West: Making entrepreneurs in America In this November 27 (2014) file photo, people gather along Pennsylvania Avenue outside the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File) Started in 2011, Startup America is a White House initiative to bring together the private sector and the federal government to boost entrepreneurship in the country. President Barack Obamas vision is to create a huge number of entrepreneurs for sustainable growth and quality jobs. Entrepreneurs in clean energy, medicine, advanced manufacturing, information technology, and other fields are the ones who will build the new industries of the 21st century, and solve some of our toughest global challenges, the Initiative document on the White House website says. Some of the key actionable points are: 1. Expand access to capital for high-growth start-ups throughout the country; 2. Expand entrepreneurship education and mentorship programmes that empower more Americans not just to get a job, but to create jobs; 3. Strengthen commercialisation of the about $148 billion in annual federally funded research and development. 4. Identify and remove unnecessary barriers to high-growth start-ups; and 5. Expand collaborations between large companies and start-ups. According to the Initiative, two funds of a billion dollar each were created Impact Investment fund and Early-stage Innovation Fund. The Innovation Fund provides 1:1 match to private capital raised by early stage seed funds. I have a long history of a peaceful activist in my effort towards improving human rights and creating a just and equitable world. I have written extensively in the arena of humanity, global politics, social conscience and human rights since 1980, many of which have appeared in newspapers, magazines, journals and the Internet. I have tirelessly championed the cause of the disadvantaged, the poor and the forgotten here in Americas and abroad. Commenting on my articles, others have said, "His meticulously researched essays and articles combined with real human dimensions on the plight of the displaced peoples of Rohingya in Myanmar, Chechnya, Bosnia, Kosovo and Palestine, and American Muslims in the post-9/11 era have made him a singular important intellectual offering a sane voice with counterpoints to the shrill threats of the oppressors and the powerful. He offers a fresh and insightful perspective on a whole generation of a misunderstood and displaced people with little or no voice of their own." I have authored 16 books, 13 of which are now available through the Amazon.com. Security was stepped up in Delhi and a high alert was issued after police received a phone call warning of a bomb being kept in a train on Sunday, a day after an air force base in Punjabs Pathankot was ambushed by heavily armed terrorists believed to be from Pakistan. There were speculations that two terrorists had entered Delhi, though police said they didnt have any such input. Senior officials, however, said they were taking no chances. Four terrorists, allegedly from Pakistan-based JeM, were killed by defence forces on Saturday. Intelligence agencies suspect six terrorists had entered Pathankot. Police stations have been asked to step up security and conduct stringent checks outside malls and markets. At India Gate, senior officers held a meeting with policemen personnel on the measures to counter a terror attack. Similar briefings were also held at Qutub Minar and other vital installations across the city. A senior official said police conducted over 20 mock drills to check their preparedness for a terror attack over the last few days. Our SWAT teams are prepared to handle any situation. We planned our mock drills for all kinds of terror attacks. We urge citizens to be vigilant and report if they suspect anything or anyone, said an officer. Vidhyadaan, a noble initiative by Indore district school education department and civil society organisations seeking volunteers for teaching students from Class 5-8, has started getting registrations from people belonging to different educational backgrounds. Sources said 288 people have registered themselves for fellowship, while 729 belonging to different qualification backgrounds have registered themselves as volunteers through the website. Out of 288 registration for fellowship, 105 candidates (36.46%) have shown interest to teach students of Class 8, followed by 72 (25%) ready to teach students of Class 5. Of 729 volunteers, 128 candidates belong to engineering backgrounds, followed by 72 people who have completed their Masters courses in Science. Indore divisional commissioner Sanjay Dubey launched the initiative on December 18 to bring desirous individuals to educate students up to Class 8 in government-run schools in the district. About 225 government schools (middle and primary) operate in Indore district. Indore divisional joint director (school education) OL Mandloi said many people who registered themselves for fellowship or for voluntary service, appeared before a team chaired by the commissioner for the screening procedure on Friday. Later, they visited government schools. Team members held subject-wise interactions with registered candidates. On the first day, we called those who wanted to teach English, the joint director said. We invited those willing to teach Math on the second day, while those wanting to teach Science and Social science were called on the third day, he added. Since only three months are left for the current academic session, volunteers could register themselves for only three months this year, which will be operational from January 1, 2016. But we expect a larger turnout in the next academic session. This initiative will hopefully bring big changes in teaching at government schools in the district, Mandloi said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON How many militants were involved in the attack on the Pathankot Air Force base? Did the authorities jump into action as soon as the assault started? Even as militants continue to pound the Air Force base even 40 hours after the incident began on Saturday, information has been hard to come by. But Defence Security Corps (DSC) jawan Karnail Singh, who was inside the base when it came under attack, was able to throw some much-needed light on the haze that seems to shroud the incident. When asked to describe how it all started, Karnail who was in Gurdaspur to mourn the death of his DSC colleagues Kulwant Singh and Fateh Singh said: The militants were heavily armed. They began spraying bullets as soon as they spotted our men near the mess. So, how many terrorists attacked the base? Even the DSC jawan didnt seem to know. I cannot tell the exact number of terrorists. But going by the way they were firing, it definitely looked like there were more than four. Karnail couldnt precisely state the point from where the militants may have sneaked in, but he strongly believed it must have been from the rear side. He denied suggestions that laxity may have made the establishment vulnerable to the militants, stating that the entire base was placed on high alert as soon as inputs about the likely attack came in. Questions are being raised over Indias response to the attack on the air base in Pathankot and many of them are valid. Just how could extremists breach the high walls of the highly-protected base when concrete intelligence was available hours in advance is only one such question. The first credible report came from within the security establishment; from the superintendent of police whose car was hijacked by the militants. He quickly informed the control room and his seniors that at least five terrorists were on the loose. Close to the Pakistan border, Pathankot is an important area where many defence establishments are based. An entire army division is headquartered there, as is the IAF base that came under attack. The security establishment responded quickly, sending elite National Security Guard commandos to Punjab. All defence establishments based around the area were alerted and quick-reaction teams readied. Yet, despite the high alerts, the terrorists managed to engage the security establishment comprising the air force, army and NSG for around 48 hours. Home minister Rajnath Singh first tweeting that all five terrorists were killed and subsequently deleting it is evidence of just how botched up the response was. Read | Intel inputs helped protect Pathankot airbase assets: Union home secy There was confusion on the ground and a clear lack of command and control. Too many cooks spoil the broth, a senior officer involved with the operation told HT. Confusion clearly prevailed on the ground in Pathankot with elite forces unaware that they hadnt neutralised all terrorists in the air base. And just how did the terrorists cross over? What if the SPs car hadnt been hijacked? Before the SP was stopped, the terrorists had already managed to sneak across the international boundary (IB) and kill the driver of an Innova car. That India has learnt few lessons despite repeated attacks -- including the 2008 Mumbai strike is evident from the fact that the Pathankot attackers crossed the border from virtually the same place as those who were responsible for last years attack in Gurdaspur. The Border Security Force said it deployed additional troops in this area after the July attack but the hard fact is the Pathankot terrorists came in undetected. Read | Pathankot attack: Ops at mature stage as gunfight continues Can India afford such breaches when it is clear that Pakistan will continue to use non-state actors as prized assets? The BSF is already feeling the heat but another inquiry is not enough. Heads must roll for a clear message to go out. The Indian security establishment believes based on phone calls made by the terrorists to Bahawalpur in Pakistans Punjab that the Jaish-e-Mohammad was behind the strike and will no doubt take it up when the foreign secretaries meet in Pakistan later this month. But it must ponder on its own mistakes and secure loopholes. The terrorists made a cardinal mistake of using the SPs phone to make calls to Pakistan. Next time, the terrorists may not give so much advance time, nor make such errors. It is not enough to say the technical area of the base wasnt breached. Not when we have a body count higher than the terrorists who sneaked in. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Calling upon the Central government to increase the deployment of Border Security Force (BSF) personnel along the 553-km Punjab Pakistan border to curb intrusion, Punjab deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, who is also the home minister, said the state government would fortify its second defence line using ultra-modern security gadgets and would also also deploy a commando battalion at all vulnerable points near the border. Sukhbir, who interacted with mediapersons in Pathankot where he visited the civilian, Rajesh Kumar, injured in the terrorist attack condemned the attack and said it appeared to be the handiwork of forces against peace initiatives between India and Pakistan. He also pleaded before the Centre to install scientific and intelligence gadgets along the fence at the international border. We are always on guard against terrorists and smugglers in the border belt, but more BSF personnel should be deployed for patrolling along barbed wire to control the intrusion, he demanded urging the Centre to declare Punjab-Pak border as sensitive boundary. Besides announcing the setting up of Police Lines, he announced that a Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team would be stationed in Pathankot. He added that Punjab Police had earlier successfully foiled the ghastly attack on Dinanagar police station by Pakistan trained suicide squads and had maintained constant vigil in the state. However, infiltration bids through rivulets along the border must be foiled by the forces at the helm of security at the international border with Punjab, Sukhbir added. Sukhbir also held a separate meeting with senior state police officers along with district administration and took stock of situation. He said the state police was on high-alert and the hard earned communal harmony and law and order situation would be maintained at all costs. He said the state police chief had been asked to take all possible measures to ensure the safety and security of public in border belt, besides stepping up deployment in the area. Punjab Police have been extending full support to the army, the air force and other security agencies involved in the operation to neutralise the terrorists, he said, while being flanked by IGP border range Lok Nath Angra, Pathankot DC Sukhminder Singh and SSP RK Bakshi. The government said on Sunday two more terrorists were still holed up in the Pathankot air base and officials werent sure about the exact number of militants who ambushed the facility. In the first official briefing after gunfire began, Union home secretary Rajiv Mehrishi and director general of air operations in the Air Force, Air Marshal Anil Khosla, said four terrorists had been killed so far in the encounter with security personnel. We are sure that still there are at least two more terrorists as firing have come from two different places. But we are not sure whether there are some more. We will come to know the number of terrorists only after the completion of the operation and body count, Mehrishi said. Mehrishi said Salwinder Singh, a superintendent of police in Punjab who was kidnapped along with two others on Friday and was left off later, said that there were only four terrorists. When asked whether there was any lapse while dealing with the terrorists as seven security personnel were killed despite having prior information, Mehrishi said: There was no lapse. Some casualties are obvious when there is an operation in this scale. The two officials said there were seven casualties six Indian Air Force personnel (including five Defence Security Corps(DSC) personnel and one Garuda commando), and one National Security Guard officer, Lt. Colonel Niranjan EK. The home secretary said the team of the specialised force was waiting in Pathankot for the terrorists as the exact point of possible attack was not known. When they (terrorists) attacked the air base, the NSG team moved immediately, he said. Air Marshal Khosla said the main aim of the terrorists was defeated as they could not reach the technical area of the Pathnkot air base where high valued assets were kept. The first contact with the terrorists was made on Saturday morning at around 3.30 am. The terrorists were contained in an area where there is heavy growth and shrubs. The operation is now at a matured stage, he said. Khosla added that the operation was slowed down on Saturday after the killing of four terrorists as security forces were not sure whether there were more terrorists still at large. Mehrishi said as of now it was suspected that Pakistan-bases terror group Jaish-e-Mohammad was involved in the attack. It was business as usual for the police in Thakurganj a couple of days ago, when they arrested a gang of burglars and recovered a large cache of arms from their possession. However, things turned interesting when they came across a stolen Smith and Wesson revolver from over 40 years ago. Quite surprisingly, the firearm apparently stolen from the police was still in working condition. Thakurganj sub-inspector Atul Srivastava said that the police stopped using Smith and Wesson revolvers about two decades ago, and only a few working models were still in existence. As we were surprised to find the revolver with the gang, we crosschecked the details with reserve police lines. We found that only two revolvers of this particular model had been stolen, he added. Srivastava said that while a revolver of this model was stolen from the Mahanagar in 1975, another went missing from Rae Barelis Bhadhokar police station two years later. However, it was difficult to identify which one this belonged to because the unique code embossed on the revolver had been filed off. Forensic tests would be conducted on the weapon to get further information on it, he added. Gang leader Mohd Rehan revealed that he had purchased the revolver from Munna, an illegal firearms dealer in the Old City. However, the three other gang members Mohd Tanveer, Ujaib, and Sunny Soni didnt seem to know anything about it. Srivastava said police are hunting for Munna, so he could be quizzed about the stolen revolver. Police also recovered a pistol, stolen by the gang from an advocates house a few days ago. The mortal remains of Honorary Capt Fateh Singh Thakur, a Defence Security Corps (DSC) personnel, who died fighting Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists inside the Pathankot airbase on Saturday, will be consigned to flames with full honours on Monday. Fateh, an ace international-level shooter who won many medals for the country, was a resident of Jhande Gujjaran village in Kahnuwan block of Gurdaspur district. After retiring from the 15 Dogra Regiment in 2011, Fateh started living with his family at Mahu in Madhya Pradesh. A few months later, he joined the defence security corps a specialised unit that provides security to defence ministry sites. He was shifted to the Pathankot airbase in 2014. Fatehs family members said he always wanted to serve the nation. He was so passionate about the army that he got his eldest son Gurdeep Singh Deepu enlisted in the same regiment (15 Dogras) from where he had retired, martyrs cousin Kuldip Singh told Hindustan Times. Fateh, who was honoured by then Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda, was popular with the villagers for his good nature. Fateh is survived by his wife Madhu Bala and two sons. His younger son Nitin Thakur,who is studying in class 9,s also wants to follow in the footsteps of his father and elder brother and join the army. Kulwant visited family only last week Another DSC personnel, who laid down his life fighting terrorists on Saturday, also hails from Gurdaspur. Havildar Kulwant Singh, 48, will be cremated with full honours at his native village Chak Sharif village on Monday. Kulwant, who retired from the army in 2004, joined the DSC in 2006. He is survived by his wife Harbhajan Kaur and two sons Surinder Singh, a Class 12 student and Gursharan Singh, who studies in Class 6. He was transferred from Odisha to Pathankot air force station just two months ago. Surinder said his father had come home last week to spend time with the family and had joined back on Tuesday. Kulwants uncle Kuldip Singh told HT that he was proud of his nephew. He said Kulwants salary and pension was the only source of income for the family. Pakistan prime ministers adviser on foreign affairs, Sartaj Aziz, has said his country will focus on consolidating the peace process with India, hours after four terrorists suspected to be from across the border attacked an air base in Punjabs Pathankot. Aziz told Radio Pakistan in an interview on Saturday evening that foreign secretaries of Pakistan and India will meet in Islamabad on January 15 to draw up a roadmap on comprehensive dialogue for the next six months. The dialogue will cover all issues, including Kashmir, Siachen and water, he added. The adviser told the state-owned radio station that there was visible improvement in relations with India and Afghanistan. This comes hours after a group of terrorists, suspected to be from Pakistan, attacked an air force base in Punjabs Pathankot and killed three securitymen before being gunned down in a 15-hour encounter. Pakistan has condemned the attack and reaffirmed its commitment to fighting terror, but Indian authorities are learnt to be upset about its inability to rein in ISI-sponsored jihadis . Highly placed sources said Delhi has evidence tracing the attack to Pakistans Bahawalpur, where Jaish-e-Muhammed leader Masood Azhar is based, and that it has the signature of the ISI. They also said India plans to ask Pakistan to take penal action against the outlawed JeM for a productive foreign secretary-level dialogue to take place. Read: Day after Pathankot attack, fresh explosion heard; soldier injured India may reschedule proposed foreign-secretary level talks, tentatively slated for later this month, to give Pakistan time to crack down on banned terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) that is believed to be behind the Pathankot air base ambush, sources said on Sunday. They said the national security advisers of the two countries may meet soon to explore how Pakistan could act against the JeM and reaffirm its commitment to the peace process before their foreign secretaries sit down for formal negotiations. The revelation came as Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a brainstorming session with his key foreign policy advisers even as the terrorists -- allegedly based out of Bahawalpur in Pakistan -- exchanged gun fire with security forces, over 36 hours after the operation began. Security forces will resume the operation on Monday morning as the guns of the remaining terrorists fell silent towards Sunday evening. The prime ministers office remained tight-lipped over the meeting attended by the national security adviser Ajit Doval and foreign secretary S Jaishankar, but sources said the Indian NSA was likely to discuss the attack with his Pakistani counterpart, Lt General Naseer Janjua, and seek action against JeM leader Maulana Masood Azhar. He is also expected to demand that Islamabad deliver on its commitment to take action against terrorists targeting India as discussed in the NSA-level dialogue on terrorism in Bangkok. Read | Pathankot: Search on for 2nd car, number of terrorists may be 8 or 10 The PM took stock of the Pathankot situation and the possible steps to be taken diplomatically with Pakistan, said a senior official. The Narendra Modi government was all for dialogue with the Nawaz Sharif government but rescheduling the talks was necessary to give time to Islamabad to take action against Azhars troopers, the sources said. Since terror and dialogue cannot go together, Pakistan will have to show its commitment to the peace process so that FS level dialogue take place this month, said a South Block official. It is understood that New Delhi will prepare a case study of the Pathankot attack, containing evidence nailing the JeM and their ISI handlers, on the basis of which Pakistan will be pressed to take action against the proscribed group. The South Block is clear the JeM was used by the Inter-Services Intelligence in the Pathankot attack as the group has been virulently anti-India and opposed to any peace talks. There is deliberate signature left in the attack so that message is understood by both sides, said a senior official. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Security forces continued to battle terrorists holed up in Punjabs Pathankot air base for a second straight day on Sunday, reportedly killing one militant and engaging at least one more amid fresh gunfire and explosions that triggered criticism of the governments handling of the crisis. Officials confirmed no damage to military assets but insisted the operation to flush out the heavily-armed terrorists was still on around 30 hours after the gunmen stormed the air base on Saturday, firing indiscriminately. Casualties on the Indian side rose to seven, with a blast during a mop-up operation killing an officer of the elite National Security Guards (NSG) and three more security personnel succumbing to their injuries from the encounter a day earlier. Read Intel inputs helped protect Pathankot airbase assets: Union home secy We are pained to know about demise of Lt Col Niranjan of NSG... The nation salutes his sacrifice, home minister Rajnath Singh said. Union home secretary Rajiv Mehrishi said commandos engaged two more terrorists on Sunday in addition to the four killed a day before -- contradicting official statements a day before that said all attackers had been gunned down and the operation was in its final stages. The number of terrorists who launched the audacious pre-dawn strike also rose to at least six as Singh withdrew a tweet that said five terrorists had been killed on Saturday. Read: Pathankot terrorists spoke of revenge for Afzal Guru: Gurdaspur man Security personnel keep a check on people passing by a check post on the road leading to the air force station in Pathankot. (Sameer Sehgal/ HT Photo) At night, operations slowed down and area was cordoned off. In the morning we realised two more terrorists are there. The operation is at a mature state but confirmation on number of casualties only after recovering bodies, said Air Marshal Anil Khosla. Operation is still on and will continue till we are sure that there are no more intruders at the Air Force station. Seven people have been martyred, one Garud, five DSC jawans and one NSG, said JS Dhamoon AOC, Pathankot. A second security personnel was also injured in a separate incident related to the mop-up operation. Besides, three security men involved in Saturdays operation succumbed to their injuries on Sunday morning. A day ago, a commando of the Indian Air Force (IAF)s elite special Garud unit and two Defence Security Corps personnel had died in the operation. The setbacks saw many questioning the governments handling of the crisis, including the quality of the intelligence and the planning of the response to the attack. Critics asked why it took authorities over 12 hours to probe a terror angle in the snatching of a police officials car in Punjab and the supposed lax monitoring of the international boundary, located just 30 kilometres from the air base. Read: Pathankot attack: India to put JeM rider on upcoming talks with Pak Officials of the National Investigation Agency at a check post set up on the road leading to the air force station in Pathankot. (Sameer Sehgal/ HT Photo) The terrorists also supposedly crossed the border from virtually the same point as the extremists responsible for the attack in Gurdaspur in July last year that left 10 people dead. The airbase, not very far from the Pakistan border, was attacked by a group of militants suspected to be operatives of the Jaish-e-Mohammed, a Pakistan-based group blamed for the December 2001 attack on Parliament that killed 11 people. The strike is believed to have been an attempt to undo the recent bonhomie in India-Pakistan ties but both sides gave no signal it would affect proposed talks later this month. The attack also came barely a week after Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a historic Christmas Day stopover in Lahore to meet his Pakistani counterpart, Nawaz Sharif. Read: Pakistan to focus on peace process with India, says Sartaj Aziz SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON India plans to ask Pakistan to take penal action against the outlawed Jaish-e-Muhammed, behind the Pathankot attack, for a productive foreign secretary-level dialogue to take place in Islamabad on January 15. According to highly placed sources, Delhi has evidence tracing the attack to Pakistans Bahawalpur, where JeM leader Masood Azhar a key figure in the 1999 IC-814 hijacking is based, and that it has the signature of the ISI. Pakistan has condemned the attack and reaffirmed its commitment to fighting terror, but the Indian establishment is learnt to be upset about its inability to rein in its jihadis and their ISI sponsors. The terrorists (in Pathankot) had Pak DNA and were dropped near the Indian border in Kathua-Gurdaspur sector on Dec 29-30 in a Land Cruiser and Pajero. If Pakistan wants the foreign secretary dialogue to be productive, PM Nawaz Sharif should arrest Maulana Masood Azhar and bring him to justice, said a top diplomat. Read: For 24 hours, terrorists dodged security before attacking Pathankot base After PM Narendra Modis surprise Lahore visit on Dec 25, the Indian security establishment was certain forces opposed to the new-found friendship would launch an attack to scuttle future dialogue. On Dec 28, national security adviser Ajit Doval met military and intelligence chiefs and internal security and foreign policy advisers to hone in on the group most likely to strike. Some believed it would be the al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) while others pointed to the Islamic State. But a section also said the attack could be carried out by the JeM, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. Matters turned serious when Indian agencies picked up communication intercepts between JeM terrorists and their ISI handlers towards 2015-end signaling the date of the attack being initially fixed for Jan 1 and the target being the Pathankot air base. Further confirmation came with the abduction of Gurdaspur SP Salwinder Singh on Friday by five suspected terrorists who used his phone to call Pakistan. Doval held another meeting with military and intelligence chiefs. They decided to deploy the National Security Guard and use the armys Casspir bomb-proof vehicles. All air assets were removed from the base, where 168 NSG commandoes were deployed by Friday night. The Western Air Command chief was given the reins of the operation. Despite the high alert and eight-foot walls, the terrorists managed to get in and kill three IAF personnel. While India is all for talks, we need answers and action from Pak NSA Lt Gen Nasser Khan Janjhua on the state involvement in the Pathankot attack. The international community should put pressure on Pakistan to act against its indigenous jihad factory. Else, India and Pakistan will talk past each other, said a government official. Read| Pathankot terrorists spoke of revenge for Afzal Guru: Gurdaspur man SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Two teams of terrorists attacked the Pathankot air base on Saturday, and they had in all likelihood reached there in different vehicles, security sources told HT. The two terrorists who remained hidden at the air base and exchanged fire with security personnel on Sunday were part of another team of terrorists that had entered the vast air base area. We also suspect that they might have reached there in another vehicle, said a senior security official on the condition of anonymity. Sources said a lot could be deduced from the experience of Punjab superintendent of police Salwinder Singh and his jeweller friend, who were overpowered by four heavily armed persons in military uniforms who then used his vehicle to travel nearly 500 to 1,000 metres in the direction of the air base. This goes to confirm that there was at least one group of four terrorists that entered the air base area on the intervening night of Thursday and Friday, when they snatched Salwinder Singhs vehicle. The calls made from the mobile phone snatched from Salwinder and his friend show they didnt move from one area, said another security official. Counter-terror sources said there were intercepts that referred to a group of six terrorists infiltrating into India to carry out the attack. The security establishment is now looking for any other vehicle that might have been hijacked from the area, and used by the second group to reach the Pathankot air base. When asked about the number of militants who may have jointly attacked the air base, a senior police officer said that it could be as high as eight or ten. And as a second vehicle has not been recovered despite the Punjab police combing the entire periphery of the air base, investigation officers are almost certain of the involvement of a local module of terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) that may have dropped the other team of terrorists at the spot. Sources said all the phone calls made by the terrorists to Pakistan were on numbers identified as that of JeM by the security establishment for a long time now. The police are also scrutinising footage acquired from the toll plaza on the Gurdaspur-Pathankot highway besides various police and BSF checkpoints on the Bamiyal-Pathankot road for clues. Police will also go into the details of the calls made to Ikagar Singh a taxi driver from Bhagowal village who was killed by the terrorists. Initial reports have suggested that he was called from a Pakistan number, and hired to transport someone to a hospital. But security sources are yet to verify the timing of the call, to check if it was made when the militants were with the driver or earlier. Security sources are looking at the timing of the call made on the phone to see if it was made when the terrorists were with him or before that. However, as soon as Singh discovered the identity of his passengers who were apparently picked up at the Kathlana T-point on the Bamiyal-Pathankot road he rammed his vehicle into a rock near Kathlour bridge over the Ravi and tried to escape. Singh was, however, killed by the militants. Singhs family claimed that he was repairing a car tyre when he was overpowered and forced to drive ahead by the terrorists, who were hiding near the T-point. Meanwhile, sources said that combing the thick forested areas within the air base is turning out to be a herculean task. There are few buildings in the area, other than a deserted workshop and some empty hangars. The combing operations continued through the night, but considering that there are militants around we have to be very cautious to ensure that our men are not hunted down, a top police officer said. The officer said that the firing was confined to the same general area where the other four terrorists were killed. The good news is the time lapse between the firing is increasing, which means they are running short of ammunition. It is only a matter of time before we win the battle, he added. Security agencies halted the combing operation late in the night to prevent chances of their personnel incurring further casualties, stating that it would be resumed at first light. They said the operation would be deemed complete only after the bodies of the terrorists are recovered. Read More Militants were heavily armed, began spraying us with bullets PM Modi chairs meeting on Pathankot attack; NSA, foreign secy present Questions being asked over response to Pathankot attack valid Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday night reviewed the situation arising out of the terror attack at Pathankot air force base and is believed to have discussed with top officials its ramifications on ties with Pakistan. Soon after his return from Karnataka where he was on a two-day visit, Modi chaired a meeting of top officials including national security adviser Ajit Doval and foreign secretary S Jaishankar. The meeting lasted for over two hours, the sources said. Immediately on landing in Delhi, PM Narendra Modi is chairing a high-level meeting with the NSA, Foreign Secretary and other officials, the PMO tweeted as the meeting began. During the meeting, Doval is understood to have given a detailed account of the attack which has been going on since the early hours of Saturday. At the meeting, the implications of the attack on relations with Pakistan are also believed to have been deliberated upon. The attack took place merely a week after Modi made a surprise visit to Lahore to greet Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on his birthday with an aim of improving bilateral ties between the two countries. Sharif was in Lahore for the wedding of his granddaughter. Earlier during the day, defence minister Manohar Parrikar briefed Prime Minister Modi on the latest situation at the Pathankot air base. Both were present at a HAL function in Tumakuru in Karnataka. Pathankot air base is under terror attack since Saturday. The security forces have already killed four terrorists and two more are believed to be still holed-up inside the base, and an operation is underway to flush them out. A joint combing operation by the armed forces, police and security personnel was still underway and the NIA has taken over the probe. Three young men who were allegedly abducted by Maoists in Chhattisgarh while they were on a bicycle rally to spread the message of peace have been freed after a few days in captivity. We have been told by police that all three are safe and will now return in two days, the father of one of the abducted men said on Sunday. Chhattisgarh government spokesperson Rajesh Toppo told Hindustan Times that they have reached a CRPF camp at Chintalnar in Dantewada district. A relative of one of the abducted persons said the Maoists asked for their identity cards to make sure they were not security personnel. Once identity cards were shown, the men were released and brought to Chintalnar, said a source in Pune Anti-Terrorism Squad. The three men -- Vilas Walke, Shrikrishna Shewale and Adarsh Patil -- who were on a peace-building mission were allegedly abducted on December 29 from the restive Bijapur district of Chhattisgarh. They started their cycle rally on December 20 from Pune under the Bharat Jodo (Link India) campaign to spread the message of peace in Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Odisha, the states worst affected by Maoist violence over the past three decades. The trip was to conclude at Balamela in Odisha on January 10. Earlier there were contradicting reports reaching state capital Raipur about the abduction with authorities saying the three did not keep them in the loop about their trip. This is not done. We were not sure about their whereabouts and were trying to get clues from local villagers and other sources, additional superintendent of police in Bijapur, Indira Kalyan Elesela, said. Farmers from 15 villages of Manasa tehsil set a water filter plant ablaze and destroyed a pipeline in Neemuch after their 10-day-long protest to stop a project to apportion water from Chamleshwar Dam to 29 more villages became violent on Friday. Over 150 farmers have been booked for arson and violence that damaged property worth more than Rs 5 crore and snapped water supply to Manasa and Deekan areas. The protesters fear distribution of water to more areas will cause water shortage in the villages located near the dam built on Rupa river, a tributary of Chambal. The farmers said the authorities had acquired their land for construction of the Chamleshwar Dam and were supplying water to them for last 20 years, but now suddenly they decided to distribute water to 29 other villages without consulting them. We were protesting against the water supply project for the last 10 days, but the administration never bothered to listen to us. The pipeline project should have been started after taking us (people belonging to 15 villages) into confidence, because we have given land for construction of the dam, claimed Motilalal, a resident of Kanjarda village. On Friday afternoon, the villagers turned violent and barged into the Chameleshwar dam office premises, located about 45 km from Neemuch district. They damaged the pumping station, set afire the machinery and a filter plant and broke the pipeline that supplied water to Manasa and Deekan areas. Farmers leader Umarao Gurjar blamed the district administration for the violence. When the farmers were on protest for last 10 days, why did the officials not make any effort to talk to them? No farmer was consulted before laying the pipelines to 29 other villages, he said. Police have so far identified 17 farmers involved in the Friday violence and arson and have booked them under various section of the Indian Penal Code. Neemuch district collector Rajneesh Shrivastava told HT water supply to Manasa and Diken towns were snapped after the filter plant was set on fire. Our first priority is to restore water supply to these towns, he said. The collector said the new water supply project sought to provide water to 29 other villages in the tehsil and would continue because it was for the larger benefit of the region. Har Iqbal Singh Dhaliwals gallantry award is of a distinct class. He was awarded the Vir Chakra not for killing enemy soldiers but saving the life of one of his own tank crew. Undoubtedly, such qualities of leadership would motivate the men he commanded to follow him anywhere. Commanding a troop of Centurions of Bravo (Jat) Squadron of Indias premier armoured regiment, Poona Horse, he led the advance of 1st Armoured Division into the Pakistani heartland in Sialkot sector on September 8, 1965. Short of the regimental objective of Tharoh crossroads, his troop got into a firefight with the tanks of Pakistans 25th Cavalry. A shot from a M47 Patton set his tanks petrol tank on fire. While bailing out of the burning Centurion, Dhaliwal was badly burnt on the right side of his face and both arms. His driver, gunner and he took shelter in a ditch; however, radio operator Sowar Hukam Singh, a young soldier from Rohtak, got entangled in the tanks camouflage net and fell to the ground, hurt. Knowing the danger he was in, with a likelihood of the tanks ammunition going off at any moment, Dhaliwal, without any hesitation, ran forward under enemy fire, picked up the injured soldier and carried him to safety. It was a magnificent display of selfless, cool courage and quickness of thought. Though Dhaliwal moved to another tank and retained command of his troop, he was ordered to be evacuated to the rear. Moved to Pathankot, he ended up in a hospital at Jhansi. Belonging to that cradle of soldiers, Faridkot district, he had joined the army in 1964 at the ripe old age of 31 after a stint in the Territorial Army. His was the kind of leadership and devotion to the men that brought Poona Horse the highest number of battle and theatre honours in the armies of the Commonwealth. Substance or symbol? The annual Combined Commanders Conference, in which the chiefs as well as the commanders of the armed forces regional and functional commands and principal staff officers at Services HQ take part, are achievement-oriented exercises in strategic planning and operationalisation. All the key strategic, operational and logistic positions in respect of the defence services are presented to the government and are the subjects of inter-service discussion. They are supported by the huge staff posted in the Services headquarters. The Prime Minister made a suggestion, accepted with alacrity, that these conferences should be moved out of Delhi and held in border areas, aboard ships or at airbases so as to get a feel of problems at the grassroots. Recently, we saw the first such edition being held on the aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya in Kochi. This is tantamount to reducing this all-important conference to an exercise in imagery. Top commanders of the Services are not politicians or bureaucrats. They come up through the system with service with the troops, at sea or on flying duties alternating with staff, instructional and administrative appointments. They are fully aware of the functioning of units and troops on active service. Symbolism in itself is a powerful tool used by the Services to generate esprit de corps and maintain cohesion. However, it must not become a device for politicians to further their own agendas at the cost of preparedness for national security. Appreciating the successful efforts of Punjab government and security agencies in swiftly tackling the terrorist attack at Pathankot air force base, Union minister for food processing industries and Bathinda MP, Harsimrat Kaur Badal, on Sunday said the anti-peace forces were behind the attempt to disturb peace in the state. Talking to media on the sidelines her sangat darshan programme in Bathinda district, the Union minister said the terrorist organisations were perturbed over the Indo-Pak relations, which were getting better. Prime Minister Narendra Modis meeting with Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Lahore gave strong indications of the improved Indo-Pak relations. But anti-peace forces in both the countries could not bear the improving equation between the two countries and committed the cowardly terror attack on the nation, Harsimrat said. Meanwhile, Harsimrat also paid tributes to the martyred security personnel who laid down their lives for the nation during the terror attack. Coordination between the Punjab Police and central agencies as well as timely intelligence reports helped security forces to combat infiltrators inside the premises of the airbase, said Harsimrat. Earlier, while addressing the gathering during the sangat darshan programme, she said Punjab was the only state to disburse compensation to cotton belt farmers affected by white fly attack. The state government has distributed compensation of Rs 8,000 per acre to farmers of the cotton belt while they are still agitating for compensation to the tune of Rs 40,000 per acre. The government is also going to distribute total compensation amounting to Rs 64-crore to farm labourers of the cotton belt soon, whereas other cotton-producing states like Haryana, Rajasthan and Maharashtra have no such compensation policy for white fly affected cotton farmers, Harsimrat said. Responding to a question, she said the Mukh Mantri Tirath Darshan Yatra scheme had no political motive behind its launch and was aimed at helping people in paying obeisance at religious places free of cost. When the Congress was in power in the state, it failed to do anything worthwhile for the people. Now, as the SAD-BJP government has taken this initiative, the Congress is devising tactics to belittle it, she said. Talking about the development works initiated in the state, she called upon people to monitor the ongoing projects in their villages as only community participation can improve basic infrastructure to fuel development. The Union minister, accompanied by a battery of district administration and police officials, visited Bahadargarh Jandian, Bandi, Jassi Bagh Wali, Baho Sivian and Multania villages here. Even as the sale of the fabric and shoes similar to army fatigues was banned in the district on October 21, the practice continues unabated at all the old city markets, especially near the railway station. Tailors in the city stitch the entire army uniform on order even for civilians. What is guarantee that the fatigues would not be misused? This is now a major headache for authorities, said a source. Police commissioner Paramraj Singh Umrannagal said, I will direct officers to check this illegal sale of fabric and even readymade uniforms. Colonel Jagdish Singh Brar (retd) said, The government has not been taking this issue of sale of uniforms to all and sundry seriously across markets. This is now a major cause of concern for intelligence agencies. The police need to issue strict instructions for enforcement of the ban. Tailors should not stitch uniforms without keeping record. He added, In Jammu and Kashmir too, several incidents of terrorists misusing the uniform have been reported for years, especially in Poonch and Rajouri. Residents claimed that intelligence agencies needed to keep a tab on shops selling the uniforms and the fabric. Riddled with factionalism, the city unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday tried to put up a united face as the party declared candidates for the mayoral polls, to be held on January 8. In an embarrassment, the party failed to announce its candidate for the deputy mayors post. The city unit members of the party went into a huddle following intervention of the central leadership. City BJP chief Sanjay Tandon, member of Parliament Kirron Kher, senior leaders Satya Pal Jain and Harmohan Dhawan were present at the BJP office while the name of the candidates for the post of mayor and senior deputy mayor were declared. Partys local unit in-charge Prabhat Jha said Arun Sood would be the BJPs nominee for the mayors post and Davesh Moudgil for senior deputy mayor. Both the councillors are lawyers and play an active role in the municipal corporation House meetings. It was for the first time that the party didnt declare names of all three candidates (mayor, senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor) in one go. Senior party leaders said the BJP had not named anyone for the deputy mayors post as the seat had been reserved for its ally the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD). If the SAD fails to come up with a candidate, the BJP will announce is nominee for the post. We have not declared the partys nominee for deputy mayor as a part of our strategy. The name will be declared on Sunday. We will make all-out efforts to win mayoral polls this time, said Jha. However, sources say the party has failed to reach a consensus on selecting a candidate for the deputy mayors post. The infighting within the local BJP unit was reflective as senior central leaders, including Union health minister JP Nadda and Prabhat Jha, held meetings with the city unit members and directed them to sink differences. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Today I give you something that would probably be more at home half way round the world ... in Nepal. We were given some Nepalese prayer flags from Simon's sister who travelled there earlier in the year. We have some in the house as part of our Christmas decorations and these ones are fluttering outside in the wind. The flags come in sets of five, one each of the following colours from left to right: blue, white, red, green, and yellow and the colours each represent something. Blue for the sky and space, white for air and wind, red for fire, green for water and yellow for earth. Prayer flags are used to promote peace, compassion, strength, and wisdom with these positive feelings being blown by the wind from the flags across the world. Ideally the flags should be left to fly as high as possible and whilst I am not sure our washing line in Normandy can compete with the Himalayas in altitude I am hoping they are doing well spreading good feelings far and wide. Happy New Year everyone and I hope our Nepalese Prayer Flags send some of their good wishes in your direction. There were about 40 of them. They werent raising any slogans. Some standing, some sitting on the kerb, some chatting and laughing, some quiet, resolute all of them visibly upbeat about being together in whatever they were doing. It had to mean something. A group of labour-class women do not gather on the street for nothing. Well, as it turned out, it was quite simple. In a classic case of class discrimination, the women all of them domestic help or maids were disallowed from using the facility of lifts in the society building where they worked. Their quiet patience in navigating the six floors by stairs had turned into a strike that day, only after the humiliation took terrible turns such as, guards scolding them for breaking the sacred rule, and some of the women being summoned to the management office and being told to pull their ears and say, Sorry, I will not use the lift again. Remember school? Remember social studies? No kidding! Indeed, ugly middle-class realities do not bare themselves in such broad daylight every day. But dont act all surprised. And if youre in shock, youre in grave denial in fact. This discrimination in a society at Dhakoli in Zirakpur a suburb of Utopia only brings to the street something rotten thats sitting in most middleclass kitchens. Forget lifts, I am talking about that separate cup in which the maid is served her tea. Go on, blame the over-analysed mercurial temper of opinion-writers, or call me a lazy generalist who doesnt do his research before getting angry. Id be happy to concede, and you can go back to la-la land. Easier still, go on and tell me you dont have that separate cup; Id be happy to count the exceptions. In fact, to counter the argument once and for all, why dont you take the hygiene alibi? Yes, about maids not being clean enough to share your crockery but being adept enough to clean it spick and span. Or, you could learn from the man himself. We are only saving electricity, said Mr KR Sharma, president of the Gulmohar Trends society management. We have exempted older maids, and those physically challenged or pregnant, from this rule, he added. The lifts are old, so we need to use them sparingly, he further said. I tell you what; the maids just want a salary raise! he concluded, before leaving to hear some residents who had gathered to show solidarity with the protesting maids. This was the pious lot. All hassled and worked up, these were mostly women who practically wanted to hang Mr Sharma. Why should we suffer a protest by our maids when it is this Sharma guy who made this no-lift-for-workers rule? they echoed, as reporters and photographers started arriving at the spot. I am ready to give mine a salary raise if she finds it difficult to climb the stairs, one of them declared in all humility. You, shut up! I live on the ground floor. I want mine to resume work anyway, another replied. The protesters were watching, probably amused. Where is Modi now? Is this his Beti Bachao? screamed a liberal-type, who said she had protested even when the rule had been made two weeks ago. But, as the maids underlined, the rule was in place for almost two months anyway, much before it was passed as a resolution at the societys general body meeting. It wasnt long before a reporter finally asked the question that was hanging in the air all along: Where were you earlier, maam? Didnt you know about this ban, since you live on the fifth floor? Perhaps she was waiting for the Prime Minister to talk about the issue in his Mann Ki Baat. She only said she had heard rumours but never got the time to ask any of the maids about it. The reporters did not laugh. Professionalism, you see! After a while, the bleeding-heart residents managed a middle-of-theroad solution, and Sharma ji agreed: The maids can use the lift while going up, and take the stairs on their way down. No one asked the maids. They smiled, dispersed, and have since resumed work. Everything is fine again. And, sure, that separate cup doesnt mean anything. Its a mere hygiene issue, as we all know. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON I am an eternal optimist. I detest taking part in idle talk: political mudslinging, failing law and order, witch-hunting and talks of intolerance, increasing disparity and injustice, failing aspirations and eroding values. Having donned military uniform for over two decades and experiencing true secular environment, I am convinced that we belong to a great nation. Since most of us have a shortterm memory, the latest events of ignominy depress us and give us a feeling of an impending doom. However, the wider picture is rosy. The year gone by has been great. India has gained in stature internationally. The life of a common man is under transformation. The corrupt are getting vulnerable. Frankly, I am disillusioned with two issues: the blatant upsurge of a foul tongue and the utter disregard towards normal functioning of the Parliament. Notwithstanding, 2016 is destined to be a game changer on many accounts. To line only for some unknown future is superficial, said our ex-President APJ Abdul Kalam. Come 2016, get ready for some concrete action: The economy is bound to flourish with the new tax regime around the corner. Sensitisation of the countries around the globe with regard to the power of Indian market will attract foreign direct investment, thereby creating abundant jobs. Antediluvian norms for running business will be history. A substantial rise in salaries of employees and pensioners will boost their spending power with obvious positive effects. I feel the forthcoming budget will be pragmatic towards development and will prove to be common-man-friendly. Indias relations with other countries are on the upswing. Our diaspora is being taken aboard to have a force multiplier effect. Our neighbours are leaning towards us for moral and material support. The shortcomings in our defence arsenal are being realistically analysed. The policy of Make in India is likely to be practised in a big way. The watershed decision to open fighter aircraft cockpits for women officers is a precursor for other combat roles for them. The Swachh Bharat campaign is gaining awareness like never before. The cess introduced will strengthen the infrastructure for a cleaner India. A beginning to tackle the menace of vehicular pollution head-on is a welcome step and will pay dividends.Smart city projects will improve services to public at large and increase accountability of the administration. Communications be it mobile, internet, road or rail are on the fast track with obvious positive results for the common man. The power of media to bring forth transparency is indeed laudable. Its efforts coupled with social media will bring to the fore the anti-social and corrupt elements. The society at large is proactively expressive regarding crimes against women. Time is not far when women of the country will get the space they deserve. Several trains were running late on Saturday due to foggy weather in the early morning, causing inconvenience to many passengers who had to wait for long hours at the railway station. Howrah-Kalka mail which runs between Kalka and New Delhi; intercity express between Amritsar and Chandigarh and Chandigarh-Lucknow express were running late by 1-2 hours on Saturday. While Howrah-Lalka mail was running late by one hour and 30 minutes, Amritsar-Chandigarh was late by an hour and Chandigarh-Lucknow express was late by one hour and 10 minutes. Three flights between Chandigarh and Delhi were also delayed. The flights which were delayed include Air India- Chandigarh-Delhi, Spicejet-Chandigarh-Delhi and the Jet Airways flight between Chandigarh-Bombay. They were delayed by an hour. Meanwhile as per the schedule which was released in December 2015, five Shatabdi express trains which would include- 12005 (Monday/ Wednesday), 12011 (Tuesday/ Sunday), 12012 (Tuesday/ Sunday), 12046 (Thursday) and 12045(Thursday) will remain cancelled twice a week. The new schedule will come in force from January 9 and would remain till February end. A total of eight trains plying from the city or making a halt here will also be cancelled for approximately two and half months. The other trains which will remain cancelled include Lucknow-Chandigarh (12231) from January 9, Chandigarh-Amritsar (12241) which will remain cancelled on Tuesdays; Chandigarh-Amritsar (12411) and Amritsar-Chandigarh (12412) which will remain cancelled every Friday; Lucknow-Chandigarh (15011) on Wednesday and Friday; Chandigarh-Allahbad (14218) on Tuesday and Friday ; Allahbad-Chandigarh (14217) on Wednesday and Friday; Chandigarh-Lucknow (12232) on Thursday and Saturday; Amritsar-Chandigarh (12242) on Wednesday and Chandigarh-Lucknow (15012) on Wednesday and Saturday. Former assembly speaker and senior Congress leader Harnam Das Johar passed away in Ludhiana on Sunday after a cardiac arrest. He was 83. The former minister had developed a urinary infection two days ago. We rushed him to SPS Hospital on Sunday morning after he suffered a heart attack, Johars son Ajay told HT. The senior Congress leader was cremated with full state honours with a host of political leaders, cutting across party lines, present at the ceremony. Johar was first elected as Congress MLA from Ludhiana West constituency in 1985. Johar started his career with the Indian Air Force. Before actively joining politics, he worked as a lawyer. He was nominated as the district chief of the party in 1989 and continued on the post till 1992 when he became the education minister in the Beant Singh government. He was nominated as speaker in 1993. Later, Johar became minister for local bodies in the government led by Rajinder Kaur Bhattal in 1996. A large number of political leaders, including Ludhiana MP Ravneet Singh Bittu and political adviser to chief minister Parkash Singh Badal Maheshinder Singh Grewal, were present at the cremation. Mourning the demise of the senior leader, Punjab Congress chief Captain Amarinder Singh said: Johars death is a huge loss not only to the family but also to the party. He also called up Johars son to express his condolences. CM Badal, deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal and speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal, also mourned Johars demise. In a condolence message, the chief minister said the state has lost an experienced leader, who believed in clean and value-based politics. Sukhbir said Johar always conducted proceedings of the Vidhan Sabha with impartiality and performed his duties as minister with absolute integrity. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON In the case involving bomb blast that took place in a car at Dugri village, near Jalandhar, on December 5, rural police on Saturday sought remand of the prime accused, Jagmohan Singh, for five more days from a local court, submitting that they have to recover detonators, used to trigger the explosive, from Sirsa as revealed by him. The court, however, allowed just one-day remand of the accused. Police told the court that the accused made these revelations during his two-day remand, telling that he had hidden the detonators on Hansi Road in Sirsa and would also help in arresting two of his accomplices there. The court asked the police as why they failed to produce Jagmohans fresh medical report as they had submitted on Friday that his medical examination was held at the civil hospital. The defence counsel argued that the police deliberately discharged his client from the jail and produced in the court, violating the norms. He also contended that police have violated the court orders by not presenting the medical report as demanded by the same court earlier. He said his client is serious and is not able to give statement, but cops are ignoring his condition. The police produced Jagmohan on a wheelchair. He would be produced before the duty magistrate on Sunday. On December 31, the court had sent him to two-day police remand for the first time as the police said they needed his custody for a week. Police said they wanted to interrogate Jagmohan to get to heart of the conspiracy. A police official, who is part of the investigation team, said Jagmohan has not been cooperating with them and is making an excuse of health condition. Reiterating the firm commitment of the state government to develop Qadian as a model city, Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal on Sunday said the work of beautification of this city, especially area around the world headquarters of Jamaat-e-Ahmadiyya, would be completed before the 125th annual Jalsa (convention) of Jamaat in December, 2016. Interacting with the leaders of Jamaat-e-Ahmadiyya, here on Sunday, the chief minister said as devotees from across the globe converged here every year, so it was the bounden duty of the state government to develop this place according to its magnitude. He said work of beautification of this town was going on in full swing and would be completed shortly. Badal also asked the officials concerned to ensure that work of sewerage, streetlights, roads, water supply and other basic civic amenities in this city were executed in time, so as to give a facelift to this city. Acceding to the demand of the Ahmadiyya Jamaat, the CM also asked the officers to explore alternate site for disposal of waste in the city. He said if required the state government would bear the expenses of purchasing alternate chunk of land in the vicinity of town. SAD-BJP alliance most secular govt in country Terming the SAD-BJP alliance government as the most secular government in the country, the CM said the state government had taken path breaking initiatives for the welfare of each and every strata of society. He said, It is a fact that the SAD-BJP alliance government was following the footsteps of the great Sikh Gurus who have taught them the message of communal harmony, love, brotherhood, peace and above all of egalitarian society with pure secular character. Badal said the state government had always taken adequate steps to ensure the all-round development of every section of the society. Earlier, president Sadar Anjuman Ahmadiyya Jalaal-ud-din Nayar, Mohammed Nasim Khan, Shiraz Ahmed and Majid Mahmood thanked the CM for fulfilling the promise of covering the nullah flowing from the centre of city. The CM also sanctioned a degree college for Ladhupur village, while holding a Sangat Darshan programme at Bhattian village, 25 km from here, on Sunday. Dont politicise Pathankot Air Base terror attack Addressing media there, the CM advised the political parties not to try to politicise the issue of Pakistani terrorists attack on the Pathankot Air Base. He said, On such matters, all the political parties should work united to defeat the enemy forces. The chief minister lauded the action by the national security guards, army and Punjab Police against the attacking Pakistani terrorists. Parkash Singh Badal paid homage to those security men who lost their lives while fighting the terrorists. Replying to a query, the CM asserted that no political party was in a position to pose a threat to the Akali party that had won struggles and had a long history of achievements. He termed Congress party an enemy party for Punjab and Aam Aadmi Party a bundle of dejected political leaders. The prime accused in the case in which a Sangrur man was nabbed and allegedly tortured in police custody was arrested here on Sunday. After the National Scheduled Castes Commission on Saturday told the police to act, Sanjay Sharma was arrested from the town. However, the police refused to give details. Later, a local court sent him to one-day police custody. The other accused -- the three dismissed policemen -- are already in judicial custody. Sanjay, a member of the police advisory committee, had allegedly taken the police to victim Manga Singhs meat shop to get him arrested alleging that Manga sold liquor. However, the police had searched his shop but found no liquor. Meanwhile, the Congress protest, demanding the SSPs suspension, entered its third day on Sunday. The Congress also burnt an effigy of the SSP in front of the Sangrur city police station. The Congress has called for a Sangrur bandh for two hours on Monday. Party workers have appealed to shopkeepers to close shops from 1 pm to 3 pm and to reach the protest site. Former Congress MLA and state party vice-president Surinder Pal Singh Sibia is on hunger strike, demanding the suspension of the district police chief. Senior Congress leader Rajinder Kaur Bhattal and other party leaders would join the protest on Monday. Sibia said they would intensify the stir in case their demands were not met soon. Meanwhile, despite the SC commissions orders, no FIR has been lodged against station house officer (SHO) Jatinderpal Singh. However, no police official was available for comment. Also, victim Mangas family alleged that the police till now were trying to shield Sanjay as after getting orders from the SC panel they arrested him in a day. One of Mangas relatives said they would get justice only if the FIR was registered against the SHO and he was dismissed from service. An ancient woodland site in England with a name as mystical as its trees, Puzzlewood, is set to become a major tourist site after being featured in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Located in Gloucestershire, west of London, Puzzlewood in the Forest of Dean plays a supporting role in Star Wars: The Force Awakens as the stunning backdrop to a key battle scene involving Rey (Daisy Ridley), Stormtroopers and Kylo Ren (Adam Driver). While much of the film may have been shot at the Pinewood movie studio in England, few special effects or CGI were needed to evoke a sense of otherworldliness at Puzzlewood, with its moss-covered forest floor, deep-cut canyons, twisting walkways, knotted trees and tangled roots. The ancient forest and ruins are also believed to have been the inspiration for JRR Tolkiens Middle Earth in The Lord of the Rings and have likewise been used in productions such as Doctor Who, Merlin, Jack the Giant Killer, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1. Filming Star Wars in Great Britain was a wonderful experience, said director JJ Abrams in a video promo posted by Creative England which supports productions shot in the country. It brings Star Wars to where it all began. Pointing out that all six films were shot in England, producer Kathleen Kennedy also called England the home of Star Wars. Daisy Ridley in a scene from Star Wars: The Force Awakens which was shot at Puzzlewood. (Lucasfilm) Its nice to have it all back here, she added. Puzzlewoods distinct, otherworldly landscape can be partly attributed to Scowles, geographical features that originated through the erosion and uplift of underground, limestone cave systems. The result is irregular, labyrinthine hollows and rising paths that lend the woodlands a mystical effect. Read: Star Wars The Force Awakens echoes the best of the first trilogy The woods are also believed to have been occupied by ancient Romans, following the discovery of thousands of Roman coins. Meanwhile, after hosting a series of special Christmas events, a look ahead to events planned for Puzzlewoods 2016 season include performances of A Midsummer Nights Dream, Mothers and Fathers Day celebrations, Easter Egg Hunts, and Halloween Witch Hunts. The cast and crew of Merlin shooting in Puzzlewood. (puzzlewood.net) Facilities include a Puzzlewood Cafe and dedicated play areas. Admission for adults is 6.50 (about US$9.60), 5.30 (about US$7.90) for kids ages 3 to 16 and free for tots 2 and under. The forest is closed in January and reopens February 13. Irans top leader on Sunday warned Saudi Arabia of divine revenge over the execution of an opposition Shia cleric while Riyadh accused Tehran of supporting terrorism, escalating a war of words hours after protesters stormed the Saudi Embassy in Tehran. Saudi Arabia announced the execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr on Saturday along with 46 others, including three other Shia dissidents and a number of al-Qaida militants. Al-Nimr was a central figure in protests by Saudi Arabias Shia minority until his arrest in 2012, and his execution drew condemnation from Shias across the region. Irans supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei condemned the execution Sunday in a statement on his website, saying al-Nimr neither invited people to take up arms nor hatched covert plots. The only thing he did was public criticism. Irans powerful Revolutionary Guard said Saudi Arabias medieval act of savagery in executing the cleric would lead to the downfall of the countrys monarchy. Saudi Arabias foreign ministry said that by condemning the execution, Iran had revealed its true face represented in support for terrorism. The statement, carried by the official Saudi Press Agency, accused Tehran of blind sectarianism and said that by its defense of terrorist acts Iran is a partner in their crimes in the entire region. Al-Nimr was convicted of terrorism charges but denied ever advocating violence. People protest in front of Saudi Arabia's embassy during a demonstration in Tehran January 2, 2016. Iranian protesters stormed the Saudi Embassy in Tehran early on Sunday morning. (REUTERS/TIMA/Mehdi Ghasemi/ISNA) Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shia Iran are locked in a bitter rivalry, and support opposite sides in the wars in Syria and Yemen. Iran accuses Saudi Arabia of supporting terrorism in part because it backs Syrian rebel groups, while Riyadh points to Irans support for the Lebanese Hezbollah and other Shia militant groups in the region. The Iranian foreign ministry has summoned the Saudi envoy in Tehran to protest, while the Saudi Foreign Ministry later said it had summoned Irans envoy to the kingdom to protest Irans criticism of the execution, saying it represented blatant interference in its internal affairs. In Tehran, the crowd gathered outside the Saudi Embassy early Sunday and chanted anti-Saudi slogans. Some protesters threw stones and Molotov cocktails at the embassy, setting off a fire in part of the building, said the countrys top police official, Gen. Hossein Sajedinia, according to the semiofficial Tasnim news agency. He later said police had removed the protesters from the building and arrested some of them, adding that the situation had been defused. Hours later, Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi said 40 people had been arrested on suspicion of taking part in the embassy attack and investigators were pursuing other suspects, according to the semi-official ISNA news agency. The clerics execution could also complicate Saudi Arabias relationship with the Shia-led government in Iraq. The Saudi Embassy in Baghdad reopened for the first time in nearly 25 years on Friday. Already on Saturday there were public calls for Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to shut the embassy down again. Al-Abadi tweeted Saturday night that he was shocked and saddened by al-Nimrs execution, adding that peaceful opposition is a fundamental right. Repression does not last. Hundreds of al-Nimrs supporters also protested in his hometown of al-Qatif in eastern Saudi Arabia, in neighboring Bahrain where police fired tear gas and bird shot, and as far away as northern India. Also Sunday, the BBC reported that one of the 47 executed in Saudi Arabia, Adel al-Dhubaiti, was convicted over a 2004 attack on its journalists in Riyadh. That attack by a gang outside of the home of a suspected al-Qaida militant killed 36-year-old Irish cameraman Simon Cumbers. British reporter Frank Gardner, now the BBCs security correspondent, was seriously wounded in the attack and paralyzed, but survived. Read: Iranian protesters storm Saudi embassy after Shia clerics execution A court charged two Israelis on Sunday over a firebombing last year that killed a Palestinian couple and their toddler, in an attack that sparked condemnation globally. The pre-dawn attack on the Dawabsha family home in the West Bank village of Duma on July 31 last year killed 18-month-old Ali Saad Dawabsha, and fatally wounded his parents. His brother, who was four at that time, was the sole survivor from the immediate family. Amiram Ben-Uliel, 21, from the northern settlement of Shilo in the occupied West Bank, was charged with three counts of murder and one of attempted murder, arson and conspiracy to commit a hate crime, said the Israeli court indictment. A 17-year-old, who remained unnamed under a gag order, was charged with being an accessory to committing a racially motivated murder. Israel has been under heavy pressure to try those responsible for the attack, with rights groups questioning the delay in the case and contrasting it to the swift reaction often following Palestinian attacks. Ben-Uliel and the minor, who lived in different wildcat settlements near Duma at the time, in July 2015 plotted to avenge a Palestinian shooting dead Malachi Rosenfeld near Shilo one month earlier, a statement from the justice ministry said. The minor was also accused of having taken part in an arson attack on the Dormition Abbey in east Jerusalem. Two other Israelis, including a minor, were charged for implication in other terrorist acts. These included the arson attacks on the Dormition Abbey in May 2014 and the Church of the Multiplication in June 2015, as well as acts of vandalism on Palestinian property. Christians believe the church on the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee is where Jesus performed the miracle of loaves and fishes. In the Duma attack, masked assailants reportedly hurled Molotov cocktails through the windows of the Dawabsha home, which were left open because of the summer heat. Graffiti left at the site, witness reports and the proximity of Israeli settlements led suspicions to fall immediately on Jewish extremists. The arson attack followed days of tensions over West Bank settlements, with rightwing groups opposing the demolition of two buildings under construction that the Israeli High Court said were illegal. The international community regards all Jewish settlements in the West Bank as illegal but the Israeli government makes a distinction between those it has authorised and those it has not. KIGALI (Reuters) - The United States is "deeply disappointed" by Rwandan President Paul Kagame's New Year's announcement that he would seek a third term in 2017, according to the U.S. State Department. Kagame, who has been president since 2000, has effectively been in control since his rebel force marched into Kigali to end the 1994 genocide. He had been limited to two terms, but Rwanda approved constitutional changes last year that would allow him to stay in power until 2034, if he wins elections. "The United States is deeply disappointed that President Paul Kagame has announced his intention to run for a third term in office," John Kirby, a spokesman for the U.S. State Department, said in a statement late on Saturday. The United States is a major donor to Rwanda and provides military aid. It has long praised Kagame for transforming the nation since the genocide. It has expressed alarm at the growing list of African leaders seeking to extend their time in office. Neighbouring Burundi, which shares a history of ethnic fighting with Rwanda, was plunged into chaos in April over President Pierre Nkurunziza's announcement he would seek a third term, which the opposition criticized as unconstitutional. "The United States believes constitutional transitions of power are essential for strong democracies and that efforts by incumbents to change rules to stay in power weaken democratic institutions," Kirby's statement said.Rights groups acknowledge Kagame has broad support but accuse the authorities of stifling the media and opposition voices, charges the government denies. The changes allow Kagame to run for another seven-year term in 2017, followed by two five-year terms afterwards. "He has violated democratic principles," the spokesman for Rwanda's tiny opposition Green Party, Jean Deogratias Tuyishime, told Reuters. "This is a failure for Rwanda as a nation." (Reporting by Clement Uwiringiyimana; Writing by Edith Honan; Editing by Stephen Powell) Hong Kong pro-democracy lawmakers said Sunday that they will press the government for answers after a fifth employee of a publisher specializing in books critical of mainland Chinas leadership went missing. Lawmaker Albert Ho said the city was shocked and appalled by the disappearance of Lee Bo. Like the four others who disappeared in recent months, Lee is associated with publisher Mighty Current. While theres been no official confirmation on the status of the five missing people, Ho told reporters that it appears their disappearances are linked to the companys books. From the available information surrounding the disappearance of Mr. Lee Bo and his partners earlier, we have strong reason to believe that Mr. Lee Bo was probably kidnapped and then smuggled back to the mainland for political investigation, Ho said. Protestors hold up missing person notices of (L-R) Mighty Current publisher of books critical of China company's general manager Lui Bo and colleagues Cheung Jiping, Gui Minhai, Lee Bo and Lam Wing-kei as they walk towards China's Liaison Office in Hong Kong on January 3, 2016. (AFP) Mighty Current and its Causeway Bay Bookstore are known for gossipy titles about Chinese political scandals and other sensitive issues that are popular with visiting tourists from the mainland. The companys co-owner, Gui Minhai, is among those missing, as are three staff members. Books by Mighty Current are banned on the mainland but available in Hong Kong, which enjoys freedom of the press and other civil liberties unseen on the mainland because of its status as a specially administered region of China. However, the disappearances highlight growing concern that Beijing is moving to tighten its grip on the former British colony. Hong Kong Acting Secretary for Security John Lee told reporters that police were actively investigating the case. Police walk past missing person notices of Gui Minhai (L), one of five missing booksellers from the Mighty Current publishing house and Yau Wentian (R), a Hong Kong publisher who was last year jailed for 10 years while preparing to release a book critical of Chinese President Xi Jinping, posted on top of the sign of China's Liaison Office in Hong Kong on January 3, 2016. (AFP) Lee went missing Wednesday evening and was last seen leaving his companys warehouse, according to local media reports. His wife told the Cable TV news channel in a report broadcast Saturday that she received a phone call from him the night he disappeared. She said he told her then that he was assisting an investigation and alluded to the earlier disappearances, but was not more specific. The number indicated the call came from Shenzhen, the mainland Chinese city next door to Hong Kong, the report said. Islamic State group militants continue to launch a series of counter-attacks against Iraqi government forces on the edges of the western city of Ramadi days after the militant group was driven out of the city center, according to the US-led coalition. The majority of these are outside downtown Ramadi to the north and east, and so far Iraqi government forces have successfully repelled every attack, said Baghdad-based coalition spokesperson Col Steve Warren. We havent seen ISIL mass enough combat power to move Iraq off their positions, Warren added, using an alternative acronym for the Islamic State group. Iraqs military says Islamic State militants on Friday launched multiple suicide attacks on the outskirts of Ramadi. Brig Gen Ahmed al-Belawi told The Associated Press on Saturday that the militants stuck security forces with seven suicide car bombs in two areas outside Ramadi. Al-Belawi says there were casualties among the government troops, but did not provide a specific figure. He says the troops repelled the attacks and did not lose territory. Iraqi officials say gains in Ramadi lay the groundwork for an eventual assault on Mosul, Iraqs second largest city that fell to IS in June of 2014. On Friday coalition planes launched five airstrikes near Ramadi targeting IS tactical units, heavy weaponry and fighting positions. Near Mosul, three airstrikes destroyed an IS fighting position and a facility used to make car bombs, a coalition statement said Saturday. Ramadi, the provincial capital of the sprawling Anbar province, fell to IS in May, marking a major setback for US-backed Iraqi forces. Iraqi troops retook the city center on Monday with heavy coalition air support, but insurgents are still holed up in parts of the city. Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir announced Sunday that Saudi Arabia was severing diplomatic ties with Iran after demonstrators stormed its Tehran embassy to protest against Riyadhs execution of a Shia cleric. Jubeir also said that all Iranian diplomats must leave Saudi Arabia within 48 hours. Saudi Arabia is breaking off diplomatic ties with Iran and requests that all members of the Iranian diplomatic mission leave... within 48 hours, he told a news conference. On Saturday, a mob attacked the Saudi embassy in Tehran and a consulate in second city Mashhad amid protests at the execution in Saudi Arabia of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr. The 56-year-old, a force behind 2011 anti-government protests in eastern Saudi Arabia, was among 47 convicted men put to death on Saturday in the kingdom. The others were Shia activists and Sunnis who the Saudi interior ministry said were involved in Al-Qaeda attacks, with some beheaded and others shot by firing squad. Iran arrested 44 people over the embassy assault, which President Hassan Rouhani described as totally unjustifiable. But the Islamic republics supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei condemned Nimrs execution, saying God will not forgive Saudi Arabia for putting him to death. Jubeir responded on Sunday by saying: Irans history is full of negative interference and hostility in Arab issues, and it is always accompanied by destruction. Relations between Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia and Shia-ruled Iran have been strained for decades, with Riyadh frequently accusing Tehran of interfering in Arab affairs. Both countries are also divided over a raft of issues, namely the nearly five-year war in Syria, where Iran is allied with the regime of embattled President Bashar al-Assad, and Yemen where a Saudi-led coalition is battling Iran-backed rebels. Experienced climbers Stuart Jason Hollaway, 42, and Dale Amanda Thistlethwaite, 35, plummeted to their deaths in New Zealand's Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park. The Melbourne couple were last heard from during a radio call on Dec. 28, according to The Guardian. Authorities said that the Melbourne couple, who had climbed New Zealand's highest peak, Mount Cook, the day before their deaths, were located near the top of the 3300-metre high Mt. Silberhorn, New Zealand's seventh highest mountain, The Sidney Morning Herald reported. Four days after they went missing, an alpine rescue team had to retrieve the bodies with a rope from a helicopter because of the inaccessible terrain. New Zealand Commander Inspector Dave Gaskin said the pair were camping high in the mountain, adding that it was clear that they had fallen "a considerable distance." "They were roped together, so one of them's come to grief and the other one has fallen with them," he said. Since their deaths, there's been many tributes made for the East Brunswick couple, according to The Sidney Morning Herald. Former mountain guide Marty Beare described Hollaway and Thistlethwaite as "tremendous people." "They just seemed to get on so well together, because they had the love of doing the outdoor stuff," he said. As two of the few Australians to be accredited by the New Zealand Mountain Guides Association, Beare and Hollaway had a special bond. "If you want to be a good mountain guide, you have to be like a sheep dog, you have to look out for other people, and that's what Stu was, he was always caring about other people," he said. The Melbourne University Mountaineering Club, of which Thistlethwaite and Hollaway were honorary life members, said in a statement that the club had lost "two great friends and mentors". "Dale and Stu we will sorely miss you," it added. "You were admired and loved and the club won't be the same without your stories, quick laugh and passion for the outdoors." The pair ran a business called Vertical World Mountain Guiding. @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. A rare pink hippopotamus was spotted and photographed in Kenya's Masai Mara National Reserve during the winter by a French couple, who shared the stunning photos on social media. Laurent and Dominique Renaud snapped photos of the pink hippo, who wildlife experts believe has leucism, a skin pigmentation condition. Leucism carriers are missing normal pigments and are either white or pink; they are not albinos, according to Mysterious Universe. True albinism gives animals pink eyes, while leucism does not, Mother Nature Work noted. They do both, however, result in increased susceptibility to sunburn. If you are not different. You are not noticed. Beautiful Pink Hippo at the Masai Mara National Reserve in Kenya. pic.twitter.com/cLwsrHyrfT Vikas Khanna (@TheVikasKhanna) January 1, 2016 Brothers Matt and Will Burrard-Lucas were able to snap photos back in 2010 of a pink baby hippo that they spotted coming out of the Mara River. This could be the same one, all grown up now. The pink hippo sticks out among the normal grey ones, which lends the truth to the statement among experts that animals suffering from leucism are at a disadvantage, according to the New York Post, as they are easy to spot, making them easy prey to predators. @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Small-town lawyer, Arkansas governor and four-term Democratic senator from Arkansas Dale Bumpers passed away at his home Friday at the age of 90, his family has said in a statement. Bumpers had broken a hip in a fall at his home in December and had been bedridden since. The eloquent veteran politician is most remembered for the passionate speech he gave for Bill Clinton during Clinton's impeachment trial on Jan. 21, 1999. Clinton had been charged with perjury and obstruction of justice for lying under oath about his sexual affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. While acknowledging that Clinton's lying under oath was "indefensible, outrageous, unforgivable, shameless," Bumpers had argued that lying under oath about sex was "not a breach of the public trust, not a crime against society." "There is a very big difference in perjury about a marital infidelity in a divorce case and perjury about whether I bought the murder weapon or whether I concealed the murder weapon or not. And to charge somebody with the first and punish them as though it were the second stands justice, our sense of justice, on its head. There's a total lack of proportionality, a total lack of balance, in this thing. The charge and the punishment are totally out of sync," Bumpers had said in a speech that is often considered "one of the greatest final arguments ever given in an American courtroom," he further said, The New York Times reported. Clinton had been acquitted in the case. "For more than 40 years Hillary and I cherished his friendship. I am grateful that his advice made me a better governor and president. I loved him. I loved learning from him and laughing with him. I will miss him very much," Bill and Hillary Clinton said in a statement, according to The Los Angeles Times. Dale Bumpers put his considerable gifts of wisdom, wit, and passion to work for the common good. We'll miss him. https://t.co/uzPY2WEBnq Bill Clinton (@billclinton) January 2, 2016 "The entire state mourns the loss of an Arkansas legend," Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson said in a statement, according to Reuters. Bumpers is survived by his wife Betty and his children Brent, Bill and Brooke Bumpers. @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie hammered President Barack Obama Sunday over his plan to issue executive actions on gun control in the upcoming week, referring to him as a "petulant child" who wants to act like "a king" or "as if he is a dictator" whenever "he can't get what he wants." The Republican presidential candidate told Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday that, as president, he would overturn Obama's measures, even before knowing what they are. "The fact is, if he wants to make changes to these laws, go to Congress and convince the Congress that they're necessary," said Christie, according to The Hill. "But this is going to be another illegal executive action, which I'm sure will be rejected by the courts, and when I become president will be stricken from executive action." Wallace pressed Christie to answer critics who have pointed out that the New Jersey governor has changed course on guns in his own state, a notion that Christie rejected. Instead, he argued that he sought to balance the Second Amendment with keeping the best interests of his constituents in mind. I havent changed my tune, Chris. In fact, I signed the bill that banned guns for people on the terror watch list. As president, I would make sure that the terror watch list was actually accurate. But I think most Americans believe if youre on the terror watch list, you shouldnt be able to buy guns," he said, according to Politico. Christie added: "But I also have vetoed the 50-caliber rifle ban, Ive also vetoed a statewide ID system. Ive also vetoed a reduction in the magazine ban, and Ive also pardoned six different folks so far who have been caught up very unfairly in my view in New Jerseys gun laws. So listen, the approach Im going to take is to protect Second Amendment rights but also to make decisions that are in the best interests of the people of New Jersey." Obama announced this week that he will go forward with a set of executive actions on guns in the upcoming week. The president will meet with Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch on Monday before announcing his final proposal, The Washington Post reported. @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders said Sunday that he wouldn't follow Donald Trump's lead of attacking Bill or Hillary Clinton over the former president's sexual indiscretions as a way to derail the current Democratic front-runners chances of winning the party's nomination. Appearing on CNN's State of the Union, the Vermont senator said there "are more important things" where candidates should place their focus. "No, I think we've got more important things to worry about in this country than Bill Clinton's sex life," the Democratic presidential candidate said, according to CNN. "Donald Trump might want to concern himself with the fact that he is dead wrong when he says we should not raise the minimum wage. He's dead wrong when he says that wages in America are too high," he said, Politico reported. "He's dead wrong when he thinks we should give huge tax breaks to billionaires like himself. And he's dead wrong when he thinks that climate change is a hoax, when the entire, virtually an entire scientific community thinks it's the great environmental crisis that we face." Sanders added: "Maybe Trump should worry about those issues rather than Bill Clinton's sex life." Sanders also appeared on ABC's This Week on Sunday and called Trump a "pathological liar." "I do not get engaged in personal attacks but Trump is over the edge," he said, ABC News reported. "The guy just comes up with things off the top of his head that are lies and someone has to say that." Trump indicated earlier this week on the Today show that he plans to use Clinton's history as a part of his attack strategy, saying, "You look at whether it's Monica Lewinsky or Paula Jones or many of them," according to NBC News. "That certainly will be fair game. Certainly if they play the woman's card with respect to me, that will be fair game." @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders on Sunday offered his support for President Obama's plan to enact stricter gun control laws via executive action, while Republican candidates threatened to roll it back if elected. "I would prefer that we could have bipartisan support, but the truth is Republicans are not interested in doing anything about gun safety," the Vermont independent senator said on CNN's "State of the Union," according to The Washington Times. "I think the vast majority of the American people are horrified by the mass shootings that we have seen, they want action." After Congress failed to tighten gun laws in the wake of several mass shootings, Obama announced on Friday that he will meet with Attorney General Loretta Lynch on Monday to discuss options for unilaterally expanding instant background checks on gun sales. Sanders represents a pro-Second Amendment state and usually takes a middle-ground position on gun control, but he said Sunday that he believes Obama is carrying out the will of the people. "What the president is trying to do now is to expand the instant background check by closing the gun show loophole. I think he's doing what the American people would like him to do," Sanders said. Meanwhile, Republican presidential candidates quickly slammed Obama over his impending executive action and promised to overturn it if elected. "There's an assault on the Second Amendment. You know Obama's going to do an executive order and really knock the hell out of it," front-runner Donald Trump told a crowd in Biloxi, Mississippi on Saturday, reports CNN. "You know, the system's supposed to be you get the Democrats, you get the Republicans, and you make deals. He can't do that. He can't do that. So he's going to sign another executive order having to do with the Second Amendment, having to do with guns. I will veto. I will unsign that so fast." Speaking to CBS' "Face the Nation" earlier in the day, Trump said the country has "a tremendous mental health problem" but "all they want to do is blame guns. And it is not the gun that pulls the trigger." New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Sunday called the president a "petulant child" and also said he would undo the gun control measures. "This president wants to act as if he's a king, as if he's a dictator," Christie told "Fox News Sunday," according to The Hill. "The fact is, if he wants to make changes to these laws, go to Congress and convince them that they're necessary," he continued. "But this is going to be another illegal executive action, which I'm sure will be rejected by the courts, and when I become president will be stricken from executive action." Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush called the planned executive order "completely inappropriate." "His first impulse always is to take rights away from law-abiding citizens," Bush told Fox. "And it's wrong. And to use executive powers he doesn't have is a pattern that is quite dangerous. The so-called gun show loophole doesn't exist. People who want to occasionally sell guns ought to have the right to do so without being impaired by the federal government." @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Republican presidential candidate Sen. Rand Paul warned Americans Sunday that Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton would be more likely to start a new war than any other candidate. "It turns out that probably the most likely candidate to take us back to war is Hillary Clinton," the Kentucky senator told NBC's "Meet the Press," reported The Hill. Paul argued that Clinton's tendency to support regime change, as she has done for Syria, Libya and Iraq, could draw the U.S. back into a war. "The difference is President Obama and Hillary Clinton both supported arming the Syrian rebels, the Islamic rebels against [Syrian President Bashar] Assad. I wouldn't have done that. They also supported toppling [Muammar] Gaddafi in Libya," Paul said. He added: "The interesting thing is while Obama gets blamed for not intervening enough, he's actually intervened quite a bit in the Middle East and not to our benefit." While President George W. Bush bombed four countries during his eight year tenure - Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and Somalia - Obama has bombed seven: Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen, Libya and Syria, according to PolitiFact. In the most recent intervention in Syria, Obama continued arming extremist rebels despite knowing that doing so would lead to the rise of an Islamic State group. A recently declassified Defense Intelligence Agency report asserted that the administration wanted an Islamic State because it would further weaken the Assad regime. "My foreign policy is quite a bit different," Paul said. "I also don't believe in giving foreign [aid] to people who are enemies, and supplying weapons to the allies of al Qaeda, as Obama has." Paul also became the first presidential candidate to directly criticize Saudi Arabia, one of America's closest allies in the region, for the recent execution of 47 people, according to The Washington Examiner. Saudi Arabia said Saturday that it executed 47 "terrorists," including Shia religious leader Nimr al-Nimr, who led anti-government protests in eastern Saudi Arabia and was convicted of sedition, disobedience and bearing arms, according to Al Jazeera. "We continue to sell arms to Saudi Arabia, which continues to be sort of an arsonist in that region, fanning the flames," Paul said. @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. There are also two blogspot blogs which record what I think are my main recent articles here and here . Similar content can be more conveniently accessed via my subject-indexed list of short articles here or here (I rarely write long articles these days)(My frequent reads are starred)Email me here (Hotmail address).The archives provided by blogspot below are rather inconvenient. They break each month up into small bits. If you want to scan whole months at a time, the backup archives will suit better. See here or here In December 2014, King Louie got two OVO-inspired tattoos the labels signature owl next to one ear as well as an image of Drakes 6 God prayer hands beneath his other ear. Though Louie, aka 6 God Tony, and Drake are friends, its never been confirmed that Louie has any business ties to the Toronto label. Regardless, hes certainly not regretting those tattoos especially the owl. On December 23, Louie was shot 7 times in Chicago, including once in the side of his head, millimeters from his owl tattoo. Thankfully, Louie has made an incredibly speedy recovery, and hes already given a series of video interviews regarding the near-death scare. In his latest, with RevoltTV, he provided an account of the shooting, and he went on to explain that he believes the OVO owl saved his life: The owl saved my life, though. If it had hit me where the owl was, I wouldve died probably. I told Drake that on the gram. Bro, the owl saved my life. His faith in the owls saving powers intensified while he was in the hospital, as he continued to witness the birds of prey on the hospital television. It was hella owls just poppin upevery show for an hour like wed turn the channel, we kept seeing owls, explained Louie. What the fuck is this, a sign? Me and her Googled, like, whats the significance of owls?, and it was just like a bunch of stuff. Like damn, the owl saved my life, man. Like foreal, foreal. No bullshit. Elsewhere in the interview, Louie discussed meeting Minister Farrakhan as well as how he plans to move away from Chicago until he can rise to the level where hell be properly protected as he moves about his hometown. Watch below. King Louie Kanye West had a lot to say on his surprise New Years banger, Facts, but his main target was Nike, the company he left in late 2013 in favor of a new partnership with adidas. Yeezy, Yeezy, Yeezy just jumped over Jumpman, Kanye raps on the hook, referencing the tracks obvious interpolation of Drake and Futures hit collab, but also, perhaps, suggesting that his new Yeezy brand, in its first year of operation, has surpassed that of Jumpman, or Air Jordan, which exists under the Nike umbrella. Michael Jordan, the Jumpman founder himself, hasnt yet responded to the track, but his son, Marcus Jordan, has and he wasnt impressed with the songs inflammatory lyrics. He repeated the aforementioned hook on Twitter, and linked the word Jumpman to Air Jordans official handle. After a series of emojis, he wrote, LOL I needed a good laugh to start my 2016. Clearly, he thinks his father would have had a similar response. Kanye West Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-01-03 Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article From: The Athens News Agency at CONTENTS [01] Labour Min Katrougalos: Bill on social security reforms will pass [02] 2007-2013 NSRF funds successfully absorbed [01] Labour Min Katrougalos: Bill on social security reforms will pass The draft law for the social security reforms will be tabled in Parliament in January because it is a prior action for the first evaluation, Labour Minister George Katrougalos said in an interview "Ethnos" newspaper on Sunday. "I am in close and constant contact with the deputies of the government majority and I am certain that they will vote for a fair and necessary reform," he underlined. The Greek minister, however, said that the negotiation will be difficult as some of the lenders are particularly obsessed with cuts and so the government looks for a foothold on the diplomatic level. [02] 2007-2013 NSRF funds successfully absorbed The absorption of the 2007-2013 National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) funds was successfully completed, according to the data of the Economy Ministry. Moreover, the new programmes for the 2014-2020 NSRF funds will be issued in the immediate future, it added. "We achieved the full implementation of the 2015 Public Investment Program, and in just three months (October to December 2015), 5 billion euro funds were allocated to the real economy, exceeding even the optimistic target of 4.5 billion euros until the end of 2015 we had set in the government policy statements. Overall, 6.4 billion euros were allocated in 2015," Deputy Economy Minister Alexis Charitsis stated. These major developments for the Greek economy, despite the particularly difficult fiscal climate, are a result of hard work and concerted effort to enhance the absorption of structural funds as well as of the successful negotiation of the Economy Ministry with the European Commission. Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article A Liberal MP has revealed he checked himself into rehab over the Christmas holidays. Seamus O'Regan, MP for St. John's South-Mount Pearl in Newfoundland and Labrador, tweeted Sunday that he entered a wellness program because he would be better at his job with an "alcohol-free lifestyle." He added that he would be back to his duties before Parliament resumes later in January. I've decided after consultation with family that I can be most effective as a Member of Parliament by adopting an alcohol free lifestyle 1/4 Seamus O'Regan (@SeamusORegan) January 3, 2016 Advertisement To that end, over the holiday break, I have entered a wellness program. 2/4 Seamus O'Regan (@SeamusORegan) January 3, 2016 I will return to my duties as the Member of Parliament for St. Johns South - Mount Pearl prior to Parliament resuming in January. 3/4 Seamus O'Regan (@SeamusORegan) January 3, 2016 ...I will have more to say on this subject later. In the meantime, my family and I ask for privacy. Thank you. 4/4 Seamus O'Regan (@SeamusORegan) January 3, 2016 O'Regan's husband, Steve Doussis, took to Twitter shortly after to say he was "proud" of the MP's decision. Advertisement O'Regan a former co-host of CTV's "Canada AM" defeated incumbent NDP MP Ryan Cleary by more than 9,000 votes on Oct. 19. After his victory speech, the new MP said voters in his riding were not swayed by his national profile. O'Regan admitted that he has learned from some of the flubs he made on the campaign trail, which included a TV interview featuring several stops and starts. "I'm a diligent student. It doesn't mean that you get great grades every week. But I'll work at it and I'll learn," he said at the time. O'Regan on Oct. 19, 2015 after being elected MP. (Photo: Paul Daly/CP) With files from The Canadian Press Advertisement Also on HuffPost An Islamic State militant with a British accent mocks imbecile David Cameron and his "handful of planes in a propaganda video purporting the show the execution of five men in Syria, charged with spying for the UK government. The film shows five men "confessing" to photographing sites in Raqqa in exchange for money. Dressed in the usual orange suits, the men are made to kneel before being shot in the head. Advertisement The "British" jihadi then addresses the prime minister: "How strange it is that a leader of a small island threatens us with a handful of planes. One would have thought you would have learned the lessons of your pathetic master in Washington and his failed campaign against the Islamic State. But it seems like you, just like your predecessors Blair and Brown are just as arrogant and foolish." The 'British' jihadi mocks Cameron's 'handful of planes' He continues: "In fact David, you are more of an imbecile. Only an imbecile would dare to wage war against a land where the law of Allah reigns supreme and where the people live under the justice and security of the sharia. Only an imbecile would dare to anger a people who love death the way you love your life." The authenticity of the video has yet to be confirmed, and the identity of the British jihadi is unknown. Last year, "Jihadi John", the British extremist Mohammed Emwazi, appeared in the execution videos of several detainees, including David Haines, Alan Henning, James Foley and Steven Sotloff. Emwazi was killed in November by a US drone strike. Advertisement In the latest film, the jihadi makes the claim that members of the Islamic State group will invade the UK, subjugating the country under Sharia. "As for those of you who wish to continue fighting under the banner of Cameron, on the minimum wage, we say to you, to ask yourself, do you really think your government will care about you when you come into our hands? he asks. Or will they abandon you, as they have abandoned these five and those who came before them? Because you will lose this war, as you lost in Iraq and Afghanistan. With just days to go before the new series of Celebrity Big Brother, the full line-up has reportedly been leaked. READ MORE: The Daily Star claim to have obtained the list of the 16 stars who will be entering the famous house when the 17th series of the Channel 5 reality show kicks off on Tuesday (5 January). Despite previously denying she would be taking part, it appears troubled former EastEnders actress Danniella Westbrook will be a housemate, and will be joined by her close friend, former X Factor contestant Christopher Maloney. Danniella Westbrook Advertisement Also said to be on the line-up are Geordie Shore star Scotty T, David Bowies ex-wife Angie, sacked Hollyoaks star Stephanie Davis, former EastEnders star John Partridge, Ex On The Beach contestant Megan McKenna, ex-Mr Ireland Jeremy McConnell Cooke and former Ukip member Winston McKenzie. 'Celebrity Big Brother' 2016 Rumoured Line Up See gallery Completing the line-up is said to be actor Darren Day, Kim Kardashians best friend Jonathan Cheban and US reality star Tiffany Pollard. It was previously reported that Kris Jenner was trying to block Jonathan from appearing on the show, worried that he would spill secrets about the famous family. Former Strictly Come Dancing professional Ola Jordan was also thought to be taking part, but she denied rumours on Twitter on Saturday, tweeting: Lots of people have been saying I'm going into the @bbuk house. I can assure you I am NOT. However I will be watching. Lots of people have been saying I'm going into the @bbuk house I can assure you I am NOT However I Will be watching Ola Jordan (@The_OlaJordan) January 2, 2016 Advertisement Prince Andrews former girlfriend Koo Stark was also said to have pulled out of appearing, at the last minute. However, the identity of this years housemates will not be confirmed until they enter the house on launch night. Discussing this years line-up, host Emma Willis teased last month: I do think this is one of the strongest we've ever had. When we had Lee Ryan and Jim Davidson, everyone said, 'This is the peak, it can't get better than this'. But they just keep matching it or doing even better with every series. They are so fantastic at getting the right types of people. There are a couple in there that I was so excited about, purely because of my own love of them in the past. Aside from people you may have loved in the past, there are just some great characters who I think will give TV gold. Celebrity Big Brother kicks off on Tuesday at 9pm on Channel 5. 'Celebrity Big Brother' 2016: Take A Look At The House See gallery Still missing 'The Bridge'? Ready for more subtitles? The good news is that a whole new platform containing the very best of world drama kicks off tonight, with German spy thriller Deutschland 83. READ MORE: Channel 4 will be hosting online channel Walter Presents (named after its expert curator, more below), which promises 1000 hours of drama from Andorra to Argentina. Deutschland 83, which will also be debuting on Channel 4 at 9pm, to coincide with Walter Presents launch. This epic eight-parter set at the height of the Cold War tells the story of an East German youth who must play his part in allaying the Easts fears about NATOs future plans. Martin Rauch is hand-picked by his intelligence officer aunt to go behind enemy lines and work at the heart of West Germanys military control. Advertisement 'Deutschland 83' is the debut series of brand new world drama channel 'Walter Presents' Deutschland 83 is intense, sometimes very funny and also very stylish. Imagine Homeland with Nenas 99 Balloons playing in the background. Come for the gripping story of betrayal being played out in two countries, and stay for the wealth of nostalgia, including a piping synth soundtrack. Prepare to be hooked. And the good news is theres plenty more where this came from, as I discover when I sit down with the new channels extremely enthusiastic curator, Walter Iuzzolino, who could be forgiven for having very square eyes after the amount of tellys hes consumed in preparation for todays launch. He blushes at the mention of a channel built around his name, but it is a fitting tribute to the hours and passion he has poured into the project. Advertisement Im not a megalomaniac. It was like an out of body experience being told the channel would have my name because I am really shy, he explains. I spend my life producing talent, I have always been tucked away, but I did understand the notion of personal curation that is an important feature. It is true, it isnt an algorithm, it is an individual who has watched 3,500 hours of TV, and will keep watching them. Political thriller 'Spin' - dubbed the French 'Borgen' will debut on WalterPresents and More4 from Friday A dedicated telly addict since childhood courtesy of two grandmothers, one a Croatian hooked on German drama, the other a glamorous Neapolitan who only wanted Latin novellas, Walter has spent his life watching the kind of shows British viewers have only recently taken to their hearts. When Spiral came along and then The Killing became so massive, that was the sign I needed to follow my dream, he says today. Advertisement For 20 years a successful producer for Channels 5, 4 and his own company, Walter has dedicated the last two years to watching TV 3,500 hours of it to be exact, all of it with subtitles, at the desk in the corner of his flat turning into a library mouse for eight hours a day and now hes bringing the best 1,000 to British viewers. Walter needed each show he viewed to satisfy three requirements before making it to Walter Presents. They have to be big shiny hits in their native country, he explains. I have become increasingly intolerant of self-indulgent art house pieces. These shows have to be like Homeland or House of Cards. This is a service for everyone. The second is a quality benchmark the finest writing, directing and acting that each country has to be offer. This has to be something worth our time as viewers. Finally, they have to be award-winning or already critically acclaimed. Advertisement 'Borgen' proved that even Danish coalition politics are thrilling when the story is told well enough Walters absolutely right, of course, that the stage has never been more perfectly set for drama of this variety to turn up on our screens. The success of shows from Borgen to Breaking Bad proves that audiences will sit through subjects from Danish coalition politics to DIY meth construction when the writing is robust and the performances suitably charismatic. Hes equally impressed by Channel 4s decision to put this channel online, on its AllFour hub. To drive traffic to the VOD platform, some programmes such as this evenings Deutschland 83 will also be on Channel 4, while others, including the magnificent French political thriller Spin, will debut on More4 in a regular Friday evening slot. You create that bridge with fresh viewers to know theres more they can get. Channel 4 have seen the convergence of linear and online TV, says Walter. Its like launching a mini free Netflix of premium product, the best stuff in the world, and its all completely free to UK viewers. Its a complete revolution that Ill always be very proud to have had a part in, he says happily. Its also a gesture of public service and modernity, understanding global viewers. We drink the same tea, and when something is excellent like House of Cards or The Killing, we all feel the same about it. Absolutely true. My only fear for Walter and his channel is that the more successful and popular his world drama becomes, the more likely the bigger channels will start sniffing for the best new content with their deeper purses and huge viewing platforms. He reassures me hes not worried. Advertisement The more channels that reflect the breadth and diversity available in international drama, I am thrilled. There are thousands of hours available. These channels arent foreign channels, they might have these dishes on their menus once or twice a year, but my restaurant is entirely based on them. Think of a patisserie which happens to have a few macaroons in its range, and my business entirely built on macaroons. You watch Deutschland 83 on Channel 4, you decide you like the taste of that macaroon, then you come to me for your macaroons, and I have the broadest range of them you could possibly desire. 'Making A Murderer' has people gripped on both sides of the Atlantic. READ MORE: Just weeks after being released on Netflix, the streaming service's first crime documentary is sparking debate across the internet and among friends the world over. Advertisement The programme chronicles the story of Steven Avery, a Wisconsin man acquitted of a crime he'd served 18 years in prison for, only to be accused of another two years after his release. Steven Avery pictured in 1985 Released in 2003 after serving close to two decades behind bars for rape, Avery is arrested and charged with murder just two years later. His murder trial runs alongside a civil case Avery brought against the local judiciary for his original incarceration - a coincidence that is carefully, perhaps even convincingly, picked apart by the programme's producers. Advertisement Two film makers, Moira Demos and Laura Ricciardi, spent close to 10 years making the documentary, and it's already received rave reviews - gaining a legion of fans, hooked on the series' unique style and its potential implications. Steven Avery shown in the courtroom on Wednesday, March 7, 2007, at the Calumet County Courthouse in Chilton, Wis., during his murder trial. Lenika Cruz of The Atlantic heralded the series' potential to eclipse even popular crime series 'The Jinx' and podcast 'Serial'. "For even the skeptical viewer, its hard not to feel a stab of empathy when Averys elderly mother pulls out boxes of legal documents she sent to shows including 20/20 in the hope theyd cover her sons story," she wrote. Making a Murderer has the potential to be as popular and thought-provoking as its forebears and to have real-life repercussions. Advertisement And the programme may even mark a turning point for the omnipresent streaming service. Paul Tassi wrote in Forbesthat the series could be Netflix's most significant ever. And it's not just critics who are expressing their appreciation of 'Making'. Celebrities have taken to Twitter to vouch for the series, too. Please watch @MakingAMurderer It is brilliant and unrelievedly painful... ABFoundation (@ABFalecbaldwin) December 20, 2015 Advertisement Never mind an Emmy or an Oscar.... @MakingAMurderer deserves a Nobel Prize. The greatest documentary I've ever seen. Ricky Gervais (@rickygervais) December 23, 2015 Finished @MakingAMurderer. No spoilers so I'm not gonna destroy the fucking world just yet. Let me know when you've watch it so you can help Ricky Gervais (@rickygervais) December 25, 2015 Outraged after watching all 10 episodes of #MakingAMurderer - a scathing indictment of law officers in #ManitowocCounty#Wisconsin mia farrow (@MiaFarrow) December 27, 2015 Making a murderer or the first Serial? I need to know which murder thing to be obsessed with. Thanks Mindy Kaling (@mindykaling) December 27, 2015 'Making A Murderer' is on Netflix in Britain and the United States - available to stream now. Netflix Picks for January 2015 See gallery What is going on? Late on Saturday evening, a group of heavily armed men calling themselves the "the point of the spear" stormed and captured a remote, wildlife refuge near to the town of Burns, Oregon, in order to take a stand against the tyranny of the US government. The militants, who say they are willing to "kill or be killed," have demanded the government release a pair of Oregon ranchers convicted of arson and relinquish control of federally owned land in favour of local ownership. Around 12 people are reported to be involved in the action, though the militants claim their number is closer to 100. Advertisement BREAKING! SHARE! Standing for the rights of Men & Women. Calling all freedom loving people to come to Harney County... Posted by Bundy Ranch on Saturday, 2 January 2016 Why is it happening? The militants are aggrieved at the sentences dished out to Dwight Hammond, 73, and his son Steve, 43, who were convicted of setting fires on government-owned land. The first fire, set to mask the illegal poaching of deer in 2001, led to the burning of more than 130 acres. The second, in 2006, was to protect against an approaching wildfire. The father and son were tried under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, which includes a five-year minimum mandatory sentence for arson on federal land. The judge presiding over the trial deemed a 5-year sentence too stiff, and gave them a lighter judgment. However, the US attorney appealed and after a second trial late last year the Hammonds received the full 5 years, a sentence the pair are due to start this week. The sentencing inflamed the paranoia of nearby anti-government militiamen, many of who were involved in the armed standoff between Cliven Bundy and the federal Bureau of Land Management in 2014, which escalated after a dispute over grazing fees for cattle that roamed on federal land in Nevada. Advertisement I talked to Ryan Bundy on the phone again. He said they're willing to kill and be killed if necessary. #OregonUnderAttack Ian Kullgren (@IanKullgren) January 3, 2016 Who is involved? Cliven Bundys son Ammon, who posted a video to Facebook revealing the group had taken over the Malheur Wildlife Refuge, is leading the Oregon standoff. "This will become a base place for patriots from all over the country to come and be housed here and to live here," he said. "And we're planning on staying here for several years." He also called on fellow patriots to "bring your arms" and join the group. Speaking to a local newspaper, Clivens other son Ryan, who is also involved, said: The best possible outcome is that the ranchers that have been kicked out of the area... will come back and reclaim their land, and the wildlife refuge will be shut down forever and the federal government will relinquish such control. What we're doing is not rebellious. What we're doing is in accordance with the Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land." This is as close as I was allowed to get to the armed militia occupying the Malheur Wildlife Refuge HQ. #burnsoregonpic.twitter.com/DPztu0VsVU Jason Wilson (@jason_a_w) January 3, 2016 What has been the reaction? Local law enforcement are so far handling the incident. Since tSaturday evening, OregonUnderAttack has been trending across social media, with many users commenting on a supposed paucity of media coverage afforded the occupation. Others have speculated that the response would be somewhat different were it a group of non-white militants taking over federal property. Advertisement The media has since caught up with the story, which is running high on newspapers in the US and around the world. On the suggestion that the incident is being treated as a local dispute rather than a terrorist incident because of the race of the militants, there is some basis to this. As John Haltiwanger points out: Just a quick reminder of how the FBI defines terrorism... #OregonUnderAttackpic.twitter.com/B3LCnDglMR John Haltiwanger (@jchaltiwanger) January 3, 2016 Is this a new threat? No. Research conducted with American police in 2015 revealed that the main terrorist threat in the United States is not violent Muslim extremists, but right-wing extremists. Last year, a man claiming to be part of the anti-government sovereign citizen movement attacked a courthouse in Georgia, throwing tear gas and smoke grenades before firing on police officers. A Scot reportedly faces prison time in Kyrgyzstan for calling the country's national dish "horse penis". Michael McFeat's colleagues at Kumtor Mine, the largest gold mine in central Asia, were queuing for the traditional dish of chuchuk, or horse sausage. He posted to Facebook they were eating "special delicacy, the horse's penis," which caused such offence it sparked a brief strike at the mine. Advertisement Kumtor Mine A spokesman for the country's interior ministry told Agence France Presse that Mr Mcfeat, who works for Canada-based Centerra Gold, was detained by police after posting the comment. AFP reported that he was arrested under the country's racial hatred laws, which can carry a punishment of five years in prison. Mr McFeat, who is from the village of Abernethy near Perth, appears to have deleted the Facebook post. Advertisement 1.Shed POUNDS overnight with this one simple trick! Yes, I'm talking to you, David Mundell. Make that government leaner and more efficient in 2016 by getting rid of the Scotland Office. This is the government department responsible for 'strengthening and sustaining the union'. It's an overblown marketing campaign, and a pointless waste of money when we have our own perfectly serviceable and democratically accountable parliament right here in Scotland. What's more, figures show that the Scotland Office's spending has actually gone UP in the last five years, while many other government departmental budgets have been slashed, along with huge cuts to public service provisions. Is this government's legacy really going to be that they protected the salaries of press officers while the use of foodbanks rose? Time to bin this antiquated and useless government department and spend money where it really counts. 2. Look after the pennies, and the pounds will look after themselves... I was aghast to learn recently that not only do the Lords get 300 per day just for turning up for as little as an hour but that they are not required to pay tax on this either! Let's leave aside for the moment the fact that an unelected second chamber of government where the first chamber gets to pick who sits in it is a total nonsense democratically. And let's temporarily park the issue of them being paid not just a living wage but, at 300 per hour, a living-the-life-of-Riley-and-then-some wage. If that's how it is under this Westminster system (and it is) the very least we can expect is that these Lords and Ladies do the noble thing and pay tax on their earnings like my constituents must do. My goodness, there are debates all the time in The House of Lords about austerity and how we must cut support for those with the least because we are so short of money. Little did many of us know that just by expecting them to live by the same rules as our constituents we could do a lot less cutting and a lot more supporting. Advertisement 3.Travel to new places! Step outside your comfort zone... It emerged to the public earlier in the year that the Houses of Parliament need serious work to preserve and repair the buildings. It's a beautiful and magnificent place, but in some ways an ancient palace on the banks of a river isn't the most practical working environment for the thousands of staff who work there. The repairs are expected to cost over 5bn, but could cost considerably less and take significantly less time if MPs and Lords moved elsewhere to work for a few years. As a former member of the Scottish Parliament, I'd be tempted to suggest that the light and airy business-like atmosphere of Holyrood might make a refreshing change in working environment for some of my Westminster opposition. I gather that'd go down like a lead balloon with both parliaments however, so I'll just lend my support to the call to move parliament around the UK for a few years, bringing an economic boost to areas outside of London. Wouldn't it be lovely for a city like Sheffield or Newcastle or my own city of Glasgow to get a slice of the economic pie that an influx of parliamentarians and all their staff would bring? I'd love for parliament to stop being so London-centric and spread the wealth around a little, and these repairs would be the perfect opportunity to do so. 4.Home is where the heart is! Spend more time with loved ones this year... When parliament sits, I have to spend more time at Westminster than in my beloved constituency of Glasgow North East. One of the reasons for that is because everything at Westminster takes so long. To cast a vote in a division, we have to troop through lobbies at either side of the chamber - one lobbie for voting aye and a different one for voting no.. One vote on an amendment (and there can be any number in a debate) takes around twenty minutes. A Labour MP told me it was a great thing because you can lobby government ministers as you queue to vote. I pointed out to him that I did not expect to be in the same voting lobbie as the Tory Government very often so the appeal of that was fairly limited. Now I appreciate that electronic voting alone would not necessarily mean more time in Glasgow but it would substantially cut down the time that could be spent doing something more useful for our constituents. We have the technology available, we are given parliamentary iPads on our first day in the job, and it would be incredibly simple to do. This is a real example of tradition holding us back from spending more time representing the people we are elected to serve. I often leave for London at the crack of dawn on a Monday and arrive back at Central Station close to midnight on a Thursday. Luckily I have a brilliant team of people at my Glasgow office who are passionate about supporting our constituents and communities but I find it frustrating to have to play my part from London for most of the week. Advertisement 5. Make new friends It's fair to say the SNP new arrivals in May caused a wee bit of a stooshie in Parliament, a place that's so very caught up in its traditions and conventions that nobody really knows how to react when normal people arrive. For me, I'd have been lost (and probably still would be) without the fantastic, amazingly friendly people who work as House of Commons staff. The doorkeepers in particular are so kind, professional and helpful that they frequently brighten up my day. What I found alarming though, is that many staff have told myself and colleagues that before the SNP arrived, the vast majority of MPs, Lords and Ladies didn't so much as break breath to them. Not only have we heard it too often to not believe it but I, myself, have witnessed it more than once and it sickens me! Maybe my resolution should be to never let it go unchallenged again. These men and women are absolutely essential to the running of the House, and it makes me sad to think that they are frequently ignored. One told me that they love the SNP being there because they had to develop thick skins in the past when they were treated "like we were worthless, invisible". Being pleasant costs absolutely nothing, so give it a try this year. Who knows, you might even learn something! I know I've learned more from some of them than from some of you! As 2015 ends, and 2016 begins, I write off the back of the two most exciting years of my life. For those of you that aren't familiar with me, my story, or my @London Instagram channel, you can read more about it here. Today @London is closing in on 1.8 million followers, we are still growing at 100,000 new followers per month, we've had 100 million likes, and in the last 12 months alone we've taken part in projects in France, Morocco, LA, Singapore, Indonesia and India, and we've met all sorts of wonderful people along the way. Advertisement I guess the most exciting thing Instagram has done for me is afford me the gift of travel and the ability to explore new cultures. When I was younger, we probably played it quite safe as a family, traveling predominantly to European destinations such as the Med. But going further afield to Asia has been a highlight of 2015 for me. INDIA INTRODUCTION In December 2015, I was lucky enough to take part in a 10 day itinerary travelling across Rajasthan, starting in Jaipur. This was my first time to India. Having been to Morocco, I was told it was probably my only reference point for what "crazy" looks like... the cows, cars and bikes, needing eyes in the back of your head... I'd heard it was similar in India, only more crazy! Rajasthan, known as "Land of Kings", borders with Pakistan up on the West side of India. Its desert is pretty inhospitable, but travel through it we did, and for 2 nights we stopped in a desert camp, and we'll save that for Part 2. Part 3 will take us to Jodhpur. But let's start first with the Pink City, known as Jaipur... Rajasthan Part 1 - Jaipur - The Pink City Jaipur is home to over 6 million people. This busy, hard working city, never sleeps. My entry into India is one of two parallels. I'm to be exposed to the streets and the day to day way of life for the community here. And I'm to enjoy life-changing experiences with our team by invitation of Princess Diya and Maharaj Narendra Singh, and British Polo Day. Advertisement The moment I land into Jaipur, your senses are assaulted. The taxi journey to our hotel took us through the heart of Jaipur and its market places, during one of the busiest periods of the day. Ok #India! Let's go! // #Jaipur #Rajasthan #BPDindia A photo posted by D A V E B U R T (@daveburt) on Dec 11, 2015 at 8:29pm PST Everyone is doing something. Building something, selling something, going somewhere, carrying something, driving someone. It's full on. I've never experienced anything like this. The non-stop beeping of every scooter, bike and Tuk Tuk rings in your head. But I'm too excited to care. Rather than enjoy the air-conditioning in my car, my window is quickly put down, and my camera set to burst. I shoot away en-route capturing all sorts of street scenes as the local people go about their day. One of the first things I notice is how there are NO RULES when it comes to the roads. I mean literally. People pick a direction, and go for it, fully committed and with no fear of the consequences. In 10 days I would find that I only witnessed one scrape. One minor scrape! How?! They drive the wrong way up freeways and over roundabouts, and if there isn't a free lane, they make their own! They all seem to have a sixth sense, like this "crazy" is actually normal, and they collectively expect the unexpected, because, well, it's expected! How they roll in #India! Despite the insanity, I saw only one small accident the whole time I was there. They appear to have a sixth sense! I do not miss the sound of the horns, that's for sure...! // #jaipur #rajasthan #BPDindia A photo posted by D A V E B U R T (@daveburt) on Dec 22, 2015 at 1:51am PST Advertisement On our first evening, we are hosted by the Royal Family at Amer Fort (pronounced Amber Fort), where 1,000 candles light up the courtyard, and a candle-lit sky provides the backdrop for our welcome reception. It's a chance for our beautiful team to throw on their finest dresses and suits as we enjoy the finest India cuisine, but with a view over Rajasthan that will live with me for sometime. A photo posted by D A V E B U R T (@daveburt) on Jan 2, 2016 at 3:36am PST The next day I return to my passion for street photography. Of all of the types of photography and content I personally produce, its people that fascinate me the most. One photo can give you a powerful glimpse into someone's life, and their world. I love the romance of capturing moments. That for me, is really what got me into Instagram in the first place. The ability to share these powerful moments with people all over the world. A photo posted by D A V E B U R T (@daveburt) on Dec 12, 2015 at 12:39am PST Back in 1876 Queen Victoria was to be welcomed to Jaipur, and in preparation, the city was painted pink, with pink being the colour of hospitality. That romantic tradition remains to this day. In 1961 Queen Elizabeth also visited Jaipur where she was treated to a Royal Welcome and Procession at the City Palace. The City Palace has a museum today, but it remains largely a royal residence for the Royal Family of Jaipur. Our team were to be given the incredible honour of receiving the same welcome that Queen Elizabeth received 44 years before, with a reenactment of that welcome and procession, and a showing of a new film, which was to be projected onto the palace walls, telling the history of the Maharaja. Advertisement My welcome was out of this world. A video posted by @LONDON | TAG #THISISLONDON (@london) on Dec 19, 2015 at 9:36am PST Rose petals rained down on my head as I walked through the palace gates, flanked by elephants and horses, musicians and dancers. One of our team, Milly Hibbert, is waiting to receive us and our guests, with the Royal Family just beyond the gates. As the evening progresses, a procession of animals and performers make their way around the guests, fire-breathers, elephants in full dress, dancing horses, an incredible band. It was too much to take in. I will never forget that evening, and THAT welcome. This hasn't happened in 44 years. What an incredible honour. We are forever grateful. And that's why this Instagram journey continues to fascinate me. Things like this just don't happen. Well not normally. But increasingly, it appears that they do. My co-founder Ed Olver often says to our team, "Trust is the accumulation of positive, shared experiences". It's a great code to live by. I get it, and so do the team. It keeps you humble, but it also fills your sails with a wind of confidence, knowing that through community, through friendship and collaboration, you can do incredible things. Unless you were living under a rock last year, you will have probably heard about the European refugee crisis. More than a million people attempted to flee the Middle East and North Africa to Europe by sea in 2015, according to latest estimates by the UN Refugee Agency. What started out as a slow trickle of refugees soon became a flood, leading to a crisis which caught many Western governments off guard. Although the reporting has now waned, the intricacies and tragedy of this mass migration still remain. So as world leaders race to solidify a cohesive plan for resettlement, let's take a look at what needs to happen in 2016 for this to be a success. As the crisis exploded in the latter part of last year, so too did the hyperbole and rhetoric. Innumerable pledges were thrown around and there was great talk of committed action. So far, however, much of this stands unfulfilled. The European response has yet to be unilateral, with current plans seeing constant change and political obstruction. This must be addressed in 2016. If Germany is to lead the European response, for example, it can't be seen to be revising its open door policy and the various civil rights it would grant Syrian refugees, as was reported in November. Advertisement Other nations, such as Poland, should reopen their borders to all migrants. The country's crossings were sealed in the wake of the Paris terrorist attacks, but such attitudes only serve to reinforce the image of the refugee as a burden or, most wrongly of all, a terrorist. Whether the reversal of this will happen soon remains to be seen; Germany has been unsuccessful in persuading other European states to take their share of refugees and the next high-level summit on the crisis doesn't look set to happen until September 2016. The past 12 months have also seen the question refugee 'authenticity' being dragged up. Arguments over just who is more in need - refugees seeking human rights, or migrants in search of better quality of life, have been doing the rounds on social media. Our considerate attention to charity quickly became distracted by questions like: how much are we prepared to give? To whom? Thankfully, countries are already pushing ahead with new strategies for resettlement, which will act to counter this debate; the UK plans to pluck Syrians - who have already been processed as refugees - directly from the refugee camps of Jordan and Lebanon. The outcome for those wishing to flee the conflict in Libya, however, is not so clear. Unlike Jordan and Lebanon, Libya does not have vast camps where controlled processing can take place. This is compounded by the country's continuing social tumult, which has left it too dangerous for many NGOs to operate. In the coming months, it would be reassuring to see attention given to the country's political disarray in order to eliminate the deadly sea crossings, which have already taken so many lives. Lastly, we must not fail to neglect the rise of the far-right. This year, keep an eye out for wild nationalist ideologies, however comedic they may seem. It can be widely argued that 2015 was the year when xenophobia went mainstream, largely thanks to Donald Trump and the constant threat of economic doom, which all migration apparently brings. In response, a sustained campaign must be waged; Austrian Chancellor, Werner Faymann, has already warned that some Eastern European countries could lose some EU budget funds, should they not do enough to accommodate migrants. More of this, please. Advertisement So, in the spirit of New Year, what can we do to help those in crisis? Are there any last-minute resolutions to be made? Well, maybe. The thing is, the refugee crisis now shares so few parallels to other events, it is difficult to know where to begin. It could be likened to trying to extinguish a volcano with a bucket of sand - a valiant, but futile course of action. For volcanos are vast, unpredictable, and still a mystery to most, and so too is the European refugee crisis. El Pics via Getty Images MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - DECEMBER 05: Huge crowds attend and revel at STEREOSONIC Melbourne on December 5, 2015 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by El Pics/GC Images) Music festival organisers have been put on notice to lift their game on curbing drug use in the wake of a spate of fatal overdoses and after a woman almost died from taking MDMA at this year's Field Day event. Almost 200 people were charged with drug offences at New Year's Day music festivals around Australia, including at Sydney's Field Day where 184 were nabbed for drug possession and supply. Advertisement Some 212 people received medical treatment from Ambulance Paramedics at the 28,000-strong event and five attendees had to be taken to hospital for further treatment. They included a 23-year-old woman who was rushed to hospital in a critical condition on Friday night after a suspected MDMA overdose. She recovered and was released from St Vincent's on Sunday morning. 23-year-old woman who suffered a drug overdose at Field Day has been released from hospital https://t.co/IKWgbi1vOXhttps://t.co/2D3kpTVDRP 7 News Sydney (@7NewsSydney) January 2, 2016 NSW Premier Mike Baird told News Corp Australia that festival organisers needed to do more to prevent drug abuse, declaring "enough is enough". Advertisement Baird's call comes after the recent suspected fatal overdoses of Georgina Bartter, Sylvia Choi and Stefan Woodward at music festivals around the country. Australian Premier Demands Regulation Of EDM Festivals Over Excessive Drug Problems https://t.co/OEhZPgPeVxpic.twitter.com/sO8fTiJMm7 Your EDM (@YourEDM) January 2, 2016 Baird said the permit system for music festivals would be toughened up, adding that organisers needed to take more responsibility. In the light of this latest distressing and avoidable incident, I will be asking the relevant ministers to review the current system of regulating events held on public land, including the system for granting permits for public events such as music festivals, he told News Corp Australia. Advertisement The premier vowed to close down festival organisers who did not comply with stricter rules, according to the report. Field Day was just one of many big events held across the country on New Year's Day. There were three Falls Festivals down the east coast, Lost Paradise in NSW, Beyond The Valley in Victoria and Southbound in WA. Numerous drug arrests were made at festivals, including at the Falls Festival in Tasmania. Drug arrests as crowds file into Falls Festival NYE party https://t.co/SwerXHZFZQ ABC Just In (@abcnewsjustin) December 31, 2015 Organisers of the Byron Bay Falls Festival, which began on New Year's Eve and wraps up today, said on Friday there were no reported police incidents and the number of people seeking help from paramedics was down 50 percent. Advertisement Hands up if you had fun on the first day of Falls Festival Byron Bay. @fallsfestival#visi https://t.co/f6hK09WA7Jpic.twitter.com/luQgXOCKhJ Byron Bay (@byronbay) January 1, 2016 The almost 200 charges at Field Day comes as a number of drug experts, academics and advocates push for Australia to trade its zero tolerance approach for harm minimisation by legalising pill testing and drug checking facilities at recent festivals. In Sydney, those charged at Field Day included a 26-year-old woman who was allegedly found with 100 ecstasy pills, and a 19-year-old man allegedly in possession of 81 ecstasy capsules. The pair will front court in January. Chief Inspector Stuart Bell said he was concerned about the number of people charged at this year's event. While most revellers were well-behaved, 184 drug related arrests shows that there are still some who think they can get away with possessing and supplying drugs, Bell said. Advertisement We will continue to target drugs, alcohol-related crime, and anti-social behaviour, particularly at music festivals." The director of emergency department at St Vincent's Hospital, Professor Gordian Fulde, said the number of patients impacted by drugs at festivals was on the rise. Gordian Fulde does not think much of pill testing He said there was a particular lift in people taking drugs after drinking. "I think drugs are very much increasing. I think there's also what we found in research we've done is that people drink a little ... and then somehow their decision making gets even worse than it should be," he told Channel Nine. He said he didn't think pill testing would achieve much and threw his support behind abstinence. Bernhard Richter via Getty Images Police in Tasmania. Australia Two men have been charged over the one-punch attack which has left a teenager fighting for life in a Queensland hospital. Elite water polo player Colin Miller was allegedly king hit in a random act of violence in Brisbane's nightclub precinct early Sunday morning, sustaining serious head injuries. Advertisement The 18-year-old was assaulted on Duncan Street in Fortitude Valley about 3.35am, police said. Two 21-year-old men, one from Coombabah and the other from Tanah Merah, have been charged with grievous bodily harm. They are due to appear in the Brisbane Magistrates Court Monday morning. It was one of two attacks overnight in the notorious nightlife area. In the other incident, a 24-year-old man was taken to hospital for treatment after being viciously assaulted at a nearby nightclub. Teen left for dead and man assaulted in separate attacks in Brisbane's Fortitude Valley. https://t.co/qEbStTabaMpic.twitter.com/XPQb8Vdta1 Nine News Australia (@9NewsAUS) January 3, 2016 The teenager was rushed to Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital with what authorities say are "life threatening injuries". He remains there in a critical condition. Advertisement Duncan Street was closed to motorists and pedestrians on Sunday as investigations continued into the king-hit attack. 18-year-old suffering life threatening injuries after a king hit in Brisbane. https://t.co/6rm43QpgOjhttps://t.co/PjepgAlH51 7 News Sydney (@7NewsSydney) January 2, 2016 Detective Senior Sergeant Tom Armitt told reporters the victim and a friend were walking in the area when they were approached by four males of Pacific Islander appearance. "A short exchange has occurred and the victim was struck once to the back of the head, has fallen forward and he's currently in his present condition," he said. "This is a random act of violence. There is no indication the victim knew who the offenders were." 18yo fighting for life after a vicious assault in Brisbane. Hear from the hero chaplains on scene @TheTodayShowpic.twitter.com/Zdj10FIVRZ Clare Hunter (@clarephunter9) January 2, 2016 Sunday's coward-punch assault is the latest in a long line of senseless single-punch attacks across Australia that have triggered tougher bail laws and alcohol restrictions in eastern states. A range of lockout laws in the Sydney CBD, which bar new arrivals from entering licensed premises after 1.30am and mandate last drinks at 3am, came into force in February 2014 as a response to the one-punch deaths of Thomas Kelly and Daniel Christie. In Queensland, the state government wants to revise lockout laws in a bid to reduce levels of alcohol-fuelled violence. Armitt said authorities would be hunting down as much CCTV footage as possible to identify those responsible for the attack on the teen who had been causing no "issues or concerns". Man fighting for life after assault in Brisbane's Fortitude Valley. https://t.co/QZjWhq4H3jpic.twitter.com/hgAu6NtHp9 The Courier-Mail (@couriermail) January 2, 2016 Advertisement "The event is tragic. We have a young 18-year-old man fighting for his life. You obviously feel for that person and his family," he added. In the other attack in Fortitude Valley, the 24-year-old was left with facial lacerations after being punched. A/Supt Peter Aitken says two assaults in Fortitude Valley overnight were isolated incidents. Investigations into both are ongoing. QPS Media Unit (@QPSmedia) January 3, 2016 Police are hunting for the attacker who's described as Caucasian, about 180 centimetres tall, with a slim build. A short distance outside the village of Molyvos on the Greek Island of Lesbos there is a rubbish dump of life jackets, discarded now, but forever witness to the hope and suffering of those who fled war, poverty and oppression this year. Almost 500,000 people crossed the Aegean Sea to Lesbos, many of them Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans. The dump site stands as a statue, a silent reminder of the risks and that so many more still hold out hope of a safe crossing. It also includes the life jackets of those who never made it, of those who lost their lives at sea and can never return home or continue their journey north. Advertisement In November, 97 people died in the eastern Mediterranean and 187 lost their lives in December. They are the victims, casualties of their desperation and the ongoing failure of EU leaders to provide safe passage. A message of hope In honour of these people and with hope of better times, the Medecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors without Borders (MSF)-Greenpeace team on Lesbos used some of these life jackets to form a peace sign in the hills of Lesbos today. They joined groups such as Sea-Watch and the Dutch Refugee Boat Foundation and local community groups such as Starfish to create the peace sign on New Year's Day to bring in 2016 with a message of hope. More than 100 volunteers used around 3,000 life jackets to create the image. The image was positioned above the dump and in view of the 10 km of sea separating Lesbos from Turkey, a gulf like no other - but a gulf that must be bridged. Advertisement Since MSF and Greenpeace started a joint maritime operation around Lesbos in November to provide rescue activities at sea in coordination with the Greek Coast Guard, we have helped thousands of refugees and migrants arrive safely to shore. On December 16, MSF and Greenpeace helped pluck 83 people from the water after their old wooden boat capsized. At least two died. Since then, further rescues have occurred. Safe passage Although the number of arrivals has declined since the autumn months, in December more than 100,000 people still made the crossing to the Greek islands, daring the winter seas and stormy weather in overcrowded, flimsy boats. As war and violence rage unabated in their countries of origin, there is undiminished need for a safe haven. More than 3,700 have died while trying to cross the sea to Europe this year. More than a million have arrived by sea. The UN refugee agency UNHCR has warned, however, for continued mass arrivals in 2016. MSF and Greenpeace remain operational in the Aegean Sea, doing whatever we can to assist refugee boats in distress. Advertisement This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For over 18 years and 38,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going. The washing machine Laurie Beane just bought from Sears is suddenly on sale. Why does the company want to return it in order to honor the new price? Question: I've been without a washing machine for a few years and have been waiting for the best deal that I could afford. I recently ordered a Kenmore 4.3 cubic foot Top Load Washer for $449. I had a Sears coupon for $35 off. Advertisement Imagine my frustration when Sears put the same washer on sale for $399 only 2 weeks later. That was a slap in my face. I called Sears and it said it would only price match for an item I'd purchased within seven days. Well, I did not ask Sears to match another competitor's price after seven days, but their own. Why would Sears do that? It makes me want to return this washer and go elsewhere. Strangely, a Sears representative said that was possible. I could return my washer for a full refund and purchase the same machine for $399. I can't believe that Sears would rather have the washer returned. All I asked for is the $50 credit and all would be well. I was planning on paying off the washer and getting the dryer to match. I have had medical problems that have left me on a fixed income. $50 is a lot to me. Advertisement I do not see how Sears can afford just to throw away customers over $50. Please see what can be done or I will have to return the washer in the next few days. -- Laurie Beane, Medina, Ohio Answer: I can see how you'd be frustrated. Nothing is more irritating than looking far and wide for the best deal, making a purchase, and then finding that you didn't get the best deal after all. When money is tight, that really hurts. I think Sears could have worked with you to find an acceptable compromise -- perhaps a credit that could be used for that new dryer? I thought the offer to return the washer was a little odd, since you would have lost the price differential on delivery charges. But technically, they're right. Sears has a 30-day return policy. As far as the markdown games you're referring to, that's actually fairly common. Items go on sale all the time, and for all kinds of reasons. That's why I advise a "don't look back" policy on purchases. When you've bought something, stop shopping. Otherwise, you'll find that someone got it for less, or worse, it's become obsolete. (As a loyal Apple customer, I know the feeling all too well.) You could have sent a brief, polite email to one of the Sears executives that I Iist on my site. I asked Sears about your case. Turns out that when you contacted Sears about the markdown, it did try to work with you. The company says it knocked $20 off the price of your washing machine after the price reduction. Advertisement "Generally a sale price markdown can be processed within seven days," a representative told me. "Ms. Beane wanted the sale price nearly 3 weeks after the purchase. Nonetheless, I processed the $50.00 credit for Ms. Beane." A couple of years ago, my extended family gathered for Thanksgiving in Los Angeles. Looking across a splendid vista over the city, my 40-something nephew asked me, "Is it true that 40 years ago you couldn't see the hills on the other side?" Progress, I thought, that he really had no idea how smoggy it used to be. And that's a source of satisfaction for one who spent his career working to clean the air. But progress brings a new burden: to tell the history of how the air got cleaned up. And to get across what it will take to meet future challenges -- like curbing climate change. I'm not a historian, at least not yet. Too busy still working to implement the Clean Power Plan, phase down the super-potent HFCs, and things like that. But I am more conscious of the need to tell the story of how we got here and where we're going, and what it means to me, to those coming up now. Advertisement Recently I came across two books that tell important parts of the story, by colleagues I've worked with for years -- both published by Oxford University Press and both excellent for college courses (or even advanced high school classes) in climate change, air pollution, or environmental science and policy. Struggling for Air: Power Plants and the "War on Coal" is a short, deft history of the U.S. Clean Air Act, focusing on coal-burning electric power plants, the nation's largest source of at least four different kinds of the most dangerous air pollution. Written by Richard Revesz and Jack Lienke, director and attorney with the Institute for Policy Integrity at New York University School of Law, their book reaches back 50 years to tell the story of how two presidents (Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon) and Congressional leaders like Senator Edmund Muskie of Maine forged the landmark 1970 Clean Air Act, and how it has been carried out, in fits and starts, since then. This is the law responsible for cutting American air pollution by 70-100 percent (depending on the pollutant) in the last 45 years, saving literally millions of lives over this period. And it's the law we're relying on now to curb the heat-trapping pollution that drives dangerous climate change. Revesz and Lienke begin with charges -- relentlessly echoed by coal and power companies, Congressional Republicans, and conservative media -- that President Obama, from out of nowhere and purely by fiat, launched a "war on coal." The authors explain the public health and environmental toll exacted by coal-burning power plant plants' four main pollutants: sulfur dioxide, oxides of nitrogen, mercury, and carbon dioxide. They tell how, in the heart of the last age of progressive legislation, Congress came together to enact a powerful and forward-looking clean air law, adopted almost unanimously and signed into law by President Nixon. And they chart how the law was carried out -- with fits and starts but steady progress -- by the seven presidents before Obama. If there was a war on anything, it was on pollution, not coal, and it began not in this administration, but with a bipartisan consensus half a century ago. Advertisement Revesz and Lienke point to what they see as the Clean Air Act's "tragic flaw" -- the decision to put modern pollution controls on new power plants while "grandfathering" existing ones from most controls. The break given to existing plants was justified on what turned out to be the false premise that they would retire at age 30 and be replaced by new plants equipped with state of the art controls. Instead, it turned out to be cheaper to refurbish the old clunkers and keep them going indefinitely under lax pollution limits or none at all. As a result, we have dozens of coal plants that were designed to be replaced decades ago, but are still running after more than 60 years. The authors explain, however, that the Clean Air Act that is already on the books contains provisions that are finally being used to curb pollution from these grandfathered plants, and they show that the Obama administration's cross-state pollution rules, standards for mercury and other toxic pollutants, and the Clean Power Plan are -- despite the naysayers -- well-grounded in the Clean Air Act and in precedents from prior presidents, including Clinton and both Bushes. Climate Change: What Everyone Needs to Know is an extremely readable history of climate science and projection of the future impacts in store if we don't dramatically curb carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping pollutants. Written by Joseph Romm, who founded and contributes to the excellent Climate Progress blog, it also explains the technologies and policies we can look to for solutions. I ran into Romm at the Paris climate conference last month, before the agreement was sealed. He asked how I was feeling, and I replied: "I'm optimistic within a pessimistic framework." I think that describes Romm's attitude as well. The book is filled with clear-eyed detail on the hazards we face as the seas rise, the ice melts, and droughts, floods, and storms become more intense. He's particularly effective explaining "positive feedbacks" that are highly likely to make basic impacts worse. For example, higher arctic temperatures are melting the permafrost layer that holds billions of tons of carbon dioxide and methane; as those pollutants gas off into the atmosphere, they make warming go even faster. Advertisement But there's hope in this book too. Finished just before the Paris climate conference, it describes the many steps being taken by the U.S., China, Europe, and many other countries to dampen their emissions and tilt their energy systems towards cleaner power sources. The Paris Agreement gathers up the carbon pollution reduction commitments of nearly 190 countries, and commits them to review progress and up their game every five years. It mobilizes new money for developing and deploying cleaner energy technology around the world, and to help poorer countries cope with the impacts we can't avoid. As Romm foresees, we have already diverged from the doom-laden high-emission pathway we've been on, to a low-carbon transition, but we have much more to do stop catastrophic warming. The Paris Agreement commits the world to bring global emissions "into balance" -- i.e., to net zero -- in the second half of this century. We already know how to get much of the way there. Public support is there, and it will only grow stronger as the dangers continue to reveal themselves. It'll be the work of the next two to three generations to figure out how to get it all done. My great-grandfather at the Trionfale market in Rome, circa 1933 Growing up in Italy in the 1960s, World War II was quite remote to me. Although I was not fully aware of it, the country was experiencing its "economic miracle:" a few years of rapid and sustained growth that saw the movement of millions of people from the south to the north, from the interior to the coasts, and from the countryside to the cities where new industrial jobs had become available. As the damage and destruction from the recent war was erased, Italians were eating their way towards the future, enjoying their newly found resources and access to a variety of ingredients and products that had no comparison to any previous era. I had not known any other way of eating. Although we may still not have been eating meat too often, we were consuming mass-produced cheese, desserts, and cold cuts. Canned food was widely available in supermarkets, a relatively novel concept for grocery shopping. Frozen food was creeping its way into our fridges, many of which only had a tiny icebox that needed to be deiced pretty often. Yet, every time I did not want to eat something, here came the war stories. My parents were children during the Nazi occupation, when food was very hard to come by, and only available on the black market at outrageous prices. My mother's family left the city for their mountain village where, at least, the occasional egg and fruits and vegetables were still available. My father remembers when the American GIs entered Rome, distributing chocolate bars; he ate so much of it, he got seriously sick. And they were the young ones. My grandparents' generation had their own trove of stories about hunger, great for guilting me into eating, but they were less overt about it. From them, I often heard stories of food sharing, celebrations, and culinary prowess despite scarcity. Advertisement I knew that those had been hard times for them, preceded by the harshness of World War I and the following years under Mussolini, when food became increasingly scarce due to the leader's dream of autarchy and self-sufficiency. However, many of that generation had ambivalent feelings towards Fascism. Some had fond memories of the youth activities and the trips to the beach organized by the party. Others longed for a sense of order that was constantly threatened by the swift changes of the 1960s, and later by the dark shadow of terrorism. Others blame Mussolini for all the injustices and hardships they had to go through. The same mixed perceptions emerge in the stories that Karima Moyer-Nocchi collected in her book Chewing The Fat: an Oral History of Italian Foodways From Fascism to Dolce Vita. She interviewed elderly Italian women from different social backgrounds and geographical origins, who had all experienced the events in the first half of the twentieth century. The specific point of view the author has chosen is food, which played a crucial role in most women's experience as they were expected to produce, process, sell, buy, cook, serve, and -- with any luck -- consumed it. Due to its absence, it was a constant theme in social and political life. Much like the citizens of Chile in 1990, the Burmese got tired of the military running and ruining their nation and they did something about it this year. The people voted, and Aung San Suu Kyi won (again) by a massive majority. The Burmese military who held power since the Allies pushed Japan out of Southeast Asia in World War II lost in almost every jurisdiction. That Burmese army in 1945 was led by Aung San Suu Kyi's father. But not for long, he was assassinated right after his election. Daw Suu and her mother fled and became refugees, ending up in England. Daw Suu married Michael Aris in 1972 and had two children. For this 'sin' of marrying a non Burmese, she is being held out of the Presidency of her nation though she and her party won almost every district. Daw Suu also won a massive majority back in 1988, but the military just said 'no' to her popular and massive support. Her reward was house imprisonment for the next 16 years. Here in the West, many of us activists rallied to her cause. Students and activists flocked to the Thai border to see if they could help with the hospital and the numerous refugee camps. These groups got to know the plight of the ethnic minorities along the Thai border. Many of these minorities -- like the Shan, Kachin, and Karen -- fought against the brutal regime that used child soldiers and raping of women as a state policies. Advertisement Dan Beeton, Jeremy Woodrum and I decided to set up a lobbying arm called the US Campaign for Burma. My Human Rights Action Center worked with Jeremy to produce a musical album "For the Lady", a 30 day campaign called Burma It Can't Wait on YouTube that oozed with talent and the commitment of Los Angeles, and worked with Shepard Fairey to get Daw Suu into an iconic art remembrance. Philanthropic Network and HRAC did a compilation of all her support in the world. We brought child soldiers into Washington to expose that illegal part of the Burmese army. I and my associate Feryal Gharahi actually were two of the few people who saw Daw Suu when she was under house arrest for all those years. HRAC then sent a camera crew to Rangoon to capture her plight as well. Jim Carrey produced a video to explain to Americans how to pronounce the name Aung San Suu Kyi. That campaign worked. But none of this takes away from the courage, fortitude and bravery of the Burmese people. This is their victory for them alone. The cost to Burma was immense. Thousands were held in prisons for years and many were tortured. Thousands of the young were forced to be soldiers who maimed and raped regularly in the villages they overran. Through it all, Aung San Suu Kyi stood tall and waited. She never ducked nor flinched once. She could have left Burma and been a free person. She chose to stay with her people under house arrest for sixteen years. Upon her release from house arrest, Daw Suu toured the world and got awards, the Nobel being one. She stated quite clearly that she was a politician not a human rights activist. Disappointing to many, nevertheless, she was clear and straight forward about her aim. Advertisement What got her through those years of house arrest is the same power and thoughtfulness she'll practice now as she takes over this government. She proved she was a politician when she created the National League for Democracy's slate for the 2015 election by leaving out many of her courageous supporters from the '88 generation that had supported her so well back then. She proved she was a politician again as the Burmese monks, citizens and army were killing and moving and threatening the Rohingya people (Moslem) in Burma. Most of the Rohingya have been there for centuries. But silence was the choice of Daw Suu. Many western journalists and activists lost faith in Daw Suu. The usual urge of the western press to build and destroy went to work. I believed while there were and are numerous problems in Burma, particularly with the Rohingya, my judgment is that she could not be judged harshly until she actually gets the executive power, real governmental power. Judge her on her record, not the record of the military who were massive human rights violators. To me, the change was in the change. If Daw Suu did not win the election, nothing would change. Once she gets to run her country, then I feel we can judge her for the treatment and plight of the Rohingyas as well as the other ethnic peoples along the Thai border. Judgment follows power. Not before. She ran a brilliant campaign and the Burmese people responded to her and the NLD agenda. Daw Suu could give a hoot about the criticisms. Her gentle spirit does not reflect her inner strength and steely determination. She has played the long, hard game and won so far. The Burmese military has learned what blind Milton wrote "they also serve who only stand and wait." Her nation has its back up against China. The Burmese army has made fortunes selling off valuable timber, minerals and drugs. That easy corruption that has gone on for decades will not be easy to stop. The military still control 25% of the Parliament. This alone will be a formidable problem. She knows of the greed and the power of the West as well. She will need the wisdom she learned in silence. Advertisement UAE Air Force F-16E departing on mission over Yemen On December 15, Prince Mohammed bin Salman al Saud, Deputy Crown Prince and Defense Minister of Saudi Arabia, announced the formation of a new, 34 member, Islamic military alliance to combat "any terrorist organization that appears in front of us," and in particular to coordinate efforts to fight terrorism in Syria, Libya, Egypt, Iraq and Afghanistan. Prince Salman went on to add that the coalition would coordinate its efforts "with major powers and international organizations." According to a statement later released by SPA, the Saudi state news agency, the coalition would have a joint operations center based in Riyadh to "coordinate and support military operations." The statement went on to add that the purpose of the alliance was to "protect the Islamic nation from the evils of all terrorist groups and organizations, whatever their sect and name." In a press conference in Paris later that day, noting that Muslims had suffered disproportionately from jihadist violence, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir, said that the new, Saudi-led, Islamic coalition would share intelligence among its members and would jointly train, equip and, when necessary, deploy military forces, against Islamic State militants. Speaking specifically about the deployment of ground troops, he remarked that no option "is off the table." Advertisement The coalition includes Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Benin, Chad, Togo, Tunisia, Turkey, Djibouti, Senegal, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Gabon, Guinea, the Palestinian Authority, Comoros, Qatar, Ivory Coast, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Maldives, Morocco, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria and Yemen. The announcement was welcomed by the Obama administration. U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter described the proposed coalition as "very much in line with something we have been urging for quite some time, which is greater involvement in the campaign to combat ISIL by Sunni Arab countries." Carter went on to add that the United States looked forward "to learning more about what Saudi Arabia had in mind" for the coalition. The U.S. words of support notwithstanding, the announcement marked the latest move in Saudi Arabia's increasingly assertive and, from Washington's standpoint, independent foreign policy. It is the latest in a series of Saudi moves that underscore a significant foreign policy shift. Prince Mohammed bin Salman al Saud announcing the creation of a new Saudi-led, 34 nation coalition. December 15, 2015 Advertisement On Oct 18, 2013, just one day after being elected to a two year term on the U.N. Security Council, the Saudi government unexpectedly turned down the seat. The reasons cited by Riyadh were the Security Council's impotence in dealing with the Assad government's continued atrocities against Syrian Sunni Muslims as well as its ineffectiveness in making any measurable progress in the impasse over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or in ridding the Middle East of weapons of mass destruction. This was the first time that Saudi Arabia had been elected to a seat on the Security Council and the first time that a newly elected member had rejected its seat. Some 17 months later, on March 26, 2015, Saudi Arabia announced that it would lead a coalition of Arab states made up principally of Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and Egypt in a military intervention in Yemen designed to restore the legitimate government of President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi. That government had earlier been overthrown by Houthi rebels backed by Iran. The original announcement had included Pakistan, but that government subsequently distanced itself from an active role. Serious planning for the actual operation, "Decisive Storm," had only begun in early March. Although the Saudi Foreign Ministry had claimed that Riyadh had been in close consultation with Washington for months, sources at the White House confirmed that the Saudis did not begin having detailed, top level discussions with the White House's national security staff till Sunday, March 15. General Lloyd Austin, head of the U.S. Central Command, in testimony in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee on March 26 disclosed that he had been advised by the Saudi military of the impending operation only one hour before it was launched. Dubbed an example of the new "Salman Doctrine," the intervention formalized the Saudi response to the "Arab Spring" civil unrest that had gripped the Arab world since the winter of 2011 and which, in particular, had resulted in a number of violent demonstrations in Bahrain and elsewhere in the Gulf. Simply put, Riyadh made it clear that any attempts to overthrow Sunni Muslim governments in the Arabian Peninsula by Iranian backed, Shiite militant groups would be met by a Saudi-led armed military intervention. Some pundits were quick to characterize this new, 34 member, Saudi-led coalition as an "Arab NATO," That assessment was premature. It's unclear at this point whether there is a formal treaty between the various parties in the coalition. It does not seem that there is one. Riyadh has made it clear that "participation" in any operation is voluntary. Nor does it appear that the agreement, formal or otherwise, has any binding provisions for mutual defense. As of yet, there is nothing similar to the Article 5 provisions of the NATO treaty that binds each party to come to the defense of any of its members. Advertisement Saudi air strike in Sana'a Yemen, November 5, 2015 There is no standardization of arms or equipment among the various members and little history of joint training or the coordination of joint operations. Organizing joint air operations will prove easier than effectively deploying a combined ground force. Moreover, those countries with the strongest militaries, Turkey, Egypt, Nigeria and Pakistan will likely face considerable domestic opposition to the foreign deployment of their troops, although both Egypt and Pakistan have a history of deploying troops, at Saudi request, in the Arabian Peninsula. The organization may well evolve into a NATO like, mutual defense treaty, but for now it represents more a commitment for cooperation than it does a binding defensive alliance. Nonetheless, the creation of such an organization is significant. At the very least it represents an expansion of the Salman Doctrine beyond just the defense of the Sunni governments in the Gulf to include a much broader array of Sunni governments across the Muslim world. The addition of African and Asian nations further highlights its "Sunni character "over that of its Arab one. The point is underscored by the absence of any Shiite-led governments, notwithstanding the supposed participation of the Lebanese government. Moreover, although the stated purpose of the alliance is to combat "terrorism," its potential role as an anti-Iranian, anti-Shiite coalition is unmistakable. As such it is further evidence of the continued and growing realignment of Middle East polities along a Sunni-Shia fault line. The announcement of the proposed alliance underscores a much more assertive, much more militaristic Saudi policy in the Middle East; a foreign policy willing to act unilaterally, one less reliant on American security guarantees and one far less willing to operate under an American security umbrella. As one Arab commentator put it in an article in al-Arabiya on April 1, 2015, "Saudi Arabia no longer cares if this U.S. silence is the passing weakness of a president whose term ends in two years." U.S. Senator John McCain, echoed much the same sentiment when, hours after the launch of Operation Decisive Storm, he said that "Arab countries no longer trust the U.S. and that is why they planned this alliance on their own." The continued weakness in oil prices may also be a factor that is shaping the Saudi response. At current price levels, Riyadh's budget deficit is around 21% of GDP. That level would be unsustainable for most countries. Only the existence of Saudi Arabia's extensive financial reserves makes it possible for the government in Riyadh to avoid, at least for now, a financial crisis. The Saudi willingness to consider more aggressive military options may simply be a reflection that Riyadh's traditional response of spreading copious amounts of cash to resolve disputes will be less of an option in the future. Advertisement Finally, the new alliance further underscores the Saudi intention to position itself as the leader of the Sunni world and, more significantly, what appears to be Turkey's willingness to set aside its own ambitions to lead the Sunni world and to support the Saudi initiative. The strategic cooperation council established by Saudi Arabia and Turkey is one step above a bilateral alliance, and its goal goes beyond restoring balance to Sunni forces in Iraq and Syria, and thus requires an in-depth examination of Saudi-Egyptian, Turkish-Russian and Turkish-Egyptian relations. Meanwhile, Iran and Qatar are both relevant to the developments in Saudi-Turkish relations, as are the U.S., ISIS and the Syrian opposition. There are both convergences and divergences in Saudi-Turkish relations, which were upgraded this week to the level of strategic cooperation. The linchpin of this strategic cooperation council will be the mechanisms of activating the alliance should developments in Syria require intervention to counter Russian protection of Bashar al-Assad. Other challenges include reconciling Turkish hostility to the Kurdish organizations and the aspirations of the Kurds, with Saudi Arabian neutrality in this matter. Advertisement Furthermore, there are several grey areas when it comes to the fight against radical Sunni groups Washington and Moscow designate as terrorist groups, despite the fact that Ankara and Riyadh have agreed to fight ISIS and similar groups that pose an existential threat to Saudi Arabia, perhaps more so than to Turkey. The first country of concern in this context is Egypt. Egypt, an ally of Saudi Arabia, has tense relations with Turkey. The government of Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi sees the Turkish government under Recept Tayyip Erdogan to be an incubator of the Muslim Brotherhood, and thus sees any Saudi-Turkey rapprochement as rapprochement over the Muslim Brotherhood, which were designated in the past as a terrorist group by Riyadh. Cairo wants the Muslim Brotherhood to continue to have that designation, and fears that the rapprochement might entail a reversal of that designation. Already, there are liberal as well as Muslim brotherhood voices that believe the kingdom's designation of the Muslim Brotherhood is harmful and unnecessary. Despite some tension over Cairo's attitudes vis-a-vis Syria, Yemen, and anti-terrorism Saudi is determined to maintain the alliance with Egypt and preserve the regime there. For its part, Egypt is appreciative of the indispensable Saudi, Emirati, and Kuwaiti support despite its resentment over Gulf expectations and the fact that it has had to take a back seat in Arab leadership in the present time. Ultimately, both Cairo and Riyadh realize that Egypt is vital, pivotal, and irreplaceable in the regional balance of power. However, with the establishment of a Saudi-Turkish strategic alliance, Egypt must be asking what place it will have in it, and how its position in the Arab strategic weight will be reconciled in the regional balance of power. Saudi's response is that there is no contradiction between the two, as evidenced by the commitment to the continuation of the alliance. Clearly, there is a need for a profound dialogue between the two Arab heavyweights. Advertisement Russia is on good terms with Egypt and has interesting relations with Saudi Arabia. One of the aspects of strategic Russian-Egyptian cooperation stems from their combined hostility to Islamist groups led by the Muslim Brotherhood. In turn, this has led to Russian-Egyptian convergence on Syria, at a time when Saudi and Russian attitudes on Syria are diverging while Russian-Turkish attitudes there are clashing outright. The pragmatism Saudi diplomacy currently adopts led Riyadh to seek a working relation with Moscow, despite profound differences over Syria, which has helped set the Vienna peace process in motion and bring in Iran to the table of discussions surrounding Syria's fate. It is the same kind of pragmatism that has prompted Riyadh to establish a strategic cooperation council with Ankara, at the height of Russian-Turkish tension, while at the same time voiding any animus with Moscow. For its part, Moscow pledged not to intervene in Yemen against the Arab coalition. This week, Moscow rejected a request from ousted Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh to take action against the Saudi-led coalition. Yemen is a top Saudi priority, both militarily and diplomatically, including at the UN, where Moscow's role is extremely important. So no matter how deep Saudi disputes are with Russia over Syria or Iran, Riyadh is keen on maintaining its newfound pragmatic ties with Moscow for both tactical and long-term strategic calculations. Moscow, for its part, wants to maintain strong relations with Saudi Arabia, as long as Riyadh does not condition this on disengagement with Iran and Syria. This pragmatism is to thank in part for the Vienna process, which has brought together around twenty nations, led by the U.S., Turkey and Saudi Arabia, who all followed the plans drafted by Russian diplomacy culminating with the third round in New York that produced an unprecedented UN Security resolution on Syria. Advertisement Resolution No. 2259 deferred contentious issues, led by the fate of Bashar al-Assad during the transitional process, the question of which opposition figures are acceptable, and the question of which groups in Syria are terror organizations. The Vienna process resolution, midwifed by Russia, bypassed the Geneva Communique, which called for a transitional period during which Assad hands over power to an executive governing body. The new resolution effectively repealed the Geneva Communique and bypassed the Assad Knot. The list of proposals given to Jordan, which has been assigned by the Vienna nations to prepare a list of groups to be listed as terrorist organizations, was also deferred, containing 167 putative groups. The reason is the anger expressed by Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif at the latest meeting of the Vienna process in New York, when he learned the Qods Force and Hezbollah were included in the list. The meeting was then suspended, the list was buried, and work has restarted from scratch on a new list. Turkey, in turn, has listed the groups it considers to be terror organizations, including the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK). For its part, Russia has focused its gaze on the list of Syrian opposition group prepared by Riyadh in the wake of a previous meeting of the Syrian opposition. However, Moscow insisted on merely referring to that effort in the preamble to resolution 2259, and removed it from the operative clauses that were originally meant to endorse the list. The political battle over the implementation of resolution 2259, which for the first time endorsed a political process in Syria since the conflict there began five years ago, is inevitable. Saudi Arabia and Turkey want to include figures and groups in the terror lists that Russia do not want included. However, Riyadh wants to benefit from Ankara to pressure on Iran not just with regard to the list, but also to curb Iranian meddling in the region, and agree on mechanisms that guarantee the effectiveness of the alliance against terrorism and counter Russian protection of Assad. Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir had declared the creation of the joint strategic cooperation council in a joint press conference with his Turkish counterpart following the summit between King Salman and President Erdogan in Riyadh last week. Advertisement He said the purpose of the council includes deeper coordination with Turkey in light of the challenges both countries face in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Libya, from terrorism to extremism to Iran's negative intervention in regional issues. Countering challenges will not be easy however. Turkey is not an effective participant in the war with ISIS and similar groups in Syria, and its main concern is the Kurds as the regime is weakened. Turkey is opposed to secular groups, including Kurdish groups, which reveals its keenness on empowering Islamist groups. In Iraq, Turkey is at odds with Saudi Arabia in a way; Saudi has normalized relations with Baghdad after 25 years of estrangement, while Turkish-Iraqi relations grow more tense by the day. True, both countries have reservations with regard to the government of Haider al-Abadi in Baghdad, but they have different reasons. While Turkey's reasons have Kurdish dimensions, Saudi's have Iranian dimensions. Yet both are pursuing the restoration of the Sunni element in the balance of power after ISIS fled from Ramadi. Cross-Posted from DeSmogBlog Emails and documents obtained by DeSmog reveal that the U.S. International Trade Administration has actively promoted and facilitated business deals for the liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry and export terminal owners, even before some of the terminals have the federal regulatory agency permits needed to open for business. This release of the documents coincides with the imminent opening of the first ever LNG export terminal in the U.S. hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") era, owned by Cheniere. The documents came via an open records request filed by DeSmog with the Port of Lake Charles. The request centered around the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) the Port signed with the Panama Canal Authority in January 2015. Advertisement Image Credit: Port of Lake Charles The records offer an inside glimpse of how -- as the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) weigh environmental and energy policy concerns before handing out LNG export permits -- other federal agencies have proceeded as if the permits are a fait accompli. They also further raise the specter that, as some have highlighted, FERC and DOE merely serve as rubber-stamp regulatory agencies in service to powerful industrial interests. Further, they demonstrate how pivotal the proposed and nearly operational Panama Canal expansion project is for the LNG shipping industry moving forward. Missionary Work While the LNG export company-heavy Port of Lake Charles signed an MOU with the Panama Canal Authority on January 6, 2015, the emails date back to February 13, 2014. The MOU mentions LNG a few times throughout the text. Image Credit: Port of Lake Charles On that date, Jean Collins, export assistance specialist with the U.S. Department of Trade working out of New Orleans, Louisiana, sent an email to Dan Loughney, Director of Marketing and Trade Development for the Port of Lake Charles, inviting him to an October 2014 trade mission in Panama hosted by the Louisiana District Export Council. Advertisement The Louisiana District Export Council is a sub-unit of the broader U.S. Commercial Service and U.S. Export Assistance Center (USEAC). "The goal of the mission is to help participating Louisiana companies and organizations foster new business and partnerships in Panama," explained Collins' email. "Working in conjunction with the U.S. Commercial Service offices in New Orleans and Panama, the mission organizers will further develop relationships between C-100 member organizations." C-100, shorthand for Committee of 100 Louisiana, describes itself as "Louisiana's Business Roundtable" and as a coalition of "the top CEOs of leading private and public companies in Louisiana and University presidents of Louisiana's institutions of higher learning." LNG Mission An April 3, 2014 email sent from the CEO of the C-100 -- Michael Olivier, former Secretary of Economic Development for Louisiana's former Democratic Party Governor Kathleen Blanco -- explains that C-100 sent an "advance team" to Panama and "found a great interest from the Panama Canal [Authority] to enter into an MOU with the Port of Lake Charles" due to its proximity to Cheniere's U.S. Gulf coast-based assets. Advertisement According to a news report published a couple days before the trade mission, one of the attendees was Greg Michaels, CEO and Chairman of the proposed SCT&E LNG export terminal. "Michaels has a keen interest in the passage of LNG vessels through the canal and will hold meetings and discussions with Panamanian officials regarding such," explains the article published by the business publication LNG Industry. "SCT&E LNG plans to ship LNG through the canal via large ocean going LNG vessels, thus making this Panama Trade Mission an important and timely event." LNG Industry also explained that the trade mission in Panama would help open doors to investors for Michaels. "While visiting in Panama's favorable business climate, Michaels will meet with prospective investors interested in the US$ 9.2 billion liquefaction project," LNG Industry wrote. "His itinerary will also include meetings regarding potential electrical generation projects and LNG terminals in the region." SCT&E LNG had only sent in an LNG export application to the DOE five months prior to the trade mission for consideration and has yet to file an application with FERC. Advertisement Debriefing Michael Olivier contacted Dan Loughney in an April 10 email to tell him that then-Panama Ambassador to the U.S., Mario Jaramillo, would soon visit Louisiana to help develop the agenda for the planned October trade mission to Panama. Jaramillo formerly served on the Board of Directors of Gas Natural Fenosa, a Spanish corporation that produces and distributes gas and electricity in Panama. Panama's current Ambassador to the U.S., Emanuel Gonzalez-Revilla, also formerly worked for the oil and gas industry as chairman for Melones Oil Terminal, Inc., "a full service fuel storage facility in the Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal; as well as Vice Chairman of Trader Tankers, Ltd., a premier barge and bunkering operation providing fuel to ships crossing The Panama Canal," according to the Embassy of Panama in the U.S. website. In the aftermath of the trade mission, C-100 published a debriefing of sorts, provided to DeSmog by Olivier. That debriefing explains that along with SCT&E LNG, representatives from the Australia-headquartered and Lake Charles-based Magnolia LNG export facility proposal also attended the trade mission, as did a representative from Technology Associates, Inc, a company that manufactures LNG tanker fueling technology. Rubber Stamp Of course, there is always the question whether this is standard operating procedure and FERC and DOE just exist to provide a rubber stamp. Both agencies denied a request for comment for this story, as did spokespeople for the Department of Trade, U.S. Export Assistance Center and U.S. Commercial Service. Advertisement "There is no question that the FERC is a rubber-stamp for oil and gas," said Margaret Flowers, an activist with the Beyond Extreme Energy coalition and U.S. Senate candidate for the Green Party in Maryland. "The FERC is fully funded by the permits it grants to industry. This is an incentive to permit projects, especially those such as LNG terminals, that lead to more permits for pipelines and compressor stations." Flowers thinks FERC needs a totally revamped vision going forward. NEW YORK, UNITED STATES - DECEMBER 20: People, including members of Muslim community and the others from varied religions and beliefs, stage a protest against hate speech of US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, during a march started in front of the Trump Tower at 5th Avenue towards CNN and FOX TV buildings in New York City, USA on December 20, 2015. US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump wants 'total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States' as well as he said 'All Muslim immigration to the United States should be halted' (Photo by Cem Ozdel/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images) Have you ever made a wish that's come true -- because you made the wish? Until now, making a wish, whether at the sight of a shooting star or when blowing out the candle(s) on your birthday cake or when breaking a wishbone, has not yet been scientifically proven to actually work, as far as I know. Yet, in the spirit of hope, I am making 10 wishes at the beginning of the New Year. And as is always the case, as a Muslim, I speak on behalf of 1.5 billion people. So here goes... 1. People no longer confuse me with ISIS. My name isn't ISIS. It's not even Islamic State. In fact, the words Islamic or State are not actually in my extended name. Nevertheless, time and time again, I keep getting requests to respond to the group's actions. I swear, ISIS or ISIL or IS -- none of them are in my family tree; they're not some distant cousins of mine. In 2016, I just want people to stop confusing me with ISIS. I really don't know what ISIS is thinking and why they do what they do. It's not like the State Department is asked for comment because of the State-to-State connection. As a postscript, can ISIS stop using the word Islamic? Advertisement 2. Muslims stop killing Muslims for being Muslim.Somewhere, along the way over the last couple of decades, Muslims started killing other Muslims for being Muslim in the wrong way, or at least took it to a whole new level. There's a whole ideology out there built around takfir or essentially "declaring Muslims as kufar or unbelievers" for failing an evermore peculiar litmus test. Imagine if death squads emerged killing Black people for not being Black enough. Originating in some of the philosophical exhortations by scholar Ibn Taymiyyah 700 years ago, the criteria by which you are deemed "takfir-ed" and permissible to be killed has reached insane if not idiosyncratic levels. It would be funny if the situation weren't so deadly. Even barbers were caught in the crosshairs and were being assassinated in Baghdad in the 2000s. 3. Death and destruction in the Muslim world have a timeout. From Yemen to Iraq, Libya to Somalia, and from Afghanistan to far beyond, civil strife is rife in too many parts of what is defined as the Muslim world. Autocrats, militants, extremists and terrorists, don't care who they kill: men, women, children -- everyone is fair game. I wish this would stop. Into this toxic mix, the last thing needed is more killing coming into these countries from the outside; the 2003 invasion of Iraq proved that. I wonder if Russia will hear that message? 4. We all get comfortable with the "other."What a difference it was in 2015 between Trudeau and Trump in the North American political cycle. The world needs more Trudeaus and less Trumps (Donalds that is). The fear of the "other" is starting to define Western politics and it is not just about Trump. The rise of right-wing political parties in Europe from Hungary to Denmark is a poignant reminder of the breadth of this phenomenon. Yet, outside the West this fear of the other also permeates and often dominates. In Turkey, we are seeing a renewed vilification of the Kurdish population. Further afield in Burma, the Rohingya are cast as outsiders. In Malaysia, Christians are prohibited from using the Arabic word for God. And, in nearby Brunei, Christmas was simply cancelled. In some of the war zones in the Middle East, Christians are on the verge of disappearing. The world would be a lot better off if we weren't so afraid of the bogeyman of the other. Advertisement 5. The Muslim world deals with its taboos. Speaking of an aversion to the non-orthodox, there's a whole set of taboos that many Muslim countries and societies need to start dealing with. A lot of them relate to sex. Sometimes the Muslim world acts like it has one big case of the cooties. There have been attempts by some to break through these restrictions. Wedad Lootah in the UAE comes to mind. Shereen El Feki's Sex and the Citadel is another. This is not an issue to take lightly, especially in societies where 60-70 percent of youth are under the age of 30. Bombarded by sexualized imagery from modern and digital media, these youth then live, essentially, in an austere second world that is their reality. More importantly and tragically, rape and sexual assault are simply not talked about; child abuse is an even worse curse hidden under the rug. Finally, at some point Muslim countries - and the clerical establishment -- will need to come to terms with the fact that gay Muslims exist. 6. Somewhere, over the rainbow, democracy and Islam go steady. Let's be honest, a lot of people have tried to set up democracy with Islam for a relationship. Sometimes it has been a surprise blind date (e.g. Iraq in 2003). Other times, it was a relationship that grew from blind passion (e.g. the Arab world in 2011). Often, the sparks of love eventually turn into animus and things quickly go south. In the Arab world, Tunisia is carrying - with some fragility -- the banner of democracy. Many Muslim-majority countries that used to be counted as democracies now suffer from authoritarian syndromes (e.g. Turkey, Malaysia, and Bangladesh). In other cases, democracy in its infancy quickly devolved into score settling or majoritarian mafias (e.g. the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt). Perhaps Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country is our hope that can breathe life into this wish. 7. Averroes comes back in style. Averroes -- or Ibn Rushd -- was a man's man. He schooled his way into Raphael's The School of Athens. The polymath kept alive ancient Greek philosophy, paving the way for much of Europe's modern intellectual movements. Back in the day, in Andalusia, he was a big deal (Biden-style). And, why not? He vociferously argued for the co-existence of secular and religious thought in a posthumous debate with the Abbasid scholar Al Ghazali. Ultimately, Ibn Rushd lost the debate to the detriment of the Muslim world, but his arguments culminated with the work, The Incoherence of Incoherence, which I think would be a great riposte to all ISIS ideologues and their friends. If Ibn Taymiyyah came back, then let's bring Averroes back too. 8. Flying while Muslim is no longer a thing. They say that flying while Muslim is the new driving while Black. I guess if you're a Black Muslim, this really sucks, especially if you drive to the airport for your flight. So my wish maybe can be two-pronged: getting rid of both 'driving while Black' as well as 'flying while Muslim.' What is flying while Muslim? Well, it often starts with a casual stare or two from across the way. A timid approach then ensues: "Excuse me sir." This is normally followed by a more forceful: "Please follow me." It can then get quite aggressive, with clothes falling by the wayside. It normally ends with your belongings in disarray, your belt on backwards, and you fast-walking without turning back in the hope that no one thinks twice about you boarding your flight. Oh, and don't watch the news while on the plane. I hate flying while Muslim. 9. Trump presides over a Muslim beauty contest. Was 2015 the year of Trump? You have to hand it to Trump; he sure knows how to grab the spotlight. Unfortunately, he's used that spotlight to spew increasingly populist venom targeted at Muslims (and others). Maybe, we need to better appeal to Trump's core interest: beauty pageants. There are a few lists circulating online for potential Muslim contestants (for Men: click here | for Women: click here). Yet, I think we should make this a mipsters pageant and turn this whole thing on its head. 10. Peace comes to Syria. This Muslim (me) -- speaking on behalf of 1.5 billion people around the world -- has 10 wishes for 2016 but if only one of them came true it should be this one. No country has been more ravaged in recent memory than Syria. Hundreds of thousands have been killed as gangsters, terrorists, and dictators fight for supremacy. The surrounding region, instead of trying to promote a solution, has sent in weapons, fighters, and incitement. The world, instead of trying to mediate, has sought to settle old scores. All the while, the people in Syria live in lifeless limbo amidst daily death and destruction. If I had only one wish it would be that the violence in Syria would come to an end. Advertisement Glock 9mm pistol with live ammunition Heavily armed domestic terrorists have occupied a wildlife preserve in Oregon and invited other extremists to take up arms and join the movement. Calling themselves "patriots" the followers of Cliven Bundy are protesting the impending imprisonment of two ranchers on arson charges. The anti-government radical leader has long challenged restrictions on grazing his cattle on Federal land. Neither the human rights organizations that track domestic hate groups, nor those of us who study violent extremism are surprised by this latest development. We are, however, puzzled by one thing: Why do virtually all media outlets dignify these people by calling them "militiamen?" They are terrorists, pure and simple. The contemporary 'citizens militia' movement has appropriated and perverted the concept of militias in use at the time of the American Revolution. Lacking a regular army, the colonists initially relied on local bodies of armed citizens to resist tyranny. Despite their celebrated stands at Lexington and Concord, however, militiamen fared poorly against British regulars. The Continental Congress quickly established a conventional army. Militias did play an important role in winning American Independence, but only when they operated under proper authority and in support of regular troops. Advertisement The new American Republic was understandably leery of creating a large standing army in peace time, having seen how such forces had been used in Europe to suppress freedom. Its founders, therefore, wrote militias into their new constitution. The much debated second amendment declares that: "A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed." Gun rights advocates are fond of quoting the second clause in this sentence while ignoring the first. It would be difficult to exaggerate the importance of the term "well-regulated." Militias always operated under government authority, usually that of the state. In case of national emergency, state militias could be brought under command of the small regular army, as they were at the outbreak of the Civil War. ASSOCIATED PRESS Communist Party of India leader AB Bardhan talks to the media after a press conference in New Delhi, India, Sunday, Feb. 5, 2006. Communist parties in India's coalition government on Sunday criticized the government vote against Iran's nuclear program at Vienna, but didn't issue any threat to pull down Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government. (AP Photo/Gurinder Osan) New Delhi--Known for his blunt speak and great integrity acknowledged across the political divide, veteran communist A B Bardhan was among the last few links to the freedom movement who had played a major role in the trade union movement and national politics. Bardhan, who steered the party during the turbulent period of coalition politics at national level in 1990s, died tonight after prolonged illness. Advertisement Bardhan, 92, is survived by son Ashok and daughter Alka. His wife, a professor in Nagpur University, died in 1986. He was admitted to G B Pant hospital here after he suffered paralytic stroke last month. Bardhan, who lived in the CPI headquarters in the national capital, was admitted to the hospital on December 7 after he felt uneasiness and lost consciousness. A former General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (CPI), Ardhendu Bhushan Bardhan was a witness to the ups and downs of the Left movement and is credited with steering the CPI during a period when politics of coalition became the norm in the nineties. He played a leading role in his party joining the coalition government at the Centre in 1996 when his party veteran Indrajit Gupta became the Home Minister of India. Advertisement Even after stepping down from the post of party General Secretary in March 2012, a role he had performed for four consecutive terms spanning 16 years, Bardhan continued to guide his party members, firmly believing in the maxim--"once a Communist, always a Communist." Soon after the Left Front's debacle at the hands of the Trinamool Congress in the 2011 assembly polls in its one-time bastion West Bengal, he would warn Left leaders "either change or you are out". Bardhan had also reiterated late Marxist Jyoti Basu's statement that not accepting the Prime Minister's post in 1996 was a "historic blunder" of the Left. He had later said: "That was an opportunity, a lost one, to show to the country that Communist politics is different. Within the limitations of a capitalist system also, we must have tried that." Born on September 25, 1925 in Sylhet (now in Bangladesh), Bardhan began his political career in 1940s during the freedom struggle as a leader of All India Students Federation and was drawn into the Communist stream and joined the CPI. He was arrested over 20 times and spent over four years in jail. Advertisement He was later given the charge of trade unions in Maharashtra where he established his impeccable credentials as a fiery trade union leader. He later rose to become the General Secretary of All India Trade Union Congress, the oldest trade union in the country. Though Bardhan contested several elections, he could succeed only once in 1957 when he was elected as member of Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, that too as an Independent from Nagpur. He could not make it to Parliament as he lost two general elections in 1967 and 1980 from the Vidarbha city. The veteran leader moved to Delhi in 1990s and was elected CPI's Deputy General Secretary and later as its General Secretary in 1996, replacing Indrajit Gupta when he became Home Minister. In national politics, he, along with another Marxist veteran Harkishan Singh Surjeet, played the elder statesman role, talking to non-Congress, non-BJP parties to forge the Third Front. Both of them were also instrumental in the formation of the Congress-led UPA-I government by supporting it from outside. An avid reader, Bardhan always maintained that it were the books on Communism which influenced him to join the Communist movement. He read works in various languages including Bengali, Marathi, Hindi, English and French. Advertisement When asked by journalists about his autobiography, Bardhan used to say that biographies are "an exercise in self-congratulation and meant to blame others. I will not write." Bardhan is survived by Ahmadabad-based doctor-daughter Alka and son Ashok, who teaches economics in University of California, Berkeley, in the US. Advertisement Contact HuffPost India Pacific Press via Getty Images ALLAHABAD, INDIA - 2014/09/18: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Vice-President Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi speaks before the crowd during his visit at Allahabad Railway Station for a press conference regarding political issues, in Allahabad. (Photo by Amar Deep/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images) NEW DELHI -- Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Sunday said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would contest the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls on its own. Naqvi said the BJP has now emerged as a strong political force in Uttar Pradesh. "The people have seen the governance of BSP, they are now seeing the SP's governance where there is only corruption and misrule. The people of Uttar Pradesh want relief from all this. The BJP will contest the elections on its own and even form the government," Naqvi told ANI here. Advertisement In the civic body polls held in November, the BJP had lost in many constituencies. The party had reportedly lost 50 seats out of 58 in Varanasi, which is Prime Minister Narendra Modi's constituency. The BJP could only win four of the 28 seats in Home Minister Rajnath Singh's Lucknow constituency, while it lost 49 out of the 56 seats in Union Minister Kalraj Mishra's Deora constituency. Advertisement Contact HuffPost India Also see on HuffPost: ANI NEW DELHI -- The officials at the New Delhi Railway Station on Sunday received a bomb threat in New Delhi- Kanpur route following which the trains have been delayed and the area is being combed. The railway board was informed by the Mumbai Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) after the latter received an e-mail regarding the same. Advertisement The Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) of New Delhi Police station Surender Kumar also wrote a letter to the Chief Station Manager requesting all Delhi-Kanpur trains to be checked before its departure. Security personnel took the help of sniffer dogs while checking the luggage of passengers at the New Delhi railway station. Meanwhile, the Lucknow-Shatabdi Express has been evacuated and is being checked at Ghaziabad railway station after the bomb scare. Advertisement Contact HuffPost India Also see on HuffPost: NARINDER NANU via Getty Images Indian army soldiers take up position on the perimeter of an airforce base in Pathankot on January 3, 2016, during an operation to 'sanitise' the base following an attack by gunmen. The deadly assault on an Indian air base near the Pakistan border was 'a heinous' terrorist attack, the United States said, urging the two rivals to work together to hunt down those responsible. Three security officers were killed in the attack by suspected Islamist militants on Pathankot base in northern Punjab state early January 2. At least four attackers also died in shootouts with security forces. AFP PHOTO/NARINDER NANU / AFP / NARINDER NANU (Photo credit should read NARINDER NANU/AFP/Getty Images) NEW DELHI -- Defence Experts on Sunday said there is no doubt that the perpetrators of the attack at Pathankot Air Force base were from Pakistan. "There is no doubt that these terrorists came from Pakistan. The doubt is that whether they have been sent by the Pakistani establishment or they have come on their own. Even if they have come on their own then the establishment might have helped them. Otherwise it is not possible to cross the border undetected carrying such heavy weapons," Lieutenant General (Retd.) Raj Kadyan told ANI. Advertisement Meanwhile, security and strategic affairs expert Commodore (Retd.) C. Uday Bhaskar said the attack had a pattern similar to last year's attack in Punjab's Gurdaspur district and the 26/11 Mumbai terror strike. "The investigation that has been carried out in the Pathankot attack till now has established the links with Pakistan. These telephone calls placed in the public domain are very instructive because in many ways you see a pattern that you could link to either 2008 Mumbai attack or the Gurdaspur attack. There is communication between the perpetrators and the handlers... The linkage with Pakistan is fairly credible," he told ANI. Commodore (Retd.) Bhaskar also said Pakistan's claim that they would treat all terrorist activities in the same manner is being put to test. "This puts the attack in a very complex context. Pakistan has repeatedly been saying in public that now there are no two standards. So what was said in public after Peshawar, the way Pakistani establishment tried to convey and convince the global community that they will deal with all terror activities in the same manner is on test," he added. Advertisement The death toll of the martyred in the Pathankot Air Force Base attack has risen to six so far as three more defence personnel succumbed to their injuries. A Garud commando and two Defence Security Corps (DSC) personnel succumbed to their injuries in the hospital last night. So far, eight DSC jawans and a Garud commando have been injured in the terrorist attack on the Air Base. The terrorists who attacked the Base reportedly had their allegiance to Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM). Meanwhile, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has taken over the probe in the attack and has reportedly sought assistance from the Punjab police and the Central Intelligence Bureau. Advertisement Contact HuffPost India Also see on HuffPost: Two people were killed and four seriously injured in crashes on Sunday Four More Shots Please Stars Ready For Film Based On Series, Say 'Like Sex In The City, Why Not?' | Exclusive LAS VEGAS (AP) An attempted murder suspect who was fatally shot by Las Vegas police was holding a cellphone that was mistaken for a gun during the deadly confrontation, authorities said Friday. The shooting occurred Thursday as the officers were assisting U.S. marshals in arresting the man accused of multiple violent felonies in Arizona, including attempted murder. The name of the man has not been released. Las Vegas police said in the Friday statement that the man had been under surveillance and fled from federal authorities who then called Las Vegas police for help in the search. The man was found outside a home west of downtown. Police said his right hand held what they believed to be a firearm. Officers told him to drop the gun and ordered him to stop when he began to move toward them. Police said two officers opened fire when he didn't obey their commands. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said the man was actually holding a cellphone. Police spokesman Officer Larry Hadfield said no officers, agents or bystanders were injured. Police Captain Matt McCarthy of the department's office of Internal Oversight and Constitutional Policing said the officers shot at the man because the confrontation was in a residential area and involved a man wanted for attempted murder who they thought was holding a gun. "The suspect did not listen, quickly began to advance on the officers, concealing his right hand, which the officers believed was holding a firearm," McCarthy said in a video message that accompanied the police statement. The two officers who shot him haven't been identified but they are expected to be named soon in line with department policy. It was the 16th shooting in which an officer opened fire or was shot at in 2015 in the Las Vegas area. OPPO, a global electronics company that is present in over 20 countries, and Home Credit, a multinational consumer finance company, bring a timely offer to those who are looking for a memorable but affordable gift this Christmas. Starting this month until January 31, 2016, customers may purchase an OPPO Neo 7 on installment even without a credit card and at 0% interest rate through installments provided by Home Credit. The Neo 7, which retails at P7,990,is the newest camera phone under OPPOs Neo lineup. It carries forward the unique design feature that set the Neo 5 apart: a sleek and reflective rear surface that uses optical coating and fiberglass for increased strength and elasticity. This while adding a wide range of performance upgrades and an attractive streamlined arc edge. Garrick Hung, Operations Manager at OPPO Philippines, said, The Neo 7s generously proportioned 5-inch screen, improved front camera, and 16GB ROM, along with its powerful battery, make it a heavy hitter in the sub-P10,000 price range. Home Credit makes shopping for the OPPO Neo 7 affordable and convenient for customers. All one needs to apply for a loan are at least two IDs one of which should indicate a current address and an initial cash payment. The loan is approved in less than 30 minutes, and the customer may leave the shop with the purchased good in less than an hour. The payment termis 6 months, with a monthly payment of as low as 866 (based on 35% initial cash payment). This November, we conducted a survey asking citizens of Metro Manila about the most desirable Christmas presents. It turned out that, with a share of 24%, gadgets is the most popular type of Christmas gift that Filipinos are looking to buy for themselves and for their relatives, David Minol, CEO of Home Credit Philippines, said. He added: To comply with the customers demands, we have launched this joint promo with OPPO Philippines. This Christmas, thanks to our services, even those clients who dont have access to banking services and credit cards, can afford to buy the most desirable gifts with 0% overpayment, David Minol, CEO of Home Credit Philippines, said. The promo is available in more than 140 partner stores across Metro Manila, including OPPO concept stores, Rulls Cellphones and Accessories, Silicon Valley, and Wellcom. Full list of the stores is available at Home Credit official website www.homecredit.ph via this link. Back to top EPA announces $22 million settlement for cleanup of Cooper Drum Superfund Site Los Angeles, California - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Department of Justice announced that a group of 40 parties have agreed to conduct the cleanup of the Cooper Drum site in South Gate, 10 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles. The settlement requires an estimated $15 million to construct the additional groundwater treatment system needed, including wells, piping and treatment costs, plus $7 million to reimburse EPA for its past cleanup actions at the Superfund site. Todays settlement is a binding commitment to pursue the final cleanup of this former industrial site, said Jared Blumenfeld, EPAs Regional Administrator for the Pacific Southwest. Our goal is to protect the residents of South Gate from the toxic chemicals that have contaminated their local groundwater. Cooper Drum is a 3.8 acre site located in a commercial, industrial and residential area of South Gate. From 1974 until its closure in 1992, the Cooper Drum Company reconditioned used steel drums from industrial customers, such as chemical manufacturers, chemical packagers and oil companies. The 55 gallon steel drums, which contained residual oils and solvents, were washed and prepared for reuse. Residual wastes from the drums, primarily volatile organic compounds such as trichloroethylene (TCE), spilled and leaked on the site, contaminating soils and groundwater. Cooper Drum was placed on Superfunds National Priorities List in 2001. Over the last 14 years, EPA has overseen the design, construction and operation of soil and groundwater treatment systems aimed at cleaning up TCE, lead, PCBs and petroleum hydrocarbons. The sites soil vapor extraction system, which has been operating since 2011, has removed over 742 pounds of chemicals from affected soils. The groundwater extraction system has treated more than 17 million gallons of contaminated groundwater since 2012. All water that is served to the residents and businesses in South Gate meets state and federal drinking water standards. Drinking high levels of TCE may cause damage to the nervous system, liver and lungs. PCBs are a known human carcinogen and may cause a variety of other adverse health effects on the immune, reproductive, nervous and endocrine systems. Long term exposure to lead can lead to kidney problems or high blood pressure. Between 2001 and 2009, EPAs cleanup activities at the Cooper Drum site relied on public funding. In 2009, agency investigators were able to identify former customers of the drum reconditioning business. Since then, the settling parties, known as the Cooper Drum Cooperating Parties Group, have funded the cleanup and worked cooperatively with EPA. This is the final phase of work for the site for known conditions, and implements the cleanup selected in the Record of Decision in September 2002. The settlement, lodged in Federal District Court on December 29, 2015 as a consent decree, will be posted in the Federal Register and available for public comment for a period of 30 days. The consent decree can be viewed on the Justice Department website: www.justice.gov/enrd/Consent_Decrees.html. Southern Californias I-710 freeway passes through 15 cities and unincorporated areas including South Gate, where the effects of pollution are disproportionately higher than in other areas of Los Angeles County. Approximately one million people, about 70% of whom are minority and low-income households, are severely impacted by industrial activities and goods movement in the area. In a multi-year effort, federal, state, and local governments and nonprofit organizations are working together to improve the environmental and public health conditions for residents along this corridor. For more information on EPAs work at the I-710 corridor, please visit: http://www.epa.gov/region9/strategicplan/i710.html For more information on the site, please visit: http://www.epa.gov/superfund/cooperdrum Treasury and the IRS Announce Limited Extension of Early 2016 Due Dates for 2015 Information Reporting Requirements for Employers and Insurers under the ACA Washington, DC - Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced a limited extension of the early 2016 due dates for the 2015 information reporting requirements for employers and insurers under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). This is the first year that employers and insurers are required to report certain information about health coverage to employees, other individuals, and the IRS. The IRS is prepared to begin accepting this reporting in January, and employers and insurers are encouraged to begin reporting to employees and other individuals as soon as possible. However, in response to stakeholder feedback, this extension will provide employers and insurers a limited additional period of time to meet these requirements, while maintaining the ACA reporting requirement for 2015. As part of our efforts to implement the ACA in a careful and thoughtful way, the Treasury Department and the IRS are responding to feedback from private sector businesses and insurers and providing additional time for employer and insurer reporting under the ACA for the first year, said Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy Mark Mazur. Specifically, this notice extends by two months the February 1 due date for employers and issuers to provide individuals with forms reporting on offers of health coverage and coverage provided. The February 29 and March 31 deadlines for reporting this information to the IRS (by paper or electronically, respectively) are extended by three months. The vast majority of individual taxpayers will not be affected by this extension. Like last tax filing season, most individuals will simply check a box on their tax return indicating they had health coverage for the entire year. These forms provide individuals with a record of their health coverage but do not need to be attached to the tax return. This notice also provides guidance to the limited number of individuals who might be affected by the extension. In particular, individuals who file their tax returns relying on other information about their health care do not need to amend their returns. The additional time provided to employers and insurers will also not materially affect the IRSs ability to use the information provided to verify compliance. This notice is intended to provide employers, insurers, and other providers of minimum essential coverage additional time to implement systems and procedures in this first year in order to gather, analyze, and report information about the health coverage they offer and provide. Saudi Government Executes 47 People Washington, DC - State Department: "We have seen the Saudi government's announcement that it executed 47 people. "We have previously expressed our concerns about the legal process in Saudi Arabia and have frequently raised these concerns at high levels of the Saudi Government. We reaffirm our calls on the Government of Saudi Arabia to respect and protect human rights, and to ensure fair and transparent judicial proceedings in all cases. "The United States also urges the Government of Saudi Arabia to permit peaceful expression of dissent and to work together with all community leaders to defuse tensions in the wake of these executions. "We are particularly concerned that the execution of prominent Shia cleric and political activist Nimr al-Nimr risks exacerbating sectarian tensions at a time when they urgently need to be reduced. "In this context, we reiterate the need for leaders throughout the region to redouble efforts aimed at de-escalating regional tensions." Reaction to Rwandan President's Decision To Run for Third Term Washington, DC - The United States is deeply disappointed that President Paul Kagame has announced his intention to run for a third term in office. With this decision, President Kagame ignores an historic opportunity to reinforce and solidify the democratic institutions the Rwandan people have for more than twenty years labored so hard to establish. The United States believes constitutional transitions of power are essential for strong democracies and that efforts by incumbents to change rules to stay in power weaken democratic institutions. We are particularly concerned by changes that favor one individual over the principle of democratic transitions. As Rwanda moves toward local elections this year, presidential elections next year, and parliamentary elections in 2018, we call upon the Government of Rwanda to ensure and respect the rights of its citizens to exercise their freedom of expression, conscience, and peaceful assembly -- the hallmarks of true democracies. The United States remains committed to supporting the free and full participation of the Rwandan people in the electoral processes ahead. NASAs Lucy Spacecraft Shines Like a Diamond As it Streaks 220 Miles Above Earth Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse Loughrey Get our The Life Cinematic email for free Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the The Life Cinematic email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Gordon Elliott and Adam Witmer have never met, but the 55-year-old projectionist from London and the 22-year-old film student from North Carolina share a deep love of celluloid. The two men are part of an international effort to screen the 70mm print of Quentin Tarantinos eighth film, an epic Western called The Hateful Eight. Mr Witmer has been running the picture four times a day at a cinema in Los Angeles; Mr Elliott is gearing up for screenings at the Odeon in Leicester Square which begin on Friday. Tarantinos decision to shoot The Hateful Eight using Ultra Panavision 70 a vintage format with frames that are considerably larger in size and wider in aspect ratio than the standard 35mm frame has been hailed by those with fond memories of glorious 70mm prints of films such as Lawrence of Arabia and West Side Story. Scene from The Hateful Eight (AP) But the resulting print the film runs for three hours and features both an overture and an intermission presents a unique set of challenges. Delivered as single massive reel of film weighing about 90kg, the 70mm edition of The Hateful Eight requires several people to lift it into place. And unlike digital screenings, which dont require the intervention of a projectionist, the 70mm film projector which is fitted with a 15,000 anamorphic lens must be watched carefully as the film spools through the gate. I love running film, said Mr Elliott, who screened his first 70mm film, the original Star Wars, in 1978. He was made redundant in 2013, but was rehired after Odeon realised the heavy demands of running a 70mm print of Christopher Nolans 2014 space epic Interstellar, one of a handful of films that testify to the formats popularity with a new generation of directors. Much like vinyl records, film has its fans who say digital cant compete. When I run film, I always find theres more depth to it. Digital is like watching TV to me, Mr Elliott said. Mr Witmer feels the same way, but also knows that the beauty of 70mm film comes at a price. On Christmas Day, as he was preparing for a screening of The Hateful Eight, his manager dropped a bombshell: Tarantino had turned up at the cinema unannounced and wanted to watch the show. No pressure, joked the manager, as the director of Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs took a seat in the fourth row. Things went fine at first. But Mr Witmers blood ran cold when he noticed that the film was being pulled through the projector faster than the platter the large disc holding the print could deliver it. The screening was almost certainly heading for disaster. It [the celluloid] could have wound itself into a massive knot, Mr Witmer said. It could have torn or it could have burned up it would certainly have stopped the show. Realising that a tension arm was stopping the platter from spinning fast enough, he grabbed the arm with his fingers and pushed it to the left, freeing the film. For the next 90 minutes, he and another projectionist took turns to stand and hold the arm aside. The audience was oblivious to the drama in the booth, but Mr Witmer was left with a sore back and a story to tell his grandchildren. Quentin Tarantino's best cameos Show all 7 1 /7 Quentin Tarantino's best cameos Quentin Tarantino's best cameos Jimmie Dimmick in Pulp Fiction (1994) Here he plays Jimmie Dimmick, who gets caught up in Vincent and Jules body disposing and panics over how on earth hes going to get rid of the bloody evidence before his wife gets home. Quentin Tarantino's best cameos Mr Brown in Reservoir Dogs (1992) Tarantino opens Reservoir Dogs as Mr Brown, talking about Madonna hit Like a Virgin, before later being shot in the head, crashing his car and dying. Brief, but dramatic. Quentin Tarantino's best cameos Miner in Django Unchained (2013) Tarantino's Django cameo is much maligned. His Aussie miner appeared somewhat randomly in his first Western movie, before blowing himself up with his own dynamite. Quentin Tarantino's best cameos Warren in Death Proof (2007) Warrens owns the Texas Chili Parlour bar in this thriller about the murders of four women at the hands of a crazed stuntman. His own jukebox can be seen in the scene. Quentin Tarantino's best cameos Pick-up guy in Desperado (1995) Not one of his own films, but Tarantino did a favour for director Robert Rodriguez and agreed to a cameo. He wrote the three-minute long wee joke that he tells before being being killed. Quentin Tarantino's best cameos Elvis impersonator in The Golden Girls (1988) Not technically a cameo, but too funny not to include. Before his career kicked off, Tarantino played an Elvis impersonator on a 1988 episode of Golden Girls. Quentin Tarantino's best cameos Dead Nazi in Inglourious Basterds (2009) In this one he is a dead Nazi being scalped. Lovely. Not every projectionist has been as fortunate. Early US screenings of The Hateful Eight were plagued with projection problems, according to the trade magazine Variety. It cited comments on social media that described poor focus, loss of sound and soundtrack synching issues. Mr Elliott acknowledges that things can go wrong, but three test screenings at the Odeon have gone off without a hitch. Nothing is being left to chance, however. Two projectionists will be in the booth at all times, one standing next to the projector, the other ready to jump in. Is it worth all the trouble? Absolutely, said Mr Witmer, who described the difference between the 70mm print and the digital edition as amazing. Emulsion creates an actual physical barrier between the [projector] lamp and the screen, he said. That gives you much more dynamic range than digital the blacks are truer and the whites are much brighter. That contrast also makes everything look crisper. The Hateful Eight will be screened in Panavision 70 at the Odeon Leicester Square from 8 January Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter for all the latest entertainment news and reviews Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the IndyArts email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Britains oldest dance company is no stranger to change. Rambert, which turns 90 this year, has discovered many of Britains leading choreographers, taken a long journey from the notoriously tiny Mercury Theatre to shiny new premises on Londons South Bank, and transformed itself from a ballet troupe into the UKs flagship contemporary company. Its a story that moves from the 1920s avant-garde to wartime dancing for munitions workers, 1960s radicalism and more. The company was founded by the Polish dancer and teacher Marie Rambert, a woman of huge energy and an eye for talent. By the time she came to London at the outbreak of the First World War, she had already weathered plenty of artistic storms. She came to ballet when Sergei Diaghilev, impresario of Ballets Russes, hired her to help with the creation of The Rite of Spring, believing that his star dancer and choreographer, Vaslav Nijinsky, needed help with the complex rhythms of Stravinskys score. In 1913, Rambert danced in the ballets premiere, when the Paris audience rioted in response to the shattering music and angular choreography. After leaving the Ballets Russes, and settling in London, Rambert established herself as a ballet teacher with theatrical flair and a host of artistic contacts. At a time when British dancers would hide behind Russianised stage names, Ramberts students didnt pretend to be exotic: they danced as themselves, and danced with confidence. She drew out their personalities as well as working on their techniques and often discovered extra talents. Her students would include the choreographers Frederick Ashton, Antony Tudor and Agnes de Mille, who all went on to international careers. Throughout the companys history, its dancers would be an important source of new works: the current season features works by past dancers Mark Baldwin, Christopher Bruce, Didy Veldman and Alexander Whitley. Artistic directors: John Chesworth, Marie Rambert and Norman Morrice (Alan Cunliffe) The company dates its beginning from 1926, when Ashton created his first ballet, A Tragedy of Fashion, performed by Ramberts dancers. Ashton, ambitious but impractical, liked the idea of costumes by Chanel. Nonsense, said Rambert. We havent the money. Instead, she introduced him to the painter Sophie Fedorovitch, who would become one of Ashtons closest friends and collaborators. A Tragedy of Fashion was chic and witty, becoming its own fashionable success; it hasnt survived, but it launched a number of careers, and a company that had a sense of style and theatre despite its shoestring budget. Ballet Rambert, as it became in 1935, found its first home at the Mercury Theatre, a tiny space in Londons Notting Hill. The stage was no more than 18ft square: hardly space to swing a cat, let alone a ballerina. You can see a glimpse of it in the 1948 Powell and Pressburger movie The Red Shoes: theres only just room for the corps de ballet to get on and off stage. (Rambert herself appears in the film, wincing at a mistake in turning the record over no room for an orchestra, either.) The intimacy may have helped some of the works created at the Mercury, such as Jardin aux Lilas, Tudors 1936 drama of repressed love; he sprayed the auditorium with lilac perfume on opening night. Jardin aux lilas went on to be a hit in much bigger theatres and last year, American Ballet Theatre danced it in the 3,800-seat Metropolitan Opera House in New York. Though Rambert had a gift for spotting and encouraging talent, she was less good at forward planning. The choreographers she discovered would move on to bigger companies and wider opportunities: Ashton went to Sadlers Wells, the company that would become The Royal Ballet, while Tudor left for America. A scene from the 1957 revival of Antony Tudors Dark Elegies When the Second World War broke out, the intimate repertory proved useful. Touring to entertain munitions factory workers, they could perform in canteens and improvised performance spaces, to audiences snatching some art along with their sandwiches. Ballet while you eat was popular with civilian audiences, too: back in London, Ramberts was one of two companies offering short daytime performances, with lunchtime ballet swiftly followed by tea ballet and even the irresistibly named sherry ballet for early evenings. Wartime audiences were hungry for dance something that The Royal Ballets empire-building founder, Ninette de Valois, used to boost her company to national status. Rambert was less canny. Similarly, she did less well out of the post-war ballet boom. While the Sadlers Wells company achieved international celebrity and stronger financial footing with tours of North America, Ballet Ramberts visit to Australia and New Zealand was hugely popular but financially disastrous. The company was turned around by a drastic change of direction. Norman Morrice, another choreographer discovered by Rambert, was fascinated by the versatility of American dancers and wanted to introduce new kinds of training. But the real change came from the dancers, explains Rambert archivist Arike Oke. There was a schism among the dancers themselves, she says. It didnt all come from above: the dancers went to Marie Rambert as a group, saying, We dont want to do classical repertoire any more, we want to be moving forward. They thought they were being left behind by some of their American counterparts, all of the experiments happening over there. One of the dancers, Joe Scoglio, told me that the dancers were prepared to leave, to form their own company. Rambert said, Oh, no, darlings, you are the company! A scene from Frederick Ashton's 'A Tragedy of Fashion' in 1926 The new-style Rambert, launched in 1966, was experimental but still tentative, with dances created by company members. In 1967, Morrice brought in American choreographer Glen Tetley. Staging his Pierrot Lunaire for Rambert, he looked right through the company for a dancer to play the moonstruck clown. In the back row, he spotted Christopher Bruce Ramberts next star dancer. Bruce would also prove to be its next star choreographer, making dances with an eye for character and drama, and later still one of its artistic directors. When the company made its switch to contemporary dance, it was eager to tap into the 1960s zeitgeist, taking risks with style and content. Several dancers made apocalyptic works, inspired by fear of nuclear war. For Tetleys 1967 work Ziggurat, the performers were asked to crochet their own costumes. The costumes havent survived, Oke explains, but when you look at photographs, there wasnt much to them. They look like fishermans netting, and you can see Y-fronts underneath it. Its amazing how much that was embraced by the public what we would see as quite dark, intellectual works might not be accessible these days, but the public really loved it. Over time, the pendulum swung back, as the companys audiences and choreographers wanted to explore stories again, or to experiment with pure dance imagery. Several of the companys artistic directors, including Richard Alston and current director Mark Baldwin, have had fine art as well as dance backgrounds; theyve brought in painters, including Howard Hodgkin and Gerhard Richter, to work with the company. Though Rambert became a contemporary company in 1966 and became Rambert Dance Company in 1987, its dancers still come from classical as well as contemporary backgrounds. Current director Mark Baldwin, says hes looking for diversity. When people come and do class, one of the first questions I ask is, Do we already have someone like that? Am I just doubling up? Its the variety in terms of experience, of technique, what they offer to the whole group. And they feed each other, choreographically. After decades of cramped conditions, from the Mercury to two former homes in Chiswick, Rambert now has a RIBA award-winning building, home to studios, a fine archive and a base for the companys outreach programmes in schools and in the community. And it has changed its name again, simplifying it to just Rambert. Its because the work we do is so much more than the tour, so much more than the performances, Oke says. The name has to encompass everything we do. Sign up to IndyEat's free newsletter for weekly recipes, foodie features and cookbook releases Get our Now Hear This email for free Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the IndyEats email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The ingredients We had a kale obsession in 2015, but 2016s vegetable sine qua non is predicted to be the knobbly celeriac root. Celeriac milk (Tom Hunt at Poco in Bristol serves it with winter mussels and wild water celery), celeriac cooked in Galician beef fat (from Adam Rawson of Pachamama, hot new chef in the capital) and salt-baked celeriac (to be found in Matthew and Iain Penningtons kitchens at The Ethicurean in the West Country) are just a few examples. Natural fat is also in. Celebrated Turkish-Cypriot chef Selin Kiazim has already unveiled her medjool-date butter at Selfridges, while nut butters will be big, too: Pip Murray of Pip & Nut is taking cinnamon, honey cashew and a coconut-and-almond butter into Sainsburys. (Annual turnover at the supermarket for nut butter is forecast to be up from 700,000 in 2015 to 2.5m this year.) South American goldenberries are fast gathering a following, too, according to Waitroses 2016 report. Their arrival comes alongside the obscure purple-hued European jostaberry, a tart blackcurrant and gooseberry hybrid, on the up in fine-dining establishments. Middle Eastern food will remain an influence. The Middle Eastern Vegetarian Cookbook (24.95, Phaidon) by grand-dame Salma Hage, author of the bestseller The Lebanese Kitchen is out in April. Food trends in 2016 Show all 11 1 /11 Food trends in 2016 Food trends in 2016 Celeriac root We had a kale obsession in 2015, but 2016s vegetable sine qua non is predicted to be the knobbly celeriac root. Celeriac milk (Tom Hunt at Poco in Bristol serves it with winter mussels and wild water celery), celeriac cooked in Galician beef fat (from Adam Rawson of Pachamama, hot new chef in the capital) and salt-baked celeriac (to be found in Matthew and Iain Penningtons kitchens at The Ethicurean in the West Country) are just a few examples. Getty Images Food trends in 2016 Middle Eastern food The Middle Eastern Vegetarian Cookbook (24.95, Phaidon) by grand-dame Salma Hage, author of the bestseller The Lebanese Kitchen (whose halva is pictured here), is out in April Liz & Max Haarala Hamilton Food trends in 2016 Non-alcoholic cocktails Grain Store mixologist Tony Conigliaro has created Roman Redhead, a riot of red grape juice, beetroot, pale ale and verjus, and Rose Iced Tea (black tea, rose petals, anise essence, pictured here) Food trends in 2016 Gin The discerning will be slurping Hepple gin from chef Valentine Warner and cocktail guru Nick Strangeway which is punctuated with bog-myrtle nuances Food trends in 2016 Argyll and Bute Restaurant followers are getting in a froth about Pam Brunton in Scotland, who opened the Inver restaurant in Argyll and Bute to acclaim last year Food trends in 2016 Andy Olivers Som Saa One of the most eagerly awaited restaurants of 2016 will be the permanent incarnation of Andy Olivers remarkable pop-up Som Saa opening very soon in east London. Oliver, who worked at Thai god David Thompsons Nahm in Bangkok, raised a whopping 700,000 through crowdfunding, and is renowned for his piquant Thai flavours and obsessive attention to detail, including in his home ferments and DIY coconut cream Adam Weatherley Food trends in 2016 Venison Another ruminant in vogue is venison, with Sainsburys doubling its line for 2016. It provides a protein-packed punch, with B vitamins and iron, and its low in fat. Its entry into the mainstream is in part thanks to the Scottish restaurant Mac and Wild, just opened in London, whose Celtic head chef Andy Waugh (who also runs the Wild Game Co) has been touting it as street food for years (his venison burger pictured here) Food trends in 2016 Goat From Brett Grahams The Ledbury to Angela Hartnetts kitchens at Lime Wood Hotel in the New Forest, Cabrito is the go-to goat supplier among the chef cognoscenti (roasted loin of kid pictured here) but this year, domestic cooks can get in on the action, as Sushila Moles and James Whetlor of Cabrito offer their meat through Ocado Mike Lusmore / mikelusmore.com Food trends in 2016 Coffee Coffee sage George Crawford is launching the much-anticipated Cupsmith with his partner, Emma. Crawford believes that 2016 is the year purist coffee will finally meet the masses; Cupsmiths mission will be to make craft coffee as popular as craft beer on the high street. The company roasts Arabica beans in small batches, improving its quality but sells it online, at cupsmith.com, in an approachable way: expect cheerful packaging and names such as Afternoon Reviver Coffee (designed for drinking with milk no matter how uncouth, most of us want milk) and Glorious Espresso Julia Conway Food trends in 2016 120-day-old steak Hanging meat for extremely long lengths of time has become an art. In Cumbria, Lake Road Kitchens James Cross is plating up 120-day-old steak (pictured here). The beef is from influential ager Dan Austin of Lake District Farmers, who is currently investigating the individual bacterial cultures that go into this maturing process Food trends in 2016 Lotus root Diners can expect root-to-stem dining - cue the full lotus deployed by the Michelin-starred Indian Benares in its kamal kakdi aur paneer korma Getty Images The cocktails and spirits Pollen, home-made vinegars and shrubs will all be found in your glass this year, according to Alice Lascelles, drinks expert and author of last years acclaimed Ten Cocktails (16.99, Saltyard Books). Although, she adds, This year will see fewer Willy Wonka-style cocktails. Drinks dont have to be served with a whiz and a bang. Ex-Dandelyan bar manager Marcis Dzelzainis, now at Sager + Wilde in east London, is making his own shrubs and vinegars, using ancient techniques, according to Lascelles. One of his signatures: a wild strawberry and Aperol highball. Tony Conigliaro's Rose Iced Tea (black tea, rose petals, anise essence) Lascelles adds that non-alcoholic cocktails will come centre stage after years of being overlooked by bar folk. Grain Store mixologist Tony Conigliaro has created Roman Redhead, a riot of red grape juice, beetroot, pale ale and verjus, and Rose Iced Tea (black tea, rose petals, anise essence, pictured above). Then theres mead mania. Tom Gosnell, of Gosnells mead brewery, has secured a contract for 300 stores in Norway as of March. The mead revolution continues to grow, he believes. Hes also just started selling online at gosnells.co.uk. Could it replace gin as our most popular potation? Not likely. Gin sales are up by 300 per cent on waitrosecellar. com and gin courses at Waitrose Cookery School for 2016 are fast selling out. The discerning will be slurping Hepple gin from chef Valentine Warner and cocktail guru Nick Strangeway which is punctuated with bog-myrtle nuances. The meat In 2015 we had Galician beef infatuation and kebab lust. Now welcome the meatlafel, along with other rehashed kebabs, thanks to Le Bab, set up by Stephen Tozer and Ed Brunet, which opens in Londons Soho this month. The chaps formerly of Le Gavroche will rustle up creations such as roe-deer shish, pigs head bab and even a vegan option, with dill baba ganoush. Goat is also on trend. From Brett Grahams The Ledbury to Angela Hartnetts kitchens at Lime Wood Hotel in the New Forest, Cabrito is the go-to goat supplier among the chef cognoscenti (roasted loin of kid pictured below) but this year, domestic cooks can get in on the action, as Sushila Moles and James Whetlor of Cabrito offer their meat through Ocado. Roasted loin of goat kid (Mike Lusmore/mikelusmore.com) (Mike Lusmore / mikelusmore.com) Another ruminant in vogue is venison, with Sainsburys doubling its line for 2016. It provides a protein-packed punch, with B vitamins and iron, and its low in fat. Its entry into the mainstream is in part thanks to the Scottish restaurant Mac and Wild, just opened in London, whose Celtic head chef Andy Waugh (who also runs the Wild Game Co) has been touting it as street food for years. The coffee We can see what Union has done to make speciality coffee accessible. Its now in the supermarkets, reflects coffee sage George Crawford, who is launching the much-anticipated Cupsmith with his partner, Emma. Crawford believes that 2016 is the year purist coffee will finally meet the masses; Cupsmiths mission will be to make craft coffee as popular as craft beer on the high street. The company roasts Arabica beans in small batches, improving its quality but sells it online, at cupsmith.com, in an approachable way: expect cheerful packaging and names such as Afternoon Reviver Coffee (designed for drinking with milk no matter how uncouth, most of us want milk) and Glorious Espresso. The hot spots One of the most eagerly awaited restaurants of 2016 will be the permanent incarnation of Andy Olivers remarkable pop-up Som Saa (dishes pictured below), opening very soon in east London. Oliver, who worked at Thai god David Thompsons Nahm in Bangkok, raised a whopping 700,000 through crowdfunding, and is renowned for his piquant Thai flavours and obsessive attention to detail, including in his home ferments and DIY coconut cream. One of the most eagerly awaited restaurants of 2016 will be the permanent incarnation of Andy Olivers remarkable pop-up Som Saa opening very soon in east London ( Adam Weatherley) Look out, also, for the three-Michelin-starred chef Clare Smyth, who is leaving the Gordon Ramsay empire to open her own place in London this autumn. Restaurant followers are also getting in a froth about Pam Brunton in Scotland, who opened the Inver restaurant in Argyll and Bute to acclaim last year. The cheffy techniques Charring will be big this year, with burnt cucumber being a favourite, as per Tomos Parry of Kitty Fishers. Diners can expect root-to-stem dining, too cue the full lotus deployed by the Michelin-starred Indian Benares in its kamal kakdi aur paneer korma (lotus root pictured below). Hanging meat for extremely long lengths of time, meanwhile, has become an art. In Cumbria, Lake Road Kitchens James Cross is plating up 120-day-old steak (pictured top). The beef is from influential ager Dan Austin of Lake District Farmers, who is currently investigating the individual bacterial cultures that go into this maturing process. Diners can expect root-to-stem dining, too cue the full lotus deployed by the Michelin-starred Indian Benares in its kamal kakdi aur paneer korma (Getty Images) Even chickens are being left to gently putrefy for a more intense flavour. Pioneering Paul Ainsworth at Number 6 in Padstow, Cornwall, has 18-day dry-aged chicken on his menu, the meat boasting swirls of golden fat. For pudding, doughnuts will ooze sophisticated flavours. Liquorice chocolate custard and urfa-pepper sugar, pandan custard and pistachio, and lemon-and-turmeric marmalade are just three at Anna Hansens new The Modern Pantry in Londons Finsbury Square. Stay ahead of the trend in fashion and beyond with our free weekly Lifestyle Edit newsletter Stay ahead of the trend in fashion and beyond with our free weekly Lifestyle Edit newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Lifestyle Edit email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Strike action by junior doctors could continue for the entire year, campaigners have warned as hopes faded that last-ditch talks could avert the most significant industrial action in the NHS in decades. Although the British Medical Association said it was still committed to talks, which are due to recommence on Monday, disagreements remain between the Government and doctors. Department of Health sources and many junior doctors now expect a strike to be held as soon as next week. But in a potential escalation of the already bitter dispute between medics and the Conservative Government, a leading figure in the campaign against the new contract told The Independent that colleagues were prepared for intermittent strike action lasting up to 2017. Recommended Read more Junior doctors set to stage first strike after talks grind to a halt Were in it for the long haul, the source said. This is not a plan for just one day next week, but for a period of industrial action lasting for months. It will last into the summer and, if necessary, throughout the year. If junior doctors demands were not met, then the severity of strikes would also escalate, the source said. Doctors are currently expected to walk out from all but emergency work on the first strike day, followed by the withdrawal of all junior doctor labour on subsequent days of action. The length of strike days could be prolonged, the longer the Government failed to meet junior doctors demands for a contract they considered safe for patients and fair to the workforce, the source said. Such prolonged industrial unrest would mirror the last major NHS strike action in 1975, when there was intermittent action for four months and a further strike later in the year. The threat reflects growing discontent among junior doctors, who increasingly view the dispute with the Government as a battle for the future of the NHS. The Government has offered no extra funding for junior doctors pay to back up the new contract, but expects more junior doctors to be available at weekends to deliver its plans for enhanced services in hospitals. The Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has said that no junior doctor working less than 56 hours will see their pay cut and said no doctor should have to work longer than those hours under the new contract. However, Government sources have reportedly said they are resigned to a strike taking place as soon as next week. Industrial action, under which many of Englands 55,000 junior doctors would walk out of all but emergency care, was narrowly averted before Christmas. A Department of Health spokesperson said: As we have consistently said, talks are always better than strikes. We are prepared to talk about anything within the pay envelope, as long as we improve patient safety by moving towards a seven-day NHS. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Ian Jack, 70 India correspondent for 'The Sunday Times' during the 1970s and 1980s, Jack (right in picture) was a co-founder of 'The Independent on Sunday' in 1989 and edited the newspaper from 1991 to 1995. He then edited the quarterly literary magazine 'Granta' until 2007. Married, with two children, he lives in London and writes a weekly column for 'The Guardian' Back in the 1970s, at the time of Indira Gandhi's Emergency, I managed to get a visa for India when every other foreign correspondent had been required to leave. I was writing about a seemingly harmless, non-political subject: the railways. But then Mrs Gandhi called an election, so suddenly I was transformed into a news correspondent. I kept hearing about Mark from various taxi drivers in Delhi. Did I know him, they always asked. I had no idea who he was. I eventually met him at a rally for Mrs Gandhi in Uttar Pradesh. He had been born in India, so it was delightful to have a colleague who was so knowledgeable about the country. He was a very generous host, and was as interested in the railways as I was. I stayed for more than a year before returning home, but by 1983 I was back in India, trying to write a book. Mark, who was in London then, let me stay in his house in Delhi, so there I was, alone, except for his servants. He had a lot of servants: a washer, a cook, a driver who couldn't drive. The book I was trying to write is almost too painful to speak about. It was going to be about the Indian railways, and then about the Victorian age in India, but I'm afraid I'm a rather bad book writer. I couldn't do it, and had to return the publisher's advance. I enjoyed myself while I was there, though. All Mark asked of me was to walk his dog every night, a Labrador. He was very obedient, and would trot by my side, until one night he bounded away and didn't come back. I didn't understand much about dogs on heat, but I can tell you I nearly had a nervous breakdown over it. I thought I'd lost him. I finally found him, exhausted, in the middle of a traffic a couple of hours later. One of our most memorable times together was in 1977. We were taking a steam railway all the way up to the Khyber Pass. Thanks to Mark and his connections, we got to ride on the footplate, which was terribly exciting for me. It was hot and dirty, and I loved it. We've never fallen out, but I have seen him fall out with other people, much to my amusement. He had a very dubious landlord in Delhi one time. In Delhi, there was a custom of black money and white money, illegal and legal, and this landlord was after more black money. Mark had a tremendous row with him on the telephone, and called him a gadha, a donkey, which is a terrible insult in India. We are not similar politically, I don't think. Mark is probably much more Conservative than me. He is also a Christian, which I am not. Although now that I'm 70, my thoughts do turn to how useful, both socially and aesthetically, churches can be. But the problem is one of belief, really. And I don't. Culture news in pictures Show all 33 1 /33 Culture news in pictures Culture news in pictures 30 September 2016 An employee hangs works of art with "Grand Teatro" by Marino Marini (R) and bronze sculpture "Sfera N.3" by Arnaldo Pomodoro seen ahead of a Contemporary Art auction on 7 October, at Sotheby's in London REUTERS Culture news in pictures 29 September 2016 Street art by Portuguese artist Odeith is seen in Dresden, during an exhibition "Magic City - art of the streets" AFP/Getty Images Culture news in pictures 28 September 2016 Dancers attend a photocall for the new "THE ONE Grand Show" at Friedrichstadt-Palast in Berlin, Germany REUTERS Culture news in pictures 28 September 2016 With an array of thrift store china, humorous souvenirs and handmade tile adorning its walls and floors, the Mosaic Tile House in Venice stands as a monument to two decades of artistic collaboration between Cheri Pann and husband Gonzalo Duran REUTERS Culture news in pictures 27 September 2016 A gallery assistant poses amongst work by Anthea Hamilton from her nominated show "Lichen! Libido!(London!) Chastity!" at a preview of the Turner Prize in London REUTERS Culture news in pictures 27 September 2016 A technician wearing virtual reality glasses checks his installation in three British public telephone booths, set up outside the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague, Netherlands. The installation allows visitors a 3-D look into the museum which has twenty-two paintings belonging to the British Royal Collection, on loan for an exhibit from 29 September 2016 till 8 January 2017 AP Culture news in pictures 26 September 2016 An Indian artist dressed as Hindu god Shiva performs on a chariot as he participates in a religious procession 'Ravan ki Barat' held to mark the forthcoming Dussehra festival in Allahabad AFP/Getty Images Culture news in pictures 26 September 2016 Jean-Michel Basquiat's 'Air Power', 1984, is displayed at the Bowie/Collector media preview at Sotheby's in New York AFP/Getty Culture news in pictures 25 September 2016 A woman looks at an untitled painting by Albert Oehlen during the opening of an exhibition of works by German artists Georg Baselitz and Albert Oehlen in Reutlingen, Germany. The exhibition runs at the Kunstverein (art society) Reutlingen until 15 January 2017 EPA Culture news in pictures 24 September 2016 Fan BingBing (C) attends the closing ceremony of the 64th San Sebastian Film Festival at Kursaal in San Sebastian, Spain Getty Images Culture news in pictures 23 September 2016 A view of the artwork 'You Are Metamorphosing' (1964) as part of the exhibition 'Retrospektive' of Japanese artist Tetsumi Kudo at Fridericianum in Kassel, Germany. The exhibition runs from 25 September 2016 to 1 January 2017 EPA Culture news in pictures 22 September 2016 Jo Applin from the Courtauld Institute of Art looks at Green Tilework in Live Flesh by Adriana Vareja, which features in a new exhibition, Flesh, at York Art Gallery. The new exhibition features works by Degas, Chardin, Francis Bacon and Sarah Lucas, showing how flesh has been portrayed by artists over the last 600 years PA Culture news in pictures 21 September 2016 Performers Sean Atkins and Sally Miller standing in for the characters played by Asa Butterfield and Ella Purnell during a photocall for Tim Burton's "Miss Peregrines Home For Peculiar Children" at Potters Field Park in London Getty Images Culture news in pictures 20 September 2016 A detail from the blanket 'Alpine Cattle Drive' from 1926 by artist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner is displayed at the 'Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum for Contemporary Arts' in Berlin. The exhibition named 'Ernst Ludwig Kirchner - Hieroglyphen' showing the complete collection of Berlin's Nationalgallerie works of the German artist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and will run from 23 September 2016 until 26 February 2017 AP Culture news in pictures 20 September 2016 A man looks at portrait photos by US photographer Bruce Gilden in the exhibition 'Masters of Photography' at the photokina in Cologne, Germany. The trade fair on photography, photokina, schowcases some 1,000 exhibitors from 40 countries and runs from 20 to 25 September. The event also features various photo exhibitions EPA Culture news in pictures 20 September 2016 A woman looks at 'Blue Poles', 1952 by Jackson Pollock during a photocall at the Royal Academy of Arts, London PA Culture news in pictures 19 September 2016 Art installation The Refusal of Time, a collaboration with Philip Miller, Catherine Meyburgh and Peter Galison, which features as part of the William Kentridge exhibition Thick Time, showing from 21 September to 15 January at the Whitechapel Gallery in London PA Culture news in pictures 18 September 2016 Artists creating one off designs at the Mm6 Maison Margiela presentation during London Fashion Week Spring/Summer collections 2017 in London Getty Images Culture news in pictures 18 September 2016 Bethenny Frankel attends the special screening of Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" to celebrate the 25th Anniversary Edition release on Blu-Ray and DVD in New York City Getty Images for Walt Disney Stu Culture news in pictures 17 September 2016 Visitors attend the 2016 Oktoberfest beer festival at Theresienwiese in Munich, Germany Getty Images Culture news in pictures 16 September 2016 Visitors looks at British artist Damien Hirst work of art 'The Incomplete Truth', during the 13th Yalta Annual Meeting entitled 'The World, Europe and Ukraine: storms of changes', organised by the Yalta European Strategy (YES) in partnership with the Victor Pinchuk Foundation at the Mystetsky Arsenal Art Center in Kiev AP Culture news in pictures 16 September 2016 Tracey Emin's "My Bed" is exhibited at the Tate Liverpool as part of the exhibition Tracey Emin And William Blake In Focus, which highlights surprising links between the two artists Getty Images Culture news in pictures 15 September 2016 Musician Dave Grohl (L) joins musician Tom Morello of Prophets of Rage onstage at the Forum in Inglewood, California Getty Images Culture news in pictures 14 September 2016 Model feebee poses as part of art installation "Narcissism : Dazzle room" made by artist Shigeki Matsuyama at rooms33 fashion and design exhibition in Tokyo. Matsuyama's installation features a strong contrast of black and white, which he learned from dazzle camouflage used mainly in World War I AP Culture news in pictures 13 September 2016 Visitors look at artworks by Chinese painter Cui Ruzhuo during the exhibition 'Glossiness of Uncarved Jade' held at the exhibition hall 'Manezh' in St. Petersburg, Russia. More than 200 paintings by the Chinese artist are presented until 25 September EPA Culture news in pictures 12 September 2016 A visitor looks at Raphael's painting 'Extase de Sainte Cecile', 1515, from the Uffizi Gallery in Florence during the opening of a Raphael exhibition at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow, Russia. The first Russian exhibition of the works of the Italian Renaissance artist Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino includes eight paintings and three drawings which come from Italy. Th exhibit opens to the public from 13 September to 11 December EPA Culture news in pictures 11 September 2016 Steve Cropper and Eddie Floyd perform during Otis Redding 75th Birthday Celebration - Rehearsals at the Macon City Auditorium in Macon, Georgia Getty Images for Otis Redding 75 Culture news in pictures 10 September 2016 Sakari Oramo conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Chorus and the BBC Singers at the Last Night of the Proms 2016 at the Royal Albert Hall in London PA Culture news in pictures 9 September 2016 A visitor walks past a piece entitled "Fruitcake" by Joana Vasconcelo, during the Beyond Limits selling exhibition at Chatsworth House near Bakewell REUTERS Culture news in pictures 8 September 2016 A sculpture of a crescent standing on the 2,140 meters high mountain 'Freiheit' (German for 'freedom'), in the Alpstein region of the Appenzell alps, eastern Switzerland. The sculpture is lighted during the nights by means of solar panels. The 38-year-old Swiss artist and atheist Christian Meier set the crescent on the peak to start a debate on the meaning of religious symbols - as summit crosses - on mountains. 'Because so many peaks have crosses on them, it struck me as a great idea to put up an equally absurd contrast'. 'Naturally I wanted to provoke in a fun way. But it goes beyond that. The actions of an artist should be food for thought, both visually and in content' EPA Culture news in pictures Culture news in pictures Culture news in pictures Sir Mark Tully, 80 A former bureau chief for the BBC in New Delhi, Tully is a historian and author, and the chief jurist for this year's DSC Prize for South Asian Literature. He lives with his partner, the writer Gillian Wright, in Delhi I've always rather envied Ian and his working-class upbringing. I was born in India, the British Raj, and attended a British public school; all very silver spoon. If you were a bit lazy, as I was, you rather felt everything was already made for you; you didn't have to struggle. Ian achieved everything in his life through hard work, which is admirable. I first met him at a rally for Indira Gandhi. They were interesting times in India, watching Gandhi, this former Empress of India, getting more and more frantic as she lost power. We hit it off, I think, because we both loved railways and steam, and we both liked to sit down and have a chat over a bottle of beer in the evening. People would always drop by the house in those days. We'd all drink quite a lot, and then go to bed slightly tottering. While I was back in London in the early 1980s, Ian was living in my place in Delhi. He got on very well with my servants, especially my driver who couldn't drive he was actually BBC staff: he kept our cuttings in order, and was a very companionable chap. The warmth of our friendship never really altered when we got back to London, but moving around the city was always extraordinarily difficult, simply because London is so spread out. It's even harder for me now that I'm in old age, because I have to walk with a stick. So I'm afraid we don't see each other as much as we used to, which is sad. Back in 1993, I was asked to give the Radio Academy lecture at the BBC. This was at the beginning of the John Birt era; a lot of people at the BBC were opposed to the reforms that Birt was bringing in, so I decided to use the speech as a criticism of those changes. I asked Ian, who was the editor of The Independent on Sunday at the time, to have a look at the speech for me. The next day, it was the lead story in the paper! That set the cat among the pigeons. It became a huge story and caused a lot of ructions. A year later I was off staff and on contract, and shortly after that I resigned. I'm a judge on the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature this year, which Ian judged a few years back. Sometimes I wonder why I took it all on! So much to read, and my favourite didn't even make the longlist. Still, I've read some wonderful books, but my favourite kind of writing is pure journalism; Ian is what I would call a high-class writer. Sir Mark Tully will announce the winner of the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature on 16 January (dscprize.com) Sign up for a full digest of all the best opinions of the week in our Voices Dispatches email Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Voices Dispatches email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Sir Richard Branson wants to take paying passengers into space from a spaceport in Britain and has promised that the rocket fuel used will be clean enough to ensure no one buying a ticket will feel guilty about damaging the planet. The 65-year-old entrepreneur said that his company, Virgin Galactic, is back on track to become the first commercial space service despite the devastating accident in 2014 when SpaceShipTwo disintegrated in a test flight while travelling at 600mph at an altitude of nine miles killing one of the two test pilots who were on board. In an exclusive interview with The Independent on Sunday, Sir Richard said that his ambitious goal of establishing the first passenger space operation, from Spaceport America in New Mexico, now extends to operating from a future spaceport in Britain, which is being considered by the Government. Recommended Read more What 24 successful people ask candidates during job interviews Virgin Galactic very much hopes to be one of the principal operators. We are a contender to operate Virgin Galactic out of the British spaceport once its chosen, he said. I think initially it will be for people going into space and coming back to that spaceport, but, in time, the aim is to go point-to-point. Virgin Galactic has been criticised by environmentalists for offering what amounts to expensive joyrides for the super-rich who, for a ticket costing about $250,000 (170,000), will be able to experience no more than a few minutes of weightlessness while witnessing the curvature of the Earth before descending to the same spaceport in the Mojave from where they took off. However, Sir Richard defended his space plans on the grounds that they could eventually lead to a new form of intercontinental travel for the masses via space, which he said could be less damaging to the environment than current long-haul flights from potential fuel savings. Science news in pictures Show all 20 1 /20 Science news in pictures Science news in pictures Pluto has 'beating heart' of frozen nitrogen Pluto has a 'beating heart' of frozen nitrogen that is doing strange things to its surface, Nasa has found. The mysterious core seems to be the cause of features on its surface that have fascinated scientists since they were spotted by Nasa's New Horizons mission. "Before New Horizons, everyone thought Pluto was going to be a netball - completely flat, almost no diversity," said Tanguy Bertrand, an astrophysicist and planetary scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center and the lead author on the new study. "But it's completely different. It has a lot of different landscapes and we are trying to understand what's going on there." Getty Science news in pictures Over 400 species discovered this year by Natural History Museum The ancient invertabrate worm-like species rhenopyrgus viviani (pictured) is one of over 400 species previously unknown to science that were discovered by experts at the Natural History Museum this year PA Science news in pictures Jackdaws can identify 'dangerous' humans Jackdaws can identify dangerous humans from listening to each others warning calls, scientists say. The highly social birds will also remember that person if they come near their nests again, according to researchers from the University of Exeter. In the study, a person unknown to the wild jackdaws approached their nest. At the same time scientists played a recording of a warning call (threatening) or contact calls (non-threatening). The next time jackdaws saw this same person, the birds that had previously heard the warning call were defensive and returned to their nests more than twice as quickly on average. Getty Science news in pictures Turtle embryos influence sex by shaking The sex of the turtle is determined by the temperatures at which they are incubated. Warm temperatures favour females. But by wiggling around the egg, embryos can find the Goldilocks Zone which means they are able to shield themselves against extreme thermal conditions and produce a balanced sex ratio, according to the new study published in Current Biology journal Ye et al/Current Biology Science news in pictures Elephant poaching rates drop in Africa African elephant poaching rates have dropped by 60 per cent in six years, an international study has found. It is thought the decline could be associated with the ivory trade ban introduced in China in 2017. Reuters Science news in pictures Ancient four-legged whale discovered in Peru Scientists have identified a four-legged creature with webbed feet to be an ancestor of the whale. Fossils unearthed in Peru have led scientists to conclude that the enormous creatures that traverse the planets oceans today are descended from small hoofed ancestors that lived in south Asia 50 million years ago A. Gennari Science news in pictures Animal with transient anus discovered A scientist has stumbled upon a creature with a transient anus that appears only when it is needed, before vanishing completely. Dr Sidney Tamm of the Marine Biological Laboratory could not initially find any trace of an anus on the species. However, as the animal gets full, a pore opens up to dispose of waste Steven G Johnson Science news in pictures Giant bee spotted Feared extinct, the Wallace's Giant bee has been spotted for the first time in nearly 40 years. An international team of conservationists spotted the bee, that is four times the size of a typical honeybee, on an expedition to a group of Indonesian Islands Clay Bolt Science news in pictures New mammal species found inside crocodile Fossilised bones digested by crocodiles have revealed the existence of three new mammal species that roamed the Cayman Islands 300 years ago. The bones belonged to two large rodent species and a small shrew-like animal New Mexico Museum of Natural History Science news in pictures Fabric that changes according to temperature created Scientists at the University of Maryland have created a fabric that adapts to heat, expanding to allow more heat to escape the body when warm and compacting to retain more heat when cold Faye Levine, University of Maryland Science news in pictures Baby mice tears could be used in pest control A study from the University of Tokyo has found that the tears of baby mice cause female mice to be less interested in the sexual advances of males Getty Science news in pictures Final warning to limit "climate catastrophe" The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has issued a report which projects the impact of a rise in global temperatures of 1.5 degrees Celsius and warns against a higher increase Getty Science news in pictures Nobel prize for evolution chemists The nobel prize for chemistry has been awarded to three chemists working with evolution. Frances Smith is being awarded the prize for her work on directing the evolution of enzymes, while Gregory Winter and George Smith take the prize for their work on phage display of peptides and antibodies Getty/AFP Science news in pictures Nobel prize for laser physicists The nobel prize for physics has been awarded to three physicists working with lasers. Arthur Ashkin (L) was awarded for his "optical tweezers" which use lasers to grab particles, atoms, viruses and other living cells. Donna Strickland and Gerard Mourou were jointly awarded the prize for developing chirped-pulse amplification of lasers Reuters/AP Science news in pictures Discovery of a new species of dinosaur The Ledumahadi Mafube roamed around 200 million years ago in what is now South Africa. Recently discovered by a team of international scientists, it was the largest land animal of its time, weighing 12 tons and standing at 13 feet. In Sesotho, the South African language of the region in which the dinosaur was discovered, its name means "a giant thunderclap at dawn" Viktor Radermacher / SWNS Science news in pictures Birth of a planet Scientists have witnessed the birth of a planet for the first time ever. This spectacular image from the SPHERE instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope is the first clear image of a planet caught in the very act of formation around the dwarf star PDS 70. The planet stands clearly out, visible as a bright point to the right of the center of the image, which is blacked out by the coronagraph mask used to block the blinding light of the central star. ESO/A. Muller et al Science news in pictures New human organ discovered that was previously missed by scientists Layers long thought to be dense, connective tissue are actually a series of fluid-filled compartments researchers have termed the interstitium. These compartments are found beneath the skin, as well as lining the gut, lungs, blood vessels and muscles, and join together to form a network supported by a mesh of strong, flexible proteins Getty Science news in pictures Previously unknown society lived in Amazon rainforest before Europeans arrived, say archaeologists Working in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, a team led by archaeologists at the University of Exeter unearthed hundreds of villages hidden in the depths of the rainforest. These excavations included evidence of fortifications and mysterious earthworks called geoglyphs Jose Iriarte Science news in pictures One in 10 people have traces of cocaine or heroin on fingerprints, study finds More than one in 10 people were found to have traces of class A drugs on their fingers by scientists developing a new fingerprint-based drug test. Using sensitive analysis of the chemical composition of sweat, researchers were able to tell the difference between those who had been directly exposed to heroin and cocaine, and those who had encountered it indirectly. Getty Science news in pictures Nasa releases stunning images of Jupiter's great red spot The storm bigger than the Earth, has been swhirling for 350 years. The image's colours have been enhanced after it was sent back to Earth. Pictures by: Tom Momary We are doing everything we can to try to work towards turning the world into a place thats run by clean energy, not dirty energy. Weve managed to reduce the amount of energy, of carbon output, to get somebody into space ... to less than a round-trip, economy class, from London to New York, he said. I suspect, in two to three years, well not be using any carbon output at all for our space programme. All I can say is that we would not want a space programme if we thought it was in any way damaging [to the environment]. We believe space can play a major part in helping the world we live in and getting on top of climate change, he said. I promise you that we will not allow people to feel guilty travelling with us. We will show them we can pioneer clean energy. Can Sir Richard Branson really offer us rides into space without damaging the planet? When Sir Richard talks about carbon-neutral space travel, he is alluding to the possibility of cheap biofuels from growing sustainable crops such as marine algae, or using up biological wastes from farming. In 2008, one of Virgin Atlantics jumbo jets flew between London and Amsterdam using a fuel derived from a mixture of Brazilian babassu nuts and coconuts. Sir Richard said the flight marked a vital breakthrough for the airline industrys attempts to go green. However, only one of the aircrafts four engines had been converted to using biofuel, which has a tendency to freeze at high altitude if not stored correctly. The technology still has a long way to go. An equally difficult question hangs over the sustainability of biofuels as many are made by converting wildlife-rich land. Then there is the question of the impact on food supply caused by converting farmland into industrial biofuel cropping, which could contribute to rising food prices for the worlds poorest. Sir Richard said that advances in biofuels, renewable energy and cleaner rocket technologies could make intercontinental space travel a reality and at a price that ordinary people could afford without damaging the environment or exacerbating climate change. The prospect of cleaner, intercontinental space travel was one reason that the Government announced in May a shortlist of aerodromes in the UK that could host a new national spaceport. It has said it would like to see such a spaceport operational by 2018. Virgin Galactic has put in a bid to operate space planes from the spaceport, Sir Richard said. He is convinced that the costs of space flights will come down and the fuel savings on intercontinental flights using a low Earth orbit will make these point-to-point, long-haul space flights commercially viable. Not everybody could fly across the Atlantic in the 1920s. It took pioneering companies to bring the cost of air travel down to a price where enormous numbers of people are able to do it, Sir Richard said. In time, thousands of people will become astronauts and enjoy space travel. And, projecting further forward, Virgin Galactic is building spaceships with wings. Were in the airline business and we want to start offering point-to-point travel via space, he said. Initially, it wont be cheap, but its possible that the environmental costs will be a fraction of what it currently costs to go on an airplane. We hope the price of point-to-point travel will be realistic, so that a lot of people will be able to experience it. Were talking of tremendous speeds and spectacular views along the way. Recommended Read more UN to call on governments around the world to decriminalise all drugs In February, Virgin Galactic will unveil its new replacement spaceship in the Mojave. There are no major changes in the design compared with the ill-fated SpaceShipTwo, Sir Richard said, except that there will be a fail-safe mechanism to prevent pilots from prematurely engaging the feathering system which controls the planes descent the cause of the 2014 disaster. Sir Richard has invited the theoretical physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking to name the new plane at the unveiling. He has already offered the scientist Virgin Galactics only free ticket into space which Professor Hawking has accepted, provided his health allows it. Obviously, we had a years delay after the accident and its tremendous that Stephen Hawking has agreed to come and name the new spaceship, Sir Richard said. He has made it very clear that he thinks mankind and womankind need to work very hard to try to colonise other planets and that space is very important for people back here on Earth, he said. He has spoken in the past about the need for colonising other planets should anything ever happen to people back here on Earth, so that all those years of evolution will not be wasted. There is an enormous amount of things that can be done in space, have been done in space, and will be done in space; and I think commercial space travel will play a big role in that. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A school in Blackpool will have a "visible police presence" after its pupils were threatened with a mass shooting. Montgomery High School in the village of Bispham in Blackpool was targeted in a series of Facebook posts threatening to "kill as many people as possible". In the posts, the alleged plotter praised the perpatrators of American mass shootings and said the gun attack would be in revenge for alleged bullying. He said: "Nobody talks to me or notices me except when they're calling me a nerd and pushing me around. "As soon as I tell people Ive got a gun, I start getting bombarded with messages." When challenged by another student, he said he was serious about his threat: "You think it's a joke? You'll see bullets, bodies, and blood." Lancashire Police insisted that "there is nothing to suggest these messages pose a credible threat" but they will still be on site as a precaution. In a statement they said: "We are aware of the posts on social media concerning Montgomery High School, Bispham and are investigating the source and content of these messages. "There is nothing to suggest these messages pose a credible threat and the school will be open as normal on Monday morning. "We are continuing to liaise closely with Montgomery High School and there will be a visible police presence when term begins on Monday to offer reassurance to parents, pupils, staff and the wider community and to ensure the safety of all. "Our inquiries to identify who is responsible for posting these messages remain on-going." UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA UK news in pictures 22 September 2022 Woody Woodmansey, Lee Bennett, Kevin Armstrong, Nick Moran and Clifford Slapper attend the unveiling of a stone for David Bowie on the Music Walk of Fame at Camden, north London PA UK news in pictures 21 September 2022 A flock of birds in the sky as the sun rises over Dungeness in Kent PA UK news in pictures 20 September 2022 Flowers which were laid by members of the public in tribute to Queen Elizabeth II at Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland are collected by the Hillsborough Gardening Team and volunteers to be replanted for those that can be saved or composted PA UK news in pictures 19 September 2022 The ceremonial procession of the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II travels down the long walk as it arrives at Windsor Castle for the committal service at St Georges Chapel AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 18 September 2022 A man stands among campers on The Mall ahead of the Queens funeral Reuters UK news in pictures 17 September 2022 Wolverhampton Wanderers Nathan Collins fouls Manchester Citys Jack Grealish leading to a red card. City went on to win the match at Molineux Stadium three goals to nil. Action Images/Reuters UK news in pictures 16 September 2022 Members of the public stand in the queue near Tower Bridge, and opposite the Tower of London, as they wait in line to pay their respects to the late Queen Elizabeth II, in London AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 15 September 2022 Members of the public in the queue on in Potters Fields Park, central London, as they wait to view Queen Elizabeth II lying in state ahead of her funeral on Monday PA UK news in pictures 14 September 2022 The first members of the public pay their respects as the vigil begins around the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Hall, London, where it will lie in state ahead of her funeral on Monday PA UK news in pictures 13 September 2022 Crowds cheer as King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort arrive for a visit to Hillsborough Castle Getty UK news in pictures 12 September 2022 Crowds line the Royal Mile, Edinburgh, as King Charles III joins a procession from the Palace of Holyroodhouse to St Giles Cathedral following the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II Katielee Arrowsmith/SWNS UK news in pictures 11 September 2022 Members of the Public pay their respects as the hearse carrying the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II, draped in the Royal Standard of Scotland, is driven through Ballater AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 10 September 2022 Britain's Prince William, Prince of Wales, Britain's Catherine, Princess of Wales, Britain's Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Britain's Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, wave at well-wishers on the Long walk at Windsor Castle AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 9 September 2022 King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort wave after viewing floral tributes to the late Queen Elizabeth II outside Buckingham Palace Getty UK news in pictures 8 September 2022 A screen commemorating Britain's Queen Elizabeth II in Piccadilly Circus, London Britain EPA UK news in pictures 7 September 2022 Police officers stand guard after Animal Rebellion activists threw paint on the walls and road outside the Houses of Parliament in protest, in London, Britain Reuters UK news in pictures 6 September 2022 Queen Elizabeth II welcomes Liz Truss during an audience at Balmoral, Scotland, where she invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 5 September 2022 Visitors at the PoliNations garden in Victoria Square, Birmingham, which is made up of five 40ft high tree installations and over 6,000 plants. The PoliNations programme aims to explore how migration and cross-pollination have shaped the UKs gardens and culture PA UK news in pictures 4 September 2022 Undergraduates at the University of St Andrews take part in the traditional Pier Walk along the harbour walls of St Andrews before the start of the new academic year PA UK news in pictures 3 September 2022 The Massed Pipes and Drums parade during the Braemar Highland Gathering at the Princess Royal and Duke of Fife Memorial Park PA UK news in pictures 2 September 2022 Number 12 Company Irish Guards at Wellington Barracks, central London, before commencing their first Guard Mount at Buckingham Palace PA UK news in pictures 1 September 2022 A salmon leaps up the weir at Hexham in Northumberland, despite the drought warnings and low water levels, the River Tyne is still flowing well allowing the salmon and sea trout to head up river to spawn. Every year tens of thousands of salmon make the once-in-a-lifetime journey along the Tyne to spawn, having been out a sea PA UK news in pictures 31 August 2022 Flowers are placed at the gates outside Kensington Palace, London, the former home of Diana, Princess of Wales, on the 25th anniversary of her death PA UK news in pictures 30 August 2022 Edinburghs waste workers clearing mountains of rubbish at Forrest Road as they return to work following their 11 days of industrial action PA Principal Tony Nicholson said in a statement to parents and carers that he was satisfied that the police were doing everything possible to investigate and had been "providing strong support". A statement read: "You may be aware of references on social media from an anonymous source regarding Monday 4th January 2016 at Montgomery High School. "Staff at the school were quick to spot this posting and the matter was immediately referred by the school to the police." Additional reporting by PA For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Britains most scandal-hit police force faces a slew of legal claims after being accused of using controversial anti-terrorism powers to snoop on officers blowing the whistle on racism. Cleveland constabulary faces claims that it secretly obtained details from confidential emails between Asian officers and their representatives and solicitors to defend against employment cases brought against the force. It is the latest scandal involving alleged police misuse of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa). Last month, Scotland Yard was ruled to have illegally accessed the phone records of a Sun journalist while using Ripa to find the source of a leak during the Plebgate scandal. The legal challenges set to be filed imminently are yet another setback for Cleveland Police. The then chief constable was sacked in 2012 for gross misconduct, and in November an employment tribunal exposed a racist campaign that targeted an Asian firearms officer. Recommended Read more UK police forces recruit disproportionately high number of white peopl The ordeal endured by Nadeem Saddique, 44, highlighted racist attitudes that the forces own disciplinary unit failed to investigate properly, the tribunal found. Fellow officers had described him as just a Paki and pledged to oust him from the unit. PC Saddique had written emails in 2012 to a senior ethnic minority officer after a white colleague sported an English Defence League sticker on the holster of his weapon. The sticker reputedly included the phrase: Crusades against Muslims, tell me youre a Muslim and Ill shoot you. The Independent can reveal emails from Mr Saddique were part of a cache of documents that Cleveland Police secretly sought to recover from his senior ethnic minority colleague using the Ripa laws during a criminal investigation into unauthorised leaks from the force. The senior officer has since left the force and is preparing his own legal claim. The force also used Ripa, which was passed in 2000 to help investigate terrorism and serious crimes, to check phone data of police officers, a solicitor and journalists over a five-month period, according to documents secured by one of the targets of the inquiry. It is understood that lawyers and former police officers are all preparing claims against the force alleging misfeasance in public office over the potential viewing of legally privileged documents. The trawl in 2012 would have allowed the force to see emails containing details about at least three Asian officers claiming discrimination, according to sources. Critics say powers have been abused The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, made law in 2000, was designed to help the authorities to fight serious crime. It empowered public bodies, including police and local councils, to carry out surveillance and intercept electronic communications. However, critics say the powers have been abused, with officials using the act to spy on suspected littering and other minor offences. Last year, ministers tightened the rules to require police to get a judges permission to obtain journalists phone records, after Scotland Yard accessed the records of Sun reporters to find who had leaked information on the plebgate row between police and former Chief Whip Andrew Mitchell. The Police Federation the group which represents rank-and-file officers in England and Wales has separately launched an official complaint to the police watchdog about the trawl of contacts of Steve Matthews, a senior official in Cleveland. The federation is representing a number of other officers who are bringing forward discrimination claims against the force. Cleveland Police said the watchdog, the Independent Police Complaints Commission, has passed it details of the complaint very recently to assess, which we will do over the coming days. Mr Matthews, the former chairman of the Cleveland branch of the Police Federation, confirmed that he was preparing to serve papers on the force. Im disappointed that I now discover that while dealing with the force they were snooping on my phone calls and the people I was representing, which is a step too far. As a consequence, Ive taken legal advice and it will lead to me taking action against the force I served once so proudly. Nobody was charged as a result of the phone and email trawling exercise and the secret retrieval of phone data only came to light in October 2015. Its not just excessive but, on the evidence I have seen, to be a clear abuse of power, said Sultan Alam, a former Cleveland officer who was wrongfully imprisoned by the force after he launched a discrimination claim. For that length of time its just bizarre it seems as if it was a fishing exercise. Mr Saddique who had protected Tony Blair and members of the Royal Family took his employer to an employment tribunal last year. The tribunal found 19 instances of victimisation by individuals and another 11 of direct discrimination. Following the Saddique tribunal hearing, the Cleveland Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Barry Coppinger apologised to the officer for his treatment. But at the time Mr Coppinger said there was no suggestion that operational policing to the public is delivered in a way which is affected by unlawful discrimination. However a statement by Mr Saddique alleged officers adopted racist attitudes against members of the public, including: one officer boasted how he called in a dog team to submit a random Asian driver to a drugs search even though he knew no drugs were in the car; another officer said he would go down to the local mosque and shoot the Paki kids; a third officer put up pictures on the office wall of an Asian man caught for speeding the only person ever identified by the officer in such a way; another two officers made no bones about targeting fucking Paki drivers for road offences. Mr Coppinger told The Independent: Im not familiar with all the detail in the case. Youre giving me details from a statement that I havent seen. Mr Saddiques original claims about racism were not properly investigated by the forces professional standards department, despite a request by the outgoing Chief Constable Jacqui Cheer, who had sat down with the officer and his MP, James Wharton, to promise one. At that meeting I was given assurances that my constituents concerns would be properly looked into, said Mr Wharton, the Conservative MP for Stockton South. We now know that didnt happen. That raises very serious questions that go to the very top of the local police organisation. Jacqui Cheer will leave policing on 12 January after 31 years to teach at the College of Policings strategic command course. Mr Wharton is due to meet Mr Coppinger to demand that inspectors are brought in to investigate problems within the force. Theres something at the heart of Cleveland Police which may be an institutionalised problem and the PCC needs to get a grip on it because public confidence has been hurt now over many years to the point at which many people feel Cleveland Police is not an organisation they can trust, he said. Cleveland Polices Ripa trawling operation, if proven, threatens to be more controversial than the Metropolitan Polices use of Ripa to seize journalists phone records during the investigation into the source of the Plebgate story. In that case, Scotland Yard initially only seized phone contacts covering seven days and only used Ripa powers to secure the records after evidence emerged of a potential conspiracy to bring down the cabinet minister Andrew Mitchell. The Investigatory Powers Tribunal ruled last month that it was neither necessary nor proportionate for the Met Police to have secured the phone records of one reporter, but found that it was justified in three other cases. In response to the allegations about misuse of Ripa powers, Cleveland Police said: The acquisition and disclosure of communications data is governed by the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000. Cleveland Police applies the act and relevant guidance when determining whether to make use of various Ripa authorities in support of the investigation of criminal offences. The force is not aware of any proposed legal action at this time. Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Morning Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Hundreds of thousands of Britons driven to food banks by poverty in the past year are seen as collateral damage by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), according to Chris Mould, chair of the Trussell Trust. The Government has spent years in denial of the existence of food poverty and continues to threaten the charity for speaking out on the issue, he said. The Trussell Trust is Britains biggest provider of food banks, with more than 420 around the country. But despite years of repeated attempts by the charity, Iain Duncan-Smith, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions who has accused the organisation of scaremongering, has never met its representatives, said Mr Mould. Recommended Read more Food bank volunteers face growing battle as benefits crisis bites Weve asked on many occasions over many years and weve always suggested that wed like to have a conversation with his department about the issues that we see. He added: The only time weve had access to the Department for Work and Pensions at any sensible process of dialogue was during the early part of the Coalition government in 2010-2011 when they were consulting on issues relating to the social fund and welfare reform. Lives are at stake, said Mr Mould, who ran the Central Police Training and Development Authority and NHS trusts in Wiltshire and Bedfordshire before becoming involved with the charity more than a decade ago. We are dealing with people who have been going hungry but, more importantly, have come to a point where they see no point in continuing to live. What makes me angry is that Ive met too many people who have been driven to that place by inadequate implementation of existing public service and policy. He added: There are many people who have told me that the food bank saved their lives and several instances of people where thats absolutely true; they had reached the end of their tether and they were planning to commit suicide. Food-bank use in Britain is at record levels. More than one million food parcels, each providing enough food for three days, were given out between 2014 and 2015, more than 400,000 of which went to children. In recognition of the growing problem, the Big Lottery Fund gave the Trussell Trust 748,423 last month. In more than 40 per cent of cases, the main reason for people needing food parcels is related to delays or changes to their benefits, says the charity. Although official figures are not yet available, food banks were busier than usual over Christmas. Commenting on the DWPs refusal to have a meaningful dialogue with the charity and its stance on the plight of Britons who cannot afford to eat, Mr Mould said: I would imagine they see it as collateral damage as they implement new policy and they dont intend to divert or adjust their policy, so its better not to hear. Thats how it feels. Attempts by officials to undermine the charity continue but are more subtle than tactics used in the past, he said. Last year The Independent revealed how a senior aide to Iain Duncan-Smith had warned Mr Mould that the Government might try to shut you down, because of the charitys campaigning on food poverty. Asked if such threats persisted, Mr Mould said: Whats happened is that the messages are passed through in a more subtle way, thats all I can really say. What we hear is that we will never get access to policy makers in Government. He added: We get told that if we were to say less, and to be less regular in the saying of what we say, we would then get the chance to have conversations with Government departments. Recommended Read more Iain Duncan Smith reveals job advisors could be placed in food banks Food poverty in Britain is set to worsen in the coming years, he fears. We have to face the reality that what we are seeing now is just the beginning, he told the IoS. The measure must be that when things go wrong, we fast-track putting them right. But we have a Government department that tolerates without shame situations where people have no access to financial support for months on end at times. If you were to take the same principle and apply it to the health service and say, A tiny proportion of patients wont get a good service, and as a consequence they dont get better and die, there would be a scandal. Because you would never be allowed to consider that thats how you would operate a public service. Cameron defends poverty record In a statement, a Government spokesman said: Britain has a proud tradition of volunteering and of civil society and faith groups providing support to vulnerable people and this Government welcomes that. We know that the reasons for food-bank use are complex and often overlapping, so it is misleading to claim that it is driven by benefit delays. The vast majority of benefits are paid on time and improvements are being made year on year. He added: We continue to spend around 80bn a year on working-age benefits so we have a strong safety net in place to support millions of people who are unemployed or on low incomes. Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Morning Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The Church of England has been accused of a cover-up over allegations that a chaplain at the Australian school attended by the Prince of Wales was a paedophile. At the Australian royal commission into child abuse in September, the Reverend Norman Smith was accused of raping a pupil at Geelong Grammar School in the late 1960s. Now a 68-year-old former churchwarden has come forward to say that the Church dismissed his earlier claims that he was abused by Mr Smith in Sussex in the early 1960s. Recommended Read more Teachers and health workers among child abuse suspects arrested Alan Baker, from Gloucestershire, has also written to Prince Charles to ask if he can provide any information that would help his case for damages. I would like to know what the links were between Geelong and the Church of England and the Anglican Communion, said Mr Baker. Was it a coincidence that Smith abused me and then moved to Australia and then abused a child in Australia and moved back to the UK to take up a position as a vicar? The Church of England has treated me disgracefully and dismissed my complaints even though they must have known about the Australian allegations. Mr Smith died in 2012 and an obituary stated Norman would certainly have known him [Charles] and administered Communion to him. There is no suggestion that Prince Charles was abused. During the Australian hearings, a former Geelong pupil detailed several assaults by Mr Smith in 1967, starting with the chaplain chasing him and another boy because he wanted us on his lap so he could fondle us. He said he was raped. In 1962, Mr Smith invited Mr Baker, then a teenager, to his parish in West Tarring, Sussex. He told me that he had arranged for me to go on a date with a local girl and it was only later that I realised that he was using this to cover his own intentions, Mr Baker said. He told me that I needed a bath and said he was going to come into the bathroom, which shocked me. Mr Baker said that he was then sexually assaulted by Mr Smith. In 2004, he complained to his parish about Mr Smith and they met. When I told him that he had abused me, he said he did not remember, so I told him to swear on the Bible, which he did. He said, I do not remember if I did it, but if I did I apologise, Mr Baker said. In 2013, Mr Baker claimed damages against Mr Smiths former parish of St Andrews. Lawyers for the parish denied liability, saying there was no reason to believe he acted as your client alleges. Mr Bakers lawyer, Glyn Maddocks, said his treatment raises questions about the conduct of the Church of England and their ability to be open and transparent with victims of abuse.A source from the Diocese of Chichester said yesterday: We were aware that the police had investigated some of Mr Bakers allegations in the past but the whole narrative is not available to us at this point. The Church of England said it was painfully conscious of our past failings, but added that in recent years it had been persistent and determined in dealing with allegations of abuse against clergy. Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Morning Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} In a workshop in Bury, Greater Manchester, a team of eight has been working flat out to apply the final touches: drain cocks and lubrication pipework. And in the National Railway Museum, in York, more workers have been machining bolt heads down to the size of those that adorned the locomotive on the day it first emerged from the London and North Eastern Railways (LNER) Doncaster works in 1923. Technically, you could say that all this is just for restoring a three-cylinder locomotive with Gresley conjugated valve but this is much, much more than just a three-cylinder locomotive with Gresley conjugated valve. This is Flying Scotsman, icon of the age of steam, star of the British Empire Exhibition of 1924 and 1925, and of countless childhood memories. This is the steam locomotive that, on 30 November 1934, on a downhill stretch between Little Bytham and Essendine in Lincolnshire, became the first to hit a properly authenticated speed of 100mph, passing into legend and making heroes of driver, Bill Sparshatt, and fireman, Bob Webster. Driver Bill Sparshatt and fireman Bob Webster, on 30 November 1934, the day the Scotsman recorded a speed of 100mph (National Railway Museum) And on Wednesday, if all goes to plan, Flying Scotsman in its heyday, the star of the London-to-Edinburgh train service will once more be under her own steam, making her first low-speed test runs, along the East Lancashire heritage railway. If that goes well, the public will get their first chance to see her in action at a series of weekend preview test runs that start on Saturday. And then, in February, the locomotive that was nearly lost to the nation not once, not twice, but three times, will make a triumphant return to the East Coast Main Line with a full-speed inaugural run between London and York. A nationwide mainline and heritage railway tour will follow, starting with Flying Scotsman hauling carriages of passengers along the North Yorkshire Moors Railway in March. Further passenger trips are planned in Surrey, Somerset and Lincolnshire, Bath, Bristol and Norwich among other places and Flying Scotsman will enjoy Kings Cross to Newcastle and York to Edinburgh runs before finishing her 2016 season on the Severn Valley Railway in September. And that, for the workers in the National Railway Museum (NRM) and the Bury workshop of Riley & Son locomotive engineers, will represent the triumphant culmination of 10 years toil. Because buying Flying Scotsman for the nation at a cost of 2.3m in 2004 turned out to be the easy part. A restoration expected to last 12 months when it began in 2005 ended up taking a decade and costing 4.2m. Colin Green, co-director at the firm (PA) A mechanical heart transplant? says Simon Holroyd, NRM engineering manager. More like a mechanical everything transplant. It was a job that expanded out of all proportion. You were removing things, looking at what was underneath and saying, Oh, heck. The middle cylinder was misaligned. The right cylinder was cracked. The main steam pipe for the brakes had failed . Flying Scotsman, he estimates, needed 5,000 new parts all built to original specifications including a new boiler, purloined from her sister locomotive Salmon Trout and restored to working order. The museum called in Riley & Son to help. Mr Holroyd, 51, says that the job is partly why he has grey hair. But then, over the past half-century, Flying Scotsman has often had rather a rough ride. Recommended Read more How to save money on train tickets after fares increase In the Sixties, British Rail began scrapping its steam locomotives. Flying Scotsman may have set that 100mph record, and hauled the first non-stop service between London and Edinburgh in 1928, ushering in a new era of train travel in which you got your hair cut in the on-board barbers shop and sipped Flying Scotsmans in the cocktail bar. But that was not enough for British Rail to consider her worth preserving. The first Save our Scotsman campaign was launched and into the breach stepped swashbuckling Second World War RAF pilot turned businessman Alan Pegler. He bought the locomotive in 1963, saving her from the scrapyard. Pegler took Flying Scotsman on a tour of the US, described by one NRM staff member as Austin Powers with trains, complete with Winston Churchill impersonator and models in tartan miniskirts. Flying Scotsman restoration in Bury (PA) Pegler, though, went bankrupt and Flying Scotsman was impounded on a US army base. It took another businessman, Sir William McAlpine, to pay off creditors, buy the locomotive and bring her back to Britain in 1973. And then, in 2004, a different set of owners found themselves in financial difficulty. American buyers hovered but the British public raised 441,600 enough, with 365,000 from Sir Richard Bransons Virgin Group and a 1.8m National Heritage Memorial Fund grant, to buy the locomotive, with some money left over for restoration. That restoration paid for through museum funds, public and corporate donations and a 275,000 lottery grant could, as some critics suggested, have been done quicker and more cheaply if Flying Scotsman had received a welded steel boiler made in Germany. Mr Holroyd folds his arms. For him, it had to be the old-style boiler, with a copper inner skin for the firebox. Anything else, just wouldnt be Flying Scotsman. You would have lost the heritage. Recommended Read more Train tickets face end of the tracks as contactless payments spread He was about five when he got his Flying Scotsman jigsaw puzzle for Christmas. He was learning to read at about the same time. One of the flashcards that the teacher used had the words Flying Scotsman. I always shouted loudest when that one came up. Never did I imagine that one day I would help to restore her. His pride is obvious. As for what the public can expect when Flying Scotsman returns to the tracks, it is left to Andrew McLean, the museums head curator, to try to explain. The 45-year-old first saw Flying Scotsman as a small boy, with his father, on a beautiful sunny day in September 1975. Three years later, the model Flying Scotsman for his train set arrived on Christmas Day. This locomotive, he says, is up there with your Big Bens and Windsor Castles. You cant fly on Concorde now. You cant cross the Atlantic on the original Queen Mary. But you will be able to travel on a train hauled by Flying Scotsman. And when you see a steam locomotive doing what it was designed to do . You get the sight, the sound, the smell, the heat a spectacle touching all your senses. When it is running like that, a steam locomotive is alive, and at that point, with Flying Scotsman, a lot of people will be choking up: she will have been brought alive again. For more details about Flying Scotsmans 2016 season visit here Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Morning Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Kingston Upon Hull, often shortened to simply Hull, has made it to a shortlist of 10 cities to visit in 2016, according to travel company Rough Guides. It is a town favoured by poets. Hulls most famous son, Philip Larkin, described it as a city that is in the world, yet sufficiently on the edge of it to have a different resonance. Peter Porter claimed that it is the most poetic city in England. The East Yorkshire city used to have a reputation for being the epitome of the grim north. It suffered from high unemployment and crime following the collapse of the local fishing industry in the 1970s. As recently as 2015, it was declared by pollsters the least romantic city in the UK, and the second worst place to live. Rough Guides reveal the Top 10 Cities to visit in 2016 Show all 10 1 /10 Rough Guides reveal the Top 10 Cities to visit in 2016 Rough Guides reveal the Top 10 Cities to visit in 2016 Reykjavik, Iceland Rex Rough Guides reveal the Top 10 Cities to visit in 2016 Mexico City, Mexico 2012 Getty Images Rough Guides reveal the Top 10 Cities to visit in 2016 Seoul, South Korea 2012 Getty Images Rough Guides reveal the Top 10 Cities to visit in 2016 Ljubljana, Slovenia Rough Guides reveal the Top 10 Cities to visit in 2016 Wroclaw, Poland 2011 Getty Images Rough Guides reveal the Top 10 Cities to visit in 2016 Nashville, USA 2004 Getty Images Rough Guides reveal the Top 10 Cities to visit in 2016 Amsterdam, the Netherlands Rough Guides reveal the Top 10 Cities to visit in 2016 Hull, UK 2013 Getty Images Rough Guides reveal the Top 10 Cities to visit in 2016 Vancouver, Canada Rough Guides reveal the Top 10 Cities to visit in 2016 Agra, India Despite this, the city has seen resurgence in recent years, with investment in art and architecture giving it a new lease of life. It has been named UK city of culture for 2017. The full list Reykjavik, Iceland Mexico City Seoul, South Korea Ljubljana, Slovenia Wroclaw, Poland Nashville, USA Amsterdam, the Netherlands Hull Vancouver, Canada Agra, India Numerous street trails dot the city, paying homage to the cultural and industrial heritage of the town. It is also home to the Humber Bridge, opened in 1981, which was for a time the longest suspension bridge in the world. Thats plenty of incentive for the people at Rough Guide, who write: Itll be brimming with new hotels and restaurants, and even more of that distinctive home-grown creativity the city has always had. There are atmospheric old-timey pubs, eight excellent museums and a picturesque Old Town with cobbled streets. This years fun is set to culminate in the September Freedom Festival, when the entire city is turned into a stage for performers and artists. Hull beat Vancouver in Canada and Agra in India to make it to eighth place on the list. ELKO Eduardo Estrada-Puentes extradition, a homicide, a sexual abuse case, drugs, burglaries and other crime stories grabbed the publics attention in 2015. The following summaries of the most read articles of 2015 are assembled from Elko Daily Free Press files. Estrada back in Elko In a case that has spanned four-and-a-half years, Eduardo Estrada-Puentes was extradited from Mexico to face charges of murdering Stephanie Gonzalez. Were pretty elated that hes here now, said Lidia Cortes, the mother of Gonzalez. Estrada-Puentes, 34, was brought to Reno in October by the FBI, before being transported to Elko County Jail on the murder warrant. Estrada-Puentes is accused of strangling his estranged wife on June 25, 2011. Soon after, he fled to Mexico. With the help of the FBI and Mexico authorities, he was located and arrested in the State of Jalisco, said Police Chief Ben Reed. Estrada-Puentes spent the past year in custody in Mexico City, where he underwent extradition hearings. According to Free Press files, Estrada-Puentes was developed as a suspect based on witness accounts that he was seen at 84 Garcia Lane with the victim that Saturday morning. Gonzalezs family reported her missing later that day when she didnt return phone calls and hadnt shown up for work. Her cellphone, keys and purse were still in her home. Her body was found under a pile of clothes in a bedroom at the residence after officers obtained a search warrant. An amended criminal complaint charging open murder was filed Sept. 27, 2011. If convicted, Estrada-Puentes cold face life without parole; life with a 20-year minimum for parole; or 50 years with a minimum of 20 years for parole. After two hearings, Estrada-Puentes was appointed the counsel of the public defenders office. Due to the large number of witnesses, Deputy District Attorney Chad Thompson requested two full, consecutive days to conduct the preliminary hearing. Judge Mason Simons set the time and date for 8:30 a.m. on March 3 and 4 in the jail courtroom. Self-defense shooting An initial investigation in May revealed that a man might have killed another man in self-defense during a fight. Clinton Hopper, 32, was killed in his girlfriends apartment by Frank Criswell. Criswell, 28, and the apartment renter, Alesha Piccinini, 29, had gone on a date the evening before, Elko Police Lt. Rich Genseal said. The two had met a few weeks before. After Hopper was shot, Criswell was able to get out from underneath the victim. He unloaded his gun and began performing CPR on Hopper, Genseal said. Criswell also told Piccinini, who was in the room during the incident, to call 911. Hopper was transported to Northeastern Nevada Regional Hospital and pronounced dead. Criswell also went to the hospital, as he had a sizable bump on his head. There is no indication Criswell and Hopper knew each other, Detective Dennis Price said. It also appears Criswell did not know Piccinini had a boyfriend. Police believe the shooting was justifiable homicide, but it is up the Elko County District Attorneys Office to decide whether to file charges. Alleged kidnapping An alleged kidnapping in March led to the arrest of two men, but the case didnt hold up in court. A 15-year-old girl was allegedly taken against her will by Javier Ramirez Jr., 34, of Elko. The girl was working at La Corona Taqueria on South Fifth Street, where the stores owner, Benjamin Rodriguez-Perez, 48, of Elko, apparently told her to go with Ramirez, Elko Detective Cpl. Rick Moore said. While the girl was not harmed, she was afraid Ramirez would hurt her and he made her uncomfortable, Moore said. Ramirez was arrested for second-degree kidnapping, conspiracy to commit second-degree kidnapping and false imprisonment. He was jailed on $125,000 bail, but he ended up pleading guilty to disturbing the peace. Rodriguez-Perez was also arrested for conspiracy to commit second-degree kidnapping and bribing or intimidating a witness to influence testimony. He was released on $25,000 bail and ended up on the Elkos Most Wanted list. Babysitter sex abuse A police investigation into a babysitters alleged sexual abuse on two preteen girls spread to include allegations against the suspects wife a former Girl Scouts volunteer and at least two more underage victims. The day after Bradley Parker was booked into jail on suspicion of lewdness with a child, his wife, 42-year-old Barbara Parker, who had advertised babysitting services, was arrested in March. Police Detective Dennis Price said four victims were identified between the ages of 6 and 10, two of whom were involved with Girl Scouts. After Bradley Parker, 49, babysat a 7-year-old and a 10-year-old girl, the children told their father Parker had touched a girl inappropriately, according to police. He was called to the police station and immediately arrested. The couple was bound over to district court in July on charges including child pornography. Police car shot Three individuals were classified as persons of interest in September after a shot was fired into an Elko Police Department patrol car. Just before 2 a.m. on Aug. 30, an on-duty officer was driving east on Silver Street, leaving one call and going to an unrelated domestic violence call, when a bullet hit the door of the drivers side of the vehicle. The officer was unharmed. Police recovered video surveillance showing three subjects who were walking in the area around the same time the bullet hit the police car. After an extensive investigation by detectives, police arrested the man believed to have shot the patrol car in December. A complaint was filed by the district attorneys office against the suspect, who was identified as Justin Temoke, 32, of Elko one of the persons of interest. The incident was taken very seriously and originally investigated as the possible attempted murder of an officer. Reed explained there was strategy discussed between police and the district attorneys office as to how to proceed. Temoke is charged with discharging a firearm in a reckless manner into a motor vehicle and is in custody. His bail was listed at $20,000. Alleged meth trafficking In January, motel staff tipped off law enforcement to an alleged drug operation, leading to the arrest of two locals who had a substantial quantity of methamphetamine, according to police. Police Lt. Ty Trouten said officers responded to a local motel to help employees who had noticed a large volume of traffic to the room evict Matthew R. Moreno-Grogg, 19, and Jennifer Stanger, 29, both of Elko. As soon as officers got there, they could smell marijuana, Trouten said. During the course of talking to the suspects, police discovered about 6 grams of meth, he said. They also found a couple roaches with marijuana residue. Both Moreno-Grogg and Stanger were booked into Elko County Jail on suspicion of drug trafficking and possession of a controlled substance. Moreno-Grogg is also accused of possession of less than one ounce of marijuana. Bail was listed at $25,727 for Moreno-Grogg and $25,000 for Stanger. Burglary charges Two local men were arrested in October following a burglary at Vogue Laundry, after one of them applied for a job at the business. According to Lt. Ty Trouten, Christopher S. Daley, 25, of Spring Creek and Alexander I. Rasch, 19, of Elko gained entry through an unlocked door. He said video surveillance was able to provide a description of the suspects. After the incident, one of the suspects tried to apply for a job at the laundry, Trouten said. Police secured a search warrant, and several cellphones and drug paraphernalia were found. Daley was arrested on a warrant and charges of burglary, grand larceny, buying, possessing or receiving stolen property, possession of a controlled substance, and 14 counts of use or possession of drug paraphernalia. His bail was listed at $50,055. Rasch was arrested for burglary, grand larceny and use or possession of drug paraphernalia. His bail was listed at $30,637. Home break-in Police arrested a homeless man in August on burglary charges that led to the search of a local residence and resulted in three other arrests. Lt. Ty Trouten said Zackery S. Morse, 27, broke into his ex-wifes home. He has never lived there and took property that included clothing, bedding and her wedding dress. Morses arrest led to officers applying for a search warrant for a residence in the 300 block of West Fir Street, where most of her property was recovered. When Michael J. Tognarelli, 33, of Carlin left the Fir Street residence, he was observed by an officer who knew there was a warrant out for him. A parolee, Justin D. Bowman, 31, was a passenger in Tognarellis vehicle. Daun M. Ledford, 43, also resided in the home and she was arrested for multiple counts of drug paraphernalia and possession of stolen property. Loitering and more When police spotted an 18-year-old woman who appeared to be too young to be hanging around in a local casino in January, it led to more than a loitering charge. Officers were basically doing bar walkthroughs, said Ty Trouten, police lieutenant, and they suspected Kaylee A. Sharlows age to be below 21. She was in the gaming establishment with a man in his 20s. After talking with the suspect, police arrested her for loitering. At the jail, law enforcement searched a backpack she had been wearing and found ID that confirmed her age. Police also reportedly found a tenth of a gram of heroin, two hypodermic needles, a spoon with burn marks and tufts of cotton on one side and a marijuana pipe, Trouten added. Sharlow was booked into the Elko County Jail on suspicion of possession of a controlled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia, loitering in a gaming area as a minor, and resisting an officer. Bail was listed at $10,311. Smashed storefront A downtown business was damaged when an alleged drunken driver smashed his truck through the front of Mishmash & Muddle after midnight on a Saturday night in January. Theres a lot of damage, said business owner Mary McGarry. An employee at the Horseshoe Club called the police and fire departments. The driver of the vehicle, which had Texas license plates, was arrested at the scene. Two days later another driver plowed into Carlin Trend on Fifth Street, just around the corner from Mishmash & Muddle, but that accident was the result of a medical condition. Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Morning Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A human skeleton found under the playground of an Edinburgh school could have once belonged to a 16th-century pirate, archaeologists have said. The skeleton was found by council workmen at Victoria Primary School in the Newhaven area of Edinburgh, and later carbon dated by experts to the 16th or 17th century. The school is near Newhaven Harbour, the closest port to Scotland's capital, which was once the site of a gibbet in which the bodies of executed criminals were displayed as a warning to others. Recommended Read more Filming for latest Pirates of the Caribbean halted after Depp breaks At first, archaeologists thought the man's skeleton was from the Bronze Age, due to the poor condition it was found in. However, further investigation and carbon dating revealed the man had died much more recently. Due to the condition of the skeleton and its proximity to the harbour and gibbet rather than any of the three nearby graveyards, it is believed he was executed, either for piracy or another crime, and displayed in the gibbet before being buried in a shallow, unmarked grave. The firm which uncovered the skeleton, AOC Archaeology, worked with forensic artist Hayley Fisher to create a reconstruction of the face of the man, who is believed to have been in his fifties when he died. Recent archaeological discoveries Show all 11 1 /11 Recent archaeological discoveries Recent archaeological discoveries Recent archaeologist's discoveries Divers Alberto Nava and Susan Bird discover the world's oldest skull found in an underwater cave in Mexico, believed to be the earliest trace of first Americans Recent archaeological discoveries Recent archaeologist's discoveries Paleontologist Gary Morgan stands over the fossil of a stegomastodon skull discovered in a remote area of Elephant Butte State Park, N.M. in June 2012 AP Photo/Albuquerque Journal, Roberto Rosales Recent archaeological discoveries Recent archaeologist's discoveries Scientists discovered the worlds oldest face, which belongs to this 419 million-year-old fish - an ancient sea predator that might also re-write the history of our evolution from the seas Recent archaeological discoveries Recent archaeologist's discoveries An archaeologist discovered a tomb of an intact mummy of the Wari prehispanic culture in Lima's Huaca Pucllana ceremonial complex, at Miraflores district Reuters Recent archaeological discoveries Recent archaeologist's discoveries One of the 46 fossils found at the site in southern Chile Wolfgang Stinnesbeck Recent archaeological discoveries Recent archaeologist's discoveries Archaeologist James Best holding a Roman skull found during the building of a utility tunnel at Crossrail's Liverpool Street station site, London PA Recent archaeological discoveries Recent archaeologist's discoveries In 2012 archaeologists unearthed two skeletons from the Middle Ages pierced through the chest with iron rods to keep them from turning into vampires. They were discovered in the Black Sea town of Sozopol, Bulgaria AFP/Getty Images Recent archaeological discoveries Recent archaeologist's discoveries Several horse shoes dating from the 2nd century AD have been found stuck in cart ruts in this area. Archaeologists believe the metal shoes, which were strapped rather than nailed to horses, came off as the animals were led up to a timber bridge over the Walbrook River PA Recent archaeological discoveries Recent archaeologist's discoveries An archaeologist digs out a skull from the site of the graveyard of the Bethlehem, or Bedlam, hospital Reuters Recent archaeological discoveries Recent archaeologist's discoveries Archaeologists discovered a dinosaur tail in Mexico's desert with the 50 vertebrae of the tail completely intact AP Recent archaeological discoveries Recent archaeologist's discoveries Archaeologist found a terracotta warrior at the excavation site inside the No. 1 pit of the Museum of Qin Terracotta Warriors and Horses, on the outskirts of Xi'an, Shaanxi province, in June 2010 Jason Lee / Reuters Laura Thompson, the headteacher of the primary school, said: "The pupils think it's fantastic that a skeleton was found deep underneath their playground." "The archaeologists will hold a special lesson with some of the children about how they have used science to analyse the remains and it will be a good learning opportunity for them." Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Morning Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The suspended Labour MP Simon Danczuk has reportedly admitted younger women are his Achilles heel and said that he sent sexually explicit messages to a 17-year-old girl because he was drunk, horny and on my own. Mr Danczuk, 49, told The Sun he had a drink problem that led to his behaviour, which he described as inappropriate in an apology after being suspended from the Labour party. Younger women are my Achilles heel, he said. Some men like older women, some like younger women, some like brunettes, some like blondes. He explained how three of his relationships were with women between 10 and 17 years younger than him. According to the newspaper, the Rochdale MP said Sophena Houlihan, who he sent the explicit messages to, got in touch with him just after his second marriage to Labour councillor Karen Danczuk failed. He said he struggled with depression after the split, and turned to drink to help me through it. Then he struck up an online friendship with Ms Houlihan, who had asked for a job at his MPs office. What began as professional conversations reportedly turned into sexually charged exchanges while Mr Danczuk was on a week-long holiday in Spain. He said while he was there, he would often drink up to three bottles of wine a day by himself. I feel awful about what happened. I dont know what came over me, he said. He said he felt embarrassed that Ive been such an idiot and was sorry for disappointing his family, adding: Im already dreading my young sons finding out about this when they are older. In the interview, Mr Danczuk claimed he tried to keep a level of professionalism between himself and Ms Houlihan upon returning from Spain. I knew I had to stop messaging her those things, he said. She was the only person Id done that with. I knew it was wrong. It played on my mind. Miss Houlihan told The Sun in a separate interview that Mr Danczuk should have known better than to send her explicit messages. She said: If I was a year younger then I would have been the same age as some of the Rochdale grooming victims he tried to help. Protest outside Simon Danczuk's office Mr Danczuk fears his actions have discredited the good work he has done campaigning against paedophiles, which exposed MP Sir Cyril Smith and brought Lord Janner to court over historic sex abuse cases. He apologised to the victims I worked hard to help, and added: Its a great privilege to represent Rochdale people. Ive done so much in terms of bringing justice to those who were abused but Im this flawed character. Im very disappointed Ive let myself get in this situation. All I can say to Sophena is Im very sorry if Ive caused her distress. According to the Sunday Times, the Labour party plans to expel Mr Danczuk, who will be "accused of breaching his duty of care to a potential employee". Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Morning Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Flooded communities across the UK will enjoy some respite with river levels predicted to fall, despite more heavy rainfall. Yellow warnings of rain were issued for Northern Ireland, north-east England, parts of Wales and Cornwall for Sunday but severe flood warnings were withdrawn on Friday following emergency work by the Environment Agency (EA) to bolster flood defences. Floodwaters in York have receded, but the EA warned residents to remain vigilant as the River Ouse will remain high. Emergency teams were out in force this weekend pumping away floodwater across northern England, repairing defences, clearing blocked rivers and monitoring water levels. Over 40 additional pumps have been dispatched to the region to ensure that floodwater is pumped away as fast as river levels will allow. Recommended Read more Why severe weather events are the new normal Craig Woolhouse, director of incident management at the EA, said: Thankfully it is now an improving weather picture across most of the country. We will continue to work closely with local authorities in the coming weeks to support their recovery efforts and still have teams working around the clock to protect communities and pump away floodwater. In England, 26 low-risk flood warnings and 80 flood alerts were in place in Devon, Worcestershire, West Dorset, Gloucestershire, Lincolnshire and Cumbria today. UK floods: Road collapse The EA said there could be flooding along the Rivers Ouse in York and Severn in Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire on Sunday and Monday. A clean-up in Dumfries and Aberdeenshire, the areas in Scotland worst-affected by Storm Frank, continued. The Met Office issued an amber warning for rain in eastern Scotland. Hundreds of Scottish homes were evacuated and thousands were left without power by rain and high winds on Wednesday. Police have confirmed that a man died on Wednesday as after he fell from a canoe into the rapid-flowing River Garry in the Highlands, bringing the death toll from Storm Frank to two. Nine flood warnings and three flood alerts were in place in Scotland today. Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} David Cameron has been urged to end his shameful silence over the mass execution of 47 prisoners by Saudi Arabia and order a permanent reassessment of the UKs close relationship with the Gulf kingdom, amid fears that the killings could spark a wider conflict which will threaten the West. As international outrage grew over Saudi Arabias organised executions of dozens of prisoners, Lord Ashdown told The Independent that a broadening confrontation between Sunni and Shia Muslim states would pose a far greater danger to the West than the threat carried by terrorist groups such as Isis. The close relationship between the UK and Saudi Arabia has come under sustained criticism in recent months following a string of human rights abuses in the conservative kingdom. In a sign of growing unease among MPs, Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron will call on Monday for a full parliamentary debate on the issue. Labour and the SNP have also called on the Government to review its relationship with Saudi Arabia, raising a series of concerns about the UKs continued arms sales to the kingdom and offer of support for its judicial system. Speaking to The Independent, Lord Ashdown said Saudi Arabias sudden mass execution of prisoners including the prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr and a number of young political protesters may have been intended to derail the ongoing Syrian peace talks in Vienna. These executions are deeply, deeply destabilising to the very delicate situation that exists in the Middle East and the danger of a wider Sunni and Shia conflict. The West, including the UK government, is only just realising the danger of this and its implications for long term peace in the region. It poses a far greater danger in the long term than, for example, Isil, the former Lib Dem leader added. Iran protests The UK Government should be making it explicitly clear that it regards this act as extremely destabilising. These executions are shocking in human rights terms and reveal the real nature of the people with whom we are dealing. The UKs stance underlines its deeply illogical position of ignoring the funding of jihadist groups, including Isil, which is coming from within Saudi Arabia. Philip Hammond, the Foreign Secretary, said last month that the UK was pursuing a policy of quiet and continued engagement behind the scenes with countries such as Saudi Arabia. Human rights campaigners said the executions proved this approach was not working. Reprieve described Britains criticism of Saudi Arabias human rights record as muted at best, calling for the Government to seriously reconsider its support for the kingdom, while Amnesty UK said ministers had only whispered criticism and must be firmer and louder in their condemnation. The prominent human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell added: David Camerons silence over Saudi Arabias mass executions is shameful. It is collusion with barbarism, which does huge damage to Britains international reputation. How can the UK be taken seriously if we condemn human rights abuses by Iran and Russia but not by Saudi Arabia? The Prime Minister is guilty of double standards. He condemns Isis but panders to Saudi Arabia. Both are driven by a similar extreme Islamist ideology and both practice the same bloodthirsty beheadings. Moral consistency requires that we oppose them both. 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Show all 10 1 /10 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses In October 2014, three lawyers, Dr Abdulrahman al-Subaihi, Bander al-Nogaithan and Abdulrahman al-Rumaih , were sentenced to up to eight years in prison for using Twitter to criticize the Ministry of Justice. AFP/Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses In March 2015, Yemens Sunni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi was forced into exile after a Shia-led insurgency. A Saudi Arabia-led coalition has responded with air strikes in order to reinstate Mr Hadi. It has since been accused of committing war crimes in the country. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Women who supported the Women2Drive campaign, launched in 2011 to challenge the ban on women driving vehicles, faced harassment and intimidation by the authorities. The government warned that women drivers would face arrest. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Members of the Kingdoms Shia minority, most of whom live in the oil-rich Eastern Province, continue to face discrimination that limits their access to government services and employment. Activists have received death sentences or long prison terms for their alleged participation in protests in 2011 and 2012. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses All public gatherings are prohibited under an order issued by the Interior Ministry in 2011. Those defy the ban face arrest, prosecution and imprisonment on charges such as inciting people against the authorities. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses In March 2014, the Interior Ministry stated that authorities had deported over 370,000 foreign migrants and that 18,000 others were in detention. Thousands of workers were returned to Somalia and other states where they were at risk of human rights abuses, with large numbers also returned to Yemen, in order to open more jobs to Saudi Arabians. Many migrants reported that prior to their deportation they had been packed into overcrowded makeshift detention facilities where they received little food and water and were abused by guards. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses The Saudi Arabian authorities continue to deny access to independent human rights organisations like Amnesty International, and they have been known to take punitive action, including through the courts, against activists and family members of victims who contact Amnesty. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Raif Badawi was sentenced to 1000 lashes and 10 years in prison for using his liberal blog to criticise Saudi Arabias clerics. He has already received 50 lashes, which have reportedly left him in poor health. Carsten Koall/Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Dawood al-Marhoon was arrested aged 17 for participating in an anti-government protest. After refusing to spy on his fellow protestors, he was tortured and forced to sign a blank document that would later contain his confession. At Dawoods trial, the prosecution requested death by crucifixion while refusing him a lawyer. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Ali Mohammed al-Nimr was arrested in 2012 aged either 16 or 17 for participating in protests during the Arab spring. His sentence includes beheading and crucifixion. The international community has spoken out against the punishment and has called on Saudi Arabia to stop. He is the nephew of a prominent government dissident. Getty The executions have also intensified political pressure on the Government to allow greater scrutiny of its relations with Saudi Arabia. As he called for a parliamentary debate on the issue, Mr Farron said ministers must come clean over allegations that Saudi Arabias election to the UN Human Rights Council in 2013 was ensured thanks to a vote-trading deal with the UK. If the Government did support the Saudi bid it would show once and for all that [they] put profit above fundamental human rights, he told The Independent. It is time the Prime Minister comes cleanit would make an utter mockery of the values we hold dear if they did support them. Labour, meanwhile, raised concerns over the UKs role in the Saudi justice system which allowed the executions. Although the Justice Secretary Michael Gove cancelled a 6 million bid for a prisons contract last year, the party said judicial cooperation was continuing through the British Embassy in Riyadh. It is not right that the UK should be actively cooperating with a justice system that shows such flagrant disregard for the most basic human rights and the rule of law, said Andy Slaughter, Labours shadow Human Rights Minister. The SNPs Margaret Ferrier also accused the Government of turning a blind eye to Saudi Arabias horrific human rights record while continuing to sell the kingdom billions of pounds worth of weapons. However, former Lib Dem leader Lord (Menzies) Campbell said that he believed the Governments current approach to Saudi Arabia was correct. The Saudi Arabian government is well aware of UK opposition to capital punishment as indeed are the Iranians who also practise it. There is no reason why we should not repeat that opposition as often as is necessary to do so, he said. Recommended Read more Saudi executions threaten to plunge Middle East into greater turmoil But in the urgent objective of achieving stability in the Middle East both Saudi Arabia and Iran will have vital roles to play. Alienating ourselves from either of these countries is not in our interests nor helpful to the long-term aim of political settlement in the region. Tobias Ellwood, Minister for the Middle East, said: I am deeply disturbed by the escalation in tensions in the last 24 hours in the Middle East. The UK is firmly opposed to the death penalty. We have stressed this to the Saudi authorities and also expressed our disappointment at the mass executions. We have discussed with the authorities in Riyadh, and expect that Ali Al-Nimr and others who were convicted as juveniles will not be executed. The UK will continue to raise these cases with the Saudi authorities. We are deeply concerned to hear of the attack yesterday on the Saudi Embassy in Tehran. It is essential that diplomatic missions are properly protected and respected. There are those who will wish to exploit the situation and raise sectarian tensions higher. This would be against the wishes of the vast majority of those in the region. I urge all parties in the region to show restraint and responsibility. Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Rachel Reeves, the former shadow work and pensions secretary, has called for the UKs 34bn pension tax-relief system to be replaced by a simple savings bonus. Writing in The Independent on Sunday, Ms Reeves, who has been tipped as both a future Labour leader and a potential chancellor, said of her idea: For every 1 that you put in however much you earn you would get 25p or 30p from the public purse. So, if you save 1,000 a year you get 250 or 300 to top up your savings, with annual and lifetime limits on what you can put in. The Government has been consulting on how to reform pension tax relief, which has been criticised for being too complicated, expensive to run and unfair. The highest earners, on more than 150,000 a year, receive 14 per cent of all pension tax relief, while only 10 per cent goes to the poorest half of society. Ms Reeves, who has been on maternity leave, refused to serve in Jeremy Corbyns Shadow Cabinet, but will use her position on the Treasury select committee to push her idea ahead of the Budget. She pointed out that Britain, more than most economies, remains addicted to debt, so the Government must make it more attractive to save. The fact is, savings matter. We worry about income inequality, but wealth inequality is greater and rising with the wealthiest 20 per cent of households having a staggering 117 times more assets than the poorest 20 per cent. Part of the way to narrow this gap is through encouraging savings and changing the tax-relief system. Ms Reeves, who is a former Bank of England economist, also wants the rules for Isas changed. Most of these demand a minimum contribution of 50 a month, which is too much for many families who have struggled since the financial crisis struck in 2008. The Leeds West MP wants to see the minimum lowered. She also wants the introduction of technology that would help people save small amounts when they have a few spare pounds in their bank accounts. Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Jeremy Corbyn risks sparking a dangerous rift with Andy Burnham, who came second to him in the Labour leadership contest, by sacking the shadow Home Secretarys closest political ally. The Independent on Sunday has learned that Mr Burnham agreed to serve in Mr Corbyns Shadow Cabinet only if Michael Dugher, his leadership campaign manager, was also given a top job. Mr Dugher was made shadow Culture, Media and Sport Secretary in September, but just four months later is under threat in the forthcoming reshuffle. Much of the speculation over who will be sacked in what has been described as a revenge reshuffle has focused on Hilary Benn, the shadow Foreign Secretary, who defied Mr Corbyn by voting for Syrian air strikes last month and gave one of the great modern House of Commons speeches defending his position. The shadow Defence Secretary, Maria Eagle, is also at risk of demotion, as is Chief Whip Rosie Winterton, even though the latter abstained over air strikes. Mr Dugher is less high profile, but kicking him out of the Shadow Cabinet could be even more divisive as it would infuriate Mr Burnham, who remains one of the partys heavy hitters. One in five members and supporters backed him in the leadership contest. Unlike the other leadership candidates, Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall, Mr Burnham agreed to join Mr Corbyns Shadow Cabinet for the sake of party unity. But Mr Dugher has infuriated the Labour leadership with a number of unhelpful public comments, such as calling the establishment of Momentum, the pro-Corbyn faction looked upon with suspicion by Labours right wing, crazy. Jeremy Corbyn's first 100 days in 60 seconds He also joined Mr Benn in backing the Governments motion to bomb Isis in Syria. Last week Mr Dugher wrote an article referring to news of the planned reshuffle, so early in Mr Corbyns reign, as revenge and not the new politics based on civility that the leader had pledged. He said: I was also attracted by Jeremys call for a new, kinder politics. This would be one where there would be room for a little dissent and where the party, including the Shadow Cabinet, would have the confidence to have proper debates and discussions All Labours energy should be focused on getting after the Tories. The reshuffle, which could take place this week, is supposed to tighten Mr Corbyns grip on the parliamentary party, after Shadow Cabinet ministers frequently briefed against him and his efforts to move the party to the left. A source close to Mr Corbyn said placating Mr Burnham, should Mr Dugher be sacked, was a bridge that will have to be crossed when it arose. A senior Shadow Cabinet source close to Mr Burnham said: Michael [Dugher] is one of the best communicators the partys got why remove one of your best communicators from the front line? The whole talk about removing people is a mistake. Were four months in the talk should be about bedding in and going after the Tories. A Labour moderate MP who voted against air strikes said: I hope he [Mr Corbyn] doesnt get rid of people who voted for extending air strikes to Syria. There has got to be a place for people like Hilary Benn. Michael is a good campaigner, a good politician. Sacking him would send a bad signal. Michael put the party first by joining the Shadow Cabinet, then they reward him by sacking him its betrayal. All this talk is a distraction from fighting the Tories. A senior Labour aide added: Dughers only in the Shadow Cabinet because Andy Burnham made it a condition of joining Corbyns team. Theres a live debate on whether Corbyn should make a full-on assault [by sacking many of his front bench critics], tinker at the edges, or do something in between. There has also been talk that Ed Miliband could return to the Shadow Cabinet less than a year after leading Labour to an unexpectedly devastating election defeat. It is thought he would like to take on the energy and climate change brief, for which he was secretary of state under Gordon Brown. The aide argued, though, that it was too soon for Mr Miliband to be rehabilitated in the eyes of the public. Another failed leader, the Conservatives Iain Duncan Smith, sat on the back benches for several years before returning to the front bench. One of Mr Corbyns biggest supporters, the shadow International Development Secretary Diane Abbott, accused right-wing Labour MPs of becoming hysterical over the prospect of a reshuffle. Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The Liberal Democrats and Labour MPs opposed to Jeremy Corbyns leadership will have to work together to create an effective opposition to the Government, Sir Vince Cable has said. In some of the strongest indicators yet that a form of Lib-Lab pact could be achieved, the former Liberal Democrat Business Secretary said he was already happily engaged with people in the Labour party trying to create common ground. He claimed that Labour under Mr Corbyn was nowhere near being a challenger for Government and warned that the UK risked becoming a one-party state under the Conservatives with no convincing opposition. While admitting any formal merger between the Lib Dems and disgruntled Labour MPs was still a distant prospect he said that practical cooperation with elements of the Labour party was possible and that the issue would come to the fore in the wake of the EU referendum campaign. His comments came amid continuing speculation over Labours anticipated Shadow Cabinet reshuffle, with reports suggesting that Islington South MP Emily Thornberry could be brought in to replace Hilary Benn as Shadow Foreign Secretary within days. However, another of the Shadow Cabinet members believed to be in the firing line, culture spokesman Michael Dugher, insisted he did not expect to see a major reshuffle, saying that it would be inconsistent with Mr Corbyns vision for the party. Jeremy Corbyn's relationship with right-wing media He said that reshuffle rumours were often the creation of over-enthusiastic aides and ambitious MPs, joking that if all reports were to be believed, Labour would be reduced to a politburo of seven. In my experience having worked closely with previous leaders, there's a reason why they tend to be a bit reluctant to go down the path of big reshuffles, he told BBC Radio 5s Pienaars Politics. And that's because they do try and hold the party together, they do recognise that the Labour Party is a broad church not a religious cult, that you need people of different backgrounds and try and get the best possible talents. Recommended Read more Corbyn risks sparking rift with Burnham over Shadow Cabinet reshuffle The Labour leadership is reported to have abandoned plans to demote chief whip Dame Rosie Winterton, after Shadow Cabinet colleagues threatened resignations were she to go. The position of Maria Eagle, the Shadow Defence Secretary, is however, still understood to be under threat, ahead of an expected vote on renewing the Trident nuclear missile system this year. Ms Eagle supports renewal, while Mr Corbyn is opposed. The Sunday Telegraph meanwhile reported that shadow attorney general Emily Thornberry is being lined up to replace Mr Benn, with Mr Corbyn understood to be seeking a more unified position in the Shadow Cabinet on defence and foreign affairs. Sir Vince Cable said he was trying to create common ground with the Labour Party (Getty) A Labour spokesman declined to comment on reshuffle rumours, or cooperation with the Liberal Democrats. However, a number of Labour backbenchers said that while they did not want to see a revenge reshuffle, they did not anticipate a split within the party. Stephen Kinnock, the MP for Aberavon and son of former leader Neil Kinnock told The Observer: Our hopelessly undemocratic first-past-the-post electoral system would strangle any split at birth, and a reshuffle would simply leave people confused about what this fabled new kind of politics is all about. Jess Phillips, the MP for Birmingham Yardley said that a split between the Corbyn left and New Labour would lead to a plague on both their houses. Speaking to Sky News Mr Cable, who served for five years in the Coalition government, but fell victim to the Liberal Democrats 2015 electoral wipe-out, losing his Twickenham seat, admitted the creation of new parties was very difficult. What were looking at in the relatively short run is practical cooperation between people who have a common approach but happen to be in different parties, he said. Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A Labour front bench MP has resigned after she apologised for tweeting a photo of a house in Rochester adorned with three England flags, which saw her accused of holding working class voters in contempt. In a statement released by the party she said she did not want the incident to distract from Labour's chances of winning the 2015 General Election. Thornberry, MP for Islington South and Finsbury in north London and now former Labour shadow attorney general, was on the campaign trail in Rochester today. At around 3pm, she tweeted a photo of a two-storey house with a white Transit van parked outside and three St George flags hanging from its window, alongside the caption image from #Rochester. Users of the social media website were quick to point out that the image may have been ill-judged, and made her appear out-of-touch with voters at a time when Labour is attempting to battle against Ukip in the town. Others defended the MP, and said her post may have been misconstrued. A tweet posted by user @seatofmars (SeatofMars/Twitter) Three hours later she apologised, after Ed Miliband intervened and the Labour leader made it very clear that he believes people should be able to fly the England flag without feeling ashamed. Following her resignation, Labour has revealed that Thornberry had spoken to Mr Miliband a second time. "Ed and Emily had a second conversation. She thought the right thing to do was to resign. Ed agreed," the source said. "I apologise for any offence caused by the 3 flag picture. People should fly the England flag with pride!" she wrote. Simon Danczuk, the Labour MP for Rochdale, told Mail Online: "Everyone will know exactly what she meant by that comment. I think she was being derogatory and dismissive of the people. We all know what she was trying to imply. "Ive talked about this previously. Its like the Labour party has been hijacked by the north London liberal elite and its comments like that which reinforce that view." Emily Thornberry MP for Islington South, pictured in 2011 (REX/Jeff Blackler) Mrs Thornberry told The Telegraph: My point is that it's a remarkable image of a house completely covered in flags. I grew up on a council estate and I have never seen a house completely covered in flags before. There's three of them. Announcing her resignation on Thursday evening, she said: "Earlier today I sent a tweet which has caused offence to some people. "That was never my intention and I have apologised. In pictures: Rochester by-election Show all 15 1 /15 In pictures: Rochester by-election In pictures: Rochester by-election Rochester by-election Counting gets under way for the Rochester and Strood constituency by-election held at Medway Park, Gillingham, Kent In pictures: Rochester by-election Rochester by-election Nigel Farage and members of the UKIP team celebrate after Mark Reckless won the Rochester and Strood by-election at Medway Park, Gillingham near Rochester, Kent In pictures: Rochester by-election Rochester by-election Howling Laud Hope, leader of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party (R) awaits for the by election results in Medway, Gillingham Rochester, Kent In pictures: Rochester by-election Rochester by-election Kelly Tolhurst, the Conservative Party's candidate in the Rochester's by-election, walks down the town's high street on polling day, in southern England In pictures: Rochester by-election Rochester by-election Gulpreet Baines (18) sets fire to a United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) rosette, on polling day in Rochester's by-election In pictures: Rochester by-election Rochester by-election Naushabah Khan, Labour Candidate for the Rochester and Strood by-election is joined by shadow transport secretary Michael Dugher in Rochester on the final day of campaigning ahead of by-election In pictures: Rochester by-election Rochester by-election UKIP supporter Graham Harper and his dog Roquie carry a electoral poster supporting UK Independence Party (UKIP) parliamentary candidate Mark Reckless in Rochester, Kent ahead of the by-election poll In pictures: Rochester by-election Rochester by-election A customer poll of sweets purchased in favour of the party's contesting the Rochester and Strood by-elecction on display in the Sweet Expectations Sweet Shop in Rochester, Kent, on the final day of campaigning before the by-election later this week In pictures: Rochester by-election Rochester by-election David Cameron and Conservative Party candidate for Rochester and Strood, Kelly Tolhurst, talk to Mick Parks, Workshop Foreman at MCL Mechanical near Rochester, Kent, southern England, during a visit ahead of the by-election In pictures: Rochester by-election Rochester by-election People stand holding placards against the Britain First party who held a march in Rochester, southeastern England In pictures: Rochester by-election Rochester by-election Britain First march through Rochester Justin Sutcliffe In pictures: Rochester by-election Rochester by-election UKIP parliamentary candidate Mark Reckless campaigns in Rochester on November 4, 2014 Rob Stothard/Getty Images In pictures: Rochester by-election Rochester by-election Ed Miliband campaigns with Yvette Cooper (left) and Naushabah Khan before the Rochester and Strood by-election Ben A. Pruchnie/Getty Images In pictures: Rochester by-election Rochester by-election The Britain First march was met by vociferous counter protest Justin Sutcliffe In pictures: Rochester by-election Rochester by-election A UKIP office in Rochester. Rochester and Strood will hold a by-election on November 20th following the defection of Conservative Party Member of Parliament, Mark Reckless to UKIP Rob Stothard/Getty Images "However I will not let anything distract from Labour's chance to win the coming general election. "I have therefore tonight told Ed Miliband I will resign from the shadow cabinet." A Labour source said before she stepped down: "It is fair to say he made his view very clear that people should fly the England flag with pride." Thornberry has not yet responded to a request for a comment from The Independent. Additional reporting by PA Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} David Cameron's silence in the wake of Saudi Arabia's execution of 47 prisoners, including a leading Shia cleric, that has sparked global outrage has been branded "utterly shameful". The Prime Minister has yet to comment publicly on the killings and human rights campaigners have urged him to condemn the mass killings. The international human rights group Reprieve said the UK "must not turn a blind eye to such atrocities and must urgently appeal to the kingdom to change course". The leading human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell said the UK Government's stance on Saudi Arabia was "completely immoral". The kingdom has been widely condemned by the international community for executing scores of prisoners in Riyadh, Mecca, Medina and in the eastern and northern regions. Saudi Shiite women protest against the death of Nimr al-Nimr (Getty Images) Among those killed was Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a leading Shia cleric who had been a political prisoner since 2012 and was a noted critic of the Saudi royal family. Irans supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has warned of divine vengeance on Saudi Arabia calling Sheikh al-Nimr an oppressed martyr. He said: The unjustly spilled blood of this oppressed martyr will no doubt soon show its effect and divine vengeance will befall Saudi politicians. The deaths have sparked a wave of protests around the world, including one in which demonstrators set the Saudi embassy in Tehran on fire. Reprieve said three other people involved in anti-government protests were among the dead, including two who were teenagers at the time of their arrest. Maya Foa, director of the death penalty team at Reprieve, said: "The Saudi government is continuing to target those who have called for domestic reform in the kingdom, executing at least four of them today. There are now real concerns that those protesters sentenced to death as children could be next in line to face the swordsman's blade. Saudi Arabia's allies - including the US and UK - must not turn a blind eye to such atrocities and must urgently appeal to the kingdom to change course." Speaking on Sky News Murnaghan programme, Mr Tatchell said the governments position on Saudi Arabia "does not make sense and it is completely immoral". He said it was "utterly shameful that David Cameron had not yet publicly condemned the kingdom's actions. "Saudi Arabia and Isis are two sides of the same coin. They are motivated by the same extremist ideology, they use the same barbaric methods like beheading" he said, "[But] in British government policy we are against Isis but we are allied with Saudi Arabia". He said Saudi Arabia "was not known for its free and fair trials" so it was unclear whether the "terrorists" among the 47 were actually guilty. Peter Tatchell says Saudi Arabia and Isis are 'two sides of the same coin' (Getty Images) The Foreign Office released a statement yesterday reiterating Britains opposition to the death penalty - saying it undermined human dignity and was not a deterrent. The EU has released a statement saying the case of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr has raised "serious concerns regarding freedom of expression and the respect of basic civil and political rights" and potentially "enflamed further sectarian tensions". It reiterated its opposition to the death penalty - particularly mass executions - and called on Saudi authorities to "promote reconciliation between the different community of the kingdom". UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon has said he is "deeply dismayed" about the executions. A statement from his office said: "Sheik al-Nimr and a number of the other prisoners executed had been convicted following trials that raised serious concerns over the nature of the charges and the fairness of the process. "The Secretary-General reiterates his strong stance against the death penalty. He points to the growing movement in the international community for the abolition of capital punishment and urges Saudi Arabia to commute all death sentences imposed in the Kingdom." Natalie Bennett, the Green Party leader, has condemned the brutality of the Saudi Arabian regime (Getty) Green party leader Natalie Bennett - speaking on Sky News - said the UN had been campaigning for Sheikh al-Nimr's release. She said: "This is a peaceful democracy campaigner who has just been executed. A protester holds a portrait of Sheik Nimr al-Nimr in Qatif (AFP/Getty) "And I think one of the things there hasnt been much focus on, perhaps because it so awful, is they displayed the bodies of those executed men on gibbets after they were executed "Thats the kind of regime were fawning too, were treating as a friend an ally, were bending over backwards and the governments response to this has been totally inadequate it is very disturbing." Regional sources told The Independent on Sunday that the executions were ordered as part of the rumoured feud between King Salman and his remaining brothers which has threatened the entire dynasty. Juveniles on death row in Saudi Arabia Show all 8 1 /8 Juveniles on death row in Saudi Arabia Juveniles on death row in Saudi Arabia Abdullah al-Zaher Abdullah al-Zaher was arrested at the age of 15 for attending a protest and he is was the youngest in a group of juvenile offenders put on death row Juveniles on death row in Saudi Arabia Abdullah al-Zaher Previously held alongside fellow juvenile offender Ali al-Nimr, whose case sparked outrage around the world, Abdullah has now been moved to solitary confinement at a new facility and could be beheaded at any moment Juveniles on death row in Saudi Arabia Abdullah al-Zaher His family and lawyers believe he was forced to sign a document without knowing its contents, and which later was used as a confession in the closed trial against him Juveniles on death row in Saudi Arabia Ali Mohammed al-Nimr Ali Mohammed al-Nimr faces imminent beheading and crucifixion for crimes he reportedly committed as a child Juveniles on death row in Saudi Arabia Ali Mohammed al-Nimr The UN has issued an urgent call for Saudi Arabia to halt his execution but a Saudi court has upheld the sentence of Ali Mohammed al-Nimr, the son of a prominent government dissident, despite growing and high-level international condemnation Juveniles on death row in Saudi Arabia Ali Mohammed al-Nimr Mr al-Nimr, who was arrested in 2012 for his participation in Arab Spring protests when he was just 16 or 17 years old, could now be put to death at any time Juveniles on death row in Saudi Arabia Dawood al-Marhoon Dawood al-Marhoon was 17 year old when he was arrested for participating in an anti-government protest Juveniles on death row in Saudi Arabia Dawood al-Marhoon After refusing to spy on his fellow protesters, he was tortured and forced to sign a blank document that would later contain his confession. At Dawoods trial, the prosecution requested death by crucifixion while refusing him a lawyer The former Iraqi Prime Minister, Nuri al-Maliki, has warned the executions could lead to the downfall of the gulf kingdom and said the country "strongly condemned these detestable sectarian practices and affirm that the crime of executing Sheikh al-Nimr will topple the Saudi regime". Shadow Foreign Secretary Hilary Benn called Sheikh al-Nimrs execution "profoundly wrong" and said the British government should "seek assurances" that his nephew Ali al-Nimr would be spared. President Barack Obama has yet to comment on the executions but White House deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes has urged the Saudi government to show restraint when it came to respecting human rights. Protesters outside the Saudi embassy in Kensington, London demonstrating against the mass execution of 47 people (Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei/Twitter) Around 50 protesters gathered outside the Saudi embassy in Kensington, London on Sunday afternoon to demonstrate against the UK's silence on the killings chanting "David Cameron stop supportings terrorists". They are also reported to have shouted "Saudi Isis are the same, only difference is the name". Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, the Director of Advocacy at for the London-based Bahrain Insitute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD), who was at the protest told the Independent Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond had been asked about the perceived unfairness of Sheikh al-Nimr's trial in June 2015. Protests have called on the UK to stop supporting the Saudi regime (Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei/Twitter) Amnesty International Middle East and north Africa director Philip Luther told AFP that the executions were used "to settle political scores". He also said five UN experts had urged the Saudis to quash the sentence. He said: "Those trials including the trial of Shiekh Nimr al Nimr were politicised on the one hand and grossly unfair, because the international standards for fair trial were grossly flouted. "What is going on is an attempt to silence criticism of Saudi Arabia particularly among the Shia activist community." Human Rights Watchs Middle East director, said: "Regardless of the crimes allegedly committed, executing prisoners in mass only further stains Saudi Arabia's troubling human rights record." She added that Sheikh Nimr was convicted in an "unfair" trial and that his execution "is only adding to the existing sectarian discord and unrest." Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} David Cameron has been urged to "come clean" over the role the UK Government played in voting Saudi Arabia on to the UN Human Rights Council in an alleged secret deal. The Saudi Government executed 47 people on Saturday causing outrage across the Middle East and sparking renewed concerns over its human rights record. In response, the leaders of the Liberal Democrat and Green parties have demanded a public inquiry into whether Britain was involved in a secret vote-trading deal in 2013 to secure both countries a place on an influential UN panel. Diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks last year purported to show that the UK initiated secret negotiations by asking Saudi Arabia for its support ahead of a ballot. The exchanges have never been commented on by UK officials. Both Britain and Saudi Arabia were later named among the 47 member states of the UNHRC following the secret ballot. Following the execution of dozens of people including the prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, Mr Cameron has been accused by human rights campaigners of turning a blind eye to Saudi abuses. And speaking to The Independent, Natalie Bennett and Tim Farron have led calls for the Government to issue a full response to last year's alleged leak. Ms Bennett, the Green Party leader, said the Saudi kingdoms role on the UN council was one of many issued raised by the mass executions. She called for a public inquiry into the leaked diplomatic cables and the UKs alleged decision to support Saudi Arabia in spite of its human rights record. In light of the weekend's events, the government should be launching an inquiry to establish who made the decision to so abuse the UN process and the principle of universal human rights," she said. "The results of this inquiry must be published. 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Show all 10 1 /10 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses In October 2014, three lawyers, Dr Abdulrahman al-Subaihi, Bander al-Nogaithan and Abdulrahman al-Rumaih , were sentenced to up to eight years in prison for using Twitter to criticize the Ministry of Justice. AFP/Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses In March 2015, Yemens Sunni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi was forced into exile after a Shia-led insurgency. A Saudi Arabia-led coalition has responded with air strikes in order to reinstate Mr Hadi. It has since been accused of committing war crimes in the country. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Women who supported the Women2Drive campaign, launched in 2011 to challenge the ban on women driving vehicles, faced harassment and intimidation by the authorities. The government warned that women drivers would face arrest. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Members of the Kingdoms Shia minority, most of whom live in the oil-rich Eastern Province, continue to face discrimination that limits their access to government services and employment. Activists have received death sentences or long prison terms for their alleged participation in protests in 2011 and 2012. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses All public gatherings are prohibited under an order issued by the Interior Ministry in 2011. Those defy the ban face arrest, prosecution and imprisonment on charges such as inciting people against the authorities. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses In March 2014, the Interior Ministry stated that authorities had deported over 370,000 foreign migrants and that 18,000 others were in detention. Thousands of workers were returned to Somalia and other states where they were at risk of human rights abuses, with large numbers also returned to Yemen, in order to open more jobs to Saudi Arabians. Many migrants reported that prior to their deportation they had been packed into overcrowded makeshift detention facilities where they received little food and water and were abused by guards. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses The Saudi Arabian authorities continue to deny access to independent human rights organisations like Amnesty International, and they have been known to take punitive action, including through the courts, against activists and family members of victims who contact Amnesty. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Raif Badawi was sentenced to 1000 lashes and 10 years in prison for using his liberal blog to criticise Saudi Arabias clerics. He has already received 50 lashes, which have reportedly left him in poor health. Carsten Koall/Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Dawood al-Marhoon was arrested aged 17 for participating in an anti-government protest. After refusing to spy on his fellow protestors, he was tortured and forced to sign a blank document that would later contain his confession. At Dawoods trial, the prosecution requested death by crucifixion while refusing him a lawyer. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Ali Mohammed al-Nimr was arrested in 2012 aged either 16 or 17 for participating in protests during the Arab spring. His sentence includes beheading and crucifixion. The international community has spoken out against the punishment and has called on Saudi Arabia to stop. He is the nephew of a prominent government dissident. Getty And the government must immediately suspend exports of arms to Saudi Arabia, and strengthen its currently extremely weak diplomatic response. Tim Farron, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, said: "It is time the Prime Minister came clean about whether the Government supported Saudi Arabia's election to the UN Human Rights Council. "It would make a utter mockery of the values we hold dear if they did support them. We must be stronger with our supposed allies and say that systematic abuses of human rights will not be tolerated. "If the Government did support the Saudi bid - it would show once and for all that the Government puts profit above fundermental human rights." Iran: Angry protesters set fire to Saudi embassy in Tehran Amid widespread condemnation from the international community, the British governments response to the Saudi executions has been limited. Issued through the Foreign Office, it read: The UK opposes the death penalty in all circumstances and in every country. The death penalty undermines human dignity and there is no evidence that it works as a deterrent. The foreign secretary regularly raises human rights issues with his counterparts in countries of concern, including Saudi Arabia. We seek to build strong and mature relationships so that we can be candid with each other about those areas on which we do not agree, including on human rights. An FCO spokesman said: "Saudi Arabia took part in an uncontested election for a seat as one of the Asian Group members in the UN's Human Rights Council. "So while the UK never publicises how it votes, this was not a contested election within the Asian Group and the UK's vote was immaterial." At the time of the leak, Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, told The Australian: "Based on the evidence, we remain deeply concerned that the UK may have contracted to elect the worlds most misogynistic regime as a world judge of human rights." Sign up to the Independent Climate email for the latest advice on saving the planet Get our free Climate email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Independent Climate email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} On the steep slopes of Kenyas Kerio valley, El Nino is still discussed with reverence and fear. When it hit in 1998, days of rain sent the land sliding, carrying homes, crops, livestock and people with it. People groped through the darkness to flat ground, as trees cracked and fell. It sounded like a bomb, recalled John Kangogo, a local farmer. When the sun came up, their lives were half-way down the valley. That night was terrible, said Richard Biwott, who was then the assistant district chief. People were screaming, running in the dark, not knowing where it was safe. That morning, when I stood outside and looked at what used to be my homestead, I was very shocked My plot of land had literally slid off. Eighteen years later, the residents remain in a cluster of makeshift homes less than a mile away, where the government has resettled them. The village name, Komoron, has faded into memory, replaced by a nickname locals hoped would elevate the profile of their plight: El Nino Campsite. Recommended Read more How El Nino sparks major changes in weather patterns across the world Last week, Nasa warned that the effects of the current El Nino weather phenomenon could be as bad as that of 1998, the strongest on record. El Nino has again played havoc with world weather systems and is blamed for flooding across the globe, including in much of Europe. In the centre of Latin America, downpours fuelled by the Pacific Oceans giant storm pattern drenched regions of Paraguay, Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. In what was described as the worst flooding in half a century, more than 160,000 people fled their homes. The Paraguay River was close to bursting its banks, and the Uruguay River in Argentina was 46ft above normal levels last week. Meanwhile, El Nino has left other nations suffering drought due to higher-than-average temperatures. A fifth of Colombias municipalities have had water-rationing measures imposed because El Nino has cut rainfall dramatically. President Juan Manuel Santos said future energy-rationing measures could be a possibility: 70 per cent of Colombias energy supply is hydroelectric. What is El Nino? In the United States, this years El Nino pattern dubbed the Godzilla El Nino has already been bringing higher-than-average rainfall and snow to the West Coast. Last week, California officials reported that the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada had reached 136 per cent of normal levels. In the Midwest, flooding has killed at least 15 people in Missouri. And experts have warned that the peak of El Nino has yet to be reached. In the Kerio valley, villagers remain in the same spot, as the El Nino system churns over East Africa. It has caused flooding in neighbouring Somalia that is expected to displace at least 900,000 people and drought in Ethiopia, which has left eight million people in need of food aid. Floods in Asuncion, in Paraguay have left 100,000 people homeless (EPA) We are asking Kenyans to be careful now. All measures should be put in place to ensure safety. The rains are here, said Ayub Shaka, the deputy director of the Meteorological Department. We do not want to compare El Ninos expected intensity with what happened before, but weve got a strong signal. The unchanging fate of those in the Kerio valley is a reminder that although the El Nino system lasts only a few months, its effects last decades in much of the world. Climate change is only going to drive up the severity and frequency of major weather events like this one, experts point out. Today, small rainy-season landslides wipe out crops even in the supposed safe zones. Every day, the farmers trudge back to the steep slopes to farm, because theres nowhere else to go. The rest do weeding and odd jobs. The communitys church sits on foundations that are visibly cracking. Only the school has been relocated to safe ground, up the street from the camp. The vista is breathtaking. Green and maize-gold slopes dive into a patchwork of farmland and forest on the valley floor. But on the slopes themselves, the ground remains treacherous. Cracks in the soil from previous landslides become dangerous chutes when it rains. Sinkholes abound, surrounded by flimsy fences to keep livestock out. Later rainy seasons drove their number up from 224 to 300 today. On a sunny, clear day, a local farmer lost three cows when the slope they were standing on suddenly started sliding. In a rush of gravel and soil, they were carried away. In 2005, the district commissioner sent a letter to the national government requesting resettlement. The situation is quite grave and it may lead to further loss of life and property, he wrote. Residents are so desperate to leave that they have offered their land to the government in exchange for resettlement. In Kenya, where most still have deep ties to the land and ceding it willingly is almost unheard of, it speaks to their desperation and their fear as another potential catastrophe nears. The first El Nino rains began towards the end of October. This area is not fit for human habitation, said Isaiah Maiyo, who has lived his whole life here. We know we cant win against nature. Geological experts have repeatedly been sent to survey the land. They declared it unfit. The local government agrees, but land issues are in the national governments hands. St Louis, Missouri, was also under water (Corbis) Ive been there personally. Its a dangerous place. You cannot live there, said Boaz Changach, the Elgeyo Marakwet county chief officer for lands, water, environment and natural resources. Much of the county is a so-called hot spot because of the many farmers living on the slopes, vulnerable to landslides. Mr Changach has been told to prepare the communities, but given no money to do so. But preparations for El Nino in Kenya have been haphazard. There are six entities responsible for some aspect of the response and the chain of command is muddled. The confusion has driven suspicion that El Nino preparation is only the latest shroud for kickbacks and stealing from the government coffers. And it is those like the residents of El Nino Campsite, who gather every day in front of their modest canteen to warm up over milky, sweet tea and fresh chapati, will continue to bear the greatest cost. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A safari company has come under fire for running a 1000-a-ticket raffle which gives hunters the chance to kill a lion. The lion raffle was started by Martin Nel Safaris, a company that organises hunting tours in Zimbabwe, and the Bubye Valley Conservancy, a large wildlife conservation area in the south of the country. After purchasing one of the 100 raffle tickets, which are priced at US$1,500 (1,015) each, hunters get the chance to win an 18-day safari which includes a "full lion trophy hunt." Recommended Read more Cecil the lion hunter Walter Palmer returns to work as protesters Alternatively, the winner can choose a "photographic safari", which culminates in a lion being collared for research purposes, and its name being removed from the list of animals that hunters are allowed to kill. During the hunt, the winner will also be able to kill buffalo, zebras and giraffes, at a price of $6,000, $1,150 and $1,650 each, respectively. The winner of the raffle will be announced on 5 February at the Safari Club International Convention in Las Vegas, which describes itself as the "ultimate hunters' market." The most controversial animal killings Show all 6 1 /6 The most controversial animal killings The most controversial animal killings Cincinnati Zoo worker shots and kills Harambe, the 17-year-old gorilla Harambe, a 17-year-old gorilla was shot and killed by a Cincinnati Zoo worker after a three-year-old boy climbed into a gorilla enclosure and was grabbed and dragged by Harambe. The incident was recorded on video and received broad international coverage and commentary, including controversy over the choice to kill Harambe. A number of primatologists and conservationists wrote later that the zoo had no other choice under the circumstances, and that it highlighted the danger of zoo animals in close proximity to humans and the need for better standards of care Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden The most controversial animal killings Walt Palmer (left), from Minnesota, who killed Cecil, the Zimbabwean lion (pictured here with another lion shot in Africa) Walter James Palmer has been named by Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force as the shooter of Cecil, a 13-year-old prized lion. He is now wanted by Zimbabwe officials on poaching charges. The lion was protected and the subject of a decade long study by the Wildlife Unit of Oxford University in the UK. He was outfitted with a GPS collar and was killed in Hwange National Park. The Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Authority and the Safari Operators Association said that two men were charged with poaching in connection to Mr Palmer The most controversial animal killings Kendall Jones hunting images Kendall Jones, a 19-year-old Texas Tech university student, has provoked worldwide fury after posting pictures of herself smiling next to animals she hunted, including a lion, rhinoceros, antelope, leopard, elephant, zebra and hippopotamus The most controversial animal killings Rebecca Francis hunting images Rebecca Francis, a huntress who has killed dozens of wild animals has been sent death wishes by furious social media users after a picture showing her lying down next to a dead giraffe was circulated. Rebecca Francis has a website and Facebook page dedicated to the animals she has killed in hunts across Africa and America. Francis, a prolific hunter who has also co-hosted the television show Eye of the Hunter, regularly posts pictures of herself posing next to dead bears, giraffes, buffaloes and zebras, among other animals. She uses a bow and arrow to kill her prey The most controversial animal killings The slaughter of Marius, an 18-month-old healthy giraffe in Copenhagen Zoo Copenhagen Zoo made the controversial decision to euthanise a healthy giraffe named Marius, which was later dissected and fed to lions as visitors watched. The slaughter sparked a furious backlash from social media users and zoo staff have received death threats by phone and email. Soon after the incident, Copenhagen Zoo faced an international outcry once again after four healthy lions were put down The most controversial animal killings Swiss Dahlholzli zoo kills healthy brown bear cub A Switzerland zoo faced heavy criticism from animal rights groups, after keepers put down a healthy brown bear cub to spare it from being bullied by its dominant male father. The 360 kg male bear Misha had already killed one of his 11-week old cubs in public and was bullying the second, staff at the zoo said, because he was jealous of the attention the cubs were receiving from their mother, Masha. Both adult brown bears had been donated to Berns Dahlholzli zoo in 2009. Campaigners condemned staff there for not separating the cubs, who are being referred to as Baby Bear Two and Baby Bear Three, and their mother from Misha after their birth in January Facebook Responding to the news of the raffle, which was reported in the Mail on Sunday, lion conservation charity LionAid said they were "shocked and appalled," adding the raffle took the world of lion trophy hunting "to a new low." On its website, the Bubye Valley Conservancy says it has previously worked with staff from Oxford University's Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU), which is known for its research into the protection of wild lion populations. WildCRU received hundreds of thousands of pounds in donations following the controversial killing of Cecil the lion in July by American trophy hunter Walter Palmer. Speaking to the Mail on Sunday, WildCRU director Professor David Macdonald said he had not heard about the raffle, and added: "I would not personally accept funds to my unit based on raffling a lion hunt, but what the Bubye Valley Conservancy decides to do is completely up to them." The Conservancy said the proceeds raised in the raffle will go towards their anti-poaching and conservation efforts. Writing on its website, it said there were over 500 lions living within its boundaries, a number that concerns land managers and conservationists due to the impact that these "super predators" can have on other animal populations. It says: "But what do you do with excess lions? There is no space left in Africa for them; everywhere that can have lions already does, and their greatest threat is habitat destruction and intolerance by local communities that encroach on wildlife areas in competition for grazing with the natural prey of lions, and subsequently persecute them in retaliation for killing livestock." It added that "despite the sensation", trophy hunting cannot significantly affect lion population density or long-term numbers, and provides an important stream of income that can fund the management of the area and future conservation efforts. Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A group of militiamen have occupied a wildlife refuge in Oregon, it has been reported. The self-proclaimed patriots, say they have around 150 members stationed in the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, The Oregonian reports. Their leader has reportedly informed local press that the men are planning to stay in the refuge indefinitely and are willing to kill or be killed to do so. The occupation began shortly after a peaceful protest yesterday in support of a local ranching family facing prison for arson. Two brothers, Dwight and Steven Hammond, are country ranchers who have been engaged in a standoff with local government regarding grazing rights. The brothers have been convicted of arson but maintain that they were entitled to set fire to land as they were doing so to reduce growth of invasive plants and protecting their property from the threat of wildfires The "patriots" have described the sentencing of the brothers as tyranny. In a video posted to Facebook, allegedly featuring two men claiming to be members of the occupying militia, one states: This will become a base place for patriots from all over the country to come to be housed and live here. Were planning on staying here for several years. And while were here, what were going to be doing is were going to be freeing these lands up, getting the ranchers back to ranching, getting the miners back to mining, getting the loggers back to logging, where they can do it all under the protection of the people. He added: Were doing this for the people. Were doing this so the people can have their land and their resources back where they belong. Were calling people to come and stand. We need you to bring your arms and we need you to come to the Malheur National Wildlife refuge. A second man adds: This is the power of America right here. People got together for this and it doesnt have to stop here. This could be a hope that spreads through the whole country. Everybodys looking for this hope because the government has beat us, oppressed us and took everything from us. They will not stop until we tell them no. Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} "We cannot let this happen, declared Ammon Bundy. We have to have access to the land and its resources. So spoke the man apparently leading the armed protesters who have seized the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon, and whose conflict with the federal government reaches back to the neighbouring state of Nevada. Ammon Bundy, who has been joined by his two bothers and dozens of other supporters, is the son of Cliven Bundy, a rancher from Nevada who has been involved in in infamous dispute with the federal government over grazing rights stretching back decades. Ammon Bundy has said he and his supporters will stay at the federal property for as long as it takes (AP) Mr Bundy posted a video on his Facebook page asking for people to come help him. Below the video is the statement **ALL PATRIOTS ITS TIME TO STAND UP NOT STAND DOWN!!! WE NEED YOUR HELP!!! COME PREPARED. Ammon Bundy said the group planned to stay at the refuge indefinitely. Were planning on staying here for years, absolutely, he told local media. This is not a decision weve made at the last minute. The action led by the Bundys followed a peaceful protest earlier on Saturday in support of local residents, Dwight Hammond and his son Steven. Mr Hammond, 73, and his 46-year-old son, were convicted of starting fires that spread to government land that they leased to graze cattle. The Associated Press said that the Hammonds, who said they lit fires in 2001 and 2006 to reduce the growth of invasive plants and protect their property from wildfires, were convicted and served time for arson. However a judge later ruled their sentences three months for the father, one year for the son were too short and ordered them back to prison. The Hammonds are due to report to jail on Monday, according to KTVZ. Yet it is unclear to what extent the local people in Oregon welcome the presence of the Bundys. The Hammonds have reportedly said they have not welcomed the Bundys help. Neither Ammon Bundy nor anyone within his group/organisation speak for the Hammond Family, the Hammonds lawyer, Alan Schroeder, wrote to local sheriff David Ward. According to the Washington Post, Mr Ward issued a statement on Sunday evening that said: These men came to Harney County claiming to be part of militia groups supporting local ranchers, when in reality these men had alternative motives, to attempt to overthrow the county and federal government in hopes to spark a movement across the United States. A member of the armed group involved in a stand-off at Cliven Bundy's ranch in April 2014 (Getty) On Sunday, Ammon Bundy held a press conference at which he said his group had not heard from law enforcement since taking over the unoccupied site. This refuge here is rightfully owned by the people and we intend to use it, he said. We will be here as a unified body of people that understand the principles of the Constitution. Cliven Bundy, whose own conflict with the federal government dates back to 1993, told Oregon Public Broadcasting on Saturday night that he had nothing to do with the takeover of the building. Rather, he said that his sons had felt obliged to intervene on behalf of the Hammonds. Thats not exactly what I thought should happen, but I didnt know what to do, he said. You know, if the Hammonds wouldnt stand, if the sheriff didnt stand, then, you know, the people had to do something. And I guess this is what they did decide to do. I wasn't in on that. His son Ammon told him they are committed to staying in the building, said Mr Bundy. He told me that they were there for the long run. I guess they figured theyre going to be there for whatever time it takes - and I don't know what that means, he said. I asked him, Well how long can you, how long you going to stand out there? He just told me it was for long term. In April 2014, agents from the Bureau of Land Management arranged a round-up of hundreds of cattle belonging to Mr Bundy that had grazing on federal land. They said Mr Bundy had not paid up to $1.1m in unpaid grazing fees and two federal orders had been issued against him. In the end, the agents were obliged to release the cattle after a standoff between armed protesters and federal agents on April 12. In June 2014, Jerad and Amanda Miller killed two Las Vegas police officers and a civilian before taking their own lives during a shootout. During the attacks, they shouted this is a revolution. It later emerged they had spent time at the Bundy ranch in the spring, though Ammon Bundy claimed they had been asked to leave because they were too radical. Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} An armed militia group has broken into and occupied a US government building, declaring its desire to break free from the shackles of federal control and saying it is willing to kill or be killed in doing so. The takeover of a remote refuge centre near Burns, Oregon, has prompted a huge reaction on social media but limited mainstream coverage, prompting many to question whether it is yet another incident of white terrorism going unreported. So was this a local dispute over land use that boiled over, or is Oregon really under attack? Here are the facts: White militia occupies federal wildlife refuge Recommended Read more Oregon authorities plan to shut down power and flush out militants Led by the son of a prominent rancher, a group of self-proclaimed patriots occupied the remote headquarters of the federal Bureau of Land management (BLM), the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge around 50 miles outside the small town of Burns. Though the outpost was unoccupied and shut for the weekend at the time, at least some of the men were armed and the group has declared in phone interviews to local reporters that they are willing to kill and be killed for their cause. A reporter said he had seen evidence of no more than a dozen people with a similar number of vehicles at the scene before he was made to leave, while the group itself has claimed to have 100 to 150 members involved in the action. Sheriff denounces outside militant force The site of the takeover itself is a long drive through ice and snow away from any major town or city, meaning the response from authorities or journalists was limited as of Saturday night. But the Harney County Sheriff, Dave Ward, released a statement to local Oregon Live warning local residents to stay away and promising more information as it comes. It read: For the time being please stay away from that area. More information will be provided as it becomes available. Please maintain a peaceful and united front and allow us to work through this situation. Group says takeover is start of separatist movement According to videos and local media reports, among the occupiers was Ammon Bundy, son of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy who was involved in a recent standoff with the government over grazing rights on federal land. In a video posted to Facebook, Ammon Bundy said the building they had taken over represented tyranny of central government control and described the start of what would effectively amount to a separatist movement. Unarmed, he told a local resident filming on a phone that the place would be a base for the militia and that the occupation would last several years. According to Oregon Live, the militia is already planning to expand its occupation to a fire station near the town of Frenchglen, currently closed for the winter. A call to arms across the nation In a video, Ammon Bundy said he wanted to reach out to people across the US to join the movement for the people. He said: Were doing this so the people can have their land and their resources back where they belong. Were calling people to come and stand. We need you to bring your arms and we need you to come to the Malheur National Wildlife refuge. A second man in the video, seen wearing full military-style camouflage and branding a walkie-talkie, said: This is the power of America right here. People got together for this and it doesnt have to stop here. This could be a hope that spreads through the whole country. Everybodys looking for this hope because the government has beat us, oppressed us and took everything from us. They will not stop until we tell them no. USA: Armed militia continue to occupy forest reserve in Oregon Action follows peaceful protest The takeover involves some members of a group who protested the impending imprisonment of two Oregon ranchers earlier on Saturday in a peaceful demonstration outside the Harney County Courthouse. Popular local figures Dwight Hammond and son Steven controversially had their sentences extended for arson involving fires that spread to government lands, igniting resentments that have been bubbling for years. That case resonated with similar disputes in neighbouring states, and in December Ammon Bundy and a handful of militiamen from outside Oregon arrived in Burns and spoke with the Hammond family. Demands made Bundy and other right-wing leaders have previously called on armed militia around the country to come support the Hammonds, and locals were already concerned that Saturdays planned protest would escalate into something more serious. Speaking to local media, Ammons brother Ryan Bundy said the group had taken no hostages and its actions was not rebellious [but] in accordance with the Constitution, the supreme law of the land. He said the militia was demanding the release of the Hammonds, and that the federal government give up its claim to the Malheur Forest area. Social media response Since Saturday night, the phrase OregonUnderAttack has been trending across social media, with users alarmed at the events and dismayed at its coverage in equal measure. Part of the issue seems to be the sheer remoteness of the refuge in question few journalists or officials have been able to reach the site of the takeover itself. But there has also been anger from those who see the incident not as an escalation of a local dispute, but as an example of illegal force being used to further a political goal. As of Sunday morning, the incident was beginning to gain greater traction among the US media and the sheriffs office promised a collective effort from multiple agencies at first light. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} An explosion has been heard and gunmen have reportedly opened fire on the Indian consulate in the Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sherif. A local governor was quoted as saying two blasts were heard as gunmen attempted to enter the consular compound. Speaking to the AFP news agency, an Indian official apparently talking from inside the building said fighting continued outside. The incident came as Indian security forces battled into Sunday evening to secure an air base near its boarder with Pakistan that was overrun by militants disguised as soldiers. The Pathankot attack saw seven military personnel killed and another 20 wounded, and as night fell it was clear that not all the militants had been apprehended or killed. According to the BBC, attacks on Indian diplomatic buildings are not uncommon in Afghanistan, with four attacks reported on consulates and the Kabul embassy between 2008 and 2014. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Concerns have been raised after five employees of a publishing company specialising in books that are critical of Chinas political establishment have disappeared. Lee Bo is reportedly the latest publisher with Mighty Current publishing house to go missing. Four of his colleagues have also disappeared in recent months. The company have a reputation for publishing salacious or gossipy books about politicians in mainland China. Their publications are permitted in the more liberal Hong Kong but banned in mainland China. Lawmaker Albert Ho from Hong Kong told Associated Press that the city has been shocked and appalled by the mysterious disappearances. He said: From the available information surrounding the disappearance of Mr Lee Bo and his partners earlier, we have strong reason to believe that Mr Lee Bo was probably kidnapped and then smuggled back to the mainland for political investigation. Mr Bo went missing on Wednesday evening. His wife told Cable TV news channel that she spoke to him via telephone on the night that he disappeared. She said he had explained he was assisting an investigation and referred to his colleagues who had disappeared previously, however he did not elaborate. The telephone number he used appeared to be from Shenzhen; the mainland Chinese city adjacent to Hong Kong. World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty Mr Ho said that one possible reason for the publishers unexplained disappearances could be that the government was concerned about an upcoming book rumoured to be about an old girlfriend or mistress of the Chinese President Xi Jinping. The Chinese government has so far declined to comment on the issue. Hong Kong Acting Secretary for Security John Lee told reporters that police were actively investigating the case and would widen the scope of their probe. With additional reporting from Associated Press For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A bloody attempt to sabotage the developing dialogue between nuclear neighbours India and Pakistan was doomed to happen, experts have said. A week after the surprise visit of the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, to his Pakistani counterpart, Nawaz Sharif, four gunmen and two guards were killed when unidentified men attacked an Indian Air Force base near the Pakistan border. Officials said the gunmen, wearing army fatigues, managed to enter the Pathankot air base in Indias north-western state of Punjab before dawn today. Once inside, they opened fire indiscriminately. They had earlier hijacked a police officers car and driven it to the heavily guarded base tactics used in previous attacks believed to have been perpetrated by Pakistani-trained militants, Punjabs police chief, Suresh Arora, said. Recommended Read more Indian PM Narendra Modi arrives in Pakistan on surprise visit Four gunmen and two guards were confirmed killed, and sporadic gunfire continued into the day. The attack came a week after Mr Modi made an impromptu visit to Mr Sharif, in a bid to revive bilateral talks that had been derailed by other militant attacks. The moment that Modi touched down in Lahore and probably even before something like this was doomed to happen, said Michael Kugelman, a South Asia expert at the Wilson Centre think-tank in Washington. At this point, theres sufficient goodwill in India-Pakistan relations to weather this attack. Saboteurs wont win this one. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Indian security sources said the attack may have been carried out by Jaish-e-Mohammed (the Army of Mohamed), a militant group based in Pakistan that demands independence for Indian-ruled Kashmir. Recommended Read more More than 20 killed in suicide bomb blast in Pakistan Indias Home Minister, Rajnath Singh, said India wanted peace with Pakistan but that any terrorist attack would get a befitting response. Pakistan later condemned the attack and said it wanted to build on the goodwill created in the recent high-level contacts. Pakistan remains committed to partner with India as well as other countries in the region to completely eradicate the menace of terrorism, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said. The raid resembled an assault last July by gunmen in uniform on a police post in a Punjabi border town that killed nine people. However, the attack was more audacious in targeting a large military base, from which Indias Russian-made fleet of MiG-21 fighter jets and Mi-35 attack helicopters fly. We have seen the same pattern again and again when there are attempts to restart the peace dialogue, said Ajai Sahni, executive director of the Institute for Conflict Management in Delhi. It may lead to a momentary pause in the peace dialogue and attacks from the opposition for not pursuing a harder line, but I dont think it will have a long-term impact. Reuters For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} An Australian minister has apologised for sending a text message reportedly describing a journalist as a mad f****** witch to the woman he was describing. Peter Dutton, Australias immigration minister, revealed himself as the Liberal MP who accidentally sent the offensive message to Samantha Maiden on Sunday, reports the Daily Telegraph. Ms Maiden had not named Mr Dutton, but referred to the incident in a TV interview on Sunday morning. She had written a story exposing former cities minister Jamie Briggs as being responsible for the circulation of a photograph of a junior female public servant after allegedly trying to kiss her. Mr Briggs as forced to resign from the frontbench over his inappropriate behaviour in violating her privacy. Ms Maiden told the Today show ministers close to Mr Briggs, including Mr Dutton, believe theyre hard done by, including by me. She then referred to a text she received that was clearly not meant for me from a Liberal MP, in which she was described as a mad witch. She added: I thought [it] was spectacular. Mr Dutton admitted he was the accidental messenger, and apologised. He said: Sam and I have exchanged some robust language over the years so we had a laugh after this. Im expecting a tough time in her next column. Ms Maiden has since changed her Twitter profile to Totally mad witch. She also changed her Twitter header image to a still from 1960s animated version of the comedy fantasy series, 'Bewitched'. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Charlie Hebdo have revealed the cover of their special edition to mark the first anniversary of the 6 January terrorist attack which claimed the lives of 12 people in its offices. The cover depicts a bearded man with a Kalashnikov slung across his back. The image is monochrome, with the exception of striking red splatters of blood on the hem and the cuff of the man's robes. The French magazine has released a special edition to mark the first anniversary of the tragedy at their offices (Charlie Hebdo) The edition is 32 pages long and will feature cartoons by staff who died in the attack, as well as designs by current cartoonists, it has been reported. The satirical magazine will print approximately one million copies to be sold globally in honour of its deceased colleagues. One year ago on Thursday Cherif and Said Kouachi burst into the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris and shot 12 people, including the magazines editor and seven other staff members. Over the next two days, a gunman associated with the Kouachi brothers, Amedy Coulibaly, murdered a policewoman and killed four hostages at a Jewish supermarket in Paris. Although the three days of mayhem have been overshadowed by the jihadist attacks in Paris on 13 November in which 130 people died raising further questions about security in the city there will be three days of commemorations in the French capital starting today. In pictures: Charlie Hebdo demonstration, Paris Show all 20 1 /20 In pictures: Charlie Hebdo demonstration, Paris In pictures: Charlie Hebdo demonstration, Paris Charlie Hebdo Demonstration, Paris Demonstrators make their way along Boulevard Voltaire in a unity rally in Paris Getty In pictures: Charlie Hebdo demonstration, Paris Charlie Hebdo Demonstration, Paris People marched in a rally for unity and in tribute to the victims of the recent terrorist attacks in Paris In pictures: Charlie Hebdo demonstration, Paris Charlie Hebdo Demonstration, Paris People take part in a Unity rally Marche Republicaine at the Place de la Nation (Nation square) in Paris in tribute to the 17 victims of a three-day killing spree by homegrown Islamists In pictures: Charlie Hebdo demonstration, Paris Charlie Hebdo Demonstration, Paris People take part in the Unity rally "Marche Republicaine" in Paris in tribute to the 17 victims of a three-day killing spree by homegrown Islamists In pictures: Charlie Hebdo demonstration, Paris Charlie Hebdo Demonstration, Paris French President Francois Hollande welcomes German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the Elysee Palace before attending a Unity rally Marche Republicaine in Paris in tribute to the 17 victims of a three-day killing spree by homegrown Islamists In pictures: Charlie Hebdo demonstration, Paris Charlie Hebdo Demonstration, Paris French President Francois Hollande comforts French columnist for Charlie Hebdo Dr Patrick Pelloux as they attend the solidarity march (Marche Republicaine) in the streets of Paris In pictures: Charlie Hebdo demonstration, Paris Charlie Hebdo Demonstration, Paris French cartoonist Luz (L) comforts Dr Patrice Pelloux, both Members of the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine, as they take part in a Unity rally Marche Republicaine in Paris in tribute to the 17 victims of the three-day killing spree In pictures: Charlie Hebdo demonstration, Paris Charlie Hebdo Demonstration, Paris French President Francois Hollande observes a minute of silence surrounded by heads of state including (LtoR) Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mali's President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel, European Council President Donald Tusk, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and King Abdullah of Jordan and Queen Rania Al Abdullahas they attend the solidarity march (Marche Republicaine) in the streets of Paris In pictures: Charlie Hebdo demonstration, Paris Charlie Hebdo Demonstration, Paris Demonstrators make their way from 'Place de la Republique' to 'Place de la Nation' in a unity rally in Paris led by French president Francois Hollande and other world leaders following the recent terrorist attacks in Paris In pictures: Charlie Hebdo demonstration, Paris Charlie Hebdo Demonstration, Paris People gather for a march against terrorism at the Place de la Republique in Paris In pictures: Charlie Hebdo demonstration, Paris Charlie Hebdo Demonstration, Paris Thousands of people gather at Republique Square in Paris AP In pictures: Charlie Hebdo demonstration, Paris Charlie Hebdo Demonstration, Paris People gather to take part in a unity rally Marche Republicaine in the Republique square Getty In pictures: Charlie Hebdo demonstration, Paris Charlie Hebdo Demonstration, Paris People gather at Place de la Nation, following a mass unity rally following thousands of people marching from Place de la Republique on route to Place de la Nation Getty In pictures: Charlie Hebdo demonstration, Paris Charlie Hebdo Demonstration, Paris Demonstrators make their way along Place de la Republique during a mass unity rally Getty In pictures: Charlie Hebdo demonstration, Paris Charlie Hebdo Demonstration, Paris From left to right: Francois Hollande, Angela Merkel and Mahmoud Abbas walk during a mass unity rally Getty In pictures: Charlie Hebdo demonstration, Paris Charlie Hebdo Demonstration, Paris People gather at Place de la Nation, following a mass unity rally Getty In pictures: Charlie Hebdo demonstration, Paris Charlie Hebdo Demonstration, Paris After the unity rally in Paris the tributes outside the offices of Charlie Hebdo have now become a carpet of flowers Getty In pictures: Charlie Hebdo demonstration, Paris Charlie Hebdo Demonstration, Paris A woman pauses for a picture during a mass unity rally Getty In pictures: Charlie Hebdo demonstration, Paris Charlie Hebdo Demonstration, Paris People light candles following thousands of people marching from Place de la Republique on route to Place de la Nation Getty In pictures: Charlie Hebdo demonstration, Paris Charlie Hebdo Demonstration, Paris Getty President Francois Hollande will unveil plaques at the sites of the January attacks today. Large crowds are expected at the Place de la Republique on Sunday when Mr Hollande will preside over the planting of a 30ft memorial oak tree. Johnny Hallyday, the 72-year-old French pop veteran, will perform A Sunday in January, a song about the millions of people who marched in protest after the Charlie and kosher supermarket attacks. Last Friday, The Legion of Honor, Frances highest decoration was awarded posthumously to the victims. The magazine will republish cartoons by the four illustrators who died on 7 January last year, including the editor Stephane Charbonnier , known as Charb. There are also articles from celebrities, including the actors Russell Banks, Isabelle Adjani, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Juliette Binoche. The new editor, Laurent Sourisseau known as Riss who was seriously wounded on 7 January 2015, has written a leading article attacking fanatics made into imbeciles by the Koran but also hypocrites of other faiths who wanted to kill Charlie because it laughed at religion. The beliefs of atheists and lay campaigners can move more mountains than the faith of believers, Riss writes. They will not see Charlie croak. Charlie will see them croak first. With additional reporting by Associated Press SOUTH PACIFIC POST 19 JANUARY 1951 - MOUNT LAMINGTON, eight miles from Higaturu, erupted at 11 oclock yesterday morning. The District Commissioner Mr C F Cowley, reports that there has been no loss of life, nor is there any immediate danger. The last reported eruption in the Territory was in 1945, when a mountain near Collingwood Bay on the North-East Coast became active. A stream of matter is running down the slopes of Lamington, but it is not known whether this is lava, water or a landslide. Black smoke is billowing from the northern side. The Deputy Administrator Mr Justice Phillips will fly to Higaturu early today by Charter Aviation Service to inspect the affected area. The Higaturu eruption was preceded by a number of slight earth tremors from 4 pm on Tuesday and 9 am on Wednesday. A Government official who was in Higaturu on Tuesday and Wednesday last night described the earth tremors as slight. He said that he had noticed about 40. Others who were in the area say there were between 60 and 70 a day. Mount Lamington, which is about 80 air miles from Port Moresby, rises up in a series of four sharp peaks which are known locally as the Marx Brothers. There are about 32 Europeans living in the area. Assistant Government Secretary Claude Champion said last night, Mr Cowley would maintain emergency contact with Port Moresby through the DCA radio network. Mr Champion said there are no native villages in the immediate vicinity of Lamington but that many lived around the foothills. This eruption may upset some natives, he said, and Mr Cowley may need to take steps to reassure them. In 1932 I tried to take a patrol into the mountain area but could not get a guide. Natives said Lamington was a spirit mountain. They said their forefathers had seen smoke billowing from the peaks. This, however, is the first known eruption of the mountain. Spotter: Anne Griffin Sign up to the Independent Climate email for the latest advice on saving the planet Get our free Climate email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Independent Climate email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Hunters in central Sweden have started killing wolves in a controversial cull to reduce the population and protect wildlife. Under a temporary ruling, hunters have been given a temporary licence to kill the animals from 2 January before Swedens Super Administrative Court - the country's highest court - makes a final ruling on whether existing hunting licences conform to European directives on 15 February. Last week three regional courts voted to temporarily ban the hunts in a victory for animal rights protesters but several others decided to go ahead, the Swedish Local reports. Recommended Read more Florida approves hunt to kill 320 black bears Swedens Environmental Protection Agency estimates that the current wolf population stands at 400 and recommended that it maintained at that level through regulated hunting. This is a remarkable come back for a species which was considered all but extinct in the country during the 1970s. Hunters will be allowed to kill 14 wolves during the period - down from the 46 originally requested. They complain that the wolves have been threatening hunting dogs and attacking game animals in rural areas. Swedens decision to resume culling the wolves provoked a backlash by the European Commission in 2011 - which oversees the protection of wolves and other endangered species. Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2015 Show all 9 1 /9 Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2015 Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2015 'To Drink or Not' - Carlos Perez Naval, Spain, 10 Years and Under Carlos was down on the beach at Morro Bay in California, on holiday with his family, when he witnessed a fascinating interaction between two different species. A colony of California ground squirrels lives among the rocks at one side of the bay, fed by locals, who also put out dishes of water for them. What Carlos noticed was that western gulls were monopolizing the water. Whenever a ground squirrel dared to get too close, a gull would chase it away, aiming its powerful beak at the squirrels head. Carlos was fascinated by the way the ground squirrels would try to sneak in for a sip when the gulls werent looking. Here, the two competitors eyes lock over the coveted fresh water. Carlos took the shot just before the gull lunged forwards and the squirrel fled. Carlos Perez Naval Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2015 'Snow Hare' - Rosamund Macfarlane, UK, Mammals One of Rosamunds photographic ambitions was to photograph Scottish mountain hares in the snow, camouflaged in their winter coats. Native to Britain, mountain hares moult from brown to white or partially white in winter, depending on temperature. With a local expert, Rosamund climbed a valley in the Scottish Cairngorms, at times through knee-deep snow, until they came across a couple of hares that allowed them to approach within photographic range. Their mottled, snow-dusted coats echoed the colours of the snow-covered hillside. For several hours, Rosamund lay on the ground in freezing temperatures, observing the hares snuggled into their forms (shallow depressions) as fine snow blew over them and rime coated their pelts. In the late afternoon, the hares finally became active and started to feed, scraping the snow from the heather and then nibbling the shoots. Positioning herself so that she was looking up a gentle incline directly at one hare, Rosamund captured its determined scrabbling in a head-on portrait. Rosamund Macfarlane Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2015 'Great Egret Awakening' - Zsolt Kudich, Hungary, Birds When the River Danube flooded into Hungarys Gemenc Forest, more than a thousand great egrets flocked to the lake to feed on the stranded amphibians, fish and invertebrates. Working on a project to document the last untouched regions of the Danube, including the floodplains, Zsolt was delighted to find a sixth of Hungarys great egret population in the one place. By 1921, hunting had reduced their number to just 31 pairs. Today, habitat loss is the big threat. Using the soft dawn light, Zsolt wanted to convey the impression of a multitude of birds. So he pitched his camouflaged tent nearby, sleeping just a few hours a night for five nights. His chance came when a fishing white-tailed eagle sent some of the egrets into the air. With a slow shutter speed to blur the wings and a large depth of field to keep in focus those standing, Zsolt got his memorable image. Zsolt Kudich Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2015 'Komodo Judo' - Andrey Gudkov, Russia, Amphibians & Reptiles The fight was fast and unexpected. Andrey had been to Indonesias Komodo National Park, many times before, hoping to witness a battle between male Komodo dragons the largest lizards in the world, up to 2.5 metres (8 feet) long. And though he had visited in August, when males are most likely to battle over females, he had never been lucky. But on this December morning, on Rinca Island, he had found two large males hissing angrily at each other. To his surprise, the confrontation escalated. The lizards reared up on their hind legs, supported by their long, muscular tails, and suddenly everything came together: two formidable dragons dancing the tango at the crest of a hill against a beautiful backdrop, without the usual tall grass obscuring the action. Andrey seized his chance, knowing that Komodo dragons can move fast and that their bites are venomous, secreting a mix of toxic substances from glands in their jaws into the wounds made by their teeth. The dragons fought two consecutive bouts of a few seconds each until one overpowered the other, knocking him over backwards, and the pair walked off in different directions. With quick reactions and a fast shutter speed, Andrey had nailed the shot he had dreamt of. Andrey Gudkov Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2015 'It Came From the Deep' - Fabien Michenet, France, Underwater Fabien spends many hours diving at night in deep water off the coast of Tahiti, French Polynesia, where he lives. He is fascinated by the diversity of tiny creatures that migrate up from the depths under cover of darkness. These zooplankton feed on the phytoplankton found near the surface (which need sunlight to photosynthesize) and are themselves hunted by small predators that follow their ascent. One night, about 20 metres (66 feet) below the surface, in water 1,000 metres (3,300 feet) deep, some juvenile octopuses just 2 centimetres (an inch) across, swam into view. One of them stopped in front me, says Fabien, waving its tentacles gracefully, perhaps taking advantage of my lights to hunt the little crustaceans that were swimming around. Its body was transparent camouflage for the open ocean revealing its internal organs. Chromatophores (colourchanging cells) were visible on its tentacles, possibly for use in the light, when a different kind of camouflage would be needed. By keeping as close as possible and drifting at exactly the same speed as the diminutive octopus, and taking care not to upset its natural behaviour with strong lighting, Fabien was able to capture his eye-to-eye portrait. Fabien Michenet Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2015 'Jagged Peace' - Floris van Breugel, USA, Land It was a rare opportunity, says Floris, grateful to his companion, who was skilled at predicting weather patterns in this part of Patagonia. There was enough snow to stick to the trees but not so much as to make travel dangerous, no wind, an unfrozen lake and a clear view of Fitz Roy. They had waited out a snowstorm before donning snowshoes and heading into the backcountry of Argentinas Los Glaciares National Park. A designated World Heritage Site, the park boasts the largest ice mantle outside Antarctica, with numerous glaciers, lakes and towering mountains. Mount Fitz Roy also known as the smoking mountain, after the cloud that usually forms around its peak is the highest, rising a jagged 3,375 metres (11,000 feet) above sea level. While Floris was scouting for compositions, a little bird showed up a black-billed shrike-tyrant (named after the aggressive nature of some species in its tyrant flycatcher family). With fresh snow and muted light evoking the quiet wilderness, the bird completed the shot, adding a sense of scale and connection to the landscape. Floris van Breugel Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2015 'Stork Art' - Francisco Mingorance, Spain, Urban Wildlife White storks seem equally at home on artificial structures as they are in trees, often nesting on rooftops and telegraph poles. Francisco discovered three pairs high on this sculpture outside the Vostell-Malpartida Museum near Caceres in Spain. The installation, by German artist Wolf Vostell, incorporates a Russian MiG-21 aircraft, two cars, pianos, computer monitors and now, three huge nests, which the storks use each year, migrating from their overwintering grounds in southern Africa. Francisco wanted a picture of the storks sleeping under a starry sky, but there was too much light. I got special permission for most lights to be shut down, he says, but then the storks kept moving about and flying off. Using a long exposure, he got just one shot he liked, with the storks quietly asserting their place in the modern world that Vostell depicted. Francisco Mingorance Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2015 'Natural Frame' - Morkel Erasmus, South Africa, Black & White Morkel could hear every rumble. He could even smell the elephants. But his view was limited to the viewing slit of a cramped bunker sunk into the ground beside a remote waterhole in Namibias Etosha National Park. Giraffes, zebras and kudu wandered in and out of view, but the elephants were right in front, sometimes so close that his view was blocked. Morkel used black and white to place the emphasis on the composition. His moment came when a mother framed his shot with her legs just as her calf walked into view framing a giraffe. Having caught his dream moment, Morkel put down his camera and just sat and enjoyed the bliss of watching wild animals taking their turn to drink from this life-giving waterhole. Morkel Erasmus Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2015 'Gorilla Care' - Marcus Westberg, Sweden, Photojournalism Award: Single Image Ndeze, a nine-year-old orphan mountain gorilla, watches with concern as veterinarians check the health of her female companion, twelve-year-old Maisha, in the Senkwekwe Centre at the headquarters of the Virunga National Park, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The resident gorilla doctor Eddy Kambale (here with the former regional director Jan Ramer, left, assisted by two visiting vets) runs thorough health checks every year on the four orphan mountain gorillas, all of whom have been rescued from poachers and traffickers and have suffered traumatic experiences. The centre named after Ndezes father, who was murdered along with Ndezes mother and several other members of her family in 2007 is just part of the parks efforts to protect the surviving mountain gorillas. The deep bonds that exist between these orphans, their carers and Eddy is one of the most touching things I have ever had the privilege of witnessing, says Marcus. Marcus Westberg EU members are allowed to carry out culls on wolf numbers but have to justify the measure on very specific terms and comply with conservation guidelines. In 2011, the commission said Sweden had failed to meet conditions for exemption and had not devise an appropriate habitat strategy to justify a cull. It said the Swedish wolf population was "small, threatened by both geographic isolation and inbreeding". For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Achiya Schatz does not fit the profile of a traitor to Israel or an enemy of its people. As a young man, he was a Boy Scout counsellor and role model; as a soldier, he risked his life serving in the elite Duvdevan combat unit; and then he became an emissary for the Jewish Agency, a quasi-governmental Zionist organisation with the task of bolstering support for Israel abroad. As a soldier, one of Mr Schatz's jobs was to be a handcuffer of Palestinians and he was known for his abilty to do this speedily. Yet Mr Schatz, 30, and the organisation for which he is spokesman, Breaking the Silence, stand accused of stabbing the army and the country in the back and even endangering the lives of Israeli citizens. The group, founded in 2004, collects and publicises anonymous testimonies of soldiers from their service in the West Bank and Gaza, offering more revealing accounts of the military occupation and its impact on Palestinian civilians than the official statements from the army. The stated goal of the group, which has gathered more than 1,000 testimonies, is to show the moral price of the occupation and to bring it to an end. Breaking the Silence is a voice of soldiers who want change, who care about this place in a deep way, who are willing to confront their own acts and to think about what they did and what we do as a nation, Mr Schatz told The Independent on Sunday. The group does not blame soldiers for claimed abuses, but the politicians who perpetuate the occupation and send them into situations in which it is inevitable that they will cause harm to Palestinian civilians. Activists testified before the subcommittee on human rights of the European Parliament shortly after the group published testimonies on the 2014 Gaza war. The soldiers alleged lax rules of engagement and raised questions about whether the army had fulfilled its obligations to protect non-combatants. Recommended Read more Tale of a love match to unite region banned from schools Partly because it can be depicted as undermining the countrys image internationally, Breaking the Silence has become the most vilified anti-occupation NGO by the right-wing government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Within the space of a few days, Mr Netanyahu denounced it on the Knesset floor, Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon banned it from contact with soldiers, Education Minister Naftali Bennett banned it from schools, and the centrist opposition politician Yair Lapid, the head of the Yesh Atid party, accused it of gnawing away at the foundations of the state. The airwaves resounded with reservists calling the group traitors and alleging that it fabricates testimonies. But it also had supporters who said its criticism played a valuable role including Ami Ayalon, a former head of the Shin Bet internal security agency. At the groups modest offices, which now have a security guard outside, Mr Schatz says he came to the conclusion that ending the occupation was the best thing he could do for his country and for Israeli soldiers. While he was a soldier, he and his friends tried to behave morally. But, in retrospect, no matter how moral he tried to be, he still harmed the civilian population. That harm, he says, is integral and inevitable to the occupation. So the occupation itself must ended, he reasons. You cant do it nicely. You cant be moral when your mission is to occupy millions of people and deal every day with civilians as a soldier relying on force when they dont want you. Achiya Schatz Taking over the houses of innocent neighbours to secure arrest raids for undercover troops disguised as Arabs; manning checkpoints; guarding settlements and handcuffing Palestinians were all part of his service. In 2007, he was participating in what seemed to be a routine arrest operation in a northern West Bank city he doesnt remember which one. His job was to secure a part of the street near the house where the arrest was to be made. It was about four in the morning and suddenly the call to prayer resonated and Palestinians streamed into the street on their way to the mosque. Anyone who passes, you must arrest, he explained. People kept coming. It was a lot of people. I remember how easily we handcuffed all of them. They were quiet sitting there, they didnt object. All they were doing was going to the mosque, but they were intercepting our mission. I dont know what we did with these people after. I cant remember. But every operation involves civilians. On another arrest operation, also in 2007, forces were supposed to carry out a hot entry, blowing open the door of a wanted persons house with explosives. But they went to the wrong home. Inside the house it looked like it had been raised in the air and dropped down. The colour of the paint was off, the refrigerator open and tilted on the floor, the windows and doors broken. The people inside didnt know what was going on, he said. After completing his service in 2008, being forced to explain Israeli policies as part of his job as an emissary to the South African Jewish community merely intensified his questioning of what of he had done and what Israel was doing. When Mr Schatz returned from that stint, he made his first contact with Breaking the Silence, going on a tour they gave of the West Bank. The tour visited Carmel, a settlement he had guarded as a soldier, and for the first time he got to meet the Palestinians of the adjoining village of Um al-Kheir. You see a settlement built on a Palestinian village. You, as a soldier, protect the settlement and see the village that was built before the settlement as your threat. And you ask yourself, How the hell is this moral? and then you ask the broader questions. But the former defence minister Moshe Arens told The IoS that Breaking the Silence should bring problematic incidents to the attention of the army, not publicise them. There is no other army like Israels that tries to be as careful and responsible in very difficult situations, sticking to the norms of civilised warfare, he said. For them to assume that the army would not be interested in what they have to say has no basis in fact. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Saudi Arabias mass execution of 47 people on New Years Day has been condemned around the world and sparked a backlash across the Middle East but in the kingdom itself, you could be forgiven for thinking it was an overreaction. The Saudi press, regulated by the government and required by the countrys constitution-like charter to strengthen national unity, exists under a perpetual state of self-censorship. In an editorial entitled Law took its course, the major Riyadh-based English language news outlet Arab News portrays the executions in the context of prominent terror attacks on foreigners in the kingdom and proceedings that took years in the courts. Screengrab from the homepage of the English-language Arab News website The main stories on its online homepage describe international outrage over the killings as defending terror acts, while the editorial says: For Saudi Arabia, it is a matter of sovereignty and no country should interfere in the kingdoms internal affairs. The greatest criticism has come from Iran, directed specifically at the killing of 57-year-old Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr. Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei described the cleric as a martyr who acted peacefully. The Saudi Gazette's main article on the executions, simply titled 'Iron fist against terror' Arab News profiled the cleric, listing Al-Nimrs crimes as criticising Saudi authorities, suggesting secession of the Eastern Province if Shia rights were not respected and calling for protesters to resist security forces. Leading English-language daily Saudi Gazette led its home news section with an article describing the executions as an Iron fist against terror. An infographic highlighted the thousands of terror cases heard by the kingdoms secretive special court since 2008, as well as the millions paid out in compensation to those acquitted. It declined to use the word execute in its introduction to the story, which read: Saudi Arabia issued verdict against 47 terrorists in exercise of its full sovereignty, which is respected by international law, and in enforcement of its national laws and judgments issued by criminal courts based on Shariah Asharq al-Awsat, which is owned by a member of the Saudi royal family, also focussed more on Sunday on the Iranian reaction than on the executions themselves. Its lead online story on the subject quoted a Saudi government official as saying Tehran had unveiled its real face in support of terrorism. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The Iranian supreme leaders website has posted a controversial image equating the executions in Saudi Arabia with the practices of the so-called Islamic State. The contentious image posted on the website of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei depicts what appears to be an Isis fighter holding a knife above a hostage. A second image appears to show a Saudi executioner brandishing a sword with a prisoner in a grey jumpsuit kneeling before him. The question any differences? hangs above the two images. The image comes as the Iranian supreme leader renewed his attack on Saudi Arabia over its execution of leading Shia cleric, Sheikh Nimr-al Nimr. He said that politicians in the kingdom would face the divine retribution for his death. Sheik Nimr was among 47 people who were executed on Saturday after being convicted of terrorism charges. The unjustly spilled blood of this oppressed martyr will no doubt soon show its effect and divine vengeance will befall Saudi politicians, state TV reported Khamenei as saying on Sunday. It said he described the execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr as a political error. God will not forgive... it will haunt the politicians of this regime, he said. Mr Ali Khamenei added: This oppressed cleric did not encourage people to join an armed movement, nor did he engage in secret plotting, and he only voiced public criticism ... based on religious fervour. Juveniles on death row in Saudi Arabia Show all 8 1 /8 Juveniles on death row in Saudi Arabia Juveniles on death row in Saudi Arabia Abdullah al-Zaher Abdullah al-Zaher was arrested at the age of 15 for attending a protest and he is was the youngest in a group of juvenile offenders put on death row Juveniles on death row in Saudi Arabia Abdullah al-Zaher Previously held alongside fellow juvenile offender Ali al-Nimr, whose case sparked outrage around the world, Abdullah has now been moved to solitary confinement at a new facility and could be beheaded at any moment Juveniles on death row in Saudi Arabia Abdullah al-Zaher His family and lawyers believe he was forced to sign a document without knowing its contents, and which later was used as a confession in the closed trial against him Juveniles on death row in Saudi Arabia Ali Mohammed al-Nimr Ali Mohammed al-Nimr faces imminent beheading and crucifixion for crimes he reportedly committed as a child Juveniles on death row in Saudi Arabia Ali Mohammed al-Nimr The UN has issued an urgent call for Saudi Arabia to halt his execution but a Saudi court has upheld the sentence of Ali Mohammed al-Nimr, the son of a prominent government dissident, despite growing and high-level international condemnation Juveniles on death row in Saudi Arabia Ali Mohammed al-Nimr Mr al-Nimr, who was arrested in 2012 for his participation in Arab Spring protests when he was just 16 or 17 years old, could now be put to death at any time Juveniles on death row in Saudi Arabia Dawood al-Marhoon Dawood al-Marhoon was 17 year old when he was arrested for participating in an anti-government protest Juveniles on death row in Saudi Arabia Dawood al-Marhoon After refusing to spy on his fellow protesters, he was tortured and forced to sign a blank document that would later contain his confession. At Dawoods trial, the prosecution requested death by crucifixion while refusing him a lawyer Irans powerful Revolutionary Guard also shared the supreme leaders sentiments. The Guard, comparing the kingdoms execution of Sheikh Nimr to attacks carried out by Isis, said in a statement published on Sunday that Saudi Arabias medieval act of savagery in putting the prominent cleric to death will lead to downfall of the monarchy. Protesters in Iran, angered by Sheikh Nimrs execution, broke into the Saudi Embassy early Sunday, setting fires and throwing papers from the roof. Others on social media have also pointed to the similiarities between the practices of the Saudi's regime and that of Isis. Peter Tatchell, the human rights campaigner, posted on Twitter: "Isis and Saudi share the same Islamist ideology & use same barbaric methods. Cut all ties with Saudis!" Author and activist Harry Leslie Smith added: "On a moral level there isn't much that differentiates the House of Saud from Isis". Additional reporting by Reuters For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Iran's Supreme Leader has warned Saudi Arabian politicians they will face "divine vengeance" following the execution of a prominent Shia cleric. "The unjustly spilled blood of this oppressed martyr will no doubt soon show its effect and divine vengeance will befall Saudi politicians," Iranian state TV reported Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as saying. It said he described the execution as a "political error". Saudi Arabia executed Nimr al-Nimr and three other Shia alongside dozens of al-Qaeda members on Saturday, signalling it would not tolerate attacks by either Sunni jihadists or members of the Shia minority seeking equality. Khamenei added: "This oppressed cleric did not encourage people to join an armed movement, nor did he engage in secret plotting, and he only voiced public criticism ... based on religious fervour." The statement accused Tehran of "blind sectarianism" and said that "by its defense of terrorist acts" Iran is a "partner in their crimes in the entire region." The comments came hours after Iranian protesters stormed the Saudi Embassy in Tehran early on Sunday. Photos and video posted to social media, which have not been verified, show numerous protesters within the embassy compound, and fires lighting up the building. One video appears to show a Molotov cocktail being thrown at the building. An Iranian journalist seemingly at the scene, Sobhan Hassanvand, posted images of masked protesters clutching a Saudi flag which appears to have been torn down, and video of protesters trashing rooms. In an apparent swipe at Saudi Arabia's Western allies, Khamenei criticised "the silence of the supposed backers of freedom, democracy and human rights" over the execution. "Why are those who claim to support human rights quiet? Why do those who claim to back freedom and democracy support this (Saudi) government?" Khamenei was quoted as saying. While Western human rights groups have condemned the executions, Western government responses have so far been muted. The US State Department expressed concern that Nimr's execution could exacerbate sectarian tensions in the Middle East. In Hawaii, where President Barack Obama is on vacation with his family, White House deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said the administration has urged the Saudis to show restraint regarding respect for human rights. Khamanei's statement follow other highly charged comments by leading Iranian officials. The Saudi government supports terrorist movements and takfiri [ideology], Iranian Foreign Ministry spokeman Hossein Jaber Ansari stated, but confronts domestic critics with oppression and execution... the Saudi government will pay a high price for following these policies. There were small protests outside the Saudi embassy in London. Hilary Benn, shadow foreign secretary, tweeted: Saudi Arabia profoundly wrong to execute Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr. Opposed to the death penalty and Amnesty had serious concerns about his trial. Protests were also reported in Yemen, Pakistan and Kahmir. In Bahrain, which has a Shia majority and has long complained of persecution from Sunni Saudi Arabia, protests against the execution turned violent and saw police clash with protesters. Juveniles on death row in Saudi Arabia Show all 8 1 /8 Juveniles on death row in Saudi Arabia Juveniles on death row in Saudi Arabia Abdullah al-Zaher Abdullah al-Zaher was arrested at the age of 15 for attending a protest and he is was the youngest in a group of juvenile offenders put on death row Juveniles on death row in Saudi Arabia Abdullah al-Zaher Previously held alongside fellow juvenile offender Ali al-Nimr, whose case sparked outrage around the world, Abdullah has now been moved to solitary confinement at a new facility and could be beheaded at any moment Juveniles on death row in Saudi Arabia Abdullah al-Zaher His family and lawyers believe he was forced to sign a document without knowing its contents, and which later was used as a confession in the closed trial against him Juveniles on death row in Saudi Arabia Ali Mohammed al-Nimr Ali Mohammed al-Nimr faces imminent beheading and crucifixion for crimes he reportedly committed as a child Juveniles on death row in Saudi Arabia Ali Mohammed al-Nimr The UN has issued an urgent call for Saudi Arabia to halt his execution but a Saudi court has upheld the sentence of Ali Mohammed al-Nimr, the son of a prominent government dissident, despite growing and high-level international condemnation Juveniles on death row in Saudi Arabia Ali Mohammed al-Nimr Mr al-Nimr, who was arrested in 2012 for his participation in Arab Spring protests when he was just 16 or 17 years old, could now be put to death at any time Juveniles on death row in Saudi Arabia Dawood al-Marhoon Dawood al-Marhoon was 17 year old when he was arrested for participating in an anti-government protest Juveniles on death row in Saudi Arabia Dawood al-Marhoon After refusing to spy on his fellow protesters, he was tortured and forced to sign a blank document that would later contain his confession. At Dawoods trial, the prosecution requested death by crucifixion while refusing him a lawyer In Lebanon, Shia militant group Hezbollah denounced the execution as an assassination and the Lebanese Shia council called it a grave mistake. In Iraq, there has been widespread condemnation. Moqtada al-Sadr, a powerful Shia leader who fought against the American occupation, called for "angry demonstrations in protest. Additional reporting by Reuters For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Saudi Arabia is severing its diplomatic ties with Iran, foreign minister Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir has announced in a televised news conference. The breakdown in relations is the culmination of a conflict caused by Saudi Arabia's execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, an Shia cleric and prominent critic of the Saudi Arabian government, and the storming of the Saudi embassy in Iran that resulted. All Iranian diplomats now have 48 hours to leave the conservative kingdom, beginning a period which marks a new low in relations between the two major Middle Eastern powers. The cutting of ties followed a long period of conflict between the opposed countries over al-Nimr's treatment. Iran's supreme leader, Ayatoallah Ali Khameni, predicted "divine vengeance" would fall on Saudi Arabia after al-Nimr's execution, and there were anti-Saudi protests as far afield as Pakistan over his death. Following the execution, protesters stormed the Saudi Embassy in Tehran, ransacking and setting fire to the property before being pushed back by police. Iranian president Hassan Rouhani attempted to calm the conflict with Saudi Arabia by calling for the perpetrators of the embassy attack to be identified and captured, but Saudi Arabia was not turned. Al-Nimr was killed along with 46 other accused terrorists, in a mass execution that took place behind closed doors. He was a constant critic of the Saudi and Bahraini royal families, and was popular amongst Saudi Arabia's Shia minority. Despite calls for clemency from Iran and the United Nations, Saudi Arabia claimed he was attempting to stir up dissent in the country through his calls for the introduction of democracy and elections. His body was not given to his family, and was buried along with those of the other executed men shortly after the execution. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Cartoons taunting Saudi Arabia's membership of the United Nations human rights council have gone viral on social media after the kingdom executed 47 people in one day. While the regime's interior minister claimed most of the 47 executed had been involved in the deadly 2003 and 2004 al-Qaeda attacks, a prominent Shia cleric, Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, was also put to death. He was a vocal supporter of the mass anti-government protests that flared up in the kingdom's Eastern Province in 2011. The U.N.'s top human rights official has strongly criticised the executions. Zeid Raad al-Hussein says the killing of Sheikh al-Nimr was "a very disturbing development indeed, particularly as some of those sentenced to death were accused of non-violent crimes." He says international law only permits the death penalty in cases where the crimes committed are considered "most serious" and human rights bodies have consistently defined those as being "being restricted to murder and other forms of intentional killing." Shiekh Nimr often criticised the House of Saud and called for free elections in the oil-rich kingdom. In retaliation to the state executions people on social media started sharing cartoons mocking the Saudi regimes membership of the United Nations human rights council. According to the UN human rights website the general assembly when deciding on membership of the organisation takes into account the candidate states contribution to the promotion and protection of human rights. Speaking to Reuters, Human Rights Watchs Middle East director, said: Regardless of the crimes allegedly committed, executing prisoners in mass only further stains Saudi Arabia's troubling human rights record." She added that Sheikh Nimr was convicted in an "unfair" trial and that his execution "is only adding to the existing sectarian discord and unrest." Iran protests Irans supreme leaders website, also posted a contentious image comparing the Saudi executions to the barbaric practices of the so-called Islamic State. Leaked diplomatic documents published last year by the Guardian suggested that the UK and Saudi Arabia conducted a secret vote-trading deal to ensure both states were elected to the UN human rights council. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The executed political protesters Mohammad Faisal al-Shioukh was 19 when Saudi authorities arrested him in February 2012. He was one of seven protesters sentenced to death before the kingdoms controversial Specialised Criminal Court for their participation in various Arab Spring protests between 2011 and 2012. According to the human rights group Reprieve, Mr al-Shioukh was beaten with batons and electric cables while in jail in an attempt to force him to confess. The charges to which he eventually confessed included chanting against the Saudi government, burning tires, obstructing roads, and daubing anti-establishment graffiti on walls. He was executed at Al-Hair Prison in Riyadh, aged 23. Ali Saeed al-Rebh Ali Saeed al-Rebh was 18 when he was detained at his school by police officers who later reportedly subjected him to torture and mistreatment, including beatings and being burnt with cigarettes. During a hearing at the Specialised Criminal Court, prosecutors claimed that his attendance at pro-reform demonstrations amounted to herabah or unlawful warfare and requested his execution by crucifixion. The judge rejected their request but still passed a death sentence for various crimes including vandalism, helping to organise demonstrations with a mobile phone, attending an address given by Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, and covering up for a wanted man. Recommended Read more Cameron urged to reassess UK relationship with Saudi Arabia Mr al-Rebh was executed at Al-Hair Prison, aged 22. Mohammad Suweimal was also arrested in 2012 for his involvement in anti-government protests and subsequently sentenced to death. Little else is known about him at this stage. Still on death row Ali al-Nimr, the nephew of the recently executed Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, was sentenced to death by crucifixion at the age of 17 for his part in the Arab Spring pro-democracy uprising. He was accused of participating in an illegal demonstration as well as other offences including explaining how to give first aid to protesters and using his BlackBerry to invite others to join the protest. Recommended Read more 10 examples of human rights abuses by Saudi Arabia According to Reprieve, after being held in pre-trial detention for two years without access to a lawyer, he was tortured and forced to sign a false confession the only evidence brought against him at his trial. His final appeal the last legal obstacle to his execution was heard in secret without his knowledge. Dawood al-Marhoon Dawood al-Marhoon was also only 17 when he was arrested for participating in an anti-government protest. He was initially asked to spy on his fellow protesters by police. When he refused, they arrested him at hospital as he awaited surgery for an eye injury. He was taken to a juvenile offenders facility where he was reportedly tortured and forced to sign a blank document that would later contain his confession. At his subsequent trial, he was sentenced to death by beheading and is being held in solitary confinement at Riyadhs Al-Hayir prison awaiting execution. Juveniles on death row in Saudi Arabia Show all 8 1 /8 Juveniles on death row in Saudi Arabia Juveniles on death row in Saudi Arabia Abdullah al-Zaher Abdullah al-Zaher was arrested at the age of 15 for attending a protest and he is was the youngest in a group of juvenile offenders put on death row Juveniles on death row in Saudi Arabia Abdullah al-Zaher Previously held alongside fellow juvenile offender Ali al-Nimr, whose case sparked outrage around the world, Abdullah has now been moved to solitary confinement at a new facility and could be beheaded at any moment Juveniles on death row in Saudi Arabia Abdullah al-Zaher His family and lawyers believe he was forced to sign a document without knowing its contents, and which later was used as a confession in the closed trial against him Juveniles on death row in Saudi Arabia Ali Mohammed al-Nimr Ali Mohammed al-Nimr faces imminent beheading and crucifixion for crimes he reportedly committed as a child Juveniles on death row in Saudi Arabia Ali Mohammed al-Nimr The UN has issued an urgent call for Saudi Arabia to halt his execution but a Saudi court has upheld the sentence of Ali Mohammed al-Nimr, the son of a prominent government dissident, despite growing and high-level international condemnation Juveniles on death row in Saudi Arabia Ali Mohammed al-Nimr Mr al-Nimr, who was arrested in 2012 for his participation in Arab Spring protests when he was just 16 or 17 years old, could now be put to death at any time Juveniles on death row in Saudi Arabia Dawood al-Marhoon Dawood al-Marhoon was 17 year old when he was arrested for participating in an anti-government protest Juveniles on death row in Saudi Arabia Dawood al-Marhoon After refusing to spy on his fellow protesters, he was tortured and forced to sign a blank document that would later contain his confession. At Dawoods trial, the prosecution requested death by crucifixion while refusing him a lawyer Abdullah Hasan al-Zaher is one of the youngest protesters to face the death penalty in Saudi Arabia. Shot and injured by the kingdoms security forces as he took part in a demonstration in March 2012 at the age of 15, he was later reportedly beaten with iron rods until he signed a confession which was later used to convict him. Charges against him included participating in demonstrations, harbouring protesters and chanting slogans. He was sentenced to death in October 2014 by the Specialised Criminal Court in Riyadh, and is being held in solitary confinement at Asir prison in the south-west of the kingdom. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The beheading of dozens of Sunni and Shia prisoners by the Wests main Middle East ally, Saudi Arabia, threatens to renew sectarian violence in the oil-rich kingdom and plunge the Middle East into greater turmoil. The mass executions in Riyadh, Mecca, Medina and in the eastern and northern regions have been seen as a bloody statement of intent delivered by an increasingly powerless Saudi Interior Minister. Among those killed was Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a leading Shia cleric with the rank of ayatollah, a political prisoner and vocal supporter of protests against the Saudi royal family. His death, which has sparked outrage in Iran, the dominant Shia power in the region, is likely to lead to an escalation of hostilities in Yemen, where a proxy war between the two nations is being fought. Irans leaders reacted furiously. Seminary students marched through the holy city of Qom in protest. Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, a senior cleric, told the Mehr news agency: I have no doubt that this pure blood will stain the collar of the House of Saud and wipe them from the pages of history. Protests were also reported in Indian-controlled Kashmir, Pakistan, Bahrain, Iraq and the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. Hundreds of armoured vehicles have been sent to Qatif in the province to contain protests. Security forces in other Shia-populated areas are also said to be on high alert. The clerics brother, Muhammad al-Nimr, appealed for calm, saying his brother had wanted only peaceful protests. Protesters in Bahrain held up placards reading: Damn you. Tear gas was later fired to disperse the crowds. In Bahrain, we knew Sheikh Nimr as a peaceful reformist, said Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, the advocacy director at the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy. His loss will be mourned throughout the world. Juveniles on death row in Saudi Arabia Show all 8 1 /8 Juveniles on death row in Saudi Arabia Juveniles on death row in Saudi Arabia Abdullah al-Zaher Abdullah al-Zaher was arrested at the age of 15 for attending a protest and he is was the youngest in a group of juvenile offenders put on death row Juveniles on death row in Saudi Arabia Abdullah al-Zaher Previously held alongside fellow juvenile offender Ali al-Nimr, whose case sparked outrage around the world, Abdullah has now been moved to solitary confinement at a new facility and could be beheaded at any moment Juveniles on death row in Saudi Arabia Abdullah al-Zaher His family and lawyers believe he was forced to sign a document without knowing its contents, and which later was used as a confession in the closed trial against him Juveniles on death row in Saudi Arabia Ali Mohammed al-Nimr Ali Mohammed al-Nimr faces imminent beheading and crucifixion for crimes he reportedly committed as a child Juveniles on death row in Saudi Arabia Ali Mohammed al-Nimr The UN has issued an urgent call for Saudi Arabia to halt his execution but a Saudi court has upheld the sentence of Ali Mohammed al-Nimr, the son of a prominent government dissident, despite growing and high-level international condemnation Juveniles on death row in Saudi Arabia Ali Mohammed al-Nimr Mr al-Nimr, who was arrested in 2012 for his participation in Arab Spring protests when he was just 16 or 17 years old, could now be put to death at any time Juveniles on death row in Saudi Arabia Dawood al-Marhoon Dawood al-Marhoon was 17 year old when he was arrested for participating in an anti-government protest Juveniles on death row in Saudi Arabia Dawood al-Marhoon After refusing to spy on his fellow protesters, he was tortured and forced to sign a blank document that would later contain his confession. At Dawoods trial, the prosecution requested death by crucifixion while refusing him a lawyer Regional sources told The Independent on Sunday that the deaths were ordered as part of a feud that threatens the future of the Saudi royal family. The executions went ahead despite international condemnation and calls to spare six Shia prisoners who had been jailed three as juveniles under the kingdoms draconian anti-terror laws. The execution of Sheikh Nimr, ordered by Interior Minister Muhammad bin Nayef, has escalated the sectarian hatred that is tearing the region apart. An internecine power struggle within the ruling family is predicted to affect the countrys relationships with both its neighbours and the West, which holds lucrative arms contracts with Saudi Arabia. Bombing in Yemen (Reuters) In Britain, it was left to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to offer qualified criticism of the Saudis. An FCO spokesman said that Britain opposes the death penalty in all circumstances and in every country, adding that it undermined human dignity and did not work as a deterrent. Responding to questions from The IoS, the shadow Foreign Secretary, Hilary Benn, said Saudi Arabia was profoundly wrong to have executed Sheikh Nimr. He said London should seek assurances from Riyadh that his nephew Ali al-Nimr would not be killed. In Iraq, where Iranian militia have been fighting Islamic State alongside the army and where, this week, Saudi Arabia reopened its embassy for the first time since Iraqs invasion of Kuwait in 1990, the former prime minister Nuri al-Maliki said: We strongly condemn these detestable sectarian practices and affirm that the crime of executing Sheikh al-Nimr will topple the Saudi regime. Iraqs Prime Minister, Haider al-Abadi, said: Violating human rights leads to repercussions on the security, stability and the social fabric of the peoples of the region. Mohammed al-Sayhud, an MP from Iraqs ruling coalition, said the execution of Sheikh Nimr was intended to set the region on fire. Of the six sentenced to death as young men, three were killed Mohammed al-Sheikh, Ali al-Rebh and Mohammad al-Suwaimil. Writing to The Independent a day before the executions, the mothers of the six, and Fatimah al-Faraj, the mother of Sheikh Nimr, described their collective torment. Their right to life could be taken away at any moment, the women wrote. UK: "Free Sheikh Nimr!" - Londoners shout-down Saudi Embassy Mohammed bin Nayef, the Interior Minister, was once viewed as the most significant power in the Saudi elite. In an attempt to reassert his authority over the Defence Minister, Mohammed bin Salman, he ordered the 47 men to be executed, The IoS has learned. [He] was desperate to prove his authority inside the ruling family, a source said. Mohammed bin Nayef had nothing left. Mohammed bin Salman had taken everything else. He had no other tools. Also killed were two Sunni clerics, Faris al-Showail and Hamad al-Humaiti, both held for several years before being executed. They were advocates of violent jihad and al-Qaeda sympathisers. Saudi Arabias top cleric, Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz al-Sheikh, said the executions were carried out in line with Islamic law and the need to safeguard the kingdoms security. He described the executions as a mercy to the prisoners. Sheikh Nimr was seen as a key figure in protests that broke out among Shia communities in the oil-rich Eastern Province in the wake of the Arab Spring in 2011. He was arrested a year later. His nephew, Ali al-Nimr, who was 17 when he was arrested and also faces execution, was not listed as one of those killed. Neither was Dawoud al-Marhon and Abdullah al-Zaher, whose mothers wrote to The Independent last week. The former foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind told The IoS: The sad fact is that, over the last 100 or 200 years, this is what the Saudi system of justice has produced. We deplore it and find it abhorrent, but it is not done as an act of terrorism. We probably did the same a few hundred years ago when we burnt people at the stake. Irans retaliation could come in Yemen, where Shia Houthi rebels backed by Tehran are fighting a Saudi-led coalition. The Saudi-led coalition, which has been bombing the Houthis in Yemen for nine months, announced the end of a ceasefire that began on 15 December. The ceasefire had been repeatedly violated by both sides. Almost 6,000 people have been killed since the Saudi coalition entered the conflict in March, almost half of them civilians. Asked if the UK should be pressing the Saudis to reform their policies, Sir Malcolm said: That is not the way the world works. You cant just trade with the countries you approve of, otherwise you would be ruling out trade with China, Russia, and probably three-quarters of the world. Sign up to Simon Calders free travel email for weekly expert advice and money-saving discounts Get Simon Calders Travel email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Simon Calders Travel email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} For the second year running, the main cause of aviation deaths in 2015 was unlawful interference - in other words, murder - according to a leading air-safety firm. The Dutch safety consultancy, To70, said: The total number of fatalities as a result of unlawful interference has increased in the past two years to over 900. It cites the losses last year of two Malaysia Airlines jets - the still-unsolved disappearance of MH370, and MH17 which was shot down over in Ukraine - and the two crashes this year involving Germanwings in the Alps and Metrojet in Sinai. Adrian Young, Senior Aviation Consultant for To70, said: Unlawful interference on board by passengers is reasonably well covered around the world. My main concerns are centred on the way airport and airline staff get airside. There are many airports that have weak systems to control who goes airside and with what. MH17 Reconstruction Timelapse The firms figures assume that the 224 victims aboard the Metrojet flight from Sharm el Sheikh to St Petersburg last October were killed by a terrorist bomb. While Egyptian investigators say they have found no indication of explosives, the Kremlin says it has proof that a bomb planted on board had downed the Airbus A321. Philip Baum, editor of Aviation Security International, said: All the indicators are that the explosion which took place was caused by an improvised explosive device. Russian passenger plane crashes in Egypt Show all 20 1 /20 Russian passenger plane crashes in Egypt Russian passenger plane crashes in Egypt Egyptian soldiers collect personal belongings of plane crash victims at the crash site of a passenger plane bound for St. Petersburg in Russia that crashed in Hassana, Egypt's Sinai Peninsula Russian passenger plane crashes in Egypt Egyptian soldiers collect personal belongings of plane crash victims at the crash site of a passenger plane bound for St. Petersburg in Russia that crashed in Hassana, Egypt's Sinai Peninsula Russian passenger plane crashes in Egypt In this Russian Emergency Situations Ministry photo, made available on Monday, Nov. 2, 2015, showing Metrojet Airbus A321-200 flight 7K9268 flight recorder on display at an undisclosed location in Egypt Russian passenger plane crashes in Egypt Mourners lay flowers at Pulkovo International Airport outside St. Petersburg. Russia on 1 November mourned its biggest ever air disaster after a passenger jet full of Russian tourists crashed in Egypt's Sinai, killing all 224 people on board. Flags were at half mast on the parliament building, in the Kremlin, and on other official buildings in honour of the victims, most of whom were from Russia's second-largest city of Saint Petersburg Russian passenger plane crashes in Egypt People pay their respects at the entrance of Pulkovo airport outside St. Petersburg, during a day of national mourning for the plane crash victims Russian passenger plane crashes in Egypt Debris from the plane crash in Egypt Russian passenger plane crashes in Egypt A piece of an engine of Russian MetroJet Airbus A321 at the site of the crash in Sinai, Russian passenger plane crashes in Egypt The crash site debris Flight 7K9268 crashed in the Sinai peninsula, in all probability killing every one of the 224 people on board AFP/Getty Russian passenger plane crashes in Egypt The crash site debris Debris lies strewn across the sand at the crash site EPA Russian passenger plane crashes in Egypt Relatives in St Petersburg Relatives react after a Russian airliner with 217 passengers and seven crew aboard crashed, as people gather at the Kogalymaviais information desk at Pulkovo airport in St Petersburg on 31 October AP Russian passenger plane crashes in Egypt Relatives in St Petersburg A relative of a passenger of MetroJet Airbus A321 at Pulkovo II international airport in St Petersburg, Russia, 31 October 2015. EPA Russian passenger plane crashes in Egypt The plane's journey The plane's last recorded radar position above the northern Sinai peninsula Flightradar24 Russian passenger plane crashes in Egypt Where it crashed A satellite view from Google Maps of the rough area where the plane crashed, in the mountainous Hassana region of the Sinai peninsula. Google Maps Russian passenger plane crashes in Egypt The plane The Metrojet's Airbus A-321 with registration number EI-ETJ that crashed in Egypt's Sinai peninsula REUTERS/Kim Philipp Piskol Russian passenger plane crashes in Egypt The plane The crashed Airbus A321 at Domodedovo international airport, outside Moscow,, on 20 October Russian passenger plane crashes in Egypt Relatives at in St Petersburg A relative of a passenger on MetroJet Airbus A321 at Pulkovo II international airport in St Petersburg EPA Russian passenger plane crashes in Egypt Relatives at in St Petersburg Relatives of passengers of MetroJet Airbus A321 at the Crown Plaza hotel in St Petersburg EPA Russian passenger plane crashes in Egypt Bodies being repatriated An Egyptian soldier prays as emergency workers prepare to unload bodies of victims from a police helicopter to ambulances at Kabrit military airport on 31 October. AP Russian passenger plane crashes in Egypt Bodies being repatriated Ambulances line up as emergency workers unload bodies at Kabrit military airport, 20 miles north of Suez, on Saturday AP Russian passenger plane crashes in Egypt Bodies being repatriated Egyptian paramedics load the corpses of victims into a military plane at Kabrit military air base by the Suez Canal on October 31, 2015 AFP/Getty Images The UK is working on the assumption that someone planted a bomb on the Russian plane as it waited on the ground at Sharm el Sheikh airport. British airlines are still banned from flying to and from Egypts main resort because of security concerns. But Mr Baum said: The harsh reality is that whichever airport the doomed flight had departed from, there would be similar stories told. Sharm el-Sheikh may well not be an example of best security practice, but it does not stand alone. The second-highest death toll of the year was 150, aboard Germanwings flight 9525 from Barcelona to Dusseldorf. Andreas Lubitz, the co-pilot, chose to murder everyone on board while taking his own life. When the Captain briefly left the cockpit, the First Officer locked the flight-deck door then set the controls of the Airbus A320 on a fatal descent into the French Alps. German police later discovered that Lubitz had a history of severe depression. Recommended Read more Russia confirms plane which crashed over Sinai was bombed The Metrojet and Germanwings tragedies claimed a total of 374 lives. The years three other commercial aircraft crashes, according to the aviation safety website AirSafe.com, were all domestic flights in Asia: two in Indonesia and one in Taiwan. There were 109 victims in total. UK airlines enjoyed another fatality-free year. The last time a British passenger jet crashed with loss of life was at Kegworth, 27 years ago this week, in which 47 people died. The most serious event last year involving a British aircraft took place on the runway at Las Vegas on 8 September. The port engine of a BA Boeing 777 caught fire during the take-off roll. All 158 passengers and 13 crew escaped without serious injury. Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the View from Westminster email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A vehicle passing the wildlife departments new ranger training centre would not even know it was there. The lines of tents and practice yards are hidden deep in the forest of northern Botswana, far from habitation, so the raw recruits gain an experience as close as possible to what they will experience in the field. They learn to track animals, gather intelligence and act as a team while on patrol, which can involve living for days in the bush, sleeping under the stars. Recommended Read more The Giants Club initiative will help those on the frontline The training centre is part of the countrys continuing commitment to develop elite teams of rangers. Botswana has already deployed much of its military to stop the illegal wildlife hunters. Now the Department of Wildlife and National Parks director, Otisitswe Tiroyamodimo, is further boosting its special anti-poaching unit, providing more men and equipment. A new chief was appointed, former Botswana army officer Timothy Blackbeard. Such is the popularity of the initiative, some 10,000 applications are received for every 100 new places. It is this unit that The Giants Club will now be supporting. Our wildlife must be protected, said one of its principal wardens, 48-year-old Tumediso Habala. They are needed. www.tlhokomela.org Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the View from Westminster email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} On one bank of the river Chobe, elephant carcasses can be found, lost to hunters and poachers. On the other bank, herds emerge from the surrounding floodplain each evening to drink and bathe in the rivers mud. It is a stunning contrast, one that illustrates the state of one of the most iconic, and under threat, of African animals in the two countries whose border is defined by the waterway. On the Namibian side, hunting is still allowed and, despite efforts by the countrys government, elephants are lost to those illegally seeking ivory. On the Botswana side, in the Linyanti Wildlife Area and the neighbouring 7,270sq mile Chobe national park, some 80,000 elephants roam free as their ancestors did across the African continent for millennia. Recommended Read more How the Asian elephant population is hanging by a thread The rising price of ivory in Asia has led to a slaughter of elephants in recent years. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, poachers used helicopters to shoot herds from the air. In Zimbabwe, waterholes were poisoned with cyanide. Throughout 2015, one elephant was killed on average every twenty minutes. Lieutenant General Seretse Khama Ian Khama, Botswanas President, is patron of The Tlhokomela Trust (AFP/Getty) Amid this, Botswana has shone as a rare bright spot. Blessed by being the least corrupt country in Africa and with a small human population, Botswana is home to a population of around 200,000 savannah elephants, a third of all that remain in Africa. It is why this newspaper is delighted that Botswana, through its newly established endangered species trust, Tlhokomela, has signed a declaration to make it the fourth country to join The Giants Club, our initiative to combat the illegal ivory trade. It joins Kenya, Gabon and Uganda in its commitment to saving Africas elephant populations from extinction in the wild. With The Giants Club implementation charity, Space for Giants, work is now underway to continue building the capacity of the wildlife departments anti-poaching units and implement programmes to ensure human-wildlife coexistence in areas where elephants roam in traditional farmlands. The Tlhokomela Trust is a private-public partnership, one established to benefit Botswana by protecting its precious wildlife. Its patron is the countrys President, Lieutenant General Seretse Khama Ian Khama, who has long been at the forefront of conservation, most recently by hosting the International Summit on the Illegal Wildlife Trade this summer. One live elephant is worth so much more than all the pieces of art made from ivory gathering dust in homes far removed from the African plains, the President stated. In this struggle, he has been aided by his brother, the Minister of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism, Tshekedi Khama. Under the minister, the countrys anti-poaching teams have been strengthened, community action empowered and new wildlife relocation projects introduced. Celebrating the partnership between The Giants Club and Tlhokomela, Mr Khama said that Tlhokomela means to look after and protect but this comes at a big cost to the government. Recommended Read more The Giants Club initiative will help those on the frontline Some of our neighbouring countries do not attest to the same sort of level of protection to endangered wildlife species as we do, he warned, and as a result we have a tremendous migratory pattern of wildlife from neighbouring countries into this country. He continued: As Botswana has been listed as a middle-income economy, our traditional donors have stopped donating or giving us assistance in wildlife protection, and this has obviously presented us with several challenges as to what we are able to do and the resources my ministry has. That is why he hopes international funders will now recognise that, in Botswanas success in protecting its herds, there is ample evidence of why it deserves particular assistance. Dr Max Graham, the founder of Space for Giants, said: With the illegal wildlife trade becoming increasingly sophisticated, the spiralling cost of maintaining one of the last wildlife strongholds on the planet is becoming too much, even for a country as enterprising as Botswana. That is why we are determined to help Botswana secure its priceless wildlife heritage not for today, not for tomorrow but forever. Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the View from Westminster email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Great Ormond Street Hospital desperately needs a new specialist heart unit to cope with the number of seriously ill children waiting for heart transplant surgery, one of the countrys leading paediatric doctors has said. Professor Andrew Taylor, director for cardiorespiratory services at GOSH, said the hospital could find itself having to turn children away if the new 14-bed unit is not completed. Construction work on the unit has already begun, but GOSH needs more funding to kit out the state-of-the-art facility. The unit is one of the central pillars of The Independents Give to GOSH campaign, which has been backed by a double your money pledge by the Treasury. Professor Taylor said the new unit was vital because medical developments meant babies with heart defects were surviving longer and required heart transplants as they got older. He said: The increase in surgeries [for babies] is one of our successes. We get more children through those initial years now. While the number of transplant operations being carried out at GOSH and a second centre in Newcastle has stayed constant in recent years, the number of children requiring transplants has increased, especially in the past 12 months. So while there were only five children waiting for a heart transplant in 2002, there are currently 30 children waiting now. Sadly, around a third of all children who need a new heart will die before they get one. Meet the patients and doctors of GOSH Show all 9 1 /9 Meet the patients and doctors of GOSH Meet the patients and doctors of GOSH Elliott Livingstone Two-year-old Elliott is a cheeky little boy who has a Thomas the Tank Engine sticker on his Berlin heart machine, which has kept him alive since his own heart failed eight months ago. Elliott has two tubes pumping blood around his tiny body. It keeps him alive but the machine has left him confined to the wards of Great Ormond Street Hospital until a new heart is found Meet the patients and doctors of GOSH Melissa Strickland As the ward sister on Koala Ward, Melissa Strickland leads a nursing team with the challenging job of looking after children with craniofacial and neurological conditions. You have to have all the skills and knowledge to do this job but personally for me you cannot do it unless you have passion but also compassion, she said. You dont get used to the sad side of things but you do learn to manage it. Meet the patients and doctors of GOSH Amy Willis Amy Willis carries a discreet black medical bag everywhere she goes. It contains the cutting-edge HeartWare device that is keeping her alive. A smaller, more advanced version of the Berlin artificial heart, it was fitted in April after she was emergency airlifted to GOSH from Alder Hey hospital in Liverpool. The device means that 14-year-old Amy can be home in Flintshire this Christmas while remaining on the heart transplant waiting list. She is doing well but 15 per cent of patients with a HeartWare device or Berlin heart die while waiting for a new heart, so money raised by the appeal will also go to help researchers identify ways to keep children alive while they await transplant Lucy Young Meet the patients and doctors of GOSH Myra Bluebond-Langner Professor Myra Bluebond-Langner represents the vital work of the Louis Dundas Centre for Childrens Palliative Care, GOSHs world-class centre dedicated to research and care for children with life-limiting illnesses. The LDC is named in honour of Louis Dundas, a four-year-old boy who died in unspeakable pain after suffering a brain tumour in April 2008. Its aim is to ensure that no child suffers unnecessarily in their final days. Money raised from The Independents Give to GOSH appeal will go to fund the teams work to manage pain, and also fund vital research into palliative care in children across the whole of the UK. Professor Bluebond-Langner, who heads the research, said: Paediatric palliative care is a relatively new field where practice has outstripped research. We look to change that. Meet the patients and doctors of GOSH Finella Craig Together with with Professor Myra Bluebond-Langner, Dr Finella Craig represents the vital work of the Louis Dundas Centre for Childrens Palliative Care, GOSHs world-class centre dedicated to research and care for children with life-limiting illnesses. The LDC is named in honour of Louis Dundas, a four-year-old boy who died in unspeakable pain after suffering a brain tumour in April 2008. Its aim is to ensure that no child suffers unnecessarily in their final days. One of the worst experiences for a family is to witness their child in pain and discomfort, and for them to feel totally powerless to do anything about it, said Dr Craig, a consultant in paediatric palliative medicine at GOSH since 2002. Money raised from The Independents Give to GOSH appeal will go to fund the teams work to manage pain, and also fund vital research into palliative care in children across the whole of the UK. Meet the patients and doctors of GOSH Rowan Pethard Like most little boys, Rowan Pethard loves playing football. At the start of 2015 the seven-year-old Spurs fan baffled his doctors in Hemel Hempstead with a string of coughs, colds, tummy bugs, aches, pains and rashes. It wasnt until quite late on that doctors discovered he had leukaemia. He spent two days in intensive care while he had emergency chemo. He has two years of follow-up treatment ahead. Hes amazing, a little superhero, his mum said. It makes it easier for his father and I and his brother to cope. Joe Plimmer Meet the patients and doctors of GOSH Martin Elliott Paediatric heart and lung surgeon Martin Elliott, 64, is one of the longest serving doctors at GOSH, leading groundbreaking research and treating thousands of patients over the past 30 years. His work has bridged the gap between surgery and research with skills ranging from heart-bypass surgery to correcting congenital lung disorders. Meet the patients and doctors of GOSH Ralph Frost For Ralph the hardest thing about having to live at GOSH while he waits for a new kidney isnt missing his toys. He has plenty of those and can terrorise the nurses by pushing his little red motorbike down the corridors of Eagle Ward. The hardest thing for the six-year-old is battling not to cry out during his nightly dialysis sessions. It really hurts, he said. But the other kids are sleeping and I dont want to wake them up. Ralph suffers from nephrotic syndrome and is currently waiting for a kidney from his father, Nick. Hes called the kidney Chase and his parents, who have been trained to operate his dialysis machine, hope to be home by Christmas Lucy Young Meet the patients and doctors of GOSH Lynsey Steele The strongest praise for Lynsey Steele, 33, comes from the parents of the children she helps. The children here wouldnt get by without Lynsey, said Ralphs mother Amie Frost. If she wasnt here then wed have cracked up. Lynseys role, which is funded by the Great Ormond Street Hospital Childrens Charity and will be supported by The Independents Give to GOSH appeal, is to help children play and relax, but also to have the difficult conversations explaining their treatment Ash Knotek One reason the hospitals current heart unit is so busy is because many more children with serious heart conditions are surviving for longer. For example, children with the rare hypoplastic left heart syndrome, where the left ventricle does not develop properly, would previously have died as babies. Now they can be operated on at four days old, before further follow-on surgery before the child is two. There have also been advances in mechanical hearts known as VADs (ventricular assist devices), such as the Berlin Heart or Heartware devices. These are keeping patients such as Elliott Livingstone whose story The Independent is following as part of the Give to GOSH appeal alive. But these advances also mean that more children are spending longer in hospital hooked up to the machines while they wait for a new heart. Give to GOSH campaign Elliott is currently one of four children on VADs at GOSH in Bear Ward. They are getting excellent care, but Professor Taylor says around 60 children needing different heart operations could have been treated in the same time. It is a dilemma we face. The new unit will alleviate pressure on that ward, he said. Professor Taylor added that if the new unit were not built he would have to have very frank conversations and tell parents that its not possible for us to do any more to save their critically ill child. Professor Taylor added that the unit was important nationally because, alongside the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle, it is one of only two hospitals in the UK that can carry out heart transplants on children. Last year, GOSH carried out 20 heart transplant and more than 600 open heart surgeries. To find out more about our charity auction and to make your bid, please visit www.givergy.com/charity/gosh Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the View from Westminster email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} When Saudi Arabia was elected to the UN Human Rights Council in 2013 with Dave Camerons help we all regarded it as farce. Now, only hours after the Sunni Muslim Saudis chopped off the heads of 47 of their enemies including a prominent Shia Muslim cleric the Saudi appointment is grotesque. Of course, the world of human rights is appalled and Shia Iran is talking of the divine punishment that will destroy the House of Saud. Crowds attack the Saudi embassy in Tehran. So whats new? Divine and secular punishment have been variously sought against Middle East leaders for centuries, most recently against Bashar al-Assad of Syria who, according to the French Foreign Minister, did not deserve to live on this planet. The Saudis were long ago telling the Americans to cut off the head of the serpent Irans head, needless to say but they have obviously settled for the head of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, at least for now. But all the shouting and screaming doesnt stop the oil flowing from Saudi wells nor the kingdoms friends from using the usual weasel language to excuse their outrages. 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Show all 10 1 /10 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses In October 2014, three lawyers, Dr Abdulrahman al-Subaihi, Bander al-Nogaithan and Abdulrahman al-Rumaih , were sentenced to up to eight years in prison for using Twitter to criticize the Ministry of Justice. AFP/Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses In March 2015, Yemens Sunni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi was forced into exile after a Shia-led insurgency. A Saudi Arabia-led coalition has responded with air strikes in order to reinstate Mr Hadi. It has since been accused of committing war crimes in the country. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Women who supported the Women2Drive campaign, launched in 2011 to challenge the ban on women driving vehicles, faced harassment and intimidation by the authorities. The government warned that women drivers would face arrest. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Members of the Kingdoms Shia minority, most of whom live in the oil-rich Eastern Province, continue to face discrimination that limits their access to government services and employment. Activists have received death sentences or long prison terms for their alleged participation in protests in 2011 and 2012. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses All public gatherings are prohibited under an order issued by the Interior Ministry in 2011. Those defy the ban face arrest, prosecution and imprisonment on charges such as inciting people against the authorities. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses In March 2014, the Interior Ministry stated that authorities had deported over 370,000 foreign migrants and that 18,000 others were in detention. Thousands of workers were returned to Somalia and other states where they were at risk of human rights abuses, with large numbers also returned to Yemen, in order to open more jobs to Saudi Arabians. Many migrants reported that prior to their deportation they had been packed into overcrowded makeshift detention facilities where they received little food and water and were abused by guards. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses The Saudi Arabian authorities continue to deny access to independent human rights organisations like Amnesty International, and they have been known to take punitive action, including through the courts, against activists and family members of victims who contact Amnesty. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Raif Badawi was sentenced to 1000 lashes and 10 years in prison for using his liberal blog to criticise Saudi Arabias clerics. He has already received 50 lashes, which have reportedly left him in poor health. Carsten Koall/Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Dawood al-Marhoon was arrested aged 17 for participating in an anti-government protest. After refusing to spy on his fellow protestors, he was tortured and forced to sign a blank document that would later contain his confession. At Dawoods trial, the prosecution requested death by crucifixion while refusing him a lawyer. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Ali Mohammed al-Nimr was arrested in 2012 aged either 16 or 17 for participating in protests during the Arab spring. His sentence includes beheading and crucifixion. The international community has spoken out against the punishment and has called on Saudi Arabia to stop. He is the nephew of a prominent government dissident. Getty The executions are an internal matter, a retrograde step perhaps, and certainly the executions were events that dont help peace in the Middle East. All of this classic verbiage, I should add, from Crispin Blunt, the Tory chair of the Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee, came within hours of the mass head-chopping. He also told Channel 4 that weve got to judge when its right to engage with the Saudis on such matters. You bet we have. Never would be my guess. After all, you cant fly your flags at half mast when the last King of Saudi Arabia dies a natural death, and then get all antsy when the Saudis start slashing at the necks of their enemies. Iran protests There is, however, one little step that those who protest and roar and rage over the latest Saudi butchery might contemplate, if they can calm down enough to concentrate on the small print. For the resolution which established the United Nations Human Rights Council upon which the Saudis are proud to sit says that members elected to the Council shall uphold the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights. Even more to the point, the UN General Assembly, which elects those members who occupy the Councils 47 seats, is empowered with a two-thirds majority to suspend the rights and privileges of any Council member which has persistently committed gross and systematic violations of human rights while a member of the Council. Recommended Read more Cameron urged to reassess UK relationship with Saudi Arabia But heres the snag. Quite apart from the fawning Western leaders who would object to such a slur being uttered against Saudi Arabia Dave, obviously, along with his counterparts in France, Germany, Italy, indeed the whole EU and the US (of course) and any recipient of Saudi largesse wed have to witness the absurd vote of Iran against Saudi Arabia. Iran, you see, has hanged an estimated 570 prisoners 10 of them women in the first half of 2015 alone. Thats about two lynchings a day of criminals and enemies of God and far outdoes the poor old Saudis who were, scarcely two years ago, advertising for more official executioners. In March, six Sunnis were put to death in Iran in a mass hanging. In other words, he who casts the first stone this would be literal if the Taliban were still in power in Afghanistan (though they may yet return) had better look at his own track record. And quite apart from the US (28 executions in 2015, not counting drone attacks, targeted killings and other extrajudicial murders), we have to remember that on the UN Council we can find such vigorous defenders of human rights as China and Russia. So the Saudis have little to worry about from the UN. Or from the US or the EU or Dave. Until the revolution. Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the View from Westminster email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Cheering news from the Science Museum, which has begun a programme of dumbing up. After years of obsessing over accessibility for children to the point where most exhibits comprised a sticky screen and a few buttons, it has remembered that grown-ups are interested in museums too. A happy consequence of this is the new Clockmakers Museum on the first floor, recently opened by Princess Anne. It is the oldest collection of clocks and watches in the world, and had previously been housed in Londons Guildhall; but after 200 years there, negotiations on the lease broke down. When the Science Museums director, Ian Blatchford, heard of this, he immediately offered a space within his own museum for 30 years. He said it was the perfect fit because time is a core scientific concept. Its a fascinating collection, which will now be accessible to the 3 million people who trudge round the Science Museum every year, as against the thousands who visit Guildhall. And best of all, theres not a touchscreen in sight. Blairs belief Tony Blair believes he would have won the 2010 election had he still been Labour leader, according to leaked private emails. News of his continued self-belief isnt really a marmalade-dropper any more, but Im still fascinated by insights into his character. The 1990s fitness guru Mr Motivator is the latest to add his view. He recalls bumping into Blair at a party at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1998, who said: Hello, Motivator ... Listen, this place upsets me. Robin Cook has a bigger office than mine at Number 10. Mine is about half the size and Im the Prime Minister! Mr Motivator claims he was joking, but he wasnt really. Overlooked art Gongs a go-go for grandees of the arts and literary worlds, with New Year Honours being awarded to Sir Roy Strong, Ed Victor, Matthew Bourne and William Sieghart, among others. One person who should have been recognised is Andrew Davies. Few people outside the media know who he is, but millions enjoy his work. Hes the screenwriter behind dozens of the best literary adaptations on TV: Vanity Fair, Bleak House, Pride and Prejudice you name it. And not just bonnet dramas: he wrote the script for The Line of Beauty and adapted Michael Dobbss political thriller, House of Cards. Now hes got two major new dramas airing on rival channels a six-part War and Peace starting on BBC 1 on Sunday night, and the fourth and last series of Mr Selfridge on ITV, which begins on Friday. Not bad for a man who turns 80 this year. Perhaps his mistake is to live in Warwickshire, not Warwick Avenue. Watch and learn Literary purists face a familiar dilemma on Sunday night whether to watch the new War and Peace despite not having read the book (Tolstoys 1,000-page saga was recently ranked second behind Nineteen Eighty-Four as the book that most people have lied about having read). Andrew Davies admits he had never read it before being asked to adapt it, and his solution was to rip his copy in half, to make it less threatening. Im going to use the new TV version as a challenge to speed-read it in six chunks. With only 166.66 pages to read every week, surely I can stay one step ahead of every episode? The losing ticket Spare a thought for Edwina and David Nylan, the Lancashire couple who thought theyd won 35m on the lottery, only to discover the Camelot app hadnt processed their purchase. All six of their numbers matched, but the sale hadnt gone through because they had only 60p in their account, not enough to cover the 2 ticket. If Camelot had a heart, they would bung the Nylans a token reward. Then again, this is the lottery company that changed the odds of winning the jackpot from one in 14 million to one in 45 million. They sugared the pill by making the chances of winning 1m go up, but in fact the overall chances of winning a cash prize have gone down significantly. Its not exactly in the festive spirit, especially for those down to their last 60p. Hard times For a tale of being hard done by, few can match that of John Harrison, the Yorkshire carpenter who cracked the problem of determining longitude in the 18th century. His story was brilliantly told by Dava Sobel in her book Longitude, which was reissued to mark its 20th anniversary. It was memorably adapted for TV by Charles Sturridge, who directed most of Granadas Brideshead Revisited, and led Harrison to be voted 39th in the BBCs 100 Greatest Britons poll of 2002. The worst part of his story was how the British government, having offered a prize of 20,000 to whoever could crack the problem (an unimaginably large amount of money back then), refused to pay out. Harrison had dedicated his entire life to it, and finally exhausted, aged 79 appealed to George III to intervene. He did so, and ordered the government to cough up, saying: By God, this man has been wronged. I suppose not being rewarded for 60 years work puts failing to buy a lottery ticket into context. Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the View from Westminster email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} We escaped Toronto, and my extended gang of in-laws and headed off to Chicago for three days. Trips like these are made very easy by hopping on to little twin-prop planes that take off from Toronto Island; a mere stones throw from Downtown. Recommended Read more Donald Trump filter Chrome extension removes him from entire web Id never been to the USAs third largest city. My main source of information about the place was Tintin in America and despite Herge having never travelled, he once again captured the feel and look of a place with uncanny accuracy. There had been a couple of changes since the book was first published in 1932. For a start there werent loads of gangsters roaring around the streets shooting at each other with Tommy guns. There were also some new skyscrapers. The Windy City is indeed incredibly windy but it actually got its nickname from the excess of hot air issuing from its politicians. Not much has changed President Obamas ex-chief of staff and the current mayor, Rahm Emanuel, had a fiery slanging match with Donald Trump over what the mayor called a tasteless sign on Chicagos second tallest building. I chatted to my Somali cab driver about the furore. I asked him what he thought of Trump. Well, actually, I quite like him but I do not think he likes me. He laughed and shook his head. In Africa, someone like Trump would not bother with election. He would take power with a gun and have Hillary Clinton thrown out of a helicopter like Mobutu. He laughed again before getting serious as he tried to edge an encroaching Lincoln off the road. I could imagine Trump as a dictator. Every large building in the centre of every US city would have the word TRUMP emblazoned on them in 60ft-high letters. Trump himself would quickly announce that he was to be Emperor for life. His shiny suits would soon be replaced by more and more outrageous military uniforms, with rows and rows of fictional medals won in non-existent actions of bravery. The days of the week would be renamed after his children. Monday would be Ivanka, Tuesday would be Donald Junior, Wednesday would be Baron, Thursday would be the disappointing one that doesnt feature much on The Apprentice. Personal prejudices would become law. In Turkmenistan, the dictator Saparmurat Niyazov banned news anchors from wearing make-up because he found it difficult to distinguish between men and women. Trump would go to town on this, forcing everyone on television to wear Trump-style wigs with a ban on menstruation. Children would learn his book The Art Of The Deal by heart and marriage vows would be taken with both parties hands on The New York Times bestseller. My cabbie was right. Trump has all the attributes of a potential dictator. And yet, worryingly, a lot of Americans seem to be curiously attracted to him. He, like his big shiny buildings, are very hard to ignore right now. Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the View from Westminster email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Whatever else the New Year may bring, one thing is certain: more than ever before, the planet will find itself at the mercy of China. If its economy continues to flourish, we in Europe may enjoy stability, and perhaps modest growth. If its economy crashes, all bets are off. The Peoples Republics burgeoning power is not all bad. Its potential for good was demonstrated at the recent climate conference in Paris, where its about-turn made the difference between success and failure. Faced with ecological Armageddon, China has grasped the dangers of galloping economic growth. And because it is an authoritarian state, we can be fairly confident that it will now go on to do something about it on a scale that can make a difference. But Chinas actions and policies are often not as clear and decisive as its government would like the world to believe. Because it is a one-party state with a neutered mainstream media, emerging from the historic culture of East Asia where discretion, tact and face have always been valued highly, China succeeds in giving the impression of a vast nation acting like a single awesome machine. But in my own experience the reality is rather different. Recommended Read more Great firewall of China gets higher as censors tighten grip Four years ago my biography of Aung San Suu Kyi, The Lady and the Peacock, was published in the UK and the US. The Chinese language rights were snapped up by Linking Publishing Co in Taiwan and the edition of the book in the complex characters used in the island became a bestseller. The struggle of an indomitable Asian woman to rescue her country from tyranny was hugely appealing to a Chinese readership. The books success did not go unnoticed in Beijing, and after a while a mainland publisher approached my agent about producing a version in the simplified characters used in the Peoples Republic. I was told there would have to be some cuts, and when I found myself in Beijing speaking at a literary festival I visited the publishers offices to discuss them. Any form of censorship is undesirable, but I take the view that some cuts may be worth accepting if they are the price for getting ones ideas across to a large new readership. When the story concerns a champion of democracy confronting a one-party state, the opportunity is especially appealing. At the publishers office I asked what cuts they had in mind. Various delicate passages were mentioned: anything showing the PRC in a bad light was going to be taboo. But one curious point of sensitivity sticks in my memory. The nice young woman in charge of the translation pointed out that the word communist appeared several times in the book. I had recorded that an uncle of Suu Kyi was the leader of the Burmese Communist Party. She wasnt sure that this would get past the censors. Ai Weiwei at the Royal Academy Show all 7 1 /7 Ai Weiwei at the Royal Academy Ai Weiwei at the Royal Academy Ai Weiwei at the Royal Academy Ai Weiwei, Surveillance Camera, 2010 Ai Weiwei Ai Weiwei at the Royal Academy Ai Weiwei at the Royal Academy Ai Weiwei, Coloured Vases, 2006 Ai Weiwei Ai Weiwei at the Royal Academy Ai Weiwei at the Royal Academy Ai Weiwei, Table and Pillar, 2002 Ai Weiwei Ai Weiwei at the Royal Academy Ai Weiwei at the Royal Academy Ai Weiwei, Free Speech Puzzle, 2014 Ai Weiwei Ai Weiwei at the Royal Academy Ai Weiwei at the Royal Academy Ai Weiwei, Video Recorder, 2010 Ai Weiwei Ai Weiwei at the Royal Academy Ai Weiwei at the Royal Academy Ai Weiwei, Remains, 2015 Ai Weiwei Ai Weiwei at the Royal Academy Ai Weiwei at the Royal Academy Ai Weiwei, I.O.U. Wallpaper, 2011-13 Ai Weiwei How could the use of the word communist be an issue in the worlds biggest communist state? I was baffled. But some months later, before any decision could be taken about cuts, my agent forwarded me an apologetic mail from the publisher: the policy on publishing politically sensitive works had been tightened (Xi Jinping had recently come to power), and no licence to publish my book would now be forthcoming. The publisher was very sorry, and paid a decent kill fee in compensation. Bizarrely, exactly the same thing has just happened all over again: my Chinese literary Groundhog Day. Another Beijing publisher approached my agent about the rights. We started discussing an advance, royalties, print run and so on, and I felt it prudent this time to insert a kill fee into the contract. But before it could be signed, word came that publication had again been blocked. So frustrated to let you know that the publisher still cannot be allowed to publish this title in China, the Chinese agent wrote. We both pour much of the time and energy into this project so are also feel [sic] very depressed to hear this news. I like to think that this saga has a positive message. Behind its monolithic exterior, its awful government-approved newspapers, its poker-faced leaders and rubber-stamp parliament, the Peoples Republic teems with people and organisations doing their best to make their country a more human, less repressive, more open-minded place. They dont have an easy time of it and as happened with my two publishers the big foot of authority is ever ready to stamp on their endeavours. But they keep on trying! I start the year in hope of a third offer of publication from another plucky Beijing publisher. This time, with Suu Kyi installed in power, it might even come to pass. These Chinese publishers are not alone in challenging state dogma. The only foreign embassy in London with a permanent demonstration on its doorstep is Chinas, with round-the-clock protesters from the blacklisted religious group Falun Gong parked across from their front door. The career of the artist Ai Weiwei, successively imprisoned and commissioned, intimidated and applauded, exposes a state with a scary propensity to bully its citizens, but a citizenry increasingly disinclined to take it. We need to see China less as a global Big Brother than as one billion-plus souls desperate to connect with the rest of the world. And slowly succeeding in doing so. Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the View from Westminster email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The war in Iraq may become more like the war in Afghanistan over the coming years. Isis forces in fixed and identifiable positions cannot withstand ground assaults backed with intense air attacks by the US Air Force or, in the case of the Syrian army, by the Russians. The last extreme-fundamentalist Sunni state in the wider Middle East found this out in 2001 when US air strikes in support of the numerically smaller Northern Alliance overthrew the Taliban in Afghanistan. Like the Afghan Taliban, Isis may progressively revert to guerrilla war, in which it can best use its highly committed and well-trained fighters without suffering heavy losses. Isis is coming under growing military pressure from its many enemies on many fronts. The Iraqi army, supported by US air strikes, has recaptured Ramadi, the city that Isis fighters took last May in their biggest victory of 2015. At the opposite border of the self-declared caliphate, the Syrian Kurds are threatening Isiss hold north of Aleppo and on those parts of northern Syria where it is still in control. Could it be that the tide has turned finally and irreversibly against Isis? Everywhere it is fighting against ground forces backed by air power, which means that it suffers heavy casualties while opposing troops are unscathed. This was demonstrated during the four-and-a-half-month siege of the Syrian Kurdish city of Kobani in which Isis lost an estimated 2,200 men, killed mostly by bombs and missiles. The city was 70 per cent destroyed and the same may be true of Ramadi, which has been hit by some 600 air strikes since July. Iraq: Air Force attacks IS positions in Hawija In the first half of 2015, Isis had several advantages that it has now lost or is in the process of losing. At that time, it had easy access to Turkey at the Tal Abyad border-crossing point, which the Syrian Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG) captured in June. It can still move people and supplies across a narrow strip of the frontier west of the Euphrates but the Syrian Democratic Forces, who are in fact the YPG slightly diluted by Sunni Arabs and Christians, seized the October Dam on the Euphrates on 23 December, thus threatening Isiss whole position north of Aleppo. Russian air support for the Syrian army means that it is now far more difficult for Isis to win easy victories such as its capture of Palmyra in May. Russian air strikes do not mean that Bashar al-Assad is going to win but they do mean he is unlikely to lose. Isiss successes in 2014 stemmed in large part from the weakness of its enemies, who disintegrated when attacked by much smaller Isis forces. It had been conceivable, if not likely, that Assads rule would crumble under pressure and IS would be the beneficiary. This is no longer the case. Russian intervention damaged Isis and the other jihadi groups in another way: it energised US military action in Iraq and Syria. Washington made it clear that it did not intend to co-operate with Russia to destroy Isis. But superpower rivalry in the Cold War did not always have negative effects and the US has increased the weight of its air strikes against Isis in support, primarily, of the Iraqi army and the Syrian and Iraqi Kurds. In addition, air strikes combined with the fall in the price of oil have largely destroyed the Isis oil economy, once one of its main sources of revenue. But it is too easy to imagine that these defeats and setbacks mean that Isis is in terminal decline. It is true that there is an implicit, if defiant, acknowledgement that things are not going well in a speech by Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi made public on 26 December. He said: Dont worry, O Muslims, your state is fine and expanding every day and with every harshness that comes upon it, it spits out the hypocrites and agents and becomes more firm and strong. Presumably, the expansion he is speaking of, assuming that the reference is not purely rhetorical, refers to Libya, Sinai, Yemen, Nigeria and the other countries where IS has taken root. Unfortunately, there are limitations to the military progress of the four main anti-Isis ground forces: the Iraqi army, the YPG, the Iraqi Kurds and the Syrian army. All have advanced or won local victories because they were supported by intense air strikes. Isis knows that it will always lose if it fights it out in battles and sieges in which its fighters can be easily targeted. This is the lesson of the battle at Ramadi and on other fronts in Syria and Iraq over the past year. But Isis has learned from its defeats. It did not commit large numbers of fighters to make a doomed last stand at Ramadi, Sinjar, Tal Abyad or Kweiris airbase, east of Aleppo. Important though the Tal Abyad crossing with Turkey was for the caliphate, there may have been only 25 fighters in it when it fell to the YPG. The US said that, in the final stages of the fighting, Isis had reduced its forces in the city to between 250 and 350 men, and most of these slipped away before the end. Isis is reverting to guerrilla war, in which it can best employ the tactics of surprise attacks and ambushes by small, rapidly assembled forces. Recommended Read more Undercover activists fight back against Isis in Raqqa There is a reason why such tactics are likely to be particularly effective in the current war. Isis is fighting numerically small armies that have an even more limited number of combat troops who can be deployed. At Ramadi, the Iraqi army used its Golden Division and its best units but US air power was crucial to success. The Iraqi army has some 50,000 men in five divisions and these are of variable quality. The YPG claims to have a similar number of troops, though the real figure is probably lower. The Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga appears to have acted as a mopping-up force at Sinjar where, again, Isis withdrew rather than making a costly last stand. There is a further development in the fighting that will work in Isiss favour: anti-Isis forces may be able to take territory but they cannot necessarily hold it. As Isiss enemies advance, they will be operating more and more in Sunni Arab-populated areas where support for Isis and hostility to non-Sunni or non-Arab forces will be greatest. This will be true for the Kurds and, whatever their claims to be non-sectarian, for the Iraqi and Syrian armies. Communal hatreds are at such a pitch in Iraq and Syria that occupation by a non-Sunni Arab armed force may provoke a reaction in favour of Isis. The parallel with Afghanistan can be carried too far, because Isis has always given political and religious emphasis to holding territory in which it can rule and people can live by its variant of Islam. It has a real state and an administrative structure to defend. Its theological beliefs may be rigid but its military strategy is fluid and changes rapidly to meet external challenges. Despite its recent defeats, the caliphate is still a long way from being overcome. Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the View from Westminster email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} That wonderful regime is at it again. You know the regime Im talking about, the one we roll out the red carpet for when they come to London, and give them audiences with the Queen. The one for which, when their king died recently, our government ordered UK flags to be flown at half mast, as though their king was somehow related to our royalty. The one we sell gargantuan amounts of weapons to which have been used by the regime in the slaughter of 5,800 civilians in Yemen. The regime that just recently beheaded 47 people for alleged terrorism offences and plans thousands more, including Abdullah al-Zaher, who will be executed simply because when he was 15 years old he attended a protest. The regime that stones people to death, and chops hands off for stealing bread. A bit rich really, executing people for terrorism, given that the regime is the biggest exporter of fanatical Islamic ideology in the world. Yes its our best mates, the most despotic regime in the Middle East: Saudi Arabia. Mark Holt Liverpool Early last December Parliament voted to join the coalition bombing Syria. David Cameron argued the bombing was necessary to stop Daesh, a twisted regime which publicly beheads its opponents. In the run-up to the vote David Cameron accused those against another round of pointless bombing in the region of being terrorist sympathisers. David Cameron is an enthusiastic supporter of Saudi Arabia, an ally of the UK and part of the coalition bombing Syria. The feeling is mutual. Mr Cameron has been awarded the Saudi Order of King Adbulaziz Medal of Excellence. Saudi Arabia beheaded more than 150 opponents in 2015, the highest number recorded by human rights groups for 20 years. The Saudis have started 2016 by beheading 47 people. There has been widespread condemnation of this appalling and extremist act from across the region and by human rights organisations. But there is silence from the British government. Whos the terrorist sympathiser now? Sasha Simic London N16 I cant think of much that is likely to provoke more anti-Saudi terrorism than the execution of 47 alleged terrorists, including a top Shia cleric. Either the Saudi government is stupid, or this is a deliberate attempt to provoke a terrorist response in order to justify a crackdown on Shia opposition groups. Such a crackdown could precipitate the kind of situation in Saudi Arabia that the crackdown on opposition groups by the Assad regime in Syria provoked in 2011. Julius Marstrand Cheltenham Can Corbyn find a clear policy story? John Rentoul is too polite (Voices, 30 December). The question is, what on earth does Jeremy Corbyn think hes playing at? He has had two action-packed demonstrations of how to lose general elections by presenting a confused and incoherent story to the electorate. The Conservative Party adopted a disciplined and united front, accurately described as a bribe a day, few of which were ever intended to be honoured. The Labour Party burbled earnestly and incomprehensibly. Research indicates that a clear message might well have given it the opportunity to form a coalition government. The floods, which have exposed the irresponsibility of three decades of tax cuts, give an opportunity to formulate a new argument, but it has to be clear and economically feasible. If there isnt anybody in the Labour Party who can create clear, feasible policies they could always employ someone. Lynton Crosby, perhaps? Rod Bulcock Eldwick, West Yorkshire I really dont understand the basis of the constant stream of allegations I see in the media that Jeremy Corbyn is extreme left-wing; surely hes just left he wants libraries and hospitals and social housing and a more equal society. A great many political pundits insist in print that the public will only elect moderates, and yet the newly re-elected Tories are selling off all our national assets and presiding over the greatest increase in inequality seen in this country since Dickensian times. Perhaps its just me, but I fail to see how that might be considered to be even remotely moderate. Forcing the sick and disabled back into work only killed a moderate number of them, I suppose, but can somebody anybody! please explain to me precisely what it is about the Labour Party leaders political position that is more offensive or outrageous? Julian Self Milton Keynes A bird cannot fly on one wing, and neither can the Labour Party. John Whitehead London EC2 Give churches a fair hearing One of the reasons that I began to take The Independent some years ago was that you avoid the abusive and intemperate language that often takes the place of reasoned argument in other newspapers. I was therefore disturbed to read your editorial Christian vision (2 January). Whether the BBC does in fact neglect its Christian audience is hardly the point. However, from the opening snide comment about supposed Christian humility, through to the dismissal of the arguments of two Archbishops of Canterbury as twaddle, the piece is unworthy of your paper. Michael Brennan Bath Adrian Chiles may have overstated his case when citicising media coverage of religions, but your own editorial is itself disconcertingly unbalanced. It is ludicrous to claim that the leaders of the British churches hold to some imagined vision of Britain that lives only in the Churchs imagination. Justin Welby and Vincent Nichols have a more well-grounded understanding of the realities of life in Britain today than many politicians and political commentators. Is it that Christians are a soft target? Christians are well used to ridicule and criticism. Thats OK; we can take it. But when did we last see a fair and well-reasoned critique in our media of the origins and beliefs of other faiths and world views such as Islam? Or even, perish the thought, of secular humanism? As a Christian, I dont seek a privileged position for the Church in the media or anywhere else, but I do want a level playing field. Geoff Larcombe West Wickham, Kent As a committed Independent reader, and a Christian, I concur with the views expressed in the editorial of 2 January. Over the centuries commentators have noted that the favouring of Christianity by Emperor Constantine came not only with advantages, but also with costs. I feel that Christianitys place in our society is shifting to one which is potentially closer to that described in accounts of the early church. I do not object to pictures of the Pope kissing a lacquered baby Jesus, but whenever The Independent challenges abuse of the poor, exposes corruption, and promotes minority rights, it perhaps unwittingly promotes true religion. Andrew Starr Leicester Stop abusing the free health service The funding crisis within the NHS is a crystal clear failure of government. I have no doubt about that. However, I am also convinced that we need a shift in public attitudes towards our free service. We are responsible for our own health. The health service, is there to help us exercise that responsibility, not to assume it for us. To change attitudes we need to know how much it costs to see our GP or use a hospital service. I dont believe that it would deter too many people who need medical attention. People with simple complaints or injuries would begin to think twice before making a GP visit or a trip to A&E, or missing a clinic appointment. Paula Jones London SW20 Theres a reason for those Letwin gaffes The author of the profile of Oliver Letwin (The Tory king of clangers, 2 January) seems to regard as him as an endearing and clever figure, albeit accident-prone. The impression I get of Letwin is of someone with a complete lack of empathy with those from less privileged backgrounds and the problems they have to face, often due to the appalling policies of the government of which he is a member. Andrew Lee-Hart Birkenhead, Wirral Knighthood for a man of mystery Gordon Elliot (letter, 2 January) argues that, because other parties have abused the honours system, it is unreasonable now to criticise Lynton Crosbys appointment. But past questionable appointments cannot be used to justify todays, and Mr Crosbys alleged contributions to public service remain a total mystery. Beryl Wall London W4 Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the View from Westminster email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Sorry if this column makes some of you miserable or cross on the first Monday after the Christmas break. I feel weary and dejected, too, as I turn once more to think and write about racism in Britain. The subject divides people and these days is seen as insolence or treachery. Tweets will fly, blogs will burn with indignation, online comments will get nastier and more menacing. I am only the messenger. Blame the Rt Hon Oliver Letwin for setting off the latest furore. Last month, the National Archives released papers from 1985. Among them was a note by Letwin to the then Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, penned after the Broadwater Farm and other inner city riots. The government was alarmed by their scale and fury; some ministers and civil servants argued that policies were needed to reduce poverty and improve opportunities for embittered and excluded black Britons. Not so, Mr Letwin, who has long been considered a caring and wise Tory. Investment in black businesses, he opined, would inevitably go to the disco and drug trade. Furthermore, riots, criminality and social disintegration are caused solely by individual characters and attitudes. So long as bad moral attitudes remain, all efforts to improve inner city life will founder. He has now apologised and has found many willing to assure us that Letwin is a fine man, who would never say anything so crass today. I am sure he would not say anything so crassly racist today, even in a private memo. Society has become more civilised and does not tolerate expressions of bigotry. Public discourse on race is far less vicious and malevolent than it once was. Nobody admits to being racist, presumably because the word is stained with shame. And from time to time, politicians of all parties make emotive speeches on equal opportunities for all. The prize for the best of these goes to David Cameron, who at his party conference orated thus: In our country today, even if they have exactly the same qualifications, people with white-sounding names are nearly twice as likely to get callbacks for jobs than people with ethnic-sounding names ... that, in 21st-century Britain, is disgraceful. It is progress of sorts. Does this mean racism has been wiped out, except in small, extremist circles? That we are living in a post-racial paradise, where all can pick fruit off the trees without fear or favour? Of course not. Online, racism, prejudice, sexism, bigotry and group hatreds spread. In real life too, many of us people of colour are entering an age of understandable pessimism. It suppresses aspirations, hope and the imagination. In all institutions, every profession, almost all workplaces, race discrimination has returned with a vengeance. In the 1960s and 1970s, Roy Jenkins, Lord Lester and other influential, fair-minded men and women pushed through the first race relations legislation. The laws were weak, but gave a strong message: migrants were equal citizens who would be protected by the state. But discrimination carried on. In 1981, the then Home , Willie Whitelaw, appointed Lord Scarman to look into the causes of the Brixton riots. Scarman concluded that racial disadvantage, inner city decline and unaccountable racist policing were to blame for the disposition towards violent protest. Many of his recommendations were implemented by Thatchers government. You would not get such a constructive response from Cameron, who is more to the right and more of a charmer than the Iron Lady. Labour in its last years in office also turned away from race equality: 9/11 made them all paranoid and focused on Islamist terrorism a real and deadly threat which has only got worse. The Lib Dems remain a white party. One Lib Dem funder told me recently: The party never reached out to the minorities. Nick Clegg and co never cared about the white poor either. I do not know a single coloured [sic] person. No wonder we were wiped out. The truth is that none of the parties cares. Highly qualified, talented black and Asian doctors, teachers, lecturers, lawyers, journalists and artists are denied their big breaks through fortified glass ceilings. Ironically, this is happening when we have more men and women of colour in the Commons and Lords than ever before. The BBC, Channel 4 and most other media outlets think they have done more than enough for racial minorities and that we should be grateful. A producer before Christmas informed me that I was on too much on BBC News. Were Polly Toynbee, Peter Hitchens, Steve Richards also told off for being on too much? Recommended Read more Not one Muslim I know thinks war in Syria is justified Opportunities are better for low-paid black and Asian workers and recent migrants, partly because most white Britons decline to take up these jobs. Employment rights are no longer protected and taking cases to tribunals is prohibitively expensive. Western lives are deemed more valuable than the lives of those from the East or South. Students who object to the Cecil Rhodes statue in Oxford are daily vilified for challenging white-washed imperial history. Attacks on Muslims and migrants are increasing and sympathy for the victims is waning. We who question white male power, or fight for equality and justice, are branded racist and sexist. And when riots break out, our PM denies they are about race or austerity: the protesters have a twisted moral code. Just as Letwin observed way back then. Racism today is more invidious than it was even in the days of Mrs Thatcher, and it is harder to get any redress. The Equality and Human Rights Commission is scandalously silent on the matter. Poor blacks and whites are pitted against each other and there is no collective movement for a fairer nation. I feel things will only get bleaker. Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the View from Westminster email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Do you know what your core body temperature is? Mine is 36.2C, give or take minor fluctuations. I know this not because I am a hypochondriac, but because it was taken countless times each day during a recent trip to Liberia and Sierra Leone - at army road blocks every few miles, at the entrance to every office or hotel, and at each stage of check-in for my flight. The number everyone dreads is 37.5C, because that denotes fever - one of the symptoms of the Ebola virus. 'Don't touch. Minimize contact' advisories are everywhere. People recoil involuntarily from handshakes. The insidious stress creeps up day by day under the monitoring, the curtailing of personal freedom in the interests of global health. Imagine this as your daily reality for nearly two years. While driving back to Monrovia airport at the end of my visit, which had stirred uncomfortable and raw emotions - empathy, fear, stigma, powerlessness, compassion, anger - my Liberian WaterAid colleague, Oretha, casually told me about an incident last summer, when she got a fever and was terrified that it might develop into Ebola. As a precaution she had to tell her 9-year-old son that he could not come near or touch her. He had already been cooped up at home for months, because schools had closed and curfews were in force to try to contain the deadly epidemic. In his moment of anguish and terror, his mother could not console him with a hug or a cuddle. Imagine the torment for both mother and son. Words are a poor substitute indeed for the power of touch. The world and the headlines have moved on now. Guinea has been declared Ebola-free in the last fortnight. Sierra Leone had its final Ebola quarantine lifted in November. Liberia has been declared 'Ebola free' twice already, only to be set back again. On 23 November 2015, 15-year-old Nathan Groote died in a Monrovian Ebola isolation ward - one more family tragedy to be endured, and a severe national blow. Nathan's younger brother and father, both also initially feared infected, were released from the Ebola Treatment Centre on 3 December with a clean bill of health. Liberia is now in its 42-day quarantine period yet again. Let us pray to whoever is listening that Nathan, the 11,315th life known to have been claimed by Ebola, is its last victim. The longer-term effects of this epidemic are not yet well understood. There are more than 17,000 Ebola survivors, who face a new jeopardy - stigma and discrimination as they are shunned at work, school and in their communities, for fear they might still be infectious. Others are too afraid to use health services, afraid that they might still somehow catch the dreaded virus. Myths and rumours easily ignite in such a febrile atmosphere. Another headline you may not have seen is that countless people died during the height of the epidemic not from Ebola but from treatable conditions such as diarrhoea, malaria, complications at births, and road traffic accidents. People were too afraid to present with Ebola symptoms such as diarrhoea in case they were quarantined; if they didn't have the Ebola virus before quarantine, the chances of contracting it in a ward without rigorous infection control, or even running water or functioning toilets, were high. Maternal mortality increased by 30 per cent during the epidemic as women actively avoided health centres for fear they might contract Ebola, and delivered their babies at home without clean water, good hygiene or skilled midwives, often with tragic results. Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea are now experiencing development in reverse. Countries that were already among the poorest in the world (83 per cent of Liberians live on less than $1.25 a day) had already endured the bitter legacy of brutal conflicts, and in recent months devastating heavy rains which have washed away roads. A man washes his hands outside the Kenema Government Hospital in Kenema, Sierra Leone, November 2015. Sierra Leone was declared Ebola-free in November, however anyone entering the hospital is required to wash their hands and submit to a temperature check. Credit: WaterAid/Monique Jaques (WaterAid/Monique Jaques) The Ebola epidemic has rolled back years of hard-won socio-economic gains. These are traumatised people and nations and the recovery phase requires intense and sustained international support, in the form of health system strengthening, support for basic and essential services including water, sanitation and hygiene, psychological counselling expertise, open trade and investment, and much more. How can Liberia even contemplate resilience to another outbreak of disease when less than 2 per cent of the population has hand-washing facilities at home, and less than half of those with both soap and water? The international response to the outbreak showed inadequacies in institutional leadership. Now, there is dangerously glib talk of 'lessons learned'. A key lesson (re)learned was that local communities and local leaders are the first critical interface for epidemic containment, which begs the question: why was this ever neglected? The concept of collective 'health security' has also regained fashion, along with awkward questions about the ethics of individual health security - whose security is most important? West Africans'? Europeans'? Mine? Yours? Nathan's? At the entrance to Kenema Hospital, the region of Sierra Leone worst affected by Ebola, I noticed a small memorial stone. I first assumed it was to remember the patients who had succumbed to Ebola there. But as I squinted at the small chiselled letters, I saw they read "doctor, midwife, hospital, orderly". Recommended Read more Why you should let other people set goals for you in 2016 The memorial honours the 37 staff who died of Ebola at this one district hospital, some of the more than 500 health workers who died of Ebola across West Africa. We owe it to these people to stop talking and start doing. Ebola proved how interconnected the global community is. We are only as safe as the most fragile state, and we are all equally deserving of health security, underpinned by safe water, sanitation and hygiene. That includes all of our families: yours, mine, Emile's and Nathan's. Margaret Batty is Director of Global Policy and Campaigns at WaterAid Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the View from Westminster email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The execution of the Shia Muslim cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr marks another low in relations between the Middle Easts two blood enemies, Saudi Arabia and Iran, and another dreaded milestone in a sectarian proxy war that is already raging on too many fronts to be easily contained. The temptation is to say that this is nothing to do with us: that both of these clerical, fundamentalist regimes violent, vengeful, intolerant, sanctimonious and reminding Europeans of the ugliest phases of our pre-modern history are equally repellent and we would like as little as possible to do with either of them. Unfortunately, we are deeply enmeshed in both. Saudi Arabia has bought international legitimacy with its oil wealth, and we have been happy to stand moral surety for the regime as long as the wells kept pumping and the Saudis kept buying our arms. When David Camerons Government did a deal with the House of Saud, from which its candidate emerged as chairman of the UN Human Rights Council, we didnt know whether to laugh or cry. The Iranian revolution was a consequence of neocolonialist machinations in the country, for which Britain bore grave responsibility. And the long-term result of the 2003 invasion of Iraq was to put Shias in power in Baghdad, shattering what remained of the Sunni-Shia regional balance. What the 13 years since then have taught us is that, while it is not hard for Western powers to do harm in the Islamic world, it is singularly difficult to do any lasting good. And if that was true in Afghanistan and Iraq, it is equally true of any potential Western role between Sunni and Shia, a sectarian dispute whose roots go back to the age of the Prophet. Recommended Read more No state has the moral authority or will to attack this butchery Aware of the dire results of recent interventions, the West must tread warily. Yet it is a fact that Saudi Arabia is the source of most of the recent problems between the two sects; and it is Saudi Arabia with which Britain, more than most countries, has leverage. The latest round of provocations from the Saudis stems from the successful conclusion of talks to limit and monitor Irans development of its nuclear capacity. The melting of the pack ice between the West and Tehran, in which this agreement was the first and most crucial step, was taken badly in Riyadh, and the ratcheting up of tensions stems from that event. The pitiless war waged by a Saudi-led coalition against Shia Houthi rebels in Yemen is only its most brutal manifestation. 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Show all 10 1 /10 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses In October 2014, three lawyers, Dr Abdulrahman al-Subaihi, Bander al-Nogaithan and Abdulrahman al-Rumaih , were sentenced to up to eight years in prison for using Twitter to criticize the Ministry of Justice. AFP/Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses In March 2015, Yemens Sunni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi was forced into exile after a Shia-led insurgency. A Saudi Arabia-led coalition has responded with air strikes in order to reinstate Mr Hadi. It has since been accused of committing war crimes in the country. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Women who supported the Women2Drive campaign, launched in 2011 to challenge the ban on women driving vehicles, faced harassment and intimidation by the authorities. The government warned that women drivers would face arrest. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Members of the Kingdoms Shia minority, most of whom live in the oil-rich Eastern Province, continue to face discrimination that limits their access to government services and employment. Activists have received death sentences or long prison terms for their alleged participation in protests in 2011 and 2012. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses All public gatherings are prohibited under an order issued by the Interior Ministry in 2011. Those defy the ban face arrest, prosecution and imprisonment on charges such as inciting people against the authorities. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses In March 2014, the Interior Ministry stated that authorities had deported over 370,000 foreign migrants and that 18,000 others were in detention. Thousands of workers were returned to Somalia and other states where they were at risk of human rights abuses, with large numbers also returned to Yemen, in order to open more jobs to Saudi Arabians. Many migrants reported that prior to their deportation they had been packed into overcrowded makeshift detention facilities where they received little food and water and were abused by guards. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses The Saudi Arabian authorities continue to deny access to independent human rights organisations like Amnesty International, and they have been known to take punitive action, including through the courts, against activists and family members of victims who contact Amnesty. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Raif Badawi was sentenced to 1000 lashes and 10 years in prison for using his liberal blog to criticise Saudi Arabias clerics. He has already received 50 lashes, which have reportedly left him in poor health. Carsten Koall/Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Dawood al-Marhoon was arrested aged 17 for participating in an anti-government protest. After refusing to spy on his fellow protestors, he was tortured and forced to sign a blank document that would later contain his confession. At Dawoods trial, the prosecution requested death by crucifixion while refusing him a lawyer. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Ali Mohammed al-Nimr was arrested in 2012 aged either 16 or 17 for participating in protests during the Arab spring. His sentence includes beheading and crucifixion. The international community has spoken out against the punishment and has called on Saudi Arabia to stop. He is the nephew of a prominent government dissident. Getty The Riyadh regime is in many ways revolting, but it is not in our interest to see, let alone provoke, the fall of the House of Saud. As custodians of the two holiest mosques, at Mecca and Medina, the Saudis enjoy unique esteem among Muslims. We know from bitter experience in both Iraq and Libya that the downfall of Middle Eastern tyrants leads not to democracy but to chaos; and in Saudi Arabia there is no doubt that both Isis and al-Qaeda hunger for control of the two mosques and the religious prestige that would confer. That is an eventuality it is vital to prevent. But the Saudis need to be made aware that if they are to survive, they must mend their ways. In particular, the bloody provocations initiated by King Salman since his enthronement one year ago must cease. Britains decision to cancel its contract to provide a training programme for the kingdoms prisons was a small and belated sign to Riyadh that London was prepared, once in a while and under substantial opposition pressure, to take a stand. We need to see much more of that. Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the View from Westminster email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} In seeking to extend the states powers of surveillance over its citizens, Theresa Mays Draft Investigatory Powers Bill is flouting a long tradition in British history. Im not sure that the Government is aware of this. Conservatives are supposed to respect tradition as the soil in which British values are sown. Hence their enthusiasm for history teaching in school. But they may not realise how important the principle of not spying on their citizens was in the past. Books and television programmes on Britains secret service trace it back to Francis Walsingham in the 16th century, which is fair enough; but not if it is also assumed that it must have gone on between then and now. In fact, for a long period in the 19th century, Britain abjured this kind of thing. She left herself effectively spyless, however unlikely that must seem today. So, the secret service wasnt a tradition. Traditions must be joined up. Recommended Read more Concessions to surveillance bill unlikely to head off peer revolt The reasons why spying was rejected may be instructive. It was considered ungentlemanly. It could lead to abuse. Men whose business it is to detect hidden and secret things, wrote Anthony Trollope in 1869, are very apt to detect things that have never been done. The Victorians had learned that from their earlier history, in more revolutionary days, when spies had often morphed into agents provocateurs or worse. Another important reason was the damage it could do to the trust between rulers and the ruled, on which stable government depended. Should the practice of spydom become universal, pronounced The Times in 1859, farewell to all domestic confidence and happiness. The novelist Mayne Reid thought that, once introduced, even on a small scale, its effect would be wedge-like cleaving the columns of our glory and sapping the foundations of our dear liberty. In the early 20th century, when the modern secret service was born, some came to suspect that unscrupulous politicians or agents might harness it against democratically elected governments that they didnt like. (Doubts still remain over the Zinoviev letter of 1924, and the so-called Wilson plot of the late 1960s.) Next, spying was fundamentally illiberal. Hence Erskine May, the great British constitutional theorist, in 1863: Men may be without restraints upon their liberty: they may pass to and fro at pleasure, but if their steps are tracked by spies and informers, their words noted down for crimination, their associates watched as conspirators who shall say that they are free? Finally, and perhaps most importantly: spying was what the French did. In the 19th century, France was the country Britain measured and identified herself against. A ghastly series of murders in east London in 1811 prompted some contemporaries to call for a more effective detective force to prevent such things. This was Earl Dudleys response: They have an admirable police at Paris. But they pay for it dear enough. I had rather half-a-dozen peoples throats be cut in Ratcliffe Highway every three or four years than be subject to domiciliary visits, spies, and all the rest of Fouches contrivances. (Joseph Fouche was Napoleons much-reviled minister of police.) So, whatever the advantages of a detective police might be, France illustrated the downside. Spylessness was a crucial identifier of the British against the French. (Also, incidentally, automatic asylum for foreign refugees, even terrorists.) This could be taken to surprising lengths. In 1851, a Metropolitan Police sergeant was demoted for hiding behind a tree to observe an indecent offence. The reason why early policemen were given their silly tall hats was so that no one would suspect them of being under cover. When an infant plain-clothes branch was formed in the 1860s, it had to be disbanded almost immediately when three of its four senior officers were found to have been implicated in a betting fraud. That seemed to bear out the anti-spy prejudice. The same arguments were repeated later, when London was subjected to terrorist threats in the 1880s (Irish Fenians) and the 1900s (foreign anarchists). In response to these, the government set up a political (Special) branch that used spies and informers; and later around 1910 MI5 was founded to deal (mainly) with the German spy threat. But both were largely manned by Irishmen and ex-colonial officials, whose policing traditions were less liberal. And both were kept strictly hidden from the public. It may be this that fuelled the suspicions which have hovered over Britains secret policing and intelligence agencies from that time onwards. Secrecy is almost bound to provoke mistrust and even paranoia. Some of that may be undeserved. On the other hand, it also provides a cover behind which these agencies can abuse their positions if they want without being brought to book. In the 20th century, this was exacerbated by the fact that members of MI5, in particular, were often ex-colonial hands, or people trusted by them politically right-wing, in other words; which affected to put it mildly the objectivity of the intelligence that they provided. It is some of these people who will have been responsible for plots against Labour governments in the past. No wonder the left distrusts them. The answer is probably not to do away with them. Circumstances are obviously very different now from what they were then including the Islamist terrorist threat, in particular and public opinion clearly not as shocked by our transformation into something of a surveillance state as almost any transplanted Victorian would have been. But the Government should be aware of how un-British its Draft Investigatory Powers Bill is in historical terms. And should learn from the abuses of the past. The way to do that is to make the secret services more transparent and fully accountable to democracy. Secret services are always problematic; secret secret services, however, are even more so. Bernard Porter is the author of 'Plots and Paranoia: A History of Political Espionage in Britain 1790-1988' and 'British Imperial: What the Empire Wasnt' Travelling throughout Ireland as part of writing these articles, I am always delighted when I come across small and medium-sized businesses whose founders, through initiative, risk-taking and incredible hard work, have managed to create not just a successful business for themselves but much-needed employment in their local communities. That's why I often refer to these entrepreneurs as our unsung heroes. This week's entrepreneur is one such example. Located just outside the small village of Rathowen, in Co Westmeath, Greene Farm Foods has grown to become Ireland's leading producer of cooked and ready-to-eat poultry and beef products. Set up in 1991 by Kenneth Greene, the business now employs 160 staff, has an impressive annual turnover of more than 30m and 25pc year-on-year growth since 2011. I was keen to find out what is at the heart of the company's success. "We class ourselves as 'specialist roasters' of chicken, turkey and beef," explains Kenneth as he welcomes me to his new 50,000sq.ft purpose-built production facility. The company has recently invested over 6m in extending the facility and a further 1.3m in packaging machinery, and this is now one of the most modern food plants in Europe. The company currently supplies most leading Irish retailers - including Tesco, Dunnes Stores, SuperValu, Spar, Londis, Gala, Mace and Costcutters. Its UK sales have also risen in recent year and now account for 26pc of total revenues, with brand names such as Tesco, Costco, Bookers and OCADO among their largest customers there. "All our products are made using 100pc natural ingredients, are low in fat, high in protein, have no MSG and use no artificial flavours or preservatives," explains Kenneth whose typical customers, he tells me, are time-pressed, young professionals and working families who want convenient but wholesome, nutritious and tasty meals and snacks. "Quality is always our top priority," explains Kenneth. "All our meat is sourced from grade-A approved primary meat processors where there is full traceability from the individual farmer or grower to the fork." In their onsite test kitchen, I get to sample some of their most popular sliced-meat ranges, including roast chicken breast, peppered turkey breast and roast topside of beef. There are also ranges of mini fillets, as well as their mouth-watering Moroccan spiced chicken breast and garlic and rosemary roast chicken. And then there are the more traditional joints and on-the-bone ranges, such as roasted joints, cooked chicken on the bone, thighs, wings and drumsticks. In total, they have approximately 250 individual types of products - or what they more accurately call in the business SKUs, or stockkeeping units. Our next stop on our tour is the area where the food is marinated. Here, the meat is immersed in a mix of spices and ingredients and left to infuse for between 12 and 24 hours. Next, it's on to the large cooking area, where, depending on the product, cooking is carried out using a mix of inline and batch-cooking methods. The inline system is a highly-efficient automated process that ensures quality and consistency while increasing yield and throughput. This results in maintaining the look and flavour of typically home-cooked, roasted or glazed meats. In another area, staff are using the more labour-intensive batch cooking method that uses low steam pressure in a slower process to achieve their signature succulent taste. Once cooked, the meats are moved to a chilling area, where they are cooled in preparation for either direct packing or further slicing. The modified atmospheric-packaging methods help extend the shelf life to between 14 and 17 days, depending on the product. "We aim to keep each part of the process as artisan as possible to maintain as natural a look and feel to each product." Kenneth Greene grew up on the family farm, next to where the business is now located. As a teenager, schooldays were often cut short to get home early to work on the farm. And it was here that his work ethic was cultivated - whether through working on the land, building sheds or making and fixing things in the farm's workshop. "My father always encouraged myself and my siblings to think outside the box," explains Kenneth. "From a young age, I knew that I wanted to own my business one day." It was while still at school that he got his first taste for entrepreneurship - rearing and selling chickens and turkeys to his schoolmates and their families. After school, he attended Mellows (Agricultural) College in Athenry, where he specialised in poultry husbandry and breeding. The next few years were spent working in or managing poultry farms in Monaghan, Mayo and Laois. For a time too, he considered building his own poultry breeding operation on the home farm. But as most potential poultry business customers were located in Cavan, Monaghan or Wicklow, he wasn't convinced the idea would work. Instead, he returned to work on the family farm and at the same time decided to buy and rear 500 turkeys for the following Christmas market. When the time came, he sold these to local butchers and with his first venture successfully behind him, he began contacting hotels, bars, restaurants and supermarkets to see if there was a viable ongoing market for fresh chicken and turkey meats. "I began really as a poultry wholesaler covering the Midlands and while it was hard graft and slow to take of initially, I eventually built up a successful wholesale business," explains Kenneth. In 1991, he decided that it was time to go into production for himself. He began by converting a shed on the farm into a cutting facility where he boned, rolled and removed wings from chicken and turkeys and resold these to the contacts he had made during his time as a wholesaler. Four years later, he added his initial cooking facilities, where he was now able to add further value to his produce. Around this time deli counters were growing popular and the market for his pre-cooked meats was on the rise. In order to meet growing demand, he set his sights on his own purpose-built facility. Completed in 2000 and comprising of 12,000sq.ft, this allowed him to target a wide variety of market segments, including the hotels and catering sector, food service outlets and, of course, retail. "However, my three-year strategy was always to move exclusively into the retail market and to focus on a high-volume model yet retaining the highest quality range of meats. "And that's what we did," explains Kenneth. "Our initial listings were with Dunnes and SuperValu, where we supplied a range of plain chicken and turkey slices. These were almost an instant hit, generating over 1m in sales for us." From there, the company expanded into Superquinn and Tesco. At the same time too, they worked on developing and expanding their range of meats. By 2009, they had also entered the UK. They were now in definite growth mode. "In 2011 and based on changing trends and feedback, we made the strategic decision to go fully natural under the Greene Farm Brand," explains Kenneth. "All artificial flavours and preservatives were removed to create a clean deck of ingredients and to provide consumers with a form of natural and nutritious protein in a ready-to-eat format. As well as being 100pc natural, all branded products are also gluten-free." Innovation and product development are central to the company's future strategy, as is the whole area of sustainability. Recently, they switched from oil to gas, upgraded their refrigeration and introduced smart metering across the entire facility. Their most significant commitment to sustainability has seen them build a new integrated wetland area close by the facility, which now treats all their waste water. Looking to the future, Kenneth is upbeat about the company's potential to grow export sales well beyond 26pc of current revenues. "I hope to double revenues to over 60m within the next three years. Having a local or regional focus is no longer enough - we have to have a global focus if we want to achieve that," he adds. He plans to establish a base in the UK. He also hopes to break into Denmark, with plans already in place for an initial listing with a major retail chain there in early 2016. Holland and Germany also offer significant potential in the near term, as does the UAE, where, Kenneth informs me, the company is currently going through that country's strict approvals process. As I prepare to leave Greene Farm Foods, Kenneth has one final comment for me. "While we all should never forget where we come from, if we want to be successful in business these days, we all need to remain open to change." Great advice, indeed. For further information see www.greenefarmfoods.com Kenneth's advice for other businesses 1. Be goal-focused and target-driven I often draw on advice my father gave me many years ago which holds good for everyone in business - 'Set yourself a target and just go for it.' Once you set your mind on a goal, write it down and then share it with your team, you stand a much better chance of achieving it. Not only are you focused, so too is your whole organisation. 2. Keep your customer central First, you have to know who your customers are, what they want and what matters most to them. This involves staying in close contact with them and constantly consulting with them about their changing needs. Market research is especially important when it comes to trialling new products or entering new markets. 3. Go where the water is deep There's a saying that If you want to launch a big ship, then go where the waters are deep. Similarly, if you want to grow your business, you must focus on bigger markets where there is potential for scale. To achieve scale, surround yourself with good people who support your vision. Then learn how to delegate to them. The Central Bank is scrapping a rule that prevents credit unions from investing in public projects, such as social housing. The country's credit unions have long campaigned to be allowed to invest in social housing. The Irish League of Credit Unions said in November that it had up to 8.5bn of members' deposits available to help solve Ireland's social housing crisis and that it could not understand why the Government was prohibiting this. Department of Finance assistant secretary-general Ann Nolan confirmed to the country's biggest credit unions that the prohibition is being scrapped last month. "Following discussions with the Central Bank, I have been informed that regulations have been updated in relation to classes of investments for credit unions to specifically include investments in projects of a public nature, including investments in social housing," Ms Nolan wrote on December 16. Many other rules governing credit unions are also being reviewed, following the surprise move by Finance Minister Michael Noonan in December to order a statutory committee to probe the limits imposed on the sector, such as limitations on the nature and term of lending. Many of these rules were originally introduced by the Central Bank, based on a 2012 report by the Commission on Credit Unions, another statutory group. The Central Bank has been accused of implementing the Commission's recommendations in a manner inconsistent with their spirit and intent. Some credit unions deem them onerous. The new review, to be conducted by the Credit Union Advisory Committee, will begin this month and is expected to report by the end of June. The Sunday Independent has seen its terms of reference and among the things the committee must take into account is "the need for credit unions to develop their business model and grow income in a prudent manner". The contentious 100,000 savings cap for credit unions has already been relaxed. Credit unions with more than 100m in assets may apply to the regulator to accept more than 100,000 from individual savers. The Credit Union Development Association, which represents some of the country's largest credit unions, wants the regulator to go further. Writing in the Sunday Independent today, CUDA chief executive Kevin Johnson called for the introduction of tiered regulation, whereby larger credit unions would be given more freedom than smaller credit unions. "Tiered regulation, done properly, will allow some credit unions to continue to offer basic savings and loans, while allowing other credit unions to develop and offer a greater range of services, as long as they have what is necessary to manage the additional risks," he writes. "Credit unions need to be allowed to compete with banks... Fundamentally, credit unions offering a full range of services will drive great competition - something that is sorely lacking in Ireland at the moment." After wrapping up the biggest pharma deal of the year, the merged Pfizer/Allergan group will probably take advantage of its Irish status by quickly paying shareholders the $21bn of undistributed profits currently sitting on its balance sheet The ESRI estimates that the Irish economy grew by 6.7pc in 2015 and is forecasting GDP growth of 4.8pc for this year. GNP, which is generally regarded as a better measurement of the underlying performance of the Irish economy, is also growing strongly, with the ESRI reckoning that it grew by 5.2pc last year and that it will grow by a further 5.3pc this year. But how real is this economic growth? Undoubtedly at least some of it is the real McCoy. The number of people at work grew by 56,000 to just under two million in the 12 months to the end of 2015, while average private sector earnings were up by 3.6pc over the same period. The bulging tax take, with Exchequer receipts running 3bn ahead of target for the first 11 months of 2015, also point to an economy that is in rude good health. Measuring the true level of Irish economic activity has always been a tricky topic for economists. The generally accepted international standard is gross domestic product (GDP). The problem with GDP for Ireland is that it includes the undistributed profits of foreign-owned multinationals. This has the effect of artificially boosting the value of Irish economic output, since those profits belong not to Irish residents, but to the multinationals' overseas shareholders. It is for this reason that gross national product (GNP), which excludes undistributed multinational profits, is the usually preferred measure of Irish economic output. Unlike most countries, where GDP and GNP are virtually synonymous, the gap between Irish GDP and GNP is enormous - and still widening. The ESRI estimates that the value of Irish GDP in 2015 was 213bn, but the value of GNP was almost 15pc smaller, at just 182bn. For 2016, the ESRI is forecasting GDP of 232bn and GNP of 200bn. However, having largely relied on GNP to gauge the true level of our economic output, there are now growing indications that it too is a flawed measure. The first sign that there might be less to Irish GNP than meets the eye came in a 2013 ESRI paper by John FitzGerald. In the paper. Professor FitzGerald pointed to the phenomenon of overseas, mainly UK, PLCs re-registering as 'Irish' and the possible impact of this on Irish GNP figures. In the late noughties, a steady stream of UK blue chips - including advertising services giant WPP and drug company Shire - cast aside Queen and country in favour of the Tricolour. By re-registering as 'Irish', their headline tax rate fell from the 28pc then levied in the UK to our 12.5pc. However, while the Irish Exchequer may have benefited from some extra tax payments from the re-registered companies, this came with a sting in the tail. As these companies now counted as 'Irish', their profits -unlike those of the multinationals - were included in Irish GNP. How much did this distort the Irish GNP figures? In his 2013 paper, Professor FitzGerald calculated that the undistributed profits of re-registered companies had risen from 1.5bn, or 1.2pc of GNP, in 2009 to 7.4bn, or 5.5pc of GNP, by 2012. Since 2013, the re-registration tide seems to have ebbed - WPP moved its tax residence back to the UK in 2013. Chancellor George Osborne's move to slash the main British corporate profits tax rate to 20pc since 2010 and to 18pc by 2017 has eroded Ireland's competitive tax advantage over the UK. In a paper published in June 2015, Professor FitzGerald calculated that the amount of undistributed profits included in the Irish GNP figures shrank to 6.8bn in 2013, before growing slightly once again to 6.9bn in 2014. Unfortunately, just when it seemed as if it was safe to trust the GNP figures once more, a new cloud has appeared on the horizon. While re-registration may have had its day, a new but closely related phenomenon has since emerged to take its place: tax inversion. Tax inversion takes place when a much larger, usually American, company agrees to be taken over by an Irish-registered company. Under existing international tax law, this allows the enlarged company to be classified as 'Irish' and to qualify for our 12.5pc corporate profits tax rate - rather than Uncle Sam's punitive 35pc rate. Since 2012, at least 21 major US corporations with a combined value of well over a third of a trillion dollars have gone through the tax inversion process. Many of these tax inversions have involved Irish-registered companies including Medtronic's takeover of Covidien, Perrigo's acquisition of Elan and Actavis' takeover of Allergan. However, it is the latest tax inversion-driven deal that has focused attention on the emerging problem. In November 2015, Pfizer, the world's largest pharmaceutical company, announced that it had agreed a $160bn 'merger' with Allergan, which, following the previous Actavis transaction, is an Irish-registered company. This means that the combined Pfizer/Allergan will be tax-resident in Ireland - and presumably that the $21bn of undistributed profits that Pfizer has on its balance sheet would be added to the Irish GNP figure. While the proposed Pfizer/Allergan tax inversion has already attracted hostile comment in the US (both the Democratic and Republican frontrunners in this year's presidential election - Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump respectively - have roundly criticised the deal), less attention has been focused on how it and similar transactions will distort the Irish GNP statistics. Even if one assumes that the merged company will take advantage of its 'Irish' status to quickly pay out the $21bn of undistributed profits sitting on its balance sheet to shareholders, it is clear that Pfizer/Allergan has the potential to make the task of analysing the real performance of the Irish economy even more of a challenge than it already is. Professor FitzGerald doesn't specifically address the tax inversion issue in his June 2015 paper, but he does identify another potential problem, aircraft leasing, with up to 20pc of the world's civil aviation fleet either owned or managed by Irish-based leasing companies. So how on Earth is one supposed to make sense of official Irish economic statistics? In fairness to the CSO, it is not unaware of the problem. It set up a Large Cases Unit in 2009 to liaise with the largest Irish-based companies in an effort to identify potential distortions. However, even with the best will in the world, the CSO is constrained, as it is obliged to produce its data in accordance with international standards - standards that aren't always appropriate to Irish conditions. "GDP and GNP are very imperfect measures of how the economy is actually doing. The focus should be on domestic demand; investment, consumption and government spending," says Goodbody Stockbrokers economist Dermot O'Leary. Using these indicators, Mr O'Leary reckons the Irish economy grew by 4.5pc in 2015 and that it will grow by a further 4pc in 2016. "We are living in a 4pc-plus economy, rather than in a 7pc economy. If you compare that with the rest of Europe, we still have the best-performing economy," he says. Assuming that the 2.9pc employment growth and the 2.7pc earnings growth (public as well as private sector) recorded in the 12 months to September 2015 is maintained for the full year, then nominal growth in disposable incomes is running at well over 5pc annually. Those are the sort of 'clean' numbers that Mr O'Leary advises we should focus our attention on when seeking to measure the 'real' performance of the Irish economy. With GDP and now GNP having been apparently skewed by factors such as non-repatriated profits, companies re-registering and now tax inversions, readers of Irish economic statistics would be well advised to proceed with caution. Private insurers taking on a slice of mortgage risk could allow the Central Bank to relax its mortgage caps without storing up new problems in the banks, the financial regulator has been told. Global insurance broker JLT says a mortgage indemnity guarantee (MIG) scheme to would allow mortgage banks to lend more and still cut their risk, as intended by mortgage lending caps introduced by the Central Bank last year. Central Bank governor Philip Lane has been urged to consider bringing in the MIG scheme when the bank's review into its own mortgage lending limits is compele. The current rules limit most buyers to borrowing 3.5 times their salary. First-time buyers need a 10pc deposit on houses up to 220,000 (and 20pc on the excess). A MIG scheme would permit borrowers to get mortgages exceeding the cap - with the risk of default on the excess being borne by insurance providers, rather than banks or taxpayers. JLT has written to Professor Lane, recommending that a large panel of private insurers be approached to provide the scheme. "The effect of this approach would ensure that the diversification of counterparty risk is maximised. In addition, should any insurer fall below the required security level of the panel, they can be replaced without jeopardising the continuance of the MIG programme," the company wrote in its submission. The Central Bank said that it is actively monitoring the impact of the mortgage caps. "The key objective of these regulations was to increase the resilience of the banking and household sectors to the property market and to reduce the risk of bank credit and house price spirals from developing in the future," said a spokesman. "As indicated at the outset, we continue to monitor the implemented measures on an ongoing basis." Central Bank chief economist Gabriel Fagan recently said that it is "far too early to judge the effectiveness of the measures" taken last year. However, many independent experts claim the caps are having a marked impact on mortgage approval rates and house prices in some areas, particularly Dublin. The number of mortgages approved fell by 2pc in the three months to the end of last October, compared with the same period the year before. It was the first time mortgage approvals fell on a year-on-year basis since April 2013. Before the rules were introduced, house prices in Dublin were shooting up at over 12pc per year - those increases are now beginning to reverse. The National Broadband Plan will cost the State an initial 275m, 75m of which is being supplied by the European Regional Development Fund Bidders for an upcoming 275m state- funded National Broadband Plan tender have been warned that the contract will be subject to a series of "moving goalposts" if rival underbidders decide to intervene. A spokesman for the Department of Communications has said that the 25-year tender contract, which is expected to be published in coming months, will require bidding telecoms operators to accept that large parts of rural Ireland may be withdrawn from coverage by the state scheme in the next two to five years. The National Broadband Plan is a state-funded scheme to connect 750,000 rural homes and businesses to high-speed broadband services of at least 30Mbs. The scheme will cost the State an initial 275m, 75m of which is being supplied by the European Regional Development Fund. The Government will shortly offer a tender for the contract rollout, with at least six telecoms firms expressing an interest. The first homes to be connected to the service are expected to come on stream in early 2017. The Government spokesman said that the Government must abide by EU rules that forbid state institutions from running commercial services in areas where private sector alternatives are available. But he said that the Government cannot "sterilise" a part of rural Ireland from receiving the state-funded broadband service just because telecom operators say they will eventually offer a similar service there in years to come. "Our process can't stop," said the spokesman for Communications Minister Alex White. "There's always going to be a commercial operator out there who will make some announcement about covering an area of rural Ireland in two or three years. "Our map will have to just move with the process. It will make life a bit more difficult for bidders, because they might be dealing with moving goalposts. But the bidders are big boys and are fully aware of that and they may have to make their own risk analysis of it. "They may have to ask themselves: 'If I'm given this area to build, will there be another commercial operator there in front of me to take away my market share?' "So we're placing all the demand risk and the network risk with the winning bidder. If stuff happens after the contract award which we aren't able to cater for, it's their risk." The spokesman said that the Government had no choice but to adopt a "moving goalposts" approach to the tender contract. "If we took our foot off the pedal for a second, nothing would ever get built," he said. "A lot of the commercial investment is being pushed by our planned intervention." One of the country's biggest universities is planning to extend its technology facilities, adding around 30,000 square metres of teaching and research buildings. Trinity College Dublin has published a tender document seeking construction consultants to manage and design the proposed development. Its current Technology and Enterprise Campus, which is mainly used as an incubator for companies spun out of university research, is located off-site on Dublin's Pearse Street. It is not yet clear where the new buildings will be based. Funding is not believed to be in place. "The requirements for the research and teaching demand of these groups is currently being assessed, but may be in the region of 30,000 square metres of teaching, research, new or refurbished buildings in one or more locations, with units from on and off the main city centre campus coming together or moving in their entirety," a tender document said. "The location for the building or buildings is not yet decided. "In the coming months, the college intends to continue the briefing process with members of the research community and conclude analyses of teaching and other space with expert consultants. "The buildings required may be released in a number of lots, with initial buildings of relatively small scale." Trinity was granted planning permission earlier this year for a 70m building to house its new Business School. With major employers increasingly complaining of skills shortages, educators around the world are ploughing resources into new teaching and research facilities. TV show Daniel and Majella's B&B Road Trip was the surprise hit of the year for new station UTV Ireland, coming in fourth in the broadcaster's top 20 shows for 2015. The six-part series, documenting the Donegal crooner and his wife's travel around Ireland visiting bed-and-breakfasts in unusual locations, beat top-billed shows like The Brit Awards 2015 and Pat Kenny In The Round. It clocked up 335,100 viewers on average, a 20pc share of the Irish television market on Monday night. The show was aired sandwiched between the channel's two flagship soaps, which undoubtedly helped numbers. Station bosses are hopeful that the O'Donnells will be back for a second series. Coronation Street was UTV Ireland's best performing show of the year, with an average of 596,900 viewers or a 37pc market share - more than it achieved in 2014 when its broadcasting rights were held by TV3. I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here came second and Emmerdale was third. Agricultural show Rare Breed Ireland, another domestically-produced surprise hit, took fifth place with 230,600 viewers or a 14pc market share. Heavily-advertised Pat Kenny In The Round was ninth, James Nesbitt's Ireland came 13th and Kevin Dundon's Back to Basics cooking show was UTV Ireland's 19th most popular show. Dundon has agreed to do another series in 2016. The future for the television station under new owner ITV will not be entirely clear until the 140m sale of UTV's television assets to ITV is completed. It is continuing to commission new shows, such as Home Truths From Abroad, a programme focused on Irish people living overseas which will air later this year. The deal was given the green light by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, one of the first regulatory hurdles it faced, on December 17. A range of other regulatory approval processes still remain; British communications regulator Ofcom and both the Irish and UK competition authorities must give the green light. They are expected to have concluded their deliberations by March. Nama has come under fire for selling 442 Dublin apartments to a major real estate investor, instead of offering them for sale individually to people looking to buy a home. Fianna Fail finance spokesman Michael McGrath criticised the S tate agency's decision to sell the units at Tallaght Cross West in south Dublin in one lot to the I-RES real estate investment trust (REIT). He said that in the midst of a "chronic housing crisis" ordinary people were being denied the opportunity to secure a home as a result of Nama's disposal strategy. The 83m sale of Tallaght Cross West, which is expected to be completed in the coming weeks, will see I-RES take ownership of a major mixed-use portfolio consisting of 442 apartments, 180,000 square feet of commercial space and a 1,900sq.ft basement car park. With real estate sources ascribing an estimated value of 40m to the portfolio's commercial space and car park, based on a price of 200 per square foot, the 442 apartments are effectively being sold for an average of just 100,000 apiece - or some 90,000 less than the modular homes proposed as part of the Government's solution to the housing crisis. Located next to the Luas stop at the Square shopping centre and immediately adjacent to Tallaght Hospital, the apartment complex consists of 161 one-bedroom, 237 two-bedroom and 44 three-bedroom units in 13 blocks. Referring to the sale by the Nama-appointed receivers Deloitte, Fianna Fail's Michael McGrath said: "While Nama may well have achieved market value, the proceeds are remarkably low when you break it down to the price per apartment. "Certainly, it would seem to have been a very good opportunity for Nama to fulfil its social-responsibility mandate and to provide social housing, perhaps through the local authority." Contacted for comment on the matter, a spokesman for Nama revealed, however, that the agency had offered all the apartments at the Tallaght Cross West complex to the Housing Agency and to Dublin's local authorities before deciding to sell the majority of them. "Nama has an excellent relationship with the Dublin local authorities and works closely with them on projects such as this. "On this occasion, before their sale, Nama offered all 500 apartments in this complex to the Housing Agency and the local authorities and when these parties indicated that they wished to proceed with 65 of these units, Nama was happy to facilitate this," the spokesman said. The 65 apartments delivered for social housing at Tallaght Cross West were acquired through a Nama special-purpose vehicle - National Asset Residential Property Services (NARPS) Ltd - and are now being managed by the approved housing body, Tuath Housing. The apartments were acquired as part of a 20-year plus lease, with an option for the housing association to buy. The first tranche of tenants drawn from South Dublin County Council's housing list moved in on June 30 last, with the remainder of the residents moving in one week later. While Nama stated at the end of last October that it had identified over 6,575 residential properties as being potentially suitable for social housing, demand for just over 2,500 of these units was confirmed by the country's local authorities. Notwithstanding Nama's efforts to fulfil its obligation to deliver a social dividend, Michael McGrath said the agency should still have offered the Tallaght Cross West apartments for sale individually. He said: "There are thousands of potential individual buyers who would like to have the opportunity of buying apartments and other residential units that are owned by Nama. "It is denying people the opportunity to buy their own homes and instead is selling whole blocks of apartments in single transactions to one buyer. While that may be the most convenient strategy for Nama, in a time of such a chronic housing crisis, I believe individual buyers should be given an opportunity to buy homes directly from Nama." The I-RES REIT's acquisition of the Tallaght Cross West portfolio presents it with a significant opportunity. Quite apart from the substantial targeted rental income of 6.1m achievable on the development's apartments, the campus is home to an Aldi supermarket, which is producing a rent of 625,480 per annum. Along with these opportunities for income, the complex also has 16,390sqm of commercial and retail space, with the potential for up to 22 new retail units according to the selling agents, DTZ Sherry FitzGerald. Listed on the Irish Stock Exchange, I-RES is controlled by Canada's largest residential landlord, CAPREIT. The Canadian trust owns some 46,617 residential units across Canada and in Dublin. This project is about us saying we now want to take the technology to the next level, says Glen Dimplex chief executive officer Sean O'Driscoll Photo: David Conachy The climate change phenomenon means that everyone everywhere is looking for new ways to fine-tune energy use. And spearheading this worldwide revolution is a major EU-funded home-energy project called RealValue - set up by an Irish consortium led by billion-euro business Glen Dimplex. The results of the Irish project, which will come out over the next three years, are set to have a massive international and economic impact. Exactly 1,250 homes in Ireland, Germany and Latvia will have cutting-edge Glen Dimplex electrical storage systems installed in them as part of the project. The aim is then to demonstrate how these small-scale energy-storage systems can provide benefits to the whole electricity supply chain, from generation to distribution and from suppliers down to the consumers. The entire energy supply chain is working together on this groundbreaking project, from ESB Networks to Intel (the heating system in the home will be controllable from an app) and from EirGrid to SSE Electricity. Sean O'Driscoll, chief executive of Glen Dimplex - which is the world's largest manufacturer of domestic heating appliances - says the energy revolution is here and now it's just a matter of joining all the dots across the various industries. "We are selling Quantum (the electric heating and storage system being rolled out in 1,250 homes) and have been selling Quantum for the last three years as a heating device which has a 27pc lower running cost (than its predecessor). "So we're already selling the unit on that basis and that's a standalone basis and we have sold 80,000 of them between the UK and Ireland over the last three years," said Mr O'Driscoll, proving that the results of the RealValue project will be able to stand up on their two feet in economic terms. The RealValue project has a total of 13 partners on board, including energy economists from UCD and businesses from both the public and private sector. The Glen Dimplex CEO explained: "What this project is now about is saying we now want to take the technology to the next level, we know we have a very good heating system which is operating in isolation from the overall energy ecosystem. "We're now saying with connectivity, with digital connectivity, we can bring all of this together and provide it as a service to the electricity industry. "That's 1,250 homes, that's what those business models are and within that there are about eight or 10 different income streams that can be generated out of that which can be passed on, part of it, to the consumer." The results of the project can be divided into two parts, between the customer running their home off the electricity grid and then the industry, which is supplying the energy and ensuring its distribution. "The customer is getting a much more controllable and a much more energy-efficient system and the running cost for a Quantum heater relative to its predecessor is a 27pc reduction, so there's a real, real tangible saving. "It's completely controllable and you can also control it over an app. You're bringing a better solution to the home and you're bringing a cheaper solution to the home. "Then the second side of all of this is, if you aggregate a population of homes, which is the 1,250 that we're talking about in this project, you can provide that as an energy store for the electricity system. "There are times during the day, in the winter particularly, where it's very windy, and there's too much electricity coming onto the system. "You can now find a home for that and when it's surplus to requirement it's cheaper, because after putting up the turbine, the costs are minimal. The wind is for free. "So you're providing a balancing system to the grid operator and that is of real value to the grid operator and that will reflect itself in a better tariff and a better pricing structure for the customer," he explained. One of the reasons this project, which won 12m in funding from the EU Commission under Horizon2020, is so radical is because it involves so many separate players, who together will make renewable energy possible for the average householder. "There is very, very significant industry collaboration here in Ireland. So you look across the 13 members that we have, we have EirGrid, which is the grid operator in Ireland, we have ESB Networks, which is the networks operator, we have SSE Electricity, which is an energy provider. "Now that would be unheard of to be able to get the sector together, to get that together in another country would be virtually impossible. We are able to do that here in Ireland. "It's five years of very, very hard work. At a very early stage, we would say EirGrid, ESB Networks and SSE Electricity got this immediately." Another key player to come on board was Intel, bringing the project to a whole other level of applicability. "The other thing we love about this is, we got an absolutely cold-call from Intel research, [in] November 2011. "They knew why they were making the call, they heard it in Brussels that we were working on something very significant in this area," explains Mr O'Driscoll about how the technology giant became involved. "They were building out a gateway technology platform for electric vehicles and concluded that there wouldn't be a population of electric vehicles to deliver what they wanted any time soon, so they were looking to see how could they deploy this technology into something that would be available quickly and then they heard of our heating technology and they approached us to see if we wanted to work with them." By the time Intel came on board, it meant that RealValue now had indigenous Irish industries (Glen Diplex) working alongside the country's largest foreign direct investor (Intel), as well as ESB and EirGrid from the public sector and then the UCD Energy Research Centre. And the parties promise to have the results of RealValue as soon as possible, so that it can be implemented and rolled out into the real world. "We're looking here at a three-year project, we are six months into the project and we won't be waiting until the very end to find out the lessons from this. "As we're going along, we're getting information and using information and we're moving along our business model. "So this is not waiting for the big bang at the end of the three years, this is a progressive learning process and as we're doing it. "We will then be using that to put that platform over all of the houses that currently have the heaters installed," Mr O'Driscoll said. Furthermore, this project is something the whole world is keeping an eye on, and it is not just a project relevant to a small island on the fringe of Europe. The island just happens to be the perfect research ground for it. "This has international opportunities. We will be working on this concept everywhere from Tasmania through to Nova Scotia. Word gets out. This actually has international appeal and opportunity. Ireland is at the forefront of this. "The wonderful thing about Ireland is, we actually have it in the era of energy that we're heading into, and we're only at a very, very early stage of it. "Ireland being an island with very little connectivity, hugely dependent on fossil fuels historically, it throws up all of the problems that this industry will have worldwide and those problems can be studied, they can be researched and the solutions found, which not only have relevance to Ireland but to the UK, to Germany, to France," explained the Glen Dimplex CEO. Key figures from countries like Spain and Portugal are already seeking to speak to the leaders of the RealValue project, because they have the "same problems." So will Ireland be home to the world's next Silicon Valley, having spearheaded this international home-energy project? "I would be very hopeful that the answer to your question, 30 years from now, is that we look back at it and say, 'Ireland was at the forefront of this,'" answers Mr O'Driscoll. Right now, however, Denmark and not Ireland is at the forefront of renewable energy consumption, something that has benefited the country's economy too. "The country that we think has the best energy policy in the whole world at this time is Denmark. Denmark has a national policy of saying that by 2050, it will be completely independent of fossil fuels, irrespective of the price. "They've already started the process of getting there and if you look at the Danish economy over the last 15 years it's grown by about 40pc, and its energy consumption has been reduced by 18pc. "So again to the people who say, 'all this does is over-layer the consumer, the customer, the industry with costs,' they're wrong. Denmark has the policy and framework that we can all look at and say, 'that's the way to do it,'" explained Mr O'Driscoll. Other people who he believes are 'wrong' are those stockbrokers and detractors who say that the green energy industry is a long time off being economically sustainable, aside from government grants. "Well firstly I would say to the stockbrokers, if they were saying that to me, I would say, 'you're wrong, the technology is there.' "All the parts are there from a technology point of view, it is connecting the parts. "We've sold 80,000 of these units (Quantum heating and storage units) as stand-alone, discreet heating systems, so the technology, the hardware is there to do it, what we're now working on is the connectivity side of it and bringing it together. "So the technology is there, the connectivity will be there very, very quickly," said the CEO. In terms of Ireland, where a whopping 52pc of homes are oil-heated, it seems like it would take a long, long time before the results of the RealValue project could be implemented here. Europe will have to push us on. "Europe has set a 2050 target to electrify heat and transport. If we were sitting here in 2025 or 2030, I think we'd be having a very different conversation. "This is not something that's going to happen overnight, this is the start of a journey and we are at a very early stage in the journey," said Mr O'Driscoll. And perhaps he is right, considering that no less than 195 countries at COP21 (conference of parties) in Paris this month agreed to a landmark deal. These countries, Ireland included, aim to cut greenhouse gas emissions to a level that will limit the global average temperature to rise "well below" 2C (3.6F) compared to pre-industrial levels - 2C is a level of warming that is deemed to be the point when dangerous climate change could threaten life on Earth. 'Vat relief at airports is intended to cut prices for travellers - and not be a windfall gain for the shops,' said George Osborne Photo: Luke MacGregor/Bloomberg Britain is to review airport retail sales after some businesses were found to be pocketing about half of tax savings meant for passengers, rather than passing on the discount. Most retailers at British airports, who include WH Smith and Dixons Carphone, ask passengers to show boarding cards when paying for goods, typically citing security as the reason. However, that some use the information to avoid paying 20pc value-added tax on goods going outside the EU. The report prompted a backlash from consumers, with many refusing to show their boarding cards to retailers. Announcing the review, the UK government said that some airport retailers were keeping 50p of every 1 of potential sales tax savings, instead of passing them on to consumers. "VAT relief at airports is intended to cut prices for those travellers - not be a windfall gain for shops," British finance minister George Osborne said in the statement. Many people could be paying over the odds for their purchases because the tax concession was not passed on, he said. The review, which will be conducted by Britain's tax agency in early 2016, will consider ways to ensure prices reflect VAT savings. Charges filed earlier this year in a United States labour court against Primark/Penneys by a Boston workers' union have now been withdrawn Photo: Getty Images/Ingram Publishing Charges filed earlier this year in a United States labour court against Primark/Penneys, the clothing giant with its headquarters in Ireland, have been withdrawn amid difficulty in securing enough staff support. Two separate charges filed by a Boston workers' union with the US National Labor Relations Bureau in October - alleging unfair hiring tactics, coercive behaviour and the changing of employment conditions by Primark at its new US store - have now been withdrawn. The workers' union in Boston - where Primark's first store outside of Europe is located - said high staff turnover and alleged anti-union practices at the retailer were undermining its support from workers. The union intends to refile charges after it gathers more findings, an organiser told the Sunday Independent. The union has been critical of Primark since it opened its first US store three months ago, claiming that the company discourages employees from unionising and in some cases has let employees go for supporting the union. "We withdrew the case in order to be able to refile as we gather more findings" a spokesman for Boston's United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1145 said. "We did not want the board to dismiss our case. Turnover is a huge problem but we continue to educate the new workforce coming in and continue to sign more workers on union authorisation cards." "The turnover rate has been an obstacle toward unionising as many have left Primark to find better employment," said union president Jeff Bollen. "Minimum wage in Massachusetts is $9 per hour going to $10 (9.20) as of January 1. Non-union retail workers receive little to no benefits, be they full- or part-time workers. To date, only a couple of termed workers have come forward to testify at the National Labor Relations Board." (The National Labor Relations Board is the US government agency that handles cases of unfair work practices.) "The total support of employees becomes a moving target with the turnover rate being so high." Alleged anti-union practices at Primark are also hurting efforts to unionise, said Mr Bollen. "Management is telling new employees not to talk with us or sign cards and signing new employees up is becoming more difficult. "We continue to meet with the workers' committee at their homes to grow support and combat the company's aggressive anti-union campaign. "It is clear that Primark has no intention of allowing employees to peacefully unionise. Primark continues to refuse to meet with the union despite requests. We will push on to organise the employees, no matter how long it takes." A Penneys spokesman responded, saying: "The union's allegations have been presented to the National Labor Relations Board on two occasions. "On both occasions, these allegations were fully vetted by the board and proven baseless, resulting in the union having to withdraw these claims. "Primark has always supported the rights of its employees across all countries where it trades, whether or not an employee is a union member. "Accordingly, the facts do not support the union's allegations." While Isil wreaked carnage across Europe in 2015, some members of the Muslim community in Ireland insisted that the extremist terrorist group simply didn't exist in Ireland. A legal action in the Four Courts last week provided the first official confirmation that the security services suspect that it does - in the form of a father in his Fifties whom the State wants to deport because he is a threat to "national security". Although the man has lived here for 15 years, he first came to the attention of the Garda Special Branch four years ago, the year of the Arab Spring uprisings across the Middle East. The authorities decided to move against him last March and the man was sent a letter informing him that he was to be deported. The man denies the allegations and says that he will be tortured if he is deported. So what can be said of the man whom the State suspects is a recruiter for Isil and the first suspected member of the Islamic terror group to appear before the Irish courts? The first thing to be said is that the man denies the allegations and says that he will be tortured if he is deported, in breach of Article 3 of the Convention of Human Rights. Last Wednesday, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg issued a temporary order suspending his deportation while the courts consider his case. He cannot be named for legal reasons, and the media is also prohibited from reporting where he is from and the country the State wants to deport him to. However, some facts emerged during a number of hearings that took place in the High Court and the Court of Appeal last week. The man did not appear. The reasons for his non-attendance were given to the court but the media was only allowed to report that he was "indisposed". The man first came to Ireland in 2000 and sought asylum here. The same year, his son was born in Ireland which entitled his parents to "residency status" here. The man withdrew the application for refugee status and continued to live in Ireland under its residency rules. Scant details were given about how he makes a living, or where he lives, or why the gardai began monitoring him in the first place. The man first came to their attention in 2011 and the intelligence they gathered over the next four years led them to suspect him of being the most senior Isil figure in Ireland. According to evidence given to court, gardai suspected that he was a "recruiter" of Islamic terrorists who "makes travel arrangements" for others to fight abroad in countries such as Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. He was described as "a senior operative of Isil" and its "foremost organiser and facilitator within the State". Last year, he was told that his residency permit to remain in Ireland would not be renewed. His son at that time was living overseas. In March last year, the authorities informed the man that he must leave the State by the end of 2015 or be deported. Last month, the man took a legal challenge to his deportation in the High Court. At an emergency sitting on Monday, a Department of Justice official testified that the man was suspected of "consulting" with and giving directions to senior violent extremist leaders who operated outside Ireland. The injunction was lifted, clearing the way for his deportation. The man took his case to the Court of Appeal, where at another emergency sitting on Wednesday, three judges heard his case. The risk of torture is at the heart of his challenge to his deportation order. Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights prohibits "inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment". The man claims that he will be tortured if he is deported. Ireland recognises the European Convention - but also wants to protect national security. "The right that will be interfered with is, in fact, the right to life," counsel for the Minister for Justice, Remy Farrell, told the court. But Michael Lynn, the applicant's senior counsel, told the court that the man had been tortured for "his political beliefs" before he came to Ireland in 2000. A report from Spirasi, a Dublin-based advocacy group that counsels victims of torture, referred to scars on his back and "alleged abuse". The State's accusation that he is an Isil supporter - which the man denies - just increases the likelihood that he will be tortured if he is sent back to that country, according to Mr Lynn. The man has since reinstated his application for refugee status in Ireland and his Irish-born son has returned to live here. Mr Farrell noted that the man did not disclose in his original asylum application that he had been tortured. And he mentioned a trip to Turkey that the man took in 2013 in which he was refused entry. The three judges of the Court of Appeal had questions about the evidence. "I don't wish to be trite about it but there is no evidence of the nature of these things," said Mr Justice Peart at one stage to Mr Farrell. analysis Page 20 A second judge, Mr Justice Garrett Sheehan, said: "What you seem to be saying is that the applicant is involved in murder in other jurisdictions and there would be a conspiracy in this jurisdiction to commit murder in others." The affidavit was "silent" on the "number of times the man has been arrested for questioning", he said. The State's counsel was at that point unable to tell him. The other matter, said Mr Justice Sheehan, was that the State put the man at risk by saying that he was a member of Isil. "Are you saying he is in a position to go back and live with his wife and family if he returns [to his home country]?" Just then, a fax made its way to Dublin from the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. It was an interim order requesting the Irish Government not to deport the man. The order took the man's legal team by surprise. "We didn't anticipate this," said his counsel, Mr Lynn. The man's deportation is stalled and his case could yet go all the way to European Court of Human Rights. Tesco has been left with a 153,571 bill after unfairly sacking four long-serving female workers over a 'fry-up' dispute. The Employment Appeals Tribunal (EAT) ruled that Tesco must pay a combined 112,571 to three female workers who were unfairly dismissed from a former Tesco-operated cafe at Gorey, Co Wexford. The 112,571 is in addition to 41,000 the EAT ordered to be paid to the fourth former Tesco worker, Lisa Kinsella, who was also unfairly dismissed. CCTV footage found that the workers did not immediately pay for their breakfasts made up of sausages, rashers, hash browns, beans, pudding and toast, on two dates in May 2013. But the tribunal found there was an established practice of paying for breakfasts later - out of tips. The four women had a combined 54 years of service and all had exemplary records before the 'fry-up' incidents, which happened in May 2013. One of the workers, Emer Lawless - who worked with Tesco since 2002 before her 2013 sacking - is to receive 61,918. The EAT has also ordered that Tesco pay 35,550 to Ann Dwyer - employed since 1999 - for her unfair dismissal. In addition, the EAT has ordered that Edel Hardiman - who worked with Tesco since 1996 - receive 15,103. Ms Hardiman's amount is lower than her colleagues as she secured new employment in September 2014. CEREMONY: President Michael D Higgins at the flag raising ceremony at the opening of the State Commemorative Programme for 2016 at Dublin Castle. Photo: Steve Humphreys On the Tuesday of Easter Week, 1916, Margaret Rose Grealy from Rocklawn in Galway cycled her new bike to Clarenbridge. She had waited since Easter Sunday for instructions and early that morning they finally came. She trained as a nurse and signed up for Cumann na mBan. Commanding Officer in Galway, Liam Mellowes wanted her with his company of volunteers to treat the wounded. "When operations ceased in Clarenbridge we marched to Oranmore where two attacks took place on the police barracks," she later wrote. "Several shots were exchanged but no one was injured except two police who were wounded in the fight. "We brought them along as prisoners and I was ordered to attend to their wounds by Liam Mellowes. This I did willingly for the whole week, washed their wounds and bandaged them." From Oranmore, she went with the volunteers to Athenry "to take part in the taking over of the agricultural college". There, they met with troops from other areas. "The troops were flagged out and they were ordered to kill a few fat cattle and I helped with the cooking. Here the troops rested as best they could until a few bombs from the war ships were fired from the Galway Port. Providentially, the bomb exploded within half a mile of us." The company moved to Lime Park. A Brigadier Newell took her new bicycle to go on a dispatch. She was sent by car with armed volunteers to Loughrea Abbey and later on to Esker with a message for the local priests, asking them to give the sacraments to the volunteers. Armed men travelled with her and as Mary later wrote: "I was also given a revolver and told to use it if required." On the way to Loughrea, they passed a police ambush: "They came out of their hiding places and opened fire on us. Our men continued to fire on them but we had no bad result on either side. We went our way." Margaret delivered the message at Loughrea Abbey. Back at Lime Park, the priests arrived and administered the sacraments to the troops. She stayed with Mellowes and his company for five nights, cooking, sending messages and treating the wounded. Then she writes with understatement: "On Saturday night we were disbanded and they all went home." Margaret was arrested a few days after she returned to her family home and was held at Eglinton police station in Galway. "My new bicycle and a good top coat were taken from me. I could never get them back. After the Black and Tans arrived in this country my nephew Patrick Cloonan was taken from his house at dawn, brought out on the sea shore and shot." Many years later, in 1938, in ill-health and with "nothing to live on but on friends", she applied for the military pension. She was aware that many men had received the pension by then, but few women. In a letter to her local TD, she wrote: "What are they waiting for?... I often heard it was ladies first and gentlemen afterwards but now it is reversed." On September 25, 1941, Margaret's application was refused. She was finally awarded her pension after the Second World War. Margaret's account is one of scores of first-hand testimonies from many ordinary people during that historic Easter week in 1916 as part of her application for a military pension and documented in the military pensions archive that first went online in 2014. Captain Kate Hanrahan with the Proclamation outside the GPO during the commemoration to mark the 99th anniversary of the 1916 Rising. Photo: Mark Condren You'd have to wonder what the executed leaders of the Rising would make of it all. Thomas J Clarke, Sean Mac Diarmada, Thomas MacDonagh, Padraig Pearse, Eamonn Ceannt, James Connolly and Joseph Plunkett. Men willing to die for their country; for liberty, sovereignty and economic freedom. They wrote the Proclamation swiftly, under life-threatening conditions in Liberty Hall on the night before the Rising. "We declare the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland and to the unfettered control of Irish destinies, to be sovereign and indefeasible," they proclaimed, before taking up arms. Mac Diarmada was in poor health. His hip was bad. He walked in pain and with the aid of a stick, travelling the country, as the Irish Republican Brotherhood's principal organiser. On the day of the Rising, Clarke went into the GPO to fight alongside his comrades, even though he was almost 60 and suffering from a bullet wound to his elbow. Read More Across the city, on Mount Street Bridge, where a handful held off the Crown forces, a 28-year-old carpenter turned lieutenant, Michael Malone, sent his youthful troops home in order to save their lives. The lack of weaponry juxtaposed with the sheer bravery displayed on the day has oft been commended by historians. Fast forward 100 years and Ireland has "changed utterly", as W B Yeats predicted. But in ways they could never envisage. Our risk from foreign adversaries has changed from the very real threat of the enemy at the gates to intimidations of a different kind in the financial sector. Today's leaders never had to take up arms to protect their people. And yet the stark language of warfare has been conjured up at every turn. Unlike the rebels who fanned out across the city on Easter Monday in April 1916 facing artillery from all sides, today's governments have only had to deal with the metaphorical "loaded gun" while Trichet and the ECB threatened financial Armageddon to let a "bomb go off" in the Irish economy unless Finance Minster Michael Noonan met their demands. And yet the sheer lack of courage to go toe-to-toe against these foreign threats would leave you wondering where Kenny and his comrades would cower if they found themselves in a plume of smoke 100 years ago as the British closed in. Over the past two governments, leaders have kowtowed again and again to foreign interests. Read More The bank guarantee, a willingness to honour bondholders debts and the submissiveness shown when the US government blocked an attempt by the previous Irish government to burn 20bn worth of bondholders has been staggering. The last person to oversee the country in such a crisis was Charlie Haughey. For all his flaws, it is hard to imagine him ever allowing the Irish taxpayer to be screwed by Europe like that. He may have been crooked but he was smart. And he would never have rolled over like a pair of schoolteachers. Our politicians skinned the country for the interest of global financial institutions, saddling the nation with 9,000 debt for every man, woman and child. And when there was "blood on the streets", as Steve Schwarzman, chief executive of Blackstone said when offering his views on buying up Europe's distressed assets to an audience at Goldman Sachs in New York in 2010, they let foreign vultures swoop in. Afterwards, Schwarzman's company bought 2bn of Irish loans and property, including the Burlington hotel, a 25pc stake in Eircom, offices and a 1.8bn par value of loans linked to developer Michael O'Flynn, bought from Nama at a discount for around 1.1bn. The state agency - which was given unprecedented powers in a bid to get credit going - sold loans secured by prized assets to foreigners, like Claridges and Battersea Power Station, while the Irish could only stand and watch. What a turnaround when our forefathers had always fought to protect our land from foreign interests and keep the welfare of the Irish people at it's heart. But hey, this year the Government has been busy handing out free flags and copies of the Proclamation and the nation is expected to get in the spirit. No doubt Kenny will give a tall speech too at Dublin's GPO this Easter, waxing lyrical about the true meaning of patriotism. The same man who sat in front of the Irish flag to deliver his State of the Nation address four years ago upon taking up office. He told the country: "I want to be the Taoiseach who retrieves Ireland's economic sovereignty" and even evoked the spirit of the "founding fathers of our nation". So you'd have to wonder what they would make of our leaders 100 years on. My guess is, come Easter, you can forget resurrections, the only movement up on Arbour Hill will be some real patriots turning in their graves. The scene of the crash in the early hours of this morning One woman has died and another has been seriously injured after they were hit by a car in Dublin early this morning. The driver of the car, a man in his 20s, was arrested at the scene on suspicion of drink driving and taken to Blanchardstown Garda Station. Expand Close Debris at the scene of the crash / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Debris at the scene of the crash He was later charged and released, and he is due to appear before a sitting of Blanchardstown District Court later this month. The accident happened at around 2.40am today when the two female pedestrians (both in their 40s) were seriously injured when they were struck by a car on Hartstown Road, Clonsilla, Dublin 15. Both were taken by ambulance to Connolly Hospital Blanchardstown. One of the women was later pronounced dead, while the second woman remains in a serious condition. The occupants of the car, three men in their twenties, were uninjured in the collision. Garda Forensic Collision Investigators have examined the scene and the road has since reopened to traffic. The Coroner has been notified. Gardai are appealing for witnesses. A garda spokesperson said they are particularly appealing to anyone who was in the vicinity of Hartstown Road at the time of the collision to contact them at Blanchardstown Garda Station 01-6667000 or the Garda Confidential Line 1800 666 111. A 'sinister' attack that could have caused death or serious injury to a Co Wexford garda and his family over Christmas has been condemned locally. The garda, whose name is withheld, found that both his and his wife's cars had been tampered with in the early hours of Christmas morning. Expandable foam had been pumped into the exhausts of both cars. According to local people, the garda cleared the foam from the exhausts and took his wife's car for a short drive, whereupon he found that the brakes were not working. It is understood that the brake pipes had been severed. Local community activist Billy Moroney, a neighbour of the family, said the garda, his wife and two children, who live at the top of a hill in the New Ross area, are highly thought of locally and that there is considerable unease in the area. "This is a deplorable, sinister incident. The culprit, or culprits, came onto their property in the early hours of Christmas morning and carried out this attack on this family. "There could have been tragic consequences as the family live at the top of a steep hill on a road leading onto to a main road. I understand that the brakes on the car were cut and this was only discovered by the officer when he drove his wife's car. "This officer and his family are highly respected people and this attack comes at a time when people are bemoaning the fact that there is a dearth of rural gardai living in the community as there is spiralling crime in rural areas. "I hope that the authorities are taking this very seriously indeed. There could have been absolutely appalling consequences if this officer had not tested his wife's car and found that this sinister damage had been done. "I would also call on all members of the community here to support this family and all their local gardai and to pass on any information about who was responsible for this despicable incident." It is understood that the perpetrators also poured expandable foam into the drain spouts on the family home, possibly to cause water damage. The motive for the attack is not known but it comes amid continuing unease among gardai about the level of threats and intimidation of officers. The Wexford incident, however, has raised concerns as the damage done to the officer's wife's car endangered his family and could have led, as Mr Moroney pointed out, to a serious or even fatal road accident. The incident is under investigation but was not initially reported by the Garda Press Office. Asked yesterday about the incident, the Press Office said: "Gardai are investigating criminal damage to a home and car in New Ross, Co Wexford on December 25." Garda sources said there was no clear motive for the attack on the officer's home and family but that there is a 'selection' of criminals in the Wexford area who could be capable of such an attack. Wexford, like all other counties, has been experiencing increased levels of burglaries and robberies, with gangs targeting elderly people in isolated areas. A bachelor in his sixties was beaten and tied up at his home in the Adamstown area on December 5 by members of a gang who forced him to hand over a small sum of cash. Mr Moroney said that while there continues to be strong support for the gardai in Wexford, as in other rural areas, there is disquiet about the growing trend of gardai living away from areas where they serve. He added: "This officer is a highly respected garda living in the community that he serves and this needs to be recognised. "I hope the powers that be in the force are very aware of the responsibility they owe to the support and protection of the very valuable and respected officers in the community." Clash: Will Lucinda Creighton's conservatism put her at loggerheads with some of the Dublin 4 constituents. This will be a make-or-break year in the political career of Lucinda Creighton as she goes into an election with her new party, Renua, for the first time. The party, which has its origins in Fine Gael, seems highly likely to play a significant part in the formation of the next government. When it comes to forming governments, leaders tend to go for coalition allies from their own political gene pool, and Enda Kenny is likely to be no exception to that rule after the next election. There could easily be two scenarios where Creighton would play a pivotal role, assuming that her party manages to win a few seats. Fine Gael could perform extremely well, but just fall short of a majority. In this scenario, Kenny's former comrades in Renua could hold the balance of power, with Creighton providing enough support to get the Taoiseach over the line. Creighton would then be guaranteed a cabinet post and it would be more senior than her previous junior posting as Minister for Europe. In another scenario, if Fine Gael drops sharply in support but is still ahead of the other parties, Creighton could be part of a patchwork rainbow coalition of Fine Gael and smaller parties. A Fine Gael-Renua rapprochement does not just seem likely because of Dail arithmetic; Creighton still sometimes talks ruefully as if the bigger party is still her spiritual home. It is as if Fine Gael left her, rather than her leaving the party. When she lost the party whip two years ago, Creighton underlined her commitment to the Blueshirt cause: "This is the party I have worked for unstintingly since I was 18 years old." For a leader of an opposition party, she often seems constrained in putting the boot into the Taoiseach. Creighton and several other Fine Gael Oireachtas members got on the wrong side of their party in summer 2013 over the Government's Protection of Life in Pregnancy Act. She and several others lost the party whip when they voted against legislation to liberalise abortion laws. The abortion issue will be up for debate again next year, with further proposals to liberalise the abortion laws in cases of fatal foetal abnormalities. It is highly significant that this time out Fine Gael TDs will be given a free vote. Creighton's husband, Senator Paul Bradford, also a Renua candidate, remarked in November that it was "unfortunate" that Kenny took so long to allow TDs to vote with their conscience. In other words, if a free vote had been allowed in 2013, Creighton and her colleagues would not have broken away and formed Renua. The creation of the new party is seen by TDs in both parties as being simply down to a mistake on Kenny's part, and he won't want to repeat it. Creighton's party has high hopes of winning at least four seats in the General Election - but believes that with a fair wind, its representation could stretch to as many as seven. The past experience of another small party, the Progressive Democrats (in effect a splinter group formed out of Fianna Fail), shows how a handful of TDs can easily hold the balance of power, and exercise considerable influence. In fact, Creighton once claimed to have been an admirer of PD founder Des O'Malley at the age of 10, and to have recognised the roguery of Charles Haughey at that tender age. She said once in an interview: "I remember when Dessie O'Malley went into coalition with Haughey, I was disgusted." Creighton has expressed confidence that her party will perform better than its poll rating, which has hovered at around 2pc since it was launched. "We have only had one electoral contest, in Carlow-Kilkenny, and in that contest we achieved 10pc of the vote, so I think that the figure we are seeing in national polls doesn't really reflect where we are," she said. Creighton is an accomplished media performer who brings a refreshing candour to the Dail. But despite her promises to create a new kind of politics, Renua does not seem to have many other powerful personalities capable of giving its policies national prominence. One of the few big-ticket items on Renua's policy agenda to have made an impact is its proposal to apply the same 23pc flat tax to everyone. Creighton argues that the Universal Social Charge, different income tax rates, and employers' PRSI should all be scrapped in favour of one flat rate. It would be phased in over a three-year period for everyone, including those on social welfare. Creighton said the new tax proposals were a game-changer for the Irish people. But her Fianna Fail constituency rival Jim O'Callaghan said it was "an economically illiterate proposal favoured only by eccentrics and the super-rich". Renua sometimes seems to present a hotch potch of different conservative policies, rather than a coherent ideology. Its candidate for Cavan-Monaghan, Mary Smyth, recently had to step down after she described the Vatican as "the Antichrist" and "corrupt, riddled with gay sex and adoration of wealth". Creighton's own conservatism on some issues may place her at loggerheads with many of her liberal Dublin 4 constituents. She set off a storm of protest on social media before the last election when she opposed same-sex marriage while supporting civil partnerships. "I think marriage is primarily about children, main purpose being to propagate & create environment for children to grow up," Creighton said at the time on Twitter. However, her social conservatism did not stop her topping the poll, as she won one of two Fine Gael seats in Dublin South-East in 2011, and since then she has changed her tune on same-sex marriage, announcing that she was voting Yes in last year's referendum. Her high profile and willingness to speak her mind is likely to get her over the line again in the constituency renamed Dublin Bay South. Creighton party's performance and the plight of other parties such as Labour will determine whether she regains high office after the election. Fine Gael TD John Perry's Coalition career got off to a good start when he was appointed Minister for Small Business by Taoiseach Enda Kenny after the 2011 General Election. Some would say this was a reward for remaining loyal to Kenny through thick and thin. But then things went downhill. Danske Bank secured a 2.4m claim against Perry and his wife Marie, which threatened to bankrupt the TD, and eyebrows were raised over an AIB loan and mileage claims. To make matters worse, Kenny stripped him of his ministry and sent him to the backbenches after his Cabinet reshuffle. Contrastingly, his constituency colleague, Tony McLoughlin, kept the head down and got on with things, which gave him somewhat of an advantage on Perry with the local support in the revamped Sligo Leitrim constituency. The new four-county electoral area posed problems for Fine Gael before the selection convention ever took place. The party believed it had a chance of returning two candidates in the four-seat constituency but only one would come from Sligo where Perry and McLoughlin are based. The other would have to come from the Leitrim end of the constituency, where former TD Gerry Reynolds and Senator Michael Comiskey put their names forward. With the convention approaching, Perry first threatened legal action over the exclusion of his supporters from the vote. Fine Gael said they were ineligible as they had not registered as members in the previous two years as was required under party rules. On October 16, Fine Gael members descended on the Mayflower Ballroom in Drumshambo, Co Leitrim for the hotly anticipated selection convention. What happened over the following hours is disputed but Fine Gael secretary general Tom Curran would later describe the organisation of the event as "chaotic" in a strongly worded letter to local organiser Darragh Kelly. At around 3am the next morning, McLoughlin and Reynolds were selected as Fine Gael's general election candidates. Perry was left out in the cold but presumed he would be added to the ticket on the back of a commitment from Kenny that every sitting TD could contest the election if they wished. Perry pleaded with Kenny at Fine Gael Parliamentary Party meetings but the Taoiseach remained steadfast. During these meetings, he alluded to what he saw as serious irregularities around votes being cast and not cast on the night of the selection convention. There was a lot of sympathy for him in the party, with many believing removing him from the ticket set a dangerous precedent. On November 9, Kevin O'Higgins, a solicitor representing Tom Curran and Fine Gael, wrote to Cahir O'Higgins, who was mediating between the party and Perry. Mr O'Higgins said he had been "advised" that Curran "observed some unorthodoxy" during the convention which included the behaviour of Mr Perry, who he alleged was canvassing members before the vote - this is not allowed under party rules. However, the solicitor said the general secretary regarded that the convention was "reasonably satisfactory" despite a "glitch or two". It was also noted that Mr Perry had not complained during the convention. On November 15, Perry launched a High Court action against his own party seeking to overturn the result of the vote in Drumshambo. In his affidavit, Perry listed a litany of concerns with the convention including allegations that members who did not attend the convention were recorded as having voted, while others who did vote did not have their votes recorded. Under questioning, he described panic and pandemonium on the night of the vote but was accused of exaggerating because he had lost by Fine Gael's legal team. During his evidence, Darragh Kelly, the constituency organiser, accepted there were minor irregularities on the night but denied the event was chaotic or disorganised. Kelly was also questioned on a draft report on the convention in which he said Curran suggested removing two votes belonging to Perry before the count but he decided not to do it as a "matter of conscience". Curran denied saying this. There was no mention of this in the final report Kelly submitted as evidence and he denied he was asked to remove the reference to "take one for the team". The next day, the letter Curran sent to Kelly on October 23 emerged for the first time - this was also not given to Perry's team before the trial. In the letter, Curran tells Kelly he wants to express his concern with the "chaotic organisation" of the convention, where "not one mistake was made but a catalogue". He said the litany of mistakes "drained people's confidence in the competency of the returning officer" and said he would be returning to the matter after the general election. Perry's side sought to have the defence's case thrown out for not revealing the letter during discovery. The judge overruled. Later that day, Curran shocked the court room when he revealed that adding Perry was still an option. A And then, before Curran could be cross-examined, Fine Gael added Perry. The botched attempt to force Perry from the ticket now looks set to cost Fine Gael around 500,0000 and party members, who will spend thousands on their election campaigns, are looking for blood. Senior figures in the party want to know if Kenny gave the okay for the court challenge and, if not, will he hold Curran to account for the cock-up? Perry is planning to ask the Comptroller and Auditor General to look at how his own party spends public funding and Curran will face questions at the next Fine Gael Parliamentary Party meeting. Cork East TD Tom Barry also called for an independent review of the "needless waste" of money and said there is too much power divested to the upper ranks of the party. Mr Barry said Fine Gael was becoming like the Irish Farmers Association (IFA) with "too much power divested to the executive and particularly one member". "It would be appropriate, following such a public trial where large sums of money were needlessly wasted, that a full independent review be initiated," he said Many senior Fine Gael figures are also deeply concerned but did not want to speak out, fearing retribution from party headquarters. "This is a scandalous waste of money. How is Curran ever going to have the credibility to ring up a TD and tell them to sell more superdraw tickets after this," a minister said. There are concerns at the heart of Government that the Opposition will hold a majority in the Seanad if the Coalition is returned to power after the General Election. This could result in a major headache for the next Government as the Opposition would be able to delay vital pieces of legislation for months before allowing laws pass through the upper house of parliament. The opposite side of the house does not have the power to vote down legislation but can block proposed laws for up to 90 days. The Coalition lost a number of votes on motions over the last five years due to a tight majority in the Seanad after Taoiseach Enda Kenny's appointment of Independent senators backfired. Now it is feared that, even if all 11 of the Taoiseach's appointees are Government supporters, the Coalition will still struggle to hold the house if returned to office. Mr Kenny could face a situation like the one his US counterpart President Barack Obama encountered after losing control of the Senate to the Republican party. Senior Fine Gael senators have held serious discussions on the possibility of losing the house to the Opposition due to the loses suffered by the Coalition during the local elections. The 2014 vote saw the number of Fine Gael and Labour councillors dramatically reduced while Fianna Fail and Sinn Fein made significant gains. The upper house's electorate comprises councillors, incoming TDs and outgoing senators, among others. Fianna Fail is the largest party in local Government with 267 seats after the local elections, ahead of Fine Gael on 235. Sinn Fein tripled its number of council seats to 159, while Labour holds just 51. Senior Fine Gael sources believe if the Coalition is returned, the number of Seanad seats the party holds could be cut from 18 to as low as 13, while Labour could be reduced from 11 to just five. Meanwhile, Fianna Fail seats are expected to increase from 12 to 17, and Sinn Fein could go from three to as many as eight. Independent senator Gerard Craughwell, who was elected in the wake of the John McNulty Seanad debacle, is also believed to be in the running to hold his seat. The six university senators, who are not tied to a party whip, would then become very influential when it comes to votes. Labour's Ivana Bacik would vote with the Government but with the other five senators, the Opposition could potentially hold 31 of the 60 seats. "We are going to lose a seat on every panel, maybe two on some, so we are going to be way down," a senior Fine Gael senator said. "The figures speak for themselves - it's going to be tricky and it's going to be tight," the senator added. Fianna Fail senators also believe the Opposition holding power is a "mathematical possibility" based on the local election results. "It will be very interesting for the senators elected because they will be in a powerful position to influence policy," a senator said. In this situation, the Government may take the unprecedented move of appointing a member of the Opposition as cathaoirleach of the Seanad. If Mr Kenny is the next Taoiseach he is unlikely to replicate his appointment of Independent senators as he did in 2011. Senators also believe the Taoiseach regrets his failed attempt to abolish the Seanad early in his tenure. "He thought people would follow him and it would be gone and he would get great credit for this and then he got no credit from the people he appointed or the voters," a source said. POSTER BOYS: The ad has fuelled fears that we may see a US-style negative campaign The Labour Party has devised an attack ad for the General Election, which will portray Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams and Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin as a gay couple on their wedding day, the Sunday Independent can reveal. The election ad, which will divide opinion and raise concerns over negative campaigning, is aimed at stoking fears over the possibility of a Sinn Fein/Fianna Fail government and presenting the Coalition as the only alternative. The campaign will infuriate Mr Martin, who has persistently ruled out going into coalition with Sinn Fein, despite advances from Mr Adams, who is open to forming a government with Fianna Fail. The advertisement shows Mr Adams and Mr Martin on the plinth outside Leinster House, cutting a wedding cake, and comes with a warning to voters that "this is one marriage we should vote NO to this year", before adding: "Vote Labour for a stable and balanced Government." The image also features left-wing TDs Richard Boyd Barrett, Paul Murphy, Mick Wallace and Clare Daly as the wedding party. The Labour/Fine Gael Government is continually telling voters that the forthcoming election is a choice between the stability of the current Coalition and chaos under Sinn Fein or Fianna Fail. Read More Labour strategists hope the election ad will reinforce this point, while reminding voters of the party's role in the marriage equality referendum. A senior source said that the draft advert was aimed at making a "serious point in a humorous way". The source said the image made the point that voters have a choice between "the stable, balanced Government offered by Labour and Fine Gael and a marriage of convenience between Fianna Fail and Sinn Fein that would destroy Ireland's hard-won progress". "Fianna Fail caused the bust in the first place and Sinn Fein would return us to bust with their policies," the source added. But last night, Mr Martin's spokeswoman said Labour's campaign showed that Joan Burton's party was "clutching at straws in desperation". "The stakes are very high for Labour, so they have to go for the negative campaign to get noticed," she added. And Fianna Fail's environment spokesman, Barry Cowen, said that any sequel to Labour's 'Every little hurts under Fine Gael' ad would only "heighten people's abhorrence of their tactics". A Sinn Fein spokesman said Labour was becoming "increasingly desperate" as the General Election approaches. Senior Labour sources said the ad was one of several images that the party is considering as part of its election campaign. However, the advertisement is likely to raise concerns over the potential for a US-style negative election campaign, which would see parties engaged in cut-throat tactics to win votes. The Labour ad follows previous revelations in the Sunday Independent that Fine Gael plans to personally target Mr Martin during the election. The party described him as "a shiver without a spine" in a private briefing. The General Election campaign will kick into overdrive in the coming weeks, with increased speculation that Taoiseach Enda Kenny will hold the election on either February 25 or 26. Read More The Coalition has been buoyed by a series of positive opinion poll results showing increasing public support for Labour and Fine Gael. However, there are fears in both coalition parties that their election campaigns could be derailed as the Government scrambles to limit voter backlash over its management of the worst flood crisis to hit the country since records began. And with vast swathes of the country submerged in water, Mr Kenny infuriated his party colleagues last week by refusing to visit areas devastated by the floods for several days. The Taoiseach is also set to face mounting pressure from members over the botched attempt to force Sligo/Leitrim TD John Perry off Fine Gael's election ticket. The party is facing a 500,000 bill over its failed High Court defence of Mr Perry's legal challenge to have his selection convention result overturned. Party members are now insisting that Fine Gael secretary general Tom Curran be called to account for what a Fine Gael minister called a "scandalous waste of money". The Sunday Independent can also reveal today the contents of the controversial letter that Mr Curran sent to the returning officer who ran the contentious selection convention and which was not initially disclosed by Fine Gael under discovery. In the internal Fine Gael correspondence, Mr Curran brands the organisation of the event as "chaotic" and ravaged by a "catalogue" of mistakes which "drained people's confidence in the competency of the returning officer". Last night, Mr Perry questioned whether Mr Curran should remain as Fine Gael general secretary and called on Mr Kenny to explain his role in the fiasco. Mr Perry was supported by Cork East TD Tom Barry, who said Fine Gael was becoming like the Irish Farmers Association (IFA) with "too much power divested to the executive and particularly one member". "In light of this and the damage it has done, it would be appropriate, following such a public trial where large sums of money were needlessly wasted, that a full independent review should be initiated," Mr Barry told the Sunday Independent. Others senior Fine Gael figures, who feared speaking publicly ahead of the election, also questioned whether the 141,000-a-year secretary general could remain in the party after next year's vote. "I don't think his position is tenable. I'd say once this election is over there will be fellas asking question about Curran," a senior Fine Gael source said. Meanwhile, Labour is gearing up for its election campaign which will see a variety of election ads on billboards, in print and online. The image revealed today is one of a number of advertisements that the party plans to unveil over the course of the campaign. The gay marriage ad is currently a draft and has not been commissioned to run in any publication. INVESTMENT: The flood defence barriers keeping the waters at bay in the town of Fermoy, Co Cork. Photo: Provision In a cosy corner of the Grand Hotel in Fermoy, locals enjoy their lunch and coffee, sharing tales of the Christmas just past. Music plays and the perfect winter scene is completed with a burning log fire. But just 30 feet away, the River Blackwater, swollen, fast-flowing and at its highest level in years, storms its way through the North Cork town. Following yet another 24-hour period of heavy and persistent rain, the river has bulldozed its way north from Kerry - but here, for the first time in the history of the garrison town, it has been tamed. Earlier this year the installation of a 38m flood defence system was completed and yesterday as the river rose again, the defences were raised to their maximum with the main bridge closed off to motorists and pedestrians. It will remain closed until this morning when the situation will be reviewed again. The town with the tag of 'the most flooded in Ireland' now finds itself in the unfamiliar, and somewhat surreal, situation of being dry while others fight back the relentless waters. Locals come to be pictured beside the new shiny flood defence panelling. "It's just as well we had the flood defences up because those living along the quays believe the height of the river in recent days, especially on Wednesday night, was the highest they'd ever seen. Dangerously high. If that volume of water had swamped the town, we would have been destroyed," said local business owner and Fine Gael councillor Noel McCarthy. He added: "The flood defence system took five years to install and there was a lot of disruption in the town when it was going up but I can tell you we're so happy it's here now." And Joe Kearney, who owns the Grand Hotel, said: "In 2009, we were flooded twice in 10 days. It nearly floored us for good. But now that fear doesn't exist and it's a huge lift for everyone in the town. We have peace of mind and can look to the future without keeping one eye on the river." Mallow, too, benefited from having its own flood defence system. While parts of the town, including the Park area, are still severely flooded, as are many secondary routes surrounding the town, it was protected from the worst of the flooding. "Can you imagine what state this town would have been in if we didn't have the flood defences in place?" asked local man Denis O'Sullivan. He added: "We can live with flooding to roads and fields but not homes and businesses." Three cars were stuck in flood waters on the Racecourse road towards Killarney yesterday afternoon and, while the road was declared passable, most motorists were taking no chances. But, further downstream, it's the smaller villages and parishes that are paying the price for the flood defence victories in the likes of Fermoy and Mallow. The Blackwater river levels in the village of Ballyduff, on the Waterford/Cork border, were at their highest in living memory yesterday. Fields, roads and farmland were submerged and the R666-44 road from Ballyduff to Fermoy was closed at Ballynalacken/Kilmurry South after a heavy landslide. Roads were badly damaged as streams flowed from fields. One local farmer told the Sunday Independent: "I've lived here all my life, 77 years, and I have never seen a river of that sheer strength passing through my village and my land. It has to be connected with the flood defence system in Fermoy. Because of it, the water doesn't slow down, its flow isn't impeded at all. It'll drown us unless the weather improves." With more heavy rain expected to fall in the south east today, those living in Cork and Waterford are bracing themselves for more dangerous driving conditions. And in parts of Midleton and Bandon, the two Cork towns worst affected, residents continue to clean out their homes after flooding caused by Storm Frank on Wednesday morning saw their houses submerged. With limited flood protection, residents there are calling for similar defences to those built in other towns in the county. Easter falls particularly early this year and children will finish school on Wednesday, March 16 and will not return to the classroom until Monday, April 4. Irish parents are preparing to pack the children off to school this week as Christmas officially draws to a close but they can look forward to an Easter break that spans almost three weeks this March. Easter falls particularly early this year and it will tie in with the St Patrick's Day bank holiday. The national bank holiday will effectively extend into Easter as just one school day (Friday, March 18) separates St Patricks Day and the beginning of the Easter holidays. To avoid bringing children back for just one day, The Department of Education has awarded a bonus day to bring the two holidays together, but this day will have to be made up during the year. Annual school holidays are now organised in three yearly cycles, through what is known as the Standardised Year. Discussions take place between the Department of Education, school management authorities and teachers' unions to settle the dates of the mid-term breaks and Christmas and Easter holidays. Children will be off school from Wednesday, March 16 and will not return to the classroom until Monday, April 4. So they will be off for 19 days in total. Those who arent looking forward to packing their little ones off to school this Wednesday can also look forward to the annual mid-term break in February which can range from two days to five days depending on whether a school needs to make up time. This year, Easter falls on March 27 and will have special significance as Ireland celebrates the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising. Under Department of Education rules, primary schools are obliged to open for 183 days, while at second level, it is 167 days. Restaurants are quiet in January, and it's still a month during which many of those who work in the industry take a holiday, travelling in search of inspiration for their menus for the year ahead. Chefs and restaurateurs who won't be going anywhere, though, include those planning to open new ventures over the coming weeks. If the focus of new openings in Dublin over the past couple of years has been the area around South William Street, the shift towards Portobello was well underway by the end of 2015. Locks and Bastible are just two of the new arrivals in the area, and Camden St in particular looks set to become even more of a Mecca for food-lovers in 2016. Delahunt is already there of course, as is Camden Kitchen, but Sunil Ghai of Ananda expects to open his first restaurant, Pickle, before the end of the month. The builders are putting the finishing touches to the premises now, and Ghai says that Pickle will serve traditional Indian food with the focus on local produce and seasonal ingredients. The style will be casual and the emphasis on flavours and freshness, with dishes mainly from the north of the country, in the vein of Masala Zone and the multi-award winning Gymkhana in London, where Ghai's brother, Rohit, is executive head chef. "I always wanted to do something like this in town," says Ghai, "it's my dream project. There will be a few dishes that will be very new to the Irish palate." I for one am hoping that the menu includes plates along the lines of the signature goat curry spiced with fenugreek (with the option of added goat's brains) that is one of the highlights at Gymkhana; that'll sort the professionals from the amateurs. Also opening on Camden St during the first half of the year is serial restaurateur, John Farrell, the man behind Dillinger's, The Butcher Grill, Super Miss Sue, Luna, and 777. Farrell describes his latest venture as 'a Chinese version of 777'. This sounds like good news and, knowing Farrell and the fun that he has putting his interiors together, the restaurant will look fabulous. Farrell takes his research seriously and he's been spending time in Hong Kong by way of preparation for the opening. No word yet on who the chef will be, or a name for the restaurant. Anyone who's ever ended up in the Gig's Place at the end of a long night will already be familiar with the premises of Richmond, which opened just before Christmas. Owned by Russell Wilde, who used to manage The Butcher Grill, it looks set to fill a gap in the market for casual, inexpensive bistro food. I'm looking forward to trying it soon. Expand Close Sunil Ghai of Ananda / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Sunil Ghai of Ananda Just up the road, on the corner of Spencer Street South and South Circular Rd, and open since November, is Little Bird, a yoga studios and cafe with the menu put together by Ballymaloe graduate Alison Creed. Go for a wholesome breakfast or healthy lunch, and (relatively) guilt-free sweet treats. Back in the city centre, Denise McBrien, who used to be FOH at Pichet, is overseeing the long-awaited opening of the revived and refurbished Bewley's on Grafton St. There's no date for this yet but one would guess that they'll be aiming to be open before St Patrick's Day, and the almost-three-week school holidays that will follow it because Easter is so early this year. Also in the city centre, Andrew Rudd of Medley is planning to open a cafe and bistro on Fleet St. Over the canal on Upper Leeson Street, John and Sandy Wyer of Forest Avenue have taken over the premises that were formerly home to Rigby's for a second venture, with a more casual food offering. Donegal chef Ciaran Sweeney will be in the kitchen, and there'll be a long counter at which customers will sit. After eating at Sweeney's residency in Forest Avenue last month, I can't wait, and I'm hoping that his fermented potato bread will be on the menu. And, of course, his signature tarts. Out in Blackrock, The Market Canteen has changed hands. Heron & Grey have taken over and launch their new menu this month. An unprepossessing location has not proved a hindrance here in the past, and I'm expecting good things of the new proprietors: Damien Grey, an Australian chef who's worked at Chapter One, and Andrew Heron, most recently working on the floor at Luna, who'll be in charge of front of house. Meanwhile, James Sheridan and Soizic Humbert, who did run The Market Canteen, have just taken off their first Christmas in years and are all fired up to open a new venture near their home in Celbridge in the spring. Their concept in Blackrock was hugely successful, so I'd be surprised if they don't stick with something similar - a no (or very little) choice menu featuring Sheridan's modern take on classic French-style cuisine and a short but well-conceived wine list. Also in Kildare, this time in Sallins, Nicola Curran and her husband, Josef Zammit, will open their Two Cooks restaurant by the canal at the end of the month. Both Curran and Zammit are chefs, Zammit most recently in the kitchen at the popular Brown Bear, where he has been for the past six years, while Curran has been teaching at Cooks' Academy. They'll have a downstairs bar area serving small plates and a full restaurant offering upstairs, with about 45 covers. Curran describes the menu at Two Cooks as "seasonal, modern European, with a casual laid-back ambience". She worked at The Ledbury in London, and Zammit at Tom Aikens, and both came to Dublin to join Dylan McGrath when he opened Mint in Ranelagh. Between them they have serious form, and Sallins residents are in for a treat. Back in Dublin, Katie Gilroy of the popular Urbun cafe in Cabinteely is opening a new venture in Sandymount in the coming weeks. Expect a more extensive food offering than at Urbun, and for the new restaurant to be open in the evenings as well as during the day. And after much speculation as to who would be taking over the former Walter's premises in Dun Laoghaire, it's been confirmed that it's not Platform Pizza, but rather House, the club for grown-ups on Leeson St, serving a user-friendly range of tapas and sharing plates. Chef JP McMahon is hoping to open a fast food restaurant sourcing organic and free-range ingredients directly from farmers, and is in the midst of a Kickstarter campaign to fund the start-up, which he hopes will be in Dublin, "somewhere with high footfall". McMahon tried to get the project off the ground before, but it foundered, he reckons, because it was pitched at the middle market rather than at the lower, fast-food end. At the Food on the Edge chefs' symposium that McMahon organised in Galway earlier this year, Daniel Patterson, who has recently stepped down as the chef at his two-Michelin star restaurant in San Francisco, Coi, spoke about his work on Loco'l, a fast food collaboration with Los Angeles chef, Roy Choi. McMahon says that Patterson inspired him to reinvigorate the concept for Farmer, and he launched the funding campaign with his partners, including Ronan Byrne of Friendly Farmer chicken fame, within a couple of weeks of FOTE. The intention is for Farmer to be a chain rather than a stand-alone restaurant, which is an exciting prospect. And if that's not ambitious enough, McMahon, who already has three restaurants in Galway, says that he has ideas for a dozen more. Someone give that man a chill pill! This week will see schools once more in full swing. Not a marvellous prospect for the pupils, though many of their mothers are perhaps looking forward to a bit of peace and quiet. But in a uniquely Irish riddle, some mums never experience much peace, despite not having their children charging around them all day. Because while today's society protects and provides for unmarried mothers, thousands of walking wounded still suffer in secret from the ramifications of the regime that once ruled this land. For rarely are they obvious, even though there were approximately 60,000 victims of that shameful era. Unmarried mothers had their babies taken from them under the policy of forced adoptions that operated in this country. The State has never apologised to these women - many of whose lives were blighted by the horror of what happened to them - or to their children, some of whom cannot comprehend the cruel circumstances that led them to be given up. The plight of one such mother - Philomena Lee - inspired an Oscar-nominated movie that brought the issue into public consciousness. Alas, it has done little to overhaul a system that stops adopted Irish people from having access to birth records - despite international law stating that all children should know their parents and be able to establish their identity. Philomena eventually married and had more children. But she thought about her lost son every day. Typically (and conveniently for the real culprits), she blames herself. "The burden of shame and guilt that Irish society placed on women like her should be lifted," says Susan Lohan of Adoption Rights Alliance. "Responsibility lies with all of Irish society." Tell that to 'Eileen', a countrywoman who gave up her daughter for adoption over 30 years ago. "If only I could get past my grief old grief that won't just pack its bags and go. I'm having flashbacks still. You think you're over the worst of it - and then it comes back again." For Eileen, there is no happy ending. "I found my precious daughter and met her once. I know I have to respect her wishes - but at times it gets too much." Eileen's daughter resents her birth mother for giving her up and doesn't want any contact with her. Eileen tries to be philosophical. "I keep telling myself that at least she is happy and her mam had the joy of having her. I can't be selfish. But I would love to just be able to say hi and not intrude." Denied that chance, her suffering goes on. "I'm looking for closure. I never got to explain anything to my daughter." Maybe it's time our Government did so on her behalf, to finally free these women from such loathsome life sentences. There were a lot more bells and whistles on military costumes: From left, Michael Ford as Harry, Paul Reid as Stephen and Andrew Simpson as George in Rebellion Allison Byrne is a costume designer from Dublin. She studied fashion design at NCAD and created costumes for theatres in Dublin before moving to London to work for Regent's Park Open Air Theatre. On returning to Ireland in the early 1990s, Allison entered the film industry as a trainee on productions like The Van. Her career highlights include Song for a Raggy Boy and Cracks starring Eva Green. Here, she tells Meadhbh McGrath about her work on Rebellion. 'I was interested in Rebellion because it was about personal histories, rather than another Michael Collins epic. It was people's stories within the big sweep of history, stories you can really identify with, and it's fascinating that it's women's stories. "It's all very much a personal story for me too. I'm Dublin born and bred. My granddad was in the British army in World War I, and then he joined Michael Collins' gang and ended up being shot down in Cork. To do something that's all about your family history was really brilliant. My family are from Summerhill and Gardiner's Lane, and they were living in that poverty 120 years ago. That was the thing - everybody you met, from whatever part of the country, had a story about it. "The research was ongoing for five months. I was terrified of offending anybody by getting stuff wrong, or that there would be glaring mistakes and people would just switch off. We researched online, in books, in the museums, in newspaper archives - we were everywhere! We spoke to people from Collins Barracks, Kilmainham Gaol, the Mater Hospital archive, the Red Cross There were people coming out of the woodwork that you'd never even think of. "We had to find this snapshot of Dublin city 100 years ago, and fit everybody into their niche. Each of the different styles is driven by the character's circumstances and their social background. "The director really wanted the posh character, Vanessa, to come into grimy Dublin with all of its military drabness and to have this clean, ice maiden look about her. We had to show that she was a total fish out of water that people would never have seen before, and we wanted to express that with her white clothes and her paleness. "Elizabeth, Frances and May are very modern women, but set in their proper place in society. I think that picture of them at the theatre works because you can see that there are different histories there, but you feel like there's some connection between them, and it captures the idea of modern women in a modern Ireland. "There were letters to newspapers at the time that women were out in the street without hats - not that they had guns, but that they had no hats or gloves on! This was a kind of appalling savagery! "A lot of the trims, feathers and jewellery are original, and we embellished the costumes with those, but it was really hard to find vintage dresses that would fit modern women. Women were a different shape 100 years ago; they would have been much tinier because they went into corsets really young, and they were really tight. "This period is fascinating, because the older generation are still in those long-line corsets like the Gibson Girls, and the modern women are heading into a separate realm - think of the flappers and how loose and free those women were, it's the beginning of that idea. "But that's the posh end - the women in the tenements would have been in 10-year-old clothes, struggling to keep them looking nice. The Dublin tenements were some of the most poverty-stricken in Europe, and we wanted to show that poverty and not shy away from it. "Most of the costumes were hired from costume houses. We made a small amount of them, but we did a lot of altering and embellishing to make each costume look like it belonged to the person who wore it, so that everything felt real. "There were a lot more bells and whistles on the military uniforms in real life, but because of budgetary concerns, we had to do simplified versions. The costume houses were really extraordinary, especially Angels in London. They were really hung up on regiments, campaign badges and ribbons, and pushed us to be historically accurate, as did the team at Collins Barracks. There are loads of reenactors who are really passionate - they've spent 20 years of their lives going through the minutiae of the costumes, sourcing them at auctions and on eBay, and they shared everything with us. "I haven't worked so hard in a very long time, but every day you wanted to go in to work. The team I worked with were the best team I've ever worked with, they were lovely, and we had such fun. Nobody left in a huff! It was a really, really great experience." Premium Eoghan Harris Opinion Misery media fails to give due credit to the Taoiseach Taoiseach Micheal Martin must drive his advisers mad. Unlike Leo Varadkar or Donald Trump, he never bigs up success stories such as the effect of Level 3 Plus on Covid or his visionary Shared Island project. Last Friday, Tony Holohan and RTE cheerleaders seemed to imply Level 5 was responsible for the improved Covid situation. Not so. Premium New hospital for a tenner may come at too high a price The Taoiseach is under a lot of pressure the kind of pressure that leads to costly mistakes. It perhaps explains why he has been saying things that are not quite true. Micheal Martin is in a tight political corner. From all sides hes being told he has to get the contract signed for the new National Maternity Hospital. Premium Mary Kenny Opinion A male contraceptive jab is on the way, but will it truly equalise reproductive control? It looks as though a male contraceptive vaccine will be available within the next year, according to Dr Amanda Wilson at De Montfort University in Leicester. The jab is called Risug, and it could obviate the demand for vasectomies which is falling anyway. The vaccine, which has completed its final trials, would be reversible, so it is not as radical as vasectomy. Not for nothing was Barbara Bush known as 'The Enforcer' Barbara Bush, tougher than her husband and known to her family as 'The Enforcer', is probably the most popular of all ex-US first ladies of recent times. Jackie Kennedy is remembered across the globe for elegance and tragedy, but she was not loved. Rosalynn Carter worked hard and was a noted campaigner on issues of mental health, but she has suffered in retrospect because of her bitterness at his defeat by Ronald Reagan, who is widely perceived to have been as great a success as Carter was a failure. The brittle Nancy Reagan was an essential support to her husband, but was thought to care little for anyone else. Hillary Clinton was loathed by those who thought her a careerist. The likeable Laura Bush did a lot of useful work but lacked her mother-in-law's commanding personality. And although Michelle Obama had rock-star status, that has diminished as she and her husband embrace luxury and celebrity. Betty Ford is probably the closest rival, having been far more effective and formidable than her husband Gerald, the 38th president, and still having a posthumous reputation for her prowess as a campaigner on addiction, not least because so many of the famous troop to the Betty Ford Clinic. Ben the burglar had a great Christmas. He and Mrs Ben had escaped from the floods, spending Christmas week in their usual suite in the Ritz-Carlton in Tenerife. Yes, 2015 had been Ben's best year ever. The burglary industry had boomed. His bank had written, thanking him for his business during the year, increasing his credit card limit to 50,000. His local Fine Gael TD had personally called to the house and explained some of the benefits of the Budget - he and Mrs Ben would be getting increased social welfare as he was on the dole. His local Labour TD had bettered that by promising annual hikes in the "labour". Mrs Ben was thinking of opening a second-hand jewellery shop as the house was getting clogged up with stolen trinkets. No cloud hovered over their horizon. Ben understood that Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald had a job to do. He had laughed loudly just two months ago when she had launched Operation Thor in front of scores of cameras. Nevertheless he had bought himself a brand-new, high-speed car - 80,000 cash - just in case. Ben woke up on New Year's morning with a thud. Listening from the comfort of the Canaries to the RTE radio news, he thought he heard that Frances Fitz had announced "a new era in policing in Ireland". Ben shuddered momentarily. He gave Mrs Ben a dig in the ribs and told her to listen. She yawned and muttered that it was all spin. Frances was on one of her public relations stunts. She told him that politicians often fill the news vacuum during the Christmas break to pull a media stroke. "Go back to sleep," she whispered. "It is vintage Frances. For God's sake all she is doing is revealing the names of a few stooges to put on the new Policing Authority. Relax." New Year's Day was vintage Frances. The minister announced eight members of the Police Authority. Surprisingly, the role of honour was not the usual list of Fine Gael/ Labour cronies on a state board. Not a blueshirt in sight. The bearded brethren, too, were left out in the cold. This was Fine Gael Nua. They had all been "selected for appointment following selection processes run by the Public Appointments Service", according to the press release. Bravo for the new independence. All the nominees seemed to have been politician-proofed. There are no 'Friends of Frances' leaping off the page of the statement. An open selection process has produced what she calls "a high-calibre team". Ben read the list out aloud to Mrs Ben. He began to chill out. In the chair was Josephine Feehily, former chairman of the Revenue Commissioners. Ben had never paid any tax in his life so he had little fear of Josephine. "If she could never nab me for tax when she was in the Revenue gig, she is hardly likely to catch me going at 150 miles an hour down the M50," he bragged. Ben sat upright in the bed. "Who are all these people?" he asked. "Are there any working-class people who have done well, entrepreneurs like us, on the new authority?" "None. Mostly well-heeled public servants with great jobs or pensions." "Any tough, law-and-order people?" "Maybe one." "Victims of crime, then?" "Jaysus, things have not got that bad." "Anybody who would vote Fianna Fail or Independent?" "No, all solid establishment, middle-class types." "Is that code for Fine Gael/Labour? We're safe so?" asked Ben, as he headed for the Jacuzzi. "Not certain," muttered his shrewd missus. "I don't like this independent process run by the Public Appointments Service. Takes the choice out of the hands of politicians. In the past we could always rely on them to put their friends on state bodies." Mrs Ben should not have worried. The new Public Appointments Service may have fooled the media, but happily, even over the Christmas period, one watchdog was at work. We should all be grateful to the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) and its boss, Mark Kelly. After the Department of Justice had slipped the names of the Police Authority unnoticed into the public ether on December 30, the ICCL issued a bombshell. It welcomed the establishment of a Police Authority. It even gave the individuals a clean bill of health, but it "deplored" the political appointment process. We had all been led to believe that the appointment of the new authority had heralded in a brave new dawn. Mark's crew had spotted something. Mark claimed the PAS was being "used as a fig leaf for their [the appointees] direct appointment by the Government on the advice of the Minister for Justice". According to Mark, the PAS has been used as a mere "letterbox". The Government had bypassed the process. Buried in the Garda Act - passed a few weeks ago - was a nasty little section allowing the Government to short-circuit all that independent nonsense in the regular PAS board selection process. Fine Gael and Labour can still interfere. Worse still, the chosen ones need not be subject to normal PAS processes when they come up for reappointment in three or four years' time. The process can be dumped again in favour of direct ministerial patronage. If the authority members want to be re-appointed it will be in each individual's interests to keep on the right side of the Minister for Justice. Ahem. The offending section in the bill, giving the Government the powers to short-circuit the PAS process, was inserted at a late stage in the legislative journey. It was not included in the original General Scheme, but mysteriously appeared in the final legislation. Fine Gael and Labour do this sort of thing much better than Fianna Fail. FF crudely parachutes its favourites on to all boards without apology or fig leaves. To be fair to the authority members, they are not card- carrying members of either party. But they are no boat- rockers. The head of the Irish Banking Federation, Noel Brett, joins the former boss of the Revenue Commissioners, Josephine Feehily, and the big chief of Chartered Accountants Ireland, Patrick Costello. A former director-general of RTE, Bob Collins, has been selected, while others have plenty of experience in the deeply flawed HSE ethos. Consultant Maureen Lynott was lucky enough to earn 1.1m during a five-year spell in HSE boss Brendan Drumm's kitchen cabinet. The press release does not mention her good fortune, nor that she was a member of the VHI and of the discredited benchmarking body. Another board member, Valerie Judge, has HSE experience. Others with public service backgrounds include Moling Ryan, recently retired as boss of the Legal Aid Board. To be fair, one appointee, Judith Gillespie, has valuable past experience at the PSNI. So far all are insiders. One outsider has been included. The most interesting appointment is Dr Vicky Conway - a real reformer - who lectures in DCU. I guess she will be a young, challenging voice in a deeply conservative wilderness. It does able people a disservice when they are products of a political stunt. The list could have included real reformers. Why did the bill exclude members of the gardai? Was it to ensure there was no place for whistleblowers like Sergeant Maurice McCabe, who knows a few unpalatable truths about the gardai and politicians? Or why not veteran reformer Mairin de Burca, who served for years on Prison Visiting Committees, travelling there by public transport? Or journalist Paul Williams who knows more about fighting crime than any of the usual suspects sitting on the authority? God forbid, garda reform might have broken out. Ben and his missus can sleep easy. Nothing has changed. They will be back at the Ritz-Carlton in 2016. Ireland is, arguably, the best small country to deal with threats to national security. In a permanent State of emergency since 1939, care of the Offences Against the State Act, successive governments have perfected a suite of 'emergency' measures that lesser democracies or aspiring dictators could only dream of. Since 1972, we have maintained, not without controversy, a non jury Special Criminal Court. With a strong (some might say undue) record of deference towards the State as well as its historic reliance on 'opinion evidence' by senior gardai, the Special Criminal Court is - because of ongoing threats to national security by dissident republicans, amongst others - sadly still with us. All of which makes aspects of last week's sensational legal action involving the 'foremost recruiter' in Ireland for the Islamic State (Isil) - a purported consultant to violent Isil leaders overseas - somewhat puzzling. The Irish Isil Christmas drama began on December 21, the last day of the legal term, when the alleged Isil mastermind secured an ex parte (one sided) only temporary injunction preventing his deportation to a country in the Middle East. The man says he has been previously tortured in this country and claims that he is at even greater risk of persecution now that the Irish Government has labelled him a major Isil recruiter. The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, cut quite an unassuming, even genteel figure when I sat close to him in a sparsely populated courtroom last week. But looks can be deceiving. Michael Lynn, his senior counsel, told the High Court that the father of four denies he is an Isil recruiter. Mr Lynn also queried why the gardai had not made any moves to prosecute or convict him if he is such a "patent" threat to national security. It was a point picked up by the Court of Appeal which sat last Wednesday to consider the narrow issue of a stay against the High Court's lifting of the original injunction preventing deportation. The Court of Appeal was itself stopped in its tracks by the dramatic receipt of a fax from the European Court of Human Rights which said the man cannot be deported until Strasbourg hears his case. But before the 11th-hour ECtHR intervention, one of the Court of Appeal's three members, Mr Justice Garrett Sheehan, asked if the man had been arrested and questioned in circumstances where the State was arguing that he was involved in murder in other countries and conspiring to commit murder from Ireland. Judge Sheehan remarked on a 'lack of silence' in court papers submitted by the Irish authorities on the amount of times the man has been questioned by gardai. Perhaps the State was caught short by the initial injunction in the mouth of Christmas. And given the European wide state of alert over Christmas - train stations in Munich were evacuated over a suspected Isil attack on New Year's Eve - one can imagine gardai don't want to detail specific threats or how they are dealing with them. But if this man is an existential threat, one who has lived here for 15 years and who came to the attention of the authorities as far back as 2011, why did the State wait until his residency (based on his now teenage Irish-born son) ran out last January before making serious moves about deporting him? It was only last March that the State, which has repeatedly denied Isil operatives are active here, formally raised his alleged links. Those Isil denials look foolish now in light of the State's assertions about this 'foremost' suspect. However, if he an Isil recruiter and helps jihadists to travel, why didn't the authorities seek to deport or prosecute him long before now? If he is in a "truly exceptional" category, why wasn't he charged with directing terrorism in the Special Criminal Court which, no doubt, would have been sympathetic to any objections by senior gardai to bail pending trial? The case is complicated by the man's claim, earlier this year, for refugee status, having previously withdrawn an asylum claim (which made no mention of torture) after he secured residency here. But like Britain before us, Ireland finds itself at the heart of a legal and moral dilemma in which Isil suspects may be waging an assault on the West by relying on its human rights laws. If Isil wields a sword of terror and mounts attacks on the West with one hand, can their operatives hide behind a shield of human rights principles promoted by the West in the other? The State's frustration was captured in last week's case by senior counsel Remy Farrell (for the Department of Justice) who said that it was ironic that the more infamous the conduct of the person concerned the more difficult it may be to expel them from your territory. "That is a proposition that is hard to accept," said the lawyer. It is also a proposition that we may, with all the attendant national security risks, have to live with, not least because the courts here have already grappled with the human rights of suspected jihadists. Last May the High Court refused to extradite to America Ali Charaf Damache, an Algerian born Irish national, because of concerns over conditions in a US 'supermax' prison. Damache, a suspected Islamic extremist recruiter said to have established a terror cell in Waterford, is now languishing in a Spanish jail fighting extradition to the US - he left Ireland after the State said it would appeal the High Court ruling. But if prison conditions are enough to prevent extradition to the world's most influential democracy, will the Supreme Court or ECtHR really deport a man who claims he is at risk of torture or death even if he is an alleged Isil murderer? The State has admitted that it can't deport him under the European Convention if there is a 'real risk' of torture, but is there another way? The British got around this after a 10-year legal battle over the deportation to Jordan of Abu Qatada, the radical Islamic preacher. They did so by extracting diplomatic assurances from Jordan (which acquitted Qatada) and creating a "Special Representative for Deportations with Assurances" to allow it to deport terror suspects whilst observing its convention duties. The 'cry of the emergency,' as Supreme Court judge Mr Justice Adrian Hardiman has observed in another context, is "intoxicating" - one that produces "an exhilarating freedom from the need to consider the rights of others". Now that Isil has created a new global emergency, countries like Ireland face an unenviable task of protecting their citizens and borders while protecting the rights of others, even those intent on using our rule of law to attack our values. Michael Noonan, who spent part of the festive period in a Dublin hospital recovering from surgery to remove fluid from his chest, says that he first received news from his doctor that he needed treatment "two weeks before Christmas". Without wanting to be too pedantic about dates, counting backwards two weeks exactly from Christmas Day would bring him to Friday December 11, which, interestingly, also happens to be marked by the appearance of a rare tweet on @NoonanLive, his official Twitter account. The Minister for Finance doesn't tweet much, to say the least. Before this latest date, the last time he left a message on the social media site was the previous January, when he posted a link to an article in the Irish Times saying that his strategy for dealing with the banks was working - proving, if nothing else, that he may not use Twitter very often, but he has grasped its fundamental value as a tool for shameless self-praise. Before that, one has to go all the way back to May 2014 to find another tweet, when he offered his "best wishs" (sic) to Eamon Gilmore as he stepped down as Labour leader. In total, there are a mere eight messages listed on his account in the past two years. Safe to say then that he only tweets for particular reasons. December 11's tweet was: "Positive outlook ahead." The casual observer would probably have taken that to be a reference to the economy in the wake of the Budget and Fine Gael's subsequent rise in the polls. In retrospect, one might wonder if those three words contained a more personal meaning as well. His outlook is indeed positive, Noonan reassured well-wishers last week. "I am well on the mend," he said. Might it also be, though, that the minister's message of December 11 and last week's statement were both examples of that much maligned art of political spin, designed to convince those minded to doubt it that his medical condition is of no national significance whatsoever and that he remains as fit - for life, but, more importantly, for office - as ever? If so, it's a rather dispiriting comment on modern politics, especially in light of the subsequent statement: "I will be attending cabinet on January 5 and I look forward to contesting the upcoming general election." What sort of monsters do they think we are that we would begrudge a 72-year-old man a few days' recuperation from surgery? That we would expect him to drag himself from his bed for another meeting which could easily go ahead, for once, quite well without him? It's not the fact that he has undergone surgery that is the problem, but the fact that he feels this need to be bullish about it, like the Black Knight in Monty Python's Holy Grail insisting when his arm's cut off that "'tis but a scratch". There is no evidence that voters expect this level of machismo from their elected representatives. They might want to see the Taoiseach tramping in wellies through the flooded Shannon, but they don't expect a man who had surgery days earlier to be burning the political candle at both ends just for the sake of appearance. Take a break, man. The country can manage a few weeks without you. It's probably understandable for politicians in their eighth decade to fear that opponents will use a perception of infirmity to undermine them, though. Insecurity is an integral part of political life and it happens all the time. Hillary Clinton suffered concussion after a fall in 2012. She's been dogged ever since by rumours that she is hiding more serious health issues, including "blinding headaches", insomnia and depression. A candidate's health should not be used as a political weapon, but politics is a dirty business and sometimes it is. With the election in spring expected to be one of the dirtiest in memory, it could be that Michael Noonan - who also had treatment for cancer in 2014 afer finding a lump on his arm, undergoing radiotherapy at St Luke's to shrink a sarcoma - not only wanted to reassure colleagues in the party that their biggest asset was fighting fit for the election, but also to pre-empt any potential whispers that he was not up for the job any more as a result of his age. It's unlikely that any of his political opponents would, or could, exploit the minister's health in an effort to damage him. Not publicly, at least. Ireland isn't in the same position as it was in Christmas 2010, when it was discovered that the then finance minister Brian Lenihan had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and there were immediate worries that he wasn't strong enough to withstand the pressures of steering the country through the all-consuming crisis which it faced. The economy isn't going to crash and burn if Noonan lets his Government colleagues take the strain for a few weeks while he gets back on his feet. But that doesn't mean doubts can't be spread more sneakily. There were plenty of negative comments left beneath the story of Noonan's hospitalisation on news websites last week. Most stuck to politics, but a noticeable number did refer to his age. The traditional release of State Papers over the New Year was also a reminder of just how long Michael Noonan has been around. Documents released under the 30-year rule date from 1985, when Noonan was Minister for Justice. That feels like ancient history to many voters. More than a third of Irish people weren't alive at all when Noonan was first elected to the Dail in 1981. The Limerick man was already on to his second ministerial post before the youngest TD, Wicklow's Simon Harris, was even born. Party politics throws up these sharp contrasts between youth and experience and there's always the potential to make mischief with them; but both need one another. It would be as perverse to hold it against one politician the fact that he's in his seventies as it would be to hold it against another that he's only in his twenties. This cult of youth and vigour, in politics as elsewhere, risks becoming a new tyranny. Everyone has to pretend to be invulnerable, insisting that they don't need sleep, they don't need holidays. It's exhausting listening to them, never mind how draining the act must be for them. Age has its downsides, but it also has benefits in terms of experience, in having seen and done it all before. In 50 years' time, those twentysomethings who think they know it all, hot with passion and indignation at the state of the world, will realise that there's nothing new under the sun too. Churchill was 65 when he first became prime minister, and 76 when he got the job a second time; that didn't seem odd to anyone. The difference is that Churchill had lived a full life in the interim as a soldier and prolific writer, whereas today's generation of politicians tend to have done nothing but move from election to election, ministry to ministry, with little experience of the real world. Whether Michael Noonan is as much of a wise old owl as his admirers assert is another matter, but it has nothing to do with his age either way. People live longer and healthier nowadays than ever, but if we want politicians with that experience, it still has to come with a recognition that they will have health issues now and then. That's not weakness, it's part of being human. When Kate Middleton and Prince William were first going out together, as students at St Andrew's University in Scotland, the story went that she had a poster of him on her wall as a schoolgirl. The story, whether true or not, had a double effect. It started the spin that the middle-class Middletons were ruthlessly ambitious and on the make for the monarchy from Kate's teens. And it also set up the notion that Kate was in awe of the young prince. Ah, those were the days. The days when William still had his good looks and his hair. The days when he was the catch of the century. To look at the third in line to the throne at Sandringham on Christmas Day however, was to see that the golden age of William, now Duke of Cambridge, is over. Now, it's all about his wife and the realisation that if anyone has married well in that union, it's William. It was Kate who had the regal bearing as the Windsors made their annual outing to church. William was a sort of wan companion to her cool poise and the female cousins and sisters-in-law dressed as though they'd tried to second-guess what she might wear. Kate, in her jaunty little hat and forest-green coat, with its thin belt worn to show off her long and narrow waist was a study in apparently effortless chic. There was nothing try-hard about her, and nothing awe-struck either. But maybe, when it comes to the Windsors, the age of awe is over. Maybe it was awe and being placed on pedestals that got them in trouble with their marriages, with Diana, with public frustration at their idle entitlement. Maybe a touch of middle-class ambition and relative ordinariness is what they needed to endear them again to the British public, and maybe that's what Kate Middleton is doing for them. They don't know how to be more like their subjects, it's just not in them, but middle-class Middleton has seen both sides. And she's worked both extremely well. Of course, the notion that Kate is middle class is a bit bogus. It sounds good, but Kate Middleton is pretty posh compared to the rest of us. Her parents are worth millions, she and her sister Pippa both went to school at 10k-per-year Marlborough College, and her accent is as cut-glass as her husband's. She's from the same social world as the prince and there is no Eliza Doolittle element to her inculcation into royalty. What sets the Middletons apart from Kate's in-laws, however, is that they have worked for and earned their money. Much is made of Carole Middleton as a modern day Mrs Bennet of Pride and Prejudice, royally ambitious for her daughter while saddled with a brother whose Ibiza villa is called Maison de Bang Bang. Yet Carole - a former flight attendant, in case you've forgotten - is not to be sniffed at as, with her husband Michael, she's a self-made millionaire. That's a world away from being a Windsor, with a taxpayer-funded allowance and a sense of self-entitlement from birth. In the 21st Century, the princess who knows the value of a few quid is more appealing, perhaps, than the one born in an ivory tower. And this is what places Kate in a category all of her own in the UK royal family. It sets her apart from the likes of Princess Beatrice, the elder daughter of Prince Andrew, who went on a reported 15 holidays last year, without having what you might call a paying job. And this perceived ordinary-Jane-made-good image also sets Kate apart from the likes of Sarah Ferguson and Prince Edward's wife, Sophie Wessex, who are just too throwback-Hooray Henrietta to suit modern tastes. Kate is, of course, possessed of certain Diana qualities, and echoes of her late mother-in-law are to be seen in everything from her easy way with the adoring public, to her charm with children, to her heavy eye liner. But Kate is no Diana, and again that comes back to her non-aristo origins. There is no high-bred skittishness in Kate. Nor is there the "bolter" of a lost mother, as there was in Diana's background, and which created in her that need that was impossible to satisfy but that wasn't exactly helped by marrying a man who didn't love her. Worse, in fact, who loved someone else. Where Charles and Diana's union was rooted in the old world of arranged, suitable matches, almost obligatory infidelity and a weird combination of dutiful humility and superiority, William and Kate's has been a love match. They didn't grow up together, they got together in college, broke up, reunited and wed. Any awe she might have had for him in the early days is long gone and he seems to protect her carefully from the overexposure that made and broke his mother. To cast William and Kate's partnership as one where he is protecting her from the perils of royalty is to misread where the power lies, however. The relative ordinariness of his in-laws has been the making of William. Like his father before him, William suffered from a lack of consistent domestic warmth in his childhood, but his involvement with the Middletons seems to be filling that need in him. The Middletons seem to be a close unit into which he slots easily, with some complaints that the Windsors struggle to get a look-in. No harm, some might say, looking at their track record. There may be those among the Windsors who cannot believe what's unfolding in front of their eyes. It's worse, in some ways, than the Diana thing. At least they could relate to where she was coming from. Kate is an utterly different kettle of fish. The royals are people who set more store than any of us can imagine in their stock and their status and the fact that they are special and set apart. Accepting a lower-stock blow-in is one thing, but watching how the world has fallen in love with Kate is a different thing. That speaks not only of an acceptance of her, but a rejection of them and who they have been for centuries. Telling was the recent cover story on one of the US tabloids, which claimed a romance between Prince Harry and Kate's younger sister, Pippa. That, it seems, would be the dream double date - the two princes and their commoner-to-consort partners. It's the stuff of fairytales, but royal tradition has never been a fairytale, until it got muddled up with the middle-class Middletons. If the Windsors have sense, they will be grateful for the commoner making them look good. But, then, sense has never been their strength. They could turn Kate into the new Diana yet. Last Friday morning a select few were closing the book on 2015. 'The few' are those who still keep a diary. Many of us have a diary to record meetings, appointments and the general trivia of our lives. But for others a diary is a way of recording the moments they cherish - from the mundane to the extraordinary - moments that are soon lost in the mists of time and failing memory. For others they are a form of therapy. That is why I always believe in reading other people's diaries. Sometimes you find them in a stolen moment, someone leaves the room and the diary is open on the table and after scanning the pages you realise suddenly you have found the real person, not the facade. Take this private diary entry from August 29, 2013: "Sometimes I exhaust myself. I really do - my arrogance, my incompetence; it all accumulates, stopping me up like some malignant clot in my blood. There is just so much about 'me' that I cannot stand. "If I don't have enough confidence then I have too much, and confidence that is far from justified at that. Really, where did I pick up the ridiculous notion that I'm a 'somebody'? "From whose stable did I steal this high horse and how will I ever return it? "In a word, I'm insufferable." We live in a time when virtually everybody appears to unburden themselves on social media, but you don't get breathtaking self-analysis like that on Facebook or Twitter. My 19-year-old daughter claims that when she stepped off a plane after her 'post-Leaving' holiday in Magaluf she had over 2,000 messages on Instagram. But all of them were inconsequential, trivialities and banalities that she had missed while she was away. But a real diary is not like the stuff of social media, it is old fashioned in both scope and breadth, a look at how people really live their lives. The writer Ulick O'Connor is probably one of the few published Irish diarists. His Diaries 1970-1981 provide a fascinating insight into artistic life in Dublin during a period that is now largely forgotten, even by those of us who lived through it. But Ulick wrote it down, preserved for posterity. Take December 27, 1970: "Down for lunch at Furness - Pierce Synott's place, Co Kildare - Jacobean. No one staying except Elizabeth Longford. "After lunch Lady Rosse comes in. Fantastically pretty. A coquette. Lovely eyes. . . Elizabeth Longford says she works when she can. Her life has been opened up by a car crash. She feels she is more human after it. A doctor's daughter. Once asked (her) father if he made love before doing a cataract operation. (I didn't manage to get his reply out of her.)" But back to the fascinating diary of the introspective young women referred to earlier. A bit of a skip hunter, I discovered it totally by accident, a mysterious leather-bound volume nestling among a box of bad books that had been thrown out when summer arrived at a university residence and the students scattered. It is one thing to be 'insufferable' about yourself in private, but why discard your inner-most thoughts for someone like me to flick through, slightly horrified but fascinated at the same time. Like watching a 'car crash' interview on television or those occasional searing stories on the internet when someone is honest and millions of others (or does it just seem like that) set out to make their lives unbearable. Surely, highly educated as the writer is, she should have been aware that it was probable someone would pick it up and find it fascinating, or does that matter any more in this world of total self revelation? Of course maybe this tortured soul, who wrote her name on the inside cover of the discarded diary, wants to be discovered - like Ulick O'Connor, or Andy Warhol, she too has the material for a book, only she doesn't yet know it. "I may have found some kind of direction in school but in here where it counts, inside my head - God. I'm not any more mature or dignified than I was five years ago. How long a wait does it take to find something even remotely like contentment? A lifetime? Two? Perhaps I'm not insane. Perhaps I never was. Perhaps this entire time I've been working myself into a frenzy just to ensure I never run out of things to feel cut up about on the inside. Maybe the reasons I'm so imbalanced is simply that I tried so hard to be just that - I suppose it's some small justification for what I've done to myself - this mess I've made of my own mind." The same evening as I typed these words I asked my wife for some bit of self-revelation that she had found on Facebook. The best she could come up with was a posting by someone who said: "Did you know that two or three glasses of wine a day could reduce your risk of . . . giving a sh*t." The painter Andy Warhol also kept extensive diaries, all 1021 pages of which were published in a fat paperback. His entry for January 9, 1986, picked at random goes: "Worked all afternoon. Left at 5.00 to go uptown to Sabrina Guinness's birthday party at Ann Ronson's 15-room apartment at the San Remo on Central Park West - she's married to Mick Jones of Foreigner . . . and there was a black girl there who was one of those over-bubbly girls that I can't stand . . . and I guess Michael Douglas likes black girls because he said, 'Listen sweetheart, give me your number before you leave,' and when he got up to do something he told her, 'I'll be right back.'" Many others from Samuel Pepys to the actor Kenneth Williams, to the Fine Gael politician Gemma Hussey, have kept diaries. Sometimes it seems as vacuous as the stuff you see on the social networks, other times it reads like a record of real life. My 'stolen' diary ends with an end-of-year reflection by the tortured author on the subject of her relationship with her mother. "No matter how terrible I've been, no matter how badly I've treated her, she always marches back, resolute, with a kiss goodnight that says 'I'm the bigger person and you know it.' She leave me feeling dead inside, because she's so human all of the time and I'm just a wreck. She can still feel things - real emotions - when all I can feel is anger. And I'm angry with her - with everyone - so often that the emotion has dulled... "It has taken 13 years, but I think that I finally understood why my parents could never have had a life together - because staying with somebody who makes you feel like a corpse is just crippling. I love my mother, but we just can't get along any more. This feeling - this nothing - it is not good enough." How does the story end? I don't know. For some reason the writer decided to discard her innermost thoughts in the skip and start 2014 without committing them to paper. Or maybe she has. But like an interrupted conversation I'll just never get to know the end, if indeed there is one. Diaries are like that. collinsliam68@eircom.net The next government will be required to stick to European Union fiscal rules... no matter what its manifesto promised The General Election campaign is not yet officially under way but the main political parties are already busily 'leaking' an array of attractive measures to be implemented if they are elected to government. So far, the cost to the exchequer of these promises has not yet been revealed, but it will be significant, notwithstanding the relatively buoyant state of the economy. Election promises are one of representative democracy's most natural, yet also most controversial, elements. On the one hand, politicians' promises create hope and expectations. On the other, election promises are associated with feelings of disappointment and suspicion. The term 'election promise' is itself loaded with mistrust. In fact, it is difficult to know of any context where a positive review of campaign promises outweighs the negative. The truth is politicians are not always to blame for this negative perception. In fact, there is authoritative international research which shows that political parties actually tend to act on most of their election promises. From bitter experience, or on occasion through misunderstanding, citizens here have come to hold, or are presumed to hold, the opposite view - that parties usually break their promises. A charitable conclusion, shall we say, is that the political class has a different view from electors of what fulfilling election promises means and even what the promises are. That said, candidates intending to canvass votes, and the parties they represent, would be well advised to exercise caution in this election. The electorate has become sceptical, some would say cynical, and will have a clear ear cocked for the hollow ring of unsustainable gimmicks and giveaways. Voters themselves would also be well advised to pay close attention to the various manifestos when they are eventually published and to bear in mind that when it comes to the business of forming a Programme for Government a promise can often turn out to be not a 'red-line issue' after all. Following several years of austerity, the fact that the political parties, and Independent candidates, are in a position to promise to make good on a financial, and hopefully a social, dividend for voters is a welcome development and one not to be underestimated. But the electorate must also be mindful that while election promises are one thing, European Union fiscal policy rules also apply. In short, the next government will be required to balance the budget or keep it in surplus and should it fail to do so, it will be obliged to work towards reducing that deficit within time limits set the EU. Reducing the deficit may mean a new round of spending cuts if the next government is to live up to the many election promises already made. The truth is that the public rarely reads election manifestos. The media, therefore, also has an important role to play in interpreting and even choosing which promises reach the electorate. This newspaper promises to provide its readers with the facts on the issues that matter, as well as a platform for debate during the election and afterwards - and to hold all parties and candidates to account without either fear or favour. Saoirse Ronan has received the International Star Award. The award recognises an actor or actress who has achieved both critical and commercial recognition across the globe throughout their body of work. The actress was at the 27th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival Awards Gala to received the award. Festival Chairman Harold Matzner said last year: "From her unforgettable roles in Atonement, The Lovely Bones, Hanna and The Grand Budapest Hotel, we have seen Saoirse Ronan grow from a young girl to the accomplished actress she is today." "In John Crowleys new film Brooklyn, Ronan gives a mesmerizing performance as a young woman from Ireland who is offered the chance of a new life in New York. In this role, Ronan embodies the grace and depth of a classic Hollywood screen star. Past International Star Award honorees include BAFTA and Academy Award winning actors Javier Bardem and Helen Mirren. Many are predicting that the actress will receive her second Oscar nomination for her performance as a young Irish immigrant in 1950s New York who is torn between two men and two countries. Ronan has previously been Oscar- nominated for Atonement a role that also landed her a Golden Globe nomination. Closer to home and Ronan is one of Irelands most decorated actresses winning IFTA Awards for her performances in Atonement, Death Defying Acts, The Lovely Bones, The Way Back, Hanna and Byzantium. ACTING CAREER: Pandora McCormick prefers to get ahead through hard graft and hopes to break into theatre and film work. Photo: Collins She is the hottest actress in one of Ireland's biggest soaps, playing the feisty solicitor Claire Hennessy on TV3's Red Rock. But rising star Pandora McCormick has a real life aristocratic background that would give the characters of Downton Abbey a run for their money. The up-and-coming actress, who weds Dublin actor Killian Burke this summer, is actually the daughter of a blue blood aristocrat, one of Britain's wealthiest men. Her father, Constantine Phipps, 5th Marquess of Normanby, is seated in one of England's oldest castles - where Pandora will wed in June. The family has an estimated worth of around 200m, and their home is the 18th century Mulgrave Castle in Yorkshire. When contacted by the Sunday Independent this weekend, Pandora said: "I like to keep my family stuff private. I would prefer if people didn't know." Asked the reason, she said: "I guess I like people to take me at face value." She explained: "I think you only get ahead with hard work and honesty. It's the only way I want to be valued and I want to get by on merit." In 2003 supermodel Elle Macpherson is rumoured to have taken out a lease at the 15,000 acre estate, considered one of the finest in England, including the right to live in the family's ancestral home during the four-month shooting season. Asked her ultimate goal, following the success of Red Rock, the TV beauty said that she wanted to continue to get ahead through hard graft. "I've had hard times as an actor, as lots of my friends have had, doing two or three different jobs in order to do an unpaid fringe show. But I want to do it all - theatre, film, more TV." Pandora's father was born in Yorkshire and succeeded his father to become Marquess of Normanby. He is married to writer Nicola Shulman, whose sister Alexandra is the editor of British Vogue. The sisters' father is theatre critic Milton Shulman. Video of the Day Phipps has three children with Nicola. Pandora is his daughter from a previous relationship with Sophie McCormick. Meanwhile, Pandora's Red Rock character is at the centre of a plot that has gripped the nation this week. Soap fans were left reeling after seeing her on-screen husband, Supt James McKay (played by actor Richard Flood), being stabbed to death in the show's biggest storyline yet. "The reaction has been awesome. So brilliant," she says. "I was in Mayo for New Year's with my fiance and his family in an absolutely beautiful place but it has no TV and very little reception so I was glued to my phone as some lovely messages came through about it." They announced their engagement in the Daily Telegraph in December 2014. It read: "The engagement is announced between Killian, son of Patrick and Sinead Burke, of Dublin, and Pandora, daughter of Sophie McCormick, of Dublin, and the Marquess of Normanby." Pandora is in LA now. "I'm just feeling the waters. I just thought that, while I'm over there I might as well, but I love my job and I love working in Ireland." Pandora says the entire cast were emotional wrecks after shooting the murder scene. "I spent the whole day crying because you have to stay in what you're doing," she said. "But Claire has some really tough stuff coming up. How will she survive without the love her life and as a single mother? She gets very angry and blames the guards so it's worth tuning in for." Red Rock airs Wednesdays and Thursdays at 8.30pm on TV3 An ambulance waits outside the Pathankot air force base to carry casualties to hospital (AP) Indian troops are still battling at least two gunmen at an air force base near the border with Pakistan, more than 24 hours after the compound came under attack, a top government official said. At least seven troops and four gunmen have been killed in the fighting so far. The two suspected militants were discovered shortly after noon Sunday and hours later appeared to have been cornered, Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi told reporters, adding that he expected the gunmen to be "neutralised" soon. The attack on the Pathankot air force base started before dawn on Saturday and is seen as an attempt to undo recent improvements in the relationship between arch rivals India and Pakistan. It comes a week after Narendra Modi became the first Indian prime minister in 12 years to visit Pakistan. Mr Mehrishi said Indian authorities were alerted on Friday afternoon about a potential terror attack in Pathankot, and that aerial surveillance at the base spotted the suspected militants as they entered the compound. He said they were quickly engaged by Indian troops and "were unable to move toward their likely intended target" of the area where the base's aircraft and military equipment are kept. Since Saturday morning, the base has been swarming with air force commandos, troops from India's elite National Security Guard and local police. The number of troops killed in the attack rose to seven on Sunday, with four succumbing to their injuries overnight and an elite commando killed in a morning blast that occurred while he was handling explosives, officials said. The attack at one of India's major air force bases started a few hours before dawn on Saturday when a group of militants entered the area of the base where the living quarters are located, the Defence Ministry said. The first gun battle with the militants lasted about 14 hours, after which the air force said it had begun operations to secure the base. Mr Mehrishi said that troops were not certain of the presence of additional gunmen until they were discovered Sunday afternoon, and that the two men were cornered in a wooded area of the base. "They are limited to an area and we are very hopeful that by this evening these two terrorists will be neutralised," he said. A senior air force officer, Air Marshal Anil Khosla, said the base will not be declared fully secured until the entire area is thoroughly checked by troops. The sprawling Pathankot air force base is spread over several miles, including some forested sections. It houses a fleet of India's Russian-origin MiG-21 fighter jets and Mi-25 and Mi-35 attack helicopters, along with other military hardware. The Defence Ministry said no aircraft or military equipment had been damaged in the fighting. The base is on the road that connects India's insurgency-plagued Jammu and Kashmir state with the rest of the country. It's also very close to India's border with Pakistan. The Himalayan region of Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan, but is claimed in its entirety by both. Rebels in India's portion of Kashmir have been fighting since 1989 for independence or merger with Pakistan. India accuses Pakistan of arming and training the insurgents, a charge Islamabad denies, and the attack at the base is being viewed as a possible attempt to unravel recent progress in the relationship between the two nations. Police have said they're investigating whether the gunmen came from the Indian portion of Kashmir, where rebels routinely stage attacks, or from Pakistan. The violence follows Indian Prime Minister Modi's surprise December 25 visit to Pakistan, where he met with his Pakistani counterpart, Nawaz Sharif - a trip that marked a significant thaw in the mostly tense relations between the nuclear-armed neighbours. Donald Trump, a Republican US presidential candidate, features in a new al-Qaeda recruitment video, which exploits racial tensions and seeks to persuade Muslims of America's on-going tradition of discrimination. The 52-minute film, made by Islamist militant group al-Shabaab, al-Qaeda's Somali affiliate, includes Mr Trump's call to ban all Muslims from entering the US in the wake of terrorist attacks. It also features Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born militant leader killed in a drone strike in Yemen in 2011. "Yesterday, America was a land of slavery, segregation, lynching and Ku Klux Klan. And tomorrow it will be a land of religious discrimination and concentration camps," he says in archive footage. His words are followed by a clip of Mr Trump addressing a rally last month, days after a husband and wife had shot dead 14 people in California, in an attack inspired by Isil. "Donald J Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what the hell is going on," Mr Trump said. Hillary Clinton, the Democratic front-runner, has previously described Mr Trump as "Isil's best recruiter". Al-Shabaab killed at least 67 people at the Westfield shopping centre in Nairobi in 2013. Last April, it murdered 148 staff and students at Garissa University in Kenya. Telegraph Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022] BRITAIN'S Prince William has admitted fatherhood has made him cry far more often and he finds himself worrying about not being around to see your children grow up. The Duke, who lost his mother Diana, Princess of Wales when he was 15, said he tended to well up at the smallest little things after the birth of his children Prince George and Princess Charlotte made him a more emotional person. Meanwhile Prince Harry disclosed that the Royal family love it when things go wrong on official visits because it makes them more memorable, and the Prince of Wales joked that he is getting past my sell-by date. The princes were talking to the TV presenters Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly for an ITV documentary about the Prince of Waless charity, the Princes Trust, which will be shown tomorrow night. Asked if fatherhood has changed him, Prince William said: I'm a lot more emotional than I used to be. Yeah, weirdly. I never used to really get too wound up or worried about things but I now the smallest little things can get I can feel you well up a little bit more. Expand Close Ant and Dec meet Prince's William and Harry at Kensington Palace Photo: ITV / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Ant and Dec meet Prince's William and Harry at Kensington Palace Photo: ITV You get affected by things that happen around the world or whatever a lot more I think as a father, just because you realise how precious life is and it puts it all in perspective, the idea of not being around to see your children grow up and stuff like that. But you know, from some of my earliest memories I remember my mother and father taking us to charities and organisations and showing us, you know, what goes on. And I think it's seeing such a broad spectrum of life, it's really important from a young age, to give you a bit of perspective to go 'you know, you dont just live in a palace', it's very important you get out and you see what goes on in the real world. Prince Harry told Ant and Dec that gaffes and mistakes were usually viewed as disasters by charities or other organisations hosting royal engagements, but royal visitors secretly prefer it when things do not go to plan, particularly the Duke of Edinburgh. He said: Everywhere we go, everything is sort of rehearsed so much, that it's always bang on correct, perfect. But we all, no more so than our grandfather, love it when things go wrong. And you always turn round and say, dont worry, itll probably go wrong and then it does go wrong and they're sort of crying; I say Dont worry about it, it's actually now I will remember it even more. And its true. The brothers both shared memories of the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Edinburgh ruining school plays for them by laughing in all the wrong places, even when Prince William gave them a death stare from the stage to implore them not to. Prince William said: I was in a play and I remember it was called Santas Smag or something like that, I can't remember, some sort of Christmas play and I was a wizard and I came on and I narrated it. There was meant to be a bit of pyrotechnic explosion in front of me and I jumped on stage and nothing happened, and so I started reading it and of course at this point I was quite panicky and then the pyrotechnic went off as I was reading. I was like Er and literally he couldnt stop laughing the whole way through the production and so several times I'd stop, Id cast an eye across, a big death stare, and then I'd try and get back to my lines, it was terrible. Honestly. His younger brother said when he was in a separate school play: There was a particular scene that he found very amusing, much more amusing than the rest of the audience it wasn't funny, no one else was laughing but because of something, he just burst out laughing, in fact my grandfather was there on the same night and it was just the two of them. Expand Close The Royal Christening party / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The Royal Christening party And it's all I could hear. And no one else no one else laughs, he always laughs at the wrong moment, and doesn't think Oh I shouldnt I should probably stay quiet, he just thinks it's the best thing ever. During their time at Eton the princes would receive letters from their father but his famous black spider handwriting was so bad that they would have to swap them for a second opinion in case they were being told off without realising it. Prince Harry said: At school, we regularly swapped letters and said erm, I think I know what it says, can you read it to me? And it was just drivel. Prince William said they would read the letters to each other just in case it was a b********* we didnt know about. He added: His writing in his letters is notoriously difficult to read but as it gets later in the evening, it's about 12 o'clock when he's writing letters, we can tell instantly. When he's falling asleep you get these long sort of As that disappear off the page. The Princes also discussed the joy of being neighbours at Kensington Palace when they are both in London. Prince Harry said he likes hearing Prince George playing on his toy tractor outside, and Prince William said Harry will pop round and he comes and scrounges all food off us and things like that. Ant and Dec spent a year shadowing the Prince to find out about the work of the Princes Trust, a 70m per year charity that has helped 825,000 disadvantaged and vulnerable young people move into education or work by giving them loans and mentoring. They were allowed a rare on-camera chat with the Duchess of Cornwall, in which she affectionately described being really proud of her husbands incredible achievement in setting up the Princes Trust. She told them: He does have incredible energyif youre passionate about something you can do it. Speaking about the birth of Princess Charlotte, the Prince of Wales told Ant and Dec: Its very nice having a granddaughter, hopefully somebody to keep an eye on me when Im tottering about on my Zimmer frame. He added that he has not had the nappy course but at a pinch he could change one. He also said he hopes one of his sons might take an interest in [the Princes Trust] because Im probably getting past my sell-by date now. When Ant & Dec Met The Prince: 40 Years of The Prince's Trust will be shown on ITV1 on Monday, January 4 at 9pm Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022] A columnist who is leaving the French magazine Charlie Hebdo has said the magazine he loved "died a year ago" ahead of a special edition to mark the anniversary of the attack by Islamist gunmen that killed 12 people. Patrick Pelloux, a journalist and casualty doctor who called President Hollande to tell him about the shootings last January, said: "My Charlie Hebdo died, the people who made it what it was were killed. We did survive, but part of us died." A year on from the shootings, the satirical magazine's circulation has risen tenfold, but surviving staff are haunted by trauma, plagued by death threats and divided by internal squabbles. A million copies of a special issue will be printed this week, including cartoons by some of those killed and messages of support for the left-wing weekly with a long history of mocking religions, especially Islam. The weekly that used to scrape by with sales of less than 30,000 now has more than 180,000 subscribers and distributes 100,000 copies to newsagents, in addition to 10,000 sold outside France. But the unprecedented inflow of money has caused quarrels. Some staff have demanded that all employees be made equal shareholders. It now spends massively on security and recently moved to a new, heavily guarded office at a secret address. Some staff have found it difficult to adapt to police escorts. Charlie Hebdo first attracted international attention by republishing a Danish newspaper's incendiary cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in 2006. Since the attack, it has continued to cause controversy with irreverent cartoons. It is frequently sued. It received about 20 death threats for a front-page cartoon last September depicting Aylan Kurdi, the Syrian child found dead on a Turkish beach whose picture prompted an outpouring of sympathy across the world. Charlie Hebdo showed his body beside a billboard advertising McDonald's children's menus, with a caption reading: "So close to the goal." "In France we are accustomed to black humour even if some people misunderstood the point of these cartoons," Dr Pelloux said. "We were not mocking Aylan Kurdi or the Russians who died, we were making a point about hypocrisy. Even in France, however, leading cartoonists and journalists have urged Charlie Hebdo to tone down its satire of Islam. The magazine's editor, Laurent Sourisseau, recently said that Charlie Hebdo may publish fewer caricatures of Mohammed, saying he does not want people to think it is "obsessed" with Islam. Renald Luzier whose cartoon of a tearful Mohammed appeared on the cover on the "survivors' edition" published after the January attack (inset), has left, citing "fatigue". Mr Sourisseau (49) admitted: "When we sold less, we were more relaxed. Now everyone is watching us." Telegraph Eurofighter Typhoon jets at from RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland, as RAF Tornado jets carry out the first British bombing runs over Syria. Photo: Danny Lawson/PA Wire Britain's controversial air campaign in Syria has been branded a "non-event" after it emerged the RAF has carried out only one attack on the country in the last four weeks. Since MPs voted for air attacks on Isil in Syria, RAF Tornados and Typhoons have mounted only three strike missions - all in the first five days of the operation. No RAF manned strikes have been conducted on any Syrian target since December 6. The only further strike was on Christmas Day by an unmanned, remote-controlled Reaper drone, bringing the total number of British strike missions to just four. Figures released by US Central Command (Centcom), which is running the operation, suggest that during their missions the RAF may have dropped as few as 19 bombs. The disclosures call into question claims by British Defence Secretary, Michael Fallon, at the beginning of the Syria operation that the UK was "really upping the tempo" with an "intense focus" on hitting infrastructure. He also claimed that the manned missions in the first week of December had been "successful" and had struck "a very real blow" against Isil. In fact, all of the RAF manned missions were against the Omar oilfield, which had already suffered "long-term incapacitation" in a much larger US raid in October. Britain has carried out reconnaissance over Syria and continued to make air strikes on Isil targets in Iraq, both of which it was already doing before MPs voted last month. "There is a disconnect between the heated political debate in Britain over Syria and what actually happened," said Jon Lake, a military aviation expert. "Britain's air campaign in Syria so far is basically a non-event which can have had little, if any, impact." Between December 1 and 22, according to figures from Centcom, US, British and other coalition aircraft carried out a total of 148 air strikes on Syria. The US carried out 127 and the "rest of the coalition" 21, according to the Centcom figures. French aircraft carried out two strikes, meaning that no more than 19 strikes were carried out by the RAF. A 'strike' means that at least one bomb or missile was used. Ministry of Defence reports of the RAF's three attack missions in Syria spoke of them striking at least 17 targets. The drone attack on December 25 involved firing a single Hellfire missile at an Isil checkpoint south of Raqqa. The RAF's contribution to reconnaissance over Syria is more significant, with some reporting it is providing up to 60pc of the coalition's tactical reconnaissance capability. It did not specify the number of reconnaissance missions flown. Telegraph Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022] An IS site in Syria has been attacked by French war planes French war planes have destroyed a site in Syria used by Islamic State extremists to produce missiles and store weapons. The French Defence Ministry said in a statement that the overnight air strikes targeted a site east of Aleppo, in an operation conducted by Rafale fighter jets using SCALP cruise missiles. The French jets were acting jointly with the US-led coalition, the statement said. France joined the US-led coalition against Islamic State extremists in Iraq in 2014 and expanded its operations to Syria in September. French war planes intensified military action against IS targets after the extremist group claimed responsibility for attacks in Paris on November 13 that killed 130 people. A Palestinian man looks out a house that was badly damaged from a suspected attack by Jewish extremists on two houses at Kafr Duma village near the West Bank city of Nablus, in this July 31, 2015 file picture. Reuters/Abed Omar Qusini/Files Israel has charged four Jewish extremists suspected over a July arson attack on a Palestinian home that killed a toddler and his parents. The case has been unsolved for months and helped fuel the current wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence. The long-awaited indictment follows months of investigations into a web of Jewish extremists operating in the West Bank. The indictment named Amiram Ben-Uliel, 21, as the main suspect in the attack. A minor was charged as an accessory. Yinon Reuveni, 20, and another minor were charged for other violence against Palestinians. The arson attack in the West Bank village of Duma killed 18-month-old Ali Dawabsheh, while his mother, Riham, and father, Saad, later died of their wounds. Ali's four-year-old brother Ahmad survived. The firebombing, carried out under cover of darkness while the family slept, sparked soul-searching among Israelis rattled by the horrific attack. It was condemned across the Israeli political spectrum and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged "zero tolerance" in the fight to bring the assailants to justice. Israel has authorised a series of steps, including administrative detention, to try and crack the case. But for months, Palestinians watched angrily as the case remained unsolved, intensifying a feeling of skewed justice in the occupied territory, where suspected Palestinian militants are prosecuted under a separate system of military law that gives them few rights. The arson also touched on Palestinian fears of extremist Jewish settlers, who have attacked Palestinian property with impunity. Palestinians cite the Duma incident as a factor in the three-month wave of attacks and clashes affectling the region, saying they are frustrated by years of unchecked settler violence. Israel's Shin Bet security service says the suspects admitted to carrying out the attack, saying it was in retaliation for the killing of an Israeli a month earlier. It said all the suspects were part of a group of extremists that had carried out a series of attacks over the years and whose goal was to undermine the state. Jewish extremists have for years vandalised or set fire to Palestinian property, as well as mosques, churches, the offices of dovish Israeli groups and even Israeli military bases. The so-called "price tag" attacks seek to exact a cost for Israeli steps seen as favouring the Palestinians. The extremists are part of the so-called "hilltop youth," a leaderless group of young people who set up unauthorised outposts, usually clusters of trailers, on West Bank hilltops - land the Palestinians claim for their hoped-for state. A lawyer for one of the suspects says his client gave a forced confession after interrogators deprived him of sleep and tied him upside down by his feet. The indictment said Ben-Uliel admitted to spraying graffiti on the Dawabsheh family home and then tossing a firebomb through a bedroom window before fleeing the scene. Ben-Uliel's parents said they believe in his innocence and that he was tortured during interrogation. Nasser Dawabsheh, Saad's brother, said the indictments were not enough. "It's clear the Israeli institutions are not serious," he said. "It's clear there was an organisation behind this crime, even the media knows that. And the government was not serious in preventing it and is not serious in pursuing the killers." Iran's top leader has warned Saudi Arabia of "divine revenge" over the execution of an opposition Shiite cleric. Meanwhile Riyadh accused Tehran of supporting terrorism, escalating a war of words hours after protesters stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran. Saudi Arabia announced the execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr on Saturday along with 46 others, including three other Shiite dissidents and a number of al Qaida militants. It was the largest mass execution carried out by the kingdom in three and a half decades. Sheikh al-Nimr was a central figure in protests by Saudi Arabia's Shiite minority until his arrest in 2012, and his execution drew condemnation from Shiites across the region. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei condemned the execution on Sunday in a statement on his website, saying Sheikh al-Nimr "neither invited people to take up arms nor hatched covert plots. The only thing he did was public criticism." Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard said Saudi Arabia's "medieval act of savagery" in executing the cleric would lead to the "downfall" of the country's monarchy. Saudi Arabia's Foreign Ministry said that by condemning the execution, Iran had "revealed its true face represented in support for terrorism". The statement accused Tehran of "blind sectarianism" and said that "by its defence of terrorist acts" Iran is a "partner in their crimes in the entire region". Sheikh al-Nimr was convicted of terrorism charges but denied ever advocating violence. Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran are locked in a bitter rivalry, and support opposite sides in the wars in Syria and Yemen. Iran accuses Saudi Arabia of supporting "terrorism" in part because it backs Syrian rebel groups, while Riyadh points to Iran's support for the Lebanese Hezbollah and other Shiite militant groups in the region. The Iranian Foreign Ministry has summoned the Saudi envoy in Tehran to protest, while the Saudi Foreign Ministry later said it had summoned Iran's envoy to the kingdom to protest Iran's criticism of the execution, saying it represented "blatant interference" in its internal affairs. In Tehran, the crowd gathered outside the Saudi embassy early on Sunday and chanted anti-Saudi slogans. Some protesters threw stones and Molotov cocktails at the embassy, setting off a fire in part of the building, said the country's top police official, General Hossein Sajedinia, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency. He later said police had removed the protesters from the building and arrested some of them, adding that the situation had been "defused". Hours later, Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi said 40 people had been arrested on suspicion of taking part in the embassy attack and investigators were pursuing other suspects, according to the semi-official ISNA news agency. Iranian president Hassan Rouhani, while condemning Saudi Arabia's execution of Sheikh al-Nimr, also branded those who attacked the Saudi embassy as "extremists". "It is unjustifiable," he said in a statement. The cleric's execution could also complicate Saudi Arabia's relationship with the Shiite-led government in Iraq. The Saudi embassy in Baghdad is preparing to formally reopen for the first time in nearly 25 years. Already on Saturday there were public calls for Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to shut the embassy down again. Mr al-Abadi tweeted on Saturday night that he was "shocked and saddened" by Sheikh al-Nimr's execution, adding that "peaceful opposition is a fundamental right. Repression does not last." On Sunday, Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, called Sheikh al-Nimr a martyr and said his blood and that of other Shiite protesters "was unjustly and aggressively shed". Hundreds of Sheikh al-Nimr's supporters also protested in his hometown of al-Qatif in eastern Saudi Arabia, in neighbouring Bahrain where police fired tear gas and bird shot, and as far away as northern India. The last time Saudi Arabia carried out a mass execution on this scale was in 1980, when the kingdom executed 63 people convicted over the 1979 seizure of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Islam's holiest city. Extremists held the mosque, home to the cube-shaped Kaaba toward which Muslims around the world pray, for two weeks as they demanded the royal family abdicate the throne. Also on Sunday, the BBC reported that one of the 47 executed in Saudi Arabia, Adel al-Dhubaiti, was convicted over a 2004 attack on its journalists in Riyadh. That attack by a gang outside of the home of a suspected al Qaida militant killed 36-year-old Irish cameraman Simon Cumbers. British reporter Frank Gardner, now the BBC's security correspondent, was seriously wounded in the attack and paralysed, but survived. Saudi Arabia has announced it is severing diplomatic ties with Iran amid mounting tensions over the execution of a prominent Saudi Shiite cleric. Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said that Iranian diplomatic personnel had 48 hours to leave the country and all Saudi diplomatic personnel in Iran were being recalled home. Iranian officials harshly condemned the execution, with Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei saying that Saudi Arabia would face "divine retribution". Protesters set fire to the kingdom's embassy in Tehran and demonstrators took to the streets from Bahrain to Pakistan after the mass execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr and 46 others. It was the largest execution carried out by Saudi Arabia in three and a half decades and illustrates the kingdom's new aggressiveness under King Salman. Under his reign, Saudi Arabia has led a coalition fighting Shiite rebels in Yemen and staunchly opposed regional Shiite power Iran, even as Tehran struck a nuclear deal with world powers. Riyadh has accused Tehran of supporting terrorism in a war of words that threatened to escalate even as the US and the European Union sought to calm the region. Sheikh al-Nimr was a central figure in Arab Spring-inspired protests by Saudi Arabia's Shiite minority until his arrest in 2012. He was convicted of terrorism charges but denied advocating violence. On Saturday, Saudi Arabia put Sheikh al-Nimr and three other Shiite dissidents to death, along with a number of al Qaida militants. Sheikh al-Nimr's execution drew protests from Shiites across the world, who backed his call for reform and wider political freedom for their sect. While the split between Sunnis and Shiites dates back to the early days of Islam and disagreements over the successor to Prophet Mohammed, those divisions have only grown as they intertwine with regional politics today, with both Iran and Saudi Arabia vying to be the Middle East's top power. Iran accuses Saudi Arabia of supporting terrorism in part because it backs Syrian rebel groups fighting to oust its embattled ally, President Bashar Assad. Riyadh points to Iran's backing of the Lebanese Hezbollah and other Shiite militant groups in the region as a sign of its support for terrorism. Iran also has backed Shiite rebels in Yemen known as Houthis. Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, condemned Sheikh al-Nimr's execution, saying on Sunday the cleric "neither invited people to take up arms nor hatched covert plots. The only thing he did was public criticism." Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard said Saudi Arabia's "medieval act of savagery" would lead to the "downfall" of the country's monarchy. Saudi Arabia's Foreign Ministry said that by condemning the execution, Iran had "revealed its true face represented in support for terrorism". DEEPENING RELIGIOUS DIVIDE: A Bahraini woman in a silent protest against the execution of cleric Nimr al-Nimr (inset, right) by Saudi Arabia. The writing in Arabic reads: Damn you. Photo: Mohammed al-Shaikh Saudi Arabia executed the prominent Shia Muslim cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr yesterday, stirring a chorus of condemnation and sectarian anger across the region. Mr Nimr was killed alongside 46 others, including dozens of al-Qaeda members, in the country's biggest mass execution in three decades. The cleric was a talismanic figure in protests that broke out in 2011 in the Sunni-ruled kingdom's east, where the Shia minority complains of marginalisation. His arrest in July 2012 sparked days of protest. Riyadh's main regional rival, Iran, and its Shia allies reacted with vigorous condemnation. Last night protests broke out in Tehran with angry protesters storming the Saudi embassy in Tehran. Demonstrators broke into the embassy and started fires before being cleared away by the police. Iran's foreign ministry called for calm after police dispersed protesters. In Saudi Arabia, hundreds of Shias marched through Mr Nimr's home district of Qatif, chanting "down with the Al Saud", a reference to the Saudi ruling family. Protests also took place in Pakistan, India and Indian-controlled Kashmir. Hossein Jaber Ansari, Iran's foreign ministry spokesman, accused Riyadh of hypocrisy. "The Saudi government supports terrorist movements and extremists, but confronts domestic critics with oppression and execution," he said. Lebanon's Supreme Islamic Shia Council called the execution a "grave mistake", while Haider al-Abadi, Iraq's prime minister, said it would have repercussions on regional security. A German foreign ministry official condemned the execution, saying it deepened worries about the region. Britain's shadow foreign secretary, Hilary Benn, joined the condemnation, describing the execution as "profoundly wrong". The US said it was concerned the execution "risks exacerbating sectarian tensions at a time when they urgently need to be reduced". The executions took place in 12 cities in Saudi Arabia, with four prisons using firing squads and the others carrying out beheadings. Describing the executions as acts of "mercy" to prisoners who might have committed crimes on their release, Saudi Arabia's leading cleric, Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Al Sheikh, said they were carried out in line with Islamic law and the need to safeguard the kingdom's security. The list of people executed included Sunnis convicted of involvement in al-Qaeda bombings and shootings that killed Saudis and foreigners in the kingdom in 2003 and 2004. Among those executed was a man convicted of involvement in a gun attack that killed Simon Cumbers, a cameraman on an assignment for the BBC, in 2004. Notably absent from the list was Mr Nimr's nephew, Ali al-Nimr, whose arrest at the age of 17 and alleged torture during detention sparked condemnation from rights watchdogs and the US. Saudi allies offered their support. In the UAE, the foreign minister, called the executions a "clear message against terrorism". Bahrain, which has faced unrest from its Shia majority population, also backed Riyadh in "all deterrent and needed measures it takes to confront violent extremism". In comments on Twitter, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, compared Saudi Arabia with Isil, which has also become renowned for its mass executions. Iranian state media showed rolling coverage of clerics and secular officials eulogising Mr Nimr and predicting the downfall of Saudi Arabia's ruling family. Iran's seminaries are due to be closed today in protest at his execution. In 2009, Mr Nimr angered authorities by calling for two Shia-populated governorates to be separated from Saudi Arabia and united with neighbouring Shia-majority Bahrain. Earlier in 2008, Mr Nimr met US officials, seeking to distance himself from anti-US and pro-Iranian statements When Saudi security forces arrested Mr Nimr in 2012, he was shot in the thigh, provoking protest at the treatment of a cleric who enjoyed hero status in the eyes of many. The charges included "disobeying the ruler" and "encouraging, leading and participating in demonstrations". Supporters said the cleric eschewed violence. He once urged protesters to resist police bullets with "the roar of the word". But he also warned Saudi authorities that if they refused to "stop bloodshed", they risked being overthrown. Experts said the cleric's execution revealed anxiety on the part of a Saudi state more willing to weather criticism over his death than to release him and bear the consequences. Telegraph Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022] Adel Al-Dubayti was one of 47 people killed in the countrys largest mass execution in decades THE convicted terrorist behind the assassination of an Irish cameraman was executed by Saudi Arabia yesterday. Adel al-Dhubaiti was one of 47 people killed in the countrys largest mass execution in decades. Dhubaiti was sentenced to death in November 2014 for the attack on Simon Cumbers, who was murdered in an ambush in June 2004 during filming of a report about al-Qaeda in a town close to the capital Riyadh. His colleague, the BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner, was shot six times and left paralysed Originally from Navan, Co Meath, Mr Cumbers was an experienced journalist, whose career took him from newspaper and radio reporting in Ireland to reporting and producing for ITN and Channel 4 Daily amongst others in the UK. He also ran his own newsgathering and production company, Locum Productions, with his wife, Louise Bevan. Expand Expand Previous Next Close Simon Cumbers was killed in the attack Simon Cumbers / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Simon Cumbers was killed in the attack Read More Gardner, 54, who courageously fought back from the crippling injuries to resume his broadcasting career, declined to comment. He has previously said he could never forgive Dhubaiti. He [Dhubaiti] is completely unrepentant. He has never said sorry. He is still in the mindset that he had when he attacked us. So forgiveness is not really an option, Gardner told The Telegraph in an interview in November 2014 following Dhubaitis conviction. Its not like this mans parents have written to me or anyone saying, Please forgive him. No one has apologised. Gardner had been offered the opportunity to meet his assailant but had declined. I dont want to see this guy. Why would I? What am I going to get from it? The mans soul is dead, he said. He even expressed his anger that Dhubaiti appeared to be well looked after in his Saudi prison. While awaiting the death penalty, finally delivered yesterday. I gather hes put on weight in jail he has been eating quite well, he said. The family of Simon Cumbers, who had died at the age of 36, had previously expressed mixed feelings, uneasy at the death penalty. His father Robert said in a statement in 2014: On the one hand, I am pleased that the murderer has had his fate decided and that the long wait is over. Read More It wont bring Simon back, but it puts an end to the waiting. On the other hand, both Bronagh and I sympathise with Dhubaitis parents, who must now suffer that tremendous loss that we feel. His mother Bronagh Cumbers had said in an interview: I dont want to see anybody dying. In 2005, a little over a year after his death and in close consultation with Louise Bevan and the extended Cumbers family, Irish Aid established the Simon Cumbers Media Fund to honour his memory. The aim of the Fund is "to assist and promote more and better quality media coverage of development issues in the Irish media". Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022] Lawmakers at an impasse, conference committee to revisit abortion bans The Senate refused to back down and accept the House's near total abortion bill Tuesday. Instead, they chose to go forward with a conference committee. At the age of reaping the fruits of an MBA degree, Aditya Tiwari has done something extraordinarily different. Indore-based Aditya Tiwari, who works for an MNC in Pune has adopted a kid with Down Syndrome. Image Credit: Times Of India Adoption in India is a herculean task. Aditya had to do various rounds of the adoption office for adopting the one-and-a-half year old Binney. However, the new adoption rules brought a ray of hope for Aditya as it slashed down the age of adoption to 25. The adoption process was then further delayed for five months. Finally, Aditya brought little Binney home on New Year. Aditya has renamed Binney as Avnish Tiwari and he will be staying with him in Pune. Union women and child development (WCD) minister Maneka Gandhi had specially helped Aditya in the adoption process. The minister visited the adoption center with Aditya and had instructed the authorities to hand over the child to him in a week. However, the hand over was still delayed despite the union ministers intervention. When Aditya was doing rounds of Matrachhaya, the shelter for abandoned and homeless kids, he was asked ridiculous questions just to assure that the child is falling into safer hands. We hope that, many others get inspired by Adityas inspiring story. Gurdaspur SP Salwinder Singh, who turned out to be the prime source of information about a group of terrorists having entered Pathankot to lead the security establishment to mount a multi-agency operation to thwart any attack, may have deftly talked his way to freedom after his car was hijacked by some suspected militants early Friday. Plain clothes aam aadmi strategy that worked indianexpress The attackers, after crossing over from Pakistan into Punjab, hijacked a private vehicle carrying the Gurdaspur SP, his friend Rajesh Verma and the SP's orderly. An intelligence officer tells that the terrorists were not aware that one of passengers was Gurdaspur SP. Singh, putting his police training and presence of mind to good use, is believed to have persuaded the terrorists to let him off. Considering that the SP was travelling in plain-clothes without his sanctioned security detail and official vehicle, intelligence officials say it was possibly the best strategy for him to pose as a common man who would be of little value to the terrorists. "Obviously, given that Pakistani fidayeen are trained to entirely focus on their mission, which was to attack the Pathankot airbase, they would have not been familiar with the local SPs. Being a Sikh possibly worked to Singh's advantage, leading the terrorists to abduct his friend Verma," said the intelligence officer. Singh later alerted the central agencies that suspected terrorists were on the loose in the area. Given that there was a specific alert last week warning of a major terror strike around the New Year, with defence installations high on the radar, the agencies were quick to sense an immediate threat to the Pathankot airbase. As Prime Minster Narendra Modi and his Pakistan counterpart Nawaz Sharif go out of their way to revive stalled peace talks, sometimes even parachuting down at short notice in each other's countries, this would come as quite an encouragement for both of them. Women here and in Pakistan have already begun a unique collaboration of their own, fighting hard for their, well, right to loiter. Facebook.com/girlsatdhabas It all started with the 'Why Loiter?' campaign launched by three women in Mumbai Shilpa Phadke, Sameera Khan and Shilpa Ranade some two years ago. They have even written a book by the same name with their uncommon take on women's safety in "cities of 21st century India". Support from across the Border Soon, women in Pakistan joined in with their own version of the campaign, calling it 'Girls at Dhaba', primarily an initiative of Karachi-based journalist Sadia Khatri. Phadke has a simple explanation for why Indian and Pakistani women immediately bonded over their loitering rights. "The ideas of izzat and honour are peculiarly South Asian," she said. "Besides of course the Hindi-Urdu capacity to speak to each other. The 'chai tapris' (tea shops) of Mumbai connected with the dhabas of Pakistan. The cross-border interactions never needed much explaining. When they talk, we know what they mean, and vice-versa. In coming years there will be more South Asian bonds of solidarity over this." Phadke added that they have been in touch with the 'Girls at Dhabas" since December 2015. "The campaign there (in Pakistan) reflects our own engagement with the idea of public space. It was a very organic collaboration. It was kind of natural that they would come with us on #WhyLoiter." Loitering in Karachi On December 20 last year, the Pakistan group began "loitering in Karachi" to reclaim public spaces. Then Nida Mushtaq of the 'Fearless Collective', who wanted to talk about the same issue, pitched in. "They did three fabulous murals on the subject, one each in Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad," said Phadke, adding with a laugh, "It's been wonderful that half the campaign this year has been across the border." So when Zebunnisa Chughtai, studying management in Lahore University, posted on social media that she is loitering with her sister on the streets of her city "to assert our right to take risks", she found company in Aligarh Muslim University girls, who were hitting the cafes and road-side stalls frequented by men. When women in Mumbai boarded the last local trains, strolling coolly at Marine Drive late at night, women in Delhi walked around the tight gullies of Chandni Chowk. On December 31, 2015, the movement touched a crescendo as 'Why Loiter?' went nation-wide. It's spreading "Walks and visits, not always entirely planned, will be continued as part of the Aligarh chapter of the campaign," Asiya Islam, an AMU alumni who volunteered along with other female members of the varsity to loiter. "It is this fear of danger in public places that eventually leads to exclusion of women from urban spaces. In Aligarh, while there is no ban on women accessing any part of the university or the city, some public spaces, such as dhabas, certain streets and eating spots are so male-dominated that women feel uncomfortable there. This needs to change." Phadke told on Saturday, "The idea has been to invite women to post narratives and images of loitering and having fun in the public space. We find that women do access public space for pleasure. We have to demonstrate this to a larger audience." So what's in store next? "We all have day jobs," she said. "But we hope to continue to collaborate with 'Girls at Dhabas', also with 'Fearless Collective', and eventually build a greater South Asian solidarity. And just, ummm, go loiter." Barely 40km from the Pakistan border, the Pathankot Air Force station is one of the strategically most important forward airbases of India during war and peacetime surveillance. The airbase is just 35 kms from Indo-Pak border. Image: Google Maps The station is not only a defensive airfield considering its close proximity to Pakistan, it is also a vital base for tactically offensive operations of the Indian Air Force. It provides logistic support to Jammu & Kashmir. The Pathankot airbase along with the airfield at Amritsar provide an essential operational range for deep air raids into the Pakistani territory. An air force chopper on a reconnaissance mission flies over the Pathankot airbase after attacks. Image: AP The airbase houses MiG-21 Bison fighter jets and MI-25 and MI-35 attack helicopters. Besides this, it also has Pechora missile a surface to air missile -- other air defence missiles and surveillance radars. The station witnessed many attacks during the wars with Pakistan in 1965 and 1971. Pechora missile a surface to air missile. Source: ausairpower.net During the 1965 War, Pakistan Army's commandos from the special services group had raided Pathankot airbase and other forwards airbases, including Adampur and Halwara, in Punjab. At Pathankot, only an officer mess was blown in that raid and no loss was caused to the aircraft. Some of the raiders were caught while some managed to go back to Pakistan. In 1971, Pakistan launched an air strike on Pathankot airbase and damaged a portion of the runway with rockets and bombs. Though the Air Force veterans are happy at no loss to high value assets in Friday's attack, they are of the view that such vital airbases, located in operational areas, should be guarded by the Army or by specialized forces. At present, airbases are guarded by the Defence Security Corps (DSC), a force comprising retired military personnel, Air Force police and Garud commandos. IAF Garud commandos of the Air Force are trained on the lines of National Security Guard, Army's para commandos and marine commandos. But they are limited in numbers and trained for combat search and rescue and are sent to act as emergency response teams to tackle threats. DSC comprises mainly superannuated soldiers who are re-employed for a few years. Air Marshal Randhir Singh (retired), former commander of the South Western Air Command, said, "Air force is a technical force where we fly aircraft or provide technical support to the aircraft. Learning lessons from such attacks on airbases, the Union ministry of defence should ensure their security from specialized forces." Air Force Police barricades Pathankot Airbase. Image: NewsX Air Commodore Jawahar Lal Bhargava (retired), who was also made a prisoner of war (POW) in 1971 by Pakistan, said the time had come when the security of airbases should be considered paramount and not left alone at the hands of DSC. Israel is the only country in the world that Isis fears, according to the first Western journalist to enter the group's territories and survive. Jurgen Todenhofer spent 10 days in the so-called Islamic State last year, publishing his findings in a book. In an interview with the Jewish News, the German reporter said Israel is not included in Isis' planned "first stage" of colonisation in the Middle East. "The only country Isis fears is Israel - they told me they know the Israeli army is too strong for them," Mr Todenhofer said. discoverspecialforces "They think they can defeat US and UK ground troops, who they say they have no experience in city guerrilla or terrorist strategies. "But they know the Israelis are very tough as far as fighting against guerrillas and terrorists." The former politician said the Isis militants he met claimed not to be scared of British or American soldiers but believed the Israeli Defence Forces were "a real danger". Isis has made several threats against Israel and Jewish people in its propaganda videos, claiming in October that "not one Jew" would be left in Jerusalem and vowing to eradicate the "disease" of Judaism from the world. Although Isis-affiliated groups are believed to be active in Gaza, no terror attacks in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian territories have yet been claimed by the organisation. middleeastmonitor Mr Todenhofer described al-Qaeda as "peanuts" compared to Isis after being allowed to meet the group's officials, militants and followers around its Iraqi stronghold of Mosul. "They want to show that the Islamic State is working," he said afterwards. "I thought I would meet a brutal terrorist group, but I met a brutal country." wikimedia Israel is not part of the US-led coalition bombing Isis in Iraq and Syria but its intelligence services are thought to be passing information on the group to allies. Follow us on sonu sood gets jacket as gift from his bro jackie chan Mumbai: It seems Sonu Sood has started the new year with some 'Kung Fu' love! The Bollywood actor has got a gift from his bro and legendary actor Jackie Chan in the form of a jacket. The actor, who is shooting with the Chinese Kung Fu star in the Indo-Chinese production "Kung Fu Yoga", took to Twitter to share his happiness over getting a gift from the actor. And the New Year begins with my bro #jackiechan...thank you for this lovely jacket #Beijing #kungfuyoga, Sonu posted. The Dabangg actor also posted an image with the international icon, in which both are all smiles for the camera. "Kung Fu Yoga" is a part of the three-film agreement signed between the two countries during Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to India. Directed by Stanley Tong, the action comedy film is shot in Dubai and Beijing. It will also be shot in India. Latest Bollywood News Follow us on pathankot attack fresh gunshots blasts heard 1 killed three injured Pathankot : A soldier was killed in an explosion during a combing operation near an air force base in Punjab's Pathankot on Sunday, a day after at least four terrorists were killed in a 15-hour gun battle at the facility. Gunshots and IED blasts were heard from the Indian Air Force (IAF) frontier base near Pathankot town on Sunday morning leading to speculation that one more terrorist could still be holed up inside. Three security personnel belonging to the National Security Guard were injured in the blast, news agency PTI said. The combing operation that began late on Saturday evening is still on. GPS devices recovered from the terrorists will be scrutinized to decipher the route the terrorists took to enter the base. The air base in Pathankot, a large military facility from which Russian-made fleet of MiG-21 fighter jets and Mi-35 attack helicopters fly, is still being sanitized. Combing operation is likely to be over by this afternoon. While four terrorists, who carried out a Fidayeen attack at the IAF base on Saturday, were killed by security agencies during a gunfight that lasted for 15-hours. There were confusing reports about the fifth terrorist being killed. The gunshots and blast were heard on Sunday morning during search and combing operation inside the base, the IAF and Punjab Police sources told IANS. The technical area, where the IAF's MIG-21 fighter jets, MI-35 attack helicopters and other critical assets were stationed, was secure, they said. A thorough search and combing operation continued at the Indian Air Force (IAF) frontier base near Pathankot town on Sunday following Saturday's terror attack. Security agencies, including the Army, National Security Guards (NSG), Indian Air Force, para-military forces and Punjab Police were involved in the massive search operation inside the IAF base and nearby areas. IAF helicopters could be seen flying over the base and nearby areas through the night and since early Sunday to assist ground forces in the operations. "The search ops are continuing. Everything is being looked at minutely. The operation will end only after this is completed," a senior Punjab Police official told IANS. Security agencies were particularly investigating the local support that the terrorists got in the area after entering Indian territory from the border belt with Pakistan on December 30-31. The border is about 30 km from here. At least four terrorists, suspected to be from Pakistan, were killed in a gunfight that lasted over 15 hours after they breached a high-security perimeter and entered the IAF base in northern Punjab early on Saturday to carry out a Fidayeen attack. Uncertainty prevailed on the number of terrorists being killed in the attack on the Pathankot air base, with Home Minister Rajnath Singh withdrawing a tweet putting the number at five. "I congratulate our armed forces and security forces on successfully neutralising all the five terrorists in 'Pathankot Operation'," Rajnath Singh had tweeted on Saturday evening. The tweet was, however, withdrawn soon after. At the time of the initial tweet, the number of terrorists being killed was placed at four. (IANS) Latest India News Follow us on 28 year old becomes india s youngest single parent to adopt special child New Delhi: The first day of 2016 brought a bundle of joy for Indore's youngster Aditya Tiwari as he finally had the opportunity to be blessed with a toddler after fighting for adoption for more than a year. Aditya, 28, has probably become the youngest single parent in India. Aditya, who works in a MNC in Pune, had wanted to adopt the kid suffering from Down's syndrome since September 2014. Binney, a year and a half old, is suffering from a genetic disorder and has a hole in his heart. Older adoption norms of the country didn't allow Aditya to adopt him till the latter turned 30. Despite amendments in the law applicable from August 30 which brought down the age for single parents to 25, it took months till Aditya became Binney's legal parent. On August 27 last year, when Union women and child development (WCD) minister Maneka Gandhi had visited Matrachhaya, the adoption home, she had instructed officials to hand the child to Aditya. "Even after constant support and guidance from central and state WCD and Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) and State Adoption Resource Authority (SARA) officials, the adoption agency did not proactively support my case. This will deter single parents like me from adopting children who need a home, unless the adoption agencies facilitate hassle-free adoptions," Aditya told a leading daily. Aditya had first paid a visit to the centre established in the year 1997 by volunteer organization 'Seva Bharti', on September 8 and 9. He claims he was asked many unnecessary questions at the centre. The adoption agency was supposed to hand Binney over to Aditya in seven working days, but they failed to do so. Tiwari did not hear anything from the agency till almost a month post this September 9 meeting. On October 5, Matrachhaya asked him to submit a HSR of Pune. The process was completed on October 15 and forwarded to CARA on the 30th of the same month. District Collector Nishant Warwade also wrote to Matrachhaya enquiring of the delay in the process. Joint secretary of Matrachhaya Amita Singh however had denied any delay in the process. "There is no delay. We are processing the adoption request as per norms and proper system. These matters are sensitive and therefore take time. Once the committee is assured of the child's wellbeing, the adoption will be finalized and if not the committee can also reject the adoption," she had said in November. After many hurdles, Aditya is now legally the parent of Binney. Speaking about it he said, "We have named him Avnish Tiwari. He will now stay with me in my Pune home." Latest India News Follow us on obama clinton created isis donald trump Washington: US President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's policies created ISIS, leading Republican presidential aspirant Donald Trump has alleged. Trump, while speaking at a campaign stop in Biloxi, Mississippi, offered no evidence for his claim in which he also said that escalating tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia were signs that the Islamic Republic wanted to take over the longtime US ally in the Middle East. They've created ISIS. Hillary Clinton created ISIS with Obama, Trump said yesterday. He couched his remark in a brief discussion of the Iranian protests outside the Saudi embassy in Tehran, which erupted after Saudi Arabia executed 47 people, including a dissident Shiite cleric. In Tehran, they're burning down the Saudi embassy, you see that? Trump was quoted as saying by CNN. Now, what that is...Iran wants to take over Saudi Arabia. They always have. They want the oil, OK? They've always wanted that. Trump has blamed both Democrats and former President George W Bush when talking about unrest in the Middle East, particularly citing Bush's decision to invade Iraq in 2003. In the recent weeks, he has been particularly aggressive in going after Clinton, the Democratic presidential front-runner, and her record leading the State Department. Two of Trump's 2016 competitors, Carly Fiorina and Rick Santorum, said in November that Clinton and Obama were to blame for the rise of Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Trump and Clinton have been involved in a war of words in recent weeks. Clinton had slammed Trump's recent comments about banning Muslim immigrants, saying the Republican front-runner was becoming ISIS's best recruiter. He is becoming ISIS's best recruiter. They are going to people showing videos of Trump insulting Islam and Muslims in order to recruit more radical jihadists, she had said. Trump dismissed Clinton's assertion that the Islamic State was using his videos as a recruitment tool saying she is a liar and made up the claim. Latest World News Follow us on riyadh summons tehran envoy over aggressive statement Riyadh: Saudi Arabia's Foreign Ministry summoned on Saturday the Iranian ambassador to Riyadh to protest Iran's "aggressive" statement over the execution of prominent Shia Muslim cleric Nimr al-Nimr, Saudi Press Agency reported. The report said that the Ministry expressed the Kingdom's denunciation and categorical rejection to Iran's statements, calling it "a flagrant violation of the Kingdom's internal affairs". The ministry also held the Iranian government completely responsible for the protection of the Saudi embassy in Tehran, and the consulate in the city of Mashhad and the safety of all its personnel from any hostile actions. Earlier reports say that Iranian protesters have cast homemade crackers at the Saudi consulate in Mashhad city, and caused part of the building on fire. No casualty has been reported. Early on Saturday, Saudi Interior Ministry announced the execution of 47 people on terrorist charges, including the dissident Shiite leader. Most of the executed were Saudis and involved in a series of attacks carried out by al-Qaida from 2003-06. Nimr al-Nimr was also a driving force behind anti-government protests that broke out in 2011. Iran's Foreign Ministry then strongly condemned the execution of Nimr al-Nimr, saying "while the Saudi government supports extremists and terrorist groups, it cracks down on and executes its dissidents". Latest World News Follow us on saudi consulate in iran reportedly set on fire by protesters Tehran: Iranian protesters stormed the Saudi consulate in Tehran early on Sunday morning and reportedly set parts of it on fire in a reaction against the execution of 56-year-old cleric Nimr al-Nimr, a key figure in anti-government protests in the kingdom since 2011. Demonstrators who had massed at the embassy gates to protest at Nimr al-Nimr's execution broke into the embassy and started fires before being cleared away by the police, Iran's ISNA news agency reported The move came after the Saudi Interior Ministry announced on Saturday that 47 people, including the prominent Shia leader Nimr al-Nimr, were executed on terrorist charges. Nimr, the most vocal critic of the dynasty among the Shi'ite minority, had come to be seen as a leader of the sect's younger activists, who had tired of the failure of older, more measured leaders to achieve equality with Sunnis. The protesters gathered in front of the Saudi consulate and chanted slogans against the Arab state's authorities, according to the report. They pulled down the flag of Saudi Arabia from the building of the consulate and throw handmade crackers which caused fire in part of the building, it said. Earlier on Saturday, Iran's Foreign Ministry summoned Saudi Arabian charge d'affaires to Tehran and strongly condemned the execution of Nimr al-Nimr. Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Amir-Abdollahian conveyed the strong protest of Islamic republic to the Saudi envoy, Ahmed al-Muwallid, over what he called the "irresponsible behaviour" of the Saudi officials in this regard, according to the state TV. Latest World News Follow us on terrorists to be vanquished from pakistan in 2016 pak army chief Karachi: Pakistan's powerful army chief Gen Raheel Sharif has vowed to rid the country from the scourge of terrorism, asserting that "all negative forces" would be scuttled. "The new year will be the year when terrorism will end," he said yesterday while addressing tribal elders of Gwadar, Talar and Turbat areas of Makran division. The new year would be the "year of national solidarity", he said, adding that the nation would witness the birth of peace and justice in the year. Gen Sharif, however, stressed the need for the entire nation to extend support to the armed forces in this regard. "Peace and justice will be ensured across the country with the support of the nation," he was quoted as saying by the Dawn. He said the "elements involved in the bad practice of financial misappropriation" should also be dealt with strictly. There was a nexus between terrorism, corruption and crime, he said, adding that the elements involved in terrorism and financial corruption had developed close relations to help each other out. All the "negative forces" in the nexus would be defeated, said the army chief during a visit to review the progress made in the projects undertaken by army engineers as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. He went on to add that Balochistan would be turned into a peaceful province. The army would help make the Gwadar seaport fully functional, he said, adding that the port would bring progress and prosperity to the people of Balochistan. The army chief directed the officials concerned to take stringent measures for the security of engineers and labourers, particularly the Chinese nationals, working on various projects. While highlighting the importance of the under- construction projects, Gen Sharif said all possible measures would be taken in collaboration with the provincial government to make Gwadar a safe city for local and foreign investors. Underlining the potential of Balochistan as a hub for trade in the region, he said that completion of the projects was directly linked to the law and order situation and vowed that the armed forces would take all necessary actions to help bring back normalcy in the province. Latest World News Follow us on pm modi chairs meeting on pathankot terror attack nsa fs present New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi tonight held a meeting with top officials to discuss the Pathankot terror attack. Soon after returning from his two-day visit to Karnataka, Modi chaired a meeting of top officials including National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar. "Immediately on landing in Delhi, PM Narendra Modi is chairing a high-level meeting with the NSA, Foreign Secretary and other officials," the PMO said. Earlier during the day, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar briefed Prime Minister Modi on the latest situation at the Pathankot air base. Both were present at a HAL function in Tumakuru in Karnataka. Pathankot air base is under terror attack since yesterday. The security forces have already killed four terrorists and two more are believed to be still holed-up inside the base, and an operation is underway to flush them out. fresh exchange of fire was reported at the attack site between the security forces and terrorists holed-up inside the air force base. A joint combing operation by the armed forces, police and security personnel was still underway and the NIA has taken over the probe into the terror attack. Why Isnt the Media Feeling the Bern? Polls show that Bernie Sanders would trounce Donald Trump, but youd never know that from watching TV news. By Jim Hightower January 02, 2015 " Information Clearing House " - Lets go to the scoreboard to see whos winning the exciting presidential election media coverage game. The Tyndall Report , a non-partisan media monitoring firm that has been tracking the nightly news broadcasts of ABC, CBS, and NBC, found that Trump is tromp, tromp, tromping over the airtime of everyone else. From last January through November, these dominant flagship news shows devoted 234 minutes of prime-time coverage to the incessant chirping of the yellow-crested birdbrain, with no other contender getting even a fourth of that. Take Bernie Sanders, whos stunning the political establishment with a fiery populist campaign thats drawing record crowds. Indeed, Sanders upstart campaign is commanding a comparable share of support within the Democratic Partys voting base to what Trump is enjoying from the Republican electorate. And get this polls also show Bernie trouncing The Donald if they face each other in Novembers presidential showdown. So surely hes getting a proportional level of media coverage by the networks on our public airwaves, right? Ha, just kidding! The big networks devotion of 234 minutes to all-things-Trump was balanced by less than 10 minutes for Sanders. Most egregious was ABC, the Disney-owned network. ABCs World News Tonight awarded 81 minutes of national showtime to Trump last year and for Bernie: 20 seconds. How self-serving of the media moguls. The one candidate who is effectively rallying large numbers of voters to oppose the rise of corporate oligarchy including in the media has the plug pulled on him. Of course, this only amplifies the truth of what Sanders is saying about the villainy of corporate profiteers, and it fuels a greater determination by his millions of grassroots supporters to end the reign of greed in America. OtherWords columnist Jim Hightower is a radio commentator, writer, and public speaker. Hes also the editor of the populist newsletter, The Hightower Lowdown, and a member of the Public Citizen board. OtherWords.org Our George Orwell/Noam Chomsky Paradox: Lets Decipher the Doublethink Media and Government Peddles About U.S. Foreign Policy Our policies and actions routinely go against our oft-stated ideals. Here's how to examine the lies and spin By Dana E. Abizaid January 02, 2015 " Information Clearing House " - " Salon " - Despite what politicians say, understanding U.S. foreign policy is much more difficult than applying a black and white, good and evil, us versus them approach. To begin to comprehend the maze of conflicting interests involved and how the U.S. acts against its oft-stated ideals, one needs to lean on George Orwells definition of doublethink, or the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in ones mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them. The central means of population control in Orwells 1984, doublethink is also essential to the U.S. government and medias ability to craft counterproductive foreign policies and narratives that go largely unquestioned by the mainstream media and American public. Doublethink allows the U.S. government and media to apply its attention and ire selectively while maintaining that the U.S. supports democracy and opposes human rights abuses in the Middle East. It also facilitates the implementation of policies that blatantly contradict each other. Glaring areas where doublethink has triumphed in U.S. foreign policy include American support for the draconian Saudi monarchy, the hardline Egyptian military dictatorship and the Iraqi regime allied closely with Iran. Doublethink is also conspicuously at play in U.S. condemnation of their enemies transgressions while ignoring its own as well as those of its allies. This is most clearly illustrated in U.S. support of Israel and condemnation of Russia. Regarding Saudi Arabia, it is astounding that an America founded on the Enlightenment ideals of separation of church and state and individual liberty could blindly lend material and moral support to an Islamic monarchy noted for outdoing ISIS in beheadings. That the American media does not lambaste the U.S. government for honoring the princes of Saudi Arabia when they visit Washington speaks volumes about the influence that doublethink has on American society. The U.S. proclaims to support freedom while facilitating the worst aspects of medieval Saudi tyranny. In Egypts case it would be hard to argue that the Obama administration does not agree with Winston Churchills claim that, The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter. Although the U.S. government initially withheld aid in 2013 to the Egyptian military junta that overthrew the democratically elected Muslim Brotherhood, it is currently supplying the repressive Sisi regime with $1.3 billion in weapons precisely to stifle democratic dissent. Employing doublethink, the U.S. government preaches liberal democracy but keeps dictatorship afloat in Egypt by turning a blind eye to the thousands killed under General Sisi. Another troubling application of doublethink is manifest in Iraq, where a Shia government is allied closely with Iran. Despite the fact the U.S. government and media persistently trumpet the evil existential threat that Iran poses, in the Iraqi case Irans evilness must be overlooked. How else could the U.S. justify the billions of dollars and thousands of lives wasted in Iraq? This takes on sharper resonance when one does the Middle Eastern math. In Iraq, the U.S. created the Iranian allied government that is in a death struggle with the Islamic State, a Sunni terrorist group that arose out of the ashes of the 2003 U.S. shock and awe campaign to democratize the Middle East. The opposite is true in Syria where the U.S. indirectly supports ISIS in its attempts to overthrow Assads Iranian backed government. Famously, Orwell had the government manipulate Oceanias citizens to believe that two plus two equals five. In the Iraq and Syria cases the equivalent equation would be the belief that two plus two equals one million. Clearly contradictory and counterproductive policies swallowed uncritically by the American masses. Big Brother would be proud. A more complicated and lesser focused on use of doublethink is the hypercritical U.S. stance on human rights embodied in the criticism of Russian bombing in Syria while remaining mum regarding heavy-handed Israeli tactics in Gaza in 2014 (with U.S. weapons). To support Israel after the UN reported that its 2014 Operation Protective Edge killed 1,426 civilians, including 495 children, while condemning Russian efforts to defeat ISIS in Syria requires a callous level of doublethink. Moreover, in light of the criticism of indiscriminate U.S. bombing in Afghanistan and Iraq any discussion of Russian civilian bombing in Syria requires faith in an Orwellian doublethink that is conscious, or it would not be carried out with sufficient precision. Orwell continues, it also has to be unconscious, or it would bring with it a feeling of falsity and hence of guilt. Thus, the U.S. can self-righteously criticize Russia for bombing civilians while denying America or Israel uses similar tactics. It is quite clear that doublethink pervades U.S. government pronouncements, media reports and school textbooks. This use of doublethink relegates perspective and context to what Trotsky called the ashbin of History. In Orwells Oceania the government claimed that, Who controls the past control the future; who controls the present controls the past. Sadly, such manipulative control also exists in the U.S. and makes a mockery of historical memory while denying the slimmest notions of justice. Dana E. Abizaid is a history teacher and writer based in Istanbul. She has published articles in the San Francisco Chronicle, Baltimore Sun, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Moscow Times. Syria is the Middle Eastern Stalingrad By Andre Vltchek January 02, 2015 " Information Clearing House " - " NEO " - Day and night, for years, an overwhelming force has been battering this quiet nation, one of the cradles of human civilization. Hundreds of thousands have died, and millions have been forced to flee abroad or have been internally displaced. In many cities and villages, not one house is left intact. But Syria is, against all odds, still standing. During the last 3 years I worked in almost all of Syrias perimeters, exposing the birth of ISIS in the NATO-run camps built in Turkey and Jordan. I worked in the occupied Golan Heights, and in Iraq. I also worked in Lebanon, a country now forced to host over 2 million (mostly Syrian) refugees. The only reason why the West began its horrible destabilization campaign, was because it could not tolerate Syrias disobedience and the socialist nature of its state. In short, the way the Syrian establishment was putting the welfare of its people above the interests of multi-national corporations. * More than two years ago, my former Indonesian film editor demanded an answer in a somewhat angry tone: So many people are dying in Syria! Is it really worth it? Wouldnt it be easier and better for Syrians to just give up and let the US have what it is demanding? Chronically petrified, this young woman was always searching for easy solutions that would keep her safe, and safe with significant personal advantages. As so many others in this time and age, in order to survive and advance, she developed a complex system resting on betrayals, self-defenses and deceptions. How to reply to such a question? It was a legitimate one, after all. Eduardo Galeano told me: People know when its time to fight. We have no right to tell them but when they decide, it is our obligation to support them, even to lead them if they approach us. In this case, the Syrian people decided. No government, no political force could move an entire nation to such tremendous heroism and sacrifice. Russians did it during World War Two, and the Syrians are doing it now. Two years ago I replied like this: I have witnessed the total collapse of the Middle East. There was nothing standing there anymore. Countries that opted for their own paths were literally leveled to the ground. Countries that succumbed to the dictates of the West lost their soul, culture and essence and were turned into some of the most miserable places on earth. And the Syrians knew it: were they to surrender, they would be converted into another Iraq, Yemen or Libya, even Afghanistan. And so Syria rose. It decided to fight, for itself and for its part of the world. Again and again, it retained itself through the elections of its government. It leaned on its army. Whatever the West says, whatever the treasonous NGOs write, the simple logic just proves it all. This modest nation does not have its own powerful media to share the extent of its courage and agony with the world. It is always the others who are commenting on its struggle, often in a totally malicious way. But it is undeniable that whilst the Soviet forces stopped the advance of the German Nazis at Stalingrad, the Syrians have managed to stop the fascist forces of Western allies in its part of the world. Of course Russia got directly involved. Of course China stood by, although often in the shadow. And Iran provided support. And Lebanon-based Hezbollah put up, what I often describe as, an epic fight on behalf of Damascus against the extremist monsters invented and armed by the West, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. But the main credit has to go to the Syrian people. Yes, now there is nothing left of the Middle East. Now there are more tears than raindrops descending on this ancient land. But Syria is standing. Burned, wounded, but standing. And as is being widely reported, after the Russian armed forces came to the rescue of the Syrian nation, more than 1 million Syrian people were able to return home often to encounter only ashes and devastation, but home. Like people returned to Stalingrad, some 70 years ago. * So what would my answer be to that question now: whether it would be easier the other way, to surrender to the Empire? I guess something like this: Life has meaning, it is worth living, only if some basic conditions can be fulfilled. One does not betray great love, be it love for another person or love for ones country, humanity or ideals. If one does, it would be better not to be born at all. Then I say: the survival of humankind is the most sacred goal. Not some short-time personal gain or safety, but the survival of all of us, of people, as well as the safety of all of us, humans. When life itself is threatened, people tend to rise and fight, instinctively. During such moments, some of the most monumental chapters in human history are written. Unfortunately, during these moments, millions tend to die. But the devastation is not because of those who are defending our human race. It is because of the imperialist monsters and their servants. Most of us are dreaming about a world without wars, without violence. We want true kindness to prevail on earth. Many of us are working relentlessly for such a society. But until it is constructed, until all extreme selfishness, greed and brutality are defeated, we have to fight for something much more modest for the survival of people and of humanism. The price is often horrible. But the alternative is one enormous gaping void. It is simply nothing the end, full stop! In Stalingrad, millions died so we could live. Nothing was left of the city, except some melted steel, scattered bricks and an ocean of corpses. Nazism was stopped. Western expansionism began its retreat, that time towards Berlin. Now Syria, quietly but stoically and heroically, stands against Western, Qatari, Saudi, Israeli and Turkish plans to finish the Middle East. And the Syrian people have won. For how long, I dont know. But it has proven that an Arab country can still defeat the mightiest murderous hordes. Andre Vltchek is a philosopher, novelist, filmmaker and investigative journalist. He covered wars and conflicts in dozens of countries. His latest books are: Exposing Lies Of The Empire and Fighting Against Western Imperialism . Discussion with Noam Chomsky: On Western Terrorism . Point of No Return is his critically acclaimed political novel. Oceania - a book on Western imperialism in the South Pacific. His provocative book about Indonesia: Indonesia The Archipelago of Fear . Andre is making films for teleSUR and Press TV. After living for many years in Latin America and Oceania, Vltchek presently resides and works in East Asia and the Middle East. He can be reached through his website or his Twitter . Turkey, Saudi Reap Machiavellian Whirlwind By Finian Cunningham January 02, 2015 " Information Clearing House " - " SCF " - The year ended, appropriately, with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan flying to Riyadh to hold a summit with Saudi King Salman. The meeting had the air of two leaders closing ranks after a year of setbacks. As the old adage puts it, misery needs company. And there is much misery that the Turkish and Saudi leadership have to console each other about. Both Ankara and Riyadh have seen their military schemes in the region turn decidedly sour. Russias military intervention in Syria over the past three months has helped to stabilize the government of President Bashar al-Assad, which was targeted covertly by Turkey and Saudi Arabia for regime change. Washington and other NATO powers were to be sure part of the criminal plot. But it was Turkey and Saudi Arabia that served as the point men. Devastating losses inflicted by Russia against jihadist mercenaries have turned the tide on the dirty war co-sponsored by Ankara and Riyadh, with even the United States recently admitting that Russian President Vladimir Putin has succeeded in his strategic goals of stabilizing the Syrian state and long-time ally of Moscow. Russias aerial bombardment of oil smuggling and weapons routes used by the jihadist proxy army have cut off supply lines that Turkey had enabled the terror brigades with. Estimated to have been earning the mercenaries millions of dollars per day, thanks to the collusion of Erdogans regime in Ankara, the decimation of oil contraband by Russian bombing raids has plugged the cash and weapons fuel for the terrorists waging war in Syria. No wonder then that Erdogan was in Riyadh on December 29-30 to discuss the formation of a new strategic cooperation council with the House of Saud. The Turks and Saudis now find themselves with a serious funding problem for their regime-change scheme in Syria. Saudi foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir, of course, did not mention Syria in public, and he tried his best to sanitize proceedings, saying of the summit: The meeting produced a desire to set up a high-level strategic cooperation council between the two countries, in order to strengthen military, economic and investment cooperation. But reading between the lines, the all-important, urgent backdrop for the summit is Syria. According to Syrian sources, the Turk-Saudi arrangement for regime change in the neighboring state worked as follows. The Turks provided the logistical connections for weapons, jihadist fighters and training camps across the Syrian border, while the House of Saud was the main funding source for the nefarious enterprise going back to the origin of the conflict in March 2011. The Saudis would also provide weapons from their copious US-supplied arsenals, with tacit approval from the American Central Intelligence Agency. Erdogans renewed military campaign against the breakaway Kurdish population in the southeast of his country and in northern Iraq, plus a general downturn in Turkeys once-bustling economy has meant that Ankara certainly does not have the finances to fund its neo-Ottoman schemes. As already noted, the Russian air assaults along the Turk-Syrian border has put paid to illicit sources of smuggling cash. Thus, cash-strapped Erdogan is in a bind. So too is Erdogans erstwhile financier in Riyadh. The oil-rich kingdom ended the year by posting a record budget deficit put at $98 billion or 15 per cent of the countrys economy. The Saudi rulers are now having to embark on a previously unheard-of austerity drive to rectify their awry finances. As the Financial Times headlined: Saudis unveil radical austerity programme. The Saudi population is facing price hikes in fuel, electricity and water, which is an abrupt departure from the countrys social contract whereby the autocratic rulers have up to now always bought off discontent among the commoners with lavish subsidies to ease the cost of living. This has implications for social unrest in the authoritarian kingdom. Despite decades of royal largesse, Saudi Arabia suffers from high levels of chronic unemployment and poverty, particularly among its youth. This reflects the rentier nature of the Saudi economy, typical of the oil-rich Gulf states. As much as one-third of the Saudi total population of 27 million are foreign expatriate workers, many of them from South Asia, providing cheap slave-labor. This has resulted in large sections of the Saudi native population being unemployed, which has been kept docile up to now through hand-outs from the Saudi oil coffers. A major factor in Saudi Arabias dwindling state finances is the crash in world market oil prices. Only five years ago, the price of oil was well over $100 per barrel. Today it is down around $40, with a slump of 23 per cent this year alone. Some 80 per cent of the Saudi state revenues depend on the sale of oil. That compares with Russias dependence on oil at around 15 per cent, owing to Russias much more industrially diversified economic development. And here is where the plot thickens. Over-production of oil by the Saudis has contributed to the saturated supply in world markets, which has in turn driven down prices for the commodity. Russias energy minister Alexander Novak was in doubt who is to blame for the slump in market prices. Novak told Rossiya 24 TV channel this week: Saudi Arabia has this year increased production by 1.5 million barrels per day, thus effectively destabilizing the situation on the market. Some analysts have averred that Saudi Arabias seemingly self-defeating policy has been motivated by a bid to defend its market position as the worlds second top oil producer along with Russia by driving out weaker competitors. A more mischievous explanation is that the Saudis were aiding and abetting Washingtons agenda of trying to damage Russias economy. Either way, the upshot would seem to be that the Saudis have ended up doing more damage to their own interests by playing geopolitics with oil. Adding to Saudi woes is its ongoing war in Yemen. Nine months of non-stop bombardment of its southern neighbor has achieved nothing for the House of Saud in terms of re-installing an ousted puppet-regime. There seems to be no end in sight for that war, which means the Saudis are set to pile up more military expenses in the year ahead, just at a time when the kingdoms coffers are in arrears. But as the Machiavellian schemes backfire for both Turkey and Saudi Arabia, there is perhaps a measure of good news for others. As UN-sponsored peace talks get underway over the coming weeks on the Syrian conflict, the setbacks for Ankara and Riyadh will strengthen the hand of Russia and its Syrian ally at the negotiating table. Its an ill-wind indeed that blows no-one any good. And at least the whirlwind that the Turks and Saudis are reaping from their own Machiavellian plots might just bring a reprieve for parties who are genuinely interested in seeking peace in the region. How False Stories of Iran Arming the Houthis Were Used to Justify War in Yemen By Gareth Porter January 02, 2015 " Information Clearing House " - " Truth Out " - Peace talks between the Saudi-supported government of Yemen and the Houthi rebels ended in late December without any agreement to end the bombing campaign started by Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies with US support last March. The rationale for the Saudi-led war on Houthis in Yemen has been that the Houthis are merely proxies of Iran, and the main alleged evidence for that conclusion is that Iran has been arming the Houthis for years. The allegation of Iranian arms shipments to the Houthis - an allegation that has often been mentioned in press coverage of the conflict but never proven - was reinforced by a report released last June by a panel of experts created by the UN Security Council: The report concluded that Iran had been shipping arms to the Houthi rebels in Yemen by sea since at least 2009. But an investigation of the two main allegations of such arms shipments made by the Yemeni government and cited by the expert panel shows that they were both crudely constructed ruses. Diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks reveal that the story of the arms onboard the ship had been concocted by the government. The government of the Republic of Yemen, then dominated by President Ali Abdullah Saleh, claimed that it had seized a vessel named Mahan 1 in Yemeni territorial waters on October 25, 2009, with a crew of five Iranians, and that it had found weapons onboard the ship. The UN expert panel report repeated the official story that authorities had confiscated the weapons and that the First Instance Court of Sana'a had convicted the crew of the Mahan 1 of smuggling arms from Iran to Yemen. But diplomatic cables from the US Embassy in Yemen released by WikiLeaks in 2010 reveal that, although the ship and crew were indeed Iranian, the story of the arms onboard the ship had been concocted by the government. On October 27, 2009, the US Embassy sent a cable to the State Department noting that the Embassy of Yemen in Washington had issued a press statement announcing the seizure of a "foreign vessel carrying a quantity of arms and other goods...." But another cable dated November 11, 2009, reported that the government had "failed to substantiate its extravagant public claims that an Iranian ship seized off its coast on October 25 was carrying military trainers, weapons and explosives destined for the Houthis." Furthermore, the cable continued, "sensitive reporting" - an obvious reference to US intelligence reports on the issue - "suggests that the ship was carrying no weapons at all." A follow-up Embassy cable five days later reported that the government had already begun to revise its story in light of the US knowledge that no arms had been found on board. "The ship was apparently empty when it was seized," according to the cable. "However, echoing a claim by Yemen Ambassador al-Hajj, FM [Foreign Minister] Qaairbi told Pol Chief [chief of the US Embassy's political section] on 11/15 the fact that the ship was empty indicated the arms had already been delivered." President Saleh had hoped to use the Mahan 1 ruse to get the political support of the US for a war to defeat the Houthis. President Saleh had hoped to use the Mahan 1 ruse to get the political support of the US for a war to defeat the Houthis, which he was calling "Operation Scorched Earth." But as a December 2009 cable noted, it was well known among Yemeni political observers that the Houthis were awash in modern arms and could obtain all they needed from the huge local arms market or directly from the Yemeni military itself. Unlike the government's story of the Mahan 1 and its phantom weapons, the official claim that a ship called the Jihan 1, seized on January 23, 2013, had arms onboard was true. But the totality of the evidence shows that the story of an Iranian arms shipment to the Houthis was false. The ship was stopped in Yemeni waters by a joint patrol of the Yemeni Coast Guard and the US Navy, and an inspection found a cache of weapons and ammunition. The cargo including man-portable surface-to-air missiles, 122-millimeter rockets, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, C-4 plastic explosive blocks and equipment for improvised explosive devices. Some weeks later, the UN expert panel inspected the weaponry said to have been found on board the Jihan 1 and found labels stuck on ammunition boxes with the legend "Ministry of Sepah" - the former name of the Iranian military logistics ministry. The panel report said the panel had determined that "all available information placed the Islamic Republic of Iran at the centre of the Jihan operation." But except for those labels, which could have been affixed to the boxes after the government had taken possession of the arms, nothing about the ship or the weapons actually pointed to Iran. All of the crew and the businessmen said to have arranged the shipment were Yemenis, according to the report. And the expert panel cited no evidence that the ship was Iranian or that the weapons were manufactured in Iran. The expert panel cited no evidence that the ship was Iranian or that the weapons were manufactured in Iran. The case rested on the testimony of the Yemeni crew members of the Jihan 1 - then still in government custody - who said they had sailed from Yemen to the Iranian port of Chabahar, had been taken to another Iranian port and then ferried by small boat to the Jihan 1 sitting off the Iranian coast. But although the panel said it had access to "waypoint data retrieved from Global Positioning System (GPS) devices," it did not cite any such data that supported the crew members' story. In fact, the panel acknowledged that it had "no information regarding the location at which the Jihan was loaded with arms...." A crucial fact about the cargo, moreover, points not to Iran but to Yemen itself as the origin of the ship: The weapons on the ship were hidden under diesel fuel tanks and could be accessed only after those tanks had been emptied. The expert panel referred to that fact but failed to discuss its significance. But the June 2013 report of a UN Security Council Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea said that Jihan 1's crew members had "divulged to a diplomatic source who interviewed them in Aden that the diesel was bound for Somalia." An unnamed Yemeni official confirmed that fact, which the crew members had kept from the Security Council expert panel, according to the UN Monitoring Group report. The fact that the Jihan 1 was headed for Somalia indicates that the ship was engaged in a commercial smuggling operation - not a politically motivated delivery. The lucrative business of smuggling diesel fuel from Yemen to Somalia had long been combined with arms smuggling to the same country across the Gulf of Aden from Yemen, as the Monitoring Group report made clear. The Monitoring Group report explained that the reason authorities in the Puntland region of Somalia had made it illegal to import petroleum products was that arms had so often been smuggled into ports on its coast hidden under diesel fuel. The same UN Monitoring Group report also revealed that a series of arms shipments had been smuggled to Somalia in late 2012 - just before the Jihan 1 was seized - in which rocket-propelled grenade launchers were the primary component and IED components and electrical detonators were also prominent. Those were also major components of the Jihan 1 weapons shipment. The report said information received from the Puntland authorities and its own investigation had "established Yemen as a principal source of the these shipments." A key piece of evidence confirming that those arms had originated in Yemen was a communication from the Bulgarian government to the UN Monitoring Group indicating that all the rocket-propelled grenade rounds and propellant charges in one lot manufactured in Bulgaria and seized in Somalia had been delivered to the Yemeni armed forces in 2010. The information in the Monitoring Group report thus points to Yemeni arms smugglers as the source of the cargo of weapons and diesel fuel aboard the Jihan 1. When the arms were seized by the joint US-Yemen patrol, the Yemeni government evidently decided to exploit it by creating a new story of an Iranian arms shipment to the Houthis, and later used the Yemeni crew to provide the details to the UN expert panel. The Somalia and Eritrea Monitoring Group's report created an obvious problem for the official story of the Jihan 1, and the Yemeni government's anti-Iran, Western backers sought to give the story a new twist. Reuters quoted a "Western diplomat" as citing the Jihan 1 arms shipment as evidence that Iran had actually been involved in supplying arms to al-Shabaab terrorists in Somalia. The anonymous source noted that the cargo had included C-4 explosives such as were used by al-Shabaab for terrorist bombings, whereas the Houthis were not known to carry out such operations. But that claim was hardly credible, because al-Shabaab had close ties to al-Qaeda and was therefore an enemy of Iran. It has not been repeated except in pro-Saudi and pro-Israeli media outlets. The Jihan 1 story and the broader narrative of intercepted Iranian arms shipments to the Houthis, as recycled by the UN Security Council expert panel, have nevertheless become key pieces of the widely accepted history of the regional conflicts involving Iran. Gareth Porter (@GarethPorter) is an independent investigative journalist and historian writing on US national security policy. His latest book, Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare , was published in February 2014. The Saudi Execution Of Al-Nimr Was A Smart Move? By Moon Of Alabama January 03, 2015 " Information Clearing House " - " Moon Of Alabama " - The Saudi government executed 47 longtime prisoners who had be sentenced to death over terrorism and general revolting against the government. From its viewpoint it was a smart political move. The Saudis are in trouble over their war on Yemen. After nine month of bombing the hell out of the country there is no chance that the aim of their war, reinstalling their proxy government in Sanaa, will be reached anytime soon. Meanwhile Yemeni forces raid (vid) one Saudi town after another. The Saudi regime change projects via Salafi jihadists in Iraq and Syria are also faltering. The low oil price make it necessary for the Saudi government to introduce taxes on its people. New taxes are hardly ever popular. To divert from these problems the Saudis decided to get rid of a bunch of prisoners and to use the event to regain some legitimacy. Many of the 47 killed were truly al-Qaida types who a decade ago had killed and blown up buildings in Saudi Arabia and wanted to violently overthrow the Saudi government. With the recent anti-Saudi calls of the Islamic State and al-Qaeda a jailbreak or some hostage taking to free the prisoners were a real possibility. Only four of the killed were of Shia believe. One of those was the prominent rabble rousing Shia preacher Nimr Baqr al-Nimr from the majority Shia eastern Saudi province Qatif. Al-Nimr had called for the youth in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain to raise up against the government. He called for the overthrow of all tyrants not only in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain but also of the Assad government in Syria. He was no Iranian stooge but defended its form of government. Al-Nimr said he was against violence but several of the demonstrations he called for ended with dead policemen and protesters. It was quite astonishing that the Saudi government let him preach for so long. A Sunni cleric in Saudi Arabia would have been put to jail or killed for much less revolutionary talk. Some dumb people like Human Right Watch's Kenneth Roth say that al-Nimr wanted a democratic state: Kenneth Roth @KenRoth Sheikh Nimr's real offense: leading peaceful protests for Saudi democracy, equality for Shia That is nonsense. A U.S. diplomat talked with al-Nimr in 2008. A cable available through Wikileaks summarizes: Al-Nimr described his and al-Mudarrasi's attitude towards Islamic governance as being something between "wilayet al-faqih," in which a country is led by a single religious leader, and "shura al-fuqaha," in which a council of religious leaders should lead the state. Al-Nimr, who conducted religious studies for approximately ten years in Tehran and "a few" years in Syria, stated that all governance should be done through consultation, but the amount of official power vested in the hands of a single official should be determined based on the relative quality of the religious leaders and the political situation at the time. A system led solely by religious judges or clerics is not a democracy. From that interview it also seems that al-Nimr had no clear picture of what he really wanted. His point was to always "side with the people, never with the government" independent of who or what was right or wrong. The Saudi government's patience ended when in June 2012 al-Nimr disparaged the death of the interior minister and crown prince Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud: He stated that "people must rejoice at [Nayef's] death" and that "he will be eaten by worms and will suffer the torments of Hell in his grave" That did him in. Al-Nimr was imprisoned and sentenced to death. There was concern that actually killing al-Nimr would increase Sunni-Shia tensions. Several governments and the United Nations had warned that doing so would increase sectarian strife. Well, that is the point! The Saudi government's legitimacy depends on financial largess and on being a sectarian Wahhabi "defender of the faith". Raising the sectarian bar by provoking a Shia reaction only helps the Saudis to rally the Wahhabi Sunni clerics and the people to their side. The killing of a prominent Shia also gives cover for executing the al-Qaeda types. These do have many sympathizers within Saudi Arabia and killing them without killing al-Nimr would have led to protests or worse by Sunni radicals. Even with this cover some al-Qaeda type entities outside of Saudi Arabia are threatening revenge. The Iranian government and Shia organizations in Iraq fell for the trick and protest against al-Nimr's execution. It allowed some organized gangs in Tehran to storm the Saudi embassy and to set it on fire. In Saudi Arabia's eastern province young Shia protesters violently attacked police forces (vid). This was exactly what the Saudis rulers wanted and need. It may also have been what some conservative Iranian circles were looking forward to. See also Shiite cleric among 47 in mass Saudi terrorism execution : Four, including Nimr, were Shiites accused of involvement in shooting policemen. But most of the 47 executed in the kingdom's biggest mass execution for decades were Sunnis convicted of al-Qaeda attacks in Saudi Arabia a decade ago. Iran's top leader tweets tribute to executed Saudi cleric : Iran's top leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei tweeted a tribute to a prominent Shi'ite executed by Saudi Arabia on Saturday, adding his voice to a chorus of condemnation in Iran and beyond. Iran, Saudis step up vitriol over executed Shiite cleric : Iran's top leader on Sunday warned Saudi Arabia of "divine revenge" over the execution of an opposition Shiite cleric while Riyadh accused Tehran of supporting terrorism, escalating a war of words hours after protesters stormed the Saudi Embassy in Tehran. Iran president says Saudi embassy attack 'totally unjustifiable': "The actions last night by a group of radicals in Tehran and Mashhad leading to damage at the Saudi embassy and consulate are totally unjustifiable, as the buildings should be legally and religiously protected in the Islamic Republic of Iran," Hassan Rouhani said Saudi executions put ball of regional tension in Iran's court : News Analysis - Unlike many of the Sunni Muslims executed for alleged complicity in al-Qaida terrorism, Nimr was an advocate of non-violent resistance to the unelected Saudi regime. He was arrested in 2012 for criticising the royal family. Saudi Arabia using execution to settle political scores: Amnesty : "The execution of Sheikh Nimr suggests they are using execution to settle political scores," Amnesty International's Middle East and north Africa director Philip Luther told AFP. Former Iraq PM al-Maliki says death will 'topple Saudi regime' : Elsewhere, demonstrators carrying pictures of the Shiite cleric were involved in a clash with police in the Bahraini village of Abu-Saiba It is a view that conforms to the idea that western systems are naturally superior to traditional PNG systems and that history is lineal, that is, much of PNG and its ways of thinking are pre-capitalist and therefore inferior. We've seen this notion of the evolution of ideas and systems expressed in numerous articles and comments in PNG Attitude. The central theme is that concepts like the Westminster system evolved over a very long period of time and that PNG, as a young nation, hasn't had time to get used to them but will, given enough time. He contrasts these Melanesian ways with western ways which are being adopted in PNG because they are assumed to be superior or more evolutionarily advanced. In a paper PNG Attitude recently abstracted under the headline Navigating tricky waters , he argues that there should be a place for Papua New Guinean ways of doing things in the evolution of the PNG polity and state. DR ANDREW Moutu, director of the PNG National Museum and Art Gallery, is always worth listening to. In his paper, Dr Moutu argues that the impact of western thought on PNG in all its various forms is a new form of colonialism - not so much something to be resisted but something to be very wary about. The danger for PNG which he identifies is the perpetuation of the vested interests of agents such as resource developers and media interests. He has an interesting take on 'development' where he suggests it is actually pillaging. He suggests that a judicious appropriation of different systems of knowledge, information and information technology might be a good idea. I've argued elsewhere that appropriation of these systems, including the Westminster system, have been less than judicious and has been disorderly and determined by exigencies not in the nation's best interests. It seems to me that what Dr Moutu is suggesting is a re-think of the way PNG is run so that Papua New Guinean ways are given much more prominence, for example, modifying the Westminster system to suit PNG social and cultural conditions - refocusing the blurred image of reality. That to me seems like a really good idea. Dr Moutu's paper is academic and couched in fairly dense academic language. You have to read it very carefully to get his drift. That, in itself, is a bit ironic considering what he is arguing about. What I think would be really good is if he produced a simple English version comprehensible to the man and the woman in the PNG street (or bush). It would then be a valuable contribution to the pre-election debate as it gathers momentum during 2016. The 10th edition of the Headies award held last night at the Landmark Event Centre, Victoria Island, but the award pretty much ended on a sour note after Mavin boss and YBNL boss got into a nasty fight because Lil Kesh of the YBNL lost The Next Rated Award for 2015 category to Reekado Banks of the Mavin which started a beef between the record label CEOs. In this light, Information Nigeria brings you five questions begging for answers based on this beef Olamide, when his artist Adekunle Gold won the award for Best Alternative act for his song, Shade climbed the stage with his whole to address what he felt was an injustice to Lil Kesh, said some unpleasant things threw the mic on the floor and stomped off the stage and Don Jazz, who had been given a Special Recognition award at the end of his acceptance speech, urged Olamide to come take the car that came with the award in question 1. Don Jazzy not make his beats, rather, he pays people to do it and take all the credit As revealed by Olamide 2. Headies Awards has been compromised. Going back to 2014 Headies, Reekado Banks won the Rookie of the Year award without having a song to be nominated with, but his input with Mavin Song Dorobucci. 3. Olamide has let go of the fact that Dbanjs producer, Deevee accused him of stealing the Kokomasters songs. This can be seen in how Olamide dragged Dbanj into his rant? 4. Don Jazzy is an attention seeker who is not humble at all as he pose to be As revealed by Olamide. 5. Olamide actually care about the feelings of his fans. This seen in the way he was quick to apologize to them for his very unruly and unacceptable conduct at the awards. Do you see a diss track loading anyone or should we just #LeavetrashforLAWMA??? The Arab military coalition assembled by Saudi Arabia has announced the end of a repeatedly violated ceasefire agreement with Yemens Houthi fighters and their allies. A statement on Twitter by the official Saudi Press Agency citing the Alliance in Support of Legitimacy said the truce would end at 11:00 GMT on Saturday. The ceasefire began on December 15 last year and coincided with UN-sponsored peace talks in the Swiss city of Geneva. Despite the truce, both sides continued to engage militarily, with the Arab coalition launching air strikes targeting Houthis and their allies, and the latter launching ballistic missiles into Saudi territory. The coalition has been and still is keen to create the right conditions to find a peaceful solution, the Saudi Press Agency said citing the Arab coalition. It said the ceasefire could not be maintained because of the continuation of the Houthi militias and Saleh forces in violating it. The Saudi press statement came after the coalition announced that Saudi air defence forces had intercepted a ballistic missile fired from Yemen towards the city of Abha late on Friday. The launcher was located and destroyed in Yemen, it said. On Thursday, three civilians including two children were killed in cross-border missile attacks from Yemen on a residential area in the southwestern Jizan region of Saudi Arabia. Eleven others were wounded, among them nine children, according to the Saudi civil defence. Aljazeera. Super famous singer and actress, Beyonce has reportedly hired a team to help her work on a gritty movie in order to win her first Oscar Academy award. The mother of one is looking to tell the story of a slave woman, Saartjie Baartman, who was exhibited in London freak shows because of the size of her bum. Baartman was a South African slave who died at the age of 25 after being sold to a Scottish doctor in the 1800s. The doctor was responsible for placing her on a London show because of the shape of her body. Her stage name was Hottenot Venus. She went to court after it was argued that she had been made to perform against her will by her master, but eventually claimed she performed on her own free will. A Hollywood source told The Sun: Beyonce is desperate to be taken seriously as an actress. Even though shes had a string of well-received movies, she still feels her breakthrough is yet to come. Beyonce has starred in several movies including the award-winning Dream Girls, Austin Powers, and Obsessed. Head of Wordbase Assembly Church, Lagos, Bishop Humphrey Erumaka, has urged Nigerians to support President Muhammadu Buharis war against corruption and the planned removal of oil subsidy. Nigerians should cooperate with the president even in the area of anti-corruption for the good of the country, even if not all the stolen monies are recovered, his anti-corruption stance will put a check in the heart of whoever that is in government that there is a day of accountability, Erumaka said at a recent press conference to herald the annual sixth edition of Festival of Power Prayer Crusade 2016 taking place at Okota, Lagos, from January 4 to 17. We shall all overcome the current economic, political and social problems, he asserted, adding that We should be focused and pray for our president, support him in the areas we can because kings are made by God. I implore both the Muslims and Christians to accept Buhari as Gods choice to lead us this period. Working with him, not fighting him will help us. With all perimeters of evaluation, in my opinion, there is nothing wrong in probing the activities of the past administration, but let it be done without losing focus on the peoples welfare because what is ahead of us is greater than what is behind us. Corruption has really dragged us as a nation backward. From my interaction with a lot of people, especially this Christmas, I learnt that many Nigerians are celebrating the yuletide in pain because of lack of resources. Things seem not to be moving financially well, and the economy is desperately down, therefore, the present administration needs our support to salvage the situation. Our economy has been oil-dependent, and its like oil is failing us right now. But for a nation as big as Nigeria, with the various mineral resources imbedded in our land among other endowments, this is the time the leadership of the country should rise up and give the people alternatives. I also subscribe to the removal of fuel subsidy so that whether it is by importation or local refining, let there be strong competition in the oil industry, and all over the world, the pump price of oil has also dropped. In Nigeria, the crude oil price has dropped, which means the refineries are getting crude oil at a very cheap price, and put in a little to refine it. So there is no reason for us to even pay N87 per litre. If there is competition in the oil sector; you will find out that petrol is supposed to be sold as low as N60 because crude oil price has gone down tremendously. So President Buhari government should be courageous to remove the oil subsidy and things will normalise in their own accord, Erumaka said. The Borno State Government has disclosed plans to dig about two kilometer trenches around Ali Dawari village to wade off incessant attacks on residents by the terror sect, Boko Haram. Troops are also to be deployed to the area for effective patrol of the farming community, which is about four kilometres south of Maiduguri, the state capital. Governor Kashim Shettima, who was in the village yesterday to pay condolences to the people over last Sunday nights attack in which about 24 people were killed, pledged that security agents would ensure 24hrs patrol in the community. This is our land and there is no fear to run or retreat and by Gods willing, all the necessary measures to be taken will be implemented to protect lives and property in this village, the governor said. Right now, we are going to dig trenches on the northern flank of AlinDawari. Soldiers and other security personnel and members of Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) will also be deployed to the village to protect it from these lunatics, he said. Speaking during an interaction with journalists, Gov. Shettima stressed that We have just discussed with the villagers and their Head; and now their demands on how to secure them will be met, particularly their security of lives and property. The villagers told me that once there is security, they are willing and ready to return before the end of this week. And right now I have come along with the Garrison Commander of the military, who will deploy more soldiers to this village. Also I have discussed with the Borno State Deputy Commissioner of Police to deploy more policemen. And it is equally with the CJTF, which will volunteer to deploy 50-100 of its members to Ali Dawari for day and night patrols. These villagers are our people. We have been elected to protect and improve their living conditions. It is not only during electioneering campaigns that we visit the people. They now need our presence as we live there at the Government House, Maiduguri. There was no reason why we should not come here to commiserate and sympathize with them; and make sure we wipe off their tears. The most important thing is that those Boko Haram insurgents are not demons; they are people like us here in this state. Since this is our land, we have no any other place to flee or run. And the most important thing was that we are more sincere than the insurgents. God is always with anyone that exercises patience and endurance, Shettima explained. The village Head, Bulama Mallam informed the governor that the villagers are leaving in droves since the attack, If there is security in the village, my people will return before the end of next week; without any fear or hesitation. Hunters in Borno State have called on the military to allow them join in the war against Boko Haram insurgents in Sambisa Forest. Malam Mai-Gana Mai-Durma, the Borno Emir of the Hunters, made the appeal in Maiduguri while addressing newsmen on Sunday. We are appealing to the military authorities to allow us join the fight against Boko Haram at the Sambisa forest. We are ready to pursue the terrorists because we know the terrain very well, Mai-Durma was quoted by the News Agency of Nigeria to have said.. He appealed to the Shehu of Borno, Alhaji Abubakar Ibn Garbai, to assist the hunters in forwarding the request to the military authorities for consideration. We will overrun Sambisa in partnership with members of the civilian JTF if given the opportunity. This will help to complement the effort of military in the anti terrorism operation, Mai-Durma said. He lamented that hunters from the 27 local government areas of the state had been rendered idle by the Boko Haram insurgents over years of attacks. Hunters from all the 27 Borno LGAs are all in Maiduguri with our leaders doing nothing at present because of Boko Haram. Rather than idling away, we will want to assist the military in crushing Boko Haram terrorists, Mai-Durma said. A constitutional lawyer and founder of Change.org, Ms Carol Ajie has petitioned US President Barrack Obama, the National Judicial Council (NJC) amongst others, over President Muhammadu Buharis perceived disobedience of court orders. This came following Buharis statement during a presidential media chat in Abuja that the former National Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd) and the leader of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mr. Nnamdi Kanu were being held against court orders because they could run away. The human rights lawyer expressed concern that if unchecked, President Buhari may drag Nigeria towards dictatorship. Buhari took the oath of allegiance to protect the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Presidents oath of office to discharge his duties faithfully, in accordance with the Constitution and the laws of Nigeria. Within President Buharis first year in office, too soon after he took the revered oaths, he and state agents acting under his supervision and at his maiden media chat on Wednesday 30th December, made puerile attempts to justify constitutional breaches. But under the Immigration Act, the President or the Minister may deport anyone who travels without a valid travel document or detain for a period not exceeding seven days. In holding Kanu beyond the required period, they have infracted on the Immigration Act, the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 and subsisting court orders. We call on President Buhari to resign from office or face impeachment proceedings. Alternatively, to avoid another Burundi, We call on him to comply with the orders of courts, said the lawyer in her petition, Ajie said. A non-governmental organisation Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has dismissed Rev. Father Ejike Mbakas prophecy alleging assassination attempt on President Muhammadu Buhari by corrupt politicians as sensationalism and rumour peddling. In a statement signed jointly by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media affairs Director Miss Zainab Yusuf, the group asked asked the Catholic Bishops Conference (CBCN) to sanction Rev. Father Mbaka within 21 days for abandoning his sacred vocation and deviating into the mundane roadside career of politics while he hid under the canopy of his priestly vocation, failing which he will be dragged to the Holy Father Pope Francis. Mbaka, Founder, Adoration Ministries Enugu Nigeria (AMEN), had during his New Year Prophetic Message at Adoration Ground, where thousands of faithful converged for supplication on January 1, 2016, urged President Muhammadu Buhari to be on his guard, prophesying that alleged beneficiaries of massive corruption perpetrated during ex-President Goodluck Jonathans administration would plot to kill him. Mbaka should cover his face in shame for displaying gross ignorance of the workings of the democratic and law based tenets and provisions of the constitution which deems suspects brought before the court of competent jurisdiction as totally innocent in the eye of the law until contrary determination is made by the Court in line with due process of the law. Is Fr Mbaka a judge who has passed presiding over cases of alleged graft involving any immediate past political office holder and adjudged them guilty of corrupt practices? Is Fr Mbaka unaware that as the Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces that President Muhammadu Buhari is the most protected citizen in Nigeria now with hundreds of well armed and highly trained professional guards drawn from the Nigerian Military and the Secret Police headed by President Muhammadu Buharis kinsman? Is Fr Mbaka unaware that Nigeria under President Muhammadu Buhari is waging a counter-terror war and that the armed Islamists have vowed in several media recordings to kill not just the Commander in chief but officials of government? This Mbakas whitewash must be consigned to the dustbins without further delay, HURIWA said. The mayor of a city south of Mexicos capital was shot to death less than a day after taking office, officials said. Gunmen opened fire on Mayor Gisela Mota on Saturday at her house in the city of Temixco, said the government of Morelos state, where Temixco is located. Two presumed assailants were killed and three others detained following a pursuit, said Morelos security commissioner Jesus Alberto Capella. He said the suspects fired on federal police and soldiers from a vehicle. On his Twitter account, Morelos Governor Graco Ramirez attributed Motas killing to organised crime, without citing a particular drug cartel or gang. Cartels seeking to control communities and towns have often targeted local officials and mayors in Mexico. Motas leftist Democratic Revolution Party released a statement describing her as a strong and brave woman who on taking office as mayor, declared that her fight against crime would be frontal and direct. Temixco is a city of about 100,000 people neighboring Cuernavaca, a resort and industrial city which has been suffering kidnappings and extortion linked to organised crime groups. Though Cuernavaca is the capital of Morelos, Temixco is the seat of several state institutions including the Public Security Commission, which coordinates state and local police forces. Morelos also neighbours drug cartel-plagued Guerrero state. Aljazeera. The Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof Umar Danbatta, has said that the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) should not have sold the countrys 700MHz Spectrum to MTN Nigeria because it is a telecommunication spectrum that is very important for broadband deployment. NBC sold the spectrum to MTN last year for N34 billion. However, Danbatta said the commission will not join issues with the NBC over the sale of the spectrum, but would rather allow the Frequency Management Council to handle the issue. NCC will not publicly engage NBC, even though it is under a different ministry, because we dont think it is the right approach. The Frequency Management Council, which is a very important organ of government that has a representation from the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology as well as the Communication Technology Ministry, will look into the matter, Danbatta said in a statement released by the NCC. We intend to avail ourselves of existing mechanism for arbitration and mediation through the Frequency Management Council, he said. Danbatta said the Commission was considering seeking new ways of moving MTN to the upper range of that frequency, which is not up to 700MHz. The upper range for broadcasting is 694MHz that will free the 700MHz spectrum for use to facilitate communication services. That is the approach we intend to adopt to resolve the matter and I have spoken with the NBC on this and they have expressed readiness to come to the Commission to talk about it so that we can together be able to fashion out a way forward that will be devoid of any acrimony or rancour which normal Nigerians are used to when issues of this nature come up, Danbatta said. NBC said last year that it continued to own the 700MHz Spectrum and that it sold it to MTN after a rigorous due process, including approval from the federal government and the frequency management council. The Director-General of NBC, Mr. Emeka Mba, had at that time clarified why NBC sold the spectrum to MTN. He explained that the NBC needed money to finance the countrys Digital Switchover (DSO) project of migrating Nigeria from analogue television broadcasting to digital broadcasting by June 2017, hence the sale to MTN. Punch Abduction saga: Baby still with Davidos sister, says Momodu family The baby of hip-hop musician, David Adeleke popularly known as Davido, which he had with his baby mama, Sophia Momodu, is still with the Adeleke family. http://www.punchng.com/abduction-saga-baby-still-with-davidos-sister-says-momodu-family/ Vanguard Olamide apologises to fans over Headies outburst with Don Jazzy YBNL frontman Olamide Adedeji, has apologised over his outburst at the just concluded Headies awards 2015. http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/01/olamide-apologises-to-fans-over-headies-outburst-with-don-jazzy/ The Sun I didnt apologise to Buhari, Jonathan, Igbo elders Nnamdi Kanu The detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mr Nnamdi Kanu has denied apologising to President Muhammadu Buhari, former President Goodluck Jonathan and Igbo elders over his comments on them in Radio Biafra. http://sunnewsonline.com/new/i-didnt-apologise-to-buhari-jonathan-igbo-elders-nnamdi-kanu/ Guardian Gov, lawmakers shun LG elections in Zamfara Gov. Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara did not participate in the local government election conducted in the 14 Local Government Areas of the state on Saturday. http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/2016/01/gov-lawmakers-shun-lg-elections-in-zamfara/ Leadership Media Chat: PMB Proved Hes Man Of The People Garba Shehu President Muhammadu Buharis first multi-media interaction with Nigerians last week on sundry issues, revealed him as a man working for the interest of the Nigeria masses, one of the presidents spokesmen, Mr. Garba Shehu said yesterday. http://leadership.ng/news/488615/media-chat-pmb-proved-hes-man-people-garba-shehu Tribune Police detectives from Oyo State Police Command are currently on the trail of murderer(s) of an 85-year-old man, Pa Raheem Oyeniyi, who was killed in the early hours of Thursday, December 31, 2015, in his house at Oke Apo area of Oyo town. http://tribuneonlineng.com/85-yr-old-man-murdered-in-oyo-%E2%80%A2head-intestines-genital-removed Nigerian Pilot Borno State Government vulnerable villages in the state to wade-off attacks by insurgents. http://nigerianpilot.com/insurgency-borno-to-construct-trenches-round-villages-to-wade-off-attacks/ Iranian protesters have broken into the Saudi Arabian embassy in Tehran after Riyadh announced the execution of Shia religious leader Nimr al-Nimr, one of 47 men killed on terrorism charges. The Saudi interior ministry announced the executions on Saturday, listing the names of the 47 killed, all of whom had been convicted on charges of terrorism. Aljazeera has more: The ministry said those convicted had plotted or participated in attacks against residential compounds and government buildings. Nimr, who led anti-government protests in the countrys east, was previously convicted of sedition, disobedience and bearing arms. Nimr did not deny the political charges against him, but said he never carried weapons or called for violence. Many of the other men executed had been linked to attacks in the kingdom between 2003 and 2006, blamed on al-Qaeda. Faris al-Zahrani, described by Saudi media as al-Qaedas top religious leader in the kingdom, was one of those executed. An Egyptian citizen and a Chadian citizen were also among the executed, the ministry said. The rest were all Saudis. Despite calls for calm from Nimrs brother following the announcement of the executions, a number of protesters gathered at the Saudi embassy in Irans capital Tehran, to protest the religious leaders death. Several of the protesters gained access to the embassy building and started fires, before eventually being removed from the compound by police late on Saturday night. Carol Ajie, a constitutional lawyer and founder of Change.org, has appealed to President Barrack Obama of the United States, over President Muhammadu Buharis disobedience of court orders. President Buharihad during the conversation with Nigerian journalists accepted that the former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki and the leader of Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu were being held against court orders because they could run away. Dasuki is being prosecuted in connection to a supposed misapplication of $2.1 billion meant for purchase of arms to fight the deadly Boko Haram insurgency. Kanu, who lives in the UK together with other pro-Biafrans call for the independence of territories that constituted the Biafran Republic, established in 1967. So far, the petition has collected 743 signatures out of its 1,000 person target. The petition reads in part: On May 29th 2015, a former Military Dictator, Muhammadu Buhari, sequel to a contested election in March 2015 against a sitting President in Nigeria, the first time in Africa, an incumbent handed power peaceably, smoothly, heroically to a political rival. Whereupon Mr Buhari then took the Oath of Allegiance to protect the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 and the Presidents Oath of office to discharge his duties faithfully, in accordance with the Constitution and the Laws of Nigeria. Within President Buharis first year in office, too soon after he took the revered Oaths, he and state agents acting under his supervision, now demonstrate total lack of respect for Court Orders and at his maiden media chat on Wednesday 30th Dec., instant, Mr President made puerile attempts to justify these breaches, he said inter alia that some persons his regime locked up in cells dehumanized against court orders, Nnamdi Kanu had travelled without his passports. But under the Immigration Act, the President or the Minister may deport anyone who travels without a valid travel document or detain for a period not exceeding 7 days. In holding Mr. Kanu beyond the required period they have infracted on the Immigration Act, the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 and subsisting court orders. With regard to issues of self determination, the crux of Nnamdi Kanus campaign of the Independent People of Biafra, IPOB, having communicated IPOBs intent to all and the United Nations as required by UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ratified by Nigeria, that people of any community or group may wish to exercise the right of self-determination with a view to pursuing their economic, social and cultural development; aware that their dignity as human persons had deteriorated and been consciously degraded under the present dispensation, sadly appearing power inebriate. The lawyer asked Buhari to resign as President if he is not ready to obey court orders or risk being impeached from office. However, the presidency denied to comment on the petition. An official said it would be improper for the presidency to honour such a petition with an answer. Source: Naij A Rwandan pastor accused of leading and coordinating attacks on minority Tutsis during Rwandas 1994 genocide has been jailed for life, Rwandas high court said on Wednesday, December 30. An estimated 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed by dominant Hutu forces in the genocide in 100 days. Jean Uwinkindi,64, who once led the Kayenzi Pentecostal church in the rural outskirts of the capital Kigali, was convicted of crimes of genocide and crimes against humanity committed during the slaughter. The court finds that there were killings of the Tutsi at Rwankeri and Kanzenze hills and that the attacks were led by Uwinkindi, said Judge Kanyegeri Timothee. Uwinkindi was arrested in Uganda in 2010 and the following year his case was referred from the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, in Tanzania, to the Rwandan national court system. It was the first such referral. The pastor said he plans to appeal. Source: Reuters Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), and director of the United Kingdom-based Radio Biafra had made sensational and provocative comments, canvassing for the creation of an independent state of Biafra from the Federal Republic of Nigeria, a broadcast he made over Radio Biafra for which the federal government has arrested him for offenses bordering on treasonable felony. Well, if you are a bit confused on why Kanu feels Biafra must be created, INFORMATION NIGERIA has put together the reasons The federal government has prosecuted a war against the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), after Odumegwu Ojukwu declared the state of Biafra, and history has it that at least 3millions Igbos died from the war for that Kanu says they must retaliate. That President Buhari, ex-President Ibrahim Babangida and former Vice president Atiku Abubakar are the three top people who funded Boko Haram insurgents. According to him, because majority of the people, and especially young graduates find it difficult to find meaningful employment in the job market, general hardship, brutal repression of civil and human rights coupled with system that shuns inward investment contributed to the thinking behind the formation of IPOB. Over to you guys!!! On this day in 2015, the deadly Boko Haram insurgents prosecuted a massacre in the North eastern village of Baga and its environs, in Borno State The attack began on 3 January when Boko Haram overran a military base that was the headquarters of the Multinational Joint Task Force containing troops from Chad, Niger, and Nigeria. The militants then forced thousands of locals from the region and committed mass killings that culminated on the 7th. Foreign media reported that over 2,000 people were killed or unaccounted for but Nigerian media reported at least a hundred fatalities, while the Nigerian Ministry of Defence said that no more than 150 people in total had been killed, including militants. This happened yesterday and was shared on facebook by a witness of the incident. His update he wrote: Happening Now. God is wonderfulGod is wonderful. On my way to see my mother inlaw with my family this evening, my sister inlaw whose family house is directly opposite the LGA health centre (Iji Nike Cottage Hospital, Near Enugu East Development Centre Nkwo Nike) flagged us down (we didnt plan to stop by), few minutes later a young man in his late twenties ran in panting.my wife is in Labour in that health centre and there is nobody there. In less than 5 minutes a mobile hospital was setup in the keke that brought in the woman. To the glory of God, my wife who is a Dr delivered the woman of a bouncing baby boy at 6:30pm 01/01/2016. My sisters inlaw turned nurses instantly and the torchlight in my phone provided the lighting. Thank you Lord. Source: Metro Pillar The Tennessee attorney general is accusing Chevron of fraudulently siphoning more than $18 million over a period of about 30 years from a cleanup fund that people contribute to every time they fill up at the pump. The lawsuit filed in Davidson County Chancery Court said Chevron and its subsidiaries, including Texaco, used taxpayer funds to pay for leaks and spills at more than 100 Tennessee gas stations, despite having private insurance that paid for the cleanup costs, The Tennessean reports. Money from the tax four-tenths of a cent per gallon is intended as a last-resort fund for owners who cannot afford spill cleanup costs. In its applications for cleanup costs, the company misled the state and continued to misrepresent the insurance status of the facilities, the lawsuit said. The company is seeking to dismiss the lawsuit, saying in some instances Chevron sought state funds to make up the difference in their costs after receiving insurance payouts. The fund has paid out more than $370 million to hundreds of tank owners across the state since it was created in 1988 by state lawmakers. The gas tax generated $18 million in the last fiscal year, according to the states Department of Underground Storage Tanks. A court date on Chevrons move to dismiss the lawsuit and to seek a protective order limiting the amount of document requests the state can make has not yet been set. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Lawsuits Energy Oil Gas Tennessee Un ottobre da sogno per Antonio Conte: lex ct della Nazionale italiana, attualmente alla guida del Chelsea, nelle ultime quattro gare di Premier League ha collezionato solo successi, conditi da 11 reti segnate e addirittura nessuna incassata. Numeri da record che non sono certo passati inosservati alla Federazione inglese, la quale ha conferito al tecnico leccese lambito premio di Manager del mese. Unavventura oltremanica iniziata in sordina, quella di Conte, pur a fronte di tre vittorie nelle prime tre gare di campionato. A far vacillare, anche se solo per un momento, le certezze del patron del club londinese, Roman Abramovich, i risultati conseguiti tra la 4a e la 6a giornata, coincisi con un pareggio sul campo dello Swansea City e, soprattutto, con le due pesanti sconfitte subite dal Liverpool, sul terreno casalingo di Stamford Bridge, e dallArsenal. In particolare, la debacle interna coi Reds, aveva irritato non poco il numero uno russo, poiche occorsa proprio nel giorno della sua 250esima partita da presidente della societa. Come detto, solo un momento. Dopo lincontro dellEmirates, il tecnico salentino cambia modulo, adottando un piu equilibrato 3-4-3 e inserendo elementi di corsa come lo spagnolo Pedro. Una svolta totale perche, di li in poi, il Chelsea inanellera solo e soltanto vittorie: 2 gol allHull City e al Southampton in trasferta, 3 ai campioni dInghilterra del Leicester e 4 allo United in casa, con un meraviglioso numero zero nella casella delle reti subite. Un fantastico poker, ottenuto tra l1 e il 29 ottobre. Un cambio di marcia sbalorditivo, confermato dal 5 a 0 rifilato ai toffees dellEverton nel primo match di novembre, e una scalata che, man mano, ha portato i blues al secondo posto in classifica, a soli 2 punti dal Liverpool capolista. E allora, non poteva mancare il riconoscimento di migliore allenatore del mese, ottenuto surclassando tecnici del calibro di Jurgen Klopp (Liverpool), Arsene Wenger (Arsenal) e Mark Hughes (Southampton). Tanta, ovviamente, la soddisfazione: E un grande onore e voglio condividerlo con i giocatori e con la societa ha dichiarato Conte sul sito ufficiale della Premier League -. E la prima volta che lavoro in un altro Paese, con una cultura diversa, e portare la propria filosofia non e facile, ma ora sono contento di questa scelta. A completare la festa, la premiazione del fantasista belga, Eden Hazard, come miglior giocatore di ottobre. Due risultati importanti per il club, ottimo incentivo per la rincorsa al trono dei campioni, occupato dal Leicester di Ranieri. Il prossimo appuntamento per l11 di Conte sara al Riverside Stadium, tana del Middlesborough neopromosso. Il tempo di festeggiare e gia finito. Imperial Brands has teamed up with Kerrygold to launch an Irish cream liqueur, a blend of natural Irish cream, aged Irish whiskey and luxurious chocolate. The company best known for the recent success of Sobieski Vodka has announced a new partnership with Irish dairy products brand, Kerrygold, to launch a superior Irish cream which plans to set the new gold standard for the category. "This is an exceptional opportunity for both Imperial Brands, Inc. and Kerrygold to seize a dominant position and capture significant market share," said Chester Brandes, CEO of Imperial Brands. "We believe our product's superior taste and luxurious texture will make us a major player in the category within a very short time." "One of the keys to this new product's exceptional taste profile is cream from Irish grass-fed cows," said Fergal McGarry, Global Director of Consumer Foods for the Irish Dairy Board. "Imperial Brands has the infrastructure and expertise needed to bring this exceptional product to Irish cream lovers. From our passionate dairy farmers to the homes of our consumers, we hold our brand to a level of quality unrivaled by our competitors. Imperial Brands, Inc. shares this mission with us, making our partnership a natural fit." An Irish national, charged with helping to run a multi-million dollar tax-dodging scheme in the US, has been remanded in custody in New York. Paul Feenan, 48, originally from Downpatrick, Co. Down. was arrested alongside two other men - Bronx pub owner, Thomas Keenan and New Jersey pawn shop owner, Ian Woloshin. The three men have been accused of running a massive illegal check-cashing that helped Port Authority contractors avoid paying taxes. Manhattan prosecutors allege the trio illegally cashed almost $17 million in checks for at least 19 businesses between 2012 and 2014. According to criminal and civil court papers, the associates made nearly $1m from the scheme by taking a five per cent commission on each illegally-cashed check. The charges come following a joint investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office and the Port Authority into contractors underreporting payroll. Prosecutors said the three accused ran an illegal check-cashing ring out of Yonkers bar 'Tommy K's', owned by Thomas Keenan. The Irish News reports that an affidavit from the Port Authority and the DA's office "identified various businesses that were cashing third-party checks and paying their workers in cash in order to under report payroll and avoid taxes, worker's compensation insurance premiums and other business expenses". The publication also states that further arrests are likely. Keenan and Feenan were both arraigned on conspiracy, bank fraud charges, felony tax fraud and identity theft charges. Both pleaded not guilty. Feenan, whose nickname is 'Pogo', was remanded to jail, while bail was set at $50,000. Prosecutors claimed the scheme involved business owners dropping off commercial checks to Keenan or Feenan at the Bronx bar and other locations, including gas stations. Court documents stated that in return the men would hand the owner cash in a paper or plastic bag for the amount of the check, with a five per cent commission deducted. Prosecutors claimed Keenan and Feenan would endorse the checks, even though they were not the named recipients. It was alleged that the checks - some of which were reportedly for "hefty sums" - would be delivered to Woloshin, who would deposit them in a business account connected to his pawn shop, which was a licensed check-cashing operation. Court papers also stated that on November 11 2013 the owner of a construction company gave Feenan a $149,250 check and received $141,787 in cash in return. According to the documents, the following day a runner picked up the check from Keenan and transported it to Woloshin's pawn shop and allegedly deposited the check for cash, taking a 1.5 per cent cut and delivering $147,011 in cash to Keenan and Feenan, leaving them the remaining 3.5 per cent commission. Prosecutors claimed the three men made at least $838,100 off the scheme. The number of undocumented Irish is growing in Australia as many overstay visas because they cannot afford to move back home. The number of Irish on temporary visas in Australia has decreased by nearly 50 percent in the past two years because of tighter immigration laws and fewer job opportunities. We are talking about the creation of a whole new undocumented section of Irish society in Australia now, and that is something we should be concerned about, says Dr Mary Gilmartin, who lectures about Irish migration at the department of geography at Maynooth University. Because of tighter immigration laws, and new caps on the number of skilled migration permits issued, Gilmartin says that it is now increasingly difficult to translate temporary visas into permanent residency in Australia. A total of 401 Irish citizens were returned or removed from the country for violating the conditions of their visa in the 12 months to June 2015, an increase of 37 percent in the past two years. Dr Gilmartin said: By definition, it is very difficult to get a sense of an undocumented community, but that increase, as well as the anecdotal evidence from people in Australia, would suggest that many people are overstaying and spending many years undocumented without any sense of amnesty. The Irish Times reports that figures released by the Australian Department of Immigration show that between July 2014 and June 2015, 92 Irish citizens were removed after being arrested and held at immigration detention centers. Another 309 returned to Ireland voluntarily after overstaying their visas. Liz OHagan of the Claddagh Association, a welfare group working with Irish citizens in Perth, said people are choosing to overstay because there is a reluctance to return to Ireland for financial reasons. People cannot afford the resettlement costs, she said. Roisin Trainor of the Irish Australian Welfare Bureau in Sydney said the organization had assisted with many cases where Irish people were detained for overstaying, and said it has been highly stressful for those involved. The number of Irish temporary visa holders has also dropped. In June 2015, a total of 23,205 Irish citizens were in Australia on temporary visas, a decrease in the number the same month in 2013. In 2011/12, when the number peak, 19,492 Irish citizens were granted their first year working holiday visa, compared to just 5,221 in the 12 months to June 2015. The figures also show a significant rise in the number of temporary visas held by Irish citizens that were canceled before they expired. OHagan said this rise reflected the large numbers of Irish construction workers on employer-sponsored visas being made redundant as the sector experienced further decline. According to The Irish Times, 3,561 temporary visas, including working holiday visas and employer-sponsored work permits (called 457 visas), held by Irish people were canceled in the 12 months to June 2015, up from 2,850 the previous year and just 985 in 2010/11. From The New York Times, Jan 2nd 1892: The new buildings on Ellis Island constructed for the use of the Immigration Bureau were yesterday formally occupied by the officials of that department. The employees reported at an early hour and each was shown to his place by the Superintendent or his chief clerk. Col Weber was on the island at 8 oclock and went on a tour of inspection to see that everything was in readiness for the reception of the first boatload of immigrants. There were three big steamships in the harbour waiting to land their passengers and there was much anxiety among the newcomers to be the first landed at the new station. "The honor was reserved for a little rosy-cheeked Irish girl, She was Annie Moore, fifteen years of age later a resident of County Cork and yesterday one of the 148 steerage passengers lo landed from the steamship Nevada. Her name is now distinguished by being the first registered in the book of the new landing bureau. The steamship that brought Annie Moore arrived late Thursday night. Early yesterday morning the passengers of that vessel were placed on the immigrant transfer boat John E. Moore. The craft was gaily decorated with bunting and ranged alongside the wharf on Ellis Island amid the clanging of bells and din of shrieking whistles. As soon as the gangplank was run ashore Annie tripped across it and was hurried into the big building that almost covers the entire island. By a prearranged plan she was escorted to a registry deck which was temporarily occupied by Mr. Charles M. Hendley the former private secretary of Secretary Windom, he asked as a special favor the privilege of registering the first immigrant and Col Weber agreed. "When the little voyager had been registered Col Weber presented her with a ten dollar gold piece and made a short address of congratulation. It was the first United States coins she had ever seen and the largest sum of money she had ever possessed. She says she will never part with it but will always keep it as a pleasant memento of the occasion, She was accompanied by her two younger brothers. The trio came to join their parents who live at 32 Monroe Street this city. The first ticket sold at the railroad station for the new building was purchased by Ellen King on her way from Waterford, Ireland to a small town in Minnesota. Irish Central Editors: For more on Annies sad life go to http://nymag.com/news/features/65902/ . Alas, Annie would not have a charmed life, never living far from Ellis Island in slum neighborhoods packed with Irish and other immigrants. Thanks to genealogist Megan Smolenyak, we know there were two older kids as well as her parents waiting for her, that she was 17 not 15 in order to get a cheaper fare, and that she lived in abject poverty, losing many of her children to illness in the unhealthy slums. Nonetheless, she will always own that bright shining moment when she was Annie Moore, the first person through Ellis Island. More than 200 homes across Ireland are still battling to keep water from their doors as hundreds more count the cost of the floods clean up, it has been revealed. The State's national emergency taskforce said 260 households who lost the fight against the elements have been swamped in the aftermath of Storm Frank. Recent flodding in the Gort area. Pic: Irish Defence Forces Dozens of families in Clonmel, Co Tipperary, and Athlone, Co Westmeath, were evacuated over the weekend. A further 130 houses have been "marooned" by flooded roads and fields, according to Keith Leonard, chairman of the National Emergency Co-Ordination Group. Another 230 homes have been designated as "under threat" and face imminent flood damage as weather forecasters predict more rain over the coming week. Read: Read More: Watch Clonlara resident's angry encounter with Minister Coveney Virtually every county in Ireland has been hit at this stage by flooding, impacting on roads, businesses, homes and farmland. Met Eireann chief forecaster Ger Fleming said there would be some easing off on the deluge over the coming days, but warned of the potential for significant rainfall by midweek. Clear periods&sctrd shwrs in many areas but frequent heavy shwrs in parts of W& SW.Fog patches forming in many midland areas soon after dark Met Eireann (@MetEireann) January 3, 2016 Water levels in rivers and lakes have exceeded record 2009 levels in some parts of the country. Because of this, even "normal" weather could break flood defences, it is feared. Authorities are monitoring closely the Shannon, the Erne, the Barrow, the Suir, the Blackwater in Cork and the Bandon. The Defence Forces deployed 110 soldiers around Cork, Kilkenny, Tipperary, Limerick and Galway to help with sandbags and water pumping. Flood defences in Athlone yesterday. Pic: Irish Defence Forces / Twitter President Michael D Higgins is to visit flood-stricken families in Galway and Wexford tomorrow. Commuters have been warned about the possibility of transport disruption as much of the country returns to work this week. Motorists have been urged to exercise caution on flooded roads and look out for fallen trees, while public transport users have been advised to check if their usual services are affected. The Electricity Supply Board (ESB) said it was maintaining the water flow through the Shannon's Parteen Weir at 470 cubic metres per second but that it will be review the flow tomorrow. "The levels in Lough Derg may reach 2009 levels in the coming days and, as a result, the flow through Parteen Weir may increase to those levels," a spokesman said. "This level of water flow will have increased associated flooding to land and property in the vicinity of the Shannon downstream of Parteen Weir including the areas of Springfield, Montpelier, Castleconnell, Mountshannon (Annacotty) and the University of Limerick." The ESB said other areas between the Parteen Weir and Limerick may also be vulnerable to flooding due to local issues. Indian security forces are trying to secure a major air force base near the border with Pakistan where an attack by suspected militants left at least 11 people dead, amid reports of fresh gunfire at the compound. The attack on the Pathankot air force base, which started before dawn, left seven Indian troops and four gunmen dead, and is seen as an attempt to undo recent improvements in the relationship between India and Pakistan. Combing operations were continuing at the base, air force spokeswoman Rochelle D'Silva said. At least one grenade blast was heard from inside the compound this morning and several television channels reported that there was fresh gunfire later in the day. At least seven trucks with soldiers and several armoured vehicles were seen entering the base, but officials declined to comment. Since Saturday morning, the base has been swarming with air force commandos, troops from India's elite National Security Guard and local police. The number of troops killed in the attack rose to seven after four soldiers succumbed to their injuries overnight and another died after being wounded in an explosion, officials said. Ms D'Silva gave no details about the death of an elite commando except to say that he was seriously wounded in a blast. News reports said the commando was killed while defusing explosives. The attack at one of India's major air force bases started a few hours before dawn when a group of militants entered the area of the base where the living quarters are located, the Defence Ministry said. The gunbattle - which lasted about 14 hours - came just a week after Indian PM Narendra Modi made a surprise visit to archrival Pakistan and met with his Pakistani counterpart, Nawaz Sharif. It was the first visit to Pakistan in 12 years by an Indian prime minister and marked a significant thaw in the mostly tense relations between the nuclear-armed neighbours. The two leaders also held an unscheduled meeting at the Paris climate change talks last month. The sprawling Pathankot air force base is spread over several miles, including some forested sections. It houses a fleet of India's Russian-origin MiG-21 fighters and Mi-25 and Mi-35 attack helicopters, along with other military hardware. The Defence Ministry said no aircraft or military equipment was damaged in the fighting. The base is on the highway that connects India's insurgency-plagued Jammu and Kashmir state with the rest of the country. It is also very close to India's border with Pakistan. The Himalayan region of Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan, but is claimed in its entirety by both. Rebels in India's portion of Kashmir have been fighting since 1989 for independence or merger with Pakistan. India accuses Pakistan of arming and training the insurgents, a charge Islamabad denies, and the attack at the base was seen as a possible attempt to unravel recent progress in the relationship between the two nations. A top government official confirmed Indian troops are still battling at least two gunmen at the base. Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi said that the suspected militants appeared to have been cornered and that he expected them to be "neutralised" soon. Get unlimited access to all content and features at ivpressonline.com with our Full Online Access Subscription. Read our E-Edition, the digital replica of the print newspaper online, access content in exclusive sections including Family, Teen, Business, Databases, Farm and more. This option does not include daily home delivery of the Imperial Valley Press newspaper. For home delivery service, please select Premium or Premium Plus. This Week in Review A weekly review of the best and most popular stories published in the Imperial Valley Press. Also, featured upcoming events, new movies at local theaters, the week in photos and much more. Watertown Airport facilities manager Krys Brown (second from left) and Johnsonville employees and volunteers Neal Lischka (from left), Joaquin Pesillas and John Kaliebe tour the area where they and other employees affected by the sausage plant fire spent about 2,500 hours clearing trees and brush. Credit: Rick Wood SHARE By of the John Kaliebe woke at 4 o'clock on a Monday morning in May, just like any other workday. He was out the door by 4:45. But as he drove over the hill to his job as a supervisor at the Johnsonville Sausage plant in Watertown, Kaliebe's day took a drastic turn. "I saw all the fire trucks and ambulances and my heart just sunk down to my feet," Kaliebe recalled. A fire had destroyed the meat processing plant where Kaliebe had worked for the past 30 years. Workers were still arriving at the smoldering building, so Kaliebe began taking names and phone numbers, saying the company would be in touch. He thought about the rent and mortgage payments, the other obligations, and the many families that depended on these jobs. He considered the question that was running through all of the workers' minds: Are we going to have to go on unemployment? By the end of the week, however, Kaliebe and his co-workers learned that Johnsonville intended to continue paying full wages and benefits to the plant's 120 employees. Seven months later, the employees are still getting paid, Watertown has enjoyed a burst of volunteer activity that stands at 7,000 hours and counting, and Johnsonville is spending more than $10 million to renovate a new building, where it plans to hire 30 additional workers when it opens in spring. The plant's employees receive full salaries, along with monthly bonuses based on the company's performance, as long as they do at least one of three things: volunteer at local organizations, take training classes at the local technical college or work in other Johnsonville facilities. "People are amazed that they are continuing to pay their workers to do these things," said John David, mayor of the city of 24,000. "It's going above and beyond for sure." The work that was being done in the Watertown plant 30% of the company's production has shifted to two other Johnsonville facilities, and Johnsonville has been able to continue meeting customers' needs, said Nick Meriggioli, who started as chief executive officer just four weeks before the fire. The decision to continue paying the Watertown workers was made by a committee of Johnsonville employees, Meriggioli said. "Of course I thought about the financial ramifications of doing it," Meriggioli said. "But ultimately you understand it's the right thing to do by the members that are there, and in the long term it's the right thing to do for the business." Empowering employees Johnsonville has a unique culture that began taking shape in the 1980s when then-CEO and owner Ralph Stayer started experimenting with ways to get his workers to care more about their jobs and the company. Through trial and error, Stayer steadily empowered employees to take responsibility. The result was that production workers, rather than executives, for example, began to manage quality control for sausages, Stayer said in a 1990 Harvard Business Review article called, "How I Learned to Let My Workers Lead." There are some instances of companies paying idled workers after a catastrophe. One of the best-known, often used as a case study in business ethics and public relations classes, involves Lawrence, Mass.-based Malden Mills. Owner Aaron Feuerstein used insurance proceeds to rebuild the mill and keep all 1,700 workers on the payroll for six months after a fire in 1995 devastated the mill known for its signature fleece, Polartec. More common, however, is what happened at Echo Lake Farms Produce Co.'s egg processing plant in Burlington. After a fire destroyed the plant in early 2013, about 300 workers lost their jobs, Burlington's mayor said at the time. The Johnsonville workers meet every Friday morning at Turner Hall, where they turn in their time sheets listing volunteer hours. Kaliebe, the Johnsonville supervisor, ticks off the projects he and others have completed. They put about 2,500 hours into clearing trees and brush at Watertown Airport, and spent another 500 or so landscaping at the Historical Society's Octagon House Museum. Then there were the improvements at Heiden Pond, painting at City Hall and the police and fire departments, even bell-ringing for the Salvation Army. The volunteers' work has helped to eliminate problems at the 360-acre airport, where deer had been hiding in the brush and running out in front of aircraft, said Krys Brown, facilities manager. Now, she said she regularly receives calls from people complimenting the way the airport looks. "It's pretty phenomenal that they kept their workers busy and it's smart, because they don't learn what unemployment is like while they're waiting to come back to their jobs," Brown said. Johnsonville has a total of about 1,600 employees and makes bratwurst, Italian sausages and several other sausage types. In 2015, Johnsonville sold more than 1.6 billion sausages in 40 countries an amount the company says would wrap around the earth five times if linked from end to end. The company plans to announce this week that it will boost its donation to The World's Largest Brat Fest, promising 160,000 brats a year through 2020 to the Memorial Day weekend event in Madison that raises money for nonprofits. That event also uses volunteers to do the work of helping others, said Tim Metcalfe, president and co-owner of Metcalfe's Market, which organizes the festival. "It teaches the next generation what it means to be part of a community," Metcalfe said. "What it means to be part of something bigger than yourself." For Kaliebe, volunteering also inspires pride in the place he works. "It makes you want to puff your chest out and say: 'Yeah, I work for Johnsonville,'" Kaliebe said. By of the Police have released the name of the father who killed his daughter early Friday in Cudahy as Brett Hartman, 27. The two-year-old victim was identified as Skylar Hartman. Police responded at 1:40 a.m. to 3723 E. Whittaker Ave. after a family member inside the residence called for help, according to a Cudahy Police Department news release. Upon arrival, officials found Hartman, who had a gunshot wound and was pronounced dead at the scene. Skylar was also found with a gunshot wound and was taken to Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, where she later died. Autopsies for Hartman and Skylar were conducted Saturday morning. No further details were available. The incident continues to be under investigation. The UW System has been in the process of securing changes to state statute to bring the nonacademic misconduct code into compliance with the landmark Dear Colleague letter issued by the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights in 2011. Credit: Mark Hoffman By of the A federal complaint against the University of Wisconsin-Madison about its handling of a sexual assault report one of three such complaints filed against UW-Madison in 2015 alleges the victim was subjected to a sexually hostile environment because the university failed to respond promptly and equitably. When the woman "expressed her concern about the many inequalities in UW-Madison's procedure via her advocate, (redacted) explained: 'We are locked into a system based on the rights of the accused,'" says the heavily redacted complaint obtained by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel through a Freedom of Information Act request. The UW System has been in the process of securing changes to state statute to bring the nonacademic misconduct code into compliance with the landmark "Dear Colleague" letter issued by the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights in 2011. The letter was intended to guide universities and colleges across the country in the handling of sexual violence complaints under Title IX, the federal law prohibiting gender discrimination. Among the biggest changes in the UW System pipeline is giving the complainant the same right that the accused currently has to appeal the final decision about sanctions. UW-Madison in late 2013 or early 2014 adopted its own temporary policy to grant equitable appeal rights. The federal complaint released to the Journal Sentinel is the second of three complaints filed with the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights against UW-Madison. This complaint involves the report of a sexual assault in September 2012, when both parties were sophomores. Opening a complaint for investigation "in no way implies that OCR has made a determination with regard to its merit," says a letter sent to UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank last fall, notifying her of the complaint and seeking extensive information, including copies of all correspondence, memorandums, electronic mail messages, meeting notes and other documents concerning the allegations. Colleges need only a "preponderance of evidence" showing it's more likely than not that a crime occurred to justify meting out punishment. That's a lower standard than the burden of proof in a criminal court. University officials in Wisconsin and elsewhere have raised concerns that they are being asked to determine guilt without the legal authority to compel evidence, and they could be sued by an accused student punished under the lesser burden of proof. Many have questioned whether disciplining students in cases of reported sexual assaults is the role of a university. According to the 2011 "Dear Colleague" letter: "Conduct may constitute unlawful sexual harassment under Title IX even if the police do not have sufficient evidence of a criminal violation." A criminal investigation does not relieve the school of its duty under Title IX to resolve complaints promptly and equitably, according to that letter. Only four universities in the country have as many active investigations of Title IX compliance for sexual violence complaints as UW-Madison. Stanford, Kansas State and St. Mary's College of Maryland each have four to UW-Madison's three. A total of 159 postsecondary institutions had open federal investigations as of Wednesday. In the complaint obtained by the Journal Sentinel, the woman alleged that she not only lacked the right to appeal a settlement the university reached with the student she accused of raping her, but the settlement wasn't listed among possible sanctions in the misconduct code. The settlement was reached a week before a scheduled hearing. The accused agreed to be expelled from UW-Madison and suspended from the other UW System campuses. Under the current code, both suspension and expulsion are to be in effect systemwide. A student may petition to be readmitted under either scenario. "Greater public attention to the issue of sexual assault and awareness of the Office for Civil Rights has led to a significant increase in Title IX claims across the country," UW-Madison spokesman John Lucas said in a statement "UW-Madison is cooperating fully with the Office for Civil Rights as it investigates complaints from three of our students." The university this fall took part in a national survey that produced a range of recommendations for making its programs "even more effective," Lucas said. "Sexual assault and misconduct are unacceptable and we are committed to responding with thorough, fair investigations," he said. Medical College complaint The Journal Sentinel in September requested from the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil rights all Title IX sexual violence complaints against Wisconsin universities. The office provided only three of the five complaints one against the Medical College of Wisconsin, one of two complaints against UW-Whitewater and one of two at the time against UW-Madison. The heavily redacted complaint against the Medical College of Wisconsin states that the case was reviewed by the Milwaukee County district attorney's office and charges were not pressed. The woman said in the complaint that she reported to her school that she had been sexually assaulted two months after it occurred, but was told nothing could be done because it occurred off campus. Title IX prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender in any education program or activity operated by a recipient of federal financial assistance, according to a letter sent by the Office for Civil Rights on Sept. 1 to Medical College President John Raymond, notifying him that the college's handling of the complaint would be investigated. "The amount of distress that I feel after my rape by having to attend classes/workshops/meetings/talks with my perpetrator is unbearable," the woman wrote in her federal complaint about the Medical College's handling of her report. "His friends spread rumors about me and it has created a hostile work environment." The woman said she wanted the school to conduct an investigation and consider removing the accused from school so she did not have to interact with him. "What he did is completely incompatible with being a medical student," she concluded. SHARE MILWAUKEE COUNTY Here are opportunities offered by the Volunteer Center of Greater Milwaukee, a service of the Nonprofit Center. Call (414) 273-7887 or visit volunteermilwaukee.orghttp://volunteermilwaukee.org. Distribute fire safety tags door to door and talk with residents about fire safety on Monday, January 18. Call American Red Cross at (414) 345-8698. Donate blood or sign up for the organ, marrow or tissue registries Jan. 18 at the Milwaukee Public Library-Martin Luther King Branch. Call the BloodCenter of Wisconsin at (414) 937-6249. Mentor at-risk Milwaukee youth once a week for one year. Call New Hope Youth And Family Services at (414) 342-1303. Tutor K-8th grade studentsweekly for a semester during or after school or Saturday mornings at one of 12 Milwaukee school sites. Call School Sisters of Notre Dame at (262) 787-1018. Greet patrons,assist in feature exhibition and/or permanent collection the evening of Jan. 15 for a special event at the Milwaukee Art Museum. Call (414) 224-3893. Help seniorslearn how to use smartphones, tablets, or computers weekdays. Call Washington Park Senior Center at (414) 933-2332. OZAUKEE COUNTY Opportunities are available from the Volunteer Center of Ozaukee County, 885 Badger Circle, Grafton. Go to volunteerozaukee.org or call (262) 377-1616. Greet people and provide directions as a receptionist at Columbia St. Mary's Hospital. Student volunteers are needed to serve in the Grief Resource Center at Horizon Hospice. Help design sets for performances at North Shore Academy of the Arts. Help clean the Resource Center once per month at the Port Washington Historical Society. Help seniors with snow shoveling for Ozaukee Family Services. WAUKESHA COUNTY Opportunities are available from United Way of Greater Milwaukee & Waukesha County. If interested call (262) 409-2406, or emailvolunteer@unitedwaygmwc.org. Collect supplies for partner agencies this winter. Serve as an on-call receptionist for BecParent's Place. Prepare, plan and serve weekend breakfast for Guest House of Milwaukee on Saturdays. WASHINGTON COUNTY Opportunities are available from the Volunteer Center of Washington County, 1530 Corporate Center Drive, Suite 1, West Bend. Call (262) 338-8256 or visit volunteernow.net. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee students make their way to class on the school's campus in September. Credit: Mike De Sisti SHARE By The op-ed piece, "Tenure reforms needed," by John Behling, vice president of the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents was unconvincing. Before the 2015-'17 state budget with tenure and shared governance embedded in state law, UW-Madison developed into one of the greatest research universities in the world. UW-Milwaukee emerged as a first-rate research university. Other comprehensive campuses such as UW-Eau Claire and UW-Stevens Point became excellent undergraduate universities. And the UW System established a superb reputation. During this time, faculty were primarily responsible for academic decisions, including evaluation for tenure, that moved Wisconsin into the top circle of public higher education. The 2013-'15 and current budgets have imposed crushing reductions in funding for UW System campuses. In addition, highly effective rules governing tenure and shared governance have been deleted from state law. The budget reductions ensure that academic programs across the system will be less able to provide students with the educational opportunities they need. While most states are reinvesting in their universities after the Great Recession, Wisconsin continues to disinvest. At a time when the world economy is "knowledge-based," and global competition fierce, downgrading the UW System will be disastrous for the state. The UW System's ability to compete for the best faculty will be wounded by the shortsighted effort to weaken the rules governing tenure. Behling argues that there is a problem with the present regulations that, nevertheless, have made the UW System the envy of higher education. "Tenure may be the standard in higher education, but it is out of step with reality for most workers in other sectors." This argument obscures the key point: Without a strong tenure policy that fosters creativity and independent thinking and also matches those of other top rated universities and systems, we will not be able to attract the talented faculty that must be hired if the UW System is to excel and Wisconsin's economy is to thrive. Behling states that "the public has expressed serious concerns about how tenure is practiced in Wisconsin." To the contrary, the polls have shown that the public is overwhelmingly supportive of the UW System. No, the idea of undermining tenure comes straight from the governor and Legislature. Recall, the governor also wanted to get rid of the Wisconsin Idea and change the expansive mission of the UW System into workforce training. A statewide outcry prevented that debacle. Still, Behling makes a similar pitch: "Our institutions must be able to operate more like modern private and nonprofit sector organizations that, in challenging and often unpredictable times, respond to changing market forces, demographics, trends, and demands." Behling has in mind businesses that need to be nimble in order to navigate the uncertainties of global commerce. In this environment, university graduates will change positions, even types of jobs, many times during the course of their professional careers. A university replete with rapid response programs to the latest short-term trends in the market will not ensure that graduates have jobs now or in the future or that businesses are well-served. Instead, universities, painstakingly developed over decades and centuries, offer both their best opportunity graduates with well-constructed foundations of knowledge, practice and habits of mind that have depth as well as breadth and empower them with the durable intellectual tools to live and work flexibly over time in a rapidly changing world. Behling confuses the valuable work of technical colleges with the much different, larger and longer term mandate of universities. Behling makes the subtle suggestion that poor performers, retained by the current tenure system, comprise a significant fraction of the UW faculty. Surely, Behling knows that the percentage of poor performers is vanishingly small, that faculty have received almost no salary increase during the past eight years, and that with the new state budget cuts, salary increases even for top performers across the UW System likely will be impossible for the foreseeable future. This is not a recipe for quality. Tenure isn't broken, so don't fix it. However, the UW System is breaking. How will Wisconsin residents and businesses face an increasingly competitive, knowledge-based world without a world-class UW System? David H. Petering is University Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) speaks during a campaign rally in Las Vegas recently. He and Donald Trump are new populists. Credit: Associated Press SHARE By Populism is typically born in places like Nebraska, Louisiana, Kansas and the other places given short shrift in that famous Saul Steinberg New Yorker cartoon showing the view of the world from 9th Ave. It's not supposed to hail from Brooklyn or Queens, never mind Burlington, Vermont or midtown Manhattan. But that's where the two reigning populists of the 2016 cycle call home. You could say that Donald Trump, the son of a rich real estate developer in Queens, always was a populist at heart. All his life he wanted to break into the fancy-pants world of Manhattan real estate. Despite his wealth, he still has that bridge-and-tunnel chip on his shoulder. And that chip explains the garishness of his publicity-seeking lifestyle, as well as his politics. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders grew up in Brooklyn, the son of Polish-Jewish immigrants. He followed a somewhat familiar path to politics. As Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina quipped in one of the recent Republican debates, Sanders went to the Soviet Union on his honeymoon and never came back. In reality, he ended up in Burlington and became the socialist mayor of one of the very first latte towns. It's a fantastic moment to compare and contrast, as they used to say in school. If you can ignore the fact that he's a billionaire who brags about having been part of the corrupt political system he promises to overthrow, Trump resembles some of the great populists of yesteryear. He's a nationalist who promises to restore the country to the greatness his followers nostalgically desire. He's a nativist whose one core issue is stopping illegal immigration and now any immigration of Muslims, "temporarily." And he's a consummate panderer or, if you prefer, "fighter" who channels and validates his supporters' frustrations. As the fictionalized Huey Long character Willie Stark says in the novel "All the King's Men," "Your will is my strength. Your need is my justice." Long promised to make "every man a king." Trump promises to make everyone a winner. Sanders, meanwhile, is all about populist economics literally. With the exception of his pacifism, he is almost incapable of talking about anything else. But his worldview would be totally recognizable to William Jennings Bryan or Long or even Father Charles Coughlin. According to populist economics, the rich exploit the poor and the middle class intentionally. They leech off their hard work, and they send them to war. The proper role for populist-run government is to make the puppetmasters pay, literally and figuratively. The one area where Trump and Sanders break totally with populist practice, other than geography, is religion. Nearly all of the famous heartland populists of yore were steeped in Christianity and spoke its language fluently. Long's "Share the Wealth" plan, for instance, was vaguely derived from the Bible. Sanders is a "not particularly religious" Jew who hates to talk about religion. Trump, because he's seeking the GOP nomination, has had to work hard at faking religious sincerity. But even if he were serious that he won't share his favorite Bible verse because "that's personal," his reluctance would distinguish him from traditional populists. That may be a sign of the times. Or it may just be the kind of politics you get when you start a populist prairie fire so far from the prairies. Jonah Goldberg is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a senior editor of National Review. Email goldbergcolumn@gmail.com Twitter: @JonahNRO Geneva Williams feeds her ballot into the machine in front of poll worker Sherman Page at Sherman Park School in Milwaukee on Nov. 3, 2014. Credit: Mike De Sisti SHARE By of the Madison A federal judge has thrown out portions of a challenge to Wisconsin's voting laws but is allowing a key part of the lawsuit to proceed that could allow more types of identification to be used under the voter ID law. In his ruling last month, U.S. District Judge James Peterson in Madison also found the liberal One Wisconsin Institute could pursue its argument that recent restrictions on early voting violate the U.S. Constitution. The group brought its lawsuit in May, contending the voter ID law, limits on early voting and other policies were designed to make it harder for minorities, the poor and those backing Democrats to vote. Peterson threw out the overarching challenge to the voter ID law because the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Chicago ruled in 2014 that the law is constitutional. But Peterson concluded the group could continue to press its claim that lawmakers had been too restrictive in deciding what types of IDs can be used for voting. If the group prevails, a broader set of identification could be used at the polls, such as driver's licenses from other states. Allowed for voting under the law are Wisconsin driver's licenses, state-issued ID cards, military IDs, passports, tribal IDs, naturalization certificates and college IDs. The college IDs must have signatures and expiration dates that show they are good for no more than two years; students must also show poll workers separate documentation that proves they are enrolled in school. Peterson wrote that the One Wisconsin Institute had "plausibly alleged that the decision to exclude certain forms of ID was impermissibly arbitrary." "Defendants' core argument is that the Legislature is entitled to draw a line somewhere so that poll workers do not have to contend with an unlimited universe of potential IDs," he wrote. "But this begs the question, which is whether the actual line drawn by the Legislature is rational. Defendants are correct that perfection is not required; mere rationality is sufficient. But defendants cannot make even this minimal showing by simply claiming that the Legislature had to draw the line somewhere." Peterson also determined the group could continue to make its case that the restrictions on early voting violated the right to vote and the guarantee of equal protection under the law by putting too great a burden on voters who support Democrats. "Whether Wisconsin's restrictions have actually burdened Democratic voters, and if so, to what degree, is a question of fact that cannot be resolved at the pleading stage," he wrote. Wisconsin's voter ID law was passed in 2011 but soon after was blocked by a series of orders in state and federal courts. The law was implemented in 2015 after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals' decision upholding it. Detective shares details of hourslong interview with Brooks on Day 12 of Christmas Parade trial Jurors on Tuesday got a first look at how Darrell Brooks Jr. intends to argue his defense in the trial tied to the Waukesha Christmas Parade attack. SHARE By of the Four young men thought to have drowned Sunday in an early morning canoe accident on Mill Lake in Walworth County were part of a group of a dozen or so friends who had gathered at a lake house in the Town of East Troy for the weekend, authorities said. Jason Roberts, a recreational safety warden with the Department of Natural Resources, said the men were between the ages of 20 and 23 and were from Illinois, though he didn't know their cities. He said the four had been drinking and there was no indication of foul play. "There's no evidence that any of them had a personal flotation device on them, or that there were any on the boat," said Roberts. As of 5:30 p.m. Sunday, two of the bodies had been recovered, and divers were continuing to search for the others in the frigid waters south of Highway J, Roberts said. "We have no indication that they are anywhere but in the lake," he said. Friends at the home told investigators that the four had gone outside to smoke around 2:30 a.m. and did not return before the others had gone to bed. When they awoke around 9 a.m., Roberts said, they noticed that the four were missing and found foot tracks from the door to the boathouse and the canoe missing. They began searching and found the canoe overturned on the shore. Speaking at a news conference Sunday, East Troy Police Chief James Surges said investigators believe the canoe overturned and the four tried to climb out of the water, but the thin ice beneath them kept breaking. Mill Lake is just north of Lake Beulah and southwest of Mukwonago. Reddit Email 0 Shares By Amira Al Hussaini | ( GlobalVoices.org) Saudi Arabia announced today it had executed 47 people under terrorism charges, including top shia cleric Nimr Al Nimr who was seen as a leader in anti-government protests that took place in the Eastern province of the absolute monarchy at the beginning of the so-called Arab Spring. Saudi Arabia today announced it had executed top Shia cleric Shaikh Nemer Al Nemer under terrorism charges. Photo credit: Talkhandak.com (CC BY 4.0) via Wikipedia In a series of tweets, Saudi journalist Ahmed Al Omran quotes the Saudi state news agency saying: Saudi Arabia executes 47 on terrorism charges, including Shiite cleric Nemer al-Nemer state news agency Ahmed Al Omran (@ahmed) January 2, 2016 In addition to Nimr, who had called for peaceful protests against the Saudi regime, Saudi Arabia executed Al Qaeda members, who belong to an ultra-fanatic branch of Sunni Islam. Al Omran tweets: Majority of todays executions are related to terrorism attacks carried out by Al-Qaeda inside Saudi Arabia between 2003 and 2006. Ahmed Al Omran (@ahmed) January 2, 2016 This lumping of executions did not pass undetected on social media. David Kenner explains: Saudi execution of Nimr al-Nimr along w/ al Qaeda members is straight from Assad's playbook lumping nonviolent activists with terrorists. DavidKenner (@DavidKenner) January 2, 2016 The mass executions were carried out in 12 different areas across Saudi Arabia: The executions were carried out in 12 different regions around the kingdom, the interior ministry says. Ahmed Al Omran (@ahmed) January 2, 2016 And they are backed by the Saudi religious institutions: Saudi Grand Mufti tells state TV that the death sentences carried out today are just. Ahmed Al Omran (@ahmed) January 2, 2016 Nimr, from the Awamiya area, in the Eastern province of Saudi Arabia caught the Saudi regime's wrath after giving sermons calling for reforms in the conservative kingdom where women are not even allowed to drive cars and for taking the lead in anti-government protests in 2011-2012. In July 2012, he was arrested by police after being shot in the leg and in October 2014 sentenced to death for disobeying the ruler among other charges. On Twitter, netizens expressed anger at Nimr's execution. American-Mauritanian Nasser Weddady notes: The execution of Nimr Al Nimr is a rare moment where outrage is transcending sectarian divides. #Saudi weddady (@weddady) January 2, 2016 He adds to his 37K followers on Twitter saying: The real loss in the death of Nimr Al Nimr is that he died for the message both Sunni & Shia tyrants feared from the Arab uprisings. weddady (@weddady) January 2, 2016 Having a dissenting opinion in Arab lands is health hazard. side effects include prison, torture and death. weddady (@weddady) January 2, 2016 Rawya Rageh tells her 83.3K followers Nimr's execution will further escalate tensions in the region: Execution of prominent #Shia cleric #AlNimr by #Saudi will undoubtedly set tone for regional tension in 2016. Rawya Rageh (@RawyaRageh) January 2, 2016 Iran reacted to Nimr's execution by accusing Saudi Arabia of support[ing] terrorists and takfiri (radical Sunni) extremists, while executing and suppressing critics inside the country. Nimr's execution is expected to further fuel dissidence in the region with calls for demonstrations going out. Photographs shared on Twitter show armoured vehicles moving into Shia areas in the Eastern province to quell any possible rallies: And in nearby restive Bahrain, where anti-government protests have been continuing since February 14, 2011, protesters took the the streets of several villages after the news was announced. #_ #bahrain pic.twitter.com/6qZOnX3Zsi (@DefenseResistan) January 2, 2016 Protests in several areas in Bahrain to condemn the execution of martyr Nimr Al Nimr. #_ pic.twitter.com/o2llY4hucy Alqadami (@alqadami) January 2, 2016 Bahrain's villages rise in anger after the execution of Nimr Al Nimr Last year (2015), Saudi Arabia executed a total of 158 people, or an average of one person every two days, the highest recorded number since 1995. Via Globalvoices.org Reddit Email 0 Shares By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday cited Hitler in support of his contention that a presidential system can coexist with a unitary state, i.e., with a non-federal government. The United States has a presidential system, but the presidencys powers are limited because it is a federal system with enormous rights and prerogatives retained by the state. I suppose the context is that people are arguing to Erdogan that if he takes Turkey into a presidential system, it could break up the country because there would be regionalist responses to this concentration of power. He was trying to deflect this critique, and what his mind happened on was the example of fascist Germany! Erdogan is neither a fascist nor a totalitarian, and there is no evidence he has lost faith in having regular elections. He has become increasingly authoritarian, however, and is now going around accusing his political rivals of treason. A decade ago, he stood for a certain amount of political pluralism, though he has relinquished most of the latter commitments in the past two years. He was just trying to bat down critics of his plan for a strong presidency by pointing to places where that system has not implied moving to a federal system. But the remark shows how tone deaf he has become, how insensitive to the impact of his remarks, and, indeed, how arrogant. Erdogan is tired of being a ceremonial president. He wants a presidential system for his country, on the American or Brazilian model. Turkey, like most of the European Union with the exception of France, has a parliamentary system, where the prime minister comes out of parliaments largest party and is the head of state. Parliamentary systems can provide checks to executive power smaller parties often have inordinate power because they are swing votes on key issues. All the regions of the country are represented. A strong presidential system lacks these checks unless other checks and balances are built in, such as states rights federalism or constitutional prerogatives for parliament. Erdogan does not seem big on checks and balances any more. Even with its current parliamentary system, Turkeys state has authoritarian tendencies and lacks basic press and academic freedoms. While you can argue about the relative virtues of parliamentary versus presidential rule, there doesnt seem any doubt that Erdogan wants the change for all the wrong reasons to concentrate power in his hands. He gave his enemies, and critics of the presidential system, lots of ammunition by invoking Hitler. But beyond this immediate constitutional issue, it is worrisome for Turkeys politics that Erdogan is developing Trumpmouth syndrome, and one worries that there is some sort of cognitive decline or disorder at work in his recent wild oscillations. This summer, in order to reverse the results of the parliamentary election, which gave a pro-Kurdish party 13% of seats and denied his Justice and Development Party an absolute majority, he cancelled the peace process and went to war with the guerrilla group, the Kurdistan Workers Party (a group with a separatist and Marxist past that Turkey and the US list as a terrorist organization). The PKK may be partly to blame for the collapse of peace talks (it has been accused of massive human rights violations itself), but it seems clear that the impetus for the new conflict was Erdogans bid to undo the June elections and get a parliamentary majority. He just fell short. At 50 percent of seats gained on Nov. 1 in snap elections, his party has a mandate to rule without a coalition partner. But that isnt enough to change the constitution. These measures seem wild and unnecessary and wholly instrumental in a way that suggests a loss of moral compass. I dont think the Erdogan of the early zeroes was an act, when he spoke for pluralism. I think something has gone wrong with him, whether the pride of long office or producing too much of one brain chemical and not enough of another. In any case Erdogan was wrong that Hitler came to power in a presidential system; and he is also wrong that Hitlerism did not indict the unitary state; you will note that Germany is now a federal republic. The Hitler remark is, however, important beyond its political context. It suggests there is something rotten in the state of Denmark. Related video: Euronews: Turkeys Erdogan slams pro-Kurdish Demirtas for provocation and treason SEATTLE Juliet Sykes watched teary-eyed as glass workers began to shape a small white heart. Glowing orange tanks full of melted glass at 2,300 degrees lined the back wall, while reheating stations with steel tools and buckets of cold water dotted the workshop. Sykes stood upstairs in the gallery, taking it all in. Before the ball of glass was formed into a solid heart with swirls of color and glitter, an artist rolled it across a tablespoon of ash the ashes of Sykes great-grandmother Dorothy Nanny Walker, who died in 1998. It is just so beautiful, Sykes said as sparks jumped off a cold steel blade as it touched the burning-hot glass. I love the sparks that is Nanny saying, Im here. Whether it is a glass heart or a diamond ring or being placed in a reef off the coast of Florida, people are finding new ways to memorialize the life of their departed loved ones who chose cremation. And what better way to do that in a city known for its glasswork than with glass hearts, thought Greg and Christina Dale of Sammamish, Wash. In the 18 months since starting Artful Ashes in 2012, the Dales have gone from 10 memorials a month to more than 200. By contracting with Glass Eye Studio in Ballard, Wash., they have the capacity to make 110 a day, said Christina Dale. From 2002 to 2012, the cremation rate in the United States increased from 28.2 percent to 43.5 percent, according to the most recent date from the Cremation Association of North America (CANA). In Washington, the rate of cremation is third highest in the country at 73 percent. It is closure for a lot of people while also giving them something that fits perfectly in their hands, Christina, 49, said. It is not a paperweight and we designed it not to be on purpose. Lisa Suchsland heard about Artful Ashes through a friend and decided to make a heart in honor of her father, who died two years ago. She and her mother live in Mount Vernon, Wash.; her sister lives in England. She said she knew they all would get more joy out of a glass keepsake than having ashes on a mantel. There really could not be anything more beautiful and personal to me than to have a heart made with his ashes, said Suchsland, who has her own business painting portraits of lost pets for grieving owners. It is nice to have a place to go, a cemetery or a mausoleum, but it is also nice to have something to hold. People are realizing they have more options to personalize a memorial tribute, said Barbara Kemmis, CANA executive director. Ten years ago you had three choices, Kemmis said. Your choices were to scatter remains, buy an urn and keep it in your house, or buy an urn and put it in a cemetery. But what gets more personalized than art? The idea for Artful Ashes came out of a close call with Greg Dales father. He lives in Miami and went to the hospital for surgery in February 2012. Beforehand he researched end-of-life options, just to be prepared. He was like ... Did you know you could be buried in a reef or made into a ring or shot into outer space? Christina Dale said. Luckily his dad pulled through, but the whole thing just got us thinking. Just a few months later, Greg visited a Made in Washington store that carries Glass Eye Studios glass heart paperweights. He approached the studio owners with his idea of incorporating a small amount of cremated ashes into the colorful hearts and they liked the idea, so the business was formed. Susan and Ted Smith, who bought Glass Eye Studio in November, said they were happy to continue the partnership and gave the couple an office at the studio. Glass Eye employees make the memorials, and the Dales buy them from the studio at wholesale prices, much like how the Made in Washington stores purchase the paperweights, Greg said. Artful Ashes then sells both the hearts and globes to customers for $185. They are almost like funeral directors, said Ted Smith. The product is just a piece of what they do for these people ... I am always seeing people leave with a smile even during such a sad time. While getting off the ground, both Dales still worked Greg as a contractor and auto salesman and Christina as an assistant buy planner at Nordstrom. Greg continued until Artful Ashes began bringing in enough business to allow him to stop. He quit his job in August 2013 after starting to partner with local funeral homes. Christina followed in November after they had partnered with 25 funeral homes around Washington and revenue had increased 428 percent in those four months. Nick Savage co-founded one of the first glass-memorial businesses in the country in 2002. Since opening Memory Glass in California, Savage said he has watched the cremation industry grow. And now, in the last five years, he said he has seen an explosion of new ideas for memorial items. The baby-boomer generation is coming through, he said. They want something unique, original ... something artistic ... they go and see (work by artist Dale) Chihuly and they want someone memorialized in the same way. Memory Glass works through more than 40 funeral homes in Washington and offers many styles with prices starting at $150. However, because the company is based in California, the remains have to be shipped to the facility for the memorials to be made. It had been more than 15 years since Nanny was cremated, but when Juliet Sykes saw one of Artful Ashes hearts on Facebook, she said she had to have one. Not being able to be there the night she passed away ... this just made up for it 10- fold, Sykes told the Dales after her white heart memorial was set in the cooling rack. I just wish granddad had been cremated, too, so they could be together. A few leaders, like Governor Gary Juffa, are beginning the important task of appealing directly to those who Marx and Lenin described as "the masses", explaining that their collective failure to wield their vote for the greater good is grievously damaging both their present and their future. Right now, Papua New Guineas nascent middle class seems more concerned about its material well-being rather than challenging the political status quo and thus, by default, becomes complicit in political dysfunction. This has always been fraught because those in power characteristically resist sharing that power, much less being held accountable for its exercise. In every nation where a Western style democracy has taken root, an absolute prerequisite has been the emergence of an educated, articulate, motivated and activist middle class to seize control of the political process. RASHMII Bells The stationary cloud , published in PNG Attitude on New Years Day, is an excellent piece. It is very hard for the ordinary PNG voter to understand this because it is an alien idea, not connected to culture and tradition, where the pre-eminent construct was "them" versus "us". Somehow, the idea of "we, the people", has yet to grip Papua New Guineans and ensure they they compel their elected representatives to make urgently needed changes in the way politics works in PNG. Lenin, Mao, Castro and their ilk decided that this change in outlook could only occur when those who understood the "objective reality" of the situation seized power by force. In Britain and Europe, the change process started much earlier in history and was much more protracted. It also was sometimes violent but usually fell short of all-out war. The trick for PNG's middle class is to carry out this process quickly and, hopefully, without violence. In my assessment this is possible but not easy. Rashmii and those who think like her can do it provided they can galvanise enough support amongst their peers and create the required political structures. The bad news is that, if so-called "western civilisation" is any guide, this process is a never ending task because the great and powerful always seek ways to accumulate power at the expense of the sometimes somnolent masses. This is why an effective democracy always needs intellectual gadflies, whether from the left or the right, expounding their sometimes dopey ideas but, in doing so, keeping constant pressure on the political and business elites. Complacency and ennui are lethal to true democracy: only constant scrutiny and a fear of losing power will "keep the bastards honest". SHARE By Chris Kornelis Voters fed up with either Washington have multiple opportunities to do something about it this year, with a host of high-profile seats in D.C., Olympia and Port Orchard up for grabs on Nov 8. In the presidential contest which seemingly began as soon as Mitt Romney conceded defeat in 2012 the Washington State Republican Party holds its caucuses on Feb. 20, where members will begin the process of picking delegates to the GOP's national convention. The results of the May 24 primary, however, will be used to award the party's 44 delegates to candidates. Considering the size of the field currently a 12-person race involving a neurosurgeon, a celebrity real estate developer and a host of elected officials WSRP Chairwoman Susan Hutchison doesn't think the nomination will be settled before the primary and expects the state's GOP primary voters to have an impact on the selection process. "We think there is a very good chance it will be a contested primary," she said. "So, it's going to be very exciting." Democrats who are looking at more or less a two-way race between Vermont's self-described Democratic Socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hold their caucuses a month later, on March 26, from which they will appropriate their 119 delegates to the national convention. Jaxon Ravens, chairman of the Washington State Democratic Party, said that he didn't want to make a prediction about whether the nomination will be sewn up by late March. He said the party would use the caucuses as an opportunity to talk about other races and issues, such as U.S. Sen. Patty Murray's bid for a fifth term. Murray is being challenged by the state's former GOP chairman, Chris Vance, though there has been speculation that she could also see a challenge from Rep. Dave Reichert, who recently took a pass on the governor's race. Also in D.C., Rep. Derek Kilmer, who represents the Kitsap and Olympic Peninsulas, is up for re-election, along with his House colleagues. In Olympia, Republican Bill Bryant, a Port of Seattle Commissioner, is challenging Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee in a contest that Politico recently listed as one of the top 10 governors races of 2016, noting that "Gov. Jay Inslee's approval numbers are far from strong, but Seattle Port Commissioner Bill Bryant has struggled to raise money and it's unclear whether he'll be able to mount a true challenge in a blue state in a presidential year." Elsewhere in the state Capitol, Democratic Sen. Christine Rolfes, who represents parts of Kitsap including Bainbridge Island, is up for re-election. All the seats in House currently run by the Democrats, who have a slim, two-seat majority are up for grabs, too. Chris Tibbs, the outgoing chairman of the Kitsap County Republican Party, says the local party's priority in the new year is getting another spot on the Kitsap County Board of Commissioners. Two of the three commissioners, Democrats Robert Gelder and Charlotte Garrido, are up for re-election. Katherine Woods, chairwoman of Kitsap County Democratic Central Committee, says she expects both of them to stand for re-election. Tibbs says that the party has been speaking with potential challengers but does not expect them to announce until later this month or next. This South Kitsap couple prepares to take off for a crisp winter ride on a 1914 Thor motorcycle near present day Waterman. Thor motorcycles were manufactured by the Aurora Motor Company in Illinois from the 1890s to 1920. 1914 was the first year footboards were offered for rider comfort. Aurora manufactured home appliances as well as its well-known Indian motorcycles. To see more photos from the Kitsap County Historical Society Museum archives, visit www.facebook.com/kitsaphistory, Twitter KitsapMuseum, or stop by the museum at 280 Fourth St. in Bremerton. Call 360-479-6226 for information. SHARE In 1941 (75 years ago) Owners of automobiles who have not put their 1941 license plates on their machines are subject to arrest, local and state police said today. Bremerton Chief of Police Charles Lewis said that just having the plates isn't enough. They must be attached to the machine in their regular place. State, county and city police are today tagging all cars that are being operated with last year's plates and will continue the drive until every owner has either purchased them or put them on his machine. More than 4,000 applications for the 600 new dwellings that are being directed by the Bremerton Housing Authority at its Westpark project have been received to date, E.C. Searle, executive director, announced today. More than half of the applications have been made by people residing outside of Bremerton, while the rest are for Navy Yard workers residing in the city, Searle said. The only requirement necessary to make application for the dwellings is that the person must be employed in the national defense program, such as the Navy Yard, Navy Ammunition Depot or the Keyport torpedo station. In 1966 (50 years ago) The official weather score today is 6 inches of snow still on the ground at the recording station on Capitol Hill, all that's left of the 7.28 inches of precipitation that has fallen since Dec. 22. That weather station is located at a high enough elevation to bring more snow there than downtown Bremerton. Not much remains in city center but it is a different story in other parts of the county with varying amounts up to a couple of feet reported. In 1991 (25 years ago) You got a parking ticket in a metered downtown Bremerton lot at 6 a.m. and you wonder when the city started patrolling at such odd hours? Well, you are one of the people still adjusting to the full-scale revision of city parking laws in the past year and a half. And there are more changes, though mostly to soften those revisions of 1990. The labels on the meters say parking laws are enforced all day, every day except Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's. The realities of enforcement since the rules changed last year have been considerably different. In 2006 (10 years ago) Pity those poor souls who used to barely miss the ferry in Seattle headed for Bremerton or Bainbridge Island. Those who couldn't quite run fast enough were stuck at Colman Dock, a drafty, poorly lit ferry terminal that felt more like a holding cell than a gateway to the Emerald City. Most tourists and commuters had little to do besides stare at a large clock or read glossy brochures on Mount Saint Helens. "It really was a dreary place," recalled Jean Charmaki of Bremerton. "They didn't even decorate for Christmas and I can see why it was hopeless." But today, a year after renovation, Colman Dock is a bustling place and it was even decorated for the holidays. MC2 Amanda Gray Incoming Gold crew commanding officer of the ballistic missile submarine USS Nevada, Cmdr. Gene Severtson, delivers remarks during a change of command ceremony, Dec. 18.Severtson relieved former CO Cmdr. Chad Hennings. SHARE By Mc2 Amanda Gray The Gold crew of the Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine USS Nevada (SSBN 733) held a change of command ceremony at Naval Undersea Museum, Dec. 18. Cmdr. Chad Hennings was relieved by Cmdr. Gene Severtson and assumed the duties and responsibilities as commanding officer of Nevada Gold crew during the ceremony. "When you're the CO of a submarine, you are assigned a crew who will literally walk through walls for you to get the job done," said Hennings. "To the crew of USS Nevada, I've told you before that when you work hard, do a great job, and have success, that no one has to tell you what a great job you did you know it in your heart. Well, today you should know it." Hennings assumed command of Nevada's Gold crew Feb. 28, 2013. During his leadership, the crew conducted four strategic deterrent patrols, received 310 personal awards, and 86 enlisted sailors and 14 officers received their submarine warfare qualification devices, or "dolphins." "I can't imagine having commanded a better crew or a better ship than the USS Nevada Gold," said Hennings. "It is great to hand over the reins to someone I have known over the years and respect so much. I know that the crew will be in good hands." As his last act as commanding officer, Hennings gave Electronics Technician Seaman Roberto Malpica his dolphins. Hennings will remain at Naval Base Kitsap Bangor, where he will join the staff of Submarine Squadron 19. "I am incredibly humbled to be standing before you today as the commanding officer of the USS Nevada," said Severtson. "Not only has Cmdr. Hennings turned over an aging warship in immaculate condition, but he most importantly turned over the finest trained crew in the fleet who has superbly excelled at all assigned missions. The most important asset onboard the submarine is you, the crew. You do it flawlessly, each and every day. I can be no prouder than I am right now to stand before you as your captain." Severtson comes to Nevada from Washington, D.C., where he was assigned to the staff of the Undersea Warfare Division. Ibrahim Al-Marashi at Al Jazeera writes: For Iraqis the year 2016 has been ushered in with their militarys capture of ISILs headquarters in Ramadi, capital of the nations Anbar province. In terms of what 2016 holds for the future, the military dynamics that led to the fall of Ramadi will serve as long-term harbinger of ISILs ability to endure in Iraq. Upon first glance, the fall of Ramadi appears to mean little for the long term campaign against ISIL. The recent victory brings Iraq back to the status quo as of May 2015, when Iraqi forces took retook Tikrit from ISIL towards the end of April, but then lost Ramadi right after. It took the Iraqi forces several months to return to this status quo. Over all, the victory would appear as a loss, as the Iraqi state won back Ramadi, but utterly devastated the city in the process. However, in the long term perspective, the fall of Ramadi is a victory in terms of the lessons applied on the strategic-political level and the evolution of Iraqi military tactics, which signals a significant setback for ISIL. He explains the importance: Whereas the battle for Tikrit primarily featured irregular Shia militias, the battle for Ramadi involved the (ISF), along with irregular tribal Sunni levies. This was not so much a battle for a city, but a battle by the Iraqi state to project that it still has a national army, and is willing to work with the Sunni tribes. On another level, the role played by national Iraqi forces in the fall of Ramadi also has implications for the creation of an inclusive sense of Iraqiness. A debate has ensued since the summer of 2014 as to whether one can claim that the Iraqi nation still exists. With the fall of Ramadi, the Iraqi military, which is featured prominently on this channel, can now also claim that it represents the national aspirations of Iraq. Again any Iraqi will know that the nation is divided among Kurdish Peshmerga and Shia militias. For the legitimacy of Prime Minister Haider al-Abbadi, the Iraqi militarys victory in Ramadi is a testament of his ability to preside at the helm of what remains of the Iraqi state and nation. So the importance is this was not a battle won by Shia militia against Sunni insurgents. It was the Iraqi military against ISIL. What remains to be seen after the fall of Ramadi is the ability of the Iraqi military to develop a doctrine, or a series of lessons learned in the fighting that can be carried forward in the battle for Mosul. A BBC article revealed that the Iraqi military has benefitted from a learning curve during the months-long campaign to remove ISIL from Ramadi. The Iraqi insurgency that erupted from 2003 primarily used hit-and-run tactics against US and Iraqi forces, tactics typical of a guerilla war meant to wear down the resolve of the enemy. As a result, the US training mission had focused on ensuring Iraqs new military could deal with this type of combat. ISIL is different type of insurgent group, holding cities and territory, which required retraining the Iraqi military forces in sustained urban combat, fighting street-by-street, house-by-house. This transformation of training the Iraqi military from counter-insurgency to urban combat explains why it took so long to be deployed on the front lines, creating a security vacuum which the Kurdish Peshmerga and the Iraqi Shia militias filled. And as the Herald reports, the troops fighting in Ramadi include those trained by the New Zealand Army: Iraqi troops trained by the New Zealand Defence Force were part of a force that has retaken the city of Ramadi from the Islamic State (Isis) terrorist group. Defence minister Gerry Brownlee said the success was a result of the commitment to the Building Partner Capacity training programme. New Zealand and Australian trainers can take some pride over the successful action by the recruits. NZDF trainers have gone into a dangerous environment and professionally established a training operation which is upskilling large numbers of Iraqi troops to better equip themselves to fight. New Zealanders can be very proud of the work our troops are doing to professionalise the Iraqi security forces, Mr Brownlee said in a statement. It is worth recalling that Labour said the training was pointless and NZ First called the Iraqi army cowards. This is only one battle, and there will be many more battles and some setbacks. But as the author writes, this was very important psychologically, and a key building block. And New Zealand played a small part in giving the Iraqi people a better chance of not having to live under a fascist theological barbaric regime. Share this: Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Reddit WhatsApp More Pinterest Print Tumblr SHARE Patricia Alcamo Megan Belcher Renee Bobbitt Alayne Bowman Patricia Alcamo has joined Baker Donelson as of counsel in the corporate finance and securities group. She was previously general counsel to MKP Capital Management. Megan Belcher has joined HomeTrust Bank as assistant vice president, branch sales and service manager for the Farragut branch. She was previously with First Tennessee and Regions. Renee Bobbitt has opened The Renee Bobbitt Agency, a full-service Allstate office, in Knoxville. Alayne Bowman has been promoted to director of financial aid at Maryville College. She was previously interim director. Rachel Campbell has joined Tennessee State Bank as operational branch manager and customer service representative at the Seymour branch. Rebecca Crowe and Allen Wash have received Advancing Professionals Awards from the National Contract Management Association, which recognize young professionals in contract management. Crowe is procurement and contracts section manager and small business advocate at Oak Ridge Associated Universities. Wash is a contract specialist at ORAU. Sheng Dai, a researcher with Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has been named one of the world's most highly cited researchers by Thompson Reuters. He is group leader of the lab's nanomaterials chemistry group and holds a joint appointment with the University of Tennessee. Jim Henry and Dan Hurst have received Muddy Boot Awards from the East Tennessee Economic Council, which recognizes individuals who improve the region. Henry is deputy governor of Tennessee and former mayor of Roane County. Hurst is founder of StrataG. Ann Weaver has received the Postma Young Professional Medal from the organization. She is director of facilities management at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Regina Jennings has joined Pinnacle Financial Partners as a senior vice president and financial advisor. She was previously a vice president and market leader for Blount County with BB&T. Chris Clanton has joined Pinnacle as a client service specialist. She was previously a branch manager for Regions Bank. Kristi Knight has joined Pinnacle as a financial advisor assistant. She was previously with SunTrust. Melanie Kent has been named deputy assistant manager for administration at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge Office. She was previously human resources director. The Knoxville Bar Association announces its new board officers and members: President, Wayne Kramer of Kramer Rayson; president-elect, Amanda Busby; treasurer, Keith Burroughs; and secretary Wynne Caffey-Knight. Members: E. Michael Brezina III, Carrie O'Rear, Cheryl Rice and Steven Sword. The following attorneys received awards: Dennis McClane, Governor's Award; Sarah Sheppeard, Don Paine Lawyer Legacy Award; LeAnn Mynatt, Courage in the Face of Adversity Award; Carrie O'Rear, Mark Castleberry, Jamie Ballinger-Holden and Troy Weston, Presidents' Awards for membership and community service; Robert Pryor Jr., DICTA Award for Outstanding Writing. Rachel Hurt has been named president of the Knoxville Barristers, the Young Lawyers Division of the KBA. Kathryn Ellis and Heather Ferguson received Barristers' Presidents' Awards. Dr. J. Mark MacNaughton, an orthopedic surgeon, has joined Tennova Healthcare and will practice at Tennova Orthopedics -- Turkey Creek. He was previously in private practice in Knoxville. Dr. Robert Malka, a neurologist and neuro-hospitalist, has joined Tennova Neurosciences at Physicians Regional Medical Center. Donatello Materassi has received an NSF CAREER award from the National Science Foundation for his research on designing control systems through the use of noninvasive observation. He is assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of Tennessee. The Tennessee Association of Mental Health Organizations announces the following awards: Hilde Phipps, director of addiction services at Helen Ross McNabb Center, Dorothea Dix Professional Service Award for her service providing training and direction for alcohol and drug abuse counseling; Don Jones, Knoxville Police Department captain, Frank G. Clement Community Service award for exemplary lay leadership and volunteer services for individuals with mental illness; Helen Ross McNabb Center's Mother Goose Program, Program of Excellence Award for community outreach to infants; Kristi Nelson, Knoxville News Sentinel health writer, Media Award for outstanding contributions to Tennessee's behavioral health system. David Yoder has been named the Ashley T. Wiltshire Public Service Attorney of the Year by The Tennessee Bar Association. He retired as executive director of Legal Aid of East Tennessee in 2015. SHARE ETSU Renaissance Camper Hannah Powers reacts to seeing her hair in the mirror during an exhibition at the American Museum of Science and Energy in Oak Ridge Wednesday, July 23, 2014. (MICHAEL PATRICK/NEWS SENTINEL) Most local organizations and arts groups take a break to enjoy the holidays, so we are turning our focus to East Tennessee's year-round attractions that will be open during the holidays for a visit. AMERICAN MUSEUM OF SCIENCE AND ENERGY Keeping secrets is never easy, especially when that secret happens to be an entire city of 75,000 people. But it's been done. Case in point: the city of Oak Ridge, 23 miles northwest of Knoxville. Built in secrecy in 1942 during World War II, Oak Ridge began when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers purchased 59,000 acres of rural land in East Tennessee. The land would be developed into a town which, along with Los Alamos in New Mexico and Hanford in Washington state, would help produce the world's first atomic weapons. The American Museum of Science and Energy in Oak Ridge explores both the history behind the town and the science that led to its creation. The museum originally opened just a few years after the town itself, in 1949, in a cafeteria. It was then called the American Museum of Atomic Energy and took visitors through a tour focusing on the peaceful uses of atomic energy. The present facility opened in 1975. The museum's name was changed to the American Museum of Science and Energy in 1978. The museum explores both the scientific and technological aspects of Oak Ridge, as well as its historical role in World War II. For example, a 20-minute video presentation and a panorama of photos, historical documents and artifacts survey the Manhattan Project and the town's formation. The Y-12 and National Defense exhibit examines the early history of one of Oak Ridge's three plants. The Exploration Station offers activities which explore light, sound, static electricity, robotics, vision, problem-solving and more. Elsewhere is the Earth's Energy Resources display, which takes a look at the planet's many energy resources, including coal, oil, geothermal, natural gas and hydropower. A cross-section model of a nuclear reactor and nuclear waste storage facility can be found in the World of the Atom. The museum is also available to rent for various formal events. It is located at 300 S. Tulane Avenue in Oak Ridge. It can be reached from Knoxville by taking Pellissippi Parkway until it turns into Highway 62. The museum is open daily, closed only on Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas and New Year's Day. The museum is open from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. on Monday through Saturday, and on Sunday from 1-5 p.m. Admission is $5 for adults, $3 for kids age 6-17 and $4 for seniors. Children 5 and under get in free. Group rates are available for parties of 20 or more. Visit www.amse.org or call 865-576-3200 for more information. Like us at www.facebook.com/knoxvillefamily and www.facebook.com/knoxvilledotcom Republican presidential candidate, former New York Gov. George Pataki tastes wine during a campaign tour of the Moonlight Meadery with owners Michael Fairbrother and Bernice Van Der Berg, Monday, July 6, 2015, in Londonderry, N.H. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola) SHARE Mike Huckabee shakes hands with a fan after having their photo taken together during his signing for his book "God, Guns, Grits, and Gravy" at Sam's Club in Knoxville Monday, Jan. 26, 2015. (JESSICA TEZAK/NEWS SENTINEL) Ted Cruz, U.S. Senator and 2016 presidential candidate, speaks during a rally at Farragut High School in Knoxville, Tenn. on Tuesday, Dec. 22, 2015. Cruz stopped in Knoxville while touring on campaign through upcoming March 1 primary voting states. (ADAM LAU/NEWS SENTINEL) Hillary Rodham Clinton, right, and Sen. Bernie Sanders, of Vermont, speak during the CNN Democratic presidential debate Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2015, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher) Senator Santorum held a Rally for Rick at Temple Baptist Church sponsored by Crown College in Powell at noon Wednesday, Feb. 29, 2012 in the church auditorium. (MICHAEL PATRICK/NEWS SENTINEL) By Tom Humphrey of the Knoxville News Sentinel NASHVILLE With Tennessee's presidential preference primary getting more national notice than it has in decades, the state's 1973 "sore loser law" has also gained a bit of attention, with conflicting opinions on how the law should be interpreted if a candidate decides to run as an independent in November. Most recently on the national notice front, the online political news magazine Politico last week carried a story under the headline, "Why Tennessee will matter in 2016." "It's not quite Iowa, but Tennessee a state long ignored until much later in the cycle, and then often just turned to for donations is now one of the biggest hubs for GOP political activity in the country," declared the Politico report. That's in accord with the hopes expressed by state legislators when they voted almost unanimously in 2011 after consulting with Republican and Democratic party officials to move the primary date to March 1, a week earlier than in 2012 but somewhat later than the Feb. 5 primary in 2008. The dates have varied considerably since the first Tennessee presidential primary on May 4, 1972. Before that, Tennessee's delegates were chosen in party caucuses. Tennessee will send 58 delegates to the 2016 Republican National Convention, fewer than Texas or Georgia but more than any of the other Southern states participating in what is being dubbed "the SEC primary" on March 1. From the candidates' perspective, the state's geographic situation and media markets naturally make it an obvious choice as a focus for campaign advertising and media attention. Explains Politico: "An ad buy in Knoxville, in the eastern part of the state, can also hit corners of Virginia, North Carolina and Kentucky. "Getting television coverage in Chattanooga, in the southeastern corner, plays in Georgia and Alabama, while a Memphis presence also gives a candidate audiences in Arkansas, Mississippi and Missouri. These Tennessee cities are smaller than, say, Atlanta and in the cases of Knoxville and Memphis, smaller than a number of other midsize Southern cities generally meaning that it costs less to buy a spot, and with the bleed-over into other states, it's more cost-effective. "The extensive airtime candidates receive here, coupled with a primary calendar change, a solid donor pool and the ideological diversity of the GOP in Tennessee explain why both deeply conservative candidates like Cruz and politicians like Rubio who appeal to more mainstream Republicans see a path and are investing significant time and effort into a state that in previous cycles was largely ignored." The upshot is that Tennesseans can expect to be saturated with TV campaign commercials starting in mid-February, if not sooner. The Politico article says Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and billionaire businessman Donald Trump appear to have the most momentum in Tennessee so far an assessment that several GOP officials share, as indicated in interviews. All three men have active campaigns within the Volunteer State and have made several visits. A Vanderbilt University poll last month put Trump out front in Tennessee with support of 29 percent of prospective Republican voters. Secretary of State Tre Hargett, who oversees the election process in Tennessee, has certified 14 candidates for listing on the state's Republican presidential primary ballot and three on the Democratic side. On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton is widely perceived as an overwhelming frontrunner, nationally and in Tennessee. Insofar as national media is concerned, Tennessee has thus received virtually no attention although Clinton, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley all have active supporters in the state. Things are different in the intensely competitive Republican campaigning. Two of the Republican candidates U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and former New York Gov. George Pataki have since announced their withdrawals from the race. But they will remain on the Tennessee ballot nonetheless since they abandoned their campaigns after the candidate list was certified and with ballot preparations already underway. In 2008, former Sen. Fred Thompson abandoned his presidential campaign prior to the February voting, but still got 16,263 votes. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who is on the ballot again this year, was the Tennessee GOP frontrunner in 2008 with 190,904 votes. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, also a candidate again this year, was frontrunner in Tennessee's 2012 Republican presidential primary. In both those years, the Tennessee outcome proved irrelevant to the national nominating process, with John McCain becoming the nominee in 2008 and Mitt Romney in 2012. Trump and neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson, who was runner-up to Trump in the Vanderbilt poll, at different times raised the possibility of running as independent candidates if they fail to gain the Republican presidential nomination although both have subsequently declared they have no intention of doing so and will support the party nominee. Tennessee's "sore loser law" says a candidate who loses in a party primary election is prohibited from running later in the same election year as an independent or as the nominee of another party. Hargett interprets the law to apply to presidential candidates well as those in other races, as he initially told Nashville's public radio station, WPLN. That would mean Trump, Carson or any other candidate listed on Tennessee's March 1 ballot could not be listed on the November general election ballot in Tennessee should he or she mount an independent campaign. "Anybody that's on the ballot will not be eligible to run under any other banner," Hargett said. But Richard Winger, editor of the California-based Ballot Access News, disputes that proposition. Winger has testified as an expert in several court cases involving election laws including a lawsuit brought by the Constitution Party and the Green Party that successfully challenged Tennessee's statute dealing with minor party candidates having their party affiliations included on the state ballot. Courts ruled the law, since revised by the Legislature, unconstitutionally discriminated against third parties as compared to Democrats and Republicans, who are identified by party label almost automatically on Tennessee ballots. Winger wrote in an email: "In 1980 it (the state's 'sore loser law') was interpreted not to apply to presidential primaries. John Anderson had run in the Tennessee Republican presidential primary in 1980 and had polled 8,722 votes. He also qualified as an independent in November 1980 in Tennessee and all states. He polled 35,991 votes in Tennessee in November. "In 2012 the same Secretary of State who is in office now, Tre Hargett, let Gary Johnson on the ballot as an independent presidential candidate, even though Johnson had run in the Tennessee 2012 Republican presidential primary. Johnson got 572 votes in the Tennessee Republican presidential primary and got 18,623 votes in November in Tennessee as an independent. In other states he was the Libertarian presidential nominee." Provided a copy of Winger's email, Adam Ghassemi, spokesman for Hargett, said the secretary of state stands by his interpretation. The 2012 situation, he said, was "an anomaly" created by the lawsuit on third-party ballot access that was pending at the time. "Our elections officials made that decision (to let Johnson's name appear on the November ballot) out of an abundance of caution. Failing to do so may have resulted in reproducing the ballot at taxpayers' expense while strict deadlines for the presidential election were imminent," Ghassemi said in an email. But Ghassemi could not address the Anderson 1980 case cited by Winger. Gentry Crowell, now dead, was secretary of state and overseer of the election process at the time. "The Division of Elections is unaware of the facts and circumstances leading up to or during the 1980 election. No one here today was involved with elections at that time or has knowledge about the decisions elections officials from that era may have made based on those facts and circumstances," Ghassemi said. Riley Darnell, a Democrat and former state legislator who served as secretary of state prior to Hargett and currently is a lobbyist, said he believes Hargett's interpretation is correct, although "it's been a long time since I dealt with those kinds of issues" and he also has no knowledge of the 1980 situation. On the other hand, former Knoxville Mayor Victor Ashe, who as a state legislator in the early 1970s co-sponsored legislation creating the Tennessee presidential primary, said he thinks Hargett's position is a "misinterpretation" of the law. Ashe, who is seeking election as a Rubio delegate in the March 1 voting, said he does not recall circumstances leading to passage of the "sore loser law," but that as a state statute it should not apply to elections for federal office. SHARE Politicians said the darndest things this past year. I know Art Linkletter said that about children, but honestly, these days, the pols are goofier than the kids. "Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-a. My, oh my, what a wonderful day." That's how Republican John Boehner, exasperated by tea party roadblocks to compromise, announced he quit as House speaker. Freed from party fissures, Boehner finally got a budget deal. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a GOP candidate for president, swore, "When I stand across from King Hussein of Jordan, and I say to him, 'You have a friend again, sir, who will stand with you to fight this fight,' he'll change his mind." Hussein died Feb. 7, 1999. Donald Trump deserves an entire book devoted to Trumpisms (nonsensical and totally baffling statements). But we particularly enjoyed his response to a question at the latest GOP debate. Asked for his views on delivering a nuclear attack, by air, sea or land, since the president alone has access to the nuclear code, Trump said, "I think, I think for me, nuclear is just the power, the devastation is very important to me." Before we leave the real estate mogul, let's reflect on his response to the observation that keeping people such as Muslims out of the country, as he advocates, is unconstitutional. The man who wants to take the oath on Jan. 20, 2017, to defend and protect the Constitution said, "I don't care." Jeb Bush sent out an email to all his friends asking them to send him a dollar so he would "know that you're out there cheering me on." Wallets may have stayed closed, but whose eyes did not well in pity? After 11 hours of testifying on Benghazi before the House select committee on, you guessed it, Benghazi, Hillary Clinton explained her fortitude: "Yoga always helps." She insisted the 17-month investigation into Benghazi is the longest in congressional history. Not even close. Many ran on for years. Asked during a debate if she changes her political views based on her audience, Hillary replied, "No. I think like most people that I know, I have a range of views, but they are rooted in my values and my experience." Opponents gleefully noted her "range of views" seems to mean she changes her opinion regularly on issues she once favored such as the Keystone XL pipeline (now against it) and President Barack Obama's trade pact (now opposed). Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, an ordained Southern Baptist minister running for president, promised to use the National Guard to prevent women from getting abortions. Ben Carson said he firmly believes the pyramids were not built by Egyptians for the burial of pharaohs but were granaries built by the biblical Joseph. The pyramids, though, aren't hollow, and Carson's statement therefore showed a mind-blowing disregard for science and history. We may mock pols for saying silly things, but sometimes, dear fellow voters, we get what we deserve. A mid-December poll by Public Policy Polling out of Raleigh, North Carolina, asked primary voters if they support bombing Agrabah. Thirty percent said yes. Agrabah is a fictional place in the Disney movie "Aladdin." Tim Tompkins, president of the Times Square Alliance, shreds a photo of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump during a Good Riddance Day ceremony, Monday, Dec. 28, 2015 in New York's Times Square. People are invited to destroy any unpleasant, embarrassing and downright forgettable memories from 2015. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan) SHARE ASSOCIATED PRESS Supporters wave flags and bobble-head dolls while they wait for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump during a campaign stop in Hilton Head Island, S.C., on Dec. 30. The year 2015 is over, and an election looms. Is the country more divided now than ever? Can Americans find common ground on anything? Is there life beyond political squabbles? As 2016 begins, Joel Mathis and Ben Boychuk, the RedBlueAmerica columnists, reflect on the year that was. JOEL MATHIS Some of my best friends are conservatives. There are those of you who will roll your eyes at that, and probably a few of you who might find it patronizing. What can I say? It's a cliche, but it's also true. What's also true: My life is immeasurably better and richer because of my conservative friends, starting with Ben Boychuk no RINO he and extending to a vast array of people with whom I grew up and attended college. I don't just have conservative friends; I love them dearly. I just happen to think they're wrong about a lot of stuff. That's OK. They think the same about me. We have raucous disagreements, we occasionally make each other really mad, and then we persist with each other because, hey, we're friends. What's more, I've come to think conservatives have a few insights that liberals could learn from. We liberals aren't in favor of big government for its own sake it's usually a means to solving some societal ill. But conservatives are (sometimes) right that expanding the reach of government can involve trade-offs in personal freedom, that regulation sometimes has unintended consequences, that sometimes the cure is worse than the disease. They're not always right about these things, but they're right often enough that liberals should pay attention. The problem? We Americans don't really pay attention to each other anymore. We're not friends with each other anymore. We increasingly see our rivals as evil, meant to be stopped entirely. Compromise and accommodation meetings of the minds seem increasingly impossible in this atmosphere. Our republic cannot survive this state of affairs for long. It rests on the notion that electoral losers accept the legitimacy of the winners, and that is increasingly no longer the case. This isn't a call to centrism, or an end to politics. Our republic also depends on healthy debate. We will argue with each other. That's how it works. But we need to stop treating each other like enemies. Maybe we should even try, once again, to be friends. Happy holidays. BEN BOYCHUK Our republic is in bad shape. No need to sugarcoat it. Americans have put up with eight years of executive abuses, constitutional usurpations and broken promises, right and left. Nothing ever seems to change, except for the worse. People are angry. Enough of this. Simply look at the rise and enduring appeal of Donald Trump among a sizable slice of Republican primary voters and erstwhile Reagan Democrats. "America doesn't win anymore," Trump says. "I can make it win." Is Trump a demagogue and a fraud? No doubt about it. Then again, so are the Democratic alternatives. A November Quinnipiac poll found that 60 percent of U.S. voters a pretty broad demographic, as far as these surveys go say Hillary Clinton is neither honest nor trustworthy. Yet she would still trounce Trump if the general election were held today. People say they've had enough. But they're going to get more of the same. Americans are more divided and dispirited than they were in 2008 or 2012. Journalist Bill Bishop in 2004 coined the term "The Big Sort," which he used to describe the way like-minded Americans over the past 40 years have been segregating themselves not only into regions and states, but also cities and neighborhoods. The trend continues unabated. We are a much redder and bluer America today than when this column began in 2008. A Pew Research study published last year found that Americans are far more divided along ideological lines than we were a decade ago. That isn't a good thing. Usually around this time of year, I like to observe what I call a "Christmas truce." Politics can be exhausting any time, but especially in an election year. The madness we've seen unfold this year is but a prelude of what's coming in 2016. Let me suggest stepping back from the fray for a moment. Put the paper down or step away from the screen (after you finish reading this column, of course). Sit quietly. Breathe slowly. Count your blessings you have many more than you may realize. The country may be a mess, but don't forget that despair is a sin. Take heart. This, too, shall pass. While Tennessee newspaper pages and blog postings were filled at year's end with rehashing of the biggest news stories of 2015, they mostly ignored several issues and events that were much ballyhooed at times in the past 12 months and will likely get some attention in the months ahead. The neglect is understandable, given that, in hindsight, these once-weighty matters wound up as much ado about nothing, insofar as actual accomplishments. Remember Insure Tennessee? If not, that was Gov. Bill Haslam's effort to launch a modified expansion of Medicaid in Tennessee, heavily promoted early in 2015 only to be summarily shot down in February by the Legislature's Republican supermajority, primarily because it apparently had something to do with the much-despised Obamacare. Insure Tennessee didn't make the Associated Press list of Tennessee's top 10 news stories of 2015, based on voting by news business folk around the state, because, well, nothing happened. And Haslam seems to pretty much have forgotten about it, too, as a lost cause. Still, we can expect to hear more about it in 2016 from superminority Democrats, who see the Republican rejection as a potential positive in a handful of legislative campaigns, and health care advocates along with some business lobbyists who thought it was a really good idea. A list of the most inconsequential uproars in 2015 for Tennessee politics with a potential 2016 reprise would surely include Insure Tennessee. Some other candidates: n The new state logo. The Haslam administration quietly spent $46,000 in development of a simplistic design, bringing a temporary torrent of ridicule and condemnation when it was revealed. But the governor marched steadily ahead and now the little red square with the letters TN in white appears all over the state website, stationery and other administration-overseen places but nowhere else. So nothing much happened. Still, legislators are pushing bills for 2016 that would declare the old "tri-star" that appears on state flag as the official Tennessee state symbol, a sort of symbolic gesture of defiance. n The University of Tennessee Office for Diversity and Inclusion, which committed the Tennessee political faux pas of the year by urging students not to have holiday gatherings that could be seen as "Christmas in disguise" after earlier urging the use of gender-neutral pronouns. An extraordinary outburst of outraged rhetoric followed in 2015 and UT retracted the language. But many supermajority legislators are now ready to go to war during the 2016 session against inappropriate diversity efforts and in defense of Christmas. n Outsourcing expansion. After great success at least from the gubernatorial perspective in turning over management of many state government buildings to a private company, the Haslam administration quietly plotted a huge expansion of the effort and when it was revealed another uproar ensued. The governor insists there's really no plan (contrary to statements of administration officials in emails) and he's just thinking about it as a concept. He's still thinking and, while nothing happened in 2015, further uproar may be reasonably anticipated in the months ahead. n Gas tax road shows. The governor toured the state as did Senate Transportation Committee Chairman Jim Tracy for a public display of hand-wringing over the lack of money to finance highway projects. While some suspected this might be a prelude to seeking a gas tax increase, nothing was proposed and nothing was done. Tracy has officially proclaimed nothing should be done about taxes in 2016. The governor has assured everyone he had no plan but he's still thinking about it. n Historical figures. Hours of broadcast time and maybe acres of newsprint were devoted during 2015 to discourse on Nathan Bedford Forrest, much of it dealing with whether the Confederate cavalry general's bust should be removed from the state capitol building (privately managed but publicly owned). State Democratic Chair Mary Mancini, meanwhile, called for a conversation on whether to stop calling the party's annual fundraising dinner "Jackson Day" in tribute to President Andrew Jackson and got criticism about the possibility of being too politically correct for Tennessee tastes. Nothing was decided, but the historic conversations will doubtless continue. And maybe in 2116 they'll be talking about the Haslam bust? More from Tom Humphrey's "Humphrey on the Hill" blog: SHARE Edward Terry Sanford is Knoxville's only U.S. Supreme Court justice, but public recognition of his contributions here is scant. Officials should honor a jurist whose importance he has two claims to legal fame has by and large escaped official notice in his hometown. Sanford was born in Knoxville on July 23, 1865. He graduated from the University of Tennessee at the age of 18 and continued his education at Harvard University, where he earned three degrees. He then returned to Knoxville, where he practiced as an attorney, was a lecturer at the University of Tennessee's law school and later served on the UT Board of Trustees. He married Lutie Mallory Woodruff, daughter of Knoxville business titan W.W. Woodruff. President Theodore Roosevelt named Sanford a special assistant to the U.S. Attorney General. In this position, the already accomplished Sanford made history as the lead prosecutor in the only criminal trial conducted to date by the U.S. Supreme Court. Sanford successfully prosecuted Hamilton County Sheriff Joseph Shipp and others involved in the 1906 lynching of Ed Johnson, a black man convicted of raping a white woman in a Chattanooga cemetery. Johnson's lawyers appealed to the Supreme Court, which stayed his execution. Shipp then allowed a mob to break into the Hamilton County jail, drag Johnson to the Walnut Street Bridge and hang him over the Tennessee River. The Supreme Court found Shipp, the jailer and four mob members guilty on contempt charges. Roosevelt in 1908 nominated Sanford to be U.S. District Judge in Knoxville. In 1923 President Warren G. Harding appointed him to the Supreme Court. Sanford was largely overshadowed on the court by his mentor, Chief Justice and former President William Howard Taft, Louis Brandeis and Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. He penned one landmark decision, however, that reverberates to this day. Prior to Sanford's 1925 majority opinion in Gitlow v. New York, the Bill of Rights had been applied only to federal acts state constitutions and laws were out of reach. In the Gitlow case, Sanford wrote the 14th Amendment's Due Process Clause allowed the court to apply the First Amendment to a New York statute restricting speech. Called the incorporation doctrine, the application of the Bill of Rights to state acts has proceeded in piecemeal fashion to the present. The most recent example is the incorporation of the Second Amendment in the 2010 McDonald v. Chicago case. Sanford died in Washington, D.C., on March 8, 1930 the same day as Taft and is buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Fountain City. There is little in Knoxville's public sphere honoring Sanford. A bas relief resides in UT's Alumni Academic Hall of Fame in the Hodges Library, and a couple of streets bear his family's name. Sanford deserves more. Naming public buildings after public servants is a traditional way to honor them. The federal courthouse in Knoxville is named for Tennessee statesman Howard H. Baker Jr. an apt choice, given Baker's role in Watergate, the nation's gravest constitutional crisis since the Civil War. At least three public buildings in Knoxville would be logical choices to bear Sanford's name. The UT College of Law would be appropriate because of Sanford's long association with the school. Another would be the state Supreme Court Building formerly the federal courthouse and post office on Main Street. A third option would be to add his name to the Knox County-owned East Tennessee History Center, which is the former federal Custom House on Market Street where Sanford presided as a U.S. district judge. The state of Tennessee, UT or Knox County could honor Sanford's legacy and provide a service to the community by renaming a building commensurate with his accomplishments. Sanford's life is a source of civic pride worthy of such recognition. SHARE I am writing to support University of Tennessee Chancellor Jimmy Cheek. I am one of many UT professors hired in UT's quest to become a top 25 public university. All of us are participating in Cheek's vision to become a world-class institution for higher education. In fact, UT is fast moving towards a position of prominence among the top tier of U.S. universities. This progress is due in no small part to Cheek's efforts. It will be a tragedy indeed if our Republican legislators derail this train by running Cheek out of town. Our Republican legislators seem to be looking hard for people who need to resign. They need look no further than in their mirror, where they each will find a most suitable candidate. Kurt Sickafus, Corryton SHARE Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey is proposing a law to restrict individuals coming from "countries with ties to terrorism." Before we pull names of these countries from a hat, what has he done or planned to propose about terrorist organizations within the state of Tennessee? Foregoing the state/media stereotyping of Muslims, a terrorist organization is any group that undertakes these actions as defined by the FBI: "the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives." In respect to that definition and historical actions, more than a dozen Ku Klux Klan groups can be found from Memphis to Bristol, and those identifying with neo-Nazi ideologies are littered especially around Nashville. How does Ramsey plan to deal with them? These organizations have a long history of terrorizing people who do not fit their white conservative Christian heteronormative lifestyles, subjecting everyone from Jews to liberal Christians, legal immigrants and all people of color to acts of terrorism. What sanctions does he plan to impose to ensure that those within our state borders are not terrorized? I sincerely hope that he does not believe that terrorism is simply a foreign assault on American soil when the last year alone has shown more far more terrorist attacks carried out by non-Muslim domestic terrorists than those who hold religious convictions to Islam. Does Ramsey plan to address this issue, or does he simply plan on imposing restrictions on other countries based upon religion and nationality? Certainly, we should clean out our own house before judging the homes of our neighbors. Phillip Alighieri, Knoxville 4:15 p.m.January 3, 2016 Chattanooga man sentenced to 210 months in federal prison for sex trafficking minors CHATTANOOGA, TN A Chattanooga man has been sentenced to serve 210 months in federal prison for sex trafficking of children. John Harper Farmer, 39, will also have to complete a 500 hour mental health program and be under supervised probation for five years upon his release from prison. Farmer pleaded guilty in May 2015 to one count of a five-count indictment charging offenses related to sex trafficking. This offense carried a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years. He admitted to enticing a minor and an adult co-defendant to meet a client at a Chattanooga hotel with the expectation that both females would engage in a commercial sex act. However, the client turned out to be an undercover police officer, and the encounter resulted in Farmers arrest and prosecution. Upon his arrest, police officers recovered a second minor with Farmer. Farmers co-defendant is scheduled for sentencing in March 2016. FBI Special Agent in Charge, Edward W. Reinhold said This investigation is but one example of the close working relationship the FBI enjoys with our law enforcement partners in combating the ever increasing threats to our nation. Human Trafficking represents some of the worst in human behavior, especially when it deals with the most vulnerable of our society, our children. The FBI, along with our local, state, and federal partners will continue to aggressively attack this problem. Human trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery that Homeland Security Investigations fights as one of its highest priorities via a coordinated global effort with the FBI and our state and local law enforcement partners, said Special Agent in Charge of HSI New Orleans Raymond R. Parmer Jr. That this particular criminal took his depravity even further to sexually exploit children for profit makes this case especially egregious and illustrates why HSI will continue to investigate and seek prosecution of these criminals while also ensuring the victims of this terrible crime are rescued and get the care they need. Parmer oversees a five-state area of operations to include Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi. This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation; Homeland Security Investigations; and Chattanooga Police Department. Assistant U.S Attorney Jay Woods represented the United States. Published January 3, 2016 Export goods are loaded on to Flight OZ987 on Friday, for Asiana Airlines' first cargo flight of 2016. The plane left Incheon International Airport at 1:05 a.m., bound for Shanghai Pudong International Airport. The Korean economy is expected to continue to face a host of problems this year, including falling oil prices, U.S. rate hikes and a China slowdown. / Yonhap By Yoon Ja-young The New Year's sun has risen, but the outlook is not bright for the economy. Because Korea faces multiple overseas risks such as falling global oil prices, uncertainties following the U.S. key rate hike and China's possible hard landing, economists are concerned that the nation may get trapped in low growth. According to the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy, the annual average prices of Dubai crude stood at $40.70 last year, a 47.5 percent fall from $96.60 in 2014. The plunge hit not only the oil-producing countries but also Korea's exports. Because oil products and petrochemical products -- which make up 17 percent of Korea's exports -- also suffered price falls, and so the country's total exports fell 7.9 percent in 2015 from the previous year. With both exports and imports falling, Korea's total trade stood at $964 billion last year, failing to achieve $1 trillion for the first time since 2011. Market watchers are pessimistic about a rebound in oil prices. "On top of the United States resuming exports of shale oil and crude oil and the OPEC countries' increasing supply, falling imports in China will keep oil prices low," said Hyundai Research Institute economist Ju Won. The government expects Korea's exports to increase 2.1 percent this year, but this is based on an estimation that oil prices will recover to $47. With the economies of oil producers and other emerging economies ailing, Korea's exports to these countries are also likely to be damaged. The Chinese economy, on which the Korea heavily depends, is also facing a possible hard landing. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects the world's second-largest economy to grow 6.3 percent this year, the lowest in more than 25 years. This is in turn hitting the emerging economies that export raw materials to China. The economy of emerging countries grew a mere 3.9 percent last year, only half the growth of 2010. The global financial market is also navigating amid great uncertainties following the U.S. key rate hike last month. Some fear the move could trigger a foreign exchange crisis in emerging economies through the exodus of capital. These external risks are adding to the pessimistic outlook on the Korean economy, which is losing growth steam due to aging. Korea's working age population will start to decrease from next year. While the government has suggested a 3.1 percent economic growth target for 2016, many doubt if this is attainable. Citigroup expects Korean economy to grow 2.4 percent this year, citing huge household debt and slowing demand from overseas. Morgan Stanley suggested 2.2 percent lackluster growth due to a negative outlook on exports. Domestic economic think tanks are also more pessimistic than the government. The LG Economic Research Institute suggested 2.5 percent growth, while the Korea Development Institute said the growth rate could fall to the mid-2 percent range if the global economy did not improve. "Due to continued sluggish exports, the manufacturing sector has lost growth potential," said LG Economic Research Institute economist Lee Geun-tae. "If productivity doesn't improve, the economic growth potential will remain in the mid-2 percent range for the next five years." "The government should focus on structural reform to improve the competence of the economy instead of trying to improve the growth rate by stimulus measures." KCCI chairman Park Yong-maan By Yoon Ja-young The Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) will take necessary steps to work with its North Korean counterpart this year to help the reclusive regime adopt market economy principles. "I think we should change our notion about North Korea," said KCCI Chairman Park Yong-maan in a New Year's media interview. He said he had changed his view after meeting experts on North Korea. "They told me that it's been a while since the regime began allowing a market economy through a black market," he said. "There are organizations doing business like private companies and the regime is collecting some of taxes. There are more than 2.8 million cellphones in North Korea and the demand is far surpassing supply." He said no people were starving to death in the North. According to the National Intelligence Service, up to 1.8 million North Koreans use a black market called "jangmadang" daily. Park said that because the regime had started moving to a market economy, "it is necessary that we first discuss what we can do." The chairman suggested that KCCI might promote merchandising trade to help North Korean products move into the global market. "For instance, we can help them with exports," he said. "As the market economy is already seen in North Korea, it seems we need more analysis to determine how we can help." He said the KCCI had set up a division for economic cooperation with the North. The chamber expects it can use the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) network for cooperation with its North Korean counterpart, the DPRK Chamber of Commerce, which is also a member of the ICC. The KCCI is one of the major ICC members, with Park on the ICC executive board. For instance, Park explained, the KCCI might certify that a product is of North Korean origin, based on a certificate of origin from the DPRK Chamber of Commerce. "After a while, Korea may begin purchasing an emission quota from North Korea based on international agreements on climate change," Park said. "There are numerous areas for cooperation." By Jun Ji-hye South Korea, the United States and Japan are considering holding a trilateral summit in Washington, D.C. in late March or early April, a Japanese newspaper reported, Sunday. Japan's Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported that President Park Geun-hye may sit down with U.S. President Barack Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit, scheduled for March 31 to April 1. The newspaper added that during the summit, the U.S. may confirm its acceptance of a "final and irreversible" agreement on Japan's sexual slavery of Korean women signed by Seoul and Tokyo. The report came days after Korea and Japan agreed on Dec. 28 to end a dispute over the latter's sexual enslavement before and during World War II -- the biggest impediment to improving bilateral relations for years. In March, 2014, Obama brokered a rapprochement between Japan and Korea, but this ended without any progress being made. Korea's foreign ministry denied the report. Meanwhile, the Japanese broadcaster NHK also reported Sunday that talks among the vice foreign ministers of the three countries are expected to take place later this month in Tokyo. The three sides are currently working on the details of the talks, NHK said, adding that the vice ministers are likely to confirm the Seoul-Tokyo agreement that includes a commitment to call for trilateral cooperation on handling key issues, including North Korea's nuclear and missile threats and other regional security matters. Issues related to wartime sexual slavery have been the biggest stumbling block for Seoul-Tokyo ties, while hampering the U.S. in bolstering its security alliance with its two East Asian allies. In the Dec. 28 bilateral agreement, Japan vowed to provide 1 billion yen ($8.3 million) from its national budget to set up a foundation in Seoul and extend aid to surviving victims of wartime sexual slavery in cooperation with the South Korean government. But criticism is abounding because the two countries failed to mention whether Tokyo bears legal responsibility for the victims. Follow Jun Ji-hye on Twitter @TheKopJihye Eight out of 10 collegians believe universities should provide classes covering historical issues between Korea and Japan. The findings are based on a recent paper by professor Shin Kyung-ae of Hanyang Women's University titled "Korean college students' perception of the Korean-Japanese relationship and the need for relevant courses." Shin surveyed 658 students at 15 universities in September 2014. Historical issues between the two countries include territorial sovereignty over Dokdo, comfort women, distortions in Japanese history textbooks, naming of the East Sea and the Japanese prime minister's visits to the Yasukuni shrine. Students who thought teaching these issues was necessary (81.9 percent) said they "wished to know properly, in detail," they "needed to know in detail in order to react properly, accurately criticize and provide correct opinions," and they "needed to know (these issues) as a university student and/or Korean." Meanwhile, 18.1 percent who regarded it as unnecessary said this was because "it seems it would be difficult to approach the issues in an objective, neutral manner," and that "it is inappropriate to cover sensitive issues at school." The issues regarded as most imperative were territorial sovereignty of Dokdo and comfort women. The comfort women issue was settled in a disputed deal on Monday. Regarding historical issues and the direction of diplomacy, 32.4 percent said, "Historical issues must be settled first" while 11.9 percent said it was " more important to look to the future than fixate on the past." Independent lawmaker Ahn Cheol-soo, left, holds hands with a senior citizen while doing a volunteer at a restaurant in his constituency of Nowon, northern Seoul , Friday. / Yonhap By Kang Seung-woo Ahn Cheol-soo has again made moves that could bring significant changes to the political landscape. Throughout most of three years after he suddenly emerged as a strong presidential candidate, Ahn was a nonfactor in the New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD) -- now the Minjoo Party of Korea (MPK). During the 2012 presidential campaign, Ahn gave up his bid to back Moon Jae-in, who lost the presidency to Park Geun-hye by a small margin. However, since quitting the party that he co-founded in March 2014, Ahn, a software mogul-turned-politician, is making solid gains, heralding a bright outlook for 2016, when the nation will hold a general election in April. According to a Realmeter poll last week, Ahn ranks third among potential candidates after MPK Chairman Moon Jae-in and ruling Saenuri Party Chairman Kim Moo-sung, but within a margin of error. Moon and Kim had 17.6 percent and 17.1 percent support respectively, with Ahn at 16.5 percent. In addition, Ahn's new party, which will be launched by early February, has already drawn an approval rating of 19 percent, up 2.7 percentage points from a week earlier, compared with the Saenuri's 37.2 percent and the MPK's 22.4 percent. Another survey by R and Search, Thursday, showed that, Ahn, who is seeking to launch a new party based in the MPK's stronghold, the Honam region, led Moon by 11.8 percentage points -- 26.4 percent to 14.6 percent. The Honam region consists of North and South Jeolla provinces. "Ahn has gained more public support than expected. His political clout still appears to be weighty despite his quiet performance with the NPAD," said Chung Goon-gi, a professor at Hongik University. Bae Jong-chan, chief director at political pollster Research and Research, said, "Although Ahn's new party has yet to be formed, it is already drawing support of nearly 20 percent. It means his party is expected to replace the MPK as the No. 1 opposition party in the Honam region." Since his departure, eight incumbents have also left the opposition side to join Ahn, including three from Gwangju. More incumbent and former lawmakers from the MPK are strongly expected to join his new party, which aims to create a new political paradigm to end what Ahn says is old politics riddled with enmity and confrontation. Ahn and his new party have the potential to emerge as a middle-of-the-road third party aligned between the conservative Saenuri Party and the liberal MPK in the upcoming general election, political analysts say. "The Saenuri Party is right-wing and the MPK is left-wing, so Ahn will apparently take a centrist approach," said Yoon Yeo-jun, Ahn's political mentor and former environment minister under the Kim Young-sam administration. "If he is not buried in ideology and seeks measures to improve the people's livelihood, he and his party will be able to show a solid performance in the general election." Bae said, "Although Ahn resigned from the MPK, his high popularity reflects the public's weariness with the existing political parties, which have people believe have failed them. "In addition, his support base is mainly comprised of those in their 40s, but he also appeals to those aged from the 20s to the 60s." However, some still remain skeptical about whether Ahn's strong advocacy of a middle way will prove viable in Korean politics. "It will not be easy for Ahn to usher in the arrival of a moderate party, breaking decades of bipartisanship," said Chung. "Ahn's vision of new politics is still devoid of clear purpose, as well." One opposition lawmaker said, "Although Ahn is popular in the Honam region, the region has historically tended to support the main opposition party in elections when the opposition is split." For Ahn to remain popular until the general election, analysts say that he needs to recruit new faces conforming to his pursuit of the middle-of-the-road political spectrum. "It will not be enough to just recruit his old party members, which is not a vision of new politics," said Chung. "In addition, he needs to back up the obscure political vision, while proposing a reformative yet detailed vision and policies to voters." Bae said, "Whether he will become the eye of storm or a storm in a teacup depends on how he will successfully carry out follow-up measures that meet the demands of voters disappointed with the opposition. "In short, he should show how his politics differ from the established politics." By Kim Se-jeong The nation's largest labor umbrella union is expected to withdraw from the labor, management and government agreement on labor reforms. Officials from the Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU), one of the negotiators of the tripartite deal, said it plans to do this to protest the government-led guidelines about layoffs and changes in employment rules. The FKTU, a relatively dovish labor group, is expected join another umbrella union, the militant Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU). The move will deal another serious blow to the Park Geun-hye administration, which has long called for the passage of a pending labor reform bill at the National Assembly as a cure-all for the nation's many problems. FKTU leaders will meet this week to discuss whether to cancel the agreement. FKTU chief Kim Dong-man, who pushed the deal through despite internal opposition in September, is expected to declare an end to the deal. "The government and management have made no efforts to deliver on their promises made during the negotiations," Kim said in his New Year address to FKTU members, Dec. 31. "The government crossed the Rubicon by unilaterally announcing its guidelines on layoffs and employment rule changes." On Dec. 30, the Ministry of Employment and Labor announced a draft of guidelines to allow companies to fire underperforming workers and to arbitrarily change the rules of employment. Kim said the government breached the September deal, according to which the three parties agreed to have further talks to set up rules about the issues and the government would not impose its own plans unilaterally until then. The FKTU also indicated it would enter a protest alliance with the KCTU. The KCTU -- the nation's second-largest umbrella union, walked out of the negotiations earlier, and has led major anti-government protests since the agreement was made. The two unions have more than 1.4 million members combined. The government has claimed the draft was only a proposal and that it would come up with a final version through talks with labor, urging the union to participate. Labor market reform has been President Park's major focus since her inauguration. She renewed her push in her New Year address, saying. "In the new year, the government will complete labor reform, along with other major reforms, to lay the groundwork for an economically strong Korea for three decades to come." Based on the in-principal deal, the ruling Saenuri Party submitted a labor reform bill to the National Assembly days after the agreement. The bill has been stalled for months because the opposition parties have refused to vote for it. Lawmakers are reluctant to pass the bill ahead of the general election in April, as they do not want to lose workers' votes. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un delivers a New Years address in Pyongyang, Friday. This image was captured from a broadcast shown on Korean Central Television. / Yonhap By Kim Hyo-jin North Korea is expected to maintain a conciliatory stance toward South Korea this year, and keep inter-Korean talks alive, analysts said, Sunday. On Friday, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said during his televised New Year's speech that he is "open to talks with anyone" wishing for peace and unification without mentioning the repressive state's nuclear weapons program. "The North Korean leader showed his willingness to continue inter-Korean talks in his New Year's speech. He expressed hopes to maintain the conciliatory mood made after the Aug. 25 deal," said Chang Yong-seok, a senior researcher at the Institute for Peace and Unification Studies at Seoul National University. The inter-Korean deal requires the two Koreas to defuse tensions along the border after the North's "landmine attack" on Aug. 4 that seriously injured two South Korean soldiers. Dismissing concerns about Kim's denouncing tone directed toward the South in the speech, Yang Moo-jin, a professor of the University of North Korean Studies, said that Pyongyang will seek to stabilize relations with the South ahead of a congress of ruling Workers' Party Congress slated for May. "North Korea won't risk raising tensions on the Korean Peninsula ahead of its historic event. By improving ties to the South, it will try to create favorable environment," Yang said. There is the possibility that Kim will make a further conciliatory step, and suggest an inter-Korean summit, he added. "If the new unification policy is presented in the congress, it could even lead to Kim's proposal for a summit with President Park Geun-hye," Yang said. At the same time, Kim called on Seoul to honor the Aug. 25 deal, urging it to refrain from carrying out acts that could damage relations between the two nations. "South Korea should cherish the spirit of last year's high-level talks and make continued efforts to seek dialogue and not take any further steps backwards," he said, blaming Seoul for increasing mistrust and conflict last year by making a unilateral move for unification. The remarks came weeks after inter-Korean high-level talks ended in mid-December with no progress made. The two sides hit a snag due to their differing views on the resumption of Mount Geumgang tour program that was a cash cow for the impoverished North. In response, the South's foreign ministry also said that it is open to dialogue between the two Koreas, adding that it hopes for peaceful unification. "Our position toward inter-Korean talks and peaceful unification is firm," a government official said. "We urge North Korea to take note of our efforts in improving inter-Korean relations and laying the groundwork for peaceful unification." Instead of commenting on the North's nuclear program, Kim stressed his plan to improve its economy and the living standards of North Korean people. "This reflects Kim's consideration of North's ties to China and intention not to aggravate the current situation where international sanctions were imposed on the North," said Kim Yong-hyun, a professor of North Korean Studies at Dongguk University. "He is certainly acknowledging that provoking the world with comments on the nuclear program is not helping to develop the nation's moribund economy." Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se, right, speaks with Korea Times Chief Editorial Writer Oh Young-jin during a recent interview at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Doryeom-dong, downtown Seoul. / Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk The following are questions and answers from a recent exclusive interview The Korea Times had with Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se. ED. Q: Do you think competition and geopolitical rivalry will best describe the U.S.-China relationship in the near future? If that is the case, how can Korea remain friends with both nations and get the most out of it? If Korea were forced to choose between the two, what should be its option? A: It can be said that there are elements of both cooperation and competition in the U.S.-China relationship. However, as I made clear on many occasions over the past year, viewing U.S.-China ties as a zero-sum relationship does not fully reflect reality. I am aware that some view the U.S.-China relationship through the prism of geopolitical rivalry. However, as we saw at last year's Strategic and Economic Dialogue between the U.S. and China, both countries are working together across the board on numerous issues. Even on issues the two countries don't see eye to eye on, such as the South China Sea and cyber security, it has not necessarily been a physically confrontational relationship. Naturally, regional countries, including Korea, prefer to promote the cooperative aspects between Washington and Beijing. Korea-U.S. and Korea-China relationships are not zero sum either. Korea enjoys close ties with both the U.S. and China. President Barack Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry as well as the U.S. Congressional Research Service have said that the Korea-U.S. alliance is at the best state ever. At the same time, the strategic cooperative partnership between Korea and China is growing stronger than ever, as you could see from the recent Korea-China FTA. Nurturing good ties with both the U.S. and China is not an easy task, but Korea has demonstrated its wisdom and capability to do so even when there have been divergent attitudes on certain core issues such as the AIIB and the South China Sea, among others. President Obama has said that Seoul's good ties with both the U.S. and China are completely compatible. Last October during President Park Geun-hye's visit to Washington D.C., he said the U.S. encouraged Korea to have a strong relationship with China. Q: North Korea claims it has developed a hydrogen bomb. How can South Korea and the international community prevent Pyongyang from continuing to develop related programs? A: North Korea's WMD programs, whether nuclear, biological, or chemical, are a clear and present threat not only to the peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia, but also to the global non-proliferation regime. That is why the United Nations Security Council has adopted four resolutions and has imposed robust sanctions against Pyongyang. Now, with the historic agreement on the Iranian nuclear issue, North Korea remains the only country under U.N. sanctions because of its nuclear programs. The international community is firmly united on this. Last year, the U.N., the East Asia Summit and individual countries, including China's President Xi Jinping, have sent an unequivocal message that North Korea's nuclear weapons programs are unacceptable. North Korea is paying a heavy price in the form of diplomatic isolation and economic difficulties. North Korea needs to understand that nukes do not guarantee security, but rather that the opposite is true. Pyongyang is under the illusion that it can simultaneously develop its nuclear programs and its economy. But it cannot have its cake and eat it too. Over the past year, we have seen the winds of change reach other parts of the world, such as Cuba, Iran and Myanmar. Now it is time for Pyongyang to learn lessons from them. I hope that North Korea will make a right choice and stand on the right side of history. The international community will continue to stand united until it will do so. Q: Don't you think we've regarded North Korea's nuclear programs as something that will go away with time and have approached the issue somewhat passively? A: As I have just said, the international community is more firmly united than ever against North Korea's nuclear weapons programs. In 2015, we sent more than two dozen robust messages to North Korea at various high-level meetings and international conferences, the strongest ever. This includes the Korea-U.S. summit, Korea-China summit, the Korea-EU summit, the U.S.-China summit, the ASEAN related summits, as well as the ASEM and MIKTA Foreign Ministers' Meeting. In particular, I would like to remind you about President Park Geun-hye and President Barack Obama's joint statement on North Korea in October last year, where they agreed to address the problem with the utmost urgency and determination. Following last year's agreement between Iran and the P5+1, the eyes of the world are now on Pyongyang, and the international community will not let down its guard. An instructive lesson from the Iranian case is the importance of international unity and dialogue. The five parties are firmly united, and the government has been making unceasing efforts to resume meaningful Six Party Talks. We have come up with some initiatives, and the five parties' responses have been positive. As a follow-up measure to the Korea-U.S. summit, we will hold high-level bilateral consultations with the U.S. in the near future. And as I have previously mentioned, we will push for various forms of consultation, including trilateral processes, and keep the door open for inter-Korean dialogue on the North Korean nuclear issue. Q: How would you refute a remark made at a U.S. presidential election campaign that Korea is enjoying a free security ride on the back of the U.S.? A: Last October, on the eve of President Park Geun-hye's visit to Washington, Secretary of State John Kerry and I said in our joint op-ed that ours is a partnership built to last. Last November, the Department of Defense Spokesperson Jeff Davis also pointed this out, saying that "our commitment has been long-term; it's been enduring. It has stood constant, regardless of whom the president was, regardless of which party was in power, and I don't see that changing." The Korea-U.S. alliance has been the anchor for security, stability and prosperity in this part of the world and beyond, as clearly stated in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2016. And as you can see from the leaders' Joint Declaration commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Korea-U.S. alliance and the Joint Statement of the 2+2 Foreign and Defense Ministers' meeting, Korea is a valued partner for peace and stability on the Korean peninsula and within Northeast Asia. This demonstrates that the view you mentioned is not the prevailing view in the U.S. Moreover, Korea and the U.S. are now developing a global partnership that encompasses not only security, but also the economy and new frontiers of cooperation. We are working together in various fields including global health and cyber security, as well as global issues such as peace-keeping, development cooperation and climate change, to name a few. Finally, I would also remind you that in order to provide a stable environment for the U.S. forces in Korea, who play a crucial role in our alliance, the Korean government has been sharing the burden, a contribution highly appreciated by the U.S. government. An activist puts her arm around a girl statue symbolizing a "comfort woman" in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, Saturday, during a rally to protest an agreement between Korea and Japan to end their dispute over Tokyo's sexual enslavement of Korean women before and during World War II. / Yonhap Q: What are your views on claims that we are not anywhere near inter-Korean unification even after President Park Geun-hye's reference to unification as a "bonanza"? Can an inter-Korea summit be possible within the remaining two years of Park's presidency? A: When you address unification, you need to approach it from three aspects, international, inter-Korean and domestic. As foreign minister, my mandate is mainly to foster an international environment conducive to unification. Over the past two years, we have seen much progress made in this regard. Since President Park Geun-hye's speech in Dresden in 2014, we are witnessing growing awareness, both at home and abroad, on the need for and benefits of Korean unification. For example, the international community, including the U.S., China, and ASEAN, has expressed unprecedentedly strong support for our unification efforts. And last year in Davos, after I spoke about the "Journey to One Korea," I was deeply struck by the strong support from members of the international audience, who said they now believed that Korean unification is not only necessary but also doable. Many people now see the benefits that unification will bring, not only for Korea, but for the wider world. In addition to promoting international support for unification, we are working on the domestic and inter-Korean levels as well. We have set up the Presidential Committee for Unification Preparation, and recently we had high-level inter-Korean talks for the first time in eight years, which ended without tangible outcomes. We need to keep the doors open for inter-Korean dialogue, as the unification ministry responded to the North Korean leader's New Year's address. On the possibility of an inter-Korean summit meeting, we need to remind ourselves that there is a lack of regular dialogue. Given such circumstances, it is important to nurture favorable conditions for substantive dialogue. In inter-Korean relations, the right track is the fast track. Q: Should the Korea-Japan agreement over "comfort women" be seen as a step forward compared to the Kono Statement? A: In the past there were some statements and partial measures from the Japanese side to address the "comfort women" issue. For instance, the Kono Statement and the Asia Women's Fund each tried to deal with certain aspects of the issue in reaction to strong voices from Korea and the international community. A more recent effort was the unofficial yet well-known "Sasae proposal" of 2012 that aimed at a relatively comprehensive approach, and even in comparison with that latest proposal, this agreement clearly marks an advance forward, as it includes the following key aspects. First, the Japanese government, for the first time, has acknowledged its responsibility without adding qualifiers. In the past, letters from Japanese Prime Ministers and the Presidents of the Asian Women's Fund to the victims only mentioned a "moral" responsibility. Second, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, in his capacity as Prime Minister of Japan, expressed his sincere apologies and remorse from the bottom of his heart to all the victims. In the past, previous proposals suggested an apology in the form of an unofficial letter to individual victims. This agreement is meaningful as the Prime Minister's apologies were expressed in a public and official manner, and in an unambiguous and unequivocal way, including the telephone conversation between the two leaders. Third, it is important that apologies and remorse should be translated into action through a faithful implementation. Previous attempts were not successful because they used private funding for the victims. This time, however, the Japanese government will contribute from its budget funding to help restore honor and dignity and to heal the wounds of the victims, among other goals. Last but not least, we now have a creative formula, a foundation established by the Korean side and funded by the Japanese government, to ensure the agreement's sustainable implementation. But like the saying goes, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. What is important is that the agreement needs to be implemented faithfully. In particular, it is crucial that there is no backtracking or undermining of the unequivocal expressions made in front of the international community. Q: Will the Korea-Japan agreement over "comfort women" be a turning point in the bilateral relationship? A: The "comfort women" issue has been one of the most difficult history-related issues between Korea and Japan. President Park Geun-hye, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and I all hoped that this agreement will provide us with an opportunity for a new chapter in Korea-Japan relations. At this stage, what is important is the faithful implementation of this agreement. With the implementation of the agreement in full, we hope we can create a virtuous cycle for the bilateral ties. Until now, we have taken a "two-track approach" on our ties with Japan. We have taken a firm and principled position on issues related to history while continuing and developing cooperation in many other fields. The faithful implementation could reinforce our efforts on fields where cooperation has been on track, and it could also fill the gap in areas where progress has been slow. So again, let me emphasize that the proper implementation is the best measure of any agreement. Q: Do you think the compromise over the "comfort women" has paved a way to resolve a string of remaining historical disputes between Korea and Japan, such as the use of forced Korean labor during the colonial era, on a case-by-case basis over the so-called package deal? A: The outstanding issues between Seoul and Tokyo are complex, and each issue needs to be considered on its own nature and merit. As such, it is premature to make predictions on whether this agreement will have a domino effect on other sensitive pending issues. As the "comfort women" issue has been a major contentious issue for decades, it is hoped that the faithful implementation of the agreement will help build up trust and can lead to a virtuous cycle. During the past two decades, we have seen a pattern of Korea-Japan ties starting on a good footing at the beginning of an administration, then going worse mid-term and ending up hitting rock bottom. The Park Geun-hye administration has been trying to make a break from such a pattern, so we hope that it will be helpful in terms of that aspect as well. Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se / Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk Minister says comfort women deal exceeds Kono Statement By Oh Young-jin, Yi Whan-woo More confidence should be built through regular dialogue before an inter-Korean summit is considered, Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se said in a recent interview with The Korea Times. Yun said the Dec. 28 agreement on comfort women former sex slaves under Japan's colonial rule was more important than any prior pertinent agreement in various aspects, but its success depends on Japan's faithful implementation. "We need to remind ourselves that there is a lack of regular dialogue," Yun said, when asked about prospects of a summit between President Park Geun-hye and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. In his New Year address, Kim left open the possibility for such a meeting, when he said, "I am ready to sit down for a talk with anybody who wishes to speak honestly for peace and unification." The minister indicated no haste for a third summit after the two in 2000 and 2007, respectively, saying, "It is important to nurture favorable conditions for substantive dialogue ... the right track is the fast track." He urged the North to give up its nuclear weapons as well as its supposed hydrogen bomb development, saying, "Pyongyang is under the illusion that it can simultaneously develop its nuclear programs and its economy." "Nukes can't guarantee security ... the opposite is true. It is time for the North to learn a lesson from Iran, which decided to freeze its nuclear programs in return for lifted sanctions; Cuba, which has reopened diplomatic ties with the U.S.; and Myanmar, which relaxed its military rule." "The eyes of the world are now on Pyongyang," Yun said, pointing out that all except the North involved in the six-party talks aimed at dismantling its nuclear weapons programs had reacted positively to resuming dialogue. Yun, 63, has served as foreign minister since the start of the Park administration in March 2013 and helped establish Park's reciprocity-based "trustpolitik" toward the North. He was also a senior secretary under the late liberal former President Roh Moo-hyun. Swiss Ambassador to Korea Joerg Al. Reding, second from left, poses with members of Alpinrose Children Yodel Choir at a reception held to mark the Swiss National Day at Seongnam Arts Center in Gyeonggi Province on Aug. 1, 2015. / Courtesy of the Embassy of Switzerland Various events ready for launch to better bilateral relations By Rachel Lee The ASEAN-Korea Centre has organized a homestay program in Malaysia for Korean university students from Dec. 28-Jan.4. Under the "ASEAN Homestay Program," jointly organized with the Ministry of Tourism and Culture of Malaysia, 21 students participate in various activities including experiencing local culture, traditional lifestyle and volunteer activities during their stay with families in Selangor state. "With the upcoming launch of the ASEAN community at the end of 2015, ASEAN is making a strong effort to build the rural community through community-based tourism," a spokesperson said. According to the organization, the program is designed to give Korean students majoring in tourism or Asian studies a chance to understand community-based tourism through hands-on experience related to local culture, environment conservation, and sustainable tourism policy development. Community-based tourism being used in many countries to spread tourism benefits to local areas. One such initiative is the homestay program, where tourists can experience the daily lifestyle of a local community. The program includes local cultures and lifestyle; Malaysian culinary experience; a bicycle tour around the homestay village; cottage industry experience; soursop tree planting and environmental conservation; voluntary clean-up of the surrounding homestay area; engagement with policy makers from the Ministry of Tourism and Culture of Malaysia and a tour of facilities and exhibitions in the Malaysia Tourism Centre. Participants are given assignments based on their experience, which includes developing new, creative, and implementable ideas to enhance the tourist experience during the homestay. Participants also post photos and videos on their own SNS accounts, with the aim of increasing awareness of community-based tourism in ASEAN. The most outstanding candidate receives a certificate and an opportunity for a short-term attachment at the ASEAN-Korea Centre. "I hope young Koreans have the opportunity to develop new, creative, and implementable ideas on community-based tourism in ASEAN, which can contribute to environmental and cultural sustainability in local communities," said ASEAN-Korea Center Secretary General Kim Young-sun. According to the ASEAN-Korea Center, from January to September this year, 181 people took advantage of the homestay program in Malaysia. A total of 3,653 houses and 5,056 rooms are available for international tourists. Homes in Banghuris in Selangor comply with ASESAN Homestay quality and service standards. Artisan Kim Taek-sang glues flour dough to a pot used for distilling soju to prevent vapor from escaping. / Courtesy of Gastro Tour Seoul By Yun Suh-young California has its beer-hopping tours and Europe has a variety of winery tours. Visiting beer breweries and wineries in Western countries has become a common tour program while traveling, whereas such tours are yet to be fostered in Asia. In Korea, the concept of an alcohol-specific tour, such as visiting a brewery or distillery dedicated to creating a specific alcohol, had been unexplored until Gastro Tour Seoul run by Veronica Kang started taking tourists on them from last year. "I wanted to bring out the interest in tourists, both foreign and local, about Korea's traditional drinks and the people behind making them," said Kang, while guiding the reporter to a soju artisan's workshop as part of a Brew Master Tour she organized. "I wanted to share the stories of the artisans who strive to keep our tradition and culture alive. Through listening to their stories and experiencing our traditions, I hope to help foreigners understand our food and dining culture. This field has received little attention so far." Soju is distilled into a bottle through the neck of the pot. Soju distillery tour A walk into one of the back alleys of Bukchon Hanok Village lies a small "hanok" (Korean traditional house) with the name Samhae Soju-ga. The name literally translates to "The house of Samhae Soju." Samhae Soju is soju that is brewed through a three-step process ("sam" in Korean means "three") and brewed on the Day of the Pig ("hae" stands for pig in Chinese characters), hence the name "samhae." It is at the Samhae Soju-ga where visitors can meet artisan Kim Taek-sang, a tall, benign-looking master distiller who will greet them with a generous smile. Kim is Seoul's Intangible Cultural Asset No. 8, who is dedicated to making Samhae Soju. "All of the three Samhaeju ("ju" means alcoholic beverage in Korean) makgeolli, yakju and soju are created in one single pot. You see this rice floating on top? When we filter them out and extract the clear alcohol, that becomes yakju. Then when we distill it, it becomes soju. The residue at the bottom of the pot is mixed with water and becomes makgeolli," said Kim, explaining the procedure while pointing to a clay pot filled with alcohol going through fermentation. Artisan Kim Taek-sang uses his hands to stir the alcohol fermenting inside a pot at his workshop in Bukchon Hanok Village, Jongno-gu, Seoul. / Korea Times photos by Yun Suh-young "Start drinking from the makgeolli. When drinking alcohol, you should begin from the mild (makgeolli) and move to the strong (soju)," he said pointing to three glasses of drinks laid out in front of the reporter. The most opaque was makgeolli (brewed rice wine), a sweet and milky taste, the middle was clear orange-colored yakju (clear rice wine) with sweet and tangy taste, and the most transparent soju (distilled liquor) which was strong yet still flavorful unlike its sterile industrial counterparts. The Brew Master Tour involves tasting of the three different types of Samhaeju, listening to how they are made, and watching the master distill soju from yakju. "Foreign tourists would bombard me with questions such as 'how come this soju is easy to gulp down when the commercial ones are not?' Or 'were there pubs during the Joseon Kingdom?'" said Kim. "Foreign tourists find this tour fascinating," said Veronica Kang. "They appreciate meeting with an artisan." Rice floating inside a pot of fermenting yakju, top, and a pot filled with makgeolli Three-step procedure "It is on the first 'Day of the Pig' of January that we begin brewing. We put cooked rice with yeast (nuruk) and water in a large clay jar. For this process we use non-glutinous rice," said Kim. "Then on the first Day of the Pig in February, we go through the same process of adding rice, water and nuruk to the jar. This time we use glutinous rice. Then in the third month, on the first Day of the Pig in March, we repeat the same adding glutinous rice, water and nuruk to the jar." It is on the first Day of the Pig of the fourth month, in April, that the alcohol is ready to taste. The reason why brewing takes place on the "Day of the Pig" on the Korean calendar, where the day comes in a 12-day cycle, is because pig's blood is the clearest of all and traditional beliefs are that brewing on that day will help create crystal clear liquor. Sauces such as soy sauce and soybean paste are made on the "Day of the Horse" because horses have thick blood, hence the belief that sauce will be as thick and well mixed. Foreign tourists taste Samhaeju at Samhae Soju-ga in Bukchon Hanok Village, Jongno-gu, Seoul, during a Brew Master Tour. / Courtesy of Gastro Tour Seoul "Fermentation occurs within the jar in cold temperatures. When you open it, the rice will be floating on top. We remove the rice, extract clear alcohol from the jar and leave the residue. The clear alcohol is moved to another jar to make 'yakju.' To the residue, we add water to make makgeolli. Soju is distilled from yakju and takes two more weeks to complete," said the master. It takes 100 days to ferment makgeolli and yakju and around 120 days to make soju. "Distilling 6 to 7 liters of yakju creates one liter of soju. Because such a huge amount of rice is put into making that one liter, in the past, it used to be a king's drink. The king would even ban laypeople from using rice when rice was rare." Samhaeju's history goes far back to Goryeo Kingdom (918-1392) and was a high-end drink enjoyed by the aristocrats of noble households because it required a tedious process and large quantity of rice and had to be home made. Path to artisanry Kim used to be an ordinary office worker before he jumped into the arduous path of artisanship. A business management major, he had worked at local finance conglomerate Tongyang Group until he dropped away his well-paying job and came to join the family craft. His mother was also an Intangible Cultural Asset for the making of Samhaeju from whom Kim inherited the craft 30 years ago. "There were times when I was cold, hungry and lonely. I would drink two bottles of soju alone by the Han River waterfront. It's never easy to walk the road of an artisan," said the 65-year-old, recalling the years he struggled. Thankfully, he realized he had talent in the craft which kept him going. "In order to become an artisan, what you need is more than acquired skills. You need innate talent. What you need is the hand flavor which I realized I had." By "hand flavor," he was referring to the ability to make good taste which often comes from the hands. In fact, when stirring the alcohol, he does it with his hands to transfer his lactobacillus to bring up the fermented flavor. "This is how I do it by hand. I stir it like this and then also taste it with my hands," he said, demonstrating. Despite the lack of interest among the public and government in artisans, he finds it hopeful that there are young people who come to him to learn the craft. "I'm focusing on fostering students who will hand down the tradition. It's a relief these students are all young," he said. Kim is still bursting with ideas. He is planning on developing drinks for each season. "Starting this year, I'm thinking of releasing drinks special to that season such as an azalea-drink for spring, a pear flower drink for summer, a chrysanthemum drink for fall and Samhaeju for winter. How does that sound?" he asked, with a smile lingering on his face. People sleeping on the streets around 1900-10 / Courtesy of Robert Neff collection By Robert Neff New Years has arrived and many people will celebrate it with friends and family. Undoubtedly, alcohol will play a large part of this celebration especially beer. It is unclear when beer was introduced into Korea but more than likely it involved Western warships. One drinking incident took place in August 1875 when a British warship sailing along the coast of Korea was visited by a group of local Korean dignitaries. The Koreans were given a tour around the ship and then, in a sign of friendship, drinks were exchanged. The senior Korean offered makgeolli to his host who described it as "whitish in colour and sour in taste." The British captain answered by commanding a keg of pale ale to be brought out and served to the Koreans who gave "no signs of pleasure or disgust" while drinking it. A decade later, a couple of Englishmen stopped at a Korean inn located halfway between Jemulpo (modern Incheon) and Seoul. Wanting to be friendly, the men shared three quarts of German beer with the inn's Korean customers. Most of the Koreans "expressed their high opinion of the liquor" but one man "took but one mouthful and ejected it with an expression of extreme disgust." Perhaps what I heard as a boy is true: beer is an acquired taste. Koreans were no strangers to alcohol especially makgeolli. An American missionary wrote in the late 1880s: "The drink curse is widely prevalent in Korea [and] Maudlin sots or drunken brawls, with men tugging at each other's top-knots are, alas, a common sight upon the streets." Commentary about Koreans and alcohol often appeared in the letters and diaries of visiting Westerners. George Clayton Foulk, an American naval officer who traveled extensively throughout Korea in 1884, described his Korean servants as living only for makgeolli and card games and "were careless devils who seem not to know enough to worry or suffer much" from their over-indulgence. Several years later, two English explorers described an encounter with "an old woman, over sixty, drunk and happy, trying to support herself with her long staff, but eventually tripping over a pile of beans in the market place. She was kindly helped to her feet, smiling and reclining, everyone she passed giving her a friendly set up to keep her on her feet." Drunks were so commonly encountered on the streets that one Englishman surmised that Koreans were lightweights unable to handle the effects of alcohol. Through "a series of most careful experiments with Scotch whiskey" he later amended his theory and concluded that Koreans were more than able to hold their own in regards to the consumption of alcohol. According to Isabella Bird Bishop, an intrepid and elderly English explorer who traveled extensively throughout Korea in the mid-1890s: "drunkenness is an outstanding feature in Korea. And it is not disreputable A great dignitary even may roll on the floor drunk at the end of a meal, at which he has eaten to repletion, without losing caste, and on becoming sober receives the congratulations of inferiors on being rich enough to afford such a luxury." But amusing drinking anecdotes are not confined only to Koreans. Missionaries were generally teetotalers and often criticized Koreans and their fellow Westerners for drinking but sometimes when separated from their pious peers they indulged in a drink or two. One such missionary was Charles W. Power. In the late 1880s, he was accused by his fellow missionaries of a number of offenses including "criminal intercourse with women," breaking the Sabbath and drinking alcohol. He denied all the charges but one he admitted to taking two quarts of beer on a fishing trip with some Korean friends. The allegations eventually resulted in him leaving the country. Horace N. Allen, another early American missionary in Korea, occasionally drank beer and alcohol even though it angered his fellow missionaries. He saw no harm in it as long as it was done in moderation. Years later, after he became the American Minister (ambassador) to Korea, he described alcohol as "the cause of most downfalls in this far East Land." The American legation was notorious for drunks. In the early 1900s, several employees were chastised for their drunken behavior and the legation's constable was eventually fired. They, however, were not the worst offenders. That dubious honor belongs to William H. Parker the American Minister to Korea in 1886. Parker arrived in Korea on board an American warship drunk. His condition was so severe that he was accompanied to Seoul by the ship's medical officer. During his short tenure as the American representative, most of it was spent drinking or recovering from drinking. Horace N. Allen, the legation's doctor, declared Parker unfit for service and coupled with the American community in Seoul and King Gojong's requests for him to be removed he was recalled to the United States. Parker later denied he had a problem with alcohol and claimed emphatically that he used "no liquor, beer, or wine of any description." Said like a true alcoholic. By Stephen Costello The Korea-Japan Dec. 28 agreement to settle the comfort woman/sexual slavery issues between them could be a step forward for both countries. It should be some compensation for surviving women to receive compensation from Japan. Little of the rest of the agreement can survive the leaders or the related considerations that resulted in the deal. Many individuals and groups are deeply affected by history, and are sensitive to the way contemporary and temporary governments in Japan, Korea, or anywhere talk about it or try to make it feel less painful. It was inevitable that this agreement would be controversial, and would not satisfy everyone. How could it? Groups and individuals come to the issues with contradictory views and expectations, among them different views of history. Critically, current leaders bring their own histories to such an agreement, for better and for worse. The issues have been kept alive by succeeding leaders in both countries, even though there were actions available to bring some justice and comfort to surviving victims. Korean President Kim Dae-jung and Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi tried to settle the issue with an historic but general apology by Obuchi and a private compensation fund in 1998. Many Korean victims did not accept it, and the next Korean president violated it. The current Japanese prime minister has spoken against it. Despite great effort, the comfort women issue cannot be separated from other, parallel issues, both historical and political, which will now provide reasons for different groups to protest against the deal. Several points should be kept in mind. The air of crisis that has surrounded the comfort women issue for more than a year, and has increasingly distracted and diverted the Japanese and Korean governments from more worthwhile and immediate work, was largely created by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and President Park Geun-hye. Their realization that it was now having such a negative impact on their international standing, regional relations, and domestic political support forced the strained agreement of Dec. 28. Prodding from the U.S. government would have driven home these high and growing costs, and perhaps assisted in bringing about the agreement. The treatment of history, and more specifically the attempt by governments to control a national narrative that is comfortable and supportive for conservative nationalists, has been a driving theme in China, Japan and South Korea during 2015. They are not alone. The Netanyahu government in Israel has revealed its fears of "assimilation" by banning for high school students a novel about love and identity between a Palestinian and an Israeli. The Republican-controlled Texas school board has injected ideological standards into its textbooks since 2010. Why are democratic governments doing what is more expected from an authoritarian system? The comfort women issue is bound up with the national history issue, the need to rewrite history textbooks, and of course the conservative/progressive division. It is also bound up intimately with profound failures of diplomacy, tension reduction, and leadership vision in the Northeast Asian region. There is an arms race and a crippling pause in creative and tension-reducing diplomacy, to name just two. These are related. It is difficult to read any U.S. account of the new Japan-Korea agreement without being assured that a major casualty of strained relations for the past three years has been necessary cooperation in opposing threats from North Korea and China, and that maybe such cooperation can now proceed. Because of this failure to see linkages, governments and reporters now attempt to deal with the comfort women agreement as a discrete problem. For instance, none has to date pointed out that President Park's conviction that much of Korea's political opposition is "pro-North," that demonstrators critical of the government may be "terrorists," and that Korea's long but successful struggle for democracy should be ignored or denigrated, stripped her of negotiating leverage, not to mention of democratic and moral standing to challenge Prime Minister Abe's denial of history. As scholar Jeff Kingston noted in the Japan Times, " Following Japan down this Orwellian road relinquishes any advantage South Korea might have enjoyed from Abe's promotion of patriotic education." In Korea and Japan, the process and the text of this agreement are bound to prolong, if not increase, the sense that governments misunderstand their roles and responsibilities in a modern democracy. Both administrations have seen mass public demonstrations against them of unprecedented size in the past year. Historians and scholars in both countries have issued unusual letters, speaking out against trying to impose one view of history on an open society. Many Japanese will understand the value to history-deniers of avoiding legal responsibility while escaping future Korean government criticism. Many Koreans will see crass political calculations in accepting this deal, and notice how the President went about it. In the short term, social conflict and disharmony will result. And in both cases, they will fail. Both publics are far beyond the 1980s, 1970s or earlier frameworks being used by the Prime Minister and the President to enforce national narratives that are broadly known to be wrong. In this sense the democracy/history crises in the two countries are not primarily left vs. right. They are more importantly new vs. old. Modernization, to the extent that society can digest important lessons from the past, share a vision, and invent new ways to move forward, is what has been missing. Increasingly, that may be what is demanded. Stephen Costello is a producer of AsiaEast, a Web and broadcast-based policy roundtable focused on security, development and politics in Northeast Asia. He writes from Washington, D.C. He can be contacted at cosetllos@asiaeast.org. A major overhaul of China's armed forces appears to have affected one of seven regionalized commands in charge of the Korean Peninsula, according to Chinese and Hong Kong media reports on Saturday. The Chinese Shenyang Military Area Command, which is close to North Korea, is one of the seven battle-zone commands and believed to be tasked with coping with contingency plans on the Korean Peninsula. Citing a "source familiar with the matter," Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported on Thursday that the seven regionalized commands will be replaced by five new commands -- North, South, East, West and Central. The move is "to modernize and increase the efficiency and combat readiness of the People's Liberation Army," the report said. Chinese President Xi Jinping "has ordered the new military zones to be operational by January 1," the report said, adding that Xi has chosen four out of the five commanders. Some Chinese media reports have suggested that the Shenyang Military Area Command might have been replaced by the new command in charge of China's northeastern region. Xi inaugurated three new military units, including a missile force, on Thursday, according to China's state-run media report. Earlier this week, China's defense ministry confirmed that it is building a second aircraft carrier amid Beijing's increasingly assertive actions in the South China Sea. China is rapidly building up its naval hardware at a time when tensions mount over its land reclamation works in the South China Sea. China claims sovereignty over nearly 90 percent of the South China Sea, worsening relations with neighbors such as the Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam. Beijing is also in a bitter dispute with Tokyo over islets in the East China Sea. (Yonhap) By Shin Chul-ho I know of an English reference book written by a person on an Internet English Cafe whose English was not so good. His book was on display along with other English references books in a store in Seoul. Without close scrutiny readers could spend precious time reading crappy books. Fifteen years have passed since I came back as an elementary school teacher. In elementary schools I have found some English teachers who brag about their English proficiency more than they deserve. A teacher was dispatched to a Korean elementary school in the Philippines and worked there for three years. After he came back home, he was regarded as an English expert. Surprisingly, his TOEIC score was in the range of 500. His English was a little bit better than others, and he deceived them by exaggerating his ability. In an elementary school a temporary English teacher played a dirty trick on the other teachers for three years, using the fact that she had studied in Australia for a couple of years as a weapon. She used to say that she was ignorant of English grammar, pretending that she had learned English naturally. One day she explained loudly to a girl in the third grade, "You must not use 'a' but 'an' in front of a, e, i, o, and u." I thought that this might be her best knowledge about English grammar. But sadly, her explanation has two serious errors. First, she should not have taught such a thing to a third grader. Second, whether "a" is put or "an" in front of a noun or a noun phrase is not a matter of spelling at all. It is a matter of pronunciation. For example, we must not put "a" in front of "honest boy," because the letter "h" of "honest" is a consonant. We must put "an" so as to avoid vowel collision because "honest" begins to be pronounced with a vowel sound. This is a simple English grammar rule of middle school level. She quit her job and ran away, afraid that her dark side would be revealed. A new temporary English teacher came to school and handed the previous teacher's teaching guide over to me. Contrary to the common belief, it is hard to find teachers in elementary schools who have a good command of English, however young the teachers are. It is a general phenomenon that some of them overstate their English competency, taking advantage of the other teachers' ignorance. A similar phenomenon can be found among some instructors at English language institutes who are thought of as masters of English. This hypocritical behavior is not only shameful but hampers the enhancement of students' English ability. When English instructors are employed, schools and foreign language institutes should filter out the incompetent ones by examining their English ability along with auditions and resumes. The writer is a teacher at an elementary school outside of Seoul. His email address is heemy123@hanmail.net. By Tong Kim The Dec. 28 agreement between South Korea and Japan to end the decades-long issue of comfort women should only be the beginning of a resolution, not the "final and irreversible" resolution. In Seoul, survivors of Japan's wartime sex slavery and representatives of the relevant civic organizations called it "a diplomatic humiliation," and the major opposition party said it was "void" because the legislature was not consulted. A few dozen survivors, most of whom are in their 80s, complained that they had not been informed about the deal before it was announced. One survivor, 88, shouted at Lim Sung-nam, Seoul's vice foreign minister, who was visiting a sharing home for survivors to explain the deal, "What country do you belong to? Why are you going to kill us twice? Could you not tell us what kind of a deal you were making with the Japanese?" In a joint press conference in Seoul, Japanese foreign minister Fumio Kishida conveyed Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's "most sincere apologies and remorse" to those women who were forced to serve as sex slaves in brothels set up and run by the Japanese army during World War II. Japan also offered one billion yen ($8.3 million) toward a foundation to be established in Korea to help the victims. Abe has long been reluctant to face the truth of Japan's involvement in the enslavement of an estimated 200,000 women, mostly from Korea. He even tried to deny it. He never apologized to the comfort women directly himself. The South Korean public does not trust him and questions the sincerity of his latest apology. Some victims demanded a direct apology from the Japanese emperor, if the prime minister would not make a direct apology to them. Missing parts from the controversial accord include the lack of mentioning Japan's legal responsibility for the systematic sexual enslavement of the so-called comfort women, and no agreement on how to treat the issue in history books. Many Koreans are concerned with the larger meaning of history: lessons from history should be taught to future generations to prevent a repeat of the tragic history. Japan maintained its insistence that the 1965 treaty of normalization, under which Japan paid Korea $800 million in grants and loans and ended all Japanese legal obligations to accept any further claims from Korea regarding any damage inflicted on Korea. South Korea claimed that the normalization treaty did not apply to the legitimate claims of the comfort women, because the humanitarian issue involving the mental and physical wounds suffered by the comfort women was never discussed during treaty negotiations. Japan did not back down, and its offer of the financial contribution is interpreted as a government donation, not a legal reparation. Abe has pledged to end the history issue so that Japan's future generations will not have to keep apologizing for what their ancestors did. After last week's accord, he said he would not apologize again for the same issue, stressing the finality and irreversibility of the deal. He even warned that if Korea failed to honor the accord, "it will lose its status as a member of the international community." It is not hard to see Abe's motivation to reach agreement with Korea this time. He knew the issue of comfort women was a shameful stigma for Japan that has to be removed for Japan to advance its international leadership in this age of women's universal rights. The Japanese press underscored Japan's gains, quoting their foreign minister as saying, "The only loss is 1 billion yen, but it's worthy of the ascendance of Japan's leadership in the world arena." Minister Yun said that South Korea would "refrain from criticizing and blaming" Japan in the international community including the United Nations. He also said his government would try through consultations with the organizations concerned to move a statue of a girl, which stands as a symbol of comfort women in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul. The Japanese press also reported that the contribution of 1 billion yen was a price for the agreement that South Korea would remove the statue. With the report angering many critics, both governments said there was no such agreement. The statue was built with funds raised privately and the Seoul government had no role in it. It would be unlikely that the government can relocate it against the adamant opposition of victims and their supporters. Opposition party leader Moon Jae-in proposed that the deal should be renegotiated and that South Korea should reject the Japanese financial offer and start a fund- raising campaign for $10 million to support the comfort women. Moon is promoting a legislative resolution calling for the dismissal of Foreign Minister Yun. President Park Geun-hye's office defends the accord as the best it could have achieved, saying that if the accord was not accepted, there would be no chance to resolve the 50-year-old issue during the lifetime of the aging victims, who say Japan wants to see them all die. The Korean press is generally skeptical of the government's deal, and some of them, including The Korea Times, are calling for the president to meet directly with the victims and seek their understanding and cooperation. Cautious of the hurt feelings of the victims, Park does not say much about a likely meeting with Abe expected to be the next step of restoring relations with Japan. Washington immediately welcomed the breakthrough to the thorny issue between the two of its allies in the face of an increasingly rising China and a continuing North Korean nuclear and missile program. U.S. officials have often expressed concerns about the diplomatic strains between Seoul and Tokyo. Meanwhile, Beijing suspects the accord was reached under American pressure, to exploit Japan's vulnerabilities with regard to atrocities committed by Tokyo's imperial troops during the war. North Korea has made similar claims against Japan. Due to the issue of abductees, there was no progress in normalization talks between Pyongyang and Tokyo. As long as North Korea exists, it will never give up its claims until resolved. Abe is wrong if he thinks the latest accord will end the disputes over Japan's shameful past. What's your take? Tong Kim is a Washington correspondent and columnist for The Korea Times. He is also a fellow at the Institute of Korean-American Studies. All linked, each requires tailor-made approach If Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe makes one wrong remark, the controversial Dec. 28 Korea-Japan deal reached on the provision of compensation for comfort women, who were forced to serve imperial Japanese soldiers, will likely collapse. This issue gives a foretaste of four foreign policy challenges that Korea is expected to face this year. The other three are North Korea, China and the United States. President Park Geun-hye has as big a stake as Abe in the deal, which is an attempt to resolve acrimony between the two nations that stems from Japan's 1910-45 occupation of Korea and put their countries' diplomatic relations on a forward-looking footing. There have been similar attempts before but the latest is bolder and more comprehensive. The prospects for the deal are shaky because of public opposition to it but if the agreement holds, the estranged neighboring nations will find a firmer foundation on which to rebuild their relationship. For instance, if Seoul-Tokyo ties improve, it could help reduce Tokyo's reluctance regarding unification of the two Koreas or persuade Seoul to be more supportive of Japan's efforts to enhance its standing in international entities such as the United Nations. The North has already made itself an issue this New Year. Its young dictator Kim Jong-un said in his Jan. 1 speech that he is open to talks with anybody, which can be interpreted that he is interested in an inter-Korean summit. Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se expressed skepticism in a recent exclusive interview with The Korea Times and pointed out that Pyongyang should show sincerity through more high-level contacts before any of its proposals can be taken seriously. Still, the North is Seoul's biggest diplomatic challenge. Late last year, its leader openly talked about the development of hydrogen bombs, which came after its claim that it was developing submarine-launched ballistic missiles. Seoul has become closer to China and expects it to play the role of preventing Pyongyang from making provocations but its influence on the North appears to be waning. Korea and China have seen their ties becoming stronger than ever. President Park and President Xi Jinping are close friends. But this very strong relationship comes with a couple of downsides. Above all, it gives China great influence over Korea and thereby Seoul is expected to find itself in the difficult position of having to choose between China and the United States, its traditional ally, during tricky situations. This happened last year when the two superpowers were engaged in a show of strength over Beijing's assertion of power in South China Sea. Throughout this period, Korea avoided the worst by choosing neither side but the next time Korea may have to make a choice. One variable this year is Japan. Oftentimes, Korea has been on the same side as China, which was also a victim of an invasion by Japan's imperial troops, on the issue of history but, if the Park-Abe deal fares well, it could put some distance between Seoul and Beijing. The challenge for Seoul is to find ways of preventing its ties with Beijing from becoming neither too hot nor too cool. The relationship with the U.S. significantly affects ties that Korea has with the three other countries. As a matter of fact, the comfort women settlement is thought to be attributed to pressure that Washington exerted behind the scenes. The U.S. needs no more quarrels between its allies, Korea and Japan, in order to present a united front against a hegemonic China. For Korea, the challenge here is to make the U.S. more appreciative of it, considering that it was more supportive of Japan in disputes over history. For Korea, a middle power wedged among big powers, diplomacy always presents big challenges but the beauty lies in finding creative solutions that can serve its best interests. Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump repeated his unfounded criticism of South Korea on Wednesday that the wealthy Asian nation relies on the U.S. for national defense without giving anything in return. "I order thousands of televisions, they're all from South Korea. So we have 28,000 people on the border separating South Korea from this maniac in North Korea. We get nothing ... We get nothing. They're making a fortune. It's an economic behemoth," Trump said during a campaign speech in South Carolina. Trump has repeatedly made such unfounded criticism, even though South Korea has shouldered part of the burden needed for the upkeep of 28,500 American troops stationed in South Korea to deter aggression from the communist North. He made similar accusations against Japan. "If somebody attacks Japan, we have to immediately go and start World War III, OK? If we get attacked, Japan doesn't have to help us. Somehow, that doesn't sound so fair. Does that sound good?" Trump said. Hwang Chang-gyu KT Chairman Jang Dong-hyung SK Telecom President and CEO By Lee Min-hyung LAS VEGAS -- Heads of Korea's major mobile carriers will fly to Las Vegas to attend the world's biggest technology fair, seeking new profit generators amid sluggish growth in the already saturated local telecom market. Officials said Sunday that SK Telecom President and CEO Jang Dong-hyun and KT Chairman Hwang Chang-gyu plan to join CES 2016 which will run from Jan. 6-9 in the U.S. desert city, searching for business opportunities converged with their strong expertise as network platform service providers. The event has expanded from its namesake title of "electronics show" into a converged venue to showcase a wider range of devices within the framework of the Internet of Things (IoT). The Mobile World Congress (MWC) has been carriers' major focus, but they have been turning their eyes to CES as well in recent years amid a rising demand for connected devices through network systems. "Demand for wirelessly connected devices keeps rising, and that's why mobile carriers identify not just MWC but CES as one of the most important events for their business operation," said an SK Telecom official. "The company chief is expected to meet plenty of clients in the IoT sector, and seek partnerships to find new growth engines." The move is part of the company's efforts to become what it calls a global media platform provider, with the number of mobile phones in Korea reaching more than 57 million, exceeding the 51 million population. Last week, the company announced it would split up SK Planet, the carrier's online-to-offline (O2O) service affiliate, into three independent companies. The decision came as SK Telecom seeks to respond quickly to the fast-changing environment and tackle the limited growth potential of the local telecom market, said the company. The KT chief is also expected to find more partnerships with clients working in the company's five new growth areas _ smart energy, integrated security, media platform, healthcare and a smart traffic control system. "The main purpose of his visit is to look into the market trend in information and communication technology (ICT) sectors," said a KT official. Expectations are that the company will meet with high-ranking officials from global IT companies and discuss cooperation models in the IoT, drones or the fifth-generation (5G) network system _ all of which are in their infancy and have yet to be fully commercialized. In a year-end corporate reshuffle last month, the company created a platform business in a move intended to counter fierce market competition in the IoT sector. Both telecom leaders are expected to seek ways to converge state-of-the-art devices or technologies, such as drones, virtual reality, augmented reality and the IoT, into the 5G network operation, which is expected to be commercialized by 2020. An LG Electronics employee introduces the company's smart home platform in Germany, last September. The company will unveil its Web OS 3.0 smart TV platform at CES 2016, which starts in Las Vegas, Wednesday. / Courtesy of LG Electronics Smart home, wearables to take center stage at CES 2016 By Lee Min-hyung LAS VEGAS -- The Consumer Technology Association (CTA) is in full swing to host the world's largest technology trade show, CES 2016, starting here in Las Vegas, Wednesday. The annual tech fair, which runs through Saturday, is expected to attract between 150,000 and 170,000 visitors, with about 3,600 exhibitors showcasing products and services, according to the show organizer. Although some industry titans, such as Apple and Microsoft, stay away from the event, CES still remains the most powerful sales pitch not for just conglomerates, but also aspiring startups. But the days appear to have gone when one or two keywords define the show, because the Internet of Things (IoT) is blurring the lines between devices and industries. Key themes for CES 2016 will not see drastic changes, compared to last year -- which was all about the IoT, connected vehicles and high-resolution televisions. Despite such a trend, global technology giants, such as Samsung and LG, are expected to share a glimpse of their next cash cows -- among which the "smart home" looks to be most in the spotlight. Samsung Electronics' WELT smart belt. The company plans to unveil wearable devices developed by its C-lab in-house venture team. Embedded sensors allow users to monitor their health condition. / Courtesy of Samsung Electronics Smart home, wearables to draw attention Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics are expected to compete fiercely to take the lead in the budding smart home market, with each company promoting their own platforms. "The market for smart home devices is still in its infancy, and manufacturers do not even have a clear sense of how far it can grow and be applied to our lives at the moment," said an industry source. "That is why Samsung and LG are seeking to gain a leading position in the smart home market. The smart home is not hype for their technical edge, but for users' convenience, which is why the market will grow even bigger down the road." Last week, Samsung Electronics unveiled its plan to equip new super ultra-high-definition (SUHD) televisions with its own smart home platform, and will showcase what it calls the IoT-ready TVs at CES 2016. Samsung's bitter rival LG Electronics also released a series of press releases on its smart home platform -- based on its own operating system (OS). The company will showcase its new television OS platform, Web OS 3.0, at the fair. "We are going to show how televisions can control and monitor home appliances," an official said. Wearable devices, ranging from healthcare to fashion, have also become one of the main topics at CES in recent years. And the trend is expected to continue this year. Samsung Electronics' recently announced that it started mass-producing bio-processors in its bid to expand its presence into the healthcare wearable market. In particular, Samsung C&T is expected to be in the spotlight for its wearable devices to be unveiled at its booth. "The wearable devices market is growing each year, and that's what made us participate in CES this year," a Samsung C&T official said. Samsung Electronics also plans to showcase the so-called C-Lab projects, which refers to its in-house venture program. The project group was established in 2012 to foster employees' creativeness. The company will showcase wearable items developed by the C-Lab project team, including the WELT obesity-care belt. Sensors in the belt analyzes users' eating habits and waist size. Wearable gadgets that are expected to draw keen attention during the four-day event range from smart watches, virtual reality headsets and three-dimensional printing to hearing devices. James Park, co-founder and CEO of Fitbit, will give keynote address at the Leaders in Technology Dinner. It is not a bad thing for us, that the route known as the Goldene Strae or the Golden Road as we will get to know it- has escaped the attention of so many. It has been spared being overrun by hordes of tourists and as you will discover the The SLFP does not condone the continuation of the Emergency Regulations (The Public Security Ordinance) more than a day necessary Read more Award-winning Sudanese writer Leila Aboulela was born in Cairo and raised in Khartoum, Sudan, a place that features prominently throughout her work, along with issues surrounding Muslim culture, religion and assimilation. The daughter of an Egyptian mother and a Sudanese father, Aboulela earned an economics degree from Khartoum University and a masters from the London School of Economics. She later settled with her family in Scotland, where her fourth novel, The Kindness of Enemies, begins. Its Scotland in 2010, and Natasha, a half-Sudanese, half-Russian professor of history, is researching the life of religious leader Imam Shamil, who led the charge for Caucasian Muslims during their 19th century fight to gain liberation from the Russians. Although accomplished and bright, Natasha, whose late mother was Russian and whose estranged father is Sudanese, clearly struggles deeply with a sense of disconnect and duality about her identity and place. Born Natasha Hussein, she changes her name to Natasha Wilson to try to blend in to a place where neither of her parents felt at home. Advertisement Early on, Natasha describes her eagerness and that of other Muslim youth in Britain to erase their Muslim identities: Many of the young Muslims I taught throughout the years couldnt wait to bury their dark, badly dressed immigrant parents who never understood what was happening around them or even took an interest.... I was actually one of the lucky ones. I was one of the ones who saw the signs early on in the tricksy ways of schoolchildren, in the way my mother, snow-white as she was, was disliked for being Russian. I saw the writing on the wall and I was not too proud to take a short-cut to the exit. She becomes an accomplished and prolific academic at a respectable university, and, as Dr. Wilson, gives lectures with titles like Jihad as Resistance Russian Imperial Expansion and Insurrection in the Caucasus. Aboulela leaves Natasha behind to create a fiction about the subject of her work the 19th century war between Caucasus Muslims and Tsarist Russia. The novel is told through these distinctly different perspectives, tied by a single character: Imam Shamil of 1850s Dagestan, and his descendant, Natashas excellent student Oz. Oz short for Osama invites his professor to meet his actress mother, Malak, at her farmhouse in the country, where they have Shamils legendary sword on display. Malak, a charismatic modern woman and a practicing Muslim, openly and proudly argues with her son about the differences between Shamils order of jihad and those of Al Qaeda. Natasha listens and observes and is drawn in both by the relationship between mother and son and the unfamiliar sense of kinship their generosity and ease of curiosity provide. I was captivated by the combination of Oz, Malak and their isolated sandstone house. I did not feel that I could outgrow them, that our conversations would go stale or that I would tire of their company. Perhaps it was because I started to search for traces of Shamil in them. The traces she finds come alive in ways jarring and extraordinary, starting with the racial profiling and arrest of Oz, who was seen by neighbors wielding Shamils sword in the front yard and assumed to be a terrorist. We get to meet Shamil, his family and rivals in semi-alternating chapters set during the 1800s. There are important characters on both sides of the conflict: Shamil and his son, Jamaleldin, versus Anna, Princess of Georgia, wife of a Russian military commander who has insisted on summering in their Tsinondali estate, despite fear of invasion by the Caucasus highlanders and rumors that Shamil is a monster who eats Russian flesh. The writing in these chapters, which take us to Dargo, the Caucasus, Georgia/Dagestan, St. Petersburg, and Warsaw, is almost euphoric language swept up in a ministry of dreamstate, imagination and the romance of favored consciousness: At the mention of his father [Shamil], Jamaleldin felt as if he was forced to put on his best woollen coat in the height of summer. Shamil was not for him now; he was a legendary name, a lost love, as close and as far as an organ inside Jamaleldins own body, deadly to reach. The relationship between father and son is oddly symbiotic to the less loving relationship between Natasha and her own father, a staunchly religious Muslim who abandoned her when he split from her mother and stayed in Khartoum, while Natasha moved to Scotland with her mother and new stepfather. Back in Scotland, Natasha receives word from Khartoum that her father has fallen gravely ill. She is beckoned to his bedside by childhood friends. Later he tells her over the phone that he regrets not having fought harder to keep her with him: Im telling you its a mistake. The biggest mistake. You see because you were her daughter. I couldnt stand even looking at you. That was when I made the wrong decision. She can barely stand to listen to what her father is saying perhaps because she knows its the truth. His approval meant something to her as a young girl, and Natasha still longs for it. And not just his approval as a father but as a Muslim, even if she is not entirely sure how to be one in a mosque she visits with Malak during a layover in London on her way to see her father in Khartoum, she finds herself steadily inching away from the prayer circle until she is at the back of the room against the wall. Perhaps this is a way to demonstrate her freedom as a conflicted Muslim woman, who doesnt have to behave like a Muslim woman, or the opposite a Muslim woman ceding her power at the center of religious service, making herself unseen. Natasha also had a fraught, achingly close relationship with her mother, who has died: She had yellow shoulder-length hair, but near her neck the hair was darker. And her eyebrows too, which she plucked diligently, were darker. My own hair was different it was like my fathers even though I was a girl and it should have been like hers; instead it was a mistake, a bush to touch and in photographs, a cloud. Like other white mothers with black daughters, my mother had no clue how to deal with it. It left her bewildered and helpless, it made her feel incompetent. This is an example of many riveting, almost suffocatingly intimate moments when we are with Natasha in the near present. I wish Aboulela stayed longer with them, took us further in them. But the main thrust of this book is written from and about a historians perspective. Its about the wish and murmur of lives lived centuries ago what they tell us and how we exalt them, long for them, look to them to make our existence sufferable and better still, interesting. There is a tremendous amount going on in The Kindness of Enemies but it does not crowd the reader. Rather, it hums in hushed and meditative tones through prisoners of war in historic and contemporary fantasy rooted in reality. :: The Kindness of Enemies Leila Aboulela Grove Atlantic: 320 pp., $25 Carroll is the author of five books, including Saving the Race: Conversations on Du Bois From a Collective Memoir of Souls. Short-term rental sites such as Airbnb can save you a few bucks on your lodging costs, but now a Seattle marketing producer has created an online company that may cut your hotel bills in half. The catch? You have to share your hotel room with a stranger. Bryon Shannon, who founded the Winston Club in November, said he created the website so that travelers who are visiting the same town can split the cost of a hotel room. Joining the club is free, and you get to accept or reject the roommate that the club chooses for you, based on biographical information provided by club members. Advertisement Winston Club makes its money by collecting a share of the room charge just as do other hotel booking sites. So far, the club has agreements to operate in hotels in Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland, Las Vegas and San Francisco. Shannon declined to say how many travelers have used the Winston Club so far. Although saving money is the primarily goal of club members, he said many members join to make friends or meet new travel companion. The service is popular, he said, with business travelers, especially self-employed workers or owners of startup companies who are on a tight budget. Weve noticed that business travel is one of the loneliest things, Shannon said. Its a great option for people who are frustrated by that. To read more about travel, tourism and the airline industry, follow me on Twitter at @hugomartin. As Motion Picture Academy members cast their ballots for Oscar nominations this week, the biggest issue for many voters isnt about who might be nominated but about the diversity of this years acting class. Their fear: The hashtag #OscarsSoWhite will be trending on social media again. The academy found itself on the defensive last year when white actors earned all 20 of the nominations in the lead and supporting categories. The topic came to define the Academy Awards so much that host Neil Patrick Harris opened the ceremony by quipping: Tonight we honor Hollywoods best and whitest. Sorry, brightest. Advertisement Yet theres a strong chance this years acting awards will once again be heavily, perhaps exclusively, white, despite the efforts of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to diversify the organization. In the four acting categories, only Idris Elba (Beasts of No Nation) sits among the forecasted nominees at Gold Derby, a website compiling the predictions of two dozen Oscar pundits. That could change by the time nomination balloting closes Friday, with some close observers saying that the prospect of another #OscarsSoWhite controversy could even influence the voting. If its all-white again, nobodys going to be happy and there might be a growing perception that the academy is out of touch, said USC history professor Steve Ross, author of several books about Hollywood politics. It has to be a good performance, but, for some, if theyre deciding between Will Smith and somebody else, they might just go for Will Smith because of what happened last year. Join the conversation on Facebook >> Some academy members worry privately that another backlash could damage the institutions reputation, particularly as award shows such as the Emmys and Grammys feature prominent winners of color. Oscar voters, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the subjects sensitive nature, seem split between going with their instincts and casting a ballot with an eye toward maintaining the groups relevancy. I dont see how you can nominate another group that doesnt include any actor of color and think youll be taken seriously, one actors branch member said. F. Gary Gray, director of the N.W.A biopic Straight Outta Compton who joined the academy this year, offers a different view. Im not going to allow politics to influence my judgment because then that defeats the purpose, said Gray, who is African American. Thats not how I make movies and its not how Ill vote. If something moves me and touches me, thats probably the direction Ill go. This years prominent contenders of color include Michael B. Jordan (Creed), Will Smith (Concussion) and Samuel L. Jackson (The Hateful Eight). Grays Compton, nominated in December for a SAG Awards ensemble prize, is also in the mix, as is transgender actress Mya Taylor, who earned a Spirit Awards nomination for her turn as an L.A. prostitute in the indie film Tangerine. SIGN UP for the free Essential Arts & Culture newsletter >> You definitely want the people who decide these things to reflect society, said Creed writer-director Ryan Coogler. Theres empowerment in representation. It means so much when you see somebody whos like you up there on that stage. The academy responded to the #OscarsSoWhite criticism in June, inviting 322 new members, its largest class ever. The demographically broad group reflected a concerted move toward a normalization of our membership to represent both the industry and the country as a whole, academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs told The Times in an interview at the time. Then, at the Governors Awards in November, Boone Issacs announced a new academy initiative, A2020, designed to promote inclusion within its own staff as well as advocate for an industry-wide commitment to partner with the academy to hire, mentor, encourage and promote talent in all areas of our profession. That appeal addresses what most observers see as the root of the Oscars diversity problem: Voters cant nominate what doesnt exist. There cant be many nominees until people are given the opportunity in prominent, meaningful roles, said Todd Boyd, a professor of critical studies at USCs School of Cinematic Arts. The Oscars are the end of the line. When those opportunities come at the front end, then the nominations will probably flow accordingly. And if they dont, then youll really have a pushback. Boone Isaacs has offered no further specifics on A2020, which, like the academys attempts at inviting a younger, more demographically inclusive membership, will take years to deliver tangible results. Some arent waiting to see what happens. In September, Selma filmmaker Ava DuVernay relaunched her distribution collective, Array, broadening its scope to help exhibit movies by women and all filmmakers of color. DuVernay was a central part of last years Oscar protest after academy members awarded Selma two Oscar nominations fewer than many had expected. But she says her companys focus is completely divorced from the Oscars. The OscarsSoWhite hashtag is what people want to hear about, DuVernay said. But its a privileged point of view to think that everyones end goal is to be in that fancy room. This work needs to be done so people of color can see themselves as real people on screen. Thats an issue of survival, essential to our personhood and our humanity and our dignity. It has nothing to do with those hashtags. But as the industrys highest honor and a ceremony that remains one of the worlds most-watched annual events, the Oscars still hold the power to inspire. Lupita Nyongo, who began acting as a teen in Kenya, accepted the supporting actress award in 2014 for 12 Years a Slave, saying, When I look down at this golden statue, may it remind me and every little child that no matter where youre from, your dreams are valid. Last month, Coogler, 29, had a full-circle moment when he watched Spike Lee receive an honorary Oscar at the Governors Awards. After Coogler applied to USCs School of Cinematic Arts, friends encouraged him, telling him he could be the future Spike Lee. They hadnt seen any of my work, but they had seen somebody who looked like me doing what I wanted to do, Coogler said. It made me wonder what it was like for Spike when he told people that he wanted to be a filmmaker. The academy will announce its nominations Jan. 14. The 88th Oscars ceremony will be held Feb. 28. glenn.whipp@latimes.com ALSO Can The Martian defy sci-fi history and win a best picture Oscar? The Big Short could come on strong in the Oscars race for best picture The Revenant could mean repeat Oscar wins for its Birdman director-cinematographer team For nearly 18 years, Margaret Morrow stayed above the fray, meting out justice as a federal judge in U.S. District Court. On Thursday, however, shell trade in her robe and the neutrality of the bench for a decidedly different role as chief executive and president of Public Counsel, a Los Angeles organization that provides free and low-cost legal services to tens of thousands of people each year. Its not every day that a federal judge steps down from the bench to run a nonprofit that toils in the legal trenches. Why not just ride off into the sunset as a respected judge? When I turned 65 in October and took on senior status [a form of semiretirement for federal judges], I didnt have any intention of leaving the bench. I have been in charge of the effort to get a new federal courthouse built in Los Angeles for as long as Ive been a judge and its finally coming to fruition. So, my plan, if I had a plan, was to stay through completion of the building and then assess what I wanted to do with my life. Advertisement Why the move, then? Honestly, one of the things I had thought about was working for a nonprofit that works on poverty issues and education issues. But I didnt really have a plan for how I was going to go about making that connection. And, then, out of the blue the Public Counsel opportunity came along, and it seemed perfect, in the sense that it would allow me to use my legal skills and, at the same time, I would be working on issues that I cared about. Its quite a change. I have really loved being a judge because it has given me an amazing opportunity to try to help people resolve differences and enforce rights and right wrongs.... . But there are constraints on what a judge can do. A judge has an obligation to treat both parties in a lawsuit fairly and evenhandedly she cant let sympathy influence the outcome of a proceeding. She has an obligation to apply the law neutrally, whether she agrees with that law or not. Often that results in what I would call true justice. But there are a lot of cases where the legally correct result isnt what many people would think of as justice in a colloquial sense. So, I think, being able to operate outside those constraints at this point in my career will free me to pursue justice in a broader sense. The new job is a return of sorts. When I was a lawyer in private practice, I devoted much of my time to working to improve access to the justice system for people living in poverty and underrepresented people. One of the things I did early on was serve on Public Counsels board. I also started a domestic violence pro bono program. Its something like 40 years later, but I remember as if it were yesterday: sitting across the desk from a woman who had come to the program seeking help. She felt like she had no options, she felt trapped, her life was horrible. I was able to encourage her to believe there were options available and help her fill out the paperwork that she could take down to court to get a restraining order and take the first steps toward improving her life. Thats what the lawyers at Public Counsel do each and every day. Its incredibly important work. They help people who cant afford a lawyer to negotiate the intricacies of the legal system, which can be overwhelming. Did your time on the bench drive home for you the need for organizations like Public Counsel? Absolutely.... When you sit in a trial court day in and day out, you see the kinds of legal problems that people find themselves in, often through no fault of their own. You realize how important it is to ensure that people have access to legal assistance. People who dont have lawyers, even if they have good claims or good legal positions, often cant prevail because they dont know how to maneuver through the system. What will you miss about being a judge? Its really hard to describe the breadth of legal issues that come before a federal court all these somewhat obscure federal statutes that give rise to litigation like the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act. If you sell somebody tomatoes and he doesnt pay for them, you can slap a trust on all his assets until he pays. It has been an amazing learning experience and has really kept me engaged and energized. So, Ill miss that Ill miss learning. Even now, almost 18 years later, Im still learning. You mentioned earlier the idea of delivering true justice. That sounds like a heavy burden. It is a huge responsibility. It certainly is an honor to serve as a federal judge, but the responsibility can very definitely weigh on you. I dont think I think about that consciously, but there is no doubt it is a reality. What wont you miss? The federal courts are underresourced. We dont have enough judicial personnel for the type of caseloads we carry, and that creates stresses, for sure. The workload is pretty heavy. And I wont miss the deadlines. When youre a judge, you need to be on the bench at 8 a.m., you need to have the orders ready every Monday morning at 10 a.m. These are fixed deadlines, and I imagine a job like the one Im taking on now has more flexibility in the daily routine. But I am going to have a steep learning curve at Public Counsel. I dont imagine knocking off at noon or even at 5! Parting thoughts? When youre a judge, your work comes to you; in that way its somewhat reactive. Youre presented with something to decide, and you decide it and then youre presented with something else and you decide it. In this new position at Public Counsel, I think theres an opportunity to be more proactive in how someone goes about trying to achieve a just society. Thats something Im really excited to be involved in. joel.rubin@latimes.com Los Angeles police are searching for a man suspected in a monthlong series of violent crimes across the region, including a shooting last week in Panorama City that left one man dead and a carjacking last week that launched a wild pursuit and standoff. Detectives with the Los Angeles Police Departments elite Robbery-Homicide Division have worked around the clock to find Artyom Gasparyan, 32, who investigators believe is responsible for crimes including robbery, carjacking and attempted murder since Dec. 6. The crimes began in northeast Los Angeles, police said, but also occurred in Burbank, West Hollywood and Carson. Investigators have also linked Gasparyan to the police pursuit Friday that began on the 105 Freeway in Carson and ended with a standoff in Long Beach, where a man suspected of being Gasparyans accomplice fled in a stolen vehicle. Advertisement Interested in the stories shaping California? Sign up for the free Essential California newsletter >> That accomplice, identified by the LAPD as Daniel Ramirez, was taken into custody after police say he ran into a Long Beach home, shot two men, stabbed another and then turned the gun on himself. Ramirez was critically wounded in the head and died just before 6 p.m. Saturday, the LAPD said. Police consider Gasparyan armed and dangerous, according to an LAPD statement issued Saturday. He was described as a 5-foot-7, 170-pound Armenian man with black hair, brown eyes and facial hair. Capt. Billy Hayes, who heads the Robbery-Homicide Division, said Gasparyan is considered a suspect in the fatal shooting of a 37-year-old man near Van Nuys Boulevard and Plummer Street on Wednesday. Paramedics found the victim lying near a car and took him to a hospital, where he died. Police initially described that killing as a road rage incident. Burbank police also announced Saturday that Gasparyan was suspected in a Dec. 9 shooting in the 1700 block of North Catalina Street that left two people wounded. At the time, Burbank police said a 67-year-old man was shot multiple times that morning outside his home. A 33-year-old gardener, who was working down the street, was shot once in the foot as the suspect fled, the mans co-worker told the Burbank Leader. Burbank police said Saturday that they were working with the LAPD on the investigation. Anyone with information about Gasparyan is asked to call detectives at (213) 486-6890. Twitter: @katemather Join the conversation on Facebook >> ALSO First in series of storms forecast for Southland expected to hit Sunday night Richard Moore, Santa Monica College president for 20 years, dies at 82 Man is found shot to death in Leimert Park Dale Bumpers, a former Arkansas governor and U.S. senator who earned the nickname giant killer for taking down incumbents, and who gave a passionate speech defending Bill Clinton during the presidents impeachment trial, has died. He was 90. Bumpers died Friday night in Little Rock, according to his son, Brent Bumpers. Bumpers was under hospice care and died from natural causes and complications from a broken hip suffered in a recent fall, his son said. Bumpers was a little-known lawyer from Charleston when he ran for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 1970 against a field that included former Gov. Orval Faubus. After finishing second in the primary, Bumpers defeated Faubus for the Democratic nomination then beat two-term Republican incumbent Winthrop Rockefeller in the general election. Advertisement Four years later, Bumpers challenged and defeated incumbent Sen. J. William Fulbright in a Democratic primary, leading to the giant killer nickname, and went on to win the U.S. Senate seat. Bumpers signature moment on the national stage came in 1999, just weeks after leaving the Senate, when he defended Clinton who had worked on Fulbrights 1974 campaign against Bumpers before the U.S. Senate during Clintons impeachment trial. Clinton had been impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives on charges of lying about his sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky while testifying before a grand jury in the Paula Jones sexual harassment case. Bumpers called the matter a sex scandal while delivering the closing argument as the Senate considered removing Clinton from office. Clinton suffered a terrible moral lapse, a marital infidelity. Not a breach of the public trust, not a crime against society, Bumpers said. H.L Mencken said one time, When you hear somebody say, This is not about the money, its about the money.... And when you hear somebody say, This is not about sex, its about sex. Clinton was acquitted by the Senate. Bumpers would later say that he didnt want to give the closing statement, but Senate leaders and Clinton called to ask him to do so. A statement from Bill and Hillary Clinton did not mention the impeachment trial, but praised Bumpers work as governor and senator. For more than 40 years Hillary and I cherished his friendship. I am grateful that his advice made me a better governor and president, Clinton said. I loved him. I loved learning from him and laughing with him. I will miss him very much. Bumpers had been known in the Senate for his oratorical skills, as well as his opposition to amendments to the U.S. Constitution, including one that would have prohibited busing of public school students. Brent Bumpers said he believes his father would want to be remembered as both a champion of the underdog and a defender of the Constitution. He often listed that as among his proudest battles he fought against many efforts to amend the Constitution. He revered it so much, Brent Bumpers said. Bumpers was considered a potential Democratic candidate for president in 1980 and 1984, but declined to run. He would later say he believed his best chance at winning the presidency had been in 1976, when Democratic former Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter won the White House. Dale Leon Bumpers was born in Charleston on Aug. 12, 1925. He was an attorney for the Charleston School Board in 1954 when the board voted to integrate, just two months after the U.S. Supreme Courts landmark Brown vs. Board of Education ruling that outlawed segregated schools. It was the first district among the 11 former Confederate states to integrate. We did it because we thought it was the right thing to do, Bumpers told the Associated Press in 2007. In 1986, Bumpers won reelection to the Senate by defeating current Gov. Asa Hutchinson, a Republican. The entire state mourns the loss of an Arkansas legend, Hutchinson said in a statement Saturday. In my first statewide race, Dale took me to school on Arkansas politics. He was a master storyteller, and his stump speaking was impossible to beat. See more of our top stories on Facebook >> Former Gov. Mike Beebe, a Democrat, called Bumpers a friend and mentor. Dales passion for good policy and responsible government brought opponents to common ground and inspired the detached to become involved citizens, Beebe said. Bumpers is survived by his wife, Betty, two sons and a daughter. Harold Parichan spent sleepless nights worrying about the California bullet train. Over dinners with his daughter and sons, he would ponder the fate of his prized almond orchards in Madera County, which would be sliced diagonally by the future tracks. Disabled since polio struck him in the 1920s, Parichan overcame many obstacles, attending UC Berkeley and Stanford University law school on crutches and braces. But the bullet train became one of the biggest emotional challenges in his life, and time was running out for the 92-year-old farmer. Advertisement Parichan died Wednesday in Fresno after a bout with the flu, leaving his fight to keep the train off his farm unfinished. Sue Parichan Habild, who worked with her father for decades, vowed that the family would continue his fight. We would be there for dinner, and all we would talk about was the bullet train. You could see how angry he was. Im sure it affected his health. Sue Parichan Habild, Harold Parichans daughter We would be there for dinner, and all we would talk about was the bullet train, she said. You could see how angry he was. Im sure it affected his health. The battle that Parichan waged against the $68-billion project is part of a deeply emotional land war that has drawn in hundreds of farming families from Merced to Bakersfield. The refusal of farmers to sell out is a large part of the reason that the project is now more than two years behind schedule and massive earthmoving machinery is parked idle in Fresno, as the bills mount and the frustration of project supporters grows. Join the conversation on Facebook >> The Central Valley farms in the way have been handed down from generation to generation, and the current owners believe they have a debt to their parents and grandparents. I hate to say it, but it is an obsession with me, said Kole Upton, a Stanford engineering graduate and almond farmer who was a friend of Parichan. Uptons own 1,000-acre almond farm lies in the high-speed rail lines path, and he has been fighting to keep his land intact for years. If I go down, I will go down fighting to my last dollar, he added. My daughter and son and their families live with me on my land. I know how Mr. Parichan felt. Dan Richard, the rail authority board chairman, said he has attempted to engage with farmers and understands their opposition, but in the end the taking of their land is unavoidable. It comes with the territory, he said at a board meeting in 2013. Despite Richards resolve, the state has fallen far behind schedule. It was supposed to be more than halfway toward building the first 29 miles of rail structures from Madera to Fresno, but it has turned over only half the necessary land to its contractor, Tutor Perini. Interested in the stories shaping California? Sign up for the free Essential California newsletter >> Parichan was a formidable opponent. They are raping my ranch, Parichan said in a 2015 interview. He was himself an accomplished attorney, wealthy and committed to fighting a project that be believed was misguided. He hired a former federal judge, Oliver Wanger, to represent him. He was the strongest person I ever met, a great soul, said Adrian Valdez, Parichans caregiver for seven years. He fell constantly and broke every bone you could think of: his legs, his hip, his neck. He always bounced back and continued his life as normal as possible. Struggling with polio, you would think he would have a hard time with life, but he loved life. Valdez said Parichans fight against the bullet train changed him. It really did a number on him. It took away his peace. He would be awake at night thinking about it. Parichan was born Nov. 23, 1923, in Reedley, the son of an immigrant cobbler from Armenia. As a young boy, he underwent numerous experimental surgeries for his polio, including the removal of his ankle at a Los Angeles hospital. After graduating from UC Berkeley, he went to Harvard Law School. But he left for Stanford because the harsh Eastern winters made it too difficult for him to get around campus. NEWSLETTER: Get the days top headlines from Times Editor Davan Maharaj >> By then, he had married Edna Elizabeth Schramm, the daughter of a German farming family in the Central Valley. After graduating, he opened a law office Fresno with other attorneys. He built a reputation as a tough corporate defender, representing General Motors, Ford and gunmaker Sturm Ruger in some of the biggest product-defect cases in history. But when he fell on the courthouse steps in the late 1990s, he decided it was time to give up his law practice. He had been drawn to farming after spending decades listening to his wifes family talk about their land, Habild said. He had amassed a fortune as an attorney, living in a home on the banks of the San Joaquin River in Fresno. He had a second home at the Vintage Club, the gated Indian Wells community where Bill Gates and other wealthy Americans have homes. While the love of his land gave him motivation to fight the state, the almonds gave him the money to accomplish it. He was harvesting 2,500 acres of almonds, which produced annual revenue of more than $13 million. The rail authority has designated a route that would cut through seven of Parichans almond orchards, severing irrigation systems and cutting off hundreds of acres from tractors, he said. The initial offers that the state made represented only a small fraction of the value of the land, he said. So far, the state hadnt moved legally against Parichan, as it has with other farmers, but he had expected an eminent domain action to acquire the property. Michael Brady, a Bay Area attorney who was among Parichans friends and is representing other farmers in the Central Valley, said the urban dwellers of the state cannot comprehend the scope of the legal battles that are occurring. These are wonderful people, very strong, Brady said. They love their land and love their way of life, unlike many people in California who jump here and jump there. Parichan is survived by his wife, Edna, and three children, Rod Parichan, Tim Parichan and Sue Parichan Habild. He has six grandchildren, including Reid Parichan, who manages the almond farm. ralph.vartabedian@latimes.com Twitter: @rvartabedian ALSO LAPD seeks suspect in monthlong series of violent crimes Richard Moore, Santa Monica College president for 20 years, dies at 82 First in series of storms forecast for Southland expected to hit Sunday night Heal a deep lack of public trust. Cooperate with a federal civil rights investigation into the use of force. Reform a police department with a history of corruption. Deal with some of the nations most intractable gun and gang problems. And work for a famously demanding mayor in the midst of his most severe crisis. Its a daunting to-do list for Chicagos next police superintendent, a person Mayor Rahm Emanuel will hire to navigate the turbulent environment that has erupted since the court-ordered release of a video showing a white police officer shooting a black teenager to death more than a year ago. Law enforcement experts say the new top cop should have a strong personality, understand police work and its dangerous nature, and recognize past abuses. And if Chicago is to realize true change, they say, its important that the person have a large measure of independence from the mayor or at least be working on the same reform goals and the freedom to make decisions without political influence. Advertisement But relinquishing such authority to a strong-willed police superintendent could be difficult for Emanuel, who is known for hands-on governing and asserting tight control over many facets of city government. That includes calling Cabinet members and other top aides at all hours to question decisions, demand plans and express displeasure. Garry McCarthy was no exception. Chicagos former police superintendent received frequent phone calls from Emanuel, who micromanaged police headquarters from his suite of City Hall offices, sources familiar with McCarthys tenure said. McCarthy also had to deal with what was described as Emanuels approach of governing day to day and crisis to crisis and his lack of a broader vision of how to fight and prevent crime, the sources said. Two senior Emanuel administration officials acknowledged that the mayor calls his top deputies often, but they challenged the assertion that he micromanages the Police Department. When you have some of the things that have gone on kids and babies getting shot the mayor wants to know what the plan is to address it, and youre going to get calls from him at 2 in the morning. Its an enormously stressful job, said one of the Emanuel aides, who was not authorized to speak publicly. Its not about telling [the police superintendent] what to do.... The mayor gave Garry a pretty high level of deference, but you work for Rahm, so youre going to have to pick up the phone. Emanuels decision to publicly back McCarthy early during the Laquan McDonald shooting controversy only to fire him days later in the glare of the national spotlight could leave some candidates hesitant to apply for the job. Emanuel aides say concerns should be outweighed by the chance to reform one of the nations largest departments with the help of a federal civil rights investigation. This is a huge opportunity at this moment in time. The Department of Justice investigation will give the new leader a lot of cover to do things that he or she would not otherwise be able to do, because of internal and external politics, said the Emanuel aide. It is an exciting opportunity to be able to come in and hit the reset button in Chicago and get a lot accomplished. City Alderman Howard Brookins, who has worked as a public defender and assistant states attorney, says City Hall has long had a heavy hand in the Chicago Police Department. That tradition, he says, will have to change. The next person needs to be a strong leader who has the ability to get the job done, Brookins said. And whether or not that person will have free rein from the mayor to get in there and fix the problems will be the key. Emanuel fired McCarthy on Dec. 1 in the midst of the fallout from the police shooting of McDonald, 17, in October 2014. The mayor and City Council signed off on a $5-million settlement for McDonalds family in April, just after Emanuel won reelection. For nearly a year, Emanuel fought to keep a police video of the shooting under wraps. Hours before a video was released in November showing Officer Jason Van Dyke shooting McDonald as the teen walked away and then as he lay in the street, prosecutors charged the officer with murder. On Tuesday, Van Dyke, 37, pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder. The timeline has led some Chicagoans to take to the streets in protest, accusing Emanuel and Cook County States Atty. Anita Alvarez of being complicit in a cover-up. The subsequent release of city records revealed six officers at the scene of the shooting, including Van Dyke, filed reports saying McDonald had approached officers before he was shot, though he actually walked away. The McDonald case and Emanuels public acknowledgment that a code of silence exists in the Police Department when it comes to misconduct do not mark the first time a Chicago mayor has had to search for a new leader to restore confidence in a department mired in controversy. In 1960, when then-Mayor Richard J. Daley was left searching for a reformer after a scandal, he made what even decades later seems like a radical move. He tapped criminologist O.W. Wilson, a dean at UC Berkeley, for the job. At the time, Wilsons scholarly background was criticized as not steeped enough in policing to address the misconduct, which had come to light when eight officers were named in a burglary ring. See more of our top stories on Facebook >> Wilson ran the Chicago Police Department for seven years until he retired, and eventually was credited with an overhaul that included improving morale, upgrading equipment, boosting rank-and-file pay and increasing personnel. His October 1972 Chicago Tribune obituary outlining the changes reads like a blueprint for what the city might again have in store today. New young faces began appearing in high places in the department, and outside consultants became a common sight. They were brought in to spot things that needed correcting, the obituary said. Most important, Wilson obtained the complete backing of Mayor Daley. It continued: However, Wilson was not without his critics. In addition to the usual sniping from the City Council, many of the policemen who had risen through the ranks under the old system had suddenly found themselves purged and offered attacks that became personal. bruthhart@tribpub.com asweeney@tribpub.com ALSO Venice tenants complained to the city, then wished they hadnt Are SeaWorlds whales better off staying in their glass-and-concrete enclosures? Will this years Academy Awards see a repeat of #OscarsSoWhite backlash? The activists occupying a federal wildlife refuge in southeastern Oregon remain in good spirits despite the frigid weather, according to a Washington state woman who said she has been communicating with them. Their morale has been up for most of the day, but its getting dark and it is freezing, Maureen Peltier, who described herself as a friend of the occupiers, said in a telephone interview. But they have layers on; they seem very able-bodied men and women. And there are women there, she added. Public officials have generally described the occupiers as men. Advertisement Join the conversation on Facebook >> Ammon Bundy, who has been described as the leader of the protest group, said they have had no contact thus far with federal law enforcement authorities. Nor is there any police presence here, he said in a Twitter message to the Los Angeles Times. We plan on staying as long as we have to, he said. Its a very peaceful protest. He said the occupying group has made no direct demands, but the participants have stated that they will leave if the federal government gives up control of the nearby Malheur National Forest. They are also demanding freedom or a reduced sentence for two Oregon ranchers whose imprisonment sparked the current standoff, Bundy said. Peltier said the organizers of the takeover were not saying how many people were inside the buildings at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. Local ranchers were dropping off homemade meals, while other supporters were donating to the activists on a new website, she said. Peltier, who lives in Bonney Lake, Wash., and served in Iraq with the National Guard, said she visited the gates of the refuge Saturday shortly after the occupiers took over. I got warm hugs and well wishes and they thanked me for coming to see them, she said. Some people are saying its so relaxed there, we come and go with or without children. The occupation began as a demonstration in support of two local ranchers Dwight Hammond Jr. and his son, Steven who were sentenced to more prison time last year for setting fires in 2001 and 2006 that spread to federal land. They returned to prison Monday to complete five-year sentences for arson. Peltier said the activists told her they had no intention of leaving after they received word that the Hammonds were back in federal custody. Peltier said shes not a member of any militia or patriot group but frequently posts on the Facebook page of the Washington chapter of the Three Percenters Club, a national group that supports militias. The occupied Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. (Rob Kerr / AFP-Getty Images) The activists occupying the refuge seemed to dial back their rhetoric Monday, saying they hoped that their takeover would remain peaceful. We dont want it to end with violence, said Ryan Bundy, who with his brother Ammon has spoken for the occupiers. Were not looking for bloodshed. State and federal authorities were preparing to establish a law enforcement command post to coordinate a response. So far the occupation had gone unchallenged. Harney County Sheriff David M. Ward pleaded with the activists to leave the area. Its time to go home, return to your families, he said at a news conference Monday. A day earlier, he told reporters that the men intended to overthrow of the government. These men came to Harney County claiming to be part of militia groups supporting local ranchers, when in reality these men had alternative motives, to attempt to overthrow the county and federal government in hopes to spark a movement across the United States, the sheriff said in a statement. The activists were far vaguer about their goals. Ammon Bundy said his group was seeking to unwind federal ownership of lands in Harney County. He mentioned teams of activists working the land, but did not clarify what he meant, or whether there would be occupations. On Monday morning, the entrance to the refuge was blocked by a turquoise SUV. Theres 17 buildings and all of them full of people, said one of the activists, who declined to give his name as he spread gravel over tire tracks in the snow. In past land occupations, activists aligned with the Bundys have claimed that snipers were hidden nearby. With temperatures dipping below 15 degrees, it seemed too cold for that. Deserted Broadway Avenue in Burns after a militia group occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters. (Rob Kerr / AFP/Getty Images) The activists said they believe their presence is one of the final barriers to total government control of the West. Were trying to accomplish the task of restoring rights to the people who have lost them or surrendered them, Ryan Bundy said. Members of his group began trickling into the area in December, brandishing rifles and handguns and proselytizing from the beds of pickups against federal land ownership. After a peaceful protest of more than 100 people Saturday night, a group of at least 15 men blocked the entry to the refuge and declared themselves its rightful owners. We can enforce the Constitution in Harney County and thats what we intend to do, Ammon Bundy told reporters. We have a lot of plans. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who was briefed Sunday morning by the FBI, said the occupation was being monitored closely by state, federal and local authorities. The FBI is on this every minute, Wyden said in an interview. But based on comments from what weve heard in the community and whats been reported, we may be in just the early stages of this. Wyden compared the frustrations of the activists to those of all rural Oregonians, who face a troubled economy yet to fully recover from the decline of the timber industry and dwindling federal dollars to replace lost timber income. Theres enormous frustration about the economy and a very powerful sense in rural communities that nobody listens to them, that they dont have any power, that their voices dont matter, Wyden said. But the next step isnt to be led by some outsiders into doing something that doesnt help anybody. The refuge, incorporated in 1908 by President Theodore Roosevelt, has grown since its inception and presents challenges to ranchers in the area, who say they are increasingly hemmed in by the federal preserve. Numerous Western conservatives have called for the return of federal lands to state and local government. The movement has waxed and waned since the so-called Sagebrush Rebellion of the 1980s, which centered on ranchers rights and the money that could be made from timber harvesting, mining and ranching if only the federal government didnt forbid such profitable endeavors. The movement has picked up steam in recent years, led by Utah legislator Ken Ivory, who heads a national organization called the American Lands Council, which tries to persuade county and state governments to pursue the ownership of federal land. The Bundy brothers are the son of Cliven Bundy, a Nevada rancher who made national headlines in a 2014 by leading a weeks-long standoff with federal agents over his failure to pay $1 million in grazing fees. The Southern Poverty Law Center said in a report on that standoff that the militiamen and the federal land-return movement are part of the same spectrum. Anti-government extremists have long pushed, most fiercely during Democratic administrations, rabid conspiracy theories about a nefarious New World Order, a socialist, gun-grabbing federal government and the evils of federal law enforcement, the center said. Duara reported from Burns and Hennessy-Fiske from Houston. Follow @nigelduara and @mollyhf on Twitter ALSO How Oregon ranchers unwittingly sparked an armed standoff Obamas crackdown on gun purchases illustrates the limits of his office Dont open the door, immigrants are warned as family deportation roundup continues Missouri residents soon will not be able to use their state drivers licenses as identification to get into most federal facilities, making it one of at least five states to lose a federal exemption from complying with national proof-of-identity requirements. A letter from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to Missouri, obtained Wednesday by the Associated Press, informs the state that its exemption from federal Real ID requirements, which set minimum security standards for licenses, will come to an end Jan. 10. That means Missouri drivers licenses cannot be accepted as ID at military bases and most other federal facilities. It also could eventually mean that Missouri drivers licenses wont be accepted as identification for commercial airline flights. Advertisement Illinois is in the same boat, according to its secretary of states office spokesman, David Druker. He said state officials learned late Tuesday that Homeland Security had denied an extension for compliance with federal requirements. The 2005 Real ID act imposes tougher requirements for proof of legal U.S. residency in order for state drivers licenses to be valid for federal purposes. The law was passed in response to national security concerns after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The Homeland Security Department previously declared Minnesota to be noncompliant, and it sent letters in October to New Mexico and Washington indicating that their exemptions also would end Jan. 10. States originally were supposed to comply with the Real ID requirements by the end of 2009. Federal authorities have repeatedly delayed implementation to give time for states to change their drivers license procedures and make the necessary technological improvements. At one point, about half the state legislatures had passed measures opposing the implementation of the Real ID Act. Some state lawmakers raised concerns that it amounted to an invasion of privacy and a backdoor attempt to create a standardized national ID card. Some of those states, including Missouri and Minnesota, still have laws specifically prohibiting them from complying. But the patience of federal authorities appears to be coming to an end, and more states could lose their exemptions. Homeland Security also has been reviewing whether to grant a compliance exemption beyond Jan. 10 to Alaska, California, New Jersey and South Carolina. Nineteen other states recently received an extension of their compliance exemptions, most running until Oct. 16. The Homeland Security Department has said it plans to announce soon whether it will begin enforcing the Real ID requirements for airplane travel. The department has said that it will provide at least 120-day notice before barring people from flights who have drivers licenses from states that are noncompliant or lack a waiver. As we continue the phased-in enforcement of the Real ID Act, the consequences of continued noncompliance will grow with each milestone, the department said in its letter to Missouri. ALSO Cord cutters face a sea of streaming options Californias new laws for 2016: See how you are affected First in series of storms forecast for Southland expected to hit Sunday night A peaceful protest march Saturday in support of an eastern Oregon ranching family facing jail time for arson was followed shortly afterward by an occupation of a building at a national wildlife refuge. Ammon Bundy, the son of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who was involved in a standoff with the federal government over grazing rights, told the Oregonian newspaper that he and two of his brothers were among dozens of people occupying the headquarters of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. The protests are on behalf of Dwight Hammond Jr. and his son Steven Hammond, who were convicted of setting fires that they say were intended to protect their property. Bundy posted a video on his Facebook page asking for people to come help him. Below the video is this statement: ALL PATRIOTS ITS TIME TO STAND UP NOT STAND DOWN!!! WE NEED YOUR HELP!!! COME PREPARED. Advertisement Bundy said the group planned to stay at the refuge indefinitely. Were planning on staying here for years, absolutely, he said. This is not a decision weve made at the last minute. An Idaho militia leader who helped organize the march that preceded the building occupation said he knew nothing about the parade of militia members and local residents who walked past the sheriffs office and the Hammonds home. Cliven Bundy told Oregon Public Broadcasting on Saturday night that he had nothing to do with the takeover of the building. He said his son felt obligated to intervene on behalf of the Hammonds. Thats not exactly what I thought should happen, but I didnt know what to do, he said. You know, if the Hammonds wouldnt stand, if the sheriff didnt stand, then, you know, the people had to do something. And I guess this is what they did decide to do. I wasnt in on that. He said Ammon told him the group was committed to staying in the building. He told me that they were there for the long run. I guess they figured theyre going to be there for whatever time it takes -- and I dont know what that means, he said. I asked him, Well, ... how long you going to stand out there? He just told me it was for long-term. Beth Anne Steele, an FBI spokeswoman in Portland, said the agency was aware of the situation at the national wildlife refuge, but she made no further comment. Some local residents feared the Saturday rally would involve more than speeches, flags and marching. But little else materialized, except songs, flowers and tossed pennies. As marchers reached the courthouse, they tossed hundreds of pennies at the locked door. Their intended message: Civilians were buying back their government. After the march passed, two girls swooped in to scavenge the coins. A few blocks away, Dwight Hammond and his wife, Susan, greeted marchers, who planted flower bouquets in the snow. They sang some songs, Hammond said a few words, and the protesters marched back to their cars. Hammond has said he and his son plan to report to prison Monday as ordered by a judge. Dwight Hammond, 73, and Steven Hammond, 46, said they set fires in 2001 and 2006 to reduce the growth of invasive plants and protect their property from wildfires. The two were convicted of the arsons three years ago and served time Dwight three months, and Steven a year. But a judge ruled their terms were too short under federal law and ordered them back to prison for about four years each. See more of our top stories on Facebook >> The decision has generated controversy in a remote part of the state. In particular, the Hammonds new sentences touched a nerve with far-right groups who repudiate federal authority. Ammon Bundy and a handful of militiamen from other states arrived last month in Burns, about 60 miles from the Hammond ranch. In an email to supporters, Bundy criticized the U.S. government for a failed legal process. ALSO President Obama considering visit to Cuba to shore up relations and his foreign policy legacy States crack down on fantasy sports, calling them games of chance, not skill For a Missouri family, 2015 ends with a drenched home in historic winter flooding A 12-year-old boy ought to be able to play in a park without being fatally shot by police. A concerned 911 caller seeing him wave a toy gun ought to be able to alert the authorities in Cleveland without virtually sentencing the child to death. A man in custody ought to be able to ride in the back of a Baltimore police van without mortal injury. A young man ought to be able to drive his date to a fast-food restaurant in a small South Carolina town without being slain by an officer looking for illegal drugs. These and hundreds of other Americans who died at the hands of police in the last year and a half ought to have been able to play, run, date, even get into some minor trouble, and still live to tell about it. Fundamental problems in U.S. policing extend beyond the racial and economic patterns that make African Americans more likely to be crime victims ... [and] to be killed by police. Advertisement Instead, their deaths are an indictment of policing practices that are woefully outdated and insufficiently examined. And of course they are a reflection of a society and a justice system inextricably bound up with race. There were more white than black victims of police killings in 2015, but African Americans were killed far more often in proportion to their numbers in the general population according to statistics compiled by the Washington Post and the Guardian. The U.S. government does not gather official nationwide statistics of police killings (see accompanying editorial). Tamir Rice, for example, the young African American boy with the toy gun, was shot by a white Cleveland police officer in November 2014. White cop, black victim echoing the killing a month earlier of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, shown in a video (withheld from the public until late this year) being shot 16 times while walking away from a Chicago police officer; the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., that same year; and the killing of Eric Garner on Staten Island, also in 2014. The protests of the Black Lives Matter movement have forced the nation to reckon with police killings of black men, who were often unarmed. Its about time; clearly racialized policing is a real problem and one that law enforcement agencies have failed to address for far too long. But it is important to remember that not all police killings fit so simple a mold and not all of them comport so easily with the assertion that the nations policing problems are rooted solely in white police bigotry toward blacks. Half the officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray, the black man who died in the Baltimore police van last April following a dubious arrest on a weapons charge, are also African American. Zachary Hammond, the 19-year-old Seneca, S.C., man on a date at Hardees in July when shot by a white officer, was white (no charges were brought against the officer). And Los Angeles, which leads the nation in police shootings, has a racially diverse police force that reflects the citys multiethnic population. Fundamental problems in U.S. policing extend beyond the racial and economic patterns that make African Americans more likely to be crime victims, more likely to be arrested and more likely to be killed by police. They implicate basic nuts-and-bolts issues, such as tactics and judgment. That fact was tacitly acknowledged Wednesday by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who promised to roll out new training in less-confrontational policing and alternatives to lethal force in the wake of the video of the McDonald shooting and continuing police violence that appears tragically unnecessary, such as the recent shooting deaths of Quintonio LeGrier and Bettie Jones. Emanuels statements, while welcome, are embarrassingly tardy and shockingly inadequate. Police in large American cities ought to be setting worldwide standards for de-escalation, less-than-lethal force and cautious encounters with subjects instead of using military-style, shoot-first tactics. Emanuel should be able to draw on knowledge and best practices compiled by dozens of cities and not put so much stock in Tasers, which also can be lethal. It should be a given that people such as LeGriers father or the person who saw Tamir with the toy should be able to call 911 and be answered by professionals well-versed in practices geared toward the safety of suspects as well as themselves and bystanders. But Los Angeles and other cities have only recently begun embracing specialized training to help officers, for example, recognize and deal with mentally ill people and employ other, more modern response protocols. When police encounters fail when they result in death the questions asked in official inquiries are too often limited to whether the officers actions were objectively reasonable. That may be the appropriate question when determining whether the officer should stand trial for murder. But decisions not to indict officers (as in the cases of the officers who killed Tamir and Hammond) or not to convict them (as in the hung jury in the first prosecution in Grays death) must not be taken as statements that nothing went wrong. The appropriate question for police discipline bodies, chiefs, trainers and elected officials ought to be whether officers had, were aware of and could have used alternatives that were likely to result in better outcomes. It is a lot to ask of officers to be prepared at a moments notice to confront mass killers, as in San Bernardino, and be at the same time ready to keep their heads when responding to a report of a boy holding a gun that may or may not be real. But it is a standard of performance that is met by police elsewhere in Britain, for example and should be the standard in U.S. cities as well. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook My uncles wanted to accompany my grandfathers body back to Iraq, but my mother refused. It was 2006, and the insurgency was at its height. Isnt it enough that I am burying my father? she said. Do I have extra brothers to lose? We buried my grandfather in the Muslim portion of a sprawling, green-lawned cemetery about an hour from my parents Monterey home. Because of state regulations, his shrouded body was placed inside a plain wooden box, not directly in the ground as Islamic custom requires. His children on the East Coast and in Britain came for the funeral. His children in the United Arab Emirates mourned their father in place and held satellite memorials. Advertisement Only when I put a loved one in the ground did I feel as if I was putting down roots. Despite the long drive, we visited my grandfathers grave site regularly, loading up our car with picnic lunches. Wed spread blankets, pray, eat and dote on his grave. Once my mother spilled a bit of coffee onto the dry soil, as if giving her father a sip of his favorite drink, and I marveled at this unexpected thing that had happened: Someone from my household was buried in America, the place that seemed like an accident, the place where my father landed after completing his medical training, the place my mother brought her parents to escape Saddam Husseins Iraq. I was born in this country. I was raised in this country. I went to school in this country, own a home in this country and have children in this country. But only when I put a loved one in the ground did I feel as if I was putting down roots. :: My mothers sister was among those who didnt attend my grandfathers funeral. But a few weeks before he died, she came to visit from the UAE. When she left, she kissed him in his wheelchair and walked backward to the car, waving and blowing him kisses, only to race back to his side. She did this three more times until we were all standing in the foyer of my mothers house laughing and crying. Seven months ago, she died of cancer. I didnt see her once while she was in the hospital. I didnt hold her hand. I didnt kiss her goodbye. I have not seen her grave. I didnt make the trip because Id recently taken my family of five to attend her sons wedding. It was too much for us all to go again and too difficult for me to go alone and leave my children behind. Such decisions are inevitable when your entire relationship with your extended family hinges on airfare. :: When the cancer spread to my aunts brain, my mother rushed from California to her sisters bedside, where she stayed until she had no choice but to return for work. She cried the whole way back. At the airport, her eyes were red and swollen, her cheeks rubbed raw with tissues. I found out my aunt was in her final moments when my mother dashed into the hallway with a wild look in her eyes, her cellphone in hand. Shes dying, she said. For the next 30 minutes, she watched frantic texts fly back and forth. Come now! the caregiver wrote to my aunts children, whod not yet arrived at the hospital. The last text came: No more Madame. My mother repeated this line again and again and collapsed to the floor. :: After my aunt died, I made a list of all the times Id seen her. She came to California when I moved into my dorm room my second year of college, when I picked out my wedding dress, for my wedding, to meet my first and then second child. I had these stand-alone chapters, 15 of them, to be exact, that I desperately wanted to stitch together into some kind of a story, some semblance of a shared life. I typed her name into my email search bar. There were six messages from me along with her replies. I printed out every exchange, wondering why I didnt send more, say more. I looked through my old cards and letters and found a note from her from before my wedding that I stuffed into my wallet. I had not appreciated the particular pain of unanchored, disembodied grief that my aunt must have felt when my grandfather died until she passed away, too. Now it was our turn to host the satellite memorials. We held two: one for the Iraqi immigrants in Northern California, and one for the Iraqi immigrants in Southern California. We wept without a body, without a grave site to focus our attention. The women in our community, the ones I grew up calling aunty, consoled me, bemoaning the loss of the real aunt with whom I had shared blood but not place or time. :: These days I listen to the clamor about refugees, and I think of my grandfathers death and my aunts death and just how far the grasp of exile extends, how many people it ensnares, how deeply it cuts. I think about the desperation that forces people to accept the vulnerability of living in a foreign land, and I cannot comprehend begrudging another human being such an unenviable lot in life. The initial exile is just the beginning of generations of heartbreak. Diaspora means weighing visits against airfare and daily obligations. It means missing out on births, graduations and weddings. It means hearing that a loved one has died and knowing that you spent your short time on Earth in different places. Huda Al-Marashi is a writer who lives in Monterey, Calif. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook The Sinai Peninsula. Paris. Mali. San Bernardino. We keep trying to find our way out of this recurring nightmare of terrorist attacks. The United Nations unanimously adopted a resolution to use all necessary measures to combat Islamic State. Security services remain on the highest alert worldwide. For New Years, Brussels canceled its festivities, Moscow shut down Red Square, and thousands of soldiers and police officers patrolled New York, Paris and London. But protecting every soft target in the world around the clock is impossible. We know more attacks will come. Still, the scale of the problem is far larger than most of us are willing to acknowledge. Even if Islamic State is dealt a devastating defeat, it is just the current chapter in a line of modern concepts of jihadism since Irans 1979 revolution. Islamic States heinous attacks might finally [push] other Muslim-majority countries to realize they cant remain bystanders in the fight against extremist ideology. Advertisement Three broad trends indicate that the fight to overcome this strain of violence will be a long one. First is the large number of young men (and in some cases, women) vulnerable to recruitment by such millenarian-type organizations. The Muslim world is replete with uneducated young people for whom religion is their lifes organizing principle and a substitute for education or opportunity. They fight for goals that defy rational explanation and in the service of a perverted interpretation of religious ideology, which, by its very nature, is closed to any reasoning. Illiteracy in Afghanistan is greater than 60%; in Syria the education system has collapsed as a result of the conflict there and hundreds of thousands of children have no schools to attend. The same is true in parts of Iraq. Even where there remains a semblance of an education system, such as in Pakistan, the populace is fed anti-Western diatribes originating from religious or state authorities. With each passing year of war, shuttered schools and collapsed governance manufacture a new class of these susceptible youngsters. Uneducated 13- to 15-year-olds are the perfect recruiting pool for the likes of Islamic State. They are easily brainwashed, obedient and unlikely to be swayed by reason or outside influences. For deeply alienated immigrant youths living in Western societies, Islamic State and its ideology offer a sense of belonging, identity and acceptance facilitated by social media. A second worrying development is signs of escalating competition between terrorist groups attempting to demonstrate their own prowess. Islamic State has eclipsed Al Qaeda of late; its November attacks in Paris were an attempt to hijack the world stage before the Group of 20 summit a horrific televised propaganda campaign to lure new recruits. Coming just a week later, the Mali attack that left 20 hostages dead appeared to be Al Qaedas response through its Maghreb affiliate. Belittling the Paris carnage, Al Qaeda boasted afterward that it knew how to conduct terrorist attacks in a less indiscriminate manner with fewer Muslim casualties. The prospect of a competition for which group effectively kills more infidels would sow more fear and prove calamitous to domestic politics of the U.S. and countries in Europe. Third, decisively vanquishing jihadist groups has proved to be impossible. This is because the fight is not against a nation or even an organization, but a religion-based and deeply rooted ideology. Defeated in one location, adherents regroup and resurface. Islamic State has managed to put together a state-like apparatus in Syria, which makes it vulnerable to a determined military ground assault. That wouldnt, however, halt the ideological contagion. Islamic State is the offspring of Al Qaeda in Iraq, which the U.S. had successfully put out of business. If Islamic State were to be destroyed, its remnants would metastasize into something else just as deadly. This will be the longest war in modern times. Since 2001, the U.S. has been in a state of permanent war with the likes of the Taliban, Al Qaeda, Islamic State and their offspring, such as the Shabab and Boko Haram. As these groups split, merge and mutate, Washington will be drawn into fights wherever they spread: Yemen, Libya, Nigeria, Somalia, the Sinai Peninsula and more. American special forces contingents already have been sent to Syria and Cameroon. Expanded security measures will not be sufficient; we need to target the source of the ideology. Specifically, Saudi Arabias policy of supporting schools, mosques and groups that spread the religious dogma at the core of this extremist belief system has to end as does direct funding to terrorist groups by wealthy Saudi individuals. The West, and the United States in particular, has been too accepting of these practices for decades. Saudi Arabia also needs to change its cultural narrative, which demonizes the other, whether that is the Shiite Muslims or all non-Muslims. Uprooting radical ideologies is difficult, but possible. Indonesia, the worlds most populous Muslim-majority nation, has experienced horrific terrorist attacks, most memorably in 2002 in Bali. Today the country is consciously focused on spreading respect for minority rights. Nongovernmental organizations following in the footsteps of the late former President Abdurrahman Wahid are actively countering extremist groups, some funded by Saudis. The countrys largest religious organization, the 50-million-member Nahdlatul Ulama, is campaigning for a mental revolution and promoting the archipelagos tolerant brand of Islam as a counter-identity to fundamentalism worldwide. Islamic States heinous attacks might finally be the thing that pushes other Muslim-majority countries to realize they cant remain bystanders in the fight against extremist ideology. And we will need their help if this longest war isnt to become an eternal one. Henri J. Barkey is the director of the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson Center. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook As they barnstorm across the caucus and primary states, the Republican and Democratic frontrunners for the presidential nomination often sound as if theyre from different countries, not just different parties. According to Republicans, the United States faces a daunting list of crises: an existential threat from Islamic extremism, a tidal wave of illegal immigration, a federal government out of control. Democrats, meanwhile, are focused on the economy: too few good jobs, too much inequality (both gender and racial), too little access to healthcare. Advertisement Theyre not just offering different answers to the nations problems; theyre asking different questions. A catastrophe can sometimes create consensus -- at least on what the problem is. But that hasnt happened in the case of Islamic State. Two examples from candidates high in the polls: At a rally in Virginia last month, Republican Ted Cruz discussed illegal immigration, Planned Parenthood, terrorism, Iran, Israel, healthcare and the Common Core education standards all before he even mentioned the economy. Even then, it was only as part of a promise to rein in federal agencies that descend like locusts on small businesses, killing jobs. At a town hall meeting in New Hampshire last week, Hillary Clinton flipped the script, addressing the economy first, national security second. I want to be a president who gets the economy moving for everybody and gets incomes rising and more good paying jobs, she said. And I want to be a president that keeps us safe and secure and takes on the threats and dangers that we face, she added. The priority gap is no accident; both candidates are reflecting the preferences of their parties core voters. An ABC News-Washington Post poll last month, taken after the San Bernardino attack, found that a plurality of Republicans listed terrorism first when asked what issue would be most important in their choice for president. Democrats and independents said the economy. Among Republicans, 38% cited terrorism as the most important issue, and 29% named the economy. Among Democrats, 38% cited the economy, and only 17% named terrorism. Liberals and conservatives havent always disagreed on priorities. As recently as 2009, in the depths of the Great Recession, voters in both parties listed the economy as their top concern. After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, voters in both parties said terrorism came first. A catastrophe can sometimes create consensus at least on what the problem is. But that hasnt happened in the case of Islamic State. Looking at the whole population not just Democrats and Republicans terrorism-firsters are in the minority. Among all voters in the ABC-Post poll, 33% listed the economy as their top concern; only 26% cited terrorism. And that creates a challenge for Republican candidates as the campaign accelerates in the new year. To win the hearts of conservatives in the GOP nomination contest, theyve been competing with each other mostly on noneconomic issues. To build a broad coalition of voter support in the general election, the Republican nominee is going to need to deliver an appealing message about creating jobs. At this point, most GOP candidates havent spent much time doing that, beyond occasional mentions of lower taxes and fewer regulations. (The Republican whos had the most to say about the economy so far, oddly enough, is Donald Trump, whose stump speech includes broadsides against free trade with China and a big promise: Were going to be rich again.) If Clinton turns out to be the Democratic nominee, she faces a mirror-image problem: She needs to convince voters who worry about terrorism that shed produce better foreign policy results than the president she worked for. But she has at least remembered to include security concerns in her stump speech as she showed last week in New Hampshire. Theres one more consequence of this priority gap, and it affects both sides: Whoever wins the presidential election will lead a country with a deep and persistent partisan divide. Its little remembered now, but when Obama arrived at the White House in 2009, he enjoyed a brief honeymoon of bipartisan support in public opinion (although not with most Republicans in Congress). That stemmed partly from a national consensus on which problem the new president needed to solve: the recession. Now that consensus is gone; even terrorist attacks havent put a new one in its place. That means the next president, whoever he or she turns out to be, wont get even the brief cease-fire in partisan warfare that Obama was given. doyle.mcmanus@latimes.com Twitter: @doylemcmanus Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook Picture this: Republican leaders and wealthy businessmen argue that the president is a demagogue who panders to the most shiftless members of American society; that he seeks to destroy the Constitution, particularly the Bill of Rights; that he wants to incite class warfare, undermine individualism and redistribute wealth. They whisper that hes not truly American, that he might secretly be guided by a foreign ideology. Although this description may bring to mind Ted Cruz or Donald Trump talking about President Obama on the 2016 campaign trail, such overheated rhetoric is also characteristic of the Great Depression. Indeed, the ideas and strategies of the current Republican Party were born in the 1930s. Perhaps more surprising, they have their roots in California, now one of the most liberal states in the nation. The Great Depression revolutionized the way that Americans related to their government, including how conservatives perceived and responded to federal authority. Before Franklin Delano Roosevelt took office in 1933, conservative businessmen typically supported centralized authority. The federal government, after all, levied tariffs to protect their industries and built infrastructure so they could ship their goods. Advertisement The Great Depression revolutionized the way that Americans related to their government, including how conservatives perceived and responded to federal authority. More important, before the 1930s Washington helped businessmen control workers. Throughout the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries, federal officials looked the other way when employers hired thugs to attack strikers. In some instances, they even sent U.S. troops to end job actions. Conservatives mostly understood that a strong government was a great tool to defend property rights; they feared anarchy, not tyranny. Everything changed when soaring unemployment helped put Roosevelt in office. To stimulate economic recovery, Roosevelts administration took the nation off the gold standard, regulated banking and investing, and put millions of jobless Americans to work building roads, schools and bridges. At first, many businessmen supported New Deal policies. In California, for instance, corporate agribusinesses favored Roosevelts farm subsidies and his commitment to build dams and irrigation canals. But corporate leaders despised Roosevelts labor policies. Roosevelt understood that the economy couldnt function if workers were too poor to buy goods. Accordingly, to help raise wages, the Roosevelt administration empowered laborers by guaranteeing their right to join unions. The 1933 National Industrial Recovery Act said that workers shall have the right to organize and bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing. Courting Southern lawmakers who did not want sharecroppers or maids to join a union, the Roosevelt administration deliberately omitted farm and domestic workers from most New Deal programs. These laborers, however, were oblivious to their exclusion. In 1933, unaware that they had been cast to the margins of the New Deal, they began demanding union recognition and higher wages from their bosses. When their employers refused, these farmworkers went on strike. The biggest agricultural labor action in U.S. history rocked the San Joaquin Valley in 1933 when growers refused to raise cotton pickers wages to the national minimum wage of 25 cents an hour. More than 18,000 agricultural workers walked off the fields in protest. Another strike, this time involving thousands of vegetable and melon workers, hit Imperial Valley in early 1934. The walkouts threatened California growers who had previously enjoyed largely unfettered control over their workforce. Farmers had hired mainly Mexican immigrants to pick their crops people unlikely to unionize and unable to vote. But in 1933, American Communists organized these seemingly tractable workers. Roosevelts aides neither encouraged the strikes nor tolerated the growers violent efforts to break them. When federal mediators arrived in Californias fields, they proposed to broker a compromise solution to the disputes. One mediator threatened to withhold agricultural subsidies from the growers unless they agreed to a settlement that would amount to paying the workers a few cents more an hour. Such evenhandedness infuriated the growers. By all that is fair and just, have the American farmers no rights over Communists and aliens? asked a San Joaquin Valley newspaper. Like their workers, the growers organized. They formed a group called the Associated Farmers, which lobbied state and local prosecutors to go after Communist union leaders for violating the states sedition law. Then they moved against the New Deal itself. Conservative organizations used sophisticated, Hollywood-inspired advertising to convince middle-class Californians that the New Deal represented a Communist attack on private property, organized religion and the traditional family. Our national government today is honeycombed through and through with Communists and nothing seems to be done about it, the Los Angeles radio broadcaster Martin Luther Thomas told a huge crowd of Christian activists in 1936. Former President Hoover maintained that Roosevelt was leading a march toward Moscow. To liberals at the time, the conservatives rhetoric seemed disingenuous. They couldnt possibly think that Roosevelt was a Communist, could they? But many of the states business leaders sincerely believed that, at a minimum, Roosevelt was making the political arena safe for un-American ideas. As Los Angeles utilities executive William Mullendore explained to a friend, the president had used his high office to lift out of the gutter and on to a plane of respectability the basic ideas of Socialism and Communism. Mullendore worked with Hoover to mobilize businessmen across the United States against the New Deal. These subversive ideas and doctrines, he vowed, must be stamped out in the quarter from which they emanate and where they do the most harm that is, in the capital of the nation. He and his colleagues in the conservative movement attacked the presidents policies by equating them with treason. As the New Deal progressed, conservatives articulated their opposition to a strong state and, little by little, developed a coherent limited-government philosophy. Government was not a helpful partner in building markets and managing labor, as previously believed; it was a potentially totalitarian force that had to be contained. This insight, gleaned in the fields of California, still animates the Republican Party today. Kathryn S. Olmsted is professor and chairwoman of the history department at UC Davis. She is the author of Right Out of California: The 1930s and the Big Business Roots of Modern Conservatism. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook A couple of years ago, I participated in an Aspen Institute symposium on the state of race. During the roundtable that followed the panels, as I spoke about my experiences growing up black in the 1990s, I was interrupted by a Latino sociologist and former gang member from UC Santa Barbara. People who care about people of color, the professor instructed me, ought to focus their energies on continued systemic racism and forget about anything so nebulous and untrustworthy as observation. Like it or not, I was the victim of greater social forces. It did not matter that I had come to see my life as something of my own making the evidence of my senses was useless. I thought about this exchange often in 2015, a year in which the discussion of racism always relevant became omnipresent. This was mostly a good thing. Yet it is dismaying how hard it is now to have a serious conversation about black experience without coming across some version of the professors condescending remarks. Join the conversation on Facebook >> Advertisement Perhaps the most influential book last year was Ta-Nehisi Coates Between the World and Me, a jeremiad whose thesis is that black people have been cast into a race in which the wind is always at your face and the hounds are always at your heels. The string of high-profile police killings of black men and women seemed to underscore Coates point, and galvanized support for the Black Lives Matter movement, which, in turn, forced an urgent critique of the very real bias plaguing the criminal justice system. That movement has also frequently veered away from the work of reforming law enforcement practices, enlisting itself in a social media-driven culture war over far more ambiguous problems, such as microaggressions and safe spaces. For far too many Americans of all backgrounds, the idea of a simultaneously black and advantaged person is impossible to imagine. Black people everywhere, many of our most audible voices seem to say, will always and everywhere be the faces at the bottom of the well, as Coates put it. But the truth is more complicated than that. I am a black man of mixed race heritage, and while every black member of my family has encountered racism, we are also the ones in the family who hold graduate degrees, own businesses and travel abroad. My black father, born in 1937 in segregated Texas, is an exponentially more worldly man than my maternal white Protestant grandfather, whose racism always struck me more as a sad function of his provincialism or powerlessness than anything else. I dont mean to excuse the corrosive effects of his views; I simply wish to note that when I compare these two men, I do not recognize my father as the victim. As for me, I was raised in a household in which I took as a birthright the kind of first-rate college education the majority of kids are denied. Today, I live in Paris, where Ive found the freedom to exist outside the American racial binary. I have by no means achieved great wealth or status, but Ive supported myself for almost a decade by reading and writing, which in itself constitutes an incredible luxury. Of course, my personal life is just that personal and highly particular. But is the black experience in America anything but the sum of individual lives? In a November New York Times article about the Princeton University protests over Woodrow Wilsons racist legacy, Takim Williams, a black senior studying philosophy, said he felt torn. He said: My race has never been a disadvantage to me at least thats how I view it so I havent had the same visceral reaction to seeing Wilsons name strewn around campus. Though Williams, like all his classmates, speaks from the vantage of one of the premier academic institutions in the world a place where most whites could never hope to go his views were dismissed on social media. He was deemed a sellout or a deluded young man en route to a painful awakening. Like a piece of paper that is both red all over and green all over, for far too many Americans of all backgrounds, the idea of a simultaneously black and advantaged person is impossible to imagine. This mental inflexibility points to a seldom discussed but nonetheless very frustrating aspect of being African American: well-intentioned people will insist you are a victim whether you interpret your life in such a way or not. Even in the most rarified financial, intellectual and cultural spaces, to experience yourself as something other than a person set upon is at odds with the assumptions people of all colors project. An example of the way we are expected to speak about ourselves, even in positions of privilege, is found in the 2011 documentary Allowed to Attend, which followed several students of color at the elite Manhattan prep school Trinity. In one scene, a girl laments that she is unable to feel pretty when the standard of beauty around her white, skinny, tall is something she can never attain. Its hard for me to get a guy to pay attention to me in a predominantly white school, she confides, because Im black, and thats miserable. Although the statement was confusing what does it mean to say that blackness is incompatible with being slender or tall? its so familiar as to go unchallenged, passing for basic common sense. What is more harmful and pervasive in these disillusioned last days of the first black presidency are the ways in which left-leaning discussions now share assumptions with the worst conservative and even white supremacist ideology. Whether put forth by racists or anti-racists, the insistence that, as James Baldwin noted, it is a persons categorization alone which is real and which cannot be transcended, is oppressive. When genuinely anti-racist views lead us to the same practical conclusions an open bigot would embrace that black life is miserable compared with white life we give white people too much credit and strengthen the status quo. The false choice between acknowledging the repugnant history of racism that informs the present, and the wish to accept the reality that a growing number of black people may nonetheless experience the freedom to define ourselves, is infantilizing. What this current moment of protest and awakening must lead us to, if it is to lead us anywhere, is a dignified means of fully inhabiting our ever more complicated identities. Several years ago, I came across a Ralph Ellison quote that has stayed with me ever since: Said a young white professor of English to me after a lecture out in Northern Illinois, Mr. E., how does it feel to be able to go to places most black men cant go? Said I to him, What you mean is, how does it feel to be able to go to places where most white men cant go. Ellisons way of thinking was honest and brave in 1970 and remains uncommon today. While prejudice and inequality have proven tenacious, if we take the expression black lives matter seriously, we must also accept when black autonomy, equality and even privilege exist. To do otherwise is like overprescribing antibiotics: a valuable defensive tool grows impotent through overuse. Our reflexive indignation fosters a laziness of thought that, paradoxically, can reinforce some of the very anti-black biases it hopes to wipe out. Thomas Chatterton Williams is the author of a memoir, Losing My Cool. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook ALSO In 2016, white people must take responsibility for Donald Trump White working-class longevity drops along with white privilege The dehumanizing disregard I experienced at University of Redlands shows real equality has a ways to go The first meteor shower of 2016 will occur in the wee hours of the morning on Jan. 4, and you can watch it live, right here. The shower is known as the Quadrantids, and while it is not very well known, it can occasionally be quite spectacular. According to NASA, the Quadrantid shower could yield up to 120 meteors per hour during its peak. Unfortunately, that peak is extremely short -- just two hours. The exact moment when Quadrantid meteors are most likely to streak across the sky is hard to predict, so to see the shower in real life, observers on the West Coast should plan to look up after midnight Sunday evening, and keep looking until dawn Monday morning. If the thought of spending the night sky-watching in the January cold sounds daunting, don't worry -- you have other options. The astronomy website Slooh.com is planning to live-stream views of the shower from its network of telescopes stationed around the globe beginning at 4 p.m. Sunday. The live broadcast is scheduled to continue throughout the night. With telescopes in five countries across four continents, there's a good chance you'll see a few meteors, as long as you have a little luck and a lot of patience. Most meteor showers occur when the Earth passes through a ring of dust and debris shed by a comet as it orbits the sun. However, in the case of the Quadrantids, the source body is an asteroid known as 2003 EH1. Studies suggest that this asteroid was once part of a comet that broke apart. If that's the case, then the shooting stars we see each January could be the result of the small bits of debris from this fragmentation slamming into the Earth's atmosphere. If you do plan to watch the meteor shower in real life, the usual rules apply: Look for the darkest sky you can find, as far from city lights as possible. Give your eyes 20 minutes to adjust to the dark, and do your very best to keep from glancing at your cellphone -- it will ruin your night vision. Bring a sleeping bag and warm clothes, and perhaps a thermos of hot chocolate. Then lie back, relax and keep your eyes on the sky. Happy sky-watching and Happy New Year! Do you love science? I do! Follow me @DeborahNetburn and "like" Los Angeles Times Science & Health on Facebook. The U.S. State Department is warning Americans about the high risk of traveling to Cameroon. In particular, the department said, U.S. citizens should avoid all travel to the north regions because of the general threat of violent crime, terrorism and the targeting of Westerners for kidnappings and murder. The terrorist group Boko Haram continues to be a presence in the region. Since July 2015, the group has carried out at least 14 suicide bombings in the north, the State Department reported. The northeastern Nigerian Islamist group has been even more deadly than Islamic State this year. Boko Haram extremists struck the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri for the first time in months last week with rocket-propelled grenades and multiple suicide bombers, witnesses said. Advertisement U.S. officials remain concerned about the continued threat of terrorist attacks overseas. Authorities believe there is an increased likelihood of reprisal attacks against U.S., Western and coalition partner interests throughout the world, especially in the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, and Asia. Italian cities battling heavy smog Bicyclists had free rein of Milan, Italys streets last week during a six-hour ban on private cars in a bid to alleviate persistent smog. Pollution levels in Italys business capital have exceeded levels considered healthful for more than 30 days straight, prompting officials to ban private cars during work hours for three days. Officials said private motorists, who risked steep fines, widely respected the ban. Rome, which is also battling smog, has been enforcing alternate-day driving based on odd and even license-plate numbers, while Florence has limited automobile access to the historic center. De Klerk assails Oxford statue campaign Nobel Peace Prize winner and South Africas last apartheid President F.W. de Klerk criticized as folly a campaign to remove from Oxford University a statue of British colonialist Cecil John Rhodes. It is regrettable that the Rhodes Must Fall folly has spread from South Africa to Oriel College, De Klerk wrote in a letter to the British newspaper the Times. Oriel College at Oxford University is reviewing whether to leave the statue in place after receiving a petition from the Rhodes Must Fall movement, the college said in a statement last month. Rhodes attended Oriel College and left 2% of his estate to the school on his death in 1902. We do not commemorate historic figures for their ability to measure up to current conceptions of political correctness, but because of their actual impact on history, wrote De Klerk. Rhodes, for better or for worse, certainly had an impact on history. Justin Bieber defers top spot to a charity song The National Health Service Choir has beaten Justin Bieber to capture Britains official Christmas No. 1 song and hes OK with that. The Canadian pop stars Love Yourself was ahead until Bieber tweeted that he wanted fans to do the right thing and boost the charity version of the single to the coveted spot. The NHS, founded in 1948, is a source of national pride for many Britons. The choir said, Its a brilliant celebration for the NHS across the country, so well done and thank you everyone. Proceeds will go to several health-related charities. Sources: U.S. State Department, staff reports, Associated Press. travel@latimes.com Gisela Mota was sworn into office as mayor of the small city of Temixco in the state of Morelos on New Years Day, after promising to help free the small town from the grip of organized crime. Less than 24 hours later, the 33-year-old politician was dead the latest of hundreds of public servants to be the victims of drug-related violence in Mexico in the last decade. On Sunday, the Mexican news website SinEmbargo reported that one of three suspects detained after the shooting told authorities that the perpetrators were paid 500,000 Mexican pesos about $29,000 to kill Mota. The newspaper El Universal said the killing was the work of Los Rojos (the Reds) drug gang, which has been engaged in a bloody battle for territory against rival groups in the neighboring state of Guerrero. Advertisement I hope and pray to God that Giselas death helps to make us all more conscious of the crime problem, said Roman Catholic Bishop Ramon Castro, speaking Sunday at a memorial Mass for Mota in Temixco, according to the newspaper Reforma. Im no expert, but the only thing I see is that various communities here are in the hands of organized crime Ive been saying that for a while, and begging, and no one has been able to do anything. Mota, who was part of the left-leaning Democratic Revolutionary Party, had vowed to combat organized crime frontally and directly, according to Agustin Basave, the partys national president, who sent his condolences to her family via Twitter. Prior to becoming mayor, she had been a congresswoman representing Morelos state since 2013. She was shot dead in her home at around 7 a.m. Saturday, in the small nearby town of Pueblo Viejo, about a two-hour drive from Mexico City, by a group of armed assailants, according to local authorities. Join the conversation on Facebook >> After her killing, local media reported that Motas bodyguards and police gave chase and a shootout ensued, during which two people were killed and three arrested. Bulletproof vests, balaclavas, a 9mm pistol, an Uzi rifle and various types of ammunition were recovered from the car they were traveling in, according to a statement from the local prosecutors office. Javier Perez Duron, Morelos state prosecutor, confirmed at a news conference that three suspects were in custody and that Motas killers would be subjected to the full weight of the law. The governor of the state of Morelos, Graco Ramirez, announced three days of official mourning following Motas death. Temixco lies on the outskirts of the capital of Morelos, Cuernavaca, which has seen high levels of drug-related violence, kidnappings and extortion in recent years. Motas death brings the number of local elected officials killed in Mexico in the last decade to nearly 100, according to the Association of Local Mexican Authorities. In a statement distributed via Twitter, the group said that more than a thousand public municipal servants have been killed since 2006, mainly by organized crime. Urgent action is needed from the government to stop this wave of violence, the statement said. In 2006, then-President Felipe Calderon launched a crackdown on organized crime, but since then violent homicides have spiked. Although the current president, Enrique Pena Nieto, has continued Calderons crackdown, more than 100,000 people are now dead or missing as a result of violence generated by conflict between rival gangs or the authorities. Such killings are rarely solved. Even when they are, the corruption within Mexicos judicial system and its reputation for abuse and torture of suspects often leaves a cloud of doubt in the public mind. Bonello is a special correspondent. ALSO President Obama considering visit to Cuba to shore up relations and his foreign policy legacy Argentinas little trees getting chopped down by new president Mexican marijuana farmers see profits tumble as U.S. loosens laws President Obama may go to Cuba this year if its government bolsters its human rights record and opens its doors more fully to American business in the coming weeks, a senior advisor to the president said Saturday. Obama would probably make such a decision in the next couple of months, as his national security team evaluates the tentative warming of relations since the opening of a U.S. embassy in Havana last year. The key test, said deputy national security advisor Ben Rhodes, is whether the presidents going to Cuba would help advance those priorities, and in particular, whether a visit would improve the lives of the Cuban people. Advertisement NEWSLETTER: Get the days top headlines from Times Editor Davan Maharaj >> The controversial possibility arose in a preview of Obamas foreign policy plans for his final year in office, as aides prepare for the presidents return to Washington after two weeks of vacation with his family in his childhood home state of Hawaii. By far, the overarching foreign policy challenge of the new year will be the fight against the terrorist organization Islamic State and its efforts to inspire attacks against Western targets. The Obama administration will be looking to disrupt the terrorist groups plans, ease the Syrian civil war and push the group out of its safe havens in the region. Toward that end, aides say, Obama plans to seek a new authorization for the use of military force. The fight against terrorism will also be a focus of conversations with NATO leaders at an upcoming summit in Poland. But while Rhodes ranked the campaign against Islamic State first in every mention of Obamas foreign policy priorities, he also made clear that the president planned a full-court press on several projects all of them crucial to his foreign policy legacy. In dealings with Iran, Obama plans to spend the next year making sure the Islamic Republic is not making any moves toward developing a nuclear weapon in violation of its agreement with the international community, while also enforcing sanctions still in place. Though some critics are calling for new sanctions, Rhodes said the U.S. government had work to do before new sanctions could be announced. Obama plans to travel to China and Laos and host Southeast Asian leaders at a summit in California as part of his effort to turn American attention toward Asia. He will also press world leaders to take more steps to fight climate change during a summit in China in the fall. The normalization of relations with Cuba is of symbolic significance to the Obama administration. It represents not only a historic opportunity to end a lingering remnant of the Cold War but also the chance to push for an affirmative change rather than simply respond to crises in the Middle East. The initiative has its critics. Many believe that Cuban President Raul Castro will not significantly expand the freedoms of his people and that Obama will go down in history for doing business with a despotic regime. Rhodes, a lead negotiator in the talks between Washington and Havana, said Saturday that he believed the Castro government had its own reasons to open the way for commerce and to free the flow of information via Internet and cellular communications. Join the conversation on Facebook >> I think they have made a decision that they want this to happen, said Rhodes, adding that there are changes afoot in Cuba and that the government sees some degree of change as consistent with their revolution. Obamas hope is to make enough progress in U.S.-Cuban relations with more travel to and corporate investment in the island nation that a Republican successor could not undo his work. Obama will go to Cuba, Rhodes said, when and if his team determines a visit would advance that cause. christi.parsons@latimes.com Twitter: @cparsons ALSO Obama asks Americans to help stop epidemic of gun violence Donald Trump clip is featured in recruitment video released by Al Qaeda affiliate Taliban target was a pricey French restaurant, but their victims were Afghans Saudi Arabia severed diplomatic relations with Iran on Sunday, one day after the execution of an important Shiite Muslim cleric sparked a war of words between the two regional rivals. Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Jubeir, in a televised address on state television, declared the kingdoms dissolution of relations with Iran, adding that the Iranian government had 48 hours to shut down its offices and remove all of its diplomats from the country. On Monday, in a reflection of Saudi Arabias influence in the region, both Bahrain and Sudan announced that they, too, were severing diplomatic ties to Iran, while the United Arab Emirates said it would downgrade its relationship to the level of a charge daffaires. Advertisement The UAE said its officials would from now on focus entirely on the business relationships between the two countries. Saudi broadcaster Al Arabiya reported that members of the Saudi diplomatic mission in Iran landed in Dubai late Sunday after being recalled from their posts. The break came as the two countries which have grappled for regional leadership for years engaged in increasingly angry rhetoric over the Saudi execution of Shiite cleric Sheik Nimr al-Nimr. Saudi Arabia announced Al-Nimrs death Saturday as part of a mass execution of 47 people on terrorism-related charges the countrys largest such execution since 1980. Most of those executed had been implicated in Al Qaeda attacks against the Saudi government. Al-Nimr was executed along with three other Shiite dissidents from Saudi Arabias Shiite-dominated eastern Qatif region. The execution enraged Iranians and provoked a stern response from Irans government. Saudi Arabia, in turn, was angered when protesters stormed its embassy in Tehran, hurling Molotov cocktails, on Saturday night and early Sunday. Eventually, security forces pushed them back and arrested about 40 people, said Iranian Deputy Interior Minister Hossein Zolfaqari. The Saudi Consulate in the city of Mashhad was also attacked. Jubeir blamed Iran for what he described as a blatant violation of international charters because its leaders had engaged in rhetoric that incited the attacks. Iran has a long record in attacking foreign diplomatic missions, said Jubeir, in an apparent reference to the 1979 storming of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran by Iranian students. Over the last two days, relations between the two countries deteriorated, with opposing leaders hurling insults at one another. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Irans supreme leader, said in a religious speech Sunday that divine vengeance will befall Saudi politicians. He described Al-Nimr as an innocent martyr, a scholar whose only crime was open criticism of the Saudi government. Irans Revolutionary Guard, according to the Associated Press, described the execution as a medieval act of savagery and compared the Saudi government to Islamic State. Saudi Arabia said the prisoners executed Saturday were put to death either by beheading with a sword or by firing squad; it did not specify which method was used with each individual. It denounced Iran as a blindly sectarian supporter of terrorism, adding that Iran has executed hundreds of its own people without clear legal proof, according to a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency. Protesters gathered in Tehran again Sunday to protest the execution, despite a heavy police presence and condemnation by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who criticized the previous days protests for damaging the nations reputation. He called on Iranian officials to guarantee the safety and security of Saudi Arabian diplomats in the country. Although Sundays protest was less violent, hundreds came to denounce the execution, shouting slogans demanding the closure of the Wahhabi embassy, a reference to the harsh form of Sunni Islam adopted by Saudi rulers. Some carried posters depicting Saudi King Salman, bearing the ominous caption, If we do not stop you, God will. Others honored Al-Nimr, saying his death with dignity [was] better than life with humiliation. The Sunni Wahhabi regime is fighting against us and we should react accordingly, said Ali Hosseinipour, a 31-year-old graduate student who attended the protest. ------------ FOR THE RECORD 10:49 p.m.: An earlier version of this post misspelled Ali Hosseinipours name as Ali Hossianipour. ------------ I am here to show that I am not like those who stormed into the embassy last night; we are peaceful protesters, but we do not forgive the Saudi regime for the atrocity they did against Sheik Nimr, said Hossian Savari, a student and member of the Basij, Irans paramilitary volunteer organization. See more of our top stories on Facebook >> Sundays protest lasted for nearly two hours. Eventually, security forces urged demonstrators to leave the scene and head toward Palestine Square, where a less-violent protest called for by the government was staged. Authorities, meanwhile, renamed the street on which the Saudi Embassy stands in honor of Martyr Nimr Baqir Nimr. Regional reactions to the execution mirrored regional loyalties, which have been sharpened in the last few years by the conflict in Syria. The government of Syrian President Bashar Assad has been engaged in a civil war against armed opposition rebels. Iran supports Assad, who is an Alawite, a Shiite offshoot sect. Saudi Arabia is a major benefactor to some of the rebels, whose ranks are dominated by Sunnis. Hassan Nasrallah, head of the Shiite militant group Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, delivered a broadside against Saudi Arabia, saying in a televised speech Sunday that Al-Nimrs execution shows the real oppressive, terrorist, and criminal face of the Saudi regime. The governments of Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Bahrain, Yemen and Kuwait officially condemned the assault on the Saudi Embassy in Iran, while the United Arab Emirates summoned the Iranian ambassador in Abu Dhabi to complain about Irans interference in Saudi internal matters. Bahrain also announced it would cut diplomatic ties with Iran, calling on all Bahrainis in Iran to leave the country within 48 hours as it planned to close its diplomatic missions there, the Associated Press reported. It blamed the decision on what it called the cowardly attack on Saudi Arabias diplomatic mission, as well as allegations that Iran smuggles weapons and explosives into Bahrain. Bahrain frequently accuses Iran of being behind the long-running, low-level insurgency in the country since its majority Shiite population began protests in 2011 against Bahrains Sunni rulers. Meanwhile, Saudi and Emirati television networks weighed in, with the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya network broadcasting a report highlighting Iranian courts death verdicts against 27 Sunni scholars. The Abu Dhabi-based Sky News Arabia denounced Irans execution record, which it estimated to be at least 753 cases since the relatively moderate Rouhani took power in 2013. Zeid Raad Hussein, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, described the mass execution in Saudi Arabia as a very disturbing development indeed, particularly as some of those sentenced to death were accused of nonviolent crimes, according to a news release on the U.N.s website Sunday. He added that he was extremely concerned about the recent sharp increase in the number of executions in Saudi Arabia, with at least 157 people put to death in 2015, compared to 90 executed in 2014, and lower numbers in previous years. He urged the Saudi government to impose a moratorium on all executions and to work with the U.N. and other partners on alternative strategies to combat terrorism. The kingdoms election to chair a key panel of the U.N. Human Rights Council last summer caused an uproar from activists around the globe. Shiite Muslims make up 10% to 15% of the Saudi population, found mostly in its oil-rich Eastern province. They have long sought a greater role in the countrys governance, and complain of systematic discrimination. Al-Nimr was a frequent critic of the Saudi government who, according to a 2008 U.S. diplomatic cable, said in a meeting with U.S. officials in Saudi Arabia that he would side with the people in a conflict, never with the government. In the same meeting, he added that he would not endorse violence a position that remained largely unchanged throughout his confrontations with the Saudi government. He also insisted he had no connections with Tehran, despite accusations to the contrary by Saudi authorities. In 2012, Al-Nimr was shot multiple times and arrested by police, triggering a wave of protests in Qatif that left three Shiites dead. Al-Nimrs nephew was also arrested and sentenced to death, although that punishment has yet to be carried out. He was handed a discretionary death sentence in October 2014. Observers, however, did not expect the verdict to be carried out; in the past, Saudi rulers have often shown leniency toward political prisoners. However, the new Saudi king, Salman, who was crowned last January after the death of his half-brother, King Abdullah, has taken a more heavy-handed approach, according to F. Gregory Gause, professor at the Bush School of Government at Texas A&M University. Nimr was arrested under the previous ruler, who followed the precedent of rulers before him and was likely to commute death sentences in political cases, said Gause in a phone interview Sunday. The new king is not following that same pattern, thats for sure, he added. Gause said that Nimrs execution, along with those of accused Al Qaeda members, who are Sunni, was aimed at mollifying the kingdoms Sunni critics by saying, Were not just picking on you. Others agreed. For the internal Saudi audience, the executions bore a message that there is no differentiation between terrorists, and that terrorism has no religion nor creed, said Kassab Otaiby, a Saudi commentator interviewed via social media Saturday. Otaiby also lauded the timing of the execution, saying it came to proclaim this was a purely Saudi decision that reflected Saudi sovereignty. However, professor Toby Jones, professor of Middle Eastern history at Rutgers University, said the execution reflected Saudi Arabias turbulent domestic political scene. The government is facing two problems, both of which are costly, explained Jones in a phone interview Sunday. A budget shortfall due to falling oil prices has forced the government to impose austerity measures and trim social welfare, and Saudi Arabia has walked away from a cease-fire with Houthi rebels amid heavy losses in the war in Yemen. The only ideological glue that allows the Saudis to pursue both an austerity program and the war on Yemen is to kill a prominent Shiite, concluded Jones. Special correspondents Bulos reported from Dubai and Mostaghim from Tehran, respectively. Special correspondent Amro Hassan in Cairo contributed to this report. ALSO 6.7 earthquake damages buildings in northeast India A mayor in Mexico is shot dead a day after taking office President Obama considering visit to Cuba to shore up relations and his foreign policy legacy The Miss Universe 2015 is nothing short of controversy. Roughly two weeks after the Miss Universe blunder, it seems that some Colombians might not yet be ready to move on. A video posted in Facebook by a certain Noider Almanza Barraza showed Colombians burning effigies of Miss Universe 2015 winner Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach and pageant host Steve Harvey in celebration of New Year. Noider was also seen smiling and waving in the video along with the cheers of other people and festive background music. There were also some who posted on Twitter the effigies of Pia and Harvey which they made before New Year's celebration. According to the report by CNN, the burning of effigies is part of the Colombians' tradition to fend off bad luck. The said tradition is also being observed in Colombia as a sign of leaving behind what happened in the previous year in order to begin a new year. The report cited that the video has since gone viral, being shared more than 2,000 times. Some Filipino reacted on the video, calling it "distasteful." Others commented that it was not Pia's fault and suggested that Colombians should already move on from what happened as nothing can be done to change the results. On the other hand, Noider already apologized for the video. In a translation of his post on Facebook, Noider said that it was not his intention to offend the "people of the Philippines." He pointed out that he is not the only one who burned that kind of effigies and it was just a tradition in Colombia in order to leave everything that happened in 2015. Noider admitted that he was very sad and that he already taken down the video he uploaded. He also apologized for the copy of the videos that were on the news and on YouTube. As reported previously by Latinos Post, during the recent Miss Universe pageant held at Las Vegas, Miss Colombia Ariadna Gutierrez and Miss Philippines Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach were placed in an awkward position after Harvey, who is also a comedian and host of his own Morning show, declared Miss Colombia as the winner, when in fact it should be Miss Philippines. Harvey, however, realized his mistake and immediately corrected himself, declaring Miss Philippines as the real winner. The host admitted that it was an "honest mistake" and he will take responsibility for the gaffe. Nonetheless, the incident, which Miss Colombia said was 'humiliating', sparked furor among Colombians who claimed that they were robbed of the crown. 2015 Latinos Post. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Some people say that the job interview is a game of chance. They thought that they can only do limited things about it. That's why other aspirants would just read the job description, familiarize their resume and pray hoping that their interviewer will ask questions they can answer. But the truth is, there is a way to nail one's job interview. And that is the proper preparation for it. So Latinos must invest their time and efforts as they do the right thing perfectly especially that this phase is their last step to reach the goal of getting hired. In order to properly prepare for their job interview Latinos must consider these tips: Put Emphasis on Individual Accomplishments Job recruiters want to know not just how the applicant coordinates in a team but also how that person stands out in their group task. That's why it's important that Latinos must discuss their own accomplishments during an interview. By doing so, recruiters would think that the aspirant has so many significant things to talk about during interview. Answer the Questions Directly As posted by LatPro, Graciela Kenig, founder and president of the Latino Workforce, an organization dedicated to finding and placing multicultural recruits into the workforce, said, "We Latinos tend to communicate indirectly." In fact, plunging right in and saying things directly may seem abrupt and rude to a Latino, but it's not during an interview. There is only a limited time to impress the recruiter so maximize every second by directly answering the questions. Always Make Eye Contact As recruiters give their aspirants a chance to market themselves during an interview, they are already imagining them as their potential co-workers. That's why Latinos, during an interview, must learn to look at them in eyes and act as colleagues. For some, doing so will make them feel uncomfortable especially that the gesture has a different connotation in Latin America. But, aspirants must never forget that good eye contact shows confidence. Failing to do so would mean untruthfulness and evasiveness. Always Smile The job interview is stressful, but looking nervous and eventually freezing up during an interview will lower the chances of an aspirant getting the job. That's how important it is to smile. Just don't forget to do it naturally without pursing the lips together. "Even if you're not feeling it, fake it," advised by The Muse. This gesture will make any Latino appear more friendly, confident and approachable. Remember, in a job interview, practice makes perfect. So be confident and well prepared. Knowing these rules and tips ahead of time is a great way to start. Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy is shining a spotlight on gun violence and the hundreds of mass shootings that took place in 2015 in effort to push Congress to pass gun legislation. The Connecticut senator spent New Year's Eve tweeting details about each mass shooting of 2015 in the U.S. The staunch gun control advocate titled his series of tweets his "year in review." "372+ mass shootings, countless lives forever changes by gun violence. Day by day, month by month," he tweeted Thursday afternoon. #ICYMI Heres a 2015 year in review - 372+ mass shootings, countless lives forever changes by gun violence. Day by day, month by month Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) December 31, 2015 Murphy used statistics and data about the shootings from shootingtracker.com, which defines mass shootings as any where at least four people are injured. 2015 started in the early hours of January 1st when 5 people were shot on a New Years Eve party bus in Memphis. Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) December 31, 2015 And thats just January. First day of February, 5 injured in Syracuse, and 1 dead, 4 injured in Manhattan. Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) December 31, 2015 He even tweeted about a shooting that left four people dead on Christmas day. On Christmas Day, 4 are injured in Mobile and 4 more in Jacksonville. The next day, 4 more are shot in Philadelphia. Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) December 31, 2015 However, the deadliest massacre of the year occurred on Dec. 2, when a married couple opened fire at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California, during a Christmas party, killing 14 people and wounding 21 others. The couple was killed during a shootout with police after the attack. Meanwhile, officials later discovered that the suspects were individually self-radicalized long before they got married and moved to California. Murphy added that all members of Congress should vow to fight against gun violence and advance gun control legislation as a New Year's resolution. My point? The New Year's resolution of every Congressman and Senator should be to make sure 2016 is different. Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) December 31, 2015 Murphy's call for gun action spilled into Friday when he applauded President Barack Obama for promising to announce a new executive action to expand background checks on gun sales. The congressman said he was "proud" that Obama plans to expand background checks since the Republican-controlled Congress refugees to take action. I'm proud @POTUS will act where Congress has failed - listening to the American people & taking concrete steps to end this carnage Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) January 1, 2016 UPDATE - The latest winning numbers for Powerball are 05-06-15-29-42, Powerball: 10, Power Play: 2X Saturdays chance to win big money playing Powerball is here. The grand prize is currently at $334 million, with a cash value of $205 million. Wednesday's Numbers Last Wednesdays winning numbers were 12, 36, 38, 54, 61 and 22. There were regular 1,577,674 winners, and $13,510,463 in non-jackpot money was won. There are nine ways to win at Powerball. There is a 1 in 292,201,338.00 chance of getting the grand prize, and a 1 in 11,688,053.52 in winning $1,000,000. Playing it safe, a Powerball player has a 1 in 38 chance of simply doubling their money on a $2 ticket. Last Powerball Jackpot Winner Curiousities Marie Holmes, a young mother of four from North Carolina, was celebrated last February when she won a $188 million Powerball jackpot. Since her win, Holmes has been in the news for less lucky reasons. The 27-year-old has spent $21 million bailing her live-in boyfriend Lamarr McDow out of jail. Initially she bailed McDow out of jail with a $3 million bond in March. Since then, he was re-arrested in July and put back in jail under a $6 million bond. Holmes posted bail again in August. McDow has once again been arrested. As MS News reports, his bond was set at $12 million and Holmes has once again paid it. Holmes has been the target of much media criticism for repeatedly bailing her boyfriend out of jail. But, judging from a generous contribution she made to her local church, perhaps she is by nature just a giving person. As Starpulse reports, Holmes donated $680,000 of her winnings to the Pleasant Hill Missionary Baptist Church in Brunswick County. Speaking to Robin Roberts on "Good Morning America" back in February, Holmes expressed humble plans for her new fortune. I want to get my mom a house and fix my grandmas house up and put money aside for the kids for college and stuff, she said. Drawing Time Be sure to check here for local stations broadcasting the Powerball drawing at 11 p.m. EST. As many as 11 families are now being held in detention as the government earnestly kicked off its plan to find and deport Central American migrants who once sought refuge in the U.S. and have stayed here illegally. The Los Angeles Times reports that unlike immigration raids of the past, agents this time around do not plan to conduct workplace raids or other mass enforcement actions, instead targeting addresses for families with deportation orders. In Norcross, Ga., on Saturday, Joanna Gutierrez lamented her niece and said her 9-year-old son were both taken by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. She added the officers arrived in an unmarked car and presented Gutierrez with a warrant for a man she didn't know. "They were shaking from fear," Gutierrez said of her children, who were all awaken by the agents conducting searches of every room. Gutierrez's niece, Ana Lizet Mejia, illegally entered the U.S. in the summer of 2014, fleeing from her native Honduras, where he brother had been killed by the gangs. "Attempting to unlawfully enter the United States as a family unit does not protect individuals from being subject to the immigration laws of this country," said an official with the Department of Homeland Security. "ICE will continue to pursue the removal of persons who fall within DHS immigration enforcement priorities, including families who are recent unlawful border crossers and who are subject to final orders of removal." Sources added Immigration and Customs Enforcement is now working to secure the U.S.-Mexico border, hinting that the deportations are part of an overall plan aimed at convincing migrants that entering the country illegally is a "fruitless" exercise. Immigrant advocates, however, question the government's logic in prioritizing a plan that calls for nonviolent migrants to be deported and minors to be held at facilities many deem as unsuitable for them. "We think they are gathering people at the Atlanta field office," said Adelina Nicholls of the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights. "We have no idea what's going on there. That's not a location to accommodate children." In Texas, six Central American families thus far detained in the raids are expected to be brought by Monday to the South Texas Family Residential Center near San Antonio. Mohammad Abdollahi, a spokesman for the legal advocacy group RAICES, said his San Antonio based organization has been contacting family members of those being held at the centers to ensure they know their rights. "We've been calling a lot of the families that may have orders of removal to make sure they know they have legal counsel," he said. Ferrari issues stop-sale notice for 488 GTB over fire risk Jan 3, 2016, 11:00am ET The company stresses that no injuries or fatalities have been associated with the defect. Ferrari has issued its dealers a stop-sale notice that applies to the 2016 488 GTB. The company explains that a low-pressure fuel line might not connect properly to the fuel pump feed pipe, a defect that it blames on a small batch of parts manufactured by a supplier named Dynamic Fluid Technologies. The metallic part of the fuel pipe that connects to the fuel pump isn't properly coated. The issue might cause fuel to leak into the engine bay, an issue that greatly increases the risk of a fire. The company stresses that no injuries or fatalities have been associated with the defect. A statement published on the National Highway Traffic Safety's (NHTSA) website suggests that none of the affected 488s have been delivered to customers yet, which greatly facilitates the task of fixing them. Dealers have been instructed to replace the defective fuel pipe before delivering the affected cars or letting prospective buyers take them out for a spin The California T was recently recalled for the same issue. Photos by Ronan Glon. US-IT-LIFESTYLE-TECHNOLOGY-FILES The St. Luke's University Health Network service will allow patients to be seen by a health-care provider through an app that can be used on smartphones. (Getty Images) St. Luke's University Health Network this month plans to launch a statewide, 24-hour telemedicine service that the network says in the first of its kind in the Lehigh Valley. The service will allow patients to be seen by a health-care provider through an app that can be used on smartphones, tablets and computers. Think Skype or Apple FaceTime. "During a live, on-screen video visit, a doctor evaluates, diagnoses and treats the patient's condition and also prescribes medication if needed," St. Luke's says in a news release announcing the service. RELATED: Poll: Is telemedicine a good alternative to office visits? Telemedicine has become a popular tool in recent years in the health-care industry and is becoming more widely accepted, according to a Dec. 23 Reuters report. "The insurers have been adopting this at a really rapid rate because they see benefits from better access to care," Jason Gorevic, chief executive of Teladoc, the largest U.S. telemedicine provider, told the news agency. "It eliminates unnecessary visits to more expensive sites." The St. Luke's service is called St. Luke's Anywhere. It will be available in Pennsylvania for patients 18 years or older and patients 12 or older when accompanied by a guardian. A $49 fee is paid by credit card at the time of service, Ray Midlam, St. Luke's vice president of planning and business development, says in a news release. "The service is great for when your doctor's office is closed or when you just don't feel like leaving the house," Midlam says. The health network says the service is for common illnesses such as sore throats, fever, ear aches, coughs, headaches, diarrhea and skin rashes. American Well, a telehealth software and services company, is providing the technology platform and additional board-certified healthcare professionals to St. Luke's. The St. Luke's Care Anywhere app will be available for download from the iTunes App Store, Google Play or from the St. Luke's University Health Network website. The health network did not give an exact date for when it will become available, but estimates launching in "early January 2016." Nick Falsone may be reached at nfalsone@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @nickfalsone. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. A new group of volunteers is needed to maintain the Appalachian Trail along the northern borders of Lehigh and Northampton counties, a section of the 2,160-mile path that is being eyed for major changes in coming years. Rounding up local residents to help out is critical for the Keystone Trails Association as it considers committing as maintainer of the 10-mile section. To gauge interest, the Harrisburg-based nonprofit is holding two recruiting hikes in January. Bookending Lehigh Gap, just south of Palmerton, Carbon County, this stretch of the trail is planned to be largely re-routed due to erosion, beginning as early as 2017, according to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. "We'd like to take over responsibility for it, but we need to recruit some local people in kind of the greater Palmerton area to help us with that," Keystone Trails Association member Jim Foster said. The Appalachian Trail Conservancy has the design done for the new route and hopes to tackle preliminary compliance work in 2016, said Karen Lutz, the conservancy's Mid-Atlantic Region director. "We will be reconstructing most of the trail through Little Gap and Lehigh Furnace Gap," Lutz said. "That'll be a major initiative, multi-year project." Lutz said funding for the re-routing is coming largely from the parties held responsible for pollution from nearly a century of zinc smelting in Palmerton, which led to parts of the mountain and the borough being designated a Superfund site. From Georgia to Maine, there are 31 groups that maintain the Appalachian Trail, according to Lutz. The 10 miles from Lehigh Furnace Gap east through Lehigh Gap to Little Gap, near Blue Mountain Ski Area, had been maintained for more than 50 years by the Philadelphia Trail Club. "It's kind of amazing that they did (it) as long as they did it," said Dan Kunkle, executive director of the Lehigh Gap Nature Center. The center off Route 873 in Washington Township, Lehigh County, is the meeting point for both of the Keystone Trails Association's recruitment hikes this month. The Philadelphia club's distance from Lehigh Gap, paired with a drop in membership and aging of members, forced the group to give up maintenance of that trail section, President Deborah Lamb said. "It was a yearlong process process in determining whether we could continue it," she said, "and it was not done without sadness and regret." The club's volunteers would paint the Appalachian Trail's trademark white blazes, and blue blazes for scenic diversions; maintain the rock and wood diagonal strips that help divert stormwater; break up fire pits; cut back brush and invasive plants; repair signage and tackle other tasks. The Keystone Trails Association would be looking to continue that work, focusing on the trail as it exists now until the Appalachian Trail Conservancy completes the rerouting. "It's not a concern," the association's Foster said of the rerouting, "but it's an issue that we're dealing with." The association has a hand in maintaining trails across Pennsylvania, and has in-house experts that would get involved in heavy work and training new volunteers. "We need reasonably able-bodied people," Foster said. "We'll teach you all the skills that you need and what is involved with" trail maintenance. LEARN MORE The Keystone Trails Association is holding hikes to recruit volunteers as it considers committing to maintaining 10 miles of the Appalachian Trail in the Lehigh Gap area, south of Palmerton, Pennsylvania, and along the northern borders of Lehigh and Northampton counties. Each 5 miles long, the hikes are scheduled to leave from the Lehigh Gap Nature Center, 8844 Paint Mill Road outside Slatington, as follows: 10 a.m. Sunday, Jan. 17, going north to Little Gap. 10 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 23, going south to Lehigh Furnace Gap. The association says cars will be spotted at the end, prior to starting, to get participants back to the start. Registration is not required, nor is membership in the association to volunteer, but the group asks anyone interested to sign up on its meetup.com page. Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @KurtBresswein. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. Something went wrong, please try again later. Invalid email Something went wrong, please try again later. Never get FOMO again by signing up to our free Food and Drink email updates A former manager of a nationwide juice bar chain has launched a new street food takeaway in Leicester. Roni Dalal, who previously co-managed the Zumo juice bar chain in the UK, has opened Awesome Chips in Unit 19 of the Haymarket shopping centre. The takeaway, which specialises in selling triple cooked chips, has created eight jobs. Roni said: "This is the first store that we have. I'm from Scraptoft originally, and so I decided to open up Awesome Chips here. "Before this I took the rights on for the UK market of chain of juice bars, Zumo, which had 20 branches all over the country. "I sold up in 2007, went travelling, but it wasn't long before I needed to find something creative to do again." While in the Netherlands, Roni discovered the popularity of a certain type of takeaway, freshly cut and cooked chips in Holland. When he returned from his travels, he met up with a designer and began to brainstorm ideas of how to brand his new business idea. Roni said: "The unique selling point of the business is that we use special potatoes from the Netherlands, called bintje, and we cook them in a particular way. "We wash them, cut them, blanche them in water, dry them, fry on a low heat and then, when a customer orders them, we fry them one last time. "Our chips appeal to everyone from vegans to people who are gluten-free. "One of my main concerns about this was that people see chips as a complement to a meal rather than a stand-alone dish. "What I'm doing is putting chips on a pedestal, but it's the range of sauces and the quality of the fries that takes them to a whole new level. They complement each other. "The response has been phenomenal. The most customers we've had so far in a day is 1,000 and I've been getting great feedback from our customers." The shop is open from 10.30am to 8pm, Monday to Sunday. Leominster.TV highlights: October 17-23, 2022 What's on Channels 8/9/99 on Comcast (32/33/34 on Verizon) this week. Tim Farron went on Sky News yesterday to describe the execution of 47 people in Saudi Arabia as both morally wrong and politically foolish and to criticise the UK Government for being too soft on the Saudis and not calling them out for their appalling human rights record. I remember being very proud when one of the first big things Vince Cable did as acting leader back in 2007 was to boycott the state visit of the Saudi King. I was not so chuffed last year when there was a chorus of silence from Liberal Democrats when flags were flown at half mast following the death of the Saudi King. So, its good to see Tim Farron slamming the Saudis for their actions and the UK Government for being too soft on them. Im also interested that he made the point that the relationships between the two governments benefit the most powerful people in both countries but dont do much for those who arent well off. Watch the whole thing here. .@timfarron says UK government needs to stand up to Saudi Arabia over human rights after 47 prisoners executed https://t.co/etIOd3gWtF Sky News (@SkyNews) January 2, 2016 * Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings Later, Kim Jong Un, the grandson of the founding father and leader of the communist country, appeared on giant TV screens to deliver his annual New Year speech, which is the highpoint of New Year?s Day in North Korea. This was Kim's fourth Jan. 1 speech since becoming leader. Standing behind a huge gold-colored podium, he told the country in his normal bellicose style that he was ready for war if provoked but steered away from threats he has made in the past to use North Korea?s arsenal of nuclear weapons. ?If invasive outsiders and provocateurs touch us even slightly, we will not be forgiving in the least and sternly with a merciless holy war of justice," Kim said. As in previous years, much of Kim?s speech was devoted to criticizing South Korea and its alliance with the U.S. "South Korea has made a unilateral case for unification and increased mistrust and conflict between us," he said. Kim did note that he was open to talks with anyone truly interested in ?reconciliation and peace? in the Korean Peninsula and was ready to ?aggressively? work to improve ties with the South, a more conciliatory tone from his prior speeches. After a tense military stand-off in the summer, when two South Korean soldiers were injured by land mines, high level talks were resumed in December but broke off with no concrete proposals. Kim, speaking for 30 minutes, promised to improve North Korea?s struggling economy and improve the country?s desperate living standards. Pyongyang resident Choe Myong Jin reflected on the speech. ?This New Year?s Day is significant for me and I will do my best to carry out the tasks mentioned in the New Year?s address," he said. North Koreans, however, have little choice but to praise and follow their dictator leader. Strong, flawless ceramics in various shapes, including spirals and honeycombs, can now can be created using 3D printing, researchers say. These new materials could find use in hypersonic aircraft and microscopic devices, scientists added. Ceramics possess many useful qualities, such as high strength, high hardness and resistance to corrosion, abrasion and extreme heat. However, one shortcoming limits certain uses of ceramics they aren't easily morphed into complex shapes. Unlike metals and plastics, ceramics cannot easily be poured into molds or pared down to a desired form. One potential strategy for making ceramics that have complex shapes is 3D printing. A 3D printer usually works by depositing layers of material, just as ordinary printers lay down ink, except 3D printers can also lay down flat layers on top of each other to build 3D objects. The device can then solidify the printed object using, say, ultraviolet light. [The 10 Weirdest Things Created by 3D Printing] A ceramic spiral created with a 3D-printing technique. (Image credit: HRL Laboratories, LLC ) However, the extremely high temperature at which ceramics melt makes it difficult for 3D printers to fuse ceramic particles together. The few 3D-printing techniques that researchers have developed for ceramics work slowly, and involve ceramic particles that cannot fuse together without resulting in some porosity that increases the tendency of the ceramics to crack. "3D printing is a very important new capability, but so far, most materials that can be printed are not high-performance engineering materials," said study co-author Tobias Schaedler, a materials scientist at HRL Laboratories in Malibu, California. "We wanted to figure out 3D printing of a high-temperature, high-strength ceramic." Now Schaedler and his colleagues have devised a method to quickly 3D-print ceramics using a special resin instead of powders. The result: strong, flawless ceramics with complex shapes. The researchers began with a vat of resin containing silicon, carbon and oxygen. They shone a pattern of ultraviolet light beams onto this resin, causing it to harden where the light shone through it. A ceramic honeycomb created via a 3D-printing process. (Image credit: HRL Laboratories, LLC ) In 30 to 60 seconds, an item 0.5 to 1 inches (1.27 to 2.54 centimeters) thick can form, with a lattice or honeycomb shape, Schaedler said. The researchers then heat these objects to convert the material into silicon oxycarbide ceramic. This new method is 100 to 1,000 times faster than previous 3D-ceramic-printing techniques, the researchers said. Furthermore, electron microscopy of the end products detected none of the porosity or surface cracks that normally weaken ceramics; indeed, these silicon carbide materials were 10 times stronger than commercially available ceramic foams of similar density, the scientists noted. The researchers suggest that the strong, heat-resistant ceramics this new technique can make could find use "in a wide range of applications, from large components in jet engines and hypersonic vehicles to intricate parts in microelectromechanical systems," such as microsensors, Schaedler told Live Science. Since ceramics are notoriously brittle, Schaedler said, "We are working to reinforce our ceramics with fibers." However, it will take some time before these ceramics reach the market, he said. "We are at the discovery phase. It will take at least five years for an application to be commercialized," Schaedler said. The scientists detailed their findings in the Jan. 1 issue of the journal Science. Follow Charles Q. Choi on Twitter @cqchoi. Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science. Experiences with social and economic discrimination became a way of life for Spanish-language residents (Mexican-Americans, Mexican-Texans) who made their way to the southwest and southeast regions of the U.S. during the troubled years in Mexico prior to the modern Revolution Mexicana (1910-1920). Events (hechos) of that era changed the landscape and society on the Texas-Mexico border as a result of wars--Mexican-American War (1846-1848), American Civil War (1861-1865). History also tells us that in between these wars, people and land, once under Mexico-control with the name of Coahuila, lived through other conflicts wherein we learned about Maximilian (French Intervention) and the so-called Indian Wars of the late decades in the 19th Century. From this history of South Texas, we see the name of a Laredoan, Allen Walker, as the first local to earn a Congressional Medal of Honor. Walkers medal and pistol is still preserved by a Laredo descendant to this day, Albino Walker Jr. It was in that mid-1880 period of time that Catarino E. Garza (1884), having left his wife in Brownsville, came to Laredo for a brief stay but long enough to organized the historic Sociedad Mutualista No. 3 (chapter named after Benito Juarez), a labor union, and was received enthusiastically by a mixed crowd of Spanish-speaking and English-speaking (Anglos) members. This writer remembers leading a Martin High School cadet corp. company in the 1950s to a spot at Bruni Plaza for a flag raising ceremony. The Mutualista brick-walled building, on the west side of the plaza, is named after a leading Italian businessman and county official, Antonio Bruni. Above the front door entrance to the building were the words Hijos de Juarez. Catarinos narrative would tell that Don Antonio was a close friend who supported the local Garzistas movement against Porfirio Diaz. According to Catarinos autobiographic account, he was elected president of the Benito Juarez unit by an enthusiastic crowd of over two hundred workers, businessmen and influential politicians, including a few Anglos. He also made it a point of mention the presence of Anglos at these events and highlighting their support for his journalistic and political activities, Elliott Young, border historian-researcher-author, wrote. Having some strong Anglo allies was critical for his efforts on behalf of Mexicans in Texas (Mexican-Texans). His return to to the border in 1886 was encouraged by an incident in St. Louis that embarrassed and hurt him the rest of his life. For Catarino, it was personal because of his involvement with a group of Mexican journalists he was hosting at a national convention of wool producers. Catarino had arranged for the visiting journalists to stay at the Planer House, one of the most prestigious hotels in Chicago. The Globe Democrat published an article in which the newspaper questioned why this mob of Mexican writers had been accepted without checking if they carried lice. It infuriated Catarino and led to a writers protest to demonstrate their protestations, the Mexican journalists rejected an invitation by the business community in the writers honor. Garza had not become an official political power broker in St. Louis, but in his autobiography, he insists that he, nonetheless, became a representative of the business community. (Odie Arambula is at oarambula@stx.rr.com) Crime, Press Releases By Long Island News & PR Published: January 03 2016 On December 26th at approximately 7:58 PM, the New York State Police responded to a 911 call of a brick being thrown from a pedestrian footbridge, striking a blue 1996 BMW traveling northbound on the ... (left) Andrew Denton, 17, of East Meadow, NY and (right) Jacob Palant, 19, of Syosset, were arrested in connection to the Meadowbrook State Parkway brick throwing incident on December 26, 2015. Update - January 2, 2016 - The New York State Police in Valley Stream announce the arrests of Andrew Denton, age 17, of East Meadow, NY and Jacob Palant, age 19, of Syosset, NY after a week long investigation into a brick and cinder block throwing incident that occurred on December 26th, 2015. The incident took place on the Meadowbrook State Parkway from the overpass at Kellenberg High School; two vehicles reported being struck by the bricks and cinder blocks. Both vehicles, a 2015 Jeep and a 1996 BMW, sustained extensive damage totaling over $1500 each. A 22 year old female passenger in the BMW suffered injuries which resulted in her hospitalization, as a result of a brick shattering through the windshield. Denton and Palant were charged with Reckless Endangerment 2nd (3 misdemeanor counts each), Assault 2nd (1 felony count each), and Criminal Mischief 2nd (2 felony counts each). Both defendants will be arraigned in Nassau County First District Court on January 2, 2016 at 9:00 am. The original press release is below. Uniondale, NY - December 27, 2015 - On December 26th at approximately 7:58 PM, the New York State Police responded to a 911 call of a brick being thrown from a pedestrian footbridge, striking a blue 1996 BMW traveling northbound on the Meadowbrook Parkway just south of Glenn Curtiss Blvd. in Uniondale, NY. The brick entered the BMW through the windshield, first striking the operator of the BMW, a 21 year old male from Island Park NY in the right shoulder causing bruising, but he declined medical attention. The front seat passenger, a 22 year old woman from West Hempstead NY, sustained an injury to her left eye and bruising to her mouth from the brick. The woman was treated and released from Nassau University Medical Center. Anyone with information regarding this incident please contact the State Police in Farmingdale 631-756-3300. All calls will remain confidential. Looking to stay up to date about all of the news stories and local headlines that are important to Long Islanders? We've rounded up the top coverage for all of the important topics from multiple sources around Long Island, so you can be sure you've got the most recent update on the top stories for Long Island. Have an idea for a news story? Email us at news@longisland.com Columnists Press Releases Samuel Richter and www.mainstreetliberal.com, 2010-2018. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this sites author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Samuel Richter and www.mainstreetliberal.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. UASCs MV Al Muraykh has sailed to UKs new premier hub port and logistics park carrying a world record 18,601 TEU. London, UK, 2nd January 2016:- DP World London Gateway Port has welcomed one of the worlds largest container ships carrying a recorded 18,601 TEU (Twenty Foot Equivalent Units). The UASC owned Al Muraykh chose to call at DP World London Gateway to unload 3,800 containers. The ship is one of the largest in the world measuring 400 metres in length. The containers are loaded 11 storeys high above deck and 23 containers across the ship. With thousands more stowed below deck, the ship can carry up to 18,800 containers. The ship left Malaysias Port Klang carrying the most ever shipping containers on board a vessel and arrived at DP World London Gateway Port as its first port of call in Europe. Many of the goods being unloaded will be on the high streets of the UK in the coming days for the January sales. The vessels ability to transport large volumes of containers to the UK means the average CO2 output dropped 60% less than normal, making the transportation of goods more sustainable. DP World London Gateway Hub is located closer to key population centres reducing time and costs in UK supply chains. Mr. Waleed Al Dawood, Chief Operating Officer at UASC commented, We are extremely proud to have achieved a world record breaking load on board Al Muraykh, the greenest vessel in the world and one of the largest in operation today. Moreover, this voyage marks a very important milestone in our newbuilding and environmental sustainability program with this being the highest utilization of our 18,800TEU eco-efficient class to date. Mr. Al Dawood added, The UK is a key market for us and our customers there, like all our customers globally, are increasingly looking for sustainable, green transport solutions. The technology on board Al Muraykh and her sister vessels allow us to provide these solutions and help our customers achieve their own environmental targets. Simon Moore, CEO, DP World London Gateway, said: This is a great start to 2016 and we welcome UASCs world record breaking ship to DP World London Gateway Port. The ships Master, Captain Spisak Andrezej and I, were able to wish each other Happy New Year whilst watching London Gateways port cranes unload four containers at a time using our quad-lift innovative technology. This ship demonstrates the port can take any vessel afloat and provide world class services to carriers. We are now focused on providing this world class service to cargo owners as cargo is collected. Trucks picking up containers are able to pick up faster and safer than ever before. Mr Moore added, As we enter 2016 in full swing, we look forward to opening berth three in the summer. The start of 2016 is seeing record volumes moving across the port, as customers and cargo owners benefit from the location of the UKs 21st Century hub port, ensuring that supply chains are best protected and deliver the best environmental solutions. Mass Saudi Executions Reflect Regional Violence of Pro-Western Despotic Regimes Most Arab League states are run by pro-Western despotic regimes - Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, UAE, Kuwait and Egypt the worst of a bad lot. Palestinians get rhetorical support only, nothing meaningful done on their behalf. In March 2011, League members backed UN Resolution 1973 - prelude to US-led NATO war on Libya, a devastating conflict creating endless violence and chaos continuing unabated. Human rights abuses are commonplace throughout the region, democracy strictly verboten in most states. So are virtually all rights people in free societies take for granted. Most regional regimes harass, attack, brutalize, arrest, imprison and/or murder critics - protesting against political, economic and social injustice. Theyre allied with Washingtons imperial agenda, supporting and using ISIS and other terrorist groups in Syria, Iraq and Libya, a formula for endless violence and chaos - US-led Western interests and their own served at the expense of millions of exploited and abused people. In response to mass Saudi Saturday executions, including noted cleric Nimr al-Nimr, Washington barely noticed, State Department spokesman Admiral John Kirby issuing a meaningless, pro forma statement belying Americas appalling human rights record at home and abroad, saying: We reaffirm our calls on the Government of Saudi Arabia to respect and protect human rights, and to ensure fair and transparent judicial proceedings in all cases. The kingdom is Americas top arms buyer, using heavy weapons it obtains to ally with Washingtons regional wars, brutalize its own people, as well as support ISIS and other terrorist groups. They cant survive without outside political, economic and military support, mainly from America, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, other Gulf states and Israel. ISIS by far is the most successful and hugely dangerous of all terrorist groups in modern memory, operating as a state within the territory of countries it occupies, regularly attracting more recruits, flourishing because of powerful backers. Plentiful money is their mothers milk. Without it and outside support, theyd wither to a minor annoyance, perhaps fade away altogether. Regimes like Saudi Arabia get away with horrendous human rights abuses because the world community, mainly US-led Western nations, take no actions against them - Riyadh committing state terror freely, repercussions minor at most and short-lived. Human rights groups blasted Sheikh Nimrs execution. Irans Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the blood of this innocent martyr which has been shed unjustly will leave its impacts, and the Saudi politicians will be punished by Gods revenge. Lebanons Hezbollah, Yemens Ansarullah movement, Pakistans Shiite Assembly, as well as numerous prominent Sunni and Shia figures and groups worldwide condemned Sheikh Nimrs execution. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) accused Riyadh of pouring oil to the flames of sectarian sedition. A Hezbollah statement h(eld) the US and its alliesresponsible for covering up the kingdoms crimes against its people and those of the region. Iranian protesters attacked Riyadhs Tehran embassy, breaking in, setting areas ablaze, trashing offices. Police dispersed crowds. Firefighters extinguished the blaze. No casualties were reported. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari urged respect for diplomatic immunity. Its Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian called Riyadh the top culprit behind the growth of terrorism and radicalism in the region. Irans Judiciary chief Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani said Saturday mass executions prove the viciousness of the (regime) to the world and will trigger the end of (its) unjust rule. Reports indicate Saudi diplomats and staff are being evacuated from Iran, perhaps en route home or already arrived as this is written. The embassy now remains cordoned off, Iranian police protecting it from further attacks. Fars News reported Tehran lawmakers asking the Foreign Ministry to downgrade diplomatic ties to the kingdom - reducing the number its diplomats, support staff and consulates. Iran and Saudi Arabia have polar opposite regional objectives - the Islamic Republic a force for peace and stability, the kingdom the Middle Easts epicenter of state-sponsored terrorism. Its agenda is pure evil allied with US-led Western imperial interests. Endless wars and turmoil show no signs of abating. By Stephen Lendman http://sjlendman.blogspot.com His new book as editor and contributor is titled Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III. http://www.claritypress.com/Lendman.html He lives in Chicago and can be reached in Chicago at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to The Global Research News Hour on RepublicBroadcasting.org Monday through Friday at 10AM US Central time for cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on world and national topics. All programs are archived for easy listening. 2015 Copyright Stephen Lendman - All Rights Reserved Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors. 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication. Saudi Arabia Beheadings Illustrates that ISIS are Amateurs When it Comes to State Executions It's Happy New year from Saudi Arabia's royal family that kicks off the year by offing 47 people of their heads as enemies of the state. Which was met with widespread condemnation from not just the usual suspects such as Iran and human rights activists but also a number of allies have frowned on the blood bath as on the one hand the West is engaged in a war on Islamic State for its barbaric beheadings of prisoners whilst on the other hand Saudi Arabia repeats the same in the interests's of the Saudi mafia family ruling over it's population by means of fear. Iran Cry's Crocodile Tears? Right on cue the Iranian masses reaction to the killing of the prominent Saudi Shiite cleric to go on a rampage that includes torching the Saudi Embassy in Iran, which in reality is just another event in a long series of violence in the Shia / Sunni civil war. The truth is that both Saudi Arabia and Islamic states are amateurs when one considers the execution / collateral damage that other nations engage in on an annual basis. The World's Top 10 Murderous States Rank Country State Killings Per year Comment Islamic State 200 The fledgling Jihadi state's carnage is often magnified by the mainstream press so as to present a greater threat than reality Saudi Arabia 250 Apart from official beheadings, the Saudi royal mafia families apparent favourite sport is to drop people from high rise buildings. Russia 250 For Czar Putin any internal threat to his Czarship has to be neutralised, and this is excluding the Ukraine bloodbath! Iraq 300 The US sponsored Iraqi regime appears to be continuing Saddam's good work, though far fewer state sponsored murders than in past years. Egypt 350 Egypt's new Pharo has been eager to stamp out dissent. Yemen 500 A civil war has gripped Yemen and so has the value of human life gone out the window as hundreds are disappearing each year. Iran 500 Streets of Iranian cities are lined with hanging corpses as a warning to other would be dissenters of the Islamic Republic North Korea 750 The Dear Fat Leader's paranoia means that even family members are not safe. China 5,000 The body parts business is a booming business in China and so to satisfy demand thousands of prisoners are industrially put to death and harvested each year. USA 15,000 Whilst the official number for executions is just 40. However the US masks most of its state murders under the banner of 'collateral damage' and the US police shoot first and ask questions later policy which alone killed 1200 americans last year far more than all the terrorist's combined! So given the above table two things stand out: Firstly Iran is literally crying crocodile tears for in terms of state sponsored murders Iran is NOT better than Saudi Arabia. And secondly the reason for deafening silence from the United States becomes clear in that the United States remains top dog in terms of the world's most murderous regime. Though the tally for 2015 is greatly down on previous years i.e. during the Iraq War. By John York email: john_york_221@hotmail.com 2005-2016 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication. 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication. Kemba Walker, R.J. Hunter, Jae Crowder Charlotte Hornets' Kemba Walker, center, tries to get away from Boston Celtics' Jae Crowder, right, and R.J. Hunter, left, in the first half of an NBA basketball game in Charlotte, N.C., Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2015. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton) BOSTON -- Boston Celtics rookie RJ Hunter will miss Saturday's game against the Brooklyn Nets and is considered day-to-day moving forward after suffering a left shoulder subluxation earlier this week. Hunter was hurt Thursday while scoring 28 points for the Maine Red Claws, Boston's D-League affiliate. He said he didn't remember exactly when the injury occurred, but believed he got hit by a screen. Subluxations are nothing new to the 22-year-old, who said he gets them about "two or three times a year." He suffered one during a predraft workout in Charlotte, another during the preseason, and has been working with the Celtics strength and conditioning staff to prevent similar issues in the future. When asked whether the problem might require surgery one day, Hunter replied, "No. Not at all. And I saw a bunch of doctors before and after the draft workout." He was actually encouraged that he went a few months between subluxations, calling it "probably the longest stretch I went without it happening." "For the future it's just kind of a strength thing," Hunter said. "It's what we've been doing in the weight room, just kind of tightening the shoulders on. So it's something I've got to keep working on. It's kind of how I'm built. I have kind of wide shoulders, long arms, so it just happens sometimes." "It's something I've kind of always dealt with and it's only like a two-day thing," he added. "But when something slides out when it's not supposed to, it's gonna be sore." Hunter said he doesn't know yet exactly when he will return, but expects to be back soon. "I leave that up to (team trainer) Eddie (Lacerte)," he said, "because when I'm ready to play is whenever. So you have to listen to the higher-ups and make sure because they have the best advice on how to take care of yourself." Agawam crash.jpg Photo courtesy Western Mass News AGAWAM The Massachusetts State Police Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Section is investigating what police are calling a head-on crash on Main Street in Agawam. Two people were sent to the hospital, at least one of those involved was critically injured. Agawam Police Lt. James F. Donovan said in a written statement that the two operators of the cars were taken by ambulance to the Baystate Medical Center in Springfield directly from the scene of the 6 p.m. crash near 233 Main Street Donovan said the State Police CARS unit and the Crime Scene Services Section are at the scene along with detectives attached tot he Hampden County District Attorney's Office. The names of those involved in the crash are being withheld pending notification of next of kin. This is a breaking story and more information will be posted as it becomes available. OAK BLUFFS An Oak Bluffs woman was critically injured in a house fire Saturday morning, authorities said. The Cape Cod Times reported that Jenilyn Dube was found unresponsive in the doorway of her home by first responders, and had to resuscitated. According to Dube's common law husband, Raymond Rochon, the fire started in the kitchen of their 123 Pennsylvania Avenue home just before 1:30 a.m. Saturday. He said he had fallen asleep on the couch in the living room of the home, and was awoken by Dube screaming,m and ran from the house to call 911. He returned to the house with a neighbor and found Dube ion the floor of the kitchen and dragged her to the nearest doorway. Oak Bluffs Fire Department firefighters found them there and took Dube out of the house and performed CPR. Dube was flown from the scene by helicopter to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, where she was listed in critical condition later that day. Rochon was taken to Martha's Vineyard Hospital for treatment. Fire officials said the fire destroyed the house. The state Fire Marshal's Office will investigate the cause of the fire. North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un To Exert Aggressive Efforts To Improve Relations With South Korea North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in his New Year's message said they are ready to make "aggressive efforts" to improve relations with South Korea. Yonhap News Agency reported Friday that Kim reportedly said North Korea is open to have talks with its rival in an open-minded approach for confederacy. "We will make aggressive efforts to hold talks and improve relations with South Korea," Kim said during his speech. "We are willing to have talks in an open-minded manner with anyone who wants peace and unification." The two Koreas reached an unusual agreement in August to defuse military tension after a landmine blast near the inter-Korean border harmed two South Korean soldiers. Advertisement "South Korea should honor the spirit of the inter-Korean agreement in August," Kim said. Kim's New Year speech came days after a high-ranking North Korean official died in a car crash Tuesday. The Telegraph reported Friday that the North Korean leader turned emotional when he attended the funeral of Kim Yang Gon on Wednesday, as per state-run news agency KCNA. The late North Korean official was one of the two senior officials who were present during talks with South Korea in August. "He could hardly repress his bitter grief for a long while, his hands put on the cold body of the revolutionary comrade," the news agency reported. On the other hand, Kim in his speech called for North Korea's economic growth, adding that the country should get ready for Workers' Party of Korea meeting which will be in May. The upcoming gathering with be the first Congress after three decades. Reports have revealed that Kim may announce new sets of policies and perform a major reshuffle during the meeting. The North Korean leader tackled several issues in his New Year's message but refused to touch the country's nuclear weapons program issue. Advertisement Advertisement Like us and Follow us Follow @Koreaportal and 2022 Korea Portal, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) Demonstrations erupted across the Middle East Sunday as Shiite Muslims protested Saudi Arabia's execution of prominent Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr. Protesters in the Iranian capital, Tehran, broke into the Saudi embassy early Sunday morning setting fires and throwing papers from the roof before being dispersed by police. Demonstrations also took place in Bahrain, Turkey, Pakistan and northern India. By Sunday afternoon crowds of protesters had gathered outside Saudi embassies in Beirut and Tehran, and protests were expected in al-Nimr's hometown of al-Qatif in eastern Saudi Arabia. Al-Nimr's execution adds a rancorous new chapter to the ongoing Sunni-Shiite struggle that continues to play out across the Middle East with Iran and Saudi Arabia as the primary antagonists. Here's a look at the aftermath and the regional implications. Al-Nimr, who was in his 50s, was a widely revered Shiite Muslim cleric from eastern Saudi Arabia who was convicted in October 2014 of sedition and other charges and sentenced to death. He was an outspoken government critic and a key leader of Shiite protests in eastern Saudi Arabia in 2011. He was also a critic of the government of Bahrain, where a Sunni-led monarchy suppressed protests by Shiites who make up the majority of the tiny island nation. Saudi Arabia sent troops to help Bahrain crush the uprising, concerned it would spread and destabilize other Arab Gulf countries. Al-Nimr, however, also spoke out against the Iranian-backed government in Syria for killing protesters there. He directly criticized the Al Saud ruling family for its domestic policies and forcefully spoke out against individual royal family members. Al-Nimr did not deny the political charges against him, but maintained he never carried weapons or called for violence. His death is seen by some as a warning to anyone thinking of calling for reforms and wider political freedoms in Saudi Arabia. His death also strikes a sensitive chord for Saudi Shiites who claim they are discriminated against by authorities in the kingdom, where many ultraconservatives Sunnis view Shiites as heretics. Several Shiites mosques and places of worship were targeted by Sunni extremists in 2015 in eastern Saudi Arabia, despite attempts by security forces to clamp down on Islamic State group supporters who have also targeted police. Al-Nimr's execution came as a surprise to even his own family, his brother Mohammed al-Nimr told The Associated Press. Despite harsh verdicts against government critics, activists are typically given long jail sentences even after initial appeals that uphold death sentences. His death is expected to further exacerbate the proxy wars for regional supremacy being fought across the region by Saudi Arabia and Iran. The two rival nations currently back opposing sides in civil wars in both Syria and Yemen. Iran's Shiite clerics have used al-Nimr's death to lash out at Saudi Arabia, which is founded upon an ultraconservative Sunni ideology known as Wahhabism. Many extremist Wahhabis regard all Shiites as heretics. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned Riyadh of "divine revenge" and both Saudi and Iran summoned each other's diplomatic envoys in protest. Iran and Saudi have been vying for leadership in the Muslim world since Iran's 1979 revolution, which elevated to power hard-line Shiite clerics. The U.S. war in Iraq further enflamed religious and ethnic tensions by leading to a Shiite-led government in Baghdad and a crucial shift in the sectarian balance of power in the region. After Arab Spring protests erupted in 2011, Saudi Arabia and Iran entered into a fierce proxy war in Syria, where they are supporting opposite sides of the conflict, and in Yemen, where Saudi Arabia has been bombing Iranian-allied rebels since March. They also support opposing political groups in Lebanon, Iraq and Bahrain. Demand for the new tabs had indeed led to small shortages, but the problem was suddenly blown up into something much larger... One Marine veteran is on a mission to make sure the war stories of his generation are told -- and told right. Thomas Brennan, a medically retired sergeant-turned-journalist, is preparing for the launch of The War Horse, an independent journalism site dedicated to chronicling the effects of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The website brands itself "the authority on the post-9/11 conflict and the ONLY digital magazine profiling all men, women, interpreters, and dogs killed since 9/11."The idea for the site came to Brennan while he was working as a staff writer for The Daily News out of Jacksonville, North Carolina, a town adjacent to Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune. "It all started with me getting aggravated that stories weren't being gathered about World War II vets and World War I vets and we've waited so long to tell the stories of years prior," Brennan, 30, told Military.com. "War has been a constant in human existence since the very beginning, and I just think it's about time that we really report on it and understand and conceptualize everything that war is." Brennan is in a unique position to tell those stories, as someone who has experienced the realities of war as a Marine and who has reported on the military as a civilian. Brennan served nearly nine years in the Marine Corps as an infantry assaultman before retiring in 2012. On Nov. 1, 2010, Brennan was wounded on a deployment to Afghanistan when a rocket-propelled grenade detonated next to him. He was diagnosed with a mild traumatic brain injury, and has since also documented his struggles with post-traumatic stress. He began freelancing for The New York Times' At War blog while still in uniform, documenting his medical appointments, his combat memories, and even, wrenchingly, of his suicide attempt in November 2013 as he battled war wounds and feelings of worthlessness. In 2014, determined to hone his craft as a writer, he enrolled in the investigative program at Columbia University's School of Journalism. "I like to think that [The War Horse] is my master's thesis that I was working on," Brennan said. "I used everything up there to my advantage." Brennan envisions his project as a collaboration of freelance writers and photographers to produce long-form stories about veterans complete with photographs and multimedia elements. He has assembled a board of advisers including Bruce Shapiro, director of the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma at Columbia, and Kevin Cullen, a journalist and columnist at the Boston Globe and Pulitzer Prize recipient. The Institute for Nonprofit News is assisting him with the administrative elements of running a startup. To fund the first phase of his site, he is launching a Kickstarter campaign in early 2016 aimed at raising $50,000. That money will fund the first four long-form stories and assist with grant-writing and development to allow the website to grow, Brennan said. Early stories on the site will focus on redefining intimacy after genital mutilation from war, military sexual trauma, and the military awards system, among other topics, he said. Brennan is also planning a special project on Marine veteran Kyle Carpenter, who received the Medal of Honor in 2014. In addition to the works of journalism, the site will also feature a compilation of multimedia profiles for all US personnel killed in combat since Sept. 11, 2001. Called the Echoes Project, it will also provide an opportunity for those who knew the fallen service members to share stories about them. While good reporting on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and those who fought in them already exists, Brennan said his background and goals may give troops and veterans more confidence to come forward and tell their stories. "I think the one common thread that I bring to the table is I know the fear that exists [among troops] when it comes to approaching journalists," he said. "Having people who are personally involved in these different worlds is going to open up the possibilities." Learn more about the project at http://www.thewarhorse.org/. --Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @HopeSeck. Canadian Beef Ban In South Korea Lifted For more than 10 months, Canada has reported zero cases of mad cow disease, which led South Korea to lift its ban on beef imports from the North American country and resume quarantine inspections, reported Yonhap News Agency on Wednesday. After banning all Canadian beef imports on Feb. 13, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs confirmed that it has once again begun inspecting meat products from cattle 30 months old and under. The ban was implemented following Canada's announcement of a cow in Alberta being infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or mad cow disease. Before giving out the green light on Canadian beef imports, South Korean and Canadian inspectors conducted on-site checks and also held two consultative meetings in December to ensure clean and safe meat products. The World Organization for Animal Health has also confirmed Canada is a "controlled BSE risk country" that is allowed to export meat. Advertisement According to The Wall Street Journal on Thursday, South Korea was Canada's sixth largest market for veal and beef export to in 2014, resulting to 18.8 million U.S. dollars in sales that year. "South Korea holds huge potential for beef and especially cuts...that are underutilized" in Canada, said Canada's Minister of International Trade Chrystia Freeland. "Korea is a market that will pay more for those select items and that helps to increase the overall value of the animal for producers." In 2014, the U.S. was Canada's number one importer of beef and veal, purchasing 1.35 billion Canadian dollars' worth of products. In 2015, beef exports from Canada to the U.S. reached 1.20 billion Canadian dollars from January to September. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency pointed that the most probable cause for the mad cow disease that infected the cows was contaminated feed and confirmed that no Black Angus cow made it to animal feed systems or human food, noted CBC News on Friday. "South Korea holds huge potential for beef and especially cuts and offals that are underutilized here at home," said president of the Canadian Cattlemen's Association Dave Solverson, acknowledging the benefit for beef producers on the lifting of the ban. "Korea is a market that will pay more for those select items and that helps to increase the overall value of the animal for producers." The association also noted that Canadian beef exports to Korea is capable of exceeding 50 million U.S. dollars annually with the 2014 implementation of the Canada-Korea Free Trade Agreement. Advertisement Advertisement Like us and Follow us Follow @Koreaportal and 2022 Korea Portal, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying has dimissed Hanoi's accusation about the test flight to newly-built airport on Yongshu Jiao of China's Nansha Islands. The Vietnamese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson made a statement on Saturday, expressing Vietnam's protest against China's test flight to a newly-built airport on Yongshu Jiao of the Nansha Islands. In response, Hua said that China has finished building a new airport on Yongshu Jiao of China's Nansha Islands. "The Chinese government conducted a test flight to the airport with a civil aircraft in order to test whether or not the facilities on it meet the standards for civil aviation. Relevant activity falls completely within China's sovereignty," Hua said. China has indisputable sovereignty over the Nansha Islands and their adjacent waters, and the Chinese side "will not accept the unfounded accusation from the Vietnamese side", Hua said. The spokeswoman also noted that "the China-Vietnam relationship, on the whole, is riding a momentum of development". "It is hoped that the Vietnamese side can work with China in the same direction and make concrete efforts to sustain the sound and stable growth of bilateral ties," she said. Registrierung Sie haben noch kein Benutzerkonto auf unserer Seite? Registrieren Sie sich kostenlos und nehmen Sie an unserer Community teil! Chinese President Xi Jinping (L F), confers the military flag to Li Zuocheng (C F), commander of the Army of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA), and Liu Lei, political commissar of the Army, in Beijing, capital of China, Dec. 31, 2015. The general commands of the PLA Army, Rocket Force and Strategic Support Force were founded on Thursday. (Xinhua/Li Gang) On the very first day of 2016, Chinas Central Military Commission (CMC) released a guideline on deepening national defense and military reform. A day before that, the CMC announced the establishment of the General Command of Army, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Rocket Force and the PLA Strategic Support Force. The PLA is now standing at a new historical crossroads. As Chinese people enjoy their New Year holiday, few of them think of gunshots or war. Ordinary people can now rest easy thanks to Chinas strong defense, which is as precious as air. This requires the continuous development of national defense. Chinas national interests and current international situation are constantly changing, so is the task of the Chinese army. Hence, the PLA and relevant mechanisms have to be adjusted accordingly to keep up with the pace of Chinas rise. The task that confronts Chinas armed forces is arduous and more than just safeguarding the nations maritime and land territories. As Chinas international cooperation grows, more Chinese enterprises go global and the country embraces greater responsibility to maintain regional and world peace, a strong Chinese army is needed. China must have a strong military. In possession of nuclear weapons, China doesnt need to worry about military aggression. But there is more about national security. The Chinese army's special mission to safeguard Chinas national path has long been under pressure due to differences from Western practices. During China's rise, friction with the US has gone beyond broad geopolitics. If China has a big gap with the US in terms of military prowess, this will affect its international position and other countries' attitude toward China. Khartoum (AFP) - Sudanese opposition groups and activists on Sunday pressed on with plans to hold a "sit-at-home" strike against fuel subsidy cuts, despite a warning from President Omar al-Bashir that anti-regime protests would be crushed. Activists called for workers to stay at home Monday as part of a "civil disobedience movement", the second such initiative after a similar three-day strike last month which had a mixed response. Groups of protesters have staged rallies in Khartoum and some other cities since the authorities announced a 30-percent hike in petrol and diesel prices in November that has led to a sharp rise in the cost of other goods, including medicines. "We are backing the Sudanese people to observe civil disobedience on December 19," said the opposition Umma party in a statement, while the Communist Party also offered its support. Groups of activists, actors, journalists, lawyers, teachers and pharmacists have taken to social media to offer support and launched a signature campaign backing the "sit-at-home" strike. The Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), which is fighting government troops in Blue Nile and South Kordofan states, also urged its members to support the strike. A previous round of fuel subsidy cuts in 2013 sparked serious unrest that was only suppressed by a deadly crackdown that drew international condemnation. The government is determined to avoid any repetition of that kind of unrest and has rounded up several opposition leaders to prevent widespread protests. On December 12, Bashir vowed to crush any new anti-regime protests as the authorities did three years ago. Rights groups say about 200 lives were lost in clashes with security forces in the 2013 crackdown on street protests, while the government puts the death toll at less than 100. Khartoum has been forced to progressively reduce fuel subsidies since 2011 when South Sudan seceded and took with it nearly three-quarters of the formerly united country's oil reserves. Sorry, we can't find the content you're looking for at this URL. Ghanas minister of power does not even bother to lift his eyes when two journalists from the Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang (VG) enter his huge office in the capital city of Accra. His desk is covered with large stacks of documents that are strewn in front of him. Kwabena Donkor has one cell phone on top of a stack of papers, while a second phone is charging on the windowsill. It is September 9 and Donkor is a very busy politician: A crippling energy crisis is wreaking havoc on Ghana, and it is the ministers job to solve the problem. Donkor confirmed to VG that the government of Ghana had acquired ten gas turbines from a company called Ameri Group. The minister had signed the contract seven months earlier, which may be the best transaction ever for the mystical Dubai-based company he did his business with. VG showed the minister a photo of a wanted man, a Pakistani Norwegian named Umar Farooq Zahoor. The 40-year-old man from Oslo is wanted by Norwegian and Swiss police for spectacular acts of fraud committed over the last ten years. VG showed the minister a picture and he pointed to the Pakistani Norwegian right away. He said he knew him as the head of Ameri Group. Dr Kwabena Donkor and Umar Farooq Zahoor 'I know him; he is the Chief Executive of Ameri Group,' Donkor said. Then we showed the minister a picture of the man who co-signed the agreement with Umar Farooq Zahoor, a prince from the ruling family in Dubai. The minister had no doubts: 'The Sheikh, His Royal Highness. They both work for Ameri Group,' he said. VG investigated what happened after the wanted man from Norway and the prince from Dubai acquired ten gas turbines for Ghana at the cost of 510 million US dollars. VG's investigations show that these turbines usually cost 220 million dollars. So why did the West African country pay 290 million dollars more than the standard price? Mohammed Amin Adam, the director of a Ghanaian think tank called Africa Centre for Energy Policy, is highly sceptical. 'If you can help us find out who these people at Ameri Group are, we would certainly pursue the case here,' he told VG when we met him at his office in Accra. VG has been following Ameri Group's tracks for seven months on several continents. The full name of Ameri Group is Africa and Middle East Resources Investment Group. According to the company's website, the company works to 'develop, co-own and operate power plants in different parts of the world.' The company has apparently achieved spectacular success in a very short period of time. Their website was created two months before the multi-million dollar contract was signed with the Government of Ghana. In 2014 alone, Ghana lost over two billion dollars due to the national power crisis, according to a report from Ghanas largest university. The crisis got so bad last year that the president of Ghana handpicked someoneDr Kwabena Donkorto solve the problem. Donkor signed the agreement with Ameri Group six weeks later on the 10th of February this year. Ameri Group would provide Ghana with ten gas turbines. This procurement would help solve the energy crisis. The contract was signed by the minister of power and another prominent representative of Ghanaian authorities, Assistant Attorney General and Minister of Justice Dominic Ayine. VG got its hands on a copy of the agreement, which is 49 pages long. The director who signed for the company in DubaiPakistani Norwegian Umar Farooq Zahooris now a well-known name among investigators at the Financial Crime Section of the Oslo Police District. As early as 2013, Deputy Chief of Police for Oslo Gro Smogeli singled out Zahoor as a ringleader of one of Norways boldest and biggest bank frauds ever; the so-called Nordea Swindle. Farooq Zahoor is also wanted internationally by Norwegian police and Interpol for his leading role in this scam. The Borgarting Court of Appeal announced its unanimous verdict on 26th November confirming reasonable grounds to suspect the 40-year-old of fraud, as part of organised criminal activity subject to Norway's mafia activities paragraph. The Pakistani Norwegian is also wanted for running a fake bank in Switzerland. The Man Umar Farooq Zahoor Umar Farooq Zahoor portrays himself as a busy and prosperous businessman. His base of operations over the past nine years has been Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. He has been living here in a luxurious mansion in one of Dubai's most fashionable neighbourhoods and new luxury cars appear in his garage from time to time. His story began in 1971 when Umar Farooq Zahoor's father left a small village in Pakistan to try his luck in Europe. He ended up in Oslo. He set up the first immigrant store in the neighbourhood of GrAnland, Oslo, together with his wife who joined him in Norway some years later. Twenty years later the family owned five stores in the same neighbourhood. They sold food, clothing, gold items and ran a travel agency. The couple had 15 children. Umar was the second oldest son. As the parents ran their businesses, many of their sons learned to be criminals. Umar was sentenced to one year in prison in 2003 for embezzling airline tickets from his family's travel agency. The Oslo District Court stated that he had shown clear criminal intent and that his actions were thoroughly planned and had a professional touch. Umar Farooq Zahoor did not appear in court. Before the trial, the judge had received a letter from the accused asking for a postponement of the case. In the letter, the man from Oslo told the court he was in the midst of business negotiations with bank connections in Switzerland. Later on the police discovered that he was in full swing at the time with a new and spectacular crime. He had rented office space with a New Zealander in ZArich's best business, at which they hung up a gilded sign that read Bank. What customers thought was a real bank would drain its victims for a combined loss of 20 million dollars. Farooq Zahoor's business partner was sentenced to three years and six months in prison for this super scam. During his trial, Zahoor's partner told the Zurich District Court that starting a fake bank was Farooq Zahoor's idea. By the time the Swiss police headed off to arrest Farooq Zahoor, he had already moved to his fathers country of origin. Some years later the man from Oslo was on the run again, this time heading for Dubai, where he began his dubious affairs again. Together with a band of fraudsters, he managed to empty the Nordea bank account of a very wealthy widow over the course of 13 days in the summer of 2010. He received help from an employee at the banks branch office in Oslo to withdraw 10 million dollars. Six million dollars were transferred to two accounts that belonged to a Norwegian businesswoman who lived in Dubai named Sonia Rashid. On the 25th of June 2013, nearly three years after this record-breaking fraud, Sonia Rashid admitted to VG that she had withdrawn this money in cash. She said she gave the millions to Umar Farooq Zahoor. 'Umar was with me when I withdrew the money. He sat in the car while I drove from bank to bank. I went inside the banks and withdrew money that had been transferred to my accounts in Dubai. I gave him the money when I got in the car,' Rashid said. Despite extensive media coverage in recent years, Zahoor continued to work for major financial institutions in Norway. He has worked the last six years as a consultant for a Norwegian company called NBT ASA, which develops wind power projects in China and in the Karachi area of Pakistan. The three largest owners of NBT ASA are the corporate finance company Arctic Securities, billionaire Lars Nilsen via his investment company and Kjell Inge RAkke's Aker Capital AS. MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR CONTRACT On 17th September this year, the Greek EPC contractor and industrial group METKA issued a press release from its headquarters in Athens. The company which specialises in major energy, infrastructure and defence projects had good news: They had secured the first major contract in Sub-Saharan Africa. The entrepreneurial giant had opened an office in Ghanas capital city only a few weeks earlier. METKA is owned by one of the richest dynasties in Greece, the Mytilineos family. According to the press release, the industrial giant had acquired a new partner, Ameri Group. The Greek corporation informed the world that its wholly-owned Turkish subsidiary would be providing Ghana with ten brand new gas turbines manufactured by General Electric (GE). In addition to that, the Greeks would be responsible for operation and maintenance of the turbines. The press release said it was a five-year agreement between the Government of Ghana and METKA's partners, Ameri Group. METKA said their share of the deal exceeded 350 million dollars. This sum is up to 160 million dollars less than the 510 million Ghana will be paying Ameri Group for the turbines. Nobody knows who got their hands on this money yet. VG has posed several questions to METKA. The companys spokesperson, Elli Gardiki, replied in an email saying they could not speak about the details of this agreement and referred VG to the press release of September. 'The projects we carryout are complex technical projects, and as such each one is by no means identical. Each project varies significantly depending on many factors, such as overall project scope, delivery time, site and others. No project and no contract are identical and simplified comparisons can lead to wrong conclusions,' she stated. Ameri Energy was presented in the press release from September as part of energy investments made by His Royal Highness Sheikh Ahmed Bin Dalmook Al Maktoum, a member of the ruling family in Dubai. The press release also stated that the project was made possible with active support from General Electric (GE) in the United States. GE would not comment on what active support means, VG was told by Communication Manager Ivar Simensen at General Electric Norway. 'METKA will respond to its own press releases,' GEs communication manager said. GEs spokesperson would not comment on whether they sold gas turbines to Ameri Group, or at what price the turbines were sold. Dubais largest traffic artery is the Sheikh Zayed Road. Its 16 lanes cut right through the city and continue west towards Abu Dhabi. On the right side of the highway, not far from the Burj Khalifa Skyscraper, stands a weatherworn five-storey building. The Emgate Building consists of business offices and apartments. Until recently, one could visit a street side used car store named 'Deals on Wheels'. This is where the Ameri Group supposedly has its headquarters. The contract and the company's websites give this as their main office. VG has been in contact with the employees of a medical centre in the same building. They have never heard of the company. Ameri Group had not posted its name on the signboard of tenants in the building, four months after the contract was signed. Umar Farooq Zahoor signed the multi-million dollar contract in Ghana together with Prince of Dubai Sheikh Ahmed Bin Dalmook Al Maktoum. The Arabian prince is named and mentioned frequently in Ameri's websites. The 40-year-old Pakistani Norwegian is not mentioned anywhere. Ameri Group's website states that the company's affairs are based on trust, integrity and transparency. 'We are a very ethical corporation and are proud of our work,' it states. The multi-million dollar contract was signed in the greatest secrecy. There were no members of the press present when the contract was entered into. Until now, the name of the person who represented the company was a well-kept secret. Ameri Group's website also lists the prince as chairman of the board. The website also maintains that the prince travels to poor countries in the third world and participates in development projects to provide energy solutions for electricity, water and better infrastructure for the inhabitants of those countries. According to the Ameri Group, the prince's motto is 'a better world for the less fortunate.' Director Mohammed Amin Adam of the think tank, Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP), does not believe this agreement will make the world a better place. On the contrary, he is very critical of the agreement between the Ghanaian government and Ameri Group. According to the agreement, Ghana will lease the ten gas turbines for five years. After that, Ghana becomes owner of the turbines after paying an equipment cost of 510 million dollars. 'That same equipment could have been purchased for 220 million dollars. The Ghanaian authorities would have saved 290 million dollars,' said Amin Adam. 'Why did the authorities decide to trust Ameri Group? It makes no sense economically. We think someone is making money out of this deal, but we do not have any evidence yet,' the head of the think tank said. In addition to an equipment price of 510 million dollars, Ghana will pay variable costs of 16 million dollars annually, according to a report from the Parliament of Ghana. Ghana will also need to pay for the gas to power the ten turbines. According to the agreement, the ten gas turbines are type TM2500+, often referred to as a power plant on wheels. VG's investigations show that the standard price for these turbines is about 20 million dollars. Last summer, GE sold eight identical turbines to Sonelgaz, the state energy company in Algeria, for 161 million dollars. Professor Olav Bolland is one of Norways foremost experts in gas power plants. 'This is one of the worlds most popular turbines, if not the most common. 'A simple internet search indicates that they cost about 22 million dollars each. That seems to be a reasonable price, if you ask me, based on my previous experience pricing power plants,' he said. He leads the Institute of Energy and Process Engineering at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). The agreement was sent to Parliament for approval after the government had signed the agreement with Ameri Group. The ministers delegation reported to Ghanaian elected representatives that a direct purchase of the ten turbines would cost 411 million dollars. This amount is almost double the standard price for such turbines on the world market. A crucial reason for choosing Ameri Group was that the company could deliver the turbines quickly, while it would take nine months or a year for GE to manufacture ten turbines, the minister said. But it was not until late October (eight months after the agreement was signed) that the turbines were unloaded at the Tema Port. From there they were transported to a power station in the west, where they are now being connected to the power grid and will soon be ready to produce electricity. The minister of power has argued to VG that he did nothing wrong when he signed the agreement with the mysterious company. 'I would not get involved in anything that is not good for Ghana,' he said. VG made a number of attempts to get Umar Farooq Zahoor, the prince and Ameri Group to explain why Ghana had to pay such an enormous price. Neither the prince nor the wanted Oslo man has responded to VG's enquiries. After sending an email to the address listed on the company's website, someone named Kate spoke on behalf of Ameri Group saying: 'Mr Umar stopped working for our company a few months ago to pursue bigger business opportunities.' The mysterious company did not want to answer VG's question. 'We are a privately held company in Dubai that does business all over the world, also in Ghana. We see no reason to answer any of your questions. We do not understand why a Norwegian newspaper would be interested in what we do,' she wrote. Friends of the minister such as Dr Kwaku A. Danso, alarmed at the allegations or revelations, sent emails yesterday to ask about the veracity of the report in the Norwegian newspaper, to which Minister Donkor sent this response: Kwabena Donkor (Dr) < [email protected] >: 'There would be a proper response from the Ministry of Power. However, I have to say we signed a BOOT (Build, Own, Operate and Transfer) contract with a Dubai based energy company. The gentleman under reference witnessed the contract, which was signed by a Dubai Prince. 'We have not paid for the plant. If we had $510m to pay, it would have been easier to pay for the purchase price. 'If you take a lease or a mortgage and someone comes to say if you had purchased the house outright, it would have cost you 100 cedis but you are not paying 200 cedis or more over the lifetime of the house or better still, if I say it is cheaper to buy a car outright than to lease, the first question would be whether you have the money to buy the house outright.' SOURCE: www.vg.no 16.12.2015 LISTEN The UK & Ireland Chapter of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) wish to express our profound congratulations to Mr. Kofi Adoli and Mr. Prince Kassim Alubankudi on their appointment to the National Working Youth Committees- Research and Projects Committee. Mr. Adoli and Mr. Alubankudi's commitment and dedication to the NDC here in the UK and in Ghana are unquestionable. Whilst in Ghana, their commitment to promoting the cause of the NDC and working towards victory 2016 for our great party has been remarkable. We in the UK & Ireland Chapter feel honoured that once again two of our own have been recognised and appointed to such an important National Youth working Committee by the appointing authorities of the NDC party. We have no doubt at all that Mr. Adoli and Mr. Alubankudi will excel in their new roles, because we know they have tremendous capabilities and fervour. We are confident they will deliver in their current roles and hope the appointing authorities will consider them for a much higher responsibilities in the future. We wish Mr. Adoli and Mr. Alubankudi well in their appointments. Michael Frempong, PRO NDC UK & Ireland Chapter. December 15th, 2015. Ghanaians in Toronto are living in shock following the arrest and laying of numerous charges by the police on suspected car thefts in the Canada wide. Headings of the story as the police briefed the general public such as Huge swoop on gang shipping stolen cars to Ghana, Nigeria, GTA luxury vehicle thefts links to Nigeria crime Ring Black Axe took the front pages of various newspapers in Canada six days ago. Other headlines were West Africa Black Axe group targeted in Major GTA-Wide, Police tout bust of massive SUV theft ring..... continued to shock Ghanaians living in Canada. See More Here As Narrated By The Toronto Star: Toronto Police have laid 640 charges after an investigation into a vehicle-theft ring alleged to have stolen 500 luxury SUVs, investigators said in a conference Friday. About 175 officers were part of 36 simultaneous raids Thursday that seized an estimated 200 vehicles, 179 of them already in shipping containers to be sent to Africa. I truly believe this is the biggest operation that we have seen taken out in Canada, said Staff Insp. Mike Earl. I have never seen anything like this. The total value of vehicles stolen is estimated at $30 million. Eighteen people have been charged. Investigators believe the SUVs stolen from the GTA were valued at about $60,000 to $80,000 each, but were being sold for half that price in African countries. Earl alleged the money is being used to fund large amounts of prohibited drugs and firearms used to fuel Nigerian crime. (Long guns, magazines, heroin and cocaine were also found in the raids.) Police allege the group's two ringleaders were Joseph Mensah, 63 whose charges include 73 counts of conspiracy and Ehimen Ojemolon, 28, both of whom have previous convictions for similar thefts. Earl described the group's operation as sophisticated. Members of the group are accused of photographing Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) cards and key codes, and then selling them to criminal organizations for $200 each. The group then allegedly received help from an employee at a Service Ontario in Durham Region. Yashiba Minott, 35, is alleged to have provided the group with the addresses of newly registered cars via a search of the government VIN database. Police believe the group stole the vehicles through a process of key cutting. Key codes would be taken to a locksmith, alleged to be 64-year-old Michael Lemesurier, who has also been charged. The group's alleged thefts account for 10 to 15 per cent of the total number of cars stolen in Toronto. According to investigators, many residents had more than one vehicle stolen. Insp. Earl said police had evidence of direct links between the crimes and the Nigerian group Black Axe, known for large-scale financial crimes . I can assure you the money was not going into a good (cause), said Earl. We hope this is a strong message to other organizations. Earl went so far as to call the group a possible terrorist organization. The investigation is a part of Project CBG, a Toronto Police investigation looking into the trafficking of stolen Canadian vehicles being sold and distributed in Ghana and Nigeria. There are outstanding warrants for the arrest of several other suspects. http://www.thestar.com/news/crime/2015/12/11/police-tout-bust-of-massive-suv-theft-ring.html NEW DELHI, Jan. 3-- The death toll of Indian security forces personnel in Saturday's terror attack on a key Indian Air Force base in the northern state of Punjab has touched seven. Three security forces personnel were killed on the spot while 12 others injured Saturday while neutralizing four suspected Pakistani militants who had launched the terror attack on the airbase in Pathankot. "Among those injured, three security forces personnel succumbed to their injuries in a hospital late last night, while a senior Indian Army official died Sunday morning," a police official said. "The death toll on our side now stands at seven. A senior Indian Army official of the rank of Lietanant Colonel, succumbed to his injuries this morning," he said, on condition of anonymity. Eight other injured security forces personnel are still undergoing treatment in a hospital where the condition of some are said to be serious, the official said. All four suspected Pakistani terrorists, who had launched the deadly attack on the airbase in Pathankot, were killed Saturday after a five-hour gun battle. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has lauded the security forces for successfully wrapping up the anti-terror operation that was anticipated. "Enemies of humanity who can't see India progress, such elements attacked in Pathankot but our security forces did not let them succeed," Modi said. The airbase in Pathankot is a key military facility, where a number of Russian-made MiG-21 combat jets and Mi-35 attack helicopters are stationed. The attack on the airbase, intended to destroy India's air assets, happened barely a week after Modi made a spontaneous visit to Lahore and met his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif. Many feel that the militant attack was an attempt to derail the Lahore peace process, a gesture aimed at taking forward the stalled peace talks between India and Pakistan. SETTING THE RECORDS STRAIGHT: MY RESPONSE TO THE COMMUNIQUE ISSUED BY THE DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS OF THE NEW PATRIOTIC PARTY(NPP ) ON THURSDAY DEC. 10TH 2015 ASCRIBING REASONS FOR MY INDEFINITE SUSPENSION FROM THE OFFICE OF GENERAL SECRETARY. On Thursday December 10 2015, the Director of Communications of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) issued a communique, on the meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC). The communique confirmed the NEC's endorsement of the Disciplinary Committee recommendation to suspend me indefinitely from office as General Secretary of the NPP. After a detailed study and deep reflection on the communique, I wish to take this opportunity to repudiate and totally reject all of the reasons ascribed by the NPP for my suspension, especially any intended or untended attempts to impugn my reputation and tarnish my good name. I will like to first refresh our minds of the NPP's charges and then go on to answer each one of them thoroughly, comprehensively and honestly. So here we go: A) Violation of Article 3(D) of the NPP constitution which enjoins members to publicly uphold the decisions of the party, through various acts including; i. His disregard for NEC decision on 23rd October, 2015, suspending Mr. Paul Afoko The legality or otherwise of the NEC decision of 23rd October 2015, has been under judicial contention since the day it was taken. Indeed, it is now the subject of a formal law suit which is yet to be determined. As General Secretary, I had to make a judgment call on how my conduct will best uphold the letter and spirit of the Party's constitution and the laws of Ghana which also bind the operations of all political parties in the country. This, I had made known earlier in a letter dated September 18, 2015 addressed to the Council of Elders and the National Disciplinary Committee. It is therefore my humble opinion that pending the determination of the current legal action, the charge of disregarding the NEC decision of 23rdOctober 2015 is at best unproven. ii. Various Public statements he made that cast the Party in bad light. I wish to state for the record that since September 2, 2015, when the Presidential Candidate called for a halt to all discussions of internal party issues in the media, I have not spoken in any shape or form that could be considered as putting the party in a bad light; whether by interview, press conference, response to personal attacks or on anyone's behalf. I stand ready to have the above assertion be proved otherwise by concrete and verifiable evidence. B) He engaged in unilateral actions and activities without consultation of, or authorization by the NEC, such as; i. Writing to the Electoral Commission designating only him and suspended Chairman Afoko as the only authorized signatories. This charge is untrue. I have not, repeat, NOTwritten any such letter to the Electoral Commission; which fact could have easily be verified. The facts are as follows: Earlier this year, the Deputy General Secretary and some Regional Chairmen wrote to the Electoral Commission (EC). The EC response was that as per the laid down procedures of the Commission, and in accordance with the Political Parties Act 2000, communication to the Commission is done mainly through party's General Secretaries. The EC followed up its response with an instruction to all political parties reminding them that all correspondence between it the EC and political parties should be done through the General Secretary/Chairman. The EC further instructed that IPAC will from now on only admit three Representatives from each political party namely, the National Chairman, General Secretary and one other. ii. Granting waivers to parliamentary aspirants The granting of waivers to parliamentary aspirants who have shown commitment to the Party by General Secretaries of the NPP is a precedent established by previous occupants of the position. For example, in 2011, the incumbent General Secretary granted waivers to many including Anthony Karbo and Dr. Ayew Afriyie without recourse to NEC or the NPP's Steering Committee. In my case, most of the waivers went to the Volta Region, at the request of the Regional Chairman, Mr. Peter Amewu; in constituencies where we have traditionally struggled to fill candidates. In the case of Peter Mensah, the gentleman who suffered an acid attack in the course of duty as constituency organizer, I justifiably granted him a waiver after receiving the request from him and some executives of the Techiman North constituency. Development fees were waived for the following; former National Organizer Bamba; former MP Effah Dartey, former MP Mrs. Cecilia Amoah; as well as Dr. Ayew Afriyie who has supported the party through AFAG. The Steering Committee was accordingly informed. There is no record of protest or indeed any disciplinary action against any of my predecessors for the actions or their reasons for granting waivers which also followed past precedence. So obviously, this is 'trumped up' charge. iii. Non-reference of legal matters to the proper legal Committee of the Party There are several past precedents where the party has acted outside of the constitutional committee in legal matters. For example, the immediate past administration instructed Madam Joyce Opoku Boateng to represent the party in court on the Manhyia, Kumawu and Juaben cases. The person assigned was NOT a member of the constitutional Committee neither was she appointed by same. Perhaps it is important that we aver our mind to the historic election petition of 2013, which was not referred to the constitutional committee then headed by Hon. Ayikoi Otoo and the verifiable fact that none of the members of the constitutional committee, not even the Chairman, were on the Party's legal team at the Supreme Court. It will be recalled that the composition of the Party's legal team was decided on by the Presidential Candidate, National Chairman and General Secretary although it was the National Council that gave the green light to go to court iv. Interference with Constituency primaries against National Appeal Committee decisions and also, Court decisions. This is blatantly untrue and can be easily verified. There is no evidence to support this assertion. Rather, it can be easily established, through reference to minutes that I passed on the report of the National Appeals committee to the Steering Committee and the National Executive Committee without any alteration whatsoever. Regrettably, this is another 'trumped up' charge without an iota of truth v. Misrepresentation/misleading of NEC on status of some constituency primaries At the NEC meeting held on the 3rd of December, 2015, the General Secretary solicited the views and response of members of NEC on this accusation of Misrepresenting / misleading of NEC on status of some constituency primaries which came from the Member of Parliament for Adansi Asokwa, Hon. KT Hammond, who was also present in the meeting. When the question was put to the house, none confirmed this allegation. It is useful to recall that at the NEC meeting held on August 18, 2015 when the decision was taken on the primaries in Adansi Asokwa, it was both the Ashanti Regional Chairman and the 3rdNational Vice Chairman, whose views persuaded the NEC to overturn the National Appeals Committee decision to disqualify aspirant Mr. Richard Anokye and uphold the earlier regional vetting committee decision to allow him to contest in the parliamentary primaries. Again the minutes of the were recorded and are available for verification vi. He, in conjunction with suspended Chairman Afoko and Sammy Crabbe, launched Party cards without authorizations from NEC Article 9 (5) 9a) of the NPP's constitution enjoins the Party's Finance Committee to raise funds to support the activities of the party. It states clearly that It shall be the duty of the Finance Committee to raise funds necessary to finance the operations of the party in conformity with the applicable laws. It shall report on its activities to the National Chairperson. The Finance committee duly invited proposals and reviewed same from six companies. On a near unanimous vote, the committee accepted the proposal from Paymanex Limited. Subsequently, the Party Chairman approved the recommendation of the committee which led to the actions taken to launch the card. The NEC was duly informed. I want to reiterate that, for the avoidance of doubt, I placed all the foregoing facts before the Disciplinary Committee during my encounter with them. I was asked to recuse myself during the subsequent NEC meeting and therefore was denied the opportunity to participate in the deliberations. I would to like state that the only purpose for putting out this statement is to correct the inaccuracies contained in the NPP communique of December 10 2015 and for no other purpose. I believe there is already an ongoing action which will clarify the merits or otherwise of the legality of the removal of officers elected by the supreme body of the party, i.e. The National Delegates Congress My attention has also been drawn to a purported transcript of my encounter with the Disciplinary Committee of the NPP which was first published by myjoyonline.com . I wish to state categorically that I completely reject that doctored account which is only calculated to soil my good name through innuendos and aspersions. I will deal separately and comprehensively with the allegations made in that false report and furnish all with a copy of the genuine minutes of the Disciplinary Committee as submitted to the NEC of the NPP. My commitment, dedication and long standing service to this tradition is a matter of public record. As a loyal member of this party, I shall continue to offer my support and prayers in our quest for victory in 2016. I take this opportunity to wish all members of the NPP and fellow citizens of Ghana a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. May God bless us Long Live the NPP Long Live the Republic of Ghana Signed: Kwabena Agyei Agyepong VIAM CALLS ON THE GHANA GOVERNMENT TO REMAIN RESOLUTE AND STEADFAST ON ITS DECISION TO ABOLISH ALLOWANCES FOR TEACHER TRAINEES, BUT SHOULD IMPROVE QUALITY AND EQUITY ISSUES ABERDEEN,UK, December 22, 2015- VIAM Africa Centre for Education and Social Policy wishes to advise the Government of Ghana to remain resolute and steadfast on its policy decision to abolish allowances for teacher trainees, while calling for broader stakeholder consultations to address quality and equity issues. We also urge opponents of the policy to proceed from an evidenced-based perspective of their policy stance, rather than emotional arguments. The allowance paid to teacher trainees at the Colleges of Education (CoEs) of Ghana was introduced in the 1960s as part of Dr. Kwame Nkrumahs agenda to attract more people into the teaching profession. The policy was repealed in the early 1970s but had to be reinstated in the 1980s following the mass exodus of Ghanaian teachers to Nigeria. In 2012, the Government replaced it (with a tertiary student loan). Three major reasons underlie the current policy direction as captured by the Governments Education Strategic Plan covering 2010-2020. First, CoEs had been upgraded into tertiary institutions following the passage of the Colleges of Education Act (Act 847 of 2012), and in so doing, payment of trainee allowances was no longer justified. Trainees would have to apply for funding as their colleagues at the universities that provide initial teacher training services (e.g. University of Education, Winneba [UEW] and University of Cape Coast [UCC]). Second, the training colleges admitted students based on government allocated quota of trainee allowances, resulting in limited intake despite availability of facilities for more student teachers. Therefore the removal of the quota system meant that COEs that had capacity could increase their intake. The third reason appears to have been influenced by the Governments commitment to significantly reduce the wage bill at the basic education level (primary to junior high school). According to The World Bank, about nine thousand teacher trainees enrolled every year resulting in estimated student population of 27,000 which currently represents about 10 percent of basic education wage bill. Opponents of the policy have largely argued that, removal of the allowances would impede access to the CoE, and rather create more problems than what it seeks to cure. According the Ghana National Association Teachers and other civil society groups, withdrawal of the allowances would result in lower enrollment since it would increase the cost of education for applicants. This, they argue, would further exacerbate the problem of teacher shortage facing the country. On the contrary, official reports indicate that there has been a significant increase in enrolment at the CoE since the withdrawal of the allowance for teacher trainees, from 9,000 students in 2013 to 15,000 students in the 2014 academic year (60% increase). However, this could also be attributed to a number of factors including the fact that two cohorts of senior high school students completed their programme in that year. Having considered these varying positions, VIAM Africa is of the considered opinion that the policy decision to abolish allowances for teacher trainees needs to be maintained, although mechanisms for broader stakeholder consultations to address quality and equity issues need to be factored into the policy discussions. We outline our main arguments as follows: The withdrawal of the allowance has ultimately led to the abolishment of the quota system thereby increasing enrolment rates. Hitherto, the allowances had created a perverse set of incentives creating an artificial ceiling on student intake. The limitations on student enrolment at the CoEs should be on the basis of available facilities and not quotas. Given that high number of already trained teachers are awaiting appointment to the service due to financial constraints , we think that it is more financially prudent in the short to medium term to expend the foregone allowances to get these already trained teachers into the classrooms to deliver much needed tutelage instead of having to wait another three years. This is particularly important given the freeze on net employment across the government service sector, especially in all public schools, as a result of budget conditionality and an already constricted education budget of which greater proportion goes into compensation of employees. Positive impact on public finances as this frees up liquidity for the government which can be used for other pressing social interventions such as building classroom blocks and providing more instructional resources. Students borrow from SNNIT of which the amount stays on their balance sheet as compared to the governments budget. Payment terms spread over many years thus reduces the burden on students (minimal impact). Amount given the students now is much bigger than the old allowances and thus gives them much bigger consumption power Special funding/sponsorship beyond the current student loans scheme should be made available for anybody who wants to go into teaching which should not be automatic, but applied for. There are several approaches that can be adopted but we suggest two perspectives. First, a meritorious grant system that awards a stipulated fund to high achievers from West Africa Senior Secondary Certificate Examinations to train as teachers for the basic education sector. These students should then be put on a career pathway that leads to advanced practitioners in their field and future leaders in the sector. The second approach is to award special grants to students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Whilst the withdrawal of the allowances could potentially increase access due to the abolishment of the quota system, this arrangement would adversely affect less privileged individuals from accessing teacher training education which raises equity issues. For this reason, the Government through the Metropolitan and District Assemblies should adopt need-based assessment of individuals who have strong commitment to train as teachers but have no secure funding source, and might not qualify under the student loan scheme. Beyond the scraping of the allowance, we recommend that trainee teachers must be offered the opportunity to live their own life and take responsibility for their action, in order to develop the requisite attitude and values they would need to succeed as leaders of their classrooms. They must be afforded the opportunity to experience the social life that their colleagues in other tertiary institutions enjoy. We recommend the provision of hostel facilities instead of the present boarding system as in the case of all tertiary institutions in Ghana. This should also mean that, wearing prescribed school uniforms, taking exeats, responding to school bells, weeding and cleaning compounds, among others, which pertain in the training colleges, should be abolished. These suggestions fit in a broader attributes of developing responsible citizens and professionals. We believe initial teacher training should be situated within a much broader framework of teacher education and continuous development to ensure Ghana recruits and retains teachers who are motivated, innovative and inspiring. VIAM wishes to urge the Ghanaian public, especially the political parties to engage in broader stakeholder consultations in defining their manifestoes in the run up to the 2016 General Elections. We are willing to leverage on our broad array of network of experts to help drive such agenda. Signed Dr. Prince Armah Executive Director VIAM Africa Centre for Education and Social Policy is an independent, private, charity organisation for rigorous, intellectually honest study and open discussion on Africas education and social policy. Its work is made possible by financial support from a highly diverse group of philanthropic foundations, private corporations, and interested individuals, as well as annual subscriptions from its members. For more information, go to www.viamafrica.com The Sustainable Fisheries Management Project (SFMP), a USAID-funded food security initiative, has awarded prizes to two fish processors during the 2015 National Farmers Day celebration held in Bolgatanga in Upper East Region. SFMP partner organisation Development Action Association (DAA) responsible for this activity, presented fish processing equipment worth GHS600.00 to the women who exhibited outstanding leadership in advocacy for responsible fishing and safe post-harvest fish handling practices. The awards category was offered to the two women in collaboration with the two district assemblies to encourage other resource users, particularly in fisheries to adopt sustainable fisheries practices. This years farmers day celebration, marked under the theme, Transform Ghana: Invest in Agriculture, and replicated in all districts throughout the country. DAA participated in the two district level celebrations in Apam Gomoa West District and Winneba Effutu Municipality, to draw attention to the fisheries sector and the critical role it plays in contributing food protein to Ghanaians. Ghanas per capita apparent fish consumption is among the highest in the world at an average of 28 kg per person per annum. The worlds per capita apparent fish consumption increased from an average of 9.9 kg in the 1960s to 19.2 kg per person per annum in 2014. Thus, the role of the sector is far reaching and needs to receive more attention for improved management of a marine sector which is near collapse due to management issues such as illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, weak governance, overcapacity and overfishing. USAID/Ghana SFMP is working closely with the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development and Fisheries Commission (MOFAD/FC) to ensure that tens of thousands of metric tons of fish which have been lost over the last two decades are recouped to reduce poverty and hunger as well as sustain the livelihoods of about 170,000 fishers including women fish processors and about 2.2 million indirect jobs. SFMP is working with relevant fisheries stakeholders and supporting MOFAD/FC to implement management measures such as a closed season as contained in a recently approved National Marine Fisheries Management Plan. The goal of SFMP is to rebuild targeted marine fisheries stocks through the adoption of sustainable practices and exploitation levels. DAA is a network of farmer and fisher groups which aims to promote sustainable agriculture and food security, while empowering and building resilience of rural women. This is achieved through various investments in the form of training in improved technology, advocacy and business skills. 23.12.2015 LISTEN The deputy minister for Agriculture in charge of Livestock, Dr.Hanna Bissiu has blast Kumasi Abattoire Limited for not keeping the place in good hygienic condition. She urged operators to practice good hygienic conditions at the abattoire to ensure the safety of consumers. Dr.Hannah Bissui made these remarks when she visited Kumasi Abattoire together with Head of public Health Veterinary Service Dr.Bashiru Boj Kikimoto, to inspect the abattoire on their preparation ahead of the Christmas festivities. The deputy minister noted that, the way the butchers slaughter animals, dress them for public consumption needs urgent attention. During their tour, they also inspected Live Birds Sellers at central market, Egg Sellers at Railways and assure them that the government will support them to boost their businesses for the benefit of the country. The deputy minister indicated that, the ministry realized that butchers are not paying the Gh 2.00 per animal they slaughter as tax to the government and calls for immediate arrest of butchers who are not the tax to government. She said government is working vigorously to strengthen the policy governing meet production in the country. Assessment of government performance on the economy and the development of Ghana as a nation by Taxpayers League Ghana have revealed that the institutionalization of corruption by President Mahama's government has impeded the development of our great nation. Ghana is facing economic crisis as we run to IMF for bailout including billions of Eurobonds just to relieve us from severe hardship but all these monies end up in individuals pocket instead of helping the people of Ghana. Recently, the Minister of Roads and Transport awarded a contract to the tuned of Ghc 3.6 million equivalent to US$ 1 million just to brand 116 buses with the President's image. President Mahama commissioned a less than 1 km stretch Adomi Bridge at the cost of Ghc 54.4 million equivalents to 13.6 million. Renovation of Kumasi domestic airport runway cost the nation US$ 23.5 million. Tamale airport also cost US$100 million etc. It is amazing to note that appointees who get involved in corruption are promoted from ministries to the Presidency. The Chief of Staff, Mr. Julius Debrah, has requested the Attorney General to recover GH1.9 million from Messrs Smartty Management Production owned by Selassi Ibrahim who is a friend of President Mahama. The AG's report has determined this amount to be excess payment made for the service rendered." Was this excess payment due to a bug in the payment software, carelessness by the accountant, fraud by Smartty, expense padding by the minister, etc.? Who approved the decision to rebrand the buses? Since government has accepted that there was a wrong doing, the Minister must face the music and cough the taxpayers money back. Taxpayers League Ghana totally rejects this dubious directive from the chief of staff. We need the full amount back into the consolidated fund. We also add our voice to our colleagues of Taxpayers Alliance Ghana to call on the Criminal Investigations Department of the Ghana Police (CID), The Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) and the Economic and Organized Crime Unit to effect immediate arrest of the CEO of Smartty and the Minister of Roads and Transport to recover the full amount dubiously paid out from our taxes. ......Signed....... Hopeson Adorye Executive Director +1-347-445-2996 +233-201433925 It has come to our notice that the Kaduna state Governor Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai has ordered KASUPDA to demolish all the properties belonging to the Islamic Movement in Nigeria. Yesterday, KASUPDA under the protection of Nigerian Army and the SSS razed to ground what remained of our Husainiyya Islamic centre. We are particularly irked by the demolition of our newly bought property adjacent the Husainiyya Baqiyyatullah, a former NTC compound, which they did yesterday. That compound has been in existence since the colonial times. Governor Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai didnt stopped at that, his governments KASUPDA demolished our Fudiyya Islamic centre, where we were holding our Islamic programmes before relocating to Husainiyya about five years ago. That building was also duly occupied by us and was built by the owner over thirty years ago. It was in the midst of other peoples houses. KASUPDA also demolished the family house of Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky wherein the remains of his mother who died a year ago lies. The house is located in Jushi Qtrs of Tudun wada Zaria. We condemn this act of brutality against the Islamic movement. This atrocity is a pointer to the fact that, while the government is busy telling the public that they want peace to prevail after the massacre, but at the same time it is out to provoke us more. We believe if the government is truly searching for avenues for peaceful resolution to this crisis, the government should be seen by all to be following due process in whatever breach they are accusing the Movement. We are calling on the Kaduna state Governor, Nasir El Rufai, to desist from exploiting our patience and endurance and stop further destruction of our properties. Pictures: The Home/Graveyard of Hajiya Hari Jamo before and after the demolition exercise and the picture of looters looting the properties of FUDIYYAH ISLAMIC CENTRE after demolishing. Signe by IBRAHIM MUSA President of Media Forum of the Islamic Movement The NDC UK and Ireland Chapter held a glamorous get together in London in celebration of its achievements and hard work during year 2015. The get together held at the High Cross United Reform Church, High Road - Tottenham, London, N15 4BN was well attended by party members, supporters, sympathisers, well wishers and friends of the NDC in the United Kingdom. Also in attendance was a special delegation from the Ghana High Commission. The focus of the evening was, of course, to focus and welcome the 2016 elections. The event kicked off with a prayer by Hon. Emmanuel Osae, former District Chief Executive of Kwaebibirem in the Eastern Region of Ghana. Mr. Kofi Kwakye, the Chapter Chairman in his welcoming address, thanked the members for all their hard work during the course of the year. He asked the gathering to note that as they celebrate the get together, they should also keep in mind the NDC commitment to the people of Ghana. The Chapter Chairman reminded members that the year ahead is a difficult one and members shoiuld continue working harder to make the 2016 election a One Touch win. He encouraged members to give their incontrovertible support to President John Mahama to retain a second term of office. NDC.... Ede Bee keke. JM.. One touch Victory!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sam Quaye Secretary NDC UK & Ireland Chapter 30.12.2015 LISTEN In countries where the military rank of Generalissimo is used, the officer is the commander of the combined military, naval and air forces. The rank is superior to Field Marshal and the other five star ranks. At Sunyani when Nana Akufo Addo named Hon. Dan Botwe as the Campaign Strategist of the NPP in the run-up to the 2016 general elections, I couldn't help but to address him as Generalissimo. Dan is a trusted friend, a tested and veteran politician, a master strategist, a true patriot and an effective Member of Parliament and above all a gentleman who can dine with the devil if that will bring peace. It was Dan, the then General Secretary of the NPP who worked beyond exhaustion and human endurance to bring the NPP to power after the party had been in opposition for many years. Even though guns will not be used in elections of the type that we are about to witness, like war, strategy is the most essential weapon in elections and Dan will not be found wanting. That is why Dan should direct every resource at his command, every intelligence he has and every necessary weapon of election to the defeat of the NDC, a party that has brought sorrow to our homes. Generalissimo Dan should adopt covert operations, secret even in success, to dilute the poison that the NDC has planted in the minds of the poor folks in our small towns and villages. As a Generalissimo, Mr. Botwe should effectively lead and co-ordinate a comprehensive strategy to defeat the NDC in such a way that they will not rise again. Even when the battle was tougher in 2000 when the country was being ruled by a military man who had been in power for more than a decade, Dan rose high to the challenges. Ghanaians will never forgive the NPP if the party becomes complacent for the NDC to grab power and misrule again for yet another four years. That is why all national, regional, constituency and polling station executives should put their weight behind Dan Botwe to lead the onslaught because this particular election is a fight for all who believe in democracy and abhor corruption and thievery as well as incompetence. The NPP has been put on notice: the party is not immune to infiltrators and moles. We must fish them out and flush them out from the party before it is too late. In recent times, meetings which were held secretly were recorded and played on some radio stations to the embarrassment of supporters of the party. The time has come for the party to define its terms, not to be defined by moles. In our anger, we have found our moment of courage. In our grief during the infighting that we experienced recently, we have found hope after the Sunyani Delegates Congress. Three weeks after the Sunyani Delegates Congress, Ghanaians have seen the state of the party called NPP and it is strong. We must not get tired, we must not falter and we must not fail Ghanaians. Supporters of the NPP should quickly put behind them all what had happened in the party which led to the suspension of three leading members and remember that even grief recedes with time and grace. Yes, indeed our grief at what happened in the party turned to anger and anger to resolution. There are struggles ahead and dangers to face and as such each and everyone should girdle up his or her loins for the battle royal ahead. I would like to reveal to Dan, the master strategist something which we failed to observe in the 2012 general elections. The truth is that greater number of our polling agents were not educated enough and the NDC capitalized on that to get what they wanted. Some of them collected monies from the NDC and looked the other way while the NDC stuffed the ballot boxes with already thump-printed ballot papers. Don't ask me where they got them because you know Afari Gyan was in control and the Finger of God did miracles. This time around Dan Botwe should instruct constituency officers to start as soon as possible to scout for Polling Agents who will not compromise. We need to use TESCON members, lawyers, businessmen and women, Constituency and Regional Executive members as well as retired soldiers and policemen and women who are members of the NPP as polling agents. Additionally, all former MMDCEs since the party came to power in 2000 to 2008 as well as former ministers and their deputies and former presidential staffers should be roped in to act as polling agents. General Buhari knew that Goodluck Jonathan and his party had loaded their war chest with huge amount of naira and so this was what he did. He made sure all the strongholds of Jonathan were manned by Polling Agents that could not be bribed. Now that the Mahama administration has impoverished the masses, if care is not taken they will buy some of them since they know they cannot find their way at the EC. When during the Supreme Court election petition Asiedu Nketia said the extra ballot papers found in some of the ballot boxes were foreign materials he knew what he was taking about. And when Sir John, the then General Secretary of the NPP told supporters of the party to wear white clothes and attend churches to thank God because the party had won the 2012 general elections, he based his statement on the results faxed to the party headquarters from all the regions. He did not know that the NDC supported by the EC were doctoring the results. Generalissimo Botwe should not leave any stone unturned because the NDC can easily change colours to cheat in 2016. These are people who are ready to abandon every value except the will to power. Now that we have been able to identify their tricks, though too late, they will surely not use the same trick. Once a leopard, always a leopard if even you bath it. Eric Bawah 31.12.2015 LISTEN As the year 2015 draws to a close, I am compelled to recollect some issues that I heard about during the course of the year. Some of them edified and gave me hope of better days ahead, while others made me sad, particularly because the people who were responsible for them let me down. In this article, I have picked two out of the many issues I heard about which made me sad to comment on! These two, although are of same essence, were played out by two different actors and are separated by time and location. My hope is that those who were responsible for them will not stage their recurrence, and that no other persons will repeat them in coming years. During the year 2015, two very popular Ghanaian Christian clergymen, [may they never be deemed notorious by any unkind or shallow-minded politician], never minced their words in making people aware that they had issues with the sitting president of the countryHis Excellency President John Dramani Mahama. Both clergymen, surrounded by cheering fans, vented out their frustrations about the President on what they judged to be failures in his promise to make Ghana a decent country for every Ghanaian to live in. This is what the first one said in his local Akan tongue to the thunderous applause of his listeners: Onyansafuo eeee! Onyansafuo mo wo hin? Yepe onyansafuo ama won abu oman no. Onyanasafuo eeee. Onyansafuo, mo wo hin?to wit thus: People of wisdom! People of wisdom, where are you? We need people of wisdom to rule this country. People of wisdom, where are you? He then went on to lament on the state of the only international airport in Ghana; entreating his listeners to accept that Ghanas Kotoka International Airport (KIA) was not fit to be termed International because those in South Africa are far more glamorous! For him, KIA is only fit to be termed a village airport!! Proceeding further, he ranted and raved about tax deductions he had observed are made on his monthly pay slip but without any visible commensurate level in national development; lamenting that it was just too painful and annoying. The other, took the President to the cleaners for the persistent and the then seemingly forever chronic Dumsor challenge in electricity supply that his government has been grappling with for close to four years. According to him, the challenge in electricity supply had persisted in the country because of a challenge in wisdomimplying that managers of the country, particularly the President, do not have wisdom to effectively govern it! Upon examining the statements made by these clergymen, it became obvious to me how many things these commentators have in common as clergymen. The first one the Moderator, and the other the General Overseer, each of them being the topmost head governing their respective denominations! By the work they do, both clergymen consider the English Bible as their constitution and also their complete instruction for holy living, as does every Christian. But by their utterances in their condemning criticisms of the sitting President and his government, one wonders if their loyalty to this book is genuine at all. No one, according to the English Bible, should speak evil of or ridicule any leaderwhether political, monarch, coup maker, traditional leader, or whateversince no one gets to be a leader on the blind side of the Most High One who in fact is blind to nothing and perpetually rules in the affairs of mencf. Romans 13:1-7, First Timothy 2:1-3, First Peter 2:13-17! And yet, these clergymen, by their words, do contrary to the instructions of their own constitution in these verses?? But of course, wisdom is not cheap! Wisdom comes at great cost to very humble and meek people who make strenuous efforts to learn and live by the holy ways of Elohiym. No one can have a successful and fruitful walk with the Most High One without wisdom, nor can anyone even be considered by Him for leadership in His spiritual affairs without the wisdom and understanding of His ways. We are instructed that, Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom. And in all thy getting, get understandingcf. Mishle (Proverbs) 4:7. We are also taught that The fear of Elohiym is the beginning of wisdomcf. Mishle (Proverbs) 9:10. We are furthermore told to . . . Fear Elohiym, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of mancf. Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) 12:13. Since Christian clergymen know these verses in the Bible they read, why such a show of lack of wisdom on the part of these two clergymen in violating these verses and those referred to four paragraphs above? Or is the driving force in them the rare kind of courage, boldness, or fearlessness that, at times, blinds people from knowing that the ruler beareth not the sword in vain?? For these clergymen to violate verses of their constitution, gives them up as lacking wisdomthe very attribute they accuse their President of being bereft of!! This, to me, is an obvious situation of the accuser pointing his index finger at an accused, only to have the remaining four of his same hand pointing directly at himself! Those who point accusing fingers at others are seldom conscious of their own fingers pointing back at them!! How unfair! Christian clergymen have their own peculiar challenges with leadership which their own wisdom is not able to deal with!! For, there are many beliefs and practices that Christian clergymen have led and continue to lead their followers to do, which are simply out of sync with the teachings of their English Bible! For example, their commemoration of what is termed the Last Supper of the Savior is done as a Sunday Breakfast! Well, that is special wisdom for youbeing able to do the impossible by turning a Supper into a Breakfastexhibited by people who accuse others of lacking wisdom!! Anyone with the wisdom of the Ivri (Hebrew) Holy Scriptures would know that what the English Bible instructs its readers to do as a remembrance of the Saviors Last Supper on earth is indeed a reenactment of the Khag Pesach (Feast of Passover?) that marked the liberation of Yisroel from bondage to Mitzrayim (Egypt) on the night before their departure to Yisroel. By the wisdom of Elohiym that guided Yisroel in his first observance of the Khag Pesach in Mitzrayim, every subsequent commemoration of that event was to be done behind locked doors in private homes and in the evening of a particular daythe fourteenth day of the first month of Nisan (Abib) of the Ivri calendar. And so, Khag Pesach was never celebrated in the Beit HaMikdash in YahuSalem (Jerusalem Temple?), contrary to what todays supper-turned-breakfast revelers do in their Cathedrals, Chapels, Churches and Temples all over the world; doing so even as a daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly ritual according to the dictates of clergymen!! One important teaching of Christian clergymen is that on the death, burial, and resurrection of the Savior. They teach that the Savior died on a Friday afternoon, was buried in the evening of this Friday and that his resurrection was at dawn on the following Sunday! But, obviously, such a teaching is absolutely bereft of wisdom since such a position cannot establish fulfillment of the sign of the navi (prophet?) Yonahcf. MattitYahu (Matthew) 12:40which the burial and resurrection of the Savior must fulfill!! A count of the three days and three nights from a supposed Friday evening burial hour needed for the resurrection of Yahushua would neither have ended on a Sunday nor would it have occurred at dawn!! In fact, no beingDivine, malak (an angel) or humancan obtain a correct count of three days and three nights between Friday evening and Sunday dawn! Well, a rare kind of wisdom available to only Christian clergymen seems capable of achieving this!! You see, the resurrection hour had to coincide with the burial hour if three days and three nights were to be attained! But alas, the wisdom of Christian clergymen is unable to grasp this fact. It must also be noted that no one in the Kingdom of Elohiym is permitted to work on Yom HaSheviiSeventh Day of the Week (Saturday?)and so the Savior must have completed his hard work for the salvation of mankind before the commencement of Yom HaShevii!! A lack of wisdom by Christian clergymen regarding the Saviors resurrection, which happened at the commencement of Yom HaShevii (Shabbat), and which in todays reckoning would be at 6:00pm of Friday, has led them to mislead their followers to perpetually venerate Sunday as the Saviors resurrection day and thus despising the holy Shabbat day of Elohiym! And so, Christians are misled to break the fourth of the Ten Commandments of Elohiym that were written on tablets of stone so as to remain indelible and unchangingto forever keep the holy Shabbat day of Elohiym!! No wonder that, after Christian clergymen have shown themselves to be bereft of wisdom concerning their own religion, they hold on to the English name JESUS CHRIST as belonging to the Savior, not bothered that the Savior was born to Ivri (Hebrew) parents who pronounced on him the Ivri name malak GavriEl brought to them from Elohiym seven centuries before the coming of the English race and their language. How could Christian clergymen do this to their followers?? By this little piece of mine, my only intention is to urge my readers to always fear the Most High One by obeying His commands to honor all manner of leaders put in place. For our obedience in this regard gives Him joy so He is able to pour on us His wisdom as promised. I can confidently say we are in a time of spiritual renaissance when misleading doctrines and practices of Christianity propagated by clergymen will be properly re-taught to enable mankind know the truth by which sinners enter the salvation of Elohiymin and by the name Yahushua ONLY. Shalom aleikhem. PS: Should readers of this and any of my articles have serious questions or suggestions, they may contact me via e-mail by clicking on Contact on the Home Page of my website, http://sbprabooks.com/BongleBapuohyele . You may also purchase a copy of my bookBeware of This False Doctrine: Of Reciting the Sinners' Prayer for Salvationvia the same web address so, together, we walk the narrow way to the presence of Elohiym. Shalom. Herve Ladsous is the United Nations under-secretary-general for peacekeeping operations. He oversaw the first deployment of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drones in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) two years ago. Africa Renewals Masimba Tafirenyika spoke to him about the UNs experience in using UAVs in peacekeeping operations. These are excerpts from the interview. Africa Renewal: First of all, I would like to know your views about the recent independent report on peacekeeping operations, which recommended, among other things, the use of high-tech equipment including UAVs or drones in UN missions. Herve Ladsous: Actually that report picked up initiatives taken over a year ago when I tasked a group of experts to look into the use of technology and innovation in peacekeeping. It came up with a number of recommendations, a large part of which we are already implementing. Youre right in saying the UAVs are the more visible part of this array of suggestions. I just want to make it very clear that our UAVs are unarmed. They are for surveillance purpose only. It is now becoming a relatively common tool. We started just over two years ago in the DRC. But we are now deploying surveillance drones of every denomination tactical and strategic. For instance, we have also deployed them in Mali and in CAR [Central African Republic]. Of course I would very much want to deploy some in South Sudan because that is the key for us to perform better. UAVs do a better job in protecting civilians because they provide real-time pictures of situations as they develop on the ground. You can act more quickly and more decisively. They also provide better security to our people because you get prior warnings that an ambush or an attack is about to happen. You are then in a position to prepare for it. And sometimes you can actually save peoples lives. For example, a year and a half ago one of our machines was flying over Lake Kivu to Goma Airport in the DRC. The pilot in his bunker saw on the screen a boat which had just capsized. That allowed us to send rescuers and we were able to save 16 people from drowning. That was of course a bit of luck but it shows that UAVs are very versatile and necessary tools in our operations. Its been about two years since the UN deployed UAVs in eastern DRC. How has that changed the dynamics of the fight against anti-government forces? We get much better information about what is happening on the ground. We can see groups on the prowl. I saw some of the photos captured by the drones. In certain circumstances, we can actually recognize the faces. We now have knowledge of what is happening on the ground and how to mitigate or to proactively intervene. We have lots of enablers in eastern Congo. We have attack helicopters, we have artillery and we have a robust mandate. Its really about putting an end to the incredible damage that the so-called harm groups have done over the years, forcing millions of people to run away as refugees or internally displaced persons, raping hundreds of thousands of women, recruiting tens of thousands of children into their ranks and plundering the resources of the Kivus. That had to be put to an end. That is why the UN Security Council gave us a mandate to neutralize armed groups. Thats what we are trying to do, but its not an easy task. Besides UAVs, what other high-tech equipment are you using? Well, its more about gathering information: we did it just in time for the election process in the Central African Republic and also during the popes visit to the country. We were ablefor the first time in one of our missions to deploy in the capital, Bangui, a system of tethered balloons which carry an array of sensors, cameras, infrared and other equipment to keep watch over the city. We had the ability to see real-time if there was a demonstration starting somewhere or some hostile groups getting together so we could act in a more timely fashion. We are in northern Mali right now and we are in the process of deploying counterbattery radars, which will allow us to retaliate against terrorists or jihadists who regularly lob mortar shells or rockets at our camps. They killed three of our people recently. Counterbattery radars allow us to retaliate immediately. There are a number of important things we can do with high technology. The [UN] Secretary-General is committed to it. It also allows us to reduce the carbon footprint of peacekeeping, to be more environment-friendly and to consume less fuel, among other things. There has been some hesitance on the use of high-tech equipment in peacekeeping missions from some member states fearing they could probably collect much more than intelligence. What is being done to allay such fears? Well, first I would say there are less fears today than two or three years ago, when people didnt know much about [UAVs]. We have also learned more about UAVs as we make progress. Its not really so much about intelligence gathering as information gathering. We have to be aware of what is happening around us. In northern Mali, for instance, if we are deaf, if we are blind, how can we do our job? Its simply a matter of acquiring the right tools. And I think this is now being widely recognized by member states. So do you see this as the way to go in twenty-first-century UN peacekeeping? That is certainly one way to go. Its not the only one, but I think it has to be recognized that we need the right, modern tools. UAVs, for example, can now be bought off the shelf even for recreational purposes, and even businesses are increasingly using them. Why should we deprive ourselves of readily available technologies? In the past the UN had problems getting countries to contribute fighter helicopters. Do you think UAVs could be one way of replacing attack helicopters? No, we make it very clear that UAVs are for surveillance purposes only. They are unarmed and will remain unarmed because the fact that they are remote-controlled creates potential risks. We dont want to go into that. Attack helicopters of course have very precise rules of engagement. They step in or fly in under very precise types of circumstances and always under the direct control of the force commander. And we apply very rigorous procedures. Finally, having been using UAVs and other high-tech equipment over the past few years, what lessons has the UN learned? Is this the way to go? Well, I think, precisely, as you say, this is the way to go. But this is something that is in constant evolution. I just signed a cooperation agreement with the Republic of Singapore. They are going to help us develop a new software tool that will provide real-time images of the security situation in a given country. We dont have that now. For instance, in Mali, we will be able to know the security situation at any time in a given area. This is something we should have had long ago. But were addressing these issues as they come. Africa Renewal Ait-Ahmed (Algeria) (AFP) - Tens of thousands gathered in an Algerian village Friday for the burial of Hocine Ait-Ahmed, one of the fathers of the country's struggle for independence and a key opposition figure. Ait-Ahmed died last week in Switzerland aged 89. His remains arrived Thursday in Algiers for a state funeral before being transferred to his home village, which bears his name. Ait-Ahmed was the last of the nine so-called "sons of Toussaint" who launched an uprising against French rule on November 1, 1954. Draped in Algeria's national flag, his coffin was carried in an ambulance through the village as tens of thousands filled the streets. "Today and tomorrow Hocine lives!," they chanted, and "Algeria, free and democratic!" Many in the crowd surged forward to try to touch the coffin as it was brought out of the ambulance in preparation for the burial, which was expected to take place in the early afternoon. The funeral cortege had departed from the Algiers headquarters of Ait-Ahmed's Socialist Forces Front (FFS) and travelled 160 kilometres (100 miles) southeast to his village. On Thursday the government organised a state funeral for Ait-Ahmed in Algiers, which was broadcast live on state television, and later a wake was held at his party's headquarters. President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, also a veteran of the struggle for independence from France, declared eight days of mourning following his death. Ait-Ahmed, who was jailed by the French in 1956, was freed after a ceasefire in 1962. He went into opposition when Ahmed Ben Bella became president the following year. He was arrested in 1964 and condemned to death but later freed, and left for exile in Lausanne in 1966. He returned to Algeria in 1989 after the FFS was legalised and stood as a candidate in presidential elections in 1999, but pulled out mid-campaign arguing that the vote was rigged in favour of Bouteflika. Ait-Ahmed's health began to fail in 2012 and he resigned the following year as head of the FFS. He died in Lausanne on December 23. CENAB UK, an advocacy group based in the United Kingdom says it has reasonable cause to believe that the Electoral Commission of Ghana is doing everything in its power to rig election 2016 in favour of the ruling government, and thereby plunge Ghana into total chaos in the aftermath of the 2016 elections. The group believes that the modus operandi is made manifest from the conduct of the EC since the beginning of 2015, and especially since Mrs Charlotte Osei, the new EC boss was appointed. These findings have all pointed in one direction, which is to dispense with its ambit of impartiality and independence, and has become a tool for the NDC to perpetuate them in power. The group is convinced beyond all reasonable doubt that the appointment of Mrs Charlotte Osei has paved way for the EC to complete its plans to rig election 2016, and all statements issued by the EC and its actions since the beginning of 2015 have been in furtherance to it. The recent statement by Mrs Osei, admonishing Ghanaians to safeguard the peace and stability Ghana is enjoying now, and must not allow politics to derail it, if fully analysed is the clearest indication that her outfit is preparing the minds of Ghanaians to retain John Mahama as the president of Ghana after the 2016 elections. The group sees her statement as bothering on sentimental instincts, which is being used as reverse psychology on Ghanaians to further their hidden nefarious plans. CENAB UK has cited instances of the ECs resolve in its determination to rig election 2016, as including the following: The ECs manipulation of the 5-man committee report The facade of the recent EC public forum, and branding the call of the new register as likely to cause insecurity in Ghana * the ECs refusal to implement the Abu Ramadans Supreme Court verdict The presentation of the EC budget to Parliament at a time when there were outstanding issues on election 2016 The ECs refusal to cooperate with the IEA in finding the way forward for Election 2016 The declaration of the EC premises as security area and banning demonstrations there The EC boycott of the lecture of Professor Attahiru Jega, the former chairman of INEC Nigeria, and finally The ECs refusal to investigate the charges by the NPP that the Ghana voters register is fraught with cross-border registrants. Below is the full statement. We the members of CENAB UK, an advocacy group for Ghana, based in the United Kingdom, do believe that Ghanas Electoral Commission is preparing itself to commit electoral fraud on Ghanaians in the forthcoming Election 2016, and we call on all well-meaning groups and the people of Ghana to resist this attempt by the EC, by agitating for the institution to adhere to its constitutional mandate of giving Ghana a credible register that will make the elections free and fair. It is a known and incontrovertible fact that the average population percentage in Ghana of those eligible to vote, which is approximately 53% is more than 10% higher than the continental average; and not only that, the EC has been appraised with clear evidence of our voter register fraught with foreign names from Ghanas three neighbouring countries. The Ghana Supreme Court, in the Abu Ramadans case has also clearly established the illegality of the use of NHIS card as a voter registration qualification criterion; yet in all these instances the EC has refused to take any steps to cure the voters register. They are blatantly poised to use this tainted register to rig Election 2016, and plunge Ghana into total confusion after the elections. We note with profound concern, the modus operandi of the EC since the beginning of 2015, and especially since Mrs Charlotte Osei, the new EC boss was appointed, all of which have pointed in one direction, to discard its ambit of impartiality and independence, and become a tool for the NDC to perpetuate them in power. We frown on the rather tongue-in-cheek message by Mrs Osei that we have only one country - Ghana - and in everything we do we must put Ghana first, and charge Mrs Osei as the one who is putting her EC and NDC above Ghana. As CENAB UK, we see Mrs Oseis convoluted statement admonishing Ghanaians to safeguard the peace and stability Ghana is enjoying now, and must not allow politics to derail it, as the clearest indication that her outfit is sentimentally preparing the minds of Ghanaians to retain John Mahama as the president of Ghana after 2016 elections. This sanctimonious portrayal of a failed leadership will not stick this time. As a group, we are deeply concerned about the manner in which the EC is managing the 5-member Committee report, which has not yet been published after receiving it for nearly two weeks, but publishing only snippets of it to further ECs aims and wishes not to prepare a new register for Election 2016. It is a clearly incontrovertible fact that the EC does not want to, and will not prepare a new register, and therefore managing and manufacturing situations to meet that objective. CENAB UK is concerned as to why the EC has refused to make known to the public the full report as submitted by the 5-member committee until the 7th of January 2016. This is because the EC is manipulating it to suit the wishes of both the EC and the NDC government. The snippet statement put together by the EC's announcement, that they have received the 5-member committee report is fraught with naked contradictions. In the statement the EC is seeking to alert Ghanaians that the committee's report rejected the call for a new register for being unconvincing, yet in the same statement they are seeking to inform us that the EC will be conducting its own audit of a register which they insist is fit for purpose. The EC's release also seeks to push the goal posts by putting the responsibility on all citizens of Ghana, to ensure a clean and credible voter register. This is the greatest travesty of facts, hence a most unfortunate statement of all times. The hurriedly put-together biased public forum was the greatest political facade by the EC in 2015 to create, convince and implement their evil plans to plunge Ghana into electoral disaster. The statement read by Mrs Charlotte Osei at the forum was laced with poison for Ghanas democracy and which made the setting up of the 5-member committee, the greatest white elephant of our time. It is therefore unsurprising that the EC has hidden the full report, but hastened to publish bits of it, which is the sweetest song to their ears no new register. This is the saddest day for Ghanas quest for credible elections as President Kufuor and majority of Ghanaians are calling for. The ECs biased public forum was put together after they had refused to cooperate with an impartial one put together by the IEA, an accredited body which all Ghanaians have come to accept as an accredited body to deal with matters of public concern in a run-up to every general election since 2008. The EC literally refused to attend the IEA debate and a presentation by Professor Attahiru Jega, the former chairman of INEC Nigeria, and with the lamest excuse that they (the EC) have their own plans to interact with him. In the follow-up to the 16th September demonstration by the LMVCA which was met with the most serious police brutalities, ever since the inception of the 4th Republic, the EC is hiding behind the police tactics demanded to make the EC premises a security zone as a no-go area. The EC boss made them most sarcastic comment about the LMVCA petition and has, with unflinching support of the NDC government managed to rubbish any calls for changes which will make Election 2016 credible in the eyes of Ghanaians. Mrs Osei is truly singing her master's voice, and heading the nation in only one direction electoral disaster. We question why the Ghanaian Parliament accepted without question the budget proposal by the EC at the time the 5-member committee report was still outstanding. This is a clear preparation by the EC to discount any future plans to review the voters register. Now, the NDC have managed to plunge Ghana into total economic chaos Their Ministry of Power has plunged Ghana into total darkness and now the EC is topping it up by plunging Ghana into total electoral confusion. If they are allowed to do that, then the last person to leave Ghana should please turn off the remaining lights. CENAB UK Media Team Kwasi Atta-Krufi Hayford +447534075877 Peter Antwi-Boasiako +447950388567 Adreba Abrefa Damoa +447901119669 Devout Christians worldwide will receive Divine Visitations in the year 2016 and Divine Visitations come with surprises, Rev. Raymond Baah Abekah, resident Minister of the Ghanaian Presbyterian Church, Toronto, Canada, prophesied at watch night service to usher in the New Year. Delivering the sermon on a sub-theme Prepare yourself for a DIVINE VISITATION, the Rev. Baah Abekah said if something unexpectedly comes through ones encounter with God the levels change, adding that God should lift up believers to higher grounds in Jesus Mighty name. The mid-night service was jointly hosted by the Ghanaian Anglican Church, Toronto, and the Ghanaian Presbyterian Church, also in Toronto, at the sanctuary of the recently built Church of the Ghanaian Presbyterian. He told the midnight worshippers that God needs all hardened hearts to be spiritually circumcised to enable Christians to receive Divine Visitation. He said the Holy Bible urges Christians to serve the Lord with all their hearts, their strength, their minds and their souls. God, according to the Holy Bible, requests the people to keep His covenant and he will surely keep his promises over you and your descendants. According the resident Minister, it does not matter where one is born or where he/she comes from. There are some people in the Holy Bible the stories around them are distasteful and unpleasant. But when he/she gets the Divine Visitation, he/she is transformed. He assured the worshippers that God was willing to visit them in a special way to change their destinies. Referring to Judges Chapter 11 verses 01 to 11, Rev. Baah Abekah said there was a gentleman called Jephthah the Gileadite, was a mighty warrior and the mother was a prostitute. That was the negative part of this gentlemans story and it was not his fault to be the son of a prostitute. None of us has the power and authority to choose parents. But with friends, we have the authority and power to do so, the resident Minister emphasised. He said Jephthats father had a wife who bore him sons and when they were grown up, they drove Jephthah away and was not going to get any inheritance in our family, because you are the son of another woman. According to the Biblical story, Jephthah fled from his brothers and settled in the land of Tob and joined a group of truants. Sometime later, Rev. Abekah said, Ammonites made war against Israel; the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah from the land of Tob, pointing out that it did not matter where one was born or where he came from. The condition you find yourself today doesnt matter. What matters is DIVINE VISITATION. There comes a time the elders of your family will look for you. This was greeted with tremendous I RECEIVE IT. When they got Jephthah, the elders of Gilead said come and be our commander and fight the Ammonites. Jophthah told the elders, did you not hate me and expelled me from fathers house? And why do you come to me now when you are in trouble? The resident Minister remarked that Gods ways are mysterious. When God decides to bless you, no matter what, He will do so. When the time comes the people will come and beg for you. This was a point Jephthah wants to ruffle the feathers of the elders of Gilead, he added. There was a prolong laughter. The elders said to him, nevertheless, we are turning to you now. Come with us to fight the Ammonites. You will be our head over all who live in Gilead. Jephthah answered: suppose you take me back to fight the Ammonites and the Lord gives them to me, will I truly be your head? Rev. Abekah remarked again I like the belief of Jephthah in God. He did not depend on his natural strength but on God. To this, the worshippers gave a deafening clap offering. Gilead Elders replied: the Lord is our witness. We will certainly do as you say. Jephthah went with them and the people made him head and commander. In conclusion, the Resident Minister quoted Psalm 23, the Lord is my salvation and urged the worshippers put their trust in God and experience DIVINE VISITATION IN 2016. On January 1, 2016, the Church recognised eight members who were born on New Years Day with Happy Birthday Cards. They included Brothers Kwasi Addo, Chief Usher, and Isaac Mensah, Chief Maintenance Officer of the Church Building. There was merry making till 20 minutes past 12 mid-night. The benediction was given by the Ghanaian Anglican Church Minister in Toronto, the Rev. Father Leonard Abbah. Source: Elder Alex Barning 02.01.2016 LISTEN Accra, Jan. 2, GNA - The Office of former President Jerry John Rawlings has denied that the former President and his wife were members of Government's delegation to the inauguration of Jean Marc Christian Kabore as President of Burkina Faso. A statement issued by the Office of the former President and copied to the Ghana News Agency said the attention of the former President Rawlings has been drawn to inaccuracies in a statement issued by the Flagstaff House Communications Bureau, indicating that he and his wife; Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, were members of the President's delegation that travelled to Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso for the inauguration ceremony. It said the Office finds the misrepresentation unfortunate. 'Outgoing President Michel Kafando invited his Excellency Jerry Rawlings by a letter dated December 18, 2015. 'The former President and his wife travelled with a delegation including Betty Akuffo-Amoabeng, Kobina Andoh Amoakwa and Joseph Dawson-Otoo,' it stated. The statement said former President Rawlings and the delegation travelled on a military transport aircraft. 'It is important to note that upon arrival in Burkina Faso, the former President and his entourage were met by Burkinabe State Protocol and the Ghana Embassy and driven to their hotel and subsequently to the venue for the ceremony,' it said. It said President Mahama arrived later with the Presidential aircraft and a delegation that included Foreign Minister Hannah Tetteh, Dr Edmund Dele and others. 'It is unfortunate that the author of the release, privy to the fact that the former President was also travelling to Burkina Faso, albeit in his own capacity and upon a separate invitation decided to play mischief with the content of the official presidential release,' it said. GNA 02.01.2016 LISTEN Tamale, Jan. 2, GNA - Mr Daniel Bugri Naabu, Northern Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has indicated that Nana Addo Dankwa-Akufo Addo, Flag bearer of the party is the only honest person capable of solving the problems of the nation if given the nod to lead. He said the problems of the nation are too huge that it requires a competent, dynamic and capable personality such as that of the NPP Flag bearer to address them, claiming that Ghanaians are tired and lost hope in the poor leadership of the National Democratic Congress (NDC). Mr Naabu was addressing a news conference in Tamale to deliver his New Year message and to assure Ghanaians of the capability of the NPP to manage the affairs of the nation. He said the ruling NDC government has incompetent and dishonest people who have taken Ghanaians for granted. He noted that the NDC has failed to solve the energy crisis, fix the broken economy but rather interested in creating, looting and sharing the little resources of the nation. He indicated that such maladministration is injurious to the people of Ghana. 'I invite every Ghanaian to join the NPP to vote out the incompetent NDC out of power in the 2016 elections'. Mr Naabu said the NPP implemented laudable policies and projects during its eight years in power but the NDC had collapsed all of them, mentioning the National Health Insurance Scheme, the Capitation Grant and the Metro Mass Transport system. He assured Ghanaians of a better leadership and economic prosperity should they vote the NPP in the 2016 general election. Mr Naabu urged the NDC to conduct its campaign in a decorous manner since the NPP had set the pace. GNA 02.01.2016 LISTEN The wedding of a 42-year-old man and his bride was interrupted by another woman claiming to be the man's wife after the pastor asked if anyone objected to their marriage. Ndodana Chifamba, 42, and his bride, known only as Phindile, were preparing to exchange vows at their wedding in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe when a woman swiftly got to her feet and announced she was married to the groom. As other guests looked on baffled, Josephine Mhlanga, 46, then declared she had two children with her husband of 20 years and had only found out about his secret wedding that day. She said her husband Chifamba could not marry again while she was still alive. Following the fiery revelation, the pastor stopped the ceremony and told the dejected groom and his lover who apparently knew about his wife that they could not sign the marriage certificate. The Bulawayo Chronicle reports that the couple instead turned their wedding into an ordinary party. Mhlanga's relatives reportedly informed her that her husband whom she married in 1995 was living a double life. It is understood the guilt-ridden relatives tipped her off about his planned wedding. His relatives tipped me about the wedding' just hours before it was supposed to take place. They said he had emphasised to them that I shouldn't know about it, she told the newspaper. Chifamba was reportedly living with his wife and children at the time of his affair with Phindile but would go away from the family for days at a time. Surprisingly, he did not use his job as an alibi for his absence. Whenever he visited, he would apologise for spending a lot of time without coming home, Mhlanga said. She added that her husband would reassure her that his love for her is undying. Shockingly, Chifamba even slept next to Mhlanga the night before turning up to wed his new bride. On the wedding day in the Parklands suburb, Mhlanga arrived unceremoniously and listened to the music of the Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services band, which the couple had hired. As the band performed a drum roll, the pastor then asked if anyone objected to the union. Before the pastor could even say the person should speak or forever hold their peace, a hand shot up and Chifamba gasped in shock, a witness at the wedding told the newspaper on Monday. They said the revelation was followed by 'dead silence'. The pastor then asked those involved to discuss the matter behind closed doors, before the wedding was transformed into an ordinary party. ultimate1069 03.01.2016 LISTEN A political science lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Dr Samuel Adu-Gyamfi, has said the current load shedding being experienced in some parts of the country may give an upper hand to the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) in next years presidential election, but will not guarantee them the most seats in parliament. Speaking to Accra News Friday January 1, 2016 on how the current energy challenges gripping the nation can affect the political fortunes of the governing NDC in the general elections, Dr Adu-Gyamfi said: It is a weapon for the opposition in cosmopolitan areas such as Accra, Kumasi, Tamale, and Sunyani. NDC already has its strongholds; thats why I said even if the issue of load shedding becomes compounded, the worst that will happen to the NDC is that they will lose the election, but the NPP will not win parliamentary majority. He said Ghanas power challenges, which have persisted since 2012, could have been handled better by former Power Minister Dr Kwabena Donkor while in office. According to him, rather than play politics with the matter, Dr Donkor should have informed Ghanaians of a strategy to arrest the problem. The man played politics with it, and that was what worked against him. If only he had told Ghanaians the truth from the outset and made us aware of our capacity and the plan in place to address it. But with this outcome, he has failed. He has caused a further loss of faith in the president regarding resolution of the power crisis, Dr Adu-Gyamfi said. Dr Donkor resigned December 31, 2015 after promising in February 2015 to step down at the end of that year if he failed to solve the issue of load shedding. The Convention Peoples Party (CPP) has called for electoral paradigm shift as Ghana prepares to hold Presidential and Parliamentary Elections on November 7. The alternation of power under the forth republic between the National Democratic Congress and the New Patriotic Party has failed to dramatically transform the fortunes of the country in spite of the huge resources under their disposal. Elections 2016 therefore offers Ghanaians a new opportunity to shift from voting for any of these two parties and vote for both Presidential and Parliamentary candidates of the third force CPP to transform the country, Professor Edmund N. Delle, CPP Chairman and Leader stated in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Accra. The CPP calls for a social-political paradigm shift in 2016, as we enter into an electoral year; we must all as Ghanaians acknowledge that we have a role to play in shaping the destiny of this nation. We must build on positive structures and break down old unproductive systems and mechanism which are inimical to national development. The CPP calls on Ghanaians to exhibit high sense of patriotism, and work hard across the national divide in the best interest of the country, he said. Prof Delle tasked the security agencies, public servants, media practitioners, politicians, private sector, traditional and religious leaders, as well as civil society activists to join a national campaign to ensure a peaceful, free, fair and transparent election. We all have a role to play in the democratic dispensation, no one should sit on the fence, we must join hands together irrespective of our political affiliations, ethnic background, religious inclinations and social-political status. Prof Delle noted that as we head into an election year, I want to assure you all that a CPP Government will grow the economy, create more jobs, strengthen all class of citizens in the country, curb corruption to its maximum limit and give proper accountability to the people of Ghana. On CPP internal political activities, Prof Delle said the party has set in motion electoral machinery to revamp its structures and make it more visible and appealing to the teaming youth. The party is going through internal transformation to ensure that we offer Ghanaians dynamic, transformational and bold leadership. He called on the rank and file to begin the process of mobilisation to building the party structures at the ward, constituency, regional and national levels. Prof Delle also appealed to aspiring Presidential Candidates of the party to conduct their campaign within the spirit of comradeship, respect for each other, and focus on the bigger picture of winning Elections 2016. Today, as Ghanaians, especially my comrades across the country and in the Diaspora gather with family and friends, I want to wish everyone a happy and a healthy New Year. This is always a hopeful time, as we celebrate the end of one year and the beginning of another, he said. He observed that while 2015 was difficult for many Ghanaians, we must also look back on this year with the knowledge that brighter days are ahead of us that although our challenges are great, each of us has the courage and determination to rise up and meet them. The National Media Commission is calling on journalists to provide fair reportage even as the country goes into elections in November this year. A statement from the Chair of the Commission Kwasi Gyan Apenteng, says journalists have a duty to play in ensuring an informed society as well as a peaceful election. "In an election year the media will have to play its role and play it well. We know that many of the tragedies that have befallen some other countries have emanated from the misuse of the media for political purposes. "Luckily in Ghana we have a media environment that is regulated strictly by a constitution which is liberal and enables us to do many things," he said. Kwasi Gyan Apenteng called for professionalism on the part of the journalists. "The main message is for professionalism. People must do the things they are thought as journalists. Let's get the basics right. That is check your facts, issue your correction at the first opportunity. Respect the views of all the various contenders in an issue as far as is possible to do," he said. He admitted that journalists may have their own opinions on issues but was quick to add that the journalist must remain firmly in the middle. "The position of journalists is not that we do not have our own views. We do but the very meaning of the word medium (media) requires us to stand in the middle and we have to stand there firmly and justly," he said. The country goes into the polls in November 7, 2016 to elect new or retain old Parliamentary and presidential candidates. The Africa Center for International Law and Accountability (ACILA) has urged the government of Burundi to allow African Union (AU) peacekeepers into the country to forestall further deaths and displacement of citizens. A statement issued by Mr. William Nyarko, Executive Director of ACILA, a research and education think tank, said that Burundi's refusal to allow AU peacekeeping forces on humanitarian grounds pursuant to Article 4(h) and Article (O) of the Constitutive Act of the African Union 2001, to which Burundi is a party, will further aggravate the situation and lead to avoidable deaths and displacement of persons. More than 400 people have been killed and thousands displaced since violence broke out in April this year following President Nkurunzizas bid for a third term, contrary to a 2005 agreement for a two-term limit. The AU decided to deploy 5,000 peacekeeping troops to Burundi, giving Burundi until Tuesday to accept the deployment, a move Burundi has rejected. Both UN and AU fact-finding delegations have also expressed grave concern about the situation in Burundi, fearing an outbreak of a civil war. Mr. Nyarko said that although President Nkurunziza stated on national radio Wednesday that If these troops come, it will be seen as an attack and the country will stand up to defend itself, he prays that he will change his mind and allow AU peacekeepers into Burundi on humanitarian grounds. He noted that even though the AU Constitutive Act prohibits interference in the internal affairs of a state, the prohibition also allows for a derogation on humanitarian grounds, adding that a humanitarian intervention works best when the receiving state cooperates with the sending state or organization and urged Burundi to cooperate with the AU for the deployment of the troops. Mr. Nyarko also encouraged the leadership of the AU, East African Community, and member states of the African Union to continue with ongoing dialogue to persuade President Nkurunziza to change his current position. Once the AU peacekeeping forces are allowed into Burundi, they will help stop the escalating violence, deaths, and displacement of persons and allow for mediated talks to be intensified, Mr. Nyarko said. President Nkurunziza said last week that he suspected that the AU had a hidden agenda, but Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Chairperson of the AU Commission assured him that "the AU has no other agenda than to assist the government and people of Burundi at their hour of need, consistent with its commitment to promote African solutions to African problems. However, President Nkurunziza insists on keeping the AU peacekeeping forces out of Burundi and has now demanded that the AU provides approval from the UN Security Council. It was unclear whether he would accept the deployment of the AU peacekeeping forces with authorization from the UN Security Council. The Progressive People's Party (PPP) Parliamentary Candidate for the 2016 general elections in the Effutu Constituency of the Central Region, Nana Ofori has bemoaned politicising every single event in the Effutu state rather than boosting the economic activities of the people "I personally don't understand why every single event or festival which could be used for the economic benefit of the people in the Effutu constituency has been politicize by self-seeking politicians. Today, Aboakyer festival of the chiefs and people of the Effutu state has lost its value due to politicization. The one time world acclaimed festival which used to attract tourist from both home and abroad has lost its value. All because some people has turned the festival into political arena where they showcase their political powers. The masquerade festival which is held on every New Year Day to exhibit the potential talents of the youth of Effutu state is also being politicized, why? In fact, am very sad and fear for the future of our generation" Nana Ofori made this lamentations in an interview with newsmen at Winneba after he had observed series of events of the 2016 Masquerade festival held at Winneba. Apparently referring to the two main polical parties in the country, the NDC and NPP, the PPP Parliamentary candidate cautioned organizers of the festival against over politicization sensing its possible collapse in the near future. " I would like to suggest that proper mechanism should be put in place to make the masquerade festival be more attractive and to boost the economic activities of the people of the Effutu state If given the nod, the PPP government under Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom would make sure that every decision that would enhance growth and development were taken in consultation with the people at the grassroots level rather than winner takes all as we see among ruling governments" Mr. Yakubu Barry, the main organizer of the annual masquerade festival noted that the festival was established to show the skills and talents of the masqueraders in the vicinity. He was hopeful that the festival which was held on competitive manner among various masquerading groups would be extended to become nationwide Attached is the pix of some masqueraders showing their skills Facelift for Gomoa Brofoyedur community By: Benedict Kweku Nkrumah, Gomoa Brofoyedur The Newly installed Guantoahene of Gomoa Brofoyedur community in the Gomoa East district of the Central Region, Nana Bondzie Essuman has said that he was going to cooperate with the people to ensure full developmental projects in the area. He accordingly pledged to use his resources available to raise the living standard of the people. Nana Bondzie Essuman stressed the need for all hands to be on deck for the total development of the Gomoa Brofoyedur and its environment. Addressing the chiefs and people of the community soon after he had sworn in the oath of allegiance, the newly installed chief called for unity and coexistence. His installation coincide with the climax of the annual Akwambo festival of the people of Gomoa Brofoyedur on Saturday. The Guantoahene cautioned the youth against involving themselves in illicit acts that would lead to be in conflict with the laws of the land. Nana Bondzie Essuman pledged reconstruction of the local market center in the community to boost the economic activities of the people who are mainly famers. He also said he would assist to raise educational standard in the community adding that his priority was to ensure that more students enter tertiary institutions to reduce poverty and economic hardships. The chief of Gomoa Brofoyedur, Nana Esoun Abonyi Kwatta II disclosed that this year's festival was aimed at soliciting for funds to construct toilet facilities for the community and also establish educational endowment fund to support brilliant by needy students to attain height in the educational ladder adding that over 25,000 Ghana Cedis would be needed to execute the projects. Nana Esoun Abonyi Kwatta II recounted situation where some precious lives were lost as a results of cholera out in the community due to lack of toiletries for the people, hence the need for toilet facilities. On the forthcoming general elections, Nana Esoun Abonyi Kwata II urged politicians to avoid politics of insults and personal attack. He warned the citizens against being used by politicians to create violence before, during and after 2016 general elections. 03.01.2016 LISTEN Since the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Kukah released the bombshell on the Muslim leadership of Northern Nigeria, Muslims have, as usual, been weird in their reactions. Several Muslim writers, critics and organizations have picked holes in Kukahs claims, while some have remained numb to such incisive proclamations from the Reverend at an Islamic function. The cleric described the Northern Muslim elite as hypocritical, insincere and dubious. This description, nonetheless, far from being unacceptable is provocative and an understatement made by such highly-placed cleric in front of Muslims. This has revealed the authority the Reverend assumes in the North. It also depicts a tinge of concealed cosmopolitan misconceptions about Islam and its elite in Nigeria. Rev. Kukah went bluntly eerie when he proclaimed, We must locate the current crisis of Boko Haram within the context of the inability of the northern Muslim elite to live by their own dubious creed of being Muslims. They preached Sharia Law but only for the poor. They preach a religion that encourages education, yet their own people are held in the bondage of ignorance. He succeeded in rubbishing the image of the elite of the largest faith in Nigeria, notwithstanding their contributions in making the country be. In Rev. Kukahs lecture, there was no or little mention of any good done by the Northern Muslim elite. However, my curiosity was aroused by one serious reaction to the matter. The postulations of the veteran journalist and Daily Trust columnist, Muhammad Haruna in his article of December 29, 2015 titled: Bishop Kukahs attack on Islam, where he concurred with the bishop on Nigerian elites exploitation of religion for power and wealth, but faulted him for blaming only Muslim elites, especially those from the North, as the only ones who do so were impressive. More articulate and definite, as it concerns the affected category of Nigerian citizen, were Harunas words: To see how wrong he (Kukah) is in blaming only Muslims, he needs only to examine the fate Muslims wherever they are a minority in this country or to examine many of the decisions and policies of Presidents Jonathan and Olusegun Obasanjo. Alas! One cannot hold tears when reflecting on the seemingly connected plots that were crafted against the minority Muslim population in Nigeria between their state governments and the federal government of Nigeria during the reigns of former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan. These two former presidents, unarguably, created the worst religious politics and ethnic estrangement in Nigeria. I would always praise both of them for, at least, upholding the unity of Nigeria, most especially when the Niger Delta and Boko Haram insurgencies reared their ugly faces within the shores of the country. But in terms of the distributions of the national wealth and political positions, there was no trace of fairness and justice. There was no equality; there was no recognition of all the ethno-religious and cultural components of Nigeria. Worst still, it was as if calculated plans were concluded to frustrate the Southern Muslims and empower the Northern Christians extraordinarily. It was felt by some careful observers as if there were plans to Christianize Nigeria, using the dangerous slogans that the Northerners wanted to Islamize Nigeria; they wanted to implement Sharia; they wanted this and that. And both the former presidents succeeded in their plans by using religion to seek sympathy and cheap popularity. That is why the militancy in the Niger Delta was born, despite other factors. That is why the Boko Haram came to be. And that is why the agitation for Oduduo state and Biafra Republic were nursed and carried out. Yes, both of the former presidents largely succeeded in their plans. They did not only instigate the state governments of the Muslim minority areas against their minority citizens, they did not give any appointment to any Muslim from the Southeast and South-South, if not in a religious body which constitutionally demanded zonal representation. Their governments were Church-oriented. State governments of the Southeast and South-South have remained resolute in dealing decisively with the Muslim minorities of their states. Any little, I repeat, any slight thing that they do for Islam and Muslims, is basically on political grounds, not because they see Muslims some of who are from birth places of the governors as indigenes of their states. I have not heard the revered cleric, Reverend Kukah, talk about this. I was a journalist and was privileged to attend some functions in the Niger Delta when former President Obasanjo made Kukah, Chairman of Presidential Committee on this and that. I have heard of many powerfully empowered and influential Christians from states of the North where Muslims are over 90% of the populations. Kukah, himself, knows that he is recognized and pampered in the North which is a Muslim majority part of Nigeria. The influence and unlimited economic and political backings granted Christians in the North has in turn given them a solid base in the political scene of their respective states. In Kaduna state for instance, it is the state policy or it is becoming an accepted norm that for any Muslim governorship candidate to win elections in the state, the candidate must run with a Christian deputy. In Adamawa state that has insignificant percentage of Christians, politics cannot stabilize without the involvement of the Christian minority. In Taraba, the music is even daunting. We know the bad religious politics, the intrigue and (mis)calculations employed by former President Obasanjo in making Boni Haruna the governor of Adamawa state, in making late Ibrahim Yakowa the governor of Kaduna state and in making Banbaba Danfulani Suntai the governor of Taraba state. Imagine that in a state like Kaduna state, the state civil service is allegedly controlled by the Christian minority. Blind and deaf Nigerians knew why Suntai governed Taraba state from his sick bed for so long after his plane incident. So, who is using religion in Nigeria to dislodge other citizens? This trend must change. Christians of the North should have their shots in Nigerian and their state politics. Muslims of the Southeast and South-South must be empowered and encouraged to live, vote and be voted for in Nigeria and their states. Reverend Kukah and all well-meaning religious clerics, if really they feel for all religious components of Nigeria, should preach this to the governments of Nigeria and Southeastern states of Nigeria. The Northern Muslim elite have allowed the Christian minority of the North to thrive to the extent that they can boast of Northern Christian elite and some other powerful Christian individuals and organizations. Today, nothing of policy can be implemented in any northern state without serious consideration and involvement of Christians. The opposite is simply the case in the Southeast and South-South. Apart from Edo state and maybe Rivers, is it in Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, Imo, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River or Delta state that an aboriginal Muslim can be paired with the political and economic influences and strength of Northern Christian minority personalities like Kukah himself, Prof. Jerry Gana, Nenadi Usman, Theophilus Danjuma, Boni Haruna and a lot more. These were made influential directly or indirectly by northern political elite in response to the overpowering pressure from the Southern Christians at home and in Diaspora. The opposite is simply the case in the Southeast and South-South. On a resounding note, it is very necessary to call for caution here. I am neither a religious bigot nor a freethinker. I have remained a strong advocate of the rule of law and humanity which are both encapsulated in the tenets of both Islam and Christianity. I have continued to advocate for the freedom and full integration of Muslims in the Southeast as well as the Christians of the North. Every Nigerian should be completely free to belong to lawful creeds and societies, within the purview of constitutional limits. The Muslim/Christian minorities should be allowed/encouraged to participate in the socio-economical and political building of their states and the nation. Those from the Nigerian ethno-religious minorities who possess the capacities to contribute meaningfully and add value to purposeful governance in the country should be recognized, encouraged and empowered. No time than especially now that our religious clerics should stop dabbling into the murky soil of politics in Nigeria and desist from hate and incisive speeches. Muhammad Ajah, a socio-political analyst, is an advocate of humanity and good governance. E-mail: [email protected] The Ghana Real Estate Professionals Association (GREPA) has held an end of year networking session with a call on members not to deviate from the ethics and high standards of the profession. Members were entreated to always seek to satisfy the needs of clients by employing professional touch to all their transactions rather than cutting corners. The Guest Speaker, who is the Acting Executive Director of the Ghana Real Estate Developers Association (GREDA), Mr. Sammy Amegayibor admonished GREPA to be resolute in enforcing its ethics and upholding its high standards since no serious client would want to deal with an Estate Agent who is not well dressed and has no working address. Mr. Amegayibor stressed that the estate industry is a competitive world especially now that the estate developers have turned themselves into estate agents so GREPA must devise new working strategies to be in business but that does not mean it should be done at the expense of professional standards He further advised GREPA to be more visible in the media so that their concerns and challenges would get the attention of the appropriate authorities. Another resource person Kofi Asmah who is the Chairman of the Pelican Group, took participants through the rudiments of entering into a real estate contract as well as the legal responsibilities of the Estate Agent. For some clients, acquiring a property means the whole world to them so there is no way an Estate Agent should fail such a person. So seek the services of a qualified Lawyer to assist in entering into such contractual agreements lest you get into trouble, he observed. The networking session brought together people from the academia, media and other professional fields. The First Vice Chairperson of GREPA, Mr. Herbert Lawson reminded members of their duties to clients and customers as well as the public stressing that members shall be honest and truthful in their real estate transactions. He disclosed that GREPA was in the process of developing a Multiple Listing Service (MLS) which is a suite of service that enables real estate brokers to establish contractual offers of compensation, facilities cooperation with other broker participants, accumulates and disseminates information to enable appraisals. The First Vice Chairperson further explained that, the MLS is a facility for the orderly correlation and dissemination of Real Estate Data He also announced to the joy off all members that following the August 2015 event in Chicago with the Ghana Parliamentary Delegation, the National Association of REALTORS (NAR) formalized its relationship with GREPA by signing a bilateral agreement during its annual convention in San Diego California from November 13th to 16th. The National Association of REALTORS is America's largest trade association, representing over 1.1 million members, including NAR's institutes, societies, and councils, involved in all aspects of the residential and commercial real estate industries. The membership of NAR is composed of residential and commercial REALTORS who are brokers, salespeople, property managers, appraisers, counselors, and others engaged in the real estate industry He therefore admonished members to position themselves well in the industry to take advantage of the bilateral agreement. Some of the benefits of the NAR-GREPA Bilateral relationship to GREPA members and the country in general include networking opportunities, resources sharing, data sharing, trade missions and study tours, business opportunities as well as cultural exchange programs. Most importantly joining the REALTOR community and to use the REALTOR brand to identify themselves is one big step for GREPA in joining the global community. GREPA members believe that the bilateral relationship will help REALTORS in Ghana in developing the Ghanaian real estate market to become involved in international real estate on a more manageable scale. Real estate Agents in Ghana are encouraged to join GREPA by calling 0264447253 or visiting their website at www.repagh.org 03.01.2016 LISTEN Folks, it is disgusting to have the doomsday prophecies from charlatans of Rev. Owusu-Bempah's type begin fouling our air so early in 2016. After opening their mouths really wide to make all kinds of predictions and prophecies that never came true as far as the fate of Akufo-Addo is concerned at Elections 2008 and 2012, they are now turning their "searchlight" inwards and telling us what we don't really need so early in this year. Owusu-Bempah is out to tell us that none other but those close to Akufo-Addo are planning to assassinate him because they don't want to have him win Election 2016 and become Ghana's President. (See http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Some-people-are-plotting-to-kill-Nana-Addo-404878). Eiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiihhhh. Asem ben nie? So early in this election year? Is this an attempt to confuse Akufo-Addo or to drive him more into the labyrinth of religiosity in the deceptive belief that God will fight his battle for him to win Election 2016? Folks, God doesnt fight such electoral battles; and anybody thinking otherwise will end up looking for dung where no cow grazed. Electoral battles are fought and won or lost on the basis of pragmatics and mundane happenings in the lives of the people vis-a-vis the manouevres of politicians, not on the basis of faith or any fuzzy belief in a God that no one has seen before or will ever see. God doesnt sit at the seat of government; neither will he choose for the people who should govern them. It is the people themselves who do so on the basis of what they see about those seeking their mandate. Whether God appointed rulers for Israel in Biblical times is not at issue here because we are not Israelites (of old) or Israelis (of now). We are Ghanaians!! No one should deceive anybody in this context. The people will choose the leader they want; and as is often said, a people get the government they deserve. Dont ask me why. Of course, I am not surprised at the use of violence as prophesied by Owusu-Bempah because the United Party (UP) political culture is known for using violence instead of reason and connections with the electorate in pursuit of its political objectives. How about the bomb-throwing in the First Republic, the murder of political opponents in this Fourth Republic, or the acid-bathing of their own leaders? Nothing stops them from using any means of violence to get their pound of flesh. I wouldn't have batted my eyelid over this noise from Owusu-Bempah but for the fact that he was instrumental in pumping up Akufo-Addo's intransigence at the end of Election 2012 and creating the negative impression that he (Akufo-Addo) had won the polls but was cheated. Did he not even predict the death of president Mahama and the Asantehene? And rather whimsically too, Akufo-Addo has bought into such vile prophecies and snuggled to these characters and many others to create the impression that he is favoured by God but defeated by human machination; hence, the NPPs fixation on the vain and exaggerated claim that the battle is of the Lords. Akufo-Addos desperate manouevres to use religion as a crutch ended in smoke, especially at the end of the Supreme Courts hearing of his damn useless petition; but those who know that weakness of his won't let him be. They know how to bait him and are up on their feet to do so, as this Owusu-Bempah has just begun doing after a long spell of silence when disproved by reality. There are many others in the orthodox religious establishment (including Samuel Asante-Antwi, the unofficial spiritual leader of the NPP) and wayside religious groupingsbe they Christian, Muslim, Traditional African Religion, Hare Krishna, or whateverwho are blowing hot air to make Akufo-Addo feel that God is with him in his quest to become Ghanas President at all costs. Folks, characters of this sort are roaming around, making this kind of noise because discipline has broken down in our Ghanaian system. Otherwise, why won't they be taken on to substantiate their claims and be put in the slammer if they fail to do so? To assuage any doubt, let it be said here and now that nothing but Akufo-Addos own unbridled quest for political power and mindlessness of the forces arrayed against him will kill him. It is possible that the tension being built up in his system by his own over-ambition for power will boil over and cause serious health problems that will doom him. I have tried hard to know why he is so invested in becoming Ghanas President at all costs, having already told us that the incompetence of the Mahama-led administration has compounded Ghanas problems and would be a huge burden to be carried by his successor. So, is Akufo-Addo really pushing himself to the point where he will carry that burden and not sag under it? Why push himself into that tight corner, anyway? Is it because he considers himself as the modern-day Sumanguru Kante to keep Ghana on its feet even when there are no Almoravids to threaten it? Or because he has seen a way out that no one else is capable of seeing? Folks, as the situation stands now, I am more than convinced that there is a lot to worry about, especially if utterances of the Owusu-Bempahs are placed in context. Of course, I wont be surprised if any plot is hatched in-house against Akufo-Addo, clearly because one reaps whatever one sows. With all the hatchet-mans actions being taken against just anybody perceived as criticizing him, should anybody be surprised if some of those aggrieved people capitalize on the loopholes in the NPP set-up to do what Rev. Owusu-Bempah claims to have foreseen? Of course, an action will definitely beget a reaction. Stepping on toes all over the place will have a negative sequel, which must be accounted for. In the long run, though, the future of the NPP lies in the hands of its own leaders and members. If assassinating Akufo-Addo is what will pave the way for the NPPs brighter future, so be it. In any case, if the assassins turn out to be members of Akufo-Addos own inner circle, the NPP will have much to worry over. Is Owusu-Bempah sending the NPP on a mad search for its true identity in this contemporary era? I shall return 03.01.2016 LISTEN Let's not make mistake again by giving power to the npp especially under the person leading it now. Former president set the pace for us in this modern time to truly believe that,we can't swept away history. We were told that,npp are the true enemies of the state in the early struggle for independence and have nothing better than grabbing left,right and central. Let me remember you some few things that happened under npp government led by former president kofour. 1. President Kufuor allowed his son to buy "kufour hotel". Yes,we were made to believe his son is a young enterprising Ghanaian, not ordinary Ghanaian. He is the Presidents son. Let nobody deceived that his relationship with the President did not play any part in him obtaining that facility from the banks. At the time that Chief Kufuor bought the hotel, there were a number of more enterprising Ghanaians who were striding the stairways of banks looking for ridiculously lower amounts of money to start street corner businesses who did not get a hearing. So it was clear that,former president played an important role for his son to raised such huge money for Hotel kufour. What pained most Ghanaians at that time was the comments former President kofour made public that his son worked with PriceWaterHouseCoopers. Unless the President said that We did not know that place of work is accepted as collateral for anything. There that Ghanaians had the impressions and believe that the President and his family were cheating and looting the state. 2. In September 2006, CHRAJ found Hon. Dr. Richard Anane guilty of some allegations leveled against him and recommended to then President J.A. Kufuor that he be dismissed from office as the Minister of Health. Dr. Richard Anane however resigned with a promise to fight for his innocence. In March 2007, an Appeals Court Judge with additional responsibility on matters as a High Court judge, Justice Baffoe Bonnie declared CHRAJ's ruling null and void on grounds that the Commission ought to have based its investigations into the allegations on a formal complaint. The Court stated that by investigating the matter without an identifiable complainant, CHRAJ was behaving like the proverbial octopus: "stretching its tentacles to look for complaints to investigate," an act which would be a "recipe for chaos". Former President Kufuor as npp leader failed to sack Hon. Richard Anane. The court of the land said he did not engage in corrupt practice. We had come to the conclusion that somehow or the other hon. Richard Anane had used his office in ways that were unethical and indeed npp under former president condoned or supported corruption. 3. Two Presidential Jets in an election year!!?,when poverty was and is still very clear in Ghana!?. It is not just the mentality, but indeed there is pervasive poverty and npp under president kufour went in for two Executive Jets. Now what are they saying!!?. 4.Former president kufour confer an award on himself,the nations highest award. It is simply not done anywhere in the world. I believe he is on record to be the first president to confer award on himself. All what some of us know is that,the former presidents wait for their successors to come after them to give them awards for their services to the nation. Indeed no one ever marks his own script. But former President Kufuor did. He determined that he had done well and proceeded to confer an award on himself. Majority of Ghanaians were appalled and concluded that former President Kufuor is a self-serving, self-aggrandizing president. President Kufuor did not stop there but went further to appoint his own advisor to determine his ex-gratia together with others known as article 71 of public holders. Scratch my back, I scratch your back kind of deal. 5. When former president Kufuor was President of Ghana, there was all the protection that Ghana could muster. Former president kofour Went and bought three BMW cars with one armoured plated for his protection. He went home with the cars. A car meant for the protection of a President is used for the protection of president only. Logically, the state security apparatus had to go after him to collect them for the President of Ghana. 6. Former President Kufuors took a decision not to wait for the new NDC administration to implement his ex-gratia and his decision to appropriate a government bungalow to himself which he has started using as his office was a bad idea. We were told that he wrote to the government asking to be allowed to use the facility as his office. But to have gone ahead to start using the office without waiting for the governments response was a sign of a bad leader. Considering the fact that the Kufuor administration sold a lot of government bungalows to its functionaries, it was bad enough that the president himself is seen to have appropriated one for himself. We thank God that,Ghanaian understood the kind of people who came begging for power now. In the past Nana Addo embarked on Listening, Restoration of Hope and Thank You tours all over the country. He restructured and re-branded the NPP with new Electoral College and elected national officers to reflect regional, tribal, and gender balance. Dr. Sekou Nkrumah, Maame Dokono, Nana Ampadu, Owuraku Amofa, Frances Essiam all former NDC Stalwarts became his friends and joined the campaign train. Yet the man could not fly!!. Daddy Lumba, Pastor Ampong, Philapa Baafi, Christiana Love etc composed emotional songs for him Nana is the winner, We are moving forward, Awurade Kae Nana etc. still,he could not fly!!. He began to sit in public transport (trotro), drank pure water, Kenkey & Ampese in public, and visited people in their kitchens just to look ordinarily. The story was the same. Let one deceive you,ndc is the right party for Ghanaians especially,the ordinary people like my self. Ibrahim Hardi,email [email protected] contact 0208235615. 03.01.2016 LISTEN Ghana is perceived as a nation that is dangerously living with a biased institution of Electoral Commission, and headed by a "puppet" Commissioner of Elections. In almost every nook and cranny in Ghana, Ghanaians are openly engaged in debating over where the supposed loyalty of the EC, and its head is posited. Majority of discussants rule out any form of probability that the institution owes loyalty to Ghana. Between the years 2009, and 2015, approaching the 2012 elections, during the era of Dr Kwadwo Afari Gyan, the recently retired Commissioner of Elections, a sort of novel circumstances set itself in the Electoral Commission, whereby Ghana saw a sudden surge in the its voters register to "Alpine" heights. The Commission presented figures for the parliamentary elections, different from that of the Presidential. There were several anomalies that were made manifest. Dr Afari Gyan, admittedly, dropped a brick at the 2013 Supreme Court petition hearing, by conceding that the Ghana voters register had been bloated. He provided the world with his own definition, in what he termed as a "classical" version of over voting, not to be enchanted with, but to the amazement and disbelief of the world. In an earlier statement, Dr Afari Gyan had acceded to the fact that, for 56% out of the Ghanaian population to be eligible registered voters, as he had it, and presided over, then, "that is incredible to any world standards." With all his supposed technocrats around him, as an appointed Commissioner of Elections, charged with an onerous responsibility to oversee to providing near accurate, if not accurate detailed information and statistical figures from his outfit for census, and elections purposes. Whiles seated in the dock and testifying, long faced Dr Afari Gyan literally goofed, as hopelessness was written in bold letters all across his face. This, in the opinion of most Ghanaians, suggests that there is something seriously wrong, either with the institution as a unit, or the Commissioner, who is supposed to know better, and who should be capable of controlling subordinates under him, into compliance with acceptable rectitude. It further suggests that either the commission must have been wrongly staffed and stuffed with unqualified officers and statisticians, or that these technocrats have knowingly committed gross negligence in their commitment and services to Ghana, and must be penalised. Before Dr Afari Gyan's exit, the Supreme Court had recommended for serious electoral reforms, in order for Ghana's future elections to be undisputale. Subsequent to that, the Abu Ramadan v the EC had said it all, that the EC had not only dishonoured its responsibilities to Ghana, it is an act of incivism. It was one of the unlawful commissions committed by the EC that was contrary to the law, yet it was done under the watch of the head Commissioner. The Supreme Court ruling, in the eyes of the public, has as at today, been disrespect fully ignored with disdainful contempt, yet with impunity. The Electoral Commission is the same body that oversees to organising national census, and to provide for the government, accurate figures and information on Ghanaian citizens, resident migrants, and visitors. Such information must also be provided in the interest of the citizenry, and for educational purposes, yet what we see and hear do not tally to any valuable purpose. The Electoral Commission has misconstrued what is meant by an independent institution, and has assumed a status of untouchable. Here is a national institution, which like all other State institutions, draws a huge chunk of the national budget for their operational functions and sustainability. It is paid out of taxpayers money, and purported to be honestly used to do a job that will inure to Ghana and Ghanaians. The EC calculates, and draws its budget in hard currency US Dollars, yet the institution has never been audited. However, if they have ever been audited, it is neither to my knowledge, nor is it to the knowledge of the general Ghanaian public. Peace - loving Ghanaians, comprising political parties, civil society groups, religious organisations like the Christian Council, and the Catholic Bishops Conference; the Peace Council; institutions like the traditional rulers etc, as well as international organisations, have all recently expressed disquiet over the nature and size of Ghana's voters register, as Ghanaians head towards a major general elections in 2016. Evidence of cross border registrants have been made available to the current Chairperson of the EC, Madam Charlotte Osei and her institution. Following a demonstration by the opposition NPP, and other allied political parties, that was greeted with armed police brutalities, a five member commission was set up by the same EC, to look into the various issues raised on the voters register, and to submit its report for consideration and implementation. This move was seen by Ghanaians, as a step, apparently in the right direction, thinking that it was said and done in good faith, and with the hope that it might not be an illusive forlorn hope. All these notwithstanding, on behalf of the EC, its Chairperson, Madam Charlotte Osei, has presented the institution's proposed 2016 elections timetable, as well as its budget for the event to be organised to parliament for approval, but minus any consideration for all the various pending issues on the register. It must interest you to note and acknowledge that opposition parties have provided excellent working suggestions to the EC, from the days of opaque ballot boxes, to this present biometric era, presupposing that the views of opponents to the government cannot just be shrugged off in derision. Madam Charlotte Osei, you may need to be animadverted on the fact that Ghanaians sense and feel a tremulous pulsation of the working mechanism of wheel within wheels, a situation that leaves you in a dilemma, and essentially being remote controlled by President John Mahamah; but considering the fact that you have to cover a long journey down your appointment as a young Commissioner, it must be in your own interest to consider that you have the prospect of being recorded in history, either as a celebrated icon, or as an odious villain. Either of these options will surely depend on how you will lead the EC to conduct elections, to an undisputed satisfaction, indicating how broad your loyalty is spread across interested Ghanaian groups. In view of the prevailing circumstances, may I hereby ask with as much politeness as I can muster, that as a newly appointed head of the EC, that if you are not in concert with your institution, in trailing the same dishonest steps as was treaded by Dr Afari Gyan, and this time, most probably with reinforced disdainful impudence towards the opinions, suggestions, rulings and recommendations of our Superior Court, the general public and other organisations, national and international? May I ask once again, if you will proof your worth as a capable head of your institution, to which Ghanaians look up for electoral fairness, and in utmost honesty, and to shame observing critics? I therefore ingeminate as above, and in a hope that, in spite of the institution's acclaimed independence, Madam Osei, you will rectify the wrongs and misdeeds of your predecessor, and reckon that the institution you head with prestige, is doubtlessly, heavily dependent on the public purse, therefore you must work towards the public weal. In this regard, Ghanaians are looking forward to a day when the doors to the offices of the EC will be open to auditors, to work accordingly, and in the interest of public scrutiny, to satisfy ourselves that your institution has provided Ghanaians with value for money. Finally, we demand assurance that everybody's prayer will be fulfilled by you and your institution, by being fair to all parties equally, and in the supreme interest of Ghana, a country you have chosen to love, live in, and willing to work for, by desisting from being a sectionalist head, but rather as a generalist and loyal nationalist. Adreba Kwaku Abrefa Damoa, (London, UK) The Okyehene Osagyefuo Amoatia Ofori Panin has called on Ghanaians to desist from insulting their political leaders. He said such actions are retrogressive and also decays the moral fibre of the country. Speaking at the 5th enstoolment ceremony of the Koforidua Effiduasehene at Koforidua in the Eastern region, the Okyehene urged Ghanaians to treat their leaders with decorum and respect. This year, let all of us resolve to be good citizens, lets follow and help President Mahama on the path he is taking the country to and when development comes, it comes for all of us. The disrespect for the elderly, insulting the President, chiefs and MPs must all stop. It does not reflect the nature of Ghanaians, he stated. The Okyehene also took advantage of the ceremony to promote his pet project- the need for decentralization of governance. He said local assemblies must be given the absolute power to take decisions on issues that affect them directly. Dodowa (GAR), Jan. 3, GNA - Mr William Desmond Ocloo, National Democratic Congress Parliamentary Candidate for Shaai-Osudoku, has called on Ghanaians to control their eating habits so that they could stay healthy at all times. He said eating more vegetables and avoiding fatty foods is good enough to make the body very healthy. Mr Ocloo made the call at the opening of a day's food fair at Dodowa in the Greater Accra Region. The fair organised by the Dodowa Keep Fit Club, was sponsored by Blister's Limited, an Ashaiman-based pharmaceutical company. It was aimed at showcasing the rich local food and also promoting tourism in the Shai-Osudoku District. Mr Ocloo, who initiated the discovery of Chenku and Kokrobo Falls over River Dodowa, advocated the hosting of 'Dangme Fest' in the near future, which would seek to harness the tourism potential in the district. Mr Windel Tei Mensah, Chairman of the Dodowa Keep Fit Club commended Blister's Limited for sponsoring the activities of the club over the years. He urged the youth to go into productive ventures such as agriculture which he said is considered to be lucrative. Mr Titi Ankamah, Director of Blister's Limited, gave the assurance that his company would continue to support the activities of the club in the ensuing years. He said the company would soon go into the production of hospital products, which would contribute to the quality healthcare delivery. In a cooking contest, Group 'B' defied all odds to emerged winner from a group of five and received an 18-carat pot and some products of the sponsors as their prize. GNA Sawla, (N/R), Jan. 3, GNA - The Sawla-Tuna-Kalba District in the Northern Region, has achieved 80 per cent access to education in terms of school infrastructure, Alhaji Mumuni Isaac Dramani, the District Chief Executive (DCE) has said. He said the district assembly has invested sufficient resources into school infrastructure, a number of classroom blocks, dormitories, teachers' quarters, dining halls and the supply of 4,500 dual desks to schools, 850 teachers' tables and chairs and 2,500 kindergarten tables. Alhaji Dramani was accounting to the residents of the district at a Town Hall Meeting to share information on the implementation of development programmes and to get a feedback on the execution of government policies and programmes. He said a major achievement of the assembly in education has been the establishment of the Sawla Senior High School and promised to work harder to improve infrastructure to increase intake of junior high school graduates and as well facilitate quality teaching and learning. Alhaji Dramani said the assembly has been focusing on bridging the inequity gap in access to quality healthcare, provision of nutritional service and enhancing efficiency in service delivery. The assembly has therefore upgraded infrastructure in the sector, including the construction of office accommodation for the National Health Insurance Scheme, the provision of a number of nurses' quarters, Community Based Health Planning Service Compounds, health post, doctors' bungalow, theatre block and the upgrading of the Sawla Health Centre to a Polyclinic. The DCE said the assembly has also devoted a larger per cent of its resources to the provision of safe drinking water to the people in the district, drilling and mechanisation of boreholes, rehabilitation of dugouts and building places of convenience aimed to reduce open defecation. Alhaji Dramani said the assembly is also supporting agriculture to increase food production and encourage farmers to undertake large-scale cashew cultivation of which the district has an advantage. The assembly is also constructing and reshaping feeder roads to open communities to facilitate the movement of people, goods and services. Talking about security, Alhaji Dramani said the assembly has built police quarters, fire and ambulance stations at Sawla, and has provided fire tender and the renovation of staff bungalow to help promote peace. GNA 03.01.2016 LISTEN Tamale, Jan. 3, GNA - Mr Eric Kavaarpuo, Project Coordinator of the Education Programme at IBIS has called on stakeholders especially in education to collaborate effectively to seek lasting solutions to the dwindling education in the Northern Region. He said: 'We need to take the destiny of education of the Northern Region into own hands and seek lasting solutions to salvage continuous fallen standards, which needs effective collaboration of all in the region to address the problem.' Mr Kavaarpuo made the call in Tamale during a dissemination forum on the analysis of the 2016 education budget organised in collaboration with the Northern Network on Education Development and the Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) and supported by IBIS. He said the equalising factor in bridging the gap between the rich and the poor is education. He said even if gold, oil or diamond are discovered in the north it would not be enough to salvage the poverty situation unless concrete measures are put in place to address the imbalance in education. He said the issues of inequalities are some of the key goals the project, which among other things seeks to advocate increased resource allocation to the oil revenue in the country. He said IBIS would continue to support organisations whose activities fall in line with IBIS objectives saying: 'When we come together to solve the problems facing education, we are also at the same time fighting poverty and illiteracy.' Alhaji Mohammed Haroon Cambodia, Regional Director of Education attributed the fallen standards in education to general breakdown of morality among some teachers in the region. He said: 'Morality is suffering in our schools. General breakdown of morality by teachers result in some demonstrations in schools and we need to work together to address this canker.' Dr Ishmael Ackah, Policy Analyst at ACEP said there has been improvement in terms of allocation of oil revenues per project in the education sector and there is more room for improvement. He said the number of education projects financed with oil revenues increased from an average of 18 to 40 per cent from 2011 and 2013 and jumped to 49 per cent in 2015 and expressed the hope that the figure would increase. Dr Ackah called for planned and increased investment in education infrastructure such as bungalows, science and ICT laboratories, home economics facilities, technical education programmes among others. GNA 03.01.2016 LISTEN Accra, Jan. 3, GNA - Mr Sam Ayeh Datey, Coordinating Director of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), has condemned the apathy by residents in Accra towards the National Sanitation Day exercise. He described the attitude as destructive and has the tendency of killing initiative in the society. He therefore advised residents to attach importance to sanitation issues. Mr Datey, told Ghana News Agency in an interview after the Sanitation Day exercise in Accra, that the Assembly has centred its focus on ensuring that open defecation along the beaches and illegal sand collection are stopped. He said: 'We have a problem with the collection of the refuse that is why the AMA introduced the Pollution Pay System and liaise with its private waste management providers to ensure that Accra is cleaner than before.' Mr Datey said it is important for members of the public to observe clean environmental practices in their communities and avoid the erroneous perception that: 'The AMA is solely responsible for cleaning the environment.' He said with determination by the AMA and its collaborators efforts are being put in place to step up education to create awareness among the people to refrain from indiscriminate dumping of refuse into drains and to sustain the cleanup exercise. Mr Datey joined hands with sub-metropolitan assemblies such as Ayawaso East and Ayawaso West to undertake the exercise at the 37 Military Hospital area, Osu Klottey Ring Road, Okaikwei South and Kaneshie. Other areas were Ablekuma Central at Abossey Okai and Ashiedu Keteke at Agbogbloshie. GNA Yereyebi Ahwe (C/R), Jan. 3, GNA - Yereyebi Ahwe, a farming community in the Hemang Lower Denkyira District of the Central Region, is in dire need of a clinic to serve the health needs of the growing population. People needing medical care including pregnant women are either carried on motor bikes or walk long distances to Hemang, the District capital or Wawaase. 'The issue of a clinic has been our biggest burden for a long time, our pregnant women travel on motor bikes on 20-Kilometre journey or at worse situations, walk to Hemang to access anti-natal service, ' Nana Kofi Enninful, Chief of Yereyebi Ahwe told the Ghana News Agency in an interview. Nana Enninful appealed to the government, non-governmental organisations, philanthropist and other development partners to come to the aid of the community. He said the situation is worst during the raining season when the road linking the community to Hemang becomes virtually immotorable, causing some pregnant women to deliver on the way. Bernard Sam, a resident expressed worry about the high cost of transporting patients to the hospital. He said pregnant women whose husbands could not afford to send them to the clinic for ante-natal care rely on traditional concoctions. The Yereyebi Ahwe community is also in need of a potable water as the bore hole built 15 years ago and the only source of water is infected with worms. The community with a population of about 850 people produces 5,000 bags and more than 800, 00 metric tons of cocoa and palm oil every year. GNA IVA Struggling with debt? Compare your debt options and write off up to 80% of your unsecured debts from 80 per month Get Started for free What is an IVA? With an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA) you can make affordable monthly payments towards a percentage of your debt for 5 years. At the end of the 5 year plan, your remaining debt will be completely written off. Benefits of an IVA Here is a list of the cost common advantages of an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA): Affordability You will only be asked to pay back what you can afford, with allowances taken into account for food, bills, entertainment, travel, childcare and others. You may be sacrificing certain essential costs at the moment. With an IVA they are budgeted for so they will no longer be neglected No upfront costs When you set up an IVA, there are no upfront costs whatsoever. This means that you can put a debt solution in place today without spending a penny You have a finishing line Do you feel like there will be no end to your debt problems? With high interest costs and charges, the balances of your credit accounts may not reduce as you need them to. With an IVA you will become totally debt free at the completion of the IVA (usually 5 years). You can use this as an opportunity to change your financial life, for good Confidential Your IVA is not advertised in the London Gazette or local newspaper. It is your decision whether you would like to disclose it to other people or not No more contact from creditors When you are in an IVA, your creditors will no longer have the right to contact you or refer the debt on to debt collectors/bailiffs. This is a great benefit for most people as it will take away the stress caused by constant calls/texts/emails and home visits Stay in your house Unlike some debt solutions, an IVA will allow you to stay in your current home. This is even the case if the property has a mortgage or is owned outright Your pension An IVA does not have an impact on your pension. You will not have to surrender your pension or withdraw money from it to pay into your IVA Risks of an IVA Here is a list of the cost common disadvantages of an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA): Equity Release If you own your property and it has value, you may be asked to release the equity in the property Credit Rating If you have a perfect credit rating, this will be damaged and you will not be allowed to take out more debt whilst in an arrangement You must keep up with repayments If you do not keep up with your monthly repayments, there is a risk you will be made bankrupt Who qualifies for an IVA? There is no office guidelines to who qualifies for an IVA. It is a legally binding, Government legislation designed to help all people. Generally speaking, insolvency practitioners (IP) will look at your situation if they think the IVA proposal they submit is beneficial to both yourself (the debtor) and your creditors. This often restricts people to a certain criteria which you will have to meet: Over 5000 worth of unsecured debt You must have 2 or more creditors of 2 or more lines of credit Must live in England, Wales or Northern Ireland Must be insolvent Must be willing to pay at least 70 per month into their IVA Must have some type or types of regular income What debts can I include in an IVA? You can include a wide range of unsecured debts within your IVA. These include: Credit card debt/credit cards Loans/loan debt Payday loans Council tax arrears HMRC debt Overpaid benefits Catalogues Gas and electricity arrears Overdrafts/overdraft debt Water arrears Income tax arrears Debts to friends and family Other unsecured debts Note: If you are a resident of Scotland, you will need to apply for a Scottish Trust Deed (legally binding). Speak to our advisors for Scottish Debt Advice. What debts cant be included in an IVA? Secured loans Your mortgage (if you still live in the house) Car finance (if you still have the car) Rent arrears for your current property Court fines/Police fines Hire purchase arrears (if you still have the product) Log book loans (if you still have the vehicle that the debts are secured on) Student loans Other secured debts What does I.V.A stand for? IVA stands for Individual Voluntary Arrangement. It is a formal way to consolidate your debts into one affordable monthly repayment, resulting in the debtor becoming debt free at the end of their payments. Can I apply for an IVA online? Use the IVA Calculator to check your eligibility Prepare your IVA proposal and apply for your IVA. When your IVA is accepted, your creditors can no longer contact you. Pay 60 low monthly payments. After 5 years, you are out of your IVA and completely debt free. Will an IVA affect my employment? In most occupations, your credit rating or credit scoring is not a factor and it may never have been checked in the past, it may also be likely that it is not checked in the future either. There is no law to tell you that you must advise your employer that you have entered an IVA or that you owe money. They will not be notified by your insolvency practitioner. If you wanted to keep it a private matter, in most cases this would be absolutely fine. With some roles such as financial advisors, solicitors or bank workers it may make up part of your contract to advise them of changes like this. In these situations we would advise to inform your employers of your intentions before you enter into any arrangements. This way there will be no nasty surprises for you later down the line. More often than not, we find that your employer would not be concerned by your IVA and that it would not affect your employment status. An IVA is a formal solution and could affect some employments, such as if you were a solicitor or accountant for example. We would always recommend that you receive approval from your employers that your job isnt affected before you sign up for anything. Will an IVA impact my partner? There are certain situations where you may not want to involve your partner at all in your IVA proposal due to personal reasons. Insolvency Practitioners are very aware of these circumstances and can operate solely via telephone and email and at your convenience, so rest assured that your matters can be kept completely private. If the debts which you are looking to place into your IVA are in joint names, then this would be different. Your IP would look to place all of your debts into an IVA, including joint debts therefore you would have to inform your partner of your plans. If your debts are solely yours, then there would be no negative impact on your partner, their credit score would remain unaffected and they would not be entered onto any registers or be tainted in any way. Will an IVA affect my credit score/credit file? Whilst you are in your arrangement, you will not be able to get any credit. An IVA will stay on your credit file for 6 years, so 12 months after a typical IVA. When this time has passed and your monthly payments have ended, you will be able to rebuild your credit rating. What proof will I need to apply for an IVA? Proof of ID Passport/driving license/birth certificate/utility bills/national insurance identification/credit agreement Bank statements 3 months bank statements with all transactions displayed Proof of income 3 months payslips/P60/proof of benefits How long does it take to set up an IVA? Your initial call will only last around 5-10 minutes. The IVA process will be explained to you and you will be told what further information you will need to provide to proceed with your IVA proposal. Once you have returned the required information, an IVA will usually take between 7-14 days to get into place. You will be protected from creditors within this time, your advisor will provide you with documentation via email. How long does an IVA last? Most IVAs will last for a length of five years. The i v a will remain on your credit file for a period of six years and is placed on the Insolvency Register for that period. You can work out what date it will be removed from your credit file, it will be six years from the start date of the IVA term. So if the IVA started on 1 January 2000, it should be removed from your credit file six years from that date, which would be 1 January 2006. When you apply for an individual voluntary arrangement your Insolvency Practitioner (IP) will tell you if you qualify for an IVA, how long it lasts, how much it costs and provide you with any other debt advice which you may need. How much will debt advice cost for an Individual Voluntary Arrangement? The advice cost for individual voluntary arrangements is free of charge. Your I.V.A company will tell you if you qualify for an IVA. They will talk to you about your different debts, provide you with free debt advice and check if your creditors are likely to approve your proposal for your IVA for debt. How does an IVA affect your life? By taking out an IVA you may affect your overall financial position. You will not be allowed to take out credit for 6 years. You will struggle to get a mortgage or remortgage your existing property. It also may affect any future increase in earnings or windfalls you may receive, as these will need to be paid to your insolvency practitioner. Your insolvency practitioner will take control of your debts for this period, they will deal with all of your creditors and this is legally binding. That means you will not be allowed to take out any more debts whilst in the IVA. Once the plan is completed, any debts which you accrue will be managed by yourself. Your ability to take out further debts in the future will not be impacted once the IVA has completed. What is the IVA protocol? The I.V.A protocol is a voluntary set of guidelines which your Insolvency Practitioner (IP) can sign up for which improves the efficiency of Individual Voluntary Arrangements. When you apply for debt advice, it is important that you understand the steps of the debt solution, so you can decide whether or not the solution is the best one for your circumstances. How do I know if creditors will accept my IVA? Generally speaking, most creditors will approve voluntary arrangements for unsecured debt. But some debts can not be included within one formal debt solution. Your Insolvency Practitioner will tell you how likely it is that your creditors will be willing to accept your proposal, based on the voting creditors. Can I pay in one lump sum? There are occasions when you may be eligible for a debt solution which is payable in a one off lump sum as a final settlement to your creditors. This is usually when the money is being gifted from some one else, or you have received inheritance or a windfall for example. With a one-off lump sum payment, the advice is usually the same as when you normally apply for an IVA. You wouldnt have to make regular payments into the solution, your IP can provide you with more advice on one off lump sum solutions for your debts. Your IP will provide you with more advice on the debt IVA and explain what is IVA to you. Who regulates the debt industry? At present the debt industry is not regulated. Some Insolvency Practitioners offices choose to sign up to the Insolvency Practitioners Association (IPA) or register with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). You can contact the IPA using the contact details or email address on their website. Your creditors do not regulate the debt industry and your creditors will not be able to impact any decisions which the IPA or FCA make. In our experience, the regulators will take assertive action on any advisers or businesses which do not comply with their strict codes of practice. To check if a person is regulated by the FCA, enter their name into the search box in the FCA website. Should I use a debt charity? There are thousands of companies which provide debt help in the UK. You may be looking for an alternative to a private company. You should know that charities usually pass their fee charging products to sister companies which charge fees and disbursements, just like private companies. So what you initially thought was a good option, on further analysis could be different to what you originally thought. Charities do have their part to play though. They can help you if you have a problem with your bank accounts, maintenance arrears, living costs, credit reference agencies, child support arrears, bankruptcy, assets, accountancy issues, mortgages, creditor issues, insurance providers, mobiles, your bank account, rates arrears, PAYE contributions or if you want to work out your expenditure. They can make sure that you speak to an adviser or supervisor and look at proposals to offer your lender. A petition has started with the possibility of a debate in parliament about how charities represent themselves and their services. Which charities help with debt? You can contact Money Advice Service, National Debtline, Step Change, Shelter or a combination of the three. Charities are particular useful for a low debt level under 1,000. If the debt is high (such as a debt value of 10,000 or more) you would usually seek an assessment from a professional adviser. If you do decide to use a charity to guide you, make sure you check their charity number and the registration number on their website to make sure you are content that their team can answer your questions in the right ways. A lot of clients of charities have a minimum debt level which does not meet the basis for an IVA, so you could always chat to a charity that is happy to act on your behalf for low debt levels. Although an I.V.A could be the answer to your debt problem, its important to understand the monthly payment so call us on our free phone number. Anyone customers can receive expert feedback on their rights from debt charities, if they cant help they will usually point you in the director of firms which help with IVAs. We are homeowners, will lenders see my proposal differently? In some cases yes. In the majority of cases, if you are a homeowner you will not need to remortgage or take out any additional finances that will effect your property. You will need to sign a additional restrictions which remove your ability to take out additional credit tied to your property, which is something that is restricted once you are in an i.v.a. There are exceptions to this, such as when you have a lot of equity in your property/properties. If you own half of a property and another party owns the other half, only your equity will be affected. If you are landlord and you are in a position of equity, your IP may review your trading position or business to make sure the figures in question are in order. This is usually the case if you have two or more properties, as sometimes the equity can be used to form a repayment to your creditors. But this usually depends on the amount of value built up in your properties. Banks and building societies will not change the terms of your mortgage as long as a contribution is still being made for the duration of your arrangement. Your mortgage payments will be added to your expenses and accounted for within your budget, as long as you can provide evidence that you can afford to continue to make payments into your mortgage for duration of the plan. LOOKING FOR HELP? 100% Confidential. Thousands Helped. No upfront fees In a major victory for Facebook, a US court has ruled that it can block content without any explanation after a Sikh group filed a lawsuit challenging the blocking of its social media page. The ruling by the US Court in San Francisco came in response to the lawsuit filed against the Silicon Valley- headquartered company by Sikh for Justice, which alleged that its Facebook page, which advocated Sikh separatism, was blocked by the social media giant. US District Judge Lucy Koh in her November 13 ruling stated that the Sikh group's claims of religious discrimination are precluded under the Communications Decency Act, which protects providers of "interactive computer services" by barring courts from treating service providers like Facebook as the publishers or speakers of speech created by others. "We will appeal and challenge the decision of Judge Koh which is just an extension of Facebook action of blocking SFJ's page at the behest of the Indian government," alleged attorney Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, legal adviser to SFJ. "Facebook is an American Corporation and owes allegiance to US Constitution which promotes and protects free speech content and not accede to threats of foreign governments but Judge Koh's ruling failed to cover any of the allegations of SFJ," he said. "If Facebook is a public company making billions of dollars in public money and they don't want to give any explanation for why they blocked the content of a human rights group, then what is the difference between a democracy and a dictatorship?" he asked. In a statement, Pannun said that Judge Koh should have at least ordered that the social media giant give SFJ an explanation as to who ordered the take down. "Facebook owes an explanation to its users after or before blocking and removing the content which is guaranteed under freedom of speech," he said. January 03, 2016 The Saudi Execution Of Al-Nimr Was A Smart Move The Saudi government executed 47 longtime prisoners who had be sentenced to death over terrorism and general revolting against the government. From its viewpoint it was a smart political move. The Saudis are in trouble over their war on Yemen. After nine month of bombing the hell out of the country there is no chance that the aim of their war, reinstalling their proxy government in Sanaa, will be reached anytime soon. Meanwhile Yemeni forces raid (vid) one Saudi town after another. The Saudi regime change projects via Salafi jihadists in Iraq and Syria are also faltering. The low oil price make it necessary for the Saudi government to introduce taxes on its people. New taxes are hardly ever popular. To divert from these problems the Saudis decided to get rid of a bunch of prisoners and to use the event to regain some legitimacy. Many of the 47 killed were truly al-Qaida types who a decade ago had killed and blown up buildings in Saudi Arabia and wanted to violently overthrow the Saudi government. With the recent anti-Saudi calls of the Islamic State and al-Qaeda a jailbreak or some hostage taking to free the prisoners were a real possibility. Only four of the killed were of Shia believe. One of those was the prominent rabble rousing Shia preacher Nimr Baqr al-Nimr from the majority Shia eastern Saudi province Qatif. Al-Nimr had called for the youth in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain to raise up against the government. He called for the overthrow of all tyrants not only in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain but also of the Assad government in Syria. He was no Iranian stooge but defended its form of government. Al-Nimr said he was against violence but several of the demonstrations he called for ended with dead policemen and protesters. It was quite astonishing that the Saudi government let him preach for so long. A Sunni cleric in Saudi Arabia would have been put to jail or killed for much less revolutionary talk. Some dumb people like Human Right Watch's Kenneth Roth say that al-Nimr wanted a democratic state: Kenneth Roth @KenRoth Sheikh Nimr's real offense: leading peaceful protests for Saudi democracy, equality for Shia That is nonsense. A U.S. diplomat talked with al-Nimr in 2008. A cable available through Wikileaks summarizes: Al-Nimr described his and al-Mudarrasi's attitude towards Islamic governance as being something between "wilayet al-faqih," in which a country is led by a single religious leader, and "shura al-fuqaha," in which a council of religious leaders should lead the state. Al-Nimr, who conducted religious studies for approximately ten years in Tehran and "a few" years in Syria, stated that all governance should be done through consultation, but the amount of official power vested in the hands of a single official should be determined based on the relative quality of the religious leaders and the political situation at the time. A system led solely by religious judges or clerics is not a democracy. From that interview it also seems that al-Nimr had no clear picture of what he really wanted. His point was to always "side with the people, never with the government" independent of who or what was right or wrong. The Saudi government's patience ended when in June 2012 al-Nimr disparaged the death of the interior minister and crown prince Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud: He stated that "people must rejoice at [Nayef's] death" and that "he will be eaten by worms and will suffer the torments of Hell in his grave" That did him in. Al-Nimr was imprisoned and sentenced to death. There was concern that actually killing al-Nimr would increase Sunni-Shia tensions. Several governments and the United Nations had warned that doing so would increase sectarian strife. Well, that is the point! The Saudi government's legitimacy depends on financial largess and on being a sectarian Wahhabi "defender of the faith". Raising the sectarian bar by provoking a Shia reaction only helps the Saudis to rally the Wahhabi Sunni clerics and the people to their side. The killing of a prominent Shia also gives cover for executing the al-Qaeda types. These do have many sympathizers within Saudi Arabia and killing them without killing al-Nimr would have led to protests or worse by Sunni radicals. Even with this cover some al-Qaeda type entities outside of Saudi Arabia are threatening revenge. The Iranian government and Shia organizations in Iraq fell for the trick and protest against al-Nimr's execution. It allowed some organized gangs in Tehran to storm the Saudi embassy and to set it on fire. In Saudi Arabia's eastern province young Shia protesters violently attacked police forces (vid). This was exactly what the Saudis rulers wanted and need. It may also have been what some conservative Iranian circles were looking forward to. Posted by b on January 3, 2016 at 7:16 UTC | Permalink Comments Jack U, the electronic dance production superduo consisting of Diplo and Skrillex, dropped an exclusive Guest Room mix for SiriusXM to ring in the New Year. Weaving in remixes of songs from the artists such as Adele and Justin Bieber and featuring cuts from Gesaffelstein, Kill the Noise, Tchami, Jauz, AlunaGeorge, Valentino Khan and Jauz -- and tying everything together with tons of their own material -- Jack U serves up the perfect nightcap to 2015 and offers a healthy dose of hype for what the duo has in store for 2016. Clocking in at just under 60 minutes, the mix goes hard without any lulls. It perfectly demonstrates the ways in which the duo have successfully pushed the boundaries of EDM into pop while remaining consistently bass-heavy and festival-ready. You can stream the entire mix below. Our money has been depleted by ... Two men have been arrested in connection with Orlando's first homicide of the year. Police said Saturday that Randell E. Burton, 20, was the gunman who shot Yonel Meus, 36, early New Year's Day at the 7-Eleven at 4355 Silver Star Road. Dante M. Thomas, 19, was with Burton, they said. Both were charged with first-degree murder and robbery with a firearm. Orlando Police were called to the 7-Eleven at about 3 a.m. Friday in response to a fight. When officers arrived, they found Meus injured. A witness told investigators that two men were trying to back their car into a parking spot and almost hit Meus. Meus then slapped the men's car to get their attention. Investigators said the men became angry and followed Meus west to the next intersection. Both men beat Meus before Burton pulled out a gun and fired. Meus was taken to Orlando Regional Medical Center, where he died. Meus and the men had not met before the incident, police said. GET OUR APP Our Spectrum News app is the most convenient way to get the stories that matter to you. Download it here. HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy says the idea of closing the Southbury Training School for the developmentally disabled is more complicated than he first thought. Malloy told The Associated Press that Southburys residential population may have declined to 270, but there are still people who need exceptional care that costs a lot of money. His comments come after the General Assembly recently passed a budget-cutting bill that calls for a closure plan for Southbury and other regional centers. Malloy said lawmakers need to understand that Southbury residents will be expensive to care for no matter where they live. The Department of Developmental Disabilities has been collecting recommendations for Southburys future, which will be presented to Malloy in April. This may be counterintuitive in view of falling fuel prices, but the number of Connecticut households needing energy assistance actually grew in 2015, according to Operation Fuel, a nonprofit energy assistance program. People are finally getting a break in energy prices, but the problem hasnt gone away, Patricia Wrice, Operation Fuels executive director, told the CTMirror. Oil, gas and electricity still are unaffordable for more than 313,000 households in the state that are struggling to meet their basic needs as winter sets in. According to Operation Fuels annual Home Energy Affordability Gap report, which measures the ability of people with incomes below 200 percent of the federal poverty level to pay energy bills, those 313,000 households will face an average energy shortfall of about $1,506 for the heating season. This is at least an improvement over 2014, when that figure was higher. While the gap has dropped, a rise in low-income households means more families are struggling, according to economist Roger Colton, who prepared the study. This means that families must choose between paying energy bills and spending on other necessities. Its a housing problem; its a nutrition problem; and its a health care problem as well, Colton said. To make matters worse, Colton said households in deep poverty those making less than 50 percent of the federal poverty level face energy bills equal to almost 40 percent of their income. These households are in deep, deep crisis, he said, adding that more poor families in Connecticut are now struggling to cover their water bills as well. The good news is far outweighed by the bad news, Colton said. Eversource, the states largest electricity supplier, offers its customers energy-saving advice that can lower their bills, and those who wish to can donate to Operation Fuel via a voluntary charge on their Eversource bills. Every dollar you contribute is tax deductible and 100 percent of all donations are used for energy assistance grants, according to an Eversource website. To apply for Operation Fuel funds, contact the fuel bank in your area for an appointment. For more information, or to find out the name of the fuel bank nearest you, call 211. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Just after the stroke of midnight Thursday at University Hospital, Serenity Jo Gloria entered the world and became San Antonio's first baby of 2016. At birth, she weighed 7 pounds, 15 ounces and was 20 inches long. Aside from tiny cooing sounds, slight movements of her swaddled hands and a yawn, Serenity mostly slept in the arms of new mom Michelle Salazar on Friday morning. Her dad, Joe Gloria, and family members looked on. The distinction as San Antonio's first baby of 2016 earned Serenity Jo and her parents a $10,000 scholarship from the University of the Incarnate Word, a bank account from Jefferson Bank with a $700 balance, and gifts and baby implements donated by local hospitals, including a wreath made of diapers. Her parents were grateful for the gifts. "It means a lot," Salazar said. "It's really helpful." For the 17th year, hospital staffers in the area have compared notes as babies were born shortly after midnight to determine which facility had the honor of welcoming the first one and showered that newborn's family with gifts. Babies who are born by planned C-section or planned induction do not qualify for the first baby title. Every year, the anniversary of Serenity's birthday will fall on the first moments of the New Year. It will be like everyone's celebrating her birthday, Salazar said. "I'm just glad she's here," she said. gkaul@express-news.net Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec.29 By Maksim Tsurkov - Trend: The revenues of the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) for the entire period of its activity totaled $124.9 billion, SOFAZ told Trend Dec.29. The State Oil Fund was created in 1999 and its assets were equal to $271 million that time. The total expenditures of SOFAZ for the entire period of its activity amounted to $86.3 billion, including transfers to the state budget - $78.4 billion. "At the same time, for the whole period the extra-budgetary expenditures of the fund due to the difference in the exchange rate of the currencies in the investment portfolio of SOFAZ, amounted to about $5 billion," said the fund. As of October 1, 2015, SOFAZ assets reduced by 6.38 percent compared to early 2015 ($37.1 billion) and were estimated at $34.74 billion. Under SOFAZ's regulations, its funds may be used for the construction and reconstruction of strategically important infrastructure facilities, as well as solving important national problems. The main goals of the State Oil Fund include: accumulation of resources and the placement of the fund's assets abroad in order to minimize the negative affect on the economy, the prevention of "Dutch disease" to some extent, promotion of resource accumulation for future generations and support of current social and economic processes in Azerbaijan. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @MaksimTsurkov Joseph Prue Bensons favorite story, about making the perfect shot during target practice, would become a family favorite and represent something more. As an FBI agent, Benson made that shot in 1969. Later hed recall the day with his children, even joke about hanging it to scare away his daughters suitors. However, the shot stands for something bigger: years of hard work and success well-earned, said his daughter, Ginny Godsey. Benson was a man who defied odds, was a quick learner and deserved all the success that would follow that shot, she said. Im sure a lot of people say that, but it was so true of him, she said. Benson died in San Antonio on Tuesday. He was 86. More Information Joseph Prue Benson Born: May 28, 1929, Beaumont Died: Dec. 29, 2015, San Antonio Preceded by: Parents Joseph Prue and Vivian Benson, wife Eleanor Denny Benson and son Gary Benson. Survived by: Wife Ann Gipson Benson, daughter Ginny Godsey and stepson Mark Gipson. Services: 1 p.m. Sunday at Porter Loring Mortuary North. Burial at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery at a later date. See More Collapse Born in Beaumont, Benson grew up in Houston, his daughter said. As a child, he played violin and the sousaphone, and was invited to play with Rice University while still in high school. His love of music followed him into adulthood. Godsey recalled a conversation with her father two years ago when she asked him what kind of music he liked. He said he loved Adele, and that Pink was really talented. I think he said he also liked Madonna a lot. I remember thinking, Wow, my 84-year-old dad is cooler than I am, she said. Benson was also in a leadership position as a colonel in his high school ROTC, eventually serving stateside during the Korean War for the Air Force from 1951 until 1953. Before enlisting, he married his first wife, Eleanor Denny Benson. After the war, Benson and his wife moved to Houston. While managing large office buildings downtown and raising two children, he attended night school at the University of Houston. He graduated five years later with a degree in accounting and his CPA license. My father always had an interest in law enforcement, so he took a leap and just applied for a position with the FBI. He got the job on the first try, his daughter said. During his time as an FBI agent, he chose to move to San Antonio. It was there that he became instrumental in the crime of the century, his daughter said. He was in charge of sorting evidence, particularly wiretap tapes, for trial after the assassination of U.S. District Judge John Wood. His first wife, Eleanor Benson, died in January 1985. In 1987, he married Ann Gipson. My father had two long, loving marriages, Godsey said. Sometimes peoples flaws become more pronounced as they age, Godsey said. But (Joseph Benson) became mellower and sweeter as he aged. Our family wont be the only people who miss him; he was widely loved. bpatterson@express-news.net In the movie The Martian, the astronaut Mark Watney played by Matt Damon realizes that his base station has enough food and water for his original mission, but more water will be needed to grow food for an extended stay on the Red Planet. In a way, we are in a similar situation. The State Water Plan predicts that Bexar County water projects will provide enough water to meet household and business needs, but our entire 20-county water-planning district does not have enough agricultural water to grow the food we eat. It appears that a small percentage of our food could come from the water available for irrigation and livestock purposes in this region. It is not unusual for a large city to depend on the importation of food. Francois Ascher, a French urban planner and sociologist, has noted that a city is a gathering of population which does not produce itself the food it consumes. Although a University of California, Merced, study recently concluded that there is enough cropland within a 100-mile radius of U.S. cities to meet 90 percent of national food demand, this study did not consider water supplies or climate. Like our friend on Mars, we have the space but not the water. By the way, the whole state of Texas is a net importer of the water associated with food production (called virtual water) according to Dr. Stanley Mubako at the University of Texas at El Paso. It takes a lot of water to feed us. About 2/3 of all water usage in the U.S. is for food production. According to a UC Davis study, it takes about 148 gallons of water to produce the beef in a one-third-pound hamburger. This equals the total municipal water used per person per day in San Antonio in 2008. Agriculture is the most water-intensive business on the planet. Since 95 percent of U.S. fresh water is underground, a significant amount is used to produce food. While efforts have long been under way to monitor, manage and protect our Edwards Aquifer, the U.S. Geological Survey has determined that water levels in most U.S. aquifers are dropping at an increasing rate. San Antonios food supply has been linked to the excessively exploited High Plains Aquifer by researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The High Plains Aquifer (also known as the Ogallala) has been depleted by a volume of water equal to the annual flow of 18 Colorado Rivers and may only last another 25 years. Since local sources of water are not sufficient to feed us, we will continue to import food from many places. Common pantry items, like sugar, coffee and cocoa, come from Brazil, Cote dIvoire and India and other countries that are also having water challenges. Closer to home, water supply issues put the production of tomatoes and grapes at risk in the Rio Grande-Bravo River Basin under current and future climate scenarios. In order to sustain himself on Mars, astronaut Mark Watney in The Martian concludes: Lets do the math. So, as we Earthlings here in San Antonio think about and plan our food and water sources, lets do the same. Bill Barker is a board member of imagineSanAntonio, a public policy institute for research, education, discussion and implementation. 2015 was certainly a very busy year. Id like to take this opportunity to highlight some of the events that made 2015 so memorable. The year started off on the right foot with the Conservative Government delivering a balanced budget. We kept our promise to Canadians, delivering the first balanced budget since the global recession. We all know, in these uncertain times, how difficult it is to deliver a balanced a budget. We see jurisdictions everywhere struggling with this. As such, it was quite the accomplishment and one that Im very proud of. Locally here in Provencher, I was pleased to announce support for many initiatives. Some of those include: Funding for 19 seniors groups through the New Horizons for Seniors Program. Funding for the St. Adolphe East Dike Expansion. This project will not only protect the community of St. Adolphe from flooding for many years to come, it will also allow for growth and economic development within the towns boundaries. Funding for the Lorette Lagoon expansion which will increase wastewater capacity in the area. Funding through the Enabling Accessibility Fund for five projects in south-eastern Manitoba that will improve access for people with disabilities. Funding to help 43 organizations hire young Canadians for the summer through the Canada Summer Jobs program. In May I was very pleased to present the first ever Provencher Volunteer Award to 10 very deserving community leaders here in SE Manitoba. Our area of the province is home to many volunteers who are very generous with both their time and money. It was an honour to recognize these faithful volunteers for their hard work and dedication. Also in the spring I was honoured to host several events to recognize the sacrifices made by WWII Veterans from Southeastern Manitoba. I presented each of them with a limited edition lapel pin and a personalized certificate of recognition signed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper. We owe our freedom to the courageous men and women who selflessly fought for the way of life that we all enjoy today. We must never take for granted the sacrifices that they and their families made for us and these ceremonies were a small way to recognize their heroic efforts on our behalf. Starting on July 20, parents across the country had a reason to smile when they checked their bank accounts or mailboxes. That was the day when the increased UCCB payments starting arriving in their mailboxes and bank accounts, representing more than $3 billion being sent to about 3.8 million families. Parents started receiving payments of $520 for each child under the age of 6, and $420 for each child ages six through 17. This payment included the retroactive payments for January to June. Later in the year I was also pleased to announce funding for several infrastructure projects across my riding. These included: Building Canada Infrastructure Funding for Steinbach, Landmark, Hanover and Niverville. Funding for thirteen projects under the Government of Canadas Canada 150 Community Infrastructure Program. Communities included: Ile des Chenes, Cooks Creek, Lac du Bonnet, Steinbach, East Braintree, Kleefeld, Sprague, St. Jean Baptiste, Piney, Ste. Agathe, Niverville, Powerview-Pine Falls and Ste. Anne. $113.65 Million of funding to improve border crossing infrastructure in the Prairie Region including the Tolstoi, Piney, South Junction and Sprague ports of entry in Manitoba. Funding for Bridgepark Manor to help deliver affordable assisted living in the Steinbach area. Funding to help provide high-speed Internet services to over 4,500 homes in Provencher. This broadband infrastructure announcement, part of the Connecting Canadians program, was great news for our communities in Provencher. Our Government understood the importance of high-speed Internet access for communities like ours. In early August I was also very pleased to attend the announcement by MTS that they would be bringing cell service to the Piney area. Since being elected I have worked very hard to lobby telecommunication companies to expand further into SE Manitoba. This was a very good first step and I am hopeful that more announcements will be made in 2016. And of course, to end off the year, who could forget the extended federal election campaign which culminated on Election Day, October 19th. It certainly was a grueling 11 weeks, but it afforded me the opportunity to meet with thousands of my constituents as I went door to door and attended community events. This is democracy at its finest. While the results were not what I had hoped for at the federal level, I was certainly very pleased with the results locally. Id again like to say thank you for putting your trust in me to be your federal representative. I will continue to work hard for you both here and in Ottawa. I would like to wish everyone in Provencher a very happy and healthy new year in 2016. Posted on 01/03/2016, 1:00 pm, by mySteinbach The Manitoba government has announced an investment of nearly $380,000 for a potato processing plant in Carberry to increase efficiency, reduce waste and support the sustainable growth of Manitobas potato industry. The announcement was made by Federal Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay and Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Development Minister Ron Kostyshyn. The governments investment, provided under Manitobas Growing Forward 2 Growing Value program, will be used to install new and innovative equipment at the McCain Foods Canada facility in Carberry. The plant processes about 430 million pounds of Manitoba-grown potatoes every year, mostly into french fries. The upgrades will reduce potato and canola oil waste by 900,000 pounds and 800,000 pounds per year, respectively. The governments investment represents half of the total equipment cost. McCain Foods Canada has invested more than $30 million in other upgrades to the Carberry facility over the last 10 years, including a $23 million waste water upgrade. This potato processing plant employs about 220 people, with another 10 positions to be created over the next three years as a result of the new equipment. Manitoba is Canadas second-largest potato producer behind PEI, supporting 120 potato growers and employing 1,500 full-time and casual workers. In 2013, 70,000 acres of potatoes were grown in Manitoba valued at about $192 million. About 80 per cent of potatoes processed in Manitoba are exported to the United States, making this crop a valuable trade commodity. The Growing Value program provides financial assistance to existing agri-businesses that need to make changes to adapt to market forces and environmental considerations, to increase their ability to compete in domestic and international markets. The federal and provincial governments are investing a total of $176 million in cost-shared programming in Manitoba under Growing Forward 2, a five-year, federal-provincial-territorial policy framework to advance the agriculture industry, helping producers and processors become more innovative and competitive in world markets. Minister Kostyshyn noted this investment also supports the Manitoba governments goal of creating a $5.5 billion food processing industry by 2022, which is currently valued at $4.95 billion. The Taste Club is a monthly subscription box from Eat Feed Love in Vancouver. Each box contains gourmet kitchen items with recipes to be used for a feast or a dinner party! This box was sent to us for review purposes. Please be sure to check out our review process post for information on how we review boxes! The box: The Taste Club from Eat Feed Love The cost: $39.95 per box with discounts for multiple months and shipping is free The products: Artisan products from all over the world Shipping: Shipping is free; there are many countries in the drop down to enter your address, so if you are interested in this box, I would suggest emailing the company to see if they ship to your country! I included a picture of the packed box to show you how carefully Eat Feed Love packages everything. Every glass item is wrapped in bubble wrap, taped shut, and then tissue paper. Then there are packing peanuts and other packing materials in the box to ensure that the items don't shift during shipping. I've received multiple broken things from shipping mishaps, so I appreciate the care put into packaging this box! Every month, this company chooses a charity to share in the proceeds from each box, and this month the charity was Mercy Ships Canada, "a mobile health-care initiative housed on a ship and dedicated to providing primary health and surgical services to some of the world's most impoverished people." The ship is currently anchored in Madagascar, which inspired one of the product picks! Olive the Senses - Tuscan Herb Infused Olive Oil - $10.00 This olive oil is fantastic. As soon as I opened the lid, I could smell the herby aroma. It is so good, there's no way I will waste it cooking with it. This is going on salads, with bread as a dipper (it's good enough alone, with no vinegar), or as a drizzle on top of pizza. Olive the Senses - Cranberry Pear White Balsamic Vinegar - $10.00 At the risk of sounding dramatic in this review, this balsamic is also phenomenal. I can definitely pick out the cranberry and pear flavoring, and it's almost good enough to drink straight - not that I would waste it that way! I am imagining all of the salads I can eat this with... Olive the Senses - Vermont Maple Dark Balsamic Vinegar - $10.00 This bottle leaked a bit during transport, but since the packaging of each item is so top notch it didn't get all over the box! This vinegar smells exactly like maple syrup, and the taste is so complex! I can imagine this going wonderfully with the roasted strawberries I make as a topping for ice cream. Caramoomel Dulce de Leche Caramel Spread - $6.00 As soon as I took this dulce de leche out of the box, my husband latched on to it. His family makes a special cake with dulce de leche as the frosting, and he immediately started thinking about how quickly he could make a cake to dump this on! This is a little more liquidy than the dulce de leche you can typically buy at the store, but the flavor is so much better. It's smooth, sweet, and everything a caramel should be. Mrs. Jones Jams Cranberry Sauce - $7.00 This cranberry sauce tastes just like the holidays to me! The cloves, orange peel, cinnamon, and star anise included with the cranberries make this stand out from the typical canned stuff that usually makes the rounds at holiday gatherings! Edmond Fallot Green Peppercorn Dijon Mustard - $6.89 I am a huge fan of this mustard. My culinary vocabulary falls short of describing it accurately, so here is how the Eat Feed Love website describes it: "Infused with green peppercorns, it offers a strong and hot flavor that is perfect for roasted meats, with a bright and spicy character that is sure to impress." I tried it with eggs instead of meat, and it was awesome. Earth's Herbal Holiday Season Herbal Spice Tea - $1.00? This tea is wonderfully spicy and warm tasting! Perfect for this time of year. I received 1 tea bag of this loose leaf tea. I like that they made tea bags for those people that may not have a tea infuser. Sirene Dark Chocolate Noir Tasting Pair - $8.50 This is the product pick that was inspired by the Mercy Ship's current location in Madagascar. This company makes bean-to-bar chocolate, and this particular bar has 73% cacao content. I am not the biggest fan of dark chocolate because it can be bitter, but wow...I could eat this chocolate all day. It actually tastes slightly fruity to me, there is no bitterness, and it isn't overwhelmingly sweet. I could get used to this! The verdict: I loved this Taste Club shipment! Everything was so fitting for the holidays and would make any foodie rejoice. Eat Feed Love includes recipe cards with every shipment. The recipes for this month all look fabulous, offering opportunities to try the products included. I do wish that they had included more than 1 recipe for the maple balsamic vinegar since that one is stumping me a little. The recipe they included was for a ham, which will definitely be made the next time we have company (with only 1 meat eater in the house, it's not practical to make a whole ham for him!). The value of this box is about $59.39. I am really impressed with the value of this box, the quality of the items sent, and as I've already said the careful packaging. The letter included by Emily is always so great to read, as she explains the charity they've chosen for the month and includes suggestions on how to use the items. What did you think of this month's Taste Club shipment? SHARE John R. Wood Properties Roger Brunswick, an agent in the company's Bonita Springs location, has been named Realtor of the Year by the Bonita Springs-Estero Association of Realtors (BEAR). A longtime BEAR member, Brunswick has provided the organization with leadership and has helped create programs and services for members. Brunswick accepted the honor at the BEAR annual installation event that took place on Dec. 4 at the Club at Grandezza, Estero. Rollins receives award David Hitchcock, ALC Advanced, CCIM, state president of the Realtors Land Institute Florida (RLI) presented William H. Rollins, Jr., ALC, CCIM, senior broker at Land Solutions Inc. in Fort Myers, the 2015 Florida Land Realtor of the Year award. The RLI is an affiliate organization of the National Association of Realtors. Members of RLI earn the Accredited Land Consultant (ALC) designation for the land real estate profession. Annually, the RLI Florida Chapter recognizes one member statewide, whose work furthers the interest of fellow Institute members, the land real estate profession, and the community. Rollins was chosen because of his professionalism in conducting land sales in Southwest Florida and his strong support for the RLI. Evidence of this support was his attendance at this year's National Land Conference and his firm sponsoring recent Land University courses in Southwest Florida. Hundred dollar bills as background behind curled page SHARE By Irv Blackman At least once a month I get a call from a reader (call him Joe) of this column who wants to sell his business (Success Co.) to his kids. A short conversation with the caller explains why such a sale (the subject of this article) is a terrible idea from a tax standpoint. For Joe. And for the kids. Only the IRS wins. Let's start with the kids, in this case Joe's son Sam who wants to buy Success Co. for $1 million. (Be real, insert the value of your business here). Follow these strangling tax numbers: Sam must earn about $1.66 to have $1 left to pay to Joe (40 percent state and federal combined in most states income tax on $1.66 is 66 cents in tax). Sam pays the full $1 to Joe. Sam cannot deduct any portion of this $1 because the purchase of stock (Success Co. or any other stock) is simply a nondeductible capital expenditure. (Note: Since Florida has no income tax, the rate for a Florida resident would be only 36 percent.) If Success Co. is a C Corp., any interest paid by Sam (in addition to the principal stock purchase amount) is generally not deductible. Sam could deduct this interest against portfolio income (interest and dividends or other investments). Rarely do the kids have such investments. But Sam can make all the interest deductible simply by electing S Corp. status for Success Co. What about Joe. Sam pays Joe that $1 (plus interest). Joe must pay a capital-gains tax (typically 20 percent) on the profit and pay his top tax bracket (typically 40 percent, including State and Federal income taxes) on the interest income. OK, Joe has 80 cents left after paying the capital gains tax on each $1. If Joe doesn't spend that 80 cents (he usually has it at death), the tax collector gets up to 40 percent (using current rates) for estate taxes. That's another 32 cents, leaving Joe's heirs with only 48 cents out of the $1. Let's review. Sam had to make $1.66 for Joe to leave his family 48 cents. Or would you believe that requires Sam to make $1,660,000 while Joe's family only gets $480,000. Lousy tax planning. Joe and Sam can avoid these tragic tax results. So can you. How? Apply the above $1 example to the price you want to get for your business if you sell to one or more of your kids. You'll immediately notice that the IRS gets a big undeserved reward out of the sale of your business. The lesson is simple. Don't sell your business to your kids. Watch this column for the right way for you to get a lifetime flow of income for you (and your spouse if you are married) and transfer your business to your kids without the IRS getting into your pocket. You'll want to take a look at the following strategies: Electing S Corp. status. Use of an intentionally defective trust to transfer your business to your kids tax-free to you and your kids (yet you stay in control of your business for as long as you live). One more thing: Do not transfer your business (by sale or otherwise) to the kids without putting three other plans in place (1) a lifetime tax plan, (2) a retirement plan and (3) an estate plan. Want to learn more about how to shield yourself and your family from the IRS when you transfer your business? Browse my website, taxsecretsofthewealthy.com. Or if you can't get a good answer from your professional advisers, call me (Irv) at 847-674-5295) to discuss your transfer-to-the-kid problem. Or you can email (irv@irvblackman.com) me. SHARE Stanley Appelbaum poses for a portrait at the Naples Daily News studio on April 6, 2015. (Carolina Hidalgo/Staff) Stanley Appelbaum poses for a portrait at the Naples Daily News studio on April 6, 2015. (Carolina Hidalgo/Staff) COURTNEY BOONE Stan Appelbaum, Karen Porter and Les Schultzel, M.D., get a few moments in conversation during the busy evening. Appelbaum founded the Foster Care Council, predecessor to Friends of Foster Care. Jim Bloom, Michelle Hill, Stan Appelbaum and Judge Elizabeth Krier By Joseph Cranney of the Naples Daily News Stanley Appelbaum, the tireless local advocate for at-risk youth who was named the Naples Daily News "Citizen of the Year" in 2015, died Friday morning after a brief stay in hospice care, his wife said. She said the cause of death is unclear but that Appelbaum's health had declined in the past six months. Appelbaum, 84, who was abused as a foster child during the Great Depression, spent the last 25 years of his life volunteering to assist foster children, drug addicts and others who lived with mental health issues or were stricken by problems caused by broken families. Those who knew Appelbaum described him Saturday as the utmost guardian of the area's at-risk youth who used his influence to lobby political bodies and advocate for proper foster care. In 1999, Appelbaum helped found the Foster Care Council of Southwest Florida, a nonprofit group that tutors foster children and helps them access social resources like summer camps and after-school activities. The group, now called Friends of Foster Children Forever, serves more than 800 children annually in Collier County. "He just wanted to help people," said Appelbaum's wife, Cathy Appelbaum. Cathy, 65, said Appelbaum was about 9 years old when he was hospitalized after a beating from his foster dad. The beatings were common. The foster dad couldn't find work during the Great Depression. One day, the dad took Appelbaum into the basement with a whip with nine knotted ends. No one knows how long the beating lasted, but Appelbaum eventually got away. He passed out on a neighbor's porch before he could knock on the door for help. During the Depression, he slept on the front porch of his foster home with nothing to keep him warm except a blanket, Cathy Appelbaum said. He was given cereal twice a day, with water, to eat. Appelbaum spent his retirement advocating that foster children in Southwest Florida deserve better conditions than he experienced. From 1995 to 2010, he was chairman of the Florida Local Advocacy Council whose members are appointed by the governor to monitor the care of those in state social service agencies. "He was a man that made things happen," said Penny Taylor, a Collier County commissioner who has fostered 50 children. "He was the go-to guy." In 2014, his nonprofit organized its inaugural back-to-school fair at the Golden Gate Community Center. The nonprofit and other organizations provided at-risk youth with new clothes, haircuts, backpacks, books and other supplies. About 175 children were registered for the event in the first year. This past August, the number doubled to roughly 350. "He wanted justice for them," said Jane Billings, executive director of Friends of Foster Children Forever. "The system is not necessarily kind to the children he was the greatest advocate, no matter what it was." For his servitude, Appelbaum last May was named the Naples Daily News "Citizen of the Year." During a taped acceptance speech, he said, "I'm often asked how many children and families I've helped during the past 25 years, but the question should be how many children and families have I not been able to help?" His efforts somewhat slowed as his health declined, but Cathy Appelbaum said he was still working two months ago. She said he was in the hospital six times from July to October after a bout of pneumonia in June. The family placed him in hospice care in December. Stanley Appelbaum was born on Dec. 7, 1931, in Brooklyn. His mother died when he was 6 months old and his father is said to have remarried a woman who didn't want to raise a child. Appelbaum was put into an orphanage as an infant. He left special care when he was 15 and moved to a boardinghouse in Manhattan. He graduated high school that year and got his bachelor's degree in psychology from the City College of New York when he was 19. He was stationed in Germany for two years during the Korean War. When he was around 12, Cathy Appelbaum said, he jumped off the roof of a garage and injured his right knee. Doctors wanted to amputate his leg. His case worker, a woman with red hair, told them to save it. Since then, Cathy Appelbaum said, he always had a thing for redheads. Cathy is not a redhead. Neither was Stanley's first wife, whom he married in the 1950s. The Appelbaums met in 1979 when he hired her to work for his chain of gift stores in the suburbs of Chicago. They married on May 31, 1986, in Deerfield, Ill. They have four children and eight grandchildren. The couple moved to Florida in October 1986. They took day trips into the Gulf of Mexico on their 25-foot fishing boat and brought back buckets of grouper. They often stayed up late to watch Johnny Carson. Appelbaum was a man of few hobbies, Cathy Appelbaum said, other than helping people. "This was his life," she said. "Doing all of this." The family plans a private service. In lieu of flowers, donations can be sent in Stanley Appelbaum's name to Friends of Foster Children Forever or Joanne's House at Hope Hospice in Bonita Springs. Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan.3 Trend: Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev congratulated Thein Sein, President of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar on the occasion of the Independence Day. "I extend my heartfelt congratulations to you and the people of your country on the occasion of the public holiday of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar - Independence Day. On this remarkable day, I wish you good health, success in your activities, and the friendly people of Myanmar peace and prosperity", - President Aliyev said in his message.. A reporter went to Randy's at 10:45 a.m. Wednesday and was told by a parking lot attendant that the restaurant would not re-open today as planned. Further information was not immediately available. Randys Fishmarket Restaurant & Bar in North Naples has been closed temporarily for health code violations, including the presence of live and dead roaches, roach droppings and live flies, according to an inspection report from the Florida Department of Business & Professional Regulation. An inspector was sent to the restaurant after a former employee filed a complaint on the DBPRs website about the restaurants working conditions, roach infestation and business practices. The complaint states that there is a cockroach infestation underneath the fry station and that the restaurant is illegally selling fish that is labeled as grouper that is actually a cheaper fish such as tilapia or basa. Click here to read the full report. The restaurant was cited for 10 total violations, five of which are considered high priority by the DBPR. The five high-priority violations included live flies in a fish display reach-in cooler; hazardous food not being kept at a safe temperature; live roaches found under the same fish display cooler and in a dry storage area; roach droppings by the bar and off-site storage area; and rodent droppings in an off-site dry storage area. Other violations include dead roaches, employees using a hand-washing sink as a dump sink in the bar area and no proof of required state-approved employee training for any employee. The restaurant was closed Tuesday afternoon, and employees were redirecting people wanting to stop at the restaurant for lunch. Michael Filipo, one of the restaurants managers, said a storage shed was found dirty and that employees were removing everything and cleaning it out. The storage shed, he said, was full of mostly cleaning supplies. According to Filipo, the restaurant is set to reopen Wednesday at 8 a.m. after it is reinspected. Chelsea Eagle, deputy director of communications for the Florida Department of Business & Professional Regulation, said in an email that the restaurant has not received a callback inspection and is therefore not permitted to reopen and operate. According to Eagle, the Division of Hotels and Restaurants, which licenses, inspects and regulates state lodging and food service establishments, typically performs a callback inspection within 24 hours after an emergency closure unless the restaurant operator asks for an extension. Weekly emergency closure reports from DBPR show that six other Naples area restaurants have had emergency closures in 2015. Three of those restaurants Lulu Bs Grill, Daruma Japanese Steakhouse and Naples Rain Forest Cafe were cited for roach problems and other issues. The other three had issues like sewage leaks or no water. Filipo said the restaurant is under new management and that the new managers have only been there for a couple of weeks. We didnt even realize we had that storage area, he said. SHARE David Etzel, Naples Balanced discussion When will the Naples Daily News provide a balanced discussion on the topic of climate change? You chose to run a front page expose that contained no factual data on the justification for accepting global warming as a scientific reality (as is the case in much of the broader media establishment in our day and age.) The presumption that the public has reviewed the basis for the global warming claims and are all on board with the need to act has surely not been fully vetted in science. You showcase yet another left of center mind-numbing attack on the state of Florida for not acting in a manner consistent with the emotional imperative that we must recognize and act on global warming. Last I checked, the ice in the Antarctic is at record levels. Also, how do the article authors (FCIR.org) explain all of the previous ice ages and dramatic warming periods prior to SUVs? Could it be that the sun has anything to do with all this climate fluctuation? What would be helpful to your readers is a fact-based presentation on the top ways we can continue to work toward reducing polluting practices and call it that. Not many are against reducing pollution. Whether you accept and believe the Kool-Aid of climate change and/or global warming due to carbon emissions or not, how about framing up the journalism to reflect the great work individuals and businesses are and can do today to support a more sustainable environment, and stop with the global warming/climate change hoax reporting. SHARE John G. McCandless, Fort Myers Beach USN (Captain, Ret.) Day in court John M. Crisp's syndicated opinion piece on Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl is misguided and a disservice to the servicemen who risked life and limb searching for him as he deserted his post in Afghanistan. The decision by Gen. Robert Abrams, commander of the Army Forces Command, to court martial Sgt. Bergdahl for desertion and "misbehavior before the enemy" was a proper one. Crisp's opinion to let the sergeant off with little or no jail time is hideous. It is obvious that he never served in the military and also obvious he has no idea why we have the Uniform Code of Military Justice. He stated that it was the Army's fault for granting Bergdahl a special waiver to enlist. Poppycock! Young men and women enlisting in our all-volunteer military do so freely. All must meet strict physical, mental and integrity standards. If an applicant fails to meet a particular requirement, he or she can request a waiver. I suspect that Bergdahl needed a waiver as he had dropped out of the Coast Guard during basic training. Well, he obtained the wavier, passed the rigors of Army basic training and even obtained the rank of sergeant. Then he deserted his post in the war zone and put his fellow warriors at great risk. Because of his actions, soldiers lost limbs in firefights with the Taliban during search missions. Sgt. Berhdahl will get his day in court. If convicted, he deserves the appropriate prison sentence. SHARE David Millstein, Naples Incomprehensible As I read many of the letters written to these pages, I sometimes think that speaking out against racism and intolerance in this town is kind of like the little Dutch boy sticking his thumb in the dike. It may feel like success for the moment but we all know it isn't going to last for long. However, Mr. Kenneth L. Carson's recent muted diatribe against African Americans is so preposterous, so antediluvian, so unAmerican that I felt compelled to respond. It doesn't surprise me that some folks around here want a return to separate but equal facilities to keep the white and black races apart. I've lived here long enough to know how preposterous, racist and ugly of an underbelly there is in this town. What really bowled me over is that any "Letters to the Editor" page of any serious newspaper would deign to publish such hateful statements. That I don't get, anymore than I understand Donald Trump's support for locking up all Muslims, just as we shamefully did with the Japanese in WWII. Tell me why you do it. Tell me why you foment hate, racism and ignorance by offering print space to shameful opinions. Hate I understand, especially when it comes from frightened, uneducated folks, but editorial complicity, coming as it does from seemingly educated, intelligent professionals, is much more incomprehensible. SHARE Howard M. Nulse, Naples Incorrect opinion Syndicated writer John M. Crisp, your opinion ("A prison sentence is a bad call for Bowe Bergdahl)" has been duly noted, and it could not be more incorrect. Anything less than 20 years at Fort Leavenworth and a dishonorable discharge would be a bad call. Sgt. Bergdahl didn't just go AWOL. He deserted his post, directly leading to the deaths of others conducting a futile search for him. He had sent his belongings back home, evidence that he had no intention of returning to camp. Exchanging him for several terrorist detainees is baffling enough, inasmuch as the United States does not (or certainly should not) negotiate with terrorists in hostage situations. But for this journalist to argue for leniency at the court-martial is simply insulting, certainly to the family members of that ill-fated search party. It is not about Sgt. Bergdahl, Mr. Crisp, nor your misguided empathy for him. It is about the U.S. military as a whole. Conduct such as Sgt. Bergdahl's should be punished to the legal extent of the law so as to prevent, or at least seriously deter, such occurrences in the future. SHARE David Goldstein, Naples Isolating Cuba It's too bad that both Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz are more focused on running for president than they are on their day jobs as U.S. senators. Even though both of them come from families that benefited from the special treatment given Cuban refugees, they both continue to oppose normalizing relations between Cuba and the U.S. Until President Obama acted to reverse 50 years of a failed policy, the U.S. stood alone in its effort to isolate Cuba. Although Sen. Rubio refused to leave the campaign trail to vote on the trillion-plus dollar budget bill (which he opposed), he did find time to put a "hold" on the nomination of Roberta S. Jacobson as ambassador to Mexico. Ms. Jacobson is a State Department veteran who is fluent in Spanish, and is exactly the kind of person we need to advance U.S. interests in Mexico and Central America. The Mexican government expressed support, as did the Republican-led Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Unfortunately, because Ms. Jacobson, while serving as an assistant secretary of state, helped negotiate the thaw in relations between the United States and Cuba, Sen. Rubio placed a "hold" on her candidacy, thereby preventing her from receiving what should have been a pro forma vote of approval. Although "holds" are not in the Constitution, they are in the Senate's rules and, as in this instance, are often used to thwart the will of both the Senate and the president. Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 3 Trend: The ministry of emergency situations of Azerbaijan continues measures to eliminate the consequences of the accident at the deepwater platform No. 10 of the country's offshore Guneshli oil field, the ministry's website said Jan. 3. A fire broke out on the offshore platform Dec. 4, as a strong storm damaged an underwater high-pressure gas pipeline. As many as 33 people were rescued in an ensuing large-scale operation. The bodies of eight killed were retrieved, while 22 oil workers are still listed as missing. Two Azerbaijani firefighting vessels still battle the fire, while the search for the missing oil workers continue, according to the ministry of emergency situations of Azerbaijan. Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 3 By Elena Kosolapova - Trend: It is planned to carry out additional exploration work on the "Kurmangazy" oil field in the Caspian Sea in Kazakhstan, Kazakh energy ministry told Trend. "Next year it is planned to monitor the abandoned wells and make up the project of additional exploration work on the field," the ministry said. In 2015, a monitoring of the abandoned wells was carried out on the "Kurmangazy" field. No production activities, including drilling and seismic surveys on the field were conducted in 2015. The field is developed on the basis of PSA (production sharing agreement) contract between "KazMunayTeniz" and "Rosneft". In 2006 and 2009, two exploration wells were drilled on "Kurmangazy", they didn't reveal any signs of oil, despite the fact that the preliminary forecasts regarding the field were promising and were estimated at one billion tons of recoverable reserves. After that, it was proposed to close the project. The ministry said that the decision to close the project at the level of the governments of Kazakhstan and Russia was not accepted, and the contract remains in force. It was decided to resume exploration work at an intergovernmental commission meeting in 2014. Forecasted reserves of the field are estimated at 2.8 billion tons of equivalent fuel, they are located in deep-seated Paleozoic sediments, and the exploration work is associated with high risks, according to the ministry of energy of Kazakhstan. Protesters have stormed the Saudi embassy building in the Iranian capital of Tehran early Sunday amid backlash over the execution of a prominent Shiite cleric, Sputnik reported. "Protesters break into Saudi embassy building in Tehran," Iran's Shargh daily journalist Sobhan Hassanvand tweeted, providing photographs and video footage from outside and inside the building before and after the siege. Flammable substance was seen thrown at the building as protests gained steam over the execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr. "Molotov cocktail thrown at Saudi embassy building in Tehran, protest over al-Nimr execution," Hassanvand wrote, providing video footage of a burning building. Hours earlier, he published photographs of what he said were protesters taking down a Saudi flag at the country's consulate in the second most populous Iranian city of Mashhad. Those crazy old powdered-wig guys had some funny ideas, didn't they? Today the federal government is largely dedicated to compelling men and women to subsidize ideas they disbelieve and abhor. The Founders thought the people should shape their government, but today the government spends billions shaping its people (and importing new ones, when the existing populace proves resistant to "change.") All interests represented except those of the American people (NaturalNews) If the founding fathers were to return to their progeny somehow, they would find an unrecognizable country.Some of the changes implemented since they fought a successful rebellion against the world's preeminent military power of the day would likely be applauded by them: Women's suffrage and legal equality among the ethnic groups just two of them.But the size and scope and raw power of the federal government would undoubtedly shock them and offend their consciences, especially the tremendous amount of private property confiscated from American citizens by Washington every year in the form of confiscatory taxation. And then, too, the expensive, authoritarian manner in which the government compels Americans to conform with its mandates, like them or not."To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical," Thomas Jefferson once wrote, as quoted by' John Hayward, who continued:As noted in a recently released report , from OpenTheBooks.com, Uncle Sam has a massive operation."Taxpayers might be surprised to know that the federal government is the second-largest public relations firm in the world," OpenTheBooks.com founder and report author Adam Andrzejewski noted. "Our nation's 3,092 federal public affairs officers have perfected the art of advancing an agency's interests often for more dollars and higher salaries ahead of the public interest."The report contains a plethora of examples cited from government financial reports for the period of 20072014. As Hayward wrote, "If civics classes ever get around to teaching the vitally important lesson thatis the biggest, baddest 'special interest' in America, Andrzejewski's work can serve as one of their textbooks."There are 10 specifics gleaned from the report:1. During the period of time studied, the federal government spent $4.34 billion on public relations , a not-so-small fortune.2. The government's spending and scope of PR operations makes it the second-largest public relations firm in the world (based also on the number of PR employees.3. There were 3,092 federal "Public Affairs Officers" employed by over 200 federal agencies in fiscal year 2014.4. Fully "1,858 'Public Affairs Officers' made at least $100,000 in base salary compensation in FY2014."5. "Salaries totaling $2.337 billion and 'performance bonuses' totaling $10.929 million flowed to public affairs officers (FY2007-FY2014).."6. "Since 2007, PR positions increased in the federal government by 15 percent - an addition of 402 positions from 2,688 to 3,092. Total PR salary spending by year increased by 22.4 percent despite a long period of freeze and sequester in federal hiring."7. Some "$2.02 billion [was] spent by 139 federal agencies with 2,403 outside PR vendors on 16,249 individual transactions since 2007 - despite 3,092 federal PR employees."8. There was a "47 percent increase in outside PR consulting expenditures under the Obama administration vs. the last two years under the Bush administration."9. "Top PR firms in the world reaped millions of dollars: Laughlin, Marinaccio & Owens, Inc. ($87.98M), Young & Rubicam Inc. ($57.5M), Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide Inc. ($47.93M), Fleishman-Hillard, Inc ($42.4M), Gallup ($42.0M), and many more.10. "$183,581 (per year) billing by Ketchum ($88/hour, $15,298/month) for 'Intern.' $1.192 million (per year) billing by Booz Allen Hamilton ($525.67/hour, $91,107/month) for 'Executive Manager' examples of billing rates per their respective federal advertising contracts."[Ketchum, by the way, is the PR firm of choice for biotech corporations such as Monsanto and Syngenta, uses paid scientists to push a corporate point of view, and until recently also produced propaganda for the Russian government see]. So, it's OUR fault Muslims kill us? Liberalism kills (NaturalNews) Sometimes it is kind of funny to watch liberal news folks twist logic and defy common sense in their never-ending bid to infect the body politic with their Marxism. But sometimes the bending and twisting goes overboard and wanders into the realm of dangerous denial the kind that can get Americans killed (and, in fact, already has).The latter happened just recently during asegment, in which a panel of guests was discussing leading GOP presidential contender Donald Trump 's statement a few weeks ago that were he president, he would ban all Muslims from entering the United States, until U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies could establish a system for properly vetting them, in the wake of the San Bernardino, Calif., terrorist attack, which left 14 Americans dead.One of the panelists was conservative commentator Kurt Schlichter, a U.S. Army veteran, who was visibly stunned on the air when author Arun Kundnani actually alleged that Islamic jihadis are "becoming more like Americans" as they integrate into our " gun culture .""Let's look at Muslim terrorism," Kundnani said. "The main trend that we're seeing in Muslim terrorism is Muslims are no longer focusing on planes when they commit acts of terrorism, they're carrying out mass shootings. So in other words, Muslim terrorists are becoming more like Americans, right? They're integrating into American gun culture and they're becoming more like you. ... You're a gun lover," he concluded, aiming that last bit at political opponents on the panel."So now if we want to solve this problem, we can actually solve two problems at the same time," Kundnani continued. "Let's deal with our gun problem and we solve the Muslim terrorism problem at the same time.""Wow," was Schlichter's initial response to Kundnani's asinine assertion.Wow, indeed. Kundnani has either been living under a rock or, more likely, is purposely ignoring theof ISIS, which uses them to gun down men, women and children whom members of the group believe oppose them or who aren't fellow Muslims (of the same religious sect).Also, such proposals just aren't serious; the same terrorist organization had no trouble arming a half-dozen of its followers in Paris for a November attack that left 130 people dead in a city and country where private gun ownership is about as restrictive as it gets.A surrogate for Trump, Scottie Hughes, was the first to take on Kundnani. She argued that fewer people would have died in the San Bernardino terrorist attack if "every person in that room in California had a gun on their ankle."And, she added, "This is why we don't trust Muslims in this country; it's because they lie, like you just did."Then it was Schlichter's turn."Scottie, I do trust Muslims; I trust the ones I worked with," he began. "Now Arun, I don't need to be lectured when I spent two deployments protecting Muslims, giving years of my life and risking it to protect Muslims. So don't start telling me that I'm Islamophobic. But the truth is the truth. And there is a cancer in the Muslim community, and the first responders have to be other Muslims."Both Schlichter and Hughes also pressed for more "honesty" within the Muslim community about the reality that there is an extremist element within the faith that not only teaches violence against "infidels" anyonea Muslim but that condones such violence and even acts on it. Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists and Mormons aren't lining up men and women and butchering them with a round to the back of the head, or shooting and blowing up innocent civilians in Western cities.are doing that. And it's time to end the charade of the "not all Muslims are bad" crowd and call the violence what it is:Not all Christians took part in the Crusades, but there's little historical evidence to suggest that people in Muslim countries targeted by them were preoccupied with convincing anyone who would listen that "not all Christians are bad."Watch the whole discussion here How the Quartering Act of 1774 and Great Britain's standing army pertain to modern-day TSA abuses The quartering of government eyes in the digital space of American's lives A case can also be made that a standing army has taken over America's airports (NaturalNews) Americans who understand the health risks of full-body TSA X-ray scanners will choose to opt out of the invasive scan. The TSA requires those who opt out of the full-body scan to undergo a physically invasive full-body pat down.Now, a new rule created by the Department of Homeland Security will give TSA agents the authority"TSA is updating the [Advanced Imaging Technology] [Privacy Impact Assessment] to reflect a change to the operating protocol regarding the ability of individuals to opt opt-out of AIT screening in favor of physical screening," the DHS states in a recently published document. "While passengers may generally decline AIT screening in favor of physical screening,[emphasis added]."Every time a traveler passes through the scanner, they are harmed physically because these machines put off X-ray radiation. The U.S. National Library of Medicine plainly states that low doses of radiation over time damage cells and increases one's risk for developing cancer. The risk is so great that the European Union banned the use of these full-body scanners, and instead use lower-frequency, millimeter-wave machines.On June 2, 1774, the British government that presided over the English colonies passed a new law called the Quartering Act. This law expanded the power and authority of Great Britain's standing army, allowing colonial governors to house British soldiers in unoccupied houses, barns and inns. The Quartering Act was brutally intrusive, allowing for a standing British army while invading the privacy of ordinary colonial men and women.After the American colonies defeated the British red coats in the Revolutionary War, the founding fathers of the new American nation wrote an amendment in the Bill of Rights to protect against standing armies and the invasion of personal privacy and property. "No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law," states the Third Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Amendment Three was an important protection because the overwhelming force of British government was allowed to invade private property and disrupt people's private lives.Today, the U.S. government does not abide by Constitutional principles. The executive branch of the federal government continues to create new bureaucracies, like the National Security Administration (NSA), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA). These big government inventions act outside the constraints of the Constitution by violating people's property and privacy. For example, the surveillance tools used by the NSA intrude into people's private emails and phone calls without a real warrant and without accusation of a crime, which is a blatant violation of the Fourth Amendment: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."Government agents aren't physically being quartered inside homes like colonial times, but their surveillance is invading the privacy and property of American families nonetheless. With the power to collect and monitor phone records, emails and computer activity, government today treats people as if they are guilty until proven innocent. This modern day quartering of government agents into the digital space of American's lives is a violation of all Americans' liberties, privacy and property.TSA agents are now quartering day and night in American airports, violating people's privacy on a routine basis. This invasion has allowed government eyes to quarter inside travelers' clothes, as TSA agents scan travelers' bodies and store their nude photographs. Full-body CT scans penetrate people's privacy to their naked core . Americans are being visually and physically raped as their personal property is undermined. Now the TSA has gained even more authority, to force each person to submit to health-hazardous full-body radiation scanners.The TSA provides a false sense of security at airports. Did you know that over 400 TSA agents have been caught stealing from travelers and one TSA agent was convicted of stealing more than $800,000 worth of goods? (NaturalNews) A group of armed Americans led by Ammon Bundy, 40, son of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, have taken over a building on a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon, vowing to remain "for as long as it takes" to effect changes in land use policy and to draw attention to the government's heavy-handed prosecutorial tactics.Bundy and his group have also accused federal and local officials of unfairly punishing ranchers Dwight Hammond, 73, and his son, Steven Hammond, 46, both of whom are scheduled to report to federal prison on Monday, for refusing to sell their land to the government.In comments to, Bundy was vague about his and the group's end goal, but that restoring the "people's constitutional rights" was a priority."This refuge -- it has been destructive to the people of the county and to the people of the area," he told the news network. The group has taken over the HQ of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge."People need to be aware that we've become a system where government is actually claiming and using and defending people's rights, and they are doing that against the people," he added.The Hammonds were convicted in 2012 under a federal anti-terrorism statute, of committing arson on federal land overseen by the Bureau of Land Management. Both were charged in connection with a 2001 fire, and Steven in connection with another fire in 2006. Though the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 calls for a minimum sentence of five years in prison, U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan now retired gave them lighter sentences because he did not believe they had exhibited malicious intent.Federal prosecutors appealed Hogan's three-month sentence for Dwight Hammond, and one-year sentence for Steven Hammond which both had served because they were far short of the minimum. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed and ordered them re-sentenced in October.On Saturday, a group of about 300 supporters rallied and then marched in Burns, Ore., from a local grocery store parking lot to the Hammonds' home. After the march, Bundy and his group occupied the refuge building. There were no government employees in the building at the time."We will be here as long as it takes," Bundy told. "We have no intentions of using force upon anyone, (but) if force is used against us, we would defend ourselves."Bundy said that his group is armed, but he also refused to describe it as a militia. He also would not say how many people were with him, tellingon Sunday that information could jeopardize "operational security."The Bundy's were involved in an confrontation with heavily armed members of the Bureau of Land Management, which is part of the Interior Department, in April 2014. As Natural News editor Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, reported at the time, the incident shaped up early on as highly volatile, and over little more than some land-use fines BLM said Cliven Bundy who has ranched the same land all his life had not paid (Bundy said otherwise)."...[T]he U.S. government has dispatched hundreds of heavily armed soldiers, snipers and helicopters to lay siege to a ranch near Bunkerville Nevada, called the 'Bundy Ranch,' where the Bundy family has been running cattle since the 1870's," he wrote. "In 1949, the federal Bureau of Land Management was created, and in the 1990's the BLM claimed (false) authority to start charging "grazing fees" for Bundy's cattle. Today, the BLM claims the Bundy family owes over $1 million to the government."As of this writing, local officials in Oregon said they were conferring in an attempt to find a way to resolve the situation."We are not terrorists," Ammon Bundy said. "We are concerned citizens and realize we have to act if we want to pass along anything to our children."In a later interview with reporters, Bundy said he and others occupied the building because "the people have been abused long enough.""I feel we are in a situation where if we do not do something, if we do not take a hard stand, we'll be in a position where we'll be no longer able to do so," he said, as reported byHe added that he and the others were prepared to stay "for years" if necessary.Sources: Students have created an art installation at a Bay Area university to symbolize the Mexican students who disappeared in Iguala, Mexico, in 2014. The Santa Clara University art instillation includes 43 silhouettes, one to represent each student who went missing. Mexico's attorney general said last year that an investigation found that they had died, though only one students' DNA has been recovered. The students, who attended the Raul Isidro Burgos Rural Teachers College in Ayotzinapa, were traveling to Iguala to organize a protest and were stopped by police. The official investigation into the students disappearance concluded that they were handed off to a drug cartel and murdered, and their bodies incinerated. According to some reports, the police were operating under orders from a corrupt mayor, Jose Luis Abarca Velazquez and his wife, Maria de los Angeles Pineda Villa. The students had planned to protest an event at which Pineda Villa was speaking. Abarca and Iguala's police chief were both detained in connection with the investigation, but the students' disappearance, and the federal government's seemingly slow response, has generated major protests in Mexico and abroad. The Santa Clara University students who built the effigies hope their work will breathe new life into the investigation. "I think if we forget, its a lost cause," said Associate Dean Stephen Lee. "Best we can do is bring attention to such events." The installation is slated to be on display through Jan. 15. Four people were killed and at least 38 others have been wounded in shootings across the city over the New Years holiday weekend. The first reported homicide of 2016 happened about 2:20 a.m. New Years Day in the Grand Boulevard neighborhood on the South Side. Deandre Holiday, 24, got into a fight with someone in the 4600 block of South St. Lawrence when the person pulled out a gun and fired shots, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiners office. The shooter then fled the scene. Holiday, of the 5100 block of South Indiana, was pronounced dead at the scene, authorities said. A 38-year-old man injured in the same shooting later showed up at Provident Hospital with a hand wound, police said. He was listed in good condition. The most recent fatal shooting left a 16-year-old boy dead Saturday evening in the South Side Woodlawn neighborhood. At 4:47 p.m., Antwan McBee was in a car in the 6300 block of South Stony Island when another car pulled up and someone inside fired shots, authorities said. McBee, of the 4800 block of South Prairie Avenue, was shot in the head and shoulder and took himself to the University of Chicago Medical Center where he died at midnight, authorities said. The other two homicides happened Friday in the Englewood and Back of the Yards neighborhoods. About 9:40 p.m., 32-year-old Roderick Snowden was sitting in a vehicle parked in the 6100 block of South Sangamon when a dark-colored car pulled alongside him and someone inside opened fire, authorities said. Snowden, who lived in the 1200 block of Wadsworth Avenue in North Chicago, was shot repeatedly and taken to Stroger Hospital, where he later died. Earlier Friday, a 36-year-old man was shot in the chest in the 1900 block of West Garfield at 6:40 a.m., police said. He was driven to 55th Street and Artesian before he was taken to Stroger, where he was later pronounced dead. Authorities have withheld his name pending notification of his family. The three latest nonfatal shootings happened Sunday night on the South and West sides. A 33-year-old man was standing on the sidewalk in the 7000 block of South Wabash at 7:57 p.m., when he heard shots and felt pain. He suffered a gunshot wound to the right arm and was taken to St. Bernard Hospital, where his condition was stabilized, police said. Less than an hour earlier, a 19-year-old man was injured in a West Side Austin neighborhood shooting. He was walking in the 900 block of North Lavergne about 7 p.m. when someone wearing a gray hoodie walked up to the man, pulled out a gun and fired shots, police said. The man suffered gunshot wounds to the left thigh, left arm, right ankle and a graze wound to the chest and was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where his condition was stabilized. About 6:20 p.m., a man was wounded in another Grand Boulevard shooting. The 21-year-old was standing on the sidewalk in the 400 block of East 46th Street when a dark colored SUV passed by and the passenger fired shots. He then walked over to a near-by store and called the police. He was shot in the right foot and taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center in good condition, police said. At least 34 other people have been wounded in separate shootings since 3 p.m. Thursday. Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari underlined the need for maintaining the security of Saudi Arabia's diplomatic places and sites in Tehran and Mashhad, IRNA reported. "The foreign ministry by realizing the sentiments of the Muslim Iranians, calls for preventing any gathering in front of Saudi diplomatic building in Iran," Jaber Ansari said. The foreign ministry spokesman renewed Iran's condemnation of execution of religious scholar Sheikh Nimr Baqr al-Nimr, but meantime said that security of Saudi Arabia's diplomatic places should be maintained. "The diplomatic police is responsible for confronting any aggression against the diplomatic sites of Saudi Arabia and it will act according to its inherent duties to maintain the public order and restoring security to such places," Jaber Ansari added. Protesters in Iran, angered by the execution by Saudi Arabia of a prominent Shiite cleric, broke into the Saudi embassy in Tehran early Sunday, setting fires and throwing papers from the roof, Iranian media reported. The semiofficial ISNA news agency said the country's top police official, Gen. Hossein Sajedinia, rushed to the scene and police worked to disperse the crowd outraged by the execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr. Shiite leaders in Iran and other countries across the Middle East swiftly condemned Riyadh and warned of sectarian backlash. Saudi Arabia's execution Saturday of 47 prisoners, which also included al-Qaida detainees, threatened to further enflame Sunni-Shiite tensions in a regional struggle playing out between the Sunni kingdom and its foe Iran, a predominantly Shiite nation. While Saudi Arabia insisted the executions were part of a justified war on terrorism, Iranian politicians warned that the Saudi monarchy would pay a heavy price for the death of al-Nimr. The Iranian Foreign Ministry summoned the Saudi envoy in Tehran to protest, while the Saudi Foreign Ministry later said it had summoned Iran's envoy to the kingdom to protest the critical Iranian reaction to the sheikh's execution, saying it represented "blatant interference" in its internal affairs. In Tehran, the crowd gathered outside the Saudi embassy and chanted anti-Saudi slogans. Some protesters threw stones and Molotov cocktails at the embassy, setting off a fire in part of the building, Sajedinia told the semi-official Tasnim news agency. "Some of them entered the embassy. Currently, individuals who entered the embassy have been transferred out (of the building). However, a large crowd is still there in front of the embassy," Sajedinia told ISNA early Sunday. Some of the protesters broke into the embassy and threw papers off the roof, and police worked to disperse the crowd, Sajedinia told ISNA. He later told Tasnim that police had removed the protesters from the building and arrested some of them. He said the situation outside the embassy "had been defused." Al-Nimr's execution promises to open a rancorous new chapter in the ongoing Sunni-Shiite power struggle playing out across the Middle East, with Saudi Arabia and Iran as the primary antagonists. The two regional powers already back opposing sides in civil wars in Yemen and in Syria. Saudi Arabia was also a vocal critic of the recent Iranian agreement with world powers that ends international economic sanctions in exchange for limits on the Iranian nuclear program. The cleric's execution could also complicate Saudi Arabia's relationship with the Shiite-led government in Iraq. The Saudi embassy in Baghdad reopened for the first time in nearly 25 years on Friday. Already on Saturday there were public calls for Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi to shut the embassy down again. Al-Abadi tweeted Saturday night that he was "shocked and saddened" by al-Nimr's execution, adding that, "peaceful opposition is a fundamental right. Repression does not last." Hundreds of al-Nimr's supporters also protested in his hometown of al-Qatif in eastern Saudi Arabia, in neighboring Bahrain where police fired tear gas and bird shot, and as far away as northern India. The sheikh's brother, Mohammed al-Nimr, said in a telephone interview that Saudi authorities told the family they had already buried the body, but didn't tell them at which cemetery. The family had hoped to bury his body in his hometown. His funeral would likely have attracted thousands of supporters, including large numbers of protesters. Instead the family planned to hold prayers and accept condolences at the mosque in a village near al-Qatif, where the sheikh used to pray. A spokesman said in a statement that United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was "deeply dismayed" over the Saudi Arabia executions, including that of Al-Nimr. Germany's Foreign Ministry said the cleric's execution "strengthens our existing concerns about the growing tensions and the deepening rifts in the region." State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement that the U.S. is "particularly concerned" that al-Nimr's execution risked "exacerbating sectarian tensions at a time when they urgently need to be reduced." He said the U.S. is calling on Saudi Arabia to ensure fair judicial proceedings and permit peaceful expression of dissent while working with all community leaders to defuse tensions after the executions. Al-Nimr's death comes 11 months after Saudi Arabia issued a sweeping counterterrorism law after Arab Spring protests shook the region in 2011 and toppled several longtime autocrats. The law codified that the kingdom could prosecute as a terrorist anyone who demands reform, exposes corruption or otherwise engages in dissent or violence against the government. The convictions of those executed Saturday were issued by Saudi Arabia's Specialized Criminal Court, established in 2008 to try terrorism cases. The executed al-Qaida detainees were convicted of launching a spate of attacks against foreigners and security forces a decade ago. To counter Arab Spring rumblings that threatened to spill into eastern Saudi Arabia, the kingdom sent troops in 2011 to crush Shiite protests demanding more political powers from the Sunni-led, fraternal monarchy of Bahrain. More security forces were also deployed that year to contain protests in Saudi Arabia's oil-rich east, where al-Nimr rallied youth who felt disenfranchised and persecuted. A Saudi lawyer in the eastern region told The Associated Press that three other Shiite political detainees were also executed from among the 47. The lawyer spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. Saudi Arabia says all those executed were convicted of acts of terrorism. Al-Nimr and the three others mentioned had been charged in connection with violence that led to the deaths of several protesters and police officers. Saudi Arabia's top cleric Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Al Sheikh defended the executions as in line with Islamic Shariah law. He described the executions as a "mercy to the prisoners" because it would save them from committing more evil acts and prevent chaos. Islamic scholars around the world hold vastly different views on the application of the death penalty in Shariah law. Saudi Arabia's judiciary adheres to one of the strictest interpretations, a Sunni Muslim ideology referred to as Wahhabism. Saudi Arabia carries out most executions through beheading and sometimes in public and has drawn comparisons to extremist groups like al-Qaida and the Islamic State group which also carry out public beheadings and claim to be implementing Shariah. It strongly rejects the comparisons and points out that it has a judicial appeals process with executions ultimately aimed at combating crime. The Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah issued a statement calling al-Nimr's execution an "assassination" and a "ugly crime." The group added that those who carry the "moral and direct responsibility for this crime are the United States and its allies who give direct protection to the Saudi regime." In a press conference Saturday, Saudi Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Mansour al-Turki said the executions were carried out inside prisons and not in public, as is sometimes the case. The Interior Ministry, which announced the names of all 47 people executed in a statement, said a royal court order was issued to implement the sentences after all appeals had been exhausted. Meanwhile, the execution of al-Qaida militants raised concerns over revenge attacks. The extremist group's branch in Yemen, known as al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, had threatened violence against Saudi security forces last month if they carried out executions of its fighters. One of the executed was Faris al-Shuwail, a leading ideologue in al-Qaida's Saudi branch who was arrested in August 2004 during a massive crackdown on the group following the series of deadly attacks. The executions took place in the capital, Riyadh, and 12 other cities and towns. Of those executed, 45 were Saudi citizens, one was from Chad and another was from Egypt. In announcing the verdicts, Saudi state television showed mugshots of those executed. Al-Nimr was No. 46, expressionless with a gray beard, his head covered with the red-and-white scarf traditionally worn by men in the Arab Gulf region. Al-Nimr, who was in his 50s, never denied the political charges against him, but maintained he never carried weapons or called for violence. At his trial, he was asked if he disapproved of the Al Saud ruling family because of speeches in which he spoke out forcefully against former Interior Minister and late Crown Prince Nayef bin Abdelaziz, who is King Salman's elder brother. "If injustice stops against Shiites in the east, then (at that point) I can have a different opinion," the cleric responded, according to his brother, who attended court sessions and spoke to The Associated Press just days before the Oct. 2014 verdict. U.S.-based Human Rights Watch's Middle East director Sarah Leah said "regardless of the crimes allegedly committed, executing prisoners in mass only further stains Saudi Arabia's troubling human rights record." She said al-Nimr was convicted in an "unfair" trial and that his execution "is only adding to the existing sectarian discord and unrest." Al-Nimr's brother told the AP by telephone that the executions came as a "big shock" because "we thought the authorities could adopt a political approach to settle matters without bloodshed." He urged people to "adopt peaceful means when expressing their anger." Saudi Arabia carried out at least 157 executions in 2015, with beheadings reaching their highest level in the kingdom in two decades, according to human rights groups. Just days after a condo building fire displaced 120 people in Bridgeport on New Year's Eve, the community is mourning the death of a 3-year-old girl in an apparent stove fire Sunday that ravaged a condo unit and hospitalized five others, including her mother, the condo owner and three children, while the smoke detectors were disabled. Sincere Pettway, 3, died in the fire and her mother, Shaneese Pettway, 26, was hospitalized, along with three other children -- Alaia Brandon, 1, Egypt Medina, 2, and Terrell Belle, 7, -- and Brandon's mother, Chakierah Booker, 20 for burns and smoke inhalation. The blaze broke out at the unit the toddler lived in at the Greentree Condo Complex on Frenchtown Road just after 3 a.m. Sunday morning. The preliminary investigation revealed the fire likely started on the stove in the kitchen and spread up the staircase to the second floor. As Booker recovers in the Bridgeport Hospital Burn Unit, authorities are investigating why the smoke detectors in her condo unit were disabled and say the tragedy could have been prevented. When firefighters arrived on scene, residents of the complex told them that a young girl was still inside the condo. Booker, the woman who owns the condo, rushed back in efforts to rescue 3-year-old Sincere, but she couldn't find her, as the little girl had collapsed outside her crib. However, she was able to rescue the three other children in the home. AJ Perez, the commander for Bridgeport Police Department's detectives, said that "even though she was burned, her hands, her face, she went back in again and tried to locate the last child." The mother acted in a heroic manner to help save the lives of the others," Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim said. Jimmy Chirigos, a resident of the condo complex, heard screaming and a gut instinct kicked in when he heard a little girl was trapped in a burning home. "I just want this girl to survive. That's all I could think about," he said. Chirigos and fellow neighbors also tried unsuccessfully to run back into the condo to save the girl, but they were met by heavy smoke and flames. He said "we got about three steps up and the smoke was too much," so they couldn't get in. "I can't get that out of my mind, said Chirigos. "Knowing I have a 2-year-old daughter. That could have been my kid and I didn't get up there in time." Firefighters arrived soon after and used a ladder to climb to the second-floor window. They located Sincere lying unconscious next to her crib in her second-floor bedroom. She had gone into full cardiac arrest and emergency responders were unable to revive her. Chirigos watched as firefighters pulled the 3-year-old's body through the window. Sincere succumbed to her injuries at the scene. "You can't just sit down, lay down after that," Chirigos said. Her mother, Shaneese Pettway, Booker, Brandon, Medina and Belle are expected to survive. It's unknown how the other mother and three children are connected to the Pettways and whether they are related. Fire officials said they're injured but in "fairly good condition." The fire was contained to that one condo unit at the end of the building. The residents of the condo unit where the fire happened won't be able to return to the home, according to firefighters, but no other families were displaced. Medina's father, Rafael was at the scene, but he was not hospitalized. The cause of the fire is under investigation. Councilors were brought in to help those who tried to rescue the toddler, including the firefighters. As Connecticut residents rang in 2016, U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut) tweeted in the New Year by posting about the hundreds of mass shootings in the country in the last year as he called for something to be done to stop the carnage. "2015 started in the early hours of January 1st when 5 people were shot on a New Year's Eve party bus in Memphis,' Murphy tweeted in one of his first tweets in what he called his "2015 year in review." Murphy sent out over 150 tweets about the 372 mass shootings that www.shootingtracker.com tallied for 2015, citing data on their website, including San Bernardino and several other fatal shooting tragedies. Tweets by @ChrisMurphyCT !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+"://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); Murphy tweeted "That was 2015. Just the MASS shootings. And odds are there will be another tonight," adding "No other country compares. No other nation's government is so indiferent." "My point? The New Year's resolution of every Congressman and Senator should be able to make sure 2016 is different," Murphy tweeted. This isn't the first time Murphy has callen on political leaders to take action to reduce gun violence in the country. On Dec. 2, a tweet of his on the issue was in the national spotlight as he criticized political leaders tweeting out "thoughts and prayers" in reaction to San Bernardino who weren't taking action to stop future gun violence. "Oh god. Not again. #SanBernardino," Murphy tweeted that day and then "Your 'thoughts should be about steps to take to stop this carnage. Your 'prayers' should be for foregiveness if you do nothing - again." Flames and smoke poured out of Saudi Arabia's embassy in Iran on Sunday amid a mounting backlash to the kingdom's execution of a prominent Shiite cleric, NBC News reported. Saudi Arabia announced Saturday that 47 prisoners had been executed including Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr. The news sparked fears of sectarian violence and deepening tensions between two bitter rivals: Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shiite powerhouse Iran. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei responded with fury to the execution, calling it a "huge crime" that Saudi Arabia will face "divine revenge" for. A missing Northeastern University student has been found dead, the Boston school confirmed Saturday. Dennis Njoroge, 21, was last seen on Nov. 28. The school's president, Joseph Aoun, announced that their search for him "came to a tragic conclusion on New Year's Eve," in a statement to the Northeastern University community. A source tells necn his body was pulled from the Charles River on Thursday. "I'm deeply grateful to every member of our community, especially Dennis's fellow students, who leafleted and held events raising awareness of his disappearance," Aoun wrote in a statement. "I also thank the members of the NUPD and our Division of Student Affairs, who provided such caring support during this difficult time." The Kenyan-born Media Arts major graduated from Burncoat High School in Worcester, according to a Facebook page launched by the family in an attempt to galvanize support for their search efforts. He was supposed to begin a co-op in January at a television news station in Boston. Details of Njoroge's death and where he was found have not been released. Dallas police are searching for a woman who went missing this week, and new evidence suggests she may be in danger, investigators say. Police said 34-year-old Marisol Espinosa was last seen at Dec. 29 at about 8 a.m. outside her home in the 7700 block of Aurora Street. Espinosa's vehicle was found Jan. 1 near her home, abandoned behind the Las Lomas Apartments on Trail Glen Drive, investigators said. An investigation of the vehicle revealed evidence suggesting she was in danger, police announced early Saturday morning. In a press conference DPD held Tuesday afternoon, they said they have been searching for Espinosa on horse mounted patrols, using K9 units, by foot and helicopter. They also said they are currently interviewing witnesses. [[36430235,C]] Espinosa is described as 5 feet 5 inches tall and 125 pounds with black hair and brown eyes. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Dallas Police Department Missing Persons Unit at 214-671-4268. Espinosa's family and friends held a candlelight vigil Tuesday at the location where she was last seen. "Her kids are on my mind right now," relative Elias Trujillo said. "They need their mom." NBC 5's Holley Ford and Jeff Smith contributed to this report. Hong Kong pro-democracy lawmakers said Sunday that they will press the government for answers after a fifth employee of a publisher specializing in books critical of mainland China's leadership went missing. Lawmaker Albert Ho said the city was "shocked and appalled" by the disappearance of Lee Bo. Like the four others who have disappeared in recent months, Lee is associated with publisher Mighty Current. While there's been no official confirmation on the status of the five missing people, Ho told reporters that it appears their disappearances are linked to the publisher's books. "From the available information surrounding the disappearance of Mr. Lee Bo and his partners earlier, we have strong reason to believe that Mr. Lee Bo was probably kidnapped and then smuggled back to the mainland for political investigation," Ho said. It's not uncommon in mainland China for company executives and dissidents to be detained for lengthy periods by the authorities or vanish without anyone claiming responsibility, but the disappearances are unprecedented in Hong Kong and have shocked the city's publishing industry. A few dozen protesters marched to Beijing's Liaison Office on Sunday to demand information about Lee, Mighty Current's chief editor. Lee, 65, is also one of the company's major shareholders, the South China Morning Post reported. The company's co-owner, Gui Minhai, is also among those missing, as are three other staff members. Mighty Current and its Causeway Bay Bookstore are known for gossipy titles about Chinese political scandals and other sensitive issues popular with visiting tourists from the mainland. Books by Mighty Current are banned on the mainland but available in Hong Kong, which enjoys freedom of the press and other civil liberties unseen on the mainland because of its status as a specially administered region of China. However, the disappearances highlight growing concern that Beijing is moving to tighten its grip on the former British colony as President Xi Jinping moves to clamp down on dissent. Hong Kong Acting Secretary for Security John Lee told reporters that police were "actively" investigating the case and would widen the scope of their probe. The Hong Kong-Macau Affairs Office, which is under China's State Council, could not be reached Sunday for comment. Lee went missing Wednesday evening and was last seen leaving his company's warehouse, according to local media reports. His wife told the Cable TV news channel in a report broadcast Saturday that she received a phone call from him the night he disappeared. She said he told her then that he was "assisting an investigation" and alluded to the earlier disappearances, but was not more specific. The number indicated the call came from Shenzhen, the mainland Chinese city next door to Hong Kong, the report said. As the Mississippi River and its tributaries began receding from historic levels that flooded towns, forced evacuations and killed two dozen people, residents in the St. Louis area were facing a massive cleanup and recovery effort that will likely last weeks. The flood, fueled by more than 10 inches of rain over a three-day period that began last weekend, is blamed for 24 deaths in Illinois and Missouri. Saturday, President Barack Obama signed an emergency declaration for Missouri and ordered federal aid for the region, the White House said in a statement. The declaration allows the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Department of Homeland Security to coordinate relief efforts. Most of emergency personnel, including the National Guard, were involved in debris removal as thousands of homes and hundreds of businesses had taken in rubble from the floodwaters, Gov. Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon said early Saturday. It's been like a long-delayed New Year's resolution for Republicans. But 2016 will finally be the year when they put legislation on President Barack Obama's desk repealing his health care law. The bill undoing the president's prized overhaul will be the first order of business when the House reconvenes this coming week, marking a sharply partisan start on Capitol Hill to a congressional year in which legislating may take a back seat to politics. There are few areas of potential compromise between Obama and the GOP majority in the House and Senate in this election year, but plenty of opportunities for political haymaking during the presidential campaign season. Obama will veto the health law repeal bill, which also would cut money for Planned Parenthood. The measure already has passed the Senate under special rules protecting it from Democratic obstruction. But that's the point for Republicans, who intend to schedule a veto override vote for Jan. 22, when anti-abortion activists hold their annual march in Washington to mark the anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in 1973 that legalized abortion. Despite dozens of past votes to repeal the health law in full or in part, Republicans never before have succeeded in sending a full repeal bill to the White House. They insist that doing so will fulfill promises to their constituents while highlighting the clear choice facing voters in the November presidential election. Every Republican candidate has pledged to undo the health law. The Democrats running for president would keep it in place. "You're going to see us put a bill on the president's desk going after Obamacare and Planned Parenthood so we'll finally get a bill on his desk to veto," House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., told conservative talk host Bill Bennett over the holidays. "Then you're going to see the House Republican Conference, working with our senators, coming out with a bold agenda that we're going to lay out for the country, to say how we would do things very differently," Ryan said. In the Senate, which reconvenes Jan. 11, a week later than the House, early action will include a vote on a proposal by Sen. Rand Paul, the Kentucky Republican who is running for president, for an "audit" of the Federal Reserve. Democrats are likely to block it. But, like the health repeal bill in the House, the vote will answer conservative demands in an election year. Also expected early in the Senate's year is legislation dealing with Syrian refugees, following House passage of a bill clamping down on the refugee program. Conservatives were angry when the year ended without the bill advancing. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky promised a vote, though without specifying whether it would be the House bill or something else. The House Benghazi committee will continue its investigation of the attacks that killed four Americans in Libya in 2012, with an interview of former CIA Director David Petraeus on Jan. 6. That comes amid new Democratic accusations of political motives aimed at Hillary Clinton after the committee chairman, Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., endorsed Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. for president. Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, was secretary of state at the time of the Benghazi attacks. The bold agenda promised by Ryan after succeeding former Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, as speaker last fall will begin to take shape at a House-Senate GOP retreat this month in Baltimore. Thus far Ryan has pledged efforts to overhaul the tax system and offer a Republican alternative to the health overhaul. In the Senate, McConnell's primary focus is protecting the handful of vulnerable Republican senators whose seats are at risk as Democrats fight to regain the Senate majority they lost a year ago. That means weighing the political risks and benefits of every potential vote to endangered incumbents in Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire. That could determine whether McConnell allows criminal justice overhaul legislation the one issue cited by Obama and lawmakers of both parties as ripe for compromise to come to the floor. McConnell already has suggested that prospects for approval of Obama's long-sought Asia trade pact are dim, and the senator has ruled out major tax overhaul legislation as long as Obama is president. McConnell could try to put his thumb on the scales of the presidential race with two GOP senators having emerged as leading contenders. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas has been a thorn in McConnell's side, once calling the GOP leader a liar, and has frosty relations with his fellow senators. Rubio is on good terms with fellow lawmakers and has been endorsed by several of them. McConnell could schedule debate on an issue with the potential to favor Rubio politically over Cruz, such as National Security Agency wiretapping authority. But McConnell insists he is staying out of it. "We all have a big stake in having a nominee for president who can win, and that means carrying purple states, and I'm sure pulling for a nominee who can do that," McConnell told The Associated Press, refusing to elaborate on who might fit that description. Tehran, Iran, January 3 By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend: There is no doubt that Divine vengeance will afflict Saudi politicians, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said, condemning the Saudi execution of prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr. The world should feel responsible against this crime and similar Saudi atrocities in Yemen and Bahrain, Khamenei stressed, IRNA news agency reported January 3. Denouncing Nimr's death sentence, the Leader said the Shia cleric had neither called for armed rebellion nor tried covert sedition against the Saudi regime, but publically criticized it. The night before, protesters stormed the Saudi Embassy in Tehran and torched it. The Islamic Revolution Guardian Corps also said Riyadh will pay for its act, calling it a blatant violation of the freedom of expression. The statement published on IRGC's official website said the execution will be a prologue to the House of Saud's downfall and the behavior is very similar to the atrocities of the Islamic State (aka IS, ISIS, ISIL and Daesh). Iran's police said it arrested 40 who had broken into the embassy. Following the attack, Riyadh ordered Iran's ambassador to leave Saudi Arabia in 24 hours. Saudi Arabia said on Sunday it had severed ties with Iran over the storming of the Saudi embassy in Tehran, in a worsening diplomatic crisis between the regional rivals following the kingdom's execution of a prominent Shi'ite cleric. Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said at a news conference Iran's diplomatic mission and related entities in Saudi Arabia had been given 48 hours to leave, Reuters reported. According to the semi-official Fars news agency, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said "Saudi Arabia cannot cover up [the] mistake of executing a religious figure by announcing a cutting of diplomatic ties." The Foreign Ministry summoned Iran's ambassador and delivered a "strong protest note" objecting to Tehran's failure "to provide the necessary protection for foreign missions according to international relevant agreements and laws," according to the Saudi Press Agency, which added that the kindgo had lodged formal protests with several international bodies, including the U.N. Security Council. A man was arrested after he allegedly threatened to blow up a Delaware pharmacy if he wasnt given prescription drugs. Police say Curtis Kuhn, 26, of Lewes, Delaware entered the Walgreens on West Birdie Lane in Magnolia around 9:30 a.m. Saturday. Kuhn allegedly approached the pharmacist at the counter and placed a note demanding Percocet and Xanax in a bag. Kuhn told the employee he had explosives strapped to him and threatened to blow up the store if he didnt receive the drugs. Kuhn also allegedly claimed he was being forced to steal the drugs by other people who were parked in a car outside the business. Delaware State Troopers quickly responded to the store and placed Kuhn in custody without incident, investigators said. Responding officials determined he didnt have any explosives strapped to him and no car that he described was in the parking lot. The woman and another employee who were inside at the time werent hurt during the incident. Kuhn was charged with attempted robbery, terroristic threatening and attempted theft of a controlled substance. He was arraigned and committed to the James T. Vaughn Correctional Center. Officials are investigating after a hoverboard caught fire in a South Jersey home, authorities said. Kim Whalen told NBC10 she was charging a hoverboard she had bought for her 11-year-old son Craig Alterisio inside their Lacey Township home when it suddenly ignited in their living room. "It sounded like an actual bomb went off," Whalen said. Whalen's older son put out the flames with a fire extinguisher, but not before the blast and flying debris burned their carpet and part of their kitchen floor. "I saw pieces flying everywhere and it was just on fire and these huge flames," said Alterisio. "I was really scared." Fortunately no one was hurt during the incident. "If my son was on top of that board at the time I don't even want to think about what could have happened," Whalen said. Lanoka Harbor Fire Station 61 responded to the fire and published two photos on Facebook showing the charred hoverboard and surrounding carpet. FYI Be careful when charging up Hover boards, we responded to call today due to a hoverboard catching fire. Do not leave... Posted by Lanoka Harbor Fire Station 61 on Sunday, December 27, 2015 (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); "It appears an explosion occurred somewhere in the area of the batteries that were on charge to the unit," said Assistant Ocean County Fire Marshal Ed Hazelton. Hoverboards are motorized, two-wheel, skateboard-sized scooters that users stand on. They have been a hot gift item at some retailers though several reports have been made nationwide of the devices exploding. Federal authorities are investigating. The three largest U.S. airlines banned them because of potential fire danger from the lithium-ion batteries that power the devices. "If we have the booklet, the user manual here, there's a warranty card and other information but nowhere does it tell you an address or the manufacturer of this product and that should raise some concerns immediately," said Ocean County Fire Marshal Daniel Mulligan. After Sunday's incident, Whalen wants to warn other parents who bought the popular device. "I would advise any parents who have one of these to send it back to the company because it can happen," she said. Experts urge people to charge the boards in dry, open areas, preferably outside and only when they can be closely watched. A 16-year-old Maryland girl missing since Dec. 21 has been found and is safe, authorities say. Nija Williams, of Hanover, Maryland, was located with her dog at an address in Howard County at about 6:30 p.m. Saturday. Police had said Williams was in the company of an older man. Police did not release any further information, but said the case is still "very active" and the investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information on Williams or the man shown in the image is asked to call the Anne Arundel County Police Tip Line at 410-222-4700. IF A LINK TO AN NCCPR DOCUMENT IS BROKEN ... Due to a change in our web hosting arrangements, we had to move a lot of the documents on our website, www.nccpr.org As a result, links to those documents in older Blog posts often won't work. When that happens, you can go to www.nccpr.org and do a search, or contact us at info(at)nccpr(dot)info and we'll send you the new link. We apologize for the inconvenience. State Police in Vermont said two are under arrest after swiping two pairs of Uggs brand boots from a shoe store in Rutland Town, Vermont. Police said surveillance footage showed Candace Alberti, 33, of Rutland City, walking out of the store with two pairs of boots, then getting into a car with Paul Voight, 47, of Brandon, who sped away from the scene. [[224999941, c]] Owner Gregory Fineberg told police he tried to stop the vehicle and was clipped by the mirror as the two drove out of the parking lot. He was not seriously injured. The store posted several still photos from the footage on its Facebook page late last month, and police said they received multiple tips about the incident, leading to Sundays arrests. Voight has been cited to appear in Rutland Superior Court on Feb. 22 for retail theft. Alberti was cited to appear Feb. 29 for retail theft. The boots were not yet recovered. Police said they continue to investigate and that more charges may be pending. The Coast Guard is considering nationwide policy changes as a result of a boat rescue that went wrong in Massachusetts. First Coast Guard District spokeswoman Karen Kutkiewicz tells The Boston Globe the changes could include new protocols to make sure sinking vessels receive reliable pumps and new methods to deliver lifesaving items from helicopters without endangering personnel. The considerations were spurred by a recent case in Cape Ann. A fishing crew bound for Gloucester requested a tow from the Coast Guard during bad sea conditions Dec. 3. The men say they abandoned the boat and swam to safety after it took on water and there were issues with the Coast Guard's equipment. One crew member died. The Coast Guard is reviewing its policies as part of an internal investigation. Police arrested a Connecticut man after finding a cache of weapons, including samurai swords and a stun gun, in his car near Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts. Around 11 a.m. on New Year's Day, as tens of thousands of people celebrated before the Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens clashed in the Winter Classic, police were at the stadium's employee lot. They say they found 48-year-old Matthew Bronson with an arsenal including samurai swords, a stun gun, a sling shot and even a meat cleaver. Bromson, 48, of North Granby, was charged with three counts of assault with a dangerous weapon, possession of an electric stun gun, trespassing and disorderly conduct. Police believe Bronson was drunk when they arrested him. The night before, he was kicked out of the America's Best Hotel across the street from the lot. According to police, he had been living out of his car. In September 2014, Bromson was arrested after an eight-hour standoff with police. He was charged with threatening, harassment, breach of peace and interfering with a police officer. Police said the incident on New Year's Day was isolated, and there was no threat to the public attending the Winter Classic hockey game between the Montreal Canadiens and Boston Bruins at Gillette Stadium on Jan. 1. Bromson is being held and will be arraigned in Wrentham District Court Jan. 4. Tehran's Prosecutor General, Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, said on Sunday that the police have arrested 40 protestors who raided the Saudi embassy in Tehran on Saturday night, Xinhua reported. The judiciary has issued order to identify and arrest others who raided the embassy, Jafari Dolatabadi was quoted as saying. Iranian protesters against the execution of a Shiite leader by Saudi Arabia raided and set fire to the Saudi Embassy in Tehran late Saturday. The move came hours after the Saudi Interior Ministry announced that prominent Shiite leader Nimr al-Nimr and 46 other men were executed on terror charges. In an announcement on Saturday, Iran's Foreign Ministry urged the police to protect the diplomatic compounds of Saudi Arabia in the country. Earlier in the day, Iran's Foreign Ministry summoned Saudi Arabian charge d'affaires to Tehran and strongly condemned the execution of Nimr al-Nimr. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders made his way through Massachusetts Saturday. Sanders held a rally at a high school in Worcester. Before that, he visited UMass Amherst. In Worcester, people lined up to hear the U.S. senator from Vermont speak. They say they are voting for him because he cares about their goals. Also Saturday, it was revealed that Sanders raised more than $33 million during the past three months - just shy of the $37 million brought in by Hillary Clinton during the same period. When checking around for whats been happening with Microsoft, it seems like the company is following its normal pattern of gaining ground and then shooting itself in the foot. Here are a few examples: At the end of 2015, Microsoft announced that it will start notifying users if the company believes your account has been targeted or compromised by an individual or group working on behalf of a nation state. Scott Charney, Microsofts Corporate VP of Trustworthy Computing, added: Were taking this additional step of specifically letting you know if we have evidence that the attacker may be state-sponsored because it is likely that the attack could be more sophisticated or more sustained than attacks from cybercriminals and others. Dont expect details about the state-sponsored attackers if you receive notification as the evidence may be sensitive. If you have been targeted, Microsoft urges you to turn on two-step verification, to use and keeping changing strong passwords, to watch for suspicious activity on your Microsoft account Recent Activity page, to watch out for spear-phishing and to not open emails or attachments from suspicious senders, to be cautious about downloading apps or files from websites, and to keep your software up-to-date. While its great that Microsoft finally joined the cool kids table with Google, Twitter, Yahoo, and Facebook and will now warn you if it detects that you are a state-sponsored attackers target, Microsoft made the announcement as Reuters reported that Microsoft knew victims were targets of a Chinese email hack and chose not to warn them. Reuters report read: Chinese authorities had hacked into more than a thousand Hotmail email accounts, targeting international leaders of Chinas Tibetan and Uighur minorities in particular but it decided not to tell the victims, allowing the hackers to continue their campaign, according to former employees of the company. Naturally Microsoft did not say it was afraid of warning victims and then becoming a target of Chinese hackers; instead, it admitted that most of the attacks came from China but that neither it nor the U.S. government could identify the country of origin for all the attacks. But now, Charney said of Microsofts stance: As the threat landscape has evolved our approach has too, and we'll now go beyond notification and guidance to specify if we reasonably believe the attacker is state-sponsored. Speaking of threatsWindows 7 is apparently a threat to Microsoft. Microsoft says use Windows 7 at your own peril If you still use Windows 7, then do so at your own risk, at your own peril, Microsoft Marketing Chief Chris Capossela said on Windows Weekly. He said Microsoft is pushing its software and hardware partners to build great new stuff that takes advantage of Windows 10 that obviously makes the old stuff really bad and not to mention viruses and security problems. Nearly 29 minutes into Windows Weekly, Capossela said it is so incredibly important to try to end the fragmentation of the Windows install base. So we think every machine that is capable of running Windows 10 we should be doing everything we possibly can to get people to move to Windows 10. You have a choice as to whether or not to run Windows 10, a better, safer operating system, but in other words, expect to be nagged and pushed onto Windows 10. Microsoft calls it getting users to a safer place. Instead of running an operating system that is 10 years old, using newer computers with the newest OS means future hardware like printers will work; he even plugged Fallout 4 as it wont work on older machines. Capossela admitted that Microsoft is trying to find the right balance, but the company plans to push users to its newest OS. He stated, We are going to try to find that right balance, but we just know theres a lot of people out there who constantly kick the can down the street without a little bit more of a, frankly, a push. Microsoft doesnt want that push to anger anybody, but the company does feel a responsibility to get people to a much better place, and Windows 10 is a much better place than Windows 7. He added, We will always give you a way out, but were trying to find the right threat balance. Rubbish and deliberate misinformation are how Forbes Gordon Kelly summed up Caposselas statements. Nagging pop-ups, cutting opt-out options and spreading groundless fear for the average user is really no choice at all. Bing reaches almost 21% of desktop market share Bing has finally stopped being Microsofts black hole sucking in the companys money and is gaining ground, according to comScores latest U.S. desktop search market share report. Bing is at nearly 21% (20.9%) market share, which might be accredited to Windows 10 since Microsoft receives 20% of its search revenue from Windows 10 devices. Chinese version of Bing went into censorship mode Yet Charles Liu reported that on New Years Day Bing went into full-on censorship mode in China, providing skewed search results such as the top Bing hit for Wikipedia leading to an article bashing the Internet staple; the top search results for BBC, The New York Times and CNN were not the sites but articles bashing the sites. Even the top Bing search result for USA led to China Dailys About Us page. The censorship poofed on Jan. 2, but The Nanfang staff are keeping an eye out for more Bing-sponsored censorship. Happy New Year! Update 1/5/16 update, but no shocker: Microsoft contacted me to say it disputes the Reuters report from former employees. Microsoft added that it made the case to Reuters that it should not use anonymous former employee sources for this confirmation when they have Microsoft making an on the record comment to the contrary, and that notifying customers of suspicious activity is not the same as not warning. The company wants to following statement to go on record: Thank you for visiting us! But, the requested page is currently unavailable. Kindly start browsing from our Home Page Tehran, Iran, January 3 By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend: Saudi Arabia's execution of Shia Cleric Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr is un-Islamic, anti-humanistic, and in line with sectarian policies and will contribute to terrorism and extremism, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said in a message. Expressing deep sorrow over Nimr's death, Rouhani said the execution will further defame Saudi Arabia among Muslim nations, the president's official website wrote January 3. Nimr was a Shia cleric and critic of the Saudi government. On January 2 Riyadh executed a death sentenced for him. Iran had long warned against the execution. Following the execution, protestors stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran and set it ablaze. Protestors also attacked Saudi consulate in Mashhad, major city in northeastern Iran. Rouhani also condemned the protestors' act as being disgraceful for the Islamic Republic of Iran. He required related bodies to take legal action against the protestors. The latest developments after Saudi Arabia executes a prominent opposition Shiite cleric convicted of terrorism charges, sparking anger in Iran and among Shiites across the region, AP reported. Witnesses say some 400 protesters have gathered at the Saudi Embassy in Tehran after it was stormed overnight. Authorities had told demonstrators not to protest in front of the embassy and instead gather at a square in central Tehran. The 400 protesters apparently disregarded that, shouting: "Death to Al-Saud!" Meanwhile, the road the embassy sits on in northern Tehran saw a new street sign come up in recent hours. Instead of saying "Boustan" or "park" in Farsi, it now reads "Sheikh Nimr St." in honor of the Shiite cleric that Saudi Arabia executed on Saturday. Tehran authorities could not be immediately reached for comment about the apparent name change for the street. Saudi Arabia executed Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr on Saturday along with 46 others convicted on terror charges, including three other Shiite dissidents and a number of al-Qaida militants. Al-Nimr was an outspoken critic of Saudi Arabia's Sunni monarchy but denied ever calling for violence. His execution has sparked outrage among Shiites across the region. Tehran, Iran, January 3 By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend: The Islamic Republic's Guardian Council in a new ruling stated that the employment of sessional teachers is against the law. The Public Relations office of the legal body said their employment would violate Article 73 of the Constitution, Fars news agency reported January 3. This deflates the hopes of thousands of sessional teachers who have gone many years with failed efforts at employment. The ruling came as the Parliament two weeks ago referred to the Guardian Council a bill on the employment of sessional teachers with over three years of service in the Education Ministry. The council was required to provide its interpretation of the constitution vis-a-vis this bill. On March 1, groups of teachers went on strike in reaction to low budget assigned for the Education Ministry's then next fiscal year (which started March 21). Strikes were reported from Razavi Khorasan, Luristan, Hormozgan, Kurdistan, Khuzestan, Fars and Qazvin provinces. Iranian teachers complain they are underpaid compared to their counterparts in many other countries. The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs has handed Iranian Ambassador Mohammad Reza Fayyaz a note of protest following attacks on Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran, Sputnik reported Sunday. On Saturday, demonstrators protesting in Iran against the execution of prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr by Riyadh attacked the Saudi embassy in capital Tehran and the consulate in the city of Mashhad. "These actions are in violation of international laws and norms," the note said, as quoted by the Khaleej Times newspaper. According to the document, "Iran's interference undermines attempts to build a relationship of trust between Iran and other countries of the region." Arab League's Secretary General Nabil Araby also condemned the attacks in a statement released earlier on Sunday. On Saturday, the Saudi Interior Ministry announced the execution of al-Nimr, an outspoken critic of the Saudi monarchy, along with 46 other people convicted of terrorism. Later on Saturday, Tehran, as well as some other regional and international powers, condemned the move. Order of the Elephant The Order of the Elephant (Danish: Elefantordenen) is the highest order of Denmark. It has origins in the 15th century, but has officially existed since 1693, and since the establishment of constitutional monarchy in 1849, is now almost exclusively bestowed on royalty and heads of state. The Danish monarch is the head of the order. The order is worn by members of the royal family, and may also be bestowed on foreign heads of state. In very exceptional circumstances the order may also be bestowed on a commoner Saudi Arabia has announced severing of diplomatic relations with Iran following Tehran's objection to execution of prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, Press TV reported. Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir made the announcement in a Sunday address aired by al-Arabiya News Channel, adding that Iran's diplomatic mission and related entities had 48 hours to leave the country. The move followed demonstrations held in front of the Saudi embassy in Tehran and its consulate in the northeastern city of Mashhad by angry protesters, censuring the Al Saud family for the killing of the top cleric as part of a crackdown on Shias mostly residing in the kingdom's Eastern Province. Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Amir-Abdollahian was the first Iranian official to react to the severance, stressing that Riyadh "cannot cover" up its "big mistake" by cutting ties with Tehran. He noted that no Saudi diplomats were harmed during the protests held in Tehran and Mashhad and that "Iran is one of the safest countries in the region" where diplomats are carrying out their responsibilities. Amir-Abdollahian (pictured above) asserted that this is not the first time Saudi Arabia has threatened regional security with its "strategic errors" and "hasty approaches." By plotting to reduce the price of crude oil, Saudi Arabia is harming its own people and the people of other Muslim countries in the region, he added. Amir-Abdollahian also noted that during Iran's talks with the P5+1 group of countries over Tehran's nuclear program, Saudi Arabia played a destructive role. Execution of the Shia cleric along with 46 others has drawn condemnation from governments and human rights groups from all over the world. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was among those who strongly denounced the move, yet arguing that the Iranian nation would not allow the execution to be used as a pretext by "radical" groups as a means to resort to "illegal" measures. Police forces were deployed to the scene of demonstrations in Tehran and Mashhad on Saturday and dozens of arrests were made. Muslims and human rights activists have joined forces all over the world to protest Nimr's killing. Sheikh Nimr, a critic of the Riyadh regime, was shot by Saudi police and arrested in 2012 in Qatif, which was the scene of peaceful anti-regime demonstrations at the time. He was charged with instigating unrest and undermining the kingdom's security, making anti-government speeches and defending political prisoners. He had rejected all the charges as baseless In 2014, a Saudi court sentenced Nimr to death, provoking widespread global condemnations. The sentence was upheld last March by the appeal court of Saudi Arabia. According to the Saudi foreign minister, the country's diplomatic mission in Iran had left for Dubai. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia's allies, the (Persian) Gulf Cooperation Council ([P]GCC) and the Arab League, have expressed support for Riyadh. Before Jubeir's announcement, a Saudi spokesman said the incidents had been reported to the UN Security council. Waseca County unveils bus service SMART Transit will come to NR Wednesday and for scheduled rides By JIM LUTGENS Editor/Publisher History will be made Saturday, Jan. 2 as Waseca County introduces public transportion. Southern Minnesota Area Rural Transit announced earlier this year it would expand services currently provided in Steele, Freeborn and Mower County to Waseca County as part of a Minnesota Department of Transportation initiative that aims to improve access and service in greater Minnesota. The Waseca County Demand Response Bus/Van will operate from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, with local service in New Richland on Wednesdays from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and in Janesville on Mondays from 10:30-12:30. Demand Response is a county-wide service where people can schedule rides. Cost is $2.50 for county-wide trips and $2 for in-town service. To schedule your ride, call 1-855-762-7821. The City of Waseca Demand Response Bus will run from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday and 8 a.m. to noon Sunday, at a cost of $2 per ride or $.50 per ride with an unlimited route bus pass. The Demand Response service begins Saturday, Jan. 2. The City of Waseca Bus Route will operate from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, with a one-hour loop around the town including hourly stops at Real Life, Northbridge, 17th Ave., Colony Court, Walmart, Summit on Second, Hy-Vee, Waseca Medical Center, thrift store, Maple Terrace and Senior Center/Transit Office. Just hop on at the bus stop nearest to you. No reservation required. Route bus will also deviate for pickups and drop-offs up to three blocks. Cost is $1.50 per ride. Wasecas bus route starts Monday, Jan. 4. Waseca has been one of the states only counties without public transportation. To learn more, call 1-855-762-7821. Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Columnist Tom Kacich is a columnist and the author of Tom's Mailbag at The News-Gazette. His column appears Sundays. His email is tkacich@news-gazette.com, and you can follow him on Twitter (@tkacich). A gas cylinder explosion in a passenger bus killed at least 13 people and wounded six others in northwestern Pakistan on Sunday (Jan. 3), police told AFP news agency. The bus, which was part of a wedding convoy, careered off the road and plunged into a ravine, triggering an explosion in a compressed natural gas (CNG) cylinder fuelling the vehicle in northwestern Karak district. "The explosion killed 13 passengers including five women and five children," senior local police official, Ishtiaq Ahmad, said. He added six passengers were injured. Explosions in CNG fitted private and public transport vehicles are relatively common in Pakistan, often resulting in loss of life. Who is Hasbulla Magomedov and What Is His Rivalry With Bigg Boss 16's Abdu Rozik? Sushmita looks amazing in this beautiful gown. The actress has also expressed her desire to get married next year. BBC Headquarters (Photo : Reuters/Peter Nicholls) An anti-Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) hacking group has claimed responsibility for the recent cyber-attack on BBC's website. New World Hackers sent a message to BBC claiming that it had not planned to take down the website for multiple hours. However, it argued that its tests were necessary and cyber hackers have an important job of fighting online terrorists. Advertisement The hacking group claims it is based in the United States, according to BBC. However, its main goal is to take down ISIS websites and members. It sent the message to BBC technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones about the cyber-attack's goals. He posted the message on Twitter. The hack attack took place on December 31, Thursday. BBC's news website and iPlayer went offline for a couple of hours. Cellan-Jones described the attack as a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack. This was based on BBC sources. Such cyber-attacks usually target websites by using messages from several systems to flood servers. Then they cannot respond to real Web traffic. New World Hackers claimed it had targeted the BBC to test its server power. The hacking group stated it is made up of 12 people who formed in 2012. A BBC spokeswoman reported that the broadcaster would not provide any comments about New World Hackers' claim of responsibility, according to ABC.net. The hacking group has participated in other hacking activities. They included an online campaign against the Ku Klux Klan white supremacist group, and #OpParis to identify and report ISIS social media accounts following last November's Paris attacks. If you are not interested in watching a horror film or a multi-starrer drama film, you can go for this comedy film 'Ted'. RICHMOND Virginia's strict voter-identification law will go on trial in a federal court in Richmond in February, part of a national strategy by Democrats to remove what they say are barriers to voting by African-American, Latino and poor voters. Although Virginia's Democratic governor, Terry McAuliffe, is sympathetic to the core issue at stake in the lawsuit brought by two activists and the state Democratic Party, the state must defend its voter-ID law. The statute was passed in 2013 and signed into law by McAuliffe's Republican predecessor, Gov. Bob McDonnell. To defend against the lawsuit, Attorney General Mark Herring (D) appointed an independent counsel, Mark F. "Thor" Hearne II, who represented the 2004 reelection campaign of then-President George W. Bush (R). Hearne will face off at the trial against Democratic lawyer Marc Elias, who is general counsel to Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign and has also worked for McAuliffe and Herring in the past. Elias will argue that Virginia's photo ID requirement, which he called "arbitrary and unfair," severely burdens poor and minority voters who are most likely not to have valid ID and, the lawsuit alleges, to favor Democratic candidates. If the lawsuit succeeds, it could give Democrats an edge in November's general election in a swing state that both parties have called crucial to winning the White House. "This lawsuit in Virginia is one of several that we have brought, including in Wisconsin, Ohio and North Carolina, to ensure that every eligible voter has an opportunity to vote and have their vote counted without unreasonable hurdles being put in their way," Elias said. The Republican National Committee has defended efforts by state lawmakers to strengthen voting rules in an effort to prevent mistakes, fraud and confusion. "Voter ID laws protect and ensure the sanctity of the ballot box and the principle that every vote should count. Most people would say that's common sense," RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said in an op-ed on CNN.com. When it was filed in June, the Virginia lawsuit alleged that the state unfairly burdens voters in three ways: by requiring them to show an approved photo ID, asking them to wait in long lines at certain polling stations, and blocking citizens who have been convicted of a felony from voting. In November, U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson agreed to dismiss the part of the lawsuit dealing with felons. Then on Dec. 18, he dismissed the part of the lawsuit that involved long lines at polling places. "There is no plausible contention" that those who waited in the lines "were denied the opportunity to vote," Hudson said in his ruling. "Inconvenience alone does not qualify as a substantial burden on the right to vote." The challenge to Virginia's voter-ID law was allowed to go forward, the judge said, because Democrats "demonstrated sufficient harm, albeit minimal" on that front. Although the long-lines claim was dismissed, the state Department of Elections still agreed to continue its work to reduce the lines as much as possible. In a nine-page consent decree announced Dec. 23, officials said they would make sure that the paper ballots issued when a machine malfunctions are counted the same way. They also promised to give uniform guidance to counties and cities for handling broken machines and long lines and to hire an expert to reduce wait times. The deal was brokered by Elias on behalf of the Democratic plaintiffs in the case, and by Hearne on behalf of state elections officials. But the two lawyers disagree about its significance. Elias called the agreement "a huge first step in guaranteeing that minority voters and all voters will no longer wait hours and hours in line to exercise their right to vote." Hearne said the agreement isn't a win or loss for either side, but rather binds elections officials to continue work they had already started to reduce lines at the polls. Two state Republican lawmakers are criticizing the agreement, saying that Herring's office should have included Republicans in the talks that resulted in the deal. Sen. Mark Obenshain, R-Harrisonburg, who ran for attorney general in 2013 but lost narrowly to Herring, called the negotiations "backroom dealmaking." "It undermines confidence in the notion of free, open and fair elections when changes in the rules are being negotiated without having both political parties at the table," he said. "I'm not reassured by Democrats saying, 'Trust me.' Or by the attorney general saying, 'But we hired a Republican lawyer.' " Sen. Jill Holtzman Vogel, R-Fauquier, said she agreed that the settlement was not transparent and urged McAuliffe's secretary of administration, Nancy Rodrigues, and Elections Commissioner Edgardo Cortes to explain the agreement during a meeting of the Senate Privileges and Elections Committee in the upcoming legislative session. Cortes said he would appear before lawmakers and noted that the Board of Elections, which includes a Republican member, recently approved the deal unanimously. "We generally don't involve lawmakers in the litigation process," Cortes said. Obenshain was instrumental in enacting Virginia's voter-identification laws, which he said are a safeguard against fraud. The National Conference of State Legislators puts Virginia's laws in the category of the nation's strictest: Voters must present a valid photo ID to cast a ballot at the polls. CDA execs sent home Robinson-Regis told Sunday Newsday that the managers were sent on leave, effective December 31, 2015, pending the outcome of an internal audit which is being conducted by Ernst & Young. They include Brent Meade, Divisional Manager, Corporate Services; Hugh Thomas, Divisional Manager, Operations; Peter Campbell, Corporate Communications Specialist; Rudranath Singh, Programme Manager; and Wade Lalsingh, Chief of Security. The minister, who is also the Arouca/Maloney MP, could not say when the audit will be completed. The CEO and five other managers have been sent on leave but I cannot say when it will be completed, she said. We have ordered a comprehensive audit and we are not going to rush them in their work because there are a lot of things to be examined. There are some serious concerns down there. Robinson-Regis, who, only recently, distributed the instruments of appointment to chartered accountant Anthony Pierre to become the new CDA chairman, said the authority is expected to issue a press release on the development some time next week. Hargreaves could not be reached for comment. The decision to sent the managers on leave came weeks after the boards of the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) and the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA), also ordered that forensic audits be carried out at both State entities. At the HDC, managing director Jearlean John and six other senior staff members were sent on three months administrative leave to facilitate the audit. No time frame was given for the executive members at the WASA. John has since sent a pre-action protocol letter to the HDC board asking that it withdraw its order for her to proceed on three months administrative leave. She contends that the board erred in law by sending her on leave. The CDA has several pressing issues before it, including tenure for the Guave Road farmers and the Chaguaramas Hotel and Convention Centre, which had been leased for 30 years but was in need of restoration. You want to play a slot game? Come to book-of-ra-slot.com for a great experience! Students must do better With the re-opening of the new school term tomorrow, Bernard said Garcia should convene a meeting with the principals and school administrators in under- performing public primary and secondary schools, particularly in high risk communities. Apart from encouraging dialogue about the schools requirements and concerns, he said, attempts should be made to provide evidence-based data on students performance at high stakes tests, levels of delinquency among students, teachers regularity and punctuality. Bernard said Garcia should also allow technocrats to suggest and implement innovative management techniques as well as initiatives to enhance teaching skills and parent/community interaction. Together, this will provide a way forward in keeping with the national reform envisaged, he told Sunday Newsday. Bernard, a former independent senator, also said every primary and secondary school must adhere to the Code of Conduct governing primary and secondary schools. All parents must be familiar with this document beginning with the first parent-teacher conference and school orientation session. Each parent must be provided a copy of the document, he said. Bernard called for the establishment of student development centres in each educational district to meet the needs of students on suspension. The curriculum must be crafted to allow for rehabilitation, social and emotional development and compensatory learning, he said. The minister has planned a national consultation on education for early this year to address the school violence and other issues plaguing the sector. Bernard urged Government to embark on an information blitz, early this year, to draw greater awareness about the social ills confronting the country. He suggested that many of the issues affecting citizens could be addressed through small and simple projects that do not drain the public purse. The Peoples National Movement (PNM) was elected on a wave of popular support. That support was fuelled in part by the need for Government to address the common everyday needs and wants of the citizenry, to reduce the daily stress of living and to provide good governance, a better quality of life and social peace, he said. Bernard said State media could be used to address issues relating to parenting skills, buying local, preventative health care, financial literacy and thrift as well as value systems. Initiatives, he said, could be implemented to deal with traffic violations such as indiscriminate and illegal parking and over-loaded and defective vehicles. Suggestions for enhancing quality of life *Get all public servants to perform their duties by encouraging punctuality, regularity, efficiency and active communication with the public . *Greater mobilisation and use of police and traffic wardens at major intersections during peak hours . *Decisive action on property owners that allow overgrown bushes on vacant lots and with owners with vehicle parts - outlets that allow for the breeding of mosquitoes and the possible spread of dengue fever . *Initiate a campaign led by health inspectors to ensure that all public eating places are sanitary and free of rodents and other pests. Roadside food vending should also be monitored and controlled . *Initiate a street-lighting campaign especially in dark and deserted areas . *Provide and make more accessible sanitised public washrooms in the urban centres . *Improved accessibility to public spaces for the physically-challenged. Best Carnival in long time The last three Carnivals have really been unpleasant and there was a lot of injustice but this year we are hoping to have the least amount of hiccups as possible, she said. The prolific bandleader, who rose to the helm of the TTCBA on November 26, 2015, following the associations annual general meeting and election of officers, said the organisation has already met having met on several occasions with chairman of the National Carnival Commission (NCC) Kenny De Silva. He has been talking to us since the appointment and he has been extremely cordial and receptive. We, in turn, have offered our help to him in any way, she said. She said a meeting has not yet been set to determine a comprehensive action plan for Carnival with all of the stakeholders, including police. Gabriel, who is seeking to claim victory number 20 in childrens mas with her 2016 presentation, Another Day In Paradise (see pages 50/51), noted the association also had worked well with past NCC chairmen Alison Demas and, more recently, Lorraine Pouchet. Demas extended a hand to the TTCBA by listening to us and asking opinions on anything, she said. This continued with Pouchet. She never excluded the TTCBA but was willing to share opinions. She invited us to meetings as stakeholder. Gabriel said the TTCBA was formed in October 2012 largely because of dissatisfaction with the manner in which the National Carnival Bands Association (NCBA) was being run at that time. In 2012, there was an election in the NCBA and a slate called the Concerned Members of the NCBA had contested the election because we felt the organisation was being run in a less than honest manner, she said. Given the atmosphere that existed then in the mas fraternity, we felt we needed an association to properly represent members and foster friendships. Gabriel, who once served as an NCBA board member from 2005 to 2009, said the TTCBA was a legal entity, having registered with the Ministry of Legal Affairs in October 2012. We now have three mas stakeholder bodies in the country - the TTCBA, the NCBA and the National Carnival Development Foundation (NCDF), she said. She claimed the TTCBA had a membership of about 150 bands, comprising junior and senior mas bands and steelbands. Grateful for the support of the NCDF, whom she said has been working hand in hand with the TTCBA, Gabriel told Sunday Newsday: We have been collaborating with them because we have the same problems. We share a commonality to get things changed for the mas fraternity. Currently, Gabriel said her organisation and the Mahindra Satram- Maharaj-led NCDF were in agreement on at least three major issues that have confronted bandleaders: the National Carnival Bands Associations (NCBAs) rules and regulations governing mas; the parade route; and matters of copyright. She said the parade route in Port-of-Spain was a major concern. The issue is whether the junior bands can go straight to the (Queens Park) Savannah if they arent allowed to go on Frederick Street, she said. We are suggesting that the bands parade from South Quay, turn right unto Oxford Street, left on Charlotte Street and into the Savannah. Gabriel said the NCBAs decision in 2014 to move the junior parade route from downtown Port-of-Spain to Adam Smith Square was unfortunate. Several bandleaders, including myself, went downtown and we were all disqualified. But we have always maintained that mas belongs downtown, she said. If nothing was wrong with the route, why did they feel the need to change it? Gabriel is hoping Carnival 2016 will signal a well-deserved turning point for mas across the board. For many years, the NCBA enjoyed exclusive stakeholder status but by us speaking out, it has now led to a level of inclusion that can only augur well for the development of the art form, she said. Coco Austin (Photo : Twitter) 2nd Annual Black, White, (Photo : Laura Cavanaugh) Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic Visits Beijing (Photo : Parker Song) An embarrassing photo of Ivan Zvonimir Cicak, head of the Croatian Helsinki Committee for Human Rights, with his trousers down while presenting an award to Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic became viral in early December. Advertisement The pants of Cicak suddenly fell down at the wrong moment during the photo session, causing the old man's face to turn red. Meme makers will likely link this most embarrassing moment in Cicak's life to newly released alleged photo of the 47-year-old president that is doing the rounds of social media. It's because the blonde beauty on the viral photo is shown wearing a skimpy two-piece bikini which displayed her voluptuous body with the top showing her ample breasts that could put to shame a 20-year-old's chest. Her skin was also flawlessly, while her blond hair was placed in a bun. The photos are particularly much appreciated in Kenya, reports Tuko. Many Kenyan males though she is not a national leader but a socialite. Grabar-Kitarovic, who assumed office in February 2015, was described by Daniel Nnamdi as "smoking hot" in a tweet. Nick Mugisha added he had to confirm, presumably through a Google search, that she is indeed the Croatian president. While Grabar-Kitarovic is really the president of Croatia, the photos circulating on the internet, which also went viral in India, is not of the head of state but that of Coco Austin, wife of rapper Ice-T, explains GMA. The fourth president of the Republic of Croatia is married to Jakov Kitarovic. The couple has two children, a 14-year-old girl and a 12-year-old boy. She, however, have a strong resemblance to Austin, which explains why many Kenyans and Indians believed that Croatia has a very hot president. Dont panic over Swine Flu With this in mind, the panic that is currently surrounding swine flu in the country, is unnecessary. However high-risk persons such as those with respiratory illnesses, chronic congestive heart failure, those whose immune system is compromised, pregnant women, children under five, and persons over 65 years, should be more careful and be vaccinated against the virus. Dr Clive Tilluckdharry, Principal Medical Officer in the Ministry of Health, told Sunday Newsday there has been a rush for the vaccine at health centres, and that the number of people requesting the vaccine has been increasing daily. People are overreacting but you expect that, maybe because of the way the message is being interpreted. However the main intention is for the public to be aware and for them to exercise proper precautions, he said. Although he said everything was under control and there was no need for the public to panic, Tilluckdharry looked favourably on the rush for vaccines. He said it was a good thing that people decided to protect themselves because, although 42 persons had been confirmed with the virus, he was certain that a higher number had actually contracted it. Four deaths have been linked to swine flu, although the deceased had other medical conditions that may have weakened their immune system. He added the Ministry had ordered 20,000 doses of the vaccine from the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO), which was expected to arrive between January 11 and January 18, and that more would be ordered at a later date as the need arises. Remember this virus changes every year. Most influenza vaccines are valid until June/July so if we order a whole lot, its not only that they may expire, but we would want to get the updated vaccine, he said. Gwendolyn Loobie- Snaggs, president of the Trinidad and Tobago Registered Nurses Association agreed with Tilluckdharry, saying that everything was being blown out of proportion. She noted swine flu first appeared in the country in 2009 and many groups were vaccinated, including Health and National Security personnel. Every year after that, the influenza vaccine that the country procures through PAHO, has a component of the H1N1 virus. Its not that a special vaccine is manufactured for H1N1. So once you are given the influenza vaccine, it would help build immunity and offer you a form of protection from H1N1, she said. Seeing that so many people had been vaccinated back then, Loobie- Snaggs said she could not understand why a person would not avail themselves of a vaccine for a virus that had caused deaths. Referring specifically to nursing personnel who refused to take the vaccine, Loobie-Snaggs said it was not for want of education. I cant say why some nurses dont want to take the vaccine. We had it in 2009 so its not something new. Whether they feel they dont need it or are sceptical about the necessity of the vaccine, it impedes the real progress of health in the country, she said. However, she admitted that because so many workers at the hospitals and health centres were now immunised, the chances of the un-immunised contracting the virus was small. Meanwhile, Snaggs suggested the ministry begin a programme that would allow medical personnel to record the strains of influenza with which patients suffer. We do not type patients. When people have the flu they dont even go by the doctor. You lie in your bed for three to four days, take two Panadol and when you start to feel better you go to work, she said. If we had a more robust testing system, that the economy could withstand (because its costly to test), then we would be able to map out the kind of flu viruses that circulate at different times of the year, she continued. Loobie-Snaggs noted incidents of influenza in the country were highest every year between winter in northern countries and Carnival in TT because of the influx of visitors coming with their germs. Therefore, she said the influenza vaccine should be taken annually because the vaccine is continually updated for new strains as influenza continually mutates. She stated the country always had a problem with people not availing themselves of vaccines that were not compulsory, such as the influenza vaccine. Therefore, she said it was important to have more public awareness and outreach programmes to educate the public and make vaccines more readily available US Military Really Didn't Want You to Know What's in New Washington Post Investigation Kim Kardashian (Photo : Facebook) A Northern Michigan University has released its yearly list of about a dozen words and phrases it argues should be banned from everyday use in 2016. Lake Superior State University released its 41st list on December 31, Thursday. Some of the words and phrases that made this year's list include "break the Internet," "presser" (press conference), "walk it back" (take back statement/reverse action) "join the conversation," "price point," "vape" (smoke e-cigarettes), and "stakeholder." Advertisement The university's list is based on nominations that are submitted by the school's financial supporters. Other words and phrases included on the list are "So" (starting a sentence), "giving me life," "problematic," "physicality," and "manspreading" (sitting in multiple seats). Some of the words/phrases are new ones. "Break the Internet" became popular after a November 2015 magazine cover story about Kim Kardashian, according to CNN. This year's list even included "secret sauce," which was nominated by John Beckett of Ann Arbor, Michigan. He questioned whether the phrase is a business metaphor that is based on the fast food industry, according to ABC7 Chicago. One of the most interesting nominations was "So," which also made the list in 1999. This year the complaint is that people overuse the short word in a reply. However, in 1999 the big issue was that the word was used too often as a modifier, meaning "very much." Tom Pink managed the list's creation. He noted that he and his colleagues were surprised that this year's list included few political terms, although they expect more in 2016 due to it being a presidential election year. The university's list of banned words/phrases started on New Year's Day 1976 by the public relations director Bill Rabe. His tradition continued after he left the school in 1987. (Newser) Lyric Esparza spent her first 17 years living in an abusive, drug-addicted family. When she was on the brink of adulthood, her high school principal and her husbandToni and Juan Esparzabrought her into their family. In a Narratively piece titled "What it Feels Like To Be Adopted at 17," Lyric, now a college grad who lives in Seattle, recounts her experiences of transitioning from a dysfunctional environment into a loving, supportive one. Lyric recalls an episode from when she was 7 years old in which a trip to Chuck E. Cheese gets sidetracked. Instead of games and prizes, the day ends with both of her parents being hauled away by the police. "I chased the cop car carrying my mom," she writes. "The car was too fast to keep up with." Some 10 years later, a high school counselor tasked Lyric with examining her life and family. "So I did," she writes. She began to see how dysfunctional her home life was. Why hadn't her parents intervened when she was molested? Why did they buy new TVs when food and clothes were lacking? She also began spending more time with the Esparzas. "Their oddly peaceful demeanor," she writes, "calmed me and fanned a little spark of hope in me that sang, 'One day, Ill fly away.' That day came after Lyric had a blowup with her mom when she was a high school senior. Her mom kicked her out and the Esparzas offered her a home, as their daughter. Five years later, in 2015, Lyric legally became an Esparza. "It took five years for me to realize that these people were serious about being my parents," she writes. "I had found my way home." Read the whole piece here. (Read more Seattle stories.) (Newser) On the night of March 20, 2015, legendary Mexican wrestler Pedro Perro Aguayo Jr. took part in a four-man match in Tijuana that would end his 20-year career and his life. In a sprawling feature in Playboy, Thomas Golianopoulos recounts Aguayo's career and explores the impact his death had on the beloved spectacle of wrestling, or "lucha libre," in Mexico. "Everything was normal," says T.J. "Manik" Perkins, his partner for that last match. "Up until the moment we were both on the ropes." Minutes into the "fairly sedate" contest, Aguayo's neck was broken. Hauled out of the ring on a piece of plywood, Aguayo was rushed to a hospital but doctors were unable to save him. Exactly what caused the "hangman's fracture"taking a dropkick to the face, bumping on the ring apron, hitting the ropescould not be determined. It was, Golianopoulos notes, "a tragedy with more than one victim." Aguayo's mother, Luz Ramirez, for instance, keeps her son's ashes in a mahogany box bearing a tiny gold crucifix. And Oscar "Rey Mysterio" Gutierrez, who wrestled against Aguayo the night he died, received death threats and still could face manslaughter charges in the death of his friend. Aguayo's family, however, has urged fans not to blame Gutierrez, according to Latin Times. Aguayo started wrestling professionally with his fatherlegendary luchador Pedro "Perro" Aguayo Sr.when he was 15. He didn't have to be in the ring for that final match. With a successful clothing line and a construction company, the younger Aguayo was well off, a former wrestler tells Golianopoulos. "He didnt have to wrestle," he says. "He wrestled because he loved it." Read the full Playboy story here. (Read more wrestling stories.) (Newser) Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said Saturday the idea of religious neutrality is not grounded in the country's constitutional traditions and that God has been good to the US exactly because Americans honor him. Scalia was speaking at a Catholic high school in a New Orleans suburb. Scalia is the court's longest serving justice and has consistently been one of the court's more conservative members. He told the audience that there is "no place" in the country's constitutional traditions for the idea that the state must be neutral between religion and its absence. "Where did that come from?" he said. "To be sure, you can't favor one denomination over another but can't favor religion over non-religion?" Scalia also said there is "nothing wrong" with the idea of presidents and others invoking God in speeches. He said God has been good to America because Americans have honored him. "God has been very good to us. That we won the revolution was extraordinary. The Battle of Midway was extraordinary. I think one of the reasons God has been good to us is that we have done him honor. Unlike the other countries of the world that do not even invoke his name we do him honor. In presidential addresses, in Thanksgiving proclamations, and in many other ways," Scalia said. "There is nothing wrong with that and do not let anybody tell you that there is anything wrong with that." (Read more religion stories.) (Newser) Iran's top leader on Sunday warned Saudi Arabia of "divine revenge" over the execution of an opposition Shiite cleric while Riyadh accused Tehran of supporting terrorism, escalating a war of words hours after protesters stormed the Saudi Embassy in Tehran. The execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr on Saturday along with 46 others was the largest mass execution in three and a half decades, and drew condemnation from Shiites across the region. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said al-Nimr "neither invited people to take up arms nor hatched covert plots. The only thing he did was public criticism." Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard said Saudi Arabia's "medieval act of savagery" in executing the cleric would lead to the "downfall" of its monarchy. Saudi Arabia's Foreign Ministry said Iran "revealed its true face represented in support for terrorism," and that "by its defense of terrorist acts" Iran is a "partner in their crimes in the entire region." The Iranian Foreign Ministry summoned the Saudi envoy in Tehran, while the Saudi Foreign Ministry later summoned Iran's envoy. In Tehran, a crowd gathered outside the Saudi Embassy early Sunday, with some throwing stones and Molotov cocktails, setting off a fire. A top police official said police removed the protesters and arrested some, adding that the situation had been "defused." Hours later, a Tehran prosecutor said 40 people had been arrested. Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, called al-Nimr a martyr and said his blood and that of other Shiite protesters "was unjustly and aggressively shed." (Read more Saudi Arabia stories.) (Newser) It's a bit past the time of year for Santa to make a list, but Vladimir Putin is making one of his ownof security threats to Russiaand he's putting "the USA and its allies" on it. The document, called " About the Strategy of National Security of Russian Federation" and released New Year's Eve , replaces a 2009 version that didn't mention the United States or NATO , reports Reuters. "The strengthening of Russia happens against the background of new threats to the national security, which has complex and interrelated nature," it reads, adding that Team USA and Co. " are striving to retain their dominance in global affairs," which puts "political, economical, military, and informational pressure" on Moscow. (Read more Russia stories.) The Young And The Restless (Y&R) Jan. 4 Jan. 8 Spoilers: Will Billy Survive? Noah Makes Shocking Discovery, Sage Learns Disturbing News Plus More Drama (Photo : Facebook/The Young And The Restless/CBS) "The Young and the Restless" (Y&R) features dramatic twists and turns in the week of Jan. 4 - Jan. 8, 2016. The upcoming segment will see Billy struggle to survive, Abby and Stitch start their married life, and Sage's world turns upside down. Meanwhile, Victor makes a new alliance and Noah makes a shocking discovery. Here are spoilers for the next five chapters of "The Young and the Restless" (Y&R). Read on to find out what happens next. Advertisement [Spoiler alert! This article contains spoilers for "The Young and the Restless" (Y&R) episode airing on Jan. 4 - Jan. 8, 2016. Do not read further if you don't want to know more about it.] The upcoming segment sees some major drama revolving around Billy and his accident. According to spoilers by We Love Soaps, the Abbotts rush to the hospital to be by Billy's side. Billy is in a critical position and Jill breaks down. Soap Central notes that Paul begins to investigate Billy's accident. He questions Marisa about the accident and what happened at the time of the tragedy. At the same time, Noah finds out that he is responsible for Billy's accident and that he was the one who hit Billy. Meanwhile, Victor and Marisa are the only people who know the truth about Noah. Victor warns Marisa to keep quiet and asks Noah to cover his tracks and hide the evidence. As for Jill, she finds out that Billy has been abandoned by all the Abbotts and Jack fired him from his job at Jabot. Jill is determined to protect Billy and vows to be by his side in his difficult time. Jill blasts Victor, before Billy goes into cardiac arrest and his health further deteriorates. Will Billy survive? Dr. Neville promises to treat Billy with one of his treatments. However, Dr. Shelby is not convinced and she refuses to take his help. Elsewhere, Dr. Neville tries to help Ashley and realises that Ashley might be more than just a patient to him. Dr. Anderson gives Sage a disturbing news that leaves her unsettled and agitated. Chelsea and Victoria have a candid conversation and enjoy a bonding moment. Adam finds himself in a precarious situation with Chelsea. Elsewhere, Jack makes an important decision regarding Jabot's future. Victor finds a new partner. Adam and Luca collaborate to overthrow Victor and Papa Santori. As for Stitch and Abby, their newly married life faces marital problems. "The Young and the Restless" (Y&R) airs weekdays on CBS. Stay tuned for more spoilers and updates. (Newser) A safari company has upset animal-rights activists by launching a "full lion trophy hunt" rafflemere months after Cecil the lion's killing attracted worldwide attention, Sky News reports. Tickets for the Bubye Valley Conservancy raffle in Zimbabwe cost $1,500 each, with the winner getting the aforementioned 18-day "full lion trophy hunt." The winner can alternately choose a non-hunting "photographic" safari in which a male lion is collared for research, the Telegraph notes. Sky News has a screenshot of the raffle details, which kick off with the line "win a lion!" and specify that only 100 tickets are to be sold. The winnerwho will also be allowed to kill giraffes, zebras, and buffalo for extra fees, the Independent noteswill be announced in Las Vegas on February 5. The Conservancy says its land is overpopulated by lions, but a spokesman for LionAid says the charity is "shocked and appalled." The Conservancy on Monday posted a "clarification" on what it's calling "the proposed fundraising raffle" on Facebook. It describes the "intended raffle [as] the sole initiative of a professional hunter who has dedicated his career to conservation and the better understanding of wildlife" and clarifies that the Conservancy's directors had no involvement. The post goes on to note that lions had been wiped out in the area by cattle ranchers when the Conservancy was established in 1994; the Conservancy "now boasts one of Zimbabwes largest lion populations, with close to 500 lions, at one of the highest densities in Africa." (Last month, 2 lions from a world-famous pride died after eating a poisoned cow carcass.) (Newser) A good number of Americans are opting to forgo health insurance altogether and pay a federal fine rather than buy ObamaCare, the New York Times reports. The reason? Insurance policies may cost more than the fine, deductibles can be high, and these people make too much money to get federal subsidies. "I dont see the logic behind that, and Im just not going to do it," says Texas resident Clint Murphy, who prefers to face an $1,800 fine in 2016 than buy insurance for at least $2,900. "The fine is still going to be cheaper." This despite the rise in fines for uninsured Americans, which started at $95 or 1% in household income in 2014, Lancaster Newspapers reports. This year, it's $695 for each adult or 2.5% of household income. Others choosing to live without insurance say they're keeping as healthy as possible ("I leave my house; I go to work; I go to the pool; I go home," says a Dallas paralegal) or holding out for a full-time job with better insurance options. Despite these cases, the number of uninsured Americans is apparently declining: 2.5 million new customers bought HealthCare.gov insurance in late 2015, a 29% increase during the same period last year. Meanwhile, nonprofit hospitals are raking in money thanks to ObamaCare and the expansion of Medicaid, Forbes reported earlier this month. "Clinical volumes in 2015 were higher than anticipated, primarily reflecting the benefits of increased coverage under [ObamaCare]," says a Fitch Ratings report. (Read more ObamaCare stories.) (Newser) Saudi Arabia is severing diplomatic ties with Iran amid spiking tensions over the execution of a prominent Saudi Shiite cleric. Saudi foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir said late Sunday evening that Iranian diplomatic personnel had 48 hours to leave the country and all Saudi diplomatic personnel in Iran were being recalled home. Demonstrators in Tehran broke into the Saudi Embassy early Sunday morning to protest the execution of Shiekh Nimr al-Nimr, a leader of the country's Shiite minority. Iranian officials harshly condemned the execution, with Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei saying that Saudi Arabia would face "divine revenge." Earlier, the US State Department called on the Iranian government to protect the Saudi Embassy in Tehran and on both Saudi Arabia and Iran to avoid escalating regional Sunni-Shiite tensions. And Hassan Nasralla, leader of Hezbollah, strongly condemned Saudi Arabia for executing al-Nimr. The ultraconservative Sunni kingdom and Shiite powerhouse Iran have waged a bitter struggle for regional power for years. The two countries each back opposing sides in civil wars in Yemen and in Syria. (Read more Saudi Arabia stories.) New Delhi: Veteran Communist Party of India leader A B Bardhan, who steered the party during the turbulent period of coalition politics at national level in the 90s, died at the G B Pant Hospital here tonight after prolonged illness. Bardhan, 92, survived by son Ashok and daughter Alka, will be cremated on Monday. Bardhans cremation will take place on January 4 (Monday), a party statement said. The CPI leader was admitted to G B Pant hospital here after he suffered a paralytic stroke last month. Dr Vinod Puri, Director and Professor of Neurology in G B Pant Hospital, said Bardhan died at 8:20 PM. He suffered a brain stroke due to blockage in the middle cerebral artery. He was in comma. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress President Sonia Gandhi paid rich tributes to the senior-most Left leader, describing him as a passionate communist and a champion of the marginalized people. Will always remember Shri AB Bardhan as a passionate Communist, fully committed to his ideology & principles. May his soul rest in peace(sic), Modi tweeted. Gandhi said, In his demise, not only the CPI but the entire nation has lost a leader who championed the cause of THE dispossessed and marginalized throughout his life. CPI (M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said Bardhans wisdom, experience and guidance will be missed. Red salute, Comrade Bardhan. We miss your wisdom, experience & guidance (sic), he tweeted. BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi described his death as a huge loss to Indian politics. My deep condolences to his family & well wishers, he tweeted. JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav said the CPI stalwart had epitomized the continuous struggle for the cause of the masses and was a tall leader of the Left movement. Recalling his long association with Bardhan, Yadav said he first heard him at a public meeting when he was only 12-year-old and went on to build a long political association with him after joining politics. Bardhan, who lived in the CPI headquarters in the national capital, was admitted to the hospital on December 7 after he felt uneasiness and lost consciousness. His wife, a professor in Nagpur University, had died in 1986. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Indore: RSSs joint general secretary Dattatraya Hosbole said here today that his organisation didnt think that Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a mistake in lunching at the residence of his Pakistan counterpart Nawaz Sharif in Lahore last month. The statement by the senior RSS functionary defending Modis decision to visit the neighbouring country came on a day when Pakistani terrorists attacked IAF base in Pathankot. Hosbole was speaking to reporters at Vishwa Sangh Shivir here. To a question, he said why shouldnt Modi eat with Nawaz Sharif? We dont oppose this. We believe the whole world is one family and its our duty that we behave well (with others). This is Indias religion, this religion should be followed. The National Security Adviser of India is capable of dealing with the issue of terrorism. We have full confidence that that he would deal with the issue in the right way, the RSS leader added. To another question, Hosbole said one has to use various means such as persuasion-purchase-punish- exploitation of division (saam-daam-dand-bhed) as per the circumstances. The then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee undertook bus journey to Lahore but the Kargil war too was fought during his tenure. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: A bomb scare has been reported at Lucknow Shatabdi express. By the latest inputs, the train has been stopped near Ghaziabad and has been evacuated. The train was stopped after Mumbai ATS received a threat mail regarding the bomb plantation inside. Currently, the dog squad has been called-in and search operation is on. Many trains which were scheduled to be en-route from this track has been delayed and halted on New Delhi Railway Station. "We received a message from Delhi police of possible bomb threat on Delhi-Lucknow Shatabdi at around 6.23 am. Train had departed from New Delhi Railway Station on time (6.10 am), therefore the train was stopped and checked at Ghaziabad railway station," A senior Railway official Neeraj Kumar said. "Nothing was found during search,we got clearance at 7:40 am and the train was allowed to leave," he said. DCP (Railways) Dumbere Milind Mahadeo said, We received a call from the railway control room in the morning in which they said that they had received information about a potential bomb threat on a train plying between Delhi and Kanpur. Officials were pressed into service immediately and a search operation was launched across all railway stations in the city in connection with all trains on the said route. Other trains that were halted or delayed for checking were cleared to go, the officer said. After the yesterday's terror attack in Pathankot, the national capital is on high alert. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: An IED exploded during the combing operation at the Air Force base here even as three security personnel injured in the terror attack by Pakistani terrorists succumbed to injuries, taking the death toll of security men killed in the attack to six. While all the four attackers were killed in the day-long gunbattle yesterday, three security men were also killed in the operation. Three more Defence Security Corps personnel succumbed to injuries in hospital at night, Defence Ministry sources said today. Nine other security personnel including a Garud Commando are recuperating in hospital. An Improvised Explosive Device planted by the terrorists exploded during the combing operations that continued through the night after heavily-armed Pakistani terrorists attempted to storm the Air Force base yesterday. A team of NIA took over the probe into the terror attack. The operation is going on at Air Force Station, SHO Sukhjinder Singh told reporters. The NIA has taken over the probe into the terror attack. Some senior officials of Punjab Police led by DGP Suresh Arora were also present at the base. Entire area has been cordoned off and top officers of several agencies are camping in the station premises to oversee the operation which is jointly being conducted by several security wings including NIA, NSG and Garud. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Hours before the audacious terror attack on Pathankot air base a terrorist reportedly calle his mother and said that he is on a suicide mission. As per a report on news website, security personnel intercepted a call to Pakistan, where a terrorist can be heard saying that I am on a suicide mission, Allah will take care of all of us. In less than two hours, shots rang out at the Pathankot air base. The 10-hour gun-battle that followed claimed the lives of three Air Force Personnel. Four terrorists have been killed. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. At the end of this month I am making another mission trip to Uganda. It has been over 2 years since I've been there, so I'm anxious to go! THis year I am going with another friend named Kathryn. I've been trying out different things to teach the ladies to sew. The challenge is always that I never know how many women will be there, how many days each one will be there, and the fact that the treadle machines don't work half the time, if we have them at all! So, I decided that we need a project to make with just hand sewing while they take turns using the sewing machine. On the machines I think we will be making this bag. There are a few things I will change, but it's a pretty simple pattern. I added a pocket on mine, and if I make another one for myself, I will make pockets on the lining. Kathryn is not a sewer, so she will be my guinea pig as to whether this will be a good project to make! I'm not really happy with the way the handle is put together, I didn't do the best job, I've done shoulder straps like this before, and they never look very neat. But for our purposes, I think it will be good enough. The lining has a velcro closure, which is fine. All in all, it's not too bad of a bag. I'm thinking it will be great for carrying around knitting projects, but I will have to exchange that velcro for a snap. Yarn always snags on velcro Mysuru: With focus on indigenous development, the 103rd edition of Indian Science Congress (ISC), the countrys largest science event, naugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi here today. The annual five-day Congress is returning to Karnataka after a 13-year hiatus, with the decked up City of Palaces hosting the event after a gap of 34 years at a time when the University of Mysore is celebrating its Centenary. The Congress, with the focal theme Science and Technology for Indigenous Development in India, will be addressed by over 500 eminent scientists and experts, organisers said. They said the Congress will comprise plenary sessions, Pride of India expo, Hall of Pride, genesis symposium, Vigyan Jyot, vision talks, women and children science congress, young scientists award, ISCA awards, science communicators meet and public lectures. The focal theme of this session, Science and Technology for Indigenous Development in India is very relevant with the present scenario of the country, when our Honourable Prime Minister has rightfully raised the slogan of Make in India. I am sure that the 103rd annual session of the Congress will show endeavour to discuss about the various paths to achieve this goal, Dr Ashok Kumar Saxena, General President of the Indian Science Congress Association has said in his message. According to the organisers, the Congress will attract 15,000 delegates from across the country and abroad from leading research institutes, PSUs, universities and industry. Science exhibition Pride of India Expo, one of the biggest attractions, will showcase over 450 institutions from public and private sectors, displaying cutting edge innovations. Welcoming the delegates and participants to the Congress Prof K S Rangappa Vice-Chancellor University of Mysore in his message has said With nearly 20,000 brilliant brains converging at the 103rd Science Congress, I strongly believe that a roadmap for the indigenous Science and technology will be drawn more specifically to meet the societal expectation of our country. Soon after the inaugural session Bharat Ratna Prof CNR Rao will deliver Bharat Ratna Sir M Vishveshwarya Lecture on Doing Science in India. Nobel laureates including Prof John B Gurdon, Prof David J Gross, Prof Serge Haroche; Fields medalist Prof Manjul Bhargava are expected to attend the Congress. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Johannesburg: This season has been disappointing for Manchester United as they are not performing as they are expected. The win over Swansea City gave a fresh boost up for United after nine winless matches. Midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger has praised on Wayne Rooney for his wonderful performance to claim a 2-1 win over Swansea City in their Premier League clash. Schweinsteiger described the star player goal as unbelievable and said that although the England international unfortunately couldn't score during a goalless draw against Chelsea. The English international flicked Anthony Martial's cross in the 77th minute to end Uniteds misfortune. With his goal against Swansea City, Rooney becomes second highest scorer for United behind Alan Shearer 260. Mysuru: Doing scientific research would be made easier and science administration, too, will be improved in the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told scientists while stressing that their work should be focused on the five-Es of economy, environment, energy, empathy and equity. In his inaugural address at the Indian Science Congress here, he also said that with the spirit of cooperative federalism that is shaping Centre-state relations in every area, he is also for greater scientific collaboration between central and state-level institutions and agencies. Modi asked scientists from India and overseas at the five-day mega science event to bridge the gap between traditional knowledge and modern science so that localised and more sustainable solutions to the challenges could be found. He said the impact of science would be the most when scientists and technologists keep the principles of what he called Five Es at the centre of their enquiry and engineering. Economy related to finding cost-effective and efficient solutions; Environment to keeping the carbon footprint at the lightest and the impact on the ecology the least possible. Energywhen our prosperity relies less on energy and the energy we use keeps our skies blue and our Earth green. Empathywhen our efforts are in tune with our culture, circumstances and social challenges. Equitywhen science advances inclusive development and improves the welfare of the weakest, he said. Modi said good governance was not just about policy and decision making, transparency and accountability but also about integrating science and technology into the choices to be made and the strategies to be pursued. He said he has asked for a framework of scientific audit for scientific departments and institutions in the government. We will also try to increase the level of resources for science and deploy them in accordance with our strategic priorities, he said at the 103rd session of ISC at Manasa Gangotri campus of the University of Mysore that is also celebrating its centenary. We will make it easier to do science and research in India, improve science administration and expand and improve the quality of science education and research in India, he said. Some 500 eminent scientists and experts are attending the Congress with the focal theme, Science and Technology for Indigenous Development in India in tune with Modis big push for Make in India programme. The PM said innovation in approach is not just the obligation of the government, but also the responsibility of the private sector and the academia. In a world of resource constraints and competing claims, we have to be smart in defining our prioritiesespecially in India, where challenges are many and the scale is enormous, from health and hunger to energy and economy, he said. He said a sustainable future for this planet will depend not only on what one does on land, but also on how one treats the oceans. We are at the cusp of a new era, where oceans will become important drivers of our economies. Their sustainable use can bring prosperity and give us clean energy, new medicines and food security beyond just fisheries, said Modi. Noting that the ocean is critical to the future of India with over 1,300 islands, a 7,500-km coastline and 2.4-million sq km of Exclusive Economic Zone, he said the level of the countrys scientific efforts would be raised in marine science. An advanced centre for research in marine biology and biotechnology would be set up and a network of coastal and island research stations in India and abroad will be established, the PM also said. He further added that an International Conference on Ocean economy and Pacific Island Countries would be held in New Delhi this year. Observing that rivers have played as important a role in human history as oceans, he said, Revival of rivers is an essential part of my commitment for a cleaner and healthier future for our society, economic opportunities for our people, and renewal of our heritage. Modi said India has a rich heritage of ecological knowledge and scientific institutions and human resources to mount concerted national action on conservation of nature that is rooted firmly in scientific studies and methods. And, if we wish to restore the harmony between humans and nature, we must also harness the full potential of traditional knowledge. Societies across the world have developed this enormous wealth through wisdom gathered over the ages, he said. He said they hold the secrets to economic, efficient and environment-friendly solutions to many problems. But, today, they were at risk of extinction in the globalised world, he added. Like traditional knowledge, science has also evolved through human experiences and exploration of nature. So, we must recognise that science, as we see it, does not constitute the only form of empirical knowledge about the world, the PM said. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Tumakuru (Karnataka): Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said India should focus on indigenous defence production to become self-reliant in the area of security. If India has to be self-reliant in the area of security according to our armed forces needs, we have to make our own weapons, he said. Laying the foundation stone for a Rs 5,000 crore greenfield helicopter project of HAL at Biderhalla Kaval in the district, Modi said government was encouraging defence manufacturing driven by the countrys scientists and engineers. In his address to a large gathering at the event, Modi said Indian Armed Forces were ready to make any sacrifice for the country and they were second to none. But the time has come now to ensure that the weapons and equipment they carried and used were also the best in the world, he said. Imported weapons were expensive and India spends huge sums of money for the purpose, Modi said. We import weapons from other countries to equip our armed forces. India not only spends crores of rupees but also gets relatively not so latest technology, he said. Modi said before striking a deal for imports, the Indian government, while entering into an agreement, seeks from the seller nations manufacturing part of the weapons in India. On the HAL helicopter project, the Prime Minister said: I have confidence that they (HAL) will produce 600 helicopters in the next 15 years. He said the project is expected to bring in huge investments to Tumakuru district and generate 4000 jobs directly or indirectly. What is being set up here is no ordinary factory and very soon this district is going to come on the world map, Modi told the gathering. According to HAL Chairman and Managing Director Suvarna Raju, the facility gives boost to the countrys aviation capability in the helicopter segment as it will produce three to 10 tonnes class helicopters. Sometimes I wonder why we failed him. He was indeed our great chance to create a place in history, he says. Khurshid says he thought of writing the book because our tenure left a lot unsaid due to the noise made by the Opposition which they must indeed be regretting now. The words that were spoken to undermine us will haunt the government every time they attempt something serious, he says. The book, published by Hay House, took Khurshid about one year to write. Most thoughts were still fresh in the mind so I did not feel the absence of notes. He rues that social harmony is under stress and institutional integrity under question since the NDA came to power. These are worrying signs. The government seems to be shying off stating its clear philosophical positions even as it pretends that it has a mandate for fundamental changes in society. But Delhi and Bihar have shown how wrong they are, he says. According to him, the NDA came to power without real substance to offer and that is how they are continuing as well. Many projects of our time are being show cased as achievements of the NDA without a mention of our government. The government is obviously quite unclear of how to deal with its tall promises. He says parochialism and internationalism can hardly exist together although the prime minister is trying hard. Liberalism is taking a knock in our society and real test will come in the months ahead. The Idea of India was not an artificial construct of the Nehruvian era will be put to test and in the response of the people will be the future of our society as we have known and cherished it. The strategic choice that has to be made by the opponents of majoritarianism will be between uncompromising principles and tolerable accommodation, he says. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Pune: Three Pune students, who were abducted by Maoists in Chhatisgarh, have been reported safe at Chintalnar police camp. They were on bicycle ride when they went missing from Bijapur district of Chhattisgarh. The students were missing from December 30 and were released only after heavy negotiations done by local villagers and Maoists. The students, identified as Adarsh Patil, Bilash Valake and Shrikrishna Shewale, were on a peace ride and were expected to reach Odisha on January 10. According to many published reports, Maoist Papa Rao is an alleged mastermind of the abduction. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Beijing: Chinas Supreme Peoples Court (SPC) said today that 270 court officials have been punished for violating the ruling Communist Partys code of conduct in the past three years. Among those punished, 42 were party chiefs and court presidents, while eight were discipline inspection officials accredited to the courts, the SPC said in a statement. They were either critiqued by the authorities or given sanctions, such as a demerit mark on their records, or dismissed, it said, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. The Communist Party of China (CPC) refers to probes on corruption and abuse of power as disciplinary proceedings. The SPC has made public cases involving 13 court presidents who were held accountable since the 18th National Congress of the CPC in late 2012, the statement said. Thousands of officials were punished in the anti-graft campaign launched by President Xi Jinping since he took power in 2013. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi : A UK-based website set up to chart the last days of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose has released documents relating to the day before his plane crashed in August, 1945. The latest documents on www.bosefiles.info, launched by UK-based independent journalist and Boses grandnephew Ashis Ray, trace his movements on the day before his plane crashed in Taiwan on August 18, 1945. The website citing documents said that on August 17, 1945, Bose departed Bangkok and arrived in Saigon before midday. Several Indian and Japanese witnesses testified this to the 1956 Netaji Inquiry Committee headed by Major General Shah Nawaz Khan, among them S A Ayer and Debnath Das of the Provisional Government of Free India (PGFI) and Colonel Habib ur Rahman of the Indian National Army (INA) both headed by Bose. Maj Gen Bhonsle, INAs chief of staff, who was later interrogated by British military intelligence, concurred that Bose left Bangkok for Saigon on the morning of August 17, 1945. In Saigon, though, in the immediate aftermath of Japans surrender in World War II a couple of days earlier when this countrys military headquarters were in a state of confusion - no plane was straightaway available to carry Bose to North-East Asia, as was the plan. Ultimately, General Isoda of Hikari Kikan, the liaison body between Japanese authorities and the PGFI and INA, conveyed to Bose that only two seats would be available on a plane heading for Tokyo. This meant a majority of his advisers and officers would not be able to accompany him. According to the deposition of Colonel Pritam Singh of the INA to the Inquiry Committee, Bose was advised to accept the offer. He selected his ADC Col Rahman to go with him. Before the flight took off, there was an issue of the aircraft being overloaded. The Committee recorded that Bose discarded a part of his baggage containing books, clothes, etc. Among the Japanese passengers on board was Lt Gen Shidei, a distinguished officer who was on his way to Manchuria in China near the Soviet border to take command of the Japanese forces there. General Shidei was supposed to be an expert on Russian affairs in the Japanese Army and was considered to be a key man for negotiations with Russia. It was suggested that Netaji should accompany him to Manchuria, Negishi, a Japanese interpreter attached to Boses headquarters, told the Shah Nawaz Committee. Therefore, it appears to have been agreed that Bose would go to Dairen, in Manchuria, with Gen Shidei. Lt Col Shiro Nonogaki, an Air Staff Officer of the Japanese Army, who was also one of the passengers, independently corroborated to the Committee: The plane was scheduled to carry General Shidei to Manchuria. Netaji agreed to go with him to Dairen in Manchuria. But because of the delay in departure from Saigon, the pilot decided on an unscheduled halt for the night at Tourane on the Indo-China coast instead of going as previously planned all the way to Taiwan. There were an estimated 13-14 persons on board- Bose and Rahman and the rest of them Japanese. Rahman described to the Committee: Immediately behind the pilot was sitting Netaji, and nobody opposite to him, as the space was restricted by the petrol tanks. I was sitting immediately behind Netaji. The co-pilots seat occupied by Lt Gen Shidei was offered to Netaji, but he did not accept, as it was too small for him. When taking off at Saigon, the plane needed almost the entire length of the runway to get airborne. This suggested it was still overloaded. Therefore, on arrival in Tourane, the crew and other Japanese officers off-loaded no fewer than 12 anti-aircraft machine-guns and ammunition as well as other baggage, the Inquiry Committee noted, which reportedly reduced the weight by 600 kilos. In Tourane, Bose spent the night at a hotel, probably Hotel Morin, the website said citing documents. The remaining future revelations on the site aim to lay the facts behind the plane crash the next day that is believed to have killed Netaji, the website said. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Beijing: China for the first time landed a plane on an artificial island it has built in a contested part of the strategic South China Sea, prompting Vietnam to accuse Beijing of serious infringement of its sovereignty. Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said China conducted a test flight to check whether the newly-built airfield facilities met the standards for civil aviation. A civilian test flight landed on Fiery Cross reef of the South China Sea (SCS) which China calls Yongshu Jiao. There were, however, no details given about when it was conducted. Hua said the test flight was civilian in nature and added that the relevant activity falls completely within Chinas sovereignty dismissing Vietnams protests. China has indisputable sovereignty over the Nansha Islands and their adjacent waters. China will not accept the unfounded accusation from the Vietnamese side, she said, referring to the Spratly Islands by their Chinese name. The South China Sea is rich in natural resources. It is also a major shipping lane. Over half of the worlds commercial shipping passes through the Indo-Pacific waterways including one-third of the worlds liquefied natural gas. China claims almost the whole of the South China Sea, resulting in overlapping claims with several other Asian nations like Vietnam and the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei. They accuse China of illegally reclaiming land in contested areas to create artificial islands with facilities that could potentially be for military use. The Vietnamese foreign ministry said the airfield was built illegally on a part of the Spratly archipelago that lies within its territory. In Hanoi, the foreign ministry said it has handed a protest note to Chinas embassy and asked Beijing not to repeat the action. It described the flight a serious infringement of the sovereignty of Vietnam on the Spratly archipelago. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Saudi Arabia: Irans top leader today warned Saudi Arabia of divine revenge over the execution of an opposition Shiite cleric while Riyadh accused Tehran of supporting terrorism, escalating a war of words hours after protesters stormed the Saudi Embassy in Tehran. Saudi Arabia announced the execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr yesterday along with 46 others, including three other Shiite dissidents and a number of al-Qaeda militants. It was largest mass execution carried out by the kingdom in three and a half decades. Al-Nimr was a central figure in protests by Saudi Arabias Shiite minority until his arrest in 2012, and his execution drew condemnation from Shiites across the region. Irans Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei condemned the execution today in a statement on his website, saying al-Nimr neither invited people to take up arms nor hatched covert plots. The only thing he did was public criticism. Irans powerful Revolutionary Guard said Saudi Arabias medieval act of savagery in executing the cleric would lead to the downfall of the countrys monarchy. Saudi Arabias Foreign Ministry said that by condemning the execution, Iran had revealed its true face represented in support for terrorism. The statement, carried by the official Saudi Press Agency, accused Tehran of blind sectarianism and said that by its defence of terrorist acts Iran is a partner in their crimes in the entire region. Al-Nimr was convicted of terrorism charges but denied ever advocating violence. Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran are locked in a bitter rivalry, and support opposite sides in the wars in Syria and Yemen. Iran accuses Saudi Arabia of supporting terrorism in part because it backs Syrian rebel groups, while Riyadh points to Irans support for the Lebanese Hezbollah and other Shiite militant groups in the region. The Iranian Foreign Ministry has summoned the Saudi envoy in Tehran to protest, while the Saudi Foreign Ministry later said it had summoned Irans envoy to the kingdom to protest Irans criticism of the execution, saying it represented blatant interference in its internal affairs. In Tehran, the crowd gathered outside the Saudi Embassy early today and chanted anti-Saudi slogans. Some protesters threw stones and Molotov cocktails at the embassy, setting off a fire in part of the building, said the countrys top police official, General Hossein Sajedinia, according to the semiofficial Tasnim news agency. He later said police had removed the protesters from the building and arrested some of them, adding that the situation had been defused. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Kathmandu: The top leaders of Nepals three major political parties, including Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli, today met with agitating Madhesi front in a bid to end the current political crisis in the country over the new Constitution. The meeting took place after Indian Ambassador to Nepal Ranjit Rae called on UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Prachanda at latters residence this afternoon. According to Prachandas personal secretariat, he urged the envoy to end blockade as soon as possible. Prachanda said that the border blockade imposed by India for the past few months would hamper the friendly relations between the two countries, Kathmandu Post reported. In return, Ambassador Rae said India is for early solution of crisis Nepal is currently facing. Later, Nepals ruling coalitionCPN-UML and CPN-Maoist, the main opposition Nepali Congress and the agitating United Democratic Madhesi Front (UDMF) held talks at Prime Ministers official residence here. They discussed issues relating to agitation by Madhesis --- largely of Indian-origin, border blockade and Constitution amendment bill tabled in Parliament. The meeting is expected to find a way out of the current political stalemate in the country, sources said. On behalf of the three major parties, Prime Minister Oli, Nepali Congress president Sushil Koirala and Prachanda participated in the meeting. Mahanta Thakur, president of Terai Madhes Democratic Party, Upendra Yadav, president of Madhesi Peoples Rights Forum Nepal and Mahendra Raya, president of Terai Madhes Sadbhawana Party were also present at the meeting. They represent the United Democratic Madhesi Front that has been launching agitation in the southern Nepal districts for the past four months protesting against the new constitution that divides the country into seven federal provinces. Life in the southern Nepal plains have been seriously affected by the protests against the countrys new Constitution that was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on September 20. So far, over 50 people have died during the Madhesi-Tharu agitation launched by the marginalised groups of the country. However, Sadbhawana Party, one of the members of the four party allianes, did not take part in the meeting. Sadbhawana Party president Rajendrra Mahato, who was injured during baton charging by police in Biratnagar last week, is currently undergoing treatment in New Dehli. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. To share with friends and brethren The Gospel of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (the Everlasting Gospel), and to prepare a people to stand when He returns to redeem His remnant. Also, to share relevant information of current events, and to show how they relate to prophecy; By means of articles, editorials, opinions, scripture readings, and poetry. Disclaimer Endrtimes does not necessarily endorse or agree with every opinion expressed in every article/video posted on this site. The information provided here is done so for personal edification; It's up to the reader to separate truth from error, and to examine everything (like the Bereans) from a Biblical perspective. Let the Holy Scriptures be you guide! - - - FAIR USE NOTICE: These pages/videos may contain copyrighted () material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Such material is made available to advance understanding of ecological, POLITICAL, HUMAN RIGHTS, economic, DEMOCRACY, scientific, MORAL, ETHICAL, and SOCIAL JUSTICE ISSUES, etc. It is believed that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior general interest in receiving similar information for research and educational purposes. New Delhi : On one hand where India was battling the shocking attack by terrorists in Pathankot Air Force Base, reports of explosions, gunfire were reported near Indian consulate in Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif. The attack took place on Sunday with an unknown number of gunmen attempting to enter the compound after twin explosions and shots were heard, the spokesman for the local governor said. The news of the attack came at a time when Indian security forces were still trying to suppress an assault on an air base near the border with Pakistan that has killed at least seven military personnel and wounded 20 others. "We are being attacked. Fighting is going on," an Indian consulate official told AFP by telephone from inside the compound. Two of the four attackers have been killed by Afghan special forces. No Indian causalities have been reported. Further details are awaited by Ministry of External Affairs of India. Spokesperson Vikas Swarup told News Nation that all Indians in the consulate are safe. India has a three-member consulate in the northern Balkh district. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. The 18 convicted were previously found guilty for rioting, sabotage, and attempt to storm Kafr El-Shiekh Police Station Egypts Court of Cassation scrapped Saturday five-year prison sentences against 18 supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi and ordered a retrial on violence-related charges. The 18 were previously found guilty of rioting, sabotage and attempting to storm Kafr El-Shiekh Police Station amid violence that swept the nation after the bloody dispersal of two pro-Morsi vigils in Cairo in August 2013. They were arrested after a protest escalated into clashes with locals opposing Morsis rule. Following Morsi's ouster, Egypt's judiciary declared his group, the Muslim Brotherhood, a terrorist organisation. Police have launched a crackdown on his supporters, arresting thousands mainly on protest law violations. Morsi is currently imprisoned on a number of charges, including espionage with Hamas and Qatar. So far he has been sentenced to both death and life in prison. His sentences are currently under appeal. Search Keywords: Short link: This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate NEWTOWN The disbanding of a federally funded trauma team that helps people deal with the Sandy Hook shootings has forced the town to improvise to ensure the recovery care continues. But the towns plan to replace the Recovery and Resiliency Team with four of its own full-time employees is more than a stopgap it is part of a larger process of assuming long-term responsibility for helping Newtowners live with an irreplaceable loss. It is a huge challenge, but we need to accept our reality and find the pathway to the resources we are going to be responsible for providing for decades, First Selectwoman Pat Llodra said. We have to be honest about it and own it and say this is who we are. If Llodra and other leaders have their way, the six-member Recovery and Resiliency Team of counselors and care managers would stay in Newtown for a least another two years, because it has gained the communitys trust that is so integral to trauma recovery work. But from the teams inception in mid-2014, everyone knew the mission would end in March when Department of Justice funds run out, even if Newtowns need for trauma services remains high. There are new people coming forward needing support every day, said Melissa Glaser, a licensed professional counselor who heads the team. But we knew that the Department of Justice had awarded funds for an 18-month term, so everything we have done has been with the knowledge that this team as it exists will be exiting. The danger is the trust between the team and 800 Newtowners who have received services will need to be rebuilt when new town employees take over in March under an expanded social services department. It has the potential to create gaps, however, the town is trying to prevent that, Glaser said during an interview in her office on the towns Fairfield Hills municipal campus. Many of our support programs will be able to continue with the structure we have put in place. The towns plan to add a team of four social workers and specialists to help people navigate the convoluted mental health care system would be financed with a combination of fund transfers and grants. Two grants of $50,000 each have already been secured from Danbury-based Praxair and from the Newtown-Sandy Hook Community Foundation. The grants will offset most of the cost of hiring two employees in March. A larger single grant from the federal Victims of Crime Act will be requested next week and would cover costs of two additional employees for three years, Llodra said. Our goal is to get enough resources in place so that we have sustainable community wellness and mental health, Llodra said. Our core needs are still present and they have not gone away. Building trust The Resiliency and Recovery Team was created with part of a $7 million Justice Department grant Newtown received following the 2012 slaying of 26 children and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School. The idea was for the team to reach out not only to the families of the victims and those in the school that day, but to everyone who was affected by the worst crime scene in Connecticut history. The team was also a clearinghouse about where to get help for post-traumatic stress, a resource for navigating the fragmented mental health system, and a developer of training and support programs for teachers and first responders. The problem is there has been much more than just the tragedy in Sandy Hook to confront. Recovery efforts have been set back by the glare of national media attention, the divisiveness of political debate over gun control and mental health, and by the hostility of conspiracy theorists who deny Sandy Hook happened. There is no short-term solution in trauma and grief work, Glaser said. And this situation is obviously extremely complicated with all the different layers that impact this community. As such, it took months for the team to earn the trust of people whose hurt is beyond repair. Just six months ago they started to make an impact, so that we are starting to see some success, said Llodra, who serves on the teams oversight board with Joseph Erardi, the schools superintendent, and the Rev. Matthew Crebbin, president of the Newtown Interfaith Clergy Association. The R&R team worked hard to establish relationships and develop credibility with people, and to close that effort down and restart it with new people means we are going to have to rebuild those relationships again, Llodra said. Llodra stressed no personal information about anyone who was assisted by the team can be shared without that persons permission. The towns Board of Selectmen began acting before Christmas to prevent the disruption of grief services in March, transferring $40,000 from a contingency account, which, along with $100,000 in grants, will pay for two new employees. At the same time, the additions will improve the Social Services Departments ability to meet more needs in the community. The department currently does not have mental health professionals. We havent had a person with a degree in social work or a professional psychologist or clinical people, newly elected Selectman Herb Rosenthal said during a recent meeting. We have had to purchase those services in the past when we have needed them. Selectman Will Rodgers agreed. I am very excited by this, he said at the December meeting. The towns challenges will be to hire professionals who are certified in trauma work, and to continue funding the recovery effort, Glaser said. Models have been established for town employees to follow, and Glasers staff will offer training to ease the transition, she added. It is very hard to quantify the impact of all our work, Glaser said. But in the 18 months we have been in place, we have provided a tremendous amount of support for this community. rryser@newstimes.com; 203-731-3342 REDDING Both of the screeners at the Georgetown Treatment Plant could soon be back online once funding is approved. The facility has been using just one screener since the equipment broke about six months ago. The screeners filter out objects before the water is treated. If not removed, the other plant equipment could be damaged, according to Richard Regan, chairman of the Water Pollution Control Commission. We want to get this done but its not something we need to get done tomorrow, Regan said during a recent Board of Selectman meeting. The board unanimously recommended the Board of Finance fund up to $35,000 for the project. The Board of Finance will now have to decide the best way to pay for it. Some possibilities are pulling from the capital fund or the operational budget. A town meeting will be needed if the board decides to pay for it using the non-recurring capital. The repairs are estimated to cost about $30,000, but the commission has requested the Board of Finance authorize up to $35,000 in case there are contingencies. The work and parts needed to get the machine working again will cost $22,000. The remaining amount will cover additional repairs. Plant employees considered fixing the equipment themselves but didnt think they could do so safely for the cost. The work will instead be contracted out to a private repair company that specializes in this type of equipment, Regan said. First Selectwoman Julia Pemberton said the amount was about half of the original estimate. She said the repairs are also needed so there is a redundancy in place. Once repaired, the screener is expected to last about 15 years. Regan said hes not worried about the other screener failing soon. My sense of it is that this was an abnormal thing, he said. kkoerting@newstimes.com; 203-731-3345; @kkoerting Ob-La-Di. Ob-La-Da. Life goes on. Thats a message in a bottle that Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton might send to the world beyond our world. The cultural artifact he prizes is the Beatles White Album love, life and loss framed by two guitars, bass and drums and lots of energy. For me, it represents all the elements of life, Boughton said. Retired astronomer Philip Lu of Bethel points out that while language is particular to a nation or a group of nations, images are universal. His message would therefore be luminescent. I think I would pick Vermeers Girl with a Pearl Earring, said Lu, who taught for many years at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury. It shows you a human being. Its a painting. And its a girl. These suggestions and maybe dozens of others could make it someday out of our solar system, riding in digitalized form in the New Horizons spacecraft. Why not send a message? said space artist and journalist Jon Lomberg. This year New Horizons has sent astronomers an astonishing array of images from Pluto and its moon Charon. But once New Horizons finishes its work in the Kuiper Belt the vast rings of icy objects that circle our solar system it will just keep going. Rather than heading off into interstellar space as a mute, why not upload pictures, music, songs, spoken language, into its computer? Assuming the finders know a few basic commands, they could download a portrait of earth and the creatures who live on it. Lomberg was one of the main contributors to the Golden Record the CD riding the two Voyager missions out of our solar system. The CD carries a host of pictures, greetings in 55 languages and music that includes the Three Bs: Bach, Beethoven and Chuck Berry playing Johnny B. Goode. Lomberg acknowledges that the contents of the Golden Record did not involve a lot of outreach, simply because the people creating it didnt have the time or the means to do so. It was really just a half-dozen people presumptuously deciding what we should put on it, he said. Now there is both the time and the means a website called the One Earth New Horizons Message, at oneearthmessage.org On it, people can nominate what NASA should send to the spacecraft and help choose the final selection. Everyone will get a vote, Lomberg said. Wed like to hear from different groups, different professions, different ages. Its a project in global creativity. Because New Horizons will be working for a while the latest plans are for its to swing past a large Kuiper Belt object in 2019 it gives the One Earth team time to thread the project through the many layers of NASA bureaucracy. It also gives them time to raise the money needed to make One Earth Far Horizons Message a reality. Im really hoping an angel will appear, Lomberg said. If it does happen, New Horizons could carry all kinds of messages, he said. We could send it packages of software, Lomberg said. It could teach those who find it how to play Sudoku. Written words could be hard to translate without an intergalactic Rosetta Stone. But Western President John B. Clark suggests New Horizons could carry three American documents: the Declaration of Independence, the Gettysburg Address and Martin Luther Kings I Have a Dream speech. While America doesnt represent everyone on Earth, the American ideal demonstrates some of the best traits of humanity, Clark said in an email. Alyson Baker, director of the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, looked at what the current Golden Record carries and found it had no works of art. Her suggestions: something from the Hudson River School and Picassos Guernica. And because I work with contemporary art, something by Marcel Duchamp, Baker said. Chris Kukk, professor of political science at Western, opted for the rock anthem Superheros by The Script. Hed also want to include the breathtaking picture of the Earth rising over the moon NASA has just released. There it is, Kukk said. We are one. Although we dont always think that. While the One Earth planning continues, NASA scientists are still receiving data from Far Horizons about Pluto and Charon. Because theyre so far away an average of 3.78 billion miles from Earth it takes a long time to get through. What theyve seen so far has been astonishing, completely overturning preconceived notions of what Pluto might be like. Planetary astronomer Heidi Hammel, executive vice president for the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, said she expected to see a surface pockmarked with craters like the earths moon. Instead, we saw ice dunes and glaciers and mountains and craters, Hammel, a former Ridgefield resident, said. We didnt expect to see ice mountains the size of the Rockies. Its completely different than what we expected. Hammel well-acquainted with the what out neighboring planets look like said her message in a New Horizons bottle would be a picture of people on Earth, with lots of green things growing around them and a blue sky behind them. Id like to show the things of this world, she said. Id like to communicate that this is what we built here, this is what we are. Contact Robert Miller at earthmattersrgm@gmail.com The prosecution had charged Ahmed Nagy with writing material 'to spew sexual lust and transient pleasures, using his pen to express wicked intents, thus violating societal norms of decency' A Cairo misdemeanor court acquitted on Saturday writer Ahmed Nagy for charges of violating general morals and encouraging indecent sexual behavior. In August 2014, the state owned literary journal Akhbar Al-Adab, which is published by Akhbar Al-Youm, ran a chapter from a novel named The Usage of Life, written by journalist Nagy. The full novel was released by Tanweer publishing house in Cairo in 2015. The prosecution charged Nagy with writing material "to spew sexual lust and transient pleasures, using his pen to express wicked intents, thus violating societal norms of decency and inciting promiscuity. The journal's editor-in-chief, Tarek El-Taher, was also acquitted after being charged with failing to review published content. Naji's trial started on 14 Nov 2014 after a complaint was issued to the police by Hani Saleh Tawfik, a citizen who claimed that Naji published a sexually flagrant article in a state-owned newspaper, which had caused him to experience heart palpitations and an extreme feeling of sickness along with a sharp drop in blood pressure due to the indecency of the text. Egyptian prosecution referred Naji and El-Taher to criminal court and the case was postponed twice before they were cleared of all charges today. The case caused an outcry among intellectuals who considered referring Naji and El-Taher to the court for publishing a chapter of a novel a dangerous violation of freedom of expression. The prosecution memo to the court said the writer published a "flagrant erotic article in which the charged writer published a text that spewed sexual lust and transient pleasures, using his mind and pen to violate public decency and good morals, inciting promiscuity." Following the accusations, Naji said on his Facebook page, "I would like to assert that the published text is fictional and all the events and actions in it are from my imagination. It is not a journalistic essay and I'm asking my fellow journalists to explain this difference," adding that "the world is full of surprises and the distinction between reality and fiction has become very tiring. Search Keywords: Short link: The state plans to study widening Interstate 95 through Fairfield County within the next year or two, but any impact on Greenwich wont happen for at least a decade, if then. Thomas Maziarz, chief of planning for the Connecticut Department of Transportation, said plans for adding lanes or putting tolls on the highway are being discussed, but little else has been done. Were expecting early environmental planning and preliminary design work within the next year or two, Maziarz said. We would do it by section and do Bridgeport to Stamford first. Greenwich is at least 10 years away from any construction in its section and it could be longer than that. The potential expansion of I-95 was part of the Board of Selectmens discussion of a new building for New Lebanon School. The school now sits near Exit 2 in Byram and the three-man selectmans board was concerned that a plan to build a new school in land behind the current building would put it too close to the highway, especially if the state planned to widen the road to ease congestion. Even if the state were to widen the interstate, the roadbed would be about 12 feet further into what is now a buffer of 400 to 500 feet, Maziarz said. The buffer includes 60 to 80 feet of unused land along the right of way at the side of the highway. Whatever noise and air pollution would exist from the highway would affect the school the same, whether it was on its current site or built slightly onto land closer to the road, he said. There would be a substantial buffer between the school and the highway still, Maziarz said. Theres plenty of room there. We dont think theres going to be a significant impact based on what theyre proposing. The New Lebanon Building Committee, its architects and the Board of Education have recommended the new school be built on land behind the current building. The selectmen refused to agree to the site, saying they were concerned about the potential widening of I-95, among other reasons. Earlier in the month while speaking in Greenwich, Gov. Dannel Malloy said he wanted to see an expansion of I-95 including lanes being added to the highway to try and ease traffic congestion. First Selectman Peter Tesei had been in contact with the state DOT to find out what impact, if any, an expansion could have on the school. Tesei could not be reached for additional comment but he did say that information from Maziarz had been shared with Board of Education Chairman Laura Erickson, New Lebanon School Building Committee Chairman Stephen Walko and Town Planner Katie DeLuca. Selectman John Toner said he still had concerns about the proximity of the highway to the school despite the DOTs information. Were very close to the highway and were only going to get closer if you put the school in the gully, Toner said. Thats why I voted against that site. Selectman Drew Marzullo said his concerns about I-95 have been satisfied. It was responsible for the town to ask such a question, especially when considering building a school near 95 and what future impact that may have, he said. There are a finite number of options at this point as to where to best build a much needed educational facility. I'm still committed to keeping it as far away from the highway as possible. Maziarz stressed that any plans for an expanded I-95 are very conceptual and the process is in its early stages. Were taking a very preliminary look at it as part of a congestion and tolling study for I-95. We have found that if there was an expansion and tolls there can be a dramatic reduction in congestion, Maziarz said. It can not only make the area more livable but it can encourage economic growth. No one wants to be stuck sitting in traffic for four hours. Greenwichs legislative delegation has said repeatedly they oppose any plan to bring back border tolls to I-95. Not only would it not ease traffic congestion but it would put a burden on Greenwichs local roads by drivers leaving the highway to circumvent tolls, they have said. kborsuk@scni.com Ports overlooking the Mediterranean Sea have been closing to prevent ships from colliding with one another amid bad weather Related Egypt braces for cold weather Sunday Alexandria Port Authority has decided to extend the closure of Alexandria and Dakheila ports in the coastal city for the fourth consecutive day due to bad weather and increasing wind speeds and wave heights, the state-run MENA news agency reported. The acting head of Alexandria Port Authority, Major General Fathi Taha, said that the authority extended the closure to avoid the collision of ships and vessels with one another and for the general safety of maritime navigation. Heavy rainfall continues in Alexandria and other areas of the northwest coast. Rainwater has accumulated in the city's streets, squares and bridges, pushing the city's sewage authority to move to attempt to remove the water. Alexandria has been witnessing rainfall accompanied by strong winds for the past four days, . Cold temperatures will continue in Egypt Sunday after the country welcomed the New Year with a spell of rain. Cairo will witness Sunday highs of 16 and lows of eight degrees Celsius, while the coastal city of Alexandria will witness highs of 17 and lows of nine degrees Celsius. Search Keywords: Short link: The baby of hip-hop musician, David Adeleke popularly known as Davido, which he had with his baby mama, Sophia Momodu, is still with the... The baby of hip-hop musician, David Adeleke popularly known as Davido, which he had with his baby mama, Sophia Momodu, is still with the Adeleke family.A member of the Momodu family revealed on Saturday that the Adelekes threatened that only the court could take the baby away from them.The family member who spoke on condition of anonymity said, We have been told that only the court can take the baby away from them. But we also want to know if they took the baby away from the mother through the court. The babys mother is heartbroken and cries everyday over the matter.In a related development, indications emerged on Saturday that the families of Momodu and Adeleke will meet with officials of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons this week over the petition sent by the Momodus to the agency on December 30, 2015.The agency had last week invited the parties concerned in the matter.Sophia had in a petition by her lawyer, alleged that her daughter, Imade, was being held away from her by the Adelekes with an attempt to take her abroad without her consent.It was gathered from sources close to the two families that the parties concerned were ready to honour the invitation.One of the sources who spoke with a national daily on Saturday said, I can confirm to you that the two families are meeting with the agency this week. I cannot say the exact day of the week because the agency gave an option for them to choose a particular day the two families can agree on. They are to come and explain what transpired before it got to the level of attempted abduction.Sophie Momodus lawyer, Mr. Gbolaga Ajayi, had in the petition to NAPTIP urged the agency to intervene in the matter.The petition read in part: Our client, a 27-year-old, is the biological mother of a baby girl with name, Aurora Imade Adeleke, who was born on the 14th day of May 2015. The babys father is Mr. David Adedeji Adeleke (aka Davido). The father and mother are unmarried.On the 11th July, 2015, our client was tricked into visiting the house of Mr. David Adelekes half sister Miss Ashley Coco Adeleke with her baby, Imade Aurora Adeleke. After getting to the house on Baderinwa Alabi Street, Lekki Phase I, Lagos, our clients baby was forcefully taken from her and she was thrown out of the premises with the threat that she would be decisively dealt with if she ever bothered to return there.There were armed policemen on the premises and our clients survival instinct made her leave her breast-suckling baby behind, with so much pain in her heart.When Mrs. Modupe Mofikoya, the immigration officer who attended to the Adeleke travelling party accosted Ashley Adeleke and asked for the mother of the baby, she claimed that she was the mother. Immediately, the immigration officer on duty collected her Nigerian passport, she quickly absconded from the scene with the baby. Her father, Mr. Deji Adeleke, showed up shortly afterwards to clear his daughters mess.Our client, with the help of her family members, including Mr. Dele Momodu, determinedly resisted the attempt by Miss Ashley Adeleke and her father from taking away Imade Adeleke from Lagos. Our client believes that the pair are trying to take the child to America and thus put her out of the reach of the biological mother.At the moment, Miss Ashley Adeleke and our clients daughter, Imade, are still in Lagos and their respective passports are in the custody of the airport immigration services. Christians are supposed to be disciples of Jesus. We call him Lord and Saviour; the author and finisher of our faith. (Hebrews 12:2). J... Christians are supposed to be disciples of Jesus. We call him Lord and Saviour; the author and finisher of our faith. (Hebrews 12:2). Jesus gives us this charge: Go to the people of all nations and make them my disciples. Baptise them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to do everything I have told you. (Matthew 28:19-20).Nevertheless, many of us who call Jesus Lord, Lord do not do the things he says. (Luke 6:46). Worse still, many Christians are unfamiliar with the teachings of Jesus.Jesus never told anyone to celebrate his birthday. If he wanted us to do so, he would have told us when and how. He did not. Moreover, we know from the scriptures that the early church never celebrated Jesus birthday. There is no such record in the Acts of the Apostles. We are told to remember the Lords death (Luke 22:19), and not to celebrate his birth.Ungodly birthday partiesEvery birthday celebration recorded in the bible is ungodly; and results in either mischief or disaster. As one of the special features of his birthday, Pharaoh had one of his servants, the chief baker, hung. (Gen 40:20-22). In similar fashion, one of the highlights of Herods birthday party was the beheading of John the Baptist. (Matthew 14:6-11).Job fears the birthday parties of his children are prone to ungodliness: When these birthday parties ended and sometimes they lasted several days Job would summon his children to him and sanctify them, getting up early in the morning and offering a burnt offering for each of them. For Job said, Perhaps my sons have sinned and turned away from God in their hearts. This was Jobs regular practice. (Job 1:4-5).True enough, God wiped out all of Jobs children in one disaster that came while they were celebrating the birthday of his oldest son. (Job 1:13-19). Thereby, Job came to realise the vanity of life. He cursed his birthday, saying: Let the day perish on which I was born, and the night that said, A man is conceived. (Job 3:3). So does Jeremiah who exclaims: Cursed be the day in which I was born! Let the day not be blessed in which my mother bore me! (Jeremiah 20:14).Birthday parties are carnal and worldly; therefore believers are never seen holding them in the scriptures. Jesus says: Whoever loves his life loses it. (John 12:25). True believers do not celebrate every extra year spent on earth away from God.Unscriptural ChristmasJesus says: Salvation is of the Jews. (John 4:22). However, Christmas is not Jewish: it is Roman. You will not find in the scriptures any of the things normally associated with Christmas, such as the exchanging of gifts; the Christmas tree; the singing of carols; Santa Claus; the hanging of the mistletoe and the burning of the yule log. These are all of pagan origin.Charles Spurgeon, the famous English preacher of the nineteenth century, said: Certainly we do not believe in the present ecclesiastical arrangement called Christmas we find no scriptural word whatever for observing any day as the birthday of the Saviour; and consequently, its observance is a superstition, because (it is) not of divine authority.Christmas was not celebrated in the first centuries of the Christian church. The general Jewish pattern was to celebrate the death of a remarkable person rather than his birth. Thus, Solomon says: A good name is better than precious ointment, and the day of death than the day of ones birth. (Ecclesiastes 7:1-4).The word Christmas itself comes from the combination of two words; Christ and mass. The mass, according to Roman Catholicism, is a prayer read for the soul of a dead person. The contradiction of celebrating the death of Christ on a date alleged to be his birthday came about because Christmas originally had nothing whatsoever to do with the birth of Jesus.However, the Church of Rome absorbed the customs, traditions and general paganism of different tribes, cultures and nations, in the bid to make it easy for pagans to become Christians. Accordingly, a feast was established in memorial of Jesus in the fourth century. In the fifth century, the Roman Catholic Church ordered it to be celebrated forever on the same day as the pagan feast of the birth of the sun.Pagan ChristmasDecember 25 celebrations actually started with sun-worshipers during the time of Nimrod; the man who supervised the building of the tower of Babel. His widow, Semiramis, said to be the queen of heaven, had a son called Tammuz; venerated by many as the god of the sun. It was believed that Tammuz died on December 22 and rose from the dead three days later.Emperor Aurelian of Rome proclaimed the sun god Tammuz to be the principal patron of the Roman Empire on December 25, 274 AD. The date corresponds with the winter solstice when pagans celebrate the renewed power of the sun. It was also the day of the Roman Saturnalia; a festival dedicated to Saturn, the God of Agriculture, after whom Saturday is named.The Romans also observed the Kalends of January; representing the triumph of life over death. The entire season was called Dies Natalis Invicti Solis; the Birthday of the Unconquered Sun.After Constantine, the Roman emperor, won the battle of the Milvian Bridge, he forced all the pagans of his empire to be baptised into the Christian church. So doing, Christianity became paganised, especially because pagans far outnumbered Christians. December 25, the date of Tammuzs alleged rebirth, was then designated as also the birthday of Jesus.Christmas treeThenceforth, pagan traditions of feasts, partying, giving and receiving of gifts and drunken orgies became grafted into the Christianity. This means whenever Christians say Merry Christmas, we are actually mixing the name of Christ with paganism.It is written in Jeremiah: Thus says the LORD: Do not learn the way of the heathen; do not be dismayed at the signs of heaven, for the Gentiles are dismayed at them. For the customs of the peoples are futile; for one cuts a tree from the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the ax. They decorate it with silver and gold; they fasten it with nails and hammers so that it will not topple. (Jeremiah 10:2-4).What we have here in the scriptures is a perfect description of the decorated Christmas tree. God castigates this as the way of the heathen. He expressly commands we should not subscribe to such idolatry. The green tree is mentioned 14 times in the bible and, in every instance, it is linked with idolatry. And yet, it is this same green tree that Christians use as our Christmas tree.The tradition of bringing an evergreen tree into homes and decorating it began with heathen Greeks who used it to worship their god Adonia. They claimed Adonia was killed and brought back to life by the serpent Aessulapius. Therefore, when Christians decorate green Christmas trees with lights, glitter and tinsel, little do they know they are following the God-forbidden protocols of a pagan festival in honour of an idol god!(TO BE CONTINUED) A group of former Niger Delta militants have threatened to go back to the creeks if the Federal Government failed to probe the past Boar... A group of former Niger Delta militants have threatened to go back to the creeks if the Federal Government failed to probe the past Board of the Niger Delta Development Commission.The former fighters, who are currently students of King Amachree African University in Benin Republic, said they were ready to arm themselves with guns if funds approved by ex-President Goodluck Jonathan for Niger Delta youths empowerment were not released for the purposes they were meant for.One of the ex-militants, Ani Igiofori, who spoke with newsmen in Port Harcourt on Saturday, stated that they were promised N500,000 each as empowerment allowance after being enrolled at a university in Benin Republic.The ex-militant lamented that the 129 beneficiaries of the scheme, which began in April 2015, had yet to get the empowerment funds from the NDDC.Igiofori urged President Buhari to intervene before they (ex-militants) get frustrated and go back to the creeks.He said, If they (NDDC) fail to empower us, we will go back to the creeks. They should empower us very well. This board should investigate the immediate past board led by Bassey Dan-Abia.We are calling on the new Acting Managing Director, NDDC, Mrs. Ibim Semenitari, to empower Rivers State youths. They should empower the Niger Delta youths so that we can leave militancy completely. They said we should shun kidnapping and armed robbery, but they should empower us.Another former militant, Commander Mike Bassey, said they were ready to go back to the creeks if nothing was done to settle their bills in the university.He said, We are begging President Buhari to intervene. The past management of the NDDC did not empower us and the youths of the Niger Delta region are suffering. The stipends and toiletries they used to give us amount to N30,000 every month.They (NDDC) said they removed us from the streets for us to be better citizens. But now, we may return to the streets. The Federal Government should arrest them and ask them what they did with the money earmarked for youth empowerment during Goodluck Jonathans administration.Another ex-militant leader, General Marvin Ovie, called on the NDDC to release the N500,000 empowerment fund promised each of them, saying the fund was approved by the Jonathan administration.Ovie said, We want President Muhammadu Buhari to intervene, arrest those involved in this fraud and provide our need because we do not want to go back to the creeks again.Let them (NDDC) give us the funds they promised us as our empowerment package. All these have been signed (approved) by former President Goodluck Jonathan. They (NDDC) are aware that our training will end this year (2016).Reacting to the claims, the Head of Corporate Affairs Department at the NDDC, Mr. Ibitoye Abosede, revealed that contrary to the position of the ex-militant students, the former Managing Director (Dan-Abia) had approved the payment for their empowerment package.Abosede attributed the non-payment of the package to the delay in the process, maintaining that the students (ex-militants) would soon get paid.The former managing director has signed and approved some funds to be disbursed to the students being trained in Benin Republic by the NDDC but the payment is being delayed. Very soon, the students will be paid, Abosede said. The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has dismissed the prophesy of the Founder, Adoration Ministries Enugu, Rev. Fat... The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has dismissed the prophesy of the Founder, Adoration Ministries Enugu, Rev. Father Ejike Mbaka, alleging assassination attempt on President Muhammadu Buhari by corrupt politicians as sensationalism and rumour peddling.In a statement signed jointly by the National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media Affairs Director, Miss Zainab Yusuf, the group asked asked the Catholic Bishops Conference (CBCN) to sanction Rev. Father Mbaka within 21 days for abandoning his sacred vocation and deviating into the mundane roadside career of politics, while he hid under the canopy of his priestly vocation, failing which he will be dragged to the Holy Father Pope Francis.Mbaka, had during his New Year Prophetic Message at Adoration Ground, where thousands of faithful converged for supplication on January 1, 2016, urged President Muhammadu Buhari to be on his guard, prophesying that alleged beneficiaries of massive corruption perpetrated during ex-President Goodluck Jonathans administration would plot to kill him.Mbaka should cover his face in shame for displaying gross ignorance of the workings of the democratic and law based tenets and provisions of the constitution which deems suspects brought before the court of competent jurisdiction as totally innocent in the eye of the law until contrary determination is made by the Court in line with due process of the law.Is Fr Mbaka a judge who has passed presiding over cases of alleged graft involving any immediate past political office holder and adjudged them guilty of corrupt practices? Is Fr Mbaka unaware that as the Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces that President Muhammadu Buhari is the most protected citizen in Nigeria now with hundreds of well armed and highly trained professional guards drawn from the Nigerian Military and the Secret Police headed by President Muhammadu Buharis kinsman?Is Fr Mbaka unaware that Nigeria under President Muhammadu Buhari is waging a counter-terror war and that the armed Islamists have vowed in several media recordings to kill not just the Commander in chief but officials of government? This Mbakas whitewash must be consigned to the dustbins without further delay, HURIWA said. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), yesterday, linked the trial of the former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd), to th... The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), yesterday, linked the trial of the former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd), to the 2019 general elections, saying President Muhammadu Buhari and his All Progressives Congress (APC) are scared Dasuki may be nursing a presidential ambition.The party said it was unfortunate that Buharis anti-corruption crusade has now become a war between the APC and the PDP.Meanwhile, the APC leadership replied,saying it was not losing sleep about who the PDP plans to pick from the North as its presidential flag bearer in the 2019 elections.The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, in a statement, said it was appalling that the APC and its leaders, who gleefully and unjustifiably poured invectives on former President Goodluck Jonathan in the guise of playing the role of an opposition party, would now not want to condone criticisms.PDP explained that the trial of Dasuki was a sign that the ruling party felt threatened by his wide political and security network which he may use should he decide to contest for the presidency in 2019 on the PDP platform.Buhari, according to the opposition party, appeared to have already pronounced Dasuki and Nnamdi Kanu of Radio Biafra guilty in his last week media chat even before court pronouncements.It sympathised with the President and the APC over their inability to accept, with equanimity, constructive criticisms of their administration.Besides, it is sad and embarrassing that President Buharis anti-corruption crusade has now been reduced to a war between the APC and the PDP as declared by the Office of his spokespersons. Since they have confirmed that this is what the anti-corruption crusade is all about, the APC is obviously seeking to destroy the PDP so that it can push through Buharis second tenure in 2019 without opposition from the PDP, the PDP stated.This has also confirmed our concern that this is the reason the Federal Government is persecuting, and not prosecuting, Col. Sambo Dasuki. The APC and its leaders fear that Dasuki, given his vast political and security network, may be harbouring a presidential ambition, more so that the PDP has zoned its presidential ticket to the north.The PDP is conversant with the sinister plan by the APC-led Federal Government to completely decimate our party by raking up all manner of allegations of corruption against the Goodluck Jonathan administration and leaders of the PDP with a view to taking them to court on orchestrated charges.PDP also said that it is aware that President Buhari has directed security agencies to be more vicious in dealing with our members and has continued to subtly coerce the Judiciary to convict those being charged to court.But what gives us joy is that President Buhari is not God and we will not worship him. Unlike the APC that denigrated the office and person of former President Jonathan by wrongly depicting him as clueless and incompetent, the PDP remains the most decent, mature and constructive opposition party in our democracy and we have evidenced great respect for the person and exalted office of President Muhammadu Buhari.During the Goodluck Jonathan presidency, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, while in the saddle as interim Deputy National Secretary of the APC, in a post on his twitter page, described President Jonathan as lazy, docile, incompetent, clueless, hopeless and useless leader. Other APC leaders made raining abuses on Jonathan a past time.The PDP is a very responsible opposition party; our leaders are mature; and we have demonstrated so in our critique of the Presidents responses during the maiden Presidential Media Chat. We have reviewed President Buharis performance and concluded that it was uninspiringReplying to the PDP allegations, last night, the APC said it was not losing sleep over who the PDP picks from the North as its presidential candidate in the 2019 elections.The partys National Chairman, Chief John Oyegun, spoke in a statement, through the partys National Publicity Secretary, Edegbe Odemwingie, in Abuja.Oyegun said his party will not join issues with the childish and laughable conspiracy theories being bandied by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in relation to the 2019 presidential election.It went on,Whoever the PDP picks as its candidate for the 2019 presidential election is not the business of the APC. Relevant laws in the country clearly spells out requirements for persons seeking election into all political office.The preoccupation of the APC and President Muhammadu Buhari is to deliver on all the promises made to Nigerians by the party during the 2015 election. Looking back at the last seven months, there are clear indicators showing that the APC and the President Buhari administration is on the right track to delivering on its Change Agenda.The PDP speaks of a presidential directive to security agencies and judiciary to coerce and convict PDP leaders and officials of the immediate-past administration with corruption charges. Clearly such abuse of presidential directives was a concept invented and effectively deployed by the PDP during its defunct 16-year rule. The APC is a law-abiding party and cannot adopt such diabolical concept. The APC believes strongly in the rule of law, as against the kind of impunity Nigeria witnessed under the PDP for 16 years.We assure Nigerians that the PDP conspiracy theories will not distract the President Buhari administration, law enforcement and anti-graft agencies from the successful on-going war against corruption being waged on looters of our common wealth. The ongoing war against corruption is not selective. Anybody guilty of corrupt practices will face the law.Clearly, the PDP has chosen to blame everyone but itself for the sorry state it finds itself. The PDP should have known that it will pay for its years of impunity, recklessness and shocking mis-management of the countrys commonwealth. PDP members who are genuinely inspired by the APC-led administration are welcome to the APC fold. It is their right to abandon a sinking ship and join one that is smooth-sailing Ahram Hebdo talks to Egyptian political analyst Abdallah Al-Sennawy, who reflects on the governments performance, the war against terrorism and Egypts regional role Ahram Hebdo: To what extent do you think the newly-elected parliament will fulfil its legislative and regulatory responsibilities? Abdallah Al-Sennawy (A. A.-S.): There is no parliament in the world that accurately reflects the society and its interactions, but what is dangerous in the Egyptian case is that following the 30 June 2013 developments in particular [the ousting of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi], the malformations exceeded the tolerated limits. First, the election law was drafted in a way that excludes political parties, especially the centre-left parties which are almost absent in the parliament. The parties who won are either supported by businessmen or security authorities. In addition, for the first time in the history of the Egyptian parliament, the security authorities are the main actors in the choice of members, either by excluding, recommending, favouring or even forming certain lists in detriment of others. All the parties announce their support for President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi. Their disagreements are only over their slice of the cake. The disagreements took a personal form, which slows down the formation of a majority coalition. A.H.: How do you evaluate the performance of the government since president Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi came to power? A. A.-S.: I think president El-Sisi works a lot and wants to build, but there is a problem with priorities. Many questions have not been answered yet by the president. How can the war against terrorism and the respect of freedoms and public rights be reconciled? The necessities of economic activity and the requirements of social justice and the war against corruption? The aspirations to a regional role in Africa and the Arab world and the risks of the impact of such commitments on an already critical economy? There is no political class, consultants around the president. When it comes to the president, even though his popularity has become extremely corroded due to current policies that lead to social inequalities and political frustration because of the limiting of the public domain, the president still has popular support due to fear of complete chaos. Egypt cannot tolerate a new failure after two transitional periods. The public opinion is not ready to embark on an adventure as the country is starting to retrieve its stability. This is why I think there is no real threat to the current regime. A.H.: Do you think the question of the Muslim Brotherhood has been closed, or is there still a possibility to integrate them into society? A. A.-S.: Given that the Muslim Brotherhood has been involved in acts of violence and of terrorism and given the disagreements between the leaders and the younger classes as is clear from their public statements it is almost impossible to speak of political settlement with them. The Brotherhood does not want to admit that its regime has fallen by popular will due to their attacks against democracy, the revolution and all opposition. I think that no political force, with the exception of some young members of the centre-left, would be ready to compromise its credibility by opening a new page with the Brotherhood. On the official side, the question of the Muslim Brotherhood has been closed since they were listed as a terrorist organisation. In reality, there is no chance of reconciliation with the Brotherhood in political life. By all means, I call for dissolving any secret organisation because it hinders democratic transition. However, I think that every person who has not carried a weapon should benefit from his political rights as a citizen. I believe that those who left the Muslim Brotherhood and want to be integrated into political life should have that chance. A.H.: What do you think of the Islamic military coalition formed by Saudi Arabia? A. A.-S.: The Islamic coalition is a bubble. Two days after the announcement, even Saudi newspapers had no news about it. Most Islamic countries that have strong armies, like Pakistan, Turkey and Indonesia, have refused to participate and excused themselves. Egypt has welcomed the project, but without enthusiasm, because it believes it is a strategic bubble. There is no common denominator because most participants of this coalition almost have no army. Even Saudi Arabia, with all due respect, does not have a strong army. It is not the country that should claim to lead the coalition in the presence of strong armies like those of Egypt, Turkey and Pakistan. A.H.: How is Egypt in the same military coalition as Turkey and Qatar, two countries with whom it is not on good terms? A. A.-S.: A coalition of main regional actors does not seem likely. There are fundamental differences in the definition of a terrorist organisation. For instance, Saudi Arabia and Turkey think that Jabhat Al-Nusra in Syria can be part of the political settlement if they separate from Al-Qaeda, while Russia, Iran and the United States consider Jabhat Al-Nusra a terrorist organisation. A.H.: Has Riyadh become the centre of gravity in the region instead of Cairo? A. A.-S.: Riyadh has a political weight and a presence in all regional questions. It is the opposing face of Iran in several conflicts. But it does not have the necessary qualities for a leadership of the Arab world. All countries who tried to play this role since the Arab-Israeli Peace Treaty in 1979 could not fill the void of Cairo. Egypt, even if its role has retreated, represents [one quarter] of the Arab world, its biggest military and cultural force. Egypt owns the historic and geographic qualities, but what it lacks to fill the position is a strong economy and a strategic vision. A.H.: How do you view the growing relations between Cairo and Moscow? A. A.-S.: Egypt has opened up to new world powers, whether on the political or on the military level, which has helped it get out of diplomatic isolation. But relations with Moscow do not mean breaking ties with Washington, and exchanges with India or China do not undermine relations with Europe. I think that the diversification of sources of arms and the openness to new powers were a good strategic choice, because it has been proven that putting all the eggs in one basket [the United States] marginalised Egypts role in the African and Arab world. A.H.: In the context of a war against terrorism, Egypt has called several times for an international intervention in Libya. What do you think of the Libyan political settlement and the impact of the conflict on Egypt? A. A.-S.: Egypt wishes for an end to the conflicts that tear Libya apart, a country it shares a 1,200 kilometre border with. After the fall of [Libyan president Muammar] Qaddafi, 80 percent of the smuggling of arms to Egypt has come from Libya, so the main concern for Egypt is to secure its western borders. [Egypt's concern also ties into Libya's] strategic and economic importance as an Arab country. The United Nations project involving Libya stipulates installing a national consensus government, but the problem is that there are no real guarantees that this government would enforce security, disarm the militias and direct its weapons at [the militant groups] ISIS, Jabhat Al-Nusra and Ansar Al-Sharia. Hence, Egypts worries. *This interview was first published by Ahram Hebdo, Ahram's French-language weekly newspaper. Search Keywords: Short link: middle robbery two photos Police released security camera images of a man they said robbed a CVS in Cape May Courthouse Jan. 2, 2016 ( ) -- Township police were seeking the public's help to identify a machete-wielding robber who held up a CVS store in Cape May Court House early Saturday. The armed robber entered the store around 4:45 a.m., police said in a statement. Authorities described the suspect as a man wearing a green scarf over part of his face, a black hooded sweatshirt, grey jeans and a black belt. The robber was last seen on foot toward Magnolia Avenue, according to police. The department also released security camera images of the man. Anyone with information was asked to call the Middle Township Police Department at 609-465-8700. Noah Cohen may be reached at ncohen@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @noahyc. Find NJ.com on Facebook. "The Question of the Unfamiliar Husband" By E.J. Copperman and Jeff Cohen (Midnight Ink Books, 288 pp, $14.99) We all have our little ways that help us figure out people. For those who read the books, I ask people about their favorite Harry Potter characters. It's not as if it gives the full measure of someone, but it does say something if they prefer Malfoy over Hermoine. (My favorites are Dumbledore and Harry Potter; I like flawed nobility.) Samuel Hoenig, our hero in this series, asks people their favorite Beatles song. From there, he can draw insights. Hoenig has Asperger's. And if you don't know anyone who does, think The Big Bang Theory's Sheldon Cooper, but without the humor. Hoenig lives with his mother; his dad abandoned them when he was 4-years-old. He has a business, Questions Answered, in a former pizzeria in Piscataway. People go to him with any question and he will use his superior intellect - though he does comment at one point that he is barely in the genius range - to help them. Hoenig is without guile and rancor. Here, while meeting someone who hires him, we see the world from Hoenig's perspective. "I have struggled for years to establish and maintain eye contact in conversation, but when the subject matter is awkward, I still have some difficulty in that area. Now I was staring at the screen of my MacPro, which showed a page devoted to various kinds of bourbon. But I was not really trying to read the copy. 'I understand,' I said. Technically, that was true - I understood the message she was trying to convey. Why she might want to communicate that information was completely beyond my comprehension at that moment." The second in a series of books about an amateur sleuth, Samuel Hoenig, who has Asperger's. Jeff Cohen, who uses the pseudonym E,J. Copperman (both names are on the book's cover), is a true Jersey guy and it shows throughout the book. A Rutgers alum, who grew up in Irvington and lives in Highland Park, Cohen created a likable character in Hoenig. In this story, Hoenig is hired to find out who a man is, a man a woman says is her husband, but she is unsure if he really is. It's an interesting premise. In short order, the man turns up dead -- in Hoenig's office. The mysterious husband's throat was sliced open, he was stabbed, poisoned and asphyxiated. Whomever did this wanted to make sure Oliver Lewis was not going to prey on anyone else. Lewis was a bully and a serial husband. He had a habit of seducing women, marrying then dumping them while bilking grieving elderly out of their life savings. Yes, he was a real charmer. The mystery of finding out who killed Lewis is a very complicated one; complicated bordering on confusing, though Hoenig does reiterate the plot toward the end. Cohen does an excellent job of explaining what Asperger's is. In fact, he does such a good job of it, it becomes a bit much. Please do not take this as any sort of criticism of anyone with Asperger's. It is not. It is just that once we are inside Hoenig's head, and understand him, it would be reassuring to trust the reader more and spend more time on the story. Here, Hazel, whom Hoenig meets when she arrives to clean his office after Lewis' body is dumped there, is explaining some of her backstory to Hoenig. Ms. Washburn, Hoenig's friend and employee, is one of the people who drives Hoenig places and helps him interpret the world. "Hazel had little to say after that, and Ms. Washburn offered to drive her home. Hazel accepted the ride. I opted to stay in the office for several reasons. I was behind on my exercise, which was a concern; Mother would be arriving to drive me home for lunch in forty-seven minutes (or forty-eight - Mother is not always precise); and I presumed that if Hazel had more information to add to our ongoing work, she might be more likely to tell another woman without a man present. I am not certain about the motivation, but people of both genders tend to be less circumspect when among members of their own sex." Hoenig's Asperger's does make him different and special. And it gives this, the second in a series, an interesting hook. Yet having constant reminders and explanations makes the mystery itself feel like an afterthought. WOODBRIDGE -- When New Jersey patients peruse the walls in their doctors' offices, chances are good they will find a degree from a foreign medical school. New Jersey tops the nation in the percentage of active physicians educated overseas, according to newly-released numbers from the Association of American Medical Colleges, a non-proft national group that tracks data about doctors. More than 38 percent of New Jersey's 25,930 doctors went to medical school outside the U.S., according to the 2014 data. That is more than double the percentage in most other states and well above places like Montana and Idaho, where patients have a minimal chance of running into a physician trained outside the U.S. The nearly 10,000 physicians in New Jersey who went to overseas medical schools include mostly immigrants who trained in their home countries and relocated to the U.S. to practice medicine. But the numbers also include Americans who studied at medical schools in the Caribbean or other foreign countries that cater to U.S. students who did not have the grades or test scores to get into medical schools at home. Wherever they come from, large numbers of foreign-educated doctors are finding jobs in New Jersey, New York (which ranks second in the nation with 37 percent of its physicians coming from foreign medical schools) and Florida (which ranks third with 36 percent), according to the ranking. "They are clearly doing something to attract international medical graduates," said Atul Grover, chief public policy officer for the Association of American Medical Colleges, which compiled the data for its "2015 State Physician Workforce Data Book." The most obvious explanation is that states with high numbers of immigrants tend to be welcoming to foreign doctors, Grover said. "Immigrants tend to move where they know people," Grover said. It is difficult to assess whether doctors who attended foreign medical schools provide any better or worse care for patients in the U.S., Grover said. There have been few studies. But statistics show medical students trained at overseas medical schools tend to score higher on standardized tests than American students trained at Caribbean schools. "We haven't got great outcome measures," Grover said. "But foreign graduates tend to do very, very well on those standardized tests." Under the U.S. system, most physicians attend undergraduate medical schools, then are required to serve a residency at an American teaching hospital or medical institution before they can be licensed to practice in the country. Residencies are required for "both technical knowledge and cultural reasons," to help doctors learn how to work in the U.S. medical system, Grover said. New Jersey hospitals attract high numbers of overseas applicants for their residency spots. Last year, 53 percent of the nearly 2,900 residencies at New Jersey hospitals and institutions were filled with physicians who attended foreign medical schools, according to the data. A growing number of New Jersey's residency spots are also going to U.S. students who attended Caribbean medical schools. Ross University School of Medicine, which has an office in Woodbridge, sends U.S. students to its campus on the Caribbean island of Dominica for medical school. Then, many students return to the U.S. for their residencies and eventually get jobs or open up medical practices. "Many Ross University School of Medicine students call New Jersey home and choose to return to the state to complete their residency training. Over the last five years, more than 200 Ross graduates have entered residency training in New Jersey," said Joseph Flaherty, dean and chancellor of Ross University School of Medicine. Flaherty said his students consistently perform as well or better than U.S.-educated medical students on licensing exams. "In addition to excellent training, Ross medical students are more representative of the diverse population of New Jersey than the average U.S. medical school graduate, which studies show contributes to better medical care," Flaherty said. Many students turn to overseas medical schools because of the lack of seats in U.S. schools. Though there has been a push to increase the number of spaces in medical schools nationwide, New Jersey still ranks low in the number of students going to medical school in their home state. New Jersey is home to Rutgers University's two medical schools - New Jersey Medical School in Newark and Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in Piscataway-New Brunswick - and Rowan University's Cooper Medical School in Camden and School of Osteopathic Medicine in Stratford. Seton Hall University is expected to open the state's first private four-year medical school in the fall of 2017. The new school, located on the former site of the Hoffmann- La Roche campus in Nutley and Clifton, is expected to enroll as many as 150 new students each year and help provide more in-state medical school seats for New Jersey students. The influx of new medical school students will come as New Jersey's doctor population in aging. The latest numbers show New Jersey's physicians are among the oldest in the nation. About 33 percent of the state's active physicians were age 60 or older in 2014, according to the new data from the Association of American Medical Colleges. That is the third highest percentage in the nation, behind New Mexico and Hawaii. Only about 13 percent of the state's physicians are under age 40, indicating New Jersey could use some new doctors from the U.S. or abroad to replace the growing number of physicians expected to retire in the next few years. "It is going to be worse in the states like New Jersey where the population (of older physicians) is higher," said Grover, who helps track the numbers for the Association of American Medical Colleges. "We're just trying to keep a close eye on it." Kelly Heyboer may be reached at kheyboer@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @KellyHeyboer. Find NJ.com on Facebook. JERSEY CITY -- For many in Hudson County, the holiday season was about giving to friends, loved ones, and those in need this year. A new report released by WalletHub revealed the the most caring cities in the country for 2015. New Jersey's second largest city ranked 46th overall. The personal finance website looked at the 100 largest cities in the country and created the rankings based on a 26 metrics. Areas studied included the number of sheltered homeless people living in each city and income donated to charity. Jersey City ranked 32nd for community giving, 70th in caring for the vulnerable and homeless, and 36th in workforce caring. Despite the fairly poor ranking in caring for the homeless, many local organizations made contributions and offered support to those without shelter. On Dec. 22, the Hudson County chapter of the American Hellenic Education Progressive Association donated $1,000 and goods to St. Lucy's Shelter in Downtown Jersey City. An interfaith service was held on Dec. 17 at Olde Bergen Church in remembrance of those who died throughout the year from causes related to homelessness and to raise awareness for those still living on the streets. WalletHub also found that Jersey City had the third lowest student to teacher ratio of the cities studied. The state's largest city did not fend off as well in the study. Newark ranked 73rd overall. The city ranked 43rd, 93rd and 28th for community giving, caring for the homeless and workforce caring respectively. JERSEY CITY -- In the wake of criticism, the father of an 18-month-old baby who was struck in the face by a stray bullet says he will shut down an online donation site that was set up to help him and his family move out of Jersey City. Michel Beshay said he has notified his co-worker, who set up a GoFundMe page on his behalf, to shut down the website. "A lot of people said I'm trying to use my baby to get money," Beshay said. "I don't want people to say I'm trying to make money from my 18-month-old." He added that he hasn't been able to sleep after reading online comments that have been critical of his plea for help in moving out of Jersey City. As of this evening, the GoFundMe page has collected $1,035 of the stated goal of $25,000. Beshay said he plans to work with his co-worker to return any money donated so far. "I don't want anybody to help me," he said. Mina Beshay, just a toddler, was sitting in his family's car on Dec. 26 when gunfire erupted near Bergen and Harrison avenues in the middle of the afternoon. A stray bullet and shattered glass were lodged in the boy's face, which required surgery. He spent two nights in Jersey City Medical Center-Barnabas Health, and was released earlier this week. Michel Beshay has taken a leave of absence from his job as an accountant to care for his son and has quit his part-time job as a delivery driver because of safety concerns. He told The Jersey Journal on Thursday that he and his family intend to leave Jersey City. Beshay has said he left behind a successful career and his relatives in Egypt in order to come to the United States. He said he left because he felt the United States would be a safer place to live. Today, Beshay said Dec. 26 wasn't the first time his vehicle has gotten shot at in Jersey City. Around the end of September, Beshay was driving at night on Duncan Avenue when gunfire erupted in front of him, he said. Beshay said he was working his food delivery job and was alone at the time. Though he wasn't injured, he said he noticed a bullet hole in his trunk the next day. Beshay's description of the shooting matches The Jersey Journal's reporting of a Sept. 24 incident in which Tavin Robinson, 20, of Freeman Avenue was charged with firing several rounds on Duncan Avenue between Delaware and Olean avenues. As terrifying as that first shooting was, Beshay said he passed it off as a random incident that wasn't a threat to him or his family. He said he can no longer afford to think of violence in the city in that way. "This time, it's horrible because I see my son almost died," he said. Jonathan Lin may be reached at jlin@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @jlin_jj. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook. Although those who donate blood know that there is no better feeling than saving a life, less than 10 percent of the U.S. population does so, although an estimated 38 percent of the population is eligible, according to the American Red Cross. While 40 or more units of blood may be needed for a single trauma victim, and a single donation can save up to three lives, there is no substitute for human blood. That is why regular donors are so important in ensuring that blood is available year-round. During National Blood Donor Month in January, donors are reminded that while the organization may experience a seasonal decline in donations due to severe weather, the need remains constant. According to the World Health Organization, blood donations also help women with complications of pregnancy, children with severe anemia, accident/trauma victims, and many surgical and cancer patients. Every two seconds, someone in the United States needs lifesaving blood, according to the American Red Cross, which estimates that it provides nearly 40 percent of the nation's blood supply. Blood donation is a simple, four-step process: registration, medical history and mini-physical (checking pulse, blood pressure, body temperature and hemoglobin), donation and refreshments. The entire process takes about an hour, with the donation taking about 10 minutes. Donors should arrive having recently consumed a light meal and plenty to drink, and should bring their donor card, driver's license or two other forms of identification, and the names of any medications being taken. The organization estimates that if an individual began donating blood at age 17 and donated every 56 days until he or she reached 76, the person would have donated 48 gallons of blood, potentially helping save more than 1,000 lives. Among Red Cross donors in a given year, 19 percent donate occasionally, 31 percent are first-time donors and 50 percent are regular, loyal donors. In addition to donating blood, which can be done every 56 days for donations of whole blood and every 112 days for double red cell donations, other ways to help include: * Hosting a blood drive, offering a location and recruiting and scheduling donors. * Volunteering at a blood drive to help ensure that every donor has a positive experience. * Recruiting donors as a drive coordinator or committee member. For more information and to locate a blood drive near you, call (800) 733-2767 or visit redcrossblood.org/donating-blood. For more news and features about healthy living, click here. The ferryboat was carrying 17 people despite having a maximum capacity of six Egyptian prosecutors in the Nile Delta governorate of Kafr El-Sheikh ordered Saturday the detention of five state officials from the Fouh city council pending investigations into the Thursday sinking of a Nile ferry which killed 15 people. The prosecution is attempting to determine who was responsible for the incident. The ferry, which was attempting to cross from Egypt's Kafr El-Sheikhs Sendion to Beheiras Derot on Thursday night, was carrying 17 people despite having a maximum capacity of six. Initial investigations indicate there was negligence in the licensing issued for the boats, according to prosecution officials. The prosecution has called a police officer to give testimony on the incident, and has appointed a technical committee to examine the location of the incident The governor of Kafr El-Sheikh, El-Sayed Naser, suspended on Saturday the five officials for three months, holding them accountable for the incident. Minister of Social Solidarity Ghada Wali has ordered a compensation of LE10,000 to be paid to the family of the deceased, and LE2000 for the injured. On Friday, Egypt's Prime Minister Sherif Ismail ordered an immediate investigation into the incident and called on the ministers of local development and transportation to ensure that all ferries are registered and undergo regular maintenance. Heavy rain and cold temperatures were witnessed nationwide recently, contributing to several traffic accidents. Transportation accidents and fatalities, often due to poor maintenance, are not uncommon in Egypt. Search Keywords: Short link: RED BANK -- Two Pennsylvania women robbed a gas station and fled officers on the Garden State Parkway before being arrested in Middletown as they tried to get back on the highway, police allege. The incident began at 11:35 p.m. Friday when the women allegedly held up the Shell gasoline station at the corner of Newman Springs Road and Shrewsbury Avenue, Red Bank Police Chief Darren McConnell said. File photo The suspects, later identified as Emily Schwartz, 19, New Tripoli, Pa. and Kayla Gregson, 20, of Saylorsburg, Pa., brandished knives inside the station's store and demanded money and cigarettes, McConnell said. An employee handed over cash and smokes and the women fled in a vehicle that another employee watched as it drove west toward the Parkway, McConnell said. The employee then got into his own car and pursued the robbers. McConnell said the pursuing employee saw a Middletown police officer on a traffic stop near the Parkway entrance and alerted him to the vehicle and said the occupants had just robbed the station. The officer went after the vehicle and pulled it over a short time later on the northbound side of the Parkway, but as he approached the vehicle on foot, it sped away, McConnell said. The officer lost the vehicle when it exited the highway at exit 114 on Red Hill Road, where Middletown and Holmdel meet, McConnell said. Officers from Red Bank, Middletown and Holmdel flooded the area and a Holmdel police officer pulled the vehicle over a short time later as it was apparently trying to get back on the Parkway, McConnell said. The woman were detained without further incident. McConnell said the women later told officers they had been visiting friends in Lakewood and allegedly decided to randomly rob a station on the way home to Pennsylvania. Police believe the women were unaware of the area and that led to them being pulled over trying to get back on the Parkway, McConnell said. Schwartz and Gregson are charged with robbery and weapon possession charges in Red Bank and Middletown police plan to charge them with eluding police. Gregson was additionally charged with possessing drug paraphernalia. Both were being held Saturday evening at the Monmouth County jail in Freehold Township on $75,000 bail. Kevin Shea may be reached at kshea@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter@kevintshea. BRICK -- A 12-year veteran patrolman died Saturday after a short battle with pancreatic cancer. Officer Kristopher DeMarco, 38, had just been diagnosed in early November. But, at the time of his diagnosis, the cancer had already spread throughout his body, said Brick Mayor John Ducey. "He was a really great officer," Ducey said. "... He's been a Brick resident his whole life. He Graduated from Brick Memorial High School, worked at Steinbachs. Everyone knows him around here." Brick police Chief James Riccio said DeMarco was a go-to patrolman who his superiors could rely on for the more serious jobs. "Kris was a great guy," Riccio said. "He was friends with everybody and that's what makes it even tougher. ... He touched a lot of people because he was so personable." Former police Chief Rick Bergquist, who retired in December, said DeMarco was a "hardworking policeman." "He was respected by anyone who worked with him and knew him," Bergquist said. "He was very quiet, a friendly person who got along with everyone." DeMarco was hired by the Brick Township Police Department on August 5, 2003. A graduate of the Ocean County Police Academy's 81st class, DeMarco spent the bulk of his career working the midnight shift. He also served as a background investigator, an assistant to the department's training unit and was a member of the Special Emergency Response Team (SERT) since January 2007. From 2009 to 2010, DeMarco was assigned to the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office Special Operations Group. He served on the executive board for the PBA #230 as its financial secretary and was an active member in numerous charitable committees. DeMarco earned a number of chief's certificates and awards, including the Policeman of the Year award in 2007. Brick police announced DeMarco's death on its Facebook page Sunday afternoon. The post had 214 comments as of Sunday evening, many offering their condolences to the Brick Township community. "We offer our sincerest condolences on the loss of this fine young officer," one commenter wrote. "Rest in Peace." Ocean County Sheriff Michael Mastronardy issued a statement on his Facebook page thanking DeMarco for his service. "On behalf of Sheriff Michael Mastronardy and the entire staff at the Ocean County Sheriff's Office we send our thoughts and prayers to the family of Brick Township Police Officer Kris Demarco who passed away today," the statement said. "Life is very short for so many... God speed #213." Other departments around the county also offered their support on Sunday. On behalf of Chief Robert Lawson and the rest of the Lakewood Police Department, we send our thoughts and prayers to the... Posted by Lakewood Police Department on Saturday, January 2, 2016 Alex Napoliello may be reached at anapoliello@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @alexnapoNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Now we're getting somewhere. When our governor went after Texas Sen. Ted Cruz last week, the dispute starkly defined the battle lines in this year's Republican presidential primary. Someone has to represent the conservatives in the party. And someone has to represent the moderate/establishment voters. When it comes to the conservatives, Cruz and Donald Trump seem to have their votes locked up. But we've got a real race for spot of the establishment candidate. There are at least four candidates in contention. None of them wants to mess with Trump. But if Christie can establish himself as the establishment's hit man on Cruz, maybe he can aspire to the role once reserved for Jeb Bush. Hence his attack on Cruz last week: "You listen to Sen. Cruz now ... Ted says, 'I'm going to bomb ISIS...I'm going to carpet bomb them and we're going to see if sand can glow. Man, that sounds tough, doesn't it? That is tough stuff. That's a tough guy." Christie then went on to question the senator's toughness, saying "He took away tools from the people who are supposed to protect us, for political purposes." National security has been Christie's hobby horse and he clearly wants to ride it to the nomination. One problem: Right-wing Republicans are nowhere near as trusting of the government as they used to be - particularly the federal government. A Pew Research Center poll on the NSA surveillance program shows that 56 percent of Republicans disapprove of it as compared to 48 percent of Democrats. And then there's Christie's boasting of his vast experience fighting terrorism during his time as U.S. Attorney. Several media outlets have debunked those claims, the most prominent being the FBI's takedown of the "Fort Dix Six," who seem to have been a band of bumblers, not a hard-core terror cell. After examining those cases, the Washington Post Fact Checker concluded "Christie's exaggerated description of his record during the GOP debate is worthy of Two Pinocchios." And when it comes to talking tough, Christie make Cruz look like a softie. In his list of "The Most Awful and Absurd Foreign Policy Quotes from 2015," Daniel Larison of the American Conservative magazine awarded fourth place to Christie for this statement on how he'd handle Russian President Vladimir Putin: "My first phone call would be to Vladimir, and I'd say, 'Listen, we're enforcing this no-fly zone. And I mean we're enforcing it against anyone, including you. So don't try me. Don't try me. Because I'll do it.'" All of this is supposed to provide cover for Christie with the Republican base as he tries to consolidate his role as the candidate of the establishment. Is it working? Certainly not here in his home state. I know all the conservative leaders of note, and I can't think of a single one who's backing the governor of their own party. Perhaps the most prominent conservative elected officials are the two Mikes, state Sen. Doherty of Warren County and Assemblyman Carroll of Christie's own Morris County. Doherty is supporting Trump and Carroll is with Cruz. I asked Carroll why he thinks Christie is going after Cruz. "Because Cruz is going to win in all likelihood," he replied. "I think people realize Trump does not have the organization available to transform good poll numbers into actual victories." Carroll said Cruz is likely to start off with a strong win in the Iowa caucuses next month. "Then he'll come out as the perceived front runner and everyone else is going to concentrate their fire on him," he said. "Chris isn't stupid. His strategy is 'I want to be the guy who takes Ted Cruz out and become the nominee myself.'" The state's other leading conservative, former Bogota mayor Steve Lonegan, is running the Cruz campaign in New Jersey. Lonegan, who lost to Christie in the 2009 GOP primary race to run against Gov. Jon Corzine, said he sees Christie positioning himself as the go-to guy for the party establishment. "His strategy is to endear himself with the establishment moderates by going after the most conservative candidate in the race, Ted Cruz," said Lonegan. But Christie has a problem with the Republican base, Lonegan said. "Now that he's going up in the polls his record is going be brought out to the public," he said. "Nobody cared before." Lonegan said that record includes tolerating sanctuary cities as well as "giving us the most liberal supreme Court we've ever had, even more liberal than it was under Corzine." Even if Christie does well in the first primary in New Hampshire, "If he gets past South Carolina, I'll be surprised," Lonegan said. I wouldn't be all that surprised. South Carolina is so conservative that I wouldn't expect any of the moderates to do well there. Even if Cruz ran up big numbers, the party leaders would still need a champion going into the rest of the races. Christie may not be the best. But he's certainly the loudest. So if they go by pure volume, our Guv's their guy. ALSO: Christie might want to rethink his blanket support for NSA surveillance now that it turns out the NSA has been spying on Israel. That has embarrassed politicians like Christie who've been trying to suck up to Sheldon Adelson and other big donors. Another problem for him is that the neoconservative Newsmax site is attacking him for his prior efforts on behalf of a controversial Muslim cleric from Paterson. And then there's the Monmouth University Poll showing that New Jerseyans want Christie to resign by a 57-37 margin. Meanwhile in my own highly unscientific poll, nj,com readers agreed by a 60-40 margin that Christie is a bigger bully than Donald Trump. Paul Mulshine may be reached at Pmulshine@starledger.com. Follow him on Twitter @Mulshine. Find The Star-Ledger on Facebook. Egypt's interior ministry said on Saturday it has arrested three people who are running 23 Facebook pages, accusing them of using the website to incite against state institutions. The ministry accused two men, both aged 27, and a 25-year-old women of being members of the Muslim Brotherhood. Egypt outlawed the Brotherhood in 2013 after the ouster of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi. Authorities have shown public concern over calls on social media to organise protests on 25 January to mark the fifth anniversary of the 2011 uprising that removed longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak. Social media, particularly Facebook and Twitter, played a large part in organising the 25 January uprising, as well as other protests since then. Last week, President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi warned against "any such protests," saying they could result in chaos. A number of political activists have been arrested in the past few days in what is believed to be pre-emptive measures against "rumoured" protests ahead of the fifth anniversary of the 25 January Revolution. This article has been edited by Ahram Online* Search Keywords: Short link: You have permission to edit this article. Edit Close New Orleans' first homicide victim of 2016 was recent Dillard University graduate, family says WASHINGTON (AP) The House Jan. 6 committee plans to unveil "surprising" details at its next public hearing about the 2021 attack at the U.S. Capitol. The session Thursday afternoon is likely to be the last public hearing before midterm elections next month. The panel is expected to include new evidence from the U.S. Secret Service about its actions with Donald Trump that day. Ahead of a report later this year, the panel is summing up its findings. The committee says Trump, after he lost the 2020 presidential election, launched an unprecedented attempt to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden's victory. They say the result was the deadly mob siege of the Capitol. The shooting of a 12-year-old boy by a Cleveland, Ohio, police officer in November 2014 set off a storm of controversy over the handling of the incident by police. Last Monday, a Cleveland grand jury declined to indict the white rookie police officer patrolman Timothy Loehmann who fired the shot that killed Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old black boy who was shot while playing with what turned out to be a pellet gun. The grand jurys decision, announced after more than a month of testimony, reignited the controversy. In explaining the decision, Cuyahoga County prosecutor Tim McGinty said it was indisputable that the boy was drawing the pistol from his waistband when he was fatally shot. McGinty said Rice was trying to either hand the weapon over to police or show them it wasnt real, but the officer and his partner had no way of knowing that. The officers also didnt realize that Rice, big for his age, standing 5 foot 7 inches tall and weighing 175 pounds, was just 12 years old. Simply put, given this perfect storm of human error, mistakes and miscommunications by all involved that day, the evidence did not indicate criminal conduct by police, McGinty said. He said Loehmann was justified in opening fire: He had reason to fear for his life. There was no immediate comment from Loehmann after the decision. An attorney for Loehmanns partner, patrolman Frank Garmback, called the shooting a tragic incident but said its clear the officers acted within the bounds of the law. The grand jury also declined to indict Garmback. Rice was shot by Loehmann within two seconds of the officers police cruiser skidding to a stop near the boy. Loehmann and Garmback were responding to a 911 call about a guy pulling a gun out of his pants and pointing it at people. It was, as prosecutor McGinty stated, a perfect storm of human error, mistakes and miscommunications. But it was a perfect storm that state Rep. Clel Baudler, R-Greenfield, a 32-year veteran of the Iowa State Patrol and currently chairman of the House Public Safety Committee, feels could potentially have been avoided not by regulations prohibiting the look-alike guns but by better training for police radio dispatchers. Rice was carrying a borrowed airsoft gun that looks like an actual firearm but shoots nonlethal plastic pellets. It was missing the orange tip that is supposed to show that its not a real weapon. In detailing the decision not to bring charges, McGinty said police radio personnel contributed to the tragedy by failing to pass along the all-important fact that the 911 caller whose call set the stage for the fatal shooting had said the gunman was probably a juvenile and the gun probably wasnt real. Loehmann opened fire from a distance estimated at 4 1/2 to 7 feet, getting off two shots, one of which missed. With his hands pulling the gun out and his elbow coming up, I knew it was a gun and it was coming out, Loehmann said in a statement he read to the grand jury. I saw the weapon in his hands coming out of his waistband, and the threat to my partner and myself was real and active. Assistant prosecutor Matthew Meyer said it was extremely difficult for officers to tell the difference between the pellet gun and the firearm its modeled after. While the look-alike gun has often been referred to as a contributing factor, state Rep. Mary Ann Hanusa, R-Council Bluffs, said shes not sure restrictions on those types of guns are something that should be tackled by the Legislature. It would be nice if the manufacturers of these things would say they need to look at their designs, she said. I wonder if regulation of those things regulations dictating what toys should look like wouldnt be a bit of a slippery slope. If anything should come out of the Cleveland incident, it should be added and better training for dispatchers, said Baudler, the retired state trooper. If the information from the 911 caller had been accurately and completely relayed to the officers, I believe the outcome would very likely have been different. I can tell you the reason (the Cleveland shooting) happened is because the dispatcher dropped the ball. Theres definitely a problem there and something we need to look at, state Rep. Charlie McKonkey, D-Council Bluffs, said of the look-alike guns. They are so realistic. The result was tragic, but I dont think the officers overreacted, he said. I dont have any concrete suggestions at this point, but we need to look at what we might be able to do to avoid these sorts of incidents in the future. The guns are not a concern to me, Baudler said. Anything to restrict a toy will throw up a red flag. All that prohibiting these look-alike guns would do would be to create a black market. Mohamed Abdel Moniem, a journalist for Tahya Misr, was arrested and charged under the provisions of the 2013 protest law Cairo Criminal Court sentenced an Egyptian journalist to three years in prison over charges of illegally protesting in April 2015. Mohamed Abdel Moniem, a journalist for the privately owned Tahya Misr newspaper (Arabic for Long Live Egypt), was charged with protesting without a license and breaching security, public order and traffic laws. However, some local media reported that the newspaper's board chairman said Abdel Moniem was just covering a protest of the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood and was caught by authorities as if he was among Brotherhood protesters. The court's panel said Abdel Moniem is not officaily a journalist as he is not a registered member of Egypt's Journalists Syndicate. In November 2013, Egypt's interim president, following the ouster of former president Mohamed Morsi, issued a protest law that bans demonstrations without police authorisation and gives security forces the right to bar any public gathering of more than 10 people. Dozens of people, including several prominent activists, have been charged and convicted under its provisions, heightening fears of a slide back into authoritarianism following the 2011 uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak. According to the Journalists Syndicate, 32 journalists, including 14 syndicate members, are currently imprisoned, 20 of whom are jailed in cases related to their work. Search Keywords: Short link: Photo gallery: First Syrian refugees arrive in Sudbury "God bless you all. Thank you Canada." Those were the first words of the father of a family of five, the first Syrian refugees to arrive in Sudbury, landing Thursday afternoon at the Sudbury Airport. The Syrian family was greeted Thursday at the Greater Sudbury Airport by dozens of volunteers, well-wishers and politicians, who joined a throng of media to await their arrival. Darren MacDonald photos. "God bless you all. Thank you Canada." Those were the first words of the father of a family of five, the first Syrian refugees to arrive in Sudbury, landing Thursday afternoon at the Sudbury Airport. The family was greeted by dozens of volunteers, well-wishers and politicians, who joined a throng of media to await their arrival. The mom, dad and three sons were excited to be here, but were sad because a passport problem kept their grandfather in Lebanon, at least for now. "The first thing he wants is his dad to come here," said Abdul Hak Dabliz, Imam of the Sudbury Mosque, who acted as the translator for the family first's media interview. "They want to forget all the bad days and the hardship they experienced four years ago when they were in Syria. It was very, very hard." They spent three years in Lebanon after managing to flee the horrific civil war in their native land, and have been waiting to come to Canada for the last 12 months. The interior ministry insists the state does not commit forced disappearance, while the National Human Rights Council has repeatedly requested information about suspected victims of forced disappearance Egypt's interior ministry said that information has been sent to the National Council for Human Rights (NCHR) regarding 101 out of 191 people suspected to have been the victims of forced disappearances perpetrated by the government. Abo-Bakr Abdel-Kerim, assistant interior minister for PR and media, told CBC channel that out of the 101 names, 83 people are awaiting trial, including 10 who were released and two who were wanted by authorities pending trial and were on the loose, in addition to 16 who are temporarily detained pending investigation. He said the ministry is looking into the rest of the names and will inform the council. "Since we have 83 people in prisons, this means there is no forced disappearance. Some people who are reported missing join terrorist organisations and get killed, while others are illegal migrants who drown at sea without anyones knowledge," said Abdel-Kerim. In November, activists and human rights organisations like Al-Nadeem Centre, the Freedom for the Brave campaign, and the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms launched a week-long campaign against forced disappearance, with hunger strikes, hashtags and legal complaints. "But where were they? So they were at the interior ministry," human rights activist Kamal Abbas of the NHRC reacted to the ministrys comments regarding the detainees, saying that these arrests were unlawful as the suspects are detained without charge and are not brought before the prosecution. According to the constitution, those detained have the right to contact their family within 12 hours of arrest. "The [interior ministry's] response came after months of silence," says Abbas. Abbas told Ahram Online that the issue erupted in June, as the NCHR called for a hearing session which was attended by over 70 people who said they had family members who were forcefully disappeared, including the family of photojournalist Esraa El-Taweel, who was found to be in Qanater prison two weeks after being reported missing in June. The ministry did not react at the time, says Abbas. After that, local and international organisations started reacting and more complaints came in. Forced disappearance or illegal arrest? "The people who turn out to be in the interior ministry's custody are either forcefully disappeared, as their location is unknown while they are in custody, or they were unlawfully arrested," said Abbas. "Forced disappearance is a horrible crime and reaches the level of being looked into by the International Court of Justice, because it means the authorities secretly arrested someone, so they can be subjected to any harm. "As for unlawful arrest, it means that someone is detained for a period of time, then their location is announced or they are brought before the prosecution," Abbas adds. In October, assistant to the interior minister at the human rights sector Salah Fouad denied the allegations of forced disappearance, saying "whoever claims otherwise must provide evidence". Commenting on a previous report by the NHRC indicating 161 people may have been victims, Fouad said, "If people are claiming that there are forced disappearance cases, numbers will not help in any way. People should provide the ministry with names so that we can search for them instead of just creating a state of confusion." Article 41 of the Egyptian constitution stipulates that "personal freedom is a natural right that is safeguarded and cannot be infringed upon. Except in cases of in flagrante delicto, citizens may only be apprehended, searched, arrested or have their freedoms restricted by a causal judicial warrant necessitated by an investigation." NHCR committee gathers petitions Nasser Amin, head of the complaints office at the NHRC, is preparing a declaration of petitions by families of people who were allegedly subjected to forced disappearance, "according to international criteria of forced disappearance," said NHRC member George Ishak. Every Tuesday, the office receives complaints from the families of alleged victims of forced disappearance as defined by the UN. Egypt is not a state party of the International Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Forced Disappearance, which entered into force in 2010. Article 2 of the convention reads that forced disappearance is "considered to be the arrest, detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation of liberty by agents of the state or by persons or groups of persons acting with the authorisation, support or acquiescence of the state, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, which place such a person outside the protection of the law." Abbas said the council is sending more names and that they hope there will be constant communication with the ministry. He also demanded that the ministry announces details of how detainees were arrested and where they are being held. "Publish [detailed information]. It is a crime that concerns the public opinion, and the interior ministry is responsible in front of the public opinion, the constitution and the law, not the council," said Abbas. Search Keywords: Short link: Pheasants Forever along with the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, the Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Farm Service Agency will be hosting landowner meetings around the state. This general CRP sign-up continues through Feb. 26. Four meetings will be in Lincoln, Keith and Logan counties in January. These meetings will help promote the CRP sign-up, explain the EBI process and discuss updates to Mid-Contract Management. Information will be presented to landowners to show the many options of CRP and other conservation programs, highlight the updated rental rates and discuss public access and additional incentive opportunities. Whether landowners are interested in stopping erosion, increasing habitat for wildlife or learning about financial assistance for conservation efforts, they are encouraged to talk to any local Farm Bill Wildlife Biologist or attend one of these meetings. Meeting times are from 5:30-8:30 p.m., with dinner being provided at all four meetings. n Monday, Jan. 4, at the Wallace VFW located at 118 N. Commercial Ave. n Tuesday, Jan. 5, at the ESU 16 building located at 3145 W. First in Ogallala n Thursday, Jan. 7, at the Stapleton Community Center located at 234 Main St. n Tuesday, Jan. 12, at the WCREC Auditorium at UNL Extension located at 348 E. State Farm Road, North Platte. The CRP informational meetings are made possible through funding from the Nebraska Environmental Trust. Support the Nebraska Environmental Trust by playing the Nebraska Lottery. If unable to attend one of these meetings or for more information, contact the Farm Service Agency at the local USDA Service Center. As 2016 begins, Inside INdiana Business is taking a look back at what our readers consider the most interesting stories of 2015. The news that resonated most with readers included Indiana companies and organizations landing on national and statewide rankings, a major quality of life initiative and the ongoing fallout of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. RFRA Reaction Ramps Up Despite being a budget year, the most talked-about and controversial issue coming from the 2015 legislative session was the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Supporters say it protects religious freedom, while opponents argue it encourages discrimination. The business community was quick to react. Many CEOs demanded "immediate action" after bad national publicitiy. Ultimately, legislators approved a RFRA 'fix,' specifying the act could not be used to discriminate. Governor Pence has told Inside INdiana Business he is unsure if the 2016 session will include RFRA-related legislation. Companies Shine in Statewide Spotlight Indiana companies throughout the state basked in the glow of recognition from organizations including the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, the Indiana Small Business Development Center and the Indiana Department of Workforce Development. The always-popular lists include the chamber's Best Places to Work, the ISBDC's Companies to Watch and the 'Hoosier Hot 50' jobs from the DWD. State Unveils Regional Cities Indiana lawmakers have put a major focus on helping communities throughout the state address population decline and boost quality of place efforts. The Regional Cities Initiative called on cities and towns to collaborate on regional plans and compete for state funding to help turn those plans into reality. In all, seven regions applied, with the state ultimately choosing three to receive $42 million each. State Attracts Thousands of Jobs, Billions of Dollars More than 300 companies made economic development announcements in Indiana in 2015, resulting in 26,555 job commitments and more than $4.7 billion in investment. Some of the biggest announcements came from Subaru of Indiana, which is adding more than 1,200 jobs in Lafayette, and General Motors, which is investing more than $1 billion to double the size of its Fort Wayne Assembly plant. The Rise of Tech Indiana's tech sector continued to shine in 2015. Emarsys located its North American headquarters in Indianapolis, with plans to add 170 jobs. Appirio announced plans to move its headquarters from San Francisco to Indianapolis. Other big announcements came from companies including Green Filing in Richmond, Electronic Commerce Inc. in Elkhart, Haier in Evansville and Trek10 Inc. in South Bend. Major Mergers 2015 saw multiple mergers and acquisitions with a significant impact on Indiana. In July, Indianapolis-based Anthem Inc. announced the acquisition of one of its largest competitors, Cigna Corp., in a $54 billion deal. Springleaf Holdings Inc. in Evansville completed its previously-announced, $4.5 billion acquisition Baltimore-based OneMain Financial Holdings in November. Also this year, Warsaw-based Zimmer and Biomet completed a $13 billion merger. Other deals in 2015 involved Hill-Rom Holdings, Cushman & Wakefield and the parent company of Dow AgroSciences in Indianapolis. Election Day Brings Upsets The 2015 election saw more than 120 mayoral races decided throughout the state. More than a dozen incumbents lost their bids for re-election. In the state's largest city, incoming mayor Joe Hogsett has begun putting together his leadership team. We Love Lists! Every year, stories about lists and rankings are among the top-clicked, and this year is no exception. IIB readers' 2015 favorites include Hoosier schools appearing on a list of top colleges, Indiana restaurants on Yelp's Top 50 and Hoosiers on the Forbes billionaire list. LANSING Not far from a table stocked with old-fashioned plastic rain bonnets and chiffon head scarves sits a cassette tape radio tuned to an FM station playing modern hits like "Best I Ever Had" by Drake. The pink- and black-themed interior of Fashionette, 3334 Ridge Road, shows how the shop favors the more old-fashioned side of that dichotomy, as owner Jackie Protsman describes the women's apparel store as "classy classic." The earring displays are loaded with bold-colored costume jewelry for pierced and non-pierced ears. Clip-ons can be hard to find in other shops, but Protsman stocks them for women like herself who never got their ears pierced. Back then, girls didn't go to the mall and sit in a chair while someone punctured their ears with a stud-loaded earring gun. Instead, they braced the back of the ear with a potato and pushed a needle through the front of the lobe. Protsman wanted no part of that. "Most of these are either $12 or $8, which is a good price," she said, spinning the creaky display. "They're good earrings." Accessories like broaches, necklaces, embroidered handkerchiefs, glitzy hand bags and patterned scarves are neatly laid out in glass display cases. Scarves run $10 each, a price that reflects Protsman's longtime relationships with suppliers. "I cut the middle man out and I pass (the savings) on to my customers," she said. Worn pamphlets on the counter show dozens of ways to wear and tie the silky scarves. The handkerchiefs make for great gifts. "The kids grow up, move away and they want to send Grandma something, more than a card," she said. "So they buy a hankie. And it mails well." Protsman prides herself on keeping a clean, tidy store. Plastic covers drape over the collars and shoulders of garments, protecting them from hands foraging the racks for a certain size or style. Sizes range from small to 3X, catering to ladies who are petite or "ample." Each item is treated with care. "We press everything," she said. "It isn't junk. But we're not a boutique. Our prices are right." A friend knits shawls, blankets and hats, charging only the cost of the yarn and no labor fees. The shawls are popular year-round. "These are nice because the girls go to prom or Grandma's cold in the winter or maybe some ladies are cold when they go into a restaurant in the summer," she said. Protsman sells house coats, night gowns, socks, pretty hospital gowns, sweaters, fake furs, blouses, skirts, cobbler aprons, spa robes and more, including a section of black clothing. "Funerals," she whispered. Her best seller? "Slacks," she said. "I sell tons of them." Bend Over pants the polyester kind with a stretchy waistband are popular among older women. They come in a rainbow of colors, from neutral tones to pastels and bold hues. It's a style that hasn't waned over the years. Fashionette has been around long enough to see it all. The shop opened 63 years ago on Ridge Road in Lansing first as a hosiery and has been at its current location since 1972, the site of a former Wells Fargo stop, Protsman said. The history of the shop is collected in newspaper clippings, old photos and notes in a large blue scrap book with "Vol. 1" embossed in golden lettering on the cover. Yellowing photos of women strutting in '70s fashion for an audience are stuck to some of the pages. "I used to give style shows," Protsman said. "A hundred of them, I think." Protsman, who has family ties to Protsman Elementary School in Dyer, has 88 years worth of life stories. Last week, she took a phone call from a friend named Loretta she worked with at Republic Steel long ago. "We used to go down to Michigan Avenue, and we'd get a massage, we'd get our face all done, then we'd go to what they called the Tip Top Tap," she said. "We ordered cocktails, and two guys tried to pick us up." She's traveled to Japan. She served as president of the Chamber of Commerce in Lansing. She appeared as a clown named Miss Pinky, dressed in all pink like Strawberry Shortcake and carrying a hand puppet in matching garb that did the talking when they made hospital visits. She once owned a hotsy totsy car. "I bought a '63 1/2," she said. "It was aqua and it had a white vinyl top. Was I ever cool!" Employee Margie Szalbierz, a Lansing resident, described Protsman as "a party girl," something her glittery pink finger nail polish hints at. She has a lot of fun running the shop. "Life has been so good to me," Protsman said. "I thank God every day." She is just as good to her customers. "You don't get the personal attention (at other shops) that Jackie gives," Szalbierz said. Michael Gresk, of Chicago's Southeast Side, stopped in before Christmas to pick up a gift certificate for his girlfriend. The posted hours indicated the shop should be open, but it was dark. A maintenance man called Protsman, who flipped on the lights, warmly greeted Gresk and handed him a notepad to write his name and his girlfriend's name. Gresk heard "old clackety keys" as Protsman created the gift certificate on a typewriter in a back room. Gresk and his girlfriend had driven by the store plenty of times but had never gone in. "We like those old-school places," he said. "It's like a time warp." You don't see those types of shops anymore, he said. Protsman has no plans to stop any time soon. "I want to work forever," she said. "I'm going to be here until I can't." Recently I had a good friend who told me that she would not let her young children watch regular television anymore because she would never know when an emergency broadcast would interrupt regular kids programs and scare them half to death about bombings, shootings and I could go on and on. I would tend to agree with her. There is so much turmoil in our country and abroad; can you imagine what these kinds of issues could be like for a child who doesnt have a place to lay their head at night? Many people go without food and shelter all over this world every day. Thank God we have places here in Portage Township that people can go to get help and get back on their feet again. One such place is Gabriels Horn, a shelter providing safe, secure and temporary shelter and basic necessities of life for homeless women and mothers with children. At the shelter they give the homeless an opportunity to complete their education, referrals to other agencies that can assist them and a stable, structured living environment. Did you know that Gabriels Horn is the only homeless shelter in Porter County for women and children and provides them safe, temporary shelter, food, linens and basic supplies at no cost? Gabriels Horns board was formed in 2003. Less than a year later, they maintained two buildings, one of which houses people and another to store furniture and other things to help get them out on their own when that time comes. Their mission also includes empowering women to become self-sufficient by collaboration with the community and giving them the tools such as education and counseling. They have become more than a bed in our community. It is a continuous struggle to give residents hope in the face of suffering and hopelessness and to try to keep moving forward. The staff encourages residents to take one day at a time and make small changes as they go. Gabriels Horn board and staff have challenges to tackle and we must reach out to residents to help make a difference in the lives of the women and children we serve in Porter County. Since opening our doors in 2004, Gabriels Horn Homeless Shelter has helped more than 300 families break the cycle of homelessness, get back on their feet and live life to the fullest again. The shelter needs a new roof and while we have some funds available to us, we dont have nearly enough. So we are asking the community, businesses, organizations and individuals to help us Raise Funds for the Roof. Please send your donations to Gabriels Horn Homeless Shelter, P.O. Box 943, Portage, IN 46368. For more information, please call (219) 364-1448 and ask for Executive Director Mignon Kennedy. Gabriels Horn is a nonprofit organization, United Way partner and member of the Indiana Association for Community Economic Development. INDIANAPOLIS The 119th Indiana General Assembly reconvenes Tuesday for a 10-week session that features no shortage of controversial and complicated issues. The question of whether lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Hoosiers should be protected from discrimination in hiring, housing and public accommodations is shaping up to be the premier debate of the 2016 session. At the same time, decisions on infrastructure, student testing, religious liberty, the teacher shortage and whether to spend a portion of Indiana's $2.1 billion budget reserve to address those matters are expected to keep the Republican-controlled Legislature hopping until its March 14 mandatory adjournment. Adding an extra political calculus to legislative decision-making this session is that all 100 representatives and half the 50 senators, along with Republican Gov. Mike Pence, are up for re-election in 2016. Here's a look at some of the major issues the General Assembly likely will tackle this year: LGBT protections Indiana law does not prohibit discrimination against LGBT individuals in most circumstances, a fact that became more widely known after the controversial 2015 Religious Freedom Restoration Act was rewritten to bar the denial of services to gays solely on religious grounds. Following the negative nationwide reaction to RFRA, and the generally positive response to the June 2015 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that legalized gay marriage across the country, public opinion polls show a majority of Hoosiers now support adding four-words-and-a-comma to Indiana's civil rights laws by including "sexual orientation, gender identity" as protected classes. A number of business and community groups, including the powerful Indiana Chamber of Commerce, have come out in support of LGBT civil rights. Religious conservatives, including Pence, are grasping to find a compromise that provides sufficient protections, placates Christian groups opposed to homosexuality and gay rights, and avoids the heaping of national scorn on Indiana again. Related to this issue for some lawmakers is the need for government regulations detailing who can use which bathrooms in public places. Roads Everyone at the Statehouse seems to agree something must be done to improve Indiana's roads, rated "C-" by the American Society of Civil Engineers. How to pay for those improvements may be an even bigger fight than LGBT civil rights. State Rep. Ed Soliday, R-Valparaiso, is lead sponsor of the most comprehensive and sustainable road funding plan. But it relies on cigarette and gas tax increases, along with the possible tolling of interstate highways, to maintain and expand Indiana's road network. Pence has said he opposes any tax increases and instead proposed borrowing $240 million and spending various one-time funds to support $1.4 billion in improvements through 2020. House Democratic Leader Scott Pelath, D-Michigan City, has offered a similar plan that spends $2 billion on state and local roads over the next five years. Drugs The state's drug abuse epidemic, due largely to excessive use of prescription painkillers and their illegal equivalents, along with the continuing scourge of methamphetamine manufacturing, is destroying families, communities and Indiana businesses. Pence and county prosecutors are seeking to reverse recently enacted prison sentencing reforms and increase penalties for some drug dealers. Lawmakers also will consider whether to require Hoosiers obtain a doctor's prescription for cold medicines containing pseudoephedrine, a key ingredient in meth, or instead simply authorize pharmacists to deny suspicious sales. Student testing After numerous fiascoes involving the annual ISTEP standardized exam, including test length, erroneous grading and slow results, lawmakers are expected to endorse changes, including possibly replacing ISTEP with an off-the-shelf test used by other states. More immediately relevant is how the Legislature will decide to assign school A-F grades, which often affect local property values and determine which schools get taken over by the state, and award teacher performance pay in a year when most lawmakers agree the high-stakes testing process was badly botched by the test vendor. Teacher shortage A legislative study committee and a separate blue-ribbon panel led by Glenda Ritz, the Democratic state superintendent of public instruction, determined low teacher pay, unsatisfactory working conditions, an overriding focus on testing and an ill-defined career path all are keeping highly-qualified potential educators from choosing to work in Indiana schools. It's not clear whether lawmakers intend to do anything to address those concerns. Some Senate Republicans will seek to reduce or eliminate teacher collective bargaining and guaranteed pensions under the guise of alleviating the state's teacher shortage. Minimum wage Democrats are expected to renew their push to increase the state's minimum wage above the federal minimum of $7.25 per hour. Multiple attempts last session to take the lowest legal pay rate to $10 an hour, or more, repeatedly were rejected by the Republican supermajorities and probably will be again in 2016. Gaming Lawmakers could take steps either to legalize or prohibit daily fantasy sports, which some consider illegal gambling while others call it a game of skill. Inescapable television ads promoting daily fantasy games have created a booming industry that some Hoosier lawmakers suggest might find a home in low-tax, low-regulation Indiana. Distracted driving The state's ban on texting while driving could be expanded to include all mobile technology use, except for making or receiving a telephone call or using digital mapping software. Abortion Various proposals to further restrict abortion access and limit state university research that uses fetal tissue are likely to be considered in the wake of secretly recorded videos that some conservatives claim show Planned Parenthood sells aborted fetuses. A state investigation determined Indiana Planned Parenthood clinics do not participate in fetal tissue donation programs. Sunday sales Grocery, drug and convenience stories may again press lawmakers to eliminate a longstanding ban on Sunday take-home alcohol sales. Indiana is the only state to permit Sunday bar and restaurant alcohol sales but prohibit carry-out sales. The state's package liquor stores oppose any change. CHICAGO Authorities on Sunday identified a man killed in a wall collapse at a construction site at Ford's Chicago Assembly Plant as a Carol Stream resident. John J. Jaloway, 45, died from multiple blunt force injuries in a concrete wall collapse, a Cook County medical examiner's office spokesman said. Jaloway's death was ruled an accident. Jaloway was killed and another worker was critically injuried Saturday morning when an 8-by-8-foot wall fell at Ford's Chicago Assembly Plant in Hegewisch at 126th and Torrence avenues, NBC News reported. NBC, a news partner of The Times Media Co., stated the Chicago Fire Department said a 48-year-old man was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in serious to critical condition. Ford Motor Co. issued a statement after the incident. "We are saddened that a contractor was killed in a construction accident at the Ford Chicago Assembly Plant today and another worker was injured while trying to help after the initial accident," it read. "We offer our sincere condolences to his family, friends and colleagues. We are cooperating fully with the investigation. CEDAR LAKE There could be hope for some forward movement in the towns proposed eco-restoration project study in 2016. Town Administrator Jill Murr said she expects two conference calls with Washington before the end of the year. The project went to the headquarters of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for review last summer. Murr was cautiously optimistic at the Town Council's last meeting of the year. Sometime in 2016, the Army Corps could approve the concept of a locally favored plan to clean up the lake. The town has yet to approve a plan at its level, but such an action on the part of the federal government would mean it would look favorably on the town doing so. The hope of cleaning up the lake has been years-long and the pet project of several town officials. Earlier in 2015, Cedar lake created a nonreverting fund for the project, to be used when it does go forward. A portion of Community Economic Development Income Tax monies has been proposed to set aside to help fund it. Also, in December 2014, the Town Council hosted a presentation by Christopher B. Burke Engineering on the subject. Two proposals outlined by Christopher Burke would dredge either 87 acres or 153 acres of lake, depending on what scope of the project is eventually decided upon. The council took no action then, since it was, and continues to wait, on the federal government decision. Five suspects were also arrested and a number of weapons, explosives, and bullets were seized Egypts army has said it killed 26 terrorists in Saturday raids in troubled North Sinai governorate amid its continuing Martyrs Right operation to rid the area of terrorism. The raids were carried out by members of the Second and Third armies in some parts of Al-Arish, Shiekh Zuweid, Rafah and central Sinai, an army spokesman statement Sunday read. Five suspects were also arrested, according to the statement, and a number of weapons, explosives, and bullets were seized. The armys Operation Martyrs Right started last September aiming to rid the Sinai Peninsula of a decade-long Islamist militant insurgency that spiked more than two years ago following the ouster of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi. It also aims to pave the way for sustainable development in North Sinai. Authorities have reported over the past two years that hundreds of militants have been killed in army campaigns in the governorate. Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis, which pledged allegiance to the Islamic State militant group in November 2014, has claimed responsibility for most of the deadly attacks in North Sinai. Search Keywords: Short link: HAMMOND Just out of college, Stan Dostatni was only looking to work for the city for a couple of years years before moving on to a career in the private sector. It was probably one of the few plans the longtime city engineer was not able to successfully implement. Instead, Dostatni stuck around for 40 years and impacted thousands of residents' lives in ways they may never have realized. Dostatni decided to retire last year. Taking his place will be Dean Button, who was most currently employed with SEH of Indiana, LLC., as a senior project manager/associate. "Stan Dostatni is one of the most knowledgeable people I know, especially when it comes to our city's streets and sewers," said Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. in a statement. "On behalf of the city of Hammond, I wish him the very best in retirement." Growing up in Hammond, Dostatni's parents owned a little restaurant and bar known as Dusty's Tap in the Robertsdale section of the city a business that Dostatni's sister still runs today. A young Stan Dostatni helped out at the business and envisioned becoming a doctor before leaning toward a career as an engineer. "I think part of it was that I could do the engineering and stay here in Lake County, whereas with the medicine I would probably have to go downstate," Dostatni said. "And I was helping my parents with the business so it just worked out better." Besides, Dostatni always enjoyed building things, even making towers out of playing cards as a child. After attending Purdue University and getting his master's from Indiana University, Dostatni took a job as office engineer under then city engineer Tom Conley, with the idea of gaining some experience before getting a job with one of the many private firms in the area. Conley had previously been the city civil engineer in Indianapolis and was a great teacher, Dostatni said. Straying from his original plan, Dostatni found that he was moving up the ladder quickly in his job with the city. After a few years, he became assistant city engineer and later took over the top spot after Conley's replacement decided to run the sanitary district. "I just never envisioned staying here this long," said Dostatni, but he noted he has a great team that includes employees who have been with him for more than two decades. The city engineering position also gave him the ability to manage a variety of projects instead of being with a private firm where he might be stuck on one project for a year at a time. Consequently, he has been able to work on everything from sewers to bridges and everything in between. "It makes it kind of exciting," he said. In addition, he said he has had the satisfaction of accomplishing things in the community where he was born and raised. Over the past 40 years, he estimates he has managed more than a half billion dollars worth of infrastructure projects, which includes eight bridges three of them bicycle bridges. Then there are the numerous projects involving roads, including some that he has seen redone more than once during his long tenure. The project he is probably most proud of, though, is getting 9,000 structures, 5,000 of them residents' homes, out of the flood plain in Hammond. He said when McDermott Jr. asked him several years ago to work on getting everyone out of the flood plain, "I almost fell out of my chair because I thought this is going to be impossible." He didn't give up, though. Instead, working with Siavash Beik, with Christopher Burke Engineering LLC., Dostatni was able to get all but about 160 homes out of the flood plain. He said removing thousands of homes from the flood plain generated savings close to $10 million annually in flood insurance premiums. Dostatni also was instrumental in the fight against the flooding that severely impacted the Region in 2008. He remembered being at home and hearing the forecast that 6 inches or more could hit the area. He knew right away the city was going to need to get ready and at a meeting called that Friday, he made sure that sandbags were prepared and that the "old, decrepit" levee was monitored. In the end, he stayed up for 72 hours, but he said the city succeeded in making sure the main living areas of people's homes didn't get flooded. He also assisted in getting floodwater out of the neighboring community of Munster. Another challenge for Dostatni was working to have improvements made to the city's sewer system to drastically reduce basement backups. He said about 30 years ago, the city used to be plagued by thousands of basement backups every time the city got 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 inches of rain. The sanitary district, one of the many boards that Dostatni has belonged to during his tenure, had a study done that came up with steps to relieve the problem. Then, when the city coffers were flush with money with the advent of casino gaming, Dostatni recalls urging council members to begin taking steps to address the city's underground needs. Over the next decade, the city spent in the neighborhood of $200 million on infrastructure improvements and, according to Dostatni, went from having 5,000 basement backups to maybe only having a handful now. He also was able to build some more visible attractions in the city, including overseeing construction of the downtown fountain. Among the many bridges he helped build he indicated his favorite may be the bike bridge over the Monon Trail, which he believes is the prettiest of the trail crossings that he's built. Having his fingers in about everything going in the city, Dostatni said leaving is going to be a bit sad and he is going to miss the workers in his office who have become like family. Still, he notes he is approaching 68 years of age, and thinks "now it's time to enjoy some of the things I built. Like I would like to ride my bike over that bridge." Voters weary of chatter about Donald Trump and the rest of the presidential gang of candidates can take heart. There are other candidates and elections closer to home. Indiana's primary election is May 3 and the general election will follow Nov. 8. Hoosiers will be electing nine U.S. representatives, a governor, an attorney general, a superintendent of public instruction. Both Lake and Porter County voters will choose a U.S. senator. They also will choose their 1st Congressional District representative. That seat is now held by U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, who filed Wednesday for re-election. Together they also choose the 19th state representative. The incumbent is Julie Olthoff, R-Crown Point. The district sprawls across both counties. Lake voters will choose a total of two state senators, eight state representatives, a circuit court judge, county coroner, county recorder, county surveyor and two members of the Lake County Board of Commissioners. The Porter County ballot will include state representative seats held by Ed Soliday, R-Valparaiso, Scott Pelath, D-Michigan City, Chuck Moseley, D-Portage, and Mike Aylesworth, R-Hebron, and the state Senate seat held by Ed Charbonneau, R-Valparaiso. Porter County also will vote for the judicial post held by Democrat Porter Superior Judge Julia Jent, the commissioner seats held by Republican John Evans and Democrat Laura Blaney, at-large council seats held by Dan Whitten, Bob Poparad and Sylvia Graham; and the offices of surveyor and treasurer, said Kathy Kozuszek, who serves as the Democratic director at the Porter County Voter Registration Office. There are also school board races in Duneland, East Porter County, Portage Township, Porter Township, Union Township, Metropolitan School District of Boone Township and Michigan City Area Schools. Lake's primary and general election will test the public's satisfaction with the current list of officeholders. Lake Circuit Court Judge George C. Paras, Lake County Recorder Michael B. Brown, Lake County Coroner Merrilee Frey and Lake County Surveyor William Emerson Jr. all said they are running for re-election. Paras, whose court hears cases ranging from constitutional matters to domestic law, said he and his staff have resolved thousands of civil disputes since he took office six years ago. "I'm well qualified. I'm experience and I like the job," Paras said. Former sheriff Roy Dominguez said earlier he is mulling a run for circuit court this spring. Brown, whose office is the county archive of property records, said he has upgraded the office's electronics to "recreate the in-person experience online." He said he has reorganized the staff, but only outsourced one job and his staff and vendors have converted hundreds of thousands of paper documents into digital form. Frey, whose office investigates suspicious deaths, said she has personally involved herself in every inquest, about 1,000 a year. She said she reintroduced the issuance of coroner's verdicts, officially stating the cause of death, and is promoting about sudden unexplained infant death syndrome to reduce its occurrence. Emerson, whose office maintains storm water drainage ditches in the unincorporated areas, said he has reduced consulting costs in his office by $53,304.00 in less than two years by paying his licensed surveyor on an hourly basis instead of the flat annual fees under the previous administration and expects additional savings of $5,000 a year by shifting his attorney's to an hourly basis as well. Potential challengers have until Feb. 5 to file paperwork to appear on the May 3 primary ballot. The races for county commissioner could generate the most interest. Commissioner Mike Repay, D-Hammond, will face voters for the first time since his refusal to veto the county income tax. Lake County Councilwoman Christine Cid, D-East Chicago, isn't commenting on rumors she will challenge him. Commissioner Gerry Scheub is running for a sixth term in office, but in a newly configured district with a more Republican tilt. Two Republicans, Schererville Town Councilman Jerry Tippy and Eldon Strong, a Crown Point-based county councilman, announced this month they will enter the race too. Scheub, a Democrat, has said he too will appeal to Republicans voters. Earlier this month, he called upon the County Council to immediately reduce the county income tax. Scheub had tried, unsuccessfully, to block the tax's passage in 2013. Strong called that a cynical bit of election grandstanding since Scheub made no mention of a tax cut last summer when it could have been seriously considered by the County Council as it was putting together a 2016 budget. Strong said no one will take Scheub seriously until he can get his two fellow county commissioners who support the tax and the cities and towns now benefiting from the tax's additional revenues, to sign a tax-cutting resolution. SCHERERVILLE A 49-year-old Crown Point man named as a suspect in his ex-wife's shooting death in Schererville was found dead Sunday at a cemetery in Calumet City, police said. The cause of Richard James Kalecki's death remained under investigation Sunday night but it appeared he committed suicide, said Robert Byrd, spokesman for the Northwest Indiana Major Crimes Task Force. Police said Kalecki was seen on surveillance video fatally shooting Alessandra De Moraes-Emiliano, 37, of Merrillville, in an attack at 12:20 p.m. Saturday at Edible Arrangements, a fruit gift shop, in the Lincoln Ridge Plaza in the 200 block of U.S. 30 in Schererville. Police on Saturday searched Kalecki's house in the 200 block of 127th Place in Crown Point but did not locate him or the murder weapon, Byrd said. Byrd did not immediately have information about whether any evidence was found in the house. Byrd characterized the shooting as domestic violence. Witnesses knew Kalecki because of prior encounters at Edible Arrangements, he said. Lake Superior Court records indicate Richard and Alessandra Kalecki divorced in 2012, months before the Lake County prosecutor's office charged him with three counts of child molesting and three counts of sexual misconduct with a minor. Kalecki's trial in the molestation case was scheduled to begin in March. He faced a maximum 50-year sentence if convicted. The victim told authorities she was 13 when Kalecki began sexually abusing her in December 2010, after telling her he wanted to teach her about the "birds and the bees." Kalecki is alleged to have streamed pornographic videos on a laptop and also recorded his relations with the girl with a handheld camera, which he forced the girl to watch. The girl told authorities she was afraid of Kalecki, who threatened to kill her if she didn't go along with his wishes, court records state. If found out and jailed, Kalecki told the girl, "When I get out, I will hurt everyone who ratted me out, including you, and I will kill myself," court records state. According to court records, a medical doctor confirmed the girl exhibited signs of sexual abuse. The doctor reportedly considered the girl to be suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome. Kalecki is alleged to have repeatedly sexually assaulted the girl until March 2012, when a family member suspected abuse. Byrd said Sunday police were in contact with the girl and she was safe. Kaleckis death brings an end to the tragic domestic violence homicide investigation of Ms. De Moraes-Emiliano," Schererville Police Chief David Dowling said. "We have worked very closely with her entire family, and they have our deepest sympathies. ST. JOHN Subdivisions ranging from eight homes to more than 400 are either under construction or planned, and will provide almost 1,000 new residences in the next 10 or so years. Other construction projects include commercial/retail developments for everything from a Levin Tire Center to a shopping center with 104,000 square feet of store space as well as the proposed Illiana Christian High School. While the former Kmart remains vacant, it's obvious the town has rebounded in a big way from the recession years when almost nothing was built. Most of the development is being made possible by an expansion of the sewage lift station on U.S. 41 that will triple its capacity. St. John Town Manager Steve Kil said the town has known since before the recession the lift station, which pumps the town's sewage to the Schererville treatment plant the two towns share, had to be upgraded. The recession postponed the need when construction stopped. With developers again beating down the door to start their projects, the town was forced to make the improvements to the lift station. The design is being completed, and it is expected the town will be ready to solicit bids in a couple of months for construction next year. "We know we have all these developments coming in and we know how much vacant property still exists, so we sized it to handle all the known and expected future development," Kil said. Kil said he's still studying whether the town will have to borrow money to fund the project. If a loan is needed, he said it won't be a large one, and it will be repaid with sewer fees and other revenue. An even bigger project will be a new well in the southwest quadrant of the town. Kil said that will be needed in the next five to 10 years, and could mean construction of a new treatment plant and/or a water tower. The biggest concern that all this development creates for most residents is traffic. Kil said the town already has bottlenecks created not just by town residents but by residents from other communities flowing through St. John on their way to and from Illinois. Most of that traffic is along 109th Avenue (U.S. 231), 101st Avenue, 93rd Avenue and Calumet Avenue, in addition to U.S. 41. Schilling Development is planning improvements at the major intersections surrounding The Preserves on both 93rd and 101st to accommodate the 432 homes it eventually will hold. The developer also is abiding by the recommendations of the new thoroughfare plan to dedicate 50 feet of right of way on its side of the roads for future widening of the roads. Kil said the town is talking about similar intersection improvements for the Greystone Subdivision, also a Schilling project, and for the area nearest the proposed Illiana Christian school, which is outside the town borders on Calumet south of 109th. The school only is looking to connect to town utilities at this point. "There are roads that need to be widened," Kil said. "The thoroughfare plan says they are running at a level of service C, and it recommends we look at it in the next decade. Widening a road is difficult because of the funding for construction and for the right of way you need to acquire and for the effect on the adjacent property owners. That's why it recommends all developments dedicate the needed right of way," Kil said. "One of the shortfalls in Indiana is road improvement funding. Towns get very little for road improvements. It's almost non-existent compared to the amount of work we have to do. There is no dedicated funding source or it is woefully inadequate. That's why it's difficult to take on road projects, especially widening. "It's the most challenging aspect of local government, and it's been a challenge since day one," Kil said. "I don't see a solution coming from the state in the near future. We run a balanced budget and don't issue tax anticipation warrants, and we still can't keep up with the road work." While residents object to development destroying the bucolic view they've enjoyed outside their door for years, Kil said the town can't deny property owners the right to build as long as they meet the zoning and building code requirements because it would be considered the same as illegally taking the property. Other vacant land exists in St. John, including one parcel that Kil estimated could some day hold more than 1,000 homes by itself. With most of the homes in town expected to sell for $400,000 and up, it appears St. John and its traffic problems could continue into the future. SCHERERVILLE | Police said they are looking for a Crown Point area man wanted in the shooting death of his former wife earlier Saturday in the busy heart of this the town's retail business district. Robert Byrd, a spokesman for the Northwest Indiana Major Crimes Task Force asked the public to be on the lookout for Richard James Kalecki, 49, of the 200 block of 127th Place, in the Pine Hill Subdivision on the south side of Crown Point. "We are making a major push to locate this man. Anybody who sees him should immediately contact their local police department," Byrd said. He asked that anyone who saw anything at the scene to call Schererville police at (219) 322-5000. He is wanted in connection with the death of Alessandra De Moraes-Emiliano, 37, of Merrillville, who died of a gunshot wound in an attack at Edible Arrangements, a fruit gift shop, in the Lincoln Ridge Plaza in the 200 block of U.S. 30, about a half mile east of U.S. 41. Byrd characterized the shooting as domestic violence. Town police officers, crime scene specialists with the Lake County Sheriff's Department and officers from the Northwest Indiana Major Crimes Task Force are investigating. Byrd said authorities have eyewitness testimony placing Kalecki at the crime scene as well as video from a security camera at the business. "It pretty much tells the story," Byrd said. Neighbors of the suspect said they were startled to find their quiet neighborhood saturated with a police presence late Saturday afternoon. One man said he was shocked to see a police sniper and two armed police vehicles. Their armored police cars, an ambulance and squad cars blocked off the Pine Hill Subdivision late Saturday afternoon. Officers surrounded Kalecki's home in an attempt to make contact with him as they awaited a search warrant to enter the house. Byrd said Kalecki wasn't home and remained at large Saturday night. Lake County E-911 dispatchers radioed a report of the homicide taking place at 12:50 p.m. within the mall. Police described Kalecki as 5-feet, 11-inches tall and weighing 216 pounds. He is described as having brown hair and hazel eyes and was armed with a silver-colored handgun. Byrd said they don't have a description of the suspect's vehicle. Lake Superior Court records indicate Richard and Alessandra Kalecki divorced in 2012, months before the Lake County prosecutor's office charged him with three counts of child molesting and three counts of sexual misconduct with a minor. Court papers in the divorce case listed Alessandra's address as the same as Edible Arrangements. Court papers in the sexual misconduct case listed Richard Kalecki's address as the house police had surrounded Saturday. Kalecki's trial in the molestation case was scheduled to begin in March. He faces a maximum 50-year sentence if convicted. The victim told authorities she was 13 when in December 2010, Kalecki began sexually abusing her after telling her he wanted to teach her about the "birds and the bees." Kalecki is alleged to have streamed pornographic videos on a laptop and also recorded his relations with the girl with a handheld camera, which he forced the girl to watch. The girl told authorities she was afraid of Kalecki, who threatened to kill her if she didn't go along with his wishes, court records state. If found out and jailed, Kalecki told the girl, "When I get out, I will hurt everyone who ratted me out, including you, and I will kill myself," court records state. According to court records, a medical doctor confirmed the girl exhibited signs of sexual abuse. The doctor reportedly considered the girl to be suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome. Kalecki is alleged to have repeatedly sexually assaulted the girl until March 2012, when a family member suspected abuse. The Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore offers a variety of programs this month on the shores of Lake Michigan. For more information, call (219) 395-1882 or visit www.nps.gov/indu. The visitor center is at 1215 N. Ind. 49, Porter. The Paul H. Douglas Center is at 100 N. Lake St., Gary. The Pinhook Bog parking lot is in the National Lakeshore at 700 N. Wozniak Road. The Dunewood Campground is south of the intersection of U.S. 12 and Broadway in the central portion of the National Lakeshore. The Mnoke Prairie parking lot is on Howe Road slightly more than a half-mile south of the intersection of Howe and Oak Hill roads. The Chellberg/Bailly parking lot is on Mineral Springs Road between U.S. 20 and U.S. 12. The Great Marsh Trail parking lot is on Broadway north of the Beverly Shores Train Station in Beverly Shores. Fun science experiments Join Ambassador Girl Scout Shelby Hoyert from 1 to 4 p.m. today at Indiana Dunes National Lakeshores Paul H. Douglas Center as she demonstrates fun science experiments for kids as part of her Gold Award project. The project focuses on teaching kids science experiments to encourage interest in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields of study. She has created a website, curiescience4kids.weebly.com, that describes several experiments that can be done at home. Find Your Park film series Each weekend, explore a different National Park Service site through the Find Your Park Film Series at Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. The films last about an hour and are shown at 2 p.m. on Sundays at the Indiana Dunes visitor center in Porter and on Saturdays at the Paul H. Douglas Center in Miller. Upcoming films will feature African Burial Ground National Monument at the visitor center today, and the Douglas Center on Saturday; Mount Rushmore at the visitor center on Jan. 10 and the Douglas Center on Jan. 16; the National Parks of Arkansas on Jan. 17 and at the Douglas Center on Jan. 23; and the Acadia National Park at the visitor center on Jan. 24 and the Douglas Center on Jan. 30. Martin Luther King program Celebrate and honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders at Indiana Dunes National Lakeshores Paul H. Douglas Center on Saturday for a day of programs, special displays and volunteer projects. Join a ranger at 10 a.m. or 12:30 p.m. for an hourlong armchair tour of national park sites that celebrate African-American history. Projects involve separating native seeds from the chaff and preparing wild indigo seeds for planting throughout the park this spring. This exhibit will be on display from Saturday through March 3 at the Douglas Center. Snowshoe program Join a ranger at Indiana Dunes National Lakeshores visitor center for a brief indoor program on winter and the use of snowshoes. Then, get a chance to try out some snowshoes on a ranger-led hike through the fields and woods surrounding the center. This two-hour program will be offered at 1 p.m. on Saturday and Jan. 16 and 30. There are a limited number of snowshoes available for loan during this program or you can bring your own. If there is not enough snow, we will offer a hike instead. Open house Enjoy fun, family-friendly activities at Indiana Dunes National Lakeshores Paul H. Douglas Center from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. every Saturday. Then, if theres enough snow, borrow some of the centers cross-country skis and explore the beautiful Miller woods in winter. You can also help feed the centers resident turtles and fish or just explore the centers exhibits. A press release crossed my desk in early December from Americans For Prosperity. This is a Koch Brothers financed outfit and sometimes political and policy wing for Gov. Mike Pence. The gist of the release was that "Hoosiers currently pay one of the highest gas taxes in the nation," according to Justin Stevens of AFP. He went on to say, Indiana already has a significantly higher gas tax than Ohio and Kentucky, and is only slightly lower than Michigan and Illinois. A gas tax increase would make us less competitive with our neighbors and place undue burden on our residents and businesses." I followed up with Stevens, asking, Without a gas tax hike, how should Indiana maintain its growing list of substandard bridges and highways? The answer was somewhat nonsensical. Stevens repeated his claims and promised to continue to participate in the conversation. I responded by saying, You didn't answer my question. If you're going to participate in the conversation, you should provide solutions. Beyond a gas tax increase, what is AFP's solution to provide long-term road funding here in Indiana? At this point, the conversation ended. The fact is that Indianas legislative leaders are exploring a gas tax increase. It comes in a state that bills itself as the Crossroads of America. It has been innovative in its road financing. In 2006, Gov. Mitch Daniels Major Moves lease of the Indiana Toll Road brought what he called the only fully-funded road program in the nation. Much of the $4 billion went to create new bridges over the Ohio River, the I-69 extension to Evansville, and freeway upgrade of U.S. 31, all of which are proceeding nicely. But the problem facing Hoosiers today is that the rest of the infrastructure is crumbling. There are 1,962 bad bridges (out of 19,019). The I-65 closure at Lafayette this past summer (the result of a construction mishap) was a precursor of troubles ahead. Many of our interstates are running at volume. We are just years away from the kind of gridlock you find on the Dan Ryan Expressway or out in Los Angeles. Our last gas tax hike was in 2002. Since then, cars are getting much better mileage, and a growing segment is switching to electric or natural gas. In a few years, national gas mileage standards increase to 54 mpg. The road maintenance revenues are shrinking. With gas running between $1.60 and $1.99 a gallon these days, there is an opportunity to raise the gas tax to fund the next decade of road maintenance. In a sense, its getting much better gas mileage, and shifting a small percentage of the expense to the gas tax. The consumer is going to be better off. Without it, the consumer pays, whether it is waiting in gridlock on an interstate, detouring around an unsafe bridge or losing an axle to a pothole. House Speaker Brian Bosma and Senate President David Long are hardly spendthrifts. Their combined legacy has been small government and an array of tax cuts. The one time they did sign off on a tax increase on cigarettes during the Daniels administration it created the Healthy Indiana Plan, which has extended health coverage to upwards of 400,000 Hoosiers. HIP and HIP2.0 are considered to be two of the greatest policy achievements of both Govs. Daniels and Pence. Long explained, We operate on very thin margins. We operate very responsibly in Indiana. This is a national problem. All 50 states are grappling with this. Long term, we have to find the solution and have the courage to propose some tough things that on the surface and in the past people might not have supported. Long acknowledged he is uncomfortable with a gas tax hike because it goes against his instincts. We pride ourselves with being fiscally responsible people, the Fort Wayne Republican said. We have a need. We have to face the music on this and it can be a lot of different things. Bosmas House caucus is further along, proposing a gas tax hike. Almost every state is dealing with the issue that much of our Interstate infrastructure was constructed 60 years ago and is in severe need of replacement and upgrading, Bosma said. Weve pushed well in excess of $1 billion, closer to $1.5 billion in state and federal road funding. Our polling this summer actually indicated that Hoosiers are ready to invest, paying more for a gallon of gas for increased highway taxes. Its worth a discussion. Pence proposed a $2 billion, four-year plan, but it bonds a good portion of that. When a government pays for projects via bonds, taxpayers still pay. They just pay over a longer period of time and often after the improvements are worn out. The problem facing Long and Bosma are about 27 of Indiana lawmakers along with Pence who have signed Grover Norquists no-tax-increase pledge. It is a pledge based on dogma and ideology by followers. Leaders size up problems and solutions, then make decisions. Followers sign tax pledges, not to be bothered with facts. The Crossroads of America has huge maintenance issues. It needs leadership. Terre Haute has been informed by the State Board of Accounts that the most recent audit of the city finds there is substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern." Towns elsewhere, including in Northwest Indiana, have been told the same thing. With a private business, such an audit would indicate the business must either liquidate or substantially change the way it operates. With a city or county, however, liquidation is not an option generally considered. That leaves substantial change as the best course of action. But not so fast. Change in the way a local government operates requires leadership, political courage and guiding principles. If your community lacks any of that, there is a third option, i.e., confiscating even more money from taxpayers and continuing operations in pretty much the same way as before. Some mayors, commissioners and council members gravitate to option three. They imagine they can kick the financial can down the road for a few more years; their crisis need not be faced, just delayed. In such an approach, nobody mentions tax increases, but rest assured that is exactly what's on the table. Fees imposed for services previously paid by property tax without a corresponding decrease in the property tax levy, is a tax increase. Converting municipal services (transit, utilities, etc.) to a public corporation with its own tax rate without a corresponding decrease in the property tax levy is a tax increase. Dramatic increases in municipal utility rates corresponding to dramatic increases in PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) from a utility are a particularly egregious tax increase. And, of course, there is the renewed push for open tax increases in the form of food and beverage taxes and the mother lode, local-option income tax. But a stultifying burden of taxes already is imposed by national, state and local governments. How can anyone seriously conclude that government needs more? Such a proposal does not reflect courageous and principled leadership but quite the opposite. My experience is that in a financial crisis there might be cursory political mention of reducing expenditures, but it is usually made only for political cover only in passing and never with specifics. Nor is there reference to the hugely costly, counterproductive and ethically suspect economic "development efforts of the typical failing city. There is a better way than imposing another round of tax increases and economic "development." Indeed, it has been outlined in detail by the Indiana Policy Review Foundation in numerous journal articles beginning more than a decade ago. Writers with backgrounds in business, government and academia have provided specific steps that local government can take to change the way it operates in the face of financial challenges. In doing so, it can free its citizens to take responsibility, create opportunity, embrace real economic development, build community and live their lives as they see fit. If there are those in your community with leadership skills, courage and principles, it is time for them to step up that or wait for the letter from the State Board of Accounts to show up in your city hall mailbox. The Indiana General Assembly convenes Tuesday and is scheduled to meet weekdays until March 14. While sessions in even-numbered years originally were only for dealing with emergency state needs, nowadays lawmakers consider legislation relating to pretty much anything during the "short session." A two-year state budget was adopted in 2015. Republicans are dominant at the Statehouse. The GOP controls 71 of 100 House seats and 40 of 50 Senate seats. Legislative leaders for the 2016 session are: House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis House Democratic Leader Scott Pelath, D-Michigan City Senate President David Long, R-Fort Wayne Senate Democratic Leader Tim Lanane, D-Anderson Contact your lawmakers Lawmakers can be reached at the Statehouse in several ways: MAIL Lawmaker's name, chamber, 200 W. Washington St., Indianapolis, IN 46204 TELEPHONE State representatives: (800) 382-9842; State senators: (800) 382-9467 E-MAIL Select the lawmaker you wish to contact at iga.in.gov/legislative/2016/legislators. Click the "email" link on the lawmaker's page to send a message. The General Assembly website, listing pending legislation and other information, is at iga.in.gov. Contact the governor, lieutenant governor Gov. Mike Pence and Lt. Gov. Sue Ellspermann lead the state's executive branch. Both are Republicans. They can be reached several ways: MAIL 200 W. Washington St., Indianapolis, IN 46204 TELEPHONE Governor's office: (317) 232-4567; Lt. Governor's office: (317) 232-4545 EMAIL Use the web form at www.in.gov/gov/2333.htm CROWN POINT | Improving the court's efficiency is a top priority for each of the candidates vying to replace retiring Lake Circuit Court Judge Lorenzo Arredondo. Though Arredondo had announced a re-election bid, the veteran jurist withdrew at the eleventh hour from the May primary, reputedly to allow the court's longtime probate commissioner, Merrillville Town Court Judge George Paras, to immediately file as the sole Democratic contender. The plan was thwarted when attorney Alex Dominguez, the nephew of Lake County Sheriff Rogelio "Roy" Dominguez, also filed in the final hour. Paras subsequently defeated Dominguez and now faces Republican William Fine in Tuesday's general election. Paras said this week if elected he sees his main issue as making sure the court functions in these tough economic times. In the past two years, the court has seen its budget cut by 30 percent, he said. "A third (of the court budget) is personnel, and the rest is wherever we could cut," Paras said. "We're pretty bare bones as far as I can see now." Paras said he doesn't have a secretary in what he described as the busiest probate court in the county. "I do all my entries myself. I'm pretty much judge, secretary and bailiff," he said. That brings him to his second priority of improving efficiency. "We must utilize all electronic means to increase efficiency for the lawyers and public access," he said. Paras said electronic filing involves a fee but saves a lot of time and paper. "It would be a major savings," he said. "I would think in the clerk's office especially." Fine, a Highland attorney, survived a challenge to his candidacy by Democratic Lake County assessor nominee Carol Ann Seaton, herself under fire for holding driver's licenses in Indiana and Michigan and for suspicious property tax breaks on her Gary home. Lake County Republican Chairwoman Kim Krull's right to appoint a candidate to the judicial vacancy on the GOP ballot later was upheld by a state court. Fine cited state rules on judicial conduct as preventing him from discussing most issues. That said, Fine said he believes it most important that voters elect a judge most qualified for the job. "That's the No. 1 priority," he said. "Once elected judge, the top priority is to deal with timeliness issues." Fine said he had seen as a law clerk how a well-run circuit court can be administered. Fine said while the circuit court, which handles civil cases exclusively, doesn't have the time constraints of a criminal court -- where someone may be jailed -- litigants are nevertheless entitled to having cases handled quickly. Fine acknowledged Arredondo created some important programs in terms of family law. Half of the county's divorce cases are heard in circuit court, he said. "I will look at the bureau he established and see if it's properly staffed," he said. "I don't intend to reinvent the wheel but will look at efficiencies, tweaking them or throwing out what's bad." The executions, which were criticised by a number of international figures and leaders, led to protests by Shias in Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Bahrain and Iran The Saudi embassy in Cairo stressed Sunday the independence and integrity of its judiciary following the Saturday execution of 47 convicted of terrorism, including prominent Shia cleric Nimr Al-Nimr. The embassy, in a statement, added that the verdicts were issued regardless of the ethnic identity or ideologies of the convicted. It added that the verdicts were based solely on the terrorist acts of the convicted that "led to the deaths of many innocent individuals." Those executed include an Egyptian and a Chadian. The rest are all Saudis. The executed also included Sunnis who had been convicted of involvement in deadly 2003 and 2004 Al-Qaeda attacks that killed Saudis and foreigners in the kingdom. The executions, which were criticised by a number of international figures and leaders, led to protests by Shias in Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Bahrain and Iran. Both the Saudi embassy and consulate were ransacked in Iran Saturday night. Egypts foreign ministry released a statement Sunday condemning the attack on the Saudi embassy. Saudi Arabia is one of Egypt's staunchest allies in the region. The statement stressed the need to respect "the inviolability of the premises of diplomatic and consular missions and the safety of personnel. Search Keywords: Short link: In 1940, Evelyn Laesch Farley was a 25-year-old beauty shop owner in Flint, Mich. But she wanted to do what few women were known to do at that time fly. Not only did she receive her pilot's license, Farley went on to become one of about 2,000 civilian women who became Women's Airforce Service Pilots, who were employed to fly military aircraft under the direction of the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II. Farley, 100, got to fly again. She told staff during breakfast at Avalon Springs Health Campus in Valparaiso that she was proud to have been in a plane and that "there's nothing else like it." A few days later, while making crafts Farley told the staff that "flying was easier." Staff members quickly discovered Farley's history with with WASP, and when Farley said she'd like to "go up one more time," Avalon Springs made it happen. Beth Bertram, the facility's lifestyle enrichment director, said an Avalon Springs program helps grant wishes for seniors. "And anything we can do to make her life better, we're going to do it." Avalon Springs got in touch with Donna Stevens, owner of DonnAir, a flight school at Porter County Regional Airport, who agreed to take Farley for a plane ride. "With her being a former WASP, and being a female pilot myself, I was all for it," Stevens said. "I think that's quite an honor for me." When asked where she wanted to fly to before boarding the plane, Farley said "to the moon." She didn't go quite that far, but Stevens took her on a 30-minute flight over the region, during which Stevens said Farley had a smile on her face almost the entire time. "I love it," Farley said after touching down. "The whole freedom. Driving a car, you've got to stay in your lane. Flying an airplane, you can go anyplace. You've got the whole sky." News articles on Farley have been collected by the Library of Congress. One headline reads "Girl Makes It." It was a reference to Farley, who was the only one of six candidates to pass a flying examination at Flint's Bishop Airport. The other five were all men. The articles refers to Farley as someone who beat the men "in a man's game." In a quote from that article, Farley said she was in the air "every minute I can spare from the beauty shop." Farley was 27 when she was accepted into the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Service, which along with the 319th Women's Flying Training Detachment merged into WASP. According to the article, Farley had a sister at the time living in Valparaiso whom she visited on the way to training in Texas. Farley said when she told her dad she wanted to fly he said to "get those silly ideas out of your head." Farley was grateful, however, that her father let her use his car to go drive to her lessons. According to records the female pilots of the WASP ended up numbering 1,074, each freeing a male pilot for combat service and duties. They flew more than 60 million miles in every type of military aircraft. Between Sept. 1942 and Dec. 1944, the WASP delivered 12,650 aircraft of 77 different types. More than 50 percent of the ferrying of high-speed pursuit type aircraft in the continental United States was carried out by WASP pilots. The WASP was granted veteran status in 1977, and given the Congressional Gold Medal in 2009. TODAY'S QUIZ: What Indiana jail did John Dillinger escape from? Learn about this part of Indiana's history and much more at nwi.com/history. PORTER COUNTY , Ind. - The mentally handicapped Lake Station couple missing for nearly three weeks was found dead Monday in a wooded area on the banks of Salt Creek near South Haven, police said. Jason and Kimberly Tuzinski, both 20, who had lived in Lake Station's Pine Village mobile home park, had been missing since Nov. 6. Kimberly Tuzinski's body was found in a tributary of Salt Creek near Ind. 149 and 600 North; her husband's body was found about a mile away near Ind. 149 and 700 North. It appears they were killed shortly after their disappearance, police said. One of their neighbors, Frank Gilmer, 28, is a suspect in their murders, police said. Gilmer is also a suspect in the Sunday rape of a Portage woman. He is being held in the Portage City Jail. Divers from the Porter County Sheriff's Department searched the creek Monday afternoon for evidence related to the Tuzinskis deaths. Though police were not sure how the couple died, one officer said it appeared both had head injuries. Their bodies were taken to the Porter County morgue, where the cause of death will be determined. More details involving the Tuzinskis murder are expected to be released today during a press conference scheduled by the Porter County Sheriff's Department. Gilmer is also a suspect in the rape of 19-year-old Portage woman who told police Gilmer tied her up and took her to the Tippecanoe State Park near Lafayette, Ind., where he raped her. From there, Gilmer took her to the South Haven area where she was let go, police said. Gilmer was picked up by police in Lake Station around 2 a.m. Sunday for allegedly having a gun without a permit. Police said a subsequent investigation revealed that Gilmer was involved in the rape of the Portage woman. Details of Gilmer's alleged involvement in the murders are expected to be released during today's press conference. Marianna Koval and Stephen Paul Burgay were married Dec. 31 at their home in Boston by Matthew Burgay, the grooms brother, who received permission from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Until Dec. 31, the bride, 58, was a Boston-based consultant to the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, having formerly served in New York as the departments senior adviser to the commissioner. She also was the president of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy from 1999 to 2009. She graduated from Princeton and received a law degree from Fordham and a Master of Public Administration from Harvard. She is a daughter of Patricia OBrien of Washington and John P. Koval of Chicago, and a stepdaughter of Margaret Power and of the late Frank Mankiewicz. The brides father retired as a sociology professor at DePaul University. Her mother, who writes under the name Kate Alcott, is an author of historical fiction whose novels include The Dressmaker. The brides stepfather was a journalist, a Democratic political strategist and a former president of National Public Radio. Her stepmother retired as a chief reference librarian at DePaul. The groom, 59, is the senior vice president for external affairs at Boston University. He graduated from Tufts and received a law degree from N.Y.U. He is a son of the late Ruth Burgay and the late Alvin Burgay, who lived in Hicksville, N.Y. His mother was a probation officer with the Nassau County Probation Department in Mineola, N.Y. His father was a special education teacher at Hicksville Junior High School. Veronica Dublin Brooks and Kevin Jonathan Uy were married Dec. 31 at the University of Virginia Alumni Hall in Charlottesville. Pastor Robert F. Brown, a Baptist minister, officiated. Mrs. Brooks-Uy, 30, works in Raleigh, N.C., as an education consultant for CivicPriority, a New Orleans-based company that specializes in researching and evaluating solutions to social and organizational problems. She graduated from the University of Virginia and received a masters degree in public policy from George Washington. She is the daughter of Vivian Wilson Brooks and Dublin R. Brooks of Nathalie, Va. The brides father is a special-education teacher at the Rivermont School in Mecklenburg, Va. Her mother is a guidance counselor at North Elementary School in Roxboro, N.C. Mr. Uy, 28, is a Raleigh-based mathematics tutor with Varsity Tutors of New York, which connects students with tutors. He graduated from Johns Hopkins and received a masters in secondary math education from Binghamton University. Inside Out Written by PETE DOCTER, MEG LeFAUVE AND JOSH COOLEY Inside 11-year-old Rileys head, Joy, Sadness, Disgust, Fear and Anger take turns being in charge. On the girls first day at a new school, Joy (voiced by Amy Poehler) has found a job for Sadness (Phyllis Smith). SADNESS What are you doing? Joy kneels down and begins drawing a chalk circle around Sadnesss feet. JOY And there. Perfect. As Joy finishes the circle JOY This is the circle of Sadness. Your job is to make sure that all the Sadness stays inside of it. SADNESS So you want me to just stand here? JOY Hey, its not MY place to tell you how to do your job. Just make sure that WHEN I moved my Beginning Greek course, last year, from the spring to fall semester, I did not reckon with the impact on my psyche of diminishing daylight. As the days grew shorter, my thoughts about the course grew darker. When the semester concluded, just before the winter solstice, those thoughts had also reached a nadir, giving way to the fear that I had failed, once again, in my 30-year quest to turn bright and eager undergraduates into readers, and lovers, of ancient Greek. Sisyphus would sympathize with my condition. Every year I begin rolling my stone up a four-month-long hill, my hopes high. Every year I end up far closer to the bottom than the top. Some of my students still, after 120 hours of instruction, take the first noun in a sentence as its subject, no matter what form its in. Their habits of 15 years of reading English will not give way to the methodology that an ancient language demands. Reading Greek (or Latin) depends, first and foremost, on recognition of case endings. A student must develop an instinct for seeing the word anthropou as of a man, anthropois as for men, and similarly with eight other forms of the same word. To look for meaning rather than case, to see only man in either word, is what readers of English are programmed to do. My task, as a teacher, is to defeat this impulse. The experience of reading without reference to word order, once students get it, can be exhilarating, like being freed from a kind of gravity. But for reasons I dont understand, some take far longer than others to get it, and a few never will. Lack of intelligence isnt the problem; its more about adaptability, acceptance of change. How long should such students go on in the language, hoping for an epiphany? Should I encourage them to continue? And if I do, is it only to assuage my own sense of failure? Mr. Gonzalez, is a former president of the Nicaragua chapter of the Vagos Motorcycle Club. He was convicted in 2013 of first-degree murder and other felonies in the killing of Jeffrey Pettigrew, 51, who was known as the godfather of the Hells Angels in San Jose, Calif. In 2013, Judge Connie Steinheimer of Washoe County District Court sentenced Mr. Gonzalez to life with the possibility of parole after 20 years in the killing of Mr. Pettigrew. The judge added a gang enhancement to the penalty, so Mr. Gonzalez was unlikely to get out of prison until he was at least 83. Before the judge sentenced him, Mr. Gonzalez said he wanted to offer his condolences to Mr. Pettigrews family, including his mother, who called Mr. Gonzalez a coward for shooting her son in the back. Mr. Gonzalez claimed he was acting to defend himself and others after a brawl broke out on a crowded casino floor in Sparks in September 2011. He fired his gun, he said, because Mr. Pettigrew and another Hells Angels member were kicking a fellow Vagos member so hard in the head that he thought they would kill him. They left me no choice but to act as I did in defense of my brother, he told the judge. Prosecutors said the killing had been part of an orchestrated assassination stemming from a long-running feud between the gangs in California. There was a concerted attack that resulted in Mr. Gonzalez sneaking up behind Mr. Pettigrew and shooting him in the back, Karl Hall, the Washoe County special prosecutor, said at sentencing. The appeal rose out of apparent confusion among jurors over what constituted conspiracy to commit murder. Federal officials said Sunday that no federal wildlife employees were in danger after a group of armed activists and militiamen protesting the prosecution of two ranchers took over a remote federal wildlife refuge in the rural southeastern corner of Oregon over the weekend. A building at the refuge seized on Saturday afternoon by the group houses the offices of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, and is operated by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, about 30 miles southeast of Burns, in Harney County. A representative of the Fish and Wildlife Service said the agency was monitoring the situation. While the situation is ongoing, the main concern is employee safety and we can confirm that no federal staff were in the building at the time of the initial incident, the press officer said. The occupation began after a demonstration on Saturday in support of Dwight Hammond, 73, and his son Steven Hammond, 46, who were to report to California prison after a federal judge ruled that the sentences they had served for arson were not long enough under federal law. Among the occupiers were Ammon and Ryan Bundy, two sons of Cliven Bundy, a Nevada rancher who became a symbol of anti-government sentiment in 2014, according to The Oregonian. Of all the ways to describe mergers and acquisitions in 2015, plain vanilla is not one of them. Last year was one for the record books, generating $4.7 trillion in announced deals, with the highest percentage ever derived from those valued at more than $5 billion, according to data compiled by Thomson Reuters. Unlike boom years past, however, this one was characterized by dozens of complex and creative financial structures. Drug makers Pfizer and Allergan sought to combine effectively through a tax-inversion deal, lowering Pfizers tax rate. Dow Chemical and DuPont, two storied chemical giants, agreed to merge into a $130 billion behemoth with the explicit intent to be separated into three companies in a few years. Other deals, such as Anheuser-Busch InBevs $104 billion acquisition of rival brewer SABMiller required multiple divestitures before any chance of regulatory approval. Rare financial instruments such as tracking stocks and contingent value rights, both creative ways for adding value for the seller, also appeared in takeovers. Boardrooms were flooded with so much confidence that executives were willing to stretch beyond the textbook-style acquisition Company A buys Company B to get deals done. Financing was cheap because of low interest rates and growth was generally slow, so colossal companies sought purchases as a way to expand. Q. What did ballet bring to your life? A. Dance has always been a part of my life. I trained at a professional level and could be a dance teacher today. In my spare time, I give dance lessons to young adults and to my employees. I believe it is important to cultivate both the mind and the body. Image Daniela Riccardi, the Baccarat chief executive. Credit... Carole Bellaiche Ballet has taught me the importance of combining passion with discipline. As a dancer, you must go on even when your feet bleed. Pain can be a driving force, but only if there is passion. In the business world, I put my heart into what I do, whether it is opening a new store, planning a strategy or organizing a party. But I also demand that meetings run on time, that data be precise and structures respected. Q. In 2010, you made a radical career change, taking a job with a fashion label. Why? A. I had just turned 50 that year. After 25 years at P.&G., my path going forward seemed predictable, given that I had covered major regions like South America, China and Russia. It was time for a change. I considered returning to ballet, and possibly opening an international dance academy, or running an institution like the New York City Ballet. I felt that I could bring value to a dance company because I understood the technique and the specific challenges faced by dancers, but I also knew how to run a business. In the end, I accepted an offer from Diesel. I found the journey of Renzo Rosso, who had single-handedly created an incredible brand from scratch, very courageous and thought-provoking. Q. In 2013, you became chief executive of Baccarat. Why choose to work in a much smaller company? A. Size was not a decisive factor for me. When the opportunity presented itself, two things mattered most: the brand and the bosses. It was the chance of a lifetime to take on a brand with 250 years of history and help lead it into the future. Baccarat had a strong heritage but needed a new strategy that integrated its savoir-faire into todays lifestyle. The owners also shared my vision for branding, building a future and adding value. That is why accepted the challenge. Q. What is your experience managing across cultures? A. I am in Paris today as the Italian chief executive of a French brand belonging to an American group, and I do business around the globe including in Korea, Japan, and Russia. Telling our employees around the world that the American bosses expect results will produce nothing. You need to ignite a passion, a sense of pride, not unlike a patriotic sentiment, in your employees. That kind of motivation extends beyond the brand itself. People need to feel good about their work. Leadership is partly about the ability to bring out that feeling. Egypt said Sunday that its ambassador, Hazem Khairat, arrived to Tel Aviv on Friday after a three-year diplomatic mission hiatus Egypts foreign ministry said on Sunday that the return of the Egyptian ambassador to Israel should be seen in the context of the "important task of supporting the Palestinian cause". "The ambassador will be corresponding with the different parties in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, especially in the upcoming period," ministry spokesman Ahmed Abouzeid was quoted as saying by Egyptian state news agency MENA. Egypt said Sunday that its ambassador, Hazem Khairat, arrived inTel Aviv on Friday after a three-year diplomatic mission hiatus. Egypt recalled its ambassador in November 2012 to protest an Israeli offensive against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. At the time, Egypt was led by Islamist president Mohamed Morsi. Abouzeid stressed that the return of the ambassador is normal, as Egypt took its seat as a non-permanent UN Security Council member at the start of this year, and will use its new position to further support the Palestinian cause. However, Abouzeid said in response to a press question that there are currently no specific initiatives in the Security Council in regard to the Palestinian issue. In September 2015, Israel reopened its embassy in Cairo, four years after it was ransacked by a crowd protesting the deaths of five Egyptian policemen killed by Israeli forces reportedly chasing a group of Gaza militants. Search Keywords: Short link: The European Union entered a brave new world of bank bail-ins at the start of 2016. Europe has wasted so much taxpayer money in bailing out banks in recent years that it is right to try to get investors to help foot the bill. However, the tough program carries big political risks. The crucial new rule is that no bank can be bailed out with public money until creditors accounting for at least 8 percent of the lenders liabilities have contributed. A bail-in typically means wiping out creditors investments, slashing their value or converting them into shares in the bank. Uninsured depositors could get caught, along with professional investors. Moreover, within the eurozone, the national authorities will no longer be responsible for dealing with failed banks because the job has been transferred to the new Single Resolution Mechanism. During the global financial crisis, bailouts were the normal way of shoring up failed banks. The European Commission approved 592 billion euros $643 billion at the current exchange rate of state aid to lenders between October 2008 and the end of 2012. This was justified on the grounds that if banks collapsed and depositors lost their money, there would be economic chaos. The illustration was a preliterate visual agrarian thing, he said a way of getting the message across to farmers who paid close attention to how the figures changed in relation to each other from year to year. For the Lunar New Year that begins on Feb. 8, the man and the cow are the same size and on the same plane a hopeful sign, Ms. Lee said. The man is not leading the cow, which would be better. But neither is the cow leading him. Ms. Lee said she had checked with Mr. Wong for additional guidance about 2016 after this years almanacs arrived from the printer in Hong Kong. The big thing, it is a year of climates that are very unpredictable, she said, waving an email printout written in Chinese. He said: There would be cases of extremes. There would be floods. There would be places of extreme drought. If you ask me, I completely, 100 percent buy global warming. This is the sun and the moon and the stars aligning and telling us were not doing well. There was more in the email. He said there would be incidents that make people cry, incidents that make people laugh and incidents where you dont know whether to laugh or cry, she said. Locusts? Donald Trump? Ms. Lee said 2016 was considered an unlucky year because, on the Chinese calendar, it begins after the start of spring. Also, she said, Mr. Wong warned of problems in the United States and Canada, though he provided no details. She said that he had also mentioned illnesses in Korea, Japan and northern China. He said be careful of illnesses, watch what you eat, watch your digestive system and your skin, she said. Image The Pocket Chinese Almanac, an English-language book similar to a larger Chinese book of annual predictions. Credit... Hilary Swift for The New York Times She said this would be a bad year for companies that depend on natural resources, meaning the energy industry but with Brent crude, one of the oil industrys benchmarks, off more than 30 percent in 2015, that had a more-of-the-same ring. She also said that the advertising, cosmetics and service industries would become a little watery a rough year. Interviews with people who have been questioned by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents, or who are cooperating with their inquiry, suggest it is turning into an examination of the police and prosecutors outsize, unchecked power in their domain, the eastern half of Long Island, where glaring poverty and fantastic riches exist side by side. Federal investigators appear to be pursuing leads that broadly explore questions of influence and corruption in the criminal justice system. One avenue of inquiry has led agents to seek evidence about whether judgeships are for sale in Suffolk County, according to two people with knowledge of the inquiries. The United States attorneys office in Brooklyn, which is overseeing the investigation, has also taken a dim view of some of the surveillance practices employed by the Suffolk County district attorneys office. One questionable episode involved a Suffolk County wiretap in which the district attorneys office listened in on phone calls involving at least a half-dozen F.B.I. agents and assistant United States attorneys, according to three people who have been told about the event. In another episode, a contractor for the district attorneys office installed a GPS device on a deputy police commissioners car at Mr. Burkes request, in order to dig up blackmail dirt on her, a federal prosecutor, James Miskiewicz, said last month in a federal court hearing shortly after Mr. Burke was arrested. Mr. Spota has denied any knowledge of the episode involving the tracking device. Mr. Miskiewicz called the event something out of the K.G.B. Such comparisons are common in Suffolk County, where officers wield not only police power, but also a degree of political power that would feel foreign in the police departments of most big cities. In Suffolk County, policing is not a middle-class job officers can make $125,000 in base pay, about $50,000 more than their counterparts in New York City. That figure does not include overtime pay, which can be substantial, or the extra money officers receive for each year on the job. Detectives and sergeants have been known to earn more than $200,000 a year. The police unions on Long Island are so wealthy they have formed a super PAC to flood local elections with campaign donations. Central to the political order is the district attorney, Mr. Spota. In the past year, Justice Department officials have met with county employees, politicians and former police officers who have said that Suffolk County investigations and prosecutions as well as decisions not to prosecute are often swayed by political considerations, according to interviews with more than five people who have spoken to F.B.I. agents or prosecutors. FRANKFURT Uber is rapidly expanding its ride-hailing operations across the globe. But here in this city of 690,000 less than the population of San Francisco, Ubers hometown the company recently did something unusual: It retreated. In early November, Uber shut its small office in Frankfurts centuries-old city center after just 18 months of operation, mothballing the online platform that had let people in the city hail rides through a smartphone app. The pullback was spurred in part by drivers like Hasan Kurt, the owner of a local licensed taxi business, who had refused to work with the American service. With more than 20 years of experience as a taxi operator, Mr. Kurt said he disliked how Uber barreled into Frankfurt in early 2014, using primarily unlicensed drivers who had not passed the same exams and health checks required of licensed drivers. That low-cost service, UberPop, which is similar to UberX in the United States, faced legal challenges and was eventually outlawed, last March, by German regulators. Uber then tried to recruit licensed operators like Mr. Kurt to build its service within the letter of the law. But Mr. Kurt would not budge. BURNS, Ore. The protesters arrived in this old lumber town to support a 73-year-old rancher and his son who had been sentenced to prison for setting fires that spread to federal lands. It was billed as a peaceful demonstration, but after Amazing Grace was sung and hugs were exchanged, a small, armed contingent declared outside a supermarket that it was taking a stand and asked who wanted to join. So began the latest armed flare-up in a decades-long struggle between federal officials and local landowners and ranchers over how to manage the Western range. The armed antigovernment group seized empty administrative buildings on a federal refuge for wildlife about 30 miles away through the snowy sagebrush, and by Sunday night, had hunkered down for what they vowed would be an indefinite standoff with the government. We will be here for as long as it takes, said Ryan Payne, an Army veteran who characterized the groups action as a liberation of public lands. People have talked about returning land to the people for a long time. Finally, someone is making an effort in that direction. That number appears to be shrinking: Administration officials said last month that about 2.5 million new customers had bought insurance through HealthCare.gov, the federal exchange serving 38 states, since open enrollment began on Nov. 1. The number of new enrollees is 29 percent higher than last year at this time, suggesting that the threat of a larger penalty may be motivating more people to get covered. But plenty of healthy holdouts remain, and their resistance helps explain why insurers are worried about the financial viability of the exchanges over time. They say they sorely need more healthy customers to balance out the costs of covering the sicker, older people who have flocked to exchange plans. People, like Mr. Murphy, who earn too much to qualify for federal subsidies that defray the cost of coverage may be most likely to opt out. A recent analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that more than seven million people who are eligible for exchange coverage would pay less in penalties than for the least expensive insurance available to them. More than half would not qualify for subsidies, the analysis found. Ben Wakana, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, said people would still be better off buying insurance. We understand some people may be thinking through their choice of coverage, but going without health insurance is a serious gamble that can be catastrophic if wrong, Mr. Wakana said. HONOLULU Renewing his emphasis on the need for more gun restrictions, President Obama will participate in a live televised town-hall-style meeting on Thursday to discuss gun violence in the United States, according to the White House. The hourlong event, at George Mason University outside Washington, will be televised on CNN at 8 p.m. On Monday, Mr. Obama will meet with Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch to discuss what executive actions he can take to curb gun violence. After the shootings that killed 14 people in San Bernardino, Calif., on Dec. 2, Mr. Obamas initial response focused on the need for gun restrictions. The administration soon realized, however, that this message had not reassured many Americans that the president was sufficiently addressing the Islamic State, the extremist group that inspired that attack and carried out one in Paris in November that left 130 people dead. So, through much of December, Mr. Obama took part in a series of public events in an effort to convince the nation that his administration was doing everything it could to battle the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. DES MOINES This fall the words of a Hillary Clinton backer were posted like a locker-room taunt on the wall at Bernie Sanderss Iowa headquarters: There is no Sanders organization. The quote, from Jerry Crawford, a leader of Iowas Democratic establishment, was meant to enrage and goad the Sanders staff, and it did the job. The campaign has quietly assembled an extensive ground game here, with 100 paid staff members and with trained volunteer leaders for each of the states 1,681 caucus precincts. The field team is meant to be the engine for a Sanders upset in the caucuses on Feb. 1 the vehicle to turn out the tens of thousands of grass-roots supporters who show up for Mr. Sanderss rallies, even if they no longer earn him headlines. The 2016 presidential campaign seems certain to feature not only more money than any since Watergate but also more money from undisclosed donors since the days when black satchels of illicit cash were passed around. This so-called dark money, or contributions to entities that are not required to disclose their donors, topped more than $300 million in the 2012 presidential race, and some experts believe that the levels may be far higher this time. Among the risks is that foreign money barred from playing a direct role in the election could be surreptitiously funneled into the campaign because it could move through channels where it wouldnt have to be publicly disclosed. This lack of transparency is occurring thanks to a ruse that permits political advocacy groups to claim that they are principally social welfare agencies and thus tax exempt and not subject to disclosure. These organizations court interest groups and rich donors, some of whom want the influence that political money brings but not the public accountability. Its a win for the interest groups and the candidates; the public is kept in the dark. This time, supporters of some presidential candidates, especially Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida, are getting into the act. Almost one in five television ads has been financed by dark money, according to the Center for Responsive Politics most of them from the Conservative Solutions Project, a nonprofit group that backs Mr. Rubio. The pro-Rubio forces are breaking new ground, said Viveca Novak, communications director for the center. Saudi Arabia accused Iran of sponsoring terror and undermining regional stability, as a diplomatic spat between both countries escalated Saturday over the kingdom's execution of a prominent Shia cleric. "The Iranian regime is the last regime in the world that could accuse others of supporting terrorism, considering that (Iran) is a state that sponsors terror, and is condemned by the United Nations and many countries," said a foreign ministry spokesman in a statement carried by the official SPA news agency. The statement was the second after the kingdom's foreign ministry announced it had summoned the Iranian ambassador in Riyadh to protest an "aggressive" statement by Tehran on the execution of Saudi Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr. "Iran's regime has no shame as it rants on human rights matters, even after it executed hundreds of Iranians last year without a clear legal basis," said the statement. In Tehran meanwhile, angry crowds hurled Molotov cocktails and stormed the Saudi embassy in protest at Nimr's execution before being cleared by police, ISNA news agency reported. Fires were seen burning inside the building, it said. Nimr, who spent more than a decade studying theology in Iran and had been a driving force behind Shia-led anti-government protests in Saudi Arabia since 2011, was among a group of 47 Shias and Sunnis executed Saturday for "terrorism". The group included many Qaeda-linked militants involved in deadly bombings in the kingdom since 2003. Shia-dominated Iran, the Sunni kingdom's longtime foe, said in reaction to Nimr's execution that "the Saudi government supports terrorist movements and extremists, but confronts domestic critics with oppression and execution." It will "pay a high price for following these policies," said Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari. Iran's statements reveal its "true face as a backer of terrorism, which is a continuity of its policies in undermining security and stability in the region," the unidentified Saudi ministry spokesman said. "By defending the acts of terrorists... the Iranian regime is considered a partner in their crimes and is held completely responsible for its policies of incitement and escalation." Iran has offered "many Al-Qaeda leaderships safe haven since 2001" in addition to "offering an Iranian passport" to a Saudi suspect involved in 1996 bombings in the kingdom who was arrested last year, the ministry said. It criticised Iran's "flagrant interferences in regional countries, including Iraq, Yemen, and Lebanon, as well as Syria where it has directly intervened through its Revolutionary Guard and Shia militia" causing the death of tens of thousands of Syrians. Iran-linked cells smuggling explosives and arms to Bahrain and Kuwait have also been uncovered, the kingdom recalled. Regional heavyweights Saudi Arabia and Iran are supporting opposite sides in several conflict zones across the region. Saudi Arabia's "justice system is independent, just and transparent and does not... operate discreetly as the case in Iran," the statement added. Search Keywords: Short link: NEW DELHI A shootout between Indian security forces and armed gunmen stretched into its second day on Sunday at the Pathankot air force base in Punjab, near Indias border with Pakistan. At least seven Indian personnel and at least four gunmen have been killed in the fighting so far, officials said. At least two gunmen were still holding out against the security forces on Sunday, said Rajiv Mehrishi, Indias home secretary, in a televised news conference in New Delhi. We are sure that still there are at least two more terrorists as firing has come from two different places, Mr. Mehrishi said. The gunmen have also wounded eight air force personnel and 12 members of the National Security Guard, he said. Irans president, Hassan Rouhani, condemned the execution, but said that the attacks on the Saudi Embassy in Tehran and on the Saudi Consulate in Mashhad had damaged Irans reputation. We do not allow rogue groups to commit illegal actions and damage the holy reputation of the Islamic Republic of Iran, he said in a statement. Outside the Middle East, some criticized the Saudi justice system and the mass execution, the largest in the kingdom in decades. Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, said Saturday that he was deeply dismayed by the execution of Sheikh Nimr and the other men after trials that raised serious concerns over the nature of the charges and the fairness of the process. The European Union cited similar questions about freedom of expression and the respect of basic civil and political rights. The Obama administration had appeared caught by surprise by the mass execution and scrambled at first to understand exactly who had been put to death. Privately several senior administration officials expressed anger at the Saudis, both for what one called an apparent absence of due process in the executions, and another for negligent disregard for how it could inflame the region. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the diplomatic engagement with both countries. The Saudi Foreign Ministry responded to Irans criticism on Sunday by accusing it of blind sectarianism and of spreading terrorism. Hours later, Mr. Jubeir, the Saudi foreign minister, announced the ending of diplomatic ties at a news conference in Riyadh, saying the kingdom would not allow Iran to undermine its security. The history of Iran is full of negative and hostile interference in Arab countries, always accompanied by ruin, destruction and the killing of innocent souls, he said. Analysts said the split could further destabilize the region. These countries dont trust one another, and they see every event as an opportunity to raise tensions, said Abbas Kadhim, a senior foreign policy fellow at the School for Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. Itamar Ben-Gvir, a lawyer representing Mr. Ben-Uliel, said, This indictment is not the end. It is the beginning of opening a Pandoras box against Shin Bet. According to the law in Israel, a confession has to be given with free will and the good will of consent, he said, adding that Mr. Ben-Uliels confession was extracted by force, with blows. The authorities used extraordinary methods in this case that were previously reserved for Palestinians accused of terrorism, including preventing suspects from meeting with lawyers, in some cases for the maximum period of three weeks allowed under the law. In an unusual statement last month, Shin Bet rejected what it described as a campaign of mendacious defamation against the agency and its staff, and said it was investigating a Jewish terrorist network that was planning future attacks. The agency hinted that it was using harsher methods than usual, in line with procedures permitted in cases of so-called ticking bombs. But it denied allegations of abuse including sexual harassment, kicking and spitting, and also denied that one of the minors had attempted to harm himself or commit suicide, as lawyers and supporters had claimed. The Israeli authorities determined early on that Jewish extremists were behind the attack in Duma, in which Ali Dawabsheh, 18 months old, burned to death. His parents and elder brother, Ahmad, who was 4 at the time, sustained critical burns over much of their bodies; the father died after a week, and the mother after five weeks. Ahmad is still being treated in an Israeli hospital. Hebrew graffiti including Long live the Messiah king and a call for Revenge! were found at the scene. Yet for months, the Israeli police and Shin Bet appeared to have made little progress in resolving the case. The defense minister, Moshe Yaalon, had said that the authorities had a good idea of who was behind the attack but lacked the kind of evidence needed to bring the case to court without harming Israels intelligence assets. Many Palestinians had cited the attack and the delay in bringing its perpetrators to justice as one of the grievances in a buildup of popular anger that has erupted over the last three months in a wave of violent attacks by Palestinians on Israelis. Saudi Arabias execution of the Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr could escalate tensions in the Muslim world even further. In the Shiite theocracy Iran, the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Sunday that Saudi Arabia, which is ruled by a Sunni monarchy, would face divine vengeance for the killing of the outspoken cleric, which was part of a mass execution of 47 men. Sheikh Nimr had advocated for greater political rights for Shiites in Saudi Arabia and surrounding countries. Saudi Arabia had accused him of inciting violence against the state. Here is a primer on the basic differences between Sunni and Shia Islam. What caused the split? A schism emerged after the death of the Prophet Muhammad in 632, and disputes arose over who should shepherd the new and rapidly growing faith. Some believed that a new leader should be chosen by consensus; others thought that only the prophets descendants should become caliph. The title passed to a trusted aide, Abu Bakr, though some thought it should have gone to Ali, the prophets cousin and son-in-law. Ali eventually did become caliph after Abu Bakrs two successors were assassinated. What do you know about your credit score? PennyWise Podcast host Teri Barr is talking with Kimberly Palmer, a personal finance expert with NerdWallet, to learn why it's important to understand some of the "myths" surrounding your credit score. Kimberly takes us through a new survey showing most of us admit to not knowing enough, including confusion about the top three credit score myths. We talk about those and get you the right answers, too. Past Pennywise episodes with Kimberly as the guest: More from Kimberly on NerdWallet: Support the show: https://omny.fm/shows/pennywise See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Amy Imburgia filed a class action lawsuit against DIRECTV, Inc. (DIRECTV), claiming it had improperly charged early termination fees to its customers. In 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court decided AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion, in which the Court held that the Federal Arbitration Act (Act) preempted California precedent that had previously held that, in certain circumstances, arbitration clauses in customer agreements were unenforceable. Less than one month after that decision, DIRECTV moved to stay or dismiss the case and compel arbitration in Amys case under the Act. The California Court of Appeal refused to enforce the arbitration provision by holding that the language of the customer agreement subjected the arbitration clause to California law. DIRECTV appealed the case to the United States Supreme Court. In the days leading up to Christmas the High Court found that the refusal to enforce the arbitration provision was preempted by the Federal Arbitration Act. Specifically, in DIRECTV v. Imburgia it concluded that California law does not give due regardto the federal policy favoring arbitration. The High Court ordered the California Court to enforce the arbitration agreement on remand. The decision also impacts employment arbitration agreements based upon the 2014, 11th Circuit Court of Appeals decision of Walthour v. Chipio Windshield Repair LLC. In that case Walthour filed a collective action claiming that Chipio had failed to pay minimum wage and overtime, in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). After the Federal Court suit in Georgia was filed, Chipio moved to compel arbitration under the Federal Arbitration Act, citing the mandatory arbitration agreements Walthour had signed shortly after being hired. The District Court Judge compelled arbitration. His agreement stipulated that all employment disputes were to be resolved exclusively through individual arbitration, including class action rights. The 11th Circuit affirmed and the High Court refused to overturn the case. Common Sense Counsel: The Imburgia case is truly a Christmas gift to employers who wish to engage in employment claims related risk reduction. Such an arbitration program can trump EEOC lawsuits, FLSA wage suits, retaliatory discharge claims - you name your worst employment nightmare. In light of this Supreme Court case law favoring alternatives to court litigation, consider options for designing an employee dispute resolution program and the potential business advantages - not the least of which is not having to spend a sunny day locked in a windowless room with a plaintiffs attorney with an attitude. Plaintiffs attorneys hate these programs for obvious reasons. The best programs have the following components: 1) an internal complaint process with a promise of no retaliation; 2) a toll free hot line for multiple location employers; 3) handbook provisions giving employee two channels to make their complaint and fair investigation process; 4) well drafted and broadly worded arbitration provision, covering class claims, that will pass court scrutiny; 5) training for all employees on the process; 6) private arbitration panel of former local judges, or AAA Arbitration, and mostly importantly; 7) a Human Resource professional with a listening ear and risk reduction mindset. Tommy Eden is a partner working out of the Constangy, Brooks, Smith & Prophete, LLP offices in Opelika, AL and West Point, GA and a member of the ABA Section of Labor and Employment Law and serves on the Board of Directors for the East Alabama SHRM Chapter. He can be contacted at teden@constangy.com or 334-246-2901. Blog at www.alabamaatwork.com Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia on Saturday executed a prominent Shia cleric, prompting outrage in Shia-majority Iran, where angry crowds set fire to the kingdom's embassy and consulate. Nimr al-Nimr, 56, who spent more than a decade studying theology in Iran, was a driving figure behind anti-government protests in Saudi Arabia in 2011. He was put to death along with 46 other men, including Shia activists and Sunnis accused of involvement in Al-Qaeda killings, the Saudi interior ministry said. The executions sparked protests in at least one city in Saudi Arabia's oil-rich Eastern Province, where Shias complain of marginalisation, as well as in Iran, Iraq and Bahrain. The strongest condemnation came from Riyadh's longtime rival Tehran. "The Saudi government supports terrorist movements and extremists, but confronts domestic critics with oppression and execution," Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari said. It will "pay a high price for following these policies," he warned. Saudi foreign ministry spokesman Mansur al-Turki called Iran's reaction "irresponsible", and Riyadh summoned Tehran's envoy in protest. Soon after, protesters hurled petrol bombs and stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran before being cleared out by police, ISNA news agency reported, adding that flames could be seen rising form the building. "The fire has destroyed the interior of the embassy," an eyewitness told AFP. "The police are everywhere and have dispersed the demonstrators, some of whom have been arrested." Websites carried pictures of demonstrators apparently clutching the Saudi flag, which had been pulled down. In Mashhad, Iran's second biggest city, demonstrators meanwhile set fire to the Saudi consulate, according to news sites, carrying pictures of the alleged assault. The incidents came after the EU expressed concern about possible "dangerous consequences" in a region already fraught with sectarian tensions. The United States echoed those fears, warning that Saudi Arabia risked "exacerbating sectarian tensions at a time when they urgently need to be reduced". "In this context, we reiterate the need for leaders throughout the region to redouble efforts aimed at de-escalating regional tensions," said State Department spokesman John Kirby. Tehran ally Hezbollah, Lebanon's Shia movement, said Saudi Arabia's rulers were "global criminals" and denounced Nimr's execution as a "heinous crime". Saudi's interior ministry said the 47 executed men had been convicted of adopting the radical "takfiri" ideology, joining "terrorist organisations" and implementing various "criminal plots". An official list published included Sunnis convicted of involvement in Al-Qaeda attacks that killed Saudis and foreigners in 2003 and 2004. Some of them had been convicted of taking part in May 2003 attacks on expatriate compounds in Riyadh that killed 35 people, nine of them Americans, the ministry said. Others were involved in 2004 attacks on a housing complex in the eastern city of Khobar, in which 22 people were killed, most of them foreigners, and other assaults. Among them was Fares al-Shuwail, described by Saudi media as Al-Qaeda's top religious leader in the kingdom. All those executed were Saudis, except for an Egyptian and a Chadian. Some were beheaded, while others were shot by firing squad, said the ministry spokesman. The Bahraini government and the United Arab Emirates voiced support for the conservative kingdom, saying the executions were necessary to confront extremism. Nimr was arrested in 2012, three years after calling for Eastern Province's Shia-populated Qatif and Al-Ihsaa governorates to be separated from Saudi Arabia and united with Bahrain. The interior ministry had described him at the time of his arrest as an "instigator of sedition". A video on YouTube in 2012 showed Nimr making a speech celebrating the 2012 death of then-interior minister Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz. "Let the worms eat him," Nimr had said, while also criticising the rulers of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, where the Shia community has also complained of marginalisation. Search Keywords: Short link: Iraq's top Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani on Sunday condemned the execution of Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr by Saudi Arabia, calling it an "unjust aggression". "We have received with much sorrow and regret the news of the martyrdom of a number of our brother believers in the region whose pure blood was shed in an unjust aggression," the cleric, said in a letter addressed to the population of the eastern Saudi region of Qatif where Nimr used to preach. The opinion of Sistani, based in the Shia holy city of Najaf south of Baghdad, carries weight with millions of Shias in Iraq and elsewhere. Search Keywords: Short link: STOCKHOLM Since it opened in 2000, the Oresund bridge between Sweden and Denmark has been a towering symbol of European integration and hassle-free travel across borders that people didnt even notice were there. On Monday, new travel restrictions imposed by Sweden to stem a record flow of migrants are transforming the bridge into a striking example of how national boundaries are re-emerging. A year of clampdowns on migration and terrorism has all but killed the idea of a borderless Europe where you could drive or train-hop from Spain in the south to Norway in the north without ever having to show your passport. Were turning back the clock, said Andreas Onnerfors, who lives in Lund, on the Swedish side of the bridge. An associate professor in intellectual history, he said hes benefited from the free flow of people and ideas across the bridge hes studied on both sides and taught students from both Sweden and Denmark. Were going back to a time when the bridge didnt exist, he said, referring to the ID checkpoints being set up Monday on the Danish side for train passengers wishing to cross over to Sweden. The move is meant to stop undocumented migrants from reaching Sweden, which abruptly reversed its open-door policy after receiving more than 160,000 asylum-seekers last year, mainly from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. It follows the reintroduction of border checks in Germany, Austria, France, Belgium and other countries in whats supposed to be a passport-free travel zone spanning 26 nations. The moves are supposedly temporary, but are likely to be extended if Europes migrant crisis continues in 2016. Its basically every country for itself now, said Mark Rhinard, an expert on the European Union at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs. Citing exceptional national circumstances related to security, terrorism and public order, several European countries have suspended EU rules that required them to keep their borders open to each other. Its a significant development that strikes at the very heart of the EU project the free movement of goods and people across borders. The Bruegel think tank in Brussels says that in 2014 there were almost 1.7 million cross-border commuters in the passport-free zone known as the Schengen Area, after the Luxembourg town where it was created in 1985. Abolishing it would affect their daily lives, but the consequences for Europe would go deeper, given the visible and powerful symbol of European integration that Schengen represents, Bruegel researchers Nuria Boot and Guntram Wolff wrote in December. Whether the temporary reintroduction of borders also means rebuilding mental boundaries between EU citizens remains to be seen. But the migrant crisis is becoming an even bigger challenge to European unity than the cracks emerging in recent years over the blocs common currency, the euro. EU nations demonstrated starkly different views on how to deal with the 1 million migrants that crossed the Mediterranean in 2015. Germany and Sweden, until recently, said refugees were welcome, while Hungary built a fence to keep them out. The Danish government took a series of measures to discourage migrants from going there, including a proposal to seize their jewelry to cover their expenses in Denmark. Common rules requiring refugees to seek shelter in the first EU country they enter collapsed, as Greece and Italy were overwhelmed by sea arrivals and countries further north just waved the migrants through to their intended destination, often Germany or the Scandinavian countries. Meanwhile the EUs efforts to spread refugees more evenly across the bloc met stiff resistance from member states. By November only about 150 of 160,000 refugees had been relocated from Greece and Italy under an EU plan. The crisis underlines structural flaws in the EU, showing how it has implemented common rules that it just cant enforce once the external pressures become too great, said Karl Lallerstedt, co-founder of Black Market Watch, a Switzerland-based non-profit group focusing on cross-border smuggling. Its not a strong federal state that can overrule its members, he said. At the same time individual states have obligations to the EU. So youre in this sort of half-way house. Any hope of a quick return to a borderless Europe was crushed by the deadly Paris attacks in November, after which France declared a state of emergency and beefed up border controls with neighboring countries. However, if bottlenecks build up at the borders, EU citizens and companies moving goods in trucks will eventually get fed up, said Rhinard, of the Swedish Institute of International Affairs. As soon as it starts to bite economically, people are going to start to ask: Is this the right solution to the problem? Rhinard said. That question is already being asked by companies and commuters opposed to new ID checks at the 8-kilometer (5-mile) Oresund bridge-and-tunnel, known to European TV viewers as the focal point of the Swedish-Danish crime series The Bridge. Train networks on either side have been integrated to allow thousands of commuters to cross the bridge daily, essentially incorporating the southern Swedish cities of Malmo and Lund into suburban Copenhagen. But the new ID checks mean there will be no more direct railway service from Copenhagens main station to Sweden. Travelers heading to Malmo will have to switch trains at Copenhagen Airport after going through the checkpoints there, adding an estimated half an hour to the 40-minute commute. To avoid the hassle, Swedens national railway company SJ cancelled service to Denmark altogether, leaving only Danish and regional Swedish operators with service across the bridge. This is what happens when national states put down their foot down and say security is most important, said Onnerfors. It collides with the freedom (of movement) theyve been talking about for 20 years, which was the reason we joined the EU to begin with. Associated Press writers Raf Casert in Brussels, Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin, Ciaran Giles in Madrid, Barry Hatton in Lisbon, George Jahn in Vienna and Collen Barry in Milan contributed to this report. OAKLAND A new city department intended to fix social and racial disparities in Oakland has just opened for business. Yet even city officials dont believe the two-person agency can hope to stamp out the problems outlined in the ordinance that created it including racial inequities, barriers that prevent our society from being just and unconscious negative associations based on race. Realistically and practically speaking, its not a department thats going to transform city government so that we reach a state of social equity, said Deputy City Administrator Stephanie Hom, who is helping set up the Department of Race and Equity. The Oakland City Council voted unanimously in June to grant the new agency $467,000 each year in perpetuity, approving an ordinance to ensure its annual funding. The city is kicking in another $150,000 to get it started. The city hasnt yet hired the director and program analyst designated for the agency. But on Wednesday, city officials announced its opening and said that Dante James, who heads the Office of Equity and Human Rights in Portland, Ore., will steer the new department until permanent employees can be found. They will pay him $12,250 a month. They will be expected to train other city employees to understand how racism is entrenched in government and society, said Hom, noting that Oakland already provides such training but that the new department can help broaden the effort. The employees will report to the city administrators office. Hom said the goal is to examine every service the city offers through an equity lens to ensure that all residents are getting their fair share. Everything we do, from building infrastructure to providing parks and recreation services, we have to make sure we are doing it conscientiously, in a way thats not creating inequities. James said Wednesday that he will teach city workers that race is the root cause of many other societal inequalities. Everybody wants to default talk about anything but race, James said. People say, Lets fix poverty, and then were in great shape. But poverty is overwhelmingly people of color. The decision to establish a separate Department of Race and Equity came after months of pressure from one councilwoman who argued that it was needed to equalize opportunities among Oaklands rich, poor, white and nonwhite residents. Councilwoman Desley Brooks sold the idea in loose terms as a way to get more money and services flowing into Oaklands poorest neighborhoods. A quick comparison of Oakland neighborhoods shows that the (current) system is not working, Brooks wrote in her June newsletter to drum up support for the plan. To underscore her point, she described two Oaklands: one wealthy hills enclave that has benefited from years of investment, and another blighted flatland where schools and parks are declining, jobs evaporating, and long drives or bus rides are required to complete even the most simple errands, like grocery shopping or going to the bank. Brooks envisioned the new department as part resource, part watchdog, saying it would evaluate other city departments and help each one create a plan to combat racism. She did not return calls seeking comment for this article. The department has garnered nearly unanimous support from Oakland City Hall and from members of the public who waved Equity 4 Oakland signs at the June meeting to approve it. Even Councilman Noel Gallo the only elected official to raise questions about whether a new city division was a wise use of public funds ultimately voted to approve it. In January, Oaklands city administrator is expected to send 10 employees from various city bureaus to a year-long workshop series taught by the Government Alliance on Race and Equity, a group of policy experts and University of California at Berkeley researchers. The series is called Advancing Racial Equity: Putting Theory into Action. Leaders of the Government Alliance are spreading the gospel of racial equity, mostly by providing training for departments like the one in Oakland, said Julie Nelson, who heads the group and helped start a Race and Social Justice program in Seattle 10 years ago. The idea has since caught on elsewhere, she said. I just got off the phone with the chief of staff for the mayor in Nashville, Nelson said. Theres growing receptivity. The ordinance establishing Oaklands Department of Race and Equity lists 21 whereas clauses about race, including three about unconscious bias and the role government should play in addressing that problem. Yet despite the way the law is framed, and despite Brooks sales pitch that the city needed a new agency to solve racial disparities, Nelson agreed with Hom that its scope will be smaller. Theres no way a two-person office can have significant systemic change, Nelson said. Its really about organizing others within the city and taking the opportunity to look at institutional policies and practices. She said that, like Oakland, cities that have formed race and equity departments see themselves as socially forward-thinking but are beset by gaps in income and quality of life among ethnic groups. In King County, Wash., for example, the Office of Equity and Social Justice has helped other county departments distribute health care enrollment information and find translation services for non-English speakers, said Carrie Cihak, who helped create it. Now theres a centralized resource to find out how to get things translated, instead of every (county) department doing it themselves, really inefficiently, she said. The Portland office with an annual budget of $1.5 million, more than three times Oaklands helped that city pass legislation to ban employers from asking job candidates about their criminal records and created a database to track diversity in city hiring. Mostly, the office of 10 full-time employees has trained other city personnel to be sensitive to the underlying causes of inequality. One of its core achievements, according to Portland spokesman Jeff Selby, is a mandatory Equity 101 training for everyone hired by the city. To James, the departments greatest success is that its turned race into an ongoing topic of interest in Portland. This conversation and work is happening whether Im in the room or not, he said. BOSTON Bill Cosbys wife will be forced to testify in a defamation lawsuit filed by seven women who accuse the comedian of sexually assaulting them decades ago. A federal judge on Thursday denied a motion by Camille Cosby to throw out a subpoena requiring her to give a deposition in the lawsuit. She is scheduled to be deposed by lawyers for the women on Wednesday. U.S. Judge Magistrate David Hennessey in Springfield, Massachusetts, said Camille Cosby failed to prove that she and her husband were protected by the states marital disqualification law. He also rejected claims that the value of the testimony would be outweighed by the undue burden the deposition would cause. The arguments do not outweigh the potential significance of Mrs. Cosbys testimony, nor has Mrs. Cosby provided any authority that they do, Hennessey wrote in a 12-page ruling. The couple has been married for more than 50 years and Camille Cosby is her husbands business partner. She is not a defendant in the lawsuit against Bill Cosby. A lawyer for the women, Joseph Cammarata, argued last month that he should be able to question Camille Cosby because he believed she had information thats relevant to the litigation in this matter. In a motion filed Dec. 18 to quash the subpoena, Bill Cosbys lawyers said his wife does not have any information about the accuracy of the womens allegations, and argued that subjecting his wife to a deposition was nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt to pressure defendant in the face of subjecting his wife to the shame and embarrassment of responding to questions about his alleged infidelities and sexual misconduct. The women claim Cosby allowed representatives to portray them as liars after they went public with their allegations against the entertainer. Cosby has filed a countersuit, accusing the women of making false allegations for financial gain. Camille Cosby had also sought a protective order to limit the scope of the subpoena as an alternative to quashing it altogether, but the judge also rejected that approach. Cosby was charged last week in Pennsylvania with drugging and sexually assaulting a woman in 2004 inside his home near Philadelphia, the first criminal case brought against him out of the torrent of allegations that destroyed his good-guy image as Americas Dad. His lawyers called the charges unjustified and said they expected Cosby to be exonerated. KINCAID, Ill. (AP) The Mississippi River and many of its tributaries continued their retreat Sunday from historic and deadly winter flooding, leaving amid the silt a massive cleanup and recovery effort likely to take weeks if not months. The flood, fueled by more than 10 inches of rain over a three-day period that began Christmas Day, is blamed for 24 deaths in Illinois and Missouri. The Mississippi River was receding except in the far southern tip of both states. The Meramec River, the St. Louis-area tributary of the Mississippi that caused so much damage last week, already was below flood stage in the hard-hit Missouri towns of Pacific and Eureka and dropping elsewhere. But worries surfaced anew Sunday along the still-rising Illinois River north of St. Louis, where crests near the west-central towns of Valley City, Meredosia, Beardstown and Havana were to approach records before receding in coming days. In Kincaid, a 1,400-resident central Illinois town near the south fork of the Sangamon River, Gov. Bruce Rauner toured flood-damaged homes Sunday as Sharon Stivers and other residents piled ruined furniture, appliances and clothes along the street for disposal crews to pick up. Stivers shares a home with her 45-year-old daughter battling breast cancer, along with a granddaughter and four dogs. Floodwaters got 4 feet into their home, located in an area where flood insurance wasnt available. Am I mad? she asked. I lost my home. My daughter has cancer and lost her home. Am I mad? When Im not crying I am. In Illinois Morgan County, home to the 1,000-resident village of Meredosia, locals were keeping wary eyes on levies fortified with 50,000 sandbags. As of midday Sunday at Meredosia, the Illinois was more than 10 feet above flood stage and pressing toward an expected crest Tuesday roughly a half foot short of the record set in July. While optimistic those levies would hold, Jacksonville-Morgan County Emergency Management Director Phil McCarty the prospect of flooding during the chill of winter carried dangerous health risks. In the summer time, when water gets in peoples homes they can wade out, he said. But wading out now when the wind chill is well below 20, you cant say in the water for long (because) there can by hypothermia in minutes if not seconds. In central Illinois, the 1,400-resident town of Kincaid was starting to clean up after floodwaters damaged more than three dozen homes and several roads, Christian County emergency manager Mike Crews said. He said the worst of the inundation appeared to be past, until the new weather comes, citing the prospect of potentially heavy rain later in the week. President Barack Obama signed a federal emergency declaration Saturday for Missouri, allowing federal aid to be used to help state and local response efforts. It also allows the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate disaster relief efforts. Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon had asked for the help. In Illinois St. Clair County just east of St. Louis, emergency management director Herb Simmons said damage assessment began Sunday after the Mississippi started to fall. Though water reached higher than 1993, this flood wasnt as bad, Simmons said. In 93 that water came up and stayed on the levees for several months, Simmons said. This flood came up quick and went down quick. Illinois Emergency Management Agency spokeswoman Patti Thompson said the states flooding death toll increased to nine. Fifteen have died in Missouri. St. Louis-area cleanup largely was focused around the Meramec. Two wastewater treatment plants were so damaged by the floodwaters that raw sewage spewed into the river. Hundreds of people were evacuated in the Missouri communities of Pacific, Eureka, Valley Park and Arnold, where many homes took in water. In southeast Missouri, up to 30 homes and several businesses were damaged in Cape Girardeau, a community of nearly 40,000 residents that is mostly protected by a flood wall. The Mississippi peaked at 48.9 feet Friday night, four-tenths of a foot above the 1993 record, but short of the 50-foot mark projected. Nearby levee breaks in other places kept the crest down. Amtrak service between St. Louis and Kansas City was back in business on Sunday, four days after high water that reached the tracks at some locations forced the passenger service to be halted. Moderate Mississippi River flooding was expected in Memphis, Tennessee. The National Weather Service issued a flood advisory for the Cumberland River at Dover, Tennessee, through Monday evening. Minor flooding along the Ohio River was affecting the Kentucky cities of Owensboro and Paducah, and the crest wasnt expected until Thursday. Larry Gordon, a surfing pioneer who was instrumental in shaping the industry with the creation of foam boards, has died, at the age of 76, according to family. The death of Gordon, co-founder of Gordon and Smith Surfboards and Skateboards Company, was announced Friday on Facebook by Debbie Gordon, his daughter and company manager. The announcement led to an outpouring of support on social media, from those who remembered Gordon not only as an icon in the surfing and skateboarding scenes, but also as an innovative businessman, caring friend and loving family member. Gordons company was forged through his friendship with Floyd Smith. At a time in the late 50s when most surfboards were build from Balsa wood, the pair instead used Polyurethane foam to build their own cutting edge boards. Demand for the boards by 1959 forced the pair to move from Smiths Pacific Beach garage into a full-fledged surf shop. By the 60s, the company had become a leading manufacturer in the surf industry, later branching out indo the skateboard industry. More than four decades after its creation, Gordon maintained ownership of the business, which was based in San Diego. In 2007, he was chosen as one of five legendary surfboard shapers honored in Sunset Beach for the International Surfboard Builders Hall of Fame. Staff writer Laylan Connelly contributed to this report. Contact the writer: semery@ocregister.com HONOLULU Renewing his emphasis on the need for more gun restrictions, President Obama on Thursday will participate in a live televised town hall meeting to discuss gun violence in the United States, according to the White House. The hourlong event, which will be held at George Mason University outside Washington, will be televised on CNN at 8 p.m. It will come days after Obama meets with Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch on Monday to discuss what executive actions he can take to curb gun violence. After the shootings in San Bernardino on Dec. 2 that killed 14 people, Obamas initial response focused on the need for gun restrictions. The administration soon realized, however, that this message had not reassured many Americans that the president was sufficiently addressing the Islamic State, the extremist group that inspired that attack and carried out another in Paris in November that left 130 people dead. So, through much of December, Obama took part in a series of public events in an effort to convince the nation that his administration was doing everything it could to battle the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. This week, he will return to pressing for more gun restrictions. It would be better for our security if it was harder for terrorists to purchase very powerful weapons, Ben Rhodes, Obamas deputy national security adviser, said in a briefing for reporters in Hawaii on Saturday. At a certain point, violence begets more violence. Gun sales surged after the San Bernardino attack, as some Americans sought protection against the threat of Islamic extremists. Rhodes said that such purchases were not an effective way to defend against a complicated terrorism threat. Even if you think about the plots that we have stopped from going forward, Rhodes said, its not like in a movie where we shot someone just as they were about to detonate a suicide vest. Instead, counterterrorism efforts largely rely on intelligence and law enforcement activities, he said. He called efforts to arm citizens a dangerous and slippery slope. Thats why they have a government, Rhodes said. They have a government to provide security against the threat of terrorism. The White House has focused in particular on an executive action that would detail who should be considered a high-volume gun dealer, a move that could expand background checks to a huge number of sales at gun shows and on the Internet. The Republican presidential candidates on Sunday dismissed any potential executive action on guns as an abuse of power. His first impulse is always to take rights away from law-abiding citizens, and its wrong, Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida, said of Obama on Fox News Sunday. And to use executive powers he doesnt have is a pattern that is quite dangerous. Bush added that he believed that gun control measures should be considered at the state level, rather than the federal level. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, said that he supported the presidents executive efforts, even as he called for gun safety legislation. As exaggeration has become our national pastime, American political discourse is devolving into a postmodern, fact-free wasteland. Political candidates, elected officials, activists, journalists even many voters value tactical rhetoric over telling the truth. Politicians prevaricate for many reasons. One of the worst is when they do it in support of stances theyre taking on behalf of special interests at our expense. Take this explanation from President Obama, proffered in February after he finally came out against the Keystone XL pipeline. Ive already said Im happy to look at how we can increase pipeline production for U.S. oil, but Keystone is for Canadian oil to send that down to the Gulf, Obama said. It bypasses the United States and is estimated to create a little over 250, maybe 300 permanent jobs. Five falsehoods in two sentences is an impressive ratio if youre entered in a tall-tale contest. But Obama was setting national policy on this hokum. For starters, TransCanada, the outfit wanting to build the pipeline, is a Canadian company, but 30 percent of the oilfields in question are owned by U.S. firms. So its not all Canadian oil. Second, TransCanada had contracts to transport 65,000 barrels of oil per day from reserves in North Dakota and Montana. Third, the oil wouldnt bypass the United States; it would be processed in Gulf Coast refineries. And only half was to be transported overseas. As for providing maybe 300 permanent jobs, thats ludicrous and disingenuous. Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler put it this way: How many construction jobs are permanent, anyway? Modern political candidates are expected to tell us, daily, how wonderful they are. The result is a steady stream of bravado that often veers into fiction. Did Hillary Clinton really try to join the U.S. Marines in 1975, as shes asserted? That seems ridiculous on its face. Her claim about being under enemy fire in Bosnia was disproven by video evidence. But thats normal politics. The real harm comes when Hillary (and other Democrats, including Obama) regurgitate the debunked statistic that one in five female college students is sexually assaulted. This wildly inflated number is used to defend Department of Education efforts to coerce colleges into instituting kangaroo courts on campuses that deprive the accused of basic due process. Again, not all lies are created equal. Secretary of State John Kerry has said that he and Al Gore organized the first Senate hearings on global warming in 1988. This claim is specious. (Gore convened the first congressional hearings, in 1981, as a member of the House; and the hearings Kerrys talking about were organized by former Colorado senator Tim Wirth. Kerry wasnt even there.) But thats a little white lie when compared with Kerrys veracity about the Iran nuclear deal. After U.S. negotiators said theyd insisted on anytime/anywhere inspections in Iran, Kerry maintained, incredibly, that hed never heard the expression. Kerry also promised Americans that Iran couldnt offer military aid to Hezbollah. But thats not in the agreement, as Iranian officials have noted. When questioned about these discrepancies or any aspect of the Iran deal Kerry and the president get testy. When Major Garrett of CBS News asked Obama why he was content to leave four American hostages in Iran instead of insisting their release be part of the pact, Obama scolded him. This was positively Trumpian. Donald Trump has excoriated so many critics and told so many whoppers that fact-checkers at Politifact were stumped when awarding their annual Lie of the Year. In considering our annual Lie of the Year, we found our only real contenders were Trumps, they wrote. But it was hard to single one out from the others. So we have rolled them into one big trophy. Among the fabrications cited were Trumps claim of having seen thousands and thousands of Muslims dancing for joy on New Jersey rooftops as the Twin Towers collapsed; that the Mexican government conspires to send criminals to the United States; that the real unemployment rate is 42 percent; that 81 percent of whites murdered in this country are killed at the hands of blacks, with only 16 percent being killed by whites. That last one, especially, is a hoot: He has the numbers exactly reversed. All this would be funny if Trump werent using his comically bogus claims to advocate for terrible public policy initiatives: cutting off trade with Mexico and China, barring Muslims from entering the country, deporting 11 million people. Facts are still important. Here are two for Barack Obama and Donald Trump to contemplate. Like me, Jason Rezaian, a Washington Post reporter who was the papers Tehran bureau chief, was born and raised in Northern California. That makes him just as American as me. Shortly after Rezaian wrote a story about Muslims who were actually dancing it was about a video of Iranians dancing on a rooftop to Pharrell Williamss Happy he and his wife were arrested by Iranian authorities. Since then, Jason has been held in solitary confinement, convicted in a secret show trial and sentenced to prison. For how long and on what sham charges, no one knows. Iranian officials keep lying about it, a reminder of why we need truthful U.S. officials. So here are my New Years resolutions. I will keep pointing out deceptions by the 2016 presidential candidates. And I intend to mention Jason Rezaian at least once a week until we have a new president or until Jason is free. Staff opinion columnist Carl M. Cannon also is Washington editor of RealClearPolitics.com. RAMALLAH, West Bank Tens of thousands of people attended funerals in the West Bank on Saturday for Palestinians killed in violence over the past few months during a period of near-daily Palestinian and Israeli conflict. The burials came a day after Israel transferred 23 bodies to the West Bank of Palestinians it says were involved in the current wave of attacks. Many of the attackers came from the West Bank City of Hebron, a frequent flashpoint for violence. Thousands of people attended funerals there on Saturday, some waving Palestinian flags as well as flags of the Islamic militant group Hamas. In October, Israel began withholding the bodies of suspected attackers as a tactic to crack down on violence. Six of the bodies will be buried today after autopsies are conducted at the families request. Taha Qatanani, 44, said doctors told him the body of his 16-year-old daughter Ashraqat was frozen to a degree that they needed to wait at least two days for the autopsy. I want to know how she was killed because one day I might prosecute the killer in an international court, said Qatanani, whose daughter was killed in November. Palestinian attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers over the past 31/2 months have killed 21 Israelis, mostly in stabbings, shootings and car-ramming attacks. That figure does not include two Israelis killed Friday by an Arab man in a shooting attack on a Tel Aviv restaurant, as the motive for the attack hasnt officially been determined yet. During that time, at least 131 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire, 90 of them identified by Israel as assailants. The rest died in clashes with security forces. Republican presidential candidates are staying mum as an armed group has taken over part of a national wildlife refuge in rural Oregon even those who supported the father of at least one of its leaders, who had his own standoff with the government in 2014, and have called for limits on federal control over Western land. Some of the issues involved in the standoff Constitutional rights, allegations of federal government overreach and individual liberties have come to the fore in the GOP primary race. And as Western states are poised to play a larger role in the contest, so has the issue of property rights in a region where the federal government controls about half of the land. But few candidates seemed willing to wade into any of these issues Sunday as the leaders of the group said they are standing up against government overreach and are prepared to remain there for as long as it takes. The group said it is protesting the case of two Oregon ranchers who were convicted of arson in 2012 and are scheduled to report to federal prison Monday. The ranchers were convicted on a broad terrorism charge. Many ranchers and land users in the West lease public land. The effort is being led by at least one son of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who had an armed standoff with the government in 2014 over land rights. Bundy was criticized for making racially charged remarks, leading many politicians to back away from him. Those willing to comment on the Oregon situation quickly ruled it out of bounds. I know a good federal compound for Bundy and his gang: a U.S. penitentiary, tweeted John Weaver, a senior strategist for the campaign of Ohio Gov. John Kasich. But there was relative quiet from some more conservative Republican presidential candidates who had previously called for the government to release more of the land it owns. The issue has become a larger one in the GOP primary as states such as Colorado, Idaho and Nevada may play a bigger role in determining a nominee in a large, fractured field. In June, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky campaigned across Nevada calling for federal land to be transferred to states in the West. I understand the government owns a little bit of your land out here, Paul said in Reno. Maybe we can rearrange that so the federal government is out of your hair. He also met with Bundy after a campaign stop in Mesquite, Nev., something Pauls campaign says never happened. Bundy told The Washington Post that he and Paul spoke for 15 to 20 minutes, mostly about land rights. Bundy said members of his family were also present. I did get to visit with him for several minutes in private, Bundy said. Paul did not address the standoff Sunday. Legislators in Western states, in coordination with the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council, had campaigned unsuccessfully for the federal land to be sold. In his 2015 memoir A Time for Truth, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas described how he and Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, bonded over the issue before Cruz began running for the Senate. There is no reason for the federal government to own huge portions of any state, Cruz recalled. Mike pointed out to me that the value of all that federal land was roughly $14 trillion. At the time, the national debt also happened to be $14 trillion. That suggested to us an obvious and elegant solution for eliminating the debt and moving as much land as possible other than national parks into private hands. Cruzs campaign did not comment Sunday. In 2014, during the Bundy ranch standoff, Paul and Cruz initially argued that an important principle was at stake. Candidates Ben Carson, Mike Huckabee and Donald Trump also have expressed sympathy or support for Bundy. We have seen liberty under assault from a federal government that seems hell-bent on expanding its authority over every aspect of our lives, Cruz told a conservative radio host. It is in that context that people are viewing this battle with the federal government. We should have a federal government protecting the liberty of the citizens, not using the jackboot of authoritarianism to come against the citizens. Paul, meanwhile, dismissed the name calling of Democrats who had called Bundy a domestic terrorist, and said in a Fox News Channel interview that the land rights issue needed to be debated. There is a legitimate constitutional question here about whether the state should be in charge of endangered species or whether the federal government should be, he said. That debate effectively paused after Bundy, who had been holding regular news conferences at the standoff site, suggested that black people had been freer as slaves than as citizens in the age of the welfare state. But within a year, after big Republican gains in the midterm election, Bundy emerged as a lobbyist for a Nevada bill to begin studying the sale of land. Meanwhile, the issue remained a way for libertarian-friendly candidates such as Paul to appeal to Western caucus states. I think the more private ownership, the better, Paul told Bloomberg News last year. Initially, when the west was being settled, it was a big revenue raiser. The last time we had no national debt was like 1835, and a big reason was the sale of land in the west. In October, former Florida governor Jeb Bush, another presidential candidate, announced a plan to manage public land in the West, calling for the Interior Department to be moved to the region and calling for less federal control. Bush did not respond to news of the standoff Sunday. John Freemuth, a professor of public policy at Boise State University, said issues of land use are nothing new in the West. After initially rallying to Bundys side in 2014, he said, many politicians may wait to see what happens with the situation in Oregon. I think these guys are going wait a minute, dont just say anything right now, he said. It would be hard to find anyone in all of America who has been more wrong on the American energy story than Barack Obama. Oil prices have fallen from $105 a barrel in the summer of 2014 to hovering at $35 a barrel today. Thats a two-thirds reduction in the price and the biggest factor is shale oil brought to you by fracking. In many areas of the country, gasoline is now less than $2 a gallon, and it could fall further in the weeks ahead. The falling price means, of course, an expanded supply. But now listen to Obama, who has lectured the nation on energy as if he were one of the top experts for the last eight years. In a 2008 speech in Lansing, Mich., candidate Obama was all doom and gloom about oil, advising: We cannot sustain a future powered by a fuel that is rapidly disappearing. In 2010, he solemnly declared from the Oval Office: Were running out of places to drill, and he jeered that the oil and gas industry might want to start pumping for oil near the Washington Monument. During a 2011 Weekly Address, he referred to oil and gas as yesterdays energy sources. During a speech at Georgetown University, he pontificated: The United States of America cannot afford to bet our long-term prosperity, our long-term security on a resource (oil) that will eventually run out. By the way, this discredited Malthusian belief that we are running out of oil is still widely believed by many scientists and pundits as well. Paul Krugman of the New York Times wrote in 2010 that the world is fast approaching the inevitable peaking of global oil production and that world commodity prices are telling us that were living in a finite world. That was when prices were abnormally high. So if high prices tell us we are running out, then, obviously, low prices must tell us supply is rising. These stupid predictions of the end of oil have been going on for most of the past century. Just over 100 years ago, the U.S. Bureau of Mines estimated total future production at 6 billion barrels, yet weve produced more than 20 times that amount. In 1939, the Interior Department predicted that U.S. oil supplies would last 13 years. I could go on. The wonder is that smart people like Nobel prize-winners Krugman and Obama havent learned anything from history and instead keep regurgitating these myths about running out. The folks at the Institute for Energy Research recently published a study showing three data points: first, the governments best estimate of how much oil we had in America 50 years ago. The second was how much U.S. oil has been drilled out of the ground since then; the third is how much reserves there are now. We have twice as many reserves today as we had in 1950. And we have already produced almost 10 times more oil than the government told us we had 65 years ago. Technology and innovation account for the constant upward revising of how much of this finite oil we can produce. We discover new sources of oil much faster than we deplete the known reserves, so, for all practical purposes, oil and natural gas supplies are nearly inexhaustible. Fracking is the latest game changer and the access it gives us to shale oil and gas resources has virtually doubled over night. And this technology boom in drilling is just getting started. My point is how absurd it is for Americans to blindly trust any scientific consensus on any of these natural resource or environmental issues. The credibility of the alarmists is just shot. In 1980, hundreds of the top scientists in the United States issued The Global 2000 Report to the President, which was a primal scream that, in every way, life on Earth would be worse by 2000 because the world would run out of oil, gas, food, farmland, and so on. My mentor Julian Simon and Herman Kahn challenged this conventional wisdom. Today they would be disparaged as deniers. Yet, on every score, these iconoclasts were right, and the green scientific consensus was wrong. Lately, even Obama doesnt make the ridiculous claim that we have to use green energy because we are running out of oil. Instead he says we should keep our superabundance of oil in the ground, even as he tries to take credit for the low prices. In reality, if we do what Obama wants, gas at the pump and electricity are going to be more expensive. If you dont like $1.89 gasoline, youre probably a big fan of the Obama energy and climate change agenda. Hopefully, the neo-Malthusians like Obama will stop resorting to the century-long false fear that we are running out of oil as an excuse for using much more expensive and much less efficient green energy. Many years ago, I was quoted in the New York Times as making this point about our infinite oil supply. A high school science teacher wrote me and huffed: Even my 14-year-olds know that oil is finite. This teacher might now be a top science adviser to Mr. Obama. Stephen Moore is an economic consultant with Freedom Works and a Fox News contributor. UN chief Ban Ki-moon said he was "deeply dismayed" by Saudi Arabia's execution of 47 people including a prominent Shia cleric, whose death sparked violent protests in Iran, a spokesman said Saturday. Nimr al-Nimr, the executed cleric who spent more than a decade studying theology in Iran, a Shia power, was a driving force behind 2011 anti-government protests in the Sunni kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Following his execution Saturday, angry crowds hurled petrol bombs outside the Saudi embassy in Tehran before storming the building. Protests also broke out in at least one city in Saudi Arabia's oil-rich Eastern Province, where Shia complain of marginalization, as well as in Iraq and Bahrain. Ban's spokesman said the UN chief was "deeply dismayed over the recent execution by Saudi Arabia of 47 people." Deploring the violence outside the Saudi embassy in Tehran, he called for "calm and restraint" and urged "all regional leaders to work to avoid the exacerbation of sectarian tensions," his spokesman said in a statement. Executions have soared in Saudi Arabia since King Salman ascended the throne a year ago. Rights groups have repeatedly raised concerns about the fairness of trials in the kingdom, where murder, drug trafficking, armed robbery, rape and apostasy are all punishable by death. "Sheik al-Nimr and a number of the other prisoners executed had been convicted following trials that raised serious concerns over the nature of the charges and the fairness of the process," Ban's spokesman said. The UN leaer had raised Nimr's case "with the leadership of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on a number of occasions," the statement added. Saudi Arabia's interior ministry said the executed men had been convicted of adopting the radical "takfiri" ideology, joining "terrorist organizations" and implementing various "criminal plots." Ban was quoted as restating "his strong stance against the death penalty." "He points to the growing movement in the international community for the abolition of capital punishment and urges Saudi Arabia to commute all death sentences imposed in the kingdom." All those executed were Saudis, except for an Egyptian and a Chadian. Search Keywords: Short link: A 16-year-old girl visiting from Washington who disappeared from a Santa Ana dance club was found Saturday evening, according to a statement released by Santa Ana police. Lizbeth Mateo was with a family member at El Festival Club at 230 E. Third St. when she said she was going to use the restroom around 1:30 a.m., according to the statement. She never returned and had not made contact with her family since, police said. Mateo was found in Anaheim on Saturday night, according to the statement. Santa Ana police searched the area and the Orange County Sheriffs Department provided bloodhounds. An investigation regarding her disappearance will continue, according to the statement. Contact the writer: cperkes@ocregister.com 714-796-3686 BAGHDAD Iranian protesters ransacked and set fire to part of the Saudi Embassy in Tehran on Saturday after Saudi Arabia executed an outspoken Shiite cleric who had criticized the kingdoms treatment of its Shiite minority. Protesters broke furniture and smashed windows in an annex to the embassy, said a witness who was reached by telephone from Tehran. The protesters also set fire to the room, said the witness, who would provide only his first name, Abolfazl, because he had been involved in the protest. The police arrived and cleared the embassy grounds of protesters and extinguished the fire, he said. The protest against the execution of the cleric, Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, turned violent after participants began throwing Molotov cocktails at the embassy and then broke into the compound. Al-Nimr was executed in Saudi Arabia along with 47 men on terrorism-related charges, drawing condemnation from Iran and its allies in the region as well as protests around Iran and in other countries. Saudi officials said the mass execution, one of the largest in the kingdom in decades, was aimed at deterring violence against the state. But analysts said that the grouping of the cleric, Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, with hardened jihadis was a warning to domestic dissidents that could exacerbate sectarian tensions across the Middle East. The executions were the first of 2016 and followed a year in which at least 157 people were put to death, the Muslim kingdoms highest yearly total in two decades. They coincided with increased attacks in Saudi Arabia by the jihadis of the Islamic State and an escalating rivalry between the Sunni monarchy and Shiite Iran that has fueled conflicts in Syria, Yemen and elsewhere. Many in the region see the execution of al-Nimr as part of that rivalry, and Shiite leaders in different countries condemned the move. Al-Nimr was an outspoken critic of the Saudi monarchy and was adopted as a symbolic leader by Shiite protesters in several Persian Gulf countries during the Arab Spring uprisings. It is clear that this barren and irresponsible policy will have consequences for those endorsing it, and the Saudi government will have to pay for pursuing this policy, said Hossein Jaberi-Ansari, a spokesman for Irans Foreign Ministry. Criticism also came from Shiite politicians and clerics in Iraq, the Houthi rebel movement in Yemen and the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah. In Iraq, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi wrote on Twitter that he was shocked and saddened at al-Nimrs execution. Peaceful opposition is a fundamental right, he wrote. Repression does not last. Hundreds of Shiites took to the streets to protest in eastern Saudi Arabia and in Bahrain, witnesses said. In Iran, protesters tore down a flag from the Saudi Consulate in the city of Mashhad, and demonstrations were planned for Sunday in Tehran. Saudi officials denied that sectarianism had played any role in the executions. This means that Saudi Arabia will not hesitate to punish all terrorists, said Anwar Eshki, a retired major general in the Saudi army who is the chairman of a research center in Jiddah. When asked about al-Nimr, Eshki replied, In Saudi Arabia, there is no difference between the criminals. Saudi allies like Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates defended the kingdom. In executing al-Nimr, Saudi Arabia had sent a message of determination to Iran, an Emirati political scientist, Abdulkhaliq Abdulla, wrote on Twitter, adding that the kingdom was better prepared to confront Iran than at any other time. Most of those executed on Saturday had been convicted in connection with deadly attacks by al-Qaida in the kingdom about a decade ago. Four, including al-Nimr, were Shiites accused of violence against the police during protests. In recent weeks, the Saudi government appeared to be preparing the public for the executions. Reports that they were imminent had appeared on Saudi news websites, and Al-Arabiya, a Saudi-owned satellite channel, recently aired a multipart documentary that dramatized the kingdoms fight against al-Qaida. On Saturday, some Saudis, including journalists at a government news conference, thanked officials for carrying out the death sentences. The top cleric, Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Al Sheikh, called them a mercy to the prisoners because the executions would save them from committing more evil acts. But some Western analysts said that executing al-Nimr along with Qaida militants conflated his outspoken activism with a grave national threat. This is indicative of the hard-line tilt the regime has taken, said Frederic Wehrey, an analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace who has traveled in Shiite parts of Saudi Arabia. Al-Nimr, said to be in his mid-50s, was from Awamiyah, a poor town surrounded by palm groves in eastern Saudi Arabia that is known for opposition to the monarchy. He studied in Iran and Syria, but rose to prominence for fiery sermons after his return that criticized the ruling family and called for Shiite empowerment, even suggesting that Shiites could secede from the kingdom. This gained him a following mostly among young Shiites who felt discriminated against by Persian Gulf governments. When these young people joined Arab Spring protests in Bahrain and eastern Saudi Arabia in 2011, al-Nimr became a leading figure. During a sermon in 2012, al-Nimr mocked Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz, who had been the Saudi interior minister and had recently died. He will be eaten by worms and suffer the torments of hell in the grave, al-Nimr said. The man who made us live in fear and terror; shouldnt we rejoice at his death? Nayefs son, Mohammed bin Nayef, is now the crown prince and runs the Interior Ministry, which carries out death sentences. The Saudi authorities arrested al-Nimr in July 2012, while the kingdom was leading a regional push to end the pro-democratic activism of the Arab Spring. This included sending tanks to prop up the Sunni monarchy in Bahrain, which faced protests led by the countrys Shiite majority. Shiites also protested in Saudi Arabias oil-rich Eastern province, where many Shiites live and complain of discrimination. Hundreds of people demonstrated in the province after video footage emerged of al-Nimrs arrest that showed him bleeding while in custody. The government said he had been wounded in a shootout. Al-Nimr faced charges including sedition and was sentenced to death in October 2014. Despite al-Nimrs fiery tone, his supporters and others who followed his career said he had not called for violence. To lump this guy with terrorists is a stretch, Wehrey said. To my knowledge, he never called for armed insurrection. The executions came as Saudi Arabia sought to battle comparisons between its application of Shariah law and that of the Islamic State, the Sunni extremist group. Most of the executions Saturday were by beheading; they were not public, unlike most Saudi executions. On Saturday, an image was posted on the website of the supreme leader in Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, depicting what appeared to be an Islamic State fighter about to kill a hostage and a Saudi executioner with a sword, with the question Any differences? Saudi officials say their government puts to death only people who have been convicted of grave crimes, unlike the Islamic State, which kills hostages and releases grisly videos. But human rights groups have criticized the Saudi justice system for not following due process by denying the accused access to legal counsel during interrogation and indicting suspects on vague charges like adopting extremist ideology or undermining the stability of the state. The last mass execution of similar scale in Saudi Arabia was in 1980, when 63 jihadis were put to death after they seized the Grand Mosque in Mecca. The executions of at least 157 people in 2015, a year that began with the inauguration of a new monarch, King Salman, were a sharp increase from the 90 people put to death in 2014. Saudi officials have argued that the increase reflects not a change in policy but a backlog of death sentences that had built up in the final years of the previous monarch, King Abdullah. BEIRUT Irans Supreme Leader warned on Sunday that there would be divine retribution for Saudi Arabias rulers after the execution of a renowned Shiite cleric, sustaining the soaring regional tensions that erupted in the wake of the killing. The warning came hours after crowds of protesters stormed and torched the Saudi embassy in Tehran to vent their anger at the execution of Nimr Baqr al-Nimr, who was among 47 people put to death in the kingdom on Saturday. In a posting on his website, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned that the execution will cause serious troubles for the politicians of this (Saudi) regime in a very short time. . ..The hands of divine vengeance will surely snatch by their necks those cruel individuals who took his life. The execution of Nimr, an outspoken critic of the Saudi royal family, has ignited sectarian tensions across the already inflamed region and jeopardized U.S. diplomacy aimed at tamping down conflicts in the Middle East. Most of the 47 executed on Saturday were Sunnis accused of participating in al-Qaida attacks. According to Saudi Arabias Interior Ministry, some were beheaded and others were shot by firing squad in 12 different locations around the kingdom. Nimr, however, was one of four Shiites put to death for political activism and the leading figure in the anti-government demonstrations that swept the mostly Shiite east of the country in 2011, inspired by the Arab Spring protests elsewhere in the region. A photo montage also posted on Khameneis website showed a split image of an Islamic State fighter preparing to carry out a beheading and a Saudi executioner. The caption asks the question Any difference? The photograph echoed numerous Iranian accusations that Saudi Arabia supports the Islamic State. In response, Saudi Arabia issued an angry statement pointing out that Iran is often accused by many countries of supporting terrorism. Iran is the last regime in the world that could accuse others of supporting terrorism, considering that (Iran) is a state that sponsors terror, and is condemned by the United Nations and many countries, said a Foreign Ministry statement carried by the official Saudi news agency. The Saudi statement pointed out that Iran is also frequently criticized by the international community for carrying out large numbers of executions. Iran carried out 694 executions in the first half of last year, according to an Amnesty International statement in July. Saudi Arabia, with a population nearly a third smaller than Irans, carried out 157 in 2015, according to Amnesty and media reports. There was no immediate indication however that either Tehran or Riyadh planned to take their spat beyond trading barbs, at least for now. The authorities in Tehran announced that they had made a number of arrests in connection with the rampage at the Saudi embassy in Tehran, and the Foreign Ministry pledged to secure Saudi Arabian diplomatic facilities against further attack. The diplomatic police are responsible for confronting any aggression against the diplomatic sites of Saudi Arabia and will act according to its duties to maintain public order and restore security to such places, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari said. The Saudi consulate in the Iranian city of Mashad was also set on fire during the protests that erupted after Nimrs execution was announced. The death sentence was carried out despite international appeals for clemency and repeated warnings from the kingdoms archenemy in the region, Iran, that there would be consequences if the popular cleric were killed. The State Department, which had refrained from publicly joining the appeals for Nimrs life, said it had raised concerns at the highest levels of the Saudi government about the judicial process. In a statement, it called on Saudi Arabia to respect and protect human rights and to permit peaceful expression of dissent. We are particularly concerned that the execution of prominent Shia cleric and political activist Nimr al-Nimr risks exacerbating sectarian tensions at a time when they urgently need to be reduced, the State Department said in a statement. In this context, we reiterate the need for leaders throughout the region to redouble efforts aimed at de-escalating regional tensions. Shiites around the world expressed outrage, potentially complicating a surge of U.S. diplomacy aimed at bringing peace to the region, according to Toby Matthiesen, an expert on Saudi Arabia at the University of Oxford. Nimr had become a household name amongst Shiite Muslims around the world. Many had thought his execution would be a red line and would further inflame sectarian tensions, he said. So this will complicate a whole range of issues, from the Syrian crisis to Yemen. Saudi Arabia and Iran are backing rival sides in Syrias war, and their enmity risks derailing a diplomatic effort led by the United States and Russia to convene peace talks between the factions in Geneva this month. The two feuding powers also support opposing sides in the war in Yemen and more broadly find themselves in opposition in the deeply divided politics of the mixed Sunni-Shiite nations of Iraq and Lebanon. The Obama administrations hopes that the conclusion last summer of an agreement limiting Irans nuclear program would help bridge the sectarian divide between Tehran and the United States biggest Arab ally were further diminished by the eruption of fury that followed Nimrs death. Iran summoned the Saudi charge daffaires in Tehran to complain about the execution, and Saudi Arabia reciprocated by calling in the Iranian ambassador in Riyadh to protest the hostile remarks made by Iranian officials. The execution also triggered renewed unrest in both Saudi Arabia and neighboring Bahrain, after years of calm following the suppression of the demonstrations in 2011. Activists from both countries used Twitter and other social media to appeal for an uprising. In the eastern Saudi city of Qatif, hundreds took to the streets, and Saudi officials expanded patrols and bolstered checkpoints to deter further upheaval, according to a Qatif activist who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he feared for his safety. The Nimr family issued a statement expressing shock and dismay at the execution, and urging restraint and self-control among Nimrs followers. The clerics brother, Mohammed al-Nimr, pledged on his Twitter account that the democracy movement would endure. Wrong, misled and mistaken (are) those who think that the killing will keep us from our rightful demands, he tweeted after the execution was announced. In Bahrain, where demonstrations by the countrys Shiite majority against the ruling Sunni royal family were quelled by the intervention of Saudi troops in 2011, there were reports of scattered protests in several Shiite towns and villages. Videos posted on YouTube by Bahraini activists showed hundreds of people, some wearing T-shirts featuring the bearded clerics face, marching through the streets in at least four locations. Nimr had long served as the voice of Saudi Arabias Shiite minority, the target of discrimination, but he rocketed to prominence in 2011, articulating the sentiments not only of Shiites but also of many others in the region demanding change after decades of authoritarian rule. He had consistently advocated nonviolence, and his views transcended the Sunni-Shiite divide, said Maryam al-Khawaja, a Bahraini human rights activist with the Gulf Center for Human Rights who lives in exile in Denmark. He said Sunnis and Shiites should unite and that anyone who supports the oppressors should be condemned, she said, citing a 2012 speech in which Nimr condemned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who is from the Shiite-affiliated Alawite sect and is backed by Iran, and the regions Sunni authoritarian leaders, including the Saudi royal family. This was a big part of why he became problematic for the Saudi regime, because he refused to abide by the sectarian discourse that is basically enforced on everyone, Khawaja said. Nimr was arrested by Saudi security forces in 2012, after being shot in the legs during a car chase. He had been charged with instigating unrest and undermining the kingdoms security, as well as delivering speeches against the government and defending political prisoners. Condemnations also poured in from other Shiite figures and organizations. Lebanons Hezbollah movement said it held the United States and its allies responsible for Nimrs execution because they are giving direct protection to the Saudi regime. This crime will remain a black mark that will plague the Saudi regime, which has been committing massacres since its inception, Hezbollah said in a statement. In Iraq, there was an outpouring of anger from Shiite leaders and politicians, with the influential cleric Moqtada al-Sadr calling on Shiites in Iraq and across the region to protest the execution. He told Iraqis to take their demonstrations to the newly reopened Saudi Embassy in Baghdads fortified Green Zone, which welcomed a new Saudi ambassador to Iraq on Friday for the first time in nearly 25 years. Iraqs al-Sumaria television channel reported that Shiites in Karbala were demanding that Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi close the Saudi Embassy. Abadi condemned the execution but offered no immediate response. Yemens Houthi rebel movement also issued a condemnation on its website. The advocacy group Amnesty International criticized all of the executions, including those of the accused al-Qaida operatives, saying those killed had not been given fair trials. Nimrs execution, in particular, suggested that Saudi authorities are using the death penalty, in the name of counter terror, to settle scores and crush dissidents, Amnesty International said in a statement. Nimrs nephew, Ali Mohammed al-Nimr, is on death row he was sentenced last year to death by crucifixion for participating in the protests while he was 16 or 17 years old, also drawing widespread international condemnation. BEIRUT Saudi Arabia severed relations with Iran on Sunday amid the furor that erupted over the execution by the Saudi authorities of a prominent Shiite cleric. Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubair told reporters in Riyadh that the Iranian ambassador in Tehran had been given 48 hours to leave the country, citing concerns that Tehrans Shiite government was undermining the security of the Sunni kingdom. Saudi Arabian diplomats had already departed Iran after angry mobs trashed and burned the Saudi embassy in Tehran overnight Saturday, in response to the execution of Sheikh Nimr Baqr al-Nimr earlier in the day. Irans supreme leader warned on Sunday that there would be divine retribution for Saudi Arabias rulers after the execution of a renowned Shiite cleric, sustaining the soaring regional tensions that erupted in the wake of the killing. The warning came hours after crowds of protesters stormed and torched the Saudi embassy in Tehran to vent their anger at the execution of Nimr Baqr al-Nimr, who was among 47 people put to death in the kingdom on Saturday. In a posting on his website, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned that the execution will cause serious troubles for the politicians of this [Saudi] regime in a very short time.The hands of divine vengeance will surely snatch by their necks those cruel individuals who took his life. The execution of Nimr, an outspoken critic of the Saudi royal family, has ignited sectarian tensions across the already inflamed region and jeopardized U.S. diplomacy aimed at tamping down conflicts in the Middle East. Most of the 47 executed on Saturday were Sunnis accused of participating in al-Qaida attacks. According to Saudi Arabias Interior Ministry, some were beheaded and others were shot by firing squad in 12 different locations around the kingdom. Nimr, however, was one of four Shiites put to death for political activism and the leading figure in the anti-government demonstrations that swept the mostly Shiite east of the country in 2011, inspired by the Arab Spring protests elsewhere in the region. A photo montage also posted on Khameneis website showed a split image of an Islamic State fighter preparing to carry out a beheading and a Saudi executioner. The caption asks the question Any difference? The photograph echoed numerous Iranian accusations that Saudi Arabia supports the Islamic State. In response, Saudi Arabia issued an angry statement pointing out that Iran is often accused by many countries of supporting terrorism. Iran is the last regime in the world that could accuse others of supporting terrorism, considering that [Iran] is a state that sponsors terror, and is condemned by the United Nations and many countries, said a Foreign Ministry statement carried by the official Saudi news agency. The Saudi statement also pointed out that Iran also is frequently criticized by the international community for carrying out large numbers of executions. Iran carried out 694 executions in the first half of last year, according to an Amnesty International statement in July. Saudi Arabia, with a population nearly a third smaller than Irans, carried out 157 in 2015, according to Amnesty and media reports. The authorities in Tehran announced that they had made a number of arrests in connection with the rampage at the Saudi embassy in Tehran, and the Foreign Ministry pledged to secure Saudi Arabian diplomatic facilities against further attack. The diplomatic police are responsible for confronting any aggression against the diplomatic sites of Saudi Arabia and will act according to its duties to maintain public order and restore security to such places, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari said. The Saudi consulate in the Iranian city of Mashad was also set on fire during the protests that erupted after Nimrs execution was announced. The death sentence was carried out despite international appeals for clemency and repeated warnings from the kingdoms archenemy in the region, Iran, that there would be consequences if the popular cleric were killed. The State Department, which had refrained from publicly joining the appeals for Nimrs life, said it had raised concerns at the highest levels of the Saudi government about the judicial process. In a statement, it called on Saudi Arabia to respect and protect human rights and to permit peaceful expression of dissent. We are particularly concerned that the execution of prominent Shia cleric and political activist Nimr al-Nimr risks exacerbating sectarian tensions at a time when they urgently need to be reduced, the State Department said in a statement. In this context, we reiterate the need for leaders throughout the region to redouble efforts aimed at de-escalating regional tensions. Shiites around the world expressed outrage, potentially complicating a surge of U.S. diplomacy aimed at bringing peace to the region, according to Toby Matthiesen, an expert on Saudi Arabia at the University of Oxford. Saudi Arabia and Iran are backing rival sides in Syrias war, and their enmity risks derailing a diplomatic effort led by the United States and Russia to convene peace talks between the factions in Geneva this month. The two feuding powers also support opposing sides in the war in Yemen and more broadly find themselves in opposition in the deeply divided politics of the mixed Sunni-Shiite nations of Iraq and Lebanon. RIYADH, Saudi Arabia Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir says his country is severing diplomatic ties with Iran amid spiking tensions over the execution of a prominent Saudi Shiite cleric. Al-Jubeir said Sunday that Iranian diplomatic personnel had 48 hours to leave the country and all Saudi diplomatic personnel in Iran were being recalled home. Demonstrators in Tehran broke into the Saudi Embassy early Sunday morning to protest the execution of Shiekh Nimr al-Nimr, a leader of the countrys Shiite minority. Iranian officials harshly condemned the execution, with Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei saying that Saudi Arabia would face divine retribution. The ultraconservative Sunni kingdom and Shiite powerhouse Iran have waged a bitter struggle for regional power for years. The two countries each back opposing sides in civil wars in Yemen and in Syria. KASHGAR, China Families sundered by a wave of detentions. Mosques barred from broadcasting the call to prayer. Restrictions on the movements of laborers that have wreaked havoc on local agriculture. And a battery of ever more intrusive ways to monitor the communications of citizens for possible threats to public security. A recent 10-day journey across the Xinjiang region in the far west of China revealed a society seething with anger and trepidation as the government, alarmed by a slow-boil insurgency that has claimed hundreds of lives, has introduced unprecedented measures aimed at shaping the behavior and beliefs of Chinas 10 million Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking Muslim minority that considers this region its homeland. Driving these policies is the governments view that tougher security and tighter restraints on the practice of Islam are the best way to stem a wave of violence that included a knife attack at a coal mine that killed dozens of people in September. The tough security measures are on full view for travelers as they stop at the ubiquitous highway checkpoints that slow movement across this rugged expanse of deserts and snowy peaks. As heavily armed soldiers rummage through car trunks and examine ID cards, ethnic Uighur motorists and their passengers are sometimes asked to hand over their cellphones so that the police can search them for content or software deemed a threat to public security. In addition to jihadi videos, the police are on the lookout for Skype and WhatsApp, apps popular with those who communicate with friends and relatives outside China, and for software that allows users to access blocked websites. All of us have become terror suspects, said a 23-year-old Uighur engineering student who said he was detained overnight in November after the police found messages he had exchanged with a friend in Turkey. These days, even receiving phone calls from overseas is enough to warrant a visit from state security. Other measures have contributed to the widespread perception that Uighur identity is under siege. Schools have largely switched to using Mandarin as the main language of instruction instead of Uighur. The New Year brings even more political and economic challenges for Orange County and the rest of California. As has been the case since 1992, the state has become so Democratic that the partys nominee for president easily will win the Nov. 8 election here, garnering the states 55 electoral votes. That means the two major parties nominees will campaign here only to troll for money, the Republican standard bearer especially in Orange County, and the Democratic nominee in Hollywood and Silicon Valley. But theres a chance the June 7 California primary could decide the nominee for the Republican Party (and remotely for the Democratic Party). Its still early, but assuming Donald Trump wins some early primaries, his opposition within the GOP could coalesce around one alternative candidate, such as Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida or Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, prolonging the race until its our turn to vote. The state also faces major Nov. 8 ballot decisions on several vital initiatives. The worst measure would boost the statewide minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2021. Its backed by unions. Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom is using the minimum wage measure as one of his three campaign planks the others are gun control and fully legalizing marijuana to catapault himself into the Governors Office in 2018. Were already seeing how a higher minimum wage kills jobs as it already jumped Jan. 1 to $10 from $9. In anticipation, McDonalds, Wal-Mart, Target and other stores have installed self-order kiosks or self-checkouts. Ive noticed local grocery and liquor stores have reduced their late hours. By November, well also be getting more cautionary data from the rush to a $15 minimum wage already enacted in Seattle, Los Angeles and San Francisco. As Michael Saltsman recently wrote on these pages, ritzy San Francisco restaurants owned by Newsoms own Plumpjack Group have not been hurt, but other restaurants and bookstores have closed their doors. I suspect Gov. Jerry Brown will oppose this initiative, both as a way to save the state money on the salaries of its own minimum-wage employees and to undermine Newsom, a fellow Democrat who has bucked Brown by opposing the governors pet high-speed rail project. Also on the ballot will be an initiative to extend the temporary $7 billion-per-year Proposition 30 tax increase voters passed, at Browns urging, in 2012. But its going to be a hard sell with the state running a $10 billion budget surplus. I suspect Brown again will foil his erstwhile Democratic and union allies by opposing the Prop. 30 extension. Hes looking to his legacy, and leaving office in two years with a budget surplus, despite Prop. 30 expiring, would be a major chapter in his memoirs. One area where California voters will have a national impact will be in replacing retiring U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer. Like her, the almost-certain winner on Nov. 8 will be a Democrat. Currently leading in polls is state Attorney General Kamala Harris, who hails from San Francisco and its decidedly progressive political culture. Challenging her is Rep. Loretta Sanchez of Santa Ana, a Blue Dog (moderate) Democrat with a reputation for flamboyant style, outspoken comments and amusing Christmas cards. Sanchez is hoping to garner support from the states rising Hispanic voters and from Southern Californians in general. The last Southland U.S. senator was Republican John Seymour of Anaheim in 1992. The states Top Two primary system could pit Sanchez against Harris not only in June, but again in November. And with national security and terrorism again top concerns, Sanchezs experience on the House Homeland Security and Armed Services committees could give her winning appeal. Some of us also would love to see her Christmas cards continue. Harry Mari sold 18 GI Joe dolls to Americas Toy Scout for $350 on Saturday. Thats pretty good money, Mari said. Especially since my mom bought them for $1.99 each. But I wish I would have saved the boxes. I would have made $1,000. Americas Toy Scout president Joel Magee buys toys, refurbishes them and sells them at collectors shows around the country. He advises people to save the boxes. Thats where the value is, he said. Old toys bring out wonderful childhood memories for people, Magee said. I started collecting 30 years ago when I found a GI Joe lunch box from 1968. I was instantly transported back in time to the lunchroom at Crescent Park Elementary in Sioux City, Iowa. Magee said that he likes to bring his buying events to Orange County to pick up Disney toys. On Saturday he was at the Marriott Residence Inn in Placentia. He will be in different locations in Orange County through January 7th. For more information, you can visit their website at americastoyscout.com. Disneyland E-tickets sat amongst statues of Mickey, Minnie and Pluto, plus a creepy-looking Goofy wind-up toy that topped off a tower of Lincoln Logs and Tinker Toy containers. And of course there were a few Star Wars toys. A 1977 Chewbacca doll still in the box garnered $400. ROWLAND HEIGHTS A man shot and killed his wife and two others in his home on New Years Eve before his son wrestled the gun away and fatally shot him in a chain of events apparently set off by a dispute over a washing machine, authorities said. The two other victims killed were the sons 48-year-old girlfriend who also lives at the house in Rowland Heights and a 27-year-old man who was visiting, the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department said Friday. The 54-year-old father was a heavy drinker with a large gun collection, and authorities had made dozens of previous trips to the home, the Los Angeles Sheriffs Department said. Investigators were talking to surviving witnesses to figure out what led to the father pulling out a semi-automatic pistol and opening fire. It looks like it was a dispute between the dad and the sons girlfriend, probably over using the washing machine, Sheriffs Lt. John Corina told the San Gabriel Valley Tribune. For some reason, this set the dad off. The son, 33-year-old Christopher Morey, eventually recovered the gun from his father and shot him, authorities said. Morey is being held on suspicion of murder on $1 million bail, authorities said. Deputies reached by phone did not know if he has an attorney who could comment. Morey and his girlfriend were living in the home with the 54-year-old mother, who had recently had a stroke. They had been taking care of her, Corina said. She was in a hospital bed there in the middle of the living room. Authorities have not released the name of any victims, but the mother and brother of the 27-year-old were outside the home Friday and told the Tribune his name was Ernesto Calzadilla and he has an 8-month-old daughter. The mother, Maria Cruz, said the family was nice to his son and he liked being at the house. But the brother, Wilfred Calzadilla, said Ernesto had generally stopped going to the house because of worries about the father, making an exception on New Years Eve. Mixing alcohol and guns never ends good, Wilfred Calzadilla said. Sweden could accept greater numbers of migrants if they were distributed more evenly across the country, a government official said Sunday. "There are 40 to 50 municipalities that are facing a crisis, but the other 200 to 220 municipalities say they can do more," Per-Arne Andersson, a top official at the Swedish Association of Local and Municipal Governments, told Swedish radio. Sweden, with a population of 9.8 million, took in some 160,000 asylum seekers in 2015, the highest number of refugees per capita by any European Union nation. But arrivals have slowed dramatically. After a peak of 10,500 asylum seekers during the week ending November 15, the number fell to about 3,500 a week by mid-December, according to the Migration Agency. In a bid to stem the flow of migrants, Sweden reinstated border controls on November 12, and two weeks later announced a drastic tightening of its asylum policy. Erik Nilsson, a senior official in the prime minister's office for refugee and labour issues, says the key issue is accommodation. "We need for people to be able to find their own housing, using their relatives, and we also need more refugee housing facilities," he told Swedish radio. The UN refugee agency and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) have said more than one million migrants and refugees reached Europe in 2015. Most were refugees fleeing war and violence in Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq. Search Keywords: Short link: Whats on TV this week? Here are the shows you shouldnt miss. Sunday Cooper Barretts Guide to Surviving Life 7:30 p.m., Fox (series premiere) Jack Cutmore-Scott stars in this new sitcom about a bunch of 20-somethings making bad decisions. Sounds relatable. Downton Abbey 8 to 9:15 p.m., PBS (season premiere) The sixth and final season starts in 1925, with Lady Mary facing a threat, Violet upset about a change at the hospital and the whole estate on the edge of downsizing. Egads! Monday The Bachelor 7 to 9:01 p.m., ABC (season premiere) Its time for Season 20 of this mating ritual. Our would-be husband is 26-year-old Ben Higgins, who failed to suitably woo Kaitlyn on last years Bachelorette. In his crop of contestants are two women from a previous season. Superhuman 7 to 9 p.m., Fox (new) Kal Penn hosts this two-hour competition that pits 12 people with extraordinary abilities in memory, hearing, taste, smell and the like. The winner gets $100,000. Tuesday New Girl 7 p.m., Fox (season premiere) The fifth season gets going with Jess and Nick throwing Cece and Schmidt an engagement party but Ceces mom doesnt know about the wedding. Wednesday American Idol 7 to 9 p.m., Fox (season premiere) The curtain will close on this long-running singing competition, now starting its 15th season with auditions in Denver and Atlanta. Mike & Molly 7:30 p.m., CBS (season premiere) Season 6 gets going with Mike and Carl attending couples counseling to work on their partnership. American Crime 9 p.m., ABC (season premiere) The second season is set in Indianapolis and focuses on sexual assault accusations at two different high schools. Thursday Nebraska Stories 7 p.m., NET (season premiere) The seventh season of these tales of Nebraska starts with looks at a young bullfighter from Lexington and an artist who struggled against macular degeneration. Shades of Blue 9 p.m., NBC (series premiere) Jennifer Lopez and Ray Liotta star in this tale of bad cops, informants and the FBI. Saturday J. Cole Forest Hills Drive: Homecoming 9:05 to 10:35 p.m., HBO (new) This look at rapper J. Cole includes a tour of the town where he grew up and performances of his new songs. Contact the writer: 402-444-1349, sara.ziegler@owh.com Even though many in Sidney are hopeful confident, even that Cabelas will stay, thats only one of the possibilities for the company now that activist investor Elliott Management is involved. When the New York hedge fund, a so-called activist investor, declared its 11 percent stake in late October, it hinted that it would be forcing Cabelas to sell the company, its real estate or its profitable credit card business. Since then, Reuters reported competitor Bass Pro Shops has Cabelas in its sights. Bloomberg News also reported that the company has been shopping itself around to private equity firms. Here are a few likely scenarios for the company: Buyout from a competitor If Bass Pro were to buy, there would be no need for two accounting departments, two legal teams or two sales departments. The headquarters would likely be consolidated in Springfield, Missouri, where Bass Pro is based. But other competitors and Wall Street are watching for other possible acquirers, and in the increasingly competitive outdoors retailing world, there are several. Joseph Feldman, an analyst with Telsey Advisory Group, says a Dicks Sporting Goods and Cabelas merger makes sense. Feldman says the Dicks Field & Stream stores, focusing on hunting and fishing, overlap with Cabelas in only one market. The analyst estimated that Cabelas would cost Dicks about $4.9 billion, a 20 percent premium to Cabelas shares, which closed at $46.73 Thursday. Buyout from private equity While private equity firms often slash expenses by making cuts to jobs, there likely wouldnt be any reason to move the headquarters. A private equity firm also could weather some of the costs associated with making big changes to the company, away from the short-term quarteritis expectations of Wall Street to meet earnings goals each quarter. Once the company is in good working order, it might go public again, paying off the private equity firms debt. Sale of real estate One thing that made Cabelas an attractive target for an activist investor: its estimated $1.5 billion real estate portfolio. Many activists have recently pressured retailers like Sears to spin off real estate into a Real Estate Investment Trust, which pays out earnings in dividends and, as a result, pays little corporate income taxes. The retailer would then lease its stores back from the REIT. This would take some debt off the books for Cabelas, and turn a quick profit for the company. It may not be the best for the long-term health of the company, retail experts have cautioned, but it would free up cash for reinvestment. Sale of credit card business One analyst has said without Cabelas lucrative Worlds Foremost Bank the third largest in Nebraska it would be an average retailer. Chief Financial Officer Ralph Castner said in October that the bank, issuer of the Cabelas Club Visa card, is not for sale. Nearly 700 employees work in customer service centers dealing with the Club card. Other retailers, like Nordstrom, have spun off their credit card businesses, and experts have said there would be plenty of buyers for the accounts, which have higher-than-average credit ratings. Andrew Burns, an analyst with DA Davidson Co., said he thinks a private equity buyout is more likely than a breakup. Anytime you get a unique business model like this that has embedded real estate value, multiple businesses the credit card and retail you get activist investors that come in and unlock value, Burns said. Once you start talking about breaking up the business it gets incredibly complicated and potentially does not unlock the value that activist investors want. Dean Foods donation: Thousands of area residents stocked up on milk the weekend before Christmas and, in the process, helped Dean Foods reach a goal to donate $10,000 to Variety the Childrens Charity of Iowa. Dean Foods partnered with Hy-Vee and Fareway stores in Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota for the two-day Pure Comfort and Joy community campaign. Dean Foods donated $1, up to $10,000, for every gallon of Land O Lakes DairyPure milk sold at participating grocers on Dec. 18 and 19. The childrens charity, based in Des Moines, will use the donated funds to support its annual grant program for childrens organizations and its Kids on the Go! bicycle program. The organization is dedicated to improving the lives of underprivileged, at-risk and special needs children in Iowa. Help from foundation: Eight local nonprofits are providing shelter and services to the homeless, food to the hungry and opportunities for independent living with the help of $137,500 in grants made recently by Lincoln Financial Foundation. Siena/Francis House is using $25,000 to support two core programs serving Omahas homeless population an emergency overnight shelter and a three-meals-a-day feeding program. Other human services grants awarded include: $30,000 to Food Bank of the Heartland to support Weekend Food for Kids; $22,000 to Womens Center for Advancement to support its self-sufficiency program; $20,000 to Youth Emergency Services for its transitional living program; $12,500 to Habitat for Humanity of Omaha to support Builders Blitz; $10,000 to Legal Aid of Nebraska to provide financial stability for marginalized women; $10,000 to Youth Care & Beyond to support the In Home program; and $8,000 to Childrens Restoration Network for its Back 2 School program. Clothing and food drive: Students at Xenon Academy, 8516 Park Drive, recently donated money and warm clothing items to the Open Door Mission. The students collected $280, 15 coats, 50 pairs of gloves and numerous scarves and blankets. Xenon also hosted a food drive for a local food pantry. More than 300 items were collected. Tanks of Thanks: Marijo Williams of Council Bluffs was selected to receive free fuel from Tanks of Thanks, a program that recognizes people who go the extra mile for others. Williams was presented a $50 Tanks of Thanks gift card, which is redeemable at any Cenex location, for volunteering with the local Meals on Wheels. For the past several years, Williams has rarely missed a day with the program, even while experiencing shoulder issues. Those who know her say she never complains and inspires the people around her. The Tanks of Thanks program encourages people to nominate neighbors, family and friends for free fuel as a way to thank them for doing good deeds, both large and small. To make a nomination, visit TanksofThanks.com. Send your Good Deeds information to goodnews@owh.com. LINCOLN Gov. Pete Ricketts is working on improving communication with state lawmakers and continuing to focus on reducing property taxes and streamlining government as he heads into his second year in office. The former Omaha businessman said he found no major surprises in his first year as governor, and is pleased with what hes accomplished. Ricketts, though, said he intends to work more closely with leaders in the Nebraska Legislature on matters of common ground. It definitely was one of the observations I made last session, that working with committee chairs was one of the ways to be more effective, he said during a 30-minute interview with The World-Herald. A year ago, the 51-year-old Republican, whose family owns TD Ameritrade and the Chicago Cubs, arrived with no experience in elective office, an office staff skilled in political campaigns but not passage of policy, and a list of troubled state agencies to fix, led by Health and Human Services and Corrections. Ricketts said his immediate priorities a year ago were to craft a state budget and assemble a management team. He said he wanted to hire transformational leaders to reform state agencies. Though he did score a victory on a slower-growing budget and worked with lawmakers to increase a state property tax credit program to a record-high $204 million a year, Ricketts, some conservatives say, fumbled the legislative snap in failing to halt three unconservative bills from passing. The Legislature last session repealed the death penalty, the first conservative state to do so since North Dakota in 1973. Senators also passed an increase in state gas taxes to attack a backlog of road and bridge maintenance needs, and voted to allow children of illegal immigrants involved in the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program to get Nebraska drivers licenses. All three issues were passed over vetoes by Ricketts. The death penalty repeal is now on hold, after a petition drive financially backed by the governor and staffed with Ricketts allies was successful in placing a referendum concerning capital punishment on the 2016 general election ballot. The governor said he now has the advantage of a years worth of building relationships with state senators and working with committee chairmen prior to the session. Plus, he said, he has his team in place and wont have a new budget to draft. Ricketts, known for an upbeat attitude and a full-throated laugh that comes easily, expressed no bitterness or regrets about the past year, or complaints about the sometimes slow-moving wheels of government. Its the best job in the world, he said. Absolutely. And Ricketts said he expects no major backlash in 2016 from his post-session effort to overturn the repeal of the death penalty, which has nullified, at least for now, the vote of the Legislature. Its one of the things that politicians learn: You have to have amnesia. The person who voted against you yesterday may be the person whos voting with you today, the governor said. Ricketts said he has been working with Speaker of the Legislature Galen Hadley of Kearney, as well as the chairmen of the Revenue and Education Committees, Sen. Mike Gloor of Grand Island and Sen. Kate Sullivan of Cedar Rapids, on his top priority for 2016: reducing property taxes. The governor declined to offer details on the proposal, saying its still a work in progress. I hope to do tax reform every year, he said. We didnt get to be a high-tax state overnight. Were not going to fix it overnight. Ricketts also declined to provide details, for now, about his budget proposals for the 2016 session. But he did signal that it will involve tightening our belts and making trade-offs given the $110 million budget shortfall forecast by a state economic panel during the fall. Despite the budget crunch, he said he expects to be able to afford another top priority: launching a $26 million expansion of a state prison in Lincoln. Building a 150-bed addition for female inmates in work-release programs, Ricketts said, is part of addressing a shortage of minimum-custody community corrections beds in the state prison system. To be sure, there was bound to be a change in the Governors Mansion following a record-long 10-year term by former Gov. Dave Heineman. Senators and others, when asked about Ricketts first year, said there was a learning curve from the corporate suite to the Governors Office, but gave him high marks for regularly traveling to meet constituents, opening up the flow of information from state agencies and taking steps to make government more efficient. Lincoln Sen. Colby Coash said that state agency heads no longer blow off invitations from state senators to meet and discuss issues within their departments. Theres a level of openness and transparency and a willingness to partner, Coash said. Communication is much improved. Papillion Sen. Jim Smith, a fellow Republican who butted heads with Ricketts over the gas-tax hike, said the governors decision to move his privately paid adviser, Jessica Flanagain, into the State Capitol as part of his state-paid staff was an excellent move. That will go a long way to make his administration run smoother, Smith said. Omaha Sen. Bob Krist, who supported the repeal of the death penalty, said that fight likely interfered with the new governor settling into his job. But hes hired good agency directors, Krist said, and laid the groundwork for more efficient and less costly government via the work done by Felix Davidson, a former Ricketts business colleague the governor hired as the states first chief operating officer. Wait times for call centers run by Health and Human Services were dramatically reduced, and Davidson (who recently asked to continue as a part-time contractor) also helped Corrections implement new computer systems to avoid errors in sentence calculations sentencing mistakes uncovered by The World-Herald in 2014. Lincoln Sen. Adam Morfeld, a Democrat, credited Ricketts for reaching out to senators following last years session. I think he realizes its about building relationships, but there are still things we will have to agree to disagree on, he said. You can never overcommunicate, Ricketts said. Overall, he indicated that hes eager to roll up his sleeves for Year Two. Weve got a lot of work ahead of us, no doubt, but Im very pleased with the direction were going, he said. World-Herald staff writer Joe Duggan contributed to this report. SIDNEY, Neb. This western Nebraska town has ridden out boom and bust cycles before, but with the fate of a major employer unknown, the stakes have never been higher. Since Sidneys founding as an end-of-the-tracks railroad town in 1867, its fate has been harnessed to frontier- and World War II-era military posts, the Black Hills gold rush of the 1870s and oil exploration in the middle of the last century not to mention the perpetually cyclical farming and ranching economy. Now Cabelas the homegrown $3.6 billion hunting, fishing and outdoor retailer is under siege. The company has taken the western Nebraska community on the ride of its life during the last quarter-century of rapid growth dating to the opening of its Interstate 80 retail store in 1991. An activist investor with an 11.1 percent stake in Cabelas is pushing for big changes in the company to boost shareholder value. A sale of the entire business, including the loss of the corporate headquarters, is a possibility. Uncertainty is in the air. The builders of a Holiday Inn Express hotel to be constructed near the Cabelas retail store and headquarters have paused work to wait out the drama. Anxiety, rumors and speculation abound. Across the city, many residents recognize the peril. Many experienced the deep downside decades ago when an Army ammunition depot closed. And they saw what can happen when an activist investor targets a company, when Omaha-based ConAgra Foods announced plans last year to move its headquarters to Chicago. Cabelas is by far Sidneys leading employer with about 2,000 jobs. The company provides one-fourth of the communitys employment. Compare that with Omaha, where ConAgra is eliminating 1,300 local jobs as part of its headquarters move. While still a blow, the loss is easier to absorb in a metro area with 468,000 jobs. But Sidney residents remain hopeful, if not confident, that the community will buck the threat and keep the Cabelas headquarters. This would probably be the biggest ghost town in the United States, said Tim Miller, the 62-year-old owner of an office supply store who grew up in Sidney and recalls the big bust in the 1960s. There are a lot of people on pins and needles. But I really do think down deep that Cabelas isnt going to move. For its part, even if its not business as usual in the corporate suites, the company is moving ahead with plans to expand into a new headquarters building in coming weeks, a spokesman said. Cabelas also is moving forward with developing a new subdivision to address a chronic housing shortage in Sidney. Sidneys jitters started in late September when Cabelas laid off 4 percent of its corporate workforce in a rare restructuring and reduction move by the company. Most of the nearly 70 employees who lost their jobs worked at the headquarters. Then came the activist investor surprise from New York-based Elliott Associates in late October. Two weeks later, the town was shaken by news from another local employer. The new owner of a copper cable plant in the city said it would shut down the facility, eliminating 140 jobs. The sky was falling, Miller said. Everyone was on high alert. Sidney has prospered with Cabelas during a time when most rural communities across Nebraska have struggled with lost jobs and declining populations. There are roughly 8,000 jobs in the city of 6,900. Cabelas employs 2,000 people at its headquarters, retail store, distribution center and other satellite operations. Workers commute from communities across the southern Panhandle, northeast Colorado and southeast Wyoming. Other leading employers include the Sidney Regional Medical Center with about 400, Adams Industries with 160, and Sidney Public Schools with 130, according to city records. Like today, Sidney in the mid-20th century was a thriving community powered, in part, by booming oil and natural gas exploration. Although the U.S. Census recorded a population of 8,004 in 1960, locals say it peaked around 10,000 during the period. Fallout from losing the Cabelas headquarters the worst-case scenario would rival what happened when the Pentagon phased out the Sioux Army Depot in 1967. The sprawling World War II-era munitions storage site northwest of town employed more than 2,000 civilian workers. When the depot closed, Sidneys population plummeted. Two hundred houses sat vacant. The 1970 population tumbled 20 percent to 6,403. Bruce Batt, president and chief executive officer at Points West Community Bank, wasnt in Sidney for the 1960s and 70s, but he knows the story. Sidney dried up, he said. A similar thing could happen again. Every mom-and-pop shop would be affected. Grocery stores. Furniture stores. People who own small homes to rent. Points West Bank was formed in 1988, three years before Cabelas then a beast in catalog sales built its first new-era retail store along I-80. The store was wildly successful. Shoppers traveled from across the country to shop in the Sidney catalog showroom. Cabelas now has 77 similar retail stores across the United States and Canada, including two others in Nebraska at Kearney and La Vista. In 2005, Points West Bank built a branch across the road from the Cabelas headquarters. It was a strategic decision to capture some of the Cabelas money. Privately owned for more than 40 years, Cabelas went public in 2004, and the company was quickly growing. Everyone moving to town was going to work out there, Batt said. Maybe it was a little defensive. If we didnt go out there, maybe somebody else might. Its been good. Weve seen excellent growth. Like many, Batt has an extra reason to see Cabelas continue its successful run in Sidney. His daughter and son-in-law work for the company. Sidney received economic booster shots but not sustained growth from construction of Minuteman missile sites in the southern Panhandle during the Cold War and the building of I-80 and natural gas pipelines in the 1960s and 70s. Dr. Carl Cornelius, a Sidney physician since 1956, was a member of the hospital board in 1968 when it sold a three-story former John Deere building downtown to then Chappell-based Cabelas for its first Sidney retail outlet and warehouse. That lit the slow-burning fuse for the Cabelas boom to come. It would be an absolute disaster if Cabelas were to capsize in the overhaul demanded by Elliott Associates. I dont see any recovery if something happens to Cabelas, he said. Bill Maddox, owner of 76-year-old Maddox Motor Co., a Dodge, Chrysler and Jeep dealership, said nobody in Sidney including founders Dick, Mary and Jim Cabela had any idea that the mail-order company would become such a big fish in the outdoors retailing pond. Maddox estimated that Cabelas employees make up half of his sales. He moved the dealership from downtown to a location across the road from the Cabelas store in 2000. The Cabelas question has everybodys stomach upset, Maddox said. Keith Nienhueser, vice president of Nienhueser Construction, always jokingly tells people who learn hes from Sidney that he works for Cabelas. I dont work for them directly, but all the work were doing is because of them, he said. The construction and excavation company did the dirt and utility work at the new Cabelas headquarters building scheduled to open soon. Nienhueser also had roles in building the new $53 million Sidney Regional Medical Center that opened last month and is laying the groundwork for the first phase of the Cabelas-sponsored subdivision of more than 700 houses. We had so much work the last four years, we couldnt keep up, Nienhueser said. Nienhueser said he has a gut feeling that the Cabelas headquarters will survive because co-founder Mary Cabela and Jim Cabela, her brother-in-law and chairman of the company, live in Sidney and are dedicated to the company and community. (Dick Cabela died in 2014.) They have a big influence, he said. Founders and executives of Cabelas have long said they attribute the companys success to embracing the rural culture of Sidney and western Nebraska. Wendall Gaston, Sidneys vice mayor and a Safeway pharmacist, said the community and the company have been good for each other. Its a partnership, he said. I dont think Cabelas would be as successful without Sidney and, of course, Sidney wouldnt be as successful without Cabelas. Gaston said he is not privy to talks at Cabelas headquarters but is confident the partnership between the company and the community is a valuable piece of the strategy at play. Gaston said Cabelas remains profitable and is loaded with brain power. He said he has watched the company recruit and bring to Sidney talented employees from across the nation, whether in information technology, merchandising, catalogs, marketing or executive officers. Thats been their advantage, and it remains their advantage, he said. Tom VonSeggren, president of the Sidney school board and the citys parks superintendent, said Cabelas has been a model partner for the community and the school district. A company leadership program works with city officials to meet community needs. Cabelas volunteers provided money and labor to improve the city park pond. They have a community-minded spirit, VonSeggren said. The Rev. David Hall at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church said dozens of Cabelas employees are members of the congregation of more than 300 people. At least half the congregation has a Cabelas connection. If theyre not working there, a spouse is or a parent is, he said. Hall said members of the Cheyenne County Ministerial Association wrapped up last months meeting with a prayer to ease the anxiety among townspeople. The Cabelas question, if it remains unresolved, will hang over the school boards annual winter work session in February. No decisions on day-to-day school operations will be made based on whats happening at Cabelas, said Jay Ehler, superintendent of the district of 1,326 kindergarten to grade 12 students. But in a town our size, where about 25 percent of the town is employed out there, we have to pay attention, he said. Batt, the bank president, said the community mood seems to soar and plummet as news stories or official corporate announcements come and go. He wont say what he thinks will happen to Cabelas because it would be pure speculation, but he hears a lot of optimism around town. Batt said he believes Cabelas corporate leaders are pulling out all the stops to keep the company as whole as possible. Yet it may be beyond their control at this point, he said. Its easy to say its their definite intention not to leave, but when you start getting an activist investor that comes in and buys up large chunks ... you witnessed that in Omaha. Thats exactly what happened to ConAgra. The day Cabelas went public, everyone here knew this always could be a possibility. Contact the writer: 402-444-1127, david.hendee@owh.com SIDNEY, Neb. Uncertainty about the future of Cabelas corporate headquarters hits during a new spurt of potentially $700 million in housing, medical, commercial and city development projects. Much of the development is occurring near the Cabelas retail and corporate campus near Interstate 80. Ben Dayton, the citys zoning administrator, said the fast pace of development has shown no significant signs of slowing, even with the future of Cabelas up in the air. Among the projects is the first phase of a projected $34 million expansion of the Cabelas headquarters. Workers are scheduled to move into a new building in coming weeks. Initial plans unveiled in 2013 called for three new office structures constructed as needed on 27 acres immediately west of the current headquarters. Nonetheless, at least two local projects have faced challenges because of the uncertainty surrounding Cabelas. The developers of an 82-room Holiday Inn Express hotel prepared the site near the Cabelas campus but paused further development pending the outcome of the Cabelas decision to explore strategic alternatives after an activist investor pushed for changes in the company to boost its shareholder value. In addition, the citys bonding agency has declined to sell bonds to finance the $5.4 million aquatic center under construction. Interim City Manager Geri Anthony said the agency cited concerns about whether the retail giant will remain headquartered in Sidney. A Lincoln bank has agreed to underwrite the loan. Cabelas goosed the local development spurt by purchasing 480 acres of farmland on Sidneys eastern edge in 2012 and hiring a firm to develop a master site plan for housing. This centerpiece project a subdivision called The Ranch is $350 million to $500 million in residential neighborhoods to help ease Sidneys chronic housing shortage. More than 700 primarily single-family homes are on the drawing board. Cabelas will sell the land to private companies to build houses. Streets and other infrastructure are complete for the first phase of construction. The first four spec homes have been contracted to be built. Theres just a big demand for housing in Sidney, Dayton said. Other I-80 interchange projects: Loves truck stop, IHOP restaurant and a 71-room Comfort Inn hotel are under construction and expected to open in early spring. The complex includes a dormitory-style apartment to provide lodging for Loves employees who cant find housing in Sidney. Framing is underway for a 74-room Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott to open this year. An Applebees restaurant is scheduled to open in February. A veterinarian is expected to open the first business in a new, 80-acre business park near the recently opened Sidney Regional Medical Center in late spring, Dayton said. This report includes material from the Associated Press. Contact the writer: 402-444-1127, david.hendee@owh.com In an effort to boost tourism, Egypt's tourism ministry announces that Chinese tourists who come through a tourist agency will not need visas in advance of arrival Egypt said it will exempt Chinese tourists from pre-obtained visa requirements, allowing them to get visas on arrival, a decision that could help the ailing tourism sector. The tourism ministry said in a statement that Chinese tourist groups will be able to enter Egypt "if they are sponsored by a tourism agency and have financial ability." It wasnt clear in the statement how much cash the Chinese tourist would need on arrival. The ministry said that the decision aims to aid the tourism sector, which received a blow after several countries suspended flights to Egypts tourism flagship city of Sharm El-Sheikh on security concerns following the Russian airline disaster in late October that saw all 224 on board killed in an attack claimed by the militant ISIS group. Along with Suez Canal, the ailing tourism sector is one of Egypt's main sources of foreign currency, of which the country is in dire need to buy basic foodstuffs and fulfil its international obligations. Foreign currency reserves stood at $16.4 billion at the end of November. Tourism revenues in 2015 are expected to be at least 10 percent below 2014s $7.5 billion, according to Minister of Tourism Hisham Zaazou. Search Keywords: Short link: WASHINGTON Nebraskas two U.S. senators have plenty in common as first-term Republicans who ran for office touting their conservative credentials. Sens. Deb Fischer and Ben Sasse both criticize the health care law, support federal spending cuts and denounce burdensome regulations. But as they carve out their political identities in the Senate, theyre taking strikingly different approaches to the way they do their jobs. In her first three years, Fischer has embraced the nuts and bolts of legislating: introducing bills, hammering out details of major legislation and helping it reach the presidents desk. Sasse has offered fewer bills and often votes against compromise legislation that Fischer supports. In his first year, he has focused more on Congress oversight role and has tried to influence the national debate through sharply worded floor speeches, dramatic online videos and opposition to bills and nominees even when hes in a minority of one. The two senators also offer widely differing assessments of the institution in which they serve. Fischer boasts that the Senate is finally working. Sasse derides it as dominated by phony processes and vacuous debate. Its like they look at the same institution and see something completely different, said John Hibbing, a political scientist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Consider the picture of Capitol Hill each painted when addressing a chamber of commerce delegation from Omaha back in September. Nebraskans are an optimistic people, and we want to see work done, Fischer told the group of several dozen business executives and local officials. My message has been this year that work is getting done. Fischer ticked through a growing list of significant bipartisan Senate measures: the so-called Doc Fix that addressed a recurring problem with Medicare reimbursement rates, the first long-term highway bill in a decade and an overhaul of the much-criticized federal education package known as No Child Left Behind. Each measure involved a policy issue that lawmakers had failed to resolve for years, instead passing temporary patch after temporary patch or simply talking about the situation without any action. Now, Fischer said, Congress was accomplishing something. But Sasse had a much different take. This place, the institution of Congress, is a stunningly broken place, he told the Nebraskans. I mean really breathtaking. Sasse opposed each of those measures Fischer bragged about. The Medicare Doc Fix, Sasse said, was just smoke-and-mirrors accounting that will add to the debt without addressing underlying problems. The highway bills financing methods were questionable, he said, and the education measure didnt go far enough. Theres plenty of precedent for a states two senators to choose different paths. Former Sen. Ben Nelson was the moderate Democrat always pushing for a compromise on major issues such as tax cuts, judicial nominations and the economic stimulus package. His colleague for many years was former Sen. Chuck Hagel, a maverick Republican focused on foreign policy, whose critiques of fellow Republicans earned him constant media attention. While Sasse and Fischer are blazing their own trails, there has been no sniping between them, at least not in public. Sasse regularly invokes a wish to show deference to his senior colleague. Fischer has said the two work together well. Despite their similarly rookie status, the two Cornhusker conservatives entered the Senate with much different backgrounds. Fischer, who was elected in 2012, is a former state senator who relishes the legislative process. Since taking office, she has helped craft bills dealing with national defense and infrastructure areas where she serves on the key committees. She has been a member of the Senate negotiating teams responsible for working through differences with the House versions of those bills. She was almost giddy as the highway bill reached the finish line last year. I love being a legislator, so this is fun, Fischer said at the time. She serves on the Senate GOP leadership team, albeit in a relatively low-level position, and Republican leaders tap her at times to speak at their weekly press conferences where they lay out the partys agenda for reporters. Sasse, elected in 2014, had worked in the administration of former President George W. Bush and as a turn-around specialist including jobs as a business consultant and as president of once-struggling Midland University in Fremont. He cites that experience often in discussing Congress. Ive done 26 crisis and turnaround projects in the last 21 years, he told that chamber group. Ive gone into lots and lots of broken places. The one thing that is almost always true about a broken place is that they know that its broken but they dont agree on why. His takedown of Congress before the chamber group was a preview of his first speech on the floor of the Senate, which he delivered after spending much of the year keeping a low profile. When he finally addressed the body in November, however, he had lots to say. He took both Republicans and Democrats to task, telling fellow senators that the people despise us all. In that speech, Sasse called for more authentic debate on the Senate floor. Since that first speech, he has waded deeper into the public debate. He visited the site of the San Bernardino shootings, where he recorded a video critical of President Barack Obamas foreign policy. He previously recorded a video in front of the old Iranian Embassy in which he was highly critical of a nuclear agreement with Iran. He has taken shots at GOP presidential contender Donald Trump, referring to him as a megalomaniacal strongman, even as he blamed Trumps political rise on a lack of leadership from Obama and other national politicians. He blocked all nominees to the Department of Health and Human Services until that department coughed up more information about the failure of a dozen health insurance co-ops across the country. The HHS stand-off reflects an emphasis Sasse has placed on Congress oversight role. He has dug into the co-op failures, federal data breaches and transportation security lapses. He also doesnt mind voting in a small minority to make a point about a particular bill or nominee. For example, he was the only senator to vote against Peter Neffenger as the new head of TSA. The vote had nothing to do with Neffenger, who Sasse described as impressive. Rather, he wanted to highlight that simply putting a new person in charge would not fix all of the agencys problems. Sasses relationship with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., got off to a rocky start when then-candidate Sasse criticized his leadership in a video. That was followed by a reportedly tense meeting. But it appears they have patched up their differences. McConnell praised Sasses maiden speech on the floor. Fischers rosier attitude about the Senate today could be colored by her experience in the minority during her first two years in Washington. During that time, she frequently expressed frustration that she wasnt able to work on legislation because of the gridlock, which she blamed on then-Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and his resistance to allowing Republican amendments. Being able to actually craft legislation that reaches the presidents desk represents a big change. In 2015 alone, Fischer introduced 22 bills and co-sponsored 104. Sasse, on the other hand, introduced four bills and co-sponsored 27. She understands how it works and how to get things done, said Jennifer Duffy, who watches the Senate as a political handicapper with the Cook Political Report. Duffy said Sasse, 99th in seniority, is still finding his way. He seems frustrated by the place, she said. But thats a big club in Congress. We are marking the official start of the 2016 election year by providing a list of vital New Years resolutions for my colleagues in the political news media. The good news is we wont be wasting anyones valuable time our list has just one item. We have assembled this sufficiently extensive list after watching a preliminary year in which candidates campaigned primarily by bombarding voters with big-lie politics and primarily got away with it. Media fact-checkers figure this way-too-early campaign has already set new lows for distortions and false statements. All candidates Democrats and Republicans have bent the truth one way or another. But one Republican clearly dominated the Grand Old Partys pandering pack that has been telling fed-up voters what they want to hear without regard to accuracy or veracity. Republican front-runner Donald Trump has wooed conservatives by stretching the truth liberally. Also by seemingly making up whatever facts best fit his sales-pitch need. And he has gotten wall-to-wall coverage on all-news cable channels, broadcast news, print, and seemingly every website and blog. A campaign news coverage pattern emerged: Trump would make one false or distorted claim after another in prime-time debates or events and theyd be heard and read by millions who wanted to believe. Later often days later fact-checkers at leading media outlets would discover Trumps facts were wrong. Sometimes a separate fact-check story would appear, buried on an inside page or in a campaign news roundup, where thousands would hear or see it, far fewer than the millions who heard the original report. No wonder Trump figured out campaigning with cons and falsehoods were keys to winning. So now we come to our one 2016 resolution for my campaign-covering colleagues: Get it right the first time. This isnt easy, but its vital. News organizations need to assign reporters who are experts on the key beats being debated (economics, national security and so on) to cover debates and speeches, not generalists who mainly cover the political horse race. And heres a corollary: If a news organization discovers belatedly that its original coverage included a prominent quote that later proved false, the editors and TV news deciders are obligated to put the facts out there for people to see by playing them as prominently as the original false statements were played: Page 1, prime time. The Pulitzer Prize-winning site PolitiFact has checked 77 of Trumps most prominent campaign assertions and found that 76 percent of those statements were either mostly false, false, or merited the pants on fire designation reserved for the most flagrantly false statements. Trumps long list of voterdeceiving claims that proved flagrantly false included: his claim that he saw thousands and thousands of people cheering as the World Trade Center towers fell in 2001 and that the Mexican government was encouraging its criminals to enter the United States illegally. And some of Trumps false claims were inflammatory, as they pandered to peoples worst instincts and hatreds. Trump once shared an image on Twitter that falsely claimed that, of white homicide victims in the United States, 16 percent are killed by whites but 81 percent were killed by blacks. PolitiFact reported the correct number is quite the opposite 82 percent of white victims were killed by whites in 2014; just 15 percent of whites were killed by blacks. Trump is running for president with the same verve he favored to close all his business deals. In his 1987 book, The Art of the Deal, Trump wrote, People may not always think big themselves, but they can still get very excited by those who do. Thats why a little hyperbole never hurts. I call it truthful hyperbole. Its an innocent form of exaggeration and a very effective form of promotion. But the Manhattan multibillionaire would do well to heed the wisdom that is famously attributed to his own former senator, the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y.: Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts. Contact the writer at: martin.schram@gmail.com Bengaluru may follow Delhi's Odd-Even rule India oi-Shalini Bengaluru, Jan 3: After 'Odd-Even' system commenced in national capital, now Karnataka may follow the suit to control air pollution and to get hold on increasing traffic in Bengaluru. For the IT city that is witnessing massive surge of private vehicular traffic, it must scale up public transport across the place for convenience of the commuters. Rame Gowda, Transport commissioner said to a media that " more than 10 lakh four wheelers ply on the city road everyday and before implementing this rule, we need to take certain initiative to materialize Odd-Even scheme, while increasing the BMTC buses fleet by at least 2,000. While adding to that he even said " all matter has already been discussed before the Chief Minister, Siddaramaiah, but before making this scheme work out the government should consider all factors." Meanwhile, M.A Saleem, Additional Commissioner told OneIndia that " Its all government decision and will follow the orders." Nearly around 59 lakh car ply on road every day and to control traffic movement the transport minister is trying to encourage public vehicles, while state is mulling to borrow Delhi's traffic new traffic experiment. OneIndia News Beware! Bouncers will keep a tab on you at 103ISC India oi-Oneindia By OneIndia Defence Bureau Mysuru, Jan 3: Bounces at a science meet? That's the breaking news from Mysuru, which is hosting a gen-next sci-tech event. To ensure better crowd-control mechanism, the organisers of 103rd Indian Science Congress (103ISC) have hired bouncers. Spotting black T-shirt and blue jeans, these 'muscle maniacs' are already in action at the Manasagangotri campus. OneIndia spoke to one of the members of team bouncers, who agreed to speak only after he was assured that his identity is protected. According to him, there are around 75 of them on duty at 103ISC. "We are mainly here to control crowd. We will keep a close eye on the queue systems. We want to ensure that women, girls, senior citizens and others who come here do not face any problems," says the anonymous bouncer. Aged between 20 and 27 years, there are wrestlers and martial arts experts too in the team. "We have been given a brief that there are top teachers and professors attending this event. So our job is to ensure that everything is smooth," he says. Some of the bouncers at the venue were seen armed with walkie-talkies. Some were seen informing students that the tea and snacks counters were open. Most of the bouncers are drawn from local gyms in Mysuru. "We have been hired for such a mega event for the first time. Hope to learn something in life by interacting with these 'top people' from India," says the bouncer. So, watch out for the big boys in black T-shirts and blue jeans. Men with muscles are watching you! OneIndia News Man holds 8-year-old precariously in well on theft suspicion; Case registered after video on social media Bhopal: Ola cab driver rapes woman, arrested India oi-Preeti Bhopal, Jan 3: Indian taxi aggregator Ola is in trouble again, as one of its cab driver has been accused of raping a woman passenger in Madhya Pradesh capital Bhopal. According to reports, the incident happened on Dec 29, Tuesday, but the case was registered at Koh-e-Fiza police station on Jan 1, Friday. The 28-year-vicim is said to be the mother of two children and she works at a private hospital. On the ill-fated night, she booked an Ola cab and her driver's name was Deepak Bamane, who came to pick and drop her to home. As per the statement given by woman to the police, the accused driver halted the vehicle at a deserted location between Bairagarh and Gandhi Nagar and raped her inside the cab and also threatened her not to reveal the incident to anyone. The traumatised woman narrated her ordeal to her husband and then the couple approached police on Jan 1. As both the accused and victim lived in same area, Gandhi Nagar, they allegedly knew each other. Following the complaint, police arrested accused driver Bamane. It came to the light that Bamane was a bachelor and had been working with Ola from last few months. His past record is being checked and the cab in which the crime was committed has been seized. Police is also verifying whether the Ola employers verified his past background or not, before hiring him as a driver. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Sunday, January 3, 2016, 12:50 [IST] In line with tradition, portals of Kedarnath Dham to close on Oct 27, Badrinath on Nov 19 BJP will win 2017 Uttarakhand assembly polls: Ajay Bhatt India oi-PTI Dehradun, Jan 3: Accusing the Congress government of creating an "atmosphere of fear" in Uttarakhand, BJP today said it would dislodge the party from power by winning the 2017 assembly with a two-thirds majority. Alleging that the Harish Rawat government had failed on all fronts, newly-elected state BJP president Ajay Bhatt in his maiden press conference after assuming charge said the party would intensify its stir over the alleged rape of a deaf and mute inmate at a government-run women's shelter home in Dehradun if the state government failed to recommend a CBI probe into the matter. BJP Mahila Morcha would stage a month-long relay hunger strike from Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose's birth anniversary on January 23 in protest against the state government's alleged insensitivity in the episode, he said. Bhatt said land and mining mafia were roaming around freely in the state and accused the state government of creating an atmosphere of fear in the state, adding he would launch a five-day yatra in the Kumaon belt to "unmask" the government. "The Chief Minister is too busy picnicking in places like Gairsain and Kedarnath to attend to these problems," he said. Accusing the state government of indulging in corruption, he said a helipad which could be built at a cost of Rs one crore was being constructed at a cost of Rs 12 crore. The state government is currently constructing 50 helipads at different places to deal with an emergency in disaster-prone areas of the state. Roads damaged or washed away in the 2013 flash floods which can be built at a cost of Rs 20 lakh are being constructed at a cost of Rs 7 crore, he alleged. Similarly, toilets which can be built at a cost of Rs 5-7 lakh are being built at a cost of Rs one crore, Bhatt said. Bhatt also accused the state government of failing to provide employment for the youth and alleged that there were currently 30 lakh unemployed persons in the state. PTI Head of the Egyptian Actors' Syndicate Ashraf Zaki explained that the action came as a result of "unpaid membership fees" Egyptian actors Mohamed Shoman and Wagdy El-Araby were suspended by the Actors' Syndicate over unpaid membership fees and not for political reasons, head of the syndicate Ashraf Zaki has announced. Zaki added that he suspended a total of 10 syndicate members, including Shoman and El-Araby. Some critics said that Shoman and El-Araby were suspended from the union because of their Islamist leanings. Shoman has recently joined pro-Muslim Brotherhood channel Al-Sharq, which broadcasts from Turkey. El-Araby, a well known member of the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood group, had served as a member of Egypt's National Council for Human Rights (NCHR) under Egypt's ex-president Morsi. However, Zaki told Al-Masry Al-Youm that dismissing Shoman and El-Araby was a result of unpaid dues, and not political stances. "We do not meddle in political matters, Zaki added. Zaki explained that the law gives the syndicates head the right to suspend members over unpaid fees for a duration of a year. He added that he gave the punished members a two-year chance to settle their back dues. Shoman is an Egyptian actor who starred in an array of film and TV productions, including the films Al-Sefara Fi Al-Omara, Halim, Wahed Min Al Nas, Morgan Ahmed Morgan, and the TV drama series Omarat Yaacoubian, Lahazat Harega, and Ragel Wa Set Setat. El-Araby began his film career at a very young age, starring in the films Nahr Al-Hob and Bein Al-Qasrein. He shifted to acting in religious-themed TV dramas like Al-Zaher Bibars, Al-Imam Al-Shafei and Al-Abtal later on in his career. For more arts and culture news and updates, follow Ahram Online Arts and Culture on Twitter at @AhramOnlineArts and on Facebook at Ahram Online: Arts & Culture Search Keywords: Short link: Haryana govt proposes self-certification scheme India oi-PTI Chandigarh, Jan 3: Haryana Government has come up with a "self-certification scheme" to effectively protect the interests of the workers, employers and entrepreneurs as well as build a friendly and safe industrial environment in the state. State Finance, Labour and Employment Minister Captain Abhimanyu today said that the draft scheme has been put in public domain and views/suggestions are sought from the stakeholders and the public after which it would be implemented. He said that the draft is aimed at curtailing the unnecessary visits of government officials for inspection of such units who have opted for the scheme without compromising on the safety, health, social security and welfare of the workers under various labour laws. "It also aims at making an employer or an entrepreneur a conscious, truthful and law abiding citizen who is willing to protect the interests of the workers and employees by following all applicable laws," he said according to an official release here. Abhimanyu said that not more than five per cent of the units, factories or establishments covered under the scheme, would be picked up for random inspection to check implementation of the labour laws. "Once inspected, any unit, factory or establishment may not be inspected again in the next five years, provided no complaint of any specific violation of the terms, conditions and undertakings given, and the laws, by the employer, entrepreneur or occupier is brought to notice," he said. However, on specific complaints, accidents or dangerous occurrences, inspection would be conducted any time but only after authorisation made by the Labour Commissioner-cum-Chief Inspector of Factories, Haryana. Factories whose owners do not opt for the scheme would be inspected as per the departmental inspection policy, he added. The proposed scheme would be optional and any employer or entrepreneur could opt for it. However, only factories licensed under the Factories Act, 1948, would be eligible for the scheme and major accident hazard units would not be covered under it. The scheme would be valid for five years after the employer or entrepreneur opts for it. After successful compliance under the self-certification scheme for five years, the occupier would have the option to either remain covered under or to opt out, the minister added. PTI Pathankot attack: India will seek arrest of Maulana Masood Azhar during talks with Pak India oi-Vicky New Delhi, Jan 3: At the high level meeting conveyed in New Delhi following the Pathankot terror attack, it was decided to amend the agenda while speaking with Pakistan. "We will add the Pathankot incident during the talks with Pakistan, but no decision has been taken to call off the engagement", sources in New Delhi informed OneIndia. The rise of the Jaish-e-Mohammad has raised concerns among the Indian security establishment. During the meeting held at New Delhi, National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval raised concerns about the Jaish-e-Mohammad and it was decided that the matter would be pursued with Pakistan. Arrest Maulana Masoor Azhar: India appears to be facing the Masoor Azhar head ache once again. It may be recalled that Azhar the JeM chief had been released in exchange for the hostages taken by militants during the Khandahar hijack episode. Following this incident, Azhar was released by India and in the aftermath of this he plotted the Parliament attack. He however, fell out of favour with the ISI after his group made an assassination bid on former President of Pakistan, General Pervez Musharraf. However over the past couple of years, the ISI nurtured him back to relevance. [Known for its audacity, how the Jaish-e-Mohammad was revived by ISI] He was even asked to move 30 of his men to the PoK region thus signalling that the Jaish would continue to undertake a war against India. During the foreign secretary level talks to be held later this month between India and Pakistan, New Delhi will pressurize Pakistan to arrest Azhar. The details of the Pathankot attack which is under investigation will be shared with Pakistan and they would be urged to act against Azhar. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Sunday, January 3, 2016, 9:37 [IST] India at UNSC: Pathankot, Mumbai terror attack victims yet to get justice Pathankot attack was originally planned for January 1 India oi-Vicky Pathankot, Jan 3: Investigations that are being conducted into the Pathankot attack have traced the origin of the terrorists to Bhawalpur in Pakistan. All these terrorists landed in India on December 30th, investigations have shown. [Pathankot: Were the terrorists launched from Bhawalpur, Pakistan?] The Central Intelligence Bureau (CIB), which is helping the Punjab police as well as the National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe the matter, states that the attack was planned in Bhawalpur which is incidentally where the Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Maulana Masoor Azhar resides. This was the same place from where the Udhampur terror strike a few months back was launched. Entering India: The terrorists were dropped off in a Land Cruiser by their handlers near the Kathua-Gurdaspur sector which is near the border. They then crossed over into India by foot. Intelligence Bureau (IB) officials say that all pointers suggest that the attack had the signature of the Jaish-e-Mohammad. Further our intercepts also point towards the involvement of the JeM, the officer also confirmed. The first of the intercepts that was picked up suggested that they planned on attacking a military base on January 1. However, there was a change in plan and they went ahead and abducted the Superintendent of Police of Gurdaspur and even stole his vehicle. According to the account given by the Police officer, Salwinder Singh, there were five terrorists who had abducted him. After driving for nearly 20 kilometres, they asked the officer to get down before they drove away with his official vehicle. They even snatched away the phone of the officer and used it to call Pakistan. Prior to this incident the terrorists had even killed a taxi driver. The probe is likely to be handed over to the NIA. The DNA sampling of the terrorists who were gunned down during the encounter yesterday will also be collected and the assistance of Pakistan will be sought. Pakistan had said yesterday that it will partner India to ensure that terrorism is wiped out. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Sunday, January 3, 2016, 10:03 [IST] From DefExpo in Gujarat to puja in Kedarnath, PM Modi has a busy schedule ahead of Diwali Airbase near India-Pakistan border will \"emerge as effective centre for security\": PM at DefExpo 2022 PM Modi gives new 'five Es' mantra at science congress India oi-IANS By Ians English Mysuru (Karnataka), Jan 3: The 103rd Indian Science Congress (ISC) began here on Sunday with Prime Minister Narendra Modi giving a new mantra comprising five Es for scientists' enquiry and engineering. "The impact of science will be the most when scientists and technologists will keep the principles of what I call Five Es at the centre of their enquiry and engineering," Modi told a galaxy of distinguished scientists, Nobel laureates and hundreds of students. The five Es Modi listed are Economy, Environment, Energy, Empathy and Equity. "Economy is when we find cost effective and efficient solutions, environment -- when our carbon footprint is the lightest and its impact on ecology is least possible, energy -- when our prosperity relies less on energy and energy we use keeps sky blue and earth green," Modi said in his inaugural address of the five-day annual event. Explaining the other two Es, the prime minister said empathy would be when efforts are in tune with one's culture, circumstance and social challenges. "Equity is when science advances inclusive development and improves welfare of the weakest," Modi said at the semi-circular amphitheatre in the sprawling Mansagangotri campus of the University of Mysore, about 140 km from state capital and science and technology hub Bengaluru. Besides Karnataka Governor Vajubhai Vala, state Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, union Minister for Science and Technology Harsh Vardhan and renowned scientist C.N.R. Rao, honoured with the country's highest civilian award Bharat Ratna, were present on the occasion. IANS PM Modi chants 5E mantra to S&T brains in Mysuru India oi-Oneindia By OneIndia Defence Bureau Mysuru, Jan 03: Prime Minister Narendra Modi converted a chilly Sunday morning in Mysuru into a sunny one by chanting the 5-E mantra to top brains driving India's Science & Technology (S&T) missions. Delivering the inaugural address of the 103rd Indian Science Congress (103ISC) at the University of Mysore's decked up amphitheatre here on the theme S&T for Indigenous Development in India,' the PM said the impact of science will be the most when scientists and technologists will keep the principles 5-Es in mind. "First comes, economy, when we find cost effective and efficient solutions. Next environment, when our carbon footprint is the lightest and the impact on the ecology is the least possible. Then energy - when our prosperity relies less on energy; and the energy we use keeps our skies blue and our earth green. Empathy comes next, when our efforts are in tune with our culture, circumstances and social challenges and finally equity when science advances inclusive development and improves the welfare of the weakest," the PM announced to thunderous applause. [Will make it easier to do scientific research: PM Modi] Saying that it was time of a new awakening in India, the PM said we should not aim for just an independent India alone, but an India that could stand independently on the strength of its human resources, scientific capabilities and industrial development. He said the country is turning once again turning to scientists and innovators to realise goals of human welfare and economic development. "The world has progressed because of human instinct to enquire and explore for knowledge but also to address human challenges. Special mention about the Missile Man At a time when the NDA government received so much of flak from various corners on the delay in constructing a memorial for former President of India Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, the PM paid rich tributes to the contributions of the Missile Man. "No one reflected this spirit more than late President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam. His was a life of outstanding scientific achievements; and, his was a heart of boundless compassion and concern for humanity. For him, the highest purpose of science was the transformation of the life of the weak, the under-privileged and the youth. And, his life's mission was a self-reliant and a self-assured India that was strong and cared for its people. Your theme for this Congress is a fitting tribute to his vision," the PM said, with the crowd once again acknowledging in unison. Saying that for him good governance is not just about policy and decision making, transparency and accountability, Modi said he is keen in integrating science and technology into the choices India makes. He said the government will try to increase the level of resources for science, and deploy them in accordance with our strategic priorities. "We will make it easier to do science and research in India, improve science administration, and expand the supply and improve the quality of science education and research in India. At the same time, innovation must not be just the goal of our science. Innovation must also drive the scientific process. Frugal innovation and crowd sourcing are examples of efficient and effective scientific enterprise," the PM added. Calling cities as the major engines of economic growth, employment opportunities and prosperity, the PM said cities account for more than two-thirds of global energy demand and result in up to 80 per cent of global greenhouse gas emission. "That is why I have placed so much emphasis on smart cities. It is not just about cities that are networked to become more efficient, safe and better in delivery of services. It is also a vision of sustainable cities that are both locomotives of our economies and havens of healthy living. We will need sound policies to achieve our goals, but we will rely on science and technology to provide creative solutions," he said. Oceans and rivers play key role The PM said the sustainable future for this planet will depend not only on what we do on land, but also on how we treat our oceans. "Oceans occupy more than 70 per cent of our planet; and, over 40 per cent of humanity and 60 per cent of the world's largest cities are found within 100 kilometers of the coast. We are at the cusp of a new era, where oceans will become important drivers of our economies. Their sustainable use can bring prosperity; and, give us clean energy, new medicines and food security beyond just fisheries. That is why I refer to the Small Island States as Large Ocean States," Modi said. He said rivers have played as important a role in human history as oceans. "Revival of rivers is an essential part of my commitment for a cleaner and healthier future for our society, economic opportunities for our people, and renewal of our heritage. We need regulations, policy, investments and management to achieve our objective. But, we will succeed only when we integrate technology, engineering and innovation into our efforts, not just to clean our rivers now but to keep them healthy in the future as well," the PM said. He said river is the soul of nature and their renewal must be an element of a larger effort to sustain nature. Was the PM Modi unwell? Just before he was invited for the speech, the PM was seen quietly popping a tablet with the help of an aide. During the speech he had to take small breaks to sip water, clearly a sign that probably he was unwell. Interestingly, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was caught napping again on the stage, while the PM was spelling out the S&T mantra. OneIndia News Pathankot attack-Punjab police thought Gurdaspur SP was abducted due to personal scuffle India oi-Vicky New Delhi, Jan 3: The Punjab police will have to answer why it had not acted upon advance and concrete information regarding the terror strike at Pathankot. An internal inquiry is likely to be conducted in this regard and it had become clear that despite the Superintendent of Police, Gurdaspur, Salwinder Singh narrating his abduction, the same was not taken seriously. Singh was abducted by a group of terrorists in army fatigues and later he was let off. However the terrorists took away his car and mobile phone. When he called the police and complained it appeared that it was not taken seriously. He told the police that the terrorists had clearly told him that they were here to avenge the hanging of Afzal Guru. Punjab police did not act: Central Intelligence Bureau officials tell OneIndia that it was clear that the Punjab police did not act as they ought to have done. When their own officer informed them about the presence of terrorists, it was not taken seriously. Instead some of them thought that he had been abducted by a group of men due to personal rivalry. Not taking Singh seriously only meant that the terrorists were out in the open with an official car for nearly 20 hours. Meanwhile the centre will seek an explanation from the Punjab government on the lapse. The centre states that there was enough and more intelligence and that the state police who are the first movers in such cases ought to have been more vigilant. There is no question of blaming the central intelligence in this case. They had tipped off the police and also picked up at least four intercepts suggesting terrorists would hit a military installation in Punjab. Moreover they should have also acted upon the information given to them by their own officer. OneIndia News Vaishali Takkar suicide: Her e-gadgets to be probed; hunt for the harasser is on Man beats up traffic cop when questioned about tinted glass in his car RSS leader defends PM Narendra Modi's lunch meeting with Nawaz Sharif India oi-PTI Indore, Jan 3: RSS's joint general secretary Dattatraya Hosbole said here on Saturday, Jan 2, that his organisation didn't think that Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a mistake in lunching at the residence of his Pakistan counterpart Nawaz Sharif in Lahore last month. The statement by the senior RSS functionary defending Modi's decision to visit the neighbouring country came on a day when Pakistani terrorists attacked IAF base in Pathankot. Hosbole was speaking to reporters at Vishwa Sangh Shivir here. To a question, he said "why shouldn't Modi eat with Nawaz Sharif? We don't oppose this. We believe the whole world is one family and it's our duty that we behave well (with others). This is India's religion, this religion should be followed. "The National Security Adviser of India is capable of dealing with the issue of terrorism. We have full confidence that that he would deal with the issue in the right way," the RSS leader added. To another question, Hosbole said "one has to use various means such as persuasion-purchase-punish- exploitation of division (`saam-daam-dand-bhed') as per the circumstances. The then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee undertook bus journey to Lahore but the Kargil war too was fought during his tenure." The RSS leader also praised Modi for getting Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to attend Ganga-aarati in Varanasi during his visit to India. "The heads of all the prominent countries visit other countries to develop diplomatic ties. But the Prime Minister of India, an RSS volunteer that he is...also got the Prime Minister of another country to perform Ganga-aarati in India," Hosbole said. To a question on Nepal, he said RSS wanted good relations with that country. "Nepalis live in India in large numbers. But in the last five months (during the political logjam in that country which has strained the bilateral ties), no Nepali has been harmed in India. Nor have the Indians living in Nepal come to any harm. Nepal is witnessing a political strife such as every country witnesses," he said. PTI New India depends on technology, says Modi at 107th session of Indian Science Congress Scientists must be selfless, fearless; not selfish: CNR Rao India oi-Oneindia By Oneindia Staff Writer Mysuru, Jan 03: Bharat Ratna CNR Rao on Sunday did some plain speaking at the inaugural session of the 103rd Indian Science Congress (103ISC) here. Delivering the talk on Doing Science in India,' Rao pointed at China as to how the country has advanced so much. "China has managed to leave India way behind as far as Doing Science' is concerned. They are extremely hard working," Rao said. PM Modi chants 5E mantra to S&T brains in Mysuru "Many years ago, we were on par with China in research, but we weren't that competitive. Today, they've left us behind. They produce 2,300 PhDs every year and also produce a lot of papers. I don't know why we can't do it?" asked the veteran scientist. Saying China is only second to the US in publishing papers, Rao said it is important to have more publications in the scientific field. "Unfortunately our papers are not getting good citations and not enough papers are also being produced. But Indians are not hard working. An average professor takes four to five tea breaks each in an hour, resulting in very little time for research," he said. What we do in science most important He said despite good research in India, the works of Indian scientists were not getting noticed. He wanted scientists to pick problems that will provide them breakthroughs, rather than repeating what has been already done. "In what topic we are doing science becomes more important than what we do in science," he said. Calling upon the industry to invest, Rao said the government apathy has often left the scientific fraternity with very little options. However, he was quick to add that government alone cannot be blamed always. "No other democracy of our size has faced as many problems as we did simultaneously. The industry must also begin investing. If the industry does not bear 35-40 per cent of the investment burden for science we will go nowhere," he said. Hoping that he should be able to do science as long as he was alive, Rao called for transforming India with people of dedication and not always hooked to making money. "Science comes with passion. Did CV Raman, JC Bose and Ramanujam make any money? But their works are landmarks even today," he said. He said scientists must be selfless and fearless, not selfish. "Great scientists have declined positions by dedicating their life is in the lab. How many of our scientists do that? Instead, they run to administrative jobs for getting Rs 10 more," he concluded. Ironically, the amphitheatre, which was packed for PM Modi's speech, had thin attendance for Rao's talk. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Sunday, January 3, 2016, 16:55 [IST] In the name of charity, Rs 50 lakh transferred to personal A/C: ED in chargesheet against Rana Ayyub UP: Hindu groups protest priest's birthday event invitation to Muslim clerics India oi-PTI Ghaziabad, Jan 3: Invitation to some Muslim clerics for birthday celebrations of a Hindu priest has kicked off a row with Hindu groups protesting the move while the oganisers of the programme denied extending any such invitation. Members of Bajrang Dal, Shiv Sena and Hindu Yuva Vahini protested at the collectorate here and their representatives handed over a memorandum to the district magistrate alleging that an invitaion was extended to Muslim clerics to join the birthday celebrations of Shri Kalki Peethadheeshwar Acharya Pramod Krishnam at Dudheshwar Nath Temple on January 4. They alleged that it was a politically-motivated programme and would hurt the religious sentiments of Hindus. Organiser of the event B K Sharma, however, said no invitation was sent to any Muslim religious leader and only politicians and social dignitaries would attend it. When contacted, Acharya Pramod Krishnam said the temple belonged to everyone and "no permission is required for organising any function at its premises". District Magistrate Vimal Kumar Sharma said Additional District Magistrate and Superintendent of Police have been directed to monitor the situation. PTI BMW Crash In UP: Video captured minutes ahead has someone saying 'Chalo marenge' UP shame: Woman's corpse dug out of grave, 'raped'; mob demands arrest of accused India oi-Preeti Lucknow, Jan 3: It's a fact that women are vulnerable to crime against them. In Uttar Pradesh, a woman could not save herself from a man's lust, even when she left this world. The dead woman's soul was murdered, even when she was dead. According to a report published in TOI, a 45-year-old woman's body was dug out from Lal Darwaza graveyard and it was allegedly raped. The inhumane and shocking incident was reported from Fatehpur Sikri in Agra district. After prolonged illness, the woman passed away on Friday, Jan 1 and her dead body was raped on Saturday, Jan 2. The shameful incident triggered tension in the area following which the Agra-Jaipur highway was blocked by locals to demand the immediate arrest of the rapist. Following the incident, huge police personnel was deployed to avert any untoward incident. Dead woman's relatives had come to graveyard to offer flowers at her grave, but they were shattered when they learnt about the unfortunate incident on Saturday. Her grave was desecrated and tombstone was missing. On the advice of locals and clerics, her corpe was taken out. "Her dead body was sans any clothes and a pair of pants and liquor pouch was found inside her grave", her husband alleged. Her corpse was sent for tests that confirmed the body was raped. Forensic offiiclas and adog squad also reached the spot. Police wanted body to be sent for post-mortem, but clerics told them it would not be appropriate to take the body out of the grave. So, it's last rites were performed again and she was re-buried. A case at Fatehpur Sikri police station was registered under sections 295 A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings) and 297 (trespassing on burial places) of the Indian Penal Code and the search for the accused is going on. OneIndia News Chief Executive Officer to Russian Helicopters Alexander Mikheyev announced on Wednesday that Russia will supply Egypt with 46 new Ka-52K Alligator Helicopters developed for the French-made Mistral-class amphibious ships, Russia Today reported. Mikheyev said that Egypt has signed deals to import the Alligator helicopters from Russia. The date of delivery has not yet been announced. In October, Egypt signed a deal with France to buy two French-made Mistral warships at a joint press conference. France is expected to deliver the warships by the first half of 2016. Russian Helicopters is the sole Russian rotorcraft designer and manufacturer and one of the few companies worldwide with the capability to design, manufacture, service, and test modern civilian and military helicopters. In late November, the Russian defence ministry said that Egypt plans to buy a large amount of advanced weapons from Russia. Chief of Kremlin Staff Sergey Ivanov said in November the sum of the deal might exceed $1 billion. The deal comes a month after the two countries signed the Dabaa nuclear plant deal, which involves the building of four third-generation reactors in Egypt. Search Keywords: Short link: Islamic State bomber detained in Russia for attempting attack in India was recruited through Telegram Why India should get access to Islamic State bomber detained in Russia Prosecutions story may be attractive but should be backed by evidence Security forces continue fighting IS in Iraq's Anbar International oi-IANS By Ians English Baghdad, Jan 3: Iraqi security forces on Saturday continued fighting the Islamic State (IS), clearing new areas in the city of Ramadi, the capital of Iraq's western province of Anbar, security sources said. The troops and allied Sunni tribal fighters retook control of the districts of Thaylah, Jamhoriyah and the areas surrounding Dolfin Square and Albu Farraj Bridge in central Ramadi, after clearing them from roadside bombs, booby-trapped vehicles and buildings, Sabah al-Nu'man, spokesman of Iraq's anti-terrorism force told Xinhua. "The troops and explosive experts have defused all the bombs, and today we have downtown Ramadi and surrounding districts completely cleared and safe," al-Nu'man said. He said that the extremist militants are no longer in a position of fighting back, as many of them either withdrew to rural areas outside Ramadi or redeployed in the eastern part of the city after the main battle last week. On Monday, the Iraqi Joint Operation Command officially declared victory a day after the Iraqi forces raised the Iraqi flag on the provincial government complex of Ramadi but Anbar's provincial capital has not yet been fully secured. Separately, the US-led coalition aircraft carried out an air strike on a convoy of IS vehicles in Tarrah area in northern Ramadi, destroying nine vehicles and killing at least 17 IS militants and leaving some 20 others wounded, a provincial security source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. IANS US condemns Pathankot terror attack International oi-PTI Washington, Jan 3: The US on Sunday, Jan 3 condemned the terror attack on an Indian Air Force base by Pakistani terrorists and urged all countries in the region to work together to disrupt and dismantle terrorist network. "The United States strongly condemns the terrorist attack on an air force base in the Indian state of Punjab on January 2. We extend our condolences to the victims and their families," State Department spokesman John Kirby said. The US is committed to its strong partnership with the Indian government to combat terrorism, he said in a statement. "We urge all countries in the region to work together to disrupt and dismantle terrorist networks and to bring to justice the perpetrators of this heinous act," Kirby said. Heavily-armed Pakistani terrorists yesterday attempted to storm the Air Force base in Pathankot, triggering a day-long gunbattle in which three security men and all the five infiltrators were killed. The attackers were believed to have infiltrated from Pakistan and there was speculation that they may belong to Jaish-e-Mohammad headed by Maulana Masood Azhar of the Kandahar hijack episode. PTI 2008-2022 One News Page Ltd. All rights reserved. One News is a registered trademark of One News Page Ltd. EU Data Protection Reform Could Impact Gambling Operators Published January 3, 2016 by Mike P Reformed EU data protection and privacy legislation could result in non-compliant gambling operators shelling out millions in fines. Tuesday 15 December marked the day when the European Commission (EC) was finally able to reveal that member states had struck an accord on the EU Data Protection Reforms final draft. Essentially, this will mean a single system of data protection and privacy across the entire EU. Companies that do not adhere to the legislation will incur severe financial penalties. Moving forward, the systems General Data Protection Regulation is going to call for companies to clearly explain to customers exactly how their data is used. Meanwhile, companies will be required to notify customers if their data is hacked. The Data Protection Directive represents another core pillar of the system, given that law enforcement agencies are encouraged to co-operate on cross-border investigations. Worldwide Fines for the Guilty Companies serving the EU cannot afford to view their operations in isolation. Any company found guilty of not operating within the reformed guidelines could face a fine that amounts to 4% of global turnover. Considering the worldwide reach of the online gambling industry, this could result in some operators shelling out hundreds of millions if they are unable to function within the EUs new landscape. The EC and its members have carefully adjusted the language of the reform to ensure that companies based outside of the EU can be held accountable if they are serving customers living within the continent. This form will only punish the companies that do not choose ethically. In fact, the new structure actually has more cohesion and will improve data protection. For now, however, there are no immediate concerns for EU-based online gambling sites. The European Parliament and Council will not accept the final draft of reform until the early stages of 2016. Moreover, it will take a further two years before the reform will be relevant. EU companies have plenty of time ahead to adjust. A peaceful protest Saturday in support of an eastern Oregon ranching family facing jail time for arson was followed shortly afterward by an occupation of a building at a national wildlife refuge. Ammon Bundy, the son of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who was involved in a standoff with the government over grazing rights, told The Oregonian he and two of his brothers were among a group of dozens of people occupying the headquarters of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. Bundy posted a video on his Facebook page asking for people to come help him. Below the video is this statement: "**ALL PATRIOTS ITS TIME TO STAND UP NOT STAND DOWN!!! WE NEED YOUR HELP!!! COME PREPARED." Ammon Bundy said the group planned to stay at the refuge indefinitely. Iranians storm and set ablaze Saudi embassy in Tehran (Image by silvan500, Channel: silvan500) Details DMCA Iranian protesters ransacked and set fire to the Saudi Embassy in Tehran on Saturday after Saudi Arabia executed an outspoken Shiite cleric who had criticized the kingdoms treatment of its Shiite minority. The cleric, Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, was among 47 men executed in Saudi Arabia on terrorism-related charges, drawing condemnation from Iran and its allies in the region, and sparking fears that sectarian tensions could rise across the Middle East. The executions coincided with increased attacks in Saudi Arabia by the jihadists of the Islamic State and an escalating rivalry between the Sunni monarchy and Shiite Iran that is playing out in conflicts in Syria, Yemen and elsewhere. Connewitz neighborhood in Leipzig, 2015 (Image by Linh Dinh) Details DMCA Nowadays, the United States exports almost nothing but weapons, noises, images and attitudes, and among the last, the black ghetto, keeping it real, thug, gangsta life is being gobbled up eagerly by millions all over, from Jakarta to Istanbul, to Berlin. White, yellow or brown, many pose enthusiastically as dwellers of the American black ghetto. Their fantasy makeover is derived entirely from music videos and Hollywood films. In East Germany, the catalyst was Beat Street, one of the first hip hop movies. Released in 1984, it was shown in East Germany merely a year later. Communist censors deemed it an indictment of Capitalism and the United States. To East German youths, however, it provided a mental escape from their Communist confinement. By spraying graffiti and break dancing, they could imagine themselves as living beyond the Iron Curtain. Germany's fascination and identification with American minorities started with the American Indian, whom many Germans still admire for his purity, simplicity and toughness. There is a saying, "An Indian feels no pain." "Ein Indianer kennt keinen Schmerz." Just as the Germanic chieftain Arminius resisted Rome, defeated it in 9AD, the Amerindian is seen as a heroic warrior against much superior force. He's also the antidote to the white man's corruptions. Of course, Germany is still very white and, in many ways, the epitome of white civilization. Nevertheless, there is a longing among many Germans, at least occasionally, to strip away the deforming gown of civilization and be savage. Pagan impulses tug at the brand name underpants of each German. Since the Amerindian is the ideal man, his society must be perfect, or nearly so. A most curious German, Christian Prieber, even had a plan to turn a Cherokee settlement into Utopia. Born in Saxony in 1697, Prieber was chased out for his subversive ideas, so he fled to England, leaving behind his wife and children. In 1735, Prieber arrived in the New World. After brief stops in Savannah and Charleston, Prieber ended up by 1736 in Great Tellico, a Cherokee town in present-day Tennessee. Accepted into their community, he quickly became their counselor. Prieber's residence with the Cherokees ended after seven years, however, when he was arrested by the British. Accused of being an agent for the French, Prieber died in jail a year later. Ludovick Grant, an English trader, described the prisoner, "he is a very extraordinary Kind of a Creature; he is a little ugly Man, but speaks almost all Languages fluently, particularly English, Dutch, French, Latin and Indian; he talks very prophanely against all Religions, but chiefly against the Protestant; he was setting up a Town at the Foot of the Mountains among the Cherokees, which was to be a City of Refuge for all Criminals, Debtors, and Slaves who would fly thither from Justice or their Masters ["] being a great Scholar he soon made himself master of their Tongue, and by his insinuating manner Indeavoured to gain their hearts. He trimm'd his hair in the indian manner & painted as they did going generally almost naked except a shirt & a Flap. He told these people that they had been strangely deluded, that they had been tricked out of a great part of their Land by the English ["] He proposed to them a new System or plan of Government, that all things should be in common amongst them, that even their Wives should be so and that the Children should be looked upon as the Children of the public and be taken care of as such and not by their natural parents ["] that they should admit into their Society Creeks & Catawbaws, French & English, all Colours and Complexions, in short all who were of these principles ["] He enumerates many whimsical Privileges and natural Rights, as he calls them, which his citizens are to be entitled to, particularly dissolving Marriages and allowing Community of Women, and all Kinds of Licenciousness ["] it is a Pity so much Wit is applied to so bad Purposes." The more one identifies with the primitive, the more one rejects the elaboration and refinement of advanced civilization. Germans are among the most civilized, and I don't measure that by bombastic monuments, but by the subtlest civilized gestures. Outside the entrance of a shopping mall toilet, I noticed management had left bowls of water and dog food, and inside each bathroom stall at my university, there is a toilet bowl scrubber to use if necessary. Germans also rarely jaywalk or litter. Of course, they have also produced guys with names like Bach, Beckmann and Sebald. I work on Beethoven Street. Hey, rambling schmuck, and what about dudes with names like Mengele, Heydrich and, uh, Hitler?! I'm talking about civilization's forms, not its moral contents. Except when they go berserk, Germans are among the most domesticated. In this, they resemble the Japanese. Both have been superbly toilet trained. Urbanized and cultured, Germans miss their earthier, more savage selves, and this persistent longing has surfaced in movements such as Wandervogel [Wandering Bird], Volkisch [Folksy] and Blut and Boden [Blood and Soil], the last of which painted the Jew as a degenerate, urban egghead, and the true German as a rigorous, pure and timeless being that's dirt coated, sun splashed and wind lashed, not unlike an American Indian. In the 70's, some German anarchists dubbed themselves Stadtindianer, or Urban Indians. (They were modeled after an Italian group, Indiani Metropolitani. "We have unearthed the battle ax!" went a rallying cry. "Abbiamo dissotterrato l'ascia di guerra!") With the advent of hip hop, German malcontents have a contemporary role model. Instead of the mythical American Indian, they can now mimic American ghetto blacks, as purveyed by Hollywood. In Beat Street, there are many panoramas of the South Bronx, with its abandoned homes, garbage and graffiti. With no such slums, Germany didn't look quite gritty or cool enough, so the ghetto had to be willed into being. So far, German graffiti sprayers, window breakers and litterers are only partially successful, but give them time. They'll get there. Leipzig's most ghetto-like neighborhood is Connewitz, and it's not because poor people live there, but because it's a stronghold of Communists and Anarchists. There's hardly a building that's not repeatedly marred by spray paint, and most of the graffiti are free of political contents. It's just vandalism. Defending it, a young female Leipziger explained to me, "They don't really care about private property." All of the mom and pops that make up the majority of Connewitz businesses must be repainted constantly. That this is such a huge waste of manpower and resources doesn't bother the "green" progressives of Leipzig. On December 12th, 2015, the left went violent when less than a hundred rightists marched through Connewitz. A thousand Communists, Anarchists and other self-proclaimed militants hurled stones and bottles, set fires, injured 69 cops, damaged 50 police vehicles and broke scores of windows in their own neighborhood. Banks, including local credit unions, were particularly targeted. As an indication of the German police's restraint, none of the raging leftists were hurt, though 23 were arrested. I walked through Connewitz the next afternoon. Seeing all the broken windows, I could easily picture a day when all of these businesses would be forced to evacuate, leaving this once lovely section to resemble the menacing and dismal black ghetto of the hip German rebel's fantasy. You can't be oppressed if you don't dwell in the ghetto. Rap has gone a long way since Beat Street. Though it is a diverse form, its most salient characteristic is aggression. One doesn't even need to understand the lyrics to grasp this. With its extreme narcissism, glorification of violence and contempt for women, quite a bit of rap is also against any civilization, not just the white man's. Other musical genres, such as punk and heavy metal, also flaunt anti-social attitudes, but they don't have the circulation of rap, and some of their worst practitioners aren't international icons. Ya, ya, I'm just an old head who don't know nothing about creativity. I've never heard of Blumio, the Japanese-German who fillets and fish wraps the news in rhymes, and I ain't got no appreciation for the exhilarating, rapid fire flow of Samy Delux when he claims, quite rightly, of course, that he's Germany's best poet, "Ich bin so Schiller, so Goethe / So bitter, so bose / Noch immer der grote / Poet der hier lebt." "I'm so Schiller, so Goethe / So acerbic, so wicked / Still the greatest / Poet who lives here." Next Page 1 | 2 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). 2 1 1 Rate It | View Ratings Linh Dinh Social Media Pages: Linh Dinh's Postcards from the End of America has just been published by Seven Stories Press. Tracking our deteriorating socialscape, he maintains a photo blog. The views expressed herein are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors. OpEdNews depends upon can't survive without your help. If you value this article and the work of OpEdNews, please either Donate or Purchase a premium membership. Congress Switchboard: 202-224-3121 "Rob Kall demonstrates how the Bottom-Up revolution has ushered in a business, political and social upheaval the likes of which we've never seen. Bottom-Up: Tapping the Power of the Connection Revolution is a must read book that you need, to understand how this revolution affects every area of your life and the opportunities it is creating." Jim Donovan, author, happy@work - 60 Simple Ways to Stay Engaged and Be Successful Reprinted from Reader Supported News A Chinese oil company is poised to take over one of the 10 largest oil refineries in the world -- a refinery in a U.S. territory -- threatening livelihoods, the environment, and U.S. national security. The Virgin Islands Senate recently approved the sale of the HOVENSA oil refinery and storage facility for $420 million to ArchLight, the alter ego of Sinopec, a joint venture of China's second-largest oil conglomerate and the Bank of China. The Chinese aren't interested in refining any oil there. Instead, they want the accompanying tank farm, which would allow them to store as much as 32 million barrels of refined oil and petrochemicals deliverable to New York or Philadelphia cheaper than from our own U.S. Gulf Coast. That sounds like a good deal for both American consumers and for Virgin Islanders. But it's not -- for several reasons. First, the refinery was shuttered and mothballed in 2012. The Chinese want to dismantle it, potentially endangering the fragile Virgin Islands environment, and use only the tank farm. And although the Environmental Protection Agency has mandated a cleanup of the site estimated to cost some $800 million, the Chinese claim they can do it for $30 million. To make matters worse, the Chinese say they would like to put an asphalt plant on the site of the refinery, which would further foul the environment. Second, an American consortium called VIRSA, Virgin Islands Refining SA, has offered some $2.3 billion for the refinery and the tank farm. They would clean up the site, and reopen and upgrade the refinery, bringing it up to EPA standards. This would create as many as 1,500 new jobs for Virgin Islanders, a dramatic development in a territory with only 40,000 people in the workforce. Third, the VIRSA offer includes a provision for cheap electricity that would replace the expensive and dirty diesel fuel that the Virgin Islands government currently uses to keep the lights on. The government frequently must borrow from the public employees pension fund to pay for this diesel. Cheap electricity from the refinery would allow the government to render its pension fund whole again, further strengthening its economy over the long term. Fourth, what happens if there is a spill from the tank farm or from Chinese tankers coming or going from the facility? Can the Chinese company be trusted to pay for and carry out a potentially large-scale cleanup? Or will the Chinese simply have their Virgin Islands limited liability corporations declare bankruptcy and let the Virgin Islands government deal with the disaster? Finally, and most importantly, there are serious national security issues at play with Chinese ownership of this strategic facility. The U.S. submarine base at Roosevelt Roads in Puerto Rico is closed, and the Virgin Islands government has lobbied the Pentagon's Defense Logistics Agency to open a submarine base on St. Croix. The area between the St. Croix Airport and the refinery, called Renaissance Park, has a channel 550 feet wide and 75 feet deep that leads to a turning basin. There is no similar facility in the Caribbean. The channel could easily be dredged, allowing the U.S. Navy a new home in the Caribbean. But this prospect of long-term development is rendered moot by a Chinese tank farm offering to create only 100 jobs. To locate a sensitive naval installation next to a Chinese oil facility would be a potential military intelligence disaster. So who has dropped the ball on this issue? First, it appears that neither the State Department nor the Defense Department has weighed in with the Virgin Islands government. The National Security Council is missing in action. The EPA doesn't seem to care about the environmental fallout of a Chinese tank farm and asphalt plant in a U.S. environmental paradise. And no member of Congress has made a single statement about the deal, including the Virgin Islands' representative. Time is short. It looks like the fix is in. A whole host of leaders from the federal and Virgin Islands governments have to ask themselves if they would rather have a modern American refinery or a Chinese tank farm as a neighbor. If the answer is the former, somebody needs to act quickly. Reprinted from Media Matters Hillary Clinton The Target Of All Three Botched Hits As the most famous and powerful news organization in America, the New York Times prides itself on leading the press pack. And as the media world fragments into smaller and smaller slices, it's the Times that can still set the agenda like few other outlets can. The good news for the Times in 2015 was that its collective fingerprints were all over key chapters of the year's campaign coverage. The bad news is the Times would probably like those fingerprints to be lifted. Because rather than being heralded for its groundbreaking campaign work, the newspaper's editors and reporters spent an awful lot of time last year answering criticism about the paper's sloppy and erroneous coverage of Hillary Clinton, and specifically answering for why the Times newsroom and its opinion pages seemed obsessed with knocking down the Democratic frontrunner and getting key facts wrong in the process. By the summer, the Times' Clinton miscues and slights had piled so high that there was a growing consensus among media watchers that the daily had allowed its disdain for Clinton to color its coverage, and that the Newspaper of Record was in desperate need of a course correction. Boston Globe columnist Michael Cohen: "There's also no getting around the fact that the Times coverage of Hillary Clinton is a biased train wreck." New York University journalism professor Jay Rosen: "I have resisted this conclusion over the years, but after today's events it's fair to say the Times has a problem covering Hillary Clinton." Three times last year, the Times presented would-be blockbuster stories that targeted Clinton with overheated tales of unethical, and possibly illegal, behavior. And three times last year, the Times swung and missed, badly. Clinton became synonymous with "email" in 2015 when the Times in March broke the story that she had used a private account while serving as secretary of state. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell had also used a private email account while in office (and Jeb Bush had done something similar while serving as governor in Florida), but the Times argued Clinton's action was deeply secretive. The Times also accused Clinton of having possibly "violated federal requirements" with her use of personal email for official government business, specifically citing the Federal Records Act. It was that hint of criminality that gave the story so much pop in the press. Click Here to Read Whole Article This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate New parents Jesse and Mukadan Shellenbarger of Gladwin are getting to know their daughter, the first baby of the New Year born in Midland County. Her name is Emerance Zilola Shellenbarger, and she was born at MidMichigan Medical Center-Midland at 4:57 p.m. on Jan. 1. She weighed in at 6 pounds 2 ounces. The new family was joined by Mukadans mother, Mukambar Arifdjonova, and more visitors in the hospital room. When Emerance began to fuss and cry, Mukambar came to the rescue by showing her son-in-law how to swaddle the baby, deftly wrapping her into a snuggly ball of blankets. It wasnt long before baby Emerance was cuddled back in her mothers arms, her delicate features peaceful. Shes happy now, Mukadan said, smiling at her daughter, who was due on Dec. 31. A little bit later, Jesse reached over to adjust a blanket and touched the babys cheek, inspiring her to wake up and cry. Shes gonna be a sassy girl, Mukadan said with a laugh. Since shes multicultural Mukadan is from Uzbekistan, and Jesse is from Gladwin her parents said they hope she will grow up familiar with both sides of her heritage. Jesse explained they would like to see her speak both English and Uzbek, and be confident in both cultures. Mukadan said theyve seen many children with one dominant culture. Our hope is she can be successful in both aspects of her heritage, Jesse said, adding Mukadan grew up in Russian schools and speaks four languages. Mukadan listed them Uzbek, Russian, English and a little Chinese. As they talked, Emerence slept in her crochet pink blanket with a the tiniest of red bows on the top of her head. The blanket was made by a friend, and the bow was the handiwork of a nurse. The nurse was really excited, Jesse said. We were impressed by how good of a job they do, Mukadan added. MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) Al-Qaida's East African affiliate has released a recruitment video targeting American blacks and Muslims that includes a clip of presidential candidate Donald Trump calling for Muslims to be banned from entering the United States. The 51-minute video by the Somalia based al-Shabab militant group presents the U.S. as a country of institutionalized racism against blacks that also persecutes Muslims. The video presents radical Islam as the solution. The clip of Trump on the campaign trail consists of his infamous proposal for the "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States" to protect the country. Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton had earlier claimed that the Islamic State group, another extremist organization, was using such quotes to recruit followers, prompting Trump to call her a "liar." The quotes from Trump are bracketed by a recorded speech from Yemeni-American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, one of the most prominent English-language recruiters for al-Qaida who was killed by a U.S. drone strike in Yemen in 2011, warning that the U.S. would turn against its Muslims. The video was released on Twitter Friday, according to the SITE Intel monitoring group and tells the story of several Americans from Minnesota that joined al-Shabab and were killed in the fighting in Somalia, holding them up as examples to be followed. Using footage from recent racial conflicts in the U.S. as well as historic quotes from Malcolm X, the video lays out the argument that blacks and Muslims will always face discrimination in the U.S. and should join jihadi movements to fight back. Al-Shabab is fighting the internationally-backed Somali government. It was pushed out of Mogadishu in 2011 with the help of African Union troops. The militants have still carried out numerous guerrilla attacks in Somalia and the countries contributing troops, including Kenya, Djibouti and Uganda. Trump, who is leading in polls in the race to be the Republican candidate in next year's presidential election, has been rebuked by both Democratic and Republican candidates for their parties' nomination, for his proposed ban on Muslims in early December. Clinton's campaign declined to comment on the video. Associated Press writers Tom Odula in Nairobi, Kenya, Paul Schemm in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and Tom Strong in Washington, D.C. contributed to this report. RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) The latest developments following Saudi Arabia's execution of 47 people, including a prominent opposition Shiite cleric who had rallied demonstrations in the kingdom (All times local to Saudi Arabia). ___ 2 a.m. U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby says the Saudi Arabian government needs to respect and protect human rights after the execution of 47 people, including a prominent opposition Shiite (SHEE'-eyet) cleric. Kirby says in a statement Saturday that the U.S. is calling on Saudi Arabia to ensure fair judicial proceedings and permit peaceful expression of dissent while working with all community leaders to defuse tensions after the executions. Kirby said the U.S. is particularly concerned that the execution of a prominent Shiite cleric and political activist risks making sectarian tensions worse at a time when they urgently need to be reduced. ___ 11 p.m. Saudi Arabia says it has summoned Iran's envoy to the kingdom to protest critical comments by Iranian authorities over the execution of an influential Saudi Shiite cleric, Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr. In a statement late Saturday by the Saudi Press Agency, the Saudi Foreign Ministry described the Iranian criticism of its judicial system as "blatant interference" in its internal affairs. Earlier, the Iranian Foreign Ministry had summoned the Saudi envoy in Tehran to protest the execution of the Shiite cleric, who was among 47 prisoners executed Saturday. Iran's parliament speaker warned that the execution would prompt "a maelstrom" in Saudi Arabia. The execution threatens to stoke further sectarian tensions between the regional rivals who back opposing sides in civil wars in Yemen and Syria. ___ 10:45 p.m. The brother of an executed Shiite cleric says Saudi authorities have told the family that they had already buried his body, but didn't tell them at which cemetery. Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr was among 47 prisoners executed by Saudi Arabia on Saturday in a move that threatened to further damage Sunni-Shiite relations in the region. The sheikh's brother, Mohammed al-Nimr, says the family had hoped to bury him in his hometown in eastern Saudi Arabia. His funeral would have attracted thousands of supporters as well as large numbers of protesters. Mohammed al-Nimr told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Saturday evening that the family will be holding prayers and accepting condolences at the Imam Hussain Mosque in the village of al-Awamyia, where the sheikh used to pray. ___ 7 p.m. Germany's Foreign Ministry has condemned the mass executions conducted in Saudi Arabia. Germany does not allow the death penalty. "Our position is clear: the death penalty is an inhumane form of punishment that we reject under all circumstances," the ministry statement said. "Together with its EU partners, Germany is working to abolish and ban the death penalty worldwide." In addition, the German government's human rights envoy, Christoph Straesser, said on Twitter, "#Stop_deathpenalty - every execution is one too many. Appalled by reports about recent executions in #Saudi." The Foreign Ministry statement specifically criticized the execution of prominent Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, saying it will exacerbate widespread Sunni-Shiite tensions in the Middle East. "The execution of Nimr al-Nimr strengthens our existing concerns about the growing tensions and the deepening rifts in the region," it said. ___ 6 p.m. Iran's parliament speaker says the execution of prominent Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr will prompt a "maelstrom" in Saudi Arabia. In comments posted on Iranian state television's website, Ali Larijani said, "Nimr's martyrdom will put Saudi Arabia in a maelstrom. Saudi will not pass through this maelstrom." ___ 3 p.m. An Iran-backed Shiite militia in Iraq has condemned Saudi Arabia's execution of prominent opposition Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr and called on Baghdad to reconsider the re-opening of the Saudi embassy. In a statement aired on its TV network, Asaib Ahl al-Haq called the execution, which was announced Saturday, a "new crime" carried out by the Saudi royal family. It called on the Iraqi government to "reconsider the benefit of having a Saudi embassy in Iraq, with a suspicious ambassador and goals." Saudi Arabia is gearing up to re-open its embassy in Shiite-dominated Iraq for the first time in 25 years. The kingdom closed the embassy in 1990, after Saddam Hussein ordered an invasion of Kuwait. Al-Nimr, who led anti-government protests by the kingdom's Shiite minority before his arrest in 2012, was among 47 people whose execution was announced by Saudi authorities on Saturday. ___ 2:45 p.m. An international rights group which works to abolish the death penalty has condemned Saudi Arabia's execution of 47 people, saying two were teenagers when they were detained. Reprieve says the 47 people whose execution was announced Saturday include four Shiite dissidents. It says one of the dissidents, Ali al-Ribh, was 18 when he was arrested in 2012, and another, Mohammed al-Shuyokh, was 19. Both were convicted on charges related to anti-government protests in eastern Saudi Arabia, where the Shiite minority is centered. Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a prominent Shiite cleric and central figure in those protests, was also among those executed. Reprieve said in a statement that the Saudi government "is continuing to target those who have called for domestic reform in the kingdom." ___ 2:25 p.m. Saudi Arabia's top cleric has defended the execution of 47 people, calling it a "mercy to the prisoners" because it would save them from committing more evil acts and prevent chaos. Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Al Sheikh said in a statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency that the executions announced Saturday were in line with Islamic law and the need to safeguard the kingdom's security. Islamic scholars around the world hold vastly different views on the application of the death penalty in Shariah law, with Saudi judges adhering to one of the strictest interpretations. The 47 who were executed included an al-Qaida ideologue as well as Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a prominent opposition Shiite cleric who had rallied anti-government protests before his arrest in 2012. ___ 2:15 p.m. The brother of Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a prominent opposition leader who was among 47 people executed by Saudi Arabia, says he is shocked by the move. Mohammed al-Nimr told The Associated Press by phone Saturday that the executions came as a "big shock" because "we thought the authorities could adopt a political approach to settle matters without bloodshed." He says the family has not yet been asked to pick up the body but that a funeral would be held as soon as possible. The execution of al-Nimr was expected to escalate tensions in eastern Saudi Arabia, where the Shiite minority is concentrated, and Bahrain, which has seen years of simmering unrest between its Shiite majority and Saudi-allied Sunni monarchy. Mohammed al-Nimr said "there will be reactions" but urged people to "adopt peaceful means when expressing their anger." ___ 2 p.m. Iran has strongly condemned Saudi Arabia's execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a prominent opposition Shiite cleric. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaberi Ansari said Saturday that the execution of al-Nimr, "who had no means other than speech to pursue his political and religious objectives, only shows the depth of imprudence and irresponsibility." His statement was carried by state-run Press TV. Saudi Arabia announced the execution of 47 prisoners on Saturday, including al-Qaida militants convicted of deadly attacks and at least four Shiite dissidents. Al-Nimr, arrested in 2012, was a central figure in demonstrations by the kingdom's Shiite minority calling for greater rights. Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran are regional rivals, and support opposite sides in the wars in Syria and Yemen. The wife of a Midland man who died as an inmate of the Midland County Jail last February has filed a wrongful death suit against the county and specific Midland County Sheriffs Office deputies. The complaint was filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court in Bay City by Sharyl Marden, representing the estate of her deceased husband, Jack Brian Marden. Her attorneys are Jules B. Olsman and Randy J. Wallace of Berkley. Listed as defendants in the suit are Midland County, and various Midland County Sheriffs Office deputies Lt. Jeffery Derocher, Brian Keidel, Richard Speich, Joshua Michael Saylor, Capt. Rich Harnois and Bryan Kryzanowicz. The suit states Marden, 56, was arrested on a warrant on Feb. 4 and taken to the Midland County Jail. The warrant was for an incident that occurred on Jan. 19 at the Mardens home, when Marden claimed to have overdosed on Valium, and was walking with a knife and asked the responding officers to shoot him. He was Tased and taken to MidMichigan Medical Center-Midland for a psychiatric evaluation after he was taken into custody that day. Upon his admission to the jail on Feb. 4, deputies obtained a medical history from Marden, including information about cardiac stents, coronary artery disease, and that he had suffered a cerebral aneurysm four years prior to his incarceration. The papers detail events that occurred at the Midland County Jail on Feb. 11, after Marden was removed from his cell to be interviewed by representatives of Community Mental Health. Shortly after the interview began, one CMH staffer informed a deputy that Marden was agitated and requested to be returned to his cell. Marden refused to enter his cell, and was placed inside by deputies, as CMH staff made arrangements for him to be taken to the hospital for a mental health evaluation. Once he was inside his cell, Mardens behavior escalated and the jails CERT team was dispatched, and a struggle ensued during which Marden was pummeled about the head and his breathing restricted by a spit mask and he was placed in a restraint chair. The papers state Marden asphyxiated during the incident. Marden lost consciousness and was taken to the hospital, where he was found to be in acute cardiac pulmonary arrest. He died on Feb. 13. Sharyl Marden filed under the Michigan Wrongful Death Act, as well as claims the defendants violated various Constitutional rights including the right to be free from the use of excessive force, and cruel and unusual punishment, as well as slate law claims. She asks for an award of damages in excess of $75,000 for each of two counts listed in the suit. January is National Blood Donor Month and the need for this vital fluid is always present. According to the American Red Cross, every two seconds in the U.S., someone needs blood. Thats 41,000 donations a day. CLINTON Even though Larry Martin has owned cattle for decades, he still believes it is worth his time to take more training in cattle handling. Martins father, a prominent auctioneer, bought him his first animal when he was only 10 years old. Ive had cattle every year since then, said the Clinton beef producer. He and his wife, Cindy, have a 30-head breeding cow herd and a well-known donor named Skittles at their farm in DeWitt County. Their Black Diamond Genetics operation features Sim-Angus, Angus, Simmental and Charolais. Martin is an Illinois Beef Association director. Last year, Martin enrolled in the Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) program and earned his certification. He says it is important for consumers to know that beef producers handle animals well, and he still learns something at such trainings. Safety is central in the BQA lessons. Its about animal safety, my safety and food safety. Our consumers want safe food, said Martin. BQA is a national program that aims to raise consumer confidence in beef quality. The voluntary program provides producers with information and resources to continue responsible practices in beef production, said Travis Meteer, University of Illinois Extension beef specialist and state BQA coordinator. Producers earn a three-year certification which some commercial buyers require today. Every year, about 150 to 200 people will be certified or re-certified in the two-hour course in Illinois. A focus the last few years has been to encourage all feedlot operators to make sure they are performing self-assessments. There is specific information for cow-calf operations, backgrounders/stock operators and feed yards, said Doug Bear, Iowas BQA coordinator. The upcoming programs include discussion of building design and new facilities for ease of cattle handling. Also, the program will delve into responsible use of antibiotics a current, hot topic among consumers including new developments, new dosage and drugs. In the past, a general prescription could be written by a veterinarian and a producer could use it how he determined best. Some antibiotics could be used at low levels for growth promotion. That has been eliminated. Thats a big thing we will discuss with producers, Meteer said. While the publics concern may have brought antibiotic use to the forefront of producers minds, producers want to do a good job every year, Meteer said, noting participation in the program remains high whether issues are in the news or not. Its not just the beef producer, its the whole chain, said Dave Wilcox of LeRoy. He said he needs to be aware of antibiotic issues delivered through feed Its everybodys responsibility to make sure people can buy safe food that is affordable and sustainable, said Wilcox, who works for Kent Nutrition Group based in Muscatine, Iowa. Wilcox is also chairman of the Illinois Beef Associations (IBA) policy division. Alan Adams, a past president of IBA and a LaSalle County beef producer who started in the business 42 years ago, agrees. He, his wife, son, daughter-in-law and their hired man are all regularly certified in the quality assurance program. It was a great learning experience to talk about cattle handling, said Adams, whose family and team use the low-stress handling techniques on their 1,000 head feedlot near Sandwich. For Adams, his wife and son it was mostly review, but there were new things for his daughter-in-law and the hired man, he said. Its a great way to communicate; we will go back and get re-certified, he said. You learn how to handle antibiotics and withdrawal times and everyone is aware that the animals must be kept away from the market group for a particular time depending on the antibiotic used. Its posted so everyone understands. Martin handles most of his 30 cattle alone, and thus had designed his barn and operation to work well for ease and safety. As he loaded a heifer into a chute on a recent November day, he noted some cattle are easier to work with than others. STREATOR Streator will have the state's first "free-standing emergency center" after the upcoming, controversial closing of St. Mary's Hospital, following legislation signed by Gov. Bruce Rauner on Friday. But when the emergency center will open is up in the air. Two additional state approvals are needed because, until Rauner signed the legislation, state law didn't allow for an emergency department without a hospital. "What we will do on Jan. 4 (after the hospital closes), if we don't have these approvals yet, is to open a 24/7 urgent care center," said Dr. David Gorenz, regional CEO for OSF Healthcare System. "It'll be staffed in the same way and with the same support services as the emergency department." "We're very pleased that the legislation has been signed by the governor," he said. "It will provide emergency services which are needed in the Streator community." Current owners of St. Mary's Springfield-based Hospital Sisters Health System will close the hospital Jan. 4. HSHS CEO Mary Starmann-Harrison has said inpatient admissions have dropped to the point that it's no longer feasible for inpatient services to continue. Streator residents at a public hearing in October and at an Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board meeting in November loudly opposed the closing, with many arguing that HSHS had understaffed St. Mary's in recent years. But the board on Nov. 17 voted to close the hospital. HSHS plans to give St. Mary's facilities on Jan. 4 to Peoria-based OSF. OSF will not reopen the hospital but will use the building for outpatient services, including urgent care and, eventually, emergency services. "This is very good news for the residents of Streator, and we are appreciative that the governor signed the legislation so quickly," said Brian Reardon, an HSHS vice president. St. Mary's CEO John Flanders thanked state Rep. Frank Mautino, D-Spring Valley; state Sen. Sue Rezin, R-Peru; and Rauner for their efforts. "This new law will be a tremendous help as we transition our health care services to OSF," Flanders said. OSF now needs a certificate of need from the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board and a license to operate from the Illinois Department of Public Health, Gorenz said. "We're in discussions with both organizations to see if we can expedite the process," Gorenz said. St. Mary's has about 290 employees. OSF has hired about 160, Gorenz said. So far, fewer than 10 employees have accepted jobs at other HSHS facilities, Reardon said. Streator's mayor and city manager were not available for comment. BLOOMINGTON Jason Hopkins was short on advocates as he sat in an interview room at the Bloomington Police Department for questioning about a psychotic episode and fire at his apartment. A mental health counselor dispatched to assist Hopkins told police that jail was a better option than hospitalization. She also encouraged Hopkins to talk to police after he asked for a lawyer. McLean County Center for Human Services counselor Kim Freyman told Bloomington police Detective Mike Fazio that Hopkins had a history of starting fires, the conduct that led to police custody on Nov. 11, 2005. "I think going this route to jail and having him own up to what he did is the route to take with him, unfortunately," Freyman told the officer. According to police reports, CHS counselor Chris Hays gave a similar opinion to Fazio. Hays "expressed concern that we would not keep Mr. Hopkins in jail. ... Mr. Hopkins has a history of setting fires and he believes he will do it again and the best place for him is in the Department of Corrections," said police reports. Hays was concerned that if Hopkins "goes into the hospital he will be out in two weeks and he is as good as he will ever be. Next time he may hurt someone," Fazio wrote in his report. Fazio's meeting with Hopkins ended after the suspect asserted his constitutional right to have a lawyer. Freyman urged Hopkins to talk, asking, "Jason, don't you want to tell the detective what happened this morning?" Bloomington Police Chief Brendan Heffner said other people, including counselors and parents, are sometimes allowed in police interviews. "Every situation is different," said Heffner. In the Hopkins case, the information from counselors was consistent with statements Hopkins had made to authorities, he said. "He went to jail because he was a threat," said Heffner. In general, a counselor's role should be one of advocacy, a role that extends to contact a client may have with police, said Dr. David Kaplan, chief professional officer for the American Counseling Association. "They are there to help a person understand what police are saying and what's going on," said Kaplan. The counselor's role in the interview should be spelled out in writing and signed by the suspect, he said. Hopkins was not given any documents by the counselors ahead of his interview, according to an audio recording of the meeting. The Center for Human Services declined to answer questions about the agency's handling of the Hopkins interview. On the issue of CHS involvement with police on individual cases, "the question isn't whose interest the counselor is serving. The goal is to honestly answer the questions we are allowed to under the law," said CHS Executive Director Tom Barr. In his questions to counselors, Fazio asked if they believed Hopkins craved the structure of prison. It was possible, said Hays. "He's not the sharpest person in the world," said Hays, adding that Hopkins' symptoms were likely to continue in prison. "The voices will be with him there, too." NORMAL A live webcast from Illinois State University will be part of the national American Democracy Project's coverage of the State of the Union address Jan. 12. The webcast is only part of what will happen when ISU serves as the collegiate hub for the ADP's coverage. There also will be a watch party in the Brown Ballroom of the Bone Student Center from 7 to 10 p.m. and Tweet-Up, with people commenting on the Twitter social media platform before, during and after President Barack Obama's speech. ISU's Social Media Analytics Command Center will be part of the event, analyzing social media trends. Among other things, it can monitor how many people are commenting on a particular subject in this case, the State of the Union address where the comments originate, how many people share or retweet them and whether the comments are positive or negative. ISU's American Democracy Project has had watch parties and Tweet-Ups before, but not on this scale, according to Steve Hunt, director of ISU's School of Communication. The event webcast will be live-streamed to more than 500 schools affiliated with the American Democracy Project and its community college counterpart, The Democracy Commitment. Hunt thinks one reason ISU was selected as a hub is because Heartland Community College is part of The Democracy Commitment. The two schools have partnered with each other on other projects in the past. Sarah Diel-Hunt, Heartland's associate vice president for academic affairs, said Heartland will encourage its students to participate in this event. "We don't know if President Obama will specifically address community colleges in his speech, but he has in the past," Diel-Hunt noted. She said students from China studying American culture at Heartland as part of the International Institute for Teaching and Learning also will attend the event. Hunt is very excited that ISU will be the national hub. "It's a great opportunity to showcase the work that's happening at ISU, he said. This will be the kickoff for nearly a year of activities designed to get students involved in the election, according to Hunt. A representative of iCitizen, which makes a polling app, also will attend and unveil a new application, according to Hunt. The webcast will include interviews with faculty and students at ISU and across the county as well as a panel discussion after the address. Hunt emphasized that the event is open to everyone, not just students, faculty and staff. At almost all of these events, we do always have a handful of members of the community. We hope to have more this time, he said. No tickets needed; just show up. Hunt said events such as this are fun and enlightening because it's an interactive environment; they're not just alone watching. 100 years ago Jan. 3, 1916: The Meridian Highway Association will meet in Bloomington this month to further promote a planned highway running from Cairo to Rockford. The group was formed in Mendota. (The road was to connect the same cities as modern day I-39 and Route 51.) 75 years ago Jan. 3, 1941: Two Bloomington cops were sitting innocently in their squad car in front of the county jail. Suddenly their car was hit by a car owned by M.E. Carney. No one was reported hurt. Evidently the Carney car was parked and somehow began to roll until it hit the squad car. 50 years ago Jan. 3, 1966: McLean County deputies will start working five-day weeks instead of six. And Sheriff Skidmore has hired three new men to help take up the slack. The move follows a petition drive for a five-day, 40-hour week by two deputies no longer on the force. 25 years ago Jan. 3, 1991: Serious home fires continued to take their toll this week. Kimberlee and Donnie Wolford lost their home and all that remained of the best Christmas ever with their two daughters. The fire was later found to be the result of faulty wiring. Editor's note: The Illinois community college system is commemorating its 50th anniversary. At the same time, Heartland Community College (HCC) is celebrating its 25th year of operation. HCC President Rob Widmer will be writing several guest commentaries in 2016, part of a statewide initiative to highlight how Illinois community colleges serve their districts and address the needs of students. At Heartland Community College we believe in the power of adult education to bridge gaps to employability, self-sufficiency or college readiness. Adult education programs benefit students and the well-being of our entire community. It might surprise people to know that more than 15,000 individuals living in the Heartland Community College district need a GED or high school equivalency. About 13,000 others would benefit from English as a Second Language assistance. Each year, Heartlands adult education program serves nearly 1,000 students. Those preparing for the GED are typically striving to improve their employment options. Students in the English Language Acquisition program are building the fluency required to function in the community and pursue academic and career goals. Workforce preparation is integrated into all adult education curriculum. This helps students gain the skills needed to be financially independent and increase their contributions to our community. About 41 percent of Heartlands adult education students are unemployed and 30 percent receive public assistance. According to a 2010 report by the College Board, workers with a high school credential earn $9,500 more per year, on average, than those without. Investing in the 1,000 people who walk through our doors each year means more individuals can grow the local tax base and fewer will draw on services supported by it. When Abel Serna moved to the community from Mexico, he needed to improve his English to be successful. Taking advantage of adult educations services allowed him to do just that and earn a GED. Now, Abel works in accounting for a local organization and takes college credit courses. Adult education also creates a career pathway for our neighbors like Errayanna Williams. Once she earns her GED, she plans to pursue an associate degree in nursing and has dreams of completing a masters degree. One day, when she has the ability to give back, she wants to help students like herself. Some students focus on career goals after completing adult education programs at Heartland. Since 2013, close to 500 others like Abel and Errayanna have transitioned into credit-bearing courses of study. Making the decision to continue their studies has a measurable value. A recent economic impact study found a 25-year-old Illinois community college graduate can expect to make $570,000 more in lifetime earnings than their peers without an associates degree. Since the majority of Heartland students remain in our community after graduation, we all benefit when adult learners reach their educational and career goals. What a strange, challenging and dangerous year it's been for First Amendment freedoms, at home and abroad. 2015 was but seven days old when terrorists, claiming to be angry over the publishing of satirical drawings of the Muslim prophet Mohammed, burst into the offices of the French weekly magazine Charlie Hebdo, killing 12 people. The tragedy sparked a worldwide outpouring of support for free expression, but the incident also prompted draconian proposals in France to limit certain kinds of free expression and new restrictions on Muslims simply because of their religious faith. The Nov. 13 attacks in Paris in which 130 died only added fuel to that. As the year unfolded, free expression in the United States took a hit in the most unlikely places: Colleges and universities. Campus critics assailed everything from ideas and opinions they believe may make some uncomfortable, to professorial musings on the notion of inviting speakers with controversial or even repugnant views. And at some schools most visibly, at the University of Missouri, the home to a venerable journalism program demonstrators against racism and bigotry assaulted freedom of the press even as they exercised their rights of free speech, assembly and petition. A group of activists including students and some faculty members tried to keep student journalists from reporting on the protests, producing perhaps the year's best public example of the meaning of "irony," if not civic ignorance. On the Internet front, the ongoing War on Terror produced proposals to restrict or deny use of the Internet by groups like ISIS and raised again the old notion of banning "hate speech" from public discourse. Internet giants such as Facebook, You Tube and Twitter already have implemented strategies to take down posts by ISIS killers and recruiters. Taking down videos of brutal murders beheadings and rants about killing Westerners are relatively easy calls. But Eric Schmidt, who leads Google, went further than most in voicing the idea of an algorithm that would relentlessly prowl the corridors of the Web searching and eliminating hateful speech. In November, leading Democratic and Republican presidential candidates called for various kinds of "Silicon Valley solutions" to terrorists on social media. The year ended with the specter of journalists' deaths again in headlines. The Committee to Protect Journalists reported that "of 69 journalists killed for their work in 2015, 40 percent died at the hands of Islamic militant groups such as Al-Qaida and Islamic State" and more than two-thirds were "singled out for murder," rather than dying in accidents or as the result of military conflict. Some First Amendment experts are now open to modifying a longstanding barrier to government suppression of free speech that is not a "clear and present danger" in light of the new and pervasive ability via social media and the Web to provide a far-reaching platform for those promoting negative messages. The new year starts with "atmospherics" as measured by public opinion polls that are not kind to protecting First Amendment freedoms, from reports that a sizable number of millennials have no problem with government officials to a survey showing overall faith in democratic ideals is fading among younger voters. Still, a large majority of Americans in the Newseum Institute's annual State of the First Amendment annual survey do not see those core freedoms as "going too far in the rights they protect." And as the late founder of the Institute's First Amendment Center, John Seigenthaler, observed: "First Amendment freedoms are never secured but are always in the process of being made secure." Keep that last thought in mind, in 2016. Happy New Year. BLOOMINGTON Little changed in Jason Hopkins' life between a 2005 arson that sent him to prison and a violent incident a decade later in downtown Bloomington that left two people with stab wounds and Hopkins behind bars on attempted murder charges. With a history of serious mental illness dating back to his late teens, Hopkins, 35, was living alone in an apartment in the 800 block of West Washington Street in Bloomington on Aug. 19, when authorities say he stabbed two men, including a Pantagraph employee, and attacked a third within several blocks of the courthouse square. The 10-year stretch that brought Hopkins back to jail is illustrative of the gaps in services and resources that remain in McLean County, said McLean County Sheriff Jon Sandage. This is an example of a failure on all levels, said Sandage, who supervises the 225-bed jail that provides services to an average of 60 mentally ill inmates on any given day. The 201 days Hopkins spent in the jail in 2005 on the arson charge without noticeable improvement in his condition would not happen today, said Sandage. If an inmate is not making improvement and we cant assist them in our facility, we look elsewhere for help, he said. In 2009, then-Sheriff Mike Emery expanded jail mental health services, starting with an assessment at booking, and follow-up services. A decade ago, the jails counseling and psychiatric services were delivered by the McLean County Center for Human Services, but that agreement ended in 2009 when the county hired Real Change Clinical Services to provide counseling and Correctional Healthcare Companies Inc. of Champaign for psychiatric services. Since then, Ive seen more emphasis on inmates having the medications and services they need and theyre not just warehoused, said Sandage. Tom Barr, executive director of CHS, said he could not comment on Hopkins' treatment, citing confidentiality rules. Witnesses including CHS staff and relatives agreed at Hopkins' 2005 sentencing that his mental illness was so severe he could not live without supervision. Hopkins told CHS crisis workers and police that he started the fire in CHS' transitional housing complex because he was hearing voices telling him he was gay. Hopkins saw jail as a way to escape the voices. Bryan Heine, a CHS counselor, testified the lengthy jail stay did not seem to produce positive results. I have to say for the most part during each visit Jason usually admitted to hearing voices during that week ... at times when I visited him, he still seemed pretty unstable, Heine told Judge Scott Drazewski at the time. Dr. Scott Hamilton, a psychiatrist who previously worked for CHS, testified he examined Hopkins for the defense, but did not provide treatment. Hamilton said Hopkins told him he was diagnosed with schizophrenia at 19. Absent his schizophrenia, it was unlikely that Hopkins would have set the fire, said Hamilton, testifying, "Committing a crime seemed to be very much related to his symptoms." CHS counselor Peter Stuck told the judge that daily checks were made on Hopkins at the apartment, noting no other housing options, including a nursing home, existed for Hopkins. Hopkins' stepmother, Bonita Hopkins, testified the family was looking for a facility "outside of just being locked up with a bunch of hard-nosed criminals." In asking for a seven-year prison sentence on the arson charge, then-prosecutor Jeff Brown cited Hopkins' previous failures on probation and the need for supervision. He also asked that Hopkins be ordered to pay CHS $3,200 for damages to the apartment. Amy Davis, public defender at the time, agreed her client needed supervision. "Jason is certainly guilty. He is also certainly mentally ill and it is an unfortunate comment that there really isn't much that we can do about that," said Davis, noting his illness was a factor in seven prior criminal cases. In imposing a five-year sentence, Drazewski noted a mental evaluation had deemed Hopkins "fit and sane," but greater supervision was needed. "The supervision and/or resources that were available to him were not enough to insure the safety of the others in the community, and one reason he couldn't be placed within the facility that was sought ... or sought for him on his behalf (a 24-hour supervised unit) was the fact that he started fires at a group home in November 2000 and then was expelled from the program," said Drazewski. Hopkins served about two years in prison before he was released. The shadow of constant supervision that was with him in prison did not follow him home to Bloomington. Hopkins' mother, Anita Jumper the only relative who provided some supervision for him also has a history of severe mental illness and arson. In February 2015, she was arrested after allegedly setting fire to the apartment the two shared at 811 W. Washington St. Hopkins and five others escaped. Jumper was found unfit to stand trial and received treatment in a state facility before she returned to the county jail in November. When a judge asked lawyers at a recent hearing about the potential length of her February 2016 trial, Jumper interjected, "30 to 90 days with all the stuff I have to submit." Jumper has been to prison four times on drug charges. Her last sentence came in 2005, three months before her son set fire to his apartment. According to neighbors who witnessed Hopkins' mental decline before the August stabbing incident, he was alone much of the time and often talked to himself. He was found mentally unfit to stand trial and is receiving services at Chester Mental Health Center. According to a recent report, he is expected to be restored to fitness within one year. In legal terms, fitness means he is able to understand the charges and assist with his defense. And so Ash vs. Evil Dead ends just as it begins: with Ashley J. Williams making a terrible decision to satisfy his own self-interests. Before you grab your pitchfork and rally the townsfolk to march on Ash, lend the poor bastard your compassion. He has been fighting the good fight, so to speak, against the Deadites and the evil of the Necronomicon for three decades, and in doing so relinquished any hope of enjoying a normal life. Ash and the mundane have passed each other like two ships in a horrible, horrible night. Even settling down at a trailer park in Michigan, the guy cant escape from the traumas inflicted on him in both Evil Dead films; that damn book is with him always, just like his memories of the horrors of his past. Ash vs. Evil Dead has made a point of referencing the loss of his friends and loved ones for good reason. Being a Ghost Beater sucks. So when he accepts Rubys awful deal and buys into her clearly BS proposal for controlling evil, we get it, or at least we should. Ash is tired. Hes run down. He isnt quite over the hill yet, but hes starting the decline from its peak; its amazing that he has any energy left in him to fight on for an entire season of premium cable television. Grant that he does sort of, kind of, totally love taking out Deaditesthe finale of The Killer of Killers is gleefully violent for a reasonand that being a jefe is exactly the sort of adrenalizing ego boost that he craves. Ash is nothing if not his own biggest admirer, after all. But hes a genuine good guy, braggart or no, and so its only natural that he leap at the chance to be that guy again. (Its the least he can do, seeing as he caused this whole mess to begin with.) Lets step deeper into Bruce Campbells filmography for a second and examine Bubba Ho-Tep, where Campbell plays Elvis and fights a mummy in a Texas nursing home. (Ossie Davis plays JFK. Its every bit as amazing as it sounds.) Theres a monologue scene where Campbell, as the King, muses about being the hero hed always fantasized about being. Its an affecting scene, and it rings surprisingly true in Ash vs. Evil Dead, in which Ash makes the choice to be the hero everyone else thinks he can be. That has been the characters journey here, but when presented with the definitive heros choicedoom the world or shoot Pablohe takes the cowards way out and rides off into the sunset with an incredulous Kelly and Pablo giving him side eye from the backseat. The choice, of course, isnt supposed to be easy. That would defeat the point. But Ash, tempted with the promise of getting a piece of the life he abandoned thirty years ago, does the easy thing. This is great in the abstract; it means Ray Santiago will return to help kick evils butt in season two. In the present tense, though, it means Bad Things for mankind. Admittedly, theres nothing wrong with saving Pablos life, and theres no denying that until Ash intervenes and makes his accord with Ruby, everything sucks for poor Pablo, who looks like hes trying out for the torture porn remake of The Mask. Come to that, everything sucks for Kelly, too, and everything really, really sucks for Heather (Samara Weaving), who, after surviving Deadite Fisher, ends up becoming fodder for the cabin. But as the Ghost Beaters make their getaway from that accursed place, we realize that Ash just Ashed things up all over again. Maybe we shouldnt blame him. Being a badass zombie-killing demon hunter isnt all its cracked up to be, especially following the introduction of those horrible, screeching, child devil monster things, which provide the biggest action and scare pay-offs in The Dark One. We get to see Ashs shotgun put to its best use yet, and Kelly has an intensely frightening moment in the dark where the world is lit up only by the glare of a flashlight, wielded by persons unknown as its beam comes rushing at her through the blackness. With everything Ash and his new friends have gone through, wouldnt you want to just kick back and rest, too? Watching Campbell arm up and venture down into the basement one last time will serve as the ultimate thrill for hardcore Evil Dead fans. With that image, Ash vs. Evil Dead comes full circle in embracing its roots. But for all of the nods to its predecessors, the series has managed to be very much its own thing, a proper amalgam of the horror-comedy Sam Raimi helped give shape to back in the 1980s. Season one comes to a close with a roundly horrific climax, though, and even if we had a lot of laughs along the way, theres no avoiding what a down note were ending on. Bad news for the Ghost Beaters, but good news for us; it just means more Deadites to deal with in season two. Boston-based critic Andy Crump has been writing online about film since 2009, and has contributed to Paste Magazine since 2013. He also writes for Screen Rant, Movie Mezzanine, and Birth.Movies.Death. You can follow him on Twitter. He is composed of roughly 65% craft beer. Editors note: Im delighted to host guest-posts dealing with Race in American Buddhist communities. The first, by the above title, is by Dr. Ann Gleig, a researcher working on a variety of issues in contemporary Buddhism including race, gender, psychology and philosophy. Keep an eye out for a second post later this week. On July 1 2015, a website titled Buddhists for Racial Justice started circulating across Buddhist social media. It included an open letter that spoke of the deep sadness at the murders of the nine members of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, Carolina on June 17, 2015. These murders were not only the result of an individual deluded by racial hatred and a desire to start a race war, it stated, but also reflexive of the legacy of slavery and white supremacy that persisted in the American collective consciousness and institutional structures. As Buddhists, it continued, we are obliged to realize the interconnectedness of experience, to recognize the causes and conditions that perpetuate this collective suffering, and to respond compassionately by uniting the precept of non-harm to tangible actions. Alongside this open letter, were two Calls to Engage one for white practitioners to awaken to white privilege, and one for members of color to investigate their own unconscious patterning that perpetuates the suffering of racism. By the next day over 500 people from a wide variety of Buddhist lineages had endorsed this letter and two weeks later that number had risen to 1400. The immediate origins for Buddhists for Racial Justice can be traced to May 14th when a delegation of 125 Buddhists from a variety of lineages gathered for the first White House-U.S. Buddhist Leadership Conference. Here they presented two letters: one on climate change and one titled Buddhist Statement on Racial Justice. The latter opened with the declaration that as Buddhist teachers they were distressed by the killings of unarmed African Americans brought to attention by the cases of Michael Brown in Ferguson and Eric Garner in NYC. As with the open call letter, it intertwined the language of Buddhismsuffering, interdependence, non-harm and compassion with racial justice. The impetus for this letter was attributed to the courage of the people of Ferguson and the Black Lives Matter movement, which had brought urgency to what the Buddhist Peace Fellowship has dubbed as Buddhism in America After Ferguson. However, both letters should be seen as products of work to challenge white privilege in American Buddhist convert communities spanning over nearly two decades. Many of the themes expressed on them, for instance, are articulated in Making the Invisible Visible: Healing Racism in Our Buddhist Communities a booklet compiled by a small group of Buddhist practitioners of color and distributed to the Buddhist Teachers in the West conference at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, in June 2000. It declared that for many years the Euro-American middle-class sangha had been resistant to the efforts of people of color and their white allies to raise awareness of the reproduction of oppressive racial and socioeconomic within Western Buddhist sanghas and unless this was addressed the dharma risked becoming irrelevant to vast parts of our society. Interweaving personal experiences of racism with Buddhist teachings and critical race theory, this collection offers a number of resources to combat racism in Western sanghas ranging from institutional diversity trainings to addressing racism in dharma talks. For much of this time, such efforts have been marginalized, ignored and even actively opposed. For example, there is no mention of diversity work in the Shambhala Sun 2009 edition Celebrating 30 years of Buddhism in America and a number of American Buddhists have accused such work as being divisive and against core Buddhist teachings such as interdependence and anatta. Due to a combination of a small but extremely committed loose network of American Buddhist People of Color (POC) teacher and practitioners and their white allies, and the wider cultural critical mass around racial justice, however, such work is slowly coming to the forefront of American Buddhist convert communities. Communities such as the East Bay Meditation Center (EBMC) in Oakland, California, Insight New York (INY), Insight Meditation Community of Washington (IMCW), and the Brooklyn Zen Center (BZC) and individuals such as Earthlyn Zenju Manuel, Rev. Angel Kyodo Williams and Lama Rod Owens have put racial inclusion and justice work at the center of their work and racial justice issues are getting increased coverage in Buddhist media. My current book project on contemporary developments in American convent Buddhism devotes a chapter to the history of this racial inclusion and justice work. Here I will offer just one snapshot of this important and multilayered project: the ways in which participants from the Insight Meditation community understand racial inclusion and justice work as an expression and extension of core Buddhist principles. Most fundamental is the presentation of racism as a form of dukkha. As La Sarmiento, a POC teacher at Insight Meditation Community of Washington (IMCW) put it: I just want to be able to notice suffering when I see it and not perpetuate it and alleviate it, if I can. Its all about suffering for me. Doing this diversity work is actually addressing suffering, addressing it in the ways that some people perpetuate it and some people have to live it. So when some people say to me, What does this have to do with our practice? Its like This is the practice. If you dont get that, well I dont know. The dukkha of racism manifests both on an individual and collective level. As the letter for racial justice puts it: The historic and continued suffering of people of color in this country is our collective suffering. Once racial injustice has been established as a form of dukkha, the next move, following the Four Noble Truths, is to inquire into the causes and conditions of that suffering. Tara Brach teaches that at the root of racism is the existential tendency to create a false sense of self and an unreal other that we respond to with aversion and fear. In essence, therefore, racism is a cultural manifestation of this existential illusion of separateness. Waking up to the reality of interdependence requires an investigation of both the individual and collective conditioning around race that keeps one ensnared in separateness. Certain practices of Buddhism such as mindfulness offer potent tools to inquire into and become free of this conditioning. Ruth King, a senior teacher at IMCW, has developed a training called Mindful of Race, which combines mindfulness practice with diversity awareness training. White Awake offers race awareness training in the wider context of mindfulness practice and notes that the development of racial awareness is not only an important piece of our spiritual practice, it is a spiritual practice in and of itself. Larry Yang, an Insight teacher and pioneer of Buddhist diversity work, has also grounded such work in Buddhist canonical texts. He draws on Bhikkhu Analayos (2004) commentary on the Satipatthana sutta in which Analayo discusses the refrain on internal and external mindfulness within the sutta, noting that the presence of the latter has been put aside in modern translations After considering different interpretations, Analayo concludes that external mindfulness means being mindful of other people and discusses several ways to practice this. Following Analayo, Yang argues that whilst the Insight community has historically exclusively focused on mindfulness in the internal realm of the meditator, diversity awareness is the application of mindfulness to the external or collective realm. In conclusion, the shift in focus from the individual to the collective is crucial to understanding what makes racial diversity and justice work Buddhist. This shift manifests in two main ways: First, one characteristic of first-generation American Buddhist teachers has been to focus on using Buddhist teachings and tools to address individual psychological suffering. With teachings on the dukkha of racism, Buddhist principles and practices are now being applied to the socio-cultural dimensions of that individual self and the collective suffering of racial injustice in the United States. Second, a foundational part of racial inclusion and justice work is the recovery of the third jewel of Buddhism, the sangha, which has been historically neglected in American convert communities, which have emphasized individual meditation practice rather than building community. Racial inclusion and justice work is concerned with building sanghas that are inclusive and welcoming for all. As the Insight Meditation Society puts it, unless they create a multicultural refuge that reflects the diversity of our society, our world, IMS cannot be a true spiritual refuge. In this way, racial inclusion and justice work should be seen as both a corrective to earlier Euro-American Buddhist trends and also a continuation of the application of Buddhist teachings to contemporary Western forms of suffering. Iran Says Saudi Arabia Faces 'Divine Vengeance' For Executions 01/03/16 Source: RFE/RL Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has warned Saudi Arabia of "divine vengeance" over the execution of an opposition Shi'ite cleric, while Riyadh accused Tehran of supporting terrorism -- escalating their criticism of each other just hours after protesters stormed the Saudi Embassy in Tehran. Protesters gather outside the Saudi Embassy in Tehran after the execution of a Shi'ite cleric by Riyadh. Protesters gather outside the Saudi Embassy in Tehran after the execution of a Shi'ite cleric by Riyadh. Saudi Arabia announced the execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr on January 2 along with 46 others, including three other Shi'ite dissidents and several Al-Qaeda militants. Hard-line protesters responded overnight in Tehran by storming the Saudi Embassy in the Iranian capital, setting fires and throwing papers from the roof. Iranian authorities said early on January 3 that 44 demonstrators were arrested, but hard-liners have called for another demonstration at the embassy on January 3. Iranian President Hassan Rohani on January 3 condemned Nimr's execution but also denounced attacks on the Saudi Embassy and Consulate as "totally unjustifiable." Rohani said that "the buildings should be legally and religiously protected in the Islamic Republic of Iran." Protesters outside the Saudi Embassy in Tehran on Sunday (photo by Islamic Republic News Agency) Sectarian Tensions Nimr was a central figure in protests by Saudi Arabia's marginalized Shi'ite minority until his arrest in 2012. His execution has drawn condemnation from Shi'a across the region. He was was convicted of terrorism charges but denied ever advocating violence. Khameni's statement on January 3 said Nimr "neither invited people to take up arms nor hatched covert plots. The only thing he did was public criticism." But Saudi Arabia's Foreign Ministry said that by condemning the execution, Iran had "revealed its true face represented in support for terrorism." It accused Tehran of "blind sectarianism" and said that "by its defense of terrorist acts" Iran was a "partner in their crimes in the entire region." Earlier, Iran's hard-line Revolutionary Guards had promised "harsh revenge" against the Saudi Sunni royal dynasty for his execution. Police used water cannons to keep protesters away from Saudi consulate in Mashhad, Iran (photo by Mehr News Agency) Iran previously warned that executing the cleric would "cost Saudi Arabia dearly." The Iranian Foreign Ministry summoned the Saudi envoy in Tehran to protest Nimr's execution. Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, a member of the Assembly of Experts and a Friday Prayer leader, denounced the execution as a "crime" by Saudi Arabia's "infamous regime." "This...blood will stain the collar of the House of Saud and wipe them from the pages of history," Khatami was quoted as saying on January 2. Irans powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) said in a statement that the Saudi government would pay a "heavy price" for this shameful act, which it said was a sign of the decay of the Saudi rulers. The criminal act of execution of Sheikh Nimr the leader of Shia in Saudi Arabia is part of a Zionist conspiracy to sow discord among the world Muslims which will be aborted by the Heavenly blessings coming down to us by the pure blood of these martyrs, the statement published by Iranian media said. The Twitter account of Supreme Leader Khamenei paid tribute to Nimr, calling him a martyr. "Awakening is not suppressible," read the tweet on Khamenei's English-language Twitter account, next to a photograph of Nimr. Iranian protesters gather outside the Saudi Embassy in Tehran during a demonstration against the execution of prominent Shi'ite Muslim cleric Nimr al-Nimr by Saudi authorities on January 2. In Iraq, whose Shi'ite-led government is close to Iran, prominent religious and political figures demanded that ties with Riyadh be severed. Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi warned that Nimrs execution would have repercussions on regional security. He wrote on his verified Facebook account that muffling voices and executing opponents "would lead to nothing but more destruction," expressing "intense shock" upon hearing the news of the execution. Former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said Nimr's execution would "topple the Saudi regime". Iraqi lawmaker Muhammad al-Sayhud warned that Nimr's execution was intended to fuel sectarian strife in the region. "This measure taken by the ruling family [of Saudi Arabia] aims at reigniting the region, provoking sectarian fighting between Sunnis and Shi'a," he told Al-Sumaria TV. Prominent Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called for demonstrations in Persian Gulf countries and in Iraq to protest the execution of Nimr by Saudi Arabia. "I ask that the Shi'a of Saudi Arabia...show courage in responding even through peaceful demonstrations, and the same for the Shi' in the Gulf, so as to deter injustice and government terrorism in the future," Sadr said on his website. In Bahrain, police used tear gas against several dozen people protesting Nimrs execution while carrying his pictures. In Washington, a State Department spokesman said Washington was concerned the execution of Nimr could worsen sectarian tensions at a time when they urgently need to be reduced. Protesters install a memorial plaque for Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr outside the Saudi Embassy in Tehran (photo by Islamic Republic News Agency) 'Foreign Meddling' Meanwhile, Nimr's brother said the family was shocked by news of the execution but hoped that any reaction would be peaceful: "We hope that any reactions would be confined to a peaceful framework. No one should have any reaction outside this peaceful framework. Enough bloodshed," Muhammad al-Nimr told Reuters. He said the cleric was found guilty of seeking "foreign meddling" in the kingdom, "disobeying" the country's rulers, and taking up arms against the security forces. Nimrs brother was later quoted as saying that Saudi authorities told the family that the cleric had already been buried without informing them at which cemetery. Hundreds of members of its Shi'ite minority were arrested after the protests during which several policemen were killed in shooting and firebomb attacks. The kingdom also detained thousands of militant Islamists after a series of Al-Qaeda attacks from 2003-06 that killed hundreds, and has convicted hundreds of them. The ministry said the executions were carried out on January 2 in 12 different areas of the kingdom. The executions are Saudi Arabia's first in 2016. At least 157 people were put to death last year, a big increase from the 90 people killed in 2014. With reporting by Reuters, dpa, AFP, AP, the BBC, Fars and Mehr Copyright (c) 2016 RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org Shi'ite Muslims Outraged by Saudi Execution of Cleric 01/03/16 By Smita Nordwall, VOA Iranian security stand guard to protect Saudi Arabia's embassy in Tehran, Iran, while a group of demonstrators gathered to protest execution of a Shi'ite cleric in Saudi Arabia, Jan. 3, 2016. (photo by Iranian security stand guard to protect Saudi Arabia's embassy in Tehran, Iran, while a group of demonstrators gathered to protest execution of a Shi'ite cleric in Saudi Arabia, Jan. 3, 2016.(photo by Islamic Republic News Agency Iran's supreme leader says Saudi Arabia will face "divine revenge" because of its execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a prominent Shi'ite critic of Saudi Arabia's ruling royal family. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Sunday "The unjustly spilt blood of this martyr will have quick consequences." The supreme leader said Nimr "neither encouraged people into armed action nor secretly conspired for plots, but the only thing he did was utter public criticism rising from his religious zeal." Iran's Revolutionary Guard said in a statement Sunday Nimr's death would lead to the "downfall" of Saudi Arabia's monarchy. The Guard described Nimr's execution as a "medieval act of savagery." Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr (source: front page of Iranian daily (source: front page of Iranian daily Shahrvand Nimr's execution has caused international outrage and a serious escalation of diplomatic tensions in the region, with unrest predicted in Shia-majority areas. Nimr, who was among 47 people executed Saturday in Saudi Arabia, was a widely revered Shi'ite Muslim cleric convicted in 2014 of sedition and other charges and sentenced to death. He was an outspoken critic of the kingdom's ruling al-Saud family and a key leader of Shi'ite protests in Saudi Arabia in 2011. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was "deeply dismayed" by the execution of Nimr and the 46 other people, and called for "calm and restraint in reaction" to the executions. Protesters outside Saudi Arabia's embassy in Tehran, Iran, Jan. 3, 2016. (photo by Protesters outside Saudi Arabia's embassy in Tehran, Iran, Jan. 3, 2016.(photo by Islamic Republic News Agency The U.S. warned that Nimr's death would only add to strife between religious sects in the region. "We are particularly concerned that the execution of prominent Shia cleric and political activist Nimr al-Nimr risks exacerbating sectarian tensions at a time when they urgently need to be reduced," U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby said Saturday in a statement. Shia-majority Iran, which made frequent requests to the Saudis to pardon Nimr, had some of the strongest reaction to the news, saying Saudi Arabia would pay a high price for the execution. Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hossein Jaber Ansari, strongly attacked Saudi Arabia for ramping up sectarian tensions in the region. The speaker of the Iranian parliament said Saudi Arabia, which is founded upon an ultraconservative Sunni ideology known as Wahhabism, would face a "maelstrom'' from which it would not escape. Police keeps protesters away from Saudi Consulate in Mashhad, Iran (photo by Police keeps protesters away from Saudi Consulate in Mashhad, Iran(photo by Islamic Republic News Agency Iran also summoned the Saudi envoy to Tehran to protest Nimr's killing. Saudi Foreign Ministry spokesman Mansour Ben Turki called Iran's reaction "irresponsible," and the government summoned Iran's envoy to the kingdom to protest the critical Iranian reaction Soon afterward, protesters stormed the Saudi Embassy in Tehran, smashing furniture and setting fires before being cleared out by police. Soon after, protesters stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran, smashing furniture and setting fires before being cleared out by police. Authorities said Sunday 40 suspects have been arrested in connection with the rampage. Tehran's prosecutor said an investigation is ongoing and more arrests could follow. Water is sprayed on a fire set at the Saudi Embassy in Tehran during a demonstration against the execution of prominent Shiite Muslim cleric Nimr al-Nimr by Saudi authorities, Jan. 2, 2016. (photo by Water is sprayed on a fire set at the Saudi Embassy in Tehran during a demonstration against the execution of prominent Shiite Muslim cleric Nimr al-Nimr by Saudi authorities, Jan. 2, 2016.(photo by ISNA A top Shi'ite cleric in Lebanon warned there would be a backlash because of Nimr's execution. Sheikh Abdul-Amir Kabalan, said, "This is a crime at a human level and will have repercussions in the coming days." Iran and Saudi Arabia have been vying for leadership in the Muslim world since Iran's 1979 revolution, which elevated hard-line Shi'ite clerics to power. The U.S. war in Iraq further enflamed religious and ethnic tensions by leading to a Shi'ite-led government in Baghdad and a crucial shift in the sectarian balance of power in the region. After Arab Spring protests erupted in 2011, Saudi Arabia and Iran entered into a fierce proxy war in Syria, where they support opposite sides of the conflict, and in Yemen, where Saudi Arabia has been bombing Iranian-allied rebels since March. They also support opposing political groups in Lebanon, Iraq and Bahrain. Protests over the Nimr execution were held in Bahrain, where police used tear gas on the crowds, as well as in India and outside the Saudi Embassy in London. More demonstrations were being planned for Sunday in Lebanon and Tehran, where the majority of outrage is expected to be focused. Related News: Shia cleric among 47 executed by Saudi Arabia in a single day - Saudi Arabia's authorities have demonstrated their utter disregard for human rights and life by executing 47 people in a single day, said Amnesty International today. Those put to death earlier today included prominent Shi'a Muslim cleric Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr, who was convicted after a political and grossly unfair trial at the Specialized Criminal Court (SCC). -Amnesty International Saudi execution: call for west to condemn killing of Shia cleric - Shia Islamic leaders on Sunday stepped up their condemnation of the Saudiexecution of the prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, urging a robust response from Riyadh's western backers, who are yet to fully address the issue. -Guardian, UK Iran's 18 degree Celsius challenge to fight air pollution 01/03/16 Source: Press TV One of the major factors that contribute to increase in green-house gasses and make the air suffocating and hazardous in big cities is the exhaust emission generated by fossil-fuel-based heating systems, conditioning the indoor air in public and state buildings. Thus, if we set the indoor temperature to a lesser degree, a lesser amount of fossil fuel is used accordingly, and a lesser amount of green-house gasses enters the air. Based on this simple, yet effective, technique, Director of Iran's Department of the Environment Masoumeh Ebtekar has recently raised the "18-degree Celsius Challenge." The 18' degree temperature challenge,set your thermostat at home or work to curb air pollution &fight climate change pic.twitter.com/bwaeK9pvpy Massoumeh Ebtekar (@ebtekarm) December 31, 2015 In a post on social media, Ebtekar called for a national movement to lower the temperature of buildings in metropolises across the country to at most to 18 degrees Celsius in corridors and indoor places and to 21 degrees in rooms. The post also featured letters addressing the vice presidents, ministers and all governors to accept the challenge. She also called for a regular checkup of the heating systems and asked offices to turn off heaters on holidays in order to mitigate the emission to minimum, urging all Iranians to follow the movement and cut the persisting air pollution that has plagued countrys metropolises for the past months. Any agrnt on #climatechange must b inclusive:@ebtekarm https://t.co/iy8VM8QrXq #Iran #ParisClimateConference #COP21 pic.twitter.com/yiP3ZZiHwE Iran (@Iran) December 1, 2015 Director of Iran's Department of the Environment Masoumeh Ebtekar delivers a speech during the opening day of the World Climate Change Conference 2015 (COP21), on November 30, 2015, at Le Bourget, on the outskirts of the French capital Paris. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, in response to the challenge, thanked her on his twitter account and called the challenge an absolute necessity for combating pollution that is present in the air, which we and our children breathe. So far, Iran's Vice-President for Women and Family Affairs Shahindokht Molaverdi and Iranian Minister of Communication and IT Mahmoud Vaezi have accepted the challenge, further calling on other administration officials to embrace the initiative. Unhealthy air quality forced the country's authorities to close all schools and kindergartens in the capital Tehran for days last week. Irans metropolises have been suffering for years from the hazardous air pollution caused mainly by exhaust fumes, particularly during the cold season that increases as emissions fail to rise above cold air (called inversion). Had it not been for the recent rainfalls in Tehran, the dark blanket of the polluted air would have kept on suffocating the city. The announcement came in August that Los Angeles will return Ontario International Airport to local control. Over the next four months, the final deal points of the legal settlement were worked out. Then the four official panels that oversee the airport (or will oversee it) voted on the agreement. And their leaders have now signed on the dotted line. So whens the party? When do we get to celebrate? This is a huge victory for the Inland Empire. Why, then, does the long-awaited return of ONT seem to be happening, not with a bang, but with a whimper? A signing ceremony is being considered, said Alan Wapner, president of the Ontario International Airport Authority, the agency created to take over managing the airport. But when should it take place? After the lawsuit has officially been dismissed? That could be early this month. Or after the Federal Aviation Administration grants the airport authority the official certificate allowing it to operate the airport? That could be six months from now. Im in favor of celebrating sooner. A celebration of sorts already took place: Scores of public officials gathered at Ontario airport Aug. 6, the day Wapner and L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti announced the agreement in principle. But the public, meaning all the folks who love ONT and want to see it revived, havnt had a chance to do the victory dance. The Inland Empire has been champing at the bit for ONTs return for years, ever since passenger numbers at ONT went into a nosedive in 2008. By the time the airport began slowly pulling out of its death spiral this year (by adding a few flights to Mexico; domestic traffic is still down), ONT had lost more than 40 percent of its passenger volume, from 7.2 million in 2007 to under 4 million in 2013. Many folks blamed Los Angeles. Did the big city sabotage its country cousin by hogging flights for its flagship airport, LAX? It sure looked that way. ONT and LAX are owned by Los Angeles World Airports. But during the years ONT was losing passengers, LAX was gaining them. Discount airlines like Spirit and Allegiant, which usually fly out of secondary airports, chose LAX for their Southern California flights instead of ONT. LAWA slashed ONTs marketing budget while adding luxury retailers and high-end restaurants at LAX. ONT got vending machines. Half of each terminal was mothballed and ONTs full-time managers were cut back to half-time. Still, economist Christopher Thornberg doesnt believe this happened because of malicious intent on the part of L.A. The Inland area was Ground Zero for the Great Recession, with foreclosures and subprime debt, and the airport reflected that, he said. Now, the I.E. is in full economic recovery. I think youre going to see that airport flower again, said Thornburg, director of the economic-forecasting center at UCR. He added that the Inland region is as big as Pittsburgh, Pa. Theres no reason it cant support a fully functional, regular airport. And I think thats where its going to go, he said. That will be fantastic. But I hope we dont have to wait that long to celebrate. It should be a big celebration: Getting ONT back was a group effort, broadly supported across Southern California. The Southern California Association of Governments weighed in first, saying a regional network of airports is needed to serve the areas growing population. Ontarios Set ONTario Free movement gained momentum. By the time the agreement was reached, dozens of cities, counties and other governmental entities had signed on, along with hundreds of residents. The Ontario International Airport Authority doesnt have permission to run ONT yet, Wapner said. But it isnt idle. Candidates are being interviewed for airport director, and the FAA is poised to begin reviewing the OIAAs application to be certified to run the airport. The authority is already courting airlines to come to the airport or increase service they already have at ONT, and working on short-term and long-term land use plans for airport property, Wapner said. So we are working in the background. OK. So when does the Inland Empire get to celebrate this triumph? No one can say yet. But I will let you know as soon as I know. Contact the writer: 951-368-9470 or cmacduff@pressenterprise.com A 71-year-old Ontario man who had struggled since his wifes death five years ago went to the cemetery where she was buried, killed two other relatives who were visiting the grave, then killed himself, police say. Karapet Kalajian carried out the shooting at Bellevue Memorial Park about 3 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 2, the day before the anniversary of his wifes death, Ontario police said Sunday. Police identified the victims as Misak Minasyan, 60, and Hripsime Minasyan, 59, both of North Hollywood. They were Kalajians deceased wifes sister and brother-in-law, Sgt. Jeff Higbee wrote in a news release. Kalajians wife died in 2011 after a long battle with cancer. (Kalajian) has had difficulty dealing with the death and had become estranged from the family for more than a year, Higbee wrote in the release. Witnesses told police Saturday that Kalajian had been sitting in his car at the cemetery on West G Street when three of his relatives arrived. As they approached the grave, Kalajian got out of the car with a handgun, walked directly toward the trio, quickly shot two of them and then turned the gun on himself, police said. The other person present, an elderly woman using a walker, was unharmed. Ontario police asked that anyone with information about the shooting call Detective Josh Burks at 909-395-2912. This story is developing. Check back for updates. Aasma Maqbools Murrieta middle school son was asked by one student the weekend after the Paris terrorist attack if hed just returned from the French city. Thats just the way it is, Maqbool says. It got so bad that the principal heard what was happening and met with the boys who were harassing Maqbools child. The kids got lunch detention. For Muslims living in southwest Riverside County, there have been such moments in the aftermath of the Paris and San Bernardino terrorist attacks. Those are just some recent events. Who can forget the angry reaction to the proposed Temecula mosque that was approved nearly five years ago, protests that drew national headlines, casting us in the most unfavorable of lights? Yet when Maqbool and her friends Alifah Achmad, Andrea Tally and Susana Odtallah gathered at Harveston Lake in Temecula recently, they recalled the moments when friends and neighbors showed kindness and compassion. They all are sporting scarves a hijab on their heads, a telltale sign they are Muslim. It is who they are. All have similar stories, of both animosity and sympathy for their plight in a country still haunted by9/11, those awful prejudices revived by Paris and San Bernardino. The attacks have brought out the best and worst in humanity. Achmad, who lived in Rhode Island on 9/11, recalled being spit on by one person and chased by another in a pickup. She stopped wearing her hijab in public at her fathers insistence because of the fear of reprisals. It was the worst thing, she recalls of going out bareheaded. I felt naked. She felt more confident after the recent attacks, continuing to wear her hijab in public. I am not taking this off, she says. I am innocent and I am American. All can go on about moments of discrimination. Yet they also have stories about those who have shown great compassion, total strangers who want to hug them, to show support. Maqbool talks about how scared she was to go out after San Bernardino. Then she saw her neighbor, a Christian minister, who asked if she was OK and that he was available to support her in any way. That was really sweet, she says. Of course, theyre aware of the political climate as the nation enters a presidential election year. They have heard candidates positions about Muslims. They believe most Americans and most residents in their communities recognize their faith as one of love, not hate. In this season of goodwill to all, that is what matters most. As they, and all of us, wonder whats going to happen, heres hoping and praying the new year will bring the peace and understanding we all seek. Contact the writer: carllove4@yahoo.com A man fatally shot two people and then turned the gun on himself at a cemetery in Ontario on Saturday, Jan. 2, police said. All three of the deceased were family through marriage, but late Saturday investigators were still sorting out how they were related and trying to determine the motive, Ontario police Sgt. Jeff Higbee said. Their names were not released. All three appeared to be in their 60s, police said. UPDATE: Shooter, victims identified The shooting was reported just after 3 p.m. at Bellevue Memorial Park at 1240 W. G St., Higbee said. Three people a man and two women had gone to the cemetery to visit a family members grave, Higbee said. The gunman was waiting in his own vehicle nearby. When the three people reached the grave, the gunman got out of his vehicle and approached them, Higbee said. He quickly, with very few shots, killed the man and one of the women at close range. Just as quickly, he then shot himself, Higbee said. The other woman, whom police described as elderly and using a walker, was uninjured. Saturdays shooting is the Inland areas second murder-suicide in three days. Late on New Years Eve or early New Years Day, a woman and her ex-boyfriend were found dead in in Jurupa Valley in an apparent murder-suicide. Contact the writer: psurowski@pe.com, 951-368-9648, follow him on Twitter at @PeterSurowski and like him on Facebook. As the sun set in Palm Springs on Saturday, more Hollywood stars than could fit on the cover of a supermarket checkout magazine descended upon the Palm Springs International Film Festivals Awards Gala. But while the flashes popped as celebrities including Johnny Depp, Cate Blanchett and Matt Damon crossed the red carpet, SWAT vehicles surrounded the Palm Springs Convention Center, one of the visible markings of heightened security. Bomb-sniffing dogs went up and down the walkway in the hours before the celebrities entered, and fans hoping to catch a glimpse of the stars had to go through a metal detector as did attendees of the gala. Even the celebrities had to walk through before entering the ballroom, and there was a noticeable police presence throughout the building. Tonights gala is being held under unprecedented security, festival Chairman Harold Matzner said during the ceremony. Our goal is to keep everyone safe. He said there was no specific threat to the event that attracts Hollywoods brightest stars. The gala starts the buzz of awards season each year, the honors coming just a week before the Golden Globes and 12 days before Oscar nominations are announced. During the past three years, 28 of the galas 31 honorees subsequently were nominated for an Academy Award, Matzner told the crowd. Among the talent getting big nods Saturday were Depp, who was given the desert palm achievement award, actor, for his performance as gangster James Whitey Bulger in Black Mass; Brie Larson, honored with the breakthrough performance award for her depiction of a woman held captive in Room; and Blanchett, who received the desert palm achievement award, actress, for her portrayal of a 1950s-era lesbian in Carol. I think it struck a really compassionate chord in that its about falling in love irrespective of your gender or sexual persuasion, Blanchett said on the red carpet. Director Todd Haynes has made such an exquisite, beautiful, heartrending film, but its still sort of dangerous, I think, and surprising for people. The cast of The Big Short, a wry take on the mammoth housing and credit crisis of 2008, won the ensemble performance award. When you get actors this good, whether known names or just actors that are up-and-coming, you are definitely spoiled as director, but at the same time you want to put them through their paces, director Adam McKay said. Stars Christian Bale and Steve Carell were among the cast members in attendance, as was Finn Wittrock. The cast was sort of unbelievable, Wittrock said. I see the breakdown of the list of like all those actors and to see yourself on the same list, its really kind of overwhelming. It still doesnt quite feel totally real, even though Im here getting an award with everybody. Director Tom McCarthy received the Sonny Bono visionary award, named for the entertainer who once served as the citys mayor and the festivals founding father, for his work with Spotlight, a film about how journalists at The Boston Globe unearthed a sex scandal in the Catholic Church. The journalists on the Spotlight investigative team were portrayed by actors including Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams and Mark Ruffalo. Most of these actors spent a lot of time with their real-life counterparts. I think they really took their cue from them and sensed the seriousness of their work and their collaborative effort, McCarthy said. And in a sense, the Spotlight team was its own ensemble. The hundreds of fans who had lined up by Saturday afternoon, including some who had been camping out since Friday morning, didnt mind the extra security. Karin McLeer of Palm Springs said she loves the energy the film fest brings to town. This is like the first awards (show of the year), so a lot of these people will be the people you see at the Golden Globes and at the Oscars as the winners, McLeer said. The stars havent been burned out on the awards circuit yet. Theyre fresh, said Robert Ramiada of Redlands, who had been in line since about 8 a.m. Saturday to see Johnny Depp. Its a different vibe, too, McLeer said. Here in Palm Springs, were a little bit more laid-back than in L.A. The film festival, which kicked off Friday, runs through Jan. 11, with a best-of-the-fest program. Contact the writer: vfranko@pressenterprise.com or jiyer@pressenterprise.com As if commuting along Highway 91 wasnt challenging enough, more obstacles will confront drivers in the next few weeks thanks to construction projects. Downtown Riverside commuters may temporarily have new traffic headaches to contend with starting Monday night, when a key 91 freeway off-ramp is closed for nearly two weeks. The eastbound 14th Street exit ramp will be closed at 10 p.m. Monday, Jan. 4, through 7 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 16, so road crews can finish realigning the ramp as part of the project to widen six miles of the highway between Adams Street and the 91/60/215 interchange in Riverside, according to a California Department of Transportation news release. Caltrans officials advise drivers to use alternate freeway exits at Central Avenue or University Avenue during the closure. City officials are using social media to alert drivers to the closure, which will have a significant impact during that time, city spokesman Phil Pitchford said. The 14th Street off-ramp of the freeway is a major entry point into downtown for a lot of people who work and visit downtown, he said. The ramp closure is likely to increase traffic on Magnolia Avenue between Central Avenue and downtown, he added. There is some good news in the area. Nearby Ivy Street Bridge reopened over the freeway Wednesday, Dec. 30. Ivy Street Bridge was demolished Aug. 16, 2014, and rebuilt to fit the widened freeway, said Caltrans spokeswoman Tyeisha Prunty. Caltrans officials think nearby alternate exits will help prevent traffic congestion. We dont expect it to be a major impact. There are other off-ramps that can be used, Prunty said. Farther west in Corona, the Riverside County Transportation Commissions 91 project will prompt closures of southbound lanes of Interstate 15 at the 15/91 interchange between Monday and Friday. The roadway will close at 10 p.m. each day and reopen by 5 a.m. the next morning. Caltrans officials are recommending motorists take the I-15 connector to eastbound 91, exit at McKinley Street, and then enter the westbound 91 to reconnect to southbound 15. Crews will be placing temporary support for the construction of a bridge that will serve as the new express lane connector between the 15 and 91. Over the past year, ramp closures along the 91 have severely limited access to the freeway in Corona. Earlier this month, the east and westbound 91 Grand Boulevard off-ramps closed permanently, and project officials say the Maple Street off-ramp will remain closed until at least the end of January. The 91 expansion project, a $1.4 billion addition of two tolled express lanes and one regular lane in an 11-mile stretch through Corona, is expected to be finished in early 2017. For now, the area is stuck with narrowed lanes and an uptick in crashes in an area known as the Corona squeeze. The three-year undertaking aims to prepare for a 50-percent jump in traffic over the next 20 years, Riverside County Transportation Commission studies show. Staff writer Patrick ONeill contributed to this report. Contact the writer: 951-368-9444 or shurt@pressenterprise.com CORRECTION: Emad Rezkalla is the owner of M&V Smoke Shop in Lake Elsinore. A previous version of this story had an incorrect spelling of his name. Since a Lake Elsinore smoke shop started selling lottery tickets about three weeks ago, one customer has been coming in every day and buying $25 worth of tickets. His gamble paid off big time this weekend. A ticket sold at the M&V Smoke Shop at 32295 Mission Trail hit the $7 million jackpot in the Saturday, Jan. 2 drawing. It matched all six numbers: 43-10-21-29-39 and the Mega number 24, according to a news release from the California Lottery. Shop owner Emad Rezkalla, 57, said he was ecstatic when he found out he had sold such a large winner. Im so happy for one of my customers that this is going to change his life to a better life, he said in a telephone interview. The customer came back to the store Sunday to tout his success. I saw the guy today, employee Fady Saad, 20, said Sunday afternoon. He wanted a free cigar as celebration. Rezkalla and Saad didnt know the customers name. A news release from the California Lottery said the winner had not yet come forward. Lotto officials urged the winner to sign the back of the ticket in ink, keep it in a very safe place and visit a lottery district office as soon as possible. It took Saad a while to believe that the store had actually sold such a large winner. I have a lady on the phone telling me, Youve got a winner of $7 million,' he said. And I thought, She must have the wrong store.' Rezkalla was equally surprised when Saad broke the news to him over the phone. He said, No youre playing,' Saad said, laughing. I said, No, this is for real. I got a call from a lady on the phone today.' Rezkalla said he is excited the store will be receiving $35,000 retailers earn 0.5 percent of any winning tickets they sell and has some plans on what to do with some of the money. We think its going to help my family and help my kids in college, Rezkalla said, adding that the funds could go a long way toward such things as books and tuition. This was the third SuperLotto Plus drawing in a row in which someone hit the big jackpot. A Hermosa Beach resident won $27 million on Dec. 26, and four days later a San Marcos resident won $7 million, according to the lottery news release. Staff writer Anne Millerbernd contributed to this report. Oh, America. Land of the free, home of the brave, birthplace of like, at least 75% of the worlds gun-toting protestors. Read this sentence, and remember this is something thats really happening in a fully-developed, democratic nation: hundreds of dictionary-definition terrorists armed militiamen have overtaken federal offices in the state of Oregon, and theyre pledged to stay there for years. Expectation: Reality: Sign posted by local #Burns residents telling the right-wing Bundy terrorists to leave their town. #OregonFightsBack pic.twitter.com/o4NmcmPC8S Michael Oman-Reagan (@OmanReagan) January 3, 2016 The story goes like this: two Oregonian ranchers were convicted by the Feds of arson on their own land, and were sentenced to 5 years imprisonment. They were set to report for their terms on Monday. The Bundy clan, a bunch of self-proclaimed freedom fighters from Nevada, werent too keen on the U.S government getting their noses into the supposedly local issue, and headed north to protest the ranchers imminent lock-up. The Bundys met up with some other militiamen in a peaceful protest. Events transpired. Perhaps they all got a little too hopped-up on the sight of so many firearms. Next thing you know, theyre occupying the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters. In a video posted to Facebook medium of choice for all self-appointed freedom fighters one of the Bundy boys said theyre hoping to free up their land and resources were the point of the spear thats going to bring confidence to the rest of the people. Were calling people to come out here and stand. Oh, he also tells em to bring their arms. Natch. Here it is. Please know these men will speak to people civilly. Do not go up there guns blazing. Stay safe and smart. Posted by Sarah Dee Spurlock on Saturday, 2 January 2016 According to The Oregonian, the group arent exactly averse to violence, if need be: they havent looked past the option of actually using all of those guns if authorities force them to move on. Of course, all of this comes just a few days after details of President Barack Obamas new I-am-so-sick-of-this-shit gun control measures leaked out. Perhaps the militiamen will retreat after accepting the overwhelming irony of mobilising patriots from around the nation to protest in favour of local independence, but whatevs. _(?)_/ With any luck, everyone can get out of this one without any triggers being pulled on either side of the dispute. Maybe those Bundy yahoos will encounter an actual well-regulated militia: the Oregon National Guard. Alex Horton (@AlexHortonTX) January 3, 2016 Story: RT. Photo: Twitter. It wouldnt be easy bringing a harrassment claim against your employer. Itd be even harder if your boss is a sitting Liberal frontbencher. Add in the fact said Minister sent a photo of you around to his colleagues after receiving your complaint? Well, thats just shithouse. Yet embattled former minister for Cities and the Built Environment Jamie Briggs did just that. Of course, because this is an #Auspol story, you best believe those photos were leaked to the media, constituting a pretty substantial breach of privacy. Unions representing the still-unnamed staffer say the eventual publication of a (pixelated) photo in News Limited papers is flat-out disgraceful. The ABC reports the Community and Public Sector Unions Michael Tull said its never easy for a person who works in the public sector to raise inappropriate behaviour, especially when a politician is involved, which is why we need genuine protections for people who do make complaints. FWIW, details of her university degree, age and title were also printed, cause obviously. Briggs himself is copping a bollocking from some heavyhitters in the political sphere too, adding credence to the idea that he really dun goofed on this one. Very disappointed to hear reports Sacked minister Briggs is victimising his victim. Very poor form. Paul Bongiorno (@PaulBongiorno) January 3, 2016 It is genuinely shocking that #briggs thought it appropriate to forward pictures from his phone AFTER the story had broken. #auspol PatriciaKarvelas (@PatsKarvelas) January 3, 2016 Briggs admits distributing photo of female DFAT officer to colleagues but cant understand how it ended up in the @australian Oh really? Craig Emerson (@DrCraigEmerson) January 2, 2016 Just when you thought Jamie Briggs couldnt be a bigger idiot: Briggs admits sharing photo of public servant https://t.co/Lf5GD3svo5 Kristina Keneally (@KKeneally) January 2, 2016 Its not yet known who exactly squirreled the pictures out, but theyre just as culpable as Briggs for this whole deal. Mix this one up with the latest news about Peter Duttons misinformation about Abyan, and its been a shit opening to 2016 for the Turnbull government. Still, it could be worse: they could have had their privacy breached after bringing a legitimate harassment claim to light. Story: ABC. Photo: Stefan Postles / Getty / Twitter. Residents pile ruined furniture, appliances and clothes along the street for disposal crews to pick up after last week's flooding from the south fork of the Sangamon River, Sunday, Jan. 3, 2016, in Kincaid, Ill. Gov. Bruce Rauner toured flood-damaged homes Sunday in the 1,400-resident central Illinois town. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman) 25 2021 - 200 ! . ( ) , Cookies . cookies. One of the State Departments newly-released Hillary Clinton emails comes from Neera Tanden, President of the far-left Center for American Progress. In May 2012, near the end of President Obamas first term, Tanden told Hillary about a conversation with George Soros: The Democracy Alliance is the left-wing billionaires and millionaires club that we wrote about here and elsewhere. It is interesting that Soros, along with Tom Steyer the Lefts principal money man, regretted his decision to support Obama for the presidency. Of course, on the basis of Tandens email, it appears that Soross remorse wasnt due to a realization that Obama is a terrible president, but rather to his own lack of access. With Hillary, on the other hand, he can always call/meet with you on an issue of policy. That sums up Hillarys candidacy in a nutshell: just as far left as Barack Obama, but more corrupt! Watch for it on bumper stickers. The Sunni-Shia schism goes back more than a millenium and has been a more or less constant feature of geopolitics in the Middle East for a long time. The closest the balance has come to being upset within recent memory was the Iran-Iraq war, in which the United States sensibly did what we could to prevent either side from winning. Now, though, the long-simmering feud is heating up, primarily, I think, because of Irans growing military ascendancy. The latest manifestation is Saudi Arabias simultaneous execution of 47 men by beheading or firing squad in prisons across the country. The 47 were executed for terrorism, mostly on the basis of being members of al Qaeda. But one of those killed was Shia cleric Nimr Al-Nimr, whom the Saudi government arrested in 2012. Al-Nimrs execution prompted protests in Iran that were reminiscent of the seizure of the U.S. embassy in 1979. Irans mullahs warned Saudi Arabia that it would pay a high price for executing al-Nimr. The Telegraph reports: An angry crowd has stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran following the execution of prominent Shia Muslim cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr on Saturday. The mob hurled petrol bombs at the building before being cleared by police. Pictures on social media showed that some protesters forced their way into the embassy, smashing furniture and starting a fire which was swiftly extinguished. According to the ISNA, the Iranian Students News Agency, some demonstrators reached the roof of the embassy before being cleared. There were also reports that the Saudi consulate in Mashhad, Irans second largest city, had been set alight. We generally think of demonstrators as opponents of the government, but that isnt necessarily true. (Occupy Wall St., for example, was basically an inept arm of the ruling Democratic Party.) Here, as in 1979, those who stormed the Saudi embassy were doing the Iranian governments bidding. Note how the mob threw fire bombs at the Saudi embassy and forced their way into the embassy, but then were cleared by police. Likewise, they were allowed to start a fire that was then swiftly extinguished. I am pretty sure that if Irans government wanted to protect the Saudi embassy, it could do so. Saudi Embassy in Tehran getting the kind of attention the U.S. Embassy used to. pic.twitter.com/YBA3qs1Ewg ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) January 2, 2016 Some sources say that the interior of the Saudi embassy was destroyed by the fire, but this may prove to be an exaggeration. Here is another photo of the protest in progress, and the Saudi embassy in flames: Demonstrations were not limited to Iran. This photo is of Saudi women in the coastal city of Qatif, which is mostly Shia: This video apparently shows Shia demonstrators in faraway Kashmir: Of course, the United States is not responsible for everything that goes wrong in the world. The Middle East, in particular, is more than capable of bringing about disaster on its own. But it is hard to observe these events without wondering what Barack Obama was thinking when he decided to build Iran up as a regional hegemon, to seek an alliance with the mullahs, to release more than $100 billion in frozen assets to Irans government, to rescue Irans economy by procuring the end of sanctions, to bless and protect Irans ongoing nuclear program while posing no meaningful obstacle to the mullahs development of missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons to the United States, as well as to Europe. I dont know how to reconcile these policies with a good faith intention to pursue peace in the Middle East or to advance the national security interests of the United States. But, hey, we elected Obama twice. What reason did we have to expect anything better? Yesterdays Wall Street Journal carries an incisive editorial (The mullahs thank Mr. Obama, accessible here via Google) on developments with the Islamic Republic of Iran. Every step along the way, Iran proves itself the mortal enemy of the United States, and yet President Obama thinks otherwise. Iranian intentions are clear. Their actions comport with their announced view of the world. When the mullahs chant Death to America, we have no ground for believing they dont mean it. No ground, that is, other than wishful thinking. As John put it, it is difficult to reconcile Obama administration policies strengthening the Iranian regime with a good faith intention to pursue peace in the Middle East or to advance the national security interests of the United States. We can only infer that Obamas highly ideologized view of the world is immune to experience. The Journals editorial provides this handy summary of current complexities: The U.S. and United Nations both say Iran is already violating U.N. resolutions that bar Iran from testing ballistic missiles. Iran has conducted two ballistic-missile tests since the nuclear deal was signed in July, most recently in November. The missiles seem capable of delivering nuclear weapons with relatively small design changes. The White House initially downplayed the missile tests, but this week it did an odd flip-flop on whether to impose new sanctions in response. On Wednesday it informed Congress that it would target a handful of Iranian companies and individuals responsible for the ballistic-missile program. Then it later said it would delay announcing the sanctions, which are barely a diplomatic rebuke in any case, much less a serious response to an arms-control violation. Under the nuclear accord, Iran will soon receive $100 billion in unfrozen assets as well as the ability to court investors who are already streaming to Tehran. Sanctioning a few names is feckless by comparison, and Iran is denouncing even this meager action as a U.S. violation of the nuclear deal. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani responded to the sanctions reports on Thursday by ordering his defense minister to accelerate Irans missile program. Your move, Mr. Obama. Opponents of the nuclear accord predicted this. Mr. Obama says the deal restricts Iranian action, but it does far more to restrict the ability of the U.S. to respond to Iranian aggression. If the U.S. takes tough action in response to Irans missile tests or other military provocations, Iran can threaten to stop abiding by the nuclear deal. It knows the world has no appetite for restoring serious sanctions, and that Mr. Obama will never admit his deal is failing. The mullahs view the accord as a license to become more militarily aggressive. Further proof came Wednesday when U.S. Central Command acknowledged that Iranian Revolutionary Guard vessels last week fired several rockets that landed within 1,500 yards of the aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman. A Revolutionary Guard spokesman Thursday denied the incident but a day earlier the semiofficial Tabnak news agency quoted an unnamed Iranian official as saying the rockets were launched to warn the U.S. Navy away from a forbidden zone in the Persian Gulf. The Strait of Hormuz is one of the worlds most heavily trafficked waterways, and the USS Truman carrier group has every right to sail there. By any measure the rocket launch was a hostile act that could have resulted in American casualties. This follows Irans arrest in October of Iranian-American businessman Siamak Namazi, who according to Iranian media reports is being held in Evin Prison though no charges have been filed. The reports suggest that Mr. Namazi is suspected of spying because he is one of the World Economic Forums Young Global Leaders. Thats the dangerous outfit that sponsors the annual gabfest in Davos. Iran has also shown its gratitude for the nuclear deal by convicting Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian on absurd charges of espionage. The Iranian-American has been held for more than 500 days. The White Houses media allies are blaming all of this on Iranian hard-liners who are supposedly trying to undermine President Rouhani for having negotiated the nuclear deal. Memo to these amateur Tehranologists: The hard-liners run Iran. The American people should know that we have sustained a defeat without a war, the consequences of which will travel far with us along our road. Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes renders his deep thoughts via Twitter (below). In the annals of inanity, this is Hall of Fame material. Make that #chumpchange. The question all but answers itself, I should think. Heres why its being asked: On September 14, 2012, at a memorial service for the victims of the Benghazi attacks, Hillary Clinton spoke with members of the victims families. At least three of these people say that Clinton talked about the alleged role in the attack of a video produced by Nakoula Basseley Nakoula. Charles Woods, the father of former Navy SEAL Tyrone Woods, says that Clinton blamed the video and even told him that she was going to have Nakoula arrested. Nakoula was, in fact, arrested. Similarly, Kate Quigley, the sister of Glen Doherty, says that Clinton told her the video was to blame. She knows that she knew what happened that day and she wasnt truthful, Quigley insists. Finally, Patricia Smith, mother of Sean Smith, also insists that Clinton said the attack was because of the video. She has repeatedly accused Clinton of lying. Clinton, however, denies saying anything about the video to these family members. During an editorial board meeting with The Conway (N.H.) Daily Sun, Clinton was asked about an interview she recently had with ABC News George Stephanopoulos in which she denied that she told family members of the Benghazi victims during a Sept. 14, 2012 memorial service at Andrews Air Force Base that the film Innocence of Muslims was the catalyst for the attack. . . . Daily Sun columnist Tom McLaughlin pressed Clinton on the conflicting claims. Somebody is lying, McLaughlin said during the editorial meeting. Who is it? Not me, thats all I can tell you, Clinton replied. But there are good reasons to conclude that it is Clinton who is lying. First, its three against one. Woods, Quigley, and Smith all say that Clinton blamed the video. Are all of them lying? Second, Woods, Quigley, and Smith have no reason to make up a story about what Clinton told them. What does it get them? Clinton, by contrast, has an excellent reason falsely to deny what they say. By September 14, the blame-the-video narrative had fallen apart. Indeed, we know that Hillary herself never bought it, having told her daughter that this was a terrorist attack. That she nonetheless peddled the narrative to close relatives of the Benghazi victims is hugely embarrassing, and indeed disgraceful, especially for a presidential candidate. Hence, the need to deny that she peddled it. Third, Hillary was publicly talking about the video the day before the service for the victims, and on other days shortly before and after. On September 13, she denounced the video as disgusting and reprehensible, and added but as I said yesterday, there is no justification, none at all, for responding to this video with violence. This statement certainly implies that, in her view, the violence of September 11 was a response to the video. Three days after making these comments (and two days after the memorial service), Susan Rice, appearing on four networks, blamed the video for the Benghazi violence. That same day, Clinton aide Jake Sullivan sent her an email about Rices appearances. Far from disagreeing with Rices explanation of the Benghazi attacks, Sullivan said that Rice did make clear our view that this started spontaneously and then evolved. Given Team Clintons embrace of the blame-the-video narrative on September 12, 13, and 16, its easy to credit the accounts of three witnesses who say Hillary also embraced it on September 14. Fourth, Hillary Clinton has a long record of dishonesty. Twenty years ago, as Jonah Goldberg reminds us, William Safire wrote: Americans of all political persuasions are coming to the sad realization that our first lady a woman of undoubted talents who was a role model for many in her generation is a congenital liar. Since then, this realization has been reinforced repeatedly. So in case my initial question didnt answer itself, for these four reasons it seems obvious that the person who is lying about what Hillary Clinton said to the Benghazi victims family members is Hillary Clinton. The Hausa film industry, Kannywood, recorded successes and also witnessed some hard times in 2015. Below are major events (the good, the bad, the ugly and the sorrowful) that transpired in 2015 in the Kannywood industry. The Good The good things that happened in the Kannywood industry in 2015 include the technical advancement of production techniques, introduction of new equipment in film making and improvement of movie story lines. Movies like Gwaska, Hindu, Halacci, Indon Kauye, Garejin Hassan, Sa-In-Sa, So, Salma and Rumfar Shehu personify some of these improvements. Another good news in the industry was the introduction for the first time of the Kannywood category in the African Movie Awards in London were Ali Nuhu, Adam Zango and Rahama Sadau all won awards in the 2015 event. The return of movies to the cinema was also a big relief from piracy for movie producers. Falalu Dorayi, a film producer, said, There is no better way to deal with piracy than returning to the cinemas. Once we release a movie we allow it for some time in the cinemas just like it is done worldwide, then release it to the market. That will lessen the huge loss we do experience. Another highlight in 2015 for Kannywood was the emergence of Umma Shehu. While many actors and actresses won awards in their 20th or 30th movie appearances, Umma Shehus first appearance in the movie Sa-In-Sa won her the 2015 City People Best new actress award in the Kannywood Category. She was celebrated as one who broke a record in the industry. Umma Shehu has made the Industry proud. She was relatively new and in her first big budget film, Sa-In-Sa, she acted well and even won herself an award in Lagos. She actually was a good news for the industry in 2015, Hassana Dalhat, a movie promoter, said. The Bad One recurring issue that has continued to affect Kannywood negatively is piracy of movies. Movie producers lose millions of naira to pirates every year despite the efforts of regulatory agencies. According to Dorayi, Kannywood movie producers considered suspending release of new movies in 2015 due to the effect of piracy.. Another producer, Wash Hong, blamed marketers for the piracy problem. While some marketers encourage piracy, some directly participate in it, he said. They will collect copies of your movies for sale and subsequently they will print many more and sell at your expense. Whenever the filmmaker returns to collect his payment they would keep telling him that his film is not selling while it is all over the market and in homes. As a film maker, I have reported many cases to the police and we have made some arrests especially on films I produce, he said. Apart from piracy, another problem Kannywood had in 2015 is the poor pay of production crew members The ugly The ugliest event that happened in the industry in 2015 was the altercation between Adam Zango and Rahama Sadau which virtually split the industry into two camps: the Ali Nuhu Camp and the Adam Zango faction. In a post on her Instagram page, Rahama Sadau an actress, alleged that Adam Zango offered her a role in a new movie on the condition that she dated him. She said she lost the role after rejecting his advances. However, Adam Zango denied ever offering Rahama Sadau a role in exchange for a relationship. I only invited her to come and act alongside me in a movie Im producing. I heard from a colleague how terrible she can be on location. She will never listen, not to even her director and she feels very haughty. And that is why I substituted her for another actress, he said. The intervention of elders in the industry ensured the resolution of the crisis which could have degenerated considering the prominent parties involved. The sorrowful The death of Hafsat sharada (Mai Aya) brought tears to the eyes of many Kannywood fans. She died in December after a brief illness. Mai Aya will be remembered in Kannywood for her acting skills and the several times she played the role of a mother in movies. The United States said on Saturday it is deeply disappointed that President Paul Kagame has announced his intention to run for a third term in office. The spokesperson for that countrys Department of State, an equivalent of Nigerias foreign ministry, said with his decision to take a third shot at the Rwandan presidency, President Kagame ignores an historic opportunity to reinforce and solidify the democratic institutions the Rwandan people have for more than twenty years laboured so hard to establish. The statement by John Kirby added, The United States believes constitutional transitions of power are essential for strong democracies and that efforts by incumbents to change rules to stay in power weaken democratic institutions. We are particularly concerned by changes that favour one individual over the principle of democratic transitions. As Rwanda moves toward local elections this year, presidential elections next year, and parliamentary elections in 2018, we call upon the Government of Rwanda to ensure and respect the rights of its citizens to exercise their freedom of expression, conscience, and peaceful assembly the hallmarks of true democracies. The United States remains committed to supporting the free and full participation of the Rwandan people in the electoral processes ahead. Mr. Kagame recently instigated a constitutional change in his country which cleared him to run for a third term of office. The adjustment of the presidential term rules was done despite the unfolding political crisis in neighbouring Burundi. At least 200 people have died and tens of thousands have left the country after months of violence and protests since President Pierre Nkurunziza declared he would seek a third term in office, which he then won in a contested vote in July. Mr. Nkurunziza, a former Hutu rebel leader, became Burundis first democratically elected president after its civil war, but is now reluctant to leave power. In a touch of irony, Mr. Kagame recently gave a speech pointedly critical of Mr. Nkurunziza, saying he was allowing his people to die. No one knows where he is, no one can talk to him, how he leads his people, people are dying every day, dead bodies are being dragged on the streets every day, Mr. Kagame said. In October, Congo Republic voted in a referendum which cleared its 72-year old President, Denis Sassou Nguesso, to legally stand for a third consecutive term in next years election. In October 2014, Burkina Fasos leader of 27 years was toppled, amid violent protests as he made to stay put in office. Hunters in Borno State on Sunday called on the military to allow them join the war against insurgents in Sambisa Forest, the News Agency of Nigeria reports. Mai-Gana Mai-Durma, the Borno Emir of the Hunters, made the appeal in Maiduguri while addressing journalists. Mr. Mai-Durma said that the call became imperative because the hunters were familiar with the terrain at the dreaded forest, the hideout and operational base of the terrorists. We are appealing to the military authorities to allow us join the fight against Boko Haram at the Sambisa forest. We are ready to pursue the terrorists because we know the terrain very well, Mr. Mai-Durma said. He said that the military should align them with members of the vigilante group, popularly known as the Civilian JTF, for effective result. We will overrun Sambisa in partnership with members of the civilian JTF if given the opportunity. This will help to complement the effort of military in the anti terrorism operation, Mr. Mai-Durma said. He lamented that hunters from the 27 local government areas of the state had been rendered idle by the Boko Haram terrorism. Hunters from all the 27 Borno LGAs are all in Maiduguri with our leaders doing nothing at present because of Boko Haram. Rather than idling away, we will want to assist the military in crushing Boko Haram terrorists, Mr. Mai-Durma said. He also appealed to the Shehu of Borno, Abubakar Ibn Garbai, to assist in forwarding the request to the military authorities for consideration. The Boko Haram insurgency has caused the death of about 20,000 people since 2009. The federal government recently announced that it had recovered all Nigerian territory formerly controlled by the terrorists. (NAN) A total of 577 drug suspects were arrested by the Lagos and Murtala Muhammed Airport Commands of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, in 2015. The Lagos State Commander of the NDLEA, Aliyu Sule, and his Airport Command counterpart, Garba Ahmadu, spoke with journalists in Lagos on Sunday on the arrests. According to the commanders, 438 drug suspects were apprehended by the Lagos command, while the airport command apprehended 139 suspects during the period. Mr. Sule said a total of 7315 kilograms of various drugs was seized by officials of his command during the period. He said that the breakdown showed that Cannabis accounted for 7313. 06 kilograms, Heroin, 413.5 grams, and Cannabis Sativa, 480 grams. The state commander, however, noted that there was a drop in the number of arrests made in 2015, compared to previous years. According to him, the NDLEA Lagos command, between 2011 and 2012, made a seizure of drugs between 10 tonnes and eight tonnes, compared to the seven tonnes in 2015. Mr. Sule said the decline was as a result of proactive measures put in place by the command to monitor and apprehend drug suspects at their hideouts. He appealed to Nigerians to cooperate with the NDLEA, pointing out that the war against drug trafficking was a collective responsibility. On his part, Ahmadu, the NDLEA Airport commander, said out of the 139 suspects apprehended by officers of his command, 119 were male while 20 were female. Mr. Ahmadu said that the number of suspects arrested in 2014 was 129. He attributed the increase in 2015 to training of officers and increased awareness that enabled them to uncover tricks used by traffickers. According to him, the command made a seizure of 590.9 kilograms of illicit drugs in 2015, and had no fewer than 155 cases pending before the Federal High Court. He said 17 convictions had been recorded. Mr. Ahmadu said traffickers were arrested concealing drugs in bags, shoes, injections and tomato paste among others. The commander said the agency was ready to foil the nefarious activities of drug traffickers in order to protect Nigerias image. (NAN) Some female lawyers in Abuja have advised the Federal Government to create rape crisis centres, counselling service and other victims assistance agency as measures to address the menace of rape. The lawyers gave the advice in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria on Sunday in Abuja. They noted that the creation of such institutions would help in addressing the high rate of rape and its attendant effects on the victims. A lawyer, Chinelo Oputa, said rape incidents were increasing in different parts of the country and there was an urgent need for government to assist the victims. Ms. Oputa said that effective and well managed crisis centres and counselling units would help the rape victims learn how to cope with the emotional trauma and physical impacts of the assault. The lawyer identified impunity as a major factor for the high rate of rape cases. She said reported cases of rape were, in most cases, not properly investigated before charging suspects to court resulting in letting the suspects off the hook or giving them light punishments. Ms. Oputa said this accounted for many offenders to see rape as a joy ride and therefore encouraged to keep perpetrating the crime. She urged the police to conduct proper investigations when cases of rape were brought to them and ensure that the perpetrators pay dearly for their crime. She said rape is a very serious crime and the offender must be made to face the full weight of the law. Despite the prevalence of rape and violence cases, offenders are neither arrested nor prosecuted. Even when arrest is made, prosecutors are often reluctant to take on such cases seriously, she said. Another Abuja-based female lawyer, Oluwaseye Odediran, said that most rape victims in the country lived with the trauma because of lack of counselling. She said some of them develop phobia for men and see all opposite sex as evil. Investigations and researches have shown that many rape victims get involved in homosexual and detest marriage if there is no adequate counselling, she said. Ms. Odediran said government could partner with relevant Non-Governmental Organisations in setting up crisis centres and counselling units. Also speaking on causes of rape, the lawyer identified poor parenting as a key factor. Many parents are no longer paying adequate attention to their kids; not knowing the whereabouts of their children and who could abuse them if there is an opportunity. Parents should be sensitive to those picking and dropping their children at schools, she said. She added that parents should watch out for those who have access to their children and who could abuse them. Ms. Odediran also said that rape victims should be encouraged to report the crimes instead of keeping it to themselves. According to her, some parents prefer keeping rape and other sexual abuse incidents involving their children or relatives to themselves thereby allowing the perpetrators to go scot-free. She said that those parents believed that reporting such cases to the authorities would expose the victims to stigmatisation and affect them psychologically. Sexual violence is a serious social problem that deserved serious attention and all hands must be on deck to ensure that the perpetrators of this violence should be prosecuted, she said. Temitope Femi noted that sensitisation, especially of young girls, to indecent dressing could also reduce the high level of rape incidents. Young girls nowadays dress in such a way that some parts of their bodies are not covered. They dress exposing their bodies and that can also attract men who cannot control themselves into raping them, said Femi. She stressed that government should assist in organising sensitisation programmes in communities and schools on rape, management of victims and what could be done to prevent the menace. (NAN) A former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, has sent a terse message to President Muhammadu Buhari, saying all hell will break loose if some high profile detainees in the country are harmed in any way. In a message posted on his Facebook page, Mr. Fani-Kayode said, President Buhari and his government should please take note of the following: Sheik Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, Colonel Sambo Dasuki and Mr. Nnamdi Kanu must NOT be beaten, tortured, poisoned or murdered whilst they are in your custody or else all hell will break loose. Mr. Dasuki, who is facing trial for allegedly diverting and sharing over $2.2 billion dollars meant for arms procurement for the anti-Boko Haram war, to politicians and cronies, was on Wednesday re-arrested by the State Security Service after he was granted bail by three different courts. Mr. Kanu, who is spearheading the quest for an independent nation of Biafra, was earlier granted bail by a Federal high Court sitting in Abuja, but he was also re-arrested by the SSS, which slammed a fresh charge of treasonable felony against him. Mr. El-Zakzaky, the leader of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria, is being held by the police after troops of the Nigerian Army killed a yet unknown number of his followers, and destroyed the organisations headquarters in Zaria. Speaking during his first presidential media chat at the presidential Villa in Abuja on Wednesday, Mr. Buhari said Mr. Dasuki and Mr. Kanu cannot be allowed to enjoy any form of freedom due to the enormity of their offences. He declined comment on Mr. El-Zakzaky, saying he would only do so after receiving reports of enquiries been conducted by the Army and the Kaduna State Government. Mr. Fani-Kayode recently wrote an open letter to President Buhari, accusing him of making contradictory and patently dishonest assertions. The former minister told the President, Your penchant for blaming your failings in this regard on the previous administration is simply nauseating and it does not serve you well. You continuously contradict yourself when it comes to this matter and frankly such flip flops are unworthy of the office that you presently occupy. We your subjects look up to you for consistency, strength, unequivocal commitment, a firm resolve and the leadership from the front that you promised during your presidential campaign in this war. We do not want and neither do we need doublespeak, lame excuses and buck-passing. The Nigeria Union of Teachers, NUT, in Kwara says primary school teachers in the state will embark on strike on Monday to protest the non-payment of their four months salary arrears. The Chairman of the union, Musa Abubakar, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Sunday in Kaiama, Kaiama Local Government Area of Kwara . The strike action will begin just when schools are expected to resume from their first term holiday. Mr. Abubakar said that the union could no longer guarantee industrial harmony in the state following the non-payment of their four months salary arrears. He said that the primary school teachers in the state had been loyal and dedicated to duty in spite of the failure of the government to pay them salaries for months. I want to believe they have tried. If the members of the National Assembly are not paid for four months, I doubt if you will see anybody in the red or green chambers. I recall in Oyo State, they were not paid for just two months and some House of Assembly members did not go to work. So for us to have worked for four months without pay, I think the teachers have tried and that is why we told the government that we cannot guarantee any industrial harmony again. We cannot guarantee any teacher going to class on Monday to teach with an empty stomach except the problem is addressed, he said. He explained that the union would start a sit-at-home strike action beginning on Monday to press home its demand. According to him, workers from other sectors will soon join in the strike action in the spirit of solidarity. The NUT leader criticised the state government for creating a dichotomy between primary schools teachers and their counterparts in the secondary schools. He said that a Supreme Court judgment in 2002 had made state governments responsible for the management and funding of primary schools in the country. It is just unfortunate that a situation like this revolves around primary school teachers in the country. I want to say without mincing words that if that trend should continue, the primary school system will soon collapse, the union leader stated. Mr. Abubakar, therefore, urged the state government to live up to its responsibilities by doing the right thing. Education is the key and the bedrock of our development particularly at the grassroots. If this trend is not checked, honestly, this country will run into a problem. So I would, therefore, urge the federal, state, and local governments to ensure that the ugly trend is checked, he said. He said that once that was done, the proliferation of private primary schools due to the publics loss of confidence in public schools would be checked. (NAN) Governor Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara did not participate in the local government election conducted in the 14 local government areas of the state on Saturday. The three senators and seven House of Representatives members from the state were also conspicuously absent at the election. The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the state`s Independent Electoral Commission, ZASIEC, did not announce the number of political parties expected to field candidates for the polls. Only the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, fielded candidates. A correspondent who monitored the poll in Gusau recalled that the PDP issued a statement on Friday that the party would not participate in the polls. The statement was signed by the state chairman of the party, Hassan Nasiha. The party hinged its decision to boycott the polls on the fact that it is challenging the victory of Governor Yari in the 2015 governorship election at the Supreme Court. Participating in the elections will amount to giving recognition to the leadership of the incumbent government in the state, Mr. Nasiha said. (NAN) Meanwhile, residents of Gusau Local Government Area have decried low turnout of voters during the election. A cross section of the residents told the News Agency of Nigeria on Saturday in Gusau that they were not aware of the election. Tony Adah, an engineer, told NAN that although he saw campaign posters, he was not sure of the date of the election. I woke up this morning to prepare for work when my neighbour told me about the election. Initially I thought that movement will be restricted, but to my surprise, people are moving around with their vehicles doing their usual business, he said. Marian Ibrahim, a businesswoman, also said she was not aware of the election as people were busy with their normal business activities. I just got to my shop where I do my business and I discovered that people are not participating in the election. It is possible the date of the election was not properly announced unlike the previous ones. The election is just for the sake of formality; everybody knows that the candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC) will win so there is no need to stress people, she said. Security personnel were seen manning various polling units early in the morning before officials of the state`s Independent Electoral Commission arrived with election materials. (NAN) The All Progressives Congress, APC, in Zamfara has explained why Governor Abdulaziz Yari and other key party figures did not participate in Saturdays local government elections in the state. Speaking with journalists in Talata-Mafara on Sunday, Sani Mono, the partys scribe in the state, said it was a deliberate move to ascertain the capacity of upcoming party chieftains to handle such critical election matter. They did not participate in the election because they wanted to see if they have successfully nurtured the partys upcoming leaders in the state, he said. The News agency of Nigeria reports that the governor and all national assembly members from the state were absent during the polls. The election was, however, boycotted by the main opposition party in the state, the Peoples Democratic Party. According to the party in a statement by its state chairman, Hassan Nasiha, the PDP would not participate in an election organised by a government it was challenging its credibility at the Supreme Court. The APC state secretary, however, chided the PDP, saying that its boycott of the local councils polls was because the PDP was afraid of defeat. (NAN) Structural reform to power China's stable growth: finance minister From:English.news.cn | 2016-01-03 01:31 BEIJING, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- The supply-side structural reform to improve all-factor productivity will help China gather future growth steam, according to the country's finance minister. Despite heavy downward economic pressure, the Chinese economy is still resilient with generally positive fundamentals and huge potential, Lou Jiwei, head of the Ministry of Finance wrote in the latest edition of the Qiushi Magazine, the flagship journal of the Communist Party of China Central Committee. Labor force and capital inputs were used to power a country's growth in the initial period, but post-industrial economic development will rely more on improvement of factors such as technology, management and labor force quality, Lou pointed out. The Chinese economy is facing headwinds from rising labor costs, falling marginal efficency of capital, high leverage ratio and old-fashioned mechanisms that inhibit the effective allocation of resources, Lou noted. To address these challenges, China is pushing ahead with supply-side reform featuring reducing overcapacity, destocking, deleveraging, reducing costs and shoring up weak growth areas to foster emerging growth engines, Lou wrote. Measures will be taken to promote reforms in state-owned enterprises, the fiscal and financial mechanisms, social welfare system, labor force market, science and technology management, land system and urbanization as well as agricultral modernization, Lou pointed out. Related: Spotlight: China's "supply-side structural reform" to boost new economy BEIJING, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) -- China's latest efforts in promoting "supply-side structural reform" is a timely strategy by the government to adapt to the current situation and open up new ways for economic development, overseas experts have said. As the world's second largest economy strives to sustain growth while the effectiveness of traditional demand-side policy support wanes, it is turning to the other side, the supply side, for new vitality.Full Story Spotlight: China's pro-growth moves to deepen structural reform, produce big dividends for global economy BEIJING, Dec. 24 (Xinhua) -- China's latest efforts to stimulate its economy by deepening structural reform will produce rich "dividends" shared within China's borders and across the world. While the effectiveness of traditional demand-side policy support lessens, the country is now turning to the other side for new growth vitality. Full Story Structural reforms stressed for steady growth in 2016 BEIJING, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- The central government will make fiscal policy more forceful and monetary policy more flexible to keep growth within a proper range in 2016, with an emphasis on structural reforms, an official statement showed Monday. The current proactive fiscal policy needs to be more forceful by cutting taxes and raising fiscal deficit ratio gradually, according to a statement released after the Central Economic Work Conference, which opened Friday to review China's economic performance in 2015 and map out plans for 2016. Full Story For the New World Order, a world government is just the beginning. Once in place they can engage their plan to exterminate 80% of the world's population, while enabling the "elites" to live forever with the aid of advanced technology. For the first time, crusading filmmaker ALEX JONES reveals their secret plan for humanity's extermination: Operation ENDGAME. Jones chronicles the history of the global elite's bloody rise to power and reveals how they have funded dictators and financed the bloodiest warscreating order out of chaos to pave the way for the first true world empire. Watch as Jones and his team track the elusive Bilderberg Group to Ottawa and Istanbul to document their secret summits, allowing you to witness global kingpins setting the world's agenda and instigating World War III. to Ottawa and Istanbul to document their secret summits, allowing you to witness global kingpins setting the world's agenda and instigating World War III. Learn about the formation of the North America transportation control grid, which will end U.S. sovereignty forever. Discover how the practitioners of the pseudo-science eugenics have taken control of governments worldwide as a means to carry out depopulation. View the progress of the coming collapse of the United States and the formation of the North American Union. Never before has a documentary assembled all the pieces of the globalists' dark agenda. Endgame's compelling look at past atrocities committed by those attempting to steer the future delivers information that the controlling media has meticulously censored for over 60 years. It fully reveals the elite's program to dominate the earth and carry out the wicked plan in all of human history. Endgame is not conspiracy theory, it is documented fact in the elite's own words. Another milestone achieved on behalf of the Arts community and the designers that set the trends. By: Fashion Umbrella Foundation Fashion Umbrella Foundation at NYFW Contact Fashion Umbrella Foundation ***@thefashionumbrella.org Fashion Umbrella Foundation End -- Since the beginning, the goal has been to provide artists and designers of the Arts community guidance with their fashion career. With this goal Baltimore Fashion Week was birthed. As a post-secondary showcasing level the Foundation, beginning September 2016 will provide real-estate for designers who have reached the development capability of creating retail ready looks.On September 9, 2016, the goal will be realized for the Fashion Umbrella Foundation with the production of its independent show. Designers during New York Fashion Week will present a 25-35 look collection in front of an audience of fashion industry professionals.The Fashion Umbrella Foundation along with its public relations firm has been in contact with industry professionals since August 2015. A national retailer has already confirmed its presence for the September 9designer showcase.Proceeds from the Fashion Umbrella Foundations fundraising events are equally allocated to its programs: Back-to-School:REFRESH - a program that replenishes exhausted school supplies for students in grades kindergarten through 6 grade; and the Educational Honors - a program that recognizes and awards students who remain focused in grades 7-12 grade for one school year.More information about the Fashion Umbrella Foundations programs and events visit the website: www.fashionumbrella.org The office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) has granted an exclusive trademark to the ECIPS and CYBERPOL today on the word CYBERPOL as CTM (Community trademark). By: CYBERPOL Contact World News Tomorrow ***@worldnewstomorrow.com World News Tomorrow End --The office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) has granted an exclusive trademark to the ECIPS and CYBERPOL today on the word CYBERPOL as CTM (Community trademark) also known as a European Union Trade Mark. The CYBERPOL filing number 014505473 accepted under Nice Classification 9, 25, 45 governed by the Paris Convention will make it illegal for any firm or government to use the name CYBERPOL in respect to Police Services as well as any IT Products, digital or cyber products not excluding products such as Clothing; Footwear; Hats; Headgear and Millinery.This will also make it essentially illegal for anybody to use the name of CYBERPOL without paying royalty fees to the lawful and rightful legal ownership which is the ECIPS.This is not the first CYBERPOL Trademark. In 2013, the ECIPS obtained the first CYBERPOL CIB (CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION BUREAU ) TM trademark under class 45 for policing service which essentially prevented any other law-enforcement organization the use of the name of CYBERPOL. This granted the ECIPS exclusivity and seniority right on the CYBERPOL CIB trademark that was granted as such the rights and obtained a further CTM during December 2015.This gives governments and any opposition the possibility to file position since mid this year but records shows that no such objections were received by any third parties and therefore legally has lost all legal rights to oppose the recognition of CYBERPOL as a policing organization.It seems that this got some governments on their back foot since they might have been using the name CYBERPOL illegally and as such could be facing infringement claims from the ECIPS European Centre for information policy and Security.Indeed a new powerhouse that has proven fact and is here to stay. Earlier this year, NATO made a publication whereas they proposed the creation of a CYBERPOL even though they were in talks with the Founders of CYBERPOL in 2014. It seems that everybody might be in a legal dilemma who has tried to use the word CYBERPOL and they have but only one choice and that's to join CYBERPOL.To make matters more exciting is that the CYBERPOL International Cyber Policing Organization was approved to be an International Cyber Policing organization by Royal Decree and the legal owners of the CYBERPOL IP granted exclusive rights to the CYBERPOL Cyber Policing organization AISBL for law-enforcement and policing services indicating that neither the state nor any private persons have the rights of control CYBERPOL other than the General Secretariat of the CYBERPOL Organizations International Public Utility itself.This is probably the largest single achievement by any individual or private organizations since the birth of the rule of law itself. It essentially gives the organization a superpower that can only be used in public interest and makes it impossible for any officials to interfere as they might face charges or investigations themselves.A turn of events I would say, as this is a great story untold and needs telling since CYBERPOL is here to protect your civil rights and to perform International Justice. The President of ECIPS Ricardo Baretzky said that CYBERPOL is not just an "International Cyber Policing Organization, but is an International Brand that is of value that the general public knows can be trusted.The majority of capital generated by the commercial side of the CYBERPOL brand will go to the cyber policing organizations part of the financial budged plan from 2016. It is estimated that other law-enforcement brands such as that of the FBI's commercial brand value by selling commercial products in Wal-Mart could be worth as much as $1.8 billion.Since the CYBERPOL brand is expected to have much longer life expectancy and wider international platform, it could be worth as much as 10 to 100 times more within the next 10 years some analysts predicts. One thing is sure, that if you use the CYBERPOL name or brand without permission of the both organizations, you are certain in accordance with the trademark laws of most countries to face at least a 50 000 fine and /or the jail time due to the double protection the CYBERPOL name has acquired on both sides of the Nice Classification under the protection of the Paris Convention in the protection of intellectual property. A good thing though, since you don't want illegal websites using the name of CYBERPOL promoting an illegal affiliation with CYBERPOL potentially selling misleading products.One of the CYBERPOL trademarks also includes the use for Quality Assurance. This is predicted to be a great tool since a clean business under CYBERPOL watchdog means a good and trustworthy business for everyone. Something that nobody has yet accomplished to make the web a safer place. It's expected that the QA service will go live early 2016 and cost as little as $95 in utility fees per year for SME's or privately owned websites.This is clear that Cyberpol has created a major competition among other law-enforcement agencies and others will have to consider joining the club "C" of CYBERPOL if they want this service or any other CYBERPOL services in future.CYBERPOL commercial brand will be managed by the ECIPS and IP owners. The brand certificate issued can be viewed on the following link of the OHIM.Referance: http://www.cyberpol.info/ cyberpol-ctm/ E-learning, education gamification, digital content in rich media, and use of the internet for education collaboration are encouraging learners and educators to use new learning models. By: Bharat Book Bureau Contact Sandhya nair ***@bharatbook.com Sandhya nair End --Education Technology Market report in Europe [2015-2019] ". Many governments in the EU region are adopting an open education policy to support the deployment of digital technology across European schools and universities.Market research analysts predict the education technology market to grow at a CAGR of over 10% from 2015 to 2019 (https://www.bharatbook.com/education-market-research-reports-741242/education-technology-europe.html). E-learning, education gamification, digital content in rich media, and use of the internet for education collaboration are encouraging learners and educators to use new learning models. These new models can be a combination of products and services within and across digital hardware, digital content, and digital software segments.The growing prevalence of devices such as interactive displays, tablets, adaptive devices, and education software used for imparting interactive digital content fosters the growth of this market.Education technology market in Europe by productSoftware and servicesHardwareMany governments in the EU region are adopting an open education policy to support the deployment of digital technology across European schools and universities. It has led to rapid growth of the software and services segment of this market, prompting several international vendors to develop software solutions based on specific requirements of educational institutes in Europe.Education technology market in Europe by end userPost-secondary institutesK-12 institutesIt is estimated that Europe will require one million additional researchers by the year 2020. To address this need, the region is expected to invest heavily in the post-secondary education segment to address issues concerning skill shortage and job readiness. With this, the education technology market in Europe by post-secondary institutes is predicted to reach over USD 33 billion by 2019.Education technology market in Europe by geographical segmentationWestern and Southern EuropeRest of EuropeWestern and Southern Europe is expected to experience slower growth as compared to the rest of Europe market. Owing to better technological facilities in developed countries of Western Europe, a significant number of schools and universities in that region have already benefited from transformation to digital classes.Leading vendor analysis of the education technology market in EuropeMicrosoftBlackboardDellDiscovery CommunicationEcho360IBMLenovoA surge in mobile learning presents a significant opportunity for the leading vendors of this market. The demand for simplified learning to address the needs of a dispersed audience propels the growth of this market. To capitalize on the market opportunity, service providers are expected to innovate with tools such as digital publications, collaboration tools, and authoring tools.Bharat Book Bureau is the leading market research information provider for market research reports, company profiles, industry analysis, country reports , business reports, newsletters and online databases Bharat Book Bureau provides over a million reports from more than 400 publishers around the globe. We cover sectors starting from Aeronautics to Zoology.In case the reports dont match your requirement then we can do a specialized Custom Research for you. Our multifarious capabilities, cross-sector expertise and detailed knowledge of various markets, put us in a unique position to take up Custom Research demands of yourself.ORContact us at :Bharat Book BureauTel: +91 22 27810772 / 27810773Email: info@bharatbook.comWebsite: www.bharatbook.comFollow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/researchbookFollow us on Linked In : http://www.linkedin.com/company/bharat-book-bureauOur Blog : https://www.bharatbook.com/blog/ The legindary board shaper Eric Arakawa is the subject of the latest episode of Surfer Life By: Surfer Life, LLC Contact Surfer Life ***@surferlife.com Surfer Life End -- Iconic surfboard shaper Eric Arakawa was the subject of the latest episode of Surfer Life Radio. Surfer Life co-producer Chris Wall joined Arakawa in his shaping room as they discussed Arakawa's increadible career beginnings. Arakawa recounts surf stories with surfing's Ambassador of Fun: Mason Ho. Arakawa also discusses the loss of his close friend, world champion surfer Andy Irons. When talking about the pros and cons of being a shaper, Arakawa tells us, "The wealth in this business is not in the profits its in the relationships"Eric know's full well that shaping is what he was made for. His love for what he does is made very clear in this engaging interview.Arakawa also tells Surfer Life, "I think Im at a real fun stage of my career its challenging but its a fun time. When Sunday comes around, Im chomping at the bit for Monday to come" DAV and RecruitMilitary will produce an All Veterans Career Fair at Vaughn Towers at Carter-Finley Stadium on Thursday, January 28, 2016. The event will run from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m. Activity at a DAV-RecruitMilitary All Veterans Career Fair Media Contact jkrabacher@recruitmilitary.com 513-677-7035 513-677-7035 End -- DAV and RecruitMilitary will produce an All Veterans Career Fair at Vaughn Towers at Carter-Finley Stadium on Thursday, January 28, 2016. The event will run from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m.RecruitMilitary job fairs maintain a track record of helping veterans find meaningful employment,said President and CEO Peter Gudmundsson, a former Captain in the Marine Corps. Just last year, 55% of veteran job seekers expected to secure an interview as a result of their participation in a RecruitMilitary job fair, and employers were expected to extend as many as 29,000 interviews and more than 9,000 job offers.In August of 2015, the DAV-RecruitMilitary Raleigh event connected more than 302 veteran job seekers with 44 exhibitors, including Apple, General Electric, Lockheed Martin, and Merck. Participating companies expected to conduct up to 309 interviews and make up to 77 job offers as a result of that career fair.RecruitMilitary has produced veteran job fairs since 2006, and has held 15 events in Raleigh, drawing 4,608 attendees and 418 exhibitors. The company has produced more than 814 events in 65 cities across the country. RecruitMilitary will return to Raleigh to host an additional veteran career fair in August.DAV was founded by World War I veterans in Cincinnati in 1920 and chartered by the United States Congress in 1932. DAV ( www.dav.org ) is a non-profit organization with 1.2 million members.DAV and RecruitMilitary share a common mission: to connect Americas veterans and their family members with meaningful and fulfilling employment opportunities, and to help employers attract, appreciate and retain veterans, spouses, and their survivors. Through career fairs, outreach and resources, this partnership fights to ensure veterans receive the benefits theyve earned and are empowered to lead productive, dignified and high-quality lives that their service has made possible.Among those companies attending the upcoming Raleigh event are DAV; Vinnell Arabia/Northrop Grumman; McKesson Corporation;Horne Brothers Construction, Inc.; Duke University Ophthalmic Medical Technician Program; Time Warner Cable; Nexeo Solutions; City of Raleigh; Hearst Television, Inc.; Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina; Heavy Equipment College of Georgia; Combined Insurance; Airstreams Renewables, Inc.; DW Evans Electric, Inc.; Waste Management; AAA Carolinas; ABB, Inc.; Farmers Insurance; First Command Financial Planning; G&W Equipment; Institute for Defense & Business; Liberty Mutual Insurance Group; My Computer Career; NetApp; New Horizons Computer Learning Centers, Inc.; Redstone College; State Farm Insurance; and The Art Institutes.RecruitMilitary also offers subscriptions (search licenses) to its database of 817,000+ registered candidates at http://www.recruitmilitary.com, job postings, targeted email campaigns, retained hiring services, and advertising space in online and print media. The company publishes, a bimonthly print and digital magazine; and distributes 50,000+ print copies of each issue. The company was founded in 1998, and is located in Loveland, Ohio (Greater Cincinnati). By: Joel the Writer LLC End -- Author, journalist, and marketing communications writer Joel Samberg is pleased to add two new elements to his professional resume: editing books for self-published authors, and press release copywriting for new books.Samberg, whose own published catalog includes books on singing icon Karen Carpenter, novelty musician Benny Bell, and several others, says that what self-published authors need is passion and dedication which most already haveas well as a second pair of skilled editorial eyeswhich many do not.All self-published authors need professional editing, and heres why: its perfectly natural for them to be so passionate about their work that theyre easily blinded to problems that can tarnish it. Problems that can creep into even the most skilled literary projects include verbosity, mixed tenses, run-on sentences, misplaced modifiers, ideas that are familiar to the author but not necessarily to the reader, and more. As a writer I try to avoid cliches like a pandemic, but cliches become cliches for a reason, and heres one that applies to all authors: it is very tough to see the forest from the trees.Furthermore, Samberg states, professional editing is integral for self-published authors who do not have a publishing companyand its various editorial professionalsto back them up. The better the work, the better chance there is for success with reviews and sales, and for the authors own literary legacy.Sambergs rates are highly competitive and are based on the length of the work and a small sample of the writers pre-edited project. Whats more, clients dont pay until after they receive the edited document back via email.For an additional competitive rate, Samberg also offers to prepare press releases for new books that will help build interest for the writers intended audience. The process begins with an in-depth interview (usually via email), which he uses to identify the most intriguing and marketable hooks for each personalized release. He has written dozens of press releases for books on psychology, art, childrens stories, business and more.Joel Samberg began his career as an assistant editor on trade magazines, then moved into marketing communications as an account executive, public relations manager, and corporate communications manager. As a freelance copywriter he has written many successful websites, direct mail brochures, ads, press releases and case studies for clients in industries ranging from retirement communities and digital product manufacturers to publishers and insurance companies. As a freelance journalist his features, essays, columns and trade articles have appeared in many publications, including Hartford Magazine, The New York Times, New Jersey Savvy Living Magazine, Mobility Magazine, Dramatics Magazine and many others.His website can be found at JoeltheWriter.com. Name : mediawiki Product : Fedora 23 Version : 1.26.2 Release : 1.fc23 URL : http://www.mediawiki.org/ Summary : A wiki engine Description : MediaWiki is the software used for Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia Foundation websites. Compared to other wikis, it has an excellent range of features and support for high-traffic websites using multiple servers This package supports wiki farms. Read the instructions for creating wiki instances under /usr/share/doc/mediawiki/README.RPM. Remember to remove the config dir after completing the configuration. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Update Information: Changes since 1.26.1 * (bug T121892) Various special pages resulted in fatal errors. Changes since 1.26.0 * (bug T117899) SECURITY: $wgArticlePath can no longer be set to relative paths that do not begin with a slash. This enabled trivial XSS attacks. Configuration values such as "http://my.wiki.com/wiki/$1" are fine, as are "/wiki/$1". A value such as "$1" or "wiki/$1" is not and will now throw an error * (bug T119309) SECURITY: Use hash_compare() for edit token comparison * (bug T118032) SECURITY: Don't allow cURL to interpret POST parameters starting with '@' as file uploads * (bug T115522) SECURITY: Passwords generated by User::randomPassword() can no longer be shorter than $wgMinimalPasswordLength * (bug T97897) SECURITY: Improve IP parsing and trimming. Previous behavior could result in improper blocks being issued * (bug T109724) SECURITY: Special:MyPage, Special:MyTalk, Special:MyContributions and related pages no longer use HTTP redirects and are now redirected by MediaWiki * Fixed ConfigException in ExpandTemplates due to AlwaysUseTidy. * Fixed stray literal in Special:Search. * Fix issue that breaks HHVM Repo Authorative mode. * (bug T120267) Work around APCu memory corruption bug ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - References: [ 1 ] Bug #1293847 - mediawiki: multiple flaws fixed in 1.26.1, 1.25.4, 1.24.5, and 1.23.12 https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1293847 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - This update can be installed with the "yum" update program. Use su -c 'yum update mediawiki' at the command line. For more information, refer to "Managing Software with yum", available at https://docs.fedoraproject.org/yum/. All packages are signed with the Fedora Project GPG key. More details on the GPG keys used by the Fedora Project can be found at https://fedoraproject.org/keys ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - _______________________________________________ package-announce mailing list package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/package-announce The Chicago Fire Department say the accident happened just before 11 a.m. on Saturday in part of the plant under construction. A section of concrete wall collapsed, killing Jaloway. In a statement, Ford officials say another worker was seriously injured trying to help after the accident. He was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn. His condition could not be immediately determined Sunday morning. DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) Saudi Arabias execution Saturday of 47 prisoners, including an influential Shiite cleric, has prompted a wave of condemnation from Shiite leaders around the region and threatens to further damage Sunni-Shiite relations across the Middle East. Hundreds of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimrs supporters protested his execution in his hometown in eastern Saudi Arabia, in neighboring Bahrain and as far away as northern India. Heres a look at the aftermath and regional implications of al-Nimrs execution. Who was Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr? Al-Nimr, who was in his 50s, was a widely revered Shiite Muslim cleric from eastern Saudi Arabia who was convicted in October 2014 of sedition and other charges and sentenced to death. He was an outspoken government critic and a key leader of Shiite protests in eastern Saudi Arabia in 2011. He was also a critic of the government of Bahrain, where a Sunni-led monarchy suppressed protests by Shiites who make up the majority of the tiny island nation. Saudi Arabia sent troops to help Bahrain crush the uprising, concerned it would spread and destabilize other Arab Gulf countries. Al-Nimr, however, also spoke out against the Iranian-backed government in Syria for killing protesters there. He directly criticized the Al Saud ruling family for its domestic policies and forcefully spoke out against King Salmans elder brother, the late Crown Prince and former Interior Minister Nayef bin Abdulaziz. Al-Nimr did not deny the political charges against him, but maintained he never carried weapons or called for violence. Why is his execution important? His death is seen by some as a warning to anyone thinking of calling for reforms and wider political freedoms in Saudi Arabia. His death also strikes a sensitive chord for Saudi Shiites who claim they are discriminated against by authorities in the kingdom, where many ultraconservative Sunnis view Shiites as heretics. Several Shiites mosques and places of worship were targeted by Sunni extremists in 2015 in eastern Saudi Arabia, despite attempts by security forces to clamp down on Islamic State group supporters who have also targeted police. Al-Nimrs execution came as a surprise to even his own family, his brother Mohammed al-Nimr told The Associated Press. Despite harsh verdicts against government critics, activists are typically given long jail sentences even after initial appeals that uphold death sentences. His death is expected to further exacerbate the proxy wars for regional supremacy being fought across the region by Saudi Arabia and Iran. The two rival nations currently back opposing sides in civil wars in both Syria and Yemen. How will this affect Sunni-Shiite relations? Irans Shiite clerics have used al-Nimrs death to lash out at Saudi Arabia, which is founded upon an ultraconservative Sunni ideology known as Wahhabism. Irans Foreign Ministry warned that the Saudi monarchy would pay a heavy price and the speaker of the Iranian parliament said Saudi Arabia would face a maelstrom from which it would not escape. Iran and Saudi Arabia have been vying for leadership in the Muslim world since Irans 1979 revolution, which elevated to power hard-line Shiite clerics. The U.S. war in Iraq further enflamed religious and ethnic tensions by leading to a Shiite-led government in Baghdad and a crucial shift in the sectarian balance of power in the region. After Arab Spring protests erupted in 2011, Saudi Arabia and Iran entered into a fierce proxy war in Syria, where they are supporting opposite sides of the conflict, and in Yemen, where Saudi Arabia has been bombing Iranian-allied rebels since March. They also support opposing political groups in Lebanon, Iraq and Bahrain. In the lead up to the start of the survey year (Jan 17), were taking a look back at the Most Read articles on Radio Today in 2015. At #19, after the exit of Dani Pola in March the hunt was on for a new co-host to join Amos Gill on hit107 in Adelaide. In what started out as a 1 month working holiday tuned into a Breakfast gig for Cat Lynch. Read the full story here. #20 KIIS 101.1 Launches #19 Scotty exits 104.7 brekky Welcome to Railway Gazette. This website uses cookies to improve your experience. By continuing to browse this site you are agreeing to our use of these cookies. You can learn more about the cookies we use here. OK General Communication (GCI), Alaska's largest cable provider, will no longer carry AMC Networks or Univision in the coming year. The pay-TV provider will however add several new channels to its 2016 line-up. The fresh offerings include One World Sports, Discovery Family and Outside Television channels.GCI said it has dropped AMC and Univision because of substantial price increases imposed by these networks. For instance, it said that AMC's most recent proposal to GCI represented an almost 200% cost increase for all the network's channels, as a condition of carrying the flagship network. AMC is known for its popular series The Walking Dead, which is available via the VUDU app on GCI's TiVo service, as well as a growing list of online outlets."We know Alaska Walking Dead fans will be disappointed that AMC's sky-high rates prevent GCI from carrying the show on our traditional TV line-up," said Bob Ormberg, vice president, Content and Product Management, GCI "The good news is that our customers have more viewing choices than ever before and GCI has made sure that fans can watch The Walking Dead by other methods with GCI so they won't miss an episode when season 6 resumes in February." Find a great selection of commercial real estate, manufactured homes, timeshares and more for Sale Buy real estate. Find a great selection of commercial real estate, manufactured homes, timeshares and more for Sale in US and Canada. Search Real Estate By Staff Reports Shasta's Most Wanted, featured in the Record Searchlight in cooperation with local law enforcement agencies, targets people who have failed to show up in court for sentencing after being convicted of crimes. A milestone was reached in December, when the 500th arrest was made since the program was begun in September 2013. As of Friday a total of 521 arrests have been made through the Most Wanted program. Authorities say they have seen an increase in criminals failing to appear in court since the onset of Assembly Bill 109. Also known as prison realignment, the state program shifted certain state prison inmates to county supervision. Redding Police Chief Robert Paoletti said court appearances have been going up since the rollout of the program. Five new people are added each week. Those caught will be held until at least their next court appearances. Shasta County Secret Witness is offering a reward of up to $250 for information leading to an arrest. Anyone with information is asked to call 245-6540 or 243-2319. The feature appears Sundays in the Record Searchlight's Northern California section and on Redding.com. SHARE By Jenny Espino of the Redding Record Searchlight In time, anyone could become an authority on Redding's old buildings. The Shasta Historical Society rolls out a virtual, self-guided tour beginning Jan. 23 of the Cascade Theatre, Diestelhorst Bridge, Independent Order of Odd Fellows Building and four other downtown sites listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Smartphone and tablet owners will be able to read the QR, or quick response, codes that will be placed on the six buildings and bridge. They will then be directed to a website giving them a nugget of history in a short video from Historical Society member Mike Grifantini. He is in character talking about the sites as James McCormick, one of the founding partners of the McCormic-Saeltzer Store that in the late 1880s took up a block between Yuba and Placer streets at Market Street and was known as "The Big Store." "He would have been right in the middle of the downtown and would have seen some of those buildings as they were built," said Christine Stokes, Historical Society executive director. Working side by side with the Historical Society are Viva Downtown Redding and Far Nor Cal GIS, whose members promote mapping in the North State. There will be a mobile app for the digital tour, but it may not be ready for release before Jan. 23, said Marcus Harper, a geographic information system analyst at Shasta County who is volunteering time to create the interactive story map that goes with the tour. This latest experiment comes straight from the Siskiyou County Historical Society, which already uses QR codes on its historical buildings. Grifantini and Mike Fish, who both had seen the technology's use in Yreka, suggested trying it here to Sue Lang, a Shasta Historical Society board director. As information is put together for other historic sites, they will get added to the walking tour, Stokes said. The city lists 100 properties on its Local Register of Candidates Historic Properties, which sets a lower bar for buildings that may be significant. "There are so many great buildings. Pine Street School would be great, even the Redding Cemetery," said Stokes, going into the detail about the gates to the memorial park where many of the area's pioneers are buried, and the desire to see the Redding Hotel, Redding Post Office and Jack's Grill added. "In a perfect world, we would have them all." In central Illinois, a conservation district is using the QR codes to teach people about tree species at the Rock Springs Nature Center. Harper looks ahead at the possibility of taking old maps to create interactive experience for enthusiasts of local history. He wants to see one created for the trails at Whiskeytown National Recreation Area. "This could be just a walking thing but there is so much more with this story map technology," he said. "You could create a map of pioneer baby graves in Shasta or one of the historic barns in Fall River Mills or the historic trails for people who are on bikes." SHARE Cowboys looking for rodeo parade theme The Asphalt Cowboys have started their contest to find a theme for the 2016 Redding Rodeo Parade. Each theme entry must be short and offer guidance for decorating parade entries and provide a topic for all Rodeo Week events, said Asphalt Cowboys and Parade Co-Chairmen Tom Spade and Brian Walton. People can submit more than one theme suggestion, but all entries need to be placed on one page as a single submission. Mail entries to Asphalt Cowboys, P.O. Box 992211, Redding, CA 96099-2211. Contest participants are encouraged to enter as soon as possible because the earliest postmark will be recognized in case there's a tie. The theme winner will receive $100 and be the Cowboys' special guest in the parade. Battle of Badges blood drive set BloodSource has teamed up with law enforcement agencies and fire departments in Shasta County for the first Battle of the Badges blood drive. From Monday through Friday this week, agency employees, friends, family members and community supporters are encouraged to go to BloodSource at 1880 Park Marina Drive in Redding and donate blood on behalf of the agency of their choice. Call BloodSource at 243-0160 to schedule an appointment and donate on behalf of the California Highway Patrol, the Redding Fire Department, the Shasta County Sheriff's Office, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, the Redding Police Department and Shasta County Probation. Blood donations will be accepted 8 a.m.-1:45 p.m. Monday; 11 a.m.-5:45 p.m. Tuesday; 1-6 p.m. Wednesday; 11 a.m.-5:45 p.m. Thursday and 8 a.m.-1:45 p.m. Friday. January is National Blood Donor Month. The winning agency will earn a trophy and bragging rights. Arrest made after chase in Redding Officers took one person into custody just before midnight Friday after two people fled after a chase by the California Highway Patrol. Officers were looking for two people who ran from authorities in an area of east Redding. About 10:55 p.m. Friday the CHP was chasing a green Chevy Suburban that failed to yield southbound on Churn Creek Road near Home Depot. The pursuit went east on Browning Street when the two people foot bailed. The search, aided by a CHP helicopter and a K-9 from the Redding Police Department, was concentrated in the area of Azoulay Court west of Victor Avenue, according to scanner reports. At one point in the chase, officers suspect that the SUV's passenger threw a bag of drugs out a window along Terra Linda Way. Rangers at Lassen Volcanic National Park are offering snowshoe walks every weekend day through April 3. SHARE By Staff Reports Rangers at Lassen Volcanic National Park on Saturday began leading snowshoe walks that will be offered every weekend day through April 3. The programs begin at 1:30 p.m. and end by 3:30 p.m. "The ranger-led snowshoe walks are an excellent way to learn or practice snowshoeing techniques and explore Lassen in its winter form," park Superintendent Steve Gibbons said. "For those visitors that don't have snowshoes, here's an opportunity to see how much more fun winter can be," Gibbons said. Each walk is limited to 40 people and participants first need to get a ticket in person the day of the program. Multiple tickets will not be issued to one person, park officials said. The tickets are available inside the Kohm Yah-mah-nee Visitor Center starting at 9 a.m. the day of the program. The park provides snowshoes, and a $1 donation is suggested to cover maintenance and snowshoe replacement costs. A ranger will demonstrate how to put on and use the snowshoes. Once the basics are covered, the group heads out into the snowy landscape, park officials said. The route and distance of the walks will vary depending on the group's ability, fitness and snow conditions. The walks are open to children 8 years and older. Trekking poles and kids in carriers are not allowed because of safety concerns. The snowshoes are provided just for the ranger-led activity. The park does not rent snowshoes or other winter equipment. Park officials say equipment rentals are available in Chester, Chico, Mineral and Redding for visitors who want to explore the park on their own. Organized groups such as schools, Scouts and others who want the snowshoe adventure must schedule a ranger-led walk outside of the regularly scheduled public walks, park officials said. Contact the park at 530-595-4480 or lavo_information@nps.gov for a group reservation, program information, current conditions or general information. Park visitors should be prepared for a range of weather conditions. Park officials recommend checking the most recent weather forecast, dressing in layers, and carrying food and water. They recommend bringing a shovel, extra blankets and tire chains in your vehicle in case unexpected winter road conditions cause delays. SHARE A 2-year-old Redding boy who was struck by a vehicle that was backing out of a driveway later died Saturday at Mercy Medical Center in Redding. A 25-year-old woman began backing down a driveway at a residence in the 12600 block of Los Osos Street about 1:10 p.m. while the child was playing in the yard, the California Highway Patrol said. The boy ran into the driveway into the path of the 2007 Jeep, the CHP said. The driver didnt see the child and accidentally ran over him, the CHP reported. The driver stopped and called emergency services. Medics performed life-saving efforts, but the child later died at the Redding hospital. He suffered head trauma and road rash, according to emergency dispatch reports. Los Osos Street is in a neighborhood off Paso Robles Avenue and Old Oregon Trail, north of Oasis Road, just northeast of Redding. The CHP, who did not identify the driver in its Saturday news release, said alcohol or drugs were not a factor in the collision. The accident was still under investigation. The CHP asks that anyone who has more information to contact CHP officer R. Nailor at 530-242-3200. SHARE Rick Espinoza By Staff Reports The California Highway Patrol has issued a Silver Alert for an at-risk and missing Stockton man, last seen on Saturday. Rick Espinoza, 89, was last seen at his home in Stockton Saturday morning, around 8 a.m. driving away in gold 1990 Honda Accord, with a California license plate 4LEF880. Espinoza is described as a Hispanic male, with gray hair, brown eyes and standing at approximately 5 feet, 9 inches tall and weighing about 190 pounds. Espinoza suffers from a medical condition and may become disoriented. If located, contact the Stockton Police Department at (209) 937-8377. SHARE Lou Prusinovski, Redding Your Dec. 17 editorial, "Congress points fingers as it fails California again," is critical of federal politicians for not passing a $1.3 billion water bill and then pointing fingers at one another for the failure. Dropping down a few paragraphs, the editorial assigns blame for the failure. Why does California need a paltry $1.3 billion handout from the feds? If drought mitigation can be helped by a couple of dams and other projects and is the statewide high priority, California ought to get it done. There is a $7.5 billion state water bond for a start. Is drought mitigation more critical than the high speed train to nowhere? I'd vote yes on that one. Let's scrap the train and run the same numbers (pushing $100 billion?) back before the voters for redirection to water projects beneficial to every Californian. We have the population, the financial base and the water need! Let's make the decision that water is California's #1 priority and take the necessary steps to redirect resources from major dollar-burners that are not #1. In pointing a finger someplace else, there are three fingers pointing squarely at your own chest. California, set your priorities, fund them and get them done. Let our federal reps cut the federal red tape to allow California to take care of itself. They should be happy to do so when they are not being asked for a handout. While Kharge is considered the firm favourite with his perceived proximity to the Gandhis, Tharoor has pitched himself as the candidate of change. Residents pile ruined furniture, appliances and clothes along the street for disposal crews to pick up after last week's flooding from the south fork of the Sangamon River, Sunday, Jan. 3, 2016, in Kincaid, Ill. Gov. Bruce Rauner toured flood-damaged homes Sunday in the 1,400-resident central Illinois town. (Seth Perlman / AP) ST. LOUIS As the Mississippi River and its tributaries retreated Saturday from historic winter levels that flooded towns, forced evacuations and killed two dozen people, residents in the St. Louis area were facing a massive cleanup and recovery effort that will likely last weeks. Gov. Bruce Rauner and Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon toured flood-ravaged areas as near-record crest predictions of the Mississippi River and levee breaks threatened more homes. Advertisement "The healing process, the restoration process has begun," Chris Greenhagen, pastor of the Central Baptist Church in Eureka, Missouri, one of the communities hit by flooding along the Meramec River earlier this week, said in a telephone interview. The flood, fueled by more than 10 inches of rain over a three-day period that began last weekend, is blamed for 24 deaths in Illinois and Missouri. Advertisement Water from the Mississippi, Meramec and Missouri rivers largely began receding Friday in the St. Louis area. Two major highways Interstate 44 and Interstate 55 reopened south of St. Louis on Friday and some evacuees were also allowed then to return home. On Saturday, while residents took stock of the ruin, President Barack Obama signed a federal emergency declaration for Missouri that allows federal aid to be used to help state and local response efforts. It also allows the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate disaster relief efforts. Illinois Emergency Management Agency spokeswoman Patti Thompson said the state's flooding death toll increased to nine. Fifteen have died in Missouri. Rauner encouraged people to respect requests to evacuate. "This is life threatening," he told reporters at Carlyle Lake in Clinton County in southern Illinois. It's not just the water; it's the temperature. Hypothermia is a big risk to people's lives." In Missouri, Noelle Pace said she packed up electronics, some furniture and her 4-year-old son's clothing and toys and left Pacific on Dec. 28, the day after she received a request to evacuate. She felt lucky to find the damage isolated to her crawl space when she returned for the first time Thursday. "Everybody around us had catastrophic damage," Pace said. She said she might not be able to move back for weeks while her landlord replaces soaked insulation. "It doesn't feel real yet," she said. Advertisement The main culprit in the St. Louis region was the Meramec River, a relatively small Mississippi tributary that bombarded communities in the far southwestern reaches of the St. Louis suburbs during the week. Two wastewater treatment plants were so damaged by the floodwaters that raw sewage spewed into the river. Hundreds of people were evacuated in the Missouri communities of Pacific, Eureka, Valley Park and Arnold, where many homes took in water. William Reynolds said he moved at least $50,000 worth of inventory from his Valley Park store to the second story of his nearby home when the evacuation was ordered. He was still unpacking Saturday after the evacuation was lifted. Jay Newman, chef at Frederick's Pub and Grill in Fenton, Missouri, said he was mostly stuck in his Arnold home for two days because of the flooding, which closed most of the area roads. "It was bad from every direction," Newman said. While the worst of the dangerous, deadly winter flood was over in the St. Louis area, the water was slowly make its way south. In southeast Missouri, the Mississippi crested overnight Friday but not before damaging about two-dozen homes in Cape Girardeau, a community of nearly 40,000 residents that is mostly protected by a flood wall. Advertisement "What we'd like people to know is that in Cape Girardeau there have been so many precautions in place that even given the magnitude of this event it's really gone remarkably well for us," Molly Hood, Cape Girardeau's deputy city manager, said Saturday. Elsewhere, the Illinois River continued to rise Saturday and could near historic crests Tuesday or Wednesday, according to Thomas Spriggs, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in St. Louis. "It's still a very significant flood," he said Saturday. "It's going to be at major flood stage for the next three days." Parts of the South were also in the flood's path. Moderate Mississippi River flooding is expected in Memphis. Dale Lane, director of the Shelby County Office of Preparedness, said high water from the river and its tributaries is approaching some homes on Mud Island, just south of downtown Memphis. A road on Mud Island is being closed on Monday, but no homes have been reported flooded. The The National Weather Service issued a flood advisory for the Cumberland River at Dover, Tennessee, through Monday evening. Minor flooding along the Ohio River was affecting the Kentucky cities of Owensboro and Paducah, and the crest wasn't expected until Thursday. Advertisement Associated Press Residents pile ruined furniture, appliances and clothes along the street for disposal crews to pick up after last week's flooding from the south fork of the Sangamon River, Sunday, Jan. 3, 2016, in Kincaid, Ill. Gov. Bruce Rauner toured flood-damaged homes Sunday in the 1,400-resident central Illinois town. (Seth Perlman / AP) KINCAID, Ill. The Mississippi River and many of its tributaries continued their retreat Sunday from historic and deadly winter flooding, leaving amid the silt a massive cleanup and recovery effort likely to take weeks if not months. The flood, fueled by more than 10 inches of rain over a three-day period that began Christmas Day, is blamed for 25 deaths in Illinois and Missouri, reflecting Sunday's discovery of the body of a second teenager who drowned in central Illinois' Christian County. Advertisement The Mississippi River was receding except in the far southern tip of both states. The Meramec River, the St. Louis-area tributary of the Mississippi that caused so much damage last week, already was below flood stage in the hard-hit Missouri towns of Pacific and Eureka and dropping elsewhere. But worries surfaced anew Sunday along the still-rising Illinois River north of St. Louis, where crests near the west-central Illinois towns of Valley City, Meredosia, Beardstown and Havana were to approach records before receding in coming days. Advertisement In Kincaid, a 1,400-resident central Illinois town near the South Fork Sangamon River, Gov. Bruce Rauner toured flood-damaged homes Sunday as Sharon Stivers and other residents piled ruined furniture, appliances and clothes along the street for disposal crews to pick up. Mike Crews, Christian County's emergency manager, said the worst of the inundation appeared to be past, "until the new weather comes," citing the prospect of potentially heavy rain later in the week. Stivers shares a home with her 45-year-old daughter battling breast cancer, along with a granddaughter and four dogs. Floodwaters got 4 feet into their home, located in an area where flood insurance wasn't available. "Am I mad?" she asked. "I lost my home. My daughter has cancer and lost her home. Am I mad? When I'm not crying I am." Across the street, Theresa Gibson was getting help from relatives and friends clearing out what they could salvage after the flood reached 18 inches into her home, buckling newly finished oak floors and saturating walls. "This is just horrible," Gibson, 50, lamented, noting how the fast-rising waters had allowed her only enough time to fill a couple of suitcases. "We've had floods before, but nothing like this." In Illinois' Morgan County, home to the 1,000-resident village of Meredosia, locals were keeping wary eyes on levies fortified with 50,000 sandbags. As of midday Sunday at Meredosia, the Illinois was more than 10 feet above flood stage and pressing toward an expected crest Tuesday roughly a half-foot short of the record set in July. While optimistic those levies would hold, Jacksonville-Morgan County Emergency Management Director Phil McCarty said the prospect of flooding during the chill of winter carried dangerous health risks, including hypothermia. President Barack Obama signed a federal emergency declaration Saturday for Missouri, allowing federal aid to be used to help state and local response efforts. It also allows the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate disaster relief efforts. Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon had asked for the help. Advertisement In Illinois' St. Clair County just east of St. Louis, emergency management director Herb Simmons said damage assessment began Sunday after the Mississippi started to fall. Though water reached higher than 1993, this flood wasn't as bad, Simmons said. "In '93 that water came up and stayed on the levees for several months," Simmons said. "This flood came up quick and went down quick." St. Louis-area cleanup largely was focused around the Meramec. Two wastewater treatment plants were so damaged by the floodwaters that raw sewage spewed into the river. Hundreds of people were evacuated in the Missouri communities of Pacific, Eureka, Valley Park and Arnold, where many homes took in water. In southeast Missouri, up to 30 homes and several businesses were damaged in Cape Girardeau, a community of nearly 40,000 residents that is mostly protected by a flood wall. The Mississippi peaked at 48.9 feet Friday night, four-tenths of a foot above the 1993 record, but short of the 50-foot mark projected. Nearby levee breaks in other places kept the crest down. Amtrak service between St. Louis and Kansas City was back in business on Sunday, four days after high water that reached the tracks at some locations forced the passenger service to be halted. Moderate Mississippi River flooding was expected in Memphis, Tennessee. The National Weather Service issued a flood advisory for the Cumberland River at Dover, Tennessee, through Monday evening. Minor flooding along the Ohio River was affecting the Kentucky cities of Owensboro and Paducah, and the crest wasn't expected until Thursday. Advertisement Associated Press A 16-year-old boy was shot to death and 14 others wounded in shootings between Saturday and Sunday mornings, according to authorities, including three critically wounded at a downtown hotel. The 16-year-old died after a shooting around 4:45 p.m. Saturday in the Woodlawn neighborhood, police said. The boy, identified as Antwan McBee of the 4800 block of South Prairie Avenue, was traveling in a vehicle in the 6300 block of South Stony Island Avenue when someone pulled up alongside and fired shots, according to police and the Cook County medical examiner's office. Advertisement He was hit in the head and shoulder and was driven to the University of Chicago Medical Center, about a mile and a half away. McBee was later pronounced dead at midnight, according to the medical examiner's office. No one was in custody as a result of the fatal shooting. About 2:15 a.m. Sunday, a 25-year-old man was standing outside in the 600 block of North Lake Shore Drive near the W Chicago Lakeshore Hotel when someone got out of an SUV and fired shots, Chicago police said. He was hit several times and taken by a friend to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he was listed in critical condition. Advertisement Two other men were shot nearby, though it has not yet been determined whether they were shot inside or outside the hotel, said Officer Hector Alfaro, a police spokesman. A 32-year-old man was shot in the head and a 30-year-old man was shot in the left side of the abdomen. They went to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center and were listed in critical condition. Police said there was a party going on during the incident, possibly on the 15th floor. None of the men was being cooperative with investigators, authorities said. "We are thankful that no registered guests or our talent were injured in the incident during the night, as most of the events occurred outside the hotel,'' Pete Demay, the hotel's general manager said in an email. "We have been working closely with the authorities throughout their investigation. As this is an active investigation, we are unable to provide further details and any additional information must come from the Chicago Police Department,'' Demay said in the email. In other early Sunday shootings: About 4:50 a.m. Sunday, a 21-year-old man was shot in the East Garfield Park neighborhood, said Officer Jose Estrada, a police spokesman. He was in a parked vehicle in the 3500 block of West Huron Street when two people walked up and started shooting. He was hit in the face and the shoulder. Friends drove him to Norwegian American Hospital. He later was transferred to Stroger Hospital in critical condition. At 4:20 a.m., a 35-year-old man was shot in the Homan Square neighborhood, according to Estrada. The man had been arguing with someone else in the 600 block of South St. Louis Avenue when he was shot in the upper right arm. He was taken to Stroger Hospital in serious condition. At 3:15 a.m., a 26-year-old man was shot Lawndale neighborhood, said Officer Amina Greer, a police spokeswoman. He was in the 1400 block of South Christiana Avenue when he was shot and went to Stroger Hospital. He suffered a graze wound to the top of his head and was treated and released from the hospital. Advertisement At 3 a.m., two people were shot in the 4400 block of West Madison Street in the West Garfield Park neighborhood, Greer said. A 33-year-old man who was in the driver's side of a parked ehicle hard shots, felt pain an ddrove himself to West Suburban Medical Center with a wound to his left shoulder and a graze to his head. He was transferred to Stroger Hospital. Another man, 29, walked into Loretto Hospital and was transferred to Stroger Hospital in serious condition with wounds to his right wrist and right thigh. He was not in the car when the shooting happened, police said. Daywatch Weekdays Start each day with Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox. > Also at 3 a.m., a 44-year-old man was shot in the Brighton Park neighborhood, Greer said. He was in the 3800 block of South Albany Avenue when someone fired shots from an SUV. He was hit in the thigh and taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where his condition was stabilized. At 2:45 a.m., an 18-year-old man was shot in the Washington Park community, Greer said. He was in a vehicle in the first block of West Garfield Boulevard when he heard gunfire and realized he had been shot. The driver of the vehicle took him to St. Bernard Hospital. He was then transferred to Stroger Hospital, where his condition was stabilized. In other Saturday daytime and evening shootings: About 8:45 p.m. Saturday, a 25-year-old man was shot in the East Chatham neighborhood, Alfaro said. He was in an alley in the 8200 block of South Dobson Avenue when a white van pulled up and someone inside fired shots, hitting him in the face. He was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center and his condition was stabilized. At 5:10 p.m., a 26-year-old man was shot in the right shoulder in the Roseland neighborhood, according to Officer Kevin Quaid, a Chicago police spokesman. He was in the 10100 block of South Michigan Avenue when he was shot. He went to Roseland Community Hospital, where his condition was stabilized, Quaid said. Advertisement At 8:50 a.m., a 27-year-old man was shot in the South Austin neighborhood, police said. He was taken to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, where his condition was stabilized, said Officer Ana Pacheco, a police spokeswoman. He had been shot in the buttocks on Parkside Avenue just north of Madison Street. At 8:25 a.m., a 29-year-old man also was shot in South Austin, said Officer Janel Sedevic, a police spokeswoman. He was in the 5400 block of West Quincy Street when he was shot in the right leg. He was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in good condition. Here are 5 ways to soak in the wild beauty of the snowy outdoors. Take your pick! 1. Walking on ice Where: Chadar trek, Ladakh, Jammu & Kashmir Grade: Challenging Best time: Late January-early February The fact that this trek starts from a village called Chilling is an indication of things to come. With freezing temperatures of minus 30 degrees and a precarious walk on the frozen Zanskar river, the Chadar trek promises an experience like no other. Zanskar, a remote valley in Ladakh and the fabled land of the white copper, is famous for its snow leopards, ibex, black wolves and the rare Himalayan blue poppy. But this mysterious land has no entrance. Two rivers, which flow through it, come together to carve a gorge so deep that one can't travel down it to enter or exit the region. In summer, the melted snow fires the rivers to a raging frenzy, making the gorge and water routes impassable. The one route is through the Zanskar range of mountains, the high passes of which are closed for eight months. In such a scenario, the only way out is in the winter when a frozen white corridor, or chadar, is formed on the river, creating the only link between the locals and the world outside . Trekkers usually plan this tour for months, getting the timing right to the dot. There are scores of travel companies offering guides for the tours, but you need to be careful while selecting one for this extreme trek. "You can tell a good guide from the rest from the number of days he offers for acclimatisation," says Karn Kowshik who runs Geck & Co Adventurers. The hundreds of trekkers thronging to the frozen river have ended up making the ecosystem fragile, with garbage being thrown freely. The Ladakh Council has now limited the number of trekkers in each group to 10. "There were guides from some travel companies who were taking up to 25 people in a group. Greater control is being exercised now," says Fay Singh, head (operations) of adventure travel company Aquaterra Adventures. Aquaterra runs an 11-day tour from Delhi to Leh, including the Chadar trek, which offers a glimpse of the monasteries dotting the landscape, overnight camping at Teeb cave, lunch atop a steep canyon, a day with the colourful folk of the Nyrek village, and, of course, the famous Chadar walk. 2. Where myths come alive Where: Brahmatal, Uttarakhand Grade: Moderate Best time: January and February It's not the destination but the journey that matters. Nothing could describe the Brahmatal trek better. Myths and legends leap out from every turn you take through the snow-laden oak forests of Uttarakhand. The base for this six-day trek is Lohajung at an altitude of 7,700 feet. This, locals believe, was the site of a fight between the goddess Parvati and the demon Lohasur. Weaving through rhododendron trees and the houses of Mandoli village, you will spot the Kail valley formed by the Kail and Pindari rivers. You can stop for a brief lunch in the Navali bugyal (high altitude meadow) and gaze at the formidable Himalayan ranges. After passing through frozen lakes, on Day Four you finally embark on a curved trail to reach the Brahmatal top at a height of 10,738 feet. En route, you might spot the trishul on a clear day, making the climb worth it. "With high snow, not many treks can be done in January and February. But Brahmatal is an exception," says Arjun Majumdar, founder of Indiahikes. "Even with good dollops of snow, the trail winds through, climbing steadily to Brahmatal, a large tarn in a crater-like depression on top of a mountain," This is a fairly new but no less exciting winter trek. 3. In custom-rich Turtuk Where: Turtuk, Ladakh, Jammu & Kashmir Grade: Easy Best time: March 19 to 26 Celebrate the last dregs of winter in the small village of Turtuk, which is the last Indian outpost located at an altitude of 3,048 metres in Ladakh's picturesque Nubra valley. Situated on the banks of the Shyok river, Turtuk opened to tourists only in 2009 and offers easy treks to gompas and waterfalls located a couple of hours away. The locals here are very attached to their customs and are versed in Baltistani, Urdu and Ladakhi languages. Plan ahead and visit the village in March when the locals celebrate the Navroz festival. In fact, adventure companies like Banjara Camps and Retreats plan special eight-day tours around that time, which include a visit to the famous Shey and Thiksey monasteries, Stok Palace and Shanti Stupa. Besides dance performances and live music, the highlight of the week-long festivities is the Polo match, played on one of the highest grounds in the world. 4. On top of the world Where: Sandakphu, West Bengal Grade: Moderate Best time: First week of October to April This is the only trek in India that offers a view of four of the world's tallest mountains: Everest, Kanchenjunga, Makalu and Lhotse. The highest point in West Bengal at an altitude of 11,929 feet, Sandakphu lies in the district of Darjeeling. The path to it follows the iconic Singalila Ridge, which forms the border between Sikkim and Nepal. "Sandakphu is best done in winter, though most people trek to it in other seasons. And that's too bad," says Majumdar of Indiahikes. "In winter, when the air is crisp and there is no haze in the sky, the sight of the four mountains can bring tears to your eyes. When you punch in views of Nuptse and even Pandim, trekkers are spoilt for choice." The view stays with you through the seven days that you walk the ridge between Sandakphu and Phalut. The trek from Maneybhunjung takes you to the check post of Singalila National Park, where you obtain a permit to get in. The park is home to the elusive Red Panda and hundreds of birds. From there the road bifurcates and takes you to the Nepalese villages of Joubari and Ila, getting you back to the Indian settlement of Gairibas for tea and noodles. "The trek dips in and out of Nepal multiple times - sometimes you don't know which country you are in. You don't need a passport though," says Majumdar. 5. A day with the Mishmis Where: Wakro Valley, Arunachal Pradesh Grade: Easy to moderate Best time: End of March Marked by unique hairdos, cane head dresses, tattooed faces and nose plugs, the Mishmi tribe has long been an enigma for anthropologists and travellers alike. To get a whiff of their vibrant culture, head to Wakro valley in Arunachal Pradesh after landing in Dibrugarh, Assam. Considered the original inhabitants of the Lohit district, Mishmis are divided into three sub-tribes: Idu, Digaru and Miju, each with its own dialect and distinctive dress. Walk around Wakro to visit local villages such as Kanjan and Pukhuri. As part of the seven-day tour organised by Banjara Camps and Retreats, one can travel to Roing from Wakro, a region characterised by snowcapped mountains, archaeological sites and rich flora. En route,you can do a short walk to the holy site of Parasuram Kund. Once at Roing, you can trek up or drive to the Mayodia Pass to experience the magic of fresh snowfall or get lost in the lush green forests in the area. Go prepared Without the right training and gear to navigate the terrain, amateurs should not embark on a winter trek. "All treks, even easy ones, become challenging in winter because of the snow," says Kowshik of Geck & Co Adventurers, who runs two courses on how to navigate the great outdoors. When on a snow trek, make sure you are equipped with down jackets and snow racquets, which are fitted onto shoes so that you don't sink into the snow. You can also rent these from the Indian Mountaineering Foundation in Delhi. Photographs: Business Standard Click here for interesting travel features! 'India needs to deeply introspect on the costs of pursuing peace with Pakistan,' says Lieutenant General Syed Ata Hasnain (retd). IMAGE: Security personnel outside the Indian Air Force's Pathankot air station. The Government of India surprised observers everywhere with the Bangkok talks between the national security advisers of India and Pakistan and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj's successful Islamabad visit. The oft repeated question in December 2015 on all lips was about the length of time it would take for the anti-India lobby in Pakistan to derail the talks. When Prime Minister Narendra Modi again surprised the nation and the world with his pathbreaking impromptu visit to Lahore on December 25 he was adding to the cementing process of the peace talks, bringing informality to the fore. With foreign secretary talks scheduled as early as January 15, India's quick fire decisions were obviously a source of acute discomfort for those completely opposed to Pakistan's peace efforts with India. To state that a terror strike was unexpected would therefore be shorn of truth. However, where it would be one could only fathom a guess. That the Deep State of Pakistan, which is the prime opposition to any overtures towards India, to perpetuate its own position and presence, chose Pathankot as its target and that too the air force station is not difficult to understand. In the quick time that results were desired there was no question of a major terror operation deep inside India through sleeper agents. That is the level of dominance that Indian intelligence agencies have been able to achieve. It had to be an infiltration-based operation, close to the Line of Control/International Border, sufficiently large in scope and on a high profile target. The Pathankot AF station fitted the bill. A terrain and situation study will reveal that the Kashmir Valley offers little scope for such an operation today, the hill sector of Jammu division has very few worthwhile targets and Jammu city and its vicinity is well secured with the experience of the past 18 months. The ground around the Ravi river and the forest tracts towards the Himachal Pradesh and Jammu border offer excellent cover for establishing bases and then attempting the operation. The AF station has assets, which if struck, would make a major impact on the lines the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan did at Peshawar not too long ago. The Deep State's experience cannot be matched in the sphere of different terror operations. Details of the operation are unnecessary; perhaps suffice to state that after discovery of the terror group on January 1, post the hijack of the superintendent of police's car the strike could not be prevented (it should have been, given our experience in handling such threats) but damage control could be ensured. The terrorists could not penetrate the area of the main assets and that was ensured by some courageous action by soldiers and airmen with loss of precious lives. For detractors of the Indian Armed Forces I may highlight that searching for six men who wish to avoid contact in such terrain as the one around Pathankot isn't exactly a cakewalk. That the main assets were protected from damage prevented this event becoming larger than it could have been is not a bad achievement. The politico-diplomatic fallout of the event is the other important aspect. The questions which should be asked: First, could the Pakistani leadership have prevented this; second, should the Indian government continue with the peace process or abandon it; and third, what does the future hold? The stakes for Pakistan in maintaining its support to the peace process are indeed high. For long it has been considered the core centre of sponsored radical terror. The Paris attacks may have been perpetrated by Da'esh, but Pakistan continues to be in focus as the alternate centre of radical ideology. International consensus is far stronger to act against radical groups than ever before. Thus, for Pakistan to continue playing 'bad terrorist and good terrorist' games should be getting more difficult. Perhaps it is so under this pressure of the international environment and some targeted leaning by the Americans. Pakistan possibly realised that time was running out and before long international action against it could well be on the cards. A pro-peace lobby perhaps worked its way through with support of the army chief. The presence of Pakistan's NSA (Lieutenant General Naseer Khan Janjua) lent weight to the argument that the Pakistan army was supporting the rapprochement. However, that there is deep opposition to any peace with India is also well known and many in the establishment itself would want to see the failure of this. The Pakistan army will need to do a somersault to admit anything at all. That the hands of many from within its establishment are behind the Pathankot strike cannot be doubted. India must continue harping on that as well as on the 'stab in the back', a replica of events after then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's Lahore yatra. The international community must be fully sensitised to that and repeatedly because the environment is against radicals and terrorists. This act must get Pakistan an international rap and a hard one at that. The response from India will need deft political handling and some tough diplomacy. Prime Minister Modi's efforts towards peace have been deliberate and after careful consideration. The leadership would have anticipated that there will be obstacles along the way, such as these acts. It would have been discussed with the Pakistan leadership too. One of my recommendations after the PM's Lahore visit was that very early we need to do joint contingency planning for exactly such contingencies. Possibly, it would have found place at the foreign secretary talks, but the events at Pathankot have overtaken it. If the peace process has to be secured, then the aspects of joint handling need to be incorporated. Surprisingly, we have seen a muted response from Pakistan so far. If the intent is good, the visibility in condemnation and reassurance should have been much more vocal. The usual commentators from Pakistan are less gung ho, but admission of fault is obviously not up their street. Judging from social media inputs that I monitor, it is my perception that the Indian public is extremely resentful, but yet is willing to give the PM and his team the support they need. The strength of conviction that the PM has been able to raise from the string of positive events appears to be bearing out the negativity created by the attempt to derail the process. Had the damage at the AF station extended to the aircraft at the hangars and other equipment and if there were visuals of large-scale destruction it would have been difficult to sustain the peace process. If the decision by the Government of India is to continue the peace process as seems likely thus far, I strongly recommend that talks between the NSAs should be immediately set up at another neutral location if necessary. There is reluctance once again by some Pakistani commentators to even admit that there is an establishment hand behind this. The old and ever new argument that these are non-State actors and Pakistan has little control over them cannot be allowed to persist all over again. If that stand is taken by the Pakistan NSA too, then it is time to call off the talks. Our emphasis on bilateralism sometimes plays against our ability to expose Pakistan internationally. While talks are bilateral, the issue of terror has larger connotations and should not detract us from continuous naming and shaming. That a positive moment can convert to negative is not something unusual in the context of India and Pakistan. We have seen this happen too often as has Pakistan and its establishment may just have taken things for granted. India needs to be circumspect about this and deeply introspect on its interests and costs of pursuing peace with Pakistan. The time for realism is now. Lieutenant General Syed Ata Hasnain (retd) is a former General Officer Commanding of the Srinagar-based 15 Corps, now associated as a senior analyst with the Vivekanand International Foundation and the Delhi Policy Group. 'Diplomatic engagement will continue even as India keeps all its options open with respect to discretely targeting the Pakistani military and its terrorist proxies.' IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Lahore, December 25, 2015. Ashley J Tellis, the Mumbai-born scholar and thinker on strategic affairs, was one of the architects in negotiating the India-US nuclear deal during the Bush administration. Dr Tellis -- who served in the US State Department and the National Security Council and is now a Senior Associate at the Washington-based think-tank Carnegie Endowment for International Peace -- answered Nikhil Lakshman/Rediff.com's questions on the prospects for the India-Pakistan peace process after the attack at the Indian Air Force's Pathankot station on January 2. Do you believe the India-Pakistan rapprochement process will continue despite Saturday's attack at Pathankot? Why do you say so? I think the India-Pakistan engagement recently jump-started by Prime Minister Modi will continue because Modi has staked so much on building bridges with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif right from the moment of taking office. His surprise visit to Lahore on Christmas Day only reaffirmed his interest in engaging Sharif -- I think this much has been well understood. What has been often missed, however, is the two-track nature of Modi's strategy towards Pakistan: Engaging the civilian government in Islamabad, while retaliating militarily against the Pakistani army and various militant and underworld groups operating against India. Until the Ufa meeting with Sharif, Modi's engagement with Pakistan's civilian government was somewhat inconsistent, resulting in the on-again, off-again diplomatic dialogue. After Ufa, I think Modi resolved to sustain the engagement with Sharif's government indefinitely because there was a clear realisation that although Sharif's control over his 'Deep State' -- meaning, the military and the intelligence services, which controlled among other things various terrorist proxies -- was weak, Sharif's desire for better ties with India ought to be nurtured and rewarded. The fact that Modi actually likes Nawaz Sharif personally only strengthened this conviction. So all this adds up to my expectation that Modi will continue the process of engagement he has recently accelerated. I would not call it a rapprochement just yet -- if a rapprochement occurs, it would be the end result of a long process of engagement which results in a resolution of many difficult bilateral problems, including Jammu and Kashmir. We are nowhere near that yet, but diplomatic engagement -- which keeps lines of communications open, provides a certain stability to India-Pakistan relations, and keeps foreign powers from excessive interference in subcontinental affairs -- will continue, even as India keeps all its options open with respect to discretely targeting the Pakistani military and its terrorist proxies as appropriate. The Obama administration is said to have leaned on both New Delhi and Washington to resume talking to each other after the deep freeze last August. What guarantees, in your opinion, did they give either nation to resume talks? The Obama administration, like every administration before it, has urged both sides to persist in their bilateral dialogue. But I do not believe for a second that this administration's entreaties had anything to do with Modi's recent efforts to reach out to Pakistan. That was entirely his own doing, and it is consistent with the evolution of his two-track strategy. Most Indian commentators believe Prime Minister Modi has undertaken the greater gamble by going to Lahore and agreeing to restart the talks. The consequences of failure and more attacks like Pathankot could be disastrous politically for Mr Modi and his BJP. Do you believe the India-Pakistan talks have a chance of success? What would you deem as success? The visit to Lahore was indeed a gamble in one sense -- it surprised the international community -- but it was not a gamble if you believe my judgment that Modi decided a few months ago that he would maintain a consistent engagement with Pakistan's civilian government to the degree possible. I do not think that Modi has any illusions about what the Deep State or various Pakistan-based terrorist groups are capable of. The events at Pathankot have proved that again. Not engaging with Sharif, however, neither makes the Pakistani military more cooperative nor weakens the ambitions of various Pakistan-based terrorist groups, whether or not they are controlled by the Deep State. So the process of engaging Sharif's civilian government must be separated from the challenge of dealing with Pakistani terrorism. In an ideal world, of course, this would not be the case: A government should be responsible for actions undertaken by its agents or its citizens. But we have learned from long experience that unless the entire international community is willing to enforce this principle where Pakistan is concerned, India by itself does not have the resources to do so. Hence, engaging Sharif despite the frequent terrorism represents a necessary accommodation to the ugly realities of Pakistan: Modi has to deal with the best representatives of that State, while reserving India's coercive capabilities for dealing with the true antagonists as and when appropriate. I don't believe this approach will be disastrous for the BJP any more than it was disastrous for the Congress government before it. Although the BJP's muscular rhetoric about protecting India may appear to make it more vulnerable, I think the Indian people have a very good sense about the limits of the possible: They have lived with Pakistani terrorism for over three decades. So short of something truly catastrophic occurring, I think they would be inclined to give it the BJP the benefit of the doubt so long as they see the Modi government pursuing sensible policies at home and vis-a-vis Pakistan,. In this context, I have modest expectations of what any Indo-Pakistani dialogue can actually achieve. In the near term, the best it can do is to make progress on economic cooperation, allow for greater people-to-people interaction, and preserve the lines of communications between the civilian leaderships on both sides. And if we are lucky, it will slowly raise the levels of mutual confidence so as to permit both governments to begin a discussion about their thorniest political disputes over time. Two years ago, you felt a Pakistan-inspired terror attack in India could lead to a nuclear conflict in South Asia. Do you still feel so? Could another 26/11 attack provoke India to launch an attack against Pakistan and prove a nuclear attack in retaliation? What is your worst case scenario? How can the US help avert that catastrophic possibility? I have never believed that a Pakistani-inspired terror attack invariably ends up in a South Asian nuclear conflict if India retaliates militarily in response. In fact, the space between a terrorist attack and a nuclear denouement is quite large, certainly larger than many other American commentators seem to believe. India has a range of options for retaliating against any major terrorist attack emanating from Pakistan, none of which would trigger Pakistani nuclear responses. But as the United States has been slowing learning since 9/11, none of these options are likely to eliminate the scourge of terrorism decisively either. Prime Minister (Atal Bihari) Vajpayee understood this clearly in 2001. Hence, he used the 2001-2002 military mobilisation to leverage US diplomatic intervention to put pressure on Pakistan. He succeeded for a while, but in this business all victories are fleeting. The US can -- and should -- help India deal with Pakistani terrorism for multiple reasons: Washington has a strategic interest in preventing an escalation of tensions in the subcontinent; India and Pakistan are both friends of the United States; and if the United States truly cares about Pakistan beyond counterterrorism, it would help Islamabad to confront the terrorism that is often (though not always) supported by its own State actors. Unfortunately, the knee-jerk US approach traditionally has been to think of ever more creative ways of bribing the Pakistani military. I think the record of success accruing to this strategy thus far has been less than impressive. And if carrots are the only tricks left in the US toolkit, failure is inevitable -- with the only question being, on what timeline. Who, in your opinion, are the forces most hostile in Pakistan to a better India-Pakistan relationship? And why are they so inimical to the prospect of peace? The Pakistan army and the ISI would take first place on the list -- their grievances are many and deep-rooted, but at the core they see India as an ever-present threat to Pakistan's security. It is not what India does that threatens them (though that too is relevant), but what India is: Larger, more capable and successful, and rising in international politics. All these attributes, they believe, threaten Pakistan's security and its quest for parity of treatment with India. Beyond the military, there are scores of sub-State groups as well as segments of the Pakistani citizenry that nurse various grievances against India for different reasons, but these elements would be inconsequential were it not for the succor provided various State organs in Pakistan. Could terror attacks like 26/11 or Pathankot have occurred without the Pakistan military's approval? Do you believe the Pakistan government or army no longer controls non-State actors like the Lashkar-e-Tayiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed? Or is that belief hogwash? In principle, terrorist attacks emanating from Pakistan inside India can occur without the explicit approval of the Pakistan army or the ISI. The days when the Pakistan military exercised -- or could exercise -- tight control over all their terrorist proxies is over. Today, these groups have considerable autonomy, and sometimes collaborate with groups that are even at war with the Pakistani State. The ISI no longer has detailed control over the day-to-activities of even its preferred clients, except when circumstances demand that it attempt to exercise such control. But there are clearly high levels of association and liaison maintained with key groups such as Lashkar-e-Tayiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed, and the Haqqani network. Because the control exercised by ISI over these proxies is flexible, it is important to examine each incident carefully through post-attack investigations and forensics in order to determine the nature and extent of the direction, involvement, and support involving Pakistan's official State organs. It is hard to offer any conclusions that are either true or reliable a priori on these questions. Do you believe Pakistani's strategists' concern about the Modi government's focus on South Asia and the possible isolation of Islamabad, and maybe a tougher policy towards Pakistan -- after the realpolitik of the Manmohan Singh years -- has led to the current policy of belligerence, to keep New Delhi off balance? There is nothing in the events at Pathankot that suggests that these are exceptional, given the history of the last fifteen years. Pakistan has bragged about its nuclear weapons more than once last year. Pakistan Defence Minister Khwaja Asif mentioned in July (before the Ufa summit) that 'If we need to use nuclear weapons for our survival, we will.' Sartaj Aziz's warning in August that Pakistan is a nuclear power appeared provocative enough to get the State Department to issue a reprimand of sorts. How do you interpret these statements? Again, I see this as quite consistent with Pakistan's rhetoric since 1998. On occasion, it goes somewhat over the top, but these statements conform to the broad trend since Pakistan formally established itself as a Nuclear Weapons State. Why is Pakistan raising the specter of nuclear conflict? Did all that talk get Washington worried enough to speak to Prime Ministers Sharif and Modi, as also General Sharif? There is nothing new here as far as I am concerned -- and I doubt such talk raised any particular concerns in Washington beyond the admonition that Pakistan should take a deep breath and chill out. The revelation that Pakistan could become the nation with the third largest nuclear arsenal in the world in five or ten years -- did it surprise you? How has Pakistan gotten away with increasing its nukes without raising alarm bells in Washington? Why does Pakistan need 120 'Hiroshima-size warheads' (and 350 warheads eventually)? This is not a particularly new insight. The US government has been aware of this possibility for about a decade now, when it was understood that Pakistan was planning to build new plutonium production reactors. Given Pakistan's paranoia about India, the United States and Israel, its security managers believe that they can never have enough nuclear weapons. And after entering the era of fissile material plenty, there is truly no end in sight: Pakistan will keep building whatever nuclear weapons its designers can imagine because it is driven by a threat perception that is impossible to falsify by any reference to reality. Will these warheads be available, if need be, say to a patron like Saudi Arabia should the need arise? Your guess is as good as mine. Israel and the world has been concerned about Iran's nuclear programme. Should the world not be more concerned about the size of Pakistan's nuclear programmne, the possibility that terrorists may get access to it, the likelihood that a mullah general may take charge of the Pakistan army, someone who may be less concerned about no first use and other elements of nuclear etiquette? The Obama administration has certainly been concerned about some of these issues, but no one has found any good solutions yet. I would not use Iran as a baseline of comparison here, however: Iran's nuclear ambitions represent a violation of its NPT obligations, Pakistan's programme does not. To the degree that Pakistan's programme is of concern, it is a political and strategic problem for India, the United States and Israel, but it is not a problem that constitutes a fundamental challenge to the global nuclear regime. Hence, it is harder to muster the international concern that was evoked by Iran, even though any catastrophe involving Pakistan's nuclear weapons would be far more consequential in its effects. Both Pakistan General Khalid Kidwai speaking at Carnegie last April and Pervez Hoodbhoy writing in Dawn in August referred to the Indian Army's Cold Start Doctrine. General Kidwai mocked the doctrine, referring in detail to Pakistan's nuclear programme. Professor Hoodbhoy believes the Cold Start Doctrine gave the Pakistan army the excuse to 'jack up' the numbers of its nukes. How do you assess the impact of India's Cold Start doctrine on Pakistan military thinking? What steps did the Pakistan army take to thwart this doctrine? It is unclear to me what precise effect Cold Start had on Pakistan's nuclear programme. I think Pakistan's paranoia is so acute that whether Cold Start existed or not, the fundamental asymmetry in Indian and Pakistani military capabilities, coupled with Pakistan's deep suspicions about India's malicious intentions towards Pakistan, would have driven Rawalpindi to an enormous nuclear expansion in any case once the chokepoints in its fissile material production cycle were removed. How do you see the ISI's current role in the Pakistan army? Is covert operations against India, in Afghanistan still its exclusive domain? Has it grown even more powerful in recent times or was it put on a leash of sorts after 26/11, so as not to incite the Americans? Do you foresee an ISI-inspired major terror attack in India like 26/11? Or is that kind of terror op deemed too expensive for Pakistan internationally? I don't see the ISI's role as having changed at all: it still has both internal and external functions, the latter involving both Afghanistan and India but going beyond both. I think 26/11, and the revelations that followed, highlighted the strong connections between ISI and LeT. But it also flagged the risks of an unbridled terrorist campaign against India for Pakistan's own interests. The US, for its part, has tried to remind Rawalpindi of that quite consistently. For a while, the ISI did try to keep its proxies on a tight leash, but whether it can or will do so 'forever' is not obvious. Do you see the possibility of an India-Pakistan short duration war, as some observers believe? Or is that extremely unlikely? Over two decades ago, when I was at (the think-tank) RAND, I concluded long before the 1998 nuclear tests that India-Pakistani security competition for the foreseeable future would be characterised by 'ugly stability' -- subconventional violence that would persist at varying levels of intensity because both unlimited and limited conventional conflicts were risky for both sides. I think that conclusion still holds true -- obviously, India could be compelled to embark on short-duration military reprisals, if Pakistani terrorism inflicts mass or conspicuous casualties. Short of such eventualities, however, New Delhi has more important things to do if Modi's dream of India becoming a leading power is to be realised. In fact, the greater danger to my mind is not that Pakistani-terrorism against India might push New Delhi towards a limited war, but towards subconventional retaliation, with great risks for Pakistan's own stability and India's international reputation. What are the five things you can expect from Pakistan this year? If only my crystal ball were that clear! 'The combination of the LeT and the ISI is the most dangerous terrorist challenge in the world because it carries a real and present danger of provoking nuclear war.' IMAGE: The Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai in flames, November 26-27, 2008. Last year, former Central Intelligence Agency official Bruce Riedel made the startling revelation that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in the cross-hairs of terrorist groups like the Lashkar-e-Tayiba and Al Qaeda. Speaking at one of several conferences held on the eve of Modi's visit to the US in September 2014, Riedel, who was part of the CIA for over three decades, said, "Prime Minister Modi, his very persona, his past, the histories about him, perceptions for and against him, attract Islamic extremist thinking." "Modi as an extremely successful Indian politician, known to be a strong nationalist, known to be a strong believer in the BJP ideology, is going to attract the attention of extremist movements like Laskhar-e-Tayiba, like Al Qaeda," Riedel, now a Senior Fellow and Director at the Washington, DC think-tank, the Brookings Institution's Intelligence Project, added. "It is inevitable in who he is that enemies of that are going to try to take him down," Riedel warned. "The attack underscores the determination of jihadist groups in Pakistan to sabotage any attempt at detente with India," Riedel replied when Nikhil Lakshman/Rediff.com sought an interview soon after the Indian Air Force station in Pathankot was attacked. "These groups have very powerful friends in the Pakistani army who want to see the Lahore process collapse," he added. After the bon homie of Christmas Day in Lahore, were you surprised that the Pathankot airbase attack occurred so quickly? No, I was not surprised. An attack was very predictable by jihadists wanting to sabotage the Lahore process. A high profile target like an airbase was the jihadists' choice to buttress their claims to be warriors. Could such an attack have occurred without the Pakistan military's approval? Do you believe the Pakistan army no longer controls terror groups like the Lashkar-e-Tayiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed, and these groups have become independent, sort of like the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan? The Pakistani intelligence service, the ISI, almost certainly knew an operation was coming. The ISI closely monitors JeM and LeT. They control their leadership and facilities, and have agents inside these and similar groups. They are not independent actors. Some commentators felt that since Pakistan's new NSA was a former general who enjoyed General Raheel Sharif's backing, the Pakistan army was on board with the current India-Pakistan rapprochement-of-sorts process. Did you think so? Who are the forces in the Pakistan military determined to thwart a better relationship with India? Is it historical baggage that motivates these forces -- payback for 1971 -- or something else? I'm sceptical the army supports Prime Minister (Nawaz) Sharif's foreign policy. They certainly don't back him on Afghanistan where he has backed the peace process and the army has backed military action by the Taliban. It is even less likely the army supports detente with India. A detente would undermine their privileged status as the defenders of Islamic Pakistan. It's not about 1971, it's about the military's perks. There is a feeling the terrorists have been asked to target security establishments in India, rather than civilian targets, perhaps to avert the kind of worldwide opprobrium that ensued after 26/11. Do you agree? Do you see a new pattern emerging in the targeting of Indian security establishments in India and diplomatic establishments in Afghanistan? The terrorists and their patrons prefer military targets to shore up their credentials as mujahideen. But I doubt any prohibition is in place on civilian targets. If that is the most practical target available, they will target Mumbai like soft targets again. The terrorist groups and the ISI are confident the nuclear arsenal will prevent a significant military response. Has radical Islam penetrated the upper reaches of the Pakistan army? Or are the generals insulated from this phenomenon? Are brigadiers and colonels with such a mindset weeded out before they reach the ranks of generals? How would you describe the current state of Pakistan military leadership? Are they more austere, more devout than the men who preceded them, men more like their counterparts in the Indian Army, who enjoy their sundowners? Radical Islam penetrated the highest ranks of the army decades ago when Zia-(ul Haq) came to power. The army is not a simple homogeneous officer corps, like any army. But radical extremists have been in the senior ranks for years and that will not change until the civilian authorities have real control of the officer corps. That is not likely. How do you see the ISI's current role in the Pakistan army? Is covert operations against India, and in Afghanistan still its exclusive domain? Has it grown even more powerful in recent times or was it put on a leash of sorts after 26/11, so as not to incite the Americans? The ISI is run by the COAS (Chief of the Army Staff). There is no credible evidence it has abandoned terrorism as an instrument of policy. The generals believe the nuclear umbrella precludes an Indian response using force. They also believe it constrains the Americans. So far, they have been proven right. Do you foresee an ISI-inspired major terror attack in India like 26/11? Or is that kind of terror op deemed too expensive for Pakistan internationally? There is a very serious risk of another spectacular terrorist attack in 2016 by ISI-backed groups. Do you see the possibility of an India-Pakistan short duration war, as some observers believe? Or is that extremely unlikely? Is the ISI the most dangerous organisation of its kind in the world? What operations have you seen its involvement in that has startled you? They tried in 2014 at Herat (when the Indian consulate was attacked on the eve of Prime Minister Modi's swearing-in). They have now struck in the Punjab. I'm sure there are many plots foiled by R&AW we don't know about. The basic rationale for using terrorism against India is unchanged, and the ISI is not reformed. As I have said before, the combination of the LeT and the ISI is the most dangerous terrorist challenge in the world because it carries a real and present danger of provoking nuclear war. Why have the Bush and Obama administrations ignored the ISI and the Pakistan army's perfidy? Unlike Bush, Obama is well aware of Pakistan's complicated politics and the dangerous thinking in the army. That is why he launched the Abbottabad raid without informing Islamabad or Rawalpindi. He doesn't trust the (Pakistan) army, but he knows it's important (the same applies to Hillary Clinton). It's no accident Obama has never traveled to Pakistan. What are the five things you expect from Pakistan and its army in 2016? I expect the army to devote even more resources to accelerate the growth of their nuclear arsenal with the goal of becoming one of the world's largest nuclear powers. That is what they see as their jewel in the crown. In Afghanistan, they believe victory is now a matter of time, Kabul will fall to their proxies. They will try to make this happen sooner not later. Lt Colonel E K Niranjan, head of the elite bomb squad of the NSG and an "explosives expert", was on Sunday killed while defusing an explosive device at the Pathankot IAF base. Officials said he was undertaking a mopping up and render safe procedure on the encounter spot when a blast occurred and splinters and sharpnels hit the officer fatally. Four jawans were injured in the blast. Lt Col Niranjan, who hailed from Palghat in Kerala, was commissioned in the Engineers Regiment of the Army in 2004. He is survived by his wife Dr Radhika and an 18-month-old daughter. Born in Bengaluru, Niranjan grew up with his two brothers and a sister away from his home state Kerala. Talking to media persons, Lt Col Niranjans grieving father EK Sivaranjan said: From the beginning, he was very much interested to join the Army. He told me that he liked the Army dress. "Lt Col E K Niranjan was an expert on explosives and head of the bomb disposal squad. He was a brave soldier. His professionalism and dedication to serve the nation will inspire everyone in NSG for many many years to come. I salute to the brave soul," National Security Guard Director General R C Tayal said. His uncle Harikrishnan told The Indian Express, "He had visited us during the last Onam festival in September. I last spoke to him in October when he called to inform me about his promotion. He was very happy. He sent me pictures of his daughter through WhatsApp." As counter-terrorism operations at the Pathankot air base continued for the second consecutive day, the Union government on Sunday said it was unsure if more terrorists were still holed up. The comments by Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi came a day after Home Minister Rajnath Singh tweeted saying the operation had been completed with the killing of five terrorists. Singh later deleted his tweet. "We are sure that still there are at least two more terrorists as firing have come from two different places. But we are not sure whether there are some more. We will come to know the number of terrorists only after the completion of the operation and body count," Mehrishi told a press conference. He said four terrorists were killed in the gun-fight on Saturday while firing resumed this afternoon at two places in the air base. Asked about the Home Minister's tweet, Mehrishi said he was giving authentic information and "doesn't know what others are saying". He said a Superintendent of Police of Punjab, who was kidnapped along with two others on Friday and was left off later, had said that there were only four terrorists. Asked whether there is any lapse while dealing with the terrorists as seven security personnel were killed so far despite having prior information about terrorists, Mehrishi denied there was any lapse. "There was no lapse. Some casualties are obvious when there is an operation in this scale," he said. Mehrishi said so far there were seven casualties -- six Indian Air Force personnel (including five Defence Security Corps personnel and one Garuda commando), and one NSG officer, Lt Colonel Niranjan. Eight IAF personnel and 12 NSG commandos were also injured so far. The NSG officer was killed while trying to defuse a grenade attached with the body of a terrorist. Five NSG commandos were also injured in the incident. Seven other NSG commandos were also injured in separate incidents in mopping up operation. Asked when the operation against the terrorist would be over, Director General (Air Operations) of the IAF Air Marshal Anil Khosla said they were not sure about that as the action against the terrorists was still on. Asked why the terror attack could not be foiled despite deployment of a large number of NSG commandos, the Union home secretary said the team of the specialised force was waiting in Pathankot for the terrorists as the exact point of possible attack was not known. "When they (terrorists) attacked the air base, the NSG team moved immediately," he said. Air Marshal Khosla said the main aim of the terrorists was defeated as they could not reach the technical area of the Pathankot air base where high valued assets were kept. "The first contact with the terrorists was made on Saturday morning at around 3.30 am. The terrorists were contained in an area where there is heavy growth and shrubs. The operation is now at a matured stage," he said. The IAF officer said the operation was "slowed down" on Saturday after the killing of four terrorists as security forces were not sure whether there were more terrorists still at large. The gun-fight resumed this afternoon when the terrorists began firing from two places. Asked about the terror group which could be behind the attack, the home secretary said as per initial information it was Pakistan-based terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad but it would be confirmed only after the operation is over. Mehrishi said there were intelligence reports about infiltration attempts by JeM and Lashkar-e-Tayiba militants and based on these inputs, 40 terrorists were neutralised by security forces since August 2015. He said after getting information about the terrorists, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval called an emergency meeting on Friday, which was attended by Army Chief General Dalbir Singh Suhag besides others, to take stock of the situation and necessary instructions were given to secure government offices and vital installations along the western border. Alert was sounded in Punjab and all air stations in the area were put on high alert, he said. The home secretary said AOC-in-C Western Air Command, Air Marshal S B Deo is in Pathankot and coordinating the operation, which is jointly being carried out by IAF, Army, NSG and Punjab Police. He said the terrorists were located through aerial surveillance and then counter attack was launched. Mehrishi said one grievously injured DSC personnel was airlifted to Chandigarh for further treatment. Photograph: Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi and Air Marshal Anil Khosla, Director General Air Operations, during a press conference on terror attack at Pathankot air base, in New Delhi on Sunday. Photograph: Vijay Verma/PTI Photo Pakistani media outlets on Sunday said the brazen attack by terrorists at a key Indian Air Force base will pose a "challenge to attempts to resurrect" the dialogue process between the two neighbours despite the goodwill generated by recent high-level meetings between their leaders. On its front page lead 'Gunmen mount brazen attack on Indian air force base', the Express Tribune said the attack was over but it posed a "challenge to attempts to resurrect a moribund dialogue process between the two neighbours". The News International reported that the assault by gunmen came a week after Prime Minister Narendra Modi made an unscheduled visit to his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif in an effort to revive bilateral talks. "Previous attempts at dialogue between the nuclear-armed neighbours have been derailed by similar incidents but, as Pakistani authorities condemned the raid, experts suggested the latest negotiations would prove more durable," it opined. Dawn said that immediate indications from India after the Pathankot incident suggested that the foreign secretaries' talks would go ahead despite the setback, but the incident would impact the atmospherics. "India expects to complete initial probe into the incident before the meeting and its position at the talks would depend a lot on what comes out of the investigation," the paper said. "The Foreign Office said it hoped to build on the goodwill generated by recent high-level contacts," it added. As print media mostly focused on the attack and its likely impact on the peace process, the electronic media was busy in a matching response to Indian TV channels trying to find Pakistan link to the attack. Urdu language newspapers also gave wide coverage to the incident, while mostly focusing on the details of the attack and response by the Indian security forces. They also criticised accusation against Pakistan without investigations. Influential Jang newspaper reported that Indian officials in a typical kneejerk reaction blamed Pakistan for the attack. Heavily-armed Pakistani terrorists on Saturday attempted to storm the Air Force base in Pathankot, triggering a day-long gunbattle in which seven security personnel and all terrorists were killed. The attackers were believed to have infiltrated from Pakistan and there was speculation that they may belong to Jaish-e-Mohammad headed by Maulana Masood Azhar of the Kandahar hijack episode. Defence experts have questioned the way the audacious terror attack on the Indian Air Force base in Pathankot was handled, with some even saying it was the result of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "high-risk" mission to Lahore where he met his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif. While Home Secretary Rajiv Mehreshi on Sunday claimed at a press conference that there was no security lapse, defence experts, however, felt that the operation could have been handled in a better way as there was advance intelligence about infiltration by terrorists and that the IAF base could be potential target. Former RAW Chief A S Dulat raised questions about failure of security agencies in thwarting the attack. "Generally intelligence agencies get the flak, but here is a case when you had pinpointed intelligence and still you could not make it. Why?" he said. Dulat said the Pathankot operation had raised many questions including those about the role of security forces who could not neutralise the terrorists fast. "How can the terrorists enter so easily without getting noticed and that too with such a huge quantity of ammunition? Are the terrorist also paying their way through like the drug cartels? These questions need an early answer," he said. Former Western Air Command Chief Air Marshall P S Ahulwalia, who has commanded the Pathankot air base during his service, said coordination between various security agencies "could have been better" to minimise causalities of the security forces. "The success or otherwise of any operation could be judged by the following -- whether the terrorists were able to achieve their objective, minimal causality to our own forces, no collateral damage and attackers being neutralised in optimal time frame. "The terrorist were not able to achieve their objective and they could not reach their target. However, we have lost more men and this could have been prevented by effective coordination. And also that the time taken to neutralise the attackers is way too long," he said. Some defence experts also felt that the Pathankot attack was only aimed at stalling the Indo-Pak talks, with some of them favouring to call off the dialogue process, saying it was a response from the Pakistani army to the recent meeting between prime ministers of the two countries. Commodore (retd) G J Singh said the Pathankot attack was a clear message from Pakistan Army Chief and the ISI "that we are in charge of Pakistan and we are ruling the roost and Nawaz Sharif is not incharge. "He (Sharif) is only an ornamental prime minister of Pakistan and this is also the message to him that look you can do anything but we will run this country at our whims and fancies," he said. Maj Gen (retd) Ashok Mehta favoured a meeting between the National Security Advisors of India and Pakistan. "In fact, the NSAs should be talking to each other and discuss whether we will continue the talks. We need clarifications and these clarifications can only come through engagement," he said. Retired Maj Gen Gagandeep Bakshi said in a Facebook post that he feared such an incident after the prime ministers of the two countries met last month. "Just a week after PM Modi's impulsive and high-risk mission to Pakistan to try to desperately seek peace, the Pakistani backstab has come even sooner than we expected in the form of the attack on the Pathankot air base. "We did not give a massive mandate to the BJP to go back on its words and fare worse than the UPA in dealing with Pakistan," he said. Defence Expert Uday Bhaskar said this attack from Pakistan comes at a time when two nations are moving closer. "We have seen this in the past during the tenure of Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Whenever we move closer, such attacks take place and dialogue process goes on a back burner," he said. Another Defence Expert P M Hoon said Pakistan was not "trustworthy", while Kamar Agha said the attack was aimed at derailing the talks between Foreign Secretaries of the two countries scheduled later this month. "The efforts of Prime Minister Modi had raised hopes for dialogue process to get going and this attack is only meant to derail it," Agha said. Image: A helicopter hovers over the Indian Air Force base at Pathankot on Sunday. Photograph: PTI Photo An Ola car driver has been arrested in Bhopal for allegedly raping a woman passenger, the police said on Sunday. The alleged incident took place on December 29, but the victim, a 28-year-old married woman, lodged the complaint on January 1 as the accused Dipak Bamane had warned her not to disclose the incident to anyone, inspector Suryakant Awasthi of Koh-e-Fiza police station said. Bamane picked up the woman, who works with a private hospital, from her house on December 29. However, he stopped along a deserted stretch of road between Bairagarh and Gandhi Nagar and allegedly raped her inside the cab. He threatened to kill her if she complained to anyone, the police officer said. After the woman told her husband about the incident three days later, the two approached the police following which Bamane was arrested on Saturday. Bamane lives near the victim's house and possibly knew her, inspector Awasthi said. He had been working with Ola for the last few months. Intermittent blasts and exchange of fire to neutralise two more terrorists continued on Sunday night at Air Force Station in Pathankot, Punjab where four terrorists were killed, seven security men lost their lives and 17 persons were injured in the over 40-hour-long operation. While earlier reports claimed that the two remaining terrorists had been gunned down, Air Commodore J S Dhamoon, Air Officer Commanding of the Pathankot AFB, told media persons that the operation is still on and engagement with the terrorists is continuing. Army trucks carrying military equipments arrive at the Pathankot air force base in Pathankot on Sunday. Photograph: PTI Photo The Air Commodore said four terrorists have been killed, seven security men -- one Garud commando, five from Defence Security Corps and one from NSG have been martyred in the operation. The operations will continue till the whole of air base is cleared of intruder and any terrorist, he added Giving details about the operation the Air Commodore said that on January 1 there were inputs that infiltration has taken place from Gurdaspur sector and the target is Pathankot area. Keeping in view the inputs, Air Force assets were activated, NSG, army, and police were mobilised. We took all measures at the Pathankot Air Force station, he said. The officer further elaborated on it by saying that terrorists had entered the premises and one of the group of DSC was ambushed by the terrorists and during the engagement one DSC personnel was martyred and another injured. Security men stand guard as an armoured vehicle moves near the Indian Air Force base that was attacked by terrorists in Pathankot. Photograph: PTI Photo The terrorists ran away and reached the DSC mess where our people were working in early morning preparing breakfast and they fired indiscriminately. "As the militants tried to run away from there one of the DSC jawans who was not injured killed one the terrorists with his (terrorist's) gun but was killed by another terrorist. Subsequently the terrorists were cordoned off and in the late afternoon three of the terrorists were killed. Two of them are being engaged and the operation is still on. During the day, five companies of army, armed with bulldozers, JCB were sent to the area to speed up the operation against the terrorists. Throughout the day, choppers kept flying over the air force station to provide aerial support to the ground troops engaged in the operation against the terrorists. Explosions rocked the area with high rise smoke clouds coming from the scene of gunbattle amidst heavy exchange of firing in the afternoon and evening between terrorists and security forces. Army jawans hold positions inside the Pathankot air base. Photograph: Reuters A group of terrorists in army fatigues had on Saturday attempted to storm the base, which is barely 35 kms from the international Border with Pakistan, but could not penetrate deep. On Sunday, a fresh grenade blast ripped through the air force base, claiming the life of a National Security Guard commando, as three other security men succumbed to injuries in a hospital after Saturdays terror attack taking the toll of Indian security personnel to seven. Lt Col Niranjan (left), a member of the NSG's Bomb Disposal Squad, was killed while he was defusing the grenade at the scene of the terror attack as part of the combing operations that continued through the night. Four other security men were also injured in the blast. Defence sources said Niranjan, a resident of Kerala, was killed while trying to retrieve the grenade from the body of a dead terrorist. Lt Col Niranjan is survived by his wife Radhika and an 18-month-old daughter. Five members of the Defence Security Corps succumbed to injuries in the hospital. Among the casualties is Garud Commando Gursevak Singh, who was from Ambala. Singh, who had been hit in the initial burst of gunfire, had been married a month ago. But despite being hit, he carried on fighting and died before medical help could arrive. Champion shooter Subedar Fateh Singh, 51, was posted at Pathankot about two years ago. He had won a gold and a silver medal at the first Commonwealth Shooting Championships held in Delhi in 1995. The others martyred include Havildar Kulwant Singh, a resident of Gurdaspur, and jawans Jagdish Singh and Sanjiv Kumar. A large cache of arms and ammunition have already been recovered during the sanitisation and search operations. IAF helicopters were also seen flying over the base and nearby areas to assist the ground forces in the operations. Security personnel signal to people to clear the road for an army truck to exit the Pathankot air base. Photograph: Reuters The attackers were believed to have infiltrated from Pakistan and there was speculation that they may belong to Jaish-e-Mohammad headed by Maulana Masood Azhar of the Kandahar hijack episode. The terrorists were carrying Under Barrel Grenade Launchers, 52 mm mortars, AK rifles and GPS machine. Based on intercepts, security agencies believe that one Nazeer from Bahawalpur in Pakistan was leading the group. Defence sources said the terrorists sneaked into the nearly 2000-acre air base through a forested area where they were confronted by the Quick Reaction Team of Garud commandos. They managed to go up to 400 metres but were still 700 metres away from the area where the IAF aircraft fighters were stationed. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday night reviewed the situation arising out of the terror attack at Pathankot air force base and is believed to have discussed with top officials its ramifications on ties with Pakistan. Soon after his return from Karnataka where he was on a two-day visit, Modi chaired a meeting of top officials including National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar. The meeting lasted for over two hours, the sources said. "Immediately on landing in Delhi, PM Narendra Modi is chairing a high-level meeting with the NSA, Foreign Secretary and other officials," the PMO tweeted as the meeting began. During the meeting, Doval is understood to have given a detailed account of the attack which has been going on since the wee hours of Saturday. At the meeting, the implications of the attack on relations with Pakistan are also believed to have been deliberated upon. The attack took place merely a week after Modi made a surprise visit to Lahore to greet Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on his birthday with an aim of improving bilateral ties between the two countries. Sharif was in Lahore for the wedding of his granddaughter. Earlier during the day, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar briefed Prime Minister Modi on the latest situation at the Pathankot air base. Both were present at a HAL function in Tumakuru in Karnataka. Punjab, which faced two terror attacks in six months, on Sunday announced deployment of a commando battalion and a special SWAT team in Pathankot as a "second line of defence" and also sought deployment of more Border Security Force troops along the state's border with Pakistan. Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal while making the announcement, a day after the terror attack on the IAF base in Pathankot, said the state government was writing to the Centre that BSF deployment should be increased on par with the neighbouring state of Jammu and Kashmir. "We have to act as second line of defence. Immediately, we will have new police lines established in Pathankot, one commando batallion will also be set up here so that there is quick response (in the wake of major attacks). "A special SWAT team will be stationed in Pathankot district so that there is quick response if any eventuality happens in the future so that we can take quick action," Badal told reporters. "The BSF deployment should be increased at least in this area (Gurdaspur and Pathankot) because this is second or third time such an incident has occurred," Badal said. He said the state police will come out with a "master plan" for second line of defence. Badal, who held a review meeting with senior police officials after the Pathankot attack, also said that he has directed the police authorities to get "mapping done of all vulnerable points along the border". "If some terrorists manage to sneak from the border into our territory, so we should look at how we can act as a second line of defence. "I want technology to be used. We will see how we will act as second line of defence, we will have to use CCTVs, laser technology, ground detection system which are internationally-used across borders, specially this area, Gurdaspur and Pathankot... it needs to be done," he said. Badal said that he will ask Punjab Police DGP to get in touch with all the experts. Asked if there was any security lapse and how the terrorists managed to sneak in, he said "investigations have not yet started as operation is still going on". Saudi Arabia on Sunday came under attack globally a day after it carried out mass execution of 47 people, including Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr who was a vocal critic of the government and the Saudi monarchy. Image: People protest in front of Saudi Arabia's embassy during a demonstration in Tehran. Iranian protesters stormed the Saudi Embassy in Tehran early on Sunday morning as Shi'ite Muslim Iran reacted with fury to Saudi Arabia's execution of a prominent Shi'ite cleric. Photograph: Mehdi Ghasemi/ISNA/Reuters The execution -- some beheaded, and others were shot by firing squad -- has provoked a huge backlash among the Shia community across the world and threatens to deepen the serious sectarian conflict in the Middle East. Ironically, Saudi Arabia is the head of the United Nations human rights council. Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr was a symbolic leader of Shia protesters during the Arab Spring uprisings in many parts of the Persian Gulf. In Iranian capital Tehran, protesters threw petrol bombs and stormed the embassy. The kingdom's consulate in Mashhad, Iran's second biggest city in the country's northeast, was also set on fire. Shia-dominated Iran has said that rival Saudi Arabia is going to pay a "high price" for the executions. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani criticised Saudi Arabia for killing Nimr. "I have no doubt that the Saudi government has damaged its image, more than before, among the countries in the world -- in particular (among) Islamic countries -- by this un-Islamic act," he said in a statement. There has been a huge upsurge in executions in Saudi Arabia in 2015 with at least 157 people put to death as compared to 90 people who were executed in 2014. Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that Saudi Arabia will face "divine revenge" for executing the top Shiite cleric. Khamenei called the killing of Nimr "a political mistake by the Saudi government" which would "haunt its politicians". "The unjustly spilt blood of this martyr will have quick consequences," Khamenei told clerics in the Iranian capital. "God will not forgive." "This scholar neither encouraged people into armed action nor secretly conspired for plots but the only thing he did was utter public criticism rising from his religious zeal," he said of Nimr. However, Saudi Arabia's foreign ministry, in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency, accused Tehran of "blind sectarianism" and said that "by its defense of terrorist acts" Iran is a "partner in their crimes in the entire region." The country's interior ministry said the executed men had been convicted of adopting the radical "takfiri" ideology, joining "terrorist organizations" and implementing various "criminal plots." Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran have been locked in bitter rivalry, and support opposite sides in the wars in Syria and Yemen. Iran accuses Saudi Arabia of supporting "terrorism" in part because it backs Syrian rebel groups, while Riyadh points to Iran's support for the Lebanese Hezbollah and other Shiite militant groups in the region. The cleric's execution could also complicate Saudi Arabia's relationship with the Shiite-led government in Iraq. The Saudi embassy in Baghdad reopened for the first time in nearly 25 years on Friday. Already, there were public calls for Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to shut the embassy down again. Image: A girl carries a picture of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, who was executed along with others in Saudi Arabia, during a protest against the execution in front of the United Nation's building in Beirut, Lebanon. Sign reads, "The martyr scholar Nimr al-Nimr". Photograph: Hasan Shaaban/Reuters The United Nations too came down hard upon Saudi Arabia for carrying out the executions. "Under international human rights law, the death penalty may only be imposed, in countries that still have this form of punishment, if a strict set of substantive and procedural requirements are met," UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said. "The category of 'most serious crimes' for which the death penalty is still permissible, has been consistently interpreted by human rights mechanisms as being restricted to murder and other forms of intentional killing," he added. "Convictions cannot be based on confessions obtained under torture and ill-treatment, or trial proceedings that fall short of international standards," the High Commissioner said. The UN rights chief also said that convictions for applying the death penalty that fall short of international standards are "unconscionable" because "any miscarriage of justice as a result of capital punishment cannot be undone". "Now we see almost one-third of the 2015 total executed in a single day," Zeid said, adding, "That is a very disturbing development indeed, particularly as some of those sentenced to death were accused of non-violent crimes." He urged the government of Saudi Arabia to impose a moratorium on all executions and "to work with the UN and other partners on alternative strategies to combat terrorism". The UN General Assembly has repeatedly passed a number of resolutions calling on member states who retain the death penalty to establish a moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty altogether. The terrorists who struck at the Indian Air Force base in Pathankot on Saturday and who are believed to be from Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad terror outfit may have stationed themselves within the complex since January one itself apparently unnoticed. The terrorists, who sneaked into India on December 30 and 31 and made their way to Pathankot air base using the vehicle of a Punjab Police Superintendent of Police rank officer, are now believed to have entered the IAF campus on the afternoon of January one. The attackers had hijacked the private vehicle carrying the Gurdaspur SP, his friend Rajesh Verma and the SP's orderly. As the security agencies probed the sequence of events that led to the unsuccessful attack to target fighters and helicopters, it has emerged that the terrorists had "comfortably housed" themselves within the IAF campus during the day time, sources privy to the probe said on Sunday. The cell tower for all the calls made by the terrorists from the mobile phone of Verma, a jeweller and a friend of the police officer whose vehicle was hijacked in the afternoon of January one and barely hours before launching the attack, were same, the sources said. The calls made from the phone of Verma were routed through the same mobile phone tower throughout January one and the intervening night before the attack was launched, the sources said. The terrorists, after breaching the security of the IAF base, had apparently hid themselves in the thick forest area of the campus which has an area of around 1800 to 2000 acres. Officials termed it as a "serious security breach" which will be investigated only after the operation inside the campus is over and an all clear signal was received from the IAF authorities. The IAF authorities have been asked to preserve the register of sentry duties of January 1 and a through questioning is expected once the operation is over, the sources said. DALLAS For 52 years, Inge Bentjen cut hair for dozens of prominent Dallasites from the Rev. W.A. Criswell of Dallas' First Baptist Church, who has since died, to former Vice President Dick Cheney, while he was working at Halliburton. On Dec. 25, she closed the doors of Inge's Barber Shop in downtown Dallas for good. She credits customer Jim Lowe, a Dallas radio personality who worked for WRR from 1950-74, for bringing in many customers. "That's how lots of them came. He talked about me (on the radio). He always called me Inge baby," Bentjen remembers with a chuckle. Bentjen said health problems led to her decision to retire. About five years ago, she passed out and fell while working in the shop on Patterson Street between North Akard and North Ervay streets. She said she's never fully recovered from the accident, suffering from chronic back and shoulder pains. "I can barely raise my arms," she said. "I have some tall customers and they say, 'If you can't raise your arms, we'll sit on the floor.'" Bentjen wasn't keen on making a fuss about her retirement. For her, it wasn't a milestone to celebrate. "They want to make a party for me and all that. I say, 'It's not really a party, closing,'" she said. "It's hard on me, I don't want to say goodbye." Bentjen learned barbering during a three-year apprenticeship with a class of other women in Germany shortly after World War II. It was a welcome alternative to working in a factory, she said. "I never had any interest in fixing hair, but I learned it and I liked it," Bentjen said. After marrying a member of the Air Force, she moved to America in 1954. She leased space for her first shop off Ervay Street in the early 1960s. She moved around the corner to her current spot at 1606 Patterson St., leasing from First Baptist Church in 1990. In a Dallas Morning News article dated July 31, 1958, a 27-year-old Bentjen described the reactions she got being a female barber. "They rarely get fresh," Bentjen said of her male customers in the article. "They can't afford to; I've got the razor and scissors." Another News article Jan. 12, 1969, said Bentjen averaged about 20 to 25 shaves a day. Bentjen said business has slowed through the years. She's altered her hours to accommodate that, working only Tuesday through Thursday except her final Firday, when she planned to open to serve her final customers. "Everybody wants to come in at the last minute," Bentjen said. Like many other customers, Dallas banker Jim Erwin used to walk over for a haircut when he worked downtown. When his business moved to North Dallas, he still made the drive. As cars and pedestrians passed by her shop on a recent morning, Bentjen was busy working away. "Jim, I left it longer than you wanted it," Bentjen says to Erwin. After a neck shave, she gently smooths down his hair with a comb and hands him a mirror to take a look. "Looks good to me," Erwin says. "Don't think you can do any better with what you have." A sign above the antique cash register reads: "Welcome to the friendliest place in town." Cosmetologist Lydia Benun, who has rented a chair at Inge's Barber Shop for 10 years, said she can attest to the sign's authenticity. She said Bentjen can't see someone hurting without doing what she can to help, whether that's offering a sandwich, a sum of money or giving her a break on rent. "She's the best, (most) good-hearted person that I've ever known in my life," Benun said. Bentjen considers the customers and co-workers of her downtown Dallas barbershop members of her family. "I don't like them, I love them," she said. She regularly gives out boxes of German cookies or chocolate. For Christmas, she passes out Advent calendars to customers with children or grandchildren. "It costs me lots of money, but I'm not going to tell them," Bentjen said. She's also been known to visit customers in the hospital. When an accident sent Dallas lawyer and former Fairview Mayor Sim Israeloff to the hospital two years ago, Bentjen showed up in his room with her scissors and a box of cookies. "Sure enough, Inge came and cut my hair in the hospital wouldn't even let us pay her for that particular haircut," Israeloff said. During his last cut before the shop's closing, Israeloff had something to give Bentjen. It was a certificate of Special Recognition from the city of Dallas signed by Mayor Mike Rawlings. "She was in tears; it was so wonderful. A good way to cap off a more than 30-year connection," Israeloff said. As Bentjen flips through a photo album in her shop, she recalls more clients, such as former Dallas Cowboys kicker Toni Fritsch and her late shoeshiner, Freeman Fleming, who worked for her for 30 years. It's the people she'll miss most in retirement, she said. Between the old customers and employees are photos of her family, friends and other reminders of her life back in Germany. The cream-and black-floral-patterned album never leaves her side. "It's a lot of memories, you know. I just always carry them with me," Bentjen said. Area communities are dealing with the decline of the recent oil boom in different ways, most trying to capitalize on gains made, all looking to the future. Economist Karr Ingham said that Big Country towns could still build on improvements made during the period, such as new hotel lodging, even as the overall economy slows. Understanding the area's connection with the oil and gas business means that up and downs are somewhat inevitable, Ingham said. "Abilene has benefitted from higher levels of oil and gas activity over the last six years," he said. "So you could certainly understand it has to be the same on the way down. And that's where we are." But there has been "some successful diversity" that makes it less likely to be as negatively affected as other parts of the state, Ingham said. Abilene's occupational job orders have been consistent throughout November and December, said Steve Collins, business resource consultant with Workforce Solutions of West Central Texas, with construction and manufacturing common employer needs. "We are fortunate to reside in a city/region where former petroleum workers can transfer their knowledge/skills/abilities into current job opportunities in this area," Collins wrote in an email. "Another reason we are not seeing a large number of unemployed individuals in this region is the industry diversity of the region, not just centered on oil production." Earlier in the month, Abilene was holding steady at a 3.9 percent unemployment rate, Collins said, with new job orders coming in daily at rate of about 9 to 15, on average. "Abilene has not been impacted by the low oil prices as some of our surrounding cities and counties," he said, with local and area employers who need to fill positions compatible with the skills of those with oil field experience, even if such jobs are not oil-related. For example, Mortenson Construction recently came to town to hire more than 150 workers for the Alamo 7 Solar Project in Haskell, with hiring opportunities for superintendents, foreman/leads, electricians, equipment operators, solar PV installers and laborers. Edge of Glory Ken Becker, who heads Sweetwater's Enterprise for Economic Development, which administer's the city's economic development sales tax, said his community had been more or less on the "edge, rather than in the middle" of the oil boom. "We're probably becoming more of a logistical location here," he said, with the hope of reaping greater rewards in the future. BNSF Railway developed a new logistics center in the community to meet the needs of energy and agricultural industries. At its peak, the line was running 250 to 300 railcars of sand a month. These days, it's more like 100, Becker said. Exploration and new drilling have also slowed, he said. "We had a company here that had 125-130 people during the peak and now they're (employing) 35 or 40," he said. "So we have to put names and faces to that and remember it is affecting people." At the same time, though, there is positive growth, Becker said. The logistics center remains a multi-product rail terminal that serves as a regional hub for various industries and continues to experience strong growth in shipments of construction and agricultural commodities, Becker said, direct oilfield-related products only make up a portion of its volume. The center, operated by Sweetwater Switching Company, a subsidiary of Cape and Son Commodity Merchandising in Abilene, continues to be a "strong economic stimulus in the area that receives several hundred railcars per month, he said. Sales tax has done well, while Buzzi Unicem USA is spending millions to modernize and expand its cement production south of Sweetwater in Maryneal. "Part of that softens the downturn of the oil because we still have a lot of people working building that and a lot of money being spent," he said. Becker said he, too, believes communities in the area are more adept at diversity than other parts of the state. "We've got renewable energy, conventional energy, we've got heavy manufacturing," he said. "In fact, in Nolan County, if you go per capita in manufacturing, I think we're rated 35th out of 254 counties in manufacturing. People located on Interstate 20 benefit more than some of those who (aren't)." And there is still opportunity in oil, he said. "To me, you've got an oil and gas market that is still doing fair and still providing jobs and an economic base," he said. "As those prices go up and as technology improves, things like the Cline Shale represent more opportunity in the longer term." And recent proposed legislation opens up the potential for tax credits for wind and solar, as well as export for oil. "If that happens, I think that's another thing that is going to benefit our region," he said. Mitchell County lies just on the edge of the Permian Basin, said Sue Young, executive director of the Mitchell County Board of Economic Development. "In fact, the first well to be drilled in the Permian Basin was supposedly in Mitchell County," she said. That being said, Colorado City is not petroleum driven. "Yes, we have a lot of drilling in the western part of the county, but overall the 'boom' didn't really affect us that much," she said. The hotel building frenzy that occurred in Midland and Odessa made it as far east as Big Spring, she said. "We have locals who are or were oil field employed who have seen negative impacts, but the population over the last couple of years has remained steady," Young said. There is a natural gas-fired power generating station being built in Mitchell County, she said. "The project consists of two phases, each of which will have an approximate 726 megawatt combined cycle facility," she said. "The plant construction should begin in first quarter of 2016. In anticipation of this construction and the anticipated 400 to 500 workers there is quite a bit of construction in process. Weathering the Storm Bill Lavers, executive director of Development Corporation of Snyder, said that his town has "weathered" the storm as well as it can. "I don't' think we ever got to the boom we just kind of got to the 'boo,'" he quipped. "We're still here, we still have a town," he said. "We know that times are tough and people are getting cutbacks or layoffs. But we're still trying to weather through. The oil didn't disappear or evaporate. It's still here. We're trying to bring in some other different types of industry that aren't as oil field related." In addition to a major wind farm that should start construction in June, the community has three new hotels, after having no new additions in about eight years and is working on a grant application for a new truck driving school. And while things aren't as good as they might have been, the community has moved up from 89th in the state for personal income to 37th in a mere four years, Lavers said. Sales tax revenue has dropped, he said. "But we're still second or third place," he said. "I'd say 30 percent off the best year we've ever had is still pretty good." The community also boasts a new junior high school, while the city has spent $9 million on infrastructure improvements. And compared to areas such as Midland/Odessa, "we're still not retracting as much as they have," Lavers said. "We're kind of holding our own," he said. "If you're that guy that lost your job or took a pay cut, that's bad. But overall we're weathering the storm pretty well." Lavers said that he's working on three "really big deals" now that are still actively looking at investment in Snyder. And some in the area have took the plunge into other areas of business when oil prices started to dry up, he said. "That kind of resilience and tenacity and courage and tenacity is good to see," he said. This story has been updated from its original version. Economist Karr Ingham doesn't mince words when it comes to his perspective on the state of the oil industry. "Oil is doing horribly," Ingham said. "(It's) certainly doing horribly compared to the last five or six years or so." From 2010-2014, crude oil prices were rising and a "lot of good things were happening to the state economy and local economies," Ingham said. But the price of oil has dropped drastically. About the end of December 2013, the price of a barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude was hovering around $100. By December 2014, it had dropped to about $55 a barrel. Now, $35-$38 a barrel is the norm. "The industry itself is in a state of sharp contraction," Ingham said. That translates to fewer rigs, drilling fewer holes, and hiring fewer people, he said. "The industry has to adjust from activity levels that match up with $100 oil and get somewhere down to activity levels that match with $30-$40 oil," he said. Ken Becker, who heads Sweetwater Enterprise for Economic Development, said that while consumers may benefit from the lower prices, the contraction in oil comes with real costs to many. That translates to families struggling to pay for holiday gifts, or for houses and new cars bought when times were better. "Maybe they thought the oil boom wasn't going away so they borrowed a bunch of money," Becker said. "Some of those people are going to get laid off and they're going to be struggling." It's why when someone says they enjoy filling their tank at a low price, "we just try to help them understand that gas prices that low means unemployment and layoffs," he said. "Sometimes people just don't equate the two together," Becker said. "They just think the oil companies are just making billions and billions of dollars, which they could be. But we have to put faces to these things." 'On the Skids' The Texas Petro Index, an aggregate measure of price, permits, well completions, rig count, volume and value of production and industry employment, peaked in October 2014 and has "been on the skids ever since," Ingham said. "That's going to continue well on into 2016, and those numbers are getting pretty ugly," he said. "Statewide, we've probably lost about 60,000 of the jobs that were registered as employees on the payrolls of companies that are involved in the upstream, or production end, of the oil and gas business." The West Central Texas Workforce Development area essentially the Big Country Region, with Abilene at its hub saw oil and gas employment peak in December 2014 at 8,400 jobs, then sharply decline, he said. "There are probably more people working in that business," he said. "Some people are self-employed and don't turn up in these numbers. So these are the ones that are actually tracked as payroll employees in the exploration and production industry." In mid-December 2015, Ingham estimated around 3,000-3,500 jobs were gone, again "with more to come." "We're not finishing out the year 2015 and moving into the year 2016 with evidence that things are turning around," Ingham said just before Christmas. "They're still moving in the wrong direction." Revenues use to pay drilling companies, service companies and employees can only support an activity level of about 30 percent of the peak, he said. "Everybody's sort of focused on what time crude oil prices are going to bottom out and go north again," he said. But that could take some time. Allan Frizzell of Abilene's Enrich Oil Corp. said he thinks "we're in for six to eight months more of current prices, if the supply-and-demand picture stays the same around the world." "There' doesn't seem to be any prospect of it changing drastically in the next year," he said, with the "latest scare" that Iran will bring half a million barrels into the world market. And the price on the commodity floor isn't necessarily what is received which is usually 25 percent to 30 percent less than that price due to costs purchasers take off for transportation (about $3.50 a barrel) and taxes and royalties. "This month, for instance, the average price for West Texas Intermediate is sitting about $33.81," Frizzell said, leaving around $25 once deductions are made. "Of course, operations has to come off all of that, too," he said. Frizzell said that costs have come down for drilling a new well by about 15 percent to 20 percent, though the economic picture remains "tough," he said. Costs haven't come down as much this time as they have in the past, or as quickly. "So I hope those will continue to come down, but there's a limit to what these service companies, these drilling contractors and so forth (can endure)," he said. "They have employees' salaries, they have debt, they have costs. There's just a limit to how much pain some can endure to stay in business. Some have gone out of business." Many of the ones continuing to drill are likely only just "hanging on," he said. "It's just going to be a balance between who can stay in business, services, and who wants to continue to drill at these prices," he said. "If operators like us don't continue to try to drill some wells, I'm afraid we'll lose all our rigs and then when it's time to start drilling again, all those rigs will be mothballed, employees will be long gone and they'll have to restaff. That's the other side of it when it comes back. We hope it will." Admittedly, that may take a long time, Frizzell said, unless there's a disruption in prices. "But there's so much supply that disruption will have a lesser effect than it would in the past," he said. "There's so much oil out there." Outlook hazy It remains to be seen, Ingham said, how the industry will respond to any uptick in price. With improved technology and a significant number of unfinished wells in place, the industry can respond so quickly that it could actually snuff out a desired upturn in price. Right now, we are "awash in crude oil," Ingham said, with production in Texas and the United States still higher than it was a year ago. "We need to ultimately get to be where we're producing less for the price to change," he said. "You don't need to be setting (production) records in a year where your prices are going down," he said. "And yet, that's what we're getting ready to do." Crude oil storage similarly remains high. "Those things are correctable by declining production in the United States, which one thinks would happen," he said. "When you're drilling 60-70 percent fewer holes, you would think production would decline and that would still be the case." But even if domestic production dips, OPEC remains a problem, with member countries often outproducing stated quotas. "And Russia and some non-OPEC countries are producing at a high level," he said, meaning nothing suggest crude oil prices will rebound in the near future. " If you're looking for an improvement in these market circumstances, let's say in the first half of 2016, that would be a very pleasant surprise, but it would be an unexpected turn of events." Bill Lavers, executive director of Development Corp. of Snyder, said his community never quite got to the "boom" of the recent oil rush. "It happened so fast and everything retracted so fast," he said. "Will it come back? Yes. When? We don't' know. Not as fast as it retracted." And while there were numerous positive things that came out of the experience, it was difficult to know what the future held, since so many global factors were "our of our control," he said. Consumers, for example, aren't spending the money they are in theory saving at the pump as quickly as anticipated, Lavers said. "They're actually putting it in their savings accounts," he said. "The economy isn't rebounding as much as we thought." And the retraction in oil reverberates far beyond just West Texas, he said. Major manufacturers, such as heavy equipment builder Caterpillar, have laid people off, proving the ripple effect of the energy sector slowing down can be "pretty dramatic," Lavers said. The Cline Shale formation on the northeastern part of the Permian was characterized by desire for great expansion, Ingham said. Enthusiasm for the formation began to taper even before prices declined. "I think the cost of those projects was higher than some thought," he said, even though the amount of oil reserve in the Cline is potentially "staggering." "It's an exciting thing because it means when the price is right and the technology is right, it's there to go get," he said. "But it didn't pan out this time." With an industry like oil, you have to somewhat "make hay while the sun shines," Lavers said. "You take advantage of that opportunity while it's there and you hope you can get all you can when the door is open," he said. "When it closes, you do something else. Our door hasn't closed. It's still open. It's not open as wide as it was. But we've gotten better prepared, we know how to handle things better next time. Maybe we've got some more streamlined processes to help people get things done more quickly." Obviously, he and others hope the good days will return sooner than later. "Did the oil just disappear and evaporate? No. Will it come back? To what point? We don't know. Will it be $80 oil? $100 oil? Who knows?" Lavers said. Frizzell said his father, now 92, has been through six previous booms and busts and was now experiencing the seventh. "It's a commodity-based economy, the farmers deal with this every year," he said, noting that he believed the Abilene area economy had diversified well since the oil collapse in the 1980s, when far more of its economy was grounded in oil. "We're hopeful it's going to come back," Frizzell said. "We're still going to be here." According to a press release by the Abilene police department, a male subject was shot and killed around 4 p.m. Saturday afternoon in Maryneal, a small town south of Sweetwater. The suspect fled the scene in a vehicle and was located by a DPS unit south of Sweetwater, where he fled apprehension. The pursuit ended at the intersection of Interstate-20 and Texas State Highway 70. During the arrest, the suspect was shot and is in critical condition at a local hospital. Texas Rangers, Sweetwater PD and the Nolan County Sheriff's Office are working together on the investigation, which is ongoing. More information will be released as it becomes available. Gunmen have reportedly attacked the Indian Consulate in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e Sharif, attempting to enter the compound. A spokesman for the regional governor said two explosions on January 3 were followed by gunfire outside the diplomatic mission. An Indian consular official also confirmed the attack, telling the AFP news agency by telephone: "We are being attacked. Fighting is going on. No details were immediately available on casualties or damage. Located about 400 kilometers north of Kabul, near the borders of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, Mazar-e Sharif is a major hub for northern Afghanistan. The attack came as Indian security forces continued their effort to repel an assault on an air base near the border with Pakistan. At least seven military personnel have been killed and 20 others wounded. Based on reporting by AFP and Reuters Russia's use of Iranian-made drones to attack Ukraine shows that Russia is both politically and militarily bankrupt, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on October 18 after saying that Russian air strikes in the past week had destroyed almost one-third of Ukraine's power stations. Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's ongoing invasion, Kyiv's counteroffensive, Western military aid, global reaction, Russian protests, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war, click here. Zelenskiy said for decades Russia spent billions of dollars on its military-industrial complex, "and in the end they bowed to Tehran to get rather simple drones and missiles." Speaking in his nightly address, he said that strategically, this will not help Russia in any way. "It only additionally proves to the world that Russia is on a losing path and is trying to draw someone else into its accomplices," he said. "We will definitely ensure an appropriate international reaction to this." Iran denies supplying drones to Russia, and the Kremlin said it had no information about whether Iranian kamikaze drones were used. But British intelligence early on October 18 identified the drones used by Russia as being Iranian-made, and the U.S. State Department assessed that Iranian drones were used on October 17 in an attack on Kyiv. White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre accused Tehran of lying when it said Iranian drones were not being used by Russia in Ukraine. Jean-Pierre on October 17 told reporters that the White House "strongly condemns Russia's missile strikes" and that the attacks continued "to demonstrate [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's brutality." The U.S. State Department, meanwhile, said Washington would "not hesitate to use sanctions or take actions" against companies and countries working with Iran's drone program. State Department spokesman Vedant Patel also said a deepening alliance between Russia and Iran "is something the whole world -- especially those in the region and across the world, frankly -- should be seeing as a profound threat." Moscow began the recent wave of air attacks last week, hitting residential areas in Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities. Zelenskiy tweeted early on October 18 that the attacks had caused massive blackouts across Ukraine and that there was "no space left for negotiations" with Putin. Kyiv's prosecutor office said two people were killed in the October 18 strikes in Kyiv after five others lost their lives in the drone attacks of the previous day in the capital. NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance will deliver air-defense systems to Ukraine in the coming days. Speaking at a security conference in Berlin, Stoltenberg said the systems would help Ukraine defend itself against attacks, including by drones made in Iran. "The most important thing we can do is deliver on what allies have promised, to step up and deliver even more air-defense systems," Stoltenberg said. Earlier on October 18, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of Ukraine's presidential office, said there had been three Russian strikes on an unspecified energy facility in northern Kyiv. "The situation is critical now across the country. It's necessary for the whole country to prepare for electricity, water, and heating outages," Tymoshenko told Ukrainian television. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the attack was on "critical infrastructure." The northern Ukrainian city of Zhytomyr was left without water and electricity supply after Russian air strikes, but its mayor told RFE/RL that the services had been largely restored. "Around noon, we connected the main sewage plant, and the water supply was more or less operational. Currently, approximately 80 percent of the city has electricity, but the central part of the city remains without it," he said. Russian troops also shelled energy facilities in Dnipro and blasts were reported in Kharkiv. Explosions also shook the cities of Kriviy Rih and Mykolayiv, local officials said, a day after Russia launched waves of kamikaze drone strikes that killed at least seven people, four of them in Kyiv, and damaged infrastructure in the Ukrainian capital and several other cities across the country. "Kriviy Rih. Explosions in the northern part of the city. We are in shelters," Oleksandr Vilkul the head of the central Ukrainian city's military administration said on social media, adding that so far there were no reports of casualties or damage. In the southern port of Mykolayiv overnight shelling killed at least one person, Mayor Oleksandr Sienkovych said early on October 18. The Russian-appointed head of the Kherson region announced on October 18 that the civilian population will be evacuated from part of the region as he warned of an expected escalation of hostilities. Vladimir Saldo on October 18 announced an "organized, gradual displacement" of civilians from four towns on the right bank of the Dnieper River. The new commander of Russian forces in Ukraine, Sergei Surovikin, said the situation in Kherson "is difficult," telling state-owned Rossia-24 television news channel in an interview, "The enemy is deliberately striking infrastructure and residential buildings in Kherson." With reporting by Reuters, AP, dpa, and AFP Saudi Arabia has said it's cutting diplomatic ties with Iran, in the latest fallout to erupt after Riyadhs execution of an opposition Shi'ite cleric prompted outraged protesters to storm the Saudi Embassy in Tehran. Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir announced the decision to sever ties with Tehran on January 3, saying that all Iranian diplomats must leave Saudi Arabia within 48 hours. The move came amid increasingly harsh rhetoric between Riyadh and Tehran, with Iran's supreme leader warning of "divine vengeance for the execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr. It also came almost a day after protesters stormed the Saudi Embassy in Tehran, setting fires and throwing papers from the roof. Saudi Arabia, ruled by a Sunni-led royal dynasty, is engaged in a tug of war with Shiite-led Iran throughout the Middle East. Both sides have used proxy forces to struggle for or maintain influence in places like Yemen, as well as Bahrain, Iraq, and Syria. The execution of Nimr, announced on January 2 by Saudi Arabia, was expected to fuel further outbreaks of proxy violence. Nimr was a central figure in protests by Saudi Arabia's marginalized Shi'ite minority until his arrest in 2012 and later conviction on terrorism charges. His execution drew condemnation from Shi'a across the region. In addition to Nimr, 46 others, including three Shi'ite dissidents and several Al-Qaeda militants, were put to death. In Washington, a U.S. State Department spokesman warned that Nimr's execution could worsen sectarian strife at a time when tensions needed to be reduced. A day after protesters stormed and looted part of the Saudi Embassy in Tehran, Iranian authorities said on January 3 that 44 demonstrators had been arrested, but hard-liners also called for another demonstration later in the day. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a statement on January 3 that Nimr "neither invited people to take up arms nor hatched covert plots. The only thing he did was public criticism." In a sign that Iranian authorities may be seeking to keep the reaction from spiraling out of control, Iranian President Hassan Rohani on January 3 condemned Nimr's execution but also denounced attacks on the Saudi Embassy and Consulate as "totally unjustifiable." Rohani said that "the buildings should be legally and religiously protected in the Islamic Republic of Iran." Sectarian Tensions Saudi Arabia's Foreign Ministry said that by condemning the execution, Iran had "revealed its true face represented in support for terrorism." It accused Tehran of "blind sectarianism" and said that "by its defense of terrorist acts" Iran was a "partner in their crimes in the entire region." Earlier, Iran's hard-line Revolutionary Guards had promised "harsh revenge" against the Saudi Sunni royal dynasty for his execution. Iran previously warned that executing the cleric would "cost Saudi Arabia dearly." Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, a member of the Assembly of Experts and a Friday Prayer leader, denounced the execution as a "crime" by Saudi Arabia's "infamous regime." "This...blood will stain the collar of the House of Saud and wipe them from the pages of history," Khatami was quoted as saying on January 2. Irans powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) said in a statement that the Saudi government would pay a "heavy price" for this shameful act, which it said was a sign of the decay of the Saudi rulers. The criminal act of execution of Sheikh Nimr the leader of Shia in Saudi Arabia is part of a Zionist conspiracy to sow discord among the world Muslims which will be aborted by the Heavenly blessings coming down to us by the pure blood of these martyrs, the statement published by Iranian media said. In Iraq, whose Shi'ite-led government is close to Iran, prominent religious and political figures demanded that ties with Riyadh be severed. Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi warned that Nimrs execution would have repercussions on regional security. He wrote on his verified Facebook account that muffling voices and executing opponents "would lead to nothing but more destruction," expressing "intense shock" upon hearing the news of the execution. Former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said Nimr's execution would "topple the Saudi regime". Iraqi lawmaker Muhammad al-Sayhud warned that Nimr's execution was intended to fuel sectarian strife in the region. "This measure taken by the ruling family [of Saudi Arabia] aims at reigniting the region, provoking sectarian fighting between Sunnis and Shi'a," he told Al-Sumaria TV. Prominent Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called for demonstrations in Persian Gulf countries and in Iraq to protest the execution of Nimr by Saudi Arabia. "I ask that the Shi'a of Saudi Arabia...show courage in responding even through peaceful demonstrations, and the same for the Shi' in the Gulf, so as to deter injustice and government terrorism in the future," Sadr said on his website. In Bahrain, police used tear gas against several dozen people protesting Nimrs execution while carrying his pictures. 'Foreign Meddling' Meanwhile, Nimr's brother said the family was shocked by news of the execution but hoped that any reaction would be peaceful: "We hope that any reactions would be confined to a peaceful framework. No one should have any reaction outside this peaceful framework. Enough bloodshed," Muhammad al-Nimr told Reuters. He said the cleric was found guilty of seeking "foreign meddling" in the kingdom, "disobeying" the country's rulers, and taking up arms against the security forces. Nimrs brother was later quoted as saying that Saudi authorities told the family that the cleric had already been buried without informing them at which cemetery. Hundreds of members of its Shi'ite minority were arrested after the protests during which several policemen were killed in shooting and firebomb attacks. The kingdom also detained thousands of militant Islamists after a series of Al-Qaeda attacks from 2003-06 that killed hundreds, and has convicted hundreds of them. The ministry said the executions were carried out on January 2 in 12 different areas of the kingdom. The executions are Saudi Arabia's first in 2016. At least 157 people were put to death last year, a big increase from the 90 people killed in 2014. With reporting by Reuters, dpa, AFP, AP, the BBC, IRNA, Fars, and Mehr Attacks by five suicide bombers on an Iraqi military base north of Baghdad have killed at least 15 Iraqi security forces and wounded 22 others. Iraqi security officials said two of the bombers detonated their vehicle-borne explosives on January 3 at the western gate of Camp Speicher, a former U.S. base outside the city of Tikrit. Three others detonated explosives after entering the section of the base where Iraqi police are being trained. The Islamic State (IS) militant group, which controls swathes of Iraq's north and west, claimed responsibility for the attacks in a statement posted on the Internet by supporters. The statement said IS militants targeted "trainers from the rejectionist army," a term used by the Sunni insurgents to describe Shi'ite Muslims. The attack comes days after Iraqi security forces, backed by U.S.-led coalition air strikes, announced they had recaptured the city of Ramadi -- which was seized by IS militants during the summer of 2015. Based on reporting by Reuters, AP, and AFP A British man who works at a foreign-owned gold mine in Kyrgyzstan has been detained for questioning after he compared a local delicacy to a horse penis. Kyrgyzstan's Interior Ministry on January 3 confirmed that Briton Michael Mcfeat, an employee of the Canadian firm Centerra Gold, was detained for questioning in the city of Karakol after posting the comment on Facebook. Authorities in Bishkek said Mcfeat's remark was included with photos of Centerra Gold's workplace New Year's celebrations. Mcfeat allegedly wrote that Kyrgyz employees who were lining up to be served a national dish, "chuchuk," were preparing for their "special delicacy, the horse's penis." Chuchuk is a sausage made from horse meat and intestines. The remark prompted a strike on January 2 by Kyrgyz employees at the Kumtor mine, which is at the center of a dispute between Kyrgyzstan's government and the Canadian mining company. Based on reporting by Reuters and AFP Russia's Ministry of Emergency Situations says six people -- including four children aged three or younger -- have been killed in a fire in the Yaroslavl region northeast of Moscow. The fire broke out on the evening of January 2 in a 100-year-old building in the village of Pesochnoye. More than 20 people who were living in the building were left homeless by the blaze. Authorities said they were investigating two possible causes of the fire -- either carelessness or a short circuit in the building's electrical system. Based on reporting by TASS and Interfax Ukraine has announced it will ban food products from Russia starting on January 10, a response to a similar ban by Moscow. The sanctions, published on Ukraine's government website on January 2, include meat, fish, and dairy products as well as vegetables and fruit. A similar Russian ban came into effect on January 1. The tit-for-tat moves come in the wake of Ukraine's decision to implement a free-trade pact with the European Union despite Russian opposition. Russian officials said that the ban on Ukrainian food imports was necessary to protect its internal market, claiming that European products could reach Russia by way of Ukraine without paying import duty. An initial attempt to finalize the pact had failed in 2013, sparking protests in Kyiv that led to the ouster of Ukraine's pro-Russian president, followed by Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea, and a Russian-backed separatist uprising in eastern Ukraine. Based on reporting by AP and dpa The White House has said it needs to do more diplomatic and technical work before it will announce any sanctions in response to ballistic missile launches by Iran. President Barack Obama's administration is considering a number of additional targets for sanctions related to Iran's ballistic missile program. The U.S. Congress has been notified of those deliberations. Some lawmakers have criticized the administration for what they describe as delayed punitive action in response to Iran's recent missile tests. Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser, said the pact that the United States and five other world powers negotiated with Iran last year to prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon will not impede future sanctions. Rhodes said Iran had no say on who the United States targets with sanctions designations. He said Washington expected protests from Iran, but added that won't affect the final decision. Rhodes spoke in Hawaii on January 2 as President Barack Obama wraps up his Christmas vacation. Based on reporting by AP and AFP Last year was a bumpy ride for investors, as the markets swung on shifting news about the U.S. and global economy and interest rate prospects. The Dow Jones industrial average and Standard & Poors 500 index ended 2015 in the red. But when including dividends, the S&P index had a total return for the year of just 1.4 percent. The Nasdaq composite fared better, delivering a 5.7 percent gain. Forecasts generally see more volatility this year, and lower returns from stocks and bonds in 2016 than in past years. Several local investment advisers were asked for their input on how 2015 turned out and what to expect in 2016. The comments came from J.B. Bryan, president of J.B. Bryan Financial Group; Jamie Cox, managing partner of Harris Financial Group Inc.; Jess T. Ellington III, senior vice president and chief investment officer of Union Bankshares; Stamford Niou, senior vice president and financial adviser at Morgan Stanleys Richmond office; Chris Singleton, managing director at Kanawha Capital Management LLC; and Dalal Maria Salomon, chief executive officer of Salomon & Ludwin LLC in Henrico. QUESTION: How would you characterize 2015 for the markets and investors? Did it play out as expected or not? BRYAN: 2015 was everything that individual investors expected, and that was nothing. 2015 started with weak investor confidence and closed out the year with the same sentiment. The ebb and flow and eventual flattening of stocks ... left investors basically where they started the year. ELLINGTON: We think 2015 played out as expected. The commodity rout, which started in late 2014, accelerated throughout the year. The dollar continued its upward climb. The U.S. economy grew at a moderate pace while many emerging market economies struggled. Corporate profit growth and business investment stalled, but the U.S. consumer came out of its shell. All these cross currents led to a flat market. SINGLETON: One recent characterization of stocks in 2015 as violently flat is an apt description. After grinding higher through early summer, stocks sold off sharply as volatility reared its head. They rebounded to recover much of the losses but have swung up and down sharply thereafter. NIOU: The market performed as expected, due to the uncertainties on the political front, and external variables. A majority of the external variables were from overseas. The European Central Bank is dealing with its own set of challenges. China is a transforming economy. That is what created trading volatility. QUESTION: How do you think 2016 will compare to 2015? Has the long bull market coming out of the recession ended? SALOMON: We believe 2016 will look a lot like 2015 in terms of volatility and market swings of 10 percent or more in either direction. We recommend that investors have a methodical strategy in place that takes profits on the upswings and then uses those profits to buy back on the declines a logical, unemotional buy lower-sell higher strategy. Volatility can be an opportunity if you have the right strategies in place. ELLINGTON: Bull markets dont die of old age. In most cases, its either a recession or an external shock that ends a bull market. In the near term, we dont see a recession on the horizon and, of course, external shocks are impossible to predict. In addition, from a historical perspective, flat markets tend to be followed by up markets. The solution as always is to have a well-balanced and diversified portfolio and stay the course. COX: I would not say it has ended. I would say we have gobbled up a lot of the returns. The problem we face is, we have to really grow earnings at a higher rate in order to expand the multiples that people are willing to pay for stocks. That is a tall order because profits have been declining and have to make up all that lost ground and then grow. I am not sure that is reasonable. QUESTION: What national and global issues do you think will most affect the markets in 2016? ELLINGTON: Of course, the election is going to be the biggest national issue in 2016. Historically election years have been kind to bull markets with only three out of the last 21 resulting in down years. On the economic front, the biggest national issue will be commodity prices and how that affects the high-yield debt market. The global issues that plagued us in 2015 should continue, with China still the main focus as it tries to shift from an economy based on investment and manufacturing to one based on consumption and services. SALOMON: The increased potential for rising interest rates, the presidential election and ISIS are three significant issues that will affect markets in 2016. However, we want our clients to have strategies that do not react to constantly changing headlines, because no one can predict what lies ahead. We advise clients to avoid predicting what is unpredictable and instead make sure they have strategies in place that respond to changes in stock market prices with predetermined triggers to buy or sell based on the actual price movements in the market. BRYAN: We have to remember that past performance does not guarantee future results. That being said, election years historically give us better-than-average stock market performance. Lets hope thats the case for 2016, but I dont think that will be the case. It may even come down to an institutional reaction to a candidates view of the financial markets and corporate earnings. In my opinion, we should brace our portfolios for a lot of volatility. SINGLETON: The U.S. economy appears to have traction. Indeed, the Feds move to finally raise rates underscores their confidence in that notion. Much of the rest of the developed world appears to be stable if not picking up. China remains the wild card as economic growth has meaningfully decelerated from the double-digit pace of the golden years. Falling oil prices should be net positive for the U.S. economy. Gasoline prices dropping from almost $4 per gallon to under $2 in essence represented a nice tax cut for consumers. NIOU: Globally, the rise of the middle class will be a huge consumption power going forward. The challenges we are still dealing with are cybersecurity, which is a clear and present danger. I am also concerned about an overvaluation of the private (venture capital) market, and the size of the derivatives market. QUESTION: How do you think the Feds action on interest rates will affect the stock market and economy in 2016? SALOMON: That seems to be the million-dollar question these days. The pace and magnitude of interest movements could provide some buying opportunities if rate decisions catch the markets off guard. However, the most interesting challenge investors face is the global cross current of monetary stimulus versus tightening. Many different countries are fighting many different and unique financial challenges, and most are solely focused on their individual economies. These decisions, digested together, could create rather dramatic swings in 2016. ELLINGTON: Fed action will have a profound effect on the stock market in 2016. They (the Fed) project four rate increases in 2016, while the market is pricing in only two. This disconnect should lead to a significant increase in volatility for both bonds and stocks. NIOU: My personal feeling is the Feds action will not have much effect, unless wage pressures lead to inflation. QUESTION: Is there a key piece of advice that you would give investors for 2016? SALOMON: The same advice we would give at any time: Have a plan and then make sure your investment strategy connects directly to your plan so you react to markets with reason/logic and not emotion. BRYAN: I expect increased volatility this year, making diversification even more important. Including global exposure as a stock investor for 2016 will, in my opinion, provide additional growth potential and a possible way to even reduce risk by expanding your portfolio outside the U.S. But I encourage keeping the vast majority of assets U.S.-based. QUESTION: Are there particular sectors that you think will be best for investment in 2016? BRYAN: Strong sectors for 2016 are health care, financials and technology. Residential real estate is facing the challenge of interest rates moving up. Wages are stagnant and credit restrictions are tighter than ever. There is a need for credit and financing products with lower down-payment requirements, or the real estate market will continue at its lackluster growth rate. COX: I do think that for the first time in a long time, a diversified portfolio will actually benefit investors. It has been an albatross for the last two years. I think that trend will reverse, and owning international stocks is going to work for the next few years. NIOU: As long as employment holds steady, consumer discretionaries should hold. The financial sector is still in a long recovery journey. QUESTION: Are there any local or Virginia stocks that you think are worth watching more closely or have upside potential right now? BRYAN: Virginia stocks to keep an eye on are Advance Auto Parts Inc., Capital One Financial Corp. and Dominion Resources Inc. ELLINGTON: WestRock Co. (the Richmond-based packaging company created from the merger of MeadWestvaco and Rock Tenn) looks interesting. Although the industry is out of favor, which could put further pressure on the stock, Steve Voorhees (WestRocks chief executive officer) has a great track record, and we could see some of the synergies from the MeadWestvaco merger come through in the second half of the year. It was with heartbreaking irony that the Richmond 80s-era rock group, the Dads, performed their reunion show the same week former member Bryan Harveys murderer, inmate No. 1100057 at Sussex State Prison in Waverley, lost an appeal in the Federal 4th Circuit Court of Appeals to save his own life. Harvey, his wife Kathyrn and daughters Stella and Ruby along with Percyell and Mary Tucker, their daughter Ashley Baskerville, Treva Terrell and Sheryl Warner were all victims of Offender No. 1100057 and his nephews murdering rampage from late 2005 to New Years Day 2006. Convicted and sentenced to death for the unspeakable murders of nine-year-old Stella and four-year-old Ruby Harvey, No. 1100057 has now spent an entire decade on death row at Sussex maneuvering through the labyrinthine appeals process trying to evade execution. Despite this most recent setback, he can still appeal to either the entire 4th Circuit or the U.S. Supreme Court. This is all death penalty protocol, designed to provide condemned inmates all the considerations they never gave their victims. Social media and the Richmond Times-Dispatch comments section reflected deep-rooted vitriol toward No. 1100057s seemingly endless appeals process Fry him, reader after reader wrote, just kill him already. Dont fry No. 1100057 it lets him off too easily. Heres why: According to a complaint filed in United States District Court in Alexandria on Nov. 20, 2014, No. 1100057 was a party with first four, then three other plaintiffs in a lawsuit against Virginia Department of Corrections Director Harold Clarke and Sussex 1 Prison Warden Keith Davis. The suit protests cruel and unusual punishment at that maximum-security facility. *** The suits document is a sobering look at No. 1100057s first decade on death row. He is locked in a 9-foot by 8-foot concrete box for 22 or 23 hours a day, with only a sink, toilet, a thin mattress and 4-inch wide window. The door is solid steel, with a tiny slit at eye level and a slit at the bottom for meal delivery. The lights are never completely turned off. He is video-monitored 24/7 from a computerized control room, where corrections officers armed with shotguns can blast him if necessary with rubber pellets from ports built in the walls. Up until October, No. 1100057 was only allowed to leave his cell for a supervised 10-minute shower three days per week, and for one hour of outdoor recreation five times per week in a small outdoor cage with no exercise equipment. The document reiterates that No. 1100057 is not allowed to use the gymnasium or prison yard, nor is (he) given an opportunity for in-pod recreation. More specifically, No. 1100057 is cut off from human contact and spends nearly every minute of every day alone. Although Sussexs death row currently houses seven inmates, they are separated by several empty cells within a 44-unit pod, making communication impossible. No. 1100057 is never allowed access to general-population inmates for any educational, vocational, or behavioral programming, and he is not allowed to attend group religious services. According to the complaint, No. 1100057s treatment inflicts great mental suffering as well as physical distress. It is unrelated to any legitimate penological goal, and constitutes a form of psychological torture that amounts to the gratuitous infliction of cruel and unusual punishment upon (him). *** In the face of this legal challenge, Virginia quietly granted a few more privileges to death row inmates, but its policies are still among the most stringent in the nation. For example, instead of one hour, the prisoner now gets 90 minutes a day in the dog yard. He was granted restricted television privileges and a few minutes a day to send monitored emails. Certainly no one who knew and loved the Harvey family feels sorry for those who inflicted such cruel and unusual punishment on them. But we are a far more civilized people than No. 1100057 and his nephew. Instead of exercising vengeance, Virginia should keep twisting the screws of this deliberate form of execution a lingering, eventual death at the end of a deprived and unnatural existence. While the Dads musical reunion celebrated the lives and talents of our friends, it should also serve as a reminder that the Harveys killer is a lifeless shadow, sealed inside a 71-square foot cement coffin. There will never be scholarships or remembrances in his name. Let the appeals end, and leave him to an unbearably sluggish minute-by-minute, decades-long existence of denied freedoms, maddening isolation and constant armed surveillance. Forget the death penalty. No. 1100057 should survive for his crimes. Alone and forgotten, just a shackled and fading number on a prison ledger. It looks like nothing was found at this location. Maybe try a search? Search for: Search A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind. The American redstart has by this time normally fled the New River Valley for warmer weather in Central and South America. But this year, at least one of these flashy New World warblers was spotted locally, said Bruce Grimes of the New River Valley Bird Club. Grimes was one of the hardy club members who braved cold, windy weather late last month to complete the annual census of bird species that will soon be reported to the National Audubon Society. Grimes said two other rare species Brewers blackbird and dickcissel were also found during this years count. About 85 total species, most of them commonly found in winter, were sighted by more than 40 volunteers, Grimes said. But final data will not be tallied until later this month. There are about 400 total bird species found across Virginia. Some of the NRV data came from another hardy volunteer, Lisa Whalen, who watched the feeders near her Blacksburg home from sunrise to sunset on Dec. 19. It was really cold. I wore everything I possibly could, Whalen said. But it was a lot of fun. Whalen, a Virginia Tech doctoral student who studies ancient volcanic eruptions, said shes celebrating the first anniversary of her dive into bird watching. It started on the Huckleberry Trail when she saw an Eastern screech owl in a tree. At first, Whalen said she thought shed focus on owls. But then I realized all birds are cool. She not only did this years Christmas count, but shes participating in the Cornell FeederWatch, which uses volunteers to gather data on winter birds across the U.S. Whalen lives near downtown Blacksburg, where she unexpectedly found a rich bird habitat. On Dec. 19, she counted about 60 individuals from 15 different species for the Christmas census. Participating in formal counts gives her a way to appreciate the birds, but more so than that to try in a small way to help them, Whalen said. Not only is it fun, it gives scientists a better idea of how they are doing. In a very small way, Im contributing. The Christmas count relies on two sources of data: Teams that fan out in designated areas beginning in the early morning to count, and some members who track the species that visit feeders on their own properties. The nationwide holiday bird census dates back to the turn of the last century, before conservation took root in the U.S. In 1900, Audubon member Frank M. Chapman launched the first Christmas Bird Count Audubons all-volunteer holiday census of early-winter bird populations as an alternative to the traditional Christmas Side Hunt, in which hunters competed to kill as many birds (and mammals) as possible, according to a history posted to the Audubon website. The New River Valley Bird Club does one of oldest Christmas counts in the state, said Jerry Via, club president and assistant dean of undergraduate instruction in Virginia Techs College of Science. As a professor, Via specializes in the ecology and natural history of birds, and he leads bird watching trips here and abroad, according to his online university profile. The annual count is important because a lot of the data we have on climate change is anecdotal because nobody ever expected this to happen, Via said. The count allows researchers to look at birds weve been monitoring for years, Via said. There are year-to-year variations, but over time the numbers identify wider population changes. Using previous counts, and other information, a recent Audubon study found that the wintering grounds of some bird species have moved 400 miles north of where they have been known to be in the past, Via said. Due to temperature changes, the birds are not migrating as far south. Some climate impacts can be seen locally. Purple finches ... we dont see them as often as we used to because the climate is warmer, Via said. Because of the broader weather changes, breeding and feeding grounds are shifting as well, Via said. Whalen said birds are a type of wildlife you can see everywhere. It helps you stay in contact with nature no matter where you go. And its a doorway to becoming environmentally active and environmentally minded. Its a very quiet, thoughtful, observant activity, she added. You get to stop thinking about the stress of anything else in your life because youre just focusing on watching that bird in your binoculars. Whalen got an early Christmas gift from her husband, William, who also is a birder. On Dec. 18, he gave her a new, higher-powered pair of binoculars for the count. Not only is she enamored of birds herself, but shes evangelizing for the cause. Whalen said she is working to bring a documentary titled The Messenger about the decline of songbirds and what that might mean for people to Regal Cinemas New River Valley 14 in Christiansburg. She said she must pre-sell 75 tickets by Jan. 27 to bring the film to the area. For more information about the film, visit https://tugg.com/events/80304. To learn more about the Christmas Bird Count, visit www.audubon.org/conservation/science/christmas-bird-count. WHISTLEBLOWER Jayne Senior will talk about her experiences fighting to expose child sex abuse when she gives a speech later this month as part of a course on corruption. The former Risky Business co-ordinator will warn that Silence Is Consent during one of a series of sessions in the course organised by the Workers Educational Association. Now offering support for abuse survivors at the Swinton Lock Activity Centre, Ms Senior (pictured) will tell how she was repeatedly knocked back in her attempts to blow the whistle on the issue. The WEAs seven-week Silence Is Consent course will looks at the whistleblowers who have uncovered wrongdoing in the NHS and local government in the UK. As well as Ms Senior, it is hoped to feature other guests who have experience of whistleblowing. The course will also feature ongoing cases of corruption across the UK in the NHS and local government, which have been exposed by whistleblowers. The course begins on January 19 at The Unity Centre, St Leonard's Road, Rotherham, for seven sessions, all running from 1pm to 3pm. Further details are available from enrolonline.wea.org.uk or on ringing 0114 242 3609. . . A first-of-its-kind journey along India and Pakistan border What binds the two most talked about nations - India and Pakistan together? What makes the VN coffee exporters suffer decline in global market share VietNamNet Bridge - Vietnams second position on the list of the worlds biggest coffee exporters has been threatened. The country's coffee market share has decreased from 22 percent last year to 18 percent in 2015. Vietnams second position on the list of the worlds biggest coffee exporters has been threatened. After three years of witnessing high growth rates in the 2012-2014 period, Vietnam has experienced a tough year, with a sharp 28 percent fall in export volume and 30 percent in export value. After three years of witnessing high growth rates in the 2012-2014 period, Vietnam has experienced a tough year, with a sharp 28 percent fall in export volume and 30 percent in export value.While the other two big exporters Brazil and Columbia were not hurt by the decrease, Vietnams coffee industry has experienced difficult days.According to Do Ha Nam, chair of the Vietnam Coffee and Cocoa Association (Vicofa), one of the biggest problems for Vietnamese coffee exporters is the exchange rate policy.While the Vietnam dong has decreased inconsiderably in value, Brazilian currency has depreciated by 70 percent.Many Vietnamese farmers and businesses have decided to store goods instead of boosting sales because the more they exported, the bigger losses they suffered. It is estimated that the inventory volume has reached 400,000 tons.However, according to the USDA (US Department of Agriculture), Vietnamese farmers do not think the price would go up again to VND40,000 per kilo again.In fact, VND40,000 per kilo is not a high price, because the price level has stayed unchanged over the last 20 years, while the prices of other farm produce have increased by 10 times.According to Vicofa, though accounting for 18-20 percent of the global coffee market, Vietnam just makes up 2 percent of the global market value.With the sharp devaluation of Brazilian and Columbian currencies, the Arabica coffee price has decreased sharply and is now closer to the Robusta price. This will present challenges to Vietnam, as 90 percent of coffee exports are Robusta.Meanwhile, Vietnam is facing a serious drought which has had a negative impact on 40,000 hectares of coffee area, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.It is estimated that one-fourth of Vietnams coffee trees will be old in five years. In Dak Lak province alone, the coffee metropolis, 30 percent of the coffee growing area needs replanting. However, in order to do this, farmers need hundreds of millions of dong for every hectare which is beyond their financial capability.The good news for Vietnamese farmers is that the USDA and Rabobank both have predicted that Vietnams coffee exports would increase by 30 percent the next crop.However, IMF predicted that the Robusta price would go down by 10 percent in 2016, while the World Bank forecasted a 3 percent decrease in 2016, and sharper decreases in the next years.Under the coffee growing area development by 2020, Vietnam would have four key areas in Dak Lak, Lam Dong, Gia Lai and Dak Nong, where there would be 530,000 hectares of coffee. Bill Burke turf improvements coming at $1.7 million cost in Salina The Salina City Commission approved a contract bid for just over $1.7 million for new synthetic turf at the eight fields in Bill Burke Sports Complex. Banks rush to change players on chessboard VietNamNet Bridge - Three banks with no dong have new CEOs and many other banks have appointed their CEOs. The changes in the banking sector have never been so big. The changes in the banking sector have never been so big. The deputy CEO and deputy chair of the board of directors of Maritime Bank have left for National Citizen Bank (NCB).Meanwhile, NCB has announced that Tran Hai Anh has resigned from the post of CEO, while Dao Trong Khanh, former deputy head of Maritime Banks Board of Directors, has taken the office. The appointment received State Banks approval on December 11, 2015.Khanh was elected to Maritime Banks Board of Directors at a bank shareholders meeting in February 2012 and then stepped down at the 2015 shareholders meeting.Prior to that, in October 2015, Ta Ngoc Da, who was appointed as deputy CEO of Maritime in May-October after Atul Malik, a foreign CEO left, has unexpectedly joined NCB as deputy CEO.At Maritime Bank, Da, after several months of taking the banks management, was not promoted to the post of CEO as predicted. The bank has decided to choose Huynh Buu Quang, a well-known face from the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC).Nam A replaced its CEO earlier this year, in March. Tran Ngo Phuc Vu stopped working as CEO to become a candidate to Eximbanks board of directors, while Luong Thi Cam Tu, 35, has been appointed to the post.In May, An Binh Bank also saw a big change in personnel when the then CEO Pham Duy Hieu unexpectedly stepped down for personal reasons. Cu Anh Tuan, who was then deputy CEO, became CEO of the bank. Before joining An Binh Bank, Tuan worked for Techcombank, one of the most prestigious joint stock banks in Vietnam.Most recently, Eximbank appointed Tran Tan Loc to the post of Acting CEO after Pham Huu Phu resigned from his post. Whether Loc becomes the official CEO of the bank remains questionable as the banks extraordinary shareholders meeting only takes place in several more days.Three zero-dong banks, i.e. banks which have been taken over by the State Bank at zero dong, have also seen big changes. As the old managers have been jailed or prosecuted and the banks have been put under special control, changes in the key personnel are a must.Nguyen Van Tuan, deputy CEO of Vietcombank, has been the chair of the Vietnam Construction Bank (VNCB) since March 2015, when the State Bank bought VNCB and asked Vietcombank, a bank where the state holds the controlling stakes, to take management over VNCB.The same thing occurred with GP Bank as Pham Huy Thong from VietinBank was appointed to the post of GP Bank after the takeover. Tri Thuc Tre Jan. 1, 1943: A secret national laboratory is set up in Los Alamos to design a nuclear bomb The state and the community of Los Alamos might have to prepare for more slender coffers as federal officials weigh the labs management contract. Members of New Mexicos congressional delegation confirmed that the private consortium that operates LANL will not have its contract renewed after it expires. The decision follows a series of federal investigations and performance evaluations involving the safety record of Los Alamos National Laboratory in the wake of a February 2014 radiation leak near Carlsbad. The audit is the latest federal report to point to systemic problems at the lab. Major incidents marking Los Alamos National Laboratorys management history Jan. 1, 1943: A secret national laboratory is set up in Los Alamos to design a nuclear bomb during World War II. The University of California is named the official lab manager and is paid $5 million for a one-year contract. The U.S. Department of Energy oversees the labs operations. J. Robert Oppenheimer is the labs director. 1945: An atomic bomb is tested at the Trinity Site in Southern New Mexico on July 16, ushering in the nuclear age. Norris Bradbury replaces Oppenheimer as director. 1970: Harold Agnew becomes lab director. 1979: Donald M. Kerr becomes lab director. October 1982: Human error and erroneous labeling caused 14 lab employees to be exposed to high levels of plutonium, one of them internally. A federal report recommends improved training and procedures. 1986: Plutonium expert Siegfried Sig Hecker is named lab director. 1988: A new federal law gives the Department of Energy more leverage over lab contractors. The University of California at Los Alamos National Laboratory is exempted from the law. 1989: Len Trimmer, a senior-level lab technician, tells lab management about rusting, leaking nuclear waste drums and other problems at Area G, where LANL stores nuclear waste. Trimmer says hes harassed by lab management, goes on medical leave and files a whistleblower lawsuit against the lab four years later. The lab denies harassment. 1991: The Department of Energys Complex-wide Tiger Team audits LANL and finds the lab is failing to properly monitor radioactive emissions into the air. Management accountability and oversight are lacking, the team finds. Another federal report finds the lab hasnt tallied up all the hazardous materials on site and that the Energy Department has neither the information nor the qualified staff to clean up nuclear weapons complex facilities. The New Mexican culminates a three-month investigation with a six-day series called Fouling the Nest that looks at contamination from more than 1,800 hazardous waste dump sites around Los Alamos from lab activities. Cost to clean up: an estimated $2 billion. The newspapers publisher, Robert McKinney, defends the lab, fires a reporter and the managing editor, and allows LANL to publish a special supplement defending itself. The Cold War ends, leading to the beginning of major mission changes for the lab. 1992: Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety sues the lab over federal air quality violations and eventually wins. April 1994: Safety violations close the labs plutonium facility at Technical Area 55. 1995: More than 256 lab employees are laid off, nearly half of them Hispanic. Lab workers decry the layoffs, saying it violates University of California personnel policies and is racist. Employees form a new group, Citizens of LANL for Employee Rights. Chris Mechels is one of them. State lawmakers call for an investigation. January 1996: Workman Efren Martinez is electrocuted while performing excavation work at a technical area. Martinez, left in a coma for several years, dies from his injuries in 2009. His family later settles a lawsuit with the Department of Energy for $13 million, and the department cites the lab for substandard electrical safety measures. A later explosion occurs at LANLs Chemical and Metallurgy Research facility, with no injuries reported. 1997: Congress appropriates $25 million to set up the LANL Foundation. The University of California and LANL give $3 million a year to the foundation, which provides grants to Northern New Mexico communities. Physicist John C. Browne replaces Hecker as lab director. 1998: The Department of Energy cites the University of California for ongoing safety problems and numerous deficiencies. The lab settles a lawsuit filed by 102 laid-off employees. March 1999: A veteran 20-year Los Alamos scientist, Wen Ho Lee, is fired and then arrested months later on 59 charges that he illegally copied classified nuclear weapons files. He is suspected of sharing the documents with China but is never charged with espionage. Lees supporters say he was unfairly singled out because he is ethnic Chinese. The government later drops all but one charge against him. More than two dozen other security violations are reported by the lab after Lee is fired. The lab stops publicly reporting computer security violations. March 2000: The National Nuclear Security Administration, a branch of the Department of Energy, is opened to oversee maintenance of nuclear weapons stockpile and nuclear nonproliferation programs. May 2000: The Cerro Grande Fire burns close to lab property, prompting state officials to push the lab to get thousands of containers of legacy hazardous waste off the Hill. June 2000: Six top lab managers are placed on paid leave after two computer hard drives with classified nuclear information are reported missing. One of those placed on leave is Stephen Younger, who investigated Wen Ho Lee. The hard drives are later found stashed behind a copy machine. Lab managers are chastised by Congress for taking three weeks to tell the Department of Energy about the missing discs. Bill Richardson is secretary of the department. Jan. 1, 2001: The LANL management contract is revised in response to the computer security problems. Richardson, on his last day as energy secretary under President Bill Clintons outgoing administration, says the University of California should retain the contract until 2005. One critic calls it rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. The revised contract gives the Department of Energy the authority to remove any lab employee from work funded by the agency. President George W. Bush appoints Spencer Abraham as his energy secretary. Richardson becomes governor of New Mexico. August 2002: LANL hires Kellogg, Brown and Root, a subsidiary of Vice President Dick Cheneys former company Halliburton, under a $145 million, five-year lab maintenance contract to handle waste removal, facility repairs, utility operations and custodial services. November 2002: The Department of Energys Office of Inspector General investigates allegations by a whistleblower that lab management turned a blind eye to $3 million in lab equipment that went missing from 1999 to 2001. The inspector general also investigates allegations of purchase-card fraud. March 2003: U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici and Gov. Richardson continue to publicly support the University of California as the labs manager. Richardson says the university has taken unprecedented, dramatic action to change the culture of the lab. He urges against severing the labs ties to the university. Former lab director Hecker tells a congressional committee that the labs system of governance is broken, largely because there is no trust between the University of California and the feds. Browne resigns and Pete Nanos is hired as interim director. He tells reporters he intends to drain the swamp. April 2003: Nanos removes more than a dozen lab managers from their positions. Energy Secretary Abraham announces the LANL contract will go up for a competitive bid for the first time in the labs 60-year history. UCs contract ends Sept. 30, 2005. Some 266 scientists ask to retire. A senior Energy Department official acknowledges university failures, our failures and cultural failures as the three root causes for problems at the lab. 2004: More than a dozen companies and universities bid on the contract, among them top-contender University of Texas and Lockheed Martin. Gov. Richardson urges the University of California to bid as well. Sens. Pete Dominici and Jeff Bingaman also support UC retaining the contract. Two computer discs with classified information are reported missing, and two scientists are fired. Director Nanos shuts down the lab for seven months, citing safety and security violations. Investigators find out the two discs never existed and were the result of an accounting error. One scientist is cleared by an arbitrator; the other dies before he is exonerated. 2005: Robert Kuckuck becomes lab director. June 1, 2006: The LANL contract is awarded to Los Alamos National Security, a consortium that includes the University of California, Bechtel Corp., BWX Technologies and Washington Group International (now AECOM). Michael R. Anastasio is named lab director. October 2006: Classified materials are found at the home of a contract employee during a drug raid. An employee takes home a computer containing hundreds of pages of classified documents; she is arrested. 2007: The lab produces a plutonium pit for a nuclear bomb core, the first since the 1989 closure of the Rocky Mountain Flats lab in Colorado. A plutonium accident contaminates a high-security nuclear area. Linton Brooks, head of the National Nuclear Security Administration, is told to resign by Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman, in part over security breaches at LANL. 2008: A federal performance review for 2007 gives LANS excellent marks in weapons program and threat assurance, but it fails the contractor on leadership, management, environment and safety. LANS loses $15 million in performance fees. 2009: A scientist takes home a computer containing classified material, which is later stolen out of his house. 2011: The Las Conchas Fire burns thousands of acres around the lab. Gov. Susana Martinez urges the lab to move up its deadline to get remaining hazardous waste containers down to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad. Workers are exposed to arsenic. The lab is fined. Nuclear physicist Charles F. McMillan replaces Anastasio as lab director. 2012: A worker is exposed to beryllium. The lab is fined. In addition, the Neutron Science Center and nine homes off lab property are contaminated after a worker opens a container of a highly dispersible radioactive powder, according to accident reports. 2013: A waste container at the lab is packaged with a volatile mix of nitrate salts and organic kitty litter and is shipped to WIPP. Feb. 14, 2014: The container ruptures in the underground WIPP facility, leaking radiation. Several workers are exposed, although levels are not considered a health hazard. WIPP is closed indefinitely. March-December 2014: Federal investigators issue scathing reports finding multiple problems with how waste is handled at the lab. One report finds workers who tried to alert supervisors to problems with waste containers were ignored. December 2014: Eight workers are exposed to plutonium while working on a glovebox in the labs PF-4 facility. Exposure is not serious, according to the lab. March 2015: A Los Alamos National Laboratory electrical worker is knocked off a ladder after accidentally touching a live wire in a ceiling at a radiological lab building. May 2015: Nine workers are injured, one severely, by an electrical arc at a lab substation. December 2015: The Department of Energy tells Congress it is putting the LANL contract back up for bid. Some reptiles such as crocodilians and some turtles are known to display temperature-dependent sex determination (TSD), where the ambient temperature of the developing eggs determines the individual's sex. For example in the American alligator's eggs, incubation at 33 C produces mostly males, while incubation at 30 C produces mostly females. An international joint research team between Japan and the US have determined that the thermosensor protein TRPV4 is associated with TSD in the American alligator. The research has been published in Scientific Reports. The research team headed by Professor Taisen Iguchi of the National Institute for Basic Biology (Okazaki Institute for Integrative Bioscience) and PhD student Ryohei Yatsu of SOKENDAI (The Graduate University for Advanced Studies), in collaboration with Professor Makoto Tominaga of the National Institute for Physiological Sciences (Okazaki Institute for Integrative Bioscience) and Professor Louis J. Guillette Jr. and assistant professor Satomi Kohno of the Medical University of South Carolina, have investigated the molecular mechanism of how temperature determines sex. In their research using American alligators, they found that a thermosensitive protein called TRPV4 is present within the developing alligator gonad inside the egg. Alligator TRPV4 is responsive to warm temperatures near mid-30s, and can activate cell signaling by inducing calcium ion influx. The current study also demonstrates that by specific pharmacological inhibition of TPRV4 protein function in the developing egg, genes important for male development (for example, genes encoding anti-Mullerian hormone and SOX9) are influenced, and partial feminization at male producing temperatures have been observed. From these results the authors demonstrate that TRPV4 may significantly influence the male gonadal sex determination pathway at a molecular level during TSD in the alligator. This is the first demonstrated report of a biomolecule associated with regulation of the very unique temperature-dependent sex determination mechanism. PhD student Ryohei Yatsu said, "Reptiles can be difficult to study at times, but we were delighted to obtain such an interesting result and elucidate part of the alligator TSD mechanism. We still have much to research, but we are interested in how our results relate with other TSD species diversity and evolution." Professor Taisen Iguchi said, "Organisms that have adopted TSD systems may be more susceptible to the risks of environmental change, such as global warming. In future, we would like to know how an unstable environmental factor such as incubation temperature was able to establish itself as a sex determination factor." #DP DP bristles at prosecution probes targeting top officials of previous administration The main opposition Democratic Party (DP) bristled Wednesday at prosecution investigations that led to requests for arrest warrants for former top officials of the previous Moon Ja... Sen. Marcos Calls For Comprehensive Package To Help Farmers Cope With Effects Of AEC Senator Ferdinand "Bongbong" R. Marcos, Jr. today urged the government to provide a comprehensive program to help the country's agricultural sector and farmers vulnerable to the influx of duty-free commodities into the country. Marcos aired the call as the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) formally came into force on December 31. Among others it removed import duties across the borders of 10-member countries of the ASEAN, including Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. "We have seen the effects of unbridled importation and the smuggling of agriculture products such as rice, onions and garlic on our farmers. With the removal of tariff barriers our farmers may suffer more unless the government gets its act together to provide a comprehensive package of support," Marcos warned. While he acknowledged that big farms producing export-oriented agriculture products may fare well with the AEC the small farmers will be vulnerable particularly with the continuing decline of the agriculture sector. The Philippine Statistics Authority reported that agriculture declined by 0.1 percent in the third quarter of the year, mainly caused by poor palay, corn and sugarcane production which declined 15.7 percent, 1.7 percent and 41.5 percent respectively. To help the farmers, Marcos said the government must pursue strategic infrastructure and technological programs to improve our transportation network, roads, ensure a reliable and cheaper supply of electricity and upgrade the country's irrigation systems. Earlier, Marcos called for free irrigation service to our farmers as he also urged the National Irrigation Administration to condone the existing P12 billion debt of the farmers and irrigators group. Likewise, the Senator sought better access to cheaper credit facilities, crop insurance coverage and technical support for farmers. A 39-year-old North Bay resident died Sunday morning when he crashed his pickup into a light pole in Santa Rosa, police said. Anthony Devincenci of Santa Rosa was driving his white 2002 Chevrolet S-10 east on Fountaingrove Parkway around 8:40 a.m. when he missed a left curve near Bicentennial Way and smashed into the light pole, police Sgt. Ryan Corcoran said. Fog rolling in off the Pacific brings iconic beauty to San Francisco, but scientists say it also carries with it something much less pleasant: toxic mercury. Scientists who studied the fog along the coast of California found that it deposits a neurotoxin called monomethyl mercury at a concentration about 20 times that of rain as it sweeps across the city. The scientists said the finding reveals a new pathway to land of a compound that comes largely from burning coal and other fossil fuels. On a relative scale, the levels of mercury are quite low and of no health concern, said Peter Weiss-Penzias, a professor at UC Santa Cruz. But it does bioaccumulate, or build up in organisms. Weiss-Penzias, an environmental toxicologist, first thought to study fog as he rode his bike to work early one morning. With condensation building up on his glasses, a question came to his mind: What exactly is in this stuff? RELATED: Above the fog: A year of aerial San Francisco Bay Area photos He and several other researchers, including Kenneth Coale of the Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, formed the FogNet project and sampled fog over the past two summers at collection stations along the coast, including one at San Francisco State University. Among the chemicals that turned up in the stations mesh nets was monomethyl mercury. The scientists determined that mesoscale eddies large, circular currents of water from the California current are depositing dimethyl mercury into the fog, where acidic marine aerosols particles left over from evaporated droplets of ocean spray convert it into its monomethyl mercury form. That compound is then blown ashore in the fog, where it is deposited on the coastal landscape. Understanding the mechanism a process that reaches into the ocean, pulls out a neurotoxin, then shuttles it ashore in fog is very important, Coale said. This is a completely new pathway. Relatively small levels Animals and plants in foggy regions may contain as much as 10 times the level of the mercury compound as life in less-foggy areas, according to the research that the scientists presented at last months meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco. The mercury levels found in fog are relatively small, and walking around in it and breathing it in doesnt seem to be a health risk, Coale said. But they do add to the mercury that humans introduce into the environment through coal burning, mining and metals processing, and contribute to the buildup in the plants that animals eat and the water they drink, researchers said. For example, the scientists found that wolf spiders along the coast that they examined during foggy periods had levels of the mercury compound in their systems that exceeded the U.S. Food and Drug Administrations 3 parts per million safety threshold. People wont eat spiders, but the arachnids are part of a food chain that eventually lands on dinner plates. In the long run, fog could become a bigger source of mercury in Californias coastal environment. A separate study by Clive Dorman, a research oceanographer from UC San Diego, found that fog occurrences along the Northern California coast increased by 7.4 percent from 1950 to 2007. Fog could increase further as global warming heats up inland areas, drawing marine air onto land. Considering limits As this mechanism continues, regulators may want to consider action to restrict human sources of mercury, the scientists said. I am hopeful that when all the exposure routes are added up, we will see that we are receiving quite a burden, Coale said, and that perhaps we should be considering limiting (mercury) emissions, particularly from coal-fired power plants not just from a climate change perspective, but from an ecosystem health perspective as well. Kevin Schultz is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: kschultz@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @KevinEdSchultz 1 Campaign 2016: Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders raised more than $33 million during the past three months in his bid to win the Democratic nomination, his campaign said on Saturday, just short of the amount brought in by rival Hillary Clinton during the same period. Sanders has now collected $73 million for the primaries through a powerful online fundraising apparatus that should help him compete with Clinton deep into spring. His haul will allow him to spend money at a comparable rate with Clinton, who raised $37 million since the beginning of October and $112 million during 2015 for her primary campaign. Most of Sanders fundraising came through 2.5 million donations, most of them made online, a number that his team said surpassed President Obamas record number of 2.2 million donations in 2011. 2 Missing boy: The body of a 5-year-old boy with autism was found Saturday in a canal about a quarter mile from a residence in Allentown, Pa., where he wandered away from a New Years Eve party. Lehigh County Coroner Scott Grim said an autopsy Monday will help determine when Jayliel Vega Batista entered the water at Canal Park. He had been missing since about 10:30 p.m. Thursday. Police say the boy was playing with a tablet computer with other children when he reportedly wandered away barefoot and without a coat. Search dogs tracked the boys scent to the canal, where the tablet was found Saturday afternoon. That prompted police to call in divers who found the boys body about 8 feet from shore, in 6 feet of water. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate BURNS, Ore. The protesters arrived in this old lumber town to support a 73-year-old rancher and his son who had been sentenced to prison for setting fires on federal lands. It was billed as a peaceful demonstration, but after Amazing Grace was sung and hugs were exchanged, a small, armed contingent declared outside a supermarket that it was taking a stand and asked who wanted to join it. So began the latest armed flareup in a decades-long struggle between federal officials and local landowners and ranchers over how to manage the Western range. The armed antigovernment group seized an empty building on a federal refuge for wildlife about 30 miles away and, by Sunday night, had hunkered down for what they vowed would be an indefinite standoff with the government. We will be here for as long as it takes, said Ryan Payne, an Army veteran who characterized the groups action as a liberation of public lands. People have talked about returning land to the people for a long time. Finally, someone is making an effort in that direction. The family of the ranchers convicted of arson, Dwight Hammond and son Steven Hammond, 46, distanced themselves from the armed takeover but said they understood the underlying anger over federal land policies that many here feel are intrusive and overreaching. I dont know those people that well, except that I just see from the outside that we have a lot of things in common, said Dwight Hammonds wife, Susan. We share a lot of sentiments in regards to our government, and the overreach into management of our country. The Harney County sheriff, David Ward, issued a statement Sunday, saying: These men came to Harney County claiming to be part of militia groups supporting local ranchers, when in reality these men had alternative motives to attempt to overthrow the county and federal government in hopes to spark a movement across the United States. Despite the stern language, there did not appear to be any imminent plan to confront the protesters. There was no visible sign of law enforcement outside the wildlife refuge Sunday night, though the Oregon State Police urged people to stay away and federal authorities said they were monitoring the situation. The group was led by Ammon Bundy, a rancher whose family became a symbol of antigovernment sentiment in 2014, when his father, Cliven Bundy, inspired a standoff between armed local antigovernment activists and federal officials seeking to confiscate cattle grazing illegally on federal land in Nevada. Were planning on staying here for years, absolutely, Bundy told the Portland Oregonian. Three years ago, Dwight and Steven Hammond were convicted of lighting fires on land they leased from the federal government, but said they did so to protect their property from wildfires and invasive plant species. The Hammonds each served sentences for the arson charges, but they were ordered to report to a prison Monday after a federal judge ruled that the sentences they had served were not long enough under federal law. The case caused a local uproar, but it also touched a nerve with far-right groups like the one headed by Ammon Bundy. In a video posted to Facebook Saturday, Bundy called the Hammonds case a symptom of a very huge, egregious problem that he described as a battle over land and resources between the federal government and the American people. He said his group was occupying the federal site to take a hard stand against this overreach. Various news reports and social media posts from immigrant advocacy groups indicate that raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials targeting Central Americans have begun across the country. In a tweet posted on Sunday by the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights, the group said that raids had begun just before dawn. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia's execution Saturday of 47 prisoners, including an influential Shiite cleric, threatened to further damage Sunni-Shiite relations in a regional struggle playing out across the Middle East between the kingdom and its regional foe Iran. Shiite leaders across the region swiftly condemned Riyadh and warned of sectarian backlash as Saudi Arabia insisted the executions were part of a justified war on terrorism. Also executed Saturday were al-Qaida detainees who were convicted on launching a spate of attacks against foreigners and security forces a decade ago. The execution now becomes another focal point for sectarian and political wrangling between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The two regional rivals back opposing sides in civil wars in Yemen and in Syria. Saudi Arabia was also a vocal critic of the recent Iranian agreement with world powers that ends international economic sanctions in exchange for limits on the Iranian nuclear program. Iranian politicians warned that the Saudi monarchy would pay a heavy price for the death of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr. The Iranian Foreign Ministry summoned the Saudi envoy in Tehran to protest, and parliament speaker Ali Larijani said the execution would prompt "a maelstrom" in Saudi Arabia. Al-Nimr's execution could also antagonize the Shiite-led government in Iraq, which has close relations with Tehran. The Saudi embassy in Baghdad, which had been closed for nearly 25 years, was reopened on Friday. An influential Shiite militia in Iraq, known as Asaib Ahl Al-Haq, called on the government Saturday to close down the embassy. Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Aabadi Tweeted Saturday night that he was "shocked and saddened" by al-Nimr's execution, adding that, "peaceful opposition is a fundamental right. Repression does not last." Hundreds of al-Nimr's supporters protested in his hometown of al-Qatif in eastern Saudi Arabia, in neighboring Bahrain where police fired tear gas and bird shot, and as far away as northern India. Germany's Foreign Ministry said the cleric's execution "strengthens our existing concerns about the growing tensions and the deepening rifts in the region." His death comes 11 months after Saudi Arabia issued a sweeping counterterrorism law after Arab Spring protests shook the region in 2011 and toppled several longtime autocrats. The law codified that the kingdom could prosecute as a terrorist anyone who demands reform, exposes corruption or otherwise engages in dissent or violence against the government. The convictions of those executed Saturday were issued by Saudi Arabia's Specialized Criminal Court, established in 2008 to try terrorism cases. To counter Arab Spring rumblings that threatened to spill into eastern Saudi Arabia, the kingdom sent troops in 2011 to crush Shiite protests demanding more political powers from the Sunni-led, fraternal monarchy of Bahrain. More security forces were also deployed that year to contain protests in Saudi Arabia's oil-rich east, where al-Nimr rallied youth who felt disenfranchised and persecuted. A Saudi lawyer in the eastern region told The Associated Press that three other Shiite political detainees were also executed from among the 47. The lawyer spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. Berlin One Syrian woman who joined the stream of migrants to Germany was forced to pay down her husband's debt to smugglers by making herself available for sex along the way. Another was beaten unconscious by a Hungarian prison guard after refusing his advances. A third, a former makeup artist, dressed as a boy and stopped washing to ward off the men in her group of refugees. Now in an shelter in Berlin, she still sleeps in her clothes and, like several women here, pushes a cupboard in front of her door at night. "There is no lock or key or anything," said Esraa al-Horani, the makeup artist and one of the few women here not afraid to give her name. She has been lucky, Horani said: "I've only been beaten and robbed." War and violence at home, exploitative smugglers and perilous seas along the way, an uncertain welcome and future on a foreign continent these are some of the risks faced by tens of thousands of migrants who continue to make their way to Europe from the Middle East and beyond. But at each step of the way, the dangers are amplified for women. Interviews with dozens of migrants, social workers and psychologists caring for traumatized new arrivals across Germany suggest that the current mass migration has been accompanied by a surge of violence against women. From forced marriages and sex trafficking to domestic abuse, women report violence from fellow refugees, smugglers, male family members and even European police officers. There are no reliable statistics for sexual and other abuse of female refugees. Among the more than 1 million migrants who have entered Europe over the past year, fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and beyond, men outnumber women by more than three to one, U.N. statistics show. "The men dominate, numerically and otherwise," says Heike Rabe, a gender expert at the German Institute for Human Rights. Susanne Hohne, the lead psychotherapist at a center in west Berlin specializing in treating traumatized female migrants, says that almost all of the 44 women in her care some barely adults, some over 60 have experienced sexual violence. "We go to our own therapists for supervision twice a month to cope with what we hear," Hohne said about her 18 staff members. Together they provide two weekly therapy sessions to each woman and up to seven hours of social work, including home visits, to help them with adjusting to life in Germany. In Greece, one of the main entry points to Europe for migrants, reception centers are often overcrowded and lack adequate lighting and separate spaces for single women, said William Spindler of the U.N. refugee agency. "Men, women and children sleep in the same areas," he said. Across Europe, he added, "cases of sexual violence and family violence have been reported to our staff in the field." Even in the relative safety of Germany, an asylum system struggling with the logistics of accommodating close to 1 million migrants in 2015, has been cutting corners when it comes to basic protections for women, like lockable rooms and washrooms. "The priority has been to avoid homelessness," said Rabe, the German expert on gender-based violence. "But an environment that inadvertently facilitates violence is a risk factor. We cannot allow standards to slip." That is easier said than done, said Jan Schebaum, who manages two homes for asylum seekers in east Berlin. There are two bathrooms per floor, and the rooms are full. One of the homes he runs is the emergency shelter where Horani, the makeup artist, stays. Of 120 adults there, most are Syrian and Afghan, and 80 are men. "The women are in the shadow of the men," Schebaum said. "Their voices are drowned out, and it's a problem." At the food counter, where volunteers hand out hot soup and fresh fruit, the women are often last in line. They stay in their rooms a lot and rarely sign up for activities advertised on the notice board, like museum visits or concerts. One Syrian woman has not left the building since arriving two months ago because her husband, who has not yet arrived in Germany, prohibited her from doing so. In the laundry room, stories of domestic abuse circulate in hushed conversations among the women. There is a violently jealous husband on the fourth floor who has beaten his wife. There is a woman who has been beaten by her husband because they cannot have children. A couple of months ago, two Afghan men harassed an Afghan girl with lewd comments and pushed her off her bike before others intervened, a volunteer at the shelter said. But few incidents of violence are reported. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Beirut Protesters stormed and torched the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Tehran on Saturday after the execution of a prominent Shiite cleric ignited sectarian tensions across the already inflamed region, jeopardizing U.S. diplomacy aimed at tamping down conflicts in the Middle East. The unrest erupted after Saudi authorities announced that Sheik Nimr Baqr al-Nimr, 56, was among 47 people put to death. Some were killed by firing squad, others by beheading, according to a statement from Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry. Most were Sunnis accused of participating in al-Qaeda attacks in the kingdom. Nimr, however, was one of four Shiites put to death for political activism and the leading figure in the anti-government demonstrations that swept the mostly Shiite east of the country in 2011, inspired by the Arab Spring protests elsewhere in the region. The death sentence was carried out despite international appeals for clemency and repeated warnings from the kingdom's archenemy in the region, Iran, that there would be consequences if the popular cleric were killed. The U.S. State Department, which had refrained from publicly joining the appeals for Nimr's life, said it had raised concerns at the highest levels of the Saudi government about the judicial process. In a statement, it called on Saudi Arabia "to respect and protect human rights" and to permit "peaceful expression of dissent." "We are particularly concerned that the execution of prominent Shia cleric and political activist Nimr al-Nimr risks exacerbating sectarian tensions at a time when they urgently need to be reduced," the State Department said in a statement. "In this context, we reiterate the need for leaders throughout the region to redouble efforts aimed at de-escalating regional tensions." Shiites around the world expressed outrage, potentially complicating a surge of U.S. diplomacy aimed at bringing peace to the troubled region, according to Toby Matthiesen, an expert on Saudi Arabia at the University of Oxford. Saudi Arabia and Iran are backing rival sides in Syria's war, and their enmity risks derailing a diplomatic effort led by the United States and Russia to convene peace talks between the factions in Geneva this month. The two feuding powers also support opposing sides in the war in Yemen and more broadly find themselves in opposition in the deeply divided politics of the mixed Sunni-Shiite nations of Iraq and Lebanon. The Obama administration's hopes that the conclusion last summer of an agreement limiting Iran's nuclear program would help bridge the sectarian divide between Tehran and the United States' biggest Arab ally were further diminished by the eruption of fury that followed Nimr's death. Angry demonstrations were held in several Iranian cities, including Tehran, where protesters broke into the Saudi Embassy, ransacked it and set it ablaze. The Iranian Foreign Ministry warned that there would be repercussions. "The Saudi government will pay a heavy price for adopting such policies," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari, calling the execution "the depth of imprudence and irresponsibility" on the part of the Saudi government, according to Iranian news agencies. It looks like 2016 will be the year of the '90s Comeback. Already, there's been rumours surrounding a possible reunion tour for Guns N' Roses, New Kids On The Block are doing a cruise-ship tour (yeah, really) and now it looks like All Saints are getting back together to remind us all where it's at. This tweet, posted from All Saints' official Twitter account (who knew they had one?) wasn't exactly vague in its message. There's been no official word as to whether it'll be a reunion tour, a new album or both, but one thing is certain - All Saints are making a comeback. The fortunes of the group have been lacking, at best. Nicole and Natalie Appleton formed their own group, imaginatively titled Appleton, which saw them release one album before they parted ways with their record label. Shaznay Lewis was on Band Aid 20 and, in 2008, worked with garage group The Wideboys on a chart single. Melaine Blatt, meanwhile, has been a judge on X-Factor New Zealand since 2013. Needless to say, they're all probably ready to give the nostalgia tour / album another go and fair play to them because All Saints, back in the day, were pretty cool. Everyone wore the face off each other to Bootie Call at your local teenage disco. Via Twitter Charlie Cox says his return as Daredevil "still feels too good to be true" A selection of the day's best photographs from around the world and nation, as curated by The Chronicle photo editors. U.S. rapprochement with Cuba was the right thing to do on any number of levels common sense not the least of these. It makes no sense then to use this diplomatic win-win as cause to block a worthy nominee to be U.S. ambassador to Mexico. But that is precisely what Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, a presidential candidate, is doing. He cites nominee Roberta Jacobsons role in shepherding the thaw through for the Obama administration and alleged U.S. tardiness in demanding the extradition of notorious Mexican drug lord Joaquin El Chapo Guzman, who escaped from a Mexican prison last year. First, Jacobson was simply doing her job, following the policy direction of her boss. Second, she had no reported role in extraditing drug lords from Mexico. But mostly this makes no sense because those items have absolutely nothing to do with her suitability for the job. She is fluent in Spanish, an expert in Latin American politics and has negotiated cross-border trade agreements, working on Latin American affairs for three decades for both Democratic and Republican administrations. In other words, the hold Rubio has placed on Jacobsons nomination has nothing to do with her qualifications. It is likely about presidential politics, currying favor with Florida voters who have festering resentments stemming from the Cuban diaspora prompted by a long-ago communist takeover of that country. It is about taking shots at the president while a crucial ambassadorship for this country remains vacant. Rubio says the thaw with Cuba should not have occurred without human rights concessions negotiated beforehand. Cubas human rights record is indeed dismal. But so are the human rights records of any number of countries with which we maintain diplomatic relations. China, Russia and Myanmar come to mind. It is in the nations interests to keep lines of communications open with rivals as much as allies. The GOP-led Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved Jacobsons nomination and moved it to the Senate in November. Rubio stands in the way of a full Senate vote to install her. The stall on Jacobson is not an anomaly. Ambassadorships for Norway, Sweden, Luxembourg, Trinidad and Tabago and the Bahamas also await Senate action, as well as other top State Department positions. But an ambassador vacancy in Mexico represents a particularly egregious lapse of responsibility. It is the U.S. third largest trading partner and a country with which this nation has a long border and some nettlesome problems to solve. This stall has everything to do with partisan pique and nothing to do with the nations interests. Rubio should relent. Stig-ake Jonsson/Associated Press STOCKHOLM Since it opened in 2000, the Oresund bridge between Sweden and Denmark has been a towering symbol of European integration and hassle-free travel across borders. On Monday new travel restrictions imposed by Sweden to stem a record flow of migrants are transforming the bridge into a striking example of how national boundaries are re-emerging. A year of clampdowns on migration and terrorism has all but killed the idea of a borderless Europe where you could drive or train-hop from Spain in the south to Norway in the north without ever having to show your passport. 1 Mideast violence: Thousands of people attended funerals Saturday in the West Bank for Palestinians killed in violence over the past few months. The burials came a day after Israel transferred 23 bodies of Palestinians it says were involved in the current wave of attacks. In October, Israel began withholding the bodies of suspected attackers as a tactic to crack down on violence. There have been almost daily Palestinian attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers over the past three and a half months. Also Saturday, Israeli police continued to search for a gunman who killed two people the day before in a shooting attack in Tel Aviv. The suspected gunman, Nashat Milhem from the Arab village of Arara, allegedly opened fire outside a bar before fleeing. 2 Paris attacks: The city of Paris will commemorate the victims of the attacks on the satirical Charlie Hebdo newspaper and a kosher supermarket that left 17 people dead in January last year. Commemorative plaques will be unveiled Tuesday to pay tribute to the victims of the attacks that took place on Jan. 7-9, 2015. On Friday, Frances highest decoration, the Legion of Honor, was awarded posthumously to the victims of the attacks through a government decree. BAGHDAD Saudi Arabia cut diplomatic ties with Iran Sunday and gave Iranian diplomats 48 hours to leave the kingdom, marking a swift escalation in a strategic and sectarian rivalry that underpins conflicts across the Middle East. The surprise move, announced in a news conference by Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi foreign minister, followed harsh criticism by Iranian leaders of the Saudis execution of an outspoken Shiite cleric, Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, and the storming of the Saudi Embassy in Tehran by protesters in response. The cutting of diplomatic ties came at a time when the United States and others had hoped that even limited cooperation between the two powers could help end the crushing civil wars in Syria and Yemen while easing tensions in Iraq, Bahrain, Lebanon and elsewhere. Instead, analysts fear it will increase Sunni-Shiite sectarian divisions and investment in proxy wars. The tensions between the two sides are going to mean that instability across the region will continue, said Michael Stephens, an analyst at the Royal United Services Institute, a research center in London. Saudi Arabia and Iran follow separate strands of Islam and have long been rivals for influence across the Middle East and beyond. That has accelerated in recent years as the Iraq war and the Arab Spring uprisings upturned the regional order and gave both nations new ways to extend their reach. That put them on opposite sides of various conflicts, often divided by sect. In Bahrain, Saudi Arabia sent tanks to support the Sunni monarchy against protesters led by the island nations Shiite majority. In Syria, Iran has bankrolled the government of President Bashar Assad while Saudi Arabia has supported Sunni rebels seeking his ouster. And in Yemen, Saudi Arabia has led an air campaign against Shiite Houthi rebels. But setting off the war of words that finally broke relations was Saudi Arabias execution Saturday of al-Nimr, who had called for the overthrow of the Saudi royal family and served as a spiritual leader for protesters from the kingdoms Shiite minority. The Saudi government accused him of inciting violence and executed him with 46 others. The reaction in the region generally broke cleanly along sectarian lines, with Shiite leaders criticizing the Saudis while Sunni allies applauded. Then late Saturday, protesters in Tehran ransacked the Saudi Embassy, and Iranian leaders turned up the rhetoric. Gods hand of retaliation will grip the neck of Saudi politicians, Irans supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on his official website. Colima Mexico Volcano, one of Earth's Tetrahedron Vertexes, Erupting WATCH ON YOU TUBE https://youtu.be/CqcwTtDtNIo Courtesy Tawa, Colima, Mexico COLIMA (MEXICO) VOLCANO ERUPTING Rudolf Steiner then draws a map (see Lecture 10, page 194) showing a tetrahedron with a vertex at the South pole, another vertex at the Colima volcano in central Mexico (latitude 19.6 !) a 3rd vertex in the Caucasus near Mount Ararat in Turkey and the 4th vertex over in Japan. Volcanoes form along these edges because the four triangles have not been thrown together with complete accuracy so that volcanoes can spew out along the weak or open areas of this "seam." Although Steiner's tetrahedron is tilted a bit compared to Hoagland's, nonetheless the principle still holds because there are a number of interpenetrating tetrahedra which can be better understood when one generates the other four Platonic solids: octahedron, cube, icosahedron and dodecahedron from the fundamental tetrahedron. At the very end of the lecture, Steiner expresses a fundamental principle of geosophy in connecting geometrical forms with the formation of the human body. The Evolution of the Earth and Man and The Influence of the Stars Schmidt Number: S-5944 On-line since: 15th December, 2005 LECTURE XII Question: Could we hear something about the origin of volcanoes? http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA354/English/RSP1987/19240918p01.html#sthash.fiDu31Om.dpuf We want your comments and your story tips! geniusofdespair@yahoo.com (use ALL caps in subject line) afarago@bellsouth.net. Actually I never look at my email, Genius, so write to Gimleteye. After the arson-murders, Ben-Uliel and his wife and 1-year-old daughter reportedly moved to Jerusalem and became, so they told friends, followers of Rabbi Eliezer Berlands Breslov hasidic movement, Shuvu Banim. Berland has been on a more than two-year flight from justice, running from country to country to avoid deportation and extradition to Israel, where he is wanted for questioning in the rapes and sexual abuse of several young female followers, most of whom were married at the time of their alleged assault, and at least one of whom was a minor at the time the alleged sex assault took place. Above: Amiram Ben-Uliel before joining Breslov Leader Of Douma Arson-Murder Ring Is New Breslov Hasid, Wife Is Member Of Haredi Taliban Women Burka Cult Shmarya Rosenberg FailedMessiah.com Amiram Ben-Uliel, the 21-year-old accused arsonist-murderer of a West Bank Palestinian baby and his sleeping parents, was criminally charged earlier today with those murders. According to a report in Haaretz, Ben-Uliel a well-known presence in the Jewish hilltops and settlements of the West Bank had until now never been arrested for any violent activities. His father, Rabbi Reuven Ben-Uliel, heads a mainstream IDF prep program for Zionist Orthodox teens, Mechina Nokdim. Amiram Ben-Uliel, his oldest son, was born in the Jewish settlement of Karmei Zur north of Hebron. Like many of the other Hilltop Youth, Amiram Ben-Uliel came from a stable family and left school due to academic difficulties, finding refuge and purpose on the wild hilltops of the West Bank. As he spent more time on those lawless anarchist hilltops, Ben-Uliels became ever more radical. At the same time, his connection with his family became weak and distant. He started out in the hilltop outpost of Ramat Migron established by settler leader Daniella Weiss a hard-right-wing ideologue who for a time headed the Jewish settler movement. At Ramat Migron, Ben-Uliel met Meir Ettinger, a grandson of assassinated extremist Rabbi Meir Kahane. Kahane founded and headed the outlawed Kach Movement. Many of the Hilltop Youth who are not from backgrounds like Ben-Uliels come from Kahanist families. Ben-Uliel and Ettinger were active in a group loosely linked to extremist Chabad Rabbi Yitzhak Ginsburgh that wants to reestablish Jewish presence at the purported tomb of the biblical character Joseph in Shechem/Nablus and in Jericho. When Ramat Migron was dismantled several years ago, Ben-Uliel moved from settlement and outpost to settlement and outpost including to the radical settlement of Itamar. During this time he was arrested in a criminal case and told the court he would not comply with limitations it imposed on him because he did not recognize the legitimacy of the State of Israel itself. Despite this, the Shin Bet did not investigate him. Two years ago, Ben-Uliel married a well-known Hilltop Youth extremist, Orian Nizri, who glorified the murders of Palestinians and who at one point had at least 10 active criminal indictments against her. She allegedly attacked Palestinians and police and spit on Christian clergy in Jerusalems Old City. Just before the arson-murders of three members of the Dawabsheh family, including 18-month-old Ali, in their Douma (Duma) home, Ben-Uliel lived on a bus in the arguably illegal Adei Ad Jewish settler outpost. Adei Ad sits on a hilltop overlooking Douma. After the arson-murders, Ben-Uliel and his wife and 1-year-old daughter reportedly moved to Jerusalem and became, so they told friends, followers of Rabbi Eliezer Berlands Breslov hasidic movement, Shuvu Banim. Berland has been on a more than two-year flight from justice, running from country to country to avoid deportation and extradition to Israel, where he is wanted for questioning in the rapes and sexual abuse of several young female followers, most of whom were married at the time of their alleged assault, and at least one of whom was a minor at the time the alleged sex assault took place. Many of Berland's followers are believed to be ex-cons or current criminals. Ben-Uliels wife became a member of the haredi burka cult, also known as the Taliban women, who wrap themselves in layers of dark shawls and hoods in order not to lead men to sin by being overcome with their beauty beauty which they believe would be exposed to the world if they dressed like average haredi women with bulletproof stockings, frumpy shoes, skirts and blouses, and truly awful wigs with hats. At the same time, Amiram Ben-Uliel became a Jerusalem kollel (advanced yeshiva for married men) student. On December 1, that was where police found him and arrested him. This morning, Ben-Uliels parents reportedly issued a statement supporting their son. It claimed Amiram Ben-Uliel is innocent and that his confession which they contend is false was given only under torture from the Shin Bet. But that does not explain why Amiram Ben-Uliel was able to correctly reenact the arson-murders for the Shin Bet after he confessed to them. Amirams father Reuven, the IDF Zionist Orthodox preparatory academys rabbi-head, is himself a close follower of Rabbi Avichai Rontzki, the former chief rabbi of the IDF. Rontzki, who has been openly supportive of the Shin Bet during the past few weeks of torture allegations agaisnt the security agency made by the Hilltop Youth and their Kahanist attorneys, said today in a statement that Reuven Ben-Uliel is the salt of the earth, but sometimes rabbis sons kick in all directions, acting contrary to their fathers. On the lam for more than two years, fugitive from justice Rabbi Eliezer Berland, the head of Breslovs Shuvu Banim hasidic sect, celebrated his 79th birthday with 79 balloons given to him by a small subgroup of his followers who allegedly came from Israel to South Africa to celebrate with him. Above: Rabbi Eliezer Berland Still Hiding From The Law, Rabbi Eliezer Berland Celebrates 79th Birthday, Allegedly In South African Exile Shmarya Rosenberg FailedMessiah.com On the lam for more than two years, fugitive from justice Rabbi Eliezer Berland, the head of Breslovs Shuvu Banim hasidic sect, celebrated his 79th birthday with 79 balloons given to him by a small subgroup of his followers who allegedly came from Israel to South Africa to celebrate with him, Behadrei Haredim reported. Also present was Berlands son Nachman, a rabbi in the sect. The celebration supposedly took place in the outer suburbs of Johannesburg, South Africa where Berland is allegedly residing after jumping bail in the Netherlands last year. Berland is wanted in Israel for questioning for a string of alleged rapes and sexual assaults against young female followers, many of who were married at the time their assaults allegedly took place. One of those alleged victims was a minor when Berland allegedly sexual assaulted her. Behadrei Haredim has two photos of the event here. Related Posts: All Rabbi Eliezer Berland Posts. By clicking Agree, you consent to Slates Terms of Service and Privacy Policy and the use of technologies such as cookies by Slate and our partners to deliver relevant advertising on our iOS app to personalize content and perform site analytics. Please see our Privacy Policy for more information about our use of data, your rights, and how to withdraw consent. Agree Best Canadian Blog 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 About Kate Why this blog? Until this moment I have been forced to listen while media and politicians alike have told me "what Canadians think". In all that time they never once asked. This is just the voice of an ordinary Canadian yelling back at the radio - "You don't speak for me." (goes to a private mailserver in Europe) I can't answer or use every tip, but all are appreciated! Katewerk Art Support SDA I am not a registered charity. I cannot issue tax receipts. Reconnaissance Man Economics for the Disinterested ...a fast-paced polar bear attack thriller! Want lies? Hire a regular consultant. Want truth? Hire an asshole. Weather Shop Click to inquire about rates. Dow Jones What They Say About SDA "Smalldeadanimals doesn't speak for the people of Saskatchewan" Former Sask Premier Lorne Calvert "I got so much traffic after your post my web host asked me to buy a larger traffic allowance." Dr.Ross McKitrick Holy hell, woman. When you send someone traffic, you send someone TRAFFIC. My hosting provider thought I was being DDoSed. - Sean McCormick "The New York Times link to me yesterday [...] generated one-fifth of the traffic I normally get from a link from Small Dead Animals." Kathy Shaidle "Thank you for your link. A wave of your Canadian readers came to my blog! Really impressive." Juan Giner - INNOVATION International Media Consulting Group I got links from the Weekly Standard, Hot Air and Instapundit yesterday - but SDA was running at least equal to those in visitors clicking through to my blog. Jeff Dobbs "You may be a nasty right winger, but you're not nasty all the time!" Warren Kinsella "Go back to collecting your welfare livelihood."Michael E. Zilkowsky Intelliweather Seismic Map Comments Policy Read this Best Of SDA Hide The Decline The Bottle Genie (ClimateGate links) You Might Be A Liberal Uncrossing The Line Bob Fife: Knuckledragger A Modest Proposal (NP) Settled Science Series Y2Kyoto Series SDA: Reader Occupation Survey Brett Lamb Sheltered Workshop Flakes On A Plane All Your Weather Are Belong To Us Song Of The Sled The Raise A Flag Debacle (Now on Youtube!) (.mwv Video) Abuse Ruins Life Of Girl Trudeaupiate Kleptocrat Jeans Child Labour I Concede Small Dead Feminist Protein Hoser: THK Interview The Werewolf Extinction Dear Laura (VRWC) We Wait Blogging The Oscars Jackson Converts To Islam Just Shut The HELL Up Manipulating Condi Gay Equality Rights Heavy falls have prompted forecasters and emergency services to warn of possible flash flooding across south-eastern NSW. But meteorologists say Canberra should escape most of the severe weather swamping parts of the southern highlands and the south coast. Weatherzone's Ben McBurney said Canberra had not received as much rain as further east, with Monday's predicted falls not enough to cause flooding Canberra could also get more than half last month's total rainfall lash the city this week, with up to 25 millimetres expected on Monday alone. Only 35 millimetres fell in the capital during December. The wet weather and cloudy skies are set to break up the hot spell the ACT has seen in the past few days, with maximum temperatures forecast to stay within the 20s in the coming week. Australia's major union representing public servants says the bureaucrat who complained about Jamie Briggs has experienced a "gross breach of privacy". The Community and Public Sector Union has called for the privacy of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade staff member to be protected after a photo of the woman was leaked to the media. The case of the disgraced former minister and his antics in the crowded bar worsened over the weekend after revelations it was Mr Briggs who shared an image of the woman with friends. In primary school Casimira Tipiloura never dreamed of finishing year 12. No one in her family had completed their schooling and until recently there wasn't even a high school on the Tiwi Islands where you could study the Northern Territory's equivalent of the HSC. Now Casimira is the first Tiwi student to graduate with an ATAR, attending her local high school in Wurrumiyanga on Bathurst Island, 80 kilometres north of Darwin. Casimira Tipiloura has made history as the first student from the Tiwi Islands to gain an ATAR. While students on the Tiwi Islands have successfully gained the Northern Territory Certificate of Education and Training in the past, Casimira is the first to succeed in the compulsory units required to receive an ATAR. This makes her the first student to graduate, with the possibility of going on to university. In her graduation speech, Casimira said she hoped to be a role model for other Tiwi students. Saudi officials say their government puts to death only people who have been convicted of grave crimes, unlike Islamic State, which kills hostages and releases grisly videos. Iranian security mass outside Saudi Arabia's embassy in Tehran ahead of protests that turned violent. Credit:AP But human rights groups have criticised the Saudi justice system for not following due process by denying the accused access to legal counsel during interrogation and indicting suspects on vague charges like adopting extremist ideology or undermining the stability of the state. Big spike in executions during 2015 The last mass execution of similar scale in Saudi Arabia was in 1980, when 63 jihadists were put to death after they seized the Grand Mosque in Mecca. The executions of at least 157 people in 2015, a year that began with the inauguration of a new monarch, King Salman, were a sharp increase from the 90 people put to death in 2014. Saudi officials have argued that the increase reflects not a change in policy but a backlog of death sentences that had built up in the final years of the previous monarch, King Abdullah. Saudi officials said the mass execution, one of the largest in the kingdom in decades, was aimed at deterring violence against the state. But analysts said that the grouping of Nimr with hardened jihadists was a warning to domestic dissidents that could exacerbate sectarian tensions across the Middle East. The executions were the first of 2016 and followed a year in which the kingdom recorded its highest yearly total in two decades. They coincided with increased attacks in Saudi Arabia by the jihadists of the Islamic State and an escalating rivalry between the Sunni monarchy and Shiite Iran that has fuelled conflicts in Syria, Yemen and elsewhere. Widespread criticism Many in the region see the execution of Nimr as part of that rivalry and Shiite leaders in different countries condemned the move. Nimr was an outspoken critic of the Saudi monarchy and was adopted as a symbolic leader by Shiite protesters in several Persian Gulf countries during the Arab Spring uprisings. "It is clear that this barren and irresponsible policy will have consequences for those endorsing it, and the Saudi government will have to pay for pursuing this policy," said Hossein Jaberi-Ansari, a spokesman for Iran's Foreign Ministry. Criticism also came from Shiite politicians and clerics in Iraq, the Houthi rebel movement in Yemen and the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah. In Iraq, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi wrote on Twitter that he was "shocked" and "saddened" at Nimr's execution. "Peaceful opposition is a fundamental right," he tweeted in English. "Repression does not last." Hundreds of Shiites took to the streets to protest in eastern Saudi Arabia and in Bahrain, witnesses said. In Iran, protesters tore down a flag from the Saudi consulate in the city of Mashhad, and demonstrations were planned for Sunday in Tehran. Saudi officials denied that sectarianism had played any role in the executions. Most of those executed on Saturday had been convicted in connection with deadly attacks by al-Qaeda in the kingdom about a decade ago. Four, including Nimr, were Shiites accused of violence against the police during protests. In recent weeks, the Saudi government appeared to be preparing the public for the executions. Reports that they were imminent had appeared on Saudi news websites, and al-Arabiya, a Saudi-owned satellite channel, recently aired a multi-part documentary that dramatised the kingdom's fight against al-Qaeda. On Saturday some Saudis, including journalists at a government news conference, thanked officials for carrying out the death sentences. The top cleric, Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Al al-Sheikh, called them a "mercy to the prisoners" because the executions would save them from committing more evil acts. But some Western analysts said that executing Nimr along with al-Qaeda militants conflated his outspoken activism with a grave national threat. "This is indicative of the hard-line tilt the regime has taken," said Frederic Wehrey, an analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace who has travelled in Shiite parts of Saudi Arabia. "He will be eaten by worms" Nimr, said to be in his mid-50s, was from Awamiyah, a poor town surrounded by palm groves in eastern Saudi Arabia that is known for opposition to the monarchy. He studied in Iran and Syria, but rose to prominence for fiery sermons after his return that criticised the ruling family and called for Shiite empowerment, even suggesting that Shiites could secede from the kingdom. He directly criticised the House of Saud, Saudi Arabia's ruling family, for its domestic policies and forcefully spoke out against individual royal family members. Sheikh Nimr did not deny the political charges against him, but maintained he never carried weapons or called for violence. Why is his execution important? His death is seen by some as a warning to anyone thinking of calling for reforms and wider political freedoms in Saudi Arabia. His death also strikes a sensitive chord for Saudi Shiites who claim they are discriminated against by authorities in the kingdom, where many ultra-conservatives Sunnis view Shiites as heretics. Several Shiites mosques and places of worship in eastern Saudi Arabia were targeted by Sunni extremists in 2015, despite attempts by security forces to clamp down on Islamic State supporters who have also targeted police. Sheikh Nimr's execution came as a surprise to even his own family, his brother Mohammed al-Nimr said. Despite harsh verdicts against government critics, activists are typically given long jail sentences, even after initial appeals that uphold death sentences. Although states and territories are responsible for road rules in their own jurisdictions, the laws are more or less uniform nationally, thanks to the Australian Road Rules developed in 1999. If you're planning a road trip during the summer holidays, it pays to know you could be penalised more harshly for driving offences across the border than in Canberra. Speeding: Both the ACT and NSW issue one demerit point for speeding above the limit at 10km/h or less, but the similarities end there. If you're caught speeding more than 10km/h over, but less than 20km/h in NSW, you'll receive three demerit points, increasing to four demerit points for between 21km/h and 30km/h over, five points for 30km/h to 45km/h and six points for anything above that level. In the ACT, higher demerit points come only after you're speeding at more than 15km/h over the limit; attracting three points for driving up to 29km/h over, four points between 30km/h and 44km/h, then six points beyond that. Overtaking: Both the ACT and NSW forbid driving in the right lane of a multi-lane road with a speed limit of more than 80km/h, attracting two demerit points in both jurisdictions. But NSW regards increasing your speed while being overtaken as a more serious offence, one for which you'll accrue three points if caught. Tailgating: This offence carries a more severe penalty in NSW, warranting three demerit points compared with the ACT's one. Double demerits: Applicable in both NSW and ACT, double-demerit periods during holidays operate differently in some other jurisdictions. Western Australia also has double-demerit points. Queensland does not have double demerits over holiday periods, but instead issues double the penalty if the same offence is committed twice in 12 months. Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia do not have a double demerits system, while the Northern Territory is considering introducing a scheme after a horror road toll in 2015. L and P plate laws: The greatest differences between NSW and ACT road rules are those governing drivers on learner or provisional licences. While learners and provisional drivers in the ACT can use mobile phones in phone holders or on Bluetooth to make voice calls, all phone use is forbidden for those licence classes over the border. Over the last two years Australians have been confronted with allegations of bad behaviour in a number of the nation's leading trade unions. The Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption headed by former High Court Justice Dyson Heydon has heard evidence of blackmail, theft, intimidation, interference in union elections, dubious agreements with employers that may have led to workers being ripped off; climaxing, as it were, with claims of senior union officials using members' money to purchase sex toys and tickets to a Kiss concert. Some of those named may face criminal proceedings, as the commission's final report recommends. Justice Dyson Heydon's recommendations will do nothing to stop warring among trade unions. Credit:David Geraghty So mischief managed, to borrow a Harry Potterism? Perhaps. There remains a need to address causes that reflect the historically-shaped nature of both the union movement and Australian society. Union behaviour reflects the culture in which it functions. For example, the intensely competitive and aggressively masculine nature of the construction industry evolves from the historically-established behaviour of corporations, managers, subcontractors, workers and union officials involved in that industry. I was accused of sedition over a series of tweets I sent out opposing the jailing of a prominent Malaysian opposition leader. Now I'm facing nine charges under my country's archaic, colonial-era Sedition Act, which could result in a 43-year prison sentence. The court proceedings against me begin this month. Last February, police raided my home in the middle of the night and hauled me off to jail. I was handcuffed for eight hours and thrown into a cell with all the other criminal suspects. I managed to avoid telling my cellmates what I was in for: using Twitter. Under my pen name, Zunar, I expose corruption and abuses of power by the Malaysian government. As it happens, I have a good deal of material to work with. For instance, Prime Minister Najib Razak is currently facing questions about a $700 million "donation" made to his personal bank account. Malaysian cartoonist Zulkiflee Anwar Haque: "The government wants to make an example of me." I was in the United States in November to receive a press freedom award from the Committee to Protect Journalists. While I was discussing my case with American journalists and cartoonists, President Barack Obama was in Kuala Lumpur meeting Najib - the third time they met face to face. Obama is eagerly courting Malaysia in his efforts to fight extremism and to advance the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, and his meeting reportedly focused on that to the virtual exclusion of everything else. That's a grave disappointment and a missed opportunity. Obama has a responsibility to put the issue of human rights on the table. The legal assault against me is nothing new, but it marks a major escalation. The authorities have repeatedly sought to silence me. My office has been raided multiple times since 2009, and authorities have confiscated thousands of my cartoon books. In 2010, five of my books including 1 Funny Malaysia were banned by the home affairs minister, who declared the contents "detrimental to public order". Later that year I was detained by police and locked up for two days after the publication of Cartoon-O-Phobia. To say the least, the Malaysian government has no sense of humour. In late 2014, my webmaster was called in for questioning, and three of my assistants were arrested for selling my books. I was also brought in for questioning by the police, and the company that processes orders for my website was forced to disclose my customer list. In January, the police raided my office and then in February opened two investigations under the Sedition Act. That's when they really threw the book at me. Fey plays Kate Ellis, a wilful beautician who struggles to hold onto jobs and homes, much to the chagrin of her college-age daughter, Haley (Madison Davenport), while Poehler is Kate's younger sister, Maura, a divorced nurse whose sense of generosity and caring is so advanced it allows her to pretend she actually has a satisfying life. Occasionally filthy, sometimes foul-mouthed and often funny, Sisters is proof that the inspired comic chemistry of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler can prosper on a longer format than a Saturday Night Live sketch or a Golden Globes monologue. As contrary siblings cutting loose, the pair masterfully make the movie's antics-laden plot into a quick-witted pleasure. Even their silliness is sharp. The pair return home to Orlando, Florida, for the weekend at the instigation of their parents, played by Dianne Wiest and James Brolin, who've sold their family home and require the duo to clean out their childhood rooms. Kate worries about the loss of back-up housing, while Maura mourns their adolescent memories, but they're soon united by idea of throwing a final party to match their teenage blowouts. Sisters stars comedic talents Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. Credit:K.C. Bailey Comedies about men who just want to be teenage boys are legion, but in putting a Bridesmaids-worthy spin on the concept, director Jason Moore (Pitch Perfect) and writer Paula Pell (Saturday Night Live) make the fun anarchic but acknowledge that 40somethings getting off the leash is both temporary and a little tragic. But then Fey and Poehler dance to Snow's Informer and all is good. The cast is full of talented comics, from Maya Rudolph as Brinda, Kate's pompous high school rival who keeps trying to crash the escalating party, to Bad Neighbours' Ike Barinholtz as James, the good natured recipient of Maura's romantic intentions. Their numerous bits, some madcap and improvised, fill out the storyline, which occasionally tries to impart a few lessons about responsibility and acceptance. Kate pledges to stay sober so Maura can get a little wild, and Fey in turn is terrific as the sardonic sibling, snapping out insults and riffing on the muscular bulk of wrestler John Cena, who plays the bacchanal's taciturn drug dealer. Poehler extends her comic persona of Parks and Recreation's Leslie Knope, but Fey upends 30 Rock's Liz Lemon. The leak of a photograph of the public servant at the centre of the Jamie Briggs affair has been slammed as a "gross breach" of privacy that risks deterring women from reporting concerns about workplace misbehaviour. Mr Briggs has admitted to sending a photograph of the female public servant posing with his chief-of-staff to "a few people" before and after she lodged a complaint about the Hong Kong incident. In a statement announcing his resignation from the Turnbull government frontbench last week, the former cities minister stressed he had not revealed the identity of the woman to "protect her privacy". A pixelated version of the photograph, which showed the woman posing with a peace sign, was later published prominently in weekend newspapers as well as private text messages sent by her, her age and job title. A spokesman for Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said he was not aware of any investigation by the Prime Minister's Office to identify who leaked the photos to the press. Michael Tull, assistant national secretary of the Community and Public Sector Union, said: "If this kind of gross breach of privacy had come from a senior departmental official, or any other public sector worker for that matter, that person would be facing serious repercussions. A journalist labelled a "mad f---ing witch" by Immigration Minister Peter Dutton hopes he doesn't find himself on the backbench for accidentally sending an offensive text message to her. On Sunday night, Mr Dutton confirmed he had apologised to the journalist for the text, which was intended for his embattled colleague Jamie Briggs. Mr Briggs stepped down from his position as cities minister after acting inappropriately towards a female colleague while on an overseas trip. Naomi Halpern, a victim of bad financial advice who was caught up in the collapse of forestry investment scheme Timbercorp, will take the fight up to the financial sector and the corporate watchdog at the next federal election. The Apollo Bay resident has been named as the lead Victorian Senate candidate for Nick Xenophon's new political party set up by the independent South Australian senator who has been a vocal campaigner for cleaning up the financial advice sector. Victims of poor financial advice like Naomi Halpern have concerns about bankruptcy reforms. Credit:Wayne Taylor In her first interview since being preselected for The Xenophon Team in December, Ms Halpern took a swipe at the Australian Securities and Investments Commission's handling of financial collapses and white collar crime. "There needs to be an appropriate organisation to investigate complaints of white collar crime," Ms Halpern said. It is mid-afternoon, and PhD student Savant Thakur is watching as his research assistant carries out an experiment Mr Thakur designed to investigate the effect muscular dystrophy has on living tissue. The disorder progressively wastes the body's muscle tissue, and its most serious form, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, affects about one in 3500 boys. Anyone with the condition is lucky to make it to the age of 30. Savant Thakur, whose research into muscular dystrophy could have implications for his own battle with the disorder. Credit:Josh Robenstone The Melbourne University student knows about it all too well; he has been living with it for most of his life and his own muscles prevent him from carrying out the practical work himself. He was diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy at age four, but even before then he knew something was wrong with his body. A neighbourhood row on Australia's most expensive street has stretched over five years, involved a wooden staircase, an "unedifying brawl", and complaints about loud music and dangerous driving. And now, the dispute between Crystal Car Wash owner Anthony Sahade and his Point Piper neighbours Eckart and Celia Bischoff includes an argument in the state's highest court.over $500. Anthony Sahade, centre, outside court in 2013. Credit:Nick Moir A physical fight between Mr Sahade, his carpenter Adam Paul Smith and Mr Bischoff erupted on the battleaxe block on Wolseley Road on the afternoon of May 21, 2012. Tensions had erupted during the court-ordered demolition of a staircase on Mr Sahade's house, which was built without approval. The NSW environmental watchdog had to abandon the prosecution of the government-owned Forestry Corp for allegedly cutting an illegal road through a koala conservation area after it took too long act. Conservation and community groups are now calling on the Baird government to set up an independent inquiry into the management of forestry operations. The Nature Conservation Council and the North-East Forest Alliance want the matter and the relationship between the two government agencies investigated after revelations that the EPA took so long to act, the matter it is now statute-barred. The Sydney Opera House will host a celebration of the nation's artists on Australia Day, with two free concerts on the forecourt. The Wiggles, who this year mark their 25th anniversary, will perform in the morning while the evening show will feature Jessica Mauboy, Thirsty Merc, Justice Crew, Kate Ceberano and Cyrus, as well as commentary from Roy and HG. Justice Crew launch the Australia Day concert. Credit:Michele Mossop Australia Day creative director John Foreman said the line-up provided "the most exciting program" yet for the annual concert. "From new and up and coming acts to heritage artists, to comedians, the concert will be the perfect way to celebrate all that we love about Australia through music," he said. A NSW police officer has been charged after alleging intimidating colleagues. The 41-year-old sergeant from the NSW Police Force's Northern Region was charged with two counts of intimidation on Sunday. NSW Police said the alleged offences relate to two separate incidents which took place in 2013 and 2014 at a police station in the Northern Region, which covers an area from the state's central coast to the far north coast. The officer is on leave and is due to appear at Newcastle Local Court on February 18. There's little doubt that 2015 has been one of the more tumultuous years the Australian economy has seen in some time. The effects of everything from the collapse of the international commodities market, to the worsening global security situation have all put pressure on local business confidence. According to our latest MYOB Business Monitor, the number of SME operators expecting the economy to worsen next year (45 per cent) is nearly double that of those looking for it to improve in 2016 (23 per cent). Tim Reed, chief executive of MYOB would like to see a few changes for small business in 2016. Credit:James Alcock One of the key reasons optimism is in short supply among Australia's smaller business operators is that they are at the mercy of so many factors which are outside their control. They can have all the right systems in place, create a strong business plan for 2016 and have the resources and talent to execute well, but still be mired in bureaucracy or derailed by shortsighted policy. In order to ensure our small business sector, one of the key drivers of the economy and sources of local employment, has the opportunity to grow and succeed in the next year, it will need the focus and support of those that are able to pull the levers of the economy. Jerusalem: Police in Israel are hunting for an Arab citizen of Israel identified as the suspect in Friday's deadly shooting attack on a Tel Aviv bar. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who visited the scene of the attack in which two people were killed, said security forces were searching for "a needle in a haystack" as they pursued Nashat Melhem, 29, from Arara in northern Israel. The manhunt began in the Tel Aviv area but details of the investigation were under a court gag order. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said roadblocks had also been set up further afield to prevent the suspect escaping to the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Nashat Melhem's father urged the police to find his son quickly. Baghdad: Saudi Arabia has cut diplomatic ties with Iran and given all Iranian diplomats 48 hours to leave the kingdom, as escalating tensions over the execution of an outspoken Shiite cleric in Saudi Arabia marked a new low in relations between the two Middle Eastern powers. The surprise move, announced on Sunday in a televised news conference by Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi Foreign Minister, followed harsh criticism by Iranian leaders of the Saudi execution of Nimr al-Nimr and the storming of the Saudi embassy in Tehran by protesters in response. On Monday, Saudi Arabia went one step further and said it would cut all commercial ties between the two countries and ban its citizens from travelling to Iran. Pilgrims from Iran will, however, still be able to journey to Mecca for haj. The briefs are compiled to represent the broader outside interests at stake in a case, and are rarely so devoted to personal narratives. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has described Republican opponents as "terrorist groups" when it comes to women's issues. With the split between Democrats and Republicans deeper than ever over abortion, the issue is set to become a volatile topic during the 2016 campaign. Credit:AP The disputed Texas law requires clinics that perform abortions to have hospital-grade facilities and clinic doctors to obtain admitting privileges at a local hospital. The clinics challenging the regulations as an unconstitutional burden on women say Texas is using costly, needless requirements to shut down facilities and restrict access to the procedure. Texas counters that it is safeguarding women's health. The Centre for Reproductive Rights (CRR), a New York-based non-profit group, is representing the clinics in the case, entitled Whole Woman's Health v. Cole. Texas's legal strategy is being coordinated in Austin by state Solicitor General Scott Keller, who worked as a law clerk to Justice Kennedy in 2009-2010. Personal narratives For months CRR lawyers have been reaching out for personal testimonies through emails and phone calls, according to women who have been contacted in Texas and elsewhere. Former Democratic Texas state senator Wendy Davis, who led a filibuster against the abortion legislation in 2013 and revealed her two abortions in a memoir a year later, said she was asked in August to join a brief of public officials. She agreed. Senator Davis terminated two pregnancies in the 1990s for medical reasons. "Did I grieve tremendously? Yes, I did, in an indescribable way," she said in an interview with Reuters. "But never did I regret it." Heather Busby, director of NARAL Pro-Choice Texas in Austin, provided her story for a brief to be filed on behalf of lawyers who had abortions. She said she often wonders whether she would have finished college and gone to law school if she had not ended an unwanted pregnancy at age 22, two decades ago. Among those preparing briefs to support Texas is lawyer Allan Parker of the San Antonio-based Justice Foundation, which runs an 'Operation Outcry' website asking women to sign declarations labelled "How My Abortion Hurt Me." Parker said many women will not be fully identified in the filing, such as a Cindy H., who lived in Texas and now resides in Washington state. She told Reuters her uterus was punctured during an abortion in the 1990s in a Texas clinic and she began hemorrhaging. "I thought I could have bled to death," she said. Separately, Cindy Collins, an outspoken anti-abortion advocate in Louisiana, said she will be lending her full name to that brief about the harms of abortion. Disputes over abortion rights, like gay marriage, have come down to Justice Kennedy, a 1988 appointee of Republican President Ronald Reagan and the judge who tipped the balance to the liberal side in gay marriage disputes in 2013 and 2015, notably in last June's landmark ruling for a nationwide right to same-sex marriage. Over a series of decisions, Justice Kennedy moved consistently toward greater protection for gay men and lesbians. On abortion rights, his record has not been as predictable. Based on their records, the current four conservatives are likely to favour the Texas law; the four liberals are likely to reject it, again leaving Justice Kennedy with the 'balance of power'. The last time the Supreme Court heard an abortion case, in 2007, he cited a friend of the court brief from women who said they regretted going through with the procedure. PHILIPSBURG:---- The Parliament of Sint Maarten will be hosting the Inter-parliamentary Kingdom Consultation (IPKO) from January 5-8. On the agenda to be discussed are a number of topics such as: health care, economic opportunities within the Kingdom with the focus on Small Island Developing States (SIDS); energy; education more specifically the issues students and former students encounter with DUO in the Netherlands where it pertains their study loan and the possibility of studying in the region; the dispute regulation and the use of articles 15 and 20 of the Regulation of the Governor that enables the Kingdom Government to issue instructions to the Governor, among others. Delegations from the Parliaments of Aruba and Curacao as well as from the First and Second Chambers of the Netherlands will participate in IPKO this week. IPKO participants will receive presentations from the Civil Registry on nationality issues caused by administrative errors as well as the Public Prosecutors office on a comprehensive approach to fight human trafficking. The IPKO is a meeting that takes place twice a year where delegations from the Parliaments of the four countries within the Kingdom meet and discuss a number of issues. The meeting in January is always hosted by one of the Caribbean countries of the Kingdom while the meeting in June is hosted by the Netherlands. The intention of these meetings is to discuss issues that are of common interest or affect the populations of the countries in one way or the other in order to come with possible solutions. In addition, it is a good opportunity for the parliamentarians to meet their peers from the other countries to establish that personal contact. At the end of each IPKO, an agreement list is signed by the delegation leader of each parliamentary delegation. Throughout the year the execution of the agreements made are monitored by each country. The Presidents of Parliament of the three Caribbean countries of the Kingdom, Aruba, Curacao and Sint Maarten, meet every so often in a Tripartite meeting to discuss issues of common interest. These meetings can be held in any of the three countries. On January 4, prior to the start of the IPKO Consultation, a Tripartite will also take place where Aruba, Curacao and Sint Maarten will discuss a number of issues such as the possibility of a joint Constitutional Court, a register for wills, appeal in tax court cases, the possibility of reduction of roaming costs between the Caribbean islands of the Kingdom. The Tripartite will also discuss some of the topics on the agenda of the IPKO in preparation for the Consultation. Work visits are planned for the Princess Juliana International Airport (SXM Airport) PJIAE N.V. and to the Seawater Reverse Osmosis Desalination Facility in Pointe Blanche (Seven Seas Water). The IPKO meetings will be streamed live via the website of Parliament www.sxmparliament.org as well as broadcasted live via PEARL Radio Station 98.1 FM. For dinosaur museum, South Bend Chocolate founder requests $2.7 million South Bend Chocolate Co. founder Mark Tarner plans to build a dinosaur museum with bones he's excavated at a private site in Montana. Suburban schools grow slightly, or lose less than state average Numbers from the state Department of Public Instruction show that in suburban Milwaukee, about 27 school districts grew last year, or lost fewer students than average. The 2016 Quadrantid meteor shower of 2016 peaks before dawn on Monday Jan. 4, and could be one of the best of the year, weather permitting. Here, astrophotographer Roberto Porto captures a Qudrantid meteor over Tenerife in Spain's Canary Islands in 2012. The first meteor display of 2016 the Quadrantid meteor shower - will hit its peak early Monday morning (Jan. 4), with a strong display of "shooting stars" likely for Europe and North America. Weather permitting, observers in the eastern regions of the United States and Canada will be in position for the maximum activity from the Quadrantid meteor shower, which is expected about 3 a.m. EST, when the radiant of the shower will be well up the dark northeastern sky. This is perfect timing it falls right in our prime meteor-watching hours before dawn. The meteors appear to radiate from a spot on the sky midway between the last handle star of the Big Dipper and the head of Draco, the Dragon. The radiant is actually located within the boundaries of the constellation of Bootes, the Herdsman, so we might expect them to be called the "Bootids." [See amazing photos from past Quadrantid meteor showers] But back in the late-18th century there was a constellation here called Quadrans Muralis, the "Mural or Wall Quadrant" (an astronomical instrument). It is long-obsolete star pattern, invented in 1795 by J.J. Lalande to commemorate the instrument used to observe the stars in his catalogue. Adolphe Quetelet of Brussels Observatory discovered the shower in the 1830s, and shortly afterward it was noted by several astronomers in Europe and America. Thus they were christened "Quadrantids" and even though the constellation from which these meteors appear to radiate no longer exists, the shower's original moniker continues to this day. For mid-northern observers, the meteor shower's radiant stays near the northern horizon until midnight but rises high in the northeast by dawn. And come Monday morning observers all across North America may experience one of the best meteor showers of the year. Morning twilight will not interfere until about 6 a.m. local time. The predicted hour for the peak 3 a.m. EST comes from the Canadian Observer's Handbook. At greatest activity, probably anywhere from 60 to 120 meteors per hour will be seen. These moderately swift, many leaving trains, may be seen by a single observer with a dark sky. Any light pollution cuts down the numbers greatly. Give your eyes at least 15 to 20 minutes to adapt to the dark before started a serious meteor count. According to Guy Ottewell, editor of the 2016 edition of the Astronomical Calendar, "Faint Quadrantids caused by small particles may peak half a day earlier, and there may sometimes be a second peak some hours later, detected partly by radio observations." Monday, January 4, midnight to dawn. The Quadrantid meteor shower, one of the most reliable in the year, peaks 3 a.m. on January 4, so the best times to observe will be between midnight and dawn on the morning of the 4th. Look for Comet Catalina in close to Arcturus in Bootes. (Image credit: Starry Night Software However the Quadrantid influx is sharply peaked: six hours before and after the main peak, these meteors appear at only a quarter of their highest rates. Learn why famous meteor showers like the Perseids and Leonids occur every year [ See the Full Infographic Here ]. (Image credit: Karl Tate, SPACE.com contributor) It had always been believed that the "Quads" were possibly derived relatively recently from a small comet. And in 2003, astronomer Peter Jenniskens of NASA, found a near-Earth asteroid (2003 EH1) that seemed like it was on the right orbit to be affiliated with the Quadrantids. Some astronomers think that this asteroid is really a piece of an old, "extinct" comet; perhaps a comet that was recorded by Chinese, Korean, and Japanese observers during the years 1490-91. Maybe that comet broke apart, and some of the pieces became the meteoroids that make up the Quadrantid stream. [How Meteor Showers Work (Infographics)] One point I haven't mentioned until now is the situation regarding the moon. Last year, the moon all but ruined the Quadrantids. It was nearly full and lit up the sky all night long like a celestial spotlight, obscuring all but the brightest shower members. This year will be different. The moon will be two days past last quarter a wide lunar crescent that rises around 2 a.m. It would have been nice if the moon were a skinnier crescent, or better yet not in the sky at all. As it is, the moon's presence will provide a bit of a minor nuisance, but certainly viewing conditions will be much better than last year. Lastly and I've touched on this point before, but certainly it should be addressed again: Likely your local weather will be more appropriate for taking in a hot bath as opposed to a meteor shower. And indeed at this time of year, meteor watching can be a long, cold business. You wait and you wait for meteors to appear. When they don't appear right away, and if you're cold and uncomfortable, you're not going to be looking for meteors for very long! Therefore, make sure you're warm and comfortable. Warm cocoa or coffee can take the edge off the chill, as well as provide a slight stimulus. It's even better if you can observe with friends. That way, you can cover more sky. Good luck and enjoy this meteor show(er). Editor's note:If you capture an amazing photo of the Quadrantid meteor shower and would like to share it with us and our news partners in a possible story or image galleries, send images and comments in to managing editor Tariq Malik at spacephotos@space.com. Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for Natural History magazine, the Farmer's Almanac and other publications, and he is also an on-camera meteorologist for News 12 Westchester, N.Y. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com. The timing, from Merkel's perspective, could not have been worse. Just as Edathy's file was making its way to Hannover, she was in the early stages of coalition negotiations with the SPD. It was a concern for Friedrich as well. In Merkel's last government, he was the interior minister and had been informed by the BKA after last September's general election of the Edathy investigation. He realized that if word of the investigation were to get out, the SPD would suspect Merkel's conservatives of planting the story to gain a leg up in the talks. To preclude such questions, he took aside SPD head Sigmar Gabriel during an early round of talks on Oct. 4 and told him that his party's rising star could be in trouble. The move was not good for Edathy's career. It was the reason that the SPD leadership never turned to him with a senior position in the new government. As it turns out, though, the step proved just as damaging to Friedrich's own career. Passing along details of an ongoing investigation is a no-no. And on Friday, he was forced out of Merkel's new cabinet as a result, paving the way for Christian Schmidt, also of the CSU, to take over the agricultural portfolio. 'My Duty' Friedrich's slip-up came to light last week in a statement released by Oppermann, in which the SPD floor leader wrote that Gabriel informed him and Frank-Walter Steinmeier, foreign minister in Merkel's new government, of the problems facing Edathy. Though Oppermann has since claimed that he cleared the statement with Friedrich before releasing it, Friedrich has denied elements of the statement. He has, however, confirmed that he informed Gabriel. On Tuesday morning, he told German public broadcaster ZDF that "it was my duty to do so. I can't understand how anyone could see it differently." It is difficult to overstate the degree to which the incident has weakened Merkel's coalition. Many conservatives believe that Oppermann knew that his statement could cost Friedrich his job. The SPD floor leader also called the BKA to confirm the investigation into Edathy, thus giving the impression that he was meddling with the judiciary and opening him up to accusations that he sacrificed Friedrich so as to deflect attention from himself. Trust between the two coalition partners, in short, has evaporated completely. Meanwhile, the SPD has a problem all of its own. The party has distanced itself from Edathy, even taking initial steps to throw him out of the party. "Irrespective," Gabriel emphasized in a statement on Tuesday, of whether the material in Edathy's possession was illegal under Germany's child pornography laws, the party is "horrified and stunned by these actions and by the behavior of Sebastian Edathy." A Stolen Laptop And yet, many suspect that Edathy knew that investigators were on his heels well before they finally raided his home and office on Feb. 10. SPIEGEL this week reported that Edathy's lawyer had been calling around in the weeks prior to the raid in an effort to determine the status of the investigation. On Monday, Lower Saxony's former interior minister, Heiner Bartling, said in an interview that Edathy himself had told him that an informant had tipped him off. Who the informant was remains a central question in the ongoing affair. Nobody has yet explicitly blamed anyone within the SPD for being the leak, but the fact that it can't be ruled out is not helping matters. Edathy himself denied having knowledge of the investigation in an interview with SPIEGEL. But when investigators arrived in his apartment, they found plastic splinters that experts believe to be the remains of a destroyed hard drive. Edathy says the remains come from a hard drive he destroyed containing confidential documents relating to the NSU investigation. Yet authorities also found confidential papers in his possession, leading them to doubt his claim. They also believe that Edathy destroyed the hard drive shortly before their arrival. In addition, Edathy last week registered his work computer, issued to him by German parliament, as having been stolen. Still, despite the standstill to which the Edathy affair has brought Merkel's government, there are at least some politicians this week who are focused on legislation. Several have demanded that the sale of images of naked children -- of the type Edathy is thought to have purchased -- be banned. "The Edathy case clearly shows that there is a legal loophole," Johannes-Wilhelm Rorig, the German government's commissioner for child abuse issues, told the daily Die Welt this week. It is, he added, a loophole that needed to be closed. "When images of children are created to satisfy the sexual interests of adults, this must be made punishable by law." This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Yessenia Santos hourly wage just went up, but her hours are about to go down. She knew it was coming when Wal-Mart hired her in November, she said, her supervisors made it clear she would only be able to work full time through the holidays. Now the season is ending, and while her wages will increase 5 percent, as the states new minimum-wage law takes effect, she predicts her weekly hours will decrease to between 23 and 28. I was a little upset because of that, Santos said. Im barely able to pay my rent on the amount Im making now. Even at 40 hours a week, she said, the 45-cent hourly increase would not go very far. At 28, Santos has three children to care for, ages 5, 7 and 10. She said she has been able to keep up with the $950 monthly rent on her West Haven apartment, but has fallen behind on her light and gas bills, and fears her utilities may soon be cut off. She is able to use food subsidies to go grocery shopping, but generally makes up the balance out of her own pocket. And she must commute to Stratford for work, another expense. She does not know what is going to come next. Having to find another job is going to be really, really hard on me, but I dont think I have a choice, Santos said. Theyre paying me $9.15 and Im barely getting any hours there. Im really struggling with the fact that Im going to have to get another job, and I dont think I can handle that. The family only recently moved to West Haven. Before that, they were on shelter waiting lists in Bridgeport. Santos was working at Babies R Us when Wal-Mart hired her. For for a time, she tried to keep both jobs, but could not find enough hours in the day for work and three kids. State lawmakers estimate there are between 70,000 and 90,000 Connecticut residents working at minimum wage. But speaking on wage increases in December 2014, Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman said there were around 125,000 women alone in the state earning at or just above the minimum wage. Even as Connecticut moves to phase in incremental wage increases for the lowest earners, workers at the low end of the spectrum have agitated for more meaningful increases. Fast-food, health care and child care workers most notably those with union backing have staged rallies in Connecticut demanding a $15-per-hour minimum wage, a threshold that some other major U.S. cities have already implemented. But not everyone employers or wage-earners alike is sold on that figure. Ten dollars or $11 would be perfectly fine; thats manageable, Santos said. Fifteen dollars would help a lot, but thats way overboard. I dont ever want to be that greedy. Santos said she has tried to continue her education, but so far, her efforts have been fruitless. T he mayor of a Mexican city was shot dead at her home in a hit job within hours of taking office. Gunmen opened fire on Mayor Gisela Mota in the city of Temixco, leaving her dead, officials said. The assassination, about 50 miles south of Mexico City, was linked to organised crime. Cartels in Mexico often seek to control communities and towns and are known to target local officials and mayors. Two alleged attackers were killed and three others were detained following a pursuit, security officials from Morelos state said. Mota's leftist Democratic Revolution Party released a statement describing her as "a strong and brave woman who on taking office as mayor, declared that her fight against crime would be frontal and direct." Temixco is a city of about 100,000 people neighbouring Cuernavaca, a resort and industrial city which has been suffering kidnappings and extortion linked to organized crime groups. Though Cuernavaca is the capital of Morelos, Temixco is the seat of several state institutions including the Public Security Commission, which coordinates state and local police forces. Morelos also neighbors drug cartel-plagued Guerrero state. Mota, who had been a federal congresswoman, was sworn into office on New Year's Day. She was killed the following day. Morelos Gov. Graco Ramirez vowed there "would be no impunity" in her killing and promised that state officials would not cede to what he described as a "challenge from criminals." Capella did not provide more details about the attack on Mota, but said that when the suspects were detained, authorities found a 9-millimeter gun, an Uzi, ski masks and an SUV with Mexico State license plates. Morelos Attorney General Javier Perez Duron said the detained suspects have been tied to other crimes, but declined to provide more details. P olice are investigating two incidents of hate crime in which a man allegedly spat at a woman and hurled Islamophobic abuse. In the first incident a woman was verbally assaulted on a route 259 bus in Seven Sisters Road, which links Holloway to south Tottenham. A man made Islamophobic remarks before advancing towards her raising his hand as though he was going to hit her, police said. He was ordered off the bus by the driver after the incident at about 9.50am on Monday, November 23. On the same day, police were then called to another incident on Seven Sisters Road in which a woman was allegedly spat at by a man who also allegedly racially abused her and made Islamophobic comments. A 38-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of religiously and racially aggravated public order offences. He has been bailed until a date in mid-January. Police today appealed for any witnesses or anyone with information to call the Community Safety Unit on Haringey Borough via 101, or contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or at crimestoppers-uk.org. P olice were called to Finsbury Park station this afternoon after reports a man was seen with a knife. British Transport Police (BTP) confirmed officers were called to the Victoria line station at 2.20pm after a member of the public believed they saw a passenger carrying a blade. A spokesman said: Officers attended the station and carried out a search but the man was not located. "Enquiries are ongoing." Victoria line services faced severe disruption while police carried out their investigation. Witnesses on social media reported seeing a major police presence at the station during the incident. Anyone with information should call British Transport Police on 0800 40 50 40, quoting 159 of 03/01/2016, or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111. A group of charities has condemned the Prime Minister for his clearly inadequate response to the migrant crisis. The 27 charities, which include Oxfam, Amnesty International and the International Rescue Committee, wrote an open letter to David Cameron calling on the UK to take a fair and proportionate share of refugees. The letter said the commitment to resettle 20,000 Syrian refugees over five years was a welcome step but it failed to meet the UKs responsibilities for dealing with the crisis on Europes doorstep. Coordinated by the British Refugee Council, the charities said the UKs offer was too slow, too low and too narrow. Urging the Prime Minister to show a "new resolve" to deal with the problem, they said: "Last year saw 3,770 people drown and hundreds of thousands more endure a desperate march of misery across the continent." David Cameron has been urged to show a "new resolve" to the migrant crisis PA / Andrew Milligan/PA The letter added: "Last year's announcement that the UK will resettle 20,000 Syrian refugees over five years was a welcome first step, but given the numbers of people searching for safety across the globe, this response is clearly inadequate: it is too slow, too low and too narrow. "The UK can and should be doing much more to ensure that refugees are not compelled to take life-threatening journeys or forced into smugglers' hands." The organisations demanded that the country should take its share of refugees, including from those already within the EU and establish safe and legal routes to the UK. Maurice Wren, chief executive of the British Refugee Council, said: "There are no easy answers to a humanitarian crisis of this magnitude. However, the solution must not be to spend another year impassively watching on while desperate people drown or are forced to endure a march of misery across the continent as they try to find a safe haven or to be reunited with their loved ones. "This year the Prime Minister must open his heart and show true statesmanship by welcoming far more refugees to the UK, enabling them to travel here safely and legally to live lives free from violence, tyranny and oppression." Amnesty International UK's director Kate Allen added: The Prime Minister must now urgently change tack and support the creation of safe and legal routes which so many desperate refugees need to get to Europe, including to the UK. Without these, thousands more will perish. Let's not see a repeat in 2016 of the terrible scenes of death that were so common last year on Europe's beaches and in its seas. Additional reporting by Press Association. F ormer Liberal Democrat MP Lembit Opik said he hopes he will look like George Clooney after having cosmetic surgery on his wonky face later this month. The 50-year-old, who represented the Welsh constituency of Montgomeryshire until 2010, suffered extensive facial injuries after a paragliding accident in 1998. He fell 80ft and also broke his back in 12 places, jaw, sternum and ribs. Later this month, the ex-politician will undergo a six-hour facial reconstruction which will leave him unrecognisable. He told the Sunday People: Ive been looking at the bent-up version of my face for 17 years, and soon Im going to have to get used to seeing a new person. Theyve given me counselling about that, and wouldnt have done so if it wasnt a big deal. "They havent shown me what Ill look like. Id like to think Ill look like George Clooney. Mr Opik, who previously dated one of the Cheeky Girls, said he had to undergo the operation, which he has waited four years for on the NHS, because his teeth are disintegrating and it is preventing him from eating. The operation will take place at St Bartholomews Hospital in January 26 and Mr Opik will spend a week in hospital while he begins his recovery. He added: Ive got to have this op because at present I cant eat very well. My teeth are disintegrating and Ive only got two teeth that meet. If I dont get it done, it will become very problematic within a few years and I wont have much quality of life." A British man could face up to five years in jail in Kyrgyzstan after being detained for comparing a local delicacy to a horse penis. Gold mine worker Michael Mcfeat, who works for Toronto-based Centerra Gold, posted the comment on Facebook in an apparent joke. But Kyrgyzstan's interior ministry said his remarks caused a temporary strike at the mine. Mr Mcfeat had written in a post that his colleagues from the country were queueing up for their special delicacy, the horses penis. His post referred to a traditional horse sausage known as chuchuk. Mr Mcfeat has now been warned he faces racial hatred charges - for which the sentence under Kyrgyz law can be between three and five years in prison. The Briton later apologised for his post, writing on Facebook: "I would like to take the opportunity to sincerely appologise [sic] for the comment I made on here about the kygyz people and horses penis. I truly never meant to offened anyone and im truly sorry as it was never my intension [sic]. Horse meat is a popular delicacy in Kyrgyzstan and neighbouring Kazakhstan. A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We are in contact with the local authorities after a British national was detained in Kyrgyzstan and are ready to provide consular assistance." A farm hand who admitted having sex with a donkey has reportedly been jailed after requesting to spend time behind bars. Gideon D. Swartzentruber, 21, was convicted in November after admitting sexual gratification with an animal in Wisconsin, USA, local news reported. At the time of the offence he is said to have told investigators his "privates were out of control", adding that he "got crazy and carried away". According to the Marshfield News Herald, Swartzentruber admitted initiating a "brief sexual encounter" with a female donkey while working in a barn in September. He was reportedly caught by the animal's owner and charged, entering a guilty plea. A judge is said to have allowed Swartzentruber to avoid a nine month jail sentence and $10,000 fine, sentencing him instead to a year of probation, counselling and a $443 fine. But the Marshfield News Herald reported that he returned to court last week and asked a circuit judge to jail him. The judge is reported to have complied with the request, sentencing Swartzentruber to 30 days behind bars. The defendant represented himself in court. It is not clear why he asked to serve time in prison. A former City trader who travelled to Syria to fight Islamic State has revealed he plans to return to the front line. Macer Gifford, 28, a former young Conservative, has pledged to join up with the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) again. He previously fought alongside them after giving up his job in the City last December. Mr Gifford - the man's 'nomme de guerre' rather than his real name - told Sky News: "As a civilian, as a human being, we are fighting against a vicious ideology killing thousands of people. "The people of Syria I stand totally behind and I want to see safe and secure. "I will do anything I can in my power to support them." Mr Gifford, who went to a 23,000 per year private school, has previously been critical of Britain for not doing more to confront Islamic State militants. His latest comments came as it emerged Britain has carried out a total of four air strikes in Syria since MPs voted to back military action in the region in December. WNCC Foundation, an organization that supplies financial and professional resources to students at Western Nebraska Community College, works year-round to raise money. This past year $800,000 was raised through the Foundation and $400,000 awarded in student scholarships. More than 300 students were able to receive a scholarship this past year. Jennifer Rogers, WNCC Foundation executive director, said it was a record year for the number of businesses involved. Rogers said that businesses are a large portion of the donor base, with about 250 businesses that contributed to the Foundation last year. It is a conduit to help businesses fund a scholarship, whatever that might look like, and secondly, really helping to create awareness in all the ways that the college is contributing to the community, said Rogers, In a way, the organization acts as a catalyst for the different happenings at the college. There were a number of events this year that were made possible through the efforts of the WNCC Foundation. Many of them were performing arts and music department events. There was also the fourth annual WNNC art exhibit in October that hosted a display of 160 art pieces from 53 artists. The big event is the Monument Marathon in September for half and full marathon participants which raised about $50,000 for student scholarships. Next year will be the fifth year for the Monument Marathon and Rogers is anticipating a large turnout. The WNCC Foundation has been around for 45 years and a committed and active volunteer board oversees the Foundation. Rogers said that the board consists of 24 members from outside of the area as well as in the Scottsbluff/Gering area. The chairman and president for the organization is Howard P. Olsen Jr. and Rogers said that he has been an amazing leader for the Foundation. It has been great to see him support what the Foundation does as well as our students, said Rogers. Altogether, there were 470 volunteers that helped in all of the events for the year. The people involved in the Foundation aim to improve the lives of others and the overall community. Businesses play a role in supporting the existing program or giving feedback about the ones that could be developed. They can improve the quality of life and talk about ways to impact businesses in the area. Rogers said that she would always welcome conversations about getting involved in the different events. The Student Support Services and the Alumni Relations department at WNCC are teaming up this next year to provide tax assistance in the community. Rogers said that she would like to thank everyone in the community who gave to the Foundation this last year. This is the time that people might be reflecting back to what theyve done throughout the year and how they have made a difference in the lives in our community. In my position, I am able to talk to students and there are a lot who are grateful for the businesses who give them scholarships, and then are offered jobs and internships after they finish college, said Rogers. Rogers said that with the recent donations the Foundation will be able to assist teachers with their expenses as well give more support to the performing arts program. Last year, students went to Greece for a vocal performance and a study abroad trip. Next year, there could be other trips and equipment that the Foundation could provide to the college. There is a goal to provide $1 million in scholarships next year. Rogers said that a lot of that money has already been received for those scholarships. There is also a push for the college to raise $7 million - $9 million for building projects at the school by April, in time for the anniversary of the college. Rogers said there are a lot of things that will characterize next year as a landmark year, as there will be opportunities to establish more endowed scholarship funds, as well as provide programmatic support and facilities assistance. Rogers is looking forward to special events this upcoming year for the 90th anniversary of the college. Right now we are just spreading the message to stay tuned and keep an ear out, said Rogers. We are going to ask for participation for what alumni are doing and stories that the community can remember about their growth at WNCC. 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To help you find what you are looking for: Enter Search Term(s): Still cant find what youre looking for? Send us a message using our contact us form. To report a broken link or other problems with the website, please include the URL. Thank you for visiting state.gov. Al Qaeda Is Using Donald Trumps Comments to Recruit Terrorists...and Hes Ok with That True to form, Donald Trump isnt about to change his hardline stance on Muslims just because an al Qaeda affiliate has a new recruiting video that features the Republican presidential frontrunner. "They use other people, too, Trump said of the video, purportedly produced by Somali terrorist group al-Shabaab, during an interview on CBS Face the Nation. Related: Trump May Have More Trouble than Expected Getting His Voters to the Polls The clip quotes Trump calling for a temporary shutdown of the country's borders to non-citizen Muslims "until our country's representatives can figure out what the hell is going on." "What am I going to do? I have to say what I have to say. And you know what I have to say? There's a problem. We have to find out what is a problem. And we have to solve that problem, the former reality TV star added. The video could have an outsized influence on the presidential campaign now less than a month from the crucial Iowa Caucuses. Two weeks ago former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said during a Democratic debate that ISIS was using clips of Trump espousing his position on Muslims in recruiting videos. Related: Trumps Message to Iowa: Ted Cruz Isnt One of Us When Clintons camp couldnt offer hard evidence to back up the claim, Trump whose White House bid was awarded the title of 2015 lie of the year from Politifact to demand an apology from the former First Lady, a suggestion the Democratic frontrunner shrugged off. If anything, the real estate magnate has used the al-Shabaab video to double-down on his critique of Clinton. "Hillary Clinton lied last week when she said ISIS made a D.T. video. The video that ISIS made was about her husband being a degenerate, Trump tweeted Sunday morning. Hillary Clinton lied last week when she said ISIS made a D.T. video. The video that ISIS made was about her husband being a degenerate. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2016 Al-Shabbab, not ISIS, just made a video on me - they all will as front-runner & if I speak out against them, which I must. Hillary lied!" he added. Story continues Al-Shabbab, not ISIS, just made a video on me - they all will as front-runner & if I speak out against them, which I must. Hillary lied! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2016 Look, theres a problem. I bring it up, Trump said on CBS. Related: The GOP Primaries Will Pare the 2016 Nominees Down to These Five Other people have called me. And they say, 'You have guts to bring it up because, frankly, it's true but nobody wants to get involved.' Now, people are getting involved. People that are on different persuasions than me right now, John, are saying, 'You know, maybe Trump isn't wrong. We want to examine it, according to the billionaire. "You look at Germany. You look at Brussels. You look all over the world, they're shutting down cities that never had a problem before. They're shutting down countries that never had a problem before. You look at Paris, what happened. You look at California, what happened. John, maybe it's not politically correct. There's a big problem out there, Trump said. He also suggested that the U.S. and other Western countries arent just in a war against the Islamic State, but barreling toward a showdown with the entire religion of Islam. "I think that radical Islam may be on a collision course with us. I mean, you could change it around a little bit. But it is a very, very deep-seated hatred that's going on, Trump said. "I mean, you have a hatred like people where they're willing to give their lives. They're willing to walk in. I have to tell you it is so big. It is the biggest thing there is right now, he added. Top Reads from The Fiscal Times: Apple's Italian subsidiary has been under investigation for allegedly failing to declare more than one billion euros in tax (AFP Photo/Thomas Coex) Rome (AFP) - Apple has agreed to pay Italy 318 million euros ($348 million) to settle a tax dispute after the US tech giant was investigated for suspected fraud, the country's tax agency said Tuesday. The company's Italian subsidiary and several of its senior executives had been under investigation for fraud over its alleged failure to comply with obligations to declare its earnings in Italy between 2008 and 2013. According to Italian daily La Repubblica, Apple Italia should have paid corporation tax of 880 million euros for the period. After months of negotiations, the tax authorities agreed to close the case in return for a cheque for 318 million. A spokesman for the tax agency confirmed the newspaper's report was accurate but would not divulge further details. Apple Italia did not respond to a request for comment on a case which could set a precedent for other European countries' dealings with the company. The settlement comes against a backdrop of mounting controversy over the tax arrangements of multinational groups who use cross-border corporate structures to reduce their tax bills, sometimes with the help of secret and potentially illegal 'sweetheart' deals. Apple Italia is part of the company's European operation which is headquartered in Ireland, a country with one of the lowest levels of corporation tax in the European Union. Ireland taxes corporate earnings from normal business activities at a rate of 12.5 percent, which compares with a standard 27.5 percent rate in Italy. Earlier this month, Apple chief Tim Cook described accusations that the world's richest company was sidestepping US taxes by stashing cash overseas as "political crap" and insisted: "We pay every tax dollar we owe." The settlement of the tax dispute will not halt the criminal investigation into the conduct of three Apple Italia executives but will likely reduce the severity of any sanctions they may face, La Repubblica said. Story continues - 'Perfectly legal' - Apple's activities in Ireland are currently under investigation by the European Commission, which is due to announce soon whether tax breaks designed to secure the company's extensive investment in Ireland amounted to illegal state aid. Apple's European operations have been headquartered at the southern city of Cork since 1980. The company is in the process of expanding its workforce there to 6,000 and it has been followed into Ireland by other US tech firms including Twitter, Microsoft and Google. Cook said on a visit to Ireland in November that he was confident the Dublin government and his company would be found to have done nothing wrong. The issue of Apple's Irish arrangements is separate from but related to the broader one of multinational companies 'parking' revenues and profits in low-tax countries. That issue has attracted increasing attention from lawmakers across Europe who argue that taxes should be paid in the countries where sales and profits are generated. In October, the European Commission ordered both Italian auto giant Fiat and coffee chain Starbucks to pay around 30 million euros ($34 million) in back taxes after they were found to have benefited from illegal deals in, respectively, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. The ruling followed the so-called 'LuxLeaks' revelations that multinationals including Pepsi and Ikea had negotiated tax rates as low as one percent in return for headquartering their European activities in tiny Luxembourg. The Luxembourg arrangements of online retailer Amazon and fast food giant McDonalds are also being scrutinised by Brussels. The Grand Duchy is challenging the Fiat ruling through the European Court of Justice, arguing that most other EU states also offer special fiscal incentives to attract inward investment. In the United States, Apple has come under fire in Congress for not declaring overseas earnings to the US tax authorities. Cook has defended this as perfectly legal and sensible given that the company would be liable for 40% taxation if it repatriated all its earnings to the United States. "We have a tax code made for the Industrial Age, not the Digital Age," he complained in November. LAKE SAINT LOUIS To see David Browns extensive police badge collection is to travel back through a sometimes colorful history of local municipalities. Times Beach. St. George. Margona Village. Margona Village? Margona Village was incorporated in 1938 and consolidated with St. John in north St. Louis County in 1974. St. George, a notorious speed trap in south St. Louis County, disincorporated in 2011. Times Beach was dissolved by the federal government in 1985 after flooding and dioxin contamination. The Times Beach police chiefs crisp white uniform hangs in the basement at Browns Lake Saint Louis home. And yes, Brown assures, its OK to touch it. There are about 1,000 police badges in Browns collection, the largest among those of three or four serious badge collectors in the area, he says. He has badges from areas outside the St. Louis region, but he likes to stay local. St. Louis County has about 60 police departments, not including campus police departments. Its hard enough to keep up with that, he said. Not to mention the departments that no longer exist. Theres Arbor Terrace, theres Elmdale youve never heard of places like that. Brown, 69, is a part of municipal police department history. He was Valley Parks last police chief, before the department was eliminated in 1999 and the city contracted with St. Louis County. He took over the position from his father, Louis Brown, who was elected chief in 1950. An uncle was an officer with Kirkwood for almost 30 years. Most of the badges and his 400 or so police patches are in storage or display cases at his home. He has other pieces of police memorabilia, like old St. Louis police call boxes, and a cell lock and keys from an old St. Louis County jail. The badges, though, hold his interest. I guess its the distinction of wearing the metal badge. It was always significant to being a policeman, and I grew up around policemen, he said They represent different people and different times. I know why I do these its to preserve the history of the St. Louis area. The badge dates back to medieval times, when knights carried shields with family crests on them. The crests showcased loyalty to a particular group or family, as the badges do. Sometimes, police officers wear the badge over their left pockets, which is how knights held their shields. Thats why some badges, which some officers refer to as shields, are shaped like them, though some are star-shaped or topped with an eagle. The horseshoe thats part of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Departments badge design dates to 1904, when it was crafted for officers at the Worlds Fair. But the badges were never issued. The style was issued again in 1923 and is used today. Badges range from about $30 or $40 for cheaper models to thousands of dollars for solid gold or rare ones. Some special issue ones come with jewels. Some departments, none Brown knows of here, have already done away with police badges for simplicity and financial reasons. Its pretty easy to throw a uniform shirt with a department patch in the wash, he figures, and predicts badges may not exist in 10 or so years. Hes been collecting for about 30 years, long enough to develop a reputation. Often someone who wonders what to do with a box of police patches and badges that belonged to a great-uncle or great-grandfather will get pointed to Brown. He belongs to several online collecting groups, and keeps some nonlocal badges on hand for trading. Brown buys some badges, and gets others as gifts or donations. He enjoys driving across town to meet a police officers descendant for coffee and a piece of history, and often gets things sent to him from Florida, where a lot of retirees live. Former St. Louis County Police Chief Tim Fitch has given Brown several police items, like some of his duplicate badges and a chiefs car license plate, which has the number 1 on it. He basically came to my house one day and raided it, Fitch said, joking. Fitch knows a lot of police memorabilia collectors and says none tops Brown. The way I looked at it is he treats all this memorabilia like its gold, Fitch said. I felt very comfortable turning all these police items over to him, that he would display them properly and not abuse them or put it on eBay. Fitch says he kept other items and badges for his children to have one day. So they can put them on eBay, he joked. Browns not sure what may happen to his collection. He thinks St. Louis could use a museum. The St. Louis Police Library maintains a display in the lobby area of the St. Louis Police Academy downtown, and some memorabilia is on display at St. Louis County Police headquarters in Clayton. Brown maintains an online display of his collection at stlouisareapolicebadges.com/index.html. Anything with historic value, whether its old buildings in St. Louis or a large badge collection, is worth preserving if its economically feasible, he said. Im always up to preserving what you can, he said. But once youve lost it, its gone. High Ridge water plant resumes operations The water plant at High Ridge, offline since Wednesday, began began operations again Sunday morning. Residents however are being advised to continue boiling water before drinking it or cooking until the purification reaches a safe level. The plant serves about 20,000 people in an area south of St. Louis in Jefferson County. Nearly 600 sought refuge in Red Cross shelters The Red Cross as of Sunday had provided overnight shelter to 586 flood-stricken residents of Illinois and Missouri. The relief agency additionally delivered 17,701 meals and snacks to stricken area residents. Red Cross shelters continue to operate in in Arnold and Cape Girardeau in Missouri and Granite City and Murphysboro in Illinois. Anheuser-Busch has assisted in the relief effort by supplying nearly 85,000 cans of drinking water to areas struck by floodwater. Assessment teams dispatched by the Red Cross meanwhile continue checking flood damage to homes to help determine the extent and location of assistance needed. Red Cross volunteers will also be distributing comfort kits and clean-up supplies, and meeting with those affected to help them plan their next steps in the recovery process. In tourist town of Grafton, flooding a regular visitor GRAFTON This old Jersey County town sits on Illinois Route 100, a part of the country's Great River Road. It features great views, fish stands, dock side dining and a wide assortment of gift shops. But positioned near the confluence of the Mississippi and Illinois rivers, it's also known for its flooding. Efforts to collect sandbags underway The plans for handling all the debris left from the flooding this year are still being formulated. But some efforts to pick up sandbags have begun. St. Louis County advises that any sandbags that came into contact with floodwater are considered hazardous waste and will be taken to a landfill. For more details on where to how to dispose of sandbags, click here. Amtrak service resumes Normal Amtrak service between St. Louis and Kansas City was restored Sunday morning ending four days of flood-induced busing between between Jefferson City and St. Louis. Water levels dropping Flood levels are dropping in the immediate St. Louis area and along the Mississippi River south of the metro. Levels at 6 a.m. Sunday along the Meramec were 4.6 feet at Pacific (flood stage is 15); 11.3 feet at Eureka (18), 20.6 feet at Valley Park (16) and 37.8 feet at Arnold (24). Along the Mississippi, water levels were 38.7 feet at St. Louis (30), 44.5 feet at Chester (27), 48.0 feet at Cape Girardeau (32), 46.4 feet at Thebes (33), and 43.2 feet at Birds Point (38). For a complete list of water levels, read more. Pumping should resume at Valley Park sewage plant Pumping operations at the Grand Glaize sewage treatment plant in Valley Park should be restored by the end of the day Sunday, which means area residents could see their basements empty faster. Metropolitan Sewer District spokesman Sean Hadley said Saturday that he does not know when the treatment plant, which was shut down Thursdy morning to prevent serious damage, will be back online. As a result, untreated sewage will continue to be released into the Meramec. In Fenton, where the sewage treatment plant was swamped Monday night, MSD crews are working to pump the water out of the plant so they can get inside and assess the damage. Until that happens, there is no way to estimate when the plant will be back up and running. Hundreds donate goods for flood victims, volunteer Hundreds of community members dropped off clothes, cleaning supplies, food, toiletries and cash donations Saturday morning at Fox High School in Arnold Saturday morning, forming a long line of cars outside of the school at 751 Jeffco Boulevard. Sunday morning, the district posted to Facebook that it is no longer accepting donations, but does need volunteers to sort donated items. Elsewhere in the region, volunteers are accepting winter clothing, toiletries and items for babies and children including diapers and formula from noon to 3 p.m. Sunday at the American Legion Post 199 facility at 58 S. State Route 157 in Edwardsville. Another flood drive is underway at Central Baptist Church at 601 N. Central Ave. in Eureka from noon to 7 p.m. Sunday. Obama declares emergency amid flooding President Barack Obama has declared an emergency exists in Missouri because of flooding. Obama signed the declaration on Saturday. It allows federal aid to be used to help state and local response efforts to storms that began Dec. 22 and flooding that continues. It also authorizes the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate disaster relief efforts. Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon had asked for the declaration. Schools in St. Louis region mostly spared from flood damage Throughout the region, school officials say their buildings have been largely spared the flood damage that has led to highway closures and ruined homes along the Meramec and other rivers. Floodwater surrounded Eureka High School, but administrators say sandbagging was effective. School resumes Monday and Tuesday for most school districts. A colleague reached out to me with these words, Missouri is in the headlines again. It is a shame that recently the outside world only hears about Missouri through stories of racial tension. It is time to change the face of Missouri. We can do this by starting conversations about equity, diversity, and inclusion early. As a community we can start a movement for change by investing in our young children. We want a more equitable environment for our children and for the state of Missouri. Look at these two young friends. Where will they be in 15 years? Will they still be friends? Or will they be on opposite sides of a racial divide? The laughter and natural relationship pictured here tells me that they can be friends for life if we can provide a system in which they can thrive together. The power to change society lies in changing the way we teach young children. And, it begins in infancy. We have research to qualify that what happens early in life lasts a lifetime. We know that 90 percent of the brains architecture is developed by the age of 5, which means we are influencing a generation every five years. During their earliest years, children develop biases. As we grow in our own comfort levels with differences in hair texture, skin color and vocal patterns, it is the optimum time to encourage and solidify our childrens acceptance of others. If we begin early, helping our youngest children understand equity, fairness and acceptance through empathy and compassion, children will grow up knowing the importance of relationships and attachments. They will understand how to navigate the differences they see in others. Developing those so-called soft skills empathy, communication, the ability to form attachments and friendships can make a life-long difference in our young children and our community. We need to build a system that embraces inclusiveness through equity, fairness and compassion. Soft skills are the foundation. This type of system is where we can develop children who will thrive in diverse communities. Our children are growing up in a system that disregards the impact of the early years. We will create change in Missouri by investing in early childhood differently. In order to help children accept differences, we (as a community) need to explore our own biases and challenge our thinking and feelings to overcome our own fears of a truly inclusive society. We cannot let fear keep us from accepting and understanding others. It is time to transform messages of fear and judgment into hope, acceptance and strength. This endeavor must be an intergenerational partnership. By helping our children, we can enhance our own understanding as a community. We want these young boys to look each other in the eye with the same level of caring and joy 15 years from now. They spent the first years of their lives in an inclusive, fair, accepting and intentional early childhood environment. Will the effects of that nurturing environment continue throughout their lives? The research says it will. As a community lets work to make a system where all children can thrive, because our children and Missouri deserve better. It is time to change Missouri. Stephen P. Zwolak is CEO of LUME Institute and executive director at University City Childrens Center. You probably noticed that 2015 was pretty weird. But hey, its a brand new year a fresh start, a blank slate, an unwritten script. In 2016, what could possibly go wrong? Uh, where to begin? My fingers balk at typing the words President-elect Trump because I dont think such a thing will actually happen. But at this point Im wondering how to justify ruling anything out. A year ago, was there anyone on earth who predicted that Donald Trump would utterly dominate the Republican presidential race? That the boastful billionaire would be setting the nations political agenda? That Jeb Bush, armed with more campaign money than he could possibly spend, would be drifting helplessly toward the single-digit wings of the crowded debate stage? Nobody saw this coming, least of all the GOP establishment grandees who, as I wrote in August, are working their way through Elisabeth Kubler-Ross five stages of grief. First there was denial (What a weird dream; maybe it was something we ate), then anger (Hes a clown, hes a jerk, he should be drawn and quartered), then bargaining (OK, OK, we give up on immigration reform). Now party elders seem to be sinking into the fourth stage, depression. I have no idea whether theyll have to reach the final stage, acceptance. Trumps legions turn out for his revivalist-style rallies, but will they actually vote? If they do and if the establishment-approved candidates keep pulling one another down like crabs in a barrel then Trump is the likely GOP nominee. There, I said it. That doesnt make him our likely next president, though. Most Americans are appalled by notions such as forcibly deporting 11 million undocumented migrants or hanging a No Muslims Allowed sign on the Statue of Liberty. Quite a few dyed-in-the-wool Republicans, asked to support a candidate whose platform amounts to ethnic cleansing, surely would sit this one out or even vote for the Democratic nominee, probably Hillary Clinton. Trump vs. Clinton could be a wipeout defeat for the Republican Party on the scale of the 1964 Barry Goldwater debacle. The only caveat? See above re: absolutely ruling anything out. What else could go wrong in 2016? Well, politics isnt the only realm in which we have to shift our thinking from no way to please make it stop. Climate is another. Scientists confidently predict that 2015 will prove to have been the hottest year on record, perhaps by a considerable margin. And this week, temperatures at the North Pole may have reached the melting point roughly 50 degrees above normal for this time of year. Also this week weve had deadly tornadoes in Texas, bad flooding in the Mississippi Valley, worse flooding across South America and hurricane-force winds in the North Atlantic. On the bright side, theres been no plague of locusts, far as I can tell. It is true that the proximate cause of most of this anomalous weather is believed to be an unusually strong El Nino phenomenon in the Equatorial Pacific. I am obliged to include the disclaimer that no one weather event can be definitively blamed on climate change not even the fact that I saw people in Washington wearing shorts and sandals on Christmas Eve. That said, lets be real. At this point, anyone who rejects the scientific consensus on human-induced global warming is either a blinkered ideologue, a Republican presidential candidate or both. Climate scientists have long predicted that one impact of higher global temperatures will be to make extreme weather more common and unpredictable and more extreme. With that monster El Nino on the loose, weather in 2016 could be even wilder and woolier. In other news, what could go wrong in Congress is obvious; the same things go wrong every year. What could go wrong in foreign affairs is too depressing to contemplate. So maybe its better to think about what could go right. The economy continues to grow slowly, perhaps, but steadily. Crime is at or near historical lows. About 90 percent of Americans have health insurance, which is closer to universal coverage than weve ever been. Budget-busting medical costs have slowed their rise. These and other positive trends should continue, as meanwhile the nation lives through an election campaign that will not be able to dodge issues of fundamental importance. In 2016, were likely to see an exercise in democracy that is passionate, messy, at times ugly but vitally important. Happy New Year, and note that the seat-belt light will be on through November. TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Dec 18, 2015) - BlueOcean NutraSciences Inc. ("BlueOcean" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE:BOC) is pleased to announce in compliance with TSX Venture Exchange ("TSXV") policies, the closing of the first tranche of its previously disclosed non-brokered private placement for gross and net proceeds of $70,350 (the "Offering"). Under the Offering, the Company will issue 1,005,000 units (the "Units") at $0.07 per Unit. Each Unit will consist of one common share ("Common Share") and one-half-of- one Common Share warrant (the "Warrants"). Each whole Warrant will entitle the holder to purchase one Common Share (each a "Warrant Share") of the Company at a price of $0.10 per Warrant Share until December 18, 2017. The Units are subject to a statutory four-month-plus-one-day hold period, from December 18, 2015. $17,150 of the Offering was subscribed for by insiders of the Company. The Offering was conducted in reliance upon certain prospectus and registration exemptions. The net proceeds of the Offering will be used to enhance the Company's cash on hand and strengthen its working capital position. Post-closing, the Company had 65,633,407 Common Shares outstanding. The Offering is subject to all regulatory and TSXV approval. About BlueOcean BlueOceanNutraSciences Inc. is focused on developing sustainable, specialty nutraceutical oil products targeted at the rapidly growing Natural Astaxanthin, Omega-3 and Algal oil health and wellness markets. BlueOcean's bulk shrimp oils contain high levels of naturally occurring astaxanthin, phospholipids, and Omega-3 EPA and DHA. Northern and Pacific AstaShrimp bulk oils are targeted at the high value and rapidly growing natural astaxanthin and phospholipid Omega-3 markets. BlueOcean and its JV partner, CMAX technologies, have developed a process to convert shrimp, krill, algae and other fish oils into Extended Release Tablets. BlueOcean owns 50% of the participating and voting rights in 2453969 Ontario Inc., a joint venture with CMAX Technologies that has developed the extended release Omega- 3/astaxanthin tablets. 2453969 Ontario Inc. also has a 66.7% ownership in Pure Polar Labs Inc., a Nevada company that sells Omega-3 and astaxanthin retail products under the brand Pure Polar. Story continues BlueOcean's Pure Polar Omega-3 Shrimp Oil formulations contain over two times more Omega-3 EPA & DHA and 10 times more astaxanthin than typical retail krill oil brands, and contain phospholipids for better absorption of Omega-3s. Product details and ordering can be found at: www.purepolarshrimp.com and a number of online retail stores including Amazon.com. Forward-Looking Statements This news release may contain forward-looking statements that are based on BlueOcean's expectations, estimates and projections regarding its business and the economic environment in which it operates. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that are difficult to control or predict. Therefore, actual outcomes and results may differ materially from those expressed in these forward-looking statements and readers should not place undue reliance on such statements. Statements speak only as of the date on which they are made, and the Company undertakes no obligation to update them publicly to reflect new information or the occurrence of future events or circumstances, unless otherwise required to do so by law. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Kathryn Frieze just wanted her money back. She had paid the airline Iberia $176 for an extra legroom seat on a flight from Chicago to Madrid, but the airline rescheduled her flight, dropping her upgraded economy-class seat. Her repeated attempts to reach the airline proved futile. Im getting the runaround, says Frieze, a retired French teacher from Wichita, Kan. Frieze suspects the impasse is due in part to the 4,700 miles separating Kansas and Madrid, where Iberia is based. And she may be right. Resolving a consumer problem in travel is enough of a challenge when youre in the same time zone and separated by a state or two. But once you cross the border, problems are even harder to fix sometimes even impossible. Frieze didnt stay stuck for long. It turns out there was some initial confusion between Iberia and its code share partner, American Airlines, over which company should issue the refund for the ticket. Her original ticket had been booked through American, which operated her first flight. I contacted American and it confirmed that Iberia would have to issue the refund. I passed Friezes request along to Iberia, and she received her money back eight long months after first making the request. What happened? Iberia claims it lost her correspondence, which included emails and letters. So, sending another query might have shaken a refund loose. (Try to unearth the operative email address. The best one for contacting this particular airline is atencionalcliente@iberia.es.) Taking your complaint to a higher level is a strategy that works well when youre dealing with a problem overseas, says Elizabeth Megan, a tour operator in Boston. Based on my experience, thats the best way to get their attention, she says. Emailing instead of phoning helps, too, and not only because having a paper trail of any interactions can help you later. When youre dealing with a foreign language, the employees on the other end may need to run your correspondence through translation software to determine what youre saying. Or you may have to. Companies do more than use their distance as an excuse to deny a refund. They sometimes charge you extra, and they may do so arbitrarily. Consider the problem of traffic fines received by car rental customers. Michael Blank, a retired pharmaceutical executive from Philadelphia, was hit with two 45-euro tickets after he visited France this summer. The tickets had been generated by a speed camera and sent electronically to his rental company, Europcar, which added two 30-euro administrative charges. A rental company representative explained that the additional fees covered the cost of passing the ticket from the authorities to the driver. The rental was reasonably priced, but with the added 150 euro for the two tickets, it turned out to be anything but reasonable, Blank says. Theres a sense among travelers such as Blank that companies are taking advantage of the distance and language barrier to stick customers with additional fees. Those suspicions may be valid, at least partially. Often, car rental companies send bills or repair records in languages other than English, which can create the impression that theres no room to negotiate. But its also true that many of these fines would apply to all customers regardless of nationality. Many travelers take their grievances to social media, waging shame campaigns on Twitter or Facebook. But companies based outside the United States dont respond the same way American travel companies do. Theyre more likely to brush off the digital demands of their customers in the States assuming they even have a significant social media presence. Perhaps the best advice is not to wait until you get home. The ideal time to resolve a travel problem is while youre still on the ground, says Matthew Storm, the director of innovation and solutions at NICE Systems, which helps large organizations monitor and improve their customer service. Storm recommends researching local customer-service phone numbers for your vendors prior to traveling. Keep local and international numbers with you during your trip, and it will save you the time finding them in the event of an emergency, he says. Trucks enter the gates of Southern California Gas Company property where Aliso Canyon Storage Field is located in the of the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California, on December 22, 2015 (AFP Photo/David McNew) Los Angeles (AFP) - A massive natural gas leak has forced the relocation of more than 2,000 families in a California community, with many reportedly falling ill from the noxious fumes spewing into the air since October. Under a court-ordered settlement reached this week between the gas company and Los Angeles city attorneys, Southern California Gas (SoCal Gas) must find temporary housing within 72 hours for any residents of Porter Ranch who ask to be relocated. As of Wednesday, the company said it had relocated 2,147 families in temporary housing, while hundreds more have left the area on their own. The gated community, located some 30 miles (48 kilometers) northwest of downtown Los Angeles, sits near one of the largest natural gas storage fields in the United States, where a leak was detected on October 23. SoCal Gas says it would take several more months to repair the leak at its Aliso Canyon site, while insisting that it poses no danger to human health as methane dissipates quickly into the air. But many families report falling ill from the fumes -- with symptoms including nose bleeds and nausea -- and have filed a class action suit against the company and pulled their children from area schools. - 'Potential health consequences' - Residents also fear that property values in the area -- described by the local council as an idyllic "dream" community -- will plummet because of the leak. The Los Angeles city attorney earlier this month filed suit against SoCal Gas saying that no community "should have to endure what the residents of Porter Ranch have suffered from the gas company's continued failure to stop the leak." "It's not only the odor, it's the potential health consequences from the long-term exposure to chemicals like benzene," attorney Mike Feuer added. According to the California Air Resources Board, the leak is releasing between 44,000 and 58,000 kilograms (97,000 and 127,000 pounds) of methane into the air per hour. The last estimate on December 22 showed 30,300 kilograms of methane released per hour. Story continues The board estimates that the leak is so large that it has increased the West Coast state's greenhouse gas output by 25 percent -- this in a state that prides itself on being an environmental leader nationwide. The Federal Aviation Administration has meanwhile banned aircraft flights over the area as a precaution. A spokesman for SoCal Gas told AFP that the company's priority was to stop the leak while addressing the needs of the community and the environmental impact. Michael Mizrahi said the relief well being drilled to intercept and plug the damaged well -- at more than 8,000 feet underground -- could be completed by late February or late March "The relief well drilling process is expected to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week," he said. "A second relief well is being prepared as a backup operation, and drilling is expected to begin in January." He added the possibility of pumping fluids directly down the affected well to stop the flow of gas was also under consideration. Attorney Matthew McNicholas, who has filed suit on behalf of several Porter Ranch families, said the gas company had acted recklessly by not informing the community immediately as to the nature and extent of the leak and by not implementing appropriate safety measures. "SoCal Gas did not maintain their facility properly, leading to issues involving the health and safety of residents and the community at large," he said in a statement. "They created the conditions allowing the well to fail, causing children and families to suffer." Wellesbourne Airfield The bulk of the plays take place in the British Isles or in Italy, so to squeeze so many into such a small space, meant Jane had to distort the underlying map of Europe considerably. But the painting is not about accurate mapping. Jane said she painted it entirely for my own pleasure and has no plans to sell the original, which will be on display in the Montpellier Gallery, in Chapel Street, Stratford, in April. Although prints are going down a storm in the United States. Researching this painting has been a fascinating way of examining each play in turn to discover its essence and themes, she said. Her personal favourite play is King Lear, and her favourite Lear was Michael Gambon in 1982, with Antony Sher as the Fool, which she saw three times. Jane was born in Stratford in the 1960s and lived in the town until she was 22. She was a student at Kineton High School and studied at Oxford Polytechnic.She has lived in Oxfordshire ever since. She said: Shakespeare was a big figure in my life when I was growing up. He was my local hero. I felt I should do something to commemorate him as part of me, and also to mark the 400th anniversary of his death in April. Jane started drawing maps just as a doodle six years ago, her early maps being in black and white. Her first was of a tiny village in Oxfordshire and then she mapped Woodstock, where her mother lives. Last year, she painted the whole county of Oxfordshire, which has won a commendation for the British Cartographic Societys John C Bartholomew Award for schematic mapping. She added: They saw in it, some of the magic I was trying to convey. We are bombarded with maps all the time, many which are factual, but Im trying to put the magic back into mapping. And whats next for Jane? She plans to paint a map of the Bards play in the British Isles. To view the painting visit http://janetomlinson.com/artworks/shakespeare-map/ Wellesbourne Airfield The driver's condition is not known. A spokesman for Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service said: "We were alerted to a RTC on the M40 northbound between junctions 15 and 16. "Two appliances from Leamington Spa attended and confirmed one car off roadway into ditch by side of motorway with one person trapped. "Crews used hydraulic cutting equipment and small gear to release casualty into care of the ambulance service. "Crews were alerted at 1.56pm and had returned to station by 3.50pm. Police and highways were also in attendance at this incident." Summer is making a comeback in Auckland and Northland. Auckland and Northland can look forward to having their summer back, Metservice says. The weather is set to improve in the northern regions, which have been battered by a storms, including heavy rain and high winds, over the last few days. The region could expect a few more showers on Sunday, with some heavier falls inland, said Metservice Duty Meteorologist Philippa Murdoch. But a ridge was expected to build over Auckland and Northland during the next few days, bringing mostly settled and sunny weather. READ MORE: * Summer washed away * Heavy rain, gales in North as storm bears down on holiday hotspots * Severe weather watch issued for northern New Zealand "It looks like the worst of the weather is gone for now," she said. Metservice has lifted its heavy rain warnings for Auckland and Northland, but a strong wind advisory remains in place for the Hauraki Gulf. Monday's forecast was for more showers in the morning and fine weather in the afternoon for Auckland, while Northland would see occasional showers throughout an otherwise sunny day. A ridge would build over the regions from Tuesday onwards, bringing fine weather. However, parts of Northland could be in for "a few little spits" of rain during that time, Murdoch warned. Don't pack your wet weather gear away just yet though: showers are forecast to return on Friday and Saturday. Christchurch's International Aviation Academy of NZ have been accepted as a trainer for pilots from Vietnam A deal with Vietnam Airlines could help a Christchurch flight school to train more students from Asia. International Aviation Academy of New Zealand has won approval to train Vietnam's commercial airline pilots. Academy chief executive Peter Randle said Vietnam was like much of Asia in that its airspace was controlled by the military. There was no private air-training in Vietnam and no other commercial career options like aerial top-dressing, taking tourists for joy-rides or "banner-flying along the beach." Asian students mostly trained in the United States, or increasingly in Australia or New Zealand. Supplied International Aviation Academy of New Zealand, represented by chief executive Peter Randle, middle left, has a deal with Vietnam Airlines to train the country's commercial pilots in this country.Randle was in Vietnam in November, where he shook on it with a Vietnam Airlines pilot,centre right. Randle said International Aviation expected to take about 30 Vietnamese pilots a year, training them for up to 18 months. About three months of their stay in New Zealand would be for English lessons, which they would need to sit up to 15 exams and do up to 1400 hours of flight training. Randle said it would cost each student $90,000-$100,000 to come to New Zealand, plus $20,000 in accommodation, transport and other extras. The academy, based at Christchurch airport, was currently training up to 100 foreign and domestic students a year but could handle up to 130. Vietnam Airlines and a training school in Vietnam that it half-owned would provide about five groups of students a year. It would be cheaper for International Aviation to take students through an airline partner than to hire recruiters to chase 60 to 80 individual overseas students, Randle said. Training 30 foreign students a year would be big by New Zealand standards, he said. Vietnam needed to train about 200 students a year for the next five years, although only some of them would ever come to New Zealand. Training was still cheaper in the United States. International Aviation, which started in the mid 1990s, was one of only two in New Zealand that was "active" in targeting international training. It received some government funding to train New Zealand citizens but overseas students had to pay their own way. The school also had approval from airway authorities in India and Sri Lanka to train pilots but had yet to agree on training with airlines in those countries. The academy sealed its Vietnam deal in November with a sign-off by tertiary education minister Steven Joyce, who joined Prime Minister John Key on an education sector delegation to the country. Randle said Air New Zealand approving it as an international flight trainer three years ago helped the academy prove its credentials in Vietnam. The body of an Auckland man was found in a Coromandel stream after he set out canyoning alone on Saturday. The body of a man who got into difficulty while canyoning alone in the Coromandel lay in a stream overnight before it could be recovered. Police said the 32-year-old Auckland man set out canyoning by himself on Saturday near Table Mountain, Thames. "He came into grief in a river," said Senior Segreant Rupert Friend of Waikato Police. Exactly how the man got into difficulty was something Friend said police were still trying to work out. "He was found in a stream on Saturday evening in really bad weather and it was about to get dark." Friend said it was members of a separate canyoning group who discovered the body in the Kauaeranga Valley near Thames. "They had actually cancelled their trip that day but they were out there doing some other stuff." Due to the fading light and heavy rain, the decision was made to return the following day to recover the body, Friend said. Waikato Search and Rescue returned on Sunday to recover the body and it took 8-10 hours. "They had to rope people in and get the body out." The Waikato Westpac Rescue Helicopter pulled the man's body from the stream. Crewman Bill McNeilly said the chopper was called out to assist at about 4pm and they used a winch to retrieve the man. The victim does not have any connection to the CanyoNZ Canyoning Company which operates in the area, Friend said. Police urge people to observe weather warnings and encourage those who venture into the outdoors not to do so alone. A severe weather warning was in place for the Coromandel from Friday through to Sunday. The warning said heavy rain was expected and specifically advised those planning outdoor pursuits that the rain would cause rivers and streams to rise rapidly, with slips and flash flooding also possible. "People need to pay attention to weather warnings in place and those who venture into the outdoors should not do so alone," Friend said. The professional group had taken into account the high rivers and poor visibility, he said. A MetService sign was also placed at the entrance to the canyoning area. Sergeant Warren Shaw of Police SAR acknowledged the CanyoNZ Company, LandSAR and the Waikato Westpac Rescue Helicopter for their help. A scene investigation was carried out following the recovery, and the death has been referred to the coroner. Others had lucky escapes over the weekend after they got into trouble in the outdoors. Late Sunday afternoon, a couple reported themselves lost while hunting in the Kaimai Ranges. They did everything right - they stayed put, reported their predicament early and were safely rescued. Early on Sunday night a 28-year-old woman was reported lost near Kennedy Bay in the Coromandel. The woman meant to go on a short afternoon walk. She was found safe and well. The incidents highlight the need to take navigational equipment, even on short trips, said Friend. Germany has seen a xenophobic backlash to the record influx of migrants with a rise of arson attacks on refugee shelters (AFP Photo/Thomas Warnack) Berlin (AFP) - Arson attacks on refugee shelters, assaults, swastikas sprayed on walls -- as Germany has taken in record numbers of asylum seekers, it has been rocked by a xenophobic backlash which authorities have appeared unable to stop. With one million arrivals expected in the EU's most populous nation this year, about half of them from Syria, Chancellor Angela Merkel has rallied Germans to welcome the newcomers and vowed to crack down on hate-mongers. While vast numbers of Germans have volunteered to help refugees, there has also been a rise in anti-foreigner sentiment that has buoyed the populist and anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere once again warned last week that the rise in hate crimes, ranging from property destruction to attempted murder, was "shocking and unacceptable". In September, Merkel -- who herself had endured xenophobic protesters' ugly verbal slurs during a visit to a migrant shelter -- vowed that attacks targeting asylum seekers would be punished "with the full force of the law". Yet, according to a survey by news weekly Die Zeit, of the 222 most serious attacks on shelters reported this year, only four cases have resulted in convictions so far. "If the state really wants to 'act with the full force of the law', it should do considerably more," the newspaper asserted. Die Zeit pointed to insufficient resources dedicated to investigations but also a frequent lack of solid evidence, as many shelters are located in thinly populated areas. - No deaths yet - "The fact that there have been no deaths yet is plain luck," said Timo Reinfrank of the Amadeu Antonio Foundation, which works to counter neo-Nazism, right-wing extremism and anti-Semitism. Racist attacks in Germany have multiplied especially since the summer, which saw a massive surge of hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers arrive via the Balkans and Austria in just a few weeks. Story continues From June to September, Germany recorded an average of three xenophobic acts a day against asylum seekers' facilities, according to government figures provided to lawmakers. "This violence is not only committed by neo-Nazis," said Reinfrank. "It is perpetrated increasingly by supposedly 'concerned citizens' who give vent to their racism." At Crimmitschau in the former communist East Germany, three people were detained last week for throwing Molotov cocktails in November at the walls of a shelter where 45 people were sleeping, including 20 children. In Eggesin, another town in the east, two Afghans were assaulted in the past week. These crimes are but the latest in a long list collated by two organisations helping refugees, Pro Asyl and the Amadeu Antonio Foundation. Every day, they say, somewhere in Germany a hate crime has been committed, ranging from insults hurled at migrants, to swastikas daubed on a shelter, to street protesters trying to block a bus carrying refugees. - Fears after Paris attacks - Fanning the flames, and raging against Muslims, has been the far-right street movement PEGIDA -- short for "Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident" -- which has drawn thousands to weekly rallies in the eastern city of Dresden. In parliamentary politics, senior members of the AfD have openly voiced sympathy for PEGIDA's goals and seen support rise above 10 percent in many polls. Authorities and non-government groups fear that things may get worse in the wake of the November 13 attacks in Paris, despite their pleas not to confuse Syrian refugees and jihadists. The extreme right "feels very comforted," said the head of German domestic intelligence, Hans-Georg Maassen, in the Tagesspiegel daily. He said "it blames the policies and the chancellor and even the media" and argues that "the open borders policy is the cause of what is happening". With several regional elections on the calendar in 2016, including two in eastern states, some fear a right-wing populist breakthrough at the ballot box, a year before national parliamentary elections. Former New Zealand ambassador to the US, Tim Francis, has died aged 87. Former New Zealand ambassador to the United States, Tim Francis, has died aged 87 in Wellington. The diplomat described by former Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer as a "subtle and clever operator in diplomacy", lost a battle with cancer and passed away on Saturday. Francis' distinguished career in New Zealand's Foreign Service culminated with his posting to Washington as ambassador to the United States from 1988 to 1992. He was a key figure in maintaining critical alliances at the time of the breakdown of ANZUS while also addressing New Zealand's diplomatic and security concerns during the creation of the country's Nuclear Free Zone policy. He was diagnosed with cancer last year. Francis was also an avid art lover and collector. He and his wife were early, and major collectors of New Zealand art, and supported many artists including Colin McCahon, Toss Woollaston, Gordon Walters and Rita Angus. Born in Auckland, he excelled academically, studying English, History and Political Science at Auckland University. He graduated with Honours, and won a fellowship to Oxford where he focused on History. While at university he also met his wife-to-be Sherrah, which began a 65-year-long relationship, and they were married in England. Francis declined the opportunity to study for a PhD at Oxford, preferring to accept a position with New Zealand Foreign Affairs in 1954. The young couple relocated to Wellington, where they established their home and began their family. A diplomatic career started with overseas postings in London and Washington in the early 1960s, and he was named High Commissioner in Singapore from 1970 to 1973. From 1978 to 1982 he served as Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York, after which he returned to Wellington as Foreign Affairs Deputy Secretary. Francis retired from diplomatic service after his role as Ambassador to the United States and his return to Wellington in 1992. He is survived by Sherrah, son Paul, daughters Sarah and Emma, and two grandchildren, Zachary and Sophie. A funeral mass is planned for Thursday 2pm at St Peter's church in Willis Street, Wellington. The DreamWorks Animation Exhibition: Journey from Sketch to Screen is on at Te Papa until 28 March 2016. Six years ago, two things happened: one, I married a man who spends his days moving cartoon characters around a screen and two, I lost my love for animated films. Instead of re-watching Toy Story, Madagascar and Finding Nemo as I had previously and enthusiastically done, I was following my husband's lead in critiquing camera and lighting angles, over-analysing story arcs and getting irrationally angry about clumsy editing. It was the end of my innocence as far as pixels, frozen princesses and mischievous penguins were concerned. So when the DreamWorks Animation Exhibition rolled into Te Papa, I was convinced it wouldn't be my cup of green tea. I knew what was involved in turning a simple sketch into a two-hour feature film, I understood how those clever clogs transport spellbound audiences into outer space, to a prehistoric ice age or the heart of the jungle. Surely there was nothing new to rest my jaded eyes upon? It turns out I was wrong. Because when an animation studio founded by Hollywood heavyweights Steven Spielberg, David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg roots around in its archive, the results are nothing less than spectacular. Te Papa The exhibition comes to Wellington fresh from its Melbourne run. Entitled Journey from Sketch to Screen, the exhibition features more than 400 items that breathe life into characters as diverse as the beloved green ogre Shrek, the high-kicking Po from Kung Fu Panda and my personal favourite, Oscar, the hapless fish from Shark Tale who's voiced with such gusto by Will Smith. The exhibition comes to Wellington fresh from its Melbourne run where more than 200,000 people eyeballed the rare concept drawings, sculptures, masks, interviews and original artworks. Sarah Tutton, curator of the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI), says this is a rare chance to peek inside the mind of the creative geniuses who've been producing digital hits since 1994. Te Papa The Dreamworks exhibition features more than 400 items that breathe life into characters as diverse as Shrek to the high-kicking Po from Kung Fu Panda. "You'll be able to watch your favourite character grow from an idea on a bit of paper to the final completed project, but without losing any of the magic," says Tutton. Mining DreamWorks' entire back catalogue of 31 animated films from Antz (1989) through to 2015's Home, the exhibition unfolds over four sections. The first, Character, reveals how artists uses sketches and 3D models to shape their digital world. Like Shrek, for example. Illustrator William Steig's early sketches depict a hideous beast that bears little resemblance to the loveable romantic lead who won DreamWorks the first ever Academy Award for best animated feature. And while there's no mention of it, New Zealand has a unique connection to the Shrek franchise with Kiwi writer/director Andrew Adamson being involved in all four films. Te Papa Gandalf at the Weta Cave. In the Story gallery, there's a recreation of one of DreamWorks' LA studios where pages of drawings and notes jostle for space with half empty coffee mugs and dirty plates. There's no shortage of 'wow' moments, such as the Dragon Ride in the World gallery where visitors get to saddle up for a 180 degree 'ride' on the back of Berk, the dragon from How to Train Your Dragon 2. One tip: sit on the floor if you can because the wrap-around screen can make you feel a little light-headed. As with any exhibition worth its salt, there's lots of things to push and prod. In the Creative gallery, for example, visitors can have a go at designing their own animation using the same tools as DreamWorks staff, while the super cool Face Poser allows visitors to manipulate characters' facial expressions. I'm especially taken with the music section, where composer Hans Zimmer talks about creating music for animated films. TE PAPA The Weta Cave. "The whole point of animation is to do something you can't do in the real world," says the man whose theme from the Madagascar franchise, I Like to Move It, plays on loop in my brain for two days. Thankfully, by the time we tumble out of the DreamWorks exhibition, the queues at Te Papa's Gallipoli: The Scale of Our War have thinned out. Even though it was opened in April to mark the centenary of the First World War, our guide Roger Gascoigne (yes that one, the former TV presenter whose name will mean something to Kiwis of a certain age) tells us that queues regularly unspool across the mezzanine floor. Te Papa Te Papa's Gallipoli exhibition the $8 million exhibition immerses visitors in the sights, sounds and emotions of the bloody conflict. I can see why: the $8 million exhibition immerses visitors in the sights, sounds and emotions of the bloody conflict, told through the heart-wrenching stories of eight New Zealanders. Because the boys and girls at Weta were involved, and doing things the ordinary way isn't in their DNA, the silicon figures are 2.4 times human scale, weigh between 90 and 150kg, and took around 24,000 hours to make and install. The attention to detail, to ensure they're as realistic as possible, is incredible, helped no doubt by the human hair that was used atop heads (horse and yak hair were used on faces and noses). Even the grotesquely large flies crawling on an open tin of corned beef are eerily realistic. Don't forget to look down as you make your way through the exhibition red crosses on the floor represent the 2779 Kiwis who lost their lives in Gallipoli. No matter what your opinion of war, this is essential viewing for every New Zealander. TE PAPA/SUPPLIED The Great War exhibition is on at Dominion Museum. As is The Great War Exhibition, across town in the Dominion Museum, the jewel in the Pukeahu Park's tiara. The last time I crossed this threshold was on a primary school trip and I can still picture the manky dinosaur skeleton in the entrance which looked as though it had never been dusted. What a difference a few decades make. Again, the good folks at Weta have employed a mix of props, artefacts and items from Sir Peter Jackson's own collection to tell the story of WWI from its pre-1914 origins to the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, with particular emphasis on the Kiwi involvement. Head Curator Ian Wards tells us Jackson banned the use of black and white photography from the exhibition. TE PAPA/SUPPLIED The Great War exhibition tells the story of WWI from its pre-1914 origins to the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. "More than 170 original war photos were colourised, which makes them look as though they were taken yesterday," says Wards. "It really brings the images to life for people in a way that black and white doesn't." The journey begins in a small Belgian town in 1914, shows recruits signing up to fight and features everything from a German tank (which had to be lowered through the roof) to an early London bus, one of 900 stripped of their bright red livery for use as troop carriers. We step over soil shipped in from Passchendaele and the Somme but the biggest lump in our throats is reserved for the model of Chunuk Bair and the roll-call of more than 850 Kiwis who died on this hilly ground. The big hand is long past lunch by the time we taxi to Miramar so we do what any sensible person would do and call into the Roxy where Weta Workshop co-founder Sir Richard Taylor teamed up with a bunch of his film and foodie mates to restore the cinema and restaurant to its former glory. Te Papa Te Papa's Gallipoli: The Scale of Our War opened in April. Roxy's head of events, Alice Sisley, joins us for polenta gnocchi, washed down with cocktails from award-winning mixologist Ray Letoa. I could quite easily settle in for the afternoon, but Wellington's latest attraction awaits. The Thunderbirds Are Go exhibition takes visitors on an interactive adventure through the newest Weta project. Admittedly, I've got some skin in this game, given my husband has spent the past few years animating Scott, Virgil and the rest of the International Rescue crew for the reworked TV series which celebrates the 50th anniversary of Thunderbirds. But seeing the sets up close and giggling at the memorabilia, most of which comes from Sir Richard Taylor's childhood collection, is a real treat. KATE WHITLEY/TE PAPA A mural at Coco at The Roxy. John, a tourist from Britain, tells me he's been in love with Thunderbirds since childhood and detoured to the Capital specifically to check out both this and the DreamWorks exhibition. "Disneyland may be the happiest place on earth but today, Wellington comes close," he says. MORE INFORMATION Te Papa Coco at The Roxy. The DreamWorks Animation Exhibition: Journey from Sketch to Screen is on at Te Papa until 28 March 2016. See tepapa.govt.nz. Gallipoli: The Scale of Our War runs until 2018. See gallipoli.tepapa.govt.nz. The Great War Exhibition. See greatwarexhibition.nz. Thunderbirds are Go! Exhibition. See wetaworkshop.com Roxy. See roxycinema.co.nz The writer was a guest of Positively Wellington Tourism, see wellingtonnz.com Broker-directors beware; the regulator is watching you By Duruthu Edirimuni Chandrasekera View(s): View(s): Stockbrokers on director boards of listed firms are on the radar of the regulator, according to informed sources.They said that now with efficient surveillance, these directors are being watched and can be detected unlike earlier. In the past there was a red list at the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) where names of brokers in listed company boards were entered. They werent permitted to trade on the shares of those companies they were serving, a source close to the CSE told the Business Times. He added that this measure was aimed at ensuring a transparent market and maintaining records. But industry analysts point out that stockbrokers on director boards of listed firms are privy to insider information and that they can trade on the shares through another person (based on insider information) or disseminate price sensitive information to a third party. More than three listed firms have broker-directors. The CSE rules say that all employees of broking firms who deal with clients are barred from insider dealing or knowingly assisting such conduct, according to CSE listing rules. But theres nothing specific on stockbrokers on director boards of listed firms, an analyst said. He added that with recent capital market developments, best practice is just a buzzword. How would anyone know that there hasnt been insider trading? Officials say that at present it all boils down to how they conduct themselves. They should have a hands-off approach where such a company is concerned, an official told the Business Times. He said that the CSE is currently in consultation with the industry to carry out a total overhaul of their listing rules which will incorporate certain changes to stockbrokers on director boards of listed firms. He said the first draft of the SEC Act was completed recently and that these proposed laws would be armed with rules to counter such instances. HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong opposition lawmakers protested on Sunday outside Beijing's representative office in the Chinese-ruled city over the disappearance of a bookseller who specializes in publications critical of the Communist Party government. Lee Bo, 65, a major shareholder of Causeway Bay Books, "vanished" on Wednesday after he went to fetch books from his warehouse in the city, Lee's wife told Hong Kong media. She said her husband had called her from a mainland Chinese number to tell her he was safe but would not reveal his location, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported on Sunday. She said Lee spoke to her in Mandarin even though the pair usually communicated in Cantonese. Lee is the fifth person linked to the bookstore to have gone missing in the past two months. Others include Gui Minhai, owner of Mighty Current, the publishing house that owns the bookstore, the SCMP reported. Missing person reports were filed for three others, it said. The disappearances have stoked fears of mainland Chinese authorities using shadowy tactics that erode the one country, two systems formula under which Hong Kong has been governed since its return to Chinese rule from Britain in 1997. The city's constitution guarantees wide-ranging personal freedoms and independent law enforcement. Beijing's Liaison Office and the Hong Kong Immigration Department could not be reached for comment. The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, an agency of China's State Council, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. About 60 people marched to the Liaison Office in the financial hub, while pro-democracy lawmakers held a media conference to express concern over the disappearance. "We have strong reason to believe Mr Lee was kidnapped and smuggled back to the mainland for political investigation," said Democratic Party lawmaker Albert Ho. He did not elaborate on the reason, but the group called on the Hong Kong government to say whether there was an official immigration departure record for Lee. Secretary for Security, John Lee, said the police would be expanding the scope of its investigation into Lee's disappearance, although it was not possible to give details about every line of inquiry, broadcaster RTHK reported on Sunday. The Causeway Bay Bookstore sells paperbacks highly critical of the Chinese leadership in Beijing and often containing details of the private lives of senior leaders and their families. While the books are banned in mainland China, local media said they are popular with Chinese tourists in Hong Kong. Hong Kong's second highest-ranking official, Chief Secretary Carrie Lam, expressed concern about the case on Saturday. "The Hong Kong government is highly concerned about the wellbeing of Hong Kong people in the city and abroad. I know the police are already working on the case," Lam said. (Reporting by Venus Wu, Anne Marie Roantree and Lawrence White in HONG KONG and Megha Rajagopalan in BEIJING; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Paul Tait) Building the movement for a living wage By Devaka Gunawardena View(s): View(s): The annual Asia Floor Wage Alliance meeting held on December 17-20th at the Sri Lanka Foundation was a critical opportunity to bring activists together from across the region to discuss the pressing needs of garment workers.Participants arrived from over nine countries to highlight issues in an industry that provides clothing for much of the world, including for famous brands such as Gap, H&M, Marks and Spencer, Next, Inditex, and Adidas. While many of these brands are under increasing pressure to ensure that workers are treated with dignity as part of a global supply chain, the reality is that millions still work under difficult and often injurious conditions. The most extreme example is the collapse of the Rana Plaza in Bangladesh in 2013, resulting in over a thousand fatalities. While not all workers in the region face such immediately deadly circumstances, they are often paid very low wages and encounter pressure from employers when they attempt to organise collectively. In order to address this situation, the organizers of the Asia Floor Wage Alliance proposed that a living wage is a workers basic right in the garment industry and beyond. In addition to covering the theoretical and technical aspects of wages, the conference also enabled participants to discuss practical issues facing labour organizers. There was much discussion about which brands to target, and how to formulate a strategy that can eventually shape the bargaining power of workers throughout the industry. In terms of concrete steps, participants decided to use the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Developments Complaints Commission in order to ensure that Western brands and their suppliers comply with legal regulations in Asian countries. They also considered the ramifications of building a regional alliance for solidarity to promote the living wage, which can prevent a race to the bottom. Finally, in addition to the immediate decisions taken, there were many fruitful and stimulating conversations.These discussions raised important questions about the state of organizing in the garment industry in Asia despite persistent attempts by some managers and employers to harass workers and their unions. Implementing the living wage Participants grappled with mechanisms for establishing a living wage. Conference organisers suggested that the concept of Purchasing Power Parity is an important way for standardising measurement across countries, given differences in average per capita income and the varying cost of the basket of goods that a family needs to sustain itself. Activists also supported the idea of establishing a living wage by obtaining two to three per cent of the Free on Board price, which is paid by buyers in order to ship goods. This percentage could be contributed to a fund that would cover wage increases for workers, with minimal effect on mark up for the final consumer product. In addition, such a mechanism would ensure that brands are made responsible for workers conditions throughout the supply chain. Stephanie Luce, a professor of Labour Studies at the City University of New York, offered a comprehensive assessment of different ways of measuring wages. She noted that in the US, for example, service workers are often paid so little by large employers that they rely on over US$7 billion of government subsidies because they are unable to sustain their families on a poverty wage. In the Asian context, there is also the question of how the living wage intersects with other proposals such as a national minimum wage.Currently in Sri Lanka the proposal is to establish a minimum wage of Rs. 10,000 ($71) a month. According to the Sri Lanka country presentation by Buddhima Padmasiri, the basic salary in the garment industry is Rs. 12,330 ($88) under the existing Wages Board and with the Budgetary Relief Allowance. The living wage then must be seen as part of a larger workers struggle to achieve better living conditions in the garment industry and beyond.Workshop participants discussed the fact that there is a necessarily political component involving struggle between workers and employers in achieving a living wage. Activists discussed harassment and intimidation in factories when workers attempt to establish independent unions. While the International Labour Organisation core conventions guarantee the right to freedom of association, attempts to suppress independent workers organisations persist. Activists from all of the countries relayed case after case. One participant from Bangladesh noted that over 20 workers were recently sacked in factories that supply to a major brand, in which the employer also happens to be the leader of the local factory owners association. In Sri Lanka, this past November in the Katunayake Free Trade Zone, management at a factory interdicted at least six workers and fired several for attempting to form a union. There is a pervasive culture of harassment of union organisers throughout the region, but evidence is often hard to collect. The creation of a database documenting incidents is greatly needed. Activists at the Asia Floor Wage Alliance discussed the need for more labour inspections and effective legal machinery that will implement laws already on the books. Finally, conference participants addressed the changing conditions of work in the era of globalisation. They raised the twin issues of the fragmentation of the working class and the decline of representation in labour movements. With regard to fragmentation, participants noted increasingly predominant trends such as subcontracting and making use of informal employment outside Free Trade Zones which supply factories. The garment industry in Asia is itself a product of outsourcing and the fact that corporations have often taken advantage of degrading labour conditions.Moreover major brands and corporations disguise their effective power by relying on subsidiaries and outside suppliers while maintaining effective financial controlThe participants also discussed related trends in the decline of the labour movement and the changing representation of workers. It is crucial to address womens concerns in a context of persistent harassment and discrimination, which also affects their ability to participate in union activities. Participants critiqued the persistent assumption that women are homemakers and men industrial workers. Activists from countries such as India and Indonesia also noted the effects of rural to urban migration and the lack of spaces to interact outside the confines of the workplace and hostels. Finally, the labour movement must be seen in the context of the decline of Left parties, and the loss of an accompanying political vision for the working class. A transnational campaign? The question is, how effective were conference organisers in formulating the living wage as a human right? While activists and scholars brought significant research and experience to bear on this question, there are still issues with such a framing. How will the living wage be implemented as a transnational campaign? Unfortunately due to time constraints, there was less discussion about the relevance of different political traditions, or the limits and possibilities of various forms of collective organization. It is clear, however, that unions must be a key part of any wage campaign and will have to lead the fight, since they are, as one participant noted, the historical embodiment of workers collective agency. There is also an issue with the technical framing of the living wage demand in terms of increasing aggregate demand. While there have been many critiques of the Fordist model in Western countries, it is still believed by many that the best way for Asia to advance is by increasing mass consumption and building a strong middle class. The problem though is that, as several of the speakers noted, inequality on a global scale is in fact dramatically increasing. French economist Thomas Piketty, for example, has argued that with the exception of the 1940s to 1970s, global inequality is zooming upwards. This again raises questions about the feasibility of the living wage in combating what is essentially a structural problem. The concept of a living wage stimulated participants to think about the practical context of organising in their countries. This is part of a bigger conversation about the most effective way to empower workers. It is clear, however, that any such strategy cannot be pursued based only on wage increases, or even the creation of a wage fixing mechanism. Rather, it requires democratic control over the process of production. The issues that were described, regarding poor working conditions and low wages in the garment industry, are an effect of the basic fact that workers have little say over the goals of production. Thus, the ever-increasing, punishing production targets, and the more general political pressure workers face in their attempts to organise independently. Nevertheless, the Asian Floor Wage Alliance meeting was a success in bringing activists together to conceptualise a living wage. The conference demonstrated the power of solidarity, fighting back against corporate attempts to exploit gaps in living standards and which encourage employers in Asian countries to compete against each other to pay the lowest wage, often times in the context of a captive labour market. It is hoped that the conversations that occurred on the margins, including comparisons between activists experiences, will further encourage the sustained probing of the causes behind exploitation in the garment industry. (The author is a member of the Collective for Economic Democratisation. He can be reached at devakagunawardena@gmail.com) Focus on technology View(s): Earlier this week, scientists reported that Sri Lankas northern Jaffna peninsula would face rising sea level and polluted groundwater resources. In a worrying scenario, scientists have said the peninsula, once the scene of bloody fighting, would be battling a different war: how to keep the land above water.This is however not the first time scientists have warned of the perils and impact of climate change in Sri Lanka. It was as far back as 2007 when scientist and environmentalist Prof. Mohan Munasinghe told the Sunday Times in an interview that the LTTE and government troops were actually fighting over land in the north that would be soon submerged as sea levels rise. He said that a major part of Jaffna and other northern areas (of Sri Lanka) will be submerged when the sea level rises. No one takes it (warnings on climate change) seriously because it is something that does not happen today or tomorrow, he said adding that one of the weaknesses in raising public awareness on these critical issues is the inability of scientists to translate their jargon into a language that is understood by everyone, including politicians. Technology can help this process.One of the most frightening prospects of climate change for Sri Lanka is agriculture, he said at the time. We have done some studies with the Meteorological Department which show higher temperatures and less water. This will result in paddy farming output falling by 20-30 per cent in the next 20 to 30 years. The output will begin to drop gradually over the next few years. Another impact of climate change is that mosquitoes will be more rampant in hotter areas (like Colombo) and even move into the more hilly areas.Some of these predications and scientific assessments are already coming true. For example, the month of December this year was not as cold and chilly in Colombo as in previous years. Elsewhere in the world unusual weather was witnessed in many countries. Last months Paris summit on climate change struck a deal to limit rising global temperatures and a pact committing all countries to cut carbon emissions. Climate change should be the new manthra for countries like Sri Lanka which will suffer the consequences of carbon emissions from the richer, industrialised world. But are the politicians and society paying attention? Unfortunately as seen over the years, no one pays attention to a hidden problem until it hits you in the face viz Tsunami (another creation of climate change and global warming). For a few years, there was attention on the issue and then it vanished off the radar.While Sri Lanka and other countries that suffered losses to life and property in the 2004 December Tsunami have every year diligently focused on the tragedy and that of affected families recovering from the disaster, no one least of all the media discusses climate change, global warming and its impact on such natural disasters and what the world and back home countries like Sri Lanka should be doing, nay speeding up measures, to avert further disasters. Rather global conflicts with the ISIS and other terrorist groups (some would label them rebel or freedom fighters) creating chaos across the world and natural disasters with severe flooding in Europe and tornadoes in the US drew most of the attention last year. However there is little attention and focus on the causative factors which are in many ways connected to the twin problems of climate change and global warming. These issues are also triggering new health and medical problems for many. Sri Lanka, as prominent hotelier Hiran Cooray says, is a green destination for tourism and should be aggressively promoted that way. He believes its time to push the Earthlung concept mooted by environmentalist Renton de Alwis when he served as chairman of Sri Lanka Tourism in early 2000. Technology can help drive this process. Perhaps the countrys biggest winner has been the advances in technology, particularly in the medical field, that has benefited many ordinary people. Most of these advances have been profiled by the Business Times e-Health columnist Prof. Vajira Dissanayake in the ground-breaking TechKnow pages. Other major advances in robot technology and drones (its usage in the medical field included) have also been reported. The number of hackethons (an event where computer programmers and others involved in software development come together) that has led to the creation of many products and recognised the ones already in place; creations by the Moratuwa University (profiled in the TechKnow pages) and the aps developed in the IT industry, many of which are helping society in simple ways like channelling a doctor, drying your clothes and in sectors like garments and retail marketing (buying products online which is catching up fast in Sri Lanka), clearly shows the extent to which technology has helped the countrys development into the new age. The strides made in the mobile telecommunication sector and Internet, again making life easier, are too numerous to mention with apps being developed almost weekly. Technology and its positive impact on daily life, natural disasters, global warming and climate change and wars (improving intelligence and fostering peace and harmony) should be one of the main priorities of Sri Lankan policymakers for 2016. Also on the wish-list is that scientists, engineers, doctors, researchers and other professionals tasked with making a better world will speak in a language that is understood by ordinary Sri Lankans. Hotel industry says unwise for SriLankan Airlines to pull out of Europe European travellers looking for new destinations outside conflict-filled West Asia and North Africa View(s): View(s): Both the Sri Lanka Tourism (SLT) and The Hotels Association of Sri Lanka (THASL) this week expressed alarm over the intended pullout of SriLankan Airlines from the European sector barring the UK (London).While there is no official intimation yet from the national carrier that it will withdraw from Paris, Rome and Frankfurt as the routes are uneconomic and loss-making, the airline has said in the past that this is under serious discussion under the rationalisation process. This is not the time to pull out particularly when Europeans are looking for new destinations since (travel to) the Middle East (West Asia) is becoming an issue for them, Hiran Cooray, THASL President and Chairman, Jetwing Hotels told the Business Times. His comments follow a statement by SLT that it was developing strategic partnerships and new alliances with other carriers serving Europe While there is an uncertainty of SriLankan Airlines continuing to operate in Europe and several other destinations of choice, Sri Lanka Tourism hopes to enter into strategic partnerships with new and existing airlines connecting the regions , SLT said. Mr. Cooray said the THASL has urged the national carrier that this was not the time to withdraw from Europe. What we are told being discussed is that the airline may retain Frankfurt. But we urge that both Paris and Frankfurt are retained.He said Europeans are finding it difficult to travel to Islamic countries due to political unrest. Places like Turkey, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria and Eqypt are popular summer destinations frequented by millions of Germans and French who now find it more and uncomfortable to visit these locations. SriLankan Airlines may have had losses on these routes in the past but they must think of the future. There is an opportunity now to bring in more visitors from these countries. From a business point of view we should not give up the market share we have in France and Germany to somebody else wholl grab the opportunity, he said. Market share of the two countries have seen positive growth. Arrivals from Germany in 2014 rose by 20.5 per cent from the previous and 22.5 per cent in the case of France in the same period. Arrivals from Germany and France for the period January-November 2015 rose by 13.5 per cent and 10.2 per cent, respectively from the same 2015 months. (Feizal) IronOnes BoardPAC gains access to Bangladesh state entities with GRAM View(s): IronOne Technologies, the Sri Lankan developer of BoardPAC the sophisticated and secure mobile solution for paperless communication, has made significant advances in Bangladesh, gaining access to government agencies and the military in partnership with GRAM Ltd, its recently-appointed partner in that country.The partnership between the two companies ratified in Colombo paves the way for IronOne to deploy its paperless leadership meeting platform for a new customer segment that requires the solutions capability to facilitate iPad-based paperless meetings and decision making in a highly secure environment across diverse geographies, the company said in a media release. Said Lakmini Wijesundera, Founder and CEO of IronOne Technologies; Government bodies, including branches of the armed forces, demand the right communications technology mix to meet their current and future requirements, with the ultimate prerequisite of a secure channel. With BoardPAC, we help them achieve this with the use of encrypted technology over secure networks.Globally, blue-chip companies and financial institutions rely on BoardPAC to enable remote meetings, access archived information and other tools for business leaders to make timely decisions even when they are out of the boardroom. We are pleased to offer these same capabilities to support the Bangladesh Armys defence and peacekeeping efforts. A.S. M. Abdul Motin, Chairman of GRAM Ltd said the military requires the highest level of security enablement to ensure confidentiality, and that strategy discussions are kept in the strictest confidentiality. This is especially important as military personnel are dispersed across various geographic locations and countries, and thus require a solution that is able to guarantee the integrity of information. BoardPAC is part of the solution that will uphold a nations territorial integrity against any external threat, including breach of sensitive information.The partnership agreement between the two companies was signed in Colombo by Mashrur Motin, aide to the Chairman of GRAM Ltd and Ms. Wijesundera in the presence of Ahamed Zainulabdeen, Chief Minister of the Eastern Province. Krrish finally seals Transworks House land deal in Colombo By Bandula Sirimanna Agreement signed with UDA, BOI seemingly unaware View(s): View(s): Indian real estate company Krrish Group has finally sealed the controversial Transworks House land deal, that drew allegations of huge pay-offs to politicians and officials, signing a lease agreement with the Urban Development Authority (UDA) in October.The new agreement, not known to the public until officials revealed it to the Business Times (BT) on Thursday, involves a block of land slightly smaller in size than the earlier proposed deal. Officials at the Board of Investment (BOI), which has been involved in the negotiations, said they were unaware of the new development but were checking on the query by the BT. The move paves the way for work to begin at the long-overdue US$650 million mixed development project at a British era heritage building site in Fort. The signing of the new lease was confirmed both by a senior UDA official and an official at Krrishs local office.In the aftermath of signing the agreement between the UDA and Krrish Transworks Colombo (Pvt) Ltd, the police Financial Crimes Investigations Division (FCID) launched an investigation into the irregularities and alleged secret payoffs in the Krrish project made to some top officials of the former regime including some powerful politicians to fast track relevant approvals, official sources revealed. The UDA official said under the new agreement, 3.7 acres of land have been cleared for the Krrish Square project. The balance 0.6 acres in the original plan to be given to Krrish was not included in the latest lease agreement. This land had been leased temporarily to the Peoples Bank and the Central Bank for Rs. 100.4 million by the UDA, he disclosed.Krrishs Colombo office is now in the process of selecting an international contractor from three reputed (and already) shortlisted foreign companies, a company official said adding that an internationally managed hotel chain has agreed to partner this project. The delay in the project was due to a dispute over the last payment (about Rs. 600 million) which at one time was said to have been money given to a go-between in the transaction. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayke, Deputy Minister Dr. Harsha de Silva and several UNP MPs were highly vociferous in and outside Parliament when they were in the opposition during the 2013- 14 period against the lack of transparency in the Krrish deal.Dr. de Silva in a statement in parliament in end August 2013 noted that names of several key figures including that of the then Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission Nalaka Godahewa had been linked to secret payments that have been allegedly paid to secure the legal rights to develop the land.Initially the UDA entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the Krrish Group to formulate the project, but the lease agreement had not been signed, officials said.The company has initially deposited a sum of Rs. 499.5 million being 10 per cent of the total lease premium as a commitment fee on September 14, 2012. Sri Lankas ageing fireworks industry gives little cheer during festive season By Bandula Sirimanna View(s): View(s): Sri Lankas ageing fireworks industry has little to cheer about this festive season, with sharply rising raw material costs, labour shortages and bad weather conditions frustrating production and sales, manufacturers said. This years festive period was the worst season for fireworks as sales came down by 80 per cent, head of Rawana Fireworks Negombo Anton Fernando told the Business Times. He said that the production of fireworks was also hampered due to bad weather conditions that prevailed in Negombo and surrounding areas since September last year. Returns of large stocks of unsold firecrackers have also been increased with traders complaining of low quality standard in production process, he said adding that the reason for this was water seeping into raw material and finished products at their small store rooms during heavy rain. The industry is struggling to survive without modernisation in the manufacturing process although it was started more than 80 years ago. He pointed out that the price of fireworks remained unchanged although the cost of production has skyrocketed. While the absence of strict standards puts product quality in a poor light, the industry is also battling unlicensed manufacturers and accusations that they use children in some stages of manufacture, Mr. Fernando said. He noted that the labour shortage was a problem faced by the industry at present, but most of the manufacturers were doing a genuine business without violating labour laws.Mr. Fernando said that he is continuing his fathers business with great respect for the ancestors who toiled hard to maintain the good image of Rawana fireworks in Negombo. The company is one of the pioneers in this industry.The fireworks production is mainly seasonal, peaking during Christmas and the April New Year season as a cottage industry, he revealed adding that production techniques have not kept pace with modern times, leaving room for health and pollution issues and accidents like sudden fires that can turn fatal.Around 150 licenced fireworks manufacturers are operating in Negombo, Kimbulapitiya and surrounding areas providing a livelihood for a large number of people. The industry is still at a very primary level and it is not getting adequate stocks of raw materials and chemicals to produce fireworks, another factory owner said. The Government has imposed heavy taxes on chemical imports from countries like China, Israel and India and it is biggest stumbling block for the progress of the industry, he added. The use of electricity is prohibited in the manufacturing process and they cannot use modern machinery for production like in India and China, he pointed out.Most fireworks contain substances like potassium nitrate or saltpetre for supplying oxygen. Substances like charcoal and sulphur are sometimes added because they amalgamate with the oxygen to produce heat and light. A large number of flammable substances, such as starch, gum, sugar, shellac and other petroleum derivatives are often used in the mixture instead of charcoal and sulphur.Such chemicals are very costly and the government should intervene to find some redress for their problems, he added.Meanwhile, other fireworks sellers also spoke of a drop in sales in comparison to last year. We still have not had many sales this year, unlike last year, a seller in Nugegoda told the Business Times adding that the same situation was prevailing in Borella, Kirulapone and Kelaniya. As 2016 dawns, UNP and SLFP face internal crises View(s): One year after election, Sirisena still struggling to take control of his party; open challenge from Rajapaksa now, new alliance likely UNP constitution also likely to be amended, two key posts may be scrapped; two ruling parties to sign new agreement By Our Political Editor The dawn of 2016 portends a bagful of challenges for Sri Lankas political firmament. Perhaps understandably, the share of the ruling alliance or its partners is much more compared to that of their opponents. On the one hand, internecine issues have engulfed them. On the other, they are speaking publicly over their disappointments. This is at a time when the partners of the United National Front (UNF) are finalising two different documents to further glue their alliance. One is a formal common agreement. A Memorandum of Understanding had earlier been in place in the run-up to the presidential and later parliamentary elections. Now all sides want a binding document to be the guideline for the rest of their period of governance. The second is a constitution for the UNF. A team of lawyers are now going through the two documents to be signed in January (this month), United National Party General Secretary Kabir Hashim (UNP) told the Sunday Times (See Q & A on this page). Dealing with bribery and corruption One of the contentious issues was assurances made both at presidential and parliamentary polls last year to deal with bribery, corruption and other malpractices. We are very unhappy at the pace at which things have moved. No action has still been taken against Avant Garde, RADA and other similar cases that involved allegations of irregularities running into billions of rupees, Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka, General Secretary of the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) told the Sunday Times. Hashim countered by saying that the legal process took time. Moreover, he said, there were also officials who were loyal to the previous administration and they were stalling or interfering in investigations. Ranawaka said most of middle class society, who strongly criticised the budget proposals, were those who backed this Government. (See Q & A on this page). Minister Ranawaka dismissed speculation that he planned to join the UNP and would hold titular office. We will remain where we are and protect the mandate given by the people at the presidential and parliamentary elections last year, he said. He also rubbished claims that he was not in good terms with Minister Rajitha Senaratne, a close ally. Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake, who returned to Sri Lanka on Friday morning after a foreign holiday, was defiant. He told officials at the Ministry of Finance that he was determined to follow through with the budget proposals that were approved notwithstanding perceived criticism and accusations hurled at him. Karunanayke told the Sunday Times, Since last Friday we have begun implementing some 482 measures through 51 ministries. There will be utmost financial discipline and revenue will be collected. He said that the budget has not been a cut-and-paste job from what officials had forwarded. We discussed it at various levels. I know 97 percent of the people are in favour, he said adding that the rest are those who are never satisfied. He charged that former President Mahinda Rajapaksa had left behind a debt of Rs. 350 billion in unpaid bills. Last year, we had to pay Rs. 175 billion of this amount. I will unmask the critics who are doing it for different reasons, he added. There are different woes for the UNF partners. At the next meeting of the UNP Working Committee, the policy making body, changes to some of the positions are now certain to be discussed. This is through amendments to the party constitution. Though General Secretary Hashim did not spell out these changes, other party seniors said it would include the abolition of at least two positions that of Deputy Leader currently held by Housing Minister Sajith Premadasa and Assistant Leader by Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake. That the duo have soured relations with the leadership has been the talking point at the highest levels of the party. These two positions were introduced to the party constitution in the backdrop of a leadership crisis the party faced when in the Opposition. Premier Wickremesinghe who returns to Colombo today after a holiday in Ireland is to meet Minister Hashim to discuss the proposed changes. With the conduct of the Uva Provincial Council elections in September 2014 where they played an active role, the Leadership Council of the UNP virtually ceased to exist. Warnasinghe issue For the Jathika Hela Urumaya, the events that led to the resignation of Western Province Health Minister Nishantha Sri Warnasinghe, after the defeat of his Ministrys votes during the budget debate of the Western Provincial Council (WPC), was a setback. The partys opponents were to interpret the move as a political snub allegedly engineered by none other than President Maithripala Sirisena. This was on the basis that it was Sirisena, who in September last year, named Isuru Devapriya as the Chief Minister. However, Ranawaka is learnt to have met Sirisena to express the JHU displeasure that the Chief Minister had rocked the UNF political boat much to the embarrassment of the JHU. The President had thereafter conveyed that displeasure to Devapriya. Other informed sources said that one of the main causes centred on Warnasinghes own conduct. After being elected to the WPC, Warnasinghe unsuccessfully contested the Kalutara District from the UNP ticket at the August parliamentary elections. He thereafter returned to serve as councillor. Some of his adversaries allege that he gave job placements mostly to JHU supporters in hospitals under his provincial Health Ministry and thus earned the displeasure of other UNP and UPFA members. The latter had brought issues to the attention of the Chief Minister. This is said to be the main cause for the defeat of the Health Ministry allocations. These votes were eventually passed this week and Warnasinghe is complaining that the vote was procedurally improper. Issues are equally bad in the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), where President Maithripala Sirisena is engaged in a concerted effort to win over parliamentarians who remain loyal to former President Mahinda Rajapaksa. He has failed to do so since he was elected President one year ago. Ironically for a man who won the Presidency with votes countrywide, it has been an uphill battle so far within his own party. It was only last week that he declared that no MP from his own party would be penalised for voting against the budget. He also played down comments over his relations with his predecessor saying he was not concerned whether a person was black or white and asserted he would work for the party. It came as SLFP General Secretary and Minister Duminda Dissanayake made inquiries from different SLFP groups whether Rajapaksa in fact planned to form his own political party. The answers he received were unclear and the veteran politician that Rajapaksa is, had resorted to a new strategy that added to the confusion. Rajapaksas surprise move In what seemed a surprise move, Rajapaksa declared open an SLFP office of the Provincial Councillor Sarath de Alwis in Horagasmanhandiya, Urubokke in the Matara district on Sunday, December 27. There, he cautioned that if persons were driven away from their parties, they would have no alternative but to form a new party. There was little doubt the message was to Sirisena, who is yet to gain full control of his MPs and to keep him (Rajapaksa) within the SLFP fold with an appropriate position or face a split. For good measure, Rajapaksa also held an impromptu news conference after the opening ceremony. ere is a brief account: Q: Minister S.B. Dissanayake has said that 15 MPs are planning to join the government and accept ministerial portfolios. Are these members from the joint opposition? A: I do not know that. I have not asked them. We do not know if they are TNA members or from the joint opposition. You should ask the TNA members if they are supporting. My party is the SLFP. I am the only person who did not quit the SLFP. I am the only person who did not betray the SLFP to the UNP. Many persons in politics now have betrayed their parties. We did not do that. We will never do that. I do not know about a new party. However, under these conditions I cannot say that new parties will not come up. If persons are chased away from the party they have to go somewhere. They may form a new party. Therefore new parties can come up. Now the Government is working in combination with the Opposition. If the right direction is to be shown, you need to have a strong Opposition. If there is no strong Opposition a Government can go astray. That was shown during the budget. Therefore all have the responsibility of having a strong Opposition. For Rajapaksa, having weakened the then Opposition by taking a whole bunch of MPs to strengthen his Government is one thing. Opening a branch of the SLFP is another. This is the first time he had done so since Sirisena took over the leadership. Using that occasion to deliver a message to Sirisena is even more significant. It seems a new strategy by Rajapaksa whose blessings and support is there in full for a new joint Opposition alliance that is being formed. Mahajana Eksath Peramuna (MEP) leader Dinesh Gunawardena who heads the pro-Rajapaksa group in Parliament, told the Sunday Times, Talks are under way to form the new alliance. We met on Tuesday and will meet again next Tuesday. He said besides those in Parliament, the new alliance will also have other political parties and groups joining them. Thus, it is clear, that at least for the moment Rajapaksa wants to remain in the SLFP and continue as a deterrent to Sirisena gaining full control. The sum effect would be two centres of power within the party. That there is a time frame for this is not something salutary to Sirisena. He would have to be in total control of the SLFP within the next six months the time frame set by Sirisena for the local Government elections, for which he has already got an extension of time. Until now, several inducements to SLFP parliamentarians including official positions, vehicles, security and other perks have not proved successful. New Constitution Dinesh Gunawardena said one of the main tasks of the Opposition would be to oppose efforts by the Government to move a resolution to convert Parliament into a Constitutional Assembly. We strongly believe this is highly irregular. There were similar mistakes, perhaps due to lack of expertise, made even during the formulation of the 19th and later 20th Amendments, he said. He complained that the Government had so far made available only the draft resolution it will move at a special session of Parliament on Saturday January 9. We have not been given copies of the draft report of the 24-member Committee of experts. This is the one that was to form the basis of discussion, he pointed out. Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) leader and Minister, Rauff Hakeem said yesterday that his party was also awaiting this draft report. He said that his party is already in talks with the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) to seek common ground on issues relevant to them. I understand that this basic draft is not yet ready, he said. Another source said that this basic draft will take away provisions relating to an executive presidency and place alternative proposals for discussion. Yet, one of the Opposition demands appears to have been met. The Government will only move a resolution to set up a Select Committee of the entire House to draft a new Constitution. There will be no references, as earlier proposed, for the creation of a Constitutional Assembly. An Opposition source said, This shows the amateurish approach by some experts assigned for working on matters related to a new Constitution. One of the main reasons for converting the House into a Select Committee is to ensure that proceedings are recorded in the Hansard, the official record of Parliament. In the event of a Constitutional Assembly being set up, a Government source said, there would be no possibility of proceedings being reported in the Hansard. The crisis within the SLFP, no doubt, will continue and draw more of Sirisenas time and effort. Similarly, internecine issues within the United National Party are likely to exacerbate after changes are made in the party constitution. Removal of posts and those affected no doubt will raise issue. All in all, for the two main parties the SLFP and the UNP that govern the country, all other public issues could be relegated to second position as they worry about their internal woes. This is in a crucial year when international pressure is mounting on the Government to take varied action on the US-backed resolution on Sri Lanka at the Human Rights Council. A response detailing measures adopted is due in June. Just weeks earlier, a legal mission from the UNHRC was in Sri Lanka impressing on the need for follow-up action and studying measures already adopted. The challenges therefore are unprecedented. JHU will sign new agreement if it is acceptable: Champika He are excerpts of a Q & A with Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka, General Secretary of the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU): ON THE RECENT EVENTS AT THE WESTERN PROVINCIAL COUNCIL: They conducted themselves clearly against the mandate given by the people to President Sirisena and Premier Wickremesinghe. If there is cohabitation of partners in the UNF Government, then it is only logical that it should extend to Provincial Councils as well. There should be harmony and power sharing. Before the Chief Minister took over, we held key ministries. Under the present Chief Minister, only one portfolio, unfortunately was given to us. The Mahinda Rajapaksa clan tried to unsettle the new administration. There were two attempts to move our ministers. We resisted them. That included a no confidence motion on one of the ministers. When we recruit to the provincial Ministry of Health, we follow procedures laid down by the centre. The Rajapaksa camp wanted to show their strength. It is relevant to mention that the UNF won the entire Western Province. That clearly shows that the WPC had no proper mandate. He was appointed by the President and he is there because we supported. The Chief Minister does not care about them. He interfered with other ministers as well. It is up to the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) to study this situation. If there is a grand alliance at the top, then there should be one at the PCs too. They dont understand cohabitation. MEETING WITH THE PRESIDENT: During a meeting with the President, we conveyed our concerns. Some sections were more anti-Ranil. This is a clear opposition to good governance. We are not bothered. We will help when good things are done. We will act as an independent entity. ON A NEW CONSTITUTION FOR SRI LANKA: What is now being envisaged is the creation of a Select Committee of 225 members to draft a new Constitution. This is what is being referred to as the Constitutional Council. Premier Wickremesinghes formula is a democratic thing. FUTURE ROLE OF THE JHU: We will sign the two documents which are under preparation if they are acceptable to us. We will continue to play our role. Earlier, we had only signed an MoU. We pledge to protect the mandate given by the people. THE BUDGET PROPOSALS: The people are frustrated. Most of the leading figures and organisations that supported President Sirisena/Premier Wickremesinghe are strongly critical of the budget. This is a very unfortunate situation. Changes in UNP constitution to meet new challenges: Kabir Hashim Here are excerpts of a Q and A with United National Party (UNP) General Secretary Kabir Hashim: ON IMPENDING CHANGES IN THE PARTY: For more than twenty long years we have remained in the Opposition. We have on many occasions amended the partys constitution. These were necessitated somewhat for the partys survival. It is now time for us to take stock of the situation. We have to see what changes are needed for the future. There are new challenges. At the moment there is confusion over some positions. They need to be changed. We had a Leadership Council. It became defunct. Other bodies and positions that emerged have to be looked at. Some need to be changed to keep up with the times. There will be no serious changes in the grassroots level structure of the party. The Polling Booth Organisers, a new structure that emerged, has remained active both during the presidential and parliamentary elections. We are of course looking at a membership drive. We are also discussing an increased role for the youth. ON FORMALISING A FRAMEWORK FOR THE UNITED NATIONAL FRONT (UNF) WITH CONSTITUENT PARTNERS: We are working on two different documents. One is a new agreement that will bind all members of the UNF. We are hoping to sign it this month. Though I cannot provide details, it will outline broader policies and our joint vision in the years to come. We are also working on a new Constitution. It is now being perused by a team of lawyers. All partners of the UNF will become signatories of this new Constitution. We are also hoping to sign it this month. THERE HAS BEEN STRONG CRITICISM EVEN AMONG PARTNERS OF THE UNF THAT THIS GOVERNMENT HAS RENEGED ON PROMISES MADE DURING PAST ELECTIONS TO BRING TO BOOK THOSE REPONSIBLE FOR CORRUPTION, MALPRACTICES AND MISRULE: I dont subscribe to that view. There has been systemic changes. Earlier, people were arrested and dumped in jail. It is only thereafter that the authorities went looking for evidence. A classic example is what happened to Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka. One time Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranaike could not stay in her official residence. Another former Government politician had his vehicle stopped by a Police Officer in the southern expressway. Some of those concerned had connived to do wrong. We are under yahapalanaya (good governance). Officials of the previous regime are protecting their old masters. A limited number of people are collecting evidence. The investigations are definitely going on. There is enough evidence against some of them. No one can be blamed for the delays. I salute both President Sirisena and Premier Wickremesinghe. Both have not misled the public through denials or providing wrong information. ON FINANCE MINISTER RAVI KARUNANAYAKES CABINET MEMORANDUM TO PAY RS 300 MILLION TO A PROFESSIONAL CONSULTANT. THIS WAS DISCUSSED AT LAST WEEKS MINISTERIAL MEETING: I can tell you I would not have spoken. I am governed by collective responsibility. However, the media has highlighted this matter. I objected to a technicality. My argument firstly was that the organisation referred to (Hotel Developers Limited, the holding company of Colombo Hilton) was under my Ministry. Either this subject should have been brought under the Ministry of Finance or it is I who should have been responsible for any recommendation. Secondly, I strongly believe it is not the proper process for such payments. The contents (of the memorandum) itself are at issue. ON ACTION AGAINST HIRUNIKA PREMACHANDRA ON THE ALLEGED ABDUCTION OF A YOUTH BY HER STAFF: As far as this case is concerned, she has behaved decently. She had acted with responsibility and supported the legal process. A Grama Niladhari (a village level official) was tied to a tree by a politician of the former Government. No action was taken then. When a Deputy Minister was stopped by a traffic police officer, the law did not take its course. The officers private vehicle was burnt. Where were the civil society groups then? They were frightened for their lives. We will not interfere in the investigations. She is a member of the United National Front and not the United National Party. UN declares Vesak as floating holiday View(s): The 193-member UN General Assembly, which in 1999 declared an International Day of Observance for Vesak on the initiative of the then Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar has gone one better, this time declaring May 20 this year an unofficial UN holiday for Vesak. Respecting the diverse religious affiliations of UN staffers, the General Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution last week recognising seven new UN floating holidays, including Vesak, Orthodox Good Friday, Yom Kippur and Diwali. According to the resolution, staff members should inform their supervisors in advance, as early in the year as possible, of the floating holiday they wish to observe. Meanwhile, the UN will continue with its nine official holidays which include Christmas, Eid-ul-Fitr, Eid-ul-Adha, Memorial Day and Thanksgiving Day, the last two celebrated by the Americans. When Sri Lanka approached the UN, seeking a holiday for Vesak in the 1990s, it was rebuffed on the grounds that it will incur additional costs on the world body. In 2014, when Israel raised the issue of a Yom Kippur holiday for Jews, the UNs Administrative and Budgetary Committee was quick to endorse the proposal and saw no financial implications. We saw the opportunity and went in with both guns blazing, a former Sri Lankan diplomat said last year. If 14 million Jews in the world could ask for a religious holiday at the UN on Yom Kippur, surely 530 million Buddhists could ask for Vesak, he said. India jumped in later seeking a holiday for Diwali or Deepavali. The vigorous lobbying before the Committee this time round was done by Chamitri Rambukwella, then Vice chair of the Budget Committee and a former Second Secretary at the Sri Lanka Mission to the UN. The Committee finally endorsed the proposal and sent it to the General Assembly for ratification last week. Sri Lankas efforts were strongly backed by several countries, including Thailand, Vietnam, Mongolia, Malaysia and Singapore. Bra throwing: What about underpants? It was film director Chandran Ratnams birthday on December 29. He hosted a rousing party with a large number of friends and associates. The conversation soon turned to the Enrique concert at which a bra was thrown on the stage an act which ruffled Presidential feathers. Mr. Ratnam has a film coming out shortly called According to Mathews. Amidst much merriment someone suggested to Mr. Ratnam that he gets a man to toss forth his underpants when lead actress Jacqueline Fernandez makes an appearance! There must be gender equality, after all, said the man who had one too many. Gammanpila wants to manufacture news Udaya Gammanpila, one time Provincial Councillor and now an opposition Parliamentarian from the Colombo District, seems to have an answer to any issue. He had turned up at the Dr. N.M. Perera Centre at Borella for an opposition news conference. Time was ticking away and none of his colleagues were turning up. One irate media representative asked, You want to change a Government. You cannot even get your own people together for this news conference.Mr. Gammanpila who was making desperate calls was to announce that his colleague Dullas Allahapperuma had been hospitalised. Not to be out done, he declared, We called this news conference because the media are short of news these days. Evidently the otherwise vociferous former JHU politician had run short of anything else to say. Kiriellas bridge in troubled waters A plan mooted by University Education and Highways Minister Lakshman Kiriella to build a bridge across the historic Kandy Lake is causing ripples among environmentalists in the hill capital. They are planning to stage protests in Kandy in the coming week in a bid to prevent the construction of the bridge which they say will obscure the scenic view from of the Dalada Maligawa. Attorney Shantha Ratnayake, Chairman of the Lawyers Environmentalists Forum, said building such a bridge would destroy the centuries old charm of the city and that the Government should look for alternatives ways to ease traffic congestion in the area. Minister Kiriella says a bridge across the Kandy Lake will ease traffic congestion in the city but going by the mood of the people in the ancient city, it is likely to be a bridge over troubled waters. Blair wants to be peacemaker here Will former British Prime Minister Tony Blair be the latest peace maker in Sri Lankas reconciliation process? The talk in the corridors of the Foreign Ministry in Colombo is that the prospects are high. They say the overtures to join in came from Blair, Britains Labour Prime Minister from 1997 to 2007. His main occupation now is a consultancy business and engaging in charitable work. He was also a West Asia peace maker who made more than 150 visits to the region, alas, to no avail. One FO source whispered that he is now in contact with Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera with regard to his possible new assignment. The Foreign Minister was in Britain on holiday recently. The FO source pointed out that it was during Blairs tenure that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) set up its so called headquarters in London despite an official ban on the terrorist organisation. Then, when even former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, sought meetings with him through diplomatic channels during her frequent visits to Britain, she was understandably, rebuffed. The British Premiers office took up the position that the then Sri Lankan President was merely trying to make what was a private visit seem an official one back to her constituency at home. Now, that peace has arrived in Sri Lanka, the man who allowed Tiger guerrillas to direct a war from Sri Lanka is hell bent on accelerating the reconciliation process which is largely under Kumaratunga. Has he given up on West Asia and looking for a new assignment? Well, at least some of Blairs new friends in Sri Lanka believe so. Lanka breeds Taiwanese Generals The star-studded man was retired only because he was considered loyal to the controversial strongman of the day. However, he realised that this loyalty paid off. The one-time boss helped him become the Sri Lankan envoy to a friendly country. Eyebrows were raised when a request was made to those in the higher portals of power recently to promote him to a much higher and exalted rank. This was when he had been sent on retirement. Insiders say that has not materialised though the pressure continues. The previous Governments decision to promote some who held the rank of Brigadier at retirement to that of Major Generals spawned a new name Taiwanese Generals. The reference to Taiwan was to denote poor quality since products from that country were known in years gone by to be of a lesser standard than other foreign brands. Former SC judge to probe elephantine issue Rearing of tamed elephants illegally in various localities is an issue making news for several months now. While random raids to catch the culprits have taken place from time to time, the Government has now decided that it is time the matter was probed in a more comprehensive manner. A one-man probe was launched this week to look into the issue that has grown to elephantine proportions. The Ministry of Sustainable Development and Wildlife announced the appointment of retired Supreme Court Judge N.E. Dissanayake to investigate the alleged malpractices related with keeping tamed elephants in violation of the provisions of the Fauna and Flora Ordinance and making forged documents to cover up the illegal activities. Welcome to a friend indeed View(s): The Prime Minister of Pakistan arrives in Sri Lanka tomorrow and here is a visitor for whom rolling out the red carpet is richly justified. For Pakistan has been a sincere friend since its creation as a sovereign state in 1947 and Sri Lankas Independence a year later. Pakistans unwavering support, militarily and diplomatically, in Sri Lankas darkest hour when the island-nations territorial integrity was at stake must never be forgotten. Despite Sri Lankas closeness to India at an official level and a personal bond between the two leaders at the time (1971), Sri Lanka offered Colombo as a refuelling stop for the Pakistan military at a time their country was being dismembered (and Bangladesh created), but Pakistan has repaid that debt many times over. It is unfortunate that the Sri Lanka Government is unable to ring the quorum bell and summon all its lawmakers to afford the visiting Premier the opportunity of addressing Parliament, a request that was made from Islamabad. A lame excuse has been trotted out, but it also smacks of an overarching desire not to upset India. When external forces had an abiding interest in the outcome of the 2015 Presidential election, India may have wished this set to rule, and Pakistan may have preferred the former administration in Colombo. Even so, we did quote the Bard, when the President was to visit Pakistan last year; Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried. Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel. The recent thawing of relations between India and Pakistan has given a further fillip to the normalisation of ties between the two nuclear powers, and provided a ray of hope for the takeoff of regional co-operation in the South Asian region hitherto frustrated by their rivalry to which Sri Lanka has long been a silent spectator to. Recent developments between Sri Lanka and Pakistan, however, have centred on minority Pakistani Christians seeking refugee status here claiming religious persecution, part of a worldwide asylum exodus. Then, there is the narcotics connection using Sri Lanka as a hub for trans-shipments of drugs from Pakistan and its surroundings; and finally, the threat of religious radicalisation by Pakistani missionaries in local madrasas. While the refugee situation seems to be on the wane, and so too the narcotics trade with the arrest of some kingpins on both sides a business that led to the former Prime Ministers office in Sri Lanka, the threat of religious teachers from Pakistan needs close monitoring given the global expansion of extremist elements. Several MoUs (Memorandums of Understanding) are to be signed between the two countries during the VVIPs stay in Colombo, though usually these are forgotten no sooner the ink dries. Business and investment cooperation between the two countries is minimal but there is scope for closer ties with Sri Lankans visiting Pakistan for holidays and religious tourism Pakistan being a once Buddhist habitat with ancient historical sites. Sri Lanka welcomes an all-weather friend next week whose predecessors from the Bhuttos to the Zia-ul-Haqs and Musharaffs unhesitatingly provided assistance to this country in its hour of need to overcome a brutal, fascist, separatist insurgency not long ago. Steady the Good Governance ship The New Year dawned a year ago with the people jettisoning the known devil and welcoming the unknown angel. A new President was elected against the run of play and hopes were high that good governance, as solemnly pledged, would be the order of the day. But as with all great expectations meeting them is difficult to match. If there is freedom of speech and expression in the air such freedom that was ushered in has taken a new turn from slanging matches between ministers to budget proposals being changed on the run to street protests and strike threats by trade unions to throwing undergarments at visiting pop stars. These are arguably reactions to years of suppression. This new freedom has probably gone from the sublime to the ridiculous. There was high thinking in bringing in the 19th Amendment to the Constitution to reduce the powers of the Executive President the next best thing to actually abolishing it as promised. However, what was eventually approved turned out to be about the worst piece of legislation passed by Parliament since Independence. This became what was later to reflect the way the National Unity Government progressed in 2015 and one is not too sure if things will be any different in 2016. There is a cacophony of voices in this coalition, and no one knows for certain who is running the Government. Earlier, we had authoritarian rule, a Master Chef so to say; now we have too many cooks. This may not be too bad given the countrys tendency to breed all-powerful rulers who lose track of what is right and what is wrong, and it may be good to have a separation of powers; checks and balances. Yet ambitious goals have been way off target. The sharp divide between the two main parties may have narrowed but a you scratch my back; Ill scratch yours policy has emerged. The instances of bringing the rogues and rascals of the previous regime to book have been few and far between. As one investigator aptly put it; we have been able to pluck only the fruits from the branches closer to the ground not those from the high branches which are more difficult to reach. Not that corruption has been a monopoly of the previous lot. The Central Bank bond issue that has been swept under the carpet is a textbook case of how those who profited from the previous regime have benefited from the new leaders. Current ministers have been linked to questionable businessmen. Major investigations have been bungled by over-enthusiastic self-anointed crime busters the Government has relied on. A Government MP has had the audacity to abduct a man and have her own trial and a minister who shouted himself hoarse about nepotism of the previous leaders brazenly appoints his brother to a key post under his ministry while the troika running this Government promising scientific appointments to such posts feigns ignorance. It is a policy of Ill let your Governor continue if you let my brother continue. The Government will have to grapple with a host of issues in 2016 ranging from the UNHRC Resolution in Geneva and the security concerns in the North to road accidents, rising crime, the human-elephant conflict, global warming issues, jobs and the cost of living, the falling rupee, the outstanding Indian fishing (poaching) issue, a new Constitution and re-energising the stalled development projects to name just a few. The President writing to the UNDP Human Development Report 2015 (reproduced in the Sunday Times of December 20) refers to the setbacks to the agricultural sector by the washing away of the top soil in the hill country making land less arable, increasing population and urbanisation, unplanned use of forest land etc. No one will envy Government leaders as they try to put the country on the right footing. There is a sense of despondency that the National Unity Government is merely bobbing about in rough seas and the ship of state is going nowhere. Its time the ship is steadied and steams ahead. The New Year will have to be a more decisive year in good governance than was the trial run in 2015. Getting into the global stride By Vinusha Paulraj View(s): View(s): One of Sri Lankas internationally sought-after models Adam Flamer-Caldera and his sister Anjuli launch the agency to give local models a competitive edge The global modelling industry is a highly competitive one and top model Adam Flamer-Caldera who has made it big on the international scene tells us that the job is more than what meets the eye. There are a few Sri Lankan models in the international scene currently signed by renowned talent managers, Ford Models, he says. Appearing for big names like Calvin Klein, Nautica, D&G and Jockey to name a few, Adams current project along with his sister Anjuli Flamer-Caldera is to give the local modelling industry more international exposure. Speaking to the Sunday Times at the launch of Anjulis talent management initiative called the agency a few days before Christmas, he tells us their aim is to improve the general talent of the fashion arena. Photographers, make-up artists and models are to be groomed for international runways under this brand. Theres a lot of potential in the country, says Adam who has graced the ramp of many global fashion weeks such as the prestigious New York Fashion Week. Talent in the island however is generally stagnant because for the longest time, we didnt strive to international standards. There is stiff competition within the island he feels, and theres much aspiring young models can learn from the global talent pool. Planning to work in tandem with existing modelling agencies Anjuli who studied fashion in New York for a year with the dream of elevating the islands indigenous style to capture the worlds eye, says the agencyis the result of much planning. Preparation for the industry is tough were told, initiation being the toughest. Today sought after by fashion royalty like Oscar de la Rentas label for a campaign, starting out his global career in New York Adam shares that training goes beyond visual demands. Theres a lot of rejection, he says adding that with guidance you learn to grow a thicker skin and it becomes easier to face. Theres also how you behave outside of work which is all a part of training. For instance, fresh faces to the industry are always briefed on how to use social media positively. the agency will instil similar values, he says. This in turn will give local models a chance to put Sri Lanka on the fashion map and also collect some memories along their way. Adam recalls a shoot he did with a falcon which stayed on his arm the entire day. Another breath-taking work location he says was the deserts of Los Angeles. Managing talent is but a part of the agencys intent. Currently the agency scouts are gearing-up to spot future models who will walk the ramps at home and abroad. Aspiring models can also fill-out online applications. For more information see their Facebook page, www.theagencysrilanka.com 2016 Outlook for OPEC: Differences and Alternatives Are Increasing (Continued from Prior Part) Irans gearing up to flood the crude oil market Irans economy has been crippled due to sanctions imposed by the EU (European Union) and other countries led by the US. The sanctions are supposed to be lifted in January 2016. However, after the missile test fire by Iran in October, doubts are being raised about the January deadline. Experts think that sooner or later Iran may reach a deal with other superpowers in the world. Iran accounts for 9.3% of the worlds total proved crude oil reserves. Its one of OPECs (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) leading producers. The above chart shows Irans growing trade deficit and diminishing international trade in recent years. Recently, Irans oil minister announced a new model of contracts for foreign oil and gas companies during the two-day conference in Tehran. The new framework allows foreign investors to retain the oil fields for a longer period. The older contracts were for the short term. Earlier, foreign companies used to develop the oil fields and hand them over to Iranian oil companies. The new contract laid down the framework. The foreign companies will develop the oil and gas fields. They will also extract the oil and natural gas from the fields. Foreign companies will own a stake in the oil and gas fields. However, the resources will belong to Iran. Europe (FEZ) and Asia will be lucrative markets for Iran. Lucrative offer for Eurasia companies European companies like Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A) and Total (TOT) are gearing up for the contract. The investments will also attract companies from Pakistan and India (INDY). Russian companies like Lukoil (LUKOY) are also looking to invest in the contract. In the next parts of this series, well analyze the moving averages and analysts estimates of different energy streams and renewable energy companies starting with upstream companies. Story continues Continue to Next Part Browse this series on Market Realist: Notable viral phenomena of 2K15 By Vinusha Paulraj View(s): View(s): As the year that has drawn to a close popularly hash-tagged across social media as 2K15 has seen the average persons relationship with the internet only become stronger. Whether its sneaking a quick scroll through a favourite home-feed before a class, or simply surfing through cat pictures at work, hours of aimless scrolling has occasionally lead to proof that the internet is a strange and wonderful place, heres our list of notable Lankan internet phenomena for the year that was. Meme Parliament The year kicked-off with elections and politics was the hot topic. Spoderman memes (essentially a badly illustrated, even poorly spelled version of Spiderman) inspired similar versions of Lankan politicians. Facebook pages like https://www.facebook.com/MuhindaRajupaksa/?fref=ts and https://www.facebook.com/AnerkerlyHawt/?fref=ts still have us in stitches. #Polfie Around the globe people devoted much time and attention to master the deceptive art of snapping a perfect selfie. In an age when the number of filters one applies to spruce-up a self-captured portrait is directly proportional to the number of likes on the said picture, Sri Lankans went back to basics. The Polfie was generally clicked in natural light with a policeman in the frame. All the better if you managed one while the cop wrote you a ticket. Heres where to find some http://on.fb.me/1QXHe9f Selfie-rap Rapping requires skill, and so does taking the perfect selfie we believe. When Lankans decided to put the two together in short self- produced video clips the internet discovered OGs (Original Gangsters) with a poetic flair from all parts of the country. Men and women attempting to slay the RnB game has resulted in hits and misses which are an interesting if not a peculiar experience. Check-out the big names represented at https://www.facebook.com/groups/818202641590313/ News Curry Sometimes, but very rarely the internet spews-out nuggets of gold. News Curry is one such site, brimming full of shiny internet-gold. An anonymous team rarely misses a beat in parodying daily headlines. For those who dont keep up with the latest happenings often News Currys spin-off is an introduction to affairs within the state. Read all about it at www.newscurry.co Suji In September a video of a stressed-out woman went viral. Taking comfort in the fact that shes not in Sri Lanka, her frustration is meted-out in full force via phone to a man she calls Suji. After repeated requests to hand the phone over to a child, she resorts to profanity to get her point across. Were not sure if her tone helped serve her cause but it did in fact make for an entertaining sneaky video that made its way to YouTube. If youre brave enough to handle the wrath of this lady in pink, and do search for this video, take note of the men in the background trying their best to look uninterested. Miscommunication between Colombo and Male delaying release of client: Counsel View(s): The Maldivian authorities are yet to respond to a request from Colombo to release a Sri Lankan who has been detained since November last year on charges that he was part of a plot to assassinate President Abdulla Yameen. This has turned into a diplomatic issue between the two governments but on the other hand Colombo cannot intervene in the judicial system of another country be it the Maldives or whatever, Deputy Foreign Minister Dr. Harsha de Silva told the Sunday Times. He said the government was treating the matter as one of utmost importance and the Foreign Ministry and even the Sri Lankan Mission were holding discussions with all stakeholders in that country. The Maldivian authorities have informed us that further investigations were needed because the charges are of a serious nature before a decision could be taken to release him, he added. However Shabdika Vellampil, counsel for the detained Lankan told the Sunday Times that there has been a serious miscommunication between the Sri Lankan Defence authorities, the Foreign Ministry and the authorities in Male which is delaying the release of his client. Local investigators in Male have repeatedly informed me that they were waiting for the all-clear from the authorities in Colombo on the detained Sri Lankan before moves could be made to release him but there appear to be certain shortcomings, he said without elaborating. He added that he was planning to visit his client sometime next week and was waiting for an official visa that would enable him to present himself as legal counsel. Earlier I travelled to the Maldives on a tourist visa and that denied me from representing my client within a legal framework. The Foreign Office in Colombo has assured me that it was working towards obtaining the appropriate visa for my next visit, Mr. Vellampil further said. Twenty four-year-old Lahiru Madushanka was produced in a Male court on December 28 and ordered to be further detained for a period of 15 days, he added. Investigators in Male are insisting that the man was a sniper and had served in the Sri Lankan armed forces and was involved in an alleged plot to assassinate the Maldivian President. The mans parents living on the outskirts of Colombo maintain that their son had travelled to the Maldives in search of work that had been offered to him by a Maldivian. They said that when he arrived in the Maldives the Maldivian had failed to show up and that it subsequently led to his arrest by the local police. The family added that the Maldivian had even sent US$ 900 to another individual in Colombo to recruit their son and that this person was also questioned by police and defence authorities and subsequently cleared. What we cannot understand is the inaction of the Maldivian who failed to show up and meet our son even after paying a tidy sum of money, Madushankas mother told the Sunday Times. Randeniya to contest for BASL secretary post View(s): Amal Randeniya, the Colombo Law Societys former president, is to contest for the post of Secretary at the Bar Association of Sri Lanka elections which will be held in February. The returning officer for the elections will be the Solicitor General of Sri Lanka. Mr. Randeniya has held various positions in the BASL since 1998. He was also the chief organiser of the National Law Week of 2015 and the president of the National Law Conference 2014. He was a member of the Executive Committee of the BASL for Colombo zone in 2013 and 2014. He was the main organiser of the third South Asia Judicial Round Table on Environmental Justice held in Colombo in 2014. Mr. Randeniyas supporters say he has always tried to maintain professionalism in the Bar and has been committed towards the welfare of junior lawyers. He was the convener of the Junior Bar Committee of the BASL in 2001, 2004 and 2012 and the president of the Junior National Law conference in 2002. The incumbent secretary completes his two-year tenure in March. Youth drowns and two others missing in Mount Lavinia View(s): A 21-year-old youth drowned and two others are missing and feared dead while bathing in the sea at a location close to the Mount Lavinia Hotel yesterday afternoon, the Police said. The victim was identified as Jeyan Kumar Mahendren, a resident of Maskeliya. The two reported missing are Thiruchelvam Saravanakumar aged 18 from Lindula and 21 year-old Balasubramaniam, a resident of Colombo. The police have called for the assistance of Navy divers to help in the search for the two missing youth. The Mount Lavinia Police are conducting further investigations. (LB) Iranian protesters demonstrate outside the Saudi embassy in Tehran on January 2, as they protest against the execution of prominent Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr by Saudi authorities (AFP Photo/Mohammadreza Nadimi) (ISNA/AFP) Tehran (AFP) - Iran's president Sunday condemned the Saudi execution of a Shiite cleric but also denounced attacks on the Sunni kingdom's embassy and consulate as "totally unjustifiable" after protesters stormed the compounds. "The actions last night by a group of radicals in Tehran and Mashhad leading to damage at the Saudi embassy and consulate are totally unjustifiable, as the buildings should be legally and religiously protected in the Islamic Republic of Iran," Hassan Rouhani said, quoted by the official IRNA news agency. At least 44 people were arrested late Saturday for storming the diplomatic missions in Tehran and Mashhad after Saudi Arabia announced it had executed prominent Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr and 46 other men on "terrorism" charges. In Tehran protesters threw petrol bombs and stormed the embassy. The kingdom's consulate in Mashhad, Iran's second biggest city in the country's northeast, was also set on fire. But Rouhani criticised Saudi Arabia for killing Nimr. "I have no doubt that the Saudi government has damaged its image, more than before, among the countries in the world -- in particular (among) Islamic countries -- by this un-Islamic act," he said in a statement. Yet, the people of Iran "will not allow rogue elements" to use the incident and "carry out illegal actions that damage the dignity of the Islamic republic establishment", he added. "I call on the interior minister to identify the perpetrators of this attack with firm determination and introduce them to the judiciary... so that there will be an end to such appalling actions once and for all." Earlier on Sunday Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said Saudi politicians would face "divine revenge" for their actions. A 30-year-old hoax has hit the Waikato, forcing the regional council to reassure people that Dihydrogen Monoxide, or water, is not harmful. A picture warning people of a spillage of hundreds of litres of Dihydrogen Monoxide into the Waikato River has been shared over 482 times. More than 40 teams from around New Zealand competed in brutal conditions at the second round of the Surf Boat Series held at the Whangamata Surf Boat Spectacular. With persistent and often heavy rain, 2m swells and a cold, strong wind, competitors were faced with a huge challenge although the tricky conditions were overcome for a successful day on the water. Kiwis across the country are packing up the car and searching for the best place to spend their petrol dollar as they travel to or from holiday destinations. They should be thankful they dont have to do it on Waiheke Island. Bernie Sanders Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. speaks at the International Association of Firefighters (IAFF) Legislative Conference and Presidential Forum in Washington. Sanders will run for president in 2016 and seek the Democratic nomination. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais | The Associated Press) This weekend, a crop of Syracuse musicians will gather at the Palace Theatre to raise money for Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders. What began as an intimate event at Funk 'N Waffles quickly ballooned well beyond organizers Joe Driscoll and Charley Orlando's modest expectations. In need of a bigger venue, they sought out the 700-person Palace Theatre in Eastwood and pulled together more than a dozen musicians. In addition to music and drinks, the fundraiser will offer information about the candidate, his policies and how to register to vote. Check out that show and these others this week in Central New York: Storyteller Series: "In the Round" Local songwriters Tim Herron, Chris Eves and Charley Orlando team up for the monthly series of songs and stories and Funk 'N Waffles, presented by K-Mase Productions. When: Sunday, Jan. 3, 6 p.m. Where: Funk 'N Waffles Downtown, 313 S. Clinton St., Syracuse Tickets: $5, available via funknwaffles.com Syracuse for Bernie Sanders Fundraiser A host of Syracuse musicians join forces to support the grassroots campaign of presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders. Included on the bill are: Sophistafunk, Joe Driscoll, Charley Orlando, Brownskin Band, Fat Peace, Subsoil, Castle Creek, Mage IX, Jane Zell, Colleen Kattau, Chris Merkley, Dave Risen and Irv Lyons & Edgar Pagan. When: Friday, Jan. 8, 5 p.m. Where: Palace Theatre, 2384 James St., Syracuse Tickets: $20, available via ticketfly.com Brothers McCann The trio of Pat McCann, Mike McCann and Erik White employs three-part harmonies and rustic takes on modern folk. Based in Boston, the group offers the first show of 2016 for the Folkus Project, whose lineup also includes Vance Gilbert and Tom Rush in the new year. When: Friday, Jan. 8, 8 p.m. Where: May Memorial Unitarian Universalist Society, 3800 E. Genesee St., Syracuse Tickets: $15, available via folkus.org Gill Landry A former New Orleans busker and banjo player, Landry has spent considerable time playing banjo and steel guitar for bluegrass group Old Crow Medicine Show. He has since released several solo works featuring pining ballads and dusty saloon tracks. When: Saturday, Jan. 9, 8 p.m. Where: The Dock, 415 Taughannock Blvd, Ithaca Tickets: $16, available via dansmallspresents.com SYRACUSE, N.Y. - After a 10-hour day at Upstate Medical University, first-year medical student George Thatvihane goes home to study in a poor Syracuse neighborhood known for producing gunshot victims, not doctors who treat them. The 24-year-old climbs a steep flight of stairs to his bedroom at 441 Seymour St. on the Near West Side. He lives there with his Southeast Asian refugee parents, three siblings and two young nieces. His small room is furnished with a bed, desk, computer and not much else but a box of saltine crackers and a can of coffee. "It's like solitary confinement," Thatvihane says with a laugh. On Thatvihane's street, there have been nine cases of shootings or shots fired - two of them gang related -- since 2012. Most don't finish high school on Near West Side In his neighborhood, most young people don't finish high school, never mind go to medical school. Only 30 percent of students at Fowler High School, his alma mater, graduate. He attributes his academic success to supportive parents and older siblings who went to great lengths to shield him from the neighborhood's violence, drugs and gangs. His father, Donald Thatvihane, 64, a doctor in Laos during the Vietnam War, drives a taxi. His mother, Vieng Thatvihane, 62, works as a housekeeper at a nursing home. They are proud of their youngest child's accomplishments. "He's the first to go up to the top," Donald Thatvihane says. But for awhile it looked like Thatvihane might go the other way. Too much partying When he was in Shea Middle School, Thatvihane entertained the idea of becoming a drug dealer like people he saw on street corners. At Fowler High School he was a bright student who didn't work up to his potential. He skipped school often during his senior year before graduating in 2009. He received scholarships to Ithaca College, but lost them after one semester because he spent too much time partying and hanging around with the wrong people. After Thatvihane lost the scholarships, his angry and disappointed father drove to Ithaca to talk to his son and pay one of his college bills. "Why are you here?" he asked his son. To get a degree and land a decent job, George replied. "No, you're here to learn," his father said. That was a wake-up call for Thatvihane. He buckled down, worked with tutors and got his scholarships back. After two years at Ithaca, he moved back home with his family and transferred to Syracuse University on a "Say Yes" scholarship that paid his full tuition. He graduated cum laude in 2013 with a 3.6 grade point average. Before enrolling in med school, he earned a master's degree in public health at Upstate. A hero at Fowler High School Faculty at Fowler consider Thatvihane something of a hero. Stacy Levin, a counselor there, invited him to speak at Fowler's commencement ceremony earlier this year. George agreed. "Graduates, we made it through Fowler, the high school that regularly gets bad publicity. If we can do that, I really think anything is possible," he said in his speech. Read Thatvihane's speech Fowler is in one of the city's poorest census tracts where 44 percent of residents live in poverty. Its student population is the poorest in the city. State records show 80 percent of Fowler students are "economically disadvantaged." Many kids on the Near West Side have little parental support, according to Levin. "That's not the case with George," she said. "His parents are very concerned about their kids and supportive." Father persecuted in Laos Thatvihane's parents grew up in the same village in Laos. Donald Thatvihane joined the military, which sent him to medical school. He was a military doctor during the Vietnam War which spilled over into Laos and Cambodia, and was recruited to fight the Communists. After the Communists won in 1975, he spent three years in a detention camp in southern Laos. He's reluctant to talk about what happened there. "It's was very terrible," he says. "We got persecuted. It was like the Nazi camps." He escaped from the camp and came to the U.S. in the mid-1980s with his wife and their two oldest children. They came to Syracuse because his wife's brother lived here. Thatvihane and two of his siblings were born here. Thatvihane says it was a difficult transition for his father going from doctor to taxi driver. He couldn't be a doctor here because he did not have the necessary documentation and credentials. "He's not much of a complainer," he says. "He was of the mindset, 'I wish I could practice medicine, but I need to provide for my family more than anything.'" The elder Thatvihane sold insurance for a while, then started driving a cab. Working for the American dream "The American dream isn't about dreaming. It's about working," Donald Thatvihane says. As he and his family pursue the American dream, fears of terrorism have sparked a national debate over allowing more refugees into the U.S. Some presidential candidates have said the U.S. should close its borders and keep Syrians and Muslims out. Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner has encouraged President Barack Obama to accept more Syrian refugees into the U.S. The city has a long history of resettling refugees. A letter Miner and 17 other U.S. mayors sent to Obama in September said, "The drive and enterprise of immigrants and refugees have helped build our economies, enliven our arts and culture, and enrich our neighborhoods." Thatvihane's parents bought the house on Seymour Street in 1995 for $67,000 from Rebuild Syracuse, a nonprofit community development group. Before that they rented on Rowland Street, also on the West Side. Donald Thatvihane says many people have suggested they relocate to a better neighborhood, but he cannot afford to move. "If you run away, go some other place and it's bad again, where are you going to go?" he says. "Anywhere we stay, if it's bad, we make it better." There were 28 cases of shootings or shots fired on the Near West Side, with six people wounded, during the first seven months of 2015. A dangerous neighborhood Thatvihane says it was dangerous growing up on the Near West Side. "We were the only Asian family on the West Side and I was bullied all the time because of my race," he says. "There were a lot of people getting killed on the West Side and people trying to start fights with me or my family." Some of his middle school friends were killed in drive-by shootings. Neither Thatvihane nor anyone else in his family has been shot. But Thatvihane says gunfire is a common sound in the neighborhood. His parents sheltered him. His father drove him to school in his taxi and picked him up nearly every day. If his father was working, one of his older siblings picked him up. His parents did not want him wandering around the neighborhood. When he wasn't in school, Thatvihane stayed inside the house. But in his senior year of high school Thatvihane lost his focus. "I became very concerned about George because he lost his passion for school," says Levin, the school's counselor. "His attendance slipped." Thatvihane says he had lost his motivation and was depressed. But when he started paying more attention to his family he emerged from his funk. "I started seeing the sacrifices my parents made for me coming over to this country," he said. "It was time for me to grow up." While Ithaca College is only 55 miles from Syracuse, Thatvihane says he felt like he was "on the other side of the world" when he got there. He missed home and didn't fit in. He wanted to study, but the people he hung out with didn't. When he doubled down on studying to regain his scholarships, his friends at Ithaca did not understand why he wasn't socializing with them anymore. "That was one reason I needed to get out of Ithaca," he says. Scavenging free food to save money To help offset the financial bind created by the loss of scholarships, Thatvihane dropped his meal plan for a semester to save money. He bought some food and rationed it out over the course of the semester. He also scavenged free food from events around campus and went into the dining hall with friends who shared food with him. Thatvihane's parents and his sister Phitsamai, a nurse practitioner at Crouse Hospital, got him interested in medicine. When he was a youngster his mother occasionally took him to the nursing home where she worked. He was impressed by the way she looked out for patients. He grew up listening to his father tell stories about being a doctor in Laos. For a while Thatvihane thought about becoming a physician assistant because he didn't think he was smart enough to be a doctor. Phitsamai, his sister, told him to stop doubting himself. He decided to go for his M.D. midway through the master's of public health program at Upstate. He's received some scholarships to help pay for medical school. Thatvihane is one of three Syracuse City School District graduates among Upstate's first-year class of 158 students. It takes four years to earn a medical degree. The first two years of medical school are primarily class work - textbooks, lectures and exams -- with a smattering of clinical experience. In years three and four, students take a deep dive into clinical medicine in hospitals and other settings. After that, newly minted doctors enter residency programs where they train in a medical specialty. Thatvihane's goal is to specialize in internal medicine or family medicine. His dream is to be an inner-city doctor in Syracuse, maybe on the Near West Side. "There's no other place I want to be," he says. "I want to practice in the community so people can see my face and know that I grew up here and that it's possible to make it and do what you want to do in life." Contact James T. Mulder anytime: Email | Twitter | 315-470-2245 2015-12-17-vaccine1.JPG Dr. Timothy Endy (left), Chief, Infectious Disease Division (left) and Dr. Mark Polhemus, Center for Global Health and Translational Science in a portrait at the Institute for Human Performance, Thurs. Dec. 17, 2015. The doctors are working on finding a vaccine for Dengue Fever. EMPIRE PHOTO David Lassman | dlassman@syracuse.com Syracuse, N.Y. -- There are vials in a freezer on Irving Avenue in Syracuse filled with dengue fever. The tropical disease will be injected into 27 people this month. The volunteers, who will get a mild version of dengue, are part of a study at Upstate Medical University's Center for Global Health that's aimed at stopping the spread of the potentially deadly disease. Infectious disease doctors have been quietly losing the battle against dengue over the last decade. The illness, called "breakbone fever" because the pain is bone-crushing, has been steadily marching across the globe. There are now 130 countries where there are infections every year. In recent years, dengue laid its potentially deadly welcome mat in the southern U.S. There are cases of dengue in Florida every year. It's also in Texas and Puerto Rico. There's an outbreak in Hawaii right now. A vaccine that had been 20 years and billions of dollars in the making was last year found to be 65 percent effective, at best. It was a disappointment and it carried an increased risk of worse infections for some Latin American children who received it, said Dr. Timothy Endy, Chief of the Infectious Disease Division at Upstate Medical University. Endy and Dr. Mark Polhemus are at the center of an effort to build a new defense against dengue. They are working with a $12 million federal grant from the Army. They are ironing out how to infect human volunteers with mild versions of the four strains of dengue fever. Down the road, this will lead to vaccine testing that will more quickly eliminate vaccines that won't work well on all strains, and speed a better vaccine to the market, Endy said. At first, it sounds like an unusual pairing: Upstate New York doctors and their human volunteers working against a tropical disease. But dengue is as close, as easy, as a mosquito hitchhiker on a plane ride, Polhemus said. A Long Island man who had never traveled anywhere recently came down with dengue fever. Doctors think an infected mosquito hopped off a traveler, onto him, and bit him. Infectious disease cowboys The offices where Endy and Polhemus work are in a tall glass building at the bottom of the Syracuse University hill. The walls are mostly bare, except some African masks. The masks were given to Polhemus during the years he spent in Kenya, chasing dengue for the Army. Three of the masks are simple faces. The fourth, screwed to the wall over a filing cabinet, is of a giant mosquito boring into a man's skull. It is meant to represent the mosquito that causes dengue: Aedes aegypti. It is a reminder in their sterile, safe glass office that dengue, their enemy, is still very real and gaining ground. Endy, 58, and Polhemus, 53, are both retired from the Army. Polhemus worked under Endy studying and treating infectious diseases. Endy retired from the Army first and came to Upstate in 2006 to the fledgling Global Health Institute. He recruited Polhemus, who is now the director of the center. The two men have worked together so much they finish each other's sentences. As Endy explained the spread of chikungunya, a disease similar to dengue, Polhemus wrote down the spelling on a scrap of paper. Then he wrote another word, "zika." He knew that's where Endy was going next. The two diseases are spread by the same mosquito that's responsible for dengue fever. Their spread is expected to grow, just as dengue has. Dengue fever affects about 400 million people every year; 100 million of them become seriously ill. In countries where dengue is endemic, the first infection happens when children are toddlers. It is like a bad flu. The second infection is the one that's worrisome; it causes what's called a hemorrhagic fever. There's unstoppable bleeding inside the body. If it's not treated right, people, often children, bleed to death. Endy lived in Thailand for five years studying dengue fever. He also came down with dengue. He had the first infection, which felt like a bad case of flu. He joked that he didn't get any sympathy from his wife, who told him to get out of bed. She and their three children, who are now grown, all lived in Thailand while Endy studied dengue there. Now, Upstate has a clinical site there and in Ecuador, where there are annual dengue outbreaks. Col. Stephen Thomas, a medical doctor and the chief operating officer of all the Army's medical labs, owes his career in infectious diseases to Endy. He was planning to be a cancer doctor when he did a month rotation with Endy, studying dengue, in Thailand. "I said to myself ... This is what I want to do with my life," Thomas recalled. He became an infectious disease doctor for the military. In some circles, they're "infectious disease cowboys" because they often ride into places when the rest of the world is trying get out. In his month with Endy in Thailand, Thomas saw ground-breaking research in far-away places that mattered as much at home as it did away, he said. Soldiers go everywhere and the military needs them protected against illnesses they'll encounter. But also, healthy developing nations are more stable than ones that are struggling with disease. So Thomas followed Endy's lead and lived in Thailand for six years, studying dengue fever and looking for clues to end it. Endy, he said, is calm under all pressure: In hot zones filled with disease or in meetings filled with white coats, he is like a Zen master. In the labs at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Endy's demeanor is still a thing to emulate, Thomas said. "When things start getting a little crazy, or anxious, we channel Tim Endy," he said. "He's a very calm, cool customer." Thomas developed the human trial idea that Endy and Polhemus are now executing with dengue fever in Syracuse. That makes him a bit like Endy's boss these days, but Thomas said he still feels like the student who will never be as good as the teacher. Polhemus began his career as a soldier, not a doctor. He was on the ground in Panama with a gun before he wore a stethoscope around this neck. This gives him a rare perspective, Thomas said. While Endy is Zen-like, Polhemus is intense and focused, like a soldier. His Upstate ID hangs from a camouflage-printed cord around his neck. But as focused as he is, he also never fails to find the funny moments in everyday life that others miss, Thomas said. "You could listen to his stories for hours and at the end of the evening, your side will hurt," Thomas aid. As Polhemus talked about his career in the Army, his face was serious and stern. How long did he serve? "Twenty-three glorious years." Then the unexpected joke: "From hair to no hair." Then the doctor smirked and ran his hand over his shiny head. Endy joked that it might have been the malaria that took his partner's hair. While he was in the Army, Dr. Mark Polhemus participated in trials of a malaria vaccine. In this undated photograph, he is being infected with malaria by mosquitoes in a cup underneath his arm. Human guinea pigs While the idea of infecting real people with a disease in order to test a vaccine seems a bit nuts, it's been common practice for decades. The Army has used the same model to test malaria vaccines and treatments for 20 years. Polhemus was a human guinea pig for the trial when he was a doctor at Walter Reed. It sounds a bit like a low-tech sci-fi movie. Mosquitos are fed malaria. Then they are put into a Dixie cup. A screen goes over the top of the cup and the human subject puts his arm on top. Five mosquito bites later, the deed is done. Nine days later, Polhemus had malaria. "You feel like hell," Polhemus said. But as soon as the malaria was detected, Polehmus was treated with drugs. The point of that trial, like the dengue fever trial in Syracuse, is to more quickly identify which vaccines will work and which won't, cutting years and millions of dollars from vaccine testing. "There was a malaria vaccine out there and we needed to test it, so I did," Polhemus said. He is a little surprised to hear that it sounds crazy not to think twice about giving himself malaria. "This is the very, very important part: there's a greater cause out there," he said. While the dengue fever trial in Syracuse will pay participants about $3,500, Polhemus thinks most of the volunteers are in it for the same reason he is - that greater good. "People are altruistic," he said. So far, the trial has had no trouble getting people interested. The signs in coffee shops and campus hallways have drummed up way more people than the first phase of the trial needs. Polhemus said there are roughly 100 volunteers for the first part, which will likely need fewer than 30 people. The participants are doctors, lawyers, teachers, students and shopkeepers. Polhemus' 18-year-old son wants to sign up for the study. Polhemus would let him if he could, but there's a clause that prohibits researchers and their family members from participating. Otherwise, Polhemus would stick out his own arm for the dengue needle just like he did with the malaria mosquitoes. "I'd be the first person," he said. Contact Marnie Eisenstadt anytime: John Dial, Stuart Letter: America was once a refuge from religious persecution I am writing this due to the political rhetoric concerning Muslims being heard in the presidential race. You see, I am not Muslim or Jewish and not even considered by many a great practicing Christian. Two days ago I was at a doctor's appointment when the young lady doctor came in to see me. I had met her only one time before but had an emergency procedure two weeks before with yet another young female doctor, whom I had seen before, who was filling in. They looked as if they were related family members, but were not. I asked her where she had been and she replied, "In California visiting family." It suddenly hit me she was most likely of Middle Eastern descent, as I knew the fill-in doctor was of Iranian descent. I just looked at her and said, "How are you dealing with all of the negative media concerning Muslims? You are Muslim, no?" She started welling up with tears and the beautiful smile completely disappeared. I then realized she was upset and I said to her, "Don't worry, not everyone thinks like the media portrays and, as far as I am concerned, you are an American and I would fight to protect you, as I would anyone else because you are American." She ran out crying, as I sat feeling bad for saying anything. She returned after about 20 minutes and hugged me, saying, "You have no idea how afraid I am for my two daughters and family, and what you have said means so much. Thank you." It occurred to me I was previously a hypocrite who watched the idiots on TV and forgot in the beginning America was built on immigrants leaving because of religious persecution. How we have changed. Robert J. Grubb, Vero Beach Letter: Hateful letter about president reflects back on writer A recent letter-writer describes the president of the United States as "joker-in-chief." What does that tell you? That maybe hate and disrespect are still the American maxim. Oh we do hate well in this country. We hated Native Americans, so we gave them blankets laced with smallpox, courtesy of U.S. Grant and Phil Sheridan, his military chief of staff. We had the Civil War, which believe it or not still seems to be imbuing certain minds in our country ergo the Confederate battle flag. And let's not forget what we did to Japanese-Americans during World War II. Yeah, we took away their houses and businesses and put them in concentration-like camps. We were fearful of them. They looked different than us. And then the crown jewel: Vietnam, one of America's biggest blunders, followed by American adventurism in Iraq. Thank you, Bush and Cheney. Our focus now is to hate the Muslim community. They just look and act different from us. To blame all of them for 9/11 is simply lunacy. The "joker-in-chief" writer, in my opinion, has defined herself as one who seems to relish hatred and disrespect. Now, if you don't like the president, then so be it. But to call him childish names in print makes you a card-carrying buffoon. Finally, taking a breath: Why do so many people seem to think that they know what goes on behind the scenes? For surely they do not. Presidents have hundreds of advisers, and believe it or not they are counseled as such. Karen Wynn Greb, Stuart Letter: Many problems with horse-drawn carriages in downtown Stuart I was dismayed to learn that after a seven-year hiatus, horse-drawn carriages are being allowed in downtown Stuart again. This industry has been under scrutiny for quite some time, due largely to protests surrounding its continued presence at New York City's Central Park. Harvard-trained veterinarian Dr. Holly Cheever, among others, has extensively studied the issue and written persuasively that this is not a safe endeavor in NYC or any other urban environment. Noteworthy in 2014 was that all of New York City's mayoral candidates in every party supported shutting this industry down. Current Mayor Bill de Blasio continues to work on this campaign promise. The primary public safety issue is that horses easily can be spooked in traffic. There are a number of documented incidents nationwide where carriages have overturned and seriously injured passengers. Considerations for the health and welfare of the horses are the pulling of heavy loads, pounding on hard surfaces over extended periods, breathing exhaust fumes and getting insufficient rest. Equine experts recommend that horses be kept off the streets when the temperature-humidity index (the sum of the temperature and the percent humidity) exceeds 140. As the THI increases, so does the risk for heat stress. Even at night in the winter months, Florida weather can easily exceed this. There are documented incidents of horses collapsing on the streets in this industry. I'd like to see the Treasure Coast counties join Key West, Pompano Beach, Palm Beach, Deerfield Beach and Treasure Island in banning this inhumane and unsafe tourist attraction. Televisions are without a doubt the most visually-impressive devices at CES each year. From rich colors and impossibly thin sets to high-resolution monsters, manufacturers pull out all the stops in Sin City. One model that's sure to pull in passersby is LG's UH9800, an utterly massive TV that most of us can only dream of owning. The 98-incher boasts a resolution of 7,680 x 4,320 which is 16 times the resolution of a standard HD set. If you recall, LG showed a prototype of this same set to select media at IFA 2014 - the difference now is that it's ready to ship as a consumer model. Pricing and other specifications remain unknown at this hour but considering Sharp's recent 85-inch 8K model sells for more than $133,000, it's safe to assume that LG's monster will be well out of reach for most folks. Fortunately, the South Korean consumer electronics giant has several other new sets that the rest of us may be able to afford. The UH9500 series includes sets ranging in size from 55 to 86 inches, the UH8500 features units with screen sizes of 55 to 75 inches and the UH7700 series covers the 49 to 65-inch range. LG has also managed to reduce the gaps between the panel and back cover chassis with UH9500 models, resulting in uber-thin sets that measure just 6.6mm thick. LG says top-of-the-line models from each series will feature advanced IPS displays with innovations like True Black Panel and Contrast Maximizer for improved viewing angles and picture quality. Its entire 2016 UHD lineup also utilizes the latest version of LG's smart TV platform, webOS 3.0. Select models from LG's new lineup will begin shipping this spring, we are told. In the United States, nearly one in every 33 babies is born with a birth defect, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Ranging from minor to severe, birth defects affect a newborn's organ function, appearance, or mental/physical growth. These defects manifest within the first trimester of pregnancy, a period when the fetal internal organs are still developing. Extremely severe birth defects are the main cause of infant mortality in the U.S., and are responsible for about 20 percent of deaths in the country. Since late 2015, an unprecedented link between a mosquito-borne virus and a birth defect known as microcephaly has been causing alarm among pregnant women. Microcephaly Cases In Brazil After the threatening health crisis hit the country: an unusual spike in microcephaly cases linked to Zika virus, officials in Brazil urged women to avoid getting pregnant during rainy season when mosquitoes are prevalent. Microcephaly is a congenital condition in which the size of a newborn's head is abnormally small. The disorder may eventually lead to mental retardation. About 2,782 cases of microcephaly were recorded in Brazil in November and December, a number tragically higher than that in 2014 which was 147, and 167 in 2013. Based on the 2015 record, at least 40 babies passed away. Those who survived may face intellectual impairment for the rest of their lives. How Microcephaly Is Linked To The Zika Virus Though international scientists say it's too early to be sure, researchers in Brazil have found evidence that the rise in microcephaly cases is due to the Zika virus outbreak that occurred in May. The Zika virus is found in Aedes mosquitoes, the same carrier of chikungunya and dengue fever. Officials calculate that about 440,000 to 1.3 million individuals in Brazil have caught the Zika virus since May, and because about 300,000 births happen in the country every year, the link between the mosquito-borne virus and microcephaly is strongly worrisome. "It's a virus we don't know that much about. We are preparing for the unknown," said Fiocruz Research Institute Vice President Rodrigo Stabeli. Suspicions began when scientists found that 17 microcephaly cases in French Polynesia were recorded after a Zika virus outbreak. In November, experts in Brazil found the Zika virus genome in amniotic fluid samples from two women whose fetuses were identified to have microcephaly through ultrasound exams. On Nov. 28, researchers also found the Zika virus in the brain tissue of an infant with microcephaly who died. Dr. Marco Collovati, the founder of OrangeLife, a company in Brazil that is developing a rapid test for Zika virus, said they are uncertain whether it's only the Zika virus that's been killing off infants, or if it's a combination of dengue, chikungunya and Zika. "Maybe a woman was infected by dengue a year before, and now is pregnant and gets Zika," he said. With the rise of microcephaly cases, experts have cautioned women in the country to hold off any plans for pregnancy. Other Causes Of Birth Defects Birth defects are typically the result of lifestyle behaviors, genetics, exposure to certain chemicals, infections acquired during gestation, or a combination of any of these factors. Some causes of birth defects are not easy to identify, but harmful behaviors significantly increase the risk for birth defects. Using illegal drugs, smoking and alcohol abuse during pregnancy contribute to the potential development of microcephaly in a fetus. The CDC also noted that being obese or uncontrolled diabetes during gestation is not good for the fetus, and that the risks of birth defects are high. Meanwhile, some birth defects are caused by genetic factors. These factors may be linked to environmental factors or problems with chromosomes. Genetic abnormalities occur when a DNA becomes flawed because of a mutation. There are also cases where a part or the entire DNA itself is missing. Experts said these kinds of genetic abnormalities are often unpreventable. Photo : Peter Dutton | Flickr 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. A person can get drunk without consuming a single drop of alcohol, according to several experts. Although it sounds like a form of sorcery, this condition is actually caused by a biological attribute - one that has caught the interest of the medical community. Known as the auto-brewery syndrome, this medical condition was first described in 1912 as "germ carbohydrate fermentation," denoting a literal beer gut. People with this condition have digestive systems that exist as tiny, internal breweries. They can also survive at blood alcohol concentration levels (BAC) that would put a normal person into a comatose. With BAC four times higher than the legal limit, people with auto-brewery syndrome simply feel tipsy. Lethal Levels of Blood Alcohol Concentration Such is the case of a 35-year-old woman from New York who faced a Driving While Intoxicated (DWI) charge in October 2014 when another driver called authorities after seeing her stagger all over the road on a 2010 Toyota Corolla . The woman's representative Atty. Joseph J. Marusak recalled the incident. That day in October, the woman met her husband at a restaurant for a date, where she consumed four drinks between 12 noon and six in the evening. If you do the math, that's less than a drink per hour. Marusak said they hired a local pharmacologist who said that with four drinks, the 120-pound woman in that particular period should be having 0.01 to 0.05 BAC, a number lower than the legal limit of 0.08 BAC in the state of New York. After the date, the woman's husband drove on to meet friends. The woman drove home alone. On the way, her tire got flat, but she didn't want to stop so she kept driving. Another driver noticed her struggling with her car and called 911. "If she hadn't had that flat tire, she'd not know to this day that she has this condition," said Marusak. When the authorities came, the woman blew a BAC of 0.40, a level that is normally considered as lethal. She was then taken to the hospital. Doctors said the woman didn't show any symptoms of drunkenness and thus approved her release. Her husband, however, asked for further tests to be made. Hours after the woman's last drink, her BAC was 0.30. Marusak then did his own research. He hired two physician assistants and a Breathalyzers specialist to watch the woman, take her BAC over a 12-hour period and had it evaluated by the same lab used by the prosecution. The team that Marusak hired found that when the woman was sober, her BAC was double the legal limit at 9:15 AM. At 6 PM, it was triple, and at 8:30 PM, it was four times higher. This was around the same time when the police pulled the woman over for DWI. Marusak said the woman did not exhibit any signs of high BAC until it reached 0.30 or 0.40, in which she would only feel dizzy. Dr. Anup Kanodia from Ohio, a specialist who has treated people with auto-brewery syndrome, said only about 50 to 100 people have ever been diagnosed with the medical condition. "They are legally drunk, but they are walking around, they are functioning. There are people who get drunk without drinking any alcohol at all," said Kanodia. Dismissed by the Judge, But It Does Not End There Hamburg town Judge Walter Rooth has just dismissed the DWI charge. The woman had spent about $7,000 working with a specialist in order to figure out exactly how and why her body meets the sky-high BAC levels without any alcohol consumption. Despite the ruling, however, the District Attorney's office stands by the charge. "I've heard the DA's office says they plan to appeal. I'll know more by the middle of January," said Marusak. The police officers who arrested the woman also do not regret their decision. "She was highly intoxicated, as shown by the Breathalyzer. Our officers did the right thing in getting her off the road," said Hamburg Police Chief Gregory G. Wickett. Other People With Auto-Brewery Syndrome Like the woman from New York, two more people who were diagnosed with ABS had had strange stories. 35-year-old Nick Hess from Ohio would get drunk from eating chips. Then, the rush would be gone and he would get a stomachache and a headache, as if he'd been drinking. "Every day for a year I would wake up and vomit. Sometimes it would come on over the course of a few days, sometimes it was just like 'bam! I'm drunk'," said Hess. He was then diagnosed with ABS and was featured in early 2015 in media reports. In September 2013, a 61-year-old man in Texas who stumbled upon the emergency room was found to have a whopping 0.37 BAC. The man did not drink any alcohol before going to the E.R. "He would get drunk out of the blue - on a Sunday morning after being at church, or really, just anytime. His wife was so dismayed about it that she even bought a Breathalyzer," said Barbara Cordell of Panola College, who is investigating cases of ABS. How a Digestive System under the Auto-Brewery Syndrome Works Other medical specialists were also skeptical about the condition so Cordell teamed up with gastroenterologist Dr. Justin McCarthy to look further into the cases. She and her team searched the man's belongings and isolated him in a hospital room for 24 hours. He ate foods rich in carbohydrates, and his BAC was regularly checked. At one instance, it rose to 0.12 percent. Cordell and McCarthy found the culprit: an overabundance of yeast in the man's belly, which had become an internal brewery. The man had an infection with Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the researchers said. Whenever he drank or ate anything with starch, the yeast fermented the sugars and turned them into ethanol which would in turn get him drunk. This and all other findings of Cordell's team were featured in the International Journal of Clinical Medicine. Dr. Joseph Heitman of Duke University said that the case of the 61-year-old man was interesting, but there should still be caution. "The problem with a case report is that it's just one person. It's not a controlled clinical study," said Heitman. Now that new ABS cases have been identified, however, are they enough to count as medical evidence? We have yet to see. Photo : West Midlands Police | Flickr 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research are currently exploring the feasibility of a 100 tera-electron-volt (TeV) particle accelerator through a new cooling design scheme that could slash the cost of cooling machines in the future. The 100 TeV collider will produce seven times the energy per collision that of the Large Hadron Collider, as well as maintain a circumference almost four times more and radiate a thousand times more power a never-before-seen amount of heat. As cooling the future collider will be too expensive via current techniques, a new cooling scheme from CERNs Roberto Cimino proposed substantially less energy use, and therefore more manageable costs. Exploring The Dark Universe The 17-mile-long LHC is the biggest and most potent particle collider in the world today. It was created to explore the massive and unknown dark universe. A TeV, a unit of energy in particle physics, has about the energy of motion of a flying mosquito. The LHC is considered extraordinary because it squeezes energy into a space that is around a million times smaller than a mosquito. Studying extreme energy is deemed crucial in better understanding how the universe came to be post-Big Bang. University of Copenhagen researchers who are part of CERNs study explained that the Universe was once composed of a dense hot mix of fundamental particles known as gluons and quarks a state known as the quark-gluon-plasma. A millionth of a second after the Big Bang happened, the QGP began fusing together to form bulk matter as well as other particles. Researchers believed that the fusion emerged from a strong nuclear force enabling the binding of the quarks. CERNs mission is to recreate the high temperature akin to the universes creation, when these fundamental particles were in a liquid-like form. Researchers will do this through colliding lead ions and then converting the kinetic energy of the collision into matter. Prohibitively Expensive Process But this ambition doesnt come cheap. Using the LHC, accelerating the particle beam, which continually radiates photons and heat, is done by superconducting magnets. A copper tube that surrounds the beam assists in transporting this heat through photo absorption. However, an intricate refrigeration process is necessary to keep the magnets at 1.9 Kelvin a heat-removal system that is prohibitively expensive or entailing a couple thousand dollars for every hour. Based on estimates, the weekly tab for a 100-TeV accelerator could reach millions in expenses. The proposal from Cimino and the team stated that they could coat the copper tubes interior with a thin carbon layer reflecting all the radiation. The surface structure of the carbon coating is designed so that the radiation, and the heat it carries, is transported away from colder regions towards periodically placed room-temperature absorbers, which are easier and cheaper to cool than the tube itself, said the synopsis about the collider. According to the authors, who published their findings in the journal Physical Review Letters, this new design would slash the power consumption linked to cooling by a maximum of 20 percent, likely reducing the costs by half. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. It seems that animal poachers are using peer-reviewed journals to discover and locate newly discovered snakes, frogs and lizards in the wild. In turn, academic journals started to withhold the geographical locations of new discoveries. Many species, both past and recent discoveries, are facing dire risks of extinction. Most scientific groups often enjoy sharing a new discovery as best they can. But in doing so, they also reveal the species' geographical and biological data. These are often enough for illegal poachers to track new finds and get ahead in the illegal trade. The discovery of two new large gecko species in the Zootaxa academic journal already contained such omission. The announcement just said the new species were found in southern China, which makes it harder to pinpoint the geographical location of the new discoveries. "Due to the popularity of this genus as novelty pets, and recurring cases of scientific descriptions driving herpetofauna to near-extinction by commercial collectors, we do not disclose the collecting localities of these restricted-range species in this publication," the authors wrote. The research team added that additional information was presented to applicable government agencies. The information is available to fellow scientific groups upon request. Biologist Mark Auliya from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research said the publication of the species' geographical locations can become a threat to the new species' survival. Auliya is also the co-chair of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) group of monitor lizard specialists. Information on the whereabouts of the newly discovered species can be misused and monetized by traders and illegal poachers. It could also generate a market demand for the rare, endangered and protected finds that are endemic to a locality. Highly colorful, charismatic and unique species are often most vulnerable to animal poaching. The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature regulates a standard system of zoological terminology to ensure that every animal's scientific name is universally accepted. The commission does not require scientific teams to provide the exact locations such as GPS coordinates for new finds. However, many teams find that the addition of the species' actual locations makes the scientific finding complete. Peer-reviewed journals bearing the geographical locations of new species are not precisely mapped. However, the information included in the academic papers are often enough for black market traders to track these species using local contracts. Illegal traders often seduce poor, local farmers with cash to help in the search. Interestingly, when the discovery of a leaf-tailed gecko endemic to Madagascar appeared in the Zootaxa academic journal in summer 2015, the species started to appear in Europe. Taxonomist Marinus Hoogmoed and his wife discovered the Dendrobates galactonotus, a light blue morph of the poison dart frog, in 2013. The announcement was made in the journal Phyllomedusa and contained its whereabouts in Amazonian Brazil. In three short months, a German terrarium keeper sent Hoogmoed a photo of their find. The terrarium keeper said he made an offer in the German trade circuit with a price tag between 350 and 700 ($380 and $760). Hoogmoed issued a complaint to Brazilian authorities but to no avail. "The problem is that inspection and law enforcement in Brazil for wildlife is, at the least, weak," said Hoogmoed, explaining that since the trade does not involve high-profile animal or huge sums of money, there is very little interest to make the complaint a juridical case. Photo : Frank Vassen | Flickr 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. To be able to deal with that much pressure and make the kind of calls that have to be made in the relentless fashion that they happen; it is really, really lonely. Thats not where my ambition lies; I want to have a life. I dont think anyone who has held that job in the last 30 years has been able to combine both. Still, these lush costume dramas, for all the cash spent on them the BBC has teamed up with the wealthy US Weinstein company for this one stand or fall by their acting, and War and Peace wobbles a little here. Who did the dramatic heavy lifting in last nights episode? The luminous Natasha (Lily James), and the two fascinating (in the book) characters who converge on her, the dour Andrei (James Norton) and the philosophising Pierre (Paul Dano)? No, it was the older actors playing the bit-parts, conjuring detailed portraits in the delivery of a mere line or two, who made the story count. Stephen Rea as the schemer Prince Vassily was not only delightfully Machiavellian but brought profundity. The programme came to life halfway through when we saw Vassily horrified at the foundering of his plan to disinherit Pierre. Was it revelation or the princes subtlest bit of manipulation yet when he all but confessed his plot to his victim: My friend, we sin so much and deceive so much, and all for what? Everything ends in death. Rea was brilliantly inscrutable, although the extraordinary near-vertical angles of his eyebrows suggested indeed that hed seen his own ghost. Kellys collaborative relationship with Cartier, which continued throughout her life, only kicked off after her acting career finished; her royal engagement, and the diamond that came with it, signalled an end to her time as a leading lady. The ring can be seen in the last film Kelly ever starred in, High Society. In fact one scene shows her character polishing the stone on the corner of a silk bedsheet. This wasn't to be the only time that the actress's Cartier jewellery was immortalised on screen, however. In 2014 Nicole Kidman sported recreations of Kelly's Cartier jewellery, including her engagement ring, made by the house for the film Grace of Monaco. Crude Tanker Industry Indicators Hint at a Good 2016 Outlook (Continued from Prior Part) China crude oil imports Crude oil imports from China in November rose to 6.7 MMbpd (million barrels per day) from 6.2 MMbpd in the previous month. The crude oil imports were 7% higher compared to November 2014. Importance of China imports China is one of the largest importers of crude oil. A change in Chinese crude oil imports has a key impact on tanker demand and rates, which affect crude tanker companies such as Frontline (FRO), Nordic American Tankers (NAT), Teekay Tankers (TNK), Euronav (EURN), DHT Holdings (DHT), and Tsakos Energy Navigation (TNP). China is shifting suppliers In November, Russia overtook Saudi Arabia as the top crude oil supplier for the third time this year. For Chinas new importers, teapot refineries, Saudi crude is less appealing when compared to Russian grades according to industry reports. Also, the reports suggest that cheaper freight costs for Russian crude were helping Russia to boost its exports to China. The trend of higher Russian crude imports is expected to continue. The distance from Russia to China as compared to Saudi to China is almost double. A longer route increases the ton-mile-demand, which benefits the tanker industry. Why imports are rising China (FXI) (MCHI) is taking advantage of low oil prices and filling its strategic reserve, which has increased crude oil imports. China has now given license to its teapot refineries to import crude oil, which is now an added factor for its crude imports. Refineries are buying at low crude prices and exporting surplus refined fuel. Will the imports keep on rising? Phase two of Chinas strategic petroleum reserve consists of nearly a dozen sites and is currently under construction. All sites are expected to be completed by the end of 2015. With the completion of these sites, Chinas crude imports are expected to increase further. Continue to Next Part Browse this series on Market Realist: Balme and his men spent six hours inside U-110, where for some time they were left alone in the Atlantic, listening to the distant sound of depth charges while the 3rd Escort Group hunted another U-boat. When Bulldog returned, Balme passed a towline, and for a day U-110 was pulled towards Iceland, until about 11.00 on May 10 1941 when the German vessel reared its bows in the air and sank stern-first. The loss of U-110 enabled the British to throw a cloak of secrecy over the whole affair, a cloak so dark that even when Captain Stephen Roskill, the official historian of the Royal Navy, wrote about the capture in 1959, only those already in the know were able to read between the lines and would have realised that the secret of the capture was not the U-boat but the Enigma material which was salvaged from it. Balme had been told that the truth of his secret capture would be kept forever, and was surprised when in the 1970s its secrets began to leak out. Baker-Cresswell and Smith were awarded the DSO, Balme the DSC, and Long the DSM, for enterprise and skill in action against enemy submarines. There were also breaches of security: Baker-Cresswell had told Balme to bring him back a pair of binoculars. Balme brought back two, and he used these swastika-stamped Zeiss binoculars in his yacht for 50 years. He also pinched Lemps cap from his cabin, keeping it as a souvenir until he presented it to the Imperial War Museum in 2003. David Edward Balme was born in Kensington, London, on October 1 1920, of Huguenot stock. Aged 13, David entered Dartmouth Naval College in the Anson term of 1934. Balmes naval career was unusually varied. Pre-war, as a midshipman, he served in the cruisers London and Shropshire in the Mediterranean during the Spanish Civil War; he recorded the rising tension in Europe in his midshipmans journal. When he was re-appointed to the destroyer Ivanhoe in June 1939 she was on the Palestine Patrol, preventing illegal immigration into the Holy Land, and when she was recalled to Britain at the outbreak of war he witnessed the torpedoing of the carrier Courageous in September. In mid-October he took part in the Battle of Convoy KJF3 when two U-boats were sunk. Poland's Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski, pictured here in Brussels, on December 14, 2015, told public radio that the NATO centre had lost their rights to confidential documents (AFP Photo/Emmanuel Dunand) (AFP/File) Warsaw (AFP) - Poland's new conservative government on Friday continued a controversial drive to replace senior officials with its own appointees when it raided a NATO counter-espionage centre in Warsaw and fired its senior staff. Colonel Krzysztof Dusza, the sacked head of the Counter Intelligence Centre of Excellence, said defence ministry officials and military police raided the joint Polish-Slovak centre in the early hours of Friday. "I told them their presence here was illegal. When they left, I asked the police to put seals on the door," Dusza told public television, adding he had informed Slovakia "and other foreign partners". The defence ministry issued a terse statement on the incident, saying only that it had installed a new interim director, Colonel Robert Bala. In office since November, the new administration has already sparked uproar with its attempts to replace constitutional judges, a move that triggered mass protests. Dusza insisted he was still at the helm because a joint Polish-Slovak decision was necessary to oust him. "We expect a thorough clarification of the situation from our Polish partners," said the Slovak defence ministry, adding it was following the affair "very closely". Polish deputy defence minister Bartosz Kownacki told local media the centre's officials had been sacked a week ago but held on "illegally to their posts, rejecting orders." Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski told public radio they "had lost the right of access to confidential documents and should be replaced by others who have such rights." Former defence minister Tomasz Siemoniak apologised on behalf of Poles to Slovakia over the raid, dubbing it "an absolute scandal" and "an unprecedented act in a NATO member country." Antoni Macierewicz, the current defence minister and a hardliner within the ruling conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, is reputed to have carried out extensive purges in the military intelligence services in 2006 when he was deputy defence minister. Story continues Designed to expand NATO's intelligence-gathering capabilities in the light of new threats, especially from Russia, the Polish-Slovak centre was formally endorsed by NATO in October. But a NATO official in Brussels told AFP that Friday's raid on the military centre was a uniquely Polish affair as the centre "has not yet been accredited by NATO." "In general terms, Centres of Excellence are international research centres, which are nationally or multi-nationally funded and staffed, and work alongside the Alliance, but they are not NATO bodies," said the official, who did not wish to be named. The centre's headquarters are located in Warsaw. The southern city of Krakow is scheduled to host the unit eventually. Slovakia, Poland's neighbour to the south, is to also to host a branch. Poland joined NATO in 1999 and Slovakia followed suit in 2004. The President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, said the Ministry of Equality and Equity would be a central agency of the Executive Branch. | Read More Riyadh (AFP) - Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia executed a prominent Shiite cleric, prompting outrage in Shiite-majority countries with angry crowds in Iran setting fire to the kingdom's embassy and consulate. Nimr al-Nimr, who spent more than a decade studying theology in Iran and was a driving force behind anti-government protests in Saudi Arabia in 2011, was put to death along with 46 other men, the Saudi interior ministry said. Along with the 56-year-old were Shiite activists and Sunnis accused of involvement in Al-Qaeda killings. The executions sparked protests in at least one city in Saudi Arabia's oil-rich Eastern Province, where Shiites complain of marginalisation, as well as in Iran, Iraq and Bahrain. The strongest condemnation came from Riyadh's longtime rival Tehran. "The Saudi government supports terrorist movements and extremists, but confronts domestic critics with oppression and execution," Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari said. It will "pay a high price for following these policies", he warned. Saudi foreign ministry spokesman Mansur al-Turki called Iran's reaction "irresponsible", and Riyadh summoned Tehran's envoy in protest. Soon after, protesters hurled petrol bombs and stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran before being cleared out by police, the ISNA news agency reported, adding that flames could be seen rising from the building. "The fire has destroyed the interior of the embassy," an eyewitness told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity. "The police are everywhere and have dispersed the demonstrators, some of whom have been arrested." - 'Exacerbating sectarian tensions' - Websites carried pictures of demonstrators apparently clutching the Saudi flag, which had been pulled down and protesters had been able to climb up onto the roof of the embassy before they were made to leave, according to ISNA. In Mashhad, Iran's second biggest city, demonstrators meanwhile set fire to the Saudi consulate, according to news websites, which published photos of the alleged assault. Story continues The incidents came after the United States and European Union expressed alarm over the executions, with Washington warning that Riyadh "risked "exacerbating sectarian tensions at a time when they urgently need to be reduced". Saudi Arabia's interior ministry said the executed men had been convicted of adopting the radical "takfiri" ideology, joining "terrorist organisations" and implementing various "criminal plots". An official list published included Sunnis convicted of involvement in Al-Qaeda attacks that killed dozens of people -- Saudis and foreigners -- in 2003 and 2004. Among them was Fares al-Shuwail, described by Saudi media as Al-Qaeda's top religious leader in the kingdom. All those executed were Saudis, except for an Egyptian and a Chadian. Some were beheaded, while others were shot by firing squad, said the ministry spokesman. Elsewhere in the region, other Shiite countries and groups also reacted angrily. In Saudi ally Bahrain, police used tear gas to disperse dozens of youths from the majority Shiite population protesting against the executions. In Iraq, hundreds of people demonstrated in the holy Shiite city of Karbala and prominent Shiite lawmaker Khalaf Abdelsamad called for the closure of Riyadh's newly-reopened embassy in Baghdad and the expulsion of its ambassador. - 'Instigator of sedition' - Lebanon's Shiite movement Hezbollah, an ally of Tehran, said Saudi Arabia's rulers were "global criminals" and denounced Nimr's execution as a "heinous crime". And in Yemen, where the kingdom is leading a coalition against Shiite rebels, the religious scholars' association controlled by them condemned the execution. Nimr's brother, Mohammed, said he had hoped that "wisdom and a political solution" would prevail to spare the cleric's life. He warned that his execution could trigger "negative reactions" inside and outside Saudi Arabia. The governments of Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, however, voiced support for Saudi Arabia, saying the executions were necessary to confront extremism. Executions have soared in the country since King Salman ascended the throne a year ago, with 153 people put to death in 2015, nearly twice as many as in 2014. Rights groups have repeatedly raised concern about the fairness of trials in Saudi Arabia, where murder, drug trafficking, armed robbery, rape and apostasy are all punishable by death. Nimr was arrested in 2012, three years after calling for Eastern Province's Shiite-populated Qatif and Al-Ihsaa governorates to be separated from Saudi Arabia and united with Bahrain. The interior ministry had described him at the time of his arrest as an "instigator of sedition". A video on YouTube in 2012 showed Nimr making a speech celebrating the death of then-interior minister Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz. CPI Leader A.B. Bardhan Dead Communist Party of India (CPI) leader A.B. Bardhan who was undergoing treatment from past few days died at a hospital in Delhi. He was 92.Bardhan had suffered a paralytic stroke on December 7, following which he was admitted to the hospital. Bardan was the former general secretary of the Communist Party of India (CPI), one of the oldest political parties in India.Several political bigwigs expressed sorrow over death of Bardhan. Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his condolences on Twitter, saying: "Will always remember Shri A B Bardhan as a passionate Communist, fully committed to his ideology & principles. May his soul rest in peace." Congress president Sonia Gandhi also expressed her condolences. Bardhan played a key role in the formation of the United Progressive Alliance government which was supported by the Communist Party of India News Posted: 2 January, 2016 After largely bypassing Australia, the global biotech boom briefly touched down locally over the past year with a handful of high-priced acquisitions but wary foreign investors left some local biotech valuations under pressure. The flood of global money buoyed a handful of privately owned outfits such as head-lice group Hatchtech, which was sold overseas for $277 million, with $US200 million paid for local drug developer Spinifex, which could rise to $US700 million over time, and privately owned Link sold for 100 million. Biotech investing is not for the unwary. Others such as Pharmaxis signed deals worth up to $US750 million for one of its drugs under development, while global pharmaceutical major Merck moved closer to Bionomics, taking a 5 per cent stake, which adds to their drug development partnerships. The implosion of the resources sector saw some funds flow into the biotech sector, with more than $1.1 billion raised in 2015, more than double the annual average of about $500 million. But investing in the sector is not for the faint-hearted. Oregon protest A tense standoff at an Oregon wildlife center is touching on a relatively niche issue in conservative politics. On Saturday, an armed, antigovernment group protesting the jail sentences of two men who set fire to federal land took control of the headquarters of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in southern Oregon. The occupiers were apparently led by Ammon Bundy, whose father, Cliven Bundy, made national headlines for a tense standoff with law enforcement in a similar dispute in 2014. The younger Bundy said the takeover is necessary in order to return federal land to the public. "We're planning on staying here for several years. And while we're here what we're going to be doing is freeing these lands up and getting the ranchers back to ranching, getting the miners back to mining," Ammon Bundy said in a Facebook video. The Bundy family's armed standoffs with law enforcement is the result of a decades-long struggle with federal-government agencies over the ownership of federal land in rural farming and ranching regions. The issue has captured quite a bit of attention from presidential contenders, especially during Cliven Bundy's standoff with the federal government in Nevada last year. High-profile Republicans distanced themselves from Bundy after he casually suggested that African-Americans may have been "better off" as slaves. But before his comments, many hat-tipped the rancher for his decision to stand up to the federal government's longstanding request that Bundy not graze his cattle on government land. When Bundy did not comply, the government began rounding up his cattle, contending that he owed more than $1.2 million in fees. US Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) is perhaps the most notable presidential candidate to throw his support behind Bundy. He reportedly met with the rancher earlier this year to discuss his dispute with federal and state land management. In June, Paul fielded a question on the topic from Ryan Bundy, Ammon's brother and Cliven's son. Story continues "There's no place in the US Constitution that allows the federal government to own land. Period. What are you going to do to correct that problem?" Bundy asked. "I'd either sell or turn over all land management to the states," Paul responded, as the audience applauded. "We run into problems now with the federal government being this bully, this big huge government bully. You'd have less trouble with that if you had local control of the land. State ownership would be better, but even better would be private ownership," Paul added. Here's the clip: Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson also voiced his support for Bundy's stand. In a National Review op-ed, he wrote that the Bundys were "honorable Americans" for standing up to the US Bureau of Land Management. In December, Carson also said that he was in favor of turning over federal land to states. "What do they need with all that land?" Carson said in December, according to the Las Vegas Review Journal. "I would advocate returning land to the states. It's not like they're irresponsible people who don't care what happens, you know. I just don't see any benefit from the government owning this much land." Finally, real-estate mogul Donald Trump has also expressed some support for Cliven Bundy. He said in 2014 that he admired Bundy, saying that the rancher should use the opportunity to cut a deal with the federal government. "It's over the top. It's very strong. I like him," Trump told Fox News' Sean Hannity. "He's in a great position, I think, to cut a great deal, and that's what he should do." Paul's and Carson's campaigns did not immediately return Business Insider's requests for comment on the situation in Oregon. NOW WATCH: People are mocking the Oregon militants who have taken over a federal building by calling them 'YallQaeda' and 'VanillaISIS' More From Business Insider Within hours of a deadly mining spill in November that would become Brazil's worst environmental disaster, BHP chief executive Andrew Mackenzie was in front of a camera offering his sympathies to those affected. Meanwhile, his counterpart at joint venture partner Vale SA , Murilo Ferreira, took nearly a week to talk to the press, setting the tone for a media strategy experts say has been slow and clumsy. At least one group is planning to demonstrate outside BHP's London AGM this week. Credit:Eddie Jim While both companies' legal strategies seem similarly aimed at limiting their direct liability for the dam collapse that caused the disaster, a divergence in public relations tactics has left Vale, the world's biggest iron ore miner, taking the brunt of social media outrage and street protests over the tragedy, which killed 17 and left hundreds homeless. The Brazilian company regularly denies responsibility for the accident in interviews and press conferences, putting the blame solely on Samarco, the jointly owned venture with BHP Billiton which ran the iron ore mine where it occurred. Diddums, four times over. To the Sydney woman whose expensive Uber trip home cost $720 rather than under $100 because of Ubers well-known practice of hiking the price when demand outstrips supply, as it does on New Years Eve. "We'd had a few drinks and there might have popped up a notice about a surcharge," Skye Shanahan cried to the Herald. "But I had no idea it could be anywhere near that. To Russell Crowe, who took his kids on a plane and moaned to the Twitterverse that Virgin wouldnt take his wee petals hoverboards in the hold, given the worries about spontaneous combustion of some types of lithium batteries. Then he moaned again. He was still moaning three days later. To those who whinged about wayward advertising leaflets left in a Sydney street, including irate resident Pippa Dubb who took on the food delivery outfit, Suppertime on Facebook, calling out its promotional puffery that it had just delivered food to neighbours as a blatant lie. Advertisers exaggerating! Fancy that. Australia has long sought to encourage transparent and efficient government in its South Pacific neighbourhood. To speak of responsibility to the backyard implies a patronising attitude towards what are proudly independent and sovereign nations, but there is no doubting that Australia, as a significant power in the region, has a special obligation to promote ethical standards. Yet Australia has, regrettably, deserted the goal of promoting good governance in two of its closest neighbours, Papua New Guinea and Nauru, at a cost to the local populations as well as Australia's international reputation. The Australian-funded asylum seeker processing centre on Nauru. Both nations are hosts to Australian-funded "regional processing centres" and are presently home to almost 1500 asylum seekers and refugees. The Coalition and Labor are joined in the embrace of this so-called "Pacific solution", with the aim of preventing refugee boats arriving on Australia's shores. Despite spending more than $1billion in the past year on offshore processing, in addition to significant foreign aid, Australia's influence in Papua New Guinea and Nauru has actually diminished. Australia has become so dependent on borrowing the sovereign jurisdiction of these two countries to escape its own responsibility towards asylum seekers that the government is now complicit in supporting anti-democratic practices. Nauru has adopted an ever more draconian approach to local governance since Julia Gillard turned to it in 2012 with a request to host an asylum-seeker detention camp. The judiciary has been denuded, local media censored, access to the internet restricted (including a ban on Facebook), and foreign reporters effectively barred by the imposition of onerous visa fees. Nauru is due for an election in 2016, yet there is little reason to be confident of a fair contest. Opposition MPs have been suspended from parliament for daring to criticise the government. One, Roland Kun, has been stripped of his passport and prevented from seeing his Australian partner and family for more than six months because of a criminal investigation that appears to be political payback. Once, Nauru's dictatorial drift would have been met with alarm in Canberra. New Zealand has suspended its financial support for Nauru's judiciary as a signal of concern over the government's interference in the courts. Australia has remained silent. Nauru has just 10,000 people. Papua New Guinea, with almost 8million, presents a far greater challenge. Its Prime Minister, Peter O'Neill, has a long history of reckless conduct, most recently with questions over his role in Port Moresby's acquisition of a $1.2 billion stake in the Australian-listed company Oil Search. Instead of explaining his actions, Mr O'Neill has responded with bluster, seeking to intimidate independent officials and traducing institutions. He acted with similar disdain last year when a warrant was issued for his arrest over claims of corruption. Mr O'Neill certainly has no fear of pressure from Australia. Canberra's response to the political upheaval in PNG has been timid, fearful of putting at risk Mr O'Neill's support for the Manus Island detention centre. Last year ended with good news. Iraqi army forces in the past seven days had all but retaken the city of Ramadi from Islamic State. The capital of Anbar province, 100 kilometres west from Baghdad, was seized by the jihadists seven months ago. Now, however, the Iraqi government's flag is flying in the centre of the town. (The year needed it after the massacres in Paris, first at the offices of Charlie Hebdo in which 11 died, and then only a few weeks ago at several locations in which 130 died.) And, of course, there were the deaths of thousands and the dislocation of a flood of people in Iraq and Syria. Military victories against IS have been rare since the capitulation over the past 18 months of vast swathes of land; and this one has added significance on a number of fronts. First, it was achieved by government forces with training from Western allies and thus did not require help from militias. Also, the airstrikes had an impact in preparing the ground (Australia's soldiers played a key part) for government troop advancement. One aspect of the effectiveness of the airstrikes is that the US-led coalition killed 10 senior IS leaders last month. Clearly, however, as this victory has shown, neither one on its own airstrikes or ground troops is enough. It needs a strategy that involves both. A factor in the retaking of Ramadi was the absence of Shiite militias in the victory. They had helped in the recapture of Tikrit from IS last March, but with Ramadi, it shows the re-assembling of the army under the aegis of American and coalition training is bearing fruit. State theatre companies have been discussing ways they can share rehearsal space, props, and even box office resources to offset deep budget cutbacks which threaten jobs and future performance seasons of their smaller counterparts. Sydney Theatre Company's executive director Patrick McIntyre and Griffin Theatre's artistic director Lee Lewis co-convened a meeting in July, and a second gathering took place in November attended by 17 representatives of theatre-making organisations. Griffin Theatre's artistic director Lee Lewis co-convened a meeting in July. Credit:Brett Boardman Apart from joint productions, STC and Bell Shakespeare, both unaffected by the cutbacks, are looking at ways they can collaborate with impacted companies. Maeve O'Meara, who has been presenting food shows on Australian television for more than 20 years, is determined to be polite about the new SBS Food Network, which launched in November. Responding to my complaint that its (mostly American) presenters are very dull, she says: "Yes, there is that American thing about it. I haven't seen that much of it but I turned it on the other day and there was a really great semifreddo recipe. I didn't like the people that were presenting it, but it was a great recipe. "I think the fact that food is so front and centre now can only be a good thing. How's that for diplomacy?" Food Safari Fire host Maeve O'Mara. O'Meara doesn't actually need to be diplomatic about the SBS Food Network she's not on it. Her new series, Food Safari Fire, starts this week on SBS1. O'Meara gets to be part of the main game because she's an A-lister, along with Poh Ling Yeow, Adam Liaw, Matthew Evans, Rachel Khoo and Heston Blumenthal. The Food Network is for the B-listers. It's indicative of how obsessed Australians are with their stomachs that just two months after its launch, the dull Food Network is attracting 1 per cent of the prime time audience a higher share than SBS2, which has been around since 2009. Another symptom of that obsession is that SBS is programming more than 100 hours of cooking on its main network this year, in addition to filling 24 hours a day on SBSFood. So when 20-year-old typist Beth Williams arranged to rendezvous with 20-year-old sailor James Stevens on the evening of Tuesday, December 27, of that year, "under the clocks" was the natural first step to their night on the town. Wartime folklore was of American servicemen converging on the clocks, and leaving with a bathing beauty on each arm. A photo of the clocks adorning a 1949 Argus feature about the "gateway to the metropolis" was wistfully captioned: "Is this where you used to meet her?" As early as the 1920s, a contributor to a railways magazine was versifying of their romance: 'A thousand dramas had their birth/Upon that busy spot of earth/O'er which the clocks preside'. Speak of meeting "under the clocks" and no Melburnian mistakes your meaning. The indicator clocks over the archway entrance to Flinders Street railway station became a local landmark almost as soon as they were installed more than a century ago. They had met the night before, not far away, at the Trocadero, a ramshackle but still popular dance hall; they had had supper afterwards in a Swanston Street cafe called A Little Bit of Sweden. Depositing Williams at her Middle Park lodgings, Stevens had suggested they catch The Big Holiday Laugh Show at the State Theatre the following evening: Bob Hope's new comedy The Great Lover, plus Betty Hutton in Red, Hot and Blue. Beth had given him her number MX4983 to confirm the date. Their plans had gone astray. Stevens rang at 4pm to say he had been unable to book seats. They agreed to meet at 7.15pm, 25 minutes before the show, to try for unreserved seating. Then, unbeknown to Beth, Stevens had been caught up. He had arranged to come into town with Rudolph Peterson and Ernest Fossberg, two fellow crewmen from his Norwegian merchant ship who had also been his companions the night before. Now the trio dallied in Elsternwick, and at 7.15pm were just boarding the train. Beth was not wearing a watch, but a glance aloft at those clocks would have reminded her of the viscosity of time spent waiting. Did she experience a twinge of impatience standing amid the back-and-forth surge of travellers at the busy intersection? Had she done a little too much waiting lately? It was warm, it was bright, it was the holiday season. She was young and pretty; she wore a beret, a smart red stroller coat and black kid gloves. She had just hours to live. The public would never learn much about Elizabeth Maureen Williams murder victims are seldom other than the pegs on which to hang the stories of their killers. Her family in Tasmania gave no interviews, and only the one grainy photograph was ever published of her: a full-length image of Beth as a bridesmaid, usually cropped to the specifications of a head shot. Linzi Macdonald has always had an eye for style but it wasn't until her daughter, Maddie, was born two years ago that she discovered a passion for decorating doll's houses. Inspired by a desire to create "something really special" for her daughter, Macdonald found a second-hand doll's house online and filled it with miniature versions of real world designer furniture. A doll's house decked out by Linzi Macdonald. Credit:Steven Siewert "Once I started, it became something of an obsession," she explained. The Ashfield designer has just finished renovating her second doll's house, a three-storey masterpiece which took six months to complete. Ethan Harley and and Alex Mackenzie had a problem. One wanted to spend their summer anniversary camping in the wilderness while the other wished for the luxury of a catered hotel. The solution for the young couple was, as in many relationships, one of compromise. After some debate, they booked a glamorous camping (glamping) escape on the banks of the Clyde River, a 40-minute drive from Batemans Bay. Ethan Harley and and Alex Mackenzie of Sydney, enjoy the relaxed settings of The Escape luxury camping. Credit:Jay Cronan "Ethan wanted to go camping and I was sure I didn't want to but then I saw this option and realised it gave us both what we wanted," Ms Mackenzie said. "Ethan didn't know much about this place and his breath was taken away when he got here." Solace for the family of a Hells Angels associate gunned down more than two years ago has been stalled by the "pathetic weakness" of those who know who pulled the trigger but won't come forward. Tyrone Lee Slemnik, 37, was standing guard outside the home of Hells Angels Sydney chapter president Suvat Sarimsaklioglu on July 8, 2013, when shots were fired from a passing car. Tyrone Slemnik was killed while standing guard outside a senior Hells Angels member's home in July 2013. Credit:Facebook Mr Slemnik, who family say had recently received his club colours, suffered a single gunshot wound to his stomach and died on the street in Eastlakes, near Mascot. Since then, Mr Slemnik's associates have nominated a suspect to police but have refused to provide any evidence to support the claims. The knives are out for one of Tony Abbott's die-hard supporters. Opinion in the NSW Liberal Party is all but unanimous that south-western Sydney MP Craig Kelly will likely face a preselection challenge this year for the federal seat of Hughes. Liberal MP Craig Kelly says he is more than happy to stand on his record as a local member. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Mr Kelly, a climate sceptic on the party's right, enjoys a 60:40 two-party-preferred margin in the seat, but his grip on support within his own party has been destabilised by an unfavourable redistribution of the seat's boundaries and an ugly battle for branches. Left-wing factional boss and Sutherland shire councillor Kent Johns is nominated by party sources as the most likely candidate to challenge. Gilbert Laurie noticed his headache when he was watching television. It came and went, growing in strength over the next few days but easing under the shower. Dr Timothy Steel with Gilbert Laurie, who bears the scar of an operation to remove an abscess. Credit:Nick Moir His GP told Mr Laurie to visit the emergency department, and those doctors told him he was dehydrated. So he drank more water, but the headache got worse and now the shower was agony. Forensic scientists in Victoria will start testing for the presence of an anti-smoking drug in certain deaths, after three men over the past five years took their own lives while they were prescribed with the medication. In a finding handed down in December, the State Coroner requested the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine to routinely test for varenicline, which is sold under the brand name Champix, to help establish whether it contributes to deaths. A Frankston man took his life in February last year, six weeks after he started taking the drug to overcome his heavy smoking habit.. Credit:Iliana Stillitano The move follows overseas reports of Champix's potential side effects, which have also led to Queensland coroners reopening their investigation into the death of a 22-year-old man. However, it should be noted that the prescription-only drug has not been found to cause suicide and a review of existing studies found more research was needed into its safety, so the coroner hopes that the request will provide better data to test whether there is a link. A beloved country baker died when rising floodwaters swept his van off the road in central Victoria following a night of heavy rain. Friends have paid tribute to Max Loweke, 63, as a "true gentlemen" and a "funny, happy, true blue Aussie" after the grim discovery of his body in his vehicle at 7.30am on Monday. His work van was submerged in Whiteheads Creek, along the outskirts of Seymour, less than a kilometre from his home. State Emergency Services personnel had earlier made frantic attempts to rescue Mr Loweke, with one man tying a rope around his own waist in a bid to reach the sinking van. Another 539 apartments could be built right on the banks of the Yarra River in Abbotsford an area already crowded with new high rises under a proposal that the local council and residents are powerless to stop. Salta Properties has advised government officials of plans to build two huge apartment buildings at the old Metropolitan Fire Brigade site at 627 Victoria Street. The proposal for 627 Victoria Street, Abbotsford. This plot lies within a priority development zone administered by the state's Planning Minister, which means Yarra Council cannot stop the development even if it wanted to, and residents cannot comment on the application. The Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning forwarded Salta Properties' bid to the council on Christmas Eve. Plans include two buildings of 10 and 11 storeys set between 22 metres and 44 metres from the river, nearly 540 dwellings, 508 car spaces, and 788 square metres of shops. A Melbourne designer has combined aesthetics and functionality to develop a bamboo stretch fabric that offers fashion clothing with high sun protection. Made in Melbourne, the cloth has been given a 50+ ultraviolet protection factor rating by the government's Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency. Melbourne's Julia Van Der Sommen with model Shoona Staines in 50+ ultraviolet-protected clothes. Credit:Simon Schluter Manufacturer Julia Van Der Sommen, who specialises in knitting technology and garment development, said the fabric took two years to develop. "It is a natural fibre ... it is very unique, and it has taken quite a bit of development," she said. A thief who assaulted a man at an ATM in Melbourne's south-west has distinctive tattoos on his calf muscles which police believe may help identify him. Hobson's Bay Crime Investigation Unit detectives released CCTV footage and photographs of the alleged thief on Monday. The victim, 66, was at an ATM in Borrack Square, Altona North on November 4, last year, at 12.55pm when the assault occurred. The man was withdrawing money from the ATM when the alleged thief punched him and caused him to fall to the ground. The offender then grabbed the withdrawn money and ran towards Duke Street where he is believed to have jumped into a waiting, dark coloured car. Police describe the alleged thief as about 183cm tall with a stocky build. He was wearing runners, black knee-length shorts and a dark coloured hooded top which was pulled over his head. Tattoos are visible on both his calf muscles. The victim was not seriously injured, a police statement said, but the assault has caused the man emotional trauma and he is now afraid to leave the house. Investigators have released CCTV of a man they believe may be able to assist with their inquiries. Anyone who can help should contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or via www.crimestoppers.com.au. One of Victoria's most iconic beaches will undergo a major restoration, but the Andrews government continues to deny a link between the damage at Portsea front beach and the contentious channel deepening project, despite mounting scientific evidence. The decisions follows years of delays and millions of dollars spent on temporary measures that experts claim have exacerbated the erosion. An 18-month study by consultants Worley Parsons will be released this month and is expected to find that recent changes to the seabed in Port Phillip Bay have increased the size and velocity of waves moving towards Portsea front beach. The latest report follows other independent studies by the CSIRO and environmental consultancy firm Water Technologies in 2013, which found channel deepening had contributed to to extensive erosion at Portsea and other damage along the Mornington Peninsula. Up to 3000 West Australian hospital staff could lose their jobs or have hours reduced in the wake of state government-implemented health cuts, according to the WA Medical Association president. The WA government confirmed on Sunday more than 1100 full-time equivalent (FTE) hospital jobs will be cut in Perth's south in a bid to improve the state's inefficient health system, but Michael Gannon says the figure is misleading. WA Medical Association president says the cuts could be a lot deeper than suggested. Credit:Gabriele Charotte "The minister is being a little bit dishonest here, if we're talking about 1100 FTE - if all of them are delivered - that might mean 2000 or 3000 people lose their jobs or have their hours cut," Dr Gannon said. Walmart looms large in the lives of many Americans, and also looms large in many news stories of late. Credit:AFP The store was evacuated, and Walmart recognised the "very sad incident" in a short statement. It happened five days after Christmas Day 2014, two before New Year's Day. It became a symbolic end to a year tragically rife with accidental shootings by children and an increasingly heated national debate about gun legislation. The incident wasn't the only shooting to take place in or around a Walmart. In April, an Arizona family assaulted a Walmart employee and proceeded to disarm and shoot a police officer who arrived on the scene. Three members of the family were known for being a part of the Christian band Matthew 24 Now. Elsewhere, stores went into lockdown and customers were terrorised by a gunman who threatened to shoot. In 2014, amid roiling tensions over police brutality towards African Americans, a 22-year-old black man named John Crawford III was shot to death by an officer in an Ohio Walmart after picking up a pellet gun from the store's sporting goods section. Walmart provided the setting for other political debates, too. In November, a Mississippi man was charged with throwing an explosive device into a Walmart allegedly in protest because the chain had stopped selling the Confederate flag. "He said he didn't like their policies and that they were anti-American," said Tupelo Police Chief Brian Aguirre. The device didn't do any damage, but it got its message across: to remove the Confederate flag from Walmart, of all places, was an affront to the country that made it possible for the retail giant to thrive. While Walmart became the end of the road for some, it was the very beginning for others. This past year, at least two babies were born inside stores: one in Tennessee, and another in Alabama.In 2013, four babies were born inside Walmart stores. The stories read like the plot of Where the Heart Is, a novel and 2000 movie starring Natalie Portman as a pregnant teenager who ends up living and giving birth inside an Oklahoma Walmart. The in-store delivery makes her character, Novalee, somewhat of a celebrity, garnering a $US500 cash gift from the Walmart president. This may have been on the mind of a woman who handed a newborn girl, amniotic fluid and all, to a couple in a Colorado Walmart car park in January. The couple proceeded to drop the infant off at a nearby fire station, one of the state's designated "safe havens" where a parent can relinquish a baby, unharmed, without being subject to prosecution. Walmart didn't make the list. Life, death. What's next? Why, love. For years, a Walmart store in Fort Smith, Arkansas had been Renate Stumpf's place of work. In February, it became the spot where she said "yes" again to her 75-year-old ex-husband. Stumpf, also 75, was standing in the pasta aisle, just below a sign that read "LOW PRICE $1.50," when Louis Demetriades walked up behind her with a large sign that read: "Happy Valentine's Day! Will you marry me?" The couple met at an army base in Germany when they were both 18, married, moved to the United States and had three children. The union ended 13 years later and was reignited only in December 2014, after each of their respective second spouses died. "The love has never passed," Stumpf told ABC news. Walmart seems to have a particular romantic cachet among the elderly. Two years ago, Walmart employees Don Evans and Lois Free wed in front of the bike rack in the Idaho store where they met in 2012, after their former spouses both died the year before. Evans worked in the bike section, and Free in sporting goods. After the ceremony, they wheeled away in electric shopping carts with soft-drink cans dangling from the backs. Not everyone is enthusiastic enough about Walmart to exchange vows inside one of its stores. When President Barack Obama spoke at a San Jose Walmart in September 2014, praising the store for energy efficiency, he was roundly criticised by labour union members and activists who said that Walmart's historically low-wage jobs have played a major role in the income gap that the President is supposedly trying to bridge. Politics aside, sometimes Walmart does provide shelter, temporarily and inadvertently, for the wayward. A 45-year-old Michigan woman took shelter for at least two days in a 24-hour Walmart after her son kicked her out of their shared home because of her drinking problem. She was "evicted" after employees noticed her on security cameras, but even then she displayed a steadfast resolve to stay right where she was. Hanoi: Vietnam has formally accused China of violating its sovereignty and a recent confidence-building pact by landing a plane on an airstrip Beijing has built on an artificial island in a contested part of the South China Sea. Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Hai Binh said the airfield had been "built illegally" on Fiery Cross Reef in the Spratly archipelago, in territory that was "part of Vietnam's Spratlys". Chinese development at Fiery Cross Reef in the South China Sea. Credit:Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative China's Foreign Ministry rejected the complaint, saying that what was a test flight to the newly built airfield on the reef, which China calls Yongshu Jiao, was a matter "completely within China's sovereignty", the Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported. No, bisexuals dont have twice as much sex as everyone else. But there is mounting evidence to suggest that they experience double the types of discrimination as their gay and lesbian peers. Two studies published in the December 2015 issue of the Journal of Bisexuality confirm what bi people have been saying for some time: The discrimination they face within the LGBT community is as real as the discrimination they face outside of it. As the U.S. enters its first full year of marriage equality and the battle for transgender rights continues, these studies point to the persistent but often ignored problem of biphobia among gay men and lesbians. In one study, Counseling Psychology Ph.D. student Tangela Roberts and two professors at the University of Massachusetts surveyed 745 bisexual people about their experiences of discrimination in various social contexts. They found that the biphobia their respondents experienced from gay men and lesbians was not equal to, but still disturbingly comparable to, what they experienced from straight people. Although the level of discrimination that bisexuals experienced from heterosexuals, when compared to discrimination from the lesbian and gay community, was statistically significantly higher, the effect size reveals that the degree of difference was small, their study concluded. Essentially its like saying that two people are yelling at you, but one voice is a decibel higher, Roberts explained to The Daily Beast. Yes, statistically one voice is more significant, but the difference between the two voices is small. The survey for the study asked bisexual people to complete an Anti-Bisexual Experiences Scale (ABES), which asked, on a scale from 1 to 6, how frequently certain events have happened to them, such as being told that they were confused about their orientation, being excluded from social networks, or having it be assumed that they are more likely to cheat because they are bisexual. As the study sadly indicated, these attitudes are common not just among straight people, but among gay men and lesbians as well. The average ABES score reported for experiences with straight people was 2.38. The average for experiences among gay men and lesbians was only slightly lower at 2.29. Roberts believes that her research sheds light on a troubling but often ignored fault line within the LGBT population. This is the thing that isnt talked about, she said. Its like airing out the dirty laundry of the supposed LGBT community. Its saying, Look, we havent been acting like this community that were supposed to be and we need to do something about that. At the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, postdoctoral research fellow Corey Flanders and her co-authors came to a similar conclusion. Several of the 35 young bisexual women they interviewed about mental health for their study in the Journal of Bisexuality described feeling excluded within LGBT spaces. [A] couple of years ago I went to Pride and I took my boyfriend with me, because he just wanted to be supportive and come with me to this thing thats really important to me, one interviewee said. [We] did a march and at the end of it I was feeling really happy and excited, and we kissed, and people started booing us. [T]hat was really hurtful for me, she added, because it was like being rejected by my own community based on these wrong assumptions they were making about me. Flanders told The Daily Beast that biphobia among gay men and lesbians certainly comes up frequently among participants in discussions of bisexual mental health. With gay and lesbian individuals, [social support] can be accessed in queer community spaces if not in predominantly heterosexual spaces, she said. With bisexual individuals, this is not always the case. Left with few places to find unqualified support, it may not be surprising that bisexual people have some of the worst mental health outcomes of any sexual orientation. A large 2010 study in the American Journal of Public Health found that bisexual men and women had a higher prevalence of mood and anxiety disorders as compared to gay men, lesbians, and heterosexuals. One example: Nearly 60 percent of bisexual women had a lifetime history of mood disorder, compared to about 45 percent of lesbians and a little over 30 percent of heterosexual women. Pervasive stereotypes and negative attitudes about bisexuality are present not only among the dominant heterosexual population but among lesbian and gay populations as well, resulting in a double stigma for bisexuals, the authors wrote, in an attempt to account for the alarmingly high rates of depression and anxiety among bisexuals. Roberts, Flanders, and other LGBT scholars have begun to label this double stigma as monosexism, a specific form of prejudice against those who are attracted to more than one gender. As used in their research, the term functions as a catch-all for both the heterosexual stigmatization of bisexuality and the questioning of bi identity among members of other sexual minorities. Its essentially thinking that the only true sexual orientations are heterosexual, lesbian, and/or gay, Roberts told The Daily Beast. All other sexual orientations are deemed to be illegitimate, not real, or just a product of confusion. Roberts, who openly identifies as bisexual herself, says that she has always known from her own experiences that monosexism was a problem among gay men and lesbians but that it was heartbreaking to see her personal knowledge verified empirically. While doing this study, I had one of those moments where I was sitting there interpreting the data and, once I realized what the numbers were telling me, I felt this immense sadness for the participants, for myself, and for this concept of a LGBT community that weve told ourselves is functioning and supportive, she said. The one silver lining of Robertss study was that bisexual people who felt accepted by friends and family reported lower ABES scores than those who lacked a support network. But this finding may be cold comfort to a sexual minority that remains largely closeted long after many gay men and lesbians in the U.S. have already come out. According to estimates from the Williams Institute at UCLA, bisexual people are more numerous than gay men and lesbians combined but, according to a 2013 Pew Survey, they are the most likely to be in the closet, with just 28 percent reporting that all or most of the important people in their life know about their orientation. That same Pew Survey found that bisexual people were the sexual minority least likely to believe that LGBT people are socially accepted, with 28 percent saying that there was only a little or no acceptance of LGBT people. Those numbers may not budge for bisexuals until coming out is a less risky course of action. Roberts study found that, despite the subset of people who had supportive friends and family, participants who were out to family and friends reported greater antibisexual discrimination. [T]he fact that outness to family and friends was negatively related to antibisexual discrimination is concerning, suggesting that bisexual people who are out may be vulnerable to discrimination in many contexts, the study noted. Several of Flanders interviewees also relayed that coming out was, as the researchers summarized, an exhausting process due to the widespread misunderstandings of bisexuality they encountered from their friends. One participant said that when she came out to a straight male love interest, he replied, Oh, youre a lesbian. After she tried to explain, he said, Uh, I just think of you as a lesbian in my head, its easier for me. Crucially, its not just straight people who can make coming out an ordeal for bisexual people. Last February, when Kate Brown became the first openly bisexual governor, an old essay of hers resurfaced in which she recalled being called half-queer by her gay friends after revealing her orientation. Like Brown, many bisexual people are disheartened to find their identities interrogated by people who are ostensibly part of the same community. There is a B, after all, in LGBT. As bi activist Anna Aagenes recalled in a blog post, Finding the LGBT community was like joining a new club that I (technically) belonged to, but when I arrived to pick up my towel and complimentary gym pass, my membership was called into question. And if it wasnt clear before the latest issue of the Journal of Bisexuality, its becoming harder to deny now: Biphobia within the LGBT community is not a minor internal conflict but a significant form of prejudice that is almost certainly having a negative effect on bisexual peoples mental health. This [form of] exclusion may account for some of the elevated negative mental health outcomes among bisexual people because they are not only experiencing discrimination from heterosexual people, but from gay and lesbian people as well, Flanders told The Daily Beast. What can be done to counteract these negative effects? Roberts thinks its time to finally air the dirty laundry of monosexism and confront the stigma that prevents bisexual people from feeling like the B in LGBT is more than just a gesture. Realistically there are changes that need to happen, biases that we need to talk about, and long-held discriminatory beliefs that need to be addressed, she said. This must happen before we can really get to a point where we can say that these communities are for all non-heterosexual individuals, not just the lesbian and gay ones. There's something about watching tumbleweeds roll through vineyards that makes you appreciate a good wine. It seems strange to be sipping former Mexican President Felipe Calderons favorite artisan meritage while watching jack rabbits and roadrunners frolic from the patio of Bodegas y Vinedos San Rafael, a small, family-run winery atop a dusty hill in Baja California, Mexico's northernmost and westernmost state. It's 80 degrees, the sun is shining and theres music playing in the background. On the horizon, farms, mountains, and an empty, two-lane road go as far as the eye can see. Ludwig Hussong explains why he came back to the wine region after attending culinary training in Napa. The reason? The wine is good and the potential for his hometown is huge. Mexican wine is on the up and up following a trending obsession with other Mexican products like tequila, mezcal, and sotol. It also follows the efforts of American and Mexican chefs to bring to light the country's contributions to the food world beyond tortas and black beans. I had driven just two hours from San Diego to the northern valleys of San Rafael, Santo Tomas, San Vicente and Guadeloupethe center of Baja's wine countrywith an open mind. Drive into the quiet, 14-mile span in Valle de Guadeloupe where wineries are hidden at the end of a half-mile trail of dust, and where horses roam through olive groves, and its hard to believe its from where about 70 percent of Mexico's wine comes. Oenophiles are noticing their quality, even calling the region a burgeoning Napa Valley. But its got its own laidback vibe of a wine destination thats still figuring things out. Mexico gets this reputation of being the Wild West. Tequila and mezcal were more synonymous with the reputation Mexico had, explains Marie Elena Martinez of why wine is the seemingly last frontier of Mexican cuisine. Martinez is the founder of Baja Meets New York, which brought several Baja Mexican chefs to New York last year for pairing dinners with Baja Mexican winesNew Yorks first exposure to them. Baja is a region beautiful in ingredient. Wine is a natural fit. The wines are beautiful but theyre different. Theyre made with traditional ways but untraditional blending, so you get a wide berth of flavors, notes, and textures, Martinez says. Its this lack of rules, regulations, or pressure to produce high-quantity crowd-pleasers thats attracting new and established winemakers alike to Baja. A few years ago Chuck Wagner, owner of Napas Caymus Vineyards, opened a winery and started making wine in Baja. This year, Henri Lurton of Bordeauxs Chateau Brane-Cantenac started making wine here in the valley. But google this fact and their efforts still seem pretty under the radar. In other words, wine collectors, itd be a good idea to get your hands on these bottles now. But youll probably have to travel to Baja to get them, except for a couple of online stores that might be able to ship to your state, or by asking your local stores and restaurants to get in touch with the few importers. It turns out that because northern Baja has a Mediterranean-like growing climate, rare varietals in California, like Barbera, Tempranillo, and Chenin Blanc, grow beautifully here. The region also produces a multitude of high-quality artisan olive oils and cheeses. The Ascolano olive oil made by Bodegas de Santo Tomas, one of the regions largest producers, even won the gold medal at Milans International Olive Oil Competition last year. The regions largest producer, L.A. Cetto, has more than 100 awards under its belt, including 20 international awards for Cabernet Sauvignon and eight gold medals for Petite Syrah. Four Casa Pedro Domecq varietals have snagged awards in the International Wine and Spirits Competition in Seville, Spain. When I say large producer, that means just over 100,000 cases annually. Of Bajas 150-plus wineries, just a few of them produce more than that. In total, Baja makes just under 1.5 million total cases, according to the Mexican Wine Council. Sales were up 6 to 10 percenth in 2015. To put it in perspective, California wineries produced over 269 million cases in 2014, according to the Wine Institute. Winemaking in the quaint, undeveloped region of Baja Mexico is mostly about hobbies going wild. Take the $75-a-bottle meritage, named, appropriately, Passion. The Hussong family (which also owns Hussongs Canina, Bajas oldest bar, and which claims to have invented the Margarita) began making it for fun in 2000that is until a family friend entered it in the 2005 Grandes Tintos Mexicanos Dia Siete Contest (Great Mexican Reds), where it snagged a gold. The winery makes several thousand cases annually among its nine labels. Eileen Gregory, who moved to Valle de Guadeloupe over a decade ago from Los Angeles with her family to start the winery Vena Cava, estimates that of the 30,000 bottles she produces annually, no more than 500 cases winds up in the United States. Her business began as a passion project but quickly blossomed into a full-scale hospitality operation with a boutique hotel called Villa de Valle, fine dining restaurant called Corazon de Tierra, and a food truck, Troika. Vena Cava is partnering with other vintners to build importer relationships. Her wines can be found at San Diegos Wine Bark and LMA Distributors, which ship, but are found mostly at restaurants, including New Yorks acclaimed Cosme. Despite more favorable taxation if they export, its easy to understand why Mexican wine producers havent. The Baja valleys can hardly keep up with domestic demand. Wine consumption has doubled in the past 10 years, though Mexicans drink double the amount of imported wine that they do domestic. Baja wine producers ship mostly to Mexico City, Monterrey, and Cancun. It's no surprise that Mexicos wine reputation has been downplayed, given its history. In 1699, Spain banned Mexico from producing wine because it posed a competitive threat to the peninsular wines. Bodegas de Santo Tomas was the first Mexican winery to operate, in 1888. After a century of increased wine production, in the 1980s, the Mexican government removed trade barriers that had kept imported wines out, which threatened to shutter small Mexican wineries. But ultimately, the move put pressure on them to create better quality wines to compete with foreign imports. We try to make people feel comfortable, Adela Gil, whose father made a living selling grapes to larger companies, tells me. She learned to make wine at La Escuelita, a winemaking school run by by Hugo DAcosta, a fellow winery owner and pillar of the winemaking community. We sip a 2009 Rosado (rose) under her label, Vinedos Villarino, while dipping fresh bread into house-made, basil-infused olive oil. Many of the wineries' handcrafted wine and olive oil blends, like these, are tasted at La CavaAntigua Ruta del Vino, one of the many rustic, charming and small family cellars open only by appointment off the wine country's main artery, Mexico 1. Several vineyards double as bed and breakfasts, and this co-op also operates a hostel, Posada de La Grulla, nearby. Baja chefs are doing their part to forge the way for the Mexican wine world, cooking in a style they call Baja Med for its heavy emphasis on fresh seafood (thank you, Pacific Ocean and Sea of Cortez). Over a tasting that evening at Almazara, one of several new local favorites that is located on a family vineyard, chef Miguel Angel Guerrero tells us about how he hunted the oysters, octopus, duck, and lamb on our plates himself. We sip a local Merlot. Guerrero, a former lawyer, wears a small Mexican flag on one side of his collar, a Baja patch on the other. He says, in casual Baja fashion, that God gave the region an abundance of natural resources. The people just do something great with them. Old Rough and Ready President Zachory Taylor was old, yes, rough, for certain, but not so ready to make it through the Presidency. A career military man, he earned his nickname from his victories in the Mexican-American war, most notably the Battles of Palo Alto and Monterrey. The Whigs put him on the ticket, despite his disinterest in politics, unclear platform, and dislike of the Washington scene (we all know its not for everyone). The only thing he did seem sure of was that he was damned if he was going to let the country crumble under political tensions over slavery. Well, a large bowl of cherries and several glasses of ice milk promptly ended that dream and the country was at war a mere ten years later. Taylor gorged on the fruit at a July 4th event at the Washington Monument, which was still under construction, and came down with cholera, which ended his life 5 days later. He was quoted as saying I have always done my duty. I am ready to die. My only regret is for the friends I leave behind me." What a sad irony for a man who had been in harms way most of his adult life. In terms of playing hostess, the Taylors daughter, Betty Bliss, took on the role and did a splendid job in the short time they were in office. President Taylors wife, Margaret, had been the ultimate military wife: raising six kids and moving all over the country in support of her husbands career. She decided that at her age, 62, she had no interest in small talk and cakes with a bunch of elites. So she stayed out of the public eye, much to the shock of DC society. Cant a mom get a moment to herself? Of course there were the standard rumors that she must be some horrid weirdo, too terrifying and improper to be displayed. A Virginian by birth, President Taylor adopted and fell in love with the Louisiana way of life. He made his home in Baton Rouge, with another plantation in Mississippi, and wholeheartedly enjoyed the Creole favorites, especially gumbo. Miss Connie from the Library of Congress and I werent shocked by the sheer number of extremely old gumbo recipes from around Taylors time (his family didnt have any printed ones) and the variety therein. We settled on giving up a crab one, but please feel free to add shrimp and/or oysters if your heart desires. The more seafood in the bowl, the better. Crab Gumbo New Orleans Cook Book by the Womans Parsonage and Home Mission Society of Parker Memorial Church South, 1898 1 can of tomatoes, chopped 1 dozen okra, 1 onion, finely chopped 1 tablespoon of lard 1 and quart water 1 dozen crabs [or 1 lb lump crab meat] [Heat lard in a pot]. Into the lard, sift 2 tablespoonsful of flour, stir until brown. Then put in the tomatoes, okra and onion; to this add about 1 quart and a half of boiling water; let cook until done [about 15 minutes]. Put 1 dozen crab in [a separate pot of boiling water], then remove the top shell, and clean thoroughly, put into the gumbo, and let boil 15 to 20 minutes. My Notes: Replace the water with seafood stock. It will make a world of difference. The obvious shortcut here is to use crab meat. Add a dash of file powder (a mix of sassafras, garlic, and thyme) to taste after you take it off the heat. Serve with rice on the side. Louisiana Pecan Pie- adapted from Poppy Cannons Presidents Cookbook This is the easiest and cheapest recipe I have ever used for this unbeatable Southern classic. These would be great to make for a New Years party- just pour into the individual premade pie shells and serve with fresh whipped cream. 3 eggs, lightly beaten 2 cups brown sugar cup melted butter 1 tsp vanilla tsp salt cup chopped pecans cup regular pecans One pie shell standard shortcut pastry or premade (no shame in that) Preheat the oven to 350F. Add the brown sugar slowly to the eggs, mixing all the while. Add the butter. Mix. Add salt and vanilla. Pour half of the mixture on the bottom of the pie shell. Add a layer of chopped pecans. Add the rest of the mixture. Top with the regular pecans. Bake for 35 minutes then reduce heat to 225F for an additional 15 minutes. You think youve got lingering questions about Making a Murderer, Netflixs 10-part documentary about wrongfully convicted Wisconsin man Steven Avery and his eyebrow-raising 2007 trial for the murder of photographer Teresa Halbach? Writer-directors Moira Demos and Laura Ricciardi spent a decade whittling down over 700 hours of footage to craft the docuseries thats turned viewers into Internet-sleuthing conspiracy theorists since it hit the streaming service on Dec. 18and even they still wrestle with The Big Question: Did Avery do it? What I learned from making this series is the humility to accept that I dont know, and I may never know, Demos told The Daily Beast over the holiday break that she and Ricciardi properly hijacked, filling newsfeeds and social media streams with the shocked, angry, and outraged reactions of viewers making their way through Making a Murderer. That was one of the things we learned doing this: Just because you have questions doesnt mean that youre going to get an answer, she said. If youre so committed to finding the truth and finding the answer, its very hard to be comfortable with ambiguity and youll often settle, just for some finality. The directors were NYC graduate film students when the saga of Steven Avery first caught their attentions, splashed across national news headlines. Avery, a working-class local with a record from Manitowoc County, Wisconsin, had been exonerated by DNA testing in 2003 after spending 18 years in prison for a rape he didnt commit. Two years later Avery was a high-profile pebble in the shoe of the Manitowoc County Sheriffs Department, which he was suing for $36 millionthe same authorities who eagerly locked him away again when the murder of a local woman led them right back to Averys door. After reading a story in The New York Times about Averys plight, filmmaking (and romantic) partners Demos and Ricciardi borrowed a camera and hit the road to Manitowoc County in a rental, set on staying for a week to document Averys trial. As the case wore on they moved in to temporary digs in town, scoring key access to Averys beleaguered family by writing a letter to Avery, who gave his blessing from behind bars. The trial lasted six weeks and took an unexpected turn when Calumet County District Attorney Ken Kratz held a press conference that threw a sensational wrench into the case, and into Demos and Ricciardis plans, just as they were packing up to head home. Averys 16-year-old nephew Brendan Dassey was arrested four months after his uncle, having implicated himself in the rape and murder of Halbach. Taped footage of his confession provides Making a Murderer with one of its more troubling elements, suggesting that Dassey was railroaded by investigators and his own counsel into spinning a fantasy version of the Halbach murder after repeatedly denying his involvement in the crime. One of the things I hope viewers who really engage with the series will take away from this is this question of, if they have lingering questions, are they comfortable living with that? said Ricciardi. There are now two people who are behind bars, probably for life. Do our viewers feel satisfied with the process that led to those convictions? The filmmakers had no idea how vast the scope of their film would grow when they first began the project, seeing in it a provocative case study of how the American legal system treated one man, twice accused. Here was a man who in 1985 was wronged by the system, Ricciardi remembered. It failed him and here he was, 20 years later, pulled back in. The question really was, had there been any meaningful progress within those 20 years? Would the system be any more reliable in 2005 than it was in 1985? In 2003, advances in DNA testing exonerated Avery of the rape of Penny Beernsten. But in 2007, after science saved him once, it damned him as prosecutors leaned heavily on FBI laboratory testing for a substance called EDTA in a blood sample that, Averys defense argued, had been tampered with. I think it really begs the question of the role of science in our criminal justice system, said Demos. Our system is made up of human beings, and human beings are muddy and complex and flawed, as we all know. Science is this very tempting black-and-white sort of thing. Its tempting to believe that there is what some refer to as a truth meter. You have DNA and we often get asked, Was there DNA evidence proving he did it? We like to think that any kind of evidence, whether it be DNA evidence or any other kind, would just be the beginning of the inquiry, not the end of it. I remember in this process beginning to understand that science and criminal justice, its very dangerous to put them together, Demos continued. Our criminal justice system is based on a presumption of innocence until youre proven guiltywhereas in science, something is true until its disproved. So its exactly the opposite. We have one kind of test after another that used to be relied upon being revealed to be not so reliable, and theres a problem there. Some have wondered why Averys defense didnt fight harder to discredit the FBIs EDTA testing, a method that had been used 10 years prior in the O.J. Simpson case. But as Avery laments to his mother, Dolores, by phone early in the series, Poor people lose all the time. If Averys team had as many resources available to them as the state had at their disposal, Demos says, they might have been able to put the FBIs test under more scrutiny. Instead, the only thing the defense was in a position to do was analyze the data coming out of the FBI labs, she said. They didnt have the funds. The FBI is a huge resource that the state was givenit would have cost tens of thousands of dollars. In one interview that didnt end up in the series, [Avery defense attorney] Jerry [Buting] talks about how they would have basically had to go to a university lab, ask them to do a research project to find out about degradation in EDTA, all of these things, Demos explained. So really, science was not at the place where it could be used to test thisand yet it was presented in court. Making a Murderer sheds a light on Averys case as his defense team of Buting and co-counsel Dean Strang mount an impassioned case for their client in and out of court, letting the filmmakers document their progress as well as their frustrations with the case, the headline-hungry media, and the public servants who fail and foil Avery and Dassey time and again. The unassuming middle-aged lawyers with killer courtroom swag and eloquent quotables have become modern-day Atticus Finches for the millennial generation, noble defenders of justice who have unexpectedly amassed fervent fan followings of their own. We have some sense of that, Ricciardi laughed. Sometimes people email or tweet things to us. She credits Strang and Buting with infusing Making a Murderer with the streak of principled outrage that marks the series. Its easy to see how the dynamic duo have rubbed off on viewers with heartfelt lines like those uttered by Strang, who reacted to Averys conviction by lamenting, Redemption will have to wait, as it so often does in human affairs. There are ways in which people have asked us, Is this series biased? Is it one-sided? she said. What I would say in response to that is that we had very articulate subjects on the defense side. They were passionate. They believed in their client. And they were in a position to advance this theory that their client had been framed, and framed by law enforcement. So yes, we documented that. Yes, its in the series. But that was their opinion, and their role as advocates that we simply showed. But dont mistake Strang and Butings perspective for the filmmakers, she cautions: It does not mean that we adopted it or that our interests were completely aligned with theirs. Although Demos and Ricciardi carefully guard their thoughts on Avery and Dasseys guilt or innocence in interviews, at times in the 10-hour series one might infer the filmmakers real sentiments in how they frame the colorful cast of local reporters present at trial. An incredulous press conference inquiry here; a telling side-eye glance there. Making a Murderer condemns the breathless media reporting of local and national news organizations for their role in ensuring that Avery and Dassey couldnt possibly find an untainted jury pool of their peers, even as Demos and Ricciardi present the local reporters they worked alongside for months as a Greek chorus foil to the prosecution. The reporters very much are window characters, said Demos of the press pool, which had only heard the states version of events until the defense launched their arguments at trial. The courtroom was the first place they were hearing the defense. They were very gracious and very open to collaborating with us, but at the same time they were also part of the story. And yet they had a different job to do and different accessthey had access to the state but they didnt have access to the family, so its a different story that emerges. Then theres Kratz, the oft-smug, portly District Attorney who easily emerges as Making a Murderers villainous, mustache-twirling personification of The Man. Kratz declined to be interviewed for the film and earns a memorable coda when the series notes the unrelated sex scandal that got him fired after the Avery case. He publicly decried the series after its debut, and after irate fans bombed his Yelp page with negative reviews. More pointedly, he took to the media to slam Demos and Ricciardi for not including crucial evidence in their film that helped a jury convict Avery. You don't want to muddy up a perfectly good conspiracy movie with what actually happened, and certainly not provide the audience with the evidence the jury considered to reject that claim, Kratz told People, citing evidence he presented in court, including *67 calls Avery made to Halbach and her reported discomfort at visiting the Avery Salvage yard after an incident in which Avery allegedly answered the door in a towel. While in prison for the 1985 rape he was later cleared of, Avery told another inmate of his intent to build a torture chamber so he could rape, torture and kill young women when he was released, Kratz said. He even drew a diagram. We wrote a letter to Ken Kratz saying who we were, and that we were interested in including as many points of view as possible in the series, Ricciardi said. We offered [Kratz] the opportunity. We offered it to the Halbach family. We offered it to Penny Beernsten, who was the victim in the 1985 case, Tom Kocourek who was the Sheriff, Dennis Vogel, and other members of law enforcement. Demos and Ricciardi say time constraints made it necessary to focus only on the evidence introduced in court that they deemed to be most crucial to Kratzs case against Avery. There were clear pieces of evidence that the state was hanging their case onthe most incriminating pieces of evidence, whether it was that [Halbachs] car was found on the Avery Salvage property or that her burned remains were found in the burn pit outside of his window, or a bullet fragment in his garage that had Teresas DNA on it, Ricciardi argued, citing the limited screen time she and Demos planned to devote to the Halbach trial. In the three or so hours we had to cover the trial, we had to pick what we perceived to be the state and the prosecutions most incriminating evidence against Steven. And those are what we put in the series. I think any of the [pieces of evidence not included in the series] are less incriminating than any one of the things I just listed, she added. As filmmakers and as storytellers, its in our interest to show conflict and to show the strengths of the states case, then show the defenses arguments against it. That was how we structured things. The filmmakers maintain that the Avery case was never as cut-and-dried as Kratz would still have the public believe. I would add that in closing arguments, Ken Kratz argued to the jury, This case is clear. Theres only one reasonable outcome, Ricciardi said. Dean Strangs retort was, Nothing in this case is clear. Since debuting on Netflix, Making a Murderer has incensed viewers into action, sparking several meticulously detailed subreddits dedicated to the Avery and Dassey cases and spurring rumors that hacker group Anonymous might unleash the elusive pieces of evidence that could potentially exonerate the two men, who are serving life sentences for the Halbach murder. A Whitehouse.gov petition calling for President Obama to pardon the men based on the Netflix series has garnered over 15,000 signatures, while a Change.org petition has 82,000 and counting. Strang, eloquent as ever in recent interviews, says that the Avery case still haunts himand that the release of the series has generated new leads that could give Avery a second chanceagain. Making a Murderer mania has also led to the proliferation of conspiracy theories about who really killed Halbach, and whether shady scheming on the parts of friends and family of both Halbach and Avery contributed either to her death or the planting of evidence orchestrated to frame Avery. At first, Demos and Ricciardi chuckle at the thought of incensed viewers deep-diving down online rabbit holes, hell-bent on uncovering the truth of what happened the afternoon of Halloween 2005, when Halbach disappeared after visiting Averys family salvage yard on assignment for Auto Trader magazine. But Making a Murderer fanatics have dug more deeply into the case than the filmmakers ever anticipated, and the series arguable empathy for the Avery clan has brought more than just Kratz into the Internets sights. The directors very seriously caution against impassioned viewers jumping to conclusions to indict any of the characters of Making a Murderer, in the court of public opinion or otherwise. We always hoped that there would be viewer engagement, we just had no idea that people would become amateur sleuths, said Ricciardi. I guess its just the times were living in. But in terms of people zeroing in on particular individuals, we would just ask that people check themselves because part of the problem we sawnot only in the 1985 case, but I would argue as well in the 2005 casewas an incredible rush to judgment. And members of law enforcement are not the only people who can do that, and make that mistake. She and Demos are heartened by the emotional reaction viewers have had to the story of Avery, Dassey, Halbach, and their tormented families on both sides of the case. But were hoping that that emotional reaction can lead to people doing something thats actually constructive, and not destructive. We dont want the series to harm other people who were subjects in it, or who played a role in it somehow. Demos and Ricciardi are still in contact with and recording Avery, who is in prison for life without the possibility of parole. They stress that Averys story is just one of myriad tales of men and women lost within and condemned by an imperfect American judicial system. These are things that are happening in every county in this country, Demos said. We hope that the dialogue gets beyond this case, and beyond Manitowoc County. I think that would be an opportunity squandered if the dialogue did not broaden to look at what the broader things going on here are. We consider this an American story, added Ricciardi. An American story that happened to play out in Wisconsin. TORIBIO, Colombia Steep hills rise out of the morning mist like a junkys dream of paradise: the slopes teeming with lush, illicit vegetation. Palm and banana trees only half conceal the towering coca bushes. Coffee plants cant entirely camouflage rows of marijuana shrubs the size of prize hydrangeas. Over the last couple of years, Colombia has replaced Peru as the worlds top exporter of cocaine. Nose-candy production levels shot up by more than 32 percent in 2014. The Andean nation now grows more leaves than the next two coca-producing nations combined. And the number of acres used to farm coca is expected to go up again this year. All this after years of the U.S. State Department bragging up Plan Colombia, a controversial program that has cost U.S. taxpayers more than $10 billion since 2000and was often praised as flag-ship policy in the war on drugs, because it had, for a while, curbed coca cultivation. At the head of this valley in the remote Central Cordillera, near a thatch house surrounded by seedlings, a dozen members of the Nasa tribe pass around a bag of shiny, tart-smelling coca leaves. The farmers have come together on this Saturday in mid-December to discuss, among other concerns, how to deal with hostile patrols of Colombian government troops, who are still on the offensive, even if the numbers show theyre losing the war. We would never let the army in here, says Nasa leader, Carlos, who asks to have his surname withheld for security reasons. Weve been growing in this valley for six years, working to cultivate the sacred plants, says the 45-year-old campesino as he pops a yellow-green leaf into his mouth. The soldiers could destroy all weve built here in just a few hours. Government eradication efforts aimed at coca fields here in the fertile, southwestern state of Cauca have led to several recent clashes between soldiers and indigenous farmers, who are known to barricade narrow access roads to prevent military vehicles from reaching their fields. On Nov. 19, in the nearby community of Argelia, one coca grower was killed and five more wounded when soldiers stormed their farm. A Nasa shaman and former governor was gunned down by Colombian troops on his own land in Cauca in mid-October. Government soldiers arent the only ones turning up the heat. Leftist guerrillas and right-wing paramilitaries also harass vulnerable landholders in Colombias vast and rugged interior. In all, some 300 campesino, Afro-Colombian, and indigenous leaders were slain in Colombia in 2015, according to the Bogota-based human rights group Marcha Patriotica. Many of them were targeted in land disputes related to the growing coca industry. Were living in a red zone here, says Carlos. Weve forgotten what its like to feel safe. These cocaleros have agreed to an exclusive interview with The Daily Beast, to talk about life in guerrilla-held territoryand the roots of Colombias new, lucrative, and dangerous cocaine boom. We will defend our ancestral lands with our own lives if we have to, Carlos says, and the other farmers nod and murmur their affirmation in a mix of Spanish and the local Nasa Yuwe dialect. We will never give up the sacred plants, the leader says. Many observers contend that the uptick in Colombian cocaine productiondue to a sharp increase in coca acres planted by small farmers like Carlos and his neighborscould have profoundly negative consequences for the fragile peace talks underway between Bogota and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the nations largest rebel group. The FARC is also Colombias most powerful drug trafficking organization. The leftist insurgency controls about 70 percent of the countrys highly lucrative cocaine market, raking in as much as $500 million per year from narcotics sales. FARC delegates to the peace talks in Havana, Cuba, have been working closely with their government counterparts to craft a detailed solution that would curtail drug-related activities as comfortably as possible, with compensation and concessions thrown in to sweeten the deal. Yet questions remain as to whether the FARC will really cease trafficking operationsespecially when its supply of coca is on the rise and the market is steady. Regional demand for cocaine fluctuatesits down in the United States, but up in Europe, for example. Overall it remains more or less constant at the international level. So whats driving the new bloom in blow? Its the only thing that sustains us economically, says Carlos, during that same community meeting in Nasas hidden, psychotropic valley. What was once a shamanic cottage industry is now the tribes cash crop. The coca is sacred to usnot something that should be sold for money. But we have no other option, Carlos explains. Like many Andean tribes, the indigenous people of Cauca have long valued the coca plant for its mild, stimulating effect. I used to plant a lot of yucca and bananas, but I gave them up, says another Nasa farmer, who wears a Rock Star Energy cap, and calls himself Jaime. You cant make any money that way. They dont pay anything for simple vegetables in town, Jaime says. Not enough that you can feed your family on, anyway. So now just about all I plant is coca. The Nasa farmers say a lack of infrastructure and good roads makes anything beyond subsistence farmingand coca farmingnext to impossible in the rural highlands of Cauca. Many indigenous communities have been displaced by years of conflictColombia is home to some 6 million internal refugeesand squatting, impoverished families often have to try to wring a living from tiny parcels of farmland. Selling la coca is our only way to survive, says Carlos, but not without qualms. To grow for our own use is one thingbut selling it [to the FARC] sets a bad example for our children. Carlos also worries that, from an agricultural standpoint, current trends are no longer sustainable. If the land is all seeded for coca plants? he asks rhetorically, then what are we going to eat? The lure of quick cash tempts farmers to raise more and more cocaeven if that means the ancestral forests have to go. Clearing ground for the popular crop is a major factor behind Colombias skyrocketing deforestation rate. Meanwhile, officials in Washington worry that the surge in Colombian blow will further glut the market, driving down the cost on the street in the States. Were losing control, says Colombian military intelligence analyst Carlos Armando, 42, during a meeting in his office on the base for the 29th Mobile Brigade, in Caucas capital of Popayan. Counter-insurgency operations are down. Eradication is down. Its like the FARC are untouchable now. Concessions made by Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos as part of the three-years-and-running peace process have allowed the FARC to step up narcotics production. The ban in aerial spraying, due to serious environmental concerns, has also crippled the armys anti-coca strategy. Now with the cease-fire we cant even conduct operations against the bandits laboratories or production sites, Armando laments as he sketches out a map of the FARC strongholds in Cauca. All of this is effectively off limits to the army, he says, shading in much of the state with his pencil. Although the government refused FARCs request for demilitarized areas during the peace process, the cease-fire policy has led to sweeping no-go zones for the military, giving the guerrillas a chance to strengthen trafficking networks. In these regions the guerrillas know they can do as they like, says Armando, who has more than two decades of counter-insurgency experience, and who says he has trained with the DEA. And what they like to do most is process coca into cocaine paste. Armando says at least six different FARC columns and fronts are running cocaine and other drugs in Cauca, which has long been a regional stronghold for the insurgency. A major north-south highway running through the state makes an important shipping corridor for drugs going up to Cali, or out to Colombias wild and largely unguarded Pacific coast, on their way to dealers in the U.S. and Europe. The infamous Sinaloa cartel in Mexico works closely with the FARC along the coast, Armando says. He says the Mexican-based global syndicate run by fugitive crime lord Chapo Guzman often pays the FARC directly with shipments of weapons, uniforms, and other supplies. The newly flooded market means Mexican gangs like the Sinaloans can now buy up the surplus marching powder for as little as 400,000 pesos ($125) per kilo, according to Armandopart of the reason authorities are so worried about an overall price drop in the U.S. In theory, the Cuban peace talks ought to end Colombias long-running civil war and the drug war, too. Fighting between the FARC and the government has gone on for more than five decades, and claimed 220,000 lives, with brutal war crimes committed by both sides. A tentative deadline for a finished peace deal has been set for Marchand the FARCs leadership has publically vowed to give up its drug-running ways in the event of an armistice. President Santoss negotiating team has offered, for its part, to establish rural development programs aimed at supplementing illicit crops. However, the recent jump in cocaine production and shippingand revenuescould indicate the FARCs leaders are unwilling, or unable, to comply with their promises to demobilize individual field units and abandon narcotics trafficking in rural regions. It would still be unrealistic to expect all of the FARC troops to go along with a peace deal, writes Virginia M. Bouvier, senior adviser for the Washington-based Institute of Peace, in an email to The Daily Beast. Insecurity about the future, greed, strong material incentives to continue fighting, and fears may play into the equation, writes Bouvier from Havana, where shes been observing the peace conference. Bouvier worries that mid-level commanders might not want to give up their power, even if it means disobeying orders. Past attempts to demobilize leftist-guerrilla and right-wing paramilitary units in Colombia haven't gone so well, either: Alternatively, they form splinter groups or new criminal bands, or join up with other armed groups that are still fighting, Bouvier writes, citing the presence of 17 different narcoparamilitary groups that operate in hundreds of municipalities throughout Colombiamany as the result of the paramilitary demobilizations in the mid-2000s. Military intelligence analyst Armando agrees with Bouviers concerns about the peace process: The political situation in Havana is very different from the combat situation out here, Armando says. The political wing [of the FARC] and armed actors see things very differently. For many of the regional drug lords, its just business as usual, says Armando, who considers the insurgencys criminalization as a foregone conclusion. Were already planning for it, he says. We believe that in three to five years youll see a complete remaking of la guerrilla. There have already been reports of FARC elements working with right-wing paramilitaries in Caucaindicating that the transformation from leftist insurgency to a business-first cartel in the Mexican style might already be underway. As for cocaine production: Were afraid its only going to get worse, Armando says. Back in the FARC-held foothills of northern Cauca, indigenous leader Carlos points out a family of fivemother, father, and three childrenall working to strip leaves in a thicket of coca growing high up on the valley wall. The parents graze the high branches and the children the lower, quickly fishing out the stems and small crimson berries from the pile of precious leaves. They work with us in the fields, and get paid with coca in return, Carlos says. Then they can negotiate an independent sale for the best price. Its back-breaking work to fill the sacks with foliage sufficient to meet guerrilla expectations. The FARC buy the leaves in units of weight called arrobas, each of which is equivalent to about 25 poundsa single arroba usually sells for about 35,000 pesos ($10.85) in these hills. Despite the intensive labor involved, Carlos says its still the best game in town. The government tells us not to raise coca, and not to sell it to the guerrillasbut the state has no presence here at all, he says, as we watch the young family mechanically plucking leaves from the bushes. The proposed peace deal in Havana is supposed to lay a framework for just the kind of security and infrastructure the Nasa farmers say they need to transition away illicit agriculture. But peace-talks observer Bouvier worries that the Santos administration, like the FARC, might be making promises it cant keep. Given [the governments] dismal track record in protecting human-rights [defenders] and peasants seeking to reclaim their lands, it seems unlikely that they would be able to offer real protection to demobilizing FARC combatants, writes Bouvier. Initial assistance programs for poor coca farmersbased on early accords in the peace process and meant to test political willpowerhave already failed drastically in the Macarena region, which is topographically similar to Cauca. For generations, the Colombian populace has been trained to hate the FARC, Bouvier continues. Human-rights defenders, peasant leaders, labor leaders, leftist politicians, even journalistshave been attacked and stigmatized as guerrilla sympathizers. Colombias culture of intolerance must change for peace to endure. For the Nasa farmers of the Central Cordillera, at least for now, any real change seems unlikely. We dont receive much of the great profit made from our coca, Carlos says, spitting his plug of leaves into the soil, and grimacing at the bitter aftertaste. But we take much of the risk. For most Americans, the third week of December is about wrapping up Christmas shopping and prepping for a whirlwind of family gatherings. But for the leaders of the Navajo Nation, its about something much heavier: suicide prevention. Russell Begaye and Jonathan Nez, Navajo Nations president and vice president, respectively, issued an executive order earlier that month designating the third week of December and one week in June for focusing on preventing suicide after a recent spate of deaths rocked the tribe. While suicide has long taken a disproportionate number of Native American lives, Begaye said in a recent interview with The Daily Beast that the spike in his community is new, and pointed to an unusual potential factor in the uptick: a destructive wastewater spill this past summer that impacted Navajo lands. Begaye told The Daily Beast he was concerned that the destruction caused by the Colorados Gold King Mine spill last August may be contributing to the suicide uptick and that the drawn-out clean-up efforts exacerbate the struggles that members of his community already face. He added that the Environmental Protection Agencys response to the disasterwhich he characterized as inefficient and counter-productiveadded additional stress to a community already on edge. One of the things that they seemingly do is that they wait you out, he told The Daily Beast. I mean, theytheyll say all the nice things, all the right things. Theyll put the proposals on the table but you know that theres no real action, theres no real meat behind what they say. The disaster happened on Aug. 5 when EPA personnel and contractorsironically enoughwere trying to clean out an abandoned mine. They accidentally broke a dam, spilling millions of gallons of wastewater into Colorados Animas River. The spill turned the river a mustard yellow color and caused widespread contamination. This isnt the first time Begaye has raised the possibility that the river damage has led the Navajo to take their lives. In testimony at a joint hearing before two House committees last year, he said the spill had compounded his peoples already significant historical trauma. Already three suicides have occurred in the course of the last two weeks in affected communities along the River, he testified. Our Department of Health is researching the connection of the suicides to the spill, and we are concerned that these might be the first of a larger cluster. Begaye and the EPA tussled last summer over the agencys offer to reimburse certain Navajo farmers impacted by the spill. Some Navajo leaders argued that by taking certain checks the agency initially offered, farmers could have inadvertently forfeited their rights to future additional compensation. The tribe is gearing up to sue the agency. And the Navajo Nations attorney general, Ethel Branch, has pressed the agency on whether or not its doing everything it can to set up an interim claims process for farmers. Nancy Grantham, a spokeswoman for the EPA, said the agency is committed to helping the tribe recover from the spill. We have a long-term relationship with the Navajo Nation and the agency is committed to working collaboratively with the Tribe on response activities related to the Gold King Mine release, she told The Daily Beast in a statement. EPA and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (with EPA funding) provided over 1 million gallons of livestock and agricultural water, and nearly 8,500 bales of hay, to Navajo communities along the San Juan River. The agency deployed staff to the Navajo Nation Emergency Operations Center (EOC) in Window Rock, Arizona, and sent community involvement staff to engage with Navajo communities impacted by the spill. The agency continues to offer the Navajo Nation support regarding data collection and analysis and long-term watershed monitoring. Begaye isnt the only one suggesting theres a link between the river contamination and the suicide spike. The pollution from the river has been, it sorta [sic] wears on everybody, Rick Hendy, Utah Navajo Health Systems director of behavioral health, told a local Fox affiliate. People so value the water, the river, Navajo people do. I think the stress knowing that its polluted and frankly there are still some unknowns. Others argue the causal link may not be as direct as Begaye says. In an AP story headlined Link between suicides, mine spill not clear-cut, the vice president of one of the Navajo Nations Utah chapters cast doubt on the presidents argument. Im not really sure how this could be related to the contamination of the river, said Bill Todachennie, who helps head the Aneth chapter in the Beehive State. Personally, I dont know how you could hook [them] together. The AP report notes that in the time since the spill, there have been at least six suicides in the Navajo communities along the river impacted by the pollution. The deaths are especially disturbing because Native Americans already face disproportionately high suicide rates; according to a Centers for Disease Control report released in September of this year. Based on data from 2012-2013, the report said Native American men age 18-24 were twice as likely to commit suicide than just about any other gender, racial, and ethnic subgroup. The report notes that the reality is probably even worse than that particular figure indicates, as nearly one-third of suicides by Native Americans go unreported. The tragedy adds an extra layer of pain to a group of people already disproportionately likely to face poverty and die of HIV complications than the general population. Still, though, the last few months have been uniquely devastating. And its a sobering reminder that mental health and environmental health are often inextricably linked. As we go into the New Year mesmerized by Donald Trump and his politically incorrect rants, its worth noting that among all the candidates in both parties, the one with the best odds of becoming the next president is Hillary Clinton. With the Iowa caucuses just weeks away, dont you think its time we paid attention to the multitude of policies, proposals and programs she has rolled out over the last seven months? They may not lead the nightly news or go viral on social media, but they are breaking through with voters in Iowa and New Hampshire. There are two-dozen in all, fleshed out with fact sheets according to a tally provided by the Clinton campaign, and they range from national security to quality of life issues. Its a liberals wish list, but the problems Clinton tackles are universal, and theres something for conservatives too in taking on student debt, lowering the price of prescription drugs, providing a tax credit for care giving, and, in the midst of the holidays, announcing an ambitious $2 billion plan to find a cure for Alzheimers by 2025. If you hate government, and think its too intrusive, Clintons probably not your candidate. But if youre caring for one of the 5 million Alzheimers sufferers in the country, or you or someone you know has been affected by the disease in some way, then youre with Newt Gingrich, who tweeted his approval of the Clinton plan, or Julianne Moore, who played a linguist afflicted by the disease in Still Alice and tweeted her support. Or if your family or someone you know has been affected by addiction, Clinton was the first of the candidates in either party to realize how big a problem heroin and prescription drug abuse has become in New Hampshire, claiming so many young lives. It was at a town meeting in August in Keene where Clinton became aware of the extent of the problem when almost every hand went up at a substance abuse forum signaling a personal experience. She researched the issue and followed up, says Joe Grandmaison, the former Democratic Party state chair in New Hampshire who crowned Bill Clinton the comeback kid after his second-place finish in the 1992 primary. An unabashed Hillary fan, Grandmaison observed that her diligence on the addiction issue recalled the listening tour Clinton took when she first ran for the Senate from New York in 2000. You dont have to be terribly cynical to think it is mostly a public relations tour, but Hillary demonstrated just the opposite, Grandmaison told me. Helping people in this way is who she is, and its better politics than normal because it cuts right through the cynicism. Grandmaison had just returned from a Clinton event in Portsmouth when I reached him on the phone. It was cold and snowy and he had waited 40 minutes in line to get in, but he was still chuckling over the little boy who told Clinton his mommy doesnt make as much money as his daddy and thats not fair because she works harder than he does. That elicited lots of knowing laughter, along with Clintons standard answer about equal pay. He went on to say the woman who introduced Clinton at the event brought people to tears as she told of caring for two Alzheimer patients, her 59-year-old husband and his 89-year-old mother. Everybody reaches a certain age and they fear its in their future and theres not a damn thing they can do about it, Grandmaison said, expressing what has to be a universal worry about a disease that claims mind and memory and has no cure in sight. It might also be political pay dirt. Sitting in the sanctuary of the Portsmouth church, with people squeezed into every available seat, Clintons empathy and her command of information were on ample display. It shows her at her best, Grandmaison says, adding, Those of us who have a great deal of affection for her feel shes been misunderstood. The Clinton campaign has released two new ads related to Alzheimers, one about a New Hampshire librarian who cares for his 84-year-old mother and must take her to work with him because he cant afford day care. The other features an Iowa woman, mother of five, whose husband passed away in May at age 53, after suffering from early-onset Alzheimers. In the ad, Clinton is visibly moved as she embraces the woman, then says she spoke with the four leading researchers who are untangling the neurodegenerative diseases and their excitement about more money for research as opposed to some additional military asset, Clinton says. Just think of the lives it would save. In an election cycle that has been anything but conventional, Clinton is running a textbook campaign, methodically laying out her proposals from what she would do about ISIS and terrorism, down to her views on GMOs (genetically modified organisms in our food). Clinton was asked about GMOs at a recent Baltimore fundraiser. A donor who was there told Grandmaison that he thought that would stump her, but she has a three-point program. Its almost comical how prepared Clinton is, especially when compared to Trump, who offers very little in the way of conventional policies. She has a different electorate than he does, says Matt Bennett with Third Way, a centrist Democratic group. While the Republicans are focused on style and rhetoric, the race between Clinton and Sanders is much more substantive, and shes got to make clear what she stands for. And because she is the favorite to become president, she is acting like a president. At events in Iowa and New Hampshire, Clinton asks how many have college debt, how many have been touched by addiction, how many by Alzheimers. What Bill Clinton taught us is that campaigns arent about the candidate, theyre about the voters, and how as president you can change peoples lives for the better, says Bennett. Bill Clinton survived impeachment in part because he kept working on behalf of the American people, who rewarded him with strong poll numbers. Hillary Clinton learned that lesson when she was in the White House, and shes putting it to practice now. The campaign isnt about Trumps latest volley, says Bennett, Its about the lives of the voters who wake up in the middle of the night worrying. Some of them have all three stressors [college debt, addiction, Alzheimers] and almost everyone has one at least or knows someone with one, its a very smart strategy. In 2014 a paper-thin metal scroll was discovered in the ruins of a city destroyed by an earthquake in Jerash (Jordan) in the mid-8th century. The scroll was unearthed in a battered lead case, but was too fragile to be unfurled. This fall, however, scientists at Aarhus University in Denmark unraveled its secrets. Using digital imaging of the lettering inside the scientists were able to see the writing. The results appear to be gibberish, but what the discovery does do is tell us a great deal about the market for magical objects in the ancient world. This New Years lets resolve to rid the world of these wretched words England may have invented, well, the Queens Englishbut their former colonies perfected the art of using said language to avoid saying anything at all. Every generation has its verbal crutches and initially-fresh-but-eventually-flakey slang. Ive always maintained bully morphed from fine; excellent; very good to overbearing person who habitually intimidates the weak because the latter definition was the result of everyone getting sick of the former, (looking at YOU, Teddy Roosevelt). And while heres your hat whats your hurry? scallywag, for Petes sake, and ending each sentence with see? reside within the rearview mirror of history shade (and/or throwing it), I KNOW, right? and amaze-balls deserve similar fates. This New Years lets all resolve to un-friend the verbal diarrhea thats dirtied up 2015s discourse. Come to think of it, un-friend should probably be on the following list, as well. Most native-speaking, high school graduates have a vocabulary of roughly 15 to 20,000 words, said professor of linguistics at American University and author of Words On Screen: The Fate Reading In A Digital World, Naomi S Baron. Thats a very limited amount and, as a result, people have to get creative. I feel like were NOT being creative. In fact, I feel like is my first nominee! This pause du jour for wussies unsure has become the go-to-gap between processing a thought and actually voicing it; a cowardly cushion to statements rarely as edgy as its speakers think they are. IFL abusers are legion within reality, talk and variety shows (talent judges, in particular, looove this blow softener). Perhaps the worst offender is @Midnight host, and Nerdist empire impresario, Chris Hardwick. A recent, unofficial tally of the sensitive podcast host interviewing the equally empathetic Lena Dunham culminated in a grand total of 1,423 egregious uses of IFL. (I feel like I may have made that number up.) Oh and so has gotta go. The number one so sensei is NPRs Fresh Air host, Terry Gross. So defensive is this so-holic that she recently justified her overuse of the adverb by having a University Of California-Berkley linguist professor come on her program to defend the word (he went as far as to call so a conversational workhorse!) without ever admitting that shes the stations main offender. Sos a fear. This females fear. Accepting that? A drop of golden sun. (That will be the only The Sound Of Music reference. Promise.) (This informal applicator also ushers in other phrases Im praying for extinction: not so much and so THAT just happened.) Apparently this, and other delay-of-gamers like well or um (looking at YOU Ronald Reagan and Barak Obama) are universal---even within the non-verbal communities. We do have some [American Sign Language]-originating crutches, said ASL Program Coordinator Department of Linguistics University of Pennsylvania, Jami N. Fisher. One I can think of is analogous to, UM. It's a kind of wiggling of the fingers as space filler. BT-dubs: I blame the LGBT community for our awful abreves obsession. As with most cool things, the propensity to shorten words that dont need shortening (see: totally, whatever and obviously transition into totes, whateves and obvs) began in Chelsea, was co-opted by teenage girls and then bought out by a country too lazy to complete a sentence. It was supes fun in its gay heyday butyou guuuuys?....its so NOT adorbs now. (Just realized how much Im also done with you guuuuys?). Weve done this forever, exps (cool-speak for explained) professor Baron. Acronyms, shortened wordsits never been about saving time or instant messaging, its always been about sounding cool or in the know. Fifty-percenting speech brings me to a hundred percent. This all-in response wrecks havoc with conversations the country over, but is most commonly used by celebrities flattering a journalist so that the anti-Woodward or Bernstein wont ask a tougher, follow-up question. We use hyperbole for all sorts of stuff, cautioned professor Baron. Take awesome. You may reply to me suggesting we meet at Starbucks with awesome!. How is that awesome? How does that make you feel full of awe. Literally literally means nothing anymore. The overuse and misuse of an adverb that literally means word for word is legion and oft the tool of those who think Alanis Morissette uses ironic correctly. Literally is most commonly used by females between the ages of 15 and 30, said professor Baron. It goes back decades. Literally exhausted or literally pregnant. Either you are or your not. Weve literally exhausted a superlative. When its all said and done (oooh, theres another one!) maybe Im just a big fat jerk. This is a genre called peevology, replied Harvard linguist and author of The Sense Of Style: A Thinking Persons Guide To Writing In The 21st Century, Steven Pinker, when I emailed him for comment. A condemnation of certain words and expressions that viscerally offend the author, with little curiosity about their history, meaning, or function is not something that I generally indulge in. Initially I found this academics resps (cool-speak for response) to be totes ridic, but upon further reflection he may have had a point. When you think about it, added professor Baron. as much as you hate phrases like it is what it is, its just as much about nothing as Walter Cronkite signing off each newscast with thats the way it is. Fair enough. But this wont stop my campaign to replace old/busted at the end of the day with new/hotness at the beginning of the night. If you cant beat emreplace em. Post Script: Lets end as we began: with the blessed isle yo . Specifically we should replace our tired turns of phrases with charming colloquialisms from across the Atlantic. Brits have playful, Dr. Seussian, words for adult acts: grog, shag, gack and slag sound Green Eggs & Ham friendlybut they aint. What they are, with apologies to professor Baron, is awesome. Lets get this sorted before it all goes pear shaped, mate. END BUG Now it's cheaper than coal What matters most in India is how well these numbers compare to electricity from inexpensive locally-mined coal. KPMG says that the current cost of power from this source is about 4.46 rupees (4.5p / 6.7) per kilowatt hour, about 4% below the November 2015 record low bid in Andhya Pradesh. But in a power station using some imported coal, the accountants calculate, the cost would be higher than solar. In India, PV is now directly competitive with some coal power stations and by 2020 it will be 10% cheaper, KPMG conclude. They predict that the raw cost of solar electricity from big solar farms will be 3.5 to 3.7 rupees by 2025. (Around 3.6p / 5.5). If history is any guide, they are being pessimistic. 2014 bids All ~7 Q3 2015 Punjab - 5.09 Telagana - 5.17 Madhya Pradesh - 5.05 November 2015 Andhra Pradesh - 4.63 For comparison Electricity from Local coal - 4.46 Electricity at coastal coal plants using imported coal - INR 4.76 All figures are Indian rupees per kilowatt hour. Low grid costs for local power use These numbers are not complete. We also need to include the cost of getting the electricity to the final consumer. In many countries this penalises solar but not so in India, says KPMG. Many of the coal plants are hundreds of kilometres away from the centres of electricity demand so the relative attractiveness of solar is improved when electricity distribution costs ('network charges') are fully included. In fact when the accountants have fully loaded the network and other costs PV ends up as very slightly cheaper than using lndian-mined coal. And, of course, this advantage will grow as solar gets cheaper. You are entitled to respond by saying that PV only produces electricity, even in the sunniest parts of India for an average of 12 hours a day. When people want light to read, cook or study, it isn't available. (Solving this problem is what much of the rest of the book is about). But what we may not have known is that almost 20% of all Indian electricity demand at the moment is used for pumping water for irrigation. This can easily be carried out solely in the daytime. At the moment PV only provides a tiny fraction of Indian electricity. But it will grow rapidly with strong backing from the Modi government and from the favourable underlying economics. As in other countries around the world, it will then start to become increasingly costly to run the grid to cope with the unpredictability and diurnal variability of solar power. More PV means more batteries to help stabilise the voltage of the grid, for example, in the event of unexpectedly high or low sunshine. And, very sensibly, KPMG also includes a cost for the financial impact of coal fired power plants working fewer and fewer hours as solar soars. This is a real financial burden because running the fixed costs of these power stations will be spread across a smaller electricity output. By 2025, what are the impacts of these charges, usually known as 'grid integration' costs, once PV has become a really significant portion of all electricity production? KPMG thinks the figure for India will be about 1.2 rupees (1.2p / 1.8) per kilowatt hour. This is roughly in line with estimates for other countries. Even after including this figure, PV is still cheaper than coal in 2025 and then provides 12.5% of all Indian electricity from about 166 GW of installed capacity. An unstoppable momentum Most of the KPMG work is focused on the finances of building ground-mounted solar farms for large-scale production. But it also looks at two specific applications: driving agricultural pumping operations (a task often performed by highly polluting diesel generating sets at the moment) and, second, what the accountants call the 'Solar House'. What do they mean by this? "The concept of the 'Solar House' refers to the condition when the entire power needs of a household can be met by rooftop and on-site solar panels, which combined with energy storage, can potentially make the household completely independent of the grid. This can happen when technology will bring the cost of solar power and storage systems to below the cost of power delivered by the grid. This event has the potential to change the dynamics of the power utility-customer relationship(s) forever." They go on to get really excited about Solar Houses. When have you ever seen accountants write like this before? "The achievement of the 'Solar House' is expected to be a landmark in mankind's efforts to access energy. The 'Solar House' will help India leapfrog technologies in the area of supplying uninterrupted 24x7 energy to its citizens. When the conditions for the 'Solar House' are achieved, (it) can override all barriers." KPMG expects 20% of Indian houses to have PV by 2024/25. The authors make the point that once residential batteries have come down in price sufficiently, householders have a clear and unambiguous reason to switch to solar. It will be cheaper than being connected to what may be an unreliable and possibly expensive grid. And, as we may be seeing in other countries already, once households drift away from being connected, or even if they simply use far less electricity because of the PV on their roofs, the costs of the distribution network need to be spread ever more thickly on those that remain. That further increases the incentive on those people remaining on the grid to switch to PV.' Chris Goodall is an expert on energy, environment and climate change, and a frequent contributor to The Ecologist. He blogs at Carbon Commentary. His next book, 'The Switch', is due for publication in 2016. This article was first published on Carbon Commentary. It is an extract from The Switch, a book about the global transition to solar power, to be published in June 2016 by Profile Books. The thrill of the just-concluded holiday season ushers in a different kind of excitement at the Kentucky State Capitol this week as the Kentucky House and Senate convene for the 150th Regular Session of the Kentucky General Assembly. This 60 legislative-day budget session so-called because state lawmakers pass the state's two-year biennial budget bills for all three branches of government during even-year regular sessions begins this Tuesday with the introduction of bills pre-filed during the interim months. Lawmakers will also pass various first-day resolutions that spell out House and Senate chamber rules, invitations for pastors to open the chambers with prayer each session day, and the appointment of a committee to 'wait upon' Gov. Matt Bevin as he enters the House to give his first State of the Commonwealth address sometime before week's end. The annual State of the Commonwealth address is not just a speech. It is an outline of what is wrong and what is right with Kentucky in the eyes of the person who will lead the state over the next year and beyond. With only 60 work days available to get an agenda past the General Assembly, the State of the Commonwealth address is really the first best chance for the governor to make his goals known, firsthand, to everyone in Kentucky and outside of it. That is what we will get from Gov. Bevin's speech this week his first best chance to get his message across to Kentucky and its state lawmakers. And we can expect his message to highlight the state's budget challenges, and public pensions in particular. We know from testimony in the Interim Joint Committee on State Government over the interim that the Kentucky Retirement Systems and Kentucky Teachers' Retirement System are requesting an annual contribution totaling a combined $1.5 billion to stabilize the funds over the long run. We have also heard the new administration say the state faces a $546 million shortfall in the next two fiscal years, a claim that former Gov. Steve Beshear has denied. How these funding issues (and more) will be addressed by Gov. Bevin's administration will be revealed, at least in part, in his address this week with more detail to follow in the Governor's State of the Budget address airing in the next few weeks. You can watch the Governor's State of the Commonwealth address through KET, which will air the program on KET-TV and stream the program live on its website at ket.org. Be sure and check the KET website or local TV listings for the exact date and time so that you learn firsthand what Gov. Bevin intends for our great commonwealth and for us, its citizens. One thing you can count on, no matter who is in the governor's office, is for this session to bring with it lots of debate and a fair amount of disagreement. Any legislative session has its differing viewpoints but budget sessions are especially hard. There is, after all, only so much money to spend thanks to continued slow state economic growth, and the money we do spend is taxpayers' money so its use must benefit as many Kentuckians as possible. In every instance we lawmakers want to meet as many needs as possible, and we are eager to work with the new administration to that end. I look forward as a committee chair to working with the new administration on all issues affecting state government, budgetary and otherwise. And I hope to hear from you as we work through the next few months to come up with good, sound legislation that will strengthen our state. Brent Yonts is a member of the Kentucky House of Representatives in the 15th district. He can be reached at Brent.Yonts@lrc.ky.gov. Two construction workers killed in accident that shut down bridge Two construction workers were killed and a woman is facing charges following an accident that shut down the Great River Bridge on Tuesday. HARTFORD Hartford Mayor-elect Luke Bronin named Howard Rifkin, a top adviser to Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman, as his legal counsel Thursday. Over 35 years, Rifkin has worked in senior positions advising a governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of the state and treasurer. He was Gov. William A. O'Neill's legal counsel, the role Bronin most recently played in the administration of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy. He was a deputy to Secretary of the State Miles Rapoport and deputy and counsel to Treasurer Denise Nappier. Rifkin is forever telling friends he is on the verge of retirement, but there always seems to be one more job in public service. This time it's for a young Yale-educated lawyer and Rhodes Scholar about to take control of a racially diverse and economically struggling capital city. He called working for Bronin, who takes office on New Year's Day, an offer he couldn't refuse. "I lived in Hartford for 25 years. I care about the city a lot," Rifkin said. Before joining Wyman's staff nearly two years ago, Rifkin was executive director of the Partnership for Strong Communities, a nonprofit group with a focus on creating affordable housing and ending homelessness. In that job, he worked with Bronin on the Malloy administration's successful initiative to end chronic homelessness among veterans. In a series of appointments announced Thursday afternoon, Bronin chose officials with senior experience in government and the private sector. His new director of development services is Sean Fitzpatrick, who was named chief of staff to the chairman of the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey to lead reform efforts in the wake of the 2013 Bridgegate scandal. This story originally appeared at CTMirror.org, the website of The Connecticut Mirror, an independent, nonprofit news organization covering government, politics and public policy in the state. WASHINGTON (AP) Ben Carsons name and face adorn the walls of dozens of schools in the U.S. and a medical school in Nigeria. Mayors have handed him keys to their cities. His charity, founded in 1994, created a national day in his honor each year, celebrated by the children who sit in elementary school reading rooms named after him. All of this is part of a well-honed enterprise that promotes Ben Carson presidential candidate, political commentator, paid speaker, author, neurosurgeon and champion of children, reading and God. He has folded into Carson Enterprises his presidential campaign, which has excelled at fundraising, bringing in almost $32 million through the end of September more than any other 2016 Republican candidate. That fundraising prowess continues, even as his poll numbers decline. His campaign manager, Barry Bennett, said Thursday they raised about $20 million since the beginning of October, matching their extraordinary summertime pace. Speaking fees over a nearly two-year period raked in $4.3 million. And his nonprofit continues to raise money. Its hard to see where one Carson stops and another begins. I think as people get to know me theyll be able to see exactly who I am, Carson said in an interview with The Associated Press in late October. I dont worry about that. These blurred lines are significant. Since he declared his candidacy, Carson has traveled the country for his campaign, to promote his new book, to attend events for his charity and to give paid speeches. Carsons campaign imposed boundaries to separate his politicking from a two-week publicity tour promoting his latest book. His book tour website also links to his official campaign website. And Carsons book sales benefit significantly from his political rise. Since he declared his candidacy, more than 52,000 copies of versions of his signature book, Gifted Hands, have sold, according to industry statistics from Nielsen BookScan. Most political candidates focus only on their campaigns to avoid potential violations, said Lawrence Noble of the Campaign Legal Center, a Washington nonprofit group that promotes transparency in politics. For instance, if a candidate is getting paid to speak at an event, he or she has to make sure not to mix that with campaigning, he said. Continuing with paid speeches, book promotion tours and charity events and keeping those separate from the campaign is a challenge. Its very difficult to do, and the dangers are high, Noble said. Carson has continued to give paid speeches since he declared his bid for the presidency, and in some cases, hes had political events around the same time. Since May when he declared his candidacy, hes been paid to speak at seven events, bringing in between $210,000 and $500,000, according to a financial disclosure he was required by law to file in June. Carson was not required to disclose the exact amounts because the speeches hadnt taken place at the time he filed. When asked about the exact amounts, Carsons spokesman said the campaign would not be providing that information. Dont see the need beyond what is required by FEC, Doug Watts said in an email, referring to the Federal Election Commission. What Carson says at these paid speaking events is critical to evaluating whether Carson violated any campaign laws, Noble said. But most of the paid-speaking events are not open to the public. Another GOP candidate, Carly Fiorina, has been criticized for giving paid speeches after declaring her candidacy. But her campaign told ABC News that the money she earns from the speeches goes directly to charity. Recently, Carson was paid between $15,001 and $50,000 to speak to a group of young chief executive officers in Cincinnati, but his campaign did not announce his trip, because it was not a public event. The organization, YPO Cincinnati, declined to allow reporters to attend the event. By contract with Dr. Carson, this program is closed to all media, said Cindy Petrie, administrator of the YPO Cincinnati chapter. After the event, however, Carson spoke to the media about reducing poverty, the national debt and terrorism. And on Sept. 22, in Dayton, Ohio, Carson was paid between $15,001-$50,000 to speak to an anti-abortion group, according to his public financial disclosure. The executive director of the nonprofit that hosted Carson said the group also paid for his travel. Paul Coudron said his organization booked Carson for its annual event a year ago. He did have two other events in the area, as a matter of fact, that same day, much to our surprise, actually, when we found that out relatively close to the day of the event, Coudron said. He would not disclose how much the group paid for Carsons travel costs. The sponsor of the speaking event cannot subsidize campaign travel, Noble said. That could jeopardize the organizations tax-exempt status. Carsons spokesman, Doug Watts, said that Carsons room and transportation to and from the anti-abortion groups event were covered by the Washington Speakers Bureau, which booked the paid speech. And Carsons travel to and from Dayton was paid for by the campaign. We segregate as much as feasible, Watts said. Carson has been vocal about his anti-abortion position for years and has equated abortion to slavery. Hes made more than $600,000 speaking before 22 other anti-abortion groups in the past 22 months, according to his public financial disclosure. In 2014 and 2015, Carson has been paid to speak at some political events as well, such as local Republican fundraisers. None of the other major presidential candidates has been paid to speak at similar events, according to an Associated Press review of candidates public financial disclosures. Since Carson declared his candidacy for president, he has not been paid to speak by local political organizations. Two of these paid speeches, however, were after he announced a presidential exploratory committee in March. One paid speech was for the Cornell University Young Republicans and another was for a Hays County, Texas, Republican party fundraiser. This is an ethical shade of grey, said Jim Thurber, with the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at American University. Theres no law against it, no regulation against it, but its in my opinion ethically questionable. Some of the organizations that have paid Carson to speak have also contributed to his charity, the Carson Scholars Fund. The charity awards $1,000 college scholarships for 4th through 12th graders. It also funds Ben Carson reading rooms around the country, spaces where children can read for pleasure, typically with a poster of Carson and quotes from him on the walls. While Carson has received praise for the Carson Scholars Fund, he started another charity that didnt quite get off the ground. In 2002, Carson started BEN, the Benevolent Endowment Network, a nonprofit to provide financial assistance to patients without health insurance for complex medical procedures, such as neurosurgery for children. The name changed to Angels of the O.R., but there is little evidence in the charitys tax forms that it doled out grants from the money it raised. Some years, the bulk of the money went to pay a consultant. The largest single grant was issued in 2009, $80,000 to the Baltimore Community Foundation, an umbrella organization for charity donors. That year, Carson was on the board of the charity that received the grant as well. One of the original board members, Kurt Schmoke, a former Baltimore mayor, said he never attended a board meeting. The charity recently dissolved. Carson has also served on a number of boards, including Costco and Kellogg, which have contributed thousands of dollars to his charity. Carson has taken a leave of absence from the board while he campaigns to be the Republican presidential nominee. But he continues to attend charity-related events. In May, after he declared his candidacy, Carson attended the annual Pittsburgh chapters banquet, held at Heinz Field. The next day, Carson attended another award ceremony for his charity at Battle Creek Central High School in Michigan. The charitys website posted a picture of him at the event signing a copy of his book for teenagers, You Have A Brain. The charity did not respond to questions about whether it purchased any of Carsons books for fundraisers or whether it pays for him and his wife to travel to the awards ceremonies. Carson was president of his charity when the nonprofit spent $21,482 in 2011 to throw him two 60th birthday parties. One of the two parties was billed as a fundraiser. But after the cost of the event, the charity only raised $5,778. On Nov. 16, some schools around the country celebrated the annual Ben Carson Reading Day, a day established by the charity while Carson was serving as its president. This year, the charity commissioned a childrens book about Carsons life, which sells for $10 on the charitys website. The company that produced the childrens book, Main Stay Publishing, promotes it on its website as their latest product for presidential candidate Ben Carson. Carsons spokesman said there was no coordination with the charity on the childrens book. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate PATHANKOT, India -- Indian troops were still battling at least two gunmen Sunday evening at an air force base near the border with Pakistan, more than 36 hours after the compound came under attack, a top government official said. At least seven troops and four gunmen have been killed in the fighting so far. The two suspected militants were discovered shortly after noon Sunday and hours later appeared to have been cornered, Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi told reporters, adding that he expected the gunmen to be "neutralized" soon. The attack on the Pathankot air force base started before dawn Saturday and is seen as an attempt to undo recent improvements in the relationship between archrivals India and Pakistan. It comes a week after Narendra Modi became the first Indian prime minister in 12 years to visit Pakistan. Mehrishi said that an alert about a terror attack in Pathankot was sounded on Friday afternoon, and that aerial surveillance at the base spotted the suspected militants as they entered the compound. He said they were quickly engaged by Indian troops and "were unable to move toward their likely intended target" of the area where the base's aircraft and military equipment are kept. Since Saturday morning, the base has been swarming with air force commandos, troops from India's elite National Security Guard and local police. The number of troops killed in the attack rose to seven on Sunday, with four succumbing to their injuries overnight and an elite commando killed in a morning blast that occurred while he was handling explosives, officials said. The attack at one of India's major air force bases started a few hours before dawn Saturday when a group of militants entered the area of the base where the living quarters are located, the Defense Ministry has said. The first gunbattle with the militants lasted about 14 hours, after which the air force said it had begun operations to secure the base. Mehrishi said that troops were not certain of the presence of additional gunmen until they were discovered Sunday afternoon. He said the two men were cornered in a wooded area of the base by the evening. The sprawling Pathankot air force base is spread over several kilometers (miles), including some forested sections. It houses a fleet of India's Russian-origin MiG-21 fighter jets and Mi-25 and Mi-35 attack helicopters, along with other military hardware. The Defense Ministry said no aircraft or military equipment has been damaged in the fighting. The base is on the highway that connects India's insurgency-plagued Jammu and Kashmir state with the rest of the country. It's also very close to India's border with Pakistan. The Himalayan region of Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan, but is claimed in its entirety by both. Rebels in India's portion of Kashmir have been fighting since 1989 for independence or merger with Pakistan. India accuses Pakistan of arming and training the insurgents, a charge Islamabad denies, and the attack at the base is being viewed as a possible attempt to unravel recent progress in the relationship between the two nations. Police have said they're investigating whether the gunmen came from the Indian portion of Kashmir, where rebels routinely stage attacks, or from Pakistan. The violence follows Indian Prime Minister Modi's surprise Dec. 25 visit to Pakistan, where he met with his Pakistani counterpart, Nawaz Sharif -- a trip that marked a significant thaw in the mostly tense relations between the nuclear-armed neighbors. The two leaders also held an unscheduled meeting at the Paris climate change talks last month. Ahead of Modi's visit to Pakistan, the national security advisers of both countries had met in Thailand. The foreign secretaries of both nations are scheduled to meet in Islamabad later this month. The responses to the weekend attack from both countries have been muted so far, with neither New Delhi nor Islamabad giving any indication that the planned talks are under any threat. In Pakistan, Sharif's foreign affairs adviser, Sartaj Aziz, said in a radio interview Saturday, as the attack was unfolding, that Pakistan wants to consolidate its improved relations with India. Pakistan's foreign ministry condemned the attack. The reaction in India has also been quiet so far. While all political parties condemned the attack, there was no immediate demand that the government call off talks with Pakistan. In the past, when it was in opposition, Modi's own right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party has been the most vocal critic of engagement with Pakistan, saying that talks and terror should not go together. But with Modi's own diplomatic engagement with Islamabad at stake, the BJP has given no indication yet that the planned talks have been threatened by the attack. ___ Associated Press writer Muneeza Naqvi in New Delhi contributed to this report. NORWALK -- Two masked men, one of them brandishing a gun, robbed a Verizon store just before closing time Saturday evening. At 7:20 p.m. Saturday, Norwalk Police Department received a report of a robbery at the Verizon store at 561 Connecticut Ave., according to police reports. No injuries were reported. Two black males wearing grey hooded sweatshirts, jeans and ski masks had entered the Verizon store and ordered the employees into the back room, instructing them to lie face down on the floor, store employees on the scene told responding officers. One of the men was wearing tan Timberland-style boots and the other was wearing black-and-white Air Jordan-style sneakers, employees told the officers. The assailants proceeded to steal a number of smartphones from the store before fleeing on foot in an unknown direction, according to police reports. No shots were fired and none of the employees was injured, police said. A K9 unit was brought to the scene but the dogs could not establish a trail. The exact amount of merchandise stolen is still being established as investigators work with store management to create an inventory and record serial numbers for the stolen phones, Norwalk Police told The Hour. NPD detectives are also working to recover security camera footage from the store, as well as from adjacent stores with external cameras, police added. The Verizon store owner and a manager declined to comment for this story. According to Norwalk Police Lieutenant Paul Resnick, all the missing phones have been listed as stolen and deactivated. If one were to purchase a stolen phone, "it just won't work when you go to activate it," Resnick told The Hour. "You'll have kind of a cute paperweight." Resnick said that the robbery is not part of any discernible trend. "This is really the first (robbery) of this nature and style we've had in some time," Resnick said, calling the robbery a "stand-alone incident." WASHINGTON The State Department opened the new year by falling short of a court-ordered goal from last year to have out by now 82 percent of Hillary Clintons emails from her years as secretary of state. The mountain of her correspondence in the public eye grew Thursday with the release of 5,500 more pages of her emails, thousands of pages short of the goal. Among them, portions of 275 emails were retroactively classified, the department revealed, keeping questions alive about whether Clinton, now a Democratic presidential candidate, put sensitive information at risk by using her personal email account for business and running it on a private server at her New York home. Clinton has said she didnt send or receive information that was classified at the time via her personal email account. The State Department said it worked diligently to meet the courts release schedule but could not do so because of the large number of documents involved and the holidays. More Clinton emails are to be disclosed next week and all of them designated for release are supposed to be out by the end of January. In all, the State Department said 1,274 of Clintons emails have been retroactively classified since the department started reviewing them for release. In response, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said: Hillary Clintons decision to put secrecy over national security by exclusively operating off of a secret email server looks even more reckless. Two emails released Thursday were designated secret, the second-highest level of classification, which applies to information that could cause serious damage to national security if released. Most of the emails were classified confidential, which is the lowest level of classification. A sampling from the latest batch: EMAIL USE Clinton and one of her closest aides, Jake Sullivan, had an exchange in September 2010 that showed considerable confusion over her email practices. Im never sure which of my emails you receive, so pls let me know if you receive this one and on which address you did, she wrote to Sullivan on a Sunday morning. A few hours later Sullivan responded: I have just received this email on my personal account, which I check much less frequently than my State Department account. I have not received any emails from you on my State account in recent days for example, I did not get the email you sent to me and (Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs Jeff) Feltman on the Egyptian custody case. Something is very wrong with the connection there. Sullivan added, I suppose a near-term fix is to just send messages to this account my personal account and I will check it more frequently. SOROS Billionaire George Soros, a major donor to liberal causes, confided to a former Clinton aide that he made the wrong choice in supporting Barack Obama in the 2008 primaries over Clinton. Soros told Neera Tanden during a dinner sponsored by Democracy Alliance, a liberal group, that he regretted his decision in the primary he likes to admit mistakes when he makes them and that was one of them, Tanden told Clinton in a May 2012 email. He then extolled his work with you from your time as First Lady on. Tanden also said Soros had been impressed that he can always call/meet with Clinton on policy issues but he hadnt yet met with Obama. Soros has been a major donor to Priorities USA, a pro-Clinton Democratic super PAC. SITUATION ROOM PHOTO Clinton expressed outrage at a Hasidic Jewish newspaper that airbrushed her and another woman out of a famous photograph of officials in the White House Situation Room watching the raid on Osama Bin Laden. The original photo had shown Clinton seated at the table, her hand covering her mouth. Counterterrorism director Audrey Tomason had also been pictured, standing at the back of the room. Both were blacked out in the newspapers reproduction of the photograph. The Jerusalem Post reported today that a NY Hasidic paper Der Zeitung published the sit room photo w/o me (or Audrey T) photoshopped out perhaps because no woman should be in such a place of power or that I am dressed immodestly!! Clinton wrote in an email with the subject line Unbelievable. The email was sent May 8, 2011, to aides, including Cheryl Mills and Huma Abedin, and to her daughter, Chelsea, under the alias Diane Reynolds. RIDING WITH HRC Philippe Reines, Clintons senior communications adviser, developed an elaborate flow chart during the summer of 2012 to determine a specific pecking order: Who gets to ride with Hillary? In an email to a group of Clinton advisers, Reines said longtime aide Huma Abedin should ride with Clinton under most circumstances, with deputy chief of staff Jake Sullivan joining Clinton on other occasions. Capricia Marshall, a Clinton insider and the chief of protocol, was also listed as someone who should ride with the secretary of state. The flow chart also includes cases in which Clinton could ride with someone dubbed Ambassador Tolerable, how they should handle drives covering 10 minutes or more and the circumstances in which Reines should jump in. MISSED DEADLINE Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump took note of the timing of the latest release on Twitter, writing: Do you believe that The State Department, on NEW YEARS EVE, just released more of Hillarys e-mails. They just want it all to end. BAD! But Trumps tweet was off-base. A federal judge set the schedule for the release of the emails, not Clinton or the department. Its not clear whether any penalty is involved in missing the courts target. Associated Press writers Josh Lederman, Catherine Lucey, Robert Burns, Jill Colvin, Erica Werner, Becky Bohrer, Justin Juozapavicius, Kathleen Ronayne, Jill Colvin, Chad Day, Deb Riechmann, Michael Sisak, Jill Zeman Bleed, Janie Har, Matthew Brown, Jonathan Cooper, David Eggert and Corey R. Williams contributed to this report. UPDATE: State police have canceled their silver alert for Suzanne Stisser. The case has been resolved, according to police. DARIEN The family of missing former Darien school teacher Suzanne Stisser is seeking the publics help in locating her after she left the family residence without a word on Friday morning. She was hanging out with the family and without saying anything, got into her car and left, said Stissers sister-in-law Susan Theriot. Weve searched every beach, every park, everywhere we can think of. This is very unusual for her and we are very concerned. Suzanne Stisser, 63 years old, is a former physical education teacher at Tokeneke School in Darien, and is the mother of three sons and the grandmother of six granddaughters. Suzanne is very well-liked and well-known in Darien. She was a teacher for 28 years until her retirement in 2014 and has lived in Darien for more than 30 years, Theriot said. The Darien police are very much involved. Stisser is believed to be driving a dark gray Subaru Forester with the license plate number 483 YTB. She left without any ID, Theriot said. Were asking the public to keep an eye out for her or her car. The Department of Public Safety describes Stisser as being white, 5 feet 8 inches tall, weighing 140 pounds, last seen wearing gym pants. Anyone with information about Stissers whereabouts is requested to contact local authorities or call phone number (203)858-5957. Darien Police Department (203) 662-5300. There is a $10,000 reward leading to her recovery, Theriot said. Paula Shull Retirement Paula Shull of Grand Island recently retired from Platte Valley Construction Co. after a 42-year-long career with the company. Paula served as bookkeeper and payroll accountant during her tenure. Platte Valley Construction, based out of Grand Island, specializes in earth moving for construction of highways, country roads and other large site development projects. During the construction of the interstate in Nebraska, Wyoming and Colorado, Platte Valley Construction Co. employed up to 150 employees on construction projects. Paula Shull was a valued member of the staff of Platte Valley Construction, and we want to thank her for her many dedicated years of service. NEW DELHI (TIP): On December 27 evening, on the eve of founder Dhirubhai Ambanis 83rd birthday and amid a lot of star-studded attraction, Mukesh Ambani launched Reliance Jio, the groups 4G telecom service, for over [] (New Delhi, India: January 2nd, 2016) Physicians of Indian origin are well known around the world for their compassion, passion for patient care, medical skills, research, and leadership. They excel in their fields of medicine, [] New York Citys Commissioner for Immigrant Affairs, Nisha Agarwal, visited India Homes Desi Senior Center on December 2, 2015, on the occasion of First Year Anniversary of the center. Councilman Rory Lancman and the Consul General [] Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Channi Anand (The Jakarta Post) Pathankot, India Sun, January 3, 2016 Suspected militants infiltrated an Indian air force base near the border with Pakistan and fought security forces for hours, leaving at least four gunmen and two Indian troops dead in what is being seen as a possible attempt to undo recent progress in relations between the two rival countries. The attack Saturday at the Pathankot air force base in Punjab came just a week after the first visit to Pakistan in 12 years by an Indian prime minister. Police said they were investigating whether the gunmen came from the Indian portion of Kashmir, where rebels routinely stage attacks, or from Pakistan. The assault began a couple of hours before dawn when a group of gunmen entered the section of the base where the living quarters are located, the Defense Ministry said. The attackers, however, were unable to penetrate the area where fighter helicopters and other military equipment are kept, it said. By late morning it appeared that the violence had ended with the killing of the gunmen by Indian forces. But two hours later, more gunfire erupted and an air force helicopter was seen firing at an area of the base, a major installation located about 430 kilometers (267 miles) north of New Delhi. Air force spokeswoman Rochelle D'Silva said Saturday night that troops were combing the entire base to fully secure it. She said that the combing operation was expected to continue through the night, and that the full number of casualties would be clear once the base was completely secured. By 9 p.m., no gunfire had been heard around the base for more than three hours. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made an unannounced visit to Pakistan on Dec. 25 to meet with his Pakistani counterpart, Nawaz Sharif. The visit was seen as a potential sign of thawing relations between the two nuclear-armed neighbors. The two leaders also held an unscheduled meeting at the Paris climate change talks last month. Ahead of Modi's visit to Pakistan, the national security advisers of both countries had met in Thailand. The foreign secretaries of both nations are scheduled to meet in Islamabad later this month. The Indian Defense Ministry said there had been intelligence reports about a likely terror attack on military installations in Pathankot, and that the air force had been prepared to thwart any attackers. "Due to the effective preparation and coordinated efforts by all the security agencies a group of terrorists were detected by the aerial surveillance platforms as soon as they entered the Air Force Station at Pathankot," the ministry said in a statement. Despite the intelligence on a possible attack, at least two air force troops were killed in the gunbattle, the Press Trust of India news agency reported. PTI, citing police, also said at least four gunmen had been killed. Pathankot is on the highway that connects India's insurgency-wracked Jammu and Kashmir state with the rest of the country. It's also very close to India's border with Pakistan. The Himalayan region of Kashmir, where rebels have been fighting since 1989 for independence or merger with Pakistan, is divided between India and Pakistan, but is claimed in its entirety by both. India accuses Pakistan of arming and training Kashmir's insurgents, a charge Islamabad denies, and the attack was viewed by many in India as an attempt to unravel recent progress in the country's relationship with its archrival. In the past, the contentious issue of Kashmir has halted talks between India and Pakistan. "These kinds of attacks are nothing new and have generally been the outcome of the dispute of India and Pakistan over Kashmir," said Noor Ahmed Baba, a political scientist at Central University in Indian Kashmir's capital, Srinagar. Baba said that there were elements in both countries that would like to see the peace process fizzle out, and that all sides must "exhibit political maturity and sagacity to defeat the vested interests." Modi, at a speech in the southern city of Mysore, said: "I congratulate the nation's security forces for turning the intentions of our country's enemies into dust. They didn't let them succeed. And I salute the martyrdom of the soldiers who sacrificed their lives." Pakistan's Foreign Ministry condemned the attack. "Building on the goodwill created during the recent high level contacts between the two countries, Pakistan remains committed to partner with India as well as other countries in the region to completely eradicate the menace of terrorism afflicting our region," it said in a statement. Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh told reporters that India wants peace with Pakistan, but "if there is any kind of terror attack on India, we will give it a fitting reply." India's defense minister, national security adviser and the chiefs of the army, navy and air force met Saturday to discuss the situation. In July, gunmen staged a similar attack at a police station and a moving bus near Gurdaspur, a border town in India's Punjab state. The three attackers then killed four policemen and three civilians before being shot dead by security forces. ___ Associated Press writers Muneeza Naqvi in New Delhi and Aijaz Hussain in Srinagar, India, contributed to this report. (**) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Anna Rahmawaty (The Jakarta Post) Tokyo Sun, January 3, 2016 There has been a wave of discussions about Indonesia joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) after President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo notified US President Barack Obama during his visit to the US in October that Indonesia intended to join the trade pact. The TPP is a free-trade agreement comprising 12 nations in the Pacific Rim, namely the US, Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. In principle, the agreement removes all tariffs and barriers for manufacturing products sold among member countries. Under president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Indonesia implemented more inward-looking trade strategies. Meanwhile, President Jokowi is in favor of applying more outward-looking policies and the TPP is in line with export-oriented strategies. Some believe that the TPP is good for the nation and will encourage Indonesia to reform itself. A more efficient internal performance is likely to be achieved, for instance in bureaucracy. Moreover, competitiveness of textile products will be accelerated as no trade barriers will hamper this sector. ______________________________________ The TPP may be the first step for Indonesia to fully implement structural transformation. However, competing globally is challenging. Others believe that Indonesia is not ready to join the TPP. An export-oriented manufacturing sector in Indonesia is considered less competitive and stagnant after the 1998 Asian Crisis. The primary sector (commodities) has been a major contributor to the economy. Before joining the TPP (or any other free-trade agreement), it is essential to improve the manufacturing sector to be able to compete and survive in the global market. Indonesia may learn from other countries that have successfully improved their manufacturing sector. History has recorded that Japan experienced a miracle of high economic growth. After the atomic bombs were dropped in 1945, Japan recovered and developed very rapidly in the 1960s, successfully transforming its economy from the primary sector to manufacturing industries. The manufacturing sector was the engine of economic growth over the high-growth period. Japanese products sold worldwide. There are three lessons we can learn from Japan's experiences in developing its manufacturing sector that are relevant for Indonesia. First is promoting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The Japanese government sees SMEs as one way to achieve specialization in making certain products. For example, manufacturing an automobile product is conducted by several enterprises ' one enterprise specializing in making tires, another enterprise in making doors, and so on. As a whole, cost efficiency is achievable. Indonesia has an SME sector with great potential. According to the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), more than 90 percent of enterprises are classified as SMEs. Promoting SMEs is relevant to the current condition. Second is zoning special regions for industrial development in coastal areas. In the early 1960s, the Japanese government set up a number of industrial cities in coastal areas. It is a relevant policy for export-oriented industries, particularly for minimizing distribution costs. Indonesia is the world's largest archipelago, with a long coastline. In other words, the country has been gifted geographically. Developing special industrial regions is suitable in Indonesia. Cheaper cost of distribution would accelerate export products' competitiveness. Speeding up the implementation of the government's special economic zone plan is essential for the nation. Third is enhancing the quality of human resources. Japan has long invested in human resource capacity. Japan has high quality of tertiary education and a high-skilled workforce.. Indonesia has the world's fourth-largest population. Moreover, Indonesia is entering the phase of demographic dividend ' a group of young and productive people dominate the population. In other words, Indonesia has the advantage of an abundant workforce. In the early stage of development, labor-intensive industries may grow more rapidly. An educated workforce is one of the key ingredients for development process. However, an uneducated workforce is a burden on an economy. In short, investing in human capital is critical. Losing the competition within the TPP may lead to job losses in the manufacturing sector, turning Indonesia into a consumer nation. However, the TPP may be the first step for Indonesia to fully implement structural transformation. It is time to shift activities from the primary sector to manufacturing industries. It is important to boost the manufacturing sector's competitiveness, particularly for industries making export-oriented products, before joining the TPP. ________________________________________ The writer is a student at the National Graduate Institute of Policy Studies (GRIPS) in Tokyo. The views expressed are her own. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Didi Tang (The Jakarta Post) Beijing Sun, January 3, 2016 China rejected a protest from Vietnam over a flight test it has conducted on a new airstrip on a man-made island in the South China Sea, saying it is part of China's territory. Vietnam Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Hai Binh said that the test flight violated Vietnam's sovereignty, breached mutual understanding and hurt the bilateral relations. "Vietnam resolutely protests Chinese above-said action and demand that China immediately stop, not repeat similar actions," he said in a statement. In a response Saturday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said the test flight on the newly built airstrip on Fiery Cross Reef in the Spratly Islands was carried out to find out if the new airfield met the standards for civil aviation. "Relevant activity falls completely within China's sovereignty," Hua said in a statement. "The Chinese side will not accept the unfounded accusations from the Vietnamese side." China has become more assertive in pressing its claims to the South China Sea islands, an archipelago rich in natural resources that is the focal point of rival claims by neighboring governments. China has recently piled sand on coral reefs atop of which it built airfields, radar installations and docking facilities. As with most of its policy in the South China Sea, Beijing has remained opaque about its plans for the island airstrips. Beijing insists its island building works are justified and don't constitute a threat to stability and freedom of navigation. The U.S. and its regional allies have expressed concern that China's robust assertion of its claims has aggravated tensions. Although Vietnam already has an airstrip in the Spratlys, it is just long enough to accommodate slow-moving cargo and surveillance planes. China's airstrip on Fiery Cross Reef is long enough for bombers capable of launching cruise missiles. ___ Associated Press writer Tran Van Minh in Hanoi, Vietnam, contributed to this report.(**) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin The Jakarta Post Rosario, Argentina Sun, January 3, 2016 Several spectators were injured during the Dakar Rally on Saturday after a Mini Cooper plowed into the crowd before the start of the race in Argentina. The accident occurred at kilometer 6.6 of the prologue to the Dakar 2016, which starts between Buenos Aires and Rosario. Organizers suspended Saturday's special stage. A Dakar statement said four spectators were injured and taken to local hospitals. However, it did not provide details on their injuries. Daniel Modesto, a doctor at the Santa Francisca de Arrecifes hospital, told Argentine station TN that 10 people were treated for injuries, including a pregnant woman and four children. He said one child and one adult man were seriously injured. The child was airlifted to a larger hospital, while the man was transferred in an ambulance, he said. The vehicle that veered off the road was No. 360, which belongs to Guo Meiling. Guo is the first Chinese woman to compete in Dakar. It was unclear she or other drivers were injured. Competitors were participating in a special stage to determine Sunday's opening day order. (**) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin The Jakarta Post Hong Kong Sun, January 3, 2016 Hong Kong pro-democracy lawmakers said Sunday that they will press the government for answers after a fifth employee of a publisher specializing in books critical of mainland China's leadership went missing. Lawmaker Albert Ho said the city was "shocked and appalled" by the disappearance of Lee Bo. Like the four others who disappeared in recent months, Lee is associated with publisher Mighty Current. While there's been no official confirmation on the status of the five missing people, Ho told reporters that it appears their disappearances are linked to the company's books. "From the available information surrounding the disappearance of Mr. Lee Bo and his partners earlier, we have strong reason to believe that Mr. Lee Bo was probably kidnapped and then smuggled back to the mainland for political investigation," Ho said. Mighty Current and its Causeway Bay Bookstore are known for gossipy titles about Chinese political scandals and other sensitive issues that are popular with visiting tourists from the mainland. The company's co-owner, Gui Minhai, is among those missing, as are three staff members. Books by Mighty Current are banned on the mainland but available in Hong Kong, which enjoys freedom of the press and other civil liberties unseen on the mainland because of its status as a specially administered region of China. However, the disappearances highlight growing concern that Beijing is moving to tighten its grip on the former British colony. Hong Kong Acting Secretary for Security John Lee told reporters that police were "actively" investigating the case. Lee went missing Wednesday evening and was last seen leaving his company's warehouse, according to local media reports. His wife told the Cable TV news channel in a report broadcast Saturday that she received a phone call from him the night he disappeared. She said he told her then that he was "assisting an investigation" and alluded to the earlier disappearances, but was not more specific. The number indicated the call came from Shenzhen, the mainland Chinese city next door to Hong Kong, the report said. (**) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Abdullah Al-Shihri and Aya Batrawy (The Jakarta Post) Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Sun, January 3, 2016 Saudi Arabia's execution Saturday of 47 prisoners, including an influential Shiite cleric, threatened to further damage Sunni-Shiite relations in a regional struggle playing out across the Middle East between the kingdom and its regional foe Iran. Shiite leaders across the region swiftly condemned Riyadh and warned of sectarian backlash as Saudi Arabia insisted the executions were part of a justified war on terrorism. Also executed Saturday were al-Qaida detainees who were convicted of launching a spate of attacks against foreigners and security forces a decade ago. The execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr now becomes another focal point for sectarian and political wrangling between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The two regional rivals back opposing sides in civil wars in Yemen and in Syria. Saudi Arabia was also a vocal critic of the recent Iranian agreement with world powers that ends international economic sanctions in exchange for limits on the Iranian nuclear program. Iranian politicians warned that the Saudi monarchy would pay a heavy price for the death of al-Nimr. The Iranian Foreign Ministry summoned the Saudi envoy in Tehran to protest, and parliament speaker Ali Larijani said the execution would prompt "a maelstrom" in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Foreign Ministry later said it had summoned Iran's envoy to the kingdom to protest the critical Iranian reaction to the sheikh's execution, saying it represented "blatant interference" in its internal affairs. Al-Nimr's execution could also antagonize the Shiite-led government in Iraq, which has close relations with Tehran. The Saudi embassy in Baghdad, which had been closed for nearly 25 years, was reopened on Friday. An influential Shiite militia in Iraq, known as Asaib Ahl Al-Haq, called on the government Saturday to close down the embassy. Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Aabadi Tweeted Saturday night that he was "shocked and saddened" by al-Nimr's execution, adding that, "peaceful opposition is a fundamental right. Repression does not last." Hundreds of al-Nimr's supporters protested in his hometown of al-Qatif in eastern Saudi Arabia, in neighboring Bahrain where police fired tear gas and bird shot, and as far away as northern India. The sheikh's brother, Mohammed al-Nimr, said in a telephone interview that Saudi authorities told the family they had already buried the body, but didn't tell them at which cemetery. The family had hoped to bury his body in his hometown. His funeral would likely have attracted thousands of supporters, including large numbers of protesters. Instead the family planned to hold prayers and accept condolences at the mosque in a village near al-Qatif, where the sheikh used to pray. Germany's Foreign Ministry said the cleric's execution "strengthens our existing concerns about the growing tensions and the deepening rifts in the region." State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement that the U.S. is "particularly concerned" that al-Nimr's execution risked "exacerbating sectarian tensions at a time when they urgently need to be reduced." He said the U.S. is calling on Saudi Arabia to ensure fair judicial proceedings and permit peaceful expression of dissent while working with all community leaders to defuse tensions after the executions. Al-Nimr's death comes 11 months after Saudi Arabia issued a sweeping counterterrorism law after Arab Spring protests shook the region in 2011 and toppled several longtime autocrats. The law codified that the kingdom could prosecute as a terrorist anyone who demands reform, exposes corruption or otherwise engages in dissent or violence against the government. The convictions of those executed Saturday were issued by Saudi Arabia's Specialized Criminal Court, established in 2008 to try terrorism cases. To counter Arab Spring rumblings that threatened to spill into eastern Saudi Arabia, the kingdom sent troops in 2011 to crush Shiite protests demanding more political powers from the Sunni-led, fraternal monarchy of Bahrain. More security forces were also deployed that year to contain protests in Saudi Arabia's oil-rich east, where al-Nimr rallied youth who felt disenfranchised and persecuted. A Saudi lawyer in the eastern region told The Associated Press that three other Shiite political detainees were also executed from among the 47. The lawyer spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. Advocacy organization Reprieve, which works against the death penalty worldwide, said two of the Shiites executed were teenagers when they were arrested. Reprieve said Ali al-Ribh was 18 years old and Mohammed al-Shuyokh was 19 at the time of arrest in 2012. Both were convicted on charges related to anti-government protests held in eastern Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia says all those executed were convicted of acts of terrorism. Al-Nimr and the three others mentioned had been charged in connection with violence that led to the deaths of several protesters and police officers. Saudi Arabia's top cleric Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Al Sheikh defended the executions as in line with Islamic Shariah law. He described the executions as a "mercy to the prisoners" because it would save them from committing more evil acts and prevent chaos. Islamic scholars around the world hold vastly different views on the application of the death penalty in Shariah law. Saudi Arabia's judiciary adheres to one of the strictest interpretations, a Sunni Muslim ideology referred to as Wahhabism. Because Saudi Arabia carries out most executions through beheading and sometimes in public, it has drawn comparisons to extremist groups like al-Qaida and the Islamic State group ' which also carry out public beheadings and claim to be implementing Shariah. Saudi Arabia strongly rejects the comparisons and points out that it has a judicial appeals process with executions ultimately aimed at combating crime. In Lebanon, senior Shiite cleric Abdul-Amir Kabalan described al-Nimr's execution as "a grave mistake that could have been avoided with a royal amnesty." The Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah issued a statement calling al-Nimr's execution an "assassination" and a "ugly crime." The group added that those who carry the "moral and direct responsibility for this crime are the United States and its allies who give direct protection to the Saudi regime." In a press conference Saturday, Saudi Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Mansour al-Turki said the executions were carried out inside prisons and not in public, as is sometimes the case. The Interior Ministry, which announced the names of all 47 people executed in a statement, said a royal court order was issued to implement the sentences after all appeals had been exhausted. The Saudi television airwaves were flooded with pro-government analysts saying the executions are a blow to critics who accuse the kingdom of not doing enough to counter extremism. One analyst pointed out that France declared a state of emergency and prioritized security after the recent Paris attacks that killed more than 120 people. Meanwhile, the execution of al-Qaida militants raised concerns over revenge attacks. The extremist group's branch in Yemen, known as al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, had threatened violence against Saudi security forces last month if they carried out executions of its fighters. One of the executed was Faris al-Shuwail, a leading ideologue in al-Qaida's Saudi branch who was arrested in August 2004 during a massive crackdown on the group following the series of deadly attacks. The executions took place in the capital, Riyadh, and 12 other cities and towns. Of those executed, 45 were Saudi citizens, one was from Chad and another was from Egypt. In announcing the verdicts, Saudi state television showed mugshots of those executed. Al-Nimr was No. 46, expressionless with a gray beard, his head covered with the red-and-white scarf traditionally worn by men in the Arab Gulf region. Al-Nimr, who was in his 50s, never denied the political charges against him, but maintained he never carried weapons or called for violence. At his trial, he was asked if he disapproved of the Al Saud ruling family because of speeches in which he spoke out forcefully against former Interior Minister and late Crown Prince Nayef bin Abdelaziz, who is King Salman's elder brother. "If injustice stops against Shiites in the east, then (at that point) I can have a different opinion," the cleric responded, according to his brother Mohammed al-Nimr, who attended court sessions and spoke to The Associated Press just days before the Oct. 2014 verdict. U.S.-based Human Rights Watch's Middle East director Sarah Leah said "regardless of the crimes allegedly committed, executing prisoners in mass only further stains Saudi Arabia's troubling human rights record." She said al-Nimr was convicted in an "unfair" trial and that his execution "is only adding to the existing sectarian discord and unrest." Al-Nimr's brother told the AP by telephone that the executions came as a "big shock" because "we thought the authorities could adopt a political approach to settle matters without bloodshed." He urged people to "adopt peaceful means when expressing their anger." Mohammed's son Ali, the cleric's nephew, is also facing execution, but his name was not among those listed Saturday. He was 17 years old in February 2012 when he was arrested. He was later convicted, and his death sentenced upheld, on charges of attacking security forces and taking part in protests, among other charges. Saudi Arabia carried out at least 157 executions in 2015, with beheadings reaching their highest level in the kingdom in two decades, according to human rights groups. ___ Batrawy reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writers Jon Gambrell in Dubai, Maamoun Youssef in Cairo, Reem Khalifa in Manama, Bahrain, Ali Akbar Dareini in Tehran, Iran, Sinan Salaheddin in Baghdad and Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed to this report. (**) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Ali Akbar Dareini and Abdullah Al-Shihri (The Jakarta Post) Tehran, Iran Sun, January 3, 2016 Protesters in Iran, angered by the execution by Saudi Arabia of a prominent Shiite cleric, broke into the Saudi embassy in Tehran early Sunday, setting fires and throwing papers from the roof, Iranian media reported. The semiofficial ISNA news agency said the country's top police official, Gen. Hossein Sajedinia, rushed to the scene and police worked to disperse the crowd outraged by the execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr. Shiite leaders in Iran and other countries across the Middle East swiftly condemned Riyadh and warned of sectarian backlash. Saudi Arabia's execution Saturday of 47 prisoners, which also included al-Qaida detainees, threatened to further enflame Sunni-Shiite tensions in a regional struggle playing out between the Sunni kingdom and its foe Iran, a predominantly Shiite nation. While Saudi Arabia insisted the executions were part of a justified war on terrorism, Iranian politicians warned that the Saudi monarchy would pay a heavy price for the death of al-Nimr. The Iranian Foreign Ministry summoned the Saudi envoy in Tehran to protest, while the Saudi Foreign Ministry later said it had summoned Iran's envoy to the kingdom to protest the critical Iranian reaction to the sheikh's execution, saying it represented "blatant interference" in its internal affairs. In Tehran, the crowd gathered outside the Saudi embassy and chanted anti-Saudi slogans. Some protesters threw stones and Molotov cocktails at the embassy, setting off a fire in part of the building, Sajedinia told the semi-official Tasnim news agency. "Some of them entered the embassy. Currently, individuals who entered the embassy have been transferred out (of the building). However, a large crowd is still there in front of the embassy," Sajedinia told ISNA early Sunday. Some of the protesters broke into the embassy and threw papers off the roof, and police worked to disperse the crowd, Sajedinia told ISNA. He later told Tasnim that police had removed the protesters from the building and arrested some of them. He said the situation outside the embassy "had been defused." Al-Nimr's execution promises to open a rancorous new chapter in the ongoing Sunni-Shiite power struggle playing out across the Middle East, with Saudi Arabia and Iran as the primary antagonists. The two regional powers already back opposing sides in civil wars in Yemen and in Syria. Saudi Arabia was also a vocal critic of the recent Iranian agreement with world powers that ends international economic sanctions in exchange for limits on the Iranian nuclear program. The cleric's execution could also complicate Saudi Arabia's relationship with the Shiite-led government in Iraq. The Saudi embassy in Baghdad reopened for the first time in nearly 25 years on Friday. Already on Saturday there were public calls for Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi to shut the embassy down again. Al-Abadi tweeted Saturday night that he was "shocked and saddened" by al-Nimr's execution, adding that, "peaceful opposition is a fundamental right. Repression does not last." Hundreds of al-Nimr's supporters also protested in his hometown of al-Qatif in eastern Saudi Arabia, in neighboring Bahrain where police fired tear gas and bird shot, and as far away as northern India. The sheikh's brother, Mohammed al-Nimr, said in a telephone interview that Saudi authorities told the family they had already buried the body, but didn't tell them at which cemetery. The family had hoped to bury his body in his hometown. His funeral would likely have attracted thousands of supporters, including large numbers of protesters. Instead the family planned to hold prayers and accept condolences at the mosque in a village near al-Qatif, where the sheikh used to pray. A spokesman said in a statement that United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was "deeply dismayed" over the Saudi Arabia executions, including that of Al-Nimr. Germany's Foreign Ministry said the cleric's execution "strengthens our existing concerns about the growing tensions and the deepening rifts in the region." State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement that the U.S. is "particularly concerned" that al-Nimr's execution risked "exacerbating sectarian tensions at a time when they urgently need to be reduced." He said the U.S. is calling on Saudi Arabia to ensure fair judicial proceedings and permit peaceful expression of dissent while working with all community leaders to defuse tensions after the executions. Al-Nimr's death comes 11 months after Saudi Arabia issued a sweeping counterterrorism law after Arab Spring protests shook the region in 2011 and toppled several longtime autocrats. The law codified that the kingdom could prosecute as a terrorist anyone who demands reform, exposes corruption or otherwise engages in dissent or violence against the government. The convictions of those executed Saturday were issued by Saudi Arabia's Specialized Criminal Court, established in 2008 to try terrorism cases. The executed al-Qaida detainees were convicted of launching a spate of attacks against foreigners and security forces a decade ago. To counter Arab Spring rumblings that threatened to spill into eastern Saudi Arabia, the kingdom sent troops in 2011 to crush Shiite protests demanding more political powers from the Sunni-led, fraternal monarchy of Bahrain. More security forces were also deployed that year to contain protests in Saudi Arabia's oil-rich east, where al-Nimr rallied youth who felt disenfranchised and persecuted. A Saudi lawyer in the eastern region told The Associated Press that three other Shiite political detainees were also executed from among the 47. The lawyer spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. Saudi Arabia says all those executed were convicted of acts of terrorism. Al-Nimr and the three others mentioned had been charged in connection with violence that led to the deaths of several protesters and police officers. Saudi Arabia's top cleric Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Al Sheikh defended the executions as in line with Islamic Shariah law. He described the executions as a "mercy to the prisoners" because it would save them from committing more evil acts and prevent chaos. Islamic scholars around the world hold vastly different views on the application of the death penalty in Shariah law. Saudi Arabia's judiciary adheres to one of the strictest interpretations, a Sunni Muslim ideology referred to as Wahhabism. Saudi Arabia carries out most executions through beheading and sometimes in public and has drawn comparisons to extremist groups like al-Qaida and the Islamic State group ' which also carry out public beheadings and claim to be implementing Shariah. It strongly rejects the comparisons and points out that it has a judicial appeals process with executions ultimately aimed at combating crime. The Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah issued a statement calling al-Nimr's execution an "assassination" and a "ugly crime." The group added that those who carry the "moral and direct responsibility for this crime are the United States and its allies who give direct protection to the Saudi regime." In a press conference Saturday, Saudi Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Mansour al-Turki said the executions were carried out inside prisons and not in public, as is sometimes the case. The Interior Ministry, which announced the names of all 47 people executed in a statement, said a royal court order was issued to implement the sentences after all appeals had been exhausted. Meanwhile, the execution of al-Qaida militants raised concerns over revenge attacks. The extremist group's branch in Yemen, known as al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, had threatened violence against Saudi security forces last month if they carried out executions of its fighters. One of the executed was Faris al-Shuwail, a leading ideologue in al-Qaida's Saudi branch who was arrested in August 2004 during a massive crackdown on the group following the series of deadly attacks. The executions took place in the capital, Riyadh, and 12 other cities and towns. Of those executed, 45 were Saudi citizens, one was from Chad and another was from Egypt. In announcing the verdicts, Saudi state television showed mugshots of those executed. Al-Nimr was No. 46, expressionless with a gray beard, his head covered with the red-and-white scarf traditionally worn by men in the Arab Gulf region. Al-Nimr, who was in his 50s, never denied the political charges against him, but maintained he never carried weapons or called for violence. At his trial, he was asked if he disapproved of the Al Saud ruling family because of speeches in which he spoke out forcefully against former Interior Minister and late Crown Prince Nayef bin Abdelaziz, who is King Salman's elder brother. "If injustice stops against Shiites in the east, then (at that point) I can have a different opinion," the cleric responded, according to his brother, who attended court sessions and spoke to The Associated Press just days before the Oct. 2014 verdict. U.S.-based Human Rights Watch's Middle East director Sarah Leah said "regardless of the crimes allegedly committed, executing prisoners in mass only further stains Saudi Arabia's troubling human rights record." She said al-Nimr was convicted in an "unfair" trial and that his execution "is only adding to the existing sectarian discord and unrest." Al-Nimr's brother told the AP by telephone that the executions came as a "big shock" because "we thought the authorities could adopt a political approach to settle matters without bloodshed." He urged people to "adopt peaceful means when expressing their anger." Saudi Arabia carried out at least 157 executions in 2015, with beheadings reaching their highest level in the kingdom in two decades, according to human rights groups. ___ Al-Shihri reported from Riyadh. Associated Press writers Aya Batrawy in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Jon Gambrell in Dubai, Maamoun Youssef in Cairo, Reem Khalifa in Manama, Bahrain, Sinan Salaheddin in Baghdad and Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed to this report. (**) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Sinan Salaheddin (The Jakarta Post) Baghdad Sun, January 3, 2016 Islamic State group militants continue to launch a series of counterattacks against Iraqi government forces on the edges of the western city of Ramadi days after the militant group was driven out of the city center, according to the U.S.-led coalition. "The majority of these are outside downtown Ramadi to the north and east," and so far Iraqi government forces have successfully repelled every attack, said Baghdad-based coalition spokesman Col. Steve Warren. "We haven't seen ISIL mass enough combat power to move Iraq off their positions," Warren added, using an alternative acronym for the Islamic State group. Iraq's military says Islamic State militants on Friday launched multiple suicide attacks on the outskirts of Ramadi. Brig. Gen. Ahmed al-Belawi told The Associated Press on Saturday that the militants stuck security forces with seven suicide car bombs in two areas outside Ramadi. Al-Belawi says there were casualties among the government troops, but did not provide a specific figure. He says the troops repelled the attacks and did not lose territory. Iraqi officials say gains in Ramadi lay the groundwork for an eventual assault on Mosul, Iraq's second largest city that fell to IS in June of 2014. On Friday coalition planes launched five airstrikes near Ramadi targeting IS tactical units, heavy weaponry and fighting positions. Near Mosul, three airstrikes destroyed an IS fighting position and a facility used to make car bombs, a coalition statement said Saturday. Ramadi, the provincial capital of the sprawling Anbar province, fell to IS in May, marking a major setback for U.S.-backed Iraqi forces. Iraqi troops retook the city center on Monday with heavy coalition air support, but insurgents are still holed up in parts of the city. ___ Associated Press writer Susannah George contributed to this report. (**) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin The Jakarta Post Jakarta Sun, January 3, 2016 The Jakarta Police's annual year-end report shows that drug and murder cases were the most notable criminal cases in Greater Jakarta in 2015 because of their frequent occurrences and unsettling impacts. The report lists that people in Greater Jakarta gave most attention to five criminal cases, particularly murder and drug cases. In 2015, the city police made several big seizures of drugs. In July, for example, they arrested two drug traffickers, who were allegedly affiliated with a Chinese drug syndicate, for possessing 360 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine worth Rp 574.4 billion (US$42.5 million) in North Jakarta. In August, Jakarta Police seized 37 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine, with an estimated value of Rp 56 billion ($4.02 million) from three people suspected of drug smuggling, including a 26-year-old Nigerian who allegedly belongs to a Guangzhou-Jakarta international drug syndicate. Also in the same year, the police handled some homicide cases that put many parents in Greater Jakarta on alert because of the involvement of children. In October, a 9-year-old girl was found dead in a cardboard box in a dump near her house in Kalideres, West Jakarta. A forensics examination found that she had been murdered and raped. Traces of semen were found in her genitalia. A week later, the police announced that Agus Darmawan, aka Agus Pea, was responsible for the rape and murder. Agus was the girl's neighbor who was known to be friendly to children and teenagers. In the same month, residents of Jasinga found the dead body of a teenage girl in a forest in Jasinga, Bogor, West Java. The residents and the police suspected that she had been raped and tortured as she was discovered wearing only a skirt and bra, while her face was wounded and bloodied. A month later, the police named one of the teen's relatives the suspect in the rape and murder case. According to the 2015 report, drug and murder issues were among cases that showed increases in numbers, along with fires. The report lists that 71 murders were committed in 2015 ' 4 percent more than in 2014. Also in 2015, the police saw an 8 percent increase in drug cases, having received 5,305 reports. Meanwhile, the number of fires increased by 6 percent from 708 cases in 2014 to 754. In 2015, fire broke out in a number of places, from houses to factories. The most fatal fire took place in a factory belonging to cosmetics firm Mandom in Bekasi, West Java in July. Five workers were killed on the premises and 52 others were injured. The death toll increased gradually to 28 as many of the severely wounded did not survive. The police named two employees of a contractor that fixed gas installations at the factory as suspects for their negligence of not installing eight new flexible tubes in the aerosol production area, as they had been assigned to do by Mandom. Aside from revealing those results, the 2015 report also shows that the Jakarta Police dealt with 44,304 criminal reports throughout 2015. 'Compared to 2014, the total number of crimes in 2015 decreased by 0.86 percent. Although it is not significant, the decrease shows improvement in the police's performance,' said Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Tito Karnavian in a recent press conference. (agn) ________________________________ To receive comprehensive and earlier access to The Jakarta Post print edition, please subscribe to our epaper through iOS' iTunes, Android's Google Play, Blackberry World or Microsoft's Windows Store. Subscription includes free daily editions of The Nation, The Star Malaysia, the Philippine Daily Inquirer and Asia News. For print subscription, please contact our call center at (+6221) 5360014 or subscription@thejakartapost.com Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Arya Dipa (The Jakarta Post) Bandung Sun, January 3, 2016 Amid a long-standing controversy surrounding polygamy in Indonesia, a group promoting the polygamous lifestyle has announced a plan to file a judicial review against a number of articles in the 1974 Marriage Law, as it deems the articles discriminative against those committing the controversial practice. Speaking to The Jakarta Post on Saturday, Sakinah Polygamous Family Forum (FKPS) secretary-general Fakhrul said Article 3 of the law, which stipulates that a husband is only allowed to have one wife, for example, had led to the issuance of other discriminative regulations against those practicing polygamy. 'The one-family-one-wife rule has made it difficult for a polygamous family to obtain a family card, or birth certificates for their children. This is clearly discriminative as it [polygamy] is a part of the implementation of Article 29 of the 1945 Constitution that promotes religious freedom,' he said on the sidelines of the group's annual congress in Sumedang, West Java. Fakhrul, who claimed to have two wives, said Islamic teachings allowed Muslims to practice polygamy. The two-day congress, which will end on Sunday, will discuss and formulate the group's recommendations on the review of regulations on polygamy in Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-majority country. 'The recommendations, as the outcome of the congress, will later be submitted as a judicial review. We are now completing its final draft,' said Fakhrul, adding that the event was attended by around 60 participants from several cities. The Marriage Law upholds the principle of monogamy, but allows husbands to have multiple wives under certain conditions, including that of being married to a woman who is suffering from a serious illness and unable to bear a child. Human rights and religious activists, for example, have been campaigning for the banning of polygamy, arguing that the practice could trigger violence against women. The National Commission on Violence against Women (Komnas Perempuan) has urged the government to speed up an amendment to the Marriage Law to strengthen principles of monogamy. It recorded more than 70 polygamy cases involving public officials that ended up as sexual abuse cases in 2015. Last year, the Defense Ministry received wide criticism after it issued a circular that said polygamy was permitted under certain conditions. A number of leading political figures, including former Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) chairman Anis Matta and suspended North Sumatra governor Gatot Pujo Nugroho, have also been criticized for their polygamous lifestyles, which they do not hide from the public. Bandung-based Padjajaran University law expert Sony Dewi Judiasih underlined that the Marriage Law actually promoted the principles of monogamy by applying strict requirements on those who attempting to practice polygamy. 'According to the law, polygamy is actually not a simple practice as the husband has to secure permission from several parties, including the court,' she told the Post. Sony said she respected the FKPS's plan to file a judicial review of the law, but quickly reiterated that the law actually provided guidance to control polygamy practices. 'The court's permission [to practice polygamy] serves as a filter, so that polygamy is not practiced abusively,' she said. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Hans Nicholas Jong (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sun, January 3, 2016 The power vacuum within the Golkar Party following the Law and Human Rights Ministry's decision to revoke a decree previously recognizing the chairmanship of Agung Laksono could trigger disputes on the results of the Dec. 9, 2015 regional elections. The secretary-general of the Agung-led faction, Zainudin Amali, said on Saturday that the revocation of the decree could prevent both the Agung-led faction and its rival faction led by Aburizal Bakrie from making key decisions, especially regarding the results of last year's regional elections. 'Now if there's an election dispute, who [will settle the problem] representing the Golkar Party? Because the central executive board [DPP] doesn't exist anymore,' he said. Amali said the Agung-led faction initially expected the ministerial decree to be revoked only after all stages of the regional elections wrapped up, including election dispute settlements. During the registration period for the 2015 regional elections dispute at the Constitutional Court from Dec. 16 to 22, the court registered 144 reports. 'But suddenly the ministry decided to revoke it before the entire process was finished. Then who can finish [the election disputes] because the decree was revoked while the new party lineup decided during the 2015 national congress in Bali has not been officiated yet,' he said. Constitutional law expert Refly Harun said Agung's camp was overreacting to the minister's decision and that there was no cause for concern about a power vacuum. 'That's an exaggeration. In this country, the only institution that shouldn't have a power vacuum is the presidency. Even if the Golkar Party disbands, it wouldn't be a problem because the registration period for the election dispute is over,' he told The Jakarta Post on Saturday. Refly said that to avoid a power vacuum, the Law and Human Rights Ministry could simply issue another decree to extend the current management structure of the party. 'The Law and Human Rights Ministry could use its discretionary powers to avoid a power vacuum until the new party's management structure is registered,' he said. Following the revocation of the ministerial decree, the secretary-general of the Aburizal-led faction, Idrus Marham, said his camp would discuss with the Law and Human Rights Ministry whether it should re-register the party's management structure. 'Our plan is to discuss it on Jan. 4,' he said on Saturday. Idrus also denied that there would be a power vacuum within Golkar following the minister's decision. 'The only official management structure now is the one agreed upon during the Bali national congress,' he said. Registering the party's new lineup with the Law and Human Rights Ministry was merely a formality, said Idrus. 'It's just a matter of registering,' he said. Idrus earlier said that Golkar was scheduled to hold a national consultation meeting in Bali on Jan. 4, where party leaders from across the country were expected to discuss the party's plans. The meeting will also set a date for a national executive assembly. Members of the opposition camp are to be accommodated on the new central board lineup, to honor previous attempts at reconciliation initiated by Vice President Jusuf Kalla. __________________________________ To receive comprehensive and earlier access to The Jakarta Post print edition, please subscribe to our epaper through iOS' iTunes, Android's Google Play, Blackberry World or Microsoft's Windows Store. Subscription includes free daily editions of The Nation, The Star Malaysia, the Philippine Daily Inquirer and Asia News. For print subscription, please contact our call center at (+6221) 5360014 or subscription@thejakartapost.com Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin The Jakarta Post Sun, January 3, 2016 From President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo's visit in Indonesia's easternmost province of Papua to the surrender of a separatist rebel leader over in the westernmost province of Aceh, events during the last week of 2015 illustrate not just how expansive Indonesia is, but also the complexities and the challenges the nation faces. On Tuesday, Jokowi inaugurated the Time Capsule Monument in Merauke, Papua. That's nothing like the time machine you see in sci-fi movies. Instead, it is a monument that deposits capsules of rolled up one-page papers containing the dreams of today's Indonesians. The idea is that these capsules would be opened in 2085 by whoever is in charge then and they will see whether these dreams have been fulfilled. Jokowi rounded up the project with his own seven-point dream that includes the nation beating the rest of the world in science and technology, becoming the center of the world's civilization, leading the global economy and living in peace with its diversity and cultural, religious and ethical values. It will be interesting to read what others dream about Indonesia, but we won't know that for 70 years, if we're still around. The dreams of Indonesia's founding fathers who fought for independence 70 years ago have always been there for everyone to see. Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta, who proclaimed independence on Aug. 17, 1945, were clear about what they wanted: an independent and free Indonesia, with dignity, and one that is democratic, just, peaceful and prosperous. They didn't put their dreams in a capsule but etched them in a document, now known as the 1945 Constitution, complete with a roadmap of how to get there. Seventy years later, we are living their dreams, even if only partly, thanks to their hard labor and sacrifices. The choice of Merauke for the monument and Jokowi's decision to end the year in Papua ' he spent New Year's Eve on scenic Raja Ampat Island, said to be the last heaven on Earth ' is symbolic. Papua was not part of the republic until 1963 when the Dutch relinquished their last East Indies colonial possession. Today, Jakarta still struggles to fully integrate Papua. On Monday, a day before Jokowi's arrival, an armed group attacked a police station in Sinak in the Puncak regency, killing three officers and seizing firearms. The attack was the latest indicator that things are far from being fine in Papua, where many disgruntled people have decided to take up arms against the authorities or privately support the rebels. There was good news from Aceh, which like Papua had seen its share of armed separatist rebellions until 2005. Din Minimi, the most wanted man in Aceh for going back to fight against the government, surrendered along with his men in return for guarantees of an amnesty. Din had been a member of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), which signed the peace agreement with the government in 2005, but while his comrades ran for political offices and won, he decided to return to armed struggle, fighting from the jungles. Aceh, however, had a different problem to close the year. The administration of Banda Aceh, the capital of the province, stopped people from celebrating the coming new year by declaring it haram and deploying the police on New Year's Eve to ensure compliance. Even though Jan. 1 is a national holiday, most people in Banda Aceh stayed home. Aceh is the only province in Indonesia governed under sharia, but dozens of regencies and municipalities have also formally adopted their versions of the Islamic law. The application of sharia in these places, most particularly in Aceh, which often contravenes national laws, is discriminatory and encourages intolerance against religious minorities. The creeping 'shariazation' may be a bigger problem facing Indonesia than the threats from separatist rebels in Papua and Aceh, or from imported radical Islamic ideologies like that of the Islamic State (IS) movement. The ban on celebrating New Year's Eve in Aceh is just one of many moves seen in recent years as Muslim conservatives throw their weight around to impose their ideology on the rest of the nation. While we could agree on moderation in celebrating the new year, Banda Aceh didn't need to go that far. Muslim leaders in other parts encouraged mass prayers to greet 2016. Many observed the call, but those who wanted to party went anyway. In Jakarta, the traditional fireworks party went ahead on Thursday. But there were no fireworks to greet the birth of the ASEAN Community on Dec. 31. For such a big leap, for Indonesia as for the other members of ASEAN, the arrival of the community surely deserved a bigger celebration. There was not even a proclamation by the President or any member of the government. In the absence of any government explanation, the nation is left in the dark about how this community will impact their lives, if at all. Maybe we will get to hear about it after the new year. ' Endy M. Bayuni Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin The Jakarta Post Jakarta Sun, January 3, 2016 The government has taken measures to improve tourist-sector standards to welcome the implementation of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), a minister has said. Tourism Minister Arief Yahya said in Jakarta on Saturday that his ministry had made preparations to welcome the advent of the AEC this year, one of which was the establishment of 28 tourist-business standards; seven had been established through a ministerial decree, while the remaining 21 standards were still being drafted, he said. 'We have also prepared 1,500 auditors to monitor tourist-business standards,' Arief said as quoted by kompas.com. The minister added that the Tourism Ministry was currently facilitating a competency certification process for tourism workers, and was aiding the establishment of 12 professional certification institutions for the sector. 'Indonesia's tourism sector has for a while now been making preparations to welcome the implementation of the AEC, especially in terms of readiness of human resources,' said Arief. From 2007 to 2015, he added, the ministry had issued 81,627 competency certificates to tourism workers employed in 12 tourist sub-sectors. '[The awardees] work in various tourist businesses, such as hotels and restaurants, spas, travel agencies, as tour leaders, in the culinary sector, rafting, diving and many more,' said Arief. The minister said he was optimistic that in the AEC era, business players in Indonesia's tourist sector could compete with their competitors from other countries, and could derive great advantage from the new community. (ebf) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Ati Nurbaiti (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sun, January 3, 2016 Myanmar was named the country that improved the most last year by the Economist. Its reason was: 'Five years ago it was a larcenous dictatorship [']' and in November Aung San Suu Kyi's party won 77 percent of the vote. But my favorite country in terms of progress in 2015 is Saudi Arabia ' today's easily most detested nation for exporting the beliefs of the most hideous organization. For a hopeful 2016, Saudi Arabia is my pick because women were able to vote and even become candidates in last year's elections! Wow, they could even be jailed for driving! Women's political rights finally arrived in the 83-year-old kingdom and nearly 1,000 registered to run for municipal councils. Congratulations to the candidates, the 20 elected among them and to the more than 100,000 women in the population of 30 million who used their right to vote. Such a breakthrough shatters a fundamental myth or misinterpretation claimed to come from Islam, that women should stay home and cannot lead. Similar lies in other patriarchal cultures purport to protect women and entire nations from the dangers of a woman in public view. Curiously, such voices dwindled during our share of the 1997-1998 economic crisis, when more women became breadwinners. And when many said no woman would be willing anyway if given the opportunity to run for public office, they were proven wrong when many stepped forward in Indonesia's first direct elections. Many are indeed related to male politicians and leaders, but claims that it's too hard finding qualified women are being drowned out, as more have been inspired by women leaders, notably by the 2014 world's best mayor Tri Rismaharini of Surabaya, facing her next term. Saudi Arabia's final approval for women to enter public and political arenas mirrors its people's success in pushing for freedoms that so many take for granted. It's a small step toward emancipation 'across Indonesia discrimination and violence against women continues though we had a woman president more than a decade ago. Saudi women indeed still face many restrictions. A few women were arrested for driving in 2014. Nevertheless, efforts that expose the poor credibility of religious bigwigs everywhere must be supported. Misogynic views of women wrapped up in interpretations of religion are as ridiculous and as lethal as violent jihad. At home, sources of hope are less dramatic, but no less heartening. The Home Ministry says it has annulled more than 20 discriminatory local rules deemed to violate the 2014 law on regional administrations, which bans discriminatory policies, among other things. This is also a belated breakthrough as the National Commission on Violence against Women reported there were 389 discriminatory policies, including bylaws, as of September this year. Local leaders may now sense that being inclusive wins popularity compared to issuing discriminatory rules said to uphold morality, public order and local identity. The last two excuses were earlier permitted under regional autonomy, so the government of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono allowed, for instance, local restrictions against Ahmadis and compulsory Koran reading skills for aspiring high school entrants. Now through the 2014 law on regional administrations, President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo issued a clearer indication of do's and don'ts. Purwakarta Regent Dedy Mulyadi had issued a controversial bylaw that threatened couples with enforced marriage if they were found dating in public after 9 p.m. , among other things. He then became popular for issuing a regulation guaranteeing freedom of worship in the face of an anti-Shiite movement in the regency. His latter policy stands out in West Java, which tops human rights watchdogs' 'most intolerant' list of provinces, along with runner up Banten, its neighbor, for its discriminatory policies and intolerant actions. Awards helped to raise hopes amid ongoing struggles. The latest in 2015 was the Yap Thiam Hien human rights award for Handoko Wibowo, a lawyer who gave up his practice to focus on land conflicts in his regency of Batang, Central Java. The legal services of his 'OmahTani' (House of Farmers) affected political education in Batang and beyond. The regency's increasingly picky electorate then chose retired military figure and businessman Yoyok R. Sudibyo ' who then won the 2015 Bung Hatta Anticorruption Award with ibu Risma. The Migrant Care Award for pioneering advocacy of migrant workers went to Darmiyanti Muchtar, aka Yanti, who died in November. She promoted education, including for migrant domestic workers before their departure abroad. Thanks to increasing pressure for better protection of such women, which involved Yanti and others also pushing for the law on domestic workers at home, 'today we see a shift in government attitude toward migrant workers,' said former chairperson and commissioner of the national women's rights body, Yuniyanti Chuzaifah. Problems of migrant workers, particularly maids, are no longer dismissed as inevitable issues of poor, unskilled village women. For their assistance for domestic workers in trouble, Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi presented the Hassan Wirajuda Award for the protection of Indonesians overseas to our ambassador to Malaysia, Herman Prayitno, and to the Jeddah consul general in Saudi Arabia, Dharmakirty Syailendra, among others. Last year was remembered for mass slaughters in the name of Islam. But hope emerged from belated breakthroughs in the Islamic kingdom and in the largest Muslim-majority nation in its 15 years of regional autonomy. The historic suffrage for Saudi women, and clearer signs to end discrimination in Indonesia, shattered the credibility of bigwigs of morality riding on the tails of power seekers. The empowering of farmers and maids also brought about meaningful change, and this is only the beginning. ** ________________________________ The author is a staff writer at The Jakarta Post. A journey through Negeri Sembilan Last week, I told the first part of my journey through one of Malaysias 13 states, Negeri Sembilan, and how I had arrived and began my exploration of Dusun resort and the natural wonders that abound there. Sunday 3 January 2016, 03:00PM Dasha Suleyman life@novostiphuketa.com Inside one of the units at Perling (one of the houses at the resort) there werent many things to be honest, but, it looked cosy with its snow-white bed covered by a translucent canopy. It was beautiful and unusual in this wooden-style house. But obviously its actual use was to protect the guests from mosquitoes and other insects. I guess thats the main creature that would be of a bother here. We have a few rules, one of them is the ban of any crazy parties, as well as not disturbing any of the other inhabitants staying at Dusun, said the lovely hotel staffer Asmaq, who was also my guide. It was evident that this rule is probably what makes the hotel so special. And, probably why it received the Certificate of Excellence from TripAdvisor in 2013. And now Ill show you the deers. One of them was delivered a couple of weeks ago, she added. I thought I misheard. But, we walked down the hill and ended up in front of a paddock with just a giant tree in the middle, and funnily enough, not a single deer. Within a few seconds, I suddenly noticed an ear-shape appear from behind the tree, and then, his black staring eyes looked up at me and I soon realised that I could see the whole deer! Although the deer wasnt that close to me, I could still see the whole deers family, including the ever-so-cute two-week-old that reminded me of Bambi, the delightful Disney character that Im sure many my age remember from their childhood. There were two mature females and one male with a huge rack of antlers. Its unfair that he has two girls, isnt it? But all things considered, that probably wasnt so alarming for the locals. These animals live in Dusun and children enjoy touching them, Asmaq said. I wanted to touch them too, but apparently I scared them, it seems that scared animals never come near me! Oh, not including other jungle inhabitants though, like snakes, for instance. After my walk with Asmaq, I went and sat on the terrace and suddenly one lady who was working there screamed and pointed at the flower just next to me. It took some time to distinguish what it was, but I realised it was a very still grey snake. I still have no idea if it was poisonous or not, but I guess the shocked screaming orang asli (indigenous) woman knew it better. Anyway, I went a little closer for a second so I could take a photo of this dangerous creature, but just for a second! Their unexpected visits and surprises on us, are perhaps one of the disadvantages of living in the jungle, far from civilisation! Heading for the city By each evening, the Dusun staff pack up and leave everyone to it. Every day from 7pm, guests stay on their own. Cee, who runs the resort, and his family are still here, but there is a rule not to disturb hosts in the evening. So if you were unlucky to miss the dinner at Dusun, then you probably need Muhammed who can drive you to Seremban where you can easily find some Malay, Indian or any other food. It started to grow dusky while I was sitting on a terrace of a small wooden house with Cees faithful hound Maya laying at my feet. And sadly, it was time to leave, which I didnt want at all. But, there were new adventures waiting for me in Kuala Lumpur. Im planning to return to Dusun and hopefully stay a little longer with a bunch of friends who, I believe, will enjoy such a unique place and all the kind people living there. For more information visit thedusun.com.my Russian officials get quirky holiday gift: a book of Putins one liners MOSCOW: Some of Vladimir Putins saltiest one liners have been turned into a book by his supporters who have sent a batch to the Kremlin touting it as the ideal holiday gift for patriotic Russian officials. Sunday 3 January 2016, 10:00AM Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during his annual end-of-year news conference in Moscow, Russia, December 17, 2015. Photo: Reuters The tome, entitled The Words that are changing the World, is the latest expression of admiration from fans who cast the president as the saviour of modern Russia and will join an array of Putin-themed merchandise from perfume to vodka. We had begun to notice that everything which Putin says comes to pass to one degree or another, Anton Volodin, author of the 400-page book, which was published by a pro-Kremlin group called Network, said in a statement. In this book we traced his words and confirmed that idea. Among memorable quotes selected are Putins threat to rub out Chechen militants in the out house, his contested assertion that Crimea was always and remains an inseparable part of Russia, and a bizarre brush-off of Latvia in which he told Riga it could only expect to receive the ears of a dead donkey from Moscow, a Russian expression for nothing. Blunt, barrack-room language is part of Putins stock in trade and helps him send signals to the state security elite which he, as a former intelligence agent, springs from. Putin, in a quote too new to be included in the book, used that trademark vernacular this month to suggest Turkeys political leadership may have decided to lick the Americans in a particular place by shooting down a Russian warplane. Other quotes that are included centre on Putins patriotism. For me Russia is my whole life, reads one, while others disparage Western-style democracy and same sex marriage. Nikolai Svanidze, a historian, said the new book reminded him of the Little Red Book and its quotes from Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong published in the 1960s. Its an Asian tradition, he told the RBK daily. Countries with authoritarian regimes always try to publish their leaders most sparkling expressions even if those expressions are not that sparkling. The pro-Putin group which published the book has in the past been awarded generous grants by the Kremlin. The tome should hit Russian bookstores in January priced at 800 rubles (B393). The group, Network, said it had given 1,000 limited edition copies to the Kremlin, which in turn had handed them out to officials and politicians as a present ahead of Russias main New Year holiday. RBK cited named officials as saying they had received the present and had been told by a top Putin aide that it should sit on their desks. The tome would help them understand the decisions underpinning Russia's domestic and foreign policy, the aide was quoted as saying. Putins personal rating remains above 80 percent despite a serious economic crisis thanks, say independent pollsters, to his decision to annex Crimea and launch air strikes in Syria. With state TV devoting saturation coverage to the 63-year-old leader, he is rarely off the screen. Aides say Putin, whose third term as president lasts until 2018, takes a dim view of the idea of a Soviet-style cult of personality around him even though his likeness is used to sell everything from fridge magnets to mobile phone covers. Putins spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, distanced the Kremlin from the new book. He said he had not seen it and that it was unlikely to have been a centralized Kremlin initiative but might have been prepared by another part of Putins executive office. Additional reporting by Daria Korsunskaya; Editing by Richard Balmforth. Reuters Fee for repeat offenders who don't mow grass could be increased Those who fail to keep their lawns cut are charged a $100 fee per incident for the city to cut their lawns. The council looks to increase this fee. Ariel Garten doesnt require any direction when a newspaper photographer visits her downtown office to shoot her picture. Garten is the 36-year-old Torontonian who co-founded InteraXon, which produces the Muse headband, a consumer device designed to help people meditate and attain a calmer headspace. During the photo session, Garten exudes confidence and poise, knowing how to position her face. She seems hyper-aware of her appearance and how she wants to be presented in public, perhaps a reflection of her background in fashion design. After all, Muse is part of the explosion in wearable tech devices used to improve fitness in this case, brain fitness. Wearable tech is one of the fastest-growing categories at Best Buy Canada, according to Elliott Chun, a company spokesperson. Products include the Fitbit, Jawbone and Microsofts Band 2, three fitness and activity trackers, as well as the Apple Watch. Muse also ties in to the mindfulness movement, in which people meditate or undergo therapy to achieve Zen-like, live-in-the-moment states of calm. Several big names have jumped on the Muse train. Actor Ashton Kutcher, Indigo CEO Heather Reisman and Chade-Meng Tan, formerly of Google, have all invested. The $300 device racked up $3.5 million in sales in the last six months of last year, and its sold in 68 countries. Born and raised in Toronto, Garten who as InteraXons chief evangelist officer is the main face of Muse has a wide-ranging background that encompasses neuroscience, a psychotherapy practice and fashion design. The combination seems to have worked. Recognizing that her business skills place her in a select group of high-potential female entrepreneurs in Canada and the U.S., Ernst & Young recently named Garten to the EY Entrepreneurial Winning Women Programs class of 2015, a North American executive education program launched in 2008. The program identifies female business owners to be mentored and given access to resources to help them grow their businesses, obtain capital and develop networks. She is one of four Canadian women to be named. InteraXon, which launched in 2007, gained $300,000 in startup money from the Indiegogo crowdfunding website. In addition, FF Venture Capital, a New York firm, provided $500,000 in seed money in 2012. The company currently has 45 employees. The Muse headband, its sole product at the moment, is made in China. The idea for the Muse headband grew from collaborative work Garten did in 2002 and 2003 with Steve Mann, a computing engineer at the University of Toronto. He had a primitive brain-computer interface system hed built at MIT in the 1990s. While she was running a clothing store, Garten and Mann started to work together in his home laboratory, creating concerts where you could make music with your mind, she says. Thats also where she met Chris Aimone, an InteraXon co-founder. Aimone, who has a masters degree in computer engineering, was a student under Mann at the time. At some point in this adventure I was looking for a way to bring neuroscience tools to the masses, Garten recalls. I went back to the original technology that Id been working with in Steves lab, where we were interacting directly with the world with our minds and hearing what our brains sound like. Aimone and Garten later teamed up with InteraXons other co-founder, Trevor Coleman who has expertise in promotions and marketing and they landed a contract for their first project in 2009. In what the team called the worlds largest thought-controlled computing installation, thousands of members of the public at the Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010 put on headsets developed by InteraXon that enabled them to light up the CN Tower, Niagara Falls and the Parliament buildings. The headsets measured the brains electrical signals and sent out waves received by a computer linked to lighting systems for the three landmarks thousands of kilometres away. After some retooling, the team would develop the Muse, which came to market in the fall of 2014 and is now carried by Best Buy. Muse is getting heavy attention from more than 100 research and scientific institutions, including the Mayo Clinic. Researchers there are investigating the use of Muse to decrease the stress of breast cancer patients awaiting surgery. Muse is being used as a tool elsewhere in work related to post-traumatic stress disorder, attention deficit disorder, anxiety and pain management. Science and art in her DNA Not many 17-year-olds perform DNA analysis while developing a fashion line. My entire life Ive done art and science simultaneously, Garten says. This has always been the dichotomy of my life. She is the daughter of two accomplished parents her mother is well-known artist Vivian Reiss, and her father is Irving Garten, who made his name investing in real estate and restoring historic properties. (In 1998 the Star carried a short story that said there are two kinds of Torontonians: those who get invited to Reiss and Gartens parties, and those who only read about them.) Ariel Gartens story is as much about science and technology as it is about style and self-awareness. When she graduated from Grade 12 at Torontos Northern Secondary School, Garten says, she was proficient in DNA analysis and synthesis, having gone through the institutions biotechnology program. That enabled her to work as a teenager in a lab at the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute, a leading biomedical research centre at Mount Sinai Hospital, where Garten dealt with embryonic stem cells. At the same time she established a line of what she calls edgy clothing that she sold to stores on Queen St. W. and in New York. Garten graduated from the University of Toronto in 2002 with a degree in biology and psychology with a neuroscience designation, and that year opened a clothing store on College St. called Flavour Hall. Revenues werent huge, she says, but she wasnt losing money either. She was getting ample media coverage and was a staple in the citys annual Fashion Week events. Garten says she inherited her creative bent from her mom. In an email, Reiss says that as a mother she also has a son, Joel Garten, now 34 she let her children choose their own direction in life. I didnt send my children to nursery school or junior kindergarten. I felt they were too young to be regimented, so instead I let them create their own paths, which is exactly what Ariel has done. As a child, Ariel would watch me paint: a painting begins on a blank canvas and then a whole world of imagination comes alive on that canvas. I always told Ariel she could do the same if she dreamed of something, it could become tangible Ariel was bold, mature, artistic and grasped concepts quickly. Her career path doesnt surprise me in the least. Garten is also driven by a desire to make a difference, says Coleman, the InteraXon co-founder. She was making sure that we were building an organization and a product that would contribute positively in the world, and improve peoples everyday lives. Garten is four months pregnant with her first child. Shes married to animator and game developer Chris de Castro, 36, who recently created a video game based on Torontos Trinity Bellwoods Park. Garten says her goal is to help people reach a state of glorious calm with Muse, something that could be invaluable for her, too, in the months ahead. My own mission is to teach people that that little voice in your head, the one that makes you feel youre not good enough, that voice that takes us away from the beautiful, peaceful lives we could be living my mission is to help people learn to dialogue with that voice and quiet it when you dont need it. Muse you can use Catching the brains waves EEG sensors in the headband measure the electrical activity of the brain. A free downloadable app compatible with an iPhone or Android device connects to the headband. A recorded voice on the app guides users through meditation. The sound of wind and waves from the app becomes louder the less relaxed you are. Chirping bird sounds reward you for reaching a calm state, and there are scores that rate your overall calmness during sessions. What would Elvis do? Retired Canadian figure skater Elvis Stojko uses Muse. When youre doing meditation, there are still times you get distracted because youre trying to find a place where its quiet, to not focus on anything and control your mind, the 43-year-old says from Virginia, where he is skating professionally in a show. This (device) helps with trying to zone in and (find) that sweet spot Stojko is in talks with InteraXon about a possible promotional agreement. Muse in research Research institutions are turning to Muse for data on brain activity. In a report released this summer, Baycrest Health Sciences, along with the University of Toronto and industry partners, described a large art-science display at Torontos Scotiabank Nuit Blanche in 2013 based on electrical brain signals from 500 adults who wore Muse. The studys authors say the experiment allowed researchers to study brains in a social and multi-sensory environment, which traditional laboratories studying the cognitive functions of one person cant do. Mindful of the facts What is mindfulness? Psychology Today describes mindfulness as a state of active, open attention to the present. It allows you to perceive your thoughts and emotions from a distance, not feeling good or bad about them but neutral. Its based on Buddhist principles and took off in the 1970s. Mindfulness-related meditation and therapy techniques have spread to schools, businesses and hospitals. Mindfulness studies A major 2011 study by Harvard-affiliated researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital found that mindfulness meditation had positive impacts on the human brain. The study obtained MRI images of the brains of 16 healthy individuals unfamiliar with meditation. Those people then participated in an eight-week meditation program. Their grey matter was compared to that of a control group. Brain analysis suggested that meditation is tied to changes in the concentration of grey matter in parts of the brain associated with learning and memory, emotional control, self-examination and gaining perspective. The downside While studies suggest a strong connection between mindfulness and a reduction in stress and depression, experts warn of potential risks. One side-effect, though rare, is depersonalization, an extreme sense of being outside oneself. Traumatic memories can also be triggered, experts warn. And with the booming popularity of mindfulness comes concern that those teaching it may be unqualified or underqualified. SHARE: We value your privacy. Focus Taiwan (CNA) uses tracking technologies to provide better reading experiences, but it also respects readers' privacy. Click here to find out more about Focus Taiwan's privacy policy. When you close this window, it means you agree with this policy. Thousands of security forces are involved in the manhunt for Nashat Melhem, the Israeli Arab citizen who carried out the erev Shabbos shooting attack in the Simta pub on Dizengoff Street. Two people were killed and others left wounded, some in serious condition as a result of the attack. Police on motzei Shabbos report the manhunt continues with the premise Nashat is holed up somewhere in Tel Aviv, not far from the site of the attack. They are also working with the belief that he remains armed with the automatic weapon used in the attack and that he plans to strike again. Despite the immediate threat, schools in the area will open on Sunday, 22 Teves, albeit under heavy security. Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai told the public that any parent who does not feel it is safe to hind his/her child to school should keep the child home. The mayor informed parents that special security arrangements would be in place in education institutions and school trips will carry on without interruption. (YWN Israel Desk, Jerusalem) The prosecution is expected to file criminal indictments against four of the Duma arson suspects in the Lod District Court on Sunday, 22 Teves. It is reported that two of the suspects who will be indicted are minors. The details pertaining to the interrogations and the case are still under a gag order, however authorities are reporting that while some of the suspects who were arrested and interrogated in recent weeks have been released, criminal indictments will soon be handed down against them for other crimes not related to the fatal arson attack. The attack took place last summer in the PA (Palestinian Authority) village of Duma, claiming the lives of three family members and left a small child seriously burned. (YWN Israel Desk, Jerusalem) The terrorist who remains at large following the Friday afternoon shooting attack at a Dizengoff Street pub, Nashat Melhem, 28, remains at large. Police report that he is also likely to have murdered Lod taxi driver Amin Shaban, 42, whose body was found about an hour following the pub attack. Shaban, whose bullet-ridden body was found after the pub attack, is survived by three wives and 14 children. The victims of the pub attack were Alon Bakal HYD and Shimon Ruimi HYD, whose funerals will take place on Sunday afternoon, 22 Teves. (YWN Israel Desk, Jerusalem) Police and the ISA (Israel Security Agency Shin Bet) have no doubt the erev Shabbos terror attack in a pub on Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv carried out by Nashat Melhem, 28, of the northern community of Arara, was planned out to the smallest detail. Police raided the community and Nashats home, confiscating a computer and some of his personal effects. His father, a volunteer policeman, was quick to condemn the attack as were other family members and community leaders. They expressed outrage of Nashats actions and conveyed their condolences to the families of the dead and wounded. They statements were echoed by Arab Members of Knesset. Police arrested Judat Melhem, a brother of the terrorist, who is believed to have assisted Nashat. The Haifa Magistrate Court on motzei Shabbos extended his remains for five days as the investigation continues under a gag order, banning publication of details in the case. Family members explain that Nashat is a disturbed individual. They stress his actions are unacceptable, decrying the shooting attack in the strongest terms. Police feel that Nashat remains at large, in the area of Dizengoff, and he will not hesitate to shoot innocent people again if he has a chance to do so. The manhunt for him continues and security in Tel Aviv remains extremely high in preparation for schools to open on Sunday morning for a new week. Photo: Judat Melhem, the terrorists brother (YWN Israel Desk, Jerusalem / Photo: Medabrim Tikshoret) Yesh Atid party leader Yair Lapid is calling for a police crackdown on illegal guns in the Arab sector. Following the shooting attack in the Tel Aviv pub on erev Shabbos 20 Teves, which was carried out with an automatic weapon, Lapid explained the problem is there are too many illegal weapons in the Israeli Arab sector and no one is doing anything about it. He explained One can buy an illegal gun as easy as one enters a store and buys some seeds (garinim) he explained, calling on Israel Police to enter Israeli Arab municipalities and confiscate the many illegal guns that exist in that community. Lapids call was echoed by Bayit Yehudi MK Moti Yogev, who serves as a member of the Knesset Foreign Affairs & Defense Committee. He also called for more stringent police actions against Israels underworld activities, which also accounts for many illegal guns in the streets. (YWN Israel Desk, Jerusalem) [By Rabbi Yair Hoffman] As many people have seen, there was a story on YWN last week, where inaccurate information concerning the victims of the holocaust was conveyed in a Youtube video by a kiruv Rabbi. At times, well-meaning people might inadvertently convey inaccurate information and these words can hurt people. I had reached out to the Rabbi with the correct and accurate statistics. Below is a retraction and an apology that was made after the Rabbi was shown the correct information, but first a quick thought. There is a concept in Torah called zeh leumas zeh.. That there are parallel opposite forces that exist in the world. When there is great kedushah there is also great tumah. The greatest evil of the past century, of course, was the manifestation of the Nazi beasts who roamed Europe, and virtually wiped out European Jewry. The evil that was the Nazis was a force of tumah impurity that threatened the entire world. How was the world cleansed of this dark and sinister tumah? We are maaminim bnei maaminim, and we have no explanations for the loss of the six million Jews. But the holy Klausenberger Rebbe ztl does explain (Shefa Chaim Vol. II p.239) how the Tumah was removed from the face of the earth. He writes that this Tumah was removed from the earth on account of the six million kedoshim, the holy six million who died. The power of the tumah was broken and removed preparing the way for eventual redemption. The six million Kedoshim hyd, all of them, according to the Klausenberger Rebbe ztl, were the cause of the removal of this dark evil tumah from the world. Their holy memory should always be remembered in kedushah. At the same time, we must realize the important role of the sheris hapleitah the survivors. I remember one such survivor who used to tell me that in his town in Czechoslovakia the shul had been a virtual minyan factory with thousands of people in attendance every day immersed in Tefilos. After the holocaust, he went back to the shul. He and his friend plus eight others were the only survivors. And then he said, Now people complain about the noise of children in shuls. To me they are the most beautiful and joyous sounds in the world. The survivors of Churban Europe, came to these shores and rebuilt. They built yeshivos, day schools, shuls and a Torah-true infrastructure where Judaism and Torah could once again thrive. They also raised families children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. These survivors and rebuilders are truly the greatest generation. It is for these people as well as the six million hyd that the effort was made to correct the erroneous statistic. Below is the apology and retraction of Rabbi Yosef Mizrachi, a man who has also built and brought numerous people back to a Torah lifestyle. It was emailed to this author at [email protected] I wish to apologize for my incorrect statement regarding the six million Kedoshim that were tragically murdered in the Holocaust. In the video that was shown that was from years ago ( it was not current ) only part of what I said was displayed in the entire lecture that was 2 hours I said that I dont know and used the word maybe 5 maybe 3 maybe 1 million we will never know. But now, I have been shown the accurate statistics and I realize that those that were not halachically Jewish were a very small minimal number. I do not wish to offend any of the holocaust survivors or their family members it has never ever been my intention. The Kedoshim of the holocaust need to be remembered and sanctified in the most honorable way possible those who know my lectures over the years know that I published many stories of kidush hashem from the Holocaust. My goal was to wake up our nation to the silent holocaust that is happening now which is the increasing intermarriage cases in usa and the rest of the world. Yosef Mizrachi (Rabbi Yair Hoffman YWN) Indictments were handed down in the Lod District Court on Sunday, 22 Teves against suspects in the Duma arson case including his client, a minor and an adult. The main suspect in the arson case is Jerusalem resident 21-year-old Amiram Ben-Uliel, who was charged with the counts of murder. The name of minors may not be published. One minor was charged with accessory to murder. Two additional minors were charged with violence against Palestinians. The attack, according to the ISA, was to avenge the 2015 murder of Malachi Moshe Rosenfeld HYD, who was killed in a terrorist shooting attack on the Alon Road in 2015. Ben-Uliel was a member in an organization called Givonim, a subset of the Hilltop Youth, a group of Jewish extremists. According to a Shin-Bet statement, the Givonim seek to accomplish their goal of anointing a king over Israel by carrying out a violent coup against the government, and murdering or expelling all non-Jews from Israel. The indictment said that Ben-Uliel was supposed to meet a minor who was to assit him in the arson attack, but had failed to show up. Ben-Uliel instead proceeded on his own and carried the attack out by himself. The fire resulted in the loss of life of three of the family members; 18-month-old Ali Dawabsheh was burned alive in the fire, while both his parents died from their injuries within weeks. Following the indictments, the attorney for one of the minors, Itamar Ben-Givir, told the press My client is innocent, categorically rejecting the indictment. The indictment is not final but the opening of a Pandoras box opened by the ISA (Israel Security Agency Shin Bet). Ben-Givir compared the indictment to past cases in which the ISA came under fire including the 300 bus and accuses the ISA of crossing lines that may not be crossed in desperation to solve the case. I suggest the ISA does not run to celebrate. My client is innocent! My client has not confessed to police. He was broken by torture during the ISA interrogation. If the ISA claims there was no torture, it behooves the ISA to release the recordings of the ISA basements. The minor I am representing is not a murder suspect. My client is innocent and was abused and tortured using sodomy beds and he was beaten. The law stipulates such confessions are inadmissible Note: The 300 bus affair occurred in 1984 when ISA agents shot restrained Arab terrorists immediately following the release of hostages on the bus in Ashdod. This was followed by ISA agents giving false testimony. The case led to a national outcry, the resignation of ISA Director Avraham Shalom and a government investigation committee. (YWN Israel Desk, Jerusalem / Photo: Medabrim Tikshoret) Irans top leader on Sunday warned Saudi Arabia of divine revenge over the execution of an opposition Shiite cleric while Riyadh accused Tehran of supporting terrorism, escalating a war of words hours after protesters stormed the Saudi Embassy in Tehran. Saudi Arabia announced the execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr on Saturday along with 46 others, including three other Shiite dissidents and a number of al-Qaida militants. It was largest mass execution carried out by the kingdom in three and a half decades. Al-Nimr was a central figure in protests by Saudi Arabias Shiite minority until his arrest in 2012, and his execution drew condemnation from Shiites across the region. Irans Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei condemned the execution Sunday in a statement on his website, saying al-Nimr neither invited people to take up arms nor hatched covert plots. The only thing he did was public criticism. Irans powerful Revolutionary Guard said Saudi Arabias medieval act of savagery in executing the cleric would lead to the downfall of the countrys monarchy. Saudi Arabias Foreign Ministry said that by condemning the execution, Iran had revealed its true face represented in support for terrorism. The statement, carried by the official Saudi Press Agency, accused Tehran of blind sectarianism and said that by its defense of terrorist acts Iran is a partner in their crimes in the entire region. Al-Nimr was convicted of terrorism charges but denied ever advocating violence. Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran are locked in a bitter rivalry, and support opposite sides in the wars in Syria and Yemen. Iran accuses Saudi Arabia of supporting terrorism in part because it backs Syrian rebel groups, while Riyadh points to Irans support for the Lebanese Hezbollah and other Shiite militant groups in the region. The Iranian Foreign Ministry has summoned the Saudi envoy in Tehran to protest, while the Saudi Foreign Ministry later said it had summoned Irans envoy to the kingdom to protest Irans criticism of the execution, saying it represented blatant interference in its internal affairs. In Tehran, the crowd gathered outside the Saudi Embassy early Sunday and chanted anti-Saudi slogans. Some protesters threw stones and Molotov cocktails at the embassy, setting off a fire in part of the building, said the countrys top police official, Gen. Hossein Sajedinia, according to the semiofficial Tasnim news agency. He later said police had removed the protesters from the building and arrested some of them, adding that the situation had been defused. Hours later, Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi said 40 people had been arrested on suspicion of taking part in the embassy attack and investigators were pursuing other suspects, according to the semi-official ISNA news agency. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, while condemning Saudi Arabias execution of al-Nimr, also branded those who attacked the Saudi Embassy as extremists. It is unjustifiable, he said in a statement. By 4 p.m., some 400 protesters had gathered in front of the embassy despite a call by the government for them to protest at a square in central Tehran. Later, hundreds also gathered at the central square. Street signs on the street where the Saudi Embassy is located in Tehran also were replaced with ones bearing the slain sheikhs name. Tehran authorities could not be immediately reached to discuss the new name. Protests also took place in Beirut, as Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah called al-Nimr the martyr, the holy warrior. Meanwhile, Al-Nimrs supporters in eastern Saudi Arabia prepared for three days of mourning at a mosque in al-Awamiya, some 390 kilometers (240 miles) northeast from the capital, Riyadh, in the kingdoms al-Qatif region. However, the sheikhs brother, Mohammed al-Nimr, told The Associated Press that Saudi officials told his family that the cleric was already buried in an undisclosed cemetery. The clerics execution could also complicate Saudi Arabias relationship with the Shiite-led government in Iraq. The Saudi Embassy in Baghdad is preparing to formally reopen for the first time in nearly 25 years. Already on Saturday there were public calls for Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to shut the embassy down again. Al-Abadi tweeted Saturday night that he was shocked and saddened by al-Nimrs execution, adding that peaceful opposition is a fundamental right. Repression does not last. On Sunday, Iraqs top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, called al-Nimr a martyr and said his blood and that of other Shiite protesters was unjustly and aggressively shed. Hundreds of al-Nimrs supporters also protested in his hometown of al-Qatif in eastern Saudi Arabia, in neighboring Bahrain where police fired tear gas and bird shot, and as far away as northern India. The last time Saudi Arabia carried out a mass execution on this scale was in 1980, when the kingdom executed 63 people convicted over the 1979 seizure of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Islams holiest city. Extremists held the mosque, home to the cube-shaped Kaaba toward which Muslims around the world pray, for two weeks as they demanded the royal family abdicate the throne. Also Sunday, the BBC reported that one of the 47 executed in Saudi Arabia, Adel al-Dhubaiti, was convicted over a 2004 attack on its journalists in Riyadh. That attack by a gang outside of the home of a suspected al-Qaida militant killed 36-year-old Irish cameraman Simon Cumbers. British reporter Frank Gardner, now the BBCs security correspondent, was seriously wounded in the attack and paralyzed, but survived. (AP) Demonstrations erupted across the Middle East Sunday as Shiite Muslims protested Saudi Arabias execution of prominent Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr. Protesters in the Iranian capital, Tehran, broke into the Saudi embassy early Sunday morning setting fires and throwing papers from the roof before being dispersed by police. Demonstrations also took place in Bahrain, Turkey, Pakistan and northern India. By Sunday afternoon crowds of protesters had gathered outside Saudi embassies in Beirut and Tehran, and protests were expected in al-Nimrs hometown of al-Qatif in eastern Saudi Arabia. Al-Nimrs execution adds a rancorous new chapter to the ongoing Sunni-Shiite struggle that continues to play out across the Middle East with Iran and Saudi Arabia as the primary antagonists. Heres a look at the aftermath and the regional implications. ___ WHO WAS SHEIKH NIMR AL-NIMR? Al-Nimr, who was in his 50s, was a widely revered Shiite Muslim cleric from eastern Saudi Arabia who was convicted in Oct. 2014 of sedition and other charges and sentenced to death. He was an outspoken government critic and a key leader of Shiite protests in eastern Saudi Arabia in 2011. He was also a critic of the government of Bahrain, where a Sunni-led monarchy suppressed protests by Shiites who make up the majority of the tiny island nation. Saudi Arabia sent troops to help Bahrain crush the uprising, concerned it would spread and destabilize other Arab Gulf countries. Al-Nimr, however, also spoke out against the Iranian-backed government in Syria for killing protesters there. He directly criticized the Al Saud ruling family for its domestic policies and forcefully spoke out against individual royal family members. Al-Nimr did not deny the political charges against him, but maintained he never carried weapons or called for violence. ___ WHY IS HIS EXECUTION IMPORTANT? His death is seen by some as a warning to anyone thinking of calling for reforms and wider political freedoms in Saudi Arabia. His death also strikes a sensitive chord for Saudi Shiites who claim they are discriminated against by authorities in the kingdom, where many ultraconservatives Sunnis view Shiites as heretics. Several Shiites mosques and places of worship were targeted by Sunni extremists in 2015 in eastern Saudi Arabia, despite attempts by security forces to clamp down on Islamic State group supporters who have also targeted police. Al-Nimrs execution came as a surprise to even his own family, his brother Mohammed al-Nimr told The Associated Press. Despite harsh verdicts against government critics, activists are typically given long jail sentences even after initial appeals that uphold death sentences. His death is expected to further exacerbate the proxy wars for regional supremacy being fought across the region by Saudi Arabia and Iran. The two rival nations currently back opposing sides in civil wars in both Syria and Yemen. ___ HOW WILL THIS IMPACT SUNNI-SHIITE RELATIONS? Irans Shiite clerics have used al-Nimrs death to lash out at Saudi Arabia, which is founded upon an ultraconservative Sunni ideology known as Wahhabism. Many extremist Wahhabis regard all Shiites as heretics. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned Riyadh of divine revenge and both Saudi and Iran summoned each others diplomatic envoys in protest. Iran and Saudi have been vying for leadership in the Muslim world since Irans 1979 revolution, which elevated to power hard-line Shiite clerics. The U.S. war in Iraq further enflamed religious and ethnic tensions by leading to a Shiite-led government in Baghdad and a crucial shift in the sectarian balance of power in the region. After Arab Spring protests erupted in 2011, Saudi Arabia and Iran entered into a fierce proxy war in Syria, where they are supporting opposite sides of the conflict, and in Yemen, where Saudi Arabia has been bombing Iranian-allied rebels since March. They also support opposing political groups in Lebanon, Iraq and Bahrain. (AP) At the start of the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, 22 Teves, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu released the following statement in the presence of the media. The security forces the ISA and the Israel Police are continuing to search for the Tel Aviv murderer. A major effort in the field is being made by many forces; there are continuous intelligence efforts. This effort is also being made with the assistance of Israeli civilians who are showing awareness and responsibility. I will ask the Public Security Minister to deliver a short briefing and I would also like to update you on something else. When we formed the government, I asked Minister Erdan, and afterwards the Commissioner of Israel Police, to make a major effort to change something which has prevailed in the State of Israel for almost 70 years and this is the absence of law enforcement in the Arab sector. The citizens themselves are suffering there; they are suffering from increasing crime, and all citizens of Israel are suffering from the incitement and the violence, which is both criminal and nationalistic, that harms all citizens of Israel. Therefore, this effort is a genuine effort. We have decided to make this change and promote the enforcement of the law in all areas: In construction laws that are not being enforced at all, in the laws regarding the noise that we hear from mosques, in the incitement from mosques, and of course on social media and, sadly, in the education system, and the basic matter of collecting illegal weapons that are found in very great quantities in the Arab sector. This activity has started, it will be carried out, it will be carried out in the coming days and it will gather momentum, because we will make a very great effort so that the State of Israel will be a unified nation of law. This is the right thing. I am not impressed by the criticism on this issue. This is right for all citizens of Israel Arabs and Jews alike. Enforcing the law is the lifes breath of democracy, of the rule of law. We are not restricting it to one sector and we are not focusing on only one sector. This morning two indictments will be filed against those involved in the Duma affair. We are against murder of any kind. We are against violence of any kind. We are against violations of the law wherever they occur. We are a state of law and we will enforce the law throughout the State of Israel and vis-a-vis all citizens of Israel. (YWN Israel Desk, Jerusalem) On New Years Eve, The Mail on Sundays Personal Finance team did an obligatory team hug and came up with their financial resolutions for the year. Here they are everything from switching bank accounts to getting rich on homemade cider. Happy New Year to you all. Taste of the future: Toby enlists his children Sophia and Harrison to press apples TOBY WALNE Make cider A healthy drink problem is a condition I have nursed for many years partly fuelled by my love of homebrew. Modern beer kits come in a rich range of varieties my favourites being Indian pale ales. With a little patience and a good dose of luck, I can produce a fine tipple that costs me less than 50p a pint and guarantees a good nights sleep. My love of homebrew is in no small part fuelled by the close proximity of the May & Brett store in Great Dunmow, Essex. Whenever I visit (which is too often), it is like being transported back in time to an episode of BBC sitcom Open All Hours starring the wonderful pairing of Ronnie Barker and David Jason. The big difference is that at May & Brett, master brewer Julian May is on hand to help me spend my money rather than the penny-pinching Arkwright. Having tooled up with all manner of alcohol-making contraptions in recent years everything from brew belts to telescopic syphons a shiny aluminium and stainless steel invention in the shop window caught my eye just before Christmas. I was looking at a 100 fruit press that would help turn all those windfall apples I had seen in my neighbourhood into a refreshing drink. Over the Christmas period I have spent time with the family slicing, pulping and crushing a barrel of apples resulting in 20 pints of apple juice. By next summer, I will know if my quest to make potent homemade cider has succeeded or failed. Time to register Walne Ciders Ltd at Companies House. SALLY HAMILTON Reorganise my savings Promises:Sally Hamilton wants to see if she can earn better interest on her savings Over the past decade I have built a decent pot of savings with Nationwide Building Society. But it has not been given enough love. This year, I aim to put that right. I rang Nationwide last week to get details of the interest I am earning on my savings I couldnt find this information on its website because my accounts are quite old. I found my cash Isa earns a paltry 0.5 per cent while money in my easy access loyalty saver account earns 1.2 per cent. Surely I can do better? Anna Bowes, savings whizz at the website SavingsChampion, says I definitely can. She says: The loyalty saver deal isnt too bad but you could instead put the money into RCI Banks easy access Freedom account paying 1.65 per cent. My only reservation is that the bank is French and my money will not be covered by the UKs Financial Services Compensation Scheme if the bank were to go bust. The scheme promises to refund savings of up to 75,000 held with one UK provider within seven days of it going in to liquidation. Bowes says this should not worry me too much as the French bank is part of a similar scheme that covers savings up to 100,000 currently the equivalent of about 74,000. But for peace of mind she suggests an online account with British challenger bank Virgin Money at 1.41 per cent (Defined Access e-saver Issue 4). Bowes also recommends Premium Bonds from National Savings. With my savings, and assuming average luck, I could earn 450 a year from my pot. That is actually less than I get from Nationwide but there is always the chance remote though it may be of winning a lot more. Apparently I have a 2.6 per cent chance of winning 1,000 or more. As for my Isa, Bowes says my poor deal can easily be improved upon. She points to Post Office Money cash Isa (Online Easy Access) paying 1.51 per cent. But Ill need to be on the ball this time next year as this deal includes a 0.86 per cent bonus for the first 12 months. I will need to switch again in a years time. LAURA SHANNON Switch bank account Switch: Maybe it is time to act on the same advice that I regularly dish out to readers, says Laura Shannon Two years ago I tried out the Current Account Switch Service, which automatically transfers all your incoming and outgoing payments from one bank account to another. Attracted by cashback and savings rates under Santanders 123 Account, the joint account I have with my husband was moved over from NatWest within the seven working day timeframe. But my personal current account, my pot of play money, remains with Lloyds Bank with whom I have had a relationship going back 20 years. Maybe it is time to act on the same advice that I regularly dish out to readers and switch this account too. 'Shameful': Jeff Prestridge says that some weeks he doesn't go at all to the gym Tesco Bank recently scrapped its monthly account fee and minimum monthly income rules for current account customers. It pays 3 per cent on balances up to 3,000 and provides Clubcard points for most spending on its debit card. It is a strong contender for my current account business since most other leading accounts require minimum monthly payments I cannot meet. JEFF PRESTRIDGE Using the gym membership I pay for The life of a journalist is unhealthy long hours sitting in front of a computer screen munching through snacks, swilled down with coffee. To make matters worse, my running has come to a shuddering stop because of my encounter this time last year with Australias canine equivalent of Zoltan, Hound of Dracula, who took a chunk out of my leg. Yet I still have a gym membership which makes a big dent in my bank balance. Some weeks, I dont go at all. Shameful. Inexcusable. A waste of money as my colleague Toby Walne, a fan of yoga teachers and personal trainers, keeps reminding me. So, this year is going to be the year when I really get value for money from my gym membership. Im going to join a spinning class, use the running machine until the rubber burns and finish it all off with a swim and a glorious steam. I might even spoil myself in a sauna. All landlords should be licensed and those who are renting out unsafe homes should be blacklisted, a major report urges. The study by Citizens Advice and the New Policy Institute entitled Paying A High Price For A Faulty Product calculates that more than 700,000 tenants in the private rented sector are living in homes that fail to meet basic minimum standards. Thousands of rogue landlords are renting out substandard properties with serious hazards ranging from rat infestations and damp to unsafe electrics. Fiend: Leonard Rossiter playing landlord Rigsby in Rising Damp Citizens Advice is now pushing for the licensing of all landlords. It also supports a proposal to ban those who continue to rent out homes that are not safe for habitation. Anyone in England including those with criminal records can currently rent property to private tenants and there are no restrictions for those without experience in the field. There is also no official list of rented properties or their tenants. The only exception relates to houses which are rented out for multiple occupancy. Landlords of this category of property need a licence. Housing campaigners have long called for either a national register of landlords or for all those who rent out properties to be licensed. They say these measures would improve standards in the private rented sector and weed out rogue landlords. The lack of a register or licensing scheme is only the case in England. Scotland has had a landlord registration scheme since 2006 while last month Wales introduced Rent Smart Wales, giving landlords a year to register and provide accurate up-to-date information about themselves and their rental properties. 'WE HAD ENDLESS TROUBLE WITH DAMP' Problems: Sofie Ford says her landlord took advantage of her lack of knowledge Recent graduate Sofie Ford had her final year of studies blighted by landlord problems. Sofie, 22, left Manchester Metropolitan University last year with a degree in French and Italian. For her final year, she and six friends found a house before going home for the summer of 2014. She dropped off some of her possessions a couple of weeks before term started, but by the time she moved in they were covered in mould. She says: We expected the landlord to make sure the place was liveable when we moved in. But the problems did not end there. Sofie adds: We had ongoing problems with damp. We were only provided with one small dehumidifier to share between the seven of us, which didnt help very much. Workmen kept coming and going while the students electricity bills racked up fast. Sofie says: We wondered if the workmen were the cause of this from plugging in all their tools. When we approached the landlord he was unwilling to give us any money towards the bills. We also had water coming through the ceiling on a regular basis apparently caused by the occupants of the upstairs flat taking a shower. This problem was never fixed, despite the landlord sending a workman round five times. She adds: As students new to renting, we probably didnt ask all the right questions and do all the right checks. The landlord took advantage of our lack of knowledge. In England, councils already have powers to tackle bad landlords, including the issuing of improvement notices and prohibition orders, backed up with prosecutions. But Seb Klier, policy manager at website Generation Rent, says a national licensing scheme would allow local authorities to streamline their enforcement procedures. Normally, if a landlord is found to be letting an unsafe home, the council must spend months building a case, he says. But under a licensing scheme two things happen a landlord with a licence has it revoked if they are in breach of its terms and one without would be prosecuted immediately. Since 2010, local authorities have had the power to introduce selective licensing of privately rented homes to address issues such as antisocial behaviour and tenant safety. So far about 50 councils have introduced such schemes and many more are considering doing so and are engaged in consultations. In these areas landlords have to buy a licence for each property they let. Charges are set locally and are typically 500 for a five-year licence, but can be as much as 1,000. In Newham, East London, more than 40 per cent of housing is privately rented and since 2013 the council has required every landlord to obtain a licence. Newham Council has banned 25 landlords in the past two years and is keeping an eye on a further 1,000. The council has pursued 472 prosecutions against landlords, with the highest fine being 30,000. But councils keen to implement borough-wide licensing now have more hoops to jump through. Since April this year, councils have needed Government approval for licensing schemes covering more than 20 per cent of the local authority area. Many landlords argue that licensing is a revenue-generating ploy which does little to improve standards in the private rented sector. Chris Norris, head of policy at the National Landlords Association, says: Its not a solution because landlords dont cause antisocial behaviour and have limited powers to prevent it from occurring in their properties other than by eviction, which simply moves the problem on to other areas. The Residential Landlords Association believes licensing would trigger higher rents. David Smith, policy director, says: What is missing is not more powers, but ensuring local authorities have the capacity and resources to enforce the powers already at their disposal. He says tenants should have to give details of their landlord when they register for council tax, which would identify all landlords and enable the enforcement of regulations. Resolutions: Adam Marshall With markets erratic, confidence down and global uncertainly growing, the last thing entrepreneurs need as they plan for 2016 is more trouble from Westminster and Whitehall, say small business leaders. So here, a leading policy chief gives the Chancellor five New Year resolutions to consider if he really wants to show he is on the side of growing firms. 1. NO NEW BUSINESS TAXES: With the Apprenticeship Levy, the National Living Wage, pensions auto-enrolment and other levies set to clobber them, firms face a huge up-front tax burden. Ministers rushed to freeze taxes for individuals before the Election, but businesses are paying the price. Enough is enough. 2. FIX RATES: It is astonishing that Ministers spent 2015 changing who gets to spend business rates, rather than reforming a broken punitive charging system. The coming year needs to be the one when they finally grasp the nettle and introduce real fixes. 3. THINK STABILITY: Last year saw three big Budget speeches, with lots of tax changes and added complexity. In 2016, stop tinkering. Use the promised Business Tax Roadmap to give firms some much-needed stability on tax rates and reporting, so they can focus on sales. 4. SHOW MORE FAIRNESS: Companies shouldnt feel like theyre guilty until proven innocent in the Revenues eyes. As well as changing the culture, Ministers should reverse the new, punitive and wrong-headed tax on payments to businesses that win cases for restitution from the taxman. 5. SUPPORT COMPANIES: Revenue & Customs should abandon the target-driven enforcement campaigns that trip up well-meaning firms. Resources should be spent on greater support wherever possible. Enforcement should be about wilful evasion and big numbers, not punishing those who make unintentional mistakes. A4E founder and ex chairwoman Emma Harrison A4E, the welfare-to-work agency rocked by fraud allegations which led to the resignation of its founder and chairwoman Emma Harrison in 2012, saw turnover fall but profits quadruple last year. The firm, which is a key partner to government schemes, said the number of UK jobseekers referred to it was falling due to the economic recovery, but that it was seeing an increase in its Australian operation. In the last set of accounts before it was bought by rival Staffline Group, A4E recorded turnover of 166million in the year to March 2015, down from 189million, and profits of 9.2million, up from 2.3million, due mainly to a fall in operating expenses. Harrison, who has appeared in TVs Secret Millionaire, set up A4E in 1991 but resigned after six staff were jailed and four received suspended sentences for falsifying the number of people helped back into work. Harrison, who stepped down as David Camerons families tsar, was also criticised for taking an 8.6million dividend from A4E on top of her 365,000-a-year salary. Charities supported by the Prince of Wales were boosted by 3million last year thanks to sales of Duchy Originals products. More than 300 organic products are sold under the branding, which was launched by Prince Charles in 1992, so that every product is good, does good and tastes good. For the past five years Duchy Originals has partnered with Waitrose, giving the supermarket the exclusive licence to make, promote and sell its products in its UK stores as well as via third parties and online. Exclusive: Waitrose is licensed to sell Prince Charless products Company accounts for Duchy Originals for the year ending March 31, 2015, show that Waitrose paid it 3.2million for the privilege. Government hopes that exports would finally begin to power ahead are set to take a knock this week when a key survey from the British Chambers of Commerce is expected to reveal a gloomy outlook. The report due on Thursday will show that the balance of manufacturers reporting improved export sales in the final three months of 2015 has dropped to its lowest level in six years leaving manufacturing facing an extended period of stagnation. It will come as a blow to Chancellor George Osborne, who has repeatedly stressed the importance of boosting exports as a means of rebalancing the economy away from services. Exports have been adversely affected by sterlings strength and the weakness of European economies. Blow: George Osborne has repeatedly stressed the importance of boosting exports as a means of rebalancing the economy away from service BCC director general John Longworth has called on the Government to fix the fundamentals of skills, infrastructure and access to capital to boost manufacturing. The BCC has already downgraded its economic forecast for Gross Domestic Product growth in 2016 from 2.7 per cent to 2.5 per cent. Longworth said: This was mainly due to our persistently weak trade performance and the impact of falling global prospects on our manufacturing sector. The Quarterly Economic Survey is the biggest survey of its kind in the UK, with responses from more than 7,000 businesses. Meanwhile, UK Trade & Investment, the quango tasked with ensuring the success of British businesses in international markets, is coming under growing scrutiny. For information about utilizing one of these articles in your publication, contact the author at kat@tiedyetravels.com. Copyright 2007 - 2022 by Kat Robinson. Author retains all electronic and publishing rights, except where express given permission has been granted. Sign up for our amNY Sports email newsletter to get insights and game coverage for your favorite teams By Bill Parry Queens lawmakers are welcoming the news that all non-union city employees will receive six weeks of paid parental leave for maternity, paternity, adoption and foster care at 100 percent salary beginning in 2016, thanks to an executive order from Mayor Bill de Blasio. The new terms will apply to more than 20,000 managers and staffers as of Jan. 1. Too many parents face an impossible choice: taking care of their child or getting their paycheck, de Blasio said. New York City is leading by example, putting us at the forefront of paid parental leave policies around the country. This is a common sense policy that will make for healthier and more financially stable working families, making it good for employees and employers. Combined with existing sick and vacation leave, some employees will be eligible for 12 weeks, total. Under current policy, new parents must use paid sick days to compensate for missed time during pregnancy or after the birth of a child. With Mayor de Blasios action bringing paid parental leave to city workers, the city of New York joins more than 163 countries in providing paid leave to women for childbirth, adoption or foster care, U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-Astoria) said. Unfortunately, the federal government is tied for last with Papua New Guinea. Its really shocking to think that the strongest economy in the world cannot bring itself to provide the paid parental leave that families desperately need. Maloney introduced the Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave Act last year. She is still working to build support for the bill, but there has been no action as of yet. This is not only wrong, its bad for our economy, Maloney said. Smart paid leave policies improve employee retention, boost productivity and more. Studies have found that families that benefit from paid leave are less likely to receive public assistance, and that the program can substantially reduce infant mortality rates and improve a childs overall health, officials say. The mayors executive order was well received among the boroughs elected officials. The arrival of a child is one of the most important milestones in any persons life, and the first few weeks are critical as the family bonds and learns how to manage their new relationship, City Councilwoman Julissa Ferreras-Copeland (D-East Elmhurst) said. Having a parental leave policy that supports New York City families as they grow demonstrates at its core what our mayor and this city value. Councilman I. Daneek Miller (D-St. Albans), the chairman of the Committee on Civil Service and Labor, called the announcement a victory for working families. The installment of paid paternal leave for 20,000 municipal employees sets a higher standard of dignity as we seek to craft a more progressive and compassionate city, he said. All New Yorkers deserve to carry out their familial responsibilities without risking financial jeopardy. The new benefit will come at no cost to city taxpayers, estimated to be about $15 million annually, by taking back two vacation days. The city will also redact a planned 0.47 percent raise planned for non-union managerial workers for July 2017. The new policy does not extend to the citys 300,000 union employees. Any changes to their existing contracts must be negotiated through collective bargaining. Councilman Donovan Richards (D-Laurelton), a new father of his first child, said too many parents are forced to leave their child in someone elses care to they can rush back to work. Mothers and fathers across the city can now take a breath after the long nine-month journey of pregnancy and begin to care for the newest member of their family with a lot less stress and a lot more sleep, Richards said. I hope to see more cities across the country follow the lead of New York City. Beaver County COVID-19 cases and deaths tracker New coronavirus cases increased 6.6% in Pennsylvania in the week ending Sunday as the state added 13,256 cases. The previous week had 12,431 new cases of the virus that causes COVID-19. VOLLEYBALL ROUNDUP: Holliday clinches third straight district title Check out results from Monday's and Tuesday's high school volleyball action, including a district title for the Holliday Lady Eagles. Christopher Walker/Times Record News The entrance of the Canyon Trail housing addition seen Thursday in Wichita Falls. Many current residents are resistant to development at the entrance of this community. The land has been available for commercial development, but remained vacant since the beginning of the development more than 20 years ago. SHARE By Claire Kowalick of the Times Record News For more than 20 years residents of the Canyon Trails area have enjoyed its open design and relative wilderness. A proposal to rezone and develop a portion of land by the front entrance has become a point of contention in recent months, with no happy ending in sight. Rhone Properties originally purchased and developed the area 22 years ago and built about 75 percent of the houses in the area. The 134 acres near the entrance is zoned for a commercial use, congregate living center (assisted living) or a professional office park. While left vacant so far, Rhone said this land was never meant to remain empty. At a Nov. 11 Wichita Falls Planning and Zoning Commission meeting, he said the land has been available for commercial development the whole time, and he has heard from many interested through the years. In 2015 alone, he said, two developers were interested in the area but not for commercial development. Gary Mehan, owner of GM Properties, purchased the area in question in 2015 from Rhone. He felt residential building was a better fit for the area than commercial development and would not have a negative effect on property values in the area. But commercial development, he said, was more likely to increase traffic and influence property values. Mehan stated at the meeting that he thought the switch from general commercial zoning to residential would be an easy change, but he was quickly met with opposition from residents of the area. Noting a demand for zero-lot residential homes in Wichita Falls, Mehan proposes to build several of these houses and possibly some self-storage units near the Canyon Trails entrance off Seymour Highway. At a community meeting Oct. 31, Mehan said his engineer, Jim Biggs, created a plan that incorporated zero-lot houses plus eight to 10 storage units. The area would be fenced, but it would not be separated from the rest of the Canyon Trails area, with a rock wall between the units and current homes. Mehan stated that his business would develop the land, street infrastructure and fencing, the houses themselves would be sold off to other builders, but structures would have to follow regulations for the area including minimum house side, building material and roof pitch. Mehan said if there was strong opposition to the storage-unit portion of the plan, they could delete it. During the planning stage, 200 property owners were notified of the development plan with a survey about the proposal. Eighty-five responses were returned with 26 in favor of the idea and 59 opposed. The planning commission deleted the self-storage unit idea from the plan and again sent out the survey to 200 residents. Of the responses, seven were in favor of the project, 23 were opposed, six had no opinion, and four were opposed but the document was not notarized. Complaints from homeowners stemmed from possible devaluation of property, decrease in aesthetic appear at the front entrance, traffic and safety concerns. Resident Dr. Howard Harper said his home sits on a hill overlooking the area in question and he feels commercial use would be more suitable than zero-lot houses and would cause less traffic. Harper said a restaurant, laundromat or medical office park might be welcome additions. Brady Beshear expressed concerns of traffic congestion due to the denser grouping of houses at the entrance. He continued that when he purchased his home, Rhone expressed that the vacant area by the entrance was going to be a professional office park. The rezoning plan was brought forth to the WFPZC November meeting and more than a dozen Canyon Trails residents spoke about the matter. Mehan said the average house price in the area is valued at $312,563. The zero-lot houses proposed would be about 2,000-2,500 square-feet, set on lots of about 7,500 square-feet each, with comparable price-per-foot as the other homes in Canyon Trails. Resident Brian Hasse commented that a marketing brochure for Canyon Trails paints of picture of a "Texas wild scape," with 50 acres of open area, a five-acre lake, hiking trails and natural beauty. Hasse said a stone wall near the entrance contradicts the open concept of the location. He felt disappointed that there were many things promised the residents of Canyon Trails that have not stood the test of time. The Rev. Tom Wisdom said any further building in the area would be overdevelopment. The addition of zero-lot homes would add 50-60 more cars in the area and a blind curve on Canyon Trails Drive could cause traffic accidents. Chairman James Wingo recommended that they allow the application as presented by Mehan. He continued that the area has been available for sale and development since the inception of the community and while the residents are satisfied with the open area, the plan always allowed for development. Commissioner Jeff Browning stated that there seemed to be no happy resolution to the issue as residents would be opposed to any development at the entrance. In a final vote, all seven voting commissioners voted against the application request. The case will go before Wichita Falls City Council at their meeting Tuesday with a public hearing and ordinance proposal for rezoning of the 134.73 acres. If approved, the ordinance would allow for residential building on these parcels and remove the use of congregate living center or professional office park in the purchased area. Christopher Walker/Times Record News Tom Whaylen, President of the Sheppard Military Affairs Committee. Whaylen will be stepping down as the head of SMAC, serving part-time until a new president takes over. SHARE Tom Whaylen, president of the Sheppard Military Affairs Committee, looks over several framed Euro-NATO Joint Jet Training Program patches he has collected over the years. Whaylen will be stepping down as the head of SMAC, serving part time until a new president takes over. One of SMACs goals is gaining new member-nations to the jet training program. Christopher Walker/Times Record News By Claire Kowalick of the Times Record News For nearly a decade, Sheppard Military Affairs Committee President Tom Whaylen has been an advocate for Sheppard Air Force Base. After a lifetime of service to the Air Force and community, Whaylen is looking forward to some much-deserved down time. Whaylen will be retiring as committee president, but will still be fulfilling the role part time and training the next person for the position. Born and raised in north-central Oklahoma, he joined the Air Force after college and served 28 years with his last assignment at Sheppard. After retiring from the Air Force, he took a position as the Midwestern State University director of Career and Testing Services and then worked for five years with a Department of Defense contractor before stepping in as the head of the committee. A committee president serves as the go-between for the base and surrounding community. Sheppard represents more than 20 percent of the area's economy, more than $1.08 billion annually and is the leading employer in area providing more than 15,000 military and civilian jobs. Beginning in 2006, Whaylen built the position from the ground up serving as a spokesman for Sheppard to both area residents and the DOD. "We work with the community to do everything we can to support missions at Sheppard," Whaylen said. Along with serving as a liaison to the community, committee representatives visit with officials to ensure that Sheppard remains a vital cog in the DOD wheel. At least once a year, the team goes to Washington, D.C., to visit representatives at Capitol Hill and the Pentagon. "Because of SMAC team efforts, they are very aware of Sheppard Air Force Base" Whaylen said. An area where Whaylen remains ever vigilant is awareness of future Base Realignment and Closure programs. According to a DOD website, beginning in 2005, BRAC was enforced to reorganize base structure to "more efficiently and effectively support our forces, increase operational readiness and facilitate new ways of doing business." In 2005, a BRAC at Sheppard moved the medical training mission causing a $48 million annual loss to the area. Federal fiscal year budgets in 2013 and 2015 included BRAC plans, but funding was not in place to carry out these plans. Still, the threat of a future BRAC looms heavy on the horizon. A recent Air Force study of bases noted areas of concern that might denote places primed for cutbacks. The catastrophic drought for four years in North Texas area put a "red dot" on Sheppard due to fears of reduced access to water supply. After rains in late spring replenished water supplies, Wichita Falls and Sheppard officials met with the Air Force base study team and laid to rest any concerns about the future of the base. Another accomplishment in Whaylen's term is the progress of the Joint Land Use Study. City, county and military officials from miles around pulled together to assign and accomplish goals to best support a good relationship between Sheppard and surrounding communities. This level of cooperation between civilian and military needs is somewhat unique to our area, he said. Whaylen said in the time since the creation of the study, the city of Wichita Falls has used its success as a template for getting tasks accomplished. One of the study's goals that is coming to fruition is the need for better security at Sheppard's main gate. A state grant and matching city funds are going toward the beginning stage of a $30 million security and transportation project at the gate. The new committee president will have plenty of projects to stay on top of, Whaylen said, as the threat of BRAC remains a possibility. "There is a good change of another BRAC happening. Using past time lines, it will probably happen in 2019," he said. Ongoing missions include attracting new missions for Sheppard and more member nations at the Euro-NATO Joint Jet Training Program. This year is a momentous one primed for celebration with the 75th anniversary of the Air Force, 50th anniversary of Germany training at SAFB and 35th anniversary of the Euro-NATO Joint Jet Training Program. Whaylen said he will work part time to help prepare the next president for all these tasks, but is looking forward to some time for himself. He said he has not had time to prepare any definite retirement plans, but wants to travel the world. "I worked 28-plus years in the military and then another 10 doing other things. I'm still mobile, I can do things, it's just time for me to do some of those things before I can't," he said. The position for Sheppard Military Affairs Committee president remains open. Job responsibilities and qualifications can be viewed at http://www.smacntx.org/. SHARE State Sen. Craig Estes By Christopher Collins of the Times Record News State Sen. Craig Estes, R-Wichita Falls, may use his recent appointment as chairman of the Senate committee overseeing the state's natural resources and economic development to loosen red tape for developers, he said. Estes, who previously served as vice chairman of the Committee on Natural Resources & Economic Development, recently was appointment chairman, replacing Sen. Troy Fraser, R-Horeshoe Bay. Estes told the Times Record News the committee may tackle a "cumbersome" state permitting process that's costing Texas millions in business deals to other states, such as Louisiana. "Our permitting process for big projects in the state is through TCEQ (the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality), and we've heard from a lot of people that the process is slow and cumbersome," he said. "We're losing a lot of deals to Louisiana, which has more streamlined permitting." Also on Estes' radar are tax revenues from oil industry, which may drop if oil prices don't rise soon. He said the state relies on taxes paid to the state by oil producers to bolster its budget. "The oil and gas industry provides a huge amount of our revenue," he said. "If oil continues to be in a depressed price, it'll definitely have an effect on our state budget." Other members of the committee include Brian Birdwell, Bob Hall, Kelly Hancock, Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa, Eddie Lucio Jr., Robert Nichols, Carlos Uresti, Kel Seliger and Judith Zaffirini. Estes also is a member of the Senate Committees on State Affairs, Nominations, and Health and Human Services. MALTA -- State Police charged three people in separate incidents related to marijuana possession during a fixed sobriety checkpoint on New Year's Eve. Also, a trooper on patrol after the checkpoint was dismantled charged a Clifton Park man with felony driving while intoxicated on I-87 in Malta. John Olsen, 25, was stopped and refused to submit to a chemical test. He has a previous DWI conviction in the last 10 years, so he faces the felony DWI charge as well as several traffic infractions, troopers said. Colonie If we can predict anything with certainty about 2016, it's that politics will dominate much of the news. It is, after all, a presidential election year. So here, then, are some political questions that loom as the year begins. Will New York's primary really matter? And if so, will Donald Trump win it? More Information Contact Chris Churchill at 518-454-5442 or email cchurchill@timesunion.com See More Collapse It's still early, of course, but the Republican presidential candidate sure doesn't look like it will be decided by April 19, the day New York votes. That means the state's GOP voters could, for once, play a key role in deciding who gets the nomination. Which brings us to Trump the only New Yorker left in the Republican campaign. Will he stick with the race through April if he suffers a few early losses? How would he fare with New York voters? A loss in his home state would be mightily embarrassing to a man who isn't easily embarrassed. The Democratic race, meanwhile, seems likely to have been decided well before New York votes, which means the state's primary would be little more than another step in Hillary Clinton's coronation. What will Preet Bharara do next? In the world of state government, 2015 was the Year of Bharara, even if a recent Siena Research Institute poll revealed that most New Yorkers still don't know who he is. Bharara has hinted that he isn't done uncovering corruption and that more indictments might be coming. The burning question, then, centers on whether future indictments would target the administration of Gov. Andrew Cuomo. If the answer is yes, than 2016 will also be the Year of Bharara and most New Yorkers will know his name. What will George Pataki do next? Just kidding. That's a question nobody save Pataki's immediate family is asking. I don't like to criticize anybody for being part of the process, but Pataki's presidential campaign was just ... weird. It never seemed to have a point or a message, and never gained traction. In truth, Pataki is just too moderate for modern-day GOP primary voters. His campaign was doomed from the get-go. Will Bernie Sanders pose any sort of threat to Hillary? I'm going to hear from the legions of Bernie fans out there for saying this, but I don't think so. Sanders may win New Hampshire, but that is the ceiling for his potential. American voters just aren't going to take a socialist seriously. Will Bill Clinton's past impact Hillary Clinton's future? If you hand a monkey a typewriter, he'll eventually poke out a logical sentence. And so it is with Donald Trump, who says a lot of silly things but was right when he said that it's hypocritical for Hillary Clinton to call out the sexism of Trump and others when she has been married to a sexist lech for decades. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and features with our afternoon newsletter. This is dangerous territory for the Clintons. The more time Hillary's campaign spends talking about the old grievances and bitter battles of the 1990s, the more likely it is that voters will turn away in disgust. Who will win the GOP nomination? I don't think it will be Trump. In fact, I'd be shocked if he wins. It's one thing to tell a pollster you like the guy who says outrageous things, but it's quite another to actually vote for him. I think Ted Cruz wins this thing, which is pretty remarkable, given how new he is to the political scene. He's a Trump-like outsider, but with the discipline to stay on message. He's also a favorite of Rush Limbaugh and others on talk radio. Could Cruz actually win the presidency? It's hard to see it, but don't underestimate him, not for a second. "I've had 10,000 students over my 50 years at Harvard (Law School)," Alan Dershowitz, who is no fan of Cruz's politics, told CNN. "He has to qualify as among the brightest of the students." If nothing else, it should be a compelling campaign and a fascinating year. But 2015 was awfully interesting too, and I want to take a moment to thank all of you who gave this column some of your time over the year. After all, a writer without readers is like that proverbial tree falling in the forest. I especially appreciate the many hundreds of you who took the time to write or call. One of the best things about this truly wonderful job is the give-and-take with all of you. We might not always agree, but it's a privilege to hear what you're thinking. cchurchill@timesunion.com 518-454-5442 @chris_churchill History has shown us that religious movements can originate anywhere. Yet who could possibly envision that a religious movement could emerge in part from within the confines of the State Capitol building in Albany? That movement is American Reform Judaism, which is now the dominant denomination of American Jews. More than one third of American Jews are Reform, and that number is basically double the number of any other denomination. Reform Judaism's genesis in Albany is due to one man, Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise. Rabbi Wise emigrated from Bavaria at age 27 to New York in 1846, and in that year he became the first rabbi at Temple Beth-El (now Beth Emeth), which was the first Jewish congregation in upstate New York. Wise was the pioneer of Reform Judaism in America. He was instrumental in revamping Orthodox Judaism to the customs and freedom of America. He was variously described as the "founder," the "architect" or the "moving spirit" of American Reform Judaism. Some called him the "Moses of America" or even the "Jewish Pope." Yet when Wise came to Albany he was a young emigre with great energy and a considerable ego, but with limited knowledge of America or even the English language. How did he acquire the skills that would make him the patriarch of Reform Judaism? The answer was that he spent much of his time at the State Library in the old State Capitol, which was located on the East Lawn of the present Capitol building. Wise learned English, and studied constantly with the other people who frequented the State Library. (One of Wise's biographers said he spent "every day" there.) He found mentors in the regulars at the State Library. These included the state librarian, Alfred Street, a poet and a lawyer; Bradford Wood, a lawyer, former congressman, and a future ambassador to Denmark under President Abraham Lincoln; and Amos Dean, also a major lawyer, who became the first dean of Albany Law School and subsequently the first president of the University of Iowa. Dean and Wood taught Wise English rhetoric and criticism. From his mentors, he met former Gov. William H. Seward and newspaper publisher Horace Greely. He befriended Thurlow Weed, publisher of the Albany Evening Journal and generally considered the de facto head of the Whig Party in New York state. His State Library networking associates helped shape Wise. Wise later said, "These well-meaning people made a great man out of me, long before I had the faintest idea of my 'greatness.'... I was thus, as it were, drawn into the best society of distinguished American minds." But they did not only assist Wise in his intellectual education. They helped him out financially as well. In 1850, Wise was feuding with the leadership of his congregation. The synagogue leadership suspended his pay, and after a physical altercation in the synagogue, Wise and his followers left Beth-El to form a new congregation, Anshe Emeth. Wise's new congregation was far smaller than his original one, and he needed money to supplement his rabbinical salary. Thurlow Weed came to his aid. Weed got him a job as an assistant librarian in the State Library. His state job enabled Wise to continue to serve as a rabbi and to support his family. Thus, a major religious leader served as a politically appointed state bureaucrat. In fact, later in 1850, Wise's Albany friends arranged for Whig President Millard Fillmore to offer Wise a position in the Library of Congress. Wise turned down Fillmore's offer. Given his position in the Capitol, it is not surprising that Wise in 1851 became the first rabbi in New York and the second in the nation to lead a legislature in prayers. In his prayer, Wise asked God to inspire the Legislature "to promote happiness and prosperity among these fellow citizens; remove prejudice, partiality, and factional endeavors from every mind; give unto them the same spirit as the venerable fathers of this republic manifested, let them be freely united in the discharge of the sacred duty to their country that she may bloom and prosper before Thee; that she may be an example of liberty, equity, and humanity; that she may be imitated by those nations that still suffer and sigh under the iron rod of despotism." Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and features with our afternoon newsletter. With little more to accomplish in Albany, Rabbi Wise moved to Cincinnati in 1854. In his time in Albany, he established the first mixed choir of men and women, added the first non-Jew to a choir, and started the first synagogue in the world with mixed seating of men and women. He added the rite of confirmation, shortened religious services and introduced English into them. Wise described his time in Albany as "the first step to an American Judaism in form ... Here the battle of reform was fought, and we were victorious. In Cincinnati, Wise built on his Albany achievements. He established two weekly Jewish newspapers, wrote the first American Jewish prayer book and created the Hebrew Union College, Central Conference of American Rabbis, and the Union of American Hebrew Congregations. By 1880, thanks to Wise's efforts, Reform Judaism had become the dominant sect among American Jewry. Only 12 of the 200 synagogues in the country remained Orthodox. Wise was clearly the most influential American Jew of the 19th century. But all of Wise's achievements and the course of American Reform Judaism might have been different if not for the long hours that Wise spent studying and working in the state Capitol in Albany. Bennett Liebman is a government lawyer in residence at Albany Law School. City Council discuss owner occupied home rehabilitation program The $250,000 grant would be would be split between 15-20 city homeowners, who would be afforded up to $15,000 each for repairs to their homes. Your friends think you are going to end up on a watch list and your mother is afraid you are going to be locked up in a dark cell in a foreign land. Multiple, short trips across the border and hoping immigration does not notice, makes things sound pretty sketchy. In reality, all you are doing is a "visa run." Wisdom and ineluctable truths about the future of our Nation and our planet, named after the four baby owls we observed in 2012 next to our home in St. Augustine, Florida. We SHALL overcome, as LBJ said to a joint session of Congress in 1965 after Selma. Copyright 2015 Ed Slavin All Rights Reserved One day you wash up on the beach, wet and naked. Another day you wash back out. In between, the scenery changes constantly. Okay, we found a reallyBut let's be real . . . The Record Bar was a trashy joint known for giving horrible local bands a false sense of accomplishment and then charging their friends and family an arm and a leg to see ashow. From hip-hop to rockabilly, the bands featured at this place were mostly mediocre. Sure, there were occasional moments of brilliance but by and large the Record Bar was a placeto aging hipsters pretending to be important while falling deeper into the world of substance abuse. The name rings out for 2 dozen KCMO hipsters and very few people beyond that lame social set still pretending to mourn the death of Kurt Cobain.Again, here's a much nicer take . . . "HB 2323 would add sexual orientation and gender identity to states anti-discrimination law . . . LGBT rights activist say this is needed to protect against discrimination; religious conservatives see it as a threat to religious liberty." The Kansas House Judiciary Committee will hear a historic anti-discrimination bill on Jan. 14.Checkit:Here are the highlights . . .And while Bible-belt politicos could block the move . . . Federal marriage rights for gay people are now the law of the land and could provide precedent for this legal move.Developing . . . "Labels matter a lot in our society. The first label I was given is my name, Robert Alton Clarke, and I'd like to introduce myself. "I plan on seeking the Jackson County Democratic Committee nomination if the 1st District At-Large seat on the Jackson County Legislature becomes vacant. "Now back to labels. Some are good and some are bad. Like everyone, I've acquired several labels throughout my life; Lawyer, Cancer Survivor, Business Owner, Research Editor, Union Steward, Committeeman, etc. "The two most important to me are Husband and Father. My wife and I live in unincorporated Jackson County with our four children. Neither of us were born in Jackson County but we've bought in 100% over the last decade or so with our home, our business and our local schools. We are Jackson Countians by choice and love our community. That is why I'm seeking one more label as the 1st District At-Large Legislator, so I can make life better over the long term for my family and yours. I want to make Jackson County a place of choice for everyone . . . "I look forward to serving Jackson County in 2016 and into the future. I wish you best during this new year. Again, I hope I can get your support!" "Regards, Robert Alton Clarke" Of course our blog community wasto note that Frank White was going to be crowned the new King of Jackson County.But since it's Sunday, the last day most of us try to fake sentiments left over from the holidays and becauseare taking notice . . .Take a look at local lawyer, a personal injury and disability lawyer who wants replace Frank White . . .He's already earned a bit of cash (a few hundred) from Mean Jean and now here's a corny campaign e-mail blast he's sending far and wide.Take a look . . .######Now . . .Following a trend from last election . . . This could put yet another lawyer on the legislature AND it's kinda curious that this guy got moving so quickly.You decide as all of the chess pieces start moving into play at the courthouse in the aftermath of the Mike Sanders political implosion.Developing . . . LET'S SUGGEST MORE NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS FOR KANSAS CITY!!! More Pointed Questions For Politicos Newies Should Stop Being Cheerleaders Less Kansas City Racism FEEL FREE TO SUGGEST YOUR OWN NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS FOR KANSAS CITY 2016!!! Okay, just about every fattie in this town needs to lose weight and be nicer to other people and that's the premise of most New Year's promises . . . However, we want to be just a tad more creative . . .To wit . . .Here we go . . .Quick review of that past couple of weeks . . .Mayor Sly blames urban core gun violence on faraway Republicans and not a peep from the local media. A top ranking Jackson County dude resigns in the middle of the night and local news actually accepts his lame excuse . . . The reality there is that most media doesn't care about KCMO politics because they live out in the stix and they're more worried about moving to a better market than reporting on this town.Along the same lines . . . Newsies showing their team spirit is tiresome, these people need to be likable, maybe, but it just make the news seem less important . . . Or at least a reminder of as much.Yea, we'd like it if hater/stalkers found another blog to troll but we'll start our wishing small . . . Maybe Kansas City should focus more on moving traffic than making sure JoCo denizens have space to parade around town and kill Saturday morning commerce.Let JoCo worry about fun runs and walks for their own people for a change.Yes, we'd like to see few murders and more financial oversight but already it looks like that's not happening.Also . . .As always, thanks for reading this week and coming along for the ride as our blog community kept the conversation going over the holidays . . . Have a safe and fun Saturday night. "The ordinance will now be sent back to the City Council on Thursday, January 7th. The Council has the opportunity to repeal the ordinance or if they choose not to, it will be put to a vote of the electors at the next election." As we blogged previously . . . The City Clerk's confirmed that petitioners against the BNIM TIF in the Crossroads turned in 3,962 valid signatures, thereby meeting the Referendum Petition threshold.Statement from TIF Fighters about what happens next . . .And so . . . Mayor and City Council might start the new year with an important decision as to whether they stand with schools or millionaire developers . . .Developing . . . Tourexpi, turizm haberleri, Reiseburos, tourism news, noticias de turismo, Tourismus Nachrichten, , travel tourism news, international tourism news, Urlaub, urlaub in der turkei, , holidays in Turkey, , global tourism news, dunya turizm, dunya turizm haberleri, Seyahat Acentas, This site is best viewed with Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0+, at a minimum screen resolution of 1024 x 768. Bahrains Premier yesterday (January 2) lauded the honourable stance of Saudi Arabia, led by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, in support of Islam and Muslims. Saudi Arabias efforts to confront whoever seeks to undermine the nations security and stability and wreak havoc through misguided ideology and actions rejected by religion and Sharia are widely appreciated across the Arab and Islamic worlds, and at the international level, HRH Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa was quoted as saying by the Gulf Daily News, our sister publication. To read further, please visit GDNonline. Iran will offer power projects worth more than $28 billion for foreign investment in the next few years, a report said. The Islamic Republic needs to add about 50MW to its power generation capacity within the next decade, Energy Minister Hamid Chitchian was quoted as saying in the Iran Daily report, which cited Shana. This will call for major investments from domestic and foreign financiers, Chitchian said. "Based on plans, some of the projects, worth nearly $28 billion, will be financed by foreign investors," Chitchian noted. Senior officials from the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) and Itron, a US smart meter company, recently discussed Dubai's plans for smart meters and smart grids. The Itron delegation was received by Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, Dewa managing director and CEO, at Dewas headquarters. The delegation included Simon Pontin, vice president and chief technology officer; Norbet Rickert, senior director of Smart Grid EMEA; and Hussain Rizvi, regional director, Smart Grid Solutions Middle East and Turkey. Dewas Abdullah Obaidullah, executive vice president of water and civil; Rashid Bin Humaidan, executive vice president of distribution power; Waleed Salman, executive vice president of strategy & business development; and Moza Al Akraf, CIO of Dewa, also attended the meeting. The meeting supported the Smart Applications initiative for smart meters and grids, one of three smart initiatives announced by Dewa, along with Shams Dubai to encourage household and building owners to install photovoltaic panels on rooftops to generate solar power, and Green Charger to build the infrastructure and charging stations for electric vehicles in the Emirate. The parties discussed mutual interests in electricity, water smart grids, the advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) and related installation plans within SAP to measure, integrate and automate all of Dewas operations to deliver top-quality services for its customers, employees and partners. Within the first phase, Dewa is currently installing 200,000 smart meters. Dewa plans to install over one million smart meters by 2020 across Dubai, and replace all mechanical and electromechanical meters during the next few years. The smart meters project complements the smart grid project to implement a number of technical features in electricity networks - by using the latest Scada systems, smart monitoring and control automation systems to provide electricity and water services to the highest standards of availability, efficiency and reliability. The benefits of smart meters include providing automatic and detailed readings for consumers to monitor actual consumption for a specific period of time to better understand and manage their bills. Smart meters help identify energy efficiency solutions. They send readings automatically using advanced communication media such as fiber optic cables and storing the entire history of all consumption indicators and customer-related operations. Additionally, smart meters will support renewable sources of energy in residential, commercial, and industrial sectors by comparing supplies from consumption and generation sides. - TradeArabia News Service Greece's privatisation agency said on Sunday it signed a 400 million ($434.3 million) deal with Jermyn Street Real Estate Fund to sell Astir Palace, a luxury seaside resort outside Athens. Greece's top administrative court had blocked the sale of the Astir Palace hotel complex in March, saying the town planning scheme that Greece submitted violated Greek law as the construction of a large number of residential buildings would harm the natural and urban environment. "Jermyn Street Real Estate Fund has signed the new agreement to submit the amended special zoning and spatial plan for the development of Astir Palace," the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund (HRADF) said. The fund represents investors from Turkey, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Kuwait and other Gulf states. The agency said the agreement ensured that the fund's development plan for the resort was adjusted to the court's opinion. "The whole process is expected to be completed within the first half of 2016," HRADF said. The agency is expected to cash in about 100 million from the deal. The rest of the proceeds will go to National Bank, Greece's largest lender, which owns about 85 percent of the resort. Privatisations have been a key condition of Greece's international bailouts since 2010 but its state asset sales scheme has produced poor revenues due to bureaucratic delays and lack of political will. So far, Athens has raised only about 3.5 billion from state asset sales versus an original target of 50 billion. - Reuters MASON CITY Iowa State University Extension and Outreach will hold a Crop Advantage Series meeting on Jan. 15 in Mason City. The meeting will be 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the North Iowa Area Community College, Muse-Norris Conference Center. Registration will begin at 8:15 a.m. Terry Basol and Angie Rieck-Hinz, Extension field agronomists with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, will host the meeting. ISU Extension and Outreach will present the latest crop production research and information for the upcoming growing seasons, said Rieck-Hinz. Each location features key statewide topics in addition to a program developed by your local ISU field agronomists for north central Iowa. Keynote speakers Chad Hart, Extension economist; Bob Hartzler, Extension weed scientist; and Mark Licht, Extension cropping systems specialist, will discuss market outlook, herbicide programs and genetic selection and seeding rates. Jamie Benning and Liz Juchems, will lead the discussion on economics of cover crops, and Brian Lang, Extension field agronomist, will discuss best management practices for alfalfa establishment. John Sawyer, Extension soil fertility specialist will outline a plan to evaluate your fertilizer inputs during tight crop production margins. Advance registration for each location is $50, which includes workshop materials, lunch and refreshments. Registration is $60 after Jan. 8 or at the door. Certified Crop Advisers (CCA) can obtain up to five continuing education credits. The fee for the CCA credits is included in the registration cost. Private pesticide applicators will be able to obtain their continuing instructional course credits at this meeting. The cost for the private pesticide applicator certification is included in the registration fee. You must attend the entire day to qualify for your private pesticide certification. Additional information and online registration is available on the Crop Advantage Series website at www.cropadvantage.org. MANLY Amil Albert Johnson, 95, Manly, died Monday, Dec. 28, 2015, at the Oakwood Care Center in Clear Lake. A funeral service for Amil will be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2016, at Grace Lutheran Church, 302 East Fourth St., Hanlontown, with the Rev. Linda Johnson Prestholt officiating. Burial will be at Brush Point Cemetery, rural Hanlontown, with military honors conducted by members of the Edward Tosel American Legion Post 110, Manly. Visitation will be held from 4 to 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Bride Colonial Chapel, 110 East Spring St., Manly. Visitation will also be held one hour prior to the service on Wednesday at the church. The family would like to suggest that in lieu of flowers, memorial contributions should be made to Grace Lutheran Church, in his memory. Amil Albert Johnson was born on Feb. 23, 1920, in Danville Township, Worth County, the son of Merril and Amanda (Sorenson) Johnson. Amil received his education in Kensett Community Schools. Amil was inducted into the Army on Sept. 14, 1942, at Jefferson Barracks, Mo., and served his country honorably and faithfully during World War II until his honorable discharge on June 14, 1943, at Camp Barkley, Texas. He was united in marriage to Helen C (Juhl) Miller on May 1, 1971, at Grace Lutheran Church in Hanlontown. Before starting his farming operation, Amil worked for the Kinney-Lindstrom Foundation. He farmed his entire life, raising crops, cattle, and hogs, before retiring in 2008. Amil enjoyed getting together with his many friends at area coffee shops, especially the Downtown Cafe in Fertile. In 1976 he held an old-fashioned threshing exhibition at his farm that drew several hundred people from far and wide. He was an active member of Grace Lutheran Church in Hanlontown, and former member of the Hanlontown Elevator Board. Survivors include his brother, Marlin Johnson of Clear Lake; his sister-in-law, Norma Johnson of Clear Lake; his nieces and nephews, Randy (Beth) Johnson of Clear Lake, Julie (Stuart) Oltrogge of Eagan, MN, Jackie Wilson of West Des Moines, Mark Johnson of Clear Lake, Kathy (John) Hendricks of Minneapolis, MN, Karen (Dean) Jurgens of Thornton; several grand-nieces and nephews; and many extended family members and friends. Amil was preceded in death by his parents, Merril and Amanda Johnson; his wife, Helen Johnson; sister, Francis Doran and her husband Harold; brothers, Wallace Johnson and Floyd A. Johnson; and sister-in-law, Joanna Johnson. The family would like to thank the staff of Oakwood Care Center for their care of Amil these past few years. Bride Colonial Chapel: 641-454-2242, ColonialChapels.com. MASON CITY Bob Rodgers, 66, says he cant talk about parts of his service in Vietnam. Some memories are still too vivid, too real to revisit. They Served With Honor: North Iowa's Vietnam Veterans The Globe Gazette will publish 50 stories starting on Veterans Day about North Iowas Vietnam Veterans. The stories will appear on Sundays Bob sits in his living room with his wife his wife, Phyllis, in Mason City. Theyve been together since high school. Rodgers didnt receive any major decorations during his time in Vietnam, and that is fine by him. He just got to marry his high school sweetheart, Phyllis laughed. Bob considers his marriage to be the best prize of all. We started dating when she was 14, Bob said. We graduated in 1968. When Bob was 19, he was sent to Vietnam after he volunteered for service. He served in the US Army and earned rank E-5 specialist in his three years in the military. Bob had his basic training in Fort Lewis, Washington, and was later moved to Fort Rucker in Alabama. He finished at Hunter Army Airfield in Savanah, Georgia. In that time, he went to school to be a helicopter mechanic. I went to Vietnam in October of 69, Bob said. I started out in the maintenance department working on helicopters I flew a little bit that way. Bob flew test flights and later decided that he wanted to be a crew chief. He never became a crew chief but he found himself volunteering for extra tasks. One of the volunteer jobs I went on, our commanding officer at formation in the morning was looking for two volunteers to go help rig a downed helicopter so we could get it out since it had engine failure, Bob said. That turned out to be a lot more than just going to pick up a helicopter. I dont think I can talk about that part. It was quite an experience. Bob suffers from severe depression and PTSD because of things he witnessed though his service, he said. After a while, he received training to be a technical inspector. He would look at the mechanics work on the helicopters and either approve it or decline it. He was stationed in Vietnam in 1969 and 1970. Adjusting back to civilian life was hard, Bob said. He is considered to be 60 percent disabled because of service life disabilities, Bob said. It caused a lot of things in our marriage. The evenings were terrible for me, Bob said. 10 days after I got home from Vietnam we got married. Bob and Phyllis were married on Nov. 15, 1970. He was stationed in Savanah for 10 months after he returned from Vietnam. A 10-month-long honeymoon, Phyllis said The Rodgers attended OperationLZ in August. What they did in Forrest City was outstanding, Bob said. You could just see it in the vets that you met that they were very appreciative of what was going on. We didnt get any of that when we got home. He sees a difference between peoples reaction to him being a Vietnam veteran now compared to when he first came home. I dont remember any thank-yous when I came home, Bob said. Even when I would walk down Main Street in our small town in southwest Iowa, nobody would talk to me. Bob didnt get welcomed home until 1986. The first time we had ever seen the Travelling Wall, he was wearing his fatigue shirt and as we were walking, someone said, Welcome Home. That was the very first time, 16 years later, Phyllis said. He has also visited the Vietnam Wall in Washington, D.C. Now, Bob and Phyllis are heavily involved in The Erdheim-Chester Disease Global Alliance. Researchers may classify Erdheim-Chester as a cancer of the blood, which would be a good thing for Bob since he could possibly link it to exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam. Bob thinks that a lot can be learned from Vietnam in the United States. I think we need to be really careful about how we deploy our troops, Bob said. The welfare of the troops is very important and we need to pay attention to history. Its time to forget last years forecast that Rand Paul would lead the Republican field and look ahead at whats to come in 2016. JANUARY: In his State of the Union address, President Barack Obama urges tighter requirements for assault weapons. In the Republican response, Speaker Paul Ryan ignores guns and instead says Congress will concentrate on timely appropriations bills. After a record barrage of negative ads, a new Des Moines Register poll shows candidates Iowa standing unchanged. In the final Republican debate, Donald Trump accuses Sen. Ted Cruz of weakness in fighting the Islamic State. FEBRUARY: Cruz captures Iowa caucuses followed by Trump and Marco Rubio. Hillary Clinton tops Democrats. In New Hampshire, Trump edges Chris Christie, followed by John Kasich, Cruz, Rubio and then Jeb Bush. Bernie Sanders edges Hillary Clinton. Trump and Clinton win South Carolina while, Rubio and Clinton take Nevada. MARCH: On Super Tuesday, Trump, Cruz and Rubio divide delegates. Among Democrats, Clinton wins everywhere but Vermont, Massachusetts, Colorado and Minnesota. Sanders claims progress. Trump outlasts Cruz and Rubio in Florida to take the delegate lead. Bush (who comes in fourth) and Christie (fifth) suspend their candidacies. Mitt Romney warns against a Trump nomination. Kasich upsets leaders, sweeping Ohio delegates. Clinton takes Michigan, Illinois and Ohio primaries. APRIL: President Vladimir Putin suspends Russias air attacks in Syria after heavy plane losses. Sanders suspends campaign after 2-1 Wisconsin rout. Trump wins New York and Pennsylvania. Romney, Jeb Bush and former GOP Chairman Haley Barbour meet to mull the political situation. MAY: Trump calls Romney, Bush and Barbour sore losers. Cruz and Rubio keep attacking each other but not Trump. Trump sweeps May primaries and nears majority. Syrian President Bashar Assad resigns after Russia joins the U.S. in urging new leadership. Embattled GOP Sens. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire and Mark Kirk of Illinois say they wont endorse Trump if nominated. Clinton clinches Democratic nomination. JUNE: The primaries end with Trump 50 delegates short of a majority. Cruz, Rubio and Ohios favorite son Kasich vow to fight on. Clinton taps Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine as a running mate. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia announces his retirement but says hell stay one year so Obama cant nominate successor. JULY: The House passes 12 appropriations bill; the Senate, two. Ryan, who is named chairman of GOP convention, joins Barbour, Bush, Romney, Cruz, Rubio and Kasich to discuss an anti-Trump coalition. The effort collapses when Cruz backs Trump in return for a vice presidential nomination. Russia and U.S. deadlock on who should lead the new Syrian government. AUGUST: The anti-Trump coalition picks Romney and Bush to form rival ticket. The Libertarian Party provides ballot access in most states. Trump denounces them as a loser and a failure. Six GOP senators running for re-election buck Trump, back Romney-Bush instead. China beats U.S. in gold medals at Rio Olympics; Trump blames political correctness. The Justice Department says two State Department officials violated secrecy in email flap but absolves Clinton. House Republicans urge special investigating committee. SEPTEMBER: Polls show Clinton leading with 40 percent, Romney and Trump each with 30. U.S. and Russia agree the best leader for Syria is Maher Assad, the former presidents brother. House Benghazi Committee, calling timing coincidental, issues report blasting Clintons terrorism responses and emails. In the first debate, Trump attacks Romney, Romney attacks Trump, Clinton ignores both. Polls show Trump the winner but Clinton stays ahead. Failing to pass nine of 12 appropriations bills, Congress votes temporary funding through February and adjourns. OCTOBER: Ryan announces neutrality in presidential race. In final debate, Clinton, 68, calls Romney, 69, and Trump, 70, voices of the past, saying she represents Americas future. The Red Sox beat Rangers to win American League crown; in National League, the Cubs edge Arizona. NOVEMBER: Cubs capture their first World Series since 1908! Clinton wins presidency, beating Bills numbers with 45 percent to Trumps 36 and Romneys 19. She carries Ohio, Florida and heavily Hispanic Western states, gaining 403 electoral votes. Trump has 129. Romney carries Utah. Trump claims disrespect. Democrats defeat all six Senate Republicans backing Romney, gaining 52-48 majority. GOP loses 26 House seats, retaining slim 221-214 majority. DECEMBER: In unity bid, President-elect Clinton offers Trump a job as trade representative, and for Romney, the ambassadorship to Russia. Both refuse. Republican Chairman Reince Priebus forms a committee to examine GOP future. Outgoing VP Joe Biden is named secretary of state. U.S. and Russia push for a Syria unity conference. Clinton picks outgoing Obama for Scalias Supreme Court seat. Ryan resumes Ways and Means Committee chair, and the House GOP deadlocks on a new speaker. Attachment: MBAchances.xls [11 KiB] Downloaded 370 times To download please login or register as a user Attachment: MBAchances.xls [14.5 KiB] Downloaded 265 times To download please login or register as a user Here is a spreadsheet I made for my use that I figured I'd share, now its rough and I'm not a math genius, but it works for my purposes. It is broken down by International and Domestic applicants, and will show your chances according to the type of applicant you are.Feel free to poke holes in my math and make changes!edit 3: Big update I will keep the original one in place, feel free to make changes or give suggestionsOld FileNew OneNow of course this does not take into account any GPA or GMAT factors its only meant to be used as a rough guesstimate as to your chances if you are either an International or Domestic student.A mathematical assumption was made using the %'s of the matriculated 2011 class profile, that the breakdown would be the same with overall acceptances.Obviously a lot more goes into getting that acceptance to the school you are looking at, but this spreadsheet might be a good way for either an international or domestic student to further target a school where their chances may be greater.Oh and Texas A&M was used for the current numbers. Just need to edit the raw numbers using figures from your school of choice located here:edit: fixed error in spreadsheet... will update if I find anymoreedit 2: Ok now it should be good loledit 3: Big update I will keep the original one in place, feel free to make changes or give suggestionsWhat I did was come up with a base 100% extrapolated from the Mean GMAT/GPA/Work Experience. If you are the super average student who hits each mean number then you will have an 100% chance of acceptance. Unfortunately that is fleeting moment as your acceptance % is then calculated against the application data. Some schools have very large International to Domestic splits which causes some massive number shifts (IE Uni. of Illinois, Michigan State and Purdue). In my spreadsheet I uploaded you can see my profile against Michigan State (Broad). Looking at the data below you can see that I'm very close to being the average student attending Broad as a domestic student. Unfortunately it seems that only the best of students are taken from the international pool, which is no fun if your an international student.CHANCES OF BEING ACCEPTED ACCORDING TO THE 2011 CLASS PROFILEInternational Applicants13.07%Domestic Applicants71.4%% of Total Applicants of Accepted29.4%GMAT/GPA/Work Combined %112.22%Total International Acceptance %14.66%Total Domestic Acceptance %80.13%You can see that I'm slightly below the mark overall for Broad as my total chances to be accepted were 80.13% which was just above the average 71.4% pace which domestic applicants are accepted overall.Once again this is a ball parking application. Not meant for a true measure of your ability to be accepted.I weighted the GMAT at 34% consideration and the GPA/Work at 33% respectively. Those are adjustable.For the GMAT I assumed a 2% shift for every point above or below the mean (IE 34%*1.02 = 34.68%)For your GPA I assumed a 3% shift for every .01 shift above or below the meanFor your Work Experience I assumed a 2% shift for every point above or below the meanVariables which were added:GMATGPAWork Experience/Quality of Work ExperienceExisting Variables not considered:InterviewLegacyHow the size of the 80% Spread affects final numbersRecommendsEssays The hotel guest who filmed the awful, bed bug-ridden Upper West Side hotel mattressas well as the bites his girlfriend enduredrevealed that the hotel stay was a birthday gift from his mother. Elgin Ozlen told WABC 7, "We were expecting a vacation to remember the rest of our lives, and we will definitely remember it for the rest of our lives, but it won't be a pleasant memory." Ozlen and his girlfriend are visiting from California; his mother gave them the trip for his 30th birthday, and "the couple was supposed to take in the sights and sounds of the city, and see the ball drop on New Year's Eve in Times Square." Instead, their hotel, the Astor on Park, on Central Park West near West 107th Street, kept them busy: They changed rooms three times (the first two didn't have heat, he says) and their third room is where his girlfriend, the Daily News reports, "suffered about 75 bites and blemishes on her fingers, toes, arms and stomach from the ravenous bugs." At around the 3 minute mark, Ozlen shows the bugs. Note the black fecal matter from the bed bugs in the mattress seams. The News adds, "The mess ruined the holiday and his 30th birthday both on Jan. 1. The couple missed their date to see the annual Radio City Music Hall Christmas show with the Rockettes." He told WABC 7, "On my birthday, I'm in the hospital, and I'm washing the best clothes that I brought that I own for this vacation, and during that process many of the clothes became damaged, because they're not meant to be dried." While the hotel has not commented, Ozlen claimed that when the general manager saw the situation, "He was trembling, covering his mouth. He was disgusted. He started apologizing and offering us a different room. I told him, Were getting the hell out of this hotel!" Apparently they received a refund. Other hotel guests were shocked at the video, some were frightened about the prospect of staying another night there: "It's disgusting. I don't really feel like sleeping here." Ozlen said, "It was an unforgettable nightmare. It didnt even feel real. And the fact that it was New York and my birthday made it even worse." Neeraj Bagga Tribune News Service Amritsar, January 2 Delay of Dubai-bound flight of Air India Express has once again brought to fore increased chances of disruption of flights at Sri Guru Ram Das Jee International Airport due to bird hits and stray animals. The Airport Authority of India (AAI) has given a contract to chase away birds and animals to a private concern. Long standing crop in the vicinity of the airport offers plenty of food for birds and stray animals. The apparatus to shoo away birds and animals at the airport comprises a six-shot launcher device imported from Germany, a laser gun-cum-torch brought from Canada and a LPG cylinder-fired 10 zone guns procured from the Netherlands. When fired, the six-shot launcher blasts at a certain height in the sky, without leaving any residue on the ground beneath. The laser gun-cum-torch has a range of 2 km and it scares away nocturnal birds. The zone guns have been placed at a distance of 200 feet from each other along the runway and gas from the cylinder causes a loud explosion to keep the birds away from the airport complex in general and operational area in particular. It is a non-lethal system to scare birds away from the airport complex. The AAI supervises the mechanism while a private company has been awarded the contract to operate the system to scare birds and dogs away. A 10-member team handles the system and swings into action minutes before any flight is to take off or land. Though the problem of bird hits appears to have been solved, snags due to stray dogs and rodents continue to pose a headache for the airport authorities. A number of flights have been either been grounded or delayed due to these two problems in the past. In September 2009, a rat had managed to enter an Air India (Boeing 777) plane, thereby delaying the Toronto-bound flight by 11 hours. In a similar case in 2011, a flight was delayed after dogs were spotted on the tarmac. Officials say agricultural fields and dense bushes located in the vicinity of the airport were a safe haven for dogs and rodents. They said it was the duty of the district administration or the Amritsar Municipal Corporation to ensure that the source of the problem was tackled. Canine menace had been taken up with the district administration officials in many airport environment management meetings in the past. However, increasing trend of dumping leftovers and refuse by dhaba owners, resorts, hotels and residents of the areas near airport has increased the risk of bird hits when aircrafts are taking off or touching down at Sri Guru Ram Das Jee International Airport. The practice has increased the activity of birds in the area, which falls under the flying zone. As part of its Midnight Moment program, which features "cutting-edge creative content" every night from 11:57 p.m. until midnight, the Times Square Alliance is presenting a Midnight Moment-edition of artist/dog whisperer Laurie Anderson's documentary Heart of a Dog this month. Tomorrow night, Monday, January 4th, Anderson will be on hand for a special live performance for canines and humans alike. According to a press release: "This unique performance by Laurie Anderson will be transmitted to 'silent disco' headphones for humans and low-decibel speakers for dogs. Headphone distribution will start at 11:00 pm (first-come, first-served) and the public is encouraged to bring their own dogs. The performance will begin at 11:30 pm." Heart of a Dog is a collection of stories about dogs, time, family, love, memory and death. In the middle of the film there is a sequence from The Tibetan Book of the Dead that describes the transition of energy and consciousness at the time of death. In this portion of the film, which is the section that will be shown in Times Square, Anderson creates a visual song, filled with a wild collage of images. The video changes point of view frequently, shifting from a dogs eye view to the lens of a surveillance camera to free floating pictures that move through your mind in dreams and memories. Dozens of advertisers in Times Square devote their billboards to showing the Midnight Moment. Anderson said, "I love Times Square. Its a dream. Desire, speed, the explosions of color, patterns and energy. What a great way to start the New Year! The ball drops and Heart of a Dog leaps onto all those massive screens at three minutes to midnight. Who could have predicted the unraveling dreams of my dog would be magnified up there like this? And sound too!" Besides Anderson, NYPD K-9 handlers and the K-9 dogs themselves will attend tomorrow night's event. A European TV network commissioned Anderson to make a film, and she created Heart of a Dog. The movie screened at the New York Film Festival and is on the short-list for Oscar feature documentaries. NY Times film critic Manohla Dargis praised the movie, writing that it's: partly a meditation on loss and love that begins with the death of [Anderson's] mother and moves on to include the deaths of Ms. Andersons talented and tuneful rat terrier, Lolabelle; her friend, the brilliant artist Gordon Matta-Clark (1943-1978); and her husband, Lou Reed. Mr. Reed, who died in 2013, hovers over 'Heart of a Dog,' his face surfacing intermittently and fleetingly, wavering into visibility like an image thats caught behind glass or reflected in a mirror, a distancing that suggests that he is present and not present at the same time. (One of his most moving appearances occurs during the final credits.) 'Every love story is a ghost story,' Ms. Anderson says at one point, quoting David Foster Wallace, yet another lingering spirit. Times Square Alliance President Tim Tompkins explained, "Lauries film brings our collected memories into the New Year through a layered and dense moving photo album of our minds." PK Jaiswar Tribune News Service Amritsar, January 2 With yet another terrorist attack rocking the border state in less than six months, the Border Security Force (BSF) and the city police have been put on a high alert. The force is already on alert, but following the incident a general alert has been sounded at the international border and jawans have been asked to step up the vigil, said Sumer Singh, DIG, BSF, Amritsar sector. The security has been tightened at Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport and Air Force base following the militant attack at Pathankot air base. The city police also remained on its toes to thwart any misadventure by the anti-national elements. Police Commissioner Jatinder Singh Aulakh said, The city police along with Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and Amritsar rural police have chalked out various plans to secure sensitive installations, including international airport and airbase. He said the entrance and exit points of the city had been sealed and vehicles were being checked to find out if any armed persons was entering the city. We have received the inputs a night before. Since then the police have been conducting search operations in various parts of the holy city. Hotels and sarais were combed to look for any suspicious elements, added the Police Commissioner. He said security was beefed up at other important places while search operation was also carried out railway station and bus stand. Tribune News Service Amritsar, January 2 In the wake of a terrorist attack on a defence installation in the neighbouring Pathankot district, the authorities at Sri Guru Ramdas Jee International Airport have stepped up security in and around the airport. Entry of all visitors except passengers is strictly prohibited at the airport from today till January 31. Even movement of vehicles has been restricted while the CISF has deployed more combatants. Airport director Venkateshwar Rao confirming the high alert said security has been beefed up in and around the airport. He said all passengers have been informed to reach the airport well before their scheduled flight, as they would have to go through more security checks which will require more time. Paid entry to the departure lounge has been banned. Passengers have been barred from entering the departure lounge to see off their relatives. This restriction will remain till January 31. We have a standard operating procedure which has been put in place in totality, he remarked. Even entry of vehicles has been restricted. Vehicles engaged in pick-and-drop service cannot remain inside the airport and no vehicle can arrive at the airports terminal building. Besides, a space away from the airport building has been earmarked for parking. Rao added that everything was under watch. Many other security measures were also initiated in this regard. The airport director said the CISF, which is tasked with guarding the airport, has deployed more combatants. The Punjab police has also deployed its personnel and a Quick Response Team (QRT) at the airport. The state police also beefed up security on the approach road connecting the airport to the city. Last time, the security was put on high alert in August, following an alert sounded by the Intelligence Bureau immediately after the attack at civilian and police installations by three terrorists allegedly from Pakistan at a police station in Dinanagar sub-division in the border district of Gurdaspur. Earlier, a strategically located Amritsar airport had been used as a halt for hijacking by Islamic and Sikh terrorists in the past. Indian Airlines Flight 814, popularly known as IC 814, hijacked from Kathmandu by terrorists of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen in 1999, was halted at the local airport for re-fuelling. Sukhmeet Bhasin Tribune News Service Bathinda, January 3 The orders banning Chinese string are being openly violated as it is openly available at shops in the city. The deadly Chinese dor becomes the cause of grievous injuries to residents and birds. The district administration has issued orders banning the sale, purchase and hoarding of the Chinese string. The deadly string is being sold here in a clandestine manner. You ask for it from a shopkeeper and you would be given a packet carrying the banned string in a watchful manner lest someone would complain to the police, shared a teenager. Rakesh Narula, president of the Bathinda Vikas Manch, said the ban on Chinese string should be strictly enforced as it had been the cause of a number of accidents. Some accidents have been fatal as well. The offenders should be punished severely so that it acts as a deterrent for other shopkeepers. He said despite ban, the killer string is available online for sale. City resident Prof NK Gosain said as per the directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the Bathinda District Magistrate had issued orders prohibiting the sale, use and storage of plastic string (China Dor). Though a welcome step, its effectiveness largely depends on its strict enforcement. In view of the safety of the people, especially of children, these orders deserve to be followed in letter and spirit by one and all. The NGOs operating in the district should carry out a mass awareness movement. They should visit educational institutions and organise lectures to highlight the ill effects of the deadly string. In public interest, shopkeepers should desist from its sale. As a helping hand, anybody noticing the storage and sale of the string by unscrupulous elements should immediately inform the police for suitable action, he said. City resident Astha Gupta said, The ban order issued by the district administration is not enough. This is not acting as deterrent to illegal sellers of the deadly string. Every year, a ban is imposed on the sale and storage of the Chinese string in Punjab. But there is no respite for innocent people falling victim to it. The SP City said, We are conducting raids to nab those selling the banned string, but now, the checking would be intensified and no one will be spared. Tribune News Service Bathinda, January 3 About eight unions of farmers and four unions of farm labourers have suspended their plan to protest against the state government on January 6 at Badal village in Muktsar district. Farmers who have been fighting for long against the state government over their demands would plan their next action at their meeting to be held on January 10. The plan to stage protest on January 6 has been suspended as the Meteorological Department has warned of bad weather following which we have planned to convene a meeting on January 10 and plan further action. We will decide in the meeting and fix the date of the protest, said BKU Ekta Ugraha district president Shingara Singh Mann. Fighting for a long time to get appropriate compensation for the loss to the cotton crop due to the whitefly attack earlier this season, these farmer unions had earlier held a rally in Barnala on December 16. In an earlier agitation held in Bathinda for more than a month, the farmers had to spend on their own for everything at the dharna site. Farmer unions had to spend Rs 22, 56,015 in Bathinda to ferry protesters to the dharna site on vehicles. Similarly, they had to spend Rs 9, 88,791 in Mansa, Rs 15, 05,300 in Sangrur, Rs 8,20,791 in Barnala, Rs 3,18,180 in Moga, Rs 4,27,160 in Muktsar, Rs 41,300 in Ferozepur, Rs 20,495 in Faridkot, Rs 13,600 in Ludhiana, Rs 33,000 in Amritsar and Rs 18,159 in Gurdaspur. Ram Singh Bhenibagha, president of BKU Ugrahan Mansa said, Farmers have been staging protest for a long time in Bathinda and other districts of Punjab over their demand of appropriate compensation to cotton growers. We held Lalkar rally at Barnala district under the leadership of eight farmer unions on December 16. We will now launch an agitation again but now this will be decided on January 10 and further action will be planned. We are collecting funds and have appealed to the farmers to come forward and give funds to the union for the same cause. The farmers will take the fight to the end for appropriate compensation. The crop was damaged because the state government had recommended and supplied spurious pesticides that failed to counter the whitefly attack. Its noteworthy that the farmers had earlier protested against the state government in Bathinda from September 17 to October 4 and meanwhile a number of farmers were injured in an attack by a bull that entered the protest venue amid tight police security. Beginning with their protest on railway lines, the farmers started demanding hike in MSP of paddy varieties, including PUSA 1509 and PUSA 1121, besides demanding compensation for damaged cotton crop. Later, the farmers staged their agitation on railway lines that led to suspension of 76 trains from the Bathinda junction for about six days. Tribune News Service Bathinda, January 2 The state unit of the Forest Department Field Workers Union today concluded their five-day round the clock protest here. They ended their protest on an assurance from District Forest Officer Dr Sanjeev Tiwari that he will forward their demands to the state government and the issue of regularisation would be addressed soon. The union members also submitted their charter of demands to the DFO. It is worth mentioning that many members of the workers union were on hunger strike for the last five days and were protesting against the state government outside the DFOs office in the city. President of the union Jasvir Singh Jangirana said the labourers of the Forest Department had worked hard to ensure green cover in the district, but had not been paid salaries for months. While the government makes tall claims about turning Punjab into a green state, it has left workers to fend for themselves, he said. Jangirana demanded that the services of labourers who had worked for 240 days in the last one year should be regularised, workers with the Forest Department should be given a minimum wage of Rs 12,000 per month, workers should be paid the pending salaries of 2014-15 at the earliest, and that they should also be given uniform along with equipment. He said the Punjab government had announced it would recruit 1.14 lakh new employees in the state and would regularise the services of 50,000 workers, already working with the Forest Department. He also stated that if the demands are not fulfilled soon, they would intensify their stir. Tribune News Service Chandigarh, January 2 Finally, after several rounds of meetings by Union Health Minister JP Nadda, national secretaries and the Chandigarh in-charge of the BJP, the BJP-SAD alliance today announced the names of candidates for the mayoral elections. But due to infighting in the local BJP unit, the party declared only the names of candidates for the post of Mayor and Senior Deputy Mayor. The BJPs Chandigarh in-charge, Prabhat Jha, announced the name of Arun Sood for the Mayors post and Davesh Moudgil for the post of Senior Deputy Mayor. As there was no consensus among different camps of the BJP and the SAD over the post of Deputy Mayor, the alliance decided to announce the candidate for this post tomorrow. It is probably for the first time that the BJP has declared only two names for the mayoral elections. Arun Sood, who is the leader of the Opposition in the MC, is from the BJP president Sanjay Tandon camp while Davesh Moudgil is from the former MP Satya Pal Jain camp. At the press conference, all senior leaders of the BJP, including its president Sanjay Tandon, MP Kirron Kher, former MP Satya Pal Jain and former Union Minister Harmohan Dhawan, were present. Chandigarh BJP in-charge Prabhat Jha said the party would try to win all three mayoral posts. The party had given the responsibility to all senior leaders to ensure the partys victory, he said. On cross voting, he said nobody was above the party and this time all party councillors would vote for the party candidates. BJP to offer post to SAD Left with no other option, the BJP will now offer the deputy mayors post to SAD councillor Hardeep Singh. The SAD has two councillors, Harjinder Kaur and Hardeep Singh. Senior most councillor turns down deputy mayor post offer Sources revealed that senior most councillor of the BJP Deshraj Gupta, who was eyeing the Mayors post, was offered the post of deputy mayor. But Gupta turned down the offer and conveyed to the party leaders that he would not contest this post. The sources said earlier, a similar offer was also made to councillor Saurabh Joshi, who was also front runner for the post of mayoral candidature. He also declined the offer. The two councillors, along with five more from the BJP-SAD alliance, had opposed Arun Soods name for the Mayors post. No ticket for turncoats In the past two years, four Congress councillors, Rana Kashmiri Devi, Raj Bala Malik, Sat Parkash Aggarwal and Satish Kainth, have joined the BJP. But in Saturdays announcement, the BJP gave no representation to these councillors in the mayoral polls. Tribune News Service Jhajjar, January 3 Agriculture Minister Om Prakash Dhankar said the Israels project of micro-irrigation would be launched at 14 places in the state this year to provide adequate water to every field. The project will prove to be boon for the agriculture sector. The BJP government is committed to ensure that water reaches the tail-end of canals so that farmers do not face any trouble, he told the media here today. At present, farmers make arrangements for irrigating their fields, but it is the responsibility of the state to ensure water supply to every field. The micro-irrigation scheme has changed the fate of agriculture in Israel, hence it will be launched in Haryana as well, he said. On the 50th anniversary of the state, the minister said: The government has chalked out a special plan to celebrate 2016 as the golden jubilee year of the formation of the state. To mark the 50th anniversary, the government will not only focus on irrigation, but also launch various welfare schemes. The Swaran Jayanti Fund for rural development will be one of them. Every department has been asked to prepare schemes to meet the requirements of the people and also have its vision document for 2026. Lalit Mohan Tribune News Service Dharamsala, January 3 A pall of gloom descended on Siyunh village, about 30 km from here, as the news about the martyrdom of Sanjeevan Singh Rana in the Pathankot air base attack reached his home today. The family members of Rana (51), a Havaldar in the Defence Security Corps (DSC), were inconsolable. Apart from Rana, sources said, another solider, Jagdish Chand from Chamba district, had attained martyrdom fighting terrorists in Pathankot. Villagers gathered at the house Sanjeevan Rana to share the grief of the family. As Ranas wife Pinki Devi was not in a position to talk, a relative present at the house said Sanjeevan, the sole breadwinner of the family, was critically injured in an encounter with terrorists who had sneaked in to the air base. He suffered five bullet injuries in the chest and succumbed to his injuries later. The body of Sanjeevan Rana would be brought to his native village tomorrow. Rana is survived by his wife Pinki Devi, two daughters and a son. Serving in the Army had been a tradition with Ranas family as his father Rattan Rana was also an Army man. Sanjeevan Rana had retired from Dogra Regiment in 2009 and joined the DSC. He was transferred to the Pathankot air base from Jammu two years ago. Kangra Deputy Superintendent of Police Hitesh Lakhanpal and Sub- Divisional Magistrate Shravan Manta also visited the martyrs family. Shahpur Congress leader and vice-president of Himachal Pradesh Forest Corporation Kewal Singh Pathania expressed grief over the death of two soldiers from the state and assured all possible help to the families from the state government. The body of another martyred soldier, Jagdish Chand, who hailed from Chamba district, will be brought to his native village tomorrow. Sources said Kishori Lal, an Indian Air Force (IAF) jawan, was injured in the attack. Kishori Lal belongs to the Jaisinghpur area of Kangra district. Minister pledges eyes Phagwara: Union Minister of State Vijay Sampla filled a pledge form to donate his eyes during the Mission 5000, launched by Punarjot, an NGO, at the residence of former BJP minister Swarna Ram on Friday. Womans bag snatched Two unidentified armed motorcycle-borne miscreants snatched a bag from a woman, Monika, near the local Professor Colony late this evening.The bag contained three mobile phones, two gold bangles and Rs 2,000 in cash. The victim was going on a rickshaw to meet her parents. Dr Jawahar Dheer, father of the victim, lodged a written complaint in this regard with the local police. OC News Mohamed Bin Zayed orders $100 million in humanitarian aid for Ukraine This additional aid comes from the belief of the President of the importance of human solidarity, especially in cases of war and conflict, and is part of the UAE's continuous efforts to mitigate the humanitarian repercussions of the Ukrainian crisis. Tribune News Service Jalandhar, January 3 The joint action committee of the National Trade Union today organised a massive protest in front of the residence of Punjab Labour Minister Bhagat Chuni Lal against non-fulfillment of their long pending demands. The union members gathered at Adarsh Nagar Park in the morning, from where they took out a procession towards the ministers residence. Addressing the gathering, Union representative Hari Muni Singh said their long-pending demands included fixing the minimum monthly wages of labourers at Rs 15,000, taking attendance of labourers on registers, issuance of attendance cards, issuing blue cards to labourers, providing five marla plot to landless labourers for making houses and strict implementation of labour laws. Tribune News Service Srinagar, January 3 Protests broke out at several places in the Kashmir valley and Kargil district today as Shia Muslims demonstrated against the execution of a cleric in Saudi Arabia. The Superintendent of Police (SP), North City, Srinagar, was injured in a clash between Shia protesters and the police in the Rainawari locality of the city here. Shias held protests at several places in the region, including the city, today against the execution of cleric Nimr al-Nimr. The Shia cleric was executed in Saudi Arabia on Saturday, which triggered protests in the Shia-dominated pockets of the Kashmir valley. According to police sources, minor demonstrations against the execution took place at all places in the Kashmir valley which are dominated by Shia Muslims. The demonstration have stoked tension in the Kashmir valley and threatened to cause sectarian disturbances. Shia protesters clashed with the police at several places, including Rainawari and Dalgate in the city here. Protests also took place at Saida Kadal and Zadibal in the city here, Pattan, Magam and Narbal in north Kashmir and at a few places in Pulwama and Kulgam in south Kashmir. Demonstrations were held in Kargil district in the remote Ladakh region. Kargil district, which is populated by Shia Muslims, also observed a shutdown against the execution, while leading religious groups there called for three-day mourning. The demonstration in Kargil was led by Hanifa Jan, chief executive councillor of the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council, Kargil. Jammu: The Shia Federation today organised a protest against the execution of a Shia religious leader by Saudi Arabia and alleged that Saudis are supporting terrorists groups across the world. Members of the Shia community paid homage to Nimr al-Nimr, who was executed by Saudi Arabia on alleged terror charges a few days ago. Speaking on the occasion, prominent cleric Maulana Mohammad Kousar Ali Jafri condemned the act of the Saudi Government and alleged that a reign of terror against Shias had been started in the kingdom. We condemn the execution and demand from the Indian Government to lodge a protest, said Jafri. Protesters alleged that Saudi Arabia was responsible for terror acts around the world and innocent people were being killed in Syria, Yemen, Pakistan and other parts of the world. There is an international conspiracy to defame Islam and Saudis are acting as stooges of the US. Muslims should remain united to defeat the agenda of some rulers who are creating division within the Ummah, said Ashiq Hussain, president of the Shia Federation. Spokesperson for the Shia Federation Sayed Fida Hussain Rizvi also addressed the protesters and said the world should take notice of happenings in West Asia where innocent Muslims were being killed by terror groups sponsored by West. Charanjit Singh Teja Tribune News Service Ludhiana, January 2 Security has been beefed up at all important places in the city including at the Air Force base in Halwara in the wake of terror attack at Pathankot. Besides Air Force personnel, the Jagraon police have also been deployed around the air base. Security was also beefed up at crowded places, including the railway station, bus stand, Chaura Bazaar and other entry points of the city. Senior police officials held meetings to discuss the security issue at important places in the city. A large number of police personnel have been deputed on all entry points and major roundabouts. It has been learnt that the police initiated the checking last evening on the information of intelligence agencies, who reported the activities of militants on the Indo-Pak border near Narote Jamel Singh of Gurdaspur district. Commissioner of Police Paramraj Singh Umranangal said: We got the information about militants yesterday and established checkpoints without any delay. Our police force is efficient to tackle any situation. We have several layers of security arrangements. After the attack in Pathankot, we made foolproof arrangements. All entry points are under surveillance. The checking drive on all roads is going on. We cant disclose all points where we have beefed up security, but we are capable to tackle any untoward situation. Ravcharan Singh Brar, Senior Superintendent of Police, Jagraon, said the police had made concrete arrangement at the Air Force base in Halwara and surrounding areas. Meanwhile, Government Railway Police has also beefed up security at the platform and entry gates. A large number of police personnel along with Railway Protection Force conducted checking at the platforms. Meanwhile, irked over the terror attack, the activists of the Youth Congress burnt the flag of Pakistan at Gopal Nagar Chowk and said Narendra Modi had failed to stop terror attacks on India. Pathankot, January 2 Salaam alaikum was the reply when the gunman of the Superintendent of Police, who was thrashed by suspected Pakistani terrorists, called up on his mobile number after the news of the SPs abduction along with his associates spread. However, after the gunman told the call receiver that the mobile phone belonged to SP Salwinder Singh, the call was disconnected. It was the last conversation which was made on the SPs phone, which is believed to be used by the terrorists to make calls to Pakistan. After we got alert about the incident (SPs abduction), I tried making call on SP sahibs number. Around 3.26 am, the call got connected. When I said hello, the reply from other side came Salaam alaikum. I asked aap kaun (who are you)? The receiver said aap kaun? Then I told him this is my SP sahibs number. The call receiver said SP sahib kaun (who SP sahib?). Then he disconnected the line, said SPs gunman Kulwinder Singh. I continued to say hello, hello but the phone line was disconnected, Singh said. It was the last call made on SP sahibs phone number, said Singh, who is SP Salwinder Singhs gunman for the last about five years. SPs driver Rajpal Singh said, After I got information from the control room about the incident, I also tried calling SP sahibs both mobile numbers. But I failed to connect it. Yesterday, Punjab Police had not ruled out the possibility that suspected militants had used SPs mobile to make a call to Pakistan. Suspected Pakistani terrorists in Army uniform had abducted and thrashed the Superintendent of Police and his two associates before dumping them some distance away and speeding away in his vehicle in the wee hours of Friday near Kathlore bridge here. SP Salwinder Singh, who was recently transferred as Assistant Commandant, 75th Battalion, Punjab Armed Police (PAP), said he and his friend Rajesh Verma, along with his cook Mohan Lal, were coming back after paying obeisance at Narot Jaimal Singh last night when four-five men signalled them to stop their vehicle. The SP added that they were overpowered by the suspected militants who drove away with them in their SUV. The SP and Lal were dumped after some distance while Verma was thrown off the vehicle after some time with injury marks on his body. PTI Pathankot/New Delhi, January 3 Fresh exchange of fire was reported between the security forces and terrorists holed up inside the Pathankot Air Force base on Sunday evening, even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a meeting with top officials to take stock of the situation. The terrorists were reported to be firing with mortars. Earlier, Air Marshal Anil Khosla said, The area cannot be declared fully sanitised. Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi told reporters in New Delhi that four gunmen had been confirmed killed and he hoped the two still at large would be neutralised by evening. Without recovering their bodies they could not be confirmed dead. The comments by Mehrishi came a day after Home Minister Rajnath Singh tweeted saying the operation had been completed with the killing of five terrorists. Singh later deleted his tweet. Soon after returning from his two-day visit to Karnataka, Modi chaired a meeting of top officials, including National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar. Earlier during the day, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar briefed Prime Minister Modi on the latest situation at the Pathankot air base. Both were present at a HAL function in Tumakuru in Karnataka. In the morning, a fresh grenade blast ripped through the air force base, claiming the life of an NSG commando, as three other security men succumbed to injuries in a hospital after yesterdays terror attack taking the toll of Indian security personnel to seven. Lt Col Niranjan, a member of the NSGs Bomb Disposal Squad, was killed while he was defusing the grenade at the scene of the terror attack as part of the combing operations that continued through the night. Four other security men were also injured in the blast. Defence sources said Niranjan, a resident of Kerala, was killed while trying to retrieve the grenade from the body of a dead terrorist. Three members of the Defence Security Corps (DSC) succumbed to injuries in the hospital here during the night, taking the death toll of security men killed in the attack to seven. Home Minister Rajnath Singh tweeted: Pained to know about the demise of Lt Col Niranjan of NSG during mopping up operations in Pathankot. The nation salutes his sacrifice. Five attackers, a Garud commando and three members of DSC were killed yesterday when heavily-armed Pakistani terrorists had attempted to storm the base, triggering a day-long gunbattle at the airbase, barely 35 km from the Indo-Pak border. Among those battling for their lives in the hospital are 8 DSC personnel and a Garud commando. The joint combing operation is still underway, a police official said, adding that the NIA has taken over the probe into the terror incident. Some senior officials of the Punjab Police led by DGP Suresh Arora are also present here. Entire area has been cordoned off and top officers of several agencies are camping on the station premises to oversee the operation, which is jointly being conducted by several security wings, including the NIA, NSG and Garud. IAF helicopters were also seen flying over the base and nearby areas to assist ground forces in the operations. Terrorists failed to destroy IAF assets: Home Secy Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi said the terrorists who attacked the Pathankot air base failed to destroy the IAF assets due to timely action by security forces. Because of early action, the terrorists were unable to move to their likely intended aim but were contained in an area of heavy growth of trees and shrubs and surrounded," he told the media here. He added that the security forces had sounded an alert in the area, including the Indian Air Force base near Pathankot, ahead of the pre-dawn attack on Saturday. All vital installations and government offices were informed about a likely terror attack and efforts were mounted to track down the terrorists who had earlier killed a taxi driver, he said. Due to the active intelligence inputs and quick action taken by security forces, especially the IAF, we were able to ensure there was no damage to the assets of the air force. Therefore, the main apparent aim of the terrorists stands defeated," the Home Secretary said. Agencies Ludhiana, January 3 Congress leader and former Speaker of Punjab Assembly Harnam Dass Johar today passed away here due to old-age related ailments. He was 83. Johar was admitted to a local hospital three days ago for some infection. However, he was discharged last evening. Johar was cremated with state honours at Model Town area here this evening. A large number of people, including Ludhiana MP Ravneet Singh Bittu, MLAs Surinder Dawar, Rakesh Pandey and Bharat Bhushan were present on the occasion. Wreaths were laid on his mortal remains on behalf of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, and by senior BJP leader and former minister Sat Pal Gosain on behalf of the BJP. Vimal Sumbly, media adviser of PPCC president Amarinder Singh paid tributes to the departed Congress leader on behalf of his party's state president. Meanwhile, expressing grief over the demise of the former Punjab minister, Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal in his condolence message said Johar always conducted proceedings of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha with impartiality and performed his duties as minister with absolute ability. Badal said during his tenure as minister for higher education, Johar strove to ensure that the benefits of higher education reached all sections of the society. PTI Sandeep Rawat Tribune News Service Haridwar, January 3 As Ardh Kumbh has begun on January 1, the delay in the allocation of special funds by the Central government for the fair is giving credence to the allegations that the BJP is playing petty politics over the issue. As the Congress is heading the Uttarakhand government, while the BJP is ruling at the Centre, Ardh Kumbh seems to be the opportunity for the parties to play politics. The Congress as well as some social and religious organisations are openly criticising the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre for its non-cooperative attitude on the issue. Notably, during Kumbh in 2010, the then Congress-led UPA government at the Centre had allocated Rs 655 crore as a special grant to the previous state government headed by Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank. At that time, Haridwar MP Harish Rawat, in his capacity as Union Minister of State for Food Processing and Employment, had also played a vital role in timely grant of Central funds for Kumbh. Ironically, Harish Rawat is now Chief Minister and Nishank is Haridwar MP, but Rawat complains the latter is not offering similar cooperation or support to his government with regard to Ardh Kumbh. Chief Ministers OSD for Ardh Kumbh Purushottam Sharma told The Tribune that in the recent times this was the first instance when the Centre had not announced funds for Ardh Kumbh even when it has started. In 2004, the state government had got Rs140 crore from the Central government for Ardh Kumbh. Purushottam blamed the delay in grant of Central funds for the fair on negative policies pursued by the BJP. He said the Opposition feared successful hosting of the fair would go in favour of the Congress and hence was delaying Ardh Kumbh funds. The Assembly elections are due next year. The BJP knows that as the state government has successfully revived and restored the Char Dham pilgrimage post-flash floods, successful Ardh Kumbh will give a boost to Chief Minister Harish Rawats popularity. Hence, it is delaying sanctioning of funds for Ardh Kumbh, said Sharma. Today, Matra Sadan ashram founder Swami Shivanand, who has staged numerous agitations for saving the Ganga from pollution and ill effects of quarrying, today questioned the Central governments stance of not granting special funds for Ardh Kumbh even though the fair has started. Kumbh is an ancient heritage and if sufficient funds are not provided to the mela administration, it will adversely impact infrastructure, facilities and other arrangements for the four-month fair. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley should clarify on this matter as all other cities that host Kumbh have been provided Central funds, said Shivanand. Meanwhile, the Congress has resented delay in allocation of funds for Ardh Kumbh. Chairperson of the Congress state media committee Ambrish Kumar said while the Central government had allocated funds for Kumbh at Allahabad (Prayag) and Triyambakeshwar (Ujjain) it was indifferent towards allocating funds for Ardh Kumbh in Haridwar. Nishank said the Niti Ayog had already announced Rs 167.67 crore for development works for Ardh Kumbh. The Congress-led state government hasnt sent proposals for Ardh Kumbh through a proper channel. It is the Congress that is trying to politicize the issue and the Centre will allocate funds for the fair in near future. Due to lack of vision, planning, low quality material being used in Ardh Kumbh works and corruption, the Congress is playing a blame game so as to divert attention from its inefficient functioning, said Nishank. Beirut, January 3 Arab and Kurdish forces have killed at least 16 fighters from the Islamic State group during fierce clashes north of the jihadists' stronghold of Raqa, a monitor said on Sunday. The jihadists launched an offensive last Wednesday against areas held by the Syrian Democratic Forces coalition near to Ain Issa, a town held by the SDF some 50 kilometres (30 miles) from Raqa, killing 21 Kurdish fighters. Late on Saturday, "16 jihadists were killed and 19 wounded" in clashes with the SDF near Ain Issa, said Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The SDF also recaptured an area seized by Islamic State a few days earlier, he said. The alliance, made up of units from the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) and Arab fighters, has carried out several major operations against Islamic State. On December 26, it seized the Tishreen Dam from Islamic State along with several villages on the Euphrates' eastern bank. The dam, held by Islamic State since 2014, helps generate electricity for large parts of the northern Aleppo province, the Observatory said. It was the alliance's second major operation, after clearing the Islamic State from some 200 villages in the northeastern province of Hasakeh. On the Euphrates' western bank, Islamic State still controls swathes of territory stretching from Raqa to Jarablus, on the border with Turkey. More than 260,000 people have been killed in Syria since March 2011. The conflict started as anti-government protests, but spiralled into a complicated multi-sided conflict. AFP Kabul/New Delhi, January 3 The Indian consulate in the Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif was attacked tonight by unidentified gunmen who tried to storm the building. An Indian official said all consulate personnel are safe, as explosions and gunfire rang out at the compound. Everybody is safe, B Sarkar, Consul General at the consulate, said. The mission in the northern Afghan city is manned by three Indian personnel. An External Affairs Ministry spokesman said there were no Indian casualties. Sarkar said the shooting lasted for 20 minutes. They shot from some adjacent building but nobody could enter the consulate. An unidentified Indian consulate official was quoted as saying: We are being attacked. Fighting is going on. No group claimed responsibility for the attack that came just days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in Afghan capital Kabul on a brief visit on December 25 during which he inaugurated the new building for Afghan Parliament built by India. Director General ITBP Krishna Chaudhary said: ITBP personnel along with Afghan police are retaliating. We are effectively engaged and retaliating along with the Afghan forces posted at the consulate. Sources said two of the four attackers are believed to have been killed in the retaliatory fire. However, a final confirmation will be given only after the bodies are seen. Pajhwok Afghan News, an Afghan media outlet, tweeted: The number of attackers was 4, two of them killed but not confirmed by police yet. In his address to Parliament, Modi had made a veiled attack against Pakistan, saying that Afghanistan will succeed only when terrorism no longer flows across the border and when nurseries and sanctuaries of terrorism are shut. Modi also made a veiled reference to Pakistan's reservations about Indian involvement in Afghanistan. PTI Kathmandu, January 3 The top leaders of Nepal's three major political parties, including Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, today met with agitating Madhesi front in a bid to end the current political crisis in the country over the new Constitution. The meeting took place after Indian Ambassador to Nepal Ranjit Rae called on UCPN (Maoist) chairman Prachanda at latter's residence this afternoon. According to Prachanda's personal secretariat, he urged the envoy to end blockade as soon as possible. Prachanda said the border blockade imposed by India for the past few months would hamper the friendly relations between the two countries, Kathmandu Post reported. In return, Ambassador Rae said India is for early solution of crisis Nepal is currently facing. Later, Nepal's ruling coalition -- CPN-UML and CPN-Maoist, the main opposition Nepali Congress and the agitating United Democratic Madhesi Front (UDMF) held talks at Prime Minister's official residence here. They discussed issues relating to agitation by Madhesis --- largely of Indian-origin, border blockade and Constitution amendment bill tabled in Parliament. The meeting is expected to find a way out of the current political stalemate in the country, sources said. On behalf of the three major parties, Prime Minister Oli, Nepali Congress president Sushil Koirala and Prachanda participated in the meeting. Mahanta Thakur, president of Terai Madhes Democratic Party, Upendra Yadav, president of Madhesi Peoples Rights Forum Nepal and Mahendra Raya, president of Terai Madhes Sadbhawana Party were also present at the meeting. They represent the United Democratic Madhesi Front that has been launching agitation in the southern Nepal districts for the past four months protesting against the new constitution that divides the country into seven federal provinces. Life in the southern Nepal plains have been seriously affected by the protests against the country's new Constitution that was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on September 20. So far, over 50 people have died during the Madhesi-Tharu agitation launched by the marginalised groups of the country. However, Sadbhawana Party, one of the members of the four-party alliance, did not take part in the meeting. Sadbhawana Party president Rajendrra Mahato, who was injured during baton charging by police in Biratnagar last week, is currently undergoing treatment in New Delhi. PTI (By Tsem Rinpoche) When I was 15 years old and still living in Howell, New Jersey, I found out that H.H. the Dalai Lama would be visiting Wisconsin to give the first ever Kalachakra initiation in the West. I was so excited! Many Kalmyks who lived in my town had booked buses and hotels to attend the initiation. I wanted to go for the initiation so badly too! But, even though my parents had initially agreed to let me go as long as I earned my own money for the bus fees and all, which I did by working part time for about three months, they broke their promise and in the end, forbade me from attending the initiation. So, I never had the fortune to receive Kalachakra from His Holiness, but I have deep trust and faith in this practice. I was inspired to share a little about the Jonang Lineage with all my readers, because it is where the roots and the lineage of the Kalachakra practice come. One of the prized practices and systems to enlightenment within the Jonangpa lineage is Kalacakra. I wanted to therefore share more about this profound lineage to all of you. The current head of the Jonangpa lineage is His Holiness Kalka Jetsun Dampa Rinpoche who is the supreme lama of the Buddhism of Mongolia. It is good to have more knowledge of other lineages and practices. Tsem Rinpoche Origins of the Jonang Lineage The Jonang Lineage can be traced back to the early 12th-century master Yumo Mikyo Dorje, a lineage holder of the Kalachakra Tantra. He was a disciple of Somanatha, the Kalachakra master from Kashmir who had also translated the Vimalaprabha the great Kalachakra commentary into Tibetan with Dro Lotsawa. The master Yumo was also said to have received the Zhentong Madhyamaka teachings in a vision while practicing the Kalachakra Six-limbed Yoga in the region of Mt. Kailash. However, he would only propagate Zhentong as a secret doctrine to his closest disciples. The Jonang name was derived from its mother monastery, Jomonang Monastery, which was situated in South Central Tibet. The master Kunpang Tukje Tsondru (1243-1313) founded this monastery in 1294. The layout of the monastery was based on the traditional way the Kingdom of Shambhala was depicted. In his lifetime, the master Kunpang Tukje managed to gather and compile the six yogas of Kalachakra at that time. In general, the Jonang tradition is the primary lineage holder of the Dro transmission of the Kalachakra Tantra, the six yogas of the Kalachakra completion stage and the Zhentong Madhyamaka teachings. Jonang Kalachakra Kalachakra literally means the Wheel of Time in Sanskrit. The Kalachakra Tantric system is one of the most advanced Tantric systems within Tibetan Buddhism. It was one of the last Tantric systems to be brought over from India to Tibet via the last transmission of the teachings before Buddhism was wiped out in India by successive Muslim invasions. Although this Tantric system is very advanced and esoteric, there is a tradition of offering it to large public audiences. It is the practice to give such public initiations to plant as many powerful seeds or causes as possible for those in the audience to be reborn in Shambhala. Shambhala is a place on earth that is described in the commentaries to be a hidden land ruled by enlightened kings and that the Kalachakra Tantra is the primary practice of the populace of this kingdom. The king of Shambhala is both the ruler and the one to bestow initiation and commentary of the Kalachakra Tantra. In fact, the Kalachakra Tantra states that Suchandra, an earlier King of Shambhala, requested Buddha Shakyamuni to teach a method to practice the Dharma without renouncing worldly responsibilities. In response to his request, the Buddha taught the first teachings on Kalachakra in Dharanikota, which is near modern Amaravati, Andhra Pradesh in Southeastern India. This was done miraculously simultaneously with another teaching given by the Buddha on Vultures Peak, in the state of Bihar. Along with the king, ninety-six minor kings and emissaries from Shambhala who were amongst the retinue of the king also received the teachings. In this manner, the Kalachakra Tantra was first transmitted directly to Shambhala, where it was kept and practiced for hundreds of years. Successive kings of Shambhala, Manjushrikirti and Pundarika, were said to have composed the condensed Shri Kalachakra Laghutantra and its main commentary, the Vimalaprabha that is at the heart of the Kalachakra texts. Within Tibet, the Kalachakra Tantra has many lineages but amongst them, there are two main lineages, the Dro and Ra lineages. The Ra lineage descends from the Kashmiri master Samantashri and the translator Ra Lotsawa Dorje Drak. The Ra lineage eventually found a prominent place within the Sakya school, where great masters like Sakya Pandita, Drogon Chogyal Phagpa and so forth held the lineage. On the other hand, the Dro lineage descends from the Kashmiri scholar Somanatha, who traveled to Tibet in 1027 AD and his translator Dro Lotsawa Sherab Drak, whose name became synonymous with this transmission of the Kalachakra. The Dro lineage of Kalachakra eventually became an integral part of the Jonang lineage through its founder Yumo Mikyo Dorje and Kunpang Tukje Tsondru. Then, the Jonang scholar Taranatha left his mark on the lineage by developing this Tantra with his commentaries and teachings. In the 17th century, the Great Fifth Dalai Lama suppressed the Jonang lineage for political reasons. Ironically, it was also during the time of the Fifth Dalai Lamas forced conversion of Jonang monasteries that the Gelug school absorbed much of the Jonang Kalachakra tradition. Today, the Kalachakra Tantra is disseminated within all schools of Tibetan Buddhism but it is featured prominently within the Gelug lineage. It is also the main practice of existing Jonangpas that survived in several monasteries in Kham, Qinghai and Sichuan. Jonang Zhentong According to the Jonang tradition, Zhentong literally means other-emptiness or the view of extrinsic Emptiness. In other words, Zhentong is an interpretation of the Madhyamaka view of the nature of reality and the mind. The Madhyamaka system was derived from the Buddhas Third Turning of the Wheel of Dharma, which forms the final set of discourses that the Buddha taught. According to Zhentong teachings, the Madhyamaka view of Emptiness is an understanding of the mind and reality in order to reconcile the paradox of a lack of permanent essence (Sunyata/Emptiness) and the permanent enlightened nature of the enlightened mind (Tathagatagarbha/Buddha nature). Ultimately, Zhentong is a view of how the ultimate nature of reality is empty of inherent existence aside from ones own enlightened Buddha nature. Zhentong holds that the relative truth of reality is empty of its own intrinsic findable existence. This Emptiness of inherent existence or rangtong is considered to be solely the nature of relative reality while the ultimate reality is understood to be empty of everything aside from oneself. That is why transient tangible experiences remain devoid of inherent and findable existence while the boundless luminous nucleus of Buddha nature within all beings remains intangible and unchanging. This enlightened Buddha nature is thus regarded as the permanently pure nature of awareness. It is this pure mind that is devoid of its distorted perceptions. This is likened to an embryo or a womb and this enlightened essence (Tathagatagarbha) provides the potentiality for living beings to be reborn into fully awakened Buddhas. The Suppression of the Jonang Lineage In the 17th century, the Fifth Dalai Lama was enthroned by Panchen Lobsang Chokyi Gyeltsen and came to power and was proclaimed the temporal and spiritual leader of Tibet with the backing of the Mongol army. This was done to counter the growing threat of the Kagyupas, who were backed by the King of Tsang. The Kagyupas were not the only ones who posed a threat to the Gaden Podrang, the newly formed government of the Fifth Dalai Lama. The Jonang lineage came under the suppression of the Gaden Podrang. The apparent reason for the clampdown was the philosophical Zhentong view of Emptiness that was deemed heretical. Consequently, Jonang books were burned, its libraries and printing presses sealed and Jonang monasteries forcibly converted into Gelug. However, the real reason was because the Jonang had supported the Tsangpa king before the uprising and may have posed a threat to the Gelug, thus committing treason. Therefore, the Fifth Dalai Lama believed that the Jonang monasteries had to be closed and converted in order to set a precedent and a warning to other monasteries not to engage in politics and endanger the stability of the nation. The Jonang Lamas and lineage fled beyond the Gelug sphere into faraway Kham and Amdo where they continued to flourish. Today, they still uphold their lineage and practice of the completion stage of Kalachakra along with the philosophical Madhyamaka Zhentong system in these areas. Jonang Lineage Holders Yumo Mikyo Dorje Yumo Mikyo Dorje was the 11th Century student of the Kashmiri scholar Somanatha and became a great Kalachakra master. He became known as the earliest Tibetan proponent of the Zhentong view of other-emptiness, which was a philosophical system of understanding the absolute nature of reality. This was emphasized within the Kalachakra Tantra and also the Buddhas teachings on the Buddha nature inherent in all sentient beings as expounded during the Third Turning of the Wheel of Dharma. It was believed that he received the Zhentong teachings while practicing the Kalachakra Six Yogas in the vicinity of Mount Kailash. He had formulated his view in much the same way as how Dolpopa Sherab Gyeltsen would do later on but without explicit terminology to define this view. Thus, many would come to view him as the originator of the Zhentong view instead of Dolpopa Sherab Gyeltsen. From Yumo Mikyo Dorje onwards, the Dro lineage of Kalachakra was transmitted through the lineage-holders Dharmeshvara, Namkha Ozer, Machig Tulku Jobum, Drubtob Sechen, Choje Jamyang Sarma and Choku Ozer. Choku Ozer in turn became the teacher of Kunpang Tukje Tsondru who became the actual founding father of the Jomonang Monastery. Kunpang Tukje Tsondru The master Kunpang Tukje Tsondru was born in 1243 in the Dok region of Tsang. In the course of his life, he studied at several monasteries in U and Tsang, of which the most famous was the great Sakya Monastery. While he was staying at Jamyang Sarma Monastery of Kyandur, the master Kunpang received the transmissions of all the major treatises and teachings possessed by the great Choku Ozer. Prior to this, he had received and studied the Ra tradition of Kalachakra and he now received from Choku Ozer the Kalachakra initiation, the explanation of the Kalachakra Tantra, the great Vimalaprabha commentary, and an experiential transmission of the Kalachakra completion-stage practices of the Six-Branch Yoga in the Dro tradition. In the end, the master Kunpang received and practiced seventeen different lineages of the Six-Branch Yoga of Kalachakra. When he was meditating on stopping vitality, which is the third of the six branches, it is said that the vital winds of the five elements became so forceful that he gained a high level of clairvoyance. Consequently, he gained visions of countless deities, such as the eleven-faced form of Avalokitesvara. After that, the master Kunpang became an itinerant renunciate, wandering from hermitage to hermitage. Henceforth, he became known as Kunpang, which means renunciate. While he was at the famous Se Kharchung Hermitage, a whole assembly of Kalki emperors of Shambhala appeared to him in a vision and bestowed their blessings for him to compose a commentary on the Kalachakra Tantra. While he was at Kacho Deden Hermitage, he composed a series of texts on the practice of the Six-Branch Yoga of Kalachakra. At this time, he also experienced a vision of Kalachakra, and received a divine prophecy. These texts would be the first Tibetan and extensive commentary for the Six-Branch Yoga of the Kalachakra. He also beheld the face of Goddess Nakmen Gyalmo, who entreated him to reside at the very place where he would later establish Jonang Monastery. He would eventually settle there and Jonang Monastery was established in 1294. By then, he had many students and he taught them the old and new translations of Tantric teachings. In his later years, the master Kunpang declared that Jangsem Gyelwa Yeshe would be his successor as the monastic head of Jonang Monastery. It is traditionally told that when Kunpang was about to pass away, Gyelwa Yeshe became ill, so Kunpang decided to extend his own life for several months. When he again manifested signs of passing away, his disciples pleaded for him to live longer. He lived for two more weeks before passing away peacefully. Dolpopa Sherab Gyeltsen Dolpopa Sherab Gyeltsen was born in 1292 in the Nepalese Dolpo region. He was ordained as a novice monk in 1304 and spent his formative years studying the Nyingma teachings. In 1309, he travelled to Mustang in order to study the treatises on the Perfection of Wisdom teachings and Buddhist epistemology or Abhidharma at the feet of the great Sakya master Kyiton Jamyang Drakpa Gyeltsen. In 1312, the young Dolpopa would follow his master Kyiton Jamyang back to the great monastery of Sakya in Tsang, Tibet. While at Sakya, Dolpopa received innumerable teachings. Of these teachings, he would soon become an expert on the complex Kalachakra tradition and would serve as Kyiton Jamyangs teaching assistant for several years. Besides the master Kyiton, Dolpopa received teachings and initiations from other Sakya masters including the Sakya Throneholder Daknyi Chenpo Sangpo Pel. From the Jonang master Kunpang Drakpa Gyeltsen, he received the Vimalaprabha, the commentary on the Kalachakra Tantra. From the Sakya master Sengge Pel, he received further teachings on Abhidharma and from the master Kunga Sonam, he received teachings on Sakya Lamdre and the scriptural transmission of several texts on the Hevajra Tantra. Dolpopa traveled to many of the great monasteries of Tsang and Central Tibet in 1314 and became known with the title Kunkhyen or Omniscient because of his mastery of a great number of scriptures. He also received bhikshu or full monastic ordination from the abbot Sonam Drakpa of Cholung Monastery and vowed to be meatless for the rest of his life. During the same year, he visited Jonang Monastery and was deeply impressed by the tradition of intense meditation emphasized there. Then he traveled to U and had audience with the Third Karmapa, Rangjung Dorje (1284-1339), at the great Karma Kagyu monastery of Tsurpu. The Karmapa significantly prophesied that Dolpopa would quickly develop deeper insight in the view and practice. In 1322, while Dolpopa was at Jonang Monastery, he received from the master Khetsun Yonten Gyatso (1260-1327) the complete transmission of the Kalachakra Tantra, the Bodhisattva Trilogy, and the Kalachakra completion-stage practices of the Six-Branch Yoga. Then he entered a meditation retreat at the Jonang hermitage of Khacho Deden. After this retreat, Yonten Gyatso convinced Dolpopa to teach in the assembly at Jonang, and also taught him many more systems of esoteric knowledge on Tantra. Dolpopa then visited Sakya at the invitation of Tishri Kunga Gyeltsen (1310-1358) of the Khon family, and offered him the Kalachakra initiation. On returning to Jonang, Dolpopa began a strict retreat at Khacho Deden, meditating on the Six-Branch Yoga for one year. During this time he achieved realization of the first four of the six branches, beholding immeasurable figures of the Buddhas and Pure Lands when practicing. During this retreat the realization of the Zhentong view first arose in Dolpopas mind, but he would not teach it to others until another five years had passed. In 1325, Yonten Gyatso requested Dolpopa to be his successor and accept the monastic seat of Jonang Monastery. This was against Dolpopas own wish to enter into retreat but nevertheless, he finally agreed and ascended the monastic throne of Jonang in 1326. When Yonten Gyatso passed away the next year, Dolpopa decided to build a monumental stupa to repay his masters kindness. During the construction, Dolpopa himself would sometimes work on the construction site amidst giving many teachings. As the long central poles were placed in the stupa, he taught the Bodhisattva Trilogy to a huge assembly, explaining for the first time the distinction between the relative as empty of self-nature (Rangtong) and the absolute as empty only of other relative phenomena (Zhentong). The stupa was finally consecrated on October 30, 1333. In the following years, Dolpopa mostly stayed in meditation retreat and had many visions. In particular, he directly beheld the Pure Land of Shambhala, the source of the Kalachakra teachings, and once claimed to have actually gone there by visionary means. In 1336, Dolpopa was invited to teach to a large crowd of several thousand people at Sakya Monastery. Once again, he taught the distinctions between the Rangtong and Zhentong views of Emptiness while citing numerous scriptural references. In 1338, he passed the monastic seat of Jonang Monastery to his disciple Lotsawa Lodro Pel. In 1344, Mongolian imperial envoys arrived with decrees issued by the Yuan Emperor Toghon Temur inviting Dolpopa to China, but he retreated to isolated hermitages for the next four years to evade the request. Dolpopa became extremely heavy in his later years and it was difficult for him to travel. But in 1358, when he was sixty-seven years old, he decided to make a pilgrimage to Central Tibet and traveled by boat down the Tsangpo River, stopping at different places along the banks to teach. He stayed for one year at the monasteries of Nesar and Cholung, where he gave many teachings. The great Sakya master of the Khon family, Lama Dampa Sonam Gyeltsen (1312-1375), came to meet Dolpopa at Cholung, received teachings, and made requests to compose a text that became one of his major works, the Fourth Council. In 1359, Dolpopa was brought on a palanquin through U and Tsang, welcomed by throngs of people lining the roads and escorting him into the different monasteries. When he finally arrived in Lhasa, he stayed for about six months and gave the instructions of the Six-Branch Yoga of Kalachakra several times to large crowds. At the beginning of 1360, a party arrived to invite Dolpopa back to Jonang Monastery. As Dolpopa traveled back into the Tsang region he stopped to teach at various monasteries such as Ralung and Nenying. In 1360, Dolpopa arrived back at the great hermitage of Jonang and again stayed in meditation at his residence of Dewachen. At the tail end of 1361, Dolpopa told his assistants that he wanted to go to the stupa, but his attendants told him that the path was unsafe because snow had fallen and assisted him to his residence instead. So, tea was served and elder disciples were called for some lighthearted conversation and by some accounts, he was said to be pleased with his disciples. The next morning, the master seemed to be in deep meditation with staring eyes. By afternoon, he had closed his eyes and passed away while in deep meditation. Dolpopa was cremated according to tradition accorded to a High Lama. Ashes from the cremation were gathered and placed with other relics into a statue of Dolpopa that was installed into the great stupa he had built. Taranatha Taranatha was born at Karak in 1575 and was a descendent of Ra Lotsawa Dorje Drak. His Tibetan name was Kunga Nyingpo but scholars and historians know him by the name Taranatha, which he received in a vision from a great Indian mahasiddha. According to traditional accounts, when he was one year old he had self-declared, I am master Kunga Drolchok! But this self-recognition was kept a secret for several years, and it was not until he was about four years old that he was brought to the late Kunga Drolchoks monastery of Cholung Jangtse and formally recognized and enthroned as his incarnation. Then began years of rigorous study and practice under the guidance of a series of great masters, many of whom had previously been major disciples of his previous life. Kunga Drolchoks disciple Jampa Lhundrub guided the newly recognized young lama. Under this lama, Taranatha began his first studies on the various subjects of Sutra and Tantra. Then he received a vast number of Tantric teachings and initiations, primarily of the Sakya tradition of Lamdre, from another of his predecessors disciples, Doring Kunga Gyeltsen. Kunga Drolchoks disciple Draktopa Lhawang Drakpa taught Taranatha many esoteric instructions, especially the Six Yogas and Mahamudra. Jedrung Kunga Pelzang (1513-1588), who was Kunga Drolchoks nephew and the throne holder of Jonang Monastery, transmitted to Taranatha the teachings of Kalachakra Tantra and the dharma protector Mahakala that he had received from his previous life. From Kunga Drolchoks disciple Lungrik Gyatso, Taranatha received many transmissions, especially the Kalachakra initiation, the explanation of the Kalachakra Tantra, the esoteric instructions of the Six-Branch Yoga according to the Jonang tradition, and the collected writings of Dolpopa Sherab Gyeltsen (1292-1361). He is said to have gained a special realization when he practiced the Six-Branch Yoga of the Kalachakra Tantra. When Taranatha was fourteen years old, the Indian adept Buddhaguptanatha arrived in Tibet. This master became one of Taranathas most important teachers, passing to him countless transmissions of Tantric initiations and esoteric instructions. Taranatha attributed his understanding of the Tantric teachings to the kindness of Buddhaguptanatha. There were other Indian yogins and scholars, both Buddhist and non-Buddhist who came to Tibet during Taranathas lifetime. They gave him instructions, taught scholarly aspects of the teachings and assisted him in translating Sanskrit texts into Tibetan. Several of Taranathas translations are now included in the Tibetan canonical collections of the Kangyur and Tangyur. In 1588, Jedrung Kunga Pelzang appointed Taranatha as his successor on the throne of Jonang. Taranatha took it upon himself to proliferate Dolpopas insights to a larger audience. He decided that it was important to preserve Dolpopas teachings as they were deemed to be in danger of dying out. During the 1590s, the instruction manual witten by Dolpopas heir Chokle Namgyel (1306-1386) was still being used at Jonang to teach the Six-Branch Yoga, but very few people really understood the philosophical tenets of Dolpopa and his disciples. During this period Taranathas teacher Jampa Lhundrub advised him to restore the great stupa that Dolpopa had built about 260 years before at Jonang. Taranatha poured his whole heart into this project. Just before the restoration work was finished, it is said that he had a marvelous vision of a mountain one morning. Apparently, the mountain was the Dhanyakataka Stupa, where the Buddha first taught the Kalachakra Tantra. Taranatha later felt that perhaps this vision was a culmination of the merits of everyone who had been working so intensely to complete the restoration works of the great stupa at Jonang. In 1604, after a decade of tremendous work to revive the original Jonang teachings, serious political conflict ensued. Jonang Monastery itself was in immediate danger of being invaded by a hostile army. While meditating at Dolpopas great stupa, Taranatha became despondent as all his efforts were about to be destroyed and the tradition itself wiped out. At that time, he yearned to enter into retreat far away from all the troubles created by deluded and impassioned people. At the darkest hour, Dolpopa appeared to him in a vision and encouraged him to continue on and assured him that all his efforts would not be in vain. The next night, Taranatha prayed to Dolpopa once more and experienced a vision of the master who gave a teaching in the form of a verse. As a result of this series of events, Taranatha was said to have gained realization of Dolpopas true intentions as expressed in his Zhentong teachings and all his fear and doubts melted away. In order to express his realization, he composed a text entitled Ornament of the Zhentong Middle Way, which is one of his most important works solely devoted to the explanation of the Zhentong view. Taranatha would continue to have countless visions for the remainder of his life. During the years spanning 1618 to 1619, he experienced many visions of entering the Kalapa court of the Shambhala kings, beheld the divine rulers themselves, and heard their teachings. He felt that these visions were a result of his realization of the ultimate view of all Sutras and Tantras according to Zhentong Madhyamaka view. Probably not long after 1614, Taranatha went to Mongolia where he reportedly founded several monasteries. In 1615, a piece of land was offered along with the necessary resources to build a monastery for Taranatha. The monastery would eventually be completed in 1628 and given the name Takten Damcho Ling. The monastery would serve as his residence until he entered clear light. Just before his passing, Taranatha appointed his disciple Sangye Gyatso as his successor on the monastic seat of Takten Damcho Ling. He also gave several prophecies concerning the future of the Jonang tradition and the upheaval that would soon sweep Tibet. Sangye Gyatso passed away not long after Taranatha himself. Therefore, another of the great masters disciples, Kunga Rinchen Gyatso was appointed to the monastic seat and led the Jonang tradition for the next fifteen years. His rebirth became known as Zanabazar, the 1st Bogd Gegeen and Jebtsundamba Khutuktu of Mongolia. His most recent reincarnation was the 9th Jebtsundamba Khutughtu, who entered clear light in 2012. Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 13 of the Malaysian Copyright Act 1987, allowance is made for fair dealing for purposes such as non-profit research, private study, criticism, review or the reporting of current events. The Operator and author(s) of TsemRinpoche.com, a not-for-profit blog, do not claim ownership on the intellectual property rights of the contents, images and/or videos reproduced in this article. Any subsisting intellectual property rights shall belong to the legal owner of the contents, images and/or videos. OKLAHOMA CITY The Veterans Health Administrations Office of the Medical Inspector has launched a federal inquiry into allegations that missed diagnoses and poor patient care at the Oklahoma City VA Medical Center have resulted in life-altering consequences for a number of veterans. Stacy Rine, spokeswoman for the Oklahoma City VA Health Care System, confirmed the investigation in response to questions about a recent USA Today article that detailed allegations of poor patient care provided to five veterans who sought treatment there. Preliminary findings of that investigation appear to confirm VA shortcomings in three of the five cases, she told The Oklahoman. While these were complex cases to review, investigation confirmed that there was a delay in diagnosis in two of the cases and a delay in arranging treatment in another case, Rine said. In the remaining two cases, care was found to be appropriate. Teachers in Oklahoma are woefully underpaid, but University of Oklahoma President David Borens proposed state sales tax is not the way to obtain money to increase teacher salaries. Sales taxes ought to remain for cities, counties and the state to generate revenue. The proposed sales tax would set an unwelcome precedent and give Oklahoma the distinction of having the highest combined state and local sales tax of any other state. House Bill 1017, passed in 1990, aimed to fix the shortfall in education funding, raise teacher salaries, reduce class sizes and more. It didnt work. Then, a lottery was established to raise enough revenue to solve our education problems. It didnt happen. The next solution was for Indian-owned casinos to add to state coffers with a portion of their profits. In the past 10 years, revenue from casinos was $1 billion and couldve been a boon to education funding. Among the alternatives for generating money for education without burdening citizens with a sales tax are: To raise the tax on all tobacco products; to place a nominal tax on beer and sodas, and to increase gasoline taxes by a small amount. Furthermore, funding for education must not remain stagnant but rather increase with every approved state budget. Currently, legislators cut funding for education if unanticipated extra funds become available. Its time for Oklahomas citizens to discuss alternatives. Children are our future and our future depends on decently paid teachers. Letters to the editor are encouraged. Send letters to letters@tulsaworld.com. Udaku Special 2015 has had its share of gripping sex scandals that have kept Kenyans entertained for the last 365 days. As the year ends today, we decided to shed light on some of the hottest sex scandals that shook 2015 to its roots. This was the mother of all scandals, one of Kenyas dopest mix masters was caught on camera smashing, oh sorry, being rode by Halima.Most ladies who watched the tape agreed Creme needed to up his game, it was Halima who did most of the smashing while Creme was only moaning like an abandoned puppy.It was Machakos Senator, Johnson Muthama, who enlightened the country that former Devolution CS was the Presidents side dish at the infamous CORD public rally held at Uhuru Park on September 23rd 2015.The Senator said the only reason why the head of state had refused to sack Waiguru when all fingers were pointing at her in the NYS scam was because she was involved in all manner of debauchery with Uhuru.Of course the President vehemently denied the rumor while addressing a political crowd in Narok County. He advised his detractors to go ahead and acquire themselves extra wives if at all they were dissatisfied with their current wives.This one has been implicated in two major sex scandals. It seems the Mali actor has blood that boils at an alarming rate at the sight of them ladies.Kone was stupid enough to record himself devouring a little known girl in a public toilet at a popular Nairobi bar.The video went viral and because we are not a porn site, we couldnt embed it unfortunatelyDoes Embakasi Prayer Cell ring a bell?? A brother committed the blunder of the year by hitting on a female faithful on a Whatsapp prayer group.Bro Ocholla, a married ninja, unleashed his Team Mafisi side and attacked a female faithful with sexually explicit imagination that caught the attention of the whole nation.Corporates cashed in on Ochollas misfortunes making the brother trend for days.Her case was the first major sex scandal in 2015 that involved a celebrity. The sultry songstress was caught pants down having illicit sex with actor, Nouhom Cheick Kone, at his house in Roysambu.Kones girlfriend sounded the alarm the moment she walked in her boyfriend having sex with Habida in the living room.The story went viral despite numerous attempts by Kone and his contacts trying to kill it. Then again you cant bribe all blogs.6. Hon. Joyce Lay And Hon. Elisha BusieneiIt was the first incident of sexual advances in parliament in 2015. Members of the Defence and Foreign Affairs Committee accompanied President Uhuru to Tokyo, Japan and thats when the Turbo MP used the opportunity to prey on the prettiest legislator.The Taveta Woman Representative said they were booked on the same floor with Busienei and as she was talking to her Kitui counterpart, Nyiva Mwendwa, Busienei went and stood at her door, barring her way into her own room. That incident happened on March 18th.Lay rejected Mr. Busienei advances and the Turbo MP reacted by attacking her with itchy words to prove he was a typical Kalenjin bull."When I tell him to move away from my door he tells me that hujui mimi ni Kalenjin, then he told me you are so useless," Lay was quoted as saying. SUNDAY Crystal Palace 0-3 Chelsea Chelsea secured an impressive away success, their first victory in Guus Hiddink's second spell as interim manager, and climbed to 14th in the process. Oscar broke the deadlock on 29 minutes, tapping in after Diego Costa broke clear. Willian doubled the advantage after the interval with a stunning effort from distance before Costa sealed the win from close range moments later as the Blues extended their unbeaten run to four. Wasquehal 0-1 Paris Saint-Germain Holders Paris began their French Cup defence in the last 64 with a much-changed side, and despite a dominant performance against fourth-tier Wasquehal their only reward was a solitary goal after the break. Captain Zlatan Ibrahimovic nodded the clincher after meeting Marco Verratti's lofted pass on 60 minutes. Valencia 2-2 Real Madrid Madrid lie four points off the Liga summit after twice squandering the lead in a game they finished with ten men. Karim Benzema rounded off a fine team move on 16 minutes, but Daniel Parejo levelled from the spot before the visitors lost Mateo Kovacic for his challenge on Joao Cancelo. Gareth Bale headed Madrid back in front late on, yet Paco Alcacer struck almost immediately to make it a frustrating start to 2016 for the Merengues. SATURDAY Atletico Madrid 1-0 Levante Midfielder Thomas Partey struck with nine minutes to go to propel Atletico to the top of the Liga, bottom-of-the-table Levante having frustrated Diego Simeone's men in Madrid. Atletico had the better of the first half, and both Koke and Juanfran struck the crossbar in the second period, but they were able to take full advantage of Barcelona's earlier slip as the Ghanaian battled through to finish. Lionel Messi's men were frustrated Getty Images Espanyol 0-0 Barcelona Barcelona were denied a goal for the first time in the Liga this season as their city derby against Espanyol ended goalless Barcelona's first 0-0 in all competitions since December 2014. Lionel Messi found the post with a free-kick in the first half, Andres Iniesta had an effort ruled out for offside, and Luis Suarez hit the woodwork, but Espanyol got due reward for a resolute defensive performance. Arsenal 1-0 Newcastle United Arsenal did not impress at home against a struggling Newcastle side, but an opportunistic finish from Laurent Koscielny on 72 minutes was enough to secure all three points for Arsene Wenger's men. Arsenal have won six of their last seven games in all competitions and have taken sole command at the top of the Premier League, with Leicester unable to find a way past Bournemouth. Watford 1-2 Manchester City City ended a five-game wait for an away success, coming from behind to win 2-1 at promoted Watford in Saturday's late English game. Aleksandar Kolarov headed into his own net from a Ben Watson corner on 55 minutes to put the hosts in front, but made amends on 82 minutes, setting up Yaya Toure for the equaliser. Sergio Aguero then headed the 84th-minute winner his first goal since 21 November. Guimaraes 0-1 Benfica Midfielder Renato Sanches scored his second Benfica goal to earn his side a 1-0 win at Vitoria Guimaraes, and put the pressure on Portugal's top two Porto and Sporting CP. The 18-year-old's angled finish means Benfica are unbeaten in seven Liga games, but remain third in the table. Nicolas Gaitan wore the captain's armband as he made his first appearance since 8 December. UEFA.com's weekly wonderkid: 18-year-old Renato Sanches A 20-year-old University of North Texas student acting as a designated driver on New Year's died after being shot in an apparent road rage incident. According to WFAA, Sara Mutschlechner was driving a car with her friends as passengers early in the morning on New Year's Day when another vehicle pulled up next to theirs and people in both cars began talking. Officer Shane Kizer, a spokesman with the Denton police, told ABC News the two cars had no animosity toward one another until the SUV and the men inside made certain remarks toward the women in Mutschlechner's car. As the two traveled through an intersection on University Drive, someone in the SUV fired a gun two or three times toward the other car, and a bullet struck Mutschlechner in the head. The car she was driving hit another car and then an electrical pole. One of her friends in the car suffered non-life-threatening injuries. At the hospital, Mutschlechner needed to be placed on life support, but Kizer said she died Friday evening after being taken off life support. According to BuzzFeed News, Mutschlechner was a third year student at UNT who was part of the Zeta Tau Alpha sorority. The criminal investigation is ongoing and police have not placed anyone in custody. Majoring in radio, television and film, and minoring in theater, Mutschlechner was an aspiring filmmaker, ABC News reported. "Each and every one of our lives at the Gamma Phi Chapter of ZTA has been touched by the spunky, selfless attitude of our beloved sister, Sara," ZTA's chapter president Jordan Roberts said in a statement. "She is by far one of the most spirited, honest and fun-loving people I ever had the privilege to know. She will truly be missed." LAS VEGAS, NEVADA---Perhaps the UFC is Conor McGregor's and we are just living in it! In a fight that was suppose to headline UFC Fight Night 76 in Dublin, Ireland, Dustin Poirier, whose last defeat came to current featherweight champion Conor McGregor, and Joe Duffy, the last man to hand McGregor a loss, faced-off in a very entertaining, exciting UFC 195 lightweight battle that went the distance. But who won? You will find out! Round 1 Both coming out attacking, the two traded quick punches for the first 90 seconds, Poirier primarily when close and Duffy from a distance, until the Irishman Duffy cracked his opponent with a very nice right uppercut that led to Poirier against the side of the octagon. Faced with adversity early, the American ate a combination before escaping and absorbing multiple shots to the head and one to the body. It was clear "DP" was in trouble. Despite being picked apart in the first half of Round 1, Poirier finally found great success in the clinch as he landed four clean punches to the chin of Duffy. With the opposition scrambling away, Poirier bloodied the nose with two strong rights that transitioned to a successful takedown. On the ground, DP attempted to pull the Irishman away from the octagon wall but was unable on multiple attempts. Well, maybe the last one could be called productive, for Poirier faked the pull away and blasted Duffy with a left elbow that snapped his head back. Eventually though, the battle would go back to stand-up prior to the five minute's conclusion, leading to an exchange of right hand shots. Yet, the American came out on top in the final exchange considering he caught his opponent with another, which progressed the swelling of Duffy's left eye. We were heading to a Round 2. Round 2 Looking worse than he did at the end of the first round, Dustin Poirier's nose was poring blood now as UFC announcer Joe Rogan speculated whether or not it was broken (We later learned his nose was broken, for DP commented after the bout, "My nose is crushed for sure. When I touch it, it feels like a broken lightbulb."). Nevertheless, the fight continued with the two trading kicks before Poirier landed his second takedown. Back on the ground in Round 2, the American had his most success since he shutdown the offensive bottom game of Duffy while landing a multitude of strikes, elbows and punches, that truly messed up the face of the Irishman. Additionally, this one became very red and very slippery thanks to Poirier dripping what seemed like pints and pints of blood on his opponent. All in all, Joe Duffy would not escape the "ground and pound" until the horn sounded and DP left the grind with a smile and swagger. Why? Probably because he had landed 53 total head strikes! The fight seemed as though it was his. Ironically, it was anything but. Round 3 Absorbing more than a few strikes in the opening minute of Round 3, Poirier went right back to the takedown, which he landed. Duffy, knowing he could not do full damage on the ground, eventually was able to slip away, but it would take a precious 60 plus seconds off the clock. Though when he did, the Irishman was able to flip position while attempting a knee bar, which transitioned into a very tight heel hook. However, even with fifteen seconds of struggling, Poirier escaped and re-took top position, leading to, you guessed it, more "ground and pound." But, this time with neither really gaining anything from it, the battle was stood up one last time. And then taken back down by DP after multiple punches landed by Duffy. Both trading shots, Duffy on his back and Poirier in his opponent's guard, Duffy started one last charge with 15 seconds left. The Irishman was able to trap the left arm in addition to locking in a triangle around his opponent's head. Precious time ticked off the clock as it became tighter and tighter. And then the fight was over! But not by submission, the third five minutes had expired. It was officially decision time. "The judges score the contest: 30-26, 30-27, and 30-27 for the winner by unanimous decision. Dustin 'The Diamond' Poirier!" Dustin Poirier had officially continued his dominance since moving from featherweight to lightweight. He Said It (Part I) "Joe (Rogan), I don't care how much pain I go through, how much I bleed, how many motherf---ers in the crowd say I can't do it. I don't care! I got self-belief! And I get it done baby and I am coming for that strap! I swear to God you better protect it!" ---Dustin Poirier's thoughts on him belonging in the 155 pound division. He Said It (Part II) "I was more surprised he didn't get cut. I felt the bone in his forehead multiple times and he wasn't bleeding man, I was the one bleeding. I was like what the f---! I tried to get the blood in his face while I was in front of you, I know you saw it. Yeah, I'm a nasty motherf---er." ---Dustin Poirier on his nasty strikes and elbows in Round 2 as well as whether he was surprised Duffy could absorb the blows. He Said It (Part III) "I don't get triangled man. And I don't get tired. But it wasn't close. I was more worried about my right shoulder, maybe him going to an arm bar. I have doubled jointed shoulders and I don't get triangled man." ---Dustin Poirier when asked how close Joe Duffy's triangle was at the end of Round 3. If the end of the final Monday Night RAW of 2015 was any indication Roman Reigns has made a huge mistake getting on the bad side of the Chairman of the Board, Vince McMahon. After Reigns landed the Superman punch heard around the world to the jaw of the 70+-year-old man in route to winning the WWE title, it was evident that there would be hell to pay. To compound the issue, Reigns unceremoniously kicked the prone body of Mr. McMahon out of the ring to the floor as he celebrated his win. As Vince recuperated from dental surgery the princess of the McMahon Empire, Stephanie McMahon, accosted Reign on the behalf of her fallen husband Triple H and the presumably toothless Mr. McMahon. Mr. McMahon made his triumphant return to RAW last week, and promptly to threaten Reigns. In a classic series of fortunate event, Mr. McMahon ends up getting himself arrested. The acting during this segment left a bit to be desired, but you have to appreciate the attempt WWE is making to turn Reigns into a pseudo-Stone Cold Steve Austin anti-authority character. Credit WWE Mr. McMahon is, ahem, surprisingly released before the end of RAW. He appeared on the stage to tell Reigns that he will be defending his title on the first RAW of 2016 against Sheamus with Mr. McMahon himself as the special referee. If this doesnt scream a throwback to an attitude era episode of RAW, I dont know what is. If you like matches that end in shenanigans than this match is for you. There is no way we are going to get a clear winner here. It can go one of two ways: Mr. McMahon gets knocked out and a real referee makes the count for a Reigns win, or there is no winner at all and we get a Triple H run in. The fact that Sheamus rematch is on RAW speaks volumes; it essentially means Reigns doesnt have a challenger for the Royal Rumble. Look for the new world title contender to be revealed in some manner during RAW this week. Even money says it is Triple H. Kevin Owens is fresh off of destroying both Neville and Dean Ambrose. It will be interesting to see if Owens continues his streak of attacking them both. Owens wants the Intercontinental title from Ambrose and is still hung up on the fact that Neville won the Breakout Star of the Year Slammy award. This will most likely lead to a triple threat for the IC title at the Rumble. Will Ambrose or Neville be able to extract a modicum of revenge from the rampaging Canadian Destroyer Kevin Owens? The New Day has essentially run afoul of every tag team in the division. Last week they ended up in singles matches against both members of the Lucha Dragons. Sin Cara looks to have suffered a serious shoulder injury, so it is unclear if there will be another altercation between the Dragons and New Day. The Usos are still lurking, as well as the Dudleys. The New Day are painting themselves into a corner here. Look for another team to join the fray here, maybe the Prime Time Players. There may be a massive tag team turmoil match at the Rumble, just to solve all of the tag team issues in one fail swoop. John Cena made his long-awaited return to RAW last week. After goading Alberto Del Rio into putting the United States title on the line (not sure why he had to, seeing as how he is due a rematch, but whatever semantics be damned), Cena won the match via disqualification. It took the entire League of Nations to put Cena down. After the match, The Usos and Roman Reigns make the save and fight off the league. Well, ok the Usos got the crap kicked out of them, but Reigns fought off the League single-handedly. There is no way the John Cena/Alberto Del Rio issue is over, but after saving Cenas bacon, Reigns and Cena engaged in a long stare down. Could this be a sign of things to come? Reigns doesnt have a challenger after his inevitable victory over Sheamus. Will Mr. McMahon sic Cena on Reigns? In some cases, it's better to have the devil you know than the devil you dont. RAW will air Monday at 8 P.M. EST. Stay tuned to VAVEL USA's continued coverage of RAW, Smackdown and all things pro Wrestling

Claudia Boyd-Barrett/SPECIAL TO THE STAR

Property manager Doug LaBarre, right, comes down from the roof of the former Ojai Valley Bowl after an inspection by city officials on Tuesday.

SHARE By Claudia Boyd-Barrett A property manager accused Ojai officials of needlessly using strong-arm tactics to inspect a long-vacant bowling alley on Tuesday. City officials were accompanied by a sheriffs deputy when they arrived in the morning at the former bowling alley at 1202 E. Ojai Ave. Property manager Doug LaBarre said he was served a warrant that allowed officials to inspect the building, including the roof. Once known as the Ojai Valley Bowl, the building has been vacant since the mid-1990s. Property owner Gail Bazzano lives in Louisiana. LaBarre said he has been taking care of the building on behalf of the owner for years and shows it to potential buyers. The building is currently in escrow, he said. Neither he nor Bazzano had received notice of the inspection, LaBarre said. A city code enforcement officer inspected the building about three months ago and didnt find any problems, he added. LaBarre said he first learned of the citys intent to inspect the property Monday afternoon when he received a call from a code enforcement officer. According to LaBarre, Ojai Building Official Steve Stuart told him to be at the building at 10 a.m. Tuesday to let inspectors in, otherwise officials would cut through the chain-link fence surrounding the building and break down the door. I said, what? LaBarre said. I thought that I was in a police state. Stuart, who was at the site Tuesday, declined to comment and referred questions to the citys deputy manager. City Manager Robert Clark said he could not comment on the specific case because of legal issues. However, he said the city is in the process of enforcing the citys vacant building ordinance, which involves inspecting vacant properties to ensure they are safe and well maintained. The City Council passed changes to the ordinance in September, including new registration requirements and fines of up to $500 per infraction. Clark said if property owners do not consent to inspections, the city can obtain a warrant. What were doing is really standard procedure in any city, he said. If vacant buildings arent properly maintained, they become a blight. Reached by phone in Louisiana, Bazzano said she didnt understand what was happening and declined to be interviewed. Mayor Severo Lara said he believes the right protocol was followed in the case and correct notices were given. However, he said he was concerned to hear from LaBarre about his alleged treatment by the building official. Were in the process of making sure to clean things up and not trying to bully our residents, Lara said. If Mr. LaBarres comments are true, I agree that they were rude, they were not necessary. STAR FILE PHOTO SHARE STAR FILE PHOTO By Mike Harris of the Ventura County Star Ventura County has leaned Democratic in the past two presidential elections and is likely to do so again in November, with Latino voters playing a significant role, political analysts say. "From the Republican stance, things don't look good," said Herb Gooch, a political scientist at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks. "From a Democratic stance, they look enormously favorable." He cited in part the approximately 21,000 voter-registration advantage Democrats enjoy over Republicans in the county. Adam Probolsky, an Orange County-based pollster who works on behalf of Republican congressional candidates, agreed. "You're definitely a Democratic county," he said. "You can't ignore that." There are currently 153,411 registered Democrats (38.8 percent), 134,207 registered Republicans (34 percent), 85,902 registered no party preference (21.7 percent), and 21,725 registered other (5.5 percent). California is a winner-take-all state whose 55 Electoral College votes will go to whichever nominee wins the state's popular vote. Ventura County leaning Democratic could add to the party's statewide popular vote total and help it capture the state, which has not gone Republican in a presidential race since 1988. Hillary Clinton, a former secretary of state, U.S. senator and first lady, is the Democratic front-runner. Real estate billionaire Donald Trump is the current Republican favorite. If the county again leans Democratic, it would confirm its shift from a Republican to Democrat advantage about a decade ago, analysts say. And that could spell trouble for local Republicans and their candidates for state Senate, Assembly and other seats appearing lower on the ballot, they say. "That would be discouraging to Republican voters and candidates down ticket generally as they face Democrat incumbents and increasing Democratic registration advantage," Gooch said. Republican fundraising would take a hit, too, he said. "Money giving goes to where the odds favor candidates, and incumbency and voter registration data are perhaps the two best predictors of who wins," he said. "Without access to raising lots of money, the result is a downward, vicious cycle of party prospects." CHANGING POLITICAL WINDS For years, Republicans held the registration advantage in Ventura County. That changed between the 2004 and 2008 presidential elections. 2012 U.S. Presidential Election Results in Ventura County The unincorporated areas were narrowly won by Obama/Biden, 21,027 votes (50%) to 20,086 votes (48%) for Romney/Ryan, with 1,061 votes (2%) for others. The county currently has about 153,400 registered Democrats and 132,200 registered Republicans. There are about 86,000 registered independents and about 22,000 people registered with smaller parties such as Libertarian and Green. "The demographics are trending Democratic," said Scott Frisch, chairman of the CSU Channel Islands political science department. In the 2012 presidential election, Ventura County favored Barack Obama and Joe Biden over Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan 52.2 to 45.2 percent. In 2008, Obama-Biden defeated Republicans John McCain and Sarah Palin 55.2 to 42.9 percent in the county. In 2004, the county favored Republicans George Bush and Dick Cheney over Democrats John Kerry and John Edwards 51.1 to 47.4 percent. It narrowly went for Bush and Cheney in 2000, 48.1 to 47.1 percent over Al Gore and Joe Lieberman. Despite Republicans having a roughly 12,000 registered voter advantage in 1996, the county slightly favored the Democratic ticket of Bill Clinton and Al Gore over Republicans Bob Dole and Jack Kemp, 44 to 43.4 percent. In general, the more affluent east county leans Republican while west county goes Democratic. LATINO VOTE Latino voters could play a significant role in the county likely going Democratic, Frisch and Probolsky said. "Nationally, Republicans, especially Trump, have done a lot of things to offend Latino voters," Frisch said. "His rhetoric on immigration has been so inflammatory that it will give people who normally don't have a stake in the process, who don't know about the process, a reason to get informed and to turn out." Ventura County is 40.7 percent Hispanic, according to the Ventura County Civic Alliance's 2015 State of the Region report. Democrats realize Latinos are "a very ripe kind of constituency" and thus the party will likely pour money into registering them and getting them to turn out on Election Day, Frisch said. "So I do think you may see a turnout spike in the more Latino parts of the county, particularly in Oxnard," he said. Probolsky said many of the county's roughly 62,000 foreign-born registered voters, most of them from Latin America, aren't going to vote Republican if Trump is the nominee. The same goes for the county's estimated 30,000 Spanish-speaking registered voters, who overlap with the foreign-born voters, he said. "I don't think he lines up with their values," Probolsky said with a laugh. The registration numbers he cites come from Political Data Inc., a top California voter research firm. OTHER FACTORS Gooch said several other local factors will benefit the Democratic presidential nominee. One is that Rep. Julia Brownley, D-Westlake Village, and Assemblywoman Jacqui Irwin, D-Thousand Oaks "two strong Democratic incumbents" are running for re-election and are "going to stimulate a vote that will probably translate into a strong leaning of the county toward Hillary Clinton." Brownley's 26th Congressional District and Irwin's 44th Assembly District represent much of Ventura County. But Frisch doesn't think down-ballot races will drive voter turnout. "It's a presidential year, and I think the turnout variable is more indicative of what's going on nationally the big national issues that come along every four years," he said. Gooch said another factor that may play to the Democrats' advantage is that the "Republican party seems as divided locally as nationally over a presidential candidate." Mike Osborn, chairman of the Ventura County Republican Party, said that's only natural considering how many Republican candidates are running. At press time, there were 11. "Any time you have more than one candidate prior to a primary, everyone is going to be divided on who they're supporting," he said. "The party is famous for coming together after a nominee is chosen and working for the nominee." Osborn said it's premature to predict which way the county will lean. "There are just a lot of things that could change in the next 10 months," he said. "There are just so many variables. I think you have to look at Ventura County historically. It's been a tossup with small margins either way," except for the last two presidential elections. But Shawn Terris, the new chairwoman of the Ventura County Democratic Party, feels confident the county will go Democratic in November, citing in part the registration advantage. "That alone does not necessarily mean anything," she said. "However, Democrats do come out and vote in bigger numbers in presidential elections. Off years, they're not as good, whereas Republican voters are pretty darn consistent in coming out and voting. "So I do think Ventura County will vote blue," she said. Hakkasan Las Vegas Restaurant, the newly built 20,000-square-foot dining mecca at MGM Grand Hotel & Casino has collaborated with The Southern Nevada Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure to create an exclusive three-course, prix-fixe menu, available for $70 per person in honor of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (Pictured: Hakka Steamed Dim Sum Platter). Beginning today through Monday, November 18, the culinary outpost will be offering a selection of Hakkasans classic dishes from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. in addition to its newest cocktail creation The Iron Rose, where a portion of the proceeds will go back to the fund in support of local breast cancer services and national research programs. At the heart of Hakkasan Las Vegas Restaurant is Michelin-starred Chef Ho Chee Boon and his team of highly skilled wok and dim sum chefs who are responsible for creating its modern approach to authentic Cantonese cuisine. Together, they have hand-picked a selection of the restaurants signature items including the Hakka steamed dim sum platter, Stir-fry black pepper beef ribeye with merlot, delectable Pak choi with garlic and egg and scallion fried rice side dishes and a selection of housemade desserts. This special menu also includes the Iron Rose, a specialty cocktail, which is a new take on the traditional Cosmopolitan made with robust character added by Grand Marnier, vodka, and freshly brewed white tea with raspberry and white cranberry infusion. Walmart, the worlds largest retailer, is putting some NASCAR in the holiday season for race fans by offering one of the best ticket packages in the sport at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The Walmart Family Track Pack is available for race fans planning to attend the March 10, 2013 Kobalt Tools 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The special package allows race fans to buy four tickets and receive vouchers for four hot dogs and four soft drinks for $99. The seats are in Section 4 of the 1.5-mile superspeedway. Walmart is delivering a wonderful holiday gift to families who want to be a part of one of the most highly anticipated events on the NASCAR circuit, LVMS president Chris Powell said. This is the ultimate offer for people who want to bring the whole family to the largest sporting event in Nevada. The offer will be available beginning Monday and will extend through the holiday season. Fans can purchase the tickets by visiting lvms.com/holiday or by calling (800) 644-4444. The all new Pizza Lounge, located in Tivoli Village, will celebrate Fathers Day with a complimentary craft beer special on Sunday, June 16 (Margherita Pizza at Pizza Lounge). The trendy eatery will offer a complimentary craft beer to all men with the purchase of any pizza item on Fathers Day. The dining destination offers a wide selection of draft and bottled craft beers to pair with any delicious pizza option. Dads can dive into hearty pizza options including the mouthwatering Santa Fe Taco Pizza topped with ground beef, baked Mexican beans, Roma tomatoes, fresh lettuce, taco chips and sour cream, or the hearty Meat Lovers pizza, covered with peperoni, ground beef, sweet Italian sausage, Canadian bacon and country bacon. Rwandan President Paul Kagame thanked the nation Monday for voting to change term limits in the constitution, but did not hint on whether he plans to seek re-election. In his annual State of the Nation address, Kagame said, "No individual is forever, but there is no term limit on values, institutions or progress... When the time comes to transfer responsibility from one public servant to another, Rwandans already have confidence that it will be done." The Rwandan leader's term ends in 2017. The new changes allow Kagame, 58, to run for another seven-year term followed by two five-year terms, potentially keeping him in office until 2034. Ninety-eight percent of Rwanda voters approved the constitutional amendments in Friday's referendum. Kagame thanked those who took part in the vote whether they voted "yes" or "no." The United States and European Union had criticized the amendments as undermining democracy in the central African country. On Sunday, U.S. National Security Council spokesman Ned Price called for Kagame to respect the term limits that were in place when he entered office. By doing so, he said, Kagame "would establish a credible foundation for democracy in Rwanda ... and set a laudable example not only for Rwanda but for the region and the world." Efforts to change presidential term limits have sparked controversy in several African countries this year. In Rwanda's neighbor Burundi, President Pierre Nkurunziza is under pressure to negotiate with opponents who say the third term he was elected to in July is unconstitutional. More than 200,000 Burundians have fled the country to escape escalating violence. Kagame has been in office since 2000, but has essentially ruled Rwanda since 1994, when his ethnic Tutsi army, the Rwandan Patriotic Front, ended a genocide by extremists from the Hutu majority. About 800,000 people were massacred in Rwanda then, the bulk of them Tutsis. Since it opened in 2000, the Oresund bridge between Sweden and Denmark has been a towering symbol of European integration and hassle-free travel across borders that people didn't even notice were there. On Monday new travel restrictions imposed by Sweden to stem a record flow of migrants are transforming the bridge into a striking example of how national boundaries are re-emerging. A year of clampdowns on migration and terrorism has all but killed the idea of a borderless Europe where you could drive or train-hop from Spain in the south to Norway in the north without ever having to show your passport. "We're turning back the clock,'' said Andreas Onnerfors, who lives in Lund, on the Swedish side of the bridge. An associate professor in intellectual history, he said he's benefited from the free flow of people and ideas across the bridge he's studied on both sides and taught students from both Sweden and Denmark. "We're going back to a time when the bridge didn't exist," he said, referring to the ID checkpoints being set up Monday on the Danish side for train passengers wishing to cross over to Sweden. The move is meant to stop undocumented migrants from reaching Sweden, which abruptly reversed its open-door policy after receiving more than 160,000 asylum-seekers last year, mainly from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. It follows the reintroduction of border checks in Germany, Austria, France, Belgium and other countries in what's supposed to be a passport-free travel zone spanning 26 nations. The moves are supposedly temporary, but are likely to be extended if Europe's migrant crisis continues in 2016. "It's basically every country for itself now," said Mark Rhinard, an expert on the European Union at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs. Citing exceptional national circumstances related to security, terrorism and public order, several European countries have suspended EU rules that required them to keep their borders open to each other. It's a significant development that strikes at the very heart of the EU project - the free movement of goods and people across borders. The Bruegel think tank in Brussels says that in 2014 there were almost 1.7 million cross-border commuters in the passport-free zone known as the Schengen Area, after the Luxembourg town where it was created in 1985. Abolishing it would affect their daily lives, but the consequences for Europe would go deeper, given the "visible and powerful symbol of European integration that Schengen represents,'' Bruegel researchers Nuria Boot and Guntram Wolff wrote in December. Whether the temporary reintroduction of borders also means rebuilding mental boundaries between EU citizens remains to be seen. But the migrant crisis is becoming an even bigger challenge to European unity than the cracks emerging in recent years over the bloc's common currency, the euro. EU nations demonstrated starkly different views on how to deal with the 1 million migrants that crossed the Mediterranean in 2015. Germany and Sweden, until recently, said refugees were welcome, while Hungary built a fence to keep them out. The Danish government took a series of measures to discourage migrants from going there, including a proposal to seize their jewelry to cover their expenses in Denmark. Common rules requiring refugees to seek shelter in the first EU country they enter collapsed, as Greece and Italy were overwhelmed by sea arrivals and countries further north just waved the migrants through to their intended destination, often Germany or the Scandinavian countries. Meanwhile, the EU's efforts to spread refugees more evenly across the bloc met stiff resistance from member states. By November only about 150 of 160,000 refugees had been relocated from Greece and Italy under an EU plan. The crisis underlines structural flaws in the EU, showing how it has implemented common rules that it just can't enforce once the external pressures become too great, said Karl Lallerstedt, co-founder of Black Market Watch, a Switzerland-based non-profit group focusing on cross-border smuggling. "It's not a strong federal state that can overrule its members,'' he said. "At the same time individual states have obligations to the EU. So you're in this sort of half-way house.'' Any hope of a quick return to a borderless Europe was crushed by the deadly Paris attacks in November, after which France declared a state of emergency and beefed up border controls with neighboring countries. However, if bottlenecks build up at the borders, EU citizens and companies moving goods in trucks will eventually get fed up, said Rhinard, of the Swedish Institute of International Affairs. "As soon as it starts to bite economically, people are going to start to ask: 'Is this the right solution to the problem?'" Rhinard said. That question is already being asked by companies and commuters opposed to new ID checks at the 8-kilometer (5-mile) Oresund bridge-and-tunnel, known to European TV viewers as the focal point of the Swedish-Danish crime series "The Bridge.'' Train networks on either side have been integrated to allow thousands of commuters to cross the bridge daily, essentially incorporating the southern Swedish cities of Malmo and Lund into suburban Copenhagen. But the new ID checks mean there will be no more direct railway service from Copenhagen's main station to Sweden. Travelers heading to Malmo will have to switch trains at Copenhagen Airport after going through the checkpoints there, adding an estimated half an hour to the 40-minute commute. To avoid the hassle, Sweden's national railway company SJ cancelled service to Denmark altogether, leaving only Danish and regional Swedish operators with service across the bridge. "This is what happens when national states put down their foot down and say security is most important,'' said Onnerfors. "It collides with the freedom (of movement) they've been talking about for 20 years, which was the reason we joined the EU to begin with.'' The verdict in which two students have been sentenced to death and six others to prison for their role in the hacking to death of an atheist blogger in Bangladesh has largely been rejected by his relatives and the blogger community of the country. A group of Islamist militants killed Rajib Haider in a machete attack in front of his house in Dhaka in February 2013. Nearly three years later, a fast track tribunal on Thursday handed down the death penalty to Faisal bin Nayeem and Rezwanul Azad Rana - who was tried in absentia - for killing the blogger. One defendant was sentenced to life in prison, while the others received terms between three and 10 years. According to the court, firebrand Muslim cleric Jasimuddin Rahmani inspired the killers with his sermons. He was sentenced to five years. Rahmani headed the hardline Islamist group Ansarullah Bangla Team, which has been charged by police for killing all five secular bloggers in Bangladesh. Nazimuddin, Haiders father, said the verdict had not served justice. Verdict rejected Five among the eight defendants admitted that they had taken part in the killing of my son. Yet only one among those five was handed out the death penalty and the others were prison terms. I reject this verdict and I shall appeal against it in a higher court, Nazimuddin, who uses one name, said. Apart from blogging for websites that criticize Islam, Haider was also known as an activist of Bangladeshs Gonojagoron Mancho, or National Awakening Forum; a group that seeks the executions of all who committed war crimes during the countrys 1971 war of independence. Imran Sarker, who leads Mancho, said he was disappointed by the verdict. As it is the judicial practice across the world, those who incite people to commit ghastly crimes are sentenced to strictest punishments. But, we are surprised that the cleric, who actually took the role of the mastermind in this case, got away with only five years of jail term. It appears, the verdict aimed to protect some of the defendants, Sarker, who also heads Bangladeshs Blogger and Online Activist Network, said to VOA. We shall launch movement seeking stricter punishment of the cleric and also some others who got away with lesser penalties in the case. Legal system concerns The hacking to death of Haider in early 2013 marked the first slaying of an atheist blogger by Islamists in Bangladesh. In the past three years, including Haider, five atheist bloggers have been killed in the country. Relatives and friends of the killed bloggers long complained that the government was not keen to punish the killers which, they said, encouraged more attacks on the freethinkers. Anisul Haq, law minister of Bangladesh, said that Thursdays verdict will help restore confidence in the legal system in Bangladesh. The verdict in the case of Rajib in a very short time by the fast track tribunal has restored peoples faith in law and justice in the country. Thursdays verdict has sent out a strong signal that none will escape punishment after committing any ghastly crime, Haq said. 'Sword Mightier than pen' Blogger Ananya Azad said that it was not true that the verdict in Haiders case restored peoples faith in the judiciary. Five convicts in the case said that they had killed Haider and that they were on a mission to wipe off all freethinkers. Yet, some of them were let off with few years of jail terms. When these men will come out of jail after a few years, they will go out on killing spree against the freethinking people again, Azad said to VOA. This verdict shows that the sword is mightier than the pen. But others say this may mark a beginning of Bangladesh's efforts to protect free speech. The convictions in the murder of Haider mark a long overdue but encouraging first step in addressing the violence directed against bloggers in Bangladesh, said Sumit Galhotra, Asia research associate of the Committee to Protect Journalists. He said in a statement: If Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government is committed to protecting the country's independent voices, it must act decisively to deliver justice in the murders of other bloggers and ensure the protection of those who remain at risk. China rejected a protest from Vietnam over a flight test it has conducted on a new airstrip on a man-made island in the South China Sea, saying it is part of China's territory. Vietnam Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Hai Binh said that the test flight violated Vietnam's sovereignty, breached mutual understanding and hurt the bilateral relations. "Vietnam resolutely protests Chinese above-said action and demand that China immediately stop, not repeat similar actions,'' he said in a statement. In a response Saturday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said the test flight on the newly built airstrip on Fiery Cross Reef in the Spratly Islands was carried out to find out if the new airfield met the standards for civil aviation. "Relevant activity falls completely within China's sovereignty,'' Hua said in a statement. "The Chinese side will not accept the unfounded accusations from the Vietnamese side." China has become more assertive in pressing its claims to the South China Sea islands, an archipelago rich in natural resources that is the focal point of rival claims by neighboring governments. China has recently piled sand on coral reefs atop of which it built airfields, radar installations and docking facilities. As with most of its policy in the South China Sea, Beijing has remained opaque about its plans for the island airstrips. Beijing insists its island building works are justified and don't constitute a threat to stability and freedom of navigation. The U.S. and its regional allies have expressed concern that China's robust assertion of its claims has aggravated tensions. Although Vietnam already has an airstrip in the Spratlys, it is just long enough to accommodate slow-moving cargo and surveillance planes. China's airstrip on Fiery Cross Reef is long enough for bombers capable of launching cruise missiles. Unidentified militants attempted to storm the Indian consulate in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif Sunday as gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades rocked the surrounding area, a spokesman for the local governor told VOA. Munir Ahmad Farhad said the gunmen fired the rockets from a building across the street from the consulate, prompting a gunfight between security forces and the assailants. No details about casualties or damage were immediately available. Special forces units were preparing an operation to clear the attackers, police spokesman Shir Jan Durani said. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, which came just a day after a deadly assault by suspected Islamist militants on an Indian air base near the Pakistan border that has killed at least seven troops and four gunmen, with 12 others wounded. The consulate assault is the latest in a series of attacks on Indian targets in Afghanistan. Nine civilians, including seven children, were killed in August 2013 when suicide bombers targeted the Indian consulate in the main eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad, detonating an explosives-packed car. The assault comes after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited both Kabul and Islamabad last month, the first visit to Pakistan by an Indian premier in over a decade. Ayaz Gul contributed to this report from Islamabad. The battle for control of an Indian air base near the Pakistan border entered a second night on Sunday, more than 36 hours after the compound came under attack. Authorities say at least seven troops and four gunmen had been killed by nightfall, with 12 others wounded. The attack on the Pathankot air base erupted before dawn on Saturday, with analysts saying it threatens to stall recent diplomatic advances between New Delhi and Islamabad. As the fighting entered a second day, officials said Indian troops engaged two gunmen in a wooded area as cleanup operations were under way to secure the base in Punjab state. Soon after, the sound of explosions and gunfire rang out. The airbase houses dozens of fighter aircraft. Indian Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi told reporters that quick action by security forces ensured there was "no damage to the assets of the air force and that... the apparent main aim of the terrorists stands defeated. Authorities blamed Pakistan-based Islamic militants for the attack, with some reports linking it to the militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad. Peace overtures between India and Pakistan picked up momentum last week, after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made an unannounced visit to Pakistan on December 25. It was the first trip to the country by an Indian prime minister in more than a decade. -- Thomas JeffersonSyndicated columnist Charley Reese (1937-2013): "Gun control by definition affects only honest people. When a politician tells you he wants to forbid you from owning a firearm or force you to get a license, he is telling you he doesnt trust you. Thats an insult. ... Gun control is not about guns or crime. It is about an elite that fears and despises the common people."The rifle itself has no moral stature, since it has no will of its own. Naturally, it may be used by evil men for evil purposes, but there are more good men than evil, and while the latter cannot be persuaded to the path of righteousness by propaganda, they can certainly be corrected by good men with rifles -- Jeff Cooper (1920-2006)Note for non-American readers: Crime reports from America which describe an offender just as a "teen" or "teenager" almost invariably mean a BLACK teenager.We are advised to NOT judge ALL Muslims by the actions of a few lunatics, but we are encouraged to judge ALL gun owners by the actions of a few lunatics.Two lines below of a famous hymn that would be incomprehensible to Leftists today ("honor"? "right"? "freedom?" Freedom to agree with them is the only freedom they believe in)It is of course the hymn of the USMC -- still today the relentless warriors that they always were.The intellectual Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180) said: "The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."How much do you know about Trayvon Martin? It's all here (Backups here and here An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life. -- Robert A. HeinleinAfter all the serious stuff here, maybe we need a funny picture of a cantankerous cat Saudi Arabia severed diplomatic ties with Iran less than a day after demonstrators in Tehran stormed the Saudi embassy to protest the Saudi execution of a prominent Shi'ite cleric. In comments carried by the state-run IRNA news agency, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian criticized the move late Sunday, saying Saudi Arabia could not distract from its "big mistake" of executing Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr by cutting ties with Iran. Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir announced his country's move late Sunday. He said all Iranian diplomats must leave the country within 48 hours and that Sunni-majority Saudi Arabia would not allow Shi'ite dominated Iran to undermine Saudi security. "The continued attacks on diplomatic missions is a flagrant violation of all international treaties," al-Jubeir said. He added that Saudi Arabia will not let Iran undermine its security or that of the region. "We want to make it very clear that there is no space in the community of nations for a country that condones terrorism, that supports terrorism and that engages in terrorism." The move caps a rapidly worsening diplomatic crisis that erupted Saturday, shortly after Saudi officials announced the execution of Nimr, a prominent Shi'ite critic of Saudi Arabias ruling royal family. Nimr, convicted in 2014 of sedition and other charges, was also a key leader in 2011 of Shi'ite protests in eastern Saudi Arabia. Forty-six others were also executed in the kingdom Saturday, triggering international outrage and warnings of grave repercussions for the Saudi royal family. The U.S. State Department, in a statement, said Washington "will continue to urge leaders across the region to take affirmative steps to calm tensions." The statement also said the Obama administration believes "that diplomatic engagement and direct conversations remain essential" to resolving the crisis. Iran threatens 'divine vengeance' Earlier Sunday, Iran's supreme leader said Saudi Arabia will face "divine vengeance" for its execution of al-Nimr. State television quoted Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as saying, "The unjustly spilled blood of this oppressed martyr will no doubt soon show its effect and divine vengeance will befall Saudi politicians." He also said Nimr "neither encouraged people into armed action nor secretly conspired for plots, but the only thing he did was utter public criticism rising from his religious zeal." Angry Iranian protesters on Saturday stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran and a consulate in Mashhad, smashing furniture and setting fires at the embassy before being ejected by police. At least 40 protesters were arrested. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called the attacks on the diplomatic missions "totally unjustifiable," even as he denounced Riyadh's execution of the 56-year-old Shi'ite cleric. Iran's Revolutionary Guard said in a statement Sunday Nimr's death would lead to the "downfall" of Saudi Arabia's monarchy. The Guard described Nimr's execution as a "medieval act of savagery." Iraq's Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani called the execution "an injustice and an aggression." Condemnations, warnings spread A top Shi'ite cleric in Lebanon also warned of a backlash to Nimr's execution. Sheikh Abdul-Amir Kabalan described the execution as "a crime at a human level [that] will have repercussions in the coming days." Protests also erupted in Bahrain, where police used tear gas on the crowds. Demonstrations also took place in India, as well as the Saudi embassy in London. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was "deeply dismayed" by the execution of Nimr and called for "calm and restraint in reaction" to the killings. Watch related video on the Muslim world's reaction by Zlatica Hoke: Washington warned that Nimr's death would only add to strife between religious sects in the region. "We are particularly concerned that the execution of prominent Shia cleric and political activist Nimr al-Nimr risks exacerbating sectarian tensions at a time when they urgently need to be reduced," U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement Saturday. Iran and Saudi Arabia have been vying for leadership in the Muslim world since Iran's 1979 revolution, which elevated to power hardline Shi'ite clerics. The U.S. war in Iraq further inflamed religious and ethnic tensions by leading to a Shi'ite-led government in Baghdad and a crucial shift in the sectarian balance of power in the region. After Arab Spring protests erupted in 2011, Saudi Arabia and Iran entered into a fierce proxy war in Syria, where they support opposite sides of the conflict. The two foes also back opposing military factions in Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition has bombed Iran-backed Shi'ite targets for the past nine months. A video circulated Sunday purporting to show an Islamic State execution of five men it said were spying for Britain in Syria. The 10-minute clip depicted the men allegedly confessing to espionage, filming and photographing, in exchange for money, the location of militants in Raqqa, the northern Syrian capital of the Islamic State's self-declared caliphate. The men wore orange jumpsuits, kneeling before five masked fighters in military fatigues who brandished pistols. One of the gunmen said the execution was "a message to David Cameron," the British prime minister, who has ramped up attacks on Islamic State insurgents in Iraq and Syria. "How strange it is that we find ourselves today hearing an insignificant leader like you challenge the might of the Islamic State," the gunman said. He vowed that the Islamic State would "one day invade your land, where we will rule by the sharia," referring to a strict code of Islamic law. The purported spies were then shot in the head. The British foreign office said it was aware of the video and was examining it. The mayor of a Mexican city who took office Friday was killed Saturday. Gisela Mota was killed by armed gunmen at her house in Temixco. Morelos state security commissioner, Jesus Alberto Capella, said two attackers were killed and three were detained by federal police and soldiers. Mota's leftist Democratic Revolution Party said in a statement Mota was "a strong and brave woman who on taking office as mayor, declared that her fight against crime would be frontal and direct." The city's general secretary, Carols Caltenco, said the city government believed some people were threatened by Mota's inaugural speech. Temixco is about 100 kilometers south of Mexico's capital and borders Cuernavaca, a resort that has experienced kidnappings and extortion linked to organized crime. A group of anti-government militiamen, who took over a federal wildlife center in the northwestern U.S. state of Oregon Saturday, say they are prepared to carry out an armed standoff with authorities "for years." The militiamen - a loosely-organized group of ranchers, farmers, and so-called survivalists - are led by Ammon Bundy, whose family was at the center of another standoff in 2014 over grazing rights on federal lands. About 100 people are part of the group at the wildlife refuge. "We will be here as long as it takes," Bundy told reporters Sunday. "We have no intentions of using force upon anyone. If force is used against us, we would defend ourselves." Bundys statements can be viewed in a video on the Bundy Ranchs Facebook page. Bundy and his supporters seized the offices of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, near the town of Burns, to protest a federal judge's order to re-sentence two ranchers to five years in prison for setting fire on federal land in Oregon in 2012. Court ruling at center of dispute The ranchers - Dwight Lincoln Hammond and his son Steven - admitted they set the fires. But they say they were trying to burn out invasive plant species on their own property and that the flames accidentally spread to the federal land. But witnesses testified that the Hammonds illegally killed deer on government property and handed out matches to other hunters urging them to light them and drop them anywhere to "set the whole country on fire." An Oregon court decided that the mandatory five-year prison term for burning federal land is unconstitutional and sentenced the Hammonds to much shorter terms. But a federal appeals court ruled in October that the minimum five year terms are not too harsh and proportionate to the crime. The court ordered the Hammonds back to prison Monday, with credit for time already served. A Hammond family statement says the two men only want to turn themselves in and serve out their prison terms. The family says no "patriot group or individual has the right or authority to force an armed standoff... against their wishes." Government 'abusing power' The anti-government militiamen who took over the wildlife center say they are infuriated by the decision to send the Hammonds back to prison. After a peaceful protest in Burns Saturday, they took over the refuge's offices, which were closed at the time. News photos show the militiamen moving fuel and food onto the refuge as if preparing for a long stay. A sign in front of the occupied refuge building accuses the government of "doing what they do best, ABUSING POWER." Militiaman Bundy and his father Cliven held a month-long armed standoff with federal authorities in 2014 over unpaid fees for letting their cattle graze on federal land. Bundy told CNN television Sunday he wants the federal government to restore what he calls the "people's constitutional rights," accusing authorities of tyranny by illegally confiscating private property for public use. "The people cannot survive without their land and resources. We cannot have the government restricting the use of that to the point that it puts us in poverty." Bundy called the wildlife refuge center a "people's facility, owned by the people." There are 560 national wildlife refuges in the United States. They are large tracts of land that are set aside by the federal government to protect wildlife species and their habitats. Oregons Malheur Refuge was established in 1908 by president Theodore Roosevelt. Federal law enforcement officials, including the FBI, have not yet commented on the Oregon standoff. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe called the occupation illegal and says no employees were in the center when the militiamen took over. The Fish and Wildlife Service oversees the refuges. Harney Country Oregon sheriff Dave Ward is urging people to stay away from the area. A looming fight over gun control promises to start Washingtons political year with a bang. President Barack Obama could issue executive orders aimed at reducing gun violence as early as Monday, provoking a battle with Republicans on Capitol Hill and on the presidential campaign trial. Tens of thousands of our fellow Americans have been mowed down by gun violence. Tens of thousands, Obama said in his weekly address Saturday. Each time, were told that commonsense reforms like background checks might not have stopped the last massacre, or the one before that, so we shouldnt do anything. We know that we cant stop every act of violence. But what if we tried to stop even one? What if Congress did something anything to protect our kids from gun violence? the president added. Months before terrorist-inspired carnage in San Bernardino, California, and the shooting rampage at an Oregon community college, the White House began studying actions the president could take to reduce gun violence. Those steps are expected to be finalized at a meeting Monday between Obama and Attorney General Loretta Lynch. Attack on gun rights Republicans are already decrying what they see as an attack on Americans constitutional right to bear arms. Were going to save the Second Amendment. Theres a big assault on the Second Amendment, said Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump late Saturday at a rally in Biloxi, Mississippi. Trump argued that gun-toting civilians could have defended themselves from terrorists in San Bernardino and in France. You know what they (terrorists) did in Paris? Get over here. Boom. Get over here. Boom. Get over here. Boom. They (victims) were total sitting ducks, Trump said, mimicking the firing of a gun with his pointed finger at the crowd. Democrats are far more receptive to gun control. The American people have been horrified by the mass shootings we have seen over the last couple of years, said Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders on ABCs This Week program. We should expand and strengthen the instant background check so that people who should not have guns criminals and people with mental health issues should not own guns. I think that is what the president is trying to do, Sanders added. Legal challenges to an executive order are all but certain. Presidential action bypassing Congress on another thorny topic, immigration, sparked court battles that could continue for the remainder of Obamas term in office. U.S. President Barack Obama returned to Washington Sunday from his holiday vacation, looking immediately to impose new controls on gun sales. Obama, his wife Michelle and their two daughters departed the U.S. Pacific state of Hawaii late Saturday night after their annual two-week Christmas vacation in the president's birth state. Obama is entering the last year of his presidency, set to leave office in January 2017 after eight years in the White House. He plans to meet with Attorney General Loretta Lynch Monday to discuss an impending executive order aimed at expanding background checks on gun sales, which he is taking in response to a series of deadly mass shootings across the United States in recent years, including last month's massacre in San Bernardino, California, that killed 14 people. He is a planning a televised town hall discussion of his gun control mandates on CNN on Thursday, just days before he delivers his final State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress on January 12. "I am fired up for the year that stretches out before us," Obama said in his weekly radio address last week. Like his predecessors, Obama is expected to devote a great deal of the final year of his presidency to foreign affairs.The top items on his agenda include securing congressional passage of the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement, and a possible trip to Cuba. Obama achieved a diplomatic breakthrough last year by restoring formal relations with the communist-led Caribbean island, ending more than five decades of Cold War-era hostilities. Four-way talks are set to begin January 11 in Pakistan on a framework for reviving peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban. Representatives from Afghanistan, China, Pakistan and the United States are scheduled to take part in the discussions in Islamabad. The four-party committee is a new initiative and a key step forward, said Maulawi Shahzada Shahid, a spokesman for the Afghan High Peace Council, a government body tasked with talking to the Taliban. Pakistan hosted a first round of talks last July, but the negotiations stalled amid word that the insurgents' spiritual leader, Mullah Omar, had died two years earlier. The Taliban kept the news secret, apparently to avoid divisions in the movement over who would succeed him. As preparations for the new discussions take place, some observers cast doubt on prospects for any breakthrough, given divisions in the ranks of the Taliban and conditions set by the two sides. Who is it that we are talking to? asked Kabul-based political analyst Farooq Bashar, referring to several groups that operate in Afghanistan. Should we talk to the Taliban, ISIS, Haqqani network, or should we talk to Hekmatyars group? he said, referring to Afghan rebel leader Gilbuddin Hekmatyar, who has been designated a global terrorist by the United States and blacklisted by the United Nations. His whereabouts are not clear. Bashar added that the Afghan government has to come up with a clear strategy for peace and specify the relevant groups in the talks. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani acknowledged the divisions within the Taliban as a potential challenge during a news conference this past week. "It is obvious that there are groups of Taliban, not a unified movement," Ghani said. "The fundamental issue here is the choice: Choose peace or terrorism. There will be no tolerance for terrorism." Shahid of the Afghan High Peace Council told VOA that the council was willing to talk to all groups to end the war. Conditions from both sides Aside from the divisions in the ranks of the Taliban, other potential obstacles for peace include conditions set forth by the Afghan government and Taliban. The key is the will to negotiate and a genuine demonstration by both parties that compromise is possible, Shahid said. Putting out conditions beforehand by either party will be counterproductive. That being said, at some point in the talks, both parties have to be willing to meet the other side halfway through. Lack of a unified leadership may pose a challenge for the Taliban to compromise, because there are sects within the movement unwilling to make concessions. The Taliban have long insisted on the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan as a precondition for peace talks to succeed and have demanded changes to the Afghan constitution. The government in Kabul has also set conditions, including cutting off the Taliban's links with terrorist groups like al-Qaida and the Haqqani network. Tanzania President John Magufuli's newly appointed permanent secretaries have signed a beefed up integrity commitment document as part of a move to ensure seriousness towards rooting out graft and injecting accountability among public sector workers, according to government spokesman Assah Mwambene. Mwambene said the newly appointed officials were then made to read the signed document one after another at the state house in the commercial capital, Dar es Salaam. President Magufuli was on hand to supervise the signing. If there is anyone who feels he cannot work under the integrity commitment, he should dismiss himself and vacate the State House premises right now It is possible that there are some of you who frown at the integrity declaration. Therefore, just stand aside so that we may establish those who do not agree with the declaration, said President Magufuli during the signing in ceremony. This is the first time that newly appointed government officials have signed this document in public. Newly appointed government officials traditionally sign an integrity document which is then submitted to the Ethics Commission. But, this time, President Magufuli insisted on enhancing the document to include strong measures to curb corruption, according to Mwambene. This is a manifestation in terms of ensuring that every public official to the level of permanent secretaries must have unquestionable personal integrity, said Mwambene. This time around, the document has been beefed up with a very serious corruption element, the issue of personal integrity itself, transparency and to ensuring that when you are in power, you will really work within the law, but also observe ethical standards and make sure that at any time you are not suspected to be involved in malpractices. Opposition groups say the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party is to blame for the corruption and the abuse of office in the public sector since the party has been in power. They vowed to hold the government accountable to the people irrespective of the recent actions of President Magufuli to curb graft. Candidates Faustin Touadera and Anicet Dologuele have received enough voter support to advance to a second round of the Central African Republic's presidential race, results released Saturday showed. The counting of ballots was continuing in Bangui, the capital, but with roughly two-thirds of them tallied, Touadera, a former prime minister in the government of ousted president Francois Bozize, led with 31,000 votes. Dologuele, also a former prime minister, had garnered 28,000 votes. As the preliminary results of the presidential and legislative races were announced, Touadera supporters such as campaign staffer Rosalie Emmanuel gathered outside the candidate's campaign headquarters. The first round is for Touadera," Emmanuel said. "Its a KO [knockout]. Touadera is a man with integrity. Hes a unifier. The presidency is his, KO. Voting took place December 30. Ballots from Central Africans voting in Morocco and neighboring Congo-Brazzaville arrived at the electoral commission Saturday. Results from the provinces and the diaspora are pending. The head of an African Union observer mission, Souleymane N'diaye, said the elections were peaceful and transparent and that observers did not notice any irregularities or any fraud in the sense that anyone opened ballot boxes and threw in extra ballots. There were, however, some logistical difficulties, N'diaye said. Two-thirds of the polling stations the AU observers visited opened late. Some stations did not get any ballots for the legislative elections. Others ran out of ballots for the presidential election. Residents who had not received their voter cards were allowed to cast ballots if they could present a valid ID card or receipt for the voter card. Elections had been postponed three times because of logistical difficulties. The Central African Republic has been rocked by violence since March 2013, when a largely Muslim alliance of rebel groups overthrew President Francois Bozize. The rebel leader left power in 2014, and sectarian violence between the anti-balaka Christian militia and Muslim Seleka rebels has continued, killing thousands and displacing nearly 1 million people. Interim President Catherine Samba-Panza, who has held office since May 2014, was barred from standing in this week's presidential election. Israel says it has broken up a Jewish terror cell responsible for a deadly attack on a Palestinian family. An Israeli court has indicted two Jewish militants for an arson attack on a Palestinian home last July that killed a toddler and his parents. The assailants allegedly threw firebombs into the West Bank home as the family slept. The indictment said the suspects were members of a Jewish terrorist organization. They were identified as a 21-year-old West Bank settler and a minor. The Israeli Justice Ministry said two other Israeli males were indicted for other terrorist activities against Arabs and their property. 'Zero tolerance' Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed zero tolerance for Jewish terrorism. He told the Cabinet that Israel is a state of law that will enforce the law against all perpetrators of violence and murder. Nevertheless, Palestinians believe the case exhibits an Israeli double standard: They say Palestinian assailants are quickly apprehended by Israeli security forces, while Jewish militants have carried out attacks for years with virtual impunity. But Hussein Dawabsheh, the grandfather of the slain Palestinian toddler, says the indictment is a step in the right direction. Dawabsheh told Israel Radio he is happy that two of the perpetrators were indicted and he is hoping for additional arrests. The question is whether the indictments will ease tensions on the ground. The arson incident is widely seen as a catalyst for a wave of almost daily Palestinian attacks on Israelis over the past four months that has shown no sign of letting up. The United States on Saturday criticized Rwandan President Paul Kagame's decision to seek a third term in 2017. In a statement, State Department spokesman John Kirby said the U.S. was disappointed with the move, saying Kagame "ignores an historic opportunity to reinforce and solidify the democratic institutions the Rwandan people have for more than 20 years labored so hard to establish." Kagame announced his decision in a televised address Friday, saying, "Given the importance and consideration you attach to this, I can only accept." Kagame, however, added that he did not think the country's aim was to have a "president for life" and said he would not want such a thing. Last month, the country voted in a referendum to change the constitution to allow him to run. On Monday, Kagame thanked the nation for voting to change term limits in the constitution, but at the time he did not hint about whether he planned to seek re-election. The Rwandan leader's term ends in 2017. The new changes allow Kagame, 58, to run for another seven-year term, followed by two five-year terms, potentially keeping him in office until 2034. Ninety-eight percent of voters approved the constitutional amendments in the referendum. The Vatican says its first treaty with Palestinians has come into force, more than two years after the Roman Catholic Church drew criticism from Israel for recognizing the existence of a Palestinian state. The accord, which technically covers church operations in parts of the Holy Land under Palestinian control, was signed in June 2015. It also reaffirms support for a negotiated two-state solution to the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A statement Saturday said the Holy See and what it recognizes as the state of Palestine had notified each other that all necessary procedural steps were completed and that the treaty was in effect. More than 130 other nations have also recognized a Palestinian state, backing a 2012 U.N. General Assembly resolution that recognizes it as an observer, nonmember state. Israel and the United States oppose such recognition, with Israel calling the pact premature and counterproductive. Both governments have insisted that the only way to end the deadly conflict is through negotiations, which have not progressed in years. The Obama administration said Saturday that it needed more time before it could move to impose new sanctions on Iran over its ballistic missile program. We have additional work that needs to be done before we would announce additional designations," deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes told reporters in Hawaii, where President Barack Obama was on vacation. Rhodes said the additional work the U.S. was undertaking was not based on pushback from Iran. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Thursday ordered his defense minister to expand Iran's missile program, in defiance of the threat of new U.S. sanctions. U.S. officials say Iran has test-fired two ballistic missiles, one in October and one in November, since reaching an agreement in July with global powers on curbing its nuclear program. A U.N. panel ruled last month that the October launch violated a Security Council resolution that bans Irans development of ballistic missile systems. MINNEAPOLIS As Minnesotans experience snow and ice accumulation, CenterPoint Energy would like to remind the public of important safety tips which also help to prevent service interruption and ensure proper meter operation. Snow and ice accumulation on or near the natural gas meter set or on the roof above a meter set can lead to potentially dangerous conditions including natural gas buildup in homes and businesses and service disruptions. Accumulations of snow and ice on the meter set can also cause the regulator to malfunction. Regulators are designed to maintain a constant pressure, ensure safe delivery of natural gas and vent natural gas safely to the atmosphere. Snow can block the regulator vent and freeze the regulator causing improper operation. Thawing snow or ice dams from rooftops above the meter should be kept clear to prevent ice from encasing the meter or chunks of ice falling on the meter. Additionally, customers should maintain a clear path to provide easy access to the natural gas meter. CenterPoint Energy would also like to remind the public of important winter natural gas safety tips: Keep the meter area and a path to the meter clear of snow and debris. Do not deposit snow piles on or near the meter. Do not use a snow blower or shovel near the meter or attempt to remove ice from the meter yourself. You can use a broom to keep the snow cleared around and on top of the meter and piping. Call 1-800-296-9815 if there is ice on the meter, or one or more of the following conditions exist: Snow or ice formations are visible above the meter. Meter is located below a downspout. Overhang or eave does not fully extend over the meter. Meter is located below a roof valley without a gutter. Meter is located below an exterior water spout. If you suspect a natural gas leak, leave the area immediately on foot and tell others to do the same. Do not drive into or near a gas leak or vapor cloud. Do not use electric switches, telephones (including cell phones), or anything that could cause a spark. Once safely away from the area, call the CenterPoint Energy emergency gas leak hot line at 1-800-296-9815 and 911 to report the location and description of the leak and CenterPoint Energy will dispatch a trained service technician immediately. For more natural gas safety tips, visit the companys website at CenterPointEnergy.com/besafe. CenterPoint Energy, Inc., headquartered in Houston, Texas, is a domestic energy delivery company that includes electric transmission & distribution, natural gas distribution and energy services operations. The company serves more than five million metered customers primarily in Arkansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Texas. The company also owns a 55.4 percent limited partner interest in Enable Midstream Partners, a publicly traded master limited partnership it jointly controls with OGE Energy Corp., which owns, operates and develops natural gas and crude oil infrastructure assets. With more than 7,400 employees, CenterPoint Energy and its predecessor companies have been in business for more than 140 years. The utility also operates a non-regulated business in Minnesota called Home Service Plus. For more information, visit the website at CenterPointEnergy.com. Momotombo volcano (Nicaragua): strong explosion this morning Sun, 3 Jan 2016, 16:55 16:55 PM | BY: T 16:55 PM | BY: T The cone of Momotombo volcano covered by glowing bombs from this morning's eruption A strong explosion occurred this morning at 04:22 local time at the volcano, covering much of the summit cone with incandescent ejecta.The lava flow effusion and continuous strombolian activity had stopped in early December, followed by only high-temperature degassing, sporadic minor explosions and the growth of what might have been a small lava dome. A more intense phase of activity seems to have started yesterday. Early on 2 January, small ash emissions occurred, followed by more, still weak explosions in the early afternoon of yesterday.The strong explosion this morning might have involved a small pyroclastic flow on the NE side of the volcano, reaching about 1.5-2 km length.Whether or not this activity is sign of a new batch of magma arriving at the vent, and leading up to more intense activity to come, or result of more superficial processes, e.g. surface pressure released beneath the recently emplaced lava occupying the summit is unclear.No damages were reported to have occurred from this morning's explosion. January 1st, 2016, Gurdaspur SP Salwinder Singh was kidnapped and his car hijacked at gunpoint at Jammu-Pathankot national highway on his way back to home around 4 pm by heavily armed persons wearing army uniforms. A Red Alert was issued and a massive search operation was launched into the incident to apprehend the culprits [1]. Later using the same hijacked vehicle the terrorists entered the air base, located 50 kilometers from the border with Pakistan and 200 kilometers from states of Punjab and Haryana capital, Chandigarh, wearing military uniform. Pathankot is important as it is the first line of air defense against any attack from Pakistan. It is MiG 21 airbase and also has an Army division. Already media have started raising questions relating the attack to the Indo-Pak relations seen to be improving recently. The Hindu reported, The attack is the first reality check for PM Modis efforts to reach out to Pakistan, and the global community would be watching closely how the masculine NDA government in New Delhi will react to the attack. Evidence of the terrorists coming in from Pakistan would not be difficult to find. But will it be enough to blame the Pakistan establishment, and call off peace efforts? Pattern of terrorists sneaking in from Pakistan and launching attack on high profile targets within hours of infiltration has been the new pattern in the last couple of years. In July this year a similar attack was launched in Gurudaspur by terrorists who came in from across the border [2]. However, contrary to what Josy Joseph of The Hindu has to say who echoed the claims by the Punjab Police that the terrorists had come from Pakistan side of the border the Border Security Force (BSF) had refuted any such assertions. The BSF had said that they had physically checked the entire Punjab border area, but there was not a single evidence to establish that the terrorists had used the Punjab border to enter Indian territory from the Pakistan side. The claim of the BSF is contrary to that of the Punjab Police [3]. BSF Inspector General of Police (Punjab Frontier) Anil Paliwal said, The BSF has physically checked the entire Punjab border area, but there was not a single evidence to establish that the terrorists had used the Punjab border to enter Indian territory from the Pakistan side. [4] Punjab Police had claimed after its initial investigation that the river area along the Indo Pak border of Punjab was used to enter India by the terrorists. As per fresh reports the case is all set to be transferred to the National Investigation Agency (Indian counter-terrorism agency), despite the state polices reservations. When the report of the magisterial inquiry conducted by Gurdaspur sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) Manmohan Singh Kang into the incident of terrorists attack on the Dinanagar police station, on July 27, had been submitted to Gurdaspur district magistrate Abhinav Trikha, even district magistrate Trikha himself had rejected it on the ground that it concluded nothing and it was merely a bundle of statements. He had returned the report to the SDM to conduct it afresh into the incident, revealing all the facts about it. It was submitted again in November [5]. Then there was the controversy over the Made in Pakistan tag and the GPS that was found. After the recovery of two Global Positioning System devices (GPS) from the terrorists, the focus of the investigation had shifted to where the terrorists came from and how they entered the country. A post-operation investigation was launched to establish the route that they possibly took from Pakistan [6]. Three days later, the police claimed that doctors found a glove on one hand of the terrorists. The glove carried a marking Made in Pakistan. This claim raised enough heat. It was questioned as to why the police did not find the glove on the first day when they conducted a body search. The marking Made in Pakistan and the GPS coordinates were evidence enough with the Indian Government to take up the matter with Pakistan on why and how the three terrorists came to India from its soil. However, the security agencies have failed to piece together a final report on the route taken by the terrorists based on the coordinates fed into the two GPS devices seized from the terrorists. Similar to Gurdaspur attack [7] even with the 26/11 Mumbai Attacks of 2008 [8] there are still unanswered questions related to the GPS (forgotten by the terrorists in the boat) and the route taken by the terrorists. Investigations have thrown up several questions about the last trip of Kuber, the Indian fishing trawler that the Pakistan-based terrorists used to reach Mumbai. The trial judge in the 26/11 case had held that the prosecution was not able to prove that the Indian trawler MV Kuber was not tampered with and had raised questions about the GPS and satellite phones recovered from Kuber. They are linked to the main conspiracy (with handlers in Pakistan) he had said. That there is the curious case of the only witness who saw the terrorists disembark from the rubber dinghy at Badhwar Park and actually spoke to them, Anita Uddaiya. Despite her proving her reliability as a witness by identifying all six in the morgue, she was not only dropped as a witness, but charged with misleading the investigators as a punishment for refusing to change her story under pressure after she was whisked away to the US in doubtful circumstances without the knowledge of any Indian officials. Now, she is a fisherwoman who couldnt speak English and didnt even had a passport. She was whisked away to the US in doubtful circumstances and remained missing for four days and after she comes back her testimony was rejected on the grounds of her mental instability. How did she reach US? Who took her there? Was it official sanctioned? Who sanctioned it? If not why wasnt this aspect probed further? More importantly, what happened to her in US? Why is it that everytime relations between India and Pakistan starts to improve and initiatives are taken to normalize the tensions between the two countries, a terror attack is witnessed by either of the two countries resulting in the deteriorating of the already delicate relationship? What forces are working behind this? Who doesnt want to see relations between India and Pakistan improve? Why have we not able to identify these forces since decades? Doesnt it indicate that out security and intelligence forces are not equipped to face the challenge of this new kind of terror and needs a new and more adaptive orientation in the globalized world of liberalization and privatization? [9] Certainly good strategic partnership between the two neighbors would mean a strong and stable subcontinent. More importantly, who gains from a weaker and always infighting Asian sub-continent? While the word "security" deafens our ears, amplified by political and media megaphones, the words of the Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on the increasingly perilous nuclear confrontation in Europe fall silent. No alarm, no government reaction in Italy with regard to what he said: "Some 200 US nuclear bombs are stored in Italy, Belgium, Holland, Germany and Turkey, and the nuclear arsenal is the subject of a renovation program. " For this reason, "Russian Strategic missile Forces maintain 95% of their launchers at combat ready." And, while a Russian submarine in the Mediterranean launches Kalibr cruise missiles (which cover about 3000 km at low-altitude, speeding up in their final phase to three times the speed of sound) against Daesh targets in Syria, Putin warns, "the Kalibr missiles can be armed with both conventional warheads or nuclear warheads," adding that "this is certainly not necessary in the fight against terrorism, and I hope it will never be necessary. " This clear message addressed to NATO, particularly to European countries in which US nuclear weapons are stored, is presented by the media as the "joke" of a Putin who is "flexing his muscles." Thus the population is not alarmed, leaving it in ignorance of the danger to which it is exposed. The 70 USA B-61 nuclear bombs, ready for use at the bases of Aviano and Ghedi-Torre, are about to be replaced by B61-12s. For this purpose (documented by the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) with satellite photos) two bases were updated where in 2013 and 2014 NATO staged Steadfast Noon, a nuclear war exercise with the participation of F-16 fighters from Poland, which has offered to host new US nuclear bombs. The B61-12 is a new nuclear weapon which, dropped about 100 km from the target, is projected to "decapitate" the enemy country during a nuclear first strike. It thus erases the difference between strategic nuclear weapons, long-range and short-range tactical weapons. It is not known how many B61-12s will be stored in Italy, but with a default estimate, we calculate their destructive power equivalent to that of 300 Hiroshima bombs. According to NATOs Nuclear Planning Group rules, which includes Italy, countries that host US nuclear weapons "make available aircraft equipped to carry nuclear bombs and staff trained for this purpose," but "the United States retains complete control and monitoring of these nuclear weapons." The FAS confirms that US nuclear bombs are stored at Ghedi Torre "for Italian Tornados" and that Italian pilots are trained in their use. As it is planned to replace the Tornados by F-35s, the first Italian pilots who have completed training in November on the F-35s at the Luke US Air Force base in Arizona are also trained to use of B61-12s. Italy therefore violates the non-proliferation treaty ratified in 1975, pledging that it "undertakes to not receive nuclear weapons from anyone nor control over such weapons directly or indirectly" (Article 2). It has become therefore a forward base of US and NATO nuclear strategy and, therefore, a target of nuclear retaliation. Vital is the battle for the denuclearization of Italy, without which the generic application of the abolition of nuclear weapons becomes a demagogic cover for those who will not face the nodal question. This is proof that the slumber of consciousness has also led to the loss of the survival instinct. For the safety of people and animals, year-end fireworks displays have been banned in several cases, especially the powerful firecracker. The news is reported prominently by the media. Even though it hides other news that, if disseminated, would burst the bubble of the virtual reality in which we are imprisoned. One example is that, on December 22, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), the archives of the US government, released a record 800 pages, hitherto secret, with a list of thousands of targets in the USSR, Eastern Europe and China that the US was preparing to destroy with nuclear weapons during the Cold War. In 1959, the year to which refers the "target list" written in 1956, the US had more than 12,000 nuclear warheads with an output of 20,000 megatons, equivalent to one and a half million Hiroshima bombs, this at a time when the USSR had about a thousand and that China had no nuclear weapons. Being in a position of superiority, including vectors (bombers and missiles), the Pentagon considered a nuclear attack feasible. The plan called for the "systematic destruction" of 1100 airfields and 1200 cities. Moscow would have been destroyed by 180 thermonuclear bombs; Leningrad, 145; Beijing, by 23. Many "inhabited areas" were to be destroyed by "nuclear explosions at ground level to increase the fallout." Among them, East Berlin, the nuclear bombing of which would have involved "disastrous implications for West Berlin." The plan was not implemented because the USSR, which had conducted its first nuclear experiment in 1949, when the US had already accumulated about 230 bombs since 1945, quickly gained the ability to hit the US. Why did NARA, at this time, decide to publish "the most extensive and detailed list of nuclear targets ever declassified"? The choice is no coincidence, since the chief archivist of NARA is appointed by the President of the United States. The publication of the "target list" is a clear signal to Russia and China, who are warned transversely of the USAs nuclear power. The USA has launched a plan, at a cost of 1 000 billion dollars, to potentiate nuclear forces with 12 additional attack submarines, each armed with 200 nuclear warheads, and 100 new strategic bombers, each armed with more than 20 nuclear warheads. And while they are on the verge of storing new B61-12 first nuclear strike bombs in Italy and other NATO countries, the US is developing the "missile shield" which should "defend" Europe. On December 12, at the Deveselu base in Romania, the first US land missile battery of NATOs "defense" was activated, followed by another, similar in Poland consisting of 24 Aegis missiles, already installed aboard four US warships deployed in the Mediterranean and Black Sea. On December 25th, Moscow warned that these batteries, being also able to launch Tomahawk medium range nuclear missiles, are a clear violation of the INF Treaty, which prohibits the deployment of nuclear medium-range missiles with land bases in Europe. Russia has announced counter-measures, including new mobile intercontinental missiles on vehicles and trains constantly moving to avoid a nuclear first strike. And, to hit Daesh targets in Syria, it uses strategic bombers which thus train also for nuclear attack. It is unclear what is now the US Nuclear "target list". However, it is certain that the Russian list also includes the bases of the US and NATO in Italy. The media are silent on this, while they raise the alarm about year-end fireworks. Vilmos Zsigmond Photo: Chad Buchanan/Getty Images Last year, the Hungarian cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond told Filmmaker Magazine, I think film is about images. Cinema needs good images. I think that if you dont have good images, its not going to be a film. Directors, he said, focused too much on words talk, talk, talk, not enough on images. True to his manifesto, Zsigmond shot some of the most indelible cinematic images of the 1970s and 1980s, from musical aliens hovering majestically over Moocraft, Wyoming, to cowboys dancing in gauzy washes of light. Zsigmond, who died on New Years day at the age of 85, escaped from Hungary in 1956 with his friend Laszlo Kovacs (the cinematographer for Dennis Hoppers iconic 1969* counter-culture odyssey Easy Rider, as well as Ghostbusters in 1984). Their luggage was filled with long ribbons of newsreel footage they had shot on the streets of Budapest. They sold their film to CBS, which impelled their careers as documentary cameramen. For most of the 60s Zsigmond worked on claptrap and exploitative trash (check out The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies, from 1964 its a hoot). He was hired, thanks to a heartfelt recommendation from Kovacs, to shoot Robert Altmans revisionist western McCabe & Mrs. Miller in 1971, which was the cinematographers first masterpiece. He mingled the dirty, dusty sense of detached realism he had honed in Budapest with lyricism, making prolific use of a zoom lens (which would become an Altman staple), and giving flurries of snow the taciturn feeling of so much opium drifting through a Midwest winter. The film received rave reviews, particularly from The New Yorkers Pauline Kael. Zsigmond then worked on Altmans neo-noir The Long Goodbye (1973), which did middling business, but, like most of Altmans movies, accrued a legion of followers in subsequent years. He won an Oscar for Steven Spielbergs milestone Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), the film in which Spielberg began to prominently play with light as a spectral, almost tangible entity. It pours in red streams through keyholes and, in one of American cinemas most immediately identifiable images, swallows trucks on forlorn highways. Zsigmond was nominated for another Oscar, and won a BAFTA, for Michael Ciminos The Deer Hunter (1978). Ciminos follow-up, the nearly four-hour epic western Heavens Gate (1980), notoriously flopped, destroying a production company, and Ciminos career, in the process. The film, for which Cimino and Zsigmond shot 1.3 million feet of film, is now an accepted classic, the valediction of New Hollywood and, as Roger Eberts Scout Tafoya put it, an examination of nostalgic naivety, suffused with technology and the smog it produces. Zsigmonds work vast swaths of light draped across dusty rooms and an immersive sense of size showcases a trick or two culled from his time with Spielberg. While his work with Spielberg and Cimino is his most acclaimed, Zsigmonds greatest partner in crime was Brian De Palma, the most purely cinematic filmmaker of the last half-century, for whom the cinematographer did some of his finest, most innovative work. De Palmas films are not governed by the rules or laws of reality; they adhere to a consistent, internal logic that favors excitement over emotion. Zsigmond extrapolated De Palmas deep-rooted love for genre and exploitation, and helped the auteur construct his homage-laden films using the visual language written by earlier filmmakers. Together they were like a jazz duo drawing inspiration from their forebears, carving out pulp scenes of brilliance and brutality. They employed an arsenal of in-camera tricks, from split-diopters to long Steadicam shots and meticulous use of zooms. Zsigmond shot Obsession (1978), a fervid Hitchcock homage, and Blow Out (1981), a contender for De Palmas Best Film. For Blow Out, Zsigmond and De Palma deconstructed the art of filmmaking, reveling in the minutiae of filming and editing and spinning a story of paranoia and murder out of so many reels of celluloid. Zsigmonds final masterpiece, and one of his most impressive achievements, is also one of De Palmas most maligned films: The Black Dahlia (2006), which Zsigmond considered the last good film he worked on. A mostly faithful adaptation of James Ellroys serpentine novel (it retains the terse dialogue while carefully uncoiling the notoriously difficult-to-follow plot), theres nary a shot here that doesnt get the De Palma touch: The camera looms and moves with purpose, zooming in, pulling out, hovering above a dead body splayed on a slab before slowly descending to a low-angle of our heroes framed against effervescent lights, or a crane shot showing the Zoot Suit riots sprawling across streets lined with burning cars and sprinkled with so much broken glass. The narrative is, admittedly, of minimal importance here, as is De Palmas and Zsigmonds wont; the director fixates on the mood, which his DP captured with stunning, sepia-steeped photography. If that isnt a fine encapsulation of Zsigmonds endearing legacy, then nothing is. *This article originally stated a different release year for Easy Rider. We regret the error. Dave and Stacey Hare met at The Master's College in Santa Clarita, CA. They then went on to the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY where they each received their MDivs. Also in Louisville, they adopted four kids from Ethiopia. Their first term on the field they spent learning French and Bakoum. For their first home assignment they each received a Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics, Bible Translation from the Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics. They currently live in Cameroon, Africa where they serve as Linguists/Bible Translators among the Bakoum (aka Kwakum) people. For half a century, some of Wacos most important decisions were made behind a giant, semiround oak table. For almost as long, it was banished to obscurity. Now its back in use in the city managers office, thanks to the strong backs of some city facilities employees. City Manager Dale Fisseler last month had the table hauled out of an office at the Lake Waco Wetlands, brought to City Hall and hoisted up three flights of stairs by six city employees. Fisseler now uses the table for his meetings with staff and council members. The table, which has thick beams for legs and a set of drawers all the way around, is prominent in historical photos of the city council at least back to 1924, six years before the current City Hall was built. Im going to say its from at least the early 1900s, Fisseler said of the table. A 1926 Fred Gildersleeve photo of the city commission, as it was then called, shows a table that even then appeared scuffed with long use. Back then, it had a dark stain and was on wheels. Among the commissioners at the table was A. Baker Duncan, grandfather of current Mayor Malcolm Duncan Jr. Mayor Duncan said he recently found the photo, including names and the date, among his late mothers personal effects. City public information director Larry Holze found photos of the council around the table in the 1950s and late 1960s, when it was stationed in council chambers on the first floor of the current City Hall. The table apparently was refinished in the 1950s with a lighter golden oak stain. Inside the drawers are scribbled names and some dates by members of the council and various boards in the 1950s and 60s. By the 1970s, the council had a new dais, and the table apparently went into storage until the Wetlands Research and Education center was built about a decade ago. Fisseler said his predecessor, Larry Groth, wanted the table when the city renovated the third floor of City Hall a few years ago, but the table appeared to big to make it through the door. Fisseler, a Waco native and former Fort Worth city manager who succeeded Groth in early 2014, saw the desk and decided to try again. I didnt think wed be able to get it in here, but we have some pretty creative people in the facilities department, Fisseler said. They had to take part of a door off. Fisseler said that like him, the table is getting a second act in public service. Since they brought me out of retirement, I thought Id bring that table out of retirement, he said. A flip of a coin once saved Jim Phillips life. Another time, a ship he served on caught fire just days after he was transferred. After serving numerous deployments during the Vietnam War, he came home without apparent injury. Phillips, 69, born and raised in Clovis, New Mexico, didnt care for the U.S. Air Force, even though Clovis was an Air Force town. We used to give those Fly Boys fits because they were dating our girls, he said. Among his friends, he was the only one to join the Navy. He enlisted on April 1, 1963, one month after his 17th birthday. He went to San Diego and became a yeoman, working in the captains office. During general quarters he was the captains talker, communicating battle and damage reports. Later, he became the captains yeoman. Before his 21st birthday he had reached the rank of E-5. Phillips first deployment was aboard the aircraft carrier USS Oriskany (CVA-34) in the South China Sea as part of the 7th Fleet. Over a seven-month stretch he made port in Sasebo and Yokosuka, Japan, in the East China Sea, as well as Subic Bay in the Philippines. Phillips stayed on the Oriskany for three years, traveling back and forth to the South China Sea. He was aboard the ship when pilot James B. Stockdale, who would go on to become Navy vice admiral and the vice presidential running mate of Ross Perot, flew combat missions from the Oriskany deck. Stockdale was shot down over Vietnam and held as a prisoner of war by the North Vietnamese for over seven years. In 1966, shortly after Phillips was transferred from the Oriskany, a fire broke out when a magnesium flare ignited in an ammunition locker in the forward section of the ship. Forty-four sailors lost their lives, most of whom Phillips knew. Hot times in South Texas Phillips graduated at the top of his class after attending Yeoman A School for approximately six weeks, leading to his promotion to E-5. He drew shore duty in Beeville in 1967 at the former Chase Field naval air station, north of Corpus Christi. It was very hot, he said. To tell you the truth, when you walked from the hangar to your car, you were dripping with sweat. I hated it. While stationed there, Phillips learned that if he volunteered for a tour of duty in Vietnam, he could pick his next shore duty station anywhere in the world where there was a U.S. naval installation. He served in-country in Vietnam with an advisory group, traveling extensively in support of the South Vietnamese. Fortuitous heads or tails It was during this tour that he had his second lucky break. When Phillips arrived at Tan Son Nhut, he and another man were offered their choice of two assignments and asked where they wanted to go. The decision was made by the flip of a coin. Six months later, Phillips got word that everyone at the other location had been killed in an attack, including the man with whom he tossed the coin. A flip of the coin Im here and hes dead, he said. I dont think about it every day, but I think of it pretty damn often. In Vietnam, Phillips said many men performed duties for which they hadnt trained. Phillips was no exception. He served for a time in a motor pool with South Vietnamese troops. There was an old jeep no one was using, and when he asked about it, they simply gave it to him. Following some mechanical work, Phillips was driving a jeep normally reserved for officers. He traveled with the company commander, often in the line of incoming mortar fire and even into the dense jungle. Still, he managed to stay out of harms way. Following shore duty in Hawaii he was assigned to the USS Providence, a light cruiser, and then the USS Ranger, an aircraft carrier. He was usually at sea nine months at a time. He left the Navy in 1976 having served 13 years. Among his accolades, Phillips was selected as Sailor of the Year of the Pacific Fleet; earned the Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces Meritorious Unit (Gallantry Cross); the Vietnam Service Medal with six Bronze Stars; and the Navy Achievement Medal with Combat V. He was twice recommended for officer positions, but turned down the promotion both times. His reason was that he didnt care for officers. Today, Phillips is glad to have served in the Armed Forces. I think it was probably the best thing I ever did, he said. Voices of Valor, which features stories about Central Texas veterans, runs on Sundays. To suggest a story about a Central Texas veteran, please email voicesofvalor@wacotrib.com. The new year promises to be an exciting one and, as in years past, we hope that excitement is reflected on this page. Political sentiments will reach boiling points, producing claims and counterclaims, as Donald Trump challenges Ted Cruz for Texas votes in the Republican presidential primary season. Congressman Bill Flores will defend his brand of Republican conservatism against former McLennan County Republican Party Chairman Ralph Patterson. McLennan County Sheriff Parnell McNamara will press his re-election bid against two challengers, including Waco Police Sgt. W. Patrick Swanton. And President Obama will wrap up his tenure, even as conspiracists insist he will make a grab to stay in power. Well see. Here in Waco, city and church leaders, working with educators and health professionals, will hammer out and put into practice strategies that, working in close coordination, might begin battering chronic poverty. The Waco City Council will discuss regulating payday lending and the school board will seek more community engagement to rescue failing schools. And a series of trials will indict either scores of visiting bikers or our criminal justice system. Opinion is a historic function of the American press. The first entrants into the field were journals of opinion. Bias was their reason for being. Over time, newspapers changed. Balanced treatment of news became a standard. All people have biases, but a reporters job is to set bias aside when telling the story. On this page, however, bias is what its all about: yours, ours and others. Here are the oft-misunderstood ingredients of the opinion page: Editorials: The Trib reserves this spot on the page to tell readers what editors think after sometimes vigorous debate among themselves. Editorials reflect the consensus of the Trib editorial board, denoted at the top of this page. It does not necessarily reflect, however, the opinions of reporters who objectively cover the stories elsewhere in this paper. Columns: The Trib presents a wide range of opinions. From conservative voices such as George Will and Ramesh Ponnuru to liberal writers such as Margaret Carlson and Al Hunt, we present opinions from across the political spectrum. The Trib also has an active and versatile board of contributors, tapped for their insight and expertise. Were committed to an array of opinions and ideas, even when, yes, they run counter to our own. Editorial cartoons: Our cartoons dont always express the editorial boards opinion or beliefs, though they sometimes bolster opinions in an adjoining editorial. Often they represent perspectives we believe should be heard, regardless of our own thoughts. If you dont agree with a cartoon , swallow your political indignity because youll possibly agree with the next one we publish. And, frankly, sometimes we just think a cartoon is funny. Letters: This section we turn over to you. It is your forum on issues, each other and the newspaper. We edit for libel, taste, clarity and length. Not all letters can be used, and for a variety of reasons. Overall, though, we have few rules; we prefer to handle questions as they arise. Letters are a powerful vehicle to get ones opinion before the community. We welcome all those who question or support positions and critically dissect issues, but we beg at least some civility on this page. And be sure to include all required contact information in case we have a question. Failure to provide this guarantees the letter will not be used. Guest columns: Sometimes we solicit columns from readers who have expertise in a particular area. Unsolicited guest columns are accepted too. These are edited for libel, clarity and length. Dont churn if you get edited in the past, pieces by the publisher, editor, even our owners have been edited just as vigorously, if not more so. Ultimately, the reason we share our opinions on this page is for you to share yours. It goes to the very heart of democracy. Join us and let freedom ring. Waco cover-up Waco Police spokesman Patrick Swanton was very articulate in the wake of the May 17 biker shooting deaths. The more I listened, the more obvious it seemed that all these bikers were, indeed, evil-doers with evil in their hearts, evil in their minds. To hear Swanton, officers that day were highly professional, saving lives in the best manner possible. Inherently false. As tight-lipped police officials and a secretive district attorney increasingly make clear, plus release of more videos, the Swanton story of May 17 does not hold water. Subsequent actions by police, local officials and the judicial system all point to law-enforcement wrongdoing, cover-up and violation of bikers most basic rights inalienable rights such as the right to speedy and just trial; the concept of innocent till proven guilty; requirement of reasonable cause to hold someone in jail; even the denial of medical treatment. Police suspected a violent event would happen and took up shooting positions at distance rather than parking marked cars highly visible in the parking lot. They could have easily kept violence from erupting in Waco that day. Instead they allowed it to happen and shot people military-style with military weapons. And if it can happen in Waco, it can happen anywhere. Randy May, Kent, Washington GOP in trouble .(the Republican Party) has become increasingly unhinged, playing to a segment of its base fueled and delighted by racism and hate, engaging in demagoguery against Islam (and other groups). Thank you, Waco Trib, for this editorial of Dec. 10 wherein you vindicated my past letter to the editor last summer where I called the Republican Party racists. Well, OK, maybe 33 percent are not racists and these are the Republicans whom I know to be moderates. Sadly, they do not speak up against the other side of the party and that unfortunately makes them guilty by association. Robert Aguilar, Waco Advice, anyone? I read the city of Waco is hiring a consultant to determine the quantity, quality and functionality of police cameras. It seems city management is getting good at hiring consultants and its happening more frequently. If city employees and city management cant do what it takes and figure it out for themselves, maybe they need to be replaced. Or perhaps they have too much on their plate? J.L. Rader, Waco Gun mania Starting Friday, I will be looking for signs on businesses about open-carry. No sign, no money. I will not enter any businesses that allow openly carried guns. Way too dangerous if one of them is a disgruntled customer. I do not know if the gun-toter is a terrorist or gang-banger. The argument that more guns make us safer is disproved by all countries with strict gun laws. That includes lower murder rates, suicides and accidental shootings of children. So if I see a gun, my money will be holstered! Gwenn Murry, Waco Names and faces CWG Architects has hired Matthew Avard as an architect-in-training. Originally from Mandan, North Dakota, Avard earned his Masters of Architecture from North Dakota State University. His previous project experience includes educational, healthcare, government and recreational facilities. He will assist with all levels of project delivery from design to construction administration. Avard can be reached by phone at 443-2340 or by email at mavard@cwg-architects.com. News and notes The Montana Telecommunications Association is pleased to announce the addition of four new member companies effective Jan. 1. InterBel Telephone Cooperative, based in Eureka; Nemont Telephone Cooperative, Scobey; Northern Telephone Cooperative, Sunburst; and Triangle Communications of Havre join current members 3 Rivers Communications, Blackfoot Telecommunications, Lincoln Telephone Company, Range Telephone Cooperative and Southern Montana Telephone Company. Together, MTA members provide advanced telecommunications services to nearly 30 percent of Montanas consumers working and residing in more than two-thirds of Montanas land area. These companies invest about $100 million each year in Montanas rural telecommunications infrastructure, bringing broadband communications capabilities to government, medical, educational, public safety, commercial and residential consumers. Besides this substantial investment in our states infrastructure, these companies and their nearly 1,000 Montana employees are actively engaged in a wide variety of community and social activities throughout our state contributing materially to the overall vitality of rural Montana. MTA also announces new officers for 2016. Jason Williams, senior vice president and general counsel of Blackfoot Telecommunications, will become MTA president in 2016. Serving as MTAs vice president is Larry Mason, general manager of Southern Montana Telephone Company. MTAs secretary/treasurer will be Mike Dolezal, incoming general manager of Range Telephone Cooperative. Awards and honors The Montana based firm of Junkermier, Clark, Campanella, Stevens, P.C., has announced that JCCS Wealth Advisors was honored by 1st Global as a 3 Diamond Firm for 2015. JCCS Wealth Advisors, LLC was recognized for its accomplishments throughout the year at the 2015 1st Global National Conference that took place from Nov. 810 at the Omni Amelia Island Resort in Fernandina Beach, Florida. Based on business volume across the firm, the Diamond Eagle award is reserved for those firms with individuals who have modeled the 1st Global purpose of enabling intentional living and demonstrate a persistent approach to creating amazing experiences for their clients and in helping them to live their own intentional lives. Guidelines The IR welcomes reports of hiring, promotions, awards, recognition, learning opportunities and other news from local companies and nonprofits. We accept press releases and photos (digital images at 300 dpi or more are preferred, but we can also use regular photos; we dont guarantee return of these). There is no charge for items appearing in the Business Briefcase. Items are run on a space-available basis, and we reserve the right to edit and use information as we see fit. The deadline is Tuesday at noon to be considered for publication the following Sunday. Dougie Baldwin and Rahart Adams have the relaxed rapport that comes from spending a lot of time together in very particular circumstances. "Once you've all been trudging through the Dandenong Ranges in freezing weather at 4am, you become pretty tight," Baldwin says. That was part of the job on Nowhere Boys, the award-winning Australian children's TV series that gave them their first lead roles. After two seasons, the producers have decided to bring the story to the big screen; Nowhere Boys: The Book Of Shadows, directed by David Caesar, introduces some new angles to a series that began in 2013. It's the tale of four teenage boys with seemingly little in common who discovered a shared destiny that involved spells, superpowers and an alternate universe, as well as the more familiar challenges of adolescent life. Baldwin, 19, plays Felix a Goth with an interest in magic; Adams, 19, is Sam, the amiable, popular boy; Matt Testro (the jock) and Joel Lok (the nerd) are the remaining members of the quartet. In Book Of Shadows, the four have grown apart, but need to find a way to reconnect to avert disaster. Angourie Rice who starred in These Final Hours, and plays Ryan Gosling's daughter in a forthcoming Hollywood drama,The Nice Guys joins the cast as a mysterious newcomer to the school. Both say they were struck by her talent and maturity, and what she brought to the role. As young actors, Adams and Baldwin are doing what they've wanted to do from their earliest years. Baldwin remembers "running around the house dressing up and filming myself". His older sister, Nathalie Antonia, is an actor, "and she passed my name on to my agent and got it started for me". He plays Shawn Wheeler, member of the drag-racing family in the series Upper Middle Bogan. His passion is comedy, and further down the track he'd like to explore the possibility of writing and creating his own material. When Antonio Sanchez was a teenager in Mexico City in the mid-'80s he would sit in his grandmother's car and listen to 96.9WFM on the radio. His favourite DJs were Martin Hernandez and Alejandro Inarritu, who had a night-time show where they would play jazz and progressive music. "One night they played this gorgeous tune," recalls Sanchez. "I'd never heard anything like it and I was totally taken aback by it. I waited for it to finish and they said it was the Pat Metheny Group." Michael Keaton as Riggan Thomson in Birdman. Credit:Twentieth Century Fox Fast forward to 2005 and Sanchez, who started drumming at the age of five and went on to become one of the most respected jazz drummers in the world, was in Metheny's group. After a show in Los Angeles a Mexican guy walked up to him at the after-party and told him that he loved his playing. Then he introduced himself. It was Inarritu. "It was very serendipitous, that's for sure," Sanchez says. "We hit it off right away and we stayed in touch until this whole craziness happened." Through the many seasons of television's most iconic 1980s soap opera, the steadfast and strong Miss Ellie Ewing played by Barbara Bel Geddes was a safe haven from the storms of Southfork ranch, and a family touchstone for the generations-old Ewing dynasty who ruled it. That is, until someone had the mad idea of handing the role to Donna Reed during Bel Geddes' absence from the production for health reasons and, in an instant, and with no in-universe explanation, the weeping Miss Ellie at dying Bobby's bedside changed faces. After being well established as the older of Roseanne's two daughters in the hit sitcom of the same name, actress Lecy Goranson headed off to college in real life, forcing the producers to recast the role. Sarah Chalke wasn't bad, she was just ... different. It didn't go down too well with the audience either, and Goranson returned a season later, though she and Chalke subsequently alternated and, on occasion, the show's writers made light of it with occasional references to the fact that the two girls, while both blonde, looked quite different. Herr Otto Flick in 'Allo 'Allo! Richard Gibson was replaced by David Janson in Of all the hopelessly cliched characters in this brilliant parody of the British drama Secret Army, the town's resident Gestapo boss, Herr Flick, was perhaps the bluntest. Richard Gibson played him with limping, twitching brilliance for most of the series until, inexplicably, the role was recast with David Janson who, compared with his predecessor and saddled with doing an imitation of an actor who was himself playing to a cliche, didn't measure up. Roman Brady in Days of Our Lives With sandbags and tarpaulins still holding the roof of their family home together, Celeste and Andrew McGrath are bracing themselves for another week of wet weather. Their Kurnell home was one of many that were badly affected when a tornado and torrential rain hit the south Sydney suburb in mid-December, with winds reaching up to 213km/h. The McGrath family is bracing for this week's rain. Credit:Michele Mossop With most of their furniture now written off, the family of four are living in a nearby motel, and return home during the day to continue the clean-up and to look after their dog, cat, chickens, and goat, Eddie. The front half of their family home was badly damaged after the rain leaked through the ceiling, with two bedrooms destroyed altogether by the water. A CFA aviation officer hailing from Ballarat, Rigg has spent the past week conducting a logistical exercise of herculean proportions, overseeing the CFA's aerial campaign against the fires raging in the Otways along Victoria's surf coast. "This is the life of a firefighter in summer," he says. "I haven't been home in a week." Wayne Rigg doesn't mind admitting he's "knackered" by the time he reaches a fast-food restaurant on Friday afternoon and orders a double cheeseburger, fries and a chocolate thick shake. The CFA has 60 aircraft at its disposal across the state. Of those, 18 have been used in the Otways, including helicopters of various sizes, air tankers, an aircrane similar to "Elvis" and, for the first time in Australia, a Chinook the enormous twin-engine helicopter used by the American military. Despite the intensity of the fires on Christmas Day that destroyed 116 homes and tore through more than 2000 hectares, Rigg said throwing more aircraft at the fire wasn't the answer. "Relatively speaking, this fire is not over a large area, so you have to remember that we have to manage these aircraft in a very tight area. More isn't necessarily more effective or better, and in some cases it's more dangerous." The 50 or so people who fly, engineer and support those aircraft have been working tirelessly to support ground crews with targeted water drops in inaccessible terrain. During the day, helicopters dangle buckets from long lines, filling up in the ocean and making rapid trips to the fire front and back. Meanwhile, three fixed-wing air tankers (known as Hercules, Thor and less romantically RJ) travel between Avalon Airport and the Otways with loads of fire retardant. A teenage boy has been airlifted to hospital after a 92-year-old driver ploughed into pedestrians in Portarlington on Saturday morning. The Portarlington man was driving along Newcombe Street, near Brown Street when he attempted to park his car and mistook the accelerator for the brake at 10.10am on Saturday morning. The car reportedly mounted the kerb and hit three pedestrians. A 16-year-old boy was airlifted to the Royal Melbourne Hospital with serious head injuries. A beautifully crafted book, printed by letterpress on handmade paper and illustrated with printed engravings. This is what Helena author and professor Aaron Parrett plans to create at his Territorial Press, a new letterpress studio at 201 1/2 N. Rodney St. Although the studio is new, the press most definitely is not. Its a C&P platen press built in 1920 that Parrett found in Black Eagle. Most of his lead and wood type came from White Sulphur Springs. Some are in an old wooden type cabinet with 20 drawers, or cases. Each holds a different typeface. Altogether, Parrett now has 70 cases of type. All his equipment is neatly arranged in a tall, skinny storefront business next door to the Vanilla Bean. Through the studios glass door, obscured with a quadrant map, one finds Parrett in winter hat, heavy boots and printing apron fitting lead letters into an iron type stick that he will use to make a form that he locks in place on the press. Once that is rubbed with ink, its raised and pressed against another plate holding the paper. The speed and movement are operated by Parrett pressing a foot treadle. Today Parretts print job is simple -- labels for his wifes band, Doolittle Shack. This is just for fun, he said. As are some classy, distinctly irreverent business cards printed for friends. But hes also printed limited editions -- 65 copies -- of Charlie Bs, a Triptych, containing three poems, one each by Mark Gibbons, Kurt Sobolik and Dave Thomas. All the words were set by hand, letter by letter. Each Triptych is a single sheet of heavy cream stock printed with rich black and red lettering of the poems. And each sheet was passed through the press a total of seven times before it would later be folded into the attractive three panel publication. But what Parretts most excited to talk about is the first prototype book hes printing at his studio, Curses. Its a collection of 40 very vile expressions with a Latin commentary, said Parrett, who teaches Latin at Carroll College and is a tenured English professor at the University of Great Falls. Parrett will be following in the footsteps of J. Allen Hosmer, who wrote and printed A Trip to the States in 1865. Hes our muse, said Parrett. Hosmer was the first Montanan to write a book, print it with handset type page by page and then hand bind it back in 1867. Im going to be the second. The first real Territorial Press book will be either a book of poems by Brynn Holt or a collection of short stories by Parrett with wood engraving art by Seth Roby. This is the way it would have been done in the 1860s, Parrett said of his press. Its quite an undertaking to handset type for a book. This is not a commercial enterprise. Its an art. He quickly admits, Its an obsession that makes no sense. But its one that is taking hold across the country -- to resurrect the book arts. Parrett equates it to the rising popularity of the organic and sustainable agriculture movement. To his knowledge, Parrett is the only letterpress printer in Montana doing all handset type, he said. Parretts small press can only print an 8X10 inch area, he said, which limits what jobs he can print. But his eye is on quality, not quantity. The Territorial Press mission, he said, is the idea of preserving book arts in the age of Kindle and eBook. As an English professor, he appreciates the mass production of books and making them accessible electronically. But theres something different about reading a real book. I dont think the book will go away. It will be art. The typography changes the way you read, he said. All those aspects of the book are part of the experience. Its beyond the acquisition of information. One could say Parretts been on a path to the Territorial Press most of his life. He remembers growing up in Helena and making small books as a kid. In high school, he figured out how to use his typewriter to type book pages into different quadrants. By using carbon paper, he could make multiple copies and then cut the pages apart to make several books at a time. Hes also a collector of old leather-bound books and has learned how to do rebinding. When he decided to pursue his Territorial Press studio, Parrett traveled to Berkeley, California, to work with Peter Koch, a Montana native who is one of the premiere printers and letterpress artists in the world. He prints limited editions of handmade books as works of art. Hes the patron saint of Territorial Press, said Parrett. Hes sort of our mentor. So Parrett was very honored that Peter Koch Printers and the Territorial Press are releasing a letterpress edition of a novella by Montana author Matt Pavelich, who Parrett calls one of Montanas finest writers. The book, Himself, Adrift, is a fictional account of the mysterious disappearance of Thomas Francis Meagher. This spring the Territorial Press and Bedrock Books plans to host a reception for Pavelich and Koch. Parrett, it turns out, is a man of many fascinations. Just a few of them include printing, teaching, writing books and essays and also music. He has authored three books: Literary Butte: A History in Novels and Film, Montana Then and Now, and A Princess of Mars" (E. R. Burroughs) annotated by Aaron Parrett. A musician and songwriter, he also performs across Montana and has recorded two albums or CDs: The Sinners, and Stumbo Lost Wages. For more information, visit aaronparrett.org. Have some old letterpress items to pass on? You can reach him at aaronparrett1@yahoo.com. Paris: A columnist who is leaving the French magazine Charlie Hebdo has said the magazine he loved "died a year ago" ahead of a special edition to mark the anniversary of the attack by Islamist gunmen that killed 12 people. Patrick Pelloux, a journalist and casualty doctor who called French President Francois Hollande to tell him about the shootings last January, told Britain's Sunday Telegraph: "My Charlie Hebdo died, the people who made it what it was were killed. We did survive, but part of us died." January 8, 2015: French riot officers patrol in Longpont, north of Paris, after an attack on the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo. Credit:AP A year on from the shootings, the satirical magazine's circulation has risen tenfold, but surviving staff are haunted by trauma, plagued by death threats and divided by internal squabbles. A million copies of a special issue will be printed this week, including cartoons by some of those killed and messages of support for the left-wing weekly with a long history of mocking religions, especially Islam. King Salman of Saudi Arabia, who came to the throne almost a year ago, is one of seven brothers by the same mother. As soon as he took power on the death of his half-brother Abdullah, he made sure that the next two men in line to the throne were from his section of the royal House of Saud - second in line was his own young son, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and first in line was his late full brother's son, Prince Mohammed bin Nayef. These three men confronted a region rocked by the upheavals of the Arab Spring in Syria, Yemen and Egypt, as well as a world economy that no longer looked to them as the chief source of its fossil fuels. On top of all this, the Arab Spring had emboldened those in their kingdom who sought a greater voice in political affairs - chief among them the long-suppressed Shiite minority. The execution of Nimr Baqir al-Nimr, a 56-year-old cleric and one of the leading voices of that minority, is more than simply a criminal punishment. It is a political signal from Saudi Arabia's royal triumvirate to the kingdom's internal and external rivals. And that signal can be summed up in the words of King Salman's late brother, Prince Nayef: "What we won by the sword, we will keep by the sword." Basically when Ross Hannawalt is not at his full-time gig as a master sergeant with the Montana National Guard, he's serving with the sheriff's reserves. "It allows me to give back to my community the same way I've given back to my country," Hannawalt said. Hannawalt has been with the Lewis and Clark County Sheriff's Reserves for 22 years. His passion for law enforcement began decades ago when he first volunteered at the county jail. "Once I got the bug, that was it," said Hannawalt, who also had a four-year stint as a police officer in Malta. "If I'm not working my full-time job or doing Guard stuff, I am here," he said, while sitting in the Law Enforcement Center. "I've always got to be doing something." Hannawalt said he enjoys the reserve program especially knowing that it does make a difference by supplementing the efforts of other deputies and relieving some of the pressure by assisting. "We help the sheriff's office in a lot of you ways you don't always hear about," Hannawalt said. "Sometimes it's just being another body on the street when they need it." Sheriff Leo Dutton said Hannawalt's involvement is crucial, especially during major incidents such as wildfires. "He's just one of those great people you can count on," Dutton said. "That's what makes him a class act." "It's appreciated and should be celebrated," he added. Hannawalt currently serves as operations lieutenant overseeing about 20 reserves. He also is a member of the local SWAT team. "We volunteer time whenever we have the opportunity. Whenever you have the available time," Hannawalt said. He's also seen the number of reserves dwindle down to three about 10 years ago. The program continues to actively recruit. "Our numbers fluctuate. It's been continually going up," he said. Reserves volunteering right now include waitresses, construction workers and school teachers. "It's just the gamut from all walks of life," Hannawalt said. Each reserve must complete a two-year training program, which includes everything new officers learn at the Montana Law Enforcement Academy basic training. Hannawalt helps train the incoming cadets. To become "road-ready reserves," they have to complete designated ride-along hours and volunteer at least 16 hours each month. Hannawalt said his summer as a reserve was especially busy this year assisting with an assortment of calls from wildfires to working fair events to patrolling campgrounds. May to September is "pretty much solid" generally, he said. Trying to balance a full-time job, reserving and his family, can be challenging. "Family is always central in your mind. Without them we wouldn't be able to make the difference we are," Hannawalt added. When he has time, Hannawalt enjoys riding snowmobiles, hunting, fishing and camping with his wife, Dawn, a Montana Highway Patrol dispatcher, and their kids. Although he's preparing for retirement, Hannawalt says he has a lot of service left in him. "I've always thought when I know that I can't make the difference or be a role model or I can't contribute, then that's when I'll hang up my hat. As long as I can be a contributing factor, I'll be here," he said. Billie Jean Hill was born to Daisy (Freyler) Hill and William John Hill on September 26, 1929 in Helena, Montana at the first St. Johns Hospital. She died December 28, 2015 in Helena. Billie Jean attended St. Helena grade school and Cathedral High School. She graduated from Holy Names College in Spokane, Washington in 1951 with a degree in Liberal Arts. She later attended Carroll College receiving credits in elementary, secondary and early childhood education. She was a lifelong member of St. Helena Cathedral. Billie Jean served as Dean of Women at Carroll College from 1959 to 1967. In 1967 she was hired by Mike Murray as a teachers aide in Head Start; she eventually became a teacher, Education Director, and finally Director of Head Start. One of her great accomplishments was testifying before Congress on behalf of Head Start. Billie Jean was a social worker at heart and showed much compassion to those less fortunate. She enjoyed bowling and playing bridge and poker and developed many friendships through these activities. Billie Jean loved animals and always took great care of them; she always had a pet by her side. She was preceded in death by her parents, her sister Lois and longtime friends, Marion Ward, J.P. Sullivan, Alyce Duncan, Walter Duncan, Sr. and Pudgy Finstad. She is survived by her sister, Donna Johnson; nieces Loreen Robinson and Deena Hough, nephew Dan Johnson, and special friends Joan Duncan, Patty Dahl, Judy Will, and Gavin Bjork and her kitty Beau. Cremation has taken place under the direction of Retz Funeral Home. Services will be held at a later date. Advertisement By The Associated Press Jan. 02, 2016 | SOUTHERN ILLINOIS By The Associated Press Jan. 02, 2016 | 08:39 PM | SOUTHERN ILLINOIS Associated Press coverage of the flooding in southern Illinois: Gov. Bruce Rauner is again urging people to leave Alexander County homes threatened by levee failures in southern Illinois. Speaking to reporters Saturday at Carlyle Lake in Clinton County, Rauner said some residents are leaving, but others are staying put. He says the situation is especially "life threatening" because of the risk of hypothermia from cold temperatures. The Republican says he's trying to visit as many communities as possible in the 12 counties he's declared disaster areas. He plans to conclude three days of touring flood-damaged areas in central Illinois on Sunday. The governor says he's heartened that Illinois residents are coming together to help people whose homes and businesses have been affected by flooding. Meanwhile, one southern Illinois woman says she and her husband will never return to their flood-threatened home. Vella Friedman's family is among more than 100 Illinois families who agreed to sell their homes to the government after 2011 flooding but are still waiting for the buyout money. The funds are tied up because Illinois' Republican governor and Democratic-controlled Legislature are at odds over the state budget. The Friedmans' property a few miles from Olive Branch is threatened by the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. Friedman says she sold her kitchen cabinets to a contractor and put other possessions in storage. Gov. Bruce Rauner visited Olive Branch on Saturday to survey flood damage. Friedman didn't see him but says she'd like him to settle the budget issues or release money for flood buyouts. In Union County, pets in flooded parts of southern Illinois are finding shelter while waiting to be reunited with their owners. Derk Wright of Union County Animal Control says about 20 dogs and cats have been rescued from flooded areas since Thursday. Wright planned to take a boat Saturday through flooded areas, including farmland, to look for other stranded animals, including a mother donkey and babies on a high knoll in Alexander County. He says officials plan to feed livestock for now and look into the possibility of moving them, although that would take special efforts like tranquilizing them. The rescued animals are being kept at the animal control's shelter, though fairgrounds where there's a barn could also be used if there are more animals. He says he's working with Alexander County officials. By West Kentucky Star Staff Dec. 21, 2015 | 07:52 PM | MAYFIELD, KY The Adult Winter Reading Program at the Graves County Public Library will start January 18th and will go until the end of February. Read ten books from our scavenger hunt list and be eligible for a prize. Adventure, Fantasy, Romance? What will you find at the library? The Graves County Public Library will host family movie night on Tuesday, Jan. 5th at 5 pm. Join them to watch as 12-year-old orphan Peter is spirited away to the magical world of Neverland, where he finds both fun and danger, and ultimately discovers his destiny. Free Drinks and popcorn will be served. Children under the age of 10 should be with someone over the age of 15. Do you enjoy playing board games as a family? The Graves County public library will host Family Game night on Tuesday, Jan. 12th from 5 to 7 pm. Spend some time as a family playing games such as Uno, Monopoly, Blink, Apples to Apples Jr., and Clue. We will also have a Wii set up to play console games. Kids under the age of 10 should be with an adult. On Saturday, Jan. the 16th at 10:30 am the Graves County Public Library will have a No Sew Scarf Workshop. Bring one or more old or new t-shirts and learn how to make your very own scarf. Sign up at the library if you would like to participate. On Monday, Jan. 18th from 5 to 7 pm the Graves County Public Library will have an Adult coloring night. Stop by for some coloring and relaxation. Refreshments will be served. Everyone is welcome. In honor of our Winter Reading program this year the Graves County Public Library will have a Trivia Night on Tuesday, Jan, 26th at 5:30 pm. Come by the library and be prepared for 20th and 21st century literary trivia. If you have any questions, call 270-247-2911. Advertisement By The Associated Press Jan. 03, 2016 | ST. LOUIS, MO By The Associated Press Jan. 03, 2016 | 10:49 AM | ST. LOUIS, MO Just three days after ascending to record levels and forcing hundreds of people from their homes, the Meramec River in suburban St. Louis is back below flood stage in two hard-hit towns. The National Weather Service says the river is now well below flood stage in Pacific and Eureka, and just 4 feet above flood stage in Valley Park. And a suburban St. Louis water plant that shut down Wednesday is working again. The plant in High Ridge began operating again this morning, though residents are being told to continue to boil water before drinking it or cooking with it as purification efforts aren't yet at normal levels. The plant serves about 20,000 people in an area south of St. Louis in Jefferson County. Amtrak service between St. Louis and Kansas City, Missouri, resumed today, four days after it shut down when high water reached the tracks at some locations. The Mississippi River is dropping in the southeast Missouri town of Cape Girardeau. The National Weather Service says the river crested at 48.9 feet late Friday, about four-tenths of a foot above the 1993 record. By this morning, the river had dropped about a foot. Still, the river is expected to remain well above flood stage for several days. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 02/01/2016 (2482 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Winston Churchill, Britains great wartime prime minister, was probably the most discussed political figure of the 20th century. But his wife Clementine (1885-1977) has been largely forgotten by history. This is unfortunate, because Clementine was absolutely vital to Churchills success. So argues British political commentator Sonia Purnell in her biography of Clementine, which convincingly underscores the contributions of Churchills wife. Indeed, Purnell says, it is unlikely that any other prime ministerial spouse in British history has been so involved in government business, or wielded such personal power. Purnell is highly sympathetic to Clementine; her task is to redress what she sees as the neglect of Clementine in popular history. As an honest biographer, however, she also includes Clementines shortcomings. While Purnell doubtless thinks that these shortcomings do not detract from her subjects stature, they were, in fact, considerable; whatever her intention, Purnell has depicted a deeply flawed figure. Clementine had an unhappy childhood in an aristocratic family. She married Winston in 1908. Driven by ambition, both Clementine and Winston unabashedly subordinated their childrens needs to the imperatives of public life. The Churchills had five children, one of whom, Marigold, died at the age of two. One wonders why they bothered to have children: Winstons career was clearly their highest priority. Their parental failings, Purnell suggests, were a function of their own parents failure to provide a loving and stable home life for their offspring. As Purnell writes, having received so little parenting themselves, Clementine and Winston were struggling to find their way. Clementine would go months at a time without seeing her children. Winston, meanwhile, was described by Purnell as a dilettante parent. Purnell observes: With Clementine variously absent or devoted to Winston, the Churchill offspring saw little of either parent, even by the standards of British upper class families of the period. And the children suffered for this abandonment. In particular, Randolph, the Churchills only son, was an unruly child whose dysfunction marred his adult life. The Churchills youngest daughter, Mary, learned from her parents shortcomings: I made a conscious decision to put my children first because I did feel something had been missing at home. Sure, together the Churchills achieved great things. But their accomplishments came at the expense of their childrens well-being. One can only wonder if they ever asked if it was all worthwhile. Purnell ably recounts the triumphs and tragedies of the Churchills, but leaves the reader with a more negative impression of Clementine than she probably intended. Graeme Voyer is a Winnipeg writer. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 03/01/2016 (2481 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. A man is in custody and a woman in hospital following a unique, extreme and frightening domestic attack in Winnipeg after midnight New Years Eve. It happened at about 2 a.m. on Jan. 1 after the couple argued outside a nightclub located in the 500 block of Portage Avenue. Police said a man forced a 22-year-old woman into the passenger seat of her car and assaulted her repeatedly in the upper body as he drove away in a dangerous manner while threatening her. The driver allegedly guided the passenger side of the car into the side of a parked semi-trailer near Arlington Street and St. Matthews Avenue then fled on foot, leaving the injured young woman trapped in her vehicle. She was freed by emergency workers using the Jaws of Life and is listed in stable condition in hospital, police said Sunday. Christopher Rutherford, 31, was located at a residence just before midnight Jan. 1 and faces several charges including attempted murder, assault causing bodily harm, kidnapping, uttering threats, failure to comply with a recognizance and dangerous driving. Winnipeg police spokesman Const. Jason Michalyshen said incidents of domestic violence arent usually made public even though theyre an all-too-common occurrence. Its a topic thats a big part of the daily operations of the Winnipeg Police Service, he said. The Jan. 1 incident that happened in public was so unique, extreme and frightening police decided to report it through the media to encourage the public to talk about healthy relationships. He noted that police had previously been involved to some degree with the couple reported in the very extreme Jan. 1 incident and that the accused was not to have had any contact with the victim. Michalyshen said the police partner with a number of groups ready to help people get out of violent and aggressive relationships. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 02/01/2016 (2482 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. A house fire in Stony Mountain has claimed the life of an 86-year-old woman, the RCMP said in a release issued just after 6 p.m. Saturday night. Officers were called to a residential fire on School Road at around 11:30 p.m., on Jan. 1, the release said, where the victim was found unresponsive. She was transported to a local hospital where she was pronounced dead. Foul play is not suspected at this point in the investigation, which is being continued by the RCMP Forensic Identification Section in conjunction with the Office of the Fire Commissioner. There are no more details provided at this time. Opinion Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 03/01/2016 (2481 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Despite recent headlines, Canadian rates of suicide and attempted suicide have remained largely unchanged over the last several decades (11 per 100,000). What has changed is weve seen increasing rates of suicide in the Canadian military recently, after stable rates for decades. With more than 40,000 Canadian soldiers deployed to the mission in Afghanistan, there has been understandable concern about mental-health problems and suicides among military personnel and veterans. Both the minister of defence and minister of veterans affairs have rightly made suicide prevention a top priority. ADRIAN WYLD / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES A photo of Cpl. Stuart Langridge beside his beret and medals. Langridge, who served in Afghanistan, killed himself in 2008. The problem of suicide is not limited to the military in Canada. Indigenous populations, especially in northern remote communities, have high rates of suicide. We need a unified approach across provincial and federal sectors to reduce suicides in the military, and among veterans and civilians. Here are five promising evidence-based strategies for suicide prevention: IMPLEMENT A NATIONAL DELIBERATE SELF-HARM REGISTRY: The single most important predictor of future suicide attempts is a history of previous self-harm. It is important to develop a confidential, administrative national registry of people with self-harming behaviour, similar to the national registry created in Ireland, in order to record accurate data and to target and measure our evidence-based approaches to reduce the risk of future attempts. INVEST IN ANTI-SUICIDAL PSYCHOLOGICAL TREATMENT: For patients presenting with suicide attempts, current practices and programs focus on treating the underlying mental-health problem and/or addiction. Recent work is challenging this practice by showing there is also a need for psychological interventions that directly address suicidal behaviour. Two such treatments have been shown to reduce suicide attempts among people with a history of self-harming behaviour cognitive behaviour therapy and dialectical behaviour therapy. Both types of therapy focus on understanding the causes of suicidal thoughts, improving coping skills in managing distressing emotions and developing careful plans to reduce future attempts. Strong investments nationally are required to increase the availability of these therapies for people with a history of self-harm. REDUCE ACCESS TO LETHAL MEANS: This approach has the greatest evidence in its favour for suicide prevention worldwide. Suicide can often be an impulsive act. Access to firearms is a risk factor for suicide and is a factor in half of the completed suicides in the United States. In the Swiss military, when access to guns was reduced, almost 80 per cent of people were deterred from suicide. Although firearm-related deaths are less common in Canada, 20 per cent of male suicides in Canada are related to firearms. In the United Kingdom, changing the packaging for acetaminophen was also shown to reduce suicide. In Canada, prescription medications, especially opioids, anti-anxiety and anti-depressant medications, are common causes of both intentional and unintentional deaths. Limiting access to large quantities of prescription and over-the-counter medications for people with a history of self-harm may reduce suicides and accidental deaths. TRACK ACCIDENTAL AND UNEXPLAINED DEATHS WITH SUICIDE DEATHS: Accidental or undetermined deaths look like suicides. We know suicide rates around the world are widely underestimated, perhaps by as much as 30 per cent or more. This is because it is often difficult to determine the nature of the death, specifically whether it is definitively a suicide or an accident. Often, the case can be unclear, and the coroner classifies the death as undetermined. There is evidence to indicate some mechanisms of suicide are more likely to lead to the undetermined classification. In the U.K., injury deaths of undetermined intent are routinely included in their suicide statistics for this reason. INCLUDE INJURY PREVENTION IN SUICIDE-PREVENTION STRATEGY: We have learned individuals killed by suicide or by accident share many similar risk factors. They are usually male, younger, unmarried, have a lower education and income and suffer from impulsivity, mental-health problems and addictions. Generally speaking, prevention efforts for accidental injuries and suicide are distinct. But given the shared vulnerability of these populations, along with the finding many of the accidental or undetermined deaths may in fact be wrongly classified as suicide deaths, a more broad approach to suicide prevention must include injury prevention. If we really want to change the rates of suicide in Canada, we need to look at areas of medicine that have been successful in reducing mortality. For example, the organizations behind HIV prevention and cancer prevention have created national registries and invested heavily in innovative prevention programs that specifically target these deadly diseases. We need a concerted national effort that uses evidence-based strategies to specifically target suicidal behaviour. Jitender Sareen is an expert adviser with EvidenceNetwork.ca, professor of psychiatry at the University of Manitoba and team leader of the Manitoba Population Mental Health Research Group. Cara Katz is a junior researcher with the Manitoba Population Mental Health Research Group and a psychiatry resident at the University of Manitoba. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 03/01/2016 (2481 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. MEXICO CITY The mayor of a city south of Mexicos capital was shot to death Saturday, less than a day after taking office, officials said. Gunmen opened fire on Mayor Gisela Mota at her house in the city of Temixco, said the government of Morelos state, where Temixco is located. Two presumed assailants were killed and three others detained following a pursuit, said Morelos security commissioner Jess Alberto Capella. He said the suspects fired on federal police and soldiers from a vehicle. On his Twitter account, Morelos Gov. Graco Ramrez attributed Motas killing to organized crime, without citing a particular drug cartel or gang. Cartels seeking to control communities and towns have often targeted local officials and mayors in Mexico. CP TONY RIVERA / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Forensic investigators inspect a car outside the home where Gisela Mota was killed. Motas leftist Democratic Revolution Party released a statement describing her as a strong and brave woman who on taking office as mayor, declared that her fight against crime would be frontal and direct. Temixco is a city of about 100,000 people neighbouring Cuernavaca, a resort and industrial city that has been suffering kidnappings and extortion linked to organized crime groups. Though Cuernavaca is the capital of Morelos, Temixco is the seat of several state institutions including the Public Security Commission, which co-ordinates state and local police forces. Morelos also neighbours drug cartel-plagued Guerrero state. Mota, who had been a federal congresswoman, was sworn into office on New Years Day. She was killed the following day. Morelos Gov. Ramirez vowed there would be no impunity in her killing and promised state officials would not cede to what he described as a challenge from criminals. Federal and state forces are deployed in Cuernavaca and municipalities near the Guerrero state border in what is called Operation Delta. Capella did not provide more details about the attack on Mota, but said when the suspects were detained, authorities found a 9-mm gun, an Uzi, ski masks and an SUV with Mexico State licence plates. Morelos attorney general Javier Perez Duron said the detained suspects have been tied to other crimes, but declined to provide more details. The Associated Press Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 03/01/2016 (2481 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. SANAA, Yemen The truce in Yemen between Shiite rebels and a Saudi-led military coalition has formally ended, Saudi Arabias state-run news agency reports. The truce technically came into effect Dec. 15, 2015 as a mutual show of good faith during peace negotiations taking place in Switzerland. But the truce never truly took hold on the ground in Yemen, with both sides ignoring it. The United Nations said Dec. 20 there were numerous violations of the ceasefire agreement from the very start. Yemens conflict pits the internationally recognized government backed by a Saudi-led, U.S.-supported coalition against the rebels, known as Houthis, who are allied with a former president. Local affiliates of al-Qaida and the Islamic State group have also exploited Yemens chaos to grab land and exercise influence. According to UN figures, the war in Yemen has killed at least 5,884 people since March, when fighting escalated after the Saudi-led coalition began launching airstrikes targeting the rebels. In Taiz, Yemens third-largest city, independent security officials said 14 civilians including four children were killed since Friday by shelling from the rebels, who have the city under a siege. The Houthis have been indiscriminately shelling the war-devastated city and blocking the delivery of humanitarian aid for months, according to residents and representatives of aid groups in the region. The Associated Press Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 03/01/2016 (2481 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. SHYMKENT, Kazakhstan Slowly but surely, a four-lane highway is beginning to take shape on the sparsely populated Central Asian steppe. Soviet-era cars, trucks and aging long-distance buses weave past modern yellow bulldozers, cranes and towering construction drills, labouring under Chinese supervision to build a road that could one day stretch from eastern Asia to western Europe. This small stretch of blacktop, running past potato fields, bare dun-coloured rolling hills and fields of grazing cattle, is a symbol of Chinas march westward, an advance into Central Asia that is steadily wresting the region from Russias embrace. Here, the oil and gas pipelines, as well as the main roads and the railway lines, always pointed north to the heart of the old Soviet Union. Today, those links are beginning to point toward China. ADAM DEAN FOR THE WASHINGTON POST A Chinese surveyor/engineer climbs a bank of earth to take measurements on the site of a bridge project on a section of the road that will link China and Europe, near Shymkent, Kazakhstan. This used to be Russias backyard, said Raffaello Pantucci, director of International Security Studies at the Royal United Services Institute in London, but it is increasingly coming into Chinas thrall. It is a shift that has shaken up the Russian leadership, which is watching Chinas advance across the steppe with apprehension. Moscow and Beijing may speak the language of partnership these days, but Central Asia has emerged a source of wariness and mistrust. For China, the region offers rich natural resources, but Beijings grander commercial plans to export its industrial overcapacity and find new markets for its goods will struggle to find wings in these poor and sparsely populated lands. In September 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping chose Kazakhstans sparkling, modern new capital, Astana, to announce what has since become a cornerstone of his new, assertive foreign policy, a Silk Road Economic Belt that would revive ancient trading routes to bring new prosperity to a long-neglected but strategically important region at the heart of the Eurasian continent. Bound together by 2,000 years of exchanges dating to the Western Han Dynasty, sharing a 1,770-kilometre border, the two nations, Xi said, now faced a golden opportunity to develop their economies and deepen their friendship. At the China-Kazakhstan border, at a place known as Horgos to the Chinese and Khorgos to the Kazakhs, a massive immigration and customs building is being completed to mark that friendship, rising from the windswept valley floor like a mammoth Communist-style spaceship. A short distance away, China is building an almost entirely new city, apartment block by apartment block, alongside a free-trade zone of five square kilometres, where traders sit in new multi-storey shopping malls hawking such items as iPhones and fur coats. This is reputed to have been a seventh-century stop for Silk Road merchants. Today, the Peoples Daily newspaper calls it the pearl on the Silk Road Economic Belt. But this pearl is distinctly lopsided: on the Kazakh side of the zone, opposite all those gleaming malls, a single small building, in the shape of a nomads tent or yurt, sits on an expanse of wasteland where a trickle of people stop to buy biscuits, vodka and camels milk. The Silk Road slogan may be new, but many of its goals are not. Beijing has long been working to secure a share of the regions rich natural resources to fuel Chinas industrial economy; it is building a network of security co-operation in Central Asia as a bulwark against Islamic extremism that could leak into Chinas restive western province of Xinjiang, and it wants to create alternative trading routes to Europe that bypass Asias narrow, congested shipping lanes. Under the Silk Road plan, China also is promising to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to build new infrastructure here and hopes to reap benefits of its own: to create new markets for Chinese goods, especially for heavy industries such as steel and cement that have suffered as the Chinese economy has slowed. But the scene at Horgos underlines the fact the economies of Chinas Central Asian neighbours are simply too small to provide much of a stimulus to Chinas giant, slowing economy. Chinas ambitious Central Asian plans did not go down well, at least initially, in Moscow. When China announced its Silk Road plan in Kazakhstan, it was met with a lot of skepticism and even fear by the Russian leadership, said Alexander Gabuyev, head of the Russia department in the Asia Pacific Program at the Carnegie Moscow Center. The feeling was, Its a project to steal Central Asia from us, they want to exploit our economic difficulties to be really present in the region. Russia had long blocked Chinas attempts to create an infrastructure-development bank under the auspices of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a regional body, fearing it would become a tool for Chinese economic expansion. Beijing responded by sidestepping Moscow, establishing an Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank in June with a US$100-billion capital base. This used to be Russias backyard, but it is increasingly coming into Chinas thrall Raffaello Pantucci China has overtaken Russia to become Central Asias biggest trade partner and lender. Pipelines transport increasing amounts of Kazakh oil to China and vast quantities of Turkmen gas east through Horgos. That has served to undermine Russias negotiating position when it has tried to sell its own gas to China. At the same time, however, President Xi has worked overtime to calm Russian fears, reassuring his counterpart Vladimir Putin Beijing has no plans to counter his countrys political and security dominance in Central Asia. In 2014, Russia attempted to draw the region more closely into its embrace by establishing a Eurasian Economic Union, with Kazakhstan a founding member. But even as Moscow moved to protect its turf, the realization was dawning Russia lacked the financial resources to provide Central Asia the economic support it needed. After the breakdown of relations with the West over Ukraine in 2014, and the imposition of sanctions, the dogmatic view Russia had to be the top economic dog in Central Asia was questioned, and then finally, grudgingly abandoned. It was impossible, Gabuyev said, so Russias leaders decided to divide the labour: Russia would provide security while China would bring its financial muscle. In May, Xi and Putin signed a treaty designed to balance the two nations interests in Central Asia and integrate the Eurasian Economic Union and the Silk Road. Chinas expanding influence has provoked mixed feelings in many Asian states, but the nation has used velvet gloves in its dealings with Central Asia, said Nargis Kassenova, an international relations expert at KIMEP University in Almaty. About a quarter of Kazakhstans citizens are ethnic Russians, while Russian media dominate the airwaves. The Chinese language, by contrast, is nowhere to be seen or heard. Even India has more cultural resonance through Bollywood films, says political scientist Dossym Satpayev in Almaty. What Beijing can offer is infrastructure loans and investment. It has been careful to frame its plans as more than just a road where Kazakhstans natural resources are extracted, and Chinese goods waved through on their way to Europe but as a belt of economic prosperity. Nevertheless, a survey conducted by independent analyst Elena Sadovskaya found Kazakh attitudes toward Chinese migrant workers reflect fears China would one day dominate the country, swamp it with immigrants and cheap goods, grab land or simply suck out its natural resources while giving little in return. In 2030, well all wake up and find ourselves speaking Chinese, is one common saying here. In July, scores of people were injured when a mass brawl broke out between Chinese and local workers at a copper mine near the northern Kazakh city of Aktogay. Kazakhstans Foreign Minister Erlan Idrissov plays down concerns. China may outnumber the 17-million Kazakh population by 80 to one, but its progress and development is good news, he says. Our philosophy is simple: we should get on board that train, he said in an interview in Astana. We want to benefit from the growth of China, and we dont see any risks to us in that growth. Chinas state-owned investment giant CITIC runs an oilfield and an asphalt factory in Kazakhstan, and says it has established a US$110-billion fund to invest in Silk Road projects, much of the money aimed at Kazakhstan and Central Asia. But private Chinese companies and ordinary Chinese traders say they have yet to reap the rewards, as the small Kazakh economy is shrinking under the weight of falling commodity prices and Russias economic decline. Meanwhile, Russia is playing interference, they say, imposing new import restrictions under the Eurasian Economic Union in an apparent attempt to keep Chinese goods from flooding the region. LINTAO ZHANG / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILES Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev reviews an honour guard at a welcoming ceremony in Beijing, China last year. In Almaty, the Yema Group has been importing Chinese bulldozers, diggers and other heavy equipment for more than a decade. Business, once booming, has collapsed in the past two years, as many Chinese vehicles fail to meet tough Russian certification standards that now apply throughout the economic union. Shi Hairu, a 52-year-old trader from Shanghai, who sells Chinese gloves in a small shop in a market in Almaty, arrived two years ago when the economy at home started to slow. But sales have been halved this year a sharp depreciation in the Kazakh currency, the tenge, has drastically reduced locals purchasing power, while customs clearance has become slower and costlier. In the Horgos free-trade zone, Chinese traders also say business is poor. Many were lured here by tax breaks and cut-price deals to rent shops, and by enthusiastic cheerleading by state media about the opportunities on offer. After we came here, we realized it was all lies, said one owner of a shop that sells womens underwear, who declined to be named for fear of trouble with the authorities. We basically got deceived into coming here. Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayevs government is building a dry port at Khorgos with warehouses, an industrial park and rows of cranes to transfer containers across different railroad gauges in what it hopes will become a major distribution and transshipment hub for goods bound between China and western Europe, a mini-Dubai in the making. But the nearby free-trade zone still boasts just the one small supermarket, guarded by four lonely concrete camels, plastic flowers in their saddlebags. The nearest Kazakh city, Almaty, is a five-hour drive away along a bone-jarring road. Yang Shu, director of the Institute of Central Asian Studies at Lanzhou University, calls Horgos a mistake, because so few people are in its vicinity. Trade between the two nations declined 40 per cent in the first six months of this year, to US$5.4 billion, just a quarter of one per cent of Chinas global trade. Nevertheless, experts agree Chinas Silk Road plan has immeasurably more clout than the American New Silk Road plan advanced by then-secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2011 that was meant to bind Afghanistan to Central Asia but barely got off the ground, or Russias own pivot to Asia, mired in economic woes and bureaucratic inertia. For now, Pantucci, at the Royal United Services Institute, said China and Russia have established some sort of modus vivendi here. I used to believe Central Asia would become a bone of contention between the two countries, but the priority in Moscow and Beijing remains the broader strategic relationship, he said. Wrinkles like disagreements in Central Asia will get swept underfoot. Tom Miller, at a consulting firm called Gavekal Dragonomics, argues as Beijings investment and financial ties with Central Asia deepen, its political influence will inevitably strengthen, too. Harking back to the Great Game, the 19th-century contest between the British and Russian empires for influence in Central Asia, he says there is only one winner this time around. Beijings strategists studiously avoid any talk of playing a New Great Game in the heart of Asia but they look set to win it nonetheless, Miller said. Washington Post Two Winona FFA members were among 72 FFA members from southeast Minnesota to attend the Region 8 FFA Leadership Camp held at Ironwood Springs Christian Ranch near Stewartville. Faith Feller and Lacylyn Merchlewitz attended the camp from Dec. 4-6. The camp was put on by the Region 8 FFA officer Team and included workshops on etiquette, teamwork, integrity, community service projects and career development events. The camp was partially sponsored by the Winona FFA chapter and the Winona FFA alumni. PIEDMONT, S.D. (AP) In 1982 when Deb Ohm got a Christmas card from her brother, Rick McGrath, it came equipped with a big surprise: the same card she had sent him the year before, complete with her original well-wishes. I was like, What is this? I dont get it, Ohm said. Then it dawned on me, and I just thought, Oh my gosh, and it became a regular thing. Ohm, 52, of Plainview, Minn., and McGrath, 56, of Piedmont, have sent the same card back and forth for 35 Christmases, always with a brief message and the date; 2015 was McGraths year to be the recipient. Its a little beaten-up now, McGrath said, just like the two of us. The card is in relatively good shape for a 35-year-old piece of barely thickened paper. The connecting fold has worn completely through, so the two sides are held together with tape. Its original message, I couldnt let Christmas go by without sending something, is still legible. It started as a simple way to say Merry Christmas from Ohm to McGrath, who was stationed at Myrtle Beach Air Force Base in South Carolina in 1981, when he was 22, his sister 18. We sent him a care package, and in the card I sent him a small version of my senior class picture, Ohm said. I told him hed get the bigger picture when he got home. McGrath, however, has a bit of a practical joker side, and he decided to send her the card back the next year. She never expected it, but I knew shed get a kick out of it, McGrath told the Rapid City Journal (http://bit.ly/1VrXSg3 ). The card has bounced between the two ever since, following McGrath to Korea when he was stationed there from 1983 to 1985 and 1989 to 1991 and now to South Dakota, where he also was stationed in 1991. He joined in the Air Force in 1978. When he first received the card, he was an airman first class, one of the lower enlisted designations; by the time he retired, his sister was addressing the card to Senior Master Sergeant McGrath, nearly at the top of the career ladder. Ohm said they worry about forgetting to send it back, or an even worse fate. I always think, Is it my year to send it? but I always have it on the odd years, Ohm said. We always joke that at some point one of us will lose it, or itll get lost in the mail, but so far weve been lucky. The card has gone beyond a two-person tradition to become something their family members ask about. Every year, Wheres the card? Did you get it yet? Ohm said. They plan to keep going as long as they can. Its something special for us, Ohm said. Something that the two of us have in common. I would imagine, McGrath said, well keep it up until one of us goes to the other side. In terms of working together and creating real solutions, our federal government is broken at best. As a result there are times it seems you have to take what you can get and live to fight another day. We are losing critical habitat daily to development. Montanas wildlife recently came out somewhat a winner in the halls of Congress. Lawmakers approved a budget agreement that provides funding to conserve public lands, improves outdoor recreational opportunities and assists conservation-minded landowners who want to permanently protect their land for its wildlife resources. The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation would like to thank U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke for his vote to approve the agreement and for making sure his colleagues included the vital conservation measures. As is common in todays politics, we are happy to take what we did get and will continue working for more victories. The Land and Water Conservation Fund expired last September but budget negotiators, including Montanas congressional delegation, were able to secure a three-year extension. The program collects royalties from offshore oil and gas operations to benefit public lands and enhance recreational opportunities. Zinke fought for LWCF, even as others on the House Natural Resources Committee did not recognize its value. RMEF has leveraged LWCF funding to assist with 62 projects in 10 different states to protect, conserve and open access to some of the most crucial elk country in the nation. We will continue to advocate for LWCFs permanent reauthorization. The budget agreement also includes a provision that makes tax incentives permanent for landowners who place conservation easements on their land to protect its wildlife values. RMEF worked for years to make the conservation easement tax credit permanent. There was significant opposition in the House of Representatives to making this credit permanent. Zinke understood its value to wildlife, sportsmen and sportswomen and landowners, and worked hard to make sure it stayed in the agreement. Although the budget agreement failed to address all of the issues that are critical to sportsmen and women and even the country overall, it included enough important provisions to warrant its passage. While their votes may not reflect it, we fully understand and appreciate that both Montana Sens. Jon Tester and Steve Daines support LWCF and the long-term protection of Montanas conservation resources. We look forward to the day when Congress returns to less division over the common-sense issues like better funding for wildfires and more proactive forest management to reduce the severity of wildfires in the first place. We urge all of Congress to stop the partisanship when it comes to American outdoor resources. We look forward to working with Zinke, Tester and Daines in 2016 on these and other remaining issues. Brian Geery lives by the spiritual principle of karma. A waiter in a central California city did what he called the right thing and told his manager about a canvas pouch he found in their Applebees restaurant. It contained more than $32,000, more than Brian Gerrys annual salary. The 33 year-old told Reuters he found the pouch at the Fresno eatery after a family of guests left the establishment. He brought the unopened container to his manager, who speculated that rectangular shape inside might be medicine and suggested Geery open it to check. Inside was a stack of U.S. currency. Id never seen so much cash in my life before, Geery said. A regional director of the chain of casual dining restaurants, Carrie Hellyer, said the lackadaisical family offered Geery a reward for finding the stash, but this he declined. He also withheld his name from media at first. He didnt want the right thing being overwhelmed by anything else, Hellyer said. Geery reported that he is a big believer in karma, the principle integral to a number of religions stating that the intentions and actions of individuals influence that individuals future. Geery has worked for Applebees for ten years and confirmed that the cash he found exceeded his annual after-tax income. To underscore Gellyers honesty, director Hellyer said the restaurant does not have a camera in the area where the family was seated. Fresno police picked up the bounty later that day. Spokesman Joe Gomez said that, before the money was handed back, a detective scrutinized the family and determined it was obtained legally. It apparently was legitimate revenue from a number of rental properties and a Mexican restaurant the family operates in the San Jose area. Some people dont use banks, Gomez said. Theyre that type of person. Reuters reported that, earlier in the day, the family tried to rent a safe deposit box at a bank but could not find one. So, as Gomez said, they had the cash with them at Applebees when they went there to eat and simply forgot it. In late December, the Independent Record published an opinion piece from Colorado attorney Russ Doty, in which he asserted that NorthWestern Energy should be doing more to develop wind and solar electricity production and to promote energy efficiency. Mr. Doty suggested Montana should follow the energy path of California. It is important to consider a few facts while assessing Mr. Dotys position. While California has a renewable energy goal of 50 percent by 2030, today NorthWesterns 60 percent carbon-free electric production is already better and less expensive than Californias long-term goal. According to recent information from the Edison Electric Institute, electric rates in Montana are 21 percent below the national average, while California rates are among the highest in the nation. In recent years, NorthWestern has invested more than $1 billion in clean energy. These investments mesh very well with our thermal generation, which provide necessary back-up for the unpredictability of wind generation. The purchase of Montana hydroelectric facilities from PPL in late 2014, combined with existing wind generation, created a portfolio dominated by carbon-free sources. We now have a made-in-Montana hydro-based generation system. Hydro is the very best renewable. We disagree with Mr. Dotys statement suggesting that wind can easily replace coal in our generation portfolio. NorthWestern Energy owns 30 percent of Colstrip Unit 4, the newest and cleanest of the Colstrip generating units. The electricity dependably produced at Unit 4 provides a little more than 25 percent of the electricity we need to serve our Montana customers. Coal and natural gas provide reliable generation during periods of peak demand, typically the coldest days of winter and warmest days of summer, when the wind often doesnt below. This Thanksgiving was a great example: The cold was blistering, the wind wasnt blowing, and although we have about the same nameplate capacity wind and coal on our system, it was our hydro and thermal resources that kept us safe and warm. After our recent purchase of the dams, our greatest need is for generation that can meet the peak-demand needs of our customers. Wind simply doesnt meet those needs. Mr. Doty asserts that our purchase of the dams is only good for company insiders. In fact, we paid about $1,000 per kilowatt less than a recent sale of other dams by Talen Energy (formerly PPL). Most importantly, Montanas dams are now dedicated to serve our Montana customers at prices based on the cost of production. That will benefit our current customers, their children and their grandchildren. While Mr. Doty chides NorthWestern for not doing enough to promote energy efficiency, he ignores that fact we are responsible for 80 percent of the efficiency programs in place in Montana. We see the value of cost-effective efficiency measures and have offered efficiency programs for over two decades to help our customers save energy. We have worked with others in the region on efficiency efforts, including successful market transformation programs. Unfortunately, Montana currently is behind other states in policies that support utility efficiency programs. Mr. Doty is passionate about LEDs, and we agree. Company officials are working to measure their cost effectiveness and are sharing that information with local government officials interested in street-light conversions and other uses. NorthWestern recognizes the utility industry in Montana and across the U.S. is changing rapidly. We believe it is critical to take a realistic view of the relevant issues and rely on facts while looking at ways to help shape Montanas energy future. Rick Burt is director of community relations with NorthWestern Energy. TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - A Blountstown woman who died after being discharged and arrested at a North Florida Hospital has been laid to rest. Funeral services for Barbara Dawson were held Saturday afternoon at the Liberty County High School Gym in Bristol. The 57-year-old died at Calhoun-Liberty Hospital just minutes after being released and detained. Hospital staff say she was being disruptive so they called police to have her removed. She died after collapsing while being taken into custody. Regardless of the circumstances, family and friends remember Dawson as a very giving person, with Saturday's service focusing on the importance of fair treatment for everyone along with forgiveness. Meanwhile, there are two separate investigations looking into Dawson's death. One by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement which is looking into the actions of the Blountstown Police Department. The other, by the State Agency for Health Administration which is analyzing Dawson's discharge and treatment. Tallahassee, Fla. (WTXL)--Family and friends gathered on Saturday to say goodbye to a Valdosta State University graduate who was killed in a suicide bombing in Afghanistan. Memorial Services for Chester McBride were held Saturday morning on the campus of Georgia Southern University in Statesboro. The Air Staff Sergeant was one of six killed in an attack at the Bargram Airfield. McBridge was a Statesboro native but earned his Master's from VSU last May. On Friday, dozens of people lined the streets of his hometown for a "Welcome Home" parade in his honor. The Taliban has since claimed responsible for that attack, but that claim has yet to be confirmed. We Were Singing Ellen Lesperance stole the show with her paintings and textiles paying tribute to direct action campaigns and feminist activism at the 2014 Biennial of Contemporary Art at North Portland's Disjecta gallery. This is her second solo show, and it responds to the radical, intimate paintings of nude males by feminist painter Sylvia Sleigh (1916-2010). Lesperance's photography riffs on Sleigh's iconic Turkish Bath, her gouache-on-paper paintings reference Sleigh's 1978 A.I.R. Group Portrait, and her graphite drawings are inspired by texts from Sleigh's archive. Side by side, the two artists from different generations will provide a fascinating portrait of two women grappling with the same set of issues. Adams and Ollman Gallery, 209 SW 9th Ave., 724-0684, adamsandollman.com. Through Oct. 10. Confessions Portland artist Jessica Jackson Hutchins' assemblages of ceramics, newspapers and upholstery rose to prominence in 2010 with two simultaneous shows at New York City galleries and a piece in the Whitney Biennial. This month she has another double-booking with Confessions at the Lumber Room and the Cooley Gallery at Reed College. The show, organized by Lumber Room owner and collector Sarah Miller Meigs and Cooley Gallery curator and director Stephanie Snyder, is a self-conscious examination of the distinctions between collecting, curating and creating when private and academic art galleries collide. The Lumber Room, 419 NW 9th Ave.; the Cooley Gallery, 3203 SE Woodstock Blvd. Through Nov. 8. Alien She Organized by Carnegie Mellon University and curated by Astria Suparak and Ceci Moss, Alien She examines the lasting impact of riot grrrl on artists today by focusing on seven people whose visual art is inspired by the feminist punk movement. Representing 20 years of projects across many artistic disciplines, the show includes works by Ginger Brooks Takahashi of Pittsburgh, Tammy Rae Carland of Oakland, Miranda July of Los Angeles, L.J. Roberts of Brooklyn, and Stephanie Syjuco of San Francisco. The works will be on display at two locations the Museum of Contemporary Craft and the 511 Gallery at Pacific Northwest College of Art. Museum of Contemporary Craft, 724 NW Davis St.; 511 Gallery, 511 NW Broadway. Through Jan. 9. Demos: Wapato Correctional Facility Wapato Jail, the never-opened Multnomah County detention center in North Portland, is mainly inhabited by coyotes that burrow beneath the fenced perimeter. This anomaly is eerily captured in Demos: Wapato Correctional Facility, a multipart art project by Bay Area group ERNEST that's the culmination of its two-year artist residency at C3: Initiative. Demos includes video, publications, limited-edition prints and a documented roundtable led by a character acting as a coyote in hopes of stoking conversation related to general issues of incarceration and the role of art in social justice. C3: Initiative, 7326 N Chicago Ave. Sept. 18-Nov. 22. My New Blue Friends Despite her national and international success, Julie Green, professor of art at Oregon State University, is getting her first solo show in a Portland gallery. She's best known for her ongoing series, The Last Supper, but in October she'll cover the walls of Upfor Gallery with more than 100 sheets of mulberry paper, each painted in sumi ink with thousands of sea shells. Green began the long drawing process in 2011 as a backdrop for a series of blue paintings, using a unique process of airbrushing egg tempera onto prepared panels. Influenced by Zen calligraphy, Japanese ceramics and the Pattern and Decoration movement, Green's work meditates on the ocean, consumption, the color blue and airbrushed imagery. Upfor Gallery, 929 NW Flanders St. Oct. 13-Nov. 25. The Dark Fairy Tale of Patrick deWitt | Literary Picks | Paige Powell's Unromanticized Warhol and Basquiat | Visual Arts Picks | Theater in the Dark | Theater Picks | Al's Den Comedy Night | Comedy Picks | Noir Film Festivals | Film Picks | New Now Wow! | Dance Picks WWeek 2015 You are the owner of this article. Find voter resources and full coverage of the Nov. 8 election at the YHR Election Center. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reassured the members of his faction in response to allegations that torture had been used against the individuals suspected of murdering three members of the Dawabsheh family in the village of Duma, including an 18-month old baby boy, saying that "all the investigations are being conducted in accordance with the law, under the supervision of the attorney general and the court." Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter The prime minister is right. The prevention of meetings with an attorney and the use of "special interrogation measures" - which reportedly included sleep deprivation, painful binding or restraints, and protracted interrogation sessions, particularly of minors - were indeed undertaken in accordance with the law. And with the approval of the attorney general. And that of the Supreme Court justices. Investigative Techniques Shin Bet uses 'ticking bomb' methods on Jewish terror suspects Yoav Zitun, Elisha Ben Kimon The revelation that other radical Jews may carry out further attacks against Palestinians led to Shin Bet investigators receiving authorization to use harsher methods of investigation, including physical pressure. Shin Bet uses 'ticking bomb' methods on Jewish terror suspects Here is a partial list of some other actions that have been done by the book. And with the approval of the attorney general. And that of the Supreme Court: Thousands of Palestinians under interrogation by the Israel Security Agency (ISA) have been prevented, lawfully, from meeting with their attorney. The Supreme Court has approved denying meetings with an attorney. The interrogations which included sleep deprivation, painful binding, appalling conditions of incarceration, and beatings - were also conducted in accordance with the law. And with the approval of Supreme Court justices. Some of the 'special interrogation measures' used by the Shin Bet, according to B'Tselem (Illustration: Ishai Mishory) Hundreds of homes have been demolished in order to punish the families of Palestinians who attacked Israelis, and thousands of people have been rendered homeless. The demolitions were executed in accordance with the law. In almost every case the family petitioned Israels High Court of Justice (HCJ). With the exceptions of a handful of cases, the justices approved every house demolition. Thousands of Palestinians have been held in administrative detention for protracted periods without knowing what they are supposed to be guilty of, without any possibility to defend themselves against allegations, and without knowing when they will be released. This is all done in accordance with the law: The militarys OC Central Command signs the detention order; the detainee can appeal the order to the military court and the Supreme Court; the courts approve the detention orders over and over again. Extensive areas of the West Bank have been - lawfully - designated as "firing zones" by military orders. The people who live in these areas are expelled time and time again and their homes demolished on the grounds that the site is off limits. Residents petitions to the HCJ arguing they have lived in the area for years and have nowhere else to go have been rejected. But what if theres no appropriate law allowing the government to do what it wants to? The necessary legislation is passed. A case in point: When the government wanted to prevent the possibility of family unification for couples in which an Israeli citizen or resident married a resident of the occupied territories. The Knesset passed a law preventing such unification, which would have allowed the spouse from the occupied territories to live in Israel. An expanded panel of Supreme Court justices rejected a petition challenging the constitutionality of the law. Given this reality, saying that the suspects interrogation is being conducted in accordance with the law and under the supervision of the legal system is far from satisfactory. As we have seen, just because actions in the occupied territories are undertaken in accordance with the law - the Israeli law - does not make them decent or justifiable, since it is possible to enact almost any law. This is highlighted by the flood of new bills since early October, when attacks against Israelis resumed, proposing such things as: Allowing imprisonment of minors under the age of 14; imposing minimum sentences; the use of evidence from the military courts in civilian courts inside Israel; and so forth. The question is not whether a given act is undertaken in accordance with a law tailored to meet the legislators wishes. The question is whether the action or policy is decent and justifiable. The fact that something is legal does not make it justified. Sometimes, the fact that something is legal serves only to illustrate the bankruptcy of the legislative mechanisms in a place where criminal acts have become lawful. Saudi Arabia said on Saturday that it had summoned Iran's envoy to the kingdom to protest critical comments by Iranian authorities over the execution of an influential Saudi Shi'ite cleric, Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter In a statement late Saturday by the Saudi Press Agency, the Saudi Foreign Ministry described the Iranian criticism of its judicial system as "blatant interference" in its internal affairs. Picture circulated on social media purporting to show Saudi embassy in Tehran Earlier, the Iranian Foreign Ministry had summoned the Saudi envoy in Tehran to protest the execution of Shi'ite cleric Nimr al-Nimr, who was among 47 prisoners executed Saturday. Iran's parliament speaker warned that the execution would prompt "a maelstrom" in Saudi Arabia. The execution threatens to stoke further sectarian tensions between the regional rivals who back opposing sides in civil wars in Yemen and Syria. Saudi Arabia executed the prominent Shi'ite cleric and dozens of al Qaeda members on Saturday, signaling that it would not tolerate attacks, whether by Sunni jihadists or minority Shi'ites, and stirring sectarian anger across the region. Hundreds of Shi'ite Muslims marched through Qatif district in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province in protest at the execution, an eyewitness said. They chanted "Down with the Al Saud!", the name of the ruling Saudi royal family. Nimr, the most vocal critic of the dynasty among the Shi'ite minority, had come to be seen as a leader of the sect's younger activists, who rejected the quiet approach of older community leaders for failing to achieve equality with Sunnis. Most of the 47 killed in the kingdom's biggest mass execution for decades were Sunnis convicted of al Qaeda attacks in Saudi Arabia a decade ago. Four, including Nimr, were Shi'ites accused of involvement in shooting policemen. The executions took place in 12 cities, four prisons using firing squads and the others beheading. In December, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula threatened to retaliate against Saudi Arabia for any execution of its members. The move further soured relations between Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia and its Shi'ite regional rival, Iran, which had hailed Nimr as the champion of a marginalized Shi'ite minority. The website of Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, carried a picture of a Saudi executioner next to notorious Islamic State executioner 'Jihadi John', with the caption "Any differences?", and the powerful Revolutionary Guards said "harsh revenge" would topple "this pro-terrorist, anti-Islamic regime". Saudi Arabia summoned the Iranian ambassador in response. Picture on Ayatollah Khamenei's website In Iraq, prominent religious and political figures demanded that ties be severed, calling into question fence-mending efforts by Riyadh that had been intended to boost a regional alliance against Islamic State militants. Message to Saudis However, the executions seemed mostly aimed at discouraging Saudis from jihadism after bombings and shootings by Sunni militants in Saudi Arabia over the past year killed dozens and Islamic State called on followers there to stage attacks. After the executions, Islamic State urged its supporters to attack Saudi soldiers and police in revenge, in a message on Telegram, an encrypted messaging service used by the group's backers, the SITE monitoring group reported. Saudi Arabia's ruling Al Saud family has grown increasingly worried in recent years as Middle East turmoil, especially in Syria and Iraq, has empowered Sunni militants seeking to bring it down and given room to Iran to spread its influence. A nuclear deal with Iran backed by Saudi Arabia's biggest ally, the United States, has done little to calm nerves in Riyadh. But Saudi Arabia's Western allies, many of whom supply it with arms, are growing concerned about its new assertiveness. EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said Nimr's execution risked "dangerous consequences" by further inflaming sectarian tensions in the region, and a German Foreign Ministry official said it "strengthens our existing concerns about increasing tensions and deepening rifts in the region". The simultaneous execution of 47 people - 45 Saudis, one Egyptian and a man from Chad - was the biggest mass execution for security offences in Saudi Arabia since the 1980 killing of 63 jihadist rebels who seized Mecca's Grand Mosque in 1979. The 43 Sunni jihadists executed on Saturday, including several prominent al Qaeda leaders and ideologues, were convicted for attacks on Western compounds, government buildings and diplomatic missions that killed hundreds from 2003-06. The four Shi'ites were convicted of involvement in shootings and petrol bomb attacks that killed several police during anti-government protests from 2011-13 in which over 20 members of the minority sect were also shot dead by the authorities. Under Saudi Arabia's reading of Islamic law, such attacks are interpreted as "banditry", carrying an automatic sentence of death followed by public display of bodies on gibbets. Grand Mufti Abdulaziz Al al-Sheikh, the kingdom's top religious authority, praised the executions as "just". Radical Islam Most jihadist groups follow a radical interpretation of the Salafi branch of Islam, the strict Sunni Muslim school that was developed in Saudi Arabia and is still followed by its clergy; but they have long regarded the US-allied Saudi establishment as an enemy. Government-appointed clerics have for years denounced al Qaeda and Islamic State as religious "deviants", while the government has cracked down on jihadists at home, squeezed their funding streams abroad and stopped them traveling to fight. Mustafa Alani, a security analyst close to the Interior Ministry, commented: "There is huge popular pressure on the government to punish those people. It included all the leaders of al Qaeda, all the ones responsible for shedding blood. It sends a message." However, critics of the ruling family say it has not done enough to tackle the sectarian intolerance, hatred of infidels and praise for the principles of violent jihad propagated by Saudi clerics, which they see as contributing to militancy. Analysts have speculated that the execution of the four Shi'ites was partly to demonstrate to Saudi Arabia's majority Sunni Muslims that the government did not differentiate between political violence committed by members of the two sects. Human rights groups have consistently attacked the kingdom's judicial process as unfair, pointing to accusations that confessions have been secured under torture and that defendants in court have been denied access to lawyers. Family members of the executed Shi'ites have vigorously denied they were involved in attacks and said they were only peaceful protesters against sectarian discrimination in the Sunni-ruled kingdom. Riyadh denies torture and says its judiciary is independent. The cleric's brother, Mohammed al-Nimr, said he hoped any response in Qatif would be peaceful, but activists said new protests were possible. "My mobile is getting non-stop messages from friends, all shocked and angry ... The fear is for the children among those detained," an activist in Qatif told Reuters. The Interior Ministry statement began with Koranic verses justifying the use of execution, and state television showed footage of the aftermath of al Qaeda attacks in the last decade. At least 157 people were put to death in Saudi Arabia last year, a big increase from the 90 executed in 2014. The manhunt for Nashat Melhem, who killed two and wounded several others in a shooting attack at a bar on Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv, continued on Sunday morning, two days after the deadly attack. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter Security forces were patrolling the city in large numbers, focusing search efforts on north Tel Aviv, where Melhem was last seen and where he is believed to still be hiding since the attack on Friday. They are still waiting for the terrorist to make a mistake, or for a "golden tip" that would lead them to him. Nashat Melhem, left, and Border Police searching Tel Aviv (Photo: Reuters) Police are worried the suspect is hiding somewhere in the densely populated city, where he could attempt another attack. Because of that, the Tel Aviv municipality decided to increase security across the city, particularly around education institutions, including Tel Aviv University. Despite that, many parents chose not to send their children to school. According to the municipality, in the north of the city only about 50 percent of the students came to school, in the south 90 percent and in the center about 70 percent. In Alliance High School in north Tel Aviv, not far from where searches have been taking place since Friday, only 230 students out of 1,600 came. Security forces search Tel Aviv (Photo: EPA) Melhem's brother, Jodat, was arrested following the attack on suspicions of being an accessory to murder and premeditated killing. The Haifa Magistrate's Court extended his remand by five days on Saturday night. Jodat Melhem, the suspect's brother, arrested on suspicion of helping Nashat (Photo: Zohar Shahar) Jodat Melhem's attorney, Nechami Feinblatt, was barred by the Shin Bet from meeting with his client for three days. Feinblatt told Ynet that the father's weapon, which is believed to have been used by Nashat to commit the attack, was seized by police several months ago on suspicion it was used by one of the family members to threaten someone. The weapon was in police possession for several months, until the case was closed due to the lack of evidence. The father then requested the police to return to weapon to him, and police eventually relented. "The fact the weapon was returned to him is strange," Feinblatt said. "Police could have kept the weapon. When police has a weapon like that, they're usually not quick to return it. 99% of appeals on weapons are rejected, because the trend is to reduce the amount of arms in the public's possession." Residents of Wadi Ara who spoke with Ynet condemned the act and called on the terrorist to surrender. "No one has the intention to rationalize the criminal act or build up a line of defense", said the Arara's high school principal Khader Akel, who knows Melhem well. "No lawyer for the family. We will not defend him at all. We denounce and condemn the act, and we regret the murder of Alon and Shimon who were cut down in such a way." Nashat graduated from the school 12 years ago, and given his out of the ordinary character, the principal had no way of not remembering him: "He wasn't a regular student; he was full of anger. Despite having a very beautiful and smiley face, inside he is full of anger. I had to accompany him almost every day to dissolve the anger he had within him. He was not very sane - that is to say it is clear that something is wrong with him," Akel recounted. According to the principal, after Nishat finished high school he did not have a steady job and probably did not pursue academic studies. "He did hold on to a single job. I met him a month ago. He worked here in a vegetable store in town." Ahmed Milhem, a relative of the terrorist, said the family was living a nightmare: "We're waiting like everyone else for the results of the investigation. We, in the the family, always heard that he was suffering from a trauma and that he had a behavior disorder. There was no clear recommendation from the court that we should send him to an institution for treatment, and since there is no state framework for that purpose, he was left outside without treatment. He came from a poor family, with a single minimum wage earner, so he does not have the ability to pay for his own treatment." Nashat Melhem's photo and information were distributed to security forces at checkpoints to the West Bank, including those leading to Jerusalem on Highway 443, to stop him from escaping into the Palestinian Authority. The British Foreign Office published Friday an updated travel warning for its citizens following the terror attack Friday afternoon in Tel Aviv, adding the city that never sleeps to its existing list of areas of tension. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter The Foreign Office's issued a statement saying that "an attack in central Tel Aviv on 1 January by an assailant using an automatic weapon has caused a number of casualties. If in the area, you should remain vigilant and follow the advice of the security forces. "Take extra care and be vigilant when using public transport in Tel Aviv, in particular at transport hubs, and when using buses in the greater Tel Aviv area. You may wish to consider using other forms of transport." Commotion on Dizengoff Street during Friday's attack in Tel Aviv With regards to the general security situation in Israel, the British Foreign Office states that "there are ongoing violent incidents in Israel and the West Bank, including Tel Aviv, East Jerusalem and the Old City. There have been numerous stabbing, shooting, arson and stone throwing attacks on people and vehicles, as well as violent clashes between protestors and Israeli security forces. Theres a risk that tourists or bystanders could be caught up in any incident. You should be vigilant at all times. "There have been a number of violent incidents on public transport and near public transport lines in Jerusalem. You should avoid using buses in Jerusalem." Meanwhile the US Embassy in Tel Aviv issued a travel warning update to American citizens residing in Israel on December 30, warning against the possibility of a terrorist attack by "a lone attacker," but did not issue an updated warning following the Tel Aviv attack. The scene of Friday's attack in Tel Aviv (Photo Inbal Halmish) The US Embassy's website states that "the security situation can change day to day, depending on the political situation, recent events, and geographic area. A rise in political tensions and violence in Jerusalem and the West Bank has resulted in injuries to and deaths of US citizens. The Government of Israel and the Palestinian Authority both make considerable efforts to police major tourist attractions and ensure security in areas where foreigners frequently travel. Although these efforts to reduce the threat are not 100 percent effective, hundreds of thousands of US citizens safely visit Israel and the West Bank each year for study, tourism, and business." Sharp drop in tourism Israeli tour operators are trying to gauge the impact of the Tel Aviv attack on tourism, but noted that many countries around the world have issued warnings against terrorist attacks. Tour Operators Association director, Yossi Fattal, said: "The whole world is now in hysteria about terrorism, so we are just a small part of all this commotion. It is clear that this incident will not have a positive effect on tourism, but is still not clear how much of a negative effect it will have. In any case, we are currently preparing to welcome 150 travel agents and opinion leaders from abroad and hope in this manner to stop a decrease in tourism." Data on tourist arrivals to Israel in November show that the current terror significantly affected the influx of tourists to Israel from many European countries as compared to November 2013 (November 2014 was affected by Operation Protective Edge, making it a bad month to use for making comparisons). According to the data of the statistics department of the Ministry of Tourism, in November there was a drop of 58 percent in tourist arrivals from Italy, 45 percent from Finland, 36 percent from Germany, 59 percent from Russia, 24 percent from France and 18 percent from the Netherlands. Members of the Jewish "Revolt" terror group believe that the State of Israel has no right to exist and that there is no place for Arabs in the Jewish kingdom they will establish, so it is permissible to kill them. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter Several of the members of this group were indicted on Sunday morning for the murder of the Dawabsheh family, including 21-year-old Amiram Ben-Uliel and a 17-year-old Israeli-American teenager, as well as for other acts of violence perpetrated against Palestinians. The Shin Bet said Ben-Uliel admitted to planning and perpetrating the attack, and recounted it last month during a reconstruction of the crime. His version supported concealed evidence and other investigative details. Charred remains of the Dawabsheh family home (Photo: Mohammad Shinawi) The Shin Bet has arrested 23 members of the "Revolt" group since November 25, when the investigation into the arson in Duma became known. The group's hardcore element numbers at 30-40 people, most of whom are between the ages of 15-24, though there are some as young as 13. Most of the group's members reside in the Shiloh bloc and other areas in the Samaria region of the West Bank. They have come to the area from all over the country, and not just from the territories. The Shin Bet says there has been an increase in the number of youths who want to join the group in its actions since the Duma arson attack. According to the Shin Bet, the "Revolt" group's ideology started taking shape in October 2013. Since that time and until the Duma attack, its members committed 11 arson attacks against Palestinians or churches. Since the beginning of the investigation, some of the members of the group have been indicted. Many have received administrative orders barring them from entering the West Bank, Jerusalem, or other areas and the Shin Bet has conducted night-time raids to arrest suspects. In addition, several of the youth have been put under administrative house arrest and four of them were put under administrative detention. The Judea and Samaria District Police also established a special force to aid the IDF in its military operations. "Starting in October 2013, a new anti-Zionist ideology has begun taking shape among the hilltop youth, with the objective of changing the government 'that stops us from building the Temple, and prevents us from reaching the true redemption,'" the Shin Bet said. This ideology was formulated by veteran hilltop youth, including Rabbi Meir Kahane's grandson, Meir Ettinger, who is currently under administrative detention. A timeline of the development and activities of the "Revolt" group The "Revolt" group seeks to overthrow the democratic government and establish "Jewish rule" in the land of Israel. The Jewish state envisioned by the "Revolt" group is a monarchy that would include religious coercion and a king who would eradicate idol worship, build the third Temple and expel all gentiles. The Shin Bet seized manifestos detailing the "Revolt" group's ideology: The State of Israel has no right to exist, and we are therefore not bound by the rules of the game. Destroy everything first, and then rebuild. A king must be crowned after the overthrow of the government. Under the current foreign rule, we must set up cells in every settlement, hill, city and yeshiva, made of 3-5 members who decide to act. The cell can begin with small acts. There must be no contact between the cells. Don't tell, don't investigate, and don't make inquiries. There is no room for gentiles, particularly Arabs, to live inside the borders of the state, and if they do not leave here it is permissible to kill them indiscriminately - women, men and children. The blood of those who are not Jews will always be cheaper than the blood of Jews. These manifestos also detail how to commit terror attacks: "Simply break a glass door or window, pour gasoline inside or light a Molotov cocktail and throw it in however possible. Of course the first thing you do is spray (graffiti) after deciding on a home to target, so as to not delay the escape." The Shin Bet was unable to identify a set hierarchy within the "Revolt" group or terror cells organized by any higher authority. "There's no need for authorization, coordination and synchronization between the groups, and they hold their meetings all over the country, not just in Judea and Samaria. The people who came to set fire to a house with people inside knew they were not going to commit an arson attack or an attempted murder - they were there to commit murder," the Shin Bet said. The Shin Bet also said that in recent weeks, members of the group have been trying to find out where officials from the defense and legal system, who are involved in the investigation, live and where their children go to school, "in order to send a message." Palestinian home in Khirbat Adirat set on fire with 'revenge' sprayed on outside wall. "There are dozens of members who are still out there and could commit an attack even tonight, and that is why our operations continue," the Shin Bet said. "There's an intelligence difficulty in identifying people who leave their homes, march for 700 meters, and decide to commit an attack in a village using simple measures." "Some of these people have cut ties with their families, and are living a simple life in outposts, herding sheep and doing agricultural work. They learned how not to cooperate in interrogations and pray instead of cooperating," the Shin Bet added. The Shin Bet responded to claims that they have not invested sufficient effort in combating nationally-motivated crimes committed by Jews: "We don't drag our feet; we used all the tools at our disposal. The legal system doesn't always treat violations of administrative orders with enough severity, and the suspects are released over and over again. But now there's a process to rectify the legislation, which will allow the use of electronic bracelets inside the State of Israel." The agency also responded to claims about the lack of transparency in the investigation: "We appeared in court over 120 times since the end of November to present the materials and suspicions being examined, for supervision and approval. The claims of torture, such as sexual harassment or the use of a Procrustean bed, are false and baseless. We acted in our investigation out of the understanding that another attack will lead to further escalation in the security situation." The more we heard about Alon Bakal , may he rest in peace, and about his personality which moved us to tears, the stronger we became in coping with the loss of our personal safety in light of the intifada - sorry, the "wave of terror" which has been washing over our country for more than three months now. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter Alon, who was murdered Friday afternoon at the entrance to Simta pub on Tel Aviv's Dizengoff Street, represents the beautiful Israeli who was raised here. The Israeli who serves in the army, volunteers and is mainly tolerant towards the other. The Israeli who reinforces all the doubts in terms of our unity. Police Failures How did Tel Aviv shooter slip away? Yossi Yehoshua Analysis: The police and Shin Bet's performance during the first, critical moments after the Dizengoff Street shooting spree raises quite a few questions. How did Tel Aviv shooter slip away? Benjamin Netanyahu stood out Saturday evening, when he arrived at the scene of the shooting and chose that terrible place to verbally attack the Arab minority, cynically using the occasion to send ugly messages in every direction. Here are the facts - compared to Netanyahu's ugly generalizations: The murderer's father, an Arab from the town of Ar'ara who serves as a police volunteer, was the one who reported that he suspected his son was the terrorist. Netanyahu, on the other hand, made a general accusation that Israel's Arabs were in fact a "fifth column." What stopped Netanyahu in the past seven years, when he could have enforced the law among Israel's Arabs or collected the weapons in their possession? (Photo: Miriam Alster, Flash 90) The prime minister tried to adorn his words with determination: He promised to increase efforts to collect illegal weapons hidden in the Arab sector. "We wont have two states here," he declared. But what about the fact that the weapon in question was actually licensed? And what stopped Netanyahu in the past seven years, when he could have enforced the law among Israel's Arabs or collected the weapons in their possession? Why is he playing dumb? Hasnt he heard that Electric Corporation workers and other service providers avoid entering certain areas in the Arab sector where they fear for their lives? And like in other speeches, he used his family members this time too. On Saturday, he mentioned his two sons in connection with the two young men who died in the attack. He just forgot to mention that his sons walk around with bodyguards, even when they serve in the IDF. The loyalty of most Israeli Arabs and their desire to live in Israel are unquestionable, but Netanyahu keeps inciting. Just like he did on Election Day , when he looked straight into the camera and claimed, without blinking, that "the Arabs are heading to the polling stations in droves." Mr. Prime Minister, have you already forgotten that you were forced to apologize to Israel's Arabs for that miserable comment? All we can do is hope that the prime minister will soon apologize once again to the public he offended. He owes it not only to us, but to the late Alon Bakal, who wanted to live here in a different country, with a different set of values from Netanyahu's. Amiram Ben-Uliel, 21, from Jerusalem, was charged with the murder of the three members of the Dawabsheh family in Duma, and has confessed to the crime and recounted it to investigators. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter Ben-Uliel, married and a father of a baby girl, recently became more observant, and he and his wife are among the followers of Rabbi Eliezer Berland. Those who know him say he is a close friend of Meir Ettinger, the grandson of Rabbi Meir Kahane, who is considered one of the prominent figures in the "Revolt" group that is behind a series of Jewish terror attacks. Amiram Ben-Uliel "The investigation here has not been simple, and it is my understanding that the confessions he made were inadmissible," said a former employer of Ben-Uliel. "This is a man who works with his hands, who loves the settlements and the land of Israel. He didn't give me the impression of someone who can commit actions like this." He was caught in the past violating an administrative order barring him from entering the West Bank, and claimed at the time that he does not heed the orders of the Zionist court. He was also charged with hindering a public official in the line of duty when he confronted with IDF officers during an evacuation of one of the outposts in the Shiloh area. Palestinian TV airs clip of what is believed to be Ben-Uliel recounting the murder at the scene X Ben-Uliel used to live in the outpost of Geulat Zion. He is known among the "hilltop youth" after spending time in te outposts of Adei Ad, Esh Kodesh and Kida - all in the Shiloh area. He made a living doing odd construction works. Shortly before his arrest over the Duma arson, Ben-Uliel moved from the West Bank to Jerusalem with his wife and daughter, and started attending a yeshiva, where he became even more observant. Ben-Uliel's wife, Oriyan, has also taken part in "price tag" activity in the past. She was charged with committing a "price tag" attack with another woman at the village of Al-Lubban ash-Sharqiya, including vandalizing Palestinian property and spraying graffiti writings. Ben-Uliel's wife Oriyan (Photo: Shaul Golan) Ben-Uliel's wife, Oriyan, said on Sunday that her husband "went through serious and very grave torture, during which they extracted confessions out of him of things he did not do. I saw how they beat him mercilessly right in front of me, and confiscated cameras so there wouldn't be any proof." "He felt like he was about to die, they were simply without mercy, while he was screaming they beat him and kept on beating him," she continued. "This confession is not worth anything because he didn't do it. I know he was home that night. This entire story is lies and political persecution," Oriyan concluded. Ben-Uliel parents live in the settlement of Karmei Tzur in Gush Etzion, and have not spoken to him since his arrest. His father Reuven is a rabbi at a yeshiva in Karmei Tzur. In a statement they made on Sunday, his parents said they were "shocked and outraged by the suspicions attributed to our beloved son." "We believe in our son's innocence, which will come to light at court, and hope that the court is exposed to the serious torture he underwent during the weeks of his interrogation," the parents said. "The indictment is not the final word on this, but the opening of a Pandora's box by the Shin Bet," said Itamar Ben-Gvir, who represents Ben-Uliel. "I suggest the Shin Bet not to start celebrating too quickly - the Bus 300 affair, the Amos Baranes affair and even the Bar-Noar shooting teach us that there are cases in which the system does everything it can to prove it solved the crime even at the cost of incriminating innocents." BERLIN - We met on Wednesday in a cafe in Berlin, near the Brandenburg Gate, where preparations were underway for the fireworks display on New Year's Eve. I can't reveal his real name, so in this story I will call him "Robert." He's a former senior official in the American intelligence community, and during his service he was exposed to highly classified material concerning Israel the kind that originated from the deep intelligence cooperation between the intelligence agencies of both countries, and the kind that the United States obtained without Israel's knowledge by using advanced spying measures. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter I've known Robert for a few years, since he retired from his job, and have interviewed him for a new book on the history of the Mossad. In several of our meetings he hinted that the United States knows much more about Israel than we think it does, but refused to elaborate further. In our meeting this week, he finally agreed to get into the details. "Throughout the years we've been wondering about what we perceived to be a kind of Israeli naivete, or a certain kind of complacency, when discussing highly classified secrets on encrypted communication systems," Robert says. "After all, the ISNU (Israeli Sigint National Unit, the nickname given to IDF Intelligence Unit 8200 by the American intelligence community - RB) managed to break so many measures considered safe by your enemies, that you should know that anything could be decrypted. You're a lot more vulnerable and transparent than you think." Prime Minister Netanyahu has a 'Red Phone' in his office (Photo: Moshe Milner, GPO) Several hours before our meeting, which was originally scheduled to discuss another issue, the Wall Street Journal published an investigative report about American spying against Israel, and mostly against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his top aides. The report describes the American spying capabilities as much deeper and more comprehensive than Israel knew, including the ability to operate eavesdropping devices or interception (it is unclear whether a physical device or sophisticated computer spyware were used) inside the internal communications system that the prime minister also uses. Following the report's publication, Robert agreed to broach the subject. The reason for that, beyond the fact that the information he had kept from me until that point had now been revealed by the newspaper, was his desire to warn against the disastrous consequences of the strained relationship between the leaders of the two nations. "In the United States, the mindset coming from the Commander in Chief projects onto the soldiers, down to the most junior among them. Obama despises Netanyahu, and that affects the entire system," Robert, who cares much about Israel, says with pain. According to him, "After the Snowden affair (the revelation that the NSA eavesdropped on Western leaders - RB), President Obama ordered to stop spying on leaders that the United States views as close and friendly allies (Robert gestures at the Chancellery building by the river). But he ordered to continue, all the more forcefully, spying on several leaders, primarily Netanyahu. We all understood what that order meant: Obama doesn't view Netanyahu as a friendly leader." Obama, right, does not view Netanyahu, left, as a friendly leader (Photo: EPA) Netanyahu, it's important to note, did not wait for the report in the American media. Over the past few years he has been repeatedly telling his aides that the US is making great efforts to spy on him. He even instructed information security personnel at the Shin Bet (Israel's General Security Agency RB) and the Director of Security of the Defense Ministry (MALMAB) to take measures that, at times, were perceived as extreme, to the point of paranoia. For example, Netanyahu ordered to get rid of the signs declaring on a parking spot reserved to the prime minister at any outdoors location he arrives at (for example, a classified military drill), claiming that American satellites could read the signs, telling Washington something important was happening there. He also ordered during classified meetings not only that cellular phones be switched off and electricity devices be unplugged (like televisions), but also that all data networks in the building be taken offline. These measures might have been too extreme, but at least based on what Robert says, Netanyahu's suspicions were justified - the Americans are making huge efforts to spy on him "a lot more than against any other Israeli leader ever." "A big part of the efforts during Netanyahu's first years in office were dedicated to two things: The illegal settlements in the territories, and the preparations for a possible Israeli strike on Iran," Robert explains. Later on the Americans realized most of the information about the settlements can be obtained from public sources. By the end of 2012, he says, American intelligence officials reached the conclusion that the threat of an Israeli strike against Iran had been lifted, at least temporarily. However, shortly thereafter, in early 2013, the US entered secret talks with Iran, and American intelligence significantly increased its efforts to discover what Israel knew of these negotiations. The United States hid the fact that the talks in Muscat, Oman were talking place, and when the Mossad caught wind of the talks and told Netanyahu about them, he responded with anger. Later, when the public talks between world powers and Iran began, Netanyahu, who thought the deal being discussed was "a very bad deal," launched a massive campaign in an attempt to thwart the agreement. "The CIA and the NSA received commanders' orders (meaning from Obama - RB) to view Netanyahu's aggressive measures against the diplomatic dialogue with Iran as a threat on vital national security interests of the United States, and act accordingly," Robert says. "This is an extreme situation, difficult, unprecedented in the relationship between the two countries, the kind of which I can't remember since I was a young intelligence agent during the (June 1982) Israeli invasion of Lebanon and the heightened hostility between the defense minister at the time, Ariel Sharon, and the Reagan administration. However, if you measure the amount of intelligence measures the United States is using against Israel, then the situation today is much graver." Picnic by the Dimona reactor American spying on Israel did not begin when Netanyahu was elected prime minister. Inside the massive complex of the United States Embassy in Tel Aviv, a large CIA station has been operating for many years. The head of the station is normally a very senior official in the agency, which is a testament to how important the agency's headquarters at Langley, Virginia consider this job. In addition, the embassy is home to a large representation of the FBI, the Pentagon and the American military, with all of its different branches. In the mid-60s, an NSA station was also set up at the Tel Aviv embassy. This agency, which is responsible for eavesdropping and intercepting communications, started developing a comprehensive and productive collaboration with Unit 8200. At the same time, the embassy spied on Israel. A vast forest of antennas was erected on the roof of the American Embassy in Tel Aviv, some of them out in the open and some covered, so Israel would not be able to figure out their purpose and the direction in which they are pointed. Two of the building's floors are dedicated exclusively to intelligence operations. The entrances and exits to these floors are heavily guarded 24/7 by Marines and closed-circuit security cameras. The Marines themselves are not allowed into the closed-off area, only intelligence operatives can enter. A forest of antennas and satellite dishes on the roof of the American Embassy in Tel Aviv (Photo: Meir Partush) This area is built of an alloy of concrete, steel, and other materials that create a structure that is impenetrable to eavesdropping, even with lasers that can penetrate windows. With the computers and experts in the building, alongside their colleagues in Washington, Robert says, "we were able to infiltrate much of Israel's communication systems." The Americans wanted, and still want, to know about Israeli plans - both military and diplomatic - that could change the face of the Middle East, and that Israel doesn't officially share with them. They also really want to know about the defense establishment's military and technological capabilities. They're not really interested in stealing sensitive technologies. They're more interested in the way such systems, or weapons with apocalyptic capabilities, might change the situation in the world. These things were particularly important during the Cold War, when any conflagration in the region could've led to a third world war. So, for example, the US and Russia believed that Israel raised its level of nuclear readiness in the wake of Syria and Egypt's surprise attack in October 1973, which significantly increased the tensions between the two world powers. At a later stage of the Yom Kippur War, Israel believed the Russians had deployed nuclear missiles on the Nile Delta, and prepared to respond to that. This raised the tensions further, and put the United States at its highest level of nuclear readiness (other than during the Cuban missile crisis). One of the central topics of interest for American intelligence throughout the years has been to know what is happening at the Dimona reactor. The late John Hadden, who served as the head of the CIA station in Israel in the 60s, revealed to me in an interview about a decade ago that he dedicated a considerable part of his time to trying to ascertain whether Israel was attempting to build a nuclear bomb. He told me that Israel's Military Intelligence Maj.-Gen. Shlomo Gazit summoned him to rebuke him for the fact that he, Hadden, was spying on the State of Israel, telling him that he shouldn't think the Shin Bet hadn't noticed. "Our basic assumption was that in every movement we made outside the embassy building, your Shin Bet was sitting on our tails," Hadden told me. "They were very professional and took great pains not to be discovered." The Dimona reactor (Photo: Getty ImageBank) Hadden's son, John Junior, is about to release his book "Conversations with a Masked Man" next month. In this book (and also in a conversation with Israeli nuclear researcher Prof. Avner Cohen), John Jr. tells of how his father used to take him and the rest of the family for a "picnic" in southern Israel, where they would collect dirt samples from different spots as part of a "game to get to know the area" that his father invented. Except that it was all a cover story: The samples were sent to the United States and analyzed by American nuclear experts. Hadden and his people were detained by the Israeli police several times over these spy games. Israel was very sensitive about the Americans spying on Dimona. "We all were and still are convinced that the Liberty affair (on the third day of the Six-Day War, Israel sunk the Liberty, an American intelligence ship. 34 crew members were killed and 171 were wounded - RB) was not a mistake, but an intentional sinking meant to signal to the United States to stop spying on Israel," Robert claims. Another point of interest for the US in the 70s and 80s was the special relations between Israel and South Africa. And, indeed, classified CIA documents accused Israel of conducting joint research with the apartheid regime on a series of weapons systems, advanced missiles of different kinds, and nuclear development. But there was one incident that led to a dramatic increase in the amount of resources the US dedicates to spying on Israel. "The strike on the Iraqi reactor in 1981 - which we heard about only when Ambassador Sam Lewis was summoned to (Prime Minister Menachem) Begin's office, where he was told of the operation - was perceived as a grave failure of American intelligence," Robert says. "I even heard that there was a special team formed to investigate how it was possible that the Israeli Air Force, Military Intelligence, the Mossad, and a big part of the political system, are working on something of that magnitude, and we don't know anything about it and are caught so off-guard." Following the attack on the reactor in Iraq, Robert says, the NSA launched intense efforts to infiltrate Israel's classified communication systems, "and primarily the Air Force's communications systems, which I believe were nicknamed 'Rigo' at the time, which were later adopted by the rest of the IDF." In fact, Robert is referring to the 'Trigo' communications system, which is a part of an advanced and encrypted communications apparatus that was developed by the Air Force after the 1967 Six-Day War. Later, these communications systems were adopted by the entire IDF and were nicknamed "Precious Stone," which is what many soldiers throughout the last decade called "The Red Phones," because the color of their receivers was red. The mysterious agent 'Mega' The United States first reaped the benefits of cracking those communication systems during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982. On June 17, some two weeks after the beginning of the war, the US strongly protested to Israel against IDF chief Rafael Eitan's order to bomb a certain area of Beirut. Since the bombing hadn't actually happened, the Israelis concluded that the Americans managed to intercept an encrypted "Red Phone" call between Eitan and the GOC Northern Command Amir Drori. "The fact that they (the White House and State Department) decided at the time to take part of the information - we had much more than that - and share it with Israel, meaning endangering the secret that we know, shows how strained the relationship between the two sides was," Robert says. It was clear to the NSA that Israel suspected some of the encryptions were cracked, but the Israelis, Robert says, kept talking freely. "All of these years you've been fighting enemies that were not good at developing advanced technological and SIGINT (Signal Intelligence) measures, and that's why you've become, in many ways, spoiled and complacent. Beyond that, you could've assumed, and rightly so, that the United States was a friend of Israel and would not make bad use of the information apart from instances in which it was against American interests. In the many meetings I had with Israeli intelligence officials, I was astonished many times when I got from them, during casual conversation, information that we made great efforts to obtain using exotic electronic measures." Many of the documents in the ocean of files leaked by former NSA and CIA employee Edward Snowden, of which only a few were published, detail the deep cooperation between Unit 8200 and the NSA. In these periodic meetings, some of which Robert attended, the division of labor between the two intelligence agencies was discussed. Former NSA and CIA employee Edward Snowden (Photo: AP) As part of the cooperation between the two states, NSA satellite dishes were placed near Jerusalem, an area proven strategically important to catch broadcasts, in order to intercept communications from different places in the world and transfer them directly to the agency's headquarters in Maryland. The two agencies, according to the Wall Street Journal, have divided the Middle East and its main targets between them, and the information was being uploaded to a shared database. On the other hand, American intelligence agencies were very much burned by the Pollard affair and invested a lot of effort into the search for any additional spies. These efforts mostly failed to lead to indictments (except for Larry Franklin, who was kicked out of his Pentagon job after it was claimed he leaked documents about Iran to AIPAC, although his sentence was eventually mitigated), but they led to a series of information leaks that could not have been obtained in any other way than by spying. In May 1997, for example, the Washington Post made a lot of noise with a report of what at first appeared to be another Israeli spying affair. According to that report, the NSA picked up a phone call from the head of the Mossad's TEVEL division (responsible for maintaining ties with foreign intelligence agencies) in Washington to the Tel Aviv headquarters, in which he talks about using 'Mega' in order to obtain a letter from then-US Secretary of State Warren Christopher to Arafat. The Americans were furious. They thought 'Mega' was the code-name of a new agent that had infiltrated the US administration. Except that the entire story was completely farfetched. The NSA translator simple misunderstood what Y., the head of the division, said - "Helga" and not "Mega." Helga is the Mossad's nickname for the CIA. Meaning, he was talking about an official request to American intelligence to receive the letter. In another instance, a routine Shin Bet detail discovered communications made between a major in the IDF, who was serving in the Air Force, and one of the American Embassy's intelligence agents. That major, who was an agent for the Americans for several years, strayed from the communication guidelines he was given, and was caught. In this affair, to which there is more than meets the eye, the IDF officer was put on trial under a cloak of secrecy. He was sentenced to a long jail term, but was pardoned several years later and has been keeping a very low profile ever since. Spying on the defense minister "Desert Storm (the Gulf War) was a great opportunity for us to study the Israeli communication systems," Robert says with a smile. Israel, which at the time did not yet have reconnaissance satellites, needed the American satellites to receive warnings of Scud missiles being launched from Iraq. Prime Minister Shamir reached an agreement with President (George H. W.) Bush to set up a direct line of data connecting our spy satellites' command and control center with the United States Embassy and with the subterranean IDF bunker. This communications system was indeed set up, but in the process of setting it up, and in the month it was active, we received important insights into Israel's command and control center in a way that would later help us to infiltrate them." The September 11 attacks put the United States into war mode. On the instructions of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the American intelligence was given a series of processing and data mining systems developed by the Shin Bet, which even won The Israel Defense Prize, the highest decoration in the field. Thanks to these systems, which could place a very large amount of data gathered from different sources on one intelligence map, Israel's intelligence community was able to defeat an enemy considered unbeatable - suicide bombers. The Americans took these methods and developed them further with an investment of billions of dollars. Michael Hayden, who was the head of the NSA and later the CIA in the last decade, in a conversation with me defined the cooperation between the US and some of its allies worldwide, including Israel: "Here is what we bring: We're big, we're rich, we're technologically advanced and we're global. What do our partners bring? They're small, focused and culturally and linguistically smart and relevant to the targets." This cooperation allowed for advanced intelligence infiltration of common enemies like Iran and terror organizations, but it also led to serious disputes. Israel shared with the US the information it had on the Syrian reactor that was being built in Deir ez-Zor, but the prime minister at the time, Ehud Olmert, was not able to convince President George W. Bush to bomb the reactor. Then-prime minister Olmert, right, could not convince then-US president Bush to bomb the Syrian reactor (Photo: Avi Ohayon, GPO) Israel tried to hide from the United States its decision to bomb the Syrian reactor, and extreme information security measures were taken, including barring the communication of critical information via electronic measures. Robert says these efforts were only partially successful. "Before the attack, we saw a very significant spike in the activity of some intelligence and Air Force officials. Because of our past dialogue on the Syrian reactor, we assumed that was what this was about, but we didn't know about the exact date," he says. Nonetheless, Robert says that the Americans did notice that the Israeli side was put on a high level of alert. There were internal reports in Israel that President Bashar Assad put his Scud C batteries on alert, and might have even armed them with chemical weapons. The assassination of Syrian general Muhammad Suleiman in Tartus in August 2008, which was attributed by Syrian intelligence and some media reports to Israeli Naval commandos (Flotilla 13) and the Mossad, was also done under the watchful eye of the US. Robert reveals the American Navys intelligence unit and the NSA identified activity of the Israeli Navy and of "a special force of naval commandos" along the Syrian shoreline, and immediately connected this activity with the assassination and with information that came in at the same time from sources in Syria. This comment by Robert is very significant, as it shows that even highly classified IDF tactical operations, if such an operation indeed occurred, are exposed to US intelligence. But most of the American spying efforts against Israel over the past decade were focused on one thing: Iran. Shortly after being appointed defense minister, Ehud Barak instructed the IDF to start seriously examining the possibility of attacking Iran's nuclear facility. At the same time, and not by coincidence, the Shin Bet discovered that the United States Embassy rented an apartment with a view of Barak's apartment at the Akirov Towers on Pinkas Street in Tel Aviv. The excuse for the renting that apartment was that it was for a Marine securing the embassy. But a Shin Bet detail that was stationed near the apartment noticed unusual electronic equipment being brought into that apartment. The Israelis estimated that the apartment was fitted with highly advanced electronic equipment to eavesdrop on the defense minister's conversations, including a "laser microphone." This device shoots a laser beam towards an object in the room the person being spied on is in, normally a smooth surface like a framed picture or a window, and when the beam "bounces" back, it's affected by the sound vibrations caused to the object from the voice of that person. The device can catch the beam and "understand" in what way it was affected by the sound vibrations. A state-of-the-art computer converts these changes to audio. Then-defense minister Ehud Barak with then-Maj.-Gen. Gadi Eisenkot (Photo: Ariel Hermoni, Defense Ministry) Barak used to hold meetings with different security officials in his apartment in the evening hours and during the weekends. The apartment had both regular phones and encrypted "red phones." The Shin Bet and the Information Security Department of IDF Intelligence took different measures to prevent eavesdropping on what was being said in the room, including closing the blinds every time there was a phone call or a meeting on security issues, as well as installing a system to disrupt the catching of the laser beam that bounces off the window. "We were sure the Americans were listening and it became a routine practice at his home," says an intelligence official who used to come to the defense minister's apartment to brief him on classified information. It would appear the Americans weren't able to get much from the laser microphone, but at the same time, and in light of the threat of an Israeli strike, they increased their spying efforts against Israel exponentially. A highly classified document Snowden took with him (parts of which were published by Der Spiegel correspondents Holger Stark and Marcel Rosenbach), includes a list of priorities for the NSA (NIFP) from 2010, meaning: The instructions the heads of the agency received from the American president on whom to spy on and on what topics to focus. Israel can be found high up on the list of spying targets, and in some of the categories it is no less important than states like Iran or North Korea. The secret British base The Snowden documents that were published reveal American spying of an incomprehensible amount of entities and institutions, including Israeli targets, by monitoring their e-mail accounts. This activity, which received the code names of Broadoak or Carboy, was mostly conducted at a secret eavesdropping based shared by the NSA and the GCHQ (the British version of the NSA) on the coast of the Atlantic ocean, some 300 km west of London. The documents show that the US spied on the e-mails of the Israeli Prime Minister's Office, the defense minister's office and several Israeli embassies across the world. As part of their cooperation, the two intelligence agencies - the American and the British - were able to hack into the international roaming system in order to intercept text messages and calls from smartphones that were outside their country of origin. Robert says that the NSA used this ability to monitor the phone conversations of Israeli officials in order to "try and understand whether Israel was about to unilaterally attack Iran's nuclear facilities." Iran's nuclear reactor in Bushehr (Photo: AFP) Snowden's leaking of these documents caused great embarrassment to American intelligence and to the White House. President Obama announced that he will from now on limit the NSA's activity against American citizens and friendly heads of states. But the efforts against Israel were not limited quite the opposite. Most of the efforts, Robert says, were aimed at Netanyahu and his aides on one topic: "What do they know about the negotiations with Iran, and how do they intend to disrupt it, among other things through the (AIPAC) Israeli lobby's activity in the US and by approaching American officials," The Wall Street Journal reported that these activities reached a problematic point when conversations with American citizens were eavesdropped on (AIPAC officials, Congressmen, government officials) - a controversial issue in the US from a legal standpoint. The White House, the WSJ's report stated, asked the NSA to pass on only what "you decide to deliver." But even if not all of the material was passed on, Robert says, it doesn't matter. The problem was of a fundamental nature: "The order to use this kind of spying power against Israel, even after Snowden's leaks and the knowledge that continuing this kind of activity includes a significant political risk, illustrates just how the White House regards the Israeli government. This is not how you treat friends. This is how you spy against enemies." The United States and its allies conducted 26 strikes against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria on Saturday, the coalition leading the operations said in a statement on Sunday. In Syria, one strike struck near Manbij, hitting an Islamic State tactical unit and destroying four Islamic State buildings and a vehicle, the Combined Joint Task Force said on Sunday. The coalition also struck targets near Deir al Zor, Ayn Isa, and Washiyah. The coalition said it used fighter, attack, bomber, and remotely piloted aircraft against Islamic State targets in the region. The Israeli government unanimously approved the appointment of current Cabinet Secretary Avichai Mandelblit to Attorney General in a Sunday afternoon vote. Mandelblit had served as IDF Advocate General in the past, holding a rank of Major General. Minister Yoav Galant (Kulanu) was absent from the vote. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter Mandelblit was chosen as the sole candidate for the AG position by a special committee gathered by Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked. Former Chief Justice of the Israeli Supreme Court Asher Grunis was the only committee member to vote against Mandelblit's candidacy. Avichai Mandelblit. Unanimously approved by the government. (Photo: Mark Israel Salem) Minister Shaked explained the committee's work process Sunday morning. She addressed different questions relating to his sole candidacy, saying that the committee was supposed to pick three candidates with four-vote majorities each, but such a majority was only available for the proposed candidate Mandelblit. As for the candidate's alleged involvement in the Harpaz affair (an alleged military corruption case which involved high-ranking IDF officers, including then-outgoing Chief of General Staff Gabi Ashkenazi), Minister Shaked said that the committee's confidence in naming Mandelblit as a candidate indicates that its members do not see the affair as an obstacle for his appointment. Minister of Justice Shaked. (Photo: EPA) In addition, Shaked said that current AG Yehuda Weinstein had no official comments regarding the committee's decision, meaning that he does not see a reason to oppose it, and indicating that he will be prepared to defend the appointment against challenges in the courts. Regarding the demand by some that Mandelblit go through a cooling-off period between his different government roles, Minister Shaked said: "Lacking a normative source that requires a cooling-off period, there is no interest or point in disqualifying the appointment." She mentioned that most of the committee members were also of the opinion that it should not prevent the appointment. Thousands of mourners gathered in Carmiel, Ofakim and Lod on Sunday afternoon to lay to rest Alon Bakal and Shimon Ruimi, who were murdered in a shooting attack in Tel Aviv last Friday, and Amin Shaban, who was murdered in his taxi about an hour after the shooting. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter Around 2,000 people showed up to the cemetery in Carmiel, where Alon Bakal's funeral took place. Alon Bakal's mother, Nitzah, at her son's funeral (Photo: EPA) "We are left here in pieces and you are up there with your great spirit. We love you forever," Bakal's mother said. "I will never be able to bear this pain." "Alon, dear and beloved son. How can you write a goodbye letter to your son who hasn't even turned 27?" Bakal's father added. "Everyone knew you would go far. After your first class in college the lecturer said that you would be a success. You loved people and your country." Alon Bakal, murdered in a shooting attack in Tel Aviv Bakal's girlfriend, Lior, said: "My Alon, my love. How can I write to my best friend, who knew how I felt? So I'm not parting from you. You are with me all the way. "I feared for you during Operation Protective Edge. I didn't want you to go to the reserves and I worried. Who could have believed that I would lose you months afterwards in a pub in the middle of Tel Aviv?" Lior continued. 'Shimon, you got through a war and succumbed to a bullet' In Ofakim, 2,000 people attended the funeral of Shimon Ruimi, also killed in the terror attack on Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv. Mourners at the funeral of Shimon Ruimi, who was murdered in a shooting attack in Tel Aviv (Photo: Hertzl Yosef) Ruimi's aunt, Mor Peretz, said: "We are standing here today and instead of celebrating your birthday, we are burying you. This is not how life should go, with parents burying their son. "You have become everyone's child," Peretz continued. "The rain that has fallen over the last few days shows how much heaven is weeping over you. Shimon Ruimi, murdered in a terror attack in Tel Aviv "You got through Gaza, got through a war, but you couldn't survive a bullet of hate. The same bullet that pierced your heart pierced everyone else's heart too," Peretz said. Ofakim Mayor Itzik Danino said: "Our beloved Ruimi family, the hearts of Ofakim and of the people of Israel are weeping with you at this time, over the murder of your dear son Shimon." Funeral in Lod: 'There are a lot of rumors' Hundreds of family members and friends of Amin Shaban, the taxi driver murdered in north Tel Aviv on Friday afternoon, gathered in Lod on Sunday afternoon to lay him to rest. Shaban was killed shortly after the shooting attack on Dizengoff Street, and his body was found close to the Mandarin Hotel. "He was murdered in cold blood. If he had known there was a terrorist in the taxi he would have fought him," said one of Shaban's friends. Shaban leaves behind 11 children and three wives. The funeral procession for Amin Shaban, who was murdered in north Tel Aviv on Friday (Photo: AFP) Uncertainty remains around the reasons for Shaban's murder. "We still don't know whether Amin's murder is connected to the attack," said Ibrahim, one of Shaban's family members. "There are a lot of rumors and the family is not being updated. There is still an attempt to see if the background is criminal, and that's bizarre because there's no chance. Amin Shaban, who was murdered in Tel Aviv on Friday "Amin didn't have any enemies. Everyone liked him, he got on with everyone, and he only wanted to support his family," Ibrahim continued. The manhunt for Nashat Melhem , the suspect in the shooting attack, continued on Sunday, two days after the deadly incident. Security forces were patrolling the city in large numbers, focusing search efforts on north Tel Aviv, where Melhem was last seen and where he is believed to still be hiding since the attack on Friday. They are still waiting for the terrorist to make a mistake, or for a "golden tip" that would lead them to him. The European Union's foreign policy chief warned Iran's foreign minister on Sunday that renewed tension between Shi'ite Iran and Saudi Arabia's Sunni monarchy could wreck efforts to find a political solution for the crisis in Syria. Federica Mogherini said in a statement that she had spoken by telephone with Iran's foreign minister, Javad Zarif, at length on Sunday morning after violence erupted in Iran following Saudi Arabia's execution of a Shi'ite cleric. Mogherini said she and Zarif had agreed that no effort should be spared by all parties to keep the situation under control and to prevent sectarian tensions from escalating. The Tel Aviv District Police has opened an investigation in order to find out the circumstances by which a flag identifying with the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) terrorist organization was found in a penthouse on Recanati Street in northern Tel Aviv. Another Islamic flag was found as well. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter Neighbors called police to the building and filed a complaint. A maintenance person who was working on the building's heating system saw the flags when he went up to its roof. The flags. The family is abroad, the building is in renovation. According to a local maintenance man, the building is going through renovations, and scaffolding is being used. That scaffolding apparently enables people to reach a private rooftop balcony, belonging to tenants who have been staying abroad lately. One of the neighbors contacted the maintenance man, and he opened the door for the police. The atmosphere in the Tel Aviv area following the Friday shooting attack has been tense. Police continue to search for the man suspected of perpetrating the attack, 29 year-old Nashat Melhem from Ar'ara. Many Tel Aviv parents did not send their children to school on the Sunday after the attacks (Sunday is the first school day of the week in Israel), with only 50 percent attendance in north Tel Aviv schools, 70 percent in the center, and 90 percent in south Tel Aviv. The building in which the flags were found. The attack occurred on Friday, at about 3pm. The suspect came to Dizengoff Street, and was filmed preparing for the attack by the security cameras at an organic food store. He then proceeded to exit the store, take out a machine gun, and fire into the nearby Simta pub. After discharging several dozen rounds, he ran away. Alon Bakal, 26, and Shimon Ruimi, 30, were murdered in the attack. About an hour later, the body of Ayman Shaaban, a 42-year-old cab driver, was found in north Tel Aviv. Both cases are under a gag order. A short time after the attacks were reported in the press, the suspect's father identified him in security camera footage, which was broadcast on Israeli television. He then reported it to the police. Ever since, security forces have been conducting a manhunt for Melhem. For the past few days, the IDF has been performing controlled bombings in the Lebanese border region. These include artillery fire into open areas, and are meant to prevent Hezbollah from exploiting the stormy weather Israel has been experiencing lately in order to execute attacks aimed at avenging Samir Kuntar , a senior Hezbollah member who was recently assassinated. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has publically accused Israel of being responsible for killing Kuntar. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter Nasrallah continues to threaten Israel, saying in a Sunday speech that "The power of Samir al-Kuntar's blood still forces the soldiers and officers of the enemy to hide in burrows all along the border. They wait and we wait. They are afraid. Now the rain has come and put an even heavier load on them. They are trapped even more in their burrows, but we are waiting too, and Allah loves those who wait." He added that "it's important that they understand that the murder of our brothers and shedding of our blood will not pass by easily, and the Israelis should be fearful and hide." Nasrallah ended by saying, "The response is coming, it Allah wills it." Samir Kuntar's funeral. IDF concerned over possible revenge attempts. This was the third time Nasrallah threatened to avenge the Kuntar assassination. He warned Israel in similar fashion during Kuntar's memorial that happened a week after his death. IDF Chief of General Staff Gadi Eizenkot warned Hezbollah last week, saying: "Our soldiers stand in the face of murderous terrorism every day with courage and determination. Beyond our borders as well, in the face of the threats from the north, we are prepared for any challenge. "As we proved in the past, we will be able to strike at anyone who wishes to hurt us. Our enemies know that if they attempt to shake Israel's security they will bear the severe consequences." Hassan Nasrallah. Warned Israel again. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last week, in a hinted message following Nasrallah's threats to avenge Kuntar's death, that "We are working against those who work against us, and all of our enemies should know that we will respond aggressively to any attack on us." Sign up to get the latest news delivered to your inbox every week! There might be some good news lurking round the corner for Samsung Galaxy lovers. After the smashing success of the Samsung Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge, which were released as New Year gifts in 2015, the company's spokespersons have announced the release of this advanced version sometime in Jan. this year. The S series stands for ''Super Smart'' and the marketing team of Galaxy S7 expects this phone to smash all the records of their previous releases. The company is expecting to capture the market share with the sleek features of this new phone which has already created a buzz in the tech world. With the Galaxy S6 hitting the UK market at 599, Galaxy S7 is speculated to be launched at 649. Have a look at the features of this phone which will be enhanced from the previous versions. Advertisement Processor and Memory storage The company has not yet released information about whether the Galaxy S7 will use one of Samsung's own processors or move back to Qualcomm. We saw the usage of Samsung's own brand Exynos chip in the Galaxy S6 models, however the usage of the Snapdragon range is also on the cards. According to Sammobile, Snapdragon 820 is being tested to be used in Galaxy S7. Sleek Design The combination of metal and glass will give it a sleek design and the posh look will make the buyer feel that it was worth the price. As per the Korean site Kbench, Samsung has filed for a trademark request for a new type of protective glass. This glass is expected to be stronger than the existing gorilla glass which is used in the Samsung S6. The tech gurus have speculated that this new type of glass named as 'turtle glass' with strong magnesium based alloy will be lighter and scratch resistant. The head of Samsung Mobile JK Shin said, "We have to use the best engines to make our products competitive, which is why we opted to use our own chips.'' USB port Whether Samsung will use a Micro-USB port or the expected reversible USB Type-C is yet to be decided. The market rumour is, Samsung might continue with the Micro-USB port. Dog Poet Transmitting. (Greetings. We are back much earlier than expected. That said let us continue on with whatever it is that we do here.) Happy New Year, dear reader! Let us hope that in the compelling uncertainty of these times that we can be compelled toward a certitude of unwavering purpose. I always like to remind myself that in times of pervasive darkness, it is simple physics that the light concentrates somewhere or various somewheres and the most overlooked of locations is within. One is either distracted by their surroundings and things at a remove from the sensory bandwidth, via the undisciplined activities of the imagination, or provoked by unreasonable fears through the tambourine and tympani action of the dark side percussion section of the Satanic Symphony, which is center stage these days. In times of materialism the visible conductor is always drawn from the infernal regions. The real conductor, who is invisible, is the one who pulls the strings on the visible conductor and not the other way around. This is something that most people, brainwashed by myth and legend or religion dont get and if it isnt the government that lied to them, its the church and if it isnt the church, its the educational system and if it isnt the educational system, its the marketplace and if it isnt the marketplace, its their parents, who either began the process of deception or stood by and let it happen. However deranged and depraved the deceived may become, in this landscape of deception, we should be awash in waves of fulsome gratitude that we are not numbered among them. There are things far worse than poverty, misfortune and death. In times of summing up, there are resolutions and results taking place that involve larger segments of time and that is meant to say; time already passed and time yet to come. New Year is, or is supposed to be, a time of reflection and aspiration. It is a time to look back on what has passed and a time to look ahead, with the benefit of all that hindsight can bring before the minds eye. Still New Years Day, is to me, an even greater reach upon that meme of going to church on Sunday. It reminds me of the lyrics to that song; One day of prayin' and six nights of fun. The odds against going to heaven, six-to-one. Many amazing feats have been accomplished by those who made a particular awareness the centerpiece of their existence and that includes those who are sometimes considered to have been evil, like Rasputin, though we do not know that Rasputin was, per se, evil. Our ideas of good and evil are more often something injected into us, rather than the fruits of a reasoned consideration. Much that is called evil, I do not consider to be evil at all and the same goes for conventional ideas about good. A part of me wants to say that good and evil can kiss my ass but that might be offensive for some to hear and it might not be precisely what I mean either. In any case, Rasputin came from a particular fellowship that practiced a version of, praying without ceasing. There are a lot of ways to approach this kind of an existence and the methods employed may vary but they all require a persistence of consistency and focus and whether you believe as one practitioner said; All magic is in the will. Or concentration is the secret of the magical art. Or, the particulars of what Patanjali had to say or this or that or that too they all are directly relevant to degrees of intensity in the practice of uniform consistency. A mountain is not going to be mistaken for a river or the other way around but they are both marvels of consistency, even when a river bends a hundred different ways, it is still consistent at it. The day will come when neither that mountain or that river will be there but it will take a very long, long time for that to happen. Make of all of this what you will. Even though quotes were used that involved the word magic, we are not talking about magic, those were simply examples of what is necessary to the successful performance of it. The same is necessary for most things and any successful person will tell you so and even if it looks like it just got dropped into their lap. This is not what happened. They did the necessary work somewhere else. As has been said here before. I consider myself an investment banker who represents an unconventional bank. As above, so below There are all kinds of currency. Thought is currency, feeling is currency. Effort is currency. Some is short term and some is long term and some is way up around the corner and over the mountain and through the woods term. Its never a good thing to measure your investments on the yardstick of time, unless that is the only place you are ever likely to see the desired result. Such things interest me only incidentally and if you havent invested some large amount in your hair, you wont grieve at its passing. The world is insane so it stands to reason that anyone engaged with it in any manner where it makes sense is to be considered insane as well. Of course, there is a way whereby it makes sense but ones awareness of it is in a detached and casual way. In the first instance, it is to be expected that at some point people will behave badly. In the second case, there is no telling what to expect. A new year has come upon us and it has a certain global meaning because the shared awareness of it is global. It is an election year in the land of the Great Satan, as an Iranian cleric might put it and there is an convincing argument that can be made for that title being applicable. There is also a compelling argument that can be made for this being true in practically any country in the world, due to the time zone of the moment. All this having been said; Happy New Year, my friends!!!! Love, THAT THERE MAY BE A FAIRER SOCIETY IN GHANA - ONE IN WHICH ALL THE PEOPLE, NOT JUST A POWERFUL AND GREEDY FEW, BENEFIT FROM THE NATION'S WEALTH! Delhi: The dates for Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) for candidates appearing for Senior School Certificate Examination and Secondary School Examination in 2016 has been announced. The Class 10 exams is scheduled to start from March 1 and will continue till March 28. On the other hand, the Class 12 exams will start from March 1 and will continue till April 22. Science paper for Class 10 will be held on March 2 and Social Science on March 10, while English paper will be on March 15 and Mathematics on March 19. The English paper for Class 12 is to be held on March 1, Business Studies on March 3, Physics on March 5, History on March 8, Chemistry on March 9 and Mathematics on March 14 And Accountancy paper is scheduled for March 17, Political Science on March 18, Biology on March 21, Economics on March 31, Geography on April 7 and Philosophy on April 16. Students appearing for the exams can check the schedule on the official website of CBSE - www.cbse.nic.in. They can go to 'Latest @ CBSE' section and click on 'Date sheet for Main Examination 2016 Class XII/Class X' As per reports around 13 to 15 lakh students are set to appear for class 10 and 12 main examination in 2016. Established in 1962, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is the biggest educational board in the country with over 15,000 schools - Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVs), Navodaya Vidyalayas, privately owned schools and all central government schools - affiliated to it. CBSEs motto is asato ma sadgamaya (From ignorance, lead me to truth). Apart from Class 10 and class 12 examinations, CBSE also conducts JEE (Joint Engineering Examination), AIPMT (All India Pre-Medical Test),CTET(Central Teacher Eligibility Test) among others. New Delhi: Several trains were delayed and some were diverted after a bomb scare at New Delhi Railway station on Sunday morning. Later the threat was found to be a hoax. Lucknow-Shatabdi Express, which was halted at Ghaziabad station, was allowed to leave after a proper check. "Lucknow Shatabdi Express was halted and evacuated at Ghaziabad railway station after bomb scare this morning," said Neeraj Sharma, CPRO, Northern Railway. "Nothing found during search,we got clearance at 7:40 am and the train was allowed to leave at 7:42 am," added Neeraj Sharma. According to reports, the Railway Board was informed by Mumbai ATS after latter received an e-mail threatening of bomb blast on Delhi-Kanpur train. Several Kanpur-bound trains were evacuated and checked at New Delhi and neighbouring stations. Lucknow Shatabdi Express was evacuated at Ghaziabad. In its letter to the New Delhi Railway Station officials, Delhi Police asked them to thoroughly check and sanitise all the trains between New Delhi and Kanpur before letting them depart. The letter says that the sender has threatened to explode the trains within next 72 hours. Following the threat, security was tightened at New Delhi Railway Station and other railway station in Delhi. Passengers were properly frisked before entering the station premises. Dog squad and top officials of the security agencies were also at the spot. Delhi and other neighbouring state are on a high alert following a terror attack on Pathankot Air Force base on Saturday. Also read: Former India shooter Fateh Singh martyred in Pathankot terror attack At least four terrorists, suspected to be from Pakistan, were killed in a gunfight that lasted nearly 15 hours after they breached a high-security security perimeter and entered a frontline Indian Air Force (IAF) base near Pathankot town in northern Punjab early on Saturday to carry out a Fidayeen attack. A tweet by Home Minister Rajnath Singh had said five terrorists had been killed in the operation. This was later withdrawn. Prior to the initial tweet, the number of terrorists killed had been placed at four. Also read: Fidayeen attack on Pathankot air base foiled, all terrorists killed, 3 jawans martyred Police sources said that at least three IAF security personnel were killed and four others were injured in the terror attack that started around 3.30 am. The counter offensive lasted nearly 15 hours. New Delhi: Some unidentified gunmen attacked the Indian consulate in Afghanistan`s northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif on Sunday night, but two of the attackers were killed, media reports said. The gunmen attempted to enter compound after twin explosions and shots were heard, news agency Reuters quoted Afghan governor's spokesman as saying. However as per the MEA sources there are no reports of any Indian casualties. "No reports of any Indian casualties in attack on Indian consulate in Afghan city of Mazar i Sharif," ANI quoted MEA sources as saying. MEA is in touch with Kabul mission & consulate officials and are monitoring situation closely. According to preliminary reports, four armed terrorists tried to barge in Indian consulate in Afghanistans Mazhar-e-Sharif. Shortly after the attack, the Afghan forces deployed it's officials and two terrorists were killed on the spot. The remaining two, as per reports, escaped and entered a nearby building and have been firing from there. Afghan forces are battling the holed up terrorists. Afghan news agency Pajhwok Afghan News said in a tweet: "Two attackers were killed in fighting after insurgents attacked Indian consulate in Mazarisharif city." Update: Two attackers were killed in fighting after insurgents attacked Indian consulate in Mazarisharif city. source #Afghanistan Pajhwok Afghan News (@pajhwok) January 3, 2016 Meanwhile, ITBP officials in Delhi said that it's commandos in Indian consulate in Afghanistan are engaged in a gun battle with terrorists. As per media reports, terror group Haqqani Network's hand is being suspected in this attack. However, there is no official confirmation yet. Police says, no casualties yet reported from attack on #Indian Consulate in Maza-i-Sharif city. #Afghanistan Pajhwok Afghan News (@pajhwok) January 3, 2016 "We are being attacked. Fighting is going on," said an Indian consulate official from Mazar-i-Sharif, AFP reported. Meanwhile, BBC also said explosions and gunfire were heard near the Indian consulate. The report said it was not immediately clear whether the consulate was directly targeted, as the area also has a building belonging to a local politician. Indian diplomatic missions in Afghanistan have come under militant attacks earlier too. In 2008 and 2009, the embassy in Kabul was attacked, leaving dozens dead. In May 2014, gunmen attacked the Indian consulate in Herat, while in August 2013, nine civilians died when the consulate in Jalalabad was targeted. The attack comes a day after at least half a dozen of terrorists attacked the Air force base in Punjabs Pathakot district. Four terrorists have been killed so far, while the operation to kill the remaining two is on. Seven Indian soldiers have also attained martyrdom. New Delhi: The family members of Lieutenant Colonel of the National Security Guard, Niranjan Kumar were in a state of shock on Sunday after they received the news about his martyrdom in the Pathankot terror attack even as his father expressed pride that he laid down his life for the country. Speaking to news agency ANI, Kumar's father said, He told me that he liked the Army dress. From beginning he was very much interested to join Army, he added. The NCC teacher of Niranajan Kumar also said that he is proud of his students act. Feel proud that he sacrificed his life for country. He was a very good soldier, Kumar's teacher added. "Lt Col EK Niranjan was an expert on explosives and head of the bomb disposal squad. He was a brave soldier. His professionalism and dedication to serve the nation will inspire everyone in NSG for many many years to come. I salute to the brave soul," said National Security Guard Director General RC Tayal. Niranjan Kumar, died this morning during combing operations who was a member of the bomb disposal squad. He hailed from Palghat in Kerala and is survived by his wife Dr Radhika and a 18-month-old daughter. NSG commando Lt Col Niranjan, who has his family in Bangalore, was commissioned in the Engineers Regiment of the Army in 2004. A grenade that had lodged into a dead body went off while he was trying to defuse it during the combing operations. Four jawans were injured in the blast. Expressing his grief, Home Minister Rajnath Singh had tweeted: Pained to know about the demise of Lt. Col. Niranjan of NSG during mopping out operations at Pathankot. The nation salutes his sacrifice Rajnath Singh (@BJPRajnathSingh) January 3, 2016 Washington: The deadly assault on an Indian air base near the Pakistan border Saturday was "a heinous" terrorist attack, the United States said, urging the two rivals to work together to hunt down those responsible. Three security officers were killed in the attack by suspected Islamist militants on Pathankot base in northern Punjab state earlier Saturday. At least four attackers also died in shootouts with security forces. The possible involvement of Pakistan-based militants threatens to derail talks between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan, who have fought three wars since independence in 1947. "The United States is committed to our strong partnership with the Indian government to combat terrorism," State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement, condemning the assault. "We urge all countries in the region to work together to disrupt and dismantle terrorist networks and to bring to justice the perpetrators of this heinous act." Balkh: Explosions and gunfire rang out Sunday as militants attempted to storm the Indian diplomatic mission in the Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif, a day after a deadly raid on an Indian air base near the Pakistan border. The attacks threaten to derail Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi`s bold diplomatic outreach to arch-rival Pakistan following his first official visit to Afghanistan. No group has so far claimed responsibility for the raid on the consulate in the northern Afghan city, the latest assault on an Indian installation in the country. "We are being attacked," an Indian consulate official told AFP by telephone from inside the heavily-guarded compound. "Fighting is still going on." The official, who was hunkered down in a secure area within the complex, said all consulate employees were safe and accounted for. Assailants holed up in a building close to the consulate traded heavy fire with Afghan forces who cordoned off the street following a series of explosions, officials said. "The area is completely blocked by our forces," said Shir Jan Durrani, a police spokesman in Mazar-i-Sharif, the capital of the relatively tranquil province of Balkh. "We are cautiously conducting our clearance operation to avoid any civilian casualties." Vikas Swarup, an Indian foreign ministry spokesman, told AFP that no Indian casualties had been reported so far. The attack comes just a day after suspected Islamic insurgents mounted a deadly assault on an Indian air force base near the Pakistan border. Seven soldiers and six attackers were confirmed killed in the assault on the Pathankot base in the northern state of Punjab, which triggered a 14-hour gun battle Saturday. Security officials suspect the gunmen belong to the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed, the group that staged the 2001 attack on the Indian parliament which brought the two countries to the brink of war. The attack -- a rare targeting of an Indian military installation outside disputed Kashmir -- threatens to undermine improving relations with Pakistan.The assaults come a week after Modi paid a surprise visit to Pakistan, the first by an Indian premier in 11 years. The visit immediately followed a whirlwind tour of Kabul, where Modi inaugurated an Indian-built parliament complex and gifted three Russian-made helicopters to the Afghan government. India has been a key supporter of Kabul`s post-Taliban government, and analysts have often pointed to the threat of a "proxy war" in Afghanistan between India and Pakistan. Pakistan -- the historic backers of the Taliban -- has often been accused of assisting the insurgents, especially with attacks on Indian targets in Afghanistan. The latest attacks come amid a renewed international push to revive peace talks with the resurgent militant movement. Afghanistan and Pakistan are set to hold a first round of dialogue between Afghanistan, Pakistan, the US and China on January 11 to lay out a comprehensive roadmap for peace. Pakistan, which wields considerable influence over the Taliban, hosted a milestone first round of talks in July but the negotiations stalled when the insurgents belatedly confirmed the death of longtime leader Mullah Omar. The attack on the consulate in Mazar-i-Sharif is the latest in a series of attacks on Indian targets in Afghanistan. In 2008, a car bomb at the Indian embassy in Kabul killed 60 people and the embassy was again hit by a suicide strike in 2009. Nine civilians, including seven children, were killed in August 2013 when suicide bombers targeted the Indian consulate in the main eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad. And in May 2014, gunmen launched a pre-dawn attack on India`s consulate in the main western Afghan city of Herat Friday before being repelled by security forces. Bhopal: Weeks after Uber driver Shiv Kumar Yadav was sentenced to life in prison for sexually assaulting a woman in Delhi in 2014, an Ola cabbie was arrested on Saturday for allegedly raping a woman passenger in the city. The incident took place on December 29, however the FIR was registered on January 1, only after the traumatised victim decided to take the matter to the police. Based on her complaint, driver Deepak Bamane was arrested and taken to the police custody for further interrogation. Deepak has been working with Ola cab service for past few months. It is being verified if the company had gone for his police verification before hiring him. The 28-year-old woman, who works at a private hospital took the taxi service on December 29 to return to her home. The accused driver took her to an isolated location between Bairagarh and Gandhi Nagar and raped her in the car. Later, he threatened her of dire consequences if she reveals the episode to anyone. Ola today released its statement on the issue saying, "At the time of the reported incident, the said driver was not logged on to the Ola platform. We have terminated the driver from the platform with immediate effect. We will offer all support in providing whatever information required by them to investigate this complicated case." New Delhi: The terrorists who struck at IAF base in Pathankot yesterday and who are believed to be from Pakistan-based JeM terror outfit may have stationed themselves within the complex since January one itself apparently unnoticed. The terrorists, who sneaked into India on December 30 and 31 and made their way to Pathankot air base using the vehicle of a Punjab Police Superintendent of Police rank officer, are now believed to have entered the IAF campus on the afternoon of January one. The attackers had hijacked the private vehicle carrying the Gurdaspur SP, his friend Rajesh Verma and the SP's orderly. As the security agencies probed the sequence of events that led to the unsuccessful attack to target fighters and helicopters, it has emerged that the terrorists had "comfortably housed" themselves within the IAF campus during the day time, sources privy to the probe said today. The cell tower for all the calls made by the terrorists from the mobile phone of Verma, a jeweller and a friend of the police officer whose vehicle was hijacked in the afternoon of January one and barely hours before launching the attack, were same, the sources said. The calls made from the phone of Verma were routed through the same mobile phone tower throughout January one and the intervening night before the attack was launched, the sources said. The terrorists, after breaching the security of the IAF base, had apparently hid themselves in the thick forest area of the campus which has an area of around 1800 to 2000 acres. Officials termed it as a "serious security breach" which will be investigated only after the operation inside the campus is over and an all clear signal was received from the IAF authorities. The IAF authorities have been asked to preserve the register of sentry duties of January one and a through questioning is expected once the operation is over, the sources said. New Delhi: Terrorists equipped with sophisticated fire arms and bombs on Saturday stormed a heavily fortified Indian Air Force base in Pathankot in Punjab after they reportedly infiltrated from neighbouring Pakistan. The attack triggered a day-long gunbattle in which four attackers were killed. Here are the 10 developments on Day 2 of the Pathankot siege: 1/ The toll in the Pathankot terror attack on Sunday rose to 7 after three more jawans have succumbed to their injuries at a hospital and a Lt Colonel-rank officer was killed in a grenade blast during a combing operation. 2/ At least five explosions were heard on the second day of the siege. The bombs, including a grenade, went off as security personnel were destroying the live explosives left behind by the terrorists during search operations. 3/ One of four injured in a grenade blast, Lt Colonel Niranjan of NSG's bomb disposal squad succumbed to his injuries on Sunday. 4/ So far, four terrorists who attacked the Air force base were killed by Indian security forces. 5/ The combing operation is still on as the security agencies believe there is at least one more terrorist still holed up inside the facility. 6/ A team of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has reached the IAF base on Sunday morning to review the situation. The Agency will take over the probe on Monday. The 12-member NIA team is led by IG K Singh. 7/ Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, who has cut short his visit to Goa on Saturday, has briefed PM Modi on the latest developments. Parrikar had held a high level meeting in Delhi on Sunday that was attended by National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and three Services chiefs. 8/ Security has been beefed across major cities, including Delhi and Mumbai, as well as Punjab and the adjoining regions of Jammu, Awantipur, Srinagar and Udhampur. 9/ GPS devices recovered from the terrorists will be scrutinized to decipher the route the terrorists took to enter India and the IAF base. 10/ The attackers, believed to be from the Jaish-e-Mohammad goup (JeM), said to have infiltrated from Pakistan. Speculation was rife that the terror strike was jointly planned by (JeM) and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence. New Delhi: Security has been beefed up at major security installations, tourists spots and other important places in Delhi following terror alert from intelligence agencies. According to TV reports, two Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terrorists have entered with a motive of carrying out suicide attacks in Delhi. Apart from extra paramilitary forces, National Security Guard (NSG) and the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team have been deployed at crucial places to tackle any suicide attack or hostage-like situation in the National Capital. Also read: Pathankot terror attack LIVE updates Delhi Police chief BS Bassi held a meeting with top officials to take stock of the situation on Sunday morning. Delhi and all other neighbouring states are already on alert after the deadly attack at Pathankot Air Force base on Saturday. About 10 security men are feared dead in the attack. Gunbattle was still on inside Pathankot Air Force base to neutralise the two suspected attackers who are still said to be holed up inside. Pathankot: An NSG commando was killed in mopping up operations against terrorists at an IAF base in Pathankot in Punjab. Lt Col Niranjan, a member of the NSG's Bomb Disposal Squad, was killed while he was defusing the grenade at the scene of the terror attack as part of the combing operations that continued through the night. Defence sources said Niranjan, a resident of Kerala, was killed while trying to retrieve the grenade from the body of a dead terrorist. Pained to know about demise of Lt. Col. Niranjan of NSG, nation salutes his sacrifice, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said. A fresh grenade blast ripped through the air force base on Sunday morning claiming the life of an NSG commando, as three other security men succumbed to injuries in a hospital after Saturday's terror attack taking the toll of Indian security personnel to seven Meanwhile, the joint combing operation was still underway, a police official said, adding that the NIA had taken over the probe into the terror incident. Pathankot: Even as a fresh exchange of fire between two suspected terrorists and security men broke out at the air force base here on Sunday, a media report said that hours before the Pathankot terror attack started, security agencies intercepted a chilling call. The call, which lasted 70-second call and was made at 1:58 am, as per NDTV. In the call, made at 1:58 AM, the man could be heard telling his mother that he was on a 'suicide mission'. When his mother did not respond he reportedly said - "I'm on a suicide mission and Allah will take care of all of us" - the report said quoting sources. The callers spoke in Punjabi and Multani and the intercepted calls are still being decoded. The calls were supposedly made to an undisclosed locations in Pakistan. The other call was of 87-second and in it the purported handlers are heard saying - "Is it under control" with the reply being "yes". The terrorist was then told to blow up the airforce assets, choopers and planes. Also, a line was used which has baffled the security agencies is - "Explain it to him. We are concerned". Meanwhile, a grenade blast claimed the life of an NSG commando today who was trying to defuse a grenade as part of a night-long combing operation at the scene of yesterday's terror attack. Lt Col Niranjan, a member of the NSG's Bomb Disposal Squad and a Kerala resident, was killed while he was trying to retrieve a live grenade from the body of a dead terrorist at the scene of the terror attack as part of the combing operations that continued through the night. Four other security men were also injured in the blast. While a Garud commando and three members of the Defence Security Corps (DSC) were killed in the gunbattle yesterday, three DSC men succumbed to injuries in the hospital here during the night. Four Pakistan-based terrorists had also been killed during yesterdays' gunbattle at the airbase, located barely 35 kms from the Indo-Pak border. (With PTI inputs) Pathankot/New Delhi: Security forces on Sunday nailed two more terrorists who had attacked the Indian Air Force base at Pathankot along with four others. Seven security personnel, including one officer of the National Security Guard, were killed in the counter-offensive against the terrorists, as a final combing operation was in progress till evening. The terrorists, suspected to be from Pakistan and who attacked the IAF base, failed to destroy IAF assets due to timely action by security forces, union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi said in New Delhi on Sunday. "The operation is still continuing. The engagement is still on. Operation will continue till the whole air base has been cleared of any intruders, any terrorist," Air Commodore J.S. Dhamoon, the Air Officer Commanding (AOC) of the Pathankot Air Force Station (AFS), told the media. "Today (Sunday) morning, two (terrorists) were engaged. This operation is at the completion stage," Dhamoon said. Four terrorists were killed on Saturday in a 15-hour gunfight in which the NSG, Indian Army and IAF commandos were involved, assisted by IAF attack helicopters. Smoke could be seen coming out of the IAF air base in Pathankot, 250 km from Chandigarh, on Sunday evening as the gunfight moved to an end. The home secretary said four terrorists were neutralised on Saturday after hours of fighting. At that time, "it was not certain if there were other terrorists or not." But on Sunday morning, it was discovered there were two more terrorists, he said. According to him, the terrorists killed six IAF personnel and injured eight others. An NSG officer was killed on Sunday morning and 12 of his colleagues were injured. "Because of early action, the terrorists were unable to move to their likely intended aim but were contained in an area of heavy growth of trees and shrubs and surrounded," Mehrishi said. He also said the security forces had sounded an alert in the area, including the IAF base, ahead of Saturday's pre-dawn attack. All vital installations and government offices were informed about a likely terror attack and efforts were mounted to track down the terrorists who had earlier killed a taxi driver, he said. "Due to the active intelligence inputs and quick action taken by security forces, especially the IAF, we were able to ensure there was no damage to the assets of the air force. Therefore, the main apparent aim of the terrorists stands defeated." Giving details of the attack, Air Commodore Dhamoon said: "During the search operation late in the night, one group was engaged by the Garuds (IAF commandos). One Garud was martyred and one was injured. "The terrorists, estimated to be four in number, managed to run away from there and headed to other buildings. They kept firing while running." He said the terrorists, while running, fired at the DSC (Defence Service Corps) mess where early morning breakfast was being prepared. "One DSC jawan ran after them, jostled with one of the terrorists who were running. With the terrorist's rifle itself, he killed the terrorist. Thereafter, he was killed by one of the bullets of the terrorists," Dhamoon said. "The terrorists were cordoned off in one area and the operation continued throughout the night (Saturday) and in the morning (Sunday)," he said. Dhamoon said seven security personnel -- one Garud commando, five from the DSC and one officer of the NSG -- were killed. There was confusion on Saturday evening about the number of terrorists killed and whether the operation against them had ended. On Saturday, Home Minister Rajnath Singh tweeted that the operation had ended and that five terrorists were killed. However, the tweet was later withdrawn as it became clear that only four terrorists were killed and more could still be holed up inside the frontier IAF base. The technical area, where the IAF's MIG-21 fighter jets, MI-35 attack helicopters and other critical assets are stationed, remained secure. A thorough search and combing operation by the army, NSG, IAF commandos, paramilitary forces and Punjab Police continued on Sunday at the IAF base and nearby areas. IAF helicopters flew over the base and nearby areas through the night and since early Sunday to assist the ground forces. "Security agencies are engaged in a gunfight with two terrorists," Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal said on Sunday. Gunshots and blasts were heard inside the IAF base again on Sunday morning and afternoon. Badal demanded strengthening of the Border Security Force (BSF) in Punjab in view of two major incidents of infiltration by Pakistani terrorists. "The BSF strength is not adequate. Because this (Punjab) is a peaceful state, the strength is less. We need more strength (of the BSF), especially because this area is close to the border with Jammu and Kashmir," Badal said. Meanwhile, the body of slain NSG officer Lt. Col. Niranjan Kumar will be taken to his hometown near Pallakad in Kerala on Monday for the last rites, a relative said on Sunday. The NSG officer, whose parents hail from Kerela, was settled in Bengaluru. He is survived by his wife and a two-year-old child. New Delhi: In the backdrop of a terror attack at the Indian Air Force base at Pathankot in which seven security personnel, including one officer of the National Security Guard were killed, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy said on Sunday that time has come to teach Pakistan a lesson by breaking it into four. However, the terrorists, suspected to be from Pakistan and who attacked the IAF base, failed to destroy IAF assets due to timely action by security forces, union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi said. Time to put in place a strategic 2 year plan to teach Pak by breaking it into 4. But you need Chinese neutrality for that, Swamy tweeted. Time to put in place a strategic 2 year plan to teach Pak by breaking it into 4. But you need Chinese neutrality for that Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) January 3, 2016 Four terrorists were killed on Saturday in a 15-hour gunfight in which the NSG, Indian Army and IAF commandos were involved, assisted by IAF attack helicopters. Smoke could be seen coming out of the IAF air base in Pathankot, 250 km from Chandigarh, on Sunday evening as the gunfight moved to an end. The home secretary said four terrorists were neutralised on Saturday after hours of fighting. At that time, "it was not certain if there were other terrorists or not." But on Sunday morning, it was discovered there were two more terrorists, he said. According to him, the terrorists killed six IAF personnel and injured eight others. An NSG officer was killed on Sunday morning and 12 of his colleagues were injured. "Because of early action, the terrorists were unable to move to their likely intended aim but were contained in an area of heavy growth of trees and shrubs and surrounded," Mehrishi said. He also said the security forces had sounded an alert in the area, including the IAF base, ahead of Saturday's pre-dawn attack. All vital installations and government offices were informed about a likely terror attack and efforts were mounted to track down the terrorists who had earlier killed a taxi driver, he said. "Due to the active intelligence inputs and quick action taken by security forces, especially the IAF, we were able to ensure there was no damage to the assets of the air force. Therefore, the main apparent aim of the terrorists stands defeated." Giving details of the attack, Air Commodore Dhamoon said: "During the search operation late in the night, one group was engaged by the Garuds (IAF commandos). One Garud was martyred and one was injured. "The terrorists, estimated to be four in number, managed to run away from there and headed to other buildings. They kept firing while running." He said the terrorists, while running, fired at the DSC (Defence Service Corps) mess where early morning breakfast was being prepared. "One DSC jawan ran after them, jostled with one of the terrorists who were running. With the terrorist's rifle itself, he killed the terrorist. Thereafter, he was killed by one of the bullets of the terrorists," Dhamoon said. "The terrorists were cordoned off in one area and the operation continued throughout the night (Saturday) and in the morning (Sunday)," he said. Dhamoon said seven security personnel -- one Garud commando, five from the DSC and one officer of the NSG -- were killed. There was confusion on Saturday evening about the number of terrorists killed and whether the operation against them had ended. (With IANS inputs) New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday chaired a high-level meeting with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar in the wake of the terror attack at the Indian Air Force base near Pathankot in Punjab. PM Modi held the meeting soon after his return after his two-day visit to Karnataka. "Immediately on landing in Delhi, PM @narendramodi is chairing a high level meeting with the NSA, Foreign Secretary & other officials," the Prime Minister`s Office said in a tweet. Sources said the NSA briefed the prime minister about the operation carried out by security forces, including the National Security Guard, Indian Army and IAF commandos. Security forces on Sunday nailed two more terrorists who had attacked the Indian Air Force base. Four terrorists were killed on Saturday in a 15-hour gunfight. The terrorists are believed to be from Pakistan-based terror outfit Jaish-e-Muhammad. Seven security personnel, including an NSG officer, were also killed in the counter-offensive against the terrorists. The terror attack came almost a week after Modi flew into Lahore, on his way back from Afghanistan, for a surprise meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif. Both leaders had vowed to pursue the derailed bilateral peace process. Foreign secretaries of India and Pakistan are expected to meet on January 15 to draw up a roadmap for bilateral engagement. The Modi government has faced sharp criticism from Congress and some other parties over its policy on Pakistan. The opposition parties have said the Modi government`s policy on Pakistan "lacks clarity and consistency". Pune: India is the traditional motherland of Hindu community, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said on Sunday as he pitched for societal unity where character is valued. "Even though the languages are different, regions are different, creeds are different, culture of all is same. Entire world recognizes it as Hindu culture. And therefore, our community is recognised as Hindu community. This is the traditional mother land of Hindu community," he said addressing an RSS rally near Pune. He stressed on the need for unity in the society which would strengthen India as a nation. "Dr (BR) Ambedkar had said that through the Constitution we managed to ensure political equality, but this political unity can not be sustainable until we achieve economic and societal unity. "History of our country has been such that none of our rivals won here on his own, but due to differences amongst us. Hence, if we don't forget our differences, then the Constitution won't be able to safeguard us. Therefore, he stressed on creating a society which is rich in character and affectionate towards its people," he said addressing the 'Shiv Shakti Samagam', considered one of the largest RSS congregations. India, he said, needed to make itself stronger for its voice to be heard in the world. "Shiva and Shakti (strength) should come together. Our society recognizes Shiva, but world recognises strength. Without strength, truth does not hold value it seems. We see wrongdoings of powerful nations are not objected to and the good things done by weaker nations are not valued. Indian culture is being talked about across the world. It was there earlier too. But it was not valued then," he said. Bhagwat cited the example of Rabindranath Tagore in Japan where his speech got a lukewarm response because he was from a slave country. "Truth was not honoured because the country from where the truth was told was considered weak. It was a slave. After we achieved independence, the value of the truth increased a bit. It increased furthermore after winning wars. It happened again when we became a nuclear nation. "When people here protected republic, it increased again. Today, the condition is such that the yoga-related proposal was cleared in the UN without much discussion. It is discussed everywhere. The more powerful your nation becomes, value of its truth increases, too. Hence, we need strength," he said. The RSS chief said Israel stood tall with pride due to its "resolve" and added,"a society which cares for its people, has affection for them, even if it lacks resources, is smaller in size, still it is able to achieve its goal". Bhagwat said there should be no room for inequality or discrimination as "a divided society will fail". Referring to Ambedkar, Bhagwat said he took Constitutional measures to ensure societal equality, "but law and order cannot bring equality; the inequality has to be wiped out of our minds". KB Hedgewar, the founding chief of RSS, Bhagwat said, worked all his life for empowerment of the nation. "He kept welfare of the nation ahead of everything. He took part in all the movements. Hedgewar was jailed (for participating) in freedom struggle under Congress before formation of RSS," he said. "Hedgewar accepted diversities of the country. He tied all in one thread that is Hindutva," Bhagwat said. Bhagwat said acceptance of diversity was needed to achieve social unity and strength to make the country strong. "Accept diversity. Look at all with equanimity and affection. Get rid of disparities and the sense of superiority and inferiority. This will lead to a social unity and ultimately to a country's strength," he said, addressing a massive rally of RSS swayamsevaks drawn from Western Maharashtra region. Asserting that strength should be accompanied by character, Bhagwat said RSS was committed to the values of service and sacrifice. "A nation is not run by government and leaders. It's the responsibility of people to ensure that leaders and government behave properly," he said. "Sanatan dharma is the basic value of Hindutva and irrespective of class, creed and language, the culture of Hindu society is the same," he added. Over one lakh RSS activists converged at the venue 'Shiv Shakti Sangam', about 20 km from the city. Earlier, Bhagwat inspected the traditional drill by Swayamsevaks, moving in a jeep at the sprawling ground where songs and the Sangh prayer were sung by the mammoth gathering. Regular policemen appeared to have taken a backseat as RSS activists directed the traffic. An unending flow of vehicles caused long queues and traffic jams. Those present included Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Union Minister Prakash Javadekar who turned out in RSS uniform. New Delhi: Security has been beefed up at major security installations in Delhi following intelligence inputs that terrorists may carry out a Pathankot Air Force base-like attack in the National Capital too. According to TV reports, two Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terrorists have entered with a motive of carrying out suicide attacks in Delhi. Delhi Police chief BS Bassi held a meeting with top officials to take stock of the security arrangements. Security has been increased at all tourist spots, airport and railway stations. Delhi and all other neighbouring states are already on alert after the deadly attack at Pathankot Air Force base on Saturday. About 10 security men are feared dead in the attack. Following an over 15-hour-long gunbattle, Army managed to neutralise all the suicide attackers involved in the attack. Raipur: Three Maharashtra students, who were on a cycle tour of three naxal-hit states, have been abducted by naxalites from Bijapur district of Chhattisgarh. The students are reported missing since December 30. These students, from Pune, were on a peace tour of Maharashtra, Odisha and Chhattisgarh. The students were supposed to reach Malkangiri in Odisha on January 10. The students have been identified as Adarsh Patil, Bilash Valake and Shrikrishna Shewale. Reports say that the dreaded Maoist Papa Rao is mastermind behind the abduction. So far there has been no ransom demand from the abductors. Police have arrested one local youth from Malkangiri in connection with the case and an investigation is on to know the whereabouts of the abducted students. All three students went missing while they were travelling on Katru-Basaguda road in Bijapur district of Bastar division. New Delhi: Unhappy over the fresh bonhomie between Nawaz Sharif and Narendra Modi, Pakistan Army Chief Raheel Sharif in collaboration with Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligences (ISI) hatched the deadly Pathankot attack, said sources. It has further emerged that the plot to attack the Pathankot Air Force base was hatched in Rawalpindi. Citing sources, Zee TV said that the aim of the attack is to derail the peace process initiated by PM Modi and vitiate the current bilateral relations. It is also to increase tension between the two nations so that the upcoming foreign secretary-level talks get cancelled, sources said. Sources said that Pakistan Army had instructed the JeM militants to carry out attacks outside Jammu and Kashmir. It was also planned that in the event of the attack, JeM would take the blame. The objective of the attack was to render maximum blow to the Indian security forces. The Pathankot attack on Saturday left seven Indian security personnel dead. A combing operation launched by the Indian security forces in the area is still on. Cairo: Twenty-six militants were killed on Monday as Egyptian army raided their hidehouts in some cities in the restive North Sinai as part of the military's campaign against terrorists. The army also arrested 25 suspected terrorists, army spokesperson Brigadier General Mohamed Samir said. Samir also added that five unlicensed vehicles and motorcycles were destroyed during the offensive. The raids are part of the army's campaign against militants in the major cities of Rafah, Sheikh Zwayed and Al-Arish. Egypt's North Sinai has witnessed many violent attacks by militants since the January, 2011 revolution that toppled ex-president Hosni Mubarak. The attacks targeting police and military increased after the ouster of Islamist ex-president Mohamed Morsi in 2013 by military following massive protests against his rule. Over 600 security personnel have been reported killed since then. The military has launched security campaigns in the area, arrested suspects and demolished houses that belong to terrorists, including those facilitating tunnels leading to the Gaza Strip. Manama: Bahrain on Sunday "strongly condemned" the attacks on the Saudi Arabian embassy in Tehran, urging Iran to abide by diplomatic measures and control the protesters. Bahrain`s Foreign Ministry called the attack on the Saudi embassy "demagogic and barbarian actions" which is a "flagrant violation of international doctrines and norms. It urged Iran to provide "required protection to diplomatic premises and staff, as well as adopting deterrent legal measures against rioters." Bahrain supports the Saudi measures towards consolidating peace and stability at both regional and international levels, the ministry reiterated. Saudi Arabia executed 47 people on Saturday, including 45 Saudis, an Egyptian and another man from Chad. The incident is widely viewed as the largest contemporary mass execution for security infractions. Bahrain`s Interior Ministry has already cautioned that legal steps will be taken against anyone attempting to take advantage of the recent verdicts in Saudi Arabia to magnify sectarian tension or incite violence. The authority has already detained several rioters who illegally abused social media, and also summoned and counseled some parents to protect their children from further incitement. Brussels: An ageing Belgian nuclear reactor shut down on Saturday afternoon, just three days after it was restarted, but there was no safety risk, the power utility that operates it said. The Doel 1 reactor in northern Belgium was restarted on December 30, after originally being shut down in February in line with a law that called for the country`s gradual exit from nuclear power. "Doel 1 automatically shut down at 6:00 pm," a spokeswoman for power utility Electrabel told AFP, confirming a report published by the Belga news agency. "Everything went according to procedure. There was no impact on safety, and no impact on staff, local residents and the environment." The company said the shutdown was caused by a "normal safety mechanism", in order to restart it safely. Belgium agreed last month to extend the life of Doel 1 and Doel 2, both of which are 40 years old, until 2025 under a deal that ended years of battles that threatened the country with power blackouts. When running, the two reactors can produce 866 megawatts, equivalent to around six percent of Belgium`s total electricity capacity. Environmentalists, especially in neighbouring Germany which is phasing out nuclear power, have criticised extending the life of Belgium`s reactors which they say are too old to be considered safe. Belgium has suffered a series of nuclear mishaps in recent years, with three of the country`s seven reactors closed at one point, in two cases due to the discovery of micro-cracks in the reactor vessels. New York: Bill Clinton will hit the campaign trail Monday for his wife Hillary -- his first appearance on the stump for the former first lady`s 2016 White House bid. The former president`s visit to New Hampshire in support of his wife, who leads polls for the Democratic nomination, comes with Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump sharpening his attacks on both Clintons. Bill Clinton will hold a rally at a community college in the city of Nashua and another event later Monday in Exeter. Trump, who leads the Republican field by a large margin in nationwide polls, has turned recently from verbally attacking his fellow Republican candidates to stepping up his criticism of the Clintons. Last month, he blasted Bill Clinton`s "terrible record" with women -- an apparent allusion to rumored past marital infidelities, including while in the White House. "If Hillary thinks she can unleash her husband, with his terrible record of women abuse, while playing the women`s card on me, she`s wrong!" Trump recently tweeted. Warming to the theme, Trump tweeted on Saturday: "I hope Bill Clinton starts talking about women`s issues so that voters can see what a hypocrite he is and how Hillary abused those women!" The billionaire businessman has called Bill Clinton`s past reported affairs "fair game" in the 2016 campaign. Accusations of sexual impropriety dating back to his time as governor of Arkansas have dogged Clinton for years. Republicans in Congress tried but failed in 1998 to remove him from office for alleged perjury and obstruction during an investigation into an alleged White House affair. New Hampshire is host to the nation`s first presidential primary on February 9. Voters in the heartland state of Iowa, using the caucus method, will register their presidential preference on February 1. Dubai: Iranian protesters stormed the Saudi Embassy in Tehran early on Sunday and Shi`ite Muslim Iran`s top leader predicted "divine vengeance" for Saudi Arabia`s execution of a prominent Shi`ite cleric. Demonstrators protesting against cleric Nimr al-Nimr`s execution broke into the embassy building, smashed furniture and started fires before being ejected by police. Iran`s President Hassan Rouhani condemned the execution as "inhuman", but also called for prosecuting "extremist individuals" for attacking the embassy and the Saudi consulate in the northeastern city of Mashhad, state media reported Tehran`s police chief said an unspecified number of "unruly elements" were arrested for attacking the embassy with petrol bombs and rocks. A prosecutor said 40 people were held. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, criticising Saudi Arabia for the second straight day over Nimr`s execution, said politicians in the Sunni kingdom would face divine retribution for his death. "The unjustly spilled blood of this oppressed martyr will no doubt soon show its effect and divine vengeance will befall Saudi politicians," state TV reported Khamenei as saying. Iran`s Revolutionary Guards had promised "harsh revenge" against the Saudi Sunni royal dynasty for Saturday`s execution of Nimr, considered a terrorist by Riyadh but hailed in Iran as a champion of the rights of Saudi Arabia`s marginalised Shi`ite minority. Nimr, the most vocal critic of the dynasty among the Shi`ite minority, had come to be seen as a leader of the sect`s younger activists, who had tired of the failure of older, more measured leaders to achieve equality with Sunnis. Although most of the 47 men killed in the kingdom`s biggest mass execution for decades were Sunnis convicted of al Qaeda attacks in Saudi Arabia a decade ago, it was Nimr and three other Shi`ites, all accused of involvement in shooting police, who attracted most attention in the region and beyond. The move appeared to end any hopes that the appearance of a common enemy in the form of the Islamic State militant force would produce some rapprochement between the region`s leading Sunni and Shi`ite Muslim powers, allied to opposing sides in wars currently raging in Syria and Yemen. Khamenei`s website carried a picture of a Saudi executioner next to notorious Islamic State executioner `Jihadi John`, with the caption "Any differences?". The Revolutionary Guards said "harsh revenge" would topple "this pro-terrorist, anti-Islamic regime". IRAQ ALSO FURIOUS In Iraq, whose Shi`ite-led government is close to Iran, religious and political figures demanded that ties with Riyadh be severed, calling into question Saudi attempts to forge a regional alliance against Islamic State, which controls swaths of Iraq and Syria. "We have received with much sorrow and regret the news of the martyrdom of a number of our brother believers in the region whose pure blood was shed in an unjust aggression," said Iraq`s top Shi`ite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. The opinion of Sistani, based in the Shi`ite holy city of Najaf south of Baghdad, carries weight with millions of Shi`ites in Iraq and across the region, including in Saudi Arabia. Despite the regional focus on Nimr, the executions seemed mostly aimed at discouraging jihadism in Saudi Arabia, where dozens have died in the past year in attacks by Sunni militants. The ruling Al Saud family has grown increasingly worried as Middle East turmoil, especially in Syria and Iraq, has boosted Sunni jihadists seeking to bring it down and given room to Iran to spread its influence. A nuclear deal with Iran backed by Saudi Arabia`s biggest ally and protector, the United States, has done little to calm nerves in Riyadh. But Saudi Arabia`s Western allies, many of whom supply it with arms, are growing concerned about its new assertiveness in the region and at home. The U.S. State Department said Nimr`s execution "risks exacerbating sectarian tensions at a time when they urgently need to be reduced". The sentiment was echoed almost verbatim by EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and an official at the German Foreign Ministry. The State Department also urged the Saudi government to "respect and protect human rights. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad al-Hussein said it was not clear those killed were granted effective legal defence, while the scale of the executions was very disturbing "particularly as some of those sentenced to death were accused of non-violent crimes". The simultaneous execution of 47 people - 45 Saudis, one Egyptian and a man from Chad - was the biggest mass execution for security offences in Saudi Arabia since the 1980 killing of 63 jihadist rebels who seized Mecca`s Grand Mosque in 1979. ANTI-GOVERNMENT PROTESTS The four Shi`ites had been convicted of involvement in shootings and petrol bomb attacks that killed several police during anti-government protests from 2011-13. More than 20 Shi`ites were shot dead by the authorities in those protests. Family members of the executed Shi`ites have vigorously denied they were involved in attacks and said they were only peaceful protesters against sectarian discrimination. Human rights groups say the kingdom`s judicial process is unfair, pointing to accusations that confessions have been secured under torture and that defendants in court have been denied access to lawyers. Riyadh denies torture and says its judiciary is independent. Analysts have speculated that the execution of the four Shi`ites was partly to demonstrate to Saudi Arabia`s majority Sunni Muslims that the government did not differentiate between political violence committed by members of the two sects. The 43 Sunni jihadists executed on Saturday, including al Qaeda leaders and ideologues, were convicted for attacks that killed hundreds from 2003-06. "There is huge popular pressure on the government to punish those people," said Mustafa Alani, a security analyst close to the Saudi Interior Ministry. "It included all the leaders of al Qaeda, all the ones responsible for shedding blood. It sends a message." Tehran: Angry crowds protesting at Saudi Arabia's execution of a top Shiite cleric set fire to the kingdom's embassy in Tehran and stormed the building before being cleared out by police, reports said. In Mashhad, Iran's second biggest city, demonstrators yesterday meanwhile set fire to the Saudi consulate, according to ISNA news agency, carrying pictures of the alleged assault. The incidents came hours after the announcement of the death of 56-year-old cleric Nimr al-Nimr, a key figure in anti-government protests in the kingdom since 2011. The execution prompted strong condemnation from Shiite-majority Iran and Iraq. "There are flames inside the embassy... demonstrators were able to get inside but have since been cleared out," the news agency said. "The fire has destroyed the interior of the embassy," an eyewitness told AFP. "The police are everywhere and have dispersed the demonstrators, some of whom have been arrested." Protesters had been able to climb up onto the roof of the embassy before they were made to leave, it added. Websites carried pictures of demonstrators apparently clutching the Saudi flag, which had been pulled down. Iranian media quoted foreign ministry spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari as asking police to "protect Saudi Arabia's diplomatic missions in Tehran and Mashhad... and prevent any demonstrations in front of these sites." Nimr, who spent more than a decade studying theology in Iran, was among a group of 47 Shiites and Sunnis executed yesterday on charges of terrorism. Predominantly-Shiite Iran, the Sunni kingdom's longtime rival, said in reaction to Nimr's execution that "the Saudi government supports terrorist movements and extremists, but confronts domestic critics with oppression and execution." It will "pay a high price for following these policies," Jaber Ansari had warned before the attacks took place. In response, Saudi Arabia's foreign ministry said it had summoned Iran's envoy to protest at the "aggressive Iranian statements on the legal sentences carried out today". The Saudi interior ministry said the men had been convicted of adopting the radical "takfiri" ideology, joining "terrorist organisations" and implementing various "criminal plots". An official list published included Sunnis convicted of involvement in Al-Qaeda attacks that killed Saudis and foreigners in 2003 and 2004. London: There is one country in the world that the dreaded terror group Islamic State is scared of and that is Israel. As per a report in The Independent, Jurgen Todenhofer, first Western journalist to enter the group's territories and survive has revealed the same in his book. Todenhofer spent 10 days in the so-called Islamic State last year and said in an interview with the Jewish News that Israel was not included in ISIS' planned 'first stage of colonisation in the Middle East. The German journalist is said to have told in the interview that the terror group told him that they know that the Israeli army was too strong for them. Todenhofer is quoted in the report as saying that the ISIS think that they can defeat US and UK ground troops but consider Israelis tough as far as fighting against guerrillas and terrorists. However, the terror group has made several threats against Israel and Jewish people in its propaganda videos in the past and their affiliated groups are believed to be active in Gaza. But no terror attacks in Israel and 'occupied' Palestinian territories have yet been claimed by the ISIS. Kathmandu: Nepal's Sadbhawana Party, a major ally of the Madhesi Front agitating over re-demarcation of the seven-province federal model in the new Constitution, on Sunday announced a separate protest programme in southern Nepal but dismissed reports that it has split from the alliance. The party also distanced itself from crucial talks this evening with the government over the mistreatment to its president Rajendra Mahato, who was seriously injured during baton-charing by the police in Biratnagar-Jogbani border point where he was leading a group of cadres for a sit-in. Sadbhawana Party vice-chairman Laxman Lal Karna told PTI his party would not sit for talks unless the government apologises for the incident. Surprising its allies, the Sadbhawana Party announced new forms of protests in the Terai, scene of the ongoing protests by Madhesis who are largely Indian-origin and have led a blockade of key border trade points with India. In a series of protest programmes announced unilaterally by the Sadbhawana Party, the party said it will focus on non-violent activities like mass prayers in memory of deceased protestors, fasting, signature campaign and campaigns to internationalise Madhesi issues through social media, local media reported. Speculation was rife that the agitating Madhesi Front, an alliance of four Madhes-based parties demanding re-demarcation of the seven- province federal model in the new Constitution, has virtually split due to Sadbhawana Party's planned separate protest programme. However, Sadbhawana Party vice-chairman Laxman Lal Karna denies the report that there has been split in the Front. "The news report about the split in the Front is totally false," he said. Mahato, who sustained injuries in his head and leg, is currently undergoing treatment in Delhi as his condition could not improve during treatment at B P Koirala Institute of Health Sciences in Dharan of eastern Nepal. Now after a couple of days of treatment, his condition has improved from today, Karna said, adding that the government should ask for apology for the incident. Uprendra Yadav, chairman of the Federal Democratic Front, has criticised Sadbhawana Party's decision. "Sadbhawana Party should not announce its separate protest programmes, which was a blunder," Yadav said. Buenos Aires: Argentina`s new conservative government affirmed on Sunday that it will continue to press the country`s claims to the Falkland Islands, which Britain insists that it owns. Britain and Argentina fought a two-month long war over the archipelago in 1982, in which 649 Argentinian servicemen and 255 British were killed. Decades after the Falklands War, ownership of the rocky outpost remains at the center of diplomatic tensions between the two nations. "Argentina renews its firm commitment to peacefully settling its differences, to international law and multilateralism, the foreign ministry under the country`s new president, Mauricio Macri, said in a statement. Buenos Aires "invites the United Kingdom to resume as soon as possible negotiations aimed at settling fairly and definitively, the sovereignty dispute over the Malvinas (Falklands) islands, South Georgia, South Sandwich islands and surrounding territorial seas," the statement said. Argentina maintains that it inherited the remote, windswept Falklands from Spain when it gained independence. Britain says it has historically ruled them and that the islanders should have the right to self-determination. Washington: The United States warned Saudi Arabia, which has a Sunni Muslim majority, that its execution Saturday of a prominent Shiite cleric behind anti-government protests "risks exacerbating sectarian tensions." The US also urged Riyadh to "respect and protect" human rights, said State Department spokesman John Kirby, following the execution of Nimr al-Nimr. Another 46 men were executed, including Shiite activists and Sunnis accused of involvement in Al-Qaeda killings. The executions sparked angry condemnation from Shiite-majority Iran and Iraq, while the EU similarly expressed concern about possible "dangerous consequences" in a region already fraught with sectarian tensions. Some of the executed were beheaded, while others were shot by firing squad. "The United States also urges the government of Saudi Arabia to permit peaceful expression of dissent and to work together with all community leaders to defuse tensions in the wake of these executions," Kirby said in a statement. "We are particularly concerned that the execution of prominent Shiite cleric and political activist Nimr al-Nimr risks exacerbating sectarian tensions at a time when they urgently need to be reduced. "In this context, we reiterate the need for leaders throughout the region to redouble efforts aimed at de-escalating regional tensions." Jerusalem: Two Israeli soldiers, one a woman, were wounded on Sunday in separate shootings in the flashpoint West Bank city of Hebron, the army said. The young woman was seriously wounded when a gunman opened fire on her, and she was evacuated to Jerusalem's Shaare Tzedek hospital, as army statement said. The shooting happened near a disputed holy site in the heart of Hebron's Old City, which is known to Muslims as the Ibrahimi Mosque and to Jews as the Cave of the Patriarchs. Three hours later, another gunman opened fire on an army patrol in southern Hebron, slightly wounding a soldier, the army said, adding that the unknown assailant fled after the attack. Some 500 Jewish settlers live under tight guard among around 200,000 Palestinians in the southern West Bank city, where several anti-Israel attacks have been carried out in the past weeks. Today's shootings come amid a wave of violence since the beginning of October last year that has killed 138 Palestinians and 20 Israelis. 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Transport Minister Ignasius Jonan's restriction, which sent shares of taxi companies soaring, will be seen as another embarrassment for President Joko Widodo, who has struggled to keep his cabinet members in line since he took office last year. Just months ago he invited dozens of motorbike drivers employed by Go-Jek, whose lime-green colours are now ubiquitous in the traffic-clogged streets of Jakarta, to lunch at his palace. (http://bit.ly/1Oc4H5K0) "Don't let the people be burdened because of regulations," Widodo said on his official Twitter account, adding that regulations "need to be managed". He said he would "immediately" summon Jonan for talks. The Kompas newspaper reported on its website late on Thursday that Jonan's ministry had banned the use of personal vehicles for public transport. The minister then rowed back on Friday, saying in a statement that online ride-hailing services could continue to operate until a solution to meet public transport needs is found. He gave no further details. Jonan is no stranger to controversy. This year he introduced a "positive equity rule" for airlines that compelled carriers, including the Indonesia affiliate of AirAsia Bhd, to bulk up on equity. Shares of Indonesian taxi operators PT Blue Bird Tbk and PT Express Transindo Utama Tbk surged on Friday after the reported ban on online rivals. The attempt to cripple ride-hailing services provoked an online outcry: within hours #SaveGojek was the top trending topic on Twitter in Indonesia. "Thanks to President @Jokowi for his support to 200 thousand Go-Jek drivers and 8 million of our application users," Go-Jek founder Nadiem Makarim said on Twitter. As the furore grew, Transport Ministry spokesman J. A. Barata said in a hastily arranged briefing the government would be a laughing stock if it was legal for dangerous vehicles to carry the public. "People will laugh at us," he said. GrabTaxi, another online rides service, said it respects regulations and is taking steps to improve safety for passengers, but is in any case not even a transport operator. "GrabCar and GrabBike are technology partners to licensed transportation companies, and do not own any vehicles nor is a transport operator," a spokeswoman said in an email. (Additional reporting by Fransiska Nangoy and Eveline Danubrata; Writing by Eveline Danubrata; Editing by John Chalmers) Rumble Introducing the recipe for seafood Chijimi (Korean pan cake) made with Nira (garlic chives) and squid. Adding carrots adds a gentle sweetness and the indescribably enchanting texture of fluffy, chewy pancake is almost addictive. Thinly cooked with the flavor of sesame oil and dipped in the authentic homemade sauce, this dish is a delicious dinner or finger food. The recipe can easily be modified for restricted diets, substituting the squid for thinly sliced pork, or even subbing all animal based products with vegetarian ones (roasted vegetables instead of meat - vegetable broth instead of chicken, etc). ============================================================= YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDvC... Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/hungrycooki... ============================================================= 00:38 Prepping Ingredients 01:25 How to Gut a Squid 03:43 How To Make Chijimi Dipping Sauce 05:28 Putting Together the Chijimi 06:43 How to Cook Chijimi Ingredients (for one chijimi) Weak (Cake) flour... 1/3 cup Potato starch ... 2 tbsp Water... 1/3 cup Garlic chives ... 1/3 bunch Carrots ... 1/8 (about 5cm) Squid ... 1/2~1 Salt Torigara (chicken bone) soup stock base (or Hondashi) 1 tsp Olive oil Sesame oil Sauce Soy sauce... 2 tablespoons Vinegar... 2 tablespoons Kochijang... 2 tsp Ichimi chili pepper Sesame oil... 1 tablespoon La-Yu (chili oil) Sesame Cooking Recipe Slice the Garlic Chives into 3~5cm pieces and julienne the carrots. Gut, wash, and prep the squid into about 3-5cm strips. This is a good time to prepare the sauce, so mix the sauce ingredients together to create the dipping sauce for the pancakes. Add cake flour and potato starch, mixing loosely. Add water, salt, and torigara (chicken bone broth concentrate) or a different stock base like Hondashi, and stir until smooth. Lastly, add prepped vegetables and squid into the bowl and mix to incorporate. Place the a pan over high heat and when hot, pour in sesame oil and olive oil. Add the batter made in step 4 into the pan, shape, and cook for 1~1.5 minutes on one side. When solid and lightly browned, flip the pancake and cook the other side through, pressing down with a spatula as needed. Before completely cooked through, pour sesame oil along the rim of the pan and cook for 1~1.5 minutes more until browned. Reduce heat to medium and cook until both sides are both sides are fragrant and of good color. After removing from the pan when fully cooked, cut into bite sized pieces and serve with prepared dipping sauce. Cooking tips Thinly sliced pork is a delicious alternative to squid. This recipe can also be made vegetarian by subbing meats with roasted eggplant or other hearty vegetables, and broth subbed with vegetable broth concentrate. If you like a sweeter dipping sauce, add a pinch sugar when putting the sauce together. If you add an egg the taste will be much richer. However, add more flour to the batter as too small of an amount will result in a heavier, less crispy pancake. A recommended ratio will be about 1 cup of flour to 1 egg. When cutting pancakes, the chives are a little hard to cut and tend to lose their shape so cut them carefully. The pancake is easier to cut if you have a pizza cutter on hand. From glorious careers to ideas that have shaped politics for a generation, 2015 was a year of political demise. For some leading MPs, political ambition died a death on a night of drama in May. If politics were a soap opera then on election night the script writers had gone mad. It was the plane crash in Emmerdale, the tram ploughing into Coronation Street, the fire at the Old Vic - with a dozen household names wiped off the scene in one episode. But many frontbenchers who lost seats don't even make the top ten - because what happened on election night wasn't even the half of it! Here are the top ten political deaths of 2015 10. Yvette Cooper: The former Shadow Home Secretary has retreated to the wilderness of the backbenches after deciding she was unable to serve under new leader Jeremy Corbyn. In her bid for leadership she said she was "not convinced" Mr Corbyn wanted to be Prime Minister. 9. Sir Malcolm Rifkind: In February, the former Tory Cabinet minister was caught up in a cash-for-access scandal along with Labour's Jack Straw. Mr Rifkind was forced to stand down as chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee. Both were later cleared of wrongdoing by the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner, but more questions were raised this month by an Ofcom investigation into the events. 8. Lord Sewel: Not many of us had heard of him before 2015 but we got to know perhaps more than we needed to about Lord Sewel this year. The man in charge of standards in the House of Lords was pictured on the front page of the Sun wearing a pink bra. After intense media pressure he was forced to resign as Deputy Speaker in the Lords. 7. Grant Shapps: The Former Tory Party Chairman and International Development Secretary weathered a few scandals in his time but not that of the Tatler Tory. Mark Clarke faces allegations of bullying in the youth wing of the Tory party. Failure to keep him in check was pinned on Mr Shapps. 6. Vince Cable: The Lib Dem Former Business Secretary lost his 12,000 vote majority in Twickenham in one of the big shocks of the election. Story continues 5. Nick Clegg: He clung on to his seat in Sheffield but resigned as party leader after seeing Lib Dems lose 49 seats in what he described as a "cruel and punishing night." The party of government was reduced to eight places in the Commons. 4. Ed Miliband: He had a cruel night too. Was it the bacon sandwich, the economic competence question, or just a failure to offer a compelling alternative to the Conservatives? The electorate chose more austerity and cuts over Labour's plans to crack down on zero hours contracts and non-Doms. 3. Ed Balls: It might seem odd to give the Shadow Chancellor the number three slot ahead of his Leader, but the man who'd been a prominent feature of the party for a decade was the defining image of the night when he lost his seat of Morley and Outwood. 2. Scottish Labour: More significant than even Miliband and Balls was the death of Scottish Labour. Douglas Alexander, the architect of Labour's election campaign, couldn't even save his own seat from the Scottish National Party revolution in Scotland. He was defeated by 20 year-old Mhairi Black. Labour was left with one marker in its former heartland. The SNP took 56 out of 59 seats. 1. Blairism: Maybe this won't prove as significant for Labour as the loss of Scotland and some say Blairism isn't completely dead, but certainly it's on life support. The man himself said his party faced "annihilation" and was "walking off a cliff with eyes shut," if it elected Jeremy Corbyn as Leader. It did just that. When Chuka Umunna failed to stand for the Leadership, and Liz Kendall came last in the race won by Mr Corbyn, Blairism walked off a cliff. It is said that at this year's Labour Christmas party Tony Blair's signature tune Things Can Only Get Better was played. Corbynites sat it out while noting the names of those on the dance floor. Political deaths don't get much bigger than Blairism. What a year! By Mukesh Gupta and Rupam Jain Nair PATHANKOT/NEW DELHI, India (Reuters) - Militants launched a deadly attack on an Indian Air Force base near the Pakistan border on Saturday, exchanging fire with Indian forces who, backed by tanks and helicopters, battled for more than 15 hours before wresting back control of the compound. The assault by gunmen disguised as soldiers, in which all five attackers and at least two guards were killed, came a week after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made an unscheduled visit to Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif in an effort to revive bilateral talks. Previous attempts at dialogue between the nuclear-armed neighbors have been derailed by similar incidents but, as Pakistani authorities condemned the raid, experts suggested the latest negotiations would prove more durable. "We have seen the same pattern again and again when there are attempts to restart the peace dialogue," said Ajai Sahni, executive director of the Institute for Conflict Management in New Delhi. "It may lead to a momentary pause in the ...dialogue and attacks from the (Indian parliamentary) opposition for not pursuing a harder line, but I don't think it will have a long-term impact." The gunmen entered the heavily fortified Pathankot base in India's northwestern state of Punjab before dawn, officials said. Once inside, they opened fire indiscriminately. They had earlier hijacked a police officer's car and driven it to the base - tactics used in previous attacks believed to have been committed by Pakistani-trained militants, Punjab's police chief Suresh Arora told Reuters. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Saturday's attack, in which a home ministry official said two guards were killed. Sporadic gunfire continued through the day and helicopters flew as Indian troops combed the base in search of surviving gunmen. A Reuters witness said he saw two tanks go into the base. Home Minister Rajnath Singh said in an evening posting on his Twitter feed that all five gunmen had been killed. Singh said India wanted peace with Pakistan but that any terrorist attack would get "a befitting response", a statement analysts described as restrained. Pakistan condemned the attack and said it wanted to build on the goodwill created in the recent high-level contacts. "Pakistan remains committed to partner with India as well as other countries in the region to completely eradicate the menace of terrorism," foreign ministry spokesman Qazi Khalilullah tweeted. TV footage showed armed guards outside the base, which is located 50 km (30 miles) from the border with Pakistan, and police stepped up vehicle checks in the area. SLEEPER CELLS The attack may have been carried out by Jaish-e-Mohammed (the Army of Mohammed), Indian security sources said, based on an initial analysis. The Pakistan-based militant group based in Pakistan is seeking independence for Indian-ruled Kashmir. "Punjab is also a corridor for drug smuggling and ... several (Jaish-e-Mohammed) sleeper cells have been activated in Punjab," said a home ministry source, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter. The raid resembled an assault last July by uniformed gunmen on a police post in a Punjabi border town that killed nine people. But Saturday's attack was much more audacious in targeting a large military facility from which India's Russian-made fleet of MiG-21 fighter jets and Mi-35 attack helicopters fly. The government said the gunmen had been prevented from entering the area where "high-value assets are parked". Security experts say tight security along the countries' disputed frontier through Kashmir has pushed the focus of militant activity south toward softer targets in Punjab. India and Pakistan have fought two wars over Kashmir since independence and partition in 1947. The Muslim-majority region remains a bone of contention that India only recently agreed to discuss after months of on-off attempts to relaunch talks. (Additional reporting by Paritosh Bansal, Andrew MacAskill and Karen Rebelo; Writing by Douglas Busvine; Editing by Paul Tait and John Stonestreet) As of August 26th, 2021 Yahoo India will no longer be publishing content. Your Yahoo Account Mail and Search experiences will not be affected in any way and will operate as usual. We thank you for your support and readership. For more information on Yahoo India, please visit the FAQ DECATUR A new casino could open in the Decatur Conference Center & Hotel under a proposal that the Decatur City Council will likely hear soon. Under the plan, two former Argosy Gaming Co. executives, Jeff Roberts and Joseph Uram, would install the casino in the conference center atrium, about 14,000 square feet. It could include 400 to 600 gaming positions, generating an estimated $2 million to $3 million in revenue for the city and adding as many as 200 jobs. Local businessman Steve Horve would continue to own the conference center. He said the move would allow him to continue renovations to the remaining 185 of his 370 hotel rooms. He anticipates an uptick in business and hiring more employees to manage a buffet, drink service and security. Its a win-win for Decatur, Horve said. Were looking for economic growth, and were not asking for enterprise zone (benefits), were not asking for (tax increment financing), nothing. The developers plan to ask the council for its support in advance of seeking state legislation to include Decatur among sites eligible for a casino license. Without city leaders' backing, the idea would likely fail, said Ed Flynn, a local attorney who represents the developers. Theres no sense in us trying to push forward and going into the legislation if our council is not going to embrace it, he said. Decatur first surfaced last year as part of a legislative package to introduce new casinos in several locations across the state, including Chicago. Currently, Illinois authorizes 10 casino licenses that each allow up to 1,200 gaming positions. While state law determines the number and general location of licenses, the Illinois Gaming Board awards those licenses to casino owners for specific sites. One factor working in favor of the conference center proposal is that construction could take place in as little as four months, developers said. Uram said he began exploring possibilities in Decatur after seeing it mentioned in a newspaper article. Former Mayor Mike McElroy introduced him to Horve. After touring the city, Uram became convinced that the conference center was the perfect spot. He praised its location and visibility, with plenty of parking and room for expansion. Its absolutely made to drop a casino in it, Uram said. Its an appropriate size for either 400 or 600 gaming positions. Steve already has the restaurants, he has the room blocks, he has the parking, he has the highway access. Its absolutely a marriage to be made in heaven. The developers estimate that 35 percent to 40 percent of the casinos revenue could come from outside of Macon County, particularly from Sangamon County residents. Uram and Roberts said they have never built a casino without using union construction workers and hiring union employees. (Gambling) produces jobs, Uram said. They are real jobs. They're jobs that aren't going away. They are not minimum-wage jobs, and they're jobs with benefits. Illinois casinos pay wagering taxes, based on their adjusted gross receipts, and admission taxes, based on the number of patrons who visit. A portion of both is designated for the city where the casino is located. Based on amounts generated by other casinos, developers estimate Decatur would gain $2 million to $3 million per year. Thats not counting increased sales taxes, hotel use taxes and food and beverage taxes that could be generated by the casino activity, Uram said. The amount of revenue that were talking about here is a material amount, I think, to a community of this size, he said. He acknowledged that there could be concerns about alcohol-related incidents and gambling addiction, but pointed out that the city is already filled with video gambling in bars, restaurants and gaming parlors. Casinos work hard to make sure that people do not drink and drive, he said, and to provide security that helps patrons feel safe. Also, people who have gambling problems can ask the state to place them on an exclusion list to keep them out of the casino. I think this community needs to ask itself, are the upsides of potentially $3 million in annual tax revenue and 200-plus jobs and the incremental tax benefits such as real estate taxes, sales taxes, hotel occupancy taxes, do those benefits offset these downsides? Because theyre real, he said. City Manager Tim Gleason said the council could examine the subject during a goal-setting discussion Jan. 19, or as part of a study session in February at the latest. Council members had already planned to look into the number of video gaming licenses the city allows in Decatur. Gleason described the possibility as exciting, but acknowledged that there could be concerns. Whenever youre talking about gambling, theres definitely a downside, he said. But to even be having this discussion and Decatur being considered for a new casino license, its exciting to be in that discussion. By Sharon Reich Writer and pod cast host Romeo Edmead is using his fingers to unlock a world he has never experienced before. Edmead lost his sight when he was just two-years-old, so he has always had a complicated relationship with art and museums. While he has heard of classical paintings, he says school trips to museums were uncomfortable. "I knew that what my friends would experience, because I went to public schools with sighted kids, and knew that what they would experience, I wouldn't necessarily experience because they could use their sense of sight and I didn't have that. Touching was obviously... prohibited. So it was a double edge sword growing up," said Edmead. He describes running his fingers over a 3D version of Emanuel Leutze's "Washington Crossing the Delaware," at a library for the blind in New York City, as a kind of "freedom." "All my life we've all heard of famous painters and their works. But to me, that's all they were," he said. "They were like vocabulary words I could write down on the page but I didn't necessarily know how to put a physical picture together. Something like this presents that opportunity, that freedom to get a better understanding. It's one thing to have something described to you. But if you never could see before and have no memory of seeing like me it's a whole different ball of wax when you actually get to touch it." The man behind the 3D printed works is John Olson. A former photographer for LIFE magazine, Olson co-founded a company called 3D Photoworks that developed and patented their own printing process for works of fine art. "It's a three step process, in which we in step one take any conventional two dimensional image and convert it to 3D data. Once that data has been converted, we send it to a machine that sculpts the data out of a block of substrate. It gives that image length, width, depth and texture. And once that's been sculpted it goes through a printing process where we lay the image back down on top of the relief in perfect registration. So what you end up with is a three dimensional print that has length, width, depth and texture," said Olson. While Olson met with Edmead to guide him through the works himself, the company has also developed a string of sensors across the artworks, that when touched, give the viewer audio information, to contextualize the painting and help the viewer understand certain key elements. For Rowana, who lost her sight when she was 28-years-old, being able to touch the paintings was a very different experience than Romeo's. She said having that context is especially important for someone like her, who uses memory when visualizing art. She admits that she was skeptical, but after touching a 3D reproduction of Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa," which she remembered seeing, it all made sense. "It's nice because now it's attainable. Now I could feel it and judge for myself what I think it looks like. Because even as you look at it I'm sure you see this differently than he would. You know? So to be honest it just makes me able to experience it because if I'm in a room and it's just hanging on a wall ... you know I could stay at home and somebody could describe something to me. I don't need to go to a museum to have somebody describe it to me." It took Olson seven years to develop the method, but now he is moving full speed ahead. He is raising money to scale up the production with a Kickstarter campaign and has already booked a 3D printed show of photos taken by blind photographers that will be held at The Canadian Museum for Human Rights in 2016. "Our goal is to make art and photography available to the world's blind population," he said. "There are 285 million blind and sight impaired world-wide. One person goes blind in the U.S. every 11 minutes. So our goal is to make this available at every museum, every science center, every institution, first in this country and then beyond." Ayse Birsel, is an award-winning designer and co-founder of Birsel + Seck. Her work has appeared in museums including the MoMA, the Cooper Hewitt and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. She is the author of "Design the Life You Love: A Step-by-Step Guide to Building a Meaningful Future" (Ten Speed Press, 2015). Ten Speed Press is an imprint of Penguin Random House. More on Ayse Birsel at www.aysebirsel.com and on Twitter, @aysebirselseck. She contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. This fall I read "The Martian" (Crown, 2014) by Andy Weir, and it made me want to be a scientist. I was drawn to Mark Watney, the main character, by his optimism, creativity and problem solving which he maintained even in the face of the most dire conditions (it doesn't get any more dire than being left alone on Mars!). It's because I share those three traits optimism, creativity and problem solving that I'm a product designer. But while science is about explaining the world and universe based on facts, my field is about imagining the world based on possibilities. Designers look at everyday products, services and experiences in new ways, and design to improve life. In doing so, we tag-team with engineers, who are indispensable to making our designs manufacturable and real. Design for life In my career, I've designed hundreds of products, from toilet seats to office systems to kitchen gadgets to pens. Some of my designs you might have already used, such as a potato peeler for Giada's collection at Target to the Herman Miller Resolve Office System you may be sitting in as you read this article. Even though the products vary greatly, the red thread across all of them is my design process Deconstruction:Reconstruction. It helps me, and those around me, think differently and bring new solutions to old problems. Even problems in life. "Design the Life You Love" started as an experiment. I think that people's lives are their biggest design projects full of constraints, challenges, and opposing needs and wants and I wanted to see if I could apply my process and tools to living. You simply cannot have everything. If you want to have more, you need to make what you want and what you need co-exist. This requires that you think like a designer. Story continues I fell in love with the human scale of design when I was 16. A family friend came to tea and asked me if I knew what product design was. I didn't. Using a teacup, he explained to me that the edge of the cup is curved to better fit people's lips, the handle is to help people hold hot liquid in their hands and the saucer is there so that if I spilled some of my tea, I wouldn't ruin my mom's tablecloth. Design 101 for scientists Since I often work closely with engineers, I've come to realize that the design process has uncanny similarity to the scientific and engineering processes, yet it differs in key ways. By understanding the design process I use, everyone, including scientists, can gain insight into solving complex problems that they might want to think differently about including how to live a complete life. Here are a few simple steps to help you tackle challenges like a designer: 00. Warm up: Draw something to warm up your right brain (if you wonder about the difference between the right and left brains, here is a great article). You might say as a scientist that you don't draw. Come on! Everyone draws. It doesn't have to be masterpiece. Just rest your eyes on something a flower, a mug, a cat or a person (you can use the template below if you're drawing a person) and draw for 3 minutes. There, now you just sent a signal to your brain that you're going to think creatively. [The Roots of Creativity Found in the Brain ] 01. Deconstruction: Deconstruction is breaking the whole apart to see what it's made of. You can even deconstruct something very familiar, like science, to see what goes into it. Here is my deconstruction of science across the four quadrants of emotion, physical reality, intellect and spirit (the four quadrants tool is one I use to think holistically). 02. Point of View: People can shift their points of view intentionally. As this beloved Shakespeare quote says, "There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so." In design, you want to shift from what you know to what you can imagine. I have gathered a couple of tools over time to help shift my perspective from what I know to what I can imagine. My favorite is the metaphor. You can use metaphors to help think about difficult subjects through the lens of something you know. One of my favorite STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) projects is STEAM Carnival by Two Bit Circus, which uses the metaphor of a traveling, high-tech carnival to teach people, young and old, about science. Imagine being inside the Dunk Tank Flambe, which spouts out flames instead of water when a player hits the target with a softball, engulfing in this case my friend John Zapolski in fire. Luckily for John, he is wearing a super-flame-retardant suit. Image is courtesy of photodepot.com and Two Bit Circus. 03. Reconstruction: Reconstruction is the other side of Deconstruction. It is about putting the subject back together again, knowing that you cannot have everything. Design is about making choices, and the three circles above symbolize your constraints. What are the three essential components of your new idea, the ones to which you will devote your time and energy? And what new value do they create together? 04. Expression: Expression is giving your idea form. You build on the foundation of your new idea, and you express it as a unique prototype, a product, a strategy, a mathematical formula or a hypothesis. This approach is about making design process and tools accessible, especially to nondesigners, around a project everyone shares: In life, people can solve problems with creativity and optimism. [Ditching Gadgets May Boost Creativity ] Which brings us back to Mars. Even if I cannot go to Mars tomorrow, I would love to work with amazingly creative scientists and engineers to bring design and science together to generate solutions for old (and new) problems. I really want to learn how to think more like a scientist. That would be the best of STEAM: I bring the "A" of Arts and Design, and you bring STEM, and together we do our best left- and right-brain thinking. That would be a dream come true, a life well-designed perhaps on Mars? Follow all of the Expert Voices issues and debates and become part of the discussion on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. This version of the article was originally published on Live Science . Copyright 2015 LiveScience, a Purch company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. The rain in Spain seemed to turn a gory shade of blood red. A scientist revealed he hadn't showered in more than 10 years. Somehow, tapeworms got even worse. These are just a few of the weird things that happened this year around the world. Here are the strangest (and arguably, the coolest) science stories of 2015. 1. Blood bath Last fall, residents of several villages in northwest Spain were alarmed when the water in their local fountains turned an unsettling shade of crimson. But the blood-red water wasn't the work of a cold-hearted killer; it was actually the result of natural processes. A study published in September 2015 found that Spain's bloodbaths were teeming with the microscopic freshwater algae Haematococcus pluvialis, which produce a red pigment when they're stressed. Such algae aren't all that unusual in other parts of the world, but they rarely turn up in northwest Spain, the scientists said. Still, the researchers behind the recent study about the "blood rain" have yet to determine how the algae found its way into the village fountains. [Read the full story about Spain's "blood rain"] 2. Parasite surprise A Colombian man with lung tumors developed the malignant growths in a very unusual way: A tapeworm growing inside him was full of cancerous cells that spread to the man's cells, eventually killing him. It was the first known report of a person becoming sick from cancer cells that developed in a parasite, said the researchers who studied the man's case. The 41-year-old man was HIV positive, which may have weakened his immune system, allowing the parasitic cancer cells to grow unchecked inside his body, the researchers said. [Read the full story about the cancerous tapeworm] 3. Stinky experiment How long can you go without showering? Two days? Three? Perhaps a whole week? Well, one man recently announced that he hasn't showered in 12 years on purpose. The man, a chemical engineer in Boston, said he believes that humans don't need to shower to be healthy. In fact, he said that bathing may strip the skin of beneficial bacteria that keep odor-causing bacteria at bay. The man's strange experiment goes hand-in-hand with his development of a bacteria-containing body spray that is supposed to keep BO in check, even in the absence of a daily shower. [Read the full story about the man who hasn't showered in 12 years] Story continues 4. Poop problems For Halloween this year, Burger King unveiled an unusual menu item: a Whopper with a black bun. At first, this spooky-looking burger seemed like a totally harmless way to celebrate All Hallows' Eve, but once digested, the black bun yielded an unsavory surprise. The Halloween Whopper turned people's poop green. The emerald-hued stools were likely the result of the black bun's abundance of food coloring, which is often not fully absorbed by the intestines, resulting in oddly colored poop. [Read the full story about the strange effects of the Halloween Whopper] 5. World's longest fingernails A lot of world records were awarded in 2015, but perhaps the strangest of these accolades was bestowed upon a man in India who hasn't cut his fingernails since 1952. Shridhar Chillal earned a Guinness World Record for his 30-foot-long (9 meters) claws, which have not been trimmed in 62 years. Sure, his long nails make certain daily tasks more difficult (even sleeping through the night is an issue), but now the 78-year-old has a nice plaque to show for his efforts. [Read the full story about the world's longest fingernails] 6. Robot battle Talk about the geekiest battle of the year: MegaBots, a robotics startup in Boston, recently challenged its one and only competitor, Suidobashi Heavy Industry of Japan, to a duel. MegaBots builds giant, human-piloted robots that look like something out of a "Power Rangers" episode. The company's 15-foot-tall (4.6 m) bot, the Mark II, is set to take on Suidobashi's Kuratas a 13-foot-tall (4 m) robot with an onboard arsenal of rapid-fire BB guns in 2016. [Read the full story about the giant robot battle] 7. Spiky snack A snake in South Africa opted for an unusual snack in June, and the decision cost the poor reptile its life. The 12.8-foot-long (3.9 m) python swallowed a porcupine whole. Dining on porcupines isn't all that unusual for pythons in Lake Eland Game Reserve in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. But what happened next is not the norm. The python fell off a rocky ledge while digesting its meal, and park rangers think that, upon the snake's impact with the ground below, the porcupine's spikes may have pierced the python's digestive tract, causing the animal's death. [Read the full story about the porcupine-eating python] 8. Spider shower In May, residents of southwest Australia had some unusual weather. Millions of tiny spiders "rained down" on a region of New South Wales, covering the land with their sticky webs. "Spider rain" or "angel hair," occurs when spiders exhibit a behavior known as ballooning, in which they release a small amount of silk from their spinnerets, which catches in the breeze, transporting the critters to a new location. Normally, ballooning goes unnoticed by most humans. But sometimes, weather conditions prohibit spiders' ability to balloon for weeks at a time. When the bad weather finally lifts, millions of the arachnids will balloon at once, causing spidery conditions that are hard to overlook. [Read the full story about the spider rain] 9. Zombie simulation A very important question was answered in 2015: Where should Americans retreat in the event of a zombie apocalypse? Researchers from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, performed a full-scale computer simulation to determine how "zombie outbreaks" would spread through the United States. The scientists found that the best place to run when all of your neighbors turn into flesh-eating monsters is the Rocky Mountains, an inaccessible and sparsely populated region. The worst place to be when the zombies take over is the city, any city, the researchers said. Head for the hills! [Read the full story about the zombie simulation] 10. Robot hospitality This year, developers in Japan announced the opening of a unique kind of hotel. The Henn-na Hotel, which translates to "strange hotel," is staffed almost entirely by robots. Reception attendants, waiters, cleaning staff and cloakroom attendants are actually walking, talking bots. These humanoid helpers (there are a few dinosaur- and plant-inspired bots, as well) are "employed" at the hotel just outside of Huis Ten Bosch, a theme park in Nagasaki that is modeled after a typical Dutch town. [Read the full story about the robot hotel] Follow Elizabeth Palermo @techEpalermo. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science. Copyright 2015 LiveScience, a Purch company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. By Lisa Maria Garza DALLAS (Reuters) - An elderly woman's body donated to a medical research lab was discovered on the side of a north Texas road after falling through the back window of a transport van, police said on Friday. The mortuary van carrying the body of Nell Joseph, 79, was headed to a Science Care facility in Colorado on Tuesday when a rear window broke and the cadaver slid out onto the highway without the driver noticing, said police in Denton, north of Dallas. An officer found the black body bag with Joseph's remains packed in medical-grade ice during a routine patrol. The van's cargo and passenger areas are separated by a metal barrier, which could have prevented the driver from noticing that the cadaver fell out, police said in a statement. Joseph died from a lung disease in a Fort Worth hospital on Thanksgiving Day. Her remains were donated for the study of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, her family told local broadcaster WFAA-TV. Melinda Ellsworth, a spokeswoman for Science Care, said the van was carrying multiple donors but only Joseph's body fell off the vehicle. The company has suspended services with the transportation provider. "The family still wants to go forward with the donation," she said. (Reporting by Lisa Maria Garza; Editing by Jon Herskovitz and Sandra Maler) By Joel Flynn The Zoological Society London (ZSL), whose mission is to promote and achieve the world-wide conservation of animals and their habitats, says it may have taken a step closer to fulfilling that with the development of a new camera, which it calls Instant Detect. Developed in partnership with other companies like Seven Technologies Group, which specializes in security technology and helped train rangers on conservation sites on how best to use Instant Detect devices, ZSL hopes it could help the fight against poaching, as well as the monitoring of endangered and other species. In the last 40 years 95 percent of rhinoceroses have been poached and more than 100,000 African elephants from 2011-2014 have been illegally killed, according to the charity group. Instant Detect is a camera trap system that uses satellite technology to send images from anywhere in the world, according to ZSL Conservation Technology Unit Project Manager, Louise Hartley. "It's a camera that we would deploy in the wild, it has to be quite sturdy and it often uses motion triggers, so it will have a passive infrared sensor to detect heat changes, so as an animal or a person walks past an image will be captured, and it's just a great way to get an insight into the wild that you wouldn't be able to do if you were a person," she said. The satellite node uses a Raspberry Pi computer to send the images via the Iridium satellite network, which is a satellite constellation providing voice and data coverage to satellite phones, pagers and other integrated transceivers. A filter moves across the lens detecting the change from day to night and adjusting the camera accordingly, so it can see in the dark using night vision. According to Hartley, it has two main uses - monitoring and catching poachers. "We have a deployment in Antarctica to monitor penguins, so we're getting images back daily to look at the penguin behavior and also look at environmental change in that area," she said. "We're also using it for anti-poaching purposes to improve security within protected areas. So an alert, an image, would be sent to an operations room and then rangers can then react accordingly to that alert," she added. If an intruder enters a protected area the camera picks that up and sends an alert. It also has magnetic sensors that can pick up cars, guns and even knives, also triggering the alert to local rangers. The Instant Detect box has a camera lens in the middle, surrounded by an LED array used for night-time imagery using infrared flash - "so when it goes off you won't be able to see it, it's not visible to the human eye," said Hartley. "We have here the passive infrared sensor, so that's the motion detector, so it detects heat change, so as a person or a species is walking in it will trigger an image to be taken," she added, "you can also set it to timelapse so you can set an image to be taken every four hours or every five hours for example." The crucial part, though, is how it talks to ZSL's monitors and to local rangers. "You have the antenna attached to the top here, and then you would have a battery pack attached to the bottom here. When an image is taken there's a separate unit called the satellite node, and the images are sent via radio frequency to the satellite node and then the satellite node uses the Iridium Satellite Network to send that image to where you need it," Hartley said. Other anti-poaching technologies have come to the fore recently, including the Real-Time Anti-Poaching Intelligence Device (RAPID) developed by conservation organization Protect with support from the Humane Society International. DNA analysis, acoustic traps, thermal imaging and improving analytics and mapping are all contributing to the fight against poaching as well. ZSL hopes that Instant Detect could be a crucial addition to that growing arsenal, in what remains a battle with high costs. The Kruger Park, South Africa's main tourist draw, is one place on the front-line of the battle against a surge in rhino poaching for the animal's horn to meet demand in countries such as Vietnam, where it is a coveted ingredient in traditional medicine. The poaching of rhinos there rose in 2015, although it was on the decline elsewhere in the country. ZSL has limited ambitions for the time being on the device's usage, although they do eventually want to scale up and roll it out even further. "For the business aspect of Instant Detect, we're really just using it for conservation purposes, so we'll roll it out to two different sites for anti-poaching or for remote monitoring. A lot of that will be through grant funded, but also we may sell additional systems to four conservation uses," Hartley said. "We want to bring in new transmission methods," she added. "So as new connectivity is improving around the world, in addition to satellite, we'd also like to have GSM capabilities in there, so when it is available we can send it by mobile networks, because it is a lot cheaper than satellite." "We also want to look at how we can reduce the cost so it is more scalable and do things like improve image quality, so you get a really, really great image which would support evidence for example in prosecutions," she added. ZSL is also focusing on countries where they have resources and man power to follow up on conservation work. By Ben Hirschler LONDON (Reuters) - AstraZeneca is diving into the world of proteins secreted by cells - collectively known as the secretome - in the hunt for new drugs and better "cell factories" for making biotech medicines. The so-called secretome accounts for around one third of human proteins and the idea of mapping them all follows the decoding of the human genome in 2000, since when there has been a surge in scientific buzzwords ending in "ome". The secretome is one of the newest as scientists only unraveled the full array of proteins involved at the start of this year. As a result, its potential as a resource for pharmaceutical research remains largely unexplored. AstraZeneca hopes to get in on the ground floor of this opportunity through a three-year collaboration with the newly established Wallenberg Center for Protein Research in Sweden. The new center is being funded primarily by the Wallenberg family, which also owns Investor, the third largest shareholder in AstraZeneca. The Wallenberg Foundation is providing a $37 million grant over eight years for the center, while the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker will contribute $1.2 million a year for three years. In addition to hunting new drug targets for diseases ranging from heart disease to cancer, AstraZeneca said in a statement on Friday that its experts would also be looking at protein secretion processes that could improve medicine manufacturing. Currently, the drugs industry relies on a limited number of cell types - notably Chinese hamster ovary cells - to make biotech drugs in large fermentation vats. In future, there may be the potential to tap other kinds of cells that are better suited for large-scale production. (Editing by David Evans) Giant comets that originate in the planetary fringes of the solar system pose a greater threat of colliding with Earth than do asteroids, which originate closer to the sun, a new review paper argues. In the last two decades, scientists have discovered hundreds of giant comets (known as centaurs) in the region near Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, according to a statement from the Royal Astronomical Society. No centaur poses a known immediate threat to Earth, but the discovery of this massive population has led a group of astronomers to re-assess the threat of these seemingly distant bodies to this planet. [Pictures of Potentially Dangerous Asteroid] Estimates currently suggest that one of these giant comets crosses Earth's orbit on average only once every 40,000 to 100,000 years, at which time the comet is believed to break up into dust and debris that can collide with the planet. These collisions may be responsible for environmental upheavals in Earth's past; they may even be associated with the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, the statement said. Centaurs are between 31 and 62 miles (50 and 100 kilometers) across and move in unstable orbits near the giant planets. Occasionally, the gravitational influence from one of these planets can send the centaur careening toward Earth. "In the last three decades, we have invested a lot of effort in tracking and analyzing the risk of a collision between the Earth and an asteroid," said Bill Napier, an honorary professor in the Centre for Astrobiology at the University of Buckingham in the United Kingdom, in the statement. Napier is first author on a review paper that aims to re-assess the threat of centaurs to the Earth. "Our work suggests we need to look beyond our immediate neighborhood, too, and look out beyond the orbit of Jupiter, to find centaurs," Napier said. "If we are right, then these distant comets could be a serious hazard, and it's time to understand them better." Story continues The statement said that "known severe upsets" of Earth's environment, accompanied by a disruption in how ancient civilizations evolved, mean that a centaur must have been in Earth's neighborhood roughly 30,000 years ago. This centaur would have shed clumps of debris ranging from fine dust to pieces several miles in diameter, some of which hit Earth. The researchers point to the existence of many submillimeter craters in rocks brought back from the moon by Apollo astronauts. (Because the moon has no geologic activity or atmosphere, craters are better preserved on its surface). Since the craters were mostly 30,000 years old or younger, it suggests an influx of dust in the solar system after that time period. Other environmental disruptions, in 10,000 B.C. and 2,300 B.C., suggest centaurs could have been responsible for changes in the Earth at those times, the statement said. The review paper was published in the Astronomy & Geophysics journal of the Royal Astronomical Society. Follow Elizabeth Howell @howellspace. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com. Copyright 2015 SPACE.com, a Purch company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. By Sankalp Phartiyal NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India successfully test-fired on Wednesday a new long range surface-to-air missile capable of countering aerial threats at extended ranges, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi pushes to enhance the country's military capabilities. India, which shares borders with nuclear-armed China and Pakistan, is likely to spend $250 billion over the next decade to upgrade its military. It is the world's biggest buyer of defense equipment but Modi is trying to build a defense industrial base in the country to cut overseas purchases. The test-firing of the missile system, jointly developed by India and Israel, was carried out by warship INS Kolkata, the Ministry of Defence said in a statement said. Defense industry told Reuters last year that the value of the Barak 8 project was $1.4 billion. The aerial defense system includes a radar for detection, tracking and missile guidance. Only a small club of countries including the United States, France, Britain and Israel possess such capability, a Defence Research and Development Organization spokesman said. Israel is one of India's top three arms suppliers, delivering items such as missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles, but such transactions were long largely unpublicised because of India's fear of upsetting Arab countries and its own large Muslim population. (Additional reporting by Jatindra Dash; Editing by Robert Birsel) SAN FRANCISCO Scientists have jury-rigged a microwave oven and a liquid made of food and cosmetics thickener to recreate the Earth's mantle, the mysterious middle layer of the planet. The mock-up mantle could help scientists determine whether a hidden pool of radioactive elements is producing heat deep in Earth's interior, Angela Limare, a physicist at the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris in France, said Tuesday (Dec. 15) here at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union. "It looks like the upper mantle is really depleted of radioactive elements," Limare said. "If they are not in the upper mantle, they must be somewhere below." [In Photos: Ocean Hidden Beneath Earth's Surface] Mystery mantle The Earth's mantle is a molten mass of unanswered questions. The rocky shell between the core and the crust makes up four-fifths of the planet but is the least understood portion. Because it begins anywhere from 5 miles (8 kilometers) to 20 miles (32 km) below the planet's surface and extends about 1,800 miles (2,900 km) below the Earth's surface, scientists can't drill deep enough to determine what it's made of, how the elements in the mantle are distributed or exactly how it moves. Instead, they often use a process called seismic tomography to send seismic waves through the Earth and then analyze their return paths to infer its composition. Volcanologists may also sample the elements in magma from volcanoes that oozes up from mantle plumes deep in the Earth, Limare said. One question in particular has long puzzled scientists. The Earth generates about 46 terawatts of heat. Scientists have calculated that about 8 terawatts come from the continental crust floating atop the mantle, while heat generation from the core, which sustains Earth's magnetic field, contributes another 10 to 16 terawatts. This means that about half of Earth's heat is generated by the radioactive decay of elements in the mantle. Story continues The trouble is, seismic tomography suggests that, except for the top and bottom of the mantle, radioactive elements are sprinkled evenly throughout the mantle, and the concentration of those radioactive elements seems to be too low to generate the remaining heat, Limare said. And at the bottom of the mantle, seismic tomography detects two large regions of slow-moving material that must be chemically distinct from the rest of the mantle. Meanwhile, magma from volcanoes fed by mantle plumes that reach deep into the lowest depths of the mantle can show different chemical compositions, even if the volcanoes are separated by just a handful of miles, she said. Altogether, that suggests there could be material at the innermost layer of the mantle that is very different in composition from the rest of the mantle. As a result, some scientists have proposed that a hidden reservoir of radioactive elements lurks deep in the mantle and produces the missing heat. If this hidden reservoir exists, it must be very stable and must not be mixing with the rest of the ever-churning mantle, because otherwise, seismic tomography would have detected it, Limare said. With no way to experimentally test this notion, however, geophysicists have been left to hash out their debates in a flurry of models, equations, numerical theories and simulations. [Photo Timeline: How the Earth Formed] Nuke the mantle So, Limare and her colleagues decided take a more hands-on approach. They simulated the mantle using a sheet of cellulose-derived Natrosol that was 11.8 by 11.8 by 2 inches (30 by 30 by 5 cm) thick. At first glance, a small, viscous liquid may seem to have very little in common with 1,800 miles of sandy rock that make up the mantle. But by carefully calibrating some of the properties of the gel such as its depth, length, viscosity and temperature the researchers can create a scaled-down model with heat and fluid transport properties very similar to those of the mantle. Limare's team used the Natrosol because it is very easy to vary its viscosity by adding more or less water, while the material can be made denser by sprinkling in salt or.less dense by thinning with alcohol. The material also makes it easy to create two adjacent layers of the "mantle" with different properties, she said. Next, the scientists mimicked the extremely uniform internal heat generation of radioactive elements inside the mantle. For that, they looked to a ubiquitous household appliance the microwave oven. Microwaves enter and are absorbed by the food, and generate internal heat in the process. "That's how we heat up food; it's exactly the same process," Limare told Live Science. Of course do we even need to say it? don't try this at home! The researchers' microwave may have started out as a commercial oven, but it's been eviscerated and tricked out with sophisticated and high-tech modifications, from liquid crystal thermometers to laser sheets to fancy cameras that operate in two different wavelength ranges. "The only thing left from the commercial stuff is the external box and the door, because the door is very well done," Limare said. In the experiment, the boundaries between the Earth's layers are not exactly true to life; the mantle rubs against the molten core and the bottom of the continental crust, but the Natrosol mixture had to be put in a plexiglass container so it wouldn't lie in a puddle at the bottom of the microwave, Limare said. Narrowing in on the hidden reservoir Still, the model has already provided a few early insights. For instance, when the researchers modeled a mantle with a dense, low-viscosity "hidden reservoir," rivers of heat flowed from the top of the mantle to the bottom. If these rivers of heat reach far enough into the mantle, they would destabilize a hidden reservoir of radioactive elements lurking at the bottom of the mantle. So if a hidden reservoir does exist, it probably wouldn't density, thickness and other characteristics that create a destabilized regime in the mockup mantle, the researchers said. The microwavable mantle is important because it could help scientists narrow the range of conditions that could exist in a hidden reservoir of radioactive elements, said Gael Choblet, a planetary interior researcher at the CNRS (Centre national de la recherche scientifique) and the University of Nantes in France, who was not involved in the current study. The new technique is novel because it's the first time scientists have produced extremely uniform internal heating in a viscous material that can mimic the mantle, Choblet told Live Science. Though the new results on their own are unlikely to solve the mystery of the hidden reservoir, "it's always very good to compare laboratory experiments and numerical models," Choblet said. "The comparison is usually quite fruitful." Follow Tia Ghose on Twitterand Google+. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science. Copyright 2015 LiveScience, a Purch company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. By Irene Klotz (Reuters) - A U.S. science satellite slated to launch to Mars in March has been grounded due to a leak in a key research instrument, NASA said on Tuesday, creating uncertainty about the future of a widely anticipated effort to study the interior of the planet. The spacecraft, known as InSight, was designed to help scientists learn more about the formation of rocky planets, including Earth. The cancellation raises questions about the future of the research effort, as it will be another 26 months before Earth and Mars are favorably aligned for a launch. Over the next couple of months, NASA will assess options for repairing the faulty instrument, a sensitive seismometer that was provided by the French space agency, CNES. Budgetary limits may factor into a pending decision on whether NASA will proceed with the program. After landing on Mars, InSight was designed to detect quakes and other seismic activities, as well as measure how much heat is being released from the planets subsurface and monitor Mars wobble - or variations in its orbit - as it circles the sun. The troubled seismometer, which detects minute vibrations, features sensors encased in a nine-inch (23-cm) wide vacuum sphere, which has been plagued by a series of leaks since August. Engineers believed they had fixed the problems, but another leak surfaced on Monday during testing. We just dont have enough time to find the leak, fix it and still make it to the launch pad in March, John Grunsfeld, NASA associate administrator for science, said during a phone call with reporters. InSight arrived last week at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California to begin preparations ahead of a launch targeted for March 18. The costs for the InSight mission, including launch and data analysis, are capped at $675 million, up from an initial $425 million, NASA Planetary Sciences Division Director Jim Green told reporters. So far, the U.S. space agency has spent $525 million on the program, including buying an Atlas 5 rocket from United Launch Alliance, a partnership of Lockheed Martin and Boeing. (Reporting by Irene Klotz in Tel Aviv; Editing by Letitia Stein and Alan Crosby) A novel method for "plucking" individual particles of light out of a laser pulse could lead to major breakthroughs in quantum computing, researchers say. Using a combination of supercooled atoms and cutting-edge optical technology, physicists from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel were able to extract a single photon from a beam of light. Individual photons are of great interest to physicists because they are governed by the laws of quantum mechanics rather than the rules of classical physics (which normally apply to light). Many scientists also see photons as a promising candidate to carry information in future quantum computing systems. [Wacky Physics: The Coolest Little Particles in Nature] "Light composed of photons is already the best carrier of information we have," said Barak Dayan, a senior scientist at the Weizmann Institute of Science, whose lab developed the new method. "But once we move into quantum technologies, we are going to have to use single photons as the carriers of information, so being able to control single photons will be crucial." In a previous study published in the journal Science in 2014, the researchers showed how the method could be used to create an all-optical router for quantum communication systems. They created a switch to send single photons down different pathways and encode them with quantum information, with the position of the switch determined by its interaction with the photons. A key benefit of quantum communication is that it is ultrasecure, because the process of measuring any quantum system generally disturbs it, the researchers said. This would normally alert the operator to any eavesdroppers, but according to Dayan, the solution they devised could be used to spy on certain systems. At present, most single-photon sources are imperfect and occasionally produce more than one photon. "One of the worries is that someone smart could make sure that, if there's one photon, their device doesn't do anything, but if there are two photons, it intercepts the spare one," Dayan said. Story continues This is known as the "photon number splitting attack," and it could be used to decode messages without the interception (of the particle) being detected. Alternatively, operators could use the approach to purify their transmissions by removing extra photons, Dayan said. Researchers have removed single photons from a beam of light before, in a process called photon subtraction that uses low-reflectivity beam splitters to divert the particles. But the method is probabilistic, meaning it is hit-or-miss whether a photon will be removed with each pulse of light. In addition, the only way to determine whether the process was a success is to use a photon detector, which absorbs the particle and means it can't be used for anything else. [The 9 Biggest Unsolved Mysteries in Physics] "In our case, there are two advantages," Dayan told Live Science. "One: In principle, it always happens it's deterministic. Two: You're not losing the photon, just diverting it, and you can use it for other processes." The solution uses a single rubidium atom held in place by lasers that cool it to near absolute zero. (Absolute zero equates to minus 273.15 degrees Celsius, or 459.76 degrees Fahrenheit.) Coupled to this is a micro optical resonator effectively, a 30-micron-wide sphere of glass (for perspective, an average strand of human hair is about 100 microns wide) used to confine light long enough for individual photons to interact with the atom. Light is fed into the resonator using a nanoscale fiber-optic cable. The researchers rely on a physical effect they call "single-photon Raman interaction," or SPRINT. This causes the atom to block the transmission of light until a single photon is reflected, at which point, it becomes transparent to the remaining photons. Unlike previous methods of photon subtraction, the SPRINT effect, by its very nature, always removes a single photon from an incoming beam, the scientists said. And though the researchers currently send the extracted photons toward a detector to confirm their findings, the particles of light could be diverted elsewhere, they added. But Dayan is keen to stress that, for now, his team's work is designed to demonstrate the SPRINT effect, rather than to build a practical quantum communication device. "The realization is very complex there's a reason no one has done this before," he said. "It combines several technologies, and that combination is very challenging. That's why it has taken us years to build this lab and this experimental setup." The use of supercooled atoms is beyond the scope of commercial systems, but Dayan said researchers are working on a number of technologies designed to mimic the unique properties of atoms, including quantum dots, which are tiny semiconductors that exhibit interesting quantum effects, such as being able to absorb light from one wavelength and convert it to highly saturated light at a different wavelength. "Once one of these technologies matures, that effect we have demonstrated will be applicable there as well," Dayan said. The new study was published online Nov. 23 in the journal Nature Photonics. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science. Copyright 2015 LiveScience, a Purch company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. By Sam Wilkin DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's execution of a leading cleric from the Shi'ite Muslim minority drew protests from around the world against the ruling Al Saud family and threatened to further intensify a wave of sectarian conflict in the Middle East. Lebanon's Supreme Islamic Shi'ite Council called Saturday's execution of cleric Nimr al-Nimr a "grave mistake", and the Hezbollah group termed it an assassination as Shi'ites took to the streets in protest from Tehran to Kashmir. Saudi Arabia executed 47 people including Nimr, whom the government accused of inciting violence against the police. His supporters, however, said he was a peaceful dissident who advocated greater rights for the kingdom's Shi'ite minority. Scores of Shi'ites in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province marched through Nimr's home district of Qatif shouting "down with the Al Saud", and several hundred gathered in nearby Bahrain, a Sunni-ruled island kingdom allied to Saudi Arabia. In Iran, a Shi'ite theocracy and rival to Saudi Arabia, state media channels carried non-stop coverage of clerics and secular officials praising Nimr and predicting the downfall of Saudi Arabia's Sunni ruling family. Shi'ite leaders in Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, and Yemen also warned of reprisals, in a signal that sectarian conflicts across the Middle East could be further inflamed. As a Saudi-led coalition announced the end of a ceasefire in its war with Yemen's Houthi movement, the Houthis said Nimr had been given a "mock trial". In India, hundreds of Shi'ites demonstrated in the Muslim-majority northern province of Kashmir, where one protest organizer said the charges against Nimr were "baseless". TERRORISM CHARGES Three other Shi'ites were executed alongside Nimr, but most of the convicts were jihadists linked to al Qaeda, a radical Sunni group that regards Shi'ites as heretics and has often targeted them in its attacks. Shi'ite groups across the region accused Saudi Arabia of using terrorism as a pretext to execute Nimr, a figurehead for the kingdom's restive Shi'ite population who called for peaceful protests in sermons broadcast online. The Saudi government says Nimr ordered his followers to attack the police, and was to blame for a series of shooting and petrol bomb attacks that killed several policemen during anti-government protests in Qatif in 2011-13. Lebanon's Hezbollah, however, said Nimr had "demanded the squandered rights of an oppressed people", and condemned Riyadh for executing him and other Shi'ites alongside "terrorist bands". "Nimr resisted oppression with words," the group added. In Beirut, Shi'ite shopkeeper Abu Ali Dimashq said he hoped Nimr's death would prove "a victory against the Al Saud family, because this is the beginning of their end, God willing." Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei added his voice to a chorus of condemnation by tweeting a tribute to Nimr. His website also carried an image comparing Saudi Arabia to Islamic State, as other Iranian officials accused the kingdom of supporting terrorism. "The Saudi government supports terrorists and takfiri (radical Sunni) extremists, while executing and suppressing critics inside the country," foreign ministry spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari said. The wave of condemnation could harm Saudi Arabia's efforts to form an Islamic alliance against the jihadist militants of Islamic State. Riyadh announced the coalition last month, but did not include the Shi'ite powers. Politicians, militias and a prominent cleric in Shi'ite-majority Iraq called on the government to sever ties with its neighbor, just one day after Saudi Arabia reopened its embassy in Baghdad for the first time since 1990. Iran's foreign ministry had said on Monday it was willing to talk to Saudi Arabia after months of escalating tensions, but any chance of a rapprochement appeared to be derailed as clerics, officials and students lashed out at the kingdom. (Additional reporting by Angus McDowall in Riyadh, Stephen Kalin in Baghdad, John Davison in Beirut, Fayaz Bukhari in Srinagar, and Noah Browning and Sami Aboudi in Dubai; Editing by Helen Popper) The government's appointment of Synerflux Sdn Bhd to manage the recruitment of Bangladeshi workers has sparked worries that the private company will monopolise the labour market, leaving the Bangladeshi government with no say in the recruitment process. Bangladeshi newspaper The Daily Star today reported that the Bangladesh High Commission in Kuala Lumpur sent a letter advising the expatriates' welfare ministry in Dhaka to study the issue seriously before signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Malaysia on labour recruitment. According to the report, the December 6 letter states: The Malaysian government will select Bangladesh Recruiting Authorities through online system supervised by a [Malaysian] company. The Bangladesh government will not have any control to ensure whether any recruiting agency will get work or not. The report also named former home minister Tan Sri Azmi Khalid and Aminul Islam, a Bangladeshi who resides in Malaysia, as the owners of Synerflux that would be the sole and exclusive entity to develop, maintain and manage a fully online system known as Bangladeshi Workers Management System (BWMS). In October last year, it was reported that Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said in a written parliamentary reply to PAS MP Datuk Mahfuz Omar that Synerflux was shortlisted to handle the labour transfer; however, the deal was not yet finalised. The following month, Zahid told DAP lawmaker Charles Santiago in a written parliamentary reply that the government had not appointed Real Time Networking Sdn Bhd, a company owned by his brother, Datuk Abdul Hakim Hamidi, to bring in 1.5 million Bangladesh workers. Civil society organisations had warned that the bid by Real Time Networking smacked of conflict of interest, nepotism and collusion as it gave Zahid, who is also the deputy prime minister, oversight of approvals for incoming migrant workers. The Dhaka-based newspaper also reported that Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (Baira) president Muhammad Abul Basher was opposed to the appointment of Synerflux, and urged the government not to allow "a syndicate that will control and monopolise labour recruitment and breed irregularities in the market". Bangladeshi's Expatriates' Welfare Minister Nurul Islam, however, was quoted as saying he was unaware of an alleged syndicate and that discussions between governments would be held before the MoU signing, that has been deferred following a request from Malaysia. January 3, 2016. By Rod Nickel REUTERS - Canada will take in more than 6,000 Syrian refugees by the end of 2015, missing its already delayed target of accepting 10,000 by year-end, the Canadian government said on Thursday. Immigration Minister John McCallum said he expects Canada to reach that goal by mid-January, and meet its larger target of accepting 25,000 refugees by the end of February. "It is better to do it well and fast, but doing it well is the highest priority," McCallum said. Canada's recently elected Liberal government campaigned on a promise to accept 25,000 refugees by the end of 2015. But it pushed back the date after the deadly November attacks in Paris, saying it would bring in 10,000 by year-end and the remaining 15,000 by the end of February. McCallum said the government by the end of Thursday will have fully screened 10,700 refugees to come to Canada, fleeing from civil war and violence by the militant group Islamic State. Canada's public service is processing about 10 times more refugees per month than usual, said Health Minister Jane Philpott. The pace has raised security concerns. Canada's government will inevitably cut corners on security screening, security sources said last month, before Ottawa delayed its target the first time. Once the target of 25,000 by the end of February, McCallum said he expects Canada to bring in at least 10,000 more in 2016, for a total of 35,000 to 50,000 refugees helped by the government and private sponsors. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was elected to a surprise majority in October, promising to accept more refugees more quickly than the ousted Conservatives. The first planeload of government-sponsored Syrian refugees landed in Toronto earlier this month, met by Trudeau. Opposition legislator Jenny Kwan of the New Democratic Party said she hoped what she described as the government's "mishandling" would not damage Canada's international reputation. "Not only did this minister (McCallum) irrefutably fail to live up to the promise Liberals made to Canadians in the last election, but he even failed to meet his own lowered expectations," she said. Even so, international aid agencies praised Canada this month as a humanitarian example. In contrast, some U.S. governors have said their states would not accept Syrian refugees. President Barack Obama has pledged to bring as many as 10,000 Syrian refugees into the United States during the U.S. fiscal year that began in October. (Reporting by Rod Nickel in Winnipeg, Manitoba; Editing by Dan Grebler) Barack Obama has reveled in defying predictions that 2015 would make him a lameduck president, but securing his final year goals -- from closing Guantanamo to enacting gun control -- will test the limits of White House power. The last year of a US presidency can be a pitiful thing. Many a commander-in-chief who bestrode Washington like a political Colossus can struggle to command much at all. New crises erupt, and victories won in the spring of an administration unexpectedly provoke a winter of discontent. In their final years, George W. Bush watched the economy fall off a cliff, Ronald Reagan was ensnared by the Iran-Contra scandal, Bill Clinton was impeached and Woodrow Wilson had a stroke. For Obama, a long-avoided morass in Syria and a costly quagmire in Iraq may come to define 2016, as fears grow about the threat from the Islamic State group. But Obama has offered Americans an alternative vision for his own eighth and final year in the Oval Office. "I've never been more optimistic about a year ahead than I am right now," he said before heading to Hawaii for an end of year family vacation. "In 2016, I'm going to leave it out all on the field." Obama has proved himself remarkably adept at cauterizing the loss of power. In 2015, he thwarted a recalcitrant Republican-controlled Congress to reach a landmark nuclear deal with Iran and inked a global environmental accord that, in his words, can begin to "solve the climate crisis." He watched the Supreme Court enshrine gay marriage into law and tentatively agreed a vast trans-Pacific trade deal that gives teeth to his "pivot to Asia" and could shape geopolitics in the Pacific for generations. His approval ratings -- although dented by fears about Islamic State terror after the San Bernardino attack -- are around 45 percent, higher than Bush's and roughly the same as Reagan's at the same point. In 2016, Obama will try to keep momentum by deploying all the tools and trappings of office -- from the bully pulpit to high-profile presidential visits. His voice will echo across the 2016 campaign, as he hits the road in support of expected nominee Hillary Clinton and a Democratic third term that would emboss his presidency. Before that, he is likely to become the first sitting president since Calvin Coolidge to visit Cuba. But even that short trip across the Strait of Florida illustrates how much Obama's final year success is out of his hands. A trip to the land Fidel Castro would be rich in symbolism, an echo of Reagan's first visit to the Soviet Union in 1988, or Richard Nixons visit to China. But without Congress's willingness to end the embargo on Cuba, a visit would not thaw the last frosty remnants of the Cold War in the Americas. Equally, ratifying the landmark trans-Pacific trade deal still requires reluctant Democratic lawmakers to vote in favor. That may have to wait until after the November election. - Ready to deal - Publicly, at least, Obama is optimistic about dealing with the opposition-dominated Congress, even after being repeatedly burned -- even if it is an election year, and even if disdain for the 44th president is a rare issue upon which Republicans can all agree. Yet recent agreements on taxes, the budget and early childhood education have left the White House more hopeful that progress can be made on issues like criminal justice reform. It is a cruel irony that America's first African-American president has struggled to improve race relations, or address sentencing laws that see a disproportionate number of young black and Hispanic men go to prison. "There is a confluence of interests, I believe the time is ripe for this issue," said a senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity. "There is a process and it is on track." Obama is even holding out hope, however unlikely, that congressional Republicans will relent in their opposition to gun control and on closing Guantanamo. On both issues, the White House is already considering executive orders to bypass Congress and enact reforms, something that would ignite a political and legal firestorm. Obama's efforts to bring a generation of immigrants out of the shadows offers a preview of what those fights could look like. Experts predict lengthy court battles and a possible political backlash, all of which could leave supporters in limbo and a key Obama policy goal in the hands of the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, the president's perceived excessive use of executive orders could alter the delicate balance of power in Washington. As a presidential candidate, Obama criticized George W. Bush over executive overreach. "I taught the Constitution for 10 years, I believe in the Constitution, and I will obey the Constitution of the United States," Obama once said on the campaign trail. "We don't want to be like Bush," said an official who recently left the Obama administration, discussing the problems of closing Guantanamo by executive order. But neither does Obama want to run out the clock on his presidency. Residents of a Paraguayan village that risks being submerged in floodwater were defying authorities' calls to evacuate on Thursday as a nearby dike threatened to burst, officials said. The Paraguay River bordering Argentina has broken its banks at various points in recent rainstorms, forcing 130,000 people from their homes. But in the southeastern village of Alberdi, many of the 10,000 locals were hunkering down rather than shipping out. Floodwater has transformed the village into an island. "The dike is leaking. Water is gushing out of it and our experts say there is a big risk that it will burst open like a tsunami," the country's emergencies minister Joaquin Roa told AFP. "There is a wall of water heading south. We cannot wait any longer. We have to evacuate." Experts say the tropical extreme weather phenomenon known as El Nino and unseasonably hard rain are to blame for widespread flooding in South America in recent weeks. Floods have displaced 170,000 people overall in Paraguay, neighboring Brazil and Argentina, and Uruguay, officials say. At least 12 people have been killed by flooding in Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina. Despite the risks, Alberdi's mayor, Federico Centurion, said about 50 families were not heeding his calls for them to evacuate. "We are in the hands of God and the Virgin." - Fearing a flood 'tragedy' - Instead of fleeing, residents were piling up sandbags to protect their homes. "The inhabitants of Alberdi do not want to believe that the dike can collapse," Centurion said. "The speed of the water is striking. Added to that are the waves caused by big container boats that are constantly passing along the river. All of that is putting pressure on the dike." One resident, shopkeeper Gabriela Gonzalez, reckoned however that "the authorities are exaggerating." Disembarking from a boat in Alberdi with bags of merchandise, she said the water will not burst through the dike. One of the soldiers helping evacuate villagers, Lieutenant Colonel Catalino Benitez, said they were meeting resistance among locals. "They tell us, 'What happened in such-and-such a year was worse. That is their consolation," he said. "They don't even like us to be here, although we have come to help." Among those who did heed the warnings was Juana Vargas, who agreed to flee with her family across the river to the Argentine city of Formosa. "We have not had a good Christmas," she told AFP. "We have children. They are playing in the mud. There are mosquitoes. It's not safe to drink the water so they are getting sick," she said. "I'm afraid there'll be a flood in the night while we are sleeping." Roa said that if the river kept rising, he would "be obliged to apply to state prosecutors to order the use of force" to evacuate residents. "If the dike breaks during the night, there will be a tragedy." El Nino strikes every few years, associated with a sustained period of warming in the central and eastern tropical Pacific. Last month, the UN's World Meteorological Organization warned the current El Nino was the worst in more than 15 years, and one of the strongest since 1950. By Noah Barkin BERLIN (Reuters) - For the past decade, German politics has been a relatively dull affair, with Angela Merkel dominating at the national level and the major parties in agreement on all the big issues, from euro zone bailouts and refugees to the phase-out of nuclear energy. But that may change in 2016, when five of Germany's 16 states hold elections in the build-up to the next federal vote a year later. Not only is Chancellor Merkel looking more vulnerable than ever before because of her welcoming stance towards the hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing war in the Middle East, but the rise of the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has injected a new element of surprise into the political landscape. Add to that an unprecedented splintering of the electorate, which means that six parties have a legitimate shot of entering most state parliaments, and Germany's normally cozy, consensual politics begins to look a bit less predictable, and potentially more divisive, than it has in a long time. The wild card is the threat of an attack by Islamist extremists on German soil, a risk highlighted on New Year's Eve when authorities received a tip that Iraqi and Syrian nationals were planning suicide bombings at train stations in Munich. It could be fatal for Merkel, officials in Berlin acknowledge in private, if such an attack were carried out successfully by people who entered Europe with the flood of migrants, as was the case with two of the men involved in the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris. Even if Germany is spared such a horror, the refugee crisis will continue to dominate the political debate this year, polarising voters and emboldening Merkel's opponents on the right and left. So far the most damaging attacks have come from her conservative sister party, the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU). "If we don't see success in limiting the tide of refugees, we could have a grassroots political tremor in Germany," said one senior government official, who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue. "If Merkel doesn't deliver you could see the AfD approaching 20 percent in the polls," the official predicted. AFD ON THE RISE Currently the AfD is polling between 8-10 percent, roughly double the 4.7 percent the party won in the last federal election in 2013, when it narrowly failed to clear the 5 percent mark needed to enter the Bundestag. That seems relatively harmless if you compare it to other like-minded parties across Europe, like the National Front in France, the Freedom Party in Austria or the Danish People's Party, which enjoy more than twice as much support. But the AfD's rise looks more significant when one considers that it has occurred against a backdrop of infighting and financial trouble within the party that might have crushed it. In the past half year, the party has weathered the departure of its founder, embarrassing slurs about African reproductive habits from one of its leading politicians, and a party financing law from the government that threatened to strip bare its coffers. In response to the new law, the AfD asked its supporters for donations and raised roughly 2 million euros in just three weeks, a testament to its drawing power. In three state elections that are due to be held in March, the AfD's newfound strength will be on stark display. It is on track to win 7 percent in the western states of Baden-Wuerttemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate and roughly twice that in Saxony-Anhalt in the east. "In every one of these elections, the performance of the AfD will be key in determining what constellations are possible," Torsten Krauel wrote in a front-page editorial in German daily Die Welt last week. MORE FRAGMENTED The rise of the AfD and a nascent comeback by the Free Democrats (FDP), a business-friendly, socially liberal party that was the kingmaker of German politics for decades before imploding in the last federal vote, means that there are now three legitimate right-of-centre parties in Germany, including Merkel's conservative bloc. Add to that the three leading parties of the left, the Social Democrats (SPD), Greens and hard-left "Linke", and German politics looks more fragmented than at any time since reunification in 1990. Merkel could yet emerge as the big loser from the new German political landscape if she is unable to stem the tide of refugees in the months ahead. If she is successful, it may be her coalition partner in Berlin, the SPD, who suffer most. The rise of the AfD and return of the FDP would make it more difficult for the SPD to form left-leaning majorities at the state or federal level, condemning it to second-tier status for the foreseeable future. And that weakness could turn the SPD into a more confrontational and unpredictable partner for Merkel as the next federal vote in 2017 approaches. (Reporting by Noah Barkin; editing by John Stonestreet) CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi warned critics on Tuesday not to hold protests on Jan. 25 to mark the anniversary of the 2011 uprising, saying a new revolt risked destroying the country. Opposition groups including the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, families of political prisoners, and left-wing activists are calling for mass demonstrations on Jan. 25, 2016 -- which marks five years since the start of an 18-day uprising that ended autocratic president Hosni Mubarak's 30-year grip on power. "Why am I hearing calls for another revolution? Why do you want to ruin (Egypt)? I came by your will and your choice and not despite it," Sisi said in a speech marking the Prophet Mohammed's birthday, which this year falls on Dec. 23. "Look around you to nearby countries, some of which I don't like to name, which have been suffering for 30 years and have not been able to come back. States that have been destroyed do not return." As the armed forces chief in mid-2013, Sisi ousted Mohamed Mursi, a Muslim Brotherhood member and Egypt's first democratically-elected president, amid widespread unrest over his turbulent rule. Sisi then banned the world's oldest Islamist movement and jailed thousands of its members. Rights activists say he has steadily rolled back the freedoms won in the 2011 revolt. A law has been passed banning Egyptians from protesting without permission, a move activists say is unconstitutional and aimed at preventing a repeat of the mass protests that have toppled two presidents in the last five years. Street protests have all but dried up since the protest law was passed as activists who have held even small, peaceful gatherings were detained. (Reporting by Mostafa Hashem and Ali Abdelatty; Writing by Lin Noueihed; Editing by Mark Heinrich) The Shadow Chancellor has stoked speculation Hilary Benn will lose his shadow cabinet role in a New Year Labour reshuffle by refusing to guarantee he will keep his job. John McDonnell, one of party leader Jeremy Corbyn's closest allies, failed to confirm Mr Benn would remain shadow foreign secretary in the widely expected post-Christmas reshuffle. But he warned that Mr Benn, who has been touted as next Labour leader, needed to be "fully engaged". One Labour frontbencher has told Sky News: "I can see mass resignations from the front bench if Hilary Benn is sacked. "We believed Jeremy Corbyn when he talked about a new kind of politics, but now good colleagues are being undermined." :: Corbyn: I'm Not Going Anywhere Sky's Political Correspondent Sophy Ridge said: "From the conversations I'm having, it does seem Hilary Benn's position is under threat as shadow foreign secretary." Mr Benn's position has been under threat since his rousing House of Commons speech in favour of military action in Syria, which set him at odds with Mr Corbyn. After delivering his address, in which he implored other Labour MPs to vote with him, Mr Benn was blanked by the Labour leader as he tried to regain his seat on the frontbench. There has been a growing clamour from Corbyn loyalists, including the group Momentum, for the Labour leader to sack MPs who voted against him on Syria. It has done little to repair the widening party rift or bring an end to the in-fighting. Speaking to Sky News, Mr McDonnell said: There will always be a place for anyone like Hilary Benn in any Labour administration. And he added: "All our existing role are all dependent on the leader of the party deciding on that and that includes my own so it will be for Jeremy Corbyn to determine who plays what role and when there are to be changes. "But as I said its always been an inclusive shadow cabinet and administration Jeremy Corbyn has brought forwards. Story continues "People like Hilary Benn's talents we just cannot waste, we need to ensure he is fully engaged." :: Benn's 'Truly Historic' Speech Silences Commons A Labour source said: "The question isn't if they're strong enough to do a reshuffle, but are they stupid enough. The answer to that last question is nearly always yes. "Allowing this speculation to run is divisive and damaging for the party going forward. It destroys the pretence of a new politics." It comes as Labour whip and Corbynite Grahame Morris took to Twitter to call for a "reshuffle to sack mutineers" 11 members of the shadow cabinet rebelled against the Labour leader on the Syria vote. Labour MP Ian Austin hit back, pointing out Mr Morris had repeatedly voted against the whip and called on him to name the "mutineers". Shadow defence secretary Maria Eagle is also expected to be removed from her post because of her support for keeping the Trident nuclear deterrent. Her sister Angela is also believed to be under threat in her post as shadow first secretary of state, as is chief whip Rosie Winterton, in a reshuffle that looks likely to target women members. It has also been suggested that there might be a role for the former leader Ed Miliband, who has recently been reinventing himself as a champion of environmental issues. By Angus McDowall RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's execution of a Shi'ite Muslim cleric provoked sectarian anger across the Middle East, but by putting to death dozens of al Qaeda convicts at the same time it also delivered a strong message that Sunni violence would not be tolerated at home. Riyadh knew its killing of Nimr al-Nimr and three other Shi'ites for involvement in police deaths would prompt outrage and protests abroad, but seemed to calculate that, within the kingdom at least, the consequences would be controllable. Amid rising regional turmoil and a series of bombings and shootings that have killed over 50 Saudis since late 2014, Riyadh's execution of 43 jihadists was a warning that internal support for militant Sunni groups would be crushed. Awadh al-Qirni, a prominent Sunni cleric who backs the government against the jihadists, tweeted that the executions were "a message to the world and to criminals that there will be no snuffing out of our principles and no complacency in our security". The Al Saud ruling family regard the expansion of Shi'ite Iran's influence in the Middle East as a threat to their security and to their ambition of playing the leading role among Arab states. Inside the kingdom, however, it is the threat of a rebellion by the majority Sunnis that most alarms a dynasty whose rule is based on conservative support at home and an alliance with the West. All past threats to the Al Saud, from a 1920s tribal rebellion to riots in the 1960s, a siege at Mecca's Grand Mosque in 1979 and protests in the 1990s, were caused by conservative Sunni anger at modernisation or ties with the West. That was why the al Qaeda uprising that began in 2003, and attacked the Al Saud by turning its own conservative Salafi brand of Sunni Islam against it, was such a danger. It is why the jihadist movement's latest iteration, Islamic State, is also a problem. While Islamic State seems to lack real support among Saudis, some may sympathise with its broader goals, approving of its rhetoric against Shi'ites and the West and its criticism of corruption among the Al Saud. By executing al Qaeda ideologues and attackers, Riyadh was showing its determination to crush support for the militant cause. By also killing four Shi'ites, angering Iran in the process, it was telling conservative Sunnis it was still on their side. WANTON EXCOMMUNICATION The notion that Saudi Arabia believes it is facing not only a physical threat, but an ideological battle with a rival interpretation of Salafi Islam, was strengthened by state media's focus on Faris al-Shuwail al-Zahrani among the executed. Zahrani, bearded, bespectacled, and in prison since 2004, is portrayed in Saudi media as al Qaeda's main ideologue during a series of attacks on expatriate housing compounds, police stations and oil facilities that killed hundreds. Described at the time by the government as "one of the heads of strife, a preacher of takfir", Zahrani helped articulate the jihadist view that the Al Saud had abandoned Islam, and that it was the duty of Muslims to kill them and their allies. Takfir, the process of excommunicating other Muslims by calling them infidels, is a central pillar of Salafi Islam. But unlike in Saudi Arabia's so-called Wahhabi version of Salafism, in which only Riyadh's state-appointed clergy are permitted to practise takfir, the jihadists say any Muslim can declare another to be infidel. That and other differences have set up a fierce enmity between the kingdom's official clergy - which runs the Sharia Islamic courts that sentenced to death the 43 al Qaeda figures executed on Saturday - and the jihadist ideologues whose main target is the Al Saud. "The official view is that these people are extremists involved in a wanton excommunication of other Muslims, in disobedience to the rightful ruler and in 'sowing dissention and disorder in the land'. So they are beyond the pale of Sunni Islam," said Bernard Haykel, professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton. The jihadists dispute Saudi Arabia's claim to lead Salafi Islam, the position of its state-appointed clergy as arbiters of religious orthodoxy, and the Al Saud's status as legitimate rulers of the country. SECTARIAN BALANCE Official Saudi media presented the jihadist Zahrani and the Shi'ite Nimr as equivalents - "inciters of violence and terrorism" as Sunday morning newspapers described them. It seemed to be an attempt by the government to reassure conservative Sunnis that Saturday's executions did not mean Riyadh would stop championing their sect against what it portrays as Shi'ite aggression across the Middle East. "My sense is the Shi'ite executions are a very convenient foil," said Haykel, adding that while the Al Saud did not regard its Shi'ite minority as posing as grave a threat as the jihadists, putting some of them to death helped rally the rulers' conservative base. (Editing by Giles Elgood) NEWARK, December 21, 2015 Black people were 9.6 times more likely to be arrested than White people in Jersey City in 2013 for low-level offenses such as loitering, possession of small amounts of marijuana, trespassing, and disorderly conduct, according to a study (PDF) released today by the ACLU of New Jersey. This extreme racial disparity was not unique to the states second largest city. Data for the most recent years available revealed disparities in low-level arrests in the three other municipalities studied Millville, where Blacks were 6.3 times more likely to be arrested; Elizabeth, 3.4 times; and New Brunswick, 2.6 times. Disparities in the number of arrests between Hispanics/Latinos and Whites also were significant, where data were available. Not all of the departments tracked ethnicity in their arrest data.The data reveal a clear pattern of communities of color disproportionately bearing the brunt of police practices that target low-level offenses, said ACLU-NJ Executive Director Udi Ofer.In Black and Latino communities, New Jerseyans are arrested for minor misbehavior at a much greater rate than in White communities. Unlike more serious crime, where there is a victim or some form of property damage, low-level offenses rest primarily on a police officers discretion to arrest for behavior that poses little or no harm to the community. The discretionary nature of these arrests creates ample opportunity for arbitrary and unfair enforcement of the law.The origins of this report stem from a 2013 national report by the ACLU that showed Black people in New Jersey were 2.8 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than White people, despite similar rates of marijuana use a clear indicator of selective enforcement.New Jerseys shameful racial disparities in arrests for minor offenses mirror what were seeing across the country, said Ezekiel Edwards, Director of the ACLUs Criminal Law Reform Project. Just as in Ferguson, Minneapolis, Maryland, and beyond, New Jersey police must end this unequal treatment and the harm caused to communities of color.The ACLU of NJ, supported by the national ACLU, further examined those findings by taking a closer look at arrest data from four municipalities in New Jersey Jersey City, Elizabeth, New Brunswick and Millville that reflected the diversity of the state in population density, demographics and geography.In the report, the ACLU-NJ examined 10 years of data on the enforcement of four low-level offenses: loitering; marijuana possession of 50 grams or less; defiant trespass; and disorderly conduct. The report chose to examine those arrests because police officers exercise so much discretion in the enforcement of these types of offenses.The report relied on departmental data for arrests obtained through the Open Public Records Act. The report originally sought to include Asbury Park in the analysis but the Asbury Park Police Department, despite the existence of a data management system and electronic database, was unable to produce records that could be properly analyzed and was dropped from the study.The report documented widespread and extreme racial disparities in all four locations studied. Among the findings of the report:* Racial disparities between Black and White arrests exist in every city studied. For the length of each citys study period, the data show Blacks in Millville were 6.2 times more likely to be arrested than Whites for the low-level offenses studied; in Jersey City, they were 4.8 times more likely; in Elizabeth, they were 3.6 times more likely; and in New Brunswick, 3.2 times more likely.* Individuals charged with low-level offenses are generally not involved in serious crimes. For example, 95% of the low-level arrests in Jersey City did not involve any other offense classified as serious by the FBIs Uniform Crime Report.* Some law enforcement agencies do not even track Hispanic/Latino data. For example, the Elizabeth Police Department does not track Hispanic/Latino arrests, despite serving a population that is nearly 60% Hispanic/Latino.* Police department records are often inaccessible and were kept in a haphazard manner by all four departments. The lack of transparent, reliable records hinders transparency and accountability.The human cost of all of these low-level arrests can be devastating.Even though these are low-level offenses, arrests and convictions can impose heavy burdens on the person involved, including payment of court costs and fines; criminal records that will follow them the rest of their lives; and loss of income, housing, child custody, or immigration status, said Alexander Shalom, Senior Staff Attorney for the ACLU-NJ. In extreme cases, a confrontation with police over a low-level offense can escalate into an episode of deadly violence.The report recommends remedies at the local and state level that include changing the policies and practices of police in enforcing the law; improving recordkeeping; and creating greater accountability by police to the civilian population they serve. Among the specific reforms:* Local officials, police chiefs, and prosecutors should agree to make enforcement of low-level offenses that do not harm public safety among their lowest priorities.* State and local government should adopt strong and enforceable anti-racial profiling laws and municipalities should mandate police training for conscious and unconscious bias, which can influence officers decision-making when dealing with the public* Police departments should stop using low-level arrests as a performance measure for evaluating officers.* Cities should institute oversight of police departments, such as a strong and independent Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) to review allegations of individual officers misconduct and Inspector General (IG) offices to monitor police policies and practices.* Law enforcement should expand use of police dashboard and body worn cameras with appropriate rules for retention and disclosure to the public.* New Jersey should legalize, tax, and regulate marijuana. The disproportionate number of Black arrests for marijuana possession, despite similar usage rates between Whites and Blacks, illustrates the fundamental unfairness of these laws in practice.* Local police departments must improve data collection and management, and they should systematically analyze the data for the benefit of the department and the public.* Police departments should collect data on arrests, searches and stops by requiring officers to fill out reports and publish the results online on a periodic, preferably monthly, basis.The report also calls on the Attorney General to investigate racial disparities in low-level offenses in municipalities throughout the state."This study serves as a glimpse into the racial disparities in low-level arrests for only four law-enforcement agencies. But it's clear: Black and Latino communities bear the disproportionate impact of enforcement in New Jersey, said Ari Rosmarin, Public Policy Director of the ACLU-NJ. The Attorney General should investigate whether such disparities exist throughout the state, determine the causes of the disparities, and take steps to eliminate them. It's time for action.American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Future in Jeopardy for the California State Grange by Save the Grange! In April of 2013, the national Grange Master issued a decision that declared the California State Grange as no longer part of the Grange family, and followed up with a variety of lawsuits to enforce that decision. University/agribusiness complex exposed: The Resnicks' deep ties to UC Davis, UCLAby Dan BacherBeverly Hills billionaire Stewart Resnick and his wife, Lynda, the co-owners of The Wonderful Company, are the Power Couple of Corporate Agribusiness in California, who have become virtual royalty in a state known for its entrenched "pay to play" politics.They exert their influence over California politics in a variety of ways, including dumping many hundreds of thousands of dollars into the campaign coffers of Jerry Brown, Senator Dianne Feinstein and many other politicians, both Democrats and Republicans, over the years, along with making contributions to the arts and Stewart Resnick's favorite environmental NGO, Conservation International.The Resnicks have become infamous as the "Koch Brothers of California Water" for the many thousands of dollars they contribute to candidates and propositions in California every election. For example, Stewart Resnick donated $150,000 to Yes on Prop 1, Governor Jerry Browns water bond campaign, in 2014. ( http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/10/09/1335459/-Corporate-Agribusiness-dumps-850-000-into-Proposition-1 The media, particularly alternative outlets, have revealed the instrumental role that Resnicks played in promoting campaigns to eviscerate Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections for Central Valley Chinook salmon and Delta smelt populations and to build the fish-killing Delta Tunnels.It is also well-documented how Resnick, while he served as an environmental leader on the Board of Directors of Conservation International, bought subsidized Delta water and then sold it back to the public for a big profit as Delta fish and Central Valley salmon populations crashed.As the West Coasts largest estuary plunged to the brink of collapse from 2000 to 2007, state water officials pumped unprecedented amounts of water out of the Delta only to effectively buy some of it back at taxpayer expense for a failed environmental protection plan, a MediaNews investigation has found, according an article by the late Mike Taugher in the Contra Costa Times on May 23, 2009. ( http://www.revivethesanjoaquin.org/content/pumping-water-and-cash-delta Environmentalists have also castigated the Resnicks, the largest orchard fruit growers in the world, and other corporate agribusiness interests for planting thousands of acres of new almond trees during the drought while Governor Jerry Brown is mandating that urban families slash water usage by 25 percent. ( http://www.eastbayexpress.com/SevenDays/archives/2015/04/22/well-connected-billionaire-expands-almond-acreage-as-cities-forced-to-slash-water-use The Resnicks' contributions to the arts and charities through the Resnick Family Foundation are also well publicized.Much less well-known are the Resnicks deep ties to the University of California system, including Stewart Resnicks service on UC Davis and UCLA boards and their foundations donations of millions of dollars to the university.I bet you didn't know that Stewart Resnick sits on the Board of Advisors of UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi, made famous for serving as Chancellor when UC Davis Police Lt. John Pike pepper sprayed students during the Occupy protests in the fall of 2011. ( http://chancellor.ucdavis.edu/initiatives/board_of_advisors/resnick_bio.html Resnick serves with other corporate leaders such as Riley P. Bechtel, chairman of the board of the Bechtel Corporation, and John S. Watson, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of the Chevron Corporation, on the Board of Advisors. For the complete list of Katehis Board of Advisors, go to: http://chancellor.ucdavis.edu/initiatives/board_of_advisors/index.html Thats not the only position in the educational system than Resnick holds. According to the UC Davis website, Stewart Resnick is a member of the Executive Board of the UCLA Medical Sciences and a member of the Advisory Board of the Anderson School of Management, at UCLA , his alma mater. Resnick holds a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and Juris Doctorate from UCLA Law School.It is at UCLA where Resnicks exert their influence the most with the millions of dollars they have donated. On May 24, 2013, the UCLA School of Law announced that it had received a $4 million gift from the Resnick Family Foundation to establish the Resnick Program for Food Law and Policy."The gift provides for as much as another $3 million in matching endowment funds, according to a news release from the UC School of Law. The new program, the first of its kind at a top tier law school, will explore ways to hasten improvements in the modern food system. In addressing questions of food safety, distribution and access, the Resnick Program will focus on reforming food law and policy for the benefit of the consumer. ( https://law.ucla.edu/news-and-events/in-the-news/2013/05/UCLA-School-of-Law-Establishes-Resnick-Program-for-Food-Law-and-Policy/ Dean Rachel F. Moran praised the Resnicks for their donations, stating, Alumnus Stewart Resnick 62 and his wife Lynda, entrepreneurs and dedicated philanthropists, have long used their charitable donations to promote public health. We are deeply grateful for their generosity and their commitment to advancing sound food law and policy.Stewart Resnick explained his vision for the Resnick Program:UCLA Law is a globally respected institution of higher education located in the food capital of the world. We grow more food in California than anywhere else, and the emphasis on health and wellness here ideally positions UCLA to take a leadership position. The rise of the global food trade has generated a modern food system that is different than anything the world has ever experienced.From the farm to the fork, this system has given rise to profound health, social, and cultural consequences. Our goal with this donation is to help consumers better understand exactly what theyre eating. Its also an opportunity to improve the clarity and accuracy of food labeling and broaden access to healthy food options. Im very optimistic that this program can save lives.Ironically, while Stewart Resnick claims to support broadening access to healthy food options, he has become the poster boy for industrialized corporate agribusiness, kept alive by unsustainable water exports. He and his wife have for years fought against laws that protect salmon and other fish, a healthy wild food source, and protect the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, the largest estuary on the West Coast of the Americas.University officials also named a hospital after the Resnicks, the Stewart & Lynda Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital at UCLA (NPH), in "honor of their support" for UCLAs medical care programsAccording to the hospital's website, the 74-bed acute psychiatric hospital is "among the leading centers in the world for comprehensive patient care, research and education in the fields of mental health, developmental disabilities and neurology. A key part of UCLA Health System, Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital is the major psychiatry teaching facility of the UCLA Center for the Health Sciences." ( http://www.semel.ucla.edu/resnick The Resnicks contributed $15 million to the construction of the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center that opened in June 2008. In 2002, they received the UCLA Medal, the universitys highest honor, in recognition of their extraordinary contributions to the campus. In 2005, the law school bestowed upon Stewart the UCLA School of Laws Alumni of the Year Award.Resnick is also a member of the Board of Trustees of Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY; a member of the Board of Trustees of the J. Paul Getty Trust; and trustee of the California Institute of Technology.The Resnicks have managed to use their wealth not only to exert enormous influence over water politics in California, but over the educational sphere as well, as we can see.In addition to serving on UC Davis and UCLA boards and panels, the Resnicks have also extended their influence over California water policy by forming Astroturf groups like the Coalition for a Sustainable Delta and the Californians for Water Security to promote the construction of Jerry Browns Delta Tunnels and legislative attacks on the Endangered Species Act and other laws protecting Central Valley salmon and steelhead, Delta and longfin smelt and other fish species. ( http://restorethedelta.org/blog/our-responses-to-gov-brown-on-drought-barriers-and-renaming-of-tunnels-to-pipes/ Among the companies the Resnicks own include Paramount Citrus, Paramount Farming and Paramount Farms, the worlds largest growers, processors and marketers of citrus, almonds and pistachios, according to UC Davis. Their holdings also include POM Wonderful, grower of pomegranates and maker of the POM Wonderful pomegranate juice; Teleflora, the largest floral wire service in the world; and FIJI Water, the largest imported bottled water in the United States.The couple also owns Suterra, the largest biorational pest control company in the United States, and JUSTIN Vineyards and Winery, a winery based in Paso Robles focusing on Bordeaux-style blends and single varietals.While the Resnicks exert enormous influence over California politics and institutions, another agribusiness giant, the Westlands Water District, rivals them in their ability to manipulate environmental politics in California. An article in the New York Times on December 30, 2015 exposes the huge political power that Westlands wields in state and national politics."A water utility on paper, Westlands in practice is a formidable political force, a $100 million-a-year agency with five lobbying firms under contract in Washington and Sacramento, a staff peppered with former federal and congressional powers, a separate political action committee representing farmers and a government-and-public-relations budget that topped $950,000 last year," the Times said. ( http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/31/us/farmers-try-political-force-to-twist-open-californias-taps.html The presence of Stewart Resnick on the boards of UC Davis and UCLA - and the formidable political force that Westlands Water District represents - are just a couple of examples of the growing collaboration between corporations, billionaires and government in California and across the nation that has led to the capture of the regulatory apparatus by Big Money interests. Facing temperatures below the freezing mark, a small group of activists stayed the night for their twenty-fifth community sleepout at Santa Cruz City Hall on December 29. The next sleepout is planned for Tuesday, January 5. [Top photo: A street sweeper buzzes by homeless advocate Toby Nixon as he lays in front of Santa Cruz City Hall at 6 am on December 30 during the twenty-fifth community sleepout.] Since July 4, community members in Santa Cruz have been sleeping one night a week at Santa Cruz City Hall to protest laws that criminalize sleeping in public places. Their main focus has been on the repeal of the local sleeping/camping ban, which outlaws sleeping in public (with or without blankets) in the City of Santa Cruz between the hours of 11pm and 8:30am, in addition to prohibiting sleeping in cars.Individuals are also sleeping at city hall to encourage officials to open public parks to those looking for a safe place to sleep at night. The courtyard area of Santa Cruz City Hall, which is closed to the public between the hours of 10 pm and 6 am, was the primary sleep location of the protests until the city, and the Santa Cruz Police Department, began to take extreme measures to keep the area clear. For several months, police conducted nightly raids at the sleepouts, issuing dozens of citations in total, and even arresting some.In the past two months the frequency of the police raids has declined, due in part to the city's decision to dramatically increase security patrols at city hall. It was reported in a recent commercial media article that the sleepouts have cost the city over $24,000 in extra expenses due to the protests.Presently, the majority of protesters choose to sleep on the sidewalk in front of city hall to avoid the wrath of the authorities. Some individuals also take shelter in the landscaping area of the public library, as well as the surrounding properties.The December 29 sleepout was the first time the sleepers experienced freezing weather during the course of the protests.Homeless advocate Toby Nixon was one of the few individuals who slept through the night at city hall on December 29. Nixon, who is homeless himself, said he would be facing the same kind of temperatures regardless of whether he was protesting at the sleepouts or not. He lives outside full-time.Nixon is involved with the Homeless Advocacy & Action Coalition, an organization he describes as working to end the criminalization of homelessness by, "giving a voice to the voiceless," through media and information sharing. He said he has the desire to travel to Washington DC as part of his advocacy for the homeless, but financing his goals so far has been a challenge. As a result, Nixon focuses on issues "regionally." Most recently, he has traveled to other homeless protest actions in Northern California that are similar to the community sleepouts being organized at Santa Cruz City Hall. In 2015, sleepouts and occupations have been held at the civic centers of a variety of other cities in California, including Berkeley and Sacramento. A number of actions to end the criminalization of homelessness have also been held in Eureka.The group that first initiated the sleepouts in Santa Cruz in July was mostly comprised of homeless advocates who themselves have fixed froms of housing, and warm homes of their own to go to. They served as the principle organizers of the sleepouts, with support from a wide variety of unhoused activists and individuals, and eventually named themselves the "Freedom Sleepers."By December, most of the original Freedom Sleepers stopped sleeping at city hall. The present organizational duties have now been assumed by a group of individuals who are all homeless themselves. Some had planned to "rename" the protests, but through a consensus process they decided to continue with the Freedom Sleepers name.Toby Nixon has said that as long as local homeless people from Santa Cruz are still interested in participating in the protests, he will continue to sleep at Santa Cruz City Hall every week.For more information about the Homeless Advocacy & Action Coalition, see:For more information about the Freedom Sleepers, see:Freedom SleepersAlex Darocy The Alameda Renters Coalition is organizing renters to appear at the January 5 meeting to support strong renter protections, and are urging as many people as possible to contact the Alameda City Council members to demand strong renter protections for the renters of Alameda! Alameda renters to confront greedy landlords on Jan. 5By Lynda Carson - January 2, 2016Alameda - On Tuesday January 5, the renters of Alameda will be confronting greedy landlords when the Alameda City Council will be discussing rent stabilization and other tenant protections at its meeting.The Alameda Renters Coalition is organizing renters to appear at the January 5 meeting to support strong renter protections, and are urging as many people as possible to contact the Alameda City Council members to demand strong renter protections for the renters of Alameda.Send an email to the Alameda City Council to demand strong renter protections for renters in Alameda.The Alameda Renters CoalitionJanuary 5 flyer to promote renter protections from the Alameda Renters CoalitionClick belowThe activists from The Renters Coalition and renters in Alameda are demanding that rents should not be raised annually above 65% of the Consumer Price Index (CPI), and that there needs to be a permanent end to all no-cause evictions.The group known as the California Apartment Association which supports greedy landlords throughout the state of California, has fought against any proposals for strong renter protections in Alameda.Indeed, the California Apartment Association (CAA) and its 13,000 members have been busy in recent months using their power, influence, and big money to meddle in the affairs of cities in Northern California that have been considering renter protection ordinances, including the City of Richmond, Alameda, San Jose, San Mateo, Santa Rosa, and Mountain View.The January 5 meeting to consider renter protections in Alameda will be held 5:00pm at Kofman Auditorium, a large venue located at 2200 Central Ave., which is a larger venue than City Hall, to ensure seating is available for everyone wanting to attend.The Renters Coalition is asking as many renters as possible to appear early to get some good seats, and to bring as many friends as possible to speak up in support of strong renter protections in Alameda.During a September 4, 2015, City Council meeting, the landlords of Alameda pulled a fast one on the renters and payed people in advance to grab all the seats at the meeting for the landlords, essentially blocking the renters from gaining access to the meeting that had proposals for renter protections.The cops ended up beating up a tenant activist at the September 4 meeting for speaking out, and ended up arresting a few tenant activists.Click on link below to see the Alameda cops beating up and arresting the tenant activistsJanuary 5 Meeting To Consider Renter Protections In AlamedaAccording to the City of Alameda website: The City Council will be presented with a range of options it could pursue to provide enhanced tenant protections. These include a combination of review of rent increases, limiting the grounds for evictions, requiring relocation assistance for certain evictions, and rent stabilization for certain rental units. Council will also review an urgency ordinance to extend for an additional 60 days, the existing moratorium on rent increases for certain rental properties and evictions from all rental properties except for just cause.Summary of Proposed Rent Control OrdinancesOrdinance #1: Ordinance Revising the Current Rent Review Procedures, Limiting the Grounds for Evictions and Requiring Relocation Assistance for Certain EvictionsOrdinance #2: Ordinance Imposing Rent Stabilization, Limiting the Grounds for Evictions and Requiring Relocation Assistance for Certain EvictionsOrdinance #3: Ordinance Imposing Rent Stabilization, Prohibiting No Cause Evictions and Requiring Relocation Assistance for Certain EvictionsClick below for proposalsAdditionally, according to the City of Alameda website: The doors will open at 5:00 p.m. and speaker slips will be available at that time and the regular meeting will begin at 7:00 p.m. There will be a City Council closed session at 5:30 p.m. While the rent review process is the primary agenda item, this is a regular City Council meeting with other business to address as well.The agenda and staff report are available at http://www.alamedaca.gov/agendas . Due to the revised location, the meeting will not be broadcast live on television, but will be web-streamed live and can be viewed at http://www.alamedaca.gov/live-webcast-city-meetings . There is no food or drink allowed in Kofman Auditorium so please plan accordingly.The Alameda Renters Coalition is organizing renters to appear at the January 5 meeting to support strong renter protections, and are urging as many people as possible to contact the Alameda City Council members to demand strong renter protections for the renters of Alameda.Lynda Carson may be reached at tenantsrule [at] yahoo.com >>>>>> Iraq risks losing generation due to lack of schools, healthcare by Iraq Solidarity News (Al-Thawra) More than 2 million children in Iraq are out of school, up to 3 million more have had their education disrupted by the war, and nearly one in five schools have been damaged, destroyed or used for other purposes, the U.N. children's fund UNICEF says. Preventing violence from depriving millions of children in Iraq of education and decent healthcare is a key humanitarian priority for the country in 2016, a senior U.N. official said on Wednesday. More than 2 million children in Iraq are out of school, up to 3 million more have had their education disrupted by the war, and nearly one in five schools have been damaged, destroyed or used for other purposes, the U.N. children's fund UNICEF says. Of the schools that are still in use, classes are often overcrowded and lessons taught in shifts. "We're at risk of losing a generation through the lack of education, health and protection," Peter Hawkins, UNICEF's Representative in Iraq, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation during a brief trip to Britain. "Schools, clinics, water facilities etc are deteriorating further and further which makes the life of children very difficult. (We're) seeing increasing signs of stunting. Nutrition is becoming a problem," he said. Nearly 14,000 teachers have fled northern Iraq where large swathes of land are held by Islamic State (IS) militants, who swept across the Syrian border in mid-2014, declaring a "caliphate" to rule over all Muslims. Hawkins said gaining greater access to Iraqis living in areas held by Islamic State was another top concern for 2016. UNICEF, along with the Iraqi health ministry, vaccinated up to 600,000 children against measles and polio in IS-controlled areas in 2015 but progress on humanitarian access remained "very, very slow", he added. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared on Monday that his forces would defeat Islamic State in the coming year, after their recapture of Ramadi, capital of western Anbar province, which fell to the Islamist group in May. Hawkins said many families had fled the contested city and were living in camps in the capital Baghdad. Many children had been uprooted several times, he added. Flexibility Looks to Keep Improving on Kentucky Derby Trail: In horse racing, connections sometimes need to be flexible with their options for their runners, and that is exactly what happened with Jerome winner Flexibility. After chasing Mohaymen around the New York oval of Aqueduct, Flexibility was finally able to get a winning race under his girth since winning his debut three starts prior. It gives you a sigh of relief to not face him [Mohaymen] right now, said Cherie DeVaux, assistant to trainer Chad Brown. He can build his confidence andI dont want to knock anyone hereget a race that is easier for him. Flexibility has shown that he wants distance in the form of two-turn races, and the Kentucky Derby seems to be right up his alley. He has already traveled nine furlongs and in doing so finished fewer than two lengths behind Mohaymen, who has traveled to Florida to target those Kentucky Derby prep races. This leaves New York preps to Flexibility and his connections as he is clearly the dominant horse on that circuit right now. Flexibility has successful connections in top trainer Chad Brown and top jockey Irad Ortiz Jr., and he also has the right breeding to keep him going competitively as the distances lengthen. His sire Bluegrass Cat was second in the 2006 Kentucky Derby behind Barbaro and in the Belmont Stakes behind Jazil. Bluegrass Cat did earn his own Grade I victory in the 2006 Haskell Invitational in which he defeated top horses Strong Contender and Flashy Bull. Bluegrass Cat also finished second behind Bernardini in the Mid-Summer Derby, the Grade I Travers Stakes. He was found to be lame on Sunday morning following the race, and it was discovered that he had fractured his pastern during his Travers run. He was retired to WinStar Farm before being moved to New York (2012-2014) and then to California (2015), where he is now thriving. In 2015, Bluegrass Cat was Californias leading sire of juveniles. Flexibility is out Santa Vindi, who was a non-winner in four starts, but she is sired by top stallion Vindication. While he passed away at a very young age, as a racehorse, Vindication was undefeated in four starts as a juvenile. He ended his season with a win in the 2002 Grade I Breeders Cup Juvenile. Vindications trainer, Bob Baffert, was attempting to bring him back in his three-year-old year to cap off his racing career with a run in the Breeders Cup Classic. However, a suspensory injury in his left front arose in February, keeping him from being competitive. He retired to Hill n Dale to begin his stud career in 2004. However, in 2008, the stallion had to be euthanized after it was discovered his gastric intestine had ruptured and could not be repaired. Flexibility currently has 14 points on the Kentucky Derby leaderboard. The colt is bred to keep improving with distance and age and is likely to make one or two more starts before the Kentucky Derby, but nothing has been confirmed. DeVaux said Brown will meet with the owners before determining the colts next start. Hopefully, [in] each one he can continue to step up, she said of the colt, who was bred by WinStar Farm. He has been professional throughout. Jerome Stakes 2016 Flexibility: Top Abuja prophet, Bro. Joshua Iginla, the general overseer of Champions Royal Assembly, has unveiled his forecasts for the 2016 year. Bro. Joshua Iginla [article_adwert] His prophecies especially directed towards the African continent. Brother Iginla is credited with accurately predicting the defeat of Gov. Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti state and the victory of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola of Osun state. Last year he predicted that then opposition All Progressives Congress is not the dream party that God will raise to take the baton from PDP. However, his prediction didn't come true as the APC won last year elections. Read below some of his most stunning prophecies for this year. On Buhari 1. The government of President Buhari will do well but due to too much enemies than friend, it will slow the wheel of progress and tension will rise up in several areas. But that will not stop the result the government will have. 2. The president should pray because there will be an attempt over his life. I see serious health issue. He should pray to finish his tenure. 3. There are a lot of Judases around Mr President. I see a plot to poison him. He should pray to finish it. Take good care of yourself and spend more time to watch your enemies that are around you than those afar. That's the message for the president. On politics 4. Nigeria will rise again and the future of Nigeria will be restored. And her image n dignity shall be restored. 5. Many politicians will go to jail in 2016 due to the anti corrupt campaign by the president. It will gain more ground and a lot of money recovered and a lot of mystery unveiled. 6. I see a governor in the seat of Akwa Ibom. His seat will shake but I see him still maintaining it. 7. The incumbent governor should pray well to retain it because what I see is a mystery beyond explanation. READ ALSO: A Governor Will Die In 2016 - Apostle Johnson Suleiman 8. Rivers state. I see strong battle and contest with Inconclusive result. I see violence and tension. I see property burnt and protest and name calling but the person on the seat shall retain it. 9. Edo. I see the ruling party still retaining power. I see a strong contest but the ruling party will swallow the opponent. 10. There will be a strong shake in the cabinet in 2016. One of the ministers will lose his seat as a result of displeasure of the president with him. 11. I see a new party coming out of the old party. They will rebrand and become a strong opposition force challenging the government of the day and discrediting it. 12. We should pray for one of our ex-president because I see him packing his bag and leaving us. Don't forget I said it last year but God is giving him grace but am seeing it again. On economy 13. In 2016, the economy of the country will be very tasking and quite challenging. If care is not taking it will navigate into serious recession. I see strong hardship in terms of the economy. 14. I see fuel price rising and the masses helpless over it. Attempt will be made to curb the price but it will not work. On Saraki 15. The Senate president should pray because there will be an attempt over his life. I see a strong plot to remove him and a strong plot to poison him. On Biafra 16. I see series of protests, strikes which will affect the economy. 17. The Biafra agitation will become very strong if the government don't handle it with wisdom. It will give the government of the day a bad name before the international committee and observers. It might be stronger than the issue of Boko Haram. Wisdom is needed. That's what the Lord says. Else, it can bring the government of the day to her kneels. READ ALSO: Shocking Revelation Of A Celestial Prophet 18. I see a strong agitation and people sponsoring it from all angles. Other issues 19. I see the issue of Ebola resurfacing in some other African company. We should pray. 20. I see same sex marriage entering into one of the African countries and it will become very strong. 21. The military reputation under the present administration will be restored and performed brilliantly. In my vision, I see them silencing the issue of Boko Haram up to 85%. Boko Haram issue will die a natural death but I see another battle wish this present government. Other countries Great Britain: The queen of England should pray for her health. I see strong challenge and should pray to see the end of the year. USA: I see an adjustment in the election time table and this will lead to accusations of the government of the day After Obamas tenure, it will be 2044 before another black man can ascend the seat of presidency. Source: Legit.ng The Bayelsa state chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has alleged that Governor Seriake Dickson's recent visit to the presidential villa, Aso Rock, was to beg President Muhammadu Buhari to join the APC. Despite recent political disagreements, Governor Dickson is known as a core loyalist of former president, Goodluck Jonathan The party's allegation was made through the Sylva-Igiri Campaign Organisation (SICO), in a statement signed by its Director, Media and Publicity, Chief Nathan Egba. [article_adwert] Egba who said the governor was at the seat of power without invitation, further said Dickson who sought to seek audience with Buhari, was also denied access to meet with the Chief of Staff to the federal government, Alhaji Abba Kyari. READ ALSO: Bayelsa: Southern Ijaw Youths Vow To Vote For Dickson He said: Our sources confirmed to us that Governor Dickson went to beg the presidency to forgive him over his derogatory and inflammatory statements during the election and to prevail on the APC candidate, Chief Timipre Sylva, to soft pedal in Southern Ijaw LGA to enable him win the forthcoming rerun election in the area. In return for that favour, the governor proposed to forment an artificial crisis in the PDP at the national level and use that as a basis to decamp from his party to the ruling APC. His argument was that he recognised the fact that Bayelsa state cannot afford to remain in opposition to the ruling party. We know of a fact that this would be the second time Governor Seriake Dickson would be seeking to dump the PDP for the APC in the course of elections in thes. The first time was in the heat of the National Assembly primaries of early last year when he sought to replace all serving National Assembly members from the State with his cronies against the wishes of former President Goodluck Jonathan, who wanted the performing ones to be returned. On that occasion, he openly threatened both the former President and the PDP hierarchy of his readiness to decamp to the APC and using his past relationship with the APC National Leader, Sen. Bola Tinubu to secure tickets for his preferred candidates, as well as himself to defeat the PDP at the polls. Of course he got his way in that election with Dr. Jonathan despite sponsored verbal and media attacks against the former First Lady, Dame Patience. But unfortunately for Mr. Dickson, the APC unlike his party, the PDP, will not fall for such cheap antics and the officials he met with, clearly told him there was no deal. He therefore, had to return home deflated and empty handed. READ ALSO: APC In Potential Break or Make Meeting But in a swift reaction to Egba's claims, the state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in a statement signed by the Director, Restoration Campaign Organisation (RCO), Jonathan Obuebite, denied the allegation. He said: Governor Dickson has no reason to defect to the APC in order to win an election that had ahead been won. We call on APC to accept the fact that they had lost this election. They have not only lost, they have also been roundly rejected by the people. No amount of propaganda, lies and deceit can change the outcome of an election that had already been won by the PDP. Recall that the Bayelsa state governorship election was held on Saturday, December 5, but that of the Southern Ijaw region was nullified by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the election was declared inconclusive. INEC said the election was nullified due to violence, abduction of electoral officials and ballot box snatching in the area. Results already announced indicates that Governor Dickson is leading in the poll. However, both Dickson and Sylva have been asking to be declared winner of the election by INEC. Source: Legit.ng Josh Steele is more interested in the strategic-planning aspects of the chief financial officers role than the accounting ones. He is the new CFO at Arlington, Va., software company Acendre. Q. Did you know what you wanted to do when you went to college? A. I actually thought when I went to school that I would be looking more at pre-med. Why pre-med? I was always strong in the sciences in high school. Quite frankly, my father, Glenn Steele, is a world renowned surgical oncologist. I had both my father and my mother as role models for different reasons, which is an amazing thing to have as a kid growing up. But he was a huge indelible ghost that I would chase as a kid. Was there a turning point that caused you to switch career paths? The first three years at University of Virginia was very easy for me. I was at the top of my class, and I didnt have to work very hard. I started taking some precursor courses for the McIntire School of Commerce. One of them was managerial accounting. Ill tell you it was like pulling teeth getting me through that class. It was really the first time that I felt challenged by a subject matter. It created that challenge that I had to overcome. . . . That turned me on, I wouldnt say it turned me on to managerial accounting, but it turned me on to finance. What led you into consulting after graduation? At the time, because I was at the top of my class and graduating from a really strong undergraduate business program, there were two paths that were really meaningful to me. There was investment banking and there was management consulting. I thought that a management consulting job was going to give me the opportunity to work across different clients and give me exposure to a lot of areas. You worked for Price Waterhouse and moved to the telecommunications firm MCI, then the former PSINet. What was that like? MCI was really a dichotomy of sorts, because I come from this really fast-paced, highly transactional, focused environment at Price Waterhouse and move into my first true corporate culture for a large telecommunications company. It was like all of a sudden slamming on the brakes, and its not because it was MCI. It was going into corporate America for the first time, and that was a challenge for me. I ended up getting recruited out of MCI by PSINet How did you end up at MicroStrategy? I was again solicited. At the time, I had only been at AOL for a year, and . . . I was getting concerned people were going to think that Im a job hopper. . . . It took a lot of cajoling from a recruiter to get me into an interview with the treasurer and then the CFO of MicroStrategy. They wanted me to come in as director of financial planning and analysis and manage their worldwide business and financial planning function. Ill say that was one of the best career decisions Id ever made. MicroStrategy is its own interesting environment. The treasurer and CFO put me in front of founder Mike Saylor early and often. It was an amazing experience for me at that time in my career. Youre working with someone who is a veritable genius, but also has all the things that come with that genius, well leave it at that. . . . Less than a year into my tenure at MicroStrategy, I was given the opportunity to become treasurer, and then soon after that promoted to vice president. I learned immeasurably during my four and a half years there. What made you leave MicroStrategy? I reached a point where I was pretty confident I was the next CFO of the company. Not only was my boss telling me this, Mike was telling me this directly. [But] I didnt feel self-actualized. . . . I think a lot of this had to do with chasing the ghost of my father and his success. I was always looking for the next big thing and never quite satisfied with where I was. That caused me to hit a wall. We had just had our first child, who was a year old, and I realized I had spent no time with my first son. It caused me to rethink my priorities. What prompted you to ultimately start your own business, and why the name Flywheel? My wife gave Flywheel the name, and Flywheel is straight from Jim Collinss book From Good to Great. . . . I felt I needed that growth experience in a number of regards. What led you to Acendre? A friend of mine had reached out. . . . I met with chief executive Mike Giuffrida and, very quickly, this synergy developed. All the things that we were talking about seemed to resonate with Mike, and we were almost finishing each others sentences. Very quickly, I realized this could be the next big thing and quite frankly it could be everything that my consulting business over the last five years has allowed me to develop and has positioned me to be very successful in doing. What do you want to achieve in your new role? I believe this is a company that certainly has some challenges that every company does ahead of it, but its a company that has the potential and has enough of a track record and core value proposition that it can be a $100 million-plus business several years down the road. Whats the best advice youve received in your career? Ill say it came from my father when I graduated: Do what you love and success will follow. Its funny, because I dont think I necessarily heeded that advice at all times, and now I finally have come all the way back around to it. There is not a greater truism out there. Interview with Kathy Orton Marie Kondo, the decluttering guru, shows how to fold a T-shirt perfectly so that it stands up in your drawer. (The Washington Post) Just in time to make good on your New Years vow to get organized, Marie Kondo, the self-described crazy tidying fanatic who has sparked the world with her joy for decluttering, has a new book to help you clean up your act. This week, Kondos Spark Joy: An Illustrated Master Class on the Art of Organizing and Tidying Up, will be published in the United States. A sequel to her international bestseller, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, it offers a more detailed and in-depth course in her methodical program to get rid of things that dont spark joy. The new book includes illustrations of how to fold everything, including parkas, underwear and socks, as well as pictures of perfectly organized drawers. Kondo also answers some of the questions raised after her first book, such as what to do about items that dont spark joy but are still needed. In Kondos case, its screwdrivers; she thanks them everyday for not ruining her nails. Kondo is a celebrity in Japan she regularly appears on television here, and her four books in Japanese have sold a total of 2.2 million copies. Her surname has become a verb I just kondoed my closet and when Time magazine named Kondo one of the 100 most influential people of 2015, actress Jamie Lee Curtis called her a modern-day Marie Poppins. Kondos approach of keeping only what you need and organizing it in the most space-saving way seems perfectly tailored to tiny Japanese apartments. More surprising, even to Kondo, is her popularity in places such as America, where people typically have more space to spread out their belongings. (The Life-Changing Magic has sold more than 1.6 million copies in North America.) In America, people live in big houses, but they tend to have too many things, and that doesnt necessarily mean that they are happy, Kondo said during an interview at her office in central Tokyo. (It is not kept according to the KonMari method a dishcloth was hanging by the sink, a real no-no.) So thats another reason I think my book translates. [Does that object spark joy? The Japanese art of decluttering and how it can change your life] Also, the focus on clearing your head as well as your house has tapped into a global trend: mindfulness. I think one of the reasons its been so popular is because I talk not only about physical decluttering but also about decluttering your mind, too, Kondo said, sitting ramrod-straight next to bunch of pink flowers that matched her skirt. My method of decluttering reveals whats most important in your life. So it doesnt matter whether youre in Japan or overseas, this method shows clearly whats important to you. After assessing what sparks joy in their lives, two of her clients have decluttered themselves of their husbands. These are the basic principles of the KonMari method: First, dump everything you own of a certain category start with clothes, then move to books, etc. onto the floor to force a decluttering shock. Then go through them, deciding whether each item sparks joy. When deciding, its important to touch it, and by that, I mean holding it firmly in both hands as if communing with it. Pay close attention to how your body responds when you do this, she writes in the new book. When something sparks joy, you should feel a little thrill, as if the cells in your body are slowly rising. When you hold something that doesnt bring you joy, however, you will notice that your body feels heavier. Anything that doesnt meet this bar gets chucked. Then, decide where to store each item you are keeping and always put it back in its place. Kondo has a way to fold everything down to plastic shopping bags so that each item can stand upright, saving space and making everything visible. (But be careful not to squeeze your underwear in too tight or they wont be able to breathe.) (Marie Takahashi/For The Washington Post) This method means you will have to declutter only once and then just maintain it, Kondo says, claiming a zero rebound rate. Some of Kondos suggestions will make people who are already struggling to find a work-life balance sigh. Writing about infusing mealtimes with joy, Kondo notes a recent fad in Japan in which grated radish is molded into crazy animal shapes. Who has time for that? But, Kondo says, such efforts are worth it. Decluttering once will save busy people time over the long run. Kondo estimates that she spends 20 minutes a day folding clothes she doesnt watch television while folding, but concentrates on the folding and talking to the clothes and says this is when she has some quiet time to herself. In response to questions she received after publishing The Life-Changing Magic, Kondo says that items that are necessary but not necessarily joyful such as funeral clothes and those screwdrivers should be showered with praise and recognized for the way they make life simpler. In her home, Kondo removes the labels from her laundry detergent and wraps ribbons around it to make it more visually pleasing. Kondo, 31, has always been a neat freak. As a child, she would pore over her mothers magazines, reading articles on tidying and organization, and, as a teenager, she read every book available in Japanese on the subject. She became so obsessed with decluttering, she says, that she had a nervous breakdown in high school. That got her thinking about how to make tidying a happy process. By deciding what to keep rather than what to discard, Kondo says she can help people create a bright and joyful future. Although she says she does not practice Shintoism, Kondo had a part-time job at a shrine while she was in high school, and her method incorporates Shinto ideas of order and personifying objects. For many people in Japan, its natural to think that things have souls and that you should show gratitude when you use them, she said. When getting rid of sentimental objects such as soft toys, she recommends trying the Japanese purification rite of throwing coarse salt on them to send the spirits on their way. (Masako Inoue/Ten Speed/Penguin Random House) (Marie Takahashi/For The Washington Post) In Japan, Kondos decluttering method has become a booming business. She used to visit clients and organize their houses, but the popularity of her method plus the arrival last year of her first child, now five months old has meant she has had to outsource much of her practical work. Her business run by her husband has trained 122 women as certified KonMari consultants. They complete a training course that involves four day-long sessions followed by 10 supervised declutterings, a process that takes an average of six months. Kondos trainees pay about $325 a year to remain accredited. The consultants are based across Japan, and all are women who work only for female clients for safety reasons. A five-hour lesson at home with a top-rated consultant costs about $330. Kondo says she has been asked about extending this service to the United States and is considering the possibility. Some of her trainees also run a group called the Japan Spark Joy Decluttering Association, teaching classes to those who want to learn the KonMari method or start a career as a decluttering consultant. Theres an online Konmari Club where members can read essays about decluttering and look at photos of Kondos life, as well as apply for visits from Kondo. This month, Kondo will launch a smartphone app in English for KonMari devotees, a place where they can post before-and-after photos and share experiences of their decluttering. Kondo has also just released in the United States a Spark joy every day journal sprinkled with quotes Pursue ultimate simplicity, Things that are cherished shine so devotees can be inspired as they chronicle their tidying and organizing. Of course, if journaling proves as challenging as folding your underwear into little origami triangles every day, you can always add it to the joyless clutter pile. Yuki Oda contributed to this report. Yahia H. Fayed has been trying to piece together a life as an independent cabdriver in the Washington area, although it hasnt been easy. The 35-year-old Kuwaiti-born immigrant has the most luck attracting passengers on a stretch of road leading into Arlington National Cemetery. The problem: The U.S. Park Police doesnt permit him or any other cabdriver to hang around and wait for passengers. But Fayed, a father of four who lives in Woodbridge, Va., has been persistent, and his numerous tickets on Memorial Avenue outside the cemetery have led to a prolonged battle in federal court involving multiple judges and the parsings of words such as idling and standing. What Fayed simply calls standing in his marked gray taxi with the ignition turned on is deplored by the U.S. Park Police and federal prosecutors as something far more nefarious: parking. In the governments view, Fayed was parking alongside green-and-white signs fixed to lampposts that read Reserved Parking NPS Permit Required. To catch him in the act, a Park Police officer conducted a stakeout by hiding behind some bushes on Memorial Avenue. This is crazy stuff, to stay behind bushes and give you a parking ticket? Fayed said. Look at all the people who drive 50 miles an hour on Memorial Avenue. Some people are taking pictures of the Lincoln Memorial in the middle of the street. That is far more dangerous. [At Union Station late at night, alls fare when seeking a cab] On Jan. 22, Fayed is scheduled to appeal three misdemeanor convictions in U.S. District Court in Alexandria for violating 36 CFR 4.12: failure to comply with the directions of a traffic control device, with device being the federal government term of art for sign. The charges stem from one stop in May and a second and third stop in early and mid-September. Fayed faces fines of $755 and a one-year ban from operating a car on Memorial Avenue. Over the past two years, Fayed estimates he has actually been ticketed about 15 times on Memorial Avenue for violating the parking-sign law while trying to lure passengers. He said he has always paid his fines a total of about $1,000 figuring the fees were the costs of trying to do business as an independent taxi driver who has been unable to find employment with a major cab service. Although Fayed has a state taxi license, he does not possess an Arlington County certificate of public convenience and necessity or a public vehicle drivers license documents legally required to pick up passengers anywhere in Arlington, even at the federally owned Arlington National Cemetery. [D.C.s cabbies fear being pushed out of taxi business] Fayed said he has tried becoming a driver with Uber and with other major taxi companies that dole out the county-mandated certificates. But he keeps getting rejected, he said, because of a reckless driving charge he said he got several years ago in Arlington. When Fayed got pulled over twice in September for idling next to the cemeterys green reserved parking signs, Park Police also charged him with not carrying the countys legally required taxi documentation. But Fayeds public defender argued in federal court in December that Arlingtons taxi regulations are discriminatory and violate the Constitutions commerce clause by arbitrarily limiting the number of certificates that can be given out. So, prosecutors dismissed those charges to focus on Fayeds parking-sign convictions and whether idling constitutes parking. Todd Richman, Fayeds public defender, declined to comment. Chandana Kolavala, a prosecutor handling the case, declined to comment and referred questions to a spokesman. Messages left last week with the U.S. attorneys press office, just before the New Years holiday, went unreturned. When Fayed got pulled over on Sept. 19, Park Police officer Alejandro Amaya witnessed Fayed idling on Memorial Avenue for about eight minutes before he picked up a pair of passengers coming out of the cemetery. Fayed said he didnt see the Park Police officer hiding. Officer Amaya had exited his vehicle and concealed himself behind some bushes to conduct enforcement of parking and taxi regulations, Richman wrote in court papers filed recently. After Amaya pulled Fayed over, the officer advised his new passengers to exit the cab, according to court papers. Amaya was not available for an interview, according to Sgt. Anna Rose, a spokeswoman for the National Park Service. (Prosecutors said in court papers that they dispute Fayeds characterization that Amaya had set up a stakeout.) Rose said that Amaya hid in the bushes to make the case and that Fayed had been given numerous verbal warnings and tickets before authorities decided to require court appearances that resulted in misdemeanor convictions and bans from Memorial Avenue. Rose said the streets green reserved parking signs clearly mean no one can pull over for several minutes and wait to pick people up. That applies to taxi drivers such as Fayed who consider what they do standing and to anyone else waiting to pick up friends or relatives. Its a permit-only parking area. You just dont belong there, she said. Youre not supposed to stand or park. Theyre all the same. To make things even more crystal clear, new signs were recently installed on Memorial Avenues lampposts. The white signs say in red letters: NO PARKING OR STANDING. Tom Vaccarello spent eight years as a state trooper in New Mexico and another 28 as a member of the Secret Service before he decided to leave in 2014. He was a deputy assistant director in the office of investigations, the organization responsible for the safety of the president, at a time when the agency was under scrutiny for security lapses. Some agents made some pretty serious mistakes, Vaccarello said. It was a great career, he said. But the last couple of years it was pretty difficult in the end. When he found an opening in Fairfax County public schools, Vaccarello said, he saw an opportunity to continue to protect and serve, this time by keeping children safe in the classroom. He soon became head of security for Fairfax, responsible for 189,000 students, 25,000 employees and 196 schools that make up the 10th largest school district in the country. Tom Vaccarello (Fairfax County Public Schools) What he learned early on, he said, was how similar his new job was compared to the Secret Service. The presidents life is threatened daily. In Fairfax County, he discovered that the schools receive about 100 threats annually, about one every other day in the academic year. We dont brush these off in any way, shape or form, said Vaccarello, who joined Fairfax last January. We take them seriously. The struggle, Vaccarello said, is balancing student safety amid the large number of threats while attempting to keep disruptions to schools at a minimum. Its no easy task, he said. We cant be complacent, Vaccarello noted. We have to respond to everything that comes in. In December, simultaneous threats received by New York public schools and the Los Angeles Unified School District elicited starkly different responses from officials in both cities, which represent the two largest school systems in the nation. [Facing the same threat, schools in Los Angeles, New York take different tacks] New York Police Commissioner William J. Bratton called the emailed threats a hoax, and schools in the city remained open. In Los Angeles, schools superintendent Ramon Cortines canceled classes and told 640,000 students to stay home. I, as superintendent, am not going to take a chance with the life of a student, Cortines said at a news conference that took place two weeks after terrorist attacks left 14 dead in San Bernardino, an hours drive from Los Angeles. Bratton characterized the closing of school on the West Coast as an overreaction, noting that such a response could compel a series of copycat-type initiatives. In Fairfax, Vaccarello said, the majority of threats received by the schools come from social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and anonymous apps such as Yik Yak and After School. [Teens are using a new anonymous app and most parents have no idea] In November, an After School user posted a photo of a gun and threatened that an act of violence would be going down at Robert E. Lee High School in Springfield. Vaccarello said the school system relies on a close partnership with the police to investigate the threats from social media apps, especially those popular with teens. But the first line of defense should be parents who talk to their children about the allure of online anonymity, which often is not anonymous at all. I dont think they really realize the consequences, Vaccarello said. The next thing they know theyve got the police knocking on the door. Last March, about three months after Vaccarello stepped in, a bomb threat made to Lake Braddock Secondary School forced Fairfax officials to close the school as police went room-to-room looking for an explosive device. Ultimately a teenager in Tennessee was arrested in connection with threats made to 16 schools. [Tennessee youth charged with making violent threat to Burke school] Vaccarello said his career at the Secret Service has prepared him well for his new position in Fairfax. I protect 189,000 presidents now when you think about it, he said. When children are involved you dont want things to happen. Now Vaccarello is preparing the school system for a new era, focusing on cybersecurity and modernizing the school districts aging buildings with video surveillance cameras and advanced door entry and locking systems. He said the goal is to make students feel safe and secure while ensuring that the schools do not resemble prisons. He acknowledges that its a difficult balance. After the shootings at Colorados Columbine High School in 1999, Virginia Tech in 2007 and Connecticuts Sandy Hook Elementary in 2012, school officials across the country have become more vigilant. The prospect of an active shooter at a Fairfax school is a security risk that Vaccarello said he considers often. He said his team is prepared as it can be. I think about it all the time, Vaccarello said. We keep our doors locked and practice all these security protocols but Id be remiss if I didnt think that we cant be touched by something like this. . . . But in my role I hope that it never happens. Officials swearing-in ceremony is open to public A swearing-in ceremony for the Prince William Board of County Supervisors, clerk of the circuit court, commonwealths attorney and sheriff will begin at 7 p.m. Monday in Merchant Hall at the Hylton Performing Arts Center, 10960 George Mason Cir., Manassas. The public is invited to attend the ceremony and stay for the reception that follows immediately. Public hearing will address school boundary proposal The Prince William County School Board has scheduled a public hearing on the boundary proposal for the Ferlazzo elementary school at 7 p.m. Jan. 20 in the school board meeting room, Edward L. Kelly Leadership Center, 14715 Bristow Rd., Manassas. The hearing will allow community input on boundary proposals that would reassign portions of the attendance areas individually associated with Ashland, Bel Air, Coles, Enterprise, King, McAuliffe, Minnieville, Montclair and Rosa Parks elementary schools. Anyone interested in speaking at the hearing must notify the board clerk by noon Jan. 20 in writing to P.O. Box 389, Manassas, Va. 20108; by phone at 703-791-8709; or by email at pwcsclerk@pwcs.edu. A sign-up sheet will also be available in the school board meeting room before the hearing. Art contest seeks entries from high school students Keep Prince William Beautiful, in partnership with Dominion Virginia Power, is sponsoring an art contest for county high school students. Original artwork, either photographs or drawings, should focus on the theme Keep Prince William Beautiful. The entry fee is $10, and multiple entries are allowed. The deadline to enter is Feb. 1. The grand-prize winner will be chosen in April and will receive a $500 scholarship. For information, call 571-285-3772 or visit kpwb.org. Dog licenses must be bought by Jan. 31 The deadline to buy a 2016 dog license is Jan. 31. A license is required for all dogs 4 months and older. The fee is $10, and a current rabies vaccination certificate is required. Registering a dog ensures that it will be returned if it gets lost and helps prevent the spread of rabies. Dog owners may be fined up to $250 for not licensing their pet. Licenses for 2016 are available at the countys Animal Control Bureau, 14807 Bristow Rd., Manassas; the James J. McCoart Administration Building, 1 County Complex Ct., Woodbridge; the Dr. A.J. Ferlazzo Building, 15948 Donald Curtis Dr., Woodbridge; and the Sudley North Government Center, 7987 Ashton Ave., Manassas. License applications are at pwcgov.org/tax . Although cats do not need to be licensed, they are required to be vaccinated against rabies. For information, call 703-792-6710. Mayor Rahm Emanuel cut short a family vacation this past week and returned to a city in crisis: On the North Side, more than a dozen people stood outside his house, hurling insults. On the West Side, a close aide was punched and kicked while attending a prayer vigil for a police shooting victim. And all week long, there were protesters, haunting one of Emanuels biggest political donors, haranguing his police force, beating a papier-mache likeness of his face at City Hall. More than a month has passed since a judge forced Emanuel (D) and other city officials to release a graphic video of a white Chicago police officer shooting a black teenager 16 times.But public anger over the fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald in October 2014 has not dissipated. Instead, it has grown bitter and more personal. Oh, its personal, all right. Were making it personal, yelled JaMal Green, 20, a former Emanuel supporter who spent hours in bone-cold weather on the sidewalk outside the mayors spacious Ravenswood home, mocking him and urging him to resign. The protests reflect frustration with chronic problems Emanuel inherited in Chicago, a city long plagued by police brutality, failing schools, rampant gang violence and dire finances. But as Emanuel enters his second term, critics say he has deepened distrust in City Hall through a string of scandals affecting his administration, a lack of transparency and his abrasive personal style. More anger may be on the way. 1 of 18 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad Chicago mayor faces the citys bitter anger View Photos As Rahm Emanuel enters his second term, criticism and distrust are everywhere including his front yard. Caption As Rahm Emanuel enters his second term, criticism and distrust are everywhere including his front yard. Dec. 30, 2015 Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel listens to a question during a news conference. Joshua Lott/for The Washington Post Wait 1 second to continue. Leaders of the Chicago Teachers Union, a longtime political foe, are threatening a protracted strike this year, the unions second since Emanuel took office in 2011. And a massive tax and fee increase that Emanuel ushered through the City Council this past fall is about to take effect, including the largest property tax increase in modern Chicago history. Although Emanuel built a reputation in Washington as a crisis manager and consummate fixer for two presidents, critics and friends alike say it remains unclear how, or whether, he will be able to fix this crisis. His entire legacy is resting now on making real reform happen, said David Axelrod, a friend and brother-in-arms from the Obama White House. Long list of grievances On the streets of Chicago, the list of grievances is long especially in the citys black wards, where Emanuel won strong initial support from voters because of his service as chief of staff to the nations first African American president, and he managed to hold on to a majority there when he won reelection last year. But over the years, community activists say that Emanuel has done much to abuse their support. They point to his feud with the teachers union and say he has plowed cash into big, splashy projects downtown at the expense of desperate needs in their neighborhoods. He handpicked a public schools chief executive who pleaded guilty in October to a federal corruption charge in a scheme to receive a fortune in kickbacks. Perhaps most infuriating, though, was his shuttering of 50 public schools in 2013 the largest one-time school closures in U.S. history almost all of them in black and Latino neighborhoods. The move sparked widespread anger and in part fueled the political campaign of Jesus Chuy Garcia, a comparatively unknown Cook County commissioner who failed to unseat Emanuel, but only after forcing him in February into a runoff. Rahm came around asking for votes, then turned around and quickly forgot all about those same people, said Zerlina Smith, 38, who said her daughter had to walk through gang territory to catch a bus to school after her old elementary closed. Smith said she now drives her daughter to school every morning. But she fears further disruption later this year, when the new elementary school is set to be merged with a high school to save money. Emanuel and his supporters say the mayor has taken significant political risks to salvage the city financially and rebuild its economy. But they say he is battling multigenerational problems of racial disparity, poverty and violence. From Day One, the mayor has taken on deep-rooted challenges that had built up in Chicago over past decades to stabilize pensions and finances, create economic opportunity throughout the city, improve educational opportunities for our children, and reform the police culture, Emanuels spokesman Adam Collins said in an email. He has been unafraid to make tough decisions when the result would be a stronger city. The shooting of Laquan McDonald, 17, occurred Oct. 20, 2014, just before Emanuel announced he was running for a second term. Police said they were responding to reports of a man with a knife. Police then said that McDonald refused to drop the four-inch blade and that Officer Jason Van Dyke emptied his 16-round handgun into McDonald because he felt that the teenager posed an imminent threat. When journalists demanded to see the dashboard-camera video of the incident, officials in Emanuels administration refused to release it for more than a year until a judge ordered them to comply. The video released Nov. 24, a day before the judges deadline shows Van Dyke shooting McDonald 16 times even as McDonald is walking away. Heightening suspicions, prosecutors waited until hours before the videos release to charge Van Dyke with first-degree murder. The streets of Chicago erupted in protests, which continued last weekend after police fatally shot an emotionally disturbed college student and his neighbor, a 55-year-old woman. Uncharacteristically clumsy Emanuel has worked to contain the crisis, but his response has seemed uncharacteristically clumsy for a man known in Washington for keen political calculation. Meanwhile, that same reputation for tactics has fueled skepticism about the sincerity of his response. For example, Emanuel at first portrayed McDonalds shooting as the isolated act of one rogue cop. But in the face of protests, he reversed course, calling for complete and total reform of the Chicago police. Emanuel expressed confidence in Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy until firing him under pressure Dec. 1. And Emanuel opposed a Justice Department investigation of the police department until Hillary Clinton and other prominent national Democrats joined the call. Last month, in an unexpectedly emotional speech to the City Council, Emanuel apologized for the McDonald shooting. But he has insisted that he was simply following procedure in withholding the video, and he denied allegations that he delayed it to avoid angering voters ahead of the election. On Thursday, New Years Eve, Emanuels office released 3,000 emails related to the case that had been long been requested by news organizations. They show that the mayors aides knew early on that the shooting could lead to problems but revealed no specific evidence of a coverup. The videotape was handled in precisely the same way such tapes and evidence have been historically, the mayor wrote in a Dec. 4 op-ed in the Chicago Tribune with the headline I own the problem of police brutality, and Ill fix it. He wrote, No one could have predicted that it would take more than a year to finish the probe. But many remain unconvinced. Everything hes doing now, everything hes saying now: Would he be doing it if a judge didnt force him to release that video? If it werent for the people in the streets? said Tio Hardiman, an anti-violence activist from Chicago. The protests have included longtime critics, disillusioned former supporters and a large number of newly rising youth activists. One of the most vocal has been Green, the 20-year-old who until recently served as an anti- violence volunteer for Emanuel and City Hall in the public schools. Summoned to City Hall The day before the McDonald video was released, Green said he and other community activists were summoned to a meeting at City Hall, where Emanuel asked for their help keeping the city calm. But the next day, Green said, when he saw the video, he felt angry and betrayed. What the mayor doesnt understand is that the trust is gone, Green said. He can do whatever he wants to do, but its not coming back. Thats why hes got to go. Friends believe that Emanuel will weather and survive the maelstrom and that he would never voluntarily resign. No one leads through a crisis better than Rahm, said Sarah Feinberg, one of Emanuels closest former aides in Congress and the White House. He understands that these moments, tough as they are, are the ones that ultimately lead to transformative change. There is no legal mechanism to force his resignation. A bill to enable a mayoral recall election has been introduced in the state legislature but is given little chance of passage. And while many in Chicagos political establishment have been critical of Emanuel, few have joined calls for his resignation. If Rahm were to resign, Chicago would only move from one chaos to another chaos, Rep. Bobby L. Rush (D-Ill.), an influential member of Chicagos black community, wrote in a recent letter to the Chicago Sun-Times. We have at this time a critical point to bargain for real change. Near-daily protests The more practical question, local leaders say, is how Emanuel will govern in the face of near-daily protests. At the policy level, he has promised reforms in the Chicago police, starting with a plan unveiled Wednesday to reduce police shootings by equipping every officer responding to calls with a less-lethal Taser. And in recent weeks, Emanuel has reached out to black leaders. Two prominent ministers, the Revs. Marshall Hatch and Ira Acree, said they were called to a private Dec. 8 meeting in which Emanuel seemed to be trying to assess their level of support. We told him how diminished his own credibility was, Acree recalled. We said if you really want to build trust, you have to go beyond your scurrilous minions in Washington and listen to people who have different views. They took the opportunity to press him for an independent civilian board to review police shootings as well as public hearings into the handling of the McDonald video. The mayor responded, they said, by abruptly calling the meeting to a close. The mayor has a reputation for getting people to do things even if they dont want to do it. But at this point, hes going to need people to follow not out of fear or power but out of a sense theyve been convinced, said Rep. Danny K. Davis (D-Ill.), a member of the Congressional Black Caucus. People want to love their city. But they also love and want justice. Guarino is a freelance writer. Alice Crites in Washington and Peter Slevin in Chicago contributed to this report. FRANCE Jihadist material found on computer of driver French investigators have found jihadist propaganda in the computer of a man who drove his car into troops guarding a mosque in southern France on Friday, but they say it does not prove he had links with any terrorist groups. These are downloadable images that are a few weeks old. Not the worst type of images, but rather bellicose slogans, local prosecutor Alex Perrin said Saturday. The 29-year-old Frenchman of Tunisian descent rammed four soldiers in a suburb of Valence. When he was apprehended, he mentioned the fact that he wanted to kill troops because troops killed people, Perrin said. He said he wanted to be killed by troops. The suspect, shot in the legs and arm, was still hospitalized on Saturday. A soldier and a Muslim man were also slightly injured. Reuters MEXICO Mayor is killed day after taking ofce The mayor of a city south of Mexicos capital has been shot to death less than a day after taking office. The Morelos state Public Security Commission says attackers invaded the house of Gisela Mota on Saturday morning in the city of Temixco and killed her. Morelos Gov. Graco Ramirez said on his Twitter account that two other people died and two others have been detained. Details of the incident and the motive remain unclear. Temixco is a city of about 100,000 people neighboring Cuernavaca, a resort and industrial city which has been suffering kidnappings and extortion linked to organized crime groups. Mota was sworn into office on New Years Day. She was a member of the leftist Democratic Revolution Party and had been a federal congresswoman. Associated Press ISIS continues counteroffensive on Ramadi: Islamic State militants continue to launch a series of counterattacks against Iraqi government forces on the edges of Ramadi, days after the militant group was driven out of the city center, according to the U.S.-led coalition. Since Friday, the militants have carried out multiple suicide attacks, including seven car bombings. Vatican-Palestine agreement comes into effect: An agreement signed last year making the Vaticans de facto recognition of Palestine in 2012 official has come into effect, the Holy See said. The Vatican signed its first treaty with the State of Palestine last June, when it called for moves to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and backed a two-state solution. Truce in Yemen folds: The truce in Yemen between Shiite rebels and a Saudi-led military coalition has formally ended, according to Saudi Arabias state-run news agency. The truce came into effect Dec. 15 but never truly took hold. From news services ISRAEL, SURROUNDED not only by threats to its existence but also by governments and movements that practice tyranny, is a stubbornly free society. While its democracy is imperfect and rowdy, the bedrock commitment has remained during years of intense conflict. That commitment is precisely why Israels parliament should reject proposed legislation that would stigmatize nongovernmental organizations that receive funding from overseas. The proposal reflects the kind of tactic that Russia and China have employed to squelch dissent, and it is not in keeping with Israels core values as a democratic state. The proposed law, introduced by Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, was approved by a cabinet committee Dec. 27 and sent to the Knesset, where it faces additional debate and votes. It would apply to those organizations that receive more than half their funding from foreign government entities. The groups would be required to identify themselves as principally funded from overseas in any public communications and in interactions with government officials, and they would have to list the sources of funding in reports. Members of the groups would also be required to wear a special badge when present in the Knesset, with their name and the name of the NGO. This is now a requirement of lobbyists. Violations could result in stiff fines. Ms. Shaked has advertised the legislation as providing more transparency, but that is not the real agenda. In fact, the legislation is aimed at delegitimizing progressive groups in Israel that have long been advocates for human rights and opposed to Jewish settlements in the West Bank, such as Peace Now, BTselem, the New Israel Fund and others. The reality is that many of these progressive groups rely on such funding from foreign organizations, and the law would force them to carry an unpleasant label suggesting that they are somehow at odds with Israels interests. Millions of dollars are also being sent to Israel to support right-wing causes such as settlement activity, but it comes largely from individual donors, not governments, so it would not be covered by the law. Israels nongovernmental organizations are already required, under an earlier law, to file disclosure reports of their funding, so the only effect of the new requirement would be to force them to wear a public badge in a way that is odious. President Vladimir Putin of Russia has made NGO groups register as foreign agents, as if they were enemies of the state. In China, the new restrictions on nongovernmental organizations will forbid support from abroad and give oversight to the security apparatus. In both cases, dissent is being purposefully silenced, and valuable services will be denied to people who need them. Israel should not allow itself to be lumped with these regimes. Israels democracy has been a pillar of strength through years of siege. It is not always easy to tolerate or defend groups that criticize the state or those in power, but allowing them to function normally is an important test of democracy, and, ultimately, the mark of an open and free society. A bombing of the U.S. Marines barracks in Beirut, Lebanon in 1983 later linked to Iran killed 241 servicemembers. (Jim Bourdier/AP) The Supreme Court next week will consider whether Congress went too far in mandating that billions of dollars in Iranian assets seized in the United States go to Americans who suffered from state-sponsored terrorism. The beneficiaries would be 1,300 Americans who were wounded by or are survivors of those killed in terrorist attacks, kidnappings and bombings guided by the Iranian government, the plaintiff group says in court documents. Those terrorist attacks include the 1983 Beirut Marine Barracks Bombing, in which suicide bombers detonated a truck bomb and unleashed the largest non-nuclear explosion that had ever been detonated on the face of the earth, killing 241 American servicemen, and wounding dozens more, the plaintiffs told the court. [Supreme Court agrees to hear challenge from Irans central bank] But even if the Supreme Court ultimately rules in their favor and against the central bank of Iran, not all of the terrorism victims will benefit. Dozens of those whose names are etched into the memorial at Camp Lejeune, N.C., honoring the peacekeeping forces who died are not represented in the lawsuits, and they will receive nothing. Despite their equal and shared sacrifice, some injured servicemembers and families and other victims stand to receive millions of dollars in compensation, while many others are unlikely to ever receive so much as a penny, lawyers for some of the victims families wrote in an unsuccessful bid to intervene in the current case. This inequitable arrangement should not and need not stand. Representatives of 173 of the 241 killed in Beirut are included in the judgment at issue in the Supreme Court case. Some of the missing families appear not to want any part of the litigation, but R. Paul Hart and Jeremy S. McKenzie of Savannah, Ga., are representing 11 estates that do. Along with other lawyers, they tracked down families that were not part of the successful lawsuits in D.C. and New York. Their clients have just started the years-long process of suing the Islamic Republic of Iran. The problem is that there have already been judgments of nearly $10 billion levied against Iran, while the assets identified in America that could be for compensation would cover only a fraction of that amount. If the Supreme Court rejects the Iranian banks objections, the seized funds will be distributed quickly. The money will be gone in short order, said Hart. The justices are not deciding who should be compensated but whether anyone should. President Obama froze Iranian assets in this country in 2012. When those who had secured judgments against Iran learned of bonds held by the government in a New York bank, they went after them. And Congress passed a law in the midst of the litigation that essentially said the victims were entitled to the funds. In Bank Markazi v. Peterson, the bank says the law violates the separation of powers doctrine: Congress cannot dictate the outcome of a federal lawsuit. But a unanimous panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit disagreed, saying that the law did not intrude on the central work of the courts. The justices might be relieved that they are being called upon to decide the constitutional issue rather than who should get the money. All of the families suffered the same numbing losses, and it would be difficult to portray those who pursued the case for more than a decade as greedy, or those who only recently filed suit as opportunistic. Deborah Peterson of Arlington is the lead plaintiff among those who won judgments against Iran, and she said in 2003 that she intended to avenge the death of her brother, 20-year-old Marine Cpl. James Knipple. [Suit begins against Iran in Marine barracks bombing] I want Iran to hurt, she said at the beginning of testimony before U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth. They made us hurt. Years of litigation and work paid off when courts found that Iran played a role in the bombing and years later ruled that the identified Iranian assets could be used to partially cover the judgments the families had received. The so-called Peterson plaintiffs said it would be unfair for others to jump in when they were on the brink of success. Those lawyers were reluctant to discuss the case but opposed the proposed intervenors in a court filing. Over the past 13-plus years, while plaintiffs were expending many millions of dollars in attorney time and millions more in expenses in pursuit of their judgments against Iran and in connection with efforts to enforce those judgments, the proposed intervenors have sat on their rights, the lawyers said. U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest agreed it would be manifestly unjust to the Peterson plaintiffs to allow others into the suit at such a late date. John Relvas, the lead plaintiff among the intervenors, said what he finds unjust is that not all are represented. There are 241 names on the memorial, he said in an interview. They should all be included. Relvas, like Peterson, also lost a brother in the attack. Rui Relvas had always wanted to be a Marine its all he ever talked about, back from the time we played G.I. Joe together, John Relvas said and followed his brother into service as soon as he graduated from high school. John Relvas was stationed in California; Rui Relvas went to Beirut. In his affidavit, John Relvas said he identified the body: My brother came home in pieces. He knew it was Rui only because of a scar on his brothers knee from a childhood bicycle accident. Relvas said he was never contacted to join the Peterson suit or any others, and knew nothing about the litigation. He thought it was a prank when McKenzie and Hart called him. Dont you think we would have wanted to be part of it? he asked. The Relvas plaintiffs have dropped their appeal of Forrests decision and are in the process of seeking judgments against Iran in Lamberths courtroom. Iran has never responded or defended itself in any of the lawsuits. Then another search for Iranian assets would commence. Or Hart and McKenzie hope that Congress, which lately has shown an interest in compensating terrorism victims, might find a solution for the new plaintiffs. Obamas final State of the Union address, scheduled for Jan. 12, 2016, is a high-profile opportunity for the president to try to reassure the public about his national security stewardship after the terrorism attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif. (Mandel Ngan/AP) President Obama will seek to consolidate his foreign-policy legacy this year by traveling widely and working with allies to combat extremism and foster the rise of emerging democracies, deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said Saturday. Speaking to reporters hours before the president was scheduled to return to Washington, Rhodes said Obamas final year in office will be defined less by new diplomatic initiatives than by completing a lot of work that has been a priority throughout the administration. But that work still involves efforts on a long list of problem areas, including the campaign to degrade the Islamic State, also known as ISIL; stabilizing Afghanistan and Iraq; forging a political resolution to Syrias civil war; prodding the Cuban government to make more economic and political reforms; and implementing the nuclear deal with Iran. Although Rhodes said that Obama would devote significant time to fostering closer ties with several Asian nations and supporting the peace process in Colombia, he noted that fighting Islamist extremists would dominate the his work overseas in 2016. And then, of course, the anti-ISIL campaign will be an overarching focus to everything we do around the world this year, he said. Youre not going to eradicate ISIL in the next year. What we would like to see is that we have substantially taken away their safe haven, so that theyre not controlling these major swaths of territory and population centers, that the Syrian civil war has some political resolution around it so that Syrians can see what the pathway is toward a more peaceful and stable future, and that you essentially have a counterterrorism architecture built where the remnants of ISIL can be dealt with through direct action and through counterterrorism operations. That Iraqi troops were able to wrest control of the city of Ramadi from the Islamic State with the aid of U.S. advisers demonstrates that the administrations approach has yielded dividends, Rhodes said. But as the security situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated, the president has come under pressure to sustain a higher troop level there than he outlined when he announced the plan to reduce the force to 5,500 troops by the end of 2016. Last week, Army Gen. John Campbell said in an interview with USA Today that the United States should maintain the current level of 9,800 troops for training Afghan forces given the inroads the Taliban has made in recent months. [Taliban gains show limits of Obamas Afghanistan policy] Rhodes said the president has worked to reduce the number of American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan into the low thousands compared with the high levels when he first took office, so that the countries are in the position of being responsible for their own security, with our support. This is something that well want to determine over the course of the year, what exactly is the right level, Rhodes said of the future level of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, adding that any decision will be made in concert with leaders from other NATO countries that are maintaining forces there. We will want to look at this picture of what are we doing, what is NATO doing and what do they need to define a post-2016 strategy. And while some Americans, concerned about the threat of a terrorist strike on domestic soil, have advocated that U.S. citizens should arm themselves, Rhodes dismissed that tactic as a dangerous and slippery slope. It would be better for our security if it was harder for terrorists to purchase very powerful weapons, he said, adding that if ordinary Americans started carrying weapons regularly in an effort to foil a terrorist strike, I dont think that thats an effective way to defend against what is a very complicated threat from terrorism. The federal government has been able to disrupt multiple terrorist plots at home through its use of intelligence, Rhodes said. So again, even if you think about the plots that we have stopped from going forward, its not like in a movie where we shot someone just as they were about to detonate a suicide vest,he added. [Obama, defying Congress, will press ahead with gun control measures] In addition to defending the presidents plan to expand the nations firearms restrictions, Rhodes said the recent delay of additional U.S. sanctions on Iran should not be interpreted as a concession to the Iranian government. The fact of the matter is we have additional work that needs to be done before we would announce additional designations, he said. But this is not something that we would negotiate with the Iranian government. They dont get a say in who we impose sanctions on. GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump, a sharp critic of Obamas foreign policy, pointed to the sanctions delay Saturday as an example of the administrations missteps. They violated one of the worst deals Ive ever seen at any level, Trump said at a rally in Biloxi, Miss. The incompetence of our leadership is beyond belief. And while many of the global issues Obama will be facing in his final year in office will be headaches, there are a few spots the administration is eager to highlight. Given the diplomatic breakthrough with Cuba just over a year ago, Rhodes said the president is actively considering a trip to the island even without a wholesale political transformation in the near future. Look, nobody expects Cuba in the next year to become a multi-party democracy, he said, adding that the United States is looking for signs of additional economic and human rights reforms over the next few months. So I think the key test for us is whether the presidents going to Cuba would help advance those priorities, recognizing that theres going to be additional work that needs to be done after any presidential trip. I am convinced that they want some degree of change, said Rhodes, who spent months negotiating in secret with Cuban officials. Ive spent a lot of time with the Cubans. David Weigel contributed to this report. Republican presidential candidates are staying mum as an armed group has taken over part of a national wildlife refuge in Oregon even those who supported the father of at least one of the groups leaders, who had his own standoff with the government in 2014, and have called for limits on federal control over Western land. Some of the issues involved in the standoff constitutional rights, allegations of federal government overreach and individual liberties have come to the fore in the GOP primary race. And as Western states are poised to play a larger role in the contest, so has the issue of property rights in a region where the federal government controls about half of the land. But few candidates seemed willing to wade into any of these issues Sunday as the leaders of the group said they are standing up against government overreach and are prepared to remain there for as long as it takes. The group said it is protesting the case of two Oregon ranchers who were convicted of arson in 2012 and are scheduled to report to federal prison Monday. The ranchers were convicted on a broad terrorism charge. Many ranchers and land users in the West lease public land. The effort is being led by at least one son of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who had an armed standoff with the government in 2014 over land rights. Bundy was criticized for making racially charged remarks, leading many politicians to back away from him. Those willing to comment on the Oregon situation quickly ruled it out of bounds. 1 of 23 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad Familiar faces among Oregons armed occupiers: The notorious Bundy family View Photos The war has just begun, Ammon Bundy said after his family won their spat with the government over grazing rights in 2014. Now, Ammon and two of his brothers are part of an armed militia that has taken over a building at a wildlife refuge to protest a pair of ranchers prison sentences for arson on federal land. Heres a look at how the 2014 confrontation unfolded. Caption The war has just begun, Ammon Bundy said after his family won the spat with the government over grazing rights in 2014. Ammon and two of his brothers were part of an armed militia that took over a building at a wildlife refuge in 2016 to protest a pair of ranchers prison sentences for arson on federal land. Heres a look at how the 2014 confrontation unfolded. April 11, 2014 Cliven Bundy ignored the Bureau of Land Managements orders to stop grazing in a protected desert tortoise habitat and incurred hefty fines as a result. In 2014, the bureau said that Bundy owed $1 million in fees and informed him in March that his cattle would be rounded up and potentially sold. Jim Urquhart/Reuters Wait 1 second to continue. I know a good federal compound for Bundy and his gang: a U.S. penitentiary, tweeted John Weaver, a senior strategist for the campaign of Ohio Gov. John Kasich. But there was relative quiet from some more conservative Republican presidential candidates who had previously called for the government to release more of the land it owns. The issue has become a larger one in the GOP primary contest as states such as Colorado, Idaho and Nevada may play a bigger role in determining a nominee in a large, fractured field. In June, Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.) campaigned across Nevada calling for federal land to be transferred to states in the West. I understand the government owns a little bit of your land out here, Paul said in Reno. Maybe we can rearrange that so the federal government is out of your hair. He also met with Bundy after a campaign stop in Mesquite, Nev., something Paul disputes the details of. Bundy told The Washington Post that he and Paul spoke for 15 to 20 minutes, mostly about land rights. Bundy said members of his family were also present. I did get to visit with him for several minutes in private, Bundy said. Paul did not address the standoff Sunday. Legislators in Western states, in coordination with the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council, had campaigned unsuccessfully for the federal land to be sold. In his 2015 memoir A Time for Truth, Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.) described how he and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) bonded over the issue before Cruz ran for the Senate. There is no reason for the federal government to own huge portions of any state, Cruz recalled. Mike pointed out to me that the value of all that federal land was roughly $14 trillion. At the time, the national debt also happened to be $14 trillion. That suggested to us an obvious and elegant solution for eliminating the debt and moving as much land as possible other than national parks into private hands. Cruzs campaign did not comment Sunday. In 2014, during the Bundy ranch standoff, Paul and Cruz initially argued that an important principle was at stake. Candidates Ben Carson, Mike Huckabee and Donald Trump also have expressed sympathy or support for Bundy. We have seen liberty under assault from a federal government that seems hell-bent on expanding its authority over every aspect of our lives, Cruz told a conservative radio host. It is in that context that people are viewing this battle with the federal government. We should have a federal government protecting the liberty of the citizens, not using the jackboot of authoritarianism to come against the citizens. Paul, meanwhile, dismissed the name calling of Democrats who had tagged Bundy a domestic terrorist and said in a Fox News Channel interview that the land rights issue needed to be debated. There is a legitimate constitutional question here about whether the state should be in charge of endangered species or whether the federal government should be, he said. [Rand Paul is betting on Nevada for his 2016 presidential chances] That debate effectively paused after Bundy, who had been holding regular news conferences at the standoff site, suggested that black people had been freer as slaves than as citizens in the age of the welfare state. But within a year, after big Republican gains in the midterm elections, Bundy emerged as a lobbyist for a Nevada bill to begin studying the sale of land.Meanwhile, the issue remained a way for libertarian-friendly candidates such as Paul to appeal to Western caucus states. I think the more private ownership, the better, Paul told Bloomberg News last year. Initially, when the West was being settled, it was a big revenue raiser. The last time we had no national debt was like 1835, and a big reason was the sale of land in the West. In October, former Florida governor Jeb Bush, another presidential candidate, announced a plan to manage public land in the West, calling for the Interior Department to be moved to the region and calling for less federal control. Bush did not respond to news of the standoff Sunday. Democratic presidential contenders also did not weigh in on the matter. John Freemuth, a professor of public policy at Boise State University, said issues of land use are nothing new in the West. After initially rallying to Bundys side in 2014, he said, many politicians may wait to see what happens with the situation in Oregon. I think these guys are going wait a minute, dont just say anything right now, he said. In a comment to The Post on Sunday night, Bundys son Ammon Bundy declined to ask anything of the politicians who had previously weighed in on the matter. At this time the only statement I want to make is [that] this is not a terrorist attack or anything like that, he said. This is a protest against the government for the way they have abused ranchers and landowners over land rights. Its 2016 (finally)! Iowa voters will head to their caucuses in four weeks. The country will pick a new president in about 10 months. Its all happening, people. Given all of that, its time to revisit my rankings of the candidates who could be the Republican presidential nominee. Its a shrinking list but still far longer than that of the Democrats side, where its Hillary Clintons race to lose (still). The candidate ranked No. 1 below is the most likely, as of now, to be the GOP nominee. And, for the record, I think its possible (if not probable) that we go into Cleveland for the Republican National Convention in July with no candidate with enough delegates to be the nominee. 1. Ted Cruz: The senator from Texas has been underestimated and underrated at every step of the primary process. No longer. Cruz is solidly in first place in Iowa and, barring some sort of unforeseen collapse, will win the first-in-the-nation caucuses. He also should run well in South Carolina on Feb. 20 and in the SEC primary on March 1. Cruz, thanks to Donald Trump, is now being seen in some GOP circles as a conservative, non-disastrous alternative to the real estate mogul. And, unlike other conservative insurgents of the past, Cruz has the money in his campaign committee and in a constellation of super PACs backing him to last for the duration of the race. 2. Marco Rubio: He has emerged as the establishment favorite, a designation made apparent by the number of major-dollar donors who jumped off the fence to be on his side over the past few months. The problem for Rubio is that he doesnt have an obvious win among the first few states to vote. Iowa looks to be a lost cause although maybe finishing first in the establishment primary might be enough? and New Hampshire is a place where everybody is looking up at Trump. South Carolina may be Rubios shot much of the senior command of his campaign is made up of Palmetto State operatives but thats not a given. The Nevada caucuses, where Rubio is a favorite, are Feb. 23; can he wait until the fourth vote to get a win? 3. Trump: The most likely scenario is that he finishes second behind Cruz in Iowa and wins New Hampshire. Where does that leave him? Who knows. Polling puts him ahead by double digits in South Carolina, but that states voters undoubtedly will be affected by what Iowa and New Hampshire do. And what does losing Iowa mean, if anything, for Trumps psyche or how he is viewed by supporters? Does he get angry, redouble his efforts and actually start spending his own money? Or does he throw up his hands and walk away? I think the former is the more likely option. Trump loves what he has done in this campaign and has little to no interest in giving it up anytime soon. 4. Chris Christie: The New Jersey governor has fought his way back to credibility largely thanks to his intense focus on New Hampshire, where he has lavished attention over the past year. Christie spent a few days last week in Iowa, evidence that his campaign thinks he could sneak out a surprising showing (and crucial momentum) from the relatively open field behind Cruz and Trump in the state. Christies greatest asset is himself. He is a talented retail campaigner, which plays well in Iowa and New Hampshire. What remains to be seen is whether Christie can weather an attack on his administrations politically motivated George Washington Bridge lane closures. That ad is coming from some opponent if Christie starts to look like a real threat to win New Hampshire. 5. Jeb Bush: How does Bush make this list after a 2015 that saw him go from front-runner to also-ran in the polls? Simple: money. His Right to Rise super PAC remains well-funded and is spending millions going after his opponents in Iowa and New Hampshire. My guess is that it wont be enough or close to enough to save Bush from his biggest problem in this race: He just isnt an energetic or, frankly, good candidate. Voters think they know what they are getting with Jeb, and they dont want it. 6. John Kasich: The Ohio governor needs a moment in New Hampshire. Badly. After an early burst in the Granite State and nationally Kasich has essentially disappeared. Polling still puts him within striking range in New Hampshire, but its not clear that Kasich will have the money or the message to drive the sort of push he clearly needs. And even if he survives to fight another day post-New Hampshire, the calendar larded with Southern states looks to be decidedly inhospitable to him. 7. CarsoHuckorum: Ben Carson, Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum are all candidates of and for the social conservative movement, which is a dominant force in the Iowa caucuses and, to a slightly lesser extent, the South Carolina primary. All three, therefore, have a punchers chance of surprising people (as Huckabee did in 2008 and Santorum did in 2012) with a stronger-than-expected showing in Iowa. If I had to pick which of the three would be most likely to score that sort of breakthrough, Id pick Huckabee solely because of his candidate skills. Fresh gunshots were heard from inside an air force base in northern India on Monday as troops continued to try to clear the area of militants for a third day. At least seven troops and five militants have been killed in the fighting. Authorities said it was not immediately clear how many militants were still hiding inside the compound. Air force helicopters flew all night to assist the operations on the ground in Pathankot, a front-line air base near Indias border with Pakistan. Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a meeting with top security and diplomatic officials late Sunday to discuss the situation, even as criticism mounted that his surprise visit to Pakistan last week had yielded few positive results. On Monday, a militant group, the United Jihad Council, claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement to a news agency in Kashmir, the site of territorial disputes between India and Pakistan. The council is a coalition of Kashmiri militant groups that have been fighting Indian rule in the Himalayan region. New Delhi accuses Islamabad of supporting insurgency in Indian-controlled Kashmir. Pakistan denies the charge. The battle began early Saturday after armed men scaled the compound wall and entered the base. But even after the operation was declared successful after nearly 14 hours of fighting, efforts continued to find more militants hiding inside the sprawling base. Maj. Gen. Dushyant Singh of the commando force National Security Guard told reporters, The operation to eliminate possibly two more terrorists is in the final stages. An army official said the militants were hiding in a two-story residence inside the air base and that troops were working to clear the building. Television images showed hundreds of citizens lining up Monday in different cities to pay homage to the dead commandos as their bodies were flown home from Pathankot for a funeral. As explosions were heard late Sunday from the base, some reports said the two remaining militants had been killed. Officials did not confirm the reports, however. The operations are at a mature stage, but the confirmation will only be made when we physically see the body of the terrorists, said Anil Khosla, the air forces director general of air operations. The attack came a week after Modi met with Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif during an unannounced stopover in Lahore on his way back from Kabul. Many analysts termed the meeting the first visit by an Indian prime minister in 12 years a masterstroke aimed at improving the frayed ties between the two nations. But now critics are questioning why Modis diplomatic gesture has not borne fruit. [Indias premier creates a stir with surprise stop in Pakistan] On Saturday and Sunday, many Indians reproduced old tweets from Modi in which he questioned the policy of conducting dialogue with Pakistan amid terrorist attacks. Randeep Singh Surjewala, a spokesman for the opposition Congress party, said he wants to remind Indians that Modi used to say he will show red eyes to Pakistan. We dont want him to show red eyes, but we want him to take firm action to protect the life of citizens of this country, Surjewala said. [Old chasm between India and Pakistan again echoes with warnings and fears] Since independence from British rule in 1947, the two nations have fought three wars. India routinely accuses Islamist groups in Pakistan of fomenting terror across the border. But no official has directly blamed Pakistan for the Pathankot attack. In a tweet on Saturday, Modi blamed the enemies of humanity who cant see India progress. Pakistans government condemned the attack and said it was committed to partnering with India to eradicate terrorism. Indias foreign minister, Sushma Swaraj, met Sunday with former diplomats to formulate the governments strategy of engagement with Pakistan in the coming weeks. A senior minister in the government, Prakash Javadekar, said the process of talks with Pakistan cannot be destroyed because of one attack.Because of early action, the terrorists were unable to move to their likely intended aim but were contained in an area of a growth of trees and shrubs, Rajiv Mehrishi, a Home Ministry official, told reporters in New Delhi. He added that the militants wanted to cause damage to the assets of the air force. After an intelligence alert about an imminent terrorist threat to the base, New Delhi sent commandos to Pathankot on Friday. Aerial surveillance detected the militants entering the compound, and the fighting began. Hours after the gun battle resumed Sunday, Modi drew much criticism on social media when his Twitter handle posted tweets about the benefits of yoga and traditional Indian medicine, quoting from his speech at a conference in the southern state of Karnataka. Read more: Modi makes a lot of overseas trips, but is he a diplomatic failure with Indias neighbors? Pakistani media celebrated after Modis party lost a key state election The divide between India and Pakistan is so deep you can see it from space An woman holds her dog next to a bus station shattered by bullets at the scene of a deadly shooting attack, in Tel Aviv, Israel. (Oded Balilty/AP) Police in Israel on Saturday were hunting for an Israeli Arab identified as the suspect in Fridays deadly shooting attack on a Tel Aviv bar, a case they described as complex and unique. Nashat Melhem, 29, from the village of Arara in northern Israel, was still at large. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who visited the scene of the attack in which two people were killed, said security forces were searching for a needle in a haystack. Netanyahu said the city center shooting was a despicable crime of unfathomable cruelty and called for maximum vigilance from the public. He said security agencies had bolstered forces in relevant areas but gave no further details. The manhunt began in the Tel Aviv area, but details of the investigation were under a court gag order. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said roadblocks had been set up further afield to prevent the suspect from escaping to the West Bank. Security camera footage released moments after the attack showed the assailant browsing dried fruit at a health food store next door to the bar. He then pulled a machine pistol from his backpack and stepped onto the pavement, shooting wildly. Israelis attend a candle vigil at the site of a shooting at a pub the previous day in Tel Aviv killing two people and injuring seven others. (Daniel Bar-On/AFP/Getty Images) Israelis Alon Bakal, 26, and Shimon Ruimi, 29, were killed at the Simta Bar on Dizengoff Street, a main Tel Aviv thoroughfare, and several others were wounded, two seriously, in the early afternoon attack. Relatives of the suspected shooter said he was a troubled man who was traumatized after a cousin was killed by police in 2006, and who had served time in an Israeli prison after allegedly grabbing an officers gun. The Associated Press reported that the relatives said he acted on his own and called on the man to turn himself in. Melhems father, Mohammed, said he was deeply sorry for what happened and wished the victims a speedy recovery. I did not educate him this way, he said. Sami Melhem, a relative of the suspect and a lawyer, told Israeli Channel 2 that Melhem, whom he had represented in a case in which he was jailed for assaulting an Israeli soldier, was mentally unstable. Arabs, the majority of them Muslim, make up 20 percent of Israels population of 8.4 million. While they broadly sympathize with the Palestinians, they rarely take up arms against the country or its Jewish majority. This is an extreme, complex and unique event in which an armed individual embarked on an indiscriminate killing spree in the heart of a busy street, police spokeswoman Luba Samri said in a statement, alluding to the fact that the case may differ from recent attacks by Palestinian militants against Israelis. Israel has seen a wave of Palestinian street attacks since October, fueled in part by Muslim anger over stepped-up Jewish visits to Jerusalems al-Aqsa mosque complex, also sacred to Jews, as well as the lack of progress in peace talks. The violence has been encouraged by Islamist groups that preach Israels destruction. Israeli police at the scene of a shooting attack in a bar in central Tel Aviv, Israel, Friday. (Daniel Ber On/EPA) Israel has also been bracing for a possible attack by the Islamic State group, which has a small but growing following among Israeli Arabs. An Islamic State audio message circulated on social media last week threatened to strike at Israel soon. A relative visits the burnt-out home of Saad Dawabshe, who was killed with his wife and toddler son when Jewish extremists firebombed their house in the West Bank village of Duma in July. Another son survived but was left badly burned. (Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP via Getty Images) Israeli prosecutors brought formal charges on Sunday against two Jewish Israelis accused of killing three Palestinians, all members of one family, in an arson attack in July. Toddler Ali Dawabsha was burned alive when firebombs were thrown at his home in the Palestinian village of Duma, in the West Bank. His parents, Saad and Riham, died later from injuries suffered in the fire. Their second child, Ahmed, 4, survived but was left with burns on more than 60 percent of his body. [Palestinian mother dies, leaving 4-year-old sole survivor of arson attack] Israeli police said the two suspects, Amiram Ben-Uliel, 21, and a 17-year-old minor, were part of a group of Jewish youths who have been involved in nationalistically motivated crimes against Palestinians and other minorities. Police said the young radicals also have burned and vandalized churches and targeted Christians. Israeli authorities have referred to their actions as Jewish terrorism, with leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, condemning the attack in Duma. We are against murder of any kind. We are against violence of any kind. We are against violations of the law wherever they occur. We are a state of law, and we will enforce the law throughout the state of Israel and vis-a-vis all citizens of Israel, Netanyahu said Sunday during his weekly cabinet meeting, referring to the Duma case. Relatives of the Dawabsha family have questioned why it took more than five months to bring charges and why only two people were indicted. We are questioning the capability and competence of Israeli law. Surely an attack like this must have involved a whole group of people? Nasser Dawabsha, Saad Dawabshas brother, told The Washington Post. The Israeli justice system is now in the spotlight, he said. Either they will achieve justice or they will procrastinate. And if they procrastinate, this will encourage other settlers to do the same thing to others as what they did to us. [Fearful of Jewish settlers, Palestinians deploy night watchmen] According to the police indictment, Ben-Uliel and the second suspect met several times to plan the attack and even mapped the village. On the night of the attack, the minor involved allegedly did not show up and Ben-Uliel went alone to the village, lobbing two molotov cocktails at the Dawabsha home and another residence. He also spray-painted the words revenge and long live the Messiah king in Hebrew on the walls of the house. He later reenacted the crime for police, authorities said. Several others were indicted in cases including a February arson attack on the Dormition Abbey in Jerusalem, the torching of a Palestinian taxi, and the slashing of tires on cars belonging to Palestinian residents in East Jerusalem. Attorneys for the suspects in the Duma case said the authorities did not have enough evidence to convict their clients and accused the security establishment of using brutal and unorthodox investigation methods, including torturing the suspects and holding them for days without allowing them to meet with their legal counsel. This is a badge of shame for the rule of law in Israel, said attorney Hay Haber, a member of the legal aid organization Honenu. The indictments filed to the court today were based on confessions taken using torture and violence. If that was not enough, the state has requested that the trial be kept under gag order, not allowing in cameras so that my clients will not expose what happened in the interrogation rooms, he said. A second attorney, Adi Keidar, said, We might never know what really happened in Duma, but we want to make sure the public knows what happened in the interrogation rooms. In a video released hours before their son was charged, Reuven and Nurit Ben-Uliel said they were shocked at the allegations against their son and believed him to be innocent. We hope that the court will expose the severe abuse he underwent during the weeks that he was interrogated, the father said. We want to stress that we are opposed to violence and attacks on people. The Israeli government and legal establishment have rejected the claims of torture. Netanyahu said last week that the security establishment had acted in accordance with the governments policy of fighting terrorism of any kind. Sufian Taha contributed to this report. Read more: Meet the Palestinian cartoonist Israelis accuse of incitement Palestinian protesters set fire to a Jewish holy shrine in the West Bank We are the tip of the spear that protects Israel, radical settlers say Israeli leaders propose harsh new measures to fight Jewish terrorism Saudi Arabia severed diplomatic relations with Iran on Sunday, escalating the regional crisis that erupted after the execution of a Shiite cleric triggered outrage among Shiites across the Middle East and beyond. Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told reporters in Riyadh that the Iranian ambassador to Saudi Arabia had been given 48 hours to leave the country, citing concerns that Tehrans Shiite government was undermining the security of the mostly Sunni kingdom. Saudi diplomats had already departed Iran after angry mobs trashed and burned the Saudi Embassy in Tehran overnight Saturday, in retaliation for the execution of Sheik Nimr Baqr al-Nimr earlier in the day. The rift sets the regions two biggest powerhouses on a collision course at a critical time for U.S. diplomacy aimed at bringing peace to the Middle East, and it raises the specter of worsening violence in countries where they back rival factions, such as Yemen and Syria. Despite their countless international feuds, it was the first time since a two-year rupture in 1988-1990 that diplomatic relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia had formally been severed, according to Abdullah al-Shamri, a Saudi analyst and former diplomat. 1 of 21 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad Protests erupt after Saudi Arabia executes Shiite cleric Nimr Baqr al-Nimr View Photos The countrys announcement that it has killed 47 people has caused an uproar across the region. Caption The countrys announcement that it has killed 47 people has caused an uproar across the region. Saudi Arabia severed relations with Iran on Sunday amid the furor. Jan. 3, 2016 A Kashmiri Shiite Muslim, bottom, holds a portrait of Sheikh Nimr Baqr al-Nimr, as others shout slogans during a protest against Saudi Arabia in Srinagar, in India-controlled Kashmir. Mukhtar Khan/AP Wait 1 second to continue. Nimr was among 47 people put to death on the biggest single day of executions in Saudi Arabia since 1980. He was one of only four Shiite Muslims in the group and was by far the best known. Most of the others were Sunnis accused of carrying out a spate of attacks linked to the Sunni al-Qaeda organization over a decade ago. [Sectarianism comes back to bite Saudi Arabia] The clerics role as a leader in the anti-government protests that swept the Shiite eastern regions of Saudi Arabia nearly five years ago ensured that his death sentence would be carried out and that there would be an enraged response from Shiites across the region. In tough comments Sunday, Irans supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, predicted divine retribution for Nimrs executioners, saying that the execution will cause serious troubles for the politicians of this [Saudi] regime in a very short time. The hands of divine vengeance will surely snatch by their necks those cruel individuals who took his life, he said in comments posted on his website. A photo montage alongside the statement showed a split image of an Islamic State fighter preparing to carry out a beheading and a Saudi executioner, asking the question Any difference? Saudi Arabia responded with an angry statement pointing out that Iran is often accused by the international community of supporting terrorism and of executing large numbers of people. Iran is the last regime in the world that could accuse others of supporting terrorism, said a Foreign Ministry statement reported by the official Saudi news agency. Iran carried out 694 executions in the first half of last year, according to an Amnesty International statement in July. Saudi Arabia, whose population is about a third the size of Irans, carried out 157 in all of 2015, according to Amnesty and media reports. Beyond the invocations of divine justice, however, Iran made no specific threats of retaliation, and Iranian leaders ordered a halt to attacks on Saudi diplomatic facilities after the assaults on the Saudi Embassy in Tehran and the Saudi Consulate in Mashhad late Saturday. [In legacy of a revered martyr, Saudi Shiites find sustenance] Police officers were deployed to protect the charred remains of the Saudi Embassy, which had been ransacked and set ablaze by an angry crowd. Protesters who tried to gather nearby were dispersed by water cannons, according to photos posted on social media. The Iranian government announced that it had arrested 40 people in connection with the attack on the embassy. In no way is this justifiable, President Hassan Rouhani said on his Twitter account. All Iranian officials are fully committed to confront these illegal acts. In Lebanon, Hasan Nasrallah, leader of the Shiite Hezbollah movement, which is closely aligned with Iran, urged his followers not to rise to the bait of what he cast as sectarian provocation on the part of Saudi Arabia. The House of Saud wants to stir Sunni-Shiite sectarian strife everywhere, and our people must be aware of this and must not turn the issue into a Sunni-Shiite conflict, he said. To do so would be an act of betrayal of the blood of Sheik al-Nimr, and it serves the purpose of his killers. But the furor went deeper than the execution of a single cleric, striking at the heart of the Saudi-Iranian rivalry that has fueled, though not caused, much of the conflict engulfing the region. Encouraged by Washington and by the regional realignment underway in the wake of the deal over Irans nuclear program, the two rivals had been tentatively exploring closer ties, and it is unclear whether Saudi Arabia intended such a rupture when it carried out the death penalty against Nimr. The execution is in keeping with the newly aggressive stance adopted by King Salman, who has worn the crown for a little less than a year since the death of his half-brother, Abdullah, and it sent a powerful message that Saudi Arabia is intent on standing up to its regional rival, said Theodore Karasik of Gulf State Analytics, a consulting group. The Saudis hope to demonstrate that they are on the offensive in terms of the Sunni-Shiite divide, and they have just upped the ante on that significantly, he said. Saudi analysts question, however, whether the authorities in Riyadh intended or even foresaw the uproar that would ensue. The different branches of Saudi Arabias government do not always coordinate, and it is unclear whether the Foreign Ministry, which has been taking steps to mend relations with Iran, would have been informed, said al-Shamri, the Saudi analyst. A new Saudi ambassador to Iraq, whose Shiite-led government has also responded with outrage to the execution, was dispatched only days before the execution. Riyadh had been preparing to send a new ambassador to Tehran, after the previous envoy was withdrawn amid criticisms of a kiss, widely broadcast on social media, that he shared with Iranian politician Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. That tells me there was no timing. It was not planned, al-Shamri said, pointing out that Nimr had been sentenced in 2014 and that the government had announced the plan for the mass execution in November. Bureaucracy in Saudi Arabia is very slow. The Saudi government may simply have been seeking to strike a sectarian balance in carrying out the death penalty against so many people, said Toby Matthiesen, an expert on Saudi Arabia at Britains Oxford University. Some prominent figures were included in the group of 43 Sunnis put to death, and Saudi Arabia has to tread as carefully with its majority Sunni constituency as it does with the minority Shiites. Maybe, he said, they threw in a few Shia amongst the Sunni militants that were executed to say, We are evenhanded, we execute both Sunni and Shia. Read more Ali al-Nimr was a boy when thrown in Saudi prison Ali al-Namrs mother urged President Obama to rescue her son Shiite protests pose major challenge for Saudi Arabia First it was Hillary Clintons damn emails that Bernie Sanders said Americans were sick and tired of hearing about. Now its Bill Clintons sex life. We have more things to worry about than Bill Clintons sexual life, Sanders said on ABCs This Week" Sunday. The Vermont senator and Democratic presidential hopeful repeated the line on CNNs State of the Union Sunday. I think weve got more important things to worry about in this country than Bill Clintons sex life, he said. Sanders was asked about Republican frontrunner Donald Trumps suggestion that the former presidents sexual past is fair game and will dog Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton in her bid for the White House. I think Donald Trump might want to concern himself with the fact that he is dead wrong when he says that we should not raise the minimum wage, Sanders said on ABC. Hes dead wrong when he says we should give huge tax breaks to billionaires like himself. And hes dead wrong when he thinks that climate change is a hoax when virtually the entire scientific community says that its the great environmental crisis that we face. Maybe Trump should worry about those issues rather than Bill Clintons sex life. Bill Clintons sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky, a 22-year-old White House intern, led to his impeachment in 1998 and subsequent trial for perjury and obstruction of justice. Last week, Trump threatened to rehash Bill Clintons infamous sexual indiscretion after Hillary Clinton announced that her husband would be joining her on the campaign trail. Hillary Clinton has announced that she is letting her husband out to campaign, Trump wrote on Twitter, but HES DEMONSTRATED A PENCHANT FOR SEXISM, so inappropriate! Sanders speaks at a New Years Eve rally in Des Moines. (Photo: Mark Kauzlarich/Reuters) Story continues Meanwhile, Sanders doubled down on his recent assertion that the brash real estate mogul is a pathological liar. I do not get engaged in personal attacks, but Trump really is over the edge, Sanders said on ABC. Time after time, this guy just comes up with things off the top of his head that are lies. And somebody has got to say that. Sanders, who is openly courting Trumps working-class supporters, said they share similar goals. Working-class Republicans are also seeing their wages going down theyre seeing almost all new income and wealth going to the top 1 percent, he said on CNN. They cant afford to send their kids to college. Theyre seeing their jobs going to China. And I think they want a president who has the courage to stand up to the billionaire class, to raise the minimum wage, to make public colleges and universities tuition-free and, by the way, to address a corrupt campaign finance system, where millionaires and billionaires and corporations are now spending unlimited sums of money to buy elections. "Thats a pretty across-the-board sentiment, Sanders said. The American people want change. And I believe that Im a vehicle of change, being prepared to stand up to the wealthy and the powerful and create an economy that works for all Americans. Tracing one's genealogy can be a tricky endeavor . Once you move past three or four generations, the information you discover on the internet may or may not be accurate . What you read on this blog represents the best I've found using Ancestry.com, The LDS Church's Family Search, and Google. Corrections are gladly welcome. Please send your information to AnAmericanDynasty@gmail.com I'm interested in information on two family lines in particular. I'm searching for our Vercellino family from Northern Italy and our Mattson /Tornberg family in Sweden. Again, you can reach me at AnAmericanDynasty@gmail.com Thank you, Ask manufacturers and educators about the top issues facing the industry and one topic comes up repeatedly: Finding a skilled workforce that will help keep manufacturing operations humming and churning out products. How do we increase the pipeline of talent the workforce needs? asked Denise Reimer, Madison Area Technical College dean of Applied Science, Engineering and Technology. Thats what we do for a living here. It keeps me awake at 2 oclock in the morning. College programs help learners from high school students to current manufacturing workers looking to sharpen skills to longtime workers who have lost jobs and need to acquire new skills to become employable. Theyre part of a web of myriad programs that include government agencies, high schools and manufacturers themselves looking to be proactive in developing workers. Thats important because of the large role manufacturing plays in Wisconsins economy. The National Association of Manufacturers reports that in 2013, Wisconsin manufacturers accounted for 18.9 percent of the states total output, employing 16.4 percent of the workforce. Total manufacturing output in the state in 2013 was $53.38 billion. Academic programs in the Wisconsin Technical College System are driven by business-industry advisory boards with representatives from more than 130 companies. That is what keeps our curriculums current and relevant and that were ensured that our graduates are meeting the needs of those businesses, Reimer said. The advisory board members tell the technical colleges what the trends are and what the future workforce needs are to help guide academic curriculums. MATC contributes in a variety of ways: Helping students typically those learning English or first-generation college students who need reading, math and writing skills reinforcement. Working with high schools to develop courses high school students can take their senior year for college credit. This is essential for high school students enrolled in apprenticeship programs who need corresponding academic work that sometimes isnt offered at their school. Helping high school students who are at risk of not graduating with a Middle College program. Students spend mornings at their high schools, and in the afternoon they work at area manufacturers where they learn core manufacturing skills similar to youth apprenticeship programs. Retraining workers displaced from their jobs through various programs with the state Department of Workforce Development. Reimer said a goal is to increase the number of manufacturing students, particularly female. We talk about Rosie the Riveter, she said. Well, I think we need to have Rosie Revisited in order to fill that workforce gap. We cant leave 50 percent of our population out. In that regard, a $2.7 million state grant to increase the capacity in high-demand fields has helped the college trim waiting lists in high-demand areas and send more graduates more quickly into the workforce. At MATC, as of September 2015, the grant has supported training for 600 additional students for careers in machine tooling, welding, industrial maintenance and metal processes and repair techniques. Individual companies use MATC for training workers. Reimer said about 25 companies a year contract with the college to educate workers on a variety of manufacturing classes either at the college or as part of in-house training. Options available to high school graduates now are far and wide, said Jim Morgan, vice president of Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce and president of the WMC Foundation. While in the past there might have been a great divide between tech colleges and universities, programs have been implemented in Wisconsin in recent years that make it easier for a graduate with a two-year degree to obtain a bachelors degree at a state university. Its not like you get into one system and thats where youre going to spend the rest of your life, Morgan said. Its easy to bounce from a two-year technical college to a university or the other way around if you figure out what you want to do. Share your opinion on this topic by sending a letter to the editor to tctvoice@madison.com. Include your full name, hometown and phone number. Your name and town will be published. The phone number is for verification purposes only. Please keep your letter to 250 words or less. On a campus famed for its breakthroughs in biotechnology, engineering and agriculture, a much smaller department is exerting an outsized effect on the Wisconsin economy and beyond. The UW-Madison Department of Computer Sciences, which has been on the forefront of computational innovation since the dawn of the Internet, is poised to build on its quiet national reputation while expanding its ties to companies close to home. In a world that views Californias Silicon Valley as one of the few places where people build solutions for software, computer systems, mobile data and even artificial intelligence, the relatively small Comp Sci department on the Madison campus is helping to change that perception. Recent events demonstrate the departments rising profile and challenge the long-held perception that its researchers think first about working with mega-companies elsewhere and second about the needs of Wisconsin companies. Milwaukee philanthropists Sheldon and Marianne Lubar, who made their mark in business and investing in Wisconsin, announced a $7 million gift to the department this fall to help attract and retain top faculty. The money will endow two chairs and two professorships, plus establish a discretionary fund. Verona-based Epic Systems announced in December it will endow three faculty positions within computer sciences. Epic was founded by Judith Faulkner, one of the departments renowned graduates. The size of the gift wasnt disclosed, but its likely comparable to the Lubar gift because the faculty seats are endowed in perpetuity. The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation recently won a $234 million judgment in a lawsuit against Apple Inc. that accused the company of infringing on the microprocessor work of Guri Sohi, a computer sciences professor. The judgment was significant on size alone, but it also underscored how long UW-Madison researchers have been in the vanguard of digital innovation. A prime example is emeritus professor Larry Landweber, one of the first people to be inducted in the Internet Hall of Fame for his 1970s work on TheoryNet and CSNet. How does the departments teaching and research mission translate to strengthening Wisconsins economy? While its true that many UW-Madison computer sciences graduates wind up working for Google, Microsoft, Oracle and other industry leaders, the department has increasingly focused on emerging companies and jobs much closer to home. In fact, Google, Microsoft and Zendesk wouldnt have Madison offices if not for the departments ability to lend talent and expertise. Within the past year, two Wisconsin companies founded by Madison researchers were sold, bringing investment dollars and connections home. Perhaps, the biggest advantage over time may come from how the department works with Wisconsin-based companies such as Epic, the U.S. market leader in software-based electronic health records, and major companies in sectors that increasingly rely on computer science. What matters is not just the next smartphone application but putting computer sciences to work through robotics, autonomous vehicles, drones, financial services, insurance and even behavioral fields that help solve human and environmental problems. Thats why the department is broadening its mission to include students from other disciplines statistics, economics, finance and the social sciences who will benefit from learning more about computational theory and practice. It has launched an Introduction to Data Programming class for students who are majoring in similar fields. Those students will write basic programs by the end of the class. The department also offers an undergraduate computer science certificate program the equivalent to a minor degree for students in physical, biological or social science. Who in the 21st century economy shouldnt be able to do some programming to make some data inquiries or have some basic exposure to computational thinking? asked Mark Hill, chairman of the computer sciences department and a researcher who specializes in computer architecture. Of course, UW-Madison isnt the only Wisconsin institution teaching computer sciences. Other four-year public and private campuses, as well as the states technical colleges and some accredited private centers, are producing talent. The states flagship campus plays a lead role, however, in projecting a national reputation that puts Wisconsin on the computer sciences map. Computer sciences are imbedded in every business sector, including legacy industries that must adapt to remain competitive. Having a nationally ranked research and teaching center close to home can help those sectors grow. Responding to parent feedback, and no doubt answering the fevered prayers of countless children, Madison school officials say they will use a less-stringent guideline this winter when deciding whether to cancel classes due to cold temperatures. Administrators now will consider closing schools anytime there is a predicted wind chill of minus 25 degrees or colder, said Mike Barry, assistant superintendent for business services. The prior standard for closing was a wind chill of minus 35 degrees or colder. In a typical school year, the new threshold likely will result in one additional canceled school day, he said. However, there will be anomalies. Applying the new standard to the polar vortex of 2013-14 would have meant four additional canceled days, he said. The districts school calendar has three winter-weather cancellation days built into it, said district spokeswoman Rachel Strauch-Nelson. Beyond that, any canceled days would need to be made up elsewhere, she said. In another change, the district is committed to notifying parents earlier about closures for cold temperatures, Barry said. Every attempt will be made to make the decision by 9 p.m. the night before, instead of the morning of, he said. That gives families a heads up, because one of the arguments has been that its hard on families if schools are closed due to the need to find child care, he said. The earlier notification for cold-weather closings should be doable because it typically is easier to predict next-day temperatures than snow accumulations, Barry said. The changes were backed by a majority of parents in a September district survey. Of 7,382 respondents, 53 percent preferred the less-harsh wind chill standard, and 63 percent desired earlier notification. Sixty-four percent of parents indicated there is some or significant negative impact on their children when schools remain open in potentially hazardous weather. The motivation for the survey goes back to the winter of 2013-14, Barry said, when a polar vortex walloped the area. Madison schools stayed open when many others didnt, and attendance dropped significantly. We got quite a bit of feedback at that point from parents, but we stuck with the standard for the 2014-15 school year, he said. Attendance data for the six days since January 2003 that the district has remained open despite wind chills below minus 26 degrees also supported a change, Barry said. In one case Jan. 7, 2015 more than a quarter of the districts students stayed home. Of low-income students, who generally are thought to have fewer transportation options and, in some cases, may lack sufficiently warm clothes, only 57 percent showed up that day. Interviews with Madison School District parents on a recent day suggest the changes will be welcome. Its better as a precaution, even if it means adding on days at the end of the school year, said Oluremi Coggs, who was reading with his young daughter at the Madison Central Library over the holiday break. Its easier for kids to go to school when its warmer than super cold. Deb Lease, also at the library, said she was among the parents who endorsed the less-stringent standard in the fall survey. She has two children in elementary school. What I worry about are those kids who come home to an empty house on a really cold day, and maybe they cant find their key to get in and the bus is already gone, she said. Its a safety issue for some families. Kimberly Rose, viewing the African lion display at Vilas Zoo with her second-grade son, said negative 35 seems really too cold for children to be walking to school. Also, as a nurse with a defined work schedule, she said she will greatly appreciate the earlier notification. It was a proposal that some lawmakers said caught them off-guard. In July, a last-minute grab-bag of changes to the state budget brought a bombshell: an attempt to curtail public access to records of how government officials in Wisconsin do their jobs. A bipartisan outcry led Gov. Scott Walker and GOP legislative leaders to kill the open records changes almost as swiftly as they were proposed. Six months later, the secretive process by which those changes were attempted remains unchanged in spite of one key lawmakers efforts to alter it. Rep. Dale Kooyenga, R-Brookfield, says he wants to shed light on the workings of the Legislatures powerful budget-writing committee, which attempted to enact the open records changes. The Joint Finance Committee passed a budget motion that included those changes late at night on July 2, a few hours after the motion was made public. Kooyenga and at least one other lawmaker who voted for it, Rep. Michael Schraa, R-Oshkosh, since acknowledged that they didnt fully understand the measure when they voted. Kooyenga, the Assembly vice chairman of the Joint Finance Committee, said hes considering proposals to keep that from happening again. One idea Kooyenga favors is to require budget motions that come before the committee to be made public for a minimum amount of time at least 24 hours before the committee votes on them. Kooyenga also told the Wisconsin State Journal hes mulling a proposal to permit lawmakers outside of the committee to sponsor budget motions a step that could help link budget proposals to the lawmakers behind them. Currently, only the 16 members of the Joint Finance Committee may sponsor budget motions, though many more lawmakers are involved in the process behind the scenes. In July, immediately following the open records flap, Kooyenga publicly floated the first of these proposals. Speaking in December, he said it failed to gain traction among fellow lawmakers particularly in the Senate, where Kooyenga said no lawmakers have been willing to co-sponsor it. We are running out of time for the changes to be considered during the current Legislature, Kooyenga said. Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald declined to comment on the proposals. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, asked if there would be changes made in 2016 to the process of crafting budget wrap-up motions, indicated its not likely. Why would there be? Vos said. Vessel for last-minute mischief The open records changes were tucked into a particularly contentious type of budget motion known inside the Capitol as a wrap-up, or 999, motion. The committee constructs the state budget by approving a series of budget motions, then forwarding them, as a package, to the full Legislature for final consideration. The wrap-up motion typically marks the close of the Joint Finance Committees work on the biennial budget. They can be a vehicle for technical corrections to the nearly 700-page budget before it passes the committee and goes before the full Assembly and Senate. But to Kooyenga, such motions also have become a vessel for last-minute mischief for changes expected to be controversial or unpopular. Its been going on for years, both parties. It has to stop, Kooyenga said. State law requires government bodies, including the Legislature and its committees, to give public notice at least 24 hours before they meet. Still, it gives lawmakers broad leeway to make their own rules for public notice of their meetings and of proposals taken up at them. The Joint Finance Committee has made a practice of providing at least 24 hours notice of its meetings. But the substance of what is taken up in those meetings sometimes is not unveiled until theyre underway especially in the case of the wrap-up motions. The wrap-up motion to the state budget that included the open records changes was made public the evening of July 2, as most Wisconsinites looked ahead to the July 4 weekend. Hours later, the Joint Finance Committee passed it in a party-line vote. The state Senate reversed course five days later, pulling the open records changes from the budget. A Gannett Wisconsin Media analysis found the use of budget wrap-up motions has swelled in recent years, as they have become lengthier and included many more provisions. But Rep. John Nygren, the co-chairman of the Joint Finance Committee, disputes the notion that the panel is operating in greater secrecy. In years past, Nygren said the committee would vote on similar motions, also hundreds of pages long, with scant review by lawmakers or public notice. From a transparency standpoint, were probably further along and going to go further along than weve been before, Nygren, R-Marinette, told the State Journal. Questions about how it would work Nygren said he generally favors bringing greater transparency to the committee. One example, he said, is that he has talked to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau, the nonpartisan service agency that supplies information and analysis on the budget, about publishing more budget documents electronically instead of on paper. But Nygren said hes not sure if extending the 24-hour notice requirement to budget motions would be effective, noting current iterations of this requirement in other committees are not ironclad. Some legislative committees have informal 24-hour notice requirements for the contents of bill amendments that come before their committees. But lawmakers can easily waive such informal requirements. You hate to make that a policy that you end up breaking, Nygren said. In practicality, I would have questions about how it would work. Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-Middleton, one of four Democratic members of the Joint Finance Committee, agrees that a 24-hour notice requirement for budget motions would be difficult to implement. But Erpenbach said he favors creating a public link between non-members of the Joint Finance Committee and budget language they request. Part of the controversy surrounding the open records flap centered on which lawmakers sought the changes, since the sprawling wrap-up motion in which they were included had a blanket sponsorship as such motions typically do by the co-chairpersons of the Joint Finance Commitee, Nygren and Sen. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills. Darling couldnt be reached for comment for this article. Weeks after the dust-up, a State Journal report based on public documents showed that Assembly Speaker Robin Vos requested the changes. Walkers office also was involved, though he later called the changes a huge mistake. Todd Berry, president of Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance, a nonpartisan government research group, has observed the state budget for more than two decades. In past years, Berry said both parties have exploited the lack of transparency in the budget committee and in particular, surrounding the budget wrap-up motion. The process is especially ripe for abuse when a single party controls state government, he said. Yet the process remains unchanged, Berry said, because legislative leaders have incentive to maintain the status quo. Keeping budget motions, especially wrap-up motions, secret until the last minute allows them to be used as a safety net for lawmakers in the majority especially for changes that lawmakers would rather keep under wraps. Should it be more transparent? ... Of course, Berry said. But neither side of the aisle has shown much ability to move us there. When youre the party in control or youre on the Joint Finance Committee, the process is really quite nice. I am writing this column on Christmas night, steeped in the beloved story of Mary and Joseph and their newborn son in a manger in Bethlehem, far away from their home of Nazareth. By the time you read this, the story has moved on, at least in one gospel account, to the young familys flight to Egypt, to escape King Herods systematic murder of infant boys in Bethlehem whom he deems a potential threat to his royal and political power. Tradition and nostalgia infuse the story of Mary and Joseph and Jesus with a warm, hazy glow of peace and calm, surrounded by pastoral animals, adoring shepherds and rejoicing angels. But lets look at whats really happening here. A poor, pregnant teenager and her older and equally poor fiance are forced to travel a dangerous journey at the orders of the government. When they arrive at their destination, tired and hungry and anxious, the city is full of others just like them, and there is no place for them to sleep except in a barn-like shelter with animals. As desperate as they are, they are grateful for the warmth and comfort of these accommodations. Mary, no doubt scared and in pain, gives birth to her firstborn son. Her child, however, is a great gift to her and to all the world, embodying the very love of God and the promise of hope for humankind. And yet, this child is a threat to the government, and to escape slaughter, Mary and Joseph must flee to another land where they are again not welcome. They live in exile until they can return to their home. They escape to an unfamiliar place, a place where their ancestors have faced persecution but where they feel slightly safer than the land from which they fled. They long to return home, but must wander in strange lands to find safety. Each Christmas, we hear the story of Mary, Joseph and Jesus. But how do we react to stories so much like theirs, as current as in todays news, of refugees who are living the same struggles as the holy family? How must it feel to be forced from their homes under threat of death, traveling dangerous routes at night, only to arrive at new temporary destinations tired, hungry, helpless, unwanted and vulnerable? Sadly, there are millions who can answer that question firsthand today. An estimated 19 million people worldwide are refugees, victims of political or religious persecution, the worst refugee crisis since World War II. The complex and horrible war in Syria alone has forced at least 4 million Syrians, roughly a fifth of the entire population, to flee their homes. And although the Syrian refugee crisis tops the headlines, there are refugees from other countries Nigeria, Honduras, Pakistan, Salvador, Afghanistan, Myanmar all seeking new homes for their families in the few places they might be accepted. I cannot claim to understand the enormous complexities of politics, international relations or economics that surround the global refugee crisis. But I do have a fairly good handle on my faith tradition, and I know that welcoming strangers is part of the Christian DNA. The entire Old Testament is the saga of a refugee people, of the Jews being forced from their homes, wandering and in exile in strange lands. Jesus himself was a refugee, forced to flee to Egypt with his parents to escape genocide under Herod. The parable of the good Samaritan is of a despised foreigner helping a wounded traveler on a dangerous road. The New Testament is full of stories of the early Christians moving from one community to another to escape violence and persecution. Whether you take these stories literally or figuratively, they portray a strong message of welcoming strangers, loving aliens and caring for sojourners, regardless of their different beliefs or practices. As Christians, we have a responsibility to advocate for refugees to be granted asylum in our country, and to walk with them when they arrive. The churches to which Ive belonged over the years have sponsored families from war-torn countries, helping them set up homes, learn English, find jobs and begin new lives in this country. Some members of my church are active volunteers in the Refugee Resettlement Program in Syracuse, helping furnish apartments and teach sewing and other skills. What more can we do? What more should we do? May the Christmas story inspire us in new ways to welcome the strangers among us. Sunday marks the centennial anniversary of Lowell Elementary School on Madisons East Side, and the Lowell community is set on making this a year to remember. As part of a yearlong celebration, the Lowell Community Organization is working with the school to raise $400,000 for major improvements to the campus at 401 Maple Ave. We want to kick-start the next 100 years for the school by transforming our campus into an inspiring space that supports education as well as the physical and emotional well-being of our children, organization member Kim Neuschel said in a statement. Staff, students, administrators, parents and community members have been working on the renovation design for the past year. Lowells playground and outdoor spaces will be revamped to maximize use. Plans include creation of a science station, urban forest, school farm, outdoor classroom and community plaza. Every kid benefits from learning through hands-on opportunities. The outdoors are perfect for this, Neuschel said. Why look at a picture of a pollinator in a book, when you can go outside and see a bee landing on a flower? Learning directly from the environment builds independence, inspiration, and curiosity. Principal John Burkholder, in his second year at Lowell, is eager to embrace the schools history and share the momentous year with students. On Feb. 9, the 100th day of school year, Lowell will host a 100th birthday party for students during the school day, Burkholder said. Plans also are underway for a carnival in May, something that had been a part of Lowells history through 1964 and then brought back a few years ago, he said. One of our goals for (the carnival) is to have a maypole event because, way back in the day, maypoles were common events at Lowell and other schools as well, Burkholder said. Burkholder said he has spoken and given tours to many alumni who attended the school as far back as the late 1920s, and the majority of them remember the maypole events fondly. He said he wants to keep Lowells traditions alive for todays students. Seeking to keep the Lowell spirit alive, Burkholder asked faculty, What makes Lowell, Lowell? One of the primary themes was community, he said. The East Side vibe is something that feels particularly important to the community at Lowell, Burkholder said. That vibe, he said, is about embracing ones own uniqueness and celebrating creativity. We try to honor that at Lowell by focusing on what the individual brings to the table, Burkholder said. Whether its a student, a staff member, a parent, or community member. Were working on the greater whole. Fill in the caption with a clever quip by Wednesday and win publication of your line with the cartoon in next Sundays newspaper. Youll also OCALA, Florida Donald Trump has not been deterred, much to the chagrin of his bipartisan troupe of naysayers. The Donalds blunt stance on Muslim immigration has only won him popularity among the Republican rank-and-file, not to mention independents and moderate Democrats. No shortage of smartest-men-and-women-in-the-room are perplexed over this. How can it be that Trumps breaking all of the rules and then some is working out so well? In essence, the folks at home are going for Trump even though he chucked conventional notions about how major campaigns should, or should not, be run. A solid answer cant be found in the words of veteran pundits, partisan operatives analyses, or claims made by rival candidates. To earnestly understand why Trump is so engaging, look back to the final presidential debate of the 2012 election. More often than not, it seemed that President Obama and Mitt Romney were actually in agreement on the issues. As the issues in question pertained mostly to foreign policy, this takes on special significance. Regardless of who claimed victory on Nov. 6, it appeared the American public could be assured our country would have a leader ready to deal with the most challenging of national security crises. Both Obama and Romney sounded like they had their stuff in order. Either could rise to the challenge of a 3 a.m. phone call. It was some Oscar-worthy stuff. The audience lapped it up like turkey on Christmas night. Another interesting point was that words took a backseat to the manner in which they were delivered. Romney was often vague in his responses to Bob Schieffers questions, but sounded presidential all the while. Obama, meanwhile, explained his views very clearly. Nonetheless, he appeared to be frustrated at times, and allowed his words to become quite emotional. This would not be such a bad thing if said emotion was brought about for the sake of emphasizing an idea. Unfortunately, he seemed to be directing his feelings at Romneys statements. That is telling of desperation. The presidents landslide victory just days later proved such fears unnecessary. All things considered, I believe Romney won the debate. This is not on account of substance, but style. However, his victory was far from decisive. It was like winning a contest that wasnt particularly interesting. Obama, despite his bouts of passion, came off almost indifferent. It was as if, save select remarks from Romney, he found little worth his time and breezed through the evening as a formality. Even those interested in politics might have felt that time was wasted on the debate. It had all the urgency of an old infomercial and the captivation of a silent movie without pictures. Potential voters were devoid of inspiration. They had the excitement of being made to choose between standard vanilla and French vanilla ice cream. Blah. Trump is a hot fudge sundae in comparison. Some people despise fudge, others prefer it cold, and yet more cannot stand whipped cream, mixed nuts, and maraschino cherries. Still, they cannot help but notice the sundae especially since only variants of vanilla had been offered for so long. Love sundaes or hate them, folks eagerly discuss having such a radical new choice. The ice cream parlors management hates sundaes because they take longer to make, feature costlier ingredients, and awaken customers to their options having been severely restricted. Management wants an immediate return to vanilla and is willing to spread lies and rumors about sundaes so the old menu can be restored. Before long, the customers catch on, and the phenomenon becomes much about sundaes as sleazy business practices. Trumps supporters are the consumers, while his foremost detractors constitute management. Take the scenario out of the ice cream parlor and into the political theater, replace purchasing with voting, then substitute campaign promises for sales, inventory costs, and labor. There stands the situation in a nutshell. Understand it and the Trump surge makes perfect sense. This Madison Express editorial ran on Jan. 1, 1846, two years before Wisconsin became a state, and six years before the Express became the Wisconsin State Journal: The Legislature of the Territory convenes on Monday next. There are a few questions of a public nature which the Legislature will probably act upon. The first, and most important one, is the forming of a State Constitution. In the fall of 1843, it will be remembered, the question was submitted directly to the people, and a decided majority was found opposed to the measure. At that time, perhaps, the best plan was passed; but since that period, a great change has taken place in our circumstances and with the change, a complete revolution in public sentiment. All opposition, so far as we have the means of judging, to the admission of the Union as a State, has ceased, and it only remains now for the peoples representatives to hit upon the most expeditious plan. We are in favor of authorizing the people to elect delegates to the convention clothed with power to draw up a State Constitution, which shall be voted upon by the people. This can be done without the least inconveniences, and in a short period of time. If a Constitution thus submitted to the People meets with their approval, another year will number Wisconsin as one among the States of the Confederacy. The Iraqi governments claim that it has recaptured the strategically important city of Ramadi could prove an important turning point in the military campaign against Islamic State. After a year in which coalition forces have struggled to articulate an effective strategy for defeating ISIL, the liberation of Ramadi by the Iraqi military, operating with the support of coalition air power, provides a useful template for how coalition forces might seek to inflict further defeats against the Islamist fanatics in 2016. Located just 60 miles from the capital Baghdad, Ramadi had come to symbolize the fluctuating fortunes of the Iraqi government as it battles to curb the ISIL threat. The capital of the mainly Sunni Muslim Anbar province, Ramadi was the scene of bitter sectarian violence following the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. Its capture by ISIL this year, when an estimated 300 ISIL fighters succeeded in routing the larger and better-equipped Iraqi army, constituted a low point in the fortunes of Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, particularly as the citys capture came within weeks of the Iraqi military recapturing Tikrit, another important Sunni city, with the aid of Iranian militias. But the presence of Iranian Shia Muslim fighters in Iraqs Sunni heartlands only served to exacerbate sectarian tensions, especially when the Iranian-backed fighters were accused of carrying out reprisals against captured Sunni fighters. No such accusations are being made in Ramadi, where U.S. military personnel have played a key role in helping to train and support the effort to recapture Ramadi. By using a combination of Iraqi ground forces and coalition air power, they have managed to orchestrate a morale-boosting victory over a foe that, as 2015 draws to a close, suddenly finds itself on the defensive. Let us hope that this timely victory in Ramadi bodes well for the coalitions efforts to defeat ISIL in both Iraq and Syria in the new year. Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-01-03 Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article From: The Athens News Agency at CONTENTS [01] PM Tsipras: The government will not succumb to unreasonable demands [02] n the negotiations there will be victories and defeats, FinMin Tsakalotos says [03] BoG head Stournaras optimistic that Greece will succeed [01] PM Tsipras: The government will not succumb to unreasonable demands Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Sunday in an interview with Real News newspaper sent the message to Greece's creditors that the government will not succumb to unreasonable demands. "We will fully meet our commitments, but we will not accept injustices," he underlined. The Greek prime minister said that 2016 will mark the return after six years of recession. "A new page will open for Greece," he noted. "In 2016, Greece will exit the crisis and will recover," he stressed adding that major institutional reforms will also be implemented. Regarding the scenarios for an ecumenical government, he described them as "midsummer night dream," assuring that the parliamentary majority is firm and that the government will complete its four-year term. He added that these scenarios are promoted by the bankrupt political system and will be proven wrong. He estimated that the deputies that will vote for the bill on the social security reforms will be more than 153. "The voting of the bill is a vote of confidence to the next generations that are entitled to social protection," he stressed. [02] n the negotiations there will be victories and defeats, FinMin Tsakalotos says Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos on Sunday in an interview with Kathimerini expressed optimism that the government will overcome the obstacle of the negotiations with the creditors. "In the negotiations there will be victories and defeats," he said and confirmed that the institutions are asking for additional measures for the period 2016-2018. On the social security system, Tsakalotos said: "There are distortions that must be corrected, specific cases that should be reviewed so that the social security system becomes sustainable in the medium term." Regarding the possible withdrawal of the IMF from the program, Tsakalotos underlined that "the issue is not a Greek problem." He noted that on one hand the IMF has very harsh neoliberal positions on the economic and social issues so it would be difficult to support a left government and on the other hand it puts pressure on the Europeans for a favourable solution on the Greek debt. [03] BoG head Stournaras optimistic that Greece will succeed "The successful conclusion of the first evaluation will have a significant impact on the confidence climate as it will mark the return of deposits to the banks and the beginning of discussions on a series of positive acts," Bank of Greece governor Yannis Stournaras said in an interview with Kathimerini newspaper on Sunday. The Greek economy at the beginning of 2016 is at a critical crossroad, Stournaras said and explained: "It is ahead of the first evaluation of the new financial program which includes two very important and sensitive prior actions: the completion of the social security reforms and the rationalisation of taxes on farmers." He also said that the negotiation for the conclusion of the evaluation will have to be completed at a Eurogroup level as the situation in the European Union makes it highly dangerous to transfer it at an EU Council summit level. Stournaras expressed optimism that Greece is very likely to succeed despite the mistakes of the past by both the Greek side and the creditors. Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article AUBURN | On Dec. 20, less than a month away from Christina Speck's first beauty pageant, the 22-year-old Auburn woman saw a worst-case scenario when Miss Universe host Steve Harvey crowned the wrong winner. Speck still isn't nervous. "I'm more excited than nervous," she said Wednesday. "I'm looking forward to having a great time and meeting wonderful people." Jan. 15-17 in Purchase, Speck will compete in the first stage of the pageant that leads to Miss Universe: Miss New York USA. The winner will compete for Miss USA and the winner of that will compete for Miss Universe, both live on NBC. (The pageant, sold by Donald Trump to WME/IMG in September, is separate from Miss New York/Miss America.) The decision to compete wasn't a difficult one for Speck. She learned about the "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" through AMS Models and Talent in Syracuse, with whom she began modeling about a year ago. So she sent her headshot and application to the pageant's Florida headquarters, conducted a phone interview and, in July, found out that she could compete for Miss New York USA. "I thought it'd be interesting to give it a shot and see what happens," she said. "I was willing to try something completely different." If Speck doesn't seem to have much riding on the results of Miss New York USA, it's because she doesn't: She'll graduate from the Finger Lakes Health College of Nursing in Geneva in May and, from there, pursue a career as a registered nurse. Becoming a nurse has been in the cards for Speck the youngest of four children and a 2011 graduate of Auburn High School for much longer than beauty pageantry. Her father, Michael Speck, is a dentist, and Speck currently works part-time in his office. Her uncle's an opthamologist and her aunt is a nurse, too. Christina also sources her call to nursing in her faith. She worships at St. Nicholas Orthodox, where Michael was ordained in May. "Honestly, my first day of school I knew it's exactly what I wanted to do," she said of nursing. "Just being able to help people and be there for them in their time of need. It's so rewarding." Speck isn't letting her Miss New York USA prospects impact those plans. Winning would mean besting more than 100 women from across New York in swimsuit and evening gown categories, and on Sunday, answering an on-stage question. Speck doesn't know of any other competitors from the Auburn area. Joeval's Formalwear in Rochester, which supplied her outfits, told her that some women from the Monroe County area were competing, and that the majority of the field often hails from downstate New York. Nor can Speck say whether Miss New York USA will be her only pageant. She'll see how it goes: The lights, the outfits, the hair and makeup. And, most importantly for her, the people. "If I were to advance it'd be wonderful," she said. "Get a whole different exposure and get to represent New York." With the attack in San Bernardino, Calif., by two radicalized Muslims at the beginning of December, American citizens were reminded that the threat of terrorism on U.S. soil is far too real. And weeks later at the end of the same month, that fact was reinforced for upstate New York residents. Federal authorities on Thursday disclosed that they had a thwarted terrorist attack planned by a Rochester man on a Rochester bar on New Year's Eve. They said the man was an American citizen who had become radicalized via the Internet through communication with members of the Islamic State (referred to by some officials as ISIL and others as ISIS). He had purchased supplies and was preparing to carry out an attack to demonstrate his allegiance to the cause. It was news that was both scary and reassuring. It's scary to think that people who are living and working among us can become converted into agents of terror by this dangerous group half a world away. It's reassuring that our law enforcement and intelligence professionals were able to stop this person before he could do any damage. "This New Year's Eve prosecution underscores the threat of ISIL even in upstate New York but demonstrates our determination to immediately stop any who would cause harm in its name," U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul Jr. said in a statement. "What began as an ISIL directive to harm the community ended with the arrest of this defendant and a message for any other individuals considering similar behavior you will be caught, you will be prosecuted and you will be punished." That's an important message to deliver, but it's also important for all of us to remember that we have to help authorities by being vigilant ourselves. Its San Bernardino, Calif., its Rochester, N.Y., which means it can be anywhere, anytime," Gov. Andrew Cuomo said last week. "The challenges of law enforcement have never been greater, and its incumbent on every citizen to be diligent and responsible because, again, it can be anywhere, anytime. The Rochester and California cases also illustrate the importance of combating the digital propaganda campaign and terror planning that's taking place on the Internet. U.S. Rep. John Katko framed that well with his statement last week: "I will continue my efforts as central New York's representative in Congress to prevent ISIS from continuing its online recruitment and radicalization, to ensure that local law enforcement is given the tools to detect and thwart attacks, and to eliminate this ever-evolving global threat." Private off-campus housing for college students topped the list of subjects the Flagstaff city government struggled with in 2015. The city manager formed two working groups to tackle the situation. The groups came up with a variety of suggestions, including new zoning definitions, a stricter nuisance party ordinance and more parking for student apartment complexes. Flagstaff City Councils changes to the citys nuisance party ordinance this year also raised the hackles of some students and residents who thought the changes unfairly targeted students and large groups of people. The changes fined both party-goers who were creating the disturbance and landlords for multiple nuisance parties held by their renters. Council reopened public dialogue on the topic in October. Parking, a perennial problem in downtown Flagstaff and the neighborhoods surrounding Northern Arizona University, has Council considering the idea of residential parking permits and additional handicap accessible parking. A formal decision on a possible parking plan for the city is expected this year. The states ban on allowing cities and counties to manage plastic shopping bags through a ban or a fee also ruffled a few feathers at Flagstaff City Hall. The new law came after a city manager working group spent weeks on a possible solution to reduce the use of plastic bags in the city. A Tempe city councilmember decided to sue the state as an individual. Despite requests from three Flagstaff city councilmembers to join the lawsuit, the Flagstaff City Council voted against it. However, Council is still mulling whether to charge more or less for the citys water and sewer services. The city took a new look at its water, sewer and reclaimed water rates this year. Staff is recommending an at least 3 percent across-the-board increase in the rates, but Council has demanded more information on how the rate increase was determined and if the city should charge more for access to its reclaimed water. City voters got a chance to make some changes to the city charter this year. Voters rejected two changes to the charter that would have given the city manager the authority to appoint the city treasurer or having the Council vote twice on an ordinance in the same day. However, they did vote in favor of fall city elections and requiring at least 25 signatures on a petition to Council. No changes to council terms were on the ballot. The city also found out that after many years of hard lobbying work, Flagstaff may soon have a long-term care veterans home within the city limits. The Arizona Department of Veterans Services announced in September that it would recommend that the state set aside $9.2 million for a veterans home in Flagstaff to the Legislature. Voters also got to see results from a 2014 voter approved street repair and safety bond this year. Work started on repairs to the first half of city streets in March and the city finished most of its pavement overlay projects by the end of August. This years projects cost around $9.1 million and resurfaced 34 streets with 30 lane miles, chip-sealed 123 streets with 95 lane miles and repaved one street with 1.24 lane miles. A new controversy for the new year might be a new four-story hotel in downtown Flagstaff. Marriott Residence Inn applied with the city to install the hotel in July. The proposed hotel would be located at 100 N. Humphreys Street, opposite Wheeler Park and would not need a zoning change to be built. Early last week the Flagstaff community stood idle as two of its own, Chris Harris and Sunfeatha Tea, unexpectedly made their way to the Great Gig in the Sky. In the wake of their passing, I received the following letter from one of Chriss best friends, Sharece Phillips, which she kindly asked that I share with our readers. As he was a well-known fixture in the downtown scene and friend to so many, it only made sense. For those who knew them, they represented the best in all of usa reminder to be true to your friends, and always be the one they can count on. Chris and Sunfeatha, well miss you both, and no doubt see you again one day. Lived like William Burroughs, died like Jackson Pollock. Somewhere on the other side, a man is hauling a** at a million miles an hour through the big rhinestone-studded sky. Glory bound and screaming, Look out Vegas, here I come! Darkness has been piling up like playing cards in the town of Flagstaff. Many lives plucked away by the dictating hands of time. One person of which, Chris Harris, took the long way home on December 20, a beautiful winters night in Flagstaff. Chris, who was born July 29, 1971, was an artist of many trades: writer, poet, photographer, podcaster, film buff, foodie, intellectual, and a rock star. He enjoyed a good glass of whiskey, could make a mean moonshine, and was dazzled by the power and softness of nature. Known for his wit, infectious laugh, and taste, he was also an adventurer, a techie, a slick gun shooter, philosopher, an art director, a believer of miracles (if it could be proven), a tenderhearted son, an a**hole, and among many other things, Chris was my best friend. Witnessing these darker moments brings us all to a realization that the most noteworthy parts of being human is having to let go of the people that we love. Chris was the kind of guy that could hold a drink and an even better conversation if you were into it. The kind of guy you could spend all night talking to about art, science and what is right and honest with the world. He was the kind of guy that would invite you to dinner, and always pay. He arrived to Flagstaff more than a decade ago in a caravan after leaving his hometown in Anchorage, Alaska. And from that moment on, Chris Harris would not only impact many peoples lives within the Flagstaff community, but also wherever else he decided to roam. Chris and I spent many a day fueling each others burning passions, pondering life as we know it, and the spreading of beauty to all. Writing poetry, attending shows, and watching film and the wine bottle empty. We were Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, chasing poetry nights like dragons, and sleighing them down by the sheer words of our work. During a time when my leg and spirits were broken he was there for me and would pick me up to take me to the free film nights at NAU. We were together many Sunday mornings at Criollo, with a Bloody Mary and Mimosa in hand, talking about our dreams of owning a gallery together, a large industrial space with high ceilings and windows with infinite potential for partition and space. I had met Chris almost five years ago, and I loved him dearly. The beauty of these memories is that they are true and eternal, and that every single person who knew Chris will have their own reality of who he was. Chris was a gifted man filled with love and light, and I know his own words of truth and beauty in the world will fill many people with the incredible joy he felt for life. Within the joyful embraces we will all have in his honor, cherish the knowledge and wisdom he told, and repeat them over and over so they will never weaken. Hold onto the best moments and spread his light so our memory of him will never dim. Long live the warm brilliance that comes down, through and onto all of us here in this magical mountain town. Chris spent his whole life trying to debunk truth, and his last awakening teaches us that it is all subjective, and nothing in the world makes sense. And that security is mostly a superstition. Avoiding danger is no safer at the end of the day than the outright revealing of it. Life is either a miraculous adventure or nothing at all. So we must continue turning over stones, breaking rules, dancing all night, practice critical thinking, share ourselves with others, take another shot when we think weve had enough, and hold on. By Shashank Shekhar: Police and NGO workers rescued 30 kids in raids conducted at two children's homes in Greater Noida and Meerut. The NGO Childline and the police conducted the raids based on a complaint they received. "A woman contacted us and said that she had given her two daughters and a son to an NGO called Emmanuel Seva Group India three years ago. She said they had promised free education to the children. But she was unable to contact them and when she used to enquire about her kids she was never given any details. When she pressurised them she was asked to pay Rs 1.5 lakh per child to get her kids back," said Satya Prakash, Programme Manager, FXB Suraksha-Childline. The woman was also not aware where exactly her kids were as the NGO runs several shelter homes in Noida, Meerut, Dehradun and Delhi. advertisement Based on the complaint District Prohibition Officer and Child Welfare Committee (CWC) were contacted who said that they had no information about any such home. "On December 29, an enquiry visit was conducted with the police and it was found that the home officials were shifting their furniture and children may also be shifted to other location. We raided the home in Chipyana Khurd and rescued seven boys," Prakash said. According to officials, the physical condition of the two-room shelter home was very unhygienic. "Kids were made to sleep on the floor. Bathroom and toilet was open with a big pit near it. The kitchen slabs were covered with rodent waste and all food materials were kept uncovered," Prakash said. There were two attendants present at the shelter who failed to produce relevant documents regarding the home. Officials claim that they did not even have documents for the children staying with them. The officials are also investigating this as a case of 'trafficking' and 'religious conversion' by the NGO for the lack of documents. "As the complainant's kids could not be found in Greater Noida. A parallel raid was conducted at shelter home in Meerut from where 23 kids were rescued including the two daughter of the complainant," Prakash said adding that soon after the raid the NGO dropped off the complainant's son to her house in Noida. Her son was lodged in the Dehradun home. Some of the 23 kids, all within 5 to 14 years of age, were attending school but were registered as orphans with the NGO despite having parents, the official said. Authorities are investigating if the kids were forced into conversion as some children claimed to have two names - one which their parents gave and the other a Christian name the home's director gave them in Dehradun "after reading a Bible". By Mail Today: He was among the few last links to the Indian freedom struggle and had played a major role in the trade union movement. Acknowledged for his great integrity across the political class, veteran communist AB Bardhan was known for his blunt speak. The 92-year-old leader passed away on Saturday night after prolonged illness. Ardhendu Bhushan Bardhan, a former general secretary of the Communist Party of India (CPI), was witness to the ups and downs of the Left movement and is credited with steering the CPI during a period when politics of coalition became the norm in the nineties. He played a leading role in his party joining the coalition government at the Centre in 1996 when his party veteran Indrajit Gupta became the home minister. Even after stepping down from the post of party general secretary in March 2012, a role he had performed for four consecutive terms spanning 16 years, Bardhan continued to guide his party members, firmly believing in the maxim-once a Communist, always a Communist. Bardhan had also reiterated late Marxist Jyoti Basu's statement that not accepting the prime minister's post in 1996 was a historic blunder of the Left. advertisement Born on September 25, 1925 in Sylhet (now in Bangladesh), Bardhan began his political career in 1940s during the freedom struggle as a leader of All India Students Federation and was drawn into the Communist stream and joined the CPI. He was arrested over 20 times and spent over four years in jail. Bardhan is survived by Ahmedabad-based doctor-daughter Alka and son Ashok, who teaches economics in University of California, Berkeley, in the US. Also read: CPI leader AB Bardhan passes away at 92 A day after Pathankot attack, several trains were halted and some were delayed after a bomb scare at New Delhi Railway Station on Sunday. By India Today Web Desk: A day after Pathankot attack, several trains were halted and some were delayed after a bomb scare at New Delhi Railway station on Sunday. According to reports, the Railway Board was informed by Mumbai ATS after the latter received an e-mail threatening of a bomb blast on the Delhi-Lucknow train. ALSO READ | Pathankot terror attack: 4 terrorists killed, 3 IAF personnel martyred Even, Lucknow-Shatabdi Express was stopped at Ghaziabad station after the reports of bomb scare. The train was later allowed to proceed on its journey after getting a clearance from security agencies. "We received an input from GRP-Delhi Police at 6:23 AM that there is a possibility of a security threat between Delhi and Kanpur. According to the input, there could be bombs in major trains like Shatabdi, Duronto, Rajdhani, Vaishali Express and Nilanchal Express," Delhi Divisional Railway Manager Arun Arora said. advertisement DCP (Railways) Dumbere Milind Mahadeo said, "We received a call from the railway control room in the morning in which they said that they had received information about a potential bomb threat on a train plying between Delhi and Kanpur". At least four terrorists, suspected to be from Pakistan, were killed in a gunfight that lasted nearly 15 hours after they breached a high-security security perimeter and entered a frontline Indian Air Force (IAF) base near Pathankot town in northern Punjab early on Saturday. Security has been beefed up at major security installations in Delhi following intelligence inputs that terrorists may carry out a Pathankot-like attack. By India Today Web Desk: Intelligence agencies have warned of a possible terror strike in the national capital. According to reports, two Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) men have sneaked into Delhi to carry out a Pathankot-like terror strike in the city. According to the intelligence inputs, JeM operatives might carry out high profile strike and there could be hostage crisis. Delhi's police chief BS Bassi has met senior officers to discuss the input and security has been increased at all tourist spots, airport and railway stations in Delhi. Delhi Police has also got additional companies to guard the vital installations. Earlier in the morning, several trains were halted and some delayed after a bomb scare at New Delhi Railway station. In December 2015, the national capital was put on high alert after Delhi Police registered an FIR earlier regarding a possible terror strike by Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terror group. advertisement Also Read Day after Pathankot attack, bomb scare at New Delhi Railway station Policies of President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton "created ISIS", Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump has said. By India Today Web Desk: Policies of President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton "created ISIS", Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump has said. Speaking during a election campaign gathering at Biloxi, Mississippi, Trump accused both Obama and Clinton of being responsible for the rise of banned terror group - ISIS. "I've predicted a lot of things, you have to say, including, 'Get the oil, take the oil, keep the oil.' Right? I've been saying that for three years, and everybody said, 'Oh, I can't do that. I mean, this is a sovereign country. There is no country! They've created ISIS. Hillary Clinton created ISIS with Obama," CNN quoted Trump, as saying. He went on to accuse Iran of wanting to take over its neighbour - Saudi Arabia. "In Tehran, they're burning down the Saudi embassy, you see that? Now, what that is is Iran wants to take over Saudi Arabia. They always have. They want the oil, OK? They've always wanted that," Trump said. advertisement Last month, Democratic presidential candidate Clinton had slammed Trump for his controversial remark that Muslim immigrants should be banned from entering the United States. "He is becoming ISIS's best recruiter. They are going to people showing videos of Trump insulting Islam and Muslims in order to recruit more radical jihadists," Clinton had said said. The United States presidential election is scheduled for Tuesday, November 8, 2016. It will be will be the 58th quadrennial US presidential election. By India Today Web Desk: The raging issue of One Rank One Pension (OROP) entered another round of negotiation as a delegation of ex-servicemen met Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and submitted a memorandum seeking "corrections" in the proposed plan even as their protest on the issue entered the 203rd day. "A five-member delegation met the Finance Minister and told him that the actual OROP has not been granted. The notification issued has serious flaws and we requested him for corrections in it and granting of actual OROP as per the approved definitions," retired General Satbir Singh said. "The minister has assured us that he will speak to the Defence Minister about our demands," he added. A group of 100 ex-servicemen from Haryana, Punjab, UP and the NCR area also staged a protest outside Jaitley's residence and then moved to Jantar Mantar here. advertisement "For last 6 months, our ex-servicemen are protesting at Jantar Mantar demanding OROP which has been passed by both Houses of Parliament. But the government has been neglecting our demands again and again. It is our request to give us our real OROP," Arif Ali Khan, one of the protesters, said. "We had given a notice to the government 21 days ago that we have been protesting peacefully so far. But we have been forced now to go beyond Jantar Mantar. We will now resort to blocking traffic, train and roads if they remain deaf to our demands. We will also disrupt Parliament if need be", he said. Another veteran Lieutenant Kameshwar Pandey said, "we feel cheated as this is not the real OROP what government has promised. A proper parliamentary procedure must be followed to make any amendments. We just want the government to refrain from such manipulations". Also read: Ex-servicemen rally in Delhi against OROP announcement By Mail Today: Former Indian Air Force officer Ranjith KK, who was arrested earlier for allegedly sharing classified information with Pakistan's intelligence agent, ISI, will be interrogated in connection with the Pathankot attack, crime branch officials told a city court. The court extended the ex-IAF officer's police custody till January 4. Ranjith was a leading aircraftman with the IAF and was posted at Bhatinda before he was dismissed and arrested following a joint operation by the Delhi Police's crime branch, military intelligence and the Air Force Liasoning Unit. Ranjith's police custody was extended by metropolitan magistrate Dheeraj Mittal, who accepted the submissions of the police that they wanted to interrogate him further. "In view of the allegation and the reasons thereof, the application is allowed. Police remand of the accused is extended till January 4," the magistrate said. advertisement The former IAF officer, who has been booked under the stringent Official Secrets Act, had allegedly shared secret information with intelligence operatives suspected to be backed by the ISI. Ranjith was honeytrapped into the espionage racket. A Crime Branch official informed court that revelations made by the accused need to be ascertained and he needed to be interrogated in connection with the Pathankot attack. The investigators' submissions came after the magistrate asked the police whether any disclosures and recoveries have been made during the earlier four-day remand. IO SS Sandhu said some revelations were made by Ranjith and police suspect that there could be a connection with the Pathankot attack. Police had earlier said in this case, Ranjith was deceived by a cyber entity named Damini McNaught, who pretended to be an executive of a UK-based media firm and claimed that she required air force-related information for an article in a news magazine from Ranjith in exchange for pecuniary benefits. Metropolitan Magistrate Punit Pahwa, on December 29, sent Ranjith, to police custody after the Delhi Police submitted that he was required to be taken outside the national Capital for interrogation. Seeking five days custody of the former IAF officer, the police said they had to take him to Jaisalmer and Gwalior. Also read: Pak number used to hire taxi by terrorists in Pathankot Pakistan condemns Pathankot attack, says it is committed to fight terror with India 42-year-old Ankit Kumar Jha, a native of Muzaffarpur district, was working as a Quality Engineer with Reliance IT. Ankit's body, with multiple injury marks, had been found in the orchard in Kashipur village under Rajapakar police station. By India Today Web Desk: Patna cops on Sunday arrested the mastermind who allegedly killed engineer Ankit Kumar Jha in Bihar's Vaishali district on December 29, 2015. On the basis of call details and mobile message, cops arrested Ankit's friend Prabhat from Jharkhand's Dumka today. 42-year-old Ankit's body, with multiple injury marks, had been found in the orchard in Kashipur village under Rajapakar police station - 50 kilometres away from state capital Patna. Ankit, a native of Muzaffarpur district, was working as a Quality Engineer with Reliance IT. Ankit's killing took place barely four days after two engineers - Mukesh Singh and Brajesh Kumar Singh - were killed in an indiscriminate firing by some AK- 47-wielding criminals over a ransom demand under Baheri police station of Darbhanga district. Also read: advertisement Post Dhabhanga killing, another engineer's murder shocks Bihar The incident took place around 1.45 pm when four Tihar inmates - identified as Manoj, Vishal, Raju and Salman - were being taken back to the prison after a court hearing before a heated argument among them. The accused often fought with the victim on the premises of Tihar Jail, according to the police By Mail Today: A 28-year-old prison inmate was allegedly beaten to death by three other undertrials inside a jail van which was heading to Tihar Jail from Saket court on Saturday. The incident took place around 1.45 pm when four Tihar inmates - identified as Manoj, Vishal, Raju and Salman - were being taken back to the prison after a court hearing before a heated argument among them. According to a senior police official, there was an argument between Manoj and Vishal which soon led to a scuffle, following which the driver of the prison van had to stop the vehicle near the IIT flyover and called up the police control room (PCR). "When the PCR team reached the spot, they decided not to open the doors of the prison van as the prisoners could have tried to escape. The van was taken to Hauz Khas police station, where it was surrounded by a police team before the gate was opened," a senior police official said. Sources said that Manoj was found lying in a pool of blood and was rushed immediately to the AIIMS Trauma Centre, where he was declared dead on arrival. advertisement "A case of murder has been registered and the accused have been arrested. No weapon was used during the attack," a senior police official said. During the initial interrogation, it has been assessed that Manoj had an enmity with Vishal and Raju since 2012, and they had often fought with each other on the jail premises. "After the heated argument on Saturday, Vishal and Raju, along with their associate Salman, allegedly thrashed Manoj to death," the police said. The police, however, did not answer questions on whether records of the inmates to be transported contained any information on any enmity between them, as is usually given in such cases. In a similar incident reported in August 2015, two prison inmates were allegedly beaten to death by seven others, including an infamous outer Delhi-based gangster, in a fight that broke out inside the prison van heading from Rohini court to Tihar Jail. The incident had led to a blamegame between Delhi Police and Delhi Prisons. The third battalion of Delhi Armed Police is entrusted with the transportation of prisoners between prisons and courts. Despite taking a reformist approach towards the inmates in recent times, Tihar authorities are facing a slew of challenges such as overcrowded cells, inmates' safety and questionable living conditions. Also read: Man killed in scuffle at Tihar Jail Nepalese minor spent 3 years in Tihar despite serving the sentence awarded PHOENIX -- They're often seen as simple affirmations of support by backers. And some say they're little more than visual blight. But there's a new report that shows those lawn signs for candidates that pop up before every election actually can sway a few votes -- perhaps just enough to change the outcome of a close election. And that surprised the researchers who conducted the experiment. Alexander Coppock, one of the five researchers in the projects, said he and his colleagues started with the presumption that those small signs are likely a waste of money by candidates. "They're probably just preaching to the choir,'' said Coppock, a doctoral candidate in American Politics at Columbia University. So they decided to test that theory by working with candidates in Virginia who agreed to let them put up extra 18-by-24-inch signs in some areas -- above and beyond what the candidates had planned -- but not in others. That included one statewide race and three local races. And they chose the precinct to "treat'' at random. What they found, overall, was that the vote for the candidate who was sponsoring the sign -- or in one case, against the candidate who was the target of a negative sign -- was 1.7 percent higher in the "treated'' precincts than it was in the others. Potentially more significant, Coppock said there was no statistical difference in total voter turnout. "But there was an effect on vote share,'' he said. "Our best guess is that the lawn signs actually persuaded people,'' Coppock continued. "Instead of voting for one candidate, they voted for a different candidate.'' The "why'' behind that, however, remains unclear -- and subject to some future studies. One of those, Coppock said, will be whether the placement of the signs is a factor. He speculates that those placed on the front lawns of homes have a more substantial effect than those simply placed in highway medians. "One sort of says this person has specific support in this neighborhood,'' he explained. "Maybe I can infer about the kind of person that supports Donald Trump because it's in a particular kind of neighborhood,'' Coppock continued. "Or I could infer about who is supporting Hillary Clinton in my community by where they live.'' By contrast, he said, signs along the highway appear largely to promote name identification rather than actually persuade individuals to change their minds. Arizona political consultant Constantin Querrard, who works for Republican candidates -- and uses yard signs -- said the results of the study are not surprising. And Querrard said his own experience convinces him that Coppock and his colleagues are onto something in believing that where a sign plays a role in its political effectiveness. "If you have them scattered out on the highways and byways, they can be helpful from a name ID standpoint,'' Querard explained. But he said they tend to disappear in a sea of similar signs. Ditto, he said, of signs on street corners. "On your street, maybe there's one or two,'' Querard said. But it's not even that simple. He said the higher the profile of the race -- and the more people already know of candidates -- the less politically useful a yard sign will be. "If you put your yard sign out because you're telling your friends you're voting for Romney or you're voting for Obama, you're not trying to persuade people,'' he said. "It's like putting a Cubs flag out when they're in the playoffs,'' Querard continued. "You're just telling your neighbors which side you're on.'' The dynamics are different, he said, on "down ticket'' races, things toward the end of the ballot like state legislator or county assessor. "These are races where you're neighbors maybe aren't tracking the race as close as you are,'' Querard said. "Your endorsement is valuable only because they assume you know the person or pay attention to this,'' he said. "And in the absence of any other deciding factor, the personal endorsement from your neighbor actually I think carries weight.'' Now Querard admitted he can't prove it. "I don't have any science to back me up,'' he conceded. Coppock said he hopes to provide that with the next study. One thing the research did prove is that going negative apparently works. He said three of the races studied each had positive signs for the candidates; a fourth attacked a foe in yet another race. "That's where we saw the strongest effect,'' Coppock said. While he can't specifically explain the difference, "it's possible the negative signs were more memorable.'' Querard did have one other thought on the kind of things that do -- and do not -- make a difference in campaigns. "I actually hate buttons,'' he said, saying they end up in drawers with dozens of others. "You wear them at the event and then you never bring them back with you.'' According to security agencies, there is a dedicated team of ISI spies working to track vulnerable officers on social media. By Shashank Shekhar: Last year, in May, a top defence expert based in Delhi posted a picture of him posing in front of a military tank with an assault rifle in hand, on Facebook. Soon after he uploaded the image, the expert started receiving friend requests and chat invites from so many random admirers, especially women. Taken aback by this sudden and unusual attention, the expert decided to share the matter with his associates in the defence forces. What he heard from them made his jaw drop. His female admirers were actually agents working for Pakistan's spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), and were out to lure him into sharing sensitive and valuable details pertaining to defence operations. According to Indian security agencies, ISI has been using social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter to honey trap unsuspecting Indian personnel by providing training to women on how to make explicit calls and chats, in a field traditionally dominated by men. The lure begins with friend requests. advertisement Once the request is accepted, the chatting begins, eventually coaxing the personnel to share sensitive information. However if the officer is unwilling or sceptical, an offer of money ensues. According to security agencies, there is a dedicated team of ISI spies working to track vulnerable officers on social media. Ranjith K K, the Indian Air Force airman, arrested last week for allegedly passing sensitive information to Pakistan. Deep reach "The moment an officer discloses his online identity, he/she comes on the radar of spies who starts following him on the virtual world," says a senior officer investigating the ISI spy network on conditions of anonymity. "They (spies) also keep a track of their interest and hobbies to make a conversation and get friendly. Spies have created many a fake profile and identity on social media and use it according to their targets," says the officer. The arrest of Indian Air Force airman Ranjith K K, last week, for allegedly passing sensitive information to his Facebook friend Damini McNaught is only the latest. Ranjith, who joined IAF in 2010, had reportedly passed on classified information about IAF and its activities, including details of Operation Inderdhanush-a joint military exercise between India and the U.K. He also admitted to having passed on Air Force related information pertaining to movement of aircraft and deployment of various units in the IAF in exchange for monetary benefits, according to the police. The airman allegedly had been in touch with the woman and had engaged in sex chats, for the last several months, before being finally arrested by the crime branch. The cops, however, are still not sure if her profile picture used to lure the personnel, created in 2012, is real or not. McNaught had portrayed herself as an executive of a Britain-based magazine to the arrested IAF man. This is not the first time veteran army officers have fallen victim to honey trap on social networking sites. Ranjith is the sixth person to be arrested by Delhi police for being part of an espionage racket backed by the ISI. Five other people, including an ex-army officer and a serving BSF official have been booked last month. In 2014, a Subedar attached to the Indian Army based in Hyderabad was trapped after investigations revealed that he compromised strategic information pertaining to movement of defence personnel, deployment, location of artillery centres, advanced weaponry, and army bases in exchange for monetary benefits to the tune of Rs 10 lakh from a woman named Anushka Aggarwal. Investigations also revealed that Aggarwal used to send her semi-nude pictures to her army client. "Our investigation has revealed that ISI has set up a cyber wing equipped with modern technologies for massive online tracking. They are giving voice training to agents to appear more professional while dealing with defence personnel online," says a senior official with the central security agency. The woman who spoke to Ranjith, reportedly talked in a British accent to make the interaction more convincing and in line with her assumed identity as U.K.-based executive. To counter espionage attacks, the defence forces already have a guideline in place that urges all its officials to be circumspect and not reveal their service identity while online or on any social networking sites. The security agencies are also keeping a tab on close to 2,000 retired and serving officers who are deemed as susceptible to influences and are likely to pass information for money or other favours. advertisement The investigation has also revealed that the hackers, suspected to be from Pakistan or China, would 'make friends' with officer or with other members on his friend list to extract details of their location. Unfortunately, despite heightened vigilance, the lure of the devil seems to be too irresistible, at least for some.' From fake online identity to sex chats, techniques deployed by ISI spies are dark and high-tech. Reach of ISI spies in India is deep and entrenched Indian security agencies may have recently arrested a number of people including senior defence personnel complicit in passing information to Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), but the breakthrough is just a tip of the ISI's horrifying reach across the country. Central security agencies suspect that the ISI has managed to plant spies across the country and the network is deep-rooted. They have also managed to establish links in government organisations, including defence establishments. Security agencies claim that ISI is extracting information by deploying or grooming agents who do recee on behalf of their Pakistani masters and then pass on information. They are also strengthening their web attack by secretly attacking Indian network with deadly viruses that transfer confidential files back to them. The government, however, officially denies any successful high tech attacks that have led to the compromising of computer networks. advertisement ISI is also expanding its technical intelligence on social media by tracking defence personnel and other government official by honey trapping them. Though there is no clear estimate on the number of people spying for ISI or any other intelligence agencies in India, it is believed that the Pakistani spy agency already has information pertaining to all important buildings and establishments in India. However, some cases are serious, where the ISI has asked for specific details of important places along with By Shashank Shekhar pictures and other logistics. A Pakistan national who was arrested by UP STF from Meerut in December last year allegedly sent recordings of the landing of Mirage 2000 on the Yamuna Expressway in Greater Noida. The IB has found that many Indians, who travel to Pakistan legally, are being lured into becoming spies. Many Indians visit Pakistan in order to meet their relatives or for some other work. ISI agents are present at entry and exit routes in Pakistan and try to trap vulnerable Indians and use them to get information. advertisement According to a highly placed source, the series of arrest made in Delhi, Kashmir, Kolkata, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Rajasthan came only after months of surveillance by the Intelligence Bureau (IB). They launched a major operation against collection of such information and zeroed in on suspected spies after intercepting calls and web communication. The arrests were finally made after specific information was given to the state police. But the biggest concern for intelligence agencies is to identify spies, who are spread across the country and but have gone underground. "It is very difficult to identify spies. They can be tracked only with human or technical intelligence both of which are in acute shortage,"said a senior government officer. ALSO READ: Former Indian Air Force officer Ranjith's role suspected in Pathankot web The agencies traced three calls made by the attackers to their handlers in Pakistan, establishing that the brazen terror raid was being guided from across the border. "Son, please have some food before you lay down your life." This was one of the chilling exchanges between one of the five terrorists and his mother before he was gunned down by Indian security forces in Pathankot on Saturday. The agencies traced three calls made by the attackers to their handlers in Pakistan, establishing that the brazen terror raid was being guided from across the border. This came little over a week after Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a dramatic stopover in Lahore to meet his counterpart Nawaz Sharif to speed up resumption of the bilateral dialogue process. Sources said the Jaish-e-Mohammed and the Lashkar-e-Taiba could have joined hands to execute the attack. One of the terrorists spoke to his mother in Pakistan's Punjab about his suicide mission and sought her blessings. She is heard telling him to have some food before laying down his life. The phone call was intercepted by Indian agencies. Click here to Enlarge Security personnel stand guard outside the Indian Air Force base at Pathankot in Punjab on Saturday. advertisement All five terrorists who stormed the Indian Air Force base in Punjab's border town Pathankot were gunned down by the security forces in a 15-hour-long gun battle that started in the wee hours of Saturday. An IAF commando and two Defence Service Corps (DSC) personnel, who man military establishments, were killed in the encounter. Unlike previous terror attacks in the vulnerable Jammu-Pathankot belt, the agencies had prior information about this strike. When the terrorists entered the IAF base, the security forces were prepared, the Ministry of Defence claimed in a statement. "A group of terrorists was detected by the aerial surveillance platforms as soon as they entered the air force station Pathankot," the defence ministry said, adding the infiltrators were immediately engaged and contained within a limited area and prevented from entering the technical zone where the planes are parked. The group of suicide attackers could not make deep inroads into the air base as they remained confined to the outer periphery. The terrorists are believed to have crossed the border near Gurdaspur on December 30. Their target was destruction of IAF fighter jets and other high value assets. The Pathankot airbase is home to Mig-21 fighter jets and Mi-25 attack helicopters. The government claimed that the terrorist attack was foiled through prompt action coordinated by various agencies. The IAF base already had army columns, and its own commando force Garud and the National Security Guard (NSG). Intelligence sources believe that the heavily armed terrorists belonged to Bahawalpur in Pakistan and received training in the last six months. Their handlers have been identified as Maulana Ashfaq Ahmed and Haji Abdul Shakur and it is believed that they were trained in Pakistanoccupied Kashmir in the first week of December just when New Delhi and Islamabad explored possibilities of resuming the peace process. Sources said the terrorists, wearing army uniform, were highly trained and were heavily armed. They drove into the base in a hijacked vehicle. While four terrorists were killed in the early morning push, the fifth one engaged the security forces till Saturday evening. The IAF used helicopter gunships to locate the fifth terrorist. As the operation was on, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar who rushed back from Goa to New Delhi. Parrikar later went into a huddle with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and the three service chiefs to monitor the operation directly from New Delhi. After the base was sanitised, the first statement from the government came when Prime Minister Narendra Modi lauded the security forces for foiling the attack. Sources said prior information about attack helped in containing the damage and the security forces were able to avoid a possible hostage situation. Also read: Pathankot attack: Former International medallist Fateh Singh martyred Enemies of humanity carried out the attack in Pathankot: Modi Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari on Saturday revealed that film actor Asha Parekh came to her for recommending her name for Padma Bhushan award. By India Today Web Desk: Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari on Saturday revealed that film actor Asha Parekh came to him for recommending her name for Padma Bhushan award. Gadkari even said that people are chasing him for awards these days as they want him to recommend their names. "Film actor Asha Parekh came to me for recommending her name for Padma Bhushan. The lift of my apartment was not functioning properly, so she climbed 12 floors to meet me in person and I really felt bad about it," Nitin Gadkari said. Veteran actor Asha Parekh allegedly told the minister that she was entitled for the Padma Bhushan due to her massive contribution in Indian film industry. The startling revelation was made by the minister during an event in Nagpur. advertisement Bodies of four terrorists, who attacked Pathankot air base on Saturday, have been recovered. Reports say 11 security personnel have been martyred while fighting the militants. 18 injured security men have been admitted to a hospital in Pathankot. By India Today Web Desk: Bodies of four terrorists, who attacked Pathankot air base on Saturday, have been recovered. Reports say 11 security personnel have been martyred while fighting the militants. 18 injured security men have been admitted to a hospital in Pathankot. Out of the total security men who were killed in the fierce gunbattle, 6 were from Defence Service Corps, 2 from Indian Air Force, 2 from Air Force's elite commando unit - Garud. NSG's Lieutenant Colonel Niranjan E Kumar was killed in a grenade blast inside the air base today. Sources said there could be more fatalities. Meanwhile, combing operation in and around the Pathankot air base is still on as security forces believe that one terrorist could still be hiding inside. At about 9.00 am today, grenade blasts were heard inside the air base. Sources said explosives recovered from slain terrorists were being defused. advertisement National Investigation Agency's 12-member team led by IG SK Singh has arrived in Pathankot to probe the brazen terror attack. Intelligence agencies said the pre-dawn attack was hatched by Pakistan's intelligence agency - Inter Service Intelligence (ISI) and carried out by banned terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM). "The terrorists were from Pakistan and their identities have been proven beyond doubt, they were speaking in distinct Pakistani dialect. We have established the identity of the handlers of the killed terrorists. We have confirmed that no Kashmiri or local Punjabi's from India were involved in the attack in any way. This attack was masterminded in Rawalpindi," a top intelligence source said. Also Read Pathankot terror attack: 4 terrorists killed, 3 IAF personnel martyred Pathankot terror attack planned by ISI: The inside story Pathankot terror attack: 'Mom, I am on a suicide mission' Pak number used to hire taxi by terrorists in Pathankot The slain suspected Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists, who struck the Pathankot air force station in the wee hours of Saturday and were later neutralised in an operation launched by the security forces, wanted to launch a bigger terror strike. That is the reason why they neither killed abducted senior Punjab cop Salwinder Singh and his companions nor took them hostage. Experts have termed the attack as an immature act. The slain terrorists made three major mistakes which proves the attack was poorly planned. First, the suicide bombers beat up a cop and his companions before releasing them. Moreover, they even used the senior cop's phone to call their handlers in Pakistan, a move which helped security agencies foil the terror bid. They snatched the cop's phone before pushing him off his vehicle near Pathankot in the wee hours of Friday. advertisement Though the militants had knowledge about the air base, but did not know the location of parked aircraft like MiG-21 and Mi fighter choppers. They may be successful in entering the airbase but entered the kitchen area. However, they succeeded in transporting enough arms and ammunition to engage security forces for nearly 13 hours. Highly-placed sources told Mail Today that the terrorists made three calls from the cop's phone to speak to their handlers in Pakistan. The phone, according to Punjab police sources, was immediately put on surveillance after Singh reported the matter to the police. The police intercepted the calls which were made on Friday night. The fourth call was made by one of the slain terrorists to his mother. Sources said he informed his mother that he was on a fidayeen mission and she asked him to eat food before launching the attack. The police have not shared intercepts of the telephone conversations due to security reasons. Sources said the terrorists and their handles communicated in Punjabi dialect. The handlers also rebuked the militants for releasing the senior cop unharmed. Sources said National Security Advisor Ajit Doval held a meeting with security officials soon after the calls were intercepted. A warning was issued and Indian Army and National Security Guard teams were asked to move to Pathankot by air. The teams were deployed at important places to thwart the terror attack. Despite the alert and security arrangement, the terrorists managed to enter the air force station using the escape routes. While some sources say the terrorists scaled the 12 ft high boundary wall which protects the air force station, some said the terrorists dug up a fence and entered the station. Also read: Pathankot terror attack: 'Mom, I am on a suicide mission' Pathankot terror attack planned by ISI: The inside story Security forces have gunned down four terrorists at the Air Force base in Pathankot. By India Today Web Desk: Security forces have gunned down four terrorists at the Air Force base in Pathankot. Admitting that two terrorists had been holed up at the base since yesterday, Union home secretary Rajiv Mehrishi said combing operations will continue. "In the morning, two more terrorists were discovered and are being engaged. We are hopeful that they will also be neutralised by this evening," Mehrishi added. A fresh grenade blast ripped through the Air Force base Sunday morning claiming the life of Lt Col Niranjan, a member of the NSG's Bomb Disposal Squad, taking the toll of Indian security personnel to seven. "Pained to know about demise of Lt. Col. Niranjan of NSG during mopping out ops at Pathankot, nation salutes his sacrifice," Home Minister Rajnath Singh said. "Without intelligence, Pathankot attack could have been worse," Singh added. advertisement Meanwhile, the joint combing operation is still underway, a police official said, adding that the NIA had taken over the probe into the terror incident. Slain Lt Col Niranjan Kumar of the National Security Guard. Slain Lt Col Niranjan Kumar of the National Security Guard. Various security agencies, including the Army, Indian Air Force, Central forces and Punjab Police are involved in the joint operation. A large cache of arms and ammunition have already been recovered during the sanitisation and search operations. IAF helicopters were also seen flying over the base and nearby areas to assist the ground forces in the operations. HERE ARE THE LATEST UPDATES PM Narendra Modi chairs high level meeting with NSA, foreign secretary and other officials Series of loud explosions heard from inside the Air Force base Operation is at a mature stage but confirmation on number of casualties only after we recover bodies: Air Marshal Anil Khosla Once the whole area is sanitised then only we can say that there were only six terrorists: Air Marshal Anil Khosla No damage to the high value assets inside the technical area of Pathankot air base. NSG's Lt . Col. Niranjan Kumar killed today morning in grenade blast. 12 NSG men were injured in two days of counter-terror operation: Mehershi 6 Air Force personnel killed and 8 injured in the operation: Mehershi Intelligence inputs helped minimise the impact of the attack: Mehershi Home Secretary Rajiv Mehershi is briefing the media over Pathankot terror attack. One more terrorist killed by security forces. Total five militants killed so far. One more attacker still holed up inside. Security forces have launched final assault on terrorists holed up inside the air base. Heavy exchange of fire between militants and commandos being reported. Firing going on at two different locations, 2 more blasts heard in Pathankot air base. Home Ministry has sought a report from the Border Security Force (BSF) over intrusion of Pakistani terrorists. BSF is deployed on the western international border with Pakistan. Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi to brief media on Pathankot terror attack at 5 PM today. Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar briefs Prime Minister Narendra Modi on anti-terror operations. Firing between security forces and terrorists has resumed again inside Pathankot air base. At least 2 more terrorists are still believed to be hiding inside the air base. Third blast of the day was heard at around 1.00pm. Fresh firing inside Pathankot Air Force base reported at around 12.15 pm. One senior Army officer was killed and four jawans were injured when a grenade exploded while being defused by the bomb squad inside the air base. NSG's Lieutenant Colonel Niranjan E Kumar was killed in a grenade blast inside the air base. Lieutenant Colonel Niranjan E Kumar was killed in a grenade blast inside the air base. Entire area has been cordoned off and top officers of several agencies are camping in the station premises to oversee the operation which is jointly being conducted by several security wings including NIA, NSG and Garud. IAF helicopters were also seen flying over the base and nearby areas to assist ground forces in the operations. Bodies of all four terrorists, who were killed after a day-long gunbattle on Saturday, have been found. Among the weapons recovered from them are AK 47s, mortars, grenade launchers and GPS. Commander-in-Chief of Western Air Command Air Marshal SB Dev will brief the media about operation at afternoon. Army, Punjab Police and officers of SPG will also be present. NIA team from Delhi reached Pathankot and started investigating the case. According to top Intel sources, the attack on Pathankot Air force base was planned by ISI and carried out by Jaish (JeM) fidayeens. The terrorists were Pakistani, their identities have been proven beyond doubt, they were speaking distinct Pakistani dialect. This attack was masterminded in Rawalpindi. Few days after Prime Minister Modi's birthday diplomacy in Lahore - six Pakistani terrorists crossed over to carry out a suicide attack on the Indian soil. Dressed in Army uniform, they kidnapped Gurdaspur SP Salwinder Singh and killed a taxi driver on the Jammu-Pathankot highway on January 1. An hour later, terrorist laid siege to the air base where heavy firing erupted between Security forces and terrorists. In the wee hours yesterday, the group of terrorists in army fatigues had attempted to storm the base with the obvious intent of destroying MiG-21 fighter jets and MI-25 attack helicopters housed there. The attackers were believed to have infiltrated from Pakistan and there was speculation that they may belong to Jaish-e-Mohammad headed Maulana Masood Azhar of the Kandahar hijack episode. advertisement The terrorists were carrying Under Barrel Grenade Launchers, 52 mm mortars, AK rifles and GPS machine. Based on intercepts, security agencies believe that one Nazeer from Bahawalpur in Pakistan was leading the group. Defence sources believe the terrorists sneaked into the nearly 2000-acre air base through a forested area where they were confronted by the Quick Reaction Team of Garud commandos. They managed to go up to 400 metres but were still 700 metres away from the area where the IAF aircraft fighters were stationed. advertisement Delhi on high alert Intelligence agencies have warned of a possible terror strike in the national capital. According to reports, two Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) men have sneaked into Delhi to carry out a Pathankot-like terror strike in the city. According to the intelligence inputs, JeM operatives might carry out high profile strike and there could be hostage crisis. Delhi's police chief BS Bassi has met senior officers to discuss the input and security has been increased at all tourist spots, airport and railway stations in Delhi. Earlier in the morning, several trains were halted and some delayed after a bomb scare at New Delhi Railway station. RELATEDS Pathankot attack was poorly planned: Experts Former IAF officer Ranjith's role suspected in Pathankot web Pathankot-Jammu highway sealed after terror attack The government is in a wait and watch mode, and there was no decision taken on calling off the foreign secretary level talks. By India Today Web Desk: A high level meeting of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, foreign secretary and other officials over the fatal Pathankot terror attacks, ended after a two-hour long deliberation. According to sources, the government is in a wait and watch mode, and there was no decision taken on calling off the foreign secretary level talks which is scheduled to be held on January 15. The Prime Minister was briefed about the activities, and military operations. The priority now is to neutralise the remaining terrorists. There were also dicsussions on security as well as the strategic and diplomatic repercussions that will follow this attack. Also watch: #PathankotAttack: 2 terrorists still holed up, combing operation on By India Today Web Desk: Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a meeting of top officials including National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar, and other officials, soon after returning from his two-day visit to Karnataka. "Immediately on landing in Delhi, PM Narendra Modi is chairing a high-level meeting with the NSA, Foreign Secretary and other officials," the PMO said. Earlier during the day, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar briefed the Prime Minister on the latest situation at the Pathankot air base. Both were present at a HAL function in Tumakuru in Karnataka. Pathankot air base is under terror attack since Saturday, and operations are still on. The security forces have already killed four terrorists and two more are believed to be still holed-up inside the base, and an operation is underway to flush them out. advertisement Fresh exchange of fire was reported at the attack site between the security forces and terrorists holed-up inside the air force base. A joint combing operation by the armed forces, police and security personnel was still underway and the NIA has taken over the probe into the terror attack. Also read: #PathankotAttack: 2 terrorists still holed up, combing operation on Bleeding profusely, the girl was not given even basic first aid for over three hours. Preliminary investigations have revealed that the senior resident doctor on duty,who was to examine the child,was in the operation theatre conducting an emergency surgery resulting in the delay in examination. By Astha Saxena: A seven-year-old rape victim from South Delhi' Tigri area was left unattended for more than three hours in the country's premier medical institute - All India Institute for Medical Science (AIIMS) on December 11. Bleeding profusely, the girl was not given even basic first aid for over three hours. The incident has once again raised serious questions over how the country's top medical institute functions. Taking strong action after the alleged negligence, the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) had served a notice to the premier medical institute on December 14 while asking AIIMS to explain the reason of negligence. According to the notice served by the DCW, the investigation officer and counsellor informed that the victim was brought to the hospital in a very serious condition on December 11 at 8.35 pm and was bleeding profusely. advertisement DCW chairperson Swati Maliwal who met the rape victim had quoted the version of the investigating police officer and the counsellor of DCW's Rape Crisis Cell, saying that she was not provided medical treatment for three-and-a-half hours at AIIMS. However, the girl was left unattended while being denied even first aid for more than 3.5 hours until around 12 pm. The Investigation Officer and RCC Counsellor had also made a written complaint to the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) regarding the same. According to the sources, the senior resident doctor on duty delayed administering medical treatment to the victim as he was in the operation theatre conducting an emergency surgery at that time. DCW chief Swati Maliwal had met the 7-year-old rape victim. DCW has served a notice to AIIMS over alleged negligence. The minor girl was allegedly sexually assaulted while she was playing outside her home by a teenager from the same neighbourhood in South Delhi's Tigri area, following which the police registered a case and apprehended the accused. Taking cognisance of the DCW notice, AIIMS has initiated a departmental inquiry and issued a show-cause notice to a senior resident doctor on duty for alleged negligence in providing timely medical treatment to a seven-year-old rape victim last month, it said in a report to DCW. "Preliminary investigations have revealed that the senior resident on duty, who was to examine the child, was in the operation theatre conducting an emergency surgery resulting in the delay in examination," AIIMS said in its response. "This, of course cannot be accepted as a valid reason for the delay," it said. The head of department has issued a show-cause notice to the resident. Further, a departmental enquiry has also been initiated, it added. "As part of a system approach to the problem, we are instituting a mechanism whereby upon receiving a suspected case of sexual assault, the CMO shall intimate the senior resident on call as well as the duty officer so that any delays can be avoided," AIIMS further said. Also read: As child rapes rise, women lawyers demand castration Molestation cases go up by 25 per cent, Delhi still unsafe for its women By Ajay Kumar: In a desperate bid to avoid police arrest, two highway robbers jumped off a flyover to their death in Haryana's industrial town Dharuhera in Rewari district late on Friday night. Rattan Lal, the SHO of Dharuhera police station told Mail Today that there were five highway robbers who apprehended a truck driver in a bid to snatch his vehicle around 11.30 pm on Friday night. "Traffic personnel patrolling the Jaipur to Delhi side of National Highway 8 (NH8), susoected something fishy when they heard screams from a truck stationed on the other side of the flyover. When they crossed the road to check, they found three armed robbers trying to overpower the truck drivers," Lal said. He added that two other accomplices were waiting in a Maruti Ritz car and as soon as cops reached the truck, they sped away. The three robbers struggling with the truck drivers panicked when they saw the cops and tried to run away. Two of them, Azhar and Tahir, jumped off the flyover, hoping to escape. But it was too dark for the robbers to gauge where they would land. Azhar fell in an open drain, fracturing his neck and injuring his head, and Tahir too suffered similar injuries. They both died on the spot on the spot. advertisement The third robber, Mubarik, also attempted to jump off the flyover and had almost crossed the railing, but cops managed to him catch on time. The other two accomplices were identified as Sammi and Aarif and all of them were natives of the adjoining Mewat district. Also read: Street crimes in Delhi see 30 per cent spike , . . Two Catholic Charities workers were searching Flagstaffs Southside for vulnerable homeless people early one morning in mid-December when they came upon something they never wanted to see. Inside a tunnel in the 100 block of West Phoenix Avenue was the body of a man bundled up in a sleeping bag. He appeared to have frozen to death. Deaths like this one happen every winter in Flagstaff as overnight temperatures drop into the single digits. But in 2015, the number of suspected exposure deaths among the local homeless population dropped significantly. During its annual Longest Night memorial service on Dec. 21, 2014 Flagstaff Shelter Services remembered eight homeless people who died due to exposure that year. This December, the ceremony included only two, including the man discovered by the Catholic Charities workers a couple weeks ago. A fledgling overflow program run by Flagstaff Shelter Services appears to be at least partially responsible for the drop. During the winter of 2012, the shelter reported having to turn people away on Code Blue nights when the temperatures dropped below 20 degrees. Thats why, in early December 2013, a group of citizens formed a nonprofit called The Refuge, which enlisted a few local churches to take in homeless men and women when the shelter was full on the coldest nights of the year. The program has continued to grow. That essentially extended our capacity in partner churches around the eight coldest weeks of winter last year starting in December, said Ross Altenbaugh, executive director of Flagstaff Shelter Services. We didnt have any exposure deaths from Dec. 1 to Feb. 1 last year. In 2015, Flagstaff Shelter Services took over the initiative and turned it into a program called The Sanctuary. More than a dozen local religious congregations and social service agencies are now involved. The increased participation allowed the shelter to provide overflow space in mid-November weeks earlier than in 2014. The program is expected to run into March. The truth is, we really feel like this additional shelter space is contributing to the decrease in exposure deaths, Altenbaugh said. The workers at the Catholic Charities Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness or PATH program have noticed a difference, too. Jonathan Duncan, an outreach support specialist for PATH, was one of the workers who found the homeless man dead in December. Every night when there is a lot of snow or ice or the temperatures are dangerously cold, he and fellow PATH worker Richard Brust work from 10 p.m to 5 or 6 a.m. searching Flagstaffs shopping center storefronts, bridges and tunnels for people who are sleeping outside to either get them to the shelter or put them up in a motel. The Catholic Charities workers have been going out a lot more this year than last because there have been more cold, snowy nights. This year, in particular, were finding a lot less people outside, Duncan said. Im sure that has to do with the overflow services. Of course, part of it could be that we just cant find them and they are hiding out in the woods. The decrease in deaths is especially significant because of the high demand for emergency shelter. The alcohol and drug-free, faith-based Sunshine Rescue Mission Inc., for instance, can house 45 men upstairs and about 20 more in its downstairs overflow space at The Mission in the Southside, plus at least 65 women and children at Hope Cottage. Usually, there are some spaces available in the winter, but not this year. Weve been really full, said Sunshine Rescue Mission Executive Director Stephanie Boardman. Normally, between October and March, people that are homeless in our community try to reconnect at Christmas and the holidays, so usually we have less (demand). This is the first year where I can say weve been completely full all during the holidays. If someone needs a bed but the person is inebriated or the Sunshine Rescue Mission locations are full, staff coordinates with Flagstaff Shelter Services to find that person a warm place to stay for the night. We are a barebones operation (at Flagstaff Shelter Services), Altenbaugh said. We provide the most basic resources to people with the lowest barrier to access them. People can access our services regardless of their faith, sobriety or mental illness, so we really are getting folks that are the most likely to die on our streets tonight. Flagstaff Police Department also helps by picking up homeless people who are in danger of freezing. We try to get them with family here if they have it, said FPD Deputy Chief Dan Musselman. If not, we look to get them into the homeless shelters or the Alcohol Stabilization Unit (at the Guidance Center). FPD also gives them winter coats donated by the Salvation Army. This winter, all 86 beds at the Flagstaff Shelter Services have been full every night, but, thanks to the churches participating in the Sanctuary program, the shelter has not had to turn anyone away because they have been able to house an additional 25 to 30 people a night in the churches. The good news is that the resources are there if people can get to them and know about them, Altenbaugh said. We really feel like, between us and the other amazing agencies, we really feel like were able to meet the need that exists from a capacity perspective. Its a little bit unlimited. If we needed 50 spots, we would have them. This week, it is Hope Community Churchs turn to provide overflow space to the shelter. Our mission is to love God and love others, so it fits, said Pastor Dave Reynolds. We dont want to see people out in the cold. Hope Community Church also participated in the Refuge program in 2014. It went so well that the congregation decided to come back for another year. The guys (who stayed at the church) were great, Reynolds said. They pretty much have it all down to a routine. They police themselves, so it was not a hard thing to do. Theyre truly grateful to have a break from the shelter. (The shelter sends) guys theyve already established a rapport with that they know will do well in the setting over here. Reynolds said his church would not have the resources to house homeless people on its own, but with Flagstaff Shelter Services making the placements, feeding its clients dinner and taking care of the logistics, including bedding, transportation and liability insurance, his congregation is able to help the people in Flagstaff who need it most. All he needs is volunteers to cook breakfast for the homeless guests in the mornings. The shelter has everything else, he said. They have it all covered. They meet a crucial need in our community. Were all in it together and were just trying to do our part. Unlike in the past, Duncan said, the biggest challenge Catholic Charities faces in trying to prevent exposure deaths is not a lack of shelter space but the reluctance of some homeless people to use it. When someone refuses to come with them, the Catholic Charities workers leave their card with contact information, as well as donated blankets, sleeping bags, gloves, beanies and anything else they have on hand that could help that person stay warm. Having things like blankets, flashlights, heavy jackets and things like that to offer people to really make sure that theyre getting the best care they can when they dont want to come with us is definitely helpful, Duncan said. Catholic Charities, the Salvation Army, Flagstaff Shelter Services and Sunshine Rescue Mission all need volunteers and donations to keep their operations afloat. But Boardman said even community members who are not affiliated with any of those organizations can help save lives this winter. Offer them blankets, she said. Ask if they need help or ask, Can I take you to a shelter? If they say no, you need to call the police or, if you can do it, you want to put them up in a hotel. If youre serious about really helping somebody in that situation and its freezing out there, youll go that extra mile to save them. By India Today Web Desk: Here's the first picture of celebrity couple Kim Kardashian West and Kanye West's newborn son, Saint West. Reality TV star Kim shared this adorable photo of her one-month-old son, holding his 2-year-old sister North's finger. She captioned the picture, "She said, "He's my best friend." She said, "He's my best friend." A photo posted by Kim Kardashian West (@kimkardashian) on Jan 2, 2016 at 5:02pm PST Saint was born on December 5 in Los Angeles and weighed 8 lbs, 1 oz, at birth. Kim's Instagram post comes amid reports of the couple being offered a huge sum for the first professional photographs of their newborn. According to TMZ, they received a number of offers from various magazines--ranging from USD 2 million to USD 2.5 million. The couple, however, said they wanted to introduced their baby boy to the world through their own website. advertisement Also read: Kimye offered 2 million dollars for releasing Saint's first pictures Though Kim and her son are doing well, the reality TV star didn't have the easiest pregnancy--Kim suffered from placenta accreta, the same condition she experienced during her first pregnancy with daughter North, reports People.com. Placenta accreta causes a high risk pregnancy condition in which a woman's placenta grows too deeply into the uterine wall and doesn't detach, requiring a doctor to scrape it out by hand. Also read: Kim K says she's lost 17 pounds since delivery; reveals pregnancy weight Meanwhile, the tiny tot is already the star of the Kardashian household. According to reports, North and Kourtney's kids love seeing Saint while daddy Kanye is already thinking of melodies for him. Also read: Kim K just launched her own emojis and they're exactly what you'd expect Also read: 10 definitive moments of 2015 for the Kardashian-Jenner clan By Mail Today: Karnataka's Chief Minister Siddaramaiah today urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to accord the Mysuru University the status of National University. Addressing the 103rd Indian Science Congress in Mysuru, Siddaramaiah recalled the contribution of Mysuru University towards the economic growth of the state. "Realising the premiere position occupied by the University of Mysuru, the government of Karnataka has accorded it, the title of Innovative University," he added. ALSO READ | PM Narendra Modi inaugurates Indian Science Congress in Mysuru He was of the view that the university, which was established in 1916, needed better recognition. "Now, I believe in all sincerity that the University is poised to obtain the recognition as a National University. I appeal to our beloved Prime Minister to accord the status of national university to the University of Mysuru, which it richly deserves," he said. --- ENDS --- By Maithili Parekh: The room was electric, the atmosphere charged as William Robinson, Head of World Art at Christie's, auctioned a painting by artist Vasudev Santu Gaitonde (1924-2001) on the evening of December 15, 2015, in Mumbai. The artwork, created two decades ago in 1995, sold for a phenomenal price of Rs 29.3 crore, breaking the previous world record for a modern work of Indian art. This work, and its journey, in some way perhaps mirrors the story of Gaitonde's own rise within the world of art. Back in 1995, when the work was created and put on sale by Gaitonde's gallery, it was bought by a passionate Indian collector who paid in installments as he couldn't afford the outright price. Today, this same work has been acquired by an international collector, of non-Indian origin. Gaitonde has gone from being noticed by a few keen local collectors, to becoming coveted by top international art connoisseurs. Alongside this market context, major art scholars and museums have recognised Gaitonde as a "seminal colourist whose career remains unparalleled in the history of South Asian Art". The renowned Solomon R Guggenheim Museum in New York opened a major retrospective of the artist's work, Painting as Process, Painting as Life, curated by Sandhini Poddar, in 2014 and this show has now travelled to the Peggy Guggenheim Museum in Venice (on view until January 2016). advertisement Who was Gaitonde and what makes him an outstanding artist? A student of the JJ School of Art in Mumbai, Gaitonde briefly associated with the Progressive Artists Group that included MF Husain and Akbar Padamsee until 1950. In his early career he experimented with various forms of figuration, collage and mixed media before 'finding himself' in what he called the "non-objective" style that employed palatte knives, paint and rollers along with extraordinary understanding of colour, form and texture. His long, deep and consistent exploration of this non-objective approach, which he refused to call 'abstract', makes him fascinating. Untitled, a 1995 oil on canvas; sold for Rs 29.3 Crore, breaking the previous world auction record for Modern Indian art. Not only this but Gaitonde was heavily influenced by his lifelong study of Zen Buddhism and various Indian philosophical systems. A recluse for much of his life, Gaitonde?'s works are direct, simple, meditative and yet layered, reflective and deeply textured. He created very little work in his life, often spending weeks on one work; he had immense patience and often took long contemplative breaks to ponder while painting. It seems almost ironic that we..in our frenzied world...should so admire the work of a man who respected a slow pace. Or perhaps, that is why we crave that meditative mode. Untitled, a 1985 ink on paper from his Calligraphy Series, exhibited at the Guggenheim Museum retrospective 2014. After an auto accident in 1984 in Delhi where Gaitonde suffered severe injuries, he was unable to make large canvases. This is when he turned to smaller format works, his ink on paper drawings of calligraphic and hieroglyphic markings made with spontaneous gestures and rhythmic movements. This series of works remains one of my personal favourites. Gaitonde resumed work on larger format canvasses by 1989 and continued to paint for another decade. He died in 2001 in Gurgaon. Gaitonde or Gai as he was fondly known to friends, was a man of uncompromising integrity. Achieving silence was critical to his creative process, and yet, he has left us with a body of exceptional art that has created an uproar and loud cheers in both auction rooms and museums all over the world. Maithili Parekh Art Consultant The police detained Vinay, a diploma student, for allegedly obstructing the convoy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday evening in Karnataka's Mysuru. By Mail Today: The police detained Vinay, a diploma student, for allegedly obstructing the convoy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday evening in Karnataka's Mysuru. The incident created a security scare when Vinay reportedly managed to get close to Modi's car when the convoy was on its way back to Lalith Mahal Palace Hotel where the prime minister was staying. According to the police, Vinay is a die-hard fan of the prime minister and wanted to show him his "Green India" project. Vinay somehow managed to elude the police and had positioned himself near the VV Circle. Later, he managed to reach the Kautilya Circle. When Modi's convoy arrived at the circle around 7:35 pm, Vinay ran towards Modi's car shouting his name. But the SPG personnel traveling with Modi held back the boy and handed him over to the police. advertisement The police are now questioning Vinay at the Lakshmipuram police station in Mysuru. They have also summoned his parents from Nanjanagudu town. Vinay is a student of a polytechnic college in Kushalanagara in the neighboring Kodagu district. Mysuru City Police Commissioner B Dayananda maintained that there was no security breach, as Vinay was apprehended before he could go near the convoy. ALSO READ | Modi emphasises on ocean economy at Indian Science Congress A perception of the U.S. being a threat to Russia is a sign of how relations with the west have deteriorated in recent years. By India Today Web Desk: According to a document "About the Strategy of National Security of Russian Federation", signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin on New Year's Eve, United States of America has been named as one of the threats to Russia's national security. The document replaces a 2009 version endorsed by then- President Dmitry Medvedev, the current prime minister, which mentioned neither the United States not NATO. This is the first time ever that Russia has named the United States. The document also claims that Russia's role in solving global problems and international conflicts has escalated and this has caused a reaction by the West. Conducting an independent policy, "both international and domestic" has caused "counteraction from the USA and its allies, which are striving to retain their dominance in global affairs," it says. That in turn, is likely to lead to "political, economical, military and informational pressure" on Russia, the reads document." advertisement The document identifies the nation's increasing strength on the international front. But a perception of the U.S. being a threat to Russia is a sign of how relations with the west have deteriorated in recent years. The relations between the two countries saw disturbance after Russian forces annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in March 2014. Since then, the West has accused Russia of aiding insurgents in eastern Ukraine. The document says that the United States and the EU have supported an "anti-constitutional coup d'etat in Ukraine", The United States and the European Union have since imposed wide-ranging sanctions against Russian individuals and companies. Moscow has reacted by restricting food and other goods from the EU. The document also refers to NATO and considers it a threat as well. This document is the basis for planning strategy to handle national security by different state bodies. Oddly, it does not mention Syria despite Russia launching air strikes against anti-government rebels only to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a Russian ally. Ola cab driver, who allegedly raped a woman in his vehicle on December 29 in Bhopal, has been arrested. The woman has lodged a complaint at Koh-e-Fiza police station on January 1 and the accused was arrested on Saturday. By India Today Web Desk: Ola cab driver, who allegedly raped a woman in his vehicle on December 29 in Bhopal, has been arrested. The woman has lodged a complaint at Koh-e-Fiza police station on January 1 and the accused was arrested on Saturday. The woman, who works at a private hospital, had booked the app-based cab on December 29 to return home from work. Accused driver Deepak Bamane picked her up from outside hospital gate. After driving for some time, Bamane stopped the vehicle at a secluded place between Bairagarh and Gandhi Nagar and raped the woman. He also threatened the mother of two kids that he will kill her if she reports the incident to anyone. The victim told her husband about the incident and the couple later approached the police on January 1. advertisement Police probe revealed that the accused lives near the woman's house in Gandhi Nagar area and knew her. The police is now verifying whether the taxi company had gone for police verification before hiring the accused driver and if he had a past criminal record. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that his vision for healthcare is an integrated system that understands and builds on the best and most effective of different traditions. By Mail Today: Noting that Yoga is now a global heritage with the world embracing traditional Indian medicine with great enthusiasm, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said that his vision for healthcare is an integrated system that understands and builds on the best and most effective of different traditions. Modi was in Bengaluru to address the 21st International Conference on Frontiers in Yoga Research and Its Applications at the Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana. Its founder Dr. H.R. Nagendra is considered Modi's personal Yoga guru. Modi has visited the centre in the past as well. "Across the world there are moving stories of transformed lives and rekindled hopes due to Yoga. Across cultures and geography, people are increasingly taking to yoga to redefine their lives. The overwhelming global support is a mark of Yoga's growing international popularity," he added. advertisement Modi said the emphasis of his government was on integration of various Indian medicine systems for the benefit of people. "We are placing emphasis on our efforts to increase awareness, acceptance and adoption of Ayush System of Medicine. We will also reduce the social and economic costs to our society and promote a more environment friendly healthcare system," Modi said. RELATEDS New chopper unit: Modi sets deadline for HAL Karnataka: Student detained for obstructing PM Modi's convoy Investigative reporting from the inner city to Wall Street to the United Nations This is the blogspot version InnerCityPress.com The year 2016 in the Flagstaff region will see some loose ends from 2015 tied up as well as some new initiatives. Following is a look ahead by the Daily Sun's staff reporters: CITY OF FLAGSTAFF In the new year, residents of Flagstaff may finally see action on four topics that dominated City Council agendas in 2015: downtown parking, student housing, a living wage and water rates. On parking, one plan proposed by staff last month would have neighborhood blocks opt-in to a street parking permit program. . Visitors would have to purchase a parking permit from a kiosk or pay a parking meter. Student housing will be a hot topic again in the new year. At least four new apartment complexes geared toward college students are moving through the citys planning and zoning process and may be under construction in the new year. The Standard on Route 66 near Blackbirds Roost has the zoning but is working through traffic problems with the city. The Hub on Mikes Pike is supposed to go before the citys Planning and Zoning Commission in January and Council in February. The Lofts on Forest Meadows Drive, across the street from Kohls is already under construction. Another student housing project is planned for where the current Arizona Department of Transportation building sits on Milton Road. The Flagstaff Living Wage Coalition won a lawsuit against the state in 2015 that threw out a state law that prohibited local governments from setting their own higher minimum wage. The Coalition is now gathering comments from the public on what Flagstaffs minimum wage should be. Council also hasnt settled yet on what it may charge residents in the new year for water, sewer and reclaimed water. The city is looking at a possibly increasing water and sewer rates between 3 and 7 percent each year for the next five years. The year 2016 wlll see four of seven nonpartisan council seats up for election in late summer and fall. All five Coconino County supervisor seats will be up for election in November. In 2012, the last time the supervisors were up for election, most incumbents were unchallenged and no Republican candidates ran for the office. ENVIRONMENT The city will open up Lake Mary again as a water source after closing it off due to water contamination caused in part by dead vegetation in the lake. The city flushed its water distribution pipes and will do more frequent testing when Lake Mary is tapped again in the spring. The first major thinning work on the Flagstaff Watershed Protection Project will begin this year. Flagstaff voters approved the $10 million bond to fund the project in 2012. Crews in the Dry Lake Hills area will first mark trees to be cut and trees to be saved, then, over the coming months, mechanical tree harvesting using ground-based equipment will begin in the area north of Flagstaff. The second major environmental review process in the Four Forest Restoration Initiative will get underway in 2016. The next phase of the project will open up hundreds of thousands of acres for mechanical thinning, prescribed fire and other restoration activities across the Coconino, Tonto and Apache-Sitgreaves national forests. EDUCATION Looking ahead, NAU is expecting to expand student housing in 2017, including an already approved housing complex. The Board of Regents also tasked the university with increasing enrollment and graduation rates. The university will be expected to increase enrollment while still deferring maintenance and construction due to state funding cuts. University administration is expected to respond to a list of 22 minority student demands that address gender and racial issues, carbon-free investment and neighborhood gentrification. Colleen Smith, the new CCC president, will take office February 1. In public forums prior to her selection, Smith said she would spend her first few months on the job getting to know the faculty and learning how the college operates. While Smith did not mention the possibility of attempting to pass a budget override in the November election, the CCC governing board could decide to add one to a future ballot. FUSD officials said they did not expect AzMERIT scores to accurately reflect teaching and standards for about five years, so parents can expect lower than normal standardized test grades in 2016. The Arizona Board of Education decided to sever formal ties with the Arizona College and Career Ready Standards, also known as Common Core, in favor of determining Arizona-specific standards. Though there is no timeline given for new standard implementation, changes could occur in the 2016-2017 school year. . LAW ENFORCEMENT NAU student Steven Jones, 18, is expected to go on trial this year for shooting four people in a parking lot on the Flagstaff campus early on Oct. 9, 2015. Jones is charged with six counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, as well as one count of first-degree murder in the death of Colin Brough, 20. Four local criminal justice positions will be up for grabs in this year's elections. Coconino County Sheriff Bill Pribil is not expected to seek re-election. Chief Deputy Jim Driscoll has filed paperwork with election officials announcing his intention to run for the sheriff position. Coconino County Superior Court Judges Mark Moran, Division Three, and Cathleen Brown-Nichols, Division Five, are both up for re-election, as is Coconino County Attorney David Rozema. increase By John Michael Greer on 23 December 2015 for the Archdruid Report - Image above: Miami Beach is raising city streets to meet the future and leaving ground level businesses in what amount to ditches. From ( http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/miami-beach/article41141856.html ). . SUBHEAD: At COP21 the worlds nations tried to limit the rate at which the greenhouse gases willin the future.Last week, after a great deal of debate, the passengers aboard thevoted to impose modest limits sometime soon on the rate at which water is pouring into the doomed ships hull. Despite the torrents of self-congratulatory rhetoric currently flooding into the media from the White House and an assortment of groups on the domesticated end of the environmental movement, thats the sum of what happened at the COP-21 conference in Paris.Its a spectacle worth observing, and not only for those of us who are connoisseurs of irony; the factors that drove COP-21 to the latest round of nonsolutions are among the most potent forces shoving industrial civilization on its one-way trip to historys compost bin.The core issues up for debate at the Paris meeting were the same that have been rehashed endlessly at previous climate conferences.The consequences of continuing to treat the atmosphere as a gaseous sewer for humanitys pollutants are becoming increasingly hard to ignore, but nearly everything that defines a modern industrial economy as modern and industrial produces greenhouse gases, and the continued growth of the worlds modern industrial economies remains the keystone of economic policy around the world.The goal pursued by negotiators at this and previous climate conferences, then, is to find some way to do something about anthropogenic global warming that wont place any kind of restrictions on economic growth.What that means in practice is that the worlds nations have more or less committed themselves to limit the rate at which the dumping of greenhouse gases will increase over the next fifteen years. Id encourage those of my readers who think anything important was accomplished at the Paris conference to read that sentence again, and think about what it implies.The agreement that came out of COP-21 doesnt commit anybody to stop dumping carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, now or at any point in the future. It doesnt even commit anybody to set a fixed annual output that will not be exceeded. It simply commits the worlds nations to slow down the rate at which theyre increasing their dumping of greenhouse gases.If this doesnt sound to you like a recipe for saving the world, lets just say youre not alone.It wasnt exactly encouraging that the immediate aftermath of the COP-21 agreement was a feeding frenzy among those industries most likely to profit from modest cuts in greenhouse gas consumptionyes, those would be the renewable-energy and nuclear industries, with some efforts to get scraps from the table by proponents of clean coal, geoengineering, fusion-power research, and a few other subsidy dumpsters of the same sort.Naomi Oreskes, a writer for whom I used to have a certain degree of respect, published a crassly manipulative screed insisting that anybody who questioned the claim that renewable-energy technologies could keep industrial society powered forever was engaged in, ahem, a new form of climate denialism.She was more than matched, to be fair, by a chorus of meretricious shills for the nuclear industry, who were just as quick to insist that renewables couldnt be scaled up fast enough and nuclear power was the only alternative.The shills in question are quite correct, as it happens, that renewable energy cant be scaled up fast enough to replace fossil fuels; they could have said with equal truth that renewable energy cant be scaled up far enough to accomplish that daunting task.The little detail theyre evading is that nuclear power cant be scaled up far enough or fast enough, either.Whats more, however great they look on paper or PowerPoint, neither nuclear power nor grid-scale renewable power are economically viable in the real world. The evidence for this is as simple as it is conclusive: no nation anywhere on the planet has managed either one without vast and continuing government subsidies.Lacking those, neither one makes enough economic sense to be worth building, because neither one can provide the kind of cheap abundant electrical power that makes a modern industrial society possible.Say this in the kind of company that takes global climate change seriously, of course, and if you arent simply shouted down by those presentand of course this is the most common responseyou can expect to hear someone say, Well,has to do it. Right there you can see the lethal blindness that pervades nearly all contemporary debates about the future, because its simply not true that something has to do it.No divine providence nor any law of nature guarantees that human beings must have access to as much cheap abundant electricity as they happen to want.Stated thus baldly, that may seem like common sense, but that sort of sense is far from common these days, evenor especiallyamong those people who think theyre grappling with the hard realities of the future. Heres a useful example.One of this blogs readerstip of the archdruidical hat to Antroposcenmade an elegant short film that was shown at a climate-themed film festival in Paris while the COP-21 meeting was slouching toward its pointless end.The film is titled A Message from the Past , and as the title suggests, it portrays an incident from a future on the far side of global climate change. I encourage my readers to click through and watch it now; its only a few minutes long, and its point will be perfectly clear to any regular reader of this blog.The audience at the film festival, though, found it incomprehensible. The nearest they came to making sense of it was to guess that, despite the title, it was about a message from our time that had somehow found its way to the distant past.The thought that the future on the far side of global climate change might have some resemblance to the preindustrial pastthat people in that future, in the wake of the immense collective catastrophes our actions are busy creating for them, might wear handmade clothing of primitive cut and find surviving scraps of our technologies baffling relics of a bygone timeseems to have been wholly beyond the grasp of their imaginations.Two factors make this blindness to an entire spectrum of probable futures astonishing. The first is that not that long ago, plenty of people in the climate change activism scene were talking openly about the possibility that uncontrolled climate change could stomp industrial society with the inevitability of a boot descending on an eggshell.Im thinking here, among other examples, of the much-repeated claim by James Lovelock a few years back that the likely outcome of global climate change, if nothing was done, was heat so severe that the only human survivors a few centuries from now would be a few hundred breeding pairs huddled around the shores of the Arctic Ocean.It used to be all the rage in climate change literature to go on at length about the ghastly future that would be ours if global temperatures warmed far enough to trigger serious methane releases from northern permafrost, tip one or more of the planets remaining ice sheets into rapid collapse, and send sea water rising to drown low-lying regions. Lurid scenarios of civilizational collapse and mass dieoff appeared in book after lavishly marketed book.Of late, though, that entire theme seems to have dropped out of the collective imagination of the activist community, to be replaced by strident claims that everything will be just fine if we ignore the hard lessons of the last thirty years of attempted renewable-energy buildouts and fling every available dollar, euro, yuan, etc. into subsidies for an even more grandiose wave of uneconomical renewable-energy powerplants.The second factor is even more remarkable, and its the existence of that first factor that makes it so.Those methane releases, rising seas, and collapsing ice sheets? Theyre no longer confined to the pages of remaindered global warming books. Theyre happening in the real world, right now.Methane releases? Check out the massive craters blown out of Siberian permafrost in the last few years by huge methane burps, or the way the Arctic Ocean fizzes every summer like a freshly poured soda as underwater methane deposits get destabilized by rising temperatures.Methane isnt the world-wrecking ultrapollutant that a certain class of apocalyptic fantasy likes to imagine, mostly because it doesnt last long in the atmospherethe average lifespan of a methane molecule once it seeps out of the permafrost is about ten yearsbut while its there, it traps heat much more effectively than carbon dioxide.The Arctic is already warming far more drastically than any other region of the planet, and the nice thick blanket of methane with which its wrapped itself is an important part of the reason why.Those methane releases make a great example of the sudden stop that overtook discussions of the harsh future ahead of us, once that future started to arrive. Before they began to occur, methane releases played a huge role in climate change literatureMark Lynas colorful and heavily marketed bookis only one of many examples. Once the methane releases actually got under way, as I noted in a post here some years ago , most activists abruptly stopped talking about it, and references to methane on the doomward end of the blogosphere started fielding dismissive comments by climate-change mavens insisting that methane doesnt matter and carbon dioxide is the thing to watch.Rising seas? You can watch that in action in low-lying coastal regions anywhere in the world, but for a convenient close-up, pay a visit to Miami Beach, Florida . Youll want to do that quickly, though, while its still there. Sea levels off Florida have been rising about an inch a year, and southern Florida, Miami Beach included, is built on porous limestone.These days, as a result, whenever an unusually high tide combines with a strong onshore wind, salt water comes bubbling up from the storm sewers and seeping right out of the ground, and the streets of Miami Beach end up hubcap-deep in it. Further inland, seawater is infiltrating the aquifer from which southern Florida gets drinking water , and killing plants in low-lying areas near the coast.The situation in southern Florida gets some press, but I suspect this is because Florida is a red state and the state governments frantic denial that global warming is happening makes an easy target for humor.The same phenomenon is happening at varying paces elsewhere in the world, as a combination of thermal expansion of warming seawater, runoff from melting glaciers, and a grab-bag of local and regional oceanographic phenomena boosts sea level well above its historic place.Nothing significant is being done about itto be fair, its unlikely that anything significant can be done about it at this point, short of a total moratorium on greenhouse gas generation, and the COP-21 talks made it painfully clear that thats not going to happen.Instead, southern Florida faces a fate thats going to be all too familiar to many millions of people elsewhere in the world over the years ahead. As fresh water runs short and farm and orchard crops die from salt poisoning, mass migration will be the order of the day Over the short term, southern Florida will gradually turn into salt marsh; look further into the future, and you can see Floridas ultimate destiny, as a region of shoals, reefs, and islets extending well out into the Gulf of Mexico, with the corroded ruins of skyscrapers rising from the sea here and there as a reminder of the fading past.Does this sound like science fiction? Its the inescapable consequence of changes that are already under way.Even if COP-21 had produced an agreement that matteredsay, a binding commitment on the part of all the worlds nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions immediately and lower them to zero by 2030southern Florida would still be doomed.The processes that are driving sea levels up cant turn on a dime; just as it took more than a century of unrestricted atmospheric pollution to begin the flooding of southern Florida, it would take a long time and a great deal of hard work to reverse that, even if the political will was available. As it is, the agreement signed in Paris simply means that the flooding will continue unchecked.A far more dramatic series of events, meanwhile, is getting under way far north of Florida. Yes, thats the breakup of the Greenland ice sheet During the last few summers, as unprecedented warmth gripped the Arctic, rivers of meltwater have begun flowing across Greenlands glacial surface, plunging into a growing network of chasms and tunnels that riddle the ice sheet like the holes in Swiss cheese. This is new; discussions of Greenlands ice sheet from as little as five years ago didnt mention the meltwater rivers at all, much less the hollowing out of the ice.Equally new is the fact that the vast majority of that meltwater isnt flowing into the oceanscientists have checked that, using every tool at their disposal up to and including legions of yellow rubber ducks tossed into meltwater streams.What all this means is that in the decades immediately ahead of us, in all likelihood, well get to see a spectacle no human being has seen since the end of the last ice age: the catastrophic breakup of a major ice sheet.If you got taught in school, as so many American schoolchildren were, that the great glacial sheets of the ice age melted at an imperceptible pace, think again; glaciologists disproved that decades ago.What happens, instead, is a series of sudden collapses that kick the pace of melting into overdrive at unpredictable intervals. What paleoclimatologists call global meltwater pulses sudden surges of ice and water from collapsing ice sheetssend sea levels soaring by several meters, drowning large tracts of land in an impressively short time.Ice sheet collapses happen in a variety of ways, and Greenland is very well positioned to enact one of the better documented processes. The vast weight of all that ice pressing down on the crust through the millennia has turned the land beneath the ice into a shallow bowl surrounded by mountainsand that shallow bowl is where all the meltwater is going.Eventually the water will rise high enough to find an outlet to the sea, and when it does, it will begin to flow outand it will take much of the ice with it.As that happens, seismographs across the North Atlantic basin will go crazy as Greenlands ice sheet, tormented beyond endurance by the conflict between gravity and buoyancy, begins to break apart. A first great meltwater surged will vomit anything up to thousands of cubic miles of ice into the ocean.Huge icebergs will drift east and then south on the currents, and release more water as they melt. After that, summer after summer, the process will repeat itself, until some fraction of Greenlands total ice sheet has been dumped into the ocean.How large a fraction? Thats impossible to know in advance, but all other things being equal, the more greenhouse gases get dumped into the atmosphere, the faster and more complete Greenlands breakup will be.Oh, and did I mention that the West Antarctic ice sheet is beginning to break up as well The thing to keep in mind here is that the coming global meltwater pulse will have consequences all over the world.Once it happensand again, the processes that will lead to that event are already well under way, and nothing the worlds industrial nations are willing to do can stop itit will simply be a matter of time before the statistically inevitable combination of high tides and stormwinds sends sea water flooding into New York Citys subway system and the vast network of underground tunnels that houses much of the citys infrastructure.Every other coastal city in the world will wait for its own number to come up. No doubt well hear plenty of talk about building vast new flood defenses to keep back the rising waters, but let us please be real; any such project would require years of lead time and almost unimaginable amounts of money, and no nation anywhere in the world is showing the least interest in doing the thing now, when it might still be an option.Theres a profound irony, in other words, in all the rhetoric from Paris about balancing concerns about the climate with the supposed need for perpetual economic growth. Imagine for a moment just how the coming global meltwater pulse will impact the world economy.Countless trillions of dollars in coastal infrastructure around the world will become sunk costs in more than a metaphorical sense; millions of people in low-lying areas such as southern Florida will have to relocate as their homes become uninhabitable, and trillions of dollars of real estate will have its value drop to zero.A galaxy of costs for which nobody is planning will have to be met out of government and business revenue streams that have been hammered by the direct and indirect effects of worldwide coastal flooding.Whats more, it wont be a single event, over and done with in a few weeks or months or years.Every year for decades or centuries to come, more ice and meltwater will go sluicing into the oceans, more coastal cities and regions will face that one seawater surge too many, more costs will have to be met out of whats left of a global economy thats running out of functioning deepwater ports among many other things.The result, as Ive noted in previous posts here , will be the disintegration of everything that counts as business as usual, and the opening phases of the bleak new reality that Frank Landis has sketched out in his harrowing new book Hot Earth Dreams the best currently available book on what the world will look like in the wake of severe climate change, and thus inevitably ignored by everyone in the current environmental mainstream.(You can read the first five chapters of Landis' book here .)By the time COP-21s attendees convened in Paris, it was probably already too late to keep global climate change from spinning completely out of control. The embarrassingly feeble agreement that came out of that event, though, has guaranteed that nothing significant will be done.The hard political and economic realities that made any actual cut in greenhouse gas emissions all but unthinkable are just layers of icing on the cake, part of the predicament of our timea predicament that defines the words too little, too late as our basic approach to the future looming up ahead of us. This page has found a new home In the 1960s, a flip but still effective aphorism summed up the rebelliousness of youth: Dont trust anyone over 30. As it turns out, that admonition is a much more fitting bumper sticker for todays student activists than it was 50 years ago. Young people now the post-millennials face a far deeper generational divide than the one that separated baby boomers from their parents. And the nation faces a far more serious crisis if that divide cannot be bridged. The wave of mostly white, mostly middle-class boomers that flooded college campuses in the 1960s got swept up in a variety of causes Vietnam, civil rights, feminism. They questioned authority in ways their Depression- and World War II-era parents never did. Yet it could be argued that most of them had little reason in general to object to the status quo. They had benefited from post-World War II prosperity and government programs, such as the GI Bill, that allowed their parents to raise them in comfortable suburban homes and send them to free, decent public schools. Later, Great Society initiatives such as the Higher Education Act of 1965 enabled them to attend college in historic numbers at a reasonable cost, and there were jobs in the offing after graduation. Back then, public investments in Americas families and youth were embraced by older generations who wanted their children and grandchildren to achieve the American dream. The situation and the demography is much different today. The younger population of the U.S. is now highly diverse. Racial minorities, who are not always from the middle class, represent roughly half of the students in the nations K-12 public schools. That level of diversity is destined to increase: Since the 2010 census, in 46 out of 50 states and in nearly 9 out of 10 of the countrys 3,100 counties, more white youths have turned 20 than were born or in-migrated. By 2023, whites will comprise less than half of the U.S. population under age 30. More important, the entire white working-age population will decline by 12 million over the next 15 years because of aging and retirement; that means young Latinos, blacks, Asians and other minorities must take their place. This new diverse majority of young people will have far fewer advantages compared with the white-majority boomers in the 60s. Although high school dropout rates among young black and Latino students have been falling, four-year college enrollment is well below whites, a situation compounded by high attrition rates. Should these patterns continue, the nation will see an absolute drop in college graduates after 2020. Moreover, income inequality is hitting the younger minority generations particularly hard, as evidenced by their continuing high rates of child poverty. It is still the case that many blacks and Latinos attend highly segregated, under-resourced public schools and lack the finances and guidance to get into postsecondary programs that are the best pathways to the middle class. These facts, and Americas inevitable demographic future, put recent campus protests into sharp perspective. The complaints voiced by black, Latinos and other minority students (and their white allies) strongly indicate that a racially prejudicial environment still exists at four-year colleges, which remain more white (61 percent) than the students in the K-12 pipeline. Yet it is imperative that minority students succeed at these colleges. These slow-to-change institutions must successfully invest in diversity, making minorities contributions, voices and concerns central to their educational mission. The message needs to be heeded beyond college campuses as well, by public officials, corporations, even city police forces: Investing in the success of todays diverse youth is critical for the entire nation, which needs a productive labor force and its attendant contributions to Medicare, Social Security and other programs. The baby boomers in particular need to hear the message. Now in their 50s and 60s, too many of them are more concerned with lowering their taxes than investing in the younger generation. Given the choice between a larger government that offers more services and a smaller government with limited services and lower taxes, white boomers are far more likely than millennial or Gen X minorities to choose the latter, according to a 2013 Pew survey. And it has been shown that those states with the largest gains in minority children, but mostly white seniors including Texas, California, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Arizona rank among the lowest third of states on a measure of child well-being that includes education, health and other areas in which state government programs can assist. Such attitudes among older whites the only growing segment of the white electorate shouldnt necessarily be interpreted as racist. Instead they reflect a fear of the unknown, potential negative economic consequences for themselves, and a lack of personal connection with the younger generation outside their own families. When the nations college students return to campus after winter break, it would be understandable if they added a new slogan to their petitions, tweets and picket signs: Dont trust anyone over 30, and especially dont trust anyone over 50. Older, white Americans need to recognize diversitys importance to the nations future, and once and for all realize that the 1960s are long gone. ABOUT THE WRITER William H. Frey, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a population studies professor at the University of Michigan, is author of Diversity Explosion: How New Racial Demographics are Remaking America. He wrote this for the Los Angeles Times. 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No reproductions without my prior permission. Thank you! MUSIC: Danielle Nicole, 6 p.m. Wednesday, Zoo Bar, 136 N. 14th St. Blues Music Award-winning bassist Danielle Nicole, who sang in Trampled Under Foot, rolls into the Zoo Bar with a new album, Wolfs Den, thats earned comparisons to Stevie Nicks and Bonnie Raitt, and her hard-rockin band. THEATER: "Swimming Through the Earth (falling from the sky with great velocity)," OmniArts Nebraska, 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 2 p.m. next Sunday, Johnny Carson Theater, 11th and Q streets. Featuring a mix of solo story telling and dance by OmniArts co-founder Daniel Kubert, "Swimming" chronicles the journey of a man as he "writes" a love letter to his ancestors. MUSIC: The Lightning Bugs, 11:30 a.m. Friday, First Lutheran Church, 1551 S. 70th St. Enjoy your lunch with the local jazz trio known for its smooth vocal harmonies in the Mills Brothers tradition as it headlines the church's First Friday Jazz series. Bring your own meal or purchase one on site. FILM: "Chi-Raq," opens Friday, Ross Media Arts Center, 13th and R streets. Spike Lee uses the Greek play to look at violence on Chicago's South Side as a group of women led by Lysistrata challenge the nature of race, sex and violence in the U.S. ART: "Redux: Unseen Works by Lana Miller," opens Friday, 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., Lux Center for the Arts, 2601 N. 48th St. Lincoln artist Lana Miller will exhibit an archive of her work, ranging from 15 years ago to recently completed pieces at this show that will run through January after Friday's opening. Well be getting twice as much Jennifer Lopez this winter. The multi-talented artist will join Harry Connick Jr. and Keith Urban as a judge for the 15th and final season of Foxs American Idol, which begins at 7 p.m. Wednesday (Time Warner Cable channels 9, 18, 1206 and 1207). Lopez also will show off her acting chops, starring and working as executive producer on a new NBC police drama. Shades of Blue, which also is executive produced by American Idol host Ryan Seacrest, premieres at 9 p.m. Thursday on NBC (channels 6, 1203 and 1204). The drama comes from Adi Hasak, who brought film director Barry Levinson in to helm the first two episodes. In Shades, Lopez plays Harlee Santos, a single mother and top-notch detective who works in an extremely gray area. She and her co-workers, including her boss, Lt. Matt Wozniak (Ray Liotta), shake down bad guys to make ends meet and help keep peace on the streets. The cast also includes Drea de Matteo (Sons of Anarchy) as one of the iffy cops. The story turns halfway through the pilot, with Lopez Santos facing a decision that will affect her career and her family. Lopez, believe it or not, is credible in her tough-woman role, and Liotta always is great when cast as an anti-hero, dating all the way back to Goodfellas. Here, he reminds me a bit of Michael Chiklis Vic Mackey in The Shield. Shades is not stellar -- its a little over the top in playing up the conflict -- it has some grit to it. If anything, its kind of fun seeing Lopez kick some butt and take no prisoners. If only she could be this harsh on Idol. Grade: B. Also new this week: Cooper Barretts Guide to Surviving Life, 7:30 p.m. Sunday (Jan. 3). Think Ferris Bueller in his 20s, right down to Cooper Barrett (Jack Cutmore-Scott) breaking the fourth wall and speaking to the audience just as Matthew Broderick did in the cult film. The hijinks revolve around Barretts post-college life with his roomies (Charlie Saxton, James Earl), married older brother (Justin Bartha) and attractive neighbor (Meghan Rath). Its entertaining, mainly because all the characters are just so darn likable. Earl, particularly, is a hoot. Grade: B+ Bordertown, 8:30 p.m. Sunday (Jan. 3), Fox. Coming from Family Guys Mark Hentemann and Seth McFarlane, the animated comedy is about two families living in a Southwest desert town on the U.S.-Mexico border. The two dads are voiced by Hank Azaria (Apu and Moe, among others, on The Simpsons) and Ernesto Gonzalez (Det. Luke Morales on Sleepy Hollow). If you like Family Guys crude, lewd and offensive humor, youll love this one. I lasted 15 minutes. Grade: C. Angel From Hell, 8:30 p.m. Thursday, CBS. Jane Lynch pretty much plays the same kind of character that won her an Emmy on Foxs Glee. Here, shes a wise-cracking (and hard-drinking) woman claiming to be a guardian angel to Maggie Lawson. The fun is trying to figure out if Lynchs character is delusional or really an angel. The supporting cast includes the always funny Kyle Bornheimer as Lawsons brother. Grade: B. Shows beginning new seasons this week include: * Downton Abbey, 8 p.m. Sunday (Jan. 3), PBS * The Bachelor, 7 p.m. Monday, ABC * The Biggest Loser, 8 p.m. Monday, NBC * Hollywood Game Night, 7 p.m. Tuesday, NBC * New Girl, 7 p.m. Tuesday, Fox * American Crime, 9 p.m. Wednesday, ABC * Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia, 9 p.m. Wednesday, FXX * Man Seeking Woman, 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, FXX * Beyond the Tank, 9 p.m. Thursday, ABC * Todd Margaret, 9 p.m. Thursday, IFC * Mythbusters, 8 p.m. Saturday, Discovery The 2016 legislative session that begins Wednesday arrives with political baggage attached. Can't check this luggage; it's carry-on. But that's always the case for state senators, particularly so during election years, and the political element is even more of a factor in years when an incumbent governor is seeking re-election. In 2016, it looks like all incumbent senators who are completing their first terms -- or appointed tenure -- will be seeking re-election. All but two already have filed as candidates. Although Gov. Pete Ricketts is not on the ballot after a single year in office, he's got his own political skin in this year's legislative game. Ricketts experienced a dramatic first year dealing with the Legislature, one that created some polar-opposite results and perspectives. Big veto battles lost in the spotlight with fireworks lighting up the legislative sky; priorities won largely off center stage in legislative committee rooms and executive chambers. This legislative session that begins Wednesday at 10 a.m. is the 60-day short version that occurs in even-numbered years. It's scheduled to adjourn on April 19, a month after winter has turned into spring. All 14 incumbent senators whose terms will expire -- and who haven't reached their two-term limits -- are expected to be on the 2016 ballot A dozen have extensive voting records to extol or defend; two senators will be facing voters for the first time with a more limited legislative history. Sen. Nicole Fox of Omaha and Sen. David Schnoor of Scribner were gubernatorial appointees. Fox has yet to cast a vote, having been appointed by Ricketts following adjournment of the 2015 session. She succeeded Jeremy Nordquist, who resigned to become chief-of-staff for Democratic Rep. Brad Ashford in Washington. As a registered Republican who represents a heavily Democratic district that encompasses a broad swath of South Omaha and downtown Omaha, Fox faces a political challenge as she maneuvers her first legislative session. The 7th District field of challengers already includes former Sen. John Synowiecki and Tony Vargas, an Omaha school board member whose Latino roots are a match for heavily Latino South Omaha. Both are Democrats. Senators are elected on a nonpartisan ballot and the fact of life in the Legislature is that they do act independently outside of party control. However, both political parties take into account a legislative candidate's voter registration and positions on issues in deciding whether to provide campaign resources that can help them get elected. The 2015 legislative freshman class provided a classic reminder that any effort to predict voting patterns or partisan behavior based on party registration or political affiliation is foolhardy. New senators largely defined as conservative Republicans assessed issues with independent eyes and produced some startling results. Sixteen of the 30 votes cast to override the governor's veto of legislation repealing the death penalty were cast by registered Republicans. And seven of those were freshmen senators. Senators who are Republicans also helped provide the muscle needed to override vetoes of legislation to increase the state gas tax and to grant driver's licenses to young undocumented immigrants who primarily entered the country as children and who are protected from deportation by President Barack Obama's executive action. Those veto override votes presumably could become issues in some of this year's legislative races. Three of the votes cast to override the death penalty repeal and four of the votes to override the gas tax increase were cast by senators who are Republicans and seeking re-election this year. Sens. Al Davis of Hyannis, Tommy Garrett of Bellevue and Les Seiler of Hastings voted to override the death penalty veto. Davis, Seiler, Sen. Jim Scheer of Norfolk and Sen. Jerry Johnson of Wahoo voted to override the gas tax veto. Both of those veto override motions corralled just enough votes to override the governor's objections. With Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump stirring the pot on illegal immigration, the driver's license vote might be a more isolated political issue. That veto override was approved on a commanding 34-10 count. There will be politically significant votes this year on issues including expansion of health care coverage to the working poor financed predominantly by federal Medicaid dollars, proposed tax reductions, unresolved prison reform and sentencing reform issues, authorization for the use of medical marijuana and perhaps some appropriations decisions. And there could be a couple of issues looming that are important to the political parties. Efforts may be in the works to revive proposals to return to a winner-take-all distribution of Nebraska's five presidential electoral votes and to require voters to present photo IDs. The winner-take-all proposal, which would end Nebraska's system of awarding three of its five electoral votes to the presidential winner in each of the state's three congressional districts, was trapped in 2015 by a filibuster. That bill may have renewed political significance now in view of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's recent remarks in Omaha taking aim at Nebraska's 2nd District vote this year. The photo-ID bill was shelved by a motion in the midst of a filibuster, but both bills remain on the floor of the Legislature and could be freed for consideration by a senator's designation as his or her priority bill. This also could be a significant political year for Ricketts. The 2015 legislative results created two competing scenarios. * The governor had an unsuccessful first legislative session because he couldn't sustain his vetoes on hot issues. * Or, the governor had a successful first year because he won his priorities, including a sharp reduction in the growth of state government spending and a healthy boost in property tax credits, accomplished along with legislative approval of a beefed-up executive team. The 2015-17 budget framed by the Legislature's Appropriations Committee was such a match for the governor's priorities that Ricketts decided to forgo a single item veto. The governor's second-year legislative performance will be watched and weighed by friend and foe. It could help determine whether this year will begin to set the stage for a successful re-election bid far down the road in 2018 or prompt others to begin to consider or plan a challenge. Even a Republican primary challenge. "I hope, and think, it will be a better session with the governor," Speaker of the Legislature Galen Hadley of Kearney said. "He really ran into a buzz saw. No question about that. But it was not personally aimed at him. He happened to be governor when those issues came up." Gov. Pete Ricketts says Nebraskans should expect a push for tax reform "every single session" the Legislature meets during his tenure. Lawmakers enter 2016 with a projected $110 million shortfall in the state budget, prison needs expected to stretch into the millions of dollars and errors at the Department of Health and Human Services that could cost the state $12 million in reimbursements to the federal government. Ricketts and others at the Capitol say there's still room for tax reform this year but the bleak budget picture could diminish those plans somewhat. "We've got to work within the confines of the budget," the governor said in an interview last week. The outlook could change in February, the next time the state updates its revenue forecast. But assuming no major changes, here's a look at tax-related measures Nebraskans could see this year. Property taxes "The only thing that I've talked to the governor about has been property tax," said state Sen. Mike Gloor of Grand Island, chairman of the Legislature's Revenue Committee. "After that, everything is tier two." Education Committee Chairwoman Kate Sullivan of Cedar Rapids and Speaker Galen Hadley of Kearney are also communicating with Ricketts and his staff about property tax proposals, but Gloor said there is no "nice neat little package" ready for the 2016 session. Because property taxes are levied at the local level, Gloor and the governor have expressed interest in placing stricter budget limits on schools, cities and counties. Sen. Mike Groene of North Platte says he'll introduce legislation to change the way county assessors value properties across the state for tax purposes, using a five-year average value instead of a three-year average and omitting the highest 20 percent of comparable sales. Groene's plan would freeze valuations for a year to give schools and local governments time to adjust. The wider average would "take the hump out" of property tax valuations that have soared in recent years, Groene said, particularly for farms and ranches, where land prices are more volatile. Residential valuations statewide could drop by more than 6 percent under the plan, according to an analysis by the state Department of Revenue. Education groups and local government leaders would almost certainly oppose efforts to force down property tax revenue, particularly if that lost money isn't offset with state income or sales taxes. "The first question we have to answer is: Are we spending too much on education for our K-12 kids?" said Sen. Burke Harr of Omaha, a member of the Revenue Committee. Income taxes A group of some two dozen business leaders and others led by former gubernatorial candidate Bryan Sloan met regularly for about six weeks in the fall to craft an income tax plan they'd hoped Ricketts would back during the 2016 session. And in October, Ricketts told guests at a Lincoln Chamber of Commerce luncheon that he would propose legislation this year that combines property tax reduction with state income tax cuts, calling both necessary to build a consensus. While the governor hasn't abandoned his vision, he said last week he wasn't prepared to discuss any specific plans for income tax reform. "Income taxes are also important," Ricketts said. "I'm not going to forget about income taxes, regardless of what happens this session." Business and conservative groups will continue to press the issue. "I want to do more than just talk about it this session," said Sen. Jim Smith of Papillion, a Revenue Committee member. "We need to do something about it." Smith proposed income tax cuts last year. His bill stalled in the Revenue Committee, but the push for "broad-based income tax reform" will continue in 2016, said Jim Vokal, CEO of the Omaha-based Platte Institute for Economic Research. Also, Vokal said, "I think that there still are two or three different smaller wins that are out there." Lawmakers could expand exemptions for military and social security retirement, as well as personal property taxes, Vokal said. Gov. Pete Ricketts remains a tough sell on expansion of health care insurance to the currently uninsured working poor by using available federal Medicaid dollars. Sens. John McCollister, Kathy Campbell and Heath Mello have been working on a proposal modeled after an Arkansas plan that would use the additional Medicaid dollars available to Nebraska under the Affordable Care Act to purchase private health care insurance for eligible recipients rather than expand the traditional Medicaid program. McCollister has been the spear-carrier for this proposal in advance of the 2016 legislative session; Campbell is and has been the driving force. If enacted, that legislation would fulfill Campbell's long and determined effort to access those available federal dollars to provide insurance for Nebraskans who have fallen through the crack in ObamaCare opened by the U.S. Supreme Court when it made state participation in Medicaid expansion optional. Those uninsured Nebraskans do not qualify either for Medicaid or for ObamaCare subsidies that would help them purchase health care insurance. Even though the newest Nebraska plan would utilize the private market and not expand the traditional Medicaid program, Ricketts said he is "very skeptical that this is a proposal I would be able to support." It's "a model that hasn't worked," the governor suggested during an interview last week. "We can continue to look for a solution, but this is not it." At stake is about $2.1 billion in federal funding for Nebraska over the next five years. The plan would provide access to health care coverage for up to 77,000 low-income Nebraskans. The federal government would pay 100 percent of the costs through 2016; the federal share then would gradually begin to phase down to a 90 percent floor in 2020. Ricketts has raised concern about the cost to the state -- estimated at $59 million over a five-year period -- and warned that the federal government might not keep its funding commitment. Sponsors of the new proposal say a provision in the bill would automatically end Nebraska participation if federal support falls below its 90 percent pledge. *** Word from Ricketts that he called Ben Nelson -- as well as Mike Johanns -- for counsel on how Nelson learned to deal with the Legislature effectively followed word that the two men personally exchanged Christmas greetings over the holidays. These guys were at each other's throats in 2006 when Ricketts challenged Nelson's re-election to the Senate. That battle produced the most memorable, most entertaining and funniest attack ads that probably ever have appeared in Nebraska. Fun for us; maybe not always that funny for them. But time heals. And they won't be on a collision course again. *** Ricketts expects to participate in the Republican National Convention in Cleveland in July -- you might guess he'll be chairman of the Nebraska delegation if he wants to be -- but he's not ready to endorse a presidential candidate yet. "I'm waiting to see how the campaign develops," he said. Ricketts said he's undecided now, but he "possibly could" endorse a candidate as the race develops. Early indications suggested that he might have been inclined toward Scott Walker, now long gone from the race. Asked his reaction to Donald Trump, the governor said he's aware of "the skills he offers," but he'd like to see all the candidates "focus on the positive." Ronald Reagan is the model that candidates ought to consider, Ricketts said. "Reagan talked about the possibilities," he said. "His message was uplifting." *** Finishing up: * Big crowd for Huskers-Indiana -- although there were empty seats -- but it's not as electric in the arena as it was two years ago. There's a hangover from last season and that early home court magic has left the building. Better get it back. * The trench warfare between Alabama and Clemson next week is going to be scary fierce. Karen Bell-Dancy -- a Kansas City native who landed in Nebraska in 2006 -- will be the first African-American executive director of the Lincoln YWCA. Thats no small step for an organization whose primary mission is empowering women and eliminating racism. The people who have had a voice have only been a part of the board, said Marilyn Johnson-Farr, first vice president of the YWCA Board of Directors. Now when you talk about the whole notion of eliminating racism you will have Karens presence that will further articulate the mission of the YWCA. But her presence is not the only thing that will further that mission. Supporters say her passion, talent and experience will do the real work. Shes a visionary, an exceptional collaborator who builds partnerships and mentors leaders, said Dawes Principal Angie Plugge, who hired Bell-Dancy to supervise the middle school's after-school Community Learning Center in 2012. She is a community changer, Plugge said. I just think shes a real advocate for change. The YWCA has been in transition for some time: In 2013, executive director Denise Serrett was arrested -- and later convicted of -- stealing more than $27,000 from the local YWCA. The organization promoted Andrea Curtis to the position in May, but her skills didnt match the direction the board wanted to go. So they began another search. Bell-Dancys wide-ranging experience, including business administration, and experience at the university level and in private business managing grants and running programs that promote diversity, leadership and students, made her a perfect choice. Johnson-Farr expects that experience to help push the YWCA forward, to make it a leader in areas of social justice and a platform for important discussions about race. My hope is that she will help the YWCA further develop its presence in the community, she said. That we will work to be extremely inclusive and we will be able to find that platform for us to have the deeper conversations regarding race and other issues of social justice. Ask Bell-Dancy, 55, about her new job -- and what shell bring to it -- and shell take you back to her home in Kansas City, to a close-knit family and parents who instilled values of service, humility and education. Her mom believed each generation should do better than the previous one, and she and her husband dedicated themselves to making that a reality for their children, Bell-Dancy said. Thats really the legacy my parents had, everything they had they put into our being successful, she said. Being successful with a sense of who you are, where you came from and what you can do for others. Turns out, the six Bell children took their parents message to heart. Bell-Dancys three sisters became teachers or school administrators, as did one of her brothers who later moved into the technology field and now plans to get his divinity degree. One brother was a train engineer. Her father worked three jobs to help pay for his childrens higher education, and Bell-Dancys parents encouraged their children to attend private, historically black colleges. (My mom) wanted me to get a real sense of the civil rights movement, a history of the African-American people and she wanted me to be in an environment that nurtured and cultivated my learning as a young adult, she said. Bell-Dancy chose Clark Atlanta University where she earned a degree in psychology with a minor in education. She says her four years at Clark were the best four years of her life. Life changes followed -- she got married, her mother died and she went to graduate school before becoming a stay-at home mom. Eventually, Bell-Dancy made her way to the University of Missouri-Kansas City, where she worked with the Upward Bound program, a college preparatory program for low-income and first-generation college students. She also administered a major grant aimed at diversity in the workforce for the universitys business college. The dean of the college encouraged Bell-Dancy to apply for the Executive MBA program, a competitive program open primarily to those in the business world. She was the first university staff member to enroll. By that time, she was single and, despite not having any real business experience, took to heart the opportunity to enroll in the MBA program that would give her the tools to chart her own destiny. I wouldnt trade that experience for anything, she said. I use so much of that today the analytical skills, the organizational skills, the negotiating. I learned so much from that." She graduated with her master's degree in 2001 and became a vice president of a consulting firm, working on diversity initiatives. When the owner of the company decided to relocate, Bell-Dancy chose not uproot her family and instead to head back to UMKC to work with international students. Then, in 2005, her oldest sister -- whod become a surrogate mother to her after their moms death -- died suddenly. Still grieving her fathers death two years earlier, she was in a fog, she said. She decided she needed to find new purpose, and enrolled in a doctorate program at the University of Nebraska in 2006. She worked as an assistant director in undergraduate admissions until her boss recommended her for director of undergraduate education in distance learning. She eventually decided the doctoral program wasn't for her, and became director of both undergraduate and graduate programs. She remained there until 2012 when her position was among several eliminated because of budget cuts. She was ready to move back to Kansas City, but instead accepted the job at Dawes. As learning center director, she made changes to improve the faltering program. She changed the schedule, allowing kids a chance to play before they sat down to do homework. She created four academies so students would have a choice about their activities and convinced administrators to hire assistant directors for each academy. Her overall vision, Plugge said, was to empower students. She infused core values into all programs: Service learning, leadership and introducing students to career paths and the idea of higher education. She forged partnerships with community organizations and businesses, took kids on field trips. Participation went up substantially. Students who participated in the after-school program had fewer referrals to the office, better attendance and performed better on state assessments, she said. She had the same sort of expectations for her students that her parents had for her and her siblings: that they try their best, be respectful, take ownership of their mistakes. With the success of the program, she was considering allowing someone else to take the helm and had applied for several jobs in the Kansas City area. Then the YWCA job came up. Shed been named to the organization's board of directors, and initially didnt think she had the institutional history necessary to do the job. When she heard more about the group's goals she changed her mind, thinking her skills would be a good match. So many people associate swimming and dance lessons with the YWCA, she said, but its so much more than that. Its been embraced with a warm and rich history, but the other part of our mission outside of empowerment and support for women and girls is addressing diversity and social issues, she said. While theres some work done with that we need to expand that even more -- especially in the climate of todays society where a lot of issues are race-related and people not understanding and embracing the culture of others. Bell-Dancy believes the YWCA has the power to change lives. We should be able to say at the YWCA 'we have changed a generation,' she said. Among Republicans, it has become politically correct to be politically incorrect. Actually that's the most politically correct thing that you can possibly be. As soon as you announce that you're politically incorrect, you're guaranteed smiles and laughter, and probably thunderous applause. Proudly proclaiming your bravery, you're pandering to the crowd. A math-filled new paper, by economists Chia-Hui Chen at Kyoto University and Junichiro Ishida at Osaka University, helps to explain what's going on. With a careful analysis of incentive structures, they show that if self-interested people want to show that they are independent, their best strategy is to be political incorrect, and to proclaim loudly that's what they are being. The trick is that this strategy has nothing at all to do with genuine independence; it's just a matter of salesmanship, a way to get more popular. Focusing on the role of experts rather than politicians, Chen and Ishida note that in many circles, political correctness is "associated with a negative connotation where people who express politically correct views are perceived as manipulative or even dishonest." For that reason, the unbiased expert has a strong strategic incentive, which is to "deviate from the norm of political correctness" to demonstrate "that he is, at least, not manipulative." Of course, the deviation is itself a form of manipulation, strategically designed to convince people that the expert can be trusted. Chen and Ishida's punchline is that whenever experts care about their reputations, "we cannot regard political incorrectness naively as a sign of blunt honesty since it can easily be an attempt to signal one's hidden characteristics rather than the true state of the world. " With respect to Republican candidates, that's putting it much too gently. It's the strategic go-to line when things get tough. Consider the Republican chorus in this light. Donald Trump complains that we have "become so politically correct as a country that we can't even walk. We can't think properly. We can't do anything." Ted Cruz is more concise: "Political correctness is killing people." Ben Carson insists that the biggest threat to free speech comes from what he calls the "Political Correctness police," who have "created fear in a large portion of our population, causing them to remain silent." Mario Rubio says the "radical left" is using a "politically correct way to advocate Israel's destruction." It's true that in some left-wing circles, especially on college campuses, political correctness is doing serious damage, because it entrenches a particular ideological orthodoxy (and dampens necessary dissent). In some places, you reject that orthodoxy at your peril. If you say that you oppose affirmative action or an increase in the minimum wage, you incur a kind of reputational tax, and the price may be too high to be worth paying. But those who deplore political correctness tend to entrench an orthodoxy of their own. And when they do so, they get an immediate reputational subsidy, in the form of a boost in popularity. Chen and Ishida show that when experts or politicians decry political correctness, they are engaging in what economists call "signaling." One of their signals is that they are willing to poke a finger into the eye of left-wing orthodoxies. By embracing political incorrectness, Republican candidates proclaim that they will not be cowed by, or even compromise with, their political opponents. The other signal, and the more important one, involves authenticity. If a politician makes some outrageous statement, and follows it with a suggestion that he deplores political correctness, you might well conclude that you can trust what he says. Whatever else they are, those who make outrageous statements seem honest and real rather than programmed or scripted. That's what a lot of voters are demanding. But there is a sham here, and it's ironic. The very Republicans who proclaim their rejection of political correctness have committed themselves to a host of policy judgments that are, in their circles, politically correct. Those judgments help define the prevailing orthodoxy. If you want to survive, you had better not question any of them. Here are some examples: Gun control is a terrible idea. The Affordable Care Act is a disaster. The United States shouldn't be doing a lot to combat climate change. Affirmative action is bad. The Barack Obama administration is a dismal failure. Ronald Reagan was great. The minimum wage should not be increased. None of the leading Republican candidates dares to challenge even one of these statements in public. If Trump, Cruz, Rubio, or Carson supported an aggressive effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, or called for a boost in the minimum wage, you might not agree with him -- but you'd know that he really was willing to be independent and to say what he thinks. Condemning political correctness? That's telling people just what they want to hear. It's the furthest thing from brave. To the editor: The dreadful news keeps coming in from Phoenix. The new appointments made by the governor and the Republican leader of the Senate move the state further toward a fantasy of unregulated industry coupled with amateur educators. While protesting her love of teachers, and touting her own experience in the classroom, high school graduate Sylvia Allen has followed her partys policy to defund public schools. Now she will chair the Senate committee on Education. At the university level, the state has cut the funding mandated by our Arizona constitution to less than a third of what it was 10 years ago. As a result, the Board of Regents has had to allow stiff tuition hikes for students. The cynical response of the Governor was to blame the Board of Regents for the tuition hikes. Perhaps he really prefers to close Arizonas universities and turn it all over to for-profit, out of state, corporate pseudo universities. We all know how poorly our K-12 students do on the famous standardized tests. If charter schools, vouchers, Student Tuition Organizations and tax write-offs for donations were the answer to education needs, we should be doing really well, not really poorly. If evidence counts for anything in this state, a dubious hope, we would reject the sorry mess created by Republican loathing of public education. It is key to their credo that the private sector can always do everything better than the public sector. Joined with their loathing of anything remotely connected to unions, we see why the Republican leadership has pursed a set of policies to demolish the public schools and replace them with a junk pile of policy that enriches private providers. Our children are paying a high price for this education charade, pursued with our tax dollars. When we vote for low taxes do we intend to eliminate good public education? Americans used to be proud of our democratic government and its accomplishments. Now we seem ready to give up on the whole noble experiment. HARRIET YOUNG Flagstaff 928-527-1001 WASHINGTON -- One of the arguments for the Iran nuclear deal was that it would encourage greater openness and investment from the West. But Iranian hard-liners have been working in recent months to sabotage the proponents of economic globalization and change. The clearest example is the case of an Iranian-American businessman named Siamak Namazi, 44, who was arrested around Oct. 14. Iran hasn't announced any formal charges, but he has been accused in the Iranian press of being a tool of such institutions as the World Economic Forum, the National Endowment for Democracy, the Woodrow Wilson Center and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. According to Iranian press accounts, Namazi is being held by the intelligence service of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps in a special section of Evin Prison. News organizations close to the IRGC have published conspiracy stories that appear to be drawn from his interrogation and from information on his laptop computer. The allegations center, bizarrely, on Namazi's status as a "Young Global Leader" under a program organized by the World Economic Forum. A story posted on the hard-line website Raja News describes the WEF and its youth fellowships as part of a "Zionist" network that uses investment and trade as tools of political subversion. Another story, posted by Jahan News, links Namazi to the other think tanks and foundations that it claims are part of a Western "influence network." The real target of the hard-liners may be President Hassan Rouhani, whose government has been a proponent of greater openness and economic integration with the West. Rouhani's government had blessed a planned visit to Iran last June by 20 members of the Young Global Leaders, arranged through Sorena Sattari, Iran's vice president for science and technology. But the trip was canceled after it was criticized by hard-liners. The Namazi incident is a reality check for those who hoped that the nuclear agreement would be the prelude to a broader opening. Since the agreement was reached in July, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has repeatedly said that Iran won't allow economic "infiltration" by an America he described several months ago as a "deceitful, crafty, skillful, fraudulent and devilish enemy." The imprisonment of Namazi in October came days after an Iranian court convicted Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, also an Iranian-American, on charges of espionage. Marty Baron, the Post's executive editor, called the verdict an "outrageous injustice." "Their message is that they are going to scare and intimidate Iranians abroad who want to return to Iran," argued Bijan Khajehpour, an Iranian who hired Namazi in 1997 at Atieh Bahar Consulting, a Tehran firm that advised Western companies investing in Iran. Namazi left Atieh Bahar in 2007, and Khajehpour left the country in 2011 under pressure from the regime. He now operates a similar consulting firm in Vienna. There may be a class warfare aspect to these political attacks. Like many Iranians who have prospered in the diaspora, Namazi is from a family that was prominent during the Shah's time. His father was governor of Khuzestan Province and left Iran after the revolution. Namazi graduated from Tufts University and then studied management at London Business School and urban planning at Rutgers. The message from the hard-liners, whose IRGC-linked businesses have prospered since the revolution, is that they won't give up economic or political power to the old elite, as sanctions are lifted and foreign investment grows in Iran. Just as the IRGC evidently hopes, the Namazi case has chilled some Iranian-American business leaders who had considered investing in Iran. An example is a group called "iBridges," which includes some wealthy Iranian-Americans, such as Hamid Biglari, who was a senior executive at Citigroup. The technology group gathered Iranian entrepreneurs for a first iBridges meeting in 2014 in Berkeley, California; they held a second, larger meeting with nearly 2,000 participants in June in Berlin. But iBridges has been attacked in the Iranian press, and some of its members -- who were enthusiastic just a few months ago about funding new startups in Iran -- are said to be reconsidering. Says one Iranian-American who has pulled back from planned investments: "All this is a warning shot across the bow to the entire diaspora: Don't even think about coming back to rebuild relations with the West." Rouhani and other pragmatists argue that foreign investment will strengthen Iran and boost its national security. But hard-liners insist that Western money is a tool of the Great Satan that will undermine the revolution. This battle over foreign influence will be one of Iran's fault lines in the year ahead. A report suggesting that major chunks of Nebraskas public power system be privatized should be viewed with a skeptical eye. Public power has served the state well since the 1800s. It keeps decision-making in the hands of the people who use the electricity, rather than investors who will give priority to their own interests. The privatization proposal came in a study commissioned by the Platte Institute for Economic Research, a conservative-leaning think tank in Omaha founded in 2007 by Pete Ricketts. The study was done by Creighton University economist Ernie Goss, with research economists Jeffrey Milewski and Scott Strain. As the study points out, historically public power has delivered low rates, decade after decade, to Nebraskans. This is still true for customers of the Lincoln Electric System, which ranks 11th lowest in the country among 106 cities included its annual rate survey. But rates have risen much higher and more rapidly for customers of the Nebraska Public Power District and the Omaha Public Power District. One reason for the jump in prices was the long shutdown of the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Generating Plant after the historic flood of 2011, when the Missouri River overflowed its banks and basically turned the plant into an island. Recommissioning cost $177 million. Nebraskas publicly owned utilities also face a challenging future. The Obama administrations Clean Power Plan would require states to reduce carbon emissions. Historically the states reliance on cheap coal from the Powder River Basin in Wyoming helped keep rates low. The new regulations will force utilities to seek other, more expensive options. Nebraska and other states, however, have sued to stop the plan. Nebraskas publicly owned utilities have more flexibility in meeting challenges than it might seem from reading the Goss study and accompanying commentary from Platte Institute staffers. As LES vice president Shelley Sahling-Zart pointed out, LES has taken advantage of tax incentives for renewable energy available to private companies by buying wind-generated electricity from companies in Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. And earlier this month the city of Beatrice gave notice to NPPD that it would end its current contract in 2021, and begin purchasing electricity from investor-owned AEP Partners, headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. Although Goss and his associates projected privatization benefits in the hundreds of millions of dollars, those calculations were described as flawed and meaningless by NPPD economist Kenneth Lemke. Privatization certainly would entail risk. Historically private enterprise has done a poor job of serving the needs of rural states like Nebraska. When Nebraskans own their own power companies they retain more control of their own destiny. 12th Night Revel; A Tale of Two Gwyns/Gwens, a seasonal celebration hosted by the St. Davids Welsh Society of Nebraska, is scheduled from 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 10 at Grace Lutheran Church, 2225 Washington St. Admission is free; donations will be received. The family-friendly event contains all the elements of an ancient mid-winter festival: early music on traditional instruments, a mummers play featuring the Mari Lwyd (Grey Mare) and two Gwyns/Gwens from two very different time periods. Gwenith Closs Colgrove, soprano soloist, will share stories from rural childhood growing up on the farm homesteaded by her Welsh grandparents near Wymore. Laura Waldman will share stories, poetry and songs as her alter ego, Gwyneth Espicier. As part of the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA), she will be drawing on the arts, skills and traditions of Medieval Britain. Members of Lincolns Early Music Consort will add seasonal melodies on recorder, viol, bowed psaltery and Renaissance flute to mention a few of their traditional instruments. The Weinert Family Players return to 12th Night with another original drama titled ST. GEORGE and the MARI LWYD THIEF - A Modern Mummers Play in the Traditional Welsh Style. Greg and Heidi Weinert with their three children, Malcolm, Cambria and Tristan bring this tale to life in what has become a meaningful family tradition for them and for anyone who attends this celebration. Christmas is meant to be a season of celebration. We tend to make it a season of shopping followed by a day or two of celebration, said Lori McAlister, society president. We care about making a living tradition with the rich, historical treasures we find in Welsh folk lore and legend. Our 12th Night Revel reclaims in part what weve given up by doing our holidays in a hurry. Dear Dr. K: My doctor says I need to worry about osteoporosis. I'm a man in my 60s. Doesn't osteoporosis affect mostly women? Dear Reader: Osteoporosis is a disease that weakens bones. You're correct that women are more likely than men to develop osteoporosis, but that doesn't mean men don't have to worry about it. In fact, about 2 million men in the United States have osteoporosis. There are two main reasons men are less vulnerable than women to bone loss. First, men start out with bigger bones and greater bone density. Second, men generally have high levels of androgens, hormones that increase bone density. When men under age 75 develop osteoporosis, it's often because of treatment with certain drugs that cause osteoporosis as a side effect, or because they have other medical conditions that weaken bone. When osteoporosis is caused by a treatment or another underlying condition, it is called secondary osteoporosis. For example: Medications: Glucocorticoid use is one of the most common causes of secondary osteoporosis. Glucocorticoids are steroids used to reduce inflammation caused by asthma, arthritis and a variety of other conditions. Anticonvulsants (medicines used to control seizures) and certain cancer treatments also increase risk. Underlying medical conditions: Abnormally low sex hormone levels can increase the risk of osteoporosis in men (and women). Men and women produce both estrogen (the "female" sex hormone) and testosterone (the "male" sex hormone. Of course, women make a lot more estrogen than men, and men make a lot more androgen than women. Both estrogen and androgen build bone. Levels of both of these hormones decline as people age, and this can cause bone loss. When men have very low androgen levels (or a rare condition in which men's tissues don't respond to androgens normally) it is called hypogonadism. In addition to hypogonadism, other disorders can also damage bone health: Type 1 diabetes, epilepsy, hyperthyroidism, multiple sclerosis and many others. (I've put a more complete list of medical conditions and medications that increase the risk of secondary osteoporosis on my website, AskDoctorK.com.) Other risk factors that are particularly relevant to men include: * Heavy alcohol use. Heavy drinking can damage bone health by reducing bone mass. * Smoking. Many years of smoking encourage the thinning of bones. * Inactivity. Our bones respond to being challenged by becoming denser and stronger. The bones of the legs, hips and spine are strengthened by weight-bearing activities, and by exercises like walking or running. * Gastrectomy. This operation, in which part or all of the stomach is removed, can reduce the amount of calcium the body absorbs. That, in turn, causes some thinning of the bones. Some men (like some women) are more vulnerable to getting osteoporosis, but we don't understand all of the genetics involved. Also, people of Caucasian or Asian ethnicity are at higher risk than those of African background. The National Osteoporosis Foundation recommends bone mineral density testing for men starting at age 70. If you're younger but have any of the risk factors I've discussed, get tested earlier. (This column is an update of one that ran originally in October 2012.) The earliest banks in Nebraska Territory, like most of its first immigrants, businesses and governmental officers, were from Iowa. But it is undoubtedly still a surprise to both Nebraskans and Iowans that there is a direct link between Nebraskas second bank and Terrace Hill, the amazing Iowa governors mansion in Des Moines. Benjamin Franklin Allen was born in 1829. His uncle James Allen Jr. chose the site for the original Fort Des Moines in 1843, was instrumental in building the fort and was the installations first commandant. Two years after James death, 19-year-old Frank arrived in Iowa to take charge of his uncles properties and opened a general store. In 1854, Frank established B.F. Allen & Co. as a quasi-legal private bank and married Arathusa Musie West. When the Nebraska Territory formed in 1854, one of the Legislatures first actions was to adopt an Iowa law that forbade the opening of a bank or conducting a banking business as well as enacting the Iowa criminal code virtually in its entirety. Nonetheless, the first Legislature authorized the first corporation in the territory as the Western Fire & Marine Insurance Co. in March 1855 with offices in a two-story brick building on the southwest corner of 12th and Farnam under the direction of Thos. H. Benton Jr. of Iowa, which was in fact a branch of the Greene, Ware & Benton Bank of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. L.R. Tuttle and A.M. Wyman were both cashiers of the business and both later treasurers of the United States. The corporation was so loosely defined that banking was indeed its principal business. Although 23-year-old J. Sterling Morton was to decry no more banks, the Legislature authorized five more bank charters in January 1856. Among them was the Bank of Nebraska at Omaha City owned by Allen, Hoyt Sherman, David Moffat from the A.J. Stevens Bank of Des Moines and five other Iowans who set out to establish a financial center in Nebraska. Moffat moved to Omaha to operate the bank across the street from the Western Fire & Marine Insurance Co. and admittedly intended to transact the principal part of its affairs in Iowa. Because there were no security requirements and no controls were exercised by the government, the bank printed and began to circulate its own bank notes with Allens wifes portrait featured on the $1, $2, $5 and $10 notes that were redeemable in both Iowa and Nebraska. Allens reputation was sufficient for the bank to be regarded as safe. But a national depression was brewing in 1857, and banks across the U.S. began to fail. As Iowa businesses were affected, Allen stepped up and loaned them money using his Nebraska bank notes. 1857 also saw action by the Nebraska Legislature totally repealing the territorys Iowa-based criminal code, which included the clause making banking illegal. In September, the Western Fire & Marine Insurance Co. failed and although still operating, the Bank of Nebraska was sold to B.R. Pegram of Council Bluffs and began to circulate a new issue and design of bank notes. As the depression widened, failure became only a matter of time and in 1859 the Bank of Nebraska also closed, having issued $37,000 in notes under Allens ownership alone. The bank wound up its business in 1860. Assets included $4,000 of City of Omaha notes, $8.30 in cash and a $2 judgment in the banks favor against a Nebraska man later said to be elected to an important state office. The sheriffs sale auctioned off 13 sacks of flour, one large iron safe, one counter, one desk, one stove drum and pipe, three arm chairs and one map of Douglas County. Depositors were said to have lost $80,000, but Allen ultimately redeemed every dollar of the currency bearing his signature. Back in Des Moines, Allen was still doing well. In 1866, he hired a Chicago architect and bought 30 acres of land at the highest point in Des Moines, where he built the amazing 18,000-square-foot, Second Empire/Victorian mansion with a 90-foot tower at a breath-taking cost of $400,000. In 1873, Allen purchased the Cook County National Bank in Chicago, becoming its president just in time for another national panic in 1875 that proved his downfall. The mansion, Terrace Hill, was sold to Des Moines businessman F.M. Hubbell for $60,000 after Allen unsuccessfully tried to sell it to the Presbyterian Church for use as a university. In 1971, the Hubbell family gave Terrace Hill to the state of Iowa for use as its governors mansion. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2003. Nothing is left of the Bank of Nebraska but a few of its various bank notes, but one can still take an hour-long tour of Terrace Hill, which, in 2015 dollars would have cost $10,000,000. STOCKHOLM Thirty-five asylum-seekers have asked to be relocated from a refugee housing facility in southern Sweden because they believe its haunted by ghosts, officials said Wednesday. The asylum-seekers were spooked by flickering lights and noise in the plumbing system at the facility in Grannaforsa, a small village in Smaland province, said Magnus Petersson, a local manager at the Swedish Migration Agency. Petersson said 35 of the 58 people living in the shelter came to the agencys office in the nearby town of Alvesta on Tuesday, demanding to be relocated. They reluctantly returned to the shelter at the end of the day after being told there were no ghosts and no alternative housing available Petersson said. I know that in their faith there is a different view on spirituality, he said. We were responsive to them but somewhere you have to use your common sense and believe in science. Sweden has received a record 150,000 asylum-seekers this year, mostly from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. The large influx has left the Swedish Migration Agency scrambling to find housing, including in remote villages surrounded by thick forest and roaming wildlife. Hamid Alojaili, a Syrian resident of the Grannaforsa facility, told local newspaper Smalandsposten we are sure that the building is haunted. Doors are getting reopened by themselves, he said in English in a video clip posted on the papers website. And there is no one outside. Many get the feeling they are not alone even in the bathroom, he said, adding that the residents would rather stay in tents than in Grannaforsa because its too dangerous to be there. Stefan Johansson, a co-owner of the facility, said it was built in the 19th century and was long used as a home for disabled people. During World War II, it housed German deserters. Johansson said there are natural explanations for all the things that frighten the asylum-seekers. Its an old house and the doors maybe are a bit crooked, he said. Sometimes there are cracking noises in the pipes. The flickering lights were caused by glitches in electrical switches, he said. We have explained all this to them. How much of it they took in I dont know, Johansson said. In education, we dont often take the time to celebrate our many successes. With passion and excitement, we move quickly on to the next student, the next lesson, the next project. Celebrating successes and appreciating the talent and contributions of colleagues is essential. We must all take time to reflect, rejuvenate and refresh so that were ready for the next opportunity. During these first few days of 2016, I want to take just a brief moment to reflect and celebrate 15 RUSD successes of 2015. Many of these successes were accomplished in partnership with our community. Lets celebrate them together! 1. 3,000 students graduated from RUSD schools, eager and ready for college, career and their future. 2. The RUSD class of 2015 earned $4.5 million in scholarships. 3. In partnership with local businesses, parents, community leaders and post-secondary institutions, RUSD began the work to transform our high schools into the Academies of Racine, which will launch next fall! 4. RUSD greatly expanded our virtual course enrollment. 5. In partnership with SC Johnson and the Racine Family YMCA, RUSD launched a swim program that is providing swim lessons for all RUSD second graders. 6. Fifty RUSD students were named AP Scholars. 7. RUSD purchased more than 5,200 Chromebook laptops for all schools, thanks to the communitys support of our 2014 referendum. 8. Two RUSD seniors were named National Merit Semifinalists! 9. RUSD expanded our Pre-K4 program to offer three full-day pre-K classes. 10. Five schools received statewide recognition as being a PBIS School of Merit or School of Recognition! 11. Case High School junior Tatum Thompkins captured the WIAA Division 1 state diving title. 12. RUSD started construction on three new schools this hasnt happened in many years (actually decades!) here in Racine. 13. RUSD increased by several hundred students in kindergarten-eighth grade the number who are at or above the national average in reading and math. 14. RUSD completed renovations to the Case High School field house. 15. RUSD partnered with local businesses to offer every high school teacher a half day in a local business, learning about the careers in our region and skills our students will need to succeed. We have had so much to be proud of this past year and we eagerly anticipate the exciting opportunities 2016 will bring including: Opening three new schools! Launching the Academies of Racine for our freshman next fall. More access to technology for all students, including a 1:1 pilot at Gilmore Middle School! Together, we expect to exceed expectations for our students, ourselves and our Racine community. Thanks to you for your support of and contributions to the education of our Racine students. We look forward to an extraordinary and successful 2016 In a Christmas video, a Wisconsin lawmaker passed a message on to constituents and the public. Freshman Rep. Scott Allen, R-Waukesha, stood in front of a Christmas tree and invited the public to consider the hope offered by the Prince of Peace. He didnt demand everyone convert or threaten or discriminate. It was a heartfelt message. Yet, the Freedom From Religion Foundation wasnt happy and tried to make this into a political issue, questioning if public resources were used and citing the Constitution as a reason the video should not have been made. But that makes no sense. The First Amendment of the Constitution states, in part: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. It doesnt say people cannot share their beliefs. If you go back centuries, it was commonplace for our forefathers to share their faith publicly. In 1798, John Adams declared a national day of public humiliation, fasting and prayer. Humility was referring to being humble before God. In his proclamation, he stated: As the safety and prosperity of nations ultimately and essentially depend on the protection and the blessing of Almighty God it has appeared to me that the duty of imploring the mercy and benediction of Heaven on our country, demands, at this time, a special attention from its inhabitants. In 1861, Abraham Lincoln stated in a similar proclamation, When our beloved country is now afflicted with faction and civil war, it is peculiarly fit for us to recognize the hand of God. He encouraged people around the nation to unite in prayer to bring blessings upon the country. In this day and age, some people worry about offending others. But they shouldnt be so worried that they stop expressing their beliefs. Yes, that means people of all faiths should be able to express their beliefs, whatever those beliefs are. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, confirmed that Allen used state resources to make the Christmas video. But he felt it was appropriate. We have to agree with Vos who said: People are really making a mountain out of a molehill. Jungle Drum NEWSWIRE [Jungle Drum Newswire has been officially decommissioned but will remain online as a resource and to preserve backlinks; new site here.] Independent Publishing "Profit is theft" -- Anon Latest Posts Gallery File Archive Video Archive About Us Publish Your Story Search search comments advanced search Poetry Prose All Jungle Drum on Disc/Stick Download and burn the entire Jungle Drum site (update regularly) - including all attachments and pics to Disc or Stick. The burn will result in a browsable ready resource you can access on or offline anywhere anytime you wish! Download Optional Download of useful and informative videos (mp4) Download this site web Avoid Google's intrusive, snoopware technologies! We are ONE "Asymmetry is a Keyboard" G o o g l e , your data suppression methods are obvious, easily recorded, abysmally inept and generally pathetic. The simple fact that you actively engage in suppressing this and other alternative news sites means we have won and TRUTH will prevail in the end. Sister sites and affiliates: Current active site here Underground Oz Poetry Corporate Integrity Watch Cleaves Newswire printable version PDF version Japan's Master Plan to Destroy the Chinese Navy in Battle by Harry J. Kazianis via darcy - The National Interest Sunday, Jan 3 2016, 1:48am international / prose / post The author misses the point. TWO can play the missile game. The Japanese offensive strategy simply escalates the Asian cold war as China reacts to the threat with increased missile solutions and counter-measures of its own. It seems that Japan is developing plans to craft its own Anti-Access/Area-Denial (A2/AD) strategyor what one former Japanese official describes as maritime supremacy and air superiorityagainst the Chinese Navy. The plan itself, detailed by Reuters, makes a tremendous amount of good sense: Tokyo is responding by stringing a line of anti-ship, anti-aircraft missile batteries along 200 islands in the East China Sea stretching 1,400 km (870 miles) from the country's mainland toward Taiwan. . . While the installations are not secret, it is the first time such officials have spelled out that the deployment will help keep China at bay in the Western Pacific and amounts to a Japanese version of the "anti-access/area denial" doctrine, known as "A2/AD" in military jargon, that China is using to try to push the United States and its allies out of the region. Chinese ships sailing from their eastern seaboard must pass through this seamless barrier of Japanese missile batteries to reach the Western Pacific, access to which is vital to Beijing both as a supply line to the rest of the world's oceans and for the projection of its naval power. The piece also spells out an overall larger Japanese military presence in the East China Sea, which will certainly not please China: Over the next five years, Japan will increase its Self-Defense Forces on islands in the East China Sea by about a fifth to almost 10,000 personnel. "Those troops, manning missile batteries and radar stations, will be backed up by marine units on the mainland, stealthy submarines, F-35 warplanes, amphibious fighting vehicles, aircraft carriers as big as World War Two flat-tops and ultimately the U.S. Seventh Fleet headquartered at Yokosuka, south of Tokyo. Does this plan sound familiar? It should if you have been following the topic. Such ideas have been floated in the U.S. national security community for a few years now. Toshi Yoshihara, a past National Interest contributor and professor at the U.S. Naval War College, who is also quoted in the Reuters piece, presented a similar idea as part of a much larger Japanese A2/AD strategy in a Center for New American Security (CNAS) report back in 2014: the Ryukyu Islands themselves could support Japanese anti-access forces. For example, truck-mounted anti-ship and anti-air missile units dispersed across the archipelago would erect a formidable barrier. In wartime, effective blocking operations would tempt PLA commanders to nullify these gatekeepers. Such exertions, however, would tie down significant portions of Chinas warfighting capacity while depleting manpower and materiel. Because the islands hold little innate value to Beijing the Chinese leadership might decide that escalation was not worth the effort. He also explains that China could not easily destroy the missiles: Any attempt to eliminate the Japanese ASCM threat would require the PLA to open a geographic front about 600 miles wide. A Chinese suppression campaign involving air power and ballistic- and cruise-missile strikes would accelerate the rate at which the PLA consumed finite stocks of munitions, airframes and airmen. The result would likely prove disappointing, similar to coalition forces fruitless 'Scud hunt' during the 1990-91 war against Iraq. Amphibious assault, the surest way to dislodge the island defenders, would also represent the riskiest way, with Japanese and U.S. forces playing havoc with landing forces." Yoshihara continues, spelling out the clear benefits to Japan: Abundant, survivable, inexpensive weaponry such as the Type 88, the Type 12 and other mobile air-defense units could coax China into exhausting more costly and scarce offensive weapons for meager territorial gain and uncertain prospects of a breakthrough into Pacific waters. Relatively modest investments in such forces could spread Chinese forces thinfurnishing Japan much needed breathing space. "Beyond the tactical benefits, strategic dividends would accrue to Japan. Possessing the option to surge anti-ship and anti-air missile units onto the Ryukyus at short notice would demonstrate Japanese resolve while substantially bolstering Tokyos capacity to act effectively in times of crisis. Japans blocking forces would presumably limit their lethal ranges to PLA units operating in the commons and over Japanese territory. Such geospatial restraint would reduce the likelihood of escalation and dovetails with Tokyos defensively oriented posture, bolstering its diplomatic narrative on the world stage. Japans plan to bolster its defenses and limit the freedom of action of the Chinese Navy and possibly air assets is a smart play. However, Tokyo must also work to counter what might be an even more pressing challenge: Beijings increasingly large and advanced missile platforms that could target Japanese and allied bases. Yoshihara, as part of his CNAS paper, spells out a number of smart ways to do this. As I love to say, read the whole reportit seems likely the Japanese government did. Copyright applies. http://www.nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/japans-master-plan-destroy-the-chinese-navy-battle-14779 << back to stories Gambias parliament [official website] approved a bill on Thursday banning female genital mutilation (FGM) and setting high penalties of imprisonment and fines for offenders. The passage of the law comes a month after Gambian President Yahya Jammeh [official website] condemned the practice [BBC report] in November because it was not commanded in the Quran. According to UK based charity 28 Too Many [advocacy website] in a 2010 report, 63 percent of Gambian woman and children [report] aged from 14 to 49 have been subject to FGM. The practice of FGM has been the subject of international concern. The UN has consistently campaigned for an end to FGM, labeling the practice, among other things, gender-based discrimination, torture, an affront to human dignity and an irreparable, irreversible abuse of the human rights of women and girls. In October 2014 UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon [official profile] praised [speech] the launch of a global media campaign against FGM, stating that [e]nding FGM is part of the UNs unwavering campaign for the health, human rights and empowerment of women and girls. In July 2014 UK Prime Minister David Cameron [official website] announced [JURIST report] plans to enact new laws that will protect girls from the practice. In July 2013 noting the continued pervasiveness of FGM, UNICEF [advocacy website] reported [JURIST report] a world-wide decline in the practice due to multiple campaigns intended to educate parents on the emotional and physical health risks associated with the procedure and its aftermath. In December 2009 Uganda outlawed [JURIST report] FGM. However, the majority of FGM procedures occur in Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Somalia and Sudan. Three book authors and their advocacy organization, the Authors Guild [advocacy website], challenged Googles massive book-copying and search project before the US Supreme Court [official website]. The petition [PDF] alleges that Google, in cooperation with various university libraries, took essentially all the books off shelves and scanned them rather than buy or license them. According to the petition, Google copied more than 20 million books, at least four million of which were still protected by copyright, but Google never got permission for their reproduction. In exchange for this unfettered access to books, it is further alleged Google provided the libraries with unlicensed digital copies of the books it had copied. Ultimately, excerpts from these books ended up in the Google Books search engine database, which became available to any and all Internet users. The petition states that Supreme Court precedent limits the availability of a fair use defense based on creating a transformative version to adaptations that actually create new expression. However, the authors, Betty Miles, Jim Bouton and Joseph Goulden, say that Googles project adds nothing new to the scanned excerpts, and therefore does nothing to reshape their character in a transformative use. This appeal follows a ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit [official website] that Googles efforts to digitize the books for an online library is permissible fair use [JURIST report]. Subject to a four-part test [Stanford backgrounder], fair use continues to be a contentious issue in the digital age. In September the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit [official website] ruled [JURIST report] that copyright owners must consider fair use before demanding the removal of online materials. That case came about after Stephanie Lenz was ordered to remove [JURIST report] a YouTube video of her infant son dancing to Princes hit Lets Go Crazy. In a case similar to the one involving Google, the European Court of Justice ruled [JURIST report] in September that EU member states may authorize public libraries to digitize works contained in their collections without the consent of the rights holders. In September 2012, the Second Circuit suspended litigation [JURIST report] between the Authors Guild and Google pending an appeal of a May ruling allowing a class action lawsuit [JURIST report] over Googles book-scanning initiative. Both sides had tried to resolve the dispute without litigation, but their settlement agreement had been rejected [JURIST report] by then Circuit Judge Denny Chin in March 2011. Saudi Arabian officials said Saturday that the government has executed 47 prisoners convicted of terrorism charges, including al Qaeda detainees and a prominent Shiite cleric who rallied protesters against the government. The execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, which has already sparked protests, may deepen discontent among Saudi Arabias Shiite minority and heighten sectarian tensions across the region. According to Reprieve [advocacy website], two of the four Shiite activists executed were teenagers when they were arrested. According to information released by the Interior Ministry, 45 of those executed [AP report] were Saudi citizens, while one was from Chad and another was from Egypt. The four Shiites who were executed had been convicted in connection with a series of violent protests in which several protesters and police officers were killed, while the executed al Qaeda militants had been convicted of taking part in a wave of deadly attacks that killed foreigners and Saudis. According to the Interior Ministry, the executions took place in Riyadh, and 12 other cities and towns. Nearly all executions carried out in Saudi Arabia are by beheading with a sword. Saudi Arabias Supreme Court upheld the death sentence [JURIST report] of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr in October 2015. Saudi Arabias justice system has drawn international criticism [JURIST report] for alleged human rights abuses in recent years. In November Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website] reported [press release] that Saudi Arabia has executed a record 151 people this year, the highest number since 1995. In 2014 the total number of executions carried out was 90, which would mean that this total number is up by 68 percent. AI said that almost half of all the executions carried out in 2015 were for offenses that are not considered most serious crimes under the international human rights laws. Saudi Arabia also reportedly continues to impose the death sentence on individuals under the age of 18, violating child human rights laws. In September a group of UN human rights experts urged authorities [JURIST report] in Saudi Arabia to block the execution [press release] of Ali Mohammed al-Nimr [IBT backgrounder], who was convicted of involvement in the Arab Spring protests when he was 17. The Venezuelan Supreme Court [official website, in Spanish] on Wednesday blocked four recently elected lawmakers from taking their seats in the General Assembly [official website, in Spanish]. Three are anti-government and one is member of the socialist party [AP report]. The presence of these lawmakers on the assembly would place a super-majority in the hands of Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) and would give the party power to censure top government officials or even change the constitution. The ruling was made after Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro [official website, in Spanish] claimed in a speech that the December 6 polls in which his party lost control of the National Assembly were fraudulent and challenged his opponents victory in the courts. The election results are seen as a setback to the ruling party [statement, in Spanish]. Jesus Torrealba, executive secretary for the MUD, said in an open letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that [t]his is a victory for democracy. He went on to say on Twitter [official account] that The National Assembly represents the sovereignty of the people, and the president is trying to violate that using a biased court. On January 5, we will swear in the National Assembly and preserve that sovereignty as the Venezuelan people and international observers look on. Here is an interesting guest piece in the Times by Kamel Daoud, an intriguing Algerian: ISIS War on Christmas Despite the headline, the theme of the column is that Islamists, not limited to ISIS, are at war with Christmas: Oran, Algeria IT might have been an occasion for collectors of omens to rejoice: For the first time in nearly five centuries, in 2015 the Prophet Muhammads birthday coincided with Jesus birthday. A cause for hope? Too little, it turns out. Throughout the Muslim world, a harsh campaign was conducted against people who celebrate Christmas. In Algeria, Islamists worked the streets under the regimes tolerant eye, distributing leaflets denouncing the day as unholy, discouraging customers in pastry shops from buying Yule logs and cakes, and sermonizing in mosques. In Brunei and Somalia, celebrating Christmas could lead to imprisonment. The Islamists argument came down to one essential point: To celebrate Christmas or New Years was to imitate the Kuffar, or atheists, which is to say, basically, Westerners. At all cost the man in the white beard had to be kept away from the men with black beards. The "lead to imprisonment" link leads to a French-language article about Brunei. An English version by way of Google Translate is excerpted below: In the Sultanate of Brunei, it is forbidden to celebrate Christmas Under Sharia applied in this small oil-rich state of Southeast Asia, Christmas celebrations were banned. Offenders are liable to severe penalties of up to five years in prison. Christmas is not synonymous with celebration in all countries. In the Sultanate of Brunei, the celebrations were banned under the sharia applied in this small oil-rich state in Southeast Asia. Offenders are liable to severe penalties of up to five years in prison. Companies that have put Christmas decorations were asked to remove them, and the controls have multiplied in the capital Bandar Seri Begawan. Popular hotels welcoming Western tourists are now deprived of fairy lights and Christmas trees which once brightened their facilities by year's end. "A Christmas sadder than ever" The almighty Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, one of the richest men in the world, announced last year the gradual introduction of Islamic law (Sharia) Forward providing heavy penalties such as stoning or amputation. This month, the authorities of this country of some 430,000 inhabitants of which two thirds are Muslims warned against the strict ban Christmas celebrations, arguing that the decorations for this holiday celebrated on December 25 by Christians risked diverting Muslims astray. That is not ISIS waging war on Christmas. That is the leader of a majority-Muslim country adopting what to the West seems radical but to many Muslims seems to be, well, straight out of the Koran. So why the mismatch between headline and story? I don't know. Normally the headline is not provided by the writer. We all understand that, like Obama and Hillary, Times editors are wedded to the notion that ISIS has nothing to do with Islam. Obviously, suggesting that semi-mainstream Muslims are at war with Christmas doesn't fit the "Islam is peace" narrative either. Mr. Daoud refers repeatedly to "Islamists", the meaning of which is somewhat ambiguous. From the AP stylebook: "An advocate or supporter of a political movement that favors reordering government and society in accordance with laws prescribed by Islam. Do not use as a synonym for Islamic fighters, militants, extremists or radicals, who may or may not be Islamists. Where possible, be specific and use the name of militant affiliations: al-Qaida-linked, Hezbollah, Taliban, etc. Those who view the Quran as a political model encompass a wide range of Muslims, from mainstream politicians to militants known as jihadi." By this meaning, Mr. Daoud is referring to Muslims well beyond ISIS. And let's note that he may be using his own terminology and metaphor. In an earlier NY Times piece on Saudi Arabia, Wahhabism and ISIS he wrote this: Saudi Arabia, an ISIS That Has Made It Black Daesh, white Daesh. The former slits throats, kills, stones, cuts off hands, destroys humanitys common heritage and despises archaeology, women and non-Muslims. The latter is better dressed and neater but does the same things. The Islamic State; Saudi Arabia. In its struggle against terrorism, the West wages war on one, but shakes hands with the other. This is a mechanism of denial, and denial has a price: preserving the famous strategic alliance with Saudi Arabia at the risk of forgetting that the kingdom also relies on an alliance with a religious clergy that produces, legitimizes, spreads, preaches and defends Wahhabism, the ultra-puritanical form of Islam that Daesh feeds on. Wahhabism, a messianic radicalism that arose in the 18th century, hopes to restore a fantasized caliphate centered on a desert, a sacred book, and two holy sites, Mecca and Medina. Born in massacre and blood, it manifests itself in a surreal relationship with women, a prohibition against non-Muslims treading on sacred territory, and ferocious religious laws. That translates into an obsessive hatred of imagery and representation and therefore art, but also of the body, nakedness and freedom. Saudi Arabia is a Daesh that has made it. If Mr. Daoud provided the "ISIS at war with Christmas" headline it is because he has expanded the ISIS name to make a larger point, which may be clear to him but not to Times editors. Or maybe he just needed the head-fake headline to sneak this column past the editors - "Mainstream Muslims and US Allies At War With Christmas" seems like something Donald Trump would say, not something the Times would promulgate. Behind diplomacy and politics Initially, Pandey was tasked with reading books and then presenting a brief on each book to the king. Eventually he would become the kings most trusted envoy on foreign affairs Please Donate In order to maintain this blog I have to pay for its upkeep including a hosting company, support services, virus and other malicious hackers. If you appreciate what I write please make a donation. Racist PayPal Tries to Close Down My Blog As you can see from this article PayPal have removed my blog. I would therefore ask people to make any future donations to the following: Name of Account: Brighton and Hove Unemployed Workers Centre Account No: 04094107 Sort Code: 09-01-50 Reference: Web donations Province delineation issues would be resolved through political consensus: Leader Nepal CPN-UML leader and former Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal has said that the Tarai issues would be resolved by formulating a political committee. Arughat residents unsure of future Residents of Arughat where the 1,200 MW Budhi Gandaki Hydropower Project has been proposed are uncertain about their relocation due to the governments delay in initiating land acquisition process. Clean Bagmati Campaign enters 138th week The Bagmati Mega Clean-up Campaign has reached its 138th week, with volunteers extracting around 10 metric tonnes of garbage from the Bagmati river at Tilganga and surrounding areas on Saturday. Dolakha folk enraged at PM Olis remarks Prime Minister KP Sharma Olis recent remarks that the government will establish Nepals first film city in Gorkha, Tanahun or Lamjung instead of Dolakha has enraged local residents in the district. Galvanising Nepali theatre The two-day-long seminar saw presentations and discussion on the status of contemporary Nepali theatre Injured protester succumbs to injuries in Gaur A protester, who was injured in police firing during Madhes protest in Gaur, the district headquarters of Rautahat, on October 12, succumbed to his injuries in course of treatment on Sunday. Iran says Saudis face 'divine revenge' Saudi Arabia will face "divine revenge" for its execution of a prominent Shia cleric, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has warned. Jaishankar quizzed on Nepal crisis Indian Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar was grilled during a meeting of Indias Standing Committee of Parliament on External Affairs for the Indian governments failure to anticipate the crisis in Nepal, the Hindu newspaper reported on Saturday. Norwegian company pulls out of Tamakoshi III project Norwegian company Statkraft has pulled out of the 650 MW Tamakoshi III Hydropower Project just as it was about to discuss the project development agreements (PDA) with the Investment Board Nepal (IBN). Obama considers unilateral action on US gun violence President Obama has said he wants to take unilateral action to tackle the problem of gun violence in the US. Set aside the immense suffering experienced by the Ukrainian people, with millions fleeing the country, millions of others bearing the brunt of displacement, and thousands of people dead. Disregard the trillions spent on armaments and killing machines, funds that could have been used for humanitarian issues. More importantly, keep your fingers crossed that a nuclear war does not take place. Now consider the far-reaching economic impacts of the Ukraine war on the planet. The war in Ukraine unfolded even before the world had fully recovered from the reverberations of the Covid-19 pandemic. It has been seven months since the fighting erupted, and there is no sign of it abating. In the meantime, the worlds dependence on Russian energy and Ukrainian grain and food oil has turned the war into a humanitarian crisis with overwhelming consequences. Unfortunately, these consequences are not limited to Ukraine but pose perils across the globe. The fallout is far and wide: disrupted supply chains, the scarcity or unavailability of goods, surging fuel prices, increasing freight costs for all modes of transportation, and, even more traumatic, food shortages, all causing soaring inflation and slowing economic growth across the board. Inflation has a catastrophic toll on individuals as it erodes the value of their savings and incomes. In the US, inflation has reached its highest level for more than 40 years, but Europe has been hit even harder. The Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) warns of slowing growth as monetary policy tightens and the possibility of recessions in several European economies. The average European inflation rate has climbed to a 25-year high, reaching 9.1 per cent in August and 10 per cent in September. As energy prices surge and natural gas quadruples in price, just about everything is skyrocketing. The EU Observer online newspaper says that countries most affected by high inflation are Estonia (23.2 per cent), Latvia (21.3 per cent) and Lithuania (20.9 per cent). The UKs inflation rate has surged to a 40-year-high of 10.1 per cent, as the British pound fell to an all-time low. Germany may be on the brink of recession as inflation devastates Europes largest economy. Russia is facing a 15 per cent inflation rate. Russia has halted gas deliveries to Europe indefinitely, causing fuel prices to spike in Europe and elsewhere. As a result of defects in the Nord Stream Pipeline that carries Russian gas under the Baltic Sea to Europe and of leakages that were discovered more recently in it, Europe will be facing a brutally harsh winter. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBS) has commented that lights out, heaters off: Europeans prepare for a winter energy crisis Businesses are set to shut down or take drastic measures to cut energy use. Surging energy costs will force families in Europe to cut spending to ensure they can heat their homes and buy food this winter. If affluent European countries are suffering, imagine what the under-developed countries are facing. The ripple effects of the war are threatening the supply of food resources like wheat and oil and raising the potential for a global famine. Ukraine, a major exporter of grain, has long been considered the breadbasket of Europe and the world. In 2021, Ukrainian grain fed 400 million people. Ukraine and Russia together account for about a third of the worlds wheat and a quarter of its barley production, essential staples for many. Ukraine is also the worlds leading exporter of sunflower oil and vegetable oils in general, but the war has caused a 23 per cent increase in vegetable oil prices. Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus export 40 per cent of the worlds potash, which is used in fertilisers. The war and the sanctions on Russia have exacerbated an existing fertiliser shortage and driven farmers to reduce fertiliser use and, hence, reduce crop yields. This has been the case not only in Ukraine but also around the world, wreaking havoc with harvests everywhere. When Ukraine resumed its grain exports, a sigh of relief across the world followed. It is to be hoped that the flow of grain to the underprivileged countries will continue and not be disrupted again so as to ease the hunger crisis. However, the exports are not enough, for up to 30 per cent of agricultural areas in Ukraine will either not be planted or will not be harvested. While the war remains in full swing, Ukraine may be unable to export much of its grain to those that need it the most. The grain-importing countries have been hit hard, worsening hunger issues in some of the worlds most at-risk regions. The International Rescue Committee, a NGO, says that blockades of Ukrainian grain exports have worsened hunger in some of the worlds most vulnerable regions. In East Africa, for instance, a perfect storm of continued drought, the blockade, and the economic fallout from the war is causing mass starvation. Without urgent international funding, three million people in the region could lose their lives. The number of those on the verge of starvation in Somalia, Ethiopia, and Kenya is staggering, and the Sahel Region in North Africa has around 18 million people experiencing severe hunger. Egypt, too, has been hit hard by the Ukraine war. The worlds largest importer of wheat, it is buying the grain at almost double the price of 2021. The same goes for petrol. Tourism, a key source of foreign currency, has also suffered since Russians and Ukrainians were among the top visitors to Egypt. In all fairness, the whole world is facing the same dilemma, for we are all in this together. It is unknown how long this war will last. In the meantime, its profound repercussions have left the world in shambles. Unfortunately, the suffering is largely falling on deaf ears, and the international community is not doing enough to resolve the conflict. A peaceful settlement would bring this crisis and the agony of millions to an end. It would also preserve human life and the dignity of millions. Pre-departure checklist PM Oli could meet his predecessors and seek their counsel before going to Delhi Works begin at Pashupati area Rebuilding works have been launched from the Lalganesh temple, which lies near the eastern gate of Pashupatinath temple What It Is KauaiEclectic is a collection of observations, images and writings about Kauai Kamawaelualanimoku and the world as seen, felt, experienced and interpreted by me. 1. Yes. Its important to cast my votes early and avoid the lines on Election Day. 2. Yes. With nearly two weeks of early voting, its a more convenient way to take part. 3. No. Its better to wait until Election Day, in case any last-minute information surfaces. 4. No. Im not planning to vote early or on Election Day. It isnt worth my time. 5. Unsure. It depends on how the campaigns are shaping up. Ill play it by ear. Vote View Results About Me Bagsy Born Beeston, Notts 1946, my family moved to Dorset 1959. Joined the Royal Navy age 15 years and 50 days serving 10 years. In frigates firstly then over 5 years in the Submarine Service as a Seaman/Diver, reaching the dizzy heights of Leading Seaman, before leaving to join the Merchant Service, working in Ocean Salvage and Harbour Tugs, passenger / cargo ships, trials vessels, etc. Qualified as Mate (Chief Officer) in 1976 and as Master (Captain) in 1978. For my final 20 years of 47 I worked in the Offshore Oil Industry initially on the drilling rig Stena Hunter, then the accommodation barge Borgland Dolphin and finally the Floating Production Platform Buchan Alpha. On the rigs I forged a number of long lasting friendships several of whom shared some of my extensive travels. Setting foot on Caymen, Bermuda, Bahamas and The Azores in March 2013 brought my countries / autonimous regions total to 148. The best, undoubtedly, was Antarctica, followed by Australia, Mongolia, Belize, Zimbabwe, China and Madagascar, in no particular order. Love to all our readers, your in my thoughts. Bagsy View my complete profile Mike Dunleavy the governor of the US state of Alaska is intending to introduce legislation that will repeal the two state boards which regu... A new party hopes to harness power of youth The Cambodian Youth Party last Thursday became the seventh new political party since 2013 but the first with a youth-directed policy platform. Its inception raises questions about the shifting political role of the youth, a category that, here in Cambodia, can extend to those in their upper 30s. This week, Audrey Wilson spoke with Preap Kol, the executive director of Transparency International in Cambodia, about reverse-parental influence, social media and the likelihood of a split vote What do you the think the establishment of the Cambodian Youth Party says about the role of youths in politics since the last election? What should a party do to court the youth vote? Sixty-eight per cent of the Cambodia population is under the age of 30. The CYP might see this trend as an opportunity to attract the youth. If the party is from a well-established network of youth, they should be able to mobilise 4,000 members quite easily. But young voters will be the target of any political party that seeks to win the election the old ones and the new ones. To attract the youth, first they need to think about employment, policies that give them confidence that they can get access to job markets with fair wages. Anyone who wants to attract youth also needs a really convincing anti-corruption platform. Ninety-nine per cent of young people, according to our survey, believe that corruption is the biggest obstacle in Cambodia. They are less tolerant of corruption than their parents. The youth proved to be a strong voting bloc in 2013. Do you think they will return to the polls in such strong numbers in the upcoming commune and national elections? I think so, at least during the 2018 election, as it will be one of the most interesting elections in Cambodian history. And the youth will see that this is a very important time, and a very important opportunity for them, for how they want the country to advance. I anticipate the same level or maybe even more engagement from the young voters. And also that the youth will influence their parents a new dynamic for Cambodia. Parents now accept that their children are more clever, more engaged than them. For urban youth, who have gotten a high school and university education this certainly applies. Some young people appear to use social media to express a certain casual attitude even cynicism toward both CPP and CNRP politicians, re-posting photos of leaders in vacation mode this week, for example. How do you think this sentiment could play out in their politics? Facebook is very powerful in Cambodia. And now that information can be received through social media, there is no one-sided media control. So people, and especially young people, are able to see different news. This was not the case only several years ago. Social media has been and will continue to be instrumental to engage youth politics here in Cambodia, too. Politicians must be equipped to leverage social media if they want to influence urban and educated youth to support their party. Do you think youth voters will tend to think and thus vote beyond the boxes of the two main parties in the next election? Could this split the vote in the CPPs favour? Welcome! You have come to the right place. Khmerization is a home to the Cambodian daily news, which is updated twice daily. Please take a tour and enjoy yourself. Thank you. To contact Khmerization please send an email to: Industry leaders offer an economic forecast for 2016 From stocks to smartphones to microfinance, experts weigh in with their predictions at the start of the new year Rice exports will not increase much in 2016, experts say. Vireak Mai Thomas Hundt, CEO, Smart Axiata While we indeed see saturation in terms of subscribers, the majority of mobile subscribers in Cambodia do not use the internet actively yet. With fast 3G and ultra-fast 4G LTE mobile data networks available nationwide not only in provincial capitals but also in cities like Udong, Poipet, Skun, Mongkul Borey, etc and supported by a rapidly increasing smartphone penetration, mobile Internet is the growth area for the mobile telecom industry in the next few years. There is no particular difference between the habits of Cambodian customers and world market trends around mobile communications. The internet with its literally unlimited possibilities changes the game. While subscribers used their phones only for calling or sending texts a few years back, the usage habit of smartphone users is totally different. Calling is secondary, while social networks, messenger apps and games let the subscribers hold their smartphones in hand all the time. Chea Serey, National Bank of Cambodia director general Chea Serey is the director of the National Bank of Cambodia. Vireak Mai In 2015, the global economy experienced an uneven and slower growth than previous years. Among the developed economies, the US grew robustly while growth in Europe and Japan remained tepid. Cambodia has been developing herself by implementing comprehensive reform programs and other economic policies over the years. Robust economic growth this year will lift Cambodias economic status to lower-middle income in 2016. Cambodia is expected to sustain this growth amid emerging challenges such as erosion of export competitiveness due to the US dollar appreciation, increased minimum wage in the garment sector, implementation of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, economic liberalisation in Myanmar and the slowdown in China and the EU. With the expectation that the volume of crude oil supply is stable and the demand for crude oil remains low, crude oil prices are expected to be low in 2016, which will contribute to lower inflation in the region and in Cambodia. To support the governments policies in alleviating poverty by more than 1 per cent a year and to comply with ASEAN initiatives post-2015, the NBC will implement policies to promote financial inclusion, which means widening the availability of formal financial services with reasonable prices. Recently, the amount of the adult population who had access to financial services was half the total adult population. Kim Heang, CEO of Khmer Real Estate Construction on high-end condos continues, but real-estate prices have reached their peak. Pha Lina Looking at 2016, the number of borei developments for the Cambodian middle class will be as good as 2015, though there will be more competitors. There could be a little worry for high-end condo projects, because their projects are too big, and I am not sure that they can finish the projects or sell the units. Prices going into next year will depend on the demand and supply in the market. Most of the current borei and condos are on the higher end price-wise and there are a lot of people who want to buy but they do not have capacity to buy. Real estate prices in Phnom Penh have already reached a peak. By 2018, there will be around 18,000 to 20,000 condos in Phnom Penh. This is too much for the current market, especially local investors. But this will change with the ASEAN integration, as the total market then will be 600 million and not 16 million. It is only a matter of how we can attract investors here. Svay Hay, CEO and president of Acleda Securities The CSX marks the first day of public trading for shares in PPAP. Heng Chivoan The third listing on the Cambodia Securities Exchange (CSX) is an additional contribution and a key change for the market. Many investors are satisfied with getting guaranteed dividend yields and stock price movements. This model may lead CSX to see better days ahead in 2016 and welcome a few more companies to go public. With the incentives provided by the exchange, more companies are on cue for pre-listing preparations. Other qualitative incentives are needed, such as training and public awareness, wide dissemination of information and media support. Derivatives trading is on the move. Now that derivatives are properly regulated, trading in derivatives will be a leading trend and contribute to increasing the rate of existing trading. Derivatives will attract many speculators, traders, and value-approach investors to the securities market. Keo Mom, CEO of LyLy Food Industry This year will be a great opportunity for Cambodian small and medium enterprises (SME) as they will be able to export their products within ASEAN, given that there are no tariff barriers now. We also need to strengthen out phytosanitary standards if we are to take advantage of this opportunity. The government needs to do this to ensure that we are selling safe products and meeting health safety standards expected in other countries. Other ASEAN countries have worked on improving their phytosanitary standards and we have not done enough so far. This makes it easy for countries to export their products, which is not the case in Cambodia. One of the challenges in the local market is to increase the quality of our product offerings, otherwise neighbouring countries will sell their products here and this will impact smaller businesses. Song Saran, CEO of Amru Rice Rice exports will not increase much in 2016, experts say. Vireak Mai We are optimistic for rice exports in 2016, but we will not see much increase, at most 550,000 tonnes compared to the 500,000 tonnes exported in 2015. The government needs to take action to lower the cost of rice production. They should reduce electricity costs, give rice millers VAT exemption, and develop warehousing capacity in the country, especially at ports, so that we can stockpile rice for exports. We need to increase our exports to China and Malaysia, but other countries, such as Pakistan, Thailand and Vietnam, will challenge us. We will also face stiff competition from Myanmar for European Union exports, but quality-wise, Cambodia has better rice. With El Nino having an impact this year, the yield of paddy rice will decrease in 2016. However, Cambodia will not confront any food shortages, because we have ensured food reserves for the local population. While farmers will not see much increase in their incomes next year, they could see a 5 per cent price rise in the cost of white rice, which could help them earn a little more. Meng Saktheara, secretary of state at the Ministry of Mines and Energy Last year was a year of establishment when many institutional and legal frameworks were put in place. So this year we are looking forward to a new mission that will increase stakeholder engagement. Mesco Gold is progressing well. I believe they will start mine extraction by mid-year and they will also complete the environmental impact assessment and environmental and social management plan. For Kris Energy, we have some way to go, but hopefully we can sign the agreement within the first quarter this year. From the government side, we will push the adoption of the petroleum law, and on the company side, they will have to present the project to their board to get the final investment decision to go ahead with the project. Grant Knuckey, CEO ANZ Royal Bank I believe 2016 will be a year of slower growth for the banking sector. Credit will still grow but I suspect well below the levels of recent years. There are two primary reasons for that. One is that the regional economic slowdown is beginning to show up in local business activity levels. Second is that the National Bank of Cambodia is implementing the Liquidity Coverage Ratio framework, and that is going to force banks to think much more carefully about lending decisions and deposit raising. These will all serve to slow growth and reduce margins in the sector. For many of the unbanked, non-banking services, such as mobile payment operators, will be a better fit. The big question the banking sector should be asking itself is what are we going to do with all these branches we have built? because a lot of that space will be redundant in three to five years as transacting migrates online. I believe consolidation [in the banking sector] will be driven as much by the profit imperative and the need to re-capitalise as it will be by the ASEAN Economic Community. There is already a tier of banks here that are unsustainable commercially, and at some point over the next one to two years, they are going to have to find new capital and capability. Bun Mony, president of the Cambodian Microfinance Association and CEO of Sathapana Based on statistics for the first nine months, microfinance institutions (MFI) have grown more than 30 per cent in 2015, and the expectation is it will have grown 40 to 45 per cent by the end of 2015. To maintain this positive growth in 2016, the Microfinance Association of Cambodia will continue to strengthen cooperation between operators and provide new and convenient services to customers. This year, we plan to increase the number of ATM machines across the country and make sure that ATM cards work across all ATM machines in the country. There are more than 40 MFIs in the country, with eight of them accounting for 80 per cent of total capital in the market. We dont know how many MFIs will start next year, but we want to see that the newcomers have enough capacity and resources to compete with existing MFIs. Thong Khon, Minister of Tourism In 2015, we attracted 4.8 million visitors to Cambodia, and by 2020, we hope to reach 7.5 to 8 million foreign tourists. Next year, we will try our best to maintain an 8 to 10 per cent growth rate. To achieve this we need to develop more tourism products, such as ecotourism, and strengthen our service quality to a one service, one standard mark. Online marketing and promotion is also in our plans for next year. We will reply to all comments on Facebook and make it easier for operators to cut unnecessary costs. The ministry is looking to promote attractions beyond just Angkor Wat and the coastal areas in the south and ecotourism in the northeast will become big tourist attractions. Creating a second home policy will attract people looking to retire here. INDIANAPOLIS Road funding, education and illegal drugs are likely to dominate headlines from this years session of the Indiana General Assembly. The session that begins Tuesday also could feature controversy over civil rights for lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people, known as the LGBT community. Local lawmaker Rep. Ben Smaltz, R-Auburn, is leading a campaign to require prescriptions for cold and allergy medications containing pseudoephedrine. The ingredient is a key part of the recipe for making illegal methamphetamine. State Sen. Dennis Kruse, R-Auburn, said he has been torn by Smaltzs proposal. Kruse fears the law would solve only homemade meth, without stopping the use of meth that comes from Mexico. However, Kruse agrees with Smaltz that homemade meth causes problems by rendering uninhabitable the houses where it is made. That creates a huge burden for landlords, who sometimes abandon the houses, leading to taxpayer expense for cleanup. That makes me more interested in voting for Rep. Smaltzs bill, Kruse said. Smaltz said he admits a prescription law would not eliminate all meth, but added, We can stop the labs and all the carnage that the labs cause, and I think thats do-able. Rep. Dennis Zent, R-Angola, remains unconvinced. Im real hesitant at this point to add costs to the law-abiding people to solve this problem, Zent said. Extra costs could come from forcing people to see their doctors to get prescriptions. Pseudoephedrine is popular because its very effective, Zent said, and he does not buy the argument that people simply could switch to other nonprescription medications. He also fears meth users would merely move on to other illegal drugs, he said. Roads and taxes A need to spend more on maintaining Hoosier roads will occupy legislators attention this winter. Republican leaders have proposed two tax increases as ways to find more money for roads: raising the tax on gasoline from 18 to 23 cents per gallon and raising cigarette taxes from 99.5 cents to $2 per pack. We need to have a good infrastructure, Zent said. Im willing to listen to everything. I never signed a pledge that said I wouldnt raise taxes if it made sense. Zent said a gasoline tax is like a user fee, but I will see what my people say in surveys of his district. Kruse supports a separate plan that would release $418 million to local governments for use chiefly on streets and roads. The state now is holding that money in reserves from local income taxes. A bill would require local governments to use at least 75 percent of it for streets and roads. Kruse opposes increasing the state tax on gasoline by 5 cents per gallon. I think a majority of legislators right now still would not want to increase taxes, Kruse said. Kruse would support an increase in cigarette taxes that could lead to more highway spending. I have voted for sin tax increases in the past. That doesnt bother me, Kruse said. Smaltz favors a completely different approach to a gasoline tax. We would abandon the 18-cent-a-gallon gas tax completely and implement a percentage sales tax thats equal to the revenue from the 18 cents, Smaltz proposed. When the price of fuel increases, the revenue would increase as well. When the cost per gallon goes down, you would just deal with less. Smaltz also would look at the idea of charging tolls on Interstate 65 and Interstate 70, because it captures a significant amount of out-of-state revenue, so Hoosiers wouldnt be paying the full impact of that. LGBT rights The local legislators take a skeptical view of Senate Bill 100, even though it was written by a fellow Republican in search of a middle ground on LGBT rights. Its looking like both sides dont like it, said Kruse. He predicted, Maybe nothing will become law, but it will be a hot issue. Kruse described the LGBT conflict as civil rights versus religious liberty rights, and asked, Can those two be compatible, or are they just incompatible? Kruse said he supports and might co-sponsor Senate Bill 35, which addresses the use of restrooms by transgender people. The bill says, Youve got to still use the one you were born with, Kruse said. I stand very firmly with religious liberty. I think our country was founded on that, Zent said. I have members of my family, nephews, nieces and others who are in that (LGBT) community, Zent added. Most of them believe Indiana has made the progress that is necessary, he said. I think people think Indianas welcoming, and I think this has the potential to hurt that image, Zent added. At some point, Im wondering when were going to say: The courts are going to decide this issue. Lets let that happen. sgarbacz@kpcmedia.com Property reassessment protection, more flexibility with road funding and sewer issues are some of the smaller-scale legislation Noble and LaGrange counties lawmakers will be working on in the upcoming session that starts Tuesday. Road funding, standardized testing and civil-rights protections for LGBT individuals are expected to dominate statewide discussion, but Sen. Sue Glick, R-LaGrange, and Rep. Dave Ober, R-Albion, shared information about a few of the bills theyll be proposing that will tackle more localized issues. Both Glick and Ober are proposing bills that relate to some of the big three topics, but on a much smaller scale. On road funding, Ober will propose a bill that would allow cities and towns to more easily move money from cigarette tax funds to road funding sources. Obers working with the Indiana Association of Cities and Towns on the proposal, which would allow them to transfer money without passing a resolution. Its probably not going to generate any more money, but it gives our mayors and city councils and county council the ability to cut down on some time frames that they currently have to follow, Ober said. Glick, while not supportive of the civil rights law addendum thats been proposed, will sponsor a bill seeking enhancements for hate crimes that are motivated against a particular identity, whether it be race, gender, nationality, religion, sexual orientation or gender identity. Prosecutors would be able to file an enhancement if a crime is motivated by hatred of a specific group, leading to additional time behind bars, if convicted, she said. For local property owners, Glick will work on two property assessment measures aimed at preventing taxpayers from seeing large increases in tax bills. Glick is authoring a bill that would put a freeze on property assessments if a person successfully appeals the value of his or her property. For example, if a person appeals a large increase in the assessment and wins, that value will be frozen for a time to prevent the assessor from raising it again the next year, she said. We have a number of homeowners that get reassessed, they fight it and it gets reduced and theyre right back in it, Glick said. She also plans to work with other lawmakers on the continuing issue with farmland assessments, as high land values are effectively pricing farmers out of the market. Farmland values are determined, in part, by a rolling average of productivity and other factors, and years of good harvests and improving technology keep pushing tax assessments up, she said. Other bills local legislators plan to work on include: Updating some of the states natural resources laws. Glick, as chair of the Senates Natural Resources Committee, is working with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources to update language and address outdated rules. Establishing a statewide work-share program. Ober plans to introduce another bill promoting work-share, which would allow companies to reduce workers hours instead of laying them off, while the state pays unemployment benefits for the workers lost wages due to the slowdown. Getting representation for residents within the Huntertown sanitation district who dont live within town limits. Ober said in light of proposed improvement projects, residents who are served by Huntertown sewers need to have some kind of voice in the decision making process, since they pay for service. Immunity for physicians working with medical research substances and additional regulations regarding exempted poultry slaughter operations. Glick is a co-author on both bills, which were produced by a summer study committee. "I have been following your comments on the local press with great interest. Keep up the good work." Suthichai Yoon - Editor-in-Chief, The Nation. "... I think The Bangkok Bugle is one of the best Thai-based blogs around. " .. a very very helpful source when I was working in Europe for me to stay in step with the Thai media market." P.M. - Singapore. "The Bangkok Bugle is an amazing blog I really like it. A.K. - Stuttgart, Germany. "I've been following your blog for some time now, as I'm trying to learn as much as I can about the media in Thailand. So far I've found it to be very informative and diverse in its content - thanks!" N.H. - Canada. "... a tightly-written and insightful blog about the media in Thailand." Lana, Phuket. R.D. - Publisher, S.E. Asia. W.E. - South Africa @ eloinadiaz on Twitter . "Your knowledge of how media markets and industry works here comes from persistent focus and hard work." @ jonfernquest on Twitter Short, sweet blog posts about Thailand and life in the media. Its one of the only blogs I read on a regular basis."The Lost Boy - http://www.whatismatt.com/ "Just wanted to say that I happened across your site and was thrilled to find it ... your blogs are very useful."M.K. - Hanoi, Vietnam."Wow, wow, wow. I am really inspired by your passion."P.C. - Singapore."I'm sure I speak for more than one Bangkok-based journalist when I say it's nice to have such resources handy."N.B. - Bangkok."Well done! I find the site comprehensive and informative, a whole lot better than I can find from reading the English dailies in Thailand.""I stumbled onto your blog the other day - it's really good, nice to see someone doing something different!""I treasure the kind of information you pass." Kendallville, IN (46755) Today A few showers this morning with overcast skies during the afternoon hours. High 43F. Winds WNW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 30%.. Tonight Partly cloudy early followed by cloudy skies overnight. Low 31F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. The Kansas Infidel blog and The Religion of Peace Update are protected free speech pursuant to the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America. In God we trust. May God turn His shining face on this great nation as he did during the Revolutionary War. Copyright 2011-2019 The Kansas Infidel blog and The Religion of Peace Update. All Rights Reserved. A politician is a fellow who will lay down your life for his country ~ Texas Guinan The old and the new Facing together in GE15 Every one wants to win Not every one can smile The voters will decide The outcome of GE15 The voters ... 1 hour ago Former Pabst brewery building to become student housing MILWAUKEE The former bottling house at the Pabst Brewing Co. complex, which sat dormant for nearly 20 years, will be reborn as student housing when it reopens in August. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports the renovated building will have 151 apartments on three floors, with enough beds to house more than 400 students. The $43 million project in downtown Milwaukee will also feature a food court with up to five restaurants and a coffee shop. Blue Ribbon Management LLC began marketing Eleven25 at Pabst in November. The buildings general manager, Jackie Higgins, says 23 students have signed leases for the 2016-17 academic year so far. The building is near Marquette University and the Milwaukee School of Engineering, but Higgins says theres also been strong interest from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee students. Duluth aerial lift bridge needs new operator DULUTH Duluth has a job for someone whos not afraid of heights the citys landmark Aerial Lift Bridge needs a new operator. Bridge supervisor Dave Campbell tells WDIO-TV that bridge job openings dont come up often. He says there are only a few operators, and they usually stick around. He cautions theres a lot of stress with the job, especially in the summer when lots of people and cars cross, and lots of boats pass underneath. But it comes with great views. Campbell says theres nothing like watching a freighter come in when Lake Superior is full of fog and it suddenly appears. The City of Duluth website is accepting applications through Monday before midnight. Campbell says a background in mechanical or electrical maintenance will give applicants a lift. Minnesota mans video of deer rescue spreads on social media GOLDEN VALLEY A video of a Duluth man rescuing a frightened and exhausted deer after it broke through thin ice on a northern Minnesota river is spreading on social media. Steven Peterson pulled the deer from the Kettle River in Pine County on Monday. He said the animal was frantic, with icicles hanging from its face. He felt he had to do something, but feared calling 911 would take too long. I had to do it myself, I know it was risky. I risked my life, but this deer needed saving, he said. Peterson, who is deaf, told KARE-TV through an American Sign Language interpreter that he recorded the rescue with his iPhone not with the idea of gaining fame, but in case he fell into the water so people would know what happened when they came looking for him. Peterson said it took about 20 minutes to crawl across the ice and pull the doe out of the river with a long strap tied around its neck. Once Peterson got the deer to solid ground, he said he sat with it for about an hour to make sure it was OK. After watching the video, he decided to share it online. Soon he was doing interviews with news outlets all over the world. I uploaded it to Reddit and it just spread from there, he said. From the first time I watched the video I knew it was an amazing thing. And I thought other people would think the same. Hit-run death of woman crawling on freeway remains unsolved ST. PAUL One year after a vehicle struck and killed a woman who was crawling on Interstate 35E in St. Paul, authorities still havent found the hit-and-run driver and still arent sure why she was on the freeway. State Patrol spokeswoman Lt. Tiffani Nielson says authorities would reopen the investigation into the death of 28-year-old Emily Boone if credible leads surface. Nielson tells the St. Paul Pioneer Press that investigators dont know if Boone intentionally slid down a wall to the freeway on the night of Jan. 2, 2015, or if she fell onto the roadway accidentally. The Patrol says an autopsy put Boones blood-alcohol level at 0.35 percent, more than four times the legal limit for driving, and she had mentioned contemplating suicide to relatives earlier that night. At least once in recent memory, the spirit moved you. It moved you to babble more than normal, glad-hand a little too much and generally become much more gregarious. The spirit moved you, and you paid dearly for it the next morning with cottonmouth and a good strong headache. So read the new book Drinking in America by Susan Cheever, and youll see that youre in good historical company. It all started, says Cheever, with the Pilgrims. They set off from England to America in 1620 and arrived late in the fall, cold, hungry and running out of beer. That wouldnt have been a problem, except that beer for the Pilgrims was rather important. One of the first things they constructed was a brewhouse. Within a decade after their first (very rough) winter, the Pilgrims were joined by the Puritans, a group that was more aristocratic than Pilgrim riff-raff. They helped ensure that the New World had taverns; everybody drank then, including infants and young children. By the time of the Revolution, says Cheever, the colonists drinking habits had escalated until each colonist was drinking almost twice as much as the average person drinks today. George Washington was happy to profit from alcohol, but John Adams family suffered from inherited alcoholism, and by the early 1800s, drinking to excess was beginning to be seen as a bad thing. In 1805, the doctor to the founding fathers encouraged temperance. Then again, he also believed that alcoholism caused spontaneous combustion. Americans rebelled over whiskey taxation before they ran to rum with a side of cider, thanks to Johnny Appleseed. Alcohol affected how Native Americans perceived white newcomers, who gave them stronger liquor than they could make themselves. Booze was a means for slaveholders to control their slaves, a way for doctors to perform surgery during the Civil War and a method for settlers to bond. It was famously prohibited (although few people took the ban seriously), and it affected the health of countless men and women. Alcohol might have caused the death of a president, and it almost brought this country to the brink of World War III. We are, by and large, a nation that likes its tipple, whether for church, relaxation, or for fun. In Drinking in America , youll see how thats nothing new: Weve come from a long line of party animals. And yet, some of us arent necessarily proud of that: Cheever adds a personal spin here through anecdotes about her father, who was an alcoholic, and the struggles he had. Those observations act as a buffer between tales of booze, bars, and bottles of all the things we drank (or not), people who encouraged drinking (or not), and how alcohol changed America, which makes for a book that goes down like a smooth glass of wine after a long day. Whether youre a drinker or a teetotaler, if you like a wee nip of history, then heres the book you want. Read Drinking in America if the spirit moves you. As the Mississippi River and its tributaries retreated Saturday from historic winter levels that flooded towns, forced evacuations and killed two dozen people, residents in the St. Louis area were facing a massive cleanup and recovery effort that will likely last weeks. The healing process, the restoration process has begun, Chris Greenhagen, pastor of the Central Baptist Church in Eureka, Missouri, one of the communities hit by flooding along the Meramec River earlier this week, said in a telephone interview. The flood, fueled by more than 10 inches of rain over a three-day period that began last weekend, is blamed for 24 deaths in Illinois and Missouri. Water from the Mississippi, Meramec and Missouri rivers largely began receding Friday in the St. Louis area. Two major highways Interstate 44 and Interstate 55 reopened south of St. Louis on Friday and some evacuees were also allowed then to return home. On Saturday, while residents took stock of the ruin, President Barack Obama signed a federal emergency declaration for Missouri that allows federal aid to be used to help state and local response efforts. It also allows the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate disaster relief efforts. Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon had asked for the help. Nixon and Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner also toured flood-ravaged areas as near-record crest predictions of the Mississippi River and levee breaks threatened more homes. In Missouri, Noelle Pace said she packed up electronics, some furniture and her 4-year-old sons clothing and toys and left Pacific on Dec. 28, the day after she received a request to evacuate. She felt lucky to find the damage isolated to her crawl space when she returned for the first time Thursday. Everybody around us had catastrophic damage, Pace said. She said she might not be able to move back for weeks while her landlord replaces soaked insulation. It doesnt feel real yet, she said. Illinois Emergency Management Agency spokeswoman Patti Thompson said the states flooding death toll increased to nine. Fifteen have died in Missouri. Rauner encouraged people to respect requests to evacuate. This is life threatening, he told reporters at Carlyle Lake in Clinton County in southern Illinois. Its not just the water; its the temperature. Hypothermia is a big risk to peoples lives. The main culprit in the St. Louis region was the Meramec River, a relatively small Mississippi tributary that bombarded communities in the far southwestern reaches of the St. Louis suburbs during the week. Two wastewater treatment plants were so damaged by the floodwaters that raw sewage spewed into the river. Hundreds of people were evacuated in the Missouri communities of Pacific, Eureka, Valley Park and Arnold, where many homes took in water. William Reynolds said he moved at least $50,000 worth of inventory from his Valley Park store to the second story of his nearby home when the evacuation was ordered. He was still unpacking Saturday after the evacuation was lifted. Jay Newman, chef at Fredericks Pub and Grill in Fenton, Missouri, said he was mostly stuck in his Arnold home for two days because of the flooding, which closed most of the area roads. It was bad from every direction, Newman said. While the worst of the dangerous, deadly winter flood was over in the St. Louis area, the water was slowly make its way south. In southeast Missouri, the Mississippi crested overnight Friday but not before damaging about two-dozen homes in Cape Girardeau, a community of nearly 40,000 residents that is mostly protected by a flood wall. What wed like people to know is that in Cape Girardeau there have been so many precautions in place that even given the magnitude of this event its really gone remarkably well for us, Molly Hood, Cape Girardeaus deputy city manager, said Saturday. Elsewhere, the Illinois River continued to rise Saturday and could near historic crests Tuesday or Wednesday. NAMPA, Idaho (AP) One mans back hair is another mans canvas. At least thats how Mike Wolfe, 35, of Nampa, Idaho, has decided to approach manscaping. Wolfe said that after years of feeling ashamed of his body hair, he asked a friend in 2008 to trim an American flag on his back rather than undergoing hair removal processes like shaving or waxing. Since then, the two meet up several times throughout the year to design a new creation onto Wolfes back. Pssh, its manhandling back hair, said Wolfe. Its disgusting. But its funny. You cant deny its funny. Tyler Harding, a former graphic artist who has been friends with Wolfe for more than a decade, says it takes about an hour to complete the artistic trim. And the creations can now be seen on a calendar called a Calend-hair available for $20. Some proceeds will benefit a charity at Wolfes church. Designs are uniquely named, such as Grim Reap-hair for October and M-hair-achi Band for May. Everybody always makes fun of the guy with back hair, Wolfe said. Well now its my turn to shine, right? Wolfes wife takes some credit for him flaunting his fur. When they went on their first date, Wolfe told her he was hairy. He felt nervous at the time, but she took it in stride. Looking back now this might be because of me, Jamie Wolfe said. Maybe I shouldnt have given him so much confidence in his back hair. Happy new year and welcome to the first column of 2016. I hope travelers didnt run into problems, and celebrations were safe and lots of fun. I do not have panic attacks, but online I came across a list of strategies to alleviate them for those who do. One method is Do the rabbit pose (yoga), according to Therese Borchard, author of Sanity Breaks: Help for Depression and Anxiety. Some other topics she addresses are: Dealing with difficult people and Recovery methods for foot-in-mouth syndrome. But back to the rabbit. Borchard says Ideally it would be great to attend a yoga class where your breath gets shallow and the mind takes over ..., but that is not always practical. So she suggests If you have one minute and privacy, try Rabbit Pose. Get this: Rabbit pose is where youre sitting on your heels Japanese style with your knees and feet together. Reach back behind you and grab your heels with either hand, palms down. As you look at your stomach, lower your chin to your chest and curl your torso slowly until your forehead is touching your knees and the top of your head is touching the floor, lifting your hips into the air. I have anxiety attacks. Thank the Lord, because trying to do that pose would send me into a panic. Because cut-out cookies are not just for Christmas think Valentines Day, Easter, Fourth of July and Halloween and because I received another cut-out cookie recipe, this one from Karen Vick of La Crosse, I am including it today. Karen says these are great, crisp cookies and can be frozen. this request was made anonymously by a new reader. When rolling the dough, if it starts to stick to the rolling surface, dust the surface lightly with a little more flour. Sometimes it sticks to the rolling pin, as well, so it also helps to rub the rolling pin with a little flour. We also have a schnitzel recipe today. I apologize if the jagerschnitzel recipe was sent in by a reader, but I honestly cant remember whether that was the case or if I found it in my collection or online somewhere. Originating in Austria, schnitzel is popular in many countries and made using veal, mutton, chicken, beef, turkey, reindeer or pork. Oddly, the name of this Austrian dish is German for cutlet. It is very similar to the French dish escalope, which is made with thinly sliced meat or fish. Jagerschnitzel is made with pork steak or cutlets, and is a quick and easy, meal-in-a-hurry type recipe. As a new year starter on light and healthy meals, I have dug up a stuffed pepper recipe that I devised many years ago and still make occasionally. It is quick and simple (two words my daughter Traci, who made this request, loves to hear with regard to cooking) delicious and satisfying (two more words on her acceptable recipe list). You might want to accompany it with a tossed salad. Well continue with our current requests for now, which include the schnitzel and healthy recipes, and maybe a few late-comer responses to other recent requests. And remember, we are always in the market for new requests. Sugar Cookie Cut-Outs 2/3 cup butter, softened cup granulated sugar 1 teaspoon baking powder teaspoon salt 1 egg 1 tablespoon milk 1 teaspoon vanilla 2 cups flour For the glaze: 1 cup powdered sugar teaspoon vanilla (or vanilla and orange extract) 1 teaspoon milk, more as needed Heat oven to 375 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add granulated sugar, baking powder and salt. Beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in egg, milk and vanilla until well-combined. Beat in as much of the flour as you can with mixer; stir in any remaining flour by hand. Divide dough in half. If necessary, cover and chill 30 minutes or until it is easy to handle. On a lightly floured surface, roll half the dough at a time to about 1/8-inch thickness. Using 2-inch cookie cutters, cut dough into desired shapes. Place 1 inch apart on an ungreased cookie sheet (line with parchment paper if desired). Bake 7 to 8 minutes or until edges are firm and bottoms are very lightly browned. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool. Combine glaze ingredients, adding sugar or liquid as needed until it is thick enough to stay on cookie, and not drip off. (Recipe shared by Karen Vick, La Crosse) Makes about 3 dozen cookies. For sugar cookie squares: Prepare dough as above, but increase milk to 2 tablespoons. Pat dough into an ungreased 13-by-10-by-1-inch baking pan No chilling necessary). Bake at 375 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes until edges are firm but not brown. Cool in pan on a wire rack. Carefully frost with cream cheese or butter cream frosting, or drizzle with glaze. Decorate with M&Ms or other candies. Cut into 40 squares. Jagerschnitzel 1 cup bread crumbs 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour Salt and pepper to taste 2 tablespoons vegetable oil 4 pork steaks or cutlets, pounded thin 1 egg, beaten 1 medium onion, diced to 1 pound fresh mushrooms sliced mushrooms, coarsely chopped 1 cups water 1 cube beef bouillon 1 to 1 tablespoon cornstarch cup sour cream In a shallow dish, mix together bread crumbs and flour. Season with salt and pepper. Place egg in a separate dish. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Dip pork steaks or cutlets in egg; coat with bread crumb mixture. Fry in hot oil until browned on both sides and cooked through, about 5 minutes per side. Remove pork to platter; cover with foil and keep warm in low oven, about 250 degrees. Add onion and mushrooms to skillet; cook until lightly browned. Pour in water and dissolve bouillon cube. Add sliced or coarsely chopped mushrooms to sauce Simmer about 20 minutes. Stir together cornstarch and sour cream; stir into skillet. Cook over low heat until thickened; do not boil. Spoon over pork, and serve immediately. Makes 4 servings. Stuffed Peppers Nonstick spray cup chopped onion cup chopped fresh mushrooms cup peas 1 cups hot rice, cooked in chicken broth 4 small to medium bell peppers, choice of colors Salt and pepper to taste 4 ounces shredded cheddar cheese, divided Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a large skillet; heat to medium. Add onion and mushrooms; cook 5 minutes or until tender. Stir in broth; heat until bubbly. Add peas, rice and 3 ounces cheese; cover and remove from heat. Remove stem ends, seeds and membranes from peppers; place, cut sides up in a sprayed shallow baking pan. Divide rice mixture among peppers. Season to taste. Bake, loosely covered with foil, 35 to 45 minutes or until pepper is cooked and filling is heated through. Uncover; sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake another 5 minutes, until cheese is melted. Makes 4 servings. Cookbook author Carla Snyder is talking about her longtime zest for citrus. As a child, she said, her mother let her bust open the bag of candied citrus slices and eat them on the way home from the grocery store. Now, with her seventh cookbook, Sweet and Tart: 70 Irresistible Recipes With Citrus, Snyder fully embraces her lemon lust, along with the versatility of limes, grapefruits and oranges. I like brightness in food, Snyder said in an interview in her Ohio kitchen. The easiest way to add brightness is by adding citrus. Shes also into medleys of flavors, as in her Lemon-Almond Cake with Basil-Honey Berries, and Cream Cheese Muffins with Spinach and Lemon. Grapefruit shows up in a custard pie, as well as chocolate-dipped citrus peel. You knew she had to include her twist on that childhood favorite. Oranges are featured in a variety of treats, including a light and airy cheesecake made with cara cara navel oranges that has a chocolate crust. What would a citrus-centric cookbook be without lemon bars, one of the first citrus yummies Snyder can remember making when she was a child? She calls them Heavenly Lemon Squares in the book, and notes they have a firm, easy-to-eat-with-your-fingers crust. No drippy, messy lemon squares for her. Snyder wanted the book to be accessible, but that doesnt mean unadventurous. Along with her twists on staplesincluding Mile-High Lemon Meringue Pieshe includes such treats as Yujacha Marmalade-Filled Walnut Squares. Yujacha is a tea made from yuzu, a fruit similar to a lemon. In one of her many Zesty Tips she says you can find this marmalade in Asian markets. She also notes you can substitute homemade lemon marmalade (theres a recipe in the book) or store-bought. Cara Cara Cheesecake with Chocolate Crust 42 chocolate wafers 1 cups sugar 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted 1 pounds cream cheese, softened cup heavy cream Zest of 3 cara cara oranges, plus cup fresh cara cara orange juice cup Cointreau or other orange-flavored liqueur 1 teaspoon orange extract teaspoon kosher salt 4 large eggs Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine the chocolate wafers and cup of the sugar in the bowl of a food processor and process until finely ground. Pour in the melted butter and process until well mixed and evenly moistened. Dump the crumbs into a 9-inch springform pan and, using the bottom of a glass or measuring cup, press the crumbs on the bottom and 2 inches up the sides of the pan. Bake for about 10 minutes, or until fragrant and firm. Let cool completely on a wire rack. Beat the cream cheese and remaining 1 cups sugar in a mixer bowl on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Turn the speed to low; add the cream, orange zest, orange juice, Cointreau, orange extract, and salt; and beat until well mixed. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating just until combined and scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition. Bring about 3 quarts water to a boil in a large saucepan. Line the outside of the springform pan with a large sheet of heavy-duty aluminum foil that reaches the top of the pan. Set the springform pan inside a roasting pan and pour the filling into the cooled crust. Pour the boiling water into a heat-proof pitcher. Pull the middle rack halfway out of the oven. Carefully pour the hot water into the roasting pan until it reaches halfway up the side of the springform pan. Bake for 90 minutes or until the cheesecake puffs around the edges and the center moves just slightly when jiggled. Remove the pan from the oven. Run a small, sharp knife around the pan sides to loosen the cheesecake and let cool in the water-filled roasting pan on a wire rack for 45 minutes. Transfer the springform pan to the rack and let cool to room temperature, another 2 hours. Cover tightly with plastic wrap (dont let the plastic touch the top of the cheesecake) and refrigerate at least overnight, or up to 4 days. Serve chilled. For the neatest slices when serving, cut the cheesecake with a knife dipped in hot water and wiped clean with a paper towel after each slice. Makes 10 servings. Tart with Lemon and Sun-Dried Tomatoes 1 (17.3-ounce) package frozen puff pastry (2 sheets), thawed 2 egg yolks, beaten 5 ounces Boursin or other herbed soft cheese, softened 4 ounces goat cheese, softened cup grated Parmesan cheese Zest of 1 lemon, plus 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice Freshly ground pepper cup sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil, drained and julienned Heat the oven to 425 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the sheet of puff pastry into an 11-by-14-inch rectangle. Transfer to one of the prepared baking sheets and cut 1-inch strips off each side, reserving the strips. Brush the edges of the rectangle with water and fit the strips on the edges, creating a border. Poke holes all over the bottom of the pastry with a fork. Repeat with the remaining pastry sheet. Bake for about 10 minutes, or until puffy and brown. Remove from the oven and poke again with a fork. Gently push the pastry down as it will be puffy and raised. Return to the oven and bake for another 5 minutes. Let cool completely on the baking sheets on wire racks. Turn the oven temperature to 350 degrees. Combine the egg yolks, Boursin, goat cheese, Parmesan, lemon zest and lemon juice in a medium bowl and season with pepper. Mix with a fork until well combined. Spread the mixture over the cooled pastries and top with the sun-dried tomatoes. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until the cheese is set. Let cool on the baking sheets on wire racks for 10 minutes before cutting into squares and serving. Makes 2 tarts. "May God give us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, courage to change the things we can and wisdom to know the difference....." BLACK RIVER FALLS A group of landowners has officially launched its effort to halt frac sand mining in Jackson County. A petition filed in Jackson County Circuit Court last month says county officials havent followed proper procedures for appealing zoning decisions and should re-consider a challenge of a rail spur for sand transportation in the town of Adams. Attorney Tom Lister, who filed the court action, said the interested landowners wanted to begin with the rail spur because overturning its approval likely would help halt its associated mining operation in the town of Alma. We believe that the rail spur will, upon a full hearing, through the (court action), be avoided, and if there is no rail spur, theres far less likelihood of a mine, said Lister, who filed the action on behalf of Adams residents Ronald and Susan Kloss. Land in Adams was rezoned to allow for the rail spur, the property for which is adjacent to the Kloss property. The couple gave notice of an appeal of the rezoning decision within 30 days, but the notice didnt prompt a hearing in front of the countys Board of Adjustment, which Jackson County established years ago to provide an avenue to challenge zoning and land conservation decisions. Last weeks filing in circuit court asks a judge to rule that the county follow its own procedures for the Board of Adjustment. Jackson County Judge Anna Becker already has recused herself from the civil case, and there will be no court dates until a new judge is assigned. The court filing alleges the county has repeatedly misrepresented the procedure for appeals to those interested in them, instead suggesting that their only recourse was another type of challenge in circuit court. The county has intentionally failed to do that because they didnt want people appealing the decisions they were making and they were instead telling people that their only remedy was to go to court, said Lister, a former Jackson County judge. (Going to circuit court) offers a very limited review and a strong presumption in favor of the agency decision, whereas the Board of Adjustment has to provide a full, recorded evidentiary hearing where we intend to show that there was and has been substantial misconduct by county and town officials and their attorneys. Zoning and land conservation officials couldnt be reached for comment as of press time Monday. The court filing will be the first of several landowners plan to file to halt in-progress mines, which they argue are unnecessary public nuisances. The group is considering taking action against sand mines, including those in the towns of Alma, Curran and Hixton, and the work also has involved working with environmental advocacy groups in Wisconsin and Washington, D.C., in efforts to hold public officials accountable, Lister said. Were trying to clean up government, he said. RICE, Minn. (AP) The last thing Josh Johnson remembers seeing, before his world went dark, is the muck at the bottom of the lake billowing up around him. Hed just spent 45 agonizing minutes fighting to stay on the surface of the frigid lake. Hed watched a rescue boat make painfully slow progress, having to break its way through ice to reach him. The boat was barely 10 yards away, according to one rescuer, when Johnson could no longer move his arms. So he sank. Johnsons fall through the ice on Little Rock Lake on Nov. 15, 2013, prompted an extraordinary rescue, long months of recovery, and an eventual change in his perspective and priorities. But as he slipped below the surface, Johnson said he doesnt remember thinking anything at all. My body had given up. Everything was frozen, he said. I hit the bottom, saw the sand poof up, and I was out. More than two years later, Johnson said he thinks a few times each week about his decision to go ice fishing that day. He alternates between wondering how stupid could I be? and insisting he had reason to believe the ice was safe. Around 7 a.m. that Friday, Johnson, an avid ice-fisherman, tested the ice with his chisel the same way he always had. Before he left for the lake that morning his five-months-pregnant wife, Beth, told him the forecast called for a relatively warm day. She told him he wasnt going to be so lucky one of these times. But his chisel did not break through the ice when he swung it. So he went out to the middle of the lake and started fishing. Around 9:30 a.m., Shane Sabraski drove past the lake after a morning of deer hunting near his Rice home. He spotted Johnson on the ice and couldnt believe somebody would be ice fishing that day, with the temperature quickly rising into the mid-40s. Johnson, meanwhile sat happily fishing as the day warmed up. Around 11 a.m., he got up from his seat. The ice he stood on bobbed like a cork in the water. All of a sudden, he said, I was pretty nervous. Johnson packed up his gear and headed for shore. About 100 yards out, cracks in the ice spidered out from under his feet in all directions. Ice fishermen know what that signals, he said. Youre done, he said. Youre going through. Run as fast as you can. Sabraski, the deer hunter, told his friend Neil Maidl what he had seen. Maidl didnt believe it. So Sabraski brought him back to the clearing where he had seen Johnson before, expecting to be proven right. But there was nobody there. The friends could see a hole in the ice. Looking closer, they could see water splashing around inside the hole. They called 911 and ran to shore. Sabraski said he walked 50 yards out onto the lake before it started cracking like crazy. He shouted to Johnson that help was on the way. He asked him his name, and told him to hang on a little longer. Maidl dashed off to find a boat he could borrow from the yard of a nearby resident. That was around 11:25 a.m. DNR Officer Tony Musatov was the first emergency responder on the scene. According to a Benton County Sheriffs Office report, Musatov briefly fell through the ice while attempting to reach Johnson. Musatov, Sabraski and Maidl got in the borrowed boat and began breaking their way through the ice to reach Johnson. Many of the emergency responders specifically remember thinking it took forever to get there. The three men took turns tossing an anchor in front of the boat, then dragging the boat ahead, busting up the sheet of ice on their way. Sabraski said they were completely shot from the effort. Soon, Rice Fire and Rescue arrived on scene. Chief Scott Janski said he entered the water wearing an ice rescue suit, ready to help lift Johnson into the boat when it reached him. At 11:55 a.m., according to the sheriffs report, Johnson slipped below the surface. The fire department supplied the boat with a hook, which the men dragged along the bottom of the lake until they happened to snag Johnsons leg. The hook sunk into his boot, and rescuers pulled him from the lake upside down. Sabraski said he still remembers Johnsons blue eyes stuck open as he emerged. He had been at the bottom of the lake 20 minutes. Usually when someone goes under that long, youre just thinking recovery, Janski said. It was tough that day, Sabraski said. We figured we didnt get to him in time. John Castro, a cardiac surgeon at St. Cloud Hospital, said Johnson came into the hospital an icicle, with no cardiac activity. CPR had failed to restart his heart on the way to the hospital. We hoped that being so cold would preserve his brain and organs, he said. Like frozen food. Castro and his team decided on a plan of action. He admits now he thought there was at most a 10 percent chance of success. He said he told Johnsons wife Beth that the operation was a moonshot. But he said he also knew how much effort had gone into the dramatic rescue from the lake. So I wasnt going to be the guy who said, No, this isnt going to work, lets call it off, he said. Surgeons tried to warm Johnson up by sending warm water into his chest through tubes. He wouldnt warm up. They used a Lucas CPR device, which provided continual chest compression. His heart was still too cold to begin pumping, Castro said. Castro said doctors used a technique called ECMO to drain all Johnsons blood, oxygenate it and pump it back into him, keeping him on life support long enough to begin warming up. Finally he did, and was flown by helicopter to the University of Minnesota, where a full-time ECMO unit could keep him alive. St. Cloud Hospital didnt know if Id make it to the U of M, Johnson says now. And the U of M said I had a 5 percent chance of making it through the night. Against the odds, Johnson pulled through. He was in a medically induced coma for two full months. When he awoke, he couldnt stand up because his legs went unused for so long. He demanded to go home in mid-January, even though he says now that he wasnt all there yet. Johnson remembers sitting in the same chair in his house day after day, lifting himself just above the seat to rebuild his strength. While he was incapacitated, Johnsons partner in a tree-service business had to find other work. Two years later, Johnson says he has made a full physical and medical recovery, but he still has not gotten in the right mindset to pick up new business. I pick up odd jobs, but the part of running my own business is just not there for me anymore, he said. Getting out and finding business on my own is harder than it was. That has given him more time for a job he is putting more emphasis on since the accident: fatherhood. Johnsons third child was born two months after he got out of the hospital. I used to work out of town constantly, and I wouldnt look at my kids feelings about it as much, he said. Now, if Im gone for a day or two, Ive got to get home. I spend so much more time with them. As far as being a better husband and father, the accident opened my eyes a lot. But one thing it did not change is his attitude toward his favorite hobby though he said hes been smart enough to stay off the ice during this warm winter. His first purchase after waking from his coma: A brand-new ice-fishing house. I try to buy fishing gear and people at the stores say, What are you doing? he said. Im getting back out there as soon as I can. MANKATO, Minn. (AP) In the 1905 painting, Treaty of Traverse des Sioux, which hangs in the state Capitol, a Dakota chief and the United States Indian commissioner shake hands under a canopy of tree branches, the very image of amity. But a fraught history lurks behind the harmonious facade. With the agreement, the Dakota were forced to cede nearly all of their land in Minnesota, 21 million acres, for 7.5 cents an acre. The government kept more than 80 percent of the payment and eventually went back on a provision to set up two reservations. Gwen Westerman, a Dakota scholar and Minnesota State University professor, said the work is a romanticized version of an event its painter, David Francis Millet, had not attended. And what we know specifically about that event and the treaty of 1851 makes that particular interpretation of it problematic, she said. At the same time, the treaty is a major piece of history that opened up the bulk of southern Minnesota to European settlement. And its seen as a major cause of the U.S.-Dakota War in 1862. Westerman, one of 15 people selected to come up with recommendations about the Capitols art, doesnt want these paintings destroyed, and she doesnt want them forgotten. There is a place for these kinds of stories so we dont forget, she said. But shes not sure if prominent display in the state Capitol is the right place for them. At the same time, advocates for keeping the paintings front and center argue moving them would be tantamount to censorship. The politically correct thinking today is that white men didnt properly respect the Indians in these paintings, New Ulm resident George Glotzbach said. But history being what it is and artists being what they are, this is what they thought and said in their paintings at the time. A massive $310 million Capitol renovation project is giving the state an opportunity to rethink the buildings art. Most of the nearly 60 works were created between 1903 and 1906, so the art preserves that eras view of history. Those views have changed, and the Legislature is taking this question around the state: Should the art change, too? These decisions will be especially relevant to south-central Minnesotans. The treaty negotiation site is just north of St. Peter at a river crossing used by Dakota and French fur traders. The painting Attack on New Ulm, which portrays an opening skirmish in the Dakota attack on New Ulm, hangs in a Capitol hearing room. Paul Anderson, one of the committees three co-chairs, is used to finding common ground after 20 years on the Minnesota Supreme Court. At public meetings around the state, Anderson has heard plenty of contradictory ideas, and hes considering them together, weighing them against each other. Thats as true of the events the paintings depict as it is of the works themselves. Take Attack on New Ulm. Really, what it was was a strategic battle by the Dakota, he said. They had to get New Ulm if they were to fulfill their strategy of driving white settlers back to Fort Snelling. He can also see it from the other perspective as a heroic defense of a settlement. Were not going to rewrite history, come off being politically correct, Anderson said. This is a once-in-a-century opportunity to review what we have. He can see the value in adding interpretation to Attack on New Ulm. Maybe you dont just get rid of a painting like this, but interpret it so it does justice to both sides, he said. Still, the art subcommittees discussion isnt, for the most part, about whether to get rid of these paintings; its about where they should be placed and with what accompanying information. As Rep. Diane Loeffler, also a co-chair, put it, Would you rather learn it at the Capitol or do you want to learn at the museum? Loeffler, a Minneapolis Democrat, said its been instructive to see what other states have done. It appears theres a theme. Most try and select artwork that tells stories that are unifying and celebrate attributes of their state, its people and their accomplishments that all can be proud of, she said. The more difficult stories are sometimes told in a history museum, she said, where there are more opportunities to parse historys complexities. Minnesotas art, though, goes a different route. Much of the art honors the states Civil War veterans there are six such paintings in the Governors Reception Room alone. That was a conscious choice to celebrate (Minnesotas role in the Civil War) and about our interactions between settlers and Native Americans, she said. We have almost no art that tells any story from 1910 on. A theme of inclusiveness could mean that some of the Capitols controversial paintings would be moved to less-visible locations. Loeffler said the art committee has heard strident and very emotional stories from Native Americans and others who said some of the works make some Minnesotans feel less a part of Minnesota. There are some spaces that are more honored and more visible than others, she said. For example, the 1905 painting Father Hennepin at the Falls of St. Anthony depicts a Native American woman shirtless. Loeffler wonders if the Governors Reception Room is the right place for it. Its placement there is particularly challenging because when the governor is having press conferences you see it with no interpretation, she said. Native Americans in the room may be distracted and jarred by the depiction, Loeffler said. Where Anderson can render a dispassionate analysis, descendants of Dakota or European settlers can feel as if more is at stake their very identities, even. Glotzbach readily admits hes not neutral. His great-grandmother, 8 or 9 during the U.S.-Dakota War, was inside the barricades in New Ulm when the Dakota attacked. Im not going to be the one-man decider, he said. Were all fortunate for that. But he said moving paintings because some find them objectionable is censorship. If you take these things down and put them in the basement never to be seen again, you remove a great teaching moment, he said. Modern interpretations can be added to these paintings, letting visitors make up their own mind about the events they portray, he said. Speaking about the Civil War paintings, Minnesota National Guard Maj. Gen. Rick Nash suggested something similar during testimony before the art committee on Dec. 7. If a painting or bullet-riddled flag can impress upon our citizens and elected leaders not to take up arms, then they have served a noble public role, he said. Westerman, the MSU professor and a Dakota woman, brings her own personal connection. When art depicting Dakota was repeatedly referred to as Native American art, she objected. I said, No, this is art that reflects Dakota history. This is not just some nebulous Native American subject, she said. That says we need to provide a much richer context for these works. Simple labels, such as those seen in a museum, arent enough, she said. Minnesotans of all ages visit their Capitol and not everybody reads the labels, she said. In Eighth Minnesota at the Battle of Ta-Ha-Kouty (Killdeer Mountain), Minnesota soldiers are shown shooting into a group of mounted Dakota. But it wasnt a battle, Westerman said. It was a massacre. Even soldiers who wrote about this talked about how horrendous it was, she said. And there is plenty of evidence about how people, especially children, are affected by the images they see every day, Westerman said. What is the environment that we want in the state Capitol that reflects and supports all Minnesotans? she said. Anderson, the former justice, said the idea that these paintings reopen a historical wound is on the table. We would be unfair to both sides if we didnt acknowledge that it is on the table and must be discussed, he said. The art committee is expecting to release a preliminary report in January, but its not going to answer all the questions that people want to have answered, Anderson said. The panels final recommendations arent expected until late summer, he said. Though they dont say which way the panel is leaning, its members emphasize their recommendations wont be extreme. It has to be clear, Loeffler said, that absolutely no one has talked about ever hiding, destroying or putting under covers any of this art. It always has been about where and how (to show the art) and interpretation. FOND DU LAC, Wis. In the 1920s and early 30s, the Holyland east of Fond du Lac was a bootleggers paradise. The Depression made it hard for the German-Catholic immigrants who settled in the area to make a living, but Prohibition created a market for illegal booze, and some of these pious churchgoers jumped at the chance. As stills fired up and the moonshine flowed out of barns and faux cheese factories, family secrets, attacks by federal agents, Al Capone sightings and even murder were the result. John Jenkins, who researched the subject for his thesis at Marian University in Fond du Lac, said residents from these sleepy farm communities were lured to the lucrative brewing, distilling and selling of illegal moonshine to make ends meet during difficult times. The business of illicit liquor supplied jobs during the toughest years of the Depression. Freight transporters, coal dealers, farmers (corn to make corn sugar), auto mechanics and barn owners in Fond du Lac County profited or at least earned enough to put food on the table. I grew up on a farm with seven kids in our family, and I can tell you it was a struggle. People got into this business just to survive, said Bill Casper, who as a child lived across from one of the largest and most well-known bootleg operations in the area. The Holyland, the name given to Catholic communities within miles of one another, was a unique fit for the job, Jenkins said. It was geographically isolated, had access to the railroad for delivering liquor ingredients and was comprised of residents who felt that Prohibition was anti-immigrant, anti-German and anti-Catholic. The German Catholics deep faith was reflected in the names they gave their communities, such as St. Cloud, Marytown, Johnsburg, St. Anna and Mount Calvary. But pay during hard times took precedent over piety. While I was interviewing one man, he commented that I looked stunned, Jenkins said. I replied that I thought these were pious people living in the region, the kind who went to church every Sunday. On Sunday, yes, the man replied, but what we did the other six days of the week made life fun. Casper said he first learned about the business of bootlegging sometime in the late 1930s. As a youth living in Malone, which is between Johnsburg and Mount Calvary, Casper bailed hay with his father at the neighboring farm. At one point the boy looked up and noticed a large hole, as big around as a bushel basket, cut into the barns roof. It was a telltale sign, revealing where there once was a smoke stack from a still for making moonshine. I asked my dad about it, but he didnt really want to talk about it, said Casper, now 84. Everything was kept secret, and nobody knew nothing about anything that was going on. The barn still stands today along Silica Road off of Fond du Lac County W in Malone. Just down the road from the barn in Malone was Oligs Cheese factory, or so it was called. The cheese factory was a front, Casper said. Years later, when my Uncle Alex Casper was in a nursing home, he told me about carloads of sugar that came into the train station in Malone. It was his job to unload the train car and transport the sugar to the cheese factory. The mash, or fermented grain, was brewed in large vats at the cheese factory, then transported to the barn, where it was boiled in the still to complete the process and bottled for nighttime transport by truck.The Malone operation churned out moonshine using simple ingredients: sugar, water and yeast. As a teen, Casper discovered a huge collection of bottles in a hidden room in the hay mow of his familys barn. In that moment, he realized that his father was storing the glassware for the moonshiners who were brewing across the road. People didnt even tell their families what they were doing because there was always danger from the feds (federal agents) who were hanging around, of maybe someone getting knocked off, Casper said. The late Ludwig Louie Karl faced that danger one night and lived to tell about it. Karl was part of the Malone moonshine operation from 1930 to 1935, as well as other whiskey operations in the area. He related his story in an audio recording in the 1970s made by a grandson. Karl, who was a plumber by trade, worked for the moonshine operation as a lookout. He sat through the night at a fork between two long driveways. One driveway led to the barn, almost undetectable from County Road W. He gripped a rope that ran across a field to a bell in the barn, and if he saw police or federal investigators coming, he would warn his colleagues by jerking the rope to ring the bell. One night during an ambush, Karl was shot in the back by federal agents. I was in the hospital and they fixed me up ... I walked out a couple days later when I felt better, he said. Two years later, Karl was tried and fined $250 for his wrongdoing. In just one night, 24 50-gallon drums of alky could be made and shipped out, Karl said. Shipments went north to New London and south to Chicago. Most of the operations earnings were spent paying off law enforcement officials and neighboring farmers to keep their mouths shut, he said. Asked about rumors that the famous Chicago mobster Al Capone was connected to the Holyland operation, Karl claimed to have seen him around the area. Old-timers relate stories of Capones deep involvement in a Marytown bootlegging operation and another located between Mount Calvary and St. Peter. Stories say the gangster rented a room year-round at the Columbia Harbor hotel in the nearby town of Pipe and killed a prostitute at the hotel and a young still hand at his Mount Calvary-St. Peter operation. Karl said the business of bootlegging was addictive. The more money he made, the more he wanted to make. And the more you made, the more you spent, Karl said. You just wanted to make a bigger operation. Fred Sieber, 89, was 7 years old during the winter of 1932-33 when men from Chicago showed up and asked to rent the abandoned Cheese Factory his father owned and his family lived above in a small apartment in Mount Calvary. A winter-long whiskey operation ensued, and to mask the sweet smell of alcohol, Siebers father sprayed the youngster with perfume each morning before he headed off to school. I remember plenty all kinds of things, like their two-ton trucks going in and out and their big electric lights (in the cheese factory) burning all through the night, Sieber said. The cheese vat that was converted into the main still was 17 feet high and could hold 650 gallons of mash, Sieber recalled, with a daily output of 17 gallons of pure ethanol (193 proof). One time, the moonshiners dumped corn mash in the yard, and Siebers father fed it to the cattle. The tipsy cattle swayed and stumbled, unable to find the barn-door exit. Once outside, the cattle meandered about and had to be escorted by cattle hands back into the barn for the night. One of the deadliest accounts of the areas murky Prohibition past is the 1932 murder of Gregor Neiss of Mount Calvary. According to archival newspaper accounts, Neiss was found with two gunshots wounds to the back of the head and a bottle of moonshine tucked in his pocket. His body lay where Taco Bell now stands on East Johnson Street in Fond du Lac. At the time, the airport was located across the street. An investigation revealed Neiss was playing a dangerous game of posing as a federal agent in an attempt to extort local bootleggers, most of whom were linked to Chicago gangs. Bruno Kraus is another Holylander who spent his childhood near a large bootleg operation outside St. Peter and said it was often visited by g-men. Kraus, now 92, can remember laying awake at night and hearing vehicles with headlights off run fast up and down the driveway, like a car chase scene in a movie. Victor Sippel, born in 1918, grew up outside Mount Calvary during the Depression years. He estimates one out of 10 people he knew in the Holyland was involved in the business of moonshine. One man was thrown in jail for six months, he said. Although his family was not involved in the illegal trade, Sippel said they, like everyone else, accepted it as a fact of life and looked the other way. It still amazes me to this day that there was so much moonshine being made in all these little towns, he said. I know, because I saw it with my own eyes. Like streamers raining down upon New Years Eve revelers in Times Square, a torrent of red tape was unleashed on the nation in 2015. Literally thousands of new regulations combined with existing ones to infringe on every aspect of daily life. Justified or not, each one imposes an economic burden and chips away at individual freedom. Which regulations were the worst? Theres no objective standard for such things, but here is our take on the more outrageous rules of 2015. Killing headstone competition. Its not unusual for regulations to restrict competition. But a ban by New Jersey on sales of tombstones by churches adopted in March at the behest of commercial monument makers is a new low and a grave problem for consumers. More than a pinch of (salt) regulation. The city that tried to restrict the amount of soda consumed by its citizens found a new target in September: Certain New York restaurants now have to include warnings on their menus about the sodium content in many popular dishes. But the justification for such nannyism is shaky; too little salt can be unhealthy, too. In any case, government warnings have little effect on the publics eating habits. Restroom access. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, charged with ensuring safe workplaces, expanded its mandate in June by declaring that businesses should allow employees to use whichever restroom corresponds to their gender identity. Mandatory birth control insurance. The Departments of Treasury, Labor, and Health and Human Services in July finalized the Obamacare mandate for contraception coverage by employer health plans. Churches and other religious organizations may be eligible for an exemption, but not others. The decision to include such coverage should be up to the individual and the employer who provides the insurance, not the government. Minimum wages, minimum jobs. Seattle businesses were forced to increase wages in April under an ordinance that set a minimum wage of $15 an hour. Several other cities have followed suit, including San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York. Proponents claim the edict will lift workers out of poverty, but the reality appears otherwise. Higher labor costs disproportionately burden new and small businesses those that create the largest proportion of jobs. Fatwa on transfats. The Food and Drug Administration in June effectively banned the addition of transfats to processed foods. Yet the government once touted transfats as a healthier alternative to saturated fats. Not for the first time, consumers were way ahead of Washington; transfat consumption in the Unite States already has declined almost 80 percent in the past decade. Energy police strike again. The Energy Department in December imposed yet another new energy efficiency standard this time on commercial air conditioners and freezers. Its just the latest in a seemingly endless series of design dictates including virtually all home appliances. Regulators hail the standards for reducing energy costs, but consumers also end up paying more for their appliances. Decisions about such tradeoffs should be left to business owners and consumers, not Washington bureaucrats. The swelling regulatory tide. In their new Waters of the United States rule, the Environmental Protection Agency and Army Corps of Engineers expanded their own jurisdiction to regulate virtually every wet spot in the nation. Exceeding the broadest interpretation of U.S. Supreme Court precedent, the edict threatens the property rights of millions of Americans. 19th century rules for the 21st century Internet. The Federal Communications Commission in February declared that Internet service providers are common carriers, thereby subjecting them to the type of regulations crafted for 19th century monopolies such as railroads and old Ma Bell. But there is no Internet service monopoly, and the regulations threaten the dynamic and innovative nature of the Web. Dirty rulemaking at EPA. The Obama administrations Clean Power Plan was crafted to eliminate coal as a fuel for generating electricity. Energy costs will skyrocket in a number of states, and electricity reliability will be weakened. Meanwhile, the reduction in emissions of carbon dioxide will do nothing to affect the climate. Celebrating the New Year is a demonstration of hope for better times. But in the realm of regulation, there is nothing to celebrate. The Obama administration recently released an extensive regulatory agenda for 2016, and hundreds of new, costly rules are already in the pipeline. Never before has there been so massive a regulatory burden one that will continue to worsen until enough Americans insist upon change. Steven Verburgs article about the Legislatures efforts to remove the effective ban on building nuclear power plants contains some common misconceptions and misrepresentations of nuclear power (Wednesday's Tribune). First, nuclear power is safer than the other major forms of electricity production. Nuclear power plant accidents have only resulted in a few dozen deaths (mostly due to very high radiation doses), while coal, natural gas and hydro plant accidents have killed thousands. Opposing nuclear in favor of natural gas or coal means we are accepting greater risk to our citizens from a potential accident. Generating electricity using nuclear power is more expensive than coal, natural gas, or wind; however, if we force coal or gas to deal with carbon dioxide instead of letting them dump it into the atmosphere, their costs are significantly greater than nuclear. Only wind is truly cheaper than nuclear. Finally, characterizing spent nuclear fuel as dangerously radioactive for tens of thousands of years is misleading. In fact it becomes less radioactive than the original uranium (taken from the ground) in about 300 years. Yes, it's still pretty toasty, but not any more dangerous than living in many parts of the world that have relatively high concentrations of uranium. People in these areas show no adverse health effects. Exotic animals have their place such as in their natural habitat in the wild, or even in the care of fully licensed zoos accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. But we think its dangerous for the neighbor to keep a lion, tiger, chimpanzee or bear next door. Thats why were in favor of legislation to restrict the ownership, breeding and sale of exotic animals in Wisconsin. Wisconsin is one of only five states (Alabama, Nevada and the Carolinas are the others) that has virtually no laws that restrict ownership or handling of exotic animals. Senate Bill 241 and Assembly Bill 333 would prohibit the breeding, sale and ownership of such animals as lions, tigers and leopards, gorillas and gibbons, alligators and crocodiles. Its hard to imagine anyone thinking that those animals are pets. Theyre wild creatures that can injure, kill or spread disease. Wisconsin already bans keeping native wildlife as pets such as white-tailed deer, mink, badgers (not you, Bucky), cougars, black bears, weasels and wolves and Northern river otters. You also cant keep a striped skunk not that youd necessarily want to. More than a dozen states including Minnesota have passed restrictive legislation involving exotic animals in the past 10 years. We think its ridiculous that Wisconsin doesnt ban private ownership of dangerous, exotic animals. People who already own such animals would be allowed to keep them. And the list of animals you may keep include venomous snakes, constrictors, some monkeys and some marsupials. An amendment already has been discussed to weaken the legislation, so were not in favor of it. In October, the Tribune published a report from the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism that pointed to lax oversight of the people who own dangerous, exotic animals in our state. For many people, a dog or cat is an important member of the family. A lion, however, is an entirely different critter. You really dont want to see the neighbor trying to walk one on a leash. Even when operating in a rural area, exotic animal farms often dont have the expertise, the veterinary care, the land and fencing needed to keep others safe. We know that wild animals can be beautiful albeit dangerous to their handlers and to others. Its the danger were concerned about. These animals deserve respect usually at a safe distance with proper care, not in your neighbors basement or backyard. Disasters in Ohio and other locations in recent years have served as a dramatic reminder whenever dangerous animals or careless or troubled owners go bad. We believe Wisconsin needs to pass legislation without amendments to water it down that will keep people safe from dangerous animals that should not be misused as pets. The New Year is here. According to the charter of the Amalgamated Pontificators and Spin Doctors Union, all opinion writers must review the past 12 months, make predictions about the coming year or suggest timely resolutions, preferably for other people. So here is a prediction: The year 2016 may not be entirely happy for the world but will be historic. This will be the Year of the Woman (the last so named was in 1992). What woman, you may ask? Well, Hillary Clinton for one. Barring unforeseen developments, she will be elected president of the United States, the crowning achievement in the advancement of womankind in our era. We know this because we have seen the Republican candidates who would challenge her. They point out what a marvelously talented group of would-be presidents they are. They say this repeatedly in the desperate hope it might be true, like whistlers in a graveyard who assume a jaunty air to cover their insecurity. In truth, the GOP candidates are a hopeless crew, starting at the grotesque top with Donald Trump, R-Ego, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Canada, and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Ambition, and moving down to some boring but fairly sane candidates who, of course, dont stand a chance. With some exceptions for example, Carly Fiorina they appear to suffer from a severe case of testosterone poisoning and even she has a good snarl going. They want to be tough, tough, tough in a muscularly vague way, as they preach fear and a gloomy assessment of America, the opposite of Ronald Reagans sunny optimism. As it would be hard to be elected dogcatcher on such a platform, Hillary Clinton is a shoo-in, assuming the American people dont take leave of their senses, which admittedly they do from time to time. Yes, she will be dogged by cries of Benghazi, which, as you know, is Arabic for Hillary did it. But whatever unlikable male GOP candidate she faces in the presidential election, he wont be able to make politically saturated labels stick in the Year of the Woman. For some of us like me who are unenthusiastic about Clinton who will vote for her only to forestall a conservative extremist with a red nose and outsize clown shoes the prospect of another Clinton administration is a decidedly mixed blessing. But the Year of the Woman does not depend on Clinton alone. She will just be the leading symbol of a societal sea change that has affected all women, at least in parts of the world where the Middle Ages have ended and the 21st century has begun. The Year of the Woman wont apply in Afghanistan or Saudi Arabia. It wont in parts of this country, either, where male cave dwellers will growl, See, I told you this would happen once we gave them the vote. But in civilized precincts, women will be finally acknowledged as able to do anything they choose. This doesnt mean that all gender-related injustices will end glass ceilings wont immediately shatter, income inequality wont suddenly cease and domestic abuse wont stop overnight. No, it will mean a first step of general recognition on which all other progress will build. As it happens, female ascendancy has never been more visible. German Chancellor Angela Merkel was recently named Times Person of the Year, a notable honor even if she benefited because the magazine cover wasnt big enough to fit Trumpolinis hairdo. Women in the armed services proved their mettle enough for the Pentagon to make all combat positions open to them. In the ring, the most famous fighter in the world in 2015 was arguably Ronda Rousey, not simply because she was a curiosity but because she was so good, at least until she didnt keep her guard up. In Australia, a jockey named Michelle Payne became the first woman to win the 155-year-old Melbourne Cup think Kentucky Derby, only bigger and she did it riding a 100-to-1 outsider, about the odds of women being given their due a century ago. Later, she said that anybody who doubted the ability of women can get stuffed. This could be the slogan of the 2016 Year of the Woman. Stories about female firsts are becoming anachronisms and President Hillarys may be the last. Women are succeeding everywhere, leading nations, corporations, families, platoons, churches, while still finding time to have babies and thank goodness bake cookies. Lets face it: Men have made a mess of things. As a proud father of a daughter, I say Happy New Year. Happy endings are rare events for criminal investigators, which is why the photo of Joey Slaight that sits on a desk at the Grant County Sheriffs Office has become somewhat of a shrine. Hes hope, Sheriff Nate Dreckman said of the 9-year-old boy who is making what some of his relatives are calling a miraculous recovery from a gunshot wound to the head. The shot was fired Jan. 2, 2015, by his mother, Morgan Slaight, a 27-year-old recovering methamphetamine addict who also shot Joeys little brother, Jaxon, 6, in the head before she shot herself. Jaxon died at the scene at Morgan Slaights sisters home in Montfort while Morgan died 11 days later at UW Hospital. Usually nothing good comes from tragedies like that one, Dreckman said. Joey represents hope that you can survive and move on from it. One year after Joey was considered a goner when he arrived at UW Hospital with a gunshot wound near his left eye, hes talking in sentences and hes running, jumping, laughing, completing puzzles and playing games on his Wii. He continues rehabilitation at a pediatric facility located within a few hours of his relatives homes near Tulsa, Oklahoma, according to his aunt and guardian, Andra Munoz. Its just amazing. I cant wrap my mind around the things that hes doing, said Munoz, who is the older sister of Joeys father, Tyler Slaight. She has been asked by Tyler and the rest of the Slaight family to speak on their behalf. Joeys recovery has baffled neurological experts at UW Hospital who predicted that Joey would never become a functional person, Munoz said. While hes developmentally disabled and most likely will stay that way because of his struggles with basic communication skills, nobody is putting a ceiling on how far Joey will progress, she added. Munoz said she also was told by medical staff at a hospital where Joey was transferred near Oklahoma City that dramatic recoveries following serious brain injuries usually slow after the first year. But Joeys recovery is continuing to go so well one year after the shooting that Joeys health care service, Sooner Care, just gave its OK for him to spend six more months at the pediatric rehab facility. If he was plateauing theyd cut off funding immediately, Munoz said. She added that Joeys recovery was aided by a strong contingent of people from Wisconsin that included neurosurgeon Dr. Joshua Medow and other doctors and nurses at UW Hospital; Madison Police Chief Mike Koval; Grant County Sheriffs detectives, and administrators and well-wishers from all over the state who continue to send cards and gifts. If we hadnt had the people of Wisconsin, it would be a much different situation, said Munoz. They have continuously let us know that they are behind us and that they love us, and it has made such a difference for our family. All we want is for people to remember and to know Joey is fighting and to know how far he has come. High-risk treatment Morgan Slaight grew up near Dodgeville but had lived in Oklahoma for several years and had three children before she left her husband and moved back to Wisconsin in 2014. Morgan and Tyler were both recovering meth addicts and, at one point, lost custody of their children. Police say she was living with Joey and Jaxon in Montfort 16 miles west of Dodgeville at the home of her sister, Rana Corkum, when she threatened to commit suicide on Dec. 22. She was sent to Winnebago Mental Health Institute near Oshkosh that day on an emergency detention. She was released and sent back to Corkums home the day before the shooting, police said. Her youngest son, Charlie, 3, who has a different father, was living with relatives at the time. After the shooting, Joey and his mother were rushed to UW Hospital. As teams of medical personnel worked furiously to stabilize both of them, Medow said, some surgeons backed off on operating on Joey because they believed the injury was going to prohibit his ability to recover any quality of life. He said he stepped in after his heart told him to try and save Joey. I dont believe that physicians save lives. I believe thats Gods work. But I think we all have the ability to make lives better, said Medow, 42, who is the hospitals director of neurocritical care. What I think we did to make his life better was to take his skull off at the time and that allowed the pressure in his head to go down and the blood supply to be restored to that part of the brain. Joey was in surgery for less than an hour, Medow said. A bullet from a .22-caliber handgun entered Joeys left frontal lobe near his left eye from point-blank range, and the bullet fragments that caused most of the damage to his brain lodged in the floor of the skull. He said he didnt try to remove the fragments lodged in Joeys skull because you would do more damage to the brain than youre actually going to help it. Afterward, Joeys body temperature was lowered and he was given a drug called pentobarbital that slowed his brain activity. That meant his brain required a lot less energy and we gave him a number of days in a medically induced coma so he could try and recover whatever it was he could recover, Medow said. The strategy is risky for children because other organs are affected by the drug, too, and their livers arent mature enough to metabolize the drug, he added. Since the injury occurred on the left side of the brain or the dominant hemisphere Medow was most concerned about Joeys speech, language, memory and motor skills. But on the other hand, hes a kid so you take your chances, he said. Theres always a chance that the right side will take over. Meantime, Joeys father, grandmother Randa Slaight and aunts Maggie VanDaley and Munoz arrived in Madison on Jan. 3 and tried to make sense of what was happening. They were met at the airport by Koval, who went to college with one of Joeys great-uncles, Munoz said. (Koval) jumped right into the whole mess. He picked us up at the airport, took us to the hospital, he helped us navigate through all the media, Munoz said. He was a major part of us that first night there. We had never been to Wisconsin in our lives. We had no idea what we were walking into or what we were doing and he was just wonderful. They sat in the hospital next to the seemingly lifeless boy, who didnt move a muscle for days as doctors pulled him out of the coma and his body slowly ridded itself of the pentobarbital. But on Jan. 12, Medow got some good news when he received a text message from an unknown number that said Joey had grabbed the wrist of a nurse who was trying to brush his teeth. When I got that text, thats when I knew he was going to wake up, Medow said. My response was, I dont know who this is texting me but I hope that whatever happens will be for the best. I need to dry my eyes now. Be well. Support, and hope Grant County Sheriffs chief deputy Jack Johnson and detectives Rick Place and Craig Reukauf were lauded last year by the Wisconsin Victim-Witness Professional Association for their work on the Slaight case. They also have been affected emotionally by Joeys recovery. Six weeks after the shooting, Joey grabbed Johnsons hand while they were visiting the boy in the hospital. Things like that Ill never forget. It was a touching memory, said Johnson, a 28-year law enforcement veteran who is driving to Oklahoma next week with Place to visit Joey and his family. Medow got more emotional on Feb. 17 when he received another text from the nurse, who wrote that Joey had begun singing, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. That had followed the news that Joey had begun to say a few words and could respond to questions appropriately with a yes or no. That was interesting because your singing voice usually comes from your opposite (right) side, Medow said. Left side is language. Right side is generally intonation and changes of voice. Thats where musicality comes from. So, to me, it wasnt just that he was able to sing, he was able to speak and understand and had a memory and that had to come, at this point, from his left temporal lobe. Could it have all transferred to the right? Its possible. Joey was given the green light in late February to transfer from UW Hospital to the Childrens Center Rehabilitation Hospital in Bethany, Oklahoma, so he could be closer to many of his relatives homes. Before leaving, Munoz said she was told by pediatric neurologists at UW Hospital that Joey probably wouldnt improve much more. They were trying to be real with us scientifically on what we could expect, she added. That was fair. Thats what we wanted. They told us they didnt want to tell us something that would get our hopes up. But Joey has just blown that all away. I dont know how to explain it. Its totally God. In June, Joey had the piece of his skull that was removed by Medow during surgery put back in place in Oklahoma City. He was then moved to a pediatric facility that is teaching Joey basic skills like letter recognition and how to blend sounds. Thats when he started going off the charts with his improvement, Munoz said. Hard road ahead Joeys family, who has worked tirelessly to make sure he is getting funding from health care services for his medical needs, is concerned about his future, Munoz said. The next phase is finding out how were going to get help when he comes home, she said. Munoz is grateful for all the support Slaight has received from people in Wisconsin. Despite her busy schedule tending to her own four children, including 2-year-old twin boys, Munoz set up a Facebook page called Joey Strong to keep people informed. It also includes an address to which people can send cards and gifts that Joey needs for his rehabilitation. As it stands now, Joey will live with Munoz and her family after he leaves the pediatric rehab center. The ultimate goal is for him to live with his father, who is still trying to stabilize his life, Munoz said. He has a goal to get Joey with him full time but we dont know exactly when that will be, she added. Joey has not been told about the shooting or why his mother and little brother are no longer with him, Munoz said. He and Jaxon were very close, a bond forged as Joey looked after his little brother while their parents struggled with their addictions, she said. Thats what is so hard about this, Munoz said. I know Joey misses Jaxon so much. I know he knows hes not there. We know that has to be addressed at some point, but were not going to rush this. She added that Joey has shown signs of emotional effects from the traumatic shooting. He recently told his grandmother to remove a 2014 photo she had of his school class. He kept saying, Bad day, bad day, change it, Munoz said. We still dont know what that means. But he does remember something, obviously. I dont know how much, but I believe he knows something about what happened that day. Medow said his efforts to help Joey were easy compared to what Joey has ahead of him. Every step of the way, youre hoping and youre thinking to yourself, I hope that anything that I have done will not only keep him around but give him some sort of quality of life afterwards, Medow said. You hope he lives into his 70s, 80s and 90s. You hope that not only with the physical stuff, that hell be a functional part of society and have friends and family and be with people who love him the rest of his life. And you have to hope that hes able to psychologically deal with the events that led up to all of this. My aspect was probably the easiest because it was about human physiology and anatomy and thats it. All the stuff thats going on from now on, during his rehabilitation, physically and psychologically is a lot harder. Hell most likely battle through it much like he has the past year, Munoz said. Weve been privy to so many miracles. Theres no other way to explain it, she added. Its beyond any anniversary sadness we have. We have strong faith that well see Joey continue to grow. Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images Chris Brown is being investigated for misdemeanor battery and theft following an incident at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas Saturday. In a statement provided to ABC News, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department says they were called to a suite at the casino hotel at around 10:20 a.m. to investigate an altercation between Brown and an unnamed woman. Brown is alleged to have battered the woman when she went to take a photo of him with her mobile phone, and Brown took the phone from her. Private security escorted the woman from the suite, at which time hotel security escorted her from the casino, police say. The woman soon returned to the hotel and reported the alleged incident to security, who contacted police. The statement further says police detectives weren't permitted entry into the suite when they attempted to question Brown, after which they learned he'd already left the hotel before police arrived. The investigation is ongoing, police say. TMZ reports Brown allegedly punched the woman, whom they identify as Liziane Gutierrez, hitting her in the eye. A statement from Brown's rep provided to ABC News Saturday night also refers to the alleged victim as "Ms. Gutierrez," and says, in part, "her statements are unequivocally untrue. ... Her claim that she had her phone in her possession inside the after party and was able to take a photo causing an altercation with Chris Brown is a complete fabrication." Brown pleaded guilty to assault in June 2009 after he punched and injured then-girlfriend Rihanna in the face the previous February. His probation in that case ended last March. Copyright 2016, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. For Book Clubs I am available to book clubs, either in person or via Zoom, upon request. Contact me at morelonhouse --at-- optonline --dot-- net for details. Expect more workplace churn in 2016. There will be more retirements among baby boomers, more maternity and paternity leaves if not outright quits among millennials, more voluntary departures as workers move to greener pastures. And there will be more hiring as employers seek to fill key openings, and more complaints that they cant find good workers. According to the best guesses of employers and labor market observers, the national unemployment rate will stay in the low 5 percent range and even lower in many metro areas. Thats full employment by many economists definition. But whether the job market feels that good to individuals will depend on many factors, including type of work and the organization. In professions where there are more job vacancies than proven talent, qualified candidates will enjoy bidding wars for their services. For most workers, though, theres likely to be little growth in pay incentives. Most employers are holding the line at 3 percent average raises the same as in 2015 and 2014. Since 2008, in fact, most workers havent caught up to the pay and benefits cuts they suffered since 2008. The pay trend in organizations has continued to shift to merit bumps instead of across-the-board raises. But pay consultants note that merit bumps, of maybe 5 percent, arent big enough to be a motivator or retention agent. Bigger pay increases will continue to come from changing jobs, not staying in place. Also ahead: The U.S. Department of Labor has proposed new overtime rules affecting white-collar exemptions. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and several states are expanding efforts focused on disability, pregnancy and gender identity discrimination. Minimum wage legislation or ordinance proposals are pending in 15 jurisdictions around the country. Collective bargaining will gather steam among white-collar professionals such as adjunct professors, resident doctors, lawyers and media staff. Meanwhile, some more traditional union jobs will have faster union election time frames, due to a new 10-day period set by the National Labor Relations Board. Older workers who retire will continue to work as entrepreneurs, part-timers or contract workers in charge of their own hours and business. The contractor-instead-of-employee trend will continue for all ages, driven partly by individual preference and partly by employers who jettison employee benefits costs by contracting with independent workers instead of putting employees on costly benefits payrolls. Employers will continue to develop social media policies given the proliferation of devices and connectivity available to employees no matter where they are. Now that medical or recreational use of marijuana is legal in 23 states and Washington, D.C., more employers are updating their substance abuse policies most will get tougher, a few more lenient. SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) A Minnesota couple pulled over for speeding on their way to a South Dakota hospital is celebrating the birth of their New Year's Day baby. Ryan and Whitney Barthel were in the midst of their trek from Bellingham, Minnesota, to Sioux Falls when they were flagged by a police officer. "We live 2 hours away, so I had to deal with his maniac driving. Getting pulled over, with 2-minute-apart contractions," Whitney Barthel told KELO-TV. They didn't get a ticket, and were able to continue their journey. The couple's fourth son, Charles Augustus Barthel, was born at 8:14 a.m. Friday at Avera Hospital. It was the first baby born at the hospital in 2016. It had already been a stressful time for the family. Whitney Barthel said she planned to have the baby by Cesarean section on Dec. 24, but a test revealed that his lungs weren't fully developed and she'd have to wait. Later that evening, her grandfather died. Barthel said she was glad to make it to her grandfather's funeral Wednesday and wished she could have told him that he was having another grandson. "That was hard, knowing that he wouldn't get to know that the baby was here," she told the Sioux Falls Argus Leader. "I know he'd be happy." The Barthels said they were glad that their son could be born on the first day of the new year, although Whitney joked that she had hoped he would be born in 2015 to "get him onto this year's taxes." Ryan Barthel said the family's drive home from the hospital would be much slower than the drive there. 1 person dies in house fire in Merrillan in Jackson County MERRILLAN One person has died in a house fire in Jackson County in western Wisconsin. Firefighters and sheriffs deputies responded just after 1:15 a.m. Saturday to a report of a house fire in Merrillan. The victim was found dead inside. Authorities have not released the persons name. The body was taken to Madison for an autopsy. The sheriffs office says the fire remains under investigation. Merrillan is about 40 miles southeast of Eau Claire. Police ID father and daughter from Cudahy murder-suicide CUDAHY Police have released the names of a father and his young daughter who died in what theyre calling a murder-suicide in Cudahy on New Years Day. Police responded to their home after a family member called for help early Friday. Police found 27-year-old Brett Hartman dead of a gunshot wound. His 2-year-old daughter, Skylar Hartman, was also shot. She died later at Childrens Hospital of Wisconsin. The Milwaukee County Medical Examiners Office conducted autopsies Saturday. Police have not released details on what led to the incident. The investigation is continuing. The girls cousin, Kaitlin Monroe, tells WISN-TV that Skylar was just days away from turning three. She says the family doesnt get why Hartman killed her. Snowed-in Oshkosh emergency room doctor skis to work OSHKOSH Dr. Daniel Gale had no choice but to get to work when a big late-December snowstorm struck Wisconsin. Gale is an emergency room physician at Aurora Medical Center in Oshkosh. He tells WBAY-TV he shoveled his driveway Tuesday morning and it was pretty clear he wasnt going any farther. With roads snowed shut and no plows in sight, Gale decided his best solution was his cross-country skis. He says it was either that or walking a mile and a half through snow up to his knees. So he piled his gear into a backpack and set off on a 20-minute trek to the hospital. The doctor is trained for such emergencies. Hes a competitive skier and actually snowshoed to medical school once after a big snowstorm in Vermont. JOHANNESBURG (AP) The number of rhinos poached in South Africa in 2015 was slightly lower than in the previous year, representing modest progress by law enforcement in countering poachers who have killed rhinos in record numbers, according to a conservation group. Citing unidentified sources, Elise Daffue, founder of StopRhinoPoaching.com, said there were about 1,160 reported cases of rhino poaching last year, down from 1,215 in 2014. If the statistic is confirmed, it would be the first annual drop in numbers since rhino poaching surged around 2008 in South Africa, home to most of the worlds rhinos. Other conservationists, however, believe the number of rhinos killed last year was higher. During a visit to South Africa in early December, Britains Prince Harry said poachers had killed 1,500 rhinos there in 2015. He did not cite a source. The South African government plans to release its own 2015 statistics on rhino poaching early this year. Conservationist Allison Thomson, who believes the number of rhinos poached in 2015 is higher than 1,160, wrote in an email to The Associated Press on Saturday that there was an increase in rhino orphans whose mothers were killed by poachers. The stats do not reflect the collateral damage of rhinos that died subsequent to being a victim of an attempted poaching and all the carcasses that lie in the bush yet to be found, Thomson said. She speculated that the government sought to downplay the rhino poaching problem by issuing less frequent updates on poaching statistics. Edna Molewa, South Africas environment minister, said the government is committed to providing accurate, timely information. Poachers have targeted rhinos to meet rising demand for their horns in parts of Asia, particularly Vietnam. Consumers believe rhino horn has medicinal benefits, but there is no scientific evidence to support the belief. Sunday, January 3, 2016 Exactly one year ago, I blogged here about United Airlines and Orbitz suing a 22-year old creator of a website that lets travelers find the cheapest airfare possible between two desired cities. Travelers would buy tickets to a cheaper end destination, but get off at stopover point to which a ticket would have been more expensive. For example, if you want to travel from New York to Chicago, it may be cheaper to buy one-way airfare all the way to San Francisco, not check any luggage, and simply get off in Chicago. The problem with that, according to the airline industry: that is unfair competition and deceptive behavior. (Yes, the _airline industry_ truly alleged that.) Additionally, the plaintiffs claimed that the website promoted strictly prohibited travel; a breach of contracts cause of action under the airlines contract of carriage. It seems that the United Airlines attorneys may not have remembered their 1L Contracts course well enough, for a contracts cause of action must, of course, be between the parties themselves or intended third party beneficiaries. The website in question was simply a third party with only incidental effects and benefits under the circumstances. Without more, such a party cannot be sued under contract law. (This may also be a free speech issue.) Orbitz has since settled the suit. Recently, a federal lawsuit was dismissed for lack of personal jurisdiction over the now 23-year old website inventor. United Airlines has not indicated whether it plans further legal action. Along these lines, cruise ship passengers are similarly not allowed to get off a cruise ship in a domestic port if embarking in another domestic port unless the cruise ship is built in the United States and owned by U.S. citizens. This is because the Passenger Vessel Services Act of 1866 enacted to support American shipping requires passengers sailing exclusively between U.S. ports to travel in ships built in this country and owned by American owners. Thus, cruise ships traveling from, for example, San Diego to Alaska and back will often stop in Canada in order not to break the law. But if the vessel also stops in, for example, San Francisco and you want to get off, you will be subject to a $300 fine which, under cruise ship contracts of carriages, will be passed on to the passenger. See 19 CFR 4.80A and a government handbook here. Convoluted, right? Indeed. Necessary? In this day and age: not in my opinion. As I wrote in my initial blogs on the issue, if one has a contract for a given product or service, pays it in full, and does not do anything that will harm the sellers business situation, there should be no contractual or regulatory prohibitions against simply deciding not to actually consume the product or use the service one has bought. Again: if you buy a loaf of bread, there is also nothing that says that you actually have to eat it. You dont have to sit and watch all sorts of TV channels simply because you bought the channel line-up. In my opinion, United Airlines and Orbitz were trying to hinder healthy competition and understandable consumer conduct. What is still rather incomprehensible to me in this context is why in the world airlines would have anything against passengers getting off at a midway point. Its less work for them to perform and it gives them a chance to, if they allowed the conduct openly, resell the same seat twice. A win-win-win situation, it seems, for the original passenger, the airline, and the passenger that might want to buy the second leg at a potentially later point in time at whatever price then would be applicable. The same goes for the typically unaffordable change fees applied by most airlines: if they charged less (a change can very easily be done by travelers on a website with no airline interaction) and the consumer was willing to pay the then-applicable rate for the new date (prices typically go up, not down, as the departure dates approach), the airlines might actually benefit from being able to sell the given-up seat. Of course, they dont see it that way yet. In many ways, traveling in this country seems to be going full circle in that it is becoming an expensive luxury. Thankfully, new low-cost airlines also appear on the market to provide much needed competition in this close-knit industry that, in the United States, seems to be able to carefully skirt around anti-trust rules without too many legal allegations of wrongdoing. (See here for allegations against United, American, Delta and Southwest Airlines for controlling capacity in order to keep airline prices up). Happy New Year and safe travels! https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/contractsprof_blog/2016/01/legal-rights-to-give-up-your-travel-tickets.html The leaders of the Islamic State terror group have written a detailed memo about how female sex slaves should be treated by their IS captors. A document was written in January 2015 but was recently uncovered by the Reuters news agency. For example, a man who takes a woman as a sex slave cannot also have sex with her daughter, Reuters reports. A translation of the original document says: It is necessary to clarify some rules pertaining to captured prisoners to avoid any violations in dealing with them. Apparently the rules needed to be made clear because most members of IS did not know how to treat captive women. These rules have not been dealt with in ages, says the first part of the document. The New York Times wrote about the rape of a 12-year-old girl last summer. The girl was an IS captive for 11 months before escaping to a refugee camp in Iraq. The girl said her captor would kneel down and pray before raping her. He said the rape was allowed by the Quran and brought them both closer to God. The girl is part of the Yazidi religious minority who are being persecuted by IS. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have written about the sexual abuse of Yazidi women by their IS captors. Donatella Rovera is a crisis advisor for Amnesty International. She works with women who once were enslaved by IS. IS fighters are using rape as a weapon in attacks amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity, she says. The IS document outlines dos and donts when dealing with female sex slaves. Here is part of the list: If a slave becomes pregnant, her captor cannot have sex with her again until after she gives birth. A man cannot cause an abortion if the slave is pregnant if the slave is pregnant A father cannot have sex with a slave, give her to his son and then have sex with her again If two or more people purchase a female slave, none of them can have sex with her because she is a joint captive The owner of a female slave cannot humiliate her or force her to do work he knows she will not be able to perform. The list has at least 15 separate points. According to the New York Times story, IS has captured so many women that their trade has turned into a thriving business. Women are held in warehouses, inspected like livestock and transported in fleets of buses. All sales are documented by IS-run Islamic courts. One girl talked about how her captor considered her rape allowed by God. An expert on Yazidi life from the University of Chicago told the New York Times that many of the IS attacks in Iraq are fueled by the desire to capture more women as sex slaves. Controlling territory is a secondary concern. A report from the BBC in 2014 said over 3,500 Yazidi women and girls had been captured by IS. The treatment of these captives prompted more than 100 Muslim scholars worldwide to write an open letter to IS. They condemned its practices as un-Islamic. Two points of their letter were: It is forbidden to deny women their rights, and it is forbidden to re-introduce slavery. Im Dan Friedell. Dan Friedell wrote this story for Learning English based on reporting from the Reuters and the New York Times. Kathleen Struck was the editor. What do you think of the way the Islamic State group treats captured women? Write to us in the Comments section or on our Facebook page. _____________________________________________________________ Words in This Story abortion n. to end a pregnancy fleet n. a group of ships or vehicles that move or work together humiliate v. to make (someone) feel very ashamed or foolish livestock n. farm animals (such as cows, horses, and pigs) that are kept, raised, and used by people memo n. a usually brief written message from one person or department in an organization, company, etc., to another persecute v. to treat (someone) cruelly or unfairly especially because of race or religious or political beliefs pertain v. to relate to someone or something : to have a connection to a person or thing thrive v. to grow or develop successfully : to flourish or succeed Iraqi and Kurdish forces supported by United States airstrikes have regained territories controlled by Islamic State militants in the past month. The U.S. military believes the loss of leadership is one of the reasons the group has lost many recent battles. Coalition airstrikes have killed 10 of the IS group leaders. Some of them planned the attacks in Paris that took place in November. Others were planning attacks on other Western targets. This week, the U.S. military confirmed that an alliance of Kurdish, Christian, Arab and other local forces recaptured the Tishrin hydroelectric dam from the militants. The dam, on the Euphrates River near Aleppo, is part of an important communications route for the IS group. The dam also provides much of the power for northern Syria. Earlier, the alliance also recaptured more than twenty cities, south of the Syrian city of Kobani, from IS militants. IS lost control of Ramadi The Islamic State group has also suffered defeat in the important Iraqi city of Ramadi. The mostly Sunni city was the center of the IS groups control of much of western Anbar province. Iraqi military officials said Iraqi forces with some help from Sunni tribal fighters recaptured most of the city this week from the Islamic State militants. A U.S. military spokesman said there had been more than 600 airstrikes around Ramadi during the past six months to provide support. American officials, however, are not prepared to claim victory in Ramadi. One official said it is too early to call it a total defeat of the terrorists. The official said it is more appropriate to call it a strategic step in the right direction. In 2006 and 2007, Sunni tribal forces were a major reason for the success of attacks by U.S. forces on al-Qaida fighters in the area. Iraqi and U.S. officials said the Sunni fighters now controlling Ramadi had a minor role in its recapture. Experts believe local forces must be able to defend the area if the Islamic State group is to be defeated. Michael Pregent is a former U.S. military intelligence officer and advisor. He said it will not be clear who has won in Ramadi for at least another six months to a year. He said it is not just the destruction of the city that is a victory -- you have to resettle the population and bring economic stimulus, provide security. He added that the city has been destroyed. There is no intact building left, there is little infrastructure that is inhabitable. You cant go there tomorrow and open a store It is not known what happened to the hundreds or even thousands of civilians who were trapped in the city. Iraqi plan after Ramadi Iraqi government leaders said their forces will soon attack the Islamic State group in Mosul, Iraqs second-largest city. Sunnis are a majority of the population there. The militants have controlled Mosul since June, 2014. At that time, IS quickly advanced on and took control of large areas of northern and western Iraq and eastern Syria. Kurdish forces have defeated Islamic State terrorists to the north and east of Mosul. But they do not want to advance beyond territory they have traditionally lived in. Iraqi Finance Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said the country needs the Kurds to help retake Mosul. He told the Reuters news agency that they are a major force and will be necessary in that battle. Long-term prospect for Iraq Top Iraqi politicians and experts said if the countrys Sunni Muslim population is not empowered, the Islamic State group will not be defeated. Many Sunnis do not believe Iraqs majority Shiite-led government respects them. Shiites have led Iraq since 2005. Many Sunnis have become Islamic State militants. Ayad Allawi is a former vice president of Iraq. He said that victory will not last very long because there has been no progress on reconciliation. The conditions fostering terrorism will remain if the government does not embark on reform and reconciliatory efforts to engage marginalized Iraqis into an all-inclusive political process based on the rule of law, justice and civil state building. Allawi told VOA that without a political strategy, there is only a military victory. And thats In the News, from VOA Learning English. Im Mario Ritter. This report was based on information from VOANews.com. Christopher Jones-Cruise adapted it for Learning English. Hai Do was the editor. We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page. _______________________________________________________________ Words in The News appropriate adj. right or suited to come purpose strategic adj. of or related to a general plan related to a goal stimulus n. an action or plan that causes growth or development intact adj. not broken, having every part, whole infrastructure n. the basic structures and equipment needed for a country, area or organization to operate inhabitable adj. able to be lived in foster v. to help something or someone grow and develop embark on v. to begin a journey reconciliatory adj. related to causing two people or groups to become friendly after a disagreement engage v. to get and keep someone or a groups attention, to be involved in marginalized adj. to put in a powerless or unimportant position all-inclusive adj. to include everything or everyone Zimbabwe announced last week that it would shift to the Chinese yuan as its reserve currency. A reserve currency is a foreign currency held in large quantities by governments and financial institutions to pay international debts. Reserve currency is held in order to support the value of national currencies, writes Justin Kuepper, international investing expert, on the website International Invest. Patrick Chinamasa is Zimbabwes Minister of Finance and Economic Development. He said China agreed to cancel about $40 million of Zimbabwes debts this year. He also said the move was a sign of the friendship between China and Zimbabwe, a poor country in southern Africa. It is also a sign of the growing economic ties between China and Zimbabwe. China is Zimbabwes largest foreign investor, with interests ranging from construction and energy to telecommunications. China has also become the largest exporter of Zimbabwean products mainly tobacco and minerals, such as gold and diamonds. Local economists said Zimbabwe is flooded with foreign currencies since the inflated Zimbabwean dollar collapsed in 2009. In 2014, the nations central bank permitted traders to use the U.S. dollar, the South African rand, Botswanas pula, the British pound, the euro, the Australian dollar, the Indian rupee, the Japanese yen and the Chinese yuan. Business consultant Phillip Chiconi says this announcement is unlikely to change things for the businessmen with whom he works. I dont think it will make much difference to anyone, as were already using foreign currencies, he said. Zimbabwe has allowed the yuan as a legal currency for two years. But Chiconi said he has not seen it used. Instead, most traders prefer the stability of the U.S. dollar, which is being used as the countrys major currency. Zimbabwe suffered economic collapse after years of government mismanagement. That caused the Zimbabwean dollar to inflate above 230 million percent. Although the central bank printed a 100-trillion-dollar bill, it didnt buy much. A loaf of bread cost $300 billion. The currency was done away with in 2009. The market has stabilized by the U.S. dollar. But Zimbabwes cost of living is still about 60 percent higher than that of neighboring South Africa. BancABC chief economist James Wade says the yuan increases Zimbabwes options. Its not like were forcing people to use the Chinese yuan, he said. we are expanding options that they can use. And, he notes, the context matters. Chinas president made a state visit to Zimbabwe this month, and signed many economic agreements. This included a billion-dollar loan for a thermal power plant. If this action brings in more Chinese investment and more development, Zimbabweans will profit, no matter what currency they use. Im Mary Gotschall. Anita Powell and Sebastian Mhofu reported on this story for VOANews.com. Mary Gotschall adapted this story for Learning English. Kathleen Struck was the editor. What do you think of China's yuan gaining strength in Africa? Let us know what you think in the Comments section below, or on our Facebook page. _____________________________________________________________ Words in This Story construction n. the act or process of building something (such as a house or road) telecommunications n. the technology of sending and receiving signals, images, etc., over long distances by telephone, television, satellite, etc. inflate v. to increase prices, costs, etc., in a way that is not normal or expected collapse v. to fail or stop working suddenly : to break down completely stability n. the quality or state of something that is not easily changed or likely to change loaf n. an amount of bread that has been baked in a long, round, or square shape option n. the opportunity or ability to choose something or to choose between two or more things context n. the situation in which something happens : the group of conditions that exist where and when something happens thermal adj. of, relating to, or caused by heat Birthday wishes Call 281-422-8302 or email sunnews@baytownsun.com to wish someone a happy birthday. We will print your birthday wish on Page 2 of The Sun. Happy Birthday Wishes The purpose of the Little Bethlehem Church is to fulfill the greatest commandment by the Lord Jesus Christ (Mathew 22:37-40 & 28:18-20) to build a church that is beyond the barriers of language, culture, race, denomination, social class - a church that prepares people for the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 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It's the Brazilian tropical samba Brazil's sensational samba The world-wide Brazilian samba Brazil's phenomenal samba! Get in the movement Guys, let's go crazy Let's enjoy this No one can refuse Everyone will sing he-oh Everyone will swing (he-oh) Dancing and swinging, without stopping And when the Sun shines People will get joyful Everyone will dance Life will shine When love conquers you Oh, the Brazilian samba! It's the Brazilian tropical samba Brazil's sensational samba The world-wide Brazilian samba Brazil's phenomenal samba! Brazil, Brazil, Brazil! It's the Brazilian tropical samba Brazil's sensational samba The world-wide Brazilian samba Brazil's phenomenal samba! It's the Brazilian tropical samba Brazil's sensational samba The world-wide Brazilian samba Brazil's phenomenal samba! Pathankot: An IED exploded during the combing operation at the Air Force base in Pathankot even as three security personnel injured in the terror attack by Pakistani terrorists succumbed to injuries, taking the death toll of security men killed in the attack to six. An NSG commando was also killed. While all the four attackers were killed in the day-long gun-battle on Saturday, three security men were also killed in the operation. Three more Defence Security Corps personnel succumbed to injuries in hospital at night, Defence Ministry sources said on Sunday. Nine other security personnel including a Garud Commando are recuperating in hospital. An Improvised Explosive Device planted by the terrorists exploded during the combing operations that continued through the night after heavily-armed Pakistani terrorists attempted to storm the Air Force base on Sunday. A team of NIA took over the probe into the terror attack. "The operation is going on at Air Force Station," SHO Sukhjinder Singh told reporters. The NIA has taken over the probe into the terror attack. Some senior officials of Punjab Police led by DGP Suresh Arora were also present at the base. Entire area has been cordoned off and top officers of several agencies are camping in the station premises to oversee the operation which is jointly being conducted by several security wings including NIA, NSG and Garud. A Punjab Police official said the operation will end only after a thorough search and combing operation is completed. IAF helicopters were also seen flying over the base and nearby areas to assist ground forces in the operations. In the heavy exchange of fire on Saturday, a commando and two other personnel of the IAF were killed along with four attackers. At least, six security men were also injured. A thorough search and combing operation, which was going on inside the IAF base and nearby areas, was under progress and various security agencies, including the Army, Indian Air Force, central forces and Punjab Police were involved. The attackers were believed to have infiltrated from Pakistan and there was speculation that they may belong to Jaish-e-Mohammad. The terrorists, who are said to have infiltrated three days ago, launched the first ever attack on an Indian Air base at around 3.30 am on Saturday, their obvious targets being MiG-21 fighter aircraft and MI-25 attack helicopters. The terrorists were carrying Under Barrel Grenade Launcher (UBGL), 52 mm mortars, AK rifles and GPS machine. Based on intercepts, security agencies believe that one Nazeer from Bahawalpur in Pakistan was leading the group. Defence sources had said that the terrorists sneaked into the nearly 2000-acre air base through a forested area where were confronted by the Quick Reaction Team of Garud commandos. They managed to go up to 400 metres but were still 700 metres away from the area where fighters were stationed. PTI Srinagar: A pre-dawn strike at the Air Force base in Pathankot on Saturday by five terrorists allegedly belonging to Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terror outfit left three soldiers dead, before all the attackers were gunned down. This was the second major attack carried out by JeM in last five weeks in India. On 25 November 2015, like the Pathankot attack, three terrorists belonging to same outfit carried out a similar attack at the break of dawn at a Gorkha Rifles Camp along Kalsuri Ridge in Tangdhar area near the Line of Control (LoC) in north Kashmirs Kupwara district, leaving a military contractor dead before all the attackers were gunned down. The bags recovered from the slain terrorists had the markings of Afzal Guru squad. "They are from Jaish. Afzal Guru squad was written on their bags and the ultras are perhaps trying to use the name of parliament attack convict to drum up support," Lieutenant General Satish Dua, general officer commanding (GoC) 15 Corps, said. JeM formed the Al-Shohada Brigade or Shaheed Afzal Guru Squad following Gurus hanging, an intelligence officer told Firstpost. Guru, a Kashmiri convict in 2001 attack on the parliament, was hanged inside Tihar jail for his alleged role in the deadly terror attack. Afzal Guru Squad carried out the attacks on the same day they enter India, most of them pre-dawn. Noticeable things (sic) is most of these attacks were pre-dawn and suicide attacks meant for high-value targets, the intelligence officer, added. On 5 December 2014, two days ahead of the Prime Ministers visit to Jammu and Kashmir, JeM terrorists stormed an Army camp in Uri town of Baramulla district, killing 11 security personnel, including a Lt Col. This too was a pre-dawn attack by heavily armed militants that left eight army men and three policemen dead. The attack was carried at 3.10 am, six terrorists were also killed in the attack at the army camp, which is 20 km from the LoC. Security agencies later found names of Afzal Guru squad inscribed on the bags of the attackers. When the attackers reached Mohra their GPS device stopped working. They wanted to enter the NHPC base in Mohra, had they been able to enter its high walls it would been a disaster. But they lost their way and found themselves crossing the river and into the army camp, a senior army officer posted in area at that time, told Firstpost. The recent attacks carried out by the outfit have once again raised fear among security agencies about renewed attempts being made by JeM to regroup not just in Kashmir valley, but carry out attack beyond its borders in main land India. The attack on the Air Force base in Pathankot on Saturday brings credence to the worst fears of the security agencies. After the four long hour-long gun battle on Saturday morning, security forces were able to neutralize the terrorists in Pathankot, this, despite an alert by the intelligence agencies about the possibility of a terror attack. Had the security not been on high alert, the causality figures could have been more. Home Minister Rajnath Singh while addressing the media in New Delhi said that he wont rule out the involvement of Jaish-e-Mohammed in Pathankot attack. The case will be probed by the NIA but the possibility of JeM being behind the attack cannot be ruled out, he said. JeM's presence in Kashmir The outfit's presence in Kashmir valley remains low, but if the recent incidents of violence are an indication, the spike signals a fresh push by the outfit to make a comeback in the Kashmir valley. The outfit was on the verge of extinction in Kashmir in mid-2013 when two of its three last surviving commanders were killed in that year, leaving the outfit with a total cadre capacity of eight militants in Kashmir, the lowest since it was formed 13 years ago, according to the Jammu and Kashmir Police. After the loss of two of its most senior commanders in Kashmir, the outfit tried to reinforce its ranks by sending a batch of at least eight militants operating in south Kashmir. Many of them were killed by security forces. JeM, a Pakistan-based militant group, which has been operating in Kashmir valley since 2000, is headed by Maulana Masood Azhar, who was released in exchange for hostages of hijacked IC-814 Indian Airlines plane hijacked by Harkat-ul-Mujahideen. Azhar was arrested in Srinagar in 1994 on terrorism charges. Jaish has been accused for the 13 December, 2001 terrorist attack on Parliament in New Delhi. The outfit was banned by the Indian government under provisions of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) on 25 October, 2001. It was also banned by Pakistan in 2002 during the Pervez Musharraf regime. The outfit carried out the first suicide attack in Kashmir in April 2000 when an 18-year-old Srinagar boy detonated a car-bomb outside the Armys 15 Corps headquarters in Srinagar, killing one person and injuring seven others. It was also for the first time that a militant laced with explosives blew himself up in the conflict-ridden state. The outfit targeted the Army base again in December that year when a suicide bomber, who was later identified as Mohammad Bilal, 24, from Birmingham, England, blew himself up. The group was also involved in several high profile attacks inside and outside Kashmir including the attack on Parliament in New Delhi and the state legislative Assembly. While intelligence official say the outfit has the strength of about seven to eight members in the Valley, after two members of the outfit were killed on 4 October, last year, in an encounter with security forces in Awantipura area of south Kashmir. New Delhi: The terrorists who attacked the IAF base near Pathankot in Punjab failed to destroy the IAF assets due to timely action by security forces, Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi said on Sunday. "Because of early action, the terrorists were unable to move to their likely intended aim but were contained in an area of heavy growth of trees and shrubs," he told the media. He also said that the security forces had sounded an alert in the area, including the Indian Air Force base near Pathankot, ahead of the pre-dawn attack on Saturday. All vital installations and government offices were informed about a likely terror attack and efforts were mounted to track down the terrorists who had earlier killed a taxi driver, he said. He said four terrorists were neutralized on Saturday after hours of fighting. "It was not certain if there were other terrorists or not." But on Sunday morning, it was discovered there were two more terrorists, he said, adding the security forces were battling them. "These two will also be neutralized." According to him, the terrorists killed six IAF personnel and injured eight others. An NSG officer was killed on Sunday morning and five of his colleagues were injured. "Due to the active intelligence inputs and quick action taken by security forces, especially the IAF, we were able to ensure there was no damage to the assets of the air force. "Therefore, the main apparent aim of the terrorists stands defeated." IANS Politics is hotting up in Tamil Nadu as all parties come out of a fairly longish silence on pre-poll alliances. Jayalalithaa is showing up more often but not saying much while the Opposition parties have begun jabbing guardedly. The newly cobbled Peoples Welfare Front (PWF) which has Vaikos MDMK, casteist outfit VCK and CPM and CPI has begun alliance talks with breakaway Congress leader GK Vasan to rope in the Tamil Maanila Congress in an alliance, reports The Hindustan Times. MDMK chief Vaiko and CPM state secretary G Ramakrishnan called on Vasan on Friday and spent nearly an hour with the former Congress leader who left the party last year. The third front will weaken the AIADMK and DMK, the outspoken Vaiko said, adding, PWF intends to replace the corrupt Dravidian parties. The PWF is trying to get DMDK chief Captain Vijayakanth into its fold but the former film star turned politician who is often the subject of super hit Tamil memes has not responded yet. The Hindu reports that the growing clamour for DMDK has strengthened its role well before BJP elders visit the state later this month. Jaya tells cadre to "destroy rivals" Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa said she will finalise the AIADMK strategy for the upcoming Assembly polls at an appropriate time and kept the question marks on pre- poll alliances wide open at an AIADMK huddle in Chennai on Thursday. Jayalalithaa underlined the party's performance in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, in which AIADMK emerged as the third largest party in Parliament. I will take the right decision as per the situation like the way we did in the past. There is no uniform strategy to win elections." she said. The AIADMK party has formed the government in the state six times - three times under the party founder late M.G. Ramachandran and three times under Jayalalithaa, "Parties that were part of the AIADMK alliance in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls were not the partys allies for the 2011 Assembly polls,"Jayalalithaa said referring to the Left parties and Vijayakanths DMDK. Jayalalithaa said her party will form the government in the state for the seventh time. She added that the success of her governments social welfare projects and schemes have helped the state improve its show on social indicators, including in the health and education sectors. She said her government had been successful in bringing about inclusive growth. Citing that Karnataka is reeling under power deficit and facing a drought-like situation, she rejected Oppositions claims that industries were moving to Karnataka. They even had to postpone the entrepreneurs meet to February, she said. She underlined the need to evolve strategies to destroy rivals conspiracies and asked her party workers to use her governments achievements to counter big lies spread by the Opposition. Our rivals will spread false propaganda, but you must explain the truth to the people and remind them of the betrayals of the previous DMK government. You have to tell people about the social welfare measures of our government, she said. Launching an attack on DMK chief M Karunanidhi and his son M K Stalin, she alleged that when the party was in power, it had betrayed Tamils and derailed crucial services including in the power sector. She accused the DMK for its silence on the Sri Lankan Tamils issue while part of the UPA government at the centre. With Agency inputs John Hood, president of the John Locke Foundation. RALEIGH - I've had my disagreements with Duke Energy, both historically and recently . But the company got a bum rap in a new story stumbling its way through media circles: that Duke Energy uses abusive tax loopholes to avoid paying its fair share of federal income taxes. new report by two left-wing groups, Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, scorched Duke and 25 other Fortune 500 companies with substantial reported profits for failing to pay income taxes from 2008 to 2012.My JLF colleagues and I have long favored the elimination of special exclusions and targeted tax credits that benefit politically connected corporations. But such inequitable tax policies are, for the most part, not the explanation for the lack of income-tax liability that Duke and the other companies have experienced in recent years.Instead, these companies reduced their taxable income to zero by taking accelerated depreciation on capital investments they made in plants and equipment. During tough economic times, such as the dot-bomb recession of the late 20th century or the Great Recession of 2007-09, Congress has often resorted to giving companies accelerated depreciation to encourage more up-front investment, which speeds up the associated job creation.This is not some kind of special favor secured by political largesse. When companies spend money to build new plants or buy new equipment, that money is properly considered an expense. It ought to be subtracted from gross income to yield net income, anyway. But government has not traditionally allowed companies to do that, to treat an immediate expense as an immediate expense. Instead, the government requires companies to pretend that they experience that initial cost over the lifetime of the asset - that is, they require companies to use a depreciation schedule to determine how much of the expense is deductible every year.That gives the government the ability to grab taxes immediately rather than having to wait until future years when the profit actually occurs. You can dress this policy up however you like. But it is an abuse of governmental power, not a fair and efficient means of collecting revenue.To accelerate depreciation allowances is to alleviate the abusive practice somewhat. It results in higher levels of investment, which is good for the economy. Indeed, any "tax reform" deal that restores longer depreciation schedules in exchange for lower tax rates is probably not worth making , because getting the tax base right - i.e., net income only - is at least as important as applying a low marginal tax rate to the base. What would be even better for the economy would be to ditch depreciation allowances altogether and allow companies to expense capital investments immediately, when they actually occur, and to carry these deductions forward into future tax years until they are expended.Ah, some might ask, but what about the financing of capital investment? Companies don't just use cash to invest. They often borrow money and pay it back later. Fine. Loans are not income. Companies should be able to deduct from taxable income the amount of capital investment or the debt service on loans they use to finance that capital investment, but not both.There is yet another, more fundamental problem with the assertion that Duke Energy and other companies didn't pay their fair share of income taxes: a company is not a person. Duke Energy is a bundle of contracts among investors, employees, vendors, and consumers. To tax the net income of Duke Energy is actually to tax the incomes of these individuals. Whether you think shareholders bear nearly all of the cost of corporate income taxes as lower returns, or workers bear nearly all of the cost as lower wages, or the proportions among the various groups are roughly the same, you must recognize that the stream of income we label "corporate profit" is subject to multiple layers of taxation.In an ideal world, we wouldn't use corporate taxes to tax individuals in the first place. We'd tax the investment gains of company shareholders, the wages of company workers and vendors, and the wages of consumers who then use their after-tax income to buy the company's wares - and that would be it. No opaque, confusing, cost-inefficient extra layer of " corporate tax " would exist.If you want to criticize Duke's handling of the coal-ash spill or other issues, go right ahead. But criticizing Duke for calculating its taxable income correctly - by writing off as soon as legally permissible its real expenses - is either embarrassingly silly or thoroughly disingenuous. Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has been left red-faced after he referred to a journalist as a "mad f---ing witch", then accidentally sent the text message to the journalist herself. On Sunday night, the minister confirmed he apologised to the journalist after he sent the message, reportedly intended for his embattled colleague Jamie Briggs, who stepped down after acting inappropriately towards a colleague while on an overseas trip. In a newspaper column, journalist Samantha Maiden branded Mr Briggs' behaviour while travelling "dumb as all get out". Maiden criticised the former minister's alcohol intake, and his decision to circulate a photo of the woman who made a confidential complaint about his actions at a Hong Kong bar. CHARLOTTE - There comes a moment in every economic development bubble when reality hits a community like a two-by-four smack to the head. That happened Feb. 3 in Charlotte, when the Charlotte Observer reported that the merger between US Airways and American Airlines will result in US Airways early next year dropping its flight between Charlotte and Rio De Janeiro.It wasn't supposed to be like this. Charlotte Douglas International Airport wasn't supposed to lose a prestigious international route when the two major carriers merged. No, sir, the airlines' management had said that Charlotte would see more flights after the merger.And those additional flights wouldn't just travel to unglamorous places like Moline, Ill., or Ft. Wayne, Ind. - a lot of that growth was supposed to come from international flights, especially to Central and South America, just like Delta Air Lines does through Atlanta. Or at least that's what longtime airport head Jerry Orr had told the city.Obviously, the merging airlines did not agree. And less than two months after the merger became final, they gave the Charlotte-Rio flight the axe. Charlotte-Rio, which US Airways introduced in 2009, isn't even close to being a keeper for the combined carrier. American Airlines flies to Rio from Miami, Dallas, and New York City, so the combined carrier has no need to fly from Charlotte.The loss of the route has a wider significance. If it's so easy to scuttle this route, it's hard to imagine what other nonbeach markets in Central or South America the airline might add from Charlotte in the future. In other words, Orr was very wrong, and the optimism about a key aspect of the city's economic development vision was misplaced as a result.There are several valuable lessons that communities can learn from this fiasco.Businesses involved in mergers have every reason to be selective about telling the truth. Simply put, they're trying to spin the deal as being in the best interest of everyone: shareholders, employees, and communities. That also extends to convincing regulators that a deal would have no adverse antitrust consequences. So it's critical for local government and business leaders not to buy into the hype and carefully examine developments.Unfortunately, here is where many communities fail, and often fail more broadly in setting their economic development policies. The economy is constantly changing, and what worked yesterday may not work today. Many people think they know an industry but really don't - just because you fly a lot doesn't make you an expert on the airline business. A real understanding of what's happening requires more knowledge than that.The situation in Charlotte, unfortunately, is typical in one key aspect. Many economic development disappointments share this feature: Groupthink by the local establishment. In the Queen City, Jerry Orr was regarded as the authority on commercial aviation, and for many years his word was enough for the city's government and business leaders. A tame press played along.That sort of groupthink can happen anywhere. The Randy Parton Theatre debacle in Roanoke Rapids resulted from a group of local officials failing to ask difficult yet obvious questions about the project, the sort of questions that would occur to anyone outside the group and the area. And there have been plenty of transportation projects throughout the state that were supposed to be game-changers but instead turned out to be busts.So always ask questions, challenge assumptions, and read up on what's happening with your local industries. Look at it as a productive use of your downtime while you're changing flights in Charlotte to anywhere but South America. BAY CITY, Mich. A Michigan sugar producer plans to invest $125 million in four of its facilities. The money will be used for capital projects in Michigan Sugar Company plants in Bay City, Caro, Sebewaing and Croswell. About $20 million will go toward the Bay City-based, grower-owned cooperatives agricultural department. Another $57 million will go over the next five years into the Croswell facility in Michigans Thumb Region. The investment will complete operation upgrades at the plant. This will allow us to produce more beets there and use all of our plants at full capacity, Michigan Sugar community and government relations director Ray Van Driessche said. State sugar beet growers enjoyed a record harvest in 2015. Michigan Sugar announced earlier in December that its total 2015 production was roughly 5 million tons, representing a record-setting yield of 31.6 tons an acre. The states sugar beet harvest is processed at the four Michigan Sugar facilities. The products are sold under the Pioneer Sugar and Big Chief sugar brands. The company has about 1,000 sugar beet growers, including Gene Meylan, who farms 375 acres of sugar beets in Kawkawlin. Its more than a good thing, its a necessary thing, Meylan said about the investment in the production plants. Like any business, you have to be proactive and have to have a strategic plan. We always need to be improving and investing. Another grower, Ken Schmidt, said there is some concern about the amount of money being put into the projects. Schmidt farms 500 acres of sugar beets in Kawkawlin. We dont know what the weather is going to be like five years from now, Schmidt said. So, in a sense, were going out on a limb. We do need to repair our factories, but you never know what the future is going to hold. Its more than a good thing, its a necessary thing. Like any business, you have to be proactive and have to have a strategic plan. We always need to be improving and investing. Gene Meylan, Kawkawlin, Mich., sugar beet farmer WAIMEA, Hawaii Not many decades ago, the Goliath sugar industry crashed on the Big Island, helping bring a fundamental shift to what residents consider sustainable. The loss of the cane industry pointed to the weaknesses inherent in big agriculture, but also highlighted new farming possibilities as swathes of land opened up. Small, diverse operations began to flourish from orange and coffee orchards to tomato farms. Meat also began to be farmed in new ways. While fruit and vegetable growers have found ready markets, a lack of inspected meat production facilities made the sale of small-scale, locally produced meat cuts almost impossible. But that could all change now. The day before Dec. 24, Paauilo rancher Mike Amado swung open the doors on a shiny new mobile slaughterhouse being stored at a farm in Waimea. The unit, housed in a 36-foot trailer, is just about ready to roll. Equipped with electric winches and refrigeration, a generator, water supplies for two days and a stainless steel processing room, the unit has almost everything needed to bring the slaughterhouse to the herd instead of the other way around. Five years after island ranchers started talking about why the facility is needed so that meat can become part of the emerging diversified ag model, the Hawaii Island Meat Cooperative is in the process of hiring a general manager to run the mobile slaughter. In January, two head butchers and two assistant butchers will also be trained to operate the unit. Initial production set to begin in April will be limited to USDA-inspected processing of animals into halves and quarters. Some hurdles remain before the unit can offer complete butchering, processing and packaging at three planned sites around the island. For Amado, Kohala farmers Carol and David Fuertes and a lot of others who support the endeavor its about getting back to something thats been lost. The Fuertes family is working up a business plan so that the Hawi farm cooperative Palili O Kohala can be the site of one of the three satellite facilities for processing and packaging meats. The family raises cattle and hogs they would like to process and sell locally. The Fuertes family would also like to open a retail facility where north Hawaii residents would have access to the very best of local beef, mutton, pork or poultry. Many locals hunt and fish, but we cannot buy meat unless its from the big stores, and thats all imported, said Carol Fuertes, who recalled old times when the Hawi and Kapaau area had two local butchers. We want to be able to bring that back, she said. The mobile slaughterhouse will be capable of processing eight to 10 head of cattle per day, 20 to 30 sheep or goats, and 15 to 20 hogs. The cost to the ranchers will be very similar to what they would pay if they took their animals to the islands two inspected slaughterhouses in Paauilo and Hilo. Thats part of a pledge by the co-op that the unit will offer an alternative to existing facilities without trying to undercut them, Amado said. The co-op is also working with Kona Raw Pet Food Co-op, which is interested in buying the non-edible products from the slaughterhouse. Amado says thats just one example of how the endeavor can help the island get back to local food production and distribution rather than being prostrated to mainland corporations even bigger than big sugar. Were trying to get back to that old model of local butcher shops, said Amado. We can take a business like this and knit it back into the community and get back to a more sustainable way of doing business. An initial $250,000 grant from the state Department of Agriculture served as seed money for the unit. Another $100,000 grant this year is helping equip and staff the trailer. An additional modular unit for cutting and wrapping meat will probably cost $200,000, Amado said. The co-op is continuing to seek state funds and would like to base the cut-and-wrap facility at the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority, a good place to publicly showcase the unit and get cheap electricity. The packaging component is critical, Amado said. That need is not lost on Board of Agriculture Chairman Scott Enright, who worked to bring initial funding for the slaughter unit and said the effort can look forward to more assistance from his office in the future. I will be helpful in the near term and will continue to assist with this pilot project, Enright said. The unit offers new opportunities to process a growing sector of specialty livestock that includes goats, sheep and rabbits, Enright said. There isnt a lot of slaughterhouse space in the state, he said. (Small and specialty producers) arent going to be able to get any time in there. Amado said the co-op will be working to drum up its membership and overcome the skepticism that builds in when a project takes years to launch. The group now has about 20 members. While the slaughter unit and new co-op have generated a buzz, potential members have been a little slow in slapping down membership dues. The co-op held two membership drives this fall in Kealakekua and Hilo, where it showed off the new unit. Some 200 people attended. Most of them raised animals for meat in some capacity, or wanted to. Now we just have to turn them into co-op members, Amado said. That is what is going to convince the Dept. of Ag that we have our finger on the pulse of something that is really working and has a lot of public support. Were trying to get back to that old model of local butcher shops. We can take a business like this and knit it back into the community and get back to a more sustainable way of doing business. Mike Amado, Paauilo, Hawaii, rancher LUBBOCK, Texas Dairy producers in West Texas and eastern New Mexico are continuing to assess how many animals died in the winter storm last weekend, but the number will probably climb to more than 30,000, an official with a dairy group said Thursday. Texas Association of Dairymen executive director Darren Turley said an estimated 15,000 mature dairy cows died in the storms primary impact area from Lubbock west to Muleshoe and north to Friona which is home to half of the states top-10 milk producing counties and produces 40 percent of the states milk. An agent with New Mexico State Universitys extension service told Turley the area around Clovis, New Mexico, lost an estimated 20,000 dairy cows. The number of younger animals killed by Winter Storm Goliath in each state could be just as high as the mature cows, he said. There will be less milk coming from the region for a while, Turley said, The snow was just one part of Goliath. It was the wind that led to drifts as high as 14 feet, where many animals died. Wind will push animals into a fenced corner where they can suffocate in snow drifts. Its a once-in-a-lifetime (storm), Turley said. Its a bad deal for producers. The losses will affect production for about year, he said. During the storm dairy employees and tanker trucks from reaching farms. Hundreds of loads of milk ready for processing were wasted. Some cows normally milked twice a day went almost two days without being milked, which dries up the cows milk supply, Turley said. The ripples from that are going to depend on how fast those animals milk production comes back, Turley said. The Texas producers are working with state environmental officials to find ways to dispose of the carcasses. Some counties are allowing producers to put carcasses in their landfills. Andle van der Ploeg, owner of Mid-Frisian Dairy near Clovis, said Thursday that he lost just 10 animals, but feels great sympathy for producers he knows who lost hundreds of milk cows. It was unbelievable, he said. BURLEY The coming year wont be one of the records books in terms of farm profitability, but producers who are watching prices, will likely find deals. Prices dont stay up forever and they dont stay down forever, Ben Eborn, an agricultural economist with the University of Idaho, said. Eborn encouraged producers at the UI Agriculture Outlook to look beyond the challenges of the coming year to identify opportunities to position themselves for the next up cycle. Machinery is one example. While new equipment prices are still high, equipment sales have been sluggish. Tractor sales are down 51 percent this year compared with 2013. New paint syndrome is over, Eborn said. But used paint syndrome may offer opportunities especially since used equipment inventories are high on many dealer lots. There are good deals out there, he said. But dont upgrade unless it improves efficiency and productivity. While machinery purchases are big ticket items, machinery as a category only accounted for 8 percent of major farm expenditures in the U.S. in 2014. Chemicals, fertilizer and seeds made up the largest category at $65.9 billion or 16.6 percent. Eborn thinks producers may be able to find some deals in terms of fertilizer purchases. Lower petroleum prices should translate into cheaper nitrogen costs. Urea, for example, is at its lowest price point in five years. A slow fall application season coupled with lower commodity prices that caused some producers to reduce the amount of fertilizer applied last fall which has led to higher inventories in some regions. Growers might be able to find some deals. Fuel prices will also likely be lower going into 2016, presenting opportunities for producers to contract their spring fuel needs. The world is oversupplied with energy, Eborn said. Retail diesel fuel prices averaged $2.72 per gallon in 2015, with a projected range of $2.35 to $3.15 in the coming year. Retail gasoline prices should be close to the 2015 average of $2.54 per gallon, with a projected range of $2.15 to $2.95. Feed is the second highest production expense for U.S. farms at $63.7 billion, or 16 percent of all farm purchases in 2014. Grain stocks at the highest level in 25 years and an oversupply of feeder quality hay means feed prices are lower than they have been. That should help both dairy producers and feedlot managers as milk and beef prices are expected to fall in 2016 but margins will remain tight. That was the overall message Eborn wanted producers to take into 2016. Even as some input costs fall, commodity prices are projected to weaken setting up another year of tight profit margins. In times when margins are squeezed, producers need to take a very disciplined approach to management. You cant hardly raise hay for what you can buy it, he said. You can buy cheaper (heifer) replacements than you can buy them. Producers need to be sure that what looks like a deal makes good economic sense for the long-term sustainability of the operation. Land costs are a good example. Land prices have not begun to fall in response to lower commodity prices. Overall, farm real estate in Idaho averaged $2,470 per acre in 2015, up 4.7 percent from 2014. Cropland averaged $3,200 per acre, up 5.3 percent from the previous year, while pasture was up 2.5 percent to $1,250 per acre. One of the questions he is beginning to hear farmers ask is whether they should continue to rent unprofitable land. That depends on what you think commodity prices will do, he said. Spreading equipment costs over more acres or holding onto land that adjoins more productive land already owned may make sense. You need to know what breakeven rent is. If holding onto a parcel is important but the rental price must be renegotiated, Eborn recommends finding non-cash ways to provide value to a landlord. What does your landlord expect or need besides a rent check? he asked. Or consider a flexible cash lease. In addition to controlling costs on the input side of the equation, Eborn also recommends watching commodity markets closely. Most market watchers expect to see a great deal of price volatility in 2016, which could provide opportunities to sell at higher than average prices. Get ready to take advantage of the next up cycle, Eborn said. April 14, 1921 - December 30, 2015 Gooding | Alma Patricia (Pat) Schoettger, 94, of Gooding, Idaho passed away peacefully surrounded by family Wednesday, December 30, 2015 at her home in Gooding. Pat was born on April 14, 1921 in Springview, Nebraska to Peter and Francis Cold. She grew up in Ainsworth, Nebraska. She married John Frederick Schoettger on December 26, 1942 in Longpine, Nebraska. They recently celebrated 73 years of marriage. John and Pat moved to Gooding, ID in December of 1948. Pat was a dedicated member of Saint Elizabeth's Catholic Church in Gooding as well as the Catholic Women's League. Pat is survived by her husband, John Frederick Schoettger, her son, Jim Schoettger (Becky). Also surviving are her grandchildren, Lisa Schoettger (Cody Miller) and John Michael Schoettger (Joey), as well as her great-grandson Mason Miller Schoettger. She was preceded in death by her daughter Carol Schoettger. Pat spent her life taking care of others. She cared for her children, her grandchildren, and her mother for a majority of her life. Not to mention all of the friends she helped regularly through her visits with friends, and the strangers she helped through her work at the food pantry, soup kitchen, and church. Pat loved to travel with her husband and Carol. They traveled back to Nebraska every year to visit family until very recently. Lisa and John were fortunate to travel with Pat and John during a few of their adventures. In lieu of flowers, the family encourages donations be made to Hospice Visions, Inc. Pat's family is very appreciative of all the nurses and medical professionals of Hospice Visions, Inc. that cared for Pat. Her life will be celebrated at a Mass on Tuesday, January 5, 2016 at 2:00 p.m. at Saint Elizabeth's Catholic Church in Gooding. Arrangements are under the care and direction of Demaray Funeral Service - Gooding Chapel. Condolences and memories may be shared with the family by visiting the obituary link at www.demarayfuneralservice.com. TWIN FALLS | Barbara Jean Wardell was born May 21, 1926, to Willard F. Wardell and Bertha Van Valkenberg Wardell at Hazelton, Idaho. She was the fifth of five children. She graduated from Hazelton High School in 1944 and later graduated from the University of Idaho June 5, 1950, with a B. S. Degree in Education. On September 7, 1950, Jean reported to Fort Lee, Virginia, and received an appointment as Second Lieutenant in the U. S. Army Reserve to attend the WAC Officer Training Class No. 1. She was one of 47 college graduates selected from over 200 applicants to be in this First Class of directly commissioned officers for the Women's Army Corps. Her Army career of 24 years included positions in personnel and administration at both Army and installation levels and two tours of overseas duty in Germany. Jean retired as a Lieutenant Colonel (Regular Army) in February 1974 at the highest rank then available to women in the military. Her awards and decorations include: Legion of Merit, Meritorious Service Medal, Army Commendation Medal w Oak Leaf Cluster, National Defense Service Medal w Oak Leaf Cluster, and Army Occupation Medal (Germany). Jean mentored many young officers and enlisted personnel. After retirement, Jean lived in Dallas, Texas, and made annual visits to her beloved beautiful Idaho. In October 2015 Jean relocated to assisted living in Twin Falls. She was preceded in death by her parents; one brother (James Wardell); three sisters Mildred (Ted) Pullin, Betty (Jay) Snyder, and Ruth (Dick) Davis; and two nieces Gloria Davis and Valdi (Alex) Balles. She is survived by her nieces and nephews; Troy Mitchell of Filer, Idaho, Judy Tucker of Arizona, Patricia Wiley of Spokane, Washington, Dixie Dennis of Twin Falls, ID, Ruth Ann Qualls of Oakdale, CA, Bill Snyder of Jerome, Idaho, and Don Davis of Pocatello, Idaho; grand nieces and nephews; Kathie Fisher of Filer, Idaho, Marilyn Fisher of Filer, Idaho, Brenda Blood, and Travis Balles of Filer, Idaho. Barbara's life will be celebrated at a funeral service at 11:00 AM Tuesday, January5, 2016 at White Mortuary Chapel at the Park, 136 4th Avenue East in Twin Falls. With Pastor Andrew Paz from the First Baptist Church in Filer, Idaho officiating. Military rites will be conducted by the Magic Valley Honor Guard and the Idaho National Guard. Burial will follow at the Hazelton Cemetery. A visitation for family and friends will take from 6:00 pm until 8:00 PM Monday January 4th at White Mortuary and on Tuesday from 10:00 AM until the time of the service. Condolences may be left at www.whitemortuary.com. March 31, 1932-December 27, 2015 TWIN FALLS | Grace Marilyn Crawford slipped away from us on Sunday, December 27, 2015. Members of her family were present when her heart could no longer keep beating. Born in Patterson, New Jersey in 1932, Grace was the second of three girls to Abraham and Ella Amos. The family moved to Bremerton, Washington in 1943 to work in the shipyards during the war. In 1945, they returned to Twin Falls, Ella's hometown, where Grace resided most of her life. Grace loved the radio stations in Twin Falls where she worked for many years. She wrote 'copy' (the scripts for commercials), and as 'traffic director,' would then schedule these for broadcast. She also worked as a legal secretary for the Commission for the Blind. For several years, she assisted her son, David, with his janitorial service, and she also sat on the Board of the Twin Falls Senior Center, as well as being a Senior Companion until a couple of years ago. When she could no longer manage her 'boat' of a car, a 1985 Crown Victoria that was just as stubborn as she was, Grace knew it was time to give it up and finally retire. She could often be found at the Senior Center and would warm the room with her smile as she greeted those around her. Grace had a genuine love for other people and always wanted to help those in need. She would sing silly songs and had the most joyful spirit. Without fail, the lyrics to Bing Crosby's "Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive" will forever be embedded in her children's hearts. Grace loved the Lord and always held a firm belief in His love and faithfulness, which she shared with the children in her classes as a Sunday School teacher at the Immanuel Lutheran Church. She made a positive impact on her own children's lives as well, with the Crawford household being open to all throughout the years of their youth. Grace's survivors include two sons, David (Tris) Woodhead and Gary (Amanda) Crawford; a daughter, Sarah Crawford; six grandchildren; her sisters, Betty Bobier and Marilyn (Dave) Van Houten, and seven nieces and nephews. Join us as we remember the woman who always wore a smile. A celebration of life will be held at 2:00p.m., Monday, January 4, 2016, at Serenity Funeral Chapel Life Celebration Center, 502 2nd Ave. North, Twin Falls. Services are under the care and direction of Heidi Heil and Serenity Funeral Chapel Life Celebration Center & Cremation Services of Idaho, Twin Falls. Condolences may be shared at www.serenityfuneralchapel.com. PAUL | Penny L. Kindig, age 77, of Paul, went to be with her Lord and Savior on Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2015, at St. Lukes Magic Valley Regional Medical Center in Twin Falls. Penny was born in Hamilton, Montana, the daughter of James Dorman and Ruby (Crandall) Mills. She grew up in California and graduated from Mt. Diablo High School in Concord, Calif. Penny attended Contra Costa Jr. College, where she graduated as a dental assistant. She met her husband and love of her life, Ron Kindig, at Frys Food Store in Concord, where he was the store manager. Penny and Ron were married August 6, 1960, in Concord, Calif., where they settled and raised their two children, Vicki and Dan, for 15 years. Penny supported her husband Ron in their move to Idaho and in the opening of Ron's Market in Paul, Idaho, where she worked hand-in-hand with Ron many long hours. Penny approached the career of her dreams as a Mary Kay consultant, teaching skin-care and make-up design for 32 years. Through her Mary Kay business she made many lifelong friendships. Along with Penny's love and care for the women she came to know through her Mary Kay business, she had a strong passion for her Lord and Savior; she sought to share his word with all. She touched the lives of many and will be missed and remembered by all. Penny is survived by her daughter, Vicki (Gordon) Stewart; son, Dan (Stacey) Kindig; five grandchildren, Kyle (Mindy) Stewart, Emily (Mike) Witkowski, Katie Stewart, Laura (Jesse) Beaver, Kelli Kindig; and six great-grandchildren, Kynli, Shawn, Kyson, and Adley Stewart, Allie Beaver, and Mason Witkowski. She was preceded in death by her husband, Ron; her parents; one grandson, Matthew Stewart; and her brother, Denny Mills. The funeral will be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2016, at the Rasmussen Funeral Home, 1350 E. 16th St., in Burley, with pastor John Ziulkowski officiating. Urn placement will follow at the Paul Cemetery. TWIN FALLS White-nose syndrome has killed more than 6 million bats in eight years, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently tweeted. To track the westward spread of the disease, and to find ways to curb its impact on bat populations, Fish and Wildlife called on agencies throughout the U.S. to study bat health. One of those is the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, which is bracing for the diseases expected arrival in the Gem State. The disease originates with a fungus called Pseudogymnoascus destructans and causes fatal physiologic imbalances. It can kill entire colonies and has wiped out most bats back East, said Ross Winton, a Fish and Game regional wildlife biologist. The fungus colonizes a bats skin, destroying wing membranes. Bats with mild wing damage have increased amounts of dissolved carbon dioxide in their blood, which results in pH imbalances. High potassium, another feature of white-nose syndrome, inhibits normal heart function. Increased arousal has been observed in infected bats during winter hibernation; infected bats use up more energy, depleting fat reserves by the time hibernation ends in the spring. In 2015, Winton echo-located bats in and around the Magic Valley and identified several species, indicating the area is a migratory corridor for bats moving north. Weve got a dozen or so species in Idaho. Winton and other researchers set up acoustic detectors at five locations: Murtaugh, Minidoka National Wildlife Refuge, Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve, Fish Creek and the Jarbidge region. They picked up the calls of bats, which Winton described as high-pitched clicking sounds. Different species hit different ranges and frequencies. Among the species Winton has counted so far: myotis, little brown bat, big brown bat, small-footed myotis, hoary bat, canyon bat, Yuma myotis and Townsends big-eared bat. At each acoustic detector site, the researchers drove slowly along a 25-mile stretch with a microphone attached to the top of a truck. While the acoustic detectors recorded calls, the microphone did the same. Were trying to figure out the most effective way of doing this, Winton said. Wintons work is part of a national study on bat populations. The North American Bat Monitoring Program aims to gauge the health and habits of the continents bat populations, and to find ways to prepare them for the arrival of white-nose syndrome. The disease moves by itself because bats migrate frequently and interact with each other. Though bats in Europe have adapted to the fungus, those in the U.S. have not, Winton said. Since arriving in the northeastern U.S. in 2007, the disease has spread to other states, coming as close to Idaho as Nebraska and Oklahoma. It hasnt yet reached Idaho or any neighboring states, but Winton isnt ruling out an early arrival. Theres always the possibility it can get here faster than we thought, he said. This winter, Winton and his team will visit caves where bats hibernate. There theyll swab the cave interiors to sample the fungi that naturally exist there. Knowing what those fungi look like will help them identify white-nose syndrome if it begins to appear in Idaho. In late 2015, they planned to analyze results from the acoustic detectors and transects to identify species and measure population size and overall health. Despite the threats of wind turbines, insecticides and lessened territories along river corridors, Winton said, bats are doing OK. That is, until the impending arrival of white-nose syndrome. Bats are flying under the radar, so to speak, Winton said. Were trying to get a better understanding of whats going on with bats in Idaho. RALEIGH Many have made the observation that the greatest power the media has is its power to decide not to report something.News stories, in my view, fall on a scale from blockbuster to fluff. If you have to cut, for space or time purposes, you cut from the fluff end of the scale and move up sequentially before you start cutting from the blockbuster end.At least that's what I always was taught by my editor mentors.I've seen big stories ignored for political reasons by the national media many times over the years, but the two most egregious examples have to be the Swift Boat story of 2004 and the Jonathan Gruber story of 2014.I remember, because I kept track, that it took 17 days after the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ran their first ad against Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry for any major mainstream media outlet to mention the story. And then, of course, the story was not that a bunch of guys who served with Kerry thought him "unfit for duty." Instead, the story was an attempt to refute the charges from the Swift Boat guys, charges that the media had never acknowledged until then.Something similar happened just a few weeks ago. Jonathan Gruber, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and one of the guiding forces behind Obamacare, was found to have made some politically explosive statements about Obama's signature legislation. They were documented, inconveniently for Democrats facing midterm election, on videos which had not been circulated widely in the two, three, or four years since they were made.They were discovered by a stay-at-home day trader who had combed through videos of any lengthy and boring conference at which Gruber had been a speaker. He had emailed or sent messages through Twitter or Facebook to many mainstream news outlets, but no one was interested.Not even Fox News responded to his messages. Finally, a conservative activist began posting links to the Gruber videos, and they soon grabbed the attention of conservative bloggers nationwide. Soon, Fox News got on the story.But it took nearly a week for any other mainstream news outlet to acknowledge the story, and, as with the Swift Boat story, it was to rebut, refute, and defend Obamacare and the administration. Democrats who had several years earlier held Gruber up as the savior of American health care suddenly were saying, "Gruber who?"One thing I suppose we can feel good about is that, with all the alternative media out there, the mainstream media couldn't wait 17 days to report the story, as it did in 2004. I guess that's progress. CALDWELL At first glance, CHI Coffee in Caldwell looks like just another place to get a latte, but at this coffee house, each cup serves a higher purpose. Owner Nate Banta opened CHI Coffee as a nonprofit to support the work of Child Help International. The mochas, espressos and drip coffee sold at the shop raise funds for Bantas organization to build childrens homes around the globe. The coffee is also sourced directly from farmers through nonprofits in Honduras, Laos and Uganda. When we buy the coffee to create the drinks here, were helping out those communities as well through those nonprofits, Banta said. At the age of 14, Banta decided that he wanted to devote his life to helping others. He was raised to be a humanitarian, and is now raising his own children that same way. Banta started Child Help International in 2001 when he was a college student in Boise. He had gone with groups to Mexico to help impoverished children and created the organization to fund that work. The goal now is to build childrens homes in 27 countries by 2027. Sales at CHI Coffee will go toward that goal. Right now, its funding two childrens homes that Im heading over to build in January in India, he said. Banta has traveled the world doing work for people in need. That international influence can be seen at the coffee house from the artwork on the walls to the unique spices in his signature drink, the Mombasa Mocha. Bantas travels also gave him an appreciation for coffee, particularly the refined European style that he experienced in Spain and Italy. He came up with the idea for the coffee shop while in Kenya, where he also trained as a barista. The coffee that we used was grown right in our own backyards in Kenya, he said. It gave me the opportunity to visit the farms, to see the cherries growing on the bushes and see the process of creating coffee and learning how to be a barista, as well. Thats where the Mombasa Mocha was born. Banta took the spices from masala tea, which is popular in Kenya, and combined that with macadamia nuts and chocolate. Its the most popular specialty drink at CHI Coffee. Bantas sister, Heather Grever, helps him at the coffee house and brought her experience in the food industry with her. Ive always been in cahoots with my brother and whatever hes doing, she said. So from lemonade stands when we were kids to coffee shops when were older, it always seems to work out with him. Q: I see videos on the internet where people test others honesty. For example I saw one where a person dropped his cell phone to see if the person there would give it back to them or keep it. They recorded the event to show what people did. I would like to know if it would be considered entrapment if the person videoing the event decided to press charges on the people who kept the cell phone? -Taylor A: No, that would not be entrapment because they did not set up the people to fail. The item being dropped did not belong to that person and they had the choice to either leave it alone or get it to the person who dropped it. The people who kept the item knowing that they did not own it could be charged with theft. Theft is stealing from property from another. Picking up and keeping property that one knew did not belong to them is theft by definition. Police use tactics similar to the one you described all the time to catch criminals. Its amazing (not really) that the ones we catch usually have a prior record for theft. If you have watched the show Bait Car, then you know exactly what Im talking about. As far as entrapment itself, there are factors that must play out. A person would have to be induced into committing a crime by law enforcement. In other words and police officer would have to tell somebody to commit the crime and then arrest them for it. An example of this might be an officer handing drugs to a person and then arresting them for it. An officer just putting drugs or something else in a place where a person found them and then took them would not be entrapment as once again the person had the ability to leave the item there or give it to the police. I would recommend though that if its drugs that you find, calling the police to that area would be a much better idea than picking it up and taking it to the police. Finally I would like to mention that having speed limit signs up in areas where drivers think it is too slow is not entrapment either. The choice to drive the speed limit is up to the driver. Running late or ignoring the speed limit sign does not make the police induce drivers to exceed the speed limit and therefore does not make law enforcement entrap drivers to speed. The blame lies with the driver not the officer. Officer down Please put these officers, killed in the line of duty, and their families in your prayers. They fought the good fight, now may they rest in peace. God bless these heroes. Special Agent Adrianna Vorderbruggen, U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations Special Agent Michael Cinco, U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations Special Agent Peter Taub, U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations Special Agent Chester McBride, U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations Have a question for Policemandan? Email your question(s) to policemandan@yahoo.com or look for Ask Policemandan on Facebook and click the like button. Mail to: Box 147, Heyburn, Idaho 83336 TWIN FALLS The state attorney generals office is prosecuting a Jerome woman for defrauding the states Medicaid program of $633.84. Savannah Marie Armstrong, 22, was arraigned Wednesday in Twin Falls County Magistrate Court on felony counts of provider fraud and forgery and a misdemeanor count of petit theft. Armstrong, who was employed by A Caring Hand Home Health Care in Twin Falls, is accused of routinely lying about her hours and the services she provided for an 84-year-old man she was caring for in late 2014, according to court documents filed by Rondee Blessing, the lead deputy attorney general for the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. Armstrong is also accused of forging the signature of the elderly mans wife. She is accused of causing a loss to the states Medicaid program of $633.84 and to A Caring Hand Home Health Care of $407.25, court records said. Her employment by the health care company was terminated Dec. 11, 2014, after she admitted to not working the hours she documented and forging the wifes signature. Armstrongs deceit began in October 2014, the first week she worked with the 84-year-old man, court records said. Armstrong left the mans residence one day that week for what she said was a two-hour work meeting, there was no work meeting and she didnt account for those hours on her time card. Later in October, Armstrong left work at noon but signed her time card saying she was there until 3:30 p.m., court records said. The discrepancies in the time sheet and the actual hours of work were meticulously documented by the 84-year-old mans wife, court documents said. The wife then noticed that Armstrong had forged her signature on the time sheets. This is not my signature, the wife told investigators. Its close, she was good, but its not my signature. The wife noted several more times Armstrong falsified the time card and forged her signature, including several days when she never showed up at all and yet claimed she worked more than six hours, court records said. Investigators found records showing Armstrong was at an oral surgery with her son all day on Nov. 10, 2014, and yet had signed her time sheet claiming to be at work caring for the elderly man from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., court records said. Nov. 19 Armstrong signed a sheet saying she worked six hours, even though she never showed up. Armstrong signed a Dec. 5 time sheet claiming she worked 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. even though she never showed up to work, according to her clients wife, and even though the man had a dentist appointment he was at for several hours that day, court records said. Armstrong is not being held in jail as she awaits a Jan. 8 preliminary hearing. HANSEN The northern goshawks of the South Hills have had to adapt to unique circumstances: dwindling territories and food sources, and the presence of blood parasites. We think of them as locally specialized, said Robert Miller, a research biologist from the Intermountain Bird Observatory at Boise State University. Across the world theyre generalists. Theyre adaptable. In the South Hills, they have a specific use for it. Since 2011, Miller has monitored the species each summer to gain understanding of its ecology in the region. The northern goshawks, raptors in the same family as eagles and hawks, feed on other birds such as robins, grouse and woodpeckers, and on mammals such as tree squirrels. In the Minidoka Ranger District of the Sawtooth National Forest, tree squirrels arent abundant, leaving the goshawks to feed on ground squirrels during breeding season. This is a problem during summers when the squirrels estivate. Northern goshawks usually stick to dense forest habitats throughout North America and Eurasia. But drier forests in the Minidoka Ranger District have forced the birds to adapt, crossing ranges throughout southern Idaho to hunt. Miller said of their territories: My research indicates north-facing slopes that are gentle that are near the lower parts of canopies. Miller and his team of researchers and volunteers found 27 territories in the South Hills, including five previously unknown sites in the Albion Mountains. However, there are areas in the South Hills where small territories of goshawks once existed but now have disappeared, said Miller, who estimated there are 60 to 70 adult goshawks in the Minidoka district. Miller and the Intermountain Bird Observatory also looked at the turnover rate, the period during which goshawks breed in an area before being replaced by other adults. The turnover here is higher than in any other documented study area, which is a big concern for us, Miller said. The high turnover rate in southern Idaho indicates death or abandonment. Miller sighted a female in the Albion Mountains in 2014 and 2015 that was banded by IBO researchers as a nestling in the South Hills in 2012. She left her original territory, breeding in the Albion Mountains for two years in a row. Another cause for concern: Miller and the IBO team found the areas northern goshawks have a blood parasite known as Leucocytozoon. Transmitted by black flies, the parasite can be fatal when combined with conditions such as climate change, limited territory and lessened food supply. It can also cause a fatal loss of blood. Its a load on their immune system, Miller said. We know the infection rate is 100 percent now. Whats next? In June, Miller and his researchers will revisit northern goshawk territories and play broadcasts of their call, set up cameras near nests, analyze blood samples for two other diseases and use other techniques to assess the population. This includes investigating evolutionary changes within the northern goshawks to see how they may have adapted at the genetic level to the region. ALBION Atop Mount Harrison, just west of the lookout tower, is a species of flower that isnt found anywhere else in the world: Castilleja christii. Now a researcher hopes her discovery about the plants origins can lead to its conservation. Known as Christs Indian paintbrush, it belongs to a family of more than 200 herbaceous plant species found from the western U.S. down to the Andes Mountains, and in northern Asia. This species yellowish and orange bracts can be found in nearly 200 acres of Mount Harrisons meadows and in areas where snow melts late in the spring. Its unbranched stems push the plant up to 15 inches tall. A researcher with a masters degree from Boise State University argues that the species should federally protected. Danielle Graham said the C. christii is a globally threatened and endemic species with very limited range. C. christii had been surveyed by the U.S. Forest Service since the mid-1990s, but it was Graham, working on her thesis in 2009-11, who discovered that the plant is a species of hybrid origins. Its not merely a hybrid. This becomes important because hybrids are not protected under the Endangered Species Act at all, she said. Forest Service botanists had been seeing more reddish plants at Mount Harrison, said Jim Smith, a BSU biology professor. To find out what was going on with the paintbrush species, Graham needed a molecular marker that would determine whether a given sample was C. miniata, C. linariifolia, C. christii or a hybrid of any of the three. That marker was a gene called waxy, which showed distinct differences between C. miniata and C. linariifolia, Smith said. Using polymerase chain reaction technology, Graham extracted the DNA of more than 200 plant samples. She used a thermal cycler to raise and lower the temperature of each DNA sample, breaking it up and putting it back together, then adhered a primer that contained specific sequences of the waxy gene. Each sample, in a silica gel, was pulled along an electric gradient. Bands resembling a ladder appeared, revealing the waxy gene in samples of the three species. The messy sequences for the C. christii were what one would expect if the sequences of the other two species were laid on top of each other, Smith said. Graham also examined chromosomes of the three species and found that the C. christii shares two sets of chromosomes one from each of the parent species. She concluded that the plant is its own stable species of hybrid origin. Graham said that C. christii still faces threats from climate changes and unsanctioned off-road vehicle use at Mount Harrison. Now working as a research specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, she said there needs to be more research on the population for conservation efforts. This is the only place in the whole world where this plant grows, Graham said. Global climate change is still a threat, and we dont know how (the C. christii) will be affected. When I was young, my friends and I would support our more improbable factual claims by following them with the words "ask anyone." One of us would make a preposterous statement, another would say it wasn't true, and the response would be something like: "Sure it is. Ask anyone." In time, we would learn that the rules for corroborating assertions were more stringent and that disputable claims required either reasoned argument or reference to a reputable source. Lately, though, I've wondered whether some journalists are relying too much on the "ask anyone" method of citation. Its more sophisticated form appears in a passive-voice clause that includes the word "widely": "widely believed," "widely suspected," "widely thought," "widely considered," and so on. Clearly, there are some beliefs or suspicions that really are shared "widely," and there is nothing wrong with saying so. When a Telegraph reporter writes that Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 is "widely believed to have been shot down by a surface-to-air missile fired by Russian-backed separatists," that's reasonable. The connection can't be documented with finality, not yet anyhow, but almost everybody believes it. Just as often, though, that little word "widely" seems designed to appear to do the work of citation or argument without actually doing it. You can sense the author's thought process: If he writes "U.S.-British relations are thought to be at their most strained in decades," the obvious question is, "Thought by whom?" But if he inserts a "widely," the problem somehow goes away. "U.S.-British relations are widely thought to be at their most strained in decades." Ah, well, if it's "widely" thought, it's probably close to the truth. Consider this passage, from a recent article in the Economist on the trend toward greater college enrollment by women: "Numbers in many of America's elite private colleges are more evenly balanced. It is widely believed that their opaque admissions criteria are relaxed for men." Maybe it's "widely believed" and maybe it isn't - it depends on what "widely" means - but that allegation is a serious one, and it deserves more support than a casual allusion to what's "widely believed." Similarly, an articlepublished on the website of San Francisco's public media outlet KQED explained some Democratic congressional leaders' reluctance to support the Iran deal. "It's widely suspected," we learn, "that many of these elected leaders have been influenced in part by powerful conservative pro-Israeli lobbying groups like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which strongly opposes the agreement." The passive voice, together with the vague qualifiers "many" and "in part" - "it's widely suspected" (who suspects it?) that "many" lawmakers were influenced "in part" by lobbyists - allows the writer to make an unsubstantiated opinion sound like unassailable fact. Sometimes writers attempt to use a "widely" clause to validate an observation but make nonsense of it in the process. From a recent article in the New York Times: "In the early years of the AIDS crisis, it was widely believed that the threat to women via sexual transmission was overblown." But that belief couldn't have been very "widely" held if the threat was over-hyped - right? And again, in an otherwise fine piece on British novelist John Cowper Powys in the Telegraph, we read that "his name remains little known, even though he wrote what are widely thought to be at least three other great novels." If the greatness of those novels is so "widely" appreciated, how can Powys's name remain little known? By far the most insidious use of "widely," however, occurs when the word refers to a manifestly small number of people who nonetheless share the writer's view. Earlier this year, for instance, a writer for the Los Angeles Times began his column by noting that "it is widely held that the dopiest anti-Obamacare lawsuit is King vs. Burwell." And an editor at the New Republic observed that Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, is "widely considered one of the most socially inept candidates." Maybe both these statements are true and I am irritated by them only because, not sharing the writers' political views, I am not included in their uses of "widely." But when the New Yorker, in a highly flattering profile of Secretary of State John Kerry, refers offhandedly to "George W. Bush, who is widely considered the worst President of the modern era," I am pretty sure that that "widely" does not mean what most of us mean when we use it. Surely a "widely considered" opinion must be shared by almost everyone who has an opinion on the subject. In any case, most people do not actually believe George W. Bush to have been the worst president of the modern era. Ask anyone. This appeared in Sundays Washington Post. Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany walks a very narrow tightrope in managing the gravest crisis to hit Europe in years. As more than 1 million refugees from Syria and North Africa streamed into Germany in 2015, Merkel was firm in her resolve to welcome them. It is important not to follow those who, with coldness or even hate in their hearts, want to claim Germanness solely for themselves and exclude others, she said in her year-end address. Merkels instincts have been right, both as a humanitarian response to the tide of misery and as an opportunity to build a stronger Germany. But she faces deep and serious unease in her own political camp over the influx. At the annual conference of the Christian Democratic Union in mid-December, she won a standing ovation with a declaration that we want to and we will palpably reduce the number of refugees, because its in everyones interest. The ruling coalition is discussing measures that could result in a less welcoming policy in 2016, including expedited deportations for those deemed unworthy of asylum and more hurdles for those who have settled in Germany and want to bring family members. Merkel is clearly feeling the heat. In Sweden, too, ardor for the plight of the refugees peaked and cooled. As Post correspondents Griff Witte and Anthony Faiola reported, Sweden was at the forefront of nations welcoming the refugees as waves of people braved the Aegean Sea to reach Europe. Sweden took in more asylum seekers, on a per capita basis, than any other nation on the continent. But now Swedens center-left government is deploying new border controls and slashing benefits to send an unmistakable signal to refugees: Dont come. A Swedish official acknowledged that, despite the nations generosity, Even we have our limits. Europes open-borders Schengen Area has been trampled by the refugee influx, which prompted individual nations to revive internal border controls that had long ago melted away. Despite promises, the European Union has taken little concrete action to gain control of the continents external borders, and it does not seem likely to do so in the near future. Nor does Turkey seem equipped to stem the tide on its own, despite a large aid package from the EU. Its understandable that the sense of lost control has fueled reactionary sentiments, as have the worrisome reports from investigators that at least three of the attackers in the Nov. 13 assault on Paris traveled the same path being taken by refugees. However, Germany, Sweden and all Europe should not succumb to rising xenophobia. As long as the Syrian civil war continues, the refugees will keep coming, and European nations cannot seal themselves off. Nor should the United States, which has been deficient in welcoming refugees from Syria. The only way to truly stop the tide is to stop the war. That should be the focus of European and U.S. policymakers in 2016. As we welcome in a new year, many of us are resolving to lead healthier, happier, more peaceful lives. Allow us to suggest these resolutions for a better 2016: For the Idaho Legislature Its an election year, and state lawmakers are already expecting a short legislative session so those facing spring primaries have ample time to campaign. In its limited time, its also unlikely the Legislature will do much of anything controversial that could jeopardize the re-election of its members. The Legislature should resolve to worry less about campaigning and more about doing the peoples business. That means resisting the go-nowhere, anti-federal government and social bills designed only to drum up the political base before the election. Instead, lawmakers should concentrate on practical legislation, such as fixing the health care gap that leaves 78,000 Idahoans without health insurance and continuing to fund the sweeping education bills passed last year. Lawmakers also have the opportunity to bolster the states feeble stalking laws and restore the health of the Eastern Snake River Plain Aquifer. The session is only a few weeks away; put politics aside and be productive. For Cassia County governments Speaking of good government, public bodies, especially those in Mini-Cassia, should resolve to be transparent and stop breaking open-records and open-meetings laws in 2016. The track record in 2015 was dismal, with both the Cassia County board and Burley City Council admitting to violations. As weve said again and again, public business must be done in public not secret. Anything less is not only illegal but an affront to democracy. For Cassia County and the city of Burley Distrust over a shared law-enforcement deal has all but shattered the trust between Burley and Cassia County, but a committee formed last year to iron out a long term arrangement laid out a path forward. The city and county should resolve in 2016 to adopt the policies outlined by the group. Its true the committee also appears to have violated open-meetings laws, but the groups findings are still sound. By adopting the committees suggestions, the city and county could show voters that a relationship is still viable, and it could open the door to more much-needed collaboration, especially over a proposed regional airport. For economic development groups The Southern Idaho Economic Development Organization the areas largest and most influential economic development group is searching for a new leader. Let it resolve to hire an aggressive director. The group has been instrumental in driving unprecedented growth in the Magic Valley, and it needs a proven leader who can not only keep the ball rolling but land the kinds of bold and innovative projects that sparked the boom. For the Cassia County School District The year 2015 was tumultuous for the Cassia County School District, to say the least. A favorite target of the American Civil Liberties Union over allegedly discriminatory policies, the districts real troubles rest with voters over a botched construction bond passed in the spring. Astoundingly, the district realized this fall that it is $15 million short of the money it needs to deliver the new and updated schools it promised voters. Let the district resolve in 2016 to pass a new bond, and to do it right. It will take a miracle to restore the publics trust after the shortfall fiasco, but the district owes it to its students to deliver the schools it promised. For water users House Speaker Scott Bedke brokered a landmark water deal last summer that promises to help restore the health of the Eastern Snake River Plain Aquifer. And its going to require some major concessions from groundwater pumpers. Lawyers from surface and groundwater groups are still reviewing the terms of the deal, but it appears the arrangement is all but finalized. Let the groups resolve in 2016 to see the deal through. Nearly everyone involved says the arrangement is epic, perhaps the biggest water compromise since the Swan Falls Agreement. With water levels in the aquifer at their lowest in 100 years, the economic prosperity of the region and perhaps the state is at stake. For Magic Valley residents Last year brought out the best in some residents and the absolute worst in others as the region debated the College of Southern Idaho Refugee Center. Fears the program could be unknowingly relocating potential terrorists in the Magic Valley sparked ugly rhetoric about Muslims. Let us all resolve in 2016 to be more compassionate and rational. Of all the resolutions we can make, this one above all has the potential to make us a better community. I am a lawyer. I am proud to be a lawyer. I like my job as a lawyer. I like lawyer jokes, because the legal community has earned them. I do not like the box the liberal legal profession has created. In Texas, a boy brings a homemade clock to school. A teacher saw it, thought it was a bomb, and notified the authorities. Law enforcement placed the child in custody, until they could examine the clock and determine that it was not a bomb, but was, in fact, a clock. The parents contact their attorneys, and are now suing both the city and the School District requesting approximately $15 Million dollars for the trauma that the child suffered during this event. Contrast this event with the shooting in San Bernardino. One of the terrorists' neighbors stated that they saw suspicious activity, and now wished they had notified authorities. However, the neighbor was afraid that they would be deemed racist, or a bigot, if they had. What we have, and what I disagree with, is that the liberal lawyers have now promoted political correctness into a financial liability. Had that neighbor reported the terrorist to authorities and had the authorities been able to investigate, perhaps the shooting would not have taken place. On the other hand, if the neighbor made the referral to authorities and the activity was determined to be innocent, the neighbor could have been sued for racial profiling. We are now tasked with the requirement of being politically correct or right 100% of the time, or facing severe financial penalties and condemnation as a bigot or racist. I am proud to be a lawyer. However, sometimes, when lawyers seem to reach too far, I feel just a little less proud. M. Lynn Dunlap Twin Falls DURHAM Whether U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan's keynote address at N.C. Central University's 125th commencement ceremony illustrated what is wrong with the liberal stranglehold on higher education, or properly embraces an emerging social paradigm, likely depends on your own politics.Duncan told the 660 graduates.said Duncan, a senior member of President Obama's cabinet who was forged in the smelter of Chicago politics.he said.To achieve the leftist grail of interconnectedness, Duncan believes, colleges and universities must transform students into "change-makers," which, he said, isIn other words, regardless of the hyperinflated costs one pays to obtain a degree that is an official representation of a high level of education, learning is now to universities what longhand letter writing is to Information Age communication a nice-to-know but subordinate pursuit.Instead, Duncan directs our attention to a shiny new bauble with certain appeal for those susceptible to that ephemeral touchstone of liberal orthodoxy by which the heart screams "WE MUST DO SOMETHING, ANYTHING, NOW!"Of course, when tidal sensitivities of the collective hold sway over the head in government policy, it often results in disastrous economic and policy outcomes in the guise of a solution.Now, one might forgive Duncan for straying into leftist social theory about doing good for our fellow man by metamorphosing into a social entrepreneur. After all, it was a graduation speech.Commencement is a time to gush hyperbole and bathe celebratory graduates in warm-fuzzies, to nudge them from one last, cozy moment in the Ivory Tower nest into a real world. But most people understand in that world that fertile flights of idealism are no substitute for critical thinking and analysis.To be fair, Duncan's remarks were inspired by his stated admiration for Our Kids, the latest book by Robert Putnam, a public policy professor of the communitarian persuasion at Harvard University whose previous tome, Bowling Alone, was a best-seller.It was interesting, perhaps coincidental, that Duncan chose a book titled Our Kids from which to bracket much of his commencement message, and echo the thought.he told assembled friends and families of the graduates,I don't know about you, but I find it creepy and foreboding when bureaucrats, especially a federal cabinet official, assert equal rights of ownership and parenting to my progeny. Whether they are dangerously misguided in their intentions or convinced that the power of government has a rightful seat at my table, overreach is inevitable.Given the help I've had as a single father, I am deeply grateful to have had a support network lend valuable assistance over these last 19 years.But mutually agreeable and negotiated acts of kindness with individuals of my choosing are a social compact far different from turning child-rearing responsibilities over to an authoritarian village, the village idiots, or, especially, the state.Elsewhere in his speech, Duncan expressed alarm over growing gaps in income, opportunity, and achievement. Those, he believes, create class segregation that numbs the haves to a sense of empathy for the have-nots. Naturally, he envisions a government role to reverse that.Yet nowhere in his speech did Duncan discuss the lack of personal responsibility or generational welfare self-esteem gaps that lure and trap many of the able-bodied have-nots.He did not mention failing public schools, lack of school choice in devastated inner cities, or protectionist unions that preserve the jobs of crummy teachers and condemn entire communities to the ills he asks social entrepreneurs to remedy.Nor, understandably, did he broach costly and fruitless central government planning and policies under a federal department that should be eradicated rather than allowed to continue to hold local and state tax dollars hostage to coerce states into adopting uniform, often politicized, programs and regulations.I agree with Duncan, and it is consistent with my Christian beliefs, that it is of social value to be a servant, to be our brother's keeper, that to whom much is given much is required.Where we would diverge is in the notion that it is the business of government schools to accrue the power to dictate to a captive audience the terms of that commitment. The previous poll on Eastern NC NOW showcased what are many of OUR Constitutional Republic's certain obstacles to remain viable, where the top encumbrance to that continuance as a functioning Republic was the Biden /Harris Wide Open Southern Border. Understanding this overwhelming concern to real America citizens: Do you believe it important to challenge the veracity of those legislated concerns of Democratic Socialists by transporting Illegal Migrants to their Sanctuary cities, counties and states for their direct care? Yes; test the depth of their sense of well being by giving Democratic Socialists an opportunity to enact all Sanctuary provisions in their communities to test how much they truly do care. No; the Biden /Harris Wide Open Southern Border Project is designed to only inundate "Red States" to begin their Demographic Upheaval for the benefit of we Democratic Socialists, our politics. About Me Mohd. Kamal bin Abdullah I am Mohd. Kamal bin Abdullah, who resides in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. I hold a post-graduate law degree from the United Kingdom. I blog to tell MALAYSIANS THE TRUTH. View my complete profile Blog Archive Your RSS feed from RSSFWD.com. Update your RSS... Admiral Jonathan Greenert inspects Indian navy guard of honour ( Image credits- Flickr / United States Navy) Many analysts believe that the international system is sliding towards multipolarity, a world in which no single great power is in a position to dominate its peers. But among those who subscribe to this view, there is some debate over just how the coming multipolar order will operate. Will great powers work together to uphold order? Will they instead descend into military and economic competition with one another? Or can planet Earth support multiple world orders, co-existent yet separate, each under the sway of a particular great power? There are no iron-clad answers to these questions. Yet current geopolitics does, perhaps, allow for a glimpse into the future. In particular, the international politics of the Indian Ocean can be considered something of a microcosm of multipolarity in the twenty-first century. For this regionwhat Robert Kaplan calls center stage in the contest for the next world orderis critical to both world trade and global security, and so how the great powers conduct their affairs here promises to say some important things about how they will organize their relations more generally. Up until the mid-twentieth century, the Indian Ocean was the practical preserve of the British Empire. Almost all of the major cities and strategic ports along the oceans littoral were under British rule or influence: Durban, Zanzibar and Mombasa along the east coast of Africa; Aden and Muscat on the Arabian Peninsula; Bombay and Calcutta on either side of the Indian subcontinent; Perth in Western Australia. The Royal Navy controlled access to the Indian Ocean from Suez, Singapore and Cape Town, and the Union Flag flew over most of the oceans major islands: Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Mauritius, the Chagos, Seychelles, Maldives, Andaman and Nicobar. After World War II, one hegemonic power was exchanged for another as the United States slowly but surely became dominant in the Indian Ocean. To be sure, the British withdrawal from the region was piecemeal; decolonizationand especially the independence of India in 1947removed much of the strategic rationale for Britains presence in the Indian Ocean, but the nation was slow to draw down its commitments. It was only in the late 1960s that Prime Minister Harold Wilson announced that Britain would withdraw East of Aden, thus beginning the terminal decline of Britains bases in South Asia and the Persian Gulf. Either way, the United States had firmly replaced Britain as the regions preeminent power by the mid-1970s. The western half of the Indian Ocean, in particular, became enclosed by a string of U.S. bases such as those in Bahrain, the Horn of Africa and the British-controlled island of Diego Garcia, while the oceans eastern expanses were drawn into Pax Americana by virtue of Washingtons defensive ties with Singapore, Australia, Thailand and its Pacific bases in Guam and the Philippines. Despite close relations (at times) with littoral states such as Ethiopia and Somalia, the Soviet Union never came close to rivalling this massive geostrategic footprint. Today, centuries of relative unipolarity are giving way to noticeable multipolarity. Indias announcement of a base in the Seychelles is another important step in this directiona sign that New Delhi is doubling down on its blue water navy and attendant power-projection capabilities. From the Seychellois island of Assumption, which is already equipped with an airstrip, the Indian militaryeven if it is limited by geography to maintaining only a tiny military presencewill boast a central position in the Western Indian Ocean, close to the East African coastline and astride the important maritime trade route that runs from the Mozambique Channel to the Arabian Sea. It is not just India that is beefing up its presence in the region, of course. Late last year, China announced the creation of its first permanent overseas base in Djibouti at the mouth of the Red Sea, and Beijing continues to expand its naval capabilities (most recently by announcing the construction of its first Chinese-made aircraft carrier). With the United States also present in Djiboutias well as Bahrain, Diego Garcia and elsewherethis means that at least three of the great powers are demonstrably seeking to expand their military reach in the Indian Ocean. And middle powers such as Britain and France also boast considerable military assets in the wider region. Of course, the U.S. navy is still far superior to its potential competitors and Americas overseas basing system continues to be unsurpassed. Moreover, no other power can compete the number and quality of Washingtons military alliances in the Indian Ocean or elsewhere. But with the United States, China and India all boasting overseas nascent basing structures in the oceanand with Americas rivals looking to improve their own portfolios of alliances and client statesthe outline of a coming multipolar world is clear to see. What will be the result? International Relations theory helps to delineate three scenarios that might play out. First, the great powers could cooperate to combat piracy, maintain geopolitical stability, and keep sea lanes open. This is the hope of liberal academicians, who see few conflicts of interest between the various powers in terms of their vision for the oceans future; on the contrary, a common stake in policing the commons should provide great impetus to maintaining regional stability. Second, however, the Indian Ocean could become the focus of great power competition and even outright conflict, as distrust and divergent interests push states to shun collaboration. This is the pessimistic prediction of most realist scholars. But third, the Indian Ocean could become the scene of a new sort of world orderor, to put it more accurately, world ordersas rival great powers go about organizing their own spheres of influence that exist discretely and distinctly with one anothers. Such a world was outlined by Charles Kupchan in his book, No Ones World, in which the author argued that the coming international system will be characterized by decentralization, pluralism, and co-existence. Which of these outcomes is most likely to obtain? Last year, one Indian official called for the resurrection of an idea from the 1970s that the Indian Ocean should be transformed into a zone of peace, lending rhetorical support for the first (or perhaps the third) of the scenarios outlined above. And to be sure, there has been some evidence of international cooperation in response to piracy off the Horn of Africa. But facts on the ground seem to point in the direction of more, not less, militarizationincluding as a result of Indias actionswith the potential for competition and thus conflict thus mounting. In the final analysis, the future of the Indian Ocean seems bound to be fraught because the stakes are so high. Around 2.5 billion people live in the oceans littoral states, making it an important economic hub. And with so much of the worlds commercial traffic passing through the ocean, influence over its sea lanes and choke pointsthe Strait of Hormuz, Gulf of Aden, Suez Canal and Strait of Malaccais an important geostrategic aim for maritime nations. Moreover, freedom of manoeuvre in the Indian Ocean is imperative for states that aspire to the military capacity to intervene in geopolitical hotspots such as the Persian Gulf and even the South China Sea. Whatever the form of international governance that emerges in the Indian Ocean, then, it will have to accommodate the reality that several great powers have vital interests in the region. Come conflict or cooperation, political order in the Indian Ocean will have to be multipolar in characterif, indeed, it is not already. The prospects for peace and harmonious cooperation under such circumstances are not altogether bleak, but they are not endlessly auspicious either. In many ways, twenty-first century geopolitics begins here. @ipeterharris . Peter Harris is an assistant professor of political science at Colorado State University. You can follow him on Twitter: THE NATIONAL INTEREST ( ALL RIGHTS RESERVED) Your digital subscription includes access to content from all our websites in your region. Access unlimited news content and The Canberra Times app. Premium subscribers also enjoy interactive puzzles and access to the digital version of our print edition - Today's Paper. Italian health authorities on Sunday ordered investigations after five women died in childbirth in seven days, shocking a nation with one of the lowest maternal mortality rates in the world. The deaths occurred across the country between December 25 and 31. While all appear to have explicable causes, their concentration over the holiday period has raised questions over whether hospital staffing may have been a factor and also over whether older mothers-to-be are being sufficiently monitored for warning signs of potentially fatal conditions. In the latest case, Giovanna Lazzari, 29, already a mother of two who was eight months pregnant, died on New Year's Eve in Brescia, northern Italy, a day after coming to an emergency unit with a high fever and symptoms of gastroenteritis, according to her partner Roberto Coppini. As her condition deteriorated, doctors attempted an emergency Cesarean but were unable to save either the mother or the foetus. "In a few hours, I lost a baby and a unique mamma. Someone has to tell me what happened," Coppini told reporters. "Giovanna sent me a text message during the night in which she told me she had very strong pains but that the doctors were not paying any attention to her. "She would have been 30 on January 1. She was young and healthy." Ezio Belleri, the hospital's director general, said an initial review of Lazzari's treatment had not found any indication of errors. "The doctors did everything that could be done," he said. "Up to now, nothing indicates that any errors were made." Belleri said the cause of death had been septic shock brought on by haemorrhaging that was likely the result of an unpredictably rapid spread of a very strong bacterial infection. Health minister Beatrice Lorenzin has dispatched experts to establish what happened in Brescia and three of the other four fatal cases. Their first report is due Monday. "We have to understand if the recommended procedures were followed or if there were organisational deficiencies," Lorenzin said. "The priority is identifying any errors and preventing other tragedies." In two of the other cases, both of which resulted in still births, the mothers, aged 35 and 39, suffered cardiac arrest during labour, according to reports. Anna Massignan, a 34-year-old doctor from Lonigo, near Vicenza who died on Christmas Day, succumbed after an emergency Cesarean eight months into her pregnancy, reportedly following a fall at home. Her son was delivered alive but died several hours later. The one case not being investigated concerned a 23-year-old from Foggia in southern Italy who was approaching her due date and died suddenly at home. Doctors were able to perform a post-mortem Cesarean and save her daughter. 'Obsolete procedures' A leading gynaecologist said some of the victims may have paid the price for inadequate screening for the risk of thrombosis or heart problems emerging during the latter stages of pregnancy. "With preventative checks we could save so many women in the delivery room," said Rosalba Paesano, Professor of Gynaecological Science at Rome's La Sapienza university. "But the health ministry does not say they are required, in reality because they cost too much. The procedures we have in place are obsolete," Paesano told La Repubblica. Consumer group Codacons said it would be filing requests on Monday for prosecutors to look into whether regional authorities and the health ministry had been negligent in their instructions to hospitals regarding screening measures and preventative treatment. Antonio Starita, medical director at Rome's San Camillo hospital, told La Stampa: "The one figure that stands out is that 35 percent of pregnancies in Italy involve women over 35 and, at this age, the maternal mortality risk doubles." Starita said blocks on new hires in parts of the health system could be creating staff shortages, particularly amongst midwives assigned to home visits who could pick up early warning signs of problems in a pregnancy. According to World Bank figures, Italy has had an average of four maternal deaths in pregnancy per 100,000 live births since 2004, one of the ten lowest mortality rates in the world. Explore further Maternal suicides more could be prevented 2016 AFP WHAT HAPPENED TO THE DEMOCRAT PARTY? I can no longer remain in todays Demo Party that is now under the control of an elitist cabal of warmongers driven by cowardly wokeness, who divide us by racializing every issue and stoke anti-white racism, actively undermine our freedoms, are hostile to people of faith, demonize the police and protect criminals at the expense of law-abiding Americans, believe in open borders, weaponize the national security state to go after opponents.TULSI GABBARD "To see a World in a Grain of Sand And a Heaven in a Wild Flower, Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand And Eternity in an hour.... We can together make the world a better and safe place to live in We need to be honest with our souls' conscience and strive hard to always do the right things. Make good laws and respect them!! Ive been gone a while from the blogging scene. Some of my more regular readers no doubt noticed but did not hassle me about it. Thank you for that. Sinc... 6 years ago @MrMikeVasquez Emblazoned with a glittering skyline and the Miami Dade College logo, the OneCard debit card has long been the way most MDC students receive their financial aid refunds the money left over from Pell grants and loans after tuition has been paid. Your refunds are easier with the new MDC OneCard, says the promotional material. Higher One, a campus card company, has been at MDC since 2006. But for students who didnt read the fine print, the MDC OneCard was a minefield of unusual and critics say predatory account fees. Choosing the debit option when paying at a merchant? That carried a 50-cent-per-transaction fee. Withdrawing cash at a non-Higher One ATM? $2.50 per withdrawal (on top of the fee charged by the ATM machine). Havent used your card in six months? Get ready for an Abandoned Account Fee of up to $10 per month. It bothered me, said MDC student Yanara Justo, 27, of Westchester. Because that was my money, and I was getting charged just to use debit, Ive never been charged that. Over the past three years, Justo said, she has been charged the debit fee about 40 times. Connecticut-based Higher One says students can avoid this transaction fee by choosing the credit option when swiping their card its accepted as a MasterCard that way. But Higher Ones customers are college students, who might be as young as 18 years old, and who might have little experience with banking in general. Last month, just two days before Christmas, a pair of federal agencies announced that Higher Ones methods were improper, and the company would have to pay. The Federal Reserve, which acts as the nations central bank, ordered Higher One to pay back roughly $24 million to students at schools nationwide, including Miami Dade College. About 570,000 U.S. students in total will receive money, which the Federal Reserve called restitution for Higher Ones deceptive marketing practices. That same day, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) announced a settlement forcing Higher One to pay back $31 million to about 900,000 students. A bank that Higher One partnered with, Utahs WEX Bank, is also on the hook for the $31 million. The feds say Higher Ones misleading practices included prominent use of school logos, which suggested to students the accounts were endorsed by their school; Higher Ones failure to properly disclose its fees and Higher Ones failure to fully inform students of alternative ways they could receive their financial aid (such as direct deposit into their personal checking account, or simply getting a check mailed to them). 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(AP) A peaceful protest Saturday in support of an eastern Oregon ranching family facing jail time for arson was followed shortly afterward by an occupation of a building at a national wildlife refuge. Ammon Bundy, the son of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who was involved in a standoff with the government over grazing rights, told The Oregonian he and two of his brothers were among a group of dozens of people occupying the headquarters of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. "We're planning on staying here for years, absolutely," Ammon Bundy said. "This is not a decision we've made at the last minute." Beth Anne Steele, an FBI spokeswoman in Portland, told The Associated Press the agency was aware of the situation at the national wildlife refuge. She made no further comment. Some local residents feared the Saturday rally would involve more than speeches, flags and marching. But the only real additions to that list seemed to be songs, flowers and pennies. As marchers reached the courthouse, they tossed hundreds of pennies at the locked door. Their message: civilians were buying back their government. After the march passed, two girls swooped in to scavenge the pennies. A few blocks away, Hammond and his wife Susan greeted marchers, who planted flower bouquets in the snow. They sang some songs, Hammond said a few words, and the protesters marched back to their cars. Dwight Hammond has said he and his son plan to peacefully report to prison Jan. 4 as ordered by the judge. Dwight Hammond, 73, and Steven Hammond, 46, said they lit the fires in 2001 and 2006 to reduce the growth of invasive plants and protect their property from wildfires. The two were convicted of the arsons three years ago and served time the father three months, the son one year. But a judge ruled their terms were too short under federal law and ordered them back to prison for about four years each. The decision has generated controversy in a remote part of the state. In particular, the Hammonds' new sentences touched a nerve with far right groups who repudiate federal authority. Ammon Bundy and a handful of militiamen from other states arrived last month in Burns, some 60 miles from the Hammond ranch. In an email to supporters, Ammon Bundy criticized the U.S. government for a failed legal process. ************** Published on by Common Dreams Media Coverage of Oregon Militia Standoff Raises Eyebrows and Ire Despite the extreme nature of the demonstration, both media and law enforcement response appears muted, especially in comparison to other recent protests by Deirdre Fulton, staff writer The Oregonian The occupationprotesting the prosecution of two Oregon ranchers, Dwight Hammond Jr. and Steven Hammond, who are to report to prison on Monday for arsonfollowed a march through the town of Burns. According to The Oregonian: In phone interviews from inside the occupied building Saturday night, Ammon Bundy and his brother, Ryan Bundy, said they are not looking to hurt anyone. But they would not rule out violence if police tried to remove them, they said. "The facility has been the tool to do all the tyranny that has been placed upon the Hammonds," Ammon Bundy said. But despite the extreme nature of the demonstration, both media and law enforcement response appears muted, according to critics on social media and beyond. This isn't the first time the Bundys have seemingly benefited from such a double standard. In November 2015, watchdog site Media Matters Media Matters' Olivia Kittel wrote: Recall when Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy faced off with the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) over his refusal to pay grazing fees for his cattle's use of public lands in April 2014; he threatened violence and incited protests -- which included armed militia supporters -- to resist BLM efforts to collect on his debt. Fox News rocketed Bundy to conservative folk-hero status, lauding the rancher with the network's support even as numerous media reports described Bundy supporters pointing guns at federal law enforcement. BLM was even forced to suspend its operations when protesters -- some of them armed -- marched toward where BLM had impounded Bundy's cattle. Fox personalities praised Bundy supporters as "good, hardworking Americans," "law-abiding American citizens," and "patriotic Americans," and one Fox host, Clayton Morris, sanitized the interactions between Bundy supporters and law enforcement, claiming, "Suddenly people are there protesting peacefully, arguing against government intervention here ... and all of these police and folks roll in with guns and sniper rifles pointing at them." Critics highlighted the hypocrisy on Twitter with the hashtag #OregonUnderAttack: ************* After members of a rightwing militiamany armed with assault riflesseized the headquarters of a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon on Saturday afternoon, observers questioned the corporate media's treatment of the event, pointing to a double standard in coverage compared to other recent protests.The Oregonian reported Saturday that Ammon Bundy, the son of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who was the leader of a notorious standoff over cattle grazing rights last year, had "joined with hard-core militiamen Saturday to take over the headquarters of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, vowing to occupy the remote federal outpost 30 miles southeast of Burns for years."The occupationprotesting the prosecution of two Oregon ranchers, Dwight Hammond Jr. and Steven Hammond, who are to report to prison on Monday for arsonfollowed a march through the town of Burns.According to The Oregonian:But despite the extreme nature of the demonstration, both media and law enforcement response appears muted, according to critics on social media and beyond.This isn't the first time the Bundys have seemingly benefited from such a double standard.In November 2015, watchdog site Media Matters pointed out that while Fox's coverage of campus protests against racial discrimination wasat bestdismissive, its reporting "looked drastically different when those protesting have aligned with the network's conservative agenda."Media Matters' Olivia Kittel wrote:Critics highlighted the hypocrisy on Twitter with the hashtag #OregonUnderAttack:************* Militia takes over Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters by Les Zaitz The Oregonian http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2016/01/drama_in_burns_ends_with_quiet.html#incart_big-photo 1/2/16 We went to the local communities and presented it many times and to many different people," he said. "They were not strong enough to make the stand. So many individuals across the United States and in Oregon are making this stand. We hope they will grab onto this and realize that it's been happening." Bundy posted a video on his Facebook page asking for people to come help him. Below the video is this statement: "**ALL PATRIOTS ITS TIME TO STAND UP NOT STAND DOWN!!! WE NEED YOUR HELP!!! COME PREPARED."Ammon Bundy said the group planned to stay at the refuge indefinitely.An Idaho militia leader who helped organize the earlier march said he knew nothing about activities after a parade of militia members and local residents in Burns walked past the sheriff's office and the home of Dwight Hammond Jr. and his son Steven.After the peaceful rally was completed today, a group of outside militants drove to the Malheur Wildlife Refuge, where they seized and occupied the refuge headquarters. A collective effort from multiple agencies is currently working on a solution. For the time being please stay away from that area. More information will be provided as it becomes available. Please maintain a peaceful and united front and allow us to work through this situation."The Bundy family of Nevada joined with hard-core militiamen Saturday to take over the headquarters of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, vowing to occupy the remote federal outpost 30 miles southeast of Burns for years.The occupation came shortly after an estimated 300 marchers militia and local citizens both paraded through Burns to protest the prosecution of two Harney County ranchers, Dwight Hammond Jr. and Steven Hammond, who are to report to prison on Monday.Among the occupiers is Ammon Bundy, son of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, and two of his brothers. Militia members at the refuge claimed they had as many as 100 supporters with them. The refuge, federal property managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, was closed and unoccupied for the holiday weekend.In phone interviews from inside the occupied building Saturday night, Ammon Bundy and his brother, Ryan Bundy, said they are not looking to hurt anyone. But they would not rule out violence if police tried to remove them, they said."The facility has been the tool to do all the tyranny that has been placed upon the Hammonds," Ammon Bundy said."We're planning on staying here for years, absolutely," he added. "This is not a decision we've made at the last minute."Neither man would say how many people are in the building or whether they are armed. Ryan Bundy said there were no hostages, but the group is demanding that the Hammonds be released and the federal government relinquish control of the Malheur National Forest.He said many would be willing to fight and die, if necessary to defend what they see as constitutionally protected rights for states, counties and individuals to manage local lands."The best possible outcome is that the ranchers that have been kicked out of the area, then they will come back and reclaim their land, and the wildlife refuge will be shut down forever and the federal government will relinquish such control," he said. "What we're doing is not rebellious. What we're doing is in accordance with the Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land."Government sources told The Oregonian/OregonLive that the militia also was planning to occupy a closed wildland fire station near the town of Frenchglen. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management posts crews there during the fire season.Law enforcement officials so far have not commented on the situation. Oregon State Police, the Harney County Sheriff's Office and the FBI were involved.Ammon Bundy posted a video on his Facebook page calling on patriots from across the country to report to the refuge with their weapons.The dramatic turn came after other militia groups had tried to dampen community concerns they meant trouble.Brandon Curtiss, a militia leader from Idaho, told The Oregonian/OregonLive he knew nothing about the occupation. He helped organize Saturday's protest and was at the Harney County Fairgrounds with dozens of other militia for a post-parade function. Another militia leader, BJ Soper, took to Facebook to denounce the occupation.The occupation is being led by hard-core militia who adopted the Hammond cause as their own.Ammon Bundy met with Dwight Hammond and his wife in November, seeking a way to keep the elderly rancher from having to surrender for prison. The Hammonds professed through their attorneys that they had no interest in ignoring the order to report for prison.Ammon Bundy said the goal is to turn over federal land to local ranchers, loggers and miners. He said he met with 10 or so residents in Burns on Friday to try to recruit them, but they declined.Among those joining Bundy in the occupation are Ryan Payne, U.S. Army veteran, and Blaine Cooper. Payne has claimed to have helped organize militia snipers to target federal agents in a standoff last year in Nevada. He told one news organization the federal agents would have been killed had they made the wrong move.He has been a steady presence in Burns in recent weeks, questioning people who were critical of the militia's presence. He typically had a holstered sidearm as he moved around the community.At a community meeting in Burns Friday, Payne disavowed any ill intent."The agenda is to uphold the Constitution. That's all," he said.Cooper, another militia leader, said at that meeting he participated in the Bundy standoff in Nevada."I went there to defend Cliven with my life," Cooper said.Ian K. Kullgren of The Oregonian/OregonLive contributed to this report.-- Les Zaitz 69. Saving Fish from Drowning by Amy Tan I liked this novel about a group of American travelers lost in Burma. It fits with the trend of liking each Amy Tan novel I read more than the last, whichbroke. Not because it wasn't an interesting story, but some of it just seemed too awful to be believed., despite a dead narrator, isn't too awful for me to believe, or at least, to suspend disbelief. I read this after a long streak of non-fiction, and I enjoyed getting in the heads of fictional characters again, and following a clear narrative structure. Recommended to fans of weird, somewhat creepy character-driven fiction and those interested in travel along the Burmese Road.70. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey This ended up in my boyfriend's book discard pile and caught my eye (he never read it; it was a gift). It's a book I never thought I would read. It's a book I've probably snickered at people for reading. Fortunately, I'm older and wiser now (or more desperate, ha!), and found some valuable thoughts in here. Honestly, as I guessed, a lot of it is common sense. Treat people how they want to be treated. It was interesting to me that the title is, because, while that may be true, and Covey obviously believes it to be true, it seems more a manifesto about how to be a good person. In the long-term, Covey believes, people of good character will succeed. It's a comforting idea, whether or not it's true, and it imparts a sense of empowerment. He reminds us that while we cannot control outside forces, we can control how we react. I'm familiar with this message, and I'm sure it's far older than this book, but it helped to contemplate it again.The most useful part of reading this book, for me, was the opportunity to think carefully about how to be a better person and how best to relate others. While it may be common sense, we may not think enough about how our actions and even our thoughts affect how we are perceived and treated, and how we can effect change in our lives through deciding not to let others dictate how we act or feel. Covey frequently mentions Viktor Frankl'swhich I also own and plan to read soon, as evidence of how we can control our reactions. In later sections, he mentions the autobiography of Anwar Sadat (the Egyptian president who signed a peace agreement with Israel) and numerous examples of the power of focusing only on one's own reactions from his own life. Most of his personal examples have to do with being a parent, and each example seems to mention a different child! I was wondering how many children he could possibly have, when I turned to his biography in the back. He and his wife have nine children! However, it's clear that he considers his role as a father to be his most important. More than focusing on work as I expected, the book is more about parenting, although the principles transfer to most if not all inter-personal relationships.The most important takeaways I got were (I think) finally understanding the concept of synergy, which has just been a buzzword for as long as I can remember, and the extremely comforting idea that character matters more than personality. Also, this book came out the year I was born, and I know it's been highly influential, so I wonder if I've picked up many of the specific terms used in the book because of that, although I know the concepts are much older. I don't feel like I need to recommend this because I think, if you need it, you will know. It's not a cure-all or quick fix, but you may just hear something you need to think about in order to find your own answer. New associates Brie Shulman joined the Tamarack Grief Resource Center staff team as an outreach specialist, bringing a decade of experience working with youth and adults in times of transition through wilderness therapy programs and residential treatment settings. With a master's degree in counseling, Shulman has also provided counseling for adults in individual and group settings at the University of Montana. She has been a volunteer at Tamarack's A Camp to Remember Flathead Youth Camp and A Camp to Remember Family Camp. Kara Ansotegui joined the University of Montana Foundation as director of stewardship, bringing more than 14 years of fundraising, stewardship strategy and donor relations experience. She comes to the foundation from Atlanta, where she was senior director of leadership development and volunteer engagement at CARE USA, a leading humanitarian organization fighting global poverty. Prior to CARE, Ansotegui served at Georgia Institute of Technology as associate director of development stewardship/donor relations and Georgia State as director of marketing/corporate partnerships. She earned a bachelors degree in business administration from Oregon State University and an MBA at Georgia State University. Sydney Knox joined the University of Montana Foundation as a receptionist. Previously, Knox taught English in Japan and worked in customer service at the Missouri Attorney Generals Office. She earned her bachelors degree in Japanese studies at Pacific University. Colin Ware joined the University of Montana Foundation as senior director, regional development, adding more than 20 years of fundraising experience to the foundation team. Most recently, he served as senior director for philanthropy at UW Medicine. Previously, Ware was the vice president of marketing and sales for IDC, senior fundraising consultant for The Collins Group and director of development for the Culinary Institute of America. He is CFRE-certified and holds a bachelors degree in history and political science from the University of Toronto and an MBA from University of California, Los Angeles. Make-A-Wish Montana appointed Katie Lear operations coordinator for the state. The foundation grants the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions to enrich the human experience. Lear's past experience includes running her own day care business and working as an administrative assistant at Berkshire Hathaway Montana Properties. She is a native of Missoula who attended Hellgate High School and the University of Montana. Ferguson Law Office PLLC hired Graham Coppes to work as an associate with John Ferguson in the firm's growing water law practice and in other areas. Ferguson Law Office also recently acquired a new office, located at 425 E. Spruce St. Certification Gary Gales, who has been with Alpine Physical Therapy for 11 years, earned international certification as a Mulligan concept practitioner. Having attained this advanced training, Gales applies hands-on care using the Mulligan approach to help patients move and feel better. He is one of two Mulligan concept practitioners in the Missoula. New members The following are new members of the Missoula Area Chamber of Commerce: Deep Tissue Massage Group, Camarin Metcalf, owner; Mary Windecker, individual membership; Spectrum Aquatics, Chase Taylor, marketing manager; Morrison-Maierle Systems, Julie Maloney, account manager; Missoula Art Museum, Laura Millin, executive director; Better Body Fitness of Montana Inc., Kelsey Fry, regional sales manager. Recognition The Montana-based firm of Junkermier, Clark, Campanella, Stevens P.C. announced that JCCS Wealth Advisors was honored by 1st Global as a 3 Diamond Firm for 2015. JCCS Wealth Advisors LLC was recognized for its exceptional accomplishments throughout the year at the 2015 1st Global National Conference that took place Nov. 8-10 at the Omni Amelia Island Resort in Fernandina Beach, Florida. Elected The board of Foundation for Community Health, the successor organization of the Community Medical Center Foundation, has elected the following officers and trustees: Susan J. Muralt, entrepreneur and retired registered nurse, chair; Tom McLaughlin, owner of Paradise Falls, vice chair; Mike Combo, CPA and shareholder with Anderson ZurMuehlen, secretary and treasurer; and new trustees, Charles Gatlin, retired captain; Andrew George, attorney with George Law Firm PLLC; Holli Rozinka, vice president and Eastern Market Executive with D.A. Davidson Trust Co.; and Steve Wilder, cooperative engagement administrator with Horizon Credit Union. These volunteer leaders join continuing trustees Larry Gianchetta, dean of the University of Montana School of Business Administration; Ramona Holt, owner of the Holt Museum; and Chair Emeritus R.H. Ty Robinson, retired attorney with Garlington, Lohn & Robinson PLLP. When a grizzly bear killed a hiker in Yellowstone National Park last year, millions of people took it personally. The public response was 100 percent different than two years ago, said Kerry Gunther, Yellowstones bear manager. Twenty-five grizzly bears a year die in Yellowstone Park, but this one had a name. Her name was Blaze, according to the outpouring of outrage on Facebook, Twitter and other social media outlets that appeared within a day of the Aug. 11 incident. Gunther and other park officials still arent sure it was that particular, often-photographed sow with two cubs (there were four such females with two cubs in the area). But they are sure their decisions, and all future debate about managing grizzly bears in the Rocky Mountain West, are under a new level of scrutiny. The attack took place on a Thursday. It was reported to rangers at 9:01 a.m. Friday. By noon, a search team had found the hikers body, and saw a bear leaving the scene. They spent that afternoon combing the area by air and setting up a culvert trap 9.4 meters away from the bodys location. The bear was caught shortly after midnight, and a news release was issued Saturday morning. It totally blew up on Saturday afternoon, Gunther said. Very quickly, my email and voicemail were overloaded. I was getting letters from all over the world. Our office was getting hate mail and death threats. One person even had her children threatened. We had law enforcement patrolling their houses. Shortly after the controversy got rolling, someone created a petition asking Yellowstone Superintendent Dan Wenk to not kill Blaze, the Yellowstone grizzly sow and her infant cubs. The petition was closed after the announcement that the bear was killed, but not before it gathered 143,170 signatures. Just think if everyone who signed that donated $25 for habitat conservation, Gunther said. Bears would be a lot better off. I wish we could find a way to funnel that hatred and passion into conservation. *** It also overwhelmed the parks media office. Aware that the case was going viral, the investigators tried to publish results of their efforts as soon as they got them. But other commentators kept adding different scenarios that conflicted with what the rangers had on record. There are no good answers to that, said Sandy Snell-Dobert in Yellowstones Office of Strategic Communication. With all the ongoing discussion going about this, youll see us much more trying to be proactive and trying to get ahead of things. But just trying to monitor everything thats out there is more than a full-time job. One meme stated that a large male grizzly had fed on the hikers body, so the female was falsely accused and killed. Yet another described the final moments of the incident, claiming the hiker ran from the bear and at one point, punched it in the nose. But the evidence from the scene showed no adult male paw prints in the area, only female bear bite marks on the hikers body and only the suspect females DNA on the hikers wounds. Those DNA samples were flown out of the park to a lab in Bozeman, with results delivered 36 hours later. The hiker had defensive wounds on his arms and face, indicating he tried to protect himself as the bear attacked. There were no tracks indicating he ran from the initial encounter. There was no GoPro or dash-cam footage to record the battle. That didnt stop scenarios accusing the hiker of jogging through bear country, in what Gunther called an attempt to cast blame on the hiker instead of the bear. But the jogging idea failed to account for the hikers leather boots, canvas pants, button-down shirt and previously sprained ankle. Others pounced on the facts that the hiker was traveling alone and wasnt carrying bear spray. Gunther agreed that traveling in groups with bear spray have been shown to deter bear attacks. But he also noted that trail-use surveys have found 60 percent of Yellowstone hikers travel in groups of three or less, and just 14 percent carry bear spray. He wasnt following recommendations, Gunther said. But he wasnt doing anything unusual either. The story added new levels. Some commenters posted that Blaze was related to Lightning, another socially popular bear that was killed after attacking a hiker in 2011. Yellowstone officials reported the DNA test showed no family link between last summers dead bear and Lightning, but that didnt stop the discussion. Instead, it rekindled suppositions that Lightning was killed after ripping open an unattended backpack looking for food. For the record, the hiker in that case was using his pack to fend off the bears attack, and it got torn open in the clash. Commenters moved on to the National Park Services motivations. Some claimed it was fear of litigation from the hikers family that prompted the kill order for the bear. We wanted to make sure this bear couldnt do this again to another hiker, Gunther said. Our guidelines state that removal from the population is called for when serious injury or loss of life is involved. *** Guidelines for bear management may get a lot more complicated next year when the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee releases a new proposal for removing federal Endangered Species Act protection from grizzlies in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. More than 700 grizzlies live there now, and IGBC biologists argue thats about the carrying capacity for the area. In 2015, 55 grizzly bears died and four were removed in the GYE. Thats a record high year for bear losses in the GYE, beating the previous high of 56 in 2012. In 2014, a year with good bear food availability, 28 grizzlies died or were removed. Wildlife managers killed 24 bears after conflicts with people or livestock in 2015. Four were hit by vehicles and eight were killed by hunters. And 19 incidents remain under investigation. The four removals were orphaned cubs sent to zoos, including the two belonging to the bear that killed the hiker in August. They are added to the loss total for the area, bringing it to 59. The delisting proposal isnt public yet, but its already stirred up its own social media debate. Many people are using the Blaze incident as a talking point. A lot of the photographer community is divided whether they should have killed her or not, said Daryl Hunter, an Idaho professional photographer whos reasonably certain hes seen the suspect bear for years. A lot of regular photographers agree with the decision. I do. I lead tours out here, and I tell people well be seeing bears out here. They dont associate us with a food source. But bears are quick learners. Those who are out there often dont want bears that have eaten people out there with us. Hunting grizzlies isnt an easy solution, however. Im one of those people in the middle, Harris said. Im a political conservative, and a wildlife photographer. The Endangered Species Act is a double-edged sword. Weve recovered the grizzlies pretty well, and I think its OK to delist it and have a hunting season. But photographing and watching bears is a huge business in Grand Teton and Cody and Gardiner. The bears we see are an economic resource. (The delisting plan) has a 20-mile section between Grand Teton and Yellowstone that would be open for hunting. When hunting opens, thats going to eliminate all the bears that are not afraid of us. *** Frequently seen bears like Blaze, 399, Scarface and other roadside attractions have almost become a pseudo-subspecies from grizzlies that live in more remote wilderness, according to biologists. They develop a different social structure, tolerating one another in closer quarters instead of getting into deadly territorial battles. They also tolerate human activity, learning to avoid the temptation of people food that wilder bears investigate. Living along road corridors adds to their notoriety. Having hung out in some of those Jackson Hole bear jams, its not my cup of tea, but I found the whole phenomenon fascinating, said Louisa Willcox, a frequent critic of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee. It is really meaningful for people. Its a way of understanding the ecosystem, the world in a really different way. And then they write about it on Facebook. Willcox said the reaction to incidents like the killing of Cecil the Lion in Namibia last summer was an example of the kind of energy social media can spin up. A lot of other lions were killed around the park, but that lion had a name and a fan club, Willcox said. It had an emotional resonance with people. I think these bears are part of bigger phenomenon going around the country and the world, elevating the rights of animals. They have families and feelings just like we do. Bringing these other voices to the debate could change the way public wildlife agencies function, Willcox said. Right now, thats what they do they hunt things, Willcox said. Yes, they also promote coexistence with grizzly bears and wolves, but theyre based around killing things. Thats their financial framework. But in other parts of the country, theres been great deal of reform of culture and financial makeup of state game agencies. People are saying whoa animals have a right to be treated differently. Isnt the hope, in having more diverse voices, that theres some promise of more representative democracy? Unfortunately, theres no voting booth in the Twitterverse. I guess what this shows is theres a lot of passion out there for bears, bear manager Gunther said. But all that passion didnt do anything for bear conservation or for Blaze. The University of Montana put its Montana Island Lodge on Sourdough Island up for sale for $6.5 million in the spring of 2014. In October 2015, the Salmon Lake listing expired. UM vice president for finance Michael Reid said last week the university has not yet decided whether to keep the 18,000-square-foot building for future academic purposes or put it on the market again. The lodge was willed to the UM Foundation in 1996, and the donor agreement splits proceeds from any sale among the four campuses under the jurisdiction of the University of Montana. In a sale, UM would get maintenance money it put into the property, some $1 million over the course of 18 years as of 2014, plus its share of the remaining $5.5 million, if the property sold for the original asking price. "If we had to drop that price a lot, it doesn't really benefit the institution," Reid said. "We don't get the full sale amount." The property used to operate as an upscale resort with full services, including catering for guests. A couple of years ago, UM officials decided the facility didn't fit with the school's educational mission, and they didn't want to put resources into making the long-term improvements the lodge and dock need. *** Before the property went on the market, UM provided guests full services there, accommodating up to 25 people at once. The facility operated as a resort, and it rented out for $2,500 a night, complete with a master suite and bedrooms with private baths, a total of 12 bedrooms. Reid said the operation generally broke even in those years. He said the most subsidy UM had to provide was $30,000 to $50,000 a year. Once the property went up for sale, UM scaled back services. Now, the husband-and-wife team who oversee the lodge on Sourdough Island work as property managers, and rooms rent individually for $150 a night, or $1,200 for the lodge; a weekend rental of the lodge ranges from $5,000 to $6,000. Barbara and Kevin Denman are the property managers, and Barbara Denman said the couple performs standard maintenance on the property. The lodge was busy in the summer, with eight weddings and several family reunions, she said. Renting out the property during the spring thaw and winter freeze is more difficult. Denman said it's too soon for the accountants to tell if the lodge broke even for the year, but they're crunching the numbers. "The financial piece has not been finalized yet," she said. *** When the property went on the real estate market, the broker who listed it estimated it would sell in three months to two years. It drew little interest, though, according to Reid. Last week, Mike Nugent, president of the Missoula Organization of Realtors, said he isn't surprised the lodge didn't sell in the time it was on the market. Closing the deal on such a property is likely a multi-year marketing proposition, he said. The lodge was listed at a high price point that requires reaching a niche audience, he said. In the past 18 months in the county, he said, just four single-family homes have sold that were listed for more than $1 million, three in the low million-dollar range, and one for more than $8 million. He said four sales in that range are relatively normal for Missoula County since the recession. If an owner wants to sell a multimillion-dollar home, it's going to take patience, but it can be done, he said. "I would not be concerned that it did not sell in the first year and a half," Nugent said. "These things take time." *** UM is in the midst of a budget crunch and severe cutbacks, looking to make up $10 million to $12 million in its 2017 fiscal year. The university will consider relisting the property in the spring or making different arrangements for it, Reid said. If it sells, UM might pull in $1 million from the proceeds, he said. Such an amount would be helpful to UM, but it might not outweigh the value of the property to the university. University officials are considering the use of the property for various academic purposes in the future, although Reid said it was too early to get into specifics. "It quickly gets to a point where the asset is worth more to the university than the sale of it," he said. Last school year, Main Hall took $3.2 million from a fund set aside for facility maintenance and capital improvements to shore up its bottom line in the general fund. The move mostly depleted the pool of money grown by Student Affairs. UM does not have a fund set aside for the long-term maintenance of the lodge on Sourdough Island, Reid said. He said the lodge is currently functional but outdated. "That's ultimately one reason that we really looked at selling the building, is we just don't have the resources to put in some of the capital improvements in the property that we'd like to see," Reid said. He said UM could shut down the property altogether, but having it "lightly lived in" as opposed to shuttered altogether is a cost savings. For instance, the building stays heated, so pipes don't burst. "We kind of looked at all those costs and in the end, it was more economical to have the Denmans living on site," he said. He said UM officials will evaluate the status of the lodge as they review the budget situation going into summer 2016. MILES CITY Water can be hard to come by on Mark Fixs southeast Montana ranchland this time of year, which is why dams punctuate the creek across this acreage. The small pools of water assure Fixs thirsty livestock have a place to drink. Lately though, the dams have gone dry. Drought conditions in southeast Montana are off to an early start that doesnt speak well for the rest of winter. Its a problem thats spreading across the state. We just got an inch or two of snow last night. So it helps a little, but we really havent got the snow you guys got in Billings, Fix said. Were just going to have to watch it and see what the heck. Moisture in the Tongue River drainage, where Fix lives, is just 46 percent of average. In nearby Miles City, the community will close out the year 4 inches below normal. The state winter and spring outlook also is poor. The National Drought Information System, which does long-term forecasting for the United States, gives Montana the worst drought outlook of any state from now through March. Western Montana is the largest pocket of forecasted persistent drought in the U.S., while all of Montana east of Helena is in for likely drought development over the next three months. Montana is kind of the bulls-eye for below-average levels of precipitation for the rest of winter. That is our concern, said Tom Frieders, National Weather Service meteorologist in Billings. Theres the possibility of a storm or two pulling parts of Montana out of drought risk, but the overall trend is for a dry winter, Frieders said. El Nino weather conditions have formed over the Pacific Ocean, meaning that near the equator, ocean surface waters are warming. Those warming surface waters create warmer-than-average temperatures in Canada and the northern continental United States. Drier-than-average weather then sets up over the northern and western United States. Wetter conditions set up in the Gulf Coast. Not all of eastern Montana is edging toward drought. In Glasgow, where the snow is 6 inches deep, the National Weather Service is reporting moisture levels 1.3 inches above average for 2015. Jordan was a full 2 inches above average. Mountain ranges in southwest and southcentral Montana were at or near average for snowpack. However, the U.S. Drought Monitor through Tuesday shows a seven-county region stretching from Carbon County in south-central Montana to Dawson County in the east. Comparatively, none of the counties in eastern or central Montana were in drought trouble at this time last year when western Montana began showing moderate drought. There are now 472,103 Montanans living in drought areas, according to the Drought Monitor. Back at Fixs place, the rancher is thinking about the possibility of hauling water to livestock this winter if conditions dont improve. Fix is no stranger to dry conditions less than a foot of water falls on this southeast Montana landscape every year. But when dry conditions hit, salt begins building up in what water there is. Across the border in Wyoming, the residual effects of a now-bust coalbed methane operation are trapped in the soil. The dryness tends to bring those problems to the surface, where the water runs foul for several weeks every spring before the Tongue River Reservoir clears up. The reservoir has a fair amount of water left in it, Fix said. Its just going to be nip and tuck. BURNS, Ore. A peaceful protest Saturday in support of an Oregon ranching family facing jail time for arson was followed shortly afterward by an occupation of a building at a national wildlife refuge. Ryan Payne, a U.S. Army veteran from Montana, told the Oregonian he was among a group occupying the headquarters of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. An Idaho militia leader who helped organize the earlier march said he knew nothing about activities after a parade of militia members and local residents in Burns walked past the sheriff's office and the home of Dwight Hammond Jr. and his son Steven. Some local residents feared the Saturday rally would involve more than speeches, flags and marching. But the only real additions to that list seemed to be songs, flowers and pennies. As marchers reached the courthouse, they tossed hundreds of pennies at the locked door. Their message: civilians were buying back their government. After the march passed, two girls swooped in to scavenge the pennies. A few blocks away, Hammond and his wife Susan greeted marchers, who planted flower bouquets in the snow. They sang some songs, Hammond said a few words, and the protesters marched back to their cars. Dwight Hammond has said he and his son plan to peacefully report to prison Jan. 4 as ordered by the judge. Dwight Hammond, 73, and Steven Hammond, 46, said they lit the fires in 2001 and 2006 to reduce the growth of invasive plants and protect their property from wildfires. The two were convicted of the arsons three years ago and served time the father three months, the son one year. But a judge ruled their terms were too short under federal law and ordered them back to prison for about four years each. The decision has generated controversy in a remote part of the state. In particular, the Hammonds' new sentences touched a nerve with far right groups who repudiate federal authority. The son of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who was involved in a standoff with the government over grazing rights, was among those organizing opposition to the Hammonds' new sentence. Bundy's son, Ammon Bundy, and a handful of militiamen from other states arrived last month in Burns, some 60 miles from the Hammond ranch. In an email to supporters, Ammon Bundy criticized the U.S. government for a failed legal process. Our Volunteer Village has more than doubled in size with the arrival of two new volunteer couples. My free time schedule overlaps each of t... Eight years ago, Laurie Anderson recalled in an interview, she was backstage with the cellist Yo-Yo Ma at a Rhode Island School of Design graduation ceremony when she turned to him and said, I have this fantasy where I look out, and the whole audience is dogs. He replied: Are you kidding? I have the same fantasy. Ms. Anderson, the performance artist known for incorporating new technology into her work, got her wish two years later. She and friends put on a concert for hundreds of dogs outside the Sydney Opera House, with the music emitted from speakers at a low, dog-friendly frequency. (She didnt want to risk shocking the dogs with a high frequency.) At the end, they began to bark even the droolers in the front row. It was a beautiful sound, she said. They barked for five minutes. That was one of the happiest moments of my life. Until now, Ms. Anderson has not had an opportunity to repeat the scale and sensation of that concert in Australia. But at 11:30 p.m. on Monday, she will get that chance: Dogs and their owners are invited to sit on the red steps of Duffy Square while she performs music that, to passers-by in Times Square, may not sound like much because of the low frequency. Humans can tune in with wireless headphones there are 350 total that will be given out beforehand. The occasion is the January edition of Midnight Moment, a series in which many Times Square billboards become a digital art gallery, if only for three minutes. The series, presented by Times Square Arts and the Times Square Advertising Coalition, has in the past included works by Andy Warhol, Bjork and Yoko Ono. Ms. Andersons contribution is a three-minute cut of her documentary Heart of a Dog a poetic visual essay about, among other things, the journey from life to the afterlife. " " Investing can be scary, but can just one bad investment ruin your entire portfolio? Hemera/ Thinkstock In times like these, when bankers are going to jail and your neighbors are losing their homes, it's human nature to worry about making one wrong move with money. Stories of people who have lost millions in assets are flooding the media markets. And yes, some of those people lost their money on just one bad investment decision. But in general, these investors bear little resemblance to typical Americans who work for respectable companies. In two famous instances, those who lost everything made investments with an "all-in" approach. Advertisement Many investors with financier Bernard Madoff placed all their retirement funds into a Ponzi scheme on the promise of substantial gains [source: Zambito and Smith]. In another example, at the bidding of their bosses, employees of Enron, the giant Texas energy company, tied their retirement funds to the company's stock. When stock prices started plummeting on the news of accounting irregularities, the employees could not sell. Ultimately, they lost their jobs and their nest eggs, which they had placed so precariously into a single company's basket [source: Calkins]. But what are your chances of losing everything with just one wrong move? Read on for reassurance. MILES CITY Water can be hard to come by on Mark Fixs southeast Montana ranchland this time of year, which is why dams punctuate the creek across this acreage. The small pools of water assure Fixs thirsty livestock have a place to drink. Lately though, the dams have gone dry. Drought conditions in southeast Montana are off to an early start that doesnt speak well for the rest of winter. Its a problem thats spreading across the state. We just got an inch or two of snow last night. So it helps a little, but we really havent got the snow you guys got in Billings, Fix said. Were just going to have to watch it and see what the heck. Moisture in the Tongue River drainage, where Fix lives, is just 46 percent of average. In nearby Miles City, the community will close out the year 4 inches below normal. The state winter and spring outlook also is poor. The National Drought Information System, which does long-term forecasting for the United States, gives Montana the worst drought outlook of any state from now through March. Western Montana is the largest pocket of forecasted persistent drought in the U.S. while all of Montana east of Helena is in for likely drought development over the next three months. In southwest Montana, "Things look better than they do to the west and northwest," Missoula National Weather Service meteorologist Lee Ann Allegretto said Saturday. "Right now if you look at snowpack in southwest Montana, you're at 100 percent or even slightly better," she said. "But what really counts are the big late-winter storms. Historically, you get more of them in southwest Montana than other areas of the state. That's just the way the storm systems usually flow. But it's crucial to maintain that. "The El Nino effect tends to happen around January," Allegretto said. "Once it rears its head and the storm systems shut off, they might not start again." Montana is kind of the bulls-eye for below-average levels of precipitation for the rest of winter. That is our concern, said Tom Frieders, National Weather Service meteorologist in Billings. Theres the possibility of a storm or two pulling parts of Montana out of drought risk, but the overall trend is for a dry winter, Frieders said. El Nino weather conditions have formed over the Pacific Ocean, meaning that near the equator, ocean surface waters are warming. Those warming surface waters create warmer-than-average temperatures in Canada and the northern continental United States. Drier-than-average weather then sets up over the northern and western United States. Wetter conditions set up in the Gulf Coast. Not all of eastern Montana is edging toward drought. In Glasgow, where the snow is 6 inches deep, the National Weather Service is reporting moisture levels 1.3 inches above average for 2015. Jordan was a full 2 inches above average. Mountain ranges in southwest and southcentral Montana were at or near average for snowpack. However, the U.S. Drought Monitor through Tuesday shows a seven-county region stretching from Carbon County in south-central Montana to Dawson County in the east. Comparatively, none of the counties in eastern or central Montana were in drought trouble at this time last year when western Montana began showing moderate drought. There are now 472,103 Montanans living in drought areas, according to the Drought Monitor. Back at Fixs place, the rancher is thinking about the possibility of hauling water to livestock this winter if conditions dont improve. Fix is no stranger to dry conditions less than a foot of water falls on this southeast Montana landscape every year. But when dry conditions hit, salt begins building up in what water there is. Across the border in Wyoming, the residual effects of a now-bust coalbed methane operation are trapped in the soil. The dryness tends to bring those problems to the surface, where the water runs foul for several weeks every spring before the Tongue River Reservoir clears up. The reservoir has a fair amount of water left in it, Fix said. Its just going to be nip and tuck. Proposed hunting changes focus of meeting Significant changes for the 2016-17 hunting seasons are being proposed by the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. Proposed changes in Region 3 (Southwest Montana) will be discussed at a public meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 5, at the United Congregational Church, 2945 Bayard St., by area biologists and game wardens. This public meeting will be held at 7 p.m. at the United Congregational Church, 2945 Bayard. "This will be a great opportunity for sportsmen to learn about hunting regulations for the next two years," a sportsman said. Poverty focus of Wednesday presentation Margie Seccomb, executive director of Human Resources District Council District XII, will be the guest speaker at the Butte-Silver Bow Democrats Burros Club January luncheon at noon Wednesday, Jan. 6, in the Butte Country Club, 3400 Elizabeth Warren Ave. Seccomb's talk will be "Exploring the Issues Alleviating the Causes and Effects of Poverty in Silver Bow County." The public is welcome to attend. Details: 406-498-1678. Dillon chamber sets Tuesday meeting DILLON The Beaverhead Chamber of Commerce will meet on Tuesday, Jan. 5, at noon at the Dillon City Council Chamber. The agenda will include nominations for 2016 Board Officers and Executive Board Members as well as establishing a calendar of events for 2016. Members and the public are encouraged to attend. HELENA Technology entrepreneur and Republican gubernatorial hopeful Greg Gianforte reported income of $220.5 million and federal and state tax payments of nearly $35 million between 2005 and 2014, according to his tax returns. The Bozeman businessman is exploring a run for governor in 2016, four years after selling RightNow Technologies, the software company he founded in 1997, to Oracle for $1.8 billion. He released 10 years of federal and state income tax returns in response to a request from The Associated Press. Gianforte told the AP that he released his tax returns because he believes in transparency and because one of Montana's biggest problems is low-paying jobs that force young people to seek work outside the state. "What Montana needs is more transparency, and if nothing else, this shows that people can prosper from Montana," he said. However, the state Democratic Party says Gianforte's wealth could very well become a factor in a gubernatorial bid. "It's going to be difficult for him to relate to Montanans when he's flying around in a private jet," Montana Democratic Party spokesman Jason Pitt said. The tax returns show that Gianforte's total income wages, dividends, capital gains and interest ranged from $1.5 million in 2008 to $110 million in 2012, the year he sold his company to Oracle. RightNow went public in 2004. The next two years, Gianforte reported income of $13 million and $29 million. Gianforte paid $26.3 million in federal taxes and $8.6 million in state taxes over the 10 years. Gianforte also reported donating more than $56 million in cash and in-kind contributions to charities and the Gianforte Family Foundation over the last decade. Spokesman Aaron Flint said the actual amount donated over that period was $113.9 million, but Gianforte only reported the amount allowable for tax deductions. Through his family's foundation, Gianforte has donated millions of dollars to religious organizations in the U.S. and in Africa, conservative organizations such as the Montana Family Foundation, scholarships for low-income students, community groups, universities and the arts. Gianforte is expected to be a top challenger to unseat Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock once he makes his run official. As a result, the state Democratic Party has taken to calling Gianforte a "New Jersey billionaire," highlighting his wealth to voters in a relatively poor state. Gianforte was raised in Wayne, Pennsylvania, and attended school in New Jersey. Pitt pointed to a comment Gianforte made in a story published this month by the Daily Inter Lake that said he would have signed a bill vetoed by Bullock to lower individual and business income taxes. "You have a billionaire advocating for tax cuts for himself and others in the upper class," Pitt said. Gianforte, who moved to Bozeman in 1995, told the AP that the question for Montana voters is whether they want someone like him to create more jobs so their kids don't have to leave the state. "I think prosperity is a virtuous thing and we need more of it in Montana," he said. Important stuff you won't get from the liberal media! We do the surfing so you can be informed AND have a life! Les blattes ou cafards (Blatta orientalis) sont des insectes qui appartiennent a la famille des Blattoptera. Ils se caracterisent par leur forme allongee, leurs ailes [] Dave Swoboda was in the U.S. Army from 1966 to 1969. He graduated from Billings West High in 1965. This is part of his Vietnam story. Swoboda: "My folks saw what was going on in Vietnam, and my folks were pretty much wanting me to go to college and stay out of what I ended up getting into, which was fair. I went to college I didn't know what I wanted to do, and basically I killed a year. I did OK in some classes and others I left without dropping. "We're out one night, carousing, and I see a friend of mine and I said, 'Jerry, how you doing?' He said, 'Great.' 'What you doing tomorrow?' I said, 'Well, Jerry, I am going to go down and join the Army.' He said, 'What a great idea. Come pick me up.' So we went on the buddy system. We went out to Fort Lewis there was an airline strike at the time, otherwise we would have wound up in Fort Polk, Louisiana. It was kind of a godsend that the airlines were not flying at that point." Swoboda completed basic training in Fort Lewis and went on for advanced training in avionics, electronics in aviation in Fort Gordon, Ga. Gazette: So your parents had tried to keep you out of Vietnam. What was their reaction when you said that you were going down to join the Army? Swoboda: "I put a lot of gray hairs on my father's head for a long time. He wasn't thrilled. My dad was in World War II." Swoboda received his orders for Pleiku. He was trained to repair or replace electronics in helicopters. Swoboda: "At 19, you're bullet-proof. Whatever is going to happen to somebody is going to happen to somebody else. This is going to sound cavalier, I had concerns, certainly you do. Once you get over there, it was kind of an adventure. You're a dumb kid. It was an adventure. It was like cowboys and Indians with real bullets, except that you don't realize that when people go down initially, they don't get up. That's kind of in the back of my mind and in country itself. "In Bien Hoa, which is in the south (where he landed), it was hot. We landed probably at 11 at night. When they put us on the buses, there was a Jeep in the front with a .50-caliber and Jeep behind us with a .50-caliber. So, again, you don't know what to expect. ... That was my first impression, and when we got to Pleiku, it's just a whole different place. Pleiku is 2,500 feet (in elevation). It's only about 700 feet lower than Billings. We're in the central highlands. It was not super hot. It was nice and cool. It got pretty cold during the monsoon." The helicopters Swoboda worked on were a combination of slicks (troop transport helicopters, primarily UH-1s or "Hueys"), gunships and observation helicopters. Swoboda: "Our job was scouts. We took the OH-23s (observation helicopters) and they had a pilot and crew chief and bungee cord machine gun, an M60, and they would go out literally with the rotor wash and see what they could find. If they could draw fire, the gun ships would circle over head and come in and soften up the area with rockets and mini-guns and so forth. Then, the slicks would come in with the troops. That was our initial things we did." Gazette: We've heard that when the helicopters were back at an airbase, they became targets for the enemy the idea is that if they're disabled or destroyed, they can't be used to go out in the field so the Viet Cong or North Vietnamese would want to bomb airfields. Swoboda: "They became targets obviously, even out in the field. I have pictures of one that was pretty much stitched up the middle with machine guns, but nobody was hurt. I think one pilot may have been hit in the heel, so that wasn't good for him. Generally, they were targets. ... They wanted the radios. The NVA, that was primarily what we were dealing with and some Viet Cong, they wanted the radios, so before I got there, it's a terrible story and I actually didn't see it. A (OH) 23 went down. The pilots were still in, and they were executed as they were in their seats and you could see where they'd taken a machete and whacked the radios and took off with them and all the (communications) gears that was with it. So, if a ship went down, my job was to get out all the electronics out of it. It didn't happen that often, but it did and we had to do that. ... That still sticks with me today." Gazette: They wanted the communications gear so they could hear what we were doing? Swoboda: "Right. ... So if you thought you were being picked up by enemy radios, then you had to change channels. But, you can't just say, I'm going to from 78.3 to 44. You had to have some sort of something. I remember that I was on a flight one time and they changed channels, said, 'We're going to Jack Benny plus four.' So, if you know comedy history, you know Jack Benny always was 39 on his birthday, so you went to 43." Gazette: When you had to retrieve communication gear from a ship that went down, that sounds pretty tough. It sounds like harrowing work. Swoboda: "If the ship went down, possibly and probably it was more mechanical than it was by being shot down. Again, we were not in that area where we were in big, big fighting. What we did besides blowing away bushes was (long-range reconnaissance patrol) insertions. ... There'd be two or three slicks and we'd do overflights. "The overflights, we'd go toward Cambodia or Laos and we would kind of hover over different places to confuse the enemy because we knew they were out there or watching us. We would be looking for sites to drop LRRPs. LRRPs were two- to three-man teams. We'd put them in areas and leave them for two or three days and then come back and pick them up, and they would report back what was going on. "We would do the overflights and several areas to get them confused and once we figured out where we were going, the LRRPs would be along with us and they'd pick where they wanted to be. ... We'd zip in and zip out and gone. We'd go in at tree-top level so they couldn't hear us from far. We'd wait to hear from them via radio. They would say their location, and we'd go out and get them. If they drew fire, of course, we'd go out and get them sooner, but the whole idea was not to draw fire. The whole idea was to just watch and see what was going on. "So, before Tet (offensive in 1968) we were dropping LRRPs along the Ho Chi Minh Trail on our side of the border, and they said there's a lot of activity going on and we don't know what's going on. ... In a debriefing, they said that all the treetops had been tied together. So, we can't see from the air what's going on the Ho Chi Minh Trail. So, we need to put the LRRPs in and put them more often than usual. When they came back, they said it's quiet in the daytime, but it sounds like the L.A. freeway at night. They said, 'We don't know what's going on.' But, something was going on and, of course, this is pre-Tet. Nobody was really sure what was happening but they were certain that something was going on. "Of course, Tet was a holiday that was called a stand-down. Everybody just kind of took the day off in the war. That's the way it was set up. ... It was a day off but you had all this stuff that went down in Saigon all the way up. In Pleiku, we got 23 or 24 or more rockets, 122-mm rockets. ... We captured some guys. They were coming down the Ho Chi Minh Trail with two of those on the back from the north, this far south, to where they needed to drop them, then they'd turn around, run back up the trail and bring more down. So they had a lot of them. "We got rocketed. They did shoot for the aircraft. ... We had quite a few ships destroyed. Even though they were in bunker revetments, had they not been, they would have just wiped out the whole thing. As it was, we lost five or six ships that were not fly-able. That was the first time that Pleiku had ever been hit in two years." Gazette: Were you frequently under any attacks? Swoboda: "No. That's the first time. I remember lying in a hooch, in bed, at night, and occasionally one big gun would go off it and it would go bang, a big loud roar and woosh, woosh, woosh, woosh and that was the shell. I'm lying in bed sleeping and I hear this woosh, woosh, woosh, woosh, woosh, bang. I wake up and I think, 'That didn't sound right.' So, being really cool, I get up and start to put on my pants and shirt and as I am reaching for my boots, I hear a woosh, woosh, woosh, woosh, woosh, boom and it's much closer. I gathered up my stuff, ran into the bunker and I was actually the third guy into the bunker. The other two were still in their skivvies. "So (the bunker) filled up rather quickly. They were pretty much spot on on the airfield. One came off to the right coming in and it was an officers' hooch. But, obviously those guys were gone, too. But, it tore that thing to nothing. ... That was our Tet." Gazette: Because you hadn't seen it before, was it a scary thing? Confusing? How would you describe what's going through your head and what happens next? Swoboda: "Certainly, it was scary. There was not any type of comfort. But, at the same time, it was also well handled. ... There were guard bunkers, nine strands of concertina wire. So it would be very difficult to get in. But, the rockets were coming from outside. We kind of knew where they were coming from. So, as a consequence, when it happened again, and it happened four of five more times when I was there, we kind of knew what to look for. "The next time it happened, I'm really proud of our guys. Our sister company is the 4th Aviation, and 4th Aviation was all helicopters, and I was on guard duty that night and actually facing the area the rockets came from, and we obviously didn't see them as they were coming, but 4th Av came out and they kind of flew out over where that area was. And our guys came out after the 10th Cavalry afterwards, and they literally started firing from behind us out forward of us. MTN has not paid the 780 billion Naira (R60.6 billion) fine in Nigeria which it had purportedly been given until 31 December 2015 to pay, the Sunday Times reported. There has been much confusion about the New Years deadline for MTN to pay the fine, with conflicting statements coming from the Nigerian government. The Sunday Times quoted Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) spokesman Tony Ojobo as saying that the deadline would not be extended. We are standing by the deadline. If MTN doesnt pay we will have to consult our lawyers and there could be certain consequences, he said. However, conflicting statements about the issue has been coming from the Nigerian Ministry of Communications. Initially the Ministry told Bloomberg that it would not consider an extension to the deadline. MTN has the right to seek the courts interpretation if it feels unsatisfied with the action of the regulator but nothing would stop the government action on the fine, said Victor Oluwadamilare, the spokesman for Communications Minister Adebayo Shittu. A subsequent report in Reuters had a very different statement by Oluwadamilare, saying that the Nigerian government would not do anything after the 31 December deadline expires. The federal government, NCC (regulator) or any government agent will not do anything at the expiration of the Dec 31 deadline, Oluwadamilare said. Now that they (MTN) have gone to court we will await the outcome of the case. This is a government that believes in the rule of law. MTN Nigerias fine: from R71-billion to R60.6-billion The Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) fined MTN 1.04-trillion (around R71-billion at the time, or R80.8-billion today) in October 2015 for not disconnecting unregistered SIMs on its network. After negotiations with Nigerian authorities, the fine was reduced by 25% to 780-billion (now around R60.6-billion). Dissatisfied with the outcome, MTN opted to take the matter to court in Lagos. MTN has said that because the matter is now before court, previous judicial decisions in Nigeria show that neither it nor the Nigerian government can take further action until a ruling has been made. More on MTNs fine MTNs R59.7 billion Nigerian fine deadline contradiction MTN must pay R58.5 billion fine by New Years: Nigeria The real reason for Nigerias massive R59-billion fine on MTN Things are looking up for Cell C after its board, and the boards of Blue Label Telecoms and 3C Telecommunications approved the deal to recapitalise the operator. This is according to a report in the Sunday Times, which quoted a director at Africa Analysis, Dobek Pater. Pater said that if Cell C found itself stronger in 23 quarters, it would put MTN on the back foot in South Africa. MTN is probably not in great shape They have previously suffered on account of Cell Cs aggressive growth in terms of subscribers, Pater said. Ratings agencies have also had their say, with Moodys cutting MTNs rating just before Christmas, while giving it a negative outlook due to the uncertainty over the massive fine it faces in Nigeria. Cell C, on the other hand, has received some good news from one of the big 3, with Standard & Poors putting it on a positive outlook after the recapitalisation deal was announced. Under the terms of the deal, Blue Label will pay R4-billion for around 35% of Cell Cs shares. Cell C management and staff will pay R2.5-billion for 30% of the shares. 3C Communications will hold onto the remaining 35%. Crucially, Cell C will also be able to cut its debt to R8-billion or less, and refinance it in South African rand. The deal is set to go ahead on 1 June 2016, pending definitive transaction agreements and receiving the relevant regulatory approvals. Read the full report in the Sunday Times (3 January 2016). More on the Cell C and Blue Label Telecoms deal How Cell Cs staff will own 30% of the company Here is Cell Cs true value Expect a big fibre-to-the-home drive from Cell C Cell Cs massive problem it has no control over Public sector actors become more involved As governments increasingly see connectivity as a critical means to encourage economic growth, we can expect them to become more involved in the market, helping to stimulate telecommunications investment in some cases, but also threatening to add increased uncertainty in volatile markets. While MTN Nigerias massive fine has naturally attracted the most attention, regulators in Kenya and Uganda have also imposed recent penalties, and the fall-out from each of these points to the potential impact that both the government and regulators have on the telecommunications market. As debates concerning the allocation of spectrum, the implementation of national broadband plans and the provision of eServices continue unabated (not forgetting, of course, the constant delays in digital migration), expect the role of public sector bodies to become even more influential. Fixed line makes a comeback While technically not a comeback in many African countries, where fixed line hardly got out of the starting blocks, demands for fibre connectivity have soared. Across the continent, submarine cables have boosted international connectivity and, while terrestrial coverage remains a challenge in most countries, investments in fibre backhaul and access layers have picked up. As this proliferation continues, high capacity last-mile access is becoming more viable and FTTX services have become established in key markets such as Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa. While individual services remain relatively expensive for early-adopters, ongoing investment will lead to price reductions, making fixed line more attractive for both businesses and consumers. Industry consolidation to meet infrastructure costs Etisalats recent acquisition of a majority stake in Maroc Telecom means that 5 major multinational operators now account for over 60% of all telecommunications subscribers in Africa. Consolidation in the telecommunications market is driven by a desire for scale to help overcome margin pressures: the provision of network infrastructure is enormously costly and all operators have been subjected to the worrying reality of increasing infrastructure costs versus declining average revenue per user (ARPUs). With increased pressure on operators to provide LTE services which requires further investment in existing infrastructure Frost & Sullivan expects this drain to continue. While large-scale mergers typically attract most of the attention, it is also worth noting changing market dynamics as smaller telecommunications players find it increasingly difficult to remain competitive. South Africas Cell C has made headway in claiming some portion of the market from the two dominant players, but its sustainability remains questionable. Meanwhile, mutterings in Kenya point to Oranges troubles in achieving profitability in a market dominated by Safaricom. And, across the continent, even start-ups promoting new technologies (For example: LTE or fibre) struggle to break the dominance of the big players reflecting how difficult it remains for late-entry operators to establish any kind of foothold. Content is king in the battle for access to customers The other driver of telecommunications consolidation concerns the battle to retain access to customers. In the customers eyes, the question is now: Who can provide me with the best access to everything I need? and, while operators currently occupy an enviable position in this respect, other telecommunications providers including hardware providers, device manufacturers, and OTTs are all seeking to offer aggregation services. The key differentiator will be content in particular high-demand content whether it is local or global, live or recorded. DStv remains the undisputed leader in content distribution across Africa, but its dominance is being challenged by the growth of alternative channels such as fibre to the home (FTTH) and 3G or 4G. Over the past year, the battle lines have been drawn in key markets such as Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa, and the first casualties have already been incurred. The year 2016 will quickly reveal which services are critical to customer requirements and, ultimately, how profitable they can be. Telcos showcase digitalisation Typically, telecommunications distinguish between their consumer and enterprise offerings, and the latest fad in the enterprise market is digitalisation identifying all areas of a business that can be transformed by ICT in order to offer integrated and enhanced products and services. The starting point will be to show how connectivity can improve profitability in sectors as diverse as oil exploration, agri-processing, and the clothing industry but expect ICT providers to start positioning themselves as complete, end-to-end partners with the ability to transform their clients into digital pioneers. Machine learning will be critical to this implementation, but watch out for other buzzing terms similar to wearables, the sharing economy, and the blockchain. The mobile payments ecosystem expands Africa has been the birthplace of mobile payments and one cannot ignore this key feature of the ICT landscape on the continent. In 2016, we can expect growth in three areas: Firstly, while Kenya is often cited as the forerunner in mobile payment proliferation, this leadership is anticipated to be challenged by countries like Tanzania, Zimbabwe, and Zambia, all of which have experienced significant growth in mobile payments. Secondly, while peer-to-peer transactions currently account for three quarters of all payments, other areas such as merchant payments and international remittances should show healthy adoption, expanding the broader mobile payments ecosystem. Finally, operators and banks have typically spearheaded mobile money development, but there are a growing number of actors seeking to grab a share of the market, concludes Frost & Sullivan. The most prominent amongst these are the major internet players namely; Google, Facebook, and Apple who, although not necessarily established in Africa, are leveraging their communication platforms to obtain access to customers wallets. Source: EngineerIT More on SA telecoms Behind-the-scenes look at Telkoms impressive NNOC Seacom less than 5% used HELENA Religion plays a central role in the life of Greg Gianforte, who is exploring a run for the Republican nomination for Montana governor in 2016, but it's a topic that the Bozeman entrepreneur and philanthropist declines to speak about at this stage. Associated Press, Dec. 29, 2015 It appears the front-runner and best hope for the Montana Republicans gubernatorial bid, Greg Gianforte, through the Gianforte Family Foundation, has given plenty of money to organizations that share his beliefs. Thats a great thing. He has literally put his money where his mouth is. Except that his mouth isnt saying much of anything. Or better stated: Gianforte is only talking about what Gianforte wants to talk about. He seems to be a candidate for governor until you really get down to brass tacks, and then hes just exploring a run. But exploring feels a lot like campaigning without the transparency or accountability. Much is being made of his support of religious organizations, most if not all from what I can tell, would be characterized as right-leaning, conservative. Again, thats not only fine, but a noble thing. Its one thing to talk about your beliefs; its another thing to help fund them. When compared to his total worth, $36 million seems modest. The challenge is that Gianforte spends a lot of money on his religious pet projects, but then doesnt want to discuss them. I wish I could believe that his reservations on the topic were borne out some modesty or humility. Instead, Gianforte may be reluctant to talk about his beliefs because then we might discover what he really believes about gay people, evolution or any number of hot-button issues. Red flag for voters Gianfortes silence on the matter is Catch-22 for his camp and supporters, but should be a red flag for the rest of Montanas residents. If he speaks about his beliefs and his donations, it might reveal that he is out-of-touch with many moderate Montanans who have a live-and-let-live outlook practically hard-wired into their DNA. It might reveal that he has some views that should cause us to wonder: If he supports certain religious beliefs, how would an administration treat those who dont believe as he does? On the other hand, if Gianforte distances himself from his extreme religious views or organizations, saying how he would govern isnt shaped by his own personal beliefs, I say, phooey. (Actually, Id say something a lot stronger, but I dont want to offend any beliefs Gianforte may or may not have.) If his religious beliefs dont shape how he sees the world, if they dont change the way he acts, if they dont inform how hed govern, hed be a hypocrite and lazy. More than that, hed appear to be supporting organizations that he doesnt believe in, to the tune of $36 million. And, I have to believe no one not even a millionaire hundreds of times over would just part with $36 million for appearance's sake. Acting on our beliefs What I believe shapes who I am, and I don't think there's another person out there who honestly accepts that what you believe doesn't affect how you do your job. Except that Gianforte expects voters and those watching his campaign to believe it. So, what would he do with a bill that enforces a statewide nondiscrimination act? Or does he support funding religious schools with taxpayer funds? We shouldn't have to vote him into office to find out. It's also odd that the conservative, religious elements who so often fret about God being taken out of everything from schools to Christmas now have become disciples of the separation of church and state, or in this case, religious views and governing. Ill let Gianfortes money do the speaking for him. I believe that whatever hes supported, he also believes. And, I will also be so bold as to guess that what he believes will shape how he acts, if the voters put him into the governors chair. Thats why residents, voters and the media cannot let Gianforte simply take a pass by not answering questions about his beliefs. How he believes is how he will govern. So, Mr. Gianforte, anytime youre ready, I have some questions for you. On the record, of course. American election campaigns are awash with big money. From the presidential race to Congress, statehouses and the judiciary, the floodgates have been thrown open to money as speech. This explosion of campaign spending makes transparency and disclosure much more vital that it ever has been. Thats why the majority of Montana lawmakers and Gov. Steve Bullock enact stronger standards for reporting on spending in our state and local elections. Thats why Montana Commission of Political Practices Jonathan Motl had a very busy December. In three decisions issued last month on campaign complaints, Motl found a Gallatin County Democratic Party committee in violation, found a Democratic Party state committee not in violation and found violations by the Montana Growth Network, an independent political committee led by former state Sen. Jason Priest, R-Red Lodge. Those cases dated to the 2012 election cycle before Motl was even in the COPP office. But looking ahead, Motl points out that new rules effective for the 2016 elections close reporting loopholes and aim to increase public access to information about who is spending how much to influence Montana elections. In 2016 more candidates and committees will be required to electronically file, Motl noted in the Gallatin County case. That expanded electronic filing, coupled with increased ability of COPP staff to data-entry hard copy information, should get more campaign finance information out of hard copy files and into the electronic files accessible on the COPP website, thereby increasing transparency. In his Montana Growth Network decision, Motl said, An issue advocacy independent expenditure made in the 2012 Montana elections did need not be reported or disclosed. Issue advocacy expenditures will, however, need to be reported and disclosed in Montanas 2016 elections. The new Montana law requires reporting of spending on issues if it occurs within 60 days of the start of voting. Previously, independent groups would run negative ads against candidates but skirt disclosure by claiming they targeted an issue rather than the candidate. Bullock, who has been the target of negative ads, teamed up with Sen. Duane Ankney, R-Colstrip, and other lawmakers of both parties who have been hit with attack ads from shadowy groups that sent mailings to primary or general election voters. They had a tough job passing the new law. Republicans who saw the need for more openness and fairness in campaign rules had to vote against their party leadership. After the law was enacted, Motl had the duty of writing administrative rules to implement it. Many of the same lawmakers who tried to stop the campaign disclosure bill complained that Motls proposed rules didnt carry out legislative intent. Twenty-three disclosure opponents demanded a poll of all 150 lawmakers. Montanans who want transparent elections are gratified to see that the majority of lawmakers stuck to the principle of the publics right to know. The naysayers had the legislative conduct a poll on 16 different rules. On every single one, a majority of lawmakers responding agreed the rule is consistent with their intent. Democrats, who are the legislative minority, solidly supported disclosure. Without their votes, Ankneys disclose act wouldnt be law today. Extra credit is due those stalwart GOP statesmen who stood up for whats right while standing up to their party leaders. Sadly, lawmakers fitting that description were few in the Eastern half of the state. We salute those Republicans in our area who voted for their constituents to have better information on campaign spending: Ankney; Sen. Taylor Brown, of Huntley; Rep. Tom Berry, of Roundup; Rep. Geraldine Custer, of Forsyth; and Rep. Tom Richmond, of Billings. As reported by the Associated Press, Motls investigation of the Montana Growth Networks finances shows that the group raised $978,000 from 14 donors. Most of that money came from out of state and most of the spending was directed at a 2012 Montana Supreme Court race. In 2016, Montana law and Motls evenhanded vigilance will help citizens know who is spending to influence their vote before their ballots are cast. A well-informed electorate is crucial to making our government accountable and responsive to the people. Public information is a safeguard against the secret deal making and corruption that marked Montanas early politics and threatens us still. Here's a guide to a year of conflict and discord, through the words of some of the world's leaders. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras:"We have a great opportunity for a new beginning." The leftist Greek politician's Syriza party won landmark elections in January. Tsipras preached a new way forward for Greece after years of crippling austerity and compounding debt. But a failure to reach an accord with European Union authorities in Brussels has led to a return to the grinding status quo, which saw Tsipras contest and once more win elections in September, though with a humbler mandate. French President Francois Hollande: "France is at war." That's what France's president declared in the hours after the terrorist attacks in Paris on Nov. 13. The coordinated strikes by militants linked to the Islamic State group killed 130 people. France bolstered its efforts in hitting Islamic State targets in the Middle East and attempted to forge a grand coalition against the group. In the United States, meanwhile, the Paris attacks cast a long shadow, with Republican politicians, in particular, invoking the threat of Islamist infiltration to curb arrivals of refugees and Muslim immigrants. Syrian President Bashar Assad: "Wrong [policies] adopted by Western states, particularly France, toward events in the region and its ignorance of the support of a number of its allies to terrorists are reasons behind the expansion of terrorism." The embattled Syrian leader seized upon the French tragedy to make his case that countries that backed his opponents -- which include some militant factions -- had made a huge mistake. France had long been calling for Assad's ouster, and now one of his foes -- the Islamic State -- had struck one of Europe's most hallowed centers. But Assad's opportunistic statements came even as his regime continued to pound civilian areas in Syria, causing untold death and destruction. Its actions have spurred an epic humanitarian crisis that has seen roughly half the country's population fleeing their homes and more than 4 million Syrians leave the country. As the year drew to a close, the U.N. Security Council reached an important agreement on a peace process to end the Syrian conflict, but it said little about Assad's departure. German Chancellor Angela Merkel: "We will cope." Time magazine named the German leader its "person of the year" in 2015 in part because of her outspoken defense of desperate refugees, tens of thousands of whom arrived at Europe's borders in a massive influx this year. Her summertime declaration that Germany could accommodate up to a million refugees and her repeated rhetoric about the West's responsibility to those fleeing war won her the respect of many overseas. But Merkel's stance is not popular at home and even led to a backlash from within her ruling center-right party. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban: "The people who are coming here grew up in a different religion and represent a completely different culture." The European leader perhaps most vocal in his opposition to welcoming refugees was the head of a nation situated along the route to Germany. Under Orban's right-wing government, Hungary built a fence along its border with Serbia to obstruct the flow of migrants making the trek from Greece and countries farther south and east. Orban cast the refugees -- the vast majority of whom had no desire to remain in Hungary -- as a civilizational threat and styled himself as a kind of defender of Christendom. President Obama: "Let's not forget that freedom is more powerful than fear." In the wake of the Paris attacks, the U.S. president reiterated his administration's commitment to the fight against the Islamic State. But Obama also insisted that dealing with security threats would not mean "abandoning our values." It was a gesture to the rather heated American conversation, fueled by statements from Republican presidential candidates grandstanding about the dangers of radical Islam, calling for a halt to arrivals of Syrian refugees and even suggesting that all Muslims be stopped from coming to the United States. British Prime Minister David Cameron: "You ain't no Muslim, bruv." The British leader echoed the words of a bystander-turned-viral-video-star who filmed himself berating a suspected Islamist militant after a foiled attack on London's Underground. Despite calls for tolerance and calm from Western leaders, attitudes toward Muslims have hardened in Europe and the United States. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani:"A new chapter has started in Iran's relations with the world." So said Iran's president during his address to the U.N. General Assembly in September. He was heralding the accord forged in July between Iran and world powers over Tehran's nuclear program. The deal with Iran was hailed as a landmark piece of diplomacy, the result of many rounds of negotiations. As Iran complies to strict limits on its nuclear capacity under the terms of the agreement, it will receive relief from stifling international sanctions. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: "What a stunning, historic mistake!" Not all world leaders were impressed with the Iran deal, though. The most outraged figure was Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had campaigned for months against this opening to Iran's regime -- one that he cast in the same light as the murderous Islamic State. The day after the accord was announced in July, Netanyahu deemed it a "historic mistake." He doubled down on his angry rhetoric a few months later at the U.N. General Assembly and glared in an awkward moment of silence at the seated dignitaries before him. But neither his efforts, nor those of Republicans and neoconservatives in Washington, could scupper the enterprise. Russian President Vladimir Putin: "Allah decided to punish the ruling clique in Turkey by stripping it of its sanity." One of the more dangerous geopolitical flare-ups in 2015 took place in the wake of the Russian intervention in Syria on behalf of the embattled Assad regime. Turkey, deeply unhappy with the Kremlin's power play, brought down a Russian jet that had strayed into Turkish airspace. This precipitated a war of words between Moscow and Ankara and soured ties between the two historical regional powerbrokers. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan: "I will not remain in this post." Putin's Turkish counterpart reacted angrily to Russian suggestions that his government was abetting the Islamic State's illicit smuggling activities across the border in Syria and Iraq. Erdogan vowed that he would resign if the Russian allegations were proven true. It was an ironic declaration by the Turkish president, who had otherwise spent much of the year consolidating his grip on power. The ruling Justice and Development Party, a center-right religious nationalist party Erdogan co-founded, lost its parliamentary majority in June elections. It was seen as a blow to Erdogan, who currently occupies what is supposed to be a ceremonial post and had hoped for a strong electoral mandate that would guarantee him greater executive powers. Undeterred, he pushed for new elections in November, which his party won handily -- thus cementing his place as the most significant leader in the history of the Turkish republic since its founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe:"I express my feelings of profound grief and my eternal, sincere condolences." To mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, Japan's nationalist leader delivered a much-anticipated speech on his country's controversial role in the epochal conflict. He stopped short of a formal apology, though, much to the ire of China. The spats over history between Beijing and Tokyo underpin more immediate tensions in the region, where many nations are warily eyeing China's expansionist behavior in the South China Sea and elsewhere. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi: "The country has to stay united." Attacks by Hindu nationalists on Muslims over allegations of beef consumption -- many Hindus consider cows as sacred and eating beef as taboo -- dominated news in India. Many are worried about a growing climate of intolerance and intimidation of minorities stoked by the advent of the conservative government led by Modi, a Hindu nationalist. Modi eventually broke his conspicuous silence on the matter and urged all Indians to rally together and combat poverty, not one another. Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe:"Cecil the lion was yours, and you failed to protect him." Zimbabwe's nonagenarian president upbraided his people (and others) after news of the illegal killing of a famed lion by an American hunter. Sadly more than most stories out of Africa, the death of Cecil the lion earned global headlines and outrage. Mugabe's rambling remarks did little to boost conservation efforts. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau:"Because it's 2015!" The sweeping victory of Canada's Liberal Party in federal elections in October catapulted the youthful Justin Trudeau into the country's top post. The cabinet he unveiled upon his inauguration was notably diverse -- 15 out of 30 senior ministers are women. When asked by a reporter to explain the rationale behind the composition of his cabinet, Trudeau offered this simple retort, which drew cheers far beyond Canada. Ishaan Tharoor writes about foreign affairs for The Washington Post. He previously was a senior editor at TIME, based first in Hong Kong and later in New York. Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance. Through promotion of free debate on our website, New Age Islam encourages people to rethink Islam. Daniel Smith, who was one of the few bassoonists recording and performing in both Jazz and Classical music, described as the Gerry Mulligan of The Bassoon", in the world of Jazz and the Rampal of The Bassoon" in classical music, dies at 77 on December 19, 2015 in Brooklyn, NY. The cause of death was an aggressive infection that led to cardiac arrest. His daughter Jacqueline Smith confirmed his death. Bronx-born Daniel Smith studied music at Manhattan School of Music, Columbia University and The Mannes College of Music. Joining the US Army, he was a member of the West Point Academy Big Band. During his early twenties he played the saxophone with several Big Bands including The Cab Calloway Orchestra and others. As a teenager, Smith and his friends traveled from The Bronx to attend many jazz shows on New York's famed 52nd Street, in clubs such as Kelly's Stables, Leon & Eddie's, The Famous Door and Jimmy Ryan'st and others where he heard all the great performers such as Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton and others. Smith has recorded numerous discs, with repertoire ranging from Baroque concerti to contemporary music, including jazz with a quartet under his own leadership, ragtime, and crossover. Daniel Smith is the first bassoonist to have recorded all 37 Vivaldi bassoon concertos, in recordings made with the English Chamber Orchestra and I Solisti di Zagreb. Smith has also recorded with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Caravaggio Ensemble. Smith is also noted for his support of the creation of new concerti for his chosen instrument. He gave the United States West Coast premiere of Gunther Schuller's Concerto for Contrabassoon and Orchestra. Daniel Smith has performed solo recitals at New York's Lincoln Center and Carnegie Recital Hall, Wigmore Hall, the BBC Concert Hall, and the Tivoli Concert Hall in Copenhagen. His 3-CD box set of 37 Vivaldi Concerts was recently re-released by the label Deustch Gramophone/Decca in England and is a very sought out item in their catalog which features top performers of the classical genre. A well-spoken jovial world traveler and lover of good conversation, Daniel Smith married Judith Shipman in 1961; she died in 2013. He is survived by son Robert Smith and daughter Jacqueline Smith and four grandchildren. Among his latest projects, Big Band Bassoon" a project he was currently working on with pianist/arranger Robert Boscher from Holland, an updated serving of his favorite Big Band numbers with his trademark bassoon solos and exquisite arrangements. His latest release on the label Summit Jazz Suite for Bassoon" won critical acclaim by music media. It features an original composition of the same name by British composer Steve Gray. A two-disc The Best of" was in the works for the label Decca in U.K. A concert was planned for this spring in England with an orchestra. In addition Mr. Smith was working on an orchestral piece with the Brazilian composer Joao McDowell to be premiered in Brazil in the near future. His memory and friendship is cherished by family, close friends, numerous jazz and classical musicians and sidemen as well as collaborators, and his music offerings will live forever. A Memorial concert to celebrate his life in music will be held in 2016. Uruguay vice president: We express our solidarity with Armenian people GeoProMining's ZCMC has tripled tax payments to the state budget of Armenia Paul Krekorian unanimously elected as LA City Council President ThePrint: Armenia eyes procuring Akash missiles, loitering munitions from India Armenia MP to international colleagues: Azerbaijan intends to carry out new aggression Armenia PM: We hope Azerbaijan will cooperate in clarifying destiny of our compatriots Newspaper: Where is 1991 declaration by which Armenia, Azerbaijan once recognized each other's territorial integrity? Azerbaijan fires at Armenia positions at midnight PACE lawmakers call for Azerbaijan militarys immediate withdrawal from Armenia Australia reverses decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel capital Nouriel Roubini: In some sense, World War III has already started EU considers paying Elon Musk to provide Starlink Internet to Ukraine U.S. will continue to take practical, aggressive steps to make it difficult for Iran to sell drones to Russia German Prosecutor's Office searches Deutsche Bank headquarters Head of Germany's national cybersecurity agency fired amid reports of ties to Russia Uruguayan Chamber of Deputies condemns Azerbaijan's invasion of Armenian territory Spanish minister: EU is far from solution to energy crisis Fake Azerbaijani names of Syunik province communities removed from Google Maps and Google Earth apps Artsakh President presents details of meetings held in Yerevan to MPs Lavrov: Russia sees no point in maintaining its previous presence in Western countries UAE: OPEC+ decision has no political motive Opposition to David Price: Right to self-determination is the right of people of Artsakh to survive Iran is ready to negotiate with Ukraine to resolve ambiguities Deputy Speaker of Armenian National Assembly: 47 PACE deputies made written statement condemning Baku's aggression Lapid will discuss Kiev request for Israeli systems with Kuleba Morawiecki: Poland is not afraid of losing EU funds Armenian President meets with Sofia Mayor Speaker of Armenian National Assembly to Norway FM: Withdrawal of Azerbaijani Armed Forces from Armenia is a priority Nikol Pashinyan receives delegation headed by Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt Iran responds to Borrell's garden and jungle statement: EU needs to accept realities or it will continue to wither Pashinyan: No one can accuse Armenia of evading its obligations Congressman: U.S. was not active in terms of security in Armenia, but now situation is changing Indian defense company Solar group says it has received orders from Armenia for 'Pinaka' missiles Price: U.S. military aid to Azerbaijan will not be used for offensive purposes against Armenia Military expert assesses possibility of new hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan Russian Embassy: Armenians' attitude towards Russians who moved to Armenia remains very friendly Clarification by Price: What Could Armenian-American military cooperation look like? Armenian Defense Minister visits DEFEXPO exhibition in India President of Artsakh talks about results of discussions held in Armenia Borrell angers UAE with his comparison of world outside Europe to 'jungle' Public Council formed in Artsakh China Daily: Party's anti-graft efforts generate fruitful outcomes Price: We demand that Azerbaijan return to its initial positions Aghajanyan: This visit should be seen as another stage in dynamic development of Armenian-American relations Ukraine will officially ask Israel for transfer of air defense systems Head of National Assembly Commission: 2023 state budget turned out to be biggest in Armenia's history Turkey conducts test launch of its own ballistic missile over Black Sea Students of Brusov State University hold protest outside building of Ministry of Education and Science of Armenia Armenia MFA: Yerevan has always openly and publicly stated its position on dialogue with Turkey Military exercises of IRGC Ground Forces on border with Azerbaijan continue for second day in Iran Blinken accuses China of violating status quo on Taiwan Armenian Foreign Minister: We see Azerbaijan's unconstructive behavior Izvestia: European banks stop accepting SWIFT-transfers from Russia Mirzoyan calls on Cavusoglu to speak for himself Norwegian FM visits Tsitsernakaberd Memorial Complex and pays tribute to victims of Genocide Mirzoyan: We need to understand to what extent CSTO recognizes this aggression against Armenia MFA: Armenian authorities apply to OSCE to send observers to border with Azerbaijan NYT: Conflict between Turkey and Greece may cause split of NATO Ararat Mirzoyan Details of peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan were presented to Norwegian FM Price of gas in Europe drops to almost $1,200 per 1,000 cubic meters for first time since June Armenian Defense Minister meets with his Indian counterpart First images of damage to Nord Stream are published Erdogan's spokesman: Meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy is impossible now Peskov redirects question of drone purchases from Iran to Russian Ministry of Defense Secretary of Armenian Security Council presents consequences of recent Azerbaijani aggression to Brazilian ambassador Trial of Robert Kocharyan and Armen Gevorgyan is held in Yerevan IAEA chief says he wants to meet with Putin again Pashinyan: Azerbaijan creates fake news on ceasefire violations by Armenia US House of Representatives members visit Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan Taliban, Iran border guards fire at each other Another high treason exposed in Armenia Armenia MOD: Azerbaijan armed forces violate ceasefire in Sotk-Kutakan sector World oil prices on the rise Trump slightly ahead of Biden in New York Times poll Armenia defense minister heads for India Newspaper: Karabakh dissatisfied with President's Yerevan visit, meeting with Armenia PM Azerbaijan fires toward Armenia positions at night Zelenskyy: Ukraine needs much more modern air defense systems Liz Truss is called upon to resign EU to review relations with China White House accuses Iran of lying Poland may not receive 75 billion euros in regional aid from EU Crash of SU-34 in Yeysk captured on video SJC: Criminal case will be initiated against judge Arusyak Aleksanyan Germany fines Telegram more than 5 million euros Scholz instructs ministers to prepare to extend operation of Germany's remaining three nuclear power plants Two people killed in Yeysk after military plane crashed Saudi Arabia rejects U.S. accusations of supporting Russia amid war in Ukraine Only candidate for post of military prosecutor of Armenia is named Expert: Iran is preparing for scenarios in form of attacks on Azerbaijan and sending troops to Artsakh German intelligence service opposes Chinese company's investment in Hamburg port Fire area at crash site of Su-34 in Krasnodar territory is 2,000 sq. m. EU approves military training mission for thousands of Ukrainian servicemen Supersonic Su-34 fighter-bomber crashes in Krasnodar territory Elon Musk on likelihood of World War III EU Commission intends to propose 'dynamic' natural gas price cap this week Dmitry Medvedev: Supplies of weapons to Ukraine will ruin relations between Russia and Israel Charles Michel welcomes rapid deployment of EU mission on Armenian border Swiss MPs horrified by consequences of Azerbaijani aggression: We support Armenians European Union announces new sanctions against Iran I want to address an issue that hits close to home for me: Oil companies getting a sweetheart deal on Montanas public lands at the expense of our state coffers. Im a former state director of the Bureau of Land Management in Montana, so I know firsthand how important natural resources like oil and gas are to our state. In fact, $16.2 million in payments from federal oil and gas drilling came to the state in 2014. This money went to support our schoolchildren and rebuild roads, bridges, and other infrastructure. But heres my beef: the amount that Montanans reap should be higher. At issue are royalty rates, or the amount that companies are required to pay taxpayers for the right to produce and profit off of publicly owned oil. The royalty rate paid by oil companies on national public lands is a measly 12.5 percent. For comparison, Montana charges 16.67 percent to allow companies to drill on our state lands. And companies drilling offshore must pay 18.75 percent. A study last year by the Center for Western Priorities showed that because federal rates do not mirror the royalty percentages charged by Montana and other Western states, Montanans lost out on between $5.7 million and $8.6 million in revenues. Its clear that Montana taxpayers, who share in the revenue generated on U.S. public lands, are getting shortchanged. Its time for this to change. Luckily, theres a simple fix to this problem. The Bureau of Land Management is currently in the process of updating the nearly century old royalty rate and is planning to release new royalty rates in March, but have come under criticism from some politicians. Congressman Ryan Zinke has elected to fight this square deal for Montanans by attempting to attach a rider to an unrelated spending bill. Its certainly my hope that Zinke has a change of heart because Montana taxpayers stand to gain from even a small increase to royalty rates. When Montanans open our public lands to development and take on the risks of drilling including spills, water contamination, wildlife impacts and reduced public access we are entitled to receive a fair return to help mitigate these impacts. Mike Penfold Billings Garo Tavitjan, world-known jazz musician of Armenian descent, told Armenian News NEWS.am about the philosophy and musical ideology of their band Tavitjan brothers. In April 2015, Diran and Garo Tavitjans, who live in Macedonia, visited Armenia for the second time to take part in a concert dedicated to the International Jazz Day. According to Garo, if you write good music and have good education, success is still not guaranteed. The fact that you write good music, sing well, have wonderful tactics and wonderful education, still doesnt guarantee success. The important thing is the luck, but even more important are the spiritual values. That is, you can be lucky and rich, but have no spiritual wealth, the musician said. Material tings have no significance for him: houses and cars are not important. You are a tool in the Gods hands and must convey the message. Good musician is the one who conveys this message, Garo Tavitjan said. The goal of the Tavitjan brothers is to inspire the young generation, give it a positive impetus, convey spiritual values, since, according to him, part of the young generation has taken a wrong path. We travel a lot and see many negative phenomena. We wish to help people, inspire them with our music, make them want to live. And you are a good musician if you understand what Im speaking about, he said. In Tavitjans words, to achieve success, musicians must first of all trust themselves and work. It must be kept in mind that the spectators dont pay for your playing: they pay for the time of the musician, for his transportation, but dont pay for the music and message. One can establish wonderful musical schools, but achieve no success in the given musical direction, since the message is different. The Armenians are lucky with this respect: thy know how to present good music, he said. The band is trying to make the world a better place. In this context, the royalties give them an opportunity to obtain musical instruments to bring home the message: thus the money serves the art. The musician confessed that living by this philosophy is, of course, difficult: it may take years, but its necessary to struggle, Tavitjan said. Material things dont make him happy. In the musicians words, you can have a lot of money, but not be happy. And their music is about the necessity to value the spiritual. Happiness is when your parents are healthy, your loving friends are nearby, there is someone who loves and takes care of you. Happiness is when you are a talented musician, journalist, painter, etc. I think in order to be happy one must be sure that the life is good despite of what has been stored for you, the musician said. Tavijan brothers are world-famous jazzmen. They have been awarded the title Musical Ambassadors of Macedonian Musicand are also the award winners of the British SONY JAZZ competition. MISSOULA Its been a busy year for the new Missoula County sheriff and undersheriff. And while T.J. McDermott and Jason Johnson say a series of high-profile disputes and lawsuits have been a distraction during their first year in office, they add that they have worked hard to better support deputies and bring together the community to find answers to serious issues. Our goal has always been and will be in 2016 to be the sheriffs office in Montana that other agencies look to and say, Weve got to be like that, Undersheriff Johnson said. Sheriff McDermott said one of the most important aspects of his job is supporting his personnel, making sure they have the numbers, equipment and training they need to do their job. The first step in that process has been putting more deputies out on patrol this year. For the first time in decades, the county commissioners approved a budget enhancement request for four additional deputies, McDermott said, adding that one of those positions will work full-time in Seeley Lake, where there were only two deputies operating previously. That is huge for our department, the staffing levels have been low for a long time. On Wednesday, McDermott and Johnson held a swearing-in ceremony for three new patrol deputies, reading them the oath of office and code of conduct for law enforcement officers. On the equipment side, the sheriffs office transitioned deputies into new, more versatile and practical uniforms last year. The move was made with the support of a local businessman, and didnt use taxpayers funds. Working within its existing budget, the sheriffs office also finished outfitting the last deputies with body cameras and stun guns, modernized all ballistic vests and upgraded its fleet of patrol vehicles, some of which had logged more than 160,000 miles. Now, the department has put in place a plan that will replace vehicles every five years or 100,000 miles. Now, I think the oldest car is a 2013, and we are on a schedule to replace them without a budget increase, McDermott said. A dedicated position also was created to track and make sure all deputies are completing mandatory training on equipment and protocol. To improve the response in sexual assault cases, all nine of the office's detectives have also received specialized training that includes a focus on working with victims who been traumatized, he said. During his campaign last year, McDermott talked about wanting to implement a civilian advisory board for the sheriffs office, something it never had in the past. That nine-member panel is set to start work early this year. McDermott said an additional, three-person civilian panel will act as a compliance review board to evaluate grievances against deputies. That panel will also keep track of statistics on complaints, and provide feedback to the sheriff on how to improve the offices practices. 2014 election Likely the most talked about issues in the past year are the disputes and lawsuits involving McDermott and Johnson and supporters of one of their opponents in the 2014 election, former Undersheriff Josh Clark. McDermott and Johnson were voted in following a contentious election season during which they each were awarded $60,000 after filing human rights complaints against former Sheriff Carl Ibsen for retaliation to their candidacy. After the election, Clark resigned three shifts into a rotating assignment as night shift patrol deputy, later filing a complaint of his own claiming he was illegally "demoted" for opposing McDermott. In a report on the complaint, Montana Human Rights Bureau investigator Josh Manning found probable cause that the sheriff's department illegally retaliated against Clark. Clark's complaint is currently set to be taken up at a Human Rights Bureau hearing in June that will determine what, if any damages, he should be awarded. His attorney, Quentin Rhoades, said Clark is seeking about $1 million in damages, but would settle for $750,000. Rhoades said the damages being sought come from a Human Rights Bureau formula that takes into account Clarks pay and benefits, the five more years he expected to work, as well as his expected retirement pay, plus about $100,000 in non-monetary damages. Former Capt. Mike Dominick settled a discrimination complaint after he was moved from captain of detectives to managing the sheriff's office's secure evidence facility. He took a new position with the County Attorney's Office and retained his same level of pay. Paige Pavalone, the former public information officer who returned to standard deputy duty under McDermott, was later fired by the department after she was accused of being untruthful during the investigation into the arrest of a co-worker. Pavalone was also placed on a "Brady list" of officers whose credibility as a witness was put into question. The County Attorney's Office later said that while she was labeled as having problematic credibility, no specific list of "Brady cops" exists. Following her termination, Pavalone filed a lawsuit against the sheriff's office and other county officials, as well as a human rights complaint. Her attorney, Josh Van de Wetering, said she believes her firing was based on her support of Clark. They are waiting on the results of the human rights investigation to move forward with the lawsuit. McDermott said the complaints and lawsuits are intended to distract and obstruct the operations of the sheriffs office, and he is committed to not letting that happen. I anticipated some problems from my opponent and his team just simply because they werent willing to put the results of the election behind them and move forward, he said. Van de Wetering said he thinks thats the wrong mentality to have, given the serious nature of his clients complaint. If the sheriff wants to take it seriously or not, thats up to him, he said. I have great faith in the court system to handle this. Everything that happened to her was politically motivated. Either politically motivated or sexism discrimination. Rhoades said that even if the sheriff wants to say that the lawsuits are politically motivated, that doesnt explain the investigators finding that Clarks complaint had merit. Mr. Manning doesn't have an ax to grind, Rhoades said. If the new sheriff puts you on the lowest level of the team, the point is to humiliate you to the point you will leave so they dont have to deal with you anymore. Like Van de Wetering, Rhoades said Clarks complaint has real substance, and he wants to see the sheriffs office treat it as more than just sour grapes. If they think this is frivolous they are dead wrong, Rhoades said. McDermott and Johnson both said they believe that by early fall all the office's internal issues were resolved. While the sheriff acknowledges complaints against them are still open, he doesnt give it much attention at this point. I think we could have been Mother Teresa and we couldnt avoid it, Johnson said. We could have and we tried to do everything right, but no, I dont think we could have prevented the lawsuits. Jail overcrowding Heading into the new year, McDermott said his primary focus is adopting a new master plan for jail diversion. The operation of the jail, overcrowding at our jail, has been an issue before I took office and since I took office, McDermott said. In the past, solutions which include addressing mental health, addiction and homelessness, and the use of out-of-jail solutions like house arrest have been largely fragmented, McDermott said. He believes elected officials and community leaders are now united in the effort to find a better, more comprehensive fix for what to do with nonviolent and non-dangerous offenders. McDermott said measures like house arrest, GPS tracking and check-in sobriety programs have seen a more than 70 percent success rate, and part of the jail diversion plan will be to expand the use of them for people who are awaiting trial. If you take a guy who has a family, has a full-time job, has benefits and you put him in jail for an extended period, hes going to lose his job, hes going to lose his health care benefits and then you come out and how do you recover from that? Johnson said. At one point this year, the Missoula County jail, which can house more than 400 inmates, became so overcrowded that 16 people were sleeping on the floor in the booking area, and McDermott had to reach out to Ravalli County and ask if some of them could be transferred there. Addressing the large number of people with mental health conditions and those who can't afford to post bond will be another component of the plan. One possible solution that McDermott wants to see is building a 24-hour mental health crisis facility where people who are arrested can get proper treatment. We know that place is not our jail, he said. There are people who are in our jail because there is simply no other place for them. Johnson said deputies are receiving training to help them identify underlying mental health issues, but added that the variety of resources in Missoula for people with such conditions don't include crisis treatment. He cited places like West House in Hamilton, which works collaboratively with law enforcement to provide medical staff to help people in a mental health crisis. McDermott said the plan will also include looking at revising the bail schedule for people who are arrested. He hopes to work with the County Attorneys Office and courts to examine a persons ability to post bond so that low income isn't the reason anyone eligible for release remains in jail. The sheriffs office has already created an administrative position at the jail to evaluate the inmate population daily and communicate with the courts who is most best eligible to be released and placed in a different program. The jail diversion master plan, which is being drafted by state Sen. Cynthia Wolken, likely will be completed and ready to present to the county commissioners for approval early this year, McDermott said. MISSOULA The University of Montana put its Montana Island Lodge on Sourdough Island up for sale for $6.5 million in the spring of 2014. In October 2015, the Salmon Lake listing expired. UM vice president for finance Michael Reid said last week the university has not yet decided whether to keep the 18,000-square-foot building for future academic purposes or put it on the market again. The lodge was willed to the UM Foundation in 1996, and the donor agreement splits proceeds from any sale among the four campuses under the jurisdiction of the University of Montana. In a sale, UM would get maintenance money it put into the property, some $1 million over the course of 18 years as of 2014, plus its share of the remaining $5.5 million, if the property sold for the original asking price. "If we had to drop that price a lot, it doesn't really benefit the institution," Reid said. "We don't get the full sale amount." The property used to operate as an upscale resort with full services, including catering for guests. A couple of years ago, UM officials decided the facility didn't fit with the school's educational mission, and they didn't want to put resources into making the long-term improvements the lodge and dock need. *** Before the property went on the market, UM provided guests full services there, accommodating up to 25 people at once. The facility operated as a resort, and it rented out for $2,500 a night, complete with a master suite and bedrooms with private baths, a total of 12 bedrooms. Reid said the operation generally broke even in those years. He said the most subsidy UM had to provide was $30,000 to $50,000 a year. Once the property went up for sale, UM scaled back services. Now, the husband-and-wife team who oversee the lodge on Sourdough Island work as property managers, and rooms rent individually for $150 a night, or $1,200 for the lodge; a weekend rental of the lodge ranges from $5,000 to $6,000. Barbara and Kevin Denman are the property managers, and Barbara Denman said the couple performs standard maintenance on the property. The lodge was busy in the summer, with eight weddings and several family reunions, she said. Renting out the property during the spring thaw and winter freeze is more difficult. Denman said it's too soon for the accountants to tell if the lodge broke even for the year, but they're crunching the numbers. "The financial piece has not been finalized yet," she said. *** When the property went on the real estate market, the broker who listed it estimated it would sell in three months to two years. It drew little interest, though, according to Reid. Last week, Mike Nugent, president of the Missoula Organization of Realtors, said he isn't surprised the lodge didn't sell in the time it was on the market. Closing the deal on such a property is likely a multi-year marketing proposition, he said. The lodge was listed at a high price point that requires reaching a niche audience, he said. In the past 18 months in the county, he said, just four single-family homes have sold that were listed for more than $1 million, three in the low million-dollar range, and one for more than $8 million. He said four sales in that range are relatively normal for Missoula County since the recession. If an owner wants to sell a multimillion-dollar home, it's going to take patience, but it can be done, he said. "I would not be concerned that it did not sell in the first year and a half," Nugent said. "These things take time." *** UM is in the midst of a budget crunch and severe cutbacks, looking to make up $10 million to $12 million in its 2017 fiscal year. The university will consider relisting the property in the spring or making different arrangements for it, Reid said. If it sells, UM might pull in $1 million from the proceeds, he said. Such an amount would be helpful to UM, but it might not outweigh the value of the property to the university. University officials are considering the use of the property for various academic purposes in the future, although Reid said it was too early to get into specifics. "It quickly gets to a point where the asset is worth more to the university than the sale of it," he said. Last school year, Main Hall took $3.2 million from a fund set aside for facility maintenance and capital improvements to shore up its bottom line in the general fund. The move mostly depleted the pool of money grown by Student Affairs. UM does not have a fund set aside for the long-term maintenance of the lodge on Sourdough Island, Reid said. He said the lodge is currently functional but outdated. "That's ultimately one reason that we really looked at selling the building, is we just don't have the resources to put in some of the capital improvements in the property that we'd like to see," Reid said. He said UM could shut down the property altogether, but having it "lightly lived in" as opposed to shuttered altogether is a cost savings. For instance, the building stays heated, so pipes don't burst. "We kind of looked at all those costs and in the end, it was more economical to have the Denmans living on site," he said. He said UM officials will evaluate the status of the lodge as they review the budget situation going into summer 2016.